Ernest Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961)

Ernest Hemingway led an extraordinary life filled with women, adventure, and war. It is hard to believe that one man could accomplish all that he had, especially since his life was cut short by suicide. Here are some highlights of Hemingway’s life by numbers:

·         5 siblings

·         4 marriages plus one elaborate love affair when he was 18

·         3 wars

·         2 car crashes, 2 plane crashes, plus injuries from the wars

·         1928 – Hemingway’s father killed himself

After having read many of Hemingway’s short stories this semester, it’s amazing to see how much he paralleled his life in his writing. 

“His writing was his way of coping with life - to exorcise his ghosts, to achieve fame and glory and yet he also had a natural talent. What came first, his writing or his adventures? What was most important to him? To fulfill his mother's wishes or his father's?”

I think Hemingway faced constant internal conflict due to failed marriages, his father’s suicide, and the injuries he sustained; all of these things certainly provided him with inspiration for his writings but it never gave him any peace in his life. He constantly felt guilty for ruining yet another promising relationship by his affairs yet he never seemed to learn his lesson or try to stop “falling in love” with every woman he meets. He also continued to put himself in violent situations and he would without fail end up injured which would only leave him depressed as he endured the healing process. Truly it’s amazing though how he survived so many near death experiences. Through all of Hemingway’s incredible worldly adventures and romantic love affairs, I believe that from interpreting the complexity of his work and reading his biography that he led a very sad and tortured life.

            Sometimes it seems that Hemingway only wrote because he had discovered his natural talent and needed some kind of activity to help fund his elaborate stints all over the world. He most likely enjoyed the fame and opportunities it gave him but I think he enjoyed finding new love affairs and adventure more. On the other had though, possibly he sought women and adventure to constantly facilitate themes and ideas for his writing. It leaves the question from before still hanging in the air: “What came first, his writing or his adventures? What was most important to him?”

            Overall his life seems rather romantic and seemingly fulfilling but I think Hemingway had deeper conflicts going on that kept him from being happy and making mature decisions. His writing is interesting and artful though and he has certainly made a profound impact in the literary world.

“Hemingway did not know what he wanted. He wanted everything and nothing.”

Quotes and information from: 

"Ernest Hemingway" 
1999-2006 Caroline Hulse

www.ernest.hemingway.com

ESL Service Learning Project - Vietnamese Noodles and La Madeleine

Two weeks ago Myungseon and I went out to try Vietnamese noodles at a restaurant next to Central Market called Phou. The restaurant was kind of packed and the waitresses were kind of sassy but we still had a pretty good time. It was cold outside so soup sounded perfect. Myungseon explained to me that the rice noodles in broth with meat is a traditional Vietnamese dish. In this case also there are several different kinds of meat that you can have in your soup; we ended up having brisket. When you get your soup you also get a plate with different things you can season your broth with like basil, sprouts, jalapenos, and lime. When I’m at home I go to lunch with my grandparents once a week and one time when I was a senior we when to a Vietnamese noodle house like this one called Sprouts. When we had gotten our soup I saw that they had given us lime and I really like lime so I proceeded to squeeze my entire wedge into my soup. Needless to say it was disgusting so this time I knew to be much more careful and actually ended up avoiding the lime altogether. It was so interesting to see that they had given us jalapenos but they actually added a great spice to the broth. Also one of the most important parts is that I learned how to eat the noodles out of the broth with chopsticks! When I ate with my grandparents I made a huge mess and could barely get any noodles out of my bowl. This time I watched what Myungseon did and finally figured out how to eat them without looking like some crazy person. Also I learned about the different sauces you can have on your meat which is basically just a combination of two different sweet chili sauces. Vietnamese food is something you definitely need direction on so I’m really glad I finally figured it all out with Myungseon’s help!

Since we had tried several Asian restaurants at this point I decided it was time to try different ethnic foods. After noodles last week Myungseon asked if I knew of a bakery nearby and the best thing I could come up with was La Madeleine so last week we went there to eat. It turns out Myungseon LOVES croissants so it was basically the best day ever for her. She gave me a huge hug when she saw the almond croissants in the line! She’s been in America for awhile now so I didn’t have to do much explaining about the food, just how to order and I gave her a suggestion for pasta. My roommate Kim and our friend Maddie ended up accompanying us for lunch this time which made it really fun! We talked about all kinds of things, like online shopping, travelling, different holidays, and what we will be doing for our break.

