Halloween in Korea

My computer is being screwy so i'll have to add images later on. I did however want to share with everyone my experience of Halloween in Korea. Halloween which i have now come to realize is not really a western holiday but specifically an American holiday. At my school we hosted a Halloween celebration which included face painting, cookie decorating "bobbing for apples" and of course a haunted house. Bobbing for apples ended up being hard candies in non dairy coffee creamer aka swine flu paradise. I was in the dance room where i taught my version of Michale Jackson's Thriller in 15 minute increments for 12 hours over the two day celebration. There aren't really costumes available in Korea either. Every child that dressed up regardless of age or gender wore pretty much the same combo of black cape and witches hat with various metallic shapes on them. When we went out in Seoul to celebrate the holiday there were literally Korean families there with their cameras taking photos of the westerners. The fact that costumes aren't really available most every one's costumes were home made and very creative which i totally appreciate. Those who were able to find costumes at the store were a variety of pirates and Disney characters both regular and the sex versions. I had a wonderful time and although I missed seeing all of my friends and family dressed in their finest Korea was a good second place.

More Korean Food

Thursday night a few of my friends and I went out for some yummy Korean food. Galbi is a Korean meat dish made from beef short ribs. The ribs are marinated in a sauce made from fruit juice (generally Asian pear juice), rice wine, soy sauce, garlic, sesame seed oil and sugar. Most recipes contain these basic ingredients, although many variations exist, including variations from clear marinades to spicier marinades. This is really good bbq.

Instead of coleslaw and potato salad we have sides like kimchi and a whole bunch of other foods. i haven't learned the names of them yet but most of them pointing and giving a big thumbs up lets the waitress know you want more.
Of course ti would not be complete without ordering some random Korean alcohol in a pretty bottle. I think it tasted like a combo of wine and scotch. Not very good but made me all warm inside.

I've gotten pretty good at using chopsticks. I will say that in my experience Koreans think ti's funny that we try to eat everything with chop sticks. They use spoons for a lot of food like rice. They also use spoons to swirl noodles like one would use with spaghetti.

the way to eat Galbi is to take a piece of lettuce or sesame leaf and put a little bit of sauce ( no idea what is in it but tasty and hot), then add some rice, onions and of course the hot bbq meat that you've cooked right in the center of your table. One of the things that i promised myself before i came to Korean is that I would do my best to try everything. So one thing that Koreans are really good at is not being wasteful. They are awesome recyclers and also believe in not letting any part of the animal go to waste. So i tried a little version of surf and turf. That is a piece of Galbi and a shrimp full on with head, eyes, legs and everything. I even ate the shell. it was a bit crunchy but not bad in taste at all.


After we stuffed ourselves solid we kind of rolled out of there leaving this pile of dishes in our wake. The one bad thing about eating sitting on the floor is that it would be so easy to just slump over and go to sleep. Instead it is a battle of wits between both of your sleeping limbs and your full belly.It can be quite the challenge but oh so worth it. this meal is about $11.00 per person and you get and endless supply of side dishes. We also got a big ol bowl of hot spicy soup to start the meal. yumyumyum.

I've gotta say i'm a big fan of Korean food. The one challenge i find is the constant mixture of temperatures. The meat is so hot and the sides are usually cold so that's an interesting thing to get used to. It's good though i'm a big fan.

Comfort Food

Last night three of the other foreign teachers and I decided to take an adventure to find the nearest comfort food. You got it a little Micky D's.

I have never seen four people more excited to get their hands on "real" American food before. Don't get me wrong i really love Korean food but frankly i'm pmsing really hardcore and needed some golden arches.
It made me think of four children on their way to get their first happy meal. Look at us.


After this we headed to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. It was a complete American comfort food night. Yum Yum.

