The end of a hectic week

Okay, although my hectic week may not seem so hectic as compared to others, it was still hectic! 3 major tests in a week is quite a feat!

So today marks the end of a boring week. It feels like a heavy weight has been lifted off my back and now I can continue watching Queen Seon Deok without worries. This drama is so awesome I don’t know what to say. But with my really lousy Mandarin, it’s a little tough watching period dramas with Chinese subs. Makes my head hurts sometimes when I have to pause the vid for a moment to read the difficult words. Anyways…

Today’s oral test went really smooth for me. At least that’s what I feel about it. I didn’t need any script for the roleplay and I was able to say most of my dialogues naturally without any stumble whatsoever. I feeeeel good. :P

The coming weekend seems like a promising one. Currently, there are a line of activities planned so I’m really looking forward to it! :D Plus, it’s a 3-day weekend once again… how awesome is that!

OH yes, I made Seafood Kimchi Pancake today. It’s a 2-in-1, Seafood Pancake + Kimchi Pancake. It actually tastes better than the two originals! Pancakes are so easy to make and they’re delicious too! It’s a good, fuss-free and simple dish to make. Next time, you’ll be seeing me eat this more often! :)

해물전!! Korean Seafood Pancake!!

I had a bit of a difficulty this evening… I was at the Supermarket, really desperate in needing to fill my empty fridge. The glutton in me only craved for fruits, specifically apples and oranges, which then left me wondering down the vegetable/meat aisle thinking of what to cook for dinner. I was seriously pacing up and down aimlessly with no idea what kind of vegetables or meat to buy… Now that is something that doesn’t occur so often. Most of the time I would have a rough idea what to cook especially while grocery-shopping. All that fresh food will definitely inspire me. But this evening my head was a complete blank…

Well, not until I thought back about the only food left in my fridge. SPRING ONIONS! Yes… Pathetic fridge has only got spring onions left. Then I realised too that I still have that pancake mix I bought a couple of weeks ago. It’s the perfect time to use up my spring onions and start on making that pancake I intended when I bought it.

So, I bought a packet of mixed seafood from the Korean mart.

I came home and briefly looked through a few websites with Seafood Pancake recipes before stirring my own pancake! With a little help from my housemate (a really nice woman who hails from China), I managed to whip up this lovely Seafood Pancake!

It’s a little burnt. :P

The pancake mix is awesome. You just got to add water in and wah-lah! you get the pancake mixture. What I did was just add the spring onions and seafood into the pancake mixture. Really simple. :)

The taste was almost similar to the ones in restaurants. Hehe! I might have to get the soy sauce suitable for pancakes. I actually wanted to try with the current sauce that I have but that sauce was for cooking and not dipping! The taste was too strong to be pancake dipping sauce.

Anywho… I restocked on my kimchi as well. Perhaps next time I can make Kimchi pancake though I prefer Seafood. ^^

아름다운 하늘…

This evening, I was just studying and realized the room was getting pretty dark. I looked at the time and it read 5:34 PM. I guess this shows winter is approaching with the sign of early sunset. From my study desk, I looked out at the sky and found the moon shining brighter than ever. Although it was not presented in its full roundness, the brightness of the moon captivated me. I stared at it for a few seconds before realizing the beautiful scenery before me- the sky, beautifully splashed with pastel colours of dusk while reflection of the opposite houses crept over the surface of the calm river water. I looked on with fascination… Appalled that I could witness such beauty. Then I my thought came through… I have to show this to you! So I grabbed my digicam and took a snap.

It is as if someone has digitalised the photo… I personally love soft, pastel colours that’s why I was really drawn in by the colours of dusk. :)

P.S. Translated title: Beautiful Sky…

Hee hee…

Today’s a public holiday… But I’m just gonna stay at home and study for two tests tomorrow! No life…. And then I have an oral exam this Thursday. This week’s hectic! Kind of…

But there’s another public holiday next Monday and I’m looking forward to that! Hopefully some activities will be planned… :)

Just gotta love Bidam! Hahaaa~

P.S. This blog entry is obviously written out of boredom. :p

소주 Soju, anyone?

OMG... Eye-popping situation… Heart pain… when you see the bill we had after our dinner last night. Such a horrendous amount of money spent after just one meal!

A and I wanted to try a new Korean restaurant so we went to this place where both of us have never been to. The day before, I had suggested to him about drinking soju together because I wanted to experience drinking soju with a Korean! :P So he said let’s have dinner and Soju together after our lesson (on Sat). And there we were…

Koreans’ drinking etiquette is so interesting. Lol. It’s exactly like how it is in dramas (okay, duh…). I was so excited when I saw the little Soju glasses.

A told me that Koreans usually pour Soju for each other and not for themselves because there’s this superstition about not being able to get married if you pour for yourself. So every time we wanted to refill our cups, both of us had to stop eating and pour for each other. LOL. Then we had one-shot for our first glass of Soju. The taste was so strong, one-shot made my throat burn a little. It was interesting though… the rest of our glasses later were drank slowly, no more one-shots. Though I thought one-shots made the taste better and stronger.

