A bunch of events, a stack of moments... in life things just happen, whether we want them or not. So good things do: they just happen, no matter if you were looking for them, they just come unexpected.
Some of them don't last forever, and you realize how important they are only when they're over. Then you really feel sad and empty, like somebody has stolen a part of your life.
Last night tears were dripping down my face and I just could not stop them... I said goodbye to Juan. He's been like a brother for me during these six months, I could have told him everything about me, for every problem he always would have had a nice word for me. That's actually what happened during this period. And I could not stand there, looking at that shape walking the opposite direction, being aware that I could also not see him anymore.

``Man, this was not a goodbye! Wake me up tomorrow before you leave!!''
``That is my friend! Be ready I will pick u up!''

So I went with him to the bus, we had the last coffee together, and last laughs.

``Bye man, take care!! See you soon!!''

Big hug, almost tears, and that's it. Juan is gone.

Three weeks ago I dislocated my left shoulder while I was playing ultimate. I got it fixed at the emergency room at the hospital here in Galway, and was sent to Merlin Park hospital the next day to the physiotherapy unit where the doctor gave me a sling to wear till next check, in three weeks time. He also said don't move it, but actually how could I cook, wash, work... whatever, with only one hand? And also how could I keep myself away from the disc? No way, after having been to one of our usual ultimate matches as a spectator, I decided I couldn't not play: so I did! I started playing next thursday with the sling on, and actually I was still able to perform good throws and catches, even though I could not jump as high or run as fast as I could with two arms free. But yesterday I felt brave, and I played without the sling, managing to jump higher and run faster (I remember an awesome catch jumping over Alan, he and Aidan could not believe it ^_^), but still using only my right hand to catch the disc, and trying not to move too much my left arm.

Today I went to the hospital for checking the shoulder. The doctor didn't even touch it nor take x-rays of it. He was wondering where my sling was, I just told him I wore it for three weeks then I took it off. I didn't tell him about my ultimate matches still going on. He taught me how to move my arm, in order to avoid the shoulder to get stiff, swinging it like a pendulum. I think I can do better, for example keep on playing ultimate for my last two weeks here. I might need a physiotherapist in Italy, I know one, don't know if he's good ;)

Ed, where's my todo list? Since I'll leave Ireland and DERI in slightly more than 2 weeks, Ed made a list of things I have to do before I go. One of the entries was: drink an entire bottle of Buckfast. So I did. Last night I bought one bottle and went outside at the Spanish Arch to drink with the lads (as an irish would say): Ed, Aidan, Owen, Fergal, Gearóid, Alice, James, Brahmananda, Alan, Dave, Paul and maybe somebody else. Mission accomplished! I drank the entire bottle, but that's it, it was my first and last bottle of Buckfast, too sweet for me. I told Aidan ``Buckfast is shit'' but he said ``but it's good, it's good shit''! It's anyway definitely too sweet for me, and my stomach also didn't like it too much.

While we were drinking, Garda came asking if we were drinking (notice: it's not allowed to drink on the streets in Ireland, don't ask me why, it seems like you can be drunk, make noise and be annoying on the streets but you cannot drink...). We hid the full bottles and showed them only the empty ones, then we moved farther, in an area unaccessible for their car, and also too far away to walk to for lazy cops.

Later on I, Brahmananda, James and Alice went to the Bazaar, a pub just in front of the Spanish Arch, waiting for the others. Actually everybody came but Aidan: three of them were necessary to carry him to a taxi after he drank 2 bottles of Buckfast!!! Greedy!! :P

At that point in time I thought I was quite drunk also for another task in my list: ``pull an ugly irish girl''. So we moved to Cuba, a club in Eyre Square. I was so far away from the truth: I was not even drunk enough to look at those girls, unfortunately the most of them were really ugly (I would have rather preferred replacing the ``ugly'' in the list with ``nice'').

Went to bed at 4 o'clock and woke up at 10 this morning, my head was still spinning. Hungover today, I'd better rest, and go to bed early... oh shit, it's already 2 o'clock! Have to go!!!

TechieTalk is finally growing. It's a collaborative blog Ina, Juan and I decided to start a few days ago, talking about our IT interests (for me primarily GNU/Linux and OSS). Have a look at it, maybe you want to collaborate as well.

I wanted to blog today about last night, but actually my mind is a bit obfuscated by the pints of Guinness I drank :)
Some people (James, Alice and Thomas) have come over from Innsbruck, so we went to the Living Room to have some pints together. Good fun, with Ed and Mick singing basically all the songs that were being played.
I'm very happy to meet James again, we had a lot of fun when we went to Crete and also when he came to Italy for my birthday. I'm also happy to meet Alice, I didn't talk too much with her in Crete, but yesterdayt I did talk to her and she seems a girl who likes partying, good stuff! :)
*Unfortunately* I'm staying here only three more weeks, too bad when I'll have to leave... I mean, I want to go home, but also it will be very painful when I'll have to leave and say goodbye to lots of nice people I met here and who I won't probably meet again. No tears... for now!

Sometimes my mind is too fast and my thoughts too complicated to be written down. I cannot express what I'm feeling now, I feel sad and empty.
One of my best friends here in Galway has left tonight, and when he'll come back, in two months, I'll be gone. As Juan said, this is indeed the end of something, hopefully not of our friendship. But still it's the end of something. It's the end of the days I can go to the office and tell him ``man, you don't know what happened to me'', it's the end of the days we go playing pitch'n'putt together, it's the end of the days we go out for pints talking about girls. This is actually the end of something, and it's really a pity because we were almost on the same wave length. Yeah, Armin, you will be missed. But this is NOT the end of our frienship! We'll meet again soon, and it will be great!
I give you a big hug, take care!