ray lamontagne always puts me in the mood to write, which i haven't been doing much of lately. the fingers of winter just cannot seem to let go of korea, and it's nearly april. i hope they will release their death grips and let us ease into spring. the days are getting warmer, but i come home from school in the cold every night. i'm so glad there are two soup places downstairs where i can stop for a steaming bowl of sundubu jiggae instead of cooking. sundubu jiggae is a simple spicy soup with clams, tofu, egg, and zucchini, and it's probably my favorite dish here. no other food warms me up quite so quickly.
while eating my soup and reading joan didion's "slouching towards bethelem," i thought about vassar. the epigraph to and namesake of her collection is one of my favorite yeats poems, and i still hear paul kane, my favorite poetry professor, in my head when i read it. cashmere-clad and playing with my new nose piercing, i couldn't help think...you can take the girl out of vassar, but you can't take the vassar out of the girl. someone recently told me it was "scandalous" that i went there. how so, i still can't decipher. although i have mixed feelings about some of my time there (ahem, the return from italia and hawai'i when my own 70-page thesis on fairy tales slapped me in the face), i will always love being a vassar girl.
the same person who was shocked by my past makes me think of a line from the same yeats poem: "things fall apart; the center cannot hold." although i had no feelings for him, he made me realize that i am no longer the phi phi island princess. i am not fawned over or adored by all in korea. no one has made me a crown. am i falling apart? better yet, wasn't i at my hottest mess status on that island? can i ever be that island girl again, or is life pushing me towards something else, something more serious and "grown-up"? only six more months in korea will tell. there are so many things to think about--where to go next, law school in 2011, what to make of my so-called relationship across the continents.
one thing makes me very happy though: brandy is coming to visit in two days!! she's one of my very favorite people in the world. so much has happened since we said goodbye in hawaii. if only we had known that last time we had all (me, her, jp, james, gabby, and teri) been together just how much would change in 18 months.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
t.g.i.f. tomorrow
friday could not come soon enough. i am so exhausted this week, but it has been a fun week nonetheless...
monday: i went out with my co-workers to celebrate a new teacher starting at our school. we went out for eel again, and i have to say it was much better this time around. perhaps the deliciousness of the eel is directly proportionate to the amount of soju i drink. dinner led to a bar and playing many chopstick drinking games. something about the flourishing of the sticks reminds me of harry potter or a fencer. i like the korean drinking games, but i do want to teach them some american games one day. then i can poke fun at them the way they poke fun at me. after the bar, we went to a noraebang (singing room). my co-teacher loves enrique iglesias almost as much as i do. he loves enrique so much that he crawled across the table singing "escape." i thought that was a move only katherine stuth and i could pull off, but he did it quite well.
tuesday: i woke up with a bit of a soju headache but still got myself to spinning class. after the gym, i went out to lunch with dave (my neighbor), james (9:30 spin guy), and ms. kim (golfs with james). we went to a nice italian place nearby that i had been meaning to try for a while. i'm already looking forward to our next lunch date.
wednesday: st. patrick's day. to humor a friend that is/was interested in some army boys, i made the mission to itaewon mid-week. i'm not planning on doing that again for sometime now. despite grumbling on the subway on the way there, it turned out to be a pretty good night. what am i saying, the three of us girls always have a good time!
monday: i went out with my co-workers to celebrate a new teacher starting at our school. we went out for eel again, and i have to say it was much better this time around. perhaps the deliciousness of the eel is directly proportionate to the amount of soju i drink. dinner led to a bar and playing many chopstick drinking games. something about the flourishing of the sticks reminds me of harry potter or a fencer. i like the korean drinking games, but i do want to teach them some american games one day. then i can poke fun at them the way they poke fun at me. after the bar, we went to a noraebang (singing room). my co-teacher loves enrique iglesias almost as much as i do. he loves enrique so much that he crawled across the table singing "escape." i thought that was a move only katherine stuth and i could pull off, but he did it quite well.
tuesday: i woke up with a bit of a soju headache but still got myself to spinning class. after the gym, i went out to lunch with dave (my neighbor), james (9:30 spin guy), and ms. kim (golfs with james). we went to a nice italian place nearby that i had been meaning to try for a while. i'm already looking forward to our next lunch date.
wednesday: st. patrick's day. to humor a friend that is/was interested in some army boys, i made the mission to itaewon mid-week. i'm not planning on doing that again for sometime now. despite grumbling on the subway on the way there, it turned out to be a pretty good night. what am i saying, the three of us girls always have a good time!
Sunday, March 14, 2010
seoul food
i'm always excited to discover something new and interesting to eat. there are lots of good places around seoul, but at the moment two of my favorite are in hyewha, a university area of town. the first is a slow food place with a good fusion of korean and european food. the other is this place where they serve baked pumpkin stuffed with seafood and veggies and soju cocktails out of fruit.
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