Does anyone even read this thing?

Haven't posted anything in a while. Not because there hasn't been anything exciting happening, but I just haven't been in the bloggin' mood. I don't know if I'll keep it up or not. But in the meantime, I'll just give a quick summary of what we've been up to.

Went back home to the states for 3 weeks around the holidays. Flew into DC, rented a car, drove to OH, then to MI, then to another part of MI, then to another part of MI, then back to OH, then back to DC and flew back to Warsaw.

Had a fun little shindig at Ed's place and got to see all the people I've been missing. Thanks to everyone who showed up! Even got to do a little light painting because Ed's the shit and made me a couple neon green light wands.

Went and saw my (current) favorite band, Chimaira, at the House of Blues in Cleveland. It was awesome except for the 2 assholes that ruined my favorite song by getting into a fight right behind us. All of a sudden a group of people slammed into us and pushed us 20 feet. The one dude shouted "YOU ran into ME, motherf*cker!". They were actually fighting over who ran into who in the middle of a sold out concert. 

Rented a cabin in Zakopane with 14 people from the embassy and had an amazing time. It's a ski town in the Tatry Mountains on the Slovakian border. Spent an entire day snowboarding for the first time since I moved from MI. There were 4 of us guys, and I was the only one who had ever tried it before. We met a cool Polish chick who went to high school in PA who gave us some lessons that really helped out a lot. I'm getting much better and can make it down the hill and stop at the bottom without falling now. You probably won't peep me in the X-Games any time soon, but I'm dying to go again. I think we'll take my dad there next winter.

Spent the last 3 days on the couch, sick as hell. Probably spend all day tomorrow there, too. But hopefully I'll be better by friday. This weekend is the last chance to see the Warsaw hockey team play, and I really want to go so I better be ok by then.

More paintball action

So last time there was about 20 of us from the American squad. This time there were 3. We should've had more, but some people (like the marine who called me for the details) never showed up. But a group of about 26 or 27 Poles were there so we just joined in with them. They were all super cool and most of them spoke perfect english. One of the guys said he usually plays at another place in town every week and gave us his card and said we were welcome to join any time. Some of them had their own guns, so it looks like I'm gonna have to take another trip to the paintball shop. It's called Mad Sheep. I don't know why.

We didn't bother with that capture the flag or VIP crap, we just played deathmatch the entire time and it was awesome. I don't wanna blow my own horn or anything, but I impressed myself with how many people I wasted. I got 2 dudes in a few of the games, 3 in another game, and I actually blasted 4 in a game. The sweetest kill of all was the dude that I rocked right in the lens of his mask. It was total vindication from when it happened to me (twice) last time out.

An Irish Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we spent 5 days with 3 of our Warsaw friends traveling all over the bottom half of Ireland. We flew into Dublin wednesday afternoon, rented a van and spent the rest of the time driving all over the place. When it was all over we had put 998 miles of road beneath us. What was really amazing was how polite and friendly the Irish people are. Quite a switch from the sneering faces we usually see around here most of the time.

Most of the first night was spent in a Dublin pub playing a drinking game with two locals. Knowing we wouldn't be seeing much of the city before going home, I left everyone else in the pub for an hour or so and ventured out to get some night time shots. I got a few, but I really wish we would've had more time, there's a ton more to see there and I would love to go back some day.

On the second day we drove to Kilkenny for a while to check out the castle. We took an hour long tour that was pretty cool, the inside was pretty cool. They actually used some of the rooms in one of the Harry Potter movies (not sure which one, since I hate HP).  After that, we hauled ass to Blarney Castle just outside of Cork. The castle was amazing, and we all (except one of us who shall remain unnamed) kissed the Blarney Stone. Then we headed for Killarney to find a hotel and some dinner. We got there just in time to see some Thanksgiving football at the hotel sports bar. The Lions suck ass.

Day three was spent driving around the Ring of Kerry, which is a beautifully scenic 112 mile loop through the countryside. We pulled off to the side of the road a bunch of times, there were plenty of things to take pictures of. There were ruins, churches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, etc. After that we took a ferry across one of the bays and went to find a hotel for the night.

