"If you believe you are a right person..."

Am I "a right person"? 

A few days ago my mom gave me this job ad she saw in the Korean newspaper... I'm not sure if she fully understands what my master's was in, but bless her heart for still thinking her daughter can do anything  :)

Not only do you need to be an established Korean real estate agent, but they would also love it if you had an MBA or law degree. 

Also, you need to work independently in a team environment... so they "don't" want you to work well with others? 

And what's this about negotiating with landowners and also being "comfortable with your obligations"... sounds like you are being hired to run people off their land so the people of Korea can have more Costco. 

But maybe I could be being overly cynical... anyway, I hope they pick me.  ;-P

two and a half weeks and four pounds later

about two weeks ago I was on vacation, then things were randomly busy the week and a half after that.  Finally sitting down on this fine tuesday evening to run through it.

Saturday 3/12 - Sunday 3/13: 

Bridesmaids Dress for Shelly's Wedding - Check! 

Zombie Cake for Alex's 30th Bday - Check!

Great time with 'old' friends - Check!

Sushi Boat for Dad's Birthday Lunch - Check! 

Then on the road to Palisades Park

Monday 3/14- Wednesday 3/16: 

Welcome to Korea (kind of)... surrounded by cousins, working on my netbook in a little cafe during the day, drinking soju with TLF friend at night... definitely felt like being back in Seoul (instead of New Jersey).  

Found the BEST bread at this bakery across from the Broad Ave H Mart... it's got walnuts and something green  in it and it was addictive.  Munched on that on my drive up to Connecticut on Wed.  

Picked up Sherrie (not pronounced 'Sher -ree'ㅋㅋ) in South Windsor, said hello to her adorable parents, and got back on the road to Vermont.  Kimbap was an excellent decision. 

Thursday 3/17

Happy St. Patty's Day!

First day on the slopes in Vermont (Stratton Resort).  Not the best conditions but absolutely in love with carving down the longest/prettiest slopes I've ever been down.  Beautiful up in VT but they have this weird thing about quilts.  

Already beyond sore on the first day.   

St Patty's celebrations include $7 Steak dinner, UConn game and beers at a pub in Stratton Village.  Of course I am wearing green.  

Friday 3/18- Saturday 3/19

It is so warm on Friday, it is not exaggeration to say that the entire state of Vermont is melting.  get in a few decent runs before everything turns to slush. I'm too sore to board by that point anyway.  

Sherrie and I head back to CT and promptly crawl into bed for an evening nap.  We wake up, have some snacks and a guinness while I introduce her to 'Best in Show'.  Great movie.  Then we watch 'Babies'.  OK, movie, but both agree we love the African baby best.  

Saturday I get to see a bit of Hartford (real Hartford conversation witnessed by me:  "What's up slut?" yells one woman to her friend across the street at the Rent-a-Center, "hey Bitch!" the other girl says in response)... then I head to Foxwoods to meet up with Alisa where we play craps with hilarious (some more than others) old men.  I always forget how smokey casinos are...

Sunday 3/20

End of vacay.  Time for the 7 hour drive home from CT.  Decide to break up the trip by stopping for lunch in Palisades Park (and to buy more of that crack bread!) .... my cousin, her husband and baby take me to a samkyupsal place (mmm pork belly) and we proceed to gorge.  Halfway through the meal the owner of the restaurant offers to hold the baby for us while we eat.  We oblige and next thing we know she is walking out of the restaurant with baby Warren.  Now we are all Korean here so we don't actually think anything of this.  But when she doesn't return after 10 minutes we are all jokingly remarking to one another about how we will have to explain to the police that a lady walked off with our baby and we just kept on eating.  

She came back.  As we suspected, she just went next door to show off this baby that is of no relation to her.  

Monday 3/21

First day back at work.  a little brutal.  Hadn't even been working that long before I took the week off so trying to remind myself of my job function.  Friend convinces me to come over for thai food and wine instead of going to the gym.  I, of course, am convinced.  I have papaya salad for the first time.  I am in love with papaya salad.  

Tuesday 3/22

Professor from Hawaii is in town and wants to have dinner with all the DC area alumni.  7 are able to make it.  The restaurant of choice is a Thai restaurant.  Despite the fact that I ate thai the night before, I still eat an embarrassingly hearty portion.  I also likely sounded way too excited when someone suggested ordering papaya salad.  

Wednesday 3/23

I catch up on 4 hours of tv that I missed in the last week and a half, then fall asleep. This may or may not have occurred in the vicinity of a large bag of doritos. 

