Tag Archives: Kelly

26 Apr

christen a house

who taught: Kelly and Phil

Terry’s house

Today’s expression is one of the expressions I have never heard of in my entire life. Also, I am kind of reluctant to write about but, for the purpose of this blog, which is keeping track of all of the expressions I learned and also share with you, I will do my best to write about it. I will let you know why I am a little reluctant later.

A few weeks ago, Phil and Kelly came to my new house to give me their opinions about any possible improvements that I need to work on. (They have been home owners for a while.) A good news is that they think our house does not need many improvement work. Yay! Oh, here is what I also heard from Phil. So, whenever you invite your friends to your house for the first time, then you ought to give them a short tour to your place, explaining things in your house. Well, my house does not have anything fancy or special. But, since Phil and Kelly were visiting my house for the first time, I gave them a brief tour.

As we all walked up to the second floor where there are three rooms, Kelly said, “Hey! So, have you guys ever christened the house yet?”

Jessy and I did not understand it at all. We said, “What? What does it mean?”

Before we get to what Kelly meant, let me give you a very simple definition of the word, christen.

When a baby is christened, he or she is given a name during the Christian ceremony of baptism.

Also, there is another meaning of the expression which is “To use something for the first time.” I believe Kelly’s usage is more originated from this second definition. Now, let me rephrase Kelly’s question in connection with the second definition.

Hey! So, have you guys ever used the house for the first time yet?

Here comes my favorite question! Can you feel it? or Can you understand what Kelly meant? I guess not! The key thing you need to think here is the deep implication of the word, use.

Now, remember that Kelly asked this question as she was seeing the rooms! What do you usually do in rooms? Let me guess. You sleep, right? Let me go a little deeper. Do you really just sleep in rooms with your wife or girl friend? (If you are a lady… Do you really want to just sleep in rooms with your husband or boy friend?) I guess not. What else do you do? Haha.. that is right. You would make love. No No No, You WILL make love. So, here is the equation I can tell you for this expression.

Making love in a room for the first time = Use a room for the first time = Christen (As a result, christen equals to making love in a room or a house for the first time)

I am sure you now get what Kelly’s question meant.

Have we christened my house yet? No comment! How about you? Did you christen your house as soon as you bought your house? What? You did it on the same day you got the keys to the house. 🙂

So, why I do not really want to share and use this expression? I am a Christian. So, I probably would not use this expression. But.. Look! It is better to know these expressions to be able to understand what your friends are saying, right?

18 Jan

poser

Who taught : Pat, Rachel, Phil, Kelly, Lauren and Sean

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Source: Wikipedia)

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr birthday. It is one of the national holidays. 48 years ago, he made “I have a dream” speech. Here is the part of it.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day out on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state sweltering with the heat and injustice of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor’s lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

48 years later, I see a lot of things he mentioned in his speech actually happening even though there are still many steps to go. Isn’t amazing? One man can make a difference. One man who has a dream can make a big difference. I am sure all of us can be the man. Let’s have a dream, a big dream! It will come true.

A few weeks ago, I was with my friends. And we were talking about some people. During the conversation, Lauren used a word, “poser.” Hearing it, I sort of figured out that it has negative connotation. If you look up a dictionary, I am sure you will find the following definition.

A person who poses.

Huh! What the heck? It does not help at all. Anybody can pose, right? So, this is not usually the meaning of the expression when you hear this expression from your American friends. Here is the meaning my friends told me.

A person who likes to be seen in trendsetting clothesin fashionable bars, discos, etc.

A person who attempts to blend into a specific social group.

My friends tried to give me good examples and they said a skateboarder or a snowboarder can be a poser. (FYI, I am a snowboarder. 🙂 ) I think this expression is kind of hard to fully grasp and use it. Hey, my American friends! Do you have any other thoughts or examples to give in relation to Poser?

22 Nov

caboose

Who taught: Kelly

A few months ago, Jessy and I went camping with Phil and Kelly. I think I mentioned this in one of my old posts. This morning, I suddenly remembered one expression Kelly used at that time. When we had a meeting to discuss what we need to prepare, she said, “We have OJs. So, that is good.” Hmm…. I did not quite get it. When I hear OJ, I think of only one thing(?), OJ Simpson. I heard so many times about him even when I was in Korea. But, it does not make sense Kelly’s saying OJ in the preparation of camping. Do you know what OJ is in this context? It is Orange Juice. I thought this is just an expression people use when they speak. But, I actually found one orange juice bottle in a market which has “O.J.” written on its label. Now, I am curious whether people say like “CJ” for cranberry juice or “LA” for lemonade. I have never heard of. Do you guys use it that way?

Do you know what is one of the most amazing things in the  U.S.? It is train. Why? It is really really long. One time, I tried to count number of cars that are pulled by one locomotive. How many? It was more than 100. Imagine that you have to cross railroad but there was a train passing by so that you have to wait! Wait for that long train could take more than 10 minutes. Not just because it is long but also it goes really slow.

