My Life & Jim Jil Bang

Sorry that I haven't been posting much lately. I got scheduled like crazy at work over the short Thanksgiving break and I've been trying to finish up a couple of final projects. And guess what? After today I only have one project left to work on and then my homework is done for the semester!

Needless to say I am beyond excited. By this time next week I will be a free woman! In addition to being happy that this semester is coming to a close, my BFF cousin is coming home all the way from Micronesia!

I cannot wait to spend time with her again ^_^ My sister will also be coming home in the near future. She is in college at NYU right now. My parents are going to visit her over the weekend and I have already given them a list of all of my favorite idols so they can buy me lots of Christmas presents when they go to Korea town.

My sister better steal this for me this weekend!

And besides the general joy and spirit of the Christmas season, I am already starting to get excited for my next trip to Orlando in February. I am going with two of my good friends, Christia and Claire. Neither of them have really been before and I cannot wait to show them around!

Not only is it the happiest place on Earth, but it's where my love of Korea began

Ahh.....yes, life is good right now. I've also recently discovered that there is a jjimjilbang near Chicago. A real jjimjilbang! I'm trying to convince my dongsaeng Shaylah to go with me shortly after the new year. What a fun early birthday weekend that would be ^_~

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a jjimjilbang is, it is a Korean sauna and public bath house. It is very cheap (in Busan I paid about $7, in Seoul about $11) and you can basically stay as long as you want once you get there. In Seoul I ended up staying the night which was so much fun! 

When you get to jjimjilbang, it is separated by gender. You lock up your clothes in the locker that is provided for you and you head to the bath area. All of this is done completely naked. Yes, naked. It is intimidating at first, but you (or at least I did) adjust and get comfortable quickly. You can take a shower, and relax in some of the hot tubs. There are normally a few set at different temperatures so you can choose what feels most comfortable for you. 

You can see some of the people sleeping behind us

Once you are done in the bath area you put on the clothes that they provide for you and head out to the open area where males and females can mingle again. At jjimjilbang there is normally a restaurant, juice bar, TV area, massage room, work out room, and sometimes a PC room and a noraebang! There are also various sauna rooms. I don't know about you, but I love the sauna.

A jjimjilbang must- wearing your lambs ears!

Basically jjimjilbang is all about relaxing (who doesn't love that?). 

Besides a potential trip to jjimjilbang shortly after the new year, I have a decision to make in regards to what I want to do for the summer. I want to go back to Korea so~~~~ bad, and a study abroad program seems like a perfect fit for me. My only problem is deciding what university to go through. I have it narrowed down to two right now, Yonsei and Dankook.

Yonsei University is prestigious and they seem to offer a decent class selection. My friends Henny and Hyemi both want me to go here. However, their program is a bit shorter than what I would like, around a month. It is also a bit expensive.

Dankook University offers a longer summer program, about seven weeks. The first three weeks would involve me teaching three English classes, and the last four weeks I would be taking classes. It would be a great experience as I am planning on being a teacher, and it is cheaper than Yonsei. Also, guess who is currently attending Dankook....

The glorious T.O.P.

The negative thing about Dankook is that it would be a lot more work. So you can see why I am having a bit of trouble making a decision. Wherever I end up this summer, I know one thing to be true....

Sandra and Henny

Getting to spend even two more seconds with these girls would make all of this planning, debating, worry, and frustration completely worth it!

I have a couple quick things left before I end this post. The first is that I've made a tumblr (after some persuasion from Shaylah). If you care to follow me, you are more than welcome to. I readily admit to still having no clue what I am doing, but I promise to do my best to have the best tumblr I can have. Find me here.

The second thing is this; I still have many things that I want to blog about. But if any of you reading have something that you want me to blog about, let me know! If there's a drama, idol, or general question about Korea that you are curious about I will be more than happy to share any information that I have with you ^_^

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City Hunter DVD Release

Ahhh! I'm at school right now and on a whim I visited yesasia.com. And guess what I found out......

The City Hunter Region 1 DVD release is scheduled for December 6! I am so insanely excited! I plan on pre-ordering this the moment I get home. Who says I can't buy myself an early Christmas present?


I also really can't wait to have my Mom watch this kekekekeke ^_^


If you are interested you can pre-order your copy at amazon. I can't wait to re-watch my favorite K-drama of the year!

