seoul trip #???

ewha women's university in seoul.

finally an update right? i know...i've been slacking because of everything that's been happening lately. i could seriously write my own korean drama by the time this month is over. hahha anyway...seoul was great. had street vendor food for the first time. mmm... :)

black day

so there are 3 traditions that i know about thus far in korea, it being such a relationship oriented country i wouldn't be surprised. you're like a leper if you're not in one. but anyway...of course 2/14 - valentine's day, 3/14 - white day, and now i learned about 4/14 - black day.

so just like in japan, vday is the time when girls give the guys they like chocolate. on white day, if the guy accepts the girl's chocolate (love) then he'll give her chocolates/candy back, finally on black day 4/14 the ones who didn't receive anything on 2/14, 3/14 will go and eat chajunmyeun (which is a black food) and wear all black that day.

so the question is...who did i give chocolates to on vday....dun dun dun. is this the story i am going to tell? heh...first i'll tell you my korean name. they use chinese characters here too so they've just pronounced my chinese characters in korean. anyway...my korean name is: 손여종 (son yeo jeong) so they call me yeo jeong-i :P i gave chocolates to 4 guys on vday. one of which was married. oh shame on me :P but the question is...why isn't he spending it with his wife?!?! lol but i gave the chocolate to them all at the same time i didn't want anyone to feel left out. this single awareness day is probably one of the most memorable ones. i had an apt. party and 4 guys came over to drink soju and eat after work. (they're all musicians...too bad only one is good looking) i should have just drank only soju...i mixed it drank beer and wine too. my stomach beat the crap out of me later.

so let me tell you a little about my week. it started sunday with a casual invite out to drink. i went and 3 of the 4 that were at the party went on sunday. that's actually how the party got started in the first place. 2 restaurant bars, 1 live music lounge, and karaoke bar. somewhere in those 4 places i had agreed to have an apartment party. today we're going snowboarding with the same gang and some other students. it should be interesting. to say the least. that's all. everything else shall remain in korea until i sort things out. korean men can cause so much drama. i thought i'd learned from berkeley. apparently drama just seeks me out.

crazy week

i have a story to tell...but not sure if i should share. i'll think about it.

it's like vegas

whatever happens here stays here?

sleep through the static

"all at once the world can overwhelm me

there's almost nothing you can tell me
that could ease my mind"

i spent my week doing not much of anything. it gave me a lot of time to think about what i wanted to do next. i hung out with a couple of friends, drank pineapple soju, and made the best of the vacation. as much as i enjoy my time here, i always miss my life back home. being out here is exciting, i get to see new things, and i never know what to expect. whether it's new food, new people, or new places to see. novelty is great, but i miss familiarity as well. i was really proud of myself the other night because in my 2 cab rides, both times they tried to have conversations with me. and i managed to hold my own basic conversation in korean. i mean i'm sure i didn't use everything properly in full sentences, but they understood me without body language! i mean little things like this make this experience worth it, but many times i feel lonely. there's not many people i can relate to out here, so i choose to spend much of the time by myself. i thought my puppy would make my life better, but i think i'm just not ready to take care of something else. i can barely take care of myself! being out here in a different country, it was the right thing to do because in 2 months i've grown in more ways than i've ever had just living with all the comforts california has to offer.

"we keep asking ourselves
are we really strong enough?
they're so many thing
that we got too proud of"

i came out here to figure out what i wanted to do with my life, but i think i'm more confused than ever. teaching is a lot of fun, and i can see myself doing that for awhile but where does it get me? california public school with white administrators and politics up the wazzoooo? (i have nothing against white people except that sometimes they have a tendency to think they own everything, not you though ms. wenger :P) that's not the life i want. however, maybe taiwan will be a good experience for me. i really want to try that after. i think that's my short term plan, keep my eyes on the road in front of me and wait to see what fork in the road i'll run into later.

"which way will you run
when it's all around you
and the feeling lost and found you again
a feeling that we have no control"

people often asked me why i chose to come to korea. and i told them the truth, i didn't want anyone else's opinion, thoughts, or even existence to affect my life in anyway. because it is my life and i should choose how i want to live it. however...many times when i do feel helpless there is no one there. but i chose this life and i like that i have no one to depend on so that i don't use it as a crutch. i want to be able to stand on my own two feet at all times. but it does get tiring, watching the world go by alone.

"there's a world we've never seen
there's still hope between the dreams
the weight of it all
could blow away with a breeze
if your waitin' on the wind
don't forget to breathe"
-All at Once (Jack Johnson)

ebay crazy

because posters are awesome and i am a slave to spending ridiculous amounts of money on things that aren't useful :) here are the four posters i bought on ebay today:

New Year's Vacation

every year for 22 years, i've celebrated Chinese New Year. I've always called it Chinese New Year. This year...i have to call it Lunar New Year. And I do not get red envelopes with money for good fortune to put under my pillow :'( But I did get paid before the break so WHEE!!! money money money to spend! lol of course i also have plenty to put away into the bank as well.

for the past week, my head has been hurting. when i bend down to pick something up the blood rushes to one part of my head and starts to throb and hurt. my director wants to take me to the doctor but i refused. i figure it's just from stress. i'll rest up this vacation and hope that things will be better in the "new year" to come.

music theory

i've learned 6 patterns of finger exercises for guitar. some of them are BLOODY HARD! and i had my first lesson on guitar music theory today. damn it...i hate music theory when i was learning piano...and i still hate it now. blahhh but oh well...time to go to work.

ringo's first bath

she had her shots yesterday and today i gave her a bath. poor thing hated the blow dryer. i clean up the apt. again today. keeping her in the spare bedroom from now on. no more sleeping in my bedroom, it's clean and smells nice again. i also got a desk lamp so i don't have to get up to turn off the light anymore. i've moved my computer to the porch/balcony thing and have set up a desk space with my kitchen table. it's cold out here but at least my dog won't chew on my internet cord anymore. anyway...pretty uneventful weekend, didn't do much. didn't even go to seoul.

xkcd webcomics

lol...the sad truth of the blogging world...i couldn't help but find this hilarious.