Summer intesives

Well, it is almost that time of year again when I go into hiding and no one sees or hears from me for a month. Summer intensive session starts tomorrow, and my day will begin around 8am and go until around 8pm in the evening. This does not include, of course, the number of hours I will spend preparing material for my classes, grading the increased number of assignments I have to assign, and generally beating my head against a wall when I run into complications and problems (which, naturally, are boundless during this time of year). So just in case I don't talk to any of you over the next month, I want to let you know that you will be missed and that you are more than welcome to try and call me whenever. I just can't guarantee that my brain will be connected to my spinal cord when you do.

As if this month wasn't already busy enough for me, I'm going to be taking the writing section of the GRE on August 2nd. In Korea they do a split administration, so I will take the writing section now and then in October will sit myself down and try to do the math/verbal section. I'm trying to study while handling my intensives workload, which is another reason why it might be difficult to get a hold of me. I'm not sure what, if anything, I will do with these GRE scores, but it's a step that I needed to take.

All right, enough for boring updates. I'll see you all in a month, though if something truly exciting does happen, I will be sure to let you know.

4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone!

For those interested, I celebrated today by staying inside away from the humidity, making hotdogs on the stove top, drinking American beer I normally wouldn't touch with a twelve foot pole, and watching a selection of my favorite America-themed movies. This year's festivities included:

1. Live Free or Die Hard--one of my favorite movies of all time. Afterwards I spent about an hour listening to CCR and feeling like a badass.

2. 1776--a guilty pleasure I suppose. Everytime I watch this movie I always remember the severity of what our founding fathers did and the price we all paid and continue to pay for our freedom. Plus the songs are just catchy. I couldn't stop singing about eaglets for an hour.

3. Independence Day--it just wouldn't be right not to watch it. Freedom not only from tyranny, but from creepy aliens as well.

4. National Treasure--I know that it doesn't have a lot to do with the 4th of July, but for some reason it just fit with the whole theme of what I was going for today. You know, running around with the Declaration of Independence and trying to find clues from American history to solve the puzzle concealed on the back? It feels patriotic to me!

I hope where ever you are, and whatever you're doing, you all remember what today means. Not just for our past, but our present and our future. I have several friends and a number of family members who either have served or are serving in the armed forces, and I want to make sure that I tell them today that I appreciate them for everything that they do.


"We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"
--President Thomas Whitmore, Independence Day

World Cup

I know, I know. I fail at managing to update everything on a regular basis. First I was waiting for something interesting to happen, then I was waiting for work to stop being so busy. Yet, here we are nearly four months later and I have yet to post anything. What the foo is up?

In a nutshell, I'm blaming friends visiting/North Korea bombing/cherry blossom festivaling/ coworkers wedding/inner ear infection and subsequent socialized medicine utlizing/GRE studying/week vacationing/extra working/more friends visiting/world cup watching for my lack of life signs over the past few months. There was also a lovely bout of flu in there somewhere, but that was mostly just a weekend of me sitting home and feeling sorry for myself. Excuses and all aside, I have returned for a moment from the land of the unresponsive.

World Cup.

I hope you aren't sitting at home and groaning. If you are, I'm very disappointed in you.

Yes, I realize that South Korea and America have both been eliminated from the cup. Yes, I realize that Brazil is probably going to kick the stuffings out of everyone who is left. Am I going to stop watching? Hell no. World Cup isn't just a weekend fling, something you turn on when all your normal TV shows are on commerical or when you don't want to watch that Days of Our Lives rerun. Soccer is a lifestyle choice, a commitment of the highest level that should come before most if not all other obligations. It brings together some of the best athletes in the world, and despite the fact that most people seem to be suffering under the delusion that its a boring game to watch, I have been thrilled to be living in a country that provides me with coverage of every single soccer game that has been played and will be played in this tournament.

Heck, I've even been given free vuvuzelas by nice old men in front of the convenience store. I've broken all three, but its the thought that counts after all.

I watched all four American games on TV, and I was courageous enough to make it to Seoul City Hall for one of the four Korea games. It was an amazing feeling, being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of my closest friends and cheering for the team when it was obvious that I didn't really belong there. I wore my "Korea Shouting" and FIFA shirts to work multiple days in a row and didn't recieve any questioning glances from my fellow teachers or the staff (most of them were dressed similarly). On one memorable occasion my boss even canceled class and herded all the kids into the parent's room, where they broadcast the game on the flat screen and we all yelled and screamed at the terrible reffing during the Nigeria game.

If this is how the rest of the world experiences the World Cup, then I'm ready to book my flight for Brazil 2014.

I'm currently engrossed in the Brazil-Netherlands game, which is at this moment tied 1-1 with 25 minutes left in regular time. I'll probably stay up and watch, and then be so excited that I stay up and watch Uruguay-Ghana (though I'm hard pressed to say which one I want to lose more). For all you soccer fans out there, I hope that you are loving this as much as I am. I hope you're cheering for whatever teams you have a vague connection to and not worrying so much about your homeland or the league favorite. For all you non-soccer fans out there... quickly become soccer fans and enjoy the game for what it is--a giant war without all the dying.



**Note: I'm trying out some new templates on the old blog. Lemme know what you think.

**Note #2: To all you people who thought that Brazil was going to win the whole thing-- hahahahahahahaha! just goes to show, you can't just pick the favorite!