Input Overload.

One of my favorite videos.  Take the stairs people!
Can they make these amazing devices in the U.S.?! Please&thankyou!


Pure Entertainment.  Smile darling, just smile.


A little scary at first, but downright HILARIOUS.

I believe this "Polite Umbrella" is needed in any metropolitan city! Ingenious!

LaughOutLoud.

Two Thousand Ten

OMGOSH.  I think these TEA-shirts are absolutely adorable!  Incredible.  I need some inspiration for my Tea party that the lovely ladies of 2117 are throwing next week.  We shall see..  Enjoy more pictures of the shirts. :]  Tea-shirt designer Soo Mo Kang.

Speaking of clothing.  The other day I was had a conversation with my roommate Jo about how we sometimes felt that we couldn't buy too many obnoxiously bright pieces of clothing because they would take away our mature essence.  I wonder if other people ever feel this way.  For example, this summer in New York City, I was browsing at the only Uniqulo located in the U.S. and they had millions of pairs of BRIGHT jeans in blues, purples, greens, yellows, reds, etc.  I was so tempted to buy one because the price was reasonable and the color was extremely unique and purely wonderful.  BUT, what is the last thought that lingers in my mind... "I can't wear these pants, what if I get passed off as an immature girls" resulting in me with no brightly colored pants.

Oy vey.  I am going to dress my age.  Right Jo?
I will be taking advantage of my youthfulness and dress with risk! mwhahaha.  You only live once, LIVE IT UP!

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Enjoy.  Be inspired class of 2010.

Serendipity

Fun, very forgetful good night with Jo.  Did every UCI student besides me and Jo know that we had a volleyball game going on at the Bren Events Center?  I hope not because I swear I am very prideful of my school :)  If you wanna hear about the parking boy, feel free to ask.

By one point in my life, I want to make sure that all my fantasies become reality ~ living in NYC with a view of one of the two rivers & having a tree house full of magic for my family.  A girl can dream.

Courtesy of Chris Kart

Courtesy of Everyday East River
 
Snowball Fights in Time Square  

Courtesy of Doug Kim

Courtesy of Tree House Point

Completely different worlds - one surrounded by man made structures and the other embraced with mother nature.  Love them both! 

내 가족이 최고입니다!

Now that I am back in Irvine from winter break, I definitely feel more useful not only to myself but to others around me. I thoroughly enjoy living independently, a certain distance away from my parents. However, I have recently been feeling somewhat "guilty" for leaving the bird's nest and trying to fly out into the real world.  I understand and acknowledge that I am fully capable grown woman ready to leave and start my own life, but right now, I think I'm more worried about leaving my family than they about about me leaving.  To some degree, I am sure this is worst for my parents because they have finally raised me to their greatest abilities and the time has come to finally leave the nest.  Why am I feeling guilty that I am growing up and moving on?  Because they are my parents, the only set I will ever have, the only people who have known me since conception, the two people along with my brother who hold 90% of all the love in my heart (the other 10% goes to my friends).  They are amazing, that's why.

The concept of family is that every person holds a significant role, this is how I see it.  In my family, I know that both my parents and my brother all depend on me whether they know it or not.  My role in my family is being the connector.  When I am in Irvine, although I am not physically present at my house, I am just a one hour drive away from home and will be available for anybody.  I'm not sure if that will be the case once I graduate college.  I am still obviously part of my family, however I may not be just a hop, skip, and jump away from home.  I feel like a baby with separation anxiety from their parents once they become attached to their parents.

Happy New Decade

새해 복 많이 받으세요.

Every year my family makes food through the midnight passing into the new year, and nothing really changed this year either.  However, we did end up going to the Korean sauna on New Years Eve, entering 2010 feeling quite refreshed.  I'm not sure how to feel when I say my last meal of 2009 was spent at a Korean sauna.  Funny no?

What have I learned from this New Year?
Within the Korean culture, celebrating the new year is a big deal - all the stores close, families make large amounts of food, and the kids always 새배 [bow] to their elders.  Because I have always been exposed to this these types of customs, I do not really know how other people celebrate their New Year.  I feel like New Years is just an extension of the holidays and been trained to think the holidays equals time to spend with the fambam period.  I would feel guilty if I were not there spending time with my family.  I'm not sure how I would feel if I were not to spend entering a new year with the people I love most; my family really does come first.  I'm not sure if I will ever break this tradition and get to experience another type of New Year's celebration.  We shall see...

