Hello World.

The past year has been ridiculously busy. Since August last year, I got engaged, took the GRE, applied to graduate school, planned and had a wedding, and moved to Boston.

I’m now almost a month and a half into my program and loving it. Still unpacking and trying to get into a routine – but I love Boston, my new friends here, and taking public transit or biking whenever I can!

I still get homesick for Seoul, and now I get homesick for Atlanta too occasionally (mostly for the food, the Southern hospitality and my friends and family). It’s a new feeling being homesick for Atlanta – since it’s the only place I ever lived in the US. When I lived in Seoul I think I was just homesick for American culture and my loved ones.

I have a new blog, which is my professional science journalism blog – but I think I will try to update here again. I still need somewhere to talk about other things that aren’t career related, and I miss blogging.

ZenKimchi tweeted a link to this article – What’s the point of kimchi? yesterday. Roboseyo wrote a long and thoughtful blog entry about his reaction to the article, which I agree with and read belatedly (after getting irritated and commenting on the original article).

I won’t re-post the article in question here, as you can follow the link if you’d like to read it. Here is the article summary.

Korea’s national dish comes in 187 varieties – which is precisely 187 fermented vegetable pickles too many, says Rachel Cooke

Really? Although I resisted, I ended up posting a response in the article comments. If you want to read what I had to say. Follow this link.

I can’t help wondering how this article qualifies as good journalism – or even good writing. =/

Found these haikus while looking for some other documents on my computer. This was a fun assignment from my Hormones and Behavior class at GSU.

Lordosis allows
Female control and mate choice
Only in estrus

The hormone cycle
Controls female sexual
Actions, controls males.

Females aren’t passive
Many initiate sex
Exerting mate choice

An estrous frenzy
Drives females to find a male
Now mating occurs

The mystery of
Female behavior – Can it
Just be hormonal?

This small chemical
Known as estrogen controls
Each day of my life.

My boss, estrogen
Tells me how to behave and
When to make babies

Ovaries make them
Fallopian tubes send them
Eggs, the start of life.
(my friend Steven wrote this one, which is much better than the ones I wrote!)

Really.

The mornings are cooler now, and this morning I was surprised by a bloom on my morning glory.

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It’s a Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, I love the gorgeous blue color!
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Morning glory blossoms open when the mornings are cooler. What a pretty way to welcome Fall weather!

I’m glad it bloomed because the vines seem to be plagued with powdery mildew. Probably a combination of the muggy weather in Atlanta and the fact that the dryer vent for the laundry room for our building vents to the side of our balcony.

One of the remedies for powdery mildew I saw on the web involves a 10% milk/ 90% water mixture. Since it doesn’t involve anything I don’t already have on hand I might try it out.

I have another morning glory pot of plants, but it’s not as much a vine. It isn’t thriving as much, hopefully it will survive long enough to bloom as well.

I’ve been growing some herbs as well, parsley, basil and mint. The basil has gotten really tall, the mint is bushy and wide, and the parsley just seems to be surviving more than thriving.

I’m just relieved they’re all still alive. Our roommate has been taking care of them while we’ve been traveling – and he did a good job.

I’m also growing two Hawaiian papaya trees (which need to be re-potted, again) and a Hawaiian guava plant from seeds I got on Kauai.

If anyone is still out there reading this blog, many apologies. I promise I am still alive.

The past year or so has been pretty hectic. Lots of traveling, getting readjusted to life in America, catching up with friends and family and so on.

This summer I had my first official job since coming back to America, working for the Census. It was an interesting experience.

I’ve back and forth to Hawaii a lot recently helping my Dad move out there and to attend his wedding.

Most recently I traveled to Paris with my boyfriend, and came back as his fiancé!

Like I said, I’ve had a lot on my plate – but hope to start blogging again regularly.

Looking forward to seeing Kim Yu-na perform in the Olympics! Only a few more minutes!

I hope the incredible pressure of ALL OF KOREA isn’t too much for her. She seems like a lovely young lady. They have been showing English interviews with her today on NBC, and she speaks English very well. She said she enjoys being a normal person in Canada (poor kid).

I was pretty shocked to see this commercial airing during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic coverage.

It is showing on American TV (NBC) and is an AT&T commercial about a Samsung phone, but still… Samsung + Apolo Ohno?

The best part is the tagline at the end. “When you’re the fastest, anything is possible.”

Does the Korean Netizen world know about this? I can’t even imagine the outrage, considering how little Koreans think of him, and the backlash that would create against Samsung. Or would they blame AT&T?

x-posted to SeoulEats

If you are unfamiliar with the controversy around Apolo Ohno and the Korean speed skaters, Marmot’s Hole has a brief summary of the most recent developments.

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Happy Seollal to all my Korean friends!

I hope the year of the Tiger brings all my readers, friends and loved ones, health, wealth and above all, happiness!

Dear readers,

It has been more than nine months since my job ended in Korea and more than six months since I was last on Korean soil. It’s been kind of nutty. I’m trying to restructure my life, get a handle on my ADHD and teach myself better habits and routines to deal with how it affects my life. My ADHD wasn’t a topic on my blog while blogging from Korea, as I didn’t want my school to discriminate against me.

I have been catching up with family, trying to find places for my things, get rid of clutter, organize, and go through almost three years of photos. I’ve been cooking a lot, taking pictures and not blogging very much at all.

I’d like to keep blogging here – although I haven’t written anything about readjusting to life in America – I think there are things I need to write on that topic.

However, since I am no longer living anywhere near Seoul the blog title really ought to change.

A related (promise!) tangent:

When I was in Jeonju a taxi driver asked me to talk to his middle school daughter on the phone and check her English skills. Usually I would politely refuse, but he was exceptionally nice to me.When he couldn’t find the teashop I wanted to go to – but he stopped his meter, called them and had them meet us at a point he could get to easily and then apologized profusely for the trouble. He told his daughter that a “Miguk Eonni (?? ??)” was on the phone for her (an American older sister). I thought that was a really cute name for me.

Then, when I traveled in Cambodia I met a Korean family. The little boy called me ***-nuna (??) as they were my adopted family for a few days. I later visited them in the Philippines, where they are living as a goose family, and the whole family referred to me as ***-nuna .

Thus, blog will change titles from “Funk Seoul Sister” to “Luna Nuna- Miguk Eonni.”

Furthermore, WordPress will be getting upgraded to a more recent version (hopefully more hacker proof as I’ve been compromised several times now). This means I’ve had to go back and make sure that all my posts with Korean in them will be recoverable. In other words, cut and paste copies of the Korean so it can be fixed after the upgrade. Otherwise all the Korean would be lost and turned into cute little squares.

I was hoping to do all this sooner – but it’s something of an undertaking to make sure none of the posts are overlooked.

Yup. Anyway. ^.^

Lets hear it for a new year! New starts, renewed energy, a new blog title, an updated blog and new posts!

Happy New Year to you all! ?? ? ?? ????!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season full of warmth and love. May this year be a better one for everyone.