I miss coffee houses...
It's times like these when I wish Seoul had even something remotely akin to what we have back home in the way of coffee houses. Unfortunately the closest thing to that here is Starbucks which, in my opinion, is not close at all. My reason for stating this particular gripe is because tonight I would like nothing better than to go to a coffee house (like Kaldi's back in STL), have a nice cup of steaming hot coffee and curl up with a good book. I'm almost done reading the book Angels & Demons that I started a few days ago, and I really don't wanna sit here in my apartment alone finishing the rest of it. But there's not really anywhere for me to go that would be condusive to reading. Bleh...
So maybe I'll just go stop by the nearest Starbucks, get some coffee to go and come back here to read. And I guess actually it won't be that bad because my director just bought this really posh couch for our apartment today. It's one of those "L" shaped ones that are friggin huge, but it looks fantabulous in the main room...and it's navy blue too, which is my favorite color! So...I suppose that's a plan for the evening then. I don't really wanna go out and do anything besides that cause I am still getting over a cold that I had earlier this week. (Yes, I was sick yet again---that makes three colds so far, and I used to never get sick back home!) So tonight I'm taking it easy and then I really only wanna do some shopping this weekend because I desperately need to get some clothes for winter.
One more thing... I have been reading like mad since I got here (what else have I got to keep me busy?) and I'm always on the lookout for good books to read. So if anyone has any books they'd like to suggest, please leave me a note and let me know. Just to give you an idea of what types of books I prefer, here's a list of all the ones I've read since coming here to Korea:
The DaVinci Code
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince
Hunger Point
Of Human Bondage
Catcher in the Rye
One Hundred Years of Solitude
American Gods
Angels & Demons (finishing tonight)
Shopgirl (starting tomorrow)
Help please! :)
posted by Jen at
7:27 PM
7 Comments:
Sigh... I miss Kaldi's too. But not as much Rivals... ;-)
There are like tonnes of different coffee houses in Korea if you look carefully
Sorry to hear your coming down with a cold too, practically everyone here is.
Ill be in need of reading material soon too. Im almost done with Chuck's latest- Haunted.
And no, I actually just had a steak for the first time in like years. It was delicious :P
try Rule of 4. It's not as good as Angels and Demons, but same type of plot. Also can't think of the name, but the latest Oprah's Book Club is supposed to be great!
talk to you soon!
Maggie :-)
Read the "Secret Life of Bees", or "The Stepford Wives" by Ira Levin ( i think) or "With A Vegence" by Eileen Dreyer. i dont remember the authors of the first two.
Also, i have heard that "Blink" is supposed to be a good book, about first impressions, havent read it myself as mostly been reading textbooks or all of the harry Potters in a month, yes it only took me a month. Go figure!
Maybe once winter is here and i dont have school for a month I can pick up reading others things besides, "Concepts in art for Children" or "Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers"
Hope all is well girl.
Travels - Michael Crichton
Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
The Happy Isles of Oceana - Theroux
Gullivers Travels - Swift
I read gulliver's travels last time I was in Korea and it's quite out-of-the-box entertaining. You can really catch a lot of subtle politcal commentary in it, even though it's just a really abstract adventure.
Korea.net fast food korean
Contrary to a cool reception at home in the wake of a recent ruckus of its tarnished image, kimchi is gaining popularity with Americans and other places abroad following a spate of news reports to the effect that the traditional Korean dish has an inherent preventative effect on bird flu, the fear of which is now gripping the world.
It was last March that kimchi's curative effect on avian influenza began to be known well outside of the country, when the British public broadcaster BBC aired the results of a research team led by Seoul National University professor Kang Sa-wook.
Quoting the team's test results, BBC said of the 13 chickens stricken with the influenza, 11 had shown telling curative effects after being administered kimchi extracts.
Back in 2003, when the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) broke out in Asia, there was a ‘kimchi rage' in China and Southeast Asia on the strength of reports that the Korea-originated pickle was working in heading off the epidemic.
In recent weeks, the American media were into handling kimchi's efficacy in treating avian flu.
The ABC network, South Carolina's largest state newspaper, the Murtle Beach Sun News, Centre Daily Times of Pennsylvania, and some 100 media outlets across the United States reported kimchi's curative effects on the epidemic.
The ABC reported on Tuesday that with the interest in kimchi growing in America, sauerkraut, the U.S. version of kimchi, is also enjoying a boom. Sauerkraut, a pickle of German origin made from shredded cabbage fermented in brine, is normally inserted into hot dogs or sandwiches.
Journal Times, a publication from Racine, Wisconsin, reported scientists speculated that the bacteria which were detected in kimchi, help cure avian influenza, adding that the same strains were also discovered in sauerkraut.
Kim Jae-soo, the agricultural attaché to the Korean embassy in Washington, D.C., said that contrary to the perception of misgivings Koreans have at home, the American press has given an intense coverage of kimchi's curative effects on the poultry epidemic.
He noted that although the U.S. media had not paid significant attention to kimchi when it gained popularity as a curative to SARS in Southeast Asia, it is watching carefully this time around.
Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Korea Agro-Trade Corp. on Thursday (Nov. 10), despite the recent unsavory episode involving tainted kimchi, Korea's exports of the item amounted to 26,275 tons in the first 10 months of the year, up 81 tons from a year earlier.
In particular, shipments to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia have surged partly due to Hallyu, or the Korean cultural wave, prompted by Daejanggeum, a Korean TV drama aired in those countries. In the January-October period, exports to Taiwan totaled 561 tons, up 72 percent from a year before. Hong Kong and Malaysia saw their imports increase by 15 and 150 percent respectively.
Besides, prospects for suspended kimchi shipments to Japan to resume were bright as the Japanese authorities were about to end their investigation into the Korean products soon. About 93 percent of Korea's total exports of 34,827 tons last year went to Japan.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home