Sabbatical Day 231 (12.25.16) - Christmas in Korea

This is our first Christmas in Korea and I'm trying to decide if I like it or not. I know that I'm definitely not used to it. It's not a crazy holiday where people are fighting each other over parking spaces and items at the store. (The shops are always just crowded in Korea as it is!) It fell on a Sunday this year and Sundays always seem to be quiet in Seoul.

The weird thing is, while Korea is very festive and they put lights up everywhere along with decorations, there isn't that same Christmas feeling. In the US I feel like people are just in a better mood around Christmas-time because they eat a lot, get to see their families, and get gifts.

Regardless, it's just a surreal experience because I'm used to seeing family on the holiday and ramping up to it. But this year, it's just me and James. He is my family now so I am seeing him!

Sabbatical Day 230 (12.24.16) - Yoga teacher training complete!

Wow, I can't believe the day has finally come! When James and I started our yoga training in August, we thought Christmas Eve was so far away. Now here we are and we just finished our class. It feels surreal. Towards the tail end, I found myself wishing that the class didn't have to end and I wanted it to continue.

We learned a lot of valuable information and I need to take the time to put my notes in order and thoughts down on paper.

While this was a teacher training course, I don't feel ready to teach yoga. This is because I don't want to teach the physical asanas and do not feel that I'm yet in the condition to do so. I want to spread the yoga that we learned and in order to do that, I need to do some major reflection.

Top 3 things from our class that I'd like to remind myself of:

1) The yoga that we know is not fully yoga - the physical poses or asanas are only one of the eight limbs of yoga
2) Don't beat yourself up because you can't get into that perfect pose. They take practice and every day I know I get stronger and more flexible
3) Yoga is a way for me to learn to control my energy. Everything is energy and I don't want to exert my energy on unnecessary things

Sabbatical Day 200 (11.24.16) - Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving abroad was hectic. I coincidentally had a test in my Korean class on the day of and felt completely dejected afterwards. Luckily, we had two parties to attend and I headed shortly after to our friend's house on base. I really felt like I was back at home because it was in an actual house, there was vegetarian food, and there was a TON of food. The next stop was James' boss' house who also had access to the base commissary. There was even more food and tons of dessert. So because of all the festivities, I didn't really miss being home for Thanksgiving.

Sabbatical Day 195 (11.19.16) - Pay It Forward...I hope

Tonight we went to a club in Itaewon. It's been a long time since I went dancing and it was so much fun! It did really make me miss our friends, though. Anyways, we had to take a cab home because the subways stop at midnight. After the cab dropped us off near our house, we saw a caucasian lady and her son walk up to a cab window and show them an address card. Then we saw them walk away from the cab and another person took the cab and it drove away.

I felt so bad for the lady because he son was young and it was past midnight! So we walked over there and offered to help her get a cab. Her husband was actually across the street and they ended up flagging one down, but we were able to offer her some advice on how to deal with cabs in Korea: they are obligated to take you, but you just need to get inside the cab first.

With all the things I read about in the news happening, I find some solace in a FB group that I was invited to called "Pantsuit Nation". There's been some real heartwarming stories of random acts of kindness and I hope that tonight we might have been able to participate in a random act of kindness as well. I know we didn't help too much in the long run for them, but hopefully us offering to assist when they were in distress was enough for that family to want to pay a random act of kindness forward to someone else who may be in need in the future.

Sabbatical Day 189 (11.13.16) - Election Update

So it's been a few days since the election and I have a few observations to make:

1. I need to get educated on Donald Trump's policies - What were his original ideas regarding immigration, Muslims, foreign policy and Obamacare, among others?

2. There are acts of racism happening in the US which is really crazy - I keep seeing posts on FB and this Pantsuit Nation FB group that I was invited to about acts of both love and racism. People being told to go back to some country, swastikas being painted on buildings, the KKK marching in full hood? WTF?

3. I realized that I don't believe in the protests that are going on in the US - What I've learned through yoga is that everything is energy. If your energy is being diverted towards protesting, it could be used more efficiently towards an organization that you are aligned with or towards working directly with your community. What is a protest actually going to? Maybe this also includes my fear of crowds given Korea has had its own fair share of protests lately. (Side note, there was a protest of 200,000 people in Gwanghwamun yesterday to protest the South Korean president.)

Sabbatical Day 185 (11.9.16) - A day full of emotions

Every Wednesday I spend 1 hour practicing my asanas and meditating. Today was no different and I started the morning feeling great! And then I started to watch the election coverage. I couldn't stop watching but at about noon I already knew what the result would be. I had to choke back tears but I tried to keep my faith and have hope.

I went to the jjimjilbang to meet my friend as planned and tried to keep my spirits up. But as I walked to the meet my friend, I tried to figure out why I was so upset. What was it that was making me emotional? 

My friend asked me why I was so scared and so sad and I told her that I am afraid of what the future will bring. What I've seen from the campaign is people acting upon fear. Wanting to stop immigration and bring the country "back" to its greatness. Wanting to divide our country and say that people who are living there are not Americans. I'm afraid of where my place and my future children's places will be in that America. I remembered flashbacks of my childhood where I was told to go back to China. Where people still look at me in shock when I speak English without an accent. Where I've been asked "Where are you from?" Despite all this, America and being American is all I know. But from these election results, I realize that these incidents that I've experienced are not just outliers.

California is a bubble and a great bubble, but seeing all the racist acts happen across the country makes me think that the rest of the country doesn't think like we do. My bubble has been burst and I feel devastated.

However, when I tried to explain this to James, he made me think about what is the worst thing that can happen. I told him I was afraid that Donald Trump might take the US troops out of South Korea, that he might put people in internment camps, that he might start WW3. Well, after blurting all that out, I realized that I am saying all this in fear too and I'm just like people who may have voted for Trump in their fear. I cannot let fear dictate my emotions and worry. The best thing I can do is try to help - educate people in compassion, volunteer my time. Although saying all this, I wish I was back in the US in order to do so. What can I do from Korea?

Sabbatical Day 180 (11.4.16) - Seoul Kim Jang Festival

I learned that the Fall is the time to make Kim chi. Every year, Seoul has a large Kim chi making festival. The process of making Kim Chi is called Kim Jang. On Friday our school volunteered to go make Kim Chi at this festival and boy, I had no clue what I was in for. City Hall was very festival with a giant stage, a huge Kim Chi inflatable pot and rows and rows of tables with trays of cabbage. Each volunteer was given a giant plastic bag which had an apron, a head cover, a pair of cloth gloves, rubber gloves, a face mask, shoe covers, and a hand warmer.

The funniest part of the festival was that it was a huge theatrical production. No one was allowed to start until the sponsors of the event were introduced and there was a lot of talking that I didn't understand. There were several dances that happened on stage but there were no instructions on how exactly to make Kim Chi. 

Luckily, we had ajummas at our table that taught us how to make the Kim Chi. However, these ajummas didn't abide by the rule of the festival and just started making Kim Chi immediately. We of course followed because we didn't know, and were scolded by the table next to us and told to stop. 

