There is nothing that a venti non-fat sugar free hazelnut extra hot no foam latte can't cure...

I'm thinking that this blog thing is going to have to be more weekly than daily. I'm just too busy now-a-days to keep up with it. However, I have been making a list of everything that I needed to discuss, or rant about, whatever way you take it. So here we go...

1. I love Starbucks. Like, I can't even tell you how much I love it. However, I love a very specific drink at starbucks. As you can see from the title of this blog it is a Venti Non-Fat Sugar Free Hazlenut Extra-hot no foam latte. Now, I didn't just wake up one morning and decide that this was the drink for me. Nope. It took a long hard process of trial and error to finally fall in love with the perfect coffee. Let's first begin with the non-fat- we all know that I've been attempting to lose weight over the past few months. A regular latte is made with whole milk. I have never liked whole milk. Jessi and I were raised on skim milk, thus, I have a strange aversion to anything made with cream-like whole milk. Although, when it's in coffee, you can't really tell how thick it is. But, what really is the point of having whole milk in your coffee. All you really taste is the coffee anyway, so skim milk serves the same purpose. Now, the weight thing also leads us into the sugar-free hazlenut. I started getting sugar free vanilla. I love vanilla, and the sugar free version for coffee is really good. Jessi always gets hazlenut. On a whim in D.C. with Nate I chose to get hazlenut instead of vanilla. THANK YOU JESSI!!!!!! Hazlenut is the BEST flavoring EVER for coffee. Seriously. The first time I drank it I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And every morning, after walking for thirty minutes in the rain and cold, the hazlenut makes it all better. The final two options are the last acquired. Ever since that incident a few years back when that fucking cunt spilled hot coffee on herself and then sued McDonalds, no one makes coffee hot anymore. When I take my first sip of coffee I want it to scald my tongue. Seriously. I want my coffee to be so hot that the first few sips are painful. I know it's made hot enough when I can still feel the burn well after the coffee is finished. I want the last sip to still be hot when I finish.The last few times I've gotten coffee at the Starbucks on the way to my job, the first sip has been luke warm. Not even slightly hot. Now when you get a Venti it's pretty big, which means if the first sip is luke warm, you know what the last sip is? ICE COLD!!!!!!! The only time i like ice cold coffee is when it's blended in a Frappacino, not when it's in a latte made to be hot. So I started asking for extra hot. Now, the extra hot is much better than the not-so extra hot, but they still don't make it nearly as hot as I'd like. I think I may ask for extra extra hot. I haven't had a nice tongue burn in a while. Finally, no foam. This came about when I was watching one of the girls at Starbucks making my venti non-fat sugar-free hazlenut extra hot latte. She poured in the milk and she left, I'm so serious when I say this, 3 inches from the top of the cup empty. I thought to myself "She must be out of milk". No. In those 3 extra inches where that precious milky goodness should be, she plopped in a HUGE spoonfull of foam. Foam. Not coffee mixed with milk. Foam. She put the top on it and passed it to me. Now, foam is not coffee. In order to get to the coffee you have to drink through the foam. When there is 3 inches of Foam on the top of the coffee you have to practically tip the cup upside down for the coffee to reach you, or you have to take 7,896 sips of straight foam before being able to comfortably drink the coffee. I now ask for no foam. Fill that bad boy up to the brim with extra hot coffee, skim milk and sugar-free hazlenut, and I am GOOD TO GO!!!!!!!

2. Darko and I are usually homeless on the weekends. Since Dublin is the only big city in Ireland, people tend to flock here to have a good time on the weekends. This does not bode well for us regulars when we can't get a bed in a fucking hostel anywhere. We were able to get some this weekend, but only by calling around. We have to move from our current home in order to have a bed to sleep in. I hate Dublin on the weekends. There are people EVERYWHERE!!!!! And don't even try to go shopping on a Saturday. It won't work. I tried going to Penney's last weekend and thought I was going to get an elbow to the head when I picked up the last strand of black beads. It was insane. Since it's coming into the spring and summer, things are just going to get worse. I hate it.

3. Jess, you'll love this: I was reading the newspaper the other week and there was the following in the editorial page. It was titled "The truth about cats and dogs" and it read as follows: " In response to the question: 'Has anyone ever see a dog catch a cat?' the answer is complicated but very interesting. Cats are unique in their abiliities; they have nine lives, they can squeeze through spaces that appear impossible, they can fall off huge heights in comparison to their size and survive, etc. I have heard that people describe koala bears as 'cuddly', foxes as 'clever or cute' and polar bears as 'gorgeous' but when was the last time you saw one of those animals lying across your sofa? Cats have totally fooled humans into believing they are just friendly household animals. They are sophisticated, intelligent and surprisingly ruthless predators. They lounge aroudn accepting praise from their owners about their ability to clean themselves as 'mans best friend' gets hosed in the back yard. They purr with delight at the sight of a poor dog being dragged out in the cold for a walk. They are far too intelligent for a normal dog to catch. With all their attributes I believe that, if they were humans, they would all make very good polticians".

