Arthur day was a blast. I've really grown to love the city of Galway. It is one of the most compact yet vibrant cities that I've ever been to and because it is a port city it reminds me a bit of Duluth. A Duluth that is populated by college students and immigrants. The city has a very young feel that makes it lively and often rowdy. To my surprise, Galway has a large African-Irish(?) population. There is a large community of refugees from Rwanda that really never assimilated into the Irish culture, but seem to have found a home with the college students who only have the black of Guinness on their minds. Last week I checked out at Tesco, which is something in between a grocery store and soup kitchen, between a woman wearing a Sari and a woman wearing a Burka. The man that checked us out was Polish. There is a definite sense of racism that can be seen and felt here in Ireland, especially because of the state of the Irish economy, which is God-awful at best leaving many Irish who flourished five years ago utterly broke. Just a couple of more tangents before I get back to Arthur's day.

The economy is totally shot. The exchange rate sucks. Our bus drove by a McDonald’s today and they were advertising the double cheeseburger moving to the new special 2 Euro menu. In America, any fast food fiend knows that the double cheeseburger is on the special 1 dollar menu. Calculate the exchange rate and you will realize you would be paying three times the American cost of the double cheeseburger if you bought it in Ireland. Now I didn't come over here to go to McDonald’s, but you are lucky if you can even find that rate. Guinness in a pub is 3.80 Euro. A 15-minute cab ride into Galway is 5 Euro each way. A plain Nike sweatshirt is 70 Euro. 30 Euro cents to use the bathroom anywhere besides the pubs. There are some ways to beat the system. Dunnes is a great clothing store comparable Target. I bought a decent looking, warm winter jacket the other day for 15 Euro. Tesco is an incredibly (and suspiciously) cheep grocery store, proof being that I was able to buy a full weeks worth of groceries for 17 Euro. Moral of the story the economy is an absolute nightmare but I'll survive.

To give a precursor to Arthur's day, drinking is a much bigger problem than I remember from my last trip here and even blows away the any Irish stereotype one might hold back in the States. I don't know if it is the recession or life as usual, but every town we have gone to seems like a drunken college campus, except the drunken college students are everyone over the age of 16 (the legal drinking age is 18). Men, women, young adults, elderly, stumble the streets singing songs, urinating in public, passing out all the time sporting an open container in public. To their credit, there is something about the Irish drunk that’s different from anyone you would see back in the states:

1. They are very friendly. We have seen no signs of fights and I don't even know what could start one. Their sense of humor is overpowering so they turn everything into a joke. I am constantly making fun of their accent, and they think it is the funniest thing in the world. The tough guy is not valued at all over here as the funny guy reins king.

2. They are drinkers by night but active members of community by day. I have recognized many faces from pubs in suits or at jobs the next day.

3. While drinking in pubs they love, in this order: pints, live music, conversation, pints, more conversion, pints, pints, pints, conversation, pints, talking with complete strangers anywhere in a 10 foot radius, pints, singing along with the live music, pints, pints, buying some of their new friends pints (complete strangers anywhere in a 10 foot radius), dancing, and finally leaving at closing time singing and dancing to the last song that was played as if it is never to be finished.

I watched the all Ireland Gaelic football game last Sunday at the local pub. This game is the equivalent of the American Super Bowl. The game was fun to watch and the underdog, Kerry, ended up winning. I now tell everyone I meet that I'm a Kerry man and they are quick to congratulate me and then tell me Kerry didn't deserve to win at all.

Back to where I started, Arthur's day. Arthur's day was a blast; every pub in town was packed. The atmosphere was the exact same as New Year's Eve, with 17:59 p.m. being midnight. The number is the year in which Guinness beer first became the pride and joy of the Irish people. Guinness in every pub was 2.50 Euro, symbolizing the 250th birthday of Guinness. The whole day was full of complicated symbolism that no one really understood. It was a holiday for cheep beer and nothing more. There was music and nearly every pub and we stopped all over town and soaked up the atmosphere. We ended up at the King's Head, the most famous pub in Galway. There was a cool live band, but for some reason Guinness was having a Guitar Hero competition in the back corner. Teams of three were needed so I got some friends and we rocked out. I am horrible at this game. As a matter of fact, I'm certain my St. Odilia parish priest could beat me because he often brings it up in homilies. After two hours of people competing my team ended up in second place. We all got free drinks from Guinness for the rest of the night so it wasn't a bad deal at all. Sad to think there won’t be another celebration like that for 250 years.