여명의 눈동자를 다시보다.

근 20년 만에 우연히 '여명의 눈동자' (DVD 10장)를 빌려서 폐인?직전에 시청을 끝냈다.

Three main characters in this drama are 윤여옥, 장하림, and 최대치. 여옥 is a poor girl who became a member of 정신대. She lost all dignity and had no will to survive. Then she met 최대치, a Korean student-soldier, who gave her the REASON and WILL to survive. 최대치 is another poor man, who had to fight for Japs in the jungle of Burma. He survived and rescued by a Korean communist in China. Perhaps 여옥 gave him the REASON and WILL to survive.
After liberation, he became a high-rank officer of North Korean Army (인민군) and later participated in the 육이오 military campaign.

장하림 is relatively lucky one who attracted three pretty women (ㅎㅎ) throughout the drama. Like 최대치, he also had to join Japs army. Because of his background in medicine, he was involved in the preparation of Japanese germ warfare at Saipan where he met 여옥 and helped her labor. Then the destiny made him an agent of the US intelligence.

After 인천상륙작전, the war was dragging, as Chinese Communist Army (중공군) involved. 최대치 was isolated in 지리산 and became a leader of partisans (빨치산). A truce was finally signed (휴전선 was drawn), and the partisans had no hope to join the main forces from North Korea. They were gradually wiped out in 지리산 by 장하림-led 전경. 여옥 helped 대치 secretly, purely because of personal reason (husband). Finally, 여옥 and 대치 got together, while 하림 was watching them dying of gun shot.

I am not good at film critique, but if I can enjoy watching it second time, it should be a good one. After watching this, I have thought of my life, which made so many turns to be 'NOW'. "What if I was not there at that time?  What if I made a different choice on that occasion?". There could be so many "What ifs" that could change my life path. So should I believe in 'destiny'?

For our Korean-American generation, this drama is a very good resource for teaching "ideology, World War II in Asia, and Korean history under Japanese occupation and after liberation".  English subtitle is excellent and kids will have no problem of understanding the storyline. I certainly recommend it.
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과일인가 채소인가? 아니면 박쥐인가?

Among various exotic things that I was encountered with in America was the way of eating tomatoes. In Korea (at least 30-40 years ago), this 'fruit' was eaten only as a fruit. During sticky summer days like here, people used to buy some tomatoes from the street and cut them into pieces. With sugars sprinkled on the top, it was one of the best summer snacks that relieved my hunger. Therefore, I had never imagined 'cooking' tomatoes, because they were fruits.
In here, tomatoes are used in many different ways such as tomato juices and tomato sauce, puree, sandwich and salad. The tomato sauce is an essential ingredient for Italian dishes (pizza and pasta). It was very strange to see that a fruit is processed or mixed with others to be eaten ^^!

So question is: is tomato fruit or vegetable (과일인가 채소인가)? I found one interesting article regarding this argument. Here is the link for the article below. ‘www.library.northwestern.edu/govinfo/news/2009/04/a_tomato_celebration.html’

Tomato & Definition

a fruit in science, but a vegetable in legislation

Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert in the case of most fruits.

This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty (관세) on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on May 10, 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes other than for paying a tax under a tariff act.

Biologically speaking, tomatoes must be fruits, because they are from the fertilized flowers. However, such definition does not seem to be working in the food business. Whenever money is involved, even a trivial matter becomes a serious matter.....
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요행 그리고 다행

When I came to TN about 10 years ago, the state of TN had no lottery. However, the debate had been very hot for a while. The opponents claimed that gambling or lottery disturbs people's spirit (or something like that. You know what I mean.). The proponents said, "TN borders eight states (WOW! This is the state that borders most other states in the USA). Anyway, people go to the neighboring states to buy the lottery tickets. Why do we lose the our money to other states??" The proponents won, and TN started selling lottery tickets. Fortunately, lawmakers set the rule that certain amount of lottery income should be spent for college scholarships.

I confess that I often buy the tickets to support TN education (^^!), and then I dream, 'What would I do, if I'd be a multi-millionaire? Hmm. Early retire? Car? Mortgage? Travel? Build a temple? Decent homes for our parents? Donation to the Department of Treasury to pay back some National debt??' Dreaming per se makes me happy for a few days until the winning numbers are picked. 피-식- (깨몽하는 소리, 김빠지는 소리). Well, I guess one-dollar-ticket may worth for such an ephemeral dream. And I feel 'lucky' not being selected as a winner, as such easy money certainly will drive me crazy... =°|°=

가재와 소풍

In English, many things living in the water are called fish; for instances, crayfish, jellyfish, cuttlefish, etc. It sounded really strange, because they don't look like fish at all! However, I managed to learn that there is a distinction between the true fish (vertebrates) and just water creatures (invertebrates 무척추동물) in the formal English. For a true fish, there is a space before the word 'Fish' (e.g., Belt Fish, Monk Fish). For other aquatic critters, there is no such space (as in crayfish). Thus, 'fish' is a general term for creatures swimming under the water. An exception that I know is the "silverfish". This is actually an insect, living on the dry land.

Similar rule applies for the flies. For example, compare House Fly vs. dragonfly. The former is a 'true fly', while the latter is an insect that happens to 'fly'. These days, however, not many people realize such a difference, and use it indistinguishably.

Anyway, my and my sister's family went to a creek with a hope to cool down this scorching summer heat. We spotted several crayfish (가재) on the rocky bed of the stream, and caught a few (one of them in the picture above). It was not easy to recognize them in the beginning, because of their camouflage. However, our patience got paid off. Kids had a lot of fun and we lost the track of time.

When I was a school kid, 소풍 was one of the most exciting events. One reason is that it is the day when we can have snacks that we cannot do in normal days. The usual places were someone's tomb (동구능, 정능), temples (봉은사, 영화사), or 유원지. On the way back home, we used to stay around, and some kids tried to catch 가재 in the stream. I tried as well, but never caught anything. So I traded my leftover snacks with 가재, put it in an empty cola bottle to bring it home and observed how it swam. After a day or so, it died of hunger or lack of oxygen or stress (or all of them) ㅠㅠ. As times passed, I forgot about this for a long time, until I found a pile of (cooked) crayfish in a Chinese restaurant. I wondered how they got so many of them.

Finally, EUREKA! I caught my own 가재, a live one!!! I was so excited. And it was such a memento of my old (happy) days. =°|°=

The fourth of July

This year again, a dazzling firework decorated the sky of the Independence Day. In the city where I am living, Independence Day festival is held annually in downtown. More than 100,000 people enjoy a lot of events and celebrate American Independence from British. At night, the city orchestra plays musics that boost American patriotism. At the end of the performance, it is a tradition that the orchestra plays '1812 overture' as a finale. Shortly before the end of the overture, fireworks begin and continue for about 20 min.

For many years in the past, this day has been just an event that provided us with something to see and enjoy a night. However, I am not sure when I, as a Komerican, will be able to accept and celebrate 'sincerely' this day as a memorable holiday. Such an emotion might not occur to me in my life, but at least I am 'trying' to make positive contributions to this society and country to where I am belong now. ~°|°~