Caboose (source: wikipedia)

A few weeks ago, Jessy and I was watching a TV show and, in the show, one guy said, “She’s got great caboose.” From the context, it sounded like he meant her breast. You know, b**bs. But, as we watch it longer, we realized that that was not what he meant. So, I looked it up. You know what I found. It is actually a type of railroad car in which crew members can take a rest. Thus, caboose is always located at the end of a train. Also, this is not really common anymore due to the development of faster locomotives. So, a lot of times, you can find diverse kind of cabooses in railroad museums. But, then what did he mean in the show? Well, he meant butt. Why? I have no idea. The only guess I can take is butt is something you can see in the back and also, as I said, caboose is located always in the back of a train. What do you think, my American friends? Would you agree with me? If you agree, say, “Terry has nice caboose.” (Jessy have always been teasing me that I do not really have a real butt. 🙁 )

30 Aug

ears burning!

Who taught : Kelly

Gays? (source:topnews.in)

As usual, Jessy and I took a walk this evening. During the walk, we saw two women walking along us, holding their hands. Well, we can simply tell they are together. I mean they are gays. Most of the time, if two people who are the same gender walk down streets, holding their hands, they are considered as gays. Maybe, it is 100% true. Am I right?
But, if you go to Korea and walk around, you will see a lot of ladies walking, holding their hands or arm-in-arm. 99% out of them are not gays. (Men would never do that. If you see any two guys, holding their hands, in Korea, they must be gays too.) For some reason, the Korean women all do that. I do not know why. It must be a part of culture. Not sure whether it is Asian thing or Korean thing though.

So, if you take a trip to America with your friend who is the same gender as you, you should not hold your friend’s hand in America. People here in America will think you are gays. (I mean they would not really care about it but they will just think you are gays even though you are not.)

A few weeks ago, I think, Kelly added a comment on one of my posts in which she used an expression, “Ears are burning!”
Let me give you a situation that you can use this expression! During lunch time, some of my friends are sitting together, eating lunch, and, in the middle of the discussion, they are talking about me. But I am not there. (Hope they are talking about good things! 🙂 ) A few minutes later, I show up and they say to me like, “Oh, hey T-Bone! We were just talking about you.” Then, I would be like, “Oh really? That is why my ears were burning. What did you talk about me?”

The definition of the phrase is as follows (source: wikitionary).

Said of somebody who was not present but was the topic of discussion.

Interesting thing is we, Korean, do have a very similar expression. We say, “귀가 간지럽다 (Gui-Ga-Gan-Ji-Reop-Da).” The literal translation is “My ears are itchy.” Our feeling of the expression is like, if so many people talk about me, then all of the sounds will come into my ears and that makes them itchy. But, I guess, for American, the word BURN should have that kind of feeling, right? Very interesting!

11 Jul

dry county

Who taught: Phil and Kelly

Mountain pie

This afternoon, Jessy and I got back from camping with my friends, Phil and Kelly. We went to one of the Pennsylvania state parks. We were going to be there Friday night but, due to the heavy thunderstorm, we instead left Saturday morning. It was really fun! We definitely would like to try longer one next time. One of the surprising stories of our camping happened Saturday night. We left some of our food on the tables and some animals came and had their own feast while we were sleeping. They ate all of our breads, beef jerky, chocolate and marshmellow. We think it was raccoons. But who knows? It could be bears. This would never happen in Korea. So, one lesson for you if you are going to camp in America. “Never leave your food outside! Safest place would be in your car!” Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Especially, Jessy and I finally get to eat mountain pies and s’mores. Furthermore, Kelly told us a few scary stories, sitting around camp fire. I sill think about them, especially black little dog story, and feel scary.

Another thing which I found very interesting is no alcoholic beverages are allowed in all of the state parks in Pennsylvania. I was curious and of course asked Phil and Kelly. “So, I do not understand why they do not allow alcoholic beverages here. Is Pennsylvania most conservative state in America?” And They said, “No.. not really! You can find so many dry counties in many states.” “Wait! What is dry county?” I asked. Phil said, “It is a county where you cannot buy or sell any alcoholic beverages at all.” I was not able to believe it. “What? Really?” (For your information, all of the states in America have counties and counties comprise cities, townships and municipalities.) In fact, I looked into this a little bit more. There are three different types.

1. dry county (dry city, dry town, etc.) : bans both the sale and possession of alcohol.

2. wet county : permits both the sale and possession of alcohol.

3. damp county : permits possession of alcohol but bans the sale of it.

And, believe it or not, there are so many dry counties in America. You can find the list of them here. So, apparently, Pennsylvania is not the most conservative state in terms of alcoholic beverage consumption or sales. Honestly, I cannot imagine that people cannot even see any of the alcoholic beverages in their neighborhood. What do you think? Do you want to live there? Another question is what if you break that law? Is there any severe consequence for that?