Monday, December 28, 2009

Be yourself

Be yourself!

Be demanding

Be irritated

Be passionate

Be obsessed

Be creative

Be generous

Be romantic

Be cheesy

Be driven

Be lazy

Be sarcastic

Be crazy

Be strong

Be yourself!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Granny power

No matter how old you get, remember you can always kick ass :).

Here's an inspirational video.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Work

This is what I do at work.

It's the end of the semester, and students have just had exams, so for the past couple of weeks I haven't taught at all. Just played movies, had market days where kids could use up their accumulated points and buy snaks from me.

And, even though I do have work to do, like prepare for the next semester, make up lesson plans, prepare the things for the English camp that starts in 2 weeks, I really couldn't be bothered.

There are other way more interesting things to do at this moment, such as listen to lectures, watch YouTube videos, take a nap, and write in my blog.

Oh, I love exam time and the end of a semester when I'm NOT a student :).

Flash Music

I've always enjoyed opera. Except when my dad was playing it over and over and over and really loudly when I didn't want to hear it. That's always the case tho isn't it?

Anyways, there's a specific kind of opera that I like, the romantic melodious male and female voice singing together or to each other.

My dad send me an email this morning with a link to a YouTube video about a thing in Spain I think.

Absolutely beautiful, so, I put the video on here :).



And then after following the links, I found another video also very very beautiful. I found myself applauding at the end of the performance. Absolutely incredible.

Tony Robbins

So this is another lecture, but this time by Tony Robbins. I hope most of you will know who he is. He is that guy who does all those presentations about being emporered and is loud and has incredible energy. Extremely tiering to listen to.

Anyways.

As I was listening to more lectures on www.TED.com, I found a lecture by him. The topic was interesting and I said, why not.

Well, I'm glad noone was around, because a few times I was laughing out loud and even applauding.

I really enjoyed this talk.

So, here's the link.

Why We Do What We Do by Tony Robbins

Low expectations

Wow, another really great lecture about happiness and problems with choices.

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

Really something!!

Enjoy :)

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Synthetic Happiness

Wow, thanks Eddie about the video.

Here is a link to the very interesting lecture:

Synthetic Happiness by Dan Gilbert

It makes so much sense.

It really is on how you take things in life.

Our choice

Well, while I was in the shower, (the place where I do my best thinking and reflecting), I got to think about the things that happen in my life.

I think while we are in any situation, good or bad, it seems like they are out of our hands and we are left helpless to be lead by some sort of force.

If you let it, you will be led, but if you are not happy with where you are going, no one can be blamed because it was no one other than you who chose to follow.

I let myself be led, and I am happy. I do have bad days but I am still happy. If I stop being happy, I take an active role in my situation and change the direction of my life.

I've done it a few times and I have never regretted any of those decisions.

But that is the thing, anything I do is my choice whether I realise it or not, or admit to it or not.

I have the choice to be happy or not to be happy.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Feeling good

I had a really nice talk with my dad the other day.

It put some things that I've been thinking about in perspective.

I feel even more driven to do what makes me happy now.

I feel hopeful and not so lost anymore.

You have to find what drives you in your life and follow that.

What else would there be to do?

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Bored

I am so bored!!

It's cold, it's dark, everyone's staying indoors because it's cold and it's dark.

I don't feel like reading, I don't feel like knitting, I don't feel like cooking or cleaning.

There's nothing good on TV, I'm bored of my movies, I'm bored of my music.

There's no one to talk to and there's nothing to talk about.

I'm so bored!!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hm...

I know I haven't written something on here in quite a while, and then all of a sudden I posted 10 sort of new posts.

But, does anyone still read this blog?

I don't really write this blog for anyone except myself really. It's so that I remember the things I've done, things I've thought about and ways I've grown up.

Just the other day I went through my whole blog, all the way to the begining. Wow! I can't believe it's already been almost 2.5 years.

That's a really long time.

By the time I'll be finished with Korea, I will have been here 4.5 years. That's more than a regular university experience.

I want to be able to remember all that, and this blog thing is perfect.

So if you do read these messages, please comment. I always love reading what you think about what I write :).

Thanks.

Storm

Monday, December 14, 2009

Baking madness

So I bought an oven!!
I found a good deal and I finally did it.
And the baking hasn’t stopped.
This is my awesome oven. Small, but big enough to roast a chicken, bake to breads and cook lots of eggplants. Not all at the same time obviously, but you understand. I got it from this site called Gmarket. It’s the way to go. Internet shopping is great in this country because it’s cheap and super convenient. They ship it right to your door for only $2.5 within 2 or 3 days.

This is the first bread I made.

This one was banana, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. It was delicious. I took it to school and used it as reward for my students if they did well.

This was bread with garlic. It was ok. It probably would have tasted better if I put whole garlic instead of minced garlic inside.

And this was the Italian spice bread. WHOA!!! It smelled so good.

And with the salmon that I had from the salmon festival I tried to make a fluffy pastry thing. It didn’t quite work out. It turned out more like pie crust, but it was cool to make nevertheless :)

Thingy with salmon inside. Again, not as fluffy as I hoped. But as they say, practice makes perfect.

I want to make croissants or something similar. I guess I have to find a better recipe next time.
Still looking. Any suggestions?

