Giovanni and the Ladies: Dublin

Here I am at an Internet Cafe writing next to two gentleman who are um...shady, and an Irish lassie outside on the street just flipped off someone who cut her off and told him off using very unladylike terminology.

LOVE DUBLIN!

Okay, I don't know where to begin, but if I don't write it down now, I'll forget all of it, so for those of you- and you know who you are- who told me to take fifteen days off from blogging...be satisfied that I lasted this long. *smile*

I sat between two of my six students Giovanni and Susanna on the planeride over to Dublin. It was Susanna's first flight ever (nice of her mom to allow her to share that special moment with me, right?)and at one point she began seriously shaking so I held her hand and tried to calm her down (she was so panicking that I almost had a panic attack there with her). Giovanni, tdc that he was, began talking about plane crashes. I hit him. He shut up.

Well, we made it to Dublin in one piece and the cute little taxi driver was there waiting for us, loaded our bags and we were on our way. As he zipped us around Dublin, he gave me an education, taught me some Gaelic (Irish) "Ceol" somethin' "Crack" which means Music and Fun, but in American English sounds like "Crack is cool" and asked me if I was free later that evening. I said no...thank you. He dropped us at Trinity Hall and went upon his leprechaun way.

1. After twenty hours of Dublin weather, I gave up, threw the straightening iron out the window and threw my hair in a ponytail. Dublin = Permanent Bad Hairday.

2. Giovanni is hunting for girls, and my girls are hunting for boys...they are not concentrating on their studies. Obviously, I am assisting them in their endeavors.

3. I took my group to their first Irish Pub, which was empty, sat them down and made them order Cokes as I ordered my first pint of Guinness. Then, I went to the bathroom. When I came back, my Guiness was gone. lol.
4. Thursday night I went out with the Group Leaders to the Center of Dublin, had my first Fat Frog, danced and was in bed by 4 am...I'm still recuperating.

5. I played Giovanni in ping pong and told him if he lost I would get to give him a makeover with very colorful eyeliner and lipstick. Obviously, I crushed him, (my cousins and I used to play ping pong every single family holiday) but I let him go about the makeover...for now.

6. Dormitory food is universally horrendous. We order pizza at midnight...between that, the Guinness, and the rain, I'll be returning a whale.

7. Visited the Hugh Lane Museum and got emotional looking at some of the paintings.

8. Visited the National Museum yesterday and saw this:(Jung) (Bello)
9. Barry, one of the University guides told me he went streaking across the golf course last night at 5 am...(Damn good thing I took the night off last night!)
10. Tried to access my blog from a computer at a pub a couple of nights ago and the computer denied me access...apparently, my blog is not for children.


*WTF?*

As an interesting aside, Leeanne from Hands and Voices sent me an email a month ago about a hard of hearing college student living in Dublin who was interested in moving to Italy to start up a Hands and Voices Chapter. Does anyone else find it strange that I just happened to be going to Dublin a month later? Well, we met yesterday at a cafe in Temple Bar and spoke for a couple of hours. She is an amazing person, who goes to RIT and is ready to take on the world. My kind of girl. Ironically, she has a deaf friend who is working for the Peace Corp in Africa...Zambia, I believe. *smile*