and what goes better with kogi. somek!
and it was also my first time eating live squid.
i've been noticing that many korean women in korea when asked about their type of guy they reply "i dont care about his looks, i just want him to be nice successful and treat me well"...(whereas asian american women in the US care a ton about how the man looks) then i read this...
“My life goal is to be happily married,” IU continued. “I like the stability that a warm family can offer. I think I will become less selfish once I get married.”
congratulations daniel!
after all those years of drinking at home, playing the guitar and singing 쿨 all for you....im going to have to agree..."you're exactly where you should be..."
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nBEZvdBJxU]
"what is your style?" - that is a common question in reference to what type of girls do you like. and while the typical answer is "pretty, skinny, young", it's brought me to spend some MORE time thinking about how to rephrase this answer. everyone here is asian, so it already meets a certain bar i have for women, now i can have the luxury of being more specific and detailed in the little things i prefer. dailylenglui.blogspot is a good place to ogle at celebrities to figure out your instinctive preferences. however the only thing i've actually figured out is that i prefer korean girls. yay!
sohgeting tomorrow. 1987 ㅎㅎㅎㅋㅋㅋ.
did you know it is completely normal for women to walk around in public with massive bruises over their face and a gauze band-aid taped across their nose. walking around in public with your face wrapped like a mummy is crazy on a weekend, but going into your work elevator with a post surgery bandaged woman is a whole new level.
“Because we are celebrities, it is impossible for us not to consistently monitor ourselves,” she said. “We often get hurt because of our appearance, and as a result, we tend to pay more attention to the way we look. Miryo was also probably very conscious about her looks and felt a desire to become more beautiful. I don’t think plastic surgery is a bad thing,” she stated honestly. - narsha
of all the shaved ices in the region.
i like korea's pat bing soo the best.
it's less sweet (depending), a bit more dense. and more of a milk consistency rather than a syrup slush.
and ice cream on top is quite good.
korea is fun for koreans. cuz the culture is so specifically geared for them. korea is not foreigner friendly. for a tourist, you have someone taking you around and a set list of places to go, so you just hit the main spots and that's really fun. but on a day to day basis...it's tough. in most of asia, if you can speak english, it's good enough. (in my case i can even speak chinese). in korea, they speak korean and konglish. that's it. so once you get to understand the culture a little and adapt, korea can be really fun as well. koreans will never adapt to you, but are very happy for you to adapt to them. and once they know you are putting in effort to learn, they embrace you.
you're korean to the bone. 한국사람 뼈 속까지
http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/drink/pojangmacha-guide-039741
“We’re famous for our chicken feet (닭발) and 'booking',” says Choi Sung-wook, the manager, referring to the Korean term for groups of men foraging for groups of women and vice versa. “Our waiters don’t facilitate the 'booking' -- the customers just do it themselves.”
golf is expensive. and im terrible at it.
its so amazing how some lambdas are still so into the fraternity. maybe it's cuz they were charters and just really into it. it's no longer just a college thing but rather a full on going life time thing. bro this and bro that. i really don't need you to send me convention notes. and another thing...how did i just pay the most in a group that i only just met tonight. c'mon man.
so i left...and went to ogi.
i don't care what reason we have off, but when i was told we had monday off, i not so silently rejoiced. last weekends APIC conference made it a 12 day work week with the latter half of that being even more tired taking out frustration by going on weeknight excursions. i still don't make the best of life choices, but i know very well where my level of sanity lies when life becomes groundhogs day.
1. fail big
2. visualize it
3. don't share your fragile idea with the world too soon
4. don't take no for an answer
5. hire people you like and trust (even if they don't know a great deal about what you need them to do)
6. you don't have to go in order
7. you can figure it out - you have the ability
8. you can build a billion dollar business starting with 5K
9. don't worry about the other "stuff" until the time is right
10. breaking the mold is a good thing
"not only does a man's money add inches to his height, it also neutralizes racial bias. get that money!" -echang
http://www.buzzfeed.com/yinwai/priscilla-chan-is-every-tiger-moms-dream-child
Perhaps the only thing Priscilla could have done better was marry another Chinese boy, but that’s easily forgiven when factoring in Zuckerberg’s immense wealth. She more than checked off all the boxes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7409142n&tag=api&fb_ref=belowVideo&fb_source=home_multiline
"less good colleges are like subprime mortgage lenders"
college has become just another debt fueled luxury
you have to look at the COST SIDE OF THE EQUATION
nba is finally worth watching and here i am back in asia again, online and screaming at box scores and texting trash talk to opposing friends. gah.
"what's the purpose in working out if you're going to eat 소금구이 for dinner?"
"to be healthy"
"oh..."
- my kind of peoples. 룩!
