Music: Metric - Help I'm Alive [
download ]
Mood: sleepy
(You know you love him.)
Title of today's post taken from today's song. I quite enjoy Metric. (And I like one fan's interpretation of this song as Emily (the singer)
being chased by zombies. LOLZ.)
COLD. Very, very cold. Extremely cold, you might say.
Well, I'm a wuss, so maybe you wouldn't say. Although really, 64 degrees INSIDE is pretty cold. (It's 55 degrees outside.) We have the thermostat set to 69/70-ish, but it's not heating up enough. Coooooold~ *whines*
I'm sick again, which isn't fun. It's not the same as my last illness, though.. This one is mostly manifesting itself in a rather annoying cough (and I'm pretty sure there's more fluid in my lungs than last time) and me getting tired faster, but whatever. Better than a couple of weeks ago, when I just wanted to die.
Rita's started smoking again. She's been doing it off and on since high school, apparently. I've taken it upon myself to yell at her everytime I smell it on her, which she doesn't really like. Still, I figure that if she's allowed to yell at Mike for smoking, I'm allowed to yell at her for the same thing. (Double standards are unacceptable, Rita. Although now she and Mike are smoking buddies, which appears to defeat the purpose.) Lynn apparently also smokes, which I didn't know until Rita told me. Thinking back on it, though, it doesn't really surprise me. Still, Lynn's a nursing major. She should know better, no?
I made bulgogi (불고기) for dinner (for myself) last week. Or rather, "fool-gogi" ("바보"고기?), since the recipe I used isn't really authentic. I think it's an approximation. :P Plus, I didn't have any rice wine, so I used apple juice for the marinade. (The acidity in both tenderizes the meat, but apple juice gives it a slightly sweeter flavour.) I actually liked the apple juice in the marinade, so I think I might do it this way more often. I did oversalt the fool-gogi a little, but that's because the piece I taste-tested apparently didn't get ANY salt somehow, so I overcompensated. -_-; Ah well. Rita liked it anyway (she tried a piece), so she made me make it again yesterday.
Second time was definitely the charm. I invited Mel over to (a) help me prepare and (b) hang out, since I hadn't seen her in awhile (I overslept and missed class on Tuesday). I had gotten up early-ish and marinated the beef before class, so it had had around 6 hours to marinate and the only things left to prepare were the broccoli for the side dish and the onions for the bulgogi. I cut
way back on the pepper in the marinade--the recipe called for 3 tablespoons (!!!), which is way too much--and used more sugar than last time. I also waited to add the salt until actually cooking the meat, which helped a lot. It turned out really well--both Mel and Rita loved it. I think it's the first time since we've moved into this house that we've finished everything on the table with nothing left over. I'll definitely have to make it again. Maybe I'll even introduce it at home, since bulgogi is really mild and it was really easy to make. (Seriously, if I can make it with my limited cooking experience, pretty much anyone can make it.)
Cough. Hack. Cough. Illness interlude.
Anyway. I did end up finishing that history paper. I wrote most of it the night before it was due, so I only had the conclusion to do in the morning when I woke up. I actually went a page over the limit, though, so I had to rearrange paragraphs and trim sentences and shrink margins in order to make everything fit. It was..annoying, haha. But I did it! Hopefully I didn't accidentally cut out any key points or anything; I'm always afraid of doing that. I think it went well on the whole, though, and I can't wait to get it back so I can see how I did.
In other news, I think I know what I want to get my Masters in--Korean History. "But what happened to Translation?" you ask. (Well, maybe you don't ask. That's okay, I'll ask for you.)
Well..to be honest, I love history. I've always loved history. AP U.S. History and AP European History were two of my favourite classes in high school (largely because of the awesome Coach Carter as our teacher, but also because I enjoyed the subject), and it's consistently been one of my favourite subjects in college (not just because I think
Prof. Lutze is awesome, either). Asian history fascinates me in ways that European history never has, and Korean history is especially intriguing. Perhaps it's because I haven't formally learned anything about Korean history other than how it used to be a Chinese colony, then got stolen by the Japanese, then became independent--in about that much detail. Or perhaps it's because I find the
Joseon period (1392-1910) endlessly interesting. (The
Goryeo period (918-1392) is interesting as well, but not to the same degree.)
(The reason I'm an International Studies major is because I entered college with the idea that I would be a translator or a subtitler, and I wasn't as in love with Korea then as I am now. Besides, the History program here mostly focuses on European or American history, and my interests have always run more towards Asia. Still, sometimes I wish I'd been a history major instead.)
The question is, what would I do with this degree? Especially in Korea, where any Korean with the same Masters would automatically seem more suitable for any job. I could probably find a job at a museum in the States, but how easy would it be for me to do the same in Korea? Because I still plan on living there for the rest of my life, or at least until something happens to change my mind. (Just watch me marry another foreigner and get whisked back to his native country with him. Just watch.)
I'm currently reading Edgar Snow's classic
Red Star Over China for Lutze's class, and while I find it interesting, I also can't decide whether or not I think Snow is objective or a Mao fanboy. I'm leaning towards the latter. We're supposed to write a critical review of either this book or
William H. Hinton's Fanshen, and I'm thinking about doing it on this book (
Fanshen hasn't really done anything for me so far). But whatever, we'll see.
On the subject of Lutze's class, I need to finish my reading for that now.. The homework isn't due until Monday, but there's a lot more reading for this week than usual, so I need to get at least half of it done for tomorrow. Argh. I adore this man and his class, but he assigns SO MUCH READING. (My fault for not staying on top of things.)
So. Off to Reading Land.
