Birthday Continued!

Wednesday- Birthday!!!

In the afternoon Jenny, Emily, Maren and I went to Pusan. We went to the mandu restaurant we went to about a month ago...so delicious! After lunch we shopped a little and then went to Tom and Tom's for Honey Butter Toast! :) We also went to a photo booth place, but it wasn't very good and the options moved too fast; we didn't get to decorate all of our pictures. We headed back to Gimhae; Jenny and Emily told me they were having dinner with their ET groups, but that their groups were joining together and since Jenny's leader was Ji I should join them. When we got to Gupo Station to transfer buses, we actually ran into one of our friends from ET. He was on his way back to Inje too; he came along to dinner with us. We were going to our favorite restaurant  서래, a BBQ place-when we arrived it was everyone from our program. :) After we ate, Ki and Emily came out with a giant cake and somehow got the restaurant to play Happy Birthday over their sound system as well. Professor Cho showed up and got me a special bottle of soju! We went over to the Makgoli place where I stayed for about an hour; I was meeting my ET group for another little party. They had asked me my favorite Korean snacks the day before and I said "Oh Yesuh" (cake-cookies similar to Debbie Cakes); they made me an "Oh Yesuh" birthday cake!! It was amazing! They also ordered chicken after. We took goofy pictures and hung out. It was a really wonderful birthday. :) I feel so lucky to have so many friends. I also received birthday cards from some friends and family at home-it was so special to have those to open and feel loved from home. :)

Emily, Jenny, Maren and me at the mandu soup restaurant!

Cutting my (2nd) birthday cake!

Most of the IIIHR participants

My Oh Yesuh (3rd) Birthday Cake!!

All of the cards and presents from my friends and family from all around the world!

Today: I went into town to call my Grandpa-it was still my birthday back home and I really wanted to talk to him on my birthday. I also was fortunate enough to talk to my Mom on my birthday too. :) Culture class started out well; we played yut again. Our program students won 4 out of 4 games against the Chinese students! Then we learned a new game called "Hwa Du"-flower fight. It was kind of a complicated game to learn; there are many rules so it was a little hard following our professor's explanation. After class I went for a short run on my own. Emily came with me to my class. Halfway through they said we needed a break and then they turned off the lights. They came in with an ice cream cake from Baskin Robins! It was so sweet of them. After dinner, Emily and I went for a run. Later we are going into town to see if there are bags of bread from Paris Baguette.

Emily and me with some of my students

My Ice Cream (4th) birthday cake! Notice the cute little bunny!

Birthday in Korea!

Last night we went to 개집 (The doghouse) to celebrate Ben's going away. We were going to go to the Makgoli place, but it was all full. On the way to 개집 I saw some of my ET group members hiding behind a car. After we were at 개집 for a little, the ET members I saw came in with a cake and the candles all lit. :) It was so sweet. We sat at a smaller table to talk and have cake. They also bought me some nail polish and lotion. They had to leave and wanted to make sure I shared the cake with the group for Ben's party. At midnight everyone sang happy birthday to me and I got hugs and the European kisses. 


It's noon now and my friends and I are about to head out to Pusan for lunch, shopping and the beach. Updates and photos to follow! :)

My ET Group with the cake!

My 1st birthday cake in Korea! :D

Benjy's going away present: soccer ball with well wishes from all of us

Eating cake with some of my ET friends!

Birthday picture with my twin!

Birthday picture with the best roommate in the world!

My birthday presents! The cards were so special to get in Korea!

Falling Behind!

I must apologize to all my dedicated readers! The semester is almost done so I am crazy-busy with homework, papers, lesson planning, and spending as much time as possible with my friends that I will be leaving, so I've neglected my blog quite a bit!

