kimjungwon/first draft/thuesday 11am

201200739

Dept. of EIT

Kim Jungwon

 

 

Tragicomedy

 

 

   A tragedy to me is, sometimes, a comedy to others. I awakened it when I was eight. It seems too young for eight-year-old boy to become aware of it. But what if something terrible had happened to me? Yes, something awkward arose. It was the first day and may be the last day, I hope so but not sure, that I defecated on my pants.

 

   I was born in the country surrounded by mountains. So I used to play with peers in the mountains or at the riverside. Nature nurtured my mind and spirit. I always appreciate it even though she didn't teach me math or English. As I turned 8, I entered elementary school around 2km away from my home.

On the way to school, there were two bridges made of wood. They were very narrow so only one man can cross at a time.

 

It was winter. Definitely I remember when my evacuation on the bridge happened because I wore the thermal long underwear at then. My elder brother, he was four years older than me, and I were on the way to school. We crossed the first wooden bridge without any problem. Everything seemed normal. And it didn't seem that something went wrong. But I felt my stomach rumbling and tumbling when my brother's friends appeared before the second log bridge. Intuitively, I thought I should cross the bridge before them. But I couldn't. My brother and his peers pushed me away so I had no choice but to be the last to cross the bridge. All of a sudden, everything changed. Everything seemed abnormal. We started crossing the bridge in single file with my brother the first and me the last.

 

That's the very moment the tragedy started. I clenched my fist and great beads of sweat stood on my forehead and my hip's muscles began to stiffen. I shouted at my brother.

"Hey, yo, brother, hurry up, move, move. I feel I should do number two."

But it was a mistake. He stopped moving and slowly turned back.

"Hey, what did you say? I can't hear you."

"I have to take a shit."

"Oh, shit, Ok, don't worry"

And then, he ordered his friends.

"Buddies, let's sing and dance on the bridge."

 

That's the very moment the comedy began. I couldn't stand my evacuation any more. My face turned red and something hot dropped on my pants. Finally, I defecated on my pants. My face was getting redder and I began to walk like a penguin. One teardrop was springing up and dangling on my eyes when others were laughing at me. Their laughter, definitely it was a kind of ridicule, spread over the winter river. The more they laughed, the more I cried. At the very moment, I realized that a tragedy to me could be a comedy to others.

 

   Truth to be told, I don't like to tell this shameful story. There is, however, what I want to say through my story. In fine, Life is a story or a drama blended of a tragedy and a comedy. So you can cry down at times and laugh up at times. But never stop living your life because life is a tragicomedy that is directed by not others but you.

Kim Kap Whan in EIT / 201003958 / for October 1th, Tuesday 11 A.M. Class / final draft

A SUPERMAN ― FLY HIGH UP IN THE SKY !!

 

    There are three things I really hate: a centipede, a cockroach, and a snake. Among them, I particularly hate a snake. The way a snake creeps and sticks its tongue out and peeves is really loathsome. At the mere thought of it, I automatically get sick. Nowadays many good characteristics about a snake have been revealed through scientific findings, but I still cannot have a good impression about it. That's because I hold a special hatred for a snake from birth, and I don't know why. 

    I was born and grew up in the peaceful countryside village surrounded by mountains on three sides. In front, there was a beautiful open sea. At the bottom of the mountains, there were green fields where lots of lawn and grass grows. Looking back on those irreplaceably good old days, I really want to go back to the world on a time machine at any moment, which was not only my little kingdom but also had so many good memories. Some children from the village would go to the mountain, to the field, to the hill, and so on, alone or in groups to play outside or for other purposes if the weather was good. But sometimes life was not as glorious as it might seem.

    One bright, beautiful Sunday morning in autumn when I was a middle school student, about at the age of 14 or 15. I climbed up a mountain all alone to pick and greedily eat some kind of fruit called 어름 in Korean, but I am not sure whether the word is a standard language or a dialect even now. Also I cannot find a proper English word for it. If I explain briefly, it is very much like a banana in shape, but the taste is not the same. I think 어름 is the sweetest in the world, whose tree yields fruit only in September and October. After then, you cannot find any of the fruit, so it is better to eat the fruit as much as possible. As you can expect by now, I gleefully picked and ate a lot of the fruit until my belly almost exploded. It tasted much more delicious because I ate secretly by myself. The whole world seemed to stand by my side until I felt an unagreeable feeling. But the unexpected and inevitable reversal was waiting for me.

