The season is over, but...

Last night I went to my friend's house to watch the sixth game of NBA playoff first round, Thunder vs Lakers. This young team has been great throughout the season. In addition, considering this was their first appearance in playoff and against the league's one of the best teams, Thunder has been amazing.

The last 0.5 second of the game six and the last shot... we all felt a little disappointed. But there was more hope than sorrow. Thunder is still league's youngest team. Their first playoff experience surely helped the young guys grow one more time.

The 2009-2010 NBA season for the Thunder fans is over. However, this young team showed fabulous possibility and made this small town happy. I am sure Thunder's next season will be much better.

Religions..

Since I came to the United States, I have experienced people who have their own beliefs. I have never had a religion, so these kind of experiences are new. When I came Oklahoma, a church member picked me up at the airport. I started to go to church since then. At first, I went to Korean church mostly because of their serving Korean food. Then I tried American church, and Islamic mosque. Before I went to any religious place, I had this stereotypical idea. Each religion is very exclusive and has different view on things. I used to view that believing God means weak mind. But people I met at churches, temples, and mosques are very kind, open to stranger like me, and very strong. I don't know that the way I feel like is because I am in the United States, the country of many races and freedom. However, I wish I had one if it is not too late.

His first "The player of the week"

One of my favorite baseball teams is Cleveland Indians. The major reason for that is the team has Korean major leaguer. In the Progressive Field (Indians' home ball park), you hear the spectators make sound like "Whooooo" or "Booooo." But it is not booing. Rather it is "chooing" for their new club house leader. This Korean player's name is Shin-Soo Choo. He is a right fielder with so-called five tool player. He was the only AL batter who achieve .300, 20 homeruns, 20 stolen bases last season.

Choo won the previous week's best player in the American League. It was first time for him and first Korean better. As a pitcher, Park was the first Korean who won the title. Choo is amazing last week. He hit .579 batting average, 3 home runs, 11 RBIs, 1.211 OPS, and 23 total bases. He hit three game winning RBIs of the Indians' four wins of the week. The head coach Manny Acta said that he is "a one man wrecking crew."

He is joy of my life these days~

I love baseball~!

Finally MLB regular season starts! One of the reasons I came here is to enjoy American sprots. Among them, baseball and basketball are my favorites. Baseball season has begun and basketball playoff will jump ball this afternoon. This is the best time of the whole year to me~!

I have several teams I like: Indians, Dodgers, Red Socks, Rays, Cardinals... Yes, except Cardinals, I keep changing my favorite team. It depends if the team has Korean players. Now in major league, there are two Korean players playing. Shin-soo Choo in Indians and Chan-ho Park in Yankees. It feels very strange. I've never liked Yankees. I used to go for Red Socks (Neither of them is my favorite though. People keep asking me!) For this season I am going to cheer for Yankees. Because the first Kroean major league pitcher Park signed up with Yankees for this season.

During his 14 years of career, he was unlucky when it comes to post season. He appeared last two playoff as a reliever. But he has no champion ring. He signed with Yankees, not Phillies which offered more money.(1.2 million vs 3 million) Mainly because of his eager to win the world series championship. I hope he can get one this season.

Update for the previous marine disaster..

Still the parted Navy ship is under the Western sea of Korea. The rescue team found two bodies near the broken area. Navy and the Coast Guard gave up more rescue action and decided to pull the parts up. It will take about a month to lift and draw the ship to the coast. The Navy initially mentioned that the oxigen inside can gives 69 hours of possible survival time for the sailors inside the cabin, but it turns out there was no sure for the theory. The initial time of the accident announced differently as time goes by (9:45 to 9:30 to 9:25 to 9:20). The dead sailors' family got a notice that they should leave the Navy apartment in 6 months. The fact that a naval officer took every cell phone right after they rescued added more suspicion on the government or the Department of Defense's covering the truth.

Meanwhile, the survivors finally had a chance to meet the families of sailors who are still in the sea yesterday. The survivors were taking medical treatment at military hospital. That was also an issue, because there was a closer hospital, but they were in the military hospital and isolated from the media. Anyway, the survivors and the sad family had a one hour of meeting and the survivors' interviews were quite consistent.

Still the mystery about the reason of sinking is not solved. Professionals from other contries come to investigate the tragedy. To make matters worse, a Korean fishing vessel was hijacked by a Somalian pirate. They asked 30 million dollars for releasing the vessel.

People say that when you go out of your country, you become a patriot. I hope this is the worst news, and wish to hear good news for these issues.

Navy ship sank, 46 sailors still missing..

Five days ago, Korean 1,200-ton Navy corvette split apart and sank under the West Sea. Initially, there were 104 sailors in the ship. 58 were saved after a couple of hours, but the other 46 were still in the sea waiting for the rescue. However, this tragic accident is full of mysteries. Nothing is clear. Navy, Department of Defense, and Coast guards have different explanations. The reason, rescue process, false statement make people and the families of the missing sailors get angry. Yesterday, one rescuer died on duty. The harsh weather is hampering the rescue effort.

Since we talked about political issue last week, the articles about that attracted me. The party in power in Korea is Grand National Party which receive strong support from conservative people. The party had been involved various issues which public opinion was not favor of; the president's speech about Dokdo, a trial related with a bribe, conflicts with religious society... The local election is on second of June. The opposition party's landslide was quite expectable.

But this accident changed a lot. No one care about other political issues any more. Korean people are praying for the other sailors' safe return. Some media mentions possible attack by North Korea. According to the traditional Korean calendar, 2010 is exactly the same year with when the Korean war happened. (one cycle of the calendar is 60 years.) When the country is in danger, people tend to stand by conservative party. You can see many articles and blog postings about those political issue.

But all I want to see is not the result of this tragic accident nor the election. I want to hear a miraculous story that all of the sailors survived from it.

Board games~

I like playing board games, and I want to be an English teacher. I always think that learning English should be fun! Thus, I tried to use many things in my class. I used songs, TV dramas, and movies. One day, one of my Canadian friends introduced this game to me, and this became my favorite. Many of you probably played this game before. It's a pretty simple game. Green cards are adjectives, and red cards are nouns. Each player gets seven red cards at first. First judge draws a green card (The judge changes each turns). Then the other players choose a red card that best describes the adjective. The judge will shuffle the chosen cards and decide which one matches the best. Both processes are subjective, so we can expect very creative decision from this. The judge decides a card, the player who drew the card wins the green card. A player who accumulates pre-designed amount of green card wins the game.

I add one more thing to make it more educational. When I play this game with Korean children, I give my students time to explain why they chose the card after judge's announcement. If the reason is creative or wins sympathy, the students can get one point extra. This game was great to play.

What is your favorite board game?

Another new experience

Since I came here Oklahoma, I have been through a lot of new things. This class itself is also one. I am actually not good at any electronic devices. I am not sure how to run my own blog. Friends~! Help me and give me any advice.