I'm not Irish or anything, but I like to celebrate holidays.  Just some info I found about St. Patrick's Day:

 

Saint Patrick is believed to have been born in the late fourth century, and is often confused with Palladius, a bishop who was sent by Pope Celestine in 431 to be the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ.

Saint Patrick was the patron saint and national apostle of Ireland who is credited with bringing christianity to Ireland. Most of what is known about him comes from his two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish christians. Saint Patrick described himself as a "most humble-minded man, pouring forth a continuous paean of thanks to his Maker for having chosen him as the instrument whereby multitudes who had worshipped idols and unclean things had become the people of God."

Saint Patrick is most known for driving the snakes from Ireland. It is true there are no snakes in Ireland, but there probably never have been - the island was separated from the rest of the continent at the end of the Ice Age. As in many old pagan religions, serpent symbols were common and often worshipped. Driving the snakes from Ireland was probably symbolic of putting an end to that pagan practice. While not the first to bring christianity to Ireland, it is Patrick who is said to have encountered the Druids at Tara and abolished their pagan rites. The story holds that he converted the warrior chiefs and princes, baptizing them and thousands of their subjects in the "Holy Wells" that still bear this name.

There are several accounts of Saint Patrick's death. One says that Patrick died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, on March 17, 460 A.D. His jawbone was preserved in a silver shrine and was often requested in times of childbirth, epileptic fits, and as a preservative against the "evil eye." Another account says that St. Patrick ended his days at Glastonbury, England and was buried there. The Chapel of St. Patrick still exists as part of Glastonbury Abbey. Today, many Catholic places of worship all around the world are named after St. Patrick, including cathedrals in New York and Dublin city

**** And if that's not enough for you, click here to find Irish romance!

Enjoy a green beer today!

 

I'm so glad Colin Ferrell not only has looks, but some common sense...

Colin Farrell does not want to be confused with rapper and accused statutory rapist R. Kelly. The other day on the Paramount lot in Hollywood, Colin met Lindsay Lohan, the delicious star of "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen."  (a picture of her)

He looked at her. She looked at him. They liked what they saw. (What's not to like?) They smiled and exchanged warm handshakes. Then the precocious Miss Lohan said, "Give me a call sometime" and slipped Colin her phone number.

"I will," said Colin, pocketing the card. Then a clang! clang! warning bell went off. "By the way, how old are you?"

"Seventeen" she replied, trying to make it sound like 27.

Colin handed her back her card. "Thanks, maybe in a year or so."

And then he hot-footed it back to work.

I'm having today to reflect on, and write about last night, as I was too tired to go into detail in my previous entry.  Of course, the night turned out to be longer than I had anticipated.  I hadn't counted on dancing to house music for an hour or so, but was doing it because there were people actually dancing!  In actuality, I don't even really like house music.  This may sound stupid, but dancing to music that doesn't have words I can sing to, gets boring fast.  Lyrics give me a time frame for a song.  I have an idea when a song will end, if I happen not to like it.  A song is typically three minutes, right?  But when you listen to techno, the songs seems to go on FOREVER!  Can you imagine Britney Spears singing a song for 5 to 7 minutes?  Can she even speak in a continuous thought for that long?  Maybe I'm missing something.  I really DO want to REALLY like techno and house, but I just don't get it.  I can appreciate it artistically, but most of it sounds the same to me.

During the night, a male friend insisted that we had a heart-to-heart talk.  He was drunk, and I was just trying to listen and be polite.  He kept insisting that "we're friends, right?".  In replying "yes", he then wanted me to divulge my deepest thoughts and dreams.... to "break down my walls".  I think that's a load of crap.  Just because I said we're friends, does't really make us "real friends".  You can't expect someone you occassionally talk to, to open up just because you want them to.  I WILL admit that I have "walls".  I might be a hard person to approach.  To put it frankly, I might seem like a cold b*tch with you first meet me.  I know that.  I'm not one of those people that can meet a bunch of strangers, and pretend like they're all fascinating people.  I WISH I was a social butterfly, but have come to the realization that I'm an indifferent, fly-on-the-wall type.  I even have a hard time feigning interest.  I know this should be easy.  Theoretically, it just involves eye contact and occassional nods of the head, right?  Instead, I find my mind wandering... I wonder how long it took him to pluck his eyebrows... it's called Chaptstick, ever heard of it?... when is this conversation ever going to end?  But this is NOT to say I don't have, or like having good friends.  I just pick friends carefully.  When I have a good friend, I AM a good friend.  You can be sure you'll get a Valentine's present, even if you DO live all the way in Edmonton, Canada.  Wasting my time browsing on Ebay, I can do.  Wasting my time with boring people, I can't do.

