Great band

Avett Brothers, one of the best bands I've heard, its great!

Here are lyrics to their song Ballad between love and hate:

I think its genius

Love writes a letter and sends it to hate.
My vacations ending. I'm coming home late.
The weather was fine and the ocean was great
and I can't wait to see you again.

Hate reads the letter and throws it away.
"No one here cares if you go or you stay.
I barely even noticed that you were away.
I'll see you or I won't, whatever."

Love sings a song as she sails through the sky.
The water looks bluer through her pretty eyes.
And everyone knows it whenever she flies,
and also when she comes down.

Hate keeps his head up and walks through the street.
Every stranger and drifter he greets.
And shakes hands with every loner he meets
with a serious look on his face.

Love arrives safely with suitcase in tow.
Carrying with her the good things we know.
A reason to live and a reason to grow.
To trust. To hope. To care.

Hate sits alone on the hood of his car.
Without much regard to the moon or the stars.
Lazily killing the last of a jar
of the strongest stuff you can drink.

Love takes a taxi, a young man drives.
As soon as he sees her, hope fills his eyes.
But tears follow after, at the end of the ride,
cause he might never see her again.

Hate gets home lucky to still be alive.
He screams o'er the sidewalk and into the drive.
The clock in the kitchen says 2:55,
And the clock in the kitchen is slow.

Love has been waiting, patient and kind.
Just wanting a phone call or some kind of sign,
That the one that she cares for, who's out of his mind,
Will make it back safe to her arms.

Hate stumbles forward and leans in the door.
Weary head hung, eyes to the floor.
He says "Love, I'm sorry", and she says, "What for?
I'm your and that's it, Whatever.
I should not have been gone for so long.
I'm your's and that's it, forever."

You're mine and that's it, forever.

Dreams

So, I had a really odd dream last night. I think it's appropriate to write it down.

I dreamt i came back to novi, my beach house, after a long time being away, I went down to my grandmas apartment and saw two beds made up on the couches in the living room. It was just like the old days, but with the new couches instead of the old beat up one. I was relaxed feeling great.

I'm standing there looking at the beds when i see a shadow pass by me, I look over and it's my grandma, probably 10 years younger, black hair and wearing a dress we bought her a long time ago. I look at her confused and say "baka what are you doing here?" (she was put into a nursing home a year ago)

She looks at me, and i have all this built up emotion and happiness to see her how she was. I hug her and start crying profusely, the best cry i've had in awhile, just hugging and crying. She keeps telling me, "where would i go? i will always be here, forever, until you re old and gray" and i just keep crying and crying, from happiness, relief, sadness, I don't know. It was one of those really good cries the ones you feel really good about after you stop.

I eventually stop crying and let her go, I look onto the porch and I see my mom, same as she is now, sitting on the terrace with my grandpa, talking with him (my grandpa died almost 2 years ago). My grandpa, also about 10 years younger, looks great, and is talking with my mom just the way he used to, it makes me immensely happy.

I look over into the kitchen and my sister, barbara, is doing something, cooking maybe, and looks at me, and says "I know, when I saw her I wanted to burst into tears to."

...and then I woke up...in a way I was at peace.

It's been awhile...

So, I decided to write something since it's been awhile.

I was slightly in the dumps for the past two weeks, no real reason just depression. I really do like Seoul it's just difficult to get into the groove of things.

I did manage to explore Itaewon this weekend, the foreign district.

I met my friend Eby at Rocky Mountain Tavern, which is a place run by four canadian guys, and is a great place to just chill and drink the day away.

I stayed with her there and her friend Brandon who was awesome, and we watched College football, which is something I rarely do. I like this place because they make bloody cesar's I have yet to get one there, but they are one of my favs.

Around 6pm me and Eby went to the spa/public bath right next to the bar up some very steep steps. It was very interesting, getting naked with friends is quite the experience, I was surprised how unfazed I was about the whole thing, I was more concerned about myself then anyone elses body.

It was great they had a steam room and a sauna. Cool pool, green tea bath, rose bath, etc. Only 5,000 kwon!!! YAY! It was just really relaxing.

After that we went to a Thai restaurant "Buddha's Belly" behind the alleyway of the Hamilton Hotel. I had Thom Ka Gai soup with rice it was amazing, definitely going back.

