Home again

No internet for almost 12 days now. Rawr. I’m sitting in the car scamming internet from places in town, possibly from the church that is in front of me as this would not post properly last night:

Arrived back in Ireland late Saturday night and am here for a nice 11 days, now 9 until the next trip. Three of us are going to Amsterdam at the end of the month.

There is no point in posting about France until I have a decent connection to upload pictures. Besides, I hear some of you, not naming any names, can only read 75% of my posts because there is no mention of you so hiiiiiiii youuuu!! ;)

I came home to a present from my cousins. They set out to find the ugliest shirt they could for me. I will now wear it in their company as much as possible. Say hello to my new "going out" shirt, fellas! I mean, bonjour! It's a French panda with a beret and bow tie. They're really not helping my aunt's quest to get me to wear anything that isn't from a twelve year old boys wardrobe.

Sunday I went to a hurling match with my two cousins I hadn't met up with yet and their dad, my mom's cousin so my cousin once removed, I think? Hanging out with him might have been the highlight. "Happiest man in Ireland." We all went to a pub to celebrate the senior division county win. There were kids running all over the pub there, literally crawling through the crowd at your feet. I remember doing the very same thing when we were little and then all packing into the car for the drive home.

Hurling is a fun game to watch; fast paced, high scoring

He had packed me a dinner (and dessert AND tea) to have in the car on the way to the match. It was delicious. His first roast ever, which I learned later and felt bad for not eating. The hospitality of these people is outrageous tho (my cousin just walked past me with a hot water bottle for my bed and my other cousin let her know she put on my electric blanket already. ridiculous)

After a while at that pub my two cousins went back to Dublin and he and I went to meet up with the junior hurling team who also won the county final. He stopped the car while we were talking about relationships and growing up and pointed to my chest and asked "is dere no heart in dere?" Ouch! But no, probably not. He was talking about my cousin and himself mostly and it was all so touching. Driving down those roads in the dark feels like you’re in a video game. He also kept asking me for directions.

He stayed at the pub for a bit before heading home, first pulling me aside a few times to make sure I was really sure to be okay to stay as me and a bartender were the only girls in the place. He's such a sweetheart. He tried to leave, but got pulled into singing a few songs before eventually sneaking out the back.

It was a good night to be out as everyone was psyched up from the win. There was another trophy cup, again filled with merriment. After a good while and many victory songs we tried to pile into a cab to get to a dancy dance club club. Taxi's here are just one a man business. We called their man and he came with a van that we tried to sneak all of us into, but eventually he found the people stowed away in the boot. We got a ride from another player I think. After cutting up a shit ton of rugs on the dance floor and drinking some electric blue drink that tasted like what I imagine glowsticks taste like we went back to the first pub. We were with the owner of the pub, but he hadn't his keys so a couple boys had to "break" in.

It was a verrrrry long day then bleeding into the wee morning hours. About ten of us sat around the far corner of the bar and settled in not even turning the lights on. There were a couple hours of singing and self serving behind the bar. We must have left around 4 or 5, a couple of guys dotted around the bar sleeping in the booths; like a buncha tuckered out adorables. They must have been wrecked. All I did was watch a game and I was exhausted.

Time and internet and emails and more to come hopefully sooooooon, but I miss you!

There was no internet in the France apartment and I still have to go to McDonald's here. I went before the match on Sunday to submit some work and there were two, seven year olds on rollerblades pouring milk and sugar into their coffees. Coffees. Seven year olds. Rollerblades. One said to the other while mixing his joe: "Oh, lad, this is going to be GORGEOUS!" I could not help but laugh out loud at the sight of it. It was funny/terrifying.

Oo found this picture was on my camera from last night. Apparently it’s the guy who founded Guinness? Slainte, sir!