Thursday: I had my conversation class with Jihye in the morning, but our afternoon culture class was canceled due to the festival on campus. After class, Emily and I went for a run in the gym because it was rainy and cool; there were also tents set up on the main stretch of campus which would have made it difficult to run around. Emily came with me to my class again. We had to move my class up a little because we were having a Farewell Party for all the International students. After class, we went to the party. Inje students performed for us; the performances ranged from singing to dancing to taekwondo. We were also awarded certificates of completion of the program. We went to dinner, but it was just one of those meals you looked at and thought "BioTech, really? Really? What is this?" So we went to a little restaurant that serves bibimbap (rice, vegetables, egg and pepper sauce) and hand rolled and cut noodle soup. You order both the bibimbap and the soup-2 big bowls for 4,000W (a little less than $4!). Actually, it's normally 3,000W but I think because we were all foreigners they charged us more. After dinner we headed over to HomePlus Express to get some snacks for our evening discussion. We had our group meet to talk about our adoption searches and where we are all at. After our discussion, we went out to enjoy the university's festival. Later, we went to the student union and went to a dance. One of our friends from ET was one of the DJ's at the dance, so that was fun.

Captain Sailor Moon MCing for the Farewell Party

Friday: Classes were canceled again! :) Jenny and I went to lunch on campus and then went to get some ice cream. I worked on a special project to give all of the people in our program. I had class with my students. In the evening, we went out to the festival again. 

Saturday: I went for a run off of campus. Emily, Maren, Jenny and I went to the teachers cafeteria for lunch and it was Emily and my favorite meal! They had the 'boxed kimbap'-rice, cooked kimchi, radish, seaweed, and egg. After lunch Jenny, Emily and I went to climb the mountain behind BioTech. I worked some more on the special project outside. In the evening, we went to get ice cream and then watched Tangled in my room.  

Emily, Jenny and me!

Sunday: I went to church and then met Emily and Jenny at our kimbap restaurant. We went shopping so I could find something for my host family. I was meeting them in the evening and it was our last meeting. I ended up getting them a small journal so they could record special family events and memories in it. I sat outside for a bit and was joined by quite a few different people passing through. Hans was dropped off by his family who visited him. He had a traditional Korean snack for us called "약밥" (약= medicine 밥=rice). It tasted pretty good-it looked and tasted very healthy! His grandma had made a whole bunch of them for him. 


My host family picked me up and took me to their home. We had a GIANT pizza (45 cm!), japchae (Korean noodle dish), and a salad for dinner. We had watermelon for dessert-it was so sweet! They gave me a going away/birthday present too. I received a beautiful dress and several pictures of me with their family. They bought me shoes to go with the dress I guess, but didn't know my shoe size so they are going to get the shoes to me later. We traded contact information and then it was time to go back to ET. 

Hansy unwrapping the "yakbap"

Yakbap!

Some friends enjoying the yakbap outside! (L to R: SeungBae, Milan, Tim, Jiwon, Inseok, and SungMin)

Host Sister and Brother with the giant pizza

Monday: Happy Memorial Day to friends and family at home! It was kind of strange not to celebrate this holiday!


I went to lunch with my friends Jeong Kwan and Jeong Su. We went to the kimbap restaurant. Jeong Su was so nice and paid for lunch. Then we went for ice cream at Baskin Robins and he paid for that too. After lunch I sat outside and talked with Ben until cooking class (Ben is leaving on the 1st). In cooking class, we made japchae. It turned out so good! Emily and I went to the gym to work out for a little. In the evening Ki, Tim, Emily and I went to the Makgoli place. Ben joined us a little bit later. We shared a lot of laughs, but also had some very serious discussion. It was nice to be in a small group to share. Afterward, we went to "the spicy kimbap place". Recently Ki and Tim stumbled upon a little hole in the wall restaurant on the main strip off of campus. They went in and ordered kimbap and it was so delicious and spicy they talked about it for days. So, we went to experience it, and it was really nice!

Ice Cream with Jeong Kwan and Jeong Su!

The japchae Emily and I made...last dish!!

Kimchi Cheon...the last piece in the shape of a heart!!

TABLE 8!! NO WAY!

Excited for spicy kimbap!! (L to R: Ben, Emily, Tim, me and Ki)

Today: Language class was really difficult to get through for some reason...in the afternoon I did some work and had my class. I stayed a little bit longer and just talked with them. I really enjoy working with them. It is more fun than work. :) Tonight, we will go out to celebrate Ben's last night in Korea. We are all going to miss him so much!

Last Wednesday in May!

I can't believe May is almost over. This month flew by!!


