Smile

Grumpy Koreans? I have been told by many foreigners that Korean smile less than their people, mainly Europeans and Americans. Maybe it is true, maybe not. But do Korean laugh that little?

This question dawned on me earlier today when my company held a gatherting for the employees and invited a speical guest, Fun Management guru. Well, you probably get the picture as to what Fun Management guru means. He talked about why smile is important and how harmful to frown is to your health and whatnot. He even mentioned that there has been much research on the positive effects of smile and thus then he tried to propagated his own faith on smile. I was not really paying attention to his jeremaid, but started to be convinced that smile might actually be good for you by eradicating stress.

Laugh it off. If something bad or irritating happens to you, you can always laugh off the entailed stress induced by it as well. But does it really weed out the orgin of your stress or agony? Or is it that smile, brain or chemicals make you temporarily oblivious of what you are going through? I think the reason people urge each other to smile is probably its positivity. When frustrated, you smile and then you begin to reduce the problem to something trivia or at least something surmountable. But this is one of many aspects of smile.

Back to grumpy Koreans, when someone holds a door, or needs to pass you by, saying "I am sorry", you probably don't expect Koreans to smile, but just to assume deadpan look. Literally emotionless and very neutral look on their face. This, of course, does not indicate that they are upset with you or do not appreciate your hospitality or coutesy. It is just that Koreans are not just used to manifesting one's feelings or emotions. Who would be upset if someone ahead of you hold the door for you?

However, when you walk the streets, pass by someone you don't know and have eye contact for a nano-second, what would you do? You would probably say that I smile at the passerby unless you, in reality, avert your eyes and walk on. But that smile that you assume upon having eye contact with someone, is that for real? Or is the smile coming from the habit to foil the akwardness? I am asking how genuine your smile is.

Once I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine from the U.S. I recalled that he was pretty much excorating how 'fake' and 'ingenuine" Americans are. He took example of smiling habits of Americans. According to him, American even smile at you while they think you are such a looser. And they try to cover it up by putting a smile on your face. Thus, people (from other countries) think that Americans are so kind and hospitable because we always smile. I to some degree agree to his argument, but I still think that smile is good. At least, it does not cost a thing and nor does it make people around you feel uncomfortable. Well, Koreans need to their own saying, "You can not spit on someone face when s/he is smiling."

Weird Monday

Eerie. No, it is rather shitty. Or absent-minded. I am feeling bad. Very bad. It's strange. I don't know what it is..

It is mainly due to the date that I was on last night with this particular person that I have been intersted in for awhile. Well, I had a pretty good time. Maybe I built up too much anticipation on the date, but surely it was worthwhile. By dropping the ball in her court for the next date, I called it a night. Thus, I am waiting. No news is good news. Well, maybe, maybe not. Recently, I have been on some dates, but actually this was the very first one that I had butterflies from the getto thruout the whole time. It'd be great if she were to be on the same wave. If not, well, what can I do? I bided my time and took chances. Life goes on.

Secondly, my work. I am totally swamped. I had to take care of some paperwork and made a dozen phone calls to the Samsung PR person in Suwon to arrange a tour for a group of Chinese public servants. And it turns out that I need to write a report and submit it to the local government office. And the list goes on.

At the bathroom, I was helplessly looking out the window and just was being carried away by a myriad of thoughts running through my head. My head was about to implode so I washed my face and came back to my seat and drank some water to eradicate the strees inside of me. I really want to hit the gym right now and sweat off this bad feelings. But I need to participate in the ceremony held by my company labor union because they designate me as a flag-bearer. After that I will go to the gym and pump up some muscles.

About in an hour, I will sit with this guy from the company that's been working on Cruise Brochure that I am in charge of. I have been telling him many time that he needs to redact photos, captions and some articile in the book, which he has been neglecting. And I have to close the deal as soon as possible and farm out the project to a publish company so that it can print it. A big blowout awaits. But I am not scared.

Tonight I am going to read the Bible and take some notes and flag some memorable quotes.

Hospital: I need rehab

For some reason, I have been associated with medical field in one way or another. I was chosen as a dental assistant in the military, worked with a couple of American dentists extracted wisdom teeth and did root canal, simple filing and crown. So I came to obtain rudimentary dental and medical knowledge and it has come in handy from time to time. Now, I can do a very superfical and quack-like dental check-up and analyze bitwings and panorax (both dental films). So if you need a free oral exam, just let me know.

