Nyanko's Basket

A rough list of things that happened over the last few weeks, not in any particular order:

I got a lot of anime DVDs and manga volumes, including Fruits Basket (both anime and manga up to volume 16), Lupin III, Ghost in the Shell (the movie, SAC, SAC 2 and SSS), Lain, Paranoia Agent, Last Exile, Haibane Renmei, Bottle Fairy, volume 1 of Princess Tutu (a special request I made to huegcaet), Nazca and a lot of other series that I can't remember

I found two friends at work to play piano duets with! ^_^ And I'm playing with one of this Thursday, which I hope will go well

I organized a Korean movie screening at my apartment tonight, since we couldn't really go to Imo's for dinner and my apartment is also very close to everyone's offices, and it was about 3 hours of non-stop fun together with eating a yummy take-out dinner from the nearby Paldo World. "I'm a Cyborg, but it's OK" is a movie that does a lot to improve your Korean vocabulary, and it's also really interesting how it can actually tackle the social issue of mental illnesses in a very matter-of-fact way. ^^;;

I've also been working out at the gym and I noticed that I was able to lift 15 pounds more for the lats pulldown, as well as increasing weights on some of the other exercises in my workout routine, though the shoulder complex is still the hardest/most painful one right now. ^^;; I also lost 6 pounds when I checked on Monday, which is probably a good thing

This was totally not prompted by another trip report posted elsewhere

I met relsqui and testing4l on Friday afternoon at San Francisco airport, where they were picking me up from even though they don't actually live in SF. We had a nice time overall, eating at several different restaurants (a Jewish deli, a real Chinese restaurant, Pizz'a Chicago and a Mongolian BBQ - twice!), and I really enjoyed hanging out with them and having fun together. :)

I played Guitar Hero and Gran Turismo at their place, and although I didn't exactly do well in either game, I did enjoy myself lots. :) I also watched testing4l play Okami and Tony Hawk and he seems to be quite good at both.

The highlight of the visit was going to an impromptu "game night" that a friend of theirs organized, and I learnt a few things there:
- I definitely can't sing country music at all without failing totally.
- There are actually people who can sing country songs well, and perhaps more scarily actually know most of the songs featured in Karaoke Revolution Country.
- Somehow, I seem to do much better at singing songs featured on American Idol
- Karaoke Revolution is very addictive~ And a very good way of breaking the ice, even when I totally fail at singing country duets and the person I was singing with looked more and more embarrassed ^^;;;

[Edit: I totally forgot to mention TheTech Museum! >_< It was made of awesome and win, both for all the exhibits - how often do you get a chance to design a car starter, especially one that starts the car when the door is open? And whacking spam (literally) has such a therapeutic effect~ - and for the loads of fun I had there (including being in an 'earthquake', playing with lots of coloured foam tubes, and lots of other stuff). The IMAX movie we watched ("The Human Body") was also jaw-droppingly awesome, and I would totally go back to TheTech again just for the IMAX experience. XD I also bought several shirts and other things to remind me of my visit and to wear when I run out of clothes.]

( Photos while I was there! )

I wish I had been able to stay longer, so that I could have seen more of California, spent more time with them and their cats, and even gone for a ride in the famous MR2. But it was still a good experience. :)

There was a minor scare at the airport when I thought I'd left my cellphone in their van, but it turned out that it was actually in a pocket of my bag. *embarrassed laugh* One unexpected benefit was that I got an exit row seat because there were three passengers on my flight who were willing to give up their seats and take a later flight...

I got home at around 1:15 am on Tuesday morning and promptly crashed in bed. XD

On Wednesday, there was a Korean documentary, 송환 (Repatriation), that marked the end of Korean movie screenings for this quarter and which I went for even though I was probably the only student in the audience.

( More about the documentary )

I hope that I'll be able to take Korean classes again next quarter. ^^;; And in other news, I'm going to be playing in a cricket match on Saturday. o_o

On Tuesday night, my Korean class went for dinner at Blue Ginger, a pretty popular (and good!) Korean restaurant in Bellevue (it's at the intersection of NE 20th St and 140th Ave NE). The restaurant was great and I had a large bowl of soup (of which I forgot the name now, but it was originally prepared with dog meat) with shredded beef chunks in it. It was really spicy, but it was wonderful. ^_^ We also found out more about our classmates and the teacher, including the fact that one of my classmates has been at Microsoft for 18 years. ^^;;;

Random note: fried kimchi and pork belly slices are wonderful~ Though not in soup ^^;;

On Wednesday night, I watched 깃 (A Feather), which was a somewhat slow but also quite moving movie about a "mediocre" film director, a piano, a hotel on an island, dancing the tango, and a promise... The scenery was very beautiful and I actually liked the movie, even if in some parts the pace seemed a bit slower than usual. ^^;; But I enjoyed the movie overall. ^_^

Last night (Thursday), the TV and DVD player that I'd ordered were delivered at around 9 pm, and it was pretty easy to set them up (within minutes, in fact).

( Picture )

One more week until I meet relsqui, testing4l and their cats

Oh, and for some unknown reason, I started playing Clair de Lune. So far I can play it sounding nothing at all like the original. ^^;;;

As part of the Korean language class, we're going to be watching 3 movies over the next few weeks~ hopefully with subtitles

( Movies )

I'm looking forward to watching them. :)

Edit: fixed links

That's about all I want to say at this point.