Ambiguity

Last week one of our vocabulary words was 'ambiguous' in TOEFL 1. I used the following example, inspired by Mitch Hedburg:

Moi:"Hyun-il, have you ever ridden a bicycle or killed a man?"
H-i:"..................Yes, but I -"
Moi:"Nonono. It's a yes or no question."
H-i: [pained expression] "Yes."

For the next class we discussed the passive voice and I explained the idea of distancing language and we returned to the topic of Hyun-il's dark side.

Active: Hyun-il killed a man with chopsticks. [I got sidetracked explaining that it is unclear if he killed a man *using* chopsticks as the murder weapon or if the man had chopsticks at the time of his demise.]

Passive: Hyun-il was the person who killed the man holding the chopsticks.

My passive examples weren't that great but I was having a lot of fun. I should stop teasing Hyun-il (he's a good kid and is easy going, which is why I tend to make him the subject). He was also the subject of an entire paragraph in a quiz yesterday wherein I continued the saga of his attempts to get a date with a girl in his physics class. In previous quizzes he has had to cancel dates because I gave him study hall or whatever so I cut him some slack in this quiz and they got to study together and it turns out she can explain both Einstein's Theory of Relativity and String Theory.

Vector of Disease

I went to a clinic all by my lonesome to get drugs for what I, with my vast medical expertise, have diagnosed as a sinus infection. Getting treatment in Korea is very different from America.

Pros:
No wait: There's clinics everywhere and you don't have to have an appointment, you just walk in.
Cheap: It was $11 to answer a few questions, be exposed to further infectious agents, and get a prescription. The prescription came to $31.
Easy drug access: Seriously, the doc and I discussed phlegm color and pain and almost instantly I had a 'scrip' for antibiotics and several other unidentified pills.

Cons:
Easy drug access: Do I really need 5 pills for sinus pain, coughing and phlegm?
Unsanitary: The doc used a metal tongue depressor to check my throat and tossed it right back into the cup of them on his desk.
Language barrier: This is a pretty serious risk. Granted, I can drag someone from the office with me to act as translator but I already had one mortifying experience with that and let's just say I never want to discuss specifics of lady parts in front of a coworker (again).

I'm looking forward to feeling all kinds of better soon and not sounding like a smoker.

Laptop Endangerment Exercise

I compiled the finest moments of my various sickly attempts at celebrating birthdays. I'll post cultural event pictures etc. when my energy isn't being sapped by disease. Right now I'm in a mood to wander some moors in a ridiculous dress and cry out the names of lost lovers NyQuil products. And chase sheep. Or at least throw dirty tissues and empty Advil containers at them.

May Babies!

I know a lot of people with birthdays in May!

I tried to make a video but both attempts were subpar. I caught a bug that makes me sound and feel like I smoked a pack of cigarettes right before bed.

Mountain View

This is what I spent Children's Day making.

Weekend Neatness

I love wysteria.




There was a reenactment of the wedding of King Sejeong (inventor of everything). A member of our party stopped him for photos and then a plague of us descended on these poor reenactors.


This tree and thousands of lanterns are all on the grounds of the Jogyesa Temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Seoul.


I made a lantern at one of the HiSeoul festival events. It's incomplete because we got there late but I'm pleased with it.

Shittin' Rainbows

Some things that have made me smile (or smirk) lately:

Read a Book
This raises a lot of questions about whether or not certain racial stereotypes are being reinforced with negative consequences. I think that it could go either way but, for me, it's less about race and far more about the hilarity of combining obscenities with good advice.

Flight of the Conchords
A New Zealand folk parody band. Yea, I know, I usually hate music related comedy but these guys are pretty entertaining. Plus...they're Kiwi. It's all good, though, since it's one of those things white people like.