Hi everyone (if anyone is still reading this... haha)
So I figured I'd recap St. Patrick's Day in Ireland and my friend Alana visiting with her boyfriend, Aaron. Both events were pretty epic and I've decided I need a solid week of sleep and detoxification before I can even think about sleeping less than 8 hours a night or drinking again.
So for St. Patrick's Day, my friend Kiel was in town. Kiel was originally my year at ND but is aiming to become the world's first quintuple Domer. So, for non-ND readers, the term "double Domer" is frequently used to mean someone who got more than one degree at Notre Dame. A bachelor's and a master's, bachelor's and a JD, whatever. Kiel discovered that although there have been many double Domers and a reasonable amount of triple Domers (I'm thinking probably bachelor's/JD/MBA or something along those lines) there have been only four quadruple Domers and NO quintuples. So this is his goal now. He has two bachelor's (one bachelor's of science and one of arts) and is currently working on his first master's. After this, he's thinking another master's, followed by an MBA. See, here's the thing. He's completely not kidding about any of this. This is actually his life goal. It's not like, "Ha! You know what would be funny? If I got five degrees from Notre Dame." No, it's like, "I AM GOING TO GET FIVE DEGREES FROM NOTRE DAME, END OF STORY."
So anyway, for this master's (something to do with engineering... I was totally paying attention) ND flew his entire program over to Ireland for spring break. Apparently the program is funded by one of the wealthiest families in Ireland, the Naughton family or some nonsense. So over they came, and it coincided with St. Patrick's Day, which was awesome. He was in Dublin, so I went into the city to hang out with him. Here are the things I did (for FREE... the instant I arrived, I got swept up into the Notre Dame "we have more money than GOD bubble" and I didn't have to pay for anything):
1) We stayed at the Merrion, the nicest hotel in Dublin. (http://www.merrionhotel.com/) It is the kind of place where, when you order two coffees in the morning, it costs you 40 euro. How do we know this? Well, we may have accidentally done it. But then ND reimbursed us, so no harm, no foul.
2) Kiel got us: free tickets in a grandstand to the SPD parade, free tickets in a box to the All-Ireland hurling and GAA championships, and free tickets to a Jameson's-sponsored party in the Lord Mayor's house.
3) Everything we ate, Notre Dame comped. Everything we drank, Notre Dame comped. Basically I spent no money once I got off the bus.
4) I got to hang out with Domers and just talk about Notre Dame. It was awesome. Oh yeah, and I got to see Kiel. Minor detail, ha.
So when he left, I stayed in Dublin on Friday night because my old roommate from NYC, Alana, was coming in on Saturday morning. I needed somewhere to just sit and study on Friday, so I showed up at the Notre Dame Center in Dublin. I basically just showed up and was like, "yo. I'm an alum. I live in Galway but need a place to chill in Dublin for the day," and the receptionist was like, "of course, honey, this happens all the time." Seriously, Notre Dame. Also the Notre Dame Center is in Daniel O'Connell's old house. How do we do this nonsense? It is absurd and I LOVE it.
So Saturday Alana showed up with Aaron! It was so incredibly wonderful. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Dublin and then they were in Galway from Mon-Thurs. We just had really good times. I sent them out to the Connemara and the Cliffs of Moher on the days I had classes, but when I didn't have class we hung out and cooked and ate and drank and I showed them around Galway and took them to my favorite places and it was really, really fun. I can't think of anything in particular that was especially amazing, but it was just so good to have friends around and to get to show off my new city. I never love Galway as much as when I'm showing it off to someone who has never been. (HINT TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVEN'T VISITED ME YET)
So they left this morning and that was sad. But I have Kyle Barrettsmith and Australia coming up! Life is still pretty sweet.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
I Suppose I Should Do This Again
Many people have urged me to begin blogging again. I was going to protest because I didn't think anything at all special had happened in my life, but it occurred to me some really cool things are happening! LIST TIME.
1) The weekend of February 25-26, I participated in Irish college swimming nationals. The NCAAs of the Emerald Isle, if you will. I haven't swum competitively since I was seventeen years old. I placed fourth in the 200 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 IM. It was hysterical. There was this incredibly clear divide between the people who are clearly going to make the Irish Olympic team and... everybody else. After like, second or third place in every event, there was this STEEP drop off to everyone else. No middle ground whatsoever. You were either really superbly excellent, or you just kinda did your thing. I definitely fell into the "just kinda did your thing" category - I was kind of leading the pack of those people, but also finishing about 20 seconds behind the top finishers. My friend Mike (who is also getting a master's here but is from Tennessee originally) hands down, far and away, won the 200 back (he swam in [American] college). I almost felt bad because it was such a, "Who is that guy? He came outta NOWHERE!" moment. We had to explain that he would not be attending the Olympics as he is a United States citizen. Sad day for Irish swimming.
Irish swimming is SO much more fun than American. In the first place, all the heats were on Friday and all the finals Saturday. There was this huge party on Friday night where everyone drank. EVERYONE. Including the people who had to swim the next day! It was unreal. I couldn't fathom something like that happening in the States. On Saturday, there was also this huge fancy ball. It was really, really fun especially because I could let loose more that night than Friday night because I didn't have to swim the next day. It was insane.
