Asterism

Orientation

2011-10-15T03:32:00.030-06:00

First of all, let me relate my journey to South Korea.

On Tuesday morning, I flew to San Francisco to stay the night since I needed to pick up my passport from the South Korean consulate. Dad had got me a reservation at the Ritz Inn, aka a motel that is run by an Indian (I believe) family. My room wouldn't be ready for me to move into yet, but they did keep my bags in storage while I went into San Francisco to get my passport.

So I called a taxi and waited about fifteen minutes for it to come. The driver was a nice Arab man who was very talkative and interested to know that I was moving to Korea. When we got into San Francisco, he dropped me off on the street that I wanted, but within ten minutes I found out that he dropped me off way south of where I needed to be. I was in the middle of San Francisco when I needed to be near the bridge. I had just paid fifty dollars for the taxi ride and didn't want to pay anymore until I was ready to go back to the hotel, so I walked to the consulate. That was about an hour or more walk. The address I had given was 3500 N, the driver took me to 350 N. After walking all that way to the consulate, I was in there for about five minutes, and then I walked back to where I had been dropped off.

I wandered around for a while and did some people watching before I called the same taxi driver to come pick me up. After fifteen minutes, he called to tell me he was stuck in traffic so he was sending someone else; after another ten minutes, I waved down another taxi. This one was cheaper, and driven by an atheist, so we had an interesting discussion. The guy was nice and I enjoyed talking to him.

After that, I got into my and stayed there, leaving once to get dinner, and read. Then the next morning I went back to the airport and caught my plain to Korea.

Getting off the plane, I could feel the humidity wash over me. I waited in line for customs for about twenty minutes, got my bags, exchanged my money, and found the EPIK booth that I needed to to get ready for orientation, then I turned around aft
er filling out a form to find Jane, the lady who helped me with my application process, waiting for me. She was very kind and bought a bottled water for me since I was thirsty and gave me some homemade cookies that her cook made for the EZ English recruits. We talked for few minutes before I had to get on the bus for Jeonju University. The bus ride took about four hours, with a ten minute stop half way in the journey, and I kept myself awake by talking to the other teachers (I had been keeping myself awake since I woke up in San Francisco and the plane ride was about 11 hours). By the end of the bus ride, I had a headache, and getting off the bus, that headache was made worse by the humidity.

I signed in for the orientation and got my room and roommate assignment. My roommate was a guy a year older than me named Troy Thorpe from Salt Lake City area.

My dorm room:

My bed

My closet
The view from the window, the longer building is actually the cafeteria of the dorm we stayed in

Friday was the start of Orientation. That day we did our medical exams and had our Opening Ceremony. For the dinner, they brought out beer since many of the new teachers couldn't drink before the medical exam. That night, most of the teachers went out and drank some more.

On Saturday, I explored a small area of Jeonju:

(Not many pictures of Jeonju, sorry)

On Monday was our field trip. My class went to the Nambu market first.

Do you need shoes?

Or some sea creatures?

This is Savannah. She's not for sale.

But these are.

A building in Jeonju:

This is James.

Next, we went to Jeondong Cathedral.

Stella, she was one of the class guides.

They had several of these depicting Christ's atonement

Then we went to Gyeonggijeon Shrine. It is know for holding the portrait of the Joseon dynasty's first king, Yi Seong-gye. There was a little stone monument before the front gates that we as a class bowed to to show our respect.

Then we went to Hanok Village to visit the Traditional Hanji Center, or paper factory. Most of the paper made is exported to Japan.

Drying the paper

The Master craftsman

These next two are in a window of store within the same Hanok as the factory.

We went to another place and made a paper fan--or rather we decorated one.

For lunch, we had some of the famous Jeonju Bibimbop:

I did eat most of it. It was pretty good.

We then had some free time to explore. In front of the shrine, there was a traditional drums performance. At one point, most of the crowd joined in the dancing.

Finally, we went to Keumsan Temple. At the temple, there is a natural "Water Park" that visitors can play in.

