Saturday, June 30, 2012

Bye-bye Elliot

My friend and coworker Elliot is leaving this weekend. He will be greatly missed. What a chill guy to work with. Generous, polite and laid back. So I spent last Sunday hanging out with him and some friends at Ulsan Grand Park. 



Have fun in Canada Elliot!!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Parks and flowery Ulsan









There were fields of flowers in the park next to our apartment for a while. Then one day they cut them all down. Now where there were once fields of flowers, there is bare ugly dirt. I don't know why, but luckily we got pictures of the flowers before they were cut down.









Tuesday, June 26, 2012

O Taco

A mexican restaurant has opened in Ulsan. It sounded revolutionary. Mexican cuisine is actually something that does exist in Korea, but mostly in the larger cities. It turns out the restaurant is really far away from us. We took a bus for an hour, almost until the end of the line, and then spotted our stop. 

We hopped off and headed directly for the sea. Not because that is where the restaurant was located, but because we wanted to see the sea! We found a tiny beach where people were camping.

Then we found some sort of holding area for fish. 

Then we realized that we didn't actually have directions to the place. 
So we wandered around until we found it. 

I was excited but the service was really slow and the prices a bit steep.


I'm going to be honest. I was disappointed. I could do better, but I'll give them a little break because I don't think I could even find the ingredients. Jar salsa, and not enough cilantro or lime anywhere. 

All in all it was an exciting adventure and I enjoyed the sea air and eating on the patio by the sea. The main point of the story is I miss real Mexican food and the speediness with which it is served.

xoxo Claire

My life with computers

So Google thinks that bomb.com is a place on the internet. I approve. I didn't follow the link it provided in the email, but I hope it doesn't lead anywhere in appropriate. If it does I blame Eric. 


 I also like Google because it wants you to teach it things. Below is an example of Google asking me to teach Gmail what emails are important to me. Maybe we've got some AI working with our emails?

Today this happened to me at work. I got an instant messenger up on my work computer. It was all in Korean, but I found it reasonable to respond. I tried to Google translate what it said, but it didn't really make sense... so?? I don't know, but I thought it was hilarious. 

xoxo Claire

Friday, June 22, 2012

Celebratory activities

TREVI A German Brew house in downtown Ulsan. We met up there with Erik for some beers and good conversation.There was a scoop of ice cream on bread on the menu and we knew it was all good from there. So we sat on their patio and tried some of their home brewed beer. 
 


SUSHI  We headed over to our favorite sushi place and enjoyed some fine sushi.

FERRIS WHEEL  Then we decided to finally check out the ferris wheel on top of a 7 story building. No big deal. 
 A picture of Ulsan from the ferris wheel. 

A picture of the ferris wheel from the ferris wheel. 
 A picture of me pretending I'm not freaking out on the ferris wheel. 

Celebratory hanging out with an adorable dragon after the ferris wheel ride. 

D'MARIS  Delicious meal at a Korean buffet. Excellent and awesome. Amazing food, good company.
 Here is a picture of some sushi, some deep fried things, and some seafood.
 They also had punch! This is a delicious cinnamon punch with pine nuts in it. YUM
 More seafood and desserts! Also I helped myself to some lemons hanging out with the seafood. So delicious! I miss lemons, but I refuse to pay the outrageous prices here! 

In addition to these activities I also got some laser hair removal action for my armpits... but that's another story! Soon to come!

xoxo Claire

P.S. I'm an adult now apparently, I can do what I want. Including laser hair removal...

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Its a celebration b******!

These are my two birthday songs. Kanye West- Hey Mama




Kanye West - Celebration



Its no longer my birthday here in ROK (Republic of Korea), but I've still got a bit of time in the place of my birth, so I'll keep rocking it for a bit.

Peace y'all.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Namhae

Related link: Eric's blog post about the same day

So we had a public holiday. Which turn out to be our vacation days, but anyway! Here is an excellent montage of photos courtesy of Charles. Charles in his magnificent way also organized the trip, with transportation, and all. The trip was to excellent Namhae for sea kayaking, cliff diving, snorkeling, rafting and more! Or so it was advertised...



We started the day off with sea kayaking. The day looked calm, but the sea was too choppy out of the bay to go into the caves and explore. It was still magnificent landscape and an amazing feeling to be out there on the sea. 















