You kissed me on the cheek.
You kissed me on the ear.
You kissed me on the neck.
You were bold in kissing my chest and stomach.
You even made your way down to kiss me all over my legs and feet.
You usually love to kiss my hand and arms.
You even kissed me in the eye before.
But last night, did you really have to kiss my upper lip?

Smash you, mosquito!

Thought of the Day: 종성
Song of the Day: Deli Spice-9월

This week's persecuted church: Egypt
An Egyptian court gave custody of two 15-year-old twins to a mother but would not allow them to change their religious affiliation to Christian on their ID cards. All citizens are required to carry these cards in order to receive government as well as private services such as education, employment, and bank transactions. The twin boys may be disqualified for Christian education because of their religious affiliation on the ID cards.
On Friday, I was being a good Christian and reading my Bible while waiting for the subway. But from the corner of my eye, I spotted this man who kept staring at me from a distance. As soon as he started approaching me, I was confident that he was a cult member who was going to try to convert me after asking me all these annoying questions. So I pretended to not notice him until he was just inches away and put his hand on me. I looked up. And it was Howard! The only crazier coincidence I ever had was when Mike Kim called out to me after I had gotten on the 6637 bus in 목동 after work. Now that was nuts.

This week has been full of CPC. I saw Esther on Wednesday. I met Eunice and Stephanie on Saturday. I recently realized that Eunice was now a junior in college. Stephanie graduated. Christine Kim graduated and will be in Paraguay for a year or so. Prairie is going to be a senior. I swear it's time travel. But one thing remains constant. Terrance is still in youth group. Faithful.
"[Dorj] is very glad that you are coming again. He again said it very difficult to go to Batshireet so people don't go there. But you are so brave."
-Tseggy

I love this picture of 종성 in Mongolia. We finally learned and started practicing a song and the body motions. My love for the team grows every week. I am so encouraged just by how much people step up and volunteer to take care of various needs. I love how we have some awesome KM people who feed us very well every week. As Ella said, "기대된다!"

Zal-bri, zal-bri, hallelujah!

Thought of the Day: 해숙장?
Song of the Day: Buchiklej Bagdaa

So there were only three movies that I was looking forward to this summer:

The first one sucked really really bad. But 전지현's English was better than I had expected.

The second was better than I had expected. I enjoyed the fight scenes very much. Favorite quote from the movie: "Punk ass Decepticons!"

The third one will not be released in Korea as far as I know. Tarantino hasn't been out in a while, but he's never disappointed me yet.

Thought of the Day: Tuck Everlasting

Song of the Day: Humming Urban Stereo-샐러드 기념일

I got four immunization shots yesterday to get ready for Mongolia. The shots themselves were surprisingly painless, but the effects of the shots have been otherwise. My arms were so sore last night that I kept waking up from even the slightest motion from either arm. Throughout the day, I felt so weak and tired too. At first, I blamed it on the lack of sleep, but I soon realized that the immunization was just doing its work. No pain, no gain...unfortunately.

But one pain that I absolutely cannot stand is my landlord's wife. She's got THE most annoying voice that always blurts out in a complaining tone. Since her body is in old 아줌마 time, she stays up late yelling and fighting over Go/Stop games OUTSIDE IN THE STREET but wakes up early to fuss over some trivial matter with her homegirls OUTSIDE IN THE STREET. I know that 아줌마s can be loud, but this switch is a whole new ball game. It's not like I can tell her to STOP TALKING LIKE THAT! Fortunately, I was able to think of the perfect mixed candidate for her appearance and sound.

아줌마 the Gonzo/Animal. Really, you'd be surprised.

Thought of the Day: Reformat
Song of the Day: Humming Urban Stereo-샐러드 기념일

This week's persecuted church: Vietnam
Police officers have disrupted services at Agape Baptist on April 19, May 24, May 31, and June 7. Worshipers, including women, were beaten. The pastor and elder were arrested, put into separate cells, and beaten by a gang of five policemen. They were beat in a way that did not leave any marks: hard blows to the stomach. Petitions to the government for religious freedom are ignored or denied. The leaders of this church say, "Persecution is a sign that the Lord is at work," but they feel pain in seeing their Christian family disrespected, mistreated, and abused.
Last night, I went out with some Daewon teachers in 건대. The language and conversation were so foul and different that I realized that I've been surrounding myself around just Christians again. I really felt like someone had inserted me into an American Pie movie! But the thing that bothered me the most that night was when we all shared who are favorite hip hop artist was. After I got persecuted for saying Biggie, this one guy started going off on how great Ja Rule was. Freakin' Ja Rule. He said he liked his voice or some garbage like that. And just for that, I shamelessly bopped my head to Biggie songs in the subway all the way home. I totally showed him. Freakin' Ja Rule. Nigga please.

Thought of the Day: LOST Season 5
Song of the Day: Humming Urban Stereo-Salad Day

I think I was the only person in the whole world who didn't keep up with this year's NBA season at all. I just finished watching all the highlights for the finals. Kobe was nuts.





But I'll still never cheer for the Lakers.

Thought of the Day: Esther
Song of the Day: As One-헤어져

This week's persecuted church: Singapore
A Christian couple has been sentenced to 8 weeks in jail for distributing gospel material in the mail. This act was seen as offensive, insensitive, and ignorant of others' race and religion. Pray for this couple and the other Singaporean Christians who live in this religiously sensitive country.

