dollop of solipsism

wow, this facebook thing is fast. i got ‘tagged’ by a couple of facebookers over the past week to post 25 random facts about myself. and now i’ve been blog-tagged by the soon-to-be-married kelly over at and your little dog too…

so without further ado, 25 random facts about me (a couple have been tweaked from my original facebook post):

1. i had no idea what those buildings were, with the streams of charcoal smoke spewing out of them. until they collapsed and america changed forever.

2. i used to call cornrows ‘cornrolls.’

3. i never got past page 50 of katherine dunn’s geek love. i strongly recommended it to a lot of people, and it got to the point where they just assumed i had finished it. and i just played along. the same goes for jonathan safran foer’s extremely loud and incredibly close.

4. my right nipple is pierced.

5. cockroaches make me scream.

6. richard lagravenese’s living out loud, which stars holly hunter as a recent divorcee who befriends elevator operator danny devito and lounge singer queen latifah, is one of my all time favorite movies. it’s my comfort film. i really wish i had my copy of it with me.

7. i have never smoked marijuana. i have never even been in the presence of a joint, lit or unlit.

8. as a freshman in college i was harassed by prank callers but never told anyone.

9. i think my friends are the best people on earth.

10. i lived in cedar rapids, iowa for like, 2 years. i’m still in contact with my best friend from kindergarten to first grade.

11. if i wake up in the middle of the night, i make sure to take advantage of this opportunity to check my hair.

12. i have worn the same pair of contact lenses for the past 2 years. they are monthly disposables.

13. i don’t do anything with my film major because if i try and fail, i will be devastated.

14. i can’t imagine myself. being with my significant other. in a setting. outside of korea.

15. i used to cut lovebugs in half with scissors. and i used to burn ants using a gas lighter.

16. i love watching nature documentaries about predators. when predators stalk and kill their prey, i get terribly excited. i think i’m a closet hunter.

17. i have a thing for redheads. and overalls.

18. i’ve never received a traffic ticket. the most i’ve gotten was a warning from a female cop. who wasn’t my sister. i didn’t even have insurance at the time.

19. in middle school, right before falling asleep, i’d create long, detailed orgy scenarios involving several teachers of league city intermediate.

20. two days ago, i almost purchased a japanese spitz for ₩300,000 (≈$300) from a pet store. he was cute and white. and small. i was going to name him 오빠 (‘older brother’ in korean, spoken only by girls). of course the next day, i saw parts of oprah’s puppy mills episode, which left me sobbing.

21. i have the best memory of anyone i know.

22. in the future, after i’ve made some money (from doing god knows what), i’d like to run a dog shelter.

23. i like to eat cheetos with ice cream, and i can eat an entire ½ gallon of blue bell’s homemade vanilla in one sitting (with the cheetos, of course).

24. i hate the following words/phrases: “natch” “good call” “take it to another level” “step up” “a force to be reckoned with.” they make me feel gross on the inside.

25. i haven’t gone to the gym in two weeks. yeah.

i will tag people i haven’t read lists from: jeanny over at quibbling jottings, and wandering ju.

class 3, the best of the six classes at the recent english training camp, sits before me, eager to please, willing to participate, like a litter of labrador pups.

i point to the political map of south korea on the powerpoint slide.

“on this map, korea is divided into all of its provinces. what i would like for you to do with your partner is to list as many tourist attractions as possible, according to province. just very quickly, maybe five to six minutes. i’d like for you to make your list on the worksheet on page…”

a hand goes up. a korean english teacher well into his 30s.

“do you know that island?” i try to gauge where he’s pointing at.

i put my finger on ulleungdo, an island off the eastern coast of the peninsula. “you mean this one?”

“no, the one to the right.”

slightly irritated by this detour, i search for the area of land he’s referring to, wondering to myself how long i was going to play this edition of “do you know blah blah blah?”, a favorite game among koreans.

with as much offhandedness as i can muster, “oh. you mean takeshima?” i point to the two dots way to the east of ulleungdo.

silence. complete silence for an uncomfortable ten seconds.

i scan the faces in the usually friendly crowd of nine gentle korean english teachers. utter shock, as if i’ve just slaughtered a child in front of them.

