Saturday, October 26, 2013

Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter Two

Nae Chingu (My Friends)
Chapter Two

    "Aish*, jinjja*!" Mae Ri grumbled as she poked at her convenient store ramyeon, or ramen as they were most commonly called in other countries.

    "Mae Ri-ya, you knew this was coming! How could you not have thought about it," Jong Hwa poked his chopsticks into her face. "So lazy," he muttered.

    "Ya, Jong Hwa-ya, she knows what she wants to do," I pushed his own bowl of ramyeon towards him and he dutifully shoveled more noodles into his mouth. "She just doesn't know where she's going. Give her a break," I winked at Mae Ri who graciously smiled at me.

    "Thank you, Lily," Mae Ri said sweetly. "I'll just go where you go so you decide where we're going."

I nearly choked on my ramyeon which earned me a questioning look from Jong Hwa. I tried to play it off but whether I was convincing or not, I wasn't sure. I hadn't told them yet but I wasn't entirely sure I was going to be staying in Korea. The thought made me feel suddenly depressed and less hungry. My dad was talking about maybe being transferred again, God only knew where, and if my dad went then I went as well. I desperately wanted to stay in Korea and go to college here but by Korean standards I was still considered a minor even at the age of eighteen. My attempt at nonchalance made my smile feel a little forced, "Ya, you can't put that kind of pressure on me."

    "It's easy then, we'll all just go to Seoul University!" Ji Soo piped in and earned three identical stares or horror.

Jong Hwa tapped the brim of Ji Soo's fedora which had been precariously "resting" on Ji Soo's hair and made it fall to the table, narrowly missing Ji Soo's own ramyeon.

    "Mwo*! Do you know how hard it is to get into Seoul University," Mae Ri asked shrilly. It wasn't really a question because we all knew just how hard it was. The acceptance standards were extremely high and only the best of the best got in--or someone who knew someone and none of us knew someone.

    "Well, we all got into SFLHS," Ji Soo said sheepishly while fake-punching Jong Hwa who gave him a dirty look in response. I tried not to smile at the adorableness of the two.

    "I'm sure you and Jong Hwa would get in just fine since you are both certified geniuses but Mae Ri and I," I let my sentence trail off. Mae Ri and I were good students, we consistently ranked top ten in our entire grade which would sound like an accomplishment if there were more than 60 students in our grade. It still wasn't anything compared to Ji Soo and Jong Hwa competing for the top two spots and therefore had first pick of colleges after graduation. "Listen, I have to get going but I'll see you all tomorrow."

Mae Ri and Ji Soo waved their goodbyes but Jong Hwa stood up, "I'll come with you." Before I could protest, he was already picking up his backpack and walking out the door. Mae Ri's eyes narrowed at me and mouthed "Call me".

I nodded. "Annyeong*," and followed Jong Hwa out the door.

***

Jong Hwa waited for me outside, "You didn't have to take me home, I'm taking the bus anyway." I walked passed him on the way to the nearest bus stop. We weren't too far from the apartment my father rented but far enough that I didn't feel like walking in the cold February weather.

    "Wae Geurae*?" He asked quietly as he slowly caught up. His legs were long er than my so it wasn't hard.

    "Animnida*," I said in answer to his question. He thought something was wrong and I didn't want to jinx my luck by talking about the possible move in my near future. My stomach fluttered a little bit though at the thought that he cared enough about me to ask if something was wrong and then offering to walk me home.

    "Lily, something is wrong, what is it?" He nudged me slightly with his elbow.

Usually his caring persistence was totally endearing but right now I wished he wasn't so observant and let me stay in my bubble of denial. "I don't know what you mean," we reached the bus stop and waited. The buses in Korean usually ran every half hour so even if I had missed the last one, the next one would arrive soon.

    "I saw your face when we were talking about college, are you not going to apply?" He put his hands in his pocket and waited patiently for me to answer.

