Nate and Jason's tales adventures in lands far, far away from America have inspired me to write my own, though I must admit to being a newbie with this whole "themed" e-mail thing. It should also be mentioned that I can't help but feel a little intimidated with my own feeble attempt at humor and other topics of interest after the epic storytelling we've witnessed from Nate-in-Rome and Jason-in-Tokyo. Since I am unapologetically dorky, allow me to go with a Scrabble themed e-mail. (I've spent a lot of time on Scrabulous.com lately.)
YODEL -- It's tough to think of words that start with Y.
yodel: To sing so that the voice fluctuates rapidly between the normal chest voice and a falsetto. It was probably first used in the Alps as a method of communication between mountain peaks, and it later became a part of the traditional music of the region.
The Sound of Music is easily one of my favorite musicals/ movies of all time. The action takes place in Salzburg, Austria, just prior to World War II. Maria, a woman studying to become a nun has begun to doubt her calling, is sent out to be a governess to the seven children of Captain von Trapp, a widower and a decorated World War I captain who is an Austrian patriot at a time when it would be safer to be friendly to the ascendant Nazi regime.
I realize that Austria is a long way from Korea, but somehow, I managed to find myself cavorting with Austrians and Germans frequently. I eased my way into it at first, associating with Korean Germans like Chung-kun, Sun-jung, Julian, and Illuk whose parents immigrated from to Germany during the time of the German labor shortage as nurses or laborers. Then, I branched out and moved onto other German-speakers like Steffi and Marijana. Soon, I was scrambling to learn random German phrases like"Du bist geil" (You are sexy) or "Wie geil ist das denn" (How cool is that)!
Aside from one traumatic incident involving a drunk German-speaking Austrian boy showing up at my apartment unwelcome and unnanounced at 4 in the morning and refusing to leave because he was too drunk, my experience with the Germanic people has been fantastisch. I was a little disappointed that none of the Austrians knew how to yodel, but I'll sing "The Lonely Goatherd" for you any time you wanna hear a Korean girl yodel to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
***I actually wanted to write about the Swedes here but (1) I don't think Swedes yodel and (2) I'm retaliating. They never made Swedish meatballs for me before leaving as promised and now I am hurt. I'm at a loss as to what to say about the Swedes. No. Scratch that. I know exactly what I'll write about the Swedes in my next update. *Evil grin*
SEXUAL -- An X word that isn't too difficult to make.
Love is a constellation of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection or profound oneness.[1] The meaning of love varies relative to context. Romantic love is seen as an ineffable feeling of intense attraction shared in passionate or intimate attraction and intimate interpersonal and sexual relationships.[2]
(Okay, so I really wanted to talk about love and not sex, but SEXUAL is a better Scrabble word than LOVE. Although I suppose LOVELY wouldn't be that bad...)
I want to congratulate Marie on her recent wedding and to pre-emptively congratulate Nate on his upcoming wedding. I'm so happy you've found the ones you want to spend the rest of your life with!
My "love" life, which would much more aptly be entitled something else, has been disappointing at best. In fact, now that I am sitting here trying to write something about it, I'm at a loss. I've been in Korea for almost a year now, and I have no meaningful relationships to speak of. I suppose that's ok, though, since I hadn't planned to stay here longer than a year anyhow. I have picked up a few excellent non-boyfriends in Korea. You know, boys with whom you do all the fun hanging-out stuff without the awkward strings-attached stuff.
I'm going to leave that last sentence open to interpretation in order to up the mystery factor of this e-mail.
ANXIETY -- A 7-letter word (known as a "bingo") using high scoring letters X and Y.
anxiety: A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties. It is often accompanied by physical sensations such as heart palpitations, nausea, chest pain, shortness of breath, or tension headache.
Besides being a great Scrabble word, this word also accurately describes how I feel as I continue on this long and arduous process known as "job hunting." When I came to Korea University to get my MBA, I knew it wasn't going to impress any of the big companies upon graduation. I figured it was simply a chance to get out of commodities, work on my Korean language skills, visit my family, and travel. It's been all of that, and more, but now this whole issue of the J-O-B is on the horizon yet again.
About a month ago, I was called in to interview with ING. They've got this SWEET management development program where they rotate you through different functional areas and geographic locations for three years, based out of their headquarters in Amsterdam. Five weeks of vacation plus national holidays? I could see SO MUCH of Europe in three years! So I went to their office in Korea and had an interview with a very pregnant Dutch recruiter there. I rocked the interview, and she said she'd be getting my resume where it needed to go, but it was her last day as she was going on maternity leave for three months. Worried about any discontinuities that might adversely affect my chances at the position, I sought non-formal channels of influence.
