Names you wouldn't think of.

Last night, nine alumni came out to play the varsity boy's basketball team. They started the game down by 16--I later found out that the 16 points were not planned on; the OB's were just not used to the idea of playing basketball--but came out on top by 2 in the end.

It was a weird scene for me. Suddenly, I was 16, 17, 18, back in that gym, watching the same guys play basketball--not all at the same time, of course. I spoke with some of them afterwards, to say hello and ask how/what they were doing nowadays. Great to see you, Maybe I'll see you in London, Take care. I left the gym quickly afterwards with a peculiar feeling: it was as if I had revisited my past as someone else. They probably didn't even know who I was, just that I was a familiar face from a time during which they were unaware of most things to begin with. I hadn't thought of their names in at least 5 years (if not more), and then I watched them play basketball, and the funniest thing is, I will probably never see them again. Until, of course, one day, somehow, somewhere, we cross paths without knowing that any of it would happen. Moments like these make me think how small the world could be, and how life is really full of stuff that one fails to fathom and predict.
Read more!

One year older.

My 23rd birthday turned out to be a pretty good day, breaking the record of 16 consecutive, horrible November 28th's. It's not that I've had bad birthdays persay; my 'birthday' was often celebrated days after or days before due to bad timing. But it just so happened to be that every November 28th's for the past 16 or so years have just been 'bad' days. You know--gross weather, cranky people, frustrating job/work, unnecessary insults, topped by the lack of any celebration either amongst friends or on my own, alone. This year, it was different: surprise celebration by the English and Social Studies teachers; a slice of cake the day before presented by two awesome kids; dinner with a friend; and of course the boyfriend, albeit thousands of miles away, who sends me a paint file of confetti, complete with two dancing figures and a missing 'h' in "birthday."

So, in light of a good day coincidentally on my birthday, my resolution for my year 23 is to recognize and appreciate the good things that I have in life, sometimes.
Read more!

Just for fun

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Read more!

An early surprise!

I was eating some chicken noodle soup in hopes of improving my current throat condition, when two of my former volleyball girls came shyly walking into (and walking out, repeatedly) my room with grins and giggles. Their friend then explained for them that they have a birthday present for me, even though it is one day early!! It was so sweet of them!! Now that the picture is up, I can eat it :)
Read more!

Back from Beijing

And my voice is gone. One of the varsity girls who decided not to go came up to me first thing this morning and said, "Sohko, I should've gone. It would've been worth it to see you yelling and coaching the way I heard you did." That's great, eh. I've lost my voice, if that says anything about the entire weekend. The seriously smoggy air of the city didn't help, either.

The girls' team lost all their games, but it was the ultimate practice for them, and I think they learned a lot. The boys' team, on the other hand, won most of their games and came out on top, as champions of the entire tournament. They played so well!

By far the biggest highlight of the trip was the morning excursion to the Great Wall, on Thursday. We climbed a steep hill where many shops and vendors were set up, selling little trinckets and articles of clothing for passing tourists. I got two bracelets just for the fun, and even found Aaron an old piece of wood. It was probably part of a large door frame or something, but the intricate carvings on it were what got him excited (he enjoys decorating his house, he says. Oh, adults). We went up to the actual Wall via cablecar, and the car I got on was the same one Bill Clinton had got on on his way down. Who knows if it was actally true, but there was a sticker on it that said so. On that day we only walked between two guard towers, but one day I would like to go back and hike the whole length of it. Hopefully the restorations would have finished by then. (Or not, depending on how efficient the Chinese decide to be.)

I stayed in an apartment building located in a residential complex, whose homes are at least 1000 sq. ft. in size and the rent starts at at least $4500 CAD. Totally western-style architecture and interiors. There are about 100 houses in one complex, and there are probably about 15-20 complexes. The region around the International School of Beijing consists of primarily these western European blocks; the only times I felt that I was in Beijing was when I was on the Wall, when I was out shopping in a local market, and when I was on the bus in the mornings traveling between ISB and our excursion destination. It was an interesting set-up, to say the least, and kind of creepy, to be perfecly honest. The School was great, though! Awesome people and the tournament was fabulous - every aspect one would consider for an event was covered and executed, and I was thoroughly impressed.

Some pictures to follow, and there are more on my flickr site.
> A bright red sun at 6am, because of the intense smog in the air.

> See! Bill Clinton took this car.

> Me and the Wall (and a random China man).

> Great view.

> The Pomegranate: a North American sports bar in the middle of nowhere.
Read more!

All out...and waiting.

Applications are all out. Whooop-ti-doo. I'm glad it's all over. Now it's just waiting and waiting and waiting. Sigh.

In the meantime. I am off to Beijing in three hours. Smile. I hope to land safely in China by 9pm tonight. Praying.
Read more!

bulls-eye.

Maneck studied Beggarmaster's excessive chatter, his attempt to hid his heartache. Why did humans do that to their feelings? Wheter it was anger or love or sadness, they always tried to put something else forward in its place. And then there were those who pretended their emotions were bigger and grander than anyone else's. A litle annoyance they acted out like a gigantic rage; where a smile or chuckle would do, they laughed hysterically. Either way, it was dishonest.

A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry. Page 493.
Read more!

Trip #3 of the year!