    After the feast, I prepared to climb down the mountain. The mountainside consisted of grass, small rocks, and soil, and there were not paved pathways. To climb down, I had to take only one way which was narrow and made from soil. Pleasantly and triumphantly, I started to return home, running. The reason for running was that I already achieved my purpose by now and I felt a sense of fear from being alone. Another reason I ran was that the way was very steep, so I couldn't control the speed. I didn't feel a strange feeling until I took a few steps. Literally out of the blue sky, in front of me, I was encountered with a yellowish and brownish poisonous snake which was coiling itself just a couple of feet away, but because of the accelerated speed, I couldn't control my steps. At the very moment, because of a panic of death from being bitten by a snake, I couldn't tell where my heart was, whether in the mouth or in the throat. Anyway, in a very very short period of time, maybe within a millionth of second, I had to choose my course of action. I needed another sixth sense to overcome the obstacle. I felt I needed the intelligence of Albert Einstein and the ability of Superman. I decided to take advantage of the situation instead of being in dispair. Using the acceleration, I jumped over the snake higher than any other high jumper in the world. Suddenly, I could find myself flying in the sky over the snake. If you practiced high jump under this kind of situation, you would be a gold-medalist in Olympics. Then I ran home directly like a bullet shot out of a gun, but the horrible experience offset so miserably all of my pleasure of eating the fruit that I almost forgot the fact that I ate the fruit. I even lost appetite.

    Nowaday, sometimes I recall mixed feelings of those days. I no longer live there, but like it or not, the place is still my hometown. One day, if I find an opportunity to go there, I want to heroically face with the snake. I would not need to be so nervous or scared any more.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Jun-hee Kang/ first draft/ Tuesday 11 a.m

                                                                                     Think different

           When I was in second semester of 8^th grade, our class got the graduation project to go over to high school. This project was one of the most important project in last middle school semester. This was the project that I have write over 10 pages long essay and open up the presentation in front of more than hundreds of students, teachers and parents. This is how project starts, I get to choose the topic that I was interested before and present for one hour, then during presentation, 8^th grade teachers (English teacher, Social Studies teacher, etc.) will grade and the sum will be my actual result. I have seen seniors before, how they suffered from preparing their project by passing nights and weekends in school. I do remember a day that friends and I made fun of them, which I never knew before that my day was coming.

           As all my age boys were interested with mechanics, maybe not, I chose the topic 'Robot' because during that year, I was falling in love with it. Robots were my top interest than any other things. I spent all the weekends and nights at school, just like my seniors did. Kindly, 7^th graders did not forget making fun of us too. During one month, I handed more than 7 times of papers to be perfectly done. Using Internets and magazines as a reference and presentation were my first experience. Practicing presentation was really hard because I was so nervous that I kept forgetting the lines that I have to say. This huge project was just hard for me to handle, it caused me a great stress, and later on it made me cry when I was alone in the auditorium. , After I cried, I started to practice again on the stage. Suddenly, I realize that I was not the only one in the auditorium. There was principal sitting on the chair and looking at me. Holy Father, what the hell. I was so embarrassed that I just stand there and keep looking at her. She then came to the stage and said,

"I know how hard it is, I have seen your seniors, crying, yelling and kicking the wall. But they all did it. Don't have to be perfect Jay, just try your best so that you don't regret when you are done."

This one sentence has touched my mind to think this project different. I was thinking this project as just to get a highest score and have to be perfect than try to show why I love robots and what I want to show to the others. From that day on, I really tried my best to finish up the project till last minute. When the day came for the presentation, I thought about the sentence she said, then I walked on to the stage and began my presentation.

From that day on, I always keep in my mind and ask myself just as head teacher asked me when I walked down from the stage. "Do you regret now?"

 

.

Huyoung Lee/Essay Assignment 1st draft/Tuesday 11 a.m.

Nightmare

201102861 Huyoung Lee

3 a.m. Still can't get to sleep. How many hours have passed since I lay on my bed? No, that's not important. Just close your eyes and think nothing. Relax, take a deep breath. Okay, now I'm ready to have a sweet dream.

But I couldn't have any one piece of the sweet dream. My eyes were closing, and everybody would see me on the bed and think I was having a fancy dream. But the truth was: I was only pretending to sleep to deceive myself, to drag my feet into the world of deep and peaceful slumber, and was never sleepy at all.

             How many sleepless days? No, it would be proper to say how many weeks, or even months. It started on mid-June, probably, with the symptom of waking up in the middle of the night. I didn't think it was serious problem then. I could get to sleep, so well that I almost fell down on my bed tired from everyday life. Although I often opened my eyes and escaped from the deep night slumber, that was mostly for the bathroom and I went back into the sweet dream I had had, without any problems at all.

             However, it started to become uncomfortable as, little by little, it was frequently happening and most importantly, I wasn't able to go back to the peaceful slumber again after a sudden night wake-up. That was irritating because I was supposed to wake up early in the morning and go to school. But that was not very serious and I could manage to maintain daily lives somehow and more importantly, there were a lot of things to care, which made me stop thinking about the problem.

             Busy semester ended and vacation came. I was supposed to enjoy this wonderful period, but I couldn't: the real insomnia started. At first, it took me an hour or less to fall asleep but as time goes by, that expanded to a few hours. That meant I had to patiently lie on the bed from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m., struggling to hold at least one little piece of the dream. But Morpheus-how merciless he is!-never appeared in my bedroom, just as he was enjoying my night struggles outside the monitor, sitting on his couch with some popcorn and coke. Then I would finally give up sleeping and helplessly turn the light on, and sit on the bed absentmindedly with a sense of defeat. Only in the morning I would fall asleep from the fatigue of nightlong nervousness and go deep into the dreams that were as complicated as my messed-up mind.

