Always second best?

Hey all. I've been trying to get jobs/applying for colleges/dancing/making food lately, in case you were wondering. As some of you know, I've been really excited about a job opportunity at Caffe Ladro, which was right up the street from where I lived... it was looking like I was going to get it, and yesterday I learned that it was between me and one other person and... they got it. Ah well. I'm applying to some places in Alaska Junction and Pike Place Market, somebody's bound to pick me first someday.

Last night I made samosas and mushroom curry from the moosewood cookbook though, which was excellent. The curry had a bunch of spices, and apples, and mushrooms, and celery, and honey, and all in all it was a success. The samosas got burnt thanks to our oven- (it's incapable of cooking things properly, I believe) but they were still good on the inside and I had leftover filling so I'm going to make more today and hopefully they will turn out better.

Samosas! Before they got burnt.

Mmmmm.

Today I'm helping my dad out at his work. (In trade for lunch, today and yesterday... heh. I'm working for sandwiches.) He needed someone to be talent for an animatic, and so I'm riding a bike around in a garage and pretending to catch a phone. I think I'm going to also try to get cast as an extra for the actual shoot, so I might end up being in a T-Mobile internet thingy! We'll see. 

Oh, and New Years! Hey it's a new year everybody! 2012!!!!! Yayyyy!! Yayyy....

Ahem. But yeah, New Years was fun. I hope everybody reading this had a good holiday. After having Korean barbecue with my family, (which had been long overdue- I've been craving Korean food for awhile) I went out on my friend Sophie's boat with a bunch of friends on Lake Union, and we watched the Space Needle fireworks from the boat's roof. Played games, listened to music, and other stuff until we all got tired and went back to Sophie's house where we crashed. So, pretty successful New Years, if I say so myself. 

Also I had a great idea for a band when I was riding in the car with my dad the other day. I will tell you more about that later, because I designed the cover art for their first album, but I don't have it on me right now to scan and put onto this post. So be patient! I know the suspense and overall anxiety will probably kill you! But you'll just have to wait!

Seoul pt. 2

Hey all. I'm just going to pick up where I left off.
After Gyeongbok Palace we went to Insadong, which is kind of the artsy area of Seoul. It was really cute- all of the buildings were very different from one another and the alleys branching off from the main road were long and winding.
Ginko trees changing colour.

Alley.

The best example of resourcefulness- cabbage growing in a planter.  

Alley. 

Jamie and Cameron, his friend that we met up with while we were there. He was very nice, and he also bought us lunch and me a hat. (Cameron on right, Jamie on left.)

People in traditional Korean clothing. 

Two boys in traditional Korean clothing talking to a friend. 

Stabuckse coppee.

There were people that were making and selling these candies on the side of the street. These guys were really cool and when they were making the candies they would say the procedure out loud in a sing songy kind of way. They aren't doing that in this video but just to give you an idea...

I also saw a couple really cute kids while in Seoul.

After getting lunch and walking around a bit, it was time for me to go to the airport to fly home. So Jamie and Miya drove me to Incheon and said goodbye, and I was on my way.
Breakfast: Korean dunkin' donuts? haha.
Lunch: Spicy octopus and shiitake mushrooms
Dinner: airplane food! yay!
I'm missing Korea, but it's nice to be back too. This has been a great experience and I just wanted to thank all of those who supported me with going on this trip.

Goodbye, Korea... a.k.a. Seoul pt. 1

Welp, I'm back in Seattle. I really missed that specific Seattle-like chill in the air. I miss Korea though, also.
Today I'm going to talk about the last day in Korea- we went to Seoul, the major city of South Korea.
After getting up super early and (inevitably) sleeping in the car, we arrived in Seoul and went to Gyeongbok Palace, which was the King's palace. It was all torn down by the Japanese multiple times, and is currently (I think, I could be wrong) 40% reconstructed. They are still working to completely reconstruct it. It's already really big, so I know it has to have been absolutely huge.
Me in the yard where they used to practice their fighting skills.

The throne hall. You can see the separation in the path to the entrance... the center path was used only by the King and the outer two was for everyone else. You can see half of the center path and the right outer path in this picture.

The throne room.

On the ceiling was two dragons, which symbolized equal opposites, similar to the yin and yang symbol.

The royal army was parading through the palace while we were there. Later, when we already had left we heard drumming and saw them through the gate with brightly coloured banners doing the changing of the gaurd.  

A boat in the middle of a pond. 

Miya and I in front of the steps up to the National Folk Museum of Korea. She is taller than me, as you can see.  

Afterward, we met up with one of Jamie's old friends, who's english name was Cameron. He was really nice, and took us out to lunch at a restaurant where we had spicy  and shiitake mushrooms. I think I must've built up a little more tolerance to spicy food, because I don't know if I would have been able to handle how spicy this food was before I came here.

I think for now I'm going to leave it at that, because I have so many pictures from Seoul and I don't want to overwhelm anybody.