The temple:

The next couple of days were more lectures, and on Thursday we had a lesson presentation to do. Then we met with our POE who gave us our school assignments. That night was our Closing Ceremony. I left for Cheongju, and ultimately Jecheon, the next morning.

I promise...

2011-09-28T05:35:00.002-06:00

That one day this blog will be updated and that it will contain pictures of my stay in Korea. However, I will need to make time for that. Most likely, hopefully, that time will be Saturday evening.

Sunday. It'll be done on Sunday.

St. Louis Trip (To go along with the pictures)

2010-05-03T10:52:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday March 16th, a group of seven of us went down to Las Vegas so that we could catch our plane early the next morning to go to St. Louis for a Sigma Tau Delta English convention. There was me, Dallin (he's the shaved head guy), Amanda (redhead), Landon (curly haired guy), Rachel (long blonde hair), Taylor (well groomed guy), and Samantha (shoulder length, light brown hair). We stayed at Landon's parents' home for the night, and while we were there, his older brother cooked us some amazing food for dinner and breakfast.

When we arrived at St. Louis, we took the metro link to downtown where the convention was being held at the Hyatt, but we were staying in the Hampton that was just within a short walking distance--we could also see the Arch which wasn't too far either; in fact, there is a picture of the Hampton at the top of the Arch. That day, we just settled into the rooms, checked in for the convention, ate at the Tigin Pub that was attached to our hotel, and attended the opening ceremony (?) for the convention where we listened to Lee Young-Li read some of his poetry.

On Wednesday, none of us had any readings or presentations, so we decided to go to the zoo since it was free. That's what most of my pictures are of. One of the best things about that trip was that I was able to see a Green anaconda, which I am quite interested in (it's the last snake picture), it was a young one though, probably only 3-4 feet long. After the zoo, we went to the top of the Arch. We got our tickets before we went to the zoo, and while we were standing in line, Amanda was telling us that she nervous to ride in the elevators. Then someone pointed a sign out to her that pretty much read the elevators were old and need to be replaced. This made her even more nervous, and as we were heading up in the small elevators I could hear her in hers making whining sounds.

Both of my readings were on Friday, one at 8:30 in the morning and the last at 4. They went pretty well, which I was happy for.

Saturday, I attended some of my group's readings, and then that night was the Gala, or the closing event, where Amanda received a first prize of $500 for a world lit essay she had written. After the Gala, Taylor and I went to a blues bar because he wanted to listen to some real St. Louis blues. It was only the two of us becuase everyone else was too tired to go--it was about 10 or 11 when we left.

Then on Sunday, we went back to school. We stopped by at Landon's home and were fed some dinner that his mom had made, but we made it a quick stop since Samantha needed to get back to Cedar. Overall, it was a great trip, and it's probably the last convention that I will be able to attend.

Pictures from St. Louis

2010-04-30T12:55:00.019-06:00

Some Fun in November

2010-02-20T00:29:00.007-07:00

So in November, I went to California with two of my best friends, Anna and Cindy. We went to go see Ludo in concert--twice--which was so much fun, and on Saturday and Sunday we also went down to the beach. Anyway, here are some pictures.

English Faculty Halloween Party

2009-11-03T18:03:00.004-07:00

Last Thursday, my co-workers and I had a costume party where we dressed up like Professors or, in one of my co-worker's case, the secretary of the English department. I went as the Chair of the English department Kurt Harris who is pictured below.

This is me as Kurt Harris:

Below is everyone who attended:

Their counterparts starting from top going left to right (skipping me):

(The one singing)

(She's also my supervisor for the Writing Center)

There isn't a picture for Joi who is portrayed by my co-worker Samantha

ABNA Contest

2009-03-18T23:56:00.002-06:00

Many of you may not know that I had entered the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest. In fact, my brother was upset that I had known about it because I didn't tell him about until he called to tell me about it--I wanted to increase my chances. Unfortunately though, I did not make it; however, there is funny side to it:

I read my rejection email shortly after returning from camping at Goblin Valley. In it it said that I had made it past the pitch portion of the contest to the excerpt portion so I would be receiving a review within the next couple of weeks.