I also don't know who will receive all of the goodies, but hoping it goes to some homeless, hungry folks.

Sabbatical Day 177 (11.1.16) - Baby, it's cold outside

Well, it's only the beginning of November and it is freezing in Seoul. We thought we'd be leaving in November when we were packing for our trip so that means....I am not prepared! I had to buy a new parka and plan to get some additional winter clothes. After living in NYC I thought I'd never need a parka again, silly me.

The great thing about cold weather is the heated floors. Another thing that needs to be brought to the US, stat. Right now, I'm sitting on the ground typing and my bum is nice and toasty. It reminds me of Saturday mornings when I was in high school. I'd wake up, walk out of my room and into the living room and fall asleep while watching TV and lying on the heating vent with a blanket wrapped around me. So nice and cozy! Now if only I could create a portable heating system to use when I'm walking around outside....

Sabbatical Day 166 (10.23.16) - Anticipation

Since we got to Korea, we knew we would have several visitors in October. When I missed home, I would just look forward to October when our visitors would be here. Now after two weeks of having visitors, they've all left and I have nothing left to look forward to!

While we had visitors, I felt tired and my schedule was definitely thrown off, but I think this is another lesson to me to learn to live in the present.

Sabbatical Day 169 (10.24.16) - Hiccup

We've been in Seoul for four months now and I had a breakdown yesterday. I'd been arguing with my mom because I got sick of her backhanded comments regarding me not working and leaving my job. She automatically thinks of the worst case scenarios and even though I've been here for so long, she still isn't able to accept it.

So I brought it up to James and he told me that I maybe hadn't given my mom enough reassurance that I was happy here. I don't actually think that what I say matters to her because she is set in her ways. So then he made me ask myself why I say I am happy in Seoul. My answer to him wasn't convincing enough and I got very upset.

Why am I happier now than when I was in SF?

I think it is because I'm doing what I want to do and I have the liberty to start whatever else I want to start. All in all, I feel independent. If I want to learn to how to knit, I learn how to knit. If I want to get my yoga certification, that's what I'll do.

Is that enough?

Sabbatical Day 153 (10.11.16) - Cultural Answers from a Korea Ahjussi

My first English "student" in Korea was a gentleman I met in a neighborhood store. He is studying to be a tour guide because he knows a lot about Korean culture. He taught himself English and has a crazy extensive vocabulary. And he currently owns a store that sells organic side dishes (panchan) where all the ingredients are from his farm. He's pretty darn forward and I hope others follow his footsteps and step up their food game.

Anyways, I go see him once a week and we speak in English together. At first he just went around his store showing me the different types of food he makes and how he makes them. Then we started talking about Korean culture and he's helped me a lot during my stay in Korea to help understand why things are a certain way.

Today, I asked him about the public toilets in Korea. Specifically, why are there so many, and why are they so clean?

I'm sure I've talked about bathrooms in Korea before but they are just about my favorite thing about Seoul. Public bathrooms are everywhere! Subway stations and randomly on the street-and there are signs that point to them, they are stocked with TP and there is always someone cleaning them!! It's seriously awesome.

The ahjussi explained to me that Seoul hosted the summer Olympics in 1988 and the government went through a campaign before that to upgrade the city in order to prepare for all of the tourists. They were genius enough to include many public bathrooms in that campaign. They're so clean because the government would inspect the bathrooms. If the bathrooms were clean in a specific district, that district would receive government subsidies.

How they have kept the bathrooms clean to this day, boggles my mind. I'm just going to say THANK YOU and hope some day the US starts to entertain the idea of clean public bathrooms too.

Sabbatical Day 135 (9.21.16) - Santosha - Contentment

I've never been a patient person. I've always wanted results ASAP and would get easily frustrated. I am not saying that I've overcome my impatience. That definitely will not go away ASAP. However, one of the things I've learned from yoga training is that being aware is the key to slowly obtaining results.

By being aware I don't mean that I just acknowledge I'm impatient. By being aware I mean that each time I see myself growing impatient and frustrated, I acknowledge those feelings and think about what it is exactly that is making me feel that way. I think reflecting on those feelings and thinking about the situation prior to those feelings will help me slowly grow less impatient.

I have used this awareness to help me as I'm learning Korean. As I've said before, learning Korean is a hard process. I've been here for 3 months now and I've only recently felt comfortable with going out by myself. I found that when I went around with James, I was never that uncomfortable because he would always translate for me. But when I went out by myself, I would get so frustrated because I couldn't understand anything. So I did the natural thing and tried to avoid it.

But then I learned to be more aware and realized that I was the reason I was frustrated. I was frustrated at myself! I realized that of course I couldn't understand anything! I have barely been in Korea for a few months and I shouldn't expect that I would understand everything. I basically was making myself feel bad because I thought I was good at languages and should be picking it up faster.

Instead, I should practice contentment which translated to feeling happy that I could understand a word or two. And seeing that I could increasingly understand more. This really helped diminish some of my fear. I've been going to places and actually speaking in Korean.

Again, not saying all my fear is eliminated (for example, today I opted to go to a buffet for lunch instead of a place where I actually needed to place my order) but I think I've taken a step in the right direction.

Sabbatical Day 129 (9.15.16) - Chuseok

This past week was the Chuseok Holiday in Korea. It is very much like the American Thanksgiving which celebrates the end of the harvest. It also coincides with the full moon and the Mid-Autumn Festival that is celebrated in China and Vietnam. I'm sure it is celebrated in other countries too, but those are the ones I know of.

Anyways, we had Wednesday-Friday off and people typically leave Seoul to go back to their hometowns to visit the graves of their ancestors. We left Seoul to go to the East Coast of Korea to a town called Sokcho. James' aunt and uncle have a time share on this coastal/beach city and it was a very cool experiences. Right next to Sokcho is a national park called Seoraksan. It is a huuuuge park with tons of hiking trails and a Buddhist temple. I haven't been to too many national parks in the US, but this one was waaay different than the American ones I've been to.

1) There was wifi and service (of course)
2) There were great maps which showed information about the trails. The maps included elevation and the estimated amount of time it would take, among other things
3) Along the trail they had numbered markers with phone numbers that you could call in case you were in need of help. Seriously, I think the Koreans are very thoughtful when they plan.

After hiking in the park for a few hours, we went to the timeshare condo which is next to a huge lake. The timeshare was owned by Shinsegae which is one of the top conglomerate companies in Korea. It was very homey but there was only one room with an actual bed. I guess it's more common for people to sleep on sleeping mats! Another thing I liked was that the floors were heated, but they are heated in all buildings!

For dinner we went to a seafood restaurant that even came to pick up the entire gang so no one would have to drive drunk. The first "course" was about 10 small plates with different types of seafood (shrimp, fish, seafood balls, etc.). The second course was at least 6 different types of sashimi. The third course was a stew that was made out of the fish bones. It was so much food I was ready to burst!

