It's grand like.

So...Let's see what has changed since the last time I wrote. This will be a long post, forgive the typos and spelling errors its late over here and hopefully I'll get to fixing them soon.

Rugby Update: Munster won the rugby game and now the Ireland teams is playing in the Six Nations Rugby tournament. Ireland won against Italy last weekend. They play France tomorrow. There is a score to settle since France beat Ireland in the playoffs for the World Cup in soccer and when France scored the final point the player used his hand and the referee didn't call it. So France won by cheating. It's not a good explanation. Anyway it was a huge deal and Ireland wants to beat France. Enough said. Next weekend I'm going to watch a Munster game in person. I've heard there are no fans like Munster fans so I can't wait.

I also joined the rowing team. We have circuit training Tuesdays and Thursdays and water training Saturday and Sunday. It is very difficult. The training is getting easier but the actual rowing is complicated and its hard to get the rhythm. The UCC gym has been closed because of the flooding last year and opens on Monday so I will be able to get some extra practice on the rowing machines on the off days. Every new person you meet here likes to tell you about the flood. "It flooded here at the end of last year diya know." Yes, I know. It is nice to get a different perspective on it though. I digress. Everyone on the team is very nice and there are a few other Americans who joined. Our coach is an older man named Seamus and there are about 20-30 people in the Rowing Club. We practice on the River Lee and some parts are pretty picturesque. Maybe one day I'll muster up the courage to bring a camera to practice and take the razzing that would come my way for being so touristy and American. Last weekend there was supposed to be a night out with the team after their race but the race was canceled due to fog and the teams were told they were going to have a difficult practice the next day so only the Americans and the captain and co captain showed up. It was a bit of an awkward night. There was a band playing that sounded like the Soggy Bottom Boys playing so that was interesting. Practice the day after was difficult because it was all running, but the made it into a kind of game so I got to meet some people. That night there was a more legitimate night out and a few more members of the team showed up. All the rowing get togethers are at an réalt dearg (its in Irish and i have know idea what it means) a small pub up the hill from where I live. The team even gave them a paddle to hang over the bar. I don't know that this is particularly interesting to you but these are the facts of the rowing club and this is how I spend a good amount of time.

This past week was Raise and Give week or RAG week. There are tons of charity events all week and last year they raised thirty thousand dollars. And while there is a lot of raising and giving there is also a lot of drinking, skipping classes and general partying. I went to the UCC X Factor, the X factor is the British version of American Idol. I also saw a Irish rap battle and the contestants were surprisingly good. I was prepared to be embarrassed for the people onstage but listening to rap with an Irish accent is...I don't know pretty great. There were also made to order doughnuts on sale, that blew Krispy Kream and all other doughnuts out of the water. It was a good week. Everyone was out and Cork is a relatively small place so you run into a familiar faces quite a bit. Mary Kate and I went to a Mundy concert yesterday. He sings the song "Galloway Girl" in case you've heard of him. The concert was pretty empty so we didn't stay. I may go back to that same venue to see the Dropkick Murphys in April.

I went to the "most famous" chipper in Cork and maybe in Ireland, Lennox's. It's a small little place and there are only a few stools along the wall to sit. I ordered the fish and chips because I figured I had to. They threw a huge slab of fried fish and a ton of chips onto paper and splashed some vinegar on and threw on some salt and wrapped it all up. I couldn't wait until we got back to start in on the chips. It was so good. It's going to take some willpower not to make weekly trips over there. I found another new favorite food at the fast food restaurant Istanbul, Garlic Cheese Chips. All may favorite foods here involve fried potatoes, I'm pretty sure. I've also become a potato waffle attic. Not to worry the rowing keeps me from ballooning. At least I hope it does.

Classes are all going well. Some of them can be extremely dull at times. The art history class I am taking is great. There are five lecturers and three of them are very engaging. The other two not so much. I'm in for it next week because one of the awful ones is teaching every class. I met some nice girls in the class though so I can commiserate with them.

I heard some traditional Irish music the other night. That was great craic, as they say here. It's fun to watch the guys stomp around with their arms slung around each other and "dance" to the music. One of my favorite things about Ireland is that no one can dance, dance well anyway. It's just a very different atmosphere.

Now I'm going to teach you to speak like an Irish person. You never say 7:30 - seven thirty you say half seven. You say everything is grand or brilliant. Or instead of saying its okay you say you're grand. Someone says "Oh excuse me sorry" and you say "Ah You're grand." You pronounce three, tree. All other "Th" words are pronounced similarly. Think becomes tink etc. You end declarative sentences with like. I went to the pub and it was grand like. Everyone younger becomes Love. "Do you need anythin love." Now, Here is how you text like an Irish person. Use as few letter possible. Eliminate all vowels if you can still preserve the meaning. When you get there give me a ring becomes Whn u git thr me a ring. There is much more to it but this can get you started.

That's all I have for now. I'm going to the Rock of Cashel tomorrow so I will post on that soon and get some pictures up too. Love to all.