Here comes the sun...

Hello everyone! It was sunny today! No fog, no rain. This is a rare occasion in Ireland. At least that's what all the locals say.

So, today started a bit rough. I got up for class at 8:50 because class starts at 10 for me on Tuesdays. It takes forever for my water to get hot, and forever for me to walk to class. So I got ready, did my thang, and then headed to class. So I walked the 20 minutes to class, got there about 10 minutes early and headed up to my room. My room is on the top floor of my building. So I get there and I enter the room. There are two Irish guys sitting in a row by themselves. The rest of the room is empty. I didn't think anything of it giving that it was 10 minutes until class and Irish kids don't do the whole class thing in a timely manner. So I get up and look out the wall of glass at the back of the room. It's amazing. You can see over the entire university into town. In the center of town you can see this huge structure standing out. It's Thomond Park, the Munster Rugby teams home stadium. It's massive on the horizon. It was great. I'll have to take a picture. Anyway, back to the story. So I look out the window for a little, then go back to my seat. I just kinda look at my watch, check the doors. Still 5 minutes, no problem. Well then the crowd starts to roll in. It took the edge off. Three guys stroll in. Two more guys stroll in. One girl walks in followed by 4 boys. I'm starting to see a pattern. Now, if you remember from yesterdays post, I said that my first class was entirely dominated by females. So upon seeing all these guys walk in I'm thinking, wow, a ton of guys must have just added this class and all the girls dropped it. It just didn't seem right. So I look around, and I look at my watch. A minute until class. Okay, something's going on. I thought I went to the wrong classroom. So I ask the kids in front of me if they could tell me what class they were here for. "Ey lad, Java programming." What the hell! I was sitting in a class about Java. I know nothing about Java. It's a drink. Coffee I think? But the computer Java, not a clue. I know Nate Swanger once pissed on Wayne Brunkhurst's Java book senior year of highschool (like that shout out Nate? I gotchu.). But yeah computers, no. So I got up and booked it out right as the professor was entering the room.

So I leave this class thinking what the hell did I do wrong. I specifically remember my schedule saying 10. In fact I saved a draft of my schedule as a text in my phone. Definitely said 10. So I went down to the international students office to see if they could help me. So I went down and talked to Jenny. So Jenny types away on her computer, yada yada, and she comes back with my info. Turns out, my class started at 11. I have absolutely no idea why I was set on it being at 10. I literally read over the schedule of courses online like 50 times (because you have to fill that much stuff out) and I swore it said 10. But I guess it didn't. So I had an hour to kill before my class. I didn't eat breakfast because I was running behind, so I decided to go grab some at this little cafe in the building. This is where I found out that cafes on campus don't accept "cards" only cash, and I couldn't buy anything cause I couldn't find an ATM. Unreal.

So I sat around for an hour listening to my ipod outside of the classroom on a bench, yeah, I'm "that" kid. And then I had class. It was boring, I can already tell it's gonna be one of those "Can't focus" classes. So after class ended some girls that I met from the states yesterday invited me to lunch with them. There is Kara from Austin/San Antonio, Amanda from New York, Kaitlin from Ohio and Danielle from Ohio. So I said why not and we went to the cafeteria on the same level. There we met Meghan from Connecticut and Erin from Arizona. So we decided to eat at Subway, which had just opened up in the University yesterday. Kids were flipping out about it. It was like they saw Jesus himself. Apparently Subway is very popular in Ireland. Who'da guessed? Also, right next door was a Starbucks, first one to open in or around Limerick. People were literally having nervous breakdowns. I overheard some Irish girls talking, and they all said the same thing. "What'sa Starboks?" "I dunt know, lyke coffeee I tink?" I guess I'm just so used to corporate America controlling everything that I don't realize that they aren't "EVERYwhere."

So it's my turn to order my sandwich. (By the way, no 5 dollar or 5 euro footlongs. What the hell?) Anyway, so I get up to order my sandwich. I get ham and turkey on Italian. The lady asks me what type of cheese I want. Without hesitation or second thought I said, "American." She gave me a blank stare and then asked me what I wanted as spread. As if she was trying to process it and then revisit it at a later date. So I tell her my spread and then she looks at the cheese again, I said "American" again. She looks at the cheese, the American cheese, and puts her hand on it with an unsure look on her face. Her body language is tense and it's one of those situations where you have no clue so you just kinda hover your hand over things like you sort of know what they want but not really. So I say "Yep that's it!" Immediately she smiles and she says, "Okay! Playn cheese lad!" I took a mental note. When in a foreign nation, it's not American cheese. Good to know. Then I got my fountain soda. There's no ice. I always forget that! God it drives me crazy! Nothing like a flat warm soda to quench your thirst. Mmmmmm.

