Blood is thicker than water.

I never understood what this quote meant. "Blood is thicker than water". I knew it had something to do with family ties and how it's the strongest kind that exists. But the water part confuses me. If family means blood, then what does water stand for? Every other relationship in life? It seems silly to dilute one's non-familial relations to nothing more than simple H2o. Plus, I don't know who would agree that having thick blood is a good thing. Babbling.. anyways.

The quote remains half true: as long as they are alive, you'll never lose family, no matter how much you love/hate them. Mine has definitely been through some rough spots, with financial discord as the main culprit. Though whose family hasn't? I bet we've all got quite the collection of skeletons gathering dust somewhere. In any case, you've just got to learn how to brush it off and get past all the BS that blinds you from the fact that you share DNA with this person and that it's never going to change, so you might as well deal with it and smile. :)

[ Photos of me and my cousins ]

Ennui.

Hard to believe it's already been 2 months since I've been back home. It's been an everyday, take-it-as-it-comes struggle, with the job market hopelessly sinking with no end in sight. It also maddens me that most Starbucks still won't serve coffee in anything but paper cups. But I've become fonder of all the open spaces and 24/7 joints, though I might need more time for the pervasive advertising and waitresses treating me like Dr. Phil with their life stories.

I'm also happy to report that my 10-day no-carb nonsense is finally over! I celebrated with a hearty brunch consisting of nothing less than Belgian waffles, blueberry pancakes and creamy grits. Sorry, no pics. Was too busy savoring goodness ;)

But I do have some pics of my recent finds. In this economy (how many times do we see that phrase these days?), anything used or free sounds quite possibly even better than before.


I know, I know. This is probably the most pretentious, cliché book anybody can have these days, but it was $4 and I genuinely have been wanting to read it for a while. Found it at A Cappella, the used bookstore in Atlanta's hipster haven, Little Five. They play weird music there.

I also finally received my free gift from InterRail, a travel notebook! I'd bought one of their train passes back in April to travel through Germany, Austria, the Czech and Switzerland. It accidentally arrived to my old house in France, but my landlord was kind enough to forward it. Small acts of kindness rock.





Page 1.

Life's a little slow now, but at least I'll have a cool, InterRail notebook ready for when it starts to pick up. :)

Cheers, all. Have a fine weekend!

Give us our freaking daily bread.

I am currently on a 10-day no-carb diet. See also: Imprisonment. Torture. Death sentence. (All brought to you by my Personal Trainer, aka Satan in a muscle tee.) The saying is true: you don't realize what you have until it's lost. Being Korean doesn't help, because rice and noodles are EVERYWHERE, making it difficult for my parents to understand just why I would impose such a terrible thing on myself. (Of course they don't consider the fact that it was THEY who suggested 8 months of baguettes, wine and cheese weren't *ahem* the best for my physique..)

So here's a last look at you, Carbohydrates. See you in one week (currently on Day 3)! In the meantime, it's meat, dairy and veggies galore. Thrilling.

Independence.

Spent the holiday weekend with my parents by Lake Allatoona, an Army reservoir up I-75 just past Marietta. Didn't do much aside from lazy naps by the lake and taking a short hike through the Allatoona Battle Pass, which was the site of a Civil War battle. (Could it be from anything else in Georgia? I'm so rusty on my Southern history..) We caught some fireworks just down the road above Lake Acworth and spent the night at this cute B&B that came with a Southern breakfast and skittish kittens.












I didn't take any photos of the fireworks because my camera is absolute shite at nighttime shots (or, more likely, I just haven't figured out the right functions). Just take my word for it, it was an awesome display of fireworks, even if I had to be surrounded by rednecks and Republicans to see it.

We also made a pit stop at Piedmont Park on the way home for some lunch grub and a walk in a park, something I haven't done since high school.





Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th as well. God bless America!

Inspiration ...

... where have you been? Here are some of mine from this week. I'm feeling generous :)

A carefree & lovely melody by Esther Audrey Kim:



This really good essay explaining why we travel, published some time ago, but like anything well-written, remains utterly timeless:

"Why We Travel" by Pico Iyer

And art by Dan-ah Kim that I found on I Am KoreAm and is making me itch with wanderlust all over again:




Dan-ah Kim's website

Fourth of July on Sunday. Hope everyone finds a fun way to celebrate our awesome country. Cheers!