Dramatic Weather

(Thank you for cheering me up baby <3)

I.HATE.COLD.WEATHER.

I got sick last Saturday, a day before Lunar New Year's Day weekend. I went to get an acupuncture without a muffler and came back home with cough. I wasn't feeling cold or anything but apparently my immune system got weak because I've been exercising little bit too much (for a beginner I guess..I exercised 2 hours, 6 days a week) in the environment that I wasn't used to, so germs just hit me and made me get cold. I had to go see my relatives with my sinus cold and make sure no one gets sick from me (I hope they didn't.) It made me get sad a bit because I wasn't able to play with my cousins (sorry girls;;;) Since I was sick, I decided to rest during the weekend: eat well, sleep lots, not exercise, and relax.

To be honest, I couldn't eat as much as I wanted to because I would've felt so wasted if I ate everything I wanted to eat and gain my weight back. Thankfully, I lost a bit of weight a day after Lunar New Year's Day even after I had 떡국 (rice cake soup made with beef broth, topped with meat pieces, dried seaweed, eggs.) I think it's because I didn't eat full bowl of it. Also, I didn't feel good after I had some greasy food. My body changed a lot and got used to eating healthier foods, so I can't eat a lot of salty, spicy, or greasy food anymore. Umm...yay?

I'm slowly getting better. I decided to rest until this week and fresh start exercising next week, which means I better heal completely by Sunday so I can exercise. I thought I would NEVER say something like this, but I miss exercising and sweating.

Going back to work now. See you!

sorry I lied :(

I was supposed to write about my small night adventure with my friend a day after my last post, but I got busy and exhausted towards the end of the day so I couldn't do it. I'm so sorry :'(

Anyways, I met one of my good friends since middle school last Wednesday (11th) near 강남역 (Gangnam Station) around 4:30pm to get early dinner at 미즈 컨테이너 (MIES Container (what's MIES or Mies..or whatever that is..) click the link to check out more pictures and info) There were so many people waiting on line to get in! We had to wait for about 20-25 minutes to get a spot. We were actually lucky that we got in early because there were more people waiting on line when we got out. Whole interior looked pretty cool. It kind of had this industrial decoration..sort of reminded me of BJs a bit.

My friend said this place is known for salad spaghetti so we ordered that and potato bacon pizza. As soon as the order went in, they gave us a receipt in a white safety hat with number printed on it. We went to our seat and talked for awhile. A waiter came with our food after 15 minutes. He said "happy new year and hope you will have a great year this year" and some more comments and asked for high-five, so we did it and laughed after he left. Food was really good! I know I wasn't supposed to eat pizza or spaghetti but she's been craving for awhile and she wanted to go to this place since a week before, so I was okay. And besides, I knew I won't be able to eat this if I didn't eat that moment. Food was really delicious. Salad spaghetti was like actual salad with spaghetti noodles (no, there wasn't any tomato sauce on top.) Pizza was a bit saltier than I thought. Maybe my taste became less salty.

As we were having a conversation about our life and other stuff, she asked me if there was anything that I wanted to visit while I'm in Korea so I told her I wanted to visit many places like 삼청동 (Sam-chung Dong) or 북촌 (Book-chon) area. She asked if I wanted to go after dinner so I agreed and decided to go. I was wearing heels that time so I wasn't sure how far I could walk, but I didn't care. We arrived at 안국역 (Ahn-gook Station) around 6pm and started to walk to small road where a lot of cafes are located in Sam-chung dong. Roads were pretty small in the beginning but there were a lot of cute places to pass by.

(a panoramic view of Sam Chung Dong)

After we walked for a bit, my friend took me to top of this building on a hill to look at the view of night cityscape. We had to go up this steep stairs to look at it. Night view was very beautiful. I took a photo and we walked to Book-chon.
Book-chon is a really small village on the hill with Korean traditional houses. I was little bit disappointed on myself that we came here too late because I wasn't able to see details of the house. Oh wells, but they were still pretty :D We walked around there for a bit and went down to head over 인사동 (Insa Dong)

(Ssam-ji Gil)

Insa Dong is known for selling Korean traditional products and galleries. Also all of banners are written in Korean (even Starbucks.) We were planning on going to this cafe that my friend wanted to go, but we decided to go to 쌈짓길 (Ssam-ji Gil) and check out the stores. Stores in that building sell a lot of hand-made products or their own design products. Ugly Dolls shop was there too. I found few things that I liked but they were overpriced so I gave up.

