The Color of Friendships-For you who really love your friend in whoever they are

Once upon a time the colors of the world started to quarrel. All claimed that they were the best. The most important. The most useful. The favorite.

Green said: “Clearly I am the most important. I am the sign of life and of hope. I was chosen for grass, trees and leaves. Without me, all animals would die. Look over the countryside and you will see that I am in the majority.”

Blue interrupted: “You only think about the earth, but consider the sky and the sea. It is the water that is the basis of life and drawn up by the clouds from the deep sea. The sky gives space and peace and serenity. Without my peace, you would all be nothing.”

Yellow chuckled: “You are all so serious. I bring laughter, gaiety, and warmth into the world. The sun is yellow, the moon is yellow, the stars are yellow. Every time you look at a sunflower, the whole world starts to smile. Without me there would be no fun.”

Orange started next to blow her trumpet: “I am the color of health and strength. I may be scarce, but I am precious for I serve the needs of human life. I carry the most important vitamins. Think of carrots, pumpkins, oranges, mangoes, and papayas. I don’t hang around all the time, but when I fill the sky at sunrise or sunset, my beauty is so striking that no one gives another thought to any of you.”

Red could stand it no longer he shouted out: “I am the ruler of all of you. I am blood – life’s blood! I am the color of danger and of bravery. I am willing to fight for a cause. I bring fire into the blood. Without me, the earth would be as empty as the moon. I am the color of passion and of love, the red rose, the poinsettia and the poppy.”

Purple rose up to his full height: He was very tall and spoke with great pomp: “I am the color of royalty and power. Kings, chiefs, and bishops have always chosen me for I am the sign of authority and wisdom. People do not question me! They listen and obey.”

Finally Indigo spoke, much more quietly than all the others, but with just as much determination: “Think of me. I am the color of silence. You hardly notice me, but without me you all become superficial. I represent thought and reflection, twilight and deep water. You need me for balance and contrast, for prayer and inner peace.”

And so the colors went on boasting, each convinced of his or her own superiority. Their quarreling became louder and louder. Suddenly there was a startling flash of bright lightening thunder rolled and boomed. Rain started to pour down relentlessly. The colors crouched down in fear, drawing close to one another for comfort.

In the midst of the clamor, rain began to speak: “You foolish colors, fighting amongst yourselves, each trying to dominate the rest. Don’t you know that you were each made for a special purpose, unique and different? Join hands with one another and come to me.” Doing as they were told, the colors united and joined hands.

The rain continued: “From now on, when it rains, each of you will stretch across the sky in a great bow of color as a reminder that you can all live in peace. The Rainbow is a sign of hope for tomorrow.” And so, whenever a good rain washes the world, and a Rainbow appears in the sky, let us remember to appreciate one another.

(http://inspirationalstories.com/1/102.html)

A thousand color (Part 1)

What is on your mind when you see above picture?? “Wow….”, “How did you make it”, “Wah…. How many birds are there??”…. Yups…. those are three most common comments when I saw this picture for my friend. Don’t you know?? I did not make it by myself, one of my friend gave it to me, on Mei 10, 2011 on my 25th birthday. My friend’s name is Jeki trimarstuti, she is doing a year Korean Language program in Hallym University. She is really a good friend and good teacher for me. We are same in age, we have same hobby, we have same background, and most important thing is we grown in same era.

Anyway, What I want to share is not the story about my special birth day gift -A thousand color birds-, but I want to share about what is inside those birds. In every bird, Jeki wrote one word, so since the birds are a thousand, there are also a thousand words inside. Every day, she asked me to open one word, and feel the spirit of the words. Hm…. really nice idea actually, and really thanks to Jeki for giving me this extraordinary gift.

Fortunately, my graduation day of my Ph.D is 1000 days left, so I opened the birds, one by one also as a counting down. Every day, I open 1 word and I post in facebook, I found the meaning of the word in oxford dictionary website, and I found several quotes containing this word. So, What I want to share here is, the words I opened every day, and the quotes I found also. Enjoy…. Hopefully, you will get new spirit as what my  friend wish me to have after open the birds.

999. Deep (… extending far down from the top of surface…)

• “What is love? Love is when one person knows all of your secrets… your deepest, darkest, most dreadful secrets of which no one else in the world knows… and yet in the end, that one person does not think any less of you; even if the rest of the world does.”
• “May the love hidden deep inside your heart find the love waiting in your dreams. May the laughter that you find in your tomorrow wipe away the pain you find in your yesterdays.”

998. ‎Symphony (…. a composition of different elements….)

• “It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” (Albert Einstein)
• “Each human life is like a new symphony heard for the first time. It can’t be understood or fully appreciated until after the final cadence.”

‎997. Majesty (…. impressive beauty, scale or stateliness….)

• “We all felt the majesty of the body. As we saw the artificial heart beat the feeling was not aren’t we great, but aren’t we small.” (Dr. William C. Devris).
• “When the great universe was wrought, To might and majesty from naught,
  The all creative force was -,  THOUGHT.” (Ella Wheeler W.)

996. Retro (…. denoting action that is directed backwards or is reciprocal….)

• “We were really looking for a fresh sound, and I think you can hear that with the use of electronics on the record, … It makes it fun to play loud music without it being a retro thing at all.” (Elvis Castello).

