Dongsaeng, you're so pretty

A few weeks ago, when I put labels on my blog posts, I realized that I mentioned and talked about SHINee (pronounced like 'Shiny') quite a bit.

To be honest, I really like these kids:

(1) They have good music.

This was their debut song and it just never gets old.  This is also the SHINee magic dance - it works with almost every pop song the kpop industry releases.  At press, I've probably tried upwards of 50 songs.

(2) They are funny.  (I don't know the source of these quotes; my sister sent them to me a long time ago)

"I know about women. I know that they're not men."
-Shinee: Minho

"Dear future wife, darling. I'm sorry I haven't been a good husband. Let's have children quickly. Or I'll be infertile"
-Shinee: Jonghyun

"It was my first time seeing people with blonde hair overseas. So I was like, 'ah. this is overseas.'"
-Shinee: Taemin

"Don't say random stuff. It makes me do random things."
-Shinee: Onew

"Onew has the confused image, but he is indeed confused."
-Shinee: Jonghyun

"The extent of our appetite is shocking. I won't be surprised if it scares off people"
-Shinee: Jonghyun

"It will be fine if I don't start eating. It's even more difficult to stop eating once I start."
-Shinee: Key
(3) They have survived the horrible haircuts that some stylist convinced them was the greatest thing ever. (The Lucifer concept was the worst. I would like to think this was when they first debuted and 'didn't know any better' but this was just last year)
Taemin: They gave him long, punk rocker hair but it just makes him look like a pretty girl.

Minho: Okay, so Minho doesn't really look that bad.  They can give him the worst haircut in the world and he still looks handsome but that doesn't mean you should.  Does his hair remind anyone else of Spock?

Jonghyun: It's like a lion mane concept.

Key: Words cannot describe how weird this is.  They shaved one quarter of his head and dyed the stubble blonde?

Onew:  He is the oldest but how they made him look like a middle aged man is beyond me.

I watch every video they put out, even the Japanese releases of all the same old songs.  Despite my like for them, I am a little embarrassed to admit, with every new video, I have to ask for help in telling them apart.  I can't seem to keep their faces and names straight.

Recently, though, (my life is boring), I finished watching a TV show with them in it.  I learned that I like Onew more than Key (which was surprising) and that I liked all of them more than Super Junior (shocker).
But the biggest benefit of watching this show is that I think I can now tell Taemin and Onew apart on any video/hairstyle SHINee can throw my direction.

Win!

Singin' in Korean

Dear Self,

When you hurriedly chat to your sister, "brb.  RAIN" so that you could go dance in the sudden torrential downpour outside your apartment and you come back sopping wet to find said sister wondering if you were suddenly (and randomly) excited about the Korean pop star, I think it's safe to assume everyone thinks/knows you're crazy.

Love, 

Me

Dear Kpop,

Do you know what 'supersonic' and 'hypertonic' even mean?  Why put them into a song, then, about taxis?  It makes me want to respond in kind by writing songs with random Korean words that rhyme.  What do you think of 아줌마 가지마 ?  Don't Go, Auntie!  I think it's going to be a great hit.  

Love, 

Me

Dear Korean Netizens,

I understand the impressiveness of good English from Koreans;  I myself get excited to hear it.  However, if the person speaking English was born and raised in America, don't you think you should be more concerned if they don't speak English well? 

Love,

Me

Dear Taiwan,

Now that you've put out a good drama, I simultaneously lay in giddy anticipation of the next episode and in anxious expectation that you'll ruin it all.  In any case, it's a refreshing change from the usual predictable story warmed over a million times and it makes me feel like the fan girl/ drama addict that everyone thinks I am.

Love,

Me

Dear William Wei,

Your music is amazing and your English is superb.  I hope you like Americans because I've decided you're marrying my youngest sister whether you (or she) like it or not.  I must have you in the family!

Love,

Me

My sister specified once she
wanted a man with guitars.
Check and check.  

More about Living, Less about Surviving

Friday:
Ford Focus     Virginia     Rain     West Virginia     Only one radio station?     Rain     Maryland     Downpour   Soccer jersey     Sweatshirt     Ragnar T-shirt    Poncho     Mosquitoes    Bug spray   Waiting    Passing out water    Laughing    Engineer-ish    Breathtaking sunset    Sarah   Anna   Marc   one-sided rivalry against the Tutus?     Buffalo Wild Wings     BYU v. Central Florida    The art of being an umpire    Samurai Blue   Soccer   Makoto Hasebe    Of course, who else?   West Virginia   Two radio stations, finally!   Virginia

