:: All I want for Christmas is... ::
1) new digital camera - I know, I know...I have one. I finally got one a few years ago....but it's time to upgrade.
2) Allure by Chanel - I didn't get this one, even though I've been hinting at it for two years now.
3) new Bible - I saw a really neat one with a women's devotional that goes along with it.
4) Calphalon One Non-stick saucepan or fry pan
5) one hour massage at Spa Sydell
6) a necklace with diamonds on it....or a ring will do also.
7) red spatula set from Williams Sonoma
8) set of Riedel stemless wine glasses
9) wooden pepper mill
10) Coach purse
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
:: End of October...bleh ::
Usually, October is my favorite month. The leaves change colors, the weather gets cooler, Andrew and my anniversary is at the end of the month...but beginning last year, it's all changed. Now that I have my own program, October has got to be one of the busiest months EVER. So freakin' busy that I didn't get a chance to buy my boyfriend an anniversary present (the same excuse he used for not buying me one either...boooo). One of the concerts that I have to deal with in October is our annual Halloween concert for our little darlings. It's a combined chorus, band and orchestra concert, and every year the directors decide what our theme is going to be. Last year it was Star Wars. The chorus director and band director took the only decent women characters, so basically if I wanted to be a girl character I had to be the girl Jedi with the weird tentacles growing out of her forehead. Or Chewy or Yoda. Anyways, the short version of the story is, I stressed out about the costume for weeks and then at the last minute put together a ghetto generic Jedi costume (which looked pretty good). All was well.
In May, we all got together to talk about our 07-08 calendar, and we decided to be characters from Wizard of Oz. I was to be Dorothy. No problem, right? Just go to the costume shop and get one of those Dorothy costumes they have hanging all over the place, right? NOPE. I went to a Halloween Express and tried on the "Adult Standard Size - One size fits all" bullshit and guess what. My arms were too big for it, so it looked like I was doing the "praise the lord" dance in the dressing room. I was quite depressed after that. What was even more depressing was when I tried on the only "Plus Size" Dorothy costume they had in the shop and the exact same thing happened! It took me awhile to realize that a "standard size" one got mixed up into the "plus size" bag. Either way, I was depressed. I was left with one option - make the dress.
Ask me if I know how to sew. Ask me if I know how to use a sewing machine. The answer to both questions is no. Funny enough, I do own a sewing machine. For whatever reason, Andrew decided to get me one as a gift a few years back (no idea what gave him the impression that I had intentions of sewing anything). Well, thank goodness he did. I bought the fabric. I bought the pattern. It was time. At 9pm on Wednesday, I took out the sewing machine. I stared at it for awhile. I took out the pattern. I stared at it. Honestly, who gets that stuff? The waist part of the dress, according to the pattern, looked like it might fit over my left calf, maybe. The skirt would've made me look like a stripper. Maybe I bought a kid's size one, I don't know. Either way, I chucked the damn pattern and went with my own plan. So I cut the fabric....and stared at the sewing machine some more. And then I took out the manual and read it. Around midnight, I thought I had finished the costume, so I tried it on. I looked like a hooker. The fabric was very thin, and I could see everything from my ta-ta's to my belly button. I had to go back and double up on the fabric. ARGH. At 2am, I was finished with the costume, and it didn't look so bad. Sure, one side of the skirt was slightly longer than the other so I had to keep pulling on it during the performance, and I used a whole lot of fabric tape to keep some parts together, but overall, it was okay.
I took it to school the next day for the concert. Right before the concert, I changed into my costume and went to the orchestra room to help kids tune. They took one look at me, and one of the girls said, "Are you Little Debbie?" ......yeah...
The performance went very well, and my costume didn't fall apart! I kept thinking that something was going to happen and I was going to be naked in front of all my kids and their parents, but that didn't happen. I was VERY happy about that. I'm sure you're wondering if I have pictures. Well, I don't. Some of my kids parents do. I've asked for copies, so when I get them, I'll show you.
Usually, October is my favorite month. The leaves change colors, the weather gets cooler, Andrew and my anniversary is at the end of the month...but beginning last year, it's all changed. Now that I have my own program, October has got to be one of the busiest months EVER. So freakin' busy that I didn't get a chance to buy my boyfriend an anniversary present (the same excuse he used for not buying me one either...boooo). One of the concerts that I have to deal with in October is our annual Halloween concert for our little darlings. It's a combined chorus, band and orchestra concert, and every year the directors decide what our theme is going to be. Last year it was Star Wars. The chorus director and band director took the only decent women characters, so basically if I wanted to be a girl character I had to be the girl Jedi with the weird tentacles growing out of her forehead. Or Chewy or Yoda. Anyways, the short version of the story is, I stressed out about the costume for weeks and then at the last minute put together a ghetto generic Jedi costume (which looked pretty good). All was well.
In May, we all got together to talk about our 07-08 calendar, and we decided to be characters from Wizard of Oz. I was to be Dorothy. No problem, right? Just go to the costume shop and get one of those Dorothy costumes they have hanging all over the place, right? NOPE. I went to a Halloween Express and tried on the "Adult Standard Size - One size fits all" bullshit and guess what. My arms were too big for it, so it looked like I was doing the "praise the lord" dance in the dressing room. I was quite depressed after that. What was even more depressing was when I tried on the only "Plus Size" Dorothy costume they had in the shop and the exact same thing happened! It took me awhile to realize that a "standard size" one got mixed up into the "plus size" bag. Either way, I was depressed. I was left with one option - make the dress.
Ask me if I know how to sew. Ask me if I know how to use a sewing machine. The answer to both questions is no. Funny enough, I do own a sewing machine. For whatever reason, Andrew decided to get me one as a gift a few years back (no idea what gave him the impression that I had intentions of sewing anything). Well, thank goodness he did. I bought the fabric. I bought the pattern. It was time. At 9pm on Wednesday, I took out the sewing machine. I stared at it for awhile. I took out the pattern. I stared at it. Honestly, who gets that stuff? The waist part of the dress, according to the pattern, looked like it might fit over my left calf, maybe. The skirt would've made me look like a stripper. Maybe I bought a kid's size one, I don't know. Either way, I chucked the damn pattern and went with my own plan. So I cut the fabric....and stared at the sewing machine some more. And then I took out the manual and read it. Around midnight, I thought I had finished the costume, so I tried it on. I looked like a hooker. The fabric was very thin, and I could see everything from my ta-ta's to my belly button. I had to go back and double up on the fabric. ARGH. At 2am, I was finished with the costume, and it didn't look so bad. Sure, one side of the skirt was slightly longer than the other so I had to keep pulling on it during the performance, and I used a whole lot of fabric tape to keep some parts together, but overall, it was okay.
I took it to school the next day for the concert. Right before the concert, I changed into my costume and went to the orchestra room to help kids tune. They took one look at me, and one of the girls said, "Are you Little Debbie?" ......yeah...
The performance went very well, and my costume didn't fall apart! I kept thinking that something was going to happen and I was going to be naked in front of all my kids and their parents, but that didn't happen. I was VERY happy about that. I'm sure you're wondering if I have pictures. Well, I don't. Some of my kids parents do. I've asked for copies, so when I get them, I'll show you.
Monday, October 08, 2007
:: Adventures in NYC ::
On Saturday morning (very, very early) I left ATL for LGA. I was on my way to the Big Apple (anyone know why they call it that?). The flight was alright...I mean, it was cheap, so what did I expect, right? We were on the way to the runway, and they called us back to the gate because something was opened. And then when we arrived in LGA, they kept us from the gate because or something. Man, what is it with me and bad luck with LGA?
Once I arrive, I had to take the M60 bus to Columbia, where I would meet up with Victor and Margaret. Well, I didn't know how to find the M60 or how to get on it. Naturally, I followed the signs for "Ground transportation information" and asked the nice looking fellow for information on how to find and get onto the bus. He looked at me and said, "You need a Metro card." So I looked at him and said, "Can I get one here?" And he had this smirk on his face as he said, "No." And that was it. By this point, I saw right through his little game. I decided to talk to him the way he's probably used to being talked to - quite rudely. Of course, he responded to my sass and told me exactly where I needed to go to get the Metro and how I would find the bus. Geez...
I got on the bus, went through Harlem and arrived at Columbia, and guess what! There was this outdoor market there! I met up with Margaret and Victor, and we decided to get crepes - strawberry and Nutella (mmmm....) crepe with whipped cream. It was sooooo good. We walked around for a bit, then headed to Victor's apartment to drop off my stuff, plus I wanted to change because it was hot as balls outside and I was wearing a sweater. Unfortunately by this point Victor had a meeting with his group from studio, so Margaret and I went off to Chelsea Market on our own. On the way to the Market, we stopped by this place called "Jamba Juice" and had really good fruit smoothies (Victor and his friends are obsessed with this place!). When we got to Chelsea Market, we went by Fat Witch, almost bought brownies, but decided to walk around and finish our smoothies first. By the time we finished our smoothies, we walked by a cupcake shop and was naturally drawn in by the giant cupcakes with mounds of icing on top, some in the shapes of Sesame Street characters, some with flowers and cakes that looked like Spongebob Squarepants. They also had a tray of red velvet cupcakes with loads of cream cheese frosting. When we saw that, Margaret revealed to me that she had never had red velvet before. Well, of course we had to get it! So we bought one and split it....to save room for brownies later. We ate (it was the PERFECT red velvet - super moist with a hint of cocoa and the cream cheese frosting was not overly sweet) and walked and saw soooo many yummy things. There was a shop with gelato, a shop with ice cream, egg creams and milkshakes, one with many, MANY chocolates and a bread shop. We resisted the temptation and went to the Fat Witch for brownies. It was DEFINITELY worth it. I have to say, the original Fat Witch is still the best out of all of them. It is INSANELY chocolatey, dense and moist.
