north korea today

Found this interesting article on North Korea and how the government is slowly weakening through a flourishing private commerce. Apparently, Kim Jong Il tried to reevaluate the currency and he was met with many, many angry people. Read for yourself.

my level of italian after a year

Si sembra che molte persone vogliono abitare in una casa grande con molta terra e lontana dalle città affollate e rumorose. Ciò nonostante, l'alloggio del mio sogno curiosamente starebbe in una città come New York o Tokio. Sicuramente, alcuni amici insisteranno che mi abiti fuori a città perché è più logico e non mi costa molti soldi. "Abitare in città è più costosa di fuori a città!" loro diranno. "Puoi avere più terra e una casa più grande per lo stesso prezzo!" Ma gli dico no. Forse, perché io sono cresciuto in città, non penso che posso abitara in campagna o in un paesino.

a surprise

It was pouring yesterday. It did feel good to be indoors but it was deathly cold in the apartment. I couldn't sit still for more than an hour. I had to study for a Chinese final but I was distracted by how cold it was! To keep moving and warm, I tried doing laundry. It turned out that laundry made me even colder and distracted. I had to walk over the next building to do it, got wet in the process, and lost ONE sock. (This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that every time I do laundry, I lose ONE sock!) The only redeeming factor was that I got a free car wash. For that, I am truly grateful.

As I shook and shivered, and tried to get my mind off the cold, somebody began knocking at the door. Who could that be in this awfully wet and cold weather I thought and immediately sprinted to the door. It was a surprise package! I looked at the return address to see who had sent it and it was from Chie... in JAPAN! (Every time I get boxes from people from foreign countries, it really makes me happy. There's some thing more special about it than 'normal American' packages)

I open it up and it's a little package of goodies and a book. It's a book called "Kitchen" and Chie says it was her favorite book when she was thirteen years old. I hope my Japanese level is at least at a junior high level because it would be embarrassing to tell her that the book is too difficult to read.

Well, after the big surprise, the rain stopped and I saw the most ginormous rainbow I had seen in my life! My balcony is littered with really ugly contraptions but the rainbow definitely out shines the ugliness.

i love maps

I thought this map was pretty cool. (But also very nerdy)

A map showing how crazy our country is for baseball

Map says it all.

A map showing GDP differences in the world. Apparently, America, Europe, and Eastern Asia is fattened up and living in excess. Mexico seems to be a good balance...

Cool design.

Just a funny map of europe.

east asian economic bloc

I am sure most people in America do not really know or care for that matter, but this year is the first year that the combined GDPs of China, Japan, South Korea, and the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) equaled to about 12.67 trillion dollars or 21.1 percent of the world's GDP. This is significant because by next year, East Asia's economic bloc will surpass that of the Euro bloc. By 2014, it is set to equal that of the US.

While the economies of the West continue to decline, Asia's continues to grow, mostly of course through its interaction with China. There is much talk these days about integrating their economies - much like what has happened in Europe. Even Japan, with its newly elected liberal government, is courting South Korea and China and resuming stalled talks on Free Trade Agreements and historical issues that were left more or less unresolved. They are also trying to rebuild their military so that they will not have to rely on the US. South Korea has just landed a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, yet another possible strategy to lessen American influence. (Although the FTA with America is still pending. Where that goes, who knows...) Naturally, this makes the US uneasy as two of their allies are now trying to break away American influence and assert themselves more.

Will China be able to claim once again, their position as the biggest economy in the world? I personally hope not.

a smile

I said goodbye to my teacher and was glad Friday was over! I made my way to the bus stop listening to my ipod in my own musically enchanted world. As I got on the bus, I headed for the back - my usual routine. As the bus driver made his way from stop to stop, I noticed a young lady running with a bag and groceries in both her arms from the other side of the street signaling him to wait! (I hate to admit it but I do people-watch from the back and find it quite entertaining.) I immediately thought whether or not he would ignore it or make her day by waiting. He waited! She had the largest smile on her face and it radiated to every corner of the bus. I felt it. It made me smile. She seemed to be a happy person. She stood near the front and took out an article to read.

The bus driver continued and three young kids entered the bus - one girl and two boys. They were most likely just out of high school because it was only one in the afternoon and most kids who ditch school would not dare taking the bus during that time. They also had never taken the bus it seemed. They talked to the bus driver and although I could not hear anything, it turned out they did not have enough money. Looking around, they gently asked the young lady with the big smile if she could lend some money. She looked eager to help. She went into her bag and gave them some money with, of course, a big smile on her face. And from the movement of one of the kid's lips, I could clearly make out that she had said, "thank you very much!" An older man sitting near the young lady began a conversation with her and both laughed and had a good time.

