Gaelic Football.

Things around here haven't been particularly exciting, until today. Today was the All-Ireland Football Championship, and it was played just a few blocks away in Dublin. There's regular football here (i.e. soccer), and then there's Gaelic football. This would be the latter. It's worth googling a clip of. You use your hands, you have to dribble, there is a lot of punting, and there are sort of field goal posts and a net. If you get it in the net, that's a goal. If you punt it between the posts, that's a point. One goal is the equivalent of 3 points. There are 2 halves each 35 minutes, and it is very physical. This match was a particularly big deal, because the Dubs (team from County Dublin) haven't been in the final in 16 years, and they were playing against County Kerry, who is one of the best teams ever in the game. Last night while I was in the pub I met a family of Dubliners who had all come back to town for the game and were celebrating just being in the final. Irish people sing in the pub all the time, and this was no exception. They were singing all sorts of songs, Irish and American, and having a noisy, fun-loving time. So of course I had to join in. But back to the big game, no one really expected Dublin to win. It's fairly close the first half, and ends with Dublin up by 1 point. Into the second half, Kerry pulls ahead (like everyone expected) until they are 4 points up on Dublin, and it starts to look like the games over. But then Dublin scores a goal, and Kerry is only ahead by one.....and naturally there are only a few minutes left on the clock. A minute later Dublin nabs another point, and the whole game is tied up. With maybe 20 seconds to go, the Dublin goalkeeper gets to take a penalty shot of sorts and it goes right between the posts, meaning Dublin won the All-Ireland Championship. It was a lot like being in downtown Pittsburgh when the Steelers win the Superbowl. The city just went crazy.

Tomorrow (after all this excitement) starts the first day of my program's (or programme's as they spell it here) introductory week. It doesn't count for anything, but there are some lectures and I will get to meet the other students in the program and my professors. I'm excited to finally be getting started. Better get a good night's sleep....