It's been kind of a slow start to the week, just going to class, and coming home. Yesterday I watched a few episodes of Friends in preparation for LONDON, which I then booked my flights for. Me and Claire are leaving Saturday the 13th and coming back Tuesday the 16th, which means I have to miss three classes. My rationale is that I will forever remember London, and seldom remember class. Stevie is going earlier and meeting up with friends but she changed her return flight so she's going to stay and come back with us. We are planning to do a whirl wind tour of London...see everything. London Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harrod's. So far we are looking into a boat tour down the Thames with hop on and hop off access so we can see the most things and enjoy a nice scenic boat ride. We also might go see a show. I really want to see Wicked and it's playing in London for as cheap as 15 pounds. Granted the dollar to pound ratio is even worse than the dollar to euro ratio (around 1.60 dollars per pound), but still it's relatively inexpensive compared to what I'd probably pay in the US to go see it. Plus it's LONDON BABY.
So I'm very excited to plan our weekend.
Tonight, after another long day of classes and nighttime Irish history. And a lovely dinner of chicken, vegetables, and milk, we decided to hit up the student bar. It's right next to the Quinn School of Business and the outside reminds me of "the Shack" that used to be in Mundelein. We decided to check it out and see what it was all about. Claire and I met up with Stevie and her roommate AnnMarie. Ann Marie is from Kilkenny, Ireland and is probably one of the few Irish people I've really befriended. Which would seem to be strange but I live with Americans and the French, I hang out with a Australian and a Canadian and we always seem to be in the presence of people from Boston. She was a sweetheart and I enjoyed talking to her.
Now, the campus bar. It reminded me of a bowling alley. Pool tables, funny patterned felt couches. The lights were bright and Superbad was playing on tvs around the room. We got some drinks...and although FOSTER's is supposedly UCD's finest beer...I tried an AlcohoPop. It was called Wicked and it was some type of blue, I'm guessing vodka. It tasted like a snowcone, so needless to say I could've drank a few. However, at 5 euro a pop, that's an expensive habit. No thank you. I convinced Claire to have one with me, and we enjoyed our liquid snow cones while the Beatles Cover Band began to play.
When I say Beatles Cover Band, I mean legit bowl hair cuts and ridiculous outfits. They were actually good. ClassicBeatles.com for all your Beatles needs. Only problem was that they kept pretending it was actually 1967 and that they were Lennon and McCartney. It got a little strange at some points.
The lights were very bright and gave way to some quality people watching. There were people from all backgrounds and interesting. Now I'm not judging any books by their covers, I've learned my lesson on that one, but rather just reporting what I saw so people can have a better understanding. Now we have men from all fashion backgrounds. We got sporty spice with the sweatpants and/or rugby jersey. Then we got the prepsters, button downs and horizontal striped polos. Then there was the occasional turtleneck, rocked by a guy I'm assuming was at least 28 or the very metro purple/pink v-neck. Then we have the ladies. Ranging from overdressed to underdressed. There was one girl who looked like she stole her looks/outfit from Madonna-- teased hair and sparkly sequence zip up with big gold bangles. Then there was an older guy, who looked like he could've been a teacher. Maybe he was.
Outside the outfit choices, the dim lights that bars usually provide helps to disguise the actions of all those who may or may not have had a few too many pints. Well at the Student Bar, the lights are at full blast and people are on display. We had a guy who sang along to every song...very enthusiastically. Now, I'm a big fan of singing along...but it was very apparent this guy only knew every third word. Then we had two guys who were very into the music and each other. Now I'm talking more BROmance than romance relationship, but they did share a sweet embrace before rocking out on air guitars.
All in all it was a nice chill evening. Claire and I even got up and danced along to the Twist. The guys in the "front row" were rocking suits...and one had on sparkly looking Air Jordan type sneakers.
The bar closed at midnight so it was back home. Luckily for us, its about a 4 minute walk. I was definitely craving pizza after seeing someone eat it at the bar, but I had to settle for granola with freeze dried strawberries. Definitely not the same thing.
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