A few tidbits

So nothing spectacular has been going on, but I really wanted to do an update so I just compiled a few things that I've been doing during the last week or so.

First things first. FOOD. Hahahah. Haven't had a food post in a while, right? The first one is 피자 닭갈비, aka Pizza Chicken Meat or AWESOME. Hahah. So I love 닭갈비 (basically spicy boneless dark meat pieces of chicken with veggies), but we wanted a little twist, so we went to a place that has pizza-style. So this one also had mozzarella cheese, olives, bell peppers and onions sprinkled on top. So good. 

We cleaned it up. Hahahah. 

Then tonight, my familia had dinner @ Cafe Minto to celebrate the end of the semester . Seven girls ate two bowls of pasta, three bowls of 떡복기, which is like spicy rice cakes. So delicious. 

Been going to church, too, and seeing too many people dress alike. 

We also take sticker pictures and make Chung wear ridiculous headbands.

Emmaus Girlies :):):)

And.. we also study :D. Melissa, Ashley and my favorite place to study is @ Princeton Square. The environment is so conducive to studying. Work work work!

AND CHECK IT OUT! They have a USC Banner! Fight on!

end

Sports Day!

So on Sunday the 31st (yes, a long long time ago), Emmaus held a Sports Day competition. It was four teams vying for the top trophy :)

Me + Hanna wearing our cool Emmaus Campus Ministry shirts! Thanks to P. Marcus for designing it :D

Our team, with the pink accented using my super camera. Aram, Judy and Nie Nie holding up the "BRIDEZILLA" flag/cape/awesomeness!

Judy and I practicing for the 3-legged race! Second place in our heat! Woo!

Getting into her zone for the Spoon Race!

The Wednesday Night teams :) Erin Samo + Mat!

Aka the Watermelon Teams!

end :)

Nearing the end...

Wow. Two more weeks and I'll be back in the states. That's so weird. So yes, ladies and gents! I shall be back in the good ol' U.S. of A. on June 22. And I'm ready to be home. I want some blue skies, Mexican food, a comfy queen-sized bed (aka my bed at home), less crowded streets, and see my friends and boyfriend. To actually see them would be nice, rather than just talking on the phone or viewing a projection on a screen. No bueno.

So it's EXCITING that it's only two more weeks. It also means that I have finals coming up. I really only care about one class — my Chinese characters class. I really really want an A in this class, and it's probably the only class where I won't get an A. Boo. I'm doing pretty well in Korean, and I'm quite sure I'm doing fine in my other two classes. But hanja is sooo difficult because now it's 300 characters that all blur together. Is it 13 strokes or 14? I have one that's 23 strokes. But actually, it's the ones that have less than 10 strokes that are the hardest. 

I have two other finals. One is my Korean final, which has multiple parts. Listening, reading, speaking, overall. Shouldn't be too bad, but I have to give a 3-minute speech again and I have to write it sometime soon. My other is for my North+South Korean Politics class, which has a giant essay. I should be fine on that since it's history and I'm good at history, even if I'm not a huge fan of this class. 

And finally, I have a final paper I have to write. I thought it would be due next week, but apparently it's due June 23, which is... after I come back... I'm supposed to upload it onto the school server, but I don't trust the school server so I'm going to try finishing it up this weekend or something. I haven't started and it's 10 pages long... I guess 10 pages isn't really that long though, so maybe that'll be okay. 

I just want to do well. Yeah all my classes are pass/fail, but still! I want to do well!

That's my situation right now. Actually, a lot of people from ANC are coming this summer, and so I might meet up with some of them, which will be amazing! I can't wait to come back and see you all soon :) 

Mother's Day!!!!!!!!

It was Mother's Day on Sunday! I love you mommy! And daddy too :) They're actually coming to visit me in a week, and I'm super excited. Here's me @ church, wearing clothes I bought on Saturday. 

We took jumping pictures!!!

That's Erin 사모, Tina and ME!

Joe and Chung. 

Then Erin 사모 dressed up her husband, Pastor Christian, to make him look like Waldo. Hilarity. 

They are suuuuch a cute couple. 

Then we went to eat some shabu shabu! Delicious! :)

The end! More entries coming soon!

Dates with Girls :)

Korea has a lot of cute cafes and eateries. I love going to them and eating good food and getting cute desserts. Here's two places that I went to. The first one is Spoon Race. I went there once with Joanna before, but I went to it again with Melissa and Ashley. It's located in a small side street by Ewha Women's University. The place is ALWAYS packed. 

