Graduate School

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the campus of Sahmyook University. The plants and fountains are beautiful. I noticed a tree with pink blossoms at the main entrance to the campus. The tree is the same as those at the Mall in Washington, D.C.
I went over to the graduate school building and got all the documents I will need to sign up for classes. I will need a letter of recommendation from my pastor in the USA. I will also need 5 passport-sized photographs. I do wish there wasn't so much paperwork.

On Friendship

Today my reading class was reading about friendship. I asked them things they wanted in a friend. Most of them said they wanted someone they could do things with. I wanted someone whom with I can talk about lots of things.
I shared with them the proverb: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver (eun) and the other is gold (geum)". My students all said they had many of the same friends since they were very small. I do envy that. I rarely see any of my former classmates. The longer we know someone, the stronger the friendship becomes.
There is that famous line from "The Wizard of Oz": "Remember that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others". It is because if we want to be loved, we must love other people. Of course we can't make anyone love us at all, or in the way we may want. Yet love is always a choice that people make, and if we are willing to love anyone, it will make them more likely to want to return that idea. We must also accept how much they are willing to give.
I do think that very true and close friends are rarities as most people aren't true enough or they aren't close enough.

Church Today

Before Sabbath School I helped people set up. I helped fold some bulletins and put the flowers in front of the pulpit. During Sabbath School we were talking about how many SDAs need to have friends of many different faiths. We also can't judge other SDAs by the things they do and don't do in their lifestyles. I do know all too well how the church can be so cruel. I grew up with lots of criticism from the church. My Adventist relatives from my father's side of the family shunned me. I like the church, yet I do wish I didn't deal with so much coldness throughout my life. Yet I have also found people that have been like family.

After the service Wendy asked me to collect hymnals for her, so I did that and picked up some papers I found on the floor. We were leaving together and she left me on the stairwell to quickly do something she forgot. I was waiting there and talked for a few minutes to a Zulu from South Africa who teaches at Konkuk University. He remembered me from last week when we met in the driveway. He is a friendly man with a powerful handshake. Later Wendy told me that he isn't SDA, but that he has been interested in the church. I think that's nice that he has found a church group that he seems to enjoy. I do hope that he finds lots of kindness here. So far it seems he has.

Peter and Wendy had a lunch with Peter's cell group. There were about a dozen or so students there. I recognised some of them from the Deer Mountain retreat. There was broccoli, pasta, and some savoury "meat". Some students brought cake. I washed the dishes for them while the others sang. I also collected trash.

I Musici on the Four Seasons: Winter by Vivaldi

I would like to see the Carnival of Venice someday.

Ode to a Cluster of Violets

Ode to a Cluster of Violets
- by Pablo Neruda -

Crisp cluster
plunged in shadow.
Drops of violet water
and raw sunlight
floated up with your scent.
A fresh
subterranean beauty
climbed up from your buds
thrilling my eyes and my life.

One at a time, flowers
that stretched forward
silvery stalks,
creeping closer to an obscure light
shoot by shoot in the shadows,
till they crowned
the mysterious mass
with an intense weight of perfume
and together
formed a single star
with a far-off scent and a purple center.

Poignant cluster
intimate
scent
of nature,
you resemble
a wave, or a head of hair,
or the gaze
of a ruined water nymph
sunk in the depths.
But up close,
in your fragrance’s
blue brazenness,
you exhale the earth,
an earthly flower, an earthen
smell and your ultraviolet
gleam
in volcanoes’ faraway fires.

Into your loveliness I sink
a weathered face,
a face that dust has often abused.
You deliver
something out of the soil.
It isn’t simply perfume,
nor simply the perfect cry
of your entire color, no: it’s
a word sprinkled with dew,
a flowering wetness with roots.

Fragile cluster of starry
violets,
tiny, mysterious
planet
of marine phosphorescence,
nocturnal bouquet nestled in green leaves:
the truth is
there is no blue word to express you.

