.:.Dream of bunnies.:.: October 2008

Eee! I had an unexpectedly wonderful 21st birthday. I was scared before leaving for Korea that I wouldn't have a fantastic birthday because I wouldn't be able to spend it with all my close friends back in the States. BUT... little did I know I would meet such amazing people here. Thank you Germans, Americans, French, Finnish, Chinese, Hong Kong, and Japanese for making my birthday so special.

Nate brought me to a place called Star Chef for dinner.
Here is a review about the restaurant: http://www.fatmanseoul.com/2008/09/22/star-chef-shines/
It was so yummy...

Afterwards, we took cute pictures at those photo booths that I love...
And then, we went to the rooftop... on the way there, there was an origami bunny on the stairway... so cute... And at the rooftop was a very special surprise birthday gathering for me... balloons everywhere and friends everywhere. We had a super yummy cake... where I got to blow out candles... and then present opening!!! I got so many wonderful surprises... In such a short period of time, people were able to already figure out what kinds of stuff suit me best... :) I also had flavored soju to make me super... happy.... too. tee hee. Afterwards, 9 of us went to a karaoke place.. where we drank and sang and just enjoyed the night. I love love loved it. And I loved remembering every moment of it.

The most delicious broccoli I have ever eaten.

Orgasm Potato and Sausage... I think that was what it was literally called, or close to it.

I want to eat this again....

Me wearing Nate's hat thing... and card.. and origami bunny...

Such a beautiful birthday card.

Restaurant at Star Chef.

Rooftop surprise... and them making noise.

Yummy, beautiful cake.

I didn't forget about the pic for you, Laina~!

Gym and me.

Stacey and me <3

Xiao, Amanda, Armstrong--- Asiannnn gang

Hedrick and Lesliee~~!

Daniel, Matias, Sabastian, and my roomie Denise.

Anja, Ollie, Ollie's friend, Pauline, Patrick

Present opening!

Amanda, Linda, Tabby, Klaudiaaa

@ Noraebang. Leslie and Sebastian doing a duet: A Whole New World

Me, Les, and Stace

Daniel, Nathan, and Armstrong

Gym, Hendrik, Leslie, and Felix

BALLOONS~~!

My loot.

Very necessary foot cream that I needed.

Sept. 13... COEX mall... The largest basement mall...

The COEX Mall was underneath... this building...

The entrance of a movie theatre...

I thought Lianne would like this...

Sept. 20--- Going to see ballet with Nate's family

The building of the Arts Center where I saw his cousin's wife dance ballet. Korean ballet is really freaky... Just like their scary movies.

Us.

Nate's cousins... aunt... me... and him...

Nathan and me <3>

Sept. 24- Trying out the Take-Out Cocktail & Concert at my school...

The Concert...at the grassy field near the front entrance of my school..

To go alcohol.... Smart, right?

Stacey, Hendrick, and meee with our togo drinks...

September 26- Mexican fooooood and norebanggggg

"Chimichangas".... Arizona does it better.... wayyy better...

Nachoooss...

I cut out those bunnies with a Daniel's pocket knife. And then I had Daniel glue my masterpieces on his bookshelf. :] heheheheee~~~

Norebang at Luxury.... Such a nice Karaoke place... with free icecream~

The boys were singing "Can't Touch This"-MC Hammer

September 27-- Weekend to Dejeun... also went to the zooo!!!!!

Train to go to Dejeun to visit Nate's family. 2 hours away from Seoul on the crappy train. 50 min on the KTX. This is a pic of the crappy train. His cousin bought us a ticket on the KTX back to Seoul... Double the price... ~$21/person... His family was realllyyyyy nice....

Overlooking Dejeun
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Dejeun zoo... Just some animals... It was really cool. You get to get reallllyy close to the animals because of the wall in between... and the animals like getting close to the glass because I guess they are used to people feeding them if they get close... very cool, eh?

THEY MOVE!!!

So manyyy!!

They were huge...

So close...

The safari bus we took to see the other animals...

Bears... waiting for food... They just all came up... It was cool...

TIGERS!!!

So many lions... I have never seen so many lions at once before...!! There were a lot more too... Just walking around/resting around the safari bus.

Antelope!!! Walking past us!!

Mmm... Eggs and bacon... It's made a bit different... I miss this though... It was almost American.

The doggie is just too cute... so pudgy... It's just a year old...

Nate's cousin's wife did my nails :)

hahah.. doggie so cute... Nate's cousin's and the wife's doggie...

Outback Steakhouse has seafood quesadillas... Which was absolutely de-leesh.
October 2: Around Campus... and Ala visits!
I never realized how beautiful my campus is... It's so green right now, but autumn is coming and I can already see the leaves start to turn vibrant red, orange, and yellow. I've never experienced foliage before... It's going to be beautiful!
The cafeteria food looks gourmet... I'll have more pics of food and other cafeterias around campus when I remember to take pics.
Ala visited from Taiwan to get her visa fixed... in Korea... haha... So we had a pretty awesome time... I showed her the nightlife... drinking and noraebang!

Yay! Trees.. and buildings.. I see a few red leaves... I'll upload more pics later... There are a lot more foliage now.. though not completely.

Looking out to the city... Just a bunch of restaurants and shopping places right outside my campus...

Above the ECC... see the cool stairs leading down? My campus has a lot of trees everywhere. Great place for bugs.

One of the newer student cafeterias at my school...

Yummy cafeteria food... for less than $4.80. It's a rice omlette... with corn and creamy white sauce that needed a little more salt... There's crab on top of the rice omlette... It was delicious.

Random gardens at my campus.... free food?

Out to show Ala the nightlife in S. Korea... At the Blue Monkey bar... taking the Blue Monkey shot. It makes your throat and ears burn...

October 3: Korean Folk Village in Yongin, GyeongGi-Do
Approximate 50 international students and 20 something PEACE buddies made a trip the the Folk Village!!! We spent a night at the hostel nearby. The village just replicated how the Korean towns looked in the ancient days... There were shows like horseback riding and archery, seesaw performance, tight rope performance, and a traditional wedding ceremony. At night, we played a lot of fun kiddish Korean games/ drinking games without the drinks... like "Do you love my neighbor," "Bang Bang Bong," "3, 6, 9," "Mafia," and this murder winking game. The punishment if you lose is that you have to sing or dance in front of the crowd. Haha...

The room... The floors were heated, which was incredibly uncomfortable . I was burning... What kind of hostel has enough money to make heated floors >__<

Yep. Kids climbing on the basketball arcade.

Within the Folk Village

Semi-gross cold buckwheat noodles.

Korean policeman...

Felix, me, Nate, Armstrong, and Peace Buddy Jihyun and Da Sol

Beautiful scenery

Yay swing!

Nathan and me~~

October 4th

Watched fireworks for an hour near the Han River... for the Fireworks Festival...

Ala drinking "ko-jeem-kang-leh" No pain, no gain. Two shot classes placed inside the one cup... A shot of coke at the bottom, a shot of soju at the top, and beer filling in the rest of the glass.