“i was joking,” i whisper, leaning my head forward in assurance.

slowly the tension leaves the shoulders of many. a few awkward chuckles of relief.

yeah, definitely the wrong crowd.

sing it with me now: this land is your land, this land is my land, from south korea, to japan island…

i claim not to be much of a reader, but i actually read a lot. it’s just that the things i read may not be books. magazines, blogs, newspaper articles, emails…that’s all reading, right? and i prefer to watch shows and movies with subtitles, thank you very much. so yes, i read.

over the seollal break, i watched the entire 11-hour bbc nature documentary series planet earth (with subtitles). it was amazing but exhausting at the same time. so much information and visual candy coming at me, all in a couple of sittings; gotta love that HD. my eyes must be in want of a break now because i’m craving some old-school perusal of books.

this afternoon, i was waiting for the beloved at kyobo bookstore (korea’s barnes & noble) when, on a whim, i decided to purchase david sedaris’s when you are engulfed in flames. being a huge sedaris fan (who isn’t?), i’d been wanting to own a copy since its publication, but could never justify the inflated ₩25,900 price tag. until today. the great thing about a collection of short stories is that you can put it down and pick it back up again at a much later time. and have you ever read sedaris in a public place such as the airport or subway? it’s a conversation starter.

i’ll be reading the sedaris until tomorrow or friday, when my copy of gish jen’s who’s irish? will be delivered. the facebook book club i’m a member of has selected this collection of short stories as our latest text. i remember reading some of gish jen’s writings in college, and am interested in revisiting her voice; a lot of her writings involve asian-americanness, or americanness in general.

i knew i wasn’t going to find this mildly obscure book at one of daegu’s two major bookstores (the aforementioned kyobo and its rival youngpoong), so i decided to give what the book? a shot. what the book? was founded in 2003 and what started out as a humble english bookstore in the capital city has grown into a well-established business; you can even purchase books online and have them shipped to anywhere in korea.

i ordered who’s irish? on january 19th and was promised a delivery date of within 10 business days. and just this morning i received an email from them letting me know that the book was shipped from the US (cuz they didn’t have it in their seoul store) to korea, and is now on its way to my door. tomorrow (i’m hoping) the delivery man will call to make sure i’m at home so that he can personally place the book in my waiting hands. awesomeness.

unless something awful happens with this delivery, i recommend what the book? for your reading needs. on a related note: a while back, i had made the decision to help other english teachers in daegu by posting about english bookstores located in the city. this afternoon, i visited one.

withus bookstore is located just east of downtown daegu and carries a variety of english teaching materials: boardgames (such as scrabble and guess who?), audiobooks, children’s books, flashcards, as well as books focusing on phonics, listening, grammar, and vocabulary. additionally, there is a decently sized toefl/toeic section for people who are into that kind of stuff. the interior is colorful and well-stocked and i believe there are classrooms lining the back wall of the store (they must hold some private instruction courses).

on the downside, some of their products are dusty and old (i figure they’re either secondhand or ancient), and many of their goods are unpriced. nevertheless, when i visited this specialty store two years ago with my co-teacher, the shop owner was friendly and gave me two free world maps to hang in my classroom. the store has since been remodeled (for the better).

[to get there, exit exit 11 of banwoldang subway station, walk around the corner and look for the yellow sign. don't follow what the sign says (2F) and take the elevator up to the fourth floor. if you're not taking the subway, withus is located on the northwest corner of 봉산육거리 (bongsan 6-way junction). here's an alternate way of getting there.]

i’ve always found it difficult to make soup. mmm, let me rephrase. i don’t usually make soup, so i’m not familiar with the basics. last week, the significant other showed me how to make a simple egg-based soup. i tweaked the ingredients here and there to suit my pallette—er, palate—and loved the results. it’s pretty no-fail, so even a simpleton like me can handle the directions:

1. boil water. add chopped bits of green onion, garlic, and chili pepper. keep fire at low-medium heat.
2. crack 2 eggs in a bowl and beat.
3. place 4-5 frozen dumplings (you can buy at an asian supermarket) in a small bowl. add an inch of water and microwave for 30 seconds.
4. take dumplings out and let sit.
5. add a spoonful of dashida (다시다, korean soup stock (beef flavored)), a spoonful of soy sauce, and a few drops of sesame oil to the pot.
6. slowly drip beaten eggs into boiling water. as soon as the eggs hit the water, stir the pot with chopsticks (this will create a cloudy, egg drop soup-like consistency).
7. add dumplings to pot. season with black pepper and salt.
8. enjoy!

you can also add ddeok (떡, korean rice cake, the thinly sliced kind) after step 1 to make ddeokguk (떡국), a dish koreans eat on new year’s day (today!). garnish the soup with dried seaweed, toasted ground sesame seeds, and thinly sliced cooked eggs upon serving.

it’s a hearty little soup, perfect for winter. simple to make, won’t take much time, and it’s so tasty too!

