Christmas Holiday

Christmas Holiday

Yes, this is my fifth Christmas holiday without my family. So sad!!! Christmas to me is a celebration, which includes spending time with my family, decorating the entire house inside and out, and shopping for the people I love. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me.

Spending Christmas with my family is very important to me. We usually gather and celebrate at our house, in Dili-East Timor. A week before the Christmas celebration, we spend the day baking cookies, making cakes and preparing a big Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. Doing those activities for Christmas are so much fun. I remember when I was little I loved to see my cousins and friends the same age as me. We played game, ate cakes, and watched fireworks.

But, since I stay away from my parents going study abroad in another country, I started to feel a different Christmas culture. I feel totally different. No Christmas songs around the place I live and the weird thing is people always get busy with other things despite of busying preparing for Christmas. Another funny thing yet surprising is when it comes to Christmas, it seems like Valentine’s Day. Whenever I go out on Christmas day for dinner with my boyfriend, it is hard for me to see Korean people spending time with their family. What I see are couples everywhere. And me and my boyfriend look each other and say “Are they serious???” I mean I don’t want to judge them or such, but you know, Christmas supposed to be with family. It is important. OMG!!! It is just strange. I just hate to see it, because they got me so jelly, how bad I want to spend my Christmas with my family, but I just can’t because I we are not together now, but they have their family around. Super crazy I think when I see this.

Anyway, Christmas here was not that fun, but I tried hard to make my Christmas become a special day. On 24^th night I, my boyfriend, and one of my friends went to church. After that we then went for dinner nearby. We planned to spend the whole night playing around,  eating cakes, singing in karaoke, and other things, but it didn't work out because the weather wasn't kind. It was so cold and I just don’t know how to describe. But, I actually enjoyed the Christmas with those two beautiful people though.

I rarely go into department stores, but during the Christmas season, I love doing shop because the stores are so beautifully decorated and very festive. I can easily get carried away, with spending so much money. I must admit the thought of spending too much money hardly comes to mind.

Although I am not with my family during the Christmas holiday or another special holiday such as thanks giving day, but I feel so fortunate to have my boyfriend and my friends throughout the year, especially at Christmas time. When showing, my friends just how much I love them and what exactly they mean to me. That is so very important to me. Christmas, for me is about being with family, loving each other and showing each other just exactly how we all feel.

Satirical Essay on Starving Children In Africa

"Far More Likely to Provide The Hunger Poison than Food"
By: Natalina (Sogang University)

There are so many starving children in Africa spreading like wildfire in the forest. Thousands of children die from starvation every single day under the eyes of international community. Many organizations such as United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Red Cross, Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Organization (UNO), and many more are failed to provide substantial amount of nutrition to save the hunger. All they did was showing how delicate is the situation by broadcasting awful images of starving children crying and dying. There’s no one who could help to stop the children from dying in a terrible and pitiful way. Even those organizations did more harm than good. They humiliate as well as exploit African by showing to the whole world that they are dying from starvation. 

There are thousands of photos and videos on the Internet and news which show the pitiful starvation of children in Africa. Those are the results of hard work of the media and press that went to Africa for filming and broadcasting their suffering. By showing those terrific images on the TV, Newspaper, Magazines, and the Internet, the image of Africa is spoiled all over the world. Of course, the main reason they share things happen in Africa is to get the world’s attention for responding these food and humanitarian crisis and find potential donators who can help to end world hunger. However, viewers outside there just take pleasure to watch those miserable children dying as if they are watching FIFA world cup or such. Rather, their ultimate purpose of broadcasting news of starving children issue by showing a bunch of underweight children will just make people feel bad for only a few minutes, but then they will forget. So, conversely this is just to spoil the image of Africa, not to get people for helping Africa. Hence, they better stop filming the awful situation of starving children in Africa because people in today’s world are more shocked by the gay marriage issues or relationship between celebrities, or other interesting gossips instead of the images of pitiful starving children. 

More interestingly, if we try more to find out why International Journalists want to report the shameful situation of Africa, there is a basic reason which is revenge. Some countries in Europe that had colonized African more than 60 years to get the natural resource that Africa has, but they failed. So, they use International Journalists to tell the word that Africans actually has no ability to live their lives. They want the world know the truth that Africans still depend on them. Seriously, aside of spoiled African image, this situation has brought many bad influences on Africa’s economy too. Why? Since people are bombarded by the media, they are more likely to believe on what they see on TV and the Internet. They are making another problem that is worst for the economy of the old continent. 

