Easter Monday = spanking day?

I kid you not, this comes directly from Wikipedia (see the "Central Europe" section of the Easter article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter#Central_Europe):

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, males throw water at females and spank them with a special handmade whip called pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak). The pomlázka/korbáč consists of eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods), is usually from half a metre to two metres long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. It must be mentioned that spanking normally is not painfull or intended to cause suffering. A legend says that females should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during whole next year. An additional purpose can be for males to exhibit their attraction to females; unvisited females can even feel offended. Traditionally, the spanked female gives a coloured egg and sometimes a small amount of money to the male as a sign of her thanks. In some regions the females can get revenge in the afternoon or the following day when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any male. The habit slightly varies across Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it is now little more than an all-day water fight.

In Hungary (where it is called Ducking Monday), perfume or perfumed water is often sprinkled in exchange for an Easter egg.

I wonder how accurate this is? I always get worried when a source contains spelling and grammatical errors (what exactly is "painfull"?). In any case, I am glad that Easter Monday is not "an all-day water fight" here...that would be mighty cold.

Easter weekend

(Warning: spiritual post ahead. You are free to stop reading now if that is going to be a problem.)

Here we are, at the Easter long weekend again. I remember once telling a friend that there are a number of times in the year when I make new resolutions and decide to change for the better...the start of a new school year, New Year's Day (which is just Jan. 1 for me, though if I were of one of several cultures that officially recognize a different day as the start of the new year I'm sure I'd make resolutions then, too), my birthday, anytime a new semester/term starts, when the sun starts to come out again after a long grey winter and my energy levels start to pick up again...and Easter. I remember her response was something like, "Easter? Come on. Now you're going too far." *Shrug*...hey, for me, it's true. Easter is when Christians remember Christ's atoning death on our behalf and His subsequent resurrection. When you believe that someone experienced a very brutal and painful execution (let alone the beatings, scourging and ridicule that were part of the package) on your behalf to provide you with a gift that you believe you are completely unworthy of, and when that someone is someone you have grown to love, taking time out of your life to think on that is a humbling experience. I know the joke is that nominal Christians are C&E Christians, showing up at church only at Christmas and Easter...the two happy Christian holidays. I remember my theology professor suggesting that even a lot of Good Friday services aren't left focusing solely on Good Friday, but rush ahead to celebrate Easter, which in his view was because a lot of Christians are uncomfortable with the sorrow of the occasion and had to hurry up and get to the happy ending (he said this to my class as he invited us to a tenebrae service, which definitely cannot be accused of doing this). To me, though, Good Friday is the most important service of the year. It is Good Friday that provided the sacrifice I needed to happen if I was to have hope. It is the pain of Good Friday that speaks to me the most of God's love for us. It is Good Friday that challenges me by reminding me of what Christ did on my behalf and asking me if my daily actions reflect any gratitude through service and taking the time to further develop my relationship with Him. To me, to not remember Good Friday would be like a slap in the face of the one who suffered for me. No, I am okay with including remembrance of sorrow and suffering in my devotional life. I am okay with having my walk challenged from time to time. I fully believe that I need these things. I guess the question is, what am I going to do about it this year? (By the way, I am not ignorant of the debates about whether Easter has pagan roots or is too commercial and whether Christians should even celebrate it; all I will say is that for now I am of the opinion that we can, and that the same goes for Christmas.)

Oh, I should clear up the confusion I caused Miriam earlier today. I suggested that it is actually quite appropriate that it has snowed today and will snow all Easter weekend. I was making a reference in my head to verses like Psalm 51:7 and Isaiah 1:18, although I thought there were similar references in the New Testament that would have been more appropriate for this weekend that I was apparently making up. People who look at Easter as a day of yellow chicks and baby bunnies and chocolate and part of the beginning of spring may be disappointed by the snow, but it is helping me to think of Easter in a different way. That's not to say I won't be glad to see the snow leave, however.

Have a good long weekend, everyone!

Edit: P.S.: here is a link to a Good Friday analogy I think I like: http://www.new-life.net/favrt044.htm

Public service announcement: my summer starts later than you think.

Hi, all,

I've had a number of requests to get together with friends in the past "x" number of days. I will save you all the trouble now and tell you that crunch time has officially started at school for me now and I am going to have to put my exciting social life on hold to deal with it. I know, I know, I was at a concert this past Saturday...I made an exception in that case, and crunch time hadn't hit me between the eyes in the same way at the point that I agreed to attend the concert as it has since then. Anyway, I think my last day of classes is May 24 (sometime that week, anyway), and by that point I will be seriously in need of some chill time with y'all.