I sighed. "My father is thinking of moving again and I don't know if I'll be here long enough to even finish high school let alone start college," I rushed the words out and knew that my pronunciation was horrendous but Jong Hwa nodded slowly as if he'd understood what I said. I tried not to let my throat close up. Moving always made me feel sad and helpless because wherever my father went, I had no choice but to go as well. I never got a say in whether we stayed or not and this time would be no different. Moving from Germany to Seoul had been the hardest because I had spent nearly seven years in Germany. I was given less than two months to wrap up my school year, say goodbye to my friends and pack for South Korea. I still tried to keep in touch with my old friends but it was hard since we didn't have much in common any more, plus they were all in college and I was still in high school due to the many school transfers in my educational history. Now that I was nearly an adult and had a good solid friend base in Korea,the last thing I wanted to do was be forced to give up on them as well, not to mention the delay in my schooling...again.

    "Why can't you stay? Aren't you considered an adult in America?" I could see the wheels spinning in his head trying to figure a way out of this. I just wanted to hug him but public personal displays of affection between boys and girls were seriously frowned upon in Korea, especially if you were of school age.

    "I am but with no money to pay for my tuition or a place to stay, how can I stay here?" I had thought about getting a job but dashed it right away because I wouldn't have time to study and what's the point of staying if my grades suffered and I couldn't get into college anyway? I sighed and took a breather because I could feel my old depression beginning to overtake my mood. "I"m sorry, can we not talk about this right now?"

    "Sure," he said quietly.

    "Thanks and don't, you know, tell Mae Ri or Ji Soo," I looked at him but he didn't look at me. He just looked straight ahead which meant one of two things: either he was angry with me or he was thinking really hard. For some reason I was reminded of the first time I met him...

***

Three Years Earlier...

How could I possible have thought German was hard? Oh that's right, because I never thought my father would drag me off to some East Asian country where there were so many linguistic rules! Why couldn't I ask where the bathroom was without having to consider the age of the person I was speaking too?

I tried to grab the attention of a passing student, "Sheel-la-Sheel-lay-"but before I could even try to get the word out the boy nudged passed me and gave me a weird look. I sighed in frustration, how hard was it to say "excuse me?" Oh yeah, really frggin' hard! Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even ask, I would just keep looking until I found a picture that looked like a stick-figured woman except there weren't any pictures! Just signs written in Hangul, their written language, that indicated what the room was used for.

I tried again to get someone's attention, "Sheel-lay-ha-", which earned me nothing more than a weird look and a rude brush off. That was it, I'd had enough! "Sheel-hap-da!" I yelled in the middle of the hallway which garnered me a lot of notice. Within moments of my outburst, the hallway filled with laughter and pointed fingers in my direction. I could feel my face burning with embarrassment but no one offered any kind of help. I turned around, fully prepared to storm off rather than face my laughing peers but someone grabbed my elbow. I turned around, more than ready to throw down but I couldn't do anything but stare at the boy who stopped me.

    "Iz sheel-lay-ham-ni-da," the boy who stopped me said in somewhat broken English but I barely heard him as I stared in wonderment at how incredibly good looking he was. His hair was neatly tousled around an oval face framed in glasses. His smiled reached his eyes and I took notice of the cute little dimple on his left cheek. "And yu don' need to so say shilahamnida to 'dese people. Yu can say chu-gee-oh, iz ress formal."

    "Th-thank you," I stuttered once I found my voice again. "Umm..."

    "Do yu need hep' finding sometink'?" He finally let go of my elbow and smiled encouraging. By now the laughing crowd had dispersed and I took a step back from him.

    "Ah, bathroom, I can't find the bathroom," I swallowed and could feel my face burning again.

    "I will show you," I followed him down the hall and around the corner until he stopped in front of a door with a simple gray and white placard. "Yo-jaw Hwang-jang-sheel. Yo-jaw," he pointed to the symbols as he sounded them out. I committed the symbols to memory so I would never have to go through something like this again.

    "Yeoja, yeoja, yeoja*," I repeated the word again and again. "Thank you."

    "Animnida, I will wait fol yu," he said and leaned against the wall.

     "No, you don't have to," I started to protest.

