St. Patrick's Day

I don't normally go out and celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  The first time I had green beer was last year when my classmates spontaneously got together after class.  This year, I thought it would be cool to see what New Zealand did for the Irish Holiday, but by nine o'clock I was still in the house, mindlessly scrolling through Facebook.  In a combined effort, Pinja and I decided we really should do something, so we kicked our butts into gear, got some nice clothes on, did our hair, and walked into town.  Our first stop of the night was the Sprig & Fern, which is a local brewery that has no less than 13 handcrafted beers and ciders on at a time.  It's one of our favourite pubs in town, and of course, it was packed.  After a half an hour of sitting by ourselves, I finally got the (perhaps liquid) courage needed to introduce us to a group of Kiwis sitting beside us.  Pinja and I have both been annoyed with our lack of ability to meet locals.  The Warwick House is a nice place to live, but it can be really isolated at times, so we had made it a challenge to meet someone.   And I'm glad I went out of my comfort zone to do so.  After a few minutes of normal awkward introductions, we were moved into the group.  Turns out we were sitting beside a group of lawyers who liked buying rounds of beer.  Normally I feel uncomfortable with people buying me drinks, but hey, I'm a penniless backpacker and aren't all lawyers supposed to be millionares?

Anyways, we spent the evening socializing in the Sprig until it closed, at which time we moved on to 'Elsewhere' Club to dance the alcohol off.  Pinja and I didn't get home til 3:30.  I thought it was closer to 2.  Having no concept of what the time is is always an indicator of a great night.

Oh, and all the lawyers were dressed up for the occasion, and didn't seem to mind me going home with their costumes, which was easily the biggest success of the night.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!