on sunday, march 4th i was staying with my friends david and kathy. kathy's working on an internet sitcom with a few of her friends, and that day they were shooting so david and i brought lunch for them. david's the official photographer, so in between takes he managed to take some shots.

i held the boom for a couple of scenes, which is that long microphone someone has to hold over the actors' heads. it's tough to make sure it doesn't dip down into the frame, and you also have to watch out for shadows. then you gotta stay out of the cameraman's and director's way, and then finally you can think about how all the blood has rushed down and out of your raised arms. but it's fun being a part of a production, so it was cool.

the show is called life from the inside, you can watch it online any time.

tagged: life from the inside photography web show

on saturday, march 3rd my very good friend got married to her longtime boyfriend peter. both the ceremony and the reception were held at a beverly hills restaurant, and i think it worked out really well having it all in one place.

everyone there seemed to have a really nice time, i think it was an excellent idea to have it all in one place. it was nice not having to switch from a church to a reception, that always seems to cause a certain amount of commotion or added complication to the day. mark did an excellent job marrying them, his words were very personal and heartfelt. the food was great, and for me it was really cool since i got to see a lot of friends for the first time in a long time. i hadn't actually even seen anna since i'd been back from korea. i was really glad that the timing of my return to the states allowed me to make the wedding, it's one i just couldn't have missed.

tagged: cake friends wedding

on friday, march 2nd my good friend david let me borrow his car for the afternoon and i drove around burbank looking for apartments. i didn't really have much luck, but it was nice driving around the town i had lived in before i went to korea. i was reminded by some of the things i'd missed when i was in korea.

i used to work in this buidling, and it's where david works now. when i was there we worked in a small section of the bottom floor, and the rest of it was totally wide open and undeveloped. for a little while we had a lot of fun playing soccer in there. it was surreal going in there and finding cubicles packed in as far as the eye can see where we'd once played soccer.

this is by far my favorite time of day, and i love that warm light that you can find everywhere once in a while, but never as often as in southern california. a very welcome change from the colder, harsh winter light i'd lived with in korea over the previous five months or so.

tagged: burbank california disney metrolink mountains sunset verdugo

thursday, march 1st my friends koizu and natalie took me to a koreatown pork barbecue restaurant i'd never tried before called 꿀돼지 (gool doeji, translated as honey pig).

i'm pretty excited to have found another great koreatown restaurant to add to my arsenal. this one is great too since their specialty is pork, something i became very fond of during my time in korea. if you want to check it out for yourself, here's the info:

꿀돼지 (honey pig)
3400 w. 8th st., los angeles, ca
open: 11am to 1am, 7 days a week. phone: 213-380-0256

tagged: barbecue korean koreatown los angeles pork restaurant

one of the first things i did once i got back to america was to get a new cell phone. i really wanted to try and activate my korean cell phone since i liked it so much, but after doing some online research it looked like it wasn't possible. so i went online and found that cingular had a good deal on the motorola razr for only $20, after annoying rebates, of course.

all in all i like the phone, it's very light and i like how slim it is, i hardly notice it in my pocket all day. i'm not as crazy about the software running on it, to me the menus are not all that well-designed. i still find it clunky to navigate around a lot of the time.

the reason i specifically signed up with cingular was because i'm just waiting to switch to another phone when it comes out. although recently i have been leaning towards waiting for the second generation to come out since i know it will probably be better and cheaper. plus i want it to have gps so i can get a google map on my phone of where i am, that would be awesome!

so i'm glad this new phone i've got is working just fine, i think i can use it for a while longer before i finally decided to upgrade to a more fancy model.

tagged: cell phone motorola

my friend koizu was nice enough to let me crash at his apartment for about a week in simi valley where he was living at the time i arrived back in the states in late february. i spent that week mostly getting adjusted to the time change and hanging out at july films, the animation studio our teacher and friend mike nguyen started. mike let me use one of their computers to research for the new apartment and car i had to find. in the meantime, we went out to eat, and here are a few of the first meals i had back here.

tagged: cheeseburger food french fries in-n-out kalbi panang thai food

on the morning of friday, february 23, after two years of living in korea, i left and came back to america. i left my apartment around 6:00a, but before i left i had one last look around.

it's funny because it's only now that i realize that while my apartment was a decent size, everything in it was small. it's was as if they just took a tight little place and stretched it out, but left all the smaller amenities just as they were.

moving away is always a weird thing because you're trying to figure out how you feel about it, but it's hard to even focus on that because there are always so many arrangements to worry about. i wanted to spend some time reflecting on my life in korea and looking forward to the changes to come moving back to america, but it was impossible to ignore the heavy suitcases i had to drag down to the airport bus stop.

at the airport i was told that my suitcase was too heavy, and i'd have to move some things into a separate box. luckily they had a station for doing just that in the terminal, and it only cost around ₩6,000 ($6) for the box and the packing. after all that early morning rushing to get packed and to the airport, my flight was delayed about two hours. even worse was the fact that i had booked my flight a bit late and got stuck on a chinese carrier and therefor had to fly over to shanghai and then on to los angeles. i did get a bit of good news as i waited in the crowded terminal for the delayed flight. an airline employee came up to me and said they were bumping me up to business class for the short flight to shanghai.

once in shanghai i went through a slightly strange process in order to connect to my other flight to los angeles. most of the korean passengers from seoul were simply visiting china, so there were only about four of us connecting to another flight. an airport employee personally walked us through this maze of the airport to go through customs and another security check in order to get to the terminal we needed. in all it felt very unofficial, as if they were making special accommodations for these few strange passengers who got the radical new idea they'd connect to another flight.

after that it was a typical journey from shanghai to los angeles. i was disappointed they didn't have a tv monitor in the back of the seat in front of me, but they did have an outlet so i hooked up my laptop and entertained myself that way for much of the trip. i arrived in los angeles around 11:00a and my friend koizu picked me up. from there we went straight to (where else?) koreatown for lunch with his girlfriend natalie at one of my favorite restaurants, 길목 (gil mok, the corner place).

well, for now at least my korean journey is over, but i look forward to chronicling my american adventures here in the future. as always, i want to get caught up so i'm not writing about things that happened three months ago. i'll do my best. in the mean time, thanks for everyone who checked out my site while i was in korea, and i hope you'll still find it interesting now that i'm back in the states.

tagged: apartment korea leaving luggage

thursday, february 22nd was my last evening in korea. i met my good friend hyejin for dinner at my favorite 돼지길비 (doeji kalbi, barbecued pork) restaurant in my old neighborhood in 논현 (nonhyeon).

oddly enough, since i've been back in los angeles i've tried having this food but none of my korean friends in america seem to know this. if i say 돼지갈비 (doeji kalbi) they think of a spicy version, not this version. i wonder if it is only recently popular in korea. from how widely available it is i just assumed it has been a longstanding favorite. and even if it is sort of new thing, i would still think that korean in america would also enjoy it. right now i'm on a quest to find it in los angeles.

after the meal, hyejin and i walked down to the gangnam station area and went to an old hangout of ours, the o'sulloc green tea cafe. i had my favorite thing there one last time, a green tea shake called 프레도아이스크림 (fredo ice cream). we had a nice time talking a lot about the previous two years and how fast they'd gone by. hyejin also had a big transition coming up for her, shortly after she moved to india to work for an animation company doing business with her korean company. i went home around 11:00p and got some last things packed to be ready to leave early the next morning for my flight back to the states.

tagged: barbecue doeji kalbi korea korean food pork raw crab 돼지갈비