Upon completion of the 26 month long service, I came back to college and started to volunteer at the hospital on campus. I volunteered at the international health clinic for about 3 years. Every friday when other college kids still slept in from last night hangover, I got up at 8 in the morning, washed up and headed down to the center. The majority of the patients was those from the American Airforce personnel in Osan, South Korea. Ironically, Osan airbase did not and still do not have state of the art medical equipment such as CT, or MRI and so referred some of their patients to the local Korean medical center. Anyway, while in charge of translation, ushering, payment and whatnot, I had many opportunities to talk to them and help them relax, knowing that some Americans simply do not trust foreign medical staffers, or anything that is not theirs at all.

And today I went to see a neurosurgeon at a local hospital to see if my injury was serious or whatnot. The doctor ordered several xrays. I was given a prescription and a painkiller shot in my ass later and was told that I need physical therapy. I spent almost an hour at the hospital and the place was full of elderly people. Then I started to think that hospitals are really scary places for some people. Thankfully, I did not go to any hospital back in the states, but I had, it would have felt pretty scary, not knowing what might happen and how much I need to pay. Consecutively, then I thought I should have been more hospital and more friendly to a myriad of the patients that I assisted back in the days. In a country that is far away from their home, they are left alone sometimes in the waiting area, not knowing when their names to be called out and how kinds of procedures they need to go through and whether doctors can speak English at all.

One time I ushered this American woman to the MRI room back at the university hosptial. Then, I handed her over the radiology guys and came back to the international health center. About 20 minutes later, I got a call from the radio-tech guys that they need me theri right now. Not knowing what was going on, I rushed back down to the MRI chamber and saw that lady sobbing like a 7 year old girl who lost her mom at the zoo. And I got down on my knee and asked her what was wrong. In response, she said she is claustrophic and would like to make a call to her husband back in the base. First, I needed to calm her down and so get her some tissues. Then, something instantaneously ran through my brain; why if she sued the hospital. This idea emerged, fully aware that American love suing in particular suing hospitals for maltreatment and whatnot. In order to foil any possibility, I did everything I could to make her feel better and not think of taking legal actions, which she DIDN'T after all. But, I felt very bad for not having asked her if she was claustrophobic. Well, I presumed that she knew what it would be like to be trapped in an MRI tube. Well, obviously I was mistaken. Since then, whenever I took patients down to the MRI room, I always asked whether they are claustrophobic.

Ok..my arms are tired and my body does not function that well today. I need rehap.

Fender Bender

A car hit me. Or do I have to say I hit the car? On my way from work, as usual, I was on my sweet ride (which is a bicyle), hitting a short uphil while listening to the 21th episode of the first season for The West Wing from my mp3 player. Then I was just about to pass this little 3-way junction and this car pops up from the backalley. The car driver should have looked both left and right side, but he only checked the left and kept on moving forward. I was coming from his right side, by the way. Just like the very slow motion in a baseball game where Matsaka from Boston Socks throws a gyroball at Derik Jeter and you can even see the thread of the ball rotating, I gradually put on the brakes, fully knowing that

I am going to hit that car from the side. And I did.

Because of my acute sense of kinetic response, I somehow was in the middle of kicking off the ride and at the same time put on both brakes. Luckily, I did not trip or fall, but simply fender bendered the car from its right side, in particular the right front tire. The car stopped as well. And the driver walked out. I was very anxious at that moment, unsure if it was really my fault or his. As soon as the pretty three words, "I am sorry" came out of the driver's mouth, I thought, "Well..good."

Then, I got off the ride and started to growel as if it hurts. Actually, it did and it still is hurting to some degree. Since I managed put on the brakes, I could mininize the speed and thus the damage to my body. The back of my neck, my left arm bi-cep, left leg calf, and lower back and my spine started to feel pain. I thought it should not be the bones or the cartiledges or even the joints, but muscular injuries. Not even fracture. Nevertheless, I was bumfuzzled and a bit mad at the driver. And he kept saying he was sorry and made sure I was ok. And we exchanged our businesscards. He said if I needed anything I should call him and let him know. Then, I looked the bumber sticker on his car, which reads "GM Daewoo", a Korean company picked up by GM a while ago. So I suppose he is, unlike me, thorough with this kind of accident and thus apologied to me instantaneously, knowing the fender bender was his fault.

