My English... still ...

After two years of my life in San Diego, I still face some embarrassing situations once in a while.

This morning, when I was standing at the checkout counter in Albertsons, a guy who was packing my shopping into a plastic bag told me something unclear in a low voice. I bluntly asked him, "Sorry?" and he repeated in the same tone of voice. I did not catch it, so again, asked him what he just said to me, moving my ear close to his mouth almost in a foot distance.

He shyly mumbled, "You have a good day..."

That's it?? Didn't I catch that simple sentence????
He was a young African-American guy, looked uneasy repeating the same phrase three times for me. Blushed and upset, I forgot to say "thank you" and just ran away.

Even after two years, I struggle with English.

Wonderful day ☆

It's my birthday today. Though aging is no longer a pleasant event, I had a fantastic day. Some of my friends kindly arranged a casual surprising party for me in Old Poway Park. Looking at their children, we were absorbed in our inexhaustible conversation.

Superb dinner came to the 2nd round of this festive day. My partner took me to a sushi restaurant called Toshi-san. As we asked the chef for the bill, he nicely served a green-tea ice cream with a tiny candle, saying, "I believe you turns 21 today."

Yes, yes chef, I do :)

The 3rd round was going to be some piece of cakes at home. Too drunk and exhausted, my partner went straight to bed without casting even a glance at these cute little cakes. I lit the candle lonely but blissfully, and enjoyed myself the last minutes of my birthday.

Spiritual Experience ?

During July 4th weekend, I visited Sedona. Sedona is well known for the voltex power spots. Not everybody seems to feel its spiritual power, but depressed somehow these days, I strongly hoped to be affected in a positive way. Standing on the two voltex spots, however, I did not feel anything but just enjoyed a breathtaking sunrise and sunset.
Weired thing occurred to me when I was driving back to San Diego. I usually cannot drive more than two hours; nevertheless, this time, three and half hours driving did not tire me at all. It must be the power of voltex, I believe.

Hectic day

I haven't grown up maybe, or I was just too intolerant to allow their unapologetic attitude. Only for the periodic car maintenance, I waited for more than 5 hours in the shop.
Maybe because I was too busy to be generous today, but I could not suppress my irritation for worthless 5 hours without doing anything but reading. I left home at 9:30 in the morning, went to a cafe to see my friend who called me, grabbed some maps at AAA, and then visited a hospital to see another friend who delivered a baby boy yesterday before seeing my tutor at college at 1 in the afternoon. Driving 20 minutes, I went to Japanese market for groceries, and finally at 2:30, brought my car in this maintenance service. All I've done before going to the maintenance service took 5 hours in total.
I knew it's no one's fault. I knew it could not be helped.
It was a day before the July 4th three-day weekend. It was maybe my fault that came on this crazy day.

Only the fireworks in my neighborhood at night soothed me.
















Photo provided by my partner

Addictive

San Diego is a Mexican food paradise. This is "carne asada", a grilled steak taco with fresh avocado and tangy cilantro :)










Cotixan
Fresh Mexican Grill

Phil's B.B.Q.

These are baby back ribs and onion rings. Very American but yum!!

Restaurant Week

In San Diego, "restaurant week" takes place twice a year. More than 130 reputable restaurants in San Diego offer a three-course meal for $30 or $40, depending on the restaurant. The menu is prix fixe and we can try any opulent restaurants who are usually too expensive to visit. Taking advantage of this event, we visited this decent restaurant, Marine Room, in La Jolla last week.

Smoked Almond Dukkah Coated Prawn Duet Tancello Bulgur Tian, Ancho Chile Aioli, Coriander Agrumes Reduction

Muscat Kalbi Glazed Kobe Beef Top Sirloin Wasabi Chive Potato, Shiitake Butter, Pickled Cipollini XO Reduction

“Trilogy” Hibiscus Lemon Tart, Gianduja Chocolate Crunch,Crystallized Ginger Plum Crème Brulee

It took quite some courage to take out the big camera out of my purse after every dish served and take a sneak shots among dressed-up people.

Rolls

When Americans say "I love sushi," it means, "I love rolls." Today, California roll and other kinds of rolls can be seen everywhere, such as in supermarkets or food courts in malls, and people eat them as lunch or snacks, using chopsticks. As Japanese, it is amazing to hear all the acclaims by old and young folks, saying they love sushi, and also I feel proud to be asked which restaurant we like to go.
Furthermore, one of my friend's son was commented on his home-made lunch with envy by an American classmate, who said, "I'm jealous because your lunch is always sushi." It was not exactly sushi but rice ball (onigiri) though.....