I was planning on giving Myungseon a Tex-Mex experience at Pappasitos before we left for break but we ended not having time as she returned home to Korean yesterday to stay with her family for the holidays. Thankfully though Myungseon still wants to meet when she gets back! We’ll figure out a new time to meet next semester but I’m so glad that we will be able to keep hanging out! This has been such a rewarding and special experience and I am so glad to have Myungseon as a friend now.

Thank you so much Dr. William’s for giving us this project! I’m so glad that I met Myungseon and that we will be able to continue learning and hanging out together!

ESL Service Learning Project - Sushi and Korean BBQ

Towards the beginning of my ESL conversation partner meetings we decided that we would like to start going out to try different restaurants when we met each week. I thought it would be fun to try out several different kinds of Asian food so that maybe Myungseon could teach me more about the options and more of the traditional way to eat them. The first on our list was Piranha’s Killer Sushi. We went to one downtown and sat at the sushi bar. It was Myungseon’s first time at Piranha’s so she definitely got to try several new things. While I had been there many times it was fun going with Myungseon because we ended up trying sashimi and a new signature roll that I had never had before. We even ended up getting one roll for free because we made friends with one of the sushi chefs! One thing she taught me was to mix in some of the wasabi with the soy sauce to dip the sashimi in. It ended up being awesome and I will probably do that from now on!

The second restaurant we went to was the Korean Barbeque House. I found out more about the food here of course because Myungseon is Korean. It is most common to receive a “lunch box” of sorts for your meal that has the barbequed meat, rice, and several sides. There are several different kinds of meat used for the barbeque; three that Myungseon told me about were Bulgogi, Carabi, and Galbi. For one of the sides there’s a spicy sauce called Kimchi that is put on cabbage or cucumber pieces. For an appetizer we had a Japanese version of miso soup (the Korean version is called Deonjang) and Bihn dae ttuk which is a type of “Korean pizza”. The Bihn dae ttuk was made up of cheese, leek, octopus and other vegetables and was really good! The whole meal ended up being awesome!

I think Myungseon enjoys my willingness to try all kinds of things because she always seems surprised when I try something like the spicy Kimchi and chunks of octopus in cheese and end up liking it! I love learning about her culture and just getting to hang out. Myungseon’s English is so good so it makes it really easy to just sit and talk about all kinds of things. Having some kind of activity like going to restaurants has also helped keep the conversation going because I can always ask about the food we’re having and how it’s different of similar to tradition Korean food.

Next week we will be going out for Vietnamese noodles so more to come!

“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”

Vocabulary from the story:

• Solids – bullets?
• Gimlet – a cocktail made of gin or vodka and lime juice
• Quid – British pound: the basic unit of money in Great Britain and Northern Ireland; equal to 100 pence
• Birching – Striking with a light wooden rod or bundle of twigs, traditionally from the birch tree.
• Memsahib - European married lady

This story indeed shows a short happy moment in Mr. Macomber’s life just before his wife snatches it away from him. I wouldn’t consider this to be his life although it may seem like he has finally gained life from his newfound confidence. He actually has had a very sad life. His beautiful wife is only interested in him for his money and he has no confidence to stand up to her even though she cheats on him and bosses him around constantly. 

I found when Mrs. Macomber’s shot Francis it very surprising not only to the reader but also to her. Whenever she would disagree or get angry or embarrassed by Francis she would lash out by cheating on him or being rude, actions that are not necessarily final and will fade with time. Her rage that was caused by Francis’s new confidence blindly led her to lash out but this time her actions were final. That is probably why she was crying. She probably didn’t mean to kill him but she meant to do some kind of revenge just not something as final as death. She is a jealous, self-involved woman that couldn’t stand for her husband to be happy or escape from her. 

I find the role of the professional hunter with them to be rather interesting. He has such a blunt and simple point of view that gives an interesting perspective to the story. This is just another hunting excursion to him so he doesn’t seem as affected by all the events that unfold. He handles the death of Francis so easily and even has the guts to chide Mrs. Macomber after the fact. He seems to just take things as they come and not hold grudges which makes the story less depressing.