Better than any word
is the pulse of your scent.


from Odes to Common Things, translated by Ken Krabbenhoft, Bullfinch Press, 1994

Teaching the Kids

Yesterday two of my students were loudly talking Korean to each other. I said "stop speaking Korean". One of the boys pointed out the window and said "Korea". I pointed to the floor and said "English class". I turned back to the board and one of them fell out of his chair. I had to hold the desk up while he got his leg out of it. I always tell them not to tip their desks. In another class I had to put a girl in the corner because she pulled another girl's pigtail.

I must not be a jellyfish. I must show them who is the boss. Yep. I think the professor there should be my new alter-ego when dealing with my students. :D

Today

What is Consciousness?

As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.

--Max Planck
“Das Wesen der Materie” (The Nature of Matter), speech at Florence, Italy, 1944 (from Archiv zur Geschichte der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Abt. Va, Rep. 11 Planck, Nr. 1797)



I have found the concept of what consciousness is to be interesting. I started reading a book called The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley. I didn't finish it because I wanted to read some books from the library before I left for Korea. I did bring the book with me to finish eventually. I found the concept of what makes our brains "mind" to be something to ponder. Descartes figured there were two kinds of mind: "res extensa" and "res cogitans". One was our "mind" of thought and the other was the physical mind. I need to finish it sometime.

The USA: What I miss and what I don't miss

I have spent a total of nearly two years abroad. I had wanted to spend time outside the USA since I was a child. When I finally left the USA in 2005 to live in South Korea, I didn't really want to go back. I felt that I wanted to stay in Korea for a while and eventually find another country. I left Korea in 2006 and came back to the USA, and then back to Korea for 2009.

I did like the trail by the Quinebaug River. I liked my old cafe that was stocked with old books including the Harvard Classics and old National Geographics. Renee Zellwegger had been seen there. I miss my Siamese cat named Violet. I would hold her like a baby sometimes. She would also cuddle with me in bed and sometimes put her head on the pillow beside mine.

I don't miss how I was employed sporadically when I was there. I don't miss the loneliness I often had. I usually just saw people at work and church, and most of them were busy with their own lives. Many of my co-workers thought a great weekend was about getting high or drunk. A lot of the time my cat was my closest friend.

I am glad to be in Korea with lots of nice public transportation. I can make appointments with my friends. I am thankful that I have nice friends here. I don't really want to leave Korea now. I am going to keep my options open about where I will go next. I would go nearly anywhere in the world, yet there is something comforting about home.

Moving On Now

I am glad that I got to meet up with old friends and make some new friends in Korea. I was glad to be near Seoul so I could easily meet up with people there, even if it did take me about an hour to get there. I liked being near Sahmyook University because the other teachers there made me feel at home. Some students would sometimes talk to me as well. It does look like I won't be there for a while. At least until the end of summer I may just make few, if any, appearances at Sahmyook. I will have another church to attend regularly. It's just that I will be spending time with my new students and living in a new place.

I have realized that even though I do like being in Korea, it's not all that necessary. Most people come and go after a few years. After I left in 2006, I kept vowing to come back. The mistake I made was that I didn't get on with my life enough. There is a life outside Korea. Whenever I leave this place can just be a new beginning and life can go on. Even if I had to leave now, I can accept that.

New Job

I am going to be working at a new school. I can't wait to start. I am still negotiating when I can start. I do have mixed feelings about leaving this job. There are many things I don't like about it. I don't want to dwell on negative things, yet I can't deny that this job has gotten me very discouraged. I am with the children alone for every class. The students are often unruly and disrespecful. I encountered a number of problem children when I worked for SDA the last time in Korea, but these children are different. I had a few students that were problems, yet this school seems to have nearly all problem children. Things just haven't been working out. I wanted things to be better. I do wish there were different books rather than the ones they have here. The books from the other school had more things to do in them. These books are very empty and have little to work with. My biggest problem is managing a classroom alone. I never had to do that before. Being alone with young children just isn't my thing.
I have enjoyed my advanced students. I loved the textbook we had. It covered many interesting topics such as the Louvre, Martin Luther King, and Jules Verne. I learned new things myself.

Happy Black Day!

