My friend is a singer:)

 Often, when I imagine another life, I think about how I would love to be a person who performs on stage. Or a person who makes tangible things (like paintings or the like) with my hands, for a living. It's a desire I have, I guess, because in this life, I am a person who ponders on words, crafts sentences and essays that seem to have no tangibility whatsoever. Of course, I can make these intangible thoughts and words, structure them into a convincing argument or an analysis, and of course, I want to some day, publish a book. That would certainly be tangible...But, unless I suddenly decide to become a fiction writer or a poet, my audience will always be small. Hence, I envy my friend who is a singer. Not only does he perform on stage, he communicates with so many people, people of different age groups and gender. That must be exciting.

The friend's name is Youngwoo Kim, a musician who belongs to a Korean group called Sweet Sorrow. The name comes from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet-- parting is such sweet sorrow-- and yes, my friend is an English Lit major. (He's the one on top/with glasses and a big smile) I met him when I was doing my masters back home. We joined the department on the same year, took a class together (African American fiction), and came to be rather friendly with each other. He hadn't debuted just then-- while coming to class, working as a TA (TAs back home don't have to teach/ we are basically grading TAs), and striving to make a debut. And the year after, his group won in a music competition, with a big flourish, with a magnificent debut song that awed and impressed the critics. But, the group didn't do quite so well until later. The song that was celebrated by the critics as awesome and new and elegant, was not welcomed in the market that had gotten so used to the bubble-pop music produced by idols. And since the group did not have that many schedules at first, Youngwoo continued on with his studies-- meaning, I got to see him quite often, despite his being now, a "professional singer."

Anyways, I don't see him that often anymore, because Sweet Sorrow is now doing quite well. Their concerts are always sold out, their third album (and this is not a mini-album but a proper one with more than 10 songs in it) came out last year, they work as radio DJs, and appear on rather famous music programs in Korea. We don't get to talk about the stuff we read for class anymore, since he is now busy with music, and I live across the country. But I can still see how his ideas are changing by reading the lyrics to his songs. And it's fun to see a friend becoming more and more famous-- he's no longer "that guy who is often late to class" or "that guy who sang while presenting W.E.B Dubois's book", but now a singer who ponders on the difficulty of satiating the public's taste and his own artistic desires. Instead laboring over words and books, he plays with notes and rhythms. Instead of the in-class presentation, he produces concerts and other gigs on stage. And  it's cool, as a friend, to see the transformation. Here is a link to one of Sweet Sorrow's performances on television. Oh, and if you search "sweet sorrow" on Spotify, you will find some of their albums!

Sweet Sorrow's performance

some more ideas on upcycling

I don't know what happened, but my ankle is swollen today
Spent the whole day home, don't feel like sitting in a chair.
So, I write this on my tablet. (And thus, will not be long)

On my part- I ordered some recycled glass beads today,
So I will be making some stuff with that later. I was a little guilty about always ordering stuff online (what about the CO2 footprints? My conscience asked.), but I don't order beads that often...so I must excuse myself. I am also looking to see if there are sellers on etsy, who drill holes in beach pebbles. Might get some and.make necklaces with them.

I wish I was more crafty, but this is as up-cycle-ly I can ger riht now!

I promise, I'll treat you to coffee

I came back from two classes, and I am exhausted. So, a short posting on what I miss the most about my hometown (which is oceans away): cafes!!!

I am content in West Lafayette, despite it being a bland town. It's okay, since I don't need a lot of excitement in my life. The texts I am required to read are enough as it is-- there is no time to go anywhere, anyway. But, I do miss those wonderful cafes in Seoul, especially those near Yonsei and Hondae. I have a few favorite spots-- and the pics today were taken at a cafe named "Thanks Nature," cafe near Hongik University.

I don't know what it is with Koreans and coffee, but the city has so many, you just need to walk 2 minutes and run into one. Which means, you have a variety of cafes to choose from. Not like here: if I want a nice cup of coffee, I have to choose between two-_-; I know..there are other places..but it's not within my walking distance! Urgh! Just last Sunday, I had to make a change of plans because the two cafes available were full of people. On a Sunday morning! Can't Greyhouse just expand? Or, can't anyone open a new cafe near our campus? Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

So, grumble grumble. If I had special powers, I would just bring one or two (I don't even need more!) cafes from back home, and plant it in West Lafayette. While I'm at it, I should also bring some of my favorite restaurants. More about that later though. :)

When you come to Seoul, I'll make sure to take you to my favorite spots. One is called "Raintree" (it's near Ewha Univ) and they have the best hot chocolate (European style, is it? They melt real chocolate, so you actually have to spoon it!). And the owners are friendly with me, which means they usually give us some treats while we jabber away-- the last time I was there (last Summer), they gave us a nice stack of pancakes (with ice cream on top!) made from scratch. Ah-- the times! Oh, and they have hot apple cinnamon tea they actually make themselves!

picture of a beloved friend at Raintree:) (she was drinking milk tea)

so, if you ever come to Seoul (when I'm there), I'll take you to those places. I promise.

