CLARE GOES TO SCHOOL

I started classes last week. AHHH. Things went pretty well... despite the fact that several classes are scheduled for the same time, there weren't any huge issues. School is pretty much the same everywhere. I need to get back in school mode. Since we keep jetting off to beautiful places every weekend, I have a hard time convincing myself that I do, in fact, have to do schoolwork! I have to report, sadly, that I'm going to have to quit the Boydell singers. I really need to finish my 2nd theology requirement when I'm here, and the only theology available to me is at the same time as Boydell rehearsals. Disappointment.

Quick run-down of the highlights of the week:

Monday: I had one class in the morning, a full day of NOTHING, then four classes in the evening. I gotta fix my schedule. Then fajita night with Nicole...we had fun jamming out to Ingrid Michaelson.

Tuesday: Potluck dinner at the O'Connell house. I intended to make artichoke dip, but apparently artichokes don't exist in Ireland. So I made guacamole instead. People were pretty pleased with it.

Wednesday: Had dinner at Nicole's place. She has four roommates. Fabio, Fabio (HA!), Samuel (Samoo?), and Carlos. All from Italy, except Carlos who is from Spain. The older Fabio is moving out tomorrow though, so Nicole will finally be able to settle into her room. All the men are between 25-35, which could be a very uncomfortable situation, but they are all very friendly and treat Nicole like a sister. They were having a big roommate dinner for her, and she invited me to come along. Carlos was out of town so the guys were making a big Italian meal. Nicole and I were very excited to taste it...especially since young Fabio was talking it up so much. But when it arrived.... Well, it tasted a bit like a microwave pasta meal. Nicole and I kept eyeing each other thinking "Hell, we could do better than this!" (Nicole later confided in me that all the ingredients had been bought at SupervalU, and that the salmon in the pasta came directly from a can.)

Nicole! :) 

Then we popped into a pub to meet up with Daragh and Eoghan. (I learned that you can get a free drink in Ireland without even trying to. You just have to be good 'craic' with strangers for a few minutes and they'll buy you a pint and send you on your way. However, avoid drunk married men who grab your waist and complain to you about their wives).  Then the four of us went searching for a karaoke bar that some of the UCD-ND kids were at. We went to the top of grafton st, and there was no pub to be found. Daragh and Eoghan were certain that the bar was "right THERE!" and asked one of the bike-carriage guys to tell us where it was. The guy said "right there" and pointed.

These are not my friends. This is merely an example of other, similar drunk people, on a different, similar bike-taxi. Understand? 

We still didn't see it. Daragh asked him if he'd drive us to it. The guy laughed at him and said it was way too close. Daragh then asked (he'd had a few) if the man would drive us to the end of grafton, then back, and to the bar. The man cracked up, but agreed. We asked how much. TWO EURO EACH. So, naturally Eoghan and I refused, and turned away to go look for the bar. Suddenly, racing from behind us, Daragh and Nicole came flying by on the bike-carriage. The driver pulled up right in front of the bar, literally RIGHT where we'd been standing the entire time. Unfortunately, the karaoke had ended, but we made our way to a club and still made a night of it.

Thursday: I didn't have class at all on Thursday (but that's changing now...) so I did some housekeeping and wrote a review of Plough and the Stars for the O'Connell house blog (I'll post the link when it goes up!) Nicole came over around 2 and we went out to lunch at a place called Cornucopia (courtesy of Mrs. Eileen O'Callaghan's detective skills). It was FANTASTIC. I think I'm going to LIVE at this place. Vegetarian, organic, healthy, and DELICIOUS food. After a big meal of tomato fennel soup, pesto spinach pasta salad and green beens and broccoli (all for 6 euro...) we went across the street and tested out the beloved Murphy's ice cream (ok, NICOLE just tasted a couple, I was the only one to actually buy one....thanks nicole!). I tried Bailey's and some kind of caramel thing. I'm not impressed. Not that it's bad. Believe me, any ice cream is good in my book. But since Irish milk and chocolate is so creamy and wonderful, I expected more from the ice cream.

That night was my first Dr. Horrible rehearsal. And I have to say, it was a little horrible. I'm not a fan of the director. At all. Neither are most of the kids in DU players, since the rest of the directors all seemed really annoyed with him. And the whole DU players atmosphere just paled in comparison to PEMCo. But hey, at least I'm trying. I might try to direct a show while I'm here, or at least audition for another one, but that's about it. I'm so excited to travel, and I don't want rehearsals to get in the way of any plans. After rehearsal, I skyped Kevin during his lunch hour. The bell rang, signaling that he had to go. He asked if I wanted to see his kids. Of course I wanted to see his kids! So he put the computer on mute and turned his screen to black so his 4th graders wouldn't see some creepy girl spying on them from Kevin's laptop. I was only going to watch for 5 minutes, but as soon as I saw him interacting with them, I couldn't pull myself away! It was so funny hearing Kevin's voice in teacher mode. His natural goofy inflections slip into his directions to the kids. For example, he told them all the walk calmly and quietly to their seats. Then I heard a slightly sarcastic "Well, that's not calmly OR quietly!" So confident and strict. And the kids all love him.


This weekend all the ND kids went to Northern Ireland. I promise I'll write all about it tomorrow, but right now my eyes are getting heavy....

Night night,
Clare Mairead