My recent life in Korea

Hi everyone!

Long time no post! I know...I'm really sorry. I've been really lazy with taking photos and writing about it and all that. Not only that, I didn't really go a lot of places to show it on blog.

Sigh, anyways!
SO, what have I been doing? If you are friends with me in Facebook, you probably noticed that I met a lot of friends last month. I met friends from the states (Grace, Eunice, Pastor Jenny, and Lisa) and friends from middle school I used to go in Korea (Seohyun, Seulki, Jieun, Sunyoung, and Sohwa.)

It was so awesome to meet everyone! It felt kind of weird and excited to meet friends from the states since we gathered in Korea! Who would've ever thought we will meet outside of US?

I haven't seen girls from middle school since the day I moved to the states, but I felt like I met them yesterday and felt I was going back to middle school days. I think I met them every week (well, not all together, but separately.) I can't wait to meet them again and hang out :) But I should workout harder before I meet them so I look different LOL.

As for diet... I haven't lost a lot for 2 - 3 weeks now because I've been meeting friends every week, I went out every other day or so, so it has been tough for me to lose weight, but it doesn't mean I didn't exercise though! My friends from church said I look like I lost weight..maybe I gained some muscles and lost some fat, but then I don't want to gain muscles because I have a lot of muscles....it's above average. darn. I don't know, as long as I look better right? lol. I still lost a lot but still have to lose about 25 lbs more in 4 months..that's about 6 lbs per month. DARN. I hope I can do it...

I will post more later on this week if I have anything to share.

Hope everyone is well!




Bye!

Trip with mom - Day 2

Hello everyone :)

(this cat and 2 other cats came by our room to say 'good morning')

(cough, yes it's me...cough cough) 

Phew, today was a LONG day. We went a lot of places in 남해 (Namhae) area. We woke up around 7am and left the pension around 9am to go around places. Our first stop was Hilton Hotel & Resort. They had golf range and two different areas for buildings. One area was more like hotel rooms and the other area was more like condo. We didn't go inside because I didn't feel like it...and there weren't much to see inside anyways. 

(condo area)

 (hotel area)

After we stopped by Hilton, we went to 다랭이마을 (Daraengi Village). Daraengi Town is known for farms that looks like stairs. They cultivate garlic during winter and rape flowers during spring. We drove down to the village area and walked around for about 30 minutes or so. Village was really small, but definitely pretty; scenic view was really nice.

 

(panorama view of Daraengi Village)

(Daraengi Village. View from away from it)

(it was cute to see all pensions/hostels match their banners)

(left: new plents are growing! / right: farms filled with garlic!)

 (we walked this area to see ocean and the village)

(left and right view of ocean area)

After not-so-short walk, we stopped by 상주해수욕장 (Sangju Beach) on the way to 미조항 (Mijo Pier.) Sand was pretty solid and full of shells :D I wish I can come here again when cherry blossoms bloom or during summer. There was a middle school next to Sangju beach which made me get a bit jealous, because they get to see beautiful beach whenever they want to! Sigh.

 

(Sangju Beach)

 We headed to Mijo Pier for lunch and had 참돔회 (red sea-bream sashimi) Fish was fresh and soup wasn't salty at all! We were a bit surprised because food in Kyoung-Nam area is usually salty and spicy.

 (Mijo beach!)

After we filled our tummy, we went to 보리암 (Boriam Temple) I wanted to drive so I told mom that I will drive :P We were concerned that we might have to hike a lot, but we were able to park not too far away from the temple. We stilled had to walk about 1km (approx. 0.6miles) to the temple. Distance wasn't too bad, but height was.....pretty high so it was a bit tougher than we thought.

 (Boriam Temple is located on (almost) top of the mountain)

(on the way to the temple)

 (One thing I like about temples: beautiful colors and designs)

There were few more areas that we could've checked out, but my left leg was started to hurt again so we went back to the car and went to our next stop: German Village and House 'n Garden.

German Village got famous after this drama called 'Fantasy Couple' starring Han Ye-Seul and Oh Ji-Ho, or at least from what I know of. House 'n Garden is located right next to German Village; about 20 houses are inside of House 'n Garden and each house is designed differently based on different countries. We walked around and tried yuzu ice cream and stopped by Cafe Bene, located at this actress's house for a cup of coffee.