First week in Korea

My first week in Korea has been an interesting one for sure. I've already learned a lot some helpful and some just funny. One thing that i have been thoroughly impressed by is the way that Koreans welcome foreigners. I know that in the states I've gotten frustrated with non native English speakers (especially during my time at Starbucks) and now i see things completely differently. The shop owners and store workers are so understanding of my language gap it's very settling for someone who cannot understand a word of what is going on around me. I've learned that Korean tv has no commercials during the program but then like 5 minutes of them at the end. I've learned that ciggs here are far too cheap only like 2 bucks a pack. Eating with chopsticks is pretty easy to do when you don't have another option. Korean food is awesome, well i'll say most of it is. If it looks like melted cookies and cream ice cream it tastes like melted cookies and cream ice cream even if it's served on cabbage.. for real blech! Aloe juice is freaking awesome. Korean men should have joined fraternities in college and gotten their binge drinking out of the way. Also when you order a pitcher of beer in Korea expect something this big:
I will say that i love that the main brand of beer in Korea is my namesake.
I got my classroom set up and actually start teaching tomorrow. I'm so excited i can't wait.
This is the downtown where i live it's about 3 or 4 blocks from my school.

This weekend i ventured into Seoul, on my own i might add. I found that navigating a subway/bus system is no different in Korean that in English. if you don't know where you are going you find a map and follow the pictures. In Seoul i met up with my new girl Elizabeth who is a teacher from Britain. She is really nice and sweet and completely different from anyone i've ever dated before I'm very excited to see how this turn out. She's certainly the first person i've ever dated that i have absolutely no reservations about her meeting my friends and family. So that's exciting.
This is her.

Saturday she took me to see Gyeongbokgung which means Palace greatly blessed by heaven and was built in 1395 and served as the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty.
this is the entrance to the palace
the thrown

Cheesy touristy photo op!




And of course one of the places i HAD to go to in Korea is one of my favorite places ever.

Nothing like a Korean Starbucks. I love the girl in the background bogarting the picture too.
More and more updates to come about my adventures in Korea. I'm having a blast so far and i can't wait to explore more.

All dogs go to.. the Neptune?

Ok so anyone who knows me knows that i am not a fan of animals. There i said it. It's more specific than animals as a whole however there are specific reasons that animals freak me out. I don't like anything that can lick it's ass and then lick my face. I have a problem with cats and their poop feet, yes, poop feet. Would you be happy if i came to your home and used the bathroom only to put my feet in the toilet and then walk around? No it's disgusting and yet it's fine for cats to do it 3, 4 even more times a day? GROSS! And then the famous line that most all pet owners have used at one time or another " you know, their tongues are cleaner than yours" Oh really? Whens the last time I sat in the middle of your living room floor licking my own genitals? I don't care if my tongue is made out of purell it's gross. So imagine my surprise well disgust really when last night two women walk into the restaurant where I am holding very furry very yippy dog. When the waitress went to seat them in my section i was going to say something however the owner realized her precious pooch shouldn't be seated so close to the infant at the next table. Now i am against dogs in public place at all. Ok i'm a horrible person whatever I HAVE ALLERGIES!!! When i come home to my parents house i have to pry my eyes open each morning because my body has been rejecting the rouge hairs and dander bits all night. When my brothers dog touches me within minutes my skin is red, puffy and feels like i've been romping around in a fiberglass sleeping bag. So when i go to have a meal or a beer I want an animal free zone. I'm not heartless no one has ever had success with a seeing eye turtle it's ok for medical necessity but seriously. An effing high chair for your dog?

This dog has its own plate full of finely chopped food and its own glass of water. I really hope that the dish washing crew at the Neptune does a top notch job on these dirty dishes. I'm sorry if i've upset any of my animal loving friends but a dog in a high chair is just too much for me to deal with. I'm not saying i will never own a dog but i'll certainly never take it into a restaurant.

Down and out

Almost everyone i know has a change jug that sits in some out of the way yet visible spot in thier home. This is the catchall for our jingle jangles at the end of the day. It's nice to look at this jug or jugs if you like to separate silver from pennies as i do. It's nice to watch the fill line slowly move to the top. Well mine has never made it to the top. Since my recent split i have found myself more broke than I've ever been. I've been taking back bottles and emptying magic hat growlers that have collected spare change for months and months. Down and out, waiting for payday one of my friends asked for my assistance to gather change, bottles and cans. Of course i said yes because such an event needs the company of somoen who would never judge you. And so we began our sweet Saturday adventure. Now we all know that even though the money from the change jug and the deposit on cans is rightfully ours there is a certain feeling that comes over you as you transfer the soon to be recycled goods from your vehicle to the cart and then into the store. Standing at the coinstar machine while everyone check out of the lines behind you can make you feel like you are on display. Pouring your change into the coinstar it is in hopes that you will too soon be checking out with various food items. Returning bottles and cans is also an adventure. No matter how much one may try to pre clean them the cans end up being sticky, smelly and germ filled. The bins get full, they don't take food club mountain dew and reaching to the bottom of the back is an at your own risk adventure. This being said what could make the event of returning bottles or filling the coin star even better? This... this is what can make it better:


