Being a WASP and a male, I will be honest, I have not experienced too much discrimination. I guess being picked last in P.E. or asking a girl to prom, her saying no, only to see her show up with some D-bag… are forms of discrimination but I am not emotionally traumatized by those prejudices. But I am excited to proclaim that I have experienced prejudice and discrimination since I’ve been here. The most obvious happened this weekend. I was on my way to Seoul on the subway and as usually seats near the whiteys were among that last occupied. (Which I guess is a form of prejudice. But that is understandable.) In the area I live, a non-yellow person is a rarity. So I am used to people, mostly the elderly and young, staring or pointing out the way guk as I walk by. This past weekend I was sitting on the subway and seat opened beside me. A mom standing with her child insinuated to her little boy of about eight to sit down beside me. (I am horrible with guessing people’s age. Especially of Asians. For all I know the kid could have been in university. To clarify, he could speak and stand on his own.) Anyway the boy, staring at me, adamantly shook his head no. To encourage the lad, the mother sat down to my left then tried to pull her son into her lap. He grounded his feet into the floor refusing to budge. I realize that I might be scary to a kid who has never seen a white person before so I wasn’t offended. I actually thought it was funny. And I wish I had offered the kid my seat. I try to be an ‘ambassador’ to Korea while I am here. But my legs were too tired and sore from hiking up that blasted mountain and my stop was far away.
I was convicted though. In the grand scheme of things, I am at the top of the social ladder. I am a white, middle-class, Christian male. How whiter could I be? So I tried to imagine how I would feel to really be discriminated against. I think it would suck. I also thought of how sucky it is that many people are intentionally discriminative. The kid on the subway was only scared of me because of ignorance. I mean his lack of exposure to non-Koreans spurred an unreasonable and natural fear of the unknown and unfamiliar. I will admit that I have prejudices of my own but I try to ignore them or overcome them.
For example, when I was in High School there was this Asian exchange student from Hong Kong that befriended my clique of friends. One time he came over to my house and blew air in my cat’s face. I got so pissed. All my cat wanted to do was love on him and he blew in his face… Also, I was jealous of this guy because my friends hung out with him and I wanted them not too. And this same guy is the ‘D-bag’ I referred to earlier that went to the prom with a friend of mine that I initially invited. Because of my limited and sadly unpleasant interaction with this one guy, I had a prejudice against all Asian guys. Now I have educated myself to dislike only those from Hong Kong. I am conquering my prejudices! “Victory!”
On a related topic, I have learned so much being here. In Texas (and many other southern states) there is an… ‘issue’ with immigration. It is not my intent to talk politics but I have some experiences I want to share.
In the States I thought, yes, there are a butt-load of illegals living in/working in/contributing to/draining/etc. the U.S. but what can we do? Something should be done and I don’t think any problems will be solved by the construction of a wall. It is also irrational to ‘send them all back home.’ I know the United States faces an uphill battle with the whole immigration situation. With my limited knowledge and uneducated opinion, I just think we need to make it easier for foreigners to come to the States LEGALLY and keep them accountable to the same laws all persons living in the United States are held accountable to. The End.
Since I am from Texas I can only speak about the illegals I am most familiar with and that is people from Mexico. I have nothing against Mexicans but I have gained a new perspective since I’ve been here.
In Korea, I am not entitled to many of the benefits Korea citizen have. But you know what, I AM NOT KOREAN. I understand that I am a foreigner, an alien. I went through the relatively strenuous and expensive process to come to Korea legally. (I realize that the process to legally work in the States is much more complex and extensive). But I came to Korea legally and I understand that I am a guest of this awesome, welcoming country. It would be ludicrous and extremely offensive if I took to streets of Seoul waving an American flag demanding rights that are exclusive to Korean citizens. It would be even more pretentious to illegally sneak into a country, use it, then demand rewards for dishonesty?!
As a guest of Korea, I am working under an E2 visa. That visa has many restrictions and stipulation. And no time do I feel like my rights are being violated because of the restrictions. I am grateful for the ‘rights’ given to me by the Korean government. I understand that in Korea, I am a foreigner. I am not entitled to anything except that which the Republic of Korea has given me and I agreed to those rights when I chose to use the vise given to me.
The End.
In .love.
Jp
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Death March on Korea's K2
This week is Choosok (Korea's Thanksgiving) and so we got three days off of work. I took two extra days to have the whole week off. One of my Korean friends invited me on a camping trip on Monday and Tuesday. When I think of camping I think of poorly prepared road trips, friends drunkenly running into a black forest, plastic gift cards used as spatulas, ditching the tent and sleeping in the car, waking up with friends uncomfortably close to you... but my friend Colin interprets 'camping' as sprinting up Korea's K2 (only slightly smaller. You know, it is Korean...)
I honestly had fun and am glad to have been invited. That being said I will now be honest-er. Colin invited me to go camping with his friends but it ended up just being the two of us. It wasn't the first time a group camping trip dwindled down to just me and one other (that is actually how I met one of my best friends: Christopher Travis Brown). I've hung out with Colin two other times and now we were going to spend two straight days together. I figured, 'whatev!' If it sucks, it would only last two days.
