Simplicity

Beauty and ugliness are everywhere, even in some of the same things. To some a wide open prairie is empty and colorless, but to others it is uncluttered simplicity, the way life itself ought to look. --Indian Chief, 1796

A few days ago I came across this quote. I can relate to it very well. I grew up in Massachusetts, USA and I am used to having lots of hills and trees. There are mountains near where I grew up and I liked to see them. Flat land and anywhere without either lots of trees or tall buildings wasn't something I was used to and I felt that living in such a place would be boring.
Last summer I took a train across the country to Montana. On the way there I saw lots of flat land. While in North Dakota I saw a beautiful sight--a large field of sunflowers. There were sunflowers as far as I could see. A person could get lost in them. I couldn't help but be impressed. When I later met my friend, she took me out in her van and she kept exclaiming how beautiful the grass was. Her area is very flat and there were few trees. It was becoming autumn and the grass became a yellowish colour. She said the grass was so beautiful and golden during that time of year. It had its own beauty.
The town was on a Native American reservation. I was given a card by a Native man, who drew it himself. It was of a bird. The bird was drawn in geometric shapes. That is typical Native art. I still have the card somewhere.
I do think that we can see the beauty in the simplest of things. Simplicity lets us admire small details without clutter. Open space is part of the picture, not a void.

Gracie

Gracie was someone special. She was a young girl of four years old that attended my home church with her foster family. The family had two daughters that I had gone to school with. Gracie was a Hispanic girl with black wavy hair, big dark eyes, and light brown skin. She had a big smile that often was a toothy grin. She was adorable. She had such a sweet personality. Gracie would walk around and greet people saying "hi! hi!" the way little children do. She was so cheerful and won people with her smile.
Gracie was a lot of fun. I sometimes played with Gracie outside. I would play tag with her. I would let her chase me for a bit, running slowly. Of course I would eventually let her tag me and say "you got me!". I remember one incident when we had a church dinner and she was sitting near me. I was sitting across from a very fat man. She was sitting beside him and said "you have a big belly! He said "eat your food and we can match". She said "excuse me?". It was funny how she said that, and I was trying not to laugh.
I was hearing her foster family saying that they took her to the doctor often for treatments. I was curious as to why she needed so much medical attention. I asked one of the sisters why. She told me that she was HIV positive because her parents were drug addicts. I felt sad to hear that.
Time passed and Gracie was still herself. I nearly always saw her still being cheerful in spite of her condition.
One day my mother was on the phone with someone and I was close to her. She wrote on a slip of paper "Gracie died Sunday". I ran to my room and cried. I was blinded by tears for about ten minutes. Then I just dried my tears. I knew it was going to happen all along so I had come to terms with it.
Gracie only lived to be 5 1/2 years old. She died in 1995. I see the death of a child as something so sad, because it is like a flower that didn't get to finish blooming. They never got to grow up. There are many more like her. I do wish there was something I could do for the other Gracies out there in her honour.

New Book!

My new book that I ordered on www.amazon.com came in the mail yesterday. I am so thrilled! It's called In Search of Memory by Eric Kandel. Kandel won the Nobel Prize in 2000. He won the prize because of his research in how memories are formed in the brain. Kandel proposed the idea in the 1950s that he could find the "id" and "ego" in the brain. A mentor told him it couldn't be done. He still tried to reach that goal, and he succeeded. This book looks like intellectual candy.


I found this parody of "I am the Model of a Modern Major General" from "Gilbert and Sullivan". There are many parodies of that song.

Short.

