Speech_Surprise!

           It was a nice, sunny day in San Diego. It was summer vacation, and I was just sitting in front of the computer with nothing to do. But I wasn’t so happy. Well, I couldn’t be happy. I was despondent over the fact that my life in San Diego was coming to an end. Soon, I would have to leave all my friends and my life in the States and go back to Korea.

          Just then, my mom suggested driving together to a park and walking around. It might help me refresh my mind. I agreed, although from the inside I slowly realized that it probably would be my last trip around San Diego. We left anyway. And in about 10 minutes, we were at the Torrey Hills Park. My mom dropped me off there.

           Did you just notice anything weird? She didn’t park; she dropped me off and drove away. I was confused. What’s happening? And it was then that I heard Kelsey, my friend, call out for me some distance away. “Hey Ben, what are you doing here?” Well, I don’t know. Why was she here, anyways? And as I was trying to find answers to all this, my friends jumped out of a bush all of a sudden, shouting “Surprise!”

           Then the party started.

           It turned out that it was a surprise farewell party just for me. Knowing that my favorite TV show was The Amazing Race, my friends had planned a mini Amazing Race. (Wait, does everyone know what The Amazing Race is? It’s like a reality show where eleven teams of two follow clues and go through challenges while traveling all around the world, and compete for the first place.) They had clues posted here and there, all over the park. There were five teams, each consisting of two players and a cameraman. We went through challenges like picking out grape juice from a bunch of different kinds of purple beverages, solving math problems, coloring plastic pieces, and running a mile around the track in the park. I really enjoyed it throughout the whole race, and was delighted to get first place.

           After the race, we threw Frisbees around and put ice cubes down the backs of others. It was so fun! My friends gave me a portfolio of handwritten letters and a lot of unique (and weird in a sense) presents, like paintballs, a bottle of tabasco sauce, and a Barron’s AP Calculus book. We ate dinner there too. It was one of those potpourris, where each person brings some food. So there were all kinds of stuff, including samosas, sushi, fried rice, and even a homemade chocolate cake. Everything was so delicious, but I felt so bad because I couldn’t eat much. I was already full because I had had a late lunch. Had I known that there was going to be a party, I wouldn’t have eaten so much during lunch, but well, I didn’t know about it at all.

           The party still remains as one of the best memories of my life. It was true that I had been really close to my friends for two years, but I didn’t expect such a big party. And looking back on it, it seems that they had planned for months. The party was on July, but I remember Kelsey asking me some weird questions in June, like the kind of cake I like and how far I had learned in math. Now that I know they were part of the preparation, I’m so grateful that they had taken care of such small details. This party changed my despair to delight, and I could bring the memory all the way to Korea.

           I was so fortunate to meet all my friends in San Diego, and I’ll never forget them. Ever.

Random Thoughts Four_Samulnori

The last post ended a bit abruptly.. So I'll write some more. xD

The Samuchim practices have been going well. Although I've been to it only two times, I feel like I'm getting better. I really hope I get into the club. Cuz.. Well, cuz I was really overwhelmed and moved by their performance at the KMLA music concert, and also because I haven't gotten into any other clubs that I tried out for. Well, I've been depressed for like a whole week because of this, but I guess those just weren't my things. Who knows? It might be an advantage for me later. Maybe I'll have more time to study (although I'd rather do some club activities than study for a whole day).. Oh well, most of the clubs I had tried out for were volunteer clubs, but I can go to Uganda in the summer and Habitat for Humanity volunteers with my mom, so it's alright. Let's be positive.

I said I would research Samulnori, right?

Before I talk about it, you should listen to it and see how AWESOME it is. (It's a bit long, 13 mins)

Samulnori is a kind of traditional Korean music, consisting of four percussion instruments--Kwengwari, Janggu, Book, and Jing. (It looks so weird written in English..)

And no, the instrument book has nothing to do with books that we read. Please.



Let me try to describe these instruments.. (I'm not sure if I'll be able to, though..)



Kwengwari is like a piece of round metal, hit by a wooden stick, and it clangs when played. It usually leads the performance--other instruments follow the kwengwari players' signals to control the speed and loudness throughout the whole performance.

Janggu has two sides to hit: the left ('gung') and the right ('ta'). And each side is hit by a different type of stick. The stick for the left side has a wooden ball attached in the end, and makes a deeper sound. On the other hand, the stick for the right side is a thin, wooden one, and makes a higher-pitched sound.

Book is probably the closest to a Western instrument among the four. It sounds exactly like the bass drum (in a drum set). The difference would be that a book is wooden, and is played with a thick wooden stick. And usually, the sound of a book marks the start of the performance.

