Catching up

Goodness, it's been a while since I last posted. I see that my last post was about the hot rainy season, and now Korea has tilted a little bit further from the sun, the leaves have turned fiery shades of red and yellow, and the scarves and winter coats are coming out... I should at least make 1 post per season, right?

Actually I only meant to take a *very brief* hiatus from posting. I told myself I would NOT ALLOW myself to make any blog or Flickr posts until I got off my lazy butt and updated my online portfolio, which I hadn't touched in 2 years. Then the updating turned into a full-scale redesign, with me trying to hack through a Wordpress theme and teach myself CSS at the same time. The website is done (sorta) but I've concluded that I'm no longer a fan of Wordpress and I've been toying with the idea of doing it all over again with Expression Engine. Yet I haven't been able to bring myself to look at any code for a month. There's a reason why I'm not a programmer, it's cuz lines of code makes me fall asleep.

Getting myself to do things that I know I should do but don't want to do is a fine art. Lately I've tricked myself into exercising thusly: No playing with the Nintendo DS unless I'm doing situps at the same time. It's actually kind of worked as intended: I'm playing the DS less, certainly.

Recently I had the ghastly thought that what if, one day, I look back on my time in Korea and it's just some kind of hazy memory, kind of like college is for me now? So now, for my own sake if no one else's, a brief recap of what happened over the past few months:

> We went to New York to see family. Twice. There were some family issues to deal with.
> We also went up to Maine to see Gavin's family. Twice. I walked through my first corn maze.
> I smuggled some yummy cheese back to Seoul. And sausages (shhh).
> We had two wine and cheese parties. Almost done with the cheese now.
> We went to Jeju Island and got stuck in a typhoon.
> We bought folding bikes. Gavin has a black Strada, I have a red MacKinley.
> In freelancing news, I finished a website, started another one, and bid on a few more jobs and didn't get 'em... In between, there were some postcards, web banners, and other little jobs of varying levels of interestingness.
> My logo got shortlisted for Tokyo Design Week's Love Your Earth competition. ^^
> A dear friend moved to Singapore. (*sigh, expat life... always saying goodbye...)
> I joined Facebook. I suck at Scrabulous. I realized I don't have that many friends compared to some folks. But I have good ones :-)
> Seeing as how degrees are a big deal in Korea, I contemplated actually getting my Master's by finally finishing my thesis, only to discover that Pratt won't let me do my thesis off-site. Unlike other normal Masters programs. Phooey on them.
> We stayed out too late eating barbeque a few times too many. I completely screwed up my sleep schedule and digestive system for a few weeks. It is possible to jetlag yourself without leaving your own time zone.
> went through a mood swing or two, but I cured them with pastries. This time, I didn't break my phone.
> I baked some bread. I baked some pies.
> I sewed and sold a few more iPod cozies, and I am studiously procrastinating on developing cozies for the iPhone or the new fat iPod video nano.
> I've been dreaming up more things to sell on Etsy for the holidays.
> I designed some stickers for the iPod shuffle. You can buy them here.
> We went through an inexplicable spurt of listening to sappy country tunes and cracking up at the lyrics. Right now Conway Twitty's "Lying here with Linda on my Mind" is on my iTunes.
> I bought a sewing machine. I am sitting here looking at it, and it is looking at me.

Freelance projects have died down slightly (Temporarily, I hope. Anyone need a website or a brochure?), there are no immediate trips on the horizon (at least not til December), and I have a backlog of photos that have not made it to Flickr yet, so I hope I'll be better at blog-posting in the coming weeks...



If you have a good vocabulary, you can help feed people.

Sometimes, I am left brained; most of the time I am right-brained. What are you?

Kids these days....

Snacks
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

On Saturday afternoon, the doorbell rang. At first I thought it might be someone with some literature from one of the nearby churches. No matter -- usually I just tell them I don't speak Korean and they go away (not being fluent in the local language comes in handy sometimes).

Instead, it was 3 high school boys toting backpacks, a tape measure, a roll of drafting paper and a camera. After some faulty attempts at communication, I called Gavin at the office and he spoke to them. It turned out that they had an assignment at school about traditional Korean houses (하녹) and wanted to know if they could take some measurements and photos of the rooms in our house.