This jug basically blew up the second it made contact with the cart. There were pennies rolling everywhere. The copper combined with the glass shards made the mess we had to pick up delightfully shiny in the sun. Not to mention the possible hep C we contracted as we got a number of glass splinters while we picked up what ended up being over $35.00 yes mostly pennies. Just another top notch day in the life of a 29 year old struggling to get by i guess.

amazing

I recently had a going away party at my parents house in Norwich. it was a day filled with laughs, hugs, and a few falls all of course had in good fun. It was so comforting to know that as I embark on this adventure there are so many people so willing to wish me luck.


I received a number of cards wishing me good luck.
One was so touching that i have to share it. Everyone knows that i have been having a rough past few weeks. The following words will aid me on each and every adventure i take for the rest of my life. Thank you so much.

there are those that live safe, comfortable in their secluded corners. Others burn too brightly, ache too deeply, imagine too richly to stand still. We are blessed and cursed to be among the latter. We are compelled to explore. To search life out wherever it may hide. The blue sky is too large, the stars to haunting not to.
Life is hard. it is also soul crushingly beautiful. It is better to be vulnerable, to allow ourselves love - whether another person or a moment - than to live unharmed. Heartache is a testament of a life live passionately.
Is there any other way to live?
Stay beautiful and continue to love.
... Burn
.......Explore
..........Live

Thank you I will!

No more bread

So i'm going through a break up right now. Well, the break up itself is over now i'm just going through the mourning period. I went to bed one night believing my life was set with this woman and i woke up the next day to find her plan was different. This was a woman who promised me love, babies and of course homemade bread. While she blamed the separation on me i know that something else happened in her life to make her change her mind. I may not ever really know who or what. I've never had this feeling of constant nausea before and i've been to festivals with thousands of smelly "hippies". At least I have Price Chopper to provide me with babies and bread or breadbabies rather.


Thanks Price Chopper for pasting this creeptastic picture on the back of a delivery truck. I would have loved to be a part of this crackpot team of marketers. Dbag #1" ok so i'm thinking we have to make people want to love our bread" Dbag #2 " Yeah yeah well people love babies" Dbag#3 " What about a woman walking through the store with a loaf of our delicious bread in a baby carrier" dbag #1 " no no that doesn't get to the hear of our customers" silence.................................................................................................................................................................
Dbag #2 " I got it lets have a woman snuggling a loaf of bread like it is a baby"
YES!!! I'm just glad they didn't show this woman and her family enjoying this bread baby warmed up with some melting butter. This makes me want to never shop and the chop again.