2. 21. 2013.

No, let's not trap ourselves

Today, while conferencing with my Eng106 students, the topic of government surveillance came up. One student is going to write her position paper on "full body-scanners" at airports. Her position is, that we should consider it a sacrifice we should pay, in order to be safe (from terrorists). I tried to talk about what the opponents would say. She agreed to some of such arguments, but I don't think she will change her mind. One student commented across the table, that if we are not doing anything wrong, we shouldn't be worried or concerned about government surveillance. Someone talked about the government having access to people's facebook entries and emails. Then, said-- I don't worry, since I don't write anything important. I don't do anything wrong. If you are a good person/citizen, why the worry? It's to keep us safe. Okay kids, so being safe is important. But have you considered how this is also intruding upon everyone's privacy? They said, yeah, but we have to give something, right? Hmm. Security and safety is really in their brains. But what if the definition of "you are a good citizen/person" change? What if suddenly, your dating a person with different skin color becomes a huge problem? What if someone suddenly decides without your knowing, that to major in engineering and thinking about the ills of the method American corporations extract gas from below is wrong, is a major problem for them? What if one day, someone decides that all vegetarians are radicals who threaten the security of the nation? It sounds all very extreme, but it could happen, it had happened in different ways in the past, there is no guarantee that it will never be that way again. Don't trap yourself in the discourse of security and patriotism without at least thinking about these. ... I wanted to say all this, but I didn't have the time or energy to do so. I will bring it up for debate tomorrow in class- starting with a youtube clip, to trick them into thinking, Oh, we're watching a clip, cool! I'll let you guys know what happens tomorrow. I might just end up being sad, but hopefully, at least a handful of students will say smarter than stuff like "we've all got to give a little..." Come on, you don't want to be treated as a potential terrorist. Or, is it really okay, as long as you are kept safe from those "terrible terrorists"?
Let's find out tomorrow.

2. 20. 2013

dish for two-- korean food!

 On days when I don't know what to cook for dinner, I look in the fridge and think about what veggies I need to consume. On this particular day, I found dried shitake mushrooms my mom sent me (yay!), some baby bockchoy, and elephant garlic. And we had some angus chuck and rice cakes (which again, mom sent!!). So, a Korean dish we call "gan-jang ttok-boki" (gan-jang is soysauce, and ttok, is the rice cake (I can't seem to find an exact word to describe that rice thing..it's not really cake, but more of...pasta like thing that we make with rice. It can be dried and frozen), and "boki" is the casual noun form of stir frying. I think. Anyways, there are two kinds of such dishes--one, you cook without gan-jang but with pepper sauce. That one's the more common one you will see on Seoul streets (vendors everywhere!), but this time around, I went for soysauce.

I don't follow strict recipes when I cook Korean (or fusion Korean), so I don't have measurements, but for this dish, you need:

1. Some rice cakes that look like those above in the plate (you can get this at Korean markets-- for those in West Lafayette, go to Hana Market).

2. Some shitake or any kind of mushroom you prefer. I usually use the "ordinary and cheap" mushrooms you find at any store-- what do you call those, baby bellas?

3. Some garlic. I used both minced and elephant garlic to spruce things up a bit, but you only need minced if you don't have the real deal.

4. some kind of meat. Beef works best-- it can be ground beef, angus chuck, or any kind you like to use. I don't know about stew meat though, because you do want your beef to be tender and soft:)

5. Some veggies-- I used bockchoy because I had some, but we don't usually use bockchoy for this dish. Cabbage works fine, you can include zucchinis if you like them. I've used also green beans when making dishes like this. Oh, and snap peas? sweet peas? Those work well as well. Add whatever veggie you like. You'll be fine.

6. Soysauce (I used the Korean version I got from Hana mart. I don't know if you can create the same dish with Japanese soysauce--I reckon not. Although both countries use soysauce regularly in their cooking, for some reason, they taste different.)

7. Just for fun, I also added garlic teriyaki sauce.  Why not? We've got beef and bockchoy in there-- it should work! (and it did!)

