May 17, 2011 축제, 태용, 돈까스

Being 20 doesn't feel any different haha but it's weird saying your new age. 

While we were taking a bathroom break, the girls noticed they had these in the bathroom....

Pink toilets for women's restrooms!

After class and lunch, Kenwood, Victoria, Michelle, and I went out to the markets nearby the house.  Michelle and I found some K-pop socks for 500 원 which equals about $0.50! 

2PM 닉쿤 양말 Nickhun socks!

I got 2PM 닉쿤 Nickhun and Michelle got Big Bang.

We went up to the university to study.  We thought we would could do language practice with the students by talking to them and getting to know them.  However, it didn't work out well.  Everyone was busy studying in the library or on their way out.  No kidding; it was impossible to find anyone.  While we were sitting down, we saw these two Korean (I emphasize that because it make sense later) girls on a bench.  Kenwood went to go talk to them because us girls were still afraid to use our language skills.  This is when it gets really interesting.  Kenwood started talking to the girls and as he was talking to them, they got really confused looks on their faces.  After he was done one of them says, "Sorry, we don't speak Korean that well" in an American accent!  Haha funny joke right?  We tried so hard to find someone to talk to and we end up talking to the only Americans on the whole campus. 

After studying, we heard there was a music festival happening tonight so we all (everyone from the study abroad) went together.  Before the festival, we met 심태용 Shim Tae Yong who has been studying with Derek a couple times.  The festival was pretty cool.  They performed a Disney medley and some Western classics. 

After the festival, we met 심태용 Tae Yong's girlfriend who was in the festival.  We were all hungry and so 심태용 Tae Yong knew of this cheap but good 돈까스 Japanese pork cutlet (dohn-ga-seu) restaurant nearby the school.  One of his friends, who is a girl, met up with us at the restaurant. 

WOW!

Back row:  Stephen, Rachael, Michelle, Benjamin, 심태용 Tae Yong's 동생 friend.

Front row:  Juni, me, 심태용 Tae Yong.

심태용 Tae Yong is so much fun to hang out with!  He's really funny and when he tries to speak English, he speaks really fast that's it's really funny.  We walked around and talked about meeting again at a nearby park.  We've noticed being here that the native Koreans are actually laid back and very friendly.  Seeing Koreans at their most comfortable (being in their own country) and us being the foreigners has been intersting to see.  Getting to know more Koreans in that context has given us a better idea of what Koreans are like.

May 16, 2011 Happy Birthday! Good Bye Teen Years!

It's my birthday!  Woot woot!  What a great way to spend my 20th birthday!  :-)  Breakfast was really interesting.  Usually Koreans have 미역국 brown seaweed soup (mi-yuhk-gook).  However, I'm not a huge fan of it so I wasn't disappointed that I didn't have it for breakfast.  Actually, breakfast was pretty meager lol.  We didn't have a chance to buy groceries and all we had back at the house was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  So that was breakfast haha lol.

We had class and they sang to me in Korean "Happy Birthday".  By then it was time for lunch.  We went to 본죽 Bon-jook, the porridge restaurant again which we were all excited about.  This time I got 쇠고기버섯죽 beef and mushroom porridge (shwe-go-gi-boh-soht).  So good!  "-)  Who would have thought having porridge for your birthday would be a real treat!  After, we went out in our language groups.  This time I was with Kenwood and Michelle.  We went to a shaman's house who gave a fortune to Kenwood.  It was pretty cool.  However,  I was really sleepy again.  I think it's hard to pay attention when they use technical terms that you're not familiar with.

쇠고기버섯죽  :-)

Haha poor Kenwood.  The chick in black has the sam shirt as him.  I guess Kenwood has true Korean sytle because all of the clothes he has, someone else in Korea has it too!  Haha we told him that his shirt looked like a couple's shirt.  :-)

After that we had some free time.  Kenwood, Michelle, and I since we finished our language practice when out shopping around the city.  I found some 소녀시대 Girl's Generation (so-nyeo-shi-dae) socks!  They were really cheap so I got 태연 Taeyeon and 유리 Yuri.  :-)  Hey, why not treat myself?  It's my birthday, you know.  Then I wanted to buy some birthday candles because I love the birthday candles they have here.  They're long, skinny, and so much fun!  I went to a 7-11 and asked if they had any.  The lady gave me 8 and as I was about to pay, she told me there were free!  AWESOME and HOLLA!!!!!  As we were walking, we saw some of the others.  We called out to meet up with them but then all of a sudden, they ran away.  As they were running away, I saw Benjamin holding a blue box.  I had an idea of what that was but I thought I wouldn't ruin their plan.  :-)

When we all got back to the house, they asked me where we should go for dinner.  I wanted to get 삼겹살 sam-kyup-sal which is where you wrap rice and meat in lettuce and then you can add sauces or whatever you want to it.  We went to a store nearby.  It didn't look very clean but we thought we wouldn't be able to find one close again (even though it's Korea, we haven't found a ton of places serving it).  So we went inside and the lady didn't give us a lot of meat and it was pretty expensive.  All of us in the end were still a bit hungry.

Then all of a sudden, Steve was like, "I need a snack.  I'm starving."  Everyone said it was ok but they had this confused look on their faces.  Knowing it's Steve and that he eats a lot, I wasn't surprised but I thought it was weird he was leaving early. Then a couple minutes later, Derek came by with Steve and they brought with them a cake from Paris Baguette and a present! 

We had the cake at the house and it was really rich but delicious!  :-)  It was a chocolate cake :-)  I'm turned 20 today and the cake was so cute with zoo animals that it looked like it was for a 4 year old.  :-)  Funny huh?  The cake was really good.  The present they gave me was a Hello Kitty tupperware pack.  They said, when they saw this they thought of me.  How???  I don't know how but it was cute and so nice of them to get me a present!  :-)

Birthday cake from Paris Baguette!

Isn't this cake darling?  Haha it's still funny to me that I have left the teen years and they chose a cake suitable for a little child.  But who cares?  It's so cute and they were so thoughtful.

My favorite part of the cake:  candles!

You know you want some?  It was that good.

It's a Hello Kitty tupperware set!!  OH MY GOSH!!!

Presents:  Hello Kitty tupperware and 소녀시대 Girl's Generation socks

Darling birthday card

Message from everyone on the study abroad

Lately, we've been watching really funny YouTube videos; particulary Japanese advertisements.  They're so corky, random, and hilarious!  Like take this one below.  When we saw this, we couldn't stop laughing.  If you watch it overand over again, it becomes more funny each time!



Haha each time I watch this, I die of laughter.  It's so random and crazy!

It's been such a great day!  Very relaxed but it turned out to be great.  I'm in Korea; hello!  I love the snacks here.  Especially banana milk!  You're probably thinking, well, we have banana milk back in America.  No, this is different; it's so much better and I don't like flavored milk so this is good stuff.

We love banana milk!