I really hate Halloween. Not because it's pagan, or the priest says we shouldn't celebrate it, but because I never get to go to a costume party with a girl in the sexy nurse outfit. Not that I even get invited to swanky costume parties, but if I did, they would still suck because I'd be going alone... as Pagliacci. Maybe it's payback for all the tee-peeing I did as a youngster. Or maybe if I wanted sexy nurses, I should have stayed at the IU med center, and worked hard, and gotten a surgery or dermatology residency. Another check that will never be made on the life-list. I'll have to settle for the 43 things Amazon.com can sell me.

Tonight I heard explosions and chanting of "Allahu Akbar" outside off my window. I'm not going to lie, I thought the worst. But it was actually a weird coincidence. The fireworks were early Guy Fawkes revelers (fireworks are supposedly illegal here.. but people light bigger stuff on the street here than I ever see in good old Indiana) and when I went to my window to check, young children streaming out of the nearby elementary school. (Yes, I have the misfortune of also living next to an elementary school; as if anyone was coming to visit anyway) They must have been having some sort of early Eid celebration?

I was a bit embarrassed at my reaction, but I will preface it with what happened last week. I was in Chinatown and all of a sudden the waiter tells me to get away from the window. I see colored light bouncing off the ceiling and tell him I want to get out of there. He leads me out a back stairway into an alley. Out in the open I see that the Leicester Square tube stop is surrounded by police tape in a radius of about 200 yards. As I briskly walk away, I hear a sound reminiscent of dropping a firecracker in a garbage can. False alarm, but disconcerting nonetheless.

A few more observations about Ireland:

Flying from Chicago with a layover in Boston and then driving across the island in a manual Fiat on the wrong side of the road for the first time is a pretty Herculean task. Pretty impressive.

Ireland is the first country I've ever been to where people don't look at me like I'm a Martian when I tell them my name. EVERYONE recognized it and could pronounce it. Luckily I have a good Catholic name.. and the public tv station stops at 12 pm and 6 pm everyday for the Angelus prayer. If only other countries were so well organized.


Some of the people were difficult to understand, but the bilingualism is a sham. Most public signs of any consequence are in English only. I have to agree with my roommate that the signs of various locations are only in Gaelic to appease tourists and maybe nationalists (Brussels will make short work of that sentiment). Despite taking it for 14 years in school... no one can seem to speak the language. If they were serious about it, they could do it. The Jews resurrected Hebrew after all.