St. Patrick's Day is over again. Until I started at Notre Dame that day was just a chance for everyone to be Irish. Here it is a formal saint's feast day. Of course everyone is supposed to wear green but here wearing orange will get you snubbed pretty badly.

I continued my protest by not wearing green. The kids did not understand.

They also do not understand that in the non-Catholic world the day is only a day to celebrate being Irish, even if you aren't.

Poor Wakana is exhausted physically and mentally. She is carrying two jobs, high school teacher and college teacher, she is chairwoman for the Nihon-go Challenge Bowl, and she is in the Japanese Language Teacher's Association. She has a kid in one of her high school classes who is totally out of control. Yesterday he caused a fight in her classroom. Today he is suspended but he will be back in a couple of days. I wish I could do something for her.