I never knew there were female leprechauns.

So here I am. Just kickin it in Dubsies. First of all, here are a few things that I have noticed while walking around today:
1. Out of every hundred people, about 95 of them are smoking. Now of course that is an exaggeration. But seriously, tons of people smoke here. And you may ask why, if I am so aware that I exaggerated, why I did not just change my estimate to be more accurate and avoid the exaggeration? As a response to this presumed question, I will say that I did it for effect. But seriously. In Dublin, it’s not a question of whether or not somebody smokes. It is a question of whether they are currently smoking.
2. The only people who have dogs in downtown Dublin are homeless people. But seriously every single one of them has one. It’s weird. All the dogs look like they’re about 8 seconds away from death. (again, an exaggeration for effect)
3. Today I was walking and I saw a t-shirt that said “In BOD we trust”. I have no idea what that means to people here but I really wanted to get it because, of course, I am Christian ROD the BOD. For any of you who are unaware, that is a name that was given to me by my boy Alex Little who keeps it really real. I have no idea why he calls me that. It started as Rod. Then Rod the BOD. And now it’s just BOD. I really don’t know why he calls me that because I’m not exactly rockin a killer bod or anything. However, I like it so I have not physically forced him to quit even though I could.
4. Even before the tourists come here, Dublin is an extremely diverse group of people. There are people from all over the world here. Then you have all the tourists as well who have come from all over. I believe that this contributes to the reason for the next observation that I have made.
In the states, cars drive on the right side of the road. Also, etiquette states that you should always walk on the right side of a path or walkway. In Ireland, cars drive on the left side of the road and, logically, their etiquette states that persons should walk on the left side of the walkway. However, there are so many people here who are not used to walking on the left side of the walkway that you end up with about half and half. Considering how packed the walkways are with people here, it can make it very difficult to avoid running straight into people. You usually have that thing where when you’re walking straight at someone, at the last second you will both move to your respective rights in the states. Here however, about 50% of the time, you both end up moving in the same direction and it results in a collision. I’m always worried they’re doing it on purpose and are trying to steal something from me.

So basically, I don’t really like Dublin. It seems to have very little irish flavor (unless irish and American flavors are very similar) and though it seems to be trying desperately to be rich and full of flavor, it just ends up coming off as very touristy. Thus, I look forward to moving on to the western part of Ireland so that I can experience a little more of the true irish flava flav.

How much is there really to see in Dublin? I’m sure this is something you were dying to know the answer to. Basically, there isn’t a whole lot. There are really only like 3 things that I want to see as far as I can tell. I have seen one of them (Dublin castle) and it was kinda a let down. So I don’t have REAL high hopes for the other two but hopefully I will be pleasantly proved wrong. I could tell you what the other two things are but I think I’ll just let you wait until I have seen them.

“Christian, how do you feel about being over there all by yourself?” Wow. That’s just another really great question. Thank you for asking. Um, I think that at this point, I would say that I am very much enjoying being alone over here and I’m enjoying the freedom of having no one around. However, even though at this moment, I am enjoying it, I can tell that it is something that I will eventually get sick of.. So we’ll see how long that takes. If I start getting sick of myself, I guess I’ll just have to meet some people. *Fright!!* You know? OK well yeah.

I did get up the guts to sit down and kick it with a homeless dude who was begging on a bridge yesterday though. I wish I could say he was really tight but honestly, he was kinda a jerk. I think it pretty much came down to the fact that he thought he could make more money if I wasn’t sitting beside him so he wanted me to leave. So after a couple failed attempts at conversation, I just tossed him a “Jesus loves you”, threw up the deuce, and peaced out. I think I’ll try it again though later maybe…(“again though later maybe”? is that even English?)

Meals so far: Lunch yesterday – burger king, Dinner yesterday – dinner? What? I think I was asleep…, lunch today – SOME NAME’s sandwich joint (irish chicken ceasar wrap…yum), dinner today – burger king. I’m definitely not branching out enough. That’s all I’m saying.

I guess the last thing that I will say right now is that I still have not taken a single picture. There are really just two reasons for this. This first would be that I do NOT want to look like just another tourist (I know, for some reason I care even though I literally have no reason to) and the other reason is that there really just isn’t that much in Dublin that I would want a picture of.

Oh and the parliament here is not called “parliament” or “congress” or anything lame. IT is called the “House of Lords”. That’s tight.

Keep it real boyos and lassies. (those names are not irish slang I don’t think, I just like them)