All in all it was a great day in Itaewon, I don't know why it gets such a bad rep, I don't think there's any validation only that there are a lot of foreigners there and the crime rate is the worst in Seoul, meaning you sometimes have to watch your bag. I think it gets a bad rep from koreans and it bleeds into the foreigners.

GOOD TIMES!

RVA

Everyones got to check this out! my college town finally got some recognition for being cool. In the past richmond was always looked at as a ghetto dirty city filled with homeless crackheads.

While the homeless crackheads are around, there are still a lot less of them! Especially in the fan, a true miracle. The dirty thing should be taken out because Richmond is beautiful, but some people are definitely dirty, and 200 year old houses are pretty crappy as well.

Either way I always held a special place in my heart of this charming little city and I'm glad it finally getting some recognition! GO RVA! One of the artsy places I know, thanks to the one of the best Art Schools in the nation, my school, VCU!

p.s. they really gotta thank VCU for this, they seemed to have saved them! GO VCU!!

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/travel/18hours.html

Sleep

Oh Sleep! Why have you abandoned me?? I'm beginning to feel as though I have insomnia. In Marina world that means I am only get a mere 6 hours of sleep a night rather then my regular 9, but WHAT HAPPENED?? SOO SLEEPY, just want to sleep! come back to me now!! Always exhausted but my mind has been racing a mile a minute, you'd think all those meditation classes would eventually help me. BLAH staring at the ceiling waiting for sleep to come. Too bad I can't lay one my back too long because then I get sleep paralysis. I am getting old, I have regulations on how I must sleep. BOOOOOOOOOOOOO! lame, poop.

Little Prince

"All men have the stars," he answered, "but they are not the same things for different people. For some, who are travelers, the stars are guides. For others they are no more than little lights in the sky. For others, who are scholars, they are problems. For my businessman they were wealth. But all these stars are silent. You--you alone-- will have the stars as no one else has them--"- The Little Prince

I live by this book, I love it, and I think everyone should read it once in their life! Nothing is more touching and innocent then the little prince...I was just thinking about that today, thought I should post it.

YAAAY! Coming HOME!

I am returning to the USA, nations capital, and best city: Washington D.C. I will only be there for a brief period of 9 days, but thats enough for me to relax and be home again! I love everyone there, and miss it a lot so I can't wait to see everyone, and plan an excellent NYE! seeing as NYE is not a popular thing to celebrate in Korea, I think I've made a wise choice ;)

YAAAAY

What time is it Mao?

So I went to China for Chuesok, 5 days in Beijing. We started off by taking a 1 and 1/2 hour metro ride to Incheon airport, but honestly it's one of the nicest airport ever, they had soo many plants!

KIMCHI on the plane!!! in a bag, which I did not eat but I managed to smell it all over my area. Smelly cabbage. For some clarification, Kimchi is fermented cabbage, and koreans eat it religiously, there are also different types of kimchi, like cucumber kimchi, etc.
When arriving to China, I saw a lot of what i concluded was burning trash. I doubt China has the slash and burn farming system. What a sight though, had to snap a shot.
Beijing airport, the sign was more welcoming then the airport attendees were...
Ok, so arriving to China on the day of one of the biggest festivities all year round was not the wisest idea. Our hostel was closed due to the fact that all the hostels/hotels were closed around the Forbidden City, so we got stuck in this POS, New Dragon Hostel. It was crap, the workers there basically told us that as well.
The lanterns were cool though!

So me and sarah ended up eating at least 5 times a day to avoid being stuck at that horrid hostel. Here we are eating boiled peanuts and edamame.
We also got cold kimchi noodle soup which was honestly the highlight of the food that night. boiled peanuts should just never exist.
mmmm mmmm. Along with having this absolutely delicious food, we were also situated out on the street so everyone could see that foreigners were eating there. It was ok, the beer in the dirty mugs was a bit disgusting though, even for me.
A sign in the New Dragon Hostel, usually this stuff is put up for a reason. So, I'm guessing all of these things take place there very frequently.
So, we went to this restaurant and this was the door of the bathroom. There was a squatter toilet right behind it and it was all too see through. Really ridiculous since tables were facing the freakin door!
The next day after re situating ourselves in our actual hostel, Forbidden City Hotel, we walked to the Forbidden City. It was so close, which is quite the statement because everything is not close in Beijing. But an old man took this picture and I was just very impressed!
Forbidden city, thats what pretty much what most of it looked like...