SNSD Party~

In honor of SNSD releasing their maxi single today, my dongsaeng Shaylah and I decided to celebrate ^_^ We planned a full day of shopping at the Korean market, walking around Ann Arbor, eating Korean BBQ, and then watching Running Man while doing our packs.



When Shaylah got to my house, we had a kimchi pancake and then headed to the Korean market while singing along to some of our favorite idols in the car. Manna is a great Korean market, I got some more black bean paste for making jjajangmyun and rice milk (so delicious). We also shared a roll of kimbap (a true taste of Korea).

One of our first stops in Ann Arbor was to a great store called Middle Earth. And look at what we found! Look familiar? Let me show you a close up shot...

I got yelled at for taking this picture

Remember it now? 

Now you remember it

The horse from Hands Up! I loved getting to see anything remotely related to K-Pop even if it was a creepy horse mask ^_^

After walking around the University of Michigan Campus (and not finding nearly as many oppas as we would have liked to) we headed over to Seoul Garden for dinner.

Showing some aegyo ^_^

We were lucky when a group of about five handsome oppas sat at the table behind us (see the guy in the red hoodie)! 

My best aegyo pose

I was a little embarrassed at one point because we needed some more lettuce for our meat, so I decided to try out my Korean skills. I called out "Cho gi yo~" (Excuse me~) I saw the waitress look at me. She replied with an "Oh" and just walked away! I thought I might have said it wrong (although I really didn't think I did). Luckily a few minutes later an oppa sitting behind me (the man in the green jacket in the picture above) said the same thing and the waitress ignored him too, so then I felt a bit better.

 Looking at this is making my stomach growl!

For dinner we ended up getting Kal Bi and a tofu and seafood chigae. The kal bi was perfect and the chigae was extremely flavorful. I would really recommend Seoul Garden (I think this might be the location of my birthday dinner this year ^_^). 

Once we got back to my house after dinner, we decided to go pack crazy while watching the SNSD episode of Running Man. 

Do you like our shirts?

After our packs, we both agreed that our skin felt "so youthful, so young"! Our hands and feet are so soft! 

We both had a great time celebrating SNSD and I hope you enjoyed reading about it ^_^

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My Ode to Yoo Jae Suk

I wanted to take the time to create a post that showed my adoration of Yoo Jae Suk~

A God among men

There are many, many people that I like in the Korean entertainment world. There are handsome idols like Taecyeon and Kim Hyun Joong, incredible actors like Lee Min Ho and Hyun Bin, and there are hilarious stars on varieties like Kim Jong Kook and Song Joong Ki. But out of all those people, if I got the chance to meet one person (OK, two, you know T.O.P. would be my first choice ^_~) it would be Yoo Jae Suk.

Flawless

Sure, he's not the most handsome, or the strongest, or smartest, but he is without a doubt the funniest, and most kind person I have ever seen in the entertainment world. Whenever I've had a stressful day, my worries drain away the second I sit down and watch Family Outing or Running Man.

I was first introduced to Jae Suk through Running Man. I had a couple of hours at school to kill and I saw that Seung Ri was a guest. I watched the episode for him, but I was immediately hooked. Jae Suk was undeniably hilarious and I had to bite my tongue the entire episode to keep from laughing in the otherwise silent computer lab.

After that fateful day I went back and watched every single episode of Running Man. And with each episode I became more smitten with Jae Suk. He had me in tears due to laughter in every episode. There is just something about him that is so funny.

Perhaps a bit of it has to do with his low stamina in the games that they play. I remember talking to my friend Henny about Jae Suk once and she said "He's so weak!" kekeke. Despite his low strength levels, he always gives his best effort.

I've also always loved how paranoid he gets when he has to betray the other members like when he was Yooruce Willis.


However, once I got caught up with Running Man I began to panic. How was I going to continue to get my Jae Suk fix? Luckily I found my answer very quickly.

A classic Family Outing moment

And that answer was Family Outing! I'm still catching up on Family Outing (I'm at about episode 60 right now) but I love it nearly as much as I love Running Man. Jae Suk is just as funny on this variety, but what I really love about him on Family Outing is his various relationships within the family.

The "Nation's Siblings" relationship that he has with Hyori is so incredibly funny. You can tell that they really love each other like brother and sister, and are willing to do anything to make others laugh. Their dynamic is really hilarious!

But probably my favorite relationship that he has is "Dumb & Dumber" with Daesung. Daesung really looks up to Jae Suk a lot, and in turn Jae Suk looks out for him. They are so comfortable with each other, and they support each other unconditionally.