OK. I am short. Without shoes I stand just over 5 feet tall or 153 cm. Even my name sounds short because the "tine" in "Christine" is close to "teeny" and "tiny". In school I was called "Shrimp". In university, I was marked as "absent" from my room after room checks FIVE times because the R.A. didn't know I was under my thick blanket. People don't think I am strong and sometimes wonder if carrying my backpack is a problem for me. It really isn't unless I have lots of stuff in there. I told a friend of my thoughts of being a university lecturer, and he said I would look funny up there lecturing as such a small person.
I once read an article somewhere that discussed heightism, saying that taller people seem to have it better in life. The average CEO is taller than the average man. In U.S. presidential elections the taller candidate has nearly always won over the shorter one. The leading men in romance films are always tall.
I do wonder how much height does play a big part in our lives, besides how easy it is to reach things. I have wondered that short people like me get discriminated against and sometimes don't realise it. Taller people are seen as healthier, more intelligent, and more competent. Maybe when we are not taken seriously, it could be because of our height? Could many job offers and promotions have been biased because of height somehow? Many short people get rejected in love because someone wanted a taller mate, yet that usually happens to men.
The truth is, nobody is always treated fairly. Having confidence is important and that will deter a lot of attacks. I also think that using humour is also a great way of dealing with those things.

Farewell Roh Moo-Hyun

Sabbath

My roommate and I have had a house guest this weekend. Bernedette has known her all her life. Yesterday we were planning on going to Sahmyook University for church. We were waiting to change buses when we decided to go to Cheonho for church. The buses that we would need weren't coming soon. It didn't matter to me where we went. While we were waiting for the buses we were talking about "Murphy's Laws". Bernedette said that she had to teach a lesson on those in class. She said it was difficult for her students to understand. I remember trying to explain the same concept a few years ago to a Korean. It's not easy.
When we got on Bus #11, the traffic became terrible. We were saying it was Murphy's Law. In church the sermon was about Samuel. Samuel had decided to follow God and do what He said. We all had bibimbap for lunch.
That afternoon I got a phone call from Mimie. It was funny because I was thinking of calling her that weekend since I hadn't contacted her in a while. She wanted to know how I am doing. It was nice to hear from her.
Later on we went to see the Star Trek film.

Evil Luciferian Agenda

These videos were giving me the chills. Great conspiracy stuff with Roger Morneau, a former Satanist turned Christian. *shivers* There is even stuff about Obama in them, so they are new and hot!

Playlist

Bibliophile

Sabbaths in Korea

Last Sabbath I went to Sahmyook University. I saw Me'Chelle. She and I were roommates in Bucheon for 6 months. I have only seen her a little bit recently. I was already invited to have lunch at Peter and Wendy's so we couldn't spend the afternoon together. It's OK, we can do that another time. I had a good time having lunch with Peter, Wendy, Bernedette, Martin, and Violet.
The week before that I went to the Cheonho church. I met some nice people there. I met a young man from S.A. who was new to Korea. He said he wanted to go home. I told him that he just needs to get used to the place. Later he may not want to leave so soon. He said he wanted to meet other teachers, especially other South Africans. I said he should come over to Sahmyook sometime.
We later went to a park called "mi-sah-ree" park. It sounds like Misery Park. It is a place where they do boat racing. I had a nice walk with a lady from S.A. named Shirna. We all later went for Korean food. I had some jjol myun that was good. After that was some ice cream.

Sahmyook University, Teacher Appreciation Day

I left the house for Sahmyook University at about 10 am. I opened the door and found a box for me. It was the book I had ordered titled The Road to Monticello:The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson by Kevin Hayes. The book is a biography of Thomas Jefferson seen through his love of books. He was an avid book collector and scholar of languages. I jumped into a taxi with a female driver. I was surprised because I don't often see women driving taxis anywhere in the world. I think that's my first Korean woman I have met that drove a taxi. I went to the graduate building at SYU and gave them my paperwork. I will have to get an interview next week Thursday. I was told I had to talk to Professor Kim Un Bae that day to get a recommendation from him. I didn't know that. I was told he was in class then.
I had lunch at a Korean restaurant on campus. I had some jajjang myun and got some of it on my shirt. I later got ahold of Professor Kim. He told me to wait about 20 minutes. I walked to the theology building and decided to find a nice shady place to sit with my book. I saw Bessie coming out of the English dept. and I walked over to say hello to her. She asked me if I had lunch already and I said I did. She said she had to eat and run back to teach again. I would have liked to have eaten with her if I had the time and didn't eat already.
I got the stains mostly out of my shirt and I met up with Prof. Kim. It looks like things will go well. I got back to my job just in time to teach. I got a bouquet of flowers in a basket from a student named Irin. I was happy. I had forgotten about it. It made me feel good because I was so tired from everything. I also got a pen with a ribbon flower on it, and a coffee.

