Welcome to Pound Town

As some of you might have noticed, the guys and I traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend.  Let me start by saying that getting into a fight with a Scottish native who's twice your size isn't the best idea.  Thankfully I had Patrick Foley (aka Gor) to make sure I didn't get my face kicked in. Foleys rule.

Here's a somewhat brief rundown of the trip:

We landed in Edinburgh at about 11pm Friday night.  After checking in to the sketchiest hostel known to man, we went to a local bar for a few pints.  By that point everyone there was already hammered and the place closed in half an hour.  We stayed and had a good time, but had to go find somewhere else that was open later.  We ended up in a nightclub called "whistle binkies" where there were probably 100 blackout 30-year-old weirdos having the time of their lives.

Upon entering the bar, we immediately got the feeling that people weren't appreciating our company, but as all good Americans do we didn't give a shit and stayed.  As we were enjoying some local beer, I noticed that one guy sitting across from us was staring us down intently.  I slyly mentioned my observation to Cam, and from there things got weird.  Cam glanced over at him a few times and every time he did, the crazy Scot was giving him a death glare.  Cam finally decided to stare back, and they had a nice awkward 30 second stare down before the local opened his mouth and said "get the fu*% out of here", to which Cam subtly replied, "excuse me, I can't hear you. Is there a problem?"

From there, the guy proceeded to introduce us to who he said was the bar owner (BS), we all made a few not-so-smart comments to him, and as he leaned over to talk shit to me, he oddly bit my ear.  All I wanted to do was punch him in the face, but thankfully Cam and Pat are brighter than I am and realized that you don't get into fights in a foreign country, especially when you're one of the smallest guys there.
We managed to get back to our Stephen King designed hostel safely, and decided not to return to Whistle Binkies for the remainder of the trip.

On Saturday we roamed around Edinbugh and checked out a ton of cool places.  The amount of history in the city is unbelievable, and us American's simply can't understand until we see it.  This was one of the coolest views ever from a castle overlooking the city

We went out Saturday night, and once again got some crazy stories.  We were planning on just having a few beers and then getting some rest, as we were traveling to St. Andrews on Sunday to play golf.  We ended up meeting some crazy Scottish guy that was so hammered he couldn't stand up. After talking with him and his girlfriend for a while, he got thrown out of the bar so we tried to get him into another one, but that didn't work.  After they left, we started talking to another older couple next to us.  It turned out that the older gentleman was the head greenskeeper for all of the courses at St. Andrews. They were just in town for the night and gave us some good tips for playing on Sunday.  What a small world we live in.

On Sunday, we had an hour and a half bus ride before arriving in St. Andrews.  It was a perfect day for golf and the hostel was much nicer than the first one (might make a separate post about that).  We got to play fifteen holes of the Strathyrum course for 12pounds (ridiculously cheap for golf, especially at one of the nicest locations in the world).  It was one of the coolest, yet worst rounds of golf I've ever played.  While we were chipping on the 12th hole, the greenskeeper and his wife that we met the night before showed up to talk with us.  They walked the entire course looking for us just to make sure we got in okay and didn't have any troubles.  I, of course, shanked my shot and he just laughed hysterically at me.  

After getting to play an easyish course, we walked the old course since it was closed for play.  I  must say that I truly have an appreciation for pro golfers.  You can't truly understand the difficulty while watching on TV, but the bunkers and fairways were absolutely insane.  I stood in a bunker that was as tall as me...I haven't seen anything like that before in my life and this picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

On Monday, we returned to Edinburgh and flew back to Ireland.  We walked more in two days than I think I ever have in my life so we were all exhausted by the time we got back.  We also realized how horrible the dollar is compared to the pound.  While we thought we were doing a good job not spending too much, our bank accounts said otherwise.  Scotland really pounded us ;) so keep that in mind if you ever travel to the EU. 

This is the first weekend in a while where we've gotten to hang out and just relax.  As of now, no formal trips planned but we're hoping to go on some soon.  We also haven't gotten to see much Olympic action besides team USA losing to Canada and then getting stomped by Finland today.  We're starting to miss our electronically driven country, but we know we'll be back soon enough.  

Lung cancer, anyone?

Well, I've somehow been in Ireland for over a month already.  I often find myself wondering what's crazier: the fact that we've been here for a month, or the fact that we have 3 to go.  Either way, I feel like I've become very accustomed to the Irish culture and I'm loving every second.

A few weekends ago we got the opportunity to go on a homestay visit.  Basically everyone in our program got divided up into pairs and got to live with an Irish family for the weekend.  Unfortunately, my partner never showed up for school, so it was just me and a lovely 70-year-old couple.  Joan and Jackie have been married for 48 years and they still live in the same house that Joan (the mom) grew up in as a kid.  Needless to say, I got a true Irish experience.

Their home is a little cottage on a big piece of land about 10 minutes away from the small city of Charleville.  The square footage is probably the equivalent of one or two American classrooms and included two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a small living room.  They have no heat besides a small fireplace that barely warms up the living room, so you can literally see your breath in every other room.  Joan seemed to enjoy a few cigarettes (about a pack or two a day), so those probably keep her warm.  In order to sleep, I wore a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie, with 2 quilts and that seemed to do the job.

