My sister is in Korea!

My spinach sprouted just in time for my sister!

I'm very excited, but much too busy. The school year is beginning, I've taken on a few new opportunities to learn, exercise, teach, etc. However, most of my excitement is due to my sister being here in Korea with me for the month.

Incheon Airport

She arrived Friday night, safe and sound, but without her luggage. It didn't make it onto her plane during a transfer at San Francisco. After making some calls to figure out how to get her luggage safely delivered back into her hands (and a little salad and yuja-soda), we made our way back to my new apartment.

Mini living room

Saturday, after walking to Han river, checking out the traditional-style market, visiting Daiso, and eating lunch at 김밥천국 (Kimbap Cheonguk, a.k.a. "Kimbap Heaven"), we traveled across Seoul to Olympic Park, where she got to walk around and try to combat jet lag.

Very delicious albap at  김밥천국  .

That night, we met our family friend for some bulgogi, which was delicious (and probably the biggest meal I've had in a while). Around 11pm, her luggage was delivered to our door. Everything was intact, save one packet of instant oatmeal that had gradually, almost deliberately, slow-motion exploded so that little oats were sprinkled through every fold of clothing and corners of fabric. We also found TSA pamplets, so whether the oatmeal packet rip was a result of careless packing or of careless bag rummaging, we will never know.

A cafe right by Dongguk University subway Station.

Sunday morning, we walked again to the Han river, and then my sister went on a short run, while I prepared for the day. We then hiked up Namsan, mostly along Namsan Fortress, and then walked back down to the Myungdong area, where we had a late lunch.

Namsan fortress wall

Bibimbap

Afterwards, we went to church and then headed to a kpop dance class, but not before picking up a couple delicious muffins.

Yum. One fruity, one chocolaty

After learning the final part to Lollipop, by Big Bang and 2ne1, we were beat. I think we just barely stayed awake long enough to grab a small snack before falling asleep. Next week, we're going to start learning Lovey Dovey, by T-ara:

Monday (today), my sister made me a quick breakfast (I love her~), and went to work with me. Afterwards, we went to Dongdaemun, where we browsed knitting supplies, but were soon overwhelmed by the maze of yarn and fabric.

We got a little lost, actually...

Finally, after reaching home, and falling asleep on the subway, we got home and my sister just crashed. I think I will soon be heading to sleep as well.

My spinach is growing fast. (and my sister's TSA leaflets)

It's been a busy February and March, so far, but in good ways. :)

The Liars Club

“Sure the world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild...” 
― Mary Karr, The Liars' Club

I should have started my February 16th post with this quote. :) It's so true.

I'm thinking of using this book in one of my classes this semester. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

A work get together. And yes, my hair is artificially wavy now.

Shleeeeeep

(I'm experimenting with my new phone... I hope this blog entry turns out OK.)

I downloaded an app for my phone called "SleepBot." I was hoping that it would help me improve my sleeping habits, but so far it's been more successful simply showing me how erratic my sleeping habits really are. Here's one if the graphs it provides:



According to SleepBot, I currently have 7.3 hours of sleep debt. "Knowing is half the battle," right? So, now that I know... I have to exercise self discipline and actually make things right.

On another note, it was my grandmother's 90th birthday the other day. She's an amazing, strong willed, musically talented, old school matriarch of the family.



Happy birthday, 할머니 ~ ♡

posted from Bloggeroid

This just in: new smartphones are a major source of sleep deprivation!

I got a new cell phone:

Isn't it pretty?

I've been mulling over getting a smartphone for a while. For some reason, I use my phone a *lot.* It's the only downside to having some really awesome friends. So, for around the same cost as my old-fashioned flip phone, which I've had for three years now, I decided to finally join the legions of smartphone users.

Hyunji helped me get the phone, and we made the salesman quite nervous by talking in solemn tones in English, a little too quickly for him to understand what we were saying. In the end, he interrupted us about 4 times to give us more reasons why we should make the purchase, threw in three free protective covers, and gave us a little bit of money back for the insurance we were required to subscribe to for the first two months. After he left to transfer the data from my old phone to my new one, Hyunji implored that I put everything in my bag, just in case he changed his mind.

I ended up getting an HTC EVO, which was considerably cheaper than a Galaxy, and while I've admired other people's iPhones, I prefer Android over Apple. I'm still in that stage where I'm sort of obsessed with my phone (since I pretty much got it just a little over 24 hours ago). This bodes very badly for my focus when it comes to packing up my stuff, since I'm moving in about 13 hours.

I like this logo. I would also like to be quietly brilliant. :)

HTC EVO 4G+

I also liked this little bit.

I downloaded a free sleep management app, but I think my sleep debt tonight would just be depressing to calculate...

Lisa and I caught in a sleep deprivation time warp.

