Quick and Dirty

Greetings everyone! I hope you enjoyed your February off, I know I sure did. I have to make a blog post now because in a day or so I'll be departing for two weeks of spring holiday. I'll keep my destinations a mystery for now, I'd hate to spoil the surprise...

So first thing's first, I'd like to show you show some Irish Media:

-The Rubberbandits are a popular Irish comedy duo that released the wildly popular video "Horse Outside" in 2010. They wear grocery bags on their faces to conceal their identities, though since they've become popular everybody knows who they are. At this point it's just kind of "their thing."

If you liked that, you should also check out their guide to Temple Bar as well as their newest video "I wanna fight your father," which is a bit more R&B. A heads up on that last video though, there's a Gaelic version as well that's totally different. Watch both. 

Next is a group I was fortunate enough to see live at a club downtown called Veroa. They are a three piece band with unique vocals and an active sound that's great live. Below is the song "My Achilles" (no video). 

^^If that doesn't work, just look for their myspace.

Lastly we have Kid Karate, who I saw at a very hipster venue on the North side of the Liffey with my friend Luke. I couldn't figure out how to embed the song, so here's a plain ol' link to it. It's called "Heart" and is something like electro punk? 

http://breakingtunes.com/profile/1287/track/5778

And that's about it for the media portion of this post. 

Around school, I've been keeping active with a couple societies that I joined. Filmsoc has regular showings of a wide variety of films, ranging from classics like Star Wars all the way to Nazi zombie flicks. In case you were dying to know, the Germans make terrible horror films. The upside to that is, the worse a horror film it is, the better a comedy it becomes. 

The other society I'm involved with is WorldAid Soc. They're a fun bunch. It seems that after meetings, all the societies here (at UCD) go to pubs to hang out for a bit, then to a club to cap off the night. That's something I'd like to try and bring back to the States. I experienced my first ever postering with WAS, which was a unique experience for me. Basically there is a main drag on the UCD campus where most of the buildings are located. Every Thursday at 7am, societies are allowed to reposter the area to keep passers-by up to date on the societies events and promotions. So the strategy is to get as many people from your soc there as you can, as early as you can (because other socs will be vying for spots), and hold your positions until a guy comes out around 7:30 and says "go." At which point everybody posts their signs and goes out for breakfast, only to come back the following week... 

Classes at UCD are very different from those at Temple. First, I only have one lecture per week for each class. At least 50% of your total grade will be the final, which is comprised of 2 essay questions. Another 20% or so will be a group project or presentation, and whatever is left over will be participation and/or an individual project/essay. Each class is 2 hours of lecture with a 5 minute break in the middle. There's very little back and forth between the teacher and students. The day's powerpoint is posted online for later review (as it should be in the States). I believe that 45% is considered a passing grade. 

Beyond class, going out, and checking out Dublin's music scene, I've also attended a couple Couchsurfer meetings in the city. They're excellent opportunities to learn how to mingle because you pretty much walk into a room full of people you don't know, and you won't have fun unless you know somebody. Your initial consideration to leave as soon as you get there is quelled by 3.50 pints, and a chain reaction of socializing and having a good time is set into motion. In two meetings, I've met people from Brazil, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, and Germany. Pretty awesome, if I say so myself. 

Here's a picture of the ingredients to an uncommon meal to the Irish, and a taste of home for me. 

Yes that is strawberry jam, but I've also been known to use grape or raspberry as they are available. Note that the peanut butter is "American Style." They didn't have crunchy :(

Moving along, last weekend I took a trip to the Netherlands. I arrived in Eindhoven via the very inexpensive RyanAir and couchsurfed there for the night before heading to Amsterdam the next day. 

Me about to leave home, per the request of my father

"The Blob" of Einhoven, a shopping center

If you're Dutch, you own a bike

The train station in Amsterdam. That was a NICE train.

Iamsterdam

The view from my couchsurf host's apartment...

...and my couch. Free apples! 

Unfortunately, the weather was terrible the entire time I was there. To illustrate the point, it was snowing when I arrived in Eindhoven. It remained cold and damp for the whole weekend. In spite of this, I still got to walk around, check out the canals, send some postcards, and go to the Rijkmuseum where Rembrandt Metsu were on display. 

Frites and mayo. I didn't get a Royale with cheese, but I can do that some other time. 

Cheese souffle. Pretty tasty, and it came out of a vending machine!

And there were coffeeshops. 

And then I came home!

Today, I printed my boarding passes, wrote a lengthy email to a penpal, did some business-skyping, did my laundry, returned a library book (The Long Tail), and composed this very post. I think there were poptarts involved with at least one of these activities. Oh, and I also spent about 4 solid days in intervals of two hand coding octoberskateboards.com 's new website, which should be live by Saturday March 5th. You heard it here first, folks! 

I think that's it for now, I'd hate to give you too much in one sitting. Frankly, I'm not sure you could handle it. 

Until next time, dear readers...

-Dave