Moments of Life

An endless journey towards the crimson horizon

Searching for herats and that share the same pain

Soft eyes, filled with tears that no one can see

Dark eyes that hides a heart of kindness

Overcoming hardships, hoping for a better tomorrow

Smiling for the future, suffering for the present

Wrinkles of pain that are deep inside her heart

Waiting for the sunshine of tomorrow

Hakuna Matata

No need to worry

It will be better tomorrow

It will be better tomorrow

I love having a vacation

I love not going to school

I dislike taking exams

I dislike SAT

I have been living in this country, South Korea, for all my life. I have traveled around other countries during my vacations but the amount of time was not enough for me to experience the culture they valued and carried. As a Korean I have never really felt the importance of the culture and valuable things I should value in this country. This country is not the most favorable place to live, but it is a country with high moral values and patriotism.

I went to Korean elementary school for four to five years, it has been interesting experience as I am reflecting it back. As many people may know, Koreans are highly competitive. We like to compete against silly things to very important matter. As I am part of Korean, I did not notice the daily competition that I was used to. The high competition level had positive effect on my life as a whole yet also it had negative effects on my life.

I moved to international school in fifth grade, it was somewhat a horrible year. My lack of English skill helped me to have horrible days. However, the innate competition skills helped me to improve.  As I entered junior high, I was obsessed with studying, so obsessed that I would cry getting an A-. But after three years of obsessed studying my brain was burned out, physically and emotionally stressed. The competitive nature of my life style negatively affected me as I entered in high school. I was tired of studying from junior high, and I have basically given up studying from that point on.

This has affected me greatly afterward, my grades were falling down as far as I can remember and I was not enjoying the moments of life in school. Now, I am just struggling to fit in the society made up of competition.

Korea Unmasked: In search of the country, the society and the people. Won-bok Rhie. Korea: Gimm-Young, 2005. 234 pp.

(When I refer to the “book” in the review, it means the part I read, not the entire book.)

Ever since the existence of the three countries: Korea, China and Japan, the competition among the three countries has never ceased. There are many similarities among the countries but among the similarities there lies significant differences that unifies each country’s identity. The author, Won-bok Rhie, breaks down each country’s culture and history to interpret the Korean cultures, which in reviewer’s perspective are exaggerated in some categories. The “stubbornness” of Korean is the center of his interpretation on Korean culture.
The comic book, Korea Unmasked, is based on the interaction between three countries, Korea, China, and Japan, and how it led to today’s Korea. The cultures of each country are primarily discussed, for example how they inhabit, the origination of each language, their values, and religion. The way Korean, Chinese and Japanese dwell in their country differs, for example, Chinese sleep on beds, Japanese sleep on tatami mats, and Korean sleep on heated ondol floor covered with laminated paper. The value of each country was one (China), orthodoxy (Korea), and harmony (Japan). It also explains the relationships between the three countries, the invasion of Japan, the constant threat of China, which created the vassalage system during Joseon period.
To help reader understand the Korean culture the author uses the word “stubborn”  and “choong” to describe Koreans, “This kind of orthodoxy sticks to original traditions, hardly ever opting for change or revision… Choong stubbornly preserves values collectively recognized by the community” (51 Rhie). And “Choong gave rise to the orthodoxy that rejects changes and distortions in an effort to preserve fundamental beliefs.” According to the author Koreans emphasized protection of their lives and possession because of the constant threat from the neighboring countries, which is expressed in Chinese character ‘choong’ in Korea.
But some of the facts explained in the book are incorrect that makes the reader frown, for example “stubbornly and persistently continue one’s work without being fickle … to stubbornly uphold uprightness without toleration of deceit.”(47 Rhie). The word stubborn is not a good way to describe Koreans because stubborn itself sometimes gives a negative impression, Koreans are not stubborn in a negative way, instead they are strong-willed. The definition of the stubborn in the book is rejecting changes, but if the Koreans reject changes than they will be still living in Joseon period rather than fast moving twenty-first century. According to the website called “Hidden Korea,” “Adaptation of foreign things for their own use is a historical characteristic of Korean culture, even today.”  If the Korean have not accepted the changes there won’t be such company as Samsung or LG. The way author illustrated Koreans are biased and ridicule.
Surprisingly, the book reads like it is trying to mock Korean culture. Korean culture is one of the significant cultures that have developed Korean society. “Korean culture is still based on certain 600 year-old Confucian principles. Among these are willingness to work hard at any task” (Hidden Korea). The reviewer believes that the characteristics and the cultures of Korea generated Korea to be one of the tops leading country among the leading countries such as United States. Therefore the reviewer does not want to recommend this book to anyone because the reviewer does not want to give wrong impression to foreigners who don’t know anything about Korea.
Bibliography