Well, I got another email today. This one told me that I had not made it past the pitch portion of the contest, and so I will not be receiving a review on my excerpt. They apologized for the inconvenience, and in repayment for any confusion they may have caused they gave me a $5 electronic gift certificate towards my next purchase on Amazon.

Thank you ABNA, for the small token of guilt. It will go towards my entertainment in more ways than one.

I've Been Naughty

2009-01-23T12:18:00.002-07:00

I haven't posted anything practically since Halloween and I am sorry for that. I keep forgetting that it might be nice to post updates every once in a while.

Last semester I did pretty well in school. I had mostly B+'s at the end of the semester and so I got around a 3.0 gpa. That was pretty nice. Then I had Christmas Break and that was a lot of fun.

During Christmas Break, I was able to visit my sister Becky and her family in Nebraska for a week. Makayla had been born a little over a week or so before and I was so excited to see her at such a young age. She is adorable. While I was there, I also played with Josie and Anthony--mainly I was the "monster" and they would run away from me. It was nice to spend time with the whole family while I was there and appreciated that they would put up with me for a week :).

This semester is going. Some of my classes are challenging, especially Visual & Cinematic Narratives for English. There is so much to do for that class that sometimes I am at a loss as to where to begin, but I will get there. I now have a room all to myself, which is very nice. One roommate, Justin, moved out last semester and my roommate Jordan moved into the room that Justin was in. So now there are four of us in the apartment and only Matt and Jordan share a room.

Well, that is where I am at now. I am doing pretty well all things considering, and hopefully I will write another update soon.

End of October

2008-10-29T11:05:00.004-06:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything exciting for the past while, I've been kind of busy.

School is going great and for three weekends during the course of a month I was able to go home. The first of the three was because my Teresa got married. She is the first out of my group of high school friends to get married, so it was a rather exciting event. The next weekend was General Conference, and even though I had the chance to go home, I didn't because I knew I would be going back up the next weekend for William's baby blessing. On that weekend I had to take my computer to get fix since it had gotten a virus, so I had to go back the next weekend which was Harvest Holiday. I had a lot of fun on those weekends. I hung out with my friends, went to the Haunted Hollow (which sucked), and went a little crazy buying book.

Some of my classes always seem to have something to do during one week or another. I have papers due, called a Commonplace Book, every other week for my British Literature class, except for two weeks ago where it was a Midterm essay instead. This week I had a draft of my short story to workshop due yesterday and tomorrow I have a seminar on various short stories that are in an anthology called The Art of the Story. Then for my American Lit class, I have an essay due on Monday. So yeah, I'm staying busy, but it's good for me.

Over the past few weeks, I've been jotting down some story ideas. I'm not sure if I will ever get to most them, but a couple seem fun to do--I just have to wait a little while before I really start working on them if I do write them.

Anyway, that is my news for now. Maybe a little while on I'll post some of the stuff that I've been working on.

Web 2.0 - What does it really mean?

2008-10-01T09:37:00.002-06:00

So for my CSIS 1000 class we had to watch this video and post a blog for it. The video is actually kind of interesting as it talks about how the internet has changed us, so if you want to check it out then click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

My apartment

2008-09-14T21:54:00.009-06:00

So I received a request that I take pictures of my apartment and post. Well, I did take pictures so I will post them.

This is the living room from the front door. You can see a hint of the kitchen.

The kitchen with the door to my roommate Andrew's room on the right. He gets a shared room all to his lonesome.

The stairs and the door to the linen closest. Yay. My room when you go up is at the front of the apartment.

This is my room. I'm on the left and Jordan is on the right. That's his guitar, he also has an acoustic guitar and a ukulele.

My bathroom.

This is Justin and Matt's room.

So yeah, that's pretty much my apartment.