As usual, I let my companion plan everything. I thought this would be best since:
1. He speaks/read/prepares in Korean.
2. Has been to the mountain multiple times.
3. He was the one who invited me.
Anyway, all he suggested I bring was a change of clothes and some 'snakes.' I ASSumed we were going to get to the mountain early, hike to the top and back, find a motel, stay there, and head back to Seoul the next day. I brought a change of clothes, sleeping bag ('just-in-case'), a rain jacket, and some cereal. We met in Seoul then took a three hour+ bus ride to the east coast where the park was. Colin wanted to try to climb to the top of Soraksan, Korea's third tallest mountain at 5,604 feet. (Or as Koreans and the rest of the world prefer, 1,708 meters). I didn't bother to research any of this before the trip. I was just excited to have plans with my Korean friend. So we start up the mountain...
Oh, I want to tell a funny story when we got to the park we sat down to eat before we started up the mountain. A man was varnishing the wood railing near where we ate. I noticed because I love the smell of varnish and my sister HATES that word. (So I try to find as many relevant and irrelevant times I can use it in casual and forced conversation). Anyway, I thought to myself, 'I better not touch the raining and get the varnish on me.' Two seconds pasted and I forgot all about the varnish. Then Colin wanted me to take a picture of him (as all good Koreans do). He sat on the railing and got varnish all over himself. I suggested that he eat a Mentos but he had no idea what I was talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4hlzRNu3uE&feature=related
... The first day up the mountain was awesome. It was an ideal day. And the surroundings were beautiful. My tarded mind can not convert meters/kilometers into feet/miles to save my life so I had no idea how far we had hiked or what the meter markers were saying...But I can read pictures. There was a map of the mountain and its trails. I quickly realized we hadn't even traversed one-fifth of the route that would bring us to the top after hours of hiking. I then realized I hated Seoraksan and wasn't mentally or physically ready for this excursion. I figured there wasn't much I can do but finish so I just followed Colin. Thankfully Colin is a smoker and had to stop multiple times for a smoke break. And I stopped for pictures. Colin was sprinting up the mountain like there was a pool of naked girls at the top. And I wasn't feeling the death march so I took my time. I think Colin got the hint that I wasn't going to go fast and slowed down.
I was a geology minor in college and pasted multiple interesting geologic features on our hike. I tried to restrain myself but I had to share the most interesting things about the granite we passed. I got to use the word 'dike' in a lesbionic-free contents. Either way, he wasn't impressed so I kept all my geologic findings to myself.
At about two-thirds up the mountain, it was starting to get dark, Colin's knee was hurting, my entire body was in protest so we pushed forward to the next check point. This park randomly had huge buildings that you could stay in along the mountain. Even though Colin told me to bring 'snakes' he didn't bring any food for himself. So at the camp site these awesome guys gave him some kimchi and other gross Korean food. I usually try not to resit the food people offer me but I didn't want to have the 'green-apple quick step' out in the middle of B.F.E. We slept in this big room with about fifteen other people. I am a light sleeper so I had a hard time with new campers arriving and setting up there beds, Colin snoring like he was having an asthma attack, and sleeping on a dang piece of plywood. One of my pet-peeves is when people wake me up in the morning. I experienced that most disturbingly at Camp Peniel. The Day Camp counselors (specifically Faber McMullen) had to wake up before I did and carelessly slammed doors and turned on lights while others (most specifically/importantly: ME) were still sleeping. Either way I was brought back to waking up pissed off because some D-bags were up at 4am to start hiking to the top of the mountain.
That is how the day started and the rest was 'down hill' (or up a bloody mountain) from there. The second day was colder, wetter, both Colin and I felt worse, and there was so much fog you couldn't see anything. It waited to start raining until we got to the top of the mountain. But mother nature persistently pissed on us the whole way down. And the end of the trail couldn't have come any sooner. I can't contemplate meters but I do register decreasing numbers. I was so excited when the sign read a decimal number of kilometers left to the bottom. As if were were actors in a comedy Colin and I get to the bottom of the Seoraksan drenched and walking like elderly hunch backs. We were then told we had to walk 30 minutes to the bus stop. I almost cussed at the park ranger I was so discouraged. We continued to walk slowly to the bus stop. I was reminded of one time when I went shopping with my cute grandma in Fredericksburg. I have long strides and didn't even notice Mrs. Prejean shuffling to keep up. Finally my frail grandma asked me to slow down and apologized for 'walking like an old woman.' I felt really bad and my grandma is so cute.
After all that, I am glad I went. I just wish I didn't feel like I was hit by eighteen 18-wheelers.
Later.
In .love.
Jp
I honestly had fun and am glad to have been invited. That being said I will now be honest-er. Colin invited me to go camping with his friends but it ended up just being the two of us. It wasn't the first time a group camping trip dwindled down to just me and one other (that is actually how I met one of my best friends: Christopher Travis Brown). I've hung out with Colin two other times and now we were going to spend two straight days together. I figured, 'whatev!' If it sucks, it would only last two days.
