California Dreamin'

So todays blog is about the weather and mexican food, two things I miss dearly from California. I'll start things off by saying that we are entering the winter months in Dublin...mid-October. But its strange because, keeping with Irish custom, the weather remains completely erratic. Yesterday morning I got a ride to the DART station from Pam (Max's mom). When we walked out to her car at 8am, it was freezing. I ran back inside, got my Lakenridge fleece, and staged take two of Harry vs. the cold. I realized how cold it really was when I got into Pam's car and saw that the front window was completely covered with ice. This wasn't just a little frost; you could not see through it at all! Regardless, I made it to the station in time for the train into town, went along with my merry way and arrived in Dublin at around 8:45. From that point on, I was basically shut inside from classes, where my non-PC Irish history professor made many Catholic Church jokes (another story, different day), until around 3:30. Before leaving I looked outside and saw blue skies and quite a lot of sunlight. So I rolled up my sleeves, put on my sunglasses and walked out the front door to the arts block...only to be greeted by a huge gust of freezing wind. Stupid windows. I then proceeded to the Pearse Street Station to catch the next DART home. On a random side-note, look up the "Stuff You Missed in History" podcast on iTunes. I listen to it on the train and it is quite addicting. After the ride back of the city, although there were Arctic winds when I got on the train, I stepped on to the Howth platform and felt a nice warm breeze accompanied by warm sunlight. Not the fake sunlight I saw on campus. It was legitimately warm outside. Sometimes I just don't understand Ireland.

Today was a very intense Mexican day for me. I really don't know how it happened, but I can tell you what happened. So today after Renaissance Florence, Serena, Katie and I went to go get lunch at this crepe place right on Grafton Street, which is just a block from Trinity. Now because this place  specialized in crepes, I got a sandwich. It was far cheaper. According to the menu, it was actually a melt. A salsa melt. But it was between two pieces of bread which, back home, we call a sandwich. Either way, it was really good. It was filled with, well, salsa for starters, but it was packed with guacamole (haven't had that in a while), cheese, peppers, and more stuff I'm sure. It was then melted, apparently, on a griddle. So basically I had a Mexican grilled cheese. Fast forward to dinner tonight. We had fajitas. Now to be fair, the only common ingredient was the salsa. But it was still Mexican twice in one day! Anyway the fajitas were also just as good as the melted sandwich. Although both of them were great and they did satisfy my need for Mexican food, but its just not the same as back in California! So I guess nice weather and great Mexican food just aren't in the cards for Ireland.

Now I'm not saying a tortilla made me homesick, but when something reminds me of home I start to miss you all on both coasts. Yeah its sappy but its true. Not to worry though, I'm not having a melt down (haha melt) or anything over spicy food, things are still a blast and I expect so much more from the final two months. Talk to you all soon!

FMS