Went out to my first club tonight with my cousin Jen…. went to maybe 5 different places and drank perhaps seven different drinks… the highlight of the night was either meeting a Sheffield Wednesday player, frankie simek, or americans from st. louis… got their email and facebook.. of course. Frankie was quite uptight though and not much fun… his friends were amusing though.. had my first shot of sambuca.. tasted like licorice but it was quite nice… everyone wears such wonderful boots and i can’t wait to get a few pair of my own. jen is quite fun although i was sorry ellie couldn’t join us, i really like her, she reminds me a bit of myself when i was 14 minus the depressesion. We also went to Sherwood Forest today, and for all you uncultured blokes that’s where robin hood lived with his merry men. it was fascinating, they have a rare oak that’s near 1000 years old, although apparently during the time of robin hood it would have been yet a sapling so his legendary oak was a quite different tree. picking up the language has been a snap. jen and ellie have a delicious sheffield accent but my cousin tony sounds english the way midwesterners sound american, general english accent if there i such a thing. But as to my trip. i flew out of O’hare at 6PM and landed in Dublin, Ireland at 20 past 7 in the morning and thought it’d be a right nice idea to have a pint of Guinness.. and then another pint (i found out later it’s unlady-like to order a pint.. women order half-pints) so i was right drunk by the time i had to connect to my flight to manchester… but i found uncle tony easily enough and managed to right myself to the new time zone quickly enough… staying awake for a full 30 hours was brutal though. I’ve gone and messed that all up though because i’m only a day in and i’m already up til 4 in the morning (go figure)…. the clubs are all right, that’s for sure, hundreds of people drinking every color imaginable and dancing like there’s no tomorrow, sure as hell is different from the bars in the states… but it’s quite fun, and even though my couins say there’s tons of dodgy people about there’s certainly not as many dodgy people as you’d meet in a bar in bloomington…. it’s unreal how trendy everyone here looks.. i felt totally out of place around the girls tonight, everyone had fabulous shoes and totally european looks about them, multi-dyed hair and long shirts/short skits with skinny jeans and fabulous tall slouchy boots. Tomorrow we’re off to see some castles… i’m bummed i’m not in england for longer but it’s a good excuse to come back and visit on a long weekend when i get the chance…. jen has to take me shopping and i love her mates, they’re all totally nuts… i suppose i should get some sleep so i can appreciate the architecture tomorrow, but i’ve been here a day and i’m already in love… the dodds feel like 100% family and i’ve no desire to return to the states (miss you though love) but it’s just so much more magical and enchanting here…
posted Monday May 2006