I kind of thought this was a cool editorial. I wan't sure whether or not it was complimenting cats or what, but most cat lovers would agree with most of what is being said. I still prefer dogs.

4. Everyone knows that the American work ethic is really strong. We work long days, weeks, months, years, and are not actually given a lot of time off in the mean time. I was browsing through my company handbook today and was shocked to come across their leave policy. First of all, they are given four weeks of leave time a year. Even brand new employees. In the states you're lucky if you get a week off the first year you are employed. Second, there are nine bank holidays a year. Random days, for no reason, are defined as bank holidays and the entire country has them off. One of the bank "holidays" is the first Monday in May. Ask me why? Go ahead, ask me? I HAVE NO IDEA!!!! It's no one's birthday, it's not a religious holiday. It's like someone woke up the first Monday in May years back, didn't feel like going to work, and deemed it a bank holiday. So bizarre. So that's four weeks, plus nine bank holidays, and seriously, like two weeks of sick leave. How amazing is that? Why can't it be like that in the states. The only people who get more than a week off a year are teachers. AND, the maternity leave here is so great. They really treasure and help their pregnant women. In the states you are allowed to take up to 12 weeks off for having a baby, and only 6 weeks of that is paid, and only if you've accrued six weeks worth of leave. So if you haven't accrued 6 weeks of pay, you have to go back to work pretty quickly after having a baby. Get this. Here, you get a MINIMUM of 22 weeks off PAID!!!!! PAID!!!!! Here's how it works. When you have a baby social welfare will pay you like 250 Euro a week guaranteed. Then, with a lot of companies, like mine for example, the company will pay you the difference from what social welfare is paying you to make up what they would have been paying you on a weekly basis. So for 22 weeks you don't have to work, you get to raise your baby, and you get the same salary that you would have if you were working. And even if you don't work for a company that pays you the difference, regardless, social welfare will pay you that 250 Euro a week. AND, after that 22 weeks, you can take an additional 12 weeks of lower pay, and still have your job when you get back. So you can take up to like 8 months off, with an income, and still have your job when you decide to come back. It's amazing. I don't know how they do it, but I can see why so many young people are having babies here. You don't have to work forever to save up for a child. And welfare is not looked down on here like it is in the states. Everyone gets it regardless of your position or status. It's great.

5. Darko's been watching tennis on my computer, which is fine, especially since I like tennis as well, but in order to write this blog, I came to the internet shop across the street from the hostel. The computers suck. There's this big black box in the middle of the screen that's blocking some of my view of the screen. It's ok, as long as I don't need to select anything under that box. Also, I tried using the free call thing-a-ma-bob to call mom, and it was all screwy as well. It really pisses me off when computers don't work.

So, I think that's about it. Oh wait. A couple of things about Darko. First, next weekend his friend Urban is coming to town for about 4 days. This is a friend from Slovenia. I'm really nervous to meet him. This will be the first real Slovenian friend I've met of his, other than the stupid girl who I met, who's in love with Darko. But I'm pretty sure for that four days that Urban is here I won't see much of Darko. Which is absolutely fine. Don't get me wrong. He needs to spend some quality time with some Slovenian people. Just like I would love to spend some quality time with some Americans. But I'm still nervous about meeting Urban. I really hope he likes me. All I need is for him to go back to Slovenia and be like "Oh my god, you would not believe the girl Darko is dating". Also, Darko joined this thing called Hi-5, which is like myspace but it's run by google. Well I was looking at his profile today and in the relationship status part he has "Open relationship". I looked at him and was like "excuse me?" and he was like "What?". I said "Do you know what an open relationship is?"And he said "It's a relationship that's out in the open?". I said "No, honey, it's not. It's when people are technically together, but dating or having sex with other people". He said "OH, well that's not what I thought it was, so I'm going to leave it", and I was like "Please don't leave it, other people know what an open relationship is, and I don't want them thinking you're in one". He left it anyway... You all know what an open relationship is, right? Yeah, me too...

Let's re-visit a popular Topic...

