FB and Jameson

I meant to mention in my last post two things about the Gaelic football match.  First, this little boy came over and was asking for money to get a better sports field at his school, but he never took his shirt out of his mouth while he was talking, and I had to read the pamphlet to find out what he wanted.  I don't know if he was nervous, or just yet another unruly Irish child.  Anyway, I can't not give money to kids asking for money, so I gave him 5 euro and wrote my address as America.  He was nonplussed about the broke American college student who just forked over a bunch of her allowance for you kid.

Secondly, Gaelic football is a strange mix of random sports, but mostly, it is absolutely brutal.  One guy got his collarbone stepped on by a cleat, and one guy got his feet swept out from underneath him and face planted.  If someone is rude to you, you just push him over.  There's no stopping for injury time either, they never stop the clock.  If you lay there and bellyache, it's a bit of a faux pas.  It's a gentleman's agreement to be rough but not hold a grudge.

Anyway, onto today.  We dressed up and headed out for Facebook first thing.  We couldn't take pictures while we were there, but there are a few floating around I'm sure.  The building is this big glass building, that's 6 stories high, which is one of the highest buildings in the city.  From the sixth floor rooftop porch, we could see the offices for several other tech companies such as Google.  It is so cool inside, and we were obviously overdressed.  They offered us tons of food, they have food everywhere. 

Most of the stuff Rick Kelly (the marketing director for the games section) told us was proprietary and I can't repeat, but I can say that they are blaming Android for the Messenger privacy app confusion, because Android's terms and conditions are really general, and of course, if new Messenger will let you chat with non-Facebook friends from your contacts, it will have to access your contacts.  And if new Messenger will let you make phone calls, it will have to turn on your microphone.

Anyway, he talked about how the ads in our newsfeed is because the giant growth in mobile device use has made right side banner ads fairly obsolete.  And he said that they filter your feed by people you interact with often first, and then postings that are particularly commented on or liked from people you rarely talk to will get forced into your feed; all of that filtering is because we still have the same amount of disposable time but everyone is posting 9 times more stuff per day than they did even two years ago.

The whole office is really chill, and they have lots of food because the corporate mentality is that if you're at work, you should be at work, and not worrying about getting food for breakfast or lunch.  I wonder how much time people spend there, because he said you can get dinner too, and there are toothbrushes and toothpaste in the bathrooms.

The building was designed by the same guy who built the German Googenheim (sp?) museum.  We could see a Lego wall on the second floor, and there was a meditation room and a nap room.  It's definitely one of those progressive, new age work places.  It was really cool and invigorating to talk to Kelly.  He was from Boston originally, and then came to Barcelona to work for Yahoo, and then got picked up by Facebook five years ago, and is moving here permanently.  He thinks he's held on to his Boston accent, but as fresh Americans, we can hear that he has none left.  He sounds American at best.

After Facebook (which required a slightly harrowing and dangerous taxi ride both ways.  I rode in the front with Todd -- UW teacher who also wanted to come on this trip -- on the way to Facebook, and the taxi driver wanted to talk about Ferguson.  He said he knows more about American current events than Irish.), Tanner, Toto, Dale, Lauren, and I found a sandwich place to eat.  I got a panini because my slacks are INCREDIBLY tight, and I need them to be slightly less tight if I want to not be the world's first living black pudding (aha!  You see, it's funny because black pudding is a blood sausage, and I feel like a sausage, but also, my suit is black.).  I also got this really cute juice that was black currant and apple flavored.  It was tart and fruity, and a rosy purplish color.

After food, we had about an hour and a half, so we went on a quest to find Penny's, the little department store that Leta loves so much.  We're all in our suits, and I wore heels because I'm stubborn, and it was raining, but we found it, and it was very awesome.  Things are exceptionally cheap, and within minutes of arrival, I found a bag to replace the one I spilled coffee on at home (10 euro), and some darling flats to replace the heels I stubbornly wore (8 euro), and a loofa to replace the loofa I didn't remember to stick in my suitcase (1.50 euro).  In and out for less than 20, and I am totally satisfied.  The shoes are basically made of plastic, which is perfect because it was rainy and they were like little rain boots.  But maroon Mary Jane flats, not boots.  The bag is just a canvas-y white and blue striped weekender bag.  The loofa is just a loofa.

We booked it back really quick, and marched right back out into the rain to go to the Jameson tour.  Jameson is just over the river a few blocks, so we all walked (no taxi!).  The tour was slightly hokey, the turned the original distillery into a museum because they couldn't produce their global production in the original site anymore, as of 1980, so the main distillery is now in Cork.  Rick Steves recommended the tour in Cork because you can actually go through the factory, but apparently Leta didn't ask me.

We had a snarky little guide named Adam, who found us all very silly in our suits, and seemed a bit bitter about the whole "Prohibition killed Irish Whiskey" thing.  We ended the tour with a tasting, and he explained the difference between Irish triple distilled whiskey, twice distilled Scotch whiskey, and once distilled American whisky.  Flavor-wise, Irish whiskey is smooth, and a little vanilla and honey flavored from aged barrels.  Scotch dries the barley over peat fires, which gives the whiskey a smoky, hot flavor, and American whisky is corn based, and single distilled, so it's sweeter and fresher from new oak barrels.

Then this lady from marketing came to talk to us about the brand and positioning of Jameson.  America is the biggest market, and the fastest growing, and she talked really fast, but I took notes.  You can look up the Legends of John Jameson ad on youtube, the Iron Horse one is the best.

After Jameson, Lauren and I were going to go to Butler's, which is a hot chocolate house, but we wanted to change out of our suits first so they weren't completely soaked.  Then we realized that the nearest Butler's was a bit of a ways away, so we, along with Dale and Tanner, went to the Peacock Green tea and coffee house instead, and sat in the little upstairs parlor and talked.  I really like them a lot, and I think they are a good group to have with us.  Lauren and I can speak very candidly about how glad we are to have each other, but the boys are less expressive?  So we can only assume, since they always stand with us and go with us to places, that they want to hang out with us.

Anyway, there are just a few other things.  Dinner was ok at this really cool pub that was at least four stories high, with winding wooden staircases among the dining floors.  We ate upstairs, and just as Lauren and I were heading out, we found these musicians were playing on the ground floor.  There were three Irish flautists, two violinists, a banjo player and a guitar player, and they were just jamming.  The flautists were going so fast!  It takes such stamina to play like that.  I said to Lauren that I would rather spend 50 euro on an Irish flute than a bottle of Jameson, so now we're on a quest to find one.

At the table near the musicians, this little girl started eye balling me, and I tried to talk to her, but she obviously spoke a different language.  I started talking to Lauren and Marnie again, and I got a little tug on my sleeve.  She wanted to show me this video of her and her dad swimming at the pool in their hotel, and that's when I noticed that the commands on the camera were in Spanish, and I talked with her dad in the greatest Spanglish ever.  It was a really cute, because when I started to talk to her in Spanish, she was suddenly really surprised that I was talking to her in a language she understood.

Back at the hostel, there was some kind of lock-in, and it was a little too crowded for me, so I left and went to shower.  Lauren and I chilled in the hostel social room downstairs, which included me totally eavesdropping on her Skype call to her parents...  Sorry Lauren.