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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every morning, we’re required to eat breakfast as a family. something that joseph and i normally don’t do everyday is eat breakfast, and if we do, it’s rarely together. this is something i hope we’ll do in the future together, but not likely to happen everyday. and honestly, probably not going to happen once a week either.

after breakfast my aunt decided we’re going to changdeokgung, so off we went on a bus that was less than $2 per person for a 40min ride into the city. darn cheap if you ask me! joseph’s first real taste of seoul and one of the first things he sees is burger king’s bulgogi burger. *sigh* we’ve yet to see the kimchi pizza i used to adore, but there’s still a few days left on the trip.

not sure if everyone knows, but there’s rhyme and reason to my fighting for the check. korean culture dictates that in various situations an older “sibling” or married person pick up the tab. there’s other incidents where you are supposed to at least ATTEMPT to pay. one example of this is if you’re out of town, and being a “burden” to a friend or family or if you have guests in town and want to treat them. here my aunt and i are fighting for who pays to get into the palace (this concept is often lost on most westerners, and it’s hard to fully explain all the intricacies so i’ll bypass the remaining details):

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the palace requires that you go on a tour through the palace and “secret garden” based on a schedule. if you want to take the english tour you MUST go during a specific time. same with korean, japanese, or chinese. (people wonder where i get my analness from. here’s your answer):

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after we left the palace grounds, we ran into street vendor cart that sells gookhwabbang (traditional cake with red bean). some other tourists were curious as to what we were eating, and so my aunt nonchalantly passes one of the tastey treats to a tall white lady and says “TRY!”

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she then quickly went and bought her own bag to share with her friends, and offered my aunt one as a replacement for the one offered to her. my aunt laughed and brushed her off.

next was lunch. and when i say lunch, i mean a very traditional korean meal! we had samgaetang (chicken soup). but this is not a chicken soup like the kinda stuff that campbell’s makes in a can, it’s the kind that feels homemade, in the deep farm lands of korea, with the healthy stuff that kids absolutely hate, like ginseng, chestnuts, jujube, and gingko nuts.

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i guess i’m now old, since i love the samgaetang. both joseph and i pretty much ate each of our entire chickens that were stuffed with rice and all the healthy “junk”. after finishing this meal i think i wanted to take a nap, but my aunt is a vary active woman and demanded we go to the next place.

namsan tower – now known as N Seoul tower. Not really sure why they changed the name, but whatever. it’s still the same cheese that you get at empire state, or top of the rock in nyc. view is great since you can see most of seoul, but on a super clear day you can see pretty far, as far as incheon which is about an hour drive away from seoul. unfortunately, our day was not as clear, but we still got to see pretty far.

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afterwards we went to namdaemoon shijang (north gate market). this market is at the foot of what was one of korea’s OLDEST and most beloved landmarks. the gate had survived many wars, japanese invasion, and the modernization/bastardization of korea’s epicenter. recently a crazy old man, decided to light the gate up in flames, destroying a piece of history and national treasure that sat amidst throngs of cars, and flashing lights as a reminder to all koreans of “where we came from”. korea quickly put together the funds to rebuild the gate and what you see today is a large wall that encircles the entire area. when i saw this from the bus, i felt a tug in my heart that was deep. i guess it would be like the statue of liberty being taken down by a mad man. you’d feel pain but it’d be rather surprising to know how much you were unknowingly attached to it.

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we didn’t take any pictures of the market, but it’s definitely a site to see. apparently it’s best to go at nite when all the business owners are buying stuff to sell at their stores, but i hate the shopping and haggling, so why bother? but we did see this box on our way out:

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i didn’t realize an operating system was synonymous to “home ceramic irons”.

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bulgogi burger, burger king, business, cousin, family, joseph, kimchi, korean culture, koreans, secret garden, seoul

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but this is something definitely new:

it’s a popsicles made with pickle juice. i know that texans do enjoy their pickles in various forms
including, battered and fried, but this seems a little excessive. they tout themselves as the “healthy”
alternative to the sugary goodness of conventional popsicles.

i’d be willing to try this popsicle, but i get the feeling that this might be a texas craze that should stay in
texas.

bobspicklepops [via: seriouseats]

ps: i’ve got to do 8 sessions of physical therapy over 3-4 weeks and i’ll be done with this knee business.
Yipee!

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: kimchi, pickle juice, pickled onions, pickles, popsicle, popsicles, texans

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one of my favorite things in life is kimchi. that’s not surprising since i’m korean. most koreans are i
guess a bit obsessive about their kimchi. in my case, my favorite kimchis are usually variations of
mool-kimchi (water kimchi). Why of all kimchis mool kimchi? because it doesn’t smell as much so you
can take it to work, it’s refreshing when it’s ice cold, and is still got that kick from vinegar and spices!

i know it’s not the traditional cabbage kimchi but for those reasons it’s my favorite. however, i do enjoy
the traditional as often as i can, as do most koreans; especially korean astronauts according to the
NY Times. the korean gov’t spent millions… MILLIONS.. on trying to figure out how to ship kimchi to
space.

i wonder if they’ll sell this in korean supermarkets like they sold tang in the US. we’ll find out in april,
and if they do i’ll bring some back

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: astronauts, cabbage, favorite things, kimchi, koreans, spices, vinegar

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