A new year doesn't have to be a new start...

... but it's certainly a good place to refocus, reflect, and revise the way one lives her life.

I made this resolution over a year ago:

Estoy intentando a vivir mi vida con valor y gratitud; a siempre tener la fe; a dar y recibir amor sincero; a convertir mi sueño a mi realidad; a hacer qué necesito a hacer con diligencia; y a nunca impedir la mejora de mi alma y carácter.

Yes, it's in Spanish. I wrote it that way because I put it up as my AIM away message as a reminder to myself and didn't really want people to know what it meant.

I'm going to continue to use that as a motto, but I made a list of quantifiable things I wanted to accomplish this year, as well. This is because I think that if I hold myself to qualifiable goals, I'm much more likely to feel overwhelmed by them (because I'm a bit of a perfectionist). On the other hand, I am also more likely be put in positions where the direction is vague and where I'm more likely to compromise or make exceptions.

One of my goals was to read at least 10 books this year - that's not very difficult, but 2009 was not a good year for book reading for me (although I did read hundreds of news articles). In fact, I think I read and finished one... yes... just one... easy reading book last year (Marley & Me). This year I'm on my third book already. So far, I've read Sway, Freakonomics, and, currently, Lies My Teacher Told Me. Social psychology, economics, and historical sociology - bam, bam, and bam. I'm feeling more intellectual already. ;)

One of my other goals was to try to write in my blog at least twice a month. This is not only to help me be more reflective, but to also log memories that I don't want to forget. This will help me, of course, in the future as my memory grows feeble and I begin to lose track of non sequitur topics to ramble to my grandchildren or any other unfortunate young'n that stumbles upon me (because I will most likely trip them with my cane to get their attention).

Now, onward to the logging part of this blogging session.

I'm so very thankful that I was able to go back to the USA for Christmas and New Year's Day; I had a great time. It was very nice to see my family and meet some of my friends, though I didn't have time to meet everyone I wanted to see, unfortunately.



I got to Incheon Airport ... a bit late. After I got on the plane, I pretty much slept the entire time. When I got to JFK Airport in NYC, I met with my high school friend Laura, who really has so much kindness; I couldn't help be impressed with how she was willing to meet me at the airport and go to Philadelphia with me - and pay for everything. It didn't turn out that way, but I appreciated the intention. There was a major snowstorm that shut down many (if not all) buses out of NYC, so I ended up hopping on an Amtrak train and watching the snow accumulate through the window as we rode from station to station.



After I got home, I joined my family in some last minute Christmas shopping.

One of the things that struck me, in terms of readjusting, was that I kept handing my credit card with both my hands, which was so awkward. That took a few days to shake.

Other than Christmas shopping, I just meandered around my parents' house, watching TV, eating, playing video games (particularly Halo ODST and Dynasty Warriors with my youngest brother ... and dad at one point), unpacking, and so on for a few days before Christmas. Oh and church, of course. It was really nice to see everyone at church again, but it really didn't feel like I was away for very long. The routine was the same. It was as if I had left and everything was preserved the way I had left it. I was really happy to see my grandmother - she's the one person I worry most about in terms of her well-being.

Christmas was perfect because it was exactly as it always was. My whole family woke up and opened presents in the morning; then we went to visit my grandmother (and my aunt and uncle) and exchange presents; then we went to see a movie ("Avatar," in this case).

Sunday evening, I went to the Poconos with my family to go snowboarding for 3 days. That was also great, since our whole family went together. I was pretty happy that I didn't lose all my snowboarding ability, but I ended up falling a good deal on our last day - this was most likely because it was rather crowded on Thursday. As it got darker and there were less people on the slopes, I stopped falling as much and even practiced a few pathetic little jumps... or little tiny hops.



Then it was New Year's Eve and I got to play 윳노리 (Yutnori) for the first time in my life. It was really fun, but more so how everyone, from the toddlers to the grandparents, were able to really get into it and have a good time. We were so into it, that we almost didn't want to stop for the actual church service.

The church service itself was pretty short, but we ended up going over time, as usual, because of one testimony of an older church member who survived some very serious health problems these past couple of years. After giving him a very generous amount of time to speak, his wife began telling him to stop talking and sit back down. He reminded me of my grandfather as he continued to add to his speech by saying things like, "And in conclusion I have 2 things to say.... and my 3rd point is... and in summary... and finally... and for my last point... which brings me to my conclusion..." I wonder if all Korean grandfathers are like that, sometimes.

New Year's Day was spent with my grandmother and her children's families. We ate rice-cake soup and watched a bit of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." My grandmother and aunt-in-law didn't like it so much. Traditionally, we all bow to my grandparents and wish them a blessed new year, but my grandmother has asked that we forgo that tradition, because my grandfather isn't there with her, for a couple years now.

After that, I realized I only had about a week left. Within that week I played Modern Warfare 2 (which didn't disappoint me), started repacking my things, ate lunch with my 숙모들 (Hee-sun-suk-mo and Jenny-suk-mo) in the University City area, met with Amaris and got to eat at and see the redesigned Comcast center in center city with the new high tech visual arts wall, ate lunch with 장집사님 and Jessica in South Philly, shopped on Walnut and Chesnut streets, went to Naked Chocolate, met with Eddie, Stephanie, Danny, Chi, and Jessica for dinner at David's Mai La Wah (yum yum), and rock climbed at Go Vertical with my dear sisters, only taking a break to eat at my favorite restaurant in Chinatown which I call "Choo Choo train restaurant" (but is actually called Xe Lua).



I left home Sunday afternoon and caught the 12:50 am flight out from JFK. Although I was second in line, I ended up losing my window seat to a "Morning Calm" flier and got a middle middle seat between two young U.S. army kids. One was a pretty cool gal who slept almost the whole way there. The other guy was upset because he had to sit next to an older Chinese man with unkempt hair and a bit of body odor. I concluded the guy hadn't ever been on an international flight before because he kept asking questions about the food, how to use the video screen, if red wine was a delicacy (??), and other such things. Then he asked if he could just stay on the plane and go back to the US. Fortunately, both of them were very nice and polite, but it was my first time being in a middle seat for an international flight and I was very uncomfortable.

Nonetheless, arriving at Incheon and getting back home to Seoul was trouble free.

Then, today being Saturday, Thursday night my electricity went out in the front and kitchen area of my place. I just got my electricity back, but my refrigerator is still out of commission until Samsung takes a look at their fine under-a-year-old product and fixes it on Monday. It being safely below freezing in Seoul, I put my milk and eggs outside.

While writing this post, I remembered that I never blogged about my first flight here (which was my very first international flight ever). *That* was such an awesome experience. I'll have to post about it later, even though it's almost a year since then.

Almost a year. Can you believe it? Time just flew by. I'm anxious and excited for what this new year will bring!