The next morning we woke up bright and early to walk around the lake. James' aunt is super active so she was determined to walk around the lake (~7 km). It was luckily flat but took us several hours. Thank goodness we worked up an appetite because we proceeded to go to two different restaurants for "lunch". The first was known for it's naeung myun (cold buckwheat noodles). They came in a spicy sauce and the noodles were nice and chewy. My favorite dish there was actually the mandoo soup. They made rice cakes out of brown rice and the mandoo skin was perfect!

Then we headed to the beach to walk off our first lunch. It was very interesting because there were plenty of Koreans on the beach but only section where all the foreigners happened to be. It was only in that section that there was any skin shown. Everywhere else, the Koreans were very covered up in their rash guards, hats and long sleeves.

For our second lunch we went to a seafood restaurant which specializes in sashimi served in a cold spicy sauce. It was about 3 pm when we arrived and there was an hour wait....freaking crazy! Only James' uncle got the specialty dish and everyone else ordered a variety of other dishes. James had the crab bibimbap and I had the uni bibimbap. I'm still thinking of now because it is so simple, but so delicious. I need to recreate it!

After second lunch, James and I went to the bus station to board our bus back to Seoul. The drive that should have taken 2.5 hours ended up taking closer to 4.5 because of traffic. It still boggles my mind that we drove from coast to coast in such a short time!

Sabbatical Day 123 (9.9.16) Ahimsa - Non Violence

In yoga teacher training we learned what yoga is and the philosophies behind it. Included in our learnings are what's called yamas and niyamas. Yamas are moral principals or refusals. The first of which is called ahimsa or the practice of non-violence. I want to be able to apply what I learn in training to my own experiences, so here goes:

Non-violence sounds pretty easy, right? But it isn't just about non getting into fights.

Violence can show itself at any point in the day - road rage, in pushing yourself too hard, focusing too much of your energy in one thing, in getting upset at the cashier for being too slow, in becoming frustrated at work.

In our training we have learned to become more aware, more conscious. By practicing non-violence, you see the things that make you upset - acknowledge, then control the feeling.

Non-violence is a struggle for me-especially in daily deeds. I walk to school everyday and get frustrated with the cars that don't stop for me, with the people who cross the street while on their phones. I know I need to acknowledge that feeling of frustration and move past it. I try hard to be empathetic and put myself in their shoes.

What I notice now is that I am more able to acknowledge my feeling when I have a longer interaction with someone and they make me upset. I am also able to be more empathetic. For example I am taking Korean at an academy nearby. They have really good reviewed which is why I chose to attend classes there. However as I attended I learned that they have several administrative misgivings that frustrate me. One of the frustrations is how they administer their monthly culture trip. I went last month and there was very little information provided and no organization. We ended up on a bus for 3 hours and had no idea where we were going or when we were going to be able to eat lunch, among other things. At the time, I hadn't yet started my yoga training but once I did start, I noticed there were more and more frustrations I had with the academy. At the end of my month long class, I decided to provide feedback on my experience as part of acknowledgement of my feelings. I tried very hard to understand why they did not provide any information to the students and not let my emotions come across when providing my feedback.

Sabbatical Day 116 (9.2.16) - Fukuoka:Tokyo::Portland:NYC

James and I found a last minute deal to Fukuoka and visited for 3 days, 2 nights. We never thought to travel there but we are so glad we did. It was the perfect city for a short trip because it was walkable, food was delicious and people were friendly. It was also on the water so it really reminded us of Portland. There also wasn't the foot traffic or sheer volume of people and craziness that characterizes Tokyo.

I did some research prior to the trip by reading blogs and other websites. I found out that Ippudo came from Fukuoka and the region is famous for Hakata style ramen. By the time I finished our itinerary, there were way too many restaurants for the meals we would have there. So we had a choice: cut down on the places we went to, or eat at all of them. We settled for eating at all of them, of course.

On the first day we arrived at around 6 pm and ate two dinners. We shared a bowl of ramen at Ippudo, then hopped over to the Yatai stands. The ramen at Ippudo was delicious-milky broth and the noodles were just right! We were a little overwhelmed by the selection at each stand, but just sat down at one and ordered ramen. After we finished eating, we felt fomo because the other people at our stand were eating grilled mentaiko. So we hopped to another stand and ordered mentaiko and a yakitori combo and they both didn't disappoint. Our only frustration was that they required we each order a dish and a drink and the stands weren't as cheap as we thought they would be. However, the gentleman sitting next to us struck up a conversation with us and pitched in for our bill....so nice!

Our second day was crazy. We woke up early wanting to eat at the fish market before our Asahi brewery tour. The fish market turned out to be further than we anticipated and we ended up being late for the tour! I did get to grab an egg salad sandwich from a convenient store and James got some yummy mini croissants.

The Asahi brewery tour is money. It's an hour tour and the factory is really cool-especially the beer canning room. At the end of the tour, you can taste up to three cups of their beers. These weren't dinky cups either. And it was all free!

For lunch we made it to the fish market only to find that it only opens to the public once a month. We did get to eat sushi which was very cheap and fresh! I also got to have my uni and we sat next to a gentleman who was from Berkeley!

We walked around and found the hipster artsy area of Fukuoka with boutiques and cool shops. Then we decided to search for this tempura joint I found called Tempura no Hirao Tenjin. Thank goodness I can still read hiragana and katakana because we wouldn't have been able to find this place. We ordered a combination platter to share at the vending machine and sat down in the coffee shop bar area. On the counter next to us were four containers - salted yuzu squid, pickled bean sprouts, pickled mustard greens, and pickled radish (all bomb). We saw everyone piling the squid onto their rice bowl but we were skeptical at first. I would have gone back for the side dishes themselves. Then the chefs come by with freshly fried bits and drop off the correct ones onto your plate. It was amazing and only 720 yen. James was so amazed he wanted to order more.

After leaving the tempura restaurant we saw an Ichiran ramen which seemed to be very popular in Fukuoka.....so we went in and ordered a bowl of ramen and a matcha tofu dessert. The restaurant was one counter separated by walls and each person sat at one spot. It was an interesting experience but the ramen didn't impress me much. The matcha tofu, however, did. Warm, sweet tofu with real matcha? What's not to love?

By this time it's pretty late so we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep. But at around 10:30 we were feeling ambitious again and went to get gyoza. I read about a gyoza place that's been around for a while and we got there shortly before they closed. The waitress told us to eat quickly and we definitely did. Their gyoza came out on a hot sizzling platter and both sides of the dumplings were crunchy.

