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!!!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Temperance, followed by gluttony....

Today is a holiday (buddha's birthday!) and luckily, these guys were holding a temple-style (vegetarian) cooking class. These days, it's hard to leave the house without my aunt telling me to sit down and stuff myself, but knowing I would get to eat the fruits of my labors, I quickly put half of my rice bowl back into the rice cooker while she wasn't looking. Alas, I couldn't do the same with the vat of fish soup she then proceeded to ladle out for me. I tried to explain why I wasn't eating "enough":

Aunt: Where are you going again? What are you learning to cook?
Me: Temple-style food.
Aunt: Well, learn to make delicious food and come back and make it for us!
Cousin: No! She's only learning how to cook vegetables, ick!

But that's the beauty of korean food - there are so many vegetables you don't know what to do with them. Also, my 어학당 friends live far away so I don't get as much non-family adult interaction as I would like. And my cousin spends all her time at hagwon. I also need to make friends with some korean people, because my korean skills are slipping. Will you be my friend?

I digress.

Here is what we made: Chive salad. I love black sesame seeds. I completely forget to put sesame oil in this, perhaps that's why it never tasted quite right to me. I was pretty distracted during the whole class and forgot to add salt to most of my food. I suppose it wasn't too terrible; the chef-teacher tasted all of our versions and claimed to like mine the best. I don't believe him (I mean, sesame oil makes everything taste delicious and I left it completely OUT, come on!) but what a nice guy. I may have a tiny crush on him.

Bibimbap: Yum. I LOVE gosari (the brown stringy vegetable) and could pretty much just eat rice, gochujang, and sesame oil mixed together any time of day. Just not three times a day. My goodness I could kill for a tamale right now. Wow, I am really all over the place today. I blame the heat. Anyways, the chef made a fermented soybean paste sauce that smelled heavenly and definitely helped the fact that I forgot to salt all my vegetables. My cousin laughed at me the other day because I incorrectly spelled 된장 as 됀장. See? I need more korean friends. Misspelling that is like living next to a McDonald's yet spelling "burger" as "burgur". Where is my brain?
Next up:This is before I added tomato to it. Seriously, adding tomato to 된장찌개 is truly delicious.

After we finished cooking, we got to eat! Unfortunately, I couldn't finish because of the massive breakfast I had already eaten. But it was nice to meet and talk with other people who have 관심 in korean food, and also find it odd that tomatoes and sweet potatoes find their way into desserts here. The folks running the show are the nicest people; once I actually start getting paid I hope to do one of their market tour classes. You should check them out!

Speaking of dessert:
Yum yum yum!
Although this almond chocolate croissant was delicious, this place is nuts expensive. I paid 7000 won for an americano; whenever I pay that much for what ends up being overly watered-down espresso, I feel like somewhere, a fairy just lost its wings.
The man at the counter was extremely helpful however, in helping me choose pastries to take home to my aunt and cousin that would withstand a few hours' travel time in the extreme heat:
Tartelette Fromage
70% dark chocolate pot de creme. Deemed "too bitter" by my cousin. I told her my dad considers 85% cocoa chocolate bars a pleasant snack. I think 72% is my limit.
Black sesame-grapefruit and orange-red bean macarons. The man at the counter said "Oh, you like the unusual flavors!" I told him I once tried a foie gras macaron. He said he feels desserts should be vegetarian. That's only because he's never tried my candied bacon chocolate chip cookies.

I'm not making that up. I just never got a chance to blog about them because I ate the entire batch in two days. Well, I gave a few away as well.

Mmm, bacon.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Taipei - Last day

My last day was pretty short, seeing as I had an early afternoon flight back to Seoul. After checking out, I went to the train station hoping to find soy milk for breakfast.

No such luck. But I did find a MOS Burger. Unfortunately, only breakfast sandwiches were available:


I decided to splurge an extra $2 and take the high-speed train to the airport:


Bye Taipei! It was awesome!


I loved this trip for so many different reasons. It was nice to take a break from Seoul - not that I'm getting tired of Seoul, but I had just finished another semester of school and hadn't really had time to sightsee IN Seoul. I love seeing new places, but also, going away and coming back made Seoul start to feel more like a home than a temporary transit place.

