Clearly still recovering from the time change, I woke up after noon today. Well that scrapped any plans I had of finding and attending a Catholic Mass.
After showering and still not using the bathroom that I assumed (incorrectly) was clogged, I left my apartment in pursuit of breakfast (lunch). While leaving I ran into Brittany from AU, she had just arrived and was desperately trying to find out how to have her lost bags shipped to campus. Unfortunately for her, no one was staffing the desk by the entrance to Goldsmith.
Instead of crossing the bridge into campus, I left down the entrance that I had discovered the night before and headed down the street that my window overlooks. I had wandered down there the previous night to find a pharmacy or store that would sell a plunger and to find a pub for dinner. I swung into Centra, a pharmacy-cum-Wawa (for those of you from the Mid-Atlantic) and grabbed a spicy chicken fajita hot wrap made fresh. While I was paying, Fireworks by Katy Perry came on the radio. Apparently it was number 4 for the week.
When I returned to Goldsmith, I found Brittany still standing by the unattended desk, but this time with a bag and another girl clutching a number of suitcases and bags. I said hello and she introduced herself as Margaret from New York. We talked for a bit and another two girls arrived, Rebecca and Ali. The four of them departed together to find Margaret’s room on another part of campus.
After eating my fajita, I went to the Starbucks on Dawson Street (parallel to Grafton). I bought a white café mocha and sat down to hopefully use the internet. As it turned out, I needed to purchase a Starbucks rewards card, so I returned to the counter and was soon after logging onto the internet.
Upon logging into my email I noticed numerous unread messages, including several from my parents asking if I arrived safely. The last one stated that they would be calling the University this afternoon if I did not reply to them today. Quickly I typed out a reply with a promise that I would send them a more detailed message later.
Spending some time online, I read about the shooting in Arizona of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and the murder of a few others including the highest federal judge for the state. (Friday I would speak with a man from Derry - Northern Ireland - stunned by the number of guns in the U.S. during his 3-months spent working in Alabama). Giffords was a client of GQRR (and one of the few successful incumbents from 2006).
Leaving Starbucks, I headed to Saint Stephen’s Green shopping center to see if any of the stores there sold a plunger. Despite searching Dunnes department store and TK Maxx (same as TJ Maxx) I was unable to find one. However, I did discover that there is a large grocery store in the basement of Dunnes (you just have to wade past the clothing to see it). Inside of TK Maxx, I ran into the girls purchasing bedding and other supplies (they had not ordered the offered package in advance). They had just come from Vodafone and purchased the same pay-as-you-go phone as me. One of them quickly explained where my number could be found (I had been lost) and I returned to the store to purchase 20 euro worth of minutes.
Returning to Goldsmith, I took down my number from the package that had contained my SIM card and stored it as “me” in my phone. While at Starbucks I had used the restroom and noticed that it took a couple pushes of the lever on the toilet for it to flush, so I tried the “clogged” toilet in our bathroom to see if it was really clogged. Even though I had tried flushing it several times the night before, after only two tries today it worked! It must operate on some strange system of needing to fill the basin before discharging (turns out there was a water shortage that weekend). Needless to write, I was happy to know that I have access to at least one fully-functioning bathroom (the other one is missing a seat).
An hour or so later, I headed out of my apartment to go over to the pizza reception for the SSP students. On my way out, I ran into a number of students headed in that direction including Brittany, Ali, Emma, and Sean. We struck up a conversation along the way, and ended up at the Arts building where pizza, wine, and soda was served.
Afterwards we ended up at The Ginger Man pub – named for the gingerbread not the hair color – which we were later told "is" a Sinn Fein establishment. It was a very chill environment, up until we were about to leave and my stomach did not agree with the mix of beverages and food (but more likely something I caught on the plane). Let's just say that I was sick a few times.
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