On our last day we only ate once and it was all we needed. On Trip Advisor, Chikae Fukuoka is one of the top rated restaurants. We got there at 10:45 and the restaurant opens at 11. There were already 15 people in line. As soon as it opened we walked in and were seated in a large room with a counter surrounding several fish tanks. There were only two options for lunch - sashimi or soba for 1400 yen each and we ordered one of each. Each meal came out on a platter with 5 main dishes, 2 dipping sauces and a plate of pickled vegetables. Mine had stewed fish, agedashi tofu, sashimi, crab miso, tempura and chawanmushi. James' had soba with two dipping sauces, chicken rice, agedashi, tempura and chawanmushi. We were so full afterwards that we couldn't eat again for 6 hours. And our mind was so blown that the food was so delicious and cheap. This is a must do!!

All in all, we loved Fukuoka! We would go back again to eat and walk around the cool town for sure! On a side note, I am amazed that I still remember how to read Japanese and speak some phrases. At first I was hard on myself for not being able to say more, but seriously, that was 16 years ago!! The brain is an amazing thing....

Sabbatical Day 96 (8.13.16) - Yoga Teacher Training

I've always like Yoga as a means of exercise. When I came to Seoul I thought it would be a good time to deepen my practice and go through teacher training. I am not sure if I necessarily want to teach, but that can always be decided later.

I did as much research as I could (since I am limited to English searches only) and found a school that teaches in English. I went to one class and was a little taken aback because the class was very different from classes I've taken in the past. I'm used to Vinyasa or Bikram with a lot of movement and this class the poses were held for 30-60 seconds with a short break in between.

However, I decided to attend their free workshop class which was an intro to their teacher training course and James came along with me. In this workshop, we learned that Yoga is not so much an exercise, but a way to balance your energy. I will update more as I learn more, but long story short...we are both doing the teacher training course and will be staying in Korea for a little longer than planned so that we can finish the course.

I am so excited for it!

Sabbatical Day 89 (8.6.16) - Korean Costco

I think I've mentioned before that I haven't been able to find frozen vegetables in any Korean markets. I heard they sold frozen vegetables at Costco so we made the trek over. We took the subway and each brought a bag anticipating all the goodies we would buy. We planned to cab home.

By the time we got to Costco, it was dinnertime. Of course we headed to the food court to see what cool Korean style goodies they had. They had a lot of the same things as in the US (caesar salad, hot dog, pizza, chicken bake) but they also had a bulgogi bake and this potato wedge, bacon pizza. I knew that a meal at Costco would be impossible without eating meat, so I decided I would just eat a little and we ordered the bulgogi bake and the potato wedge bacon pizza.

While we were waiting for our food, we noticed all of the tables eating what looked like curry rice. When we looked closer, it wasn't rice. It was actually diced onions mixed with mustard and ketchup. EVERYONE was making a plate so we decided to make one too! I'm not usually a fan of raw onions, but this was really refreshing. The bulgogi bake was good except it had too much meat. And the pizza was weird. The potato wedges were huge and the pizza was soggy...fail.

By the way, Costco was crazy. This one was two floors and the food court was downstairs. It was quite an adventure getting down to the food court because it was so crowded. The rest of the warehouse wasn't any better. I already get so annoyed at Costco in the US because there are people walking every which way. This experience was even worse because the space was smaller.

We noticed that everything was ridiculously expensive. Because of the high prices, we didn't want to buy anything and reasoned that we actually didn't need it! The only thing we wanted to buy was a bag of frozen broccoli but didn't end up getting that either. That's because it was on the bottom floor and we wanted to check out the top floor first. By the time we wanted to go back to the bottom floor, the line for the escalator was 30 people deep. No thank you!

So...all in all...Costco was a fail and a huge disappointment. =(

Sabbatical Day 84 (8.1.16) - A contract can be broken in Korea

James and I don't have a definite return date to the US yet, but we know we will be in Korea for at least a few months. While we are being spontaneous, it makes it hard to settle ourselves in Seoul for the short term.....or so we thought. We found out that for our big ticket items, we can commit to the contract term, but if we want to leave earlier, we would just need to find someone to take over the contract. Our big ticket items were housing, cell phone and a gym. Housing is usually a 1 year lease, cell phone is 2 and a gym is usually month to month (same as in the US).

Housing - while it is possible to find short term housing and air bnb is available, we found out that it is much cheaper to commit to a 1 year lease. However, if we need to leave earlier, we need to contact our real estate agent and pay a finder's fee for them to find another tenant to take over the lease. So easy! The cost is a fraction of one month's rent! Side note: most apartment hunting in Seoul is done through a real estate agent. There are many of them and they are quite helpful.

Cell phone - you can get a prepaid phone but we found that it was more expensive to do so. A regular phone contract is for 2 years but you can find someone else to take over your contract for no additional cost. Side note: opening a cell phone account requires an active bank account at a Korean bank because a cell phone in Korea is like a piece of identification.

Gym - we got a great deal on our gym but we had to pay up front for a year. If we do not stay the whole year, we can just transfer our memberships to someone else.

This really takes the stress out of being here for a short time and not having to worry about breaking the bank!

Sabbatical Day 77 (7.24.16) - Attempting to stay a vegetarian

It's almost been a month in Korea and I feel like it's been a very challenging month eating-wise. Prior to coming to Seoul, I mentally prepared myself to integrate meat fully back into my diet. I would take bites of meat here and there and tell myself that I'd continue to eat more upon my arrival in Seoul.

What happened was just the opposite. I've been trying really hard. The fact is, I don't prefer the flavor of meat in most dishes and I definitely can't handle the smell. There are Korean dishes that I remembered loving (Kalbi Tang, Solung Tang, Spicy Pork) that I can't bring myself to eat. I have to try particularly hard around James' family and tried to eat Solung Tang when they took us to a restaurant that specialized in it. I ended up eating just the rice and soup and giving the meat to James. I did try to eat a piece or two but felt terrible that I just couldn't finish the meat. 

Most good restaurants here specialize in a dish and have a very limited menu. There was one time that we were looking for a place to eat a late lunch and James found a tonkatsu place. Unfortunately when we got there, they only served tonkatsu and we had to leave because there was nothing for me to eat. 

We've also walked in and out of a bunch of restaurants that only serve dishes with meat. Poor James reads the menu to me and always asks the waiter/waitress if they have dishes without meat. We've received one of two responses "What about chicken?" or "You can't eat Korean food without meat". We've considered ordering dishes and asking them to take out the meat but quickly realized that it doesn't work that way and makes us frustrated of this mentality people here have. I've summed it up to that they think the way they currently do it is the best and believe that's how a dish it should be served. So why would you want to change that? I'm applying this mentality to food but I think it can be applied in other ways as well.

Some people may say "Well Steph, why don't you just eat meat and stop being difficult?" I'm not trying to be. But I need to defend myself. I love food and really look forward to my meals. Why eat something and waste calories on something I won't enjoy and will make me feel bad? It's great that other people enjoy it. But it doesn't work with my body. I get my nutrients and know I don't need to eat meat for the protein my body needs. 

My saving grace is that I eat seafood but I've been considering eliminating that as well. I do eat a lot of bi bim bap and buy vegetable side dishes from the market to eat with rice. I know I had it very easy in SF because there were so many veggie friendly places and just more options in general. It's just been a hard adjustment coming from there to here. 

