Wally in Real Life

2012-02-08T20:22:00.000+09:00

I bought this today:

Chef Wally

2012-01-18T20:52:00.002+09:00

I've been cooking a lot lately.

I made almond chocolate chip brownie cupcakes, which are DELICIOUS, and from a box (well, I added the chocolate chips and almonds and, in a stroke of genius, put them in a muffin pan).

I also made this soft tofu soup. Sarah, if you are reading this, this is what I made when I was back in Gainesville with you. This is what it's supposed to look like. It's not nearly as spicy as the stuff I made in Gainesville. You (sarah, and everyone else) should definitely give it a go. I posted a recipe on www.reallywally.tumblr.com

Here is a picture:

Brownies, Refrigerators, Hulu

2012-01-17T22:02:00.001+09:00

Well, it's been a roller coaster end of 2011, and here we are going through another breath-taking corkscrew and 2012 is only a couple weeks in.

On Friday, I discovered that my refrigerator had broken, and that the inside of my refrigerator was no longer cold. I also discovered that the chicken breasts in my freezer had dethawed and spilled chicken juice all about my freezer's insides.

It was then I went down to my landlord and, all in Korean mind you, expressed that a problem had arisen in my apartment, involving my refrigerator. And when my landlord remained unmoved, I knew I was in for a treat. It was at that moment that I realized the refrigerator was in fact my refrigerator, which I bought along with all the furniture in my apartment (including a dresser, microwave, sofa, dresser, t.v., water dispenser and the fridge, apparently) for 200 US dollars.

After showing a bit more desperation as I explained that I didn't know what to do about my refrigerator, my landlord conceded to coming to check out the refrigerator. However, he didn't do much except ask if I had unplugged it and plugged it back in (what, do I look like I'm a five year old? Come on) and then he got a worker from the second hand furniture and appliance store across the street.

Friendly as the worker was, he was not a repairman, and did nothing except check the plug (for the 5th time) and put his ear to the fridge. However, he did call LG to set up a repairman appointment for later that afternoon.

About an hour later, the repairman came and pulled the refrigerator back off the wall, revealing a dozen hair accessories which Nova and Baram pushed into the depths underneath the refrigerator, and which I embarrassedly tidied while he inspected my refrigerator. After finishing his inspection, he said, all in Korean mind you, that that whatchamacallit was broken and needed to be replaced. I say whatchamacallit because he tried to explain to me it's location and purpose, but even had he been speaking English I'm fairly certain it would have gotten no where. The new part would cost 50,000 won, about 45 US Dollars. However, he added, my refrigerator being nearly 20 years old, he couldn't guarantee that it would last, and that some people would opt to simply buy a new refrigerator at this point.

He then proceeded to tell me we needed to wait 10 minutes, for some reason that was not entirely clear. After the 10 minutes my refrigerator was turned back on. I didn't, at the time, understand how this happened since he replaced nothing and said nothing regarding the situation. He then said I should call him tomorrow or later today after consulting with a male (Hoon) regarding the part replacement vs. refrigerator replacement decision. He then left after telling me I owed him nothing since he fixed nothing (in spite of my refrigerator becoming cooler by the moment).

Hoon arrived home from sports academy at about 6:30 to a barrage of text messages from me. Yes, they have sports education academies in Korea; Hoon attends his approximately 40 hours per week during his vacation from school. I'm not a fan. After consultation with the repairman, Jong Hoon told me to opt for the part replacement, but that he wanted to research the correct price for the part to make sure I wasn't getting hosed.

So Saturday morning came and I discovered that my refrigerator had, again, shut off, overnight.

This time the refrigerator warmed up extremely quickly and I ended up throwing away about 80% of the food that remained in my fridge. Hooray. Hoon was unreachable the entirety of Saturday, something I don't wish to speak about as it irritates me beyond words. Finally Saturday at 11 pm he called apologizing, and swearing he'd set a repair appointment the very next morning.

And so he did set an appointment, which came on Monday afternoon.

And the same repairman came and he replaced the timer and sensor in about 10 minutes flat and was out of my apartment in under 20 minutes. I'm pretty sure I could have just bought the parts and installed them myself. It was actually that easy.

But regardless, I now have a working fridge and cold food once more.

So to celebrate, I've been watching Gossip Girl and Glee nonstop and I made chocolate chip-almond brownie cupcakes.

And now I just have to hope that it doesn't break again before my first paycheck comes in March 25th. If it does break again, well, then, looks like I've got a few months of ramen in the forecast.

And that is how I fell victim to and overcame refrigerated tragedy in the nation of South Korea.

2011 in Review.

2012-01-13T18:37:00.004+09:00

It was a year of LOTS of changes. Here's my recap by the month.

January: Watched Korean Dramas: My Princess, Boys Over Flowers, Secret Garden. Enjoyed my last winter vacation at Incheon.

February: 14th: my first Valentine’s Day with Hoon. Making peppero (pocky) all by myself. 16th: Kitties. 24th: BigBang Album 25th: My First Big Bang Big Show.

March: 14th: White day with Hoon. (Big Box of candy and Hello Kitty make-up bag!!!) 27th: Seoul Fashion Week

April: 8th: BB Special Edition Album Release. 17th: Angel Price Festival w/ BB. 29th: Best. Birthday. Ever. Se7en's Chicken Restaurant 30th: The time I met Big Bang.

May: 24th: First trip to YG Building

June: 1st: Daesung’s Car Accident. Heavy online hate rom Daesung fans for translating Korean news articles. The end of Big Bang Promotions

July: 13th: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 (aka the end of my childhood) 20th: 1 year anniversary 29th: last day of my Middle School Teaching job 30th: Moved to Seoul

August: 8th: narrowly skirt typhoon and get bumped to business class on flight to USA 9th-26th: America with Hoon. HARRY POTTER WORLD. 26th: narrowly skirt hurricane and barely make it back to America 30th: begin work at new hagwon

September: 1st: first day of Korean classes at Sogang.

October: 20th: Old Middle School’s Festival day, visit. Mid Terms. Visa Run to Japan.

November: 11th: Sogang first quarter finished! All A's! 20th: My grandmother passed away. The first person in my family I've lost while abroad. Probably won't be the last.

December: 1st: Sogang Korean Winter Term Starts! 2nd: Hoon & my 500 day anniversary. 4th: YG Family Concert 22nd: Sogang Classmate White Elephant Party 24th: Pre-K closes, lose job 29th: Get new, better job. Must quit Sogang. 31st: New Years Cocktail Party. HAPPINESS.

That Time I lost my job on Christmas.

2011-12-27T15:59:00.001+09:00

It's been literally ages since I've posted on here, but this is big.

So here begins one of my most depressing stories from my time in Korea.

As I had written not so long ago, I have been working for a pre-school academy part time since September. I loved my students and my co-teachers, even if there were some things that were annoying and stressful and not so wonderful about the job. Plus, it gave me a visa and a salary which was/is critical for me to continue living in Korea and studying Korean.

My visa was slated to run until early November of 2012, but it looks like I won’t be using it for quite that long.

On Saturday, Christmas Eve, after two hours of class, out boss came into the office and said she had some news. I had no idea what it could be but kind of hoped for a Christmas gift or bonus of some sort.

But the only gift our boss had for us was one I’d never expected or wanted to hear. Our academy was closing as of that day. There were severe money problems (the sole investor backed out in September and out boss had been making all payments herself since then), and it was impossible to continue. She explained that if we continued to work through January it was possible she wouldn’t be able to pay us our salaries and that she thought it was better to end it right here.

And so, from today, I am jobless.

What this also means is that I have about one month to find a new job before my visa expires. Luckily, I have my full-time student stuff to cover me IF something doesn’t come up. However, if I can’t find part-time work with a visa-sponsoring academy, I am gonna have to quit Sogang after the winter term and probably work full time for another year.

I am just glad that because I am only part-time, my house is not being paid for by my academy. The other native English teacher was full-time and her apartment was paid for by our academy and she has two weeks to find a new house, sign a contract, and completely move out. Not to mention she also has one month to find a job before her contract runs out.

Regardless, though, it was a pretty shitty way to ring in Christmas Eve, that’s for sure.

As a result, I am looking for a new job, and send lots of e-mails and resumes to lots of different academies. And in case there happens to be a Tumblr user out there who happens to know of something, please reblog and drop me a message if you hear anything.

My Christmas was really great, though. I will post about that soon!

2011-10-22T20:45:00.003+09:00

My Hostel in Japan

It's Japan!

Last minute before moving

2011-07-29T22:15:00.000+09:00

It's 10 pm on Friday.

I will move tomorrow around 6pm.

I am a little annoyed that it is so late, but I don't really have much of a choice.

I have all my clothing packed (except the stuff that is still drying from my laundry yesterday).

I have all my bathroom stuff packed.

I packed everything in my bedroom (essentially).

My kitchen, however, is a freaking disaster.

I can't pack up kitchen stuff because I just don't know how. It's totally over my head.

Also, I ran out of boxes (I have one left and all my kitchen stuff left to pack)

But, I am way better off than I was in the last move.

Plus, I got word from the part-time job that she will pay for the visa run IF I get my fbi background check by the first week of September. That gives me one month. LET'S GO FBI!

Please, everyone, fingers crossed please. I really need this job. Like seriously really need it.

Moving and Tears

2011-07-28T15:40:00.000+09:00

I move to my new apartment on Saturday, which I'm sure I've mentioned like 600 times.

Tomorrow is my last day to come to Shinheung Girls Middle School. Next week I have an English camp at another nearby middle school.

Today I have to move a bunch of my boxes and stuff from my office.

Yesterday I had my last dinner with two of my co-teachers (the two I am by far the closest to)

We went to the same place where we had our first teacher dinner, mostly just by coincidence.

It was fun and talk-filled, but seriously, it was so so so so sad. Seriously. I cried like a baby. We took some polaroids and ate and chatted, and we all cried. And they gave me this beautiful pair of earrings from J.Estina and I just can't tell you how thankful I am to them.

They have helped me when I didn't know enough Korean, or when I didn't know where to look for something, or when I needed to sneak out early to go to the post office or bank, or when I just wanted help with anything. They have so much stress as homeroom teachers and with paperwork and discipline and extra classes I never could understand how they managed it, but they always did everything they possible could to make my life that much easier.

It's not like I'll never see them again, but I won't see them in the same capacity, and it's just so crazy.

A huge chapter of my life is closing. And a new chapter is opening. It's exciting, but bittersweet.

I'm no longer in the beginning of my Korean life.

Stress in Korea

2011-07-26T10:46:00.000+09:00

I'm continuing to have a moderately stressful time here in Korea. I am two days into my final week at my middle school. I am packing things up in boxes and praying I don't forget anything too important here at school.

I officially move on Saturday July 30. No, I have not packed a damn thing in my apartment yet. I haven't really had time to do any packing. I'm hoping to really buckle down on Thursday and Friday.

Today I have to go to the Immigration Office again to attempt to file my visa extension. So far my visa extension experience is as follows:

Call Immigration Office for information. Get convoluted answers and the response that to get personal information I must visit immigration office in person.
Go to Incheon Office of Immigration. Deal with an idiot who has no idea what is going on (partly because no one has any idea, including myself, what the rules are)
Call Immigration Office. Am told I will probably be required to go on a visa run because they cannot process visa applications in advance (one month is too much notice???)
Call Immigration Office again. Speak to helpful woman who reassures me that I should have no problem extending my visa anytime from now until I leave for America. She reiterates that I will have to return to the Immigration Office after my vacation in America to fill out some additional paperwork. No problem
7/21 Call Immigration Office again to confirm required documents and procedure. Am told that I may be able to file my employment transfer form at the same time (if I am lucky).
7/22 Go to Seoul Immigration Office with the following items: visa appointment reservation ticket, passport, Alien Registration Card, apostilled and notarized diploma copy, my current school contract, new hagwon contract, hagwon's business and teaching licenses, 30,000 won, and completed immigration forms 34 and 38-3
Wait until my appointment time. Go to appointment desk. No one is there. Get help from a not very nice looking employee who offers to serve us since there is no one in the appointment booth. My new Korean boss explains why we came and what we are looking to do. Without so much as looking at any documents checking a computer or doing anything, she says I cannot file for my visa extension until within 15 days of my visa expiration. Unfortunately, I will be in New York City, Philadelpha and Florida at that time. My Korean boss explains this, and the women says I must bring in my airplane tickets to show I will be gone and then they will process it early. I have already explained my whole situation on the phone with immigration help a total of five times at this point and there was never, ever an instance in which I was told I needed plane tickets.
Return home defeated.
Discover in my mailbox a letter from immigration. It reads: Your visa will expire soon. If you plan to extend your visa please go to the nearest immigration office and complete the necessary paper work to do so.
WHAT. THE. FUCK.

So I'm going back this afternoon, with all those documents, my plane tickets, a big innocent help me smile, and I'm going to find the youngest, nicest looking male employee and inquire with him about my appointment and pray that he helps me and lets me apply in advance. Because this is just getting absurd.

After the immigration office I am paying my apartment deposit and buying all the furniture from the current tenant.

At least I have an apartment, right? The only problem is that I am not sure if I'll be legally permitted to live/work here.

lol

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2

2011-07-15T10:34:00.001+09:00

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 was great.

I cried approximately 4-5 times (including one moment when I’m pretty sure I was the only one crying, but I was sobbing because this is my entire childhood ending)

Hoon loved it as well.

Actually, Hoon I think liked it better than I did.

Most of it was awesome. Most of it.

Spoilers (but not really as I don’t give anything away, especially if you’ve read the books) below:

The battle for Hogwarts had moments of greatness, but it was too short. I wanted to see more focus on all the students and all the professors and the Order just going at it. Instead, we saw flashes of that greatness and a lot of Harry, Hermione, Ron, running around all crazy and shit trying to find/destroy the last horcruxes.

Also, I think Fred’s death wasn’t what I had anticipated.

Neville Longbottom was the joy of the movie. Seriously, he was fucking awesome. More awesome in the movie than I remember him being in the books (although it’s been awhile)

Voldemort’s death was kind of anti-climatic for me. But that’s just me.

There were harrowing parts, parts where I just held my breath and prayed for Hogwarts and Harry and Dumbledore’s Army and the Order, and there were parts when I cried, big gulping sighs of saddness, and there were parts when I laughed (those were few though, in this movie). There were also parts when I thought, oh, that’s it?

But, overall, I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the screen and I was literally shaking with anticipation while the students/professors/Order readied hogwarts for battle.

Also, most of the effects were flawless and beautiful. Sometimes it seemed a bit over the top (uh, the all-white meeting Dumbledore in the station thing), but it was mostly awesome.

A must see for any Harry enthusiast (duh) and also for those who want to know how the story ends.

From two people, one who has never read the books, and only began watching the movies about a year ago, and the other, a Harry Potter fan from before they became the rage in America (I saw JK Rowling on Rosie O’Donnell in July/August of 1998 and begged for the first book, but didn’t receive it until Christmastime maybe, about 6 months before it appeared on teh NYTimes Bestsellers List), a fan who went to midnight screenings and book release parties, made her own wand, sorted her and her friends into houses (I’m definitively Slytherin), from both of us, we sat in awe of the movie for well over two hours.

And when it ended I felt a small piece of me had ended. A doorway to a special part of my childhood was closed. But I am happy.

Plus, a month from now, we’ll be gearing up to go to Harry Potter World, so I guess that childhood door isn’t quite closed yet.

Sorry

2011-07-06T22:56:00.000+09:00

I feel a little bad because I've let this blog kind of fall by the wayside a little, which is unfortunate. I've been really busy with the other blog and giveaways and stuff (if you are into kpop, check it out here)

Plus tumblr really is a much easier platform, and nicer on the eyes.

Nonetheless I will try to recap the last few weeks, but it's been a haze in a lot of places.

I tested 650+ students for speaking exams. Every student at my school grade 1-3. Grade one had a dialogue which they had to translate to Korean and memorize. The dialogue was pretty simple. But the students had real trouble memorizing it, I noticed. And grade 2/3 received three questions. They had to choose one and prepare a speech answering the one question. This went better than the dialogue, but not that great. Grading was the most difficult thing as I got no guidance regarding the division of grades (I am under the impression that ideal distribution would be like a bell where the largest number of students got a middle score. I was later informed that 20-30% of all students should receive a 10/10. lol My grading scale had to change quick.

Then I had my open class. Open class is a period when your class is open for your principal, other teachers from your school, teachers from other schools (foreign teachers and native teachers), and district supervisors to come in and watch and evaluate your lesson. Then there is a open discussion afterwards. Luckily, I knew most of the people who came in to watch and I got great feedback. Also, my class was PERFECT. So that was a relief because the class I had tends to be crazy talkative.

Now, exams are all finished, and I've got 6 more days of school left (I think it's only five days of classes, if my memory of last year serves me right). Today was my first day telling my students that I won't be around next semester. It was actually really really sad. I had some not very good classes today, and it was still sad. When I have class with my grade ones, and the grade threes (who are the only students I've taught the WHOLE time I've been here) it's gonna be super hard. I didn't cry today, but I almost did.

Well, what's next?

I have been accepted to study Korean at Sogang University (not a big deal, the acceptance, they accept everyone; the big deal is what level I test in to). I will be attending Korean classes Mon-Fri 9a.m. to 1 p.m. no breaks.

To help pay for this little endeavor, I've also secured (well, contract isn't finalized, but I've been offered) a part-time job at a pre-kindergarten hagwon (private after school program). The students are super young, 24 months to 4 years, and really adorable. I've visited the pre-k before and my good friend works there. I've currently been offered a job Tues-Fri 4-6p.m. so 8 hours a week, with a possibility for the addition of Monday and/or Saturday classes (up to about 15 hours/week). I'm really excited about this job and how great the timing works into my schedule (it still leaves evenings free for studying and plenty of time in the afternoon for lunch and class prep/studying.

The problem?

a) Housing: It's really difficult finding housing in Seoul. Especially without a ton of money. You see, monthly rent is often quite cheap (consistently less than 600usd/month, usually close to 450-500usd/month for a furnished studio in the middle of the 5th biggest city in the world is pretty damn cheap). However, Korea has key money, which is basically a gigantic deposit. I'm used to a first and last month's deposit policy. Here, however, it's not uncommon to pay 5-10,000 US Dollars in a deposit (which is returned at the end of the contract assuming no damages are incurred) before the contract starts. This policy stems from the 전세 system, which is this crazy idea to pay an enormous deposit (25,000 usd+) on an apartment and then pay absolutely no rent for the next 12 months and receive your original 25,000usd back upon contract termination. Basically free rent (the landlord profits from the interest earned on that deposit typically). Ten-fifteen years ago, this was almost the only system in place. THese days, they are moving to a 월세 system, or monthly rent system. But, still, the huge deposits are a result of the previous area of monster deposits. Needless to say, I don't have a spare 5-10,000usd hanging around for me to use on a deposit, so I'm super limited. Add my two beautiful kitties to the mix, and it's been tough. Hoon is looking at a place tomorrow, and I'm checking a place out Saturday that hopefully might work.

b) Visa Oh My God. Immigration is the most obnoxious thing ever. You see, I am currently here on a teaching visa, and actually my part-time employer has offered to sponsor my visa (same kind) which is very kind (part-timers often don't get visa sponsorship... without a connection at the place, I'd never have had this kind of support). However, I am going to be in America at the time of my current visa's expiration and Immigration seemed to have no idea how to handle this situation and the prospect of extending my visa, claiming I couldn't file to extend my visa until the very day it is set to expire. They repeatedly said to me, well, just come back on the 25th of August. As if it is feasible for me to change my non-refundable plane ticket and all my plans at the drop of a hat. When I said that wasn't possible, they just sucked air through their teeth and said, well that's a problem. Then they indicated that I would have to go on a visa run. To those of you unfamiliar with this term (almost everyone who isn't currently teaching abroad) a visa run is when you make a trip to a foreign country in order to apply for a new visa (this is if you currently are not on any teaching visa, only like a tourist visa) because you cannot apply in Korea for that visa. Most people go to Osaka for this procedure, and typically your employer will cover it. However, I don't know why I'd have to do a visa run if I am here now ready to submit all the required documentation a month and a half before my current visa expires. They are telling me to just let my visa expire and then travel abroad. When I will be in America, abroad, for three weeks. Right, sure, no problem. WHAT? WHY CAN'T I EXTEND MY VISA BEFORE I LEAVE? That's crazy.

Finally I found someone with a brain who told me that actually all I have to do is go now to immigration once and then again to the same office after I return to mark a change of workplace. Welp, that's simple enough. Why didn't someone tell me in the previous 5 hours I spent trying to figure this situation out???

Now I'm at a cafe, and it's getting late and I should hit the sack.

The reason I can't write at my apartment is because the kitties managed to chew the ethernet cable (the little plastic part at the end). They bent the plastic just enough to make my internet non-usable. So I cancelled my internet and go to a cafe twice/week to get the wifi. The rest of the time I only use my phone or my work computer to access the internet. It's cheaper this way anyhow. I'd probably be going to a cafe this often anyways. and now I don't have to pay the 38,000 won/month that my internet cost.

Thanks for listening to this ramble.

