After confirming reservation and passing through a turnstile of Seoul Station, I was welcomed by a gorgeous train waiting on the railway platform. Entirely covered by purple, the train was veiled beneath an image of a wine bottle with a glass of wine. As I stepped inside the train with odd excitement, the ceiling and windows entwined with grapevine entered my vision.

“David Copperfield, the magician with worldwide fame, has visited Korea twice and was embarrassed in both visits. All of you’ve heard of those incidents, right? Foreigners usually wait for David to show them wonderful magic tricks with curiosity, but Koreans stare at the magician fiercely to find out how he deceive them. Now, that kind of attitude will ruin the mood of today’s wine-train.” The wine-train singer Sung Ho Lee began the recreation that would last for two and a half hour with directions for an enjoyable trip from Seoul Station to ‘Chateau Mani’ in Choong-buk Young-dong. He made his debut at a university song festival and published 3 albums; however reactions were not very positive. After working as a country singer in Misari for a while, he was marked out for the current job.

The wine-train operating by ‘Wine Korea’ has been running for 2 years. With the impact of increasing popularity of wine in Korea in last few years, the number of operation has increased from one per week to two per week. The trip heading to ‘Chateau Mani’ includes recreation, wine tasting, and lectures about wine. The train practically functions as the winery of ‘Wine Kroea’. Serving, preparing for appetizers, and lecturing are all done by staffs.

The staffs usually travel around the country during the weekdays and get on the wine-train on Tuesday and Saturday. The efficiency almost reaches perfection with staffs performing double to quadruple roles. ‘Wine Korea’ had been rejected several times by beverage buyers of department stores and big markets saying there first should be promised consumer pool looking for the product. Yet, as it was introduced through several television programs and gained popularity among people, its business condition improved incomparably. “All the phone in the company get paralyzed when the wine-train is introduced through TV programs such as ‘VJ Corps’ or ‘6 O’clock My Home’. Thankfully, it is now a lot easier for us to conduct business in big markets. There is a huge difference between the rate of orders in last year and that of this year. With upcoming Choosuk holiday, it is even hard to supply all the demands.”

Recently, the most threatening factor of the grape industry is climate. “20 years ago, apples of Taegu were considered most delicious, yet now, those of Choo-pung-ryung are known as the best ones. This shift is taking place in grape industry as well. As the temperature slowly rises, in order to produce grapes in good forms, we have to cultivate grapes in the higher elevation.” said Sun-Goo Lee, a farmer who has been cultivated grapes for 30 years, sighing with overripe grapes in his hands. He claimed that weather gives greater damages than the FTA does.

This year’s festival in September was a complete disaster attacked by rainfalls with the wrong timing. On the last day of the festival, I encountered a farmer rooting about in a box of grapes. “I am struggling here, but no one knows. We poor people have to cry all the time because of rain, money, government policies, and FTA. What did we do wrong? Apparently, I have neither time nor capacity for any interview.” He didn’t lift his head up, but focused in picking the grapes that became inedible.

There are 4200 families cultivating grapes in Young-dong. Only 5% of the total production is used for wine distilling. Yet, this 5% means a lot. If something goes wrong just as it did in this year, grapes in inferior quality can be utilized through wine manufacturing.

So.

I was surfing through the blogs of my friends, and I decided to imitate a post of Andrew. He has “published” his commitments on his blog for the upcoming AP World History exam that I am taking as well. However, unfortunately the exam is on this Thursday, so it is not a very appropriate time for me to come up with commitments for that event (it’s a little too late).

So, I have decided to create a list of ten commitments for the last few weeks of my sophomore year.

• Get rid of “Froot Loop” from the widget page of my macbook.
• Continue blogging (so that I won’t post everything on the last minute).
• Remember I have two more years to go (since it’s the end of the school year, it just feels like everything is over already).
• Write down homework for myself instead of instant messaging rest of the day to find out what the homework is.
• Go home after school.
• Start thinking (seriously) about my major.
• Sleep early. Wake up early.
• Balance (learn how to deal with both studying and hanging out).
• Remember that studying and grades are not everything. But realize that friends are not everything of my life as well.
• Try hard.

We always make commitments; and we always forget about them (it’s just a natural, inevitable pattern). I thought it would be helpful to “publish” them in front of a lot of people, because through the publication, more responsibilities follow.

This is a captured image of the world clock. Click the link if you want to view the real one.

