Early February 2018

This early February has been quite different from last year’s –

No snow and cold to keep us cooped up inside. No job and location uncertainty to weigh on our minds.

Now, we exchanged those for the wonder and worry of a new baby growing inside me. I’m 8 weeks pregnant and have felt all the emotions on the spectrum.

I re-read last night all of our blog posts on our blogspot blog and this one. I again want to make an effort to write more of daily life, because it makes me so happy to look back on. The moments that in the present seem to mundane and difficult, are so rosy and precious in hindsight. That last February, which seemed so bleek and deary, now has a fond spot in my heart.

So this month, we have not been doing too much. I have been in bed by 7:30 pm, completely wiped out by my pregnancy horomones, almost every night. Matt has been working a lot on his new Pfizer collaboration. I finished Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin, and really loved it. We haven’t done much in the way of cooking and films and walks, so I want to try to do more of that (especially once my appetite and food smell aversions dies down).

Ben and Juniper visited last weekend and it was fun and exhausting. Having extra people, especially a baby, in our tiny apartment can be so draining. But it was a good time, and we ate a lot of good food, enjoyed the beach, and loved showering Juniper with love and kisses.

 

 

President’s Weekend 2017

I just had a 4 day weekend. I slept in and napped, watched TV, went to DI, cleaned and cooked and repeated that several times, and we had Ben, Jess, and Juniper sleep over. It was a good weekend.

We ended the weekend by an evening walk to Barnes and Noble. I am so glad that the weather is warming up and makes walks possible again. I love being able to just walk and chat with Matt. And being able to browse and read books at Barnes and Noble is also great.

I also started a new drama that I love – Tomorrow With You. It has been really good, and for a lot of reasons, I just love K dramas.

I am getting excited about San Diego, and excited about our next stage in life. Things are good.

Tonight after work I plan on getting some groceries, cooking something nice, cleaning up the kitchen and doing laundry, and enjoying my drama. Maybe also another walk with Matt. These days can be simple but I love them.

 

June 3rd 2016

Do you remember when we first got off the plane in Frankfurt? We were disorientated from a red eye flight, hosted on Singapore airlines where the in-flight movie selection convinced us to pass up some sleep. I remember standing in the airport meeting point, feeling sweaty in my white and black plaid shirt from the missed shower, and nervous for our adventure as we waited for your aunt to come pick us up.

Exhausted, she took us around to get all of things taken care of – our first trip being to the office in Gallus, to meet up with Peter lunch. We were surprisingly smitten with the deliciousness of the lunch – brotchen, butter, peaches, tomatoes, schinken, cucumber, cheese, and black pepper. All to assemble or munch separately as we pleased.

Through the exhaustion, Yoon Jung Imo took us to Skyline Plaza twice to get our cell phones set up and an ethernet cord for me. The stores has odd names – O2 was our new cell phone carrier, and Saturn is the Best Buy of Germany. I remember nearly falling asleep on the tiny blue bench in 02, while waiting for them all to figure it out, hearing conversations in German, Korean, and English.

We drove all of our stuff over to what was to be our home for the next 4 months, the second floor apartment on Schwarzwaldstrasse in Niederrad, a southwestern and relatively un-hip neighborhood of Frankfurt. The kitchen had cute subway tiles and a wooden counter, the windows were large and brought in great light. I loved the wood floors and the deep, long bathtub. I wished we could have moved in permanently.

We met Felix and his family, and through a sleep deprived foggy brain, politely ate cake decorated with Haribo gummy bears and tried to make small talk in German with his family. We carried all of the housewares Imo had generously lent us up to our place, and once the job was done, declined coming over for samgyeopsal due to our jetlag.

But once everyone had left and we were alone in our new apartment, the realization that our dream had become reality, and was starting now, hit us – and we found ourselves a little less tired. We made our first trip to our neighborhood REWE, so pleased to be able to buy the tasty yogurt, muesli, and sandwich supplies that are just not the same in the US. We came home and snacked and were in awe of our new life situation. I felt dazed, giddy and exhausted. We shut the marvelously efficient wooden blinds, and fell asleep, happily excited.

1st Week of February 2017

While this phase in life has been increasingly frustrating and difficult – the uncertainty of everything seems to be wearing on me – I decided I want to try and record daily life more, and also look for the good.

