Sunday, September 29, 2013

Park Hyeonbae / Experience Demonstration / Tue 1 p.m.

 My First Bicycle Riding

 

     If I'm right, riding bicycle when young is very challenging and exciting for every children. But it leaves an impressive trail on their minds. In my case, the memory of first my bicycle riding has been left very warm and missing. When I recall the memory, I get being dyed with the orange colored sunset in my memory, no matter the day I rode bicycle for the first time was bright blue.

 

     When I was young, my family often moved here and there, and when I was 10 or 11 years old, my family was in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. In Bucheon, the family of my mother side lived, so I and my younger sister used to go out to play with the children of my mother's sister. We used to play in the stadium park very near the neighborhood.

 

     One day in summer, my mother, my sister and I and my mother's sister with her children went to the park, with bikes. The time was some late afternoon. Until that day, I and my sister couldn't ride bike, but the children of my mother's sister could do. So I and my sister had to learn how to ride bicycle for the first time. At first I thought that I couldn't ride bike because it looked too dangerous to ride a vehicle with two circles in a linear line.

 

     "It would be difficult to advance at the first time you pedal the bike, but once the bike gets some speed, it will be much easier."

 

     My mother encouraged me to ride bike for the first time. Also she said "I will help you to balance behind you," to relieve my anxiety about falling down.

 

     The bike was very big for me; actually, it was really big one. As I sat on the saddle of the bike, my feet barely could step the pedals. I got to feel nervous and anxious. But somewhere in my mind, I held a belief that my mother will help me out, so I became at ease.

 

     Finally I started to move my legs and feet to advance ahead. Very slowly, the bike started to go forward. Behind me was my mother holding the back of the bike, so I got rather relaxed with the situation. More and more it got fast, and again I became nervous and I wanted to stop and to look back to check if my mother was still holding the back. Then my mother said behind me, "Don't look back! Try to balance yourself with the bike!" I grabbed the handle more tightly and decided to carry on. Since I knew that a bike can go forward with continuous steps, I tried to keep my feet pedaling. At the same time, I kept yelling "Mom, don't take off your hands!" Then my mother said, "OK, don't worry. You just keep trying to balance and go forward!"

 

     As the bike got fast, I concentrated on balancing myself and pedaling. Finally when the bike got enough speed to advance, I felt that I had to gain more speed, so I started to boost my pedaling. When the bike was running fast enough, I wanted to check if my mother is still behind me. "Mom, are you still holding?" But no answer was heard. I was riding without any help! As I came to know my mother was no longer holding the bike, I felt anxious, but also senses of accomplishment and pride at the same time.

 

     As the main road of the park was along with the outside of the stadium, it was circular. So I ran and ran round along with the road. Although my riding was very unstable, I didn't stop riding. I learned for the first time that the air was very fresh and cool, and that the speed thing like this was very exciting and pleasant when riding bike. Whenever I made a round, I saw myy mother and her sister was in their chattering. "Be careful!" they noticed me, smiling at me.

 

     As my bike ran, the time went by. It started to become orange-colored in the sky. The sunset became orange-colored, and the landscape was really, really beautiful so much. The sky was full of the color, and the clouds were in thousands of their shapes. I'll never forget the sky.

 

     The way home was full of excitement. "Was the riding fun enough?" my mother asked me. "Yes! It was very fun! I want to ride again!" I answered. And as my answer, I came to enjoy bike riding often after that day.

 

     Now I got older than that time, and still riding bike is very fun and exciting. Because there are no roads wide enough to enjoy bike-riding with avoiding cars, now I don't ride bike. But sometimes I recall the memory of that day of riding bike with the orange-colored sky, fresh and cool air, and my mother's smile.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Ju Yelam/Week 3 assignment-My experience/Tue 1p.m

             Have you ever heard of Massot? It is a tranquil, beautiful city in Thailand. Everything shines with the sun in the blue sky. But when I look at people who live in there, I cannot but help shedding my tears. Massot is a border area near Burma and there are many Burmese immigrant people. Especially the Caren who I met in Massot were illegal immigrants. They are minor tribes in Bumese and its' military government do not give them enough support in food, education, medical care and so on. Many Caren parents cross the Moei river, natural border line between Burma and Thailand to give their children more opportunities in education. When I first waved my hand to the Caren children, they were greeting with their big, double eyelids eyes smiling. They seemed very happy although school conditions were not very good. Later, I could know how they could smile in those situations.

