Paying the Price

This is the first night I've been here that I haven't gone out- not for lack of places to go, but because I've fallen sick. I figured an illness was coming, considering not only the fact that I've been up late every night, but that I'm in a totally new environment surrounded by all new people with all new germs! I'm not doing too bad, mostly just very stuffed up and a bit of a cough. I slept in late today, and just stayed in bed watching movies. I've been in contact with my friend Donncha, who has also been sick (I wonder if I got it from him), and he's going to come over tomorrow night. We're going to, as he said, "be miserable together. It'll be like a hospital ward". He's bringing tissues, and is going to "rustle up" some chicken soup... in the microwave. It'll be nice to have some human contact; I've been alone all day, and it's a bummer to think about all my friends out at the pubs right now. I've been with people almost constantly since I've been here, so this feels like some kind of withdrawal!

Last night was one of many new experiences I've had in Ireland- my first pub crawl! We met just down my street and headed to 4 pubs and 1 club all over the city. It was 10 euros, and we got a free shot at each of the pubs we went to- plus a lei, because it was a Hawaii theme that night... I swear, the Irish are absolutely crazy. I made friends with the leaders of the crawl, Tim and Eoin (pronounced like Owen). Both are nice guys, and seeing as they hold the crawls twice a week all semester, I'll probably see them again! Plus, they said they would give me a t-shirt with "Cork City Pub Crawl" written on it. the only drawback of last night is that I completely lost my voice as a result of shouting over music in pubs night after night. Today I sound like a 70 year old chain smoker- lovely. Maybe it's a good thing I've hardly seen anyone!

After I see Donncha tomorrow, who is a native of Cork, I think I'm going to try to put together a post about language and accents here... not a very straightforward topic, so we'll see how it turns out!