Therefore, I suggest that rather leave starving children die because it is way less painful than trying to help them to survive. If it takes long for them to feel their pain, then those organizations that help children’s around the word, such as UNICEF, UNHRC, Red Cross, NGO’s, WFP, UNO, far more likely to give the victims of hunger food poisoning to end their pain as quickly as possible. Just stop providing the medical supplied and necessary food, because if you let them die from starvation is way more inhuman. Also, since it’s too paining and pitying to watch them suffer, there is no other reason to live than die. You know, people were born to die anyway. So, it is insignificant that each year millions of dollars are spending to buy foods and drugs to save the children in Africa from malnutrition and starvation, because none of them reach the actual population in need for. If you do so, then it is just like you spend money for nothing. Keep in mind that life is meaningless if we cannot afford to live anymore.

Irony of Life

Besides, there is also another way to stop saving children from starvation. Slave trade can be a good idea. By using the donation money, some starving children could be sent to another country to be slave. Because people who live in big development country, in today’s world, they spend too much on their pets. Do you know how much they spend to raise and save their pets? I can say they spend too much. Comparing the pets that do nothing for their owner with the human being, I think it is better for you to spend money on starving children of Africa. I bet they will do more for you than pet that you have does. You can ask them to do what you want them to do. So, save their live, raise them instead of pets and give them little good place to stay. It is OK to make them as your slave. 

Stop complaining, step back and take a look at how much you have

Take the time to realize that you have so much to be grateful for

On the other side, if we see clearly, the fact that happened in Africa is the aid sometimes does not get to its intended recipients. The main reason is because of corruption on the receiving end. Some of the countries are run by people who take the aid and sell it elsewhere for their personal need rather than donate for hapless families. And, another reason is because of the charity’s overhead. Some charities spend more on the overhead (salaries and such) than on actual aid. These are the charities that get into legal trouble. Therefore, stop acting like an angle that is sent by heaven to help those children. It will be better acting like an evil that provides poison instead of food so that the children will die peacefully. 

In short, those International Medias and Organizations sponsored by the international community still cannot reach their main goal. Not enough is being done for this situation. What they are doing still is more harm than good in their intervention on the starvation situation in Africa. However, don’t surprise me that you are agreed with me. Do not get me wrong too. I am here not to say that people who give contributions to starving children in Africa were totally negative. I just sometimes don’t want starving African children to survive. I questioned to myself that do people really care about them? If they do so, then why there are still so many people starving to death? Of course, they support hard, but still the more they support there is no end to this problem. Since I consider the fact that they might not be aware of the real harm they are causing and just believe that they are doing incredible charities. Likewise, poisoning the children might not be the best solution too. Although they are still unable to end the hunger.

Hope of Africa

How to Decorate Your Personal Diary

There are some people who love writing diary where they pretty much record their daily events or dreams or anything about their emotions that they can talk honestly. I am one of those. I love writing things that happen to me every single day. It is fun and I enjoy it. I started writing story of life that I have been through on my diary since I was in 6th grade of elementary school. The main reason of doing this is because I feel so released after recording my feelings (positive or negative). Especially now when I am in Korea where I got so much stress because of the lifestyle here. Yet, here in Korea, everyone is busy with their own lives, so diary is the only best friend I have. Through writing diary, I found myself feel better and I can regulate my emotions after writing down everything I felt a day. Btw, I must tell you that, Korean's diaries and planners are so pretty and cute, as well as the stickers. I found it fun to play around with them. These are some examples of how I decorate my diary. I hope you guys enjoy seeing it.

Most Korean diaries have a month view and a week view. The monthly section illustrates the main point I want to remember about that day, and the weekly part goes into more depth.

For another post of How to decorate your personal diary, click this link: How to decorate your diary (Part 2)

Response to "Christmas in August" movie

Reflection on the Life and Death

“CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST”

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

Everyone will die eventually someday. Every single one of us lives with knowledge of death. However, although we know that everyone dies eventually, still, we all try really hard to live. Why do we do this? It is a simple question, and there are many different answers from every single of us. In fact, we tried work hard to live for many reasons, even almost all of us hope to live to be 100 years old before die and see the world at a different aspect hopefully for the best, while some people hate the difficult life and they try to commit suicide. All of us have the fear of the death. Yes, everyone does, we have to face it one day. The more we try hard to live our lives, the more we face the fear of death, because we enjoying all the bad and good things, the pain and happiness of live, and we don’t want to leave, specially the people who we meet in our lives. That is why for us as a human being, we try to create memories as much as we could before the death comes and knocks our door. Besides, death also gives us our absolute reasons for leaving. Why? Because it provides us with the structure of how we appreciate and how we guide our lives.

Korean movie: Christmas in August

It is simply talking about a guy who prepares for his death 

due to an incurable disease

There are so many ways people can choose to learn about the death and dying issues itself, although we know about it since we were born. For example: learning it from the experience, hearing from the people around, joining special activity which is related to study about death and dying, watching movies and dramas, searching from the Internet, studying at school, and so on. 