my new favorite thing is the ’spot clear intensive patch’ from the face shop. the face shop is one of several chains that specializes in skincare (others include skin food, beauty credit, etude house and missha)—you can’t go anywhere in korea without seeing these beauty-enhancing stores on every street corner. koreans are pretty (and by pretty, i mean insanely) obsessed with beauty, so it’s natural that they (as in all of korea) would have a gazillion anti-ugly products to sell to consumers.

being ::air quotes:: kind of korean i, of course, purchase my predestined share of the sales: cleansers, toners, cotton pads, moisturizers, tweezers, creams of every kind to get rid of every kind of flaw, packs and a few things here and there from max factor and bare escentuals (hey, sometimes a boy needs a concealer—or two). i don’t necessarily use all that is neatly stocked in my medicine cabinet, but you know, just in case.

since skin comes in all colors and textures, let me describe mine. i have asian skin, on the lighter side (my people are from northern china, and northerners are lighter than the southern folk). i don’t tan easily and i don’t burn. i seem to have dry and oily skin (which is ridiculous). my skin was flawless until sophomore year in high school, when an onslaught of acne left me pussy and insecure (seriously people, we need to find a cure—screw cancer funds). years of dealing with pimples and zits (i’ve been on every type of medication and topical cream imaginable, save for accutane because my doctor suspected i’d commit suicide as a result of the side effects—it’s so strong it alters dna transcription (i have no idea what that is, but it sounds severe, right?)). in recent years, i’ve managed to avoid any more massive acne flare-ups, but still deal with the occasional zit, as well as enlarged pores.

it certainly didn’t help that my friends were born with supple, smooth skin (you know who you are). and for as long as we’ve been together, i have yet to see anything resembling a pimple on my stupid significant other’s smug face. it is maddening, but i count my lucky stars that my face isn’t as cratered as it could be. the optimist that i am, i wholeheartedly believe my complexion will improve further. there’s no way but up.

recently, i’ve been interested in home remedies that fight blemishes. i seem to have a harder time recovering from blemishes than the average joe. i must be lacking in a vitamin, perhaps E. or Z. or whatever. after researching several web sites, i compiled a list of foods that, when applied directly to skin, help your skin glow with health. these include: egg whites, mashed cucumber, grated potato, tomato and lemon juice.

here’s what i discovered: egg whites will reduce the size of your pores; lemon and tomato juice will leave a natural (healthy) oil on your skin’s surface, giving it smoothness; cucumbers and potatoes a) look ridiculous on your face, and b) aren’t as effective as the aforementioned items. of course, i’ve only been experimenting a week, and as my friend ros mentioned, i really should’ve tried only one thing for an extended period of time before moving onto the next (to compare, you know, in a control-variable method). but ros is a scientist, and i don’t think like that. i do everything together. all or nothing.

lemon and potato have natural bleaching agents, so with repeated application, they will make blemishes fade away. i was happy with the results of the egg whites, as well as the lemon & tomato juice mixture. i am more than happy to add those steps to my beauty regimen. furthermore, i should increase my water intake, as every web site told me to drink plenty of water.

i was telling ros about my recent discoveries over dinner at maya when she mentioned a discovery of her own. she told me about this little sticker she found at the face shop. this clear, circular sticker (the size of an iris) you put on a blemish for 8-12 hours. after the given period, no blemish. mouth wide open, i was aghast and skeptical. no. way. she told me to try it out.

i went to the face shop, bought a pack of 50 stickers for a measly ₩3,300 (≈$3.50), and followed the directions. the package says the sticker is an “intensive blemish patch with concentrated active ingredients [to] reduce the appearance of blemishes.” uh-huh, right. stuck a sucker on a fresh, bright red blemish thursday night, woke up the next morning, looked in the mirror and found only a faded reminder of a blemish underneath the sticker. amazing.

the main active ingredient is tea tree oil, which, according to wikipedia, has antiseptic and antifungal properties. i had heard the term ‘tea tree oil’ thrown around on oprah and in informercials, and had seen the term on products at mall-friendly, make your own damn soap, incense-heavy cosmetics stores. was a skeptic then, but am now a believer. don’t be shocked if you see a picture of me with my face covered in these clear blemish patches. i’ll be a walking hockney photocollage. hey, anything for beauty.

this weekend is a four day weekend for most korean citizens. saturday-tuesday will see busy seollal preparations, travels and celebrations. i will spend most of that time at home. i have lots of stuff saved on my computer to watch (including 2 new lost episodes and a couple of oscar-bait films). i just saw revolutionary road, where kate winslet basically tears leonardo dicaprio a new one, and it is pretty fabulous (review to come?). the book is definitely on my list of things to read.

