Monday, February 7, 2011

Superbowl Monday

I have learned in my first month here that despite popular belief, Europeans (or at least the Irish) do in fact like Americans. Our accents are like magnets that aside from having a lighter on hand at all times on the Front Door smoking deck, our speech is the best ice-breaker I have found here. This fascination spills over into other areas of American culture, not all, but some. Considering it was Superbowl Sunday/Monday Kelsey and I ventured over to Garvey's in Eyre Square. Fail. The doors were locked and I can't lie, a sense of relief came over me as I had just spent the past few hours mentally preparing my exhausted self to go out for the game. All I wanted to do was watch GLEE with Maire in my bed. It was ignorant or me to believe such a minimal bump in the road was going to keep Kelsey from finding an open pub. Who was I kidding? As the Druids Maire had donated to the cause of my going out kicked in and we battled with the idea of going home or continuing to stumble through the pouring rain in search of something open and playing the game, we saw a sign. Literally. Right across the street there was a big sign that said "Watch the Superbowl Here!!!" Slightly embarassed with how long it took us to see that obvious promotion accompanied with a television blantantly playing the game in the window, we complied. As we all know, the Steelers took it like a high schooler with her first boyfriend. First the Packers ran all over them, then they got defensive and took back some control, only to loose it in the end. Even though I am not a die hard Steelers fan, I am a fan of winning and was not happy that I chose to support the loosing team. I am also a fan of chants. Especially when they are in the form of "black and yellow" being screamed by a dozen drunken men with heavy Irish accents clueless as to what is actually going on in the foreign sport.While all this was going on, the Eyre Square Hotel Bar was also hosting what Kelsey and I could only believe to be a swingers convention downstairs. In addition to that madness, the management team seemed to throw out all its typical rules and regulations for the American event. Open until 5am, smoking permitted IN the bar, 3 euro beers, and most importantly FREE FOOD! Best superbowl ever. I hadn't drank an American beer since my arrival and decided it was time. As the game intensified, our drinking did as well. I don't know if it was the Budweiser's taste reminding me of  rugby drink ups, or my desire to win something ANYTHING that night, but by 3am I found myself challenging an Irish man to a Guiness chug off. Nothing about that idea was sound. This was not our first time instituting this form of hustling. Kevin, Kelsey, Lydia, Jen and I had tested this idea out originally at Karma one night. I won. Boo-ya free Jagear Bomb. My luck took a turn for the worst - another loss. In my defense I was literally half a second behind. Totally worth the fascinated looks from all bystanders. The night went on from there as you could imagine. Needless to say, Samantha is sooooo grounded until Wednesday.

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