ID Key Card Trouble

I went to the lab early at quarter to 9 and tested my keycard ID. Sadly, I still can't use it! I went to the Department Secretary to have my ID checked. After making a call, we found out that I won't be able to use my ID as passport for a week because I have not attended the safety education! (WHUUWAAAT?!!) So just because I forgot about the seminar I'm being punished by disabling my access to the building and the lab?! T___T"


1100 h
I was still sleepy that morning and decided to take a 30-minute nap. But a few minutes later, the phone started ringing. Much later on, GJ oppa asked me to make a reservation. In short, I wasn't able to take my 30-minute power nap anymore. LOL.


1130h
I made some phone calls to a couple of hotels in LA to reserve rooms for my professor and oppa who are attending a conference sometime in May. As I finally reached the booking number, I was glad to hear a familiar accent. The way the call center agent spoke in English was comforting, not too fast and perfectly clear and understandable. I had a strong feeling she's a Filipina like me! But I was too shy to ask her. LOL.


1300h
For the first time, my 3 oppas - GJ, MJ, and Hwanseok - and I went with our professor for lunch. As we met outside the building. As we met our professor outside the building, nobody had an idea of where to eat yet. MJ oppa thought I didn't like spicy food because of yesterday's lunch (it was the tofu that stopped me from going for second round), so we went to a noodle store. Our professor became sort of an interpreter cos my oppas would talk in Korean. He teased them that they should talk with me more often to practice their English skills. LOL.


1450h
Since tomorrow is my midterms, I decided to go home early and take an early afternoon sleep. I woke up by 1730h and from then on, I didn't sleep anymore. ~ Tomorrow's an exciting sidetrip adventure with Tin!!! c",)

It Snowed Again

Cathianne's Journal:

It's Abnormally Snowing at Spring Time

24 March 2011

Menu for the Day:
Lunch @ restaurant outside school Bibimbap (treat!^^)
Dinner, deliver in the lab - some chicken cutlet Chinese food @ 2,500 krw


My main goal for today was to finish my Fortran program so I can proceed with my other schoolworks and tasks in the lab. Since the time I arrived in the lab, all I did was try and test algorithms and kept opening the two books for my references.

By the time I got to the lab, Honey was already in her table. I'm so glad to finally have my friend with me in the lab! Now I have someone to talk to more often! ^^ I got another chewable candy-like vitamin from her, a chocolate biscuit and a custard cake for breakfast! kkk...

1150h
Since Hyunjoo was also in the lab and it seemed that the oppas won't be eating lunch anytime soon, I decided to eat out with her for lunch. We went to her friend's apartment where I met a new friend, Gina. Jaemin, Hyunjoo's boyfriend, was also there as well. Five of us went to a nearby restaurant, just behind the apartment and had some lunch. I had bibimbap and the lunch was Jaemin's treat! ^^ (A bibimbap would cost 4,000 krw)

After lunch, we spent a few minutes at the apartment to have some rest before going back. Gina and Hyunjoo were attending their 1:00pm class and I was to go back to the lab too.

1700h
MJ oppa and I went to the office of our professor where we would be checking the two quizzes of the TA class we're handling. While checking, I had to keep asking oppa about the comments of the students because one of the questions needed explanations and naturally, most students would comment in Hangeul. Other than the fact that I read soooooo slow, I don't understand a word they're saying! =)) So he had to translate them for me! Haha! After we checked the papers, our professor gave us some money to have coffee for treat at CBTL! Yey! I got another CBTL and this time I had Cafe Mocha! =))

My first CBTL cafe mocha here! Thanks to gyusunim! kkk...

It also snowed as predicted. That was the second time I saw the snow in Korea, but obviously, it's not as visible really from afar cos it's a mix of rain and snow only. But nonetheless, I went out to take some photos haha...only through android though, I didn't have my camera...=|

Sleet, not purely snow...



