A Sweet Dream

During a volunteering activity...

For Myanmar children who study in poor surrounding, we painted and fixed the room. Many of us had never done those kinds of works, so we felt too tired. During short break, we tried to sleep lie down anywhere.

Short rest after hard working, we had a sweat dream.

A Love Like This

I traveled alone in NYC for about 10 days. Sometimes, I was with others whom I had met in the hostel or during the trip. However, just for a day, I wanted to walk along the Hudson River with just with a camera.

I walked from the Battery Park, near my hostel, northwards along the river. I felt more at leisure and comfort than when I had previously walked along the Han River in Seoul. There were people walking dogs, jogging stripped to the waist, having a meal at the outdoor restaurants, and so on, so I never felt loneliness when I walked along the Hudson River.

Whilst I walked in that mood, I caught an old couple clinging to each other tightly on the bench and staring at the sunset. This couple made me think that I want to get married soon, and that I wanted to talk about love with my future wife when we got old. While I was falling for this old couple’s charms, they got up from their seat and they walked hand in hand towards the path I had come.

If I could have this kind of love I would be so happy.

The Paper Rose

There are many ways to make paper rose, but I learnt the hardest method.  Making lines by folding and unfolding a piece of paper dozens of times repeatedly, and then making the paper rose with these lines. The reason why I started to make this paper rose is not because of my girlfriend. I leant how to make a paper rose during the military service. One of my predecessors let me make the paper rose for his girlfriend. It wasn’t so good at first, but it was fun to make. Whenever I did night duty, I spent time with it.

Making paper roses became useful when I went to Myanmar as a volunteering activity. Since we couldn’t predict the local situation, the plans we made went up in smoke. So, I tried to teach students how to make the paper rose. They showed interest in it, so we had survived the worst situation. I gave the students paper roses whenever I made them during my spare time, but I don’t know if they've kept them.

If one day I have a girlfriend who really loves me, I hope to make it as a bouquet of roses for her.

Treasure Hunt in Books

Winter 2008, my friend suggested that I work for an online, used book, bookstore where I was to find and send out books if I've got an online order. It felt like I was playing a treasurehunt game, where I found the books amongst many disordered books covered with dust. A few minutes later, I wished the time would move faster. It was really cold since the heater was terrible.

These days there are many clean, used book, bookstores in Korea. However, there are lots of books that I can't see in the recent used book bookstores compared to in the bookstore I used to work at. Normally, the price of used books is cheaper than new ones. Sometimes, however, the price of used books increases if it is valuable. Many of these were in the bookstore, and many people wanted to buy these books at high prices.

Occasionally, I came upon a book I had read when I was little. I was so happy to see that book again. So, I skimmed through the book for a while.

I really wanted to brush off the dust and arrange the books, but I gave up since there were so many books in the store. Actually, I quit the job in the end because the owner experienced some health problems.

Sometimes, I miss the time that I worked at the bookstore. Hope the books get to meet a new nice reader.

The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment

If one has great expectations from something, then the disappointment experienced with it becomes greater. This was the case when I visited a club in NYC.

I traveled to the East part of the US alone. I stayed in a Korean hostel in Manhattan, and I was friendly with the owner of that hostel. One day, the owner asked to me go clubbing with other travelers in the hostel. I'd never visited a club before, even in Korea, so I had a lot of curiosity towards this.

Entrance fee for the club was usually $10, but I paid $60 since a very famous DJ was plying there. (I don't know who he was though...) Although the entrance fee was so expensive, a lot of people were there, so it took a long time to get into the club.

Up until that experience, I thought that all people do in a club, was dance to music whilst holding a bottle of beer. However, I couldn't move because I was surrounded by people. In that difficult situation, a nerd hooked up with a girl. I was little bit envious of him as I really wanted to go outside.

In conclusion, my first ever visit to a club, was a big disappointment.

Heroes of Korea

August 15th is a National Liberation Day in Korea. I visited Seodaemun Prison History Hall on that day with my American friend. This was a prison during Japanese colonial era. All the prisoners here participatetod in the independence movement. This room is stuffed with pictures of independence fighters. If they were not to have fought against the Japanese Empire, I may not live like this. I am thankful to the people who died for protect this country.