LAZY UPDATE #11

I can't believe how fast the time has gone since mid-terms.  I am so not ready for finals, nor am I in the mood for studying like I was with my mid-terms.  These past few weeks have felt as though someone pressed fast-forward x32 on the remote control and everything has been such a blur.  A lot of stuff has been happening with my family coming over and me having to organise pretty much everything for their trip, which has made me stressed out - money, accomodation, travel fares, visas, finding out where to go - and then there's my visa and my dormitory accomodation for the summer and just everything has been building up and up.  I finally broke down on Friday because it was just all too much to handle, so hopefully now that I'm all cried out I can just focus on getting through the exams and into holidays!!!

So last Saturday (the last one in May) I went to watch a movie with a student from the Anseong campus of Chung Ang University.  She and I met during the Folk Village excursion a few months ago and we wanted to hang out in Seoul.  We had 삼게탕 samgyetang (herbal chicken) for lunch and then went to watch Kung Fu Panda 2.  It was my first time trying the chicken dish; ever since I came to Seoul I wanted to eat it.  It was okay.  The taste wasn't anything explosively amazing but it wasn't plain either.  KF2 was on the ordinary side as well.  I enjoyed the first one, but as with most sequels the second one wasn't the same.

Last Monday was my friend's birthday, and though he had celebrated it with drinks the night before, he wanted to do something on the actual day so a group of us went to the 찜질방 jjimjilbang (Korean sauna)! I didn't take any photos that night since I didn't know if it was appropriate to take my camera out, but it was a lot of fun.  There were lots of different kinds of saunas - some were super super hot and others were ice cold.     We also ate the hard-boiled eggs and drank 식혜 sikye (rice dessert drink) in the main common area.  It seriously felt like we were in drama.

On Thursday, me and my roommate decided to have a mini-party in our dorm room.  Both of us wanted to try 'take out' in our dorm room, whether it be pizza or chicken or a full meal, so we decided that Thursday would be the day.  I invited another friend to come along as well - she's Japanese but has studied Korean for three years - so we had three people.  We also had a cake because my roommate and I both had been craving for cake as well.

Friday night was the first time I stayed out after 1 am (our dormitory curfew is 1) and guess what I was doing? Shopping!! After our evening class, I didn't feel like going back to the dormitory so I asked a few of my friends to go shopping with me at Dongdaemun.  We went out at 10 pm and didn't come back until 6:30 am in the morning, but it was a lot of fun.  One of my friends' mum used to to own a clothes shop when she was young (my friend is Korean) so she knew the best places to go to for cheaper clothes.

What was really interesting about shopping that late/early was that it didn't feel like it was different from any other time.  When we got tired from shopping, we went to a cafe nearby to rest our legs and get a drink and it was packed.  Not just packed for 3 am in the morning but packed for any other normal time of the day.  And it wasn't only the cafe - the shopping complexes and streets were still full of people.

Today was Memorial Day, similar to ANZAC Day we have in Australia.  It's a public holiday so everyone has the day off.  Samil Church has this month-of-prayer thing where people go to morning service at 6.30 am everyday to pray for the church.  My leaders had been really promoting this event to everyone and though I was initially not going to go, I ended up going because a) it would be a welcome change from waking up late, b) they were going to watch a movie after the service and c) it would be something that I couldn't experience back home.  What I didn't expect were the amount of people who would turn up alongside with me.  The line of people could easily have been 1 km long - from the door of the church to the station exit of the subway.

The service was interesting, especially with the amount of people that were there.  After the service we had breakfast at the church, which was provided by the church.  We met up in our international fellowship group and then proceeded to go to the cinemas.  We split up into two groups - Kung Fu Panda 2 and X-Men: First Class - and went to our respective theatres. I'd been waiting to watch X-Men for a LONG time - my friends on Facebook would definitely know - so it was an easy choice for me.  And then we had dessert afterwards as a big group.

In other news: finals are next week.

