Sunday, June 20, 2010

My new home...

I joined the dark side and started a tumblr blog. I say "dark side" because I always associated tumblr with hip youngsters in tune with social networking media. Also, they usually have interesting things to say and take neat pictures. I'm clumsy when it comes to technology, and I'll pretty much delete any request to start a pillow fight or hatch an egg on Facebook.

But I have to admit, my posts look a teeny bit cooler on tumblr...

http://starchmouse.tumblr.com

Happy Father's Day!

My aunt once told me that I shouldn't marry a Korean man. When I asked her why, she said "You shouldn't think that Korean men are like your father. Your father is very kind and respects your mother."
"And he does the dishes!" I couldn't help but add.
But yikes, her statement made me scared for Korean women. Even during my Korean class, when we were learning vocabulary for personality traits, my teacher brought up the fact that Korean fathers were typically known to be 무뚝뚝 (curt, cold) and not very affectionate.
I can't say if that is true or not, but my father is definitely neither of those:

My father is generous and warmhearted and empathetic. From him I inherited a killer sense of direction and a love for trying new things in restaurants.
If only I had inherited that hair (second from the left!):

My father is a charming combination of thoughtful and forgetful. He would have been an absentminded professor had he decided to go that direction.

My father inspired me to run a marathon. But I wouldn't have been able to finish if he hadn't run the last five miles with me. My dad is very athletic:

My dad's normal facial expression is kind of serious. But his smile lights up his whole face:

Happy Father's Day to the best dad ever!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

World Cup...Sigh...

Today I went to COEX along with what seemed like a gazillion fans to watch the Korea/Argentina game. I'm so sad I can't even describe the madness that is watching a game while sitting in the middle of the road (yup, they blocked off an 8-lane road for us red devils) so I'll just post pictures.

Paris Baguette loves Park Jisung:

The entrance to COEX is one big Nike ad:


This guy was toast. Shortly after I took this picture he gave me a hug:

Apparently watching the world cup means you get lots of free stuff:


These came in very handy during the synchronized cheers:

The people staying at the Park Hyatt (on the left) must have loved watching us jump up and down:



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A Year Ago On This Day...

In a fit of nostalgia (not at ALL due to procrastination) I decided to see what I was up to exactly a year ago today. First I looked through iPhoto but apparently I was going through a dry spell (this was also pre-iPhone). Then I decided to go through my emails and see what that would bring.

The very first email I received on June 15, 2009, contained this gem of a sentence from a friend:
and as a clear example of "too much information," i totally should've taped my nipples today. ouch. but overall it was a good run -- 16 miles, pretty much following the actual route from the beginning.

The next notable email I received contained a link to the bio of a real live "korwegian" - it's not every day you spot them in the wild!

The next email was from USF:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus. This designation indicates that a global pandemic is underway.
I'm pretty sure I ignored that one, having no clue that I would later move to a far more paranoid foreign country during the height of its swine flu mania.

And last but not least, I got this email from UCSF:
Dear Anne Kim,

Congratulations. Your submission, 1###7 has cleared all of the necessary checks and will soon be delivered to ProQuest/UMI for publishing.

Regards,
University of California, San Francisco - Graduate Division Administrator


Holy cow it's been a year already? How could I have let that slip by? Probably because I'd started pretending I was "finishing" up since 2008:

So yeah, a lot has changed since then. For instance, a year ago I'm pretty sure I went to sleep wearing fleece pajamas under 2 down comforters. Tonight I'll be lucky to sleep through the night without kicking my blanket to the floor because it is 75 degrees out with 85% humidity. Also, I eat a lot more kimchi now.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Wow, it's beautiful today

Just had lunch and caught up with an old friend...the rain has gone away and the weather is beautiful. Now I'm going to attempt to walk through the ferry building without buying anything. Hmmm...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Home sweet home...

I was so excited to go home and see my family that I didn't sleep the night before. Well, partly also because I made the mistake of watching the season finale of Grey's Anatomy and spent the entire night worrying some nutcase would go loose in whatever hospital my brother ends up working at.
I meant to sleep on the plane, but there was On Demand entertainment:

I tried not to giggle too loudly lest I wake up the other passengers.
We landed safe and sound in SFO and I called my brother, only to find out my family was so caught up in watching Personal Taste they hadn't left the house yet. Sheesh.
Straight from the airport, we went for dim sum. I really missed dim sum:
Then the weather was so clear and beautiful we went to Twin Peaks:
The beautiful weather continued to the next day, when I got to see Ody and Britt! Wee! We wandered around the North Beach/Russian Hill area and walked up a stairway where we were greeted with this view:
Then we went to the Mission for mexican food. I had a burrito the size of my head. I also really missed burritos:
My brother made fried chicken:

And Ody, along with putting lemon juice in everything and making lemon centerpieces, my mom also made preserved lemons:

She wanted me to take a picture of the jar in the garage, because that one was "prettier" - I was too lazy to walk up there though.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Express train to ICN

You know the train is THAT good when you wish the ride were a teensy bit longer...I still managed to organize my Dream Concert photos on the way to the airport.
In 15 hours I'll be back in San Francisco. Yay!!!