It occurred to me that this was something that would never happen in New York, much less anywhere else in the States. I mean, no teacher in his or her right mind would send kids knocking on strangers' doors. What if someone was abducted by a maniac? Plus a lot of Americans would consider it an invasion of privacy -- a stranger taking photos of your things, measuring your doorframes, checking out your bathroom.

Anyway, since I'm a cynical New Yorker, the first thing I thought was, "Oh. What if they're casing the joint for a burglary?"
Then, having lived in Seoul for 2 years, I thought, "But they're just high school kids. And they seem so well-mannered and sweet. I'll let them in."

They were really diligent about the project. If this were me 15 years ago, I'm sure I would have fudged the numbers a bit and gotten the heck out of there, but these kids were so serious and detail oriented. One guy measured things, the other kid drew a floor plan to-scale on a roll of drafting paper, and the third boy photographed architectural details. I really should have thought to take some photos of them too, but I forgot, and I guess that might have been awkward. I started to wish I had something in the fridge to give them. But all we had was soju and beer, which I was sure -- despite this being Korea -- would be inappropriate. I felt awful about that. I'm sure I should have given them some milk and cookies, that being the traditional American way!

I bemoaned the lack of proper food in our house to serve guests while I worked on a website design. Meanwhile they puttered around from room to room measuring, double-checking numbers and drawing. An hour flew by before I realized they were finally getting ready to leave. The spokesboy of the three came forward, searched his brain for some English phrases, then gave up and simply said, "Ah... Thank you!" before presenting me with a black plastic bag. Inside the bag were snacks! The very kind of snacks that I had been thinking I should be giving them! A box of chocolate chip cookies, some sesame seed crackers and a bottle of tea. Before I could thank them, they were bowing their way out and disappeared down the alleyway.

When I see kids here in Korea -- even high school kids -- I always think they're younger than they really are. I know they're under a tremendous amount of stress to get high grades and into good colleges, but still there's something that seems sweet and naive about them, like they don't yet know about the big bad world or the seedier sides of human nature. Even if they do, they don't seem to carry themselves with that knowing air (part arrogant, part cynical) that American teenagers learn to affect so early on. I mean, I could be completely wrong -- I'm not privy to their private conversations -- maybe they present themselves completely differently amongst their peers...

_________________

In other news,

It's getting really hot these days, and it's only going to get hotter... Lately I have been seeing these mosquitos that are seriously like the size of Buicks. I mean, they're enormous -- like a half-inch long (ok, not as big as a Buick) -- and scary. The good thing is that they move slower and are easier to spot than normal mosquitos, so once I see 'em... they're as good as dead. Splat!

I have started swimming again at a nearby pool, but normally I don't swim more than 40 laps. The reason is because I'm scared. I'm scared of the ajummas. During the daytime, the only other swimmers are middle-aged housewives -- the notorious ajummas. Sometimes they swim, but most of the time they congregate in one end of the pool chattering away, bouncing up and down and making waves with their arms (I believe that they probably think this is a form of exercise). But when they do swim, look out! They barrel down the lane with all the subtlety of a steamroller and god help you if you get in the way...! I have to become more of a defensive swimmer, but lately when the pool gets too crowded, I just get out. I'm such a wimp -- when are MY ajumma characteristics going to kick in?

Here I go again

Seems like I can't quite stay put for more than a month at a time. Leaving tomorrow for Honolulu to see my sister, my brand new niece and other related mini-people. My parents are also joining up with us there for a Pacific Ocean rendezvous. Then it's off to Hong Kong with my parents to see some relatives and eat some good Cantonese food.

For 31 years before moving to Korea, I would have characterized myself as someone who likes to stay put. But these past two years of traveling have increased my adaptability, I think, in a good way... Still, I have to say I'm often half filled with regret and nostalgia upon leaving places, just as much as I'm filled with anticipation about going somewhere new...

Here's some music that's on my iPod when travelin.

Halmoni

Last Friday, I found myself standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light, umbrella-less, under a steady and persistent drizzle, getting wetter by the second.

A halmoni (a Korean grandma) with a pink umbrella was waiting at the same crosswalk, a little ways to my left. She glanced over and we made eye contact. Then, with a quick nod, she wordlessly sidled up to me and popped her umbrella up a little higher to shield the both of us.

