February 2011
1 post
January 2011
3 posts
Ajeossis Always Surprise You
Cab Driver: You speak strange. Where are you from?
Me: America
Cab Driver: Where in America?
Me: Chicago
Cab Driver: OBAMA! HEY! I LOVE! (in english)
EMPLOYMENT!
itoodislikeit:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!
2011: Dinah can both pay her bills and sleep at night. Also, the year before 2012. I wish you could see the dance of joy I’m doing around my mom’s kitchen as my ulcer begins to shrink.
It’s your year, Rabbit!
Hello Rabbit
I am so glad the Year of the Tiger has passed. It proved to be just as harried and contentious as it’s known to be. Year of the Rabbit (I think the element is metal, too. So no fire rabbit this year.) is supposed to be bit more placid, among other things.
I could use more placid.
December 2010
7 posts
Fuck It
I no longer feel guilty or ashamed that I don’t like living in Seoul. It’s been more than 6 months. I don’t like it here. There.
This Is What Happens When I Edit for My Sister
Sister: You're so proud of your sentence building. It's kind of disgusting.
Me: It's all I have.
Sister: You have nice teeth now.
Kimchee and Spam
This unholy combination is tasting so necessary right now. It’s going to be a long winter.
Garden path sentence - Wikipedia →
itoodislikeit:
Nina, these are the sorts of Wikipedia wormholes I get lost in when you try to explain wacky concepts like “indirect objects” to me. I want that hour of my life back, and I want to spend it eating donuts with you.
If I showed this to my students, they would cry.
My Braces Poem Was a One-Time Performance
Getting my braces off next weekend!
“It bears mentioning that nations with high-performing school systems—whether...”
– The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch (via silas216, robot-heart-politics)
BAM.
(via marthaq)
Diane Ravitch: maybe not too little too late? Just say it louder, lady.
(via itoodislikeit)
A slight off-topic bone to pick:
Ehhhh, I wouldn’t put Korea’s education system as an...
The Reason Why I Led "Duck and Cover" Drills Today →
November 2010
2 posts
Holding My Breath on Sunday →
I wasn’t freaking out about the military exerises on Sunday until I overheard some people on the street talking about emergency evacuation plans, backpack provisions and swiss army knives.
I’m getting a motherfucking knife.
North Korea Attacks →
…I think my DMZ bus tour will be cancelled this weekend.
August 2010
1 post
almost a month of poetry lessons done
and my kids still don’t think it’s good unless it rhymes.
July 2010
3 posts
“How’s Seoul? How’s your soul?”
– EDW
The best of all Seoul puns. Missing friends so much.
I write like Kurt Vonnegut →
Mm…cool, but I don’t really think I do?
“Why is scientific and medical writing always in the passive voice? Is it because...”
– Alice W. Flaherty
I answer with an emphatic yes! Because literature cops to having a point of view, and science can’t do that or everything comes unraveled. It’s back to that sticky question of Absolute Truth, which after graduating with a degree in Creative Writing has become the most tedious,...
June 2010
1 post
Te Quiero
I need to find something resembling Mexican food in Seoul soon. I’ve had too many burrito dreams that are oddly seductive.
May 2010
5 posts
I like my ginseng shampoo’s tingly feeling but I am not a fan of the smell. Reminds me of the old people at my parents’ church. Almost used shower cleaner as body wash—thank you basic Korean reading skills. Still not sure which is my laundry detergent…but I’ll get to that later.
At my uncle and aunt’s house in Suwon—a satellite city an hour away from my...
In Seoul
My first thought when I saw the city: It’s going to be easy to feel small here.
There Will Be Wine
…lots of wine.
Spending my last weekend in the States at my god mother’s lake house in the Ozarks.
Now aware that I am stressing out too much. Because now I am covered in hives.
Oh shit. It’s May.
April 2010
6 posts
“…and as soon as I get my license, I fully intend to brake for animals.”
– Cher, Clueless
I want to say something like this to the Korean Consulate so I can finally be approved for my visa.
T-Minus 1 MONTHish to S. Korea
Quick—someone point out something shiny so I won’t think about it.
i managed to get a pair of dress pants that look dressy but feel like swishy track pants.
and the sun is shining.
THERE IS A MUTHAFUCKIN SNAKE IN THE GARAGE.