Breakfast: Korean Dunkin' Donuts on the road. Haha.
Lunch: Spicy octopus/shiitake mushroom, octopus pancake.

The following images may be considered disturbing. Just to warn you.

Hey! Today, we were going to go to Seoul, but since Jamie isn't feeling too good we decided to go to Seoul tomorrow (Sunday). Tomorrow I'm catching a plane to get back home.

Instead, Miya and I went to a cafe in Donghae while Jamie went to the doctor. It was another cafe where they roast their own coffee, and this one made their own chocolate too. I tried a green tea chocolate that was really good, and I had a pot of lotus blossom tea. We also played with a really cute puppy that lived there. His name was Ddongja, which means "Shit baby" in Korean.

Afterwards, Jamie picked Miya and I up and we went to Haesindang park. This park is also known as "Penis Park."

Yes, that IS me sitting on a giant statue of a penis.
The story behind this place is that a maiden who was engaged to a man went down to the beach with him to pick seaweed. She was out on a rock and he was back on land when a storm came and swept her out to sea. By the time he had gotten to her it was too late, and she had drowned. Since that day, the local fisherman weren't able to catch a single fish, until one fisherman peed off the side of the boat. Then,  they were able to catch fish. So they decided that meant that seeing they guy's penis had calmed her spirit, so they erected (no pun intended) statues to keep her happy.

The penis cannon.

Penis stools. 

Penis windchime things?

Roar! Now that's frightening.

One penis, with five baby penises coming out the top... 

A penis... with girl legs?

So yeah. Penis park... yay!
On the way home I caught a picture of the construction dummies that they have here in Korea that I mentioned in my Happy Halloween post.

Breakfast: Bagel and lotus tea

Lunch: Ddeok Ramyeon

Dinner: Mango Banana curry. (Didn't taste bananas or mangos in it. Jamie made it. It was good.) 

Tomorrow we go to Seoul really early and then I get on a plane at 6 pm. So I won't be posting tomorrow. 

And I'll leave you with this video of the Penis Cannon in full action!

UPDATE- Sorry that the video is sideways. I don't know how to fix that...

I am AWESOME at chopsticks!

It's true. Just kidding, it's probably not true. But I think I'm a lot better than I was when I first came here! Hurray!

Yesterday, (Thursday) was market day again. Didn't take many pictures, but I did buy some things including a pair of leggings and a tea set, both of which I am so excited about!
My baby!

Lunch: Dol Sat Bi Bim Bap
Dinner: Chinese! (very different from Chinese food in America)
Dessert: Ice cream inside a corn husk made out of the same thing as ice cream cones, layered with chocolate on the inside and with little bits of rice and corn in the ice cream. It was the most delicious thing in the world.

Today, I visited Jamie's school again... I got a picture with some of the girls. They were so cute and asked me lots of questions during their passing period. We talked about what musical instruments we played.
I feel so tall! Haha.

Lunch: Squid, Kimchi, Rice
Dinner: Ohyadeok jolim (This stuff was delicious. Squid, lettuce, mushrooms, and peppers in a spicy sauce.)

A couple posts ago I mentioned that Koreans are very resourceful people. I wanted to give you an example of how they are so resourceful.
These pictures are taken right outside Jamie and Miya's apartment. Every spare bit of space is used to either grow or prepare food. Gardens are everywhere.
Drying persimmons off of a balcony.

 Drying seeds.

 Growing a squash plant or something that's hanging between two trees.

There's huge gardens surrounding the apartment, and one of them even has manta rays drying out on a rack.

Yeah, so I thought I'd share that with you guys. Also I'd like to share this song, that I have stuck in my head. YAY K-POP!!!! (Most k-pop is really bad, but catchy, and the choreographed dances are fun and cute. I think Miss A probably are the most talented out of the groups I've seen.)

And I'll leave you with that. Know what song's going to be stuck in your head for the rest of the week? 

Chincha gwiyeoweo toki! (Really cute bunny!)

Hi! Let's talk about bunnies. I've been staying with my Uncle Jamie and Aunt Miya and they have two bunnies, Rumor and Monsu. I wanted to introduce them to you.

Monsu!

 Rumor!

They are cute bunnies and they are finally letting me pet them. Yay! 

Okay, so the past couple of days (Tuesday and Wednesday) I haven't really done anything new. Tuesday I went to chuam beach again, and explored a little more, and read my book. 

There are lots of cats at Chuam.

Cat.

 Cat.

Cute family.

Three cats!

Baby with grandma?

Cat.

Breakfast: cereal. Lunch: Seafood fried rice. Dinner: Pho

And the next day, Wednesday, I went up to Mureung Valley again and hiked up to the twin falls. The leaves were more colourful this time.

Kay. Yeah. Point taken? Moving on.

Breakfast: Cereal!

Lunch: Deok gook su, Jean kalgook su. (Two types of soup. I wasn't a super fan of either, but they were alright.)

Dinner: Korean Barbeque! (The real deal.)

And then that night we watched Totoro. And Jordan was happy. The end.