Some fun, some brooding

The things accessible on Google images...

Thursday night I was invited to an Irish student’s birthday party. It was really nice to finally meet some Irish people in Ireland.

It all started in the school cafeteria. Usually I starve until I get home, as I really can’t afford to eat there, but hunger had beat me into submission that afternoon.

I got my overpriced Mediterranean vegetable stew and started searching for a seat. The place was packed. I immediately regretted my decision. I craned my neck in despair, finding no empty table.

There were seats for sure, but I wanted nothing better than to find an empty corner to hunch over my tray in isolation. Anything would be better than gathering the courage to sit with strangers. It was like middle school as I looked for people who looked approachable.

West coast boy moves to the sunshine state and attends the most cliquey middle school during the most awkward time in a growing boy’s life. I was not welcoming the parallels as they seeped into my consciousness.

Luckily, a student called me over to sit with her group.

“You don’t recognize us do you?”

I was slightly embarrassed. Even if I am terrible with names, I am usually good with faces.

It turns out, they are from my picturing reality: studies in documentary class. I wrote out the entire name of the class just to show how hillariously pretentious it sounds.

They were really nice and there were enough slightly nonuniform piercings to make me feel almost at home: septum, gauged, lip.

The birthday party was in Blackrock, a slightly affluent suburb town south of Dublin.  We ended up going back to Dublin city for the clubs fairly soon after arriving. My pockets were much lighter by the end of the night, but I had a blast.

Needless to say, I spent Friday lazing about. I emailed someone about getting into the magazine class and it worked out. Everything fell into place and my classes fit together like pieces in a magical schedule puzzle.

Today I hammered out about three pages of a paper due Monday or Tuesday.

I’ve been eating a lot of ramen lately. I mix in frozen vegetables and crab sticks that my Polish roommate left when he moved.

I forgot to mention I had a pint with my professor at his favorite pub hangout with the other Americans on Tuesday. It was lovely. He is very intelligent and most importantly, liberal and quirky.

Summary: Despite social anxiety a kind soul offered for me to sit with her group of friends during lunch. They invited me to go to a birthday party that night. I invited another American friend and we had loads of “craic.” The next day I lazed and did nothing. Today I did mostly nothing, but worked on my paper. Somewhere in there I perfected my school schedule.

~ by shawp on November 8, 2009.