             That made a vicious cycle. Taking a nap-although it was the only sleeping time to me-made me even harder to sleep at night. It needed some change. I chose not to sleep at all. But it was not easy. I couldn't do anything because of the tiredness and usually I would just fall asleep before the intended bedtime. So I changed the plan. I slept for only two or three hours and made myself tired by going around with my friend all day long. When I came home in the evening, I was totally exhausted and felt like lying down. On the bed, I expected to have a deep slumber and closed my eyes. How much times have passed? I was still awakened. I just didn't understand. I was tired, obviously worn out, but wasn't sleepy at all. Is it possible? I was so upset and helpless that I cry out loud like a baby. There was nothing I could do and that night was just as same as the nights before.

             I never knew that insomnia was so serious. I even wished I had insomnia because I used to sleep so much. Now I know how stupid thought it is. It's another kind of nightmare. It could nearly ruin your whole life. Although I tried to remove the insomnia, it's still going on. It just doesn't appear every night, but some nights especially when I'm worried about something so much. I try not to worry and get stressed out, but it's not so easy for some reasons: daily lives, people, relationship, my own sensitive characteristic, future plans and anything that's bothering me. It's impossible to escape from all that things or change your mind at once. I think I'm on the process of learning how to control myself, so that I would not suffer from insomnia again.

201001450 Park Hyun-ju/ Essay Assignment (Week4)/Tuesday 11 A.M. Class

First Experience of Living Apart from My Family.

I entered a boarding school when I became 17 years old and my dormitory life had started since then. Since it was obligatory for all students to live in dormitory in my high school, every student, even who had lived right next to the high school, should have lived in the dormitory.

At the start, I think I was so excited and I felt free of living alone without my family. Because, from the time I applied for that high school which provides a boarding school system, it was my desire to experience living by myself, so I was very much pleased to be accepted to enter the high school and stay in the dormitory. Besides, all the high schools in my region were in the distance from my house and I thought that if I entered one of those high schools, there would be more possibility of being late to school.

I think it was like what I had imagined for the first few weeks. I lived with my friends who I didn't know before the lottery for choosing a room. And through this, I could know more friends from other classes. But at the same time, it made me so hard to adapt to the environment of a new room and new roommates at first. Different from middle school, in which I could make friends with whom I want to get along, there, I had to try to become close with everyone in the room and her friends , though I didn't like that friend or we didn't fit together. This was one of the hard things I experienced first in the boarding school.

After the period of enjoying time alone and getting along with new friends in high school, many bad parts of living in dormitory began to show up. First of all, I missed the free time in my private place after classes. I realized that I could feel more freedom when I am in my house with my family than being with my friends in the dormitory. Seriously, I missed the time having with my family, outside of the school and doing what I want without restrictions of school rules.

As time went by, the stuffy feeling had faded and I really began to adapt to my dormitory life. Although I couldn't meet my family and my old friends as much as I could before, I could get along with and depend on my new friends in high school. So that I made friendship which I think will go forever and we shared our worries and joys for 3 years.

I believe, through my experience of being alone apart from my family and my familiar place, I could learn many things I couldn't learned if I didn't enter the boarding school and one thing I learned is that every new thing that comes along is hard to accept first time, but we can adapt to it and make us enjoy this change after all.

Dabida Kang/ chapter 2/ Tue 11a.m.

"Don't forget to bring some of your photos or an album to the class" My teacher said when the school finally ended.   I was a 9-year-old girl. I came back home running. "Mommy! My teacher said I have to bring some photos or an album." I almost screamed to my mom. "Why don't you bring the whole album I kept since you were born, so that your teacher and friends can see how cute you were when you were little?" That was really good idea. My mom used to tell me my child stories of which I grew fond. The pictures were the greatest storyteller.   "Okay! I'll bring it!" The album was covered a soft red velvet, with about 20 pages. There was more than 4 photos of me per one page with all the girlish decoration and little memos my mother put inside. Many pictures meant more stories to talk with my teacher and friends.   There was one problem. The album was too big and heavy for someone like me. It was bigger than my school bag and. So I had to carry this giant thing with my arm. It was even hard for me to stand with it for few minutes. It felt like more than 10kgs even though it actually weighed 2kgs.   Next morning, I had this strange feeling, which was the excitement at once and the anxiousness; the excitement to share the pictures and the anxiousness to bring the heavy album to school. But the excitement outstripped the anxiousness.   It was autumn. The weather was so good. I could feel the soft wind. I was filled with all the hopes and excitements for the compliment I would get for bringing the big album. But in reality, my arms started to have pins and needles. The more I walked forward, the more pain I felt around my arms. I had to stop walking by few walks to relax my arms.   My grammar school was located beyond a traditional market. The market appeared after walking by a bumpy road for about 8 minutes. Entering the market, I passed a series of Tteokbokki stores. Turning left and passing by the baker's, the shoes shop, some stationary stores and the pharmacy, I crossed a street and finally the school came in sight. The school couldn't be more pleasure one to see ever.     "Teacher! Here's my album. I brought this all way down to school!" "Oh my god. Why did you bring this? You totally got this wrong. I said to bring few photos or a small album. You could have made a small album with some photos, if you really wanted to bring one." All my classmates laughed. Having said those, she did not even take a look at my album. Imagine how a little girl felt after the long journey to school? I felt like my whole world was tearing down. Realizing all the thing I had done was in vein really broke my heart.     It was my first time to learn what disappointment is. This heartbreaking experience had remained in my memory till I grew up older. The very first lesson to learn'the world isn't the way you imagine it to be'.