Last week I watched one of the Korean movies entitled ‘Christmas in August’. This movie was introduced by my Religion and Death professor. I am one of Korean movies and dramas fever, and I was waiting for so long for some movies to be watched, and I am so thankful that I found this thoughtful movie. I found more knowledge about how important to live this life. The movie taught me about life and death, and how people can deal with lives in front of death. This movie is simply about a man who prepares for his death due to an incurable disease, and at the same time, cherishing his love in his heart. It was amazingly hear shaking, and showed very sad but warm view toward life in Korea. Although it was only about 97 minutes long, but managed to say just everything about life and death. As we all know, there are thousands ways people die each day. People might die because of the accident, or because they got killed, or they committed suicide, or because of disease that failed be cured by the medical people, and so on. Even though the movie I mentioned takes only for short time, I learnt how the main character Jong-Won faces the death of illness. How he deals with the disease that kills him slowly. Yes, I found that disease that will kill the body, but disease has no power to kill someone’s spirit. 

Life is a strange, yet it is a difficult journey. We're going to have some good and some tough times throughout life, but you cannot have one without the other. You have to observe one thing that you know, that you will die one fine day. Even though you know this open secret, you would not commit suicide. Similarly all other are behaving. Instead of committing suicide they want to live and they want to prove themselves. For instance, someone may want to live with great values, someone may want to create history, and someone may want to waste their time until their end.

Feeling grief and loss

A best friend of mine who lost her dad when she was little

Sometimes she felt so lonely without her dad

Each day, our lives should become very meaningful after we have acceptable the fact that we are not live in this beautiful world forever. Furthermore, we have to live file to its fullest, as if it were our last.

From the movie, while I watched it, I felt like it gave me the point that our body could well be described as our own worst enemies, capable of circumventing the greatest aspirations through earthly physical brittleness, cutting short great lives prematurely. Death gives us our absolute reason for living. It provides us with the structure if how we appreciate and how we guide our lives. It should help us prioritize our activities and the goal that we intend to death was relatively easy and simple. 

I have learned from my Religion and Death class about the grief matters. As we all know that emotional is very important in case of death and dying issue. We all might experience the grief, so do I. As we know, grief is not only felt by people who are going to die, but also felt by survivors. Sometimes grief is not constant, it is not stable. If you ever rode the roller coaster or scary movie, you will know that feeling of grief is pretty the same. Feeling shock, fear, and intense of sad. 

As what I acquired from the movie ‘Christmas in August’, Jong-Won knew that he was going to die soon. He was the one who prepared his death calmly and quietly from summer to winter. He recollected his memory at playground. He looked old photos in a box which held his precious memories. He kept the photo of his first love, Jung-Soon and the photo and the letter of Darim in the box as well. He didn't blame anyone about his death. He was thoughtful enough to consider about people he was going to left. He wrote the manual in details for his dad how to develop the photos. He didn't tell either Jung-Soon or Darim that he was going to die soon. He tried not to worry his sister. He also tried his best to take best photo for an old woman since he sympathized with her. This is the best example of how a person who meets his or her final stage of life leave gift for survivors, which means, the person reduces survivor’s feeling of grief when he or she dies. 

However, on the other hand, he was afraid. It was not easy for him to accept it. He was too drunk so that he was not able to remember what happened at the police station at that night before. He also sobbed in his blanket. To him, Darim was "Christmas." This is so sweet. He thinks so, because Darim made him smile until the last moment. Without her, he might not able to smile when he took his photo for the funeral. 

I am not afraid of death, but if I imagine that I was in Jong-Won place, that I only had a few days, months or year to leave my life, I guess I would not fear about it, but I might be angry, or sad, or any of a thousand different emotions that I couldn't possibly describe. I don’t know if there is something after death. But, I would like to feel there is. Although there is not, I believe that is not something I would fear, because death is natural and as long as we meant something to someone, that they held us dear in their hearts for a time, and then I believe we live forever. To be honest, what I am afraid of the way how I will die. Also, what I am afraid the most is leaving people behind, or maybe leaving things unfinished. That to me is the scariest possibility of all. Overall, this movie motivates me so much to reflect my own life, look back on my life and see if I have wasted it, and think about what I am going to do if I knew I only have several years to live.

