Sunday, September 6, 2009

That Just Happened

Ok- I know I already put up a ridiculously long post today, but I just thought I'd fill you in on the rest of my day. After deciding to sleep in, I figured I would go to church this evening as the Methodist Church downtown said that they had a 7pm contemporary service online. So after going out last night, I realized where I would need to get off to find this church. I get myself all pumped up and dressed up to go and by the time I got to the bus stop- the bus was right there. Perfect timing!

Downtown was crazy tonight! The National Hurling Finals were this evening in town and people were sporting their team's colors everywhere. I Even saw a tractor rolling down O'Connell street decked out in one of the team's garb. I should have snapped a picture but I was too creeped out at that moment and on a mission to find the right bus stop to take me back to campus.

Why was I creeped out you might ask, especially with my whole mission of going to church? I hadn't found the church yet and I'm standing at this street corner pulling out my map when a foreign man approaches me. He gets my attention and I'm thinking this is funny if he is going to ask me for directions, but again, map in hand I felt like we might be able to figure something out. Through broken English we establish each other's names and where we're from. He then asks if we are friends? I looked at him very puzzled and said that I am a friendly person yes, and realized something is kind of fishy from that point. I ask him if I can help him find something and he says no, and then proceeds to tell me he is a wealthy businessman from Egypt and is a tourist here, that he has a lot of money and staying in a nice hotel and asks if I want to get a drink. I tell him no thank you and that I was actually trying to find a church, thinking he would get the hint that I'm not that kind of girl. Well then he proceeds to ask me if I want to go shopping- clothes, shoes, purses? I again politely declined his offer and wished him a nice evening and walked on. The entire conversation lasted about 4 minutes. Seriously? I just wanted to go to church- not picked up by some Egyptian businessman!

I realized I had passed the church actually as it was part of the store-fronts and not a stand alone church. I found their signs where their services were listed different than the ones posted on the Internet. Totally creeped out and disappointed, I made a V-line back to the bus stop. I crowded to the front of the line because I just wanted to go home. I even managed to get the prime front seat on the upper deck of the bus :) Once off my feet I realized why flats are so popular here- Europeans do way too much walking to live in heels! At least I had a nice conversation with a first year coming back for school after visiting home for the weekend. About the only good thing that happened it seemed this evening.

I did muster up enough energy from earlier to go running. IN THE RAIN! That's dedication right there. My future sister-in-law's bridal shower was today (actually probably going on right now as I'm posting this). I hope its a blast and that she likes my gift ;) Its a little honery, but being the sister of the groom, I can get away with that! I gotta stay at least the same size or even better for the wedding in December and figured I should get used to running in the rain since it rains here so much. But, just as the rest of my day's plans seemed to go a stray, the rest of the afternoon has been very pleasant and semi-sunny- go figure! The other person on the track was even kinda creepy too- ugh... creepy men!

So, dressed up and no where to go, I think I'm just going to settle in with a nice book and make an early night of it because school starts tomorrow :) I'm not going to let today's encounters get me down! I'm super pumped for school- yes I'm a dork- I even took a facebook quiz once to see what I was between a dork, nerd and a geek, with the results of a dork!

Cheers!

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