Just a poor, lost soul in a huge fishbowl...

Today I had one of those encounters on the subway which is unique to someone with a foreign appearance in an Asian country.

(Sitting on the subway, a young lad in one of those uniforms that the army boys serving in the police/fire department wear approaches me)

Boy: Excuse me, do I know you?
Me: I don't think so... (then again who knows what nightclub I might have seen him at)
Boy: Oh! You look like this girl from Finland that I know!

(20 minutes later)

Boy: I want to be with you
Me: Oh that's nice. Is that why you're missing your stop?
Boy: Oh, yes, that's on purpose. .. I want to touch your mind. (I believe this to be a translation of 마음에 들어, which is not creepy in Korean, like it is when you translate it into English)
Me: Um, you can just chat with me in Korean.
Boy: When I first saw your eye--
Me: At first sight?
Boy: I think the phrase is, "You swept me off my leg"
Me: feet...I swept you off your feet. That's cute. This is my stop!
Boy: I want to hide from the cold, and buy you coffee
Me: Too bad I don't have time right now (really - i was going to work)
Boy: I promise I'm not a playboy.

We parted at the little paying turnstalls at the subway station and he sent me a text message later that he wants to see me again.

North Korea warned it would turn South Korea into "debris" and break off all relations if Seoul does not halt "confrontational" activities against the communist country.

"The puppet authorities had better remember that the advanced pre-emptive strike of our own style will reduce everything opposed to the nation and reunification to debris, not just setting them on fire," the North's military said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Not just set on fire. That would be getting let off too easy for such an offense. Getting set on fire, that's like for forgetting to polish Kim Jong Il's picture frame in your house.

I love living in potential debris.

so, drunk. just talked with my bank in america. yay! i don't have to leave the country in order to switch my visa status and can just collect a couple of documents to prove i'm actually a student.

tonight was sooo bizarre. First, my friend and I were wined and dined by some random korean pro golfer and his other old friends and then we ditched them at harlem club and went to nb, and i'm too lazy to rewrite what happened, so here's a cut and paste:

Vickie says:
hahahaha, i just remembered how ridiculous tonight was
Josh says:
just how ridiculous was tonight?
Josh says:
score some handsome korean booty?
Vickie says:
i got in an argument with the coat check guy, cuz my friend was totally drunk and gave our coat check tag in, but i wanted to stay with the cute korean boy, and the coat check guy was like, i need another 2 bucks, and i was like NO. and because the other coat check guy was chinese, i started cussing the guy out in chinese, and the other coat check guy was just laughing his ass off, while the korean coat check guy was like - speak korean, ur in korea
Vickie says:
and i kept just saying fuck you you stupid cunt in chinese, lol
Josh says:
what?!
Josh says:
haha
Josh says:
lol
Josh says:
I wish I could have seen this
Josh says:
and seriously videotaped it
Josh says:
it could be a youtube classic

It's been silent here for waaay too long. I'm sorry about that.

So much to say right now. Living in Seoul, loving the city, loving the people (especially the 꽃미남 ~ pretty boys, hehe), and loving my live studying Korean at Yonsei University and working a couple of part time jobs.

My favorite moment today: riding the crowded subway during rush hour and looking up at just the right moment to see the Han river lit up beautifully by the nighttime lights of Seoul.

Today I was passing out quarter cards on Ho Plaza in order to get my service hours for APO. Basically, I was attempting to inform the populace that a kid dies in Africa every 30 seconds of Malaria, and they could go to a concert tomorrow and make a donation to save people.

My findings: people are dicks.

When people would say things like, "Not today", I was really fighting the urge to tell them, "I hope you die of malaria too, Ivy league douchebag."

I think the worst I did was when one kid was eating his bagel and looking at me like, "puleaaaaase" I said something to the effect of, "Okay, yeah, keep eating your bagel while people are dying".

Overall, a day of great restraint.

Oh! And I looked down at the center of Ho plaza and realized it was probably donated by a bunch of rich Hong Kong donors, based on the names. Is there even a last name "Ho" in English?

astro prelim wednesday? Gah.
game theory prelim thursday? DOOM.

freak out.

so much korean vocab to memorize too.

excuse me while i pass out.

Lately I feel that the job search is never ending. Alas, there is no perfect job out there and I am doomed to spend my days at my computer, dropping my resume and sorting through posts that either make me feel inferior as a would-be economist or beat me over the head to remind me that I should have been an English major.

It's just so frustrating -- trying to find the right job is like trying to build a boat out of lead. I'm just going to end up in the briny deep, accepting crap-pay and scrubbing barnacles off the deck.

I've got an interview with Deloitte this coming Wednesday; however, it's doing transfer pricing and I've heard tell-tale how horribly, mind-numbingly boring that can become. I suppose it all depends on if I like the team I'd be working with. I should interview with an open mind.

If I could just find an organization to work with in China or South Korea so that I'd make enough money to take language classes part of my time, I'd very much enjoy that. I just want to continue my life as a student. It's highly unfortunate that the deadline for the state department's scholarship for critical language study was in January this year.

It's a shame, so much happens and i just don't bother to record it.

