Melancholy

Are you feeling melancholy with the autumn season?

Thought of the Day: Atmosphere
Song of the Day: Oh Happy Day

Dear Mr. Watterson

Thought of the Day: Proofreading Done
Song of the Day: Canon in D

Holiday Hangover

It isn't easy coming back to school after two consecutive weeks of 4-5 day weekends. It's like a holiday hangover that you're trying to recover from. But thank goodness for Hanguel. And thank goodness we're celebrating it tomorrow.

BTW, Breaking Bad was awesome.

Thought of the Day: Bad Morning Commercials

lol

I see a lot of humor on the Internet, but this picture actually made me laugh out loud.

I love midterms.


Thought of the Day: Windows Updates

Good Afternoon

During lunch...

Teacher: Yummy lunch! 수제비 very yummy! Double yummy!

Me: Yeah. Very good.

Teacher: Crazy yummy.

Sometimes, it's impossible to correct someone who is just so confident...or should I say 'double confident?'

Colorado

I saw this picture of the Colorado floods on CNN this morning. Can you imagine being overwhelmed by so much rain? Incredible.

Thought of the Day: Ringtones
Song of the Day: Sara Groves-Miracles

Monday > Thursday

Here's a picture Nate showed me a while back that I just happened to find online to use for a lesson I'm preparing. As bad as Mondays are, Thursdays happen to be my hardest days. Aside from being so far yet so close to the weekend, a chunk of my worst classes happen to all fall straight in a row right before lunch. Those morning classes truly kill my appetite. It's days like Thursday that make me see Monday on the brighter side. Boat! Land!

Thought of the Day: 닭도리탕
Song of the Day: John Mayer-St. Patrick's Day

Best In-Game Dunker

He was so good when he was in the Raptors.

Thought of the Day: Finally Friday
Song of the Day: 6kies-Run Away

Thank God It's Friday

This has become my new Friday celebration song. Thank God indeed.

Thought of the Day: Rain
Song of the Day: Dr. Dre-Keep Their Heads Ringin'

Blast from the Past

Our new EM pastor is arriving soon, so we thought about getting the church laptop cleaned up for him without any bugs or problems. Reformatting didn't take very long, and it was totally MY pleasure. Believe me.

As we were browsing through the files and folders to back up, we stumbled upon a picture from the past.

That's 2008! So much has happened to and within the ministry since then. The small remnant are hopeful for new changes in the coming months and years.

Thought of the Day: Goose!

Song of the Day: Beach Boys-Kokomo

Final Week of Vacation

What a week!

Thought of the Day: Photoshoot
Song of the Day: Eminem-Till I Collapse

Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.

Growing up with a healthy obsession with dinosaurs, Jurassic Park probably had to be one of the best movies of my childhood. In fact, it was the only time I can clearly remember my whole family going out to watch a movie together. I loved how the dinosaurs seemed so real throughout the entire movie. So real that my brother cried when the T-Rex made its first memorable appearance. It was the perfect movie.

In fact, it was so perfect that I even asked my dad to buy me the original soundtrack. So perfect that I begged my mom to buy me the original Michael Crichton novel along with the The Lost World hardcover edition even though I was only in 5th grade and couldn't understand 80% of it. So perfect that we bought it on video from Costco and my brother and I watched it at least 30 times. "Shoot huh! Shoot huh!" It was seriously da bomb.

Unfortunately, the sequels were nowhere nearly as good although I was always excited to watch them and still look forward to the fourth one supposedly coming out in 2015. I never rewatched any of the sequels until last night when I had nothing better to do and decided to relive one of my childhood memories. I never knew that Vince Vaughn was in the Lost World! He's not so money with dinosaurs.

Anyway, I have to watch the third one now even though it got the worst ratings out of the three on IMDB. It seems as if there will never ever be a great dinosaur movie again like Jurassic Park.

방학식

Today is the last day of the first semester, which means I'm just hours away from starting my vacation. I got my second semester material all ready, so I was planning on just vegging in front of the computer without a worry...until a student's father came into the office with his son's report card. The student had gotten A's in every single subject except for English with an 89.4% B, and my writing assessment grade was responsible for that. So, naturally, the father wanted to speak with me, the Native English teacher who isn't supposed to speak Korean, let alone to students' parents.

I had pretty much damaged the student's chances of getting into a foreign language high school, so he was wondering if I could be 'understanding enough' to change the grade. He's doing all of this AFTER the test correction period and AFTER the final report card grades have been sent out. So basically, the father was in no position to ask for such a change, to me, on the last day of the semester. But my heart goes out to him anyway even though I wouldn't have been able to change anything even if I had decided to.

I'll never forget the worst psychology class I ever took in college called Research Methods. The class was insanely boring and the professor was unusually strict. He made it clear on the first day of class that anything under a 90.0% would be a B. Even an 89.99% would be a B. Straight up. And of course, I had fallen victim to that hypothetical situation with an 89.6%, but I knew better than to ask for a higher grade. The rules were rules, and the professor was an a-hole for making those rules. So yeah, I feel for that student and his father, but he can't always have daddy talk to the big bad teacher for him.

I wonder how many students have written about me in their blogs.

The vice-principal has officially dismissed us! Vacation starts NOW.

Thought of the Day: Grades
Song of the Day: Xzibit-What You See Is What You Get

To This Day

I used to hate being called 'Stupid.' Even if it was just a joke, I used to hate it. I think the only way I stopped letting it get to me was when I accepted that I was and could be stupid and that it was okay. I guess there are a bunch of other words that have replaced 'stupid,' but I'm learning to accept those too and overcome them one by one. I think we can only accept our flaws when we know that we are still accepted. And that's really liberating.