Speaking of sushi, the most famous sushi restaurant in San Diego is "Sushi Ota." Ichiro, a Japanese outfielder for Seattle Mariners, seems to be visiting "Sushi Ota" whenever he comes to play at Petco Park, and for that reason, it is known as the best sushi restaurant here in San Diego. Other than Ota, there are a few authentic sushi bars in San Diego, as well as abundant of Korean-owned sushi restaurants.

Today, one of my friends and I ventured our lunch at Korean-owned restaurant named Nozomi. What I ordered was Spicy Tuna Roll, which seemed to be pretty popular since I see it everywhere, even in Sushi Ota. Its ingredients are some tuna mixed with mayonnaise and chili pepper, cucumbers, seaweed, rice, and salmon on top. Salmon is my favorite, so this roll satisfied me :) On the other hand, the one my friend ordered was weird. The Caterpillar. As its name shows, it looked like an odd caterpillar. The inside were cream cheese, burdock(gobo), cucumber, seaweed, rice, and avocado on top. We cannot count them as sushi, but as a new category of cuisine, they were acceptable. Our lunch, on the whole, was worth trying.

SATC

Watching movies is my favorite pastime;as long as it involves either love or moving scenes, I can enjoy it. Sex and the City, however, is not just a movie that I will choose for fun. It's more than that I have been longing for.

Today, four of nubile girls including myself marched into the theater, just like four protagonists in SATC, wearing not New Yorker's ostentatious dresses but Californian casual outfits such as T-shirts and flip-flops.

Frankly, I loved it. I just loved without any specific reasons. But during the first half of the story, I had been sort of shocked by the fact that most of the actors got old after four years of leave and all they got I thought were wrinkles above their upper lips and around eyes. Moreover, Carrie's "Big" seemed a little ordinary old man with a double chin. Unlike a small TV screen, on which they flamboyantly flourished four years ago, a large screen helped their tiny flaws like spots or winkles stand out.

Not until it's released in Japan, would I state anything about the story.
But interestingly, two of my friends stayed cool while I had been with tears in my eyes for almost an entire story. It might be a melancholic feeling that sprang up and made me feel so emotional, arousing my memories from each story on the TV show. Every single scene from the movie seemed to have some connection to the TV show, which has subtle but significant meanings. It means those who did not watch the TV show might not be able to enjoy the movie, though it introduces a plot a little bit in the beginning.

Contrary to various negative reviews that I read before, the movie version of SATC has attracted me just like the TV show did. If you enjoyed the TV show, you'd love the movie, for certain.

US Open Golf 2008

The U.S. Open Golf championship was held at Torrey Pines golf course in La Jolla. It is a beautiful course sitting on the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Luckily, I happened to have a chance to observe the playoff, Tiger Woods v.s. Rocco Mediate with my friend. Though it usually takes only about 15 minutes by car from my house to Torrey Pines, it took me more than one hour to carpool and get there since all the nearby parking lots were closed and the only way we could take was to go to Qualcomm stadium, the designated parking area 30 minutes from my house, and then take a shuttle bus for 30 minutes. Anyway, we made it. Barely could we arrive and see Tiger teed off. Tiger seemed to have a perfect figure, like dummy, and had a much smaller face than I imagined. Maybe it is his height and big arms that made his face look compact.

Give the tickets the night before, both of my friend and I had another appointment by noon. Therefore, we targeted the place to see Tiger and waited for him at the green on the second hole. The silence added up more tension around the green and it bursted into applause as he successfully putted. It was worth coming even for a glance at Tiger.

Moreover, this event turned out to be an unforgettable event for me. My friend was going to leave San Diego for good the next day for her country, Korea. This was the last chance to see each other, so she came with me, putting her packing aside on the condition that we would spend only an hour in Torrey Pines. Thank you for coming. Not only today's event but also everytime I spent with you, did I enjoy myself. I hope your life in Korea will be going well and we can meet up in Seoul or Tokyo again.

Baby shower

Unlike in Japan, Americans celebrate an expectant woman or an expectant couple before the baby is born. Trying to assimilate their culture, some of my friends and I had a baby shower last Sunday for a friend whose due date is July 6th. On the right hand side of the photo is the diaper cake my friend and I made with diapers for a newborn baby.