At first, I demurred, "괜찮아요..." (Kuenchanayo--I’m okay) but she persisted, and asked me where I was going – to the YMCA across the street, perhaps?

No, I’m going to Coffee Bean, pointing to the coffee shop a half block away.

Ah, ok, well I’ll just walk you to the other side then, since I’m going to the YMCA, is what I think she then said.

The light changed, and after brief a false start, I adjusted my pace to hers and we inched our way across the street, both hunched under the tiny pink umbrella.

She said some things – although I may not understand Korean much, I have some experience with “Grandma-speak” – about how I ought not go out without an umbrella, and probably that I was not properly dressed for the weather, and that it was good to go to the YMCA, a nice place, asking me again if I was headed to the YMCA, where she was headed. At this point I had to confess, in one of the few Korean phrases I have learned to say really well, "한국만 잘 못해요...중국사람이 에요...“Actually, I can’t speak Korean well…. I’m not Korean, I’m Chinese.” (I left out the Chinese-American part, since this seems to confuse a lot of older folks)

Ah, she said, and took a closer look at me. Chinese, really?

Yup.

"에쁘다!" (Yeppuda--you're pretty!), she exclaimed grasping my arm. Then she prattled on cheerfully in Korean for a bit more, and I responded “네” (Neh--Yes, maam) after her comments, because no matter what, that is the way one responds to grandmas, both Korean and Chinese. I had no idea what she was saying, but she exuded positive, grandmotherly vibes.

When we reached the other side, I thanked her and we parted ways. But a tiny halmoni and her pink umbrella brightened my rainy Friday.

Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined

Today was my first time going to a Hooters! Since I'd already eaten dinner, I just had the wings and some nachos. My friend's boyfriend's burger looked pretty good though. So the weird thing about the Hooter's concept in Korea is... well for one thing, the obvious lack of... "hooters," and for another... it's actually kind of a fun "family" restaurant here. Yes, the girls are scantily clad, and the ajeoshis (middle-aged married men) and salarymen that come in look like they couldn't be happier, but actually it seemed like there were more girls than guys there. I guess because real guys just go to a soju and barbeque joint and then a hostess club if they want drink and girls. Anyway, here's a picture of the Hooter's Girls line-dancing.

I spent a little time reorganizing my Flickr site. So now it's organized into "Collections" that you can browse based on whatever your interest is, if your interests and mine happen to align... I tend to write a lot of my thoughts in the descriptions on Flickr, rather than here, so I guess that makes this site kind of redundant.
Living in Korea
Travel
Food
Creations

I've been wondering what to do about this blog. I'm thinking of letting it die a slow peaceful death because I usually don't have much to say about anything that someone else isn't saying far more diligently and eloquently over on some other blog. Most of the time, if I have something to show the world, I post a photo of it up at Flickr and write a little something in the description there.

I hate to sound jaded, but I don't have a whole lot to say about "living in Korea." I guess because after two years here, I feel like I'm just.... living a more or less normal life -- Not living in a particular place, specifically, but just... you know, going about doing daily things... Things that would bore you to tears if I posted about them... Like "Today I bought a filing cabinet." Well, it wasn't really a filing cabinet, but it was the lightweight PVC filing drawer from Muji, because I can carry that home on the subway by myself. I'm attempting to make my home office look more like a ... home office.

Ok, back to sewing iPod cozies. I have to send 2 more out this week, and I made a sale to Italy!

Back in Seoul...

Had a lovely time with family in NYC, here are some pics.

Jet lag is making me feel like this puppy.
I've been getting really drowsy in the afternoons, and waking up at ungodly hours.
At 5 in the morning, I happily discovered that the little fox in my Google theme does actually go to sleep. I was a little worried because I thought foxes were nocturnal but he's just as busy as a bee all day what with fishing off the pier, orchard picking, picnics...


Random thoughts & links:

Anthony Bourdain calls natto "an unbelievably foul, rank, slimy, glutenous, and stringy goop of fermented soybeans," and up until last month I tended to agree that natto's texture makes the stuff virtually inedible. But I tried some natto wrapped in a rice/seaweed roll at the Narita Airport enroute to NYC, and the rice wrap kind of mitigated the slimy texture problem, and I discovered that I really like it. It tastes like really strong doen-jang, since it's made out of the same fermented soybean. Having turned one previous "dislike" into a "like" I'm wondering if this is the year that I'll finally try live octopus...

