Changyu Kang/Question number 5 (p. 50)/Narrative Composition(2) Tuesday & 09:00~11:00

Bloody-blood Day   Since my parents and have jobs and they have to go to their workplace, my grandmother raised me until I entered elementary school. And I still remember days with grandmother, especially the day of Bloody-blood.   When I was 7 I liked to play at a playground near grandmother's house making sandcastle, doing hide-and-seek, or playing soccer with my friends. And I was doing hide-and-seek on that day as usual. Me and my friends have a special rule for hide-and-seek that hider must touch certain zone before seeker to win the game and seeker must touch hider's body before hider touch the zone to win   I was hider and I hided myself quite well so seeker was wandering playground. After few minutes I was sure for winning this round and I ran to the zone to finish this game. As soon as I revealed myself, the seeker who was actually my cousin also ran to me to touch my body. So hide-and-seek game became a race which two desperate kids had for winning.   To evade the seeker's hands, I ran here and there while my eyes was looking back to grasp his position. And unluckily I was bumped into wall. My forehead was torn, and literally Bloods were splattered all around. It was freaking painful and everyone in the playground including my cousin who was running toward me started to panic, they didn't know what to do. They just looked at me and blood-splattered wall blankly.   At that moment I calmed down (It was really painful though) and told my cousin to call grandmother and 119 right away. Soon ambulance arrived and took me to hospital.   Doctor said I have to take a surgery to sew up wound. Since there was no anesthesia with the surgery I heard what they said and felt vivid pain. After about 30 minutes I could get out of emergency room. But I got scar on my forehead and this significant wound is still distinct.   Sometimes I stroked this scar on my forehead and think of the bloody-blood day.

Kweonho Lee/Question number 5 (p. 50)/Narrative Composition(2) Tuesday & 09:00~11:00

The Ghost Watcher That night, I wasn't able to sleep a wink due to the horrifying experience that I had in the night. I wasn't the type of person who easily falls into believing ghosts, but after watching all those crazy things, I had to admit that something did exist beyond the world. It was the most appalling experience throughout my life. In the early spring of 2015, I was serving in military service. There were about ten other members in my room and we were having ordinary days with same routines and schedules until this new guy came in to join our squad. No one in the room was able to expect the terrible things that were about to happen. At first, he looked just the same with other guys. He was a bit small and had pale faces but seemed to get along well with others. Everyone liked him. After about a month, however, he started to act strangely. He looked tired every day and kept on dozing off in the daytime. Also, he became skinny and seemed to have lost his appetite. Some members in the room said that they have watched him murmuring something to himself and sometimes smiling for no reason. People started to keep away from him. He was soon sent to the army hospital to get consultation. When he returned, he confessed that he had been suffering from horrible nightmares. He showed his both arms and a wave of nausea swept over us. The arms were full of festering wounds and scratches that he injured himself while he was asleep. He had been biting off his own arms. Then he claimed that a few buildings in our camp are haunted and the ghosts are causing him such nightmares. I thought that he was just suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder and the stories about ghosts were just nonsense. That night, I became curious and went out with him to smoke cigarettes while everyone was asleep. He seemed to be very careful and timid so I told him to relax because I'm with him. Also, I told him to let me know when he sees anything because I wanted to see for myself. As we were talking, he seemed to be relieved. Nothing happened for a few minutes. While listening to him I thought, 'I knew it. He is not seeing ghosts or anything. He is just playing on us.' Just then, he stopped talking all of a sudden. As soon as I noticed an abrupt change in his face, his hands moved really fast and put his cigarette out right away. I was scared at the moment just by looking at the sheer terror that was spreading through his face. He was stuttering while slowly pointing at my back with his trembling fingers. Frozen in fear, I felt a cold sweat in my back and couldn't dare to look back. We just ran back into the camp screaming. There was definitely nothing I can visually see, but I really felt the chill down on my spine at the moment. When we came back in our room, he shivered to death and began to cry like a baby. Everyone woke up and was shocked by seeing his reactions. No one would be able to say it's fake or he was just acting if they had seen it with their own eyes. After a while, he's eyes were all white just like the ones I had seen in the horror movies of exorcism and then he fainted. I was covered in goosebumps after I saw him in the eyes. A few days later, he was discharged from the army and everyone in the room including me fell in shock for a while. It was later found out that the buildings he claimed to have been haunted actually had horrifying histories. The commander of our corps explained that some of the buildings he pointed out were used as a place to cremate dead bodies during the Korean War and the other buildings had incidents of suicides about 10 years ago. Until now, I still remember the scenes clearly. I believe that he was definitely seeing something supernatural and it is the most appalling experience throughout my life.