 

             I went to the school in Massot on this summer vacation participating in school volunteer program. Diverse people from different majors with different ages gathered together for the same purpose that we want to give some real help to people in Massot. What we did were repairing the children's dormitories and doing some lessons. The volunteer team removed sharply bulged out bamboo and repaired it with more strong and safe timber. Finishing the work, we were all very proud of ourselves not because of the complement of the dormitory but because of the thought that we give a little but precious hope to the children. We also give math, art, English and physical education classes to children with local teachers. When I first entered the class and tried to say what I want, my tongue was useless and my head was blank. Children stared at my face with their clear eyes with curiosity. Because I did not know Curenese at all, I murmured with dynamic body language. Later, interpreter teacher help us stop using babbling. The children really loved all activities I did in class and had a great curiosity in a small thing. I looked passion in their eyes and hope as I taught them.

 

             I planned to go to Massot to give my knowledge and energy. Like most people, I thoght volunteering is that one side gives something to the other side. But after I finished the all program I realized that volunteering is an interactive activity. It was not giving but sharing because I felt and learned so much from the children. Above all, their attitude to the conditions was really impressive. We often hear the sounds of complain from many people who are not hungry, have comfortable houses and well-organized and convenient school. 'What is the difference between them and the children?' This is the question I had at the first time when I met them until the last time I said good-bye to them. The answer is thankful mind for what we have although they are very small. I thought if we could give up our desire to get more and more something just a little, we would spend our lifetime more happily and meaningfully. I felt really great during this summer as I learned so much and gave so much.

Young-lee Seo Week 3/Tuesday 5-6



My Hogwarts
One place that is special to me is my high school back in America where I used to live. Poudre High School was situated in a place a bit far from where I was residing, so it took about an hour by the school bus to reach home. It had a small grassy patch in the front where the school buses would line up once we arrived, and three poles, with the American flag, Colorado State flag, and the school flag, respectively, sailing over our heads proudly. It had a big, welcoming design with 3 sets of double doors for students to go in and out. Inside, the school colors were blue and silver which matched the theme of the school buildings, most likely on purpose. The infrastructure was made so that it was similar to a doughnut, where just by walking along, you would eventually reach the same place again. There were also doors to the outdoor lawns in the back that students loved to use for lounging places during their free period or lunch. Stairs leading to the basement where most language classes were held were placed strategically here and there for the students who needed a quick road to their next class. My favorite place by far, however, was the library. This was my safe haven where I could lounge all I wanted to and read everything I could get my hands on, or simply relax and find a corner to enjoy the silence.
          The classes held in each room were very interesting, another reason the school was an important place. Because Poudre High school offered IB classes to students, those who took the challenge, including myself, were often pushed to our limits to match the incessant demands our teachers made. Still, all the classes were enjoyable, and it helped that the facts remained in our brains for once, unlike the Korean method shown, especially in high school, of “learn and forget”. The class I remember most was Chemistry, mostly because I loved the subject, but also because most of my friends were taking the same class. The teacher was a decent person, with whitened hair which made him resemble a mixture of Einstein and a not-so-small elf. He provided a steady stream of hands-on experience with chemicals and tools, and every Friday, he would read a chapter out of Fahrenheit 451. No, he was not the typical high school chemistry teacher, but he was certainly the best.
          Lastly, the school was an important place to me because it provided a legit reason to be with my friends and enjoy myself. I think all my friends were on the same wavelength because they certainly tried to get the most out of the fun in school life too. My friends were the type to excel, even when they never let go of their game consoles and talked about Pokemon or Naruto all day long. It was a fresh change from what I had become accustomed to during my younger years, and I thoroughly enjoyed being with them and simply listen to their chattering. I think they understood that, and readily accepted me for who I was, which I am still thankful for even to this day.
          When I look back now during the night, just before I fall asleep, I see dozens of smiling faces, all inviting me back to a walk down the memory lane with those memories that make me smile. Life wasn’t perfect, but Poudre High School was a special place to me, filled with great memories to treasure.