So, yeah, don't assume that just because school is done for most university people partway through April (or whenever their last exam is) means that I am free...I am not. I am dealing with a unit plan assignment, "learning task 2" (for which my partner and I are going to create a diary/scrapbook for a fictitious teacher as he/she grows in pedagogical understanding), a field trip assignment (for which my partner and I are going to check out the forensics lab downtown - so cool), a group presentation on a chapter in a book I don't want to read, a professional growth portfolio, my practicum binders, several sets of readings and the required responses, two final papers (one of which is going to require me to set up an interview with some teenagers on their use of computer-mediated communication and the Internet and the other of which requires me to do a presentation and summary), finding myself a job for next year, attending a couple PD activities to give my résumé a bit more punch, marking and planning lessons for practicum. It's not that I don't love y'all, but socializing is going to have to be given a much lower priority for the time being :P. That being said, I do still have to have to eat, which is how I justify attending the get-together some people from my program are going to have at Blueberry Hill at lunch today :).

Seeing as I won't be seeing some of you for a while, feel free to drop me a line...you have my e-mail and Facebook location :).

What I did in class today (a.k.a. my origami journey)

Seen here are the frog I learned to make in class in grade 3, the ninja stars I learned to make at the Japanese cultural centre in grade 5, and the box I learned to make from a guest speaker that came to my B.Ed. class this past Monday morning.

How it started: The mild emotional trauma many in my program have been experiencing the last couple days led me to seek relief today during our 15-minute break in some form of sugar that would last around me a little longer than chocolate, which ended up being Starburst candies. Eating the candies reminded me of that old commercial where some chick puts a red Starburst wrapper in her mouth, then pulls a red origami crane out of her mouth a short time later...and the take-off of that Martin and I did at Todd and Lindsey's wedding (good times, good times). That and the colourful wrappers and the need to distract myself somewhat from further trauma inspired me to get folding; thankfully my course directors and professors seem to understand my need to add "enrichment" to my classroom experience ;).

Hmm, I forgot until now that I could also have made some of the boxes I learned to make in class in grade 8 (which we were to teach our grade 3 reading buddies to make as a special Christmas project); maybe next time.

Notice the neat way in which the stars fit inside the box...it's like a quiver of ninja stars. I'm so organized, I even have a place for my weapons and my weapons in their place :P. They aren't very accessible for a quick draw, though; oh well.

I think Starburst are going to return to being my non-chocolate candy of choice, since they have the same fruit-flavoured punch, chewy texture and ability to last longer around me (and therefore medicate me longer) than chocolate (which gets inhaled quickly, meaning that it really is not around long enough to serve as the medication I may be trying to use it as at the time). Also, while they lack the satisfying candy crunch factor, Starburst do not make my jaw hurt after some time in the same way that Skittles do...and Skittles do not have colourful happiness-inducing wrappers. (Oh, by the way, lest you all be worried, I am mostly joking about using sugar as medication here, though today was particularly bad at the point that I was intentionally seeking out soemething like the Starburst.)

Alright, enough procrastinating. See some of you in class tomorrow. I hope tomorrow's speaker from Environment Canada is better than the lady from a different organization who talked to us about climate change :T.

Send me?

This post is really intended for my praying friends...not that y'all can't read it to see what's going on in my head these days, but three-quarters of you will probably think I'm crazy :). Well, I'm okay with that ;).

