December 2010
2 posts
November 2010
12 posts
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
– [‘The Model Millionaire’ (1912), by Oscar Wilde] Some interviews are lubricated by instant chemistry. Those you enjoy. But a successful interview doesn’t guarantee a job offer. Thoughts, of no material consequence themselves, have strength to bound you to earth, preventing you from...
People: Sure. Countries: Why Not. Ingredients...
I needed yams to make a Teochew dessert for a Thanksgiving party. The night before, the American roommate mentioned that sweet potatoes are sometimes called ‘yams’ too. Somewhere within my American-media infiltrated mind, I was already vaguely aware.
Where I came from, ‘yam’ gives you purple, ‘sweet potato’ orange—simple, straightforward. You won’t find yourself walking back to the supermarket in...
“Fan Anthony Perkins…asks, “What does kimchi taste like?” Can...”
– Unrepentantly saucy, kimchi is left to stew in its own juices. But this is no one-dimensional tart. As with a piece of good music, the beauty of kimchi lies in incongruities harmonised—sweetly sour, its cool crispness a perfect compliment to sizzling softness. In Taiwan on my visa run, I was...
“I’m the finest motherf**ker in this city, doll!”
– An hour into talking over the head of a too-obviously-bored companion. Love in a coffeeshop at 2am in the morning.
October 2010
8 posts
Stolen Missed Connections
Isn’t it fun to guess which of your neighbours the respective names on your wireless network list refer to? Some pose no challenge at all: “hyatthill”; others inspire existentialist pondering “iptimehel”. Then there are the friendly, self-introducing ones: “sungji”, the offhandedly indifferent: “JHK123”, and the ones that only like you for your money: “Pay to play”. In a moment’s desperation, one...
On Being Seasonally Challenged.
Apparently, long thick coats should not be worn until November. According to the wisdom of the streets, the closest one ought get to a coat is that thin raincoat-looking bit of ubiquity. There was one particular cold day when the only adequately thick outer wear I could find was what my shopping companion had proclaimed to be a late-autumn coat. Foolishly of me, I assumed that physiological...
Fight Club’s resident guru Tyler Durden warns, “You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.” Months into living in Seoul, evidence points to Maybe I am. Unique among waegookin. Because you see:
Korea never was that strange, faraway foreign land. The mere six-hour flight, one-hour time difference distance aside, Singaporeans are tournament surfers on the...
September 2010
4 posts
"Autumn arrives in early morning..."
Temperatures dropped dramatically this week. In another tradition, 추석 [Chuseok]—22 September, Wednesay—is called the ‘Mid-Autumn Festival’. In actual experience (mine), it marked the first day of Autumn.
The streets were freshly recovered from heavy bouts of rain. By instinct, I had on warmer clothing - a heavy scarf over summer cotton. More for ornamentation than with any...
Indoors in the entire day. Heavy rains all over Seoul serving as a convenient excuse. Once in a while, I like not ever stepping out the front door. Stay home, chill out, listen to the rhythm of the pouring rain.
EXCEPT!! The only rhythm I was listening to, the only other thing as committed to not ceasing, was the noise from the upstairs compound*. Imagine pulse-altering club music heard from the...
An Existentialist Conversation.
Mi: Kimchi stains on your pants.
Me: That's not kimchi, that's my blood.
Mi: Blood?! It's not blood, it's kimchi.
Me: No, it's blood; I have suffered.
Mi: What could you have possibly suffered from?
Me: Overeating.
August 2010
6 posts
Newton's Third Law of Motion
Action = Reaction
Your extended skit on 외국인 speaking Korean is bait for someone to pounce on the way you speakee Englishee. Won’t be me, though. Because I don’t need this kind of cheap power tripping that you do.
How to Reconnect with Your Roots
Step 1:
Attend an embassy event.
Preferably one excessively loaded with little symbolic touches. Yesterday, 4 August, was the day that the Youth Olympics 2010 torch reached Seoul, the last stop before that flaming butt settles down in Singapore. It was also 5 days before Singapore’s 45th birthday. The reception was held in the Orchid Room at the Westin Chosun Hotel — national...
July 2010
8 posts
“Whatever shape you make it, you’ve got to stuff it.”
– On making phallic shaped rice cakes during cooking class at the (weirdly transliterated) Tteok Museum [떡 박물관].
See How Korean I've Become:
First instinct is to say 네 [‘neh’] to anyone addressing me - what an idiot I will sound like back home. Before I return - IF I do return - I’ll have to practice not responding like a horse. (Reminds me of that math test back in school, where my focus right outside the test venue was changing the way I write ‘4’, rather than last minute cramming with the rest of...
Only Hours from Puberty
I’ve developed a mini Nichkhun YouTube obsession. It was my friend who like him first, which, by the laws of middle-teens where much of K-pop properly belongs, means that I shouldn’t even think about it.
It’ll be nice to know that I’ve got more engaging things to do than internet search on underaged youth.
June 2010
12 posts
Early in the Morning.
Woke up before the crack of dawn to do Korean language homework. Interrupted two couples — one chatting (just chatting!) in the common living room, and the other arguing at maximum volume in the alleyway. But apparently, from the looks/questions I got, I’m the one who’s insane for studying this early in the morning.
“Your English is really good! You understand, like, 95% of what we’re...”
– A walking stereotype; a veritable cartoon - never thought I would actually get to meet one of these. As though Mother England had limited her colonial adventures to North America. See also: The empire on which the sun never sets.
Pictures After a Thousand Words.
Seeing Korea for myself (finally!!) feels like a celebrity sighting. A vision manifested — off internet blogs. Last night on the Busan subway, I checked to see if the waegookin girl traveling alone with a Korean male friend had blond hair.