Accountability

Wow, I'm a terrible blogger lately.

Actually, I'm a terrible everything lately. My apartment is a wreck, my complexion hates me, my sleep cycle's all wiggly... is it because the weather's changing? (And it definitely is, here in Korea, where the seasons are very definite.) Or is it just me, going through a strange phase?

So. I decided to blog today because I need to be held accountable, and forcing myself to put it all out there in public (to all three people that read my blog) should, hopefully, keep me somewhat responsible. Motivated, even (ha).

I signed up for personal training sessions, and today was my first hellish experience.

Okay, it's not totally hellish. I mean, it's not that bad. It's ... hard. I got super nauseous after about ten minutes and went to throw up, but I had to nothing to throw up. One of the bad things about not eating breakfast, I suppose.

My trainer's really young and really, really tall, which is a bit disconcerting, but he's nice enough and tough enough when he needs to be. He put me through my paces for an hour and a half this morning and really wanted to keep me there for another who-knows-how-long to force me on a treadmill, but I fled, pleading meetings at work (I lied).

I was punished for lying to my trainer, though, because at lunchtime, a couple friends wanted to go ride bikes at Lake Park, so I dragged my sore, achy self off for a 5 km bike ride.

I may collapse tonight and not be able to move tomorrow.

My next session's on Wednesday. As long as I can move by Wednesday morning ... I'll be ... okay. So that my trainer can, again, make me insanely achy and sore. At which point, I'm sure someone will want to ride bikes or go do yoga or something else to make me even more achy and sore.

It's never really been a New Year's resolution of mine to get fit or lose weight, and I think part of that (a large part) is due to my complete lack of motivation. I don't know what motivated me to sign up for this in Korea, where personal trainers are quite expensive, but I'm glad. No amount of money is too much for good health.

I know that I'm not healthy, and I'm turning 31 (ugh!) this year. It's really now or never. I don't want to have a heart attack at 40, or be put on blood pressure medication at 35. I want to be able to play with my future children without throwing out my back or having to catch my breath after five minutes. Hell, I want to be able to play with my grandchildren.

There are so many things about Korea's prevailing culture of superficiality that I don't like at all-- judging everyone by their looks, everybody getting plastic surgery, putting beauty before health, etc., etc.-- but if that superficiality is why I've decided to start taking care of myself, then it's not all bad. It would be a different thing if I weighed 110 pounds and decided I was "fat" by Korean standards so started dieting to lose more weight. But I weight substantially more than 110 pounds (which my trainer told me is my goal weight, which is ... crazy), and I'm stressing my joints, my heart, my lungs, my entire body with the extra weight I'm carrying around.

I really thought hitting thirty would be a turning point; that's when everyone suddenly realizes they're not young anymore, right? I don't know why it took me almost a year after my thirtieth birthday, but no matter how it had to come about, I'm glad I've taken this first step.

Now for the next bajillion steps that my sadistic trainer's going to put me through....

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Singapore

Got back from Malaysia and Singapore early on Thursday morning.

Malaysia was hot, humid, and nature-y. We stayed in Kuala Lumpur a couple nights, then Melaka a couple nights.

Then off we went to Singapore. Where it was hot, humid, and clean. Wow, is Singapore clean! I really appreciated the cleanliness- no debris on the streets, no gum stuck to sidewalks.

More later, as I have photos on my little point-and-shoot, but since I have a horrid cold (I get them about every month or so during the winter in Korea), I'm out of commission for a little while.

Time for more citrus tea and cold medicine...

(The photo above is using the panaroma feature on iPhones, and one of the few pictures I have on my phone from this trip, as my stupid phone is only 16 stupid gigabytes so I'm out of stupid memory. Stupid.)

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2012

I know it's super late, but better late than never? I hope?

2012 was a crazy year for me. I've never traveled more. I spent the entire year living (well, paying rent) in a foreign country (Korea). I turned thirty (eep!). So here's my quick recap of 2012:

January
I began the year in LA at my parents' house. January was pretty quiet, actually-- the calm before the storm, in a way. At the end of the month was when I first met the producer of "Chinese Zodiac" (or CZ12), a film that would shape my entire year.

