Fabulous Beijing and Everything That Accompanies It

It's been quite a few months since I've blogged. For some reason I really grew tired of it and I've not been a very good waygook blogger about it. But I just came back from a trip to Beijing, China and I feel that this merits a blog post. I made a long video about the trip and I'm very pleased to announce that Youtube has actually kept their promise in letting me upload super long videos. It was quite a surprise as I thought I'd have to split it into 3 or 4 shorter ones. Either way, here it is. I put a lot of time and effort into this (with my non-existent video editing skills), so I hope you all like it!

:)

From Pisces to Aquarius and Back

So It's been a few weeks since I've blogged. I've got so many things to update you all on because it's been a very busy few weeks. All in due time. For now, I thought I'd post this because I thought it was really funny. I'm sure most of you heard about the confusion with the astrological sign switch. It was a huge deal with Westerners, even here in Korea. I have to admit that I was pretty shocked just like everyone else, but it really wasn't going to be a huge deal for me even if I really did switch from Pisces to Aquarius (which we now know is not happening for people who follow the tropical zodiac) because I was born on the cusp between the two signs anyway, so I am sometimes referred to as Pisces and sometimes as Aquarius. Aside from that, as much as it's entertaining to read the astrological reports, I have to say that I don't actually believe them to be true so much as I think that they lead people towards self-fulfilling prophesies.

Anyway, one of my friends from high school wrote an article for an L.A. newspaper and she included me in it. Here's the article. It's not a huge section of the article, but I still thought it was pretty cool. :)



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Astrology Debate Not a Big Concern for Some
By Gina Espinoza

CNN, Yahoo, MSNBC, and numerous astrologer sites, were in a rush yesterday to calm the nerves of astrology aficionados in a panic that their astrological sign may have changed. All the while, a whole other group of believers used the opportunity to try to persuade nearly one-fourth of the population that the practice is somewhat, ‘inconsistent’.
“Zodiac”, “Ophiucus”, and even “tattoo” were popular topics on Twitter throughout Thursday when the news first surfaced, while search engines were overwhelmed with questions about latest uncertainty. In reality this news is anything but new. Astronomers worldwide have been aware of this contradiction for some time and are still baffled that the seemingly breakthrough news happens to reappear every couple of years.
The Christian Science Monitor took advantage of the situation to relay some facts about astronomy, astrology, its foundation, and why this circumstance is an example of how unreliable a zodiac can be for determining one’s destiny.
Although astrology may not be considered by most to be synonymous with Christianity, a large percentage of the American pop culture follow purely for entertainment purposes. Marisol, a So Cal native, and devout Catholic, working abroad in South Korea, was able to detail some insight about the entire controversy from an Eastern perspective. While being immersed completely in the Asian culture, she picked up on the immense difference on dependency in astrology between her current locale and her native Los Angeles. She states that, while considering the overall practice of astrology as ridiculous, her interests were sparked by the recent confusion.
Another San Fernando Valley resident exclaimed, “I’m still a Libra!” When asked if the news made a difference to him he answered with a chuckle, “Not really”, with no future intention of updating himself on the daily going-ons of his astrological sign.
With astronomical updates, and a strong underlying astrological fan base, it wont be long before the general public moves forward beyond this bewilderment to return to their daily lives, and horoscopes.


Continue reading on Examiner.com: Astrology Debate Not a Big Concern for Some - Los Angeles Christian Diversity | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/christian-diversity-in-los-angeles/astrology-debate-not-a-big-concern-for-some#ixzz1B77dyrEG

Merry Christmas From Me to You!

This year has definitely been one of the most interesting ones of my life for many, many reasons; all of them being good. I'm having an absolutely great time in Korea, but I now find myself separated from all of the people I love back in the U.S.A. and Mexico, so my friend Amy and I decided that we would make a video greeting for all the people that we miss, and here it is.

Merry Christmas from South Korea!!

Special Air Raid Drill

So, there was a special air raid drill here in Korea yesterday December 15th. I thought it was gonna be a big deal, but it really wasn't a big deal at all in the city where I live because we are pretty far from the border between North and South. Actually, I haven't heard anyone say that the drills were in any way a big deal where they live, and I know people even in the northern sections of Seoul. However, according to the NY Times, this was a huge deal with fake smoke bombs, people wearing gas masks, everyone rushing down into basements and taking cover, etc... (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/asia/16korea.html). I didn't see any of that. I did see people standing on the street corners with flags and whistles and attempting to stop traffic, but that's about it.

I don't know, but it seems to me like the media is dramatizing something that's already not pleasant to begin with in order to sell their stupid newspapers. It's only annoying because I keep getting emails and Skype calls from friends and family who read those newspapers or see all of it on TV and then, of course, become concerned. Technically, it does fall within the realm of possibility that this whole Korean drama turns into another war. But the chances of that happening are very slim. So everybody chill. Everything's fine. :)

"It's Cold Outside!" "How Cold Is It?" "It's So Cold That..."

Dude...

I had to mini blog about this because this is the kind of crazy ridiculousness that I'm dealing with over here.

So I walk out of my apartment to go buy something quickly at the market. I had just taken a shower, so my hair was still wet. It was cold outside but it's no big deal. I do it all the time. So I bump into my friend Kim right outside the market and she says, "Hi! Is your hair actually wet?" I said, "Yeah, why?" I run my fingers through it and I notice that my hair was suddenly stiff and has this white flaky stuff on it. Thoroughly embarrassed and thinking that I must've not washed the conditioner off well enough, I said, "Gotta go!" as I rushed to pull my hair back so no one else would notice it. As I was walking through the nice warm store, I went to touch my hair again to try to figure out what was wrong with it and it was completely fine again. Why?

