Slán, Éireann...

Farewell to the country of rural green in so many acres, dotted with sheep and cows. To the cows sauntering down the road in the Burren, their brown and white swaying like the sagebrush in the expansive, glacier-cut rock. Farewell to the friendly locals who curse a lot and are hard to understand and make sure we've had our tea, been fed, and are enjoying ourselves. Farewell to the bars where old men talk to us about Paranormal Activity and how, if you want to hold a girl's hand, it's a good movie for a date night. Farewell to Ightemurragh Castle and other unexcavated neighborhood ruins, its base layered with trees, beer cans, and shotgun shells. Farewell, historic rainfall. Farewell, Irish folk and rebel music. Farewell to the spellbinding little island that churns out literary giants like Guinness. Slán, Éireann.

Phil and Chris send us off with great food (lasagna and tea bread), The Wind that Shakes the Barley (a must-see), and one last great craic with the goats (mmm... milking...). Scott, Ben's older brother, picks us up in Limerick and swings us through Lahinch (one of his favorite surfing spots); the magnificent, iconic Cliffs of Moher (though we decided not to risk erosion and death for a better view, over the block-off gate); the pinhead town of Doolin which hums with tourists and music in season; and the continuous, tiered, flat rock of the Burren, where I met a cow. I assure the cow I mean it no harm or swipe of grazing, but he doesn't trust me and wanders off. In the Burren's craggy rocks are 75% of Ireland's natural plantlife, and the frustrations of Oliver Cromwell, the buttface. He said: "[The Burren is] a savage land, yielding neither water enough to drown a man, nor tree to hang him, nor soil to bury him." And these words from somebody who claimed to be of strong Christian faith. No wonder we're cynical. Oh, how the effects of imperialism have not changed!

At Scott's in Ennis, Ryan betters the world by uploading a bunch of pictures. I, however, get the unexpected chance to better the world by defeating the Nazis and Japanese in "Call of Duty: World At War". Granted, I've beaten these empires before, four times before in the other "Call of Duty" games, plus I don't know how many other times with "Medal of Honor", "Aces over Europe" and etc. I don't know about you, but how many times have you, like, planted the Soviet flag over the Reichstag in Berlin?

I only half think that we should defeat the Nazis and, for example, invading aliens whenever possible. The other half of me realizes video games are a departure from life, and though I learn more from a book, sometimes I need that departure. But we can beat these things because we are awesome. Because you are awesome. Because, as we healed from those war years we ensured that the disenfranchised in Germany and Japan didn't remain so, that people in the States could afford college, that Civil Rights (eventually) was forthcoming. What issues could we sock a good one to if we allowed our American and worldwide melting pot to be side-by-side in the trenches, the factories, the rebuilding?