This weekend a follower of my tumblr is coming to town and I'm looking forward to meeting up with her. Also, wish me luck with my doggone housing search!

xoxo
Wally

The Egg & Spoon Race

2011-07-03T16:10:00.001+09:00

[Disclaimer]: I love Korean food as much as the next girl. In fact, if I had to choose, I would say about 80% of the time I’d pick Korean food. A lot of people bemoan the lack of choices within Korean food culture. I am of the firm belief that these Korean food naysayers are confusing the commonality of kimchi and rice for a lack of choices. In spite of the inevitable service of kimchi and rice at a restaurant, I can choose among sweet, salty, mild, spicy, meat, vegetarian, soy, soup, steak, bbq, porridge, stir-fry, noodles, cold, hot, warm, and everything in between. There is not shortage of variety in Korean food, just a shortage in a person’s desire or confidence to try that variety.

That being said, there are days when I crave American food that is next to impossible to find. The most common cravings:

pizza that has neither corn nor sweet potato on it or in it.
garlic bread that isn’t topped with sugar
red velvet cupcakes
chewy cookies
granola
quality sandwiches
burgers that aren’t from McDonalds
American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, french toast, pancakes, waffles, omelettes, proper juices)

I have found suitable substitutions for many of these things. The problem is they are usually really pricy. A delicious, juicy burger from Smokey Saloon (no fries no drink) can easily run you over 9,000 won. A brick oven pizza for two from someplace other than dominos/pizza hut can cost in the ballpark of 25,000 won. My favorite brunch place to this day is Flying Pan Blue in Itaewon. However, one omelette and coffee will run you nearly 20,000 won.

The tasty and reasonably priced places usually have nothing at all by way of atmosphere, waits out the door, or horrendous service.

I’d like to share a delicious brunch discovery I made just yesterday near Ewha University Station on line 2: The Egg & Spoon Race.

Inside Egg & Spoon Race

This tiny outpost of western deliciousness boasts a variety of big three egg omelettes, homefries, a full drink menu (juice, coffees, espresso drinks), belgian waffles, thick sliced bacon, and french toast. They also have a full lunch/dinner menu that looks lovely as well (some people ordered up some pasta while we were eating and it looked great, and they make some of their own salad dressings I believe).

The service was fantastic. The servers speak Korean and English, although Korean is definitely recommended as the menu has little by way of English. Waitresses responded quickly to requests for syrup for my coffee, and a fresh fork and knife when I dropped them clumsily. They also were able to readily answer questions regarding the menu quickly and helpfully (at least in Korean). Everything was prepared fresh. And while the seating was limited and quite cozy, it never felt too noisy or cluttered (maybe everyone was just enjoying their food that much).

I went with my friend Mina (wordsrundry). I ordered the waffle set after asking what the waitress recommended. Mina ordered the Potato Omelette set.

Waffle Set

The waffle set comes with a big Belgian waffle topped with plenty of powdered sugar, scrambled eggs, salad and bacon and sausage. I don’t particularly like sausage, and they were happy to substitute and extra order of bacon for the sausage. The maple syrup was quality. The eggs were fluffy, but I found they needed a bit of salt (Koreans either make things salt-less or super salty… there is not much of a middle ground), but came topped with fresh cracked pepper. The salad was nothing special, mostly iceburg lettuce with sesame dressing (there were 4 dressing to choose from). The bacon was thick and juicy. The waffle was the perfect texture, and the flavor was just right. My iced americano was nice and cold from the moment it arrived at my table and never got watered down.

Potato Omelette Set

The potato omelette, which was recommended on the site that I randomly found out about the restaurant on, is a three egg omelette filled with cheese, tomatoes, and a generous portion of spinach. You have to option of including the potatoes inside the omelette or outside as homefries. Mina ordered them separate, although I probably would have had them inside. The omelette also came with the same average salad. But, who needs a salad when you have all that delicious brunchy goodness? Mina reported that the omelette was delicious and she was happy that they didn’t skimp on the spinach. She also seemed to like the orange juice, but I didn’t taste it.

Our drinks: Iced American (L) Orange Juice (R)

I would definitely recommend this to anyone living in Seoul or anyone visiting who has a craving for real breakfast (a hard to find treat here).

Each of our meals were about the same (the waffle and oj were more expensive than omelette and americano, respectively). Waffle set and Americano came out to 14,500 won, about 13.50 usd and the omelette and oj were 14,000 won. Without the drinks, the prices were right around 10-11,000 won, or under 10usd.

I was stuffed for about 6 hours after eating.

Directions:

Line 2 to Ehwa University Station (이화대역)

Go out Exit 3 and head straight. At the second street turn right.

It’ll be on your right side, Spoon Race will be written in big letters.

It is small (maybe can seat 15 people MAX) so it’s easy to miss.

There are lots of other amazing looking coffee shops and restaurants in this area, so if you can’t find it, try any number of the other places in the area!

If you go, lemme know what you think!

2 Weeks.

2011-05-30T09:39:00.000+09:00

Seriously, this has been the best past week and a half ever. Seriously, ever.

I will review.

May 20th: My best friend got married. Even though I wasn't there to see it, I'm basically freaking out I'm so happy. Also, Hoon's cousin had his schools festival and it was fun to watch heckle.

May 22nd: Everland. Everland is a huuuuuge amusement park outside Seoul and it's simply amazing. It's just awesome. I will post about Everland (pictures included) soon.

May 23rd-25th: No classes as grades 1&2 were on a school trip and Grade 3 had an exam and a class picnic.

May 23rd: Language Cast. I spent an hour in the Korean-only room, and it was awesome. I really like Language Cast. Like, really really like it.

May 25th: I went to the YG Entertainment Building. I delivered my (and my students') birthday gifts/letters for Taeyang via an awesome suited man and in spite of the mean old security guard who was attempting to block my delivery in every way possible.

May 26th: finalized all airplane flights for trip to America in August

May 27th: Hoon's university. Meeting Hae-gun until 10 p.m. It wasn't exactly what we had planned, but it was really fun nonetheless.

May 28th: Cirque du Soleil: Varekai. The best circus ever, and Hoon's first ever circus visit. It was awesome. I will also post separately reviewing this performance.

May 29th: Frisbee

May 30th (today): confirmed my application to Sogang University's language program was received.

I hope things can continue to go this well for me.

Also, I have (counting today, which has hardly started) only 30 more days of teaching before the semester ends. a full 4 of those days will be after exams are finished (which means MOVIE) and another 5 of those days will be review for the English exam. Plus, 3 will be independent study days (there is a three day break between exams... students just spend every moment studying. That means only 18 more REAL days of teaching. YES.

Holy. Shit. 2

2011-05-25T22:58:00.001+09:00

Where did all my pictures go???? WTF?

Korean Indie Music????

2011-05-24T15:26:00.001+09:00

This is called me getting in touch with my pre-kpop roots.

I saw this duo last Friday at Hoon's cousin's university festival.

Let me explain. Every university has an annual festival. Sometimes it is in the fall, and sometimes it is in the spring. It depends on the university. For example, Hoon's uni festival starts tomorrow. His cousin's ended last week. But Hoon's older brother's university was last October. The festival is a little bit like homecoming, except without the alumni coming back, and also without a football game. So actually it's not anything like homecoming except for the alcohol consumption. Basically all freshman are required to perform in some music/singing/dancing/cultural performance. Plus some singers come and perform. Sometimes it's a very famous singers, and sometimes it's a less famous singer. If you go to a very good or famous university, you get a good famous singer. Ex: Hoon goes to one of the best unis in Korea (yes, I am bragging right now, i don't even care). On Friday, 2ne1 will perform. Sometimes, even if a school is not particularly famous or good, if it has enough money it can bring a famous group/singer. Ex: Hoon's bro goes to a not so famous school. But it's private. They had B2ST last year.

Anyways, the student groups also set up tents for drinking and snacking, and sometimes there are games to play. Mostly though, they cook you shitty 안주 and serve you a ton of beer, soju and other adult beverages. On campus. For three days.

It's pretty freaking awesome.

I love university festivals.

Anyways, at Hoon's cousin Daniel's university festival, this duo came to perform. They are called 10 Centimeters (the difference between the two members' heights) and they are SO awesome and fun. I feel like this is something my non-kpop followers (i.e. all my friends back home) could seriously enjoy even in spite of the language difference.

Take a moment to listen. You might be surprised!

Children's Day 2011 - Hello Kitty Cafe review

2011-05-06T15:25:00.001+09:00

I love Korea. Why? Well, because their are so many awesome holidays.

Like Children's Day, which is a national holiday on May 5th.

Yesterday, being May 5th (I forgot it was cinco de mayo) I met up with my friend Mina and we went to 대학로 for coffee and shopping and sightseeing.

I had been to this area one other time, back when I first arrived in Korea, and I had no idea where I was. I went with a Korean friend and she just showed me around. 대학 is the korean word for university. 로 is one of the words for street or road or lane (just like in English, there are lots). 대학로 is near the best university in Korea, Seoul National University, and is also located really close to 성균관대 (Sungkyunkwan University) which you may recognize from the wildly popular k-drama 성균관스캔들. Anyhow, this is also the biggest theater district in Korea, and the home to about million adorable cafes and restaurants and some of the best and most varied architecture in Seoul (not saying much, Seoul sucks as far as architecture and urban design is concerned).

I am so happy to have rediscovered this area. It's beautiful and I HIGHLY recommend it as a place to visit.

Now, why, exactly, did we pick 대학로? Well, because on April 29th (coincidentally my birthday), a brand new branch of Hello Kitty Cafe opened there. And, well, Mina and I both love Kitty, so we HAD to go. Also, I had to buy some new TOMS shoes because my old ones were getting raggedy, but you can't buy TOMS just anywhere here in Korea. 10x10 is an AMAZING store, by the way. Definitely check out if you are in Seoul. Also, if you are in Korea and looking for toms, tweet @TOMSKorea and they will totally tell you how to find stores that sell TOMS wherever you are.

Old TOMS (left) New TOMS (right) - I'm not gonna stop wearing the old ones.

And, let me tell you, Hello Kitty (henceforth HK) fans, it's a must-visit. If not the one in 대학로, you can also go to the one in 홍대 (Hongdae) or the one in 신촌 (Sinchon). They are all amazing, all the the 신촌점 is my favorite.

Be prepared for a heavy dose of pink, and a whole lot of cuteness when you walk through their sliding glass doors. It's just bursting at the seems with Kitty paraphernalia, which didn't bother me one bit.

The stairwell between 2nd/3rd floor. SO MUCH PINK

The 대학로점 is located on the second floor across from the CGV (go out exit 4 of 혜화 station). The sign is big and pink and on your left. You should be able to find it pretty clearly. You should definitely find a seat before you order because there weren't a lot of available seats (unless you go during dinner time). Otherwise, you'll order your drink and get bounced really fast.

It doesn't look that crowded but TRUST ME. It was full of people, Korean, Western, Japanese and Chinese!

We sat on the third floor which was a bit quieter, but just as pink. You have to order your drinks at the counter on the second floor the menu is typical of most cafes, except with extra kitty touches. If you order a waffle, like we did, you can expect it to come out shaped like Kitty's head, complete with a waffle ironed bow. On the tops of some drinks (NOT caramel ones... mostly lattes) they will dust images of Kitty. My vanilla latte had her whiskers and eyes and nose, a cafe mocha I think has a side profile, and the green tea latte has the MOST ADORABLE dusted green Kitty bow. Everything comes out in specialty cups and plates emblazoned with a pseudo-hello kitty image logo(the cafe is not actually Sanrio certified, so they can't use kitty's real image in their logo). But, all the decorations are HK inspired, and they sell *real* HK dolls & accessories for relatively reasonable prices.

Food

My Vanilla Latte

The waffle was decent. Nothing to write home about, but it was cute. One negative was that when you order the waffle they give you only a fork to eat it. With some waffles this is fine (belgian waffles especially), but this waffle is not Belgian and it as nearly impossible to cut with our forks. We had to ask for a knife. The taste was pretty average for a waffle. But, the price was pretty average too. Luckily, this is a theme cafe that won't cost you an arm and a leg. The choco banana waffle we had was 3,500 won. The drinks are also not too spectacular, but they aren't bad. In my experience, the Americano is quite good (I've had it at the other locations, where they used mini mini ice cubes which I loved) as are the caramel drinks. The vanilla latte I had needed more vanilla and less sugar, imo. But the dusting on top was cute indeed. Also, they offer frozen yogurt with a pureed fruit topping, which is really good, but very sweet. Also, they sell mini HK cakes, which are delicious AND adorable, but a little on the pricey side, at 10,000 won for a cake that might serve 2-3. The waffle is a better deal, but that cake is heavenly. I got one once at the Hongdae shop, two thumbs up.

Left: Mina Right: Kitty goodies and a kitty wall!

Kitty on display!

Even the bathroom was decorated to the hilt with Kitty, from the mirror to the soap dispenser to the toilet paper cover. Kitty-tastic:

Clockwise from top L: Toilet Paper Holder; Bathroom Door, Me posing in Bathroom mirror shaped like HK

My favorite thing? The warning signs. I only took a picture of one: 머리 조심! (Watch your head!), but all of them (don't write on the walls, wifi is available, please bring your plates to the 1st floor) were adorable. Those and the chairs were freaking cute:

Sad hurt head kitty. BOWS ON CHAIRS!!

Anyways, if you don't care about Hello Kitty at all, I wouldn't bother coming, but if you are interested in HK, have a daughter (or son!) who likes HK, or you just want to beat the heat of the fast-approaching summer in a pink paradise, the Hello Kitty Cafe is your place.

Oh, and we drank smoothies at Smoothie King!

Mmmm Mmmmm Good!

Directions to 대학로점:
Go to Hyehwa Station (Line 4- 혜화역).
Exit 4.
Go straight down the main 대학로 road.
On your right, after about 50-75 meters you will see a CGV.
Across from the CGV, on your right, is the Hello Kitty Cafe on the second/third floors.

Directions to 홍대점 (Hongdae Shop):
Go to Hongik University Station (line 2- 홍대입구역)
Exit 9.
Go straight until VIPS.
Turn left.
Walk straight until on your right hand side you see a make up store: Tony Moly.
Tony Moly is sandwiched between two roads, one with a lot of restaurants (right side, looking to Tony Moly) and one with a lot of little stores and coffee shops (left side).
Go down the left side one (you will have to cross the street first).
Walk maybe 50 meters, maybe a little less, maybe a little more.
On your left, tucked behind some stores is the PINK hello kitty cafe storefront.

Enjoy!!

Big Bang Collection Cards Giveaway

2011-05-06T13:53:00.000+09:00

I just posted this on my tumblr in case anyone isn't following me on that and wants in on this giveaway of some of my Big Bang Collection Cards. I'm running the giveaway through the 31st of May!

You can get the details here. If you don't have a tumblr or twitter, you can't do the giveaway. But if you have only one, GO GO GO!

xoxo
Wally

2011-05-06T12:14:00.002+09:00

The Rest of my Birthday and a Review of Yeolbong, Se7en's Chicken Restaurant

2011-05-03T16:07:00.000+09:00

Well, my birthday was last Friday, and I'm finally all caught up on my sleep/work/activities/promises, so here is the recap of my birthday.

In my last post I wrote about my birthday morning, and here's the conclusion:

At school I got a package from my parents: birthday gifts. A cute Betsey Johnson bracelet and hair pins, and such. Really cute things. I put those in my Nike bag with that big ol' card Hoon gave me. ^_^

After school, I went off to Baskin Robbins, not knowing what to expect. When i arrived at Baskin Robbins, I walked in and approached the girl at the counter. I simply said, Hi, I'm Allison... and she said, "아~ 케이크~!" Cake??? What cake?? Jong Hoon got an ice cream cake for me (last time we went to BR I had said ice cream cakes are my favorite... he must have remembered). On top of the ice cream cake box was another note.

The note said, go to the 아디다스 store. (Adidas Store). !!!!! The Adidas Store was across the street so off I went with the ice cream cake box and the Nike bag (with a balloon a student gave me tied to it lol) over to the Adidas Store. I walked in and the worker immediately looked at me and said "아! 옷~!" Clothing??? What clothing? And he walked to the back and gave me an adidas bag with some soccer pants I've been wanting for a while. Inside the bag was also a letter which was from him. SO CUTE.

I went home, changed and got ready for our date.

We met at Noryangjin and went to Sinsa station, to Garo-su-gil to eat dinner at 열봉찜닭. This restaurant is owned by musician Se7en, who is someone I really admire. I've been hoping to go to his restaurant for a long time. It's really easy to get to, which is good because I had never been to Garo-su-gil before, and it wasn't too hard for us to find it. ^^

The restaurant is located on the second floor just off the main road. We walked up the stairs and of course you are greeted by a cardboard cutout of Se7en님. We took pictures before we left to commemorate our time there.

The restaurant is quite small, smaller than I had thought, but it was tidy, and well-decorated. Dark wood tables, white light fixtures and semi-private nooks for some parties. Most seating is open, however, and they do try to fit as many tables in as they can. Even though it was tight, it didn't feel particularly cramped, but I did notice that even without all the seats filled, it was still quite loud. There are several fake trees adorned with chili peppers and pictures of celebrities, which are fun additions to the decor. On the left wall as you enter, they have posted numerous pictures and autographs of celebrities including members of Miss A, Big Bang, Park Han Byul, 2AM, as well as other actors and singers I don't remember or didn't recognize.

All of the dishes are branded with the cute chicken mascot of Yeolbong or with the chili pepper that also is used to represent the restaurant. The menu is divided into two sections. The left side is the traditional spicy jjim dalk (열봉 means really spicy, or something along those lines, that's my boyfriend's explanation) and the right side is Se7en's specialy chicken. Supposedly that's really spicy. We decided to go with the traditional spicy side.

On the spicy side you can choose your spiciness level 1-3 peppers. We got one, because we didn't know how spicy it would be. Boy were we glad we ordered level one spicy. IT WAS LIKE EATING FIRE. It was really spicy. I mean, I like spicy food, and so does Hoon, and this was quite spicy. Not unpleasantly spicy, but I can't fathom ever eating any level higher than that. I think I'd die.

We were sucking in air through our teeth and gulping 쿨피스 (Coolpis -- a fruit juice that is amazingly effective in countering extreme spice) after just two bites.

Even though it was spicy, it was really delicious. The chicken was cooked perfectly. It was not difficult to get off the bone (although if you are not adept at chopsticks use, I would recommend asking for a fork), and the carrots and potatoes were cooked like a dream. The noodles were probably the most spicy (the soak up all the sauce which makes them extra intense) but they were also SO delicious.

Afterwards, we added rice (which also had dried seaweed laver and tofu mixed in) and mixed it up. If you do go, I recommend ordering the rice at the end, after you finish your meal. It comes out really quickly, and that way its still piping hot when you add it to your slightly cooled sauce. We didn't do that, and it's a shame. IT was still good, but we imagine it'd be much much better if we had eaten it still hot...

On the whole, I would definitely recommend this to any spicy food lover traveling to Seoul. Also, I recommend it for anyone who is a big kpop/kdrama fan (just order the mild... it's listed under the main section on the left. It is less than one pepper, lol. The Right side is more spicy!!!) and is interested in looking at the pictures and even have a chance to glimpse a celebrity while you eat.

As for portions, 반마리 is half a chicken and it's enough for two-three people. There are two larger sizes, 한마리 and 한마리반 (one chicken, and 1 1/2 chicken respectively). For two-three people, you can order just one of the special rice dishes (남두 밥) and you'll be all set. Definitely add a 쿨피스 to cool you off if your feeling all spiced out!

Price: $$ for Korean food, it's a bit pricey. But for westerners, it's very reasonable for a dinner. 반마리 + 남두밥 + 쿨피스 came out to about 25,000 won, which is about 23.50usd, for two. A gut-bustingly filling meal for less than 12usd per person? Not too bad, I'd say. But, if you're pinching pennies, I'd say go for the bibimbap. lol

Food: *****/ 5 out of 5 - I don't have a lot to complain about with our food. The only complaint I'd have is that we foolishly ordered our rice too early (my fault). The flavor was excellent. Spicy but flavorful. Chicken was moist and tender. Vegetables thoroughly but not over-cooked. Noodles cooked perfectly.

Service: ****/ 4 out of 5 - There was nothing wrong with the service, but nothing to write home about. I think they are used to seeing celebrities and therefore treat their normal patrons with general indifference. Don't take that the wrong way. I just mean that some restaurants (not so many in Korea) treat their patrons with excellent service regardless. Here, in Korea in general, wait staff don't bend over backwards for their patrons. If you need them, call them. If you don't, don't expect them to check up on you because they won't.

Atmosphere: **** / 4 out of 5 - The decor was lovely. A nice mix of playful sophistication. The colors were good for the restaurant and the concept. The furniture was aesthetically pleasing. But it was a bit loud. I don't know if the acoustics of the restaurant need improving or if it's just a result of packing a few too many chairs into a restaurant. Some restaurants are meant to be loud an noisy. But the noise level didn't really fit the rest of what the restaurant, stylistically, seemed to be going for. In my opinion, they could stand to lose seating for maybe 5-8 patrons. I think that giving up that seating would make for a better atmosphere by far...

Overall: 4.5/5 I had a great time and it's definitely some place I'd recommend.

My Birthday...

