The Iceberg

Yesterday I received horrible news for the second time this week. I learned that a friend in Seoul took his life on Friday. The events of this past week have sent my mind into (I hope) temporary shutdown mode and I’m in no mood to comment on anything else other than to say I have no idea when I’ll post again. It could be weeks or it could be tomorrow.

It’s Thanksgiving Day (actually…back home…not quite) and there most definitely are things to be thankful for.

At the risk of sounding corny, I’m thankful for family, friends, and a life full of adventure. Anyone who read the previous post knows that this has been a difficult week for me. And while my heart is still heavy, this incident has served to jar away much of the crust that unknowingly creeps up on us and influences our outlook. I know it’s cliché, but I’m saying it anyway. Life and relationships are precious.

Today is a slow day for me. Much needed. I am going to turn on my television, sit back and relax, and watch the Gonzaga-North Carolina basketball game. Go Zags!

Happy Thanksgiving…

Today has been a very bad day.

One of my students was killed in a traffic accident. She was 21 years old. Another student is in critical condition and a third has also been admitted to the hospital.

I received a phone call this morning from a student from my 1 p.m. class. He told me that most of the students would be absent from class today as there had been an accident and Ji-hye (not her real name) was in the hospital. He said her classmates were going to visit her. He didn’t mention the other girls and his voice was very calm, so I mistook the severity of the situation.

There were seven students in class. Normally there are twenty-two. I asked them if they had heard anything about the accident. One student said he had. “What happened,” I asked him. He said he didn’t know, but that he heard it was serious. I sent a text message to the student who had called me in the morning asking the extent of Ji-hye’s injuries. Honestly, at that point I couldn’t imagine what I was about to learn.

Ten minutes later my phone buzzed. I opened my phone and looked at the message. “After the accident, Ji-hye died,” it read. My heart started pounding and it felt as though the students in class had disappeared. All I could do was stare at my phone in disbelief. I continued reading, “Sun-hee is in critical condition and Mi-young (not real names) is also in the hospital.”

I closed the phone and set it down on the desk. Trying to regain my composure, I looked at the students in the classroom, whose heads were down as they were working on a writing assignment. I walked over to one student’s desk to look over her writing, thinking that I could somehow suppress the shock that had overcome me. It was no use. I saw words on the paper, but I was unable to cognate anything.

I walked back to the front of the classroom. I gathered the students’ attention and announced, “Everyone. We are going to finish class right now. I’m afraid I have some terrible news…”

That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. And I’m not sure even now if it was the right thing to do. The students also reacted with disbelief. These are students who go on retreats together. Hold fundraisers together. Pretty much do everything together. And now they learned that one of them was gone and two others were in serious condition.

Ji-hye was a very nice girl. Always smiling. Always said hello whenever I saw her outside of class, and said it very sincerely. To be honest, as a whole this class has not been one of my favorites. A load of great personalities, but they could try a little harder. But Ji-hye was always one of the students who paid attention and, though her English was not too good, she showed a keen interest in learning when it was time to learn. I don’t know the names of about 90 percent of my students, but I knew hers. She will be missed and my heart goes out to her family. Also, if you read this, say a prayer for the other two girls.

On Wednesday it is going to require all of the strength that I can muster to get through calling attendance.

From the Brunei Times,

SOUTH Korean engraver Kim Young-sik looks in the mirror every morning and sees the reflection of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

As his bouffant-combed hairline recedes, the 56-year-old resident of Seoul is a dead ringer for the rarely seen North Korean of big hair, spectacles and platform shoes fame.

And as the years and the extra pounds mount up, the southern Kim says he is looking more and more like the “Dear Leader “, as Kim Jong-il is known at home in his northern communist state.

“I pay a lot of attention to the hair,” Kim said. “Turn a little to the side, people say it’s 100 percent (Kim Jong-il.) They say I’m exactly like him, except I don’t drink.”

Hopefully he also doesn’t murder thousands of his own citizens.  Read the rest of the article here.

UPDATE - Here’s a recent article from The Electric New Paper that discusses Unee and the mix-up. 

Curious as to why my blog was suddenly receiving hundreds of new hits per day from searches for Korean singer/actress/marvel of modern science Unee, I did a quick Google search and discovered that her photo appeared last week on the front page of The Sunday Times in Singapore.  Printed along with the photo was the headline, “Is this her?”, referring to the Mongolian model who was blown up in Kuala Lumpur last week.

Rest easy, my dear readers.  Unee and her fake breasts are safe and sound.

This settles it.  I need to start devoting more time to video games.  Or at least video game conventions.  Last Sunday a model for video game maker Nexon gave “players” an extra (not so) little treat at the GStar convention in Seoul.  NOT WORKSAFE!!!

(HT to Lost Nomad)

Check out more sights at the convention here and here.

Well, since my blog was mentioned in the Korea Times, I figured I’d post a little something special for the two or three people who might visit here as a result.

I like-a like-a like-a her a lot.  Maybe even more than Kim Sa-rang.  Unfortunately I have no I idea who she is.  If anyone can tell me, I’d appreciate it (and I’ll post more photos of her).

BTW, thank you to Chris Price.

A quick read of the writing on the left will tell you that the actress in this advertisement for the movie “Things You Talk About When You Love” (사랑할 때 이야기하는 것들) is Kim Ji-soo…

but a closer inspection of her t-shirt might lead you to mistakenly believe that it is actress Hwang Soo-jung…

or that perhaps Miss Kim is pilfering from Miss Hwang’s wardrobe.

Business Week reports that the online Korean “citizen newspaper” is expected to lose money in 2006.

Critics say OhmyNews will have a hard time trying to repeat the sensation it sparked in Korea. It competes for the attention of Net users in increasingly crowded markets, many of which might not really crave its maverick style of journalism. Apart from social-networking sites and portals that are increasingly developing into important news distributors, the explosion of blogging worldwide will probably make a dedicated citizen-news site less attractive in the future.

I met her on a Sunday when I went to Lotte Mart
When I saw her on the shelf I had to put her in my cart
Five cups of Maxim Coffee at the start of each new day
But when I found Cucina I knew there was a better way

Oh Cucina!
You’ve made my mornings such a dream
Hello Cucina!
An-nyong to crystals and powdered cream

Boiling water on the stove, my java came from a packet
Then along came Cucina and 밀크 커피 couldn’t hack it
So get yourself one of these and you’ll see what I mean
You’ll wonder why you got your fix from a vending machine

Oh Cucina!
You’ve made my mornings such a dream
Hello Cucina!
An-nyong to crystals and powdered cream

The end