It's like Cheers with Caramel Drizzle

When i first began working at Starbucks a little under a year ago i never thought that it would be so difficult to punch out for the last time. I just finished my last shift and i am genuinely sad. Not sad like last campfire sad. Not sad like the last summer drive through the back woods of Chenango county sad. Just sad. The goal of the Starbucks corporation is to create a third home environment. Our customers have home (1st home) work (2nd home) and of course our cafe (third home). Starbucks has been 2 of home homes for the majority of the last year. Working with different people and interacting with customers helped me to learn about myself and the kind of woman i am evolving to be. My knowledge of Starbucks when i first started working was very little. It was the place where I spent many hours avoiding my crazy housemate (not Sarah I enjoyed living with Sarah) when i lived in Seattle. I would scrounge together enough change to order an iced tea in the morning and sit there to read for hours and hours. Over the past year i have learned:
1) Don't take money from a customer if it is brown, greasy or smells. It's probably covered in poop.
2) There is always more that can be recycled. Thus making me a great homeless person.
3) Opening shifts are a great time to sip coffee and have heart to heart talks
4) Knock Knock jokes are funny at any age
5) Some people are just assholes plain and simple the benefit of the doubt will only be more frustrating.
6) The sanitizer is not a dishwasher. It does not use soap!!!
The most important thing that i learned however is that I matter. It is hard to be 28, well 29 now and be in college still. It is a challenge to be stuck in between midnight pizza runs and finding a career. Many of my friends are getting married and having children and i'm filling out FASFA forms. We get wrapped up in whats going on in our immediate lives and it's hard to connect or reconnect with the people in our periphery.I know that i sometimes go months without talking to the people that really matter to me, just because. Once it has been a while it can be challenging to find the courage to just call someone up, or email or for fucks sake facebook. Sometimes the people that needed me the most the last year never once asked me for anything, not even a splash stick. While I am making sure her triple grande non fat extra dry cappuccino is just right one of my closest friends was diagnosed with MS and i didn't even know it. While i made countless samples of gingerbread lattes my aunt died of cancer. Because of my job at Starbucks i have missed weddings, funerals, births and just some relaxing time with friends and family. When i think about all that i have missed over the last year I feel bitter. The sweetness comes in when i think about the people who rely on me to start their day each and every day. I am about to embark on a life changing journey across the world with the woman i like and love most. This summer I felt completely neglected because I wasn't able to steal as much of her attention as I had grown used to. What i failed to recognize until this moment however is that the girls at her camp and the other staff needed her. They relied on her each and every day. I get to spend the rest of my life relying on her. I can't tell you the amount of time I have spent feeling so lonely i could puke yet even the most obnoxious customers needed me or made me feel that way anyway. I mean what would cracky green tea latte do without her extra 5 scoops of Matcha, well she might have a regular heartbeat for one, but you know what i mean. Starbucks taught me that there is a delicate balance between knowing what you need from the people around ( and sometimes thousands of miles from you) you and what they need from you. The people who need you the most aren't always the ones jumping around in front of you singing "i need more chai, less foam, more soy, less ice..........." it might be the friend you've lost touch with. The relative who just lost a loved one. It could be me spending my first Christmas away from mom, dad and nick. The moral of my Starbucks experience is don't take things at face value. Look deeper, explore and find what it is that you really like and love about people, the world and of course your coffee.

my 29th er 30th er.....

So today is my 29th birthday. The start of my 29th rotation of the sun. This is the year i spend preparing to enter my thirties. Oh wait nono nono. See in Korea when one is born they are one year old. So i only get to be 29 until the end of September and when I arrive in korea bam i'm 30. So i will be in Korea through next August where i will spend my American birthday i will however turn 31 and i will be 31 for about a month and then when i leave Korea bam i'm 30 again. I'm going to be 30 for two years how wacky is that? I hope that 30 turns out to be a great age because I'm going to be spending a great deal of time there.

Julie & Julia 5 stars

I went to the movies last night and saw Julie & Julia which is a movie based on two true stories. The story of Julia Child a woman who can be credited with changing the way American women cook. The other is the story of a blogger named Julie who challenges herself to prepare each recipe in Julia Child's cookbook in a year. 365 days to complete over 500 recipes from hollandaise sauce to deboning a duck. The feel in the theater was warm and comfortable in spite of the cold chill pumpin' out of the central air. There were deep hearty laughs, audible ohhs and ahhs and of course a few sniffles and for once it wasn't just from me. Everyone in the theater was really into the movie. The movie was about food and exploration of self and love.Both Julie and Julia were luck enough to find their soul mates. They each found that one person that made their heart skip a beat. I really liked that this movie explored the hard part of love. There is something about finding one's soul mate that creates a mysticism that everything is all sunshine and rainbows. It is hard work to be love. It is a challenge to navigate the world side by side with someone no matter how perfect that person is for you. This movie showed that if you believe in love you will make it through anything. together.

signs signs everywhere are signs

Ok so i've been mildly obsessed with signs for the greater art of my life. I have always found church signs particularly humorous. Oh you know the ones like " Get on you knees... and PRAY!" or "There are some questions that can't be answered by google". Any who for years I've said i am going to start collecting pictures of said signs and compile them into book or web site other form of entertainment for the masses. Recently while on a walk with my love we noticed the sign below outside of a local church.