Things I hate (Sorry if there are re-peats from my earlier post)

Being bored

Not having anyone to talk to

Girls who walk around the city in high heels

Penney's on a Saturday

Dublin on a Saturday

Boys with PMS

Me with PMS

Inappropriate work attire

Greasy hair

Running out of Shampoo

European girls

Arrogance

When pharmacies don't have generic brands of drugs

Being told how to feel

Germans

Large groups of loud teenagers

Flies

Ugly people

Irritating people

People who know english but refuse to speak it

People who are too proud

Waiting for a movie to start

Not being able to see a movie when I want to

Buying magazines

Buying newspapers

Dirty laundry

Wet bathroom floors

Girls who do makeup in the only bathroom that she's sharing with 7 other people

Paying for internet use

Computers that don't work

Tourists

No sunglasses on a sunny day

Rap music

Ignorance

Being hungry

Oily food

Green exit signs

Anything with banana in it

Getting a drink without knowing it has banana in it

Purses that are too small

Clothes that are too big

People who don't work at all during the week and then complain on the weekends that they are tired

Figuring out how to use the bus system

Cars that run red lights

Bunk beds

Crying babies

Crying children

People who stand/walk too close to me

One outlet in a room with 8 people

Irish Bank hours

When things aren't open on Saturdays

Irish work ethic

European fashion

I'm back and let me just tell you... Scotland is AMAZING... but I'm happy to be back in Dublin...

Greetings from Scotland!! (well, not really, because we're back in Dublin now)

Well, ladies and gents. I am back from my holiday in Scotland. This is my favorite picture of the entire trip, and it was the last day. This was a stray dog that Darko befriended at the Millrace lodge in Navan. You'll hear more about that in a bit.

After a fun night of drinking on Sunday with the Swedes and other random travelers, we went to the airport at midnight, Sunday night/early Monday morning. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 in the morning, so we had some time to spare. Apparently there were a number of other travelers who had the same idea as us, to go to the airport and sleep, because there were no chairs left to sprawl out on. Therefore, we ended up on the floor. Since he is a boy, and apparently boys can sleep anywhere regardless of the surface, Darko fell fast asleep. I guess it helped that he was still a bit drunk from that night's festivities. I actually was able to sleep a bit as well, but I was awoken at about 2:3o by policemen asking to see our passports, to make sure we were actually at the airport for a reason. I had to wake Darko to get his passport, but shortly after that he was fast asleep again. I on the other hand, remained awake, and freezing. We were beside an open door, and we were on tile floors. Not a good combination when it's minus 30 degrees outside. Just kidding. It wasn't really THAT cold, but it was close. So I sit and listen to my ipod for a bit, occasionally getting up to walk around. We had decided to check in around 5, but at 4:30 I seriously thought I was going to freeze to death, so I woke Darko up, probably not a good idea, and we checked in for our flight. We were both a little irritated at that point, and I was a little worried this would have a bearing on the trip. BUT, it didn't. We both cheered up and began enjoying our time together. The flight took off on time and within an hour or so we had landed in Edinburgh Scotland. It was cold there. Colder than here in Dublin, but not entirely unmanageable. We jumped on the bus and headed into the city.

On the bus into the city, my Feder-bear went everywhere with us. Don't judge me.

This was me on the bus, after twenty four hours without showering, being up all night long, and managing a bit of a hangover. I think I look pretty good, considering.

We arrive at the hostel around 9, and our check in wasn't supposed to occure until 2, so, again, we had a bit of time to spare. Before leaving the airport, Darko had bought some really disgusting coffee. Not by choice of course, but still. At that point we needed a good cup of brew. So Darko invited me to Starbucks. We both had some really good coffee, and I said "You know why it's good? Because it's American." He started to laugh, but only because he knew it was true. So we hung out at Starbucks and then decided to walk around a bit. We made our way up high street and ended up at the castle on the hill. Let me pause here a second and tell you a little about the geography of Edinburgh. Everything is on a hill. I swear to god. You have to walk up steep STEEP hills to get anywhere. The only plus side to walking up the hills, is that when you get to leave, it's mostly downhill. The castle was no exception. However, the hill was not nearly as bad as it looked from the bus when we were coming into the city. We went to the castle. We didn't actually go in because it was 11 pounds (22 dollars) to go in and look around, and really, that wasn't necessary. So we just took some pics from outside. There was this cool horse statue that I told Darko to climb up on and sit, so that I could take a picture, but he didn't and this was as close as he got. Now, what's cool about this shot is that I sent my mother a postcard with this statue on it. I'm hoping she puts that, as well as this picture in the scrapbook. That, at least, was my intention when sending her the postcard. Hint hint, mother.