Jeong do young /week 3 / tue 5 6

A day on a trampoline

          

   Summer vacation had just started. Slouching about the house, my friend Jisu and I was wondering what we could do. My hometown was a small countryside with not much things to do. We could just stay in the house and watch tv while eating crisps or ride a bike like we always did, but we wanted to do something different. Jisu suddenly perked up and said, 'Oh I wish we could go to a theme park, wouldn't that be great?" but I snapped, "Don't make me laugh." Then suddenly I had an idea. " I know a perfect replacement! Let's trampoline! " Jisu agreed at once, and we set off.  

    It was a hot summer's day. The sun was glaring down on us, and I felt like walking across a desert. I was just starting to wonder whether we have made a right decision when we reached our destination. There were no one else playing. We paid 1000won for an hour and we went galloping to trampoline. We bounced up and down. We leaped high in the air, shrieking with laughter all the while. 'This is brilliant! I am practically flying!' I thought. But slowly the heat was starting to get to me. Our laughter soon faded. I asked, " Is it just me or do you feel awfully hot?" Jisu bellowed while bouncing " I'm sweating all over!" It was such a hot day that hardly anyone appeared in the street but if they did, and saw two girls on a trampoline, they gave a look that said ' how can anyone possibly bounced up and down like that in this weather?" I was sweating like mad and worst of all, I felt sick. I looked around and saw that Jisu looked even worse. She sagged in her spot, her eyes unfocused. "Do you want to go home?"I asked, cause she looked like she wanted that more than anything. "No", came the feeble voice. "We paid for an hour, so we still have half hour left." So we bounced up and down again. It was like being tortured. Finally unable to stand it any longer, I said," I don't care how much time we got left, let's go ". This time she didn't need to be asked twice. "Going already?" the manger called behind us.

    Going back home was another matter. The pavement looked so black and fiery , I could swear you could fry a bacon on it. Not even a breeze swept by. Everything seemed to be blazing and sizzling. My legs were shaking and I could not keep my eyes open because of the sun. We bought ice cream on the way to cool off the heat, which somehow made us even thirstier. We staggered the way back home in silence for what seemed like hours. That night I was ill. I felt dizzy and my whole body was drained of energy. Jisu, who was always a bit delicate, texted me saying "I feel like dying."

    So much time had passed and we still recall this embarrassing incident. We chortle, "Remember? We must have gone mad! Just because of 1000won and let ourselves fall in to a disaster! Honestly, I never felt so hot in all my life. ", "Yeah, if we have spent the whole hour, we would have needed an ambulance to pick us up!" Though there was nothing funny about the incident itself, the bitterness have gone and now amusement have taken its place.

 

 

Joonseong Je / week 3 assignment / Tue 56

Where did you get the money?
 
In 1994, I was eight years old. I lived in Iksan and I just entered elementary school. After school ball rang, I always ran to a piano academy with my friends. I liked going there, even though I was not good at the piano. I liked hearing my friends playing the pianos. The academy was very small. It had just three rooms and they were always full of noises, but I enjoyed it. Whenever we had a break, my friends and I sat around the heater in the middle of the room and ate dried and grilled filefish fillets called Jwipo in Korean. I felt happy, but it was not to last.     
My family decided to move away from Iksan because my farther was a career soldier and he needed to go along with his unit. We moved to Seoul. My mother wanted me to play the piano well, so I signed up for another piano academy there. The new piano academy was bigger than the earlier one and It had many rooms, but I felt like being put into a chicken cage, which was totally white-colored. Every fifteen minutes, a piano teacher who was very tough went into my practice room, and checked how much and how well I practiced. Whenever I touched a wrong note or missed a note, she always hit the back of my hand hard with a chopstick. Every time she hit me, I felt hurt. I hated her. I got better soon with the tough teacher, but I hated to go to the piano academy. However, my mother didn't allow me to quit it because she hoped I would get better at the piano. One day, my mother gave me money for the lesson fee and she said, "Don't lose it and surely give it to your teacher." I replied, "Yes, Mom." But I decided to run away with the money. It was the first time for me to defy my mother. Firstly, I went to the video arcade to hang out there all day. I also brought all my friends with me and I said, "Every game is on me." I threw a big game party. 
"Where did you get the money?"
I met my brother in the face at the video arcade. He didn't hear my answer and dragged me to the police station. I had never been to a police station, so I felt scary. There were some uniformed police men. Looking at them, I was just about to cry. They were not to arrest me because it was a family issue, but I couldn't know it. When my mother came in, I cried my eyes out. We came back home. She didn't give me a scolding and she allowed me to quit the academy. I cried again, but now it was out of guilt and appreciation. I made a promise to myself that I would never lie to my mother. 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Yeonsoo seo/ week 3 assignment/ tuesday 1pm

