Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Found Motivation

Christmas vacation is officially over. Kalan and I just spent two weeks in California (which includes two days in Vegas) and I don't know how to express how much I really needed the break. First off, to see my friends and family was so amazing and fun. The roomies from 8 Merrimac (minus Lowam (next time girl)) were great and took us out for my birthday. We also spent a drunken jacuzzi night in La Verne with Jamie and her roommate Sayaka. We had FOUR Christmases and did tons more and through all the conversations I had with everyone I have a new outlook on my time here in Korea.

Things were getting really frustrating for me before I visited home (aside from my trip to Tokyo and hanging out with friends). Mostly my job hours were waring on me and I was lashing it out on food and Kalan. I wasn't motivated to model. It seemed like the cold was just freezing everything in my life.

But now, things are in motion again and I have a few things to look forward to. First off, January will be my last month at my job. No more split shift and waking up at 5:40am!! I start my new part-time job next week. I'll be transcribing NPR-type radio stories for six hours a week and make my rent plus more. On top of that, I'll be tutoring during my free time.

Also, I'm enrolling in a Korean language program at Sukmyung Women's University. The university is really close to where I'll be moving. We are moving in with our best friends parents who have an extra room, a lovely house, a cute dog AND A DRYER! I'm so excited! Rent is miniscule to what we pay now, we wont have to pay utilities and groceries are included.

Things are definitely in motion and I'm really looking forward to it all. With all my free time I can network and look for jobs in the fashion industry. 2010 will be starting off well and it's exciting to see what the rest of the year will bring. Hopefully, Kalan and I can start careers of some kind lol.

Well that's my update. I'll write again soon.

Love,
Sylvia

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Tokyo


Some pics from my trip










Tokyo came and went by way too quickly. Christina and I started off the trip fortunate enough to take a taxi for the same fare as the bus. We got to the airport, checked in, got on our plane, and flew to Narita airport without complication. It was when we got into the first subway/train in Japan when things started to get confusing. Kalan put it best when he told me the subway map looks like a giant bowl of rainbow spaghetti. Yes, the subway was impossible, impractical, and unrealistic but we managed to get to Tokyo station and meet our friend Bill right on time.

Bill is a great guy. He let us stay at his house for two nights while he slept on the floor. It was kind of like a long slumber party because we had conversations about the meaning of life, girls, boys, progrock and other random things. On our first night we went out to eat authentic Japanese ramen and then to a Japanese bar called Damo Damo.

The next day we went to Akihabara which is like this crazy epicenter for video gamers and anime lovers. Also there are these "Costplay" stores with sexy costumes and hobby stores with crazy naked figurines. So to speak, this place was pretty different. But interesting.

Asakusa was our next destination. This area is a little more traditional and touristy (kinda like insadong in Seoul). We hung out for a while and did some sight seeing and then decided to go to a grocery store and eat the free samples at a department store in Shinjuku. Shinjuku is where we met up with some of Bill's friends and visited some local pubs. This area is like Shinchon/Hongik in Korea except more Japanese and more male escorts with fabulous hair.

The next morning we had a late start and a late ramen breakfast before we headed to Ginza where Christina did some shopping and I looked around in awe of all the gigantic beautiful beautiful department stores.

Well, that was pretty much my trip. Short huh? I might go back again in the near future depending on money and a lot of other stuff.

Sylvia