Family <3

Aww the whole family's here and it's so nice being with everyone! 'Cept food poisoning/indigestion (I guess that's what it's called?) has been kicking my butt... o well... at least I'm losing weight heh heh heh

Yayy. I love family. :)

Almost Done!

Omg. Writing a cover letter has never been this painful. I took out an entire section so that I wouldn't have to translate the dang thing. I hope that I never get asked to translate from English to Korean. It's the worst thing ever. And the worst part of all is that I still have to read it over and edit it.

It's ok, I have one paragraph left. I think the hardest thing about writing a cover letter in Korean is nuance. I really don't think I'm saying things right. Though the beginning part is ok.

I can't wait to be done with this. If I don't get this job, it will be the only job that I've worked this hard for. Though in all honesty, I didn't work all that hard. It just took forever because my Korean's terrible. But I do want to have this job if possible... perhaps I'm aiming too high. X.x heh~

Food Poisoning

I got food poisoning yesterday from a buffet I went to for a wedding. I was planning on getting some work done but alas, the whole day has gone by and all I did was sleep. I've been feeling nauseous all day but I finally went out at around 4 to get some medicine and now I feel better, though I think I'm getting sick.

I was so happy this morning too because I woke up at like 6am and was thinking of how productive I'd be. Until I realized that I woke up because I had to barf. Ew. And then I went back to sleep for another 8 hours.

Ugh. Hate this feeling.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. X.x

Tea! and a wishlist

So lately I've been getting into the proper ways of drinking tea (and it really does make a difference!) and I've decided I need to buy two things:

a timer

ceramic teapot (a big one with a ceramic strainer - the metal ones give the tea a slightly metallic flavor) - I found a lot of small ceramic ones but I'm trying to find a big one so I can brew a bunch of tea at once and then keep it warm using a tea cozy... Oh. I need one of those too.

tea cozy

I was going to list some of the websites I usually go to but for some reason I can't find them. X.x Oh well. It's weird how apparent the differences are though. To sound snobbish, basically you can't brew tea for too long or else it becomes bitter - people who say tea is bitter steep their tea for too long. I mean black teas are supposed to be more on the bitter side but most teas are actually quite flavorful. :D So I bought some oolong tea from Taiwan (apparently it's famous there) and it's really good!

And I suppose while I'm at it, I'll add other things that I want/am debating whether or not to get:

Coffee maker - I realized that the packaged coffee that Korea makes so well (Maxim Mocha Gold i think is a favorite here...) isn't all that great. Although ground coffee isn't that good either, I would imagine it's better than the packaged stuff that comes w/ the sugar and cream in it already. I tried to buy the pre-packaged black coffee (which is pretty good btw) but it also contains sugar.

Oh. I've been trying to get into coffee tasting and the like but it's a lot more complicated than tea (and wine actually).

So far all the cafes I've been to brew a pretty typical cup of Americano. Perhaps I should be trying the expressos. I dunno. I really want to go to Europe (I think it was Italy that had good coffee?) and have like good coffee. Meh. Perhaps I'm being pretentious.

To continue with my wishlist:

DSi - I have a DS Lite and I've been thinking about selling it and getting a DSi. In the states of course. I don't want something all in Korean. I've decided that trying to read things in Korean is a headache. Especially after trying to work on a cover letter in Korean. Ugh. (And unfortunately, I'm still not done. Working on it makes me sleepy, which means I'm extremely unproductive while working on it. -_- haha)

That's about it. There isn't really much else that I want. I hope I'm not being too pretentious about things in the States. I realized that in the end Korea usually has some kind of equivalent so I shouldn't be too concerned about it.

I found basil at a Korean department store the other day (Hyundai Department Store by COEX for those that are curious) so soon I think I'll be able to find pretty much everything that I need. :D

Now if only they had Sriricha (and I mean the one with the rooster on it, not any of those other fake brands...)...

On a completely different note, this week was a complete bust. I slept through this entire week (I feel like it was much needed sleep but the fact remains that this is a week wasted) and didn't get anything done (ok when I say nothing done, I just mean very little. I still did accomplish some work, just not as nearly as much as I would've liked). I've been keeping track of my finances for once and I think I need to find a job like SOON or else things are going to start looking bad. I'm going to see if I can hold out until December so I can chill with the family when they come for (American) Thanksgiving.

I also need to work out. I feel like I constantly say that but I really do! I suppose sleeping a lot has its benefits because I've only been eating 1-2 meals a day as a result. But this can't be a good thing. Meh! I shall start muay thai again. Hopefully next week. ^_^

Taiwan! (oh yes, and my new netbook :D)

Taiwan was totally and completely awesome. Not for the typical I-went-out-drinking-every-night-and-did-all-the-touristy-stuff-and-all-hours-of-my-time-were-accounted-for type of trip, but that's exactly why I liked it. I didn't get to do two things while I was there but both aren't really that big of a deal so it's like whatevs.

I really liked Taiwan because even though I didn't understand the language, it was still pretty easy to get around. I did all the tourist-y stuff and stumbled on some other little stuff that was quite nice (like I got to see this historic village type thing by the Longshan Temple because the city government or whatever had all these little maps and stuff that listed all these tourist spots)... so I hit up more places than I had initially intended. I also got to go to a hot spring! It was nice though this old man kept talking to me in really really broken English so it wasn't as relaxing as I would've liked. *shrug* meh!

