Care for a wee jam sesh?

Tonight I went for a run during German vs Algeria's half time and saw this odd plant:

(let's see if my dad can ID it)

I ran around Univ Limerick's beautifully bucolic campus and heard the strains of traditional Irish music coming from one of the restaurant/pubs.

NBD.

I would've filmed more, but people were starting to look oddly at me, as I was panting and sweating profusely.

It made for nice music to loll about in my head on the run back.

Try the Sanya; it's delicious!

Today for lunch, I stopped by a restaurant on campus, and after seeing chicken curry on the menu, was sold. After greeting the lunch lady, I asked if the curry was ready (I got there minutes before lunch technically started--12pm), and she pointed to a few things that were already prepared. I asked what one of the dishes was, and she replied, "It's Sanya." It looked like some sort of casserole, with cheese sprinkled over a top layer of cream of wheat.

"Really? What's in it?"

"Oh, noodles and beef." and cream of wheat.

"Oh! Well, I was going to have the curry, but I've never heard of sanya before."

I figured that I should try a new Irish dish rather than curry. So she loaded me up (with potatoes on the side, of course) and I sat down to eat.

After a few bites, I realized that Irish Sanya... is lasagna.

AGAIN WITH THE ACCENT!

It was pretty tasty, and the cream of wheat topping really added to the textures.

I also think it's my duty to try out all of the local candy bars.

I've also spotted notices in a few restaurants that indicate that beef served is 100% Irish. Whew! I think it's something about continental European "beef" containing horse or other impurities or something. I asked the lunch lady and that was her response. Anyway. I shall rest assured.

Are you Philip or Rourke?

I made the drive to the southern park of Limerick to go to church today and was greeted by a gauntlet of missionaries and greeters. After saying my name to one of the Elders, I turned around to shake the hand of a man behind me, and his tone in his voice implied that he was clarifying, "[Are you] Phillip or Rourke?"

Me: "Excuse me?"

Him: "Phillip or Rourke?"

Me (smiling, but slightly confused): "Neither."

Him: "No, that's my name. I'm Phillip O'Rourke."

Me: "Ohhh. I see. Well, I'm Warren Gray."

I'll have to watch out for that prefix and Irish accent in the future.


After church, I headed out to the Cliffs of Moher (where the rope climbing scene in "The Princess Bride" was filmed). I went beyond the touristy section and opted for a less-beaten-pathy hike. There were cows there (!) but they just rolled their eyes like, "The Cliffs of Moher? psh." I trekked beyond their judging gazes and found this:

Whatever, cows. I'm impressed.

Just like the poppy fields in The Wizard of Oz, this magical setting--coupled with slight jet lag--made me sleepy. I found a nice little napping nook:

can you see the indentation of my body?

A decent vista for a nap, I suppose.

 About 20 min later, I woke up, happy that I hadn't rolled in my sleep off the cliff. Upon turning around, I discovered this cliff behind me:

"Hey, what about me??"

 I felt a lil bad for it, because everyone always takes pictures of its brothers to the south, due better image composition. But I did this cliff a solid and captured it in its 650 ft glory.

Not satisfied with a nap, I decided to hike to the top of the cliff (upper-left corner of top photo).

Similar in grade to the Great Wall, but with substantially fewer umbrellas and women in heels.

 When I finally reached the peak, I laid down on my spine at the cliff's edge and, to prove that I had one, tilted my head backward. Splayed out, I gripped the earth with my limbs as I watched the sun drop slowly down...

down...

down...

into the Atlantic Ocean.



I'd like to see the cows try that.

Dinner with a side of soccer

After being bumped from my Thursday night flight out of JFK (thanks for the paid Friday NYC vacation, Delta!), I made my way by air to Ireland and arrived Saturday morning. Getting my car from Hertz was much more of an ordeal than usual, and they gave my fresh new Ford Fiesta to a couple who'd been waiting so long for their car that they might've slashed my tires if I'd've driven off before them. In the end I got an oldish car, which is probably for the better, as the scratches from narrow lanes/wide car(/getting used to sinistram driving) might be better hidden....

University of Limerick is a gorgeous campus in a bucolic setting, with the fragrance of cows gently wafting in the air. I'm excited to explore the running trails (no, really) and play with the swans on the River Shannon.

I succeeded in frying the power adapter for my wifi router (I promise I'd checked the input capabilities of all my other electronics!), so I took off in search for an electronics store, but stopped in a pub(ish) on campus for my first Irish meal! As would be expected, several people were watching the Chile vs Brazil game, so I caught the last ten min of the first half.

Just before the soccer player pseudo-flopped. Also, there were more people there,
although it appears like I was creepily sitting behind the only other person and taking pictures.

Then later, Brazil won (yay.) and I saw several of Brazilians walking through campus with puffed chests.

Leprechauns sighted: 0
Self-congratulating Brazilians: 6