995. Rich (…. existing in plentiful quantities; interesting because full of variety….)

• “Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.” (Buddha).
• “Friendship is a treasured gift, and every time I talk with you I feel as if I’m getting richer and richer”.

994. ‎Sweet (…. having the pleasant taste characteristic of sugar or honey; highly satisfying or gratifying; charming and endearing; dear; beloved…. )

• “May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human enough hope to make you happy.”
• “How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing butsweet dreams.” (Bram stocker).

993. Invoke (…. call on (a deity or spirit ) in prayer, as a witness, or for inspiration; cite or appeal to (someone or something) as an authority for an action or in support of an argument…. )

• “Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.” (Dag Hammarskjold)

992. Adhere (…. stick fast to a surface or substance; believe in and follow the practices of…. )

• “Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is sign on as its accomplice.” (Tom Watson).
• “This new concept ought to be elaborated alongside the religions, in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it. We ought to promote this concept with the help of scientists. It could lead us to what we are looking for.” (Dalai lama).

991. Purpose (…. the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists…. )

• ‎”The purpose of life is a life of purpose” (Robert Byrne)
• “When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It’s to enjoy each step along the way.” (Wayne Dyer).

990. Tranquil (…. calm; free from disturbance…. )

• ‎”The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” (James Allen)
• “When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.” (Buddha).

(To be continued)

떡볶기 (ttokpukki) – An incredible various Korean snack package

When you are hungry, not in eating time. When you want to eat, but with only small amount of food. My suggestion is, get your wallet, call your friend and go to 떡볶기 (ttokpukki) street vendor, of course if you are in Korea. Ttokpukki is a traditional rice cake, and generally boil together with sauces (고주장), or optionally added with boiled egg or Odeng (오댕). Recently, ttokpukki not only can be found in street vendor, but also can be found in small restaurant, in kimbab hause, and event in modern ttokpukki restaurant. If you go to ttokpukki restaurant instead of stop by street vendor, you also can order various kind of friend snack, such as sweet potato, boiled egg covered with flour, shrimp, vegetable, etc., all are covered with flour and fried.

(혜리네 스넥 – Herine snack)

There are several ttokpukki restaurant around my university (Kangwon National University), but I have one favorite restaurant. Not so big actually, and this restaurant is located in small street (not in main street), so it will be difficult for some one who want to get there for the first time. The restaurant name is Herine snack (혜리네 스낵). The price is really cheap and reasonable especially for students. Only with 1000 won we can get 1 portion of ttokpukgi. Other fried snacks are 1000 won for 3 pieces. And normally, by 3000 won, you can eat many things, even sometimes I could not eat that all.

(떡볶이 – Ttokpukki)

Other things you can get there are 똑꼬치 (Ttokkuci), a kind of fried ttokpukki, 라면 (Ramyon) and 김밥 (Kimbab). Really nice place to go to  at winter, of course together with your friend. And one thing, if you go to Herine snack, be ready with the noisy, because many students from elementary to high school, come there on lunch time or after school time.

(떡꼬치 – Ttokkuchi)

비빔국수 (Bibimguksu)-The addicting Korean cold-spicy-noodles

Starting from last Summer (2010), this Korean cold spicy noodles called “비빔국수 (Bibimguksu)” had became one of my favorite Korean dish. I know this food from my Lab Mate, they suggested me to try this food and they promised me that i would not regret with it’s taste. And….. finally yup!!!… Really-really delicious. only with 4500 won for normal size, or if you want you can pay 500 won more for big size. The noodle is in white color, added with Korean spices (고주장) and Korean dried pepper (고줏가루). After mixed with all the spices, the color changed into hot-red color. Added with sliced carrot, sliced cucumber, sliced green pepper and sliced fried-egg, the taste become more various. I think before serving, this food were added with vinegar and sesame.

Hm…. yummmy. But, even though you can order the none-spices one, but in general it original taste is spicy, so beware. At the beginning, I still were not familiar with the hot-spicy taste, too spicy I thought, But nowadays I always order the most spicy one. I still don’t have the picture of this restaurant. Next time, I’ll take and upload here…

The Happiness of Making other People Happy

Several days ago, like usual, I browsed internet for finding an inspiration English story for my Korean friend 서동호 (Soe dong ho). He want to study English (reading), so whenever i have free time, I allocate 10 t0 30 minutes to find English story for him. And two days ago, I found really touchy-inspiring story related with the happiness. What moral that i have got from this story is, by making other people happy we will get a doubled-happiness. Honestly, this moral thought had already on my life principal and I experienced the truth of this thought. So, when I read this story, no doubt, I 100% agreed with the moral on it. Really-really nice story. Here it is, I copied this dtory from the original website: www.shabbir.com/jokes/inspiring/insphappiness.html

“HAPPINESS”

 Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for those one hour periods where his life would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the scene. One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man couldn’t hear the band he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it for himself.

He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She said, “Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you.”

Epilogue…There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy.

“SOMETIMES TO FACE YOUR FUTURE YOU HAVE TO LET GO OF YOUR PAST.”