2) I just booked a flight to Scotland to visit my friend Lauren for the first week of April. Lauren went to St. Mary's College (which, for anyone who doesn't know, is Notre Dame's sister school) and she used to take a lot of English classes at Notre Dame, so we got to be friends. She lives in St. Andrews now (the home of golf!) and I've been meaning to go see her for a long time so I finally just did it. Should be fun to get out of Dodge and visit somewhere I probably never would have otherwise. My only expectations are to meet Prince William and gaze into his eyes for an extended period of time and then to become best friends with Kate Middleton. So I probably won't be disappointed as these are extremely achievable goals.
3) This is not an extraordinary happening at all, but last night on my way home from campus where I'd been doing work, I decided to stop at the grocery store. I had my backpack with me, so I decided that would work well as my grocery bag (in Ireland, in a policy which I TOTALLY think they should implement in America, they charge you per plastic bag so as to encourage you to use reusable bags). I was stuffing my groceries into my backpack, doing my thang, and this employee approached me and was like, "erm... excuse me... can you use this?" and held out a wire shopping basket. I accepted, puzzled, until I realized that stuffing food into my backpack looked exactly like shoplifting. Whoops.
4) Visitor time begins! I'm really looking forward to the next batch of visitors. First, my friend Kiel who was my year at Notre Dame is going to be in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. He's now getting a master's at ND and his program is flying him for FREE to Ireland for spring break. I'm going to head in there Wednesday, hang out with him Thursday (my Thurs and Fri classes got canceled bc of St. Patty's) and then stay there Friday so I can be at the airport Saturday morning to pick up my old roommate from NYC Alana and her boyfriend from the airport! We'll stay in Dublin that Saturday night and head back to Galway in the morning. They're staying with me til Thursday.
Then, slightly into the future but I'm no less excited about it, my friend Kyle Barrettsmith is coming in late April and then I'm going to Australia! Pretty exciting next couple of months I've got lined up.
I think that's all, folks! Love you and miss you all.
1) The weekend of February 25-26, I participated in Irish college swimming nationals. The NCAAs of the Emerald Isle, if you will. I haven't swum competitively since I was seventeen years old. I placed fourth in the 200 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 IM. It was hysterical. There was this incredibly clear divide between the people who are clearly going to make the Irish Olympic team and... everybody else. After like, second or third place in every event, there was this STEEP drop off to everyone else. No middle ground whatsoever. You were either really superbly excellent, or you just kinda did your thing. I definitely fell into the "just kinda did your thing" category - I was kind of leading the pack of those people, but also finishing about 20 seconds behind the top finishers. My friend Mike (who is also getting a master's here but is from Tennessee originally) hands down, far and away, won the 200 back (he swam in [American] college). I almost felt bad because it was such a, "Who is that guy? He came outta NOWHERE!" moment. We had to explain that he would not be attending the Olympics as he is a United States citizen. Sad day for Irish swimming.
Irish swimming is SO much more fun than American. In the first place, all the heats were on Friday and all the finals Saturday. There was this huge party on Friday night where everyone drank. EVERYONE. Including the people who had to swim the next day! It was unreal. I couldn't fathom something like that happening in the States. On Saturday, there was also this huge fancy ball. It was really, really fun especially because I could let loose more that night than Friday night because I didn't have to swim the next day. It was insane.
2) I just booked a flight to Scotland to visit my friend Lauren for the first week of April. Lauren went to St. Mary's College (which, for anyone who doesn't know, is Notre Dame's sister school) and she used to take a lot of English classes at Notre Dame, so we got to be friends. She lives in St. Andrews now (the home of golf!) and I've been meaning to go see her for a long time so I finally just did it. Should be fun to get out of Dodge and visit somewhere I probably never would have otherwise. My only expectations are to meet Prince William and gaze into his eyes for an extended period of time and then to become best friends with Kate Middleton. So I probably won't be disappointed as these are extremely achievable goals.
3) This is not an extraordinary happening at all, but last night on my way home from campus where I'd been doing work, I decided to stop at the grocery store. I had my backpack with me, so I decided that would work well as my grocery bag (in Ireland, in a policy which I TOTALLY think they should implement in America, they charge you per plastic bag so as to encourage you to use reusable bags). I was stuffing my groceries into my backpack, doing my thang, and this employee approached me and was like, "erm... excuse me... can you use this?" and held out a wire shopping basket. I accepted, puzzled, until I realized that stuffing food into my backpack looked exactly like shoplifting. Whoops.
4) Visitor time begins! I'm really looking forward to the next batch of visitors. First, my friend Kiel who was my year at Notre Dame is going to be in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day. He's now getting a master's at ND and his program is flying him for FREE to Ireland for spring break. I'm going to head in there Wednesday, hang out with him Thursday (my Thurs and Fri classes got canceled bc of St. Patty's) and then stay there Friday so I can be at the airport Saturday morning to pick up my old roommate from NYC Alana and her boyfriend from the airport! We'll stay in Dublin that Saturday night and head back to Galway in the morning. They're staying with me til Thursday.
Then, slightly into the future but I'm no less excited about it, my friend Kyle Barrettsmith is coming in late April and then I'm going to Australia! Pretty exciting next couple of months I've got lined up.
I think that's all, folks! Love you and miss you all.
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