Saturday:
Kato   Lost    Four 1st Streets, really?     Cemetery    Service project     Clean Up    Brer Rabbit     Bloody forehead? - nope, it's just berry juice     1 scooter     1 toy gun     1 VHS cassette     1 tire rim   1 nature-reclaimed roll of carpet   Lots of bottles and glass     3 tires     1 truck fender     1 toilet     1 80's TV set     an entire treehouse     Bags and bags and bags and bags of random trash     Spudnuts     Long country drive     50 Llama points?!     Avoid the cemetery    Free Union    Won the Animal Game     Lis     Jenny     Hello Baby     Kelly     RS Broadcast     President Carter   Patience   Rhys    Jolene        

Sunday:
Bruises    Bugbites     wishing I was Melanie     Choir Practice     Church     Miso    Life with lots of siblings    Dinner Group    Lindsey    Isa    Super Junior    Shinee     Beast     Makoto Hasebe    (it's a good sign I'm tired when he comes up)


A weekend worth living.

Old(er) Friends

Today I visited a friend in a nursing home.  As I sat at her side, while she talked to everyone around me - she didn't remember me at all - I looked at her and thought about when I first started making friends in nursing homes.

It was back in Neihu, Taiwan.  I met a girl who was a member of the church from the Philippines who worked at a nursing home.  I stopped by one day to check on her but realizing that her workplace was no place to be receiving visitors, I volunteered my services.  Even when the girl returned to her home, I stayed on, one hour every Monday.  I look back now and wonder what those workers must have thought of me - an American girl with elementary school kid Mandarin Chinese visiting nursing home residents?  Most of the residents didn't speak Mandarin - that was actually the first time that I ever officially heard someone speak Hakka - and so often there was little I could do besides smile at them or sit by their side with my hand on their arm, to let them know that I was there and that I cared about them.  Oh, and sing to them.

As a missionary, I always had a hymnal on me.  However, since this was Taiwan, most of the residents were not Christian or familiar with anything Christian.  I would sing to them the non-traditional songs in hopes they would just think I was singing a nice song.  (I always avoided Israel, Israel, God is Calling though; according to my native colleague, that tune was the same as a traditional Taiwanese funeral song)

I also knew one Chinese folk song, Mo Lia Hua (茉莉花） or Jasmine Flower, that I had learned in middle school.  I couldn't remember all the words when I first started singing that to the residents - I would start it up and they would chime in and sing the entire song with me.  And then I'd get quiet on the few lines I couldn't remember and try to mimic what they were saying.  To this day, I'm still not sure that I got it right.  (I just looked it up -- I was off on one word.)  People told me later that this song has come to express anti-war sentiment so I always wondered what those residents thought of me singing that song.  No one complained, though.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened.  Many smiled.  Some sang along. 

After the singing, I would go around  to the residents who could speak Mandarin and chat with them for a few minutes.  To the residents who only spoke Taiwanese, I would attempt a few butchered sentences.  To the residents who only spoke Hakka, I would just smile and pat their arm.  One resident was deaf and so I used my extremely limited vocabulary in Chinese Sign Language to ask her about her family and how she was doing.  It wasn't until years later that I realized she might have gone deaf later in life so she possibly never learned how to communicate in Chinese Sign Language.  But since I couldn't write in characters, hand waving and smiling seemed to be the only way to talk with her.

I did become fairly good friends with a few of the residents.  One of the women insisted that my colleague and I take a picture with her and her friend.  We did so - I still have that picture of us.  A few weeks later, we returned and she was tickled pink over something.  We asked her about it.  "Oh, my son visited me yesterday and saw the picture of us.  He asked, 'Ma, who are these people?' I told him, 'Those are my American friends.' He was jealous then, 'Ma, you sit in this nursing home all day and yet you have more American friends than I do - how did you ever meet them?'"  Her response to that was cheeky: "They come to visit me, speaking of which you could stand to come by more often.  Come by sometime on a Monday and I'll introduce you."  

It was the beginning of a new habit.  Even if I don't remember them - even if they don't remember me.  It means so much to them to have someone to visit.  It means so very much to me. 

Nothing Gets Past Me

Today, my friend came over to help me plan and execute a trivia game.  She walked in to watch me attached to my computer screen, going through trivia questions while putting cake batter into cupcake pans.

Our conversation went something like this:

Friend: What are you listening to?
Me: The radio broadcast of Wolfsburg's game in German.  Do I understand German?  No.  Do I understand when they're talking about Hasebe?  Yes.  Do I understand what they're saying about Hasebe?  No.  

She looked from me to the computer with a screen full of Bundesliga and back again.  And then she laughed.

We hurriedly pulled together the activity as I sadly listened to and watched (via liveticker) my dear Wolves lose the game to 1899 Hoffenheim.

I returned hours later to see this...

"1:3 in Hoffenheim / Rot für Marwin Hitz"

What does 'rot' mean, I asked my roommates?  I google translated it: 'red'.  Marwin Hitz got a red card?!