Well, the aftermath is general pain on some of my body parts and the chain of my ride derailed, which I put back on. Other than that, I am doing ok. But I might as well go to see a doctor and get an X-ray tomorrow just in case there is something wrong. I was in a car accident a month before I entered the military a while back. I totally wrecked my dad's car, which sorta made him happy in that he got a new one :) Anyway, I was under a physical therapy for a solid month in order not to fail the physical upon admittance to the military program. And I did not.

So I am a bit scared now. The whole relapse thing.

Also, about a week ago, one of the brakes of my ride was broken and I did not want to fix it because I really relish speeding and riding without my hands on the grip when I hit the downhills on my way home. Then, I thought "Hmm.. maybe safety comes first no matter how great it is to ride the downhills." So I got the brake fixed and who knew that it would pay off eventually. If I had not repaired the brake, then today's fender bender could've been worse than it is now.

So, people. Always make sure that safety comes first. Ok? And little hug from you would be nice for a patient :)

Big Boys Talking

125 people applied for my job position. And guess who is the lucky guy? Nevertheless, a butler, I was at the meeting accompanied by the C.E.O of my company and some of VIPs from the organization that my company has been talking with on this project. Since last month, I have been channeling my time and energy to devise a prject where my firm and the aforementioned organization launch a program for American and Korea kids. I can not give you all the details because the project is still being tweaked and polished. But in a nutshell, my company has been drawing up the plan to invited American kids, mainly adopted Koreans and Gyopos, to this camp, let them share rooms with Korean kids and thus have them associate with each other by learning the language and culture of each country.

Anyway, today, some of the VIPs from the organization that I haven working with came to my company, took a meeting with the C.E.O and continued the meeting over lunch. From the very moment of the meeting to the end, I escorted and accompanied the president of my company. Boy, I was nervous and very tense while jotting down every possible word coming out of the VIPs and my president. Although the meeting did not go as I wanted (I hope this project is not going to happend because it is way too risky), it seems like it will happen.

You might wonder how a newbie who just started a job could possibly take part in a meeting with you C.E.O. Well, it is possible due to the characteristics of my company. I work for a quisy-gov orgnaziation promoting and nurturing tourism in Gyeonggi-do which is surrounding Seoul, capity of Korea. Think this way. Let's say you live in Manhattan, as I really did last year. And I work for a company in NJ that is trying to lure more people to New Jersey. And of course, as New Yorkers do, Seoulers look down upon Gyeonggidoers :)

Since I was basically invisible at the meeting, I just clammed up and listened to what the other Big Boys talk about. Business talk, mainly. Intermitten awakward moments, silence, slupring water, gulping down 25,000 won (25 dollars worth) food and whatnot. Whenever I needed to say something, I needed to choose words carefully just in case my lapse of judgement might gum up the project..

Finally, the meeting ended and I ushered out the VIPs and came back to my place. After that, the C.E.O told me to do something, but I did not pay much attention, knowing that he says things ramdomly and does not remember saying them at all. Afterwards, one of my bosses said to me that to work for this company is a great opportunity to expand your horizon businesswise. Unless you work for a moms and pops, as a newbie, it is hardly possible to take meetings with a president, to propose ideas to him or even to simply speak to him. But it is possible here and my company is NOT a moms and pops.

At any rate, I was antsy and clumsy before, during and even after the meeting, but would like to do better next time. Like you know me well, I do my best at things I really love about, such as learning languages, movies and workout. That excludes work. Do I feel shameful about that? Nope. work is one way to make ends meet and somewhat to realize my goals. Nonetheless, it is not everything. It does not represent all the virtures that I would like to have. Work is work. I don't want to end up like the majority of Korean people so tangled up at work and thus become sick and tired of work and can not wait to retire. I do my part diligently and get compensated for it. Period.

Some Ignorant Americans

It is not that all Americans are ignorant and insenstive of what is happenining to the rest of the world. But this video clip clearly demonstrates how apathetic Americans are. This clearly demonstrates both the failure and the importance of public education in the U.S. and the rest of the world.



