Phoebe what?

Results of speedwalking around Dublin for 3 hours:
1. Feet feel like they are currently walking around on hot gravel when, in reality, they are actually just perched atop the miniature coffee table sitting in front of this comfy couch I’m lounging on.
2. My shirt is not wet but is very damp. It has been “spraining” off and on all day here. IF you are not familiar with the term, here is an explanation: “spraining” is a term used to describe a very light rain. It is different from saying that it is sprinkling because when you say it is sprinkling, you usually mean that it is essentially misting heavily. However, when it is spraining, it is both misting (not heavily though) as well as raining sparsely (word?) . This is taking me much longer to explain than it should cause I’m trying to be all clever about the way I say it. Basically though, spraining is a mix between sprinkling and raining. It’s not just “raining” because the raindrops are fewer and further between. It is also not just sprinkling though because there are raindrops mixed in. Thus, spraining. Gosh.
3. My fingers are almost to the point of being numb from cold and my arm muscles feel very sluggish for the same reason. However, I am also sweating pretty heavily. There is a really cool, fairly strong wind that is ever present thus far in Dublin and when the sun is not out (as is the case today) it can be pretty cold. I, in all my brilliance, decided to just wear a t-shirt today and have ended up with cold arms and hands. But due to the intensity of my walking, I find myself sweating as well. It feels confusing but I like it…

Did I or did I not buy something really shady from a creepy lady in an alleyway that I accidentally wandered into? I did not.

I did, however, purchase 2 sweaters from a store, the name of which I shall not disclose. Regardless though, I now can actually dress appropriately for the weather here. I definitely brought not enough long-sleeved shirts. I just brought all t-shirts. Stupid.

So originally, the purpose of my long walk through Dublin was to meet up with Phil Rogers and Daniel at the Guinness Brewery for a tour. Phil and Dan showed up at my hostel this morning and are staying til tomorrow night so we’re kicking it. Unfortunately though, my head does not hold as good of a map as I thought it did and I never found the brewery. I did end up in a really cool part of Dublin though. I think I kinda got away from the touristy area and got to see where people really live and I got to see some actual irish people instead of just seeing the mix of people visiting Ireland that I had been seeing. So that was cool. Dublin is interesting. I can’t really get a read on it. Sometimes I’m really impressed with it’s cleanliness, and other times, I’m appalled by how filthy it is. Sometimes I meet irish people who are just the nicest, most helpful people I could ask for and other times, they are just short (verbally and in stature) and kinda mean.

In my hostel, I am in a room with 5 beds other than my own. Currently, 4 of them are in use. I am rooming with a guy from Ireland who lives about 45 minutes away and is just here for a week taking a class, a French-Canadian guy who is 18 years old and here looking for a job and a place to live (he’s kinda weird and awkward), and then a French couple who are obsessed with whispering very loudly. Like seriously, I think they could just talk half as loud as they are “whispering”. And there has got to be no language more annoying to hear whispered than French. And they keep inviting me to go do stuff with them cause they think I’m lonely and I keep having to come up with excuses when the truth is really that they don’t speak great English and it would be a really labored conversation which I’m not too into.

I did meet a couple of tight people from North Carolina. Jean and Trevor what what!? Yeah but they’re tight and we went out and got a couple of pints of Guinness last night which, as I was told so many times prior to testing it out for myself, actually is a lot better here than in the states. It’s still not my favorite, but it’s not bad. We’re in a really touristy area though so a pint ran us about 6 euro a piece!! That’s like $7.50!! Ridiculous…but totally worth it. I would talk more about the N. Carolinians but I feel like they may read this and that’s just weird.

As of right now I have yet to put my camera to good use. This does not mean that I have not taken any pictures though. I have taken one. You know those pictures that you always see on people’s cameras where you can tell they JUST took their camera out of their bag and they just want to shoot something so they take a picture of their friend when their friend isn’t even looking and so you end up with a picture of some person almost from behind with his mouth half open, looking like he either just pointed at something or is about to point at something and the lighting sucks, etc...well I took one of those of Phil. That is the only picture I’ve taken. It’s pretty good.

Oh yeah, so there are head shops all over the place with big marijuana leaves on the front and stuff so me and another dude walked into one just to check it out. They weren’t selling marijuana there (not that we were looking for any) but they had all the paraphernalia like US head shops. And of course they have all the counter-culture stuff like t-shirts with che Guevara on them and stuff. Anyways, I have been thoroughly confused about whether pot is legal here or not because I will randomly see people smoking it just out in the open but if it was legal, I would think they would be selling it in places like head shops. So anyways, during my walk today, I saw a guy who was smoking some and so I stopped him and asked him. I was like “dude, is marijuana legal here?” His answer was, “well…it’s not illegal…want some?” So I said no and he went on. But what the heck does that mean? Like what a noncommittal answer. I mean using my deductive reasoning I think that means that it is legal…but why wouldn’t he just say that? The point though is that I still have no idea what the laws are here regarding pot and I think I am more confused now than I was before. Awesome. I guess I really don’t care anyways. I was just wondering.

Another thing worth noting is that the new Ben Harper CD is legit. I got it just before I left and have been listening to it a lot. I’m actually listening to it at this exact moment. It’s bomb. Check it out. The song on right now is “Faithfully remain”. It’s a good one.

**Two hour time gap**
So now I’m definitely watching PS I love you. Not my movie choice. These two girls just came into the TV room and decided we needed to be really chicky flicky and so they’ve not turned it on and I’m engrossed. I believe their names were Rachel and Amanda…not positive though and who knows if I ever will be? Jesus does. He knows everything.

I have never been as happy as I hoped to be with a wine that has a screw-on top. This bottle wasn’t even dirt cheap or anything. It was like 15 dollars US. It just had a screw cap so it sucks. Ok fine it doesn’t completely suck. Maybe it’s like a 50% sucker. Yeah. That’s about right.

I feel incredibly gay watching this movie with people I don’t know. Why is it so different when I watch a movie with people I don’t know as compared to watching the same movie with people I do know? Like I could watch this movie with Becca or with Alex and I wouldn’t feel gay at all. But here, in this room with these two girls I don’t know, watching “Merrick” telling his wife how much he loves her, I feel crazy feminine. I don’t like it. I wonder if that’s how every girl in the room was feeling during gladiator yesterday…I don’t think so. I think that’s just cause its not a negative thing for girls to like guy things. Or maybe I’m just stupid in thinking that Gladiator is a guy movie…whatever. It’s whatever. It is whatever. It IS whatever.

*1 hour later*

Ok, so the actress that plays phoebe in Friends is also in PS I love you as one of the main girl’s friends. She’s freakin hilarious.

Christain

Outski