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kolibri83
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Name: Henrika Euna
Country: South Korea
Metro: Seoul
Birthday: 7/21/1983
Gender: Female
Interests: I have many so it's impossible to list them all, but here goes:
British pop music, French pop music, classical music, violin, good literature, black and white photography, walking in the rain, shopping, traveling, Euro fashion, art galleries, Harry Potter, children's books, current affairs, languages, drinking coffee, eating sweets and ice cream, walking around cities, movies, dancing, laughing, hanging out with friends, driving aimlessly at night, collecting those free random postcards from restaurants, tennis, diving, baseball...
Expertise: Uhh... I don't remember much from Hopkins... but I majored in History (European history concentration) and Violin Performance and minored in French Literature. Oh yeah, I was also a pre-med.
Occupation: Student
Industry: Medical
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  kolibri83
MSN: euna83@hotmail.com
Member Since:
6/13/2005
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| Welcome Home...
After my three days of waiting and suffering in the Charles de Gaulle airport, I finally arrived in Chicago. I didn't realize how much I had missed the states. It feels like home. The novelty wore off after about two days though. I met up with one of my best friends at Steak and Shake. I've gotten in the habit of catching up with friends over cheese fries and a vanilla shake, which is in my opinion much MUCH better than a four-dollar Starbucks mocha. Besides, Steak and Shake is open 24/7. They can't kick us out even if they tried... hehe.
After a few days in "good ole" Schaumburg, I went to Baltimore and the Johnny Hop for a long weekend to take care of some unfinished business - ie. med school preliminary interviews. I stayed with Jessica, my best friend from college. She let me stay in her apartment, which was literally a full house with her two cats, two bunny rabbits, and a hamster (and then there was me). It had been a year since I had last seen her, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We went to the Towson Town mall, Fells Point, Hampden and Mount Vernon and had Resurrections (probably the best beer in Baltimore because they don't taste like American beer at all) at the trendy Brewer's Art Bar. I also got addicted to Grey's Anatomy after watching the entire first season. I can relate to Meredith.
Afterwards in Schaumburg, I was again bored out of my mind for the week. I think I am the type of person who needs to constantly do something or go somewhere. I get restless easily. I met up with my cousin and his fiancee a few times for dinner and drinks. I again saw some friends, who I hadn't seen for many years. My average seems to be one meeting once a year, at least for my Chicago friends. Finally, a trip home was not complete until I ate deep dish pizza and a nice, juicy Portillos hamburger. As much as people make fun of American food, I missed my American hotdogs in France.
    
Benji (my Westie) looks horrible. He's getting old, so his
normally-white fur has become brown all around his mouth. He looks
like he's been eating chocolate all day. Poor dog... I fed him lots
of carrots.
 
In a few days, I will be going to South Korea, where I will stay for this academic year. I will be working for the South Korean government in the Ministry of Education as a part of EPIK (English Program in Korea). I am looking forward to it. It should be interesting getting in touch with my roots. I need to brush up on my Korean though.
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| Final days in Paris...
Soooo... my time is up in the City of Lights. A few things happened in between my travels, which I wanted to briefly mention.
Since the World Cup was in Europe this summer, Paris celebrated crazily
after each win. Actually, I was surprised that they got as far as they
did, especially when they beat Brazil. I was on the Champs-Elysees
after the France/Brazil game, and the avenue was PACKED full of French
nationalists singing "Where are the Brazilians now?" It was great.
Around the Arc de Triomphe, people were standing on the roofs of
speeding cars while waving French flags (looked quite dangerous).
There were reports later confirming that a few people had died doing
this. Moreover, there were fireworks and random objects on fire.
Everyone was drunk, even the policemen, I think. It took ages to get
home because there were people on the streets EVERYWHERE.
 
Unfortunately, for the World Cup Final and for the French win against
Portugal, I was in the Czech Republic, so I was not able to see French
reactions towards the games. I know that after the France/Korea match,
newspapers the next day featured a dejected Zizou with the headlines
"One Goal, That's All." I saw the Zizou headbutt live though and was
shocked for France. Poor Zizou... his last football game, one mistake,
and now he will be remembered as that guy who failed France during his
final moments.
Around the same time, the Tour de France was passing through Paris. My
friend Pierre-Yves and I were near the Louvre and watched the cyclists
go by a few times. I barely saw anything because there were soooo many
people (and I'm short too). I remember that day being very hot in
Paris, so we relaxed in a cafe sipping sodas for about two hours while
watching the Champs-Elysees finale on TV.
   
During July, my mother and aunt came to visit and stayed with me at
Cite Universitaire. I hadn't seen them since October 2005, so I was happy to
spend time with them. I took them to some sights and on long walks in
a couple of gardens. They followed me around everywhere while
bickering with each other. I felt like Mother Duck tellling her baby
ducklings to behave.
   
My friends also took me out to a fondue dinner and a French theater for
my 23rd birthday (already 23!). They bought me presents as well and
surprised me. I was touched. Good times. I cherish my friends.
I also had to squeeze in a lot of goodbyes for my French/European friends, which wasn't easy.
  
However, leaving Paris was a lot harder than I thought, technically
speaking. I ended up staying three extra days because I couldn't get a
flight out. Everything was overbooked for weeks and weeks. By the
third day, I was on first-name terms with the airport employees, who
joked with me during the wait. Every time I showed up on my friends'
doorstep each night, they opened the door with bemused expressions and asked, "You again?"
Au revoir Paris... Je reviendrai un jour... | | |
| Snow White Euna in the Jura Mountains...
For a long weekend, I went to the Jura Mountains, located on the Swiss
and French border, with my good French friends Pierre-Yves (& co.)
and Terkia. PY owns a cozy cottage there, and grâce à lui, I had the wonderful opportunity to see the French Alps.
    
Since we were driving to the mountains, we first stopped at Dijon, the
French capital of mustard. I had never been to a another
French city outside of Paris, so I was eager to see "the real France."
(Remember, according to the French, Parisians are another species...
not French at all). I had been to German small towns before, but the
mood in Dijon was completely different... more somber should I say?
It seemed graver and darker, even though there were people outside
in cafes laughing and drinking wine. It must be the shady, spotty, golden
mustard. (I love it by the way, especially with French fries.)
 
In Dijon, I met PY's family and spent the night at his house, which was
the cutest little house I had ever seen. For dinner, we had roast
chicken with stewed bell peppers (absolutely delicious) and red wine,
of course. We passed the evening talking with his family and
reminiscing by flipping through his photo albums. I feel like he had the
picture-perfect life.
We also went to the center of the city and
walked around, while PY played tour guide. In fact, he should quit his
present job and be fulltime there. I found it funny when he explained
buildings:
"That," he would say, "was where I was baptized,"while pointing to a
magnificent cathedral, "but of course I was not confirmed in the same
church. That was this other small one on the other side of town," and
he pointed to an even more elaborate church.
As time passed, I didn't know what the cathedrals' and buildings' names
were. They were "PY's field trip museum during elementary school" and
"PY's high school hangout."
The next day, we drove to the Jura. His cottage and the mountain scenery were
beyond my wildest expectations, and I felt like Snow White when looking outside the window. Honestly, it was so beautiful that it made me sad. I almost cried. (For some weird reason, I get sad when I see very very beautiful scenery and even objects.)
PY was a wonderful host, and he literally waited on all
his guests hand and foot. Since he is a foot taller than me, I guess we could instead call this trip, "Snow White and the Giant Frenchman." I almost flooded the ground floor of his cottage because I
didn't realize that the shower water had spilled out all over the
bathroom. We bought so much food, and it seemed like we ate ALL
the time. I didn't complain, of course. We ate yummy raclette,
15-month-old "fruité" comté cheese, French
specialty pastries, more roast chicken, and fresh fruit. I learned how
to make croque monsieurs, which were "fantastique," at least according to my polite eaters. hehe
We hiked up a mountain, where the view was breathtaking. My French
friends pointed to the mountain that we were standing on and then to
another in the distance and asked me which one was better. "They both
look the same," I replied. "Non non," they said, "the one we are on is
much superior because it is French." (Does this sound familiar?)
We decided to go to Switzerland for six hours, but were consequently
delayed, due to cows on the road. We toured a fort, which was
elaborately constructed underground in order to protect the border. I
felt like I was in a submarine, since it was dark, murky, and damp with
a lingering smell of stale water. Even though it was July, I was freezing
the whole time.
    
Here is another funny story that happened in Switzerland:
While we were buying tickets for the fort, the Swiss lady wanted to
check IDs since students and the unemployed received discounts.
She scrutinized my Sorbonne student ID card and asked in slow French,
"When does this card expire?" I said, "Well, this card is good for the
whole academic year, which ends in September." She looked at me in
disbelief. Then, she looked at my friend's unemployment documents and
asked her, "So when do these expire?" My friend with an amazed look
said, "Euhhh, when I find a job." The woman said, "So you want me to
believe that the French government lets you have these unemployment
documents without expiration dates until you find a job?" We were
speechless at this point, just looking at one another. After a brief
explanation of the French social system, my friend finally received her
ticket, complete with discount. The Swiss lady shook her head at us,
saying "The French have strange things in their country." (Les
francais ont les trucs vraiment bizarres.) We again exchanged looks
and quickly left.
After experiencing this, I wondered why the French made fun of the
Belgians (e.g. tu es belge) all the time, but never the Swiss. I think
the Swiss deserve this honor just as much, or maybe, even more. Tu ne penses pas?
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| In the land of Pilsner...
For the first week and a half in July, I went to the Czech Republic to visit friends. My good friend Jarda lives there, and he (along with his long-term girlfriend at the time) graciously offered to show me around his beautiful native homeland. Jarda and I joke that we are long lost twins separated at birth and that I'm, in reality, half-Czech.
   
