Easter Vacation

Hi,

It's been sooo long since I last posted... I guess I'll post about what I did since my last post and work my way up to the present...

First off, I got my hair cut and permed.  Emily came up to Seoul and we decided to be impulsive and go get our hair done.  I wasn't so sure about my hair cut; it was much shorter than I had originally planned.  However, after about a month, I've gotten used to it ^^

 clever sign I saw in Itaewon

 Emily and me at Kraze Burger

 Nik and I went biking/skating near the Han River

 the money matches my jacket!!!

 can't see too well, but heres a picture of mine and Emily's new hairstyles~

Yes that is. Totally soju in a juice box. we got yelled at for taking this picture... hehe.

Anyhow, from April 22~24, we had Easter break.  (Going to a Catholic school definitely has its perks, as other language schools such as Yonsei didn't have time off then ^^).  Thursday, I went mountain hiking with my classmates and teacher.  Friday,  I decorated Nik's house because he was going to have a party for his Spanish students on Saturday.  I've been telling him since I got here to put something on his walls so its not so bare. But he never got around to it, so I had got to have fun 'scrapbooking' his walls.
I also made matzah lasagna in honor of Passover!!! Even though I improvised, as I didn't have all the correct ingredients, it turned out surprisingly well!

final product

On Saturday, I went and met up with a bunch of Sup Ho people! I haven't seen much of camp people because I've been so busy with work... We met way down in southern Seoul and ate 감자탕 (potato stew) at one of the unni's husband's family's restaurant. It was really really good!!! We also went to a flea market and I got a jacket for W7,000 aka roughly $7!!! Nice!! It was really windy that day and I was feeling really cold and happened to stumble upon the most perfect jacket! hehe.

So, on Thursday, I went with my classmates and our teacher to 남한산 (NamHan Mountain) to go mountain climbing.  (Koreans LOVE hiking in the mountains).
The mountain was about an hour away by subway, so we met midmorning in Sinchon and went together.

One of my classmates had gone there before and suggested we go.  When we got there, we just started walking and took the first path we saw, which ended up being quite difficult.  My classmate had taken an easy course the time before, but our course was rather steep...
Our first stop was to go see the temple, which honestly, wasn't very far from where we had started.  All of my classmates and our teacher are under the age of 34, but man, did we struggle... It was really funny, because on the way to the temple, we passed this ajusshi (old man) walking down the opposite direction.  One of my classmates asked him how much further until the temple. He said not far, and then offered to turn around and take us up there.  My classmate declined but said, "wow, what's wrong with this picture?  A 100 year old man just offered to turn around and go up again and we can barely even make it up to begin with..." Lol!

 walk up the mountain to the temple

 struggling... almost there!

 the most beautiful cherry tree ever!!! I actually thought it was fake it was so perfect looking...

 lanterns~

 haha~ oh Korea.  Huge TV next to the bell. nice.

Anyhow, we did make it up there.  And from there, we decided to go to the top of the mountain.  Mostly because we planned to eat lunch together, but all of the restaurants are at the top~ lol.  So, we started back up, and maybe about 5 minutes in, lost half our class.  They were way down still trying to get up.  So, our teacher asked an ajusshi passing by how long it might take us to get to the top of the mountain from where we were.  He said it takes him about 15 minutes, so it would take us probably about an hour or so. Ouch!  These middle aged men and women are VERY fit...

 almost to the midway point~

 half way there!

 whew. 

 ajuma hulahooping like its a piece of cake

Ryu trying to hulahoop (note the ajuma in the background - dang, she was a pro!)

We almost turned around, but then people decided they could make it. And he was right, it took us about another hour to get there... It was really funny Japanese people don't really hike mountains, so most of them were dying.  And we have one really funny Japanese guy in our class; he's the class clown.  He came up to our teacher and, while panting, was like, "You said this was going to be like a stroll in the park!?... This is NOT a stroll in the park"  and our teacher was like, "huh? What?? I don't remember every saying such a thing.  But... Maybe when we get to the top of the mountain, I'll remember."  haha!

we made it to the top!!!

Anyhow, we did make it to the top and had an amazing lunch~ 오리 구이 aka grilled duck. My favorite!!! It was definitely worth the effort.

L: Ryu from Japan, Dunkin from Australia, me

L: Amy (canada), Ryoko (Japan), our teacher!!! 구은미 샘, Nina (Taiwan)

yum!

everyone~

Amy and Ryoko

During break, I also went to 여의도공원 Yeoido Park to see the cherry blossoms; once with Nik and once with my host sister.  Nik and I both had work, so we went late and the other time, I went with my host sister in the evening around dusk.  Even so, the trees were really pretty! I was surprised my pictures turned out! ^^

 Obama in Korea...