These last few months have included a lot of evening showers together. I always shower at night since I work early, and Matt has started to as well so now we often shower together in an attempt to save water. It seems we always have great conversations in the shower, while washing our hair. Last night, Matt did a really cute dance and it made me laugh and smile and feel real joy, if only for a minute.

We have also been watching a lot of TV (me, and occasionally Matt) and playing League of Legends (only Matt). I am sick of doing things inside, but when it is dark, cold, and snowy in the evenings, it has been hard to get the motivation to do much else.

In February, I want to:

• Go to rec center to exercise at least once a week (maybe twice!)
• Bake a nice cake and share with friends
• Shop and buy at least 1 item of clothing I love
• Get a plant
• Finish Fuschia Dunlop’s book
• Find somewhere to volunteer for immigrants/refugees
• Work on my painting
• Date Nights: Moonlight Movie, Hare Krishna Temple, Bombay House for Valentine’s Day, Barnes and Noble, Living Legends.
• Have some people over for dinner

 

 

 

 

Berlin

We flew from Milan to Berlin on 3 hours of sleep.

We stayed in a place through Airbnb again – my favorite from the trip. It was a spacious apartment in an old building in Neukolln, with hardwood floors, beautiful decor, and stunning art. The host was Freeda, who uses the apartment as her art studio (hence the great art).

In Berlin, we met up with Dominik, Matt’s cousin, and his girlfriend Selma. We ate currywurst from a street stand, delicious red curry at a Thai place, American ‘California’ style breakfast, more doners (not as good as Milan though), and Korean BBQ at a place called Kimchi Princess. We shopped, explored, and slept. We strolled around the city and saw the Reichstag and Brandenburger Tor.  Matt met up with a professor at the Berlin Technical Institute and discussed future opportunities in Germany and his research. During this I attempted to find the Jewish Musuem, but instead found the nearest synogogue. We visited the Pergamon musuem, and saw the Ishtar Gate and Market gate of Miletus – incredibly fascinating. Unfortunately the Pergamon altar was closed for renovations until 2018, so we missed that.

I would love to live in Berlin. The vibe and pace of the city just suits me. Something about it feels like home already. In my head I picture us in an unknown number of years, me pushing a stroller down the street to groceries while Matt is at work, and us visiting the Pergamon musuem regularly on the weekends. Who knows if it will happen but I hope so.

Milano

First stop on our Europe trip: Milan

In Milan we stayed in an apartment via Airbnb. Our host was a cool Dutch guy, Alexander.

We visited the Duomo – which is just massive, and incredibly impressive in person.

We also ate an obscene amount. We ate some of the best pizza ever (of course) – a buffalo mozzarella pizza and prosciutto pizza.

Down in the canal district Navagili, we ate Lingerian food – roasted rabbit with potatoes, and pesto with fresh made gnocchi.We observed the typical Italian night life- well dressed couples and friends out for dinner and drinks.

By the Duomo, we ate panzerotti – which is pretty much like a pizza inside of a doughnut. Obviously, it was delicious.

In the Roma Venezia district, we ate Abruzzian food – a trio of fresh made pastas with insanely good sauces, and various roasted meats. The bread and olive oil was also so, so good.

It was also in Milan that we ate the best doner of the trip – funny, huh? It had the perfect ratio of sauces/meats/veggies and I still dream of it.

While touring and starving, we ate a mediocre Neopolitan pizza – which has anchovies. Not my favorite but an experience for sure.

And of course, throughout the days we ate gelato along the way – hazelnut being our flavor of choice.

The best thing we did in Milan – and perhaps from the whole trip – was see the Last Supper by Da Vinci. The painting in person is so inspiring and evokes this amazing feeling of awe. It is hard to describe, but it was amazing.

We also toured an old castle, and visited the Science museum.

Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pappardelle

Most days, after I drive home from work I get in the house and put on my plaid apron that Yoon Jung Imo gave me. I carefully select a record- determined by my mood and the weather – and put it on the turntable. Then, I start to cook.

Today, I selected Francois Hardy and this Italian Sausage and Red Pepper Pappardelle. This pasta was the perfect meal after a long Monday. The pappardelle shape is very good in this dish – I wouldn’t swap it out for another shape.