We met up with Victor after our sweet adventures in Chelsea, and by that point, he was starving. We decided to go to Fairway (I've never been) to get him food and also to get food for breakfast the next morning. Victor decided to get a sweet potato biscuit (sweet, but not too sweet...kinda like a sweet potato scone) and half a roasted chicken for his late lunch. We also go bagels, cream cheese and lox for our breakfast. On the way to Fairway, we noticed a Gray's Papaya, so we stopped by there to get their Recession Special (two hotdogs and a juice) before going over to Central Park to eat. Victor, in addition to the biscuit and half chicken, also ate two of our hotdogs (honestly couldn't believe he ate all that). While we were at Central Park, we ran into Dave Chapelle and his family. That was pretty neat.
Right after we left Central Park (we stayed there for awhile and enjoyed the scenery...and gave out stomachs a rest), we took the train to Chinatown to eat dinner (yes, lots and lots of eating). Victor wanted to take us to this Chinese place, but there was a really long line outside and an hour wait. Apparently, this hole in the wall was highly reviewed and is now over flooded with white people (that's what Victor said). He decided to take us to an authentic Taiwanese place down the street. It was pretty good. I know I went to Taipei this summer, but I'm not sure I can say I've had real Taiwanese food (well, I had all that stuff in Keelung, but that was special seafood). It was pretty good. We ordered chicken soup, fried chicken with rice and noodles (kinda tasted like lo mein). I was particularly impressed with the noodles. They were chewy and tasted very fresh. Victor said they probably bought them from a noodle place near by.
We were pretty much stuffed after dinner....but I HAD to get steamed pork buns. It's funny how I've become so obsessed with them. For the past two or three months, I've been craving them and searching for them at the Asian markets. The one thing that I knew I HAD to get on this trip was steamed pork buns. My cravings were only heightened by an article in Food and Wine (I bought it at the airport to read on the plane) that featured a Korean-Chinese chef, and his specialty - steamed pork buns. I basically sat on the plane and stared and drooled all over myself for two hours. Soooo....we went by a bakery and got steamed pork buns. Mmmm...it was soooooo good...
The next morning, we had our bagels and lox, and it was GOOD. It's amazing how much your palate changes over time. The first time I had bagels with cream cheese and lox was my freshman year in high school at All-State Orchestra in Boone, NC. I thought it tasted like crap and decided I'd never have that again. Well, you know how I've gotten with food. I've given another chance to many foods that I hated in the past, like pesto (yummy!). Maybe it's because it was NYC bagels and lox. Maybe it was the fact that I was in NYC eating the NYC bagels and lox. I don't know, but it was damn good.
After breakfast, we headed for church. Victor attends the English service at a Korean church that rents out space from an elementary school. It was nice. Afterwards, we had Chinese food for lunch, provided by a couple that got married the day before at the the church (they were there, too. Margaret was like, "If I got married yesterday, I would not be here right now!" I could've easily embarrassed her, but I decided against it...although, I did point out that I could easily embarrass her). AND THEN....the most exciting part of the trip - Jacques Torres Chocolates! It was really nice. We went to his shop on Hudson (which was not easy to find). It was all decked out with autumn colors, decorations and of course, chocolates shaped like pumpkins. Everything in the shop was chocolate, covered in chocolate or liquid chocolate. It smelled absolutely amazing in there. I wanted to buy EVERYTHING there, but I couldn't (things were pricey...but all worth it, I'm sure), so I walked away (sadly, by the way - I didn't want to leave) with a box of assorted chocolates (earl grey infused, ancho and chili pepper, hazelnut, fresh coconut, port, etc), a small package of chocolate covered espresso beans for my parents (which they completely devoured apparently) and a bag of chocolate covered raisins for Margaret. They do this neat thing where they give you a cooler bag with an ice pack so that the chocolates don't melt while you're walking around. Isn't that great?? I thought that was super.
That evening, Margaret and I went to Bryan's concert. I was so proud of him! It really turned out to be a big deal (it make the critic's choice on nycmag.com!) and lots of people showed up. Afterwards, Bryan, Lawrence (the star performer of the show) and I wandered around Hell's Kitchen to find a place to eat. We once asked a group of guys on the street for directions, and they laughed at us. That definitely would not happen down here. Whatever, we found what we wanted in the end, and Bryan and Lawrence got piss drunk. Our bill came out to be $165, $75 of it was from their drinks. And they weren't done. We left the pub because Amy (the other star performer of the show) and I had to get back. The boys walked us to the Metro and promptly found their way to another bar to drink some more. Boys....
That's basically the end of my trip. The next day, I had to get on the plane back to ATL.
Oh, at the airport, I had a chocolate croissant, and it was really, really good. Anyways, the trip was short and sweet. Next time, I'm taking Andrew with me, and we're gonna hit the big restaurants. We'll probably have to save up for a few months for that, but that's okay. It'll definitely be worth every penny.
On Saturday morning (very, very early) I left ATL for LGA. I was on my way to the Big Apple (anyone know why they call it that?). The flight was alright...I mean, it was cheap, so what did I expect, right? We were on the way to the runway, and they called us back to the gate because something was opened. And then when we arrived in LGA, they kept us from the gate because or something. Man, what is it with me and bad luck with LGA?
Once I arrive, I had to take the M60 bus to Columbia, where I would meet up with Victor and Margaret. Well, I didn't know how to find the M60 or how to get on it. Naturally, I followed the signs for "Ground transportation information" and asked the nice looking fellow for information on how to find and get onto the bus. He looked at me and said, "You need a Metro card." So I looked at him and said, "Can I get one here?" And he had this smirk on his face as he said, "No." And that was it. By this point, I saw right through his little game. I decided to talk to him the way he's probably used to being talked to - quite rudely. Of course, he responded to my sass and told me exactly where I needed to go to get the Metro and how I would find the bus. Geez...
I got on the bus, went through Harlem and arrived at Columbia, and guess what! There was this outdoor market there! I met up with Margaret and Victor, and we decided to get crepes - strawberry and Nutella (mmmm....) crepe with whipped cream. It was sooooo good. We walked around for a bit, then headed to Victor's apartment to drop off my stuff, plus I wanted to change because it was hot as balls outside and I was wearing a sweater. Unfortunately by this point Victor had a meeting with his group from studio, so Margaret and I went off to Chelsea Market on our own. On the way to the Market, we stopped by this place called "Jamba Juice" and had really good fruit smoothies (Victor and his friends are obsessed with this place!). When we got to Chelsea Market, we went by Fat Witch, almost bought brownies, but decided to walk around and finish our smoothies first. By the time we finished our smoothies, we walked by a cupcake shop and was naturally drawn in by the giant cupcakes with mounds of icing on top, some in the shapes of Sesame Street characters, some with flowers and cakes that looked like Spongebob Squarepants. They also had a tray of red velvet cupcakes with loads of cream cheese frosting. When we saw that, Margaret revealed to me that she had never had red velvet before. Well, of course we had to get it! So we bought one and split it....to save room for brownies later. We ate (it was the PERFECT red velvet - super moist with a hint of cocoa and the cream cheese frosting was not overly sweet) and walked and saw soooo many yummy things. There was a shop with gelato, a shop with ice cream, egg creams and milkshakes, one with many, MANY chocolates and a bread shop. We resisted the temptation and went to the Fat Witch for brownies. It was DEFINITELY worth it. I have to say, the original Fat Witch is still the best out of all of them. It is INSANELY chocolatey, dense and moist.
We met up with Victor after our sweet adventures in Chelsea, and by that point, he was starving. We decided to go to Fairway (I've never been) to get him food and also to get food for breakfast the next morning. Victor decided to get a sweet potato biscuit (sweet, but not too sweet...kinda like a sweet potato scone) and half a roasted chicken for his late lunch. We also go bagels, cream cheese and lox for our breakfast. On the way to Fairway, we noticed a Gray's Papaya, so we stopped by there to get their Recession Special (two hotdogs and a juice) before going over to Central Park to eat. Victor, in addition to the biscuit and half chicken, also ate two of our hotdogs (honestly couldn't believe he ate all that). While we were at Central Park, we ran into Dave Chapelle and his family. That was pretty neat.
Right after we left Central Park (we stayed there for awhile and enjoyed the scenery...and gave out stomachs a rest), we took the train to Chinatown to eat dinner (yes, lots and lots of eating). Victor wanted to take us to this Chinese place, but there was a really long line outside and an hour wait. Apparently, this hole in the wall was highly reviewed and is now over flooded with white people (that's what Victor said). He decided to take us to an authentic Taiwanese place down the street. It was pretty good. I know I went to Taipei this summer, but I'm not sure I can say I've had real Taiwanese food (well, I had all that stuff in Keelung, but that was special seafood). It was pretty good. We ordered chicken soup, fried chicken with rice and noodles (kinda tasted like lo mein). I was particularly impressed with the noodles. They were chewy and tasted very fresh. Victor said they probably bought them from a noodle place near by.
We were pretty much stuffed after dinner....but I HAD to get steamed pork buns. It's funny how I've become so obsessed with them. For the past two or three months, I've been craving them and searching for them at the Asian markets. The one thing that I knew I HAD to get on this trip was steamed pork buns. My cravings were only heightened by an article in Food and Wine (I bought it at the airport to read on the plane) that featured a Korean-Chinese chef, and his specialty - steamed pork buns. I basically sat on the plane and stared and drooled all over myself for two hours. Soooo....we went by a bakery and got steamed pork buns. Mmmm...it was soooooo good...
