Farewell Dinner II and Elections

Tuesday was an uneventful day that involved going to EU and the Business Environment class and reading the new book I got at the Dun Laoghaire farmers' market. The Study Abroad Program sponsored a farewell dinner that night and I am always down for free food. The sweeten the deal they even added a free gift, which turned out to be a UCD t-shirt.

The dinner they served was a nice buffet and really good cheesecake. They also served all-you-can-drink wine, something that still shocks be because that does not happen at University of Illinois. We also had entertainment after dinner which included the Irish House Party performing again. We even had some performers from our program go up and sing! We also did a dance where we got to meet different people but it made people who were partaking in the all-you-can-drink wine a little dizzy.

After the farewell dinner I just headed back to my dorm. It was the night of elections back in the realm of the Upsilon Chapter down in Champaign so I wanted to chat with Gia a little bit beforehand. We were running for Vice President Professional together and I wanted to make sure everything was ready for the big presentation. It is so hard being away from campus during these things because I want to be there to help Gia make the presentation, give my pros for people running for positions, and be able to vote.

But to make up for my lack of physical presence I woke up at 4 am to attempt to be part of the process. It was really nice having many of the Dsigs on Gchat (everyone's preferred form of communication) so that I could chat with them and watching the sunrise out my window. The downside is that right now I am extremely tired; the position Gia and I were running for didn't come up until about 7 am. At 5:30 I went into my kitchen to discover the fuse was tripped and the fridges were not on. I reset the fuse and was a hero.

At 7 Gia gave the powerpoint and speech and at the end there was a little video of me (16 seconds to be exact). Lindsay came on Gchat and said that I looked beautiful during it which boosted my spirits a little. I was also chatting with Olivia but after my speech they weren't chatting with me (because they were talking about the candidates) and it took a suspiciously long time. At one point I was convinced that I had lost and no one had the heart to tell me so they were just giving me the cold shoulder.

At about 7:45 Olivia came back on and told me that we won! What a pleasant surprise! Laura told me to wake her up when I heard so I flung open her door at 7:50 am to tell her the good news and she was happy to. Laura knows quite a bit about what happens in the frat and was glad to hear that Danny and Tiffany won as well and wanted me to send along her congratulations.

Gia and I have a lot of work ahead of us but it is so exciting. I was so happy and, although I tried to sleep a little before my 9 am class I couldn't sleep.

Tonight Britt and I went out to celebrate. We searched for traditional Irish music and ended up a VAT House for a little while, then O'Gogarty's. At O'Gogarty's they played "Take Me Home Country Roads," which seems to be a favorite of the Emerald Isle. We also think we may have stumbled upon a pub crawl because they fed us free chicken fingers. We took advantage of this and had about 5 each, which somewhat set off the price of our very expensive drinks.

Laura got me flowers with a lovely note:

"Congratulations on being elected Professional! You deserve it!"

I love her.

More Irish House Party Videos

Last night I was peacefully slumbering, dreaming of Project Runway (I just finished re-watching Season 3), when I was waken. I honestly thought it was Tim Gunn waking me up to do a challenge but in this case dreams don't come true, it was just my roomie Kat who had locked herself out of her room. Apparently she had woken up Laura before me but Laura didn't understand, got creeped out, and shut the door on Kat. I was the hero and Kat used my phone to call someone to let her in.

I'm feeling a little under the weather so I took it easy today, just doing my laundry and some reading. I'm leaving for Spring Break on Saturday so I want to be in tip top shape. I will be sure to let you know all the details sometime this week and then after I get back there will be blog posts and pictures galore.

And as a special treat, here are some more videos that I took at the Irish House Party on Thursday, February 11. I can't get enough Trad music!


I am amazed at how fast his fingers move.

,

Music and Dancing

I took a small break from the blog Wednesday because nothing too noteworthy happened. Here is Wednesday in two bullet points:

-In Irish History we learned about Robert Emmet, Irish patriot. I don’t know if I was just in a romantic mood or it was the soft spot in my heart for revolutionaries (except those pesky Russian ones) but I actually paid attention and found it interesting. He basically led what was supposed to be an uprising, but things didn’t work out well and he had to flee Dublin. He came back about a month later so he could be by his love, Sarah Curran, which a mistake because they found him and hanged him. He did give one of those very moving speeches during his trial that sealed his future as Irish hero. I tell you, you can’t beat a moving speech about the freedom of your country; gets me every time.

-I went to a “Valentines Ball” with Brittany and Laura at Sin Nightclub (real classy) that was sponsored by the International Student Society. It was ok. We got our dance on and it was fun.

Thursday was a great day! I woke up and it was beautiful outside; not a cloud in the sky. Like last Thursday I decided to venture into the city centre without much of a plan. I walked through St. Stephens green in the Dublin sunlight then wandered around Grafton Street. There were some human statues there, as well as a string quintet that was playing beautiful music. I got some groceries and then headed back to campus.

The groceries don’t give you bags with you purchases so I bring bags with me but I didn’t have enough room for my cornflakes so I had to carry the box. It sure makes you feel like a local when you are walking down Grafton Street with tourists rolling suitcases and you are carrying a box of cornflakes.

After a nap I headed to the Irish House Party hosted by the Study Abroad office at a hotel downtown. It consisted of a band of Irish musicians talking a little about Irish music and dance and performing for us. I had a great time. Here are some videos from the night.

We hung around with some friends from Boston University during the house party and went to The Wicked Wolf afterwards for karaoke night. Brittany and I, along with Bridget and Amy from BU, sang “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” which I like to think was a big hit. The songs from karaoke, like "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" or "Total Eclipse of the Heart" have become a soundtrack for our study abroad oddessey.

The best part of the night was when Stacy told Brittany and me that Bridget had told her that she and Lauren were Deltasigs at BU. So I went up to Lauren, who had no idea that I knew or that I was one, and said the secret phrase. Her face went puzzled and then she realized what was going on and said the other half back to me. We then both screamed “Brother!” and hugged. I am not making this up. It was exactly like the skits we see at initiation but instead of meeting a brother at an interview I met one at a karaoke bar in Dublin. I will never forget that.

After karaoke we went to Supermacs, which is like an Irish McDonald’s, and got some grub before heading back to UCD. Good night.