Martin and I were at a banquet last night that SIM (Serving in Mission) Canada puts on every year. I am on the missions committee of our church and was invited to attend by one of our missionary couples, along with Martin and another committee member. I remember even in high school I had thoughts about perhaps working in Africa one day. Martin didn't seem to have feelings that way, though. I knew I wanted to be a teacher, so I kept going with that path as it seemed to fall right into place for me, leading to my acceptance into teacher's college for this 2006-2007 school year and the success I've enjoyed in that program so far (not that it's been an easy year, let me tell you). I'm training to teach high school, and my teachable subjects are chemistry and physics. Anyway, some days before we went to this banquet, Martin asked me if I thought it was some recruitment thing for the mission...and asked questions and made remarks indicating an openness to being involved in missions that I have never heard him express before. Anyway, we went to the banquet last night, which included not only the dinner but a singer/pianist duet performing some songs and some speakers. On our tables, among other things, were sheets listing teaching positions that were in urgent need for the mission's schools around the world for the 2006-2007 school year. I didn't notice it at first, but the wife in the missionary couple that had invited us picked it up to show me and joked to me I'd have to be careful or I might get convicted and decide to teach at one of those schools. These schools partly exist to teach the children of missionaries (often fondly referred to in church circles as MKs - missionary kids), who attend as boarders. If the schools shut down (whether due to a lack of teachers or other circumstances), apparently the missionaries often return home (i.e., to Canada or the States or wherever home was before they became involved in missions), removing them from the field. Well, I looked over the sheet, saw some math and science teaching opportunities, saw Martin looking over it, too, and kept it in mind. Today I looked at the website for the mission, clicked on the link listing urgent needs for Ethiopia, and noticed that there is an urgent need for several teachers there for the 2007-2008 school year, including at least one opening in chemistry and physics. I asked Martin if he wants to go to Ethiopia; he said, "Maybe we should!" However, I had to explain that it might not be a salaried position (and I've confirmed that by clicking through a few more links); we would have to raise support, and that scares him. Heck, it scares me...the 2007-2008 school year is not that far away, and being on our church's mission board means I know there is no additional funding available from them at the moment. And Martin does not have a university degree, so he probably would not be a teacher and something else would have to be found for him (which I don't think would necessarily be that hard; maybe he would be a dorm parent, or maybe something else unrelated to the school would come up). Is this everything falling into place to call me to this opportunity? It seems too uncanny. What will our families say? Does the mission want a first-year teacher doing this? Will Martin's medical condition interfere, or will the MRI in July show that he's all cured and the second AVM is no longer a concern? Well, if Martin is okay with it I'll put in an inquiry and we'll see what happens; perhaps this is nothing, and I will teach here in Toronto for the rest of my life, but I think I would be remiss if I didn't at least ask for more information. This may end up just being dropped without any further mention by me, but this is what is on my mind right now. Friends, please pray. Thanks for listening.

Stupid file formats...

This is the part of the show where Joy asks her blog/Facebook readers for help.

Sooo, any of y'all know of a free (legal - i.e., without scamming a program off some p2p network) way to change a .wmv Windows-Media-Player-format movie into something I can stick on my video iPod (like a .avi or a .mov)? All my Googling only turns up programs I'd have to pay for...I downloaded a trial version of one program, but it put an obnoxious fluorescent green watermark right across the screen for the entire duration of the newly-made movie. I'm not really willing to pay for something to do this at this point as I'm not needing to transfer a lot of files, but if there is a free way to do this then I'm all ears.

Oh, and no need to inform me on how to change Windows-Media-Player-format audio into something I can use with iTunes; I've already figgered that one out. It's only the movies I'm concerned about at this point.

The tax man cometh...hooray!

You know what I love about being a student? Tuition tax credits. I finally took the time today to sort through all our various bills, pay stubs, and other financial paperwork, and to file most of it. Some things have been sitting around unfiled since May, yikes! I use a spreadsheet and Quicken to keep track of it all, so all the bills have been paid in a timely fashion, but I tend to be lazy when it comes to actually getting the physical documents into their respective file folders. Anyway, I also finally took the time today to install the new version of QuickTax for the 2006 tax year and to input all the information I had on hand, and I am very pleased with the number that shows up in the area that shows our expected refund. It's also really nice to see the amount of tuition tax credits I still have left over from this year (and previous years, even after I transfer the maximum amount of it them I can to my husband) that will carry forward to be used against the tax I'll probably have to pay next year (when I'll hopefully be much more gainfully employed than I am currently). Unfortunately, I know I won't be able to enjoy the refund for long--part of it is earmarked to help pay off more of hubby's student loans, part of it is promised in bond form to be part of our church's building program fund, and we do have to top up our bank accounts a little as they've gotten lower than I like them to be due to some excessive spending lately. However, we have been getting increasingly frustrated with our refrigerator, so perhaps this refund will provide some cash for a big new toy in the kitchen...that would be nice. I know I'm eventually not going to like this time of year so much, since my not being a student any more will mean the eventual drying up of my tuition tax credits, but hey, I'll then probably be making more $ year-round than I am now, so I'll have that $ to spend...and having more $ will also mean we'll be giving more $ away and thus increasing our charitable donation tax credits, too.

Oh, for those of you who know about what's been going on at Martin's work: they had the vote on the new contract today, and they are not going on strike after all--they accepted the new deal, although it is still a pretty crappy one. Andrew and Mira, Martin and I still have to figure out if we're going to join you for the Jars of Clay concert, but it's a relief to know finances won't be the deciding factor.

I'd better run as I'm helping to run the service at our church tomorrow (I'm on the world outreach committee, and we run a World Outreach Sunday a few times a year where we focus on our missionaries and our call in a special way) and I have to remind myself of what I have to do. Have a good night, y'all!