FEBRUARY

major rewind part II

I never wrote about winter, did I? Well, it snows a bunch in Korea! Leading up to these snowy days, I was so anxious about it. I've never lived anywhere where it snows on a regular basis (I remember it snowed in LA once for 5 minutes but it melted as soon as it hit the ground). I didn't know what to do, how to prepare - what kinda clothes do you wear? Do you wear special pants? How many layers?? Do I carry an umbrella? So many questions and many purchases later, I was so prepared for the snow! I ended up really liking it except for the wearing-so-many-clothes part. I'm from LA - all I wanna wear is a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, but during winter, I had to wear leggings, pants, socks, boots, many layers of shirts (long-sleeved!), a coat, a scarf, and a hat. Way tooo much!! The worst part is when the fluffy snow becomes ice. It becomes so dangerous to walk on. However, I survived and never once did I fall. Many times I slid and almost fell, but I always stayed on my feet. That's quite an accomplishment, in my opinion!

What did I do in February??

Okailey and I took a day trip to Mokpo! I had never been to Mokpo before, so we decided on a whim to go. We went to the Natural History Museum and to Gatbawi (some rocks that are said to look like different things...a father and son, 2 woman, etc etc). We finished our day by getting some BBQ!


I went back to America for a week for my sister's wedding. It was the most beautiful wedding ever, and that's just my unbiased opinion. My sister looked stunning in her gown and everything seemed to go so smoothly. The wedding party had to do a little dance too. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous. For my sister and new bro-in-law's first dance, they did a normal slow dance to a Michael Buble song and then in the middle of the song, it scratched to Usher's "DJ Got Us Falling In Love" and they did a little hip hop routine choreographed by yours truly. It was so good!



I celebrated my 24th birthday with some friends. It was a relaxed night. Had galbi at the famous outdoor galbi restaurant in Downtown, went to Soul Train, and Bubble Bar. Bubble Bar was empty, so it was actually tolerable to be in there. In the photos, you can see I'm wearing a pink tiara. This is the birthday tiara that is passed on from bday girl/boy to the next!



Sonia and I finally went to the 5.18 Cemetery. On May 18, 1980, there was an uprising in Gwangju to defend democracy against the government. Many people were hurt or injured in these protests.




Sonia and I went to the Trick Art exhibition at the Kim Daejung Convention Center in Sangmu-dong. There were lots of cool works there! I even ran into a couple of my students also enjoying the fun artwork.





My 3rd graders graduated :( Onto high school where they will forget about me. They already have :`(





February is my favorite month. Too bad it's the shortest.

SEEING VIETNAM

major rewind

So...there is a huge chunk missing out of this blog...about 5 months worth. The reason for this is because I had laser eye surgery (in Korea) and was told to stay away from the computer (and TV and alcohol and reading and a whole bunch of other things) for about a week. I thought that I was signing up for LASIK with an 'i' but in fact, I had gotten LASEK with an 'e'. The Korean pronunciation is just so similar and I thought for sure I was getting LASIK, no doubt about it. With LASIK, you are able to see the next day. When the next day came for me, I was still blind. So I thought, maybe tomorrow. Nope. Maybe at the end of the week? No siree Bob. I was back at the doctor's for my week check up and I asked him why my vision was still unclear when all my other friends were 100% 20/20. He told me that they had a different procedure and that was when I learned I had gotten LASEK. And that is when I started bawling hysterically at the doctor's. And that is when the doctor got really uncomfortable. And that is the last time I ever saw him again. After that, my check ups were with another doctor. Makes me laugh, haha.
The recovery time for LASEK is 3-weeks (for OK vision) and 3 months for full recovery. The latter has increased whenever I asked the doctor and it was extended to 6 months. It has now been a little over 6 months since I've had my surgery and my vision is pretty good. It is definitely a significant improvement from my vision before, but at night/in the dark, my vision is subpar. I hope it gets even better has time goes by.

So, back to the waterworks - why did I cry? It was because I was scheduled to go to Vietnam for vacation and I wanted to SEE where I was going. I was debating whether or not to cancel my trip, but I thought about it and decided to go anyway. I was to go 2 weeks after I had my surgery and my vision had improved, but it was still blurry. It definitely changed my first Vietnam trip but I still had a great time, even if I couldn't try the alcohol :(

I went with Margaret, Amanda, and Ramsey. Margaret and I were there for about 2 weeks, whereas the other two left after a week. We had a ton of fun!