This is the cutest robot I've ever seen. His name is Keepon and he was developed by a PhD student at Carnegie Melon. I think I can learn some dance moves from him.

This is how words are made!

Telemarketing

(Ring Ring)

Me: Hello?

Voice: Yes, I'm Lorraine. I'm calling from the chimney cleaners. Are you the home-owner?

Me: Um, yeah.... But we don't have a chimn--

(Click. Dial Tone.)

That's kind of an odd call to receive in New York City. Who has a chimney?


On a related note, I also got this call a few times:

Voice: I'm calling because I want to offer you a great rate on car insurance. Are you 18 or older?

Me: Well, yeah. But... I don't have a car.

Voice: You're planning on buying one in the future, aren't you?

Me: I can't drive.

(Click. Dial tone.)

In Korea, when I get telemarketing calls, I just say, "죄송하다. 한국말 잘 못해요..." whereupon I promptly get the culturally-universal telemarketer response. (Click. Dial tone.)

Back in NY

I always go through a day or 2 of culture shock when I return home to New York for a visit. Ok, well maybe not a shock, but more like a mini-jolt. This includes various random observations and events like:

-Why are my floors so cold? Maybe I need to turn up the heat.
-Oh my god! They sell granola! I need to buy some now!
-Waiting for the back door of the bus to open by itself when I want to get off. Then feeling like a total tourist numskull when a stranger says, "Um, you need to push it."
-Reminding myself to say "Excuse me" when I push past people in the supermarket and the subway.
-Re-learning how to cross the street properly, which means whenever I want and wherever I want! The pedestrian is king in NY!
-Having random small-talk conversations with store cashiers, waitstaff, taxi drivers and thinking how nice it is to be able to do that -- it kind of rounds out the day pleasantly.

I'm here in NY for 6 weeks! Unfortunately I arrived at the worst possible time and place -- in the middle of a snowstorm, at Newark Airport. Getting into the city was hell, and the roads have been icy for days. But now I'm cozily encamped at my parent's house, getting pampered and stuffed with great mom-cooked food, stuffing some lai-see envelopes with dollars for the little ones, ready to celebrate the new piggy year.

Gung hay fat choy, everybody!

I'm in love...

Snow

Though there had been flurries a couple of weeks before, last Saturday evening brought the first snowstorm of the season. Huge flakes blanketed the city within an hour. I love that muffled moment after freshly fallen snow... and the crunch crunch of boots. The next morning, all the snow clinging to the tile rooftops made a pretty sight. Here's the snow on our roof.

I was hoping that the snow would stick in our madang (the stone courtyard area of a traditional Korean house), but I guess our house gives off too much heat for that. Still, it was nice to open our sliding doors in the morning and look up at the snow covered roofs near our house.


Unfortunately I don't have a lot of adventurous eating or cooking to report -- both Gavin and I have been busy with work. But my freelance gig is finished now, and we're off on a week-long trip to Thailand in a couple of days, so there will be plenty of pics coming your way...

I'll leave you with a few links to some strange videos that I've found inspiring this year: magical puppets, a thinking chair, a new take on dick and jane, a new musical instrument.

Keeping warm

I've been keeping warm by using the oven lots.

Turkeys are hard to come by in Korea, so for Thanksgiving I picked up a small chicken from Lotte Mart and brought it home to roast with some potatoes, carrots and onions. I glazed it with brown sugar and stuffed it with anise, five spice powder, ginger, garlic, and scallions. Thanks for the recipe, Mom! The skin didn't brown too evenly, since I haven't quite figured out all the quirks of this mini electric oven, but overall it was mighty tasty. Sorry the picture isn't too good - it's from my cell phone.