Education is a siverbullet. Education is everything.

Enlighten yourself by being a perpetual learner.

Walden

Solitude I very relish. Sometimes I like to be alone just like everyone does. Good friends of mine sometimes tell me that "Hey, you used to be super outgoing and whatnot. How come you've turned less outgoing?" Whenever asked that question, I say "It is because of Norwegian Wood" The author of the book is Murakami Haruki and I have read probably every single work that he has published so far. The commonality of the main protagonists is they are very hermetic, not afraid of and rather enjoys solitude. When I encountered Norwegian Wood, which is the most representative amongst his works, in my early 20''s and had been deeply affected by it.
But I am not trying to talk about Norwegian Wood here. I would like to introuce this book, "Walden" written by Henry David Thoeau. This book is about this guy who one day gets up and decides to distance himself from all the civilization and to live near the pond called "Walden" Thus, he narrates about what it is like to live by himself and re-assess all the commotities and the entities that we live with, such as economy, food and so forth. Taking one gian step back from everything we are so intimate with and thus can not live without, he says that we can live alone. I do not entire agree with his ideas, but do like some of memoralable quotes from the book. What follws is the excerpts from the book. I hope you savor them!

• Man is an animal who more than any other can adapt himself to all climates and circumstances.

• We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.

• The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virturres of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.

• If one listens to the faintest but constant suggstions of his genius, whic are certainly true, he sees not to what extremes, or even insanity, it may lead him; and yet that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful, his road lies.

• I believe that water is the only drink for a wise man.
• 
  
• He who distinguishes the true savour of his food cna never be a glutton; he who does not can not be otherwise.

• ... if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

• Superflous wealth can buy superfluities only. Money is not required to buy one necessary of the soul.
  

Wedding Ceremony

I attened a friend of mine's wedding in Seoul. About two weeks ago, she IMed me out of nowhere and informed me that she is getting married. Well, I have known her for about a decade and was a bit suprised to hear the word because it has been a while since we talked last time. She is a part of this circle of high school alumni which consits of a dozen people from my alma mater. We got to know each other back in 1996ish and since then we have been good friends with one another although we have not had formal/informal gatherings recently.

The wedding itself is geared toward Christianinty. I suppose the couple is Christian and thus a father officiated the newly wed, not to mention intermittent praying in the middle of the wedding. The food (salmon, steak, icecream and whatnot) was great. The couple is going to Moldive for the honeymoon.

The Korean wedding is discursive and disorganized because there are too many people. When a wedding occurs, the couple normally invites every possible person that they know of. RSVP does not have to be sent back to the couple and thus it is hard to estimate how my people will be at the wedding and how much food should be prepared. If you were to be invited to the wedding, you would think that you just go there, give the couple some money, eat and just leave the place.

But, then again, Korean wedding is also a good venue for relatives or friends to 'accidently" run into each other and catch up. Since too many people are invited to the wedding, you never know whom you are going to bump into at the wedding. Just like today, I did not expect to see some friends of mine at the wedding. Of course, I was glad to talk to them and exchanges some business cards or whatnot. Well, I have been incommunicado for a while..

Publicly, I have been proclaiming that I will invite a small number of people to my wedding if there will be one. My friends, people who would really come out and congratulate the holy matrimony. People who would know what I have been through my entire life and thus celebrate my having a watershed in life. I don't surely want to impose on people to come to my wedding by just massively printing out and giving out impersonal invitation. But I guess it partly depends on what my folks want and vastly is up to my soul mate:)

Return of the American tv shows

Finally, they are back. The influx of the American tv shows has just begun and I am very excited. Although a couple of my favorites such as LOST and 24 will air sometime next year, I am still able to go home after work and watch one or two episodes of the rest of the shows on my list. Two and a Half Men, House M.D., Prison Break, Ugly Betty (yes.. I know..), Desperate Housewives (again..I know..), How I Met Your Mother, Heroes and The Office will and have started to air. What is more uplifting is that J.J (the director/producer of the Mission Impossible series and LOST) has launched a new show called “Fringe” Albeit excoriated by his fans for sprinkling too many “McGuffin”s on his works without any follow-up explanation, this fans are still ecstatic about his ambitious project. McGuffin is a cinematic gadget indicating a certain entity which, on the onset of a movie, seems to be quite important, but ends up being trivial, disappearing without any illustration, and eventually misleading the audience and defying their anticipation without affecting the narrative such as “Rose Bud” on Citizen Kane and a bundle of

dollars on Psycho.

