While studying for the Therapeutic Relationships exam...

I came across a lecture slide which states, "A nurse shall not use physical, verbal or psychological abuse against the client."

Judy: I. Am. Flabbergasted. So you can't slap them upside the head?
Josh: Where's the fun in that?
Judy: It was gonna be my signature move! "Hey, Billy!" *smack* "Did you take your medicine?" *slug*
Josh: I'm thinking Three Stooges style motions.
Judy: "Did you have your lunch yet?" *uppercut*
Josh: Just a few light slams here and there.
Judy: "The doctor will come and see you in an hour or so, okay?" *HADOUKEN!*
Josh: FINISH HIM!

That's from a different game, but you get the basic idea. Oh god, I'm so glad that course is over. I gleefully threw the coursepack into my recycling basket. Gleefully!

Cooking Attempt #9: Mashed potatoes and Donkatsu (Japanese breaded pork cutlet)

I've been learning new recipes since I started living alone in September. I tried before, but I think I was too ambitious and it ended up being a dismal failure. (If I think about the vegetable cream soup I made then...urgh.)

I've been craving mashed potatoes since last night, so I made it with donkatsu when I came home after my exam. My parents brought me the frozen donkatsu from a Korean market. I ate it with salad and black rice. Yum~

Mashed potatoes
2 medium size potatoes
Margarine 1.5tbsp
Milk 1/2 cup
Salt 1/2tbsp
Pepper to taste

Peel and cut the potatoes into largish chunks. Put them into boiling water with salt. They should be fully cooked after about 15 minutes. Turn off the stove and drain the water. If you put the pot back on the stove with the potatoes, the remaining moisture will evaporate even without the heat on. Put the rest of the ingredients and use a fork or a whisk to mash the potatoes.
If you want it to be creamier, put more margarine or milk.

For donkatsu, heat up some oil in a frying pan at medium heat and cook the cutlets slowly. If it's too hot, the breadcrumbs might burn before the meat cooks fully.




9월에 혼자 살기 시작했을 때부터 열심히 요리공부를 하고 있어요.
전에 한번 시도해 봤는데요, 손이 너무 많이 가는 음식을 해서 실패한 것 같아요.
(그때 만든 야채크림수프를 생각하면, 욱~)

어제부터 mashed potatoes가 생각나더라구요. 그래서 오늘 시험끝나고 집에 와서 돈까스랑 한번 만들어봤어요. 돈까스는 부모님이 한국식품에서 사다주신 거에요. 샐러드와 흑쌀과 함께 먹었습니다.
음냐~

Mashed potatoes
중간 사이즈 감자 2개
마가린 1.5tbsp
우유 반컵
소금 1/2tbsp
후추 간맞춤

감자는 껍질 벗기고 큼직한 네모로 잘라서 끓는 물에 넣으세요.
거기에 소금도 넣구요.
15분쯤 끓이면 다 익었겠죠?
불을 끄고 물을 따라주세요. 감자가 들은 냄비를 다시 스토브에 얹으면 불을 다시 안 켜도 남아있는 수분이 날아갑니다.
나머지 재료를 넣고 포크나 달걀 휘스크 같은 도구로 잘 으깨주세요.
더 부드러운 걸 좋아하시면 마가린이나 우유를 좀 더 넣으세요.

돈까스는 후라이팬에 식용유를 두르고 중간 불에 서서히 익혀주세요.
너무 뜨겁게 하면 고기가 익기 전에 빵가루가 타거든요.


J'avais appris des nouvelles recettes depuis septembre quand j'ai commencé à habiter toute seule. J'ai essayé avant, mais je pense que j'étais trop ambitieuse et c'était un échec lamentable. (Quand je pense à la soupe crème de légumes que j'ai fait à ce moment-là...pouah!)

J'avais terriblement envie d'avoir la purée de pommes de terre depuis la nuit passée, alors je l'ai cuisiné avec donkatsu quand je suis rentrée chez moi après mon examen. mes parents m'ont apporté le donkatsu gelé d'un marché coréen. Je l'ai mangé avec une salade et du riz noir. Miam miam~

La purée de pommes de terre
2 pommes de terres moyens
Margarine 1.5 grand cuillerée (GC?)
Lait 1/2 tasse
Sel 1/2 grand cuillerée
Poivre

Pelez et coupez les pommes de terres en gros morceaux. Mettez-les dans l'eau brouillant avec du sel. Ils seront complètement cuits après environs 15 minutes. Éteindez la cuisinière et égouttez l'eau. Si vous mettez la casserole sur la cuisinière avec les pommes de terre, la humidité qui reste s'évaporera. Mettez les autres ingrédients dans la casserole et utilisez une fourchette ou un fouet pour faire une purée.

Si vous la voulez un peu plus crèmeuse, mettez plus de la margarine ou du lait.

