Personal pizzas

You know what's weird? Cooking for one. I guess I used to do it, but it seems so much less crucial to plan or give food any forethought when I know it's just me I'm feeding. I'm pretty easy to please (as is hubs, for the record) but with another person I was more conscious about eating routines, nutrition needs, portions to allow for optimal leftovers. I officially just halved my intake (hopefully), leftover consumption and people who give a tiny rat's bum what we're... ech, what I'm eating.

Hubs made a video call from his temporary dorm room in Afghanistan over the weekend. It was weird, and finalistic (I know, I just made up that word but I like it) and way too easy in some odd way. I'd almost convinced myself he was on a short trip or something, but then suddenly he popped up on my screen and reality hit. We didn't have a ton to talk about, but after we disconnected I lost it for the first time in a while. As a visual learner, I guess seeing him away was what it took to really hit home that he's gone. Ick.

After snow and power outage and such I fled to a friend's house and have been camped out for the last 4 days. God bless her- it was partially for convenience when the power went out, but has been soooo incredibly good to be in the same space with a good friend during this last few days. Not looking forward to going back to the woods tomorrow, but after the interview I had today I'm hoping a move is imminent. Fingers crossed.

Vocab of the day: 
Military: MRE= meal ready to eat

Best Free Korean iPhone applications

Image from Kawanet Tech Blog

Deviating from life-pondering and going consumer reports here.

As an iPhone nerd, I've been loving having the iPhone for travel. I'm also hosting a bunch of awesome people in the next few weeks so I got to digging through the Korean apps that are most helpful/I use the most.

Unless noted, these are great for foreign travelers as they don't require internet (i.e. roaming charges) unless otherwise noted. My favs in no particular order:

• Subway maps--  
• BPMetro- Static map, route planner and gives estimated times and cost in won. Five stars.
• Seoul Metro Lite- Static map, but can search for particular stops or nearby stop with GPS. There are many similar, but this allows you to pan in and out most easily of the ones I tried.
• KorSubway Lite- static maps for Seoul, Daejeon, Daegu, Busan and Gwangju
• Translators-- 
• iTranslate (by Sonico GmbH) 
• Language Translator (by Piet Jones)
• both pretty decent, but have their quirks and troubles (left as in left hand or left behind?)
• Phrasebooks-- 
• Vovavox Korean Phrasebook
• Lingopal Korean (great pickup lines)
• Korean Essentials
• Food-- 
• Korean Food Dictionary (by O'ngo Food Communications) AWESOME APP with pics Korean and English, doesn't have all the foods I'd like but it's pretty helpful when you can't remember which jigae you liked that one time. I use it all the time.
• Various Travel/location specific--
• Travel in Korea: Seoul (/all)- I'm pretty sure these are government-designed apps. They have pretty good lists of cool places to check out. I've sused the Seoul (city) and Gyeonggi-do (surrounding province) versions, but if I recall they cover most of the provinces.
• iKorea-awesome
  
  

Anyone want to pay me to review your English-based Korean iPhone apps?=) I'd love the chance to!

Vocab of the day:
Korean: iPhone = pronounced "I-Pohn-ee", yes iPony. I claim rights to whichever band first realizes this is an awesome name.
Military: POTS =Plain Old Telephone Service