Garden of Eden A new interpretation As you can see, God created me. I appeared very lonely to Him. He thus created two women to make me happy. I seem to have the same number of ribs on both sides. God then told me to obey some simple rules. If I obey Him, the entire world is my Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is an abstract concept. Here is one of the paintings of the Garden in the Vatican Museum. You would agree that this is an out-dated representation of this abstract concept. Abstract concepts are often illustrated by combinations of visible objects. Let us see how the concept of "Good" was developed from visible objects. Motion pictures consist of many still pictures, based on written stories. However, Sergei Eisenstein thought he could be more creative by composing stories based on available pictures. This webpage is based on my old photos. I thought I could construct a concept of the Garden of Eden using internet technology. If you have comments and/or suggestions, you can e-mail me.

• Comfortable: A Korean man very comfortable with Russian office workers. It was his first time to meet them at the Institute of High Energy Physics at Protvino in 1999.
  1. In 1992, I was attending a conference held at the Hotel Uskoi of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The the hotel floor manager was as natural as my sister. This prompted my research on Russian ladies. In this photo, she prepared tea for me.
  2. Masha. When I visited Kazan (Russia) to attend the 4th Int'l Conference on Geometrization of Physics in October of 1999, the chairman of the organizing committee assigned his daughter as my guide. She is witty, stylish, and always tells the stories I like to hear. Her mother is also a stylish lady. She produced this photo on a Volga beach . She was wearing the Volga beach shoes. Here is a photo with her children.
  3. Vladimir Putin and Russian Lady in St. Petersberg (2003).
  4. Happy to meet again! I met this Ukrainian lady at the Vienna Airport on July 23 (2000) and met her again at the Kharkov Airport in Ukraine one week later on July 30. She now lives in Dresden and spoke to me in German. I liked her questions and her answers to my questions, in spite of the stiff language barrier.
  5. Tatyana: with a Russian violinist who looks exactly like Tatyana Samoilova, who used to be the most popular actress in the Soviet world. This violinist is about 15 years younger than Tatyana, and this photo was taken by my wife in London in 1999. Russians, though not all, think she is the real Tatyana. What does Tatyana Samoilova mean to Russians and to the world? Read the attached article.

• Two Russian Ladies in Athens (July 2008). I could tell they came from Russia, and they became very happy when I started talking about their country. They came from Moscow.
  1. Two Russian Sisters. When I was attending a conference at the Volga beach near Kazan in 2000, they always stayed close to me. I asked them why they like a man as old as their grandfather. They said I am like their old brother. They knew what I like to hear. They seem to be interested in how I made out in the United States after coming from Korea when I was as young as they are now.
  2. River Cruise. With two students on a cruise ship along the Volga River. The Russian flag is in the background (2001).
  3. Two Sisters from Tashkent. Tashkent is the capital city of Uzbeckistan, which used to be one of the Soviet Republics in the past. There are many people from Tashkent throughout Russia. This frame contains two photos taken in Kazan (1999).
  4. Two Medical Doctors from Dnepropetrovsk staying at the President Hotel Kievsky in Kiev (2006). They appeared to have beautiful minds. I asked them whether I could photograph them. They invited me to sit down with them, and I had a photo with them. There are many medical doctors in my family. In order to be a successful doctor, he/she must have a beautiful mind and must always be ready to help others.
  5. Russian Lady from Omsk. I met her on the Cote d'Azur beach. It was the first time to meet, but this Russian lady behaved as if he she were with her brother. This photo was taken by her embarrassed daughter. It was not the first time for me to have this kind of experience with Russian ladies. This prompted me to do a research along this line, and I constructed a theory of why. Click here for the result of my research.
  6. Two Sweet Girls. While in Kharkov (July 2000), I invited these two girls to a photo with my colleague. They were just walking by. In November of 2001, they came to me while I was attending the Akhiezer memorial conference held in Kharkov. It was a total surprise to me. They asked me whether I brought their photos. I apologized to them and promised to put the pictures on my website, and I invited them to join me in the conference banquet. However, my proposal was rejected by the conference organizers. Their reasoning was that these girls are too young. We were thoroughly disappointed. They wanted to spend more time with me. I now have their addresses and will make every effort to heal their wounds.