Gitae Shin/Question number 5 (p. 50)/Narrative Composition(2) Tuesday & 09:00~11:00

The moment when I could grow and be mature than before.

 

People have different backgrounds and those backgrounds vary from family to family and from person to person. Partly because of that, some people get into social life earlier than others and face harsh realities they probably have not experienced before. To me, it was in 2014 that I tasted little bit of bitterness of social life.

I was discharged from the military on 17^th of July in 2013. I took a full year off and earned money to be completely independent from my parents, only by doing so, without any economic support, I thought that I could truly do whatever I wanted to do. Indeed, I saved huge amount of money which ordinary people around my age cannot even imagine. I had a specific plan to use that money for my future. However, in life, things changed regardless of my fantastic blue print. My sister decided, out of blue, to study abroad in U.S. and it would burden my family with huge costs amounting to almost about 200% of my father's annual salary. My family put our heads together and came to a conclusion. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Washington D.C. I was supposed to return to school and, a stroke of good luck in the midst of misfortune, I did not have to pay for the tuition thanks to the scholarship I had won before going to army. Although my parents said to me that they were able to give me a hand, I refused. I set a small portion of my savings aside and gave them the rest though they returned it to me after 13 months.

From that moment, my life was forcing me to get involved in real social life with full of harshness related to money. I got two part-time jobs as private tutor and worked 4 hours per day for 4 days (2 days for weekdays and 2 days for weekend). 120,000 won was the money I made per week, but it was not stable and the pay fluctuated depending on the schedule. Have you ever felt the feeling that money is after you in every second? Also do you know how pathetic it is for you to watch yourself weighing the costs every time? I had not realized before that all the things around me were about money such as meeting friends, shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste and toothbrush, toilet paper and so on. I will not and cannot forget the very fear which shampoo bottle going empty brought, bitterness which made my ego shattered into pieces when I had to say 'No' to my friends whenever they called me to hang out. Furthermore, as my former department had been dismissed by school authority when I was away from campus and thereby I had to change my major, my daily routine was going to school, to work, to library, and to house. There were so many times that I was frustrated and wanted to give up everything.

Nevertheless, I did not want to be overwhelmed by the situation itself. I know that it always comes and goes. After passing through the 6 month-long tunnel, I became firm, independent, humble, and confident. I finally found 'WHO I AM.' I do not regret voluntarily choosing the hard way instead of easy one. Over the course of facing the real world, I achieved many things that I might have not obtained until now and that constitute me now. Just like old saying, "No pain, No gain!"

Alyssa Yoo/Second Post/Narrative Composition/ Tues. 9-11 a.m.

    Everyone stared. They were all looking at me like I came from a different planet. It would have been pleasant if those stares were warm, but unfortunately, they were nothing of the kind. I did not quite like the smell of the yellow school bus. Something about it made me feel uncomfortable. As I tried to find a seat, I could still feel a lot of the kids staring at me behind my back; some were even glaring. Feeling very awkward, I found an empty seat, but as soon as I tried to sit in it, the white girl meanly said, "This seat is taken. Go find another one." At first, I did believe her. It did not seem like she was lying. However, as we were nearing school, I found out that she just did not want to sit next to the "new Asian girl."

  Here I was, standing in front of the school building, thinking about my friends back home. What were they doing? Did they even miss me? I washed the thoughts out, struggling to look like someone who actually belonged to this country.

  "Kids, this is Rebecca (my name was Rebecca back then). Give her a warm welcome." Luckily, everyone in my new class seemed nice. What I did not realize at the moment was that some of them were just pretending to be nice in front of the teacher.

  "Hey, this is what we do when anyone wears new shoes, okay?" One of the white girls in my class made this statement as she stepped on my clean, white pair of shoes. It was recess, and no supervisors were around. I was all alone with no adult to help me. I was innocent enough to believe that this was a part of American culture.

  "There, we can be friends now." A little Indian girl said this with a mean smirk on her face. Since I was new, there was no one to hang out with, and I thought it would be okay to hang out with these girls who welcomed me with a little "ceremony" of theirs. Besides, it'd be better than being a loner. Although I did not feel comfortable, I thought I would be okay until someone hurt me both physically and psychologically.