LAZY UPDATE #8 (Part 1)

(I'm dividing this Lazy Update into two parts because there is just too much to write in one post.)  This past week has been crazy - both physically and mentally.  Midterms finished last Friday so the following four days were a mini-holiday.  I got lucky with my exam timetable though.  A lot of people, especially the local students, had exams up until Tuesday which was the last day of the schedule.  The four day break was really good for releasing all that pent up stress about my mid-terms and 'refreshed' me for the next two months of school work.  Speaking of which, I feel like these next few weeks are going to be so crazy again.  I have so many projects due within the same time, plus church work, plus meeting up with friends (I know that's not necessarily...necessary...but!) plus figuring out how to fit in exercise everyday.  I am getting fat.  :(

Soo, last Tuesday was the last day of my four-day mini holiday.  The weather was so horrible and it was raining all day, but I had to go out and do some gift shopping.  I had no idea what I was going to buy, so I was station hopping around Seoul in hope that I could find something good.  I ended up finding what I wanted at 이대 Idae (Ewha University) and 명동 Myeongdong.  That night I went out to have dinner with my room mate for the very first time!  We've been getting closer and closer lately, which I really like because this was how I wanted to be with my room mate in the first place.  It only took two months to get to this stage....
Anyway, after that I joined some other exchange students at a nearby bar where I met some Koreans who frequent the E-Lounge (English Lounge) in our library.  We then proceeded to the noraebang and spent an hour just singing and tiring ourselves out before walking back to the dormitory in time for the 1 am curfew.

Wednesday was the first official day back after mid-term exams, and for some reason it felt really good to have classes again.   I guess I like the structure and order of school.  After my classes finished, I went to meet up with a friend who had come from Hong Kong.  She and her other friends were in Seoul for three days and they asked me to join them for dinner.  We went to 광창시장 Gwangchangshijang near 남대문 Namdaemun and had tastings of three kinds of food - 김밥 kimbap (rice rolls similar to sushi), 빈대떡 bindaeddeok (green bean pancake ...soo good) and  육회 yookhwae (raw beef strips).  The first two items were really delicious, but the raw beef wasn't really my thing.  I ordered a bowl of 냉면 naengmyeon (cold noodles) instead.  At the beef restaurant, one of the owners started asking us how to say things in Cantonese after finding out that we were from Hong Kong.  It was really funny hearing him pronounce the words wrong, but I honestly applaud him for trying to learn it.  I guess you learn whatever you can and whenever you can; that guy will definitely go far.

It was really nice to see my friend again, and to meet her other friends as well.  After dinner we went to Doota, one of the biggest shopping malls in Seoul.  The group of friends spent a long time looking around and trying unsuccessfully to bargain with the shop keepers.  That's one of the things here - you don't haggle that much.  You can ask for discount but it's seen to be rude if you start haggling.  I guess that's the one of the differences between Koreans and Chinese people.

Thursday was really tiring, but one of the best days during my week.  I had originally planned to visit my buddy's home and have dinner with her family, but her mum thought I was coming next week instead.  It didn't matter though, because we ended up going sight-seeing in Seoul instead.  First we went to 청게천 Cheonggyecheon which is the small river running through inner Seoul.  There were lanterns hung up everywhere in preparation for Buddha's Birthday.  Apparently it's really beautiful at night time when the lanterns are lit up, so maybe I'll go have a look when it's closer to May 10th.

After that, we went along 광화문 Gwanghwamun which is the gate right outside the biggest palace in Seoul.  There's a massive statue of King Sejong and statues of the three inventions he's most famous for - the sundial (pretty sure that was invented by someone else ...), celestial globes and of course, Hangul.  There's also a huge statue of one of the best soldiers of Korea.  I can't remember his name, but he was the one who defeated the Japanese back when they invaded....so I guess that's pretty important.

We arrived at our destination - 경북공 Gyeongbukgong - the biggest palace in Seoul.  This was the place where the king and queen used to live during the old days.  It was humungous.  And SO pretty.  I don't think I've ever seen so many trees in one place since arriving in Seoul, and the flowers were all blooming and out.  It was also really peaceful and quiet which is another thing you don't get a lot in Korea.  My buddy kept saying "Oh I feel so refreshed now" (sounds kind of funny in English but makes better sense in Korean) and I knew exactly what she meant.

Walking around the entire palace would have taken over two hours, but we had other places to go so we left after only an hour.  We were looking for 북촌한옥마을 Bukchonhanokmaeul Bukchon Hanok Village, but it was already six o'clock and we were really hungry.  She took me to this restaurant which is famous for 수재비 soojaebi (noodles in hot soup) and it was soo good.  Especially since the weather was kind of cold, the hot soup and 'noodles' (it's similar to 餃子皮) made me feel SO much better and energized.  

