Get a Pint For the Boy!

Last night, myself, Petro, and new roommate Irish Brian went out to a reception that was being held at the South American Explorers clubhouse, which is a membership based group (that we joined for cheap) that serves a great resource for backpackers throughout south america. The reception was billed as an "all you can drink," which means that it didn´t take much motivation to get ourselves there. Irish Brian, fresh off the plane, informed us prior to arriving to the party that he was going to drink our pathetic American asses under the table (I think we won b/c I have a vague recollection of Brian speaking gibberish at a bar at the end of the night). The party was great and was jam packed with like-minded foreigners who are in the midst of trips such as ours. Having a room full of interesting characters before me, I of course was drawn to the oldest people in the room. Meet my new Irish parents--Mary and Michael, a 60-ish couple from Dublin who were visit their traveling son in B.A. After a brief chat, I got to the point and told them that I am desperately seeking European Union citizenship, would they adopt me? And since having an American son carries the same prestige as having a dog that can do tricks, they agreed. They are expecting Petro and I to be setting up shop at their house sometime later this year. And so, between our new Irish roommate and my new Irish parents, our lives have became suddenly emersed in Irish culture--in South America. Trying to fulfill Irish cliches, we drank beer and Jamieson like it was the last night on earth. Between Mary´s work on her PhD in linguistics and Michael´s knowledge of American politics, the conversations were very entertaining. The sad irony of the night was the observed fact that Irish Brian (from Belfast) and my new parents were carrying on warmly, but as Mary told me later ¨his parents back home would probably croak if they knew he was chatting up Irish Catholics.¨ Trying to avoid a discourse on the Catholic/Protestant relations, I just thought it was worth mentioning the common denominator in the equation of that conflict as well as most conflicts going on around the world.

I got nothing else except una resaca,
Brian