Wednesday, March 10, 2010

If I Ever Leave this World Alive

This past week in a nutshell: saw a football match, took a test, finished a project, jetted off to Ireland, knocked out my front tooth. Eventful, to say the least.

On Wednesday, the BC in Glasgow crew went to the Scotland vs. Czech Republic football game with our coordinator, Kirstin. We had incredible eighth row seats and saw an amazing game. Scotland wasn't expected to win, but surprised us with a victory. The night was frigid and freezing, so after the game we all took a trip to ASDA (like Walmart) to warm up and wait for our cabs. While exploring the supermarket, we came across a few interesting dishes, such as Spotted Dick. Don't ask me what it was, but having the sense of humor of a 15-year-old boy, I found it outrageously funny.

Spotted Dick and Custard. Looks appetizing.

Scotland vs. Czech Republic

Academically, last week was probably the hardest week I've had here yet. I had my second Managerial and Organizational Contexts test, which was the exact same format as the first one: 59 multiple choice, 40 matching, and 32 True/False all in under 45 minutes. It was definitely a race for the clock, but I think it went well. After taking that test, I went straight to an Entrepreneurship group meeting, where we finished the majority of our project. Since the day was stressful and productive, I was more than ready for a fun night on the town. We headed to Bamboo, our regular Thursday night haunt, and spent the entire night there dancing and having a fabulous time.

The next morning was not one of my most beautiful mornings here. I was tired, had a massive headache, and didn't want to move one bit. On a normal Friday, I could have slept and lazed the day away. This Friday, however, was not my average Friday and I had to use every last bit of strength I had to get up, pack my bags, and head to the airport with Sarah to go visit Hannah in Galway, Ireland. It was a rough day, but we made it to Ireland in one piece and extremely excited to see our friends. We were welcomed to Galway with a family dinner made by Hannah and her friends before getting cleaned up and making the trip to The Front Door, Hannah's favorite pub in Galway. It was interesting to see the difference between the nightlife in Galway and in Glasgow. In Galway, most people frequent bars and pubs, and everything is close together. In Glasgow, clubs and cabs are a way of life. It was definitely a nice change of pace and it was great to be able to see what Hannah experiences during her time abroad. The night ended with a stop at Subway, which is somehow more delicious in the UK than it is in the US.

Sarah and my first night in Galway

Hannah's favorite pub in Galway

On Saturday, we slept in and took a leisurely lunch at Riordans before tackling shopping and Salthill in the afternoon. Salthill is an absolutely beautiful area of Galway that overlooks Galway Bay. The walk was gorgeous and reminded me of the romantic Ireland that you always see in movies *cough* PS I Love You *cough.* It was a fairly warm day for Ireland, so we spent a while just walking around Salthill and taking in the scenery. After being tourists, we went back to Hannah's apartment for another family dinner.

Salthill

Galway Bay

Streets of Galway

Once we had devoured our divine pizza bagels, we got ready for our mini pub crawl around Galway. The first stop on the list was Taaffes, a traditional Irish pub full of cute Irishmen. Next up was The Kings Head, where we had a nice relaxing cider and listened to some fabulous music. After The Kings Head, we headed to The Quays (pronounced keys), where we ran into a Hen Party full of crazy drunk twenty-something women who were all dressed in black and pink, playing games with cards called "ladies night." One of them pulled up a chair at our table and wouldn't leave until she had successfully chatted our ears off. When we finally shook the crazy single lady, we moved on to the next pub, Busker Brownes, which I think was my favorite pub of the night. It was insanely crowded and getting through the swarms of people was difficult. I ended up getting stuck between a pillar and this Irish boy, Carl, who started chatting me up. When I asked him how old he was, he confidently answered "23," until I told him I was 21 and he admitted that he was 21 as well. Before going out, Hannah had warned me about the men in Galway and their tendencies to lie about age, name, and relationship status, so I wasn't sure if he was lying again or telling the truth. In order to get the facts straight, I IDed him. He did tell the truth the second time, but after that I just wasn't interested anymore and we headed on to the next pub. Our last pub on the crawl was The Front Door again. It didn't disappoint and was the perfect pub to end on, but by this point in the night my feet were hurting in my heels and I was getting pretty tired, so we decided to call it a night. Kind of. We actually made one more stop on our pub crawl: Subway, for the second time.

Me and Hannah at The Kings Head

When Sunday came, I wasn't ready to leave Hannah or Galway. The city of Galway was so cute, with its cobblestone streets and dozens of pubs and cafes. Hopefully I'll be able to find a weekend in May to return (and maybe see Dublin, too!) It was a wonderful weekend in Galway and I left feeling sad and missing Hannah.

Monday was a big day for me. We finally got to turn in our Entrepreneurship business plan after working on it for the entire semester. It was a huge relief to have finished the plan and to feel confident in it. After turning the plan in, the group and I decided to grab a quick bite to eat, which turned into a few celebratory pints and an extended lunch. As happy as I am to be done with the business plan, I will definitely miss my weekly group meetings with these boys. In the end, I know they will be one of the top things I miss about Glasgow.

Tuesday was also an eventful day: all the BCers found out where we are living senior year! Boston College does a housing lottery, so the group leaders have to wake up at 8am, enter their group members' names and ID numbers, and wait to see if they get a lottery number. If you get a lottery number, then you get a pick time and have to wait to choose which housing you will live in. So, for this big day in our BC careers, Laura and I started off the afternoon with a baking and paper writing party. We made three chocolate cakes and got absolutely nowhere on our papers. Around 6:30, the rest of "the family" came over for family dinner as we all fidgeted anxiously in our seats waiting to see who would get what housing. In the end, we all fared well. No one had to split up their groups of friends and five out of the seven of us got Mods! Unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky five, but I am just so happy to be living with all of my friends next year that it wasn't too big of a deal. To celebrate our senior year housing, we decided to have a few drinks. With all the excitement of the night, I took a wine glass to the face and ended up losing my front tooth! YIKES. Needless to say, I won't be forgetting the senior year housing lottery for quite some time. Luckily, Alan, Laura's flatmate, was on top of things and looked up a million dentists in the area for me to contact in the morning. Thank God for Alan because otherwise I might still look like a glorified hillbilly.

Adios, front tooth

I woke up incredibly early this morning to call all of the dentists before finding one to give me a new "tooth," which is actually just a bunch of weird looking stuff attached to my tooth. It looks pretty funny, but it does the job for now. When I showed my mom the final result, all she said was "don't worry, we'll get it fixed when you come home!" Yes. It's that bad. If my Mary Kate & Ashley closed-mouth smile returns to pictures, you'll just have to accept it.

The rest of the week should be pretty nice. I have no more projects due and no more tests until finals -- WOOHOO! Tomorrow Sarah's boyfriend, Devon, is visiting from Venice, so the weekend should be fun and exciting. On Friday, we were thinking of doing a mini sub crawl, where you take the underground around and each stop you have to get out and visit a pub in the area. Then on Saturday, we're making our way to the Highlands with a bunch of BC kids who are studying abroad in and around Scotland. Hopefully the weather will be nice and I will come back with lots of pictures! As always, I'll keep you posted...

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