Today is Black Day in Korea. In Korea and Japan, Valentine's Day is when women give things to men. A month later on March 14 is "White Day" when men give things to women. A month later is Black Day when those people who didn't get anything special for Valentine's Day or White Day get with their friends and eat Jajjang, or noodles in black bean sauce. I didn't get around to eating any jajjang today.
It's all right to be single. I have my freedom. I can choose what I want to do on weekends. I am not in a relationship that is lousy. I can poke fun of other couples. I can figure out my life without anyone else in mind. I do think it is best to take things slowly and just get to know someone. I can then find out if a romantic relationship is worthwhile. I can get to know the person and also find out how he feels about me. If all I do is have a nice friend or acquaintance then I haven't lost anything.

Yeouido in the Crowds.

Last weekend

On Saturday I went to the Filipino church. I met up with Geri, a teacher I remembered from my last time in Korea. She had also left Korea and came back. She's from Bermuda. We went to Children's Grand Park to see the cherry blossoms. There were many nice trees. We watched a baby elephant and some monkeys. There was a baby monkey that was very cute. It ran around with a tuft of grass in its mouth. I didn't know that Geri had studied in the USA. She told me she studied high school in Massachusetts. She said she would love to live there again. We both agreed that MA is a nice state. That small state does have a lot, including some world-class universities and nice cities. She is now working for EPIK (English Program in Korea) and says she enjoys it.
On Sunday I went to the COEX Mall and met my friends Brian and Maike. There was a photo show. I saw many nice photographs. Some were artsy, others were of nature, some were confusing or disturbing. I keep an open mind about art, but I still wonder why some things are considered art. We later went for lunch at Uno's. We were joined by a friend of theirs from Hong Kong named Silver. We had a good time.

Spider on the Magnolia

Last Two Days in Namyangju

1. My reading class has been going well. We read about Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bollywood. There are only six people there now. One student left because of family issues, another transferred to grammar, and another quit temporarily. I am glad because two of those students were in a fist fight a few weeks ago. Good riddance.
2. I have been sick for more than 2 weeks with a sinus infection. I am gradually feeling better.
3. I am still planing to go to Yeouido this weekend with some friends. I am still asking around for more people to go. (I hope I feel good enough)
4. I have walked to the river near my home again. I took some photos of the flowers and birds.
5. I joined Twitter yesterday. I know, I am late.

Lao Tzu

Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.--Lao-tzu

Positive Thinking

I have decided that for one month I will not say anything negative. That's right. I won't get involved in any negative gossip. I won't complain about anything. I know that sometimes it's good to vent frustrations, but it can't be a common thing. Like the Bible says "a merry heart does good like a medicine". I think it is true.

For the past two weeks I have had a bad sinus infection and cough. I know it's hard to be positive when I have that happening. I will go to the doctor today to get it cleared up. I know I like natural remedies better, but this isn't going away.

I want to go to Yeouido next weekend and rent a bicycle. The cherry blossoms there are beautiful. I want to go with a friend or a few. I should ask around. Hopefully the allergies will disappear by then.

Bookstore Buys

I went to Hoegi on Thursday. On the way home I realised that I didn't have my book with me. I was reading The User's Guide to the Brain by John Ratey. Today I retraced my steps and I retrieved my book. I brought Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson to read on the way to Hoegi from Namyangju. I had left my brain science book in the restroom at the place I visited. I was happy to get my book back. A secretary held it for me. I got on the subway and started reading that one. I am glad I bought a backpack a few weeks ago. I went to the COEX Mall and headed straight for Bandi & Lunni's. I am such a nerd. I came out with four books: The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs, Wild Swans: Three Women of China" by Jung Chang, Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, and The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France, 1978-1979 by Michel Foucault. I also bought a baseball cap at an Adidas store. It's white with a black Adidas logo.

Loreena McKennitt

I love Loreena McKennitt! Celtic music is nice. I like many Celtic artists. I am from New England, which has a lot of Irish influence. I do think that Loreena McKennitt is great at her harp and has such a serene voice. Dante's Prayer is one song that I can listen to over and over again and not get tired of it.
Lady of Shallot


Dante's Prayer

Crisis May Lead to New World Order

Can they be any more CANDID?!

New World Order