Considering we had both been awake for a while, with not much sleep, we decided to head back to the hostel. It was only about 11:30 at this point, so we still had some time. I fell asleep on one of the chairs, and Darko slept on the couch, until 2 when we were finally admitted into our room. After that we both desperately needed to shower. So we took showers, had some lunch, and headed back out. So we were just wandering around and we came upon a theatre, as in a stage theatre, not a movie theatre. Now we all know how much I love the theatre, but what most of you don't know is that SO DOES DARKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!! AND the show FAME had premiered that night and was going to be on all week. So I desperately begged Darko to take me, which wasn't that difficult considering he loves musicals just as much as I do. So we bought tickets for Thursday night, and I was as happy as a clam. At this point it was around 7:30 and we decided to look for a pub. Now, in Dublin, there is SERIOUSLY a pub about every other shop. Not so much in Edinburgh. We kept walking and walking and had not seen any pubs. Finally we stopped and asked, and were directed, up a hill, to what seemed like typically scottish pub. We went in, had one drink, decided we were exhausted, and left to go to sleep. That was Monday.

I forgot something. When we were booking our hostel we booked a 16 bed dorm, like we always do, because they are cheaper and not nearly as bad as one would think. BUT, when we got there and checked in, they had put us in a four bed room with another couple, and I don't think they charged us more for it. AND, there was one other couple in the room, but they left Tuesday morning, and we had the room to ourselves until Friday night. I seriously felt like we were on a honeymoon.

This was a memorial built for Sir Walter Scott. It was hard to get the entire thing, but this was the best angle.

Tuesday was slightly uneventful. We went to the gallery of art, and tried to decide what kind of tours we wanted to take. The art gallery was really nice. It had a few Titians, El Greco's, and Rembrandts. It was definitely not a waste of time. We sat for a while on the benches outside the gallery and talked for a while and discussed what we would do the following day. We concluded that we should take a tour of the highlands, so that's what we did. We booked the trip and then had some lunch. Our lunch consisted of scottish food at this adorable little Scottish pub, where Darko had Haggis, Neeps, and tatties (yeah, don't ask, cause really I'm not sure what they are) and I just had a chicken sandwhich. Since we had to get up early for our tour the next morning, we called it an early night on Tuesday.

The next morning we left for our tour at 8:15 in the morning. Up until that point I really hadn't heard that many Scottish accents, but the tour guide was a born and raised native, so he had a nice thick one. The highlands tour was amazing. The scenery was beautiful and it was so nice to just sit back and enjoy everything. All of the pictures of that tour are on facebook. I'll put some of the better ones up here.

8:15 in the morning, waiting for the bus.

Isn't this just adorable. I told you, Feder-Bear, everywhere.

Who thinks it looks like there was a picture of scenery and then Darko was cut out and placed in front of it?

We stopped for a bit of a rest.

There was a tour of a Whiskey Brewery. However, Darko and I had both seen breweries before. So instead of actually going on the tour, we found the bar and made our way through a few shots of whiskey on our own. This was the result :-)

This was the big yellow bus we spent most of the day on. How Pretty.

While on the tour, at one of the stops, Darko bought my Feder-Bear a companion. It should be noted that this is the first present he's bought me. I will treasure it always.

The highlands tour was so great. I would recommend it to anyone. We got back to Edinburgh around 5:30 and hung out for a while at the hostel. We made dinner and had a quiet evening in.

Thursday was bad. I was having one of those days. You know, the kind of day when nothing goes right and you just want to kill everyone around you. We went to visit some ruins, and I was irritated before we even left the hostel. And then it started to rain, and the wind was ridiculous, after it had been sunny not two minutes before. So then, the ruins, of course were up a hill, and then some steps, and then another hill. I wanted to kill someone, and it just so happened that Darko was the only person around me. If he had said "Come Katie", one more time, I seriously think I would have thrown either himself or myself off the side of the cliff we were walking up. I was so irritated. I knew I just needed to be alone for a little while, so at lunch I told Darko I was just going to walk around for a bit by myself. It worked. I walked around for an hour or so and was good as new. I had to be better, FAME was that night.

The play was good. The music was amazing as was the dancing. I think there was a problem with the sound system though. A lot of the songs were really hard to understand and I think it had to do with the fact that the actual MUSIC was much to loud, you couldn't hear the people singing. It was a bit frustrating at times, but still. When you could understand the words the songs were amazing, and when you couldn't, you knew they were good. I would definitely tell people to see FAME. It's a good show.


