Italy

In 2006 spring, I have been to Itay because the conference related to my job held in Como, Italy. Since I had to go alone, it was a good chance not only to get new information in conference but also to adventure. I traveled many countries but traveling without any company was first.

Both of the flutter and fear went cross my mind until I started. At that time, the company that I was working for supported my traveling expenses so I had to buy cheep air tickets. However, The amazing event happend in Japan when I stoped there to trasfer. A airline worker exchanged my business ticket into first class one. I could enjoy delious meals and kindest service.

It was the evening when I arrived in Como. Beautiful sunset and peaceful atmosphere in a small town made me comfortable. During the conference, I saw charming landscapes of the beautiful Lake Como which I have never seen before and heard chimes of chuches. It was a new experience for me because I have been living in a big and crowded city. After the conference hours, I meandered around the town. North of Como was Switzerland so I could the Montblanc Mountain on the top of the hill in Como. One day I was looking for a restaurant to have for dinner and I found a restaurant which was designed pretty. I ordered bacon spagetti and tried it in the original place of spagetti. Unfortunately, the taste was different from my expectation. Even though I couldn't eat less than a half of the spagetti, the mind that I tried original Italian spagetti made me pleasant.

On the second conference day I attended in a party which was held in a old villa which was constructed more than 100 hundreds ago. Interior design and antic furniture were so attractive and made me misunderstand that a price and a princess might live there. At the night, on the way to the hotel I saw the glow of the fireflies in the forest near the villa. It was so wonderful secene.

After conference finished, I traveled Milano and Venechia. There were a lot of shopping shops in Milano and I lost my way several times in Venechia because almost ways and buildings were very similar and roads were like labyrinth. In spite of a short trip, I was impressed by Italian culture, especially architecture and nature.

Kimchi

Kimchi is the most favorite food of Korean people. In our saying, we cannot live without Kimchi. If someone is Korean, they would be keeping one or several kinds of Kimchi in their refrigerators. Let me introduce Kimchi for a while. Kimchi is a raw and pickled vegetable. Most foods can keep their tasts just within 1 week, while Kimchi is possible to keep over than 3 years. I would like to boast Kimchi as a magic science. In fact, according to experts, the kinds of Kimchi are more than 200. It depends on ingredients. I have seen that my mother made Kimchi many times but honestly, I have two experiences to make Kimchi by myself. One was in Korea and the other was in Iowa here. After arriving here in last summer, I tried to make cabbage Kimchi. Unless my mentor's help, I might not eat it. Even though same ingredients are included, tasts are different.

Now, as you already heard my presentation about Kimchi in communication skill class, in this blog, I will introduce another Kimchi, Gakdugi, which is made of radish . I think making this is easier than cabbage Kimchi(Beachu Kimchi).

ingredients
a fresh radish
green onions
fine red pepper powder
ginger
galic
salt
optional ingredient : pickled baby shrimps

First of all, we can cut radish into cube-shaped and put in a large bowl and sprinkle with salt and then let them stand. Next, we have to prepare for source. Cut green onions and mash galic and ginger. And mix them with red pepper powder and some pickled baby shrimps (option). Finally, mix the cubed radish and the source that we made above. If you don't like spicy taste, you can control the quantity of the red pepper powder. Put them into a containter and eat them 2-3 days later.


This is Gakdugi, one of side dishes in Korea.

I love this.

My father

Whenever I think of my parents, I become to think about their lives. In particular, I learmed lessons of life from my father. My father is very diligent. He had run the shop until I graduated from university. He always opened the door of the shop in the early morning and closed it in the late evening even though there was no a customer. In my childhood, I could not understand my father why he did so. However, as I grew up and became adult, I realized that his diligence was a important lesson such like treasure. My father showed my brother and me diligence his own lives. I have never heard " be diligent"or "study hard" from my father but I could know what was good and followed that. My father trusted me and it made me be proud of myself. When I shoud choose or decide to do somthing, he always trusted me and respected my choice. Even when I decided the university as well as the job, they trusted my thought and choice.