ㅋㅋㅋ
the way i eat is a concern to everyone in the office. especially since im actually a bit slimmer than i was when i first started this job. i eat salad for lunch for the bigger reason of not wanting to fall asleep at work. of course diet was a good portion of the reason, and with that said the 'others' felt the need to lecture me on how to diet. now that my salad has produced some results (albeit i'm still drinking and eating big dinners, only diff is that im exercising), the 'others' are now thinking to try my way. i ate an apple as a snack and that drew comments and then drank a coke zero which garnered more comments. and after those comments, there was a follow up comment about my acne control.
luckily i'm not much offended by these comments but they do take a heavy notice in my memory. on top of which, i was just told today not to write casual emails addressing people with their names and a comma but rather with "dear insert-name". again, i'll follow your rules, just pay me.
i can totally see this to be ridiculously draining moving forward. especially with our downtime being stripped away by mandatory "things" we should do. (on a side note: i would hate to be his son). if i knew i'd be dragged to a promotional golf driver event i would have gone to lunch alone. and having him at lunch with us, made it a bigger drag, cuz we can't talk freely. if management wants rigid hierarchy, stay in your corner and be lonely and maintain status quo.
看不慣...
im sure this isn't the first time i've blogged about "the korean suit" before. cuz i've been mentioning it since 2001. when i was first in korea, looking for gv2 clothing and it was just the beginning of my infatuation with blazers or you can call it the "korean style". and so becky...this is for you.
the korean suit is cut in a way for looks and not comfort. the uber skinny skeletal korean male frame probably doesn't feel much difference in comfort, but my mesomorph body shape feels intricate details in clothes, especially since the +/- weight differential between drinking and not working out is a big shift in body structure for me. the korean suit is made to look thin. the cuts are made to evenly cling to ones physique leaving little room for fat fold overs and meaty legs to sit, squat and kneel. fat or muscle that fills out clothing volume will have tension when you twist, sit, cross your legs, slouch etc. probably the most uncomfortable part of a korean suit for a bigger boned male is the action of raising your arms. the key to a korean suit is that they make the arm slits lower. if you make the break of the arm slits lower, it naturally pulls the suit towards the ground creating a flatter suit against your chest. it looks better. just more uncomfortable when you raise your arms. very uncomfortable. solution: lose weight. (still uncomfortable, but that slim suit will be worth it).
**FOOTNOTE:: i never understood why korean pants were just longer. it's not even that korean men have no hips and ass that allows the pants to be longer, but its just their style. they like a low break in the pant leg that causes the pants to full cover the top of the shoe and most definitely hit the heel of the shoe in the back.
"for men, what they eat is not important. their main goal is just to fill their stomach" - a few months ago jf said to me, "u'll starve and be hungry just to wait till you find something good, guys don't do that"
"when they ask what we did, don't make it sound too fun"
"can you change my seat so im not sitting with..."
"korean men, only want to eat korean food"
"why would you ask someone to speak about a topic in english when they can barely speak english?" - as if sitting through speakers read of powerpoints presentation after presentation wasn't enough, the final speaker of the day had to have stutter through english as a second language in the world of acetyls, polyurethanes and ketones. good thing as an adult is that you can leave at any time. guilt, not a teacher will reprimand you. well i've got guilt covered cuz "if you were to summarize the seminar in one sentence what would you say"
FEEDSTOCKS. (shale/coal/middle east)
ASIA GROWTH.
By the way, only you and k's emails are all automatically marked yellow. I never knew what yellow meant but I decided to investigate and it says this:
" Important mainly because of the people in the conversation."
some issues
1. i guess to koreans asking for 얼음물 sounds weird. i don't want cold water, i want ICE water. that's why.
2. how come koreans don't like fresh air? everything is not only at a muggy warm room temperature but with no air flow it's like stewing incubator of staleness. makes me sick. can someone open the window on the bus? can someone open the window in the office? or at least not close it after i open it?!?!?!?
my facebook friend total just hit 1k so i decided it was time to delete some people. and i only managed to delete 20. so i may legitimately know 950 people on my fb. i may legitimately see 700 people regularly due to proximity. and i may legitimately be friends with about 500 at any given moment. that's nuts. and so if i really put the value system of friends to test...air stewardesses would take up the top half of the list. on the never delete list. how many times do you meet a girl where they also know 10000000 girls. and when they show you pictures....just about 98% of them are cute. they party like rockstars and are probably embody every bit of that stereotype. whatever it may be. amazing.
"there are things that we can't change, but its very important that we are able to vent about this to each other"
groggy gloomy mondays are the type of days i just sit at my desk in silence until the caffeine decides to inject personality back into my face. monday morning prayer was just too early for groggy me today. i just wasn't having it. having options is always the key to life. (so is making decisions). i didn't have the option this morning and i just didn't need proverbs 14 to be in my face today. esp with the kind of repetition that verse has. if i were ever going to convince anyone to have faith it'd begin with the simple question of mortality and fuel the fear and question of life after death. that should be enough to stir a conversation of faith.
