unfortunately zoe likes to play with our wallets. in this case, she likes to take everything out and try to take it apart/unfold it. basically that translates to a wallet nearing the end of it’s life cycle. *sad*

however, in prep, i made myself a magic wallet using some household items.

If you want to make one, here’s some basic instructions [via Youtube]

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Post tags: dad, duct tape, household items, leather wallet, life cycle, magic wallet, money clip, old leather, steph, wallets, zoe

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This diaper bag looks like an OK backpack. It’s definitely not a COOL backpack but design wise it’s very practical (it’s designed by dad’s what do you think you’d get?). I don’t think a dad or anyone else will feel ashamed or embarrassed to sling this on their back. Most people won’t even know what this bag really is.

What it is:
* A no-nonsense diaper bag  that’s a backpack instead of a messenger bag, oversized purse, etc.

Features:
*  Two compartments on the sides for water bottles, sippy cups, etc (one on each side)
*  Wipes compartment easily accessible without having to open the bag
*  Top compartment that fits about 8-12 diapers. Zoe’s in a size 4, and it easily fits 8
*  Large main compartment. Holds a change of clothes, blanket, and almost anything else we feel like throwing in there
*  Two “smaller” pockets that will hold misc items like diaper cream, hand sanitizer, changing pad, etc
*  Comes with a changing pad (I tossed this. We use hospital chux instead)
*  Built in stroller straps (’nuff said)

What I like:
*  Convenience of the wipes and diaper. This is the essential part of any diaper bag. You don’t have to dig for anything.
*  How much stuff it holds. It doesn’t fit as much as my old North Face, but pretty darn close.
*  Not girlie. I’m a “tomboy”. Girlie things and I just don’t get along. The messenger diaper bag we had was nice and not girlie, but the strap across my chest which was unfortunately placed, just made me feel uncomfortable.
*  Travels really well. If you knew us, you’d know we travel quite a bit. Our daughter’s passport already has been stamped twice (would’ve been 3 if we got the Canada stamp) before she was even 1.5 years old.

What I don’t like:
*  The wipes box that is built into the diaper bag can be tricky to close. It’s not hard to close it, but you need to fidget a little with it. If you’re not willing to fidget, it’s fine. There are straps that you velcro over the box to ensure that it stays shut. GENIUS!
*  Sometimes you have to dig around in the large compartment to find what you need, but that might be because I’m not organizing my bag well enough.

Overall: I really think this is THE diaper bag. I’ll probably even use it after Zoe is potty trained.

DadGear Backpack Diaper Bag on Amazon

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Post tags: backpack, clothes, convenience, dad, diaper bag, diaper cream, diapers, hand sanitizer, north face, passport, pockets, purse, shizzle, sippy cups, sling, travels, water bottles, zoe

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After the trip to GyeongJu, we spent the night at my uncle’s home in Gumi.

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It’s a small and modest house in what most of us would consider a very rural area. this is where my dad’s family’s land is. most of it belongs to this particular uncle, since he was the only son to stay in korea, while the other two sons went off to the states. he built this home from “scratch”. he and his wife saved their entire lives in preparation for retirement.

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americans typically think of retirement as moving to florida, hanging out with other old people and going to denny’s for the senior grand slam special. koreans have a different view. my uncle and aunt spend their time farming the family land. the grow their own soybeans, and other vegetables. they do everything organically so everything is cooked simply and the flavor is amazing! they make their own soy sauce, tofu, soybean paste (dwenjang), red pepper paste (ggotchujang), and a number of other things.

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On basically what was our last full day in korea, my uncle gave us a tour of his home. extremely proud of what he’s been able to provide for his family, and also to show us that he’s taken care of our family land. he pointed to some of the dried greens that were hanging from the garage and said that it was my dad’s favorite vegetable. so he dries plenty of it each year hoping my dad comes for a visit. he showed us the mill he uses to grind the beans.

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before getting ready to take us to kimcheon, he wanted to show us one more thing. my dad’s best friend’s burial/memorial site and the buddhist temple the man had built and worshipped at. though my dad’s family is catholic, they were good friends with this man and also proud of his acheivements.

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i don’t know his name, but my dad showed me pictures. he was the provincial wrestling champion. but also a devout buddhist. he would go to a local cave and meditate for days without food or water. later he became a famous buddhist monk and raised money to build this temple. along with the temple he had a deep desire to serve the disabled and mentally handicapped. there is an adjacent home to the temple. we didn’t get to visit the facility so no pictures. unfortunately, my dad’s friend was murdered by one of the mentally ill. he was buried next to the temple.