We, human beings, are creatures that grow continuously and rapidly. Countless numbers of babies are born every instant; however this website not only proves how astonishing we are as a species that gives birth to new lives so quickly but also points out the fact that mankind kills and harms other organisms on this planet and maybe the planet itself as well. According to my observation, about 1,600,000 babies appeared on Earth while 330 species became extinct in one week. 7 days—in this short period of time, humans reproduce their own descendents without stopping; unfortunately, at the same time, we are the ones who are fully responsible for damaging this beautiful environment.

People cut down forests; they pump out oils using up uncontrollable amount of natural resources; cars never stop being produced causing pollution that will eventually make our planet a hotter (in terms of temperature) place to live in. It is amazing how fast our population grows. Approximately 600,000—only one third of number of births—died last week, showing apparent rise in the world population. Population growth itself is not a negative phenomenon; but what humans do as the population grows bigger engenders conflicts. Forests produce oxygen that we rely on. If we continue to cut forests down, then how will our grandchildren breathe fresh or any type of air at all? Global warming, although it seems like it’s not happening and some people deny its presence, surely takes place. There are lots of decimal points required to indicate temperature change, yet it is certainly going up.

Mankind not only harms other species but also kill each other under a tragic incident called war. People in Iraq are suffering; people all over the places are being injured by violence. People, standing on the same sphere as we are, commit suicides; and its rate seems like it will never drop. We need to stop damaging our gifted woods. We have to pay attention to those species being forever lost. We must put an end to ongoing cruelty within our species. Let’s realize what’s happening to the planet and to us. Earth has been a wonderful dwelling place for us to live on. Yet it will no loner serve as a peaceful, comfortable, and reliable home if we, human beings, continue to destroy it.

Capitalism.
Economic freedom.
Free enterprise.
Laissez faire.

They are nothing but fancy and alluring outer wrappers trying to cover human filth. It is almost impossible to not admit the fact that capitalism is the most effective economic model so far in our history. We, you and I have witnessed the eventual collapse of communism and other various forms of socialism. Socialism is definitely a wonderful model “in theory”, yet human nature is incapable of supporting its success. I live for myself, and so do you. We all try to put something delicious inside our mouths, wear finest clothing, and live in comfort. No one can be criticized for having such desires, because everyone posses such wills.

Our capitalistic and money-based society not only has caused the creation of natural flow of wealth, but also has given birth to certain crises.

Blood diamonds, often referred as conflict diamonds, are the breathing evidence of the chaos. Blood diamonds literally refer to diamonds that are produced on top of tragic bloodshed in Africa. Europe, the home of capitalism, had imperialized African continents for decades. When European nations finally released the continent from the chains, they have left the land with no effective counterplan. The sudden absence of power naturally created struggle for strength. Ambitious forces wanted heavy arms. Weapons required money. Power and wealth—these two have grown undetachable.

In order to gain money, armed forces began to kill. Africans killed other Africans over the control of diamond mines. Humans murdered other human beings for greater profits. There are 20,000 African child soldiers with guns in their small hands. The young kids use their fingers to pull the triggers.

Illegal diamond trading, Child labor, forced harlotry, and other dirty business are in presence. So many people are unaware of this tragedy. Some do know about this, yet they refuse to reveal this stain. Why? How stupid it is to even ask. They do not want to stop or talk about it because such businesses make considerable profits.

I am not attacking capitalism. I can’t, since I do not have reasonable measure that will replace the current system. However, we should stop for a moment. We should stop and have a look around us. We must see the sad reality and what we have done with our glorious, successful capitalistic minds.

If you want to know more about the blood diamond, click this link.

“I just want to live. I don’t care how,” Lincoln Six-Echo says.
“You’re not real. You’re copies of people out here in the world,” people reply.
The movie, The Island, impressed me.