ros saw changeling (which started playing in korea yesterday) and says it is great, so i may end up at a movie theatre tomorrow. anywho, nothing of consequence is happening this weekend. i’ll call my parents on monday to wish them a happy new year. and i have enough kimchi and rice at home to make kimchi fried rice, in case the markets close due to the holidays.

i’m preparing to attend a 3-person birthday party (the significant other’s and two friends’) tonight. it is freezing outside, but i am wearing layers upon layers. i am contributing a birthday cake for the festivities…i’m torn between something strawberry or mango. will go to the best-known bakery in daegu to get this colorful concoction.

two days of work await me (next wednesday and friday) and then it’s smooth sailing until the second week of february. i do plan on going up to seoul to visit my grandmother (because i promised her) and to have dinner with some korean friends. february 6 marks the 500th day of our relationship, so there might be a 1 night, 2 day trip to somewhere in korea. who knows? maybe an island off the southern coast.

and i inadverdently missed the 1-year anniversary of this here blog, dollop of solipsism, which started on january 16, 2008. thanks for following and thanks for all the comments. i really do enjoy writing almost every day…keeps my thoughts in order.

again, happy new year!

best picture: 4/5 (the reader)

best director: 4/5 (stephen daldry)

best actor: 5/5

best actress: 3/5 (kate winslet (wrong movie), melissa leo)

best supporting actor: 4/5 (michael shannon)

best supporting actress: 4/5 (amy adams)

wow, they did not like revolutionary road. brad and angelina are nominated together. no one is going to watch the oscars this year because the dark knight wasn’t nominated. harvey weinstein is a powerful powerful man. winslet only gets the one nomination…and you know what? she’s probably going to win for it.

24/30 this year. blah!

a 3-minute news story on cnn this morning featured the massive migration of millions of chinese people who are (at this moment) making their way home for chinese new year. a similar thing happens in korea—to a lesser extent, of course—around this time of the year, when the koreans celebrate seollal, the first day of the lunar korean calendar. plane, bus and train tickets are almost impossible to get, and heavy traffic plagues the highways days before the festivities.

in korea, the new year is welcomed by three days of festivities, with seollal falling on the second day. in the mornings, rituals are performed to honor the ancestors, and the days are filled with family time. hence all the travel; people aren’t traveling for fun, they’re traveling to get to their parents’ homes. adventurous koreans trek their way to the eastern coast and ring in the new year by witnessing the first sunrise. children love seollal especially, for they receive crisp won from relatives, immediate and distant. all they have to do is bow and utter the words, “새해 복 많이 받으세요” (may you receive many blessings/fortune of the new year).

my maternal grandmother called me yesterday asking whether or not i was going to travel to incheon to spend chinese new year with my mother’s side of the family. i offered some excuses…work, no train tickets, inconvenience, whatever…to extricate myself from any familial obligations. frankly, i don’t like spending much time with my mother’s family because they are a vortex of dysfunction. i will, however, call my parents in texas to wish them a happy new year. that i will do. if i had been at home, this is what would’ve occurred:

my mother would make dumplings. strategically placed inside several of the dumplings would be 떡 (ddeok), a peanut, a bright shiny penny or a dried jujube. perhaps 25-30 of the 100+ dumplings would have one of these symbolic items (i forget what each filling symbolizes). for me, it was like christmas but with dumplings. you picked out a pan of 30 dumplings, declared it your own, and started eating. you’d think to yourself, which one, which one will have that bright shiny penny? for the penny was the only item that had a prize attached to it—money. for every penny you found, you received $5. eventually, after the second or third pan, it stopped being about eating dumplings and more about finding pennies. there were rules, and you had to follow them: no poking dumplings, and only stick to your own pan until it was finished. after dinner, the siblings and i would take turns bowing to our parents and wish them a “新年快樂” (happy new year). they would then hand us a red envelope of fresh cash, usually two twenty dollar bills. this on top of dumplings money was a pretty good haul for just being chinese.

by not going to incheon to celebrate the new year with my mother’s side of the family, i’m missing out on all the dumplings, red envelopes, and money (though i think i’m too old to be receiving money). and since they have a satellite dish with every channel imaginable, i’d be missing out on all the fireworks shows and variety programs from china. but i’m okay with that. i promised my grandmother that i’ll visit her early february.

that’s what my family does for new years, but every chinese family has different customs. as i type this i have the song ‘tradition‘ playing in my head and know that when/if i have children, i won’t be able to make the traditions exactly the same. hell, i don’t even know how to make dumplings. it’s a little bit sad…it’s like making my kid watch a vhs tape of a disney movie i recorded from a friend’s vhs tape who recorded it from her friend’s vhs tape who recorded it from a live broadcast on tv. i’m gonna give my kid like a 5th generation chinese new year.