The next morning, we had our bagels and lox, and it was GOOD. It's amazing how much your palate changes over time. The first time I had bagels with cream cheese and lox was my freshman year in high school at All-State Orchestra in Boone, NC. I thought it tasted like crap and decided I'd never have that again. Well, you know how I've gotten with food. I've given another chance to many foods that I hated in the past, like pesto (yummy!). Maybe it's because it was NYC bagels and lox. Maybe it was the fact that I was in NYC eating the NYC bagels and lox. I don't know, but it was damn good.
After breakfast, we headed for church. Victor attends the English service at a Korean church that rents out space from an elementary school. It was nice. Afterwards, we had Chinese food for lunch, provided by a couple that got married the day before at the the church (they were there, too. Margaret was like, "If I got married yesterday, I would not be here right now!" I could've easily embarrassed her, but I decided against it...although, I did point out that I could easily embarrass her). AND THEN....the most exciting part of the trip - Jacques Torres Chocolates! It was really nice. We went to his shop on Hudson (which was not easy to find). It was all decked out with autumn colors, decorations and of course, chocolates shaped like pumpkins. Everything in the shop was chocolate, covered in chocolate or liquid chocolate. It smelled absolutely amazing in there. I wanted to buy EVERYTHING there, but I couldn't (things were pricey...but all worth it, I'm sure), so I walked away (sadly, by the way - I didn't want to leave) with a box of assorted chocolates (earl grey infused, ancho and chili pepper, hazelnut, fresh coconut, port, etc), a small package of chocolate covered espresso beans for my parents (which they completely devoured apparently) and a bag of chocolate covered raisins for Margaret. They do this neat thing where they give you a cooler bag with an ice pack so that the chocolates don't melt while you're walking around. Isn't that great?? I thought that was super.
That evening, Margaret and I went to Bryan's concert. I was so proud of him! It really turned out to be a big deal (it make the critic's choice on nycmag.com!) and lots of people showed up. Afterwards, Bryan, Lawrence (the star performer of the show) and I wandered around Hell's Kitchen to find a place to eat. We once asked a group of guys on the street for directions, and they laughed at us. That definitely would not happen down here. Whatever, we found what we wanted in the end, and Bryan and Lawrence got piss drunk. Our bill came out to be $165, $75 of it was from their drinks. And they weren't done. We left the pub because Amy (the other star performer of the show) and I had to get back. The boys walked us to the Metro and promptly found their way to another bar to drink some more. Boys....
That's basically the end of my trip. The next day, I had to get on the plane back to ATL.
Oh, at the airport, I had a chocolate croissant, and it was really, really good. Anyways, the trip was short and sweet. Next time, I'm taking Andrew with me, and we're gonna hit the big restaurants. We'll probably have to save up for a few months for that, but that's okay. It'll definitely be worth every penny.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The last couple days have been AMAZING. I'm talking about the weather, of course. We're finally getting a taste of cooler weather, and it's definitely putting me in the mood for things such as:
1) hot soups
2) Chopin Nocturnes
3) Chet Baker (when am I ever not in the mood for Chet?)
4) picnics among the falling leaves
5) mountains!
6) all things orange, red and gold
7) everything pumpkin and apples
Speaking of pumpkins and apples, last year I came up with the idea to have a "pumpkin and apple party." Well, I went on the Martha Stewart website last night, and guess what - in the entertainment section of the website, she has "Pumpkin and Apple Party" as one of her party ideas. SHE STOLE MY IDEA! You know what? I'm in always one step ahead of Martha, I'm pretty sure I could do exactly what she's been doing now, except better. I'll beat her at her own game! Just imagine: the "Grace Song" line of dishes, serving ware and linens at your local Macy's. The "Grace Song Living" magazine. Yeah...I like that idea...
1) hot soups
2) Chopin Nocturnes
3) Chet Baker (when am I ever not in the mood for Chet?)
4) picnics among the falling leaves
5) mountains!
6) all things orange, red and gold
7) everything pumpkin and apples
Speaking of pumpkins and apples, last year I came up with the idea to have a "pumpkin and apple party." Well, I went on the Martha Stewart website last night, and guess what - in the entertainment section of the website, she has "Pumpkin and Apple Party" as one of her party ideas. SHE STOLE MY IDEA! You know what? I'm in always one step ahead of Martha, I'm pretty sure I could do exactly what she's been doing now, except better. I'll beat her at her own game! Just imagine: the "Grace Song" line of dishes, serving ware and linens at your local Macy's. The "Grace Song Living" magazine. Yeah...I like that idea...
Thursday, September 06, 2007
:: Trois ::
Tonight, Whitney and I went to Trois. It's a restaurant that I've been wanting to go to since it's anticipated opening a few years ago. It was voted Atlanta's best restaurant last year, and Whitney's brother works there. It's always seemed like a place that I would need to save up to go to, but right now, they're having a three course, 6 dish tasting menu for $25, so we decided to go.
Trois has three levels - the bottom level is a bar, middle is the restaurant and the top (I think) is a floor for private parties. The restuarant is all white - white tablecloth, drapes, lamps (even the wait staff was wearing all white) with green chairs and candles. It's very simple and clean. There are windows all around the dining area, with one side facing the Four Seasons, curving around to a patio dining area. The first thing that comes out after you order is a glass of champagne and a "gift" from the chef. Tonight, it was a melon gazpacho in a shot glass. Next was the bread with roasted vegetable spread. The tasting menu consists of two appetizers, two main course dishes and two desserts. They all came in small portions (so your ass isn't the size of Texas by the time you get out). Here's what we had:
Appetizers: heirloom tomatoes with goat cheese and balsamic vinegarette
beef skewer with duck fat fries and bearnaise (mmm...duck fat...)
Entry: duck with something that tasted like hosin sauce and something that tasted like cauliflower mash
Flounder with capers, lemon, tomatos and onions with cauliflower mash (I think it had peas added also)
Dessert: something that tasted like a flourless chocolate cake
chocolate chip mint ice cream over crumbled chocolate cookies and marinated cherries
(REAL mint leaves!)
It was really, really good. Apparently, I didn't get excited about any of the food until the dessert. I don't remember that at all, but when we got the dessert, I guess my face lit up or something because Whitney said, "You're soo pastry girl. You've kept your cool about the rest of the food and got all excited about the dessert." What can I say....I like chocolate....A LOT.
So you know at the end of a meal at a restaurant how some places give you mints? Well, at Trois, you get a whole bar (it was not small at all) of chocolate, and they break it up for you (it was definitely not Hersey's....it looked like they made it at the restaurant).
I definitely approve of this place. Complimentary champagne? "Gifts" from the chef? Free GOOD chocolate at the end of the meal? SIGN ME UP.
Tonight, Whitney and I went to Trois. It's a restaurant that I've been wanting to go to since it's anticipated opening a few years ago. It was voted Atlanta's best restaurant last year, and Whitney's brother works there. It's always seemed like a place that I would need to save up to go to, but right now, they're having a three course, 6 dish tasting menu for $25, so we decided to go.
Trois has three levels - the bottom level is a bar, middle is the restaurant and the top (I think) is a floor for private parties. The restuarant is all white - white tablecloth, drapes, lamps (even the wait staff was wearing all white) with green chairs and candles. It's very simple and clean. There are windows all around the dining area, with one side facing the Four Seasons, curving around to a patio dining area. The first thing that comes out after you order is a glass of champagne and a "gift" from the chef. Tonight, it was a melon gazpacho in a shot glass. Next was the bread with roasted vegetable spread. The tasting menu consists of two appetizers, two main course dishes and two desserts. They all came in small portions (so your ass isn't the size of Texas by the time you get out). Here's what we had:
Appetizers: heirloom tomatoes with goat cheese and balsamic vinegarette
beef skewer with duck fat fries and bearnaise (mmm...duck fat...)
Entry: duck with something that tasted like hosin sauce and something that tasted like cauliflower mash
Flounder with capers, lemon, tomatos and onions with cauliflower mash (I think it had peas added also)
Dessert: something that tasted like a flourless chocolate cake
chocolate chip mint ice cream over crumbled chocolate cookies and marinated cherries
(REAL mint leaves!)
It was really, really good. Apparently, I didn't get excited about any of the food until the dessert. I don't remember that at all, but when we got the dessert, I guess my face lit up or something because Whitney said, "You're soo pastry girl. You've kept your cool about the rest of the food and got all excited about the dessert." What can I say....I like chocolate....A LOT.
So you know at the end of a meal at a restaurant how some places give you mints? Well, at Trois, you get a whole bar (it was not small at all) of chocolate, and they break it up for you (it was definitely not Hersey's....it looked like they made it at the restaurant).
I definitely approve of this place. Complimentary champagne? "Gifts" from the chef? Free GOOD chocolate at the end of the meal? SIGN ME UP.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Last Day
So the time has come, ladies and gentlemen, for me to go back to the ATL. You know, it's funny...I've been calling Korea the motherland, but today when I went into the store, the lady there said, "You're not from here, right?" So I asked her if she could tell, and she said, "Yes, plus you were in here the other day with a foreigner" (Matt). I told her where I live and all that, and she said, "Do you have problems speaking and reading Korean?" I told her a little bit, but not much, and then she kinda laughed and said, "It's like your a foreigner here, but you're a foreigner there too!" Okay, so it's not like I've never thought about that before. And being here really has made me realize that I definitely don't really belong here, but I don't completely belong over there either. WHO AM I, DAMNIT?! hehehe...
