Insomnia

"I don't think its politically correct to mock Gandhi."

Oh, its been one of those days, in Dublin's Fair City, and its after 1am and I am nowhere near sleep. The day began as usual- I stumbled into the kitchen in my pajamas at half ten, gave Ann a sleepy hello, and began to make the breakfast of Champions- bagel, egges, and NY Times. Our serene morning was interrupted when the fire alarm in our building went off- it took us about 5 minutes to figure out what the hell the noise was (no judgements, please, we hear LOTS of strange noises in this flat). Out into the hallway in our pajamas we went to try to decide if we needed to evacuate (my Uncle Pat, a fireman, would absolutely murder me if he was aware of these shinanigans). We were greeted by one of our neighbors, a grumpy old Polish man. Do you know whats going on? we asked... "FIRE ALARM", he said, and ran down the hallway. After a few more minutes deliberating in the hallway, we decided to go back into the apartment and chance it. "After all, we're on the first floor... we could always jump. Just take your computer." So as we made our way back to the flat we bumped into another neighbor who said we had nothing to worry about- and then made a smartass comment about it being a bit late to still be in pajamas. (I felt like saying "if you were up half the night writing about female genital mutilation maybe you would sleep in too"... but I didnt).

So after that mildly eventful morning, the afternoon was pretty chill. Went to my International Politics seminar, argued a bit with the disagreeable French girl whom I may have to tackle before the course is through, and came home to work on my paper. For some reason my brain was not working this evening and it took me hours- HOURS- to write my introduction. When I asked my dear roomie Ann for quote suggestions, she responded in her infamous-yet-unoffensive Indian accent (see Gandhi quote above)and thus began one of our accent discussions, analyzing what mumbo-jumbo we picking up here in Dub. We also mercilessly made fun of eachother, ate gingersnaps, and listened to Tchaikovsky on repeat for about six hours... seriously. It was delightful.

So after I read a few NY Times articles on how the religious right is ruining my country (thats America- not Ireland), I check my email once more before I hit the sack. Had a newsletter from the Phil about their debate this Thursday. The topic? "This House Believes that 9-11 Was a Legitimate Form of Resistence to American Pressure in the Islamic World." And two of the five speakers? Islamic fundamentalists- and with a "special message" from a Sheik whom is in bed with bin Laden. Umm... are you fucking serious? So I looked up these fundamentalists and became more outraged. We are talking about guys who hung posters up in Britain after 9-11 referring to the hijackers as "the Magnificent 19." Its unreal. I am honestly appalled that the Phil and Trinity would allow for speakers who literally advocate terrorism. You must be joking?! So now my blood pressure is about to go through the roof and I am trying to decide how to act exactly to do... do I go on Thursday, flip my shit, and leave? Do I peacefully protest outside? Write a letter to Trinity about how absurd this is? Not sure at the moment. I am not generally one to be easily offended, but I truly find it irresponsible and insensitive to host these speakers. The only thing they have to gain is shock value, and frankly I think thats cheap. We'll see- maybe I'll go to the debate and the other panelists will eat them alive and I will be content to just cheer them on. Maybe I should avoid the scene all together? Not sure yet... but I am sure it will prove to be an interesting evening.

Okay- rant over. Night all.