Looking back to my childhood, I have good memories with my father. He loved to go out with me. In summer we used to go swimming in the river and collect snails. In winter my father sometimes went hunting. I can remember that my father and I followed the footprints of rabits and other animals on the snow at that time. When I was 10 years old, I had homework that is to make camera by using boards and cellopane papers. My father helped me cut the thick board and glue the green cellopane papers between boards. we successed to make a nice camera. My camera was selected for the exibition in our school. In my childhood, my father was my best friend as well as a mentor who guided me.

There are two sides to every coin.

I really agree with this idiomatic expression. Every situation and event have two sides as if coin has sides of head and tail. In my life, this expression was applied a lot. In particular, when I faced trouble that seemed not to be solved, thinking of various possibilities was helpful for me. Sometimes these thinking habit helps me find unexpected results. In other word, If I loose somthing, I can get something. However, in trouble situation, it was hard for me to think of this. When I was elementary student, my father was injured in car accident. At that time my father had to be in hospital for 6months. I was so scared because I thought that my father might die. I prayed for my father with all my heart and studied hard at that time because those were all that I could. Even though my father's car accident was bad news and sad event in my life, I could realize that not only existence of my father was very precious for me but also I loved my father so much. In my adolescent period, I could be mature through this event. I don't believe that terrible situation always have bad side and all situation and people cannot change.

my dream

When I was a child who didn't know letters, I wanted to become a miliary woman. The reason was that their uniform seemed pretty. After growing up, when I recalled my childhood's dream, I cannot help smiling. At that time, except military woman I had a lot of dreams like many other children. However, after being an adult, I don't think about those dreams. Rather than being somebody in future, usually I think about something to do for the future. Studying English is one of the very preparations. I want to express my thoughts and mind in English without pause and understand even their meaning behind speaking. Being able to communication with other people who speak English can make my life wider than now. If another language is popular, I would choose to learn the language. Now if I say about my dream, it is to be ready for a person who communicates with others well. After improving English skill, I would like to travel to other countries. Even though I don't have good skill of language, I can go to another country which I want to travel. However, I think I can not only learn their cultures and thoughts more but also understand them more if my speech is fluent. Now, this is my hope but I expect to be reality.

my favorate holiday in my country

-> This is Songpyon

There are some big holiday in Korea. Among them, I love thanksgiving day, which is usually called Chuseok in Korae, the most. The first reason that I like Chuseok is a longer vacation than other holiday. When I was working for the hospital, I used to travel other country during vacation. If I use the day off, I could have almost 10 days for vacation. And also I could see all my family in Chuseok and talked with my parents and brother with eating delitious Korean food when I didn't have plan to trip. I was living in Seoul and my parents was living in Wonju and my brother was living in Deajon so we couldn't often meet. In Chuseok, most Korean people make rice cake called "Songpyon" and share with their neighbors. An important thing of reasons why I love Chuseok is special foods such like Japchae, Buchimgae and Songpyon. I really like traditional Korean foods but I can't often eat them because it takes long time to make them. I am missing the mood of Chuseok as I am writing about it now.

Particular place

This place is near Melose and Molmontrack. Whenever I go to church or Fairway, I pass this place. I took photos in the last weekend becasue the color of trees was so beautiful. This place makes me think of romantic movie in which a couple are walking on the road under the trees. And also it looks really foreign park. Since I didn't feel foreign in Iowa City, this place was special to me. Maybe Iowa City gave me comfortable, so I didn't recognize here was not my country but abother country. I named this area "central park" and I like this place near my house. Also, in front of this place, in the center line, there are some trees changed red. I like seeing these trees. When I saw this red tree firstly, I thought of the bush in Exodus in the bible. I imagined the scene that God called to Mose within the bush. So I named this tree "bush". Seeing these trees is pleasant to me. Somtimes when I pass by the place, I intentionally drive slowly to see the trees.