As usual, I let my companion plan everything. I thought this would be best since:
1. He speaks/read/prepares in Korean.
2. Has been to the mountain multiple times.
3. He was the one who invited me.
Anyway, all he suggested I bring was a change of clothes and some 'snakes.' I ASSumed we were going to get to the mountain early, hike to the top and back, find a motel, stay there, and head back to Seoul the next day. I brought a change of clothes, sleeping bag ('just-in-case'), a rain jacket, and some cereal. We met in Seoul then took a three hour+ bus ride to the east coast where the park was. Colin wanted to try to climb to the top of Soraksan, Korea's third tallest mountain at 5,604 feet. (Or as Koreans and the rest of the world prefer, 1,708 meters). I didn't bother to research any of this before the trip. I was just excited to have plans with my Korean friend. So we start up the mountain...
Oh, I want to tell a funny story when we got to the park we sat down to eat before we started up the mountain. A man was varnishing the wood railing near where we ate. I noticed because I love the smell of varnish and my sister HATES that word. (So I try to find as many relevant and irrelevant times I can use it in casual and forced conversation). Anyway, I thought to myself, 'I better not touch the raining and get the varnish on me.' Two seconds pasted and I forgot all about the varnish. Then Colin wanted me to take a picture of him (as all good Koreans do). He sat on the railing and got varnish all over himself. I suggested that he eat a Mentos but he had no idea what I was talking about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4hlzRNu3uE&feature=related
... The first day up the mountain was awesome. It was an ideal day. And the surroundings were beautiful. My tarded mind can not convert meters/kilometers into feet/miles to save my life so I had no idea how far we had hiked or what the meter markers were saying...But I can read pictures. There was a map of the mountain and its trails. I quickly realized we hadn't even traversed one-fifth of the route that would bring us to the top after hours of hiking. I then realized I hated Seoraksan and wasn't mentally or physically ready for this excursion. I figured there wasn't much I can do but finish so I just followed Colin. Thankfully Colin is a smoker and had to stop multiple times for a smoke break. And I stopped for pictures. Colin was sprinting up the mountain like there was a pool of naked girls at the top. And I wasn't feeling the death march so I took my time. I think Colin got the hint that I wasn't going to go fast and slowed down.
I was a geology minor in college and pasted multiple interesting geologic features on our hike. I tried to restrain myself but I had to share the most interesting things about the granite we passed. I got to use the word 'dike' in a lesbionic-free contents. Either way, he wasn't impressed so I kept all my geologic findings to myself.
At about two-thirds up the mountain, it was starting to get dark, Colin's knee was hurting, my entire body was in protest so we pushed forward to the next check point. This park randomly had huge buildings that you could stay in along the mountain. Even though Colin told me to bring 'snakes' he didn't bring any food for himself. So at the camp site these awesome guys gave him some kimchi and other gross Korean food. I usually try not to resit the food people offer me but I didn't want to have the 'green-apple quick step' out in the middle of B.F.E. We slept in this big room with about fifteen other people. I am a light sleeper so I had a hard time with new campers arriving and setting up there beds, Colin snoring like he was having an asthma attack, and sleeping on a dang piece of plywood. One of my pet-peeves is when people wake me up in the morning. I experienced that most disturbingly at Camp Peniel. The Day Camp counselors (specifically Faber McMullen) had to wake up before I did and carelessly slammed doors and turned on lights while others (most specifically/importantly: ME) were still sleeping. Either way I was brought back to waking up pissed off because some D-bags were up at 4am to start hiking to the top of the mountain.
That is how the day started and the rest was 'down hill' (or up a bloody mountain) from there. The second day was colder, wetter, both Colin and I felt worse, and there was so much fog you couldn't see anything. It waited to start raining until we got to the top of the mountain. But mother nature persistently pissed on us the whole way down. And the end of the trail couldn't have come any sooner. I can't contemplate meters but I do register decreasing numbers. I was so excited when the sign read a decimal number of kilometers left to the bottom. As if were were actors in a comedy Colin and I get to the bottom of the Seoraksan drenched and walking like elderly hunch backs. We were then told we had to walk 30 minutes to the bus stop. I almost cussed at the park ranger I was so discouraged. We continued to walk slowly to the bus stop. I was reminded of one time when I went shopping with my cute grandma in Fredericksburg. I have long strides and didn't even notice Mrs. Prejean shuffling to keep up. Finally my frail grandma asked me to slow down and apologized for 'walking like an old woman.' I felt really bad and my grandma is so cute.
After all that, I am glad I went. I just wish I didn't feel like I was hit by eighteen 18-wheelers.
Later.
In .love.
Jp
Friday, September 17, 2010
My T.all G.irl friend.
A couple of months ago a friend of mine from college named Allison started a tread on the facebook which included random people from her past. I don't know everyone on the thread but we share what is going on in our lives and ask for prayer and what-not... Allison, is one of the top-five funniest girls I have every met and she posted something really funny that I wanted to share.
Background: I met Allison at Grace Bible Church in Nacogdoches in the fall of 2005. We met at a leadership retreat and my first memory of her was how bad she sucked at dodgeball but how unashamedly she played. Seriously, she was awful but was having a blast. I find it encouraging when people naturally enjoying things (even if they aren't good at them.