Back to the comeback of the entertainment spear headers, the one that I have the utmost anticipation on would be The Office. The reason is because by watching the show I can draw a parallel with my working environment and the office dynamics. Of course, the ambience of my workplace is not bonhomie as that of The Office or does NOT depend upon how your boss (Micheal Scott/ Steve Carrel) feels today. Well, to be honest, it is nearly possible to be able to have a comfortable and soothing office ambience in Korea and I believe you know why. The Office, it is not realistic at all.

On the contrary, the characters on the show are not that far-fetched. It would be too much to list all the characters and describe their quirks. But you probably have seen or you yourself are one of that factitious protagonists. And I would like to personally give you the previledge to be envied by me provided you have been anyone like Dwight Schrute (Raiin Wilson). That geeky, saccharine and loyal person is highly likely to exist in real life and I would like to see him or her in person. I wonder what it would be like to confront the person.
At any rate, my nocturnal life for the next 4 months or so will not be boring or humdrum. The gym that I signed up for re-opened as of yesterday and thus I can finally resume my workout and my eyes, ears and brain will be stimulated by those sensational, entertaining and corny American tv shows. Why corny? You know why. They are about fornication, crime or sports, aren’t they? That's what SHE said!

Her name is Gretta Brawner

She is one of the most attractive women in the whole world. She co-hosts the daily show at C-Span called Washington Journal. I saw her about a year ago while watching the show online. Since then I have been a big fan just like many a guy in the whole world.

I particularly like the fact that she looks very cold blooded, but at the same time she also exudes bonhomie and warmth on the screen. When she talks to random callers and listens to their rant, she seems to be very attentive and embracing. By contrast, when the caller deviates from the topic, she merciless hangs up and moves on the next caller. And I believe such ambilaterality is what makes her look very professional.

Once, she was on a call with this crazy guy. The show is real time, so you don’t know when Janet Jackson is going to reveal her nipples AGAIN. And C-Span does not delay 5 minutes when airing live shows like MTV does. This means that the hosts of Washington Journal need to be prepared for the worse case scenario. Back to the aforementioned guy, he started talking about something and all of sudden, he said “… And you can suck my XXXX” Completely poised she hits the button to disconnect the call and moves on the next caller as if nothing transpired.

It is too unfortunate that there is not much info about her online and this makes her seems more mysterious and clandestine! One day I might call her up when she is on the show and say something about U.S. politics. Oh…by the way, this show makes me more convinced that Americans tend to blabber. Probably 90 percent of the callers DO NOT talk about the given topic, but simply just rant and fume out. When asked, why the U.S. government should do in regard to the ongoing financial crisis, 80 percent of the callers were rambling about who should be the next U.S. president, in lieu of saying Bush administration should bail out AIG.

The bottom line is I think I am attracted to intelligent women. It could be street or book smart.

Relativism

If there were to be one theory, philosophy or ideology that I abide by, it would be relativism. Here, I am not referring to that of Einstein and the whole E=MC2 formula. It is a philosophical tenet that every entity has to be understood in realtion to other entities. According to Wikipedia, the law of relativity or relativism (I prefer the latter) can be defined as the idea that some elements or aspects of experience or culture are relative to, i.e., dependent on, other elements or aspects. And I assume that you have already gleaned the gist of what realitivism is.

Now you probably wonder why this particular topic is the very first thread of my blog. It is simple. Jeremiads that I will post here do not need to be absolute or to be agreed by you. I welcome lauding, conformity and construstive criticism. So please bear in mind that although you do not relish, make out what will be written here, I embrace all sorts of opinions. Just be nice and polite. In simultaneity, I would love to have some arguments or debates as to a particular subject, such as who should be the next U.S. president between Obama and McCain.

At any rate, you may find relativism contradictory a bit. According to the theory, if everything is relative, the theory itself is relative, and thus groundless, which makes it very vunlerable. But, give me a break! Nothing nor no one is perfect.

After all, we are all human. We fall, suffer and get up off the dirt. ->What an artitrary conclusion!