2011-04-29T09:25:00.002+09:00

Is nowhere near over yet, but I just have to share how amazing it has been so far.

Last night at 11:45 I sent a message to Hoon, basically just that I was going to sleep.

His response: ㅋㅋㅋ 잘 수 있을까?? ㅋㅋㅋ Which is basically hahaha Will you be able to sleep? hahaha

I thought what?? Then like 5 minutes later I got bombarded with text messages from all of his friends who he told to message me for my birthday. So far I've received something like 40 text messages from his friends, and they keep coming. I actually had to turn my phone to vibrate so i could sleep. SO CUTE.

Then, this morning, he sent me a message and said, "There is a mission! Check your door before you leave."

As I was leaving my house, I checked my door to discover that at some point between late last night and 7:30 a.m., he had traveled the hour and 20 minutes to Incheon and put Hello Kitty Stickers on my door, with th sticker message Allison's House written out. Plus, he left a little post it note:

던킨도넛츠 = Dunkin Donuts.

베스키 라빈슨 31 (there shouldn't be a ㄴ at the end... idk why it's there) = Baskin Robbins.

So off I went to Dunkin Donuts where I discovered he had also visited and preordered my standard bagel and ice americano. SO CUTE. Then, when the girl gave me the iced Americano, she also gave me a bag and said that Hoon had come in earlier and prepared this for them to give me.

Inside the bag? This amazing birthday card that he drew himself!:

This is the cutest card Ever. I love giraffes. That's me as Hello Kitty skydiving on the left, and Hoon (he's a bearwolf... it's a joke between us...) is on the left. LOVE IT.

And so now, I've just been getting tons of amazing messages from Hoon's friends and family, enjoying a delicious birthday breakfast, looking in amazement at my adorable card, thinking about Baskin Robbins after school, and being really thankful for having a boyfriend who is so amazing and sweet.

I might cry I'm so happy.

Number 2

2011-04-27T08:52:00.000+09:00

I recently read an article that suggested that Americans and their toilets have it all wrong.

The article reported that doctors agree that a toilet seat is not as natural or easy a means to relieve yourself as the old-fashioned, still-popular-in-the-East squatting toilets are. Reports say that people using a squatting toilet are able to relieve themselves something like 30% faster and in a more comfortable manner.

Additionally, people from countries that still use squat toilets widely (this includes South Korea where most bathrooms have at least a couple squatting toilets) have a much lower incidence of kidney stones (something like 40% lower) and that, we all know, is a good thing.

However, when it comes down to it, I prefer the sitting toilets due to my natural western inclination. However, I have no problems or hesitations using a squatter. I wonder if that 30% faster figure includes westerners who need to take an extra two minutes to mentally prepare themselves for what they perceive is a dirty, archaic, third-world bathroom convention.

As an aside, I have seen show prints on the toilet seat in the bathroom next to my classroom (there is only one western style cammode, and 8-9 squatters) which indicates that some students still think that a western toilet is for squatting, not sitting.

Interesting, right?

Right Now

2011-04-22T15:16:00.000+09:00

I am at school.

I have one more class and then I leave to go to JEJU!

But unfortunately before I leave, I have to figure out how to transport my teams jerseys, and I have to buy cold medicine, and I have to pray that this douchefaced jerk at the jersey company agrees to pay the 135 dollars that were incurred because he's a big idiot.

Also, I'm really sick.

And my ankle hurts.

And I still haven't bought a place ticket home.

Annoyed

Spring has almost sprung.

2011-04-19T10:28:00.000+09:00

Aside from yesterday which was extremely sad and cold and rainy (it actually snowed in Gangwon-do, which is RIDICULOUS) the weather has been getting nicer and nicer. It's been sunny and warm and bordering on hot. Sunday I work shorts AND a tee-shirt and was perfectly comfortable. AMAZING.

Aside from my ankle (doctor tells me I tore two of the lateral ligaments in my ankle... level 2 ankle sprain), which is still a bit bothersome, everything is looking up.

I saw Big Bang on Sunday in a stroke of pure luck thanks to two co-teachers and some fast ticket buying at the last minute. To make it even better, due to an unfortunate incident involving SNSD's Taeyeon, everyone got full refunds for their tickets. This means I went to LotteWorld Amusement Park and saw Big Bang for FREE!! Gotta love it. Oh, and Park Bom of 2ne1 waved. TO ME!

Anyways, my birthday is soon, and I'm gearing up for that, but more importantly, this weekend I am going to Jeju for a frisbee tournament that I'm not supposed to play in because of my ankle. I'm playing anyways.

Also, my baby sister, Melly officially got accepted to graduate school, and put in her deposit at Indiana University and she is going to get her master's degree in Water Resource Mangement and I couldn't be more proud of her if I wanted to. She is growing up and she is becoming a lovely, intelligent, well-spoken, beautiful woman. It's so exciting. I miss her so much. Like more than anyone. I just want her in Korea with me. Korea needs to work on all Resource Management, including water, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll come here one day. lol. not likely.

I also got my Dream Concert ticket/invitation. It's really complicated because it's not really a ticket. A student gave it to me, then I had to go to this random website to register my number and then there is a random drawing for 25,000 people to go the concert. I also had to use Hoon's name, not my own because evidently only Korean people can sign up, which is dumb.

That's it for now, I think. I have to make exam questions for my mid-terms today!! I can't wait for midterms. It's the start of a nice little mini vacation for me, and I'm very much looking forward to it. ^^

Good Things and Bad Things in the ROK these days

2011-04-10T23:27:00.000+09:00

Good things:

Nova: He is finally not sick anymore, and he is also finally getting bigger. It seemed like he wasn't growing much but he's finally hit a growth spurt and so he's getting bigger and bigger all the time. He's still much smaller than Baram, who is pretty freaking big these days. But, now when they fight, at least Nova isn't getting thrown around so much. haha. Nova is eating like a little piggy though. Gotta curb that. No fat kitties over here.

Big Bang Special Edition Album: I got the Big Bang Special Edition 4.5 Album and it's really good. Sure, 70% of the songs are old songs, but those three new tracks are SO SO SO SO SO good. It's mind-boggling. The new direction Big Bang is headed is very western and very exciting. I just hope that their new Western style won't lead them to promote too much outside of Korea. Stay here boys!! PLEASE.

Skype: I got to skype with the League this afternoon. My best friend, Sarah was having a bachelorette weekend in NYC. Her wedding will be May and so all the girls got together this weekend to celebrate before her big day. I was really bummed I couldn't be there with all my best friends, but it was so wonderful to chat with them. I miss them more and more every day.

APRIL = BIRTHDAYS!: April is like the big birthday month for everyone. April 7th was Nova's 100 day birthday. It's not a real birthday, but 100 days usually gets a big celebration in Korea. For Nova's 100 day celebration, I ordered a mini cat tower for the boys. They've out-grown/pulled apart the smaller scratching post for them so it seemed like a good gift

For my boys. It's about 2.5 feet high. They are gonna totally dig it I think.

   Then this Friday is Hoon's birthday. Unfortunately his birthday present is coming from the states and will be depressingly late. But it's still his birthday soon!! And I'll make him some food and take him out somewhere or do whatever he wants. He's not used to birthdays being like a big deal, but I'm making him make his birthday special this year.

   We've also got three leaguer's birthdays: Nickipants, Stella and Nicole.

   Plus my birthday is at the end of the month (April 29th) so yeah!

BAD THING:

1. Dirty kittens: Nova and Baram have this annoying habit of pulling their poop out of their litter box and playing with it or batting it all around my apartment. It's gross.

2. Bum ankle: Yesterday at frisbee practice, during a box drill (a basic cutting and throwing drill) I was making a cut and as soon as I went to plant on my left food, I slid and my ankle rolled underneath me and I fell. There was a pop and a lot lot lot of pain. I went to the hospital later than evening and they said they suspect it's just a sprain but that if after a week it's still hurting a lot, I should come back so they can run an MRI because they only did xrays to check for fractures (none). In the meantime I'm wearing this ridiculously big splint and hobbling around. It sucks a lot and it's particularly difficult with the cats. I can't move fast and I can't bend down easily and cleaning up whatever stupid shit they do (spill their water bowls, play with their poop, knock shit over) is really difficult. I'm taking some medicine but it doesn't help much with the pain at all. Plus I have no idea what the hell I'm going to wear to school tomorrow since my splint is way to big for jeans, and I can't wear stockings or tights or anything.

Yeah, walking in this kinda sucks. It took me 15 minutes to walk what would normally take just 5-7 minutes.

3. Crazy Schedule Changes: Last week I had a crap ton of schedule changes due to some open classes I had to go watch at other schools. So on Friday I ended up having to teach six classes straight with only a break for lunch. That's five and a half straight hours of teaching students which sucked. Like a lot. Plus, I had to constantly switch back and forth between new and old lessons and it was super complicated.

Sick Kittens, more gifts, and sleepless nights

2011-03-17T14:57:00.001+09:00

I don't know what is wrong with me, but it seems that all the little things around me are sort of falling apart. It's a miracle I can stand in front of my classes with any semblance of legitimacy given my general lack of preparation as of late. I really try to get everything in order, but I manage to let go of all the strings holding everything together and I have to flip into crazy mode to get everything back together. Examples: a) Last Wednesday I started teaching a class thinking it was the first time I had seen them that year, and I was suddenly reminded that I had, in fact, taught them once already and had nothing prepared to teach them that day. Luckily I whipped out the name cards and stuttered my way through a new explanation. b) Wednesday is the shittiest day every weekbecause I teach four classes, and two of them are to learn previous week's lesson while the other two are on the upcoming week. This means that I have to prepare a new lesson on Tuesday when I have a shit schedule and don't really want to make anything. This week, Tuesday came and went with a search on waygook to find things but nothing solidified. Wednesday morning I threw something together but decided to change the second half of class to accomodate a new lesson (in an attempt to get my classes back on track, and with a new week's lesson starting on THURSDAY!) So I looked online for ideas and nothing really great came of it. I'm trying to change my approach to teaching, trying to incorporate what they are learning in their other English classes, so my class doesn't seem so left field to them. Unfortunately, I can't get all my thoughts down together. So, Wednesday I essentially found nothing and then at 4:15 (I leave at 4:30) I discovered that due to a schedule change my class would start at 8:30 as opposed to 9:00 which is a huge difference when you have nothing prepared. So I brought the texts home but hardly looked at them between frisbee practice, desperately trying to stay awake on the subway, eating, and passing out at 11:00. I woke up early and left for work at 7:30 this morning just so I could arrive early enough to work undistracted until my class begin at 8:30. Luckily, my lesson plan went over just fine. PHEW.

On another note, Nova is sick. I have been taking him to the vet everyday since Monday (it is now Thursday and supposed to be my last day of vet visits) and that has been a huge time drain. I have to go home, get nova ready for the vet, go to the vet, come back home, all before I can do anything I need to do. He gets two shots everyday, one on his back and one is his back left leg. He hates them, but he is getting better at dealing with the shots. He had a big ol' scratch on his nose as well (I to this day still have no idea where it came from... maybe his nose was too dry and cracked. That's my suspicion) and the scab got pulled off Sunday night and he started bleeding EVERYWHERE, which was pretty effing terrifying. Luckily I had noticed the scab on his nose on Saturday so I at least knew that it wasn't something that Baram had caused or something. Luckily, the blood didn't seem to bother anyone buy me. Nova just kept playing around with his nose all bloody, getting blood on some textbooks, his paws, Baram, my planner, and my floor. Luckily that is healing. Then on Monday I came home to Nova throwing up and with more gunk built up in his eyes than could ever possibly be considered healthy. So straight to the vet who doesn't speak english. I stammered out a foolish sounding explanation of what happened and stuff, and he says a bunch of things I didn't understand but nodded to anyways. He gave the shots and we were off told to return each day for another round of shots.

On a more positive note, I've gotten some more presents this week.

I got Hello Kitty stickers, more hella sexy Taeyang/Daesung/TOP pictures and the 2011 FILA BIGBANG back to school planner. Jackpot, right? Well, I'm definitely pretty darn happy with the turnout, I'd say. I was really surprised about the planner, but I guess she's not a huge bigbang fan and just got it with some big fila purchase so now I have it!! hehehehehe. It's amazing.

Wow. Love me some BIGBANG and Hello Kitty

Also, Monday was White Day, but I couldn't meet Hoon because we were crazy busy. Instead, he came over on Tuesday and I made that delicious tomato cream sauce pasta and some deliciously amazing rice krispie treats (thanks melly for shipping me some marshmallows and krispies). Hoon basically fell in love with the krispie treats. He ate almost an entire batch. It was cray cray. I was really surprised that he got me anything for White Day because he thinks that all the Korean couple days are played out. But I like them. And he knows I like them, so he got me a big box and filled it with lots and lots and lots of candy and gave me this adorable clear plastic hello kitty zipper cosmetic bag. SOOOO cute. And, he wrote me an amazingly sweet letter on Hello Kitty stationary. Even down to the little details (the kitty stationary and padding the box with the shredded paper to make it pretty) he did a perfect job. I am so thankful. Also, white day is awesome!

Really love my man!

xoxo

Updates from the start of the school year

2011-03-10T10:23:00.000+09:00

Well, another school year has started and this means, a couple hundred new students who are completely enthralled with a) my blonde hair, b) my eyes which are green/gray/brown with gold flecks, c) my long eyelashes, d) my height or e) my extremely good grasp of English and ability to type English quickly on a keyboard.

This also means that I get a round of introduction lessons and a pretty painless first two weeks of school. My grade threes are creating facebook accounts and joining class groups so I can send out class information and extra credit opportunities to the students to use English in fun ways outside of the classroom. Hopefully there will be enough participation to do scavenger hunts, crosswords, video game quizzes, etc.

My grade one and twos will be making name cards this week. This of course means we get to do a whole bunch introductions and I get to learn lots of ridiculous things about my students. For example, a grade two student (this is a girl who is 14 years old mind you), wrote, "My dream is to be a femme fatale." Legitimately, that's what she wrote. As her future job goal. Ridiculous.

My grade ones are adorable and love me and today I got some gifts from my students: a Hello Kitty pen and some really really really sexy Taeyang stickers. SCORE.

Frisbee practice has started up and it looks like we're going pretty hard this year with practicing and stuff. It's gonna be intense me thinks... Track workouts, strategy meetings, all sorts of fun stuff to keep me super busy.

And my babies survived their first few weeks at home TOGETHER without mommy. Nova barely escaped death once when Baram decided to push a bath gift set box (containing a full bottle of body wash and a full bottle of body lotion) off a table and onto Nova's leg. Luckily I was home to hear Nova's howl of pain and I cared for him while scolding Baram who thought that immediately after doing this, with Nova walking around on just three legs, it was the perfect time to play fight with Nova. I had to keep them separate as little Nova kept crying and I was so worried. But the next morning (it was about 11pm when it happened, and no emergency clinics to be found) he was hopping all around everywhere and attacking Baram with as much playful energy as he had been before the injury. So everything seems to be all fine now. But, he's got a vet appointment to get his shots next week and I'll be double checking with the doc to verify everything is all clear.

That's it for now.

xoxo
A

Big Bang 4th Mini Album Review

2011-02-28T13:09:00.000+09:00

I got the album last Friday, and haven't had a chance to review it until just now.

But a warning. It's really long. And also, it's only at my tumblr page. I am trying to transition so my tumblr is all kpop all the time and my blogger is more personal, with focuses on Korea and teaching and my life here, not just kpop (which believe it or not, is only a part of my life)

Anyways, CLICK THIS LINK to read my review!

Bigbang Big Show 2011

2011-02-26T22:31:00.000+09:00

I know I said I would keep this mostly kpop free since I started www.reallywally.tumblr.com but this is like the most exciting thing that's happened to me in Korea ever. So here's the post:

So. I went to the Big Bang Big Show Friday night.

I know I might get bricked by some VIPs for this but my review will have some negatives.

That being said, there will also be a whole lot more positives.

I went with my boyfriend who is not a huge Big Bang fan, but he loves me, so he will go anyways. His first concert ever in his life was YG Family Concert, and this show is number two.

Actually my day basically went wrong in every way humanly possible before the concert, so I actually wasn’t that excited until we basically were in the hall. To list my problems: we lost our plane tickets for our summer vacation home because the travel agent essentially lied about the price and we cannot afford them, my two kittens still haven’t met, and I had to go home before the concert to feed them, my usb drive broke, I had to go to the other side of town to get the Big Bang cd, and I realized I left my Big Bang lightstick at home roughly five minutes after it was too late to turn around and go get it.

But, enough on that. We got to the stadium and thats when everything started to get better. My boyfriend (who used to take lifeguard training classics at the olympic swimming ppol next to the main olympic stadium) found us some secret bathrooms that had no line as opposed to the 50 person line in the concert provided toilet stalls.

Got in line, where everyone was pretty friendly if not moderately terrified of how tall we are. They all were nervous about standing behind us.

We waited as the sun set and they slowly began to let people in to the standing sections. We were in section 5, which is , if you are looking at the stage, to your left a ways, but still standing and relatively close. We managed to get right into the corner where two walkways would meet, so we thought we would be able to get lots of close-ups with Big Bang walking by.

It got pretty hairy as the rest of our section poured into the standing area. I would say about 60-65% of the fans were really young (high school or younger) and the other 35-40% were about my age. Anyways, a group of middle school or so aged girls ended up standing right behind us (foolish move) and proceeded to complain loudly about how they can’t see in Korean as if I couldn’t understand. Then they said to my boyfriend that they couldn’t see, and I firmly informed my still green concert going boyfriend that we would not move for anyone, regardless of how short or whiny they were. If one person gets in front of us, we may just throw up a neon sign that says, step right up. The girls were pretty unhappy with me, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

Just before the concert began, some very severe pushing started within our section. It was pretty horrible, and I just thought plain unnecessary. Everyone was just temporarily out of their mind and shoving everything within sight to get as close as possible. It was really frustrating and before the show even started, I saw a girl get carried away by security because she had passed out. That’s how intense it was. In the course of the evening I personally saw about 6 passed out girls carried away, as well as one illegal camera use escorted out.

Anyhow, the security was super tight around me so I didn’t manage to get basically any pictures or videos, which is a total bummer. But, I was really close to the stage, so that was lucky, or at least I thought it was.

There are other posts that tell the exact line-up, I’ll just say my best memories:

1. The show opened with a revealing of the GD&TOP 집에가지마 video which was just spectacular and retro and so perfect for them. after the m/v, my boyfriend kicked something on the ground. He asked me what it was because it was a cylindrical box of some sort, and I looked down and discovered a box for big bang merch. I didn’t actually get to the merch table, so even though I knew the kind of stuff they were selling, I didn’t see any of the packaging to know waht would be in the box. But, regardless, I thought, that’s MINE now. I carefully picked it up and put it under my arm as the next song began. The pushing started back up again as people attempted to get every millimeter of closeness possible. In the next lull, I opened up the box and discovered, to my extreme joy, it contained the new edition of the light stick which I had been whining to my boyfriend that I wanted to buy since I left my old one at my house. So basically not only did I get standing seats to the concert, I also snagged a free brand new light stick.

2. Secret Garden parody was the best thing ever. They mimicked the scenes so well, and with such nice comedic timing and I really enjoyed it. There was lots of kissing, and lots of GD grabbing his fake Gil Ra-Im boobs, and Taeyang wearing a hilarious wig, and Daesung being the perfect mother of Joo-won (TOP) and the perfecrt recreations of all my favorite scenes: situps, cafe kiss, oska socks, I’m Gil Ra-Ims fan, farewell letter (omg, TOP CRYING), Seungri’s hair for Oska was perfect. Seriously perfect.

3. Taeyang’s solo performance of Where U At and I’ll be There. I wasn’t sure what he would perform or even if he would perform, so this was nice. Where U At is my boyfriend’s favorite song by Taeyang/Big Bang so he got really excited. Downside? As most people mention in other fan accounts, no shirtless-ness from Dae the ENTIRE concert. Major let-down.

4. 뻑이가요 performance by GD&TOP complete with segways, ridiculous suits, and a big ass tank on stage which GD climbed up on. Also, Oh Yeah featured Bommie live, which was great, and then High High all the boys came out on stage, which was also really exciting.

5. Seungri is typically my least favorite in the group. There is always something about his boasting and general loudness that I find a bit annoying. However, I’d like to officially retract all the negative things I’ve ever said about him. He was the only member of Big Bang to really show any love to our section at all. The walkways I was sandwiched between? Virtually unused. GD rolled by on the segway at the opening of 뻑이가요, Daesung walked by once. But in the middle of the show, Seungri heard our section begging them to come to our side, and he listened. He seemed to really show our section love, coming over to ourside (basically right in front of me) and pointing and singing and dancing right in front of us. It was nice that he recognized that we were getting basically no love and he helped us out. Also, his solo performances were really good. I don’t even own his mini-album, but after the concert, I’m tempted to buy it if only to express my gratitude for his concern during the show.

6. During the Encore, Taeyang stopped basically right in front of (there were maybe four people in front of me, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume he saw me and said, this is just for that sexy foreign girl right there, and he danced and sang and did this unbelievably sexy vibrating dance I am almost died right there I was so excited.