Also, I finally jumped on the bandwagon and made a loaf of No-Knead Bread from Jim Lahey's recipe published in the New York Times earlier this month. I was amazed at how easy it was, and how even I didn't manage to somehow screw it up! In fact, I ended up having to let the dough rise for an extra 5 hours because I realized at the last minute that I needed a 6-8 quart oven-safe pot, and had to run out to Lotte Mart to get one. Yeah, I'm one of those people that don't read directions thoroughly... Anyway, this recipe is perfect for those people who don't have the space or the strong arms to knead bread. Not to mention, it yields a loaf with a nice crunchy crust. I should have read the various blogs and forums about the recipe before I began, but somehow didn't think of it. Anyway, it's true that 1-1/2 cups of water would probably be better than 1-5/8 (my dough was way too wet and sticky), and a 6-8 quart pot is rather too big (the wet and sticky dough spread out across the bottom and resulted in a flatter loaf than I would have liked). Nevertheless, a great bread recipe and one that I'll used again and again.

Also, continuing on my uncharacteristic domestic kick, I got around to making cheese. The easiest cheese in the world to make. Here's the recipe I used to make a small batch of ricotta cheese (I only had a quart of milk, so I quartered the recipe, which worked just fine). Instead of cheesecloth, I used some straining cloth I found at Lotte Mart (normally used for straining soups). The only difficult part of the recipe (if you can call it difficult) is waiting by the stove until the thermometer reaches exactly 200º F (93º C). After that, it's a piece of cake. The milk curdled right on schedule, and after straining and letting it drip dry for an hour, it looked and tasted exactly like ricotta cheese, only fresher and yummier than the stuff I used to buy at the supermarket. I used the cheese to make baked ziti.

In other news:
I picked up a 2-week freelance assignment, so that will keep me busy for the beginning of December. It will also help pay for our planned trip to Thailand. Yay!

I've just completed level 102 at YBM (for the third time!). For December I'm going to take Saturday classes for level 103, to accomodate the freelance job. I'll consider it a major accomplishment if I manage to stay in level 103 this time! Baby steps, baby steps....

Anyways, for my final presentation in Korean class, I talked about four of my favorite restaurants in Seoul. Well, if you know me, you know I spent more time designing the presentation handouts than I did preparing the speech, right? Right!

Back in Seoul

I’m back from 3 weeks in New York. Had a lovely time with my family and friends… It was too short! Here are some pictures.

While I was in New York, I stuffed my suitcases with a lot of cheese, Indian spice mixes, shoes, books I ordered from Amazon which I either couldn’t find or were too pricey here, and I finally bought myself an iPod. A cute little 8g nano. This will definitely get me to use the treadmill more often. Really.

Got back to Seoul last Wednesday, and I picked up a nasty cold between JFK and Narita. Combined with jet lag and a fresh bout of homesickness, the virus kept me up for 5 nights with an average of 3 hours of sleep/day and slapped me with laryngitis to boot. I finally got 7 consecutive hours of sleep last night, so I’m feeling much better, but my voice is still a pathetic sounding creaky whisper.

This Sunday was a real score in terms of finding groceries that I had previously thought unavailable in Korea.
Longanisa – Thanks to this post from maryeats, Gavin and I now have a new place to go for Sunday lunch -- Little Manila, a temporary patch of the Philippines that sprouts up on Daehangno a little ways up from the Hyewha station, on Sunday mornings. Picked up 8 Longanisa sausages for 2,500 Won, brought them home and eagerly cooked them up. This was my first experience with longanisa so they surprised me with their spicy sweetness and soft texture. The caramelized sugar did a number on my pan. Next time I’ll have to cover my pan with tin foil
String beans – Since string beans aren’t really a regular part of the Korean cuisine, I have never seen them in local markets or even at the larger marts like Lotte or E-Mart. But there were plenty to be found at the Little Manila market. 500g for 3,000 Won. There were also long beans for 2500 Won!
Fu yu (fermented bean curd) – finding the long beans inspired me to hunt down fu yu. Some time ago I had glimpsed a jar of this stinky tofu at a Chinese grocery store inside the 중앙시장 (Jung Ang Market). I was feeling under the weather, so Gavin went to the market to get some for me. Fu yu is really really stinky and an acquired taste for many people, I like it stir fried with spinach and garlic. Call me crazy, but sometimes I even like a little bit of it stirred into plain oatmeal. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Last night I cooked up some of the long beans with generous helpings of the fu yu from the Jung Ang Market, which was particularly stinky, sending even Gavin the Iron-Stomached to the other side of the room… Next time I’ll use it more sparingly. Anyway, while he was at the Chinese grocery store, Gavin also spied…
Pei daan (Mandarin: pi dan) (aka thousand year old eggs, aka century eggs) - They aren’t nearly that old, but the duck eggs get their black color by being preserved in ashes and quicklime. You can find them in some cold appetizers, or served on tofu, or cooked in congee with pork. Next weekend I think I’ll make some pork congee with it -- hot congee is a perfect comfort food for this time of year, as the really crisp cold part of fall has finally descended upon Seoul…