Aside from the big courtyards, the other sides of the forbidden city were huge alleyways. Just like every place in Beijing they were very long and uneventful.
The tree was over 400 year olds and growing out of a dead one.

After the Forbidden City, we exited from the North gate to walk a few blocks (aka 1 km) to get to Beihai park. It was beautiful and colorful, and had the freshest flower arrangements.
Beautiful bridge leading to an interesting temple.
Lotus plants grow out of the water and the leaves were about 5 times the side of your head. Red laterns were every where due to the holidays.
I walked past a water portrait on the sidewalk. The fast was almost completely dried up.
Outside of Beihai Park and starving, I passed a stand that sold fish in keychains. Interesting to say the least. i wanted to buy one, but considered it cruel.
That night we went to the food market that was a half a block away from the house.
They sold everything from starfishes to sea urchins. I do not know how to eat a starfish or why anyone would eat a sea urchin, but it sure looked interesting.
I wasn't really sure what this was. It was some sort of seafood, maybe someone can enlighten me on what it is.

They also sold this tea which was super cloudy yet cold. It came in blueberry, raspberry, and green tea flavor.
The most popular stand at the market was the insect stand. I heard Chinese people actually don't eat the scorpions because I'm guessing they taste like crap. I spared myself from that, but it was disgusting to watch them wriggle on a stick.
The many people checking out the market.
Trying to find some Beijing duck I encountered these lanterns in the middle of a stairwell.
So me and my friend sarah finally arrived at the Great Wall of China at Badaljing, the next day, one of the most restored sections. It was disappointing to find out we had to climb the bitch! I mean, I guess I didn't think about it, but feeling like a zombie on our whole trip did not help the cause.
Here we are ready to get up there, sorry the picture are not order...
It was beautiful, and almost no one was on our side of the wall, which was the easier side, go figure!
The other side of the wall was packed with thousands of people, it was VERRRY steep and VERRRY crowded, we didn't feel like making that big of an effort.

We went to Tiananmen Square that night, that was also only a few blocks away from our house. Thank god we went at night, although it was ridiculously crowded, it was also beautiful lit. Here is the front of Mao's Mausoleum, there must of been over 20,000 people at the square that night.
I had to use the porto potties, and i kid not, these were the stalls. They were squatters, the doors would not lock, and you could basically see anyone who was in there peeing. Luckily for me, there was practically no one, so I went to the farthest corner to relieve myself.
Me and Sarah as Communist Devils. They were selling these horns everywhere, we thought, kill two birds with one stone, and bought them for halloween as well. It was a genius idea, all in all! For only 1 dollar!
The fish at my hostel, probably not that interesting, but look at them, they were just all staring!! it was hilarious.
Lama temple, people giving incense offerings before entering the temple. I had a problem with this as I saw some foreigners giving incense offerings when they apparently were not buddhist. Now my problem is this, is that ACTUAL buddhist are praying to they re certain Buddha or what not, while the foreigner is probably thinking of nothing but how cool it is to pretend to be cultured. As if we weren't exploiting the temple enough, we have to exploit the religion too?
Beautiful alleyways, sarah and I were exhausted as usual!
Temple of heaven. Me and sarah paid 15 Yuan to get into the park, you can pay 40 to go and actually see the inside of the temples. I'm still debating whether its worth to see the inside since everything is over crowded, and temples were all starting to look the same to us.
Near the food market there is also a huge shopping market in an alleyway. Best way to get deals and barter with people, they are begging for a barter, and BARTER WAAAAY LOW! thats my recommendation.
All the crap they sold, half the crap I bought from China broke, kind of surprised, mostly just annoyed.

The sky above the market...
Sarah outside near the market.
On the way home at the airport we stopped at a Thai restaurant and had the best soup EVER! dipping rice into soup has become one of my favorite pass time. I recommend, especially with the milky tom yum goong, still craving it!