Today I've got two interviews. One with bloomberg and one with msci barra. We'll see how that goes.

Boys are retarded. i'll expand on that later.

( some random chinese stuff just cuz i don't really store this stuff anywhere )

i went to an indian party tonight.

i didn't know there were so many indians at cornell.

it was crazy

i'm so drunk.

i bought marshmellows and honeycombs and froyo and chocolate. it's awesome


whya re there no hot guys who aren't assholes at cornell?

*ponders*

I love my old language buddies from back in China, they give me great explanations when I ask them about words I encounter. For instance, I'm watching this popular tv drama 《奋斗》, which is based in Beijing and is all about the lives of recent college grads. I came into some interesting vocab last night while watching it.

So, I asked my friend Carrie about the term 猴急~ hou4ji2 ~ literally translated "monkey-hurry". What could this monkey-hurry be?

Carrie enlightened me:
"bf and gf reunited after they have been apart for a long time. only 5 minutes after they met, the boy started trying to taking the girl bra off which indicated he wanted to have sex asap. then the girl said,"看你这猴急样~"
And Alex clarified further:
就是因为非常着急而乱发脾气或做过分的事情 就是像猴子一样 不管后果 呵呵

So, do ur best to use it in everyday speech, kids!


I also ran into an interesting term: 傍款族 bang4kuan3zu2
What could this be? I knew 族 to be a type of people since, there's all sorts of funny sayings out there like the one for people who live paycheck to paycheck and spend what they don't have, like 月光族, but I couldn't figure this one out.

So Carrie informed me:
有一个词叫＂傍大款＂，指having a sugar mama/papa
傍——依傍，depend on, account on

So I guess the term is sugarbabies =p

Today I made 떡뽁기 !

I know, I know, I have forever said to Korean people, "Wow! You make 떡뽁기? HOW? You're so talented/gifted/marvelous/somewhat like a god" and then they would reply "um, yeah, it's easy". But, today i finally did it! And yeah, it was kind of easy, but i feel accomplished, so there! I then helped my mom to make some Chinese style eggplant and greens and such. It was kind of really fun. I would cook if other people would prepare ingredients for me and clean up everything for me. I really would.

I'm still happy about my spicy rice cakes ^^

After dinner I went to kumdo and got a lot of sparring action in! I sparred a bit with Master Im and he fixed my hurri. The main problem I had was moving my whole body instead of just my back leg in order to position myself to strike and retreat.

It kind of angers me though because i like the japanese way of doing the practice drills better. This is purely because I'm familiar with it and the korean way seems like it's just doing it wrong, passing by on the wrong side, hitting one too many times during yungyup. Oh well...

After kumdo we headed to master Im's bar/restaurant where I hung out with the kumdo crowd, learned that a Mexican is the world champ of pacman and was called to the kitchen to meet Master Im's wife and be explained the differences between Chinese, Japanese and Korean architecture as well as a broad overview of Korean-Japanese relations.

Master Im: You study Chinese and Korean, so you probably don't like Japan and think the Japanese are bad.
Me: Well, no, but kind of yeah.
Master Im: I'm Korean and you think I shouldn't like Japanese, but I do because you know why? They're Korean.

So yes, I then had a very intriguing half hour lecture on the intricacies of why Japanese were Koreans and why Japanese thought Koreans should be Japanese but they're clearly Koreans and so are the Japanese. All this going back to the Three Kingdoms in Korea and the Tang dynasty and woah, there was lots of ink on that pad of paper.

You know what I hate? When you know someone likes you, because you can just tell when someone does, but you don't reciprocate said liking and so you feel kind of awkward and guilty.

Actually, remind me to write about my guilt complex later, it really came to the fore in my last 24 hours in Beijing.

As for the books I'm reading/have read.

I absolutely LOVED Lost Horizon. I finished it and wanted to pack up a bag, head to the Kunlun mountain range and search for the real Shangrila, not some stupidass Zhongdian renamed Xianggelila. Not gonna cut it.
That was one of those books that I really didn't want to leave the characters and was hoping to just read on.

I then read The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux, which was three stories about travelers/business men in India and how India changed/ruined them. It was very moving due to Theroux's story-telling ability and I enjoyed the read, though I don't know how accurate of a portrayal of India it was. Although Theroux does point out "reality has many facets", I would like someone's opinion on the book who has been to India.

I'm now reading Peony in Love by Lisa See, whose book Snow Flower and the Secret Fan I read the other year and was really touched by the story and intellectually stimulated by the topic, women in dynastic china. I loved the way See brought to life the women's script 女书 that was used secretly by them to communicate through weaving the simplified characters into cloth and I found her story of friendship betrayed, lost and found to be moving as well.

If anyone has book suggestions, I'm up for them. After all, Master Im asked the room "Who wants to practice tomorrow night?" and I raised my hand. He then he asked who would like to Saturday night and I raised my hand again. At this point I was slightly embarrassed and could only joke, "yeah, I'm a loser with no friends. Ooops"

Just chilling in Narita airport right now. Tokyo is cool. I mean, I haven't been outside the international terminal, but I'm sitting next to a sushi window and I have internet access, so what more do I need out of life?

btw, oooh asian men and their little cartoon character cellphone charms... I don't really get it. I'm not going to dwell on it.