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we then decided to take a quick trip to kimcheon. there’s a park there that features different types of art. including some very interesting statues like these:

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the first is joseph pretending to play a children’s game where you attempt to hop on someone’s back and play a game of rock, paper, scissors. next joseph was told to rub the buddha’s belly so we would have good luck in trying to have a baby. i proceeded to touch the belly button instead. the last two were all in good fun of course

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there should be no vacation/travel posts without the gluttonous amount food consumed! we went to a pork bbq place. instead of the usual vents that are fixed on the ceiling, you could pull these vents down towards the table and then push them back up and out of the way to eat. this basically concluded our trip to the kumi area. before we left my uncle proceeded to say “i’m sorry if they did anything wrong”. after this lengthy post of the hospitality and the family love they showed, suffice to say there was NOTHING wrong that they did. in fact, joseph and i probably should’ve said what they had said instead. we intruded on their quiet lives and they welcomed us with open arms.

my aunt and uncle put us on a high speed train back to seoul. this by itself is a treat. it’s like taking the acela instead of the regional train. time difference between the two is a few hours because there are also far fewer stops in between.

it actually dropped us off not too far from namdaemoon. so guess were we went next?

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this outdoor street market is HUGE. it’s a maze. i tried to be as diligent as possible to make sure we either knew where we were going, or at least know how to get back to where we came from. it’s a sea of wholesalers of all different types of stuff, of everything from clothes, socks, bras, pots, knives, computers….you name it, they probably have it. apparently there are alot of tourist from china and japan looking for korean ginseng. all the sales people kept yelling at me and joseph in cantonese, mandarin, taiwanese, japanese and korean – unsure whether we were one or another.

lastly, the last nite of being in korea meant that we finally got to spend some time with my cousin. usually he’s the one i spend most of my time with when i’m in korea. but this trip was obviously different. he’s also far busier now, running the furniture company that my uncle built. it used to be living room, bedroom and dining room furniture company. my cousin decided to change the direction of the company based on his research and noticing the fair share of furniture companies in asia. it was a smart investment and business strategy for him. the new direction was to build wardrobes for apartments. much like in the US, the real estate market BOOMED all over asia, with new buildings and renovations happening all over. guess who was building new wardrobes through many of korea’s new/remodeled homes?

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we ended up starting at a chicken place. like i said before, joseph was so smitten with kyochon, we looked for every opportunity to eat more of that kind of chicken. my cousin ended up taking us to this place where one of the owners looked like my aunt #6. we had some beer and chicken and caught up. instead of staying after we finished eating though, we headed off to a second place. some japanese place to eat more food and drink some more. by this time we get to this second place, i’m already a little tipsy, on the verge of drunk. i don’t think joseph was, though he did get quiet and looked very happy with a huge grin on his face. this is probably why there aren’t many pictures of our time spent with my cousin. man koreans can drink.

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Post tags: acheivements, Add new tag, baby, beer, buddha, buddhist temple, building, business, chicken, china, cooking, cousin, dad, denny, dries, drinks, family, food, games, good friends, goodness, greens, gumi, gyeongju, japan, japanese, joseph, korea, korean, koreans, locals, memories, money, moving to florida, pepper paste, post, red pepper, rural area, s, scissors, scratch, seoul, soy sauce, soybean paste, soybeans, tofu, tourists, vegetables, water, worshipped

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1. joseph and i were married on july 26, 2003. i was 23. the next day i turned 24. there were about 1000 people at the wedding, with 4 receptions. but no limos. just friends..lots of friends

2. i like cooking for friends and family. i took amateur classes at FCI to make sure i wouldn’t feed them crap. but i have no aspirations in becoming a professional chef.

3. i like stupid movies. joseph calls it the “theresa network”. i’ll watch 13 going on 30, notting hill, and love actually whenever it shows up on tv and i’ve got free time. but some stupid movies will make me gag – most recently “enchanted”. but i also have a love for smart movies.

4. i used to go karaoke alot back in college. i like to scream into the mic, so i usually sing korean rock ballads. my favorites are lee seung hwan, and kim kyung ho

5. at church, i like to sing at the same octave as the guys when singing worship songs. sometimes it scares the people around me.

6. i love to drive. i miss having a car. my first car was an electric blue nissan altima, after college i bought an acura tl. i now own no car, but part owner or many buses and subway cars.

7. i like to play golf, but i’m not very good anymore. i’m a better coach/caddie.  in middle/high school school i used to play alot and actually had a decent handicap.

8. i grew up in inner city baltimore. alot of the stuff that happens in the Wire seems familiar to me.

9. i dislike curry, but will make it for friends and will eat it.

10. i LOVE rice. my comfort foods are rice with kimchi and seaweed soup on the side. it’s actually the first meal i ever remember eating. i hope this will be an early food for our daughter too.

11. i like to do crafts. i like papercrafting and knitting. i’m currently in the middle of doing a papercraft of pee-wee herman for a coworker, and i’m trying to knit a baby blanket.