 The day went on like this for a bit. We met some awesome wonderful interesting people. I usually enjoy most of the people on Charles's trips... however ther eis always one or two crazies on the trip. This trip was no exception, but alas it makes for more interesting storeis, and greater knowledge of the world around me. 







Then it was time to go "snorkeling". So we outfitted ourselves with the appropriate gear to keep ourselves from getting cut on the rocks. We had gloves, and booties, and snorkels. We were led over large boulders in bikinis and snorkeling gear (was rock climbing in a bikini on my bucket list? Check that off...) to the area below.This was our snorkeling site. After getting into the water somehow (some jumped, I climbed down the rocks to the left of the picture) we realized the water was too choppy to see anything. Also I freaked out because murky water with seaweed attacking your legs is not my ideal environment, and oh yeah I'm afraid of water. 



I always asume that I am simply making it up when I tell people that I'm afraid of water, because let's be serious here. Who is afraid of water? How is that reasonable? Then I get in the water, and for no reason whatsoever, I'm freaking out and on the brink of hyperventilating. Unreasonable for sure, but so it goes. So I climbed down a rock face, scared away scads of sea cockroaches, got in the water,  got attacked by seaweed and then I swam out aways into the water. I was proud of myself, but it got to be a bit too much by that time. I decided to get out of the water. I try to do something I'm afraid of everyday, because other wise really life is too easy, but I really outdid myself that day. 



Eric and some of the others proceeded to go in search of rocks to go "cliff diving" off of, but there was no spot for it. Turns out that the cliff diving was "pick a rock and jump off of it". So they went. I hear they found some good places, but since no cameras followed them, you won't see it. I also hear that Eric will update on his blog eventually with his camera's pictures from the day. 


Also some of theses pictures are super huge because of how awesome they are. I want you to see the details, and if its available why not? Also what good is consistency? Its boring and once something is expected its taken for granted. 

hugs! Claire

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Teach Yourself: Korean

There are many great resources to help you learn the alphabet and the language of this strange land I live in.

Omniglot
First you might want to learn the alphabet.This website is an amazing resources to learn the alphabet and pronunciation. It also includes history and a whole slue of information to help educate yourself about the Korean language. This is of course important in the spirit of learning, but also because the more you understand about what you're learning the easier to see the connections your new subject has with the world around you.

Learn Korean Now
Here is an excellent resource for the beginner too. This site covers the whole gammet of necessary things to learn the Korean language and become conversational with Koreans in short amount of time.

Talk to me in Korean
One of my favorite spots is Talk to me in Korean which includes a series of podcasts and worksheets. They start from the basics and work up to more advanced things. There are 7 levels each with 25-30 lessons. This is a great resource for the beginner. The lessons start in mostly English teaching the words you'll probably need first and go in a logical order from there building slowly and reviewing along the way.

I was honestly very surprised when I first looked into this how many sites exist to help a foreigner learn Korean. I am grateful, but not very motivated so my progress is slow. To be even more frank it makes me want to study other languages more. So my Swedish is coming along, and I've been working on basic French. Eric also helps out by speaking to me in Spanish frequently, which might be less romantic than you'd imagine. I may update this later with more, but since you're probably a beginner just like me, these websites ought to give you enough material to keep you busy until I find more =D

hugs Claire

Teach Yourself

Hello!! I am starting a new series of posts. This series will be about free ways to teach yourself things with the internet! I believe its really important to continue one's education, and I don't believe it should cost people money. Knowledge should be free, and since knowledge is power I can understand why those with all of it want to continue to charge others to get it, but I don't think its fair or reasonable. If one has the motivation to do it on their own they should be given the resources to continue. Since there are so many excellent resources on the internet, I'll share with you the ones I know about. If you have any suggestions you think I should include you can email me.
cmk212 [at] gmail [dot] com


Thursday, June 14, 2012

K pop Concert

So I went to a concert Saturday June 9th. It was a very interesting experience. I had no idea what to expect and it went about like that the whole time. It was a three hour concert, and the main act, IU, performed most of the time. I was generally really surprised by this distinct difference from American concerts I've been to. The main act usually doesn't go on right away, letting the starter bands warm up the crowd, but here it was different.

