Shylock in Korea |
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Wherein I share my experiences teaching English and living in South Korea. Won't you please leave a comment so I'll know you've been here? visit and read
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Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Wednesday, July 24, 2002
day 142low-fat vs. low-carb "The nightmarish prospect is that the government's incessant exhortations to eat less fat and more carbs may have inadvertently contributed to the obesity epidemic that has expoded out of control in the last two decades. The supposed link is that low-fat diets inexorably drive people to eat more carbs, which often make them hungrier, can make it harder to burn off fat and can increase triglycerides, which increas the risk of heart disease, the very danger that low-fat diets are trying to avert. Instead of low-fat diets, some researchers say, we should emphasize low-carbohydrate diets, the very opposite of the current approach." - quoted in the International Herald Tribune; see The National Institutes of Health Tuesday, July 23, 2002
day 141Today is Wednesday and I will leave for China Friday afternoon. I'll take the train to Seoul early in the morning to do some last minute shopping and errands and then I will meet Yun-kyoung, Brian's Korean friend who has been great helping me obtain my Chinese Visa and making a reservation on the ferry and picking up the ferry ticket itself. All of the legwork for these things had to be done in Seoul which would have made so much more work for me. We will meet so she can give me the visa, my passport which she needed to get the visa, and the ferry ticket. My plans were almost siderailed. A few days ago I came down with a mildly nasty case of athlete's foot week:swollen left foot (CURSE THE LEFT SIDE OF MY BODY! - deaf left ear, broken left arm while a paper carrier for The Salt Lake Tribune, broken left hand on my mission, sliced the tip off my left middle finger while working at The Pizza Press in Tremonton, athlete's foot on the left, left-lopsided mouth when talking. Where is my cowlick? LEFT SIDE! Where are all my girlfriends? They LEFT me! But I digress...), itchy, painful to walk, and an internal infection in the foot itself on top of it all. Mr. Kim helped me find a determatologist who diagnosed the problem and gave me medication and ointment. It feels much better now so I'm not concerned about walking but the doc said it will take several weeks to completely heal. I've never had this problem before so I can't help wonder if I got it from the high humidity or perhaps I picked it up at a public bath. For what it's worth, I found it interesting that this dermatologist was a woman. She was totally competent, not that I would expect any less, but I was impressed nonetheless. If you guage how advanced a country is by the opportunities available to both sexes, I'd say Korea is doing pretty well. Brian's tourist visa to China expires on August 6th so he wanted to come back with me close to that date. The school break ends on the 4th so I took a couple extra days off and I think we actually will return on the 6th. So, if you count the travel time on the ferry, that makes for a 12-day vacation. Not bad, huh? (Actually I think I would trade it all if I could come home for a week and go to the Utah Shakespearean Festival - very sad to be missing it.) Of course I'm excited to go to China but I think it's more of the mild, calm, assurance of "I know I'm doing something cool and unique" - excitement of adulthood, not the mega-hyper, tremble in the knees, constant surge of adrenaline, "OH MY HECK I THINK I'M GOING TO BURST A VEIN AND DIE THIS VERY MINUTE IF I DON'T GET SOME KIND OF SATISFACTION!" - excitement of childhood. I miss the excitement of childhood. day 140Doug kindly directed me to an article about blogging. I haven't read it yet but will comment here when I do. Sunday, July 21, 2002
day 138If you've never had cause to question the morality, audacity, and lack of shame of the Left's agenda, DO NOT skip this interview with Peter Singer, the so-called 'godfather' of animal rights and a professor at Princeton University. The group that conducted the interview, CNSNews.com, is also a great place to visit. Saturday, July 20, 2002
day 137(originally posted 5/13/02)As you may know, I am a devoted fan of Rush Limbaugh. His program recently led me to an article at National Review online, written by John Derbyshire titled Why Don't I Care About the Palenstinians? It's a tough read but a brilliant commentary on the never-ending trouble in the Middle East and it echoes the frustration I have with the Palestinians. Please don't mistake my tone or reference to this article as a dismissal of the complexity of the conflict in the Middle East. I don't for a minute believe that the problems between the Israelis and the Palestinians will disappear if we just adopt the attitude that the Palestinians are a hopeless cause and don't really want peace. (Although it's difficult for me to NOT adopt that attitude myself - living on the opposite side of the globe, untouched by the senseless, never-ending death and violence, and less educated than I ought to be on the origination of the State of Israel in 1967 and the conflicts preceding and following it.) I am simply offering my honest reaction to a situation that appears to be escalating beyond the levels that already seemed more than anyone should have to bear. ANY one group can get bogged down in their own list of offenses and justifications for revenge but where and when does it end? At what point do you decide to move past it all, look forward, and live for the future? (originally posted 5/18/02)Tammy recently shared the disgust she felt when she read Eminem raps U.S. vice president's wife She said, "This is the kind of thing that disgust me in America. This is the kind of thing that is going to destroy America. This is the kind of thing that I feel so powerless to do anything about. It just irks