you're in kokoLand

BLOG MOVED!!

2011-08-18T19:06:00.002-04:00

(or remove www. from the address)

:)

summa summa summa-time!

2011-06-20T16:31:00.000-04:00

I. Love. The. Sun.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those sun-loving types that like to get so baked that their skin changes to a different race. Rather, I like to feel the hot rays warming up my skin, absorbing the vitamin D that's so rare during long Canadian winter months..

My building has a patio on the mezzanine floor with BBQ machines, lawn chairs, picnic tables etc., so I've been coming out here quite a bit lately. Sometimes with a book or two in hand, sometimes with my sketchbook, sometimes just to do my nails... today I'm sitting out here doing work *thumbs down* on the computer.

One thing I can't handle about summer though... is the MOSQUITOES.

No joke, I'm severely allergic to them. Not like I'm going to die if I get bit kind of severely allergic, but you know, pretty bad. On most other people, mosquito bites are just annoying and itchy. When those little fckers bite me though, they go haaaaaard!! Each bite swells up to like 3 inch wide and an inch high, itch to the point of where I want to cut my skin open and scratch the inside of my skin, then they turn purple and into a hard lump before scarring.

Yeah, not pretty!!

See photo exhibit A and B, from last summer. I went to a friend's backyard BBQ party. Obviously I put extra strength bug repellent on, but as we walked through the tall grass, it must've wiped off most of the repellent from the tops of my feet and ankles. The vampire-wannabes must've smelled me from miles away and brought all their friends and family to feast on my feet.

Sorry if those made you puke a little bit in your mouth. Trust me, they itched way worse than they look. I had to bandage up my feet and ankles before going to work so I don't scare people ("OMFG what the hell is wrong with your feet? Do you have a disease?!!!").

Anyway, so yeah as much as I would love to be at one with the nature and go to the cottage and explore the wilderness or whatever... I just can't. When a friend asks me "Hey do you want to go camping with us this weekend?", my response is always "Hell to the no. Aaaaabsolutely not". Then they take it personally and get all mad... lol but they don't understand that I actually can't be outdoors with this kind of allergy!

Le sigh. Anyway, that's my rant for the day. The sun's great, though. As long as the bugs keep their distance.

koko

30 hour vacay @ Pearson airport, london bound, other life updates

2011-05-23T17:46:00.000-04:00

I'm going to hold this sauce pan in front of my face to block you from yelling at me. Why are you yelling? Because I haven't blogged for so long! Why the sauce pan? *shrug* It was the first thing I could grab within reach.

Jokes aside, I've been super busy! Not quite busy enough to have gone this long without posting.... anyway, we're past that topic.

Does my blog title make you curious? I'm not joking, I spent 30 hours at Pearson airport! And yes, I'm London (England, not Canada) bound. =)

The airport thing... it might merit its own blog post soon. The circumstances behind why I was spending 2 days at the airport, the people I met, the stories we shared, the horrors of competing for the best sleeping spots inside the airport (on cardboard mattresses right by the Starbucks), the tears of joy when some of us got called to board the plane (then got kicked out... ha!)... might make for a really interesting blog post lol. Stay tuned!

As for the London thing...
I've been really bored with my life lately. I don't mean that there's nothing going in my life and I'm bored, but just kind of tired of Toronto, the same people and the same drama and just the familiar views, I guess. I was thinking about where I would go if I were to leave Toronto, and Vancouver was easily the first choice I thought of. (actually it was the only choice I thought of at the time)

I've lived in Vancouver for a bit, my mom and brother still live there, I have friends there, and know the areas, streets, shops, etc. It would make for a comfortable move... So being the project manager that I am, I made a pros and cons list. Let's start with the Cons.

Cons of moving to Vancouver:
- leave my dear friends in Toronto (but visit all the time)
- break the lease on my apartment building, where I had to be on a wait list to move into
- rain. rain. rain. rain. rain.
- a potential downgrade in my career, as 604 doesn't have nearly as many advertising agencies as 416

Pros of moving to Vancouver:
- make a ton of new friends (yay! but not too many Asians. i still need my multicultural circle)
- move into a brand new city where things are a little unfamiliar, but absolutely beautiful with breathtaking views of the mountains and ocean
- cute rain boots and trench coats
- a potential upgrade in my career, as coming from 416 will automatically boost my paygrade (ups of coming from a "big city")

I really thought about it. I was in Vancouver for my birthday a couple weeks ago, and my friends purposely drove me around to the best views and restaurants to sway my decision.

Then, while at dinner one night with some coworkers back in Toronto, my friend Cherie said: "if you're going to move out of Toronto and go somewhere new, why not go somewhere big? like London"

Bing.

Cherie's originally from Australia and moved to London, ENG for a few years and didn't want to leave. She was kind of kicked out of england and into canada lol... but anyway.

She's right. If I'm going to sell all my furniture and make such a drastic move, why not do it up! Go big or go home!! Plus, I'm 24 now. If not now, then when? I don't have a husband or kids, my family's all over the world anyway so it wouldn't matter where I go, I don't really have anything holding me to a city... Sure London's got its share of rain, but come on, it can't be worse than Vancouver lol.

And yes, before you say it, I know London's crazy expensive. But that's only if you're earning dollars... If you're earning pounds, you'll be fine! Apparently the advertising agency industry over there pays out the ass.. I wouldn't like ass money, but more money's great news!

So I started looking into it. Being Canadian, it shouldn't be too hard to get a visa or work permit for London since we're all under the British constitution or whatever. (we wave to the Queen when she visits, yeah?) I just need to save up some capital to use there when I get there. I've been in talks with some recruitment agencies over there about potential jobs so I wouldn't have to go hunting on my own...

Although I've never been, I've seen enough Meg Ryan movies to have a good sense of what London's like lol. My sister's been there 6+ times, my godsister's been there, my friends have been there... How hard can it be? Buy an Oyster card (their metropass for the "tube") and be a tourist for the first couple months, then meet a cute guy or two to show me around.....