On the other hand, I am definitely grateful for the amazing food my mom makes ONCE A YEAR! 

Homemade 만두 [dumplings] YUM!
 
Another deliciously amazing New Years meal by my 엄마
 만두국, 갈비, 빈대덕, 고구마 튀김, 김치, and the whole nine yards

새배 to the Aunt&Uncle 

In other news...

I was reading one of my favorite websites, huffingtonpost.com and the main article was about the economy of the past decade.  Read this article.  As I was reading, the article made me feel a mixature of emotions.  I am in a way mad that the economy is in such a bad state - having one of the worst, if not the worst economic recession in American history.  I am trying very hard to have a non-partisan approach, but I really can't help but blame President George W. Bush and his administration for making such harsh mistakes!  Of course they could not predict the future, but with all the information provided, Bush, his administration, and Congress should have take better precautionary measures and made better political decisions because their actions sure as hell impacted the all Americans and the rest of the world!  Thanks to them me, thousands of other graduating college students, and millions of people living in the U.S. do not have a job.  Yippie.  Okay polictial rant done.

I will end on a happier note.

NEW YORK!  I'm gonna be back there soon...
living the east coast lifestyle! :]

Picture of one of my favorite cities in the world.

Photo credit squaregirl

Have a happy new year everyone!  Best of luck in 2010!

Oh Happy Day

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Hope y'all are looking forward to 2010 because I sure am. 

So my 21st Christmas has come and gone in quite a memorable fashion.  BUT, before I talk about Christmas, let's recap on the past week shall we...

I had a Yonsei reunion with some of wonderful people I met and got to know from Korea last summer while also spending the whole day with Miss Seong-Ah. We had part uno of our L.A./SoCal adventures.  Lots of driving and chatting.  :]  I think we can both say that we ALMOST came close to the whole year Seong-Ah was abroad in the "motherland".  I will post more pictures once we complete part dos.  To the left we have Seong-Ah's first visit to one of L.A.'s "historical landmarks" - Pink's Hotdog.

I also got a lovely reminder in the mail of important dates for COMMENCEMENT 2010!  Yes, I am excited and happy to graduate and have achieved success and knowledge about the world, other people, and myself, BUT I am still nervous about entering the real world.  I could picture the day of commencement to be really anti-climatic - reading the list of at least 500 social science students, pictures with friends and the fambam, dinner, and a final farewell to UCI.  Bittersweet no?

Back to the holiday mode - I must say this Christmas was unique, which can also be considered an understatement.  I don't think I have EVER eaten as much as I did during the past day and a half.  Usually, Christmas is based around "family-time" and we have a casual dinner and presents opening aka 'receive money' time, but this Christmas my Aunt went all out with the food!  This dinner could have quite possibly competed with Thanksgiving dinner.  This was the first year I got to join in on drinking alcohol legally, which was totally fun because my family definitely became happy with all that liquid in their bodies.  The next morning I woke up to Sarah Brightman's Las Vegas live concert blasting at maximum surround sound volume - fun.  I also got to watch Michael Jackson's This is it and I suprisingly enjoyed it.

 Our Korean Christmas Feast

My FamBam

The Cousins

Sappy

I laugh at myself publicly.

I recently changed up the format of my blog because I now naturally have 200% more free time compared to when school is in session. As I look at my "Oh, life is perfect" picture with the phrase "livin' the sweet life, while balancing between the good and beautiful", I start thinking 'Oh my gosh what was I thinking?!' hahaha.

Really...
Life is not all THAT good or beautiful, I suppose this really depends on the type of life you are living. Don't get me wrong, I am very appreciative of where He has placed me and the family I was born into, but life is definitely far from being perfect. Life is both good and beautiful, but obviously everyone knows that there is more to life than these simple adjectives can ever describe. I suppose my dolce vita persona is from my more optimistic outlook of life, not necessarily the most realistic.

Header picture by moritake