Tupperware

All three of my roommates, Larissa, Ryan, and Andrew, moved in at the same time yesterday afternoon.  Ryan and Andrew are American and Larissa is Brazilian. Brazilians also say hello with a kiss on the cheek, but only one. They later explained the awkwardness of this when they meet French people, who do two kisses. Larissa quickly settled in and then we went to her friend's house that is also a part of the Merville Residences. We met Adriana's French roommate and then went to the pub on campus together. I got a Jameson on the rocks for my first drink in Ireland. I can't have beer so I have been trying to figure out what I can have when I go to pubs. Oh, by the way, an "Irish Breakfast" gets you food in Ireland, not Jameson with Irish cream and an orange juice. Larissa and Adriana, who have been here for a semester already, told us about how different the guys are here and how shy they are. They told me that I was much easier to understand than the Irish because, "the Irish speak with a potato in their mouth." Word. For. Word. I don't think that can be put more accurately or historically.  Apparently there is a club on campus as well and it is open (and full) every day of the week. People go out here at 5pm and usually start to turn in around 11pm. This way you avoid cover fees at the door and the buses stop running at 11pm. You can always take a cab back but it's more expensive. There is the equivalent to the D-Bus here, but you can't call it unless you have a group of about 20+ people or you have to catch it at the bus stop.

Adriana and her French roommate were trying to explain some of the things they needed to buy and were looking to me a little bit to find the English word for what they were describing. Adriana went off in Portuguese to Larissa, frustrated she couldn't find the word she was looking for. I heard her say "tupperware" somewhere in there and repeated it to her and her roommate did the same. Of all things, tupperware seems to be a universal word. 

It snowed here yesterday and most of the Brazilians had never seen it before. It was like watching a little kid in Disney World. They were completely, utterly entranced. I didn't anticipate it being this cold here, so I came a little unprepared. I have a few hats and gloves, but I've been avoiding my North Face jacket because I really want to beat this negative American stereotype. So far I have been layering jackets, but today is going to break me. It is supposed to rain most of the day and even though it say 39 degrees, it feels like 25. 

I'm getting a bit of a late start this morning because last night I went back to Adriana's house. Hanging out with the Brazilians is like being home again in Waterbury Hall. They are such a welcoming culture and invite me to everything. There are a lot of them here to the point where they joke that we might actually be in Brazil instead of Ireland.