(wow, my head looks super big there, but ice cream was delicious :) shared it with mom)

 (There is a photo of an actress. She's pretty known, so lot of people stop by her cafe to check it out)

(interior view of Cafe Bene)

 We walked back to our car and started to drive towards 남해대교 (Namhae Bridge) Namhae bridge is designed very similar to Golden Gate Bridge, but smaller and different color (and a bit uglier in my opinion)

(made me miss Golden Gate Bridge more :/ OH I MISS SF)

(so pretty <3)

After we crossed the bridge, we drove back to the pension since we can't really go anywhere after sunset. It took us about 40 minutes to drive back to the pension; we passed by a downtown, bought some groceries, and arrived when sky was pitch dark and it was only past 7:30pm.

PHEW. THESE WERE DONE IN ONE DAY. Lot of walk and lot of drive. We are going to 통영 (Tong-Young) tomorrow early in the morning and drive around this island. Can't wait for tomorrow! Maybe I will drive again so mom won't get too tired....maybe.


I should get some sleep now, but first, gotta wash my face and teeth!

Good night!!!!

Trip with mom - day 1

Hi everyone!

Long time no post! (again, sorry :( ) I've been....lazy, sigh I know, I promised myself I would write a lot but..yeah. So sorry :'(

Anyways, before I start my main writing, I wanted to spoil you guys with some photos that I took from date with my parents ;)

(on the way to Gangwon-Do!)

 

 

(황태 / dried pollack. Passed by lot of these on the way to the sheep farm)

 

I mentioned about a day trip with my mom on my last post - I went to Gangwon-Do to check out sheep farm, but we arrived 30 minutes after they closed it. UGH! I was hoping to walk around the farm and get hungry, but oh wells. We decided to come back when weather gets warmer and headed out to 횡성 (Hoengsung) to eat dinner. Hoengsung is known for beef. Mmmmmm.

 (OMG I'm drooling again...)

 IT WAS SO GOOD! IT MELTED IN MY MOUTH! I want to go again :( I don't know where each part belonged to, but it was some special areas near ribs or something. It was expensive, but worth it. Thanks mom for buying awesome dinner for me :P
We went to 찜질방 (jjim-jil-bang, sauna) after dinner to get sweaty. House was made of mud so it was interesting. We stayed for over an hour and went back home.

I also went to 노량진 수산시장 (Noryangjin Fisheries Wholesale Market) 2 weeks ago at night with parents because I (sort of) begged to go lol, oh and dad wanted to go out for dinner. We arrived around 7:30pm ish and walked around the market to see what it looks like. We only passed part of the market because a lot of places were getting ready to close down.

 (mmm fresh seafoods :D)

Dad wanted to buy some shrimp and shells to eat at home. Price was pretty cheap too! 24-26 medium-large shrimps for $14 dollars? It's a deal! 

 

 (shrimps!)

(left: they were SO BIG! / right: it's called bamboo shells or something like that)

After we walked for a bit, we went to a restaurant to eat some sashimi and other seafood. It was kind of pricy, but all seafood are pretty expensive, so we expected to pay the amount, but oh man, there were SO MANY SIDE DISHES and they were so good!

(these were pretty good but not as good as food above. mmmmmm =9)

I don't have all pictures, but I got SO FULLED. Oh, I had hard time eating one in last picture because it was fried fish...so I just ate tiny bit and gave up lol. I ate lot of sashimi and other seafood. I got stuffed (and didn't gain much weight thank goodness)

So these were what I did while I was gone. Other than these special dinner, I've been having regular schedule: exercise, work on some stuff, tutor, go to church and hangout, and etc. Oh yeah, did I mention I joined praise team? I sing now...I'm not that good, but the leader is teaching me how to do harmony and stuff. I'm thinking of learning an instrument! Not sure if I'm really going to learn for sure or not, but I'll let you know once it's decided :)

hehe.

-----

So, why did I write 'Day 1' on subject? Because I'm on a 5 day trip with my mom! My mom is on a break, so we decided to go around 남해 and 통영 (Namhae and Tongyoung.)
Before we left to a trip, we had to finish laundry, make soups and kimchi fried rice for dad (so he won't get hungry,) pack, get some stuff from market, and stop by hospital to get treatment for my muscles. I have muscle sore on my thigh muscles since last November? or somewhere there, it's been awhile but got worse, so I had to stop by it. We left Seoul around 1pm, which was way later than our plan, but oh wells, gotta finish stuff before I relax and enjoy right? xD

Anyways, Namhae and Tongyoung are supposed to have nice areas to visit according to my mom, so I'm excited for tomorrow :) 
We stopped by 3 rest stops and arrived safe :D

 (Pigs!)

 (On the way to Namhae, view was really pretty but I only had my iPhone on my hand :/)

 

 (Namhae Bridge)

 (Namhae Bridge)

 (Pension we are staying is pretty! Makes me feel so girly)

I will post more as I take more pictures :D See you!

kind of healthy life + winter retreat

Hi everyone long time no post!