I went out to dinner the next week with the CEO of ING Wholesale Banking Korea. I had met him at the birthday party of a Belgian friend's son, and set up an appointment to go to his office and discuss my career prospects at a global bank like ING. I arrived at his office around 6, when our meeting was scheduled, but he was on a conference call till 7 so I patiently worked on a paper until he was ready to see me. He apologized, and asked if we could talk over a snack.
The "snack" ended up being a five course meal at an overpriced Chinese restaurant, complete with a Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon. We were still talking animatedly, so we had another glass of wine, and then decided to move to another wine bar. Two more bottles later, we've made friends with the bartender and gotten her drunk with us, and I'm pretty sure I've convinced him I would be a stellar addition to the ING team using my arsenal of thinly-disguised self-promoting stories and laughing interestedly at pretty much anything he said. Around midnight, it was time to go home, and as I gave him a quick hug goodbye, he tapped my butt.
The tap itself wasn't lewd; it was like a pat on the back, except far too low. He's a tall guy. It's not like his hand is naturally at my butt-level. There had to be some intent on his part. However, as it was not a butt-grab and could well be attributed to a drunken slip of hand, I chose to ignore it and simply pretend it was an accident. The next morning, I received an e-mail from him saying he was sorry if he had been at all inappropriate, and I told him not to worry, could he put me in touch with that recruiter he'd been telling me about?
Fast forward. I've gone through a phone interview with regional headquarters in Hong Kong with favorable results and have been asked to take an online assessment. It consists of abstract reasoning, mathematical reasoning, verbal reasoning, emotional reasoning, and a personality questionnaire. It's a two hour test, and the first three sections are timed. I took this test about two weeks ago, upon completion, I was in despair. It was harder than I had expected, and I had only completed 85% of the math section before running out of time. The personality questionnaire was hard because I didn't know what characteristics they valued, so I went with my gut and was as honest as possible (although I did lie when they asked me about whether I liked things to be neat and orderly... I am messy messy messy; just look at my room).
There was no word on the test results for one entire, agonizing week. Finally, my contact in Hong Kong told me she'd received the results and was waiting to hear from Europe.
Another agonizing week passed, and I was wallowing in self-pity and cursing the gods for not making me good at math like all the other Asian kids. Then, a glimmer of hope appeared as I opened my e-mail and saw that my HK contact had written me back.
Why was she passing me off to another recruiter? Was this a good thing? Dare I hope?Hi Melody,I would like to introduce you to **** who is involved in the Global Graduate Recruitment for ING. She will be you main point of contact from now on.Best of luck!****ING Asia/Pacific LtdHuman Resources39/F One International Finance Centre1 Harbour View Street, Central, Hong Kong
Then I went shopping with Jean in Dongdaemun and had forgotten all about it until I got a phone call from an unknown international number... my heart skipped a beat. Could it be?
I answered, and sure enough, it was the recruiter from Amsterdam. She told me they had gotten my test results and they were "very positive" and that management was "very interested" in me. As some of the pent-up frustration and self-doubt unraveled, I imagined the scene in Amelie where she melts into a puddle of water. Instead, after setting up a phone interview with managers in Amsterdam for this week, I got off the phone, whooped, and jumped up and down.
I don't know if you've ever whooped and jumped up and down in an area densely populated by Koreans, but they've got no shame when it comes to staring. None.
So now the competition's really tough. If I make it past this phone interview, I suspect they'll fly me out for a face-to-face. If I make it through all the hoops, I'll be in Amsterdam by September. Keep your fingers crossed for me; if I can get the job I'll be sure to get a comfy couch!
QAT -- Useful when you need to make a Q word and there is no U in sight.
qat (Catha edulis, family Celastraceae, Ge'ez ጫት č̣āt; Arabic: قات; IPA: [kat]), and also known as khat, gat, chat, and miraa), is a flowering tropical evergreen plant containing the alkaloid cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant which causes excitement and euphoria.
While I haven't been chewing any qat to get my jollies as of late, I have long championed another path to excitement and euphoria: tequila. I just need to share this joy with you: at my favorite bar in Seoul, Tinpan2, a shot of tequila is 2,000 won, roughly equivalent to $2. Yes. It's true. And just outside Tinpan is a tiny kiosk that looks like a robot and sells cocktails-to-go in little zip-loc bags. Genius.
ADIEU -- You've got all these pesky vowels and one crummy D.
adieu: said to wish a fond farewell; good-bye.
Now it's 3 in the morning and I'm tired. (I started writing this at 1 am, two hours ago!) Class tomorrow. But maybe I can squeeze in just one quick game of Scrabble...
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