    "So yu know where yu class iz?" He asked innocently.

    "Well, no but-"

    "I will wait fol yu," he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

***

Present Day...

Needless to say he'd waited and took me to class that day. He even showed up after class was over to help me get around to different places and just like that, I had made my first friend in Korea. It wasn't until later when my language skills were deemed ready that I was able to join the other students in normal classes where I met Mae Ri. Jong Hwa had always been my savior,which is probably why I had a hard time accepting that he liked Mae Ri. However, if there was one thing I learned in the last three years it was that it's good to have friends and I desperately didn't want to leave the friends I'd made in Korea.

To Be Continued....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Aish : Korean exclamation for a sigh or sometimes an "ugh" or "Damn", it's a general purpose word, more or less

*Jinjja : "Seriously" think Grey's Anatomy's "Seriously" ha-ha.

*Mwo : "What"

*Annyeong : short/informal version of "Annyeonghaseyo" which could mean "Hello" or "Goodbye"

*Wae Geurae : "What's wrong?"

*Animnida : amounts to "It's nothing"

*Yeoja : "Woman" or "Female" oppote of Namja which means "Man" or "Male"

Please feel free to leave comments below, they are much appreciated!

Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter One

Nae Chingu (My Friends)
Chapter One

It seemed so long ago that I first passed through these high school doors as a freshman and faced the horrors that came with it. Of course, being a freshman is hard enough but when you are being sent to a new school with no friends in a foreign country on top of it, well, the experience was more than horrifying. 

The recruiter must have done a real mind-bender on my father when he said "You can travel the world" because my father joined the Navy shortly thereafter and hasn't stopped travelling since. At first my mother, a newlywed at the time, was ecstatic at the thought of traveling around the world. So far I have lived in England, Spain and Germany. However, moving to South Korea was apparently too much for her because after nearly 20 years of marriage  she called it quits and moved back to the States. I could have almost hated her for leaving me here if she hadn't been so distraught at the thought. She assured me as soon as she was settled in America she would bring me home with her but there was a problem. By the time she got settled, I had already settled into Seoul and had no desire to leave. That was three years ago.

The last three years have been tumultuous at best but I had found my niche at Seoul Foreign Language High School, SFLHS for short as the students liked to call it. The schoolwork was grueling but that was to be expected considering it was one of the most prestigious schools in Seoul. The only reason I got to take the entrance exam at all was because my father was a well known Navy personnel and because I had spent almost 7 full years in Germany and could speak the language fluently. Because the school specialized in languages such as German, I was almost a shoe in  but I still had to study day and night for the entrance exam and that was nothing compared to the interview! Three years later and I still pitied everyone who had to partake in both entrance requirements. 

Now, sitting in my homeroom waiting for school to start, it all seemed so long ago. It was the first day of my senior year and this would prove to be the most difficult year of my entire high school experience. Listening to my iPod, I impatiently waited for my best friend to show up but like always she was habitually late. Kim Mae Ri, Drama Writing Extraordinaire as she liked to call herself, finally burst through the door a little while later with her usual flamboyant flair and plopped  herself down at the desk in front of me. I no longer batted an eye at her sometimes outrageous outfits which was saying something considering we were required to wear plain tan uniforms. Although the skirt was mandatory for girls, we were encouraged to wear nylons under our skirts to protect our modesty. Because of this, it wasn't uncommon to see girls wearing knee or thigh high stockings or, if you were Mae Ri, pink and white horizontally striped nylons. Her long, black hair was braided into two ponytails which were each accented with a pink and white polka dotted bow. I had no doubt that Mae Ri had matching eye-shadow and under normal circumstances, would have applied it to her face except our school had rules against wearing make-up. Not that she needed make-up to look absolutely stunning. Like most Koreans, she was slender from her feet to her face which I couldn't help being jealous about. Not that I was fat by any means, I just would never be able to exchange clothes with Mae Ri, not unless I wanted to become anorexic in the process. 