I've been...sort of busy. Sorry for not posting so often. :'(
To be honest, I don't know how my days passed by. It just flew away instantly. My daily schedule usually goes like this:

6:00a : wake up
6:30a -8:45a : workout
9:00a - 10:00a : breakfast and wash dishes
10:00a - 10:30a : shower
10:30a - 2:00p : go to acupuncture (it takes about an hour to get to the place)
2:00p - 2:30p : late lunch (if I don't go to acupuncture or eat outside after acupuncture, I eat around 1pm)
2:30p - 5:30p : work on my dad's stuff
5:30p - 6:30p : dinner
6:30p - 7:00p : free time / work
7:00p - 7:40p : dinner for my dad. If he decides to go out to eat, I go with him so he won't be bored..this can be a torture part since I can't eat pretty much anything that he eats)
8:00p - 11:30p : free time / talk with mom / whatever I want to do

Hmm, seems like there aren't a lot of things going around, but seriously, time goes way too fast for me. Sigh. Oh, and I sometimes take a nap because workout gets too tired for me. I guess I get exhausted easily...?
Oh yeah, I also do 'extra' exercise besides going to a gym. I get off 1 station (Sinsa Station) earlier than a station (Jamwon Station) I usually get off if I come home during the day. It takes about 20 minutes from Sinsa Station to my house. It takes awhile, but it's actually pretty nice to walk home, and I get to digest a bit as I take a walk (I usually eat lunch with my mom or eat by myself on the way home so I can eat on time)

So, what have I been doing while I was away from blog? I went to winter retreat and went on a day trip with my mom to Kangwon Do area. I went on a winter retreat with church people. We stayed at Rev. Wonyong Kang's house in Gapyung. Half of group arrived around 11am and had games as introduction of retreat. Everyone blew a balloon and we rotated it around so people in a group draw one facial feature of you. Mine turned out......yeah. Hahahah, I won't say anything, but it was awesome to see how everyone sees each other.

 

(Rev. Wonyong Kang's house)

(playing first game)

Rest of group started to come in more after 1pm. There were more activities and stuff. One of them was separate into 3 groups and go to 3 different rooms and discuss about 3 topics: relationships, christian life, and young adult ministry. Unnis and I prepared dinner and had a FEAST: kimchi jjigae, sausages, duck, kimchi, veggies, etc. It was so good. I should've controlled my portion, but I couldn't help myself...sigh. (Thank goodness I didn't gain weight)
After dinner, we had another activity. Each group had to choose one song and change lyrics. Lyric had to use my nickname (that they made, I won't say it here lol) and couldn't use any English lyrics. We also had to use words that we came up with during last activity. My group ended up talking about how I want relationship...it was really funny. I forgot how the lyrics go, but it was fun :D
We had a communion after this activity. We went outside for about 10 minutes until my mom and one of oppas prepare it, then we came inside with a candle-looking light that oppa gave us at the entrance and finished communion. After communion, it was FREE TIME! Wee!

 (You can only get this in military! it's a snack made of rice and has star shaped candy inside)

One of oppas who is a soldier brought bunch of 건빵 (hardtack, it's made of rice and flour, very dried texture) that you can only get in military! You can get this anywhere, but this one seemed so special since you can't find this package outside of military. I tried few and it was pretty delicious :D
We played mafia twice. I was a doctor in first round and a mafia in second round. Man, I SUCK AT MAFIA. sigh. It was past 3am by the time the game was done. One of unnis and I couldn't fall asleep, we ended up sleeping around 4:30am and woke up 2 hours after because alarm kept turning on from friend's phone.
Everyone had cup noodles or toast as their breakfast, but I ate oatmeal with walnut and almonds that I brought with me. Some people tried it, but didn't like it. I guess no one near me likes oatmeal...but it's...good.....for you..

After breakfast, we went to small church near the house and came back to clean the house. Then we headed out to Nami Island because some of us never been there, including myself.

(닭갈비!!! (spicy chicken with vegetables))

We had 닭갈비 (spicy chicken with vegetables) as lunch and walked over to a port to take a boat to cross to Nami Island. 

 

  

 Nami Island is a small island where it got famous after drama 'Winter Sonata,' well, that's how I know of. We pretty much walked about half of the island I think. I got to eat grilled rice cake covered with sweet sauce. It was delicious, but I think it could've been better if the rice cake was grilled (?) a bit more. Hehehe, but it was good overall.

That was the last activity of the retreat! It was fun :D I think I got to learn more about everyone and got a bit closer with them..or is it just my thought? :P

I will talk more about a short day trip with my mom later :)

good night and good morning.