So this is what Allison recently posted:
I joined an intramural basketball team.
I'm going to say it again so you know that I'm not even kidding.
I joined an intramural basketball team.
WHAT??? I've never been on a team of any sort. I've played a game of ultimate frisbee once and that was fun. They asked if I've even played a "pick up game" and I had to ask what that was. Anyway, they were desperate for a 4th and I said sure, why not, it's probably the last opportunity in my life to be on a team/play basketball. I have to get tennies and shorts. And someone has to explain me the rules.
I'm supposed to be at work this morning but they are revamping the front desk area and so I went home. I hate working but I love that they gave me the opportunity to earn easy money while in school. Thanks, system. Mostly the Madison system because we are under their govern.
My GBob sent me $100 for earning all A's in the summer. He said to take a buddy for a steak dinner with a vintage, high-caliber wine. My first response is "what a waste of money" and then my next one is "about 15% of the world's people are living on less than $1 a day*." Then my next thought was "this is GBob's money and he chose what is to be done with it." And then I thought this; "If I live as though I'm in poverty in order to give to those in poverty, I am essentially aiming to help them to a goal they have already reached." Which, I think, is not actually true, but I have a tendency to look down on America as a whole, when I should actually remember that where "we" are today is somewhat where we are hoping to bring all people at some point (the "where" I refer to is the level of health and access and power (?) and independence and freedom we have). Maybe this is a dumb goal because blessed are the rich is not one of the Be-Attitudes. If we were not in the position of abundance that we are, we would not be able to reach out to those less fortunate. Truth? I want to clean the Ganges and feed the hungry and rock the babies in Chernobyl. It's so hard for me to sit her and not DO that. I know that the essential butterfly effect is not idle and what I'm doing now is a part of the whole; either my contributing to a people who will feed the hungry or working toward a living that will enable me to GO rock babies. Or, maybe I'm just following God's will to another end completely. Perhaps I will end up the next Duggers mother; raising a brood of 20 who will go be my hands and feet in the next generation because we all know it's only to be worse 20 years from now. And knowing that, why are we making an effort to feed the hungry anyway? I'll tell you: Because 1) we are commanded to, 2) it matters to the individual (if you were hungry, you wouldn't say "Don't worry about it, it's only going to get worse.") and 3) selfishly, it's great to serve and compassion is the best. The greatest atrocity these days is apathy toward other humans.* It is simply inhumane. Which brings me to my next rant.
I hate PETA.
I've never really supported treating animals "humanely" because they are, get this, not human. I believe in not abusing animals because 1) animal abuse precedes human abuse, and 2) they are innocent. But I think it's okay to eat them and hunt them (maybe limiting the sport of it is good, but when deer numbers exceeded human numbers in Austin 15 years ago, the roads were outrageously dangerous. What are we; pygmies?). It's also okay to have pets and keep them outside and name them Spot or Dookie or whatever you want because they aren't human (there is a camp that believes you should name animals human names because you treat them more like humans when you call them Ashley or Mike). I love animals as company, as food, as business, but I believe they were created to be subordinate to humans. Why don't Americans eat horse or cat or dog? We are too sentimental toward Fluffy and Dakota and unable to separate ourselves from that. Even if (and when) they are bred to be eaten. Evan, Matthew Richardson's righthand man, once suggested we feed all the stray animals to the hungry/homeless of America thereby killing two birds with one stone and meeting the needs of so so so many. This will never transpire, regrettably, but I really support the idea. It seems at this point like a slightly lesser version of Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal wherein he suggests the Irish eat their babies because there is a huge famine with potato blight et cetera. Because humans have souls (and animals do not but this is hard to prove to PETA), A Modest Proposal is ridiculous and remains satirical. Evan's theory, however, is most logical and I love it. No one cares. In addition to this, PETA has implemented rules (like a union does) for farming. At a surface level, they sound totally fine. "Chickens that are kept 20 to a 3-chicken-pen need to be given more space and be required to have access to outside." Well, yeah, let's put 3 chickens in a 3-chicken pen. But any chicken farmer knows, if you give a chicken an option of being outdoors or in, the chicken will stay inside. So this law was passed in California, and all the chicken farms (which feed us, btw, so this is why it matters) had to build runs for the chickens to have access to the outside. This cuts into their farming area (where they could potentially have more chickens or other animals or et cetera) and funding (that went toward building these areas could either have made the cost of chicken lower or increased productivity or et cetera). The chickens never go outside. The same goes for horses. My dairy-farming uncle has a horse and built him a shed (you know; for rainy days) but the horse hated it and kicked it down and would rather run and roll in the mud than stand under a shed. But PETA, in their infinite wisdom (how much experience do they have on farms anyway?) went around having these "unsheltered" horses kidnapped due to unfit parenting. How stupid. We have bigger fish to fry, people. Like children who are being abused and kept 3 to a 1-child pen. (I'm using analogies, but this one is sadly quite literal.) So I wish Ellen Degeneres and PETA and Bob Barker (I do like the spay and neuter your pets campaign for obvious reasons) should put their efforts to a little more useful and HUMANe causes.