As an entertainment, we played some game. One of them is a diaper game. My friend prepared the diapers with various brand of chocolate spread out on it to imitate baby's poop, and all of us tried to discern which one is which by checking the color or smelling each chocolate. Being chocoholic, I got first prize. Moreover, my friend prepared a cake and hid a bizarre tiny figure of baby in it. The one who got the piece of cake with the baby figure will win a prize. Again, I got that prize too. I hope my fortune was not worn out only for it.

This time, the party was held at my friend's house, but last December, we had another surprising party at my house.

The Getty Center in LA

Getty Center Museum sits on top of a mountain in LA, overlooking all Los Angeles city. Its collection varies from medieval to present times, and from manuscripts of great antiquity, impressionistic pictures to modern photographs.
We arrived at the parking lot at around 10:30 on Saturday morning and took a tram up to the mountain. After brunch at a terrace cafe, we set out for a little journey to the medieval world. The exhibition we were most interested in, however, was not a middle age paintings or sculptures, but the photographs by a Mexican woman, Graciela Iturbide(1942-), and early photographs from the 1830's.

Admission:free, Tram:free, Parking lot:$8

Is this a college class??

"My Spanish class is not a Spanish class. It's an English reading class!" Not learning any new phrases or grammar, I kept complaining during the first 2 or 3 weeks this semester. What we do in class is mainly to read "Strange Pilgrims" by Gabriel Garcia Marques, a Colombian author, and discuss various things based on the story(but both in English.) Students are only 12 in total, varying in age from 18 to approx. 60. I thought it was a bit humdrum and maybe I needed a snap judgement to leave it. While I hadn't made up my mind, I missed the deadline to drop the class, and luckily, it has been getting more unique, exhilarating, and maybe a bit inspiring since we've been having some unusual events in class.

1. Birthday Party of Gabriel Garcia Marques

Our teacher prepared a birthday cake beautifully decorated with fresh roses from extraordinary dessert, which I've wanted to try, yet haven't, as well as sparkling cider in a champagne glass. We made a toast for Gabo, the absentee, in class for his 81th birthday.

2. Blindfolded and experienced the scent from the story

We were told to bring a blindfold to class without any explanations. When I arrived at our class, all curtains were already closed, a soothing water sound was playing, and a table big enough for 12 students to sit around was set up. To my surprise, our dean was also invited to the event. What we did was to surround the table blindfolded, be handed the items our teacher prepared one by one, and smell the scent of them. These items were something like roses, coffee, detergent, candle, talcum powder, chocolate and so forth, all related to the story "The Saint," and we all discussed based on the smells. We must have looked some kind of queer religious group. But her aim was just to let us feel the same ambiance in the story.

3. Field trip to Wine Bar
It was a nice wine bar, called "Wet Stone" in downtown. We met up at the spot during the class hours. Though we did not drink wine at wine bar, their food was fabulous and I enjoyed it a lot. We barely used Spanish, but all the time talked about "that "stories.

4. Tuscan food

Our teacher prepared Caprese salad and Ciabatta bread with olives, cheese & red peppers. She wanted us to experience Tuscan, again, the other story "The Ghost of August."

Our teacher is energetic and dedicated, and always lavishes in making the class amusing with her Caribbean sense of humor and hospitality;therefore, other than these special events, we always have something to eat in class, which she calls breakfast. This is not a normal Spanish class, and if I want to improve my Spanish, it's obvious I have to study on my own, yet I took to this class after all these.

Lemon

My dear lemon tree bore 14 lemons. Last year, it bore only one lemon. Way to go!!!
A few of them were cut and put straight into Corona, and some were used for Italian dishes, but most of them were transformed into jam, which I enjoyed to sank my teeth into on my homemade cookies :)

Granville Island in Voucouver

Our choice was not wrong. Out of our 5 days in Canada, we stayed the last night at downtown, Vancouver and did not waste our precious time, visiting Granville Island. Granville Island is right across the False Creek and we could reach there by either walk, bus, or boat. On the way, we took bus, and way back, boat(aprox. 5 min.) The reason people go there should be the public market, and ours, too. Variety of food from over the world were beautifully heaped and I felt an irresistible impulse to buy all these appealing food, especially the colorful Italian pastas and pretty sweets. Yet the fact that I still had to take a flight to San Diego made me give it up. Instead, I satisfied my appetite with a cup of cram chowder, which was exquisite :)