me to no end that I have to sit and hear about this crap and I can't shut him up!!!!!!!!!!! Free speech????? What about the ears that sometimes end up hearing that junk?! What about the teenagers who are so influenced by it because we can't control everything they do and they don't alwyas know the difference between right and wrong? I wish somebody would assassinate this guy. I wish the terrorists would have flown those airplanes into the MTV music awards---I would have celebrated. I'm not joking. I would not have considered Janet Jackson, Eminem, or any of those "watch me with my baggy pants hanging down to my knees and my sunglasses on and my bandana around my head, and my chain hanging out of my pocket and my 'cool' way of walking with my hands swaying from front to back as if I'm somethin' special" jackasses a loss!!!!!!!" Wow! THAT is what I call a passionate response! I agree it's despicable to use such inflammatory rhetoric, especially when it is clearly used for such transparent, self-aggrandizement. Even more offensive to me is that he would target the wife of someone I hold in such high regard. What I love (notice my sarcasm) is how extremists like this use the phrase "free speech" to defend what they do while dismissing any moral obligations they have as members of society to remember the influence they exert on other people. But don't you dare bring up that argument because you'll be accused of imposing your morals, religion, or standards on them and taking away their agency! The Constitution and the Bill of Rights be damned if we don't couple it with the moral responsibility we all have as recipients of the sacrifices of our ancestors! I don't know if I'd go so far as to wish assasination or a terrorist plane crash on eminem or the MTV Music Awards but I certainly share your feelings (which I'm inferring you have) that many people place WAY to much importance on most celebrities as if we should aspire to be like them and if we fall short we are somehow inferior. So many people have their priorities mixed up. I don't believe it's the job of the government to fix these problems. I believe that's the role religion plays in the American equation and if you remove religion - whatever faith, as so many people are wont to do, good-bye USA. (originally posted 5/19/02)Nicholas D. Kristof's article Arafat and the myth of Camp David in the International Herald Tribune added to my understanding of the challenges facing the Palestinians. Of course the problems they face are complex. Who could intellegently deny they're under tremendous pressure and working against overwhelming odds and still it seems they have yet to demonstrate a consistent, real desire for change. (originally posted 5/20/02)Feminism hijacked by George Will. Ever the voice of reason, Mr. Will tackles what I consider to be one of the two most pernicious agendas to hijack society's attention and resources: feminism. Coed dorm rooms -- a big yawn? by Mona Charen. Ms. Charen addresses my second vote for destructive attention and resource killers: the homosexual lobby. Some passion about Israel by Marianne M. Jennings. "There will be no peace or Nobel without Reaganesque blunt force. Communism's tyranny was defeated, not with negotiations, but with a show of military strength coupled with clear oratory." Photo-partisanship by David Limbaugh. Subject: why it is hypocritical of the Democrats to complain about the Republicans' use of a September 11 photo of President Bush to raise campaign funds. (originally posted 6/11/02)Charity: Perfect and Everlasting Love by Elder Gene R. Cook. Not exactly a political reference but it struck me with such clarity when I watched to it the other day I felt it deserved a link. I plan on reading it and devouring it again and again. Sunday, July 14, 2002
day 131David Copperfield It's not often I've read a book of such scope and magnitude as Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. My only motivation in reading it is that it was the biggest, cheapest book I could find at Media Play before I left for Korea that was also a classic, an area I've wanted to concentrate on recently. I knew nothing about the book and I never anticipated it would take me over three months to read and become one of the most difficult books I would ever undertake. At over 800 pages and full of the language commonly used when it was published in 1850, be prepared for a challenge. In the end, the undertaking was more than worth it. The story purports to be the autobiography of the fictional character David Copperfield. It was originally published in serial form in England and then later released in book form. I have little worthwhile to report on the book other than how it affected me. I can't recall reading a secular book that had such a profound impact as to make me want to be a better person. Copperfield recounts the people and events of his life from birth through, I believe, his early thirties. Without preaching, he weaves a credible and vast cross-section of experiences that show the triumph of honesty and hard work, the consequences of deception, and the importance of character. The book contains, by my count, 44 significant characters, most of whom wind up reaping the consequences of their actions, good and bad. Just as Dickens expressed his fondness for Copperfield, I was sorry when the book came to an end. In perhaps the same way I am enamored by Shakespeare, David Copperfield won me over through Dickens' insights into human nature. His observations are keen, succinct, and timeless. This book was a chore but I am a better person for reading it. I am conscious that may sound silly but it remains a statement of the truth. Memorable Quotes "Barkis is willin'." -Mr. Barkis, page 60. "I feel as if it were not for me to record, even though this manuscript is intended for no eyes but mine, how hard I worked at that tremendous short-hand, and all improvement appertaining to it, in my sense of responsibility to Dora and her aunts. I will only add, to what I have