Yoo Hongsang/experience pg.50/Tue11-01

Why I shaved my head        When I was a freshman, I joined a B-boying(break dance) club. At first, it was pleasant, but over time, the practice was so harsh. Furthermore, all the other members had a previous dancing experience but me. While everyone else played on the stage in the performance team, I kept practicing. I kept practicing even during the summer vacation when some members went back their home for leisure. I could not stop practicing to join the performance team.     One day, there was a party. We drank beers and exchanged some talks. A guy who had kept an eye on me approached and told me. ''I know that you practice hard.'' ''Thanks'', I replied. He said, ''If you shave your head, I will teach you how to do the windmill(one of the b-boying skills).'' Of course, he would probably have said this to encourage me to practice harder. And he would probably have not meant it. But, I said, ''Yes, sir''     Next day, I went shaved my head and went to the club. Everyone seemed surprised because my hair at that time had been quite long. And the guy who talked to me the day before seemed surprised also. He approached and said to me, ''Are you crazy? Why did you shave your head?'' I replied, ''To learn windmill.'' He said, '' You are so impossible.'' But, I could get closer to everyone from the day. Everyone in the performance team tried to teach new skills, and I practiced hard. And of course, I could master the 'windmill' skill.     And finally I could join the performance team in October, and had my first performance in front of so many people. It was the biggest pride I have of all experience I had.

Chae Ji Young/Tue 11am/2nd Assignment

I visited my friend living in Sydney during Chuseok holiday. When I finally got there after 10 hours tiring flight, I was so happy with all those exotic sights. But the joy didn't last long. It started to rain. It was the day we planned to go sandboarding at Stockton Beach. I thought it was impossible to sandboard on such a rainy day. I couldn't even cancel or change to another day because we'd already paid for it.    When we joined the Port Stephens Sandboarding tour, there were many people worrying about the weather like us. But the guide told us to believe that it was going to be sunny soon. I couldn't believe it and was so disappointed. It was raining cats and dogs.    When we finally got to the beach, however, it all stopped raining like a magic. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The sun was shining through the cloud. I was momentarily dazzled by the strong sunlight. Soon beautiful scenery spread out before my eyes. Silky sand and tumultuous ocean was visible. It was so beautiful. It was like half desert and half sea.    To get in the middle of the sand, we got in a military hummer. We enjoyed driving on the sand at full speed. A car was bouncing and we enjoyed it. We got to the middle of the desert. There was a huge sand hill. It was almost like a vertical cliff of sand. The guide said that it is Australia's largest sand mass, years of winds managing to dump it all in the same place.    At the top of the sand hill, I sat down on the board. I started racing from the top. It was so exciting. I left my fingers trailing behind myself in the sand. It was so fast. The sandboarding was such an exciting experience. I would never forget it.

Saewhan/Tue 11am/2nd Assignment

  In Korea, being a man requires some obligations that no healthy and normal person could dodge. Among them is to serve our nation through mandatory military services for two years. So I did, as most of my colleges, join the military in 2009 leaving all my friends, family and secularistic ways of life in college behind. Now that I'm writing an essay on my desk after a couple of years since I finished with the service recalling the memories happened in the Korea-America military base in Yongsan, this particular memory fleshed through my head, which probably will never be forgotten for the rest of my life.

  It was a Friday night in early 2009 when I endlessly awaited in my barrack for the day I will walk out of the army base and do whatever I want jettisoning all the army regulations and creeds injected into my head. Since I, then, was a sergeant, meaning that, at least in the barrack, I enjoyed a colossal amount of power and authority over enlisted soldiers. Plus, as a KATUSA, Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army, relatively relaxing culture on the weekends lay in front of me. Then, my fellow American soldier knocked the door and suggested to go clubbing at Itaewon, the place of dazzling neon signs, bars and clubs, the motherland of  youth and passion. I followed his suggestion with great alacrity and picked up the best civilian clothes in my military closet and headed to the subway station. Until then, I had no idea what a terrible thing would happen.

