It's been almost a year

Well, It's been almost a year since I went natural with my hair and this year as been a real experience for me. At times I have felt regretful for cutting off all my hair and starting over from scratch and there were some days when I felt that I was ugly because of the way my hair was compared to the other people around me. Other days I felt regretful that I didn't go natural sooner because then maybe I would have longer natural hair than I do now. Right now, my hair reaches around the nape of my neck. I've come to realize that the most important thing that you need when having and trying to grow black hair is time and patients. It's a very slow process but the results are worth it. There's this one girl in my Chinese and Japanese literature class that has this beautiful long natural hair and every time I see her I just feel a little jealous but she is like an idol to me and what I wish my hair will become. Going through this process, I have actually felt that I've become more independent and free. Before, I use to have to rely on perms every two weeks and I couldn't get it wet and there were just so many rules. After going natural, I feel like I am free from hair constraints so to speak, but at a price. I always feel self conscience when I walk around with hair in my natural state and when I went to Korea, I felt so uncomfortable partly because of how my hair was so different. However, going through this experience, I feel that I have become healthier and a more happier person overall. There are times that I feel crappy because of my hair but I don't think I will ever go back to getting perms and I think that I am now in the process of accepting a new me.

(I forgot the name of the Park) and Yonsei University

Park (I forgot the name)

Alright!! I can't believe I'm almost done blogging about my trip to South Korea this summer!! This is one of the last places me and my onni went to before I went back to the States for school. We went to some park but I forgot the name if it.....On the subway one day, I saw this poster for tourist spots and liked the picture of this one park so my onni took me there, but I can't remember the name of it -__-;

It was really nice though!!! For me, I love the heat and it was so hot that day I could have walked around in the park forever, but my onni doesn't really like extreme hot and sweats easily so we only stayed for 15 min. and then continued to go to my onni's university, Yonsei

Yonsei Universiy

So this is my onni's school, Yonsei and let me tell you, it's HUGE!!!!!! When I looked at the campus map, this university is like a little city or something. Before I transferred to Georgetown, I went to this small school called Washington College (very small campus in a very little town) so when I went to Yonsei, it was totally different!!! The dorms are so far away from the any of the class rooms that people literally have to run to class. One of my friends and my onni was telling that you can tell which department each student belongs to just by the pace they take to get to class LOL

The campus was really pretty though and I loved all the buildings, it looked as if I was in London or something LOL

After touring around a little bit, we ate lunch at the cafeteria and I was amazed at how cheap the prices are for the cafeteria food. At Georgetown and even at Washington College, the price of one meal is around $10 and you can get meals at Yonsei for $3-5.....just unbelievable

This is the library at Yonsei and let me just say this place is HUGE!!!! OMG I think it looked like a really fancy hotel or something. It was so clean and big I just couldn't believe that this was the library. I can't even explain how nice this place for, all I can say is that you'll have to experience it for yourself!!!

Abracadabra Dance and Seoul Watch Tower

This is when me and my onni went to learn the Brown Eyed Girls Abracadabra dance in LOL The lady in the pink taught the class and by the end, I was SOOOOO tired, but it was really fun to learn!!!! (If you don't know the dance or the song, look at the video below)

Seoul Watch Tower

After dancing, we went to the Watch Tower in Seoul. The place was pretty croweded but the view was really pretty!!

Dr.Fish

Okay, this was my first time trying Dr.Fish when I went to Korea and I was SCARED out of my mind of these little things. I couldn't put my feet in the water I was just to scared, and when I did try to, it tickled so much that I had to take my feet out LOL, but these fish do leave your feet really soft!!!!! The first Dr. Fish tank that me and my onni went to, the fish were WAY to big and there was absolutely NO way I was putting my feet in there so we went to the another one with smaller fish. The Dr.Fish place was actually in this cafe place that served waffles and stuff, so I got this plain waffle and when they brought me my food, I looked at that and was like "What the hell is this?" I swear I could have eaten that thing in one bite it was so small!!! I couldn't believe how small that waffle was. I had heard about smaller portions being in Korea and Japan compared to America but this was just ridiculous!!!.....speaking about smaller sizes, why is it that every Korean restaurant I went to, the cups were sooooo small?? I will always remember having to ask the person for more water because I would always drink that small little cup in one gulp!!!! LOL