Oh and did I mention that all the guys in London would have an English accent?

Sold.

Snow in april...

2011-04-19T20:15:00.002-04:00

Yup, no lies. It snows in april here in Toronto!

It's not unheard of.. but still, a girl can complain!!

I remember in grade 9, it snowed on April 21st. Why do I remember this? Because 2 days earlier, April 19th, was the day of some dance or another at school and I wore these stretchy denim open-slit-at-the-sides cropped pants to school with a white graffiti tanktop (remember when those were popular??) and it was 27 degrees outside.

2 days later, BAM! Snow.

We've only had some flurries here and there, but this is following some nice ass weather in march (briefly, we had some 18+ degree weather) and in april (also very briefly, we had some 21+ degree weather). The winter we had this year wasn't terrible, but goddanggggg it's been long! Dragging on like some depressed girl in hindsight.

Le sigh. Here's to hoping april flurries bring may flowers.

....wait that doesn't rhyme!

Ambition can't ever be too high...

2011-03-17T00:26:00.000-04:00

I'm retiring at 40.

Whenever I say this to someone, they say (after letting out a howling laughter) "Yeah, so do I, so do I...." (followed by rolling of the eyes)

Now, I don't mean that I'm going to be sprawling on a yacht in the Mediterranian sipping on a mojito... I mean that by the time I'm 40, I won't have to dedicate majority of my time to work anymore. I want to be able to spend half the year taking care of business (flying around the world, etc etc), and with the other half, be able to take my family on a tour of Europe, help build schools in developing countries, that kind of stuff.

How am I going to do it?

Who knows.

What I do know.. is that by the time I'm 30, I'm going to own my own company of some sort. Whether it be a production company in media/television/film/IT/construction/music/advertising/whatever, or maybe a pimping agency... I know it's going to happen.
Then by the time I'm 35, I'll have expanded. Probably to another big city like New York, or maybe in Korea. Wherever the right opportunity at the time takes me, really.

With that, I'm going to develop the company to a point so that when I'm 40, it's standing alone with me watching over it. In a sense, I'll have made my money make money. Then that money will go out and make more money, which will make more money...

You never want to be the actual worker for the rest of your life. How will you ever have the time/energy/resource to get out there and expand?

Think of it like this. Ma and Pa own a restaurant. They, for the reasons of saving money or not trusting others or whatever, work at the restaurant night and day. The restaurant is very successful, best in town. But they can't make the restaurant bigger or get a second location because they're at the restaurant all day.

I've always been an entrepreneur. When I was 5, my brother was born. At that time, not a lot of kids in my kindergarten class had little siblings. So I would entice my classmates to take the schoolbus to my house after school, charge them 10 cents entrance fee into my house so they can observe my brother. (freak of a brother he was, since he was crawling on his stomach across the floor at 40km/h) I then took that money (all of $2.60), go out and buy a box of individually wrapped chocolates. Next day, sell the individual chocolate pieces for 20 cents each to my classmates, and double my money!

I got in trouble for it after a while... but alas, it was worth it. My entrepreneurial spirit was awakened.

Even now, I'm the youngest I know that is doing what I'm doing (in any of my jobs), with the amount of experience I have. I got here not because of school (never finished), not because of connections (not in the traditional sense), and not simply because of luck or hard work. It was smart work. While everybody else is out there working 12 hard hours, I'd rather be working 6 smart hours, then dedicate the other 6 into conjuring up other ways to make/invest money.

"Reach for the stars, so when you fall, you can land on the moon".

Naw... I'd rather reach for the outer universe -- so that when I have a setback, I can chill with the stars.

xoxo
koko

magazine article: are you straightening or flattening your hair?

2011-03-01T22:10:00.000-05:00

Another article written by me, published on AdornedMagazine.com

http://www.adornedmagazine.com/are-your-straightening-or-flattening-your-hair/

[VIDEO] Tutorial: DIY Manicure

2011-02-24T15:59:00.003-05:00

The plan: lose 15 pounds in 3 weeks

2011-02-15T21:24:00.001-05:00

Now, before you get all "omg you're crazy! you don't need to lose 15 pounds!" on me... I know I don't need to lose 15 pounds. But! I'm currently about 8-10 pounds heavier than I'm comfortable with... I can't even fit into 18 out of 20 pairs of jeans I own! Not kidding, it does some damage to my mind and emotions when I can't take advantage of the wardrobe I invested so much money into (especially the jeanssss!!).

So! I'm not going to do what I did a few years ago to get ready for a photoshoot, which was go on a crash diet to lose 12 pounds in 2 weeks, which I did, then gain it allllllll back as soon as I started eating properly. At the time I put myself through the South Beach Diet, which in its first phase bans you from eating carbs, fat, sugar, and salt. Not kidding, I was on plain chicken breast and lettuce. I lost a crazy amount of weight in 2 weeks, and loved it. Then I went to Denny's in Las Vegas and gained it all back hahahahaha (and then some).

Sometimes I look through the mcdonalds-loving-carbs-addicted-wine-fanatic veil I have over my face and think about my health. I am working out 3-4 days a week at the gym and drinking lots of water, so what am I doing all that for if I'm putting crappy food in my body?

So I looked for a nutritionist. And found one! (thanks Chrissy)

I could've done any "cleanse" or "detox" from the internet, like the Master Cleanse (drinking a cocktail made of water, lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper for 2 weeks), but I wanted to get with a professional who could make a custom one just for me. Partly because of all the foods I'm allergic to, and partly because I like feeling special, I doled out the dough...

Anyway! Today I'm on day 2 and am proud to say I haven't cheated yet =) The hardest part of this detox mealplan she put me on... has to be the grocery shopping for it.