7. During the encore performance, TOP had the sexiest hip thrust I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I swooned so hard. It was right in time with 1, 2, 3, BIG BANG (jumpring down from the platform at three hard core hip thrust at BANG). I was like, yo top, come bang it over here in my direction.

8. The pyrotechnics were great! They went light on the fire and heavy on dope fireworks. The fire is awful because it severely impedes your vision and is fucking hot. The fireworks are just bad ass. There were some green ones that exploded and created really trippy smoke rings when they popped in the air. I was really intrigued by those.’=

9. Daesung’s Solo performance was the most memorable of the night. Actually, his performance throughout the concert was essentially flawless. He killed every note, and his new song Baby don’t cry was beautiful. It’s so nice to hear him sing a ballad. He was amazing. I love him.

The negatives:

1. Way too much pushing and hostility from the fans. It was uncomfortable and dangerous. A bunch of people fell in our section, and people were passing out right and left. This is common at concerts like this, but still, it’s depressing to see how fans get when their emotions take control.

2. No love on our side, including almost no attention to our neighboring walkways and a big light blocking a portion of the stage.

3. Security too close for any good pics

4. NO TONIGHT MUSIC VIDEO. This was the most disappointing thing as they announced on THURSDAY that they would premiere it and then Big Bang had to say that it didn’t get finished. They showed an unfinished version, but i actually really wished they hadn’t shown it at all. The clips were good, but they werent timed properly to the music, and it was super choppy and just disappointing

5. Serious technical difficulties before performing their newest songs. Fans shouted 괜찮아 but it took forever for them to fix the issue. Disappointing.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that.

I have to go take care of my just been neutered kitten who is lethargic and semi-depressed right now. Plus, I’m starving.

xoxo

By the way, did any of you go to the concert? What did you think?

Baram

2011-02-24T21:55:00.001+09:00

baram-dungi playing. He has been really crazy tonight. Maybe he is as excited about bigbang's comeback as I am

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6

Oatmeal

2011-02-24T12:25:00.000+09:00

You know, I went on this intense oatmeal kick my senior year of university and I ate the stuff most everyday, sometimes two packs a day, always the same ones, maple and brown sugar, or cinnamon sugar instant quaker oatmeal packs. I had my mom ship me some to eat this winter, but I was only able to down one packet before I my head was pounding and I felt like I was going to go into a legit sugar coma.

What happened? I guess I just don't eat nearly as much sugar sweet foods as we americans eat on a daily basis. Even Korean deserts and cookies are noticeably less sweet than American versions. I made sugar cookies with my students, and they were like, teacher, that's too sweet. Uh, the primary ingredient is sugar, it's supposed to be sweet. But now I'm off-topic.

Today, I discovered this blogger's recipe for instant oatmeal, and I thought, hmmm, I could get behind this. For the rest of you eating quaker instant oatmeal packets, why don't you use this recipe to make tastier, customizable, less expensive, way better for you oatmeal? If I can find oats, I'll try this out myself. If I botch it horrible it's only something like 10 bucks down the drain.

xoxo
A

One little kpop spam

2011-02-23T13:43:00.002+09:00

Okay, so I've been pretty good at keeping this mostly k-pop free because, well, I started that tumblr account of mine that is pretty much strictly dedicated to all things k-culture (pop, drama, culture) and this is going to mostly anecdotes and stuff from life in Korea, food, school, activities, events, etc. If you are interested in that stuff, I recommend you head over to tumblr and subscribe/rss feed/read religiously/ask questions/etc!

But, tonight at 12 a.m. marks a major moment for me personally here in Korea. It's BigBang's comeback (after 2 years and 3 months... but who's counting?) and as lame as that may be, I am anticipating this and hyped for this more than perhaps anything in my whole life. This, to me, is more exciting than making the varsity basketball team, getting into college, starting university, turning 21, getting a bid to college nationals for ultimate frisbee, getting a job right out of uni, leaving America to teach English in another country, traveling to 3 continents in less than 12 months, and any other major life moment I can remember.

It's just that this group has really defined my experiences here. If it weren't for bigbang, I think a lot of my life he would just be lived in a state of: "this is just temporary, so don't bother getting attached" but via my love of bigbang I have been able to engage my students and initiate deep and meaningful relationships with them, have opportunities to meet people (both famous and not) that I'd never have met before, and learn a tremendous amount about the culture I am living in first hand.

If it weren't for big bang, I think I'd probably still believe that my living in Korea is 2-5 year commitment and just a break from a "real" life beckoning from America. However, this "temporary" Korean life has become so much more than that, and I can frankly say that this 2-5 year commitment has suddenly developed into a love that will last my whole life for a culture that I was turned on to at age 21 when I first saw the video for 거짖말 on youtube.

Thanks big bang for 2 years of memories and amazing experiences, and hopefully to many many more years filled with your music and concerts!!

Anyhow, here's the last teaser before bigbang has their comeback at midnight tonight. I hope you can see in it some little sparkle of love that I have huge quantities of.

p.s. In another life update, I'll add that I got my first kitten, Casanova, last friday, and am picking up my other lovely baby tonight. He doesn't have a name yet, but I will post pictures tomorrow. I promise.

p.p.s. OMG BIGBANG BIG SHOW IS FRIDAY. I'm dying.

A Story of North and South

2011-02-22T16:09:00.000+09:00

I went on a teachers trip a couple months ago to Ganghwa Island off the cost in Incheon. We had this fantastic tofu lunch (I had more varieties of tofu in one sitting than I've had in my entire life... it was lovely) and then I watched as my coteacher slipped on a patch of ice and fell literally 1 minute after I said, be careful you might fall and then fell again while she was trying to get up. Then, we went to an observatory on the top of this mountain and a p.e. teacher said to me, that's North Korea right there, and I got all excited and impressed and then she declared, nah, I'm just messing with you. That was disappointing.

But then we got to the entrance gate and the guard informed us that yes, indeed, that was North Korea after all. And there I stood, less than one mile from North Korea. We went to the top of the observatory tower and listened to a woman speak about North Korea for a while. And by we listened, I mean, everyone listened while my youngest co-teacher (only 4 years old than me!) and I unlocked a locked door (the lock was located atop the door, but I'm really tall so it was no issue) and snuck outside to look at North Korea and get fresh air and then throw snow at each other.

But we returned, nervous that we would either a) get caught and severely reprimanded, or b) Have snipers in North Korea somehow shoot us from just under a mile away for doing nothing but playing outside in the snow.

But I'm glad we returned because I got to hear this story:

Some years ago (less than 20, more than 5), there was flooding in the area bordering North and South Korea, including an area of neutral waters between Ganghwa Island and N. Korea. A result of the flooding was that a cow from North Korea got swept off mainshore N.K. and was carried to a small island in this neutral territory. This North Korean cow was thusly stranded in neutral waters and the neither the North nor the South could send in a rescue party to procure the cow because of the long standing neutrality in and ban on entering these waters. So, naturally, the UN, which only takes a stand in the most worthy of causes, stepped in an retrieved the cow and brought it back to South Korea. Unfair right? Wrong! Because South Korea then had one of it's prized Jeju lady cows brought up to Seoul. And, in a moment of peace and as a sign of hope for reconciliation, the North Korean cow and the South Korean cow were bred together, a symbol for the coming together of two unjustly separate nations.

The End.

But this story leaves me with this question:
The baby cow. What happened to him/her? Did he belong to South Korea, or North Korea, or to the U.N. who so graciously saved this baby's father's life. Was he raised and slaughtered in the hopes of becoming a part of the great reconciliation feast that after such a great sign of partnership between the two conflict-wrought nation was sure was to come without delay? Or did he get shipped off to the North, given that the father has final rights, only to live a life oppressed and without civil liberties? Who knows.

It's kept me up some nights just wondering what happened to the little baby not-south-or-north-just-Korean cow baby and whether he lived a life filled with democracy and justice in the South, oppression and poverty in the North, or general impotence and sanctions with the U.N.

Just something to chew the cud over. HAR HAR.

xoxo
A

If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?

2011-02-17T09:25:00.002+09:00

This article from The UK's popular daily newspaper, The Guardian, was posted by my Korean tutor on facebook. I think it's an excellent read, especially if you are interested in any of the following: 1) Asian food culture 2) Japanese food history 3) Processed foods and their effects on health 4) fighting MSG 5) ramen

I'll add my own short anecdote:

As many of you know, I've been cooking a lot these days. Usually Korean food, but often American favorites too (Velveeta Mac&Cheese, anyone?), and I've brought some of it to work. Anyhow, my coteacher Mrs. Oh ate some of it and she said it was really delicious, and we started talking about cooking (she has no idea how to cook, she thought it'd be a good idea to boil some beef and quail eggs in 4 cups of soy sauce... just soy sauce. gross) and recipes and she told me that she has a secret too make good food. She said to me, "I cannot cook so I always use 다시다 (dashida) and it makes everything better." I didn't know what dashida was at first, but then I realized that it's soup stock, which is basically MSG + salt (as if msg needs more salt). I said, "isn't that bad for you?" and my teacher replied, "maybe, but it tastes good so who cares."

I kind of want to go back to her and say, "look! It's not unhealthy!" but that wouldn't prove anything because she doesn't care one way or another.

But this also explains why in most Korean recipes that require some kind of broth you are told to soak 다시마(thick dried kelp) in water, because it produces the non-stabilized version of MSG (called glutamic acid, or after fermentation glutamate) which occurs naturally in high levels in kelp and, among other things, human milk, parmesan cheese, soy sauce, tomatos and walnuts. So, this is what adds that deep savory flavor to my jangjorim and ddeokbokki... You mean to tell me that instead of soaking kelp for 30 minutes to an hour, I can just sprinkle in some "not un-healthy" MSG and it's all the same? SIGN ME UP.

This is what contains some of the highest concentrations of glutemic acid in the world, and was the inspiration for MSG: kombu/昆布 (jap.) or dashima/다시마 (Kor.) or haidai/海带 (Chin.)

Tumblr Giveaway

2011-02-16T11:17:00.000+09:00

Thinking about doing a giveaway on my tumblr.

Big Bang's comeback is nearing and I'm thinking about doing a special comeback cd giveaway. I'd like it to be special for tumblr followers because my tumblr is new, and it'd be like a bigbang comeback celebration + tumblr christening.

Anyways, check out my tumblr and comment/reblog/whatever the hell it is, if you are interested in getting some Big Bang tunes for freeeeee!

www.reallywally.tumblr.com

xoxo
A

Taxi Drivers and other Run-ins

2011-02-16T10:00:00.000+09:00

As a 6'1" (186 cm) tall, blonde hair, very fair skinned woman in Korea, I get quite a bit of attention everywhere I go. It's 9 a.m. here and I've only been outside for maybe 25 minutes total, but I've already gotten about 10 uncomfortable stares plus two random "Hello"s from people I don't know. Standard for a day.

However, I particularly enjoy seeing the look of surprise on a Korean's face when I speak Korean to them. In the last six months or so, my Korean has improved dramatically from bumbling and slow, broken Korean to simple phrases come naturally and complicated explanations or conversations can be had if you are patient with me. And so, when I take a taxi or am approached by a Korean person I can generally make conversation with them without seeming like a complete idiot. It's a nice development and it only took 18 months to achieve.

I have two stories today:

On Valentine's Day I mentioned that I had a little grocery dilemma so I ended up at Home Plus where I made an unsuccessful attempt at finding cream. After picking up some hot dogs (which are HORRIBLE by the way... worst hot dogs ever), I hopped in a cab and said, "신포시장 가주세요" and off we went to Sinpo Market. After a minute he asked me where in sinpo I wanted to go, and I fumbled a bit as my apartment is kind of in a difficult to describe location as it relates to the market. So I just said, "길 알려줄까요?" Shall I just tell you the way? And he said okay. Then he looked at me and announced, I thought you were a Korean.

I beamed as I said, no, American. And we had the usual conversation: what do you do? Teacher. Where? How long? Do you like Korea? Do you like kimchi? You speak Korean well. etc. etc. Then he asked me "결혼했어요?" Are you married? To which I answered no. Oh, you're solo, he mused. To which I interjected, 근데 남자친구 있어요!" And so we started talking about my boyfriend. How old is he. Is he an English teacher? (HA) What does he do? I explained he is still in university, and the taxi driver asked, which university? 중앙대 I replied. And he said... oooooooh, GOOD! (Jungang Univerisity is considered maybe in the top 10 of Korea, just outside the SKY schools (Seoul, Korea, Yonsei University), so it's pretty cool to most Korean that he goes there. Then he asked what he studies. "채육" I replied. Physical Education. Ooooooooh, the taxi driver said, disappointed. "Engineering good! Doctor, good! 채육? hmph" I laughed and then we were at my apartment and I left.

Story 2:
Yesterday, I was walking home and on the street leading to my school a Korean woman was walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. I had my earphones in, jamming to some big bang, but I did notice that she was crossing the street and seemed to be looking right at me. So I took my earphones out, and our conversation, entirely in Korean began:
Woman: Are you Russian?
Me: No.
Woman: Where are you from?
Me: America:
Woman: Oh! America! Do you speak English well?
Me: (confused...) uh, yeah.
Woman: Oh good, do you speak Korean well?
Me: Uh, a little.
Woman: You speak really well! What do you do here?
Me: Teacher. That school *pointing*
Woman: Oh, my son is in the boys school next door. 3rd grade.
Me: oh okay.
Woman: At my house I have a son. I want him to speak English. Teach him.
Me: Umm, I'm a little busy. I don't know *this is weird*
Woman: I want him to speak English well, so what can I do? How much would it be to teach him?
Me: I don't know... uhhh *mumble* 40,000 won/50,000 won, for one hour.
Woman: Oh okay, and when can you do it.
Me: Um, I don't know, I'm taking a Korean class and I am really busy these days.
Woman: Oh you're busy. I see.
Me: Yes.
Woman: let's walk together. Where are you going? Where do you live?
Me: Sinpo.
Woman: Ah, Sinpo, okay. Let's walk. How long have you lived in Korea.
Me: Since 2009. A year and a half or so.
Woman: Wow! You speak Korean so well!
Me: No, just a little.
Woman: How long will you stay in Korea?
Me: I don't know exactly. 계속 (continually... without end?)
Woman: Really??? No! Why? How? 계속??
Me: I don't know exactly. I like it here.
Woman: Will you teach at that school always?
Me: No, I want to study Korean.
Woman: But already your Korean is good.
Me: I want it to be better. And I will go to Seoul to study.
Woman: Ah. But you don't want to leave Korea?
Me: No, I like Korea.
Woman: Why? (She legit couldn't understand why I would like it here)
Me: The people are nice. The food is good. My job is good.
Woman: The food? Do you like kimchi?
Me: Yes, I like everything.
Woman: Would you like to eat some 떡국 (rice cake soup) at my house? I have 떡국. Let's eat together.
Me: I'm sorry, I have to go.
Woman: Just a little 떡국 and we can talk. And my son.
Me: I'm really sorry, but I have to go study. I'm sorry. *walks quickly away*

I guess I missed out on an opportunity to a) eat possibly delicious homemade 떡국 and b) get a sweet tutoring job, but it seemed weird. In America, we don't just go to strangers homes and eat soup. I guess in Korea I could do it. I told my boyfriend about and he was like, wow, good job! GO! I was like, uh no.

That's it!

xoxo
A

My Valentine's Day mistake

2011-02-15T19:45:00.001+09:00

Welp, Valentine's Day was yesterday and it was pretty good overall. At school in the daytime, I made that really cute card, which Hoon really loved and was super surprised that I made all by myself. Plus, the chocolates and peppero that I made turned out super great and the bags and everything were just about perfect. Like a professional! ^^

Then, there was this little mistake. I was planning to make this positively delicious tomato cream sauce pasta that I got a recipe for off Pioneer Woman (who just so happens to be one of my idols).

Well, after school finished, I went to EMart to pick up some ingredients (pasta, tomato sauce, cream, parsley). The problem I have with E-Mart is that their dairy section is constantly changing. Some items that they carry get removed mysteriously practically overnight. And others move to completely different locations, and then coffee drinks replace them. This is what happened to the heavy cream which three weeks ago, there were several different brands of and plenty of them at that. Yesterday, at EMart, I circled the coffee/cream/butter/cheese refrigerator three times without success. Then, finally I saw it! 크림! Cream! I snatched it up and was off.

Then I got home. As I was unpacking the food, lo and behold I discover this cream caveat that I didn't originally notice: *휘핑* 크림 aaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Whipping Cream.

For those of you who are completely clueless about cooking you absolutely cannot use whipping cream in a cream sauce pasta dish. Unless you want to make yourself sick. So here I was with two cups of whipping cream and no heavy cream. So I decided to make my way to Home Plus, another significantly larger supermarket in Korea. I was certain that what EMart lacks (which is often does, and in many ways) HomePlus would surely have.

I was wrong.

The dairy section (or more specifically the milk and cream section was virtually empty). I heard a rumor that they were going to stop selling milk in Korea and it looks like Home Plus was hit hard. They had hardly any milk at all. And the cream? I found the little price marker on the shelf for the cream, but there wasn't a bottle or jug or carton of the stuff to be found. Sure, I could find liters of strawberry milk, and about 2 dozen soy milks, but one 250 mL carton of cream? Completely gone.

So I gave up, after many an "아아아아 진짜? 없어? 어떻게? 정말 어떻게 하지?" and decided to make macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs.

Hoon may have been happier with the mac & cheese than he ever would have been with the pasta anyways. Funny how that works.

xoxo
A

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T14:41:00.001+09:00

This is the Valentine's Day card I made for Hoon:

Please ignore that big blue piece of paper in the middle. I accidentally forgot to take a picture before I actually wrote a note, and I didn't really want to share a personal letter to my boyfriend for Valentine's Day on the internet for potentially hundreds, thousands, or millions of people to read (I know, I'm thinking grand thoughts assuming that millions of people would ever read this lowly blog) so I had to cover it with a scrap of paper.

Instead, imagine that the whole middle section is that lovely rose pink color behind the blue paper.

It turned out really well, and it took way less time to make than that darn pop-up Christmas Card I decided to make two months ago. Unfortunately, this means that once his birthday rolls around, I'll have to come up with some new, even better card to give him, and idk what I'll do then.

In other news, there is some bug on my blogger-droid app so I can't post from my phone. BUMMER. It was working on Saturday just fine.

xoxo
A

Korea

2011-02-13T21:58:00.000+09:00

A full update on my life was promised so here goes. The good and the bad.

1. I got food poisoning on Wednesday/Thursday. I was up all night doing, you know, food poisoning-related things, and not sleeping at all. I called in sick because at 6:30 when my alarm went off I was like oh good, I've slept a total of 40 minutes or so, and I just threw up 20 minutes ago. This doesn't bode well. So I slept all effing day and ate nothing while trying to let my body recover. Korea is dealing with some serious livestock diseases, but i don't think that's what got me. I think it was veggies that came in contact with raw meat and then weren't cooked thoroughly. But anyhow, I'm all better now thanks to lots of sleep, and plenty of water.

2. On Tuesday I bought two first floor standing tickets to the Big Bang Big Show which I am SUPER excited to see. I'm basically dying, I'm so happy. I will be among the first people to see Big Bang perform new songs live after a two year hiatus from Korean promotions. Granted, they have performed at YG Family Concerts and last year's Big Show, but nothing new, so this is super exciting. Their album will release the day before the concert and I will go get it and memorize every song in 24 hours if it kills me. Then I will buy the official Taeyang usb drive at the concert sales booth and then I will fangirl spazz for 2 hours while my boyfriend questions why he ever started dating me.

3. I bought the Taeyang Solar Concert DVD. I made a youtube video about in case anyone hear reads my blog but hasn't subscribed to my youtube channel (Uh... SUBSCRIBE NOW PLEASE). Anyways, it's awesome except for this one hilarious and awful English mistake where a page reads, "Let's get start it" which obviously makes no sense. This is disappointing because YG has tons of high level English speakers, and you'd think that for once they would check something like this. Over 100,000 of these DVDs were produced and no one thought to go to a native English speaker and say, hey, is this right? Listen, YG, I'm your girl. I can do this free of charge (except every English grammar proofreading required document must be personally delivered by either Taeyang or Se7en, but that can be arranged, right?)

4. Frisbee practice started this weekend. We had practice on Saturday and Sunday and I am sooooo tired. But it was really fun, and I'm really really looking forward to more practices in increasingly warmer weather.

5. Last weekend I played in a volleyball tournament. I've never had so much fun playing volleyball. Somehow, I think I got better at volleyball via not playing it for 8+ years. I remember kind of sucking back in my freshman year of high school and thinking, welp since I literally can't do anything except blocking (I was a beast at blocking but I couldn't hit, which made me mostly useless) I'm gonna go ahead and quit and focus on bball. And I did just that. But volleyball was awesome and it makes me wanna play a whole bunch more.

6. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I am actually pretty excited for it. Hoon and I are going to have a quiet night in. I am going to make dinner (maybe a revised hopefully even more delicious than last time tomato cream sauce pasta with garlic bread if I can figure out how to make garlic bread without an oven; can't I just crush some garlic, mix it with basil and butter, spread on a thick slice of baguette and sautee?) and give him my gift. In Korea, V-Day is different than back in the States in that only a girl gives a gift and the boy will give a gift to his girlfriend or crush or significant other on White Day which is on March 14th. So I will give a gift, which I will take a photo of and post later, and we'll do something again in another month. I like this time because Feb 5th was our 200 day anniversary (they celebrate every 100 days or at least the first couple, plus 1000, and then they stop, I think), then valentines day, then white day, then one month later is Hoon's birthday, and then two weeks after that is my birthday so it's like nonstop celebrations until May rolls around (but then our one year anniversary will be in July~ hahaha)

7. I might go skiing this upcoming weekend with Hoon and his family. Except we will go only one day and only at night, from like 9 p.m. until maybe 5 a.m. which will basically kill me (I have to go to frisbee the following day at 11) but I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can not totally suck at skiing so Hoon won't think I'm a completely uncoordinated loser.

8. I am trying to convince Hoon to get some of his Physical Education classmates to make a frisbee team to send to Jeju. I said I could be the coach. I think it'd be really fun and since they are all athletes (we're talking seriously jacked, run a marathon and then benchpress twice their weight, and then swim 4 miles and then take a 100 question exam on history of sports, sports rules, and human physiology without hardly breaking a sweat-type athletes... this includes the girls) they would probably dominate all the other beginner uni teams because they can run for hours without getting tired. Plus then I'd be obligated to get in better shape and practice frisbee with them too. Win-win, you see?

9. My school had graduation on Friday. I went, and it was only a little sad for me because I was still recovering from food poisoning and had to concentrate really hard on not falling over from fatigue during the ceremony. But, now that I think about it more, I'm pretty bummed. I've known all these students for two years, and they are AMAZING girls. I've gotten to known some of them (maybe about 15 or so) really well and I will certainly miss their smiles, hilarious jokes, helpful Korean lessons, sincere interest in English, enthusiasm for my class, and all-around good attitudes. The prospect of having these students in my classes later in the week helped me get through all the whiny, misbehaving, snarky students I had to deal with from time to time. I will miss them!!!

Also, in case you didn't know yet, I have a tumblr at www.reallywally.tumblr.com. It's basically 100% Korean culture all the time. Emphasis on kpop, but also with touches of food, drama, models, konglish and other interesting tidbits.

That's it.

xoxo
A

Announcement

2011-02-12T22:58:00.000+09:00

I would like to take this time to make this announcement.

As of today, Saturday, February 12, 2011 (Korea time... Friday February 11, 2011 EST), this blogger is officially 100% debt-free. I have no debt whatsoever. I have no credit card bills to pay (at the moment) and my 11,000 USD loan from undergrad university studies has been completely paid off exactly 649 days after my graduation (Also know as about 9 weeks shy of 2 years).

I would consider this my single greatest accomplishment since graduation. I can't decide if that's a little depressing that I consider that my greatest (when I take into consideration all the dope things I've done in the last 649 days: traveled to 6 countries on three continents, lived abroad for a year and a half, essentially taught myself Korean, taught English [mostly] successfully to over 900 students, etc) or it's really that great.

Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS TO ME

Oh, and this week seems to be full of exciting events for both me and my friends. My dear friend Kel had her first beautiful baby girl, Elorah earlier this week, and another dear friend, K-T will be married in less than 24 hours.

Congratulations to my wonderful friends half way across the world. I love you!

xoxo
A

Bathroom Humor

2011-02-12T12:19:00.001+09:00

This never gets old to me. Imagine seeing a sign like this in America. As awesome as it would be, it will never happen. But in Korea it is commonplace.

In other news I had food poisoning and am almost all recovered. And today I have my first frisbee practice. I also bought my unqlo big bang hoodie today. Pics at my tumblr!♥ www.reallywally.tumblr.com

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this is irrelevant and being used for something else. Sorries.

2011-02-09T23:23:00.000+09:00

Anyhow, a real update on my life will be coming soon enough.

Happy V-Day bitches

2011-02-07T23:00:00.001+09:00

This is 320 pieces of paper that I cut at home to prepare for valentines my students will make this week. I had to precut them or else 35 students would totally use all my paper in one 45-minute block. Did I mention that there are another 200 or so more at my school that I cut while at work today. The 500+ papers will be enough for about 5-6 classes. That unfortunately means I have another 75 A4 pages to quarter. FML

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NYC round 2?

2011-01-24T23:19:00.000+09:00

Wow! It looks like I'll be headed back to the Big Apple sooner than I had thought!

Hoon reserved our tickets to America today. They are roundtrip out of NYC. When I had done a preliminary search, LA or SanFran were much cheaper, but I guess suddenly NYC ticket prices dropped and Hoon jumped on. He managed to snag two tickets at ~1,330,000 won, which is just under 1200 usd. Score! He will be paying later this week!

Now my job is to find and buy the cheapest possible ticket from NY to Florida. We're shooting for under 200 round trip. I found some on Spirit Airlines for 197 with tax. Wondering if I can do better... But the truth is I kind of just want to buy them and be done with it.

What this all means is that we will be landing late Thursday night in NYC (tentatively) and probably we will stay in NYC for the weekend with my dear dear wonderful friend in order to avoid the slightly more pricey weekend fares (and hello, Hoon and Wally in NYC? Heaven!). Tentatively leaving Monday mid morning/early afternoon.

That will leave us with still about 2 and a half weeks in Florida. Plenty of time to see family, visit UF, and maybe sneak in a trip to Disney/Harry Potter World! ^^

Welp, that's it!!

Oh, and I made some slammin spinach tomato cream sauce pasta. My heavy cream went bad, so I just substituted a bunch of butter and plain old low-fat milk instead. Turned out good, but not quite as creamy as hoped. Next time will be better!

Exciting

2011-01-20T00:18:00.000+09:00

Big news!!

I brought my cucumber kimchi and sweet soy sauce braised beef/quail eggs to my boyfriend's apartment. His mom, and two cousins (one boy and one girl) were also there and so I was a little nervous to here their opinions. JH didn't tell them that I was bringing food so they were impressed/surprised that I brought anything at all. But then, his mom opened the container with the cucumber kimchi and said, omo, where did you get this? And I said, I made it. And she was super impressed because it was so good looking. And then she opened the other container and she was even more surprised.

It was awesome. They were super impressed that I've taken an interest in Korean cooking.

But I warned them: it may look good, but I can't guarantee that you'll like the taste.

JH ate the kimchi first and he didn't say anything right away except: 엄마, 먹어봐, 예찬아! 먹어봐, 예본아 먹어봐, which just mom, try it, Yechan, try it, Yebon, try it. And they all did and they all lost it. They said it was sooooooo good and I was so so happy. I had been nervous originally that it was too spicy, but I wiped away some of the extra spice and so it wasn't so bad at all. In fact, I'd agree that it was quite good indeed. They said that it was better than most restaurants' and his mom kept saying, "아 엄마보다 더 맛있지... 내가 보다 더 맛있어, 어떻게..." which is, "Ah, it's better than mom's. It's more delicious than mine, how can it be?"

Then they praised teh 장조림. I'm so happy they liked it so much.

Oh, and then his mom called his dad and she told him about how I made such delicious food and he asked to talk to me and he said he was really happy I made korean food, and that he wants to try some, and that he loves me because I cook Korean food, and I like Korean culture, and because I am interested in Korea. *^___^*

I'm going back tomorrow and JH insisted I bring more kimchi. I will do so obligingly. ^^

I can't wait to cook more food. I'll be sure to post pictures!

xoxo
A

소고기장조림

2011-01-19T00:24:00.001+09:00

This is beef and quail eggs boiled in a sweet soy sauce. It is so effing good. Korean food is easy to make if not time consuming

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Food

2011-01-18T19:05:00.002+09:00

Well here is a picture of my dinner. Salad with fresh cucumbers green peppers sesame peanut dressing and chopped almonds~ delicious

And this is 오이소박이 also known as cucumver kimchi. im afraid I have made it a bit spicy but I hope it will good. I will try some in a few hours after the spices have had a chance to soak into the cucumbers nicely.

Later tonight (its only 7) I will prepare 소고기장조림 but i heard it takes a while because you have to soak the meat in wter and cook it and rip it up by hand but I will let you all know how that goes. I just discovered that stupid homeplus didnt deliver all my food so I will have to go out and buy whats left. grrrr.

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Cooking Time

2011-01-16T19:26:00.001+09:00

김치전.
I made this tonight and I am on the subway to Seoul now with tge kimchi pancakes in tow. I think it wont taste good which is unfortunate since i am taking it to Hoons where his parents and grandmother will see it and probably think “oh god. our poor son. What has he gotten himself into dating such an incompetent cook.”alas.

The good news is I succeeded at 떡볶이 and will be making it again soon. These days I am really trying to get back into cooking. This week I am hoping to do cucumber kimchi a beef and quail egg soy sauce dish and a spicy soft tofu stew. Pictures coming soon~^^

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Snow

2011-01-16T00:20:00.001+09:00

My footsteps in fresh snow on Wednesday or Thursday

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Updates

2011-01-13T21:03:00.000+09:00

So it has been a long long time since I've updated you, huh, dear readers?

Well, the good news is I'm back.

Also, I wanted to announce to you all that I started a tumblr. The reason for doing this is because some of my friends back home have complained that my blog became overrun with my kpop obsession. As a result, I decided to go ahead and open up a tumblr because I've been meaning to check out tumblr and stuff, but haven't had a good opportunity to do so. I think tumblr is the ideal platform for a blog/site that has a more specific focus. This blog originally started as an attempt to keep people back home informed about my life here, and to perhaps inform/entertain other people with stories about living in a different country, especially one so interesting as Korea. After about 8 months, it disintegrated into an explosion of kpop videos, cd reviews, gossip, and other blatherings. My bad. Anyways, hopefully I will be keeping my tumblr mostly Korean Pop Culture focused, with the occasional anecdote from my life, here, while this blog will be primarily focused on Korean (not-pop) Culture, food, life, and teaching ESL at my middle school.

If you are interested in Korean pop culture (I keep typing Korean pup culture and I don't know why...) then head on over to my tumblr: www.reallywally.tumblr.com Sometimes my shit will be the same, but mostly it'll be different. I'm still testing out all the cool functions on my tumblr, so be prepared for some strange stuff there.

Anyways, school has been crazy. I've been helping a coteacher with her son in the afternoons and in the mornings last week I was cooking with my grade threes just for funsies (man, they are effing TERRIBLE cooks, it's unreal). This week every day nine until 12:40 I'm teaching winter camp. Tomorrow is our last day. We're making modified grilled cheese sandwiches and salad and I'm giving out prizes.

Anyways, I swear to you, I have a killer hot list coming up and I am totally going to do it in a video.

In the meantime, here's a picture of something I've really really wanted to do at E-Mart but hadn't until today!

At E-Mart, after you pay for all your foodstuffs, there is a loooooong metal table and beside that table are cardboard boxes from food shipments that the store had received. People have free access to these boxes to tape them and string them up and use them to haul their groceries back to their own apartment. I love this idea. Almost no one uses paper bags unless they have exactly the right amount of groceries that aren't too heavy but also aren't so few or small that one could just carry them or put them in one's purse. Anyways, I've always seen these boxes, but I also always brought reusable bags to the store (another VERY common sight here). Tonight, however, I underestimated the size and weight of my purchases today and found that I couldn't fit everything comfortably in my one shopping bag and purse. So I had to carry my food over to the table and jerry-rig a shopping box. Here's how I did:

Pringles. Hahaha. They have their own special tape and ribbon to wrap up your box

The things in my box: 3 bottles salad dress, soy sauce, Gochu Jang (pepper sauce), spaghetti sauce, milk, heavy cream, Busan fishcakes, rice cake (under the fishcake), kimchi

Tomorrow I am attempting to make 떡볶이 and 김치전 for dinner for me and Hoon. I'm a little nervous since it's only my second time making these things and the first time 떡볶이 was a total disaster. Plus, Hoon is Korean so if it's not good, he will definitely know. If however, I was cooking for some friends back home, I wouldn't be nearly so nervous.

xoxo

Sometimes I wonder...

2011-01-05T18:14:00.000+09:00

What's the point. I am feeling pretty annoyed right now. I don't really have a right to be, but I'm still annoyed. I'm pretty aware that I'm being a shitty, but I don't care.

Well, now that that mystic brooding is over, onto some other shit.

I haven't been up to translating the lyrics lately because I'm tired all the time and I've been kind of down. Winter blues maybe?

Anyhow, my students have been really great. I'm not actually teaching any classes right now, but about 5 former grade 3s (I guess now that the year is over, they are technically high schoolers or something. I don't know exactly) come in to study every morning (with some other korean teacher) but they always come to my office early and we've been cooking. Yesterday we had a horribly failed attempt at ddeokbokki (떡볶이- fried spicy rice cake) and today we had an amazingly successful go at banana pancakes with peanutbutter&nutella syrup/sauce and whipped cream. Tomorrow we will be making 김치전 which is one of my all time favorite treats so I hope they turn out well.

Also, I anticipate I'll be compiling a hot list in the next week or so. Maybe I'll do a video instead of regular written post. Who really knows?

xoxo
A

A New Video

2011-01-02T21:29:00.001+09:00

So I finally tried making a video with a Korean song and its English translation subbed. I did GD & TOP's Intro for High High because I'm currently working on translating the cd. If I'm lucky I'll get all the singles translated. It'd be extra nice if I could get 집에가지마 and Baby Goodnight up on youtube before they start promotions in mid-January. I don't want to make any promises because my pace has been pretty slow (only two songs translated so far...)

But anyways, here's my first attempt at subbing a song (GD's part is a little rough because I struggled with the controls and it's too much work to re-edit it at this point, but TOP's part and the hook is pretty perfect).

Also, I'll hopefully get a blog made sometime this week. Luckily I don't have any classes, AND my office partner has vacation this week so I can make videos without much interruption. I'll probs be bringing my laptop to school a bunch starting tuesday or wednesday.

Also also, in the apartment above me people are having sex. It's kind of annoying.

xoxo
A

The Best Performance I've seen

2011-01-01T10:22:00.002+09:00

So Thursday's MNet M Countdown, GD/TOP performed 뻑이가요 and High High. High High was pretty standard, but 뻑이가요 was hands down the best music show performance I've seen perhaps ever by any artist. Their styling was impeccable. Their attitude was perfect. It was impeccable. Just perfect.

Here it is:

Desk Warming

2010-12-31T13:25:00.000+09:00

Today is an unfortunate day. It's New Year's Eve and my plans with my boyfriend got scraped because he has to go to church with his parents and I can't even come to help him endure the torture (it's a long, messy story... under normal circumstances, he'd have invited me). At least I've made alternate plans with a couple girlfriends here. Otherwise I'd be totally devastated and alone tonight.

Then, after I got to work this morning, an English teacher comes into my office asking for another English teacher with whom I share my office. Unfortunately, she's not in yet. Teacher leaves, then returns to inform me that the vice principal wants me in the main office with the other teachers so as to avoid using the heater unnecessarily. This means I'm now stuck on a computer running only internet explore version 5 or something and so I can't comment on youtube videos or watch hulu (no vpn), I can't really do any serious work because it's weird sitting at some other teacher's desk, nor can I sleep without feeling really guilty or leave early (which I had planned on doing almost every day... only about 15-30 minutes early, which I make up for by always arriving some 15-20 minutes early every single other day of the year). Plus, I can't use facebook chat due to the old verion of ie. And I can't download the new version of ie (I think I can't download anything) and I'm super depressed.

The only good thing that happened today is that my principal and a bunch of other administrators and teachers all agreed that they really love me and that they want me to work at my school forever. Unfortunately, I'm planning on going to Seoul to study Korean for somewhere between four and eight months next year. Also, I may or may not be going home for a few months at the end of 2011.

Oh, Happy New Year. I hope your NYE sucks at least a little less than mine... :-/

GD T.O.P. High High CD lyrics & Romanizations up!

2010-12-30T13:47:00.002+09:00

Hey y'all! Big news: I've officially completed the High High CD Korean and Romanization lyrics over at www.reallykpop.com

This means it's time for the lengthy task of translating. I'm hoping to get at least the Intro and High High up by tomorrow. Now, I know I know, you can find the lyrics anywhere else, but I do this to improve my Korean in the hope that one days I can do a whole album of translations in a day or two, but for now, it's slow. Anyways, I'd really appreciate if you'd check out my hard work so far and check back at www.reallykpop.com from time to time for lyrics references.

So you know, I haven't peeked at my lyrics translations yet. I saw one posted on bigbangupdates, which was translated from Chinese, and I saw that even the Korean lyrics were incorrect, which I imagine might have some impact on the reliability of translations. What I shoot for is not speed of translation, but for translation accuracy and the best English translation I can create. Often i see translations that sound extremely awkward in English, and I'd like to do my best to avoid that on my site.

I just wanna get better at Korean, and this is just one of many ways for me to practice.

xoxo
A

p.s. I'm also thinking of uploading videos with English translations as I do them. It will slow down the overall pace of translation (because I have to insert translations and create a video for each song) but I think it'd be fun and a good way to get www.reallykpop.com out there.

GD T.O.P. High High CD review

2010-12-27T16:05:00.001+09:00

Well, as many of you know, I purchased GD & TOP's full length album on Christmas Day here in Korea. I didn't listen to it until the 26th, but have been listening to it practically nonstop yesterday and today in order to prepare this review for you, the fans. In fact, I'm listening to it right now to make sure I don't miss anything.

The album overall
The album is really nice looking. I think it's much more sophisticated and expensive looking than the 2ne1 album, which was pretty but super flashy. This album manages to combine bling and sophistication. I actually really like the pseudo playboy bunny and the paisley print that was incorporated into the bunny design and the cd itself. But I just really like paisley in general. The pictures are generally pretty good although some of the styling is questionable in my personal opinion (I like animal prints and furs, but the headscarf gd wears, and the ladies fur coat TOP dons in two of the pictures are horrible). I really like the backgrounds of the pictures. Either really really super simple or really really eccentric. Just like GD and TOP. What I hate about the cd itself? Two things. First, there are two separate pages which both contain identical track lists. Why? I mean, the pictures are different, but why put the tracks listed twice? It's weird. Second, the album jacket which contains all the lyrics is glued into the cd case. I HATE THAT. 2ne1's album was the same and it makes me effing crazy.

Track List & Analysis:
1. Intro: The intro, which samples 70s legend Freda Payne's It's Yours to Have, is just enough of a borrowing from the past without copying, and still super super forward thinking. I feel like wearing some big ass earrings and a headscarf and some rollerskates, but at the same time, heading to a club and bouncing around. I also like how the last verse introduces all the songs. It's like an actualy introduction, not just some jibber jabber that starts the cd.

2. High High: We've all heard this song (unless you've been living under a kpop rock for the last month) but it's still awesome. It definitely sounds like something I would hear in a club in Seoul (although unfortunately not in most American university area clubs, with which I'm much familiar with). The hook is SUPER catchy. And the video, well, it's super American. It feels like something I'd watch on t.v. in America, except that some of the western girls aren't video girls at all (which is a true statement, this was just like a big party at the filming and lots of people who are not actually dancers or models attended). There are a couple moments I'd replace in the video to make it look more professional, but otherwise, I like the video a lot too. Also, I don't agree with Eat Your Kimchi's 5 out of 5 for English rating. Ghetto Electro isn't a real word, and their joke wasn't even that funny (don't get me wrong, I'm totally a fan of eatyourkimchi.com but that joke wasn't funny and I think their bias got in the way of the fact that the English in this song was not perfect and maybe deserves a 3.5 or 4 out of 5)

3. Oh Yeah (feat. Park Bom): Into is funky and fun. GD opening the first verse really screams of Heartbreaker to me for some reason. But when TOP steps in, he changes it up a bit. However, I'd say his first verse sounds a little forced and too clean. Part of the beauty of TOP's voice is it's roughness. But Bom KILLS this track. I get chills listening to her sing in this song. Also, you can tell TOP didn't have a part in the production of this video. It's a great song, and it fits GD's style perfect, but it's something TOP seems to need to conform to a bit. He does a good job of it, but it's not his best performance. But, I'm gonna repeat this because it's so true: Park Bom KILLED it.

4. 집에 가지마: This song is practically perfect, in my opinion. Bom was gonna feature on this as well, but as much as I love her voice, I'm glad she didn't. I like GD doing those vocals on the chorus. Also, I really like when GD echoes TOP during the first verse. Their voices sound so nice together, deep with the high. TOP is also back to his more voice. Even though this song is really smooth, they don't over auto-tone his voice, which was I think the problem I have on Oh Yeah. Also, I love when GD sings and raps on the same track. His singing voice and rapping voice are totally different, but they blend so nicely on a single track.

5. Baby Good Night: Besides 뻑이가요 this is my favorite song on the album (I think I may like it more than 뻑이가요 but they are so completely different it's hard to compare). When I heard this song on the world premiere, I though I wanna make love to this song. Not make love while this song is playing, but I want to make love with this song. It's so subtly sexy and juxtaposes GD's almost feminine voice with TOP whispering breathy raps. I've heard TOP speak live plenty of times, but I still kind of imagine that the way he raps in this song is the cadence and tone of his real voice. And it makes me love him a little. I don't wanna say goodbye to this song when it ends. Also, the french? HELLO SEX.