Calligraphy

My Onni's handwriting is superb and I'm always telling her how my handwriting looks like a 2nd grader in any language I write in so my onni taught me a few things and then submitted my handwriting in this Korean handwriting contest (I think I went in the kid division LOL)However my handwriting was still sucky so my onni and I went to this calligraphy place where I could improve (if only a little)This was my teacher, he is AWESOME!! I wish I had handwriting like him....but it was hard to communicate because he didn't know English that well so my onni had to translate a lot of stuff for me This was my first creation....but I put the "Ri" part too small LOL the teacher said it looked "interesting" LOLHowever I fixed it and this is my first calligraphy writing in Korean 0^O^oThen we moved on to actual picture making...OMG my teacher ws soooo good that this!! The top one in this picture is his and I'm trying to copy off him LOLIt's not so bad right??After we finished he actually gave us copies of his work at NO COST!! I was so surprised but his a really nice teacher and I think my handwriting improved a little LOLAfter having handwriting lessons, me and Hyemi went to her Aunt's house where we sleep over for the night, (and one of hyemi's cousin's came back from China, the little girl in the picture, so we took a picture together LOL

Coffee Prince!!

So my onni and I went to the set of Coffee Prince..but before we did that we went to a Japanese type restaurant to eat.....it was SOOOO good...and really cheap, I couldn't believe how cheap the food was, I think I ate so much but only paid around $10-12 for it!!
1ST COFFEE PRINCE SITE:

Okay so here is the Coffee Prince set !!! I was so excited when we got there, LOL (I was kind of freakin' out a little I couldn't believe I was there) but when we got in there, we had to order something just to take pictures of the place. I just ordered a hot chocolate (even though it was hot as hell outside LOL) and my onni ordered coffee.....LOL This is sooo funny though, when my onni got her coffee she said "OMG, this coffee is sooo bad, they had better coffee at that 2 dollar place" LOL!!! So just for future reference, don't order coffee at the coffee prince shop LOL!!! The place was real pretty though, it felt like I could actually be in the drama!!!

Here's more pictures of the Coffee Prince Shop:

I can NOT believe I actually stood in front of this wall!!!! it's unbelievable!! I remember looking at this wall in the drama and now I'm taking a picture of it!!! Incredible....

I just love this!! It's so cute!!!









2ND COFFEE PRINCE SITE:

So here's the next site of the Coffee Prince that we went to, Choi Han Sung's House in the drama, let me just point out that this place is in the middle of NO WHERE!!! Me and Hyemi had to hike up this huge hill and take like 2 buses to get to this place!!! But it was worth it, because the insides pretty cool and besides, how many times am I gonna be on the set of the Coffee Prince? In the drama though, they made it look like Han Sung's house and the coffee shop was so close to each other!!! On another note, when me and my onni were leaving this site to get lunch, I remember this one boy who was mentally disabled that was walking I guess to his house and when me and my onni passed him, he looked at me and said "우와~~깜둥이다!" and I was like "onni what is that?" because I didn't even know what it meant but my onni was like "don't worry about it, just let's go, I'll tell you later" and on the bus, she was like, "yeah, that boy was mentally disabled so he didn't know what he was saying but basically it's like saying nigger or something like that" I was like "oh okay.....LOL" I just had to laugh because the little boy said it such fascination that I couldn't help but laugh.

So to commemorate our journey, me and Hyemi wrote in one of the guest books at the 2nd site

Misia

This Japanese singer got my attention when I was watching the Japanese drama Jin and heard the ending song Aitakute ima. The song was so good I had to figure out who sung it. Misia, I figured out sang the song and has a new album out that I would suggest everyone listen to just because this woman has an INCREDIBLE voice!! I never really liked Japanese singers that much besides people like Perfume and Arashi (only Arashi because my sister likes them) so when I heard Misia I thought she was Korean at first LOL!! If you look at my ipod, all I have on there is Korean singers so I was surprised that I actually liked a Japanese singer for a change!



"Just Ballade" Album track:
1)少しずつ大切に
2)逢いたくていま
3)Work it out
4)地平線の向こう側へ
5)Call me Love me (I love this one!)
6)So Beautiful
7)唇と唇
8)バオバヴの木の下で
9)約束の翼
10)僕のきもち
11)Yes Forever
12)星のように
13)銀河
14)いつまでも