I need to pause here again. I can't tell you how much I laughed on Thursday night. Earlier in the week I made the mistake of saying that if he went to America, everyone would think that Darko was Russian. He was saying that he thought he had a pretty good American accent, and I said "No, people would automatically know you weren't American, and chances are they would think you were Russian". So, he actually started talking with a Russian accent, and started saying things that were so stereotypically Russian, that I just laughed and laughed. And he wouldn't stop. When you guys meet him, he'll have to do it for you. When you first meet him you don't really think about what his accent sounds like until you hear him talk with a different one, and realize it's not the same. I seriously thought I was going to pee my pants walking home from the theatre. I wish I could describe how funny it was. Man. I'm lauging just thinking about it now.



Friday we had lunch at Pizza Hut. That's right. I got him to eat American food, and he liked it. Then we did some shopping and talked about going to the zoo, but stayed at the hostel for a while instead. Everyone knows what a pub crawl is, correct? When you go to a bunch of different pubs in one area. They always have them advertised in hostels, but Darko and I decided to do one on our own. At around 7 we headed out and made the decision to just stop at the first pub we came to, have one drink, move on to the next, etc. Pub crawls in general are not very good ideas because you tend to drink A LOT. This was no exception. At every single bar we stopped at I had a pint of bulmers and a shot of Sambuca, except for one that didn't have Sambuca, at which I had some Jack Daniels instead, bleh. Raise your hand if you know what Sambuca is. It is the BEST liquere EVER. It tastes like liquorice and has a very sweet, like candy, after taste. It's dangerous because it hardly tastes of alcohol at all. So yes, by about the third pub I was feeling good, and by the sixth, I was gone. The last thing I clearly remember is taking four shots of Sambuca in a five minute period at the last pub we went to. I was COMPLETELY gone, as was Darko. I'm surprised we even made it back to the hostel. I vaguely remember getting in a taxi cab. At least we were coherent enough to do that, instead of trying to find our way home in a drunken stupor. That was our last night in Scotland, and sadly, we didn't take my camera, one because we had only like 10 pics left on my card, and two because we didn't want to lose it. We probably would have lost it.



The next morning was NOT fun. I wanted to die, and Darko remembered only 4 of the 6 pubs we had gone to. I on the other hand, could remember every single one. We spent, wait for it, 100 pounds. That ladies is 200 DOLLARS!!!! In four hours, for two people. I can't believe it, and Darko was convinced he'd been robbed because he couldn't remember some of the pubs we went to. 100 pounds. The ONLY time I've ever spent more than like 40 dollars drinking was at Toni's bachlorette party, and there was five of us drinking for like 8 hours. 100 POUNDS in FOUR HOURS for TWO PEOPLE was ridiculous. We were acting like we were millionaires. I can't say that I regret it though. I had the time of my life. I was not looking forward to getting on a plane though. We left Edinburgh at around 10:30 and headed to the airport to go back to Dublin.

This was Saturday March 17th. Who can tell me what day that was? That's right. St. Paddy's Day. Who can tell me what that means? That's right. There wasn't a single bed available in the ENTIRE city of Dublin. Instead of sleeping on the streets, we decided to leave the city and extend our holiday a bit. We went to Navan, a little town about 40 minutes outside of Dublin. We stayed at this place called the Millrace Lodge. It was so nice. Again, we had booked to stay in a dorm style room for like 20 euro a night, but this lodge is family owned and we were picked up in the town by the woman who owns the place, and she said she had worked it out so that we weren't in the dorm rooms. That's right. We stayed in the equivalent of a double room for 40 euro a night. A room like that in Dublin would have run 80-150 Euro, and we stayed there for 40. It was so nice. And because it was family owned and what not, the owner sat and talked with us, and got our opinion of the place, because this is her first season doing the hostel thing, and treated us really well. There was free internet, and a HUGE shower, that Darko and I were quick to take advantage of. We didn't do much while we were at the lodge, because it was snowing and neither one of us wanted to leave, but it was so comfy at the lodge that we just relaxed for the last two days of our holiday.


This morning we jumped on a bus and that is when our holiday officially ended. I am sad, as is he, that we are now back to reality. We both have to work tomorrow morning, and that is not going to be fun considering we haven't gotten up before like 10 for the past week. But it has to be done. We can't be on holiday forever. I can't wait for our next trip. I think it's going to be Rome in May to see the tennis tournament. Scotland was so awesome. I am so glad we went. I really think it was good for our relationship, and I just can't wait to do it again.

In closing, I would like to say that the following picture is the best picture I've ever taken of Darko. I always tell him that he looks so much better when he smiles, and this picture is proof of it. I look disgusting in it, which is why I am cut out, but he just looks stunning. I wish he would show his pearly whites in ever picture. But he won't.