Now there is nothing wrong with the majority of this sign. My hatred of poop is so strong that i feel i will need a complete separate post to delve into my hatred of cats and their poop feet and people who share food with poop tongues. Is the pile of shit necessary? I what is the reality of this shot? We all know that dog would have already started going to town cleaning itself with its "cleaner than a humans" tongue ( yeah right) and where is this stick figure going to put the poop? They aren't going to carry it around on that little shovel fro the rest of the walk are they? And seriously what was the artist trying to prove by not providing us with the perfect coil that i so often see hanging out on the sidewalks, greenbelts and general walkways of my life? Is this dog actually shitting whole squirrels? I would have rather seen a sign that showed a stick figure stepping into a coiled pile of dog crap with its head exploding from being so pissed off. The caption could read "Look what you did DOUCHE BAG now I'm covered in shit! Hope your dog passes you worms the next time you share your ice cream with him and his ass licking tongue" now that would make a statement!

Ok so i realized why stop at church signs? There are so many interesting cautionary signs out there. I am about to embark on a world adventure and i can guarantee i'm going to find some very interesting pictorial warnings along the way. This for example was at a Dunkin' Donuts in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.

Is this to say that one can now shower at dunkin' donuts? This has got to be some sort of code right? If you can make sense of this sign for me please do because i'm baffled.
















While we are on the topic of coffee and coffee products many of us know someone who has recently gotten married. Perhaps the happy couple put an espresso machine on their wedding registry. now i know what you are thinking, It's so nice that the happy couple wants to wake up and steam some milk, add a flavor perhaps vanilla or cinnamon dolce if they are feeling particularly kicky that morning. Pull a couple of espresso shots and voila they have themselves two lovers lattes ready to be shared over the morning paper or sipped while the two create a shopping list. What if however this couple is not thinking about a traditional latte. What if this freaky as hell couple wants to make a baby latte. No i don't mean a small latte i mean a steamed baby latte. Thanks goodness you purchased them an espresso machine with this warning:


Do not steam your baby. Obviously with an espresso machine the size of a Prius one could easily steam a baby. But it's not acceptable. Cannibalism is unacceptable, yes even in latte form.Don't do it.
Oh yeah and if you are sick enough to think a baby latte sounds good maybe you also think it's appropriate to let children play with whippets, or anal suppositories the picture is up for debate.

I do enjoy that the little girl has no hair but rather triangle horns. Please feel to share your funny sings and warning labels with me.

What the Martha?

I'm waiting around the house before I go to babysit for a friend and i turn the television on right at the beginning of Martha Stewart. Now it's no secret that my girlfriend is a little in love with Martha so i decided i'd keep watching to see what's so great about the lady. I understand her love of Rachel maddow i mean come one she's great but marther? Really? We all know that Martha woman is known to make crafts and home furnishings out of just about anything one can imagine. She was even rumored to have crafted gifts for her cell friends in the pen. During her opening sequence she is talking to her version of Gelman about what she had for dinner last night. I'm thinking well i was pretty proud of my homemade gimbap and granola but she probably made some homemade soup stock our of old wrapping paper or something. Nope. Do you know what she ate for dinner last night? Even if Martha decided to whip up something easy like a pizza it would be made with fancy cheese, roasted tomatoes and some seasonal veggies. NOPE. Martha frickin' Stewart ate sardines. Out of a can. granted she jazzed it up with a little fresh lemon but seriously. Sardines out of a can? Isn't that the stereotypical fav. food of the homeless crazies that live on trains and talk to stray cats. Oh yeah i forgot to mention that Martha shared this "dinner" with her two cats. For fucks sake Martha can't you whip yourself up some friends? I mean even at my lowest low I've never sat around sharing sardines with my turtles.

domesticity

It's been over a month since Colleen,my Breadmaker, took a job at a camp in the Catskills. She makes all of our food from scratch from delicious bread (hence the nickname) to butter and of course yummy cookies and treats. When she left for camp she left me a list of recipes so that i could eat food that tastes good and is good for me. I of course reverted to my bachelorette days of eating only items that come out of a box or some other kitchen. I have terrible eating habits. For example i will buy a box of cereal and eat only that cereal for each meal until ti is gone. Of course there are trips to get pizza and nabbing bagels and croissants out of the donation bucket at work. I surprisingly enough have eaten very little fast food. not only is it expensive but frankly after eating such good food it is rather disappointing. Each day when i walk in the door there are her recipes stuck with magnets to the refrigerator door mocking me. They say, " hey fucko why don't you stop feeling sorry for yourself and make us", " Stop eating crap and make yourself something good" and my personal favorite," cheese should not be the staple of your diet, what would the Colleen think?"
Today i finally broke down and realized that eating Special K three meals a day won't bring Colleen home. I crave good food but have been longing for my love to return home so badly that I've been depriving myself of yummy nom noms. So i took the recipes down off of the fridge and even created one of my own.