A feature that is very reassuring while simultaneously creepy is the phone tracking app. I decided to test this while visiting my friend Sunny's hair salon in Myeongdong (called Atelier). And it is eerily accurate. That is exactly where I was (and where the talented Sunny works - go get your haircut there; it's a little on the pricey side, but everyone who I've taken there has been very satisfied with their cut and style). 

Why hello there, Gloria's phone.

The same day I went to Dr. Robbin's, which is a health-conscious restaurant. I've had sweet pumpkin (dan ho-bak) soup before, but the one served here was heavenly. We ended up digging up almost all of the pumpkin that was left because we enjoyed it so much.

It promised of no MSG, no added sugars, and the like. I definitely recommend this place. There's one in Myeongdong, but there are several others throughout Seoul.

Seeing goodness is oh so good

It's sort of a small thing, but it's a rather large thing too. I'm just really glad to have such solidly good people around me. Sometimes, I don't realize how awesome someone is until we get into a really difficult situation, and then they shine. It's always so encouraging to see the goodness in people. It makes life inspiring and people worth investing in.

I've been so discouraged sometimes by people who seem great, then hit a rough patch and revert into some past childhood self or, worse, transform into monsters. However, I keep having to remind myself that those people have been few and far between when it comes to people whom I've been close with; I have no reason to expect that behavior from anyone other than a fearful way of keeping myself from getting hurt.

On the other hand, there are plenty of strange people around, but strange isn't bad (though sometimes it can be). I'm rather strange myself sometimes.

Here are some pictures from the snow festival. It was pretty cool... or rather cold, whichever. (Har har.) Click on the pictures for larger versions. :)

 I'm thankful for good friends, for a warm place to sleep, for "duyu," for my new apartment, for getting a lot cleaned up in my office, for knitting buddies, for Starcraft II (and getting a Korean account that works!), for Wii bangs, for leggings under my jeans that keep me warm, for my family, for positive and warm people in my life (including those good friends and family), for time, for ear plugs, and for being loved.

Knittin' and watchin' my stories

I had some really delicious green tea bingsu today, but was also very pleasantly delighted by a chocolate banana mochi I shared with Lisa. It was cold, so the taste slowly spread across my taste buds. While we were shivering after eating bingsu and mochi right before heading back out into the wintery weather, we both were convinced that losing a little bit of body heat was worth the delectable quality of our desserts. 

Now, I'm sitting here in my apartment watching Law and Order: SVU ... and knitting. Yes. Knitting.

I'm just practicing now. I've learned how to do the two most common and basic stitches from Missy, a very kind and down-to-earth coworker, but I may be doing them incorrectly already. My yarn is getting worn out from me knitting, unraveling, knitting, unraveling, knitting, unraveling, and knitting again. Then again, I just started learning yesterday.

I'm hoping that at one point, I'll be good enough so that I can contribute to projects like this one:

In the meantime, I'm going to amuse myself by feeling like a grandmother, knitting and watchin' her stories.

P.S. Any of you that have smartphones (and the correct app), could you try scanning this and let me know if it brings you to my blog? 

Is this for my blog?

Thank you! :)

New Apartment

I'm moving! (See http://gogloh.blogspot.com/2010/02/apartments-birds-and-burritos.html for my previous Korean apartment hunting experience.)

After some running around, I finally found a place to stay for the next year or so. Finding a good apartment takes a lot of work, on the most part, no matter where you live. I spent about six hours running around on Monday, as a start.

First, I looked around HBC (Haebongcheon) area, close to Noksapyeong station. It's an area that used to be quite dangerous, but is slowly improving. It's about a 10 minute or more walk from the subway station. There is more space there, since the rent is cheaper, but the buildings are generally older and not very clean. There are also a lot hilly areas, so many places are actually quite dangerous to walk to in the winter. If someone has a good roommate in mind, it's not a terrible place to live, especially on a limited budget. There are a lot of non-Koreans who move into that area, so there is a reputation of people who live there being more comfortable around other English speakers and never exploring other parts of Seoul. The real estate person I talked with was Gilbert from nearsubway.com, and he was very friendly and helpful. However, I didn't like any of the places he showed me, save one that was a bit too far up a narrow alley way on a hill and too expensive for just one person.

