Roninmaeki

Some of friends and I were invited to the Italian boys' place, Roninmaeki to have dinner together~ They are friends of my roommate, Stephania's and they were so sweet to cook for us! And even more, they didn't allowed us to do the dishes after the meal~! They were totally cute and gentle~ (can't imagine Korean boys do so.)Yes... We had real great time there, laughing and eating originally Italian-made pasta~!!!

YES~ We were big for one table to fit in, still I love the bokjac-bojac ness~ <-- this is the word in Korean discribing the sence of crowdness in cute way~! It gives such sence of warmth~ After the lovely treat, I was thinking about treating them back but don't have any idea what to cook! (Well, to tell the truth, what can I cook!!!<-- IN PANIC)

Dinners~

9/23: Went over to Jennifer's place to have dinner together. There were 9 people altogether in a room! Wow... (I am the one leaning on the table, back there.)

We had Sauerkraut with some seasoned meat loaf(Jennier has talent in cooking!), mashed potatoe~ I heard that Sauerkraut is almost the same as Kimchi of Korea since it is made of specially marinated vegetable, and it is never missed to be on the meal tables. Although many Korean people say that they cannot live without Kimchi, I find myself OK~ Yes... It's funny that I cannot eat hot foods that much well, even I have lived in Korea 20 and more years. However, it was lovely dinner with happy faces!!! It was a pity that I had to come back home early to work on my assingment, though.

It's really great to be among friends from many countries in this sense(FOOD sense... haha!).
Well, our turn is coming around the corner, and I'm quite worried what to cook! First of all, I'm worried whether my friends could eat Korean food, and second, I'm not a kind of person who do cook properly. T T (Ingredients available here are quite restricted to cook Korean food...)

But, after all, if we are together and having fun, it is OK for that!!!


This picture is just to show the representative Finnish candy. It's name is salmijaki(I might be wrong with the spellings! be aware!). It is usually black like a coal... and may seem a bit curious whether we could eat or not, still it is quite nice when you start to like it.

My Family~!

YES~ I've got my family in Finland! Don't panic, I'm not married here... haha!

Well, I applied some program held by the Uni. and I was introduced to one lovely family you see above this! Pirkko and Yukka(I'm not sure about the spellings yet.) and there 4 children were my Finland family! Yesterday, I went over to Pirkko's place and had real great time with her and her two younger boys. (I'll write there names after asking Pirkko the right spellings. I think there are some common atmosphere between Korean boys and Finnish boys for their being somewhat reserved as well gentle. May be~ or may be not. HAHA ^ㅂ^* But I think it would change a lot, after ice breaking, and I'm looking forward to it!) It was so heartwarming to have small talks with Pirkko and it was so splendid to get to know Finland more. She is a REAL outdoor person! And it was great listening to her ways of life, since it was totally new to me! Nordic walk, cross country, hunting... I even couldn't imagine how it would be. Yeah~ I'm sure that we will have extremely great time together and make unforgettable memories! You bet my stay in Finland is getting more and more exciting and happy!

Well, I'm just uploading some of my old pictures...
http://www.cyworld.com/common/main.asp/cookimon

is my Korean blog where my whole web-photos are. BUT unfortunately it seems that it won't working in the computers which can't acknowledge Korean letters. So I'm just putting a bit to show how my family look like. ^^*

The photo was taken last new year's day in Korea. I was wearing HANBOK, the Korean traditional costume(It's a pity that I earased the picture with the whole costume.. There's a long pink skirt underneath starting from my chest and ends on the ground.) The pink letter in the corner of the picture means happy new year. "Good Luck for the new year" in the literal sense.

I'm in my university(Korea Uni. <--I got my bachelor's degree here.) with mom. I was about 21 or so... Most all the campus buildings were built with rock and it resembles old castle in the mids(not inside, of course!). There were subway stations at the ends of the campus and I got off either of them up to where I get my lectures everyday.

The pictures below are my brother riding a giraffe and my riding a lion.

My only elder brother(Jung Whan is his first name.) and me, and mom. We were at the celebration shower(or party) of my cousin's daughter's 1st bithday. Koreans put great meanings for the 1st birthday and 100days after the birth. We wish health and good luck for the new born baby in both parties and especially for the 1st birthday, each families present 100% gold rings to the baby. Usually the mother of the baby keeps the presentend rings until the baby grows up and give it to he/she.

These pictures are taken in my graduation of Uni. The symbol of the Korea Uni. is a tiger and it is on the gown and university's flag. Also the sybolic color is red and you can easily see that in the picture~ Yeah... I was among those people throwing there hats(I even don't know where I am!) My brother, grandmother, me and mom.

..with my cousins and brother.

(I'm not yet used to the blog system.. It may not be fancy, but I will progress! Wait! )

I've been to HELSINKI~

YEAH~ I visited Helsinki for two days during the weekend. It took about 3hours and a half to get there from Jyvaskyla by VR(Finland Railroad). I think it's similar with from Seoul to Busan.
The day I've left started to rain a bit and it mademe worried, still, as if the sky blesses our(Moon Ju and me) trip, it turned out to be real sunny right after finishing our luch dishes. The first meal I had in Helsinki stays right beside! THE HERRINGS! It was literally fantastic!!!It's one of the most famous traditional cuisine in Finland and I'm sure you'll feel sorry if you don't try it before you pass away! It isn't grizzy as well as plain. Quite salty but it gives you great pleasure with mashed potatoe. I heard that Finns eat them in a whole after seasoning them with lemon juice and pasting them with the potatoe(you can see that there is mashed something under the fish.). LOVE IT!

doggy.... and KIASMA art museum.