So, I heard this song at two separate clubs last night and, absolutely loving the beat, I've scoured the internet for it for the past hour or so. I finally found it, no thanks to billboard or online forums or itunes countdown lists.

Dear HK boys at the bar,
As soon as you admit you can't dance, you're not cool. Sorry.
<3 Me


I started reading Den of Thieves, which is about all the insider trading on Wall Street in the 1980s. Now i'm wondering which one of my friends on the street isn't the most morally upstanding? Haha, if it weren't for that pesky SEC.

Now I need to go for a run because I like eating cookies and drinking Chivas.

So, I read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and although I wasn't surprised by much of it, seeing as how I already viewed America as attempting global empire and as evil as any nation must be to become a hegemon, I also had never suspected such a relationship between international banks, governments and corporations. For those who haven't read it, it's basically the tale of a man who used to work for the consulting firm MAIN and through his position as an economist there would travel to third world countries and make economic forcasts that were way overinflated so as to justify gigantic loans from banks liiiike the world bank and all those development banks. Those funds would then be funneled to the US through the hiring of american engineering and construction firms, who then also had all the rights to update and repair the sites. Meanwhile, the third world countries are struggling to pay the interest on the loans, don't even mention the principal, and the developed nations and oil interests and whatnot can then call in their "pound of flesh" as the author is so fond of saying, for political favors when the time comes. The author basically describes the variations of this formula throughout the world since the modern financial system was set up after world war two and goes into how leaders are bribed with the huge profits that a handful of families will gain in their countries. Failing at that, the CIA is sent in a la all those assassinations of latin american leaders, and as a last resort we see recurrences of the old form of empire in invasions like Iraq and the bombing of Panama.

So, yeah, America's evil and corporations and oil interests run the government and control the media. Not news at all, but it's interesting reading some of the economic details. Very crafty, indeed.

I should probably take some developmental economics courses or something. If there's not too much math. I am avoiding all econ that smacks of math for my last two economics courses that I need to take. Hello economic history courses. I hope I haven't taken you all already.

I still need to think of what to write my CAPS thesis on.

Hehe, I love how my last post was about how boys are assholes. Well, this one is about how cute boys are! Today I had a marvelously superfabulous date that made me happy happy squee squee even though my feet are going to fall off because we walked all over Chicago. I met a cute Korean boy at Buzz on Friday when Megan and I went out clubbing, and he got my number and we made plans to go out today. So, we went to navy pier, rode on the ferris wheel, and walked around Chicago ridiculous amounts, catching a concert at Millennium Park and seeing the Memorial Day fireworks. In the end, I missed the train I wanted to take, so we hung around, took ridiculously FOBy pictures with our cellphones and made plans to do a bajillion other things =) Haha, he's so cute too when he struggles so hard to think of the English word he wants to say. I just sit back and laugh because that was me with Chinese last summer.

Mmm, I hope my daddy grills me a portabello burger tomorrow for memorial day!

Guys are assholes.

Tomorrow is slope day. Both T.I. and Journey are coming to play in concert for all of us drunken Cornellians, who will surely be stumbling all over the slope and far too inebriated to realize how horrible the sets are and how they're cut short, hehe.

Tonight I'm going out with Chava as soon as she gets back to her room and changes. It's exciting because not only have I not seen her for awhile, but I need to buy her a birthday drink! ^^

Tomorrow I think I'm beginning my day with kamikaze shots...

In other news, if Chen Laoshi doesn't mark down my grade, Wu Laoshi has said he's recommending an A for me for the class and I will be so happy to at least have 4 credits of an A. I think I might have 6 of an A- for Korean. At least, that is to say, if I bust my butt for the final I will. However, there's a lot of financial accounting, macroecon and world economic history i never learned that's scaring me.

Summer plans are still uncertain as of this moment. AHHH!

Oh well, I can honestly say I've thoroughly enjoyed and am still thoroughly enjoying my second semester of junior year ^_^

I have caught the plague and I'm going to die very soon a nasty cold.

I feeeeel soooooo laaaaaaathaaaaaaaaargiiiiiiic.

No more alcohol or kissing random boys.

*sigh*

Okay ~~ I think I need to swear off boys until I'm going to be in a single location for longer than a few weeks.

GAH TIMING!


p.s. this weekend was AMAZING

Well, my 21st b-day party was AMAZING! So much fun! I gotta thank Ray and his apartment mates for holding it. Not only did I teach a lot of people how to play that awesome-fun chinese dice game, but I also got to drink my favorite green tea and chivas mix while jumping around to my favorite hip hop songs and Irish drinking songs (while doing the one irish step dance i know). I don't think I've ever been so drunk, and I did confess a liking to my korean tutor to which he responded, "vickie...you're really drunk..." and I was like "oooookay" and continued dancing with aki =p Then, coming back from the bars, I ran into the boy I met last week that I might be becoming borderline obsessed with =p fuuuuun night!

This Thursday I'm going to NYC to visit Blackrock and Lehman Brothers with the investment club. That should be fun ^_^