After posting our pictures from Korea, we've gotten a few comments that we're starting to look alike.
When we landed in Jeju, our tour guide was waiting for us holding up a placard with our names. A little background, but Korean people don't change their names when they get married. I did.
Our tour guide assumed we were brother/sister because we have the same last name. And now I'm thinking possibly because we look alike?
It wasn't until he asked us for our passport information that he realized Danny was older than me. He thought Danny was my younger brother. Talk about adding insult to injury.
I picked up a good stash of face masks while I was out in Korea. You better believe that'll become a regular part of my skin care routine from now on.
May 6, 2011
May 4, 2011
quick thoughts on korea
What a tiring trip. I think I was more tired during "vacation" than I was while working.
We traveled by plane, train, automobile, and subway. We were gonna ride a boat, but weather got the best of us.
We went on a tour group to Jeju Island. The different tour spots tried to sell us things like cloned ginseng and horse bones. We did buy some chocolate.
Seriously, there are no napkins in Korea. How do people stand it?
People are so amazed that I can eat Korean food. Little do they realize that Koreatown in Los Angeles has pretty much everything they have to offer.
Even in Korea, I look Chinese.
We traveled by plane, train, automobile, and subway. We were gonna ride a boat, but weather got the best of us.
We went on a tour group to Jeju Island. The different tour spots tried to sell us things like cloned ginseng and horse bones. We did buy some chocolate.
Seriously, there are no napkins in Korea. How do people stand it?
People are so amazed that I can eat Korean food. Little do they realize that Koreatown in Los Angeles has pretty much everything they have to offer.
Even in Korea, I look Chinese.
March 25, 2011
We're going to Korea!!
As of today, it's still tentative. But we're hoping as of tomorrow it'll be confirmed.
As we approach our trip, I think Danny is becoming increasingly nervous. I have to admit, I haven't been doing much to calm his nerves. I tell him about the crowds. Crowds of people. Everywhere. I remind him of the sheer size of my family. I remind him that they speak Busan, and as far as Danny is concerned, it's a foreign language.
Danny's comment to me today: "Last time I was in Korea, the USSR still existed. There was no internet. Some of these cousins weren't even born."
Look forward to some pictures!
As we approach our trip, I think Danny is becoming increasingly nervous. I have to admit, I haven't been doing much to calm his nerves. I tell him about the crowds. Crowds of people. Everywhere. I remind him of the sheer size of my family. I remind him that they speak Busan, and as far as Danny is concerned, it's a foreign language.
Danny's comment to me today: "Last time I was in Korea, the USSR still existed. There was no internet. Some of these cousins weren't even born."
Look forward to some pictures!
March 3, 2011
pride and prejudice, part iv
Alas, we have come to the end of it all...
There was a point that I was just going to give up on the book, but I kept with it. I thought it did get exciting after Wickham kidnapped Lydia. That was totally out of the blue for me, and kept my interest enough to finish the book.
I just don't get why Mrs. Bennet would still want Lydia to marry Wickham. This doesn't make sense to me at all. He basically kidnaps her and holds her for ransom. Yet Mrs. Bennet thinks the best idea is to marry the two. I guess it goes to show how Mrs. Bennet views marriage as the ultimate goal in life, but still. That bothered me a lot. If I were Mr. Bennet, I would have punched Wickham squarely in the face. (While I was reading this, I told Chris that this is why our daughters will not date until they are 30.) I really got annoyed with Mrs. Bennet after this whole ordeal.
So, Jane and Bingley end up together. And Elizabeth and Darcy do, of course.
In the end, I think I liked Elizabeth after Lady Catherine tried to get her to swear not to marry her nephew Darcy. Elizabeth just seemed like a smart and strong woman who knew what she wanted, or at the very least, wasn't going to submit to some old lady who had designs of her own.
Now, Chris and I can watch the BBC version. Maybe it will show me why all women love Oscar-winner Colin Firth.
There was a point that I was just going to give up on the book, but I kept with it. I thought it did get exciting after Wickham kidnapped Lydia. That was totally out of the blue for me, and kept my interest enough to finish the book.