yeonsoo seo
 
I learned English and American culture since I was little, and I knew about what Halloween is too which is an important part of its culture. I thought Halloween is just a day when people get dressed in scary and special costumes. It was because Koreans do not celebrate Halloween, so I have not worn any costumes for Halloween, and I did not do trick o treat either. I just knew about Halloween through books or Internet. However, my thought about Halloween got completely changed after I went to America. I went to Warrensburg which is in Missouri as an exchange student last year. I was surprised that friends around me were so excited at Halloween even ahead of a month about preparing costumes, decorating their rooms with Halloween stuff, going to hunted house, and having a party showing off their costumes to others. Since I did not understand how much Halloween is a so exciting holiday, I was not doing anything related to Halloween. But, my friends told me we had to buy costumes, carve pumpkins and suggested me to go to Halloween party together.

First, I and my friends went to Walmart to buy pumpkins and candles. It was the first time for me to carve pumpkins, and I decided to make simple but scary looking pumpkin that had inverted triangle eyes and sharp teeth. Pumpkins that I and friends carved looked great with candles in them. After that, my Japanese friend, Keiko, told me that we should be in a hurry of buying costumes, so we looked around many websites. There were tons of costumes with diverse themes, but I was not used to pick and wear unique costumes to wear in front of others, so I just chose to wear simple Native American costume with feather hair band and brown boots. The next day, I went to Kansas City with my friends to go to hunted house. A giant ware wolf was greeting guests at the entrance. Actually, since I had not been to any hunted house before that time, I was really terrified at creepy monsters and threatening-looking ghosts. I had to stick to my friends until I got out of there. One funny thing was we got lost in the maze without any light in it, so we had to walk around the same place over and over again. Finally we could find a new route after asking for help to strangers through a tiny hold on the wall. I sweat a lot in the hunted house, but it was really fun. My friends told me I was stupidly hilarious because I kept screaming in weird voice until I came out of there.

We heard a huge Halloween party, so called “Terror party”, was going to be held in Union Station in Kansas City. We bought a ticket to get inside, and I could already feel excitement from everywhere even before the party got started. There were many kinds of drinks along the corner, and loud music made everyone dance to the beat of DJ there. What was the most amazing was how creative everyone about their costumes. All the people who came to enjoy terror party turned into totally different person from who they were. Guys and girls disguised into astronauts with a big bag sparkling with various colors of lights, presidents with neat suits and grey color hair, pilots, Peter Pan, Johnny Depp of scissor hands and Pirates of Carribean, Greek god and goddess, Kate Perry, sexy police officers, Wally from “where is Wally’, Shower machine, Quidditch and Hermione of Harry Potter, nerd with broken eyeglasses and bunch of pens in the pocket of shirt, Americans in medieval age. I was so excited taking pictures with people there, drinking, dancing on the floor, talking and shouting with them.

I still can talk more about what costumes people wore at Terror party or how Halloween was like that I experienced. I had a blast on the Halloween last year. Carving candles, ordering costumes with friends, going to hunted house before Halloween, and going to a “Terror Party” on the day of Halloween was the most memorable things that I have ever done for Halloween or any other holidays. I could truly feel to my skin what Halloween spirit was. I wish I can enjoy Halloween like last year again.

