Munster v Leinster

So the weekend after the Chicago trip was pretty fun too. There was a big rugby game Sunday on TV, so I had about 7 people over for the game, some stew and some beers.

To give a little background, rugby is considered Ireland's national past time. The game was the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup and pitted two Irish teams against each other. The Heineken Cup is like NFL playoffs and includes teams from all over NorthWestern Europe - Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, etc.

The teams that were playing were Munster (which is the Southern province of Ireland - Cork, Limerick, Kerry, etc) and Leinster (the middle-Eastern province of Ireland - Dublin, etc). The game was being touted as the "game of the century," and from what I could tell would be like the Cubs and the pre-championship Red Sox playing for the World Series.

So anyways, these guys were all geeked up for the game. A couple of them -Brendan FitzGerald and Robert White - came over early on Sunday and helped me cook up some tasty food. We had homemade beef stew and this potato and cheese casserole that Brendan's mom often makes. There was also plenty of beer and other snacks.

The game was really fun to watch and Munster (where these guys, except for one Dubliner, were all from) won 30 to 6. It was a beautiful day, so after the game, we decided to head to the fields behind my apartment and play some two-hand touch rugby.

We got about 10 minutes in, and then all of a sudden, this guy on a tractor comes bombin' through the fence and just about runs us over! I couldn't believe it. This thing must have been the Mazeratti of tractors, too, because he was flying. He stopped the tractor right next to me and starts yelling something in Luxembourgoise. Obviously he was expressing his displeasure at us being on his land and was telling us to get the hell off. But, just in case he was coming out to take drink orders, I asked him if he spoke English.

"Yes I do! This is not a place for play! Get out!"

'Nuff said. We moved on and eventually found a nice area of land - apparently not owned by anyone - to play on. We played for about an hour or two, then headed back in to the apartment for round two of the stew, a few more beers, and a little Wedding Crashers.

All in all it was a really fun day and after everyone left I cleaned up and then crashed.

Random things :

These guys all have mad Irish names - Ciaran (pron: KEER-an) Madigan, Brendan FitzGerald, Robert White, Linda O'Connor, Caitriona (pron: Katrina) Ennis, and Mairead (pron: More-AID), whose last name I don't know but I think is O'Brien or something.

Marathon training is going well. The Saturday before the little party described above, I ran 19 miles in a pretty good time and felt really well.

Agnes and I have booked a trip for Barcelona from June 2 to June 5. We are pretty excited, as we found a good hotel and some decent flights, and there is plenty of room in the budget for us to live it up a little.

We're also in the process of booking a trip to Ireland for the second week in July with Robert White and his girlfriend. It should be a really fun time, as we are going to see a lot of South and West Ireland with people who are from there and know where to go.

Only about a week and a half until "the Ag" gets here. The countdown is on....

Sweet Home Chicago

I actually didn't take this picture (I found it on the web). All my pics were taken in various watering holes around the city. But I thought I had better put one up that fit with the Chicago theme...

I left Luxembourg at 6.25am on Good Friday (in Chicago, that's 11.25pm Thursday night). After a layover in Amsterdam, I arrived in Chicago at noon on Good Friday (that's 7pm on Good Friday in Luxembourg). Pete Stratil picked me up at the airport (thanks Pete!) and we headed to the downtown Boston Blackies for a couple of big, juicy burgers (we both forgot that it was Good Friday and consequentially are now in trouble with God). Then Pete dropped me off at Agnes' work, where I met a lot of her co-workers. They prob weren't too impressed, as I was lookin pretty rough by that point (15 hours or so of travel, and you don't feel too "fresh"). After that, Agnes and I made our way home, I took a shower and then we were off to Halligan's for a couple beers. I have to say that sitting in a bar with all the windows open and facing a busy Lincoln Ave, the sun just starting to go down, people out walking around, nice weather, drinking some Budweiser, baseball on TV and everyone around me speaking English was a damn nice feeling. Later that night, Pete and Steph came over and we watched a movie, had some wine and cheese and other snacks, and basically hung out and talked.