6.뻑이가요: The best live song I've perhaps ever seen performed in Korea (at least overally acoustic performance wise). The bass is so intense and hard in live performances and you see TOP shine really bright with his hardness and GD matches the hardness punch for punch with his own quirky version of street. TOP sounds natural here. This isn't exactly the standard GD we're used to, but GD stepped his game up like crazy on this song. My complaint is that this song falls a little flat on the production. No matter how I changed the EQ on my ipod touch, the bass wasn't what it could be. I feel like I have plenty of bass heavy tracks on my ipod (I listen to a lot of American hip hop as well as kpop) but this song is too studio on the album. I wanna record the audio off the YG family concert footage or from the T Social Party minus the audience noise, and I'd bump this song nonstop. Even Turn It Up has better bass than this song and it's on the same album. I don't get it.

7. Oh Mom (TOP Solo): This song is a little strange to me. The transition between 뻑이가요 and this song seems awkward (I feel like it should be place together with GD's 어쩌란 말이냐? which also has the rock influence. That being said, I don't normally like TOP's singing voice, but I'll listen to this song. It's not my favorite on the track, but it's decent. It's a bit depressing, with the rando feedback between the chorus and the second verse, and it's not Big Bang sounding or TOP sounding. Also, I don't understand the title. As far as I can tell preliminary, the song doesn't really directly relate to his mom at all. It's about letters and his fans and telling his fans that they aren't alone. I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to work hard on that translation and I'll get back to you. It reminds me of that Eminem song, Stan. hahahahaha.

8. 악몽 (GD Solo): Dark and intense. GD goes hard on this song. It's super American in the currently popular vain of that Eminem and Rihana song, Love the Way you Lie. It's got enough of GD using what he's comfortable enough (the chorus is super Heartbreaker to me) but the verses push him a little bit outside of what I'd call his comfort zone. This song is the perfect thing for me to push through something when I'm in a bad mood or feeling like I can't endure something. This song also pumps me up in a way I can't explain. I feel like I can work harder and more intensely with this song in the background.

9. 오늘따라 (TOP Solo): I love the sound of this song. It's so intense, but it doesn't have quite the over-the-top swagger of TOP's other really famous solo, Turn It Up. The hook makes me crazy. I could lose my head in a club to this song. It has just the right amount and degree of tempo changes and drums and percussion come in in an epic manner really just adding to the production value of this song. I really enjoy this song and it's kind of just a song that I can play anytime and feel good about it. I love this song.

10. 어쩌란 말이냐 (GD Solo): This song is probably my least favorite on the album. I would maybe like it more if it was put together with TOP's rockish song, because then I could feel the cohesion of the two songs, but they are separate, and I think that hurts the flow of the album. Also, GD's voice is a little fake/forced sounding. Maybe it's just not my style, but I don't like this song. I don't hate it, but I probably skip over it more than not. I pretty much just listen to it when I have my earbuds in and its too cold to take my gloves off to operate my ipod touch... Just not for me.

11. Bonus Track: Turn It Up (TOP): I don't need to review this I think. You've all heard it. You all know it's dope. So yeah.

Last note: props to the boys for writing the lyrics on all the songs (Teddy assisted on High High and Oh Yeah, which you can tell) and participating in production or arranging of all the songs except High High and Oh Yeah (also Teddy... duh).

That's it for me. Comment and lemme know what you think about the album. I'll be posting a video review sometime in the next week hopefully... ^_^

xoxo
A

Korean Christmas 2

2010-12-26T20:21:00.000+09:00

Last year I wrote a painfully uninteresting and undetailed account of my Christmas. But this year, don't fret my friends, I had a particularly interesting Christmas, so I'm in a gooooood mood, and I'm ready to share this all with you.

As I had mentioned before I got to attend a bunch of cool events last week, starting with Fever Seoul Live and ending with the T Social Party. I'll review these events and include some pictures and videos for all of you to enjoy.

Fever Seoul Live was interesting. It was much shorter than I anticipated, but it was pretty cool. It was definitely centered upon bboying, which I liked, but I would have liked to see more dumbfoundead and less Jay Park. Don't get my wrong, I like Jay Park, but he seems to me to be just pretty good at everything and not particularly awesome at any one thing. He's a pretty good bboy, he's a pretty good singer, he's an okay rapper, but nothing he does makes me want to jump out of my seat. Korean people like him because he's cute (but his ears are distractingly large) and he speaks Korean and English (wow). Dumbfoundead performed She Don't Care acoustic with David Choi on the guitar, and Manifest beatboxing. He also performed Liquor Store Blues with David Choi, which isn't my favorite but that's okay. And he did Bullets of Truth which is probably my favorite of his old songs (download it y'all! Support him... he's dope). And he did Clouds with Jay Park which has a dope verse by dfd, but Jay Park's verse is kind of lame compared to his other stuff (I actually really like Bestie, which he performed)

DFD (left) and Jay Park (Right)

I went there with my friend Dre, which was fun. I hadn't hung out with him in a long time.

Then on Friday after school I basically sprinted home (okay, so I didn't actually run anywhere, I took a taxi) to get ready for the T Social Christmas Party. The party began at 8 p.m. and was all the way in 강남 which is pretty far away. I thought I was really lucky because my co-teacher got invited as well and she would drive me. I got off work at 4:15 (yay sneaking out early!) and she was going to be at my apt at 5:20 so I had to book it home and get ready. I wore this gorgeous new Lanvin <3 H&M black one shoulder dress with exposed zipper and some new heels I got in 이태원. I unfortunately don't have a picture of the whole outfit, which is super unfortunate. I did my make-up blingbling-tastic (that was the dresscode... bling bling). I forgot to put on mascara in my run out the house a full 5 minutes late. I was supposed to meet my boyfriend in Gangnam at 6:45. Unfortunately, we got stuck in some really horrifyingly bad traffic. Basically, it would take about 50 minutes to 1 hour to get to Gangnam from where we live, but since it was rush-hour on a Friday which also just so happened to be Christmas Eve, after one hour, we were still in Incheon, barely to Bupyeong. I was really really upset, because I didn't want to be late, and it was really boring. I could have just taken the train and it would have been easier. We finally got moving only to get stuck in even worse traffic in Youngdeungpo, which is about 10 minutes driving (usually) from Gangnam. After sitting in that traffic until about 7:00, I was like fuck this. I told my co-teacher that I would find the subway and take the subway. I got out of the car in the middle of the street, and crossed through oncoming traffic in -15 degree Celsius weather, hailed a cab and had it take me to the closest subway station. It took me another 30 minutes on the subway (i had to transfer twice), but I still beat my co-teacher by something like 2 hours. She evidently took a wrong turn and got onto a highway headed to Busan (the southernmost point on South Korea basically... not good). I met my boyfriend and we walked to the club (after a minor detour where we got totally lost and I had to call Mina to get directions). Got to the club, with unusable fingers due to the cold, and was really snappy to my boyfriend (Sorry BOOOOO!) but then we were inside! We didn't miss anything except 360 Sounds' DJ set. We saw Leessang (리쌍) and Se7en (세븐) and GD&TOP. Our view wasn't the best, but since we are both really tall, we could see well enough, in spite of being a bit far from the stage. The performance was a little underwhelming, because there were too many people at the club and people were acting really stupid. But Se7en, GD & TOP were all really awesome. Se7en sang Digital Bounce, I'm Going Crazy, Better Together, LaLaLa, and 열정(Passion, my FAVORITE). And GD came out and sang Heartbreaker, and TOP sang Turn It Up and then they both came out and did High High, Oh Yeah and 뻑이가요 (Knock Out). OMG SO FUCKING AWESOME.

Then boo and I took a taxi back home and ate McDonalds.

I will tell you about my actual Christmas more specifically later!

New Things

2010-12-21T15:30:00.000+09:00

Tonight I'm going to a big b-boy event in Seoul. Also, Dumbfoundead, David Choi, and Jay Park will be performing. I'm really excited about this. The unfortunate thing is that the event starts at 7:00 on the complete opposite side of Seoul from me. I checked the subway distance, and it looks like it's about 100 minutes via train (but it should be less given that I'll be taking the rapid), but that's really far, and I have to be at work until 4:30. So that means, I have to haul ass to the subway station after school is over in order to make it in time to meet my friend. I'm currently looking at time tables and route information to determine if I can go home or if I have to go directly to the concert... hmmm

Anyways, I'll take lots of pictures and videos and post them tomorrow hopefully.

Also, in other big news, my GD/TOP cd giveaway entry period is almost over, and I currently have some 120-something subscribers, so I will be doing the giveaway as planned. Just gotta reserve the cd sometime soon and go pick it up on the 24th or 25th. ^_^ yaaaaaaay! Hopefully I can get two copies at once. idk how that works.

xoxo
A

Take It Slow Spanish

2010-12-20T15:09:00.003+09:00

So I just found this:

Also, I want to add that OMG I'm going to a party Friday that will be me and in the same club as Se7en TOP and GD. And I get to wear my gorgeous new dress AND be with my BOYFRIEND!! Merry Christmas to me!

Diet

2010-12-17T18:49:00.000+09:00

So I've lost 5 kilos!! Well, more like 4.5, but I'm gonna round up because I'm darn excited about it. I'm almost back to my freshman year of university weight. Now if I can just go back a teeeeeeny bit further into high school weight, I'd be practically euphoric.

Anyways, this weekend, I finally get to see my boyfriend, who, due to final exams, has been sadly absent for the last week and a half or so. And this weekend I'm going to be making some Christmas Cards. By some cards, I might mean a card.

I also got some students to participate in my video project. Yay!

Christmas is in a weeeeeeeeek! And it snowed a whole bunch yesterday/today. It was awesome! But it won't snow again for a long while... :-(((((

YAY!

xoxo
A

Video Project

2010-12-16T21:53:00.000+09:00

I'm working on this big video project right now. It's a huge pain in the butt.

However, you may (or may not) be happy to hear that my youtube channel has gotten over 100 subscribers so I will definitely be doing that High High CD giveaway for one lucky subscriber. Don't forget to enter for your chance to win at www.youtube.com/user/reallywally! I'll be doing more give aways soon.

Hopefully I'll post the final project when I finish, but I suspect it will be a while.

Anyways, today I bought a Christmas present for the boo. And I bought myself a pair of nice leather gloves that are really cute. And I attended a mostly boring training session about winter camps. waahoo.

Oh, and I'm hoping that Saturday will be start of a particularly awesomely awesome series of about 8-9 days, which will include Christmas. I CANNOT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!

Also, I'm really hungry.

xoxo
A

끝났당~

2010-12-15T19:22:00.001+09:00

today is my last day at Haesa Go and I am so effing happy. For about ten seconds at the end of my first class I was a little sad but then I remembered the hell that those students put me through and I thought yeah eff em. I dont mean to be negative but this was a total waste of my time consisting of literally no guidelines, completely no organization of class levels and generall across the board poorly behaved students. I am positively thrilled that its over. I say this with two classes left. But I dont really care. That first one was the tough one.

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G-Dragon and T.O.P. High High CD Giveaway!!

2010-12-15T09:18:00.002+09:00

Hey, in an attempt to capitalize on my semi-popularity due to the YG Family Concert Fan Cams, I plan to do a special giveaway for my subscribers. I will be giving away one copy of GD-TOP's High High full-length cd to a lucky subscriber.

See my video for information, and don't forget to subscribe to my channel, rate, and comment on my video!! GOOD LUCK!

xoxo
A

A day in the life of a Korean High School Student.

2010-12-12T23:45:00.000+09:00

This video is awesome. It's the third most viewed video of the week. Freaking awesome.

The opening screen reads: 고등학생의하루 Which just means High School student's day.
The final screen is 끝 which means finish.

Here's the video:

p.s. my youtube channel is the 89th most viewed Korean channel of the week!!!!!

Busy Days

2010-12-10T18:39:00.000+09:00

In 5 days I went from roughly 10,000 total video views on 30 total videos to almost 20,000 currently. I also had a mere 9-11 subscribers, and now stand at 56. Yahoo!

Also, today was hella productive. I had a super busy day at school: 5 classes back to back, including the two worst classes at my school. Then I managed to get off work early and hit the bank to pay a bill AND the post office to mail Christmas gifts back home (last year I barely managed to send my gifts before January 30th). Then I took a bus to the 한의원 for acupuncture. Got my acupuncture and discovered I've lost 2.5 kilos so far (YAY). Then I took a cab back to my neighborhood (it was raining) and picked up contact lenses. Then walked home (it stopped raining) and stopped to get some mandarins from the traditional market, and then some granola bars for breakfast this weekend. Now it's 6:30 and I don't really know what to do.

Not eating dinner at all really takes the fun out of evenings.

I'm pretty exhausted though. Hopefully I'll hit the sack early today.

YG Family Concert Picture

2010-12-08T23:42:00.001+09:00

OH. MY. GOD.

So at the concert, after the encore was finished, Se7en or G-D said, hey, we're gonna take a picture of YG family and the concert goers. I think they only did this for the last concert, but I can't really be sure since I wasn't at the other concerts. Anyways, the picture was just posted on the YG-life Blog, and I pulled up a bigger picture and OMG I am in it. My face is super washed out, but my hand is the one like a whole foot higher than everyone elses. And my boyfriend is next to me (hand also really high and making a peace sign) and you can see him too! It's soooooo cool! Anyways, here's the picture with a convenient circle around each of us. I'm on the left, my boyfriend is to the right. *^____^*

YouTube Videos

2010-12-08T11:52:00.000+09:00

My youtube channel is currently ranked at the #46 most viewed South Korean channel of the day. This is a pretty awesome accomplishment. I'd like to thank GMarket for being amazing at finding me really close seats less than one week from the concert date, and YG Family for making an awesome concert.

Anyways, here are the videos from YG Family concert:

Share them with your friends, and get me even higher on the most viewed list!! And subscribe to my youtube channel!

YG Family Concert

2010-12-07T14:24:00.000+09:00

I had a really great time at the YG Family Concert. Thanks to Miranda, I got a really awesome signed Taeyang cd (they went on sale at 10 a.m. and my concert wasnt till 7... so hells naw).

JH and I headed over to the concert at about 5:30. It was just enough time for us to exchange our tickets, pick up our wristbands, buy him a toast, let me guzzle my disgusting 한약, before we scramble to get in line just as our section was being let in. Thank GOD! It was JH's first concert ever, which is kind of shocking given we're both in our 20s and I've been to perhaps 30-40 concerts (my first being when I was maybe 11). I also had to give him lots of warnings about the crazy-ness of these fans (legit loco) and just before it started, I had to scold him into picking up his backpack off the ground. A good call because maybe 45 seconds later, the house lights dimmed and the intro to fire started playing and the crowd surged forward, pushing us a full 15-20 feet from our original position.

Anyways, the concert was pretty great. I'd have to say Se7en was the best in terms of overall quality of performance. His vocals were completely perfect, in my opinion. He looked amazing, and his voice matched impeccably. He and Gummy are obviously the really singers of the family, but Seven is an all-around performer. Plus, it seemed like his performance didn't have any tech errors, and the dancers he worked with were impeccable.

I was really impressed with Gummy, who displayed a lovely range of songs. Even though I'm not particularly familiar with her (I have maybe 2 Gummy songs), I enjoyed her performance (even though I thought it was too long...)

2ne1 was full of energy and really brought the fun. I used to really really like minji while bom and cl vied for second and dara was way behind. But seeing them perform, I thought they were just so perfect all together. It's hard for me to pick a clear favorite. CL is such a badass, and bom is just so fun, and dara is cute (at first I didn't like her cuteness, but in the show it was engaging), and minji is just this little spitfire. It was really cool to see them perform live.

Psy was fucking awesome. He's by far the oldest YG family member (born in 1977, he's nearly 5 years older than Gummy, the next oldest, and a full 17 years older than Minji, the youngest in YG), but he's also by far the most eccentric and engaging stage performer. His voice, his excitement, his crazy ass dance moves brought every single person in the crowd to a complete, standing roar of excitement. Through all of the songs he sang (4 in total), every single person was singing and screaming and jumping like some extra-human thing entered their bodies and took control. It was awesome. Psy had everyone hanging on his every word, his every movement. It was cool.

Big Bang was, shockingly, not my favorite. I already said Se7en was my favorite, so I guess you know that. But what I mean to say by that is I was a tiny bit disappointed by Big Bang's performance. Some things from Big Bang were really awesome: GD and TOP: 전화본호 in fur coats, 뻑이가요 (holy jesus this song is absolute fucking FIRE), GD/TOP/Taeyang: Hot 뜨거, 마지막인사, but the Daesung solo had a major mic error, which Daesung desperately tried to make funny, but without too much success, and the 승리 solo was way too much talking. Plus the boys looked a little tired. At the end of the encore, Taeyang wipe his face and breathed what seemed to be a sigh of relief that the concert's exhausting preparations and execution were finally over. Also, it seemed like a lot of Taeyang's solo vocal belts seemed out of place or strange.

I don't mean to say that the Big Bang performances weren't great, because they were. There just seemed to be an air of tiredness and a sense of rushed organization that usually isn't present in YG performances, especially from Big Bang.

I just hope our boys can get a tiny bit of rest in (especially Taeyang... he's been promoting for Solar since July and now is preparing for the Big Bang comeback) before they come back in February. I know TOP and GD are going to be doing promotions in December, but those guys (esp GD) have been pretty off the map for a while. I just hope that my taeyang can get his rest and charge up for a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE comeback.

Other stuff not kpop related coming soon!

Acupuncture pt. 2

2010-12-06T20:40:00.001+09:00

Today I went back to the 한의원 for my second set of acupuncture. The time went by a lot faster than the first time probably because i could play go stop on my phone.

Anyways this picture is a good indication of what acupuncture looks like. They dont always hook you up to some sort electrical thing. I mean they always hook me up to some electrical thing but rumor has it that other kinds of acupuncture don't require it.

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Diet

2010-12-04T17:30:00.000+09:00

So I'm on this crazy awful diet. But actually it's not as bad as I had originally thought.

Here are the rules:

1. I'm supposed to do really basic exercise everyday (crunches and demi-squats - sitting in a chair and standing up, st down, stand up, et. al.)

2. I must drink 한약 two times a day, 30 minutes before lunch and around dinner time. 한약 just means Korean medicine. It's always a drink and it's always herb based. It's also always hella bitter. It's like drinking all the shitty herbs in the word and dealing with it.

3. I should do acupuncture 2-3 times/week (this is the tricky one as I usually don't have any time during the week)

4. I cannot drink alcohol, coffee, cola, or any ice beverage. So that means, warm water, and room temp juices.

5. I cannot eat pork or ham of any sort, and I cannot eat chicken unless it's skinless chicken breast.

6. I cannot eat anything that contains flour, so bread, pasta, and most noodle-based soups are out.

7. I cannot drink any liquid while I'm eating meals. This includes broth of any soup I might eat and water.

8. I cannot eat any fried foods or snacks.

9. My breakfast should be regular sized, as long as it follows above rules (fine... fruit, granola, etc).

10. My lunch should be about 60% regular size, still avoiding the above mentioned foods (more tricky since I don't get to choose what I eat my school 5 days a week... but luckily there is almost always some fish and rice both of which are okay).

11. My dinner should 없음. This means... no dinner. I am allowed to snack on cucumbers or cherry tomatoes if the hunger becomes unbearable. Aside from that, not food after lunchtime. This is going to be difficult.

12. My diet (what's left of it) should be heavy on onion, 고추장 (spicy sauce), green onion, and garlic. This means that in addition to eating way less than I normally do, I also am stuck smelling disgusting. The upside of this is that I will smell just like 80% of all adults in Korea, so I should blend in.

So that's it. The 한약 medicine is an appetite suppressant so I drink it before I eat and it helps me feel fuller faster.

I've heard people can lose between 8-10 kilos easily in a month on this diet. I don't think I'll lose 10 kilos, but 6-8 would be swell.

xoxo

한의사

2010-12-02T18:52:00.000+09:00

Well, my non-kpop fans, this post is for you. Also, to my k-pop fans, this could be for you too. A dose of Korean culture of the non-pop-music variety.

I know, these kinds of posts come few and far between, but this is definitely something I would consider worth blogging about because it's kind of interesting. It was for me at least.

Today, after school I went to the doctor. But I didn't go to just any doctor, I went to the 한의원, a traditional Korean doctor's office. These kinds of doctors offices are pretty common, and are usually just tucked into the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th floors of buildings throughout the city. The only things that I think are more common than the 한의원 are 학원 and 약국, academies and pharmacies respectively. In fact, in the building where my 한의원 was located, there was one academy and two pharmacies. So yeah.

Anyhow, a traditional Korean doctor is a certified medical professional (not a crazy had with a cabinet full of herbs) that specializes in traditional oriental healing practices. The two most common reasons to go to a traditional doctor are general aches and pains or weight loss. However, people also go to traditional doctors for an array of other reasons including general sickness, constipation, sprained ankles and insomnia. I won't tell you why I went, because hey, that's my business, but I went regardless.

At a traditional Korean doctor you usually get two kinds of treatments: traditional medicine (usually in the drink form and I don't mean a syrup I mean a poach of tea-like liquid that is herbal and gross) or acupuncture. You can choose to do one or both, depending on the severity of the case and such.

Anyways, I got both, and I will supposedly be attending biweekly acupuncture sessions through the end of december.