My buddy didn't actually know where the village was so she asked a couple of policeman.  They were entirely unhelpful so we had to walk around and look for signs ourselves.  Eventually we walked into the right place and behold - silence.  There are actually signs saying that you shouldn't make noise as to not disturb the residents, so it was extremely quiet.  Even though there weren't signs saying you couldn't talk, my buddy and I felt compelled to speak in whispering voices rather than normal volume.

Part 2 will be up soon....

LAZY UPDATE #7

Hmm...I keep falling into the trap of being too lazy to write down what goes on most days so I end up trying to remember everything and feeling overwhelmed by all of it, which will explain the lack of posts.  That, and I get distracted by other things e.g. watching series and my other favourite pastime ;) .

Last Saturday the International Office took all the exchange students in Chung Ang University (Anseong campus included) to the Korean Folk Village 민속촌 minsokchon.  This village is where they shoot a lot of the olden-day dramas and movies like The King and the Clown and Sungkyunkwan Scandal.  The surroundings are pretty much what you would have found in the olden days - straw huts, medicine shops, community entertainment arenas, noble's houses etc.

The office had organised some interactive activities for us: making a cup out of clay, a tour around the whole village and 떡 ddeok (Korean rice cake)  making.  The clay cup experience was really fun.  Each of us got a slab of rectangular clay, which we then had to mould into the shape of a vase/cup and decorate it however we wanted.  They said it took one month for the whole process to be finished - making, firing, glazing - so we'll get them back later.  The ddeok making was pretty fun too.  In the beginning it was a big lump of mixture, and volunteers went up to pound it with a huge hammer.  Afterwards they cut it up and we all tried it.  I liked it, but a lot of the Caucasian students didn't really like the chewy texture.  Cultural difference, maybe?

That night I went out with some friends for a Chinese dinner and some drinks afterwards.  Dinner was okay, but it made me miss my grandma and my mum and their home-cooked meals.  I always scoffed at the thought of people missing home-cooked meals because I always had them, but now I really really miss them!!  Afterwards we went to a little cafe with a very relaxed atmosphere and proceeded to be the loudest group in the place, but what else do you expect from a bunch of foreigners right?

On Monday night, I had dinner with a friend I had met through Samil Church but who is currently pastoring at another church.  It was a really spontaneous dinner which turned out to be really really fun.  I had posted up on Facebook that I wanted Korean barbecue and Amber immediately replied that she did too, so we made plans right there and then.  I really thank God for leading me to Amber during my stay in Seoul because she's someone I know who will be able to help me if I have any troubles.

On Wednesday I went to have a really early dinner (4:30 pm) with Jenny because we both hadn't had any lunch so we were starving.  Initially we were going to eat samgyeopsal, which turned into pizza but then we ended up eating chicken.  We went for coffee afterwards and did some studying.

Yesterday was a very 'scary' day for a lot of people.  The weather forecast predicted that the rain which was coming contained radioactive particles in it, so everyone was very freaked out and cautious about covering themselves up.  I still don't know what I think about the radiation situation.  On one hand I am pretty nonchalant about it since I've never really had any direct connections to radiation or events where radiation affected people I know, but there's also that paranoid side of me where I'm freaking out because I don't want my babies to be deformed, you know?  It's a very messy situation in my brain right now, as usual.

On another note, I think I'm going to try and start writing more on here.  I dislike the fact that I only update what I do as opposed to what I've always blogged about i.e. my thoughts and my opinions.  I feel like I've changed a little bit since I've gotten here, but I don't know if it's a good or bad thing.  Sometimes things come and go so quickly that I don't really think about what I do or the consequences from my actions.  I don't want to be like that anymore.

LAZY UPDATE #6

Wow, I really haven't been updating very much, have I?  I seem to go through phases of wanting to post everything I do in my life on here and posting absolutely nothing, which is either because I'm lazy or because nothing has actually happened.  Well, this time (as like many other times) it's because I've been lazy.  It's also because I don't take any photos of where I go so I feel like I have nothing show.  Pictures make all the difference you know.

Last Saturday a small group of us went to watch a documentary screening of "63 Years On", which was organised by the House of Sharing.  It was about the role of comfort women during World War II and the organisation tries to raise awareness through screenings such as these as well as other public events like tours and protests.  For me, it was interesting because I've always had an interest in this area - child prostitution, human trafficking, corruption etc.  If I ever make it as a lawyer, this is the area I would really want to focus on.  Sure the torts cases are fun and they're easy money, but what's the point in studying law if you're not making a better world, right?