Anyways, I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon at 2pm, which means I'll get back to ATL around 6pm EST. How do I feel about going home, you ask? Well, I've only been looking at and talking to Asian people for the past 4 weeks (except for Matt...), so I think it'll be kinda weird seeing such a mix of people again. It'll also be weird not riding public transportation (but I think I might start doing it more often), and having the right of way as a pedestrian will be really weird too (I think I could've died at least 5 times while I've been out here). I feel like I've learned a lot about people out here - how they live, how they act, etc - and as much as I've bitched about being out here without a car, dryer, and being called fat all the time, I think I might just miss being out here enough to come back sometime...soon. I'll definitely miss eating street food and smelling waffles in the subway (yes, there are waffles in the subways). I'll miss clothes for $5 and shoes for $10. I'll miss having so many people around that care so much about us. I've pretty much invited every single family member to come visit us out in the ATL, so I really hope that some of them will seriously consider the offer and visit, especially the younger cousins (out of the entire Song side of the family (~100 total), only 4 are 25 and younger).
I guess the next time I write, it'll be at home (where ever that is, right?). I'll probably speak to most of you very soon. I bought presents! Well, kinda. I didn't get a chance to buy too much, and I don't know what all I've purchased, but we'll see. I can't wait to see Coco! Oh, and Andrew :)
So the time has come, ladies and gentlemen, for me to go back to the ATL. You know, it's funny...I've been calling Korea the motherland, but today when I went into the store, the lady there said, "You're not from here, right?" So I asked her if she could tell, and she said, "Yes, plus you were in here the other day with a foreigner" (Matt). I told her where I live and all that, and she said, "Do you have problems speaking and reading Korean?" I told her a little bit, but not much, and then she kinda laughed and said, "It's like your a foreigner here, but you're a foreigner there too!" Okay, so it's not like I've never thought about that before. And being here really has made me realize that I definitely don't really belong here, but I don't completely belong over there either. WHO AM I, DAMNIT?! hehehe...
Anyways, I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon at 2pm, which means I'll get back to ATL around 6pm EST. How do I feel about going home, you ask? Well, I've only been looking at and talking to Asian people for the past 4 weeks (except for Matt...), so I think it'll be kinda weird seeing such a mix of people again. It'll also be weird not riding public transportation (but I think I might start doing it more often), and having the right of way as a pedestrian will be really weird too (I think I could've died at least 5 times while I've been out here). I feel like I've learned a lot about people out here - how they live, how they act, etc - and as much as I've bitched about being out here without a car, dryer, and being called fat all the time, I think I might just miss being out here enough to come back sometime...soon. I'll definitely miss eating street food and smelling waffles in the subway (yes, there are waffles in the subways). I'll miss clothes for $5 and shoes for $10. I'll miss having so many people around that care so much about us. I've pretty much invited every single family member to come visit us out in the ATL, so I really hope that some of them will seriously consider the offer and visit, especially the younger cousins (out of the entire Song side of the family (~100 total), only 4 are 25 and younger).
I guess the next time I write, it'll be at home (where ever that is, right?). I'll probably speak to most of you very soon. I bought presents! Well, kinda. I didn't get a chance to buy too much, and I don't know what all I've purchased, but we'll see. I can't wait to see Coco! Oh, and Andrew :)
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Family
Since we've been in Seoul, our cousin (my mother's brother's daughter), MinJong, has been taking us around the city, showing us some cool places to eat/shop/hang out. I seriously don't know what we would do without her. She's been amazing. Also, another cousin (my dad's sister's younger son) was home from the army a few days ago, and on his last full day of leave, he was kind enough to take Gloria and me around also. He took us to Shin Sah Dong, which was a really cool shopping district. It is near this little creek type thing that leads to a bigger creek under the sidewalks and there are also bridges that go over it. We took some pictures on the bridge and of the creek. We walked down to the water, and my cousin said that you can go into the water. Sooo....I took off my flip flops and boldly stepped into the water, where I promptly slipped and fell in. Damn the algae! Them bitches were slippery. Anyways, I was basically, from head to toe, soaked. See, the thing is, it really wouldn't've been that bad, except I totally drew attention to myself by laughing super loudly while I was flailing my limbs trying to get out of the water. All the old people who were sitting there were laughing at me. Honestly, I should've just started swimming around, pretending to take a bath or something. We were really far away from home, so I just had to walk around Seoul like that for the rest of the day. Gloria refused to stand next to me, and from time to time, she'd look over and say, "Unni...you're gonna stink from that fungus water" or "Ew! Don't touch me!" or "Unniiiii...buy some new clothes." Hehehe...it's definitely something to remember about that place.
Okay, so back to family. We've been all over the place, and we've stayed with family at every city. For the most part, they've been very hospitable. Okay, they've been more than hospitable. They've been really awesome. It's been a real pain in the ass following my parents around, going from place to place every night, having to haul luggage around everywhere we go, but meeting the family and all that has been worth it (for the most part). Everywhere we go, we do get the occasional, "Wow...look how...BIG you've gotten" or the "It's okay if you're fat, your face is still the same as the last time I saw you," but I guess I'm getting used to it (is that a good thing or a bad thing?). I'm able to get myself around the city (yes, without the parental unit and the cousins) because, SURPRISE! I'm Korean!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
:: Busan ::
Right now, I'm in Busan. It's about 5 hours from Seoul, on the southeastern part of the country. We're staying with my cousin and his family, and it's been pretty nice. I've been fairly impressed with the scenery, the technology and everything else around here. It's cleaner than Seoul, which is always a good thing. Yesterday we went out to see some historic stuff from the Shinli Dynesty. The coolest part of the whole trip was that my mom's cousin and his family came out, and his wife just so happens to be the person that translated the tour of the museum for President Bush while he was visiting Busan. So...we got a pretty detailed explanation of everything. One of the most interesting things that she pointed out was this thing...it was made of stone, and it was shaped like a...ya know...thingie. Anyways, she said that it represents fertility and all that, but some people think that it was for the queen because she got lonely from the king being away so much. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....sorry. So after she told us that, Gloria and I tried to play it off cool and said, "oh...okay." But after about 2 minutes, Gloria said very quietly, "I need to get a picture of that" and slowly slipped away from the group. Hehehehe...man, we're immature.
I think Busan's really the first place that I've really thought, "Hey...it's nice here, I'd like to stay for longer." According to my counsin, Japan is only 2.5 hours away by boat. !!! I'm definitely planning on coming back, and next time, I'm NOT coming with my parents. I'll bring Andrew...and Coco.
Right now, I'm in Busan. It's about 5 hours from Seoul, on the southeastern part of the country. We're staying with my cousin and his family, and it's been pretty nice. I've been fairly impressed with the scenery, the technology and everything else around here. It's cleaner than Seoul, which is always a good thing. Yesterday we went out to see some historic stuff from the Shinli Dynesty. The coolest part of the whole trip was that my mom's cousin and his family came out, and his wife just so happens to be the person that translated the tour of the museum for President Bush while he was visiting Busan. So...we got a pretty detailed explanation of everything. One of the most interesting things that she pointed out was this thing...it was made of stone, and it was shaped like a...ya know...thingie. Anyways, she said that it represents fertility and all that, but some people think that it was for the queen because she got lonely from the king being away so much. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....sorry. So after she told us that, Gloria and I tried to play it off cool and said, "oh...okay." But after about 2 minutes, Gloria said very quietly, "I need to get a picture of that" and slowly slipped away from the group. Hehehehe...man, we're immature.
I think Busan's really the first place that I've really thought, "Hey...it's nice here, I'd like to stay for longer." According to my counsin, Japan is only 2.5 hours away by boat. !!! I'm definitely planning on coming back, and next time, I'm NOT coming with my parents. I'll bring Andrew...and Coco.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Taiwan Part II
After dinner that night, we went to this lounge/bar somewhere in Taipei. It was really, really nice - very swank, very chic - and I was completely underdressed for it. Matt said it doesn't matter, he goes underdressed all the time, but I told him that it's because he's a boy and very foreign looking, but I'm a girl, and I don't look all that foreign looking. Speaking of which, it was really funny when we went around, because people will look at me and speak Chinese all the time. I'd just kinda look at them...and then look at Matt, and he'd start speaking Chinese to them. Hehehe...it was funny. Matt said he liked that because it was unpredictable.
The second day in Taipei, we went to a whole bunch of places, like 101 (the tallest building in Taipei (I think...)), where we went up to look at the view of the city, we went by the square where the symphony plays and the theater is and the Shilin night market. The most interesting, I think was the night market. There were a whole bunch of people there...like, it was ridiculously crowded, and I was really afraid that I was going to lose Matt, but I didn't. There were lots of food vendors with things on sticks, abnormal animal body parts (such as animal feet, heart, blood sausage) AND THEN....there was something called stinky tofu. And it's exactly what it sounds like - it smells like middle school boys' socks after a week of wearing them during gym. I happened to avoid eating the stuff, despite Matt's persistent efforts to get me to try it.
The last day, Sunday, we didn't go to church (if I go to hell, it's Matt's fault), but we did go to the Keelung to have a seafood feast with some of Matt's co-workers. They were super nice and had very strange names like Seventeen and Sirius. I guess it didn't really surprise me when Matt told me that people choose their English names later in life, because that's basically what happens with people in Korea, but Seventeen? Either way, they were cool people, and Seventeen happens to be the owner of a particularly cute baby. He was soooo cute. I wanted to hug him and squeeze him and kiss him and hold him and love him and take him home with me forever and ever. At one point, he was just sitting there on his dad's lap, and he yawned the cutest yawn ever, and then just fell asleep. It was SO CUTE.
Okay....moving on (I just had to slap myself a couple times there).
Unfortunately, it rained all freakin' day. We were gonna go to this mountain thingie where you can pick calla lilies and eat food (something like that...I love calla lilies), but it was raining so we didn't go. But we did go to the National Palace Museum, which was really cool. On the way there, we met some Korean girls who are students in Taipei. They got super excited that I was Korean, and they wanted us to take a picture with them (that was kinda weird), and one of the girls even wanted to get my email address and stuff (I hope she doesn't pimp me out or something).