First, you want to macerate the frozen rice cakes a little. Just put them in a bowl of warm water. Let it sit there for 10-20 minutes. In the meantime, take care of the veggies and the meat. Prep them, so everything is bite sized. I like to also put my bite-sized raw beef into a bowl of wine and sprinkle garlic + pepper (freshly ground_ + some sugar (like a little teaspoon) + if you like, minced onions. Let that sit for 20-25 minutes (or longer, if you have time). This will take away any nasty smell.

Then, pour the beef+wine onto a frying pan. Of course, you need to sprinkle your pan with some kind of oil. I usually use olive oil.

Let that cook halfway. Add soysauce and the veggies and the rice cakes. According to how salty or how strong you want your dish to be, you need to adjust the amount of soysauce you put into your pan. Start with maybe 3-4 table spoons. I know it's a hassle, but keep tasting, add a little more, and repeat as needed. You can also mix soysauce with teriyaki sauce like I did. :)

I just stop when I think the taste is just right (it should be just a little bit salty, but not too much. This is your main dish, not your side--which means, you don't want it to be super salty or super soy-saucy!)

I know this doesn't really help. So, if you want a taste, maybe I'll invite you over for dinner one day and make it for you!

2. 19. 2013

the beauty of winter trees

 Here are some pictures I took on the last day West Lafayette saw heavy snow. It didn't really snow a lot this winter, but when it did, it was so pretty!

Coming from a city, I often complain about the lack of nice coffee shops and shopping malls, but if I have come to love this place after my 2 years of stay. It's peaceful, it's quiet, it is not as distracting, and the landscape, although not as exciting as those towns near the sea or great hills or mountains, is nice. I often marvel at the sky-- if you walk around Seoul, you will not see so much blue (or in this case, grey) because there will be sky scrapping apartment complexes and other buildings. Not to mention spider web like lines going from this post to another. So, I appreciate the calmness environment of this otherwise bland town.

- winter trees! Remember the poem I introduced in this blog several days back? Trees! They are so great!

It's really warm today despite the rain,
so to celebrate and welcome spring, but not disregard the almost over winter, I end my posting for today, with a flourish and a reminder: winter trees are great, people! Enjoy them while they are still bare!

new bracelets! :)

Like I said, I like to make things with beads.
And a few days ago (last week..) it came to a stage where I could just no longer read, no longer prep for my ENG106 classes, no longer patient enough to keep on commenting on the student papers I had to grade. I wished that I could disappear, vanish to a space where work is nonexistent, where I no longer have to worry about getting certain things accomplished, and where I could enjoy a few hours, at least, of peace and serenity away from the everyday tasks of being a TA and a grad student. So, I said, why not give that space to myself? I knew that I could not really afford the time, but I also knew that if I don't succumb to such desires every now and then, I would break. Breaking would be no fun, right? I'm trying to justify my having been lazy for a few hours. How pathetic. With that said-- here are the pieces I came up with that night.

point bead for this piece is the red sard. I really love sards--they are so pretty!
And the dangling bird is a hummingbird. Therefore, the name of this bracelet, will be..."hum a tune for me" I love giving my pieces dorky names:p

The greenish beads are African turquoise, a gemstone I really love. Blue (or skyblue) turquoises are more common, but I came across this stone at Vons! :) Yay! The spaces in between (the silver stuff) is probably metal. Got those also at Vons. What would have I done, if Vons did not exist?

This is what it looks like when you wear it. :)

And the second one, is similar yet different.

I used the same turquoise stone and the same silver spacers, but instead of the hummingbird, I added a nicely engraved metal ball near the clasp. It dangles! The orangish point stone is carnelian. (It's said that carnelian will give you strength, and will bring you power. I don't know where I heard this though, so I should double check.)

Oh, and the clear green stone is green onyx, another stone I really like. The rest of the stones come from a bundle, so sadly, I don't know what exactly they are, but I am assuming that they are picture jaspers and whatnot. :)

Today's last piece!
green and orange chipstones (I forgot the name of those) with crystal cut rondelles (metal brown) and the sky blue nugget stones are amazonite! They are so pretty, I plan on ordering a string or two later this month. :)

Oh, and if anyone is curious about the funny tiger in the background, that's a ceramic piece made by my little sister (who is an art major, proper!)

Another photo to show off the details in sunlight.

As always, I must now return to work (grading), but enjoy!
If you like any of the three pieces, give me a nudge, okay? I'd be flattered.

2. 17. 2013