This morning we had a make up class for our Friday writing because we have off due to the University Festival week. After class, I went to Kindergarten. We played "telephone" outside with them again. This time we used English-color words. They did a really good job. :) We had two guests in our conversation class. Jihye previously volunteered with InKAS, which is an adoptee organization, and they asked her to be a translator for a French and Dutch adoptee yesterday. She invited them to Inje University to sit in on some of our classes. They also came to movie class with us. We watched "Old Boy". It was a very disturbing movie and I would not recommend it. I'm not sure why we watched it. 


I went to go teach my class. Emily came with me. Yesterday we had to cut class short before we finished working on some "skits" and I told them I would try and have a friend come and act out a skit for them with me. Emily was a good sport and came along and stayed for the whole class. We played a few other word/guessing games after watching the other groups give their skits. 


Two of our friends were singing in a competition for the university festival. Jiwon mentioned they would be singing around 6, so Emily and I went to the Student Union to see if they were singing yet. Jiwon let me know it would be closer to 7, so we went to have dinner at BioTech. We met up with Tim and he decided to go and see Jiwon and Inseok sing with us. We had to watch a whole bunch of other singers and dancers before our friends. The best group was the ROTC members dancing around; it was pretty entertaining. Emily and I went into town with her friend Sean. He invited us to see a 'famous' singer perform, but he told us it was at 10pm. Turns out it was actually at 9; we didn't go. Around 9:30 we went back into town and went to Paris Baguette to see if they had their discount bags of bread-they did, so I bought some nice looking bakery. :D We came back to ET and watched a movie in my room. Tomorrow our culture class is canceled due to the festival! I still have to go to my conversation class in the morning, but it is nice to know the afternoon is mostly free (I have to teach earlier because we are also having a farewell party in the evening).

Our friends JiWon (center) and Inseok (right) being interviewed after singing

Tired Tuesday

Sunday: I spent most of the day with my host family. They took me to the Pusan Horse Park. There is a racetrack there, but it is also a family park with a lot of different activities for children. We stayed at the park almost the whole day. We had kimbap for a picnic lunch (they made it with imitation crab meat and I didn't even poke out the crab!). After being at the park for awhile, we came back to the area around campus and had dinner at a BBQ restaurant. When I returned, I lesson planned and then caught up with Jenny and Maren. Jenny was the interpreter for Ben and his birthparents for the day. Emily returned from her day with one of our teachers, Hannah. Ben, Emily and I went for a run on campus. We thought it would be nice to have a talk with Ben about his feelings and experiences, so some of us went to a Twosome Place to talk for a little.

Lunch!

Biking around the park

Some horses coming down the stretch!

Blue Moon Rose!!

Monday: We made plans to throw a "Western style picnic" for Jihye and Professor Jongman. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate; it was rainy and cool. I had to buy some last minute ingredients for our busy chefs at Tanya's place (Tanya is the adoptee from the Netherlands we met a few weeks ago; she married an Inje University student and has a 2 year old son). I had a few extra minutes before my decorating committee departed, so I was able to give my Grandpa a call and have a short conversation with him. :)

We made it to Tanya's by taxi and helped set up for our picnic in her living room. Our menu was: sangria, apple chicken honey mustard sandwiches, breakfast crepes and pineapple crepes, tuna pasta salad, and tadziki with bread. Maren also had brought a cake mix and frosting from the US, so she baked a cake as well. Everything was so delicious!! We shared best and worst moments of the program and laughed a lot. After our picnic, it was on to cooking class. Today we made 김치 찌개 (kimchi jjigae- kimchi stew/soup), which is Emily's all time favorite dish. I am starting favor it as well. In the evening, Emily and I went for a run. On our run, we encountered a HUGE toad in the middle of the road! I was yelling at it to get out of the road, but it didn't move. Jokingly I said to Jenny, "you try, it doesn't understand English!" Jenny said "빨리 가!" (bballi ga=go away!) and it started hopping!! It was so funny!  After our run, Emily, Jenny, and I went to HomePlus to buy a few groceries.