It was hard not to feel inadequate when you were constantly surrounded by above-average looking people but I stopped letting it bother me a long time ago. Although my father was as white as white bread, I had my mother to thank for my tan skin. It was her Native American ethnicity that saved me from being as lily white as my name which also happened to be Lily. Back in Germany, most people had short hair so I tended to keep my hair shorter to help feel like less of an outsider so it wasn't a surprise that when I was moved to Korea, I tended to keep my hair longer for the same reasons. As long as it was, I still wasn't able to make it look as elegant as Mae Ri's always seemed to be but then again, she woke up almost two hours before she had to in order for it to look that way and I valued my sleep way to much to sacrifice two hours of it for such a frivolous reason.

    "Mae Ri-ya, tangshineun gugeoseul bolsseubnikka*?" I asked her as soon as she sat down. 

    "No, my dad wouldn't let me watch it! He told me I should be studying but honestly, school hasn't even started yet!" As she replied in Korean, her voice reached the high pitch it usually did when she felt like she'd been wronged. In my opinion, I totally understood her annoyance. "How was it?" 

    "I can't tell you," I smiled smugly knowing that by lunch she would get the truth out of me anyways. 

    "Ya!*" she flounced while she turned around in her seat in feigned annoyance. 

    "It's the first day of class, how could you two be fighting already?" I turned and looked at Kim Jong Hwa, another classmate and good friend of mine. You know those memes about nerdy guys being cute, well, Jong Hwa was the very reason for those memes. I had a serious crush on him but I also knew he held a torch for Mae Ri so our unrequited love triangle couldn't be helped. Jong Hwa wore square framed glasses on his oval face but it really was his overtly friendly nature that was so endearing. Even though he looked like he stepped off the pages of GQ--you know, if GQ had a high school, nerdy edition--he also had the smarts to go with the whole package. You had to be relatively smart to even get accepted into SFLHS but Jong Hwa was genius level and put most of us--most of the school--to shame with his brains. 

The only person who really challenged his smarts was Lee Ji Soo. He too was ridiculously smart and made it look effortless so studying with him was hard. Ji Soo, Jong Hwa's best friend, casually walked in behind Jong Hwa and took a seat at a random desk. He was the exact opposite of Jong Hwa and was often perceived as arrogant but the three of us knew different. Underneath his egocentric exterior was an inconceivably kind and caring person that only a few were privy to. I was lucky to be one of them. It saddened me that he wasn't in our class but in a classroom down the hall. He swore the people were stupid and primal in his class so he usually hung out in our room until school started. If I were the plain one, Mae Ri the beautiful one and Jong Hwa the nerdy guy then Ji Soo was the equivalent to the female fashionista. He always seemed to have the perfect accessories and today it was a soft looking fedora that perfectly framed his expertly coiffed hair, he had rings on nearly all of his fingers and the necklace was nothing short of complimentary to his entire ensemble. He made the ugly, tan uniforms look cool. I knew back in the States his sexual orientation would have been questioned but in Korea, it was almost a crime to not look your best regardless of whether you were a male or a female. It was one of the many things I appreciated about the Korean culture. 

    "So what're you two fighting about now," Ji Soo asked as he settled into the chair.

    "She missed "Snow Water" last night," I explained as she 'humphed' at me. 

    "Oh, it was a good one too," chimed Jong Hwa as he studiously pulled out his text books and prepared for our first class. He had to duck or else be assaulted by the pen Mae Ri whipped at him. He chuckled as he picked up the pen and passed it back to Mae Ri fearlessly. Jong Hwa didn't even like TV, he only watched it because Mae Ri wanted to be a screenwriter for TV dramas when she graduated and felt that watching them at least gave him some common ground with her. 

    "Ya! Seriously, the both of you are being too much don't you think?" She complained.

    "It doesn't feel like school unless Mae Ri-ya is complaining about something," said another newcomer, Shin Joo Jin, as he walked through the door followed by his normal entourage, Mool Min Gook and Mool Bin Gook--twin brothers. We all laughed except Mae Ri. 