Scotland and being homless...

Hello ladies and gents. I put this picture up, not because it makes Darko look hot or anything. On the contrary, he looks a bit funny. Apparently he wasn't ready for the picture to be taken. I on the other hand look stunning, not to be arrogant or anything, AND I was drunk off my ass in this picture. It's not everyday that you can be wasted and take a good picture. So, I thought I'd share it with all of you.

So this will be my last blog for a while, because, wait for it, I'LL BE IN SCOTLAND TOMORROW!!!!! WOO HOO FOR SCOTLAND!! I'm super excited. I wish we were already there. Seriously. It'll be nice to finally have a bed. By the time we get there tomorrow, all we're going to want to do is sleep. I'm sure a whole day is going to be wasted sleeping. Not cool. I might have to just suck it up and drink some coffee.

Why am I excited about having a bed you ask? Well because last night and tonight I am homeless. That's right. On the weekends the hostels get full weeks and weeks in advance. I started looking for a room two weeks ago to no avail. Everyday for the past two weeks I've enquired about a bed, to no avail. So last night comes along, and I don't have a bed to sleep in. I was a bit stressed out about it, but not so much. I knew we'd work things out. Because everyone here at the hostel loves me and Darko, they let us sleep on the couches in the lounge, which technically isn't allowed, but whatever. I don't think Darko slept much however. He was too worried about me being comfortable. I kind of felt bad though. If he hadn't had me with him he probably would have slept much better. I like that he was so worried about me though. It's sweet.

It'll be nice to get to Scotland and sleep in a real bed for once.

Well, I'm exhausted. Everyone enjoy their week. I know I will...

Bad moods and Sunshine...

I love my job. I seriously don't mind at all coming to work. I SERIOUSLY wish I could stay here. But, alas, this is my last week, because sadly, I'm just a temp, and even though the girl I'm temping for is going to be out of the office for at least another week or so, I have to go to Scotland next week. Is it bad that I kind of wish we had decided not to go anywhere, just so I could stay in my job? I know come Sunday night I'll be super excited about Scotland, but really, I just like what I do. I never thought I'd like a temping job, but seriously, this isn't like a temp job. I actually DO WORK!!! It's not just filing and typing. My name is actually on letters that are sent out to clients. I am changing databases and opening files. It's so great. I catch on quickly too. I know everyone here LOVES me and will be sad to see me go, especially since next week they'll probably have to get a new temp who isn't nearly as fast and smart as I am. Oh well. Scotland will be fun.

Although I love my job, it definitely keeps me busy and by the time I get home from work I'm so tired, all I want to do is sleep. That's how I felt last night. I was in bed by about 8, and asleep by about 9:30. It was probably better that I went straight to sleep because Darko wasn't in the best of moods either.

Today is his last day of the week because his vacation starts tomorrow. So I'm going to have to get out of bed at 7 and he gets to stay and sleep. Boo. I guess that's something to look forward to next week. Not having to get up at walk for 40 minutes just to get to work.

So, usually we sleep at the hostel, right? Our plane leaves at 6:30 in the morning on Monday morning, which means, in order to get there two hours in advance we would have to leave the hostel at like 3:45, which means we would have to get up by around 3:15. We decided not to book at the hostel and just sleep at the airport. Considering the fiasco I had in NYC last september when they told me the airport closed I was a bit skeptical. However, I refuse to pay 30 Euro to be in a hostel until 3 in the morning. That's just stupid. So I think we're just going to go to the airport at like 10, sleep on the benches till like 5, and then go check into our flight. At least I won't be by myself. That would be a little scary.

Today on my way to work there were people standing on the sidewalk passing out Smoothie drinks for free. Liter bottles of smoothie drinks actually. I though, hey that's cool, a whole liter of smoothie for free. So I took one... And realized why they were giving them away. It was seriously the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted in my entire life. It would have been really good if they had put on strawberries and yogurt in it, but they didn't. They had to add apple and grape, and the grape was incredibly overpowering. You don't realize how sour grapes really are until you mix them with other, not so sour fruits, like strawberries and apples. I still think it was kind of cool for them to be passing out liter bottles of drinks. Next time I hope it's coke zero or Bulmers. Probably won't pass out Bulmers on the street, but how cool would that be.

So I need to replenish my Wachovia account from here, and I don't know how to do it. I'm a bit skeptical about sending my pay checks through the mail to have my mother deposit them. What happens if the checks are lost in the mail, and how much of a delay would there be considering the checks are in Euro's and not Dollars. I thought about transfering money directly into my bank account, via a wire transfer, but that costs €30 per transaction. It may be the easiest way, however. I've never wired money before. Is it difficult?