(this video is long, but a good recreation of what the concert was like)


There was a dramatic intro, video montage, smoke machine and dimmed lights. Then after a couple songs and a little dancing, she said hello to the crowd. She continued to sing taking short breaks to talk to the crowd, change outfits, or let her musical guests perform a few songs of their own for the next three hours.  Also there was elaborate light choreography for every song and the general set design was absolutely amazing. I'll include a video of one of my favorite songs by her so you can an idea of the sound.

In case the link doesn't work or the video won't show in your country... You can search IU- marshmallow on youtube and probably find your own version.


Photography is mostly prohibited at these sorts of concerts, perhaps for safety reasons,  to explain the uncharacteristic lack of  photos. It wasn't entirely prohibited however, and about two hours in, after an extensive dance routine and in what was perhaps not her most flattering outfit, IU called a photo time. She stopped performing, turned up the house lights, powdered her nose on stage, and posed for pictures on each side of the stage. The crowd went nuts for every pose. Perhaps you don't know about Korean Aegyo I will now take the time to explain. From this website.

Aegyo derives from the Chinese characters "love (ae)" and "beautiful (gyo)." The closest English translation of aegyo would be "winsome," defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as "generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence." Not surprisingly, aegyo is considered a feminine trait, generally attributed to women who can charm men and elders through a careful balance of sweetness, cuteness, poutiness, modesty, thoughtfulness, and submissiveness. A woman with aegyo knows to blush at dirty jokes rather than guffaw along with her mouth agape. A woman with aegyo knows to let out a modest and appealing squeal and grab tight her date's hand when watching a horror movie. Aegyo is considered such an essential female trait that there is even a plastic surgery procedure called "aegyo surgery" in which aegyo sal [skin] is created on the bottom eyelid to create a sweeter and more innocent appearance. With women's changing social roles and evolving sensibilities, however, there is more room now for women who are less coy and more direct. Lee Hyo-lee, for example, who is unafraid to talk about her bowel movements on national television, is one of Korea's top stars whose popularity derives precisely from her easy-going attitude and uncompromising honesty. 

This is a demonstrative video. If it doesn't work search "shit Korean girls say" on youtube. The cover photo should be yellow korean letters with a purple background of a stubbly man in a wig.


There were small set changes and a several costume changes. She took several breaks to talk to the audience and a couple 10 minute breaks with musical guests. Most of the concert all the concert go-ers were patiently sitting in their seats (there was no general admission) waving their flashing concert wands around and watching politely. The first musical guest however got people out of their seats and dancing about. They were really fun and had a lot of energy.  So I'll include one of their videos too.

Mighty Mouth- Bad Boy. The video says its ft. Soya, but IU sung the girl's part at the concert. Excellent, silly and a good time overall.

hugs! Claire

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Vegan recipes post #1

Here are two of my favorite recipes for awesome vegan food. As a disclaimer I never actually measure anything. I stopped that when I was 17 and I don't think I'll go back any time soon. I've included measurements so you can get an idea, but really go with what you like.

Curry vegetables


3 Sweet potatoes
1 large carrot
1 cup black beans cooked
3 large meaty tomatoes
curry powder mix

Cube sweet pots and carrots, cook in boiling water. Sweet potatoes should become mashy and carrots should become soft. Cut tomatoes into large chunks. (sweet potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes should all be around the same size- bite size!) Mix tomatoes and desired amount of curry mix together. Stir in sweet pots, carrots and beans. Enjoy!

---Variations include adding other raw veggies, like mushrooms and leaks---

Raw potato carrot soup


2 small sweet pots
1 very large carrot
2 small chili peppers
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of black pepper
1/2 tsp of cloves
1 tbsp oregano

Finely chop potatoes, carrots, peppers, and garlic. Soak in 3 cups of water. Add spices. Blend. EAT. We really like this recipe because its sweet and full of flavor with a pleasant kick!

xoxo Claire

Friday, June 8, 2012

Buddhist Temple Mountain hike

May 19, 2012
The other day we hiked up Munsu mountain. We found temple. We hiked down, I took a picture of a beetle. Then I ate some chicken pilaf. It was a good time. Set your eyes upon amazing photos.













This post was soo long overdue, whoops. Thanks for tuning in! See you next time!

You can also see Eric's post about the hike here.http://seekersenclave.blogspot.kr/2012/05/ascension-to-buddhist-temple.html