I think the lion incident in this story is blown out of proportion. Mrs. Macomber is so bent out of shape about her husband being scared of a full grown lion and believes him to be a coward. Although it is a little embarrassing to be caught running from the lion while another man shoots it down I do not think that makes him a coward. I would be scared of that lion too! I’m sure Mrs. Macomber would be also but she didn’t have to deal with actually facing down the lion so she keeps a cool disposition toward her husband and severely judges him for being human and having rational fears.

"Cross-Country Snow" by Ernest Hemingway

Vocabulary needed to understand “ski lingo”:

•  Funicular – cable railway: a railway up the side of a mountain pulled by a moving cable and having counterbalancing ascending and descending cars
• Undulation – wave: an undulating curve
• Khud – A ravine; a steep cleft in a hillside
• Telemark – a turn made in skiing; the outside ski is placed ahead and turned gradually inwards
• Christy – a skiing trick that involves lifting one’s leg off of the ground and leaning over to the side while doing a curve
• Why does George call him “Mike” (what does that mean)?
• Decies - ?

This story is set in Switzerland I think. For one Nick and George are in the inn the girl is speaking German (European area?) and there are Swiss men that come in to drink while they are there. Also there are the Swiss Alps for skiing and finally George is talking about catching a train (common in Europe) to get back to school and Nick is talking about returning to the “States”. Perhaps this is a wrong assumption but that’s what I seemed to have understood. 

In this story Nick and George are obviously having male-bonding time by enjoying skiing and drinking together. They try and do tricks and go as fast as they can while skiing showing some friendly competition. I have been skiing many times since I was little and when with friends we would always try doing similar things (both tricks and falling hard when we tried to push ourselves). It is different in this case though because they are alone in a remote area and they are skiing in the middle of a storm which creates a lonely feeling. I might just get this feeling though from the fact that at the end we discover that Nick is not which Marjorie (are we supposed to make a connection with this to “Three-Day Blow”) and he has in fact impregnated another woman named Helen. This is interesting because he never mentions marriage and he seems rather unhappy in the relationship. He may have scorned the waitress since he may be frustrated with the fact that he is in a similar situation with Helen and may blame her for it. I can’t be sure of this though because his marriage to Helen is not clearly stated.

Nick is trying to escape his responsibilities by skiing with George, discussing leaving with George to just ski together all the time, and by trying to drink too much wine. In the end though George has responsibilities of his own that he does not want to escape from (like school) so Nick is left resigned to return home to the States since he has nothing better to do. He is at least looking forward to him and George skiing home together. I thought it was interesting that they did not promise to go skiing again. If the connect with “Three-Day Blow” is correct then maybe he doesn’t want to make a promise because then he will only be disappointed when it doesn’t happen (just like how he thought that he could possibly get back with Marjorie but it in fact did not happen that way). I can understand that feeling because it’s better to be pleasantly surprised than to experience disappointment from building up something that in fact may never happen. 

I read this while in the quiet section of the library after listening to mellow music. I have come to not expect too many happy readings from this class but rather complex feelings and approached the reading as such. I hate the cold but I enjoy skiing so I can understand their joy in the sport but I think the cold is just a lonely and frustrating environment so I overall have mixed feelings (similar to how Nick is feeling?).

ESL Service Learning Project - Coffee

So last week after the failed cookie attempt I was determined to show Myungseon that I wasn’t a complete failure at making cookies. The weekend before we met again I bought the rest of the ingredients and went for round two of the cookie making attempt. The cookies actually turned out better than I had ever made them before! I guess keeping the dough in the refrigerator for a couple days helps make the dough puff up while they are baking (no more thin crackers!). I had plenty to give away to other students in my dorm while still having enough for our next meeting. 

Myungseon had wanted to take me out for coffee last week since she thought it would go good with the cookies but we ended up not having enough time after the baking fiasco. This time ended up being much better since now we had much better cookies to go with our coffee. She treated me to a caramel latte and she got a regular cappuccino. We sat in the bookstore and enjoyed out treats.

