February Korean Vogue

I LOVE the bright colors used in these pictures. It makes me feel so...happy and lively. :) I can't wait for the spring........

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Count your blessings, not your problems......

I found this really interesting website that I thought I'd share with you guys- iamkoream.com.

My friend showed me this story; it brought tears to my eyes... :(

Just remember to be thankful for each and every day. There's always someone out there that has it worse than you...........

Sunny Sunday......

Today Anthony and I went out to hit the town.It was our first day off together in awhile and we wanted to do something productive. For lunch we went out to one of our favorite vietnamese restaurant. It was soooo good and hit the spot. I love pho! After that we finally bought me my new camera for our trip. It was perfect timing since my other one broke the other day!! I was sad because it was the very first digital camera I owned. :(

The other day I went through my closet and cleaned out some clothes and shoes that were just collecting dust. I couldn't believe how many pair of shoes I had. (That'll be on my next post.. :P) I like to take my clothes to this one trendy thrift store. It's close to the university so I always find neat finds and unique pieces.
Safeway has the glacier water dispensers that taste better than any other filter water I've tasted. This Safeway though is where the current shooting occurred..............

It was sad being there. You could feel the mourning that's been lingering there since that day. I was excited when I saw the memorial by the entrance. As I stood there for a moment of silence, I could feel that unspoken bond that we all shared as a community. It felt gratifying to know that there are people out there who care deeply for others and reach out to help out of the goodness of their hearts.......

First time I've ever seen this before?? Since when did hybrids get to park right in front of the store entrance next to the handicapped spot?? Man, I need a hybrid. Haha

 

Just venting...

I’ve had this “friend.” were I officially decided to end this unhealthy/weird relationship just the other day.

Have you ever had a friend that just wasn’t ………a true friend? I don’t know how to explain it really. We were close all through high school, had a fight ,and didn’t speak for 2 years. Then back in 2006 we got back in touch. Things were good and  back to normal.

It wasn’t until the last 3 years I saw her true colors. She moved to a different state to accompany her military husband. We would talk for hours on the phone and laugh the day away. Last year I offered to come out to visit while her husband was still deployed. We would enjoy the girl time and go skiing in the Colorado snow together.

She made some excuse on why I shouldn’t come.

She made new friends.

Phone calls were becoming very seldom.

She was that type of friend where if I didn’t call then we wouldn’t talk at all.

I was tired of being the “boyfriend” in this friendship. Have you ever had that type of friend before? It’s so weird……

After 2 unreturned phone calls and 1 text, I gave up on the chase and let her go.

This was back in May 2010.

I called her 2 nights ago to see how she was after not hearing from her. (See, what a weak good friend I am..hahaha..)

Why did I have to give in? Obviously she didn’t care how I felt. Her life was perfectly fine without me now that her husband was back.

“Hello? Michelle??!” She answers.

“Hey, Stephanie! How are you??” I was surprised she even answered

“Oh, you know. I’m good……blah…..blah……blah…..my husband’s out of the military now……

Blah…..blah……I started taking online classes…..blah…….blah………I’m 7 months pregnant.”

“Wait, what???” I replied in shock

You see, Stephanie has been trying for 3 years to conceive and she was taking it very hard  as each year went by.

Guess who was there for her moral support? Why, her wonderful friend, ME!

At that moment I was so happy for her but…..I also came to the conclusion that this friendship was over.

How the hell do you go 7 freakin’ months without having the decency to even call me to let me know??

Did our 8 year friendship mean nothing to her??

I always end up having the selfish friends. Why is that? Weird…..Is it because they take advantage of my kindness? I don’t get it. *shaking head*

I know this post is somewhat pointless, but I had to vent.

On top of that Anthony is annoying me.

Why must it take him 5 days to do the dishes??? Is it just my boyfriend that says he’ll do them on multiple occasions and then blows them off secretly hoping that I’ll do them?? *irritated*

My guy friends say that ALL men are like that? Is that so? Last time I checked, my dad was pretty good at picking up a sponge and wiping it across a plate full of leftover dinner gunk. How easy is that?

I’m just having a frustrating week………*sigh*

School starts on Wednesday as well.  T_T   Man, back to the books and trying to cram in next day quizzes. I was *this* close to taking German 101, but I knew that it would demand a lot of my attention.

 Of course you guys wouldn’t know this, but I know German. I’m not comfortable to say I’m fluent in it but I can read, write, and speak it on a 3rd -4th grade level. My German is waaaay better than my Korean, let’s just put it that way, which was my second language. : P The last time I actually remember speaking German was like 10 years ago.  My dad divorced his wife and my half siblings moved back to Germany with her.  It’d be nice to brush up on it and become comfortable with it again.