We had a special "checking time" for the "Festival Week" here at Inje. First of all, they let Ki do the announcement for our curfew time! We also had the guy RA's come and check us in, so that was kind of fun. Apparently by the time the guys were finished, they ended up with makeup all over because all the girls added stuff to their faces.

This kitchen is a disaster area!

Some of the food prepared and our flower memory decorations

Today: Our conversation class was pretty relaxed. We went over a few expressions and dialogues. The rest of the class time was spent making cards with traditional paper. We went to taekwondo and were put into groups to create a "dance" routine with the kicks we know. However, partway through I think our instructor was unsatisfied with our ability to actively participate with our Korean group members, so he pulled us aside and had us do some kicking drills with him. After lunch it was on to our language class. My speaking class was this afternoon. There were only 4 guys today and they had to leave a little early to play a soccer game. When Emily, Jenny and I were returning from dinner, we ran into our friend Hans. He invited me to get ice cream with him and Jeong Kwan...so of course I couldn't turn that down! Then we went to ET. It was the last ET, but I didn't know that until that class. I am sad that ET is all over now. :( Our group went to get chicken and just hung out for most of the evening.

So far behind!

Thursday: Today was our big speech day! We wore our hanboks and went over to the main building to meet the President, Founder, and all of the Deans. We had to wait awhile before we could go in; I think they were waiting for the Founder to arrive from Seoul. We gave our speeches and then sang "Haebyun euro Gayo"-Lets go to the beach, but replaced "beach" with "Inje". Then we took a few pictures with the President and Founder and shook hands with them and left. We had our Intermediate class with Jihye for about an hour. In culture class, we learned "Yut" (the game I played with my host family the first time I went to their house) and played 3 rounds. In our culture class, we have about 9 Chinese students, so Professor Cho REALLY wanted it to be the Korean adoptees vs. the Chinese students...we ended up winning only one round, BUT the Chinese students had Professor Cho on their team and when we said losers buy ice cream for the winners, he really stepped up his game. After the 3 rounds, we went to the Lotteria to get ice cream. We sat and talked for a little and then class was dismissed. 

I had my class in the evening. I already can see them starting to be more comfortable and confident in speaking. :) I'm really enjoying teaching and working with them. After class, I met up with almost all (Emily and Maren were meeting with their host families together) of our group for dinner with Professor Jongman. We found a restaurant Colin had spotted earlier; they had very cheap samgypsal (pork), but it was pretty good too. We sat outside under a tent which was kind of cool. After eating we went to "Kenny Rogers", which is kind of like a bar and grill sort of restaurant. It was fun getting to spend time with Professor Jongman.

Our group with the President (L) Founder (C) and Director Kim (R) after our speeches

Dinner with Prof. Jongman

Friday: Today when we woke up and it was rainy! :( Bad news because it was also our mountain hiking event! We still went, even with the rain. We took taxi's to 검정산 Keum Jeong San (san = mountain) and actually drove up a fair amount! When we arrived at our meeting point, we introduced ourselves to Mr. Ha, also know as "Watermelon". He was the main organizer/ big push for hiking. Then we had 'breakfast'...kimbap! We were given rain ponchos and stopped to look at a Buddhist temple before beginning the shortest hiking route (1 hr long). Halfway up we stopped and passed around Mr. Ha's bag with the question why did it weigh so much? We found out it was because he carried a watermelon halfway up the mountain! So we ate watermelon on the mountain, in the rain and wind! It was reeeally delicious!! We ended up taking a cable car down to the bottom (thank goodness because it would have been so slick trying to climb down the wet rock!). We walked to the restaurant we were having lunch at. It was a buffet restaurant called "The Party". The food was reallly good, but the desserts were the best! We all ate so much! 

When we returned to campus, I had my class again. There were about 10 students in the beginning, but most of them needed to leave to attend a business meeting. Then there were 3 girls left, so we did have some structure, but it was really informal and mostly just us talking together. I had to leave a few minutes early because ET had a game night that we were required to attend. Most of my ET group however, did not attend. My leader, Seung Chul, and one other guy, TaeHoon were there, so we joined Ji's group. We played a lot of trivia games and games different kinds of speaking games; it was fun. After the game night, Jenny, Emily and I went to dinner. I was still full from lunch, but we stopped at "Coffee House" and I got a cookies and cream smoothie.