Other than trying to get over this godforsaken cold, I spent my first week back in Seoul bouncing between design work and cooking. The design stuff is a logo and website for my brother’s company, and the cooking consisted of tinkering with foreign dishes in the kitchen (so far, it’s been the Filippino longanisa, Chinese long beans with fuyu,, and Pakastani Achar Gosht – rated thumbs up, thumbs down, thumbs down, respectively, by Gavin).

Coming up… we are visiting Kwangju this weekend to see the Biennale, then I will start Korean class again. If I study a little before my placement test, maybe I can make it into the beginner’s level 3 class this time!

Stop thinking! Feel it!

Stop thinking! Feel it!
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

Wow, it's been a really long time since I last made a post here.
In brief summary, the last 6 weeks have involved:

a weekend trip to Taipei. We met my friend Jeff and his sister and cousin, walked around, and ate a ton of street snacks at the Shilin night market. Mmm mmm good.

a one-week trip back home. We both had a a hectic week running around and seeing friends, family and eating pizza, empanadas, tacos, turkish food, greek food, and other good eats. Brought back some cheese, sausages, and some other groceries that are hard to find in Korea.

total immersion in work. For several weeks at a time, we've been leaving our respective offices anywhere between 11pm and 4am. Ugh.

a move. We've changed our location! After our one year lease was up, we decided to find a more cozy location. Now we live 1 station away from our old abode, in a little "hanok-jip" (traditional Korean house). It's a really cute place with personality, AND we have two resident frogs who live in the courtyard. I'll post some pictures after we neaten up the place.

Well, that's been our busy life for the last 6 weeks. Soon, I'll have a bit more time to write, so stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!
母親節快樂 (Mandarin: Mu3 qin1 jie2 kuai4 le4; Cantonese: Mo5 chan1 jit3 faai3 lok6)

Dust pan

Dust pan
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

Sometimes I wish I were more of an impulse buyer. I really liked this dust pan that I saw in Tokyo. It's just cute enough that I briefly tricked myself into thinking, "If I had this dust pan, I would definitely sweep the floor more often." But then, the voice of reason won over. "Your Swiffer does a much better job without having to get down on your hands and knees. Plus think of using this poor guy and getting dust bunnies all caught up in his "hair"!" So... I didn't buy it. But every now and then, when I look at the photo, I think he would have made a nice addition to my other unused cleaning supplies...

Weekend festivities

Lantern Procession
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

This was a three day weekend for us -- May 1, Labor Day, is a day for many workers to take a break, although students must still attend class.

Gavin and I had a visitor. On Friday, a large black spider made his first appearance in our bathroom, hiding out in the area behind the toilet bowl. In general, although I am creeped out by them, I don't kill spiders. Mainly because they eat other insects, partly because of Charlotte's Web. He was large enough for us to imagine that he might have human-like characteristics. We named him Lester. Lester was friendly, but somewhat shy -- not really sociable -- which was just as well, as we didn't really want to socialize with him. Not particularly adventuresome, he didn't move around much, but seemed to be content with his one spot behind the toilet. Today, however, Lester made an unfortunate foray into the bedroom area. Much as I was beginning to like Lester, some screams later, Gavin and I decided that Lester had to go. If we couldn't count on him to stay put in the bathroom, then we would constantly have to worry about his whereabouts, and that just would not do. And so with some trepidation, I scooped him up in a yogurt container and tossed him into the garden. Lester paused for a moment at the edge of the garden path, waving his front legs at us, as if to say goodbye. Then he disappeared into the grass. Bye, Lester!

Yesterday, Gavin and I saw a tango performance near Hongdae (one of my coworkers has been studying Argentinean tango for years and was performing with her dance class this weekend). The music was romantic and nostalgic and kinda made me think of old black and white movies from the 1940s. Watching any performance is a pleasure when the performers can render their art (in this case, dance) as a pure language that requires no translation. In this sense, maybe music and dance are purer forms of communication than speech or even the visual arts.