Summer is a very difficult time for me for two reasons. Mosquitoes and sweat. The heat only bothers me because my body tends to overheat more quickly and intensely than others. All of my life, I was always that sweaty kid with red cheeks after P.E. My 6th grade yearbook picture shows me all wet in my face and shirt because I played an innocent game of basketball in the morning. My homeroom teacher was actually very disgusted and gave me a harsh scolding about looking proper at school. I mean, what could I say except that I was sorry?

One time, this kid was guarding me in basketball until we made contact. "으악! 땀!!!" I've gotten so embarrassed at how wet I am that I've even left early even though I wanted to play more. I really loved those scenes from The Incredible Hulk when Edward Norton had to monitor his heart rate carefully in order to prevent his Hulk transformation. I actually do something similar whenever it's a hot day or the stupid subway 아저씨 doesn't turn on the air conditioner. I even have to watch what I eat or else my body will get too excited and burst into MY Hulk transformation-damp and smelly. For all of you dry and comfortable people, be thankful this summer cause Enoch and I are gonna be wet.

Thought of the Day: 어른아이
Song of the Day: Green Day-Jesus Of Suburbia

Mongolian training:









Thought of the Day: Mongolian
Song of the Day: Mai Fukui-My Song For You

One of the three lawyers that I teach is a single lady in her forties. Today, we talked about her hobbies such as dancing and COMIC BOOKS! Supposedly, she has 300-400 comic books at her place that take up three to four bookshelves. She started reading comic books in college and hasn't stopped since. But one interesting thing she told me was that she no longer enjoyed "ordinary" books or movies because she felt that she had already experienced enough of that in her life. At her age, she wanted to see fantasy or unusual things that she would never be able to encounter. I thought that was so true yet interesting. Comic books. Her escape from reality.Today, one of my students ran out of his room, grabbed bugs spray, and started spraying me because of a tiny tiny bug that was on my shirt. My shirt and pants were perfect targets, but the bastard totally missed the bug, which I merely flicked to the ground. I grew up hating the word, "stupid," but my student showed me a whole new level of qualification.
Tonight, I had 삼겹살 with my dad (big surprise, right?). Whenever we have our meat and soju together, family always comes up in our conversation. One particular thing we enjoy discussing is how different my brother and I are. Tonight's topic was greed, rather ambition. My dad said that I was never an ambitious person while my brother showed a little more need for the greed. Supposedly, my brother had told my dad at his middle school graduation that he was going to go to a better college than me. The amazing thing is that Simon was right! My UCLA brother really is a greedy little bastard. Haha.
I recently learned that I like indie music, particularly Korean indie rock. Maybe it's because I'm so sick of the typical pop stuff that all sounds the same. Maybe I'm just getting older and growing a desire to have a more peaceful or calmer sound. Maybe I'm just an indie person who wants to confirm to himself that he is different and unique. Whatever it is, I like indie music, particularly Korean indie rock.
A handful of people know how much I love to talk crap while playing games. Particularly ex-youth group kids like Curtis or Simon know that I have a cocky lip. I realized that I got it from my dad after playing so much Go/Stop with him these past few weeks. There'd be nights where I'd be losing several games in a row and he'd literally beat his chest just to tell me that his heart hurt from seeing me lose so much. It's seriously like looking into a mirror. I guess "cocky" isn't the best choice of words. "Provocative" is more appropriate. 약올리다 is even better. I've toned down A LOT, but genes are genes.
These days, I'm reading a book called "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World." It's the first time in a long time where I'm reading a book on a historical figure. The last time that I can clearly remember reading about a famous person out of leisure was a biography on George Washington back when I was in 4th grade. Hehe. Anyway, I always knew that Genghis conquered a lot of stuff, but I never knew that he was incomparable in all of history! Apparently, at his height, homeboy had conquered more area of land than all of North America (that's right, that includes Canada!). Weatherford writes, "Genghis Khan recognized that warfare was not a sporting contest or a mere match between rivals; it was a total commitment of one people against another. Victory did not come to the one who played by the rules; it came to the one who made the rules and imposed them on the enemy. Triumph could not be partial. It was complete, total, and undeniable-or it was nothing." On a purely secular level, Genghis Khan truly was DA MAN. My excitement for Mongolia grows!

Thought of the Day: Katie
Song of the Day: Mai Fukui-Lucky

It's amazing how there were supposedly absolutely (but unlikely) no June birthdays in the EM. But in the past couple of weeks, I've been finding out that many non-church people were born this month.

3 students
2 high school friends
1 former coworker
1 Snugs
1 Kenny(?)

Happy Birthday to all.

Thought of the Day: Basketball
Song of the Day: Green Day-Jesus of Suburbia

This book is about a teacher who changed the lives of several high school students who lived in the ghetto. Instead of reading a story with a clear plot, this book was full of real life diary entries from students who were in Ms. Erin Gruwell's class. This teacher was (is) a truly amazing teacher who made a difference in the world around her. I wonder how I can be an effective teacher to my students just by tutoring them in English. How can a teacher be a teacher who can change lives? Ms. G said, "Evil prevails when good people do nothing." I thought that was powerful.

Here's a brief passage from a student's entry that stood out to me the most:
"Since my dad was the only source of income before he got sick, I've had to become the man of the house. Being the man of the house means no more school for me and certainly more working hours. I also have to cheer up my mom and my younger brother. This is very hard for me because half the time I feel like crying, but I want them to think I'm strong. So most of the time, I hide behind a mask."

Wow.

I am tired from 10 hours of Go/Stop.

Thought of the Day: W Burger
Song of the Day: Kim Ah Joong-Over The Rainbow

Dude, it's like LOST!

AIR FRANCE MISSING AIRPLANE

Thought of the Day: UC Irvine
Song of the Day: Gavy NJ-Twilight