And then I saw this:

 Source: Vfl Wolfsburg Seite

Is that what I think it is?!  Makoto wearing a goalie jersey and goalie gloves?!

Um.... I listened to that entire game!  I watched all of the updates!  How did I miss the red card?  How did I miss that Hasebe became a goalie? 

I'm still in disbelief and laughing over the crazy turn of events. 

I really really need to learn German. 

 Source: bundesliga.de

Dear Hasebe-san,

I'm sorry that you conceded a goal in your debut as a professional soccer goalie.  Here's hoping, though, that you went home and had a good laugh about how life turns out in ways that we never anticipate.  It's one grand adventure after another.

Love,
Me

Source: sports.yahoo.com, AFP Photo/Daniel Roland

Can Google translate Missionary-ish?

While running my experiment today (yes! it actually ran!) I started reading old missionary emails from years ago. It was a nice trip down memory lane but I found myself laughing at the phrases I used.  No wonder people think return missionaries are just weird.

I made the bad mistake of asking this very single Taiwanese version of Heath Ledger where he was going. (I think a lot of guys here take it as a pick-up line rather than a lead into a Gospel discussion) Really? No kidding! If some random person came up to me and asked me where I was going, I would probably be just as confused.

On Saturday we followed up with a very sad girl who doesn't want to get married and has problems sleeping. I'm not sure how I ever found these details relevant or important. 

I found out that our dear 101 year old member was personal bodyguard to Chiang Kai Shek and came over with him on the boat. I love how I referenced 'the boat' as though it was some common well known fact how Chiang Kai Shek came to Taiwan. I'm sure my family was thoroughly confused.

This morning we went to the astronomical museum. It was a fun experience hanging out with my district. We couldn't read much on the signs explaining things so we just went from exhibit to exhibit pressing every button and doing every hands-on activity that we could. It was really fun and reminded me that before my mission, I had had a great desire to be involved in space technology. I guess NASA landed on Mars a little while back? The rumors you here in the mission field are always so old anyway that it's hilarious. I love that I referred to my love of NASA as some very distant and mythical 'once upon a time' thing. Did I really forget that much about my previous life as a normal human?

Ever since I got back from Shilin, we've been getting fanged lots. Fanged? It actually is Chinglish for "stood up" from "fang gezi" in Chinese. But I'm sure it sounds horrible to those not in the know.

With three people in our baptismal pool, we were thrilled and even found a fourth person who is contemplating getting baptized also. My sister's response to this email is probably the best: 3 people in the baptismal pool at once???????? do they just sit around waiting for something to happen? chinese people are weird.... ----I'm still laughing over this. For those still confused, here is my mother's explanation: The baptismal pool is the group of investigators that they feel are headed for baptism. They don't all get to sit in the font at the same time - though that might be interesting.

We went to COSTCO today. I didn't have any money so I didn't buy anything. I had thought that if I found something that I really really really couldn't live without and if it wasn't more than a few hundred dollars, I could buy it but nothing really jumped out at me. Aren't you proud of me? I'm sure I gave my parents a heart attack with the flippant way I managed my money. What could I ever want from Costco, food-wise, that was a few hundred dollars? Especially since I claimed that I was poor? Too bad I never bothered to explain that I was thinking in terms of Taiwanese dollars. A few hundred dollars would be the equivalent of 10 USD.

Slip of the Tongue

Me: Oh hey, it's Wasbash.  Didn't we need to turn on Wabash?  Wait, no, we need to turn on Madison.

Sister: You mean Monroe?

Me: Whatever.  They're all Presidents...except for Wabash.

Lady: What's your major?
Me: Umm...well.  I'm actually a PhD student, getting my degree in Aerospace Engineering.

Lady: What year are you in?  

Me: I'm in my sixth year.

Lady: <looking at me like I'm an idiot> PhDs only take 3-4 years.

Me:  Well, some of us take a little longer.  

Inspector: There's a Laser sign on the door.  We can't get in there.

Me: No it's ok.  You can just knock; Hase...er... oops, wrong Japanese person --  Toshi will let you in. 

 Me, talking to my sister: Alexis must think I am so annoying right now.  

Grandma, talking to someone else: Yes, yes, she really does.  

USPS Man: What kind of stamps do you want?

Me: Not Forever stamps please! 

USPS Man: They're all Forever stamps.  

Me: Oh, well, ones that have cool pictures on them.

<We look through the binder of different stamps>

Me: I'd like a sheet of the scientists.

USPS Man: Here you go.

<I look over the scientists>

Me: Wow, I feel like an idiot.  I'm a scientist and I've never heard of any of these people.

USPS Man: Well, just don't aspire to get on a stamp yourself...

Me: Really?

USPS Man: ...Because that would mean you were dead.  

Me: Oh, don't worry.  I have no such goals in life.