Patrick in Spain

Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

We got to Dublin early this morning around 7AM. Unfortunately, this was a little too early to check into our room, so we had to do something to kill the time. Even though we couldn’t officially check in yet, they let us eat the complimentary breakfast, which was nice. I wasn’t too tired, but after breakfast, most everyone else took a nap on some couches in the lounge. I guess I mostly just checked email and wrote the Liverpool post. Speaking of the Internet, there was free wifi in the building and the rooms, so big score there.

I finally woke everyone up from their nap around 10:30 AM when it was time to go on this free walking tour thing they had. We followed this redheaded Irish guy around for 15 minutes where he mostly just talked to one person. It was kind of terrible. Then, we actually arrived into a big crowd only to realize that what we just experienced wasn’t part of the tour, he was just getting us to the beginning of the tour. So, we adjusted our disappointment meters back down and gave him a second chance. Fortunately for us, it was awesome from that point on. The guy was really entertaining and shared a lot of facts about Irish history. He made some jokes about the Irish not being very good at naming things or planning, but all of his stories were really good.

Apparently in Ireland, they don’t say “What’s up?” or “What’s going on?”, they say “What’s the crack?” While crack does also refer to crack cocaine there, unless you’re using it in a drug related context, crack typically refers to fun or a good time. In many of his stories, Ireland “called” some other nation (obviously a jest in some cases since they wouldn’t have had phones at the time). Every time he did that, it was “Hey Spain, what’s the crack? What do you think of the English?” or “Hey Germany, what’s the crack? We think we could use your help.” So, we all found that pretty entertaining.

The tour ended up being rather long and afterward we went back to Jacob’s Inn, checked in, and took a nap. The room was a 10 person room, but our remaining two roommates wouldn’t be checking in till later that night. There was one bathroom + shower in the room, and there were couple community bathrooms + showers  in the hall, which was rather convenient. By the time we got out again, we were really hungry. We stopped at this Georgian (as in the country) restaurant where they had a student discount and had all you can eat. It was totally delicious, and we certainly ate our fill.

I was starting to get a little burnt out on people after spending the past week in close proximity to 8 individuals, a couple of which I found that I didn’t quite see eye to eye with, and I needed to call Wachovia one more time about a fee that seemed incorrect, so I went to the lounge downstairs, which was quiet at the time. After I got all set up, I made my call. It turns out that the fee was supposed to be there, unfortunately.

I chilled out in the lounge for a while and played couple games from Kongregate.com, which is a pretty easy way to waste time when you’re feeling a bit brain dead. I might’ve watched something from Hulu or the major network channels, but those don’t work over here. Bleh, stupid licensing. Anyway, I was enjoying the quiet when a lady lead  herd of children in to watch a movie on the big projector screen. I still wasn’t quite in the mood to head back yet, so as I played my game, I watched most of Johnny English. I’m not really sure how those children choked it down, but it seems that they actually enjoyed it. It’s a spy movie parody starring Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean fame. The movie was dreadful to say the least, and I don’t know that I’d even consider exposing children to it. IMDB’s rating of 5.7/10 is generous, and I think it deserves closer to a 4.7/10.

I figured it would be best to get a post in before leaving the States. I’ve accumulated most of the stuff I think I’m going to need for the trip except a camera, which I’ll shop for Sunday. Plane leaves Monday (May 11th), and I’ll be flying Delta with the rest of the group. I’ve got a few books to read and a new laptop battery, so I should stay pretty well entertained.

I got a number of things from Rick Steve’s Travel Store like a money belt, small lock, travel guide, and phrase book. I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and I hope that with that and the phrase book, I’ll make it just fine. From what I understand, many of the residents of Barcelona speak Catalan (Wikipedia, Ethnologue, Multitree) and Spanish, and they do not speak so much English on the whole. I figured as much, and I’m prepared to mostly be speaking Spanish when not in the room or at school. Speaking of which, I’ll be attending the University of Barcelona.

Krystal and I watched Disney’s Bolt today. It was pretty great. A good, cute, kids movie that was still enjoyable for us. It was definitely one of the better things I’ve seen recently. There was a lot of light-hearted humor, and it was not weighed down by the darker parts. Overall, it’s a pretty solid movie for just about anyone, safe for work, kids, and those with delicate sensibilities. It actually felt a lot like a Pixar film, in my opinion, and while Disney owns Pixar, it does not seem like they actually did any work on it, so good job Disney.