Anthony thinks the German accent is so unattractive. Please excuse him, for he can be out of his mind at times. *shaking head*

 “Really???” I asked him. “Last time I checked the Korean accent wasn’t all that great either… At least they can pronounce their T’s and R’s!” Haha…..… Yeah, he couldn’t say much after that.

German 101 will have to be pushed aside for August I guess.

The population of Kaohsiung City

And I mean the real population of Kaohsiung City

Kaohsiung City was recently merged with the former Kaohsiung county and formed a bigger municipality. It was divided into 38 districts and some of them are huge, but very scarcely populated, because they're located very far from the actual city (sometimes they're even in the mountains).

That of course is a bit confusing to me, because I'm interested in the actual population of Kaohsiung's urban area. I have nothing against the way these districts are governed, all I want to know is how many people live in Kaohsiung, the actual city. So I checked some maps and data (source) and found out that the following districts are part of Kaohsiung's urban area (from A-Z): Daliao, Dashe, Fengshan, Gushan, Lingya, Linyuan, Nanzi, Niaosong, Qiaotou, Qianjin, Qijin, Qianzhen, Renwu, Sanmin, Xiaogang, Xinxing, Yancheng and Zuoying. You can see them on the map on the left, they're marked as black. If you count together the population of these districts, you get this number:

2.209.362 inhabitants.

So according to my personal idea of how a city should be defined, Kaohsiung has a population of 2.2 milions and is therefore the second biggest city of Taiwan (after Taipei).

[My KAOHSIUNG page][Original map by Luuva]

Love and Hate

Don't you love when you're having a good day? The day seems to get better and better each moment, right?

25 things I love Running into people I haven’t seen in forever and I actually look good that day.   Cracking my back   Eating all the red flavored candies out of the bag   The first bite into my favorite food   Old sour kimchi …mmmm!   Waking up to my alarm but realizing there isn’t any school or work that day    Seeing old pictures of myself I forgot I had  The smell of a nice cologne/perfume on a stranger   A song I haven’t heard in years playing on the radio When the hairdresser actually gets the results I asked for A fresh haircut   Coming home to a cooked meal   Finding out my electricity bill is cheaper than what I expected   Picking my nose (I know,gross, but I love it! haha)   When I’m the first person in line at the store   Realizing I have more money in my account than I thought   Things that remind me of my childhood years   A parking spot right in front of the store   Strangers letting me pet their dog   The smell of a hot delivered pizza (box)   Finding random money in my clothes   Checking out at the register and realizing my stuff is 50% off The feeling you get when you're on a vacation When Anthony does the dishes voluntarily Friends that try kimchi and love it

********************





Then when it rains it pours....

25  37 things I hate

Fake laughing to hold a conversation or look somewhat interested

The radio playing the same song 10 times within the hour

Sad dreams that seem real

People that make too many substitutions to their fast food order and expect it to come out right…Oh, come on!! This isn’t fine dining here. (*cough* Anthony)

Making left hand turns…anywhere…

People that cut you off and then go slower than the speed limit   *HONK!!!*

Employees asking if you’d like to sign up for their high interest rate company credit card as you’re checking out at the register.

Wild/hyper kids

  

Using a public bathroom and it hasn’t been cleaned in weeks or is out of toilet paper!! 

Being put on hold with that horrible music and then getting disconnected after 10 minutes of you precious time!!

Going to a mechanic/dentist

Bad experience at an upscale restaurant (give me my '$30 for a steak money' back!)

People looking at me crazy when Iask them to take off their shoes in my house

Spending $200 on grocieries and the power goes out

People getting promoted due to politics and not work performance

Barking dogs all night long

Crying babies in restaurant/movie theater

Cell phone soliciters in the mall

My nicely washed car......and it rains

When people prefer to eat in front of the TV instead of a table

Getting a wiff of someone's bad breath

Getting out of the shower and finding a spider on your towel

Going out to eat and your friend "forgets" their wallet

Seeing dirt under people's nails *eew*

When you’e running late and the world throws every obstacle at you.

People that borrow your stuff or money and don’t return it

When I have extra money and an unexpected bill to greet me

When guests invite me over and their house is messy!! (especially the bathroom..with pee all over the toilet. Yuck)

Letting car into traffic and not getting the "thank you" gesture

People that take 3 hours to make a right hand turn

People that don’t use blinkers

When people complain indirectly

People that don’t cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing

People that always have to “one up” you

When there are sooooo many other parking spots/ seats but someone insists on being right next to you.

