Dinner at the Arlington & Lord of the Dance

This week marks the last week of classes at UCD. Then we have a week for studying (which is supposed to be a trip to Italy for me... God, Mother Nature, & Iceland Volcano willing). So this week is full of Farewell Dinners given by UCD and the Quinn School of Business. When you are paying thousands of euros in tuition, they are happy to give you a few free dinners.

The first dinner was given by the Quinn School of Business and took place at the Arlington Hotel on Dames Street, across from the Dublin Castle. The festivities started at about 7:30 and we arrived a little before then. We met up with some of the other American students and took our seats, as the first to arrive. Turns out that one of our new friends is from Wisconsin and goes to the University of Minnesota. Midwest representation. Its funny how interacting with people from all around the country, you find the subtle differences in personality.

We were served a 3 course meal, as well as a beverage of our choice (wine, beer, jameson, coke) and the waitress made sure we were aware that it was free and thus couldn't understand why Claire wanted just coke. Irish mentality. I ended up getting a salad, Guinness & beef stew, and a chocolate mousse for dessert. And a Bulmer's. We cheers-ed and continued our conversation about Jimmy Johns and assorted sandwiches. There was a video montage on of Dublin and it made me realize how much I'm going to miss this place. The live band started playing as we ate our meal, taking requests for our favorite Irish songs. The lead singer had a good voice, but he tended to mumble, which probably was exaggerated the more guinnesses he had. The dinner was very good, and very filling. Such a relaxing atmosphere, eating my stew, singing and clapping along to my favorites like Galway Girl, Tell Me Ma, and Wild Rover.

The musicians were replaced by dancers and they did some traditional river dances. Somewhat like Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance. I obviously could only think about how "its as if his legs move independently from his body". We had a good laugh at that, and how it reminded me a little bit of Stomp The Yard: Irish style. Our dessert was brought to us. The waitress told us that Aoife had decided to let us all get a second drink... so I got a Bailey's. Mom, you would've been proud. We enjoyed our drinks, and dessert and then it was time to go.

We went to Porterhouse for a bit in search of the rest of the crew, but ended up taking the last bus home. Sleepy and chilled from the cool Dublin evening.