  

• Two Mona Lisas in Milan. Look at their smiles. Their smiles are real, unlike the smile of Leonardo da Vinci's imaginary lady. This photo was produced on the street called "via Montenapoleone" in Milan (July 5, 2002). This district of Milan is known as the fashion capital of the world. Here is a close-up view. These ladies look better without me.
  1. Trieste (1983), while attending a conference held at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. This old photo does not seem to be compatible with the digital scanning process. Yet, old photos are always valuable.
  2. Italians in Rome. There are many Italian ladies in Rome. This photo was taken at the top of the Spanish Steps in Rome. There are two ladies sitting, and another enviously looking at us. This photo was taken by my wife while we were vacationing in Italy (June 2000). Certainly God created me and then Italian women.
  3. Italians in Milan. There are also many Italian ladies in Milan. They are somewhat different, but they basically cheerful Italians (2002). More intimate setting.
     Milan's Duomo Square is a very lively place durint the night. A giant McDonald restaurant is seen in the background (2002).
  4. Two Italians from Bari are telling me that Southern Italy is the true Italy, and that Northern Italians are simply Europeans. I seem to agree with them. I had known that my personality is more consistent with my Italian friends from Naples, Sicily, Palermo, Bari and other southern parts of Italy. This photo was taken in Nice (France 2006).
  5. Italian Lawyer on a train from Naples to Pompei (March 2005). She just started her lawyer career by passing the first of the exams. It is always refreshing to talk with young people with ambitions.
• Sicily. At a Greek-style amphitheater with excellent acoustic condition, an Italian lady from Naples is singing Italian songs, and I am listening (June 1994). Sicily was a Greek colony some years ago, and there are also Greek temples in this island. Here is one of them.

• Sienkiewicz. On the same park ground, there is a statue of Henryk Sienkiewicz. Who is he? Sienkiewicz was the recipient of 1905 Nobel prize in literature. He is the author of "Quao Vadis." In this photo, I am with a polish lady who has a great respect for Sienkiewicz. She is very happy to meet a non-Polish man who also respects this great Polish writer.
  1. Hillary: with a Polish lady looking somewhat like Hillary Clinton. She was very kind to me when I went to her church: the Church of Holy Cross near the Copernicus Square in Warsaw. This photo was taken in October 1995.
  2. Polish Student in Warsaw I was talking with this Polish student while waiting for a bus. She was born in 1984, and she knows her country was under communist domination until recently. This is a photo of their Palace of Culture at the Center of Warsaw. This tower was built by Russians in the early 1950s as a gift of Soviets to Polish comrades. Polish people decided not to tear down this Stalinist structure because it still serves many useful purposes, and because they do not want to upset their Russian neighbors. This photo was taken in October of 2007.
  3. Polish Hospitality in Poznan (2002). Very kind lady indeed! Poznan was the first caipatal city of Poland.
  4. Are you from Poland? There are many Polish ladies in the United States. Thanks to my special interest in Poland, I can tell whether they came from Poland by looking at them. I asked this question to this Polish lady at one of the trendy restaurants in Columbia, Maryland (not far from College Park). She was very happy to say YES (September 2004).
     
  5. Polish Lady I met at the Manchester Airport (England 2007). She came from the northeastern corner of Poland. This region has a rich history.
• Daria Zieminska. She came to the Univ. of Maryland from Poland in 1979 as a post-doc in high-energy physics. This photo was taken in the spring of 1980 in Annapolis, while her husband and son were still in Poland. Together with them, she is now an exemplary citizen of the United States. Click here for Daria's home page.

  

• French Journalist from Paris at Victor Hugo's statue in Besancon (May 2005). Hugo's father was a very distinguished general belonging to the high class in Paris, but Victor was born in Besancon about 350 kilometers away from Paris. The question is then why he was born in this small town unknown at that time. The story is somewhat complicated. I asked this journalist whether she could make my story known to Parisians. She said No, and told me French people would not accept my story.
  1. Matisse Museum. This photo was taken at the entrance to the Mattice Museum (2002). The Museum dedicated to Henri Matisse is in Nice, but this museum does not allow photographing inside the building. I decided to make my own artwork outside the building. This French lady came from from Strasbourg near the French-German border.
  2. French Police officers in Marseille (July 2008).
  3. Ingrid. French lady from Besancon who looks like Ingrid Bergman. This photo was produced at the Cafe district of Marseille (2008).

  

• New Opera Dress Code. During the intermission in the Frankfurt Opera House, I noticed many black-tied gentlemen, and ladies were also formally dressed. There were some informally dressed like myself, and I was looking for the ladies with appropriately dressed. I found them and we agreed that we are more in tune with the real world. There are two ladies in this photo. One of them lives in Frankfurt, and the other is from Vienna. Both of them are opera lovers (2001).
• Norwegian Medical Doctors in Nice(France 2006). They came to Nice to attend an international cardiology conference.
• Prom. Indeed, high school graduation is important to those Swedish girls. After their prom party, they were walking along Vaxjo's main shopping street (2006).

  

• KLM. Northwest becomes KLM in Europe. This photo was taken at the Copenhagen Airport in June of 2006.
  1. Business Class. On August 13 (2003), I was in the business class section on a NorthWest flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. Next to me was an American lady of Dutch origin. I felt quite safe because there was someone who took care of me. We decided to have a photo during the dinner time.
  2. Bicycles. There are less than one million people in Amsterdam, but there are more than two million bikes. I am with a Dutch lady in front of the Van Gogh museum. In the far background is Amsterdam's Rijks museum.
  3. Dutch Lady I met in Viennna (May 2008). She needs bicycles even in Vienna.

