What Does It Mean to Be an American?

July 3, 2012

Does being an American mean something special? Does it even mean anything at all? Does anyone even care anymore? After recently returning from a trip overseas to Korea and looking forward to the upcoming 4th of July, I find myself reflecting once again on what it means to be an American. I like to think …

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Climbing Hallasan

June 25, 2012

As I wrote in my previous post I spent a week in Jeju Island and one of the things I did was climb Hallasan. At 6,398 ft (1950 m), Mt. Halla is the second highest mountain on the Korean peninsula after Baekdusan and the highest mountain in South Korea (“san” means mountain in Korean). In …

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One Week in Jeju Island

June 24, 2012

I recently spent two weeks in Korea, the first of which I spent in Jeju Island (aka Jeju-do). Similar to the relationship between Hawaii and the US or Okinawa and Japan, Jeju Island is a subtropical island off the south coast of Korea. Little known to the Western world, Jeju-do is a popular vacation destination …

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Learning a Foreign Language: How Good Can You Really Get?

June 17, 2012

When I first started learning Japanese in high school I had one burning question, “how good can I get?” I wanted to know if I could ever sound like a native speaker or if I would always sound like some American version of a foreigner with a thick accent as parodied on TV. I also …

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On Being a Man

May 6, 2012

One of the things I’ve pondered most in my adult life is not just what it means to be a well functioning human being, but what it means to be a man. People are equal in the sense that we are entitled to equally fair treatment and equal freedoms, but we are not the same. …

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Judgment: Stop It From Sentencing Your Relationships

January 17, 2012

I was sitting at the airport gate on my way back to Austin and I noticed a group of people who were obviously part of the same company and coming back from a convention. They were in their off work casual clothes and I found my mind unconsciously drawing conclusions about who they were: “The …

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