This definitely made my day today. How one smile can affect multiple people's lives in a matter of minutes! I wanted to laugh out with joy because it was a simple, yet beautiful gesture.

switzerland!

Switzerland was the most memorable part of my trip. Maybe because my expectations were not as high as Portugal or Spain. Or maybe because my friend Iwan and his family were so hospitable. I don't think I can explain it concretely but it left a wonderfully deep impression.

Before I left for Europe, I bought a ticket to Basel at the last minute so I could go and hang out with Iwan. Basel however, happened to be an hour and a half away from where Iwan lived. But Iwan, being the good guy he is, came all the way up and greeted me at the airport! We spent the next day just hanging around Busswil, Biel, and Bern. (Which all happen to be great cities or towns or villages, or whatever you want to call them.) The most memorable thing was riding bikes with Iwan through the side streets and farms, along rivers and lakes, and into downtown Biel while just chatting about random things, about life, about hopes. It felt very freeing, calm, and all my worries in life were insignificant compared to the grandeur of the mountains and lakes. I decided that I would go back next summer...

Beautiful Bern

Iwan's hood!

portugal

Porto, Portugal was my first destination. Downtown Porto is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means that it is an old, really rad part of town. I went to see my old roommate Hugo and of course he was extremely hospitable. I'm glad to be his friend. We saw sites, drank lots of wine, hung out with Hugo's friends until the wee hours of the morning, and ate a lot of good Portuguese food. I am now quite surprised that Portuguese food is not popular in the states because it would do so well! My favorites were Arroz de Marisco and Francesinhas. Arroz de Marisco is similar to the paella but in stew form and significantly better in taste. Francesinhas are sandwiches with steak, ham, and cheese. Melted cheese is poured over the sandwich and topped with an egg. Lastly, a beer-tomato sauce is poured over the entire food-structure (at this point it's about a good 6 inches thick!) and eaten with french fries. It packed with tons of calories I'm sure, but it's so good.

A few initial observations of Portugal: 1) the Portuguese speak really good English! (In relation to Spain, France, and Italy, the other Romance language speaking countries) I had no problem communicating with any of the young people I met. 2) They are a little smaller than other Europeans. They also eat a lot of fish and live longer than other Europeans. I have a hunch that maybe it's the fish.... 3) Tan is the IN thing. If you are not tanned, you are not cool. I guess I'm not cool then. 4) Don't wear white socks. (I found out the hard way.) Only old construction workers wear white socks. 5) Portuguese r's are pronounced like English h's.

These are the boats that used to carry wine from an area upstream down to this area.

The River Duoro that flows between Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia.

Hugo's awesome friends whom I befriended.

spain

Back in March of 2009, my soon to be friend Hugo contacted me through couchsurfing and asked if he would be able to stay a couple of days. He was coming to Los Angeles for ten weeks to take an English class. Instead of crashing for a few days however, he became my roommate for four months! He left for Portugal, his home, in June and we communicated through email and facebook occasionally after that. One afternoon in July, Hugo skyped me and had me check some flights to Europe. I had thrown around the idea of going to Europe, but I didn't really think I would go anytime soon. As I searched, I found a flight to Madrid for 560 dollars and I booked it immediately. Talk about an impulse buyer. I was off to Europe.

My first destination was Portugal. Afterwards, I flew to Switzerland and then to Madrid. Now in Madrid, I have a friend who I have known for a little over two years now. While living in Korea, Jorge found me through a language exchange site and we communicated through skype. I taught him English and he taught me Spanish. We became pretty good friends through it.

The idea came into mind that since I was flying into Madrid, I should meet up with Jorge. And that's exactly what happened! The funniest thing is that Jorge has a really unique voice and a really thick accent over his English. So, at the airport, even though I had no idea what he looked like, I was able to recognize him immediately once he opened his mouth.

This is the Palace of Communication. It pretty much dominates this main intersection.

The Plaza Mayor. A beautiful little square where people (mostly tourists) hang out. Jorge told me things are double the price here.

Parco de Retiro, an enormous park with many grand buildings and sculpture. This one commemorates some ruler in the past.

This is Jorge, his wife Raquel, and I in their living room. They have such an awesome pad in a town thirty minutes south of Madrid. They were so warm and welcoming.

filial piety, love, and tragedy

I had written about Suwon in one of my previous posts and briefly talked about the history and ideas that went behind the construction of the city. This week however, I was able to read about it in more detail and was consumed and moved by the story of a king's love for his father and the subsequent tragedies that shook the palace and its people.