There are just some things that annoy me about the irish...

The biggest thing is when they ask "Is that alright?" after every instruction they give, whether it's good or bad, or alright or not alright. "I need you to take out one random sheet of paper from all 50,000 files in our cabinets, photo copy it, and put it back in exactly the same place it was in before you took it out. Is that alright?" No it's not alright, and do you really care in the first place. Stupid.

Last night was so much fun...

After the fiasco with Mr. Jerinic going out after he said he didn't want to, the rest of yesterday turned out to be pretty fun. Darko was actually only gone for about two hours, one of which he spent looking for a place to change pounds into euro's. While he was gone Kaveh and I made dinner for us and Daniel. It was so good. It was pasta with this yummy sauce that Kaveh makes. I love when people cook for me, but this time I actually did some of the cooking. Darko came back right as we were finishing and I felt bad because we didn't save him any because I seriously thought he was going to be gone much longer than he actually was.

After dinner we played around a bit in our room, and then started watching a movie with Kaveh and Daniel. They have this great computer that can download movies really quickly, so they had downloaded The Good Shepard. However, we spent a good hour trying to get Slovenian sub titles in the movie, because, although he is completely fluent in English, it helps, especially with confusing movies like the Good Shepard, to have subtitles just for clarification so that if he doesn't understand something, we're not talking through the movie to explain. After fighting with the internet and desperately trying to get subtitles on the movie, to no avail, we decided to just try to watch it. But, the sound wasn't very good, so then we had a confusing movie that couldn't be heard, trying to be watched by someone who is not a native english speaker. So we just gave up.

Let me just pause here and say that we did not do anything on Friday or Saturday night. Nights, after which we wouldn't have to wake up early in the morning. Nope. We're rebels. We go against the grain. We decided to go out on Sunday night to celebrate the Lord's day. Sunday. Both of us have to get up ridiculously early in the morning during the week, but we decide to go out anyway. We went to this bar called the Celt Bar and it was so cool. They had a group of people playing traditional irish music and it was just a very cool environment. We met a group of Darko's friends there and had a grand ol' time. I met an Italian who had his tongue pierced. First person I've met with a tongue ring. So cool. Also, I got seranaded by two old irish dudes when they found out my name was Katie, smacked on the ass by one of the bar tenders, and a kiss on the cheek (is that how you spell that? I feel a bit retarded right now) from another old Irish dude. It was a fucking blast. I loved it. Both Darko and I were completely drunk at this point and we danced a bit to the irish music and then decided to leave.

When we get back to the hostel we see Daniel and Kaveh sitting there. Now, the logical and responsible thing to do would have been to go to bed since we had to get up in the morning. But no. We went out, AGAIN!!!! This time with Daniel and Kaveh in tow. We head to Temple Bar, the touristy part of town, and head into one bar, decide we don't like that one, and then go to this place called Fitzimmons. I'm going to pause here again and mention something that is really cool. I'm with three boys at this point. We walk up to the pub entrance where the bouncers are, they take one look at me, and nod me in without checking ID or anything. I head into the bar and turn around and realize that they have stopped all three boys to check ID. Fantastic. I love being a girl. The bouncers are so much more friendly to girls then boys. So Fitzimmons is a bar with a nightclub in the basement. We grab some drinks from the bar and head down to the basement, where we continue to get plastered and head to the dance floor. I have never had so much fun dancing with a boy in MY LIFE. Seriously. It was so much fun. I seriously want to do it all the time. He was ready to leave after a bit, but I convinced him to stay a bit longer and dance with me. So he did. We finally left around 1:30, leaving Daniel and Kaveh because they had run into people they worked with, and headed back to the hostel, where we passed out after about 2 minutes. I seriously had a blast.

Until of course I had to wake up this morning. Man do I have a hangover. I was hoping that I could come into work and that they wouldn't need me and I could go home. But the girl who I was temping for last week broke her leg and won't be in this week or next week. So, needless to say, I have to stay. But, it's not really a big deal because I don't mind my job. If I could stay here for the duration of my stay I would. I would love to be able to come in next week for this girl, but I'LL BE IN SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The weekend started out well, got really bad, and then ended on a high note, PLUS, mom bought me some jeans that she's going to send to me here in Ireland so I'm not spending 60 dollars on a pair of old navy jeans. Hopefully I'll get them by the time I get back from Scotland.

I know I need to, but I'm just not in the mood...