already written on my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. I have been very fortunate in worldly matters; many men have worked much harder, and not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed. Heaven knows I write this, in no spirit of self-laudation. The man who reviews his own life, as I do mine, in going on here, from page to page, had need to have been a good man indeed, if he would be spared the sharp consciousness of many talents neglected, many opportunities wasted, many erratic and perverted feelings constantly at war within his breast, and defeating him. I do not hold one natural gift, I dare say, that I have not abused. My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest. I have never believed it possible that any natural or improved ability can claim immunity from the companionship of the steady, plain, hard-working qualities, and hope to gain its end. There is no such things as such fulfillment on this earth. Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules." -David Copperfield, page 559 "There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose." -Mrs. Strong, page 610 ". . . I should be thankful to him for having saved me from the first mistaken impulse of my undisciplined heart." -Mrs. Strong, page 611 "It's very much to be wished that some mothers would leave their daughters alone after marriage, and not be so violently affectionate. They seem to think the only return that can be made them for bringing an unfortunate young woman into the world - God bless my soul, as if she asked to be brought, or wanted to come! - is full liberty to worry her out of it again." -Betsey Trotwood, page 613 "Of all my books I like this the best. It will be easily believed that I am a fond parent to every child of my fancy, and that no one can ever love that family as dearly as I love them. But, like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield." -Charles Dickens Significant Characters A nearly exhaustive list, probably of interest to no one but me.
day 131A Korean Wedding Yesterday I was privileged to attend the wedding of one of my now former co-workers from Weesing, Seung-mi. I went with David and Bomi Orr. David used to work at Weesing and is the person I corresponded with to get a job in Korea. His wife Bomi is Seung-mi's sister. They are both LDS, though Seung-mi is not, and they have two children: Keana, about three years old, and Shyann, five month. The wedding was a mix of Western and Korean tradition. The wedding hall was white, elaborate, and, like the ceremony itself, quite indistinguishable from similar sites in the West. The bride and groom wore a traditional white dress and tuxedo, as did the family members who arrived early to greet the guests. A gift table was set up to receive presents and from what I could divine money appeared to be the most appropriate and common gift. As Seung-mi marched in, escorted by her father, traditional music was played on the piano. Her husband, already standing in place, marched part-way down the aisle to take Seung-mi from her father, which he did with a deep bow. Both ceremonies actually consisted of a lot of bowing which of course isn't uncommon in Korea but it was remarkable to me how much both sets of parents were involved in both ceremonies and the deep, sometimes fully-prostrate, bows to them seemed to signify a great amount of respect and gratitude for the parents' roles in producing the bride and groom.
The bride and groom were very solemn throughout it all and rarely touched each other, let alone held hands. After they marched out of the hall, they returned for professional pictures. Although I'd recently bought a digital camera in the hopes of taking my own pictures, the two video cameramen who roamed the hall throughout the ceremony mostly got in the way and prevented me from getting anything really meaningful. The final picture the photographer took was of friends and non-family guests surrounding the bride and groom. The Korean portion of the ceremony took place a short time later in another very small room with limited standing room. Dressed in brilliant traditional clothing, arms folded with elbows outstretched, and looking very solemn, they sat at a low table as more pictures were taken with immediate family. As his parents and then her parents sat at the table, the bride and groom repeatedly bowed to them, three times, fully prostrate. Seung-mi had to be helped up and down each time as her costume was very restrictive. The table had a variety of Korean food that appeared to be more for show than anything else with the exception of what appeared to be roasted chestnuts. Each set of parents in turn gathered up large handfuls of the chestnuts and ceremoniously threw them into an embroidered white apron stretched between the bride and groom. Then, what I think was soju, a Korean alcoholic beverage, was served in a small cup and passed around the table for everyone to take a sip. Of course this was a very important day and everyone was very happy. Afterwards food was served in a basement cafeteria: kimchi, octopus, rice, hot peppers, Korean-style sweet and sour pork, and a dozen other things I couldn't identify, all served in the traditional Korean way as side dishes. It was a unique experience and I enjoyed myself immensely. Wednesday, July 10, 2002
day 128My clever nephew I hope Natalie doesn't mind but I want to share a quote from her five-year old son Scott in a letter she recently sent me. I can't remember the last time I've laughed so hard. "Now I'll tell you Scottie's latest questions. Last week while riding in the car he asks, 'Did Jesus make the moon?' I answer 'Yes.' 'Did Jesus make the sky?' 'Yes.' Did Jesus make himself?' ??? The next day he asked, 'When is Jesus coming again?' I answered, 'I don't know when he's coming again but what do you think we can do to get ready for him to come?' Scottie answered emphatically, 'We can clean our room and do the dishes!'" |
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