The people and the food was both very nice though when it comes down to it, I don't think I'd want to live there. Everything's pretty cheap, especially the food but the clothes and shopping is comparable to Korea... I didn't spend as much money as I had initially thought (thankfully) and it was fun getting random food that I really didn't know what I was eating but I guess I'm more or less happy to be back in Korea. I kind of liked the fact that I couldn't talk to anyone because that meant that even if people were talking to me, I could just ignore them...... well I suppose not really but at any rate, the solitude was nice.

I didn't get any work done (any writing) but that's ok. I didn't have my new netbook anyway and the plugs weren't right so I couldn't use my laptop for extended periods of time.

I think the only thing I was sad about missing out on was the tea street that was supposed to be the SoHo of Taipei... o well! And after visiting Taipei 101, they mentioned this tea village place or whatever that you could go visit and they had like tea farms and what not... but it's ok. I got Taiwan's famous pineapple tea cakes and their famous oolong tea so I guess I can't complain. I brewed some of the oolong today and I'm not sure if I didn't put enough leaves in it or if I brewed it for too long, but it is definitely a very very light (but deliciously fragrant) tea. I'll have to read up more on oolong teas.

I need to buy a ceramic teapot... Meh! I'll get to it eventually.

Now I get to talk about my newest gadget!! So I got the 11.6" Asus Seashell (they had an ad for it in Taipei! ^_^) and although I can't say it's perfect, it's definitely much more of what I wanted than the clunky LG XNote.

This netbook is still a little on the heavier side (I think maybe 3-4 lbs - the battery adds a lot of weight) but honestly, I can't really complain because the brick (ac adapter) is so much smaller and the laptop overall is much more responsive. My LG XNote had this weird space bar that sometimes wouldn't work when I pressed it (not sure why) but this one is really responsive. A small difference, but honestly, you only appreciate how useful the space bar key is when you lose some functionality of it. The placement of some of the other keys (volume up/down, page up/down, home/end) are a little different (as is expected) and I liked where LG put the keys better, but it's just a matter of getting used to the new keys. They say that this is a full size keyboard, but it doesn't quite feel like one - for one the shift is next to the up key which means that sometimes I'll miss and hit up then 1... sux but again, not a big deal and just requires a little getting used to.

As for the glossiness of the cover and what not (the black gloss has little blue sparklys in it! -_-), I think it looks good when no one touches. But alas, as it is a laptop, obviously, the user has to touch it and it sux constantly wiping off the fingerprints. I'm trying to teach myself not to care but it's a new toy! I can't help it!

As for the specs, as with netbooks, obviously this one is a little slower - the 1 vs. 2 gb of ram really does make a difference so I'm probably going to upgrade it. After I get my all-in-one, I think I'll pretty much be set in terms of computers. The cool thing about this netbook is it comes with this data synching program so if I could synch up my data with my desktop. I don't have a desktop yet but being able to synch the data will be really convenient because then I don't have to remember what files I changed and added to and what not. ^_^

Otherwise, there isn't anything interesting going on in my life. Moving forward with the job search! I am now officially unemployed! (As with before, I wasn't because I wasn't actively seeking a job. ^_^)

Restless (again)

I have a feeling I have a post with the same title (hence the again). Gaah I was completely unproductive today. Well, I did tidy up my room a little so I guess that counts for something? Unintentionally woke up too late to get anything done, wasted too much time on the internet.

I am decidedly addicted to my computer. If my computer were a drug, I think I'd be dead by now. If my computer was alcohol, I'd be in the hospital for getting alcohol poisoning. This is terrible. -_- So I shall somehow separate myself from this terrible and unhealthy addiction and start being more productive.

The sad part is, I need my computer and what's worse, I have another computer coming in.. X.x I bought a netbook from the states because I don't like this one (it's too heavy, the keys are weird and it's too much of a compromise for a main computer that is still portable). So I decided to buy a cheap netbook and a cheap desktop with good specs. I've been able to find both at a little more than what I bought this laptop for so once I sell this thing, I won't have lost too much money. yayyy

Meh~ otherwise, not much going on. Need to start working out again. I think that there's so much to do, so much freedom and everything seems important that I'm having difficult prioritizing... must do one thing at a time........ X.x

Freeeeeee (ish)

So I'm more or less "done" with work - they asked me to stay on for 2 more days (Tuesday and Saturday) because they need a teacher. It's perfectly fine - I'm getting paid hourly and is better than nothing. :)

Need to revamp my schedule... X.x Decided that doing my chores first is a waste of time. I need to study and write first! Chores must come later.

Honestly, people who can juggle like 20 different things is such an admirable quality. If I get too busy at work, everything at home go down the drain. Laundry will pile up for a month, my room will literally be a disaster area and I will eat out every day. But! I'm learning. Slowly but surely. :)

At any rate, gonna go to Taiwan to visit my lovely Joslyn. :) I'm so excited!!! I just hope that the language barrier won't be really really bad and I don't get ripped off TOO much... -_-