Friday, August 7, 2009

My favorite Korean Food

It's called Kimchi Mandu and my cravings for it are extreme. The mandu part is rubbery, soft, and warm. The Kimchi is hot, spicy, and lingers linger lingers on your tongue.

How to Do a Birthday

Step #1. Open your eyes

Step #2. Find a mirror. Discover(with delight and a happy dance) that being twenty-three does not automatically equal crow's feet and smile lines.

Step#3. Realize with glee that you're celebrating your birthday in the far East and decide(randomly) to spend an entire day doing whatever it is you want to do most.

Step #4. Treat yourself to a wonderful Western breakfast that consists of warm and fresh crossiants and a cafe latte.

Step# 5. Go to Seoul(one of the greatest cities on the planet) and meet up with one of your most favorite expat friends.

Step#6. Locate Seoul Art Center and check out a traveling show put on by one of your favorite photographers(Terry Richardson). Hold breathe for an entire minute while you take in your favorite photo of all time(in this case the infamous kiss between Batman and Robin).

Step #7. Hike up Seoul hill for an awesome panoramic. Make favorite expat friend pose for photos with random Korean hikers. Go check out famous temple. Get the giggles during Budhist prayer and incur the wraith of everyone surrounding you.

Step #8. Have a greek salad, glass of Chardonay, and piece of cheesecake at the Louis Vuitton flagship store. See Lady Gaga in the flesh. Admire her interesting cone dress and purple hair bow.

Step#9. Go shopping and buy a new outfit that you can't really afford but feel you deserve.

Step #10. Go back to Incheon and get a call from one of your nearest and dearest.

Step #11. Surprise dinner with twelve expat friends at a great Indian food place. Devour Naan bread, chicken salad, and mint chutney.

Step 12. Have a few drinks in the bustling downtown area and then head home for a deep twelve hour sleep

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Pro Soccer

Korean Pro Soccer=Even more boring than Korean Pro baseball!

Who would have thought?

On the plus side, the stadium sells some amazing snacks.

Brandon's Band is Releasing an EP!


I say it in the title.


I love Milks and Rectangles and am a little sad that I can't be a rectanglette/Roadie(I think I just invented a word) for the band this August when they tour their upcoming EP release Civic Virtues.


The credit for this awesomem photo goes to my enormously talented friend Patrick Callbeck.


Tripping the Light Fantastic


I was lucky enough to witness the longest solar eclipse of the century yesterday.



It partially blacked out the sun for about six minutes. Wikipedia had led me to the believe that the smog and pollution in Incheon would prevent those living in this industrial city from seeing it at all, but, as it turns out, wikipedia had led me astray again. My school passed out wax paper to the students and teachers and we were taken outside to spend a few minutes staring at the sky.


The eclipse started in India and moved east over China before it cast it shadows over Japan and South Korea; it ended in Hawaii and peaked at twenty percent. Scientists(according to the BBC) said that it was the first time in the history of the world that so many people witnessed a solar eclipse.


It was kind of surreal.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Bloggin Blahs

I haven't been blogging. Obviously.

A couple of weeks ago, the gang(there are about twelve of us who hang out on a regular basis) got together to watch a baseball game and a debate about the nature of blogging broke out. One side of the group thought blogging was a great way to keep in touch with those back home, that it kept our lazy minds sharp, and that it would serve as a good record of our adventures. The other side argued that it was self indulgant and vain. I didn't pick a side and just felt gulty about keeping a blog instead. I have also been plagued with those "what am I going to do with my life?" worries, have been doubting my writing skills, and I managed to get an SD chip caught in my lousy joke of a laptop which means that I can't upload my photos onto my computer.

My apologies to everyone who reads this on a regular basis and who have felt disappointed by my blogging laziness.

Here's an update on my activites.
-The embargo I love to complain about has finally been lifted and now, due to various random weird circumstances, I'm travelling to the Phillipines for a week in August instead of China as was orginally planned. I am wickedly excited. I'm flying to Manila on August 8th!

-Teaching has become my one true love. I know there are no jobs in Canada in this field so I'm not going to pursue it, but I'm enjoying it more than any job I've ever had.

-I went to a mud festival in Boreyang last weekend. We coated ourselves with healing mud and swam in the ocean for hours. That night, there was an amazing fireworks display set to music and the skies opened up and poured(moonsooned) rain on us. It was awesome.

-This weekend I pubcrawled with friends on Friday, went hiking and shopping with Sharon on Saturday, and enjoyed an excellent raw seafood buffet today.

Here's an Update on How I've Been Feeling

-Tired. The heat makes it impossible to get anything close to a decent rest.

-Worried. I was hoping the Korea would shed some light on the ever present question of what I should do next. It hasn't. I still have no idea where my talents(if they exist) lie. The question that always dogs me is whether or not I should do something that I enjoy(but makes next to no money), or if I should go back to school, get my masters, and attempt to find a legitmate job(law, library science??) that earns a decent wage. I like writing. I really enjoy taking pictures. I love traveling. There aren't many jobs that combine these three things. I'm also not talented at any of these things. It really really hurts to be bad at the things you love doing.

-Excited. There's always something to do in Korea. If I'm not hiking, traveling to a festival, camping, or sightseeing than I'm at a baseball game or friend's house relaxing with the best group of people I could imagine. I'm always looking forward to something and it's nice to have that kind of anticpation in my life.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Books, Quakes, and Rain

It's rained all week and I've caught up on my reading. I finished Love in the Time of Chlorea and The God Delusion this week. Both were kind of depressing which made them perfect cloudy dark weather reads. Next I'm going to tackle Enders Game, which seems like the opposite of a sunny day beach read.

Anyone else try to match books to the weather?

There was a small earthquake here yesterday. I felt the ground tremble a little as I walked into school. Three girls on the playground stopped playing jump rope and looked at me, and I shrugged, I didn't really know what was going on. My co-teacher told me it was a small tremour(barely even on the richter scale) when I walked into the staff room. It was kind of exciting. and I spent hours yesterday researching earthquakes on the internet.

What would be a good eathquake read?