I know I should blog, but I just don't feel like it. It's been kind of a weird weekend. Friday night was much nicer than last Friday. We just stayed in, had some drinks, and then went to bed. Then Saturday was a weird day. We argued a bit in the morning, because, Darko, being Eastern European, doesn't understand that we as Americans generally don't just say what's on our minds. Like, if we don't like something you have on, something you do, etc, we generally don't bring it up. He decided he didn't like what I was wearing, and I, liking what I was wearing, refused to change. I told him if he didn't like what I was wearing he could go out without me. He said no, and so we left, but both of us were pissy at that point.

But we went to a pub to watch the Liverpool v. Manchester United soccer game, on which we had bet 50 pounds, him on Manchester, me on Liverpool. It was such a good game. The way they were playing Liverpool should have won, but in the extra time at the end of the game, they screwed it up and let Manchester win, causing me to lose $100 to Darko's boasting ass. He didn't hesitate to tell EVERYONE that I had lost money on the game. That pissed me off as well. Then we were supposed to go to the art museum, but decided against that and instead just hung out at the hostel.

Then today, talk about being pissed off, it was raining outside, so Darko told me he didn't feel like doing anything because it was bad weather. So I said fine I'll go out without you. So I went shopping with money I didn't have, then came back to the hostel refreshed. Until his fucking Slovenian girlfriend called and said she wanted to hang out. So what does he do? Does he tell her that he doesn't want to go out because the weather is bad? Nope. He goes to meet her. That's right, ladies and gents, the Slovenian goes to meet his fucking cunt in the rain. After he was supposed to go to his friend Claudio's house but decided not to cause it was raining, and after he told me he didn't want to go out, he goes out to meet her. Now, I guess to be fair, I should tell you that they've been trying to hang out for the past couple of days to no avail, but still. Don't fucking tell me you don't want to go out because it's raining, and then go out because she calls. I'm really not jealous of her, I'm just pissed off at him. Ok, well, maybe I'm a little jealous. Haha. But still.

I need new jeans... K... I'll blog soon again... I promise...

Ok, another quickie as I'm running out the door...

Let's see... Again this is gonna be quick becuase I have to go to work... bleh. Work sucks. I'm doing the same damn shit I was doing in the States which I swore I wouldn't do once I got here. But it pays well, and my funds are running a tiny bit low, so I can't complain. At least at this job they actually have me doing real work, not just filing and typing. I've taken the place of one of the office administrators for the week and I'm actually doing her job, and it's only been two days. It's amazing what they trusted me to do on only my second day. Yeah, it's a bit stressful.

Darko and I are going to Scotland on March 12. We've booked our tickets and hostel and are just trying to plan everything while we're there. We'll be there from Monday to Saturday. I am so super excited, I just can't tell you. We decided against Slovenia, because part of our fight on Friday was about Slovenia and we thought there might be a cloud over the whole trip. So we're off to Scotland. It's like our first Vaca together. Man I'm excited. It'll be nice to get out of Dublin for a while. Isn't that funny. I came to Dublin to get away from the states, and now I need a vacation from Dublin. Weird.

I hate when boys are naive. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Darko has this friend named Anya. She is Slovenian living in Dublin. I've met her once for five minutes, seriously, for only five minutes. She thinks Darko deserves better than me and can't believe he's with me. She knows this after only five minutes. I said to him "She likes you, that's why she's angry about us". He doesn't believe it. He said "She doesn't like me, she just hangs around me because we're both from Slovenia". Seriously. The only time a girl gets angry about someone her male friend is dating is when she likes him. When a girl says "You deserve better" she means "I'm better". He thinks I'm just being jealous, but the thing is, I'm not jealous of her. He's never with her. He's with me. I'm merely stating my opinion that she likes him, and I know this because, well, all girls are the same regardless of what country she comes from. I just don't appreciate the fact that she's making snap judgements of me after meeting me for only five minutes. That means she judging me on my looks not my personality, and she thinks he deserves someone better looking. Fucking cunt. Haha. Even though he was being so naive he was kind of sweet about the whole thing. Well, sort of. Sweet in his Eastern European abrubt manner, like when he said "If I wanted to play around I would, and I wouldn't be with you, and I would tell you that". Or when he said "She thinks I deserve better, but she doesn't know you". Or when he said "If she liked me don't you think she would have done something about it, at least for one night". I'm under the impression that he liked her at one point, maybe she rejected him, and now that he's with me she doesn't like it. Hey, that sounds a bit familiar, yes? Anyway. If I ever see that bitch on the street... Haha... just kidding. I wouldn't give her the time of day... Actually, I probably wouldn't even recognize her since I only saw her for five minutes.

Bleh, ok... I need to go to work... toodles...