It was my first acupuncture experience and though I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, the actually experience was not how I'd thought it'd be.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

First I'd like to brag that except for a small sprinkling of English from the doctor, and my co-teacher doing the check-in and helping me with payment options (one time or in installments is evidently a phrase I should have learned by now...) my whole visit was performed entirely in Korean. I walked in to the consultation room and after his first question (are you a teacher) I was sure to warn: "한국말 잘 못 해요~" Which translates to I don't speak Korean well. He replied that it would be fine (in Korean) and proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions about my health practices, exercising habits, treatment options, acupuncture session availability and the like. My biggest communication issues came over the discussion of weight and my height, and then later in the Korean word for aerobic exercise (which I totally didn't know). But everything worked out, and i understood his instructions pretty thoroughly. I don't mean to show off, but I must say I'm a bit proud that I could speak to the doctor and more importantly understand his treatment advice in Korean with only very little difficulty.

Then, it was off to the acupuncture room. I laid down a bed and they had me roll my shirt up just a bit to revel my belly. That's the only place they would be doing acupuncture today, and an assistant pulled over a machine and called the doctor over. The doctor then told me not to worry as it wouldn't hurt. And he speedily (and pretty much painlessly) inserted 10 or 12 needles into my stomach area (I can't remember exactly the number, except to say it was even and higher than 8). I wasn't really watching as I was laying down, but it seemed like he would line it up and then kind of tap the top into my skin. It was almost completely painless, with only the tiniest discomfort as he adjusted the third or fourth needle. Then he attached what appeared to be clamps to each needle. The clamps had wires leading to some machine near my bed, and as he turned the machine on there was a sudden strange vibrating sensation sweeping across my abdomen. Again, not painful, but as he adjusted the levels to greater intensity, he told me, if/when it begins to hurt (the korean word for if and when is sometimes the same... you can emphasize if-ness with an additional word, but otherwise it's the same) I should tell him. So he increased the intensity and it began to be only a tiny bit painful (kind of like a much more mild tattoo... in a nonpainful area) and I told him and he adjusted the intensity down just enough to alleviate the pain and then he left the room.

I didn't know exactly how long the acupuncture would last (I didn't think to ask, which seems foolish). It ended up being in the ballpark of 20 to 30 minutes and it wasn't so bad. After the doctor left, the assistant came back in and turned on a heat lamp which she directed at my belly so I was comfortably warm with just a general vibration through my abdomen. Then it was all over, and I was done.

I'll be going back on Saturday or next Monday for my next session so that should be interesting. Next time I will try to take a picture of it in progress for you guys.

That's it!

xoxo
A

Hot List December

2010-12-01T21:40:00.000+09:00

The hottest things of this winter!

1. Kanye West: My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Holy Jeezus Yeezy, you killed it on this one. It's getting unbelievably high ratings from every review site out there (pitchfork gave it a perfect 10? now that's impressive). This album is an epic. It's a story and it's an apology and its a huge fuck you with love from Kanye. Packed with anthems about douchebaggery, throbbing lines from Bon Iver, top notch featured artists (see: Jay-Z, RZA, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Nicki Minaj and more), a closing track by Cornel West, and a Chris Rock comedy bit interspersed with a woman voice breathily saying "Yeezy taught me," this cd has all the heartbreak of 808s with only 10% of the autotune, all the bling of graduation, and so much more. Buy it if you haven't already. It's pure fire.

2. SNOW
It had snowed only once so far here (Twice, but one was at 2 a.m. for 10 minutes and I don't count that) but I am anticipating snow and the hope for snowmen and snow fights and cute moments with my boyfriend. Also, trying to go skiing this break.

3. Haesa Go finished!
Like I mentioned before I've got only one more week. Tonight is a movie. Two weeks from now I have final prep, final exam administration and a last day party or celebration of some sort. Thank God.

4. Angry Birds
This ipod app is seriously addicting. I'm gonna download the paid version tonight and I just can't wait!!! It's so simple, but it's so fun. Good for passing time.

5. YG FAMILY CONCERT
Sunday!! Today I managed to snag tickets for a MUCH better set of tickets than I had before. My old tickets were standing, but towards the back. Now I'm in the front-most section just right of center. I just logged onto gmarket randomly and discovered it, and was sooooo happy! Now I just need to sell the old tickets and get to the concert venue hella early on Saturday to snag some concert goods!

6. prank vs. prank youtube channel
This maybe too early for me to definitively say, but this youtube channel seemed hella awesome last night while I was watching videos. The premise is this couple lives together and constantly plays pranks on each other. It was really funny.

7. Bangs
I forgot how much I liked them. Currently I have them sideswept, but I'm thinking about going full Korean and doing some blunt cut bangs. I always imagined them as being super horrible, but the more I think about it, the more I could see it being really cute. Also, when I style my bangs in the morning I get a glimpse of what they'd look like blunt and slightly curled (since essentially thats what they are, except at the end I sweep them to the side).

Welp, that's all folks

xoxo
A

Well, today started out just swell.

2010-11-30T12:08:00.000+09:00

I'll preface this by saying that last night I got some really wonderful news. That is that my high school classes next week are cancelled due to exams. I'm thrilled about this because I am at about my wits end with this stupid evening class. With next week being cancelled, I currently have 5 more days of classes. To make it even sweeter, one day is a final exam (each student will do a speech), and another is preparation for the speeches, so really I have just 3 more days. Aaaaaaaand, the last day of class, I think all the teachers will combine our classes and have some kind of big fun game or scavenger hunt or something. So that leaves today and tomorrow. I'm so happy I could just cry tears of joy.

Anyways, on to my day starting out just swell (while via the internet this sarcasm is hard to convey, I think you, my readers, will understand shortly).

Last night I was sleeping soundly (with most of the lights on and myself still half-dressed in my clothing from the day... my high school wears me out so much that I can hardly manage to change into pajamas some nights) until 4 a.m. when I abruptly woke to the screech of multiple sirens that sounded frighteningly near my apartment. My initial thought was oh my god, North Korea is attacking Incheon and I'm gonna die tonight. I literally thought that I bolted upright in bed and tried to get my bearings in what I presumed was a warlike attack on my house. I got out of bed and thought I have to figure out how to get out without dying in the shellings. I peeked out my bedroom window and with that my fears were allayed. The sirens were, in fact, not bomb sirens as I had imagined, but the sirens of 4 fire trucks approaching and parking immediately across the street from my apartment building.

While the thought of a nearby raging fire (which I couldn't actually spot from my window, warning sign #1) is not pleasant, I'd say that I felt thoroughly relieved when the only other possibility I had imagined was hundreds of artillery shells razing buildings and shredding limbs.

So, I laid back down in bed as the firetruck sirens died down to a low mew, and just as I rested my head upon my pillow I was startled once more by an even louder, closer alarm. Welp, I thought, maybe North Korea is attacking after all. And stood up, more annoyed the fearful and I discovered the source of the alarm was my own building's alarm system (not labeled as or resembling a fire alarm by western standards). This unnerved me given the plethora of fire trucks outside my window. And I cracked open my door to discover a thick cloud of gray smoke.

OH. MY. GOD. I'm gonna die in a fiery apartment accident. Lovely.

I raced back inside and grabbed a coat and my cell phone and stepped back out into the cloud of smoke to see about 10 firemen whom I half-expected to sweep me up and rush me down fire ladders to my safety. Instead, they brushed past without so much as an acknowledgement of my presence. As I rounded the corner by my door, I discovered the smoke's source. A room a mere two doors from my own was emitting volumes of smoke and I just stood there thinking, do I need to run down the stairs or is this under control. No one was talking to me, but the sirens were wailing, and increasing, residents were poking their heads out the door and trying to figure out what was going on. I seemed to be the director pointing the other residents to the source of the commotion and the firemen finally said, it's okay, go to your room.

So through the smoke I trekked again, and went back into my room which now faintly smelled of smoke and climbed back into bed remembering to be thankful that both I and the country I'm living in remain safe for another night.

It was fucking scary though. I couldn't sleep until 5:30 or so, and I had to wake up at 6:30, so that was awesome. Today my students are bitches and are totally like teacher, you have dark circles, and I was like, yeah, well, that happens when you almost die.

OH MY JESUS.

2010-11-29T00:56:00.000+09:00

The YG countdown revealed everything! OMG OMG OMFG IM FUCKING DYING.

G-Dragon and T.O.P. are releasing a double album. First digital single released Dec 14. Album out dec. 24th. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME.

Also, BIG BANG COMBACK FEBRUARY 1 2011! OH MY GOD COMEBACK NOW.

Also also, Seung-ri is gonna have a single out January 3rd (happy birthday to my brother!)

No word on a 2ne1 international release. But aside from that, my life is complete. Everything will be entered into my calendars soon, and I will be counting down the moments till my happiness reaches its most ultimate point.

Christmas Time pt. 1

2010-11-26T15:44:00.001+09:00

It is Christmas time. This is on a shopping street around the corner from my house. These lights were put up the day before United States' Thanksgiving but they didn't turn them on until the night of Thanksgiving which I am sure the city didn't realize but it was still nice to see some wait. Christmas music has been playing in Christmas stores for two weeks now

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Early Christmas for This Lucky Teacher

2010-11-25T14:05:00.001+09:00

I know it's not Thanksgiving yet(although its the afternoon of the 25th here in korea) but today felt like Christmas when a student and a coteacher came to my office with a big box and two rolls of paper in their hands. Inside the box was a whole stash of goodies including white board erasers, board markers, two 12-packs of multicolor board markers, and ten packs if twist up crayons for my students. Clearly I care enough about my job to actually jump around and clap when I saw these new things.

My coteacher also told me that there is still money left in the budget for other materials so if I need anything at all I should let her know. To any of my esl- or teaching-literate friends, your suggestions or input are welcome.

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Things at Haesa Go

2010-11-22T22:36:00.000+09:00

Things at Haesa Go have been a little shaky these days.

After a particularly rough week last week, things are finally starting to look up. To start with the negatives:

Monday: I called in sick to work because I felt like hell and couldn't possible teach for three hours.

Tuesday: 1st period. One student looked me in the eyes and repeated constantly for at least 10 minutes (followed by intermittent repetitions for the next 20 minutes) only "Teacher, you ugly, ugly, you ugly, you ugly." This was interrupted only by his answer to my question, "What does a zombie look like?" which was, "Zombie ugly like you." Another pair of students spent 30 minutes talking (not whispering) throughout my speaking, my instruction giving and preparation of an activity. I repeatedly asked them to stop and they completely ignored me. Another student found a sewing kit (not his) in the desk at which he was seated. He proceeded to open the kit, pull out a needle and begin playing with it. I told him to stop (uh, playing with a needle that isn't yours??? WHO DOES THAT?). I turned to write on the board and I turned around and discovered this student had put the needle in his ear (which had already been pierced, but that's entirely beside the point). Who puts a needle (let alone one that isn't his/her own) in his/her ear?????? So, livid at the general disrespect I had been shown by my class, I sent this student out of my classroom. One minute late, one of the constantly talking students raised his hand and blurted out, "teacher, bathroom." I said, yes, go and don't come back to my classroom. I was completely fed up with this class. It's unfortunate because two or three of my best students are also in this class and I feel awful for them. After I sent the two students out, two other students began complaining, "teacher, me too. Make me leave too." At the point, I lost it. I looked at the remaining students in the class (the bad ones at least) and I just said: "WHY? Why are you so rude? Why do you disrespect me? If I was Korean, would you do this? If I spoke Korean, would you do this? If I were the principal, would you be rude like this? You are always talking and you never do you work. You take my pens and you waste them. You throw away everything, you are unprepared for your tests. You are wasting my time and it isn't fair to me. Every day I come here with work that I did, and you don't care." They understood nothing and just looked at me and said 뭐? (What... in low speech). At that point I lost it. I started crying. Hysterically. And I made everyone leave.

What a fucking waste of my time. I almost quit on the spot. I'm glad I didn't because my 2nd and 3rd classes were quite good and I was happy.

I complained to the schools native speaker. I complained to my co-teacher at my middle school.

And the school informed me that there would be dire consequences for students who misbehaved (a separate class with disciplinary teachers).

Wednesday: I came to my first period, the boys were like corpses. Like dead bodies, seriously. No one looked at me. No one talked to me. Just sheer anger. They were mad at me????? what. the. fuck.

Anyways, today was better. My students were only a little bad as opposed to positively hellish. So I am now in a good mood.

I just wish I could make the first class less evil.

The good news: 4 more weeks. To be exact: 11 classes. That is, 33 hours. Then, I am done with that stupid place. Forever.

Good night!

A

I like things other than k-pop and hello kitty.

2010-11-22T12:19:00.000+09:00

I'm sometimes just as apple-pie American as the next girl.

So today I was watching some dope NBA highlights on youtube and something reminded me of that time Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Shaq had a dance-off at their all-star team practice in 2007. Shaw is fucking hilarious.

A Text conversation with my boyfriend.

2010-11-21T00:29:00.001+09:00

Me: I called for delivery!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did it I did it!!!!!^^ (this is the exact transcript... I was really happy because I had to speak Koeran)
Me: but it never came... ㅠ ㅠ ㅠ ㅠ ㅠ(1 hour after calling... I was really sad)
Me: Nevermind it came (Ten minutes after the preceding text)
BF: (1 hour after my most recent text) Kitty! (That is his nickname for me) Bring your baby!! and my parents and grandmom will come.
Me: (utterly confused) my baby??? and when will your parents come?
BF: Yay gostop. and idk well. maybe they will come to eat dinner.
Me: My baby is gostop? 왜? (Korean for why?)
BF: because I think gostop looks like my baby. so my baby means your baby too~
Me: you have a baby???
BF: hahaha no 고스톱을 아기라고 생각했어요. (rough translation: hahaha no I thought to call gostop a baby)

what. the. fuck.

For two reasons.
1. Me calling for delivery alone and without help is a big step and he didn't recognize it.
2. what. the. fuck.

For the record, he and I have never had any conversations with this much confusion in them. I have no idea where this came from, and I'm sort of still trying to figure that out.

from sports day

2010-11-19T17:27:00.001+09:00

3학년4반

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America meets Korea: music

2010-11-14T22:17:00.000+09:00

So I just found this video from the past summer of 2ne1. They are doing tributes to artists they admire or look up to. CL did Lauryn Hill's DooWop (That Thing) which was pretty awesome and the songs were all in English. It's worth watching for both my k-pop fans and my friends who don't give a damn about k-pop because it's interesting to see these singers sing these songs. Plus at the end they sing Fire, which is easily still one of my favorite Korean songs of all time.

Also, holy shit, Minzy's dance is naughty. She was 15 at the time.

Lastly, uh, what's with the rain at the end when they are performing Fire? Bizarre.

Interesting Read

2010-11-11T09:50:00.002+09:00

I found this on Knocksteady.com, which is this interesting collective of artists, musicians, and designers who make music and write blogs on varying topics. I just copy and pasted the whole thing here. Enjoy this commencement speech. I thought it was great. Credit where credits due. Hit up www.knocksteady.com for more awesome music, some weird.interesting.funny.adhoc blogposts, and a dose of the just plain odd every now and then.

Written by Adrian Tan, author of The Teenage Textbook (1988), was the guest-of-honour at a recent NTU convocation ceremony. This was his speech to the graduating class of 2008.
—–

I must say thank you to the faculty and staff of the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information for inviting me to give your convocation address. It’s a wonderful honour and a privilege for me to speak here for ten minutes without fear of contradiction, defamation or retaliation. I say this as a Singaporean and more so as a husband.

My wife is a wonderful person and perfect in every way except one. She is the editor of a magazine. She corrects people for a living. She has honed her expert skills over a quarter of a century, mostly by practising at home during conversations between her and me.

On the other hand, I am a litigator. Essentially, I spend my day telling people how wrong they are. I make my living being disagreeable.

Nevertheless, there is perfect harmony in our matrimonial home. That is because when an editor and a litigator have an argument, the one who triumphs is always the wife.

And so I want to start by giving one piece of advice to the men: when you’ve already won her heart, you don’t need to win every argument.

Marriage is considered one milestone of life. Some of you may already be married. Some of you may never be married. Some of you will be married. Some of you will enjoy the experience so much, you will be married many, many times. Good for you.

The next big milestone in your life is today: your graduation. The end of education. You’re done learning.

You’ve probably been told the big lie that “Learning is a lifelong process” and that therefore you will continue studying and taking masters’ degrees and doctorates and professorships and so on. You know the sort of people who tell you that? Teachers. Don’t you think there is some measure of conflict of interest? They are in the business of learning, after all. Where would they be without you? They need you to be repeat customers.

The good news is that they’re wrong.

The bad news is that you don’t need further education because your entire life is over. It is gone. That may come as a shock to some of you. You’re in your teens or early twenties. People may tell you that you will live to be 70, 80, 90 years old. That is your life expectancy.

I love that term: life expectancy. We all understand the term to mean the average life span of a group of people. But I’m here to talk about a bigger idea, which is what you expect from your life.

You may be very happy to know that Singapore is currently ranked as the country with the third highest life expectancy. We are behind Andorra and Japan, and tied with San Marino. It seems quite clear why people in those countries, and ours, live so long. We share one thing in common: our football teams are all hopeless. There’s very little danger of any of our citizens having their pulses raised by watching us play in the World Cup. Spectators are more likely to be lulled into a gentle and restful nap.

Singaporeans have a life expectancy of 81.8 years. Singapore men live to an average of 79.21 years, while Singapore women live more than five years longer, probably to take into account the additional time they need to spend in the bathroom.

So here you are, in your twenties, thinking that you’ll have another 40 years to go. Four decades in which to live long and prosper.

Bad news. Read the papers. There are people dropping dead when they’re 50, 40, 30 years old. Or quite possibly just after finishing their convocation. They would be very disappointed that they didn’t meet their life expectancy.

I’m here to tell you this. Forget about your life expectancy.

After all, it’s calculated based on an average. And you never, ever want to expect being average.

Revisit those expectations. You might be looking forward to working, falling in love, marrying, raising a family. You are told that, as graduates, you should expect to find a job paying so much, where your hours are so much, where your responsibilities are so much.

That is what is expected of you. And if you live up to it, it will be an awful waste.

If you expect that, you will be limiting yourself. You will be living your life according to boundaries set by average people. I have nothing against average people. But no one should aspire to be them. And you don’t need years of education by the best minds in Singapore to prepare you to be average.

What you should prepare for is mess. Life’s a mess. You are not entitled to expect anything from it. Life is not fair. Everything does not balance out in the end. Life happens, and you have no control over it. Good and bad things happen to you day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment. Your degree is a poor armour against fate.

Don’t expect anything. Erase all life expectancies. Just live. Your life is over as of today. At this point in time, you have grown as tall as you will ever be, you are physically the fittest you will ever be in your entire life and you are probably looking the best that you will ever look. This is as good as it gets. It is all downhill from here. Or up. No one knows.

What does this mean for you? It is good that your life is over.

Since your life is over, you are free. Let me tell you the many wonderful things that you can do when you are free.

The most important is this: do not work.

Work is anything that you are compelled to do. By its very nature, it is undesirable.

Work kills. The Japanese have a term “Karoshi”, which means death from overwork. That’s the most dramatic form of how work can kill. But it can also kill you in more subtle ways. If you work, then day by day, bit by bit, your soul is chipped away, disintegrating until there’s nothing left. A rock has been ground into sand and dust.

There’s a common misconception that work is necessary. You will meet people working at miserable jobs. They tell you they are “making a living”. No, they’re not. They’re dying, frittering away their fast-extinguishing lives doing things which are, at best, meaningless and, at worst, harmful.

People will tell you that work ennobles you, that work lends you a certain dignity. Work makes you free. The slogan “Arbeit macht frei” was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps. Utter nonsense.

Do not waste the vast majority of your life doing something you hate so that you can spend the small remainder sliver of your life in modest comfort. You may never reach that end anyway.

Resist the temptation to get a job. Instead, play. Find something you enjoy doing. Do it. Over and over again. You will become good at it for two reasons: you like it, and you do it often. Soon, that will have value in itself.

I like arguing, and I love language. So, I became a litigator. I enjoy it and I would do it for free. If I didn’t do that, I would’ve been in some other type of work that still involved writing fiction – probably a sports journalist.

So what should you do? You will find your own niche. I don’t imagine you will need to look very hard. By this time in your life, you will have a very good idea of what you will want to do. In fact, I’ll go further and say the ideal situation would be that you will not be able to stop yourself pursuing your passions. By this time you should know what your obsessions are. If you enjoy showing off your knowledge and feeling superior, you might become a teacher.

Find that pursuit that will energise you, consume you, become an obsession. Each day, you must rise with a restless enthusiasm. If you don’t, you are working.

Most of you will end up in activities which involve communication. To those of you I have a second message: be wary of the truth. I’m not asking you to speak it, or write it, for there are times when it is dangerous or impossible to do those things. The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.

In order to be wary of the truth, you must first know it. That requires great frankness to yourself. Never fool the person in the mirror.

I have told you that your life is over, that you should not work, and that you should avoid telling the truth. I now say this to you: be hated.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. Do you know anyone who hates you? Yet every great figure who has contributed to the human race has been hated, not just by one person, but often by a great many. That hatred is so strong it has caused those great figures to be shunned, abused, murdered and in one famous instance, nailed to a cross.