Pour le donkatsu, réchauffez un peu d'huile dans une poêle au chaleur moyen et cuisinez les côtelettes lentement. Si c'est trop chaud, la panure peut brûler avant la viande est cuite.

A new challenge! - 새로운 도전! - Une nouvelle challenge!

When I was just 9 years old and just starting to get a grasp of English in Toronto, my mother decreed that I should write my diary in three different languages. It didn't matter, she said, if they weren't grammatically perfect as long as I tried. (Can you tell she's a teacher?) Well, she expected my Korean at least to be spotless. My Korean is still awesome (and I'm damn proud of it too), but I'm starting to lose some words, so I'm going to be bringing back the trilingual diary entries in this blog. The entries will not be exact translations of each other, because that is impossible, as I've stressed many times before. However, I will do my best to not slack off in the translation. Oh and hey, you can always put the translations into Babelfish for a good laugh!

내가 토론토에서 처음으로 영어가 귀에 들어오기 시작한 꽃다운 아홉살이었을 때, 엄마가 일기를 세가지 언어로 쓰길 바라셨다. 엄마는 문법이 틀려도 괜찮으니 그냥 열심히 쓰면 된다고 하셨다. (선생님이셨다는 게 짐작가지 않는가?) 그래도 한글만은 완벽하길 강요하셨다. 내 한글은 아직도 거의 완벽하지만 (엄청 자랑스럽게 생각하고 있다) 단어들이 서서히 지워지는 것 같아서 다시 삼개 국어 일기를 시작한다. 내가 전에 몋번이나 강조했듯이, 완벽한 번역은 무가능하지만 할 수 있는만큼 뜻이 맞게 써보겠다. 바벨피쉬에 넣어보면 재미있지 않을까?

Quand j'avais 9 ans et commençais à comprendre l'anglais à Toronto, ma mère a décrété que je devrais écrire mon journal en trois langues. Ça ne fait rien, elle a dit, si la grammaire n'est pas parfaite pourvu que j'essayais. (C'est evident qu'elle étais une professeur, n'est-ce pas?) Eh bien, elle a demandé que mon coréen au moins d'être parfait. Mon coréen est encore impressionant (et je suis très fière), mais je commence à perdre les mots, alors je vais restaurer les notations trilingues dans ce blog. Les notations ne seront pas de translations exactes, parce que c'est impossible, comme j'avais dit plusieurs fois. Toutefois, je vais essayer de ne pas relâcher dans les translations. Hé, vous pouvez les mettre dans Babelfish pour rigoler!

L'endoctrinement continue.

La fin de semaine passée, j'ai regardé Le Seigneur d'Anneaux en français. Pendant le troisième film, il y avait une scène qui me faisait avoir peur pour ma santé mentale.

Eowyn: Courage, Merry. Ce sera bientôt fini.
Merry: Dame Eowyn, vous êtes belle et courageuse. Vous avez tant de raisons de vivre et de gens qui vous aiment.
Judy: Merry a utilisé une intervention de la modèle McGill! Il a rappelé à Eowyn qu'elle a des forces qui la donne un sentiment de contrôle. C'est tellement important pour sa santé!

Vous saviez déjà que je suis folle. Maintenant, vous avez plus de la preuve.

Cooking Attempt #8: 감자조림 (Potato side dish)

I'm on a cooking roll, lately. Anyway, I was sick of having no more than 2 side dishes at a time, so I decided to make something else to add to my fridge!

This recipe is one of many Korean potato side dishes. It's a nice mix of saltiness (from the soy sauce) and sweetness (from honey).

5 medium sized potatoes - chopped into largish chunks
1 onion - chopped
crushed garlic - 1 tbsp
soy sauce - 12 tbsp
water - 1/2 cup
sesame oil - 1 tbsp
honey - 3 tbsp and then to taste

First you put the potato chunks in a large pot with lots of water and start bring it up to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and leave on the stove until the potatoes are almost done cooking. Meanwhile, mix the onion, garlic and soy sauce together in a bowl. Drain the potatoes and put them back in the pot on low heat. Add the onion, garlic, soy sauce mixture. Then add water to the pot. Stir frequently, making sure that the potatoes get coated with the sauce. When the sauce starts to thicken, add the sesame oil and stir. Turn off the heat. Add honey and stir.

I like mine a little sweet, so just keep tasting and experimenting.
Clockwise from left: Nori (dried seaweed seasoned with sesame oil and salt), potato side dish, radish kimchi, fish cake stir fry

Cooking Attempt #7: 오뎅조림 (Fish cake stir fry)

I made some fish cake soup over the weekend, but all the flavour went out of it into the broth, so I decided to make something else with the rest of the fish cake.
This is a side dish that you eat with rice. I had mine with kimchi and some nori. Yum.