As is true in most places in Ireland, there wasn't a lot to do on the weekend so we were either enjoying a homecooked meal, or watching sports at a nearby pub.  While it was nice for a few days, I definitely would be bored out of my mind if that was the way I lived every day.  I also got laughed at for not eating 5 potatoes in one meal.  One night we had an Irish stew and on the side each of us had 5, regular sized potatoes.  When I only finished four, and could barely move, Joan laughed at me and said "Not a big potato lover are ye?"  Sorry Joan, no I don't normally eat a month's worth of potatoes in one meal, but thanks for asking.

Overall, I appreciated the weekend.  Some people didn't enjoy it, but I enjoyed getting away for a while.  It happened to be the same weekend as Dave Hallman's tragedy, so it gave me a lot of time to reflect on how blessed am I to live the life that I do.  When I headed back to school on Sunday, I felt for the first time truly a part of the Irish society.  There's no need to be stressed, fast-paced, or worried about too much.  Easy livin' is the name of the game here.

A great friend, teammate, and comedian. RIP David

It's weekends like this that make us step back and truly understand what's important in life.  Fancy cars, plasma TV's, and large bank accounts mean nothing compared to relationships with friends and family.

While I only got to know Dave for a few short years, I can't think of one bad memory.  He was always a person that could make you laugh with just a few words (even if they weren't always politically correct), and a person that would never be scared to tell you how he truly felt about a certain situation.  He was a fierce competitor in the pool and an amazing teammate and friend outside of it.  He was a hell of an NHL Xbox player and I'll miss him beating the crap out of me in it.

My thoughts and prayers go to Dave's family, his girlfriend Sarah, and the members of the senior class that were closer to him than anyone else.  While I was fortunate enough to call him my friend, there are plenty of people who knew him on a much deeper level and are hurting more than ever today.

From what I have heard through the grape-vine, the Denison community was stronger than ever yesterday in the relentless pursuit of finding Dave, and the mourning of his loss when he was found.  While I'm thousands of miles away, I have never been more proud to call myself a member of such an amazing school.

I can't wait to be reunited with him some day and I'm confident that he's looking down at all of us with a smile on his face.  He will never be forgotten and will leave a lasting impact on the lives of everyone who knew him.

You were the man, Dave.  Rest in peace.
Sempre Avanti.

I'd rather be in Ireland

I've got to start by saying, what a horrible SuperBowl.  I don't think anyone saw that coming, but as us Notre Dame fans say...there's always next year.  I've been in Ireland for a little over two weeks now and, while it seems like time is flying, it also feels like we've been here for months.

The weather is exactly what everyone thinks...windy and rainy just about 24/7.  It's a miracle if the sun comes out for more than an hour each day.  The Irish culture is also pretty stereotypical: what do you do when there's free time? Drink!  Luckily, I haven't had any more nights like the one I had in Dublin, but there's still been some rowdy adventures.  The first morning after my Irish roommates moved in, I woke up with this note under my door:

The really unfortunate thing here is that everyone drinks a lot and their alcohol is insanely expensive.  A 20-pack of Coors light costs about 30euro here, which is roughly $40USD.  So all you kids complaining about buying a case of Natty for the weekend, just enjoy one for me and stop whining.  

This past weekend a lot of the abroad students traveled to Kylemore Abbey and Galway.  The scenery was truly unreal and made the US look like a dumpster.  More pictures will be posted to Facebook but here's a rough idea of what we were dealing with:

A few of us guys have scheduled a trip over Valentine's weekend to go to Scotland and learn how to play some bagpipes.  This weekend, we'll be on our homestay visit where I'll get to see the true life of an Irish family.  

Classes have started here and it's way different from the U.S.  There's basically one or two lectures per week for 50 minutes and their grades are based primarily on two or three assignments or exams for the whole semester.  Every Irish student also knows every class they will take each semester before they even enter campus.  They are very specialized and only take classes that are designed for their major...so they are amazed that us Americans can pick and choose any classes we want. 

Last night, we all got the opportunity to sign up for different clubs/societies that interested us.  I joined skydiving club, racing and motorsport club, swim club, and outdoor pursuits club.  

Skydiving club is going to be insane.  They do jumps every week and have a trip to France to dive their as well.  The first jump is 160euro but after that, every jump is only 20euro.  Stay tuned for some sweet GoPro videos of that.  

Racing and motorsport club meets on Tuesday nights throughout the semester.  We go to a nearby massive racetrack and do real life racing in go karts.  I was told that they go up to 100mph but we'll see how true that is.  This will also lead to some solid GoPro footage.

Swim club is pretty self explanatory...I'm going to get my fat ass into a speedo and try to burn off a Guinness or 2 a few times a week.  More than likely won't have GoPro footage of this...sorry. 

Outdoor pursuits club is for rock climbing, caving, and hiking.  There's a bunch of different trips throughout the semester, but one of the coolest ones is over Easter break when we have the opportunity to go to Malta for the week and rock climb.  From what I've heard, Malta is one of the coolest places on the planet, so that could be sweet.  

I'll end with a few memes that will hopefully make some Bronco fans smile.  It was a rough night, thankfully the beer helped me not truly understand what was going on.  Next blog will come sometime after Scotland. Stay classy everyone.