(left: interior of Book Cafe / right: drawing for my friend)

We went to a cafe located on top of Ssam-ji Gil called 'Book Cafe' and rested until they closed. She ordered mocha and I ordered lemon tea. They had scrap papers for guest to draw on it and post it around the wall so I started to draw the interior with my friend in it. My friend liked it a lot so she asked me if she could keep it, so I gave it to her.
After we got out, we started to head out towards 청계천 (Chung Kye Chun.) We saw a Honey Thread snacks, watched their how-to-make shows and bought some.

(Gwang Hwa Gate)

We walked through Chung Kye Chun, went to 광화문광장 (Gwang Hwa Gate Square) and walked all the way to Gwang Hwa Gate. We saw a person bowing in front of a statue of General Soon Shin Lee...it was weird...

So that was my dinner date with my friend :) I should've took more pictures but this wasn't planned so I didn't have a camera with me :/

Anyways, I don't go out as much as I wish I could be. I've been sort of busy with dad's business related stuff, going to gym every morning, get acupuncture, do house chores and some other stuff...so I don't know what else I can say..lol. I will post more about recent activities I had with friends and family :D (hopefully tonight?!)

Beginning of New Life

(Murphy would like to say hello :D)

Hi everyone :)

I heard weather in LA got much warmer. Hope you guys are enjoying the bright sunshine. I've been adjusting with the weather here with a padding jacket and a coat that I bought long time ago. I wanted to buy some clothes, but there are too many clothes to look online. Well, they don't have a lot of them in my size, but I have to look at different lists to see if they do and each list is so long. I get tired after 3 lists or so. But I need to buy some clothes pretty soon since I don't have a lot of long sleeve clothes.

I also have another reason why I don't want to spend too much money on clothes; I finally started to exercise since Tuesday. My mom and I got the personal trainer to teach us for 8 sessions. Trainer was really kind enough to teach us even during on non-session days to give us instructions on how to use machines and other movements to work on after machines and such. It's like having personal trainer everyday!
It's been 4 days and I lost 2.6kg (approx 5.7lbs.) I think I will lose a lot than my goal for this month if this continues. I'm enjoying training sessions with my trainer so far! He's really nice and doesn't go super hard on us, wait I take that back. He goes harder on me than my mom because I'm much younger and I have a lot of weight to lose. My leg and shoulder muscles are sore, but this means I'm using muscles and burning fat so I feel good. And like friends said, it'll go away so I'm just waiting for that day to come lol.

Only bad (?) thing about this training session is that we have to go to gym by 6:30-6:45AM. YES, AM! It's because my mom has to leave to her work by 8:30-8:45 and evening sessions were full, so we had to get morning session. It's really hard for me to fall asleep at 11pm and wake up at 6am, but oh wells. Good thing is though that I feel more energetic a bit. I'm not trying to stress myself over my sore body or not being able to eat whatever I want. I can eat them later if I want to anyways :)

Each session is about 1-1:30 hours long, but the trainer told me to stay for 2 hours since day 2, so I stay longer than my mom to do more cardio. We start with 20 minutes cycling, 1 hour of machines or training session, and end with 40 minutes of fast walking on treadmill (10-20 minute of cycling for my mom's case.) Middle part of exercise exhausts me a lot, but I'm usually okay when I use machine :)

I know I'm not supposed to get stressed when I'm on diet but MAN, I wish my dad would stop asking me if I lost weight EVERYDAY. It gets pretty annoyed, it's more like bugging me than asking me because he's concerned. Sigh, it gives me a bit of stress. But I wouldn't be doing this without his help and support, so thank you <3 but could you ask me a bit less? Please and thank you :P

Anyways, I can't wait to see myself being healthy! I have more story to tell you about my dinner date with my friend on Wednesday, but I will post that tomorrow :P I don't want to make you guys feel overwhelmed.


Good night!