Fish cake - 400g - This comes in all shapes and sizes. If it's too big, then cut it to bite-size.
Onion - chopped
Green pepper - chopped
Green onion - chopped
Hot pepper - chopped
Carrot - diced
Soy sauce - 3 tbsp
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Chili paste - 1 tbsp

Boil some water and dip the fish cake pieces in it briefly. Fish out the fish cake pieces and dunk them in cold water. When they've cooled down, cook it in a frying pan/wok with a bit of oil until it starts to brown over medium heat. Push it to one side of the pan, so that you can cook the veggies with the soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Once the veggies start to soften, add the chili paste and mix it until it dissolves. Then mix everything together, making sure that the fish cake is coated evenly. Before you eat, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

This is the spicy version. If you like something milder, then just forego the hot pepper and chili paste. Yummy yum!

A Brief Self-Review

I got a phone call randomly on Thursday from the First-Year office at McGill, asking me how my first year was going and if I was adjusting well to university life. I was amused, but gratified. From what I can remember, U of T never called me except to ask for my contribution as an alumnus, because as an alumnus of the illustrious U of T, you must be wallowing in money only months after graduating, right? And from what I can remember, I also told it to go fuck itself (not exactly in those words).

Ahem.

So I told the person that it wasn't actually my first year of university life but that I still appreciated the call anyway. After I hung up, I started thinking about why I was so bitter about U of T. Was there something incredibly wrong about the whole system or was I foisting the blame for my less than stellar academic career on it?

I will be the first to admit that I goofed off a lot in my first year. Everyone knows first year is when they make sure everyone is up to speed in the basics of whatever program they're in. I was arrogant from my years at Westmount. I skipped classes, slept through lectures, barely did readings and all that good stuff. Still, I did a little better than average.

At the end of the first year, I went to my registrar (academic advisor) who basically informed me that I had screwed up the rest of my life and that med school was now out of my reach forever and ever. Surprisingly, the med school thing didn't bother me as much as her attitude that my marks, which were just average and not terrible, weren't good for anything to which I might aspire. That no matter how hard I tried from here on in, it wouldn't count for anything, because of this one screw-up. I was so bitter that I later wrote a sarcastic letter mocking registrars, which was accepted by one of the campus papers. I don't consider it my best piece, but it must have been a common enough opinion to be published in all its vociferous glory.

Second year is a blur. I did better in some aspects, I suppose. Actually enjoyed some of the courses, but I still slept through Physiology, because quite frankly, if the profs can't be bothered to at least pretend that they're not aching to go rushing back to their labs at Med Sci, then I can't pretend to show any interest in their half-hearted lectures. I simply refuse. So second year was also a bit of a bust.

Before third year started, I said to myself, this can't be what university is about. I'm supposed to be learning new things and expanding my mind and everything else that education is supposed to do for you. So fuck it, I said, and after making sure I had enough courses to get my Life Sciences major and Math and Botany minors, I signed up for whatever sounded interesting. Classical mythology, Latin and Greek roots in Science terminology, history of math, history of bio, etc. History of Espionage was an unusual treat. Thanks to this new outlook, I enjoyed my third and fourth year quite a bit. I did all the readings that I was supposed to do and went to most lectures. Sure, I didn't take physics or more than one anatomy course. I don't regret it, even if it means I have to take them now for nursing. I don't care if I can't exactly remember how RNA viruses work. I know what works for me now. I know what I want to learn and I know I'm not a failure.

In your face, U of T.

Mon peau est trop sensitive.

J'ai reçu la vaccine pour le polio lundi matin, et maintenant j'ai un contusion sur mon épaule. Ce n'est pas une nouvel événement. Je trouve plusieurs contusions au hasard, mais celui-ci est vraiment dégoûtant. C'est bleu, avec des points violets. Un photo est compris, parce que Robert me l'a suggeré. Voilà!

J'ai eu une rêve en français.

Je ne peux pas me souvenir tous les détails, mais je pense que c'était une situation dangereuse. Il y avait quelqu'un avec moi, qui essayait de trouver la solution (peut-être quelque chose avec une machine? - je pense que je regarde trop de Battlestar Galactica) et je l'aidait. C'était très obscur tout autours, et à l'étroit. Il y avait trois étages pour réparer la problème. Je ne sais pas s'il y avait du conversation en français, mais je suis sûre que toutes mes pensées étaient en français. C'est drôle, non? Je ne peux pas parler en français sans penser un peu en avant, mais je peux rêver en français, si je le pratique un peu avant de m'endormir?

Mais voici, ma première poste en français. J'ai besoin de beaucoup d'encouragement!

Do you know what hell is, mortal?

This has been stuck in my head for the past hour.

Follow me~ Fantasy, fantasy~