Articles by mgedwards

And the winner is…

The New England Patriots won this year’s Independence Bowl…er Superbowl, 24-21.  The Philadelphia Eagles hung tough but weren’t quite able to overcome the Pats.  So the Pats have now become a dynasty.  I guess it’s time to put them on my "Do not root for" list.  I prefer greater sports parity.  Although I don’t mind when a team wins multiple championships, I don’t like to see one or two teams dominate a league over a long period of time.  For example, I love baseball, but I don’t like to see the New York Yankees perenniel contenders.  Kansas City Royals fans have just as much right to see their team competitive without having to spend $200+ million in payroll each year.  The Yankees need to go through a few lean years like the Bulls did after Michael Jordan retired.  That the Pats have won 3 of the last 4 Superbowls in a league with a salary cap is quite an achievement.  We’ll see how many more they can win.  At least the Superbowl was a good one with excitement and there weren’t any wardrobe malfunctions this year.  Because we don’t have cable I wasn’t able to watch the game on TV–I kept up with the play-by-play on ESPN.com.

My mom came for a short visit before we leave for Korea.  I’m glad she could come and see us and her grandson before we leave for Korea.  We’ll see her again at Christmastime this year, but that seems very far away from now.  She spent the day touring D.C. while I spent the day checking out at work before heading overseas.  I accomplished a lot today (and still have a lot left to do).  Our house is starting to look like a disaster hit it with all the boxes and suitcases scattered about.  It will be even more so tomorrow as we prepare for the packers to arrive.  The packers arrive on Wednesday morning along with the automobile shippers, and the furniture people come on Thursday afternoon to take away the furniture.  We move into temporary furnished quarters on Wednesday, and we will clean our apartment and check out on Thursday.  On Friday morning come hither or thither we will be on an airplane headed to Hawaii (via Atlanta).  I can’t wait until this is over and the craziness subsides.  That probably won’t happen until we are finally settled in Seoul with all of our belongings. 

Dear reader, it is possible that I may not be able to post again for awhile.  I will try to post again tomorrow, but if I am too busy or do not have an Internet connection because of the move I may not be able to write until next weekend.  We’ll see what happens.

I Passed the Test

I just passed my Korean exam.  I feel great!  I am so glad that it’s finally over.  Seven months of Korean study culminated into a single speaking and reading exam.  I know that Korean will be an ongoing battle and that this is just the beginning of non-stop Korean for the next couple of years.  Nevertheless, it still feels great to be finished with my Korean class and language exam.  It’s an accomplishment I can savor until tomorrow when I being our final packout.  I did not do so well during my two mid-course Korean exams, so passing today is especially rewarding to me.  My mid-course evaluations pointed out to me that I needed to study harder, and I did.  I was on shaky ground this past December and January, but in the past few weeks I’ve studied very hard to perform well.  It’s important to do well so that I meet department expectations and arrive at my new job prepared to converse with Koreans at a proficient level.  I felt that I was ready before the exam, but the actual exam was very brutal.  It exposed all of my language deficiencies.  The testers pushed me to the limits of my Korean knowledge.  Many of the subjects I had prepared for weren’t even discussed, whereas on several occasions I found myself thinking, “Why didn’t I study that word?” and “What in the world are we talking about this, of all things?”  No matter what, I met the target I needed to achieve, and now I’m ready to head out and use this language I’ve spent the last seven months drilling into my head.

Now though, it’s time to go out for a drink and celebrate.  Many of us who are studying Korean will meet tonight with me and another colleague to celebrate our exam results and our imminent departure.  Normally they would buy us drinks, but as sambei (advisors) we have the obligation to treat them instead.  We passed the test, now we get to pay.  That’s OK…I don’t mind one bit.  If I hadn’t passed, they would probably buy me drinks!

The Final Push

Today is my last full day of study before I take my Korean exam.  I don’t know how I’ll do but I feel pretty good about it.  As my wife likes to say, "If you don’t know it by now, you won’t know it by now."  I’m sure I’ll cram in some last minute vocabulary study in case they ask me about current events such as the Iraqi election, the Tsunami, or last night’s State of the Union address.  Other than that, I’ll wait and see and take my chances with the language arsenal I’ve already developed.  Because I already passed in Chinese I don’t feel as hard-pressed to pass my Korean exam, which is good because I don’t want to be too nervous when I actually take my exam.  Confidence, being relaxed, and a good night’s sleep will be critical to my success.  I’ll try to post a blog entry as soon as I find out how I did on the exam.  My exam is at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Friday, 2/4), and then in the evening my family and I will meet up with other Korean students to (hopefully) celebrate passing the exam and our imminent departure to Korea.  If I don’t pass, we’ll just celebrate getting out of here.

The President delivered his State of the Union address last night.  I was not able to watch it, but I read a transcript of the address.  The highlights were Iraq, the War on Terror, and Social Security.  Apparently the President got his message across, because a poll taken by CNN/USA Today/Gallup last night showed that respondents reacted favorably to his proposals.  The recent success of the Iraqi election also benefited the President.  I would have liked to see more focus on Economic issues such as paying down the Debt and domestic growth.