Jing is basically a bigger and thicker kwengwari, hit with a bigger stick covered with something wool-ish at the end. Because of this wool thing, it doesn't clang; instead, it gives a low, deep ding------------- sound. I have played jing in samulnori performances when I was in middle school. Back then, I thought the sound of jing wasn't that important. It felt as if others were the main instruments, and jing was just something in the background. But I guess samulnori won't be so perfect without it. The sound doesn't stand out, but it still is an important part of the harmony.



Kwengwari



Janggu



Jing

Book

The origin of Samulnori goes back pretty far. There was a tradition from long ago (not sure exactly when) where ordinary people, usually farmers, played instruments, sang, and danced for entertainment. This was called Pungmulnori, and was usually held on holidays or for big events.

However, the modern form of Samulnori was created in 1978 by Kim, Duk-Soo (who is thought of as a symbol of Samulnori) and his fellow musicians: Yong-Bae Kim, Tae-Hyun Choi, and Jong-Dae Lee. Since the traditional form of Pungmulnori included an enormous variety of instruments and a number of people, they transformed it into a smaller performance that could be done indoors as well as outdoors. (The video above is a performance by Kim's group)

There are various songs that are played in Samulnori performances, the most famous being the Samdo-Pungmul Garak (translated as the Three Province Pungmulnori Melody). Since Pungmulnori was performed differently depending on the region, the modern Samulnori melody mixes Pungmulnori from three different regions--the central part (around Seoul), the southwest, and the southeast.

So that was a rather brief introduction of Samulnori. But as the old saying goes, to see is to believe. Feeling the excitement for yourself is a lot more important than reading all this information. And as many people say, the point of watching a Samulnori performance is experiencing the ecstasy it gets you to..

... So watch that video! :-)

Random Thoughts Three_English Conversation Class: Self-Study

Random picture.. It fits to the title "Random Thoughts Three." (wut..)

No, actually I think this was from Namhae--the city, not the South Sea.

Wait, that still doesn't make it not random..

Well okay, it's a random picture.

Alright, time to write something.

Well, right now I'm in my English Conversation class.

But our teacher gave us a self-study time, so.. yeah.

Actually, I have my Wordsmart book sitting right next to the keyboard. The Wordsmart quiz is scheduled to be on next Thursday, on words from A to D, and I haven't even gotten through the first half of A words.

But oh well, I don't feel like memorizing words right now. How bad I am at using my time efficiently. I'll get it done later. :-/

And, well, I've been trying to write something over the last week, but I had too much things to take care of. And I probably won't be able to write when I go back to my dormitory anyways. So why not just write now?

(You have a nice logic there. HA. <<wut..)

Half of my classmates seem to be studying and the other half seems to be killing time.

Hmm.

Okay I see High Top - Chemistry I (or is it Chemistry II, I don't know) on my right. Orbitals and electron configurations.. I just had two hours of chemistry before coming here. It's one of my favorite subjects, but enough of chemistry for me today. :)

Oh what a nice drawing on my left. I sometimes get jealous of people who draw things well. Mainly because I'm really bad at drawing.. Oh well. It's alright.

Twelve people--five girls and seven guys--using computer right now, out of a total of eighteen students in this classroom. Since I can't see most of the screens, I have no idea what they're doing. Well I guess it's better that way, since some of them might want to keep things private. (Although it seems there is less privacy in KMLA with the dorm life and all that stuff. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, though.)

The one in my front seems to be researching something. He has an MS Word document open with a bunch of text and some pictures. Maybe he's preparing for a presentation, I don't know.

Well.. The bell just rang. I should go back to my dorm room.

Personal Narrative_The Giving Store

                  The weather was sweltering, and I was on a 30-year-old bus with 30 other people. The air conditioning was broken, the seat cushions were worn off, and the whole bus smelled of dried sweat. The bus had been running on a straight road cutting through a vast field of reeds for the last 20 minutes, and there was nothing to be seen except the blue sky, the yellow reeds and the single line of gray asphalt ahead of us. All of us were exhausted from the bumpy, uncomfortable 4-hour bus trip, and desperately needed some rest. And that was when the bus engine broke down.

                  We were in Uganda, a country in East Africa, as a volunteer group to give people some medical help. Most of us were doctors, my mom a pharmacist, and others, including me, middle and high school students. The bus trip was from Entebbe International Airport to a city called Kumi, where we would be working for the next two weeks or so. When the engine broke down, we had just gotten out of a big city called Mbale, and were heading north. Since there was nobody around, the bus driver started attempting to fix the engine himself. He told us that he had done it a number of times before, so there wouldn’t be any problem fixing it again. However, he couldn’t be sure how long it would take.

                  So we were there, standing in the middle of nowhere, wondering what to do. We had no clue where we were, nor did we know when we could hit the road again. The sun was brightly shining on us, making us sweat even more. We couldn’t just stand there. So we decided to take a walk. It was a silent agreement. One of the doctors simply started walking slowly in the direction we were going, and the rest of us fell in behind him. Most of us seemed to be angry and confused. So we were all quiet until…

                  “Look, there’s a store!”

