34 of 45 - Ireland
Today I went shopping for some nice semi-formal clothes with my mother. This was partly because my cousin Chelsea is marrying "the partner" in a month or two, but also because with all the things I do that require professional dress, all I have to work with are dress shirts, ties, worn out black dickies and polished docs (Which have a hole in the toe).
So I went with mother to Stainmart and if she wasn't with me a surely would have shreiked and fled within five minutes because shopping for clothing is NOT my thing. I thought it was funny that Stainmart had two things in the men's clothing section: men's clothing (most of which was hideous), and golf supplies. WTF shouldn't that be in I don't know a sport supply store? Is golf a hobby or a sport? Anyway its not a clothing line, but they know who is shopping at Stainmart I guess.
And apparently its impossible to find anything simple. I hate clothing that looks like its trying to be fancy. Elegance is in simplicity. Belts for example: I need a belt. I wanted a plain belt that is black leather with a brass buckle. Isn't that what a basic belt is? They had over 100 belts, and not one was plain leather with a brass buckle. They all had all kinds of stupid retardinated patterns and crap on them. People suck. Eventually I found a nice shirt and some nice pants, but the belt situation couldn't be resolved there.
To quote my mother: In other news: We will be hosting a French kid at our house starting tomorrow. He is allegedly 20 years old. He will be working as an intern at a local business. Once more a European will have his view of America skewed by living with us. Most of the others survived; wish this guy well. He moves into a house that is a disaster in terms of tidiness: there are computer cables everywhere, beehives in the living room, and the detritus of my classroom in the entryway. The only resident "child" has a 9 inch green mohawk. All of us go off to work each day, except, so far, Mr Mohawk, who goes out to coffee hangouts until midnight or later most evenings. I guess our Frenchman will be able to choose which lifestyle to emulate. -Toad & Frog report.
The Prehistoric Emosnail - Ireland
But my plan for this entry wasn't to talk about the above. Much earlier in the year I had decided that I have a lot of stories from before this livejournal existed, that I'd like to get written down as well. So I resolved to start trying to tell those stories in chronological order. Let us start in Ireland in 1997:
I went to Kilkenny College, City of Kilkenny, County of Kilkenny, Ireland. It was basically the American grades 7-12. Fortunately for me it was co-ed, a lot of schools in Ireland aren't and "you just have to make do" if you happen to go to such a school. There was also an "experimental" school in town that was actually ::gasp:: multidenominational, but this was a crazy experiment and many were very skeptical that a nondenomenational school could function.
The Headmaster of Kilkenny College is (until this August apparently) Canon Jack Black, AKA the Black Canon. He billows around like Darth Vader in a cape (seriously a black cape!) and will not talk to anyone without an appointment (not even teachers I think). Kilkenny College, founded in 1538, boasts of many Lords of the Admiralty and other ostensibly famous people who attended it, but makes no official mention of their most famous graduate, Jonathon Swift, because he was a satirist and that we all know is not an honourable profession.
Three times a week they had "assembly" in the gym, so we all herded into the gym, usually making cow noises to illustrate the similarities between our herding into the gym and the herding of cows (aomething you cannot but be familiar with in Ireland). The gym doors had a sign that said something along the lines of "no shoes other than gym shoes allowed in the gym," yet three times a week the entire school was herded in wearing their black non-gym shoes, I never really understood that. School uniforms (seen here) consisted of grey slacks, light blue dress shirt, tie, and a grey pullover for guys -- (substitute grey skirt for girls, subtract tie). So basically your usually wearing the pullover so everyone is grey and grey most of the time.
Anyway, once I was tromping into the gym along with everyone else and my tie apparently wasn't tied right. Darth Headmaster Black, who was guarding the gym entrace like the ogre of darkness he is, pulled me aside and pointed at my tie. So I retied it and asked him if it was good. But god forbid he actually talk to a student -- he stared off over my head like I wasn't there, so I started walking into the gym again -- and he used Vader powers to strangle me yanked me back and pointed at my tie again. So I retied the tie and asked him again, but of course received the you-don't-exist response, so I slowly stepped away to see if he'd kill me with a lightsaber pull me back again but he didn't so it was kosher I guess.
Another incident that highlights the difference between school in Ireland and in America was the time there was a brawl between the "Day People" and the "Boarders." In American HS, if people so much as look at eachother funny everyone comes running and the supervisors come speeding over in golfcarts to haul them both to the re-education camp office. During my time at Kilkenny College, a brawl once went on for the entire hour of lunch. Staff must have been aware of it but there was no attempt to stop it. About two dozen people would converge in a melee of fists and violence, pause to regroup and insult eachother, and rejoin in combat. For an hour. Then we all went back to class and got over it.
So yeah. That was school in Ireland. I returned to the United States shortly after the 4th of July 1997.
Previously on Emosnail
Posted Two Years Ago Today: Introducing Top of the World - and bonfires at Capo Beach... ah the Golden Age of good times with the Diedrichs Crew was just beginning
Activities Two Years Ago Today: The 4th of July Party & Getting Screwed By the Man II - I'd say the summer of 2003 was the best summer of my life, and the party at Katie D'Agistino's place was one of the best events of it.
One Year Ago Today: Photo Essay: San Diego - Went to San Diego with the parents for 4th of July, saw the San Diego sights. Took pictures. Check it out.