Sunday, March 19, 2006

St. Patrick's Day


Austin, Mark and some green milk



I love holidays. Especially when they fall on a Friday and involve turning typically boring colored food and drinks green. I gave all my classes green milk and cookies today to celebrate. After morning class, Will yakked all over the floor and two Korean teachers freaked out at the sight of the kryptonite vomit. They were about to call an ambulance when the other students explained that Aly teacher had given them green milk. Green milk? Why on earth would she do that, they wondered. I explained St. Patrick's Day to them but all I kept getting in response from them and my students was, "Patrick, Patrick? Who is this Patrick and why does he like green so much?"

As the day progressed, I moved from green milk to green beer on an evening out with a reunited elementary school classmate, Miles and a university friend of his. Miles will soon be studying Korean full time at Yonsei University. This weekend him and one of his friends inspired me to start studying Korean more seriously. We'll see how it goes. Today I met a man who works at the Spanish Embassy and I asked him if he spoke Korean. He said he's not going to bother to learn it because he's here for such a short time...3 years! That's crazy talk. I'm here for 5 more months and consider it worthy to learn as much as I can before I go. He thought I was crazy.



A St. Patrick's Day card and shamrock bookmark from Jasmine