Meet the Reishes

Mr. and Mrs. Reish were visiting Ireland with a tour and stayed on to see Dublin. They took me out for a top notch dinner, and gave me nail polish remover to help, um, take off the rest of my Halloween costume.

Halloween

Eimear again showed off her party hosting abilities on Halloween. I'd made a promise to her, under some duress I might add, to let her dress me as a girl for the night. Not being one to shirk attention, I was Patricia for the night. I had to buy shoes, and the girls picked out a belt and wig. All in all, the costume cost me 10.50, which was 50 cents over budget, but the bright pink 50 cent shoes were worth it.

I left her party for a bit to see other friends, and by the time I got back RA's (they have them over here too, imagine that!) had asked us to leave. We wandered and some kids left for town. Others (ahem) drank in the bushes.

Eimear's 21st

Eimear (pronounced E-mur) is a nice girl in our class who has the unfortunate nickname of Titmuss. She invited the whole class to her 21st. We sure had fun, and I think she did too. See her make a speech in the Vaults, a rentable space in a popular bar where most of the night was held. The rest of the bar was decked out for Q&A night. As in Queer and Alternative. As in thongs. On men. Her grandmother came too, but didn't stay to see me whip my shirt of, which is kinda becoming cliche. The bar gave us mints, balloons, and sandwiches. Bad call on their part.

I seem to be developing some sort of beard.

Again, lets start with something artistic.

Oktoberfest

The German Society (in association with the Film Society!) was hosting an Oktoberfest day on UCD's campus last Wednesday. During our lunch break we saw them in the student bar, and vowed to join them afterwards, when they'd be in our preferred location, the Centre Club. We'll Oktoberfest never made it to the Centre, but we drank anyways. This was the first time I got photos of my class as a group. Good bunch of chaps.

We decided on our movies that we'll be making the Friday before. The one I'm working on goes like this: Man working in finance, hates his job, not getting anywhere. Thinks about embezzlement, but hears that "you're more likely to be caught for embezzlement than for murder." He however decides to test this premise by killing people. Random at first, and it brings color into his drab life. When the office girl doesn't notice this, he kills her. Sure that he'll be caught this time he frets at his desk. In storm police and drag him away. For embezzlement. Hah! Some of the ideas were retched, and I tried to politely point that out to people. I actually pitched a version story I'd read on Yumi's blog years ago, see here, which while it wasn't original (what actually is), did have a plot arch, dialogue, conflict, and resolution, which is more than I can say for many others which "preferred not to give too much information away".

First, a photo of the nice fall colored vines I walk by every morning. They're a constant reminder of how soon Winter comes here.

Jero's Party

Jero had a party at his flat by O'Connoll Street. Very international crowd, which I have to get use to being one of. Talked to lovely girl from Italy, and others from Portugal and Spain. I brought Southern Comfort, being the cheapest American whiskey thing, to represent the States. These Germans sure know how to drink though. At 3 am they dragged me out to a nightclub that was minutes from closing just so we could get kicked out. I will need to host something in my humble abode soon.

Glasnevin

Spurred on this pilgrimage by they guy working the Sinn Fein store on Parnell Street last June, I trekked up to Glasnevin Cemetery just north of the city. It's sort of a national cemetery, and I saw the graves of Parnell, O'Donnovan Rossa, and Eamon de Valera. Did not find Michael Collins, though I heard he was around.

Bray

First a photo from last weekend, when I first ventured into Dublin in order to see some of the nightlife, and to see Amanda, a Texan who I met at the well catered international banquet. We spoke about going to see this town of Bray, on the coast. After the internationals coffee break a week later we did that.

Amanda, Agata, Mattis, and I got a bus and found the beach. There we saw the hill. On top of this hill was a huge cross. Me being me, I needed to get there. It was daunting at first, and my shortcuts where less than short, and toward the end the girls didn't want to get to the top, but despite that all four of us made it the cross. There I, like the guy nailed to the cross, whipped out of my pack an offering of flesh and blood. White wine from California and white bread with jam. The wind made it tough, and the rain was nasty, but it made a nice rainbow. Saw no leprechaun gold.