Irish Pub @ MindSay 
As if trying to understand men and men's intentions weren’t hard enough, I somehow just made it harder on myself! I have a date on Saturday, and I don't know what to expect at all!! Help!
On St. Patrick’s Day I went out to a local Irish Pub for some festive green beer. I had my green beer, my green shirt, and was in an Irish Pub - I did my I finally had given my solute to my small fraction of Irish blood. I was standing around at a table with a couple of my friends and I overheard someone saying "You're Irish! Sweet!" Since everyone claims on March 17th that they are Irish, I completely ignored it and continued with my peanut throwing contest.
As the night went on, my group of friends dwindled inversely with how crazy the bar was getting. Somehow in the shuffle of the crowd I found myself talking to what I thought was a friend of a friend - turns out he was a complete stranger, but seemed very nice, so I decided to get to know him a bit. The music was ear piercingly loud so I could barely hear what he was saying and I tried my best to read his lips and body language for his answers to my awkward small talk. I figured I would go with the classic, "Where are you from" question that every college student asks when they are forced into new social situations. I thought it was a joke at first, seeing the holiday and the pub we were at, but I clearly heard him say, "Ireland". I tried to laugh it off, but he wasn’t laughing back. I finally realized through the music that he had a very deep accent.
Yup - way to go idiot Lauren. As irony would have it, Dave is a study abroad student from Ireland currently attending the private college just up the hill from the college I attend. And yes- he does have a very HOT accent.
Long story short, he asked me to go out on a date this Saturday. I get so nervous going out on dates, especially with people I don’t know very well. Now I'm even more nervous seeing as how it is someone I randomly met (especially at a bar) and don't have common friends with. The longer I have had to think about it, the more nervous I'm getting! I'm not really familiar with Irish customs very well, so more and more questions are coming to mind. "Can he drive in this country", "What's their view on 'going Dutch' vs. the guy paying", "How do they act on dates", "What are guy's expectations when they go out with girls in Ireland"...
The list keeps going. Obviously I'm going to be myself, and I'm not going to do anything I don't want to. I already have half of my sorority sisters to agree with a "help text" incase things go bad and I need someone to swoop in and rescue me.
I am just really curious what other people think. Am I stupid for going out with someone from Ireland? Someone from Ireland, who is leaving in August. Someone from Ireland, who is leaving in a few months, who I met at a bar?!!!! Any tips for dating foreigners?!
i wanted to do ALL of it. and you know somedays i am crazy and dumb enough to think I can actually do it all, .....superwoman syndrome. but often i end up only to cancel out on the remainder of my plans because I overestimated my powers.
what did i end up doing???? i missed out on the Pat mcgee band, (we got there too late), which was a bummer, I was looking forward to some decent live music, and it was free at that.
we ended up having a nice dinner outside and having drinks at an irish pub. the whole pub was singing and clapping. it was quite entertaining. the irish know how to have a good time.
and i felt smart for knowing my limits and saying no to the zoo, to the dog park, and everything else.