School!

2008-09-06T21:29:00.002-06:00

Well I've been back at school for two weeks now, and since I am back I'll be posting more on my blog now. Yay! It's only been a few months.

It's pretty amazing how soon I got back into the feeling of being back at school. Even though I had been at school for less than a week, when I went home for my birthday and Labor Day weekend, it felt like I had been at school for several weeks already.

My classes are going pretty well. I have two literature classes: American Lit and British Lit, CSIS 1000 which is pretty much learning basics on technology and Microsoft software, Math 1030 which touches a little on every math subject, and Intermediate Fiction Writing (YAY!!!!!!) in which I will have to write a short story that will be put into a magazine that will be sold next year I believe. I am also taking Pearl of Great Price for Institute.

So, as things keep progressing I will keep posting and telling news. Hopefully I can commit to my weekly post goal that I had set up when I first created this blog. Anyway, until next time!

Two Weeks, Writing Time, and Family

2008-04-22T09:25:00.004-06:00

The school semester is finally coming to an end! It has been so crazy with classes and the dramas that have been playing out. There's only one word to describe it: exhausting. And it's not even over yet!

Anyway, I have been proud of myself the past few days/week or so because I have finally started to write/revise/prewrite again. I have written segments for a book idea that I started working on last year and I have been revising my first book for at least the fourth time (yes, I did say fourth--it's possibly the fifth, but it's officially the fourth draft) and last night I worked on its timeline just to make sure that I didn't have any discrepancies (which I did, and it goes to show that my writing always can be improved). I still have a long way to go on it, but the end result will be well worth it.

For those who don't know, I have many book ideas (about 18 or so), and they seem to keep coming. Sometimes I wonder whether or not I will be to get to them all. But, I don't think I would have these ideas if God didn't intend for me to work on them at one point or another. I just need to manage my time more efficiently. Hopefully, my Intermediate Fiction Writing class next semester will help to provide that time.

Overall, I am doing pretty well. I am still surviving down here at school thanks to the very great amount of support that I have received from my parents. They were the ones who helped me go to the Sigma Tau Delta Conference, generously pay for my tuition and books, and on desperate conditions help me pay my rent (which I will repay). I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them. I owe them a lot, and for their generosity I do my best in school and I do feel guilty when that best comes up short--which makes me try all the harder. It is also great to hear from my siblings. I am incredibly horrible at taking the initiative to call my family just to chat or even email (possibly blog) to let them know how I am doing and to see how they are doing. I love them all very much and I want them to know that.

Well, that is all that I have for now. I hope to make a better effort on posting more regularly, but I'm not going to promise especially since summer is coming and I will have to deal with my parents' incredibly annoying and slow internet :)

Louisville Conference Day 2

2008-03-24T16:04:00.006-06:00

So when I woke up this day, Friday, there was a nice little surprise waiting for everybody outside. It was snowing. Now this was fun to play in for everybody who lived in the South, but my group was not thrilled to see it there. The wind was really blowing the snow around and it made the snow look a lot worse than it actually was.

The second day of the conference was also the day that I read my poetry for a panel. I was so nervous that the wait for my turn was unbearable. Each panel had about five to six readers and I was somewhere around the middle. After everyone had read, there was a question and answer period for anybody who had a question and wanted to discuss either everyone's or a certain person's poetry. I was actually asked a couple of questions personally which didn't help my nerves, but it went all right.

After my panel was over I went out into the snow to find some lunch and then I went to Borders. I was probably in Borders for about an hour or more (get me in a bookstore alone without any real time restraints and I can be there for quite a while). I ended up buying three books which was all the money that I allowed myself to spend on whatever besides meals.

Once all of the panels were done, my group went out to eat at a really cool restaurant called Lin's Paradise. It had a gift shop that had all sorts of interesting merchandise. Some of the stuff was really funny or kinda creepy (there was gummy heart that you can give to someone who you like and it's in the shape of an actual human heart with parts of the arteries sticking out). However, the food was very good. For a place that kind of seemed like a joke, the food was worth every penny (the meals were about $15 on average).