PROVERBS 14:14
The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways,
and the good rewarded for theirs.
<<~~~that is annoying. there's a general rule of whats good and bad in the world. there's also a general agreement on karma. so use human mortality for conversation on faith. malleable conversation brews consensus and in fact probably an even stronger unity in faith. point is...leave me alone. i'll come around (in one way or another).
송탄부대찌개 - asian cities are all pretty similar. this one has that same "suburb outside metropolis" feel. except this one has an army base that represents the skeevy expats that love the juicy Filipino bars.
"everything about the military is about following orders" - i know nothing about military service. how its' run. why people go. what's the process. i have no knowledge as to what goes on in there. is it like the movies? how long is your contract? what guns have you fired? and how come all my friends that have done military service look fat and can't do any kind of physical work? you've lived in korea how long? do you miss home? after extensive questioning, behind the barracks is it's own entity. it's a 3rd party/outsourced sim city or a lego city funded by our tax dollars designed to deploy for war or national emergency when needed. military cooks, military intelligence, military finance, military tv...everything is of a parallel world.
tax dollar occupation is comfortable. pensions and labor unions are good for domestic civilians. military personnel is even better. next time you know someone in the military, ask about post military contractors. then you'll finally understand the big political debate about military spending and you'll also grasp a stronger understanding of politicians whom are ex military and you'll also then understand more the movies that talk about arms deals via government insiders. amazing.
i was just naive in thinking working for government positions couldn't make real money.
supplanting culture is the worst way to live abroad. for instance.
u cannot eat korean bbq as if you're eating american sirloin steak. the fat content is just too high and when your stomach cools down, that same fat congeals in your stomach. i know you must think u know food and you want to eat meat without the salad wrap to fully taste the meat, but there's a method to the madness. there's a reason you have pickled vegetables, vinegar soup chasers, and you end the meal with a cold noodle. palate cleansers and grease cutters actually add to the flavor of the meat. soju and beer is made for the meal. cheers and be merry and stop trying to not eat carbs. just do as those around you and stop trying to create your own rules.
you cannot dip food in the chili sauce as if you're drenching your fries in ketchup. cuz that chili sauce, no matter how much of it you think you can take, will disrupt any plans you immediately following the meal. you cannot finish everything on the table in one fell swoop because asian food comes in many courses, not in an entree and an appetizer. stop being a glutton, chew your food and balance the courses. buy into the madness and then re-create tradition to fit your life or u'll either live in a bubble or never enjoy your new surroundings.
once u grasp this basic principle, it will help you learn the language. stop looking for that direct translation. just feel the language. feel the meaning and the underlying tone...speak with a purpose and study the grammar. the korean language even though it sounds quite brass and barbaric with his tenor staccato notes, is a very intimate language. korean is very descriptive and can perfectly pinpoint emotion because of its many levels of expression alongside intricate levels of respect.
adapt. live and learn.
"u amuse me. i can always count on you to be funning" - jf.
very little sleep from late weekday nights and early mornings and jokes about mister moon with korean basketball brothers, i ended up being very delirious by the time i got to PVD at octagon...AGAIN...
i have nothing to say.
death is already tough enough to deal with. but to hear about a suicide? how does that work? selfish.
RIP. sarah.
it takes a while but sooner or later u realize u just don't like hanging out with that person. however u go about it, eating/drinking/canceling/maintaining/using...it's an artform.
"there are 20 year olds at octagon. no promises"
According to a recent World Values Survey, Koreans are the second unhappiest people (after Hungary) among the citizens of the 32 OECD countries studied. Worse, its children are the unhappiest in the rich world, according to a survey of 23 OECD countries done by Yonsei University in Seoul. In 2009 the country topped the international league table for suicides, with 28.4 suicides per 100,000 people. Japan was a distant second with 19.7. But Koreans never used to be this unhappy. Until 1995 its suicide rate was, at about 10 per 100,000 people, just below the OECD average. Since then it has almost tripled.
"I can feel the limits of what humans are capable of - that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally I find that encouraging..." -h. murakami
have you ever drank with australians? they can drink all day long. marathon style drinking. u wake up, have a beer, hit that buzz and just ride it all day long. i can't do that. i power drink. i rush to hit a high and enjoy powering through that high with harder drinking, completely unknowing of any limits until i hit that wall of DRUNK. and so if i start at 3pm and i make it till 2am. it's a feat. so if u come visit me, i'll throw a rooftop party for you.
"hey how do you know abc?">>>"oh i fucked her."
"hey what do you do here?">>>"i don't work. im going to bridal school. learning to cook, photography class etc."
"it took me a while to find the right group, but this might be it. chanel, rooftop parties, sunglasses, and trust funds"