Sabbatical Day 75 (7.22.16) - It's weirdly safe here

Being from San Francisco, I was always paranoid of crazy bums and getting mugged. I would never have my phone in my hand while on the bus or walking and was constantly checking my purse to make sure my wallet and phone were still in there. On top of that, when I went to restaurants, I would never hang my purse on the back of my chair. I'd awkwardly keep it behind me and sit forward in the chair so no one would steal it.

Coming to Korea I am so surprised how safe it is. First of all, I see people at coffee shops and restaurants walk away to use the bathroom (when they're by themselves) and just leave their things at the table. Yesterday we saw a shoe shop owner leave her shop for a break. She locked the store, but left the entire display of shoes outside of the store on the street.

It's so interesting to me that people here will not take what's not theirs. It seriously boggles my mind but really gives me a sense of peace that I don't have to worry here.

Sabbatical Day 72 (7.19.16) - Frustrations with Learning Korean

Korean is the 6th language that I've started learning. My goal is to become conversational by the time we leave but the goal is looking very daunting. Before we came to Seoul, we did a lot of research on the university programs versus the institute programs and it all came down to timing. The date of our arrival was just barely past the start date of the summer university programs so I have to wait until the fall programs. The one institute we decided on has start dates at the beginning of each month and we thought it was too rushed since we arrived on the 27th of June and wanted some time to explore Seoul before I started classes.

So that left me with doing some self studying. We bought the book from the institute and decided that I would try to test out of the first month of class. I'm not sure if I can make that goal even though I've been studying everyday.

Maybe the book is not that good for self studying or I'm not picking it up fast enough, but I had a very frustrating day today. The book gives you several grammar points and lots of vocabulary in each section but not very many examples or good explanations. I am also getting very confused between Japanese pronunciation and Korean. I took Japanese in high school - over 15 years ago and yet I still retained enough of it to confuse me. Another problem is, my method of learning vocab words in other languages (Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese) was to think of another language that the word was similar to. Now I'm getting all sorts of confused when I try to relate Korean to another language.

My problem is that I never followed through with any language for long enough to become completely fluent. I think the closest is Spanish with Vietnamese a far second. I'm going to try very hard in Korean since I think I will be able to use it with James for the rest of my life.

I'm glad I'm not doing much else in Seoul. I couldn't imagine studying and working while trying to learn Korean! My brain hasn't worked so hard in a while!

Sabbatical Day 64 (7.11.16) - Grocery Shopping

While going out to eat is really cheap in Seoul, we like to eat some meals at home and try to go grocery shopping to get some essentials. The first time I went to the market, I was amazed by the presentation of everything and how clean the market was. The seafood and meat sections didn't smell, all the produce was packaged nicely, etc. Now that I've been to the market a few more times, I've noticed a few things that are very interesting:

1) They actually run out of produce. I guess this means their stuff is pretty fresh, but it was so frustrating because I have been craving raw veggies and they were sold out of salad mix and cucumbers!

2) They don't have frozen vegetables. What?!?! Yes. No frozen vegetables.

3) Produce is expensive!!! 

4) Fruit is even more expensive!

Another reason I like going to the markets is to get fresh produce. I swear, the only time Koreans eat a fresh vegetable is when they make lettuce wraps with BBQ meats. Any other time, the vegetables are pickled, made into some sort of kim chi, or used as a garnish. 

Sabbatical Day 59 (7.6.16) - Creatives Juices

Today James and I walked around the Sinchon area again. This is about 10 minutes from where we live and there is a subway station there. Since we live around several universities, there are a lot of students and therefore lots of cheap places to eat.

We decided to eat at a dak kalbi place which is something I've never had before. First of all, it is a meat dish and I've found it difficult to bring it back into my diet. I've found that I don't like the taste anymore so it's hard for me to eat something when I don't crave it!

They sat us at a table with a large pan in the middle - it looked like a paellera, or a pan to make paella. We ordered a rice dish with chicken and beef and they came out shortly with a plate of raw chicken, beef, cabbage and onions. They threw that all onto the pan and servers took turns coming by and cooking the goodies. At the end they threw on some rice, then flattened the whole concoction so that the rice would get crunchy.

It was a pretty good meal and I even tried a few pieces of the chicken and beef.

As James and I explore the city, we seem to be thinking of things we can bring from Korea to the US and vice versa. It's interesting how there are so many efficiencies here but at the same time there are so so many inefficiencies! It's exciting because James and I get to think of things together and get our creative juices flowing. Hopefully we can think of ways to bring a little bit of the US to Korea while we are here, and do the same when we come back to the US.

Sabbatical Day 58 (7.5.16) - Side projects and procrastinating

The forecast in Seoul is rain for the next week. We have stayed inside for the majority of the day so I started to work on some side projects.

The first one is a map of Seoul which tracks where we have visited and what we ate. We have floor to ceiling closets lined up on one wall of the bedroom. I put different colored post its on the closet to show where we have visited (pink) and what we have eaten (blue).

So far it doesn't look like much but I will post a photo once we've visited more places.

The second project is also using the closets which have 5 panels going vertically which I decided to make into a weekly calendar to help me organize my projects for the day (blogging, working through my Korean alphabet flashcards, etc.)

The third project is learning Korean vocabulary words. I put post its on the items in the apartment with the Korean name of each so I can learn them better. I learned this tip from a blog I read recently.

I wish it would stop raining soon so we can go out and explore more of the city. I guess I need to keep searching for tutoring clients and finish my TESOL certification too.....I'm not procrastinating I promise.

Sabbatical Day 57 (7.4.16) - One Week Down

Well, we've made it through our first week in Seoul. I feel like we've done a lot of walking around (met my 13K step goal everyday! yay!) and being tourists. Although there is a lot left to see, I feel more settled in. Along with that comes the pressure of taking classes and looking for work. I spent a good chunk of today researching tutoring websites and language exchanges. A part of me is terrified to actually get started. Of course all my insecurities resurface in this process. I know I need to just put myself out there and try it out or else I will never actually know.

Sabbatical Day 55 (7.2.16) - Soju and sweet shots

After the huge meal at the fish market and our glorious nap, we had to wake up because we were supposed to meet James' DSP friends in Itaewon. Luckily they both couldn't meet until late so James and I dragged ourselves out of bed and headed over to the party spot. 

In Seoul, the populated areas are around the subway stations which are usually on main streets. The back alleys behind the main streets are where restaurants, bars, etc. are located. We walked around the back alleys of Itaewon station and it reminded me so much of LKF in Hong Kong and New Orleans all combined into several blocks of loud, sensory overload! 

The first bar we chose was a casual bar where we grabbed a draught beer. Unfortunately for us we chose a table right under a speaker so when James' friends arrived, we were all screaming to be heard. The second bar we went to was much quieter and we were introduced to a delicious cheesy omelette and a not so delicious grapefruit flavored soju. Ugh soju....between 5 people we killed 4 bottles and we were just getting started.

