Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Crappy essay I wrote for a textbook at Yonsei

So crappy, I kind of like it. See if you can guess the topic. Use it for your classes:

Imagine immaculate, blue sky from horizon to horizon. Gleaming sky scrapers, smiling kids with boxes of caramel corn, stadiums, firey Tex-Mex, the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. And you’ll have plenty of room to move and mull and take it all in. What I’m describing is the modern, rustic, and cultural melting pot that is the New America. Welcome to Denver, the perfect home for the next World’s Fair.

A World’s Fair needs adequate infrastructure; in this area Denver delivers the goods. It has a huge convention center and a dizzying array of accommodations from the budget to luxurious. It has several state-of-the-art stadiums and a light-rail network that is the envy of the west. The clincher? The area known as Stapledon: This was the area of the former airport and is ripe for development; The hallowed name of Stapledon should live on through a New World’s Fair.

Denver is festooned with a populace of tremendous diversity. Denver has long been the home of an industrious Latino population that is redefining the New America. Enclaves of other ethnic populations such as Korean, Vietnamese and Russian also give the town an uncommon flavor. Denver embraces the new as it does the old: The old west pioneering spirit still remains. Visit the numerous museums dedicated to the old gold rushes. Denver or bust!

Perhaps the most compelling reason for holding a world’s fair in Denver is its astounding environs. The Rocky Mountains have been holding visitors in awe since the dawn of Native populations; new visitors to the world’s fair can find themselves enthralled in the majesty and beauty of this vast and dramatic mountain range. If hills aren’t your thing, the metropolitan area explodes out into the austere plains of the east. It should be said that though the Denver weather gods can be a tad fickle, the weather is generally quite good. It gets hot in the summer, but not overly so—with not too much rain. In winter, if there’s a snowstorm, chances are the sun will come out to melt it within a day or two.

I invite your committee to come to Denver and really experience the pleasures of this former pioneer town. Come taste the sundry delights of our ethnic cuisines; experience for yourself how livable and convenient the city is to visitors; and, finally, bear witness to the splendor of its dramatic terrain. One shouldn’t ask if Denver is ready for the world, rather is the world ready for Denver!

2 comments:

HYEWON said...

is it published on Yonsei's textbook?

sarcasmus said...

it's in an FLI textbook!