 Nik in a tree. He got lots of stares~ I guess people don't climb trees here?... hehe.

 gigantic ornate pieces of candy for sale

 awesome cotton candy stand on the back of a motor bike!!!

oh yes. street food!

host sister Seunghee and me~

Grad School Admission = Costco Celebration

Hello again,

I found out yesterday that I got into my first choice graduate school, Gallaudet University, with a 50% tuition scholarship!!!! yay!!!

I've been waiting weeks for a reply, so I was super happy and honestly, relieved to know the outcome.  The scholarship came as quite a nice surprise.

I couldn't really celebrate though, because I had my midterm interview the next day (today).

So, I had my interview with my classmate Chika.  It went alright; our dialogues were supposed to last 3-5 minutes each. But, we finished our three dialogues in just under 6 minutes... So, our teacher had us talk about our upcoming weekend. hehe.

Afterwards, Chika and I went out for a nice lunch to celebrate being done/me celebrating my getting into graduate school.  The weather was absolutely perfect!!! The cherry blossom trees are starting to bloom, but aren't quite in full swing yet... In any case, after our exam, we walked around Sogang campus and took a few pictures. And then we headed to Jenny's Cafe in Hongdae.

After some wander (or a lot of wandering) we found it, and had a nice Italian lunch with a glass of wine.  

It was funny because of our dialogues that we had written was about Chika drinking a glass of wine before giving a presentation for our class.  We actually kind of got the idea of drinking wine after our exam from our dialogue... lol!

I really like Hongdae~ Honestly, I've not spent much time there.  Lots of foreigners like to go clubbing there, but I've mostly spent time in Sinchon (where Yonsei University is) and Edae (where Ewah University is).  Hongdae also has a university, Hongik University.  Anyhow, there are some really great cafes and restaurants there. It's also known for being the "artsy" area~ Saw some cool graffiti and other such things.  While we were searching for our restaurant, I saw at least three models posing in various areas - hongdae is very hip/quaint.

~love~

makoli bottles~ 

I found a Chevy bike!!!!

I went to my volunteering at the deaf school and taught my students.  They seemed to really have picked up on spelling swear words in English. Honestly, my initial response thought was wow, I'm impressed that they know how to spell those words, second though: hilarious!!!!!, third though: hm.. and inappropriate.... Anyhow, today they wanted to learn how to sign KILL and KILLER.  Oh middle school boys...

This evening, Nik and I made an epic trip to Costco.  We had planned to go to the Seoul Women's International Film Festival and see a movie as well, but we seriously ran out of time... So it goes.
Costco was loads of fun anyhow.

Nik and I were pretty hungry, so we decided to eat dinner first.  Oh, yes.  Costco dinner.  Nik, being a boy, order us a lot of food.  Two slices of pizza, a bulgogi bake, and a smoothie.  The place was packed, and the only chairs we could find were sandwiched between two couples...  We literally had to climb over them to get in.  They were not pleased.  And, our speaking English probably did not help... haha!
I think we completely embraced the "loud, annoying American" stereotype tonight.

dinner

that my friends is a "bulgogi bake"

We used our hand sanitizer and ate.  To put it nicely, Koreans are a lot less lax about washing hands...  My Japanese classmates once commented on how American's are always washing there hands or using hand sanitizer. Well, germs are scary!!! haha.

Here are Nik's steps on how to eat like an American at a Korean Costco:

apply hand sanitizer

lather

cut

stab with fork

eat

Nik is having a dinner party next weekend for his Spanish students, so we went in search of needed items.  Of course, we got really side tracked... I had come in search of one thing: jelly beans (for my students).  I came out with a huge tube of Jelly Bellys and a carton of yogurt.  Man, those jelly beans are EXPENSIVE!!!! I was in this huge quandry, but they were the only jelly beans available, and I really really wanted to give my students jelly beans for an Easter treat.  So I sucked it up and spent, can you guess??? Roughly $23... Ouch. yeah, holy crap. that's how much I love my students...

그때 가격 너무 비싸서 고민이였다. 

I had to do some serious thinking before purchasing these jelly beans...

Anyhow, Nik and I are not the most efficient people... But, we got most of the stuff and then some.
Here are some bizzar/creepy things we found at Costco:

flaxseed powder just for you mom!!!

and canned beans, just for you dad!!!

gross huge octopus!!! yum yum... it was almost $30!!!

creepy sideways fish... 

soon to end up on someone's dinner table, or breakfast table for that matter

huge tins of gojujang, red pepper paste, the staple of Korean food

huge bottles of wine?...

our cart

 Thus ends our epic Costco adventure.

*We have no shame. Nik asked a worker to take our picture, but she wouldn't.  So, we set it on a self time, leaned my camera on a railing and took it that way.