I am still debating whether or not I am going to purchase a ukulele when I get back home. Prior to leaving I was quite set on it. Now I have to think about the likelihood of me needing to buy a new cello bow (not using it for a while causes it to go bad) and/or buying a bodhran while I am here. Honestly though, as much as I love the bodhran, I don't see many outlets for me to play, at least while I am at school. I am sure there are sessions in the Cities, but I can't be going home every weekend to then drive further to the Cities, so summers/breaks will the only time to play with other people. I am leaning to buying a new cello bow first, spending some long-awaited time with Homer, and then see about the ukulele thing.
The organization of this blog post will proceed as follows:
- St. Patrick's Day festivities
- My funky Thursday
- My awful Friday
- Reflection on Friendships
- Weekend plans
Let's begin!
St. Patrick's Day was wonderful! Then again, anything would have topped last year where I am pretty sure the only festive thing I did was get a shamrock Frost-your-own from the Caf (In case you don't know what a Frost-your-own is, it is a GAC tradition so to speak: For major events/holidays the have sugar cookies in the shapes applicable to the event/holiday and giant tubs of colored frosting. You frost your own. So simple. Yet so incredibly wonderful and we all get really into it. If you're the first one of your friends to go to the Caf and you see them, you make sure to spread the word (haha spread...frosting...lame I know) But I digress...). So I met Ross and Andrew and some other friends in town off of Grand Parade (a street) where the parade was to be held around noonish. The weather was quite possibly the nicest since I have been here. No wind, completely clear skies, warm but not hot, absolutely lovely. We really lucked out, as the last few days have been foggy and cold. We wandered around to the various food stands, I got a giant cookie, then tried to find a spot to watch the proceedings. The parade was pretty tame by American parade standards, but there were some cute kids and funny float things so I enjoyed myself. After that we went to a pub/beer garden called the Franciscan Well or something like that, I could be way off, and I had a pint of Blarney Blonde, a beer they brew on location there. I liked it. Morgan and Amelia met up with us there too. After THAT (it was a long day with much movement...), we went to a girl Laura's house who is in the choir, after stopping by an off license (liquor store) of course. At her house we drank and played Rock Band (like Guitar Hero but with other instruments too). The drums where difficult, I did pretty decent on the guitar, but I didn't dare sing. At some point around 10 or 11pm I think, someone came to the door and threatened to call the police because we where being "too noisy." Rather than cause more trouble we left to go into town, picked up some donuts YUM!, and then went to a club. At this point, I am not going to lie, I had had a significant amount to drink, but people (aka Ross- thanks dude!) took care of me, made sure I got home okay, etc etc. I had a GREAT time though. Picture time!
Noting much happened Wednesday. I was tired. I slept a lot. Had choir rehearsal at night. We leave for Budapest in two weeks! Woop!
Thursday was another extremely long and tiring day. I had of course my three classes. But on top of that I just had additional pressures and foci that wore me out: 1) My bodhran exam is next Thursday. Colm had forgotten to mention to me that I could either use the accompanist provided by the Department to play along with, or bring in someone I know. He recommended the latter because it would allow me to know exactly what's going on in terms of switching tunes, tempo, etc. SO I was freaking out trying to think of someone to play with. Luck for me, I saw Amelia in the building and told her about it. She plays flute and offered to play with me/I asked her, so we practiced for a but after my lesson. 2) I spilt yogurt in my backpack. In the rush of getting out of the tiny food shop I shoved the tinfoil-covered container in my backpack, only to discover something had punctured it on the way to the ORB to eat, thus leaving portions of my books, folders, and notebooks covered in its grossness. All I wanted to do before the incident was eat- I was sooo hungry. But then this happened and I had to try to clean it all up. It was Apple and Blackberry too, though not as pleasant sounding after you've seen it in the bottom of your bag. 3) I realize I have an in-class written exam on Tuesday for one of my classes. Kinda nervous since I only go to one of the classes per week because it's at 9am and I can't get up that early. 4) I was feeling really weird throughout the day, like someone had drugged me. I was just in a haze. Perhaps all the stimuli and active thinking was getting to me. 5) I studied for easily 5 hours for my Irish oral exam that was at 8:30 the next morning. I was fairly confident, and then...