I went to Whole Foods Market, spent an hour looking as lost as I felt. Everything was organic this natural that, and everybody was old, rich, and white. I thought some of the shoppers were eyeing me like they wanted to adopt me, and for the first time paid $7 for eggs. Not kidding.

Trust me I'm not the kind to eat organic anything... Half the price for non-organic, regular stuff everybody else buys? Ohheyyyyyy!

I had to follow this whole organic thing to get rid of all the toxins from my body, and knew this was going to be an expensive detox but goddannnnngggggg!!!

The plan is to lose 15 pounds in 3 weeks doing this mealplan, and gain about 8-10 back in muscle. I think I have a pretty good muscle structure but everything's just covered by a layer of fat...

Anywho. I snapped some pics of the stuff I bought at the store. Enjoy!

Organic Brown Basmati Rice

Organic Red Flax Seeds

Organic Unsalted Raw Pumpkin Seeds

So I went to a psychic...

2011-02-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

My friend Jessica is very persuasive... She managed to persuade my broke ass to fork over $40 for a psychic because she wanted to go for a reading.

Those of you that know me well, know that I'm not exactly the believing kind. I don't believe in dead people coming back to haunt family members, ghosts, monsters, extraterrestrial beings, etc. Basically, if I can't see it touch it feel it hear it etc... it doesn't exist.

Her name was Giovanna. She has a place right across from the Eaton Centre in downtown Toronto. How she pays the lease for that prime real estate is beyond me -- one would figure that she has some back room business along with her front room psychic reading business. Anyway.

We opened a small door right on Yonge street, and started walking up the stairs into her lair. Out of nowhere, I felt a cold chill creeping up my spine... I started looking around half freaked out... then I realized it was just the actual cold since her studio didn't have much heating. Figures.

Giovanna greeted us and asked us to wait in the waiting lounge while she got the reading room ready. It looked like a reception area for a hair salon or something... quite empty actually, except for a few glass showcases. We sat on the half-moon shaped couch, waiting and nervously whispering to each other. She came back out with her mysterious self, and asked who's going first? I was chosen.

I left my purse with the eager Jessica (she's been there before and is a believer), and followed Giovanna into a dimmed "reading room", which looked more like a closet with a cloth covered table and amber lighting. It was quite nice in there actually -- made me want to go into fetal position and lay on the rug.

She took out her tarot cards and started shuffling them. "Think of 2 wishes or questions in your head, just tell me one of them when you're ready", she said.

I racked my brain for questions I desperately wanted answered. Will I ever win the lottery? If that's the case, can I safely rack up as many credit card bills as possible because they'll all get paid off when I win big? Am I going to die a horrible death or die quietly in my bed with minimal pain? Can I afford the iPhone5? Will my allergies ever go away? When is it going to be warm again? Where's the diamond ring I bought myself at age 19, and lost somewhere? Will I ever find a suitable talented tattoo artist to finish my back piece?

I opted for 2 genuine questions I was currently most curious about... and told her one of them.

She stopped shuffling when I said I was ready, and told me to cut the deck with my left hand. I did so, and she stacked the deck together again and started laying the cards down in a pyramid-shape using 10 cards at a time.

When she wasn't even finished laying down the first 10 cards, she said to me, "you have a little bit of psychic abilities, don't you?"
I looked at her thinking to myself... Should I tell her about the times I "read" the palms of all my classmates in grade 6? Or about how I immediately make up a story about somebody's life in my head as soon as I meet them? Everybody does silly things like this... so I didn't say anything.

"You have very very strange dreams... they may not seem like they'll mean anything right away, but write them down. Your dreams will reveal their meanings about 3 or 4 days after you have them. Unlike most other people who have dreams that may not mean very much, yours have a way of telling the future"

Oooookay...

I walked in there with my cynical thoughts, expecting it to be an entertainment at best.
I figured she would read my first impression, my confidence in my body language, and tell me things like I'm an independent person, will be successful, etc. I actually changed my body posture when I sat down, just to throw her off. Instead of putting my elbows on the table and being comfortable like I usually would, I rounded my back and tried to portray myself as timid or nervous.

Then she started saying things that literally had the hairs on the back of my neck standing.

Sure she said things like I'm extremely stubborn (d'uh, I'm a taurus), I'm going to be truly happy with my career when I own my own company, I will be very successful in business because I will go after whatever it is that I want in life. Those are a given.

But when she started telling me health issues specific to family members of mine, and pinpointed an issue I'm having with my own body, my ears perked up. She knew of small details in my life like a series of arguments I've been having with someone recently, periods of memory loss (which I've been getting tested out for a year now) and what she thinks they mean, (really freaky shit) and she even knew that I'm going to see a nutritionist in the next few days.

Then she talked about somebody that's currently in my life and why it's going to end. And who's going to come in this person's place -- even their hair and eye colour and height.

I'm not going to tell you the predictions she told me... Call me old-fashioned or superstitious, but I'd rather keep those to myself =P

But let me tell you... I left the reading room after a 30 minute reading and some intimate conversation with her (mostly one-sided, from her), fully, legitly freaked out. How did she know these minute small details about my life?

I'm going to take what she said with a grain of salt... I'm not calling myself a believer. But I can't deny that she had some strange ability to read into me more deeply than most people.

The true test will be whether what she predicted comes true or not. She predicted some things to happen pretty soon (may-june of this year). Very specific details were told to me... So look out for a blog post in the summer to see if this one came true!!

Is it a bit freaky that my birthday this year, which is on the 13th, is on a friday?

xoxo
koko

Project "2 drink maximum"

2011-01-28T16:09:00.001-05:00

"I'm never drinking again".

How many times have you heard somebody say that phrase? You'd probably be underplaying the truth if you say you've said it a few times in your life. (since I probably say this after every time I get drunk)

You know the routine. You either go out with the intention of getting trashed ("woohoo we're getting fuuuuuucked up tonight!"), or go out with the hopes of not getting too trashed ("yeah I'm just going to get tipsy and enjoy the night, but not let it be a repeat of friday!".