It was my second time drinking Soju… The first time was with LE and LY at the Korean restaurant in Msia. I remembered we couldn’t finish even one bottle and LE had to bring home. Haha~

For our main meal, we had BBQ!!!!!!!!!! <3 All that delicious meat wrapped in cabbage!!! We ordered a set for our BBQ which was more expensive because there were different kinds of meat. SO SO SO SO SO SO SO DELICIOUS! Thinking of it now makes my mouth water…

After our BBQ meal, A ordered 막걸리 (mak-keo-li) AKA rice wine, which has lesser alc % than Soju. He told me usually Koreans eat pancakes while drinking rice wine so he ordered Seafood pancake. Oh yeah, he ordered Sprite to add into the rice wine to make it taste better.

We sat there for like almost 3 hours talking and drinking. Haha… Because after I had drink a few cups of soju + rice wine, I was a little tipsy. A kept asking me if i was okay because he said I looked a little drunk! I said I was okay but in fact I felt like my head was kind of heavy and swaying a bit. LOL. JUST A BIT, okay.. :P I was still as clear-headed as normal.

Before our meal, A told me that most Koreans think that after having a drink with each other, they’ll become closer but he doesn’t think so. After our meal, I do agree with most of the Koreans.

Anyways it was so interesting and fun! Haha~

LY and KH, when you come over let’s have a round of Soju/ Mak-keo-li while having BBQ!! HAHAA :P I’m so excited about you guys coming over… Counting down the days!! Only 2 more months~~ <3

Next week will be a busy week!

Next Monday is a public holiday… but this holiday is reserved for studying 3 tests to be held on the same week. So the sensible me has taken this incredibly huge step in preventing myself from watching ‘Queen Seon Deok’ and increasing my concentration on my studies- that is to stop downloading the rest of the episodes of the drama (for now). Without the episodes, I won’t lose myself to the urge of wanting to watch! hehe. 

내일은 한국 친구랑 소주를 마실 거야! 정말 고대해! 히히… 쉬…

앞으로 여기서 한국어로 더 쓸 게… 기대해 줘? ^^

More Montville photos!

For all you people who are curious as to how my Korean friend, A, looks like and thinks that previous photos can’t satisfy your curiosity…. HERE’RE MORE~

 

erm….? LOL

 

Are you happy now? Can see the people clearly now? LOL

Also… thanks to A and T (the one in red shirt), I have my Queen Seon Deok episode 31!!! Been waiting for like more than 4 days?! Finally I can continueeeeee….. :D

Yesterday’s study session

My entire yesterday was so packed. Woke up at 8.30am (on a freaking Sat!) for study session with Korean friends (haven’t mentioned them before), then another study session in the afternoon with A and friends in UQ and then cell group in the evening. Reached home at 10.30pm. x_x

I was so dead tired after that, I slept at 12.30am which is early considering how I’ve been sleeping at 1am-2am these days. :P

Anyways, I just wanted to say i had fun studying with A and friends yesterday. A brought along one of his hyungs for the study session. He’s the one captured in one of the photos during our Montville trip. Then I introduced one of my friends who was studying Korean to him so that they can have language exchange as well. So there were four of us sitting on UQ’s Great Court where all the pretty grass is, under the shade with a nice breeze blowing our way. :P

It was a nice feeling since my study sessions with A were always in the City Library. Nice to sit outdoors and study once in awhile. Get some fresh air too~ Also, A and his hyung went to UQ for the first time yesterday so they were pretty impressed with how beautiful UQ is. ^^

I had fun studying with them yesterday~

Oh and after that, they invited me to a farewell party for A’s other hyung which they were going to after the study session. But I said I already had another appointment with my friend. :( I wish I had gone though.. because cell group was kind of boring… though the people there were very nice. Cell group is when a small group of Christians form their own group to have bible studies, Christian activities and other fellowship activities. It was my first time attending bible studies and they really study the meanings behind the verses of the bible. No offence to Christians but I was really bored during the session! ><” I kept thinking about how nice it would be if I had gone to that party… argh!

But well, it was nice to get know more people and chat with them…

Back to school

It’s term 2 of my 2nd semester in UQ. As expected, the one week holiday just flew past me in the blink of an eye.

Today I cooked deokbokki again to use up my left over sauce from the last time. No photos taken because I don’t see the need to. Also, I ate my current favourite snack- Sweet potato flavoured snack- again today while watching currently addicted drama- Queen Seon Deok.

Montville, Sunshine Coast

After so long, I finally had the chance to travel outside of Brisbane! My Korean language partner, A, invited me along with his hyungs (older brothers) to go on a road trip to Montville. It is a pretty little place set in Sunshine Coast, another “city” of Queensland. We went there by car which took us about 1 and a half hour. It was so long I got motion sickness when we reach but luckily it wasn’t serious and it went away quickly without affecting my mood/appetite.  ><”

Montville is known for it’s picturesque buildings which gives tourists a feeling of being in Europe. It is like a beautiful small English town. I didn’t take a lot of photos but with the photos I have, it’ll give you a brief insight to what I saw today. :)

 

Really bad angle. I look fat like that!