Also, last night we went to see the Buddha's Birthday festival. On parade were Korean traditional drummers and dancers, monks, baby monks, and women and men wearing hanbok (traditional Korean dress) and carrying colorful lanterns. But the most exciting things for me were the large lantern floats, crafted into the shapes of Buddhist animals and characters. Some of them were merely inflated plastic, but an impressive number were handpainted, handcrafted paper lanterns. With a warm soft glow flickering from within, they really lit up the night gracefully. Next weekend is also a three day weekend -- Friday is Buddha's Birthday -- so I'm sure we'll be checking out more of the festivities then.

Buddha's Birthday

Buddha's Birthday lantern
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

Budda's Birthday is coming up, and these lanterns are lining the streets everywhere. I like them because it looks like the little baby Buddha is doing the Saturday Night Fever John Travolta dance. That's bringing Buddha into the 20th century! Anyway, there will be a parade this weekend, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm not usually into parades, but this one will have a procession of baby monks and also a lantern procession. I'm sure it will be beautiful.

One of the reasons I don't post on this blog very often is that well... I feel I have nothing to talk about. Lately, it's been nothing but work + eat + sleep (hmm, sounds a lot like our life in New York), and I can't really write about my work projects here. It's not quite the CIA, but of course they don't quite like it if you discuss clients business in public forums. And, you know, well -- with a lot of design clients there's often quite a bit to complain about.

So...for lack of things to talk about, I haven't posted much. However, I've come to the realization that most other blogs aren't about major things anyway. I mean, most people just ramble on and on about mundane things. And people read it! So... I'm not sure if anyone will read this (I don't think anyone reads this right now anyway), but here's a warning -- from now on I'm posting about everyday boring things! Ok, now I'm off to a concert. I'll write about it later.

Present

Sock monkey
Originally uploaded by annamatic3000.

I got a sock monkey in the mail! (He arrived in a box with some really yummy chocolate and a pair of cute stuffed kittens) I've brought him to the office to sit on my desk and stare at me as I work. Thanks, Michele!

I've uploaded some pictures from January... Here they are.
This month has just whizzed past so quickly. I can't believe i am in my 4th week at work already! So far, so good... but it's definitely been keeping me busy....

Holiday update

I hope everyone had a merriest christmas and happy hannukah. Let's hope 2006 is a year of peace and good cheer!

Recent goings-on in the lives of Anna and Gavin in Seoul:

>Gavin is working.
There's not much to say about Gavin's work. Except that there's a lot of it, and we are really grateful to be living a 5-minute walk away from his office. Well, can't complain much about billable hours, considering the fiery demise of his last firm. Gavin is planning on visiting New York for one week at the end of January. Unfortunately, I won't be able to make that trip with him. Next time!

>Anna has not been working.
I am so sorry to my few freelance clients out there. I have used up all my excuses. All I can say is, my brain will be back from its extended vacation next week, for sure.

>I took a one-week trip to Cambodia.
I'm sorry I didn't tell you in advance, Mom & Dad, but I went to Cambodia for a week by myself. I was worried that you would worry. And you know how we do it in the Lee Family: we worry so much that we worry about each other worrying... Anyway, there would have been no need to worry, since Cambodia is now a very safe place to travel. Though I went by myself (Gavin was too busy at work), I had a great time! First, I went to Phnom Penh, the capital, for a day. Then I took a fast boat up the Tonlé Sap River to Siem Reap. I stayed in Siem Riep for 5 days.
Here are photos of Phnom Penh.
Here are photos of Siem Reap.
I also did some sketches.
(The Flickr "slideshow" button helps you view the photos faster, but keep in mind that you won't be able to read the captions that way.)