Here goes nothin'

First task Granola:
Step one: Mixed Oats, almond slivers,pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, poppy seeds,maple syrup, canola oil, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and spread out on baking sheets.


Step Two: Bake for 10- 15 minutes until golden brown




















Next task: Gimbap or kimbap
This is a popular Korean "fast" food made from steamed white rice (bap) and various other ingredients, rolled in gim (sheets of dried seaweed) and served cold in bite-size slices. Gimbap is often eaten during picnics or outdoor events, or as a light lunch.

I chose Eggs, red pepper, carrots and cucumbers














First I lightly painted sesame oil on the sheet of dried seaweed















I then added sesame seeds and white rice















Now time to add my veggies and protein















Finished product is a roll. these didn't come out looking too amazing but they taste delicious!














Of course i had left overs so i threw in some balsamic vinegar and a lil salt and pepper and made a pretty tasty summer salad
















I'm really proud of my accomplishments in the kitchen today still i'd rather have food made with love by my sweetie!

Bigger lenses

In these days since I've announced my news that I will be moving to South Korea in the fall I've been thinking a lot about a lot of things. It isn't easy to tell people that you are leaving without leaving them. I am expanding my world view not eliminating the view that i already have. today when i arrived at my internship i was told that one of my patients died over the weekend. She developed a freak infection and was gone within 48 hours. The first thing that i thought was " what was the last thing that i said to her?" the last time that i saw her she was visiting with family and looked as she had each day that I had seen her. I popped my head in as not to interrupt and said " hey lady how's it going?" She responded with her usual "I'm doing great hun." the last words that i said to her were "Keep up the good work i'll check in with you next week". I feel ok about those being my last words. I am confident that each interaction we had was positive and helped her keep her hope alive.
Each time I interact with someone I don't know when i will speak with them again. Each e-mail or text or facebook post could be the last. What is the last thing i said to you? What is the last thing you said to me or your parents or your partner.
This is a precious thing we've got here, life, and is certainly not to be taken for granted.

It's not a phase

As i grew up i never felt like my other girlfriends felt about getting on the mommy track. I am not meant to be a domestic goddess and the idea of birthing a child freaks me out. After receiving detailed descriptions of why my friend had to have reconstructive surgery after the birth of her second child i decided it would be adoption or nothing. These are not thoughts that you are supposed to have in a heterosexual relationship though. The other day when the breadmaker and i were heading back from a trip to Vermont i stopped to check the oil and windshield washer fluid before we hit the road. I liked doing it. I don't know that i would be able to do that in a heterosexual relationship. there are so many parts of myself that I love that i could not express in a het relationship. I love my breadmaker and it makes me happy to work and go to school and provide for her. I am realistic and understand that we may not always be able to have one of us at home, but i hope that we can.

Finding comfort in sharing

This is a blog about life. my life and my observations of life that happens around me. It may be comical or sad i don't know really. When i wanted to express myself i wrote a not, folded it intricately and passed it to one of my girls in between classes. She would then pass it along to our other friends until everyone knew what was going on. I've had a firm belief that blogging is like paparazzi for the unfamous. Like my way of letting the world know all of the things that i wish they cared to know about me. Recently in an effort to help my girlfriend find comfort from others who share her experience and desire to be a housewife i found a feminist housewife blog. I also changed my outlook on blogging. I hope that someone may find comfort, humor and common ground when they read my blog. I think that a lot of my blog will be sharing my experience as a young, female, educated, working class, feminist, movie loving, lesbian, dancin' fool who loves to pretend she is a movie reviewer. there will be spelling errors and poor grammar but at least i have the courage to be imperfect.
Peace.