Destination: BEIJING
Dates: November 22 - 26
Purpose: Invitational high school basketball tournament
Activities: Climb the Great Wall of China, see the Forbidden Palace, and shop. And coach basketball, of course.

Score.
Read more!

Where the....

F&%K!!! is my letter of recommendation from UBC???

RAAAHHHHHH!!
Read more!

My 4th JUMP.

Ex-ASIJ would understand what that means.

On Thursday and Friday I spent 2 days with 12 kids and another adult in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture (read: boonies). It was truly in the middle of nowhere, but still a lot of fun. Some highlights:
- We hiked the wrong mountain.
- I had possibly the best udon noodles in a small, 70 year-old restaurant located in the middle of the 'right' mountain.
- I almost had to call an ambulance for a kid suffering from an allergic reaction to cedar pollen.
- We made glass beads!
- And then we made our own soba, and ate it.

> View from the train to Chichibu.

> Japanese version of Stairmaster (aka Our Hike).

> Clean water!

> Lamune! See the marble?

> Indigo dye smells. Eww.

More pictures on my flickr page...
Read more!

Sooo close! *updated*

My team was ready to fight to the death in each game. It was a double-elimination tournament. Although we lost our first match, that we had taken a set from one of the top teams in the league was a confidence booster for us underdogs. We probably shouldn't have gone to three sets in our second game--perhaps we got a bit cocky--we managed to win that game...until, of course, we met up against our own JV team in the second round of the losers' bracket.

The first set was a blow-out. Something wasn't mentally there and we lost, very quickly. The second set started out slow, but we picked up at the end and came out victorious. In the final set, we began strong by using our momentum from the previous set's victory. But being a short set capped at 17 points, we lost the set by only 3 points. We were so close!

Regardless of the ultimate result, the girls had a great time, and for a team that was shafted for gym practice time and that had less than half the number of season games than all the rest of the teams in the tournament, we fared pretty well, and definitely put up a big fight! Go JVB!

Epilogue..
A few days later, a coach from another school emailed all the athletic directors and volleyball coaches in our league, stating that

Next year I would like to ask that A**J not be allowed to enter a 'B Team' into the tournament...The B team is hard to seed and obviously very good due to the fact A**J is a big school in a small school tournament. Furthermore A**J appears to only be using the tournament as a means to build a strong varsity team as they do not attempt to win, but just play as many girls as possible. [...] If A**J does not care to play to the best of its team's ability with one team, ok, but to take up space with its 'B team' is a waste of time and very poor sportsmanship.

A note to readers that, the topic of discussion is a high school Junior Varsity volleyball league whose players are no where near the college playing level; they have just started to figure out what the game of volleyball is all about. This guy gives no credit to me and Josh who've put quite a bit of time, passion, and effort in building our JVB team. We're just good because we're a bigger school? How does that make sense? I mean, what does that say about his team, and furthermore, his coaching skills? And, apparently, giving dedicated players with a strong desire to learn the game some playing time in a tournament setting is 'poor sportsmanship' in his world. The girls love the game! What's wrong with them wanting to develop their skills for the varsity level and beyond? Arrrghhhh...

Anyway, some pictures..





Read more!

Is it worth the investment?

Investment of time, resources, and perhaps more importantly, faith.

In my recent effort to write a letter of intent for my postgraduate applications, I strongly insisted that the world is in need of people who are not only multilingual, but multicultural, to stand as representative members of a growing international community. I argued that they must be, first and foremost, endowed with a sense of global responsibility. I cannot help but feel that Roh Moo-hyun, the current South Korean president, was one such person.

His 'sunshine policy' programme was began in an effort to reengage a population that had been separated quite cleanly in two by a physical border and a war. According to my mother's extended family members, such a political separation has not led them to believe that they are specifically 'Northern' or 'Southern'; they are, they insist, Korean. The successful completion of Roh's 'sunshine policy', therefore, would have helped bring together two populations that were originally one.

But what do you do, as a man of politics, when your neighbor blows up a nuke, against international objection? Here is a government you've decided to invest in, hoping--and that is truly the appropriate word: hoping--that they would begin to cooperate and see things in a different light. Despite the result (i.e. nuke), Roh should be commended for his effort and his ultimate faith in the good heart of human kind. Yes, they may be (are?) developing 'weapons of mass destruction', but their people are starving, and today, they would be half my people if it were not for the War and the physical border. The government that rules over their former people must be pressured to meet recent international standards of peace and security, but being so close and sharing so much history, they must not be completely alienated. As the direct neighbor and thus the most threatened, South Korea's approach to the recent North Korean crisis has been summarized in the recent issue of the Economist as the following:

South Korea's predominant political consensus, says Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul, is to seek gradual change north of the border in ways that might eventually narrow the vast income gap between the two sides. Tightening the screws too far risks goading Mr Kim to strike back. A collapse of the regime, followed by reunification, would impose unbearable costs on the South. Even the opposition GNP, says Park Jin, a member of the party, believes in maintaining dialogue with the North, while adding some pressure.

How does one with a sense of so-called 'global responsibility' tackle such a situation?
Read more!

the calm after a storm..

exhausted.

i've got no brain energy.

anxious and nervous, but too tired to do anything about it.

my mind wanders.
Read more!