I can't believe that I just said all that or that it took me so long. I have opinions.
I never thought I would miss Texas summers, but now that the trees are changing here in the north, I feel wildly jipped. I've never spent a summer without 100+ degree weather. Last year we had 70 days of it (actually, I left in the middle of that). And here I am with cold feet, wishing I was sunburned and encouraging the cancer.
I had a discussion with Chris Chan a couple weeks ago regarding faith versus expectations of God versus disappointment of unanswered prayer (which you may know as "no-answered" prayers). Like, as a believer if you earnestly as God for what you want (as long as this request is righteous or God-honoring?), this is exhibiting faith, and he will hear your prayer. But if he says no and you don't get what you want in his name, do you have the "right" to be disappointed or, continuing in your faith, do you submit that he is the Sovereign Lord that you know him to be and has your best interest (which is his further glory) in mind? Can you do both? I don't think I have the capacity to do so. I cannot be disappointed while I am trusting Him with my life and His kingdom. I don't know if I should be able to and this is one of my areas of weakness or I should view it as a blessing that my trust is rewarded with ease of believe and lack of disappointment in life. I know some of you were praying that I get the position in Denver and some of you refused to do so (in a holy way). I love your prayers whether they are for the same things I "want" or not because ultimately, we are all praying for God's name, fame, glory, and purpose to be fulfilled in our lives now and eternally. And I cannot imagine anything greater. Why have I put God in a box? Why is he so small? He's not; I am.
I hope you all know I love you the best I can right now. I will continue praying for you because it is such a privilege. Let me know if you have a specific way I can be interceding with you. I kind of apologize that this was so long, but I know that if you don't want to read it, you generally don't. Which is cool by me.
*Sterns, 2009.
I was giggling so intensely people on the other side of our office kept looking at me suspiciously.
T.G. is one funny dame.
Later-
Jp
Background: I met Allison at Grace Bible Church in Nacogdoches in the fall of 2005. We met at a leadership retreat and my first memory of her was how bad she sucked at dodgeball but how unashamedly she played. Seriously, she was awful but was having a blast. I find it encouraging when people naturally enjoying things (even if they aren't good at them.
So this is what Allison recently posted:
I joined an intramural basketball team.
I'm going to say it again so you know that I'm not even kidding.
I joined an intramural basketball team.
WHAT??? I've never been on a team of any sort. I've played a game of ultimate frisbee once and that was fun. They asked if I've even played a "pick up game" and I had to ask what that was. Anyway, they were desperate for a 4th and I said sure, why not, it's probably the last opportunity in my life to be on a team/play basketball. I have to get tennies and shorts. And someone has to explain me the rules.
I'm supposed to be at work this morning but they are revamping the front desk area and so I went home. I hate working but I love that they gave me the opportunity to earn easy money while in school. Thanks, system. Mostly the Madison system because we are under their govern.
My GBob sent me $100 for earning all A's in the summer. He said to take a buddy for a steak dinner with a vintage, high-caliber wine. My first response is "what a waste of money" and then my next one is "about 15% of the world's people are living on less than $1 a day*." Then my next thought was "this is GBob's money and he chose what is to be done with it." And then I thought this; "If I live as though I'm in poverty in order to give to those in poverty, I am essentially aiming to help them to a goal they have already reached." Which, I think, is not actually true, but I have a tendency to look down on America as a whole, when I should actually remember that where "we" are today is somewhat where we are hoping to bring all people at some point (the "where" I refer to is the level of health and access and power (?) and independence and freedom we have). Maybe this is a dumb goal because blessed are the rich is not one of the Be-Attitudes. If we were not in the position of abundance that we are, we would not be able to reach out to those less fortunate. Truth? I want to clean the Ganges and feed the hungry and rock the babies in Chernobyl. It's so hard for me to sit her and not DO that. I know that the essential butterfly effect is not idle and what I'm doing now is a part of the whole; either my contributing to a people who will feed the hungry or working toward a living that will enable me to GO rock babies. Or, maybe I'm just following God's will to another end completely. Perhaps I will end up the next Duggers mother; raising a brood of 20 who will go be my hands and feet in the next generation because we all know it's only to be worse 20 years from now. And knowing that, why are we making an effort to feed the hungry anyway? I'll tell you: Because 1) we are commanded to, 2) it matters to the individual (if you were hungry, you wouldn't say "Don't worry about it, it's only going to get worse.") and 3) selfishly, it's great to serve and compassion is the best. The greatest atrocity these days is apathy toward other humans.* It is simply inhumane. Which brings me to my next rant.
I hate PETA.