"OH.MY.GOD. IT'S A STORE!"

                  Everyone’s face shined with delight. There was a single-story building, standing not far from us, with a small sign that said “SHOP.” Finally we could take some rest in a shadow, maybe have some drinks, and possibly use a working air conditioner—although it wasn’t that probable for such a lone store. But anyway, we could get out of the sun, and that was the important thing. We all sped up, and when we arrived we were delighted to see the store open. A young woman, maybe in her late twenties, walked outside with four children and identified herself as the owner. We exchanged greetings and sat down in the shadow with her consent. Then, we naturally came to have a conversation with her. Her life story was heartbreaking. She had had a husband, not officially married but someone she loved. They had four children, and it all seemed to be going well until her husband just simply left her one day to marry another woman. After that, she had to raise her four children by herself, so she started running the store. But it was obvious to us that it hadn’t been going well for them. She and her children were wearing dirty ragged clothes, and were all so slim; one of the children even had a swollen stomach—a typical sign of malnutrition.

Ugandans drink a lot of soda...

                  Since we were so thirsty and actually felt sorry for them to be just sitting there talking, we decided to buy a box of Coke. But the owner went in and brought out two boxes of Coke, grinning widely. We were confused. Maybe she got us wrong. We explained to her that we only needed one box. But that wasn’t her intention. She told us to take both. Maybe we would get thirsty during the trip ahead of us; if not, we could just keep it and drink them later. Well, we couldn’t just take two for the price of one, could we? So we tried to pay for two boxes, but she declined positively.

                  I was watching this from the side, and I could see that she truly wanted to help us, when, from an objective view, it actually should’ve been us helping her. To her, we could have been just a bunch of worn-out strangers with weird skin colors who came to her store and just sat there talking for the last 15 minutes. She could have been disappointed, or maybe even angry, of us not buying anything. But she wasn’t. She had been beaming throughout the whole thing, showing her white teeth in contrast with her brown skin, and was now giving us bottles of Coke free of charge, happy to be helping someone else.

                  Just then, our bus driver called out to tell us that the engine was fixed and we were ready to leave. So we had to say rather an abrupt farewell to the store owner and her children. I didn’t see how the Coke-for-free problem was settled in the end, but assuming from the fact that none of us brought any extra bottles of Coke on the bus, we probably didn’t take the second box.

                  Then we left the site, leaving the store behind.

                  It was a short encounter, probably only for 30 minutes or so. But that little incident made me think a lot on my way to our destination. From what I had experienced in my previous trips, this kind of benevolent behavior wasn’t limited only to the store owner, but to most people in Uganda. Although many of them suffer from poverty and live hard lives, whenever they saw us, they waved their hands at us, grinned at us, and tried to help us from what they had. I was worn out from the bus trips and hard work, but seeing people live this way let me feel happiness and warmth in them that I don’t often find in people from our competitive society. This is why I like Uganda, and this is why I want to go there again.

Random Thoughts Two_Recent Updates

Well I feel like writing something today.. And I have nothing important to do right now.. So I shall write a post. xD

No chosen topic, let's see where this post goes.

So what have I been doing recently?

Well.. I've been sleeping.. and sleeping.. and sleeping.. umm.. yeah, that's all. (lolwut)

Oh yeah, I've been eating too. :)

Doesn't really feel like a KMLA student yet.. Well the entrance ceremony did officially make us students, but since we're not much into our classes yet, we don't have much to do (it didn't become "hell" yet).. Well, for me that is. Some of my roommates already had (or have next week) their presentations for economy classes, so they're preparing for that..

So yesterday, the first day of KMLA as an official student, I looked up headphones (well I've been planning to buy one for a long time) and decided to buy the AKG K430.. xD It's gonna arrive in three days. :) And I studied too (though for a short time), but I don't remember what I studied.. lol but I'm positive that I studied.. I hope it's not a made-up memory :-o

And today was the Club Day.. Signed up for seven, not sure how many I'll get into. Well I'm gonna try hard, so I hope I get into those that I really want to get into. And then I ate lunch, and fell asleep, and when I woke up again it was time for dinner.. :-/ Well I really should study. Starting tomorrow today. :-)

Speaking of Club Day, Samuchim is SO AWESOME. OH MY GOD. It's a club that performs samulnori, which is a type of Korean traditional music using four instruments. They had a performance today, and I really could see that all the members were enjoying it.. And the sound was so overwhelming I almost had tears in my eyes. Like seriously.

I am going to get into that club. And be a part of the performances next year. It's not an 'I hope' thing. It's an 'I will' thing. Nobody can stop me.

So.. I guess that's enough for today.. I think I might as well talk about samulnori in my next post. xD

Thanks for reading :)