  "Hey!" I looked around for the culprit, but he or she had already run away from the scene. Blood ran down my right leg, but I did not cry; I couldn't. I held tears in both of my eyes, but I just could not let them roll down my cheeks. It would be like telling the world that I couldn't survive in the new country I was destined to spend the rest of my life in. I wanted to be strong. Limping, I struggled as hard as I could to get to the door of our classroom. I leaned on the walls, thinking about what worse things were waiting for me.

  The only things I could say in English were "no" and "yes." I could not speak in full sentences. Since it was recess, I waited for the teacher to come to the classroom. I used a lot of body language to first get her attention, then deliver whatever message I had to tell her. I pointed to my bleeding knee, and shaped a square with my fingers to let her know that I needed a band-aid. At first, she was confused, but she got my message and put a band-aid on my knee. Unfortunately, however, I couldn't communicate the fact that someone had intentionally tripped me. I left it a secret until I left the school, but the memory is so vivid that I'll never forget the exact moment.

  First days of school are usually fun and exciting for most people. For me, the first day of school in a new country was the worst day of my life. I saw dirt, blood, and got glares from people I did not even know. Although it was a horrible day, it helped me become stronger and try harder to fit in, to become an American. Bad experiences don't always influence a person negatively. Rather, they can help you get ready for the storm. This first day of school was the first step of becoming a stronger person inside. It got me prepared for the struggles I'd face in life, and when I look back, I'm actually glad of all the bad things that happened in my first day of school in Seattle.

Kim Young Woo / My Experience / Narrative Composition Tuesday 1, 2

Young Woo Alex Kim

201203937

Narrative Composition Tues1,2

When My Mind Went Blank

Anyone whoever has attended college, especially those in Western countries, can agree that the first year is filled with surprises and experiences that one would never be able to forget. After living our whole lives as a student at home, monitored and supervised by our parents, the first year of college is a transition phase for many teenagers. They are shipped off with only their belongings and whatever knowledge he or she has obtained from their peers about the craziness of college life to survive all by themselves.

The first week of university at U.C. Riverside was very chaotic. Frat members and various clubs were everywhere trying to recruit the freshmen to rush or join their organizations by inviting them to a week full of unlimited alcohol and partying. During this week, I met countless number of people from all over California, and this is where I would be introduced to the club that I would be heavily involved in, KASA, Korean American Student Association. My prior knowledge before entering this club was their notoriety of being a club filled with partying and drinking, hence their nickname Korean Alcoholic Smoking Association. I mean, Koreans aren't known to be heavy drinkers and smokers for no reason.

Although Riverside amongst all the other UC's was known to be a party school, my first impressions of the Riverside KASA members were very welcoming and pleasant. After becoming a member at the first general meeting of the semester, they made an announcement of an annual event that the club took part in with all the other KASAs in the other UC's and Cal State Universities all over California. This event was the freshmen dance off, where a dance team of freshmen from all over California universities would compete in a dance off. Right after announcing how big this event was, the staff members showed the newcomers the dance off video of Riverside KASA from the previous years on the big screen. I felt a sudden rush of pride and felt desire to take part so that I could represent my school.

The actual competition was only a month and half away from the first general meeting. I remember for the next month, I spent all night practicing every single day, some practices going through the next morning and finishing it off with breakfast together. Having to endure the cold desert nights of Riverside and having to memorize numerous difficult choreography pieces in less than a month, the practices weren't easy. Moreover, the majority of us never had any prior dancing experiences and the group that started out with more than 50 freshmen, ended up being left with the twenty something of us.

Even until the day before D-day, we weren't ready. Although I don't think this was a good idea, we spent the whole night before the actual day of the performance practicing. Thus, none of us were able to go back to our dormitory rooms until we had to change into our outfits and prep ourselves to go on stage.

With no sleep, I remember I was only able to stay awake because of the jitters and excitement of finally being able to perform on stage. Our school was the third from last to perform and we weren't allowed to watch any other schools to perform until we finished our performances. I remember waiting with all the other schools in the back stage and seeing how energetic they all were with their matching outfits. The wait in the backstage left me feeling more nervous.

When I was actually on stage, I remember looking at all the blank face expressions of the audience since other schools didn't express any kind of support to the other schools. This didn't help my already pounding heart and all of a sudden, my head went blank. I felt stuck and my body froze. I couldn't remember anything I did over the past month and I thought I was going to have a panic attack. Suddenly, the music began to play and I remember as if some kind of energy took over my body. Without actually being aware of what I was doing, my body moved on its own to the music. Muscle memory had saved my life and the countless hours I had put into mastering all the dance pieces had worked. In the end, I cannot ever forget that feeling of sheer terror when my mind saw white. Hard work paid off, and we ended up 3rd place out of twenty schools.