Cold weather today in Jochiwon ^^



1900h
Lab dinner. We had Chinese food delivery and I ordered a chicken cutlet that had some sauce and mayo for 2,500 krw only! I find it cheap cos most of the food delivered would damage me with 4,000-5,000 krw, hahaha...



My dinner: chicken cutlet with sauce and mayo for 2,500 krw only! =))


2100h
I was trying on some algorithm on arrays and went on the program for several more hours. Our professor advised us to rather try writing our own program than modifying someone else's code which is, I agree, more difficult.

Fortunately, the step by step writing and trial and error that I've been doing seemed to have started working and my efforts are progressing and manifesting well. I read the chapter of the book again about arrays and finally got the message! Haha!

0100h (25 March 2011)
I was still hard on the program. MJ oppa tried to stay and work on his program as well.

0200h
It was almost complete! All I was doing by then was the design and layout on the executable file!

0230h
Went home to my dormitory! c",)

Successful all-nighter! YEY!!!

Johnny Whoop Did It Again!

Cathianne's Journal:

Johnny Whoop Has Done It Again!

23 March 2011

Oh, I just realized, next week is the last week of March already! Wow! I just can't believe how fast time goes by! Today was another ordinary day. Lunch and dinner were both from the cafeteria.


For lunch, I had the Suijiao (one of my favorite side-dishes in the caf), Japchae (which is actually tasting good already, or is it just me getting used to the taste? ^^), rice and a banana! All these for 2,900 krw only and I finished them all! Hahaha!


The whole day, I was doing TA work. I studied the textbook and answered the week's homework so that by Monday, all I have to do is check the papers! I just hope I will be able to finish my week's tasks...I'm still stuck with my Fortran Program. T____T"


Today, Hyunjoo is finally working with us in the lab!^^


By 6:00pm, we all went out to eat dinner at the professors cafeteria. As usual, the meal cost 4,500krw. It's good for people with big appetite, you can come back for several rounds as much as you wish. I'm glad they  had seaweed wraps. I now like the taste of rice with seaweed wrapped on it. And the rice in that cafeteria is sooo good! Red with some beans! ^^ But the only part of the food I can never finish up is the soup. I'm just not a soup lover. If it were some pumpkin soup then I'd really dive for it. We had kimchi (as usual), the other type of kimchi - spicy pickled radish stems, tofu (I never liked tofu until I tasted this style of cooking! It's got the strong sauce meaty flavor, yum!---sharing below some link about it), spicy noodles, and the spicy soup which I hardly touched...


*See below photos and recipes of some of the Korean Dishes I had today ^^


Back in the lab, MJ oppa and I prepared for the tutorial session at 7:00pm. When we got up to the meeting room, only one student was there, William. I met him on the welcome party but it never occurred to me that he is also in the TA class I'm handling..kkk.. So we ended up early cos only William came. More time to do other work then!


By 9:00pm, Hyunjoo and Gwang came to the lab. MJ oppa told me to show them the Johnny Whoop game. As usual, I gave them a dare: Anyone who can do exactly what I am doing, given 5 trials, I will treat him/her a cup of Coffee Bean... Haha! And yep! No one got it in 5 trials. Not even after 10! Then I showed Hyunjoo the trick and we kept making Gwang do it over and over. Then Kyeongjin oppa arrived and we showed him the game. He couldn't get it as well. MJ oppa did another demo, still, they didn't get it! =))


Finally, I exaggerated the my secret move, they finally saw what was missing! HAHAHA!