BECAUSE MY HAIR HAD STARTED TO FREEZE SOLID WHEN I WAS OUTSIDE!!

Can you believe this craziness??? I've NEVER had to deal with this kind of thing. I was like, "Hmmm... What's this cold white stuff that's taking over my head?" Good Lord!!

Ok. I'm done ranting. :)

First Trek Out of Daejeon: SEOUL(ish)

It's been a couple of weeks again since the last time I wrote in here and I thought this weekend truly merited a blog post.

I have a couple of friends here in SoKo who I knew before I came here. I met Jessie in college in a class that will forever go in the books as THE most awesome class I've ever had. It was a small group communications class and our term project was to go camping together with a small group of six people. It was crazy fun and we all got along so well that at the end of the semester we all took off to Las Vegas together and had some more crazy fun there... But I digress. Jessie convinced her friend Megan (who I met in that Vegas trip) to come along with us to SoKo, and so I now have two friends who live on the outskirts of Seoul. Well, it was Jessie's birthday this weekend and she invited me to go to the festivities. Now, like I said, Jessie lives on the outer edge of Seoul, so that meant that I had a long trip ahead of me. Normally, traveling this distance would've probably taken me about an hour in my car, but since I didn't exactly bring my car with me to Korea, I had to take a bus and then the subway. That was supposed to have taken me a little less that 2 hours, but because I'm still not familiar with the public transportation systems here, I totally got onto the wrong subway train and ended up in the wrong place. It was an express subway and it completely skipped my stop so I got off when I realized what had happened and Jessie had to come and get me. Never a dull moment in the book of Marisol.

Now, not all of the trip going towards Seoul was bad. The bus ride was nice because somehow I ended up being the only person in the bus who had an empty seat next to her, so I was able to make myself comfortable and stretch my legs out a little bit. Also, I was able to track my entire trip with the navigator app in my phone, so I was able to make sure that I didn't miss my city because of the fact that all of the announcements are made in Korean, which I still don't understand.

Anyway, once I actually got to Jessie's neighborhood, everything was good. We had some time to linger, so I was able to meet a couple of her friends, we had pizza, we randomly had some Champagne, and then we went off to party the night away. We met up with more of her friends for dinner at a Mexican/Italian restaurant close to her apartment. I was super jealous that she has a Mexican restaurant, but I was also really glad to see a burrito and Margarita for the first time since I left L.A. When dinner was done,

(Birthday Girl Jessie)

(Me and Jessie's friend Liz)

(Jessie and Megan)

(Mexican/Italian restaurant?? *shrug*)

we went to a bar down the street and continued the drinking. Anyone who's ever been out with me knows that my signature drink is an Amaretto Sour, so I had myself a couple and I was good to go. But see, that's not where it ended. That's not where it ever ends in Korea

and especially not in Seoul. We then hopped over to some club in the next town over and danced for a couple of hours and had more drinks. That was really fun, and super funny, because Korean people are really funny people to party with. They were all over the "foreigners" until we left. I thought we might finally be going home to sleep, seeing as it was already around 3am, but we ended up at another club which was coincidentally across the street and down the block a little from the subway station where I had accidentally ended up earlier that day. We got there and continued the dancing and drinking. Apparently Jessie and Megan are on a first-name basis with the owners of the club, so they gave all of the girls in our group free shots of tequila... This was a turning point in our night and Jessie's boyfriend decided that we'd had enough (good thinking) and needed to get out of there. He made sure we got to Jessie's place alright, said goodnight, and he left. We woke up the next day with some MEAN hangovers.

I, of course, don't have any pictures of anything after the first bar (or do I?), so you're just gonna have to take my word for most of this. ^_^

Anywho, I finally gathered myself, and my stuff, and made the trip back to Daejeon and Songchon-dong. That went a lot smoother because Jessie was with me when I bought my subway ticket and train ticket. (Thanks, Jessie a.k.a. "Jesshikah!") I was so glad to get back to my little apartment. I didn't realize how much I've made myself at home here in Songchon-dong. I like my neighborhood, the smells of it, the people, the little hole-in-the-wall kimbap shop downstairs and the bar on the corner. I like my hood. Plus, I don't think I'd make it out alive, or at least my liver would have to repair itself BIG TIME on a daily basis, if I lived closer to Seoul. :D

It Comes in Waves

I've been told by my new friends here that homesickness comes in waves and I never doubted it for a second. I'm riding that wave today. It's Thanksgiving back at home today and I'm not there. It's not so much that I wish I could go back home but rather that I wish that home could come to me. I like it here. I like my new surroundings and my new adventure. But I do miss my family and my boyfriend. I wish they could come here and run around this place with me. Every time I see a cell phone shop I think of my little brother Jonathan. He was so excited for me to get a super futuristic cell phone. He'd geek out and whisperingly yell, "Future!" as he wiggled his fingers in front of me, as if to perform some sort of crazy robot magic trick.

I see a lot of things here that remind me of my family and friends back in L.A. I could write about all of it, or I could choose to get up and get out of my apartment and try to walk it off. I choose walk... But not before I mope a little.