Lent

I meant to blog about this before. About 3 weeks ago I met up with some friends in Seoul and one of them asked me what I'd given up for Lent. Being the bad Catholic that I am, I had totally forgotten it was Lent. I mean it's partly being in Korea I just don't think about things like that, and I don't even remember most American holidays anymore. Actually I usually don't give up anything for Lent, not because I don't want to, but because I can't ever think of anything good to give up. And because Lent is so long, I'll usually forget at some point what I've given up. So basically, FAIL every time. Also, I'm not the most devout Catholic (full disclosure: I'm agnostic.)

This year, me and my friends made a pact to give up Facebook. It sounds lame, but I realized I hadn't been off Facebook since I'd joined it in college. And really we all spend too much time on Facebook, or at least me and my friends do. So that day we all went to a PC bang (place where you can "rent" a computer for $2/hour, usually populated by gangly Korean guys playing computer games) and deactivated our accounts together.

At first it was kind of weird because I was so used to "checking" Facebook the way I'm always checking my email account. Now, a few weeks later, I'm so used to not having it that I've pretty much forgotten about it. And honestly, it's kind of nice to be on this break. While it's been great to see what my friends are doing, look at pictures, write stupid wall posts, etc. it's also such a waste of time. Really. And it's like once you start looking at something, it can lead you to looking at other things, and soon you've been on facebook for far longer than you meant to be.

But I'll be back as soon as Lent is over because I can't resist seeing what people are up to. How else will I find out who's engaged, had babies, got a job, moved, broke up, got back together, etc. etc.?

It's been nice being out of the loop though.