  My colleague led the way to a club with a long-standing ticket queue wanting to spend the most fabulous night in Friday. We entered the club, ordered a bottle of tequila and started soaking up the booze. The music at the club was so laud and I got a little bit tipsy, leading to more booze and dancing. I probably drunk almost a half of the bottle after that or maybe not. Mysterious remains it still today since in the night I got totally blacked out. The more daunting is that when I woke up the next morning, I was in a military hospital with a patient gown and headache consistently pierced through my brain. All my seniors and fellow soldiers in my platoon came to visit my ward and later my parents also came with a special visit card. I felt like I was stuffed in a bird cage inviting visitors to examine my entire existence. It was so humiliating -and painful- and, after all, I couldn't stand to imagine that a cascade of corrective action by my seniors would decorate my latter year in the army. This embarrassing memory of mine persists in my head and serves as a wake-up call whenever I found myself drink too much.        

Jieun Choi/p.50~51/Tue 11am

            It was one early morning of November 2010. That morning, my way to school was very much different from my ordinary route. It was extremely cold unlike the other days. I was walking with my parents on a different road, heading different school. I was feeling nervous, but was strangely calm at the same time. That morning, I was about to take the biggest exam in my teenager life: Suneung – the college scholastic ability test of Korea.

            Every year, the forecast of the day before Suneung was busy to remind us that the Suneung day would be unusually cold day. That year also, the forecast got it right; the Suneung day was exceptionally colder than the other days. In the middle of the coldness, I was walking to Jinmyung High School, which was not my school, with my parents in silence. For three of us, it was the day that nothing could be screwed. We all knew how much I tried for few years, just for this one particular day. My hands were shaking because I was too stressed out, and my parents didn't want to burden me more. So we walked to the school without any words.

Finally, I got to the in front of the gate. I could see many people with various faces there: students who were there to encourage their seniors, parents who were praying toward their child's back, and examinees just like me. It was time for me to walk into the entrance, but I couldn't make my feet move, just like those were stuck to the ground. I was scared and afraid because it seemed like everything would be decided with this one exam – people's assessment, my career and my life. So I didn't want the day to come, but it had. I had to get in to the classroom. When I was leaving the gate, my parents said nothing. They just smiled and waved at me. At the second I turned around and headed the gate, suddenly tears started to run down my face. Even now, I don't get the meaning of the tear, but I assume that my complex emotion turned into those tears. After crying for a minute, I could stay little bit calmer.

When I sat in my seat in the classroom, I tried to think as positive as possible. I kept telling myself that everything would be fine and I would be okay. Soon, the first session started. It was Korean session and started with listening comprehension. When the voice started to read the first passage, I panicked that the exam of my life has finally begun. I couldn't catch what the voice was talking about, although it was in Korean. I was in extreme tension during the five passages that voice read. After the listening section, I finally could calm down and read through the given questions. It was the first and the only panic I had to go through. After that section, I became quite rational and solved numerous questions.

After the second session was lunchtime. In that school, I couldn't find any friends to have lunch with, so I had it alone. In fact, I needed someone to talk about that horrible morning and empathize with. However, there was no one to talk to, so I felt slightly lonely. But looking back, I think having lunch alone might have helped me to control my mind. If I had talked with somebody about the exam, I might have had a conversation about tricky questions. Than, I might have shared the answers. Imagining the situation after me finding out my answer wrong, I think I wouldn't be able to stay as calm as I did throughout the other sessions.

After lunch, I had three more sessions to go, which were English, Social Studies, and Japanese. I remember that time flew with English and social studies sessions because I concentrated the hardest ever. But the problem was the last session, Japanese. Too much time was given to solve problems, so I didn't have anything to do anymore after finishing the marking. At that point, I was deadly tired after going through 10 hours of exam and turbulence of emotions, and I was hungry. All I wanted that moment was a nice dinner and my bed. I was looking at my watch every one minute just wishing time to be passed.

After a long waiting, Suneung was finally over. The clock was passing 6 p.m. I rapidly packed up all my stuffs and got out of that nightmarish classroom. On my way home, I felt really strange. It was the same road I took in the morning, but everything looked fresh and new. I felt freedom at the one side of my heart, but also futility at the other side. In that moment, I felt like I completed the mission of my life and there was nothing more to do – which was not true because I had few more admission exams to go through for couple of weeks. Anyway, I was carefree and lighthearted. Everything that burdened me for my whole high school life was over.

Choe Kyung-Yo/The first draft assignment(p.50-51)/Tue 3,4

<Misfortunes beget misfortunes>

 

My hometown is Gochang in Jeollabuk-do, so I go to see my family every other month. I usually start after I finish my last class on Thursday because I have no classes on Friday. And, of course, I come back on Sunday. Gochang is almost three hours distant from Seoul, technically speaking from Gangnam Express terminal.

 

It was just an ordinary Sunday afternoon as usual. There wasn't any strange feeling. Disasters, very often, creep up on us in this way. Quietly, Confidentially…

I usually leave home before 2p.m., but I wanted to stay more on that day. After I took a nap, I got on a bus at 4p.m. I didn't know at that time this 2 hours gap would make such a big difference.

 

"Bang-!" ----- "Bang-!"

