Yesterday was a fun day!

In the morning, my mom and I watched a movie called "Talk to Her". It's a foreign film, very interesting, with lots of beautiful imagery. It got such good reviews, and it was a moving movie. Simple story, but for some reason, it keeps you riveted. A lot of tension in the movie keeps it moving. Then in the afternoon, I met up with two of my cousins and we hung out in a cafe. For dinner, my aunt, uncle, second uncle removed (? I'm not sure what he is), my parents, my cousin and I took over half a restaurant, a bbq restaurant. Very yummy, eating Korean style, meat and soju. I think I ate the most out of everyone, I got a few surprised looks from my parents. :P More than anything though, it was the camaraderie that I enjoyed. Maybe I just missed having family around.

This morning, my paper came out! You can officially look me up on PubMed. It's very exciting, my first paper! I've spend the entire morning trying to get into the Nature Neuroscience website, but for some reason (due to nature.com, or the Korean internet), I can't get in. argh. Very frustrating.

my curls are alive... with the sound of music...

for some reason, in Korea, my perm goes curly crazy. It's nice actually, it looks so flat in America. I think it's the hardness of the water in Davis. grr... I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts.

hm, what to do today? Meet Meena emo for lunch, then maybe hang out in Myungdong? Hopefully it won't monsoon rain again. The sky looks questionable...

my dad takes such beautiful pics of Korea. I think his love for Korea shines through these. The first two are views from our back and front windows, respectively.



notice that for this one, the river has swollen so much from the rain that the bottom lanes for cars has been flooded.



One of my favorite pics from my dad's portfolio of Han River photos:

I think I talk about food a lot.

I really missed good coffee. Safeway coffee just doesn't cut it. My mom's coffee is very very good. I think the Florian coffee I got her in Venice is mixed in with hazelnut coffee. yum.

Korean morning TV is very interesting. There's a lot of melodramatic soap operas. Maybe this is similar to American soap operas that play in the morning? But it's weird when it's morning, and you're watching TV of someone in a bar getting drunk over a broken heart. It's heavy stuff for 8 am.

Dr. Phil is on at 10 am! I love Dr. Phil. :)

I am eating constantly!

I guess that's ok. I haven't done much here in Korea, but it still feels like I'm being swept from one thing to another. I saw my cousins today!! The highlight for today was teaching my cousin how to talk, say certain words. So cute. She can say "big sister" now, which is what she calls me. Smart girl. :)

what is my passion?

• crazy creativity, mixed with risk, complete absorption and abandonment: the art of Marc Chagall, works of Balanchine, the musical stylings of Jason Mraz. His complete absorption in the moment allows him to go from an upbeat song (like Curbside Prophet) to introspective and slow (like Hey Love) the next moment. Another person who gets completely absorbed without regard for what others may think: Jamie Oliver. Maybe it's an unconscious disregard of self-consciousness. The opposite of self-consciousness, but a genuine quality of self and self expression.


• expressions of a child: I never get tired of watching my cousin, TaeHyun, and the joy she finds in simple things and her childlike responses.


• compassion: watching someone else help another. Working for Oprah, like I've always said, would be such a great job - you'd have the excitement of meeting celebrities, along with the charity work that she does to keep you inspired, to help "feed the soul".


• good food: chocolate covered macademia nuts, yum.

a light extinguished. regrets, reminisces. illogical, i know, but emotional. you're in my thoughts today.

here's to hope. and life. a laughing face remains.

omg, tomorrow is a Friday! I can't believe it.

For the first time, I am staying put this weekend in Davis. Can you believe it? :) hehe. I know, I'm always on the up and running, but this weekend, due to the amount of work that needs to be done, I have decided to be dedicated and demure and devote myself to lab. yay me. Also looking forward to checking out the churches in this area. Davis is such a quaint little town. Maybe I'll check out their farmers market on Saturday morning.

Time really flies when experiments don't work. sigh. Ok, that is my self-pitying statement of the day, nothing more, I promise! I'm really looking forward to going to Korea in two weeks.

Congrats to Joon and Erin! (who, respectively, got engaged and is now pregnant with twins) Twins! I can't believe it.