Houseguests

Wednesday, September 10, 2009

Today I woke up and started cleaning. I swept my whole room, which required some moving of furniture, but the beds are on wheels, so that made it pretty easy. Becky came over around lunch time and we all went to the crepe place, Zatsuma. I had a strawberry chocolate crepe for lunch. It was on special, so I couldn’t help myself. In the afternoon, Zach and I traipsed over to the movie theater to see Dorian Grey that came out today – an Irish film made about the book, The Portrait of Dorian Grey, by Oscar Wilde. I’ve read the classic and found it mesmerizing. The movie did the book justice, but it was slightly scary at times. I’d seen picture advertisements on buses everywhere and got excited about its debut. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’d just assumed it was about the book. We actually arrived at the theater an hour early (since we had no internet or newspaper to see the showings). To pass the time we browsed the movie rental store and Aldi foods. Things are somewhat cheaper out there, so it’s likely worth the extra 5 minutes walk for groceries as long as it isn’t raining.

After the movie, Kathleen and Erin came over. They have been in Galway for a few days now and decided to pay us a visit. It seems that we have had a constant stream of friends stopping by from Marcus to Becky to these two. Zach and I have now been in Galway for a week. Tonight was the first night I decided to venture out past eleven. We met the two girls at a club called Coyote. It was an “American style bar” with everything “American” inside that you could think of. I’ve never seen so many American flags in one place. We stayed and talked for a little bit. The two girls had gone out with some people they’d met in their hostel. We left the Americana scene behind and wandered down to the King’s Head pub. This place was more like the Irish outing you think of. It was cozy, yet large with the wooden furniture and an Irish band playing some folk music. Funny thing about Ireland is that no one can serve alcohol after midnight unless you have a special license (which few pubs do, only a few clubs). Everything closes at midnight here. I finally found out why it was hard to go to sleep at the earlier hours I was attempting. The Irish youth start heavy drinking early and are drunk (as I saw tonight) by about eleven. So, when I was trying to sleep they were all out and about winding down their nights. In America most stuff is open till at least 2am, so I couldn’t understand why it was so loud at midnight here. I think that since this is a college town it is a lot worse in that respect than most parts of Ireland (with the exception of Dublin).

Tomorrow the two girls are bringing their luggage over to store it till they figure out what to do. They might actually be staying with us for a week or so (and splitting up rent!!!!) till they get sorted out. There is an extra bed, but not two extra beds. There is space for an air mattress, but it is I who will suffer from the addition of female housemates, not Zach. He gets to keep all his space. Oh well, I’ll pay less rent I guess.