Oh the people you'll meet!

We have to begin with an enthusiastic shout out to HP Customer Service who in one week revived our sputtering computer back into its old useable self. That, combined with the internet connection we waited so many weeks for, has made us a wired flat once more. Hence the onslaught of new pics, which we were unable to upload due to the untranslatable blog directions on our Spanish roommates’ computer. Hooray for technology.

The past ten days have carried a theme that will likely ride out the rest of our month here in Dublin: work, play and the joy of visitors. Mer’s job became set in stone about a week ago and she’s been working quite a bit. She enjoys good tips and works most nights until 12:30 or 1:00, at which point she meets Al and friends at a nearby pub to catch up on that day’s happenings. Though our schedules are still as different as could be, we treasure our late nights and lazy mornings together, where we gossip for hours over cornflakes and vanilla yogurt.

We’re in the middle of a wave of visitors, each of whom bring us great entertainment. Last weekend we had Drew, a friend of Jen Wessel’s from college, meet up with us. He was a fascinating guy and great fun to have around. He and Al enjoyed a scrumptious meal of tapas and the three of us had two raucous evenings in the pubs, one of which included three Irish girls falling in love with Drew, announcing that Mer was their “new favorite American” and introducing us to several rounds of God-knows-what Irish drinks.

On Monday, Elek arrived, who was the first person we met in Dublin during our stay at the hostel way back in mid-June. Elek hails from L.A. and spent the past six weeks crisscrossing Europe. We were thrilled to have him back and hear his tales. He was equally thrilled to crash with some friendly faces, as travelling alone for so long can leave one feeling a bit lonely. In addition to some food, talks and wandering around the city, we also had an adventure trying to see Dark Knight with he and Tom, our friend from Australia. Upon arriving at the theater, we were shocked to see Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider had decided to throw their own party and have a highly dramatic premiere of their new movie Zohan. They had the nerve to block the entrance to our movie with a big obnoxious red carpet, lots of cameras, cheesy smiles and autographs. Maybe we were bitter that they prevented our entrance, but those dudes were not looking so hot. We settled on seeing Baby Mama at a different movie theater, but every slight downer for the rest of the night was blamed on “Damn Rob Schneider.” Perhaps you had to be there to sympathize with our agony.

Tomorrow Bergie arrives! She is one of Emily Wessel’s friends from NU who is now living in London and is coming to spend a three-day weekend with us. It should be epic. After that, Kevin Westerwick and Dustin Nirschel, two old friends from Mer’s high school days, will be hitting up Dublin for about a week. We can’t wait for all of these reunions!

Our new roommates are still awkward as ever. Pepe spends his days running computer programs on the patterns of survival for blackbirds while Sandra goes to English school. When they’re around the flat, they don’t say much of anything to us, in English or in Spanish. There is nothing offensive about them, so we’ve settled on a peaceful coexistence, albeit not a camaraderie. Makes us miss good ol’ Gionni.

It seems like every week we learn something new here. We learn how to file a tax form, or how Czech people of our generation view Slovaks. We learn how Austrians organize their school systems and how oranges from the market go rotten more quickly than oranges from the grocery store. It’s thrilling to live in such a stimulating culture. One thing that embellishes it most is the coming-and-going nature of Dublin. This city is full of wanderers like ourselves who are here for a year, a summer, a week. Every time you meet a new person, you assume they will be in your life for a limited amount of time. Very few people stay. Some of our peers find this frustrating, but we’ve decided it’s fascinating. People come and go in and out of our lives every week. Mer became close with a coworker from Brazil who one week later quit and flew away to Italy. When working at Dobbins, Al met a fabulously flamboyant man from London whose stay in Dublin expired a couple of weeks later. Our friend Ben is flying away on August 13^th and our friend Louise is going home to Holland on the 6^th. It’s tough to build lasting friendships in this whirlwind of travels so instead, you try to embrace each relationship while you have it and then hope that your paths cross again. Having both lived in basically the same place all through childhood, this is a different culture for us, but one that has certainly challenged and intrigued us.

Enough with the introspective nonsense. Here are loads of new pics to laugh and smile at. Rest assured that we’re in the right place and happy as can be. We miss you all and think about you often.

Slainte,

Al and Mer