I've never really supported treating animals "humanely" because they are, get this, not human. I believe in not abusing animals because 1) animal abuse precedes human abuse, and 2) they are innocent. But I think it's okay to eat them and hunt them (maybe limiting the sport of it is good, but when deer numbers exceeded human numbers in Austin 15 years ago, the roads were outrageously dangerous. What are we; pygmies?). It's also okay to have pets and keep them outside and name them Spot or Dookie or whatever you want because they aren't human (there is a camp that believes you should name animals human names because you treat them more like humans when you call them Ashley or Mike). I love animals as company, as food, as business, but I believe they were created to be subordinate to humans. Why don't Americans eat horse or cat or dog? We are too sentimental toward Fluffy and Dakota and unable to separate ourselves from that. Even if (and when) they are bred to be eaten. Evan, Matthew Richardson's righthand man, once suggested we feed all the stray animals to the hungry/homeless of America thereby killing two birds with one stone and meeting the needs of so so so many. This will never transpire, regrettably, but I really support the idea. It seems at this point like a slightly lesser version of Jonathon Swift's A Modest Proposal wherein he suggests the Irish eat their babies because there is a huge famine with potato blight et cetera. Because humans have souls (and animals do not but this is hard to prove to PETA), A Modest Proposal is ridiculous and remains satirical. Evan's theory, however, is most logical and I love it. No one cares. In addition to this, PETA has implemented rules (like a union does) for farming. At a surface level, they sound totally fine. "Chickens that are kept 20 to a 3-chicken-pen need to be given more space and be required to have access to outside." Well, yeah, let's put 3 chickens in a 3-chicken pen. But any chicken farmer knows, if you give a chicken an option of being outdoors or in, the chicken will stay inside. So this law was passed in California, and all the chicken farms (which feed us, btw, so this is why it matters) had to build runs for the chickens to have access to the outside. This cuts into their farming area (where they could potentially have more chickens or other animals or et cetera) and funding (that went toward building these areas could either have made the cost of chicken lower or increased productivity or et cetera). The chickens never go outside. The same goes for horses. My dairy-farming uncle has a horse and built him a shed (you know; for rainy days) but the horse hated it and kicked it down and would rather run and roll in the mud than stand under a shed. But PETA, in their infinite wisdom (how much experience do they have on farms anyway?) went around having these "unsheltered" horses kidnapped due to unfit parenting. How stupid. We have bigger fish to fry, people. Like children who are being abused and kept 3 to a 1-child pen. (I'm using analogies, but this one is sadly quite literal.) So I wish Ellen Degeneres and PETA and Bob Barker (I do like the spay and neuter your pets campaign for obvious reasons) should put their efforts to a little more useful and HUMANe causes.
I can't believe that I just said all that or that it took me so long. I have opinions.
I never thought I would miss Texas summers, but now that the trees are changing here in the north, I feel wildly jipped. I've never spent a summer without 100+ degree weather. Last year we had 70 days of it (actually, I left in the middle of that). And here I am with cold feet, wishing I was sunburned and encouraging the cancer.
I had a discussion with Chris Chan a couple weeks ago regarding faith versus expectations of God versus disappointment of unanswered prayer (which you may know as "no-answered" prayers). Like, as a believer if you earnestly as God for what you want (as long as this request is righteous or God-honoring?), this is exhibiting faith, and he will hear your prayer. But if he says no and you don't get what you want in his name, do you have the "right" to be disappointed or, continuing in your faith, do you submit that he is the Sovereign Lord that you know him to be and has your best interest (which is his further glory) in mind? Can you do both? I don't think I have the capacity to do so. I cannot be disappointed while I am trusting Him with my life and His kingdom. I don't know if I should be able to and this is one of my areas of weakness or I should view it as a blessing that my trust is rewarded with ease of believe and lack of disappointment in life. I know some of you were praying that I get the position in Denver and some of you refused to do so (in a holy way). I love your prayers whether they are for the same things I "want" or not because ultimately, we are all praying for God's name, fame, glory, and purpose to be fulfilled in our lives now and eternally. And I cannot imagine anything greater. Why have I put God in a box? Why is he so small? He's not; I am.
I hope you all know I love you the best I can right now. I will continue praying for you because it is such a privilege. Let me know if you have a specific way I can be interceding with you. I kind of apologize that this was so long, but I know that if you don't want to read it, you generally don't. Which is cool by me.
*Sterns, 2009.
I was giggling so intensely people on the other side of our office kept looking at me suspiciously.
T.G. is one funny dame.
Later-
Jp
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
New Goal
Aight. I want to start posting more often. I really have a lot I want to share I am just to lazy to sit down and organize my random thoughts.
School has been uber boring. I have never had an 'office' or '9-to-5' job. (Shout out Dolly!) But we are now in the off season so we have empty schedules for months!
[I guess it is important to clarify that I do not work at a school. I work at an English Camp. We have schools rent us and our facilities and we just teach out of a short book and do 'Theme Classes' that last 40-or-so minutes and just share random 'theme in English. Mostly we are there to just talk with the kids. To show them how to interact with a native English speaker. Mostly, we are just token English speakers. The kids are nervous, ecstatic, scared to speak to us. In a way I guess we humanize this complex subject they study-and-study.]
So real school just started so not too many schools are planning field trips to English Village. So we have to 'prepare.' I do not work well with broad instructions. For the past two days I'v interpreted 'prepare' to mean, watch CMT's 'Reba Giants' on youtube, email countless of friends from the past, and to prepare for a trip to Europe with my Social Studies department from Hardin! Oh, and I've done a little work but I can't just sit there and work.
Also, I suck at creating theme classes.
