Roomates and Rugby......

Saturday.
(the last post was actually a Friday. And if that’s wrong then the day before is wrong too. This all happened on Saturday. As if u care. Anyway. Saturday was a great day. Probably one of the best wake ups I have ever had. If not the best, definitely the most unforgettable. I was sleeping and around 11 am ish I started to hear a few noises outside my door. I was really hopeful it was my roommate but I was in to much of a sleep coma to think about it. My true wake up in fact came when I heard my bop it being pulled and twisted and that distinguishing sound it makes when you use it. If you could have takne a picture of me I’m sure I was sitting in my bed with a huge grin on my face.

Tomas and G’Shlann were my first two roommates to arrive at the apartment. Both are business students at a French university and both are incredibly nice. Tomas’s friend Rebeeca was also with him and she is living in our apartment complex too. Both of them speak great English so that is not a problem at all. We hung out for a little bit but then after a short while we decided to head over to the grocery store and pick up some stuff. At the grocery store we picked up some stuff and that was cool (read: expensive) Tomas has never lived on his own (he commuted to school from home) so this was also his first time shopping. It was funny to see his basket with pasta, soup, and heatable pizza. Hopefully that will change a little bit so we can eat some real food. Ha ha. It was really awesome to talk to them both on the way over to the grocery store about literally everything. When we got back to the apartment we went our separate ways for a bit.

Saturday was also the day of the Ireland v. France rugby match. Rugby is an enormous deal here. Huge. Think like Red Sox Yankees on a Sunday afternoon in august big. Anyway I had some plans to go with the group of girls I have been hanging out with to watch the game at our favorite pub but appearnetly when I went shopping they had left. Also on my way back in from shopping I saw a few French girls that I had met the day earlier on the bus tour. They asked me in very broken English was I was doing and I told them I wanted to watch the game etc etc. I helped them carry some of their bags up to their room while we were talking and they have a SICK penthouse apartment with a roof deck. Super super super cool. (perfect for the French and all their cigarette smoking too Anyway I also made some tentative plans to watch the game with them too since the girls had already left. I ran back to my apt and while there Rebecca said she and Tomas were going into Temple Bar to watch the game. (Remember temple bar is an area not a bar….) I told her thanks but I was gonna go somewhere with eh French girls. Anyway long story short the French girls though I was going to meet them at the bus stop, the other girls thought I would meet them, the others left without me and I proceeded to sit at home waiting for something to happen. Ok well I made that sound kind of bad but in reality I just got on a bus and headed into the city. I was annoyed that all my plans were juggled but there was no way I was missing the game. I’d just go by myself.

When I arrived at Fitzsimmons on Temple Bar I cannot even begin to explain to you how crowded it was. Side note, its nice to offer a bouncer id and have him turn it away because you clearly look over 18….. back to how crowded it was though. Something comparable. Ill go with something like an Orchard or a Gardner party in Boston. JAMMED with fans drinking and faces painted and all their colors on. I should have taken some pictures. Anyway since tomas and Rebecca were sitting there they were obviously sitting with their French friends and cheering from French. While I was trying to squeeze close to them I was on the cusp of both groups of fans and that was very interesting to hear the roars of the crowd anytime anything happened. When you see movies about European sports fans you could very easily feel like they are exaggerating things a little bit but I tell you they really really really don’t. insane. Anyway, Rebecca had a big group of friends that we decided to out with after that but first they all stopped at McDonalds for dinner. Now I know that seems like a mute point but when I tell you this group of 20 people stopped at McDonalds for dinner, I mean they stopped at McDonalds for dinner. Literally I sat in that McDonalds for 45 minutes. (no food…too expensive) like a marathon meal at mickey D’s that they treated as no big deal! Anyway after the meal Tomas and I just decided to go back and not bother paying to go to another pub. Anyway, we caught a train back and all that time was nice to get to know him a little bit better. He loves one tree hill, he loves playing computer games, he speaks a little bit of Japanese that he randomly taught himself when he downloaded a program. Some interesting things. When we got back, since our flat is right in front of the entrance, we could see another guy sitting in our living room with G’Shlann. Arno, our new roommate was sitting at the table drinking a bottle of wine.
Arno is originally from St. Martin, but went to school in France and actually lived in Boston last semester while studying abroad at northeastern. Right from the start I knew that he was going to be a real cool guy. We sat in the living room and had a few drinks together until a knock at the window from the girls brought us to our feet. We invited them in to meet my roommates and they told us they were heading over to the Comet for a few drinks. Can’t turn something like that down so we all headed out and on the way I grabbed the French girls and invited the, (I knew if they couldn’t talk to me they could at least converse with my 3 frenchmen!) We got to the Comet and saw our friends and got right down to having a great time and getting to know everyone. I love that place. Really awesome. Anyway I also got to talk to Arno on the way there and while were their and that was really awesome. He is a really interesting dude and I know were going to have a great time. While Tomas and G’Shlann might not be to wild or go out to much, Arno probably couldn’t be more opposite. It is very important to note as well that he bought me my first Guinness draught from an Irish pub. I was waiting for the right moment and when he offered there was no more perfect of a time.

After we left the pub we all came back and had a few more drinks at our place before we all headed our separate ways. Its really awesome to just go home after the bar closes or the party ends and just be able ot chill out in your own house and not have to worry about RA’s or noise violations.

The next day Arno, Tomas, and I woke up and decided to venture into the city centre to look for a t.v. long story short we didn’t get one because there was nothing cheap and a lot of places were closed. Anyway, while we were in the city centre we found out that our new roommate, a friend of Arnos from his college in france had just moved in and was on a bus to come visit us. He wanted to get right into the city and visit a pub so rather than head back in Arno and I decided to stay while Tomas (didn’t really want to go to the pub) decided to go home. Cam was the new roommate and its debatable if I could get better luck with getting roommates in my college career. He is awesome to and we got off to a great start. We went to a few little shops before we went to the pub and the guys got some burger king (again…to expensive for me…) before we just walked in somewhere at Temple Bar and sat down for a pint. (I only had 5 euros with me so I wasn’t planning on staying very long) Well after the first round a friend of Arnos said she wanted to meet us downtown so we decided to stay for a little bit longer. Well a little bit turned into a lot bit and long story short we stayed there for about 3 hours, my new roommates telling me to stop saying no and to just accept my free drinks they kept buying me. That was great. There was a few great things about the pub we were in. for one thing it was a Sunday afternoon and it was packed. Like jammed. And they played u2 every other song. No I mean every other song was bono singing. Literally. Not like every few. EVERY OTHER SONG!!! And then around 5 or so they brought in a guy who played guitar and sang popular songs. That was sick too….group singalong at the pub. Its awesome to recognize songs in an irish pub from Dropkick Murphy’s songs because they literally are the same lyrics just with a punk band and in Ireland with an acoustic guitar. Awesome. When we got back to the flat, we had some people over while I cooked a chicken and ate some pasta. They were the first things I had ate all day and hungry doesn’t being to describe how my stomach felt. I skyped for a little bit with some people and when I came back to the common area there was like 10 or 12 french people smoking cigarettes and talking fast in the living room. Apparently a sign of things to come. Anyway not long after my American girl friends walked by on their way to the bar and stopped in to hang out as well so that was fun. I don’t recall but I think we convinced a few of them to stay in with us instead of going out. We all hung out for a little bit and when Katie was the last American to leave I decided to go bed. My roommates can speak great English but when its late and they have a few drinks in them they have no desire to speak my language. Nevertheless that night I slept like a baby and woke up the next day to worry about my classes for the day.