As I headed out this afternoon for a day of sunny shopping and ice tea sipping with a friend, I almost stepped on a snake. A long snake. At least 2 feet long coiled up and pissed off looking, so god only knows. I ran/hopped/skipped/jumped (or whatever I do when I move away in fear) to the garage keypad and tried to close the door before the snake got in, but I trapped it half-way. My dad’s...
March 2010
14 posts
As my weeks towards South Korea get smaller, I’m starting to feel like a 7-year-old child at the pool and it’s the last month of summer. Soon, I’ll start swimming obsessively into every corner of the pool, doing different strokes, swimming under water, doing every trick and dive for what feels like the last time until that final day arrives and someone tells me IT’S TIME...
wishing i took my korean lessons more seriously. the only new thing i remember is how to ask if you’re from nigeria and then to tell you that i am not from nigeria.
itoodislikeit:
rzinz:
hunsonisgroovy:
People who play Pokemon and don’t support the health care bill should be buying super potions and antidotes to heal their pokemon instead of using the Pokemon Center.
But…
now that the bill as passed, everyone can use the Pokemon Center!
wonderfully said
That’s certainly one way of putting it.
pika pika
perhaps not a very cool thing to say, but i love my parents and i like my parents.
It's Official
job contract signed and sent. trying my best to keep my anxiety level to a minimum, which means i’m eating girl scout cookies.
Best succession of events ever: seeing friends, hearing about good things happening to good people, exercising my suburban legs with some city walking, getting hired and then returning home to my great family.
I’m starting to think of my crazy packing list. American toothpaste! Floss! Work clothes! Shampoo! Computer! Camera! Towels! Pillow! Books!
SLATEST UPDATE
itoodislikeit:
Shakesville has picked up the story, I have left several angry messages at both the DC and NY Slate offices, and wore down one receptionist until she promised me a call-back from an editor.You can find contact info here, if you’d care to do the same.
So help me, heads will roll. I know Slate’s “edgy” bigotry is nothing new, but this is just beyond the pale.
PUPPY CAM! PUPPY CAM! →
Wookin For Love →
With pressures high, South Korean women put off... →
I know that sick days and vacations days in South Korea are often mere paper ”courtesy” and are not actually meant to be used, but I did not think maternity leave would be in the same vein. As for the low birthrate, can I get a resounding DUH?
My female cousins closest to my age have told me how it’s so hard to study like crazy and then to ultimately be expected to find a...
The I.WILL.VOMIT anxiety phase has passed and I am sleeping very well sans crazy dreams.
February 2010
15 posts
WHY I NEED TO GET OUT OF MISSOURI
[The parking lot of Wal-Mart. Waiting for a lady to get out of her car so I can get inside of mine. Lady taking her sweet time. Lady finally sees me.]
Lady: Oh, I’m sorry. [still sitting in her car with her door open. still not moving.]
Me: [nothing]
Lady: Don’t speak English?
Me: I speak English you ass!
The family joke is that we can never go to Wal-Mart without some type of...
I’ve been moving between these two phases for a week now:
1) Cool Cucumber. Going-off-the-fly/Come-what-may attitude to great success. Easy confidence.
2) I.AM.GOING.TO.VOMIT. Bad hair and wearing my In-N-Out t-shirt all day. Sitting in a stiff panic as I think about all the things I have to do.
Hark! Relatives Arrive Like the Second Coming
With all the speed and grace of a kamikaze pilot, my uncle from South Korea called us at 6 a.m. this morning to let us know that he and his wife will be visiting us—next week. And staying until March 16th.
Besides almost braining my mother with the remote control (I thought it was the phone…”ANSWER THE PHONE MOM”.) while half asleep, I am handling things as poorly as I...
My anxiety for this upcoming job interview is manifesting itself in violent yet cute dreams. In my dream I was on the plane to my interview and I realize I forgot to pack my interview outfit. And in order to get appropriate clothes, I had to complete tasks like retrieving a head of lettuce from a speedy chipmunk and squeezing glass marbles out of goldfish.
All of which, I think, was influenced...
Last night, my big sister did a good reenactment of The Rock by throwing down the People’s Elbow on my head while she was sleeping.
It hurt.
I feel like a sausage watching these Olympic athletes. I could sit on Apolo Ohno and make him cry.
Next up: I’m going to eat cheese dip and watch couples figure skating.