St. Pattys, a week and a bit later

Usually its terrible weather for St. Pattys day in Ireland. My first 3 years here were the same and mimicked old X Files episodes before they moved to LA: cold, wet, kinda dark with long coats and umbrellas ( the good ol' 10 year old dated pop reference.. check) This year though it turned out alright > a complete shocker. Jill, Huong, Sonja, Veloshini, and Becs came over from London and New York to celebrate Jills Birthday... which also happens to be St. Patricks Day. Her middle name is Patricia, and her favorite color is green; completely no creativity.

And although it was complete ludicrousy with rain on the first day, Saturday... my jeans were soaked knee high... the following 3 days behaved and were rain free. It was even sunny bits of Sunday and Monday and Tuesday. So here are notes from the things I learned on the past week (be prepared, in the spirit of Irish Marty, Im going to make fun of Jill lots because she was just here, and she is one of the 3 people that still read this thing):

- Contrary to popular belief, staying in an apartment with 5 other girls is really really cool, apart from the toilet rolls only lasting 5 seconds.
- Girls that initially look Portuguese / Spanish can actually turn out to be German. (Sonja, Huong, Jill stop laughing)
- Girls that sound like they are from California, can actually turn out to be from Gotenburg Sweden.
- Some girls think leprechauns are real. Seriously. No Seriously.
- Jill likes her beer Cold. ( This, her rationale for downing beer quicker than possibly even the Kobayashi Japanese guy who eats 100 hotdogs in 2 minutes)
- If youre in a bar talking to a girl from say South Africa, and youre asking her about her country and whats interesting to visit, and she turns around and says "Well, you should check out the tourist bureau", consider it the biggest burn in the history of female putdowns.
- When Jill travels around, she openly scouts out locations to hide in case she murders someone and needs a place to dissappear to. I wish I was joking.
- Some girls look cool eating with bibs.
- One girl works in a company that has open bars in the office. If that office were in Ireland, it would be bankrupt within a week.
- The awkward combination of being in a Irish bar in Dublin on St. Pattys eve, but with an American band playing live, playing american rock songs; errr? Sounds 100% wrong in theory.. but surprisingly festive in practice. It must be the fact that everyone is drunk anyways.
- The official limit to the amount of times that you can listen to Summer of 69 Bryan Adams before you decide thats enough and leave the bar: 3.
- Germans always know what times their flights are. Canadians Aussies and South Africans.. not so much.
- The Good Cop Bad Cop routine always works. Thats probably why they always use it in movies.
- Repeat calling in London with a Canadian Rogers Cellphone which costs like $4 a minute is NOT a good idea. Unless you are wasted, then you dont care, apparently.
- I love Strada. Even though they broke my charger. And gave me upset stomach.
- LEON is NOEL spelled backwards.
- Just because you live in New York, its doesnt mean a diet solely based on coffee, tea and cocktails is a good idea. It would be called the "Always Hangry" Diet.
- And finally, always ALWAYS ALWAYS check the DATES of the flight you are purchasing online instead of the DAYS. Haste makes waste. But not like that would ever happen to me..