With both scenarios, the outcome is the same.

You wake up around noon. Sweat beads start to form on your hairline, the hairs on the back of your neck are rising, and the familiar feeling of your mouth producing sour saliva all tell you that you're about to make out with the porcelain god. You dart to the bathroom, knocking over books and banging your shin on a table corner on your way there. One hand grabs the hair, one hand holds you up while you retch up alcohol, semi-digested food (probably from Garden or Pho88), guilt, shame, and embarassment of knowing you made out with someone who would never pass the beer goggle test. You flush. You start to slowly bring yourself back up to standing position, and get punished for defying the laws of "morning-after gravity", and start projecting vomit again. You flush. This repeats for 3-4 times.

After you brush your teeth (if you have the arm strength) or use mouthwash, you slowly start to limp back to your bed. This is when you notice that although your body is in a vertical position, your head is sitting horizontal. For the love of god you can't seem to pull your head up, so you give up and lay back down on the bed, which makes more sense since the whole of you can now be horizontal.

You wake up around 4pm. The pounding in your head feels like a group of midgets are playing bongo on it using 5 pound dumbbells. You stare at a point on the wall and the wall seems to be sliding. The inside of your mouth is so dry it's like you ate 10 plain crackers at once and washed it down with cotton balls. You know you need water. But the though of getting out of bed and walking to the fridge sounds so ridiculous that you put your head back down on the pillow.

You suffer for about an hour or two until you can work up the courage to become human again. You somehow manage to zombie-walk down to the nearest convenience store and buy a 1L bottle of gatorade before heading to Micky Dee's or Timmy Ho's for a breakfast sandwich, since you're sensible enough to know that you need protein (eggs) and grease (bacon/sausage) in your stomach.

You waddle back home and spend the next 5-7 hours nursing your pathetic self, ignoring phone calls, tweeting about how hungover you are, maybe work up the energy to take a shower, and pass out around 11pm, so you can wake up the next day and go to work. (presuming this was a sunday)

Sufficient to say, I'm sick of this happening. I like partying it up with friends once in a while, daring each other to drink a superhuman amount of gross shots (liquid cocaine or prairie fire, anyone?), and generally having a good time. But if you can't remember half the night, or spend the next 24 hours doing what was described above... is it worth it?

So I've made a pledge with myself. It's called Project 2 Drink Maximum.

If I'm in a social engagement where I'm sort of obligated to make friends with alcohol (birthday party, engagement, alcohol brand launch party, etc), I'm going to limit myself to 2 drinks. That's 2 beers, 2 glasses of wine, or 2 mixed drinks. (not and)

If I'm just out for dinner or hanging out with friends, I'll stick to Seltzer water or something like that that recovering alcoholics like to drink. Who says I need to be drunk to have fun? I may need to be drunk to get up on that pole again... but spending an entire day like a lazy fat lard on meds is not cool.

My short-term goal is for this to last until my birthday (May 13th).
Let's see how it goes!

xo
koko

CONTEST! Win a free smartphone from Mobilicity and me =)

2010-12-25T16:22:00.003-05:00

So I'm doing another contest!!

I'm partnering up with Mobilicity here in Canada to give away a free smartphone!

Here's my Youtube video invitation:

Details:

*blackberry headset not included

Winner gets:
- HTC Snap smartphone
- 3 months of Mobilicity's $35 Unlimited Talk & Text Holiday Plan, which includes unlimited local calling, text messaging, picture messaging, province wide long distance, caller ID. call waiting, call forwarding, and 3 way calling

All you have to do is go on Twitter, and tweet:

"Help me win a smartphone from @kokoberries and @mobilicity! Retweet"

Every retweet you get will win you an entry into this contest!
Winner will be chosen after the January 7th deadline.

Remember to enter Mobilicity's own Facebook campaign, "Give, Get & Share". Same prizes, you can double your chances of winning!

Contest eligible for Canadian citizens 18 years and older, excluding Quebec.

Good luck and happy holidays!!

xoxo
koko

Je ne parle pas francais!

2010-12-08T22:11:00.000-05:00

In Toronto, French is a mandatory course in school until Grade 10.

I came to Canada in Gr.4 so I was exempt from French until my ESL was done...

And what did I learn in the 3+ years of taking French in school?

How to say the following:

Je ne sais pas (i don't know)

Je ne comprend pas (i don't understand)

Je ne parle pas francais (i don't speak french)

Tu es parle anglais? (do you speak english?)

When I went to Paris with my sister for my 23rd birthday, I realized that I didn't know any usable French. It's such a beautiful language, I was forced to study it for years, and I knew nothing. Such an embarassment.

Now, why am I all of a sudden interested in French?

For the past few months, I've been feeling... a bit useless. I mean that in the sense that I didn't feel like I was contributing to my intelligence, challenging myself, doing/learning something useful.

I didn't get a chance to graduate university, and that's always on my mind. As soon as I figure out a way, I'm going to go back to school and get that degree - more for myself and my own stubbornness and pride more than anything.

But until I can figure something out, I didn't want to sit around and just go to work, come home, hang with friends, go to work, come home, hang with friends, etc... The sudden need to feel productive was too great.

So a searcher I became, wandering around in my own brain, asking myself what I can learn. If I took a random online university course, sure it may count as a credit or two when I go back to school, but I'd be spending stupid amount of money on learning or not learning something that may or may not be useful to me later.

I've been dying to learn how to read braille forever... but unfortunately there aren't very many resources available for the non-blind.

Should I take a dance class? Sewing? Canvas painting?

In the end, I decided that one thing I can learn, that will never ever prove to be not useful, and will never be "out of date", is language. And what better language to learn while living in Canada than French?

So I walked into Indigo the other day, stared at the great French wall of books for like 49 minutes, trying to pick a French For Beginners book. I ended up choosing a Living Language book that comes with audio cd's and some other nifty useful things. I've listened to and read Chapter 1 so far... let's see how long I keep this up for =P

You never know! I may be blogging in Francais soon!

xoxo

koko

Can guys and girls really be friends?

2010-12-01T23:21:00.000-05:00

I hear people talking about this all the time, and majority of the outcomes of these conversations point to one direction -- No They Can't.

I agree..to a point.

Yes, it's natural for there to be some kind of emotional attachments (or want there of) to be developed when there is a cool friendship between 2 people of the opposite sex.

Too often a male and a female will become friends and have a connection, then mistake that simple human-to-human connection as something it may not be, such as a romantic one.

I totally get it, it's human nature, etc...but I'm a bit of a hypocrite here because I have a male best friend.

Now I'm not gonna lie, the thought (the "what if....?" thought) crossed my mind, and his. We talked about it. Now here, if you were in this same situation and couldn't talk about it -- then maybe you're not as close of friends as you thought...

Anyway. We talked about it, and decided that it's silly. And by now we know way too much about each other - all the good and alllllllll the bad - that the attractions and curiosity are gone. It's very much more of a brother/sister relationship now, where we care for each other and look out for each other.

People automatically think, two straight people, one male one female, will one day, eventually, end up having sex.

Okay, I can agree with that to a point too.

But that doesn't mean you can't be friends, good friends, best friends. That doesn't mean you can't have a non-romantic relationship with the opposite sex.

You don't have to have sex with every person you think you should/want to/are close to/etc... But if the foundations of that friendship is strong, even if two friends do have sexual relations, it doesn't have to make things awkward or feel pressured to turn it into something else.

Or on the other end of this spectrum, maybe you know someone (or yourself) that has a friend of the opposite sex that has absolutely no other feelings for them besides 100% friendship love, the exact same kind they share with their friends of the same sex. Which is totally cool too.

I hear a lot of people say things like "I've been in love with her for years, but if I tell her, I risk losing her as a friend".

Now this is a whole other topic that takes much more discussion... but like I've said, if the foundations of the friendship is strong, as in it's built on the 3 fundamentals: honesty, trust, communication -- then two people should be able to talk about anything. Yes, even emotions and feelings about each other.

Thoughts?

JAPAN: the memories

2010-11-23T00:44:00.000-05:00

I'm still smiling at the memories I made in Japan..

My original plan for October was to spend 2 weeks in Korea to see family, then spend a week in Dominican Republic (or somewhere equally warm) recovering from the jetlag. Then my friend Lex said, "why don't you come visit me in Japan?"

.....Why not? I was already in Asia, and Japan is only an hour flight from Korea.

So there I was, sitting in the Osaka/Kansai airport sipping on a bottle of Fanta, tweeting on my phone about how late he was, beside bags and bags of luggage, when this guy strolls in muttering something about getting on the wrong train. Then he smiled. How can I get mad at that smile?

Anyway, here's proof of the Fanta.

The weirdest thing I couldn't get used to, was that not only did cars drive on the wrong side of the road, but people walked on the wrong side of the street!! It confused the hell out of me, I'd be walking on the right side of the street like I do back home, you know to avoid people traffic, and my friend would grab my hand and tell me I'm being rude.

...seriously, I couldn't get used to it.

I was in Osaka for 8 days. I think we got hammered every single day that I was there lol. Japanese beer has an interesting taste to it, sort of refreshing. We mostly had Asahi and Sapporo, tallboy cans when we were outside chilling at the park with friends, or in frosted beer mugs when we were at bars/restaurants. We have them in Canada too, but they taste very very different in Japan.

We spent a lot of time at this place -- in case you're wondering what they serve besides beer, it's chicken. Hence the red chicken drawing on their mugs. Chicken on skewers, fried chicken, stir-fried chicken, barbequed chicken, etc. Deeeeeelish.

We also spent a lot of time eating Gyudon. Don't know what it is? Take a look:

Gyudon is like... marinated shredded beef and onions, on top of rice. It sounds simple, but you have no idea how GOOD this was... It was cheap too, the locals consider it somewhat of a "fastfood". Umm...somebody please bring a Gyudon joint and replace every single McDonalds in the city with it please? (maybe leave one or two, incase I crave a filet o'fish in the middle of the night)

This was the menu at our favourite place called Sukiya..... What I wouldn't do for another bowl...

The streets at night were so pretty... food vendors everywhere, outdoor Ramen places, Takoyaki, shopping... sigh

I could probably do an entire entry on the food I ate... but to be honest I was too busy eating and drinking to take too many pictures lol

One of my favourite pictures from the trip...has to be this one.

Dude was passed OUT on the subway, mouth hanging open, yellow stains on his shirt, white stains on his pants, fly open.....CLASSIC.

Japan is world capital of sticker photos... So of course we took some! Those aren't uploaded yet, but the machines there were on some next level shit.. There's ones that detects your eyes and make them bigger when printed, make your eyelashes longer, dyes your hair, etc. Crazyness!

Oh and this guy... We spotted him on our way to Kyoto, at the train station. I guess it's the next thing from hair transplants..

Yup, you're seeing it right -- he spray painted his head!

There's so many more photos I can post and so many more things to talk about... but this blog post would scroll for like 27 minutes.

I had some frustrating moments in Japan as well, not being able to speak the language or understand anybody. I couldn't even ask for a glass of water at a restaurant without my friend translating for me, and being as independent as I am, it was almost too much to handle. But alas, I had my handy human translator with me..

It was my first time in Japan, and hopefully won't be the last. I made memories I won't forget with the people I can't ever forget.. I miss it.

xo
koko

KOREA: the memorable moments

2010-11-10T23:57:00.000-05:00

Continuing from my last blog post, here are some memorable moments from my trip in Korea (Oct 1 - Oct 16).

All my life, my cousin Young-Jin has been the big brother I never had. He taught me how to beat all the bosses in Super Mario World, how to burp really loud to annoy my sister, how to eat kimchi without washing it in a bowl of water first to dilute the spice. And now he's married, with a 3 year old kid... It's kinda crazy

Seeing my grandparents...was amazing. My mom's side grandma & grandpa adore me, since my mom is their only daughter. My grandma insisted that she sleeps beside me holding my hand, so she can remember what my hand feels like linked to hers... *cries*

My dad's side grandma is one strong woman. She's been through soooooo much in her life, survived the Korean War with 6 kids, even after my grandpa passed away... She's been diagnosed with Alzheimer's recently and remembered me 70% of the time I was there in front of her... I love her no matter what.

Oh Suh-Young...

She's my mom's cousin's daughter. ....the one I didn't know existed!! I saw her older brother when I was in Korea in 2003, when he was less than a year old. When I saw him walking through the doors I knew it was him, even though he's 8 years old now! Then this cute little girl walks in with him, and I ask my aunt "who's this?"

She laughed and said that she's her daughter! Suh-Young's 6 years old now, so my aunt got pregnant with her after I came back to Canada and I somehow never heard about her. She and I bonded right away and she wouldn't let go of me for hours and hours... *squeezes cheeks*

My cousin Hyun-Ju and I went to our old kindergarten (she was a year after me) to see if maybe, possibly, our teacher was still there. And she was!! Not only was she still there, but as soon as I walked in she looked at me for a few seconds, then called out my name. After 16 years, she remembered me!! We had a great time chatting and catching up.. then the kids and I had a hulahoop competition because I was crowned the best of my kindergarten year =)

My cousins... they're freakin' awesome. Mimi is my older sister's age, Michelle's my age, and Hyun-Ju is a year younger than me. I wish my sister came to Canada with me -- the 5 of us are all around the same age and were a package deal whenever we were together. (backkkkk in the day) Michelle's birthday happened to be the day that we all decided to hang out, so the 4 of us girls went all out -- karaoke, drinking, dinner, sticker photos, etc. It was so much fun!! I wish I could've stayed a bit longer to hang out with them more..

There's so many memories and so many stories to tell, but it's so hard to put the 13 days I spent in Korea into a blog entry, so I'll leave it here for now. I told everyone that if I don't see them here in Canada within the next 5 years, I'll be back there. My sister and I are already making plans to go next year =)

KOREA: the food

2010-11-07T22:06:00.001-05:00

If you're a regular visitor to my blog.. you'll have noticed that I've been MIA for a little while! I was in Korea/Japan from Oct1--Oct25, and have pics for you!

To give you a bit of a background, I was born and raised in a little town called Jinju in South Korea until '96, at which point I immigrated to Toronto with my family. Jinju's a small city less than an hour drive from Busan, on the south-east coast of the country.

After we came to Canada, I only went back to Korea once in 2003, and this was my second time back! Let me tell you... It was the best 2 weeks I've had in a long long long time.

Anyway, let's get on with the food! Enjoy!

Well..OK let's start with the beers lol...Since they were very very close to me throughout the whole vacation. I tried a variety of different brands but these 2 were my fav! I remember the taste from when I was a kid, stealing sips from my dad's bottle lol

Seafood Jjampong with hand-made noodles. You could actually hear people in the kitchen slapping dough on the table, making noodles. It was the spiciest and most DEEEELISH Jjampong I've had in my life!

This is for all you non-Koreans going out for "Korean BBQ" and thinking you're having "authentic Korean"... THIS is real Korean BBQ. Charcoal fire, suction fan from the top, tender sliced beef. OOHHHHmmmaaayyygawd. I won't bore you with the endless descriptive words I can use to describe what was happening inside my mouth.

These are called Hodduk. It's made of like a pastry on the outside, filled with sweet stuff on the inside. Hard to explain, but it's like a pancake with liquid sugar inside. I remember burning the roof of my mouth countless times as a little kid eating these!

Often served as a friend to your beer, Korean dumplings. Mandu. (fried) You can also get it steamed...but you know, if I'm already consuming hundreds of calories by drinking beer, might as well go all out...

Nyeng-myun. It's basically buckwheat noodles in a cold beef stock, with eggs, vegetables, beef, etc. In the summer, they serve it with ice cubes floating, and you simply add hot sauce and mustard to your taste. It's the BEST thing to eat when it's hot out... or cold out. Whatever the weather... mm mm mm!!

Nyeng-myun is often ordered as a friend to BBQ's. In this case, we had bulgogi patties.

Rabbokki. If you're a fan of spicy food and Korean food, you've probably had the Spicy Rice Cakes. Rabboki is what you get when you add ramyun noodles to the dish. Very spicy, Very dellllllish!

Dolsotbap. Out of all the things you see on the table, the only thing we ordered was the rice dish (the purple rice with yellow grains on top, served in a stone pot. Dolsot means stone bowl, and bap means rice. The dish in the middle is some seafood/vegetable stew thing they give you as a bonus, and the rest are side dishes. So So So SO So good. Oh and the Dolsotbap was $8

My uncle owns a HodoGwaja (walnut cake) store, so I took this when I was visiting. This is how they make them! Pour batter into those little round things, flip upside down when it's half cooked, put in a walnut and redbean paste, flip again, and voila!

Koreans eat sushi differently from the Japanese. We simply take the best part of the fish, slice them up into tiny bite-size pieces, and eat! Well, you get a lettuce, put it on your hand, put some fish on it, pile it with garlic, hot sauce, other things you want to put in, wrap it up, and chew! So fresh and So good... I had this at a restaurant RIGHT by the ocean.

When I hear "street meat", I think of Korea's street food vendors like this one. There's usually the staple items like Ddukbokki, Soondae, Odeng, and Mandu. I can't even explain to you how good everything is -- and they usually serve alcohol at these street vendors. I've been dreaming about visiting these for 7 years, and let me tell you - it was totally worth the wait!!

Sulungtang. It's baically a stock made from boiling beef bones for a long long time, then adding some noodles, beef, and vegetables to it. The soup itself is so tasty but you can add a little bit of sea salt and green onions like we did. I ended up dumping my rice in there too -- couldn't eat it fast enough.

Kalgooksoo. Homemade moodles with fresh fresh seafood, vegetables, in a steamy yummy seafood stock. This is a serving for 2, obviously, but I could've finished the whole thing myself, obviously.

visual menu

Kimbap and Soojaebi. Kimbap is like Korean Sushi (maki rolls) -- ingredients rolled up in rice and seaweed. Soojaebi is like pieces of "noodles" in various shapes, with potatoes and seaweed in a seaweed/potato stock. Omg my mouth is drooling right now, typing this.... this is a typical "fast food" choice for many Koreans.

Tea! So there's loose leaf tea in the actual tea pot, which you pour into the cup on the left with the flower-shaped strainer attached to it (pour into strainer). Then when the tea in the bowl is cool enough to not burn your mouth, you pour it into your drinking cup. Add "snacks" (top), which is some healthy chewy dried vegetables. We sat here for hours drinking tea!

So I always thought this was just a carbonated orange-flavoured pop for kids...because my mom would buy it for me after taking a bath to cool me down. But apparently it's good for you!?? lol shocker! Drinking this brought back SO many memories...

So that's it folks! I wish I took more pictures but while eating, I was generally too busy EATING. Food in Korea was a-maz-ing, and I'm not joking when I say that I'd pay the $1500 plane ticket just to go back to Korea for another month or so, to eat.

Sigh. I miss Korea.

day 2 in korea

2010-10-03T10:45:00.000-04:00

sooo I arrive here yesterday afternoon after TOO MANY hours of flying, and so far it's been great!
thursday (sept30) night, I stayed up all night so I can catch the 4AM airport express bus to go to Pearson airport. then I caught the 7AM flight to vancouver, then chilled there for a couple hours (with 1.5 hours of that shopping at duty free), then caught the 12PM flight to korea, arriving here at 3:15PM on saturday.

yesterday my uncle picked me up from the airport and we went to my aunt's shop to chill there, then all had dinner togeter last night. today my cousin picked me up and we went to see my other aunt (his mom), then went to a mall, did NO shopping (regular mall stuff... not impressed) then went for beers. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh korean beer how much i've missed you!!!

anyway, now i'm back at my uncle's... and tomorrow back with my cousin to meet his baby and wife for the first time.

2 days in, 14 more days in korea, then japan for 9 days before heading home.
<3

Koreaaaaaa!!

2010-10-01T02:43:00.001-04:00

I'm off to Korea and Japan!
See you all when I'm back :) I'll post lots of pics!!

Xoxo
Koko

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

getting inked for the 6th time

2010-09-16T12:51:00.000-04:00

Okay so I know what I said the last time... that it was going to be my last time... haha but c'mon, a girl's allowed to change her mind!!

I've wanted this tattoo forEVER and finally found the right artist, and the right time (aka saved enough money) to get it done.

Incase you're wondering.. they're Hibiscus flowers, traditionally called Moo-Goong-Hwa, (these ones specifically) which are the national flowers for South Korea.

S. Korea made Hibiscus their national flower when they won independence from Japan way back when. It symbolizes independence, freedom, and perseverence -- did you know Hibiscus are one of the only species of flowers in the world that survive winter?

Take a look below for some behind-the-scenes picture!

Big shout-outs go to Adam from Pleasure & Pain tattoos in Mississauga for tatting me up.
...and of course, big-ups to PhotoWill for the pics!

Tattoo to be continued in December 2010.

xo
koko

different colour markers indicate different needle thicknesses. (i think).

tweeting to take my mind off the pain...

not working, since i'm clearly still in pain

everyone's laughing while i'm DYING

oh heeyyyyyyy

looks like my back got whipped

thin outlines done... time for a break!

thickening up the vines

CONAAAAAA!! the shop's lovely dog

all bandaged up when i got home

finished product for the day

Bone marrow transplant.

2010-08-30T16:55:00.001-04:00

No, I didn't get one.

But I did register to become a donor.

The first question most people asked me was "Why?", and I don't think you need a reason. It costs you a couple days in the hospital. It can save someone's life. That's a pretty good return for your investment, I think.

The second question I get is "Doesn't it hurt?".
Probably. I hear they stick a foot-long hollow needle into either your lower spine or hip bone to withdraw bone marrow cells from inside your bones. They use a local anesthetic but I doubt it penetrates deep enough for you to be fully "frozen".

From what I hear, you're in the hospital for a couple days to recover afterwards. Most companies will give compassionate days (paid) for such things, so it doesn't cost you any money. If they need to transport you to a hospital that isn't in the area, they pay for it. See? It still doesn't cost you any money.

I signed up through OneMatch, which is a sub site of the Canadian Blood Services. I'm already a blood donor so I'm in their systems.

A few days after filling out the online form, they sent me a package in the mail that asked me to swab my cheeks with the provided q-tips and mail it back. I got all excited -- haven't I seen people do this on CSI?? -- but unfortunately, my at-home swabbing was nowhere as cool as they do it on TV. Plus, I was doing it on myself.

Sure there are possible complications with the donation. Sure it will probably hurt like nothing before. Sure I may or may not ever get to contact the person I could be saving.

But at the end of the day... does it matter, if your small gesture saved someone's life? If someone is in need of bone marrow blood, they're dying. They've tried all the chemotherapies and surgeries and the only thing left to do is a bone marrow transplant.

If you're found to be a match, you get to be that light at the end of their tunnel.

