Thank you. I'm really surprised at how much of a positive reception this story has been given. Maybe I should write a book someday..
[I'll append the original post with this]
As you can tell, I like to tell things in
excruciating detail. I argue the same way, so you don't want to get into an argument with me! hehe However, I never embellish or exaggerate a single detail to the least degree. I can't stand it when I argue with even my best friend who makes HUGE exaggerations just to make a point--but they're so out of proportion, that it's completely unfair!
I was a hopeless romantic since Pre-first, 1st grade......... For me it was seriously one huge crush after the other. I would write diaries in middle school... LOL. Most of the time, I was left wondering if they even knew I existed. And you don't know how much effort I put into trying to subtly and indiscreetly create chance encounters so I could get the girl to notice me, but alas it was only until the 2nd year of college after spending my entire freshman year SUBTLY nonchalantly chasing after one girl, that I had my first girlfriend. That lasted like 3-4 years until I had to call it quits. My break-up words were something like, "It must be hard for you, knowing how much I love you and you don't have those feelings in return. I'll give up"... My 2nd (and penultimate relationship) lasted 4 and a half years when out of the blue, only a month or so after finally getting acknowledgement of the relationship by my parents, she decided to break up with me. Just like that. Needless to say, my world came crashing down. I was more than 50lbs overweight, got laid off the week after the breakup due to missing a couple days of work, and then
Another crazy thing is my wife says she didn't have any feelings or thoughts up until I gave her a mood ring which kept telling her that she was "in love". (she's a really honest person..I'm not sure but she may have never lied in her life....Might be a Buddhist thing. I'm more used to being a hypocritical Christian and being around a bunch of hypocrites)..... anyway, a couple days before we started dating (I already told you that within the first week I met her, I told her I wanted to marry her...and told her that constantly), I took her to the beach. It was a really windy and rainy day at the beach, so after walking on the beach for a little bit, we stopped by the local aquarium's store (because it was closed). I bought her a mood ring and a sand dollar. I explained to her what it was and I guess she saw the "key" for which color means what... I saw her looking at the ring at least few times the rest of the day. I thought she was just kinda fascinated at the color change and thought maybe they didn't have them in Korea). Well, she later told me that she was just intrigued because it kept on turning the color for being in love. She says she HONESTLY didn't have any feelings for me until looking at that ring and wondering why it kept turning the color for love? So that windy rainy day at the beach inspired me to write this piano piece....the melody to which I later turned into my proposal song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHlXJn10QaE
I used to not even be able to look directly at a pretty girl in the room. It killed me that my friends would/could completely turn their heads and some were bold enough to look at them long enough to get caught
Anyway, the fact that
I am an only child may explain a lot about the way I am, but it also for sure explains how i can speak Korean pretty fluently. Most 2nd generation Koreans lose the language for the most part because they talk exclusively in English with siblings once they start school. I haven't been very careful to write in proper sentences here, but I am pretty good at correcting grammar and pronunciation. My wife came to the US for the first time while working on her masters to just take a break from it all. My parents were concerned at first because they were suspicious of her motives (i.e. Greencard marriage, etc. Especially before 9-11, it was a BIG business... People would literally pay $50,000-$150,000 to do a green-card marriage). I didn't clarify this earlier. The fact that they verified that she actually went to SNU, calmed their fears a little). I had learned spanish for 8 years and also taught English in Korea during a Christmas break and it was enjoyable to me. My korean is maybe a 10 year old native level, although I get made fun of for my accent, which my fellow Korean friends think is a gringo (American) accent. It actually comes more from the fact that my mom is from a particular town in Korea that uses a slightly different accent/dialect. I don't have a very large vocabulary, but I can express myself even better than I can in English as a whole (I think Korean is a more "intimate" language--it's easier to make really accurate depictions of feelings/descriptions with simpler words) I can only read/write at a maybe 2nd grade level... You don't know how much I complained at my parents for only having me throughout the years. Turned out to be something necessary for this whole thing to have worked out. The problem is now that we almost exclusively speak in Korean at home, which isn't the best for her improving her English D: Still, as descriptive/articulate that I try to be in English and having a college level education, I communicate better with my wife than I have with any other person in any language
I'm getting caught up in too many details so I'll just sum it up with 2 more interesting tidbits. My wife had always told herself that she'd never even DATE someone who is blood type B. In Korea they've even made a movie about it--"My boyfriend is type B". I guess it's because we have a short temper, apparently...kinda true for me now that I am more extroverted. I think I mentioned it before a little earlier, but I was seriously bummed out after finding out the first day that she had a boyfriend. I didn't want to waste any more time/money at that point, because my last date was with a girl who turned out to have a boyfriend...! Every other girl I asked out pretty much had a boyfriend. So, I was really in a "the good ones are all taken" mode.. The 2nd day I met with her was when I decided that I needed to go for broke. 3 weeks was what it took to finally wear her down
In reality, it was only a couple days before we started dating that she even considered dating me because of the mood ring...!
The events that had to happen for us to actually get married and make everything work financially/satisfactorily with both sets of parents, etc is another miraculous story, which I'm positive won't be as interesting to you all
Below is something I wrote in a response earlier, but I think should be added to the story. It might get someone to give the piano just a couple hours....and then be hooked for life
Maybe I'll plug the piano instructor's band, which has been getting played on radios across the nation and you may have heard of them. www.mnemonicsounds.com Quite good
Quote:
One more thing I forgot to mention is that about a couple months before I meet my wife, I started taking piano lessons. Everything I am playing on my youtube including the proposal song that I wrote is a product of 5 hours of lessons from a really great piano instructor. Before I met my wife, PIANO was what I felt like was my long lost calling...I have found few things more satisfying and enjoyable as sitting down and playing songs that actually sound good and are easy to play. I haven't taken any lessons since, but plan on it. I can also just improve by practicing. If you're no longer a kid, obviously it's gonna be hard for you to pick up an instrument. Learn CHORDAL PIANO. It's so easy. Pretty much muscle memory. I've heard of the Suzuki method, but I'm serious...find someone who can teach you chordal piano and you'll be able to play ANY song you want in no time. It's the same as learning guitar chords and playing from a "fake book", except easier because you don't have to press down on strings with awkward hand positions like on the guitar. Anyone who knows music should be able to teach it. After maybe 2 hours of lessons and just a couple hours of practice, you will be well on your way. The average person who has never played piano will never know that you're just a beginner player. =)
Basically all I'm doing for most of my piano songs are playing the 3 note chord in the root position and just improvising a little with sus2 and sus4 keys. Simplest example is the C chord. You play C and G in left hand (I & V keys) and then on the right you play C, E, G (I, III, and V keys). Csus2 and Csus4 is just playing the II or IV key with the right hand. So like CDEG (I, II, III, V) or CEFG (I,III,IV, V).
This requires no musical talent, I promise.
