Notre Dame vs. Navy: The American Invasion

In preparation for the BCS National Championship game tonight between Notre Dame and Alabama, I thought it was a good time to rewind to Notre Dame's very first game of the season. This, of course, took place in none other than Dublin, Ireland! Perhaps it was the Luck of the Irish that led them to victory in that game and the title of the only undefeated football team this year (aside from the ineligible yet perfect Buckeyes... Urban Meyer, what!?).

Despite what tonight's championship brings, Notre Dame's first game brought our first visitors and made for a fun weekend. Fun, but also overwhelming! It was estimated that some 35,000 Americans descended upon Dublin for the Emerald Isle Classic, hence my referral to it as the "invasion." After living in Ireland for a bit, my senses went into overdrive from the ubiquitous sounds of boisterous American voices and sights of ball caps, tennis shoes, logoed polo shirts and lanyards. It was nuts having that many Americans here in Dublin!

We braved the tourist-ridden Temple Bar area, which we rarely visit as it is, 2 days in a row to meet friends for a night out and the pre-game Tailgate Party. As you see above, the streets were crowded as far as the eye could reach in every direction. Like I said, it was quite overwhelming, but we made it through the masses to a rooftop bar, where we planted ourselves to watch the game and enjoyed an uncharacteristically beautiful day.

Even though the city was packed and I was asked every day for weeks if I was visiting for the game, it was a blast. It's always great to show friends your city, and get a little reenergizing boost from home. It seemed like all the visitors had a great time in Ireland and it was a successful event for The Gathering, an Irish tourism initiative encouraging people with Irish ancestry to visit the country (the weekend was rumored to have brought in ~ €100 million!).

We won't be able to watch the game tonight since it starts at 1:00 AM for us, but best of luck to the Fighting Irish! We're rooting for you from across the pond!

The First Thanksgiving... Abroad

I know it was Thanksgiving on Thursday, but it still doesn't feel like it. This was the first one I wasn't able to spend with my family in Ohio. Just like my Mom, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it's just about being together and being thankful for what you have. I missed my family, turkey, football... but we decided to celebrate in our own way. 

Even though we obviously don't get time off work for Thanksgiving here, B took a couple days and we went to Portugal for a long weekend! We also met up with a friend of mine from college, along with her family. For anyone who isn't familiar with university Greek life, you typically have a "family" in your sorority or fraternity: a "Big" who is a year above you, a "Little" a year below you, a "Grand Little," and so on. Small world that it is, my "Big" now lives in Naples, Italy and we've gotten back in touch recently. 

At a theme party in college - the good old days!

We got together in Rome back in June (I'll cover our trip in my next post!), and planned to meet up in Lisbon for Thanksgiving. Hard to believe we're both married (and she has a beautiful baby girl) and living in Europe! We've gone from dancing at sorority socials to visiting Ancient Roman ruins and scaling to the top of 8th century castles.

How times have changed!

It certainly wasn't the traditional Thanksgiving experience. We shared Portuguese wines and tapas instead of turkey and stuffing, and viewed a choir singing in an old Cathedral instead of football. Although, we did try... we actually spent a couple hours wandering around in the rain, trying to find a place to watch American football -- we even tried the Hard Rock Cafe! I know, shame on me. I usually have a rule to avoid all things Hard Rock, TGIFriday's, McDonald's, etc. while traveling, but we made an exception for "The Big Game" (Ohio State vs. Michigan). 

I'll go into more detail about our trip another time, but all in all, it was a good first Thanksgiving abroad. We couldn't be home with our families, but it was nice to be with my ZTA family and, of course, the man whose face brings a smile to mine (even with his "Movember" stache). Never hurts to check off another city and country on our list either! 

I have a lot to be thankful for :)