Park So Young /Writing Class 56

         "You need to stay here for about 8 hours or so.." was what the nurse told me when I got there. I     did not know what was wrong with me but i knew that  this was not something good. It all began when I  was at a fruit break  in school. I was in the fourth grade and we were having our break between lunch    time and the morning. Our teacher, Miss Logde was taking us to the park today. I was very excited about going to the park today because we had just finished a hard lesson in Math so I wasso ready for a       break. We had eaten our snacks so Miss Lodge had given us free time just to play around. My friends   and I wanted to do something fun; therefore we had decided to go play hide and go seek. As most of     you might already know but hide and go seek is a game where there is one person who closes their    eyes and counts to 50 while the rest go hide.The person who is counting then goes and looks for the   others who are hiding after the counting is done. So, we decided to play this game and one of my          friends started counting. We were all running around trying to find a place to hide. Suddenly, one of     my friends  told me that we should hide on the tree. First of all, I am scared of heights so I thought this   was not  such a good idea but since my friend  wanted to do it, I decided to follow along.The                 game continued until everyone else but four people were found. This included me and my friend.

     

       Finally, everyone else was found so since they could not find us, we decided we should go down. For my friend, it was nice   and  easy, but then came my turn. I had absolutely no idea on how i was      going to get down. My head   started having all of these thoughts of whether I should jump or not.          Then, after 5 minutes or so of not being able to come down, Miss Lodge came to help. She was             trying to encourage me to not  be scared to come down. Then, in the split second that she turned         around, I decided to come down and then it happened. I had fallen face down straight on the cement      floor. Bam! I was unconscious. Miss Lodge and some of the kids try to help me get up but  once I was  up, I   started vomiting blood. This was not good. They instantly took me to the hospital and I was gone. Now, I was not sure of what really happened to me afterward but from what my mom told me was that      they took me in they started to chek up on me. They had said that it was amazing that i had not broken  my nose,   and  that i would have to be there for about 8 hours just to make sure everything was ok. I   woke up but I my head was not functioning clearly. The doctor had given me permission to leave so my mom and I  had gone home.

 

        As soon as I had gotten home, I crashed and had fallen asleep. I woke up a few hours later and     looked at my face. Half of  my face was purple. i had learned from this to never climb trees and to           always watch out for what I do. The only thing worse than this was that I had a play performance at       school and i had to be in it with a purple bruised face.

Wonpil Lee/ p. 50~51/ Tue 1 pm

Don't D.I.Y.


Are you going to buy D.I.Y. furniture? Are you now surfing in the internet world to find a inexpensive D.I.Y product? Wait! What's the hurry? Please sit down and listen to me. Probably you are now reading such an attractive sentence. "You can easily carry out the process of assembly. It is easy and simple. Moreover, purchasing this product, you are saving your money." NO! Don't listen to those words. You should listen to my experience carefully and decide whether you buy it or not.


I have ever purchased a D.I.Y. chair via internet. I believed those sweet advertisement like you. At the first time I received it, I was pleased because I saved 8,000 won as I had ordered that D.I.Y. product. However, when I attempted to assemble it, I was embarrassed. It was not easy. It was not simple. Although I spent 5 hours to try to assemble it, I did not make it eventually. I was frustrated. The most frustrating thing was that my whole family blames the failure on me. They said, "You should have purchased an assembled product." "Read the instruction manual more carefully." "Why don't you call the seller to make inquiries?" I did not want to call the seller because it was a kind of approval that I had failed to make it. I did not want to approve my failure, so I said, "I am going to make it next weekend. I can make it without any help of others."


Next weekend I had to attempt to assemble it again. I was reluctant to do it because I had already spent 5 hours of my last weekend. But, to my surprise, I did it this time very easily. It took only 30 minutes to do it. I don't know the reason. It was a kind of miracle. I was proud of myself and my family was also satisfied because we was able to spend our weekend in the clean and broad living room. However, there was something weird. A small piece of the product is remained unassembled. At that moment, I thought it was an additional part for emergency, so I did not mind.


However, the problem occurred after several weeks. One wheel of the chair was broken because one small piece of it had been unassembled. Yes. It was the piece I had missed. I had to buy pieces of the broken wheel again from the seller. It cost 8,000 won. It was the same price I had saved. Consequently, I realized that I had worked in vain. If only I had purchased a complete product, I could have saved my 5 hours and 30 minutes of holiday, and my family would not have blamed me.  


Until now I haven't told my family the truth because I am very ashamed. Nobody knows it but you. If you had a plan to purchase a D.I.Y. product, you should thought again. It is possible that you would spend more time and more money than you bought a complete product.