[I guess it is important to clarify that theme classes are random classes about anything. There is a class about cookies (where the kids make cookies), there is a class about sea mammals (where the kids make plastic phone charms with animals on them), there is a flight class (the kids make paper airplane and helicopters)...]
I could not make a theme class to save my life. I asked my coordinator if instead of creating a new theme class I could clean the classrooms. He thought I was joking so didn't answer me.
Luckily, English Village is renting me out (like a pimp and one of his prostitutes) ...renting me out to the local Middle School. We literally work on an island in the middle of nowhere. I think our address is: B.F.E.
I look forward to going to the Middle School. I miss having the same kids consistently. So, I get to go to Daebu-do Middle School on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The kids are fun. I wish I were a real teacher here... "Oh well, you can wish in one hand and..."
I also want to update in small quantities. it is hard for me to read a lot on the internet so I wont ask you to.
In .love.
Jp
School has been uber boring. I have never had an 'office' or '9-to-5' job. (Shout out Dolly!) But we are now in the off season so we have empty schedules for months!
[I guess it is important to clarify that I do not work at a school. I work at an English Camp. We have schools rent us and our facilities and we just teach out of a short book and do 'Theme Classes' that last 40-or-so minutes and just share random 'theme in English. Mostly we are there to just talk with the kids. To show them how to interact with a native English speaker. Mostly, we are just token English speakers. The kids are nervous, ecstatic, scared to speak to us. In a way I guess we humanize this complex subject they study-and-study.]
So real school just started so not too many schools are planning field trips to English Village. So we have to 'prepare.' I do not work well with broad instructions. For the past two days I'v interpreted 'prepare' to mean, watch CMT's 'Reba Giants' on youtube, email countless of friends from the past, and to prepare for a trip to Europe with my Social Studies department from Hardin! Oh, and I've done a little work but I can't just sit there and work.
Also, I suck at creating theme classes.
[I guess it is important to clarify that theme classes are random classes about anything. There is a class about cookies (where the kids make cookies), there is a class about sea mammals (where the kids make plastic phone charms with animals on them), there is a flight class (the kids make paper airplane and helicopters)...]
I could not make a theme class to save my life. I asked my coordinator if instead of creating a new theme class I could clean the classrooms. He thought I was joking so didn't answer me.
Luckily, English Village is renting me out (like a pimp and one of his prostitutes) ...renting me out to the local Middle School. We literally work on an island in the middle of nowhere. I think our address is: B.F.E.
I look forward to going to the Middle School. I miss having the same kids consistently. So, I get to go to Daebu-do Middle School on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The kids are fun. I wish I were a real teacher here... "Oh well, you can wish in one hand and..."
I also want to update in small quantities. it is hard for me to read a lot on the internet so I wont ask you to.
In .love.
Jp
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Hong Kong
This past week I got the opportunity to go to Hong Kong. It sounds ignorant but I am amazed that I can easily go to a different country so quickly and easily. Back in Texas we had Canada (America’s similar but retarded obese brother.) And there was Latin America. I know I am going to sound prejudice and arrogant but, who wants to go south of Texas? Mexico is so dangerous and unattractive. I remember when I went to university in Guanajuato, I enjoyed it and it was beautiful but I never felt safe there. Maybe I was just being paranoid? And as a tourist, the rest of Latin America doesn’t seem worth the plane ticket to get there. (Except Machu Picchu. Number 2 on my ‘Bucket List”)
Enough justifying my statement. I can say whatever I want. Hong Kong was lot of fun. Naturally I didn’t plan well for the trip. I needed Mrs. Keys to daily remind/yell at me to prepare. I went with a co-worker from work since we had the same vacation time. We got off the plane and road the shuttle into town then aimlessly walked around, literally in circles, with all our crap in the humid summer of Hong Kong. Once we finally found the hotel and dropped all our crap we went out to find something to eat. I will admit, the food in Hong Kong was amazing. Everything I ate I enjoyed. Here in Korea there is a lot of hit-and-miss when I go out to eat. (And unless there are pictures, there is a lot of missing).
One of the biggest ‘touristy’ things we did was go on a sky-box trolley thing up to a monastery. It was kind of scary because I do not know the legal safety requirements for sky trolleys… However, I did read that there had never been any accidents resulting in major bodily injury. Everything was fun and pretty. I finally got my family a nice gift. Most of the stuff I’ve been tempted to buy them in Korea was extremely expensive or crap. We hiked up to see some ‘hugitus’ Buddha and a monastery/restaurant. I appreciate the design and architecture of the Buddha/monastery. But I had in my mind that this ‘Buddhism thing’ was a belief of the past. Then I saw people praying to Buddha. It was really depressing. It put me in an odd mood the rest of my time there. I thought, how useless, deceiving, and empty to pray to Buddha! Granted, I know many would believe the same thing about Christians praying to Jesus or God. But at least my Jesus is alive and has real power.