The next day we drove to the Cliffs of Moher and spent a while there. Standing on the edge of the ocean looking 700 feet below as hundreds of birds fly around was awesome. Next we drove to Limerick to see King John's Castle. The castle was pretty cool, especially the severely overacted 10 minute movie they showed inside. After the tour we started heading back to Dublin, stopping at a pub on the way for some delicious lunch and rugby watching. Speaking of rugby, the New Zealand All Blacks have the greatest pre game ritual war dance thing ever. If I was standing in front of them while they did the war dance, I would forfeit right there.

We got back to Dublin a few hours later, then went out one last time to pick up a few souvenirs (don't worry, Ed I got you a damn shot glass) and get dinner. We ate at a restaurant that had a stage with a tradition Irish dance group performing. And as much as I hate the Riverdance, these people were unbelievable. I didn't know a human could move their feet that fast!

The trip was amazing and there was so much more that we didn't see, so we plan on going back someday. If not to see the stuff we missed, then to drink more of Bulmers Cider. I'm not sure how many pints I had of it, but lets just say it's a good thing I wasn't the driver. Yummy!

I'm serious now!

I loved paintball so much I ran out today and bought myself a mask. It has dual thermal lenses that are guaranteed not to fog up like the ones they provided where we played the other day. And it looks pretty bad ass, too.

Painballin'

I played paintball for the first time in my life today, and it was awesome. I was worried about two things: getting shot within the first 20 seconds of each game, and getting blasted in the back of my bald head. Neither one happened, so it was a good day. I did get shot in the mask twice, though. The worst part is I thought for sure I had the dude each time. The second time I didn't even think he knew I was there. But then all of a sudden everything turned yellow from the blast right between my eyes, so I guess he figured it out. The best part was when we played the game where one team has to protect a guy with a reflective vest, and the other team's goal is to kill him. The guy with the vest was the same guy that shot me a few games earlier who I had already blasted at least three times, but since the paintballs never actually broke on him, the cheating prick kept playing. So when he put that vest on and got in my crosshairs, I unloaded on his bitch ass. He was running for cover behind a car and I'm sure I hit him at least once or twice, but he kept going. Luckily he wasn't smart enough to get behind the tire of the car and I could see his legs, so I emptied my gun on him. I had to have hit him at least 4 times before he finally admitted defeat. I made sure he knew who got him.

The paintball place was really cool. It's an abandoned warehouse that used to be a train platform, so the middle is raised up and the sides are sunken in where the tracks used to be. There are old cars and stacks of tires everywhere, and there's a little treehouse looking thing in the middle that's elevated up about 5 feet so you can snipe people. Everyone had a great time (except apparently the dude I was talking about earlier that was taking things a little too seriously) and we plan on going a lot more. There were 18 people this time and we might be able to recruit a few more for next time.

rubble

I went to see if they've done anything with the stadium where we saw the Red Bull X-Fighters the other day, and they're starting to tear it down already. There was an aluminum fence and a few security guards all around the parking lot, so I couldn't get anywhere near it. I walked around the whole thing and got a couple shots from the distance. Not much to see except for piles of rubble and construction vehicles, but I put a couple shots on the flickr page. I also walked around the Praga district, which we haven't really seen much of. And from what I can tell, there's not much to see anyway. Except for a cool monument that nobody seems to like since it's dedicated to the Soviets. Praga is also where the old vodka factory we toured in the summer is located. The zoo is there, too, and it's really nice. I likey zoos.

I'm a demonic rock star!

I had to go to the embassy today for language class and to pay a couple bills. When I went into the office, one of the girls saw me and said "I loved your costume!". And then the three other girls were all like "Hey you're the costume guy!" and "That was awesome!". They asked me all sorts of questions about it. But the funny part is, none of those people were actually at the party. So apparently the 800+ photos that everyone took at the party have already circulated.