(PS: this is the place where I got soondae awhile ago. It only comes during the evening.)

Finally! Food I've been wanting to eat!

Hello everyone :D

I've been craving to eat street food SO MUCH, especially soondae since I came to Korea, so I finally decided to get some today after asking my friend for a place to go near my house. I first went to 잠원떡볶이 (Jam Won Ddukbokki (<-it's rice cake with spicy sauce)) after I went to acupuncture hoping that they will have soondae, but they didn't have it. I was a bit disappointed but my friend told me their ddukbokki is very old street food style, so I ordered 1 portion of ddukbokki and 1 portion of tempura. I should have taken some pictures of them but I got too excited to try them out and I was too hungry, so I just ate them as soon as I opened them.

(Jam Won Ddukbokki. It's located in this small street next to Jam Won station)

(1 portion of ddukbokki and 1 portion of tempura)

(all photos taken by Sieg, please go to his blog for more pictures if interested :)

I googled the place to give you guys what I had. Price wasn't too expensive but definitely more than what I used to pay when I was younger. I paid 6,000 won for that amount and portion was more than enough. I got so full.
As I was getting a bit sad about not having soondae, my mom asked me to go buy some side dishes near the hair salon my family go to, so I decided to stop by this truck that sells street food after I finish errand. This truck has been around since I lived in Seoul! I thought they stopped coming, but I was glad to see it as soon as I saw it. Truck was full of people! I wish I took photos. Maybe next time.

(soondae!!!)

Soondae is made generally by pig's intestines that are stuffed with various ingredients, mostly clear noodles. It's like a sausage. I also got different parts like liver and other parts that I don't know the name of. My dad was like "What?! Soondae?! You shouldn't eat them you know," but I just smiled and started to eat them. I wasn't that hungry from lunch I had but I couldn't resist to eat them. It was so moist and good! That couple who makes food soondae! I want to go back to that couple and have 닭꼬치 (grilled chicken with sweet and spicy sauce on a stick)! I used to eat those a lot when I used to live here 10 years ago. Mmmm :)

I'll be going to my uncle (큰고모부)'s hospital tomorrow to get blood test and other test. I am not sure what I'll be doing but I will be out half of my day, going to 2 hospitals (yay) I hope I am not super sick. Wish me luck!

Good Bye 2011, Hello 2012!

Hello everyone!

So the new year has come! What is your resolution? Mine is pretty obvious: recover my health (physically and mentally,) be productive, and be kind. I had really good dream on last day of 2011 (or that's what my mom said) so I think 2012 will be a good year as long as I stay focused and be productive. I usually don't really believe in dreams much but it's very rare that I remember a dream I had and result was good, and it's not that bad to think positively right? :) Since I told everyone that I'm coming to Korea to recover my health I really need to lose weight. My dad is going crazy about my health. He said "I'm very happy how both you and your brother have grown, but one thing I'm not satisfied with what I did is your weight. You are perfect except your weight, that's why I brought you here to Korea." Oh my.

What have I been doing since my last post? I started to take care of my body. I finally started to go to see my friend's dad's acupuncture/oriental medicine clinic. He told me to come everyday because my digestion needs to be cured to have my energy used other than just digestion. I also started to work for my dad's company. I'm in charge of a lot of design-related things like logo and app design. My dad said he brought me to Korea because it's his goal to make me lose weight until I reach average weight for my height, but I think he brought me here because of his business as the main reason. I'm not sure what he's thinking.

I finally went to the gym to make a membership card. OMG, gym membership is much more expensive in Korea than the states. My dad is also getting a personal trainer for my mother and me, but I don't think we can pay more than a month. It costs way much more than my dad thought, but we'll see what he will end up paying for my mom and me. We were supposed to start from tomorrow, but my mom's condition isn't well and this personal training deal is for 2 people under 1 trainer type of deal, we've decided to start from next Tuesday with the trainer. I'm excited to work out and start taking care of my body more. But until then, I still need to try out some food that I've been craving for! I still haven't had a chance to eat street food like 떡볶이, 순대, etc. I thought I could see all of them on any streets! WHAT HAPPENED?!? lol.

Anyways, I'm doing well. Hope everyone else is doing well too.
See you on next post!