Thursday 3/24

Marian and I buy tickets for two upcoming shows at 9:30 club (Kills and Airborne Toxic Event). 

Also, for some reason I get a kick out of the beginning of that Jessie J song 'Price Tag' (I want to say that she sings "ok, Coconut man, moonheads, and 비...  you ready?!")  

Friday 3/25- Sunday 3/27

Met Amir for happy hour in DC.  Had the best fried green tomatoes napoleon! Then we took happy hour party to Baltimore to hang out with Matt and crew.  

Saturday, I sleep off the week, then head to DC to begin Leah's 30th bday weekend extravaganza! But not before a quick stop in at a really well put-together fundraiser for Japan (nice job Pris, Caro and the other 80 million asian organizations that I did not knew existed in DC).  It was a really nice event and they raised a ton of money.  

Change scene.  Tabaq Bistro on U Street.  Leah is surrounded by family and close friends, and everyone is excited to be out and celebrating!  

Sunday is bottomless mimosas and delicious brunch courtesy of momma and poppa Kuppersmith, then non-Kuppersmiths and I continue our day of walking (we think it was 6 miles that day).  I head out to have dinner with my family at Woomi Garden and come to the realization that my stomach has stretched out over the last two weeks.  

Monday 3/28

Birthday continues.  As the actual day has finally arrived, the girls converge upon Old Ebbitt Grill for vino and food to properly ring in Leah's 30th.  I had a variation of surf and turf (roasted oysters wrapped in bacon and a burger).

Tuesday 2/29 

Today was gonna be a gym and veg out night, but I caught last minute wind of two events at SAIS.  So I left work early to go to a talk given by Chung Mong Joon of Hyundai and ROK National Assembly fame (it was not very long or in-depth, and more political - I believe he just announced his candidacy for president).  But the evening session about women leaders in korea-related fields was so fun because one of the speakers was hilarious!  I'm pretty sure I have found my Korean woman leader role model.  

Now I am exhausted... 완전 피곤해~  

Photos:  (Look who stumbled onto an easy photo editing program..... now if only I had more time to play around with it -- and maybe an artistic eye would help too...)

this looks like a tummy ache waiting to happen... it was all delicious

The road to...

one of my favorite pics from Korea.  I love it when the landscape does all the work for you.

If I'm not cut out for blogging

...maybe my life isn't interesting enough for long narrative.  

I like to think it was read-worthy when I was in Hawaii and Korea but now maybe not so much.  But I have a voice (King's Speech!) so I'm dumbing it down to 140 characters... finally breaking down and trying twitter.  

Let's see how it goes!  

I'm off on vacation next week so hopefully the pace will pick up~~~ 

http://twitter.com/lifeaftertlf

Doesn't take much

you know that sound people make when they are surprised by something?  the sound that is normally accompanied by a sharp intake of breath?

well, I made my mom make that sound twice last week for what I thought to be two fairly innocuous things.  The first one was for wearing a little clip in my hair to pin up my new bangs, and the second one was for a cute little leggings/dress outfit.

Okay, I will admit that I wasn't the girliest of girls growing up, but that morning I felt like it was a definite over reaction on her part.  But as the day went on, I was forced to acknowledge that this may have been the first time I have ever put on leggings/tights or any sort of hair accessory other than a hair tie on without needing to be wrestled to the ground and tranquilized first.  tomboy at heart... what can I say.  But I think I'm trying to make up for lost time and squeeze in some of those cute things that I won't be allowed to wear when I'm well into my thirties.  So I'm trying to experiment more with clothes and makeup while I still can.

But just in case, you think I have gone completely over to the girly side, I will say that I did just buy an awesome t-shirt with a graphic of a what appears to be a lumberjack punching a bear on it.  oh yea.

Out of Place

We went to the new Mandu location by 5th and K for my brother's bday dinner.  The food was actually much better than the first Mandu, but it's still not real Korean food.  fusion at best.  That said, I really liked the design and space, and everyone had a nice time.  My ddak jjim was pretty tasty too.  Two things to note:

#1:  how do people who can't read Korean find it???  (that says 'mandu' in Korean) 

#2:  soju has its place... but it's definitely not here  ;-) 

Gumball Gratitude

recognitions, kudos, snaps, props... whatever you call it, it's something that exists in many a staff meeting around the world.  My current office environment also subscribes to these feel-good moments, and as weird as I thought it was to give out gumballs at a 9:15am meeting, let's just say I was a little more than excited to get my first little dented gumballs!!