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.

새해 복 많이 받으세요!
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 (미국 언니)” 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 (누나) 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! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!

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

Apparently Wondergirls will be on So You Think You Can Dance tomorrow evening on FOX at 8pm/9pm Central.

I guess it’s old news on the Internetz, but I was pretty startled to hear that announcement at the end of the show. I wonder what song they’ll do? Heh.

In other news, dear readers, the three of you that are left. I am still alive. I’ve been going through cycles of great productivity and then burnout. Hooray for restructuring your life.

I’ve got some posts in the works that will go up soon, and will trying to be a better blogger after the holidays are over!

I hope you are all warm and happy.

I’ve been watching this season’s Top Chef, and one ingredient keeps popping up in the “Quickfire Challenges” and the “Elimination Challenges”. That ingredient is yuzu.

Yuzu fruit, from Wikipedia

After hearing it mentioned for the umpteenth time in a dish description, and never seeing a glimpse of a yuzu being broken down for a recipe, I finally googled yuzu.

Wouldn’t you know it, yuzu is 유자.
Yuza, or Yuja as it’s called in Korean, is a citrus fruit that looks a lot like a grapefruit. It’s able to withstand much colder temperatures than other citrus type fruits, and is used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean food cultures.

I realize I am not the first K-blogger, or ex-K-blogger in my case, to write about Yuzu or Yuja. However this was kind of a shock to me, so I hope I can be forgiven for duplicating information that’s probably already been put out there.

Yuzu is 유자 (Yuja)!
Korea based readers would be most familiar with 유자 as the main component in 유자차 (Yujacha, or Yuja tea sometimes labeled as Citron tea*). It’s ever present in the teacher’s room alongside the green tea, and Maxim instant coffee sticks (in both Mocha Gold and original flavors).

You can also get it in most convenience stores from the hot drink box near the front of the store (next to the other good-for-you drinks).

*Although, technically it’s not a tea since there are no tea leaves in the mixture.

Homemade yujacha in a jar, from Wikipedia

유자차 (Yujacha) comes in a big jar and looks an awful lot like marmalade, as you can see above. In fact, I used it as a marmalade often when I was living in Korea.

I asked my co-teachers about 유자차 (Yujacha) on more than one occasion. They stressed the health benefits of drinking it, especially during cold season. I asked if the fruit was ever eaten outside of 유자차 (Yujacha) but my co-teachers couldn’t remember ever eating it. Apparently the fruit is best as a preserve to counter the fruit’s natural bitter and sour flavors.

To make tea from 유자차 (Yujacha) you just need hot water, and a spoon. One spoonful of 유자차 (Yujacha) is mixed into the hot water, or more according to taste. The taste is bright and citrusy.

Yujacha jar, from Wikipedia

Intitally I’d only had 유자차 (Yujacha) as a hot tea, but tried it Hongdae as a sparkling drink at The Aa Design Museum earlier this Spring.

The Aa Design Museum in Hongdae.

Iced sparkly 유자차 (Yujacha) at the Aa Design Museum in Hongdae. Note the back of a certain prolific Korean food blogger’s laptop.

It was so tasty as a cold drink that club soda and 유자차 (Yujacha) topped my grocery list when I got back to Atlanta.

유자화채 – Yuju Hwachae
Yuju is also in 유자화채 (Yuju Hwachae) , a fruit punch from the Joseon dynasty and a local specialty of Jeolla and Gyeongsang provinces. Since the majority of the Yuju grown in South Korea is from the southern part of the peninsula, where these provinces are, I’m sure it’s tasty.

Sadly I never got to try 유자화채 (Yuju Hwachae), has anyone had it before?

Earlier this week there was a lot of flooding in Atlanta. Although people not far from me were affected greatly, losing houses, cars, and possessions I’m lucky to live on a high high hill and I wasn’t affected. My family is fine as well.