Afterwards we joined up with a lot of other people and went to 노래방 noraebang (karaoke) in Shinchon.  It isn't the first time I've been to karaoke before but it was the first time in Korea - how do I say this....it was interesting? I'm not someone who can open up and just sing in front of anyone so the whole night I was debating inside my head whether to sing or not, but we only had the room for two hours so by the time I wanted to sing we had to leave.  But it was still a lot of fun watching my friends sing (or try to sing....) to the classics and dance around the screen like it was a moshpit.

On Sunday I went to church and had one of the best days I'd during my week.  I always feel really safe when I'm at church.  I think it's because I know that they are people who have the same mindset as me, so I can loosen up a little and know that I don't have to be on my guard on all the time.  Anyway, I met two Chinese girls, Muse and Amanda (Guangzhou and Hong Kong respectively), and they joined us for Bible study and dinner.  It was reeeeeeally strange because we were mainly speaking Cantonese (another girl at church speaks Cantonese as well) among the four of us while the rest of our group - Amber (Korean), Chris (Korean-German) and Chance (American) - had no idea what was going on.  And seeing how we're in Seoul, I guess Cantonese is kind of weird.

I was supposed to see a movie with my friend on Sunday night as well, but we ended up going out on Monday instead because she was really busy.  We went out for dinner (tacos), watched Red Riding Hood (don't watch it) and then ended the night at Paris Baguette for coffee and cake.  Or rather, I ended the night with coffee and cake and she watched me eat it.

Yesterday I had lunch with Jooyoung, my buddy, and we had ........PHO! I was craving pho last week and had no idea that there was a little shop tucked away in one of the many streets near our school which served it.  The flavours are pretty similar, but their noodles taste a bit different.  Not weird, but different.  Afterwards I went to Apgujeong to try to find Rodeo Drive, the famous shopping area where everything is expensive.  I spent two hours walking around the same area because I didn't realise I actually had to go inside rather walking around outside.  I think I'll talk more about it when I go there with other people and actually have time to browse.

LAZY UPDATE #3

It's amazing how fast time flies by here, and how comfortable I feel in Seoul when I compare it to when I was in Adelaide.  I remember when I was back from Hong Kong I wrote a post on how strange it felt to be 'home', because it didn't even feel like home.  When I'm walking around in Seoul, even though I'm not fluent in the language and I've never been here in my life, it feels like home. I know that you might think Oh, it's because you idolise the dramas and kpop singers, but that's not the reason why I like it here.  There's just a feeling of familiarity (no doubt due to the dramas) and ease when I look around here.

On Sunday I went  to Seoul International Baptist Church all by myself (no, I did not get lost).  The journey there was incredibly wet due to the persistent rain, which also made it extremely freezing.  I arrived there in the end though, with the help of three Filipino men who answered my questions in English.  The church was a mixture of foreign and local people.  I overheard a few conversations (yes, my speciality is pretending I'm absorbed in something else while actually listening intently) and a lot of the foreign people are English teachers.  It didn't really surprise me, because the only real jobs which foreign people who can't speak Korean can take part in are teaching jobs.  The pastor wasn't there that morning, so instead they had invited one of the church members to give his testimony which turned out to be really powerful.  If you ask me about it in person later on I'll tell you, but it's really too long to be written here.  I went back to the dormitory after church, but not before being trapped inside the subway station for half an hour....but that's a long story too.

Sunday night was when all the exchange students at CAU met up.  We went to a chicken place near the university and introduced ourselves to each other.  It was fun meeting all the new students.  It ended up being so loud in the restaurant that we were kind of yelling at each other across, even though we were sitting opposite each other on the table.  There was a lot of fried chicken, beer, and soju going on during the meet-up, which is pretty much the standard Korean meet-up I guess.  I left at around 10:30 because I was tired and wanted to sleep, but I think the others didn't leave until about 12:30 am.

Monday was a pretty long day.  I met up with my buddy an hour before our orientation to try and open a bank account, except it turns out that we can't open a bank account until we've been in the country for more than five days.  Or until the immigration office sends the word that we have officially entered the country.  Because I came on a Saturday, and public offices don't open on weekends (wow, I thought that was only Australia being lazy), my details hadn't gone through yet.  It was pretty disappointing, but what could I do? Absolutely nothing, so I went to buy food to eat before the orientation.  Orientation was informative but also long.  I did take a Korean-language test though, and now I'm going to register for the Intermediate Korean class. Yay, watching dramas paid off!

