I have two besties in this here city. I met them at a pub on my first night in town, and that probs has a lot to do with it. They are amazing girls and we hang out so much I feel like I've known them forever.
1. Laramie: from here on out will be referred to as Larri cuz I think it's funny, from Wisconsin (cheese head), and 21 years old with the booty of a hip 17 year old. She also looks like a tall, white version of Lucy Liu which brings me back to China days and their goodness, so that works out well for me. But she has better teeth than most Asians.
2. Erica: "I'm from Alabama but I go to school in New York." I cannot tell you how often we have to say this line. She flips her hair a lot and has the game of a super woman. She likes beer, wine, champagne, whiskey, vodka, tequila, and long walks on the beach. She works at a non profit and talks to hobos with diseases of all kinds. She learns a good assortment of new lingo from the local street crowd.
Together, we are amazing. These girls have really made this place my home.
We go out to the pubs almost every night. It's a social thing here. Just for an after work beer. Not to get hammered. I drink Guiness every night. And I love it. They put black currant juice in their Guiness sometimes and it gets so freaking sweet. I don't like it. But it's a very common drink for girls.
STORY TIME:
So on the Friday before the event started, I was working as hard and fast as I could trying to finish up some slides that needed to be done to print for the conference and ended up working a 12 hour day!!! Ugh. Rough, but still intriguing. I haven't had a dull day or a day when I didn't learn anything, yet. So I was super tired and walked the 10 minutes from my office to the Luas stop to catch my train home, and it was a classic rainy and windy as SHIT day.
The night before, me and Larri had gone to the pub Mother Reilly's where we spent everything we had and... Well, it was a good time. You know, falling in love with bartenders and dancing like hobos. So when we leave this group of people walks past us leaving too and one of them says something about fried chicken! Me and Larri just stared at each other for a good five seconds with that devilish look in our eyes like, "oh. em. gee. fried chipppens. must. have." So we followed them across the street. The guy working was like, "No no we don't have much left. Just this and this and this." And 2 of the things he pointed at were burgers. And that was just not what our tired, chippen-desiring hearts wanted. So we emptied our pockets and we each had 2 euro which we were strategically saving for our bus/train rides to work the next morning. We went for it. The only chicken meal he had left was 8 nuggets, fries and a soda. And it cost 12 euro. What was left to do but bring my bargaining skills to the table? "8 chickens for 4 euro." "Um... no." "6 chickens for 4 euro!" "No." "4 chickens for 4 euro???" *sad face sad face* Larri is about to cry at this point. Haha. Actually she had one too many Carlsburg and was laughing hysterically through all of this. Doubled up, in fact. In the corner. So the chicken guy went for it. Once we had bargained our bus money for chickens, placed our order, and got Larri to take a breath, we looked around and realized that there were so many WAYYYY better deals for chickens. What an evil chicken man. My bargaining skills are lacking. One more reason I need to pay a visit back to my homeland of China. I wish I had a picture of our sad faces when we each had a nugget in one hand and were nibbling on each equally to make them last. Then we ask for sauce and he's like, "Sure. 1 euro 50 please." HAHAHA. We couldn't even afford sauce for our nuggets! Awesomely disappointing day.
And then it gets better.....
That next morning I was rushing to work and didn't have time to go to an ATM and then buy something so I could have change to pay for the train so I just hopped on... Felt bad the whole time because I felt like I was stealing from Ireland, and we all know they need all the monies they can get.... :/ So I get to work, have that long ass day that I was talking about earlier (the 12 hour-er with the wind and the rain and the super tired Karen). So I rush to the train because all I want to do is go to bed. But I had made plans with my work people to go to the horse races with them. So i was gonna run home and change and go back. I get on the Luas without a ticket again, and sure enough, the ticket man comes around to check tickets!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? So I get a ticket for not having a ticket (awkward sentence right? try explaining it to your French roommate who speaks minimal English). It cost me 45 freaking euro. Needless to say, I was not about to hop back on the train to go to the horse races, especially in that weather. So I met Larri for a good ole fashioned pub night. :) After a much needed trip to the ATM.
All in all, those chickens cost us 49 euro and an embarrassing escort off the train. Son of a gun. Or bloody wagons as the Irish would say.
I got called a funny fish today... then she laughed and said, "Oh, our Irish expressions. I honestly never thought about what I'm saying until I met you and have to translate for you. I don't even know where to begin with the funny fish one. Sorry." And White-Out is called Tip-Ex here. Don't let them Irish folk hear you call it White-Out unless you're ready for a good laugh session.
Alright, ta ta folks. Bed time.
xoxo karen
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