1.    “Hidden Korea.” History: Korea and China. PBS Online. http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/history.htm.
2.    “Hidden Korea.” Introduction: Hidden Korea. PBS Online. http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/intro.htm
3.    Won-bok Rhie. Korea Unmasked: In search of the country, the society and the people. Trans. Jung Un & Louis Choi. Korea: Gimm-Young, 2005

What is the definition of friendship? According to dictionary.com, they define friendship as ” the state of being a friend; association as friend.” I have been wondering about what friendship is. I  couldn’t find what it really is. I have been struggling to find it, but as a result I was rather puzzled.

It is hard to read your friend’s mind, even though you might be a BFF (Best Friend Forever). I once had a friend, whom I thought was fairly close with me. She was a good person with a complicated mind, she was a nice person who understood my complication in my life. She was a good listener whom I told her every little thing. Our friendship seemed fairly smooth and simple.

But in some point in our relationship, things became awkward, from that point on everything fell apart. I don’t know what exactly happened, we didn’t have a fight over this, and we talked this over. But everything was missing out of its place.

I wonder… What is the friendship I am looking for?

“Do we dream in order to sleep or do we sleep in order to dream?” Despite the fact that this question remains disputable, there is reason and significance of dreaming. People, who are deprived from sleeping, entering the dream phase or REM phase, they experience sign of irritation and vexation.  People need to dream in order to stay alive even though they might not remember every single dream they have dreamt.  Dreaming is same thing as acquiring a “built in therapist,” where a brain functions to consult with problems.  So the modern society people have to understand why sleeping or dreaming is so important, the cause of serious negative health issues, and the works of a brain. (Do Dreams Significantly Affect Our Lives).
In modern society, sleep deprivation is a common outcome of a stressful life. Every single day it seems like people have half the time to finish overflowing tsunami of works, it results decreased in sleep. Some people may believe they can train to make their body to lessen the amount of sleep, however it is a false belief. The sleep is necessary to revive specific portion in a human’s body, mostly the brain, where sleeping helps to function at its best. After lessened sleep, neurons starts to malfunction, where it affects human’s behavior. However there is some specific organ like muscles where they have the ability to replace injured tissue without sleeping. Particular stages in sleep are required to regenerate neurons in cerebral cortex, and other stages are used to form to develop memories and create synaptic connections. It is important for human to understand the importance of sleeping because it is where human body regenerates to function (Ledoux, Sarah).
Sleeping is a crucial part of human life, because lack of sleep tends to cause serious negative health issues, such as insomnia, obesity, and cardiovascular disease (Kienlen, Laurie P).  And also emotional well-being carries out productive mental abilities, when having a good sleep. The sleep deprivation causes longer illnesses such as depression, and serious fatigue that will malfunction human’s life. The lack of sleep will increase body mass and also the circumference of a waist. There are high possibilities of becoming an obese. Deprivation in sleep increases appetite through changes in hormone, which basically affects people to eat more and more. According to Dr. Jeffery Ellenbogen in Harvard Medical School, “sleep protects memories from interference.” Getting sleep will help students to receive better grade, however sleep deprivation will damage people’s life in some aspect. Researchers in University of Virginia have found that sleep deprivation may have a negative effect on IQ and development of cognition in children. This may result poor relationship in society but sleep will boost up the ability of cognition. There are other side effects of lack of sleep, a motor functions and coordination can be damaged, resulting delayed reaction time. This may lessen endurance, and cardiovascular performance.  In order to be healthy, it is crucial to get good night sleep everyday (Sleep Deprivation: Causes and Consequences).
According to studies based on sleep deprivation, it helps human to understand the function between a brain and behavior in a very unique way, observing changes of a behavior of a person as the brain closes down. By observing brain images, it is possible to parallel the behavior displayed by a subject matter with his or her brain framework.  Brain can not function without breaks and rests, because different parts of brain rest at different sleep stages or cycles, therefore sleeping can not be shortened.  As a matter of fact, if brain does not receive a rest, it will start to close down for “microsleep.” Where a person impairs his or her cognitive function’s continuity. Without sleep our brain will decline, and degenerate (Ledoux, Sarah).
Everyone requires sleeping; it is the common universal human need in all around the world. As sleep is a simple aspect of life, sleep deprivation has become a frequent and common issue in modern society. Sleep is the key to avoid disorders that discomfort the human life, where sleep deprivation will start the serious health problems that humans always want to prevent. This is the reason why it is important for people to understand and value the time of dreaming or sleeping.  Start dreaming and sleeping now, it will benefit you and your healthy life.