May 11

Today is raining, just like the 11th of May when I was hit by a car. The car came out of nowhere and I felt myself being airborne. The next thing I knew I was laying in the back of the car. The woman's husband picked me up and laid me there. The bone came out of the skin just above my ankle. It was a compound fracture of the tibia.
Today I have been out of college for exactly six years. I was glad to walk on stage and get my diploma.

Flower Show in Ilsan

Today I went to the Flower Show at Lake Park in Ilsan. The show was held in a few buildings and also had some outdoor exhibits. There is a rose garden (jangmi won) nearby.

I found the Rose Garden first. I noticed some nice roses named after Japan's child princess Aiko.

Inside the exhibition hall there were exhibits of table settings, flower arrangements, and crafts with dried flowers.

This reminds me of someone I knew named Gracie.


Believe it or not, this map is made of dried flowers.


I believe this orchid is on the cover of the book I read called The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean which became the inspiration for the movie "Adaptation". In that book I learned of the obsession with orchids that collectors have. I see how it can easily be developed.

I believe this one was from Thailand.
These are from the Rare Orchid Exhibit.
There were some gems there.

Suraksan and Children's Day

The fifth of May is Children's Day here in Korea. It's easy for me to remember because it's also a major national holiday in Mexico (El Cinco del Mayo). I went to climb Suraksan with a fellow teacher named Hidy and two of her friends. The mountain is in Namyangju and is not to be confused with the more famous Seoraksan that is in the western part of the peninsula. I met one of the friends earlier on the campus of Sahmyook University.

I took the bus from my home to Baengi and then changed to bus #1-1. I didn't know I was supposed to cross the street and go backwards for a short while and then go to where I was supposed to. I got off at the bank that I was told to meet her at, but it wasn't in the right place. Thankfully my cellphone was trustworthy. I hopped in a taxi and went to where I was supposed to be. Thankfully they weren't waiting for me too long.

The mountain was beautiful. There were wild azaleas that were pink and white. We mountain had nice rock formations and streams. There were some restaurants along the way. One part that we climbed had only niches in the rock and we held on to a metal railing. Later the mountain had some stairs built into it that were very steep. The view was beautiful.

Later we went to Hidy's house for lunch. We had some rice with spinach and a vegetable I have only seen in Korea. It reminds me slightly of rosemary, yet I don't know what it is. It was mixed together with tofu and sesame seed oil. It was very good.

Garden of the Morning Calm

Korea is known as the Land of the Morning Calm. Today most of Korea has become very urbanised and much of it isn't as calm as it used to be. I do think it's a shame that everywhere is so built-up. I have loved nature since I was a child. When I was very young I could identify many trees and flowers. I live for nature.

I went to the garden with my co-workers and bosses. Here at the Garden of Morning Calm I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. The gnarly bonsai trees and bright colours made me feel like I was in one of the pages.





The founder of the botanical garden is a professor at Sahmyook University. He was there and my boss pointed him out to us. The garden has many gardens inside of it and they have many poetic names. There is the Heaven Garden, Eden Garden, Bonsai Garden, Moonlight Garden, etc.



There were some small pagodas piled in clusters in a river. It is to keep evil away. I have seen those at Namhansanseong and Namsan.



When we were finishing our time there we came across a quaint little chapel. It was near a garden called the "Heaven Garden". There was a large Korean Bible on the pulpit that contained nice pictures.