Response to "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

Reflection on the Life and Death

“THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH”

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

You might have known and felt that when we are having fun, time passes so quickly and swiftly away. In contrast, when we do nothing, time hardly passes by, for instance a second seems longer than a minute, a minute longer than an hour; because we have nothing to do. However, if we are having fun or we are busy doing things, 12 hours seem just 12 minutes, when we enjoying doing our activities, when we are engaged in something we enjoy doing. When we talk with a wider point of view, we would say life is too short to live to the full, if we are enjoying our life. And, still have millions of things we want to do, but know we cannot, because life is just too short. However, for someone who is not at all enjoying life or whatever he or she is doing, one is too afraid to live life to the full, life is too long. For such people, life could have been more fun had it been shorter. More interestingly, it seems they do not know that life is until you live. When you do not live, then you live like a breathing corpse. It is then not living a life because for wise men living is something totally different to staying alive. 

After reading a really great novel entitled “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” wrote by Leo Tolstoy, believe it or not, I got nightmare when I went to bed. I think I did because I read too much book about death and die, also watching documentary movie and others movies that told story about the life and death. This is so scared. It scared me so much, because I have a lot of experience of seeing people dying in my childhood life. However, besides this, I realized that I have I know less about the death and life, the fact that I was surprise, when I found something new little by little while I read the books and watching movies. 

To consider the story of Ivan Ilyich life and death cycle, as describe in the novel “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, Ivan Ilyich, let me share the key point that I think is important to know before move to the next. 

During his lifetime, Ivan Ilyich head learn the syllogism from Kiesewetter’s Logic: “Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal,” had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself. That Caius – man in the abstract – was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite, quite separate from all others. He had been little Vanya, with a mamma and a papa, with Mitya and Volodya, with the toys, a coachman and a nurse, afterwards with Katenka and with the all the joys, grief, and delights of childhood, boyhood, and youth. What did Caius know of the smell of that striped leather ball Vanya had been so fond of? Had Caius kissed his mother’s hand like that, and did the silk of her dress rustle so for Caius? Had he rioted like that at school when the pastry was bad? Had Caius been in love like that? Could Caius preside at a session as he did? “Caius really was mortal, and it was right for him to die;but for me, little Vanya, Ivan Ilyich, with all my thoughts and emotions, it’s altogether a different matter. It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible”. (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, page 91, IBook)

DEATH. That’s the point of the story described so brilliantly by Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, better known as Leo Tolstoy, an aristocrat, the great Russian writer, a moral philosopher and a leading social thinkers of his time. In his novel, he told the story that Ivan Ilyich cannot accept the fact that as a man he could die. During his life he considered himself special and want to be treated special, such what applies to everyone are not apply to him. But the law of death is the most unjust laws that never saw who you are, what position, wealth, beauty, or all sorts of things that are important to every person alive. Ivan Ilyich cannot accept death as we all do, which is people are kind of selfish, never satisfied with the limitation they have, and try to deceive themselves by letting their ego get the best of them, thinking that they are immortal. But, as Caius can die all of us and also Ivan Ilyich can die as well. 

It seems like, Ivan Ilyich and also the author of the novel, Leo Tolstoy, they both represent the picture of all of us. I want to say that, this novel is not easy to understand if you read it without having interest. I have read this book for two times, because at first I just wanted to finish it as soon as possible since I have other things to do, but then I found out in the end that I understand nothing. I then did reread it again, because I got desire to understand what does this novel talk about. Even though, I don’t understand that whole much, but I got really important thing that the author delivered about. 

Ivan Ilyich seems as a reflection of us. Humans who fond of pleasure, but declined all about suffering. Humans are fond of pleasure but declined suffering. Man who would love life but hate the death. Due to this very simple reason, suffering destroys all the pleasures and the death ends the life. We even feel so selfish, till we do not want to think about death. Imagine if there is someone who wants to think about it, death is usually considered as something that is still far away from us, or it is just valid for Caius. Far from the bottom of our hearts, we think that death is a form of aberration that should never exist. 

However, Caius could die because he is a human being. Human being can die. Then why we cannot die as Caius? And, is there anyone who could guarantee us that we could be alive tomorrow? Does anyone know in advance what is going to happen tomorrow? If we are all going to die one day, then why and for what we work really hard for surviving? If we are all going to die one day then what does this life for anyway? Why we live this life? Is life everything, and the death is the end of everything? Well, there are too many questions that haunt people. The reasons and answer are depending on individual, because everybody owns their lives. We all know that nobody chooses to be born, but we all have the option to take our own life. 