seollal falls on the 26th of january this year, as does chinese new year. wishing you a good one!

the live oscars broadcast is my christmas. the live oscar nominations broadcast is my christmas eve. last year, i was 26/30 in my predictions in the top six categories (picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress). though i haven’t seen any of the oscar-bait movies this past year (most of these movies will be playing in korea early february), save for the dark knight (which isn’t oscar bait), i can still play the game, right?

here are my predictions for the 81st annual academy awards nominations, which will be announced on thursday, january 22nd, 5:30am pacific:

best picture:

• slumdog millionaire
• the curious case of benjamin button
• milk
• the dark knight
• frost/nixon
• alternative: doubt

best director:

• danny boyle, slumdog millionaire
• david fincher, the curious case of benjamin button
• gus van sant, milk
• ron howard, frost/nixon
• jonathan demme, rachel getting married
• alternative: christopher nolan, the dark knight

best actor:

• sean penn, milk
• mickey rourke, the wrestler
• frank langella, frost/nixon
• brad pitt, the curious case of benjamin button
• richard jenkins, the visitor
• alternative: clint eastwood, gran torino

best actress:

• kate winslet, revolutionary road
• meryl streep, doubt
• anne hathaway, rachel getting married
• angelina jolie, changeling
• sally hawkins, happy-go-lucky
• alternative: melissa leo, frozen river

best supporting actor:

• heath ledger, the dark knight
• philip seymour hoffman, doubt
• josh brolin, milk
• dev patel, slumdog millionaire
• robert downey jr., tropic thunder
• alternative: michael shannon, revolutionary road

best supporting actress:

• penelope cruz, vicky cristina barcelona
• kate winslet, the reader
• viola davis, doubt
• marisa tomei, the wrestler
• taraji p. henson, the curious case of benjamin button
• alternative: amy adams, doubt

and there we go…

a friend of mine, who works at daegu catholic university, and i had dinner at a russian restaurant saturday night. it was my first experience eating russian food; i barely know anything about russian culture. anything i do know comes from having watched fiddler on the roof three or four times (on broadway and on film).

hans had frequented the place a couple of times, so he took the lead. near the restaurant with the best noodles in town, on the second floor, is KAфE CAMAPКHд (i believe that’s cafe smarkand in english (my friend roshni, who takes a lot of interest in russian literature, would know); the korean is 사마르깜). click here for clear pictures of the menu and the cafe’s exterior (my pictures came out shitty).

hans and i walked up the dark stairs and were greeted by a kind gentleman, who seated us at the window. assuming he spoke english, we asked him all kinds of questions about beer and food. blank stare. i was stupefied. how could this man, so clearly a foreigner, not speak a lick of english? and then i was re-stupefied by my completely idiotic (not to mention american) reaction. why wouldn’t he not be able to speak english? he was russian, after all (or uzbek, like i know the difference). he replied back to us in korean, and his korean was beautiful.

we ordered a russian beer, a Балтика (baltika) ‘9′, which i think is a lager. it was way strong; i took a swig and instantly embraced my new life as a teetotaler. along with that, we ordered appetizers—a pumpernickel-like bread and a plate of ham and cheese (ассорти)—and two entrees—a roasted spring chicken (tsiplyata tabaka (цыплята табака) and a russian hamburger (kotleti (Котлеты)).

while waiting for our food, i got a chance to take a good look at the restaurant. it was modest in its decorations, but warm and clean. surprisingly, a number of korean patrons came in soon after we ordered. the man who greeted and seated us was obviously the manager, and who i assumed was his wife was busying herself in the kitchen. i got a glimpse of two boys, late elementary school age, playing near the counter.

the food arrived. the bread was excellent, but the appetizer (meat assortment) was underwhelming. the two entrees were delicious and filling. if the dishes we ordered are representative of russian cuisine, then i’d classify it as ‘rustic’ and ‘hearty.’ lots of meat and starches, very little sauce and vegetables. i was expecting some wild flavors, but i found the chicken similar to roast chicken with rosemary, the beef a dead ringer for salisbury steak. but they weren’t bad; just familiar.

the meal came out to ₩23,000 (≈$23) total. it was an enjoyable eating experience that i wouldn’t hesitate to repeat again (not for those prices). while paying, we discovered that the restaurant recently changed owners. the original manager, who is cousins with the current owner, immigrated to the US. to think that in the US i never took the opportunity to give russian food a try. i had to come all the way to korea to get a taste of russia. i guess that makes sense, since korea is closer to russia anyway.