February

I'd been in Beijing before, but the trip last February was the first time I met Jackie Chan. He was more serious in person than he is in photographs or films, but I was glad to make his acquaintance, especially since his film would be the one that I would be working on for the rest of the year.

March

My first trip to Hong Kong! The above shot was taken at a hotel; I'm pretty sure it was the Grand Hyatt, right on Victoria Harbour, where we met someone for coffee one day. We were in March for a quick shoot (principal photography was completed before we came onto the movie, so we only participated during re-shoots, which started last March), and the schedule happened to coincide with Hong Kong Filmart, which our CEO was attending. So we met up with everyone that was in Hong Kong, managed to shoot despite the cloudy weather we encountered, and saw a little bit of Hong Kong in between.

April

After a quick trip to Beijing in the beginning of April, we were off for some serious re-shoots, globe-hopping like crazy. 

From Korea, we flew to Hong Kong for a layover (and to meet up with the Hong Kong crew), then flew to Australia.
In Australia, we took a lot of puddle jumpers, shooting sky-diving in Mission Beach and source photography at Somerset Dam. We flew in and out of three airports in Oz (Cairns, Brisbane, Sydney), mixing in a trip to Vanuatu for a nice ashy shoot on two different volcanoes.
I spent one night in my apartment in Korea in the month of April, which I found both delighting and an awful waste of money.

May

May brought more travel. After a night in my apartment, onwards to Europe! After a layover in Helsinki, we arrived in Latvia, where we stayed for a couple weeks.
Back to Korea for a couple weeks before going to LA to take care of some things and to see my family. It was a very brief time to re-charge my batteries before I trekked back to Korea...
...Just in time to make it for my grandfather's funeral. Needless to say, May was tough.

June

Because of my grandfather, my parents both came to Korea and were in the country on my birthday. They were in my hometown, though, while I was up in Ilsan, working like crazy.
I turned 30 with bitterness and sadness because of my grandfather and because of aging.
Another quick trip to Beijing in June, where it was miserably muggy and smoggy, as shown in the photo above. Ugh, Beijing in the summer is really not good.

July

I didn't travel in July! My goal of getting on a plane at least once a month fizzled in July.
July was mostly about staying inside air-conditioning, which meant watching a lot of movies. Drinking a lot of grapefruit ade, which I love, and eating lots of popcorn.
My parents bought a house in California in July, which I was a little sad about- I hadn't gotten to participate in the house hunting, the driving around to discover new neighborhoods, all that fun stuff. On the other hand, I didn't have to pack and move, so... yeah.

August

August was my first fun trip with friends in Korea! We went to 속초 (SokCho) and had a couple of fun days in relatively great summery weather (it was alternately too humid and too windy, oddly) and for the first time, I felt like I had true friends in Korea that I will stay in touch with after I leave this country.
August was also when I visited Bangkok for the first time for a business trip. Bangkok in August, unlike SokCho, was consistently hot and humid. I baked when I was outdoors, I froze when I was indoors. We got lost in a night market. It was an experience I'm glad to have had.

September

The weather in Korea continued to be hot, but a friend and I still hoofed to Lotte World before we went to watch "Man of La Mancha." Let me tell you, watching a play (well, musical) translated into Korean is weird. "The Impossible Dream" in Korean just doesn't have the same impact.

October

Ah, Bangkok. You with your giant flies that sit calmly on my bitter melon.
Then back to LA for AFM (American Film Market) and to see my family a little. And work nutty hours because I had to work during Korean business hours.

November

Back to Korea in November, where it was COLD. Ah, winter, bless you for skipping over LA, but why are you so brutal on Korea??
My sister came to visit, and despite the weather, we managed to have fun and eat tons of food while she was here.

December

I ended the year the way I started it, at my parents' house in LA.


My 2012 was, by turns, busy, boring, eventful, stale, depressing, and exhilarating. Here's hoping for more-- and perhaps more happiness-- this year.

Traveling in 2013 picks up tomorrow, when I'm off to Malaysia for four days, then a couple days in Singapore. Weather forecast says cloudy, hot, humid, and rainy...

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