Secondly, I looked around my current area. It's somewhat close to HyoChang Park Station, and I love this area. It's very central, but quiet. It's an older neighborhood, so there are a lot of families and less commercial establishments. Plus, the park is lovely. It's got frogs in the summer, birds year round, exercise areas, places for badminton and basketball, and little bathrooms that start playing music when you enter them. The places around here are mostly for students, so are studio apartments on the most part. If you want something more roomy, there are some gems, if you don't mind a few quirky details. For example, I saw a place that was very spacious, had a huge bedroom with build in storage space across one entire wall, a kitchen in the hallway, and then a small hallway from the kitchen that led to a tiny bathroom. The small hallway had a window into the bedroom. The rent was very cheap, and the space was a bit wacky, but also quite nice in a unique way. Other than that, there was one great studio apartment that was beautiful. It was small, but it had a sliding door between the tiny kitchen and the bedroom. The wallpaper was festive (and a little sparkly...). It came with a very nice desk and a flat screen TV. Oh my! I was tempted by the TV, but I'm moving out of a studio apartment now, and couldn't handle being in a cramped space for another year or two. The real estate people I talked with was from Onnuri BuDongSan. Another thing I love about this area is that it's filled with very kind people, and the real estate people were no exception. They are located two steps outside of exit 2 of the subway station.

The third place I looked around was around Mangwon Station. I was hoping that being a little further out would make it easier to find more space, but alas, my initial search turned up nothing in particular. I went to ShinHan BuDongSanand albeit it was the end of the day and I'm certain it is hard not to get grumpy, but one of the woman there got quite an attitude. She was friendly at first, and asked my family friend how she and I were related, so my family friend said, in a curt manner, that it wasn't really of her concern. Then the woman became very rude and began talking over my family friend and ignoring her. It was a bit uncomfortable. The other woman there took over and tried to smooth things over by showing us some other available spaces. We looked at some studio apartments, but they were all still pretty small for the same or more than I'm paying now. There was one apartment that was on the top floor of the building next to the market, which would have been awesome. The market near Mangwon is a traditional style market, like Namdaemun, where people sell all sort of things, particularly fresh foods, for very reasonable prices. We found another real estate office (MT BuDongSan) and the woman there was very calm and kind, but only showed us some really expensive places. The area she showed us was quiet and peaceful, but above my price range. Third try of the third place was a BuDongSan called "OoRiJip" which means "our house." There was a really extremely pleasant man there, who found us a very nice one bedroom place one block away from the market. It had one room and a kitchen area next to the bathroom, then an open room, which leads into the kitchen. I was quite excited. It was a little bit higher than I wanted to pay, but the space was new, clean, and the location was phenomenal.

However, the next morning, he called to explain that he tried to ask the owner of the building to lower the rent price, and she, in spite, raised the deposit amount and the rent. But he offered to show us some other places. So, after looking around HyoChang area once more, I went to meet Mr. Lee. who showed us two more apartments, both loft apartments. The first one was extremely close to MapoGu Office Station, but was down a bit of a shady looking alleyway. The apartment was made for single businessmen, but not my style. The refrigerator was tiny and the washing machine would have to be bought and placed in a room down the hallway. Supposedly, the men that lived there generally didn't use washing machines and just paid for dry cleaning, so even the one was already out in the hallway wasn't used much. I went with another church friend this time, and her kid was so cute here. He loved the loft area, as it was just his size. The ceiling was approximately 1.5 or 2 inches from his head. The kid asked his mother if they could get the place. Finally, Mr. Lee connected us with Smile BuDongSan which had another loft apartment to show us. We all went to visit another building, about 10 minutes from the subway station, but the apartment was wonderful. It had a kitchen area with a table between the kitchen and the small living room area. The loft is tall enough that people can stand in it. And the rent price was lower than the other loft apartment. I'm really excited about this place.

Another good thing about apartment hunting was that I got a pretty good extended light exercise, walking around everywhere. :) I'll have to post pictures later, once I've moved in.

Ahjusshi advice countdown

I had a very delightful and chilly time at a snow festival today. Hopefully, I will also be ice skating tomorrow. :)

On an almost completely non sequitur, I was thinking about advice given to me by various ahjusshi's I've randomly met in Korea, most of them being cab drivers. (Ahjusshi means older man, usually middle aged or a bit older.) I'll try to list at least most of them below. The following are not necessarily my own opinions, but are the opinions of random ahjusshi's.

10) Find a good Korean man and settle down in Korea.

9) Learn more Korean language.

8) Go hiking.

7) If you know a better route, tell the taxi driver before he/she starts heading his/her own way.

6) Certain Korean politicians are evil/bad/crazy/self-serving/wrong.

5) Meet my son; he's a good boy.

4) Get married soon.

3) Don't put too much weight on status and money. Young Korean women nowadays overlook good, hardworking, devoted men because they don't have money. People earn money, and a good man will make sure he provides. A rich man may have money, but he may lack everything else.

2) When learning Korean geography, start with mountains. Rivers always come from mountains, so once you know the mountains, you can find the major rivers. Major rivers all have major cities along them. That's how you can learn Korean geography.

