Scotland

The welcome committee.

Welcome to Skyfall:

Quote of the Day: Graduation

"Your tassels start on the right and go to the left. I hope the same will be true of your politics."

And also:

"Senator Dodd, as hard as you worked to pass the Dodd-Frank Act, we worked even harder trying to understand our Securities Regulation and Corporations classes as a result of the Act."

The ultimate "Throwback Thursday"

Throwback to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when I went with my mom...and the Korean Herald thought I was a boy!

Insomnia + sloths

After another almost sleepless night, I had a realisation. I like sloths because they look like baby chewbaccas, and because they're always smiling, and because they always look cuddly even when you know they have bugs in their coats.

However, I think I like them most because of their sleeping abilities. They are hardcore sleepers. As someone who deals with terrible insomnia, I find them to be inspirational. And aspirational. I hope to one day be able to relate to a sloth.

Quote of the Day: Every day I'm travelling

"Where are you these days? Philly? Vegas? Asia? Europe?"

Quote of the Day: Tax Class

"Who here uses Bing?"

*Silence*

"EXACTLY!  No one cares about Bing.  Of Microsoft's $20 million of revenue, $0 was from Bing."

Quote of the Day: Death by Echidna

"Last night I dreamt that you got a bad haircut and tried to kill yourself by hugging an echidna. How I knew it was an echidna, I'm not so sure. And fortunately it is a very ineffective way to do yourself in."


Follow up messages include a picture of an echidna:

And a description:

Echidnas, it's true, are weird. Male echidnas have terrifying, four-pronged fork penises, while female echidnas have "milk patches" instead of nipples. They all have prehensile (seeming) claws, and infant echidnas are, by any standard, objective definition, hideous. Still, the echidna looks like the older character in a children's book about woodland creatures  that walks around with a cane, wears pince-nez, fending off an evil steamshovel and, while serious meetings about the imminent steamshovel threat are being conducted in a hollowed out log, unhelpfully interrupts the proceedings to offer each character in turn some of its homemade fig cakes. Only when the creatures have run out of other ideas do they eat the fig cakes, realizing immediately that the cakes temporarily grant them super strength with which they can fend off mechanized interlopers and preserve their virgin dell.

Quote of the Day: Wolf Men

No, brah, I had to shave because I can't go outside looking like Wolf Man.

Overheard on the NYC subway.

My favourite things

Taylor Swift and goats.

Here they are together, finally, at last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vwhr8v7ikc

Third Culture Kids

This speaks to me.  It really really does.  (And it's Day/Month/Year!)

You know you’re a TCK when:
- “Where are you from?” has more than one reasonable answer.
- You’ve said that you’re from foreign country X, and your audience has asked you which state X is in.
- You flew before you could walk.
- You speak two languages, but can’t spell in either.
- You feel odd being in the ethnic majority.
- You have a passport but no driver’s license.
- You go into culture shock upon returning to your “home” country.- Your life story uses the phrase “Then we moved to…” three (or four, or five…) times.
- You wince when people mispronounce foreign words.
- You don’t know whether to write the date as day/month/year, month/day/year, or some variation thereof.
- The best word for something is the word you learned first, regardless of the language.
- You get confused because the money is coloured differently .
- You think VISA is a document that’s stamped in your passport, not a plastic card you carry in your wallet.
- You own personal appliances with 3 types of plugs, know the difference between 110 and 220 volts, 50 and 60 cycle current, and realize that a trasnsformer isn’t always enough to make your appliances work.
- You fried a number of appliances during the learning process.
- Half of your phone calls are unintelligible to those around you.
- You consider a city 500 miles away “very close.”
- You get homesick reading National Geographic.
- You cruise the Internet looking for fonts that can support foreign alphabets.
- You haggle with the checkout clerk for a lower price.
- Your minor is a foreign language you already speak.
- When asked a question in a certain language, you’ve absentmindedly respond in a different one.
- You miss the subtitles when you see the latest movie.
- You’ve gotten out of school because of monsoons, bomb threats, and/or popular demonstrations.
- You speak with authority on the subject of airline travel.
- You have frequent flyer accounts on multiple airlines.
- You constantly want to use said frequent flyer accounts to travel to new places.
- You know how to pack.
- You have the urge to move to a new country every couple of years.
- The thought of sending your (hypothetical) kids to public school scares you, while the thought of letting them fly alone doesn’t at all.
- You think that high school reunions are all but impossible.
- You have friends from 29 different countries.
- You sort your friends by continent.
- You have a time zone map next to your telephone.
- You realize what a small world it is, after all.

From http://tcklife.tumblr.com/post/41455774191/you-know-youre-a-tck-when-where-are-you

Quote of the Day: Normal (not)

"I mean this in the nicest possible way, but what could you possibly post that would make me seem so much more normal?  Our most recent conversations have revolved around storm troopers, cat cafes, and how much we hate Anne Hathaway.  There is comedy gold locked in our social media interactions...  I'm going to start calling you dumpling."

Soulmates.

Quote of the Day: Moms & Margaritas

"I just got an email from my mom today reminding me it's margarita day."

Love moms.  And margaritas.  And especially together.

Happy Margarita Day!

Zebra Attack

For better or for worse I don't tend to get involved in many causes.  However, one of my friends got diagnosed with cancer and is trying to raise money and awareness for her 28th birthday.  To me, this is a cause well worth supporting!

To whoever may read this blog, if you feel inclined to learn about her story, or help her reach her fundraising goal, the relevant links are attached below.

http://www.crowdrise.com/omg2013/fundraiser/katiehersh

http://zebraattackblog.tumblr.com

Lots of love, and please take care of yourself!

Top of the World

Breckenridge peak 8 summit, 12,998 feet

Breckenridge

First ski trip of 2013! So pumped. Not too bad a view either...

Quote of the Day: Subways

We were transiting between trains in an area undergoing construction, which was very narrow.

A woman asked a guy who pushed her to apologise, to which he responded, "I didn't push you, I smacked your ass as hard as I could."

Who said chivalry is dead?

Cat whispering

Quote of the Day: Law School Gunners

Professor: What is the rule here?

Gunner: Section 1245.

Professor: And can you describe what that is for those of us that haven't memorised the tax code yet?

Zing.

Quote of the Day

Today, in Chinese class, we were discussing Wharton's interview week.  Our teacher asked us if there were other dedicated "weeks".

My classmate said "Super Bowl Week".

I said "Shark Week".

Naturally.

Quote of the Weekend: Combovers

It's either a bald spot or a cowlick, but either way I excel at the combover.

Bachelorette

Congrats to my friend Susan on her upcoming wedding!

Things I love about China: Signs Edition

Myanmar

Some of my favourite pictures from an incredible trip.

Quote of the Day: Customs Edition

Officer: I see you were born in Korea.  Were you over there because of the military?

Me: No, because of finance.

Officer: So, is your family in the military?

Me: No, my dad is in finance.


I really need to get one of those global passes so I can avoid this same conversation every time I reenter the country.