Hurling For Fun

So I never talked about the magnificent hurling adventure on Sunday. The EUSA staff are supposed to provide an outing, lovingly called an 'excursion', for the students. So, they got us tickets to the Hurling final. I was happy to go and experience a new sport and I like to collect sports stadiums. My random sport claim to fame is that I have been to nine major league baseball parks (thanks, daddy). Now I can attach Croke Park onto that list in its very own little section. It's a stadium for football (that game we call soccer), too. It was nice, but honestly it wasn't even as big as Kyle Field. So the day was gloomy and wet and we had to get there early--- so I didn't stay, but I did watch and enjoy the experience!

Hurling is similar to soccer, football, lacrosse, and baseball. Kind of. The field is very similar to a soccer field. The goal posts are crummy football posts. The bottom half fits a soccer goal, but you make point by getting the ball under the post (like in soccer) but you also get points for getting it over the post (like in Am. football). The guys are running and use short sticks to stop the ball and throw the ball. The ball is a leather ball so I am led to believe it is similar to baseball. They are seriously HURLING this ball all over the field and it looks so violent. The only protection they have is a helmet. It is hardcore. For real.

I left the game technically at the beginning, but we had been there over an hour. I watched the end of the minors game (Kilkenny won) and then the pregame events. The majors game was Dublin v. Kilkenny. Once again, Kilkenny won.

Remember the kids across the way I was complaining about a few posts back? Well, they are still around and have maintained their introductory noise levels. They appear to travel in mob form only--- at least for right now they seem to have flown the coup.

My new roommates still prove to be nice even if we don't always understand one another. They are hear to learn English, but only for three weeks. I guess Stephanie and I will outlast them. One was doing her homework when I came home and she pointed to a sentence something like this " Joe ____ (play) soccer every day so far this summer." She wanted to know what 'so far' meant. That is hard to explain. At first I totally failed. I told it had to do with time passing and some other variations of that--- the closest we could get was during/durante. I kept thinking about it and later I came back and asked how long they were here. After they responded tres semanas I followed it up with you have been in dublin for two days so far. I was speaking in spanish until I said 'so far' and I think it helped. I could tell they appreciated my efforts and we smiled and laughed afterward. I find it rather ironic that I came to Dublin because I knew I wouldn't have to worry about speaking another language. Still, it's lucky they're Spanish because I would be totally lost if they were french or german or some other random language.

Last night I got to see The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at the Project Arts Centre--- It was wonderful. The actors were very strong and Linn and I spent a great deal of time laughing and cringing at the appropriate times. Once again the accents used were very interesting and the cultural translation missed a few beats here and there, but overall it was great. I wish I could remember everything about it. There is an Irish nun in it and it was weird because all of the other accents were so over the top that when the actress used her own voice it seemed like the absence of an accent even though the irish lilt was present. Most of the characters played several roles---- i really like that in plays because it displays the actors better.

Well, I need a cookie break.