Saturday morning, Agnes and I went out for our respective jogs. I was getting a bit emotional running my old route on the lakefront path! It was so nice, to say the least. After the workout, we went to run errands at Target and Home Depot. However, we didn't have time for Bed Bath & Beyond (works cite: Frank the Tank). I was buying all the things that either I can't find in Luxembourg or are so expensive here that it is worth it to wait and buy them in Chicago. Then around 3pm, Agnes surprised me with a "couples massage" at the Lincoln Park Massage & Spa. Needless to say, I was a bit jet lagged and basically fell asleep during the thing. It felt good nonetheless!

Saturday evening we met Pete & Steph at the Kerryman (a newer pub/restaurant downtown) and had dinner, some drinks and laughs. We had told a lot of our other friends, and some of my friends from work, to meet us there around 8pm for a night out. Surprisingly (for Easter weekend) pretty much everyone showed up. So it turned into a really fun night and a lot of drinks and stories and catching up. You'll note that most of my pictures (click the link above) are from that night. We stayed there all night and then just headed home in a cab.

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to 10am at St. Vincent's. Afterwards, Agnes and I, Darren and Nicole Ludwig (good friends of mine from Iowa), and Jimmy and Kristen Baker (Agnes' cousin and her husband, also good friends of ours) went over to Pete and Steph's for Easter brunch. It was more like a Thanksgiving feast! There was appetizers (cheese and crackers, taco salad dip, etc), a huge turkey, sausage stuffing, a mushroom casserole, fruit salad, mashed potatoes, chocolates, and a raspberry creme brulee dessert. It was a serious meal. After dinner we hung around and played cards, watched TV and played a a "battle of the sexes" board game (in which the ladies got hockeyed). Everyone left around 5 or 6pm, but me and Agnes stayed and watched a movie. Five minutes into it I fell asleep. That shouldn't surprise anyone, though.

Monday we woke up, Agnes went to work and then I went out for a long run. Again, it was so nice to run in my city! After my run, I met up with Fr. Don from St. Vincent's for lunch. He's leaving the parish in July and I got to know him through attending mass and lectoring there for the past few years. He's a really great priest and all around good guy, so it was nice to catch up with him. After lunch, I headed down to the office to meet with my E&Y Chicago counsellor and the partner that sponsored me to come to Luxembourg. It was very nice to catch up with them as well. I saw some of the other guys and girls that I worked with a lot and it was really nice to see them!

After the office visit, I headed over to Darren and Nicole's so that Nicole could give my hair a trim. She's a certified hair dresser, and my hair was getting pretty shaggy and curly, so she trimmed me up just a bit. Apparently, I had a lot of split ends, so I was grateful that she could get me back on track!

From Darren and Nicole's, I headed home to find that several of our friends who couldn't make it on Saturday (Emily and Nimesh, Allison and Justin, etc) were over to have some Chicago pizza and beer. Was a great time to see them. I got to talk to Nimesh and Justin about baseball, squwak at Emily, and hang out with Pete and Steph again. It was just like old times.

Tuesday morning we woke up, I went out for a run while Agnes packed a bunch of her clothes into some extra bags I brought along with me, and then Aggie took me to the airport around 2pm. My flight took off around 4.45pm and I was back in Luxembourg Wednesday and at work around lunchtime.

It was a great trip home and I was so happy to see all of my great great friends. Thanks to all of them for making an effort to see me while I was there for such a short trip...

Les Alps

Welp there I am, on top of a mountain...feelin cooler than a polar bear's toenails.

This past weekend, Josh came to Luxembourg, and we went skiing in the French Alps with a group of people from E&Y here. The entire package was as follows : Leave our offices at 10pm on Thursday night on a chartered bus, drive through the night and arrive at our hotel Friday morning. Ski Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then head out on the same bus Sunday evening. Arrive back at the office on Monday morning. Included in the deal was your lift ticket for Saturday and Sunday, the hotel, and all the free food and drink (including all alcohol other than champagne and cognac) you could handle.

Everything went off without a hitch. This hotel was right in the middle of the Alps. All we had to do to ski was walk out the back door and go. It was almost too easy and convenient. The hotel even had a sort of locker room, where each room number had it's own boot rack and ski rack. So you'd leave all your gear down there, and then in the morning, all you had to do was get dressed, go downstairs to the locker room, put on your boots, grab your skis and hit the slopes.

