I Know I'm Asian.

Just because there are 1.6 billion (or whatever the number is) Chinese men and women in the world.  And despite that fact that Korean people are probs descendents of Chinese (and mongolians. can't forget the blue butt mark!). Just because you are Asian, it does not mean that you are Chinese. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but come on, just because I am Asian, it does not mean that I am Chinese.  I'm Korean. I even asked my mom to see how she would react. Heres a snippet of the convo (paraphrased of course)

Connie: "umma, am i chinese? everyone here thinks im chinese and thinks i look chinese"
Nancy: "haha. no. you just look Chinese because your grandfather is from north korea and they're from china. also asian people all look similar"
Connie: "oh. so im not adopted?"
Nancy: "-no response-" ( total rejection. she probably didnt hear that part...)

Of course i know im not adopted. I look exactly like her when i smile. atleast the bottom of my face does. i just wanted to see how she'd react. i think she thinks im funny. and a little absurd. Anyways so everyone thinks im chinese here and it kinda gets me down. and makes me more proud to be korean. and now, if someone guesses that im korean, i flip out. so far, only 4 people have thought i am Korean. And let me tell you, i've talked to more than 4 people. Also, why would you ask someone if they speak the language if they dont talk to you or look freaking confused?

my point: i have a tally going for when people guess my ethnicity. i never knew that how Chinese i looked until now...

Never Have I Ever...

devoted myself to No Shave November.  But lo and behold, in Pac Rim, theres always a time to do something you've never done.  These are some things that I done for the first time on this trip:
1. Been attacked my a monkey (Malaysia)
2. Not pooped for 4+ days (Mongolia)
3. Gotten a stomache everyday and eaten less. also actually save a snack for LATER rather than now. incredible (China)
4. Had to mime different animals when trying to communicate if the pho had fish or chicken in it(Vietnam)
There are many more, but if anyone says those things for never have i ever, i'm totally gonna lose a finger.

anyways. not shaving for a month has now officially been done. been there, done that. My legs will be so soft tomorrow when i rid them of those nasty hairs.  And since its been 2 MONTHS, it will be a glorious day. you betcha.

ping ping ping ping

Ping Pong. I havent played since i was a lil girl and have rediscovered it. okay okay i know the peitzmans have a ping pong table but i never play.  So after all this time, i cant say that im a prodigy but i can keep up. ish. i'm actually kind of obsessed with ping pong. did you know that theres an actual ping when you hit the ball. i know that sounds really stupid but it just dawned on me how "ping"ish the ping sounded. thus i can never stop laughing when i play ping pong. sorry, i meant "table tennis"

happy thanksgiving peng you!

Happy Thanksgiving lovely people! Today was a joyous day filled with too much food, friendship, and enough silliness to make me laugh hard enough to help move down the turkey in my estomago!  I ATE SO MUCH FOOD I CANNOT BREATHE AS I WRITE THIS. AND I FINISHED DINNER 4 HOURS AGO! We made thanksgiving dinner for about 80 people starting from last night and i was on the baking crew. we made 21 pies! apple pies, pumpkin pies, and sweet potato pies. the pumpkin turned out the best... so we cooked all night and today it was great. we woke up and wrote what we were thankful for on hand turkeys and a camera crew taped us. We ended up on the China news later that night! my 3 seconds of fame! I played banana grams, WORKED OUT, napped, and just fooled around.... ha. anyways the menu for thanksgiving dinner was cranberry sauce, spicy cranberry sauce, turkey, garlic mashed potatoes, bomb stuffing, green bean casserole, purple sweet potatoes, gravy. the pies. i had 5 slices of pie. omg. it was awesome. i mean, people say they eat a lot but really they don't compared to me. And also its obnoxious when girls get all self conscious when they wanna get seconds. Thats bull shit. WHO GIVES A SHIT?! 1. its thanksgiving.- you're supposed to eat too much 2. its clearly the spotlight effect. and 3. it doesn't matter if someone thinks you're eating too much. the only person who should matter is yourself. and maybe your mom.... but she'll still love you. Back to thanksgiving- we also have chinese buddies so we all ate together and it was great. i get delirious when im tired and when i eat too much so i was just speaking weird chinese. i dont even know chinese. i learned all the essentials though. such as "you are crazy, you are awesome, you are not handsome, hello, friend, awesome, and i'm sorry" YEAH!

Its been a great day but having Thanksgiving out of state was odd. out of the country is even weirder. I really do miss you guys.  However, it was really lovely spending it with people I love and with others who have now become my pac rim fambam. we're all a lil homesick but its nice how we have each other. i'm thankful for my family, friends, and the opportunity to travel the world. I'm thankful for having people in my life who make me smile. I'm also thankful for my stretchy pants. We all had food babies and my face is a little rounder. but whatever. more to love. Love all around! seriously!

its 10:50 p.m.and we decided to get another slice of pie.... out diet starts tomorrow... after we eat all the pie and leftovers for breakfast!

