Theme:  Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement

I slept in until noon!  I made a peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch.   In the afternoon I signed up for a walking tour of Derry City Walls which was arranged by Danny. We took a tour of the Protestant and Catholic areas of Derry, including the murals.

Then I went to a resturant with a few other students, the resturant had very good food. I looked on the menu and figured out what I wanted to order and walked up to the counter and ordered. I asked if I can use my credit card, they said my food was only £4.99 and need to be more than £5, so I order a Coors to make the cost go up to £6.50. Then we went to Mason’s Bar to listen to some live music. I met a deaf Irish guy. His name is Tomas McFadden, he’s from Derry. It was very interesting to communicate with a deaf person from Ireland.

Their signs are different from ours. While I was talking to Tomas, there was a funny totally drunk guy sitting next to me bothering me. He's nice but silly, his girlfriend came in and saw that and wrote in my notebook; "he's a bad boy but no harm."

Later that night, Jon one of our students was totally drunk, and brought a cute girl into the pub from the street. She saw me talking to Tomas and told Jon that she liked my coat. So Jon introduced her to me. Then Tomas bought me a drink, I started talking to this girl. Her name is Annette from Derry City and she’s 17 year old.

They told me that you have to be 18 to drink in Ireland. But the Bar Tender never ask for their ID card. She walked with us back to our hostel and we talked for a short time. I had a total of 4 drinks that night that was the max I can drink. I bought my first one with my dinner then 2 at the pub and Tomas bought my last one.

This is part of Irish's culture that they talk to people they don't know and they like to tell stories.

Addtional stories: I was siting at the bar counter watching those people interact with each other. One man came up to Josh (one of our students), and asked him to turn his cap the correct way since he have it on backward. He ask him nicely and Josh did it as well, then the man turn to me and ask me to take my sunglassess off. I said Ok and put it on my head. I watched him walk out the pub and put my glasses back on. A women appear to me and was going to say the same thing, this time she took my glasses up and look and put it back on again and gave me a hug. This seem to be common in Ireland pubs that people give strangers hugs. The guy who I mentioned, kept patting me on my back and saying "you are cool."

Extra information about their culture: I noticed their clothing is pretty much simliar with American. Annette was talking to me about marriage in Ireland and it was pretty much the same as people in America, they don't care who they marry, sleep with another person even if they are married, or if they don't love each other. If they separate then the mom will get the kids and the dad will never see them again. Annette was telling me a stories about her family.

Tomas was telling me about Irish Education that most kids go to school until the age of 15 and not very many people go to college.