A very busy 2 weeks....

Back in Ireland, and more stressed than ever. Why? Well, all hell broke loose when I found out I had failed to turn in a 2,500 word essay worth 38% of my grade for my Cognitive and Neuroscience Approach to Addiction Class.  Apparently all the emails regarding it went either to my spam folder, or I didn't read them carefully, or I missed the slides because I wasn't there that day, blah blah blah. The point is, go to class, kids. Go to class. I missed 2 classes out of the 12, and those must have been the magic days when my professor told us A) we had a huge essay to do! B) what those essays were supposed to be on!

Anyway. The essay was due December 17th. I found out about it January 21st (and proceeded to flip out). It is now due February 11th, because my professor is a lovely man. How much of my essay have I written? Zilch. I'm terribly intimidated by the essay, and can't seem to write two words down on paper. AND I'm going to Berlin this weekend. Oops.

Okay, enough whining. Quick (kind of) description of what's been happening for these last 2 weeks.

This new crowd is much more willing to come downtown.  Going to Dicey's has become a weekly Tuesday night adventure (except this Tuesday when I was lame and stayed in to write this paper...and this blog).

Last Friday Mike Rodio finally dragged me and Siomha to the PAV.  The PAV is the student bar on Trinity's campus. I'm sure it's a ton of fun if you know a million people that go there, but honestly I just feel a bit left out there.  Crowds and crowds of people that all seem to know each other. In bars, it's a bit more anonymous, with groups of people at their own tables. Mike insisted that he meets people at the PAV, but...I don't buy it. Sorry Rodio. The only way I meet people is through small classes or plays. Or drunk guys at bars. But at the PAV, it's like one giant Trinity party that the study abroad kids weren't invited to. A couple UCD kids wanted to go for a drink, so I encouraged us to leave the PAV, and we went to the Long Stone (recommended by Eimear). I liked it a lot...had a cozy atmosphere, but it was crowded and had party music on.

On Saturday, the Trinity kids took about 10 UCD kids to Howth, a little fishing village about 25 minutes away. After some delicious fish and chips, we took a very muddy and adventurous walk on a hiking path in the cliffs outside of the town.  Really beautiful views.  I fell in love with Ireland all over again. The blog server isn't letting me post pictures up here, but you can see pictures of howth here. When I got back Saturday night, I headed to Rathmines to go to my friend Julia's surprise party.  I met Julia, an American grad student, and Elizabeth, and English grad student, through Dr. Horrible. And I'm so glad that I did! I had a great night at her party. I was very late and missed the big SURPRISE! moment, but I still had a great time. I loved all of their friends...I think it's partially because they were all a bit older. The age group was around 23-26, and I didn't feel out of place at all. Everyone was relaxed and inclusive and friendly. It was actually refreshing...so many undergrad parties just seem like a more drunken extension of the cliquey high school mentality, but I enjoyed this one a lot more. At the end of the night, I caught the Luas back with a wonderful American married couple that decided to settled down in the Temple Bar after they both finished grad school at Trinity. I love getting to know the new UCD kids, but I'm going to try to meet new people like this more often.

That being said, we still wanted to feel like we were a part of the new UCD group. So, we had about 10 kids over for a Mexican night on Sunday. I made some yummy guac and margaritas, and Siomha made her famous enchiladas. My friend from highschool, Rachel Sussman, just got into town the day before, and I roped her into coming to Trinity to eat dinner with me and say hello. She looked impossibly stylish and beautiful and I had a wonderful time chatting with her.

We ended the night at a sports bar to watch the Bears game. All the UCD kids from the Chicago area were there, and they became more and more depressed as the night went on. I had to kind of pretend I was sad... until I got into the bar, I did not know who the Bears were. I tried to keep that quiet....