Having no ceiling to limit it down, technology has continued its growth and development since its first arrival. Nowadays technology has even started to intrude the divine right of nature: People have begun to desire the creation of life. Human cloning is the ultimate destination they hope to arrive at. “To a man with a pencil, everything looks like a list. To a man with a camera, everything looks like an image. To a man with a computer, everything looks like data. And to a man with a grade sheet, everything looks like a number,” Neil Postman argues in Technopoly. If a man develops a new technology that can invent human beings, humans will begin to be seen as objects. Human cloning must never happen.
No shortcut existed in the past. One by one, word for word, people had to copy out a written document with their hands to create its replica. Pouring significant amounts of time and labor, each transcription was treated with great values in return. However, starting with the engraving block technique of Egyptian, humans developed printing technologies, such as Gutenberg’s Printing Press. Finally the development reached its destination where pressing a button using one finger is the only task required to create words and texts. No more admiration is aroused for a written edition due to its commonness. If developments in cloning humans take place, it will result in a similar sequence with insignificance and cheapness of human life.
Cloned humans would be nothing different from other people except for the fact that they are born without chronic pains of mothers. Some people claim that human-cloning should be allowed for medical usage, such as creating organs for transplant. All human beings are born or created holding natural rights that follow the privilege of living as humans. A person should never be allowed to decide the purpose of another person’s life. It is a trespass against a person’s civil liberties to create the person for certain purposes, but cloning could easily lead to this. “You’re special. You have a very special purpose in life,” says the God-like man to the clones in the movie, The Island. The clones’ “very special purpose” is to devote themselves to serve their owners by providing organs: They die for their identical being regardless of their will. Although this has not taken place in reality, it is very likely what the situation will look like if cloning becomes possible.
Another possible problem with cloning is that with emergence of identical beings, society may be situated in chaos. Loss of uniqueness will occur, and the concept of individuality will be gradually but surely be lost as well. When border lines among these individuals fade away, the whole society will sink below the manageable surface. No human is perfect; therefore potential human errors take a big role in resisting the allowance of human cloning. The possibility of a cloned human being deformed and disabled cannot be ignored. There is a case in which Dr. Wilmut of Roslin Institute of England conducted the birth of a clone sheep in 1996. At first, the experiment seemed successful; the sheep, Dolly, was healthy, and was praised as the very first mammal created by men’s hand. However, side effects began to rise up on the surface. Its abnormal speed in aging led to serious lung disease, and it had to be euthanatized. As a result, it barely complete half of normal sheep’s lifetime. This may happen during human cloning process; in that particular case, no payment can pay the price of it.
Human dignity will crash down with demise of individualism among people. Life of a person will be treated as if it is accessible effortlessly. Eventually, the existence of a human will be considered easy and cheap as a paper copy of a document. Humans are not papers. Humans are not documents that can be copied whenever they are needed.
Human cloning is the box of Pandora. It is the Eden’s apple. Once we open the box and eat the forbidden fruit, our entire species will suffer. Euthanizing a person is more serious undertaking than euthanizing a sheep. Are we ready to deal with the moral question involved?

It is said that we all currently live in the Era of Globalization. It is true that various countries constantly interact with one another. However, is globalization a correct, right, and appropriate term to be used? Free Trade Association, United Nations, and many other international organizations claim that their ultimate purpose is the fair and peaceful coexistence of the world. However, is it always true?

The Western colonialism and imperialism officially ended after the World War II. The colonies achieved their national independence. They were freed and liberated according to the textbooks. The Age of Colonialism and Imperialism was over, and the Age of Globalization has approached—people say and believe. Yet, unfortunately, what we—the world—is experiencing at this moment cannot be referred as a true globalization.

It is not globalization. It is pure westernization. Now, here I am to present myself as the walking example of the false globalization. I live in a country called Korea located in East Asia. I go to an international school. Teachers punish me whenever I speak Korean in the school. I receive western education. I read Jane Eyre in English. I speak English. I write English essays. I dress in western clothing. I eat hamburgers. I drink coca-cola. I use macbook. I watch Lost and Gossip Girl. I am writing this post in English and will post it up on wordpress.com, a western site with layouts written in English.

The stronger players (also known as the Westerners) want to call this phenomenon as globalization, because they desire to justify their continued, yet newly formed imperialism. The weaker players (the non-Westerners) hope to call this phenomenon as globalization as well, since they do not want to acknowledge their weaknesses and do not want to admit that they are doing nothing but imitating the West.

Ah, globalization! What a sweet-sounding and comforting term it is!

Every human being continues to build a sandcastle for oneself, thinking that the finished building will define reasons of one’s life and existence. Despite endless attacks of winds and waves breaking down one’s hope, he or she never stops the attempts of constructing the castle. Piling up sand is the only task that provides a person reason to breathe. Beckett believed in the need of constant pressure and compulsory activity in order to sustain life. In his play, Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett well developed the image of life as a vain goblet full of absurdity and irrationality.

