better late than never.... here goes:
10. Being able to zone out or doodle during "meetings" at work and having a perfectly valid excuse (the meetings are in Korean)
9. No longer having to attend meetings at work because I just zone out while I'm there.
8. Being able to wear jeans and big comfy sweaters everyday to school, although I am not thankful that the school isn't heated.
7. Bibimbap - a big bowl of rice, vegetables, and spicy red paste available at nearly all Korean restaurants. Every vegetarian's best friend!
6. The old lady with the walker who I always pass on the way home from school. Every day she stops, gives me a huge grin, and starts speaking in Korea. I don't understand, so I just smile and say hello, but she never gives up.
5. My Friday third grade class. In the middle of a sea of inattentive, too cool, rowdy sixth grade classes, their enthusiastic little faces prevent me from having a break down.
4. Hongdae. Yes, I said it. I might be equally un-thankful for this nightlife hot spot, but those of you who know what I'm talking about, imagine life in Seoul without it...
3. Finally working up the courage to stop eating school lunch this semester. No, I don't like eating octopus tentacles and soup broth that's had beef (or who knows what) stewing in it all day. And unlike most Koreans I don't consider plain white rice and a side of kimchi a complete meal. I've come to terms with the fact that when you are permanently settled in a place, you can compromise between cultural immersion and personal well being.
2. Taiwan, Jeju, Tsushima, Thailand, the Philippines... Getting paid well in a secure job with great benefits - including ample vacation days.
and finally...
1. Taking a huge risk with the potential for colossal failure and ending up living a great adventure, making amazing friends, and loving it enough to stick around for another year.
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
The Story of Thankgiving... as told by a Korean 4th grader
Answer to the writing prompt "Write your own story about what it would have been like if you were one of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower"
by So-young
"My ship is super and power ship so it was no cold, many food and everyone is happy but we meet a typhoon. Good fortune, we have a many life boat and life jacket and then save indian. Indian is very kind. I sad "we want a ground. can you give to ground for me?" indian sas "sure your my friend, okay we'll be a divide ground. But you don't raise war, okay?" I sas "Ok!" and then one piecese for mine and one pieces for indian. Indian and we're had a party. everyone play game, singing, eat food. and my one pieces ground me is...
United States of America
U.S.A.
-End-"
If only this were how it really happened.
by So-young
"My ship is super and power ship so it was no cold, many food and everyone is happy but we meet a typhoon. Good fortune, we have a many life boat and life jacket and then save indian. Indian is very kind. I sad "we want a ground. can you give to ground for me?" indian sas "sure your my friend, okay we'll be a divide ground. But you don't raise war, okay?" I sas "Ok!" and then one piecese for mine and one pieces for indian. Indian and we're had a party. everyone play game, singing, eat food. and my one pieces ground me is...
United States of America
U.S.A.
-End-"
If only this were how it really happened.
Friday, November 27, 2009
I know I post a lot of NYTimes stuff, but... Happy Thanksgiving!
Enjoy, it really captures how I'm feeling this Thanksgiving (and everyday)
November 26, 2009
New York Times Global Edition
Editorial
A Thanksgiving Toast
Sitting down with friends and family today, there will be thanks for the steady currents, flowing out of the past, that have brought us to this table. There will be thanks for the present union and reunion of us all. And there will be prayerful thanks for the future. But it’s worth raising a glass (or suspending a forkful for those of you who’ve gotten ahead of the toast) to be thankful for the unexpected, for all the ways that life interrupts and renews itself without warning.
What would our lives look like if they held only what we’d planned? Where would our wisdom or patience — or our hope — come from? How could we account for these new faces at the Thanksgiving table or for the faces we’re missing this holiday, missing perhaps now all these years?
It will never cease to surprise how the condition of being human means we cannot foretell with any accuracy what next Thanksgiving will bring. We can hope and imagine, and we can fear. But when next Thanksgiving rolls around, we’ll have to take account again, as we do today, of how the unexpected has shaped our lives. That will mean accounting for how it has enriched us, blessed us, with suffering as much as with joy.
That, perhaps, is what all this plenty is for, as you look down the table, to gather up the past and celebrate the present and open us to the future.
There is the short-term future, when there will be room for seconds. Then there is the longer term, a time for blossoming and ripening, for new friends, new family, new love, new hope. Most of what life contains comes to us unexpectedly after all. It is our job to welcome it and give it meaning. So let us toast what we cannot know and could not have guessed, and to the unexpected ways our lives will merge in Thanksgivings to come
November 26, 2009
New York Times Global Edition
Editorial
A Thanksgiving Toast
Sitting down with friends and family today, there will be thanks for the steady currents, flowing out of the past, that have brought us to this table. There will be thanks for the present union and reunion of us all. And there will be prayerful thanks for the future. But it’s worth raising a glass (or suspending a forkful for those of you who’ve gotten ahead of the toast) to be thankful for the unexpected, for all the ways that life interrupts and renews itself without warning.
What would our lives look like if they held only what we’d planned? Where would our wisdom or patience — or our hope — come from? How could we account for these new faces at the Thanksgiving table or for the faces we’re missing this holiday, missing perhaps now all these years?
It will never cease to surprise how the condition of being human means we cannot foretell with any accuracy what next Thanksgiving will bring. We can hope and imagine, and we can fear. But when next Thanksgiving rolls around, we’ll have to take account again, as we do today, of how the unexpected has shaped our lives. That will mean accounting for how it has enriched us, blessed us, with suffering as much as with joy.
That, perhaps, is what all this plenty is for, as you look down the table, to gather up the past and celebrate the present and open us to the future.
There is the short-term future, when there will be room for seconds. Then there is the longer term, a time for blossoming and ripening, for new friends, new family, new love, new hope. Most of what life contains comes to us unexpectedly after all. It is our job to welcome it and give it meaning. So let us toast what we cannot know and could not have guessed, and to the unexpected ways our lives will merge in Thanksgivings to come
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