On a lighter note, I decided to have an instant coffee taste test.  I never really drank instant coffee before coming to Korea.  My parents always brewed a pot of coffee every day, and if I ever went somewhere to drink coffee, of course it would be brewed.  I find that I like drinking little shots of coffee - just the perfect amount for me.  I use the instant pre-mixed packages because I take them to work and it's a whole lot more convenient.  As you can see, it's a choice between Maxim Mocha: Gold or Taster's Choice: Golden Mocha.  It's really not too scientific, but here are my findings.  Both mixtures looked the same when poured into a cup.  When hot water was added, Taster's Choice had a darker color than Maxim.  Taster's Choice was a little stronger, and bitter (to me).  Maybe some people like it, for the fact that it's stronger.  Overall, I prefer Maxim, because it was lighter and smoother. 

I just got back from The Warehouse, and am waiting for my water to heat up... so I decided to write.  I always say to myself, I'm going to go out for a bit, but make it an early night.  It never turns out that way.  During the long holiday last week, I was out from 10pm - 7am!  That's more drinking than I work in TWO DAYS!!!  Insane!  Actually, it turned out to be a lot of fun, and I was doing pretty good until around 6am, when I s.tarted falling asleep at the table

Tonight, Ryan brought his turn tables and and played around with it througout the night.  It was cool to hear something different.  After 1:00am, he was playing a lot of House music and quite a few people were dancing.  One of the Korean teachers from my school came out with her friends.  (She's the one in the denim jacket in the picture below.)  They had come before, and I really didn't get the impression that she liked it that much, because it seemed kind of loud for them.  It turns out, that they were there until 4am yesterday, after I had already left.  They came back tonight, and one of them said he was coming back tomorrow with his friends.  It's surprising, but I'm glad they had a good time.  It was nice that everyone was getting into it and dancing.

I'm a little exhausted... going to bed now...

It's still freakin' snowing.  I'm just not in the mood for it this afternoon.  It's a combination of the fact that the snow is dirty, and I'm starting to feel the effects of my cold medicine.  They're tiny flakes that melt upon hitting the ground, making the street wet and dirtier than it already is.  So yes, I started getting a cold yesterday afternoon.  I was perfectly fine until then - and even went to th gym for the first time in a month.  Then one moment, I started sneezing, and my runny nose hasn't stopped.  Blowing your nose costantly with a nose ring, is NOT fun.  I've only had a cup of coffe and some anti-histimines, so it's starting to hit me.

On a side note - I don't really care about the whole Janet Jackson "nipple-shield" incident.  I believe she knew exactly what she was doing, and it's not a big deal, but prime-time was not the appropriate place to do that.  Still, that doesn't take from the fact that I think she's beautiful.  Here's the album cover from her latest album.  I love that font/script. 

This weather is strange.  Two hours ago, it started snowing!  Just last week, it was really warm spring weather.  Of course, the snow's not sticking, but it was nice to see flakes coming down.  I really don't like this in-between weather.  I was about to bring out my spring clothes on Monday, but then saw the weekly forecast of potential snow. 

I started my new spring schedule this week.  I can't believe it's even better than last term.  Basically, twice a week I work 3-7pm, and three times a week, 4-8pm.  It still only ends up being about 17 hours a week.  Yeah, it's a coosh job - better than most jobs out there.  Still, quite a few people have moved to Seoul from Kangneung trying to make more money (or other reasons), but I don't think Seoul is the great city everyone seems to think it is.  I absolutely enjoy being in a city with fresh air, the mountains, and beaches nearby.  The summer will be great, when I can scoot to the beach before my first class.  On Thursdays, I don't teach until 4:40pm, so I'll definitely make it to the beach earlier in the day.  I really enjoy going to Seoul once a month, but am so happy to come back home. This past weekend when I went to Seoul, Friday was a beautiful day... very unusual.  Then the next day, the air and the sky looked horrible.  It looked like a mixture of yellow dust and smog.  It's not something I can get used to.

No, these aren't my students.  They just seemed cute.  But belive me, looks are deceiving.

This week is the beginning of the new school year, so I've been getting additional students in most of my classes.  There's one class, where four of the students are in 5th grade, but one boy is in the 2nd.  He's one of those ecentric super-smart kids.  (You know, the kind that drops out of university to open up his own software company, but won't kiss a girl until his mid-twenties.)  When I ask the other students about what scares them, typical answers were: ghosts, big dogs, my mom.  His answer was, jumping off a tall building, dying, then having a car run over you again!  How do you reply to that?  I just smiled, nodded with fake empathy, and was grateful the other students didn't know what the hell he was talking about.  Recently, I feel like I've started to become a "real" teacher, and have have a glimmer of understanding what professional teachers probably have to deal with.  How do you make sure that the slower students dont' feel neglected and left behind, when other students catch on to the material faster.  On the other hand, the super smart students want to answer all the questions.  (Thank you Ronnie, but I was asking Angie what "stingy" means!)  And today, I just noticed that Lily doesn't know how to read!  She tries to remember the expressions and the songs we learn, but will never look down at her book to read any of it.  In addition, I know the kids tease each other, but I don't understand everything they say to discipline them.  How far do you let childhood teasing go, until it starts to emotionally scar them for life?  Yes, in the 5th grade, I was "Soutthida fajita", but that was the best (comedian of the class) Jeff could come up with.  Still, I had a crush on him, and let him cut some of my hair that year in class.