Slowly the classroom filled up and the ambient noise increased as people reconnected with friends after the school break. Everyone knew everyone else because we had been in the same classroom with the same classmates for three years. This was a new transition from changing classrooms every forty-five minutes like in Germany. Oddly, being around the same people day in and day out with only the teacher changing was comforting and more conducive to learning.

Soon the homeroom teacher, Seonsaengnim Cho, arrived and welcomed us all back in her usual perky manner before promptly kicking Ji Soo back to his classroom. It was hard to not to like our homeroom teacher, though, because she was  always so bright. 

    "Long time no see, everyone! Did everyone have a good break?" She chirp. Several "Ne*"'s and "Anieyo*"'s were murmured in response, "Well, this will be a difficult year so I hope you all rested up!"

And just like that....school was back in session.

To Be Continued...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*tangshineun gugeoseul bolsseubnikka : "Did you see it?"

*Ya : Korean exclamation for "Hey!" An admonishment, sometimes.

*Ne : "Yes"

*Anieyo : "No"

Cheval Chapter One

Cheval
Chapter One

I still couldn't believe my boss approved my proposal and allowed me to do an exposé on the equestrian production of "Cheval". It was exactly the break I needed to finally get my name known, I mean, as long as I didn't mess up the article completely. My boss would never give me another chance like this again if I messed it up but I wasn't going to let that intimidate me into passing it along.. I had begged and pleaded with Mark to let me take on this assignment and I would rather die than write anything less than sensational. 

    "I'm counting on you girl," his exceptionally round eyes seemed even wider as he glared at me in warning. "Don't screw this up or you'll be writing nothing more exciting than the penguin migration in Antarctica, ya hear me?" 

    "Yes, sir!" I knew he was mostly kidding about the penguin migration articles because Mark liked me well enough, he scouted me specifically for this job but I also knew he took his job seriously and would have no problem putting me on the cutting block if I let him down. I wouldn't let him down, I vowed. 

    "Well, here's your ticket and by God, do not lose it," he grumbled as he finally pulled the ticket out of his back pocket. "The damn thing cost an arm and a leg," with a final warning glare he walked away from my cubicle and back to his office. 

I stared at the ticket and let out a low whistle, an arm and a leg was right! The ticket was for the VIP seating which included dinner before the show, snacks during intermission and a tour of the stables after the show which I was told was where I would me interviewing the man who was responsible for the creation of Cheval, Louis Gallo. I checked the time on the ticket and then glanced at my own watch. I had nearly four hours before the start of the show which would give me plenty of time to head home, shower and get ready before it began. Within ten minutes I was packed up and ready to head out the door. 

***

This was always the part that stumped me, what to wear...? Did I want to go with straight business attire or the casual and friendly journalist look. I had done my research on Louis Gallo and everything pointed to him being friendly and easy-going but I didn't want to leave a bad first impression. I finally decided that business attire would seem too formal and might make him feel uncomfortable answering my questions so I opted for casual. The finished product were dark jeans tucked into a stylish version of brown riding boots with a scoop necked, cream colored, long-sleeved shirt. I loosely braided my long, brown hair back and chose a long silver chained necklace with a silver feather at the end. 

I took another look in the mirror and decided I looked professional yet casual at the same time. A quick glance at the clock on the wall showed I was running right on time and if I left now, I might even get a good parking spot!

***

I didn't get a good parking spot. In fact, by the time I got there, the amount of people that came early had reached such a level that I almost couldn't find the VIP section. Before I went in I made sure to grab a couple photos from the outside. 

The main tent was massive; four huge tiers held the entire structure up and made it look rather primal in it's simplicity but I knew better. When I found out I had the assignment, I immediately began researching as many facts about Cheval as I could find in order to be as prepared as I could be. In doing so I knew the entire setup of the tents took a series of steps that were meticulously planned out over eleven days. 