Our days consisted of waking up in the morning, getting breakfast in the hotel's restaurant (full-on buffet, all you can eat), getting our skis and boots and then skiing all morning. Around noon, we'd figure out where we were on our map (this resort was gigantic) and then head back to the hotel for lunch. Again, full-on buffet (and I'm talkin like pot roast...potatoes...assortments of cheeses....deserts.....really good stuff) with a bottle of local French wine and all the beer, soda, water, etc you wanted.

After lunch we'd head back out for the afternoon and ski adifferent area of the resort. Around 4.30pm we'd start to find our way back to the hotel since most of the lifts closed around 5pm. Once we would get back, we'd drop our stuff off in the locker room and go to the bar for some apre-ski drinks. After a few cold ones, we'd go back to the room, shower (not together), take a nap and then go for dinner. Another buffet. More drinks. And on and on and on....

The mountain itself was not so much one mountain as it was about ten. I really can't do it justice, other than to say that the place was immense. We skiied for three days, and other than the slope we had to take to get home everyday, we didn't really ski the same part of the place more than twice. It was really amazing....you would go over one ridge, ski down, take a lift up to the top of the next ridge, and over the other side, you could see an entirely different network of lifts and slopes. This went on forever it seemed. I would guess that you could ski there for a week straight and probably not be able to hit everything. And it was beautiful. Everywhere we went, you could stop and take pictures and they'd be very scenic and such.

Random happenings: One of my buddies from work (he's Scottish) went as well, and he had never skiied before. He didn't have any clothes and was bummed when, once we got there, he found out that he couldn't "hire a jacket and some trousers" (translated "rent a ski jacket and some ski pants") for the weekend. So he dropped about 200 euros on new ski clothes. Ouch! But, with that being said, he picked up the skiing very quickly and by the third day really didn't fall at all, and this was on some semi-difficult and pretty steep slopes. By the end of the trip, we were already planning out something for next year in Austria or Switzerland (or both).

It was so sunny that, on the first day when we went for lunch, we were surprised that some people were actually laying out getting sun tans on the patio out back of our hotel. How can they be getting a sun tan in the snow? Well, we found out the hard way. As we skiied in for the evening on Friday, and as I took my sunglasses off for the first time all day, I was surprised to see a panda bear staring back at me through the mirror. None of us put sun tan lotion on our faces, and all three of us paid the price. You should have seen my tan lines. On Saturday at lunch, Josh couldn't even look at me without laughing. And if you check out my pics (see the link "Check Out My Pics" above), you'll notice that in the pictures of me toward the end of the album, my face looks rather white. I wasn't shy with the sunscreen on days 2 and 3! At one point, Robert's face kind of even started blistering. Just today was the first day at work that no one laughed at me (not sure if that's b/c it's getting better or if people are just getting used to how I look). Honestly, yesterday, I walked back in from lunch, and the receptionist looks up, her eyes get wide, and she blurts out "What happened to your face!?"

Other than me, Josh, and Robert (the Scottish dude), everyone else on the trip spoke French. It was a little awkward at first, but by the end of the trip we had learned very useful phrases from them, such as "I enjoy sex," and "You have a big ass." :-)

Had traditional French fondue on Saturday for dinner. Bread, cheese and wine. Sounds just okay, but I assure you, it was really good.

The ride was home on Sunday was fine enough....we pretty much slept the whole way. We made it back to Luxembourg around 5am, drove home, slept some more, then I went into work around 3pm (I had a conference call at 3pm...went into the office specifically for that and then it got cancelled...shocker! That's typical E&Y Luxembourg for you!!).

Now this weekend I'm takin' it easy. In fact, at this moment, I'm sitting here writing, drinkin a brew (this German stuff called Erdinger....brilliant!) and watching the Cubs v. Cardinals game over the internet. The plans include just working and getting things in order (i.e., laundry, cleaning, etc) because next Friday, I fly to Chicago for Easter (Fr: weekend la paque). Looking forward to seeing all of my friends there and having some Chipotle! I'll be in Chicago until Tuesday, April 18 (happy birthday, Josh), and then big Magnes moves over just a few short weekends later. Quality of life will sky rocket....

Well that's it for nizzow. I opened a personal photo page (see the link above) where I'm in the process of posting all my pics I've taken thus far. You can click the link to check 'em out. Otherwise, the site is http://matthewmarcum.shutterfly.com.

Peace!