I just don't get why Mrs. Bennet would still want Lydia to marry Wickham. This doesn't make sense to me at all. He basically kidnaps her and holds her for ransom. Yet Mrs. Bennet thinks the best idea is to marry the two. I guess it goes to show how Mrs. Bennet views marriage as the ultimate goal in life, but still. That bothered me a lot. If I were Mr. Bennet, I would have punched Wickham squarely in the face. (While I was reading this, I told Chris that this is why our daughters will not date until they are 30.) I really got annoyed with Mrs. Bennet after this whole ordeal.
So, Jane and Bingley end up together. And Elizabeth and Darcy do, of course.
In the end, I think I liked Elizabeth after Lady Catherine tried to get her to swear not to marry her nephew Darcy. Elizabeth just seemed like a smart and strong woman who knew what she wanted, or at the very least, wasn't going to submit to some old lady who had designs of her own.
Now, Chris and I can watch the BBC version. Maybe it will show me why all women love Oscar-winner Colin Firth.
February 25, 2011
pride and prejudice, part III
I'm working my way through this book, and more often than not, I end up falling asleep on Elizabeth Bennet and company. Again, I say that I don't think that 19th Century English women are my cup of tea. (Rather, something piqued my interest the other day: a sci-fi series called Old Man's War.)
I got past the part where Darcy professes his love for her and explains why Wickham is so bad and why Jane doesn't deserve Bingham. So, I guess I'm headed to the third act where Darcy eventually wins over Elizabeth, they fall in love, and get married, which I seem to gather is the point of the book.
If only there were a way to make the story more interesting... perhaps by adding zombies and making Elizabeth a zombie hunter...
I got past the part where Darcy professes his love for her and explains why Wickham is so bad and why Jane doesn't deserve Bingham. So, I guess I'm headed to the third act where Darcy eventually wins over Elizabeth, they fall in love, and get married, which I seem to gather is the point of the book.
If only there were a way to make the story more interesting... perhaps by adding zombies and making Elizabeth a zombie hunter...
January 28, 2011
pride and prejudice, part II
What I've gathered so far:
I figure I'm not supposed to trust Wickham. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation why Darcy hates him. We've all seen this before: Hugh Grant/Colin Firth/Zelwegger; Pacey/Dawson/Joey; Vampire/Werewolf/Human.
It seems Collins will marry anything that moves, including his cousins. From Jane to Elizabeth to Charlotte. I guess if the benefactor says to get married, you're gonna do so. Gotta keep the funders happy. [Sidenote: reading about entails just took me back to property class in law school. I hated property.]
Charlotte Lucas was just dying to get married, too, apparently. I don't know many women that would be cool with their close friends marrying the guy who just proposed to her. I guess I just can't get inside the mind of a 19th Century English woman.
We don't like Caroline Bingley. (Is that her first name?) Maybe she'll end up with Wickham instead of Darcy. It seems like it's the goal of every character to get married by the end of this book. And if Elizabeth and Darcy are star-crossed lovers, then doesn't that leave Miss Bingley and Wickham? I say, since she figuratively stabbed Jane in the back, Jane should literally stabb Miss Bingley in the back. Pride and Prejudice and Justice!
I figure I'm not supposed to trust Wickham. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation why Darcy hates him. We've all seen this before: Hugh Grant/Colin Firth/Zelwegger; Pacey/Dawson/Joey; Vampire/Werewolf/Human.
It seems Collins will marry anything that moves, including his cousins. From Jane to Elizabeth to Charlotte. I guess if the benefactor says to get married, you're gonna do so. Gotta keep the funders happy. [Sidenote: reading about entails just took me back to property class in law school. I hated property.]
Charlotte Lucas was just dying to get married, too, apparently. I don't know many women that would be cool with their close friends marrying the guy who just proposed to her. I guess I just can't get inside the mind of a 19th Century English woman.
We don't like Caroline Bingley. (Is that her first name?) Maybe she'll end up with Wickham instead of Darcy. It seems like it's the goal of every character to get married by the end of this book. And if Elizabeth and Darcy are star-crossed lovers, then doesn't that leave Miss Bingley and Wickham? I say, since she figuratively stabbed Jane in the back, Jane should literally stabb Miss Bingley in the back. Pride and Prejudice and Justice!
January 20, 2011
January 17, 2011
pride and prejudice, part I
C has wanted to watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice with me for a while. In preparation, I'm gonna read the actual book. In the meantime, I've decided I'm going to have an ongoing review of what I've read thus far.
