24redballoon's Blog

24redballoons — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:29:49 +0000

I’ve moved, again.

http://24redballoons.tumblr.com/

Lazy Day

24redballoons — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:16:55 +0000

So exhausted and it’s only 5pm. Came home, stripped out of my work clothes and put on my comfy pj’s.

I don’t cook much, but I feel pretty domestic right now. I’ll make something for dinner. Then, in a few I’m meeting EJ at Platoon to watch “A Great Actor.”

The Game wanting to be Tamed

24redballoons — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:42:44 +0000

Everyone keeps saying, “rina you gotta play the game.” Although the chase is for obvious reasons fun and exciting, I honestly don’t have the patience or the creativity to scheme and get dolled up to participate. If someone likes you or vice versa, things should just take its course and naturally unfold. Seamlessly, right? There should be a good gut feeling, yes?

–

My brother and sister in law have been married for about two years now and they’re hilarious. My sister in law tells me that when my brother meets a new lad who is single and pretty decent, he always thinks one thing: can I hook him up with Rina? hah, oh brother. He just sent me an email right now saying one of his childhood friends I know as well is finally getting married with his longtime gf. At the end of the email, he wrote about another one of his friends ****:
“he’s like the last of my friends who is single and an eligible bachelor. don’t miss yo chance…” Thanks brother, but that’s okay~

–

Things are about to get downright hectic come Friday. Haila leaves on Saturday so she wants a girls night out Friday, and I gotta be in Incheon for a dinner thing beforehand. Allison and a few other Incheon folks are leaving very soon so we’re going big Sat-Sun, but before that, there’s a south african bbq Saturday afternoon. Then on Monday, Allison and I are having our last get together. Then it’s The Creator’s Project at Platoon on Wednesday. Then Friday I leave for Taiwan. I come back the following Wednesday and then Michael comes to visit me from Taiwan, Fri-Sun. AHHH no real break till September 19th! Gee golly gee whiz. busybusybusy bee, trying to suck all the pollen from that big non-tree.

–

Self observation: You don’t know how random you are until you see someone else do the same thing you would probably do and think “damn, that is one random mofo.”

Deleted Numbers.

24redballoons — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:25:40 +0000

So it begins. Everytime someone leaves Korea, I immediately delete him/her from my cellphone because if I still see it in my contact list, it just haunts me. Just deleted Cassi’s. Major sadface. Come next Tuesday, a handful more will be deleted. Some of these numbers have been with me since the beginning of my time here in Korea. Gah. Do not like this at all.

Botched Gum

24redballoons — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 04:57:28 +0000

“Rina, the universe works in a way where everything ends up okay.” That’s for sure.

The weekend just flew right on by. Friday, we had dinner in Sinsa and kicked back in front of a convenience store before heading to the club to watch Seb spin. We, as a group of 20 foreigners just sat there, shooting shit and goofing off. Two highlights: 1. Ryan botching our photo by recording instead of shooting and 2. the gum showdown.

Botched video: (~~will post it in a bit~~, but I’ve watched this video at least 10 times for two reasons: 1. Cassi’s snort at the beginning 2. Cassi’s shame-filled head nod when Ryan asks “Cass, remember the time you showed your sweetie on video?”)

The gum showdown: Cody bought a pack of teddy bear gums for us to chew. I spit mine out thinking it would go far, but the gum ended up in the middle of the walk path as it dribbled out of my mouth. Although I should have gotten up to pick up the gum, Cassi and I decided to play a game to see which passerby’r would step on it. We cringed so many times with ooooo’s and ahhhhh’s whenever there was a close encounter, but no one became our victim. Would have been bad for my conscious if someone did anyways.

Next day, went biking along the Han river, had dinner with an old coworker and went to Hongdae to meet Seoul and Incheon folks. Not one dull moment. Found a really cool bar that had ridiculously cheap drinks (uh oh for next time we go there), danced a bit to silent disco, played a game of ‘find me in hongdae by guessing where i am’ through texted photos, broke the bottom of my heels, etc.

Sigh. Good weekends bring bad Mondays. I packed a sandwich for lunch today but it was taunting me so I ended up eating it before 9AM!!! WHY WHY WHY?? haha

Travel hop

24redballoons — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 08:06:31 +0000

September 9-14

March 5, 2012

What Music Does For Me and Maybe You

24redballoons — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 05:38:13 +0000

It’s funny how certain songs can manifest the strongest of memories.