He wept on account of his helplessness, his terrible loneliness, the cruelty of man, the cruelty of God, and the absence of God. “Why hast Thou done all this? Why hast Thou brought me here? Why, why dost Thou torment me so terribly?” He did not expect an answer and yet wept because there was no answer and could be none. The pain again grew more acute, but he did not stir and did not call. He said to himself: “Go on! Strike me! But what is it for? What have I done to Thee? What is it for?” Then he grew quiet and not only ceased weeping but even held his breath and became all attention. It was as though he were listening not to an audible voice but to the voice of his soul, to the current of thoughts arising within him. “What is it you want?” was the first clear conception capable of expression in words that he heard. “What do you want? What do you want?” he repeated to himself. “What do I want? To live and not to suffer,” he answered. And again he listened with such concentrated attention that even his pain did not distract him. “To live? How?” asked his inner voice. (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, page 126-127, IBook)

Ivan Ilyich tried to blame God for all his suffering. But God did not argue. What God did is forced Ivan Ilyich to listen to his own conscience, his heart. Ivan Ilyich began to look back on his life he felt far better and fun. The more he thought, the more he realized that good life was just an illusion. The only moment he felt the most fun was when he was a little boy. However, he did not remember it so clearly because it had left him so many years ago. 

I think that Tolstoy does’t impose on us his thoughts. He does’t force us to follow what he believes. But, he seems to force us to think. He forces us to look back on our lives and thinking what we have done in this life, thinking if we have wasted it, and thinking about what makes us strongly think that we are not only human being can die. He seems forcing us to think what we do are really important and valuable, so it deserves to be a reason to continue living. 

He sought his former accustomed fear of death and did not find it. “Where is it? What death?” There was no fear because there was no death. In place of death there was light. “So that’s what it is!” he suddenly exclaimed aloud. “What joy”. …… “It is finished!” said someone near him. He heard these words and repeated them in his soul. “Death is finished”, he said to himself. “It is no more!” He drew in a breath, stopped in the midst of a sight, stretched out, and died. (The Death of Ivan Ilyich, page 147-148, IBook) 

This is how Ivan Ilyich died. Thus, we will die eventually. Is death so we fear it? Is this life? So, are we really afraid of death? What is the meaning of life for us then? Ivan Ilyich had found the answer, but he already died. We all will probably also find it later when we die. Tolstoy did not give us the answer to those questions. But, through his book, he has given us some idea of what we ask for it and find out the answers for ourselves. 

Therefore, in short, as we are all aware of death, we know it will come to us all. For almost of us, death brings a chill down our spine ridden with fear. However, to others it is ridden with strength and satisfaction of accomplishment, because, fortunately or unfortunately we are all condemned to death. But, no one knows when exactly the inevitable will approach, but we all know it is inescapable. What make death seem more realistic to us, and those in denial of it is the lucid pictures of people suffering, in pain and those on their death bed before many of us can be rationale and accept the truth. 

I was lucky enough to be given a chance of taking “Death and religion Class”, because through this class, I simply got formation of how we live life for the time we are here on earth. Every single of us should live life to its fullest, and to its fullest means that we shall consider accomplishing our duties as parents, children, family, friends, or youths. Our lives may seem like a circus which is contains with so much to juggle. Nevertheless, we have had to remember, not to forget that life has essentially been a gift. We all make mistakes and this should not be regrettable, rather educational. Living life allows us all to learn and learning is the greatest satisfaction. 

Last but not least, I want to tell the truth that, I've been thinking about death a lot lately, and I am not sure why. But, I guess maybe because I watched a couple of movies and documentary which all about death, and read books about life and death, so my mind is been turning back towards the past, that I have experiences of seeing people dying in front of me, specially got killed in a very horrible way. I would not say that I've felt depressed, but my thoughts have lingered more on the process of dying than they usually do. 

I felt so sad and I was almost crying after reading this book, because the more I read it, I imagine he as one of my family. I have had people I've known and loved in my life pass away before their time and it was painful. It was very difficult seeing them go. Peaceful certainly isn't the right word for their passing, but it was almost a relief to see them go in the end, their agony relieved. We had a chance to say goodbye, something a lot of people don’t have; for many people death comes suddenly and everything that they wanted to say or do is suddenly out of reach. 

From the experience of Ivan Ilyich, I also got a really good quote that can lead my life (also for all of us) that “The more we became successful, the more unhappy we are”. This simply tells us to not be so selfish and materialistic. Try to apply the simplicity in our live. 

Response to Thoreau "Why I Went to the Woods"

By: Natalina (Sogang University)
From the experience, there is nobody who doesn't love the excitement they feel after they got new items, especially items that they want so badly in their lives, although the excitement passes quickly. To get things they want, people need money. They need it, likewise, to live their lives. All of us know that money is all it matters to stay in this world. With it, we can get and do things we want. However, in today’s world, most of the people aside from using money to stay alive for basic necessities, such as: food, clothing and shelter. More than that, “To prove to others and the world who is better” seems to be the main purpose most people use money for. This can be said also as the reason why people cannot get simplicity in their lives. It is true that getting to simplicity is not always a simple process, since there are lots of distractions around, so it becomes a journey, not a destination. Some say “Why Should I live simply while I can still be able to get to the top?”. Since everyone has strong desires and their own way to live their lives, nobody has power to stop them, only their own awareness does. I have not been to many countries, but in my short time in South Korea, today, I see how everyone is striving in life, trying to show off their material possessions and status. I see many of these people. Of course live a meaningful life means differently for everybody, but, it seems to them, live a meaningful life as they get things they desire for

It doesn't surprise me (or most of us) that in reality, almost people are always unsatisfied with what they have got. So, they look for another option, try to add more and more treasures to justify that they win the game of life. Until they are stuck in a really complex problem, they start to look back on their lives and wonder if they wasted them, or they will regret when they meet their final stage, death. 

