Feeling Irish!

This past week was a plethora of celebrations. Last Thursday, I celebrated turning two decades old. Then when the weekend came, I celebrated St. Patrick’s Day properly in Ireland.

Thursday morning I woke up and made myself a nice birthday breakfast to start my day and went through cards and presents I had received from friends and family back home. Little did I realize that the love I felt from back home at that time would be reciprocated throughout the entire day by the people in my home at Chester. After lunch, Andrew, Brian, and I went into town and saw the movie “The Woman in Black”. Those of you that know me well enough would know that I hate scary movies. I don’t like to pay to get scared nor do I find the thrill of being scared enjoyable. So the only reason I walked into that movie was because I didn’t know it was suppose to be scary. Andrew and Brian claimed it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be but let’s just say that I was happy no one else was in the theatre so I could move around and talk through the movie. After dinner, I came back to my house to find a cake and ice cream on the table and friends to share it with. I was also given multiple cards and gifts throughout the day by my friends which was completely unexpected. To finish of my birthday, a group of nine of us went to a pub for a few hours. I still can’t get over how blessed I felt having friends and family giving me well wishes throughout the world. Being away from home on my birthday cemented in my head the love that this world has to offer.

Friday night rolled around and as John came into my room we decided to take a look at our bus tickets for Dublin. My jaw dropped when we noticed that I had put down the wrong return date for the bus. I tried to call and change the date but the Sunday night buses were already booked full. So that presented us with another day in Ireland – which isn’t too bad of a consequence! Courtney, John, and I boarded our bus around 11pm Friday night and arrived into Dublin around 6:30am. As much as I wanted our bus to swim, we had to load a ferry to get across the water.

We waited for a couple hours to ensure a front row view for the parade. The parade was unlike any I have ever seen. It was a mix of modern things in very old styles. I can’t really describe it but simply put, the costumes were the best part of the parade. Afterwards we roamed the streets all day, hitting pubs and taking in all the greenery (people watching). In the evening we sat in a pub that had live Irish music in the “Temple Bar” area of Dublin. Hostels were booked months in advanced so we had planned to sleep in a park or pull an all-nighter. When the time came, the weather wasn’t looking promising so for the most part we pulled an all-nighter, staying in a McDonald’s for over three hours between 1am and 4:30. The next morning we went to mass then walked through the Guinness Storehouse. We got to our hostel in the late afternoon and crashed for 4 hours before making dinner and taking it easy that night. 

St. Patrick's Day Parade Dublin

Live Irish music in a pub in Dublin

With our extra day in Dublin we decided to go Belfast, Northern Ireland. None of us knew much about the city so I can’t report any noteworthy places we hit. Belfast was even more Americanized than Dublin in my opinion. Nonetheless we saw the future home of a Titanic museum and ate Ireland’s largest pizza – 24 inches in Belfast! 

Belfast City Hall

A bus took us back to Dublin then we trekked back to Chester and arrived at 3am today. Lots of things to do this week before I start Easter break travelling! 

Random Epicness

Part of me just didn't feel like blogging last week and another part of me really just didn't know what I would talk about. The last two weekends I didn't do any traveling which is my favorite thing to write about in the blog. I took the last two weekends easy in anticipation of what was ahead. This weekend I am going to Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in proper style. Then the weekend after is the start of my Easter break and I will be going to mainland Europe with my roommate Brian for two weeks. Nonetheless, I bring you this blog about random topics that I decided to make epic. 

My last blog promised that I would explain the concept of "going out" so here it is! "Going out" is a massive part of university culture. The night out starts with a house party for a few hours before hitting a few bars on your way to a club. Some details that make going out a little more interesting... Students go out on school nights, not on weekends. I guess weekends are too overrun by older people. It isn't uncommon to go out twice or more in the same school week. You might start the house party around 10, get to the bars around 11:30, then be in the club at midnight. From there, the night might take you to 3am or later. Then class in the morning! I still don't understand where the students get their money to pay for their crazy nights. I've heard stories of people paying well over 50 pounds in one night (close to 80 dollars). Also, students utilize the campus bar for a good time which I still can't get over the fact that there's a bar on campus. There's a company that the University uses to organize parties for the university. Clubs and organizations for the most part will go out on Wednesdays after their sporting event. Going out is too boring as it is so themes are a must. Pirates, gangsters, mimes, army men, cavemen, etc. whatever you fancy.  I should throw in this final comment - I haven't embraced this side of British culture and I'm not a raging alcoholic. 

Many of you may know my extensive knowledge of fashion, from sweatpants to sports t-shirts to the all important pair of tennis shoes, so I thought I would share my thoughts on English fashion. I can describe their fashion in three words: tight, dark, and always. The first two words are easily put. At least from the first months I've been here, I've observed much more fit clothing. Skinny jeans are more common and jackets or shirts are tight to your body. The clothing is predominately dark in color and I seldom will see bright colors or even simple white shirts. The last word I chose was "always" because they ALWAYS where clothes like this. Even if you are just going to be around the house for the day or maybe go out for an hour, they still get their fashion on. I have never seen a student wear sweatpants to class. To American students, that goes against everything we stand for. 

Basketball is slowing up. We lost a cup game last week so we're out of the tournament. The loss came from the hands of Lancaster Uni by one point which was disappointing, but a massive improvement from the 40 point loss we had received from them the week earlier. We have two games left in the season before it's finished. The team has been a lot of fun and great way to hang out with some British guys and I've really enjoyed joining. Another big benefit has been that it's kicked me back into shape. I needed something to chisel muscles back into my body.

The last random topic is the epic campus of Chester University. In terms of size, there is over 16,000 students, making it bigger than Wichita State University. Chester University is broken up into four campuses and even though I'm on the main campus, it feels like less than half of the size of WSU. I love the campus for that reason, it's small and personable but still has all of the amenities of a large University. The library is my favorite building on campus which causes me to squirm admitting. In all seriousness, the library is easily the best place to study and you have to check out all of your books since they don't just use one textbook. This last week I started taking advantage of their CD section. I've added seven albums to my iTunes already. 

I don't have many pictures to represent the topics above so I'll follow the random theme and post some random pictures.

Walking along the Chester canal

Graffiti - Notice the spelling of "mom"

Riverside Chester on a Saturday

Looking forward to Dublin this weekend and Easter break!