( I apologize to my fellow classmates for making my writing longer than I wanted it to be)

Do Hyun Lim/First Post/Tues 9-11

∙ Write about a pleasant experience you have had with writing. How did this experience affect your attitude toward writing?

During my 7th grade (I went to an American school at that time), my class wrote an essay about global warming in science class. Then, it was to be submitted in a Humanities(English) class where we would be getting corrections for second and third drafts. After I submitted my first draft, the teacher, to my surprise, presented my paper in front of the whole class. She said it could be an example of how essays should be written. I had put a lot of effort in that paper but I have never expected this, as I thought my writing level was just average. I was happy to find out I had some potential and this event gave me more confidence in writing even allowing me to enjoy it.

∙ Describe how writing was taught in your previous schooling by answering some or all of these questions: How often did you have to write? What kinds of topics did you write about? Give one or two examples. What kinds of comments did the teacher make on your papers? What was considered more important: the content of your papers (your ideas) or correct grammar and spelling (how you expressed them)?

I have spent my middle school and two years of high school at an American school, so I think I had more chance to do English writing than my peers. But writing was not exactly my hobby so I did not do any writing other than what the school has assigned me. I wrote many essays and reports. They are about expressing my ideas, thoughts and describing what happened. The kinds of comments teachers made on my papers varied. In classes like English, I got an average score since I did not like literature and got most of my ideas on the internet at that time. In my science classes, I did better because I was interested in it, and I was always better at describing than expressing. Looking back, I think more emphasis was put on the contents of the papers rather than grammar and spelling. However, I tended to care more about the latter since it was more visible when I made the mistake.

∙ Have you ever done any writing for yourself only – letters to friends or relatives, journals, diaries, poems? If so, explain how this writing was different from the writing you did for school assignments.

As I mentioned in the second question, I do not like writing very much. I do not write any blogs, letters or journals, only emails occasionally. However, recently I figured that writing helps me organize my ideas and can affect many people when used correctly. If I become skilled at writing, I believe it will become useful in the future. This is because writing can be used for various purposes such as writing for myself for organizing ideas, or for persuading other people. Although I know its usefulness, I have not started any writing for myself other than taking notes on my cellphone.

Changyu Kang/Exercise 2 (p.11) /Tue 9-11

∙ Write about a pleasant experience you have had with writing. How did this experience affect your attitude toward writing? Whenever I want to write something for recording my special day, I write down something. actually I type it on my facebook and save it as confidential just for me. When I was doing my internship at last semester, I wrote about an big event which my team held. I wrote what I had felt at the scene. It was about hardness of making marketing strategy, controlling people & scene and greatness of seeing what my team had discussed become real. It was really helpful for me to think about my future career and my aptitude, I realized I am quite fit well in this field. I like something live. this writing experience makes me write more, and also makes me think thoroughly before writing. before moment, I have written whenever I have an idea or inspiration on something. but now I write after thorough thinking to make my word more logical and more plausible and also more sophisticating.    ∙ Describe how writing was taught in your previous schooling by answering some or all of these questions: How often did you have to write? What kinds of topics did you write about? Give one or two examples. What kinds of comments did the teacher make on your papers? What was considered more important: the content of your papers (your ideas) or correct grammar and spelling (how you expressed them)? I always have to write when I took a exam. because all professors wanted me to write a essay for exams. so I have written about the topics which my professors threw to me and I tried to write down in a logical way and clearly. the topics was about my major, advertisement, marketing and communication. I could get the feedback through grade. when I study hard and write down the answers which I can understand and feel it is plausible on my own, then they give me A or higher. if not, they give me C or lower. and there was no specific feedback on my papers. but I think they focus more on my ideas than my grammar or spelling. they have always emphasized on logical writing based on logical thinking.   ∙ Have you ever done any writing for yourself only – letters to friends or relatives, journals, diaries, poems? If so, explain how this writing was different from the writing you did for school assignments. Like I sad, I have written about something for recording on my facebook as confidential. and It's very different when I write for school assignments. when I write for myself I focus on my feeling and my thoughts. so It is very personal thing. besides, I don't have to show mine to anyone. and It has no deadline. so I feel kind of free when I write for myself. since it is personal thing, so It could be less clearer than school assignments. It is rather close to freewriting. but I believe It is more helpful for me to either improve my writing skills or organize my thoughts than assignments.