The museum itself was pretty neat. Old stuff is always neat to me, but then again, I'm a big fat nerd. I always wonder how people got around to creating some of the stuff that they did. There was this one thing that looked like a large ornament, and the ball in the middle was made of one piece of ivory, and it has at least seventeen layers of carved ivory inside. It was pretty crazy. I wish I could've taken pictures, but I think I might've been tackled by a big scary Taiwanese dude if I had. The last thing that we saw was this bok choi cabbage that was made of jade. We thought it was pretty cool, but when we went down to the gift shop, it was all over the place. Lucky we got to see it. We had limited time, and we didn't get to see everything.
That night we found the jade market, bought jade for my mom, then went to dinner at another night market with Matilda. AND THEN....I learned how to do a Rubics Cube! We had to leave the next morning at 6, and Matt hadn't packed yet, so he stayed up and packed, and I stayed up and did the Rubics Cube. Matt's a pretty good teacher - much more patient that I am - and he used the self guiding method whenever I had a question or wanted to pull my hair out from frustration. Anyways, around 2am, I finished it! YAY~! I should've taken a picture, but I don't think people would've believed it anyway.
So now I'm in Gwangju at my oldest uncle's house. I basically arrived at the airport and was put on a bus for four hours to come here. My ass was not happy at the end of the night. Thank god Matt forced the little pineapple pastries on me, because that's bascially all I had to eat from 1pm to 10pm. I probably would've died if it hadn't been for those delightful little things (don't worry, I didn't eat all 8 of them or whatever, I only had 2). Anyways, I had a good time in Taiwan. I wish I could've seen more outside of Taipei, but time was limited. Maybe...next time?
After dinner that night, we went to this lounge/bar somewhere in Taipei. It was really, really nice - very swank, very chic - and I was completely underdressed for it. Matt said it doesn't matter, he goes underdressed all the time, but I told him that it's because he's a boy and very foreign looking, but I'm a girl, and I don't look all that foreign looking. Speaking of which, it was really funny when we went around, because people will look at me and speak Chinese all the time. I'd just kinda look at them...and then look at Matt, and he'd start speaking Chinese to them. Hehehe...it was funny. Matt said he liked that because it was unpredictable.
The second day in Taipei, we went to a whole bunch of places, like 101 (the tallest building in Taipei (I think...)), where we went up to look at the view of the city, we went by the square where the symphony plays and the theater is and the Shilin night market. The most interesting, I think was the night market. There were a whole bunch of people there...like, it was ridiculously crowded, and I was really afraid that I was going to lose Matt, but I didn't. There were lots of food vendors with things on sticks, abnormal animal body parts (such as animal feet, heart, blood sausage) AND THEN....there was something called stinky tofu. And it's exactly what it sounds like - it smells like middle school boys' socks after a week of wearing them during gym. I happened to avoid eating the stuff, despite Matt's persistent efforts to get me to try it.
The last day, Sunday, we didn't go to church (if I go to hell, it's Matt's fault), but we did go to the Keelung to have a seafood feast with some of Matt's co-workers. They were super nice and had very strange names like Seventeen and Sirius. I guess it didn't really surprise me when Matt told me that people choose their English names later in life, because that's basically what happens with people in Korea, but Seventeen? Either way, they were cool people, and Seventeen happens to be the owner of a particularly cute baby. He was soooo cute. I wanted to hug him and squeeze him and kiss him and hold him and love him and take him home with me forever and ever. At one point, he was just sitting there on his dad's lap, and he yawned the cutest yawn ever, and then just fell asleep. It was SO CUTE.
Okay....moving on (I just had to slap myself a couple times there).
Unfortunately, it rained all freakin' day. We were gonna go to this mountain thingie where you can pick calla lilies and eat food (something like that...I love calla lilies), but it was raining so we didn't go. But we did go to the National Palace Museum, which was really cool. On the way there, we met some Korean girls who are students in Taipei. They got super excited that I was Korean, and they wanted us to take a picture with them (that was kinda weird), and one of the girls even wanted to get my email address and stuff (I hope she doesn't pimp me out or something).
The museum itself was pretty neat. Old stuff is always neat to me, but then again, I'm a big fat nerd. I always wonder how people got around to creating some of the stuff that they did. There was this one thing that looked like a large ornament, and the ball in the middle was made of one piece of ivory, and it has at least seventeen layers of carved ivory inside. It was pretty crazy. I wish I could've taken pictures, but I think I might've been tackled by a big scary Taiwanese dude if I had. The last thing that we saw was this bok choi cabbage that was made of jade. We thought it was pretty cool, but when we went down to the gift shop, it was all over the place. Lucky we got to see it. We had limited time, and we didn't get to see everything.
That night we found the jade market, bought jade for my mom, then went to dinner at another night market with Matilda. AND THEN....I learned how to do a Rubics Cube! We had to leave the next morning at 6, and Matt hadn't packed yet, so he stayed up and packed, and I stayed up and did the Rubics Cube. Matt's a pretty good teacher - much more patient that I am - and he used the self guiding method whenever I had a question or wanted to pull my hair out from frustration. Anyways, around 2am, I finished it! YAY~! I should've taken a picture, but I don't think people would've believed it anyway.
So now I'm in Gwangju at my oldest uncle's house. I basically arrived at the airport and was put on a bus for four hours to come here. My ass was not happy at the end of the night. Thank god Matt forced the little pineapple pastries on me, because that's bascially all I had to eat from 1pm to 10pm. I probably would've died if it hadn't been for those delightful little things (don't worry, I didn't eat all 8 of them or whatever, I only had 2). Anyways, I had a good time in Taiwan. I wish I could've seen more outside of Taipei, but time was limited. Maybe...next time?
Sunday, June 03, 2007
A trip to Taiwan
I arrived in Taipei at 1:45pm on Friday afternoon. I was supposed to arrive at 2:05, but our plane was early....but they made up for it by having all the planes come in at one time, and having only 5 lines open at customs for non-citizens. It was pretty crazy - every time they opened a new line, people would RUN to the new line, pushing and shoving each other. Yep...that's my peoples...
Anyways, I met up with Matt, although I didn't see him waiting for me. I guess I didn't really look for him...I just kinda started walking over to the right side, and eventually, he came and got me, thank god. Three very significant things about Taipei: #1 - it's hot #2 - it's humid #3 - it's really, REALLY hot. In fact, the captain came on right before we landed and told us about what time it is in Taipei and the weather, and when he said, "It's currently 91 degrees F," I cussed. And then when we got off the plane onto the connecting thingie, the humidity and heat slapped me in the face and said, "Take that, beeotch!" I cussed again. And THEN...we went outside to the parking lot, and I cussed again. Can you tell I LOVE the weather here?
We went to IKEA from the airport because Matt only has one towel in his apartment, and I also needed to get bigger, NORMAL sized towels for my relatives in Seoul to rid the small towel disease. Anyways, IKEA in Taipei was pretty much like the IKEA in ATL...except smaller...and hotter...and everything and everyone's in Chinese. I think we spent about an hour at IKEA, picking out towels.
We finally arrived at his apartment and had some down time while waiting for Matilda, Matt's girlfriend. She took us out for Hong Kong style food somewhere in the city. It was good...but it's not anything I haven't tasted before, I guess. I dunno...maybe I'm just really used to the Asian thing? I haven't really felt any culture shock. Well, except the toilet thing. The food's been good, but not great. Actually, the food that I was really impressed with is the pork/vegetable buns that they sell in the little store downstairs. We had that yesterday morning for breakfast. But, more about that later...to be continued, probably when I get back to Seoul.
I arrived in Taipei at 1:45pm on Friday afternoon. I was supposed to arrive at 2:05, but our plane was early....but they made up for it by having all the planes come in at one time, and having only 5 lines open at customs for non-citizens. It was pretty crazy - every time they opened a new line, people would RUN to the new line, pushing and shoving each other. Yep...that's my peoples...
Anyways, I met up with Matt, although I didn't see him waiting for me. I guess I didn't really look for him...I just kinda started walking over to the right side, and eventually, he came and got me, thank god. Three very significant things about Taipei: #1 - it's hot #2 - it's humid #3 - it's really, REALLY hot. In fact, the captain came on right before we landed and told us about what time it is in Taipei and the weather, and when he said, "It's currently 91 degrees F," I cussed. And then when we got off the plane onto the connecting thingie, the humidity and heat slapped me in the face and said, "Take that, beeotch!" I cussed again. And THEN...we went outside to the parking lot, and I cussed again. Can you tell I LOVE the weather here?
We went to IKEA from the airport because Matt only has one towel in his apartment, and I also needed to get bigger, NORMAL sized towels for my relatives in Seoul to rid the small towel disease. Anyways, IKEA in Taipei was pretty much like the IKEA in ATL...except smaller...and hotter...and everything and everyone's in Chinese. I think we spent about an hour at IKEA, picking out towels.
We finally arrived at his apartment and had some down time while waiting for Matilda, Matt's girlfriend. She took us out for Hong Kong style food somewhere in the city. It was good...but it's not anything I haven't tasted before, I guess. I dunno...maybe I'm just really used to the Asian thing? I haven't really felt any culture shock. Well, except the toilet thing. The food's been good, but not great. Actually, the food that I was really impressed with is the pork/vegetable buns that they sell in the little store downstairs. We had that yesterday morning for breakfast. But, more about that later...to be continued, probably when I get back to Seoul.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Trip to Korea: Arrival and Day 1
Our first adventure was San Fransisco. We arrived there after a 5 hour plane ride, which started at 7:00am...but it was only 9am when we got there. The cool thing about that was that all the food places were serving breakfast and lunch. My parents and Gloria had lunch, and I had myself a second breakfast.
