As great as it appears to spend the nights wiling away over a pint at a pub making friends, it is hell on school work. I honestly have no clue how Irish students manage it. Probably the same way American students manage it but with twice as much willpower. The university brings together a diverse crowd of people. Last night I drank with two Frenchman and an Englishman. I think the Frenchmen spoke better English than the Englishman did by the end of the night.
In any case I am caught up in the mix of cultures and nationalities. It all seems so cosmopolitan (a drink I must resolve to try while I’m still here). It is sobering to think that john, Thomas, max, and I never would have come into each other’s lives if it weren’t for this trip. Now I don’t know if we’ll be bosom buddies for life, but for complete strangers we had deep conversation. We considered the nature of free will (I don’t believe in it) and whether it will be ethical to download information straight to the brain (I think it will be). I can’t even have that kind of conversation with friends back home. They’ll get bored and want to gossip about this or that person and all sorts of silly surface level BS. I’m afraid I will miss this place very much when I leave.