Four Chords

I often have interesting conversations with the Chinese (language) teachers at my school. We have many similar yet different experiences with teaching our respective foreign languages to our students. For example, we can agree on many of the classes that are very active and hardworking while others are inactive and just make our work hard. But one major difference I learned today was that the Chinese teachers tried to incorporate music into their lessons, as in having the students sing along to some songs. I'd probably do more harm than good if I had to sing in front of my students, so I'll leave that teaching method to our non-English teachers. Godspeed, Mr. Kim.

Thought of the Day: D/C

Song of the Day: Axis of Awesome-4 Four Chord Song

No Pain, No Gain

As I'm coming to an end with my school contract, this is the last time I will have to grade all the school writing tests of the semester. The two topics for this semester that I've seen so far have been:
-writing a letter of apology or gratitude to parents
-writing a letter of apology or gratitude to family members/friends.

It's amazing to see how many students shout, lie, steal, and forget when it comes to their loved ones. Foreign language students are also brutally honest with their faults, so I read some pretty sincere stuff around this time of the year. And of course, I also get a handful of letters that say some of the most ridiculous things, intended or not. This year, one of the students wrote a letter of thanks to his grandfather saying:

I hope you are getting better from your cancer. Grandpa! No pain, No gain.

Probably not the best time to use American mottos to a dying relative, but you can see the encouragement behind the words. It's also funny seeing futile attempts at kissing my butt with finishing words of "I love you, Mr. Jung" written inside a lopsided heart with happy faces. I wonder if this is a tiny experience of what God sees and hears with our prayers. I probably crack Him up all the time.

Thought of the Day: 40 minutes

Despicable YOU

Taking the same subway train at the same subway door at the same time every morning introduces you to a lot of the same people with the same routines. In fact, two out of five weekdays I can even predict who will be sitting at the very last seat ready to get off two stations later. I usually aim to stand in front of that person. These are some of the "good" people in the subway.

Unfortunately, there are a handful of "bad" subway commuters that I see almost every week. One of these despicable people is called Mr. Phlegm. Approximately every 45 seconds, Mr. Phlegm makes the sound of gathering phlegm from his nasal cavity at a really loud volume for his commuting audience to hear. It gives me pure disgust. Not the greatest way to start your day.

I hadn't seen (or rather, heard) Mr. Phlegm in a while until this morning, but the main inspiration for this blogpost comes from Mr. Sneeze. I don't know if he's just sick for months on end or his allergies have kicked in, but this guy will not stop sneezing...with his mouth uncovered. He's awful generous with his germs to whoever happens to be sitting in front of him. The first time it happened to me, Mr. Sneeze even shared some of his spit with my bare arms. I gave him a look. He responded with another sneeze.

So, with "bad" subway people come "bad" subway days. Today was a "bad" subway day. I had Mr. Phlegm and Mr. Sneeze stand next to each other. In front of me. I'll let your imagination tell the rest.

Thought of the Day: Dream
Song of the Day: The 5, 6, 7, 8's-I'm Blue

Conan and Jim

Conan has been around for a while, but I started to enjoy his interviews more after watching some random clips on Youtube during lunch. Here's one of my favorite ones, so far.


It's Friday!

Thought of the Day: Can Not
Song of the Day: Turbo-회상

Clippers Advance

There's nothing worse than losing when you've had the lead for the majority of the game. The Warriors are infamous for their turnovers and careless defense, especially from their superstar shooter, Stephen Curry. Klay is like a light switch. He's either on or off. Hot or cold. Draymond Green commits stupid fouls and takes way too many three pointers with his low shooting percentage. It doesn't help that their big men are prone to injury. Ultimately, they're a very unreliable team.

But that's also why I love the Warriors. They're very human. They remind me of a group of people who are so imperfect and inconsistent yet still have the ability to work together and accomplish some amazing things. Kind of like the church. Today's loss was heartbreaking, but I look forward to cheering for them again next year but this time with my brother. I'll finally have someone to scream and cry with. Till then, let's go Portland!

Thought of the Day: Good News
Song of the Day: Fun-We Are Young