The Baltic(am I getting it correctly?) was great.

Sky was high and blue... AH. Right. It was funny that the wind was so crispy and NOT salty since the saltiness(?) of the Baltic water is so low that even sea fish cannot survive in it. Also, I heard that it is OK for Finns to construct buildings right beside the ocean and lake because there aren't almost any big waves for the its unique landscape. (It sounds to me like crazy, but it is possible here.)

I found very ancient Mickey in Sumomenlai Island(not sure about the spellings!) which is going to be 70 next year~ It looks somewaht scary... kk...

My second week in Finland

I just thought it's better to have blog for me to share 'photos & thoughts' with many other friends here... So, I made up a blog!!! (I'm kind of person who is so lazy that don't much do things volutarily and especially on-lines. I know it will going to be a little some challenge for me to look after this one ^^* May be it would shoothe me a lot... or not. kk )



The girl beside me(I'm the one with the cap) is my roomate named Stephania and she's from Italy. She got really beautiful eyes and smile. I really love her olive green eyes! Wonder how could eyes can have such color! I didn't got to acknowlege that I've got dark eyes and hair until I came here since I've been among only Koreans usually... It's weird that getting to my appearance in a new point of view~

It's refreshing as well as making me startled that I didn't knew me that much. It's giving me a shock that I didn't look up to myself that much until now.

9/3 : arrived in Finland(Jyvaskyla) in the afternoon by small airplane which had two big noisy but cute propellers on each side of the wings. It was almost one whole day to get to here and also it was the exact time when I started to get the feelings that I'm being parted (in physical ways)with my family, friends in Korea, and other precious people I left behind. I was worried about my tutor not sending any message to pick up me, but it ended to my just my worried and everything including my baggage problem went just as smoothly as it can be.

9/4: this was the date of beginning of the orientation for newly come students. Every exchange students about 400 were introduce by names(it took quite long) and said 'Moi(it's 'HI' in Finnish.)'. We sat down and heard lots of informations to get through. It was boring but as well it was really worthful so I had to attend wether I like it or not. After being oriented, I followed my tutor on a campus tour(I think.. I can't rightly remeber what I did in what day.)

9/5: also attend the orientation for newly come students in Music building and got info. about the English or Finnish lg. courses I could join. It was impressing since Finns who are good at Eglish are REAL REAL REAL good at it. I'm sure that many of Koreans can't tell who's Finn to native speaker. I've got introduced to the system of library briefly. I don't remeber what I did in 5th evening and night... probably I was knocked out and slept.

9/6: On this day I visited my department to arrange my studies and got some shocks T ^ T
The coordinator of mine said to me that I should change my already decided course because I seem I can't follow Finnish students who majored English. All my studies in Korea was no worth?! I got real depressed but I got to know why she adviced me so when I went to my first class. There was a big gap between what Koreans call 'advanced level' and Finn's advanced level in lg. . I am now real curious how Finns learn and get to use English so good. It's gonna be my number one mission to uncover here! What's the magical spells for them to be such good English users? I've also heard that many DO speak Swedish as well as Russian since those lg.s were taught and learned in secondary schools obligatorily. The atmosphere emphasizing lg.s is making me envy this country. Also in this night, I went to the crawl party(the party to welcome) and had fun. Dancing, Drinking upciders(I prefer dry apple cider than sweet one), Talking, Laughing... ^^* Parties really get people bring together, I think. It make you feel the same 'zone' among different people and it melts ice~ Doing something same real works as ice breaking~

9/7: On this day I opened my bank account and did some shoppings. (Don't rember.. )

9/8: I went to the real Finnish sauna and enjoyed alot! REALLY! I had to wore bathing suit but hadn't got one here so I just were my sport top with short pants to dive into the lake after eating myself in sauna. The sauna itself wasn't that much different from the one in Korea, but the difference was within the LAkE which was right beside the sauna. It was my first my in my life to jump into the lake! I was a little bit scary but also it made my heart pound!

9/9: With flat mates, we held potluck party at Sammy's place. We weren't ready to cook literary but still we came up with spaghetti, some over bluffed pasta(that I did;;), pizza, canape(don't now how to spell), raymen, and snacks... There were 7 of us at one place and it was funny that we used un-matted bed as our table. It was the experience I always admired to have and now 'm happy that I could have this one as my cute little memory before I be a serious grown up.

9/10: I had my first class on Monday. It was quite OK. I'm going to write two essays in processing mode. It's not that new to me since I've learned it as in teachers point of view, but practice and just knowing what it is is a lot different, so I'm looking forward to it. By the way, in the class, I was the only exchange student and the only Asian girl... kk. At night, I tried to go out for a disco but failed. (I didn't know we have to have our passport to have a sip of drink in Finland!) I found I am a real bad driver and made my friend wait for me whenever I try to start my bike roll~ as well as when going up hills... What's wrong with me? T^T

9/11: I think I statyed home all day and just took a walk in the afternoon. I bought some dishes and cups...

9/12: I've been to my first Finnish class and got to know that people around me really look matured. Where's my age?;;; They all look gorgeous~ Nevertheless, I learned Finnish greetings today, and I'm gonna try it on to the people. By the way, I thought I lived quite hard enough... but things just come out differently. Am I really trying my best? the word BEST is really a big one. I should think about it throughly before I just say it out. I sould, gotta hang on to my life and be desperate....

YES, I MEAN IT.