Waiting for our food. 

We ate all of it. Hahahahahah. But lemme tell ya, it was reaaaally good. 

I kid I kid. Here are a few pics. of what we demolished. 

Shrimp Olive Oil Pasta. Very light, very delicious. 

Gorgonzola & Honey Pizza Dish. 

You dip the pizza slices in the honey. So good. 

Dessert of Waffles, courtesy of Red Mango.

Tuesday (the 5th) was Children's Day, which is a national holiday = NO SCHOOL. So Tina, Joanna and I went to 압구정, which is a very upper-class section of Seoul. We walked around, browsed, and eventually found ourselves at Kaffee Strasse. 

This is Tina striking the Tina pose. We all followed suit. 

Our coffee + desserts! Yum yum!

More posts coming soon :)

Korean Class

For those of you who don't know why I'm in Korea, it's to learn Korean. I think it's about time that I introduce you a little bit more to my Korean class. Below is my current teacher. We had two other teachers before the midterm, but after the midterm exam period we got a new teacher who teaches us every day from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

TEACHER!

We have three books. A grammar/vocab text book, a workbook, and a reading comprehension book. I'm in the Intermediate 2-B class. The class isn't difficult, but it is definitely improving my Korean writing (spelling, grammar) as well as increasing my vocabulary — the exact reasons why I came. Below are some pictures of my classmates. Enjoy!

Classmates. You can see our textbook on the bottom of the picture.

Yes, we get a little distracted sometimes. 

The end. 

Coffee House!

Tonight was Emmaus "Coffee House," which was in essence a talent show where Emmaus members sang, danced, recited poetry, and shared their testimonies. It was an awesome time and everyone was SOOO talented :)

I MC'd along with Mike, and we had a lot of fun. EVERYONE WAS SO AMAZING!!!!! 

Decorations!

Joe performing a song. 

Coffee Girls performance!

Yes, that's me along with four of my friends, singing a cappella. 

COFFEE GIRLS <3333333

Me, Tina, Judy, Joanna, Haewon :)

Random picture in a mirror. Hahahah. 

And here's the last bit of our performance. It was a medley of songs: Jesus' Love is Bubbin' Over; I Love You, Lord; Deep Down in my Heart; and Love the Lord. Enjoy! :)

Old Friends, New Friends :)

This update is just... a lot of things jammed together. Hahah. At least there's pictures :)

So last weekend, Michelle Cho came back to Korea :) I haven't seen this girl in over a year, but she says she promises to be back this summer. 

Haewon, Me, Michelle, Judy, Aram

Emilie & Christine eating after church for Erin 사모's birthday.

 

Then on Thursday, I got to hang out with Judy and Haewon @ 이대, which is Ewha Women's University, an all-female university right next to my school. It's soo pretty there. 

Judy, Haewon, Me :) 

Pretty ladies!

I'll have a more cohesive entry soon, I promise. Bye!

Black Day

So in Korea, April 4 (4/14) is Black Day. I told you guys about White Day, right? So Black Day is the day where singles go out and get 자장면 (or 짜짱면), which is black.. noodle... dish... SO DELICIOUS. See picture below. 


I know I'm not single, but since my boyfriend is really really far away, I thought I was justified in going out to eat some black noodles with my friends :) Here we are, beginning our journey to our quest to find the black noodles! 

Isn't it pretty?? Check out the cherry trees on the hillside. And below, you can see all the budding leaves on the streets. 

Chung and Victoria are ready for their foodz.

Tina and me with our green chopsticks!

Forest path around sunset time. Cool. :) More updates coming soon!

Easter Sunday

I hope you all had a pleasant Easter last week. At church, everyone was all dressed up and soo pretty! These were taken right outside our church, JSEM or New Philadelphia. 

Judy and me. She is sooo beautiful :)

Judy and Chung! They're such Gs.

Emmaus Staff! Mat, Brian, P. Marcus, Erin 사모!!! 

Then afterwards I went out with family because we were celebrating birthdays! It was Hyunjoo's dad's birthday and Hyunjoo's mom's brother's wife's birthday too. She's expecting twin boys in late July! We went out for some really really traditional Korean food. And it was delicious and not heavy. Yum. So here come the food pictures :D

The meat in the middle right is 떡갈비, which is finely chopped/diced pieces of meat that are then molded into normal meat shapes using rice. It's got a really interesting texture and it's delicious. 

I generally haaaate shellfish/clams/whatever. But these were actually really good and not salty. 

The end :) Will post again soon!