One big happy family

Last Friday, for those not in the know, was St. Patrick's Day. Not as if we need an excuse to get together and party, but St. Patty always seems to bring out the festive spirit. I thought it would be a good idea to capture some of my homies on camera, just to let the folks back home know that my friends aren't imaginary.

This party started in Cain's apartment, and ended up in a western pub called the Wa Bar. It's really nothing like the pubs back home, but it does attract us whities nonetheless. This is a pretty typical scene, with the players from left to right being Laura, Georgina, Gina, Barb, Andrew, Bryan, Marie (back), and Steph. Everyone in the picture is a teacher, and most of them are from Canada. The expat community here has a real university feel to it. We all get along well and it's always fun to get together and celebrate our white diversity.

Here's a couple of fellow Americans: Bryan and Steph. They were kind enough to put on their best faces for this rare photo op. If Bryan looks like he's a little loopy here, it's because he is. Bryan probably knows more Korean than any other whitie I know. He studied Korean for years before coming, and hangs out with mostly Koreans. He majored in Linguistics, so we get along pretty well. Steph and I get along great in that we are both from the midwest. She's from Oklahoma, so I always enjoy the opportunity to fraternize with a fellow Bible-belter. Steph is also a big Star Wars fan, which leaves us plenty to talk about. Marie is in the background. I have gotten in the habit of doing movie nights with Marie and friends on Sunday evenings lately, which is a nice way to end the weekends.
Here are a couple of Canadians named Francis and Laura. This is how small-town Canucks pose for pictures. These gals were introduced to our group through Cain, who ran into them on the street in Seoul. It's amazing how that happens to Canadians over here. These girls grew up in the same town as Cain and happened into him in Korea. I've seen this kind of thing happen many times in my brief stay. I seriously doubt I'll ever run into anyone from back home here, but I've learned it really is a small world after all.

The next photo is of the perpetrater of this party, Cain. Cain is from Canada, big shock, but his parents are both from Ireland. Therefore he has a Canadian-Irish accent, which is a linguistic enigma. Cain's good people. Cheers! Also in the picture is Barb and the top of Georgina's head. Too bad I didn't get a better picture of these two, as they are both lovely and kind, not to mention really cool.

This last photo is of another fellow American, Gina and her bottle of soju. She decided to pose with some strange looking fellow--I'm not sure who this guy is. He was kind of odd in that he was drinking bottled water while everyone else was drinking wine, Guiness, or soju. The explanation was something about an outrageous lent proposition. I don't know, every party has its crazies. He had a good time, though, and seemed to really enjoy everyones' company.