Happy 2011 Blogspot

Courtesy Stumbleupon~~

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Not much to report from this front. I'm feeling better pretty consistently. I get a little "wired" at times but magnesium, taurine, and if necessary a little 5-HTP seem to help right away. Or sometimes I just have to go a night with not so great sleep. But I've been able to be reasonably active and have done a lot this week. I went ice skating twice (last night was the best, the local team had a game and there was a free skate afterward, ideally for those that had bought tickets but they allowed us to come in...), on a drive up around Spencer's Butte but never did get off at the park... we passed it... but it was a nice drive.

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Some resolutions for 2011:

-graduate in Spring (figure out how to get out of my science major and honors college... mostly because I feel they are not preparing me for the jobs I'm applying to and are just extra money and hassle, forcing me to take grad requirements instead of classes I'm interested in or I think would be helpful for me)
-think positively

-make some friends, reconnect with who's left in Eugene and keep in touch with everyone who has escaped

-have a wonderful time with Tomona when she comes to visit

-start getting stronger with dance and yoga

-apply and get accepted to various companies in Japan

-maybe I'll be in Japan by September? It all depends on the companies' schedules

Western Izakayas and TRUE VACATION~~

So today I was looking through the local paper and I guess there is an Izakaya Meiji in Eugene. I didn't know about it until today, but my mom came because my follow up appointment for the CYST was today. And the CYST is GONE! So good news all around. My blood pressure was really low though... no wonder my legs fall asleep so easy and when they do it's the whole darn leg and I walk around like a cripple for a few minutes after... dizzy standing... heart beating like crazy. But a lot of relief. I'm going to Izakaya Meiji with the boys tonight. I think I'll take my camera and hopefully the food is pretty good.

It's "Wild-Western" themed with izakaya fare... I'll let you know how good it is, but the bar-goers of Eugene have given it a 4/5 star rating on the scale which is pretty good. The only almost authentic Japanese food I've had in the Eug is the raamen and even most my students don't really like that (Toshi's best thing is the gyoza I think...Toshi's Raamen) You can get much more authentic Korean food in Eugene... no coincidence that most the Korean places are Korean-owned. Just looked at the menu... they have it all! Garatan, karaage, korokke. All the good greasy Japanese stuff. And of course yakitori. Aww good memories. I'll include a picture from a time eating yakitori in Japan with my school friend's family.

Are you sufficently hungry yet?

Korean in Eugene

Yummy Dol-sotbap in Jeju, Korea

So while I'm woefully ignorant of Korean culture (especially with my quasi-literacy of Japanese culture considered)... I do know what Korean eats in Eugene I would classify as GOOD. And for the most part, I will be honest, they are ALL GOOD.

With that said, I will say that my favorite Korean eats in Eugene are as follows:

-Cafe Ari-rang: food and sweet owners

-Sushi Seoul: dry cleaning, food, karaoke, American, breakfast, lunch, dinner, late night, sweet owners

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Backups: Cafe Seoul , Korea House, Noodle Bowl (people love noodle bowl, however, I personally prefer to go to the places where they state outright that they do not use MSG based on my sensitivities) I would say all of them have good service and usually there is a sweet owner-type figure around that really makes you feel at home. Not the feeling you get when you go to all the commercialized restaurants these days.

So I knew that there was this little area of Eugene that was suspiciously Korean. There was what looked like a basic sort of "go buy your lotto-ticket and get a philly-steak sandwich, coffee" kind of cafe by the supermarket I go to next to a dry-cleaning shop... when I noticed that there was a cryptic little message beside the door... that was a Korean menu where they had Korean food a few days of the week. Then, just a week ago, I noticed that the whole place had changed and the name was now "Sushi Seoul" The food is good~~~ extremely fresh and delicious side dishes (kim ch'i and various pickled things) My favorite for hot-stone bi-bim-bap (Korean vegetable rice with spicy sauce dish) is still Ari-Rang but theirs wasn't bad and the bulgogi was really good. So now they have Korean food all the time, they've added in sushi at dinnertime, and still have the American and cafe options going all day long. You can go there for breakfast, lunch, dinner... and if you're feeling especially rambunctious you can stay and get drunk and do karaoke into the night. Just know that it's a norae-bang. It's quite the multi-tasking establishment.

My husband would be so mad at me for writing this but I can't resist ;) Where is the harm in saying that it is "so Korean"... when it is? Of course, just like America, Korea is a lot of things so it's hard to put anything in a box like that. I mean, you can say, Red Robin is "so American", or around here we have a local chain gaining force called Dickie Jo's... I wouldn't feel offended... but that's because I have to answer the question so much "What is America?", "What is American culture" so much... and the more I answer the question the more difficult it becomes... so if anyone out there knows what American culture is, please let me know. It will really help me in my work.