Spring!!

Well, it's been another month already! I still can't get over how quickly time's been flying by. I've been here for 7 months already-- wow! And spring is FINALLY here!!

This month has been a month of holidays. First there was St. Patrick's Day. Very little happened on that day, but on the Saturday following there was a big St. Patty's festival up in Seoul. A couple of thousand people were there, including the dozen or so of us who went up together from Daejeon. But when you have all-you-can-drink free Guinness beer, you should expect a crowd. There was also free Irish food, Irish step-dancers and lots of free crazy hats for people to wear. It was a lot of fun.

The following morning the group of us from Daejeon had breakfast at a nice little french restaurant in Itaewon.

The next weekend, we celebrated Passover with one of the Jewish teachers here. It was rather informal, with the running joke being that it should be officially named "Passover in Korea: Whatever works!" There were about 15 of us altogether: some Jewish, some Christian, some Buddhist, some agnostic.

One of the most memorable parts of it to me was when one of the teachers surprised everyone by chanting the "4 Questions" in Hebrew.



Last weekend was Easter. The weather warmed up, so Easter Sunday was an absolutely beautiful day. I had the window open enjoying the nice breeze and could hear some kind of "event" happening at City Hall, which is only about 1/2 a block from my apartment. Now, while it's not uncommon at all to hear things happening there as Koreans are really big on having rallies for all kinds of reasons I was a bit surprised to hear the music to the song "Via DeLarosa" clearly wafting through my window. It was a bit of a nice Easter surprise.

A group of us from my school attended Easter Mass at the only Catholic church in town that has an English service.

I must admit that it's a bit funny to be considered part of the "Outreach to Immigrant Workers". It took me a while to find info an English mass when I arrived so here's the info for anyone who may need it:

Daehwa-dong Catholic Church
Daehwa-dong Sundang (beside Duri Wedding Chapel)
Mass held each Sunday at 4:00pm
Reconciliation each Sunday at 3:30pm
Phone #:010-2010-3907