After eating, we went back to the Marriott for another reading. Susan Lori Parks is a remarkable entertainer and author. The works that she read were great and the way she presented never made it possible for a boring moment.

That was pretty much my second day in Louisville. Here are some pictures.

These are from Lin's Paradise.

I thought these two buildings were really cool because of the light houses on top of them. This picture was taken during the snowstorm.

Louisville Conference Day 1

2008-03-10T17:30:00.013-06:00

So last Wednesday on the fifth three other members of Sigma Tau Delta (STD, I know it's sad) and I left SUU after noon to go to Vegas to catch our plane that was to take off at 6:10. It was a long drive which gave me a horrible headache throughout the plane ride, but first I want to give my impression of Las Vegas: it's ugly. That's all I have to say and that I never want to go back.

Anyway, when we arrived at the Marriott (the hotel where we stayed) a little after one in the morning and checked in we found out that they didn't have two of our rooms for us and wouldn't have them until the morning. Sarah L. our fearless President was not very pleased. So Wes, Sara S., Rochelle, and I were sent to another hotel for the night that the Marriott paid for and gave us four vouchers for taxis (we only used one to get there and one to get back which was not what they were expecting). The other hotel, the Executive West, was actually pretty nice.

When we were ready to go back to the Marriott there was supposed to be a taxi there at 10:05 to pick us up and take us back (the Marriott had it sent for us), but when we got out there at 1o:07 there wasn't a taxi--we waited half an hour before Rochelle finally went back in to get us another taxi. When we arrived at the Marriott Sarah L. had already checked us in but we were told that the rooms were not ready for us. So we stored our stuff and went to Sarah's room to get our folders for the conference.

That was when I found out that I had not been registered. So I went downstairs to do that and found out that since I was not registered that registration fee had not been paid. Chelsea came down then and paid that so everything was good. I then went out for lunch (got a good sandwich from a French deli) and went to two of my group sessions. After that Wes and I finally got our room and found a complimentary food basket for all of our hassle (Rochelle and Sara S got one too since they had gone through the same). That night for the convention there was reading by the poet Naomi Shihab Nye which was really great.

Afterwords. Jim Aton, the professor that went with us who is also from Kentucky, took us out to see the city.

We went to this museum that had a lot of fascinating art.

This piece is hanging from the ceiling of the museum and I thought that it was pretty cool.

This picture goes to show that infant baptism truly is evil :).

This was pretty cool. The whole wall was a screen with a projector that showed this piece of art called "Text Rain." There was a motion sensor in the wall that detects where people stand and depending on your position was where the letters would fall and stop then fade after a while. Sometimes we got words spelled out doing this.

This is Rochelle playing with the art.

This was another projector art piece that was on the floor. It was of a man and a woman sleeping. Occassionally the woman would get out of bed and exit the screen a few minutes would go by and she would come back. This was taken after she came back.

There are a few more pictures of other things but I am not going to post those right now.

After the museum we walked around a bit more and saw City Hall and a stopped at a couple of statues. I did take pictures of them (one was King Louis and the other was a bell with four angels surrounding it) but I'm not going to post them in right now. Then we walked down a road (can't remember the name) that was a shopping strip that had a Borders, Hard Rock Cafe, and a few other things but we passed these by as we were going to the Seelbach Hotel. For those who have read "The Great Gatsby," the Seelbach was where Tom and Daisy were married.

Sara S is standing on the left of the staircase.

The one on the right is to show part of the designs that America liked to use in the early 1900s before WWII and the Nazis.

After we were done looking at the hotel we went into its bar which is one of the top 50 bars. No one under 21 was supposed to be in there...but oh well, it's not like I drink alcohol anyway. They had some really good gumbo.

Rochelle, Sara, and I left the rest of the group because we wanted to head back to the Marriott as soon as possible...but we got a little lost. However, I did get a picture of the largest baseball bat that I have ever seen that was outside of a baseball museum.