King Jeongjo (1724-1776) was a strong ruler. It is said that the dynasty flourished and prospered under his command. Unfortunately, he was also a strict and seemingly 'uncaring' father who instilled great fear and paranoia in his son, Sado. Prince Sado felt he could not live up to the standards of his father and eventually believed his father would kill him. He began to hate washing himself, which led to himatiophoia (the fear of clothes) and hallucinations. He also began digging holes to store weapons as a precaution to any assassination attempt. This paranoia eventually led to erratic murders of eunuchs and maidens in the palace. Throughout all this, his wife Lady Hyegyeong documented in her journal the mental illness that had befallen her husband. Their son (who would become the next ruler), Yeongjo, also saw how this illness had taken of a hold of his father. In the end, King Jeongjo ordered the death of his son for treason (which during this period usually meant suicide). After a few failed attempts however, Sado was forced into a rice chest where in eight days, he died of starvation.

Nine years later, King Yeongjo took the throne and with the thought of retribution, began to order the deaths of all who were involved in the death of his father. This led to the death of many officials, including his grandfather, Lady Hyegyeong's father. He then collected the finest architects and city planners and began the construction of Suwon (Hwaseong as it was known then). He moved his father's remains to the city and gave his father a proper burial that a king deserved. It is said that he loved his father dearly. Visiting the mausoleum had become one of his major preoccupations.

"Returning from the tomb, how many times I halted my carriage to look back in its direction and think of him."

The saddest part about this story is Lady Hyegyeong's loss and her helplessness throughout it all. She saw her own husband's mind deteriorate and his eventual inhumane execution. Soon after, her father and much of the people in her family were murdered at the orders of her own son. The deep pain and suffering that she went through must have been excruciating for her. In her journal, Lady Hyegyeong writes that it was the father who was the cause of his son's mental illness and it was he who murdered his own son for the very illness that he caused. Such irony and tragedy.

One interesting side note is that the palace-fortress-mausoleum in Suwon is quite different from all other memorial sites because it was actually inhabited by REAL people. The great pyramids in Egypt, the vast tombs of China, and other note-worthy memorial sites were only recreations of a world. Paintings, sculptures, buildings were made but not lived in by real people. This makes Suwon all the more important and fascinating.

towards economic integration

Busan, South Korea and Fukuoka, Japan have decided to create an economic zone that will become, hopefully, the seventh largest economic hub in Northeast Asia. For those of you that don't know how close these cities are, a speed boat will get you across the strait in less than three hours. I've done it once but I got real seasick on the way back to Busan. Going to Fukuoka was fine though...

This would be the first step towards full economic integration of Korea and Japan. (Or at least they would hope.) The democratic party of Japan winning a majority seat in parliament just recently could, however, make this a reality. The beginnings of an East Asian Union?

couchsurfing

Back in Korea, while on a trip to Mount Songni with a couple of my friends, we happened upon a German who had studied abroad a year in Mexico and was slowly making his way back home. He mentioned that he was couchsurfing and immediately it sparked my interest.

Now a year later, back home in Los Angeles, I've hosted about fifteen people (mostly from Europe) and some of them have become very good friends. When I tell most people that I do this, they initially gasp for air and seem ready to brand me as being insane. Quickly, I must explain the nature of the exchange and redeem myself. I inform them that one does not need to accept everyone that they come into contact with. They are free to go through their profile and reviews. Then I tell them stories of some awesome experiences and that will usually calm them down.

Remco and Abel from the Netherlands and I. They had been traveling for six months, mostly in South East Asia. Los Angeles was their last stop before heading back home. One of my favorite guests that I have hosted.

Iwan from Switzerland and I. Probably my favorite guest. I promised to come visit him in Switzerland in the near future.

pictures from nashville

after a game of disc golf

birdhollow bridge

どう見ても山の色は緑なのに、なぜ『青い山脈』

山脈や葉、信号など、緑色だと分かっているのだが、現実に日本人は青い色だとよく言われる。英語で言うブルーより、「青い」という言葉の意味は日本語でもっと広くなり、色の濃さや印象を表せるように使うのである。緑という言葉は本来の四色ではなく、青は日本語に昔から中心できて、発達されてきた。

my italian mini-essay: when i was young

Quando ero piccolo, sentivo sempre da mia madre, “Non giocare più con i videogiochi!” “Dov’eri?!” o “Fa’ il tuo compito!” Mi piaceva giocare molto da ragazzo. Il mio amico Craig, mio fratello Mike ed io giocavamo sempre – prima e dopo la scuola, qualche volte in classe, e la fine settimana. Ci divertivamo molto insieme.

Sicuramente, tutti i ragazzi vogliono sempre giocare. Ma i miei genitori volevo che io studiavo come un bravo ragazzo. Quando il mio amico Craig veniva a casa mia, che erano tutti i giorni, giocavamo con i videogiochi o fuori con i bambini del quartiere. Preferivo giocare con i videogiochi Megaman, Castlevania, Super Mario e Zelda sul Nintendo. A volte, dopo cinque, sei ore di Nintendo, il mio amico volevo giocare fuori. Ma lui volevo sempre fare le cose cattive come giocare con il fuoco.

