Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Random Thoughts

1. Many have been travelling lately!

Brent came back from Thailand with some gorgeous pics.
Ryan: New Years in Japan Pics
Alex and Megan in Tokyo went to HK last week.

2. December 25th was the fourth-month mark of being in Korea! Feb 25th, the half-year mark, I'll be celebrating in Malaysia. That's in a month and a half! And after that I think time is going to fly by really quickly.


3. I've been sketching and painting like mad lately.. but not as mad as I should be! The return to Vancouver is creeping up and I want to have a nice portfolio when I return, whether or not I enroll in a fashion-related program any time soon.

Here's my cute family modeling the Korean clothes I sent for Christmas:















4. I'm still exploring the 30 or so gigs of music my audiophile friend put on my computer before I came here. In fact I deleted about half of it recently because I needed more room for Seinfeld, Southpark, Project Runway and Lost episodes. But amongst the typical shoe-gazing, emo audiophile selection I've found some gold nuggets. For example, I'm REALLY into Praga Khan's Mutant Funk album right now. I highly suggest checking it out. Good lyrics, and electro-clash / drum n bass-y / Depeche Mode-esque in some tracks. I've been playing their Dreamcatcher track for 2 days non-stop. Another album I like now is 13 & God by 13 & God.
They somehow manage to rap to the sounds of strings, piano, gentle drums and woodwind instruments.

5. Daegu's really dry right now and a lot of buildings are burning down. A girl who works with us mentioned her house burned down under a year ago. All her photos and clothes, and everything are gone. Another girl who works at reception.. her mom had a store in Seoman market that burned down the other week when I mentioned I saw that fire from the 15th floor of the travel agent's building.

Here are some pics from that building. Click on them to see what a Korean building looks like up close:





Sunday, January 01, 2006

New Cousin!

I have a very cute new cousin! (Second cousin, once removed, to be exact). Congratulations to my cousin Valerie and her husband Tiee! Baby Mia was born Dec 27th.

I am SO happy to have a new addition in my extended family, because there have been no new babies born since my own toddlerhood :)







I think she looks quite serious and sophisticated. Not surprising, as she comes from a line of beautiful, smart and gracious women (ie. her mom, aunt, grandmother, great grandmother). My dad thinks she looks like her grandmother.