After the three hour layover, we finally got on the plane for the 12 hour flight to ICN. It was loooooong. I honestly couldn't believe how long it was. It was like time was moving at the speed of a snail, just to mess with my head. I would go to sleep, then wake up, thinking that 4 hours have passed, and it would only be half an hour after I fell asleep! I really thought I was going to die on that plane. It just dragged on forever and ever and ever. Just thinking about it makes me wanna vomit...arrgh....anyways, one cool thing about the flight was that we met this kid from Oklahoma (uhh...don't know about the spelling). He was really cool, and his Korean name happens to be Jooyoung, which is also Gloria's Korean name. He was supposed to sit right between my parents and us on the flight, but I told him that he can have the aisle seat, which sat him right next to Gloria. He was on his way to Mongolia for a mission trip, but his group was going to stay in Seoul for a couple days before. His dad is also a pastor. Anyways, talking to him made the flight a little more interesting.
So after like, 50000 hours on the plane, we FINALLY made it to ICN. We got there, picked up our 8 ginormous bags and went out to meet our relatives. My dad's little sister and her husband was there, and also my oldest uncle's oldest son (which would make him my uncle, except he's super old and has a bald spot). The first thing my aunt says is, "Oooh, haven't seen you guys in so long....look at you! You're the pig family!"***please refer to the footnote at the bottom of entry*** Yeah...that started things off TERRIFIC.
After the initial, "Hi, how are you, you're fat" stuff, we were hauled off into a "taxi" van, where I thought we were going to die because the driver was crazy and probably drunk. The driving in Korea is INSANE. I think our driver broke at least 10 traffic laws within the first 15 minutes of our drive to my grandparents'. It was really, really scary. We kept going over these bumps on bridges, and my head would literally hit the top of the car. And to make things worse, there was a HUGE traffice jam, AND the guy didn't have any idea where we were going. I think we spent a good hour in that car. It was awful, but we made it (how? I don't know). We were greeted by my grandparents (they've gotten so old...), my two cousins, my aunt and uncle. They all live in this very small three bedroom, one bathroom apartment. My grandmother had an awesome dinner waiting for us. See, this is what I've been looking forward to. My grandmother makes the best Korea food in the world! I really hope that when I have grandkids, they can say that about my cooking.
The next days, I opened my eyes, and the sun was up, so I got up. My mom and grandmother were also up, so I thought it was around 7:30 or 8. Noooo...the sun apparently rises freakishly early in Korea. It was 5:30AM. Yeah....I was pissed. Everyone else didn't get up until 8. So when everyone finally got up, my aunt and uncle went to work, my little cousin (well...she's 17) went to school, and my grandmother, sister, mother, big cousin (she's 20) and I went to the market to pick up some things to make for breakfast. My mom wanted me to make something for them. The market had pretty much everything we needed...except the only kind of cheese that they have around here is the processed yellow thing that comes in packs of 5. After breakfast, my mother wanted to go get her hair did, so we dropped her off at a nearby salon and wandered into the streets. The streets had lots of shops with clothes and shoes and vendors with food. I wanted to get sunglasses, so we stopped at this fancy looking shop that had glasses and sunglasses. I tried on this one pair that looked pretty good, checked out the price, and it said 90000 won. "Hey, that's about $9...that's super cheap," I thought. Then the sales lady showed me a pair of Chanels. They were HOT. I looked at the price: 320000 won. "$32??? Whoa...are these fake?" I thought. With the persuasion of my sister, I decided to buy them. I took out my wallet and went over to my counsin. "So I need three of these?" pointing at the 10000. "No, you need 32 of them," she said. "WHAT??" Yeah...I totally left out a zero. The freakin' sunglasses were $320. What the hell was I thinking. After feeling like a total idiot and apologizing over and over again to the sales lady, I left the shop...absolutely humiliated. Unforunately, I decided to go back for the $9 pair, which actually ended being $90, so I didn't buy those either. But my sister did get a pair of colored contacts, which made me feel a little better about the whole thing, but not really.
After that fiasco, we went back to the apartment, had lunch, then left for my aunt's shop. Her shop happens to be right next to my second oldest uncle's shop, which happens to be right next to his apartment, so we went there for dinner, which I didn't eat much of because I was still full from eating lunch. They kept telling us to eat, right after saying, "I'll get the fan out. The kids are so big, they're probably burning up right now." Did I want to jab someone in the eye? If you answered, "Yes, and you probably wanted to kick someone in the balls too," you are correct. After dinner, we came to my aunt's apartment in Gimpo. Before we got here, my sister kept asking my dad if her apartment was better than my grandparents. He kept saying yes, but you know my dad...he'll lie to you for fun, just to take pleasure in your misery later. But this time, he wasn't lying! Her apartment is AWESOME. There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a really big kitchen and livingroom, and every room in the house has its own deck. The backside faces the mountains, and the front faces the freeway and a farm. I seriously want to live here...and I'm really glad that I feel that way because I was starting to dislike Korea. The people are rude and my dad's starting to join them in the Koreanness, everything's dirty and loud, and everyone here thinks that I look like Jabba the Hutt. We'll see how today goes...I think it'll get better.
***So in Korea, there are lots of skinny ass bitches who are extremely shallow and very critical of others. My relatives are no different. There hasn't been a single time yet where we've met up with one of them, where they haven't commented on the fact that we're "bigger" than them. I mean, honestly. It's not like I haven't thought about it, ya know? I've always considered myself to be on the chubby side, but not obese. They're all talking like I'm going to die if I don't lose a few pounds. I've really been trying to hold my tongue. You know how hard that can be for me sometimes. I like my thoughts to be shared from time to time, and right now, they really don't know my thoughts. If they did, I think they'd kick me out of their house. I've expressed myself to my parents, but that's about it. Anyways, if you are not a skinny bitch, you should NOT come to Korea. They will make you want to kill yourself.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Cinco de Mayo!
Yesterday was the 8th grade concert with the high schoolers at Central. They didn't play as well as I would've liked them to, but at the end of the concert, I felt very, very relieved that it was over. I was pretty stressed out about the concert and other things this week. It's been quite full. Anyways, during the banquet after the concert, a parent of a high schooler came up to me and told me that these 8th graders have been the best that she's seen in the past couple years. Later, Kevin told me that he had a lot of other parents comment about how good the 8th graders were. !!!! Whoa...is this what it feels like to know that you're doing something right? Man, if they're excited about my 8th graders this year, I can't wait till they see my 8th graders next year. They're gonna be awesome!
Wow, am I actually excited about my job? Maybe I just need a little support for once.
Yesterday was the 8th grade concert with the high schoolers at Central. They didn't play as well as I would've liked them to, but at the end of the concert, I felt very, very relieved that it was over. I was pretty stressed out about the concert and other things this week. It's been quite full. Anyways, during the banquet after the concert, a parent of a high schooler came up to me and told me that these 8th graders have been the best that she's seen in the past couple years. Later, Kevin told me that he had a lot of other parents comment about how good the 8th graders were. !!!! Whoa...is this what it feels like to know that you're doing something right? Man, if they're excited about my 8th graders this year, I can't wait till they see my 8th graders next year. They're gonna be awesome!
Wow, am I actually excited about my job? Maybe I just need a little support for once.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
::An interesting morning::
I was on the phone with Andrew this morning around 7:30, and I heard someone trying to get into my apartment. Andrew said I was just imagining things, and I shouldn't worry about it. Well, it kept happening, so finally I asked who it was, and here's what happened:
"Who is it?"
"Lindsey."
"Ummm...I think you have the wrong apartment."
"blahblah, blah, Eric, blahblahblaaaaaaaaaahhh."
"Umm..."
...and I opened the door. I was rather shocked at what I was seeing. There was Lindsey (whoever she is) standing at my door wearing no pants and no shoes. She looked scared and sounded drunk. She said that she was trying to get to the 1300 building, so I pointed her in that direction, and off she went. I went back into my apartment to get ready for school. Ten minutes later, I walked out the door (cautiously...I was starting to wonder if she was going to come out of the corner and jump at me with a sharp object), and there were my neighbors in their pjs. One of them told me that the police were going to door to door, knocking and questioning people. Around that point, a police woman came up the stairs and showed us a license and asked if we've seen the woman in the picture. I didn't really recognize the picture, but the name on the license was "Lindsey." Sooo...I told the cop about what happened, and she took my name and number. I wanted to ask what happened, but I figured it really wasn't my place to, so I proceeded to go to work. Well, on the way out of the apartments, I saw a car parked in the woodsy hill that my apartment faces, and standing in the parking lot that it goes up to were a couple other cops, and one was holding a baby! Yeah...so I think the lady probably crashed into the trees, passed out, woke up, got scared and went looking for whoever it was she was looking for, and left the baby in the car. Someone probably called the cops because there was a freakin' car in the woods, and the cops probably thought that it was a hit and run or something.
Yep...that's my life, full of adventure and stuff. Man, I need to write a book or something.