Una volta, giocavamo con il fuoco nella casa mia e l’abbiamo quasi bruciata. Quando uno è giovane, è anche molto stupido. Mio padre era molto, molto arrabbiato! Abbiamo bruciato il sofà e il tappeto. Ho promesso di non giocare mai con il fuoco e Craig non veniva alla mia casa per circa un mese perché aveva paura di mio padre. Durante questo periodo quando lui non veniva alla mia casa, i miei genitori dicevano che la nostra casa era molto tranquilla e non si preoccupavano più. Purtroppo per loro, dopo un mese, Craig è tornato e abbiamo cominciato a giocare con il fuoco di nuovo. I ragazzi non imparare nulla!

what we owe the aztecs

Tonight my friends and I were dipping bananas in chocolate for dessert and I started thinking about where the word for chocolate came from. So, I did some quick research and found out that our word for chocolate originally comes from the Nahuatl language. For those of you that don't know, Nahuatl was spoken by the Aztecs in Mexico. It was called xocolatl and that was borrowed into the Spanish language and then subsequently ours. I find it quite amazing that certain words from obscure languages can have such an impact in all the languages of the world. 

Other words I found that were derived from Nahuatl were tomato, coyote, chili and avocato. They were called tomatl, coyotl, chilli, and ahuacatl respectively. 

sea salt coffee

Kinda sounds strange but in Taiwan, sea salt coffee are all the rage right now. Apparently, its not the entire coffee but the foam which is suppose to be salty. 

in the month of december...

* According to one study, tangerines help reduce fat.

* In another study, yawning is said to be caused by our heads overheating. Makes you wonder if you ever yawned in the cold...

* Germany sues Italy for compensating victims of Nazi hate crimes.

* Brazil and France sign an arms deal worth 12 billion dollars which will allow Brazil to modernize its military equipment.

* Korea aims to set Christmas Carol World Record with 30,000 carolers!

* Japan and Vietnam have signed a free trade agreement.

* China bans 'The Dark Knight' citing 'cultural sensitivity' while they aim to build the biggest Santa ever.

* And the Somali pirates give the rest of the world a hard time.

shotoku

For the past two weeks, I've been writing my final essay for my grad class and I think I've finally got it to where its decent. I'm not all that happy with it but I want to turn it in asap because I've been at this topic for a whole 12 weeks! I'm so tired of rereading this book (I've done it five times now) and rewriting every sentence in my essay. Sadly, it makes me wonder if I can actually continue on to a phD knowing that just 12 weeks will drain all the fun out of a topic I initially enjoyed. Oh the joys of graduate school. 

We were assigned a book and we had to pretty much give a class lecture on it and turn in a book review/essay (the longest book review ever I would add) at the end. I chose to read a book by Michael Como called Shotoku. It pretty much deals with the origins of the Japanese (with at least those in power), nationalism and how it pretty much destroys everything nice about history, and most importantly, a historical/mythological man by the name of Shotoku Taishi. He is pretty much like our founding fathers except he did it all by himself and most of what he did according to Como was fabricated. A book like this would never be written in Japan and if it did, it would not definitely not be a best-seller. A fun read nonetheless for those who can get beyond nationalistic tendencies. 

winter time

I've been back in L.A. for about 12 weeks now and I honestly forgot that I once had a blog...

A recap of my 12 weeks back in America:

1) Got a free one-week layover in Japan on my Seoul-Los Angeles flight. Got to see my friend Wataru, visited Osaka, Kyoto, and Uji on my own, and met a kind lady in Nara who gave me a full on tour for free. That weekend, I met my friends Brian, Jen, and Angela in Tokyo and went to Nikko. Wataru took us to Tsukiji Sushi house and I had the best sushi of my life there. 

kinkakuji in kyoto

bustling downtown osaka at night

2) Went to Joshua tree with Kaleo the weekend I got back. It was so awesome and refreshing to be a part of the fellowship again. 

3) Started grad school the week after that. My classes included Chinese 1, Japanese Linguistics, and an art history/archaeology class on early Japanese temples. The quarter is now officially over but I'm still writing a paper for the Japanese art/archaeology class. We, as a class, asked our professor about the prompt and he replied, "Do your best!" 

4) For next quarter, I will be taking Chinese 2, Italian 1, Readings in Japanese, and a grad class on ancient city planning in East Asia. And yea, I know Italian seems a little out of place. 

5) I'm kind of on winter break. No classes to go to but my professor for my grad class assigned us nine books and a research project to start on all before his class starts in January. I don't mind reading but when each book is over 600 pages, it is a little overwhelming. As of now, I've read 5 chapters of a book on city walls and started another on the history of China. It's gonna be a looong three weeks.