good bye vietnam

we had our end of country meal after our final on thursday and aside from being delicious, it was actually really sad. our whole table group teared up minus greg.  the whole time in nam, we had a group that was assigned to work on the marketing strategies of a specific industry. so of course we chose bia hoi, essentially the beer industry.  you can get a cup of bia (beer) for 25 cents at bia hois. its keg beer but the point of bia hoi is to socialize with your friends. usually a man thing. anyways so we had a program assistant (hip, you already read about her) and she gave us all gifts with little notes and man just reading the first line made me tear up. she told me that "she loves my smiling eyes". thats so sweet. and basically everyone started tearing up/ crying. vietnam was really great because we got to know students who showed us a whole different side of nam that we wouldn't have seen without them.  we made friends and explored hanoi with the kindest, cutest, and most genuine people ever. It was hard to leave vietnam not only because of the people but the food and well, it was great. Nam is dirty, needs to work on its traffic, and is super loud. But its got great food, people, and a really exciting lifestyle. It's also beautiful

We went to Hai Long Bay, one of the 7 wonders of the world (or something cool like that. i bet its on Planet Earth), for the weekend and basically kicked it on a boat and went ashore to a resort for 2 days. it was a vacation. no school. just pampering. there were even pools at the resorts. don't worry i didn't steal anything... actually i took the shower gel... yeah i admit it, nice things are hard to come by and when we get anything nice, we all go crazy. Maybe thats why we dont get nice things on pac reezy.  Anyways, it was a really lovely weekend full of sun, beach, and good food. yes i got tan. and no i did not shave. thats another thing. I HAVENT SHAVED IN LIKE 2 MONTHS. its really sick. i thnk i'll shave after thanksgiving. no shave november. check.

back to nam.  Vietnam: a really great country that i recommend you to go to. especially if you're on a budget. its dear to my heart. also lets be real, after 2/3 months, vietnam was bound to be memorable. lets just say that there were lots of memories made there.... so yeah we peaced out of nam on monday morning and traveled to another country.  I'm excited for this month since everything is going down and its actually cold here (nam was warrrmmmm). holiday weather. we'll make do with what we got. the next time i write will be after christmas/ probably in 2012. so until then, happy holidays and keep it real!

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for some reason on this trip i am consistently becoming more influenced by food.  its a little bit ridiculous how much of an effect food has on me.  on the saturday, we went to the night market and had dinner with some of the pa's. i wasn't too hungry, pretty ambivalent, but you know, it was dinner time so it was bound to happen. so after dodging some motor bikes and yelling at honking taxis, we made our way to an outdoor pho place that sold the best pho/salad dish in hanoi.  a little secretive so we got the inside scoop. it wasn't the regular brothy pho that you would imagine. it was cold and had a slightly salty sauce to it with chicken on top. a salad with a sweeter sauce was also served. it was probably one of the best meals i have had in vietnam and let me tell yah, i've had a lot of good food. so literally after that meal, i went from ambivalent to ecstatic. it was insane. kind of like when i jumped off the 50 ft rock this summer and it was so cool that i was constantly thinking about it and remembering how great it was. yeah. it was THAT GOOD.

so you'd expect that to be normal? no that isn't. because it was literally night changing. i felt so happy like i had millions of endorphines pumping through my body. just from a good meal.

the night should have been great since i felt so good, but you know what they say, what comes up must come down. so we're walking around the market and it gets fucking crowded as shit all of a sudden and i was like omg! the crowd passed and as we walked, i looked down at my bad and REALIZED THAT IT WAS SLASHED. SLASHED. AND HALF OPEN. thank god i had my nalgene to block the slash but STILL. my REAL LESPORTSAC got SLASHED. /////////////////ed! i was so angry. almost as angry as that time that everyone cut me off in the trader joe's parking lot 2 summers ago and i got so angry that i pumped the music, cursed everyone so loudly, and drove too fast on the freeway entrance then had to stop because of the damn traffic light for entering the freeway. joyce and i almost died.... anyways YEAH PO-ED CONNIE! NOT SAFE! so after that happened i walked around like a paranoid tourist and held my bag like my new born child.  and jumped at anything tha tmoved around me.  i swear, i blame that on the macaques in malaysia... i'll tell you about that later. so imagine connie suh, all fidgety and paranoid, clutching her bag to her body,with crazy eyes... yeah. BUT WAIT THERES MORE

I SAW AN ALBINO ASIAN TOO! IT WAS INSANE.

so as you can tell, that was quite the night. and just the beginning of an interesting night. well last weekend in hanoi, go big or go home

OH SHIT!

now i have your attention.  Did you know that coffee is a laxative? Well if you didn't, now you know.  Well Vietnam is famous for its coffee, as seen in the hundreds of cafes and the selling of civit cat poop coffee, and for the last 3 days, i have been indulging in this coffee shablooey.  Mainly to get internet access... Well so i've been getting coffee not really because ineed or want it but because i dont wanna be rude.  the coffee here is really concentrated and given in real small amounts. its good/really strong/ often times makes me feel  like ive been drinking alcohol. it also makes me poop. yeah we havent talked about this in a long time but for the last three days, about 1 hour after i drink the coffee, i have to use to WC (toilet). and its not one of those poops that you know is coming. like out of nowhere my bowels panic and then i really have to go. just creeps up on yah! well i just wanted to tell you that. mainly because i just went and thought it was wild how this happened again. the whole pooping after coffee....