There's nothing like a bad class or two that'll make you feel like you're the worst teacher ever. I know I bitch about this all the time, but man...seriously, it sucks. I can't tell if it's because I really don't like teaching or I'm a bad teacher or I'm just having a rough year. I sit in my office and daydream about food. No, not like a pregnant woman, but I think about cooking and baking. I think about how much happier I would be if I was doing that at that moment, instead of being at school. How great would it be to cook or bake all day? Half of me is saying, "Get off your ass and just do it...what the hell are you waiting for?" And the other half is saying, "God led you down this path for a reason. What you're doing is noble. You'll be better with experience." I'm not sure which to listen to. I don't want to regret not doing something. Who wants to live a life of regrets, right? And I think this would be a pretty big one.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
I've recently come to realize that there are a few things missing from Korea (yes, yes...South, not North...not that they have these things either). Now, it's not life threatening, but the fact that these things, "companies," have taken no interest in investing in Korea just annoys the crap out of me, especially since they all have seemed to have nested in other areas of the world that are a little more remote, less visible, not important (well...that's my opinion anyway). For example, IKEA has yet to set up a store in Seoul. I mean, come on. This is a company that has over 30 locations all over the world, and they can't build one in Seoul? Why does Malaysia get one, but not Korea? Another example: H&M. They have a freakin' store in Qatar. COME ON. Where the hell is that, and how the hell do you pronounce that anyway, right? Apparently, it's a tiny peninsula that's attached to Saudia Arabia. It's the size of my apartment (I just had to Google map it. Speaking of Google, they currently don't have a location in Korea, but they're trying to set something up...about damn time...). Why are the British hatin' on the Koreans? Just because they never conquered Korea doesn't mean that they have to deprive us of cheap and fabulous clothes. I just think it's unfair that the freakin' UAE gets all the above mentioned, and Korea, where half of the stuff that Americans buy comes from, doesn't get jack. Arrgh....
Thursday, March 29, 2007
I feel like I'm in the wrong profession. I understand that when someone is just starting to work and all that, he/she will have doubts from time to time, but I have it daily. That can't be normal. I've had this talk with a lot of my friends, teachers and non-teachers, and they all keep telling me the same thing - it's your first year by yourself, you're not terrible, you'll get better, you can't expect to be really good right from the start, etc. That all makes sense, I understand that. It's just that I have this image of what a teacher should be like in my mind, and I'm nowhere close to being that. A teacher should be a role model, someone the students look up to and go to for advice and a shoulder to lean on. A teacher should be nurturing, encouraging, understanding, loving to the students, no matter how the students acts during class. A teacher should never give up on a kid, even the hopeless butt heads that don't listen to a single thing that she says. In fact, a good teacher would try even harder to get the kid to understand, and get behind the real problem for the bad behavior and bad grades. I have teacher friends that say, "Well, we don't get paid enough to take that kinda crap, so just write them up." I think that's a really terrible mentality to have as a teacher. Shouldn't we do all that we can before we resort to reporting them to the higher ups? Is it a sign of weakness to not write them up? If it is, I probably seem extremely weak to my students. I really try to talk to the student and understand why they're behaving that way. But most of the time, it just doesn't work out. And it's obviously all my fault. I just don't have it in me to be a good teacher, I guess.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
*Things I like less than lima beans*
1. Allergy season. The freakin' pollen count was over 5,200 today. See, I didn't think that was that bad until one day, the weatherman said that 900 is extremely high. That's exactly what they called today's pollen count - "extremely high." I think they need to have another word to describe the over 5,000 pollen count. Calling 900 "extremely high" and 5,000 "extremely high" is misleading. They should say something like, "Today's pollen count is 5,267. That's stupid high. Don't go outside today. You will be attacked by tiny yellow things if you do."
2. Spring. The weather change means a couple things that can be good from time to time. For example, warmth. Flowers. Spring Break. I think it means more less attractive things, like allergies (see above), chilrens with Spring Fever (yes, it exists. If you don't believe in it, you should come to my school), warm weather = shorter, hoochie clothes on girls and I have to waste my time and energy to write them up, bugs, allergies, and did I mention allergies?
3. OATMEAL.
1. Allergy season. The freakin' pollen count was over 5,200 today. See, I didn't think that was that bad until one day, the weatherman said that 900 is extremely high. That's exactly what they called today's pollen count - "extremely high." I think they need to have another word to describe the over 5,000 pollen count. Calling 900 "extremely high" and 5,000 "extremely high" is misleading. They should say something like, "Today's pollen count is 5,267. That's stupid high. Don't go outside today. You will be attacked by tiny yellow things if you do."
2. Spring. The weather change means a couple things that can be good from time to time. For example, warmth. Flowers. Spring Break. I think it means more less attractive things, like allergies (see above), chilrens with Spring Fever (yes, it exists. If you don't believe in it, you should come to my school), warm weather = shorter, hoochie clothes on girls and I have to waste my time and energy to write them up, bugs, allergies, and did I mention allergies?
3. OATMEAL.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Today was the worst food day ever. All day long, I made major mistakes that I knew all along, deep inside that they were just not right. Here's what happened:
1) Last night at Publics, I decided to buy oatmeal. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Nope, it's that bad. The last time I had oatmeal, I kept wanting to put soy sauce in it (yes, very Asian and out of character of me, right?), and that turned out to be a disaster. Plus, I really, really hated the texture, which is the same reason why I decided I didn't like tapioca pudding. However, recently I gave it another chance, and I liked it, so I figured maybe I'll like oatmeal now. So I bought some Quaker Oatmeal. The dude's a Quaker, so he's not going to hurt me, right? Plus it says it has maple and brown sugar. That can't be bad, right? NO. IT WAS BAD...VERY BAD. I had to force myself to eat the whole bowl. And I had this internal conflict about whether I should throw away the last bit or eat it (I ate it). Needless to say, that put me in a bad mood. There's nothing worse than eating something that tastes like ass. My body wanted to throw up every little drop of the nastiness that I forced down, but I resisted. Ehhh...just thinking about it makes me feel queezy....
2) During lunch, I decided to have the cafeteria food. They had nothing that looked appetizing, so I decided to get steamed veggies, which included brussel sprouts. Now, before you go throw up at the mention on brussel sprouts, I'd just like to say that brussel sprouts, when prepared properly, is really good. As you may remember from my Thanksgiving menu, I made brussle sprouts, and it was off the chain. The stuff that I experienced today was not. It was cold, wet, mushy and old. I put it in my mouth, reluctantly chewed and swallowed the rubbery nastiness and didn't eat another one. No, I did not guilt myself into eating the whole thing. I figured I guilted myself into eating something gross that morning. My taste buds didn't deserve all that in one day. Plus I get loads of guilt trips whenever my mother calls, and she called last night.
3) I had Thai tonight. Mmmm...masaman curry...I've been craving it, since that one time in December when I went out for Thai, but the person that I was with didn't want masaman (booo). After the food (which was great), we had dessert - coconut custard with sticky rice. I saw coconut custard and I thought "mmmm...coconut flan..." Well, it was less than impressive. It was made with too much egg, so towards the bottom it started to taste like eggs. And the sticky rice? Ehhh...it was exactly what it sounds like, with coconut milk on top. I've never been a fan of rice desserts, just because rice has always been a savory food. I had a little bit of the stuff tonight and got disgusted pretty quickly. EHHHH...just thinking about it...ehhh...
So yeah. That's what happened. What a bad day with food! I made some really bad choices. Basically, I tried things that I know I don't like, thinking I might like them now, but no. Things have not changed. I'm not going to eat those things ever again.
1) Last night at Publics, I decided to buy oatmeal. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Nope, it's that bad. The last time I had oatmeal, I kept wanting to put soy sauce in it (yes, very Asian and out of character of me, right?), and that turned out to be a disaster. Plus, I really, really hated the texture, which is the same reason why I decided I didn't like tapioca pudding. However, recently I gave it another chance, and I liked it, so I figured maybe I'll like oatmeal now. So I bought some Quaker Oatmeal. The dude's a Quaker, so he's not going to hurt me, right? Plus it says it has maple and brown sugar. That can't be bad, right? NO. IT WAS BAD...VERY BAD. I had to force myself to eat the whole bowl. And I had this internal conflict about whether I should throw away the last bit or eat it (I ate it). Needless to say, that put me in a bad mood. There's nothing worse than eating something that tastes like ass. My body wanted to throw up every little drop of the nastiness that I forced down, but I resisted. Ehhh...just thinking about it makes me feel queezy....
2) During lunch, I decided to have the cafeteria food. They had nothing that looked appetizing, so I decided to get steamed veggies, which included brussel sprouts. Now, before you go throw up at the mention on brussel sprouts, I'd just like to say that brussel sprouts, when prepared properly, is really good. As you may remember from my Thanksgiving menu, I made brussle sprouts, and it was off the chain. The stuff that I experienced today was not. It was cold, wet, mushy and old. I put it in my mouth, reluctantly chewed and swallowed the rubbery nastiness and didn't eat another one. No, I did not guilt myself into eating the whole thing. I figured I guilted myself into eating something gross that morning. My taste buds didn't deserve all that in one day. Plus I get loads of guilt trips whenever my mother calls, and she called last night.
3) I had Thai tonight. Mmmm...masaman curry...I've been craving it, since that one time in December when I went out for Thai, but the person that I was with didn't want masaman (booo). After the food (which was great), we had dessert - coconut custard with sticky rice. I saw coconut custard and I thought "mmmm...coconut flan..." Well, it was less than impressive. It was made with too much egg, so towards the bottom it started to taste like eggs. And the sticky rice? Ehhh...it was exactly what it sounds like, with coconut milk on top. I've never been a fan of rice desserts, just because rice has always been a savory food. I had a little bit of the stuff tonight and got disgusted pretty quickly. EHHHH...just thinking about it...ehhh...
So yeah. That's what happened. What a bad day with food! I made some really bad choices. Basically, I tried things that I know I don't like, thinking I might like them now, but no. Things have not changed. I'm not going to eat those things ever again.
Monday, February 19, 2007
I like Asian food more than Asian people...is that bad? Maybe I like Asian people also, but I really, really like Asian food. Speaking of which, I've not had pho in a very long time. Meanwhile, my pho buddy is in Vietnam, probably eating all the pho he'd ever want. Well, hopefully he's eating. I think there might be a language barrier between him and his family. Perhaps the universal sign for "hungry" is rubbing the tummy...of course, that could mean "full" or "my stomach hurts" or "I'm with child."