When I told people I was going by myself, particularly Korean people, they were surprised. I still have to get used to the fact that things that seem normal to me (not living with my parents after college even though San Francisco is only 30 miles away, going on an overnight hiking trip with a bunch of strangers, carrying my own damn purse) might be hard for people here to picture. I think what is most hard for people to understand is that I don't mind traveling alone, in fact, I like it. Hell, this whole blog started because I decided it would be fun to drive to Denver by myself. And I managed to not only survive that trip (lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!) but the time I spent alone (I spent a super-fun week with Liv in Denver followed by an amazing few days with my parents roaming around Yellowstone) was truly memorable. There's nothing like a solo trip to give you time to get lost in your thoughts while at the same time forcing yourself to open your eyes and absorb everything that's going around you because you only have your own observations to rely on. Trips like that make coming back home to wherever "home" might be at that moment seem like a fresh start.

And really, even when you're by yourself, you're never really alone.

So when I saw amazing things and ate delicious things while in Taipei, I never felt regret at the fact that I was doing it by myself. Mostly, I felt excited at the prospect of one day coming with my family and sharing with them everything I was so happy to experience during my short visit.

Happy birthday mom!

My mom celebrates her __th birthday today. She's the cutest __-year-old I know:







Saturday, May 15, 2010

What in the world is going on here??

Today is teacher's day, and seeing as my aunt is pretty much the most awesome elementary school teacher (and aunt!) EVER, she came home with a bunch of presents from her adoring students. Including this cake set:

Which is surprisingly intact. Because I ignored it fully only to tear into this guy:


That's right, I chose rice cakes over real cake. Next thing you know I'll be wanting to eat rice three meals a day and packing kimchi with me when I go on trips, just in case the place I'm visiting doesn't have any. Because, you know, you haven't really eaten a real meal unless you've eaten rice and kimchi.

Gah. I need to visit home soon and get my head set straight.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Taipei - Day 3 continued

The garden at the National Palace Museum stays open an hour later than the museum buildings, so I decided to head over and find a place to rest my poor feet, since I had hours of roaming around the night market planned ahead.
I noticed a bunch of people gathering to the side of the pavilion so I decided to see what they were staring at:

Only to find out they were starting a feeding frenzy. Koi fish really creep me out. I think it's the way they open and close their mouths. But really, doesn't this picture slightly disturb you?


I ran away and found a bench to read on. Check out my new $5 sandals!


I took the bus back to the MRT station and decided to walk to Shilin Night Market. On the way I spotted a sign that made me consider for a moment whether or not I would be crazy to come back to Taipei on the 17th:

In case you can't recognize him - that's Richard Marx! Why yes, I DID just turn 30, why do you ask?

I realized I must be nearby when I saw this crowd of people waiting in front of a bunch of delicious-smelling food stands:

Later I would find out that this is just a "light" crowd. I wandered and wandered and wandered the maze of alleys. The area was packed with food vendors and stores and people in the middle of the alleys selling all sorts of trinkets laid out on blankets. This is so they can gather up everything quickly and scamper off when the police come. Same with the people selling clothes on rolling racks. I learned this the hard way when I nearly lost a toe.

I never did figure out why this turkey was here:


Oyster omelet. Um, wow.


Also delicious. At that point I think it had been 4 months since I'd had any fruit that wasn't an apple, clementine, strawberry, or banana, so I was pretty excited to be eating something that had TWO colors:


I was already stuffed by the time I saw this guy, but the insane crowd of people waiting around swayed me to wait. It was worth it.


Apparently, I had only been roaming around part of the night market - as I walked toward the MRT station I noticed a huge "building" that said "Shilin Night Market" and was essentially a crazy food court with stall after stall selling all forms of stinky tofu, oyster omelet, boba, fruit shakes, fried things, and noodles. I'm kind of glad I didn't see this at first, because the sheer size/number of different food options was so overwhelming my head would probably explode just trying to decide what to eat. Or more likely my stomach would explode just eating everything in sight. I decided it didn't matter, since I would come back here with my family someday. Soon, hopefully.

More pictures from the day here.