I think this is blasphemous but when I was younger I used to think that if I weren’t Christian, I would be Buddhist. As if I were picking my favorite ice cream flavor at Baskin’s and Robin’s. But Buddhism seems like a discouraging religion. I like the goal of desiring and working for nirvana. Planting good karma, avoiding bad karma… But I am a human and fail miserably at any attempt to be ‘good.’ Even if Buddha did figure life out, that still leaves me searching. As a believer in the true religion, I confess that I can’t reach ‘nirvana’ alone. My humanity traps me on a path bound for hell. But Jesus, completely God while also possessing the same humanity we all share, knew the only real way for man to be released from the chains of this world. Through His own sacrifice we are forgiven from failure and welcomed into an eternal nirvana.
…. So watching people practice Buddhism was not my favorite part of the trip.
I also, got to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend, Watchman. He lives in Hong Kong and we met up for dinner and he showed us around. Though I don’t think I did very much there I enjoyed my time.
Oh, on our way back to the bottom of the mountain with the Buddha and monastery we shared a trolley thing with a Chinese family. They didn’t even try to make conversation (and neither did we.) But one of the ladies got up and stood right in front of my friend and I while someone took her picture. Obviously, she just wanted a picture with foreigners but she didn’t even ask. Oddly enough, that isn’t the first time that has happened. Am I so intimidating that she couldn’t have made a hand jester insinuating she wanted to take a picture? Oh, if I had a nickel for every time someone told me I was scary… I would probably never learn who Thomas Jefferson was.
I also learned that you can go anywhere and have the time of your life if you are with friends. Bonnie, my travel partner, and I are friends and made good travel buddies (I think). But I kept thinking how awesome it would have been to be somewhere with my old Social Studies department or Jenny and Jason. With Bonnie I felt like I had to play the role of ’good travel buddy.’ But I thought that if ole Jonsey were with me I could give her a wet-willie and never think anything of it. Just laugh and wait till she wasn’t looking to do it again.
In .love.
Jp
Enough justifying my statement. I can say whatever I want. Hong Kong was lot of fun. Naturally I didn’t plan well for the trip. I needed Mrs. Keys to daily remind/yell at me to prepare. I went with a co-worker from work since we had the same vacation time. We got off the plane and road the shuttle into town then aimlessly walked around, literally in circles, with all our crap in the humid summer of Hong Kong. Once we finally found the hotel and dropped all our crap we went out to find something to eat. I will admit, the food in Hong Kong was amazing. Everything I ate I enjoyed. Here in Korea there is a lot of hit-and-miss when I go out to eat. (And unless there are pictures, there is a lot of missing).
One of the biggest ‘touristy’ things we did was go on a sky-box trolley thing up to a monastery. It was kind of scary because I do not know the legal safety requirements for sky trolleys… However, I did read that there had never been any accidents resulting in major bodily injury. Everything was fun and pretty. I finally got my family a nice gift. Most of the stuff I’ve been tempted to buy them in Korea was extremely expensive or crap. We hiked up to see some ‘hugitus’ Buddha and a monastery/restaurant. I appreciate the design and architecture of the Buddha/monastery. But I had in my mind that this ‘Buddhism thing’ was a belief of the past. Then I saw people praying to Buddha. It was really depressing. It put me in an odd mood the rest of my time there. I thought, how useless, deceiving, and empty to pray to Buddha! Granted, I know many would believe the same thing about Christians praying to Jesus or God. But at least my Jesus is alive and has real power.
I think this is blasphemous but when I was younger I used to think that if I weren’t Christian, I would be Buddhist. As if I were picking my favorite ice cream flavor at Baskin’s and Robin’s. But Buddhism seems like a discouraging religion. I like the goal of desiring and working for nirvana. Planting good karma, avoiding bad karma… But I am a human and fail miserably at any attempt to be ‘good.’ Even if Buddha did figure life out, that still leaves me searching. As a believer in the true religion, I confess that I can’t reach ‘nirvana’ alone. My humanity traps me on a path bound for hell. But Jesus, completely God while also possessing the same humanity we all share, knew the only real way for man to be released from the chains of this world. Through His own sacrifice we are forgiven from failure and welcomed into an eternal nirvana.
…. So watching people practice Buddhism was not my favorite part of the trip.
I also, got to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend, Watchman. He lives in Hong Kong and we met up for dinner and he showed us around. Though I don’t think I did very much there I enjoyed my time.
Oh, on our way back to the bottom of the mountain with the Buddha and monastery we shared a trolley thing with a Chinese family. They didn’t even try to make conversation (and neither did we.) But one of the ladies got up and stood right in front of my friend and I while someone took her picture. Obviously, she just wanted a picture with foreigners but she didn’t even ask. Oddly enough, that isn’t the first time that has happened. Am I so intimidating that she couldn’t have made a hand jester insinuating she wanted to take a picture? Oh, if I had a nickel for every time someone told me I was scary… I would probably never learn who Thomas Jefferson was.
I also learned that you can go anywhere and have the time of your life if you are with friends. Bonnie, my travel partner, and I are friends and made good travel buddies (I think). But I kept thinking how awesome it would have been to be somewhere with my old Social Studies department or Jenny and Jason. With Bonnie I felt like I had to play the role of ’good travel buddy.’ But I thought that if ole Jonsey were with me I could give her a wet-willie and never think anything of it. Just laugh and wait till she wasn’t looking to do it again.
In .love.
Jp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)