Wednesday evening the O'Connell house staff took all the Trinity kids out to dinner.  I LOVED the place we went to--Hugo's on the corner of Merrion Square and St. Steven's Green. It was a lovely little restaurant with a huge wine bar, little twinkle lights, lace curtains, and tiffany-blue wallpaper.  I loved catching up with the O'Connell house. I also met a new member, Lisa, from Canada. She's really one of the oldest members, but she was on maternity leave last semester so I never met her. She's delightful! She fell in love with an Irishman, moved here, and married him. So romantic. She kept quizzing me about Kstein, and hinting that I need to meet an Irish guy instead. I told her that though her Irishman fairy tale was appealing, I'm going to stick with Kevin....

The food at Hugo's was DELICIOUS. Since the O'Connell house was paying, I indulged in a little creme brulee.. it was a very good life choice. I wish I'd brought my mom there when she was visiting!  After dinner, Siomha and I went to UCD for a second dinner! All of the UCD kids were having a big pasta dinner to get to know everyone. One of the main reasons I went was to sample Katie Kelliher's famous banoffee pie. I was pretty stuffed when I got home that night....

Friday morning, my friend Dithu told me that one of my friends from high school, Kyle Holton, died in a car accident. It shook me more than I thought it would. I haven't talked to Kyle in about 2 years, but he was still a big part of my life in some way. Most of my experiences with him were from forensics Freshman and Sophomore year....he was such a fun, spirited person, and a really great coach.  Some of my close friends are still so tight with Kyle, and I can't imagine what this must have been like for them.  I called my mom, shannon, and a bunch of other high school friends to talk about it. Then I promptly spent an hour and a half watching Rocky Horror the multiple (Kyle's pride and joy) and skyping with Dithu. Didn't get much homework done, but it was actually great getting to talk to people from high school about everything. I felt a bit like I was in the Big Chill.

That night, one of the UCD girls that I LOVE, Mary Coyne, cooked dinner for the trinity kids and a few UCD-ers. Delicious Ratatouille and garlic bread. After the meal, we headed to the porter house to see the famous Woodsey...all the UCD kids are now big fans. I'm following in your footsteps, Norah.

Saturday the O'Connell house planned a tour for us at the National Gallery.  There was a special exhibition of J.M.W. Turner's watercolors, and we had a tour-guide take us through the Yeats exhibit and the famous Carravagio. After a quick dinner at home, I met up with Adriana, Alice, and Josh, some of the UCD kids, and went to a trad session at Gogarty's in temple bar. It was great! I'm going to try to go to more trad sessions and see more live music while I'm here. I haven't even been to O'Donaghue's since I've been back! It's inexcusable. After the trad sesh, we went to UCD for a "dorm party"...I guess people are already feeling nostalgic for the Notre Dame way of life.

I finally started to work work work really hard on my Psych essay on Sunday.... unfortunately I didn't make much progress. This essay may be the death of me. After more essay-agony on Monday, I went to a talk at 6pm with Rupert Everett!!!  He is just as handsome and charming in real life as he seems in the movies.  And his accent is BEAUTIFUL.  I loved hearing about his past.  From dropping out of high school, to feeling dissatisfied with the techniques and rules in acting school, to being in his first Oscar Wilde production, to his first movie, to his upcoming directing/writing career...he seemed so down to earth about it. Even though the interviewer was asking him some pretty personal questions (i.e.--coming out in Hollywood, his family life, his heritage in the royal family), he never seemed too taken aback and he spoke about everything with such eloquence.

I'm a little bit in love... unfortunately he's gay, otherwise we would TOTALLY be together.

After the talk, I had drinks with rachel and her friend Solvieg at Doyle's. Afterwards, I headed to the place where Rachel goes to school, Griffith College, to meet all her theatre friends. I had SO much fun....it was refreshing to hang out with outgoing, quirky theatre folk again.  The only downside was I had to take a cab home...I didn't want to walk alone in at midnight in relatively deserted streets.

The past few days have been kind of crazy--lots of class, lots of homework...I'm trying to make some progress in this overwhelming paper so I can have a good time in Berlin this weekend! Yes, you heard right...I'm going to Berlin! So exciting.

I won't blog again for another week (aka, until after this paper is done), but I PROMISE next week's blog will be better than this one.

Slainte,
Clare Mairead

P.S. Here are some more pictures of Dublin Round 2!