At night time, a group of us went out to 동대문 dongdaemun to eat dinner and have a look around.  We first went to a shopping complex called Doota, which is similar to the Mongkok shopping centres.  There are little stores of clothes, bags and shoes everywhere on each floor, each selling pretty similar stuff for similar (and high) prices.  We had only gone our separate ways in the mall - girls and boys group - for about ten minutes when the boys called us and said that they had seen all they needed.  I guess frills and laces aren't really their thing.  

We decided to walk to the older markets for the culture and food.  It was a twenty-minute walk, but I think because it was so cold that no one really noticed.  When we got there, all we could see were stalls and stalls of 순대 soondae (black sausages) and 족발 jokbal (pork hock) along with various other items which I don't know the names of.  We came upon this ahjumma selling pupa (yes, pupa.  Like larvae.  yes, larvae.), and bought a cup because some people were interested in tasting it.  It tasted like beans, but the texture was so .....ugh.  Not nice.  

Although we had eaten some street food beforehand, we were still hungry so we went into a little place where their speciality was 전 jeon.  It's kind of like a savoury pancake, and they make it with different ingredients like seafood or kimchi.  Apparently, the jeon and 막걸리 makgeolli (rice wine) are like peanut butter and jam (celery and cream cheese, cheese and crackers, yin and yang...) so five bottles of makgeolli were ordered and shared among the ten of us.  It was a fun night, but the dormitory curfew is 1 am so we came back by around 12.

And finally, yesterday!  Yesterday I spent the morning with three of the exchange students (one girl - Heidi and two guys - Gauthier and Pontus) looking at the fitness room behind our dorms and then introducing Modern Family to the two boys, who had never heard of the show before (because they're from Belgium and Sweden) and had thought that the show would be 'girly'.  I don't think so. The fitness room has a few machines inn it, some weights and yoga mats.  Heidi started teaching the two boys some moves in yoga, which then led to Pontus telling us that he was a former gymnast in Sweden! It's not longer just one new thing a day anymore here.  It's ten new things a minute.

After lunch, I went out to meet up with a friend who is studying at Ewha Girls University as an exchange student.  He (yes, he...they accept male exchange students for some reason) took me to a place in Yongsan were he needed to change his phone, and where I ended up renting my phone from as well.  We also ran into more exchange students from different universities, including a couple of girls who could speak Cantonese!  Like I said, ten new things.  After that we went to visit his university campus at Ewha.  The streets outside the campus are pretty much a girl haven -make up, clothes, shoes, bags, skin care, street food and coffee shops galore.

His university campus looked like something out of a fairytale.  The buildings were really historic-looking and looked even prettier because of the autumn-like surroundings.  He took me around the campus and showed me his dormitory.  It was nice, but my dormitories are nicer.  We met up with his sister and his friend for dinner, where we ate a buffet Korean barbeque.  It's very different to the buffet barbeque in Adelaide, where the meat they give you isn't really....nice.  Here the meat was the authentic fatty pork, beef, and pig skin.  We ate a lot tonight, but I haven't had meat in almost five days so it was nice to eat some again.

I really need to start updating more often.  This Lazy Update thing isn't really working because I write too much for each event - maybe I should change it to Congested Update?  I also need to start writing my personal devotions up again.  This isn't just supposed to be a diary of my physical life but also my spiritual life as well.

P.S. Oh! While we were walking around the streets outside Ewha, I saw 나르샤 Narsha, 서인영 Seo In Young and 선화 Sunhwa (from Secret) filming their variety show 'Heroes'.  They seemed to be doing some kind of cooking activity, but they were finishing up by the time I saw them.

HELLO SEOUL

I have arrived in Seoul - yay! I am also really tired and feel like a loner because I don't know anyone and I am still yet to see the face of my room mate.  Her luggage is in the room, but nothing has been unpacked which is kind of weird.  Anyway, this post is just a short update of what's been happening in Korea.