Everyone <3s Jae Suk

A few weeks ago there was a mini-scandal involving Jae Suk. People were upset with him because he is such a well known celebrity and he had never made any charitable donations. However, it was quickly found out that he has been making donations to charity his entire career, but he was not publicizing them as he did not want to make it seem like he was trying to gain popularity through the donations. He is a perfect human being!


There is so much more I could say about Jae Suk (and perhaps I will in a later post) but I hope this gives you a small idea of the greatness of Yoo Jae Suk. I can't wait to see more of him and I will always support him!

Quite simply, I love Yoo Jae Suk!


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Current Couples

If you've been reading my blog, than I'm sure you are already are aware of my love for We Got Married. It was the first Korean variety that I started watching, it introduced me to so many of the idols that I love, and it has shared so many cute moments. It's hard not to become addicted to this show once you watch an episode or two.

However, in the past couple months I wasn't watching it as religiously as I once was. I think this happened once Nichkhun and Victoria left the show. Not that I wasn't invested in the other couples, but Khuntoria was a couple that I had been watching for so long (over a year!) and they were the last tie to the era of the Adam couple (Jo Kwon and Ga In) and my beloved Go Gu Ma Couple (Yong Hwa and Seo Hyun).

In the past two weeks I've done marathon viewings of the current couples and I can once again say that I am up to date on all three of them. In honor of this (and my renewed love of We Got Married) I thought I would take the time to introduce the current couples to you ^_^

WooJung Couple

Eun Jung and Lee Jang Woo make up the WooJung couple. Another nickname for them is the Campus Couple since they both attend the same university. They first appeared on We Got Married in April of this year. Jang Woo is known for wanting to quickly progress with skinship, and as a result they have become known for their multiple attempts at a "pepero kiss". Also in the beginning of their relationship they spent a lot of time camping and even lived in a camping car.

Eun Jung is a member of T-ara, and is also an actress. She was recently in Dream High.

Jang Woo is an actor, and his older cousin is Hwanhee who is a singer and was also on We Got Married.

My favorite moment for this couple without a doubt has been in the past week when Eun Jung and Jang Woo went to meet Jang Woo's mother for the first time as a couple. Eun Jung was very nervous and wanted to provide a good first impression in front of her mother-in-law. It was so cute to see how his mother immediately took to Eun Jung ^_^

I must admit that I've never really gotten into this couple. They have some cute moments together, but I guess I just don't see the same connection between them that I do with the other couples. Hopefully this couple will grow on me and I will love them just like I do the other couples. WooJung fighting~

Brave Couple

I must admit to being a bit put off when I heard that this couple was going to be joining the show. I had never heard of Park So Hyun or Kim Won Joon, and they are both much older than the typical couple on the show. However, after the first episode I was hooked! They have known each other for over eighteen years now, and they got the nickname of the Brave Couple because they are one couple that does not put on an act for the show. How they act is really how they feel for each other ^_^

Park So Hyun is the host of a radio show, and she has also done some acting in the past. She has revealed that Shin Dong of Super Junior is her ideal type!

Kim Won Joon is a singer and a member of the group M4. He has also done a bit of acting.

It's so hard to pick a favorite moment of the Brave Couple, but I loved Won Joon's event when he gave So Hyun a ring. You could tell she really wasn't expecting it, and the way he gave it to her was so cute!


Everything about this couple is adorable! From their nicknames (his is Jalba - Handsome Fool, hers is Ibu - Pretty Wife), to all the events they plan for each other, and the way you can see how much they genuinely care for each other. I definitely think that this couple has the best chance to continue to date once they leave the show, and let's hope that all their friends teasing about having a baby will come true soon ^_^

Dimple Couple

Kang Sora and Leeteuk make up the Dimple Couple (of course they got that name because they both have dimples ^_~). They have only been on We Got Married for a little over a month now but they are quickly becoming one of my all time favorite couples. Sora has a cute, shy image, and Leetuek is easily one of the most romantic husbands that the show has ever seen!

Kang Sora is an actress that has been in movies like Sunny and (one that I've actually seen and enjoyed) 4th Period Mystery.

Leeteuk is the leader of Super Junior.