The dinner on Saturday did not go as planned. Here's why:
1) Halibut is apparently not in season right now. An angry Asian dude (see? Why are Asians always angry?) that worked behind the seafood counter at Whole Foods informed us that halibut will not be in season for another 3 months. So we settled for stealhead trout, which was also good...but not halibut.
2) Lump crab meat is freakin' expensive! I really wasn't expecting it to be so pricey...so we settled for shrimp cocktail (which was also very nice, and less work).
3) I didn't have enough time to make dessert because my sister was a finalist (again) for the KTN talent show, and we had to watch. Fortunately, she was #1, so we could've left after her, but we decided to be polite and stay for a couple more contestants until we couldn't take it anymore. Thankfully, we were too full to have dessert by the end of the meal.
So yeah. Dinner was good, but not as good as it could've been. We had a nice weekend, especially today. Last night we pulled out the sofa bed and watched a movie, fell asleep watching it, woke up, watched Naruto DVDs, got hungry and ordered take out breakfast from IHOP, picked it up, ate it in bed while watching more Naruto, fell asleep and then Andrew had to leave. It was nice while it lasted though.
The dinner on Saturday did not go as planned. Here's why:
1) Halibut is apparently not in season right now. An angry Asian dude (see? Why are Asians always angry?) that worked behind the seafood counter at Whole Foods informed us that halibut will not be in season for another 3 months. So we settled for stealhead trout, which was also good...but not halibut.
2) Lump crab meat is freakin' expensive! I really wasn't expecting it to be so pricey...so we settled for shrimp cocktail (which was also very nice, and less work).
3) I didn't have enough time to make dessert because my sister was a finalist (again) for the KTN talent show, and we had to watch. Fortunately, she was #1, so we could've left after her, but we decided to be polite and stay for a couple more contestants until we couldn't take it anymore. Thankfully, we were too full to have dessert by the end of the meal.
So yeah. Dinner was good, but not as good as it could've been. We had a nice weekend, especially today. Last night we pulled out the sofa bed and watched a movie, fell asleep watching it, woke up, watched Naruto DVDs, got hungry and ordered take out breakfast from IHOP, picked it up, ate it in bed while watching more Naruto, fell asleep and then Andrew had to leave. It was nice while it lasted though.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
I just spent my first Valentine's Day alone in five years. FIVE YEARS...that's a long time. It was nice though. I told him that we should rent the same movie and watch it "together," so we did. It was nice :) We watched "The Lake House," a Keanu Reeves movie, so we basically made fun of how bad of an actor he is the whole time. It wasn't a bad movie though. He said it was predictable (because he watches Star Trek and time travel is a normal thing on there). Anyways, it was fun, and I can't wait till Friday. We're going to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday. I'm making dinner (is it bad that I'd rather cook for things now than have him cook for me? I mean, it's not that my cooking's better or anything...okay, so it is. So what? I'm a total foodie and watch and read about food constantly. I should be better, right?), and here's what we'll be having:
*Crab cakes with lemon aioli and casaer salad
*Pan seared halibut with lemon sauce and asparagus
*chocolate souffle with ice cream and strawberries
Sounds safe enough to feed Andrew, right? I think if his palate was more similar to mine, I'd have raw oysters somewhere in there. I love raw oysters...
I've been having too much fun with my students. I joke around with them too much, and then I can't get them back under control. For example:
My 6th graders were lining up for the bathroom break. I dismiss by section, so the line was kinda divided into different instruments. A little violist tried to stand in front of the line where the bassist were, and they kicked him out, SO he said, "You know what? You're mean, I'm gonna give you want you deserve" and then FARTED on the entire front of the line. He walked away, and then did it AGAIN. Here's what I should've done: "Jonathan, that is inappropriate behavior! Apologize to your classmates for your rudeness!" But this is what I did: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" ...yeah....i'm a bad teacher...
*Crab cakes with lemon aioli and casaer salad
*Pan seared halibut with lemon sauce and asparagus
*chocolate souffle with ice cream and strawberries
Sounds safe enough to feed Andrew, right? I think if his palate was more similar to mine, I'd have raw oysters somewhere in there. I love raw oysters...
I've been having too much fun with my students. I joke around with them too much, and then I can't get them back under control. For example:
My 6th graders were lining up for the bathroom break. I dismiss by section, so the line was kinda divided into different instruments. A little violist tried to stand in front of the line where the bassist were, and they kicked him out, SO he said, "You know what? You're mean, I'm gonna give you want you deserve" and then FARTED on the entire front of the line. He walked away, and then did it AGAIN. Here's what I should've done: "Jonathan, that is inappropriate behavior! Apologize to your classmates for your rudeness!" But this is what I did: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" ...yeah....i'm a bad teacher...
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I hate it when people don't call me back. I can understand that people are busy, but would it kill them to take one minute out of their day to call? Argh...
Sometimes you say things and people take it the wrong way. Man, does that happen to me often. I think people take my sarcasm too seriously sometimes. Maybe I should stop being so sarcastic all the time. But what's the fun in that, right?
Sometimes you say things and people take it the wrong way. Man, does that happen to me often. I think people take my sarcasm too seriously sometimes. Maybe I should stop being so sarcastic all the time. But what's the fun in that, right?
Monday, February 05, 2007
Tonight, Whitney came over to knit and talk (as we always do on most Mondays), and while we were talking and knitting (she was knitting, I was grading papers), she said, "Hey, you wanna see Amanda's wedding dress?" (that's her little sister, she's getting married soon). So she showed me her wedding dress, then the potential bride's maid dresses, then it got more intense when we started looking at wedding rings. It started really innocent...and then we got deeper and deeper into it, and finally, it got to "well, what kinda rings do you like, Grace?" We searched and searched, and finally I found a ring that I really, really liked. It also turned out to be one of the most expensive rings that we saw tonight. Guess how much. I'll give you a hint: it costs as much as a BMW....a new one.
Are rings that important? I have to say, unfortunately, yes. I've seen rings on some girls that have the little stones (or "chips" as I like to call them), and they just don't look right. Isn't that awful of me to say? I mean, it's meant to represent love and eternity and all that stuff, so why does size matter, right? And to tell you the truth, if I had that much money at my disposal, I don't think I'd spend it on one thing, unless that one thing is something big, like a payment on a house. Why do I have to be so shallow? Man, I really hope that I never see that ring from Tiffany's on my finger, because I might do something stupid.
Are rings that important? I have to say, unfortunately, yes. I've seen rings on some girls that have the little stones (or "chips" as I like to call them), and they just don't look right. Isn't that awful of me to say? I mean, it's meant to represent love and eternity and all that stuff, so why does size matter, right? And to tell you the truth, if I had that much money at my disposal, I don't think I'd spend it on one thing, unless that one thing is something big, like a payment on a house. Why do I have to be so shallow? Man, I really hope that I never see that ring from Tiffany's on my finger, because I might do something stupid.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
I just read an article from the latest edition of TIME about eggs. Joel Stein (if you've never read his stuff, you really should because it's hilarious) talks about how more and more restaurants these days are using eggs in dinner foods now, and it comes from the heavy Spanish influence that seems to have currently taken over the trendiest of all trendy restaurants. He also talks about how in European and Asian cuisine, eggs have appeared in dinner foods for awhile, and he goes on to name random things (two of those things happen to be Korean, thank you very much). He goes on to talk about how eggs have been considered not so great for you, especially raw, but now that's changed, blah, blah, blah.
After reading the article, I started to wonder what exactly "American cuisine" is. What has America contributed to the culinary world? Hamburgers? Hot dogs? Those things seem so "ehh..." compared to tapas from Spain, the countless numbers of pasta dishes from Italy and Szechuan anything from China. It seems like everything has been derived from everyone else's cooking. I guess that makes sense since this country was founded on immigrants and it's considered a melting pot. But can't we come up with something a little more sophisticated and complex than buffalo wings?
After reading the article, I started to wonder what exactly "American cuisine" is. What has America contributed to the culinary world? Hamburgers? Hot dogs? Those things seem so "ehh..." compared to tapas from Spain, the countless numbers of pasta dishes from Italy and Szechuan anything from China. It seems like everything has been derived from everyone else's cooking. I guess that makes sense since this country was founded on immigrants and it's considered a melting pot. But can't we come up with something a little more sophisticated and complex than buffalo wings?
Monday, January 01, 2007
Andrew and I went to the mountains with Bob and Gretchen for the past couple days. It was really nice after I got over the fact that we were in the mountains where there's pretty much nobody around. I kinda freaked out when we went into the house, and there were no curtains. All the windows were exposed to the outside, even the sliding door that led to the deck from our room. It's not like anyone could really see us or anything (unless they were standing in the woods...and that's just creepy). We basically sat around and ate, drank, played card games and board games, watched movies and such. It was really nice to spend a relaxing couple days with friends. Plus we got to meet Gretchen.
Yesterday on the way back from the mountains, I sort of had this epiphany. I really need to figure out what I want to do with my life for the next couple years, not just for me, but for the people in my life that my decisions will affect. Reality's starting to set in...I'm only getting older no matter how much I want to stay young and without responsibilities. Thinking about 25 makes me want to throw up, but it's not like I can stop that. Sigh...so I guess I'll just have to grow up...damn it...
Yesterday on the way back from the mountains, I sort of had this epiphany. I really need to figure out what I want to do with my life for the next couple years, not just for me, but for the people in my life that my decisions will affect. Reality's starting to set in...I'm only getting older no matter how much I want to stay young and without responsibilities. Thinking about 25 makes me want to throw up, but it's not like I can stop that. Sigh...so I guess I'll just have to grow up...damn it...