We wanted to go to a club, but they apparently don't get poppin' until later on the night so we opted for a bar across the street. There we were introduced to a variety of sweet shots including something called an Agwa bomb. The Agwa liquor is made from coca leaves and it basically tasted like a jager bomb. I honestly haven't taken colored shots in so long I was scared. But they continued through the night until we went to the club. 

I remember dancing like a maniac and managing to get James into a cab at the wee hours of the morning. We managed to NOT eat which was great but not great. 

The am was a struggle but we got some delicious soup to cure our giant, sugary hangovers. 

It was the best first weekend we could have imagined!!

Sabbatical Day 54 (7.1.16) - Noryangin Fish Market

I've heard that the fish market in Seoul was awesome. James and I were skeptical because we've both been to Tsukiji in Tokyo and thought that experience was the best. I loved it because that was where I fell in love with uni. The seafood was so fresh and delicious! The seafood was definitely better in Japan but the experience was much better in Korea.

First of all, the Noryangin market was HUGE. The most impressive thing was that the market was unbelievably clean. There were rows of vendors selling seafood which were clean and the whole building barely smelled like seafood. I'm still not sure how that was possible. We walked around looking at the different options at each stall. We saw a lot of giant shrimp, crab, lobsters and fish. We finally decided on a rock fish which the vendor fished out of the tank and quickly sashimi'ed. We chose it because the vendor told us it was a good fish for stew. They then led us upstairs with the fish bones in a bag (they use the bones for a spicy stew).

Upstairs were a bunch of restaurants with folks happily dining on their purchases. We devoured our sashimi plate and patiently waited for our stew. While I love sashimi, I am more used to soft fish. The rock fish was very chewy but James told me that's the Korean style of sashimi. The stew they made was bomb. We even threw in some pieces of sashimi and that was delicious! James and I devoured the stew as well which turned out to be a bad idea. Once we made it home, we both passed out for several hours and really didn't want to get up!

Sabbatical Day 52 (6.29.16) - Gangnam Part 1

Today we decided to explore Gangnam. It was a 45 min subway ride to the area and I found out that the area is huge! The interesting thing about being here for me is that I just follow James wherever we go. I have no idea what direction we are going in, or what the street names are. I usually do a little more research but decided to leave that all in his hands.

And I digress...back to Gangnam. The area was made famous by the PSY song, but the music video was at Gangnam station. We decided to make that our last stop for the day. We started at Samseong station (yes, Samsung) and checked out the Coex mall. James read the description and told me it was Seoul's largest mall. Once we got there and walked around a bit, we both thought it was nothing special. Then we found out it was Seoul's largest underground mall....big whoop. We got out of there quick style and went to look for the Korean Buddhist temple called Bongeunsa Temple which was supposedly across the street.

Well, we walked in the wrong direction and found ourselves at a casino. This casino only allowed foreigners in which is pretty genius. (Something else to note about the Samseong station is that it also has Seoul's World Trade Center and a giant convention center. There were a lot of foreigners around.) We ended up staying there for at least an hour with James playing several hands of Blackjack. I don't know what it is with that boy and Blackjack but he loves it.

Once we headed in the right direction to the temple, it was very easy to find. It was like being transported to the rural countryside which was very cool. The temple offers an overnight temple stay for meditation and to see how the monks live. It was weird for me to see a Korean Buddhist temple because most Koreans I know are Christian and I associate the Buddhist temple with funerals and Vietnamese school from when I was a kid.

We left the temple and decided to walk to the fancy shop area of Gangnam (aka the Rodeo drive). It was luckily only a mile and we knew we were there once we saw designer shops that were 3 stories high at least. Each of the buildings had a cool design and structure. I think my favorite was the Omega store.

This road with the designer shops was also called Kpop Star Road. It had statues of a bunny (?) that were dressed like different Kpop stars. At the end of the road was a giant statue dressed like PSY. At the end of the road was the Galleria which had very high end shops and a fancy schmancy food court.

We ended up walking around more and went to the back side streets because James had found some shops to visit. What was weird was that there were apartment complexes right next to the super nice Galleria that looked very very ghetto.

Later that day James made a very interesting observation to me. I think he's a genius.

The way that Seoul is laid out is very different from San Francisco. In San Francisco, each neighborhood is known to be nice or not etc and all the houses generally look similar in each neighborhood. In Seoul, you can visually see the wealth disparity. People in the city usually live in high rises or in 3-4 story buildings called villas. The high rises are seen as nicer and show a price tag with that association. The villas are seen as not as nice and are much cheaper. The streets are also very narrow in Seoul. We were walking down some narrow streets and had to move to the side for cars to pass through. James made that observation that even that is showing the wealth disparity - you're on foot and I'm in a car so you need to get out of my way.

Crazy....

To say the least I didn't have the best impression of Gangnam. We didn't make it to the station but plan to go back to check it out. We are also going to check out two smaller neighborhoods in the Gangnam area that have turned more hipster. Excited for that!

Sabbatical Day 51 (6.28.16) - Errands

Today was our first full day in Seoul and we had a lot of errands to run. We woke up at 5 am and couldn't go back to sleep and are pretty jetlagged too!

1) Get our resident cards

2) Get a Tmoney card to use on the subway

3) Open a bank account

4) Get a Sim card

What an experience. You'd think it would be easy to do any of those things but it was anything but. Unfortunately most the items required one of the others as a prereq. For example, in order to get a bank account, we need a phone number or our resident card. 

We ended up running around the city going to several different phone stores for the sim card and several banks to find out what their requirements are. We couldn't get the resident cards because they require an appointment. Funny enough, their site wasn't working and they don't do same day appointments anyway. We were able to get a Tmoney card but bought it at the first place we stopped by (our local 7-11). The worker there only had cute cards with Line and Kakao mascots. We found out later that those cards are more expensive than the plain cards. 

While we ran around doing errands, we were able to explore our area further and I took the subway for the first time!

My observations for today are that 1) the style is to wear long sleeve shirts with short shorts 2) girls here wear light brown almost red eye shadow all around their eyes and very pink lipstick. That would look NCAA on me so I'm not trying that trend anytime soon.

Sabbatical Day 50 (6.27.16) - Seoul, Day 1

We finally arrived in Seoul! I barely slept on the flight because I was having issues with the entertainment system and really wanted to watch movies. Our flight got in around 3 pm local time (which was way past my bedtime in SF). Of course we wanted to eat and explore the city a bit so we did a bit of unpacking then headed out to the street.

The area that we are staying in is where all the universities are. I am amazed by how many food and coffee shops there are-it seems like every other shop is either of those! We ended up eating a few doors down from our apartment and ordered kimbap and bibimbap. The meal was VERY cheap ($6 for the both of us). I'm so excited to eat more delicious food!