We had 도시락 (do-si-rak) for lunch! So typical Korean! Haha, they packed sandwich and fruits! But I was expecting kimbab. And that is one of A’s hyungs… I was intending to take photo of the food but since he gave a pose I took him as well. But his expression is….

That’s A, my Korean friend/ language exchange partner. :)

Somehow he looks shorter than me in these photos but in reality he’s about the same height as me.

Although it was kind of awkward sometimes hanging out with A’s hyungs but it was a cool experience!

Bus and Queen

Lengthy buses are not frequently seen around in Brissie. But certain buses in which there’ll always be A LOT of people especially during peak hours will have such long buses.
 
This evening I took this bus from school to the city… Was empty because it’s term break so not many students around. Usually it’ll be jam-packed.

Anyways, I’m finally watching Queen Seon-Deok, after delaying for months. I had wanted to watch it since it aired but decided to wait out since I hate the feeling of suspension while having to wait for the release of each episodes every week. As expected from one of the most epic drama in Korea of 2009 (viewership ratings are comparable to Brilliant Legacy), episode 1 has already left me feeling anxious and stunned by the characters and turn of events.

This feeling is similar to when I watched Yi San a year ago. That period drama was damn awesome as well… Wow. I can’t wait to see Park Ye Jin (Family Outing) and Yoo Seung Ho (God of Study) appear in this drama!! Coincidentally, both actors are playing mother and son in the drama. High in anticipation!

Brilliant drama~!

Finally finish watching this lovely drama- Shining Inheritance/ Brilliant Legacy. Touched, awed, sympathetic and happy are the feelings I got after completing this drama. This drama is longer than the usual 20-25 episodes dramas- it has got 28 episodes and because of this length, the characters in the drama grew on me. That’s why I love watching dramas with lots of episodes- well most of it. I like to have a deep impressions on dramas and the characters…

Drama synopsis from Dramawiki:
Go Eun Sung's life is similar to Cinderella's. After her father died, her step-mother, Baek Sung Hee, took away all of her assets and her younger brother, Eun Woo, suddenly disappears without a trace. Despite this, Eun Sung preservers and works really hard to fulfill her dreams. When the CEO of a food company, Jang Sook Ja, suffers amnesia and can't remember who she is Eun Sung takes her in. However, Eun Sung does not know that she is the grandmother of Sun Woo Hwan, the man who she switched bags with at the airport. How will their constant bickering lead them to realize that they care more about each other than they let on?

Gosh, at first I was so in love with Bae Soo Bin (as Park Junse), the 2nd male lead. He is so so so handsome and charming! But in the later episodes, he didn’t appear much and was overshadowed by Lee Seunggi (Sun Woo Hwan) which is expected since the latter is the main lead. Although the plot will draw viewers in to keep watching the drama, there are some annoying points in it. Like how the characters are connected to each other but they don’t know they are linked to each other through certain relationships. I think in reality, it won’t be this bad…

Anyways, this drama is soooo recommended to watch. It fetched the highest viewership ratings in the whole of 2009 in Korea… almost 50% for the last episode! That’s like mad crazy rating since over 30% is already considered HIGH. So catch it if you can! ^^

Moving on… I finally bought 김밥 (kim-bab) today to satisfy my craving from last night!!

Had it for pre-dinner snack…. + my 만두. = increase of pre-dinner snacking!!! OH NO!! I feel damn fat after eating all that but I can’t help it!!

AND FOR DINNER, I managed to get rice cakes from Korean mart today so… 2nd attempt at 덕볶이 (deok-bok-ki)

 
Damn nice! hahaaa~~

What kind of hairstyle is that?!!

Screenshot taken from K-drama, Brilliant Legacy. You should know whose hair I’m talking about.

On the account that he’s a good guy in the drama, I shall not doodle on his face (that’s something I’m itching to do whenever I look at this photo). His hair is really C.M.I!!!

More photos to make you salivate

Woke up pretty late this morning- 11.30am, so I had a late breakfast and went out without having lunch. I went job-hunting but because I was hesitant and chicken about asking for vacancy, I returned with no results. Well, I couldn’t say that completely since I came back with my groceries in tow. :P Hopefully tomorrow will be a more fruitful and “courageous” day for me.

Since I didn’t eat lunch, I was super hungry before dinner time. So I made a quick snack for myself from the groceries I bought today:

만두 (man-du)!! AKA Korean dumplings!

That was my pre-dinner snack. The following is my post-dinner snack.

고구마깡 (go-gu-ma-kkang) AKA Sweet Potato flavoured snack, as seen on the packet.

 
It’s my current favourite snack! So yummy! ^^

Home alone

View from our room’s balcony: 

Happy (belated) Easter! Easter chocolates are selling at half price now, so I grabbed a packet from the supermarket:
 

Dino egg?

Part of dinner: