Snow, Woes and Techno

I had a fantastic trip to Barcelona and arrived back to find Dublin covered in a beautiful layer of fresh white snow.  The only downside is that because the country ran out of salt last year, it decided just not to use any this year, a decision which doesn't seem to account for the safety concerns of salting sidewalks so that you don't step out on a sheet of ice when you get off the air coach bus.  Anyway, I hadn't realized it snowed in Ireland since I was having a blast in Barcelona and also because I was told it was warmer in Ireland than at home. Not true. In fairness, I was told this is the first time in 30-40 years it has snowed in Dublin in November.

So, I made my way back to my room taking some pictures along the way, and then slept for 13 hours (they were not consecutive, don't worry). Late at night, I got a call from my friend Natasha who I'd met up with in Barcelona and who is studying in Edinburgh.  I had met up with her and six other people from Edinburgh.  They were stranded in Barcelona for the night because Edinburgh had a foot of snow.  Which is awful.  As much fun as Barcelona is, it completely sucks to be stranded when you're trying to get home.  The flights they'd managed to get involved a twelve hour layover in Dublin today, which was pretty fun and the eventual plot of this post.

I had to go to one seminar in the morning and a lecture in the evening, but I had the bulk of the day to hang out with Tash, another guy from Georgetown (and Delaware incidentally) Christian, and Erin and Lauren who are Scottish.  Since it was snowing here, I limited our travels to St. Stephen's Green Shopping Center for them to buy boots and pants, and then a walk through St. Stephen's Green which was snowy and beautiful.  We were attacked by some stupid boys with a snow ball sling shot though. It was funny the first time, but they kept trying to hit us.  Obviously they missed every time because they were stupid, but it was very annoying and we left the park.  Then we hit up Doyle's before I headed to class. It was a pretty fun day and I'm super glad they were able to visit, albeit unexpectedly.  Unfortunately, they have a flight to Leeds and a seven hour bus ride ahead of them.  They're a fun bunch though, and make the best of the situation.

In other news, as I was going through Belgian immigration/customs last week when leaving Brussels, the immigration officer held me up a bit.  There was no one else in line other than Brooke, but he asked me if I knew Carl Cox.  I was confused and asked him if he meant Courtney Cox because I've gotten that one before.  But no, he meant Carl Cox and wrote the name on my boarding pass for me to look up.  I finally did that this evening and discovered this, Carl Cox:



In any case, I promise to soon post a detailed and pictured account of my Spanish excursion, as well as the long overdue post on the infamous road trip.  It's doing some freak lightning/hail/snow storm at the moment.  I also cut my hand on a glass and am liable to bleed out. Life is splendid.