The first thing we did was to take the train to Karlovy Vary for a film festival. I think I watched about 15 films in about three days - English films, Russian films, French films, etc. etc. I watched films even while sleeping. We stayed in this little garden house that had no electricity, shower, and hot water. (Don't worry, we bathed... but at the local public swimming pool). At night, we lit candles for light and chugged French wine that I had brought from Paris (straight from the bottle... scandalous!). For breakfast, we picked vegetables from the garden outside and drank coffee. It sounds nice, but believe me, it quickly got old after three days. I longed for civilization and internet.
   
I met some other Czech people at Karlovy Vary. Our first conversation went like this:
Me: Hey, my name is Euna. It's really nice to meet you guys. I love Prague. What a beautiful city. You are very lucky to live here.
Czech girl (in a snotty voice): Ummm... we're not in Prague. This is Karlovy Vary.
Me: Oh.... hmm... I'm from America by the way.
For my challenged brain, the Czech word/city "Karlovy Vary" took me about three days to memorize. It was a shame that we had to leave after I finally knew what city I was staying in. I just remember that I ate all the time there. His girlfriend said with incredulous looks, "You're hungry AGAIN? You're so small, but you can eat so much." After awhile, I would just say that I'm eating for two. (Don't' get the wrong idea...)
Anyways, the three of us went to Brno afterwards to visit his girlfriend's sister. Apparently, Czech suburbs exist. They lived in a house with a white fence and a garden for their two kids. I fell in love with their one-year-old son, whose name was Victor. He was so cute when he ate his bananas. My Czech friend proved that he could be very domestic since he pushed the baby carriage around and bounced the baby on his lap. We took the kids to a castle prison and the town, where I ended up walking into a pole by accident. I never lived that one down.
   
Of course, a visit to the land of Pilsner is not complete without a visit to Prague. I really love this city. It's so charming with its red roofs. Jarda and I walked around the old city, rowed a boat on the Vltava River with some French people, ate hot dogs with mustard, went to the Prague Castle, and spent the night talking on a scenic overlook. Last but not least, in between all this walking and talking, we drank lots of quality beer, Pilsners and Budvars, all of which were dirt cheap.
   
On a final note, my Czech friend always had the habit of telling me jokes whenever we sat down for beer. Consequently, I have widely expanded my joke repertoire, and I will tell you my all-time favorite:
A man was walking down the street when he spotted a penguin on the sidewalk. Amazed, he looked at the penguin and thought about what to do. Luckily, he saw a police officer on the other side of the street, so he took the penguin by the wing, walked up to the officer and said, "Excuse me, what should I do with this penguin?"
The officer thought about it for a few moments and replied, "Take him to the zoo."
The man said, "Ok," and the police officer saw the man and penguin walking hand in hand towards the way to the city zoo.
Three hours later, the police officer saw the same man and the same penguin walking down the street. Furious, the police officer marched up to the man and said, "I TOLD you to take the penguin to the ZOO!"
"Yeah," the man said, "we already went to the zoo. Now we're going to the cinema."
Heehee. I know you liked it. Yes, I'm a dork, but it's part of my Euna charm, isn't it? 
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| Gnomes and Creme Brulee...
I met up with a long lost friend last week. We hadn't seen each other for nearly four years. Amazing how fast time travels and how things have changed. I was a different person back then.
So out of the blue, I heard that my Russian friend was visiting Paris and that we should meet up. We talked non-stop during the times we were together about everything, catching up. We drank coffee in a cafe in St. Michel, ate falafel in the Marais, shopped on the Champs-Elysees, had a drink at Buddha Bar, and watched a movie (The Break-Up) at Opera. We also went to Montmartre, and being the Amelie fans that we were, we hunted down all the popular movie stops - mainly the cafe and the grocery store. At Les Deux Moulins (the Amelie cafe), we sat down and ate a Creme Brulee (classic!). I think I tapped the top of the Creme Brulee with my spoon for 5 minutes because I liked the sound of the hardened sugar cracking (or I'm just an Amelie wannabe I guess). At Opera, I thought the shops would be open on Sundays, but I was surprised to see that most everything was closed. Apparently, the French don't care that it's summer and tourist season. It's unbelievable how much American English I hear on the streets.
Amelie grocery store... I like the gnome. If you watch the picture closely, he moves. 
Champs-Elysees at night... with a new blue necklace
So it's true - the magical Amelie gnome promotes travel and brings people together. I saw/experienced it myself.
But now, I have to make sure that he doesn't disappear. | | |
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