Anyway, we eventually found our way back to the hotel and found that we weren't too far from it when we left the Seelbach. We felt a little foolish but it passed.

So I will do the rest of the convention at a later time. This was the end of Day 1.

My Poems for the Convention

2008-02-13T16:11:00.002-07:00

So I kinda forgot to mention what my poems were about that were accepted for the Sigma Tau Delta convention. Instead of exlpaining them I am going to post one of them underneath. The title of the collection is "Silent Voices"--so I guess I am going to explain a little bit about what they're like. It pretty much has three subjects that have different feelings that people may not voice out loud but that are usually screaming, crying/reaching out, or talking to someone/everyone through the human spirit. The third poem, which is the one I will post, is my favorite out of the three and it is called "You, My Heaven and Hell" (don't worry, it has nothing to do with me personally).

Sinking, falling, drowning, dying
who is there to help me?
The crush of the weight is like a demon lying
heavily upon my chest
and I cannot escape the suffocating torture.

My mind is reeling and I wish to vomit,
but my body escapes my control and I can only
cradle my head in my hands and weep.
No one is there to help me.
You are not there to pull me back.

I return once again to my forest where I hope
that I may flee this hurt,
the hole in my body that you have created since you
left. But it will not heal.
I know you had to leave, but that does not mean that I have
to accept it completely.

My spirit has fled me, I am no longer here
though my body continues to move,
speak, work, laugh, cry.
These feelings hardly mean anything now.

I feel you near in everything that is familiar,
that carries your scent, your likes, and your
imperfections that made me love you more.
Every angel that I have loved
may be around me to help me and guide me.
The truth is I only need one.

When I truly do leave this world
will you meet me there and embrace me once more?
Or will I have to wait until Judgment Day when my
Hell is one without you?
I am already there.

God will take me from this existence and make it so that I will be
stronger, more faithful, and more worthy to know,
to experience, to taste what eternity will be like
with you there by my side,
my soul’s Heaven.

March 6-9

2008-02-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

These are the dates that I will be in Louisville, KY! Why? Well I'll tell you. My collection of three poems entitled Silent Voices were accepted to be showcased at the annual Sigma Tau Delta convention which will be held in Louisville this year. My ticket has been purchased and I have paid everything off in order to go, which I have to say thank you to my Dad and Mom for helping me so much with. Now I just have a little under a month to wait until I am on the plane for Louisville.

So I'm Kinda New At This

2008-02-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

I had a blog once before on blogspot but that was about four or five years ago. In fact it was about my junior year in high school. It's changed a bit since then but that's okay because I should learn new things.

Anyway, so I am down at school, Southern Utah University in Cedar City, and it has been a little interesting for the past couple of weeks. I have a new roommate (I have always gotten a new roommate every semester) and things went pretty well at first. But then things started getting a little strained because of a couple of events, none of which were really our fault, and it has caused some tension. We talked about it two Saturdays ago and I thought everything was cleared up, but it wasn't. He had taken some things that I said the wrong way and it took me up until yesterday to find this out. I got angry, but not angry enough that I would do something rash. Anyway, I took the opportunity this morning to clear up his misconceptions that he had about what I had said that Saturday and right now I don't know exactly the consequences of it will be but so far it seems fine.

For better news, I have gotten into SUU's gymnastics program. Meaning I like to go to the competitions and watch. Our women's team is ranked number 17 in the nation, so we're pretty dang good in this area except our men's but that is because that team is non-existant. Anyway, I mention that I go because many of my friends and family know that I am not really into sports--that I try to avoid them at all costs; however, I must admit that I have always had an interest in gymnastics I just hadn't admitted it to myself.

Anyway, I am going to try something. I am going to try to write at least once week on this thing, and since it'll probably be mainly friends and family reading this if you want me to talk about something specific then just ask in the comments area and I will try to get to it. I hope that shouldn't be too bad. So yeah. Until I write again.