Wednesday; GAA, EY, and Other, All-Letter Organizations

If the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) visit had been on a different day than the EY (Ernst and Young) visit, we wouldn't have had to march around the stadium wearing suits.  But, it was not so bad.  We briefly met with the executive from GAA, then toured the stadium with this really cute, if slightly hunchbacked 21 year old hurling player. 

When I saw the GAA on our schedule, I initially thought, oh, well that's cool and cultural, but not a super cool spot.  Well, after watching Gaelic football on tv, and with a hurling match coming up on Saturday, we all had endless questions for this kid.  And, OH EM GEE, ESPN is going to start playing football and hurling.  Probably at really late hours, but I'm going to dvr it so we can watch and learn.  It's my new favorite blood sport.  Hurling seems a little too rough, but football is amazing.

Hurling has the same kind of Viking quality as football.  But it is much, much rougher.  Google search a hurley stick.  They are like hockey sticks mixed with bludgeons.  The top edge of the hurley paddle is slightly pointed, and the bottom end is wide like a mallet.  They are made of ash wood, but are edged with metal, which makes their points and mallets even more dangerous.  Players can slash with these hurleys, and hit the living crap out of each other.  Only two years ago, they made it a rule to wear a helmet.  It is absolutely brutal.  The little ball is like a baseball with the edges of the seams sticking out instead of tucked inside.  It's called a sliougher.  A "slit-her".  Right.

The boys played with the hurleys and slioughers, to see how good they could get.  Within the game, the players serve to themselves and hit the ball like baseball.  It's similar to lacrosse and baseball and battle all at once.  I asked Shane, our tour guide, about the pronunciation of Cuchillain.  It was written on the wall, and I had been saying it phonetically, but he said it was pronounced "coo-Kill-in."  Not coo-chill-ay-ne.  Shane also said that the GAA replaces hurleys for free, and they get broken a lot.  His team went through 26 hurleys in 12 games.

We went to EY afterward, and had lunch with them.  We socialized for a while over sandwiches, which was fun.  Everyone at EY loved the states, and had been several times, so we talked about travel for a good portion of the time.  the presentation about EY unfortunately occurred in very comfortable chairs after lunch, so I was a bit drowsy.  But fairly quickly they moved on to the mini case competition.  I saved the paperwork, so we can look at the task.  We had about an hour to decide on a recommendation for Delicious chocolates, a fictional company that sells luxury chocolates in the UK and US.  We could choose from one of four recommendations, either to expand into Europe, into Australia, into a new product line, or sell out to a larger firm.

We didn't get to choose our groups, but our group was fairly business heavy, and we did a pretty good job.  We decided to expand into new product lines.  Nearly everyone suggested slight modifications to the provided options, and no one suggested that Delicious sells out.  Dale's team won, and they did a really good job.

After EY, we changed out of our suits, and Lauren, Dale, Evalina and I went to find a music store to buy a drum and a tin whistle.  I really hesitated over getting a drum, and decided against it for the short run, to keep from toting it all over.  I did buy a tin whistle, which is much like a recorder.  It's a bit hokey, but I like it.  I also bought an Irish song book, and I'll buy the other copies in the US to be cheaper.  I think I've decided not to get the drum, because it's not really the kind of instrument you can play alone.  If I was going to take up an Irish sport, it would much more likely be the harp, or in the meantime, take up the guitar and piano again.

We hustled over to dinner at Jo' Burger near Jameson.  I didn't sit near anyone I liked, which was challenging, and always kind of kills my mood.  Leta was picking up on my bad mood, and we had a little chat about it alone after dinner.  It was not the most helpful conversation, because telling me to change my perspective and to go out with everyone else, is not really useful.  No one here is a particularly beautiful drunk, and I just don't want to have to see it.  So, after my unproductive meltdown with Leta, I went back to the hostel.

The majority of the group was having another lock in, where everyone sits together in one of the rooms and drinks together, which is nicer than pubs because at least it's cheaper.  Byron is I think just generally very nice, because he ran down stairs to get me a cup for my wine, so that I don't get sick.  I had a little wine, and I looked around, and did what I always do, which is count people, and I realized that there were 21 people in the room.  I looked around the room and realized that the only people who were missing were my friends.

So I went to find Lauren and Marnie, and they were with Dale and Tanner playing cards.  So we played rummy for a while, and Marnie won a lot, but I think only because she cheated a lot and drew twice, and her and Dale were fixing all the games.  Then we switched to spoons, which I proceeded to lose every single time, and I was a bit of a poor sport about it.

I'm not sure how we transitioned to that table game where everyone overlaps their hands, and you try to keep the tap going around the table (two taps reverses the direction, and a fist skips the next hand, mistakes and you lose that hand), and it was the best game ever.  We had a wonderfully stereotypical hostel moment when these three French kids joined our game and played too.

Tanner was really getting into this game, and Dale really wanted to keep a decent beat going, and it was down to only a few hands left.  It was Dale's left hand, Tanner's right, Lauren's right, and Tanner's left still in play.  Dale passed it to Tanner, who skipped the next hand (which was Lauren's).  He was trying to keep the beat going for Dale, and hit his fist down hard and locked eyes with Dale.  Lauren knew that her hand was skipped, but Tanner didn't realize that his hand was next.  He looked down at his left hand, and waited for it to tap until he realized that it was HIS hand.  We all cracked up, it was so funny, and when Tanner and Dale laugh really hard, they both get really red faces and cry.  So here were these two boys, looking at each other, laughing and crying, and Lauren, Marnie and me laughing at the pair of them.

We wrapped it up about 11:30, and I headed straight to bed, after a very great finish to the day with my four really good friends.