Cool carvings at the temple

Watermelon!!

So cute!

On the cable car

View of Pusan from the cable car

Carbonara Pasta!!!

Director Kim

 Today: Finally! Soccer! The only bad thing was that it was so, SO HOT! Just standing outside not moving was enough to cause you to break out into a sweat! We had a group of 9; at first my team only had 4 and we still managed to beat the other team. We took a break and switched up the teams. One of the guys stopped and was ball boy, so for the next 2 rounds we had 4 vs. 4. After soccer, I met Jenny, Maren, Emily and Ki for lunch at the teacher's lounge. Maren left early because she and Ben were meeting Ben's birthparents! After lunch, Emily, Jenny and I hung out and went into town-got groceries and sat outside. In the evening, the three of us went into town again and bought some bread. We are also throwing a "Western style" picnic for Jihye and Jongman on Monday; Emily, Tim and I are in charge of the decorations, so we grabbed a few items for that.The rest of the evening we just hung out. :)

Whirlwind Week-it's Wednesday!

Monday: It was a beautiful day! I studied outside and my friend 정관 helped me with my speech for Thursday. In cooking class, we made a traditional Korean cookie (usually only made for weddings) called " 매작과" maejakgwa. It was made out of ginger and dough; then we cut them, twisted them, and fried them. We also made a sugar syrup to cover them. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera, so...no pictures of the delicious cookies!

In the evening, Emily and I went for a run on campus. Then we watched an "American Idol" kind of singing contest show. We were updated that we would have an extra class on Tuesday because we are missing our Friday writing class due to a field trip. It was scheduled from 3-5. None of us were looking forward to "Terrible Tuesday x2"!


Tuesday: Only a few of us attended the first conversation class. Our teacher was a little sick, so we cut class short. Jihye came around 10 and we practiced our speeches. We convinced her to have us as a group miss taekwondo because of our preparation for the speech. (We will be speaking a few sentences in Korean to the President of the university, founder and about 40 other professors/sponsors!!) There was an English speaking contest in the afternoon starting at 2. A few of our friends from English Town were participating in the contest; many of us had helped them revise and edit their speeches so we all wanted to attend the contest. Again, we convinced Jihye to talk with our professor to change the extra class in the afternoon and move it to a different day. We had a nice break until our 1:00 class; when we got to class, we asked our professor if it were possible for us to cut class in half, and his response was "I won't be here either!"; he was a judge for the competition. Emily and I went to BC Park (a park located between Building B and Building C) before the contest. Our friends 성민 (Sung Min) and Captain Sailor Moon were in the first half and both did a nice job. Sung Min ended up taking 2nd place! 

After the speaking contest, I finished preparing for my first speaking class. It went really well. They are pretty shy and nervous about speaking English, but I think we are going to have a good time working together. When I left, I ran into Ben and Tim; they told me dinner at BioTech was a "disaster" and they were going into town to get some food. I went with them and ordered kimbap. I had my ET group; we just did some speaking and finished class early. Emily and I went for a run and then we hung out with Jenny in my room.

BC Park

Ji! My Bro.

Captain Sailor Moon!

Today: Kindergarten was fun. We played 'duck, duck, goose' with them again. Colin thought we should try another game, so we explained the telephone game to them. First we tried using English sentences, but it was a little difficult for them, so we switched to Korean. I think they enjoyed the new game. We had our Friday's class and finished up a little early. In our movie class, we watched a movie based on the May 18 Massacre that took place in Gwangju in 1980. That was the first movement towards a democracy in South Korea. It was really sad, but I didn't know about this part of Korea's history, so it was also very interesting. After movie class, I had my second speaking class. Today, there were only 4 students. I think it was good for them, because they had to speak more. Towards the end of class, a few students came in, returning from a business meeting. They had made a bet if I was still going to be there or not, so one of them had to buy ice cream for all of us. :) I sat and talked with some of them before going to dinner with Jenny.

There is a bug going around, and I think I caught it. Both Jenny and I are feeling a little under the weather with sore throats. So I'm going to rest up tonight!