Here's a quick overview of what we did in Vietnam:

Day 1:
I arrived very very very late at night, I think it was about 2am? I think I was supposed to arrive at midnight, but I didn't step out of the airport until about 2 or 3am. I can't remember, but it was definitely VERY late and VERY dark. I had no idea where I was going and I left the airport to see Ramsey there waiting for me! That was quite a surprise. The first thing he said was, "You're late." haha Woops. I didn't know anyone was coming to get me! Good thing he did because the hostel had a closing time (he had asked earlier on in the day), so he thought it was best to come get me so they would open the door for us when we knocked. So, I get into the room with Amanda and Margaret and it's maybe 330am. I get into bed with Margaret, kinda wake both of them up, and then I was informed of an 8am tour they had signed us up for for "tomorrow"/today. Ahh! No sleep for me! But it's OK because I didn't go to Vietnam to sleep.

We went to the Cu Chi tunnels which were used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War (or American War, depending on where you're from) to hide from the American soldiers. It was a really educational experience. It's so crazy how the Vietnamese people could dig these tunnels with their hands and have them not collapse on them while they lived underground for years. There are miles and miles and miles of these tunnels. It was a community underground - kitchens, honeymoon rooms, bedrooms, etc. It took a lot of ingenuity to create these tunnels. Don't let that photo above fool you. This specific tunnel I am in was widened especially for us fat tourists. The real tunnels were actually probably half the size.


After the Cu Chi Tunnels, we headed back to Saigon and went to the War Remnants Museum, which is probably my favorite spot in Saigon. This was so educational and was just so powerful. The images of the effects of Agent Orange were so poignant and were really difficult to look at. However, the Museum is definitely a place that I highly recommend visiting.

Days 2&3:


We spent these days on a tour of the Mekong Delta, the floating market, and we also opted to do a homestay. It was an amazing experience. We went to a few different islands. At one, we tried some tea, very nice. At another island, we got some coconut candy. Yum. We also had the chance to try some snake wine. It was disgusting! Then we got to go on a little rowboat down a tree-lined part of the delta. It was a short ride but it was cool. We also got to see the process of making noodles. At the floating market (which is REALLY huge!), I bought a batch of baby bananas from a little boy selling them from his little motorboat to our larger boat. They sell fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Some of the vendor boats were huge and they threw all of their trash into the water. Yuck.


At the homestay, we had an diverse group of people. The biggest hit of the night was an old white man who could tell your future via Chinese tarot cards(?). I didn't get the chance to have my fortune told because he was just so popular. We stayed in little huts equipped with a mosquito net, geckos, and newspaper wallpaper. Fancy. While laying in bed, I saw my first firefly! So exciting!

Days 4&5:

We all took the bus to Mui Ne for some beach time! We stayed at a 3 star resort. I would probably give it 3/5 stars so that's appropriate. The grounds were really nice, but our actual room wasn't. Maybe the OTHER rooms were nicer, they did look a bit better. Anyways, we didn't even lay on the beach. We hung out at the pool a little bit and then did things away from the beach. We went to the Fairy Stream, Red Rock Canyon, and some sand dunes. It was really nice and really red! haha We also went to multiple sand dunes. It was so difficult to climb to the top, but once you're up there, it was so windy, you could see the sand being blown off the peak.
After the sand dunes, Amanda and Ramsey left to go back to Korea. And then there were two.

Days ???


Margaret and I headed to Dalat, the city on the hill. The ride there was treacherous. I felt so sick because of the windy roads. It was a long ride, I think it was like 4 or 5 hours. Horrible. I didn't expect much from Dalat, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here, even though the food was not all that impressive. While we were in Dalat, we signed up for lots of tours because you can't really do things by yourself. Everything seemed to be down in the valley and not on the top of the mountain where we were. The first tour we went on, we went on a cable car ride, went to see some flowers, went to a waterfall, saw a Vietnamese cowboy, went to Bao Dai's Summer Palace, dressed up like Vietnamese princesses, went to the Valley of Love, to see some amazing silk embroidery artwork, and went to see the largest Buddha statue in the city. It was a successful and tiring day. Then for dinner, we had the worst meal ever. Ugh.


The next day, we went to another flower garden (Dalat is the largest producer/exporter of flowers in Vietnam), some lake whose name I forget, the Crazy House, another waterfall, to see the "Magic Table" (not very magical), and to another flower farm. After the tour, we went on a search for che lau (dessert!) and I finally found it after I was told that they don't have it the previous day. It was different than what I was used to, but still good. Then Margaret and I just walked around and explored the city and the market.


The following day, we did our separate things. Margaret went canyoning. I opted out because I had already gone canyoning when I was in Switzerland and I also didn't wanna do anything to mess up my eyeballs. I ended up going on a customized tour to the French District, the Linh Phuoc temple (my favorite place in Dalat!), coffee plantations, another temple, Elephant Waterfall, a silk factory, and a flower plantation. I went on a motorbike with a guide and it was so much fun. Riding on the back of a motorcycle was my new obsession.