This morning I met my buddy, Jooyoung, at the airport.  She and another CAU student were waiting for me and Michael, the other UniSA exchange student, so we ended up taking the subway and taxi back to CAU together.  It must have looked kind of strange to other people, because our suitcases were actually really, really big.  After we parted our ways to separate dormitories, Jooyoung and I went up to my room.  I unpacked all the immediate stuff that I needed, and then we went to go eat brunch.  We were both so hungry since neither of us had eaten breakfast this morning and it was already the middle of the day.  We ate at this little shop called Momochi - no photos because I forgot my camera and my iPod (and my passport....) - where we had the Korean/Japanese fusion curry.  The little restaurant had no one else in it and the shop owners came to talk to us for a little bit.  I could understand a little bit of what they were saying but didn't really get the gist of the conversation, so I just sat there eating.  The owners were so nice though.  On a part of the wall near the door they had all these loyalty cards for different people - if you eat there, you get a stamp on the card.  It's similar to what we have in Adelaide, except they keep the card for you.

When we finished eating lunch, Jooyoung took me around the area to buy all the things that I needed.  I bought blankets, a pillow, a hair-dryer and shampoo/conditioner.  The walk back up to the dormitory was intense.  CAU is built upon a big hill so there are steps and steep roads everywhere.  I guess I'm used to climbing stairs and hills (thanks to Cambodia and my mum), but Jooyoung was really puffed out by the time we arrived back at the dormitory.  She had to leave for a meeting afterwards so I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking all my clothes and other stuff.  I now have everything packed away in it's rightful position, and although my desk doesn't look clean, it's really not that messy either.  

Tonight I went downstairs to eat my first ever canteen meal.  It was SO GOOD.  The main meal was fish, but I saw someone mixing the side dishes (kimchi and bean sprouts) into the bowl of rice so I copied them.  There was 고추장 gochujang (hot pepper paste) in a big bowl as well as seaweed, so I mixed them all in together as well and ta da! I had 비빔밥 bibimbap minus the vegetables, beef and egg.  

That's pretty much what happened during my first day in Seoul.  There's still a lot of other stuff which needs to be done like renting my phone, opening my bank account, getting my alien registration and figuring out how to use their transport system.  It's kind of overwhelming when I put it all together, but I have to keep reminding myself that today is only my first day, and there are still lots and lots more days to come!

THURSDAY

I spent the whole day of Thursday with no one else but my family (and the people shopping in Woolworths, but they don't really count).  In the morning, I did some last minute shopping with my mum.  I had to buy a new pair of thongs and some more chocolate, as previously mentioned, and I also got a new student ID card from my university after losing my first one.  The university website said that I would have to pay for a new card, which I was ready to do, but then the guy who printed out my card shook his head and said "Don't worry about it", so I didn't!

After the shopping was done, my family and I drove up to Hahndorf, which is a quaint little German village where most of the stores sell, surprise surprise, German produce and other things.  There are also lots and lots of little cafes along the street and small entertainment attractions like a fairy garden and big, cardboard castle which we came across. 

For lunch, we ate at a restaurant called The German Arms.  We ordered three dishes to share since their dishes are huge and we didn't want to eat too much because my grandma was cooking dinner for us later on, and she always cooks more than enough.  We ordered the pork hock, lamb shanks and a trio of German sausages - bratwurst, brockwurst and something-other-wurst.  I liked the pork hock the best, mainly because it had crackling and I love fatty meat.  Heeheehee...

After lunch we just walked around and I took some random photos.  My dad kept saying "You have to take a photo of this? Why are you just taking random photos?" Because they're pretty.  And also because I've developed a slight interest in photography after seeing some really nice photos posted on some photo blogs that I read.  What's interesting about Hahndorf is that it's supposed to be the 'German' village, but we came across a Chinese restaurant, a cheese shop (are Germans famous for their cheese? I don't actually know) and an Australian souvenir shop among other non-German things.  Sometimes I wish places would just stick to being one thing, but I know it's to keep the tourist business alive and to cater to everyone's needs.  But overall, Hahndorf was lovely.  I hadn't been there in a long, long time but I don't think it ever really changes.

At night time, we went to my Grandma's house for dinner.  She had promised to cook quail and roast pork for the dinner, which is why we didn't eat too much at lunch.  In the end she also made sang choy bao (lettuce buns....), fried rice and a cleansing soup.  Like I said, she always cooks more than enough.  We couldn't finish all the food that she cooked, as usual, and we ended up taking some home.  Now that I think about it, Thursday was pretty much meat-day - lamb shanks, pork hock, sausages, roast pork, quail and the fried beef in the sang choy bao.  They say meat is expensive in Korea, right?  So I was only eating what I'll be missing out in the next few months.  I just ate it all in one day.  