Random random raaaandom

As the title of this post sais, this is just random.
I’ve got some pictures that don’t merit their own topic, so yes, random :)
When I was in Romania visiting my Grandmother and a little village called Stroiesti. I don’t remember why I was walking to the local windmill, but the way to get there was through various fields and gardens. The one that really stood out in my mind thought was a really beautiful orchard. I’m sure my memory of it is quite distorted but what is left feels like a fantasy. All was green, full of small low trees heavy with apples, and a little path winding it’s way through the trees. And I was the only person around. I wish I had stayed a bit longer and absorbed more of the scenery.
Anyways, my Korean class went one day to an apple orchard. I missed it just because I can’t be bothered to go to that class anymore, but I found out where the orchard is and went there with my scooter.
For 5,000won ($5), I got a big bag full of crisp and juicy big apples. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.
 



Look at all those apples :)
Alright, so now we’re done with the apples.
The next exciting thing, is my new vehicle.
Yes, I’ve upgraded from my little 50cc scooter to a 125cc motorcycle named Delilah. I didn’t name her, that’s how she came, and it seemed to fit, so why change it eh? :)
It’s a manual, so I’m having to learn how to change gears, how to deal with the clutch and how to deal with the weight of a much bigger bike. I’ve been riding it around on one road up and down, and hopefully this weekend I’ll know her well enough to go out on the road and go to the gas station a few blocks down the road. It’s so exciting. It is quite cold now and I won’t be able to ride her for much longer before the snow and ice sets in, but at least I’ll be ready for spring and summer. No more buses, no more waiting.

On a safer note, this is me and some other friends at a bread baking party. Yes, you read correctly, we got together and learned how to bake bread. It was great. Matthew, who is like the man version of Martha Steward agreed to coach us all on the art of bread making.

It was a success.

Salmon Festival (October)

So, every year, there is this salmon festival in a city called Yang Yang. It’s about 2 hours away from where I live. I’ve missed it every year, so this year, when it came around, I made sure to buy my ticket and get in on the fun. The whole point of the festival is to enjoy salmon. And to do so, you have to catch it yourself. With your own hands, as you stumble around in the freezing water.
Well, I did it :)

The first picture here, as you can see, is a bunch of people either getting ready to go into the water, either already finished catching their fish, or just watching as everyone else does so.

There was a really cute family with matching outfits and long rubber boots. Now they came prepared.

I didn’t. I had to borrow some pants from Josh, and I was going to borrow some flip flops from Popy (his wife), but she had only little in-between-the-toe shoes, so that wasn’t going to work. So, I decided to go barefoot, not realizing that this whole thing wasn’t happening on a beach somewhere but in an actual river, that is usually rocky.
It was challenging.

But I did catch my own fish :)

After I caught my fish, I took it to this table where they smear it with some black paint and get an imprint of it on a paper that you can hang on your wall later.

And then I took my fish to get it chopped up and cleaned. Yay!
It had a lot of eggs too which I cooked later in a sort of small patty.
   


Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Random Abby

If you are expecting any pictures of Abby running, or jumping, or chasing something, or being awake… well, that’s not what you will get.

Again, as you all know, this is what Abby does best.

She’s enjoying my new fluffy, soft and warm blanket :)
It is Abby approved.

I turned on the floor heating for a little bit that evening, and Abby obviously totally loved it.

Paragliding? Or not…

So, I found a place in Pyeongchang, a city further down south, where you can go paragliding for pretty cheap. I found 2 other people who were interested and headed out early in the morning on Saturday (November).
 And here we go. We bought tickets from Sokcho.
  
We were so excited, we couldn’t contain ourselves.

But it was a loooong ride, and everyone passed out eventually.

And then we arrived!! YAAAY!! Pyeongchang is a tiny little place.


This was the paragliding office.

This is where you land.

And there at the top is where we take off. Whoa!!


But we had to wait, so we walked around the area. It was really pretty. I took a classic Dana feet shot.
 

And then we got to this really strange rock park. It was empty and eerie, but still very interesting.


 


The colours were changing and it look very beautiful.


 


 Matthew found a cool rock by the river.

And then people started taking off. It looked so amazing.


 

So now it was our turn. We rode up in a truck on a very long and windy road.
 


And we get to the top. WOW!!!! Our gear was there ready for us, they were preparing the parachutes for the people before us, and so we waited.
This is where you run and jump. That’s where the hill ends.


It still wasn't our turn yet… grrrr…



Matthew and Jana were posing with the beautiful background.


And then the wind stopped. NOOOOOOOOO!


We decided to take more pictures.

And wait some more…
And more… zzzzzzzz



We found a praying mantis to entertain us for a while.


Then they said, ok, get suited up. YAY! Now we were going to jump for sure. Excitement is in the air.


Matthews jump suite was too small, so he decided not to wear his.

And that was it. The wind didn’t get any better :(
We had to take our suits off again and head back down. We were pretty disappointed but at least we got to see such a pretty place.


 

 

And then we ran into Steward. YAY! And we also found a tractor. Obviously we had to take a few pictures.


 

As we were walking to the little town of Peyongchang, we walked by the big supermarket in town. Yup, that’s as big as it gets. Hahaha!

It was pretty though, I must admit. A very cute little town. It had a very touristy feel.

And this was our entertainment for the afternoon.

When we got back to Sokcho we decided to treat ourselves to a Korean style BBQ. Mmmmmmmm!
Matthew was in charge of the cooking.

Jana was in charge of the turning.


  

And here we go. We are all ready to dig in and feast!!!!!
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
About 20 minutes later, everything was gone. Whoa! That was so delicious!