There are usually two things that people will think of when you say "Cambodia" to them: the genocidal holocaust committed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975-1979 and the glorious temples of Angkor Wat, built in the 9th-13th century. Today, tourism to Angkor Wat may very well represent Cambodia's future, while the horrifying legacy of the Khmer Rouge recedes into the past. One can only hope that this is the direction that Cambodia will take. It's still one of the poorest countries in Asia, with 36% of the population living below the basic-needs poverty line, lacking access to fresh drinking water, good nutrition, health care or education. This is the kind of thing that looks so picturesque in National Geographic photos but is so heartbreaking to see first hand. A continually corrupt government ensures that even as tourism to Cambodia has risen in the last decade, most regular folk only see a pittance of the profits, while the bulk of it lines the silken pockets of corrupt politicians and foreign investors operating luxury hotel chains, like Raffles International.

I took a lot of photos. There were also a lot of photos I didn't take. I highly recommend visiting Cambodia to see it for yourself. The power, beauty and vastness of the Angkorian temples (Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious monument) is awe-inspiring, something that cannot be fully appreciated in art history textbook photos. And the people I met were exceedingly kind, displaying a strong, frank, resilient temperment that can only come out of centuries of struggle. Accommodations can be incredibly cheap in Cambodia (as low as $5 a night for a guesthouse room!) but if you absolutely must relax in the lap of luxury, here's a responsible hotel. The tuk-tuk driver I hired to take me around the temples told me, "Please visit Cambodia again. I will never be able to visit your country. But you can visit mine."

>We had a good quiet Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at a hot springs.
Christmas isn't a very big holiday here, although it's growing in popularity. To avoid dwelling on missing our families too much, Gavin and I went to a hot springs about an hour train ride outside of Seoul. The air was bracingly cold and there was a fresh layer of snow on the ground, perfect weather to don swimsuits and run outside to jump in a hot pool, right? Right!
By the way, this here is a promotional photo from the hot spring's website. Really, I don't know these girls.
On the downside, the place was filled to the brim with cute little kids who were laughing, playing and trading cold viruses. So, of course, we woke up Christmas morning with a nasty flu.

>I took a one-day trip to Osaka, Japan.
To receive or change your visa in Korea, you need to visit a Korean consulate. The closest Korean consulate is an almost 2-hour flight away, in Osaka, Japan. My new company booked a flight and hotel room for me, so off I went on my first-ever trip to Japan. My flu and I left on the morning of December 26 and returned the evening of December 27. I guess that's more like two days, but if you subtract the time I spent waiting in the Korean consulate for my brand-spanking-new E-7 employment visa, then I had about 1 day of sightseeing.

My first impression of Japan confirmed what many have already told me: it's clean and the people are so polite! To that I would add: the Japanese have a profound sense of aesthetics, particularly in the realms of "cute" and "design." Truckloads of cute design. And sushi. Needless to say, my wallet was particularly susceptible on this trip... And, of course, I took lots of photos. Click here to see them.

>I start my new job on Monday, January 2nd.
I'll be a Level I Senior Designer in Brand Experience at a company called Design Continuum. Wish me luck... I'll let you know how it goes...

Eating

I just downloaded a bunch of pictures from my camera and discovered that I've been taking pictures of nothing but food for the past few weeks! Well, some buildings and stuff, but mostly food. Have I been doing nothing but eating lately?! Maybe the cold turn the weather has taken is making me hungrier... ? Well, click here for some pictures of food.

Gavin's been quite busy working late lately, and I've been busy... doing nothing. Apologies to everyone, but I have not even gotten any Christmas shopping done yet... since, well, it's kind of easy to forget about Christmas in Korea. If only I could mail you all home-baked brownies!

In the last few weeks I've been taking evening Korean class and filling my days with: shopping, reading, baking (brownies, cookies and bread, mostly) and eating. Occasionally, I meet a few friends for coffee. Once, I tried my hand at ping pong and learned how to hold the paddle correctly. Interestingly, however, I hit the ball more often when I hold it INcorrectly. Last weekend we were hit with a sudden snowstorm! I did not have my gloves with me and was unable to defend myself properly in an impromptu snowball fight. Next time...

I am happy to report that my visa application was FINALLY completed about a week ago, and now must wait about 2 more weeks until I am --hopefully--approved for a brand spanking new E-7 employment visa! Woo-hoo! Finally, after 2 months of waiting around, I can start working at my new job! I have some concerns about being back in the workforce after 5 months of being unemployed and not having to respond to deadlines or design critiques... And, having to navigate this brave new world with a combination of my minimal Korean-speaking abilities, charades, sign-language, and sketches boostered by English. We shall see...