YAY RED PACKETS!

HAPPY CHINESE RABBIT NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!

恭禧發財 & 새해복 많이 받으세요 !

To be honest, our family doesn't really do the whole Chinese festivity thing and going to visit our relatives business in Australia.  We normally just eat a big meal on either New Years Eve or New Years day and that will be it for our Chinese New Year.  I think it's because my parents have been in Australia for so long, and the lack of hype about it (whereas Asian countries start going on about it two months beforehand) doesn't really do much for it either.  We had our monthly prayer meeting last night, so we ate our big meal tonight instead.  My dear mum spent the whole day preparing the food - prawns, oysters, fresh salmon, chicken, vegetables, mushrooms and other (delicious) fungi plus a big pot of soup.  It was so yummy.  I tried to help out with cooking the vegetables, but it ended up being way, way, wayy too salty. I swear I'm a better cook than that.

Oh.  And during Chinese New Year, flowers are a big thing in Asia so mum normally buys red flowers to keep for a few days.  I remember when we were in Hong Kong one year during Chinese New Year, and we went to a flower market.  It was so packed with people.  Flowers from the flower markets are supposed to be a bit cheaper than the ones you buy in florists, but when we were talking to our grandma in Hong Kong tonight, she told us that the flowers from the markets cost exactly the same as the ones downstairs from her apartment, so she didn't bother buying them from the markets because she and my grandpa couldn't be bothered carrying them.  Just a little bit of trivia for you.

p.s. still figuring out how my blog layout is going to work.  I keep changing my miiiind.

CONE-TASTIC

Last Friday, my friends and I decided to watch the Tour Down Under cyclists warm up near Penfold Winery.   After that, we walked down to the Parade for lunch.  On our way there we passed by this little shop called Conetopia where everything is "in a cone" - gelati, pizza, yiros, curries and even pasta.  One of my friends was so intrigued by this concept that we spent 10 minutes in there looking at their menus before finally deciding to come back for dessert after lunch.  The Parade was quiet for a Friday afternoon because all the roads had been blocked for the cyclists.  After lunch we did indeed go back to Conetopia, where the four of us ordered gelati.  As we were sitting outside, the friendly owner of the shop came out and started talking to us.  After a while, we had finished our gelatis and were talking about how we would definitely try the other flavours another time.  The owner then spontaneously offered to make us two umbrella dessert cones - flavoured waffle cones topped with chocolate and Nutella and five flavours of gelati - for free! We were all like "REALLY?" It was so nice of him.  We had a lot of fun choosing the ten flavours and even more fun eating the umbrella cone.  This is what they looked like:

I really want to go back now and eat their mango gelati.  It's one of the best mango ice-creams I've ever eaten.  It's so smooth and creamy and SO mango-y.  Mmm...

NOSTALGIA

There's something about Adelaide which is making me feel funny.  I am home, but why does it not feel like home? Hong Kong felt a lot more like home than Adelaide does.  Maybe I like living in confined spaces, and so now that I'm back in a 'house', it's a little too open and ....big.  Does this stem from the fact that I'm a private person and therefore I feel more comfortable in a smaller space?  Is there any scientific evidence to back that up?  Hmm, I don't know.

Maybe I'm just missing Hong Kong and the lifestyle which comes with it.  Even though it was compulsory to be up by 9 am (courtesy of my grandpa), the whole day still seemed to pass by a lot quicker than it does in Adelaide, despite waking up later.  There's just so much more to DO in Hong Kong - so much more to eat, shop, see, discover etc.  Speaking of which, I will now show you some of the delicious food which I ate! This was lunch with one of my parent's old friends.  We ate at this exclusive club where only members can pay, which means you have to be invited into the club by a member if you want to eat there. The inside design was really nice,  but I didn't feel comfortable taking a photo of it since there were a lot of business people there.

Lunch at The Bloomsbury Room

my buffet appetiser - eel sushi, seared tuna w/ mango, pumpkin & mushroom salad, chicken salad

mum's buffet appetiser - salmon & tuna sashimi, seared tuna w/ mango, some kind of jelly, chicken salad

main course - seafood rousset with saffron rice

my buffet dessert - trifle, lemon meringue, cheesecake w/ passionfruit dressing

mum's buffet dessert - sponge cake, cheesecake w/ passionfruit dressing, blueberry cup

Oh, and the toilets looked pretty as well.