This is a picture of my old roommate Tiger from when he graduated from the University of Utah. Tiger was an awesome, awesome roommate. I lived with him, no, he lived with me in the fall of 1998. I had two Korean roommates that year, Ken and Tiger. They seemed to be good pals, but they had their differences: Ken was more polite, agreeable one and Tiger was the more argumentative, opinionated one . . . thusly, Tiger was the more awesome one. An example of their different personalities: when Ken and Tiger were going to move out of the apartment, my roommate Matt and I made them T-shirts with our pictures on them, so that Ken and Tiger would always remember us (I think the shirts said “I Love Brigham and Matt” or “Official Member of the Brigham and Matt Fan Club”). Ken graciously thanked us for his and put it on, Tiger seemed to think the shirt was some sort of joke and kept trying to give it back to us. Also, Tiger and Matt would get in the biggest fights over the temperature in the apartment . . . Tiger always found it to be too cold, but I think that was mostly because Tiger was always hanging out in his gym uniform.
When Ken and Tiger first moved into the apartment their English wasn’t so good. For example, during one get to know you talk, we spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out if Tiger had seen the 5th Element or not. He owned the video, and said that it was a good movie, but kept telling us he hadn’t seen it. We tried to break the examination down into yes/no questions, but that didn’t get us very far. Seriously. Asking the question “Have you seen the 5th Element?” only produced more confusion. Also, we couldn’t ever figure out what school Ken and Tiger went to, because sometimes they’d need rides to BYU, and sometimes they’d need rides to UVSC (the local junior college). So, when I received pictures of Tiger’s graduation from the University of Utah, it seemed to make perfect sense.
Tiger got lots of phonecalls from people that didn’t speak English. From this I learned to do phonetic impersonations of Korean phone call conversations. I can’t even begin to think of how to type what it seemed they were saying.
We didn’t hang out with Tiger outside of the apartment very much, but once we went to the Training Table, and he seemed to have a good time. And once I had lunch with him at Fuddrucker’s after he had moved out of the apartment, and he gave me a pin with a little Korean kid on it. Oh, also, we went to the James Bond movie with Denise Richards in it. Even Tiger could tell it was lousy. Last time I saw Ken or Tiger was at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake, they were at the Brookstone trying out the vibrating chairs. It was a joyous chance reunion.
I miss old Tiger. I can only imagine what he’s up to these days. If you (reader) ever see me, you should ask me to tell you Tiger stories, because I’ve got lots of them, and I tell them with enthusiasm.
Also I think I just saw Ashley Olsen, but it's so hard to tell. All these tiny ratty-haired blondes running around with gigantic sunglasses on, she could be any one of them.
1 comment:
maybe Tiger thought you were asking him if he had seen "the" 5th element and not "the 5th element" -the movie. i had korean roommates in college and on a certain occasion tried to talk music with YuJong. i mentioned some of the bands i liked and beastie boys made her face light up when i mentioned them. i couldn't believe it...but as i tried to build on that, it became clear she thought i meant backstreet boys...awkward backpeddling ensued. i think i learned a thing or two that day about when it's okay to lie, cause in the grand scheme of things, what do i care that she thinks "i want it that way" over a "license to ill"?
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