It started with the finding a location and discussing practicalities to allow for less complications. The first question was "how the people going to get in and out of the structure" and once that was figured out the rest came easily enough. Within the first three days 40 people would erect the four-103 foot masts and sew 2,000 pounds of canvas together for it to be stretched over a quarter square mile. That was just for starters. It would take 20 people to rebuild the stage and set up the bleachers that would sit 2,000 people. It was only at that point that the inside work could begin--lights, sounds, rigging, all of it needed to be built from the ground  up, literally. The ground stage would built by leveling the dirt and adding rock dust, embedding the a water holding tank and finally pouring over it all with sand. By the time the horses arrive and everything is finished on day eleven nothing is left but to wash the tent and make sure all is in order for rehearsals.

When I felt I had enough acceptable photos for my article, I put away my camera and headed straight for the VIP tent. As plain as it looked on the outside, it did not give the inside justice. It was tastefully lavish; black iron chandeliers hung from the rafters which accented the white tent very nicely. There weren't actual candles in the candle holders but rather candle look-a-likes that flickered in their subtle, mechanical way that mimicked a fake flame. After the attendant checked my ticket and handed me a VIP pass, I was ushered all the way inside. There were a dozen or so tables with red table clothes which gave the whole interior a very Gothic, Victorian feel that managed to seem elegant rather than gaudy. Soft music flowed through the discreetly placed speakers and added a sense of serenity. If this was the soundtrack to the show I was about to see, then I gave the composer silent applause and would seriously need to consider buy the CD. 

In the center was a buffet table laden with delicate finger foods such as sandwiches, pot stickers, barbecued meat and vegetables on kabobs and various fruits. Unwittingly my stomach growled but I ignored it in lieu of checking out the rest of the tent. Off to the side was the gift shop which I knew was about to earn a very big purchase from me. It had everything from CDs, DVDs, stuffed animals, the normal stuff you would expect to found in a gift shop and I made a mental note of things I wanted for myself and friends. I would wait to buy anything until the intermission however to save myself from having to carry the items with me the whole time. On the other side there was a minibar and although I was suppose to be "working", I decided a glass of wine wouldn't hurt anyone and I wasn't about to pass up the full experience of this once-in-a-lifetime event. I carried my wine over to the buffet table and grabbed one of everything.

Although I had been first, considering I arrived nearly an hour before showtime, by the time I sat down at a table, a handful of other people had made their way inside the tent and were taking it all in. Not wanting to waste a moment, I reached inside my purse and pulled out my notepad so I could make notes about everything I saw and heard. Event thought seventy-five percent of what I wrote down wouldn't make it in to the article you just never knew what would be relative in the journalism world. 

I slowly ate as I watched my surroundings; a family of five were sitting a few tables away. The youngest couldn't be more than 8 years old but already her father had bought her a stuffed horse and she was in seventh heaven. The other two children, early teens I would have guessed, switched between looking uncomfortable with their surroundings and looking completely bored. Another couple were sitting at the bar, quietly chatting amongst each other and I felt my eyes travelling to them often. The woman wore an elegant black dress with a white shawl which matched his black and white suited attire. I glanced at everyone else in the room and noticed almost everyone was dressed to the nines. I self-consciously glanced at my attire. Did I misjudge my outfit? No one was staring at me so I couldn't have stood out too much so maybe I was ok. 

It wasn't long before it was announced we could go in and begin taking our seats. I waited until I was one of the last people before I stood up and made my way to the tent flap that would bring me to the main tent. The main tent looked so massive from the outside but seemed so small when you were actually inside of it. Over half the tent was filled by the massive stage which left about a third of the tent for the bleachers. Because I was VIP, I was ushered to a seat in the front row and because I was alone I was lucky enough to get near the middle of the row. While the rest of the people from the non-VIP tent were brought in and seated, I continued to write down my observations of the stage. I jotted quickly in my journalist shorthand which would need to be transcribed later when I got home, a job I did not enjoy.

Any preconceived notion that I would make notes throughout the show were completely dashed as the lights went out and the show began. Not that I would have written anything anyway even if the lights had been on full blast because I was too busy being completely swept up into the dazzling sight before me....

To Be Continued......

Please feel free to leave comments in the section below but again I remind you to be somewhat gentle in your assessment of my unprofessional writing...Thank you!