It was hard for me to figure out why South Korea is still categorized as a stressful country. Believe it or not, it blew my mind at my first year in this country when I saw people around me wore brand name outfits and shoes, used expensive bags, and carried fancy electronics devices. They had all the things that I had dreamed about to have so badly. Even though they all have things that they want to, they are still complaining that they are unhappy. Seriously, what are the reasons then? I was haunted by this question for so long. Until I got acquainted with Korean culture, I then finally discovered the answer. Most of people here are super-busy due to competition with others for getting higher image instead of being simple. They do so because others put too much pressure on them to conform. They don’t want to be blame or criticized, or to be rejected by others, if they don’t have at least one expensive item. In this case, in my eyes people are becoming so materialistic. Another reason is the happiness could be reached if they got the expensive fancy materials that make them feel superior. 

I can say from what I see that peer pressure here is huge, especially in knowledge area and material environment. Peer pressure in the area of knowledge, I think it is good, because people give motivation to each other to study hard and getting something for their better lives in the future. However, in material part, that’s horrible, because people will never give up on this no matter how hard it is. It is not wrong if people found their happiness by getting big items with the expensive prices. It is not a bad thing. But, sometimes people cannot control themselves from distraction. Sometimes, people suddenly want to have something that they thought unimportant to get before because of the distraction they saw around, for instance the advertisement from the TV, or through famous people from anywhere they saw. 

I have said many times to Korean people who I met that I like Korea for all things I saw, when I was asked by them how much I like their country. They were wondering why I said so, while I was wondering why they kept asking me the same question. However, once I get to know about the life style here, I came to know that, life here is too much pressure. Every single day I must feel this. The only way to escape from the life here is I must go home, because I yearn for a simple life which is full of happiness. 

My life back home was absolutely good compared with the life that I live in now. Everything changed dramatically after I stepped my foot in this Ginseng country. After a couple of months starting my life in Korea, everything started to flow from the best part slowly to almost worst part, which is totally on opposite direction with what I have expected. I thought that after I got freedom of staying away from home, I can go wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do without spending much time begging for my parent’s permission. Also, I don’t need to do house work as well. But I was wrong. On the contrary, after getting things that I was dreaming about to have such as freedom, plus having my own laptop, and phone, I feel more pressure rather than happy.

Whenever my mom calls me, the thing that I do first is complaining. I always complain about the complex and unhappy life that I live in until present. Life back home was full of happiness. I recalled my life 18 years back, which everything went so good without laptop, Smartphone, or any fancy things. However, my mom supports me and gives me motivation with her thoughtful words that a problem makes people always alive because it keeps people’s brain and body work. I agreed with what she said, but I don’t mean that. What I mean is the life I feel right now, here in Korea, which is I feel unreal. People really turned things upside-down. They make their live so hard, so other people should work hard to keep their lives balanced. 

It is just scary for me to imagine if I live here for the rest of my life. I remember many times I feel uncomfortable when some Korean people stared at me inside the subway or at any crowd places. They are obsessed with appearance, that’s why they want to know what brand my clothes is, or my shoes or my bags are. However, there is a sentence “Nobody is perfect” that always keeps my head high and motivates me to ignore what people think about me. Frankly, I got so much stress though when I saw Korean people’s lives are so perfect, whenever I go, I see people dressed up as if they are going to the party. However, later on I learned and found out that all of these are just fashion. 

After reading an essay from David Henry Thoreau, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For”, I felt the same way as he did, that the world around me was very shallow and superficial. Actually, life is simple if we live it in a simple way, but people make it hard. That’s because people are so snobby and let their snobby blinded their eyes and minds. It forces them to get extra money for getting trivial things. When I heard people said: “I cannot live without my laptop”, “I cannot live without my Smartphone”, “I cannot live without my Louis Vuitton purse”, I said “Liar!”, because this is totally doesn't make sense. If people cannot live without basic needs such as: food, water, air, these make sense. 