I felt it was an traffic accident. It really was! It was a five-car rear-end collision. The former sound was made when we hit the car in front of us. And the latter was when the car behind of us hit us. Fortunately, the accident was not very serious compared to the sound it made. None of the passengers were hurt. So I thought we could start soon again. It, however, didn't take much time to prove that it was a vain hope. After 20 minutes, a policeman came in our bus. It was a sight I have seen only in a movie or TV. He asked passengers a few questions about circumstances surrounding the accident. We eventually could start after one hour. I comforted myself with the thought that I was not hurt at all. The five-car collision, however, was just a prelude. The real disaster didn't start at all.

 

I have never experienced such a traffic jam until the day. Hundreds of thousands of cars were all stopping on the freeway. It increased 3 hours which if nothing had happened, it normally would have took to 8 hours! The air in the bus was full of carbon dioxide. Most passengers looked like they gave up, actually I did. At first, I prayed for arriving before 8 and 9 and 10. In the end I just wanted to arrive before the sunrise.

 

All things have an end. We came to Seoul at last. As soon as I arrived at Gangnam Express bus terminal, the last misfortune, however, was waiting for me. The time, when I arrived there, was about 12:30. Yes! All subways and buses already stopped. All I could use was a taxi. What was worse, it suddenly started to rain, so I had to wait for a taxi. In a queue! In the rain! For over one hour! I can't express how I felt at that time.

 

Finally, when I arrived at my dormitory, I was about to cry. But I didn't, because I didn't want to spend my energy on such a thing.

 

Since this day, I have been using KTX or trains that guarantee punctuality rather than buses that have a lot of variables. Not only that, I made a new habit, which is when I plan something, I investigate its possible risk in advance. I came to be a very organized person. The day is still a memory that I want to forget, however, from that day I learned some lessons.

Lo Yun Seo/201101117/week3,Chapter 2/Tuesday 11 a.m.

<The Most Horrible Movie, E.T.>

 

 

“Whoa! I really want to fly like E.T.!” My brother and I cried at the top of our voice at the same time. I was five year old and my elder brother was four year elder. The day was New Year’s day that is one of the most biggest holiday in Korea. In the morning of the day, whole family members were wake early to perform ancestral rites. After holding a memorial service for my ancestors, all four family members who are father, mother, brother and I started to watch TV, idly sipping a cool drink.

 

   

There was a trivial argument between my father and brother. My father wanted to watch news programs but brother desired to see a TV movie. At the end of the argument, our channel was tune in the 22 which showed on Movie materials because of concession of my father. In that channel, E.T. was got. As my brother and I were very curious young children at that time, we could not help loving with this movie. It was a wonder for me to meet extraterrestrial life in the movie for the first time in my life!

 

 

 “Hey, guys, have you already watched that movie on the last Thanks giving day? Is it funny?”

 My parents went to bed, giving a big yawn. Because I was really into that movie, I did not hear what they said. I was attracted by the lure of all the sights of that film. I believed that I were a friend of E.T. so I felt deeply that I was one of the main character of the film. Whenever I saw the scenes of high-spirits and jollity, I thought that I was on cloud nine. Otherwise, whenever I watched sad scenes, I was crying and crying. So I cried and laughed by turns during watching that movie.  

 

 

     Buy the way, the last scene was big deal to our brother and sister. In the last scene, E.T. ,which rose from the dead, went back to its home with a spacecraft. After watching that scene, we said at the top of our voice simultaneously. : “Whoa! I really want to fly like E.T.!”

 “Brother, is it possible for us to fly the sky with a bicycle with a number of balloons?”

“Of course, if we pedal vigorously on a bicycle, we can fly the sky enough.”

With coming up with concrete ways of enhancing a realistic possibility, we were sure that we would fly the sky.  

 

 

On the day, my parents were so tired that they have already fallen into a deep sleep. So they did not recognize our silly idea. My brother and I put the idea into practice. We stood a window ledge of my living room with the bicycle which was surrounded by a bunch of balloons. Then, I jumped into the outside to fly the sky like E.T. right away.

 

 

 

 “Pedal much vigorously, and quickly! Faster! Faster as much as you can.”

My brother shouted to me and I did our best. However, we could not oppose gravity. We fell to the ground! Fortunately, my house was the second floor, so we did not get hurt much. I had broken my arm and my brother had broken his leg. Therefore, we were in the hospital for a week.  

 

 

Parents were so shocked that mother kelp crying, while my father looked pale. After that experience, E.T. has become one of the most horrible movie to all my family members. My parents still get goose bumps whenever we see the E.T. from a Television. Therefore, the movie of E.T. is the most fearful movie to our family, even though that film is one of the greatest production to other people.

 

An yumi/describing past experience/Tue 3,4

The Top Way to Learn English

Every first moment is hard to forget. I also cannot forget the moment when the English, which had been just randomly drawn lines for me, rushed into my mind as language. English literally popped up in my life when I was biting my nails waiting for my first English tutor and what was called 'English' which I never saw in the timetable for 2 years of elementary school. My mother, whose big worry, at that time, was her daughter's English education, decided to expose me to English through tutoring a year before the public English education started.