Lee Seung-Hwan / p.50,51 assignment / Tuesday 1 p.m class

Key Thieves

 

             Everybody grows up committing some trivial crimes. If you ask me what my first crime was, I'm not very certain. Maybe it was stealing my sister's cookies when I was much younger than now. However, if you ask me what my earliest crime was, I can be very certain. My earliest crime was committed when I was a senior in my high school.

 

             If you spent your high school years in Korea, you would already be aware of how stressful it is to be a senior. It is mostly because seniors have to prepare a big exam to enter those dreamed universities. Of course, I was not exempt from this. I also had to prepare for the exam during this time, and as many other students did, I got a lot of stress. I felt a necessity to reduce it. At that time, listening to music became my biggest outlet to drain the stress. Musicians I liked the most at that time are still my best choices. Waiting for their new albums was a sweet endurance. I still remember when I counted days toward Coldplay's new album release.

 

             One day, I visited the music class room with my friends. We had some fun making some ridiculous, stupid songs which were usually about calling each other dumb. Suddenly, one of my friends who played the piano came up with a really fantastic chord progression. I added some improvised melodies with improvised lyrics on those chords. Guess what? That was quite a song. After then, he and I visited the music room several times and enjoyed working on creating some new songs which haven't been sung by anyone in anywhere till then. He and I decided to call ourselves 'Yesterday' as a duet. We both could play the piano, but my friend was way better than me in singing at that time. Therefore, I created songs and gave him to sing. Of course, we were seniors and our main interest was studying. This 'Yesterday' thing was not dealt seriously. Only very few times we could gather as 'Yesterday', and each time was fun.

 

             You know, however, once people taste some fun, they want it more, and so did we. The music class room was not open in anytime. It had its certain opening time for practicing instruments or singing. Needless to say that opening time was not focused on senior students' schedules. Whenever 'Yesterday' found some time to gather, the class room was always closed. That became our criminal motivation. My friend attained the key of that room. He said it was by coincidence, and I didn't ask detailed stories about it. What mattered was that we had the key! Attaining a key by coincidence is not a crime. Keeping that key might be a small crime. Using that key secretly for a private purpose would be a bigger crime than that……. In that sense, 'Yesterday' committed a bigger crime. We used that key to sneak into the music room and played our songs there. That was a bit against my conscience, but that was a big fun, so we carried on.

 

             However, our sneaking meeting was not continued for very long time. Actually, it ended very fast. One day, when we put that key through the keyhole and opened the door, I noticed something was wrong. The first thing I noticed was that the lights were on. I was embarrassed at that moment, but I was far more embarrassed when I noticed that the music teacher was watching us directly from her desk. "Come here." Pierced by those two simple words, we couldn't move for a moment, but soon we found ourselves standing right in front of the desk. Second comment was simple either. "Give me the key back." Her voice was calm, which only made us more frightened. We were not scolded that much in that room. However, that case was handed over to other teacher, and that teacher said that we could be engaged in a big trouble for what we have done. We were very worried, but luckily, we ended up just cleaning the music class room for several weeks. I think teachers had mercy upon us so we can prepare for the exam. We had to clean up the music class room very neatly, but that was all right.

 

             'Yesterday' didn't have a meeting for creating songs after then. My dear friend didn't want to go inside the music room again. "I just can't go." He had a really fragile mind. I think he didn't want to face the music teacher. However, I continued to write songs there, and when February came, I wrote a song called 'Graduation' to celebrate our graduation. I remember we together listened to that song. 

 

             Committing even one trivial crime is certainly a bad thing. However, I cannot deny that the time we sneaked into the music room was one of my precious times to remember. It's good to have precious experiences which can only be attained in student days. Those invaluable memories will make you smile when you feel lonely and alone. Plus, it will make both of your friend and you smile when you two meet after a long time. It would be the best if those kinds of experiences could be attained without sneaking inside a room, using a key which belongs to someone else.

Kim Sumi/My experience/Tue 56

It was more than ten years ago, when I was just 7. At that time, a wheeled toy called kickboard became popular among Korean kids. My brother and I were interested too, so we asked mom eagerly for it. One weekend, mom took me and my brother to a supermarket and bought us two shiny new kickboards. Excited, brother and I dashed to the outside and went on to the kickboard.