12.  i ran into a coffee table when i was a kid. i now have a scar immediately underneath my left eye. most people can’t see it because my glasses usually help hide it

13. i’ve lived in 11 different homes in maryland alone (does NOT include dorms). 2 in nyc. for a grandtotal of 13. (how fitting…)

14. i’ve had the same cell phone number since 1998.

15. i don’t like chocolate. i had a traumatic incident in elementary school where i had some chocolate milk and shortly thereafter threw up all over my and my friends lunches. i’ll eat white chocolate sometimes tho.

16. i have a large family. 26+ “cousins” just on my mothers side. 26+ “cousins” on my dad’s side as well. i haven’t met everyone yet, so i’ve stopped counting. the ones i’m closest with are those i grew up with, and helped take care of as i was growing up myself.

17. i’ve always dreamed of owning my own business. i’ve already thought through my business plan, financing and 5 years worth of goals with high level milestones every 6months. my parents have owned at least 8 businesses that I am aware of/can remember.  most of my aunts and uncles own(ed) their own businesses as well; ranging from a furniture company to a cafe.

18. i scare most people the first time i meet them. it’s usually me being friendly, they just don’t realize it.

19. i hate the heat. when i vacation, i like places that are usually cooler and no beaches please.

20. i’m skeptical about alot of things.

21. i don’t like people who have a problem with or complain about something but don’t have suggestions on how to fix it.

22. i can drink heavily, but choose not to. my tolerance is hereditary.

23. i like offal meats. hearts, gizzards, feet, tongue, ears, marrow, intenstine, tripe, sweetbreads, livers, etc. i don’t eat them often tho. they are not good for you in excess.

24. i’m strangely good at dealing with customer service and getting what i want either over the phone or in person

25. joseph is my favorite person in the world. right behind my halmuhnee =P

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Post tags: 13 going on 30, acura tl, agapeshack, amateur classes, baby, blankets, buses, business, caddie, car, cars, chocolate, church, cooking, cousin, coworker, dad, drinks, facebook, family, food, glasses, heated, joseph, kids, kim kyung ho, kimchi, knitting, korean, koreans, lee seung hwan, love actually, lunch, milk, myspace, nissan altima, notting hill, Papercraft, parents, pee wee herman, professional chef, random, rice, rock ballads, s, seaweed soup, subway, subway cars, theresa, worship songs

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so i’m a big fan of this show called The Wire. I’ve only finished seasons 1 and 2. But I’m hooked! I’m curious as to why it only lasted 5 seasons, but perhaps the remaining 3 aren’t as good. In any case, this is a great show. For those of us who grew up in and around Baltimore, it’s a magical show; bleak but magical.

I recently read an article on CNN about The Wire and the overly bleak picture the show seems to display regarding the youth in Baltimore. [ref: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/22/the.wire/index.html] And it made me sad.

Is growing up and living in Baltimore that hopeless? No. I know. I’m a college-educated, 20-30something asian american living what most probably consider “upper-middle-class”. But I grew up/worked in some of these neighborhoods.  Whenever I mention that I grew in these neighborhoods, people are shocked.

I was far privileged than many of the characters on the show, but what made me different? Joseph says that sometimes he can’t understand what I’m saying when I’m back in Baltimore talking to some of the “urban locals.”  So it’s definitely not the way I speak.

So what makes me connect to show? ….

My parents used to own a store called “Charles Carryout”. Thanks to Google Maps, I think I found it:

across the street used to be an abandoned lot. People used to park their cars there with no rhyme or reason.  My dad used to park our beat up 12yr old station wagon there. And next to the lot, i don’t remember ANYTHING as nice as the building that is there now, which sort of looks like an office building.

My parents lived above the store. My brother and I lived there on the weekends and summers. It was just a block or so from the projects and the schools were horrible. so my brother and i lived with my grandmother during the week (more on that in a future post perhaps).

what i remember most was running from the station wagon to the store to avoid potential gun fire, lewd comments, and getting harassed. entering the doors, and still being told to run to get behind the bullet proof glass doors that were locked at all times.

my favorite memories were playing ms. pac-man and centipede with some of the neighborhood kids. the guy who owned the video game machines would give us 20+ free credits when he emptied out the bins. other memories included playing/sleeping in tents that fit over the twin sized mattresses our parents bought me and my brother. the huge dogs that lived in the backyard. i only ever got to see them from afar since they were so scary.

just a little insight into my strange but fun childhood

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Post tags: 30something, 5 seasons, asian, brother, building, car, cars, cnn, dad, doors, games, glasses, google, grandmother, gun fire, joseph, kids, lewd comments, locals, locks, maps, memories, office, parents, rhyme, showbiz, sleep, station wagon, upper middle class

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