Godot whom Estragon and Vladimir wait for is a vague figure without rigid definition. Although Godot has amorphous feature, it being the ultimate symbol of hope cannot be denied. They say he will come; yet he never did and there is no such a promise given that he will. Estragon and Vladimir simply want to believe that his arrival will be made and force themselves to wait for. If Godot does arrive so, Estragon and Vladimir will need “another Godot” to wait; waiting for obscure light of hope is what they’ve figured out as a path to bear absurdity of their existences.

The presence of Estragon and Vladimir not only represents the meaningless struggle of the mankind but also shows how humans are interdependent on one another. Standing on the same earth, it is an unchanging fate of humans to share common air with others for breathing. A relationship named marriage bonds a woman and a man together as one group, eventually giving birth to a new social gathering, family. On the next step, families pile into a bigger community; and with accumulation of countless individuals, the whole universe gets into its shape. A man is always surrounded by other men, while he himself plays a role as a part of another man’s surrounding. A person is different from others, but he or she is never separated from them. Constant pressure forcing us to accomplish certain goal creates missions or roles for us to play in the universe; compulsory activities become vitamins that support our soul to survive. The only terminus of our waiting for Godot is death.

“You must write at least two blog posts every week,” said Ms. P, my English teacher, pointing her finger at me. “Okay. I have chemistry worksheets to finish, everyday quiz in Geography class to study for, AP World History essays to write, and now she wants me to blog. Twice a week. That’s great.”—this is how I reacted in January, 2008.

Let me confess (although the effort that I had put in my blog so far makes the confession quite self-explanatory). I did not take blogging seriously. I thought blogging was boring. I considered writing two posts a week as another burdensome assignment. Yes, honestly, to me, blogging was homework that I had to finish although I hated to do so. But please wait before you (a blogger who worships blogging) condemn me for my past ignorance; and realize how I used past tenses. I repeat. I thought blogging was boring; but not anymore.

It took three days for me to change my mind. First, I changed the theme. I took my time and chose the background design that I was attracted to the most. Changing the theme indeed brought significant impact. The visual attraction stirred up my attention for my own blog site. (I would like to call it as the “visual impact.”) Then, I began exploring blogs of others. Through wordpress.com I searched through people’s blogs looking for common interest; and I found one. I read a blog post title “Lost 4.10” by Billy Liggett who is “a 31-year-old newspaper editor living in Sanford, North Carolina.” He discussed about the tenth episode of Lost, the television series that I go insane about. (I am planning to write a reflection of the episode for myself, so let me set this issue aside.) Visiting other people’s blogs and reading their posts aroused strong motivations—motivations to write posts and to take care of my blog. So I brought such desires into actions. I wrote about subjects that I was recently interested in. People all over the world began responding to my visits. The cluster map soon started to exhibit red dots on various regions.

It was not blogging itself that was boring. It was me. I was the one who made everything tedious. I was a boring blogger. You may think blogging is fun, and you may think it isn’t. But you should remember: you are the decision maker. You have all the authority to make blogging as the most incredible way of expressing yourself or to make it as the most irritating homework assignment ever.

I am a sixteen-year-old girl. Movies, TV shows, and songs are always busy praising the age of sweet sixteen. What is so sweet about being a sixteen-year-old? I am not a young child anymore, but I am not a full grownup at the same time. I am expected by the world to be changed, to make progress, and to move forward, but I am still forgiven when mistakes are made. I would like to call this period of my life as the “intermediate era.” During this era of rapid alternations and transformations, various explorations are possible and allowed. However, once I graduate from my little-fairy-tale-happy-lala-land and enter the real world, I will then have to face a new strong flavor: the bitterness of life.

Life, so far, was sweet, I would say. I lived in the safe zone and stayed under the roof created by my parents. Instructions given by parents, preachers, and teachers have guided me through certain paths so far; yet now I encounter a large wilderness presented in front of me. There is no map, no road, no tour guide, but me. I have the invisible pen and the transparent paper in my hands to draw a new map. I have my feet to leave footprints that create a rough, new road. Finally, I get to prepare myself as the new tour guide of the future.

Life will become bitter, people say. You will face hardships, people warn. Yes, I am scared and worried about my ambiguous future. Nothing has been solidified, and no vision has been constructed. I am afraid to face changes. However, worrying about it brings nothing practical. No matter what I want, I will become an adult and graduate say goodbye to the safe zone. Life was sweet so far. But I have tasted nothing but the sweetness. Let’s suppose that life that I will have to have as a grownup tastes bitter. Well, at least, it’s a new, different type of flavor. Am I ready? Not really. Am I excited? Absolutely!