I’m taking a road trip to visit the SO’s family and some of my family up north tommorrow. We’re taking along our mountain bikes. We haven’t been able to ride for almost two weeks because of all the rain here and now that the rain has stopped the trails are flooded. I’m sure it will take a great deal of work to fix the trails and hopefully we’ll both volunteer to help rebuild them.

So I’m pretty excited about my trip. Biking, family, and fun!

ps. I was on an unintentional hiatus from posting for a while. I’m hoping to start posting again when I come back from my road trip. Since I’ve gotten back to America I’ve had a lot to write about. However, it all kind of got clogged up and stuck and I didn’t write at all! So – here’s to baby steps and getting back on the ball.

Charlie Sheen does, Michael Jordan doesn’t.

Speaking of Korean food in America…
I’m ruined for life as far as Korean food goes. I had a Dosirak at an H-Mart food court. I couldn’t even finish it. The kimchi tasted factory made, the chicken was super dry, even the fried veggies were lacking.

Please send me kimchi!

Ps. I’m still alive! See? =D

Remember how excited I said I was for their release?

They came out yesterday. I got some today, when I closed my bank account and withdrew allll my money (in cash). I was only allowed 500,000 W worth of 50,000 W bills. I tried to get more by telling the bank teller that my Dad invented the security strip, and even showed her his business card (which also has the same kind of technology on it) but she couldn’t give me any more. Because it’s so new, there isn’t that much in circulation yet, so tomorrow I’ll go back to the bank again to try to exchange for 500,000 W more to take back home.

As far as I could see the only other K-blogger who mentioned the new currency release is Brian in Jeollanam-do.

In other news, I have three days left in Seoul before going back to “my hometown” for good.
After traveling for two months, I’ve just been relieved to be back where I know what’s going on, it hasn’t really hit me that this time I’m flying out and not coming back again. I can’t even start to list the things I’ll miss about life here, or the things I’m looking forward to in the next stage of my life. Hopefully I’ll get better about writing again as I’m able to decompress.

Dear Readers,

If any of you are left – I’m now in the Phillipines. Cambodia was amazing. So full of history and beauty and well, contrasts, that it was exhausting. That’s even without the heat.

I stayed in Siem Riep for just a few days and met a lovely Korean family who I traveled with while there. I had a much better time because of their company, and we ended up becoming good friends. I’m actually writing from their house in Baguio now!

After Siem Riep – I went to Pnomh Penh, which was even hotter. I saw the Grand Palace and the Riverfront. I went to eat at a cool cookie botique that helps street children, and ate at it’s sister restuarant that helps an orphanage. I saw a shadow puppet show, and met the nicest most articulate taxi driver on the way to the airport.

After Pnomh Penh I headed to Kuala Lumpur. I was planning on eating and enjoying civlization but I ended up getting really sick instead. I couldn’t really eat anything. I was exhausted and burned out. I explored a little bit, got whistled at for no reason, was approached by a fortune teller and scammed by an imitation monk. I found a Borders – which made me really happy, even though I didn’t buy any books there. I went to see Wolverine, and spent a lot of time in internet cafes.

I like Kuala Lumpur and would like to explore Malaysia, I wish I had been feeling better.
I decided to come to the Phillipines, versus Indonesia, because of the lovely family I met in Cambodia. They offered to let me stay with them and “take a rest” which I needed pretty badly. So here I am. I was in Manilla few nights too, just resting and recovering, but I’ve been here four nights already.

Actually three nights, one night was in Sagada, 7 hours by bus north of here. =D Which is another story entirely.

Tonight I’m taking a night bus to Manilla, then flying to Cebu and heading to the small island of Malapascua to dive with thresher sharks and all sorts of other assorted marine life.

I feel rested and excited again. I’m really happy, I’m looking forward to the last leg of my trip (Hong Kong -> Beijing) and going back to Seoul.

I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye. There are a lot of people in Seoul I didn’t say goodbye to, because it was just too hard. I’m not good at goodbyes. I cry a lot. But I will enjoy seeing my friends again anyway.

My life is changing, again, but I think I can handle it. I’m even a little excited, even if it’s colored around the edges with sadness.