1) Food is important in marriage. When you find a man, make sure you both like the same foods. When you share a meal together, it's important that you both enjoy the meal. If you don't match, one person will always be left feeling dissatisfied. It seems like it's a small thing, but sharing a meal together is an important part of being married and can become a burden when it should be a joy.

I'm thankful for time, courage, beauty, strangers, friendship, kindness, hope, and hot-packs.

Being productive isn't always easy...

Today... I... played Dragons of Atlantis instead of being productive, but to make myself feel better, I'll make a list of things I did do today:

1) I bought my dad a birthday present.
2) I helped a couple coworkers out with little favors.
3) I found out my sister is coming to visit me. (So excited! I just can't hide it!)
4) Scheduled some time to see some good friends this weekend.
5) E-mailed (and texted) a few realtors.
6) Brought a few things over from my apartment to my office (but will finish those things later).
7) Made my first smoothie on Korean soil. (Yogurt, milk, 2 baby bananas, raspberries, and mangos.)
8) I found out that US Customs broke open my bag to check it and left my lock broken.
9) I signed up for a few groups on meetup.com. =D
10) I looked over my good friend's resume.
11) I woke up super early.
12) I chatted with a couple of great people on the phone.
13) I found my old officemate's little gift for me. =D (I <3 Korean pear juice)
14) I am doing laundry.
15) Delivered some letters.

Uh... I know I must have done something else.....

I'm very excited that my sister is coming, but a little nervous about getting a good apartment. I was hoping to see a loft style apartment today, but it was snatched up before I even got to see the place. In any case, I am hoping things will work out well. I have a few more things I want to get done, but am just enjoying my free time a little too much.

I do very much miss being in the US. I think I will always feel a bit down after coming back from being with my family and friends. Korea is a great, fun, busy place, but I feel isolated somehow. Back in the US, I'm always close by to someone very dear to me, and I like that. Here, I am surrounded by people, but feel so far from my loved ones, even if a few of them are here in Korea with me. I don't quite understand it.

Oh yeah... 16) I wrote on my blog.

I'm so thankful that my apartment is warm, that my sister will be here in less than a month, that I have such great friends, that I had a smoothie today, and that I was happy pretty much all of today. :) 2012 will be awesome.

To Do in 2012

I'm finally back with my family, after stopping by Vancouver and New York to see some lovely friends of mine.

I had a tough time for a good part of this past year, but I'm thankful that I have this nest to come back to. My family loves me, and while I sometimes have my complaints, I cannot deny that my parents are generous in welcoming me back and making me feel like this is home.

Two years ago, I made a list of goals for the year, but kept them private, as I tend not to really follow To Do lists as well as I used to... and would rather not post them up for everyone to see... but I'll try posting some up to motivate me to at least try to get them done.

I want to learn new things this year:

Maybe http://lifehacker.com/5872682/learn-to-code-in-2012-with-free-weekly-programming-lessons-from-codecademy (more coding)? I taught myself html and very basic css a long time ago. I did well in my compsci101 class, but mostly because I figured things out in the labs (rather than the lectures).

Or a new language, like German or Chinese.

Perhaps I could sign up for online classes and start taking classes in something that would or could be useful in the future, like accounting or TESOL.

Perhaps I can learn to box.

I want to relearn/polish/continue skills I have learned or already have:

I could start sketching and perhaps painting again.

I already have a computer program to learn the Japanese language, which I have already studied. Perhaps I can do the same for Spanish, afterwards.

I want to swim, rock climb, snowboard, play tennis, ice skate or do taekwondo again.

I want to bake and cook things I love at least occasionally.

I want to read more:

I already read a lot of articles online, but I mean books, novels... long form prose.

I seem to be doing a sort of every other year commitment to reading. I'll read voraciously one year, but somehow forget the pleasures of it the next.

I want to be organized:

I have things I want to do, but sometimes it's hard finding the motivation to do them. Keeping things simple, clean, and easy to find/understand/achieve definitely helps with that.

I want to write more:

Letters to friends, in my blog, in my prayer journal, academic essays... anything really. I love writing, but I want to write about things I'm thankful for, things I really care about, things that entice my intellect, things that move me forward, things that give me hope.

I want to find joy every day:

I had a goal to write 3 things I was thankful for every day a couple years ago, and I want to start that up again. Looking at the world with gratefulness, seeing beauty in the little things, and making a habit of that really changed my life in the past, but I let that slip away. Life can get really stressful, messy, painful, ugly - but in all things there is hope, love, beauty, wonder. I want to make sure I don't forget all the things I'm so blessed with, and find joy in living, in the people around me, in details, in the moment, in eternity.

... I'm sure I have other things to add to this, but as a start... this is it. :)

It's 4 in the morning, so I'll have to excuse myself and get to sleep... Getting enough sleep at least most nights should also be one of my goals. :) Sleep is so good.