  

• Mongolian Lady in Washington, DC (2007). There are many Mongolians in the United States. This Mongolian lady not only looks like a Korean girl but also speaks Korean fluently. Amazing! Koreans came to the Korean peninsula from Mongolia, and thus share the same ethnic/linguistic origin. If Mongolians feel closer to Koreans, it is only natural.
• All Nippon Airways Ladies in front of the Crown Plaza Hotel in Vienna, Virginia (August 2009). It was a pleasure to talk with these Japanese young ladies in Japanese. It is very easy for Koreans to learn Japanese because they share the same linguistic origin. The only gap between them and me was the age. They kept me calling O-jeesan (grandfather).
• Chinese Student in Tai-yuan, Shanxi Province in China (1995). A very bright and polite student. She was studying English literature at Shanxi University. Chinese Student in Chinese dress.

  

• Turkish Professor in Stockholm (Sweden 2005). She came to Stockholm to attend a conference in mechanical engineering. I went there to attend a physics conference. This photo was taken in the hotel's breakfast room.
• Austrian Lady. It is a pleasure to be admired by a lady who understands the world. This photo was taken at a sidewalk cafe in Pecs (Hungary, 2002).
• Israeli Ladies in Vienna, on the campus of the University of Vienna. They seem to have relatives and friends all over the world, including of course the United States and Canada (Vienna 2008).
• Canadian Medical Doctors on the St. Lawrence River (Montreal 2004) Another set of doctors.
• Australian Sisters. I met these Australian sisters at a restaurants on the Vorosmarty Square (2003). One of them is working in London, and the other came from Sydney to visit her sister.

  

• Armenian Reporters: Two newspaper reporters in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia. From this city, you can see the Mount Ararat where Noah built his ark sometime ago. You will note that these ladies know how to dress (August 1998).
• Two Latvian Professionals in Cannes (France 2006). One of them (right) is an IT engineer and the other is a fashion designer. Very smart ladies! I enjoyed talking with them, and we promised to meet again preferably in the United States.
• Lithuanian Student taking opinion polls from visitors from different countries. She was very happy with my answers to her questions, and leaned toward me when this photo was taken.

• Zulia: In Kazan (October 1999), I met a Moslem girl. She wanted to go out with me to have fun at Kazan's Bauman Street (fun street). It is a sin in her culture to go out with a man, but she said I am a teacher and she is a student (not boy and girl). Kazan's Bauman Street is like Moscow's Arbat Street always with curious crowd. It was indeed a pleasure to talk with a humble lady like her. My Christian background is very strong, but I do not hesitate to go to mosques to pray in the way Moslems do when invited. My idea is very simple. We should live together, and we can very happily.

  

• Brooke Shields, in her academic gown (Princeton 1987).
• Americans in Stockholm. While I was having a dinner at a small table in a Stockholm restaurant called Martentrotzig (Sweden, June 2005), these three ladies came in and sat down at a big table next to mine. I asked where they came from, they said very proudly "United States." They thought I came from China or Japan. When I asked where in the United States, they said "Washington, DC." I then asked which area in Washington, they became somewhat annoyed, and asked me why I am asking so many questions. I told them I also came from the same area. They did not believe me, but they asked some questions about the area. I answered them all. I said I am a professor at the University of Maryland. They said they are office workers at the headquarters of one of medical associations and came to Stockholm to provide secretarial services for the association members attending a conference. We talked about many things like a brother and sisters.
• Les Halles in New York. Young ladies I met at a popular French restaurant in New York called "Brasserie Les Halles" (2006).

  

• am Rhein: with a Korean lady on a cruise boat on the Rhine River near Mainz (Germany, 1991). It our first time to meet, but she was kind enough to bring two cups of coffee to our table. I like to meet her again.
• in Florence (Italy): Korean lady working at one of the trendy department stores in Florence (June 1999). She said Koreans know how to live, and the word "Fendi" is very meaningful to Koreans.
• Korean Singers. I become vary happy when I attend Korean parties. I am enjoying a party for those Koreans who came from the North to South during the years 1945 - 50, because they did not like the communist rule being installed in the North.

• with a Korean girl at a night club called "Latin Quarter" in New York (July 1963).
  More about this girl.
• 81-year-old Beauty. If she looks like me, there is a good reason. She was my mother (1912-2001). She was embarrassingly active as she became older. In this photo , she is receiving an award from the Los Angeles city government for her service to the Korean community. Many people say that I am becoming more active as I get older. If this is true, I am afraid that I am like my mother.

It is a basic human right to retain fond memories of his/her own friends and of those who have been kind to him/her. If you have questions or comments, do not hesitate to send your mail to yskim@ysfine.com.