It's Been Awhile

Sorry for the lengthy delay since my last post. I haven't been up to a whole lot, but this will probably be a pretty long post due to the fact that it will be covering over a week's work of events. I apologize in advance for not having any cool pictures. There aren't any mostly due to the fact that I didn't have much to take pictures of and that I forgot my camera on multiple occasions. I am going to split up the highlights of the past several days into these categories: food, sports, entertainment, and well sports again but as a fan not a participant.

As a result of a very overcrowded fridge Mike and I have been eating out for pretty much every meal. We have a fridge that is most likely smaller than anyone's fridge who is reading this blog, and consider the fact that there are 8 people sharing it. It's brutal! Anyway, we have made stops at Burger King and McDonald's, both are very similar to the American versions, but there are a couple differences. They use 100% Irish beef on their burgers and there are a few slightly different menu variations that are really that special. We had dinner at Tony's Bistro one of the nights and both had Tony's famous grill. It was a breakfast entree that consisted of bacon, sausage, one egg, hash brown, mushrooms, beans, onion rings, and then fries on the side. I didn't have my camera, but Mike took a picture and I'll post that later. Apparently it was very similar to a traditional Irish breakfast. It was pretty good, but the beans didn't really mix well with everything else for me. Another noteworthy stop was the Zanzibar Bistro. It had a mixtures of food ranging from pizza to fajitas to burgers. Mike had the chicken fajitas and I had the Godfather pizza which had pepperoni and bacon on it. There were some girls having a birthday dinner there and Mike and I were the only other people in the restaurant. It was kind of awkward because we felt like we were in the way of their birthday celebration. The last restaurant that I will mention is Gino's. It was a pizza place, but not at all similar to Gino's East of Chicago. The pizza was still good though and it came with some Italian ice cream which was very creamy.

We played basketball on Thursday at the Mardyke Arena in the gym. Mike and I just shot around for awhile, but eventually some Irish kids showed up and asked if we wanted to play with them. We agreed and played a five on five game. The guys that we played with were pretty awful at basketball. It was the sloppiest game I have ever been a part of. They really liked throwing full court passes. Mike and I had to split up and play on different teams because they thought we were too good. Mike pretty much carried his team, but he had a couple ball hogs on his team so he could have scored even more points if they passed. I had a lot of chances to score, but I missed a bunch of shots right by the hoop. On multiple occasions I would get a rebound and then fail to put it back in the hoop. I did make a couple though and even drained a three. It was a lot of fun and hopefully we will make it over there and play some bball again.

This week we are planning on going to some practices for the American Football Club. We aren't really sure if they play real games or just scrimmage yet, but they are looking for more players and we are going to give it a shot. They play flag football and they have practice times twice a week. So we are going to go and check that out on Monday and Friday this week. I will let you know how that goes later.

On Friday night Mike and I went to the movie theater and saw the movie Frost/Nixon. The theater was packed and we were a little worried at first, but our theater wasn't crowded at all. I think that they were all going to Slumdog Millionaire. Everything was pretty similar to a movie theater in the United States, but it was a pretty small screen. The movie Frost/Nixon was a great movie. I personally was not very familiar with the whole ordeal, but the acting and directing were great. The movie has parts where it shows the characters in the future documentary style explaining how they felt about things during the Frost/Nixon interviews. It was really cool.

On Saturday night we went to the one and only, An Brog. This time something really cool happened. When we walked to the door the people we came with had their id's checked and then the bouncer got to me and Mike and said, "Oh, I remember you guys, go on in." It was pretty sweet to be able to just walk in. The thing I enjoy most about the Brog is the music that the DJ's play. Tonight he was on fire again. This probably means nothing to most of you, but he played songs by A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, The Prodigy, and M.I.A. The best moment of the night though was when he played "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. I don't know how familiar all of you are with the song, but those who have played Rock Band might know it. We were just rocking out to it and it was pretty exciting.

I know you are all probably wondering, How does he keep up with all of his sports without a TV? Well let me tell you, the internet is a beautiful thing. ESPN.com has become my new best friend as well as the slingbox when it works. When the slingbox works I can watch the TV programs from my house on my computer. I spend most of my free time looking at sports things and I have been following the T-Wolves, the Gophers, the Cyclones, and thanks to Amber who is studying in South Carolina this semester, the Gamecocks too. I actually think that I have a better grasp of my sports knowledge without a TV. I don't have to listen to all of the typical arguing that happens on ESPN and I just read all of the good articles on the website. The Timberwolves have been hot lately, and the Gophers are having a really special season. For the T-Wolves they definitely needed to get on this hot streak a little earlier in the season to make a run at the playoffs, but the Gophers are looking like an NCAA tournament team this year. Hopefully I will be able to find somewhere to watch the Super Bowl tonight. It'll be on a bit later here, but I think it's alright to sacrifice sleep for the big game. Mike and I plan to venture away from Cork soon to some other areas of Ireland so hopefully I will get some cool pictures up soon.