After our meal we explored the neighborhood more. We found a lot of interesting places to eat, more coffee shops, and a shopping area. Since it was just getting dark, we also saw some street vendors out. My initial observations from walking around tonight are:

1) I didn't see too many women wearing tank tops. Most had t-shirts on or were covering their shoulders. Interestingly enough, I saw a lot of women wearing long sleeves with short skirts or shorts. 

2) People walk on the street glued to their phone. Even crossing busy intersections they are looking down! 

We have a laundry list of things to take care of tomorrow. Hopefully it's not too hot-today's weather was perfect!

Sabbatical Day 22 (5.30.16) - Family Time in Florida

I spent the last two days in Atlanta visiting my youngest aunt. My grams is staying with her because her house is getting renovated. I arrived in Atlanta after a short flight Saturday morning and my good friend Sean picked me up. As soon as I stepped out of the terminal I felt the heat and pretty much started sweating immediately!

The last time I visited Atlanta was when I was 9. I had three distinct memories from that trip: 1) I was traumatized by the tram in the airport because I followed someone on the tram thinking it was my aunt. Got caught between the doors, then ended up riding to the next terminal crying. 2) It was the first place I experienced racism. I was at a Barnes and Nobles and a lady said something to me about being Chinese. 3) Atlanta is where I became addicted to Days of Our Lives. I spent the whole week on my aunt's couch and tuning into Days everyday.

It's been a great few days. The food is good, the beer is good, even the weather (during the early am and dusk) is good!

This morning we drove a good 6 hours to my aunt's beach house near Panama City, FL. I must have had low expectations because the beach is awesome! And the beach house is like a little vacation getaway. The younger generation went to the local Publix and bought so many groceries. We cooked a delicious feast and bought a good amount of alcohol. Looking forward to the next few days!

Sabbatical Day 9 (5.17.16) - ESL

My mom has been an ESL teacher at San Jose City College since her twenties. She's been trying to get me to follow in her footsteps for so long now and I was never interested enough to do anything about it.  When I decided to take a sabbatical and open the door to other careers, it made sense to explore ESL because I am moving to a foreign country with no other way to make money. 

It seems like my mom is really excited about it. She wants to give me all of her books and materials (she is also retiring next month). Yesterday, I met her at work so that we could carpool together to the mall and go shopping. She introduced me to so many people and mentioned that I was getting my ESL certificate. I'm getting a certificate online....I'm not sure if that's too much to be proud of. 

At first when I told her that I was taking a sabbatical, she wasn't too happy. She thinks we won't have enough money and that we aren't planning for our future. I hope by her parading me around she is feeling better about us traveling and trying something new. Even at 32 years old, I realize that I'll always be her child and she'll always be concerned about me.

Sabbatical Day 8 - Cravings

Not going into the office definitely has its perks. I like being able to cook dinner every night. While I was working, I would end up cooking in bulk so that we'd have enough food for several meals. Because of that, I really have no idea how to cook for just one meal!

On Saturday night we had a group of friends over and I decided to make spring rolls with shrimp. I love spring rolls! I was still craving them and wanted to make more but ran out of shrimp. As we are trying to use up everything we have in our kitchen, I had to make do with what I already had. 

I remembered that I had some roasted rice powder that I took from my grandma's pantry so decided to use that to make bi chay. This is a vegetarian version of bi (pig's skin). Well, I looked up a recipe for bi chay and of course I don't have all of the ingredients so I improvised. 

The recipe called for jicama, taro, potato, rice vermicelli, and bean thread noodles. Instead of jicama, taro and potato, I had napa cabbage and bean sprouts. I ran out of rice vermicelli so I just made do with bean thread noodles. (This is like an episode of chopped!)

I also tried to grill tofu with a tamarind sauce. The tamarind was very sour and I wasn't a fan but am determined to make use of the sauce again!

As it turns out, I thought I was just cooking for one meal for one person but I still made too much food. I was pretty full after eating two, but stuffed the third into my belly anyways. Luckily James was willing to take the last one off my hands!

Sabbatical Day 7 - B2B Experiment

Two years ago James and I did Bay to Breakers (B2B)with some friends. We walked from his place on Divis and Oak through the panhandle and to the edge of Golden Gate Park. On our way back, it was around lunch time, we had been drinking for hours and STARVING. Suddenly, we saw two ladies with cart selling egg rolls! We were so hungry we bought at least 10 eggrolls for our group-we didn't care what they cost.

Since then James and I always talked about how much money we would make if we sold food at B2B. This year, we decided to experiment and try our hand at selling Spam Musubis. People love Spam Musubis, right?

We found out this was semi right.

Before I get to the part where we sell the musubis, let me tell you about our process. The ingredients of Spam musubi include spam, rice, teriyaki sauce and seaweed.

Spam: We bought 4 Costco packs of Spam. Each Costco pack has 8 cans. Each can can create about 9 slices....that's 280 musubis. Woah! Luckily my friend Gina bought us a "luncheon meat slicer" and we were able to quickly and evenly slice the Spam to be musubi ready!

Rice: We made about 20 cups of rice. Our rice cooker (we call her Susie) can luckily make rice in 15 minutes with her quick cook function. We made about half the night before.

Seaweed: We've made musubis before where the seaweed wrapped around the entire musubi. We decided not to do that since we saw the pictures on the Spam can that only showed a strip of seaweed. We assumed that each sheet of seaweed could wrap 4 musubis.

Teriyaki Sauce: This was made the day before-a mix of mirin, soy sauce, and sugar.

Sunday morning we wake up at 8 with the intention of leaving for B2B at 10. Let me tell you, musubis take way longer than we thought! We thought we could 280 musubis but by noon, we only had 150!

By 12:30 we were at the Panhandle ready to sell. There were so many people we didn't know where to start! We ended up standing in one spot for a few minutes with the thought that people would come to us.

Didn't happen. So we chugged a few beers and walked around to different groups of people soliciting our musubis. People either had no idea what a musubi was, they were "vegetarian", or they were SUPER excited to see us. One girl actually questioned us why they were warm. Rice and meat should be warm....not cold. And they were fresh! Ugh. I found myself having to bite my tongue a lot.

End of the day, we sold about 100. We still made a profit after the materials which was great.

They unfortunately didn't sell like the hotcakes we thought they were and we didn't make as much as we thought we would.

Would I do it again? Heck yes. At least now I know how to efficiently make musubis and who to target when trying to sell them.

Sabbatical Day 6 - Happiness

I want to piggyback off of yesterday's post to talk about happiness. I think everyone wants to live a happy life. It rings so true to me that happiness isn't a destination and it's a way of life. I think whenever you feel unhappy it's good to step back and re-assess. 

I think it is hard to explain this especially to my parents and James' parents. They're worried that we aren't planning for our future because they can't fathom taking a break and traveling. Of course our parent's generation cannot understand that because of how they were raised. 

I see it that we are planning for our future. If I didn't decide to step back and re-assess now, I could definitely keep working and I could definitely be OK for a while. But once we started a family, I'd always wonder what it would have been like had we lived abroad. The worst thing I would want is to resent my family, resent my child for what we could have done. 