The door bell rang, announcing the start of my first English class. After chatting for a while with my mother, the tutor walked into my room. She sat across the table from me. I was not able to look right at her. When she called my name and I looked up with fear in my eyes, English began to sneak into my life. "Do you know what this is?" As soon as she wrote something on an empty paper, she asked me, pointing what she wrote. It was 'TOP'. Since I knew at least what the English alphabet looked like, 'TOP' there brought a few vague images into my mind: some clothes and signboards on street, where illegible mixtures of straight lines and curves were printed. Except for that, my knowledge of English as language did not exist. I kept silent, glancing at her warm smile. She might have thought that I was just too shy to answer when actually I was too blank to answer. "Then do you know how to read it?" said the teacher. 'Can it be read?' I scratched my heads with a vacant look.

She seemed to wait for me to speak, still amicably. After a few seconds of silence she opened her mouth. "Yumi, this is a kind of character. In some other countries, people use this instead of Hanguel." That is the first moment that the strange mixtures of straight lines and curves turned out to be someone's language. It interested me a lot that a totally different form of language from Korean exists. She continued talking and pointed 'TOP' again. "The first one here, is pronounced as 'ㅌ(a Korean letter for t sound)', the second one is 'ㅏ(a Korean letter for o sound)', the last one is 'ㅍ(a Korean letter for p sound)'." She wrote each Korean alphabets right below 'TOP', and pronounced them in turn. "Now, try reading it yourself!" She encouraged me.

"탚(which sounds 'top')" I hesitantly read it, combining three scattered Korean alphabet into one word. Then, I repeated it again staring only at 'TOP' to feel as if I used English alphabets as the only resource to read it. "Good job!" said teacher. I felt surprised that I did read the new language anyway. Feeling of accomplishment captivated me. I really wanted to know more so that I can read more. I wore a big happy smile. English was not just a bunch of meaningless lines anymore but became a language to me. This was an important experience for me because this experience encouraged me to feel confident and realize the special joyfulness coming from learning. Thanks to this inspiring and fresh meeting, I was able to enjoy learning English for its own sake with the pure intellectual inspiration and happiness of knowing new language besides my mother tongue.

Unfortunately, the feeling faded away gradually and almost disappeared as I passed middle school and high school, always crammed into study only for test. Now I want to get the feeling back. I want to study English not because I have to but I want to just like when I was a child. Sadly, I am in the midst of many pressures that only emphasize that English is an indispensable requirement for success such as getting a good job. However, I will do my best to take intellectual inspiration and pure joyfulness of learning English back. Because that must be the 'TOP' way to learn English.

 

Changhee Lee

200702680 Changhee Lee

In 2003, I was sixteen years old and I was living with my family. My mother and sister and I went to downtown to buy grocery for dinner on Sunday. At that my sister was only 4 years old. My mother started to talk with the street vendor and told me that you should keep your eye on sister. At first, I was holding my sister's hand and I kept my eye on her. However few minutes later, I found new game console and my attention got distracted. I forgot I had to take care of my sister and I lost her in the middle of downtown.

As soon as I knew that I lost my sister, I called out my mother and told her that I lost sister. We were so shocked that we didn't know what we have to. My mother told me that I am going to go to police station and you should keep looking for your sister here. My mother dashed to police station and I kept casting around for sister. Since I thought that I lost my sister, I started crying. I kept running and running. However I couldn't find my sister. A few minutes later, my mother found my sister in front of the police station building. One middle aged woman found my sister crying alone and she took her to the police station so my mother found them at the police station.

After I met my sister again, I told her I'm sorry and I love you. I can't forget that experience since it was too clear. Thanks to the experience, I got to know how I love my sister and my family. This is the story of the day I lost my sister.

 

Rho Ryun/201001081/week3,Chapter 2/Tuesday 11 a.m.

I thought I am a good swimmer until I was almost drowned. This accident happened while I was traveling Australia, 2009. I went to Gold Coast, beautiful beach located near Brisbane, to swim. A cloudless sky allows the beach sparkled. The beach seemed like a gold-wave. It was a perfect day for every mankind to swim in a Gold Coast. The exotic atmosphere the beach gave also encourage me to swim. So I went to swim. Everything was perfect. I did not even know how many times had passed. Since the water in front of the coast was too shallow, I decided to go farther. I was about 25 meters away from the coast because I thought I am a good swimmer.

           Suddenly, the sky changed its color. The bright-gold colored sunshine disappeared and the dark-gray color clouds came up. Moreover, raindrops fall on the surface of the ocean and it make wave angry. So, I tried to swim heading to the coast but the angry wave push me away from the coast. I swam and swam again but the distance became farther. I could not even reach my feet to the ground. So I was panicked. I thought I am going to die.

           Luckily, one of Coast guards found me and saved me. I gave thanks with my full of heart to him. Because I drank too much sea water, I tried to leave the coast to drink something. In that moment, an Australia broadcasting company's interviewer came to me and ask me to answer their questions. There are many questions and I answered their question and leave. In the night time when I cooked my dinner in YHA (Youth Hostels Association) cooking room, I could see a man in a television who interview with his face frown because of the reason only I could know.

