So today is Saint Patrick's Day. At midnight Shawn came into our room with two pints of Guinness so after the traditional "Sláinte!" we enjoyed our first pints of the day, and then I got back to my contour integrations for Fourier Methods, and went to bed. I got up at about 10:30 and donned my "Póg mo thóin" long sleeve green shirt with my National Irish Rugby jersey over that. When I went into the kitchen to get some breakfast, Margherita, Laura, and Eugenio were already over and Giovanni and Giorgio were up as well. I went out to see if the English Market was open, as I was out of bread, but they weren't so I went to the festival and got a bratwurst roll instead. I came back to South Mall and Shawn was up by then and the italians had traditional Irish music blasting in the kitchen. So we all had a pint, while doing some cleaning and such, and then got on our coats and went out onto South Mall to see the parade go past. 
The streets were packed with people, so it was kind of hard to get a good view all the time. The parade was pretty short (just about an hour) but they had some cool floats, and there seemed to be a focus on the international Irish. They had "parade groups" (I guess that's what you'd call them) of Irish citizens with every origin you could think of, and these groups would dress up in their ancestral or home culture's traditional clothing. They also had groups representing all the wars that the Irish had fought in, or sent volunteer supporters to. 
After the parade I went back to the festival on Grand Parade for a moment to get a little bit more food. It was insanely crowded, and it took a long time to move through the crowd. 
I met everyone at An Brog where we got green pints (of Guinness) and hung out there for a while. All the pubs had Irish music going through their PA systems the whole day. My camera was out of batteries, so I used this as an excuse to come back to the apartment and finish my Fourier Methods homework, and also to charge my battery. After I did that I met back up with everyone at Chambers pub on Washington street which was one of 5 pubs that was participating in a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl. If you went to all 5 pubs and got a pint at each one (you got a sticker with your pint) you could get a free t-shirt. All the free t-shirts were gone by noon, but we still decided to follow along the route, just at our own slower pace spending more time at the pubs. After 2 pubs, it was close to 8:00 pm, so we headed back to our apartment for a big group pasta dinner. Some of Giovanni's friends who had been studying in Cork last semester were in Cork for St. Patrick's Day, so they joined us, which was cool. They were mostly German, so I had a good time talking to them. After that dinner, we all sat around and talked for a while, and then headed back to An Brog. We all hung out and danced for a while, but around 11:00 I got a text that my friend, John, sent earlier, but I didn't get due to bad reception, saying that he might go to Chambers or so I decided to come head over there. I got there and couldn't find him, but I did see a girl Irish dancing to The Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping Up to Boston", so that was pretty dang awesome. I just went back to the apartment, as I had class in the morning and still had to study a bit for my Celtic Religion and Mythology exam in the morning (which is worth 20% of my grade). So all in all, Saint Patrick's Day was really cool, and I had a great time of enjoying it in Ireland. Oh yeah, and unlike most everyone else that I was with during the day, I didn't get drunk.
The streets were packed with people, so it was kind of hard to get a good view all the time. The parade was pretty short (just about an hour) but they had some cool floats, and there seemed to be a focus on the international Irish. They had "parade groups" (I guess that's what you'd call them) of Irish citizens with every origin you could think of, and these groups would dress up in their ancestral or home culture's traditional clothing. They also had groups representing all the wars that the Irish had fought in, or sent volunteer supporters to. 
After the parade I went back to the festival on Grand Parade for a moment to get a little bit more food. It was insanely crowded, and it took a long time to move through the crowd. 
I met everyone at An Brog where we got green pints (of Guinness) and hung out there for a while. All the pubs had Irish music going through their PA systems the whole day. My camera was out of batteries, so I used this as an excuse to come back to the apartment and finish my Fourier Methods homework, and also to charge my battery. After I did that I met back up with everyone at Chambers pub on Washington street which was one of 5 pubs that was participating in a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl. If you went to all 5 pubs and got a pint at each one (you got a sticker with your pint) you could get a free t-shirt. All the free t-shirts were gone by noon, but we still decided to follow along the route, just at our own slower pace spending more time at the pubs. After 2 pubs, it was close to 8:00 pm, so we headed back to our apartment for a big group pasta dinner. Some of Giovanni's friends who had been studying in Cork last semester were in Cork for St. Patrick's Day, so they joined us, which was cool. They were mostly German, so I had a good time talking to them. After that dinner, we all sat around and talked for a while, and then headed back to An Brog. We all hung out and danced for a while, but around 11:00 I got a text that my friend, John, sent earlier, but I didn't get due to bad reception, saying that he might go to Chambers or so I decided to come head over there. I got there and couldn't find him, but I did see a girl Irish dancing to The Dropkick Murphy's "Shipping Up to Boston", so that was pretty dang awesome. I just went back to the apartment, as I had class in the morning and still had to study a bit for my Celtic Religion and Mythology exam in the morning (which is worth 20% of my grade). So all in all, Saint Patrick's Day was really cool, and I had a great time of enjoying it in Ireland. Oh yeah, and unlike most everyone else that I was with during the day, I didn't get drunk.
Saturday(03/21/2009):
Saturday was the last match of the 6 Nations Championship. At about 5:00 PM we all went over to Old Oak to watch the match between Ireland and Wales. The match between England and Scotland was still going on, at the time and Old Oak was already packed to the point of body to body. It only got more and more crowded as the match between Ireland and Wales started and went on. The match was very close and you could feel the emotions and energy in the pub run high. Ireland won after Wales missed a penalty kick in the 80th minute. Final score 15-17. Old Oak simply exploded. Everyone was going crazy and dancing and shouting. "We Art The Champions" came on over Old Oak's sound system and everyone started singing along. It was awesome.
Sunday(03/22/2009):
Mark's train from Dublin got into Cork at 12:50 PM, so I went to go pick him up at Kent Station. It was really good to see him. We went back to South Mall Court and then I took him for a short tour of Cork, and then went to Insomnia Cafe to get some coffee and just catch up for a while. We went to Mass at 6 at St. Patrick's Church and then made some dinner, and we went to the Franciscan Well (a pub in what used to be a Franciscan monastery a few hundred years ago, where they still brew their own beer) with Giovanni and hung out for a while. Once we got back to the apartment Shawn and Mark went to bed, as Mark was pretty tired and Shawn had his Gaelic final in the morning. So I just studied for a while and then conked out as well.
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