I glanced my brother doing well at his first try, so I tried to ride mine as well. But sadly – being the poor athlete of family, I just could not ride gracefully like him. I kept failing to balance with one feet and could not kick the ground. I tried and tried but it was no use. The kickboard did not went forward an inch. Few minutes later mom called us to go home, and I followed my brother, grumbling.

When we got home, I went outside again and started to ride kickboard around the apartment. I was very frustrated with myself and decided to practice. But of course, it was not much different from before. My feet still won't move harmonically. I started to feel angry. "Why can't I do this, why?" I said to myself, falling to the ground for hundredth time.

I hissed loudly. I screamed silently. I blamed my legs for being useless. As for legs, they were getting purple more and more, especially on the knees. "That's it, I'm not going to ride this stupid kickboard." I thought this at least a dozen time. "Well – just one more try and I'm done with it,' And this, also a dozen. So one became two, two became ten, ten became a setting sun…

"Sumi, come inside! Dinner is ready!"

When it was getting late my mom called me. But I did not respond for a while, as it was a monumental moment. "Mom, come and look!" I shouted with visible pride in my voice, and my mom came out wondering. And against the red sunset and the sky, I stepped onto the kickboard, kicked the ground with one foot, and glided gracefully towards my mom. "Oh, look at you!" Mom said with delight. "You finally did it!" I grinned from ear to ear, forgetting all the bruises I had got from the day's practice.

That was the first time I achieved something big in my life. And since then, even after the kickboard, I have been frustrated with all kinds of things – like flute, book art, electric guitar, baking, and much more. But even if I am at the moment that everything annoys me and nothing seems hopeful, once the glorious memory of success comes into my mind, I suddenly feel like I have just found a silver lining. Like the 7 year-old little me successfully mastered the kickboard, I feel like I would be able to achieve anything that is in front of me.

 

Jungha Lee/my terrible experience with yacht/TUE 1pm 5-6

 Jungha Lee

 

 - Yacht, my cruel opponent -

"Help me! Help me!" I waited until someone found me. Oh, have I ever yelled so desperately like this?

 My father has enjoyed a lot of outdoor sports as his hobbies, especially riding a bike and sailing a yacht. When it comes to yacht, many people might think yacht is a huge and luxurious white boat that wealthy people enjoy in movies. But there is small yacht called Dinghy for 1~3 people.

 One day in summer vacation, maybe 2 years ago, my father suggested me to go yachting, saying "How about going to yacht this Friday? It will be funny and you need develop challenging mind". I refused at first but finally, unwillingly accepted his suggestion. So on Friday, my family arrived boundless huge Lake in Kyung-Ki province. There was a qualified yachting school, they offer yacht course for beginners and lend yacht equipment for advanced people. Before going into the lake, students had to take lessons indoors. Making a knot and preparing sailing were complicated to understand, I managed to learn basic principles to adjust yacht and acquainted safety regulations.

 After that, I went to lake for actual experience. I couldn't follow my father only, because there were a lot of people who wanted to learn yachting. The shore was very crowded. I had to set sailing process all by myself. When preparation is finished, I started to sail. At first, it was not windy, so I moved forward slowly with manipulating perfectly. But how much time  is passed? Suddenly strong wind started to blow. I was embarrassed that yacht was completely out of control. I couldn't handle anything. At that moment, my yacht lose balance and overturned. I fell into the middle of the lake. Even though I was wearing a life jacket, I was too scared. The way to set back the yacht or safety regulations utterly disappeared in my head. To make matters worse, my foot was twisted with a rope hung on the yacht in the water. It caught my foot like a snake. I started to yell. "Help me! Help me!" Before long, some people in a boat came to me and rescued me. It was really terrible.

 Unfortunately, beginner's course consisted of two-days program. It meant that the second day was waiting for me. Well, I did it. After I finished the course, I got a certificate of achievement. But I was absolutely not happy. In the car, coming back home, I declared that I will never do yacht again. Father looked disappointed but nodded his head meekly. Challenging something might be good for one's mind and body both. But I learned that sometimes terrible challenging experience can rather prohibit someone from that.