Thought of the Day: Heel Pain
Song of the Day: Audio Two-Top Billin'

The Green Line

I take Subway Line 2 aka 2호선 aka 지옥선 (the Hell Line) practically every single day every single week. It's one of the busiest and crowded subway lines in Seoul due to its circular route, so it can get pretty nasty during rush hour. As a result, I try to leave 10 minutes earlier than I normally have to just so that I can beat the bum rush. I've been able to time it well enough to get a seat every morning for the past two months or so, but my streak broke today when a lady strategically placed her body just a couple of inches closer to my unmarked territory to unofficially qualify for the seat that opened up just four stops after I had gotten on. If I don't get a seat by Guro Digital Complex, I won't be sitting for a while.

Sitting during rush hour is so important. It's the difference between sitting first class and getting tossed around with the cargo. You can read, pray, and sleep without having to stand, shove, sweat, and step on shoes. You appreciate it so much more during the summer months and even more on the rainy days. That's why you gotta be extra quick on your toes whenever you're coming up on a transfer station. Cause once a seat opens up on that train, everyone's antennae go up and one lucky lottery winner cashes in the prize right away. You just have to pray that no grandma walks in with heavy groceries and a cane. But for the most part, the elderly know better than to take the Hell Line at the most hellish hours.

You build a lot of character on that Green Line.


Thought of the Day: Sonata
Song of the Day: Scarface-In Between

War and Peace and Neutrality

Tonight, the English teachers were supposed to meet for a friendly dinner now that the final exams are over and the semester has nearly come to an end. Unfortunately, the ongoing conflict between a few of the teachers prevented more than half of the teachers from coming out. They've had a number of meetings to find some resolution, but in the process more feelings were hurt and past scars were reopened. One teacher even took a one month leave to restore her physical health that suffered from her poor mental and emotional health. There have been a number of individuals who have tried jumping into this burning building only to come running out with burn marks. It's a very messy and childish situation.

I'm in a very interesting position being the foreign teacher who has the eyes and ears that no other teacher has. Since I teach with each of the English teachers every week, I guess you can say that I have a slightly wider perspective on the situation. But like Switzerland, I don't get involved in others' wars, and I do everything to remain neutral and see how everything unravels. If you were to ask for my two cents though, I would say that at least one person needs to swallow their pride and work towards some form of apology. Truth-telling has been done, but now there has to be room for acknowledgement and forgiveness. Otherwise, our English department will remain volatile and unstable like the North and South Korea situation...with Switzerland having dinner all alone.

Happy 3rd of July, Egypt.
Happy 4th of July, America.

Thought of the Day: Egypt
Song of the Day: Dr. Dre-Keep Their Heads Ringin'

Ain't No Half Steppin

I had always thought this Big Daddy Kane beat was originally from Biggie's demo, 'Microphone Murderer.' I also never knew he was such a respected lyricist that even Rakim refused to battle him. But now, Big Daddy Kane is a nobody in the music business. I wonder if the same would have been the same for Biggie and Tupac. I guess we all have our peaks and primes. Just like Kobe and eventually LeBron.

It's interesting to see how my basketball peers often talk about how they 'used to be good.' They used to run faster, jump higher, and play longer when they were younger. Today, however, they complain of fatigue, aches, and fear of injuries. Less driving and more shooting from outside. The sad thing is that I can relate. Whether it's eating or balling, my body just can't keep up anymore. Ok maybe not the eating part so much. :)

Imma tear it up at the bbq tomorrow. It's great to be on vacation!


Thought of the Day: 한강 Picnic
Song of the Day: Biggie-Microphone Murderer Remix

What in the World

This semester's writing assessment was on traveling, and one of my students shared a quote from St. Augustine: "The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." I really like that quote.

I've sort of made it a goal to travel to at least one new country every year ever since I visited Dinko when he was in China. I've been hoping to maybe squeeze in another country this year, but it looks like time and money won't allow for Cambodia to happen. I love seeing new places, meeting new people, eating new food, and experiencing new cultures. It's all about expanding my tiny perspective of the whole wide world.

If I had too much money and was absolutely selfish in how I spent it, I would want to stay at every single country in the world, one month at a time. That would amount to approximately 16 years of traveling, assuming I don't die along the way. I like to fantasize about it from time to time. But in the meantime, I think it would be cool to aim for a new country or mission trip every year considering teaching jobs come with paid summer and winter vacations. Definitely one of the perks of being a school teacher.

Anyway, I have a short vacation coming up this weekend, so I'm looking forward to getting out of Seoul. Ain't no Cambodia, but it'll have to do.

Thought of the Day: Can vs. Able to
Song of the Day: Sixpence None the Richer-With Every Breath

Restless

I can't remember the last time I had a full week of good sleep. I was close a couple of times around April, but I never made it a full a week. There's always something that comes up. The hamster. Convenient store drunkards. Insomnia. A fight. A text message. I wonder how much happier and healthier I would be if I got eight hours of good sleep every single day for a month. I was gonna say a year, but let's be realistic now. I guess even one month is kind of ridiculous.

But I guess that's life. We don't live in cookie cutter situations where everything is neat and pretty. Every day is a mess of confusion and events where the world doesn't just revolve around us. We're surrounded by noise and brokenness, and there just aren't enough earplugs and blinds to make them go away. And so, my sleep is messy too. I can't fall asleep at least once a week. And when I do fall sleep, there's always something that will disturb my rest. Alas. I want to sleep.

Thought of the Day: Friday
Song of the Day: Baek Ji Young-사랑안해

Brothers

Sam shared this song with me, and I fell in love with it. I think it resonates in a particularly beautiful way to brothers.

It's a new week!

Thought of the Day: 할매 닭갈비
Song of the Day: the Avett Brother-Murder in the City