Bibliography
“Do Dreams Significantly Affect Our Lives?” Blurtit. 2 Dec. 2007. 8 Apr. 2009<http://www.blurtit.com/forandagainst/Do_Dreams_Significantly_Affect_Our_Lives>.
Ledoux, Sarah. “The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Brain and Behavior.” Sernedip. 2001. 8 Apr. 2009 <http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1690>.
Kienlen, Laurie P. “The Effects of Sleep Deprivation.” Suite101. 25 Apr. 2007. 8 Apr. 2009 <http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/get_your_zzzs>.
“Sleep Deprivation: Causes and Consequences.” NASD. 9 Apr. 2009 <http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d000701-d000800/d000705/d000705.html>.

The subject, English has been my weakest subject of all time history of my school life. As a matter of fact, that is the reason why I hated it so much. But as the 10th grade year passed by I started to not hate it so much as previous years. I don’t know why but the relaxed atmoshpere in the classroom helped me to engage myself with the discussion we are having it everyday or every other day. It gave me another persepctive that English can be a enjoyable subject that I could have never enjoyed before. I like to thank to our current English teacher:) And I wish I can enjoy it further more.

I am an Asian who doesn’t know about Asian history. Particulary because I was weak at history which I disliked so much that I didn’t bother to study for it. But however as I was force to take the course, Aiasn Studies, it gave me a chance to figure out about Asia as a big whole continant, including China, Korea and Japan. In this class, I have learned about the views of culture of Korea that I have never thought of before. Korea was viewed as selfish and stubborn but as a Korean myself, it is not true. And the Rape of Nanking is the book by Iris Chang where she describes the cruel dominance of Japan over the region in China called Nanking. It was disturbing to know what Japan had done to China, to the Nanking people.

On Sunday April 5, 2009, it was the day of my life. I never had to put on a cast in my life before. I was always a strong and tough girl who didn’t know how it felt to be the person who had to put on a cast. I was always curious about it. Since my brother broke his bones so often time, I was used to seeing different sorts of color cast on his both arms or even his leg. But I never felt how it was to be that person. He told me that it was a painful thing to put on it during summer and warm but itchy during winter. He always used chopsticks to scratch is hidden flash inside the cast. It was pretty disgusting to watch, and I never understood the need of chopsticks. And yet I still don’t need it, I wonder why?

1.  Finish all the homework which are not Spring break homework but “Spring Break Homework.”

2. Finish all the projects which are not suppose to be done during Spring Break but due on Monday.

3. Study for tests which are going to be on the week we come back.

So… Spring Break isn’t Spring Break.