Friday morning comes and I completely suck at the oral exam. I don't even want to write about it here, it was that bad. THe only way I can get over it, since I am very self-critical, is to pretend it never happened. So I have erased it from my memory as of now. I also only got 3 hours of sleep Thursday night because I drank a chai latte at 6pm while studying. I will never to that again, even though they are so good. So I napped a lot during the day. I went to a club with Ross and friends at night, uber fun as always. Slept like a rock for once, but only for 6 hours and then I couldn't get back to sleep. I am SO looking forward to my bed at home with its down mattress cover thing, the heavy blankets, more pillows. I miss my pretty curtains too. So Friday wasn't THAT awful, just the morning part...Ew.
So I have been doing a lot of thinking revolving around the friendships I have formed here. I will do my best to put into words, but I find it very hard. I just feel like with a few people here that I have known them for longer than I really have: That in almost being forced to make friends with people due to the fact that I am in a new place with out any pillar or stable grasp to anyone or anything, no previous connections, that I kinda skip over the "getting to know" some one part and just "know" them. It's like I do the reverse of typing friendship/bond making- I find someone and I just know them. Perhaps it is the pressure of time where we all know after Ireland is done we might not see each other (I personally don't believe this, but it is always a possibility...you know?) so we throw ourselves into our friendships because that is really all we have, our only source of NOT being completely lost in this new place that is becoming more and more like "home." But the pressure of time doesn't make the bonds any less significant, if anything it is a freedom to be who we really are from the beginning, from as soon as we meet someone, and skip over all of the stuff we do to please others, to make them like us, to weed through the masses of potential friendships. And by being this way our bonds begin on a higher level that "ordinary" friendships because we already have a shared sense of need and self-awareness. I could write more about this, and I will in my journal, but I am just very pleased with the friends I have made here. It amazes me how wonderful people can be.
I need to go to the library today to do work. I really don't want to, but I know if I stay here in my room I will not get ANYTHING done, despite telling myself I will. I will feel a ton better about everything once I just get stuff done. So my weekend will most likely be homeworking. Yay..........not.
Hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick's Day. Enjoy Spring Break all my GAC friends!
PS- I love comments! Tell a joke, tell me about the weather, how your day was, something interesting you did or saw. I am not picky!
A guy walks into a bar, sits down, and orders a drink. He throws it back pretty quickly, and orders another. Then, a second guy walks into the bar, order a beer, chugs it, walks to the window, jumps out...and just floats upward. The first man watches this in amazement.
ReplyDeleteThe second guy walks back in through the front door of the bar, and does the same thing again, and walks back into the bar again.
Guy one is flabbergasted, and can't figure out what's happening. He asks guy two, "how in the hell are you doing that?!"
Guy two responds with, "you know that really warm, full feeling you get when you chug a beer? Well, simple chemistry says that warm air rises, so, if you just hold your breath and jump, you float up to the roof unharmed."
Guy one says, "oh my GOD, I have to try that!"
He proceeds to order a beer, and chug it. He runs to the window, jumps out, and plummets to his death.
The bartender turns to guy two and say, "you know, you're a real asshole when you're drunk Superman."
Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks.
ReplyDeleteSusie - I think your analysis of 'quick friendships' is quite interesting and probably very true. I bet you are meeting people that you will continue to keep in touch with long after you all return to your homes and schools. How cool is that?!
ReplyDeleteA man walks into a bar and asks the bartender, "If I show you a really good trick, will you give me a free drink?" The bartender considers it, then agrees. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny rat. He reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a tiny piano. The rat stretches, cracks his knuckles, and proceeds to play the blues.
ReplyDeleteAfter the man finished his drink, he asked the bartender, "If I show you an even better trick, will you give me free drinks for the rest of the evening?" The bartender agrees, thinking that no trick could possibly be better than the first. The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out a tiny rat. He reaches into his other pocket and pulls out a tiny piano. The rat stretches, cracks his knuckles, and proceeds to play the blues. The man reaches into another pocket and pulls out a small bullfrog, who begins to sing along with the rat's music.
While the man is enjoying his beverages, a stranger confronts him and offers him $100,000.00 for the bullfrog. "Sorry," the man replies, "he's not for sale." The stranger increases the offer to $250,000.00 cash up front. "No," he insists, "he's not for sale." The stranger again increases the offer, this time to $500,000.00 cash. The man finally agrees, and turns the frog over to the stranger in exchange for the money.
"Are you insane?" the bartender demanded. "That frog could have been worth millions to you, and you let him go for a mere $500,000!" "Don't worry about it." the man answered. "The frog was really nothing special. You see, the rat's a ventriloquist."