Interesting fact of the day that I learned from Kara. We were talking about how the sun sits so low in the sky here. It sits just above the horizon the entire day then sets at like 3:30/4ish. However, she was talking to her Irish housemates and she found out that by May, the sun will not set until 11 pm! How crazy is that! The sun will be out until 11 pm! I can't believe it! It's going to spoil me. I'm going to come back to the states and be pissed when it goes down at around 9.

Speaking of the sun, it does sit very low here. You can tell. It's always cold here. Much colder than I expected. But it's not just outside, it's in every room. Constantly. In their classrooms, it's just a concrete or cinder block wall. There is hardly any heat ventilation anywhere. You have to keep your jacket on at all times here. It's annoying.

Oh, later on I attended my Irish music class. It was real simple. We sat there, got a syllabus, listened to an Irish woman talk for 10 minutes, left. Great class!


So tonight was the first ultimate frisbee practice. I didn't know what to expect. I figured, I'd go, we'd just hop right into a game like back in the states and play for 2 hours. WRONG. Very wrong! So I get there and meet a couple people immediately. They asked me where I was from and I said Penn State. They said I have a lot to live up to because apparently there was someone who played on their team last semester from PSU and he was savage. (Savage means awesome or great). It's freezing outside mind you. So everyone gathers in a circle and we begin "practice". There are about 25 people on this team. Again, I'm thinking, ok we're going to start the game. Nope. We jog a few laps around the field. Then we do all the stretching exercises I did on the cross country and track team. All of them. We don't have a coach. We just have a kid who likes fitness and frisbee. So we do all these stretches. Then we break into 4 lines. We do lead passing drills. Two lines work together. Line one has the frisbee. A guy from line runs a slant route 10 yards out and the guy in line one hits him with a pass. Then the thrower immediately takes off and runs a slant the opposite way and the guy from line 2 who now has the frisbee, throws a pass back to him. We did this for 10 to 15 minutes.

Then... we ran plays.

Yes. We ran plays at ultimate frisbee practice. I couldn't believe it. They are hardcore. We did all these plays where the guy with the frisbee is engaged and the other two do crossing routes to get open and what not. It was insane. Then we did drills in stacking formation. Basically, when a guy has the frisbee, people "stack" or line up behind one player down the field. Then they all swing out in different directions in order to get free. Almost like a stacking inbounds play you see in basketball. Either way, crazy. So after all these drills we played for an hour and a half. We played by real rules though. Seven people from each side on the field at once. Out of bounds throw ins, everything. It was pretty fun. But I have to buy cleats. Apparently all the games are played on grass, and it gets very slick. There are 5 tournaments this semester, and if we win one, we could have a chance to travel to Britain and play in the national tournament there. Apparently my team is really good, so that's be sweet.

Already this weekend, we have a tournament! There is a beginners tourney this weekend in DUBLIN! The bus leaves Friday at 5, sleep over, play all Saturday and then bar hop Saturday in Dublin. For free! The whole tournament is set up for teams all around Ireland who have new guys on the team who have never played before. I'm really excited, it should be fun.

Tonight after practice Jeremie and I had the girls over for dinner. And then they ended up making dinner for us. They cooked this awesome pasta with vegetables on top and then we topped it off with Italian dressing. It was really good. I was surprised. Nelson joined us for dinner as well. We all talked and laughed about our experiences so far. We also had to laugh as Jeremie told us that Pierre was going out again tonight. This makes it the 6th night in a row that guy has gone out drinking! Haha he is hard to keep up with. Apparently he was drinking this afternoon at like 2. Haha I love him! Jeremie and Pierre are freaking hilarious. They absolutely 100% blown every stereotype I've ever had about the French completely out of the water. I love them! I love the French! Viva la France baby! Also, over the past two days I've taught Jeremie the words, "bromance," "ballin," and "Oh snap." And, he has been saying "google that shit" non stop! It's great! We just sit here with our doors open and talk back and forth to one another. Last night I gave him a quarter, dime, nickel and penny. He was so happy! I told him I'll get him a 1$ bill. He said if he gets one, he is going to frame it and put it in his room. Haha, crazy kid.

So that's it for now. Watching American Idol on live stream right now. And Theodore is playing his violin. Tonight, he walked into the kitchen and told us "I'm coming from a crazy party man!" But he had his violin case in his hand. Sooooo, not really sure how "crazy" that party was. Who knows?

Theodore, a man of mystery.


Goodnight 'yall!