Every episode for this couple has had a favorite moment in it! The episode from this past week has probably been my favorite though. Leetuek showed what a gentleman he is when he gave Sora his jacket. He also surprised her when he flew with her to Busan but had no time to stay so he immediately flew back to Seoul. So~~~ cute!! The only thing that I don't like about this couple is Leetuek's impending enlistment into the army TT_TT Let's watch the Dimple Couple make sweet memories together before this happens!


I hope you enjoy We Got Married as much as I do!


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f(x)

I kind of can't believe that I haven't had a post about f(x) yet, so I decided to fix that today!

f(x) is a girl group with SM Entertainment. There are five members and which each new single they release they become more popular. They debuted in 2009 and their first single was La Cha Ta. And then they followed that with the amazing NuABO. Let's meet the members!

You probably already know my love of Victoria. She is the leader of f(x) as well as a vocalist and the main dancer. Victoria is from China and was discovered at a dancing competition. She appeared on Invincible Youth as well as We Got Married where she was paired with Nichkhun. Victoria has a bubbly personality and looks cute no matter what ^_^

Amber is from California, and her parents are from Taiwan. She is the main rapper of f(x). She is friends with many other idols and is often seen hanging out with them. She is on Invincible Youth currently. Amber is also known for her boyish image which is very different in K-Pop because most girl group members have cute images.

Luna is from Korea. She is the main vocalist of the group, as well as a main dancer. She was just accepted to university and it sounds like she will be making her drama debut next month. In the past year Luna was in Korean productions of Coyote Ugly and she was the lead in Legally Blonde. 

Sulli is from Korea. She is a singer and sometimes raps for f(x). She made her debut as an actress in 2005 in the drama The Ballad of Seo-dong. She has also been one of the MC's of Inkigayo. I loved when Sulli made an appearance on We Got Married with Victoria and started a love line of her own ^_^

Krystal is also from California. She is one of the main vocalists of the group. When she was five years old SM wanted to sign her, but her parents thought she was too young so her older sister Jessica (now in SNSD) joined instead. She was recently on Kim Yuna's Kiss & Cry (basically like ice skating with celebrities), and she will soon be a main actress on the drama High Kick!

I'm leaving you with my favorite f(x) song. It holds a special place in my heart because besides 2PM's Hands Up, this was the main song that was being promoted in Korea when I was there this summer. It was being played all the time, and anytime my friends and I were out walking around sweating without a doubt one of us would start to sing this hehe. I hope you enjoy f(x) as much as I do ^_^


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Kimchi Pancakes

It's time for another food post! The other day I really felt like trying to make something I've never attempted before, so I decided to give Kimchi pancakes a shot. I found the recipe that I based mine off of here. I absolutely love this website. All the recipes are easy and she even has some videos up which I've found to be really helpful.

So to make Kimchi pancakes you start with....

about a half a cup of kimchi. I chop it into small squares. I throw this into a bowl and add about a tablespoon of water and about a tablespoon of kimchi juice.

Next I chop about a tablespoon or so of onion (I might add more next time as I really love onion) and add that. The onion should be chopped into squares also. 

Then I add about a teaspoon of salt (I'm not big on salt, you could add more) and about a tablespoon of sugar (once again, this can be adjusted to your taste, especially if you would like to make your pancake a bit less spicy).

Finally I add about a quarter cup of flour to hold the pancake together.

When you mix everything together it should look something like this. The batter shouldn't be too watery, but it also shouldn't be super thick either.

While you are mixing your ingredients together, you should heat your skillet up. I add about a tablespoon of sesame oil. You could use whatever oil you have on hand. This is also an amount I want to play around with as it was just a bit too much.

Once the skillet is heated, put your batter in the pan. It should be spread thinly and evenly. This should take some practice to get used to. I'm still not exactly sure what the exact perfect thickness is, but the last time it turned out pretty good.

After about two or three minutes I flipped my pancake and it looked perfect ^_^ It should be dark and crispy. Flipping the pancake is another thing I've had a problem with as my pancakes haven't wanted to flip all at the same time. I am thinking about making a few smaller pancakes next time. Cook the pancake another two minutes or so and it should be done!

Then you are ready to enjoy! Kimchi pancakes are insanely delicious, the taste cannot really be described. It is only slightly spicy, and the heated kimchi just has the best flavor. This recipe makes enough to feed me if I am very hungry -- maybe a small meal/large snack. Most of the time it would be the perfect size to share with a friend. Hopefully you will try to make kimchi pancakes someday, or if you are ever in the area let me know and I will make one for you ^_~