Hostel Life

Yesterday was an all-around good day. After hearing that I got the job, we were in pretty high spirits (see, I'm picking up on the Irish lingo). The hostel was starting to fill up for the weekend, and we were determined to make new friends. Turns out that if you spend more than 5 minutes in the kitchen (which was our average food prep time), you meet a ton of people! First, we started talking to a girl named Julia. She's from Canada and traveling alone. She's only 18, and she's taking a "gap year" to do exactly what Erin and I are doing- a "working holiday." (Dad- aren't you glad we at least waited until we were 21?) She came grocery shopping with us, which was probably an interesting experience for her, as Erin and I spent most of the trip arguing about how to spend our 6 euro. 

We finally settled on Tortilla Española for dinner, a pretty daring feat for two girls with very little culinary talent. It's basically an omelette with potatoes and onions. They serve it cold in Spain, either as a pie slice or on bread as a sandwich. While we were cooking, we met a kid named Lucas from France. He was also on a break before going back to school. He decided that Erin and I were going to teach him English and that he was going to teach us French. After a few failed attempts at "talking from our throats," we said we were happy to help him with his English, but we were set as far as languages go- we can barely handle Spanish. Erin liked him because he shared his steak with her. Six euro doesn't allow for much meat! Another girl was cooking in the kitchen, named Kristen, and she was also from Canada. 

After preparing a somewhat mutilated Tortilla Española, we met a man from Spain! Bad timing, but he said if we try again tonight, he'll help us out. Erin talked to him in Spanish for awhile and LOVED it. We met a few other people too- a man named Carl from Sweden who is going to med school in Galway (although, I don't think I'd want him to be my doctor; he told us that abbreviations in English mean the opposite of what they do in Swedish...), a man from France who is traveling around Ireland, and a really nice Egyptian girl named Amel. 

Our favorite new friends are two guys from Canada- Riley and Connor. They're on a 17 day tour of Europe that ends in Amsterdam for a Kings of Leon concert (and started in Los Angeles..?). They were hilarious. They've gone out every night for the last 10 days. They're just working guys on a vacation, so they are determined to have a great time. 

Of course, the day that we make tons of new friends is our last day in the hostel. We had been booking this place one night at a time because we weren't sure when we'd be leaving. We didn't realize that weekends book up really fast, so our room was reserved for this weekend, and the only rooms they had available were double the price (about 20 euro- $26- per night, per person). So, being on a budget, we booked a hostel down the street for 12 euro. After a glass of wine and some serious consideration, we decided to splurge and stay here another two nights. If you're familiar with our stinginess on this trip, you understand how much we love this place. If anyone's ever in Galway, Kinlay House is the way to go. 

In other news, I guess they call Friday the 13th unlucky for a reason- Erin heard back from the clothing store today. Donna, the super nice Irish woman who interviewed Erin, called this morning and said that she was unable to recruit at this time. But she really, really loved Erin (I mean LOVED her, I'm pretty sure she was ready to adopt her), so she said she'll keep her resume on file and call as soon as she has an opening. We'll be out again today trying to find something! Wish us luck! 

Also, as a sidenote, Erin has led some of you to believe that I hate emoticons. I do not hate emoticons. I like a smiley face at the end of an email just as much as the next guy. I hate OVERUSE of emoticons- like 10 different types of smiley faces in one email. Just thought I'd clear that up. So you can all stop apologizing every time you express yourselves via a colon and parentheses.   :)