 

Jina Park/ Tuesday 1 p.m/ Beakdoo Mountain trail

 

I had a trip when I was a the fifth grade primary school student. There were 12 students and 4 teachers in my memory. We traveled by train for 11 hours, we played card games, ate snacks and telled funny stories. Even though 11 hours were too long to seat we were very happy.

When we arrived our pension we all laid down exhausted. In the earily morning next day, we went to the Beakdoo Mountain. There was a hot well in the hillside which selled soft boiled eggs and poached corns boiled by the hot well. It was very intersting and many of us bought eggs and corns. It tasted more soft and delicious than we uauslly eat. 

On the way up the mountain was consist of lots of steps in the stone cavern. We started hiking step by step after ate. The steps were too high to primary students but we very hard to climb. After a while there appeared a fall. It was wonderful and it was the first time I saw a fall. We were all standing there and gaping at the fall. It liked smoke fog rised up slowly and we liked in Wonderland. Everybody took out camera to took pictures with the lovely fall and boast of pictures each other.

Then we finished the hiking of steps and the show in front of us was Chonjee Lack. The water clear bottomed out and very quiet. We drank the water of the lack, it was so cool and sweety. My teacher pointed the statue and said to us " There is a water monster in Chonjee Lack so people made the statue." " Oh! It will ate us." said Mina. "Hahahaha."

It was August but there also had snow covered the mountains. It was interesting. We bought many keepsakes for our parents, together the group photo then we went down to the zoo. We sat in a car and saw the amimals. There were tigers, giraffes, bears, lions and etc. And we watched a monkey show. 

We played games in the pasion when we went back. Then we had dinner and went to bed.

나의 LG 스마트폰에서 보냄

 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Jung Doyoung/exercise 2/Tues 56

- Describe how writing was taught in your previous schooling. 

 

  When I was in my third grade I had a teacher who assigned a homework to write a diary everyday. There was no given topic and we could write whatever we liked. I usually wrote about interesting events of the day. When nothing particular happened I would write about anything that crossed my mind such as how cross my sister was to me or how cute our dog is . And my teacher would write most sincere comments, sometimes a word of advice such as ' Try putting yourself in your sister's shoes' or mere admiration such as 'I would like to see your dog myself.', and ' It's nice to see your writing improving.' She seemed to value close connection with her students by reading their journals. I also have rather enjoyed doing homework because it felt like writing a blog with friendly comments to read. I thank my teacher for encouraging me to love writing.

 

 

- Write about a bad experience you have had with writing, How did this experience affect your attitudes toward writing?

 

  I am sorry to say that writing a diary for homework, despite how much I liked it, has something to do with my worst experience with writing. It was summer vacation and the same teacher assigned the homework as she have always done. But because of this overwhelming freedom, writing a diary was the last thing on my mind. Time flied fast, and soon it was a day before school started again. And that was when I realized the terrible truth. I had to write 60 pages in a single day! And of course I could not remember the events of each day so I started inventing things wildly. It was not long until l had run out of things to write about so I wrote similar topics over again in my biggest, most gigantic handwriting. I managed to finish them all, but my teacher was most displeased. Looking at her grim expression, I vowed never to put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

 

 

- Write about a pleasant experience you have had with writing, How did this experience affect your attitudes toward writing?

 

  I have an aunt who one day set off from home to pursuit her dream in becoming a nun. I missed her terribly and knew she must be lonely too. So I began to write to her once a week. I always wrote on the prettiest paper in my most neat handwriting. I wrote about my daily life, how our family is doing and how much I missed her. and my aunt always gave me a reply despite her tight schedule. She gave me full description of her life in convent and said however challenging it might be, it was worth it. We exchanged so many letters that I somehow felt closer to her than before she went to convent. I always pictured my aunt's brightly lit face upon receive receiving my letter while writing, and I don't ever remember writing anything as enthusiastically as that. I was an elementary student then and it still amazes me that I was able to write the amount of two or three pages every week. I learned that quality of a writing does not come from writer's skill or talent but from eagerness. I try to learn from my past experiences, and whenever I am depressed with some tough looking writing assignment, I recall my letter writing days with my aunt and soon realize all I need is my full attention.