On the other side, I disagree with what Thoreau argued about in his essay that the only way to really understand one self and the meaning of life is to slow down. I do not think people have to slow down and look at what they have done, and I definitely don't think you have to move out into the wilderness. The reason I said so is when people slow down in their lives, they will waste time, and sometimes it can hamper them to reach their dream too. 

Therefore, to make life less complicated and less stressful, there is a best quote that can lead us “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify”-Thoreau, which means that people spent too much time thinking little thing instead of living in it to the fullest. Of course, a simple life has different meanings and values for everyone. For me, it means to make life less complicated and eliminating the stress. I consider that it is easy say to live a simple live, but it is so hard to put in an action because most of us are not aware of the truth reality, and we were blinded by the unconscious world. We seem placing the importance of live in physical life as the first one in list of life instead of spiritual life. 

In short, live simple life doesn't mean that you don’t have to work hard. It is a different story. Frankly speaking, apply simplicity in life isn't easy for most people who live in developed countries, or if they have really made up their mind to chuck off all the worldly pleasures, it can be easy. Once when they decide in their mind and heart to find deeper meaning to the life, it wouldn't be difficult to leave the life they have been living. Put in mind that, there are lots of successful people who have shared their experience of live that we can learn and chose which one is the best to follow. Most successful people who only care about materials during their live have said “The more successful they became, the less happy they are”. So, if we don’t want to regret later about our lives, then reflect the saying above. Also, try not to see the pleasure in the hands of others, while we have ours in our hands.

Why Horror Movie?

Why People Watch Horror Movie

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

Talking about horror movie, our mind will never escape from all the movies or films that contain blood, ghost, something that is mystery, and those that make you express your emotional and give your negative reactions when you watch them. Even though they are scary to be watched, but some people feel comfortable and excited (or maybe they tend to) when they watch it, while some people don’t. Personally, I am not a horror movie fanatic. Although I am a chicken for horror movies and get scarred really easily, and I cannot watch one if I am alone, but I found myself sometimes enjoying watching a good horror movie, and there are reasons for that. 

First of all, I want to hide one of my weaknesses that I am one of those who are scared of such horror things, especially blood. I want to prove to my friends my bravery towards horror movie, so I took way that I better challenge myself watching horror movie with them once, in order to prove that I have ability to be able to have courage. I was introduced to ghost story from my sisters and my cousins when I was around 8 years old, but I had not watched scary movie until I was turning into 11 years old, because we had no TV that time. I remember my very first time watching a horror movie entitle The Exorcist in my house with my friends and my sisters once my dad bought us TV and complete with CD/DVD player. It was one late Saturday night I invited some of my friends to come sleepover in my house. Since no one was silent while watching the movie, I then proved that we all felt the same fear and dread.

It’s supposed to happen to many kids, where I got really fear after watching The Exorcist, I promised to myself never to watch such genre of movies again. However afterwards, when I grew older and got to see many different types of movies, I decided to give horror movies one more opportunity. It was on my second year of high school that I experienced of sleepover activity. I and my best friend, every two weeks we went to one’s house for sleepover, and it had become the tradition of our group to watch more than one movie overnight. The movies that we watched the most were horror and thriller movies. We did watch this kind of movies because we wanted to get the feeling of fear, and screamed out as loudly as we could. And, it really did help us to relieve our stress too, since our parents didn't allow us to drink when we got stress due to school works. Therefore, I can say that horror movie, on the other side, is a good movie to be watched and it can help a person to be a strong against their own fears toward something that not even exists.

It is fun watching horror movie with friends

Another reason I watch horror movie is I am bored of being bored by watching routine movies, so I want to try something new in my routine life instead of keep watching the same genre of movies over and over again. As we know that people always desire to get something new in their life or in their activities. So, by watching horror movies, I can feel something different. I understand that after watching horror movie some people keep watching it because they began falling in love with horror things, however, some may stop watching because of the fear that it will happen to themselves in their lives.

It is true that everybody who likes watching horror movies has their own purposes and reasons. However, I think the main reason is because people are curious and obsessed with the unknown. The fact that this world leaves space to fear, doubt, concern, and it becomes interesting for human being to have a close encounter with it. I do enjoy horror films, but only the ones that are psychologically thrilling. It's not so much for the pleasure of watching people suffer as it is for this morbid tendency I have towards disturbing subjects.

People who like horror movies somewhat they enjoy watching it very much, but many things can change their mind depending on some horror movies. Horror movies seem to make the mood very interesting because it makes a person want to watch it, but then it doesn't because of its horrifying elements. The mood can be different depending on the movie, which makes the whole horror movie very interesting. In my opinion the best thing about horror movies is that it can make the movie’s scenes realistic to life. Everybody has different perspectives on horror movies depending on their interest. Therefore horror movies can be determined by the viewer’s discursion. This is what I think can make a horror movie horror.

Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

There is an old and famous saying; “Don’t judge book by its cover”, which simply tells us not to judge someone or something based purely on what we see on the surface, because usually after taking a closer look, the person or thing will not be what we had expected him or her to be. We have been told this by many people who have good intentions for teaching others valuable lessons. For, as human beings, we are not flawless. Although we have been told numerous times not to judge in such a manner, for their outer look is not the mirror of his or her inner self, we sometimes let our egos get the best of us and we fall into the judging habit. Some say judging others based on their skin color is as wrong as judging them based on their appearances. I am one of them who thinks the same way and for several reasons. 

Judging people based on their appearances is blind judgment. When we judge people by their outer look we will incur various disadvantages. For instance, a person who has the perfect ability and deserves to get a job, however because of the way how he or she dresses, unfortunately, it causes them. Meanwhile, an unqualified person may be hired simply based on his appearance before actually knowing his ability. 

In contrast though, sometimes, it is valid to state that the way we dress shows ones personality. People's outward appearance can say a lot about who they are. I don't mean their face; but rather the clothes they choose to wear and how well they take care of their bodies. I can say it is pretty normal to judge them based on this observation. However, judging people by their skin color is indefinitely wrong and the biggest time waster if one is to do such. Skin color, like the name suggests- is just a color, so people shouldn't be judged on what that color may be, because everyone was born the way they are and the way they look.  

One fine day, when I and my African friend went shopping at Edae, some old Korean women, came near us without us noticing. While I was inside the clothes shop, one of the old Korean women started laughing, and exclaimed “This is my first time seeing this skin color directly” and she said this while touching my friend. When I went out from the shop, I saw a lot of people staring at my friend. I'm not sure whether they were staring at her for the same reason as the old woman was or rather because of her attitude. That time I couldn't help but feel bad for my friend. I asked her if she felt alright and she said she did, so, we decided to leave that place. Once we had taken some steps, another old woman came again and asked my friend an unacceptable question, “Don’t you feel so hot in this kind of weather”, asked the woman. I couldn't see my friend’s reaction, because I was staring at the woman with anger. I really wanted to slap her, but my friend told me not to. I realized that people around us felt so sorry, that the shop owner came over to us and apologized on behalf of the woman, and approaching the old woman, she pushed her to leave as quickly as possible. 

I have never understood what the color of someone’s skin had to do with the kind of person they are. We seem to spend so much time focusing on someone's appearance and not enough time on what is in their heart.  

I know, maybe we all do, that many people feel uncomfortable around black people, and the fear of the African-American race by white people is so deeply rooted in their culture and would be hard to eliminate even today. As Brent Staples said in his essay-Just Walk on By-that he often sees women who have the worst fear of him. He mentioned that he is not an aggressive person but due to the actions of some stereotypical thugs from his race he is then characterized to be one; and therefore seen as likely to commit crime. 

To overcome one’s fear of black people, I think the best way is you have to learn to live with it and rather make friends with them. Personally, I used to feel like this too. When I first went to Itaewon with some friends from Morocco, Tanzania, and Sweden, excluding my Tanzanian friend, we all found ourselves feeling uncomfortable around the black people there. Although we knew that we shouldn't feel this way, we couldn't help it at the time. My Tanzanian friend, then, told us that, if feeling that way towards them, is the same as feeling that way towards her too. But fortunately, I then learned how to talk to people and made a lot of friends from different countries. I have to admit that I had also made the error of judging someone without knowing them first, and this happens to me most of the time. I sometimes do so without meaning to, but it is already in my head. For example, sometimes if someone comes up and has baggy pants and is black, my mind shoots to gangster. I know it‘s wrong, but I can't help my reaction. 

I was struck by the title of one of Lady Gaga’s album, ‘I Was Born This Way’. I think this title means several things. The first thing is, you cannot criticize me. I didn't choose to be this way, and just as it’s not right to make fun of the handicapped, no matter what you think about what I am doing, you have no right to criticize me. I was born this way. I had no choice in it; it was gift of a fate to which I was condemned. Secondly, beyond this, the most important thing a person can do is to bring their hidden essence to the surface for all to see. That is, to transfer their interior core of beauty or talent to shine with the light of day, out in the open, through an act of self-expansion, actualization, or fulfillment. 

When you start to treat people based on their outer looks, whether in a good or bad way, you might get the same treatment from others. A treats B, B treats C, C treats D, and D treats A, is a cycle of this society. You are also somewhere in this cycle. So based on this logic, it is not difficult to understand that if you want to be treated nicely, you have to start a sound cycle from the beginning or even break a pattern in the old cycle and edit it with one of your own. It might work somehow and ultimately, surely have an impact- if my math is not wrong. And I must state, I am pretty good at math.