One does not have to be evil to be hated. In fact, it’s often the case that one is hated precisely because one is trying to do right by one’s own convictions. It is far too easy to be liked, one merely has to be accommodating and hold no strong convictions. Then one will gravitate towards the centre and settle into the average. That cannot be your role. There are a great many bad people in the world, and if you are not offending them, you must be bad yourself. Popularity is a sure sign that you are doing something wrong.

The other side of the coin is this: fall in love.

I didn’t say “be loved”. That requires too much compromise. If one changes one’s looks, personality and values, one can be loved by anyone.

Rather, I exhort you to love another human being. It may seem odd for me to tell you this. You may expect it to happen naturally, without deliberation. That is false. Modern society is anti-love. We’ve taken a microscope to everyone to bring out their flaws and shortcomings. It far easier to find a reason not to love someone, than otherwise. Rejection requires only one reason. Love requires complete acceptance. It is hard work – the only kind of work that I find palatable.

Loving someone has great benefits. There is admiration, learning, attraction and something which, for the want of a better word, we call happiness. In loving someone, we become inspired to better ourselves in every way. We learn the truth worthlessness of material things. We celebrate being human. Loving is good for the soul.

Loving someone is therefore very important, and it is also important to choose the right person. Despite popular culture, love doesn’t happen by chance, at first sight, across a crowded dance floor. It grows slowly, sinking roots first before branching and blossoming. It is not a silly weed, but a mighty tree that weathers every storm.
You will find, that when you have someone to love, that the face is less important than the brain, and the body is less important than the heart.

You will also find that it is no great tragedy if your love is not reciprocated. You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

Finally, you will find that there is no half-measure when it comes to loving someone. You either don’t, or you do with every cell in your body, completely and utterly, without reservation or apology. It consumes you, and you are reborn, all the better for it.

Don’t work. Avoid telling the truth. Be hated. Love someone.

xoxo,

I haven't eaten yet today

2010-11-06T18:56:00.000+09:00

Instead I fucked around on youtube and facebook and played doodle jump or slept all day.

This must be how Joseph Gutierrez feels all the time. Weird.

Anyways, I thought this was cool. I'm kinda obsessed with him, but not in a weird way. He's just really talented.

waste

2010-11-06T18:23:00.000+09:00

I just wasted the entire day.

But I wanted to share some stories.

Last night I went out for dinner/drinks with the boy and his cousin, who is an electrical engineer for SK. It was hilarious and really really really fun.

His cousin is crazy, but in an awesome way. He told lots of really funny stories. My favorite:

Me: I really want to buy a scooter.
Boy: Nooooooooo. Not safe.
Cuz: I had a scooter once.
Boy: 맞아, tell about the time you had an accident.
Me: *horror* you had an accident??
Cuz: *laughs heartily* yes. I was really drunk.
Me: OH GAH. *horror x1000*
Cuz: And I was driving on an access road and I realized, hey, I'm not supposed to be here, because it's not for scooters.
Me: uh-huh...
Cuz: So I turned right onto a street near Yongsan and I saw just a shadow.
Me: *Cringing in fear* Oh god, uh-huh...
Cuz: And I hit a tank.
Me: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????
Cuz: I hit a tank. A military tank. Well, actually I fell under the tank.

Yes, folks, that's right. He hit a fucking tank. And fell under the tank. I'm not sure if the tank was moving, but I'm going to assume no. Evidently he ended up with just a bunch of bad scratches, and was okay. He didn't realize he was bleeding. But someone there told him. Phew.

Korean people are bat-shit crazy.

This story also reminds me of this time I was at a bus stop on this MAJOR road (3/4 lanes each direction). I was waiting for my bus home, and this lady comes up with her children, ages maybe 4 and 7. The seven year old sits nicely next to his mom. The 4 year old however is curious and wanders around a bit, which makes me nervous. We are next to a major road mind you. The child, in his curiosity, steps down off the sidewalk curb and into the bus lane and I almost pee my pants with anxiety. The child walk around a bit, and the mom looks over and is like, oh, hey, Minsu, come over here all nonchalant as if her extremely young child wasn't in the middle of a bus lane where bus come rolling through at speeds fast enough to effectively smash grown men and women flat.

I think this is one of the only things I hate about Korea. The non-caring attitude people seem to take about driving and pedestrianism. People literally think, oh, it won't happen to me, and they drive like crazy mother fuckers. Or they think, oh no one will hit me and cross streets recklessly or other such things.

Thats it y'all.
A

Mid-Term Elections from Afar, and others

2010-11-04T10:11:00.002+09:00

These subjects appear in no particular order of importance, but it should be noted that the McDonalds news is probably the most important. Not really though. I'm not that much of a fatty.

The Things I learned from the 2010 Mid-Term Elections

It should also be noted that I didn't vote in this year's round of elections, although I wish I had because it was so depressing. Not that it would have mattered because mail-in votes aren't counted unless it's really close, right?

Nonetheless, Democrats lost their hold on the House but managed to maintain more than half the senate seats, in spite of losing 6 seats to Republican control. Florida voted Republican virtually across the board. I can take a half-hearted pride in the fact that my home county of Palm Beach swayed slightly to the vote away from Republican Senate Seat winner, Marco Rubio, in favor of independent Charlie Crist (current Florida governor, a former Republican party member, and a pro-choice and socially moderate candidate). However, Marco Rubio won in something like 59 or 60 of the 64 counties in Florida. Additionally, the governorship was won by Republican Rick Scott in a much closer race over Alex Sink, who previously held the office of CFO for the State of Florida. Again, Palm Beach County and my University's county both voted Democrat. But alas, it was not to be. Rural Florida beats urban florida yet again (Miami, Palm Beach, Broward, Orange, St. Lucie, Hillsborough and Leon counties, which are home to 8 of the 10 largest cities by population, and 4 of the 5 largest metro areas in the state, all voted Democrat).

Also, Prop 19 failed in California. It doesn't really affect me in any way, but it'd have been nice to see that prop pass because people are stupid about marijuana, and because California is struggling with one of the greatest financial crises in the country now, and I think Prop 19 could have potential helped in at least some small way. Oh wells.

Next, this website is awesome: http://whatthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/ Aside from the rather vulgar site name, it's a pretty good site. I mean, everyone is pretty much shitting all over Obama, and it's nice to see some people sticking up for the fact that Obama has done 100s of little things to change America. Sorry he hasn't entered America into new wars or passed hugely controversial and famous bills. He has done a lot of little things, and they are far less awful than the shit Bush did.

Lastly, McDonalds has brought the quarter pounder with cheese and double quarter pounder to Korea. Now, I never actually ate this burger in America because I pretty much never ate at McDonalds, but now that I'm here, I eat McDonalds probably every week for it's sheer convenience. I think I'll avoid the double quarter pounder because I kind of think that's gross (I'll add I've never had even one bite of a big mac before, and I'd like it to stay that way) but the quarter pounder with cheese could be tasty.

Lastly, I almost killed my high school boys yesterday. I'm gonna lose it one day and just go off on them and they won't know what him them. They are so freaking annoying. It's always the same class... first period and they consistently ruin my day.

That's it.

xoxo
A

Sports = Wearing Crazy Shit in your Hair

2010-11-01T23:39:00.001+09:00

Me and a student. Sports Day 2010

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Bored

2010-11-01T23:17:00.001+09:00

Please don't ask me where I find the time to discover gems like this:

Cuteness

2010-10-31T22:07:00.001+09:00

OMG. This is the cutest thing ever. Seriously.

3학년4반

2010-10-31T14:40:00.001+09:00

Sports Day

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Found it

2010-10-29T22:39:00.001+09:00

A smorgasbord of things

2010-10-29T11:46:00.000+09:00

1. Smorgasbord: I had never known how to spell this word. Thank you google for clarifying with your 'define:' search function. I also learned the correct spelling is: Smörgåsbord and that it is Sweedish, and that in Norway they actually say: koldtbord. Also, this is the title of a children's entertainment album.

A smorgasbord of children's musical fun!

2. Kitty cupcake and cake: On my 100 day anniversary with my boo, as I mentioned in a loving earlier blogpost, I got a really dope Hello Kitty cake. I ate it yesterday with him, his brother, and his brother's equally kitty loving girlfriend (저는 윤경언니같이 키티를 좋하해요! I learned this 같이 phrase yesterday while I was studying! YEAH) at the library where we were studying. It was strawberry flavored and freaking delicious. There was a big hello kitty cookie on top and it's adorable, and I simply cannot eat it, it's too cute. Half the cake still remains in my apartment fridge and must be eaten soon. Also, on the cupcakes take the cake blog, there was a featured Hello Kitty cupcake. Now, Cupcakes Takes the Cake frequently features Hello Kitty cupcakes, but usually they are particularly horrifying or just plain ugly. But these are the best ones I've seen perhaps ever on the site. They aren't perfect, but they are darn cute. Plus she's made of edible fondant. Makes me want to hop on over to etsy and snatch a dozen right on up!

vs.

No contest.

3. Pictures. I will be posting a picture a day hopefully from my school's festival and sports day. I will be using my android blogger app to post them, so hopefully there won't be any crazy mess-ups.

4. Schedule Changes. Jesus Christ, can they just tell me when a schedule changes? I mean, perhaps they try to, but I'm not sure I buy it. Granted, my CoolMessenger (the school-wide instant messenger service that is a Korean-based program) is totally broken on my computer. 50% of the time I can't even log in, and the other 50%, I log in and it registers my newest messages as being from this past April or July. Yeah, it's really helpful for me to know that last April there was some 떡 in the 교무실 that we should help ourselves to, or that there is a time change and all afternoon classes will be cancelled on July 23rd. Completely freaking ridiculous. Today, I lucked out in that my schedule change positively effects me. But, it'd be nice to know, you know, in advance, that I have my most horrid class of the day cancelled. Instead, I had to go downstairs to the 교무실 (the teacher's office) and ask, hey, guys, what's the deal? Was there a schedule change? I was just lucky that an English teacher was there for me to ask.

5. Speaking exams. My grade three students (equal to grade 8 or 9 students stateside) are doing speaking tests with me now. All students must prepare a topic and write about it on a paper and then they memorize the entire thing and recite it to me. It's not exactly the way I'd like a real speaking test to go, but memorization is the norm here. The students were given three topics and they had to choose one. The topics are: 1. What do you think is the most important job and why? 2. If you could meet anyone from the past, who would you meet and what would you ask them? and 3. If you had 1,000,000 won what would you buy and why? The selection has been pretty evenly spread across the three topics, which reassures me that the topics I selected are fair and mostly equal. The 1000000 won question seems the most popular, but only slightly (maybe just about 40% of the students have chosen this topic) but also the most troublesome as 50 percent of the students don't know how to say 1,000,000 in english. Instead, they just say 1 billion, or 1 hundred thousand. I feel like they should figure out how to say, you know, the central words of their speech at least. But oh well. Teacher is the overwhelmingly most popular choice for most important job (followed closely by doctor). Also, three students (the first three students to do their speeches) selected King Sejong to be the person they'd most like to meet.

That's all for now folks

xoxo
A

The Funniest Thing I've seen in a while

2010-10-28T09:49:00.000+09:00

This is maybe the funniest thing I've seen on the internet since I saw that hilarious dance off where Lee Joon splits his pants dancing to Push Push Baby.

Korean fangirls are fucking crazy. Also, she makes my Se7en fan spazzing seem like child's play. Which is kind of a relief because I thought I was crazy. Thanks Jihyeon, for screaming your brains out and making fangirls like me look mild and calm.

Love is in the Air

2010-10-28T00:21:00.000+09:00

I think I may just be the lamest lovebird ever. By that I mean I am totally that girl who is about to gush like crazy about how lovely her boyfriend is. This is just my fair warning:

OH. MY. GOD. He's so wonderful.

Anyways, today is our 100 day anniversary (I guess technically now it's yesterday... Wednesday) and all day he was texting me these cute little messages about how excited he was to see me today. You see, in Korean relationships, and life in general, 100 days is of special significance. I think it came first with babies, for whom on their 100th day of life a special party was held for them (100 days of life marks roughly one year since conception... roughly) originally just for surviving for that long. At these parties, the children receive gifts and also go through an important tradition of choosing the article that they will pursue on their life's journey. The babies are placed in front of a table upon which rest various things: some small amount of money, some thread (representing longevity), food, a script brush. Whichever thing the child picks up first is considered to be the future of that child.

Now it is popular for couples to celebrate their 100th day of a relationship by going on a date or sharing some special time or gift.

Unfortunately, our 100th day happens to fall during my boyfriend's exam week at university. Bummer. Additionally, this weekend I am going to Daejeon so we couldn't exactly post-pone it until a later more convenient weekend time. However, because my boyfriend is so wonderful, after he finished his classes today, he rushed over to Incheon to see me. I was waiting excitedly, naturally.

He came over and he brought me the most wonderful cake ever. omg, I just love it. I've been eyeing it for weeks at Paris Baguette thinking, if only I could find some excuse to buy this, and he got it for me!! I showed it to him maybe a month ago after I moved to my new apartment and said, this is so cute. He must have remembered that.

We spent the evening just relaxing and cuddling. we ordered chinese food to be delivered and I made some velveeta mac&cheese. We chowed down and talked and talked and talked. It was good.

Unfortunately (yet also luckily) I checked the time and realized it was already 11:00 and he had to run immediately to catch the last train. I missssss him already.

He left me a letter (like he always does when he comes over) and this one was particularly sweet and wonderful. I actually cried a little because it was so perfect.

I don't know what I did to get something so good in my life, but hooray for me.

Here's my cake, suckers:

xoxo
A

Will.I.Am

2010-10-26T21:45:00.000+09:00

So everyone who isn't living under a k-pop rock (which means only people in Korea or people who are weirdly obsessed with kpop) already knows that Will.I.Am worked with 2ne1 on their upcoming international release. What most people didn't know was that Will.i.am is completely fucking crazy about Korean stuff. Basically anything, it seems, about Korea, is intriguing to him.

He has a new release with Nicki Minaj (you know, that crazy huge-assed Lil Kim 2.0) which is gonna be a total radio killer, as Billboard reports it.

It's tough to find a quality copy of the music video, which is unfortunate. On youtube there is only a low quality mirrored video...ㅠ

Luckily, being the psycho I am, I searched the Korean engines on which this video is spreading like wildfire. Unfortunately, Korea sucks about using weird ass video encoding, so I can't embed it here, but here's a link to the first site I stumbled upon that had it: CHECK IT OUT

omg yes.

2010-10-26T11:53:00.001+09:00

I found this on a tumblr and am obsessed.

Black People in Korea

2010-10-19T16:06:00.000+09:00

I had an interesting experience today at school. With my grade 3 middle schoolers, I had my students writing sentences using the perfect. The intention was to prepare them to play a modified game of Never Have I Ever next class. I had them write 5 sentences using the affirmative present perfect, and 5 using the negative present perfect. The sentences had the following stipulations regarding construction:

1. The sentences had to be true according to their author, meaning that the student must have actually had or not had the experience depending upon whether the sentence was affirmative or negative, respectively.

2. The students must use the present perfect and English to write their sentences. No Korean, no other tenses.

3. The students should attempt to think and create sentences about experiences that are unique or special, meaning the sentences should represent experiences that not all of students have had (for example: I have played the recorder is not a good sentence to use because every student in every class plays the recorder in school as a requirement. Instead, I have played the guitar is good, because in one class of 36 perhaps just 5 students have played the guitar).

So, my students began writing and many of their sentences were excellent. I have students who have been to France and ridden elephants and raised pet scorpions (all taken directly from my students' papers and all things I have never done). Some students were less creative, but still, their sentences were grammatically correct and generally not common experiences.

Then I come across SuJin's paper. She is an excellent student--very hardworking and while not the best English speaker, she certainly attempts to use English as much as possible. Her sentences included I have been to Jeju-do (Jeju Island which less than half of each class has been to) and some others but the one that stuck out was "I have talked to a black person."

I was pretty surprised by this sentence (mostly because of all the experiences in her life, this is a memorable one that is still in the forefront of her brain).

Now, having lived in Korea for over a year now, I have grown rather thick-skinned to the ignorant, although rarely ill-intentioned, comments Korean people have regarding black people (or anyone of a minority race). Korea is extremely homogeneous and even as it grows more inclusive of minorities and as other ethnic groups expand within the country's borders, still there seems to be a general misunderstanding of black people and black culture within Korea. Unfortunately, the primary (almost only) source of information regarding black people (be they African American, Caribbean, or African) comes from American movies (namely gangster movies or comedies where black people are largely cast in pigeon-holed roles even today). Korean students largely see black men as gangsters, dangerous men who all rap and have tattoos and kill guns. This is because that is how even most of the American media portrays them. The movies that attempt to change the way Americans think about black people, (see Spike Lee's movies, Boyz in the Hood, Richard Pryor, Tyler Perry, etc) are all but unknown here. There are not prominent black authors. Sure, Beyonce is famous. And everyone now knows Barack Obama. Plus there are celebrities like Heinz Ward who have a Korean parent and a parent of a different racial background. But that doesn't erase the fact that Korean people see Blacks a largely fear-inducing group, regardless or age, creed, gender, religion, or socio-economic status. This perception, I think, is not due to a true base belief that Blacks are inherently a bad, worthless or dirty race. However, when Korea was first opening its doors to immigrants (mind you since the Japanese colonial era and the end of the Korean war, Korea has been extremely closed to almost all races) the American-cultural boom invaded Korea and movies and pop music that contained not such sparkly-clean imaged of black people. And so, without having ever seen a black person not on a television or movie theater screen, opinions and judgments were being formed.

It is unfortunate, but it is true. I have shown my students pictures of me with friends who are black and my students often gasp in amazement at my apparent closeness.

Half of my students are afraid of black people.

Half of my students are entranced by black people (one student once said, I want to be Barack Obama's wife. When I asked why, she said, because he's black. I said, so? She said, black people are cool).

I'm rambling, but it's been an interesting thing to witness, if not first-hand.

I'll leave you with this. On YouTube, most people posted this as a KFC commercial. It's not a KFC commercial. It's for KyoChon chicken, one of the biggest Korean fried chicken chains. It has ad conracts with Super Junior and is currently located throughout Korea and has locations in LA and New York City.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2010-10-18T16:06:00.000+09:00

Just saw this trailer. OH. MY. JEEZUS.

It's gonna be awesome.

I love Harry Potter.

Busy Bee

2010-10-18T15:43:00.000+09:00

Today I've been really busy. I just have so much to do and not enough time to do it. I didn't prepare my lessons completely until this morning, but I managed to finish with two minutes to spare and so I didn't get totally screwed. Actually it turns out my students really enjoyed the lesson. Or if they didn't enjoy it, they seemed to get it, and that's nice. I'm not sure it's because it was too easy (they seemed to not know some of it until I taught it), but they did a good job, and I'm happy.

Now I'm prepping my high school lessons for the week. Luckily, I can just recycle my grade 3 lessons with them since the high school boys are only one year older and not one level more advanced. This week we are working on the simple past. It was a tiny bit difficult for some of my girls, but I think the boys will be able to handle. Especially since there are only ten of them as opposed to 36.

I have to go to Itaewon sometime this week to pick up some books I ordered from What the Book? This will be my first time going to what is ostensibly South Korea's largest used and foreign book store. I've heard good things, but haven't made it out there. Itaewon is just such a bitch to get to from Incheon (too many transfers) and I'm so busy most weekends.

Next week is me and the bf's 100 day anniversary. But, nothing special planned. I have no school because our 100 day anniversary happens to fall on my school's birthday, but he has exams that week, and so he will be super busy. I'm supposed to be teaching at the high school but I figure I can call in sick. Maybe? Maybe I'll actually get a little sick and it'll warrant the calling in sick. meh. Either way, I'm not sure we'll be doing anything, which is kind of a bummer...

xoxo
A

Naughty Taeyang

2010-10-16T19:59:00.000+09:00

Taeyang posted this picture on his twitter. Obviously the capturing on the background was intentional. They could have shot this picture anywhere. I was pretty surprised. First Taeyang's songs get a 18+ label slapped on (well, just a few... but still). Then he wears that shirt that says Fuck you on it. And now this:

damn boy. Go get your sex on.

The more I see of him the more I have to believe that really he is tapping it with somebody and we just don't know who. Maybe that's vulgar of me, but jesus christ taeyang. Take It Slow? YOU wrote those lyrics? You been hitting with someone somewhere, that's all I'm sayin.

xoxo

Testing

2010-10-15T17:06:00.001+09:00

This is me testing blogging from blogger-droid which is one if many blogging apps for the android. This will be convenient if I am away from the internet but have a story worth sharing. But I don't really know how often that will happen. Plus I don't think there is any way to post pictures. If any of my readers knows of a droid app for blogger accounts, holla atcha girl.

xoxo,
A

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

Rando

2010-10-15T09:26:00.000+09:00

So this has both nothing to do with me and nothing to do with kpop so this will probably not initially be of interest to any of my readers (my reader base is a. friends from home, and b. crazed kpop fangirls/boys). But shit is funny as hell.

A friend posted it on facebook, I saw it and am reposting it here. HILARIOUS.