How rewarding is that?

xoxo
koko

i hate stupid people. [part 4]

2010-08-30T13:36:00.001-04:00

It's that time again -- the I Hate Stupid People post!

As some of you may know, I have the unfortunate knack for running into stupid people all the time. Don't ask me why, I don't even wanna talk about the amount of dumbness I listen to in my days.

Anyway. Part 4 happened at a house party I attended in Stouffville this past weekend.

I know what you're all thinking -- Jenny in Stouffville?? How did she breathe without the downtown smog, what did she do with all that open land and lack of buildings? Fear not - I am a countryside girl at heart! I did grow up in Newmarket afterall.

So I was at this house party with my girl friend Taylor, her boyfriend K and his brother D. It was K and D's friends party so Taylor and I basically knew nobody there. It was a huge HUGE property with multiple houses and an official stage and dance floor in the "back yard" of the house, that led into a deck overlooking their own lake. *shrug* Some people just have it like that I guess.

Anyway we were all getting some beers from inside one of the houses and I was just sitting there minding my own business listening to friends talking, when this random guy looks over at me and says "Hey, my grandfather is Chinese!"

I give him a blank look and said "Okay... that's nice".
"Yeah I really love Chinese people", he says.
"Oh... okay. That's nice..."
"I mean, the culture, it's fascinating. I learned a lot from my grandfather"
"............okay... I'm not chinese"

Enter shocked face from this boy.

"What do you mean? You're Asian! You're Chinese"

Enter silent gasp from all my friends, and a raised eyebrow from me.

"......What did you just say?" I ask him.
"If you're not Chinese... what can you be? You're not Japanese"
"No I'm not"
"So... I don't get it. You're not Japanese so you must be Chinese!"
"............."

At this point, my friends are all giving me the "Jenny please don't please don't please don't" look, cuz I swear the back of my hand was starting to tingle.

"I'm not Chinese or Japanese" I say to him. I don't even know why I was still talking to this fool.
".........I don't understand" he says.

I just stared at him silently after he said that and after 5 seconds of very thick silence, his friends started shuffling him out the door -- probably because they sensed that I was about to KOREAN KUNG-FU his ass.

"So what are you then? White?" I ask him.

This guy has the nerve to be ANGRY with me. "WHAT??? What did you say?? I'm not fucking white".

Um, you look white, dumbass.

And that's exactly what I said to him.

I thought he might say something back but he ended up saying "Whatever, man" and walked out the door. Lucky boy, otherwise his friends might've found him in a ditch behind the house.

I. hate. stupid. people.

xoxo
koko

uStream video chat with Jennergizer!

2010-08-27T13:17:00.002-04:00

For those of you that didn't know my "other" identity..... YouTube calls me Jennergizer.
I do mostly beauty/hair tutorials and reviews with a loyal fanbase, sometimes giveaways, contests, etc.

On August 1st 2010, I partnered up with the Canadian Cancer Society to hold a one hour LIVE video chat session on Ustream to raise money for CCS's "Girls Night In" -- which is their efforts to get people to donate as a group while having a good time. I did mine online, naturally.

Watch the invitation video here:

I totally forgot that August 1st was the long weekend, so the turnout wasn't as good as expected -- but I will be holding one once a month or so from now on so you can come join me on the next one =) I'll announce the date once I can get some things together.

During the first video chat, viewers and I talked about politics, hair, modelling, youTube as a business, health, cancer, family, amongst other things. It's an hour of my time for you guys to ask me whatever you want! Maybe a quick hairstyle tutorial too? =)

My Ustream channel is here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/q-a-with-jennergizer
And you can donate to Canadian Cancer Society on my page here: http://tinyurl.com/233sf72

See you soon!

xoxo
koko
http://www.youtube.com/jennergizer

Lights, Camera, CUT!

2010-08-27T12:58:00.001-04:00

So last week I got a chance to shoot 9 commercials in 3 days for TD Bank.
....well I didn't shoot them, I was just the main actor, but still.

The 9 commercials follow the hero character [me] in her "adventure" of purchasing her first home... The funniest part is that I got my real dad to play my on-screen dad in the commercials =P My on-screen mom was played by my friend Anastasia's mom.

The commercials will be airing on the HGTV channel starting 2011... I don't have a TV at home so I hope to never see them! lol

See below for some fun behind-the-scenes pics that Caitlin of the Bossy Girls took for me.

Director: Mark Mowad
Makeup/Hair: Bossy Girls
Wardrobe: Barbara Cordosa
Production Manager: John Nadalin
Producer: Laurie-Ann C.

xoxo
koko

why am i single?

2010-08-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

I get this question all the time, and I honestly don't know how to answer the question. Cuz I want to be? Cuz there isn't somebody suitable right now? Cuz I'm too busy for a relationship?

Overall, the consensus is that I haven't found somebody worth my time.

Relationships take a lot of time, energy, effort, stress, love, amongs other things. No matter how many people say "oh I'm too busy for a girlfriend/boyfriend" or "we broke up because he/she was too busy with work and didn't have time..it's not his/her fault"...... it's not true. When you really want to spend time with someone, you make time.

Trust me, I know. (and those of you that know me well, you know what I'm talking about)

I find that a lot of awesome people that should by all means be absolutely taken these days are not taken, because we're all getting busier by the day. And making time for someone when you're semi busy is hard enough, making time for someone when you're crazy busy with a ridiculous schedule is almost impossible. But when you do find that somebody... you make the time. You want to make it work, you want to show that person that you care, and that you think about them.

That person has to be worth it. The world is moving at such a face past nowadays, people are thrown with options left right and centre. It's harder than ever now to meet someone that you actually find worth your timem energy, and love.

That's what I think anyway.
Random rant.

KokoTV -- Tutorial: Diagonal French Braid

2010-08-08T18:10:00.000-04:00

http://youtube.com/jennergizer

xo