Yes, I'm not making money. But I'm investing in myself and I just doing that makes me happy already!

Sabbatical Day 5 - The Ws

I think I'd like to dedicate today's post to explaining my sabbatical. There are a lot of reasons why I wanted to take this time off. 

1) I've never lived outside of the US - I think living away from what I know can give me more perspective. I know I lived in New York, but that was still in the US. For me, living abroad will take me out of my comfort zone.

2) That biological clock is ticking

3) I am confused in my career - I love my coworkers. I love them so much I think I spend more time with them than I do James. They're smart, hardworking and amazing people. My confusion about my career comes partially from my own insecurities, being frustrated by a few things about the company, and simply feeling unsure that my job is the right path for me. 

To talk about my own insecurities more I'm one of those people where feedback and other people's perception very much gets to me. If I get the feeling that someone does not think I am doing well, I definitely don't use that as ammunition to do better...instead I do worse. On the converse, if I get the feedback that I am doing well and I feel like I am, I will continue to try to do well. Most of the time, I know it's all in my own head but I can't help but let it get to me. It's something I absolutely need to work on.

Frustration about the company. I understand that every company and every job has its issues and I'm ok with that. What I'm not ok with is a combination of the issues and how they affect me doing my job.  As I am writing this, I'm thinking now that my frustrations come because I expect too much from my employer. I think that's something that may be instilled in me too! Because I work in the US, and because I work in employee benefits in the US. It makes so much sense now. I really need more perspective.

Feeling unsure that my job is the right path for me is also for a few reasons. I've never been good at anything. I don't have anything that I'm passionate about. I just fell into this industry and thought that I wanted to go down this path of consulting. One of my worries is that it isn't sustainable.  Going back to that biological clock, I'm worried that when I do have a baby, there will be no work life balance. 

I've had a lot of internal struggle throughout this whole process. Feeling like no one understood where and why I was feeling the way I did. Feeling like I couldn't talk to anyone. And then James introduced me to the Alchemist. I remember reading this book in high school and it not having any meaning for me. When I started reading the book this time, it meant something completely different. Long story short is that this boy goes searching for a treasure which he believes is his personal destiny and ends up on a journey. The journey takes him away from his home, out of his comfort zone...literally away from everything he knows. When he reaches his destination, he finds out that his treasure was actually back at home. The problem is, he wouldn't have discovered that without going on his journey. 

Two things I got from this book are: I'm not alone! Also, very cliche but it's about the journey not the destination. I'm trying to hold onto this as I travel and experience as much as I can. Maybe taking a break from work and life for a bit will make me realize that my career is where I'm meant to be.

This quote is something I got from Grey's Anatomy which I think relates very well: "Sometimes you just have to go with your gut. And maybe, maybe that'll take you to where you were meant to be in the first place."

  

Days 3 and 4

I am writing this post on day 4. Yesterday we spent our day at the Korean Consulate (we also learned that embassies are only in the country's capital. Locations in any other city is called a consulate!). It was interesting because it felt like a glimpse it what my life will be like once we arrive in Seoul. Which is, me following James around while he speaks to people in Korean for us.

After we left the consulate, he mentioned something to me which I thought was interesting. We went to the consulate because we needed to know what type of visa we should get. When he tried asking the lady who was helping us and was very nice doing so, she wasn't helpful and would just give him instructions. She didn't try to give him any additional information or assistance and go above and beyond. Once he was a little bit more forceful and asserted himself, she then gave him more information.

Super annoying that someone is like that. Our visit to the consulate ended up being longer than we thought it would be!

Random thought, but things just take so much longer than we think! People are asking me what I do all day, and usually I can get one big thing accomplished a day! I guess that goes back to my first post, though. So I should be happy that I did accomplish that one thing. Yay me!

Day 2 - Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

On Sunday I went to South Bay to see my family for Mother's Day. It turned out to be a crazy day because my grandma's kitchen is going to be renovated and they needed to clear everything out of the house and we ended up clearing out her pantry. This wasn't any old pantry...it was what I call a "hoarder's paradise". Prior to clearing out the pantry, my aunt Cindy emailed the whole family asking them to play a game. The game was to guess what the oldest expiration date was in that pantry. My guess was 1993.....and I won.

That's crazy, isn't it? To have canned food that expired in 1993?? Upon my return home I started thinking about our trip and how we would also have to clean out our kitchen and fridge. I obsessively went to the fridge to do an inventory of the food and realized we have way too much peanut butter and jelly. So on Monday evening, I decided to buy two loaves of bread and proceeded to make about two dozen sandwiches for the homeless. 

I knew I was going to a workout class this am in the Mission so packed all the sandwiches with me plus some extra yogurt we had. I walked from the 24th Street Bart to my class looking for people to pass out sandwiches to (the bag of sandwiches was heavy!). Granted it was 9:30 am, but there was no one! 

As I continued to walk I first of all noticed how different the Mission felt in the morning. It was really weird to be out when the streets were so empty. I did keep looking for people and found that there weren't that many homeless people out and if they were, they were walking with their things. I felt afraid to approach them so kept waiting and didn't pass out any sandwiches until after my class when I decided to walk from the Mission to the FiDi. 

The first person I felt comfortable with giving a sandwich to was a man on Market and Octavia who had a sign and was asking for spare change. He gratefully accepted the sandwich. As I kept walking, I found that I felt more comfortable giving food to anyone who had a sign, or was asking for spare change. Thankfully, most everyone I approached took the food. The few exceptions were:

-The second guy I gave food to - he was great he said "Bless you for the offer and bless you for the sandwich."

-This man lying on the side of the street that I offered food to - he reached out for the food, then said no thanks and laughed because he's going to McDonalds. Some guy gave him $20!

-A man organizing his things right on Market and Fremont - I tried to offer him some food and he just waved me off!

I feel good that hopefully some more people were fed today. I would like to do this once a week and conquer my fear of approaching people.

Sabbatical Day 1 - The long awaited sabbatical finally starts!

Today is day one of my hiatus from working life . I saw an inspirational quote today on IG which said " This is your Monday morning reminder that you are powerful beyond measure, that you are capable of pretty much anything you are willing to work for, and that you could change your life TODAY."

It seemed very fitting that I read this quote today. I woke up charged and ready to do a bunch of things. I'd been anticipating this day for weeks...no, months! I planned to meditate, write this blog post, go to a workout class, make lunch, then spend 3 hours on my TESOL certificate. (I even blocked time on my calendar for all these things). But of course just like life, my day didn't go as planned.

I did get to most of those things eventually so it was definitely a reminder to myself that:
1) It's ok if things don't always go as planned
2) Be grateful and proud of myself of what I was able to accomplish - and to stay positive!

As I revive this blog, I'm hoping to document my time away from work and my travels. I don't want to write that it's going to be this amazing experience and that I'm going to be changed from it. I want to keep my expectations low, but also want to just be in the moment and experience this very special time that I decided to take.