Days ???
After Mui Ne, we went to another beach town, Nha Trang. The weather wasn't good when we were there so we didn't get the chance to tan. So sad. We found other things to do though. We went to explore a temple, and we also took a boat trip where we were supposed to go to like 5 different islands, but I think we only went to maybe 2 or 3. We went to a traditional market, a stone church, and another temple with a
Cambodian style, Thap Ba Ponagar. Oh, we also went to get a mud bath. That was SO much fun!! I don't have any photos from it though.


Food in Nha Trang was amazing too. I think the restaurants we went to were a bit more expensive though because they were on the beach - Louisiane Brewhouse and the Sailing Club. We walked around on the last night and there was a bunch of Tet (Lunar New Year) decorations and festivities. There was a dragon dance and cat things all over! I was confused why there were cats because it's the year of the rat, but in Vietnam, there is no rat, it's a cat!

Days ?????


We then traveled to Saigon for the last days of our Vietnam stay. This was really the first days I was able to actually spend in Saigon whereas in the beginning, we were using it as a base to go on our little tours. This time, I actually got to walk around a bit. I went to the see the Ben Thanh Market (most of which was closed due to Tet), the post office, Notre Dame, the Reunification Palace, and Chinatown (District 5), which is where my Granny is from and had a hair salon. We ate at a Chinese restaurant and the people there spoke Cantonese! Wowza!

After a few days in Saigon, I was homeward bound to Gwangju.

Will have to update the rest of my Korea experience in installments. There's lots, but I think I will do an abridged version.

my thoughts are fleeting

i always think of something that i wanna blog about and then i say to myself, "remember that!" and then when i actually log in to blogger, i totally forget everything that i wanna write about. it's frustrating cuz i'm sure it was some deep stuff...cuz those are the only thoughts i can think...deep ones. mmhmm

so let's see...i've been job hunting. just applying for anything that even slightly piques my interest. well...that's how they get you. they make it sound like it's a good job doing one thing, but really, it's a completely different job that you didn't even know you applied for. three interviews later, i get the job offer and today i planned to decline it. i called but no one answered, so i left a voicemail asking them to phone me back, but no one has. i called again later on and still no one answered. i guess i'll try tomorrow.

i had an interview today to be an online student advisor. this job seems like it's up my alley but i got so nervous today at the interview. ugh. while i would answer their questions, i'd think to myself, "what the hell are you saying?? you don't even make sense!" i guess when you really want it, the nerves come out to get you. hopefully i get a chance to redeem myself at a possible second interview.

i also finally got myself to the beach today! i was only there for an hour but it was nice just to get some sun. i've gotten significantly lighter since i've been home. when i first got back to the states, the first thing everyone would say to me was, "damnnnn, you got DARK! like REALLY dark!" i didn't think i was that dark, but now that i'm so white, i can appreciate how dark i actually was. i've never been that dark in my life! i want it back!

i watched "crazy stupid love" tonight and i thought it was really good! but i am definitely not a movie watcher!! i was actually enjoying the movie, but halfway through, i was so ready to just get out of there. i don't know what it is, i just can't sit and watch a movie, even if it's good! i need to train myself to sit. and it only took me 20 minutes to get home from weho tonight. i don't think it's ever taken me such a short time. but yes, it IS a monday night. i had a good full monday :)

struggling

I've been home for a month now. I realized this fact yesterday and it made me tear it! I'm still so depressed about being home. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach just thinking about it. I've been trying to keep busy by going to the gym and that has been helpful. Yesterday was my rest day, so that didn't help with my depression! I honestly feel like I don't belong in the states. But maybe it's just because I'm back living at home with my mom, which makes me feel like a little kid again. I feel like I can't do anything, like go out late or wear red lipstick...both of which I have done with hesitation and no consequences. I know I can do these things but the little girl in me thinks, "Am I gonna get in trouble??" My mother trained me well.

Also, not having found a job yet is contributing to my depression. I'm so uncertain about my future. I thought I had a plan but circumstances beyond my control are making me rethink it. What the hell am I doing with my life? Is this a quarter-life crisis? Methinks yes.

On top of this, I'm living in a household with contrasting cultures. When I was traveling, learning about different cultures was one of my favorite things, but now that I'm back at home, inside this house, you'd think that my family would have one culture, but that is not the case. We do share some cultural views but when it comes to certain things, it is like day and night. It causes tension and confrontations. Two things I absolutely abhor. My mom is still set in her old-fashioned Chinese ways even though she's been in America for over 24 years. I understand that we are Chinese but we live in America. There needs to be some sort of compromise.