Although it was years and years ago, I remember the very moment I was introduced to incubus’ “I Wish You Were Here.” I was sitting on my computer table on the second floor of my house and there was gossip circulating that one of my friends just got dedicated “I Miss You” by a mutual friend of ours. During this time, youtube did not exist, so I used limewire to download the song to hear what it sounded like. I mistakenly downloaded “I Wish You Were Here” instead and as soon as I hit play, I was like “Say what??? I don’t hear I miss you in here at all…” haha. Didn’t matter, because ever since, I’ve just fallen in love with the band over and over again. Funny eh?

Every time I hear Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love,” my heart just sinks. I love this song; it’s so haunting and raises the hair on my arms. But, a certain moment just replays in my head every time I hear this and I just want to lay on the floor and close my eyes and listen to it for all it’s worth even though it hurts me. I get so aggravated that this song has kinda been ‘ruined’ for me, but all ruined things end up being beautiful with time.

Pete, Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks” reminds me of the time I took a trip by myself to London from Cambridge at the summer of 2007. Sitting on the window side of the bus, I jammed to this song and felt so independent being in England. This was my anthem.

I’m not really good at remembering lyrics or singing in tune. Sometimes I wish I had the gift of singing. Crazy how it can move so many people; a nation even!

Oldskool incubus when DJ Kilmore was around

First Love, First Break

24redballoons — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:46:54 +0000

First love is unrequited ultimately because it’s so huge. It’s such an act of giving and it requires so much back that it can never be given back. It’s like an atom bomb. It’s like… It’s all the energy of who you are and who you want to be and what you love and what you hope to be explodes. It is impossible for a single… human being to offer that back to you in a mutual way.

-Stephen Fry

Sounds like your first love will just break your heart. All firsts just don’t realistically work out.

You are Crazy Mother, Mother Nature

24redballoons — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:25:47 +0000

Last year’s summer heat wave in Korea was unbearable. I always came into the office panting with exhaustion and riddled with sweat marks. I would stand in front of the classroom fanning myself as my students gawked at all the dark wet splotches on my clothes, probably whispering how uncouth I was pretty much looking. The heat and humidity made me irritable 99.9% of the time and I just hated it. My hair was always frizzy, I was taking 3 showers a day, you could see your face on my face through all that shine, etc. I sound so narcissistic right now.

I’m blogging about this because the weather in Korea this year has been so bizarre!! Winter was long and freezing from November – early May (usually warms up around early April), Summer didn’t start until mid July (last year it was early June), rained and flooded parts of Seoul to an all new level, and it started to cool down this week but weather forecasts report that irritable humid weather is coming back beginning of September for a month. MOTHER NATURE IS PISSED. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!!! I don’t know man. Everyone is talks about 2012 and I’m not a believer of all that mumbo jumbo, but within the past 5 yrs, Earth has been going crazy.

Back in Korea

24redballoons — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:31:27 +0000

I feel like I do this every few months. I’m talking about having a hiatus with my blog. Sorry.

I just came back from America. Went home for two weeks and was immediately embraced by the warm sun, palm trees and two of the greatest people (Jane and Daniel) when I landed.

Once I entered the arrival zone of the airport and made my way through the crowd of folks waiting for loved ones to touchdown in LA town, this is how it went down between the three of us:

“Hey ugly”
“AHH DANIEL! Hi! Dang man, you gained weight. You look bigger”
“Yeah, I did!”
“Where’s Jane?”
“She couldn’t make it because she had a late one last night”
“Yeah, I figured.”
“BOOO!!”
“JANE!!!”

Best way to get picked up at the airport. Immediately drove to Jane’s and got a fat burrito the size of my face. Bliss.

There’s too much to say about LA. If I wanted to keep this blog up to date, I should have written entries while I was back home. But, just too much was going on; didn’t even have the chance to finish the whole Marie Calendar’s banana creme pie my brother got me! Sigh, definitely the best trip ever.

If there’s one thing I can take away from my trip is that, I’m so blessed. I was swimming in a pool of love every second I was there by everyone that matters to me the most. At times it was a bit overwhelming to feel so much affection because the month of July in Korea was a difficult one where I wasn’t feeling too top-notch about myself due to a capricious something-something I got myself involved in. But it doesn’t matter anymore, because I came back to Korea with a sound conscious, nice tan, full belly and clear eyes.

As soon as I landed back to Korea at 5am on Saturday, I went big that day/night. Went to my aunt’s, had ice cream as part of my breakfast, got dropped off at my place, organized my stuff, then headed to Hongdae to meet Allison around 7 for her tattoo retouching. Around 8pm, I was finally reunited with the rest of the seoul gang and as soon as I saw Ryan in front of our usual KFC meeting point, he picked me up and twirled me around. I dug my face into his shoulder and was flushed with love. Then Cody picked me up and Cassi jumped on top of us. We made a ruckus, but from there on out, wild times were had.

Ah, it’s good to be back in Seoul <3.