When cashiers are socializing amongst each other as I’m trying to pay

**and last but not least-----**

People who smoke (mainly in public areas). Especially when they ask, “Do you mind if I light a cigarette?” Well, DUH! If you have to ask then most likely the answer is no. But, I just reply with #1 (fake laughing), add a lie, and say “No, of course not.”  In reality I’m holding my breath and trying to find a fresh patch of fresh air. I can’t stand getting in someone’s car and it smells like stale puke! Ewww!! Not a good way to impress someone, epecially a date. The worst is when a co-worker just comes back from a cigarette break and thinks that spraying themselves with cheap body spray will hide the smell. *gag* Or how about when parents smoke in the car and their kids are with them. *just sad*

Be smart-Don’t start :D

HK Reebok Sneakers

Perfect for that chilly day. I want the black ones. I wonder if my friends would make fun of me?? Nah, I like to think they'll just be envious....bwahahaha.

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Just Tuesday

Today time seemed to go by so slow. Every time I looked at the clock it would only be 5 minutes pass the last time I eyeballed it.  *drag*

As soon as I got off I finally touched up my roots. I've been dying my own hair for months now because, you know, $60 for a dye job is expensive to me!! Although it doesn't come out as good, it'll do for me. :D

Got that out of the way and started to catch up on my long lost love, Rosetta Stone. Yes, she was in the picture before my Korean class came along. Now that the class is over, I can run back to my faithful Rosetta. She will always be there for me......waiting.....in the drawer.......by my side. She will never leave me.

Anthony found this cool app for our phone where we can text in Korean. Pretty nifty, huh? :P

I've been eating this every morning for the past week....it's so good and all under 300 calories. ^_^

Anthony got these peppers for me from In-N-Out. I didn't know they had these??? He said you just ask for them and they give them to you with your order for free. Sounds good to me. :) They're spicy too! Yum.



Speaking of In-N-Out, look what came in our mail today-

I remember when I got paid $5.15 to flip burgers. Ah, how times have changed....

 

Our dinner for the night.

I finally made some potato panchan. (which I'll be posting about soon...don't worry :D)

I love MJ! Apparently Netflix felt the need to put Moonwalker in Korean as well. They must have known it was going to my house. Haha

Shedding the fat

I need to lose wight to make room for the weight I'm going to gain back from stuffing my face in May. :P

In attempt to slim down, I finally gave in and attempted to keep track of my calories.

You see, throughout the years whenever I heard this manageable way to help lose weight I secretly criticized it. I thought why not just keep track in your head? Just round up and slowly add the numbers as each meal passes on.

The other day I downloaded this app on to my phone and tried to see how “useful” writing down your daily calorie intake could be.

Let me just say, wow!........... I never knew I was such a pig! (actually I did..hahaha) It looked worse on paper though. My average “normal” daily intake would be 2,000-2,200 calories!!! No wonder I wasn’t losing any weight…hahaha.

I’ve cut my intake to 1,200 calories a day and sometimes 900 of I’m feeling really disciplined. It’s harder than it sounds. My stomach is used to a lot of food that on the first day I thought I was going to dye from hunger pangs. :(

Here’s an example of what my new diet consists of-

Yogurt (before gym)

Breakfast (after gym)

 english muffin sandwhich- (½ cup egg whites, 2 slices of Canadian bacon, 1 english muffin, no butter)

1 protein shake

Snack

10 almonds

Lunch

Instant 100 calorie count oatmeal pack

Dinner

Anything that’s under 400-500 calories…..so that usually means 1 big serving of vegetables, ½ rice, small portion of meat (chicken or beef.)

Snack

10 almonds

Anything over this is exceeding 1,200, which is what I need to eat to lose weight.

Pretty wimpy, huh? Well, I have to say I feel healthier just knowing that I'm not adding extra junk into my body. This is my first week so I’ll let you know the results after a couple of months. :D

Tea, anybody?

 Oh, I hate green tee by the way. So much for that addition to my diet plan. I want my arms like theirs; nice and toned. (I wasn't refering to the stickly figure.)

I found this pic in the American Vogue Dec.2010 edition today at the gym. Imagine that. I love it.

I love cute stationary!

I can't wait to go to Korea to stock up on their cute stationary!! That's one of the things a look forward to. How cool are these??-----------

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