 

Kim Kap Whan in EIT / 201003958 / for September 24th, Tuesday 11 A.M. Class / 1st Draft

A SUPERMAN ― FLY HIGH UP IN THE SKY !! 

 

    I originally hate a snake. There are three things I really hate. a centipede, a cockroach, and a snake. The way a snake creeps and sticks its tongue out and peeves is really loathsome. At the mere thought of it, I automatically get sick. Through scientific findings, nowadays many good characteristics about a snake have been revealed. But I still cannot have a good impression about it.  

 

  I was born and grew up in the peaceful countryside village surrounded by mountains on three sides. In front, there was a beautiful open sea. At the bottom of the mountains, there were green fields where lots of lawn and grass grows. Looking back on those irreplaceable good old days, I really want to go back to the world on a time machine which was not only my little kingdom but also had so many good memories. But sometimes life is not as glorious as it seems. 

 

  One bright, beautiful Sunday morning in autumn, I was a middle school student. I climbed up a mountain. Actually, some children from the village used to go to the mountain, to the field, to the hill, and so on, alone or in groups to play outside or for other purposes if the weather was good. But the day, I climbed up all alone to pick and greedily eat some kind of fruit called 어름 in Korean, but I am not sure whether the word is a standard language or a dialect. Also I cannot find a proper English word for it. If I explain briefly, it is very much like a banana in shape, but the taste is not the same. I think 어름 is the sweetest in the world whose tree yields fruit only in September and October. After then, you cannot find any of the fruit, so it is better to eat the fruit as much as possible. As you can easily expect by now, I gleefully picked and ate a lot of the fruit until my belly almost exploded. It tasted much more delicious because I ate secretly by myself. But the unexpected and inevitable reversal was waiting for me. The world seemed to stand by my side until I felt an unagreeable feeling.  

 

  After the feast, I prepared to climb down the mountain. The mountainside consisted of grass, small rocks, and soil, and there were not paved pathways. To climb down, I had to take only one way which was narrow and made from soil. Pleasantly and triumphantly, I started to run. Another reason I ran was that the way was a little steep. I could not feel a strange feeling until I took a few steps. Literally out of the blue sky, in front of me, I was encountered with a poisonous snake which was coiling itself just a couple of feet away, but because of the accelerated speed, I could not control my steps. At the very moment because of fear, I could not tell where my heart was. Maybe in the mouth or in the throat. Anyway, in a very very short period of time, maybe a millionth of second, I had to choose my course of action. I felt I needed the intelligence of Albert Einstein and the ability of the Superman to overcome the obstacle. I decided to take advantage of the situation instead of being in dispair. Using the acceleration, I jumped over the snake higher than any other high jumper in the whole world. Suddenly, I could find myself flying in the sky over the snake. If you practiced high jump under this kind of situation, you would be a gold-medalist in Olympics. Then I ran home directly like a bullet shot out of a gun. And the horrible experience offset all of my pleasure of eating the fruit. I even lost the appetite. 

 

  Nowaday, sometimes I recall those days. I no longer live there, but the place is my hometown. One day, if I find an opportunity to go there, I want to heroically face with the snake. I would not need to be so nervous or scared any more.

Ha Eun Park/ 201001433/ Week 3, 1st Draft/ Tuesday 11 A.M Class

Have you ever been to an unknown place, and an unfamiliar environment? One of my experiences that have been memorable happened in a remote, unfamiliar, and strange place. During my second semester of sophomore, I was searching for what I wanted to do. While I was searching, I realized that college is the time that you try various things. So, I decided to apply for an internship for the experience. The internship required me to go abroad and work at a different environment. I was more excited than scared of all the challenges that I will face.

 

I was assigned to Chicago intergovernmental agency in United States. I was really happy and excited at the same time because I had never been to Chicago. Also, I had never work for a corporation or had a full time job so, I was thankful that as a student I got an opportunity to experience all these things in a new environment. The entire process of getting ready to leave was exciting and when I arrived my heart skipped a beat. Chicago is a city that is very cold and at the same time very clean, and the night view of the city is absolutely breathtaking and I was completely overwhelmed by it.

 

However, after several weeks, I got home-sick, and the work load was too much for an intern who had no experience. I had to work late almost four days a week and business relationships were suffocating me. Since I had no family and no close friends in Chicago, I felt lonely often. Moreover, it was legal in United States to carry guns and constantly feeling unsafe didn't help with all the frustration that I was going through.

 

When I was going through all of these struggles, the team that I worked with helped me a lot. Sine I have only had personal relationships with people, it was really difficult for me to get use to business relationships. Also, being in a new environment and not having my family or my best friends to turn to made it harder for me. That's why I'm still grateful for my team members. Because of them, I was able to get through everything and feel truly accepted.

 

So since my internship, in my heart Chicago became a place that I can call a home. It is the place where I felt most frustrated and at the same time overwhelmed by warmth and kindness as well. I think applying for that internship was one of the best things that I did in my life because I grew and learned so much. I think this experience will stay with me forever.