The first thing that really frustrates me is that I don't know who's talking half the time. There are five Miss Bennets and a Mrs. Bennet, so I never know to which Bennet one is ever referring. It doesn't help that I don't know people's full names. So, when a character refers to someone else by her first name, sometimes I'm not so sure who it is. Also, for a few pages, I thought "Lizzy" and "Eliza" were two different people. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that they are the same person right now.
To be fair, this isn't a Jane Austen thing. This happened when I was reading The Brothers Karamazov. With all the different Russian nicknames, I never knew who was who.
Second, I'm only ten chapters in, and I'm already annoyed by the women in this book. All they do is gossip and talk about which men they want to marry or which men they should marry or when they want to marry. If this goes on for another 300 pages, I might throw this book off a bridge.
Finally, Darcy is very Colin Firth-y. Or is Colin Firth very Darcy-y?
The first thing that really frustrates me is that I don't know who's talking half the time. There are five Miss Bennets and a Mrs. Bennet, so I never know to which Bennet one is ever referring. It doesn't help that I don't know people's full names. So, when a character refers to someone else by her first name, sometimes I'm not so sure who it is. Also, for a few pages, I thought "Lizzy" and "Eliza" were two different people. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that they are the same person right now.
To be fair, this isn't a Jane Austen thing. This happened when I was reading The Brothers Karamazov. With all the different Russian nicknames, I never knew who was who.
Second, I'm only ten chapters in, and I'm already annoyed by the women in this book. All they do is gossip and talk about which men they want to marry or which men they should marry or when they want to marry. If this goes on for another 300 pages, I might throw this book off a bridge.
Finally, Darcy is very Colin Firth-y. Or is Colin Firth very Darcy-y?
January 11, 2011
wait until veteran's day
I told Chris that our phone carrier had a major announcement on 1/11/11 at 11am. She responded, "PEPPERO FOR EVERYONE!"
January 7, 2011
on the sixth day, C created…
For those of you don’t know, C is a knitter. She recently knitted a stuffed elephant. When she finished it, she actually said to this elephant, “I am your creator.” She then christened the elephant Wilbur.
We recently took Wilbur with us to the Bay Area over the Christmas weekend. Our SF mom loved him. She had a huge smile when she saw him. She would carry him around in her arms. She took lots pictures with him and lots more of him. Our favorite picture is the one where SF Mom placed Wilbur in the middle of some her outdoor plants. She loved Wilbur so much that she wanted to keep him. Unfortunately, Wilbur is a gift for a friend’s baby.
The whole time I was thinking, “How is SF Mom going to react when we bring an actual human baby for holiday visits?” I’m sure she will love a grandchild even more than Wilbur. Yet I wonder if she will place her grandkid in plants like those Anne Geddes pictures?
For the time being, I hope that C will eventually create another stuffed elephant for SF Mom. Anything that will deflect attention from producing an actual baby is fine by me.
We recently took Wilbur with us to the Bay Area over the Christmas weekend. Our SF mom loved him. She had a huge smile when she saw him. She would carry him around in her arms. She took lots pictures with him and lots more of him. Our favorite picture is the one where SF Mom placed Wilbur in the middle of some her outdoor plants. She loved Wilbur so much that she wanted to keep him. Unfortunately, Wilbur is a gift for a friend’s baby.
The whole time I was thinking, “How is SF Mom going to react when we bring an actual human baby for holiday visits?” I’m sure she will love a grandchild even more than Wilbur. Yet I wonder if she will place her grandkid in plants like those Anne Geddes pictures?
For the time being, I hope that C will eventually create another stuffed elephant for SF Mom. Anything that will deflect attention from producing an actual baby is fine by me.
January 6, 2011
new year's revolution
In reviewing some of the previous posts in this space, I found this: anyone out there?
Turns out, about a year ago, I posted nearly the same thing as I did earlier this morning. I feel like the guy who always resolves to lose weight every new year, only to fail every year. Well, I'll try harder this year.
Bonus coverage from 2007: messy danny. I didn't know that was still out there in cyberspace. It made me laugh. Hope it makes you laugh, too.
Turns out, about a year ago, I posted nearly the same thing as I did earlier this morning. I feel like the guy who always resolves to lose weight every new year, only to fail every year. Well, I'll try harder this year.
Bonus coverage from 2007: messy danny. I didn't know that was still out there in cyberspace. It made me laugh. Hope it makes you laugh, too.
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