Slow Down, I'm Moving Too Fast, You Know You Can't Catch Me

I went home to San Jose this previous weekend with Xuemin and though we didn't do much, except a small barbeque at the house, it was definitely nice just getting away from Berkeley. We tried a new pho restaurant, Pho Que Huoung, oh so disappointing. We also tried Hiro Sushi, also another disappointment (read Xuemin's yelp review for more details). But again, it takes tasting something not so stellar, to know what you consider delicious.

We finished moving on to the new summer sublet on Wednesday and though it was a hassle, we have now settled in. At the time, I wasn't really thinking about the distance from campus but as I walked by at 9PM after my class ended, I definitely was conscious of everything -- the darkness, the shadiness, the distance... I miss our old studio :(

Classes are going pretty good. I'm enjoying both the Antebellum U.S. history class and the Racism in U.S. Law course. In both courses, we have just finished discussing Andrew Jackson's presidency and the Cherokee Nation, and the question that has come up is, is there really a system of checks and balances? If the Supreme Court makes a decision, but it is not enforced (as in the case of President Jackson and the Worcester v. Georgia case), then how much power does the judicial branch REALLY have? And if the Supreme court of the land is not adhered to and the law is not the source of power, then what is the point in fighting within the legal system? And so on and so forth, my mind thinks.

In other news, happy times, I received a Gilman Scholarship! Yay! I'm pretty sure I agreed to do a blog as part of my service project, so whether or not I will make an independent blog for France and other potential study abroad students, I will let you know.

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Korean Drama Movie Update:
Lately, I've been really interested in two particular dramas: Queen In-hyun's Man and I do, I do (technically I just started I do, I do, but man, I just really like it!)

Queen In-hyun's Man is hilarious, romantic, suspenseful, sci-fi... all in all, it's fantastic. The plot is just excellent: Basically a former scholar from historical Joseon-era Korea comes to the future where he falls in love with a modern day actress.
It explores a lot of the interesting notions of time travel and the butterfly effects as well as just time traveling hijinks like what we would imagine would happen if you were deposited in modern day and learn about driving cars and flying, etc. The leads are also adorably cute together with witty banter.
It's also been making me think of concepts of inevitability and cause-and-effect and how chains of events can culminate in another event.


Definitely a highly recommended watch! You are in for a fun ride :)






I Do, I Do is rather novel to me (in terms of Korean dramas) because it switches up the notion of expected gender roles and alpha-beta. The general gist is that a alpha-type (read: take charge type) career older woman (Kim Sun-ah, ahhhh! one of my favorite actresses) has a one night stand with a beta-type (read: follower, meek type) younger man and she gets pregnant.

If you haven't watched it yet, beware, for I am writing spoilers here:
There's the morning-after scene between the two that is refreshingly scream and panic-free and still extremely hilarious and awkward.
But one of the scenes that stood out to me was the argument in which the lead actress accuses the lead actor of being a loser that doesn't understand success and he retorts that she is in fact, the loser because she may have a nice car, house, job, money, etc, things that she deems as success, but at the end of the day, she doesn't have any friends and only her shoes (she's a shoe designer). And it really brought the question to mind: What is success without others to share it with? And what does it mean to be successful anyways?

Having watched the trailer first and having no enthusiasm for the drama and then having watch an episode and loving it, I have to say, the trailer did the drama and plot no justice... I mean, there are so many things they could have said: I mean, they are both children who are deemed by their parents to be not dutiful and unfit, now these two folks will have to raise a child of their own! Or the fact that both of them have different understandings and measures of success and will now be able to motivate each other or fill that gap that the other lacks.

Anyhow, definitely a watch! Join me, so we can talk over it and anticipate episodes as they come out. It's relatively new and just started this past week, still a lot of time to catch up!
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Okay, I guess that's all for my writing of the day!
And in case you are curious, the blog entry title of the day is from a lyric of a fairly popular song lately in the Bay Area :)