             
This last weekend Myungseon had gone with her husband to New Orleans so she told me about her trip. They had gone and seen her sister-in-law who was there for a conference and had gone on several tours. One tour was of the part of the city that had been severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. She said that it looked like not much work had been done yet except that they had built a dam that she didn’t think was tall enough to protect the area. One thing she said that I thought that was interesting was that some people were actually moving into the area and buying houses there (most likely because they are so cheap). Since it’s getting close to Halloween there were several Halloween Tours going on and Myungseon and her husband ended up signing up for one. She said that it was not as fun as she thought it would because the tour was two hours long and you had to stand the whole time and the tour guide just told stories (nothing scary happened). They also toured the Garden District which she thought was very beautiful. Overall I think she had a great trip.

            
 Myungseon I so interested in traveling and she especially likes travelling in the U.S. She likes to see everything so she prefers to drive to all the places they visit. One time she drove with her husband to Sedona, New Mexico. They went to see the vortexes there which are supposed to have a “healing” affect on people who live by them. She thought Sedona was very beautiful but we joked about how the “healing” part was just a big scam.

             
This week in her class she has a presentation to give about Korean food which we both agreed was a pretty awesome topic. It only has to be five minutes and last time she accidently talked for ten minutes so this time she will focus on staying within the time limit. Her English is good though so she should have no trouble at all giving her presentation. Overall in her class Myungseon is just focusing mostly on her reading and writing. To practice she has decided to start reading the Twilight Series! I have read the series before so it will be interesting what conversations we will have about the books once she starts reading them. She told me that vampires were more of a “Western ghost”. A common Korean ghost is a woman wearing a long white funeral gown (Koreans wear white at weddings) with long dark hair hanging in her face and blood coming from her mouth. I think I’ll stick with vampires…

Next week we’re going to get sushi at Piranha’s for lunch! (Fact from Myungseon: even though sushi is traditionally Japanese food, almost 90% of sushi owners in the area are Korean!)

More to come…

ESL Service Learning Project - Cookies

The ESL student that I was assigned to for our Service Learning Project is Myungseon Lee. She is a woman in her 30s that is from South Korea. She is in the Level 4 ESL class (most advanced class available) so her English is exceptionally good. She is a social butterfly and loves talking to other students in her class and almost always introduces me to a new student every time we meet up after the class.

Over these last couple weeks that we have been meeting I have been trying to do different activities as a conversation started and to just open her up to more American culture and hopefully in turn gain more insight about the Korean culture. Last week I thought it would be a good idea for us to get together and make cookies to show her an American tradition so I went to the store the night before and picked up eggs and butter to be prepared (I was almost sure I had everything else I needed back in my room since I had make a batch just the week before). The next day we met at the Rec at 1pm like usual and went over to my dorm, Milton Daniel, since there is an oven in the basement there. We started mixing the appropriate ingredients when I realized I didn’t have any vanilla, enough oats, or any chocolate chips (so much for being prepared!). Myungseon was such a good sport about it though so we just tried making a small batch to see how they would turn out. We filled up a tray and started baking them.

While we were waiting for them to bake I started asking Myungseon more about her life in Korea. She told me that she had worked as a software engineer for an American company and had worked incredibly hard for ten years. She then married her husband who she had met from work and they had moved to America to live in Michigan near her husband’s family. His job had then transferred him to the DFW area. Since Myungseon had worked so hard while in Korea she decided to take a break from work while they were in America. After the urging of her husband to improve her English though she enrolled in the ESL classes here at TCU. I asked her if she planned on going to work again or what she wanted to do once she finished the class. She said that she did plan on working again but nothing as hard as her work before. She mostly plans on travelling though. That led into a discussion about all the places we wanted to go which is of course a practically unending discussion…

By this time I noticed that the timer hadn’t gone off yet so I went over to check the oven and realized that I hadn’t set it (seriously?!). The cookies were thin burned crackers. Myungseon insisted we tried again though so we started a new batch. She had told me before we had started that she had once tried making oatmeal raisin cookies for her husband (because those are her husband’s favorites) and she had just simply “failed”. Apparently I wasn’t that good at making cookies either!  The second batch didn’t get burned but they were still pretty thin and not especially tasty. Myungseon ended up taking all the cookies home (including the burned ones) to give to her husband (since he is a “meat and potato” kind of guy – “he will eat anything and does not even taste it”). I saved the rest of the batter so that I could buy the rest of the ingredients and try and make them again so that we could have real cookies next time on our coffee outing.

More to come…