I wonder if you know what's that secret move... =))


JAPCHAE Recipe:
http://hungerhunger.blogspot.com/2007/10/japchae-korean-noodles.html

Photo from: droopia.net

SUIJIAO

Photo from: hungerhunger.blogspot.com


KOREAN STYLE TOFU
http://www.ehow.com/how_5685913_cook-korean-style-tofu.html
The one I ate looked like this:
From http://asiansupper.com/recipe/korean-style-mapo-tofu

Photo from: http://asiansupper.com/recipe/korean-style-mapo-tofu

Spicy Korean Noodles 쫄면
http://foodieholic.blogspot.com/

Photo from: foodieholic.blogspot.com

Missing Class

Cathianne's Journal:

Oh no! I Missed Today's Class

22 March 2011

Today's Menu:
CHAMCHI DEOPBAP (Tuna Rice) for Lunch @ 4,000 krw
Cafeteria Food at the Professor's Cafeteria for Dinner @ 4,500 krw


I knew I set 3 alarms. I had a bad feeling about it though. OH SNAP! There was something wrong about the morning when I woke up. 10:30 on my watch. OMG! I missed the bus, I missed the class! And I cannot make it to class anymore either cos it takes me 3 hours just to get there! What the ----!?! I pulled an all-nighter for nothing?! T____T"


I went to the lab by 11:30 am and called up my professor. Since I wasn't able to make it to Anam, I decided to start checking the assignments for the TA class I'm handling instead.


1300h
Jungeol oppa took my order for the lunch delivery. Everybody seemed too busy to go out to the cafeteria and it was already way past lunch time.


Checking...


MJ oppa, still not well, arrived after lunch. He had other more important things to do so I had to do all the checking.


1830h
We all went to the cafeteria to have our dinner. All 7 of us in the lab were present.


2000h
Started reading the textbook for the TA class.


2100h
Went home to get some rest.


WATTADAY!!! I didn't want to miss the class....T___T"

The End of February

February is about to end. Spring is approaching. Birds have started to come by. There is hardly any snow on the sidewalks and the snows have melted into drizzles and tiny raindrops.

Cathianne wakes up to the sound of her 8:00AM alarm. She realizes she has a roommate, and this roommate, she still has to meet. She gets up and makes her bed. As her roommate comes out of the bathroom, she introduces herself. She feels a warm welcome from a seemingly shy but nice new roommate. Or rather, it’s the other way around. She’s the new roommate of her roommate.

Penny is the name of her roommate and seems to be eager to make friends with her. Unfortunately, Penny hardly speaks or understands English. This is a great challenge for Cathianne. Now she really needs to hasten her Hangeul lessons in order to communicate well with her new friend. So hanging in there, Cathianne hopes soon that they will be able to talk more.

As Cathianne finished her morning routine, she heads down to the laboratory and upon her entry, no one was there. A few minutes after, she heard someone enter but she was busy learning Hangeul on the internet with her earphones on. Gil oppa greeted her as he passed behind her seat. Everything seemed to look busy for Gil oppa as he started typing on his keyboard. In a short while, some of the labmates have arrived while she was busy burying her ears in the lessons she’s becoming more eager in learning. Too busy to mind the noise, she got shocked when suddenly MJ oppa’s head popped on her side to say hello to her. *laughs*

Cathianne has been learning how to speak several phrases and has been practicing how to write the characters and even typing them in the computer. She’s been enjoying these new findings. It was approaching lunch but no one seems to be hungry. Her stomach is starting to grumble but she decides to leave it alone as for sure, one of the labmates would call her to join them for lunch. While keeping herself busy learning, she was once again surprised by another oppa, Kimp, who suddenly greeted her just behind her head to see how she’s been doing. At that she responded with a chuckle and showed him the lessons she’s been trying to learn online. He’s making brewed coffee again. She remembers that he was also the one who made brewed coffee and the first person she saw using the coffee brewer. He must probably the only person not lazy enough to use the coffee brewer. Hah.

MJ oppa finally asked Cathianne if she was hungry and without a doubt, she said yes. So they went to eat lunch together at the cafeteria behind Coffee Bean where they had their first lunch when she first arrived in Korea. At that, she finally remembered how to use the vendo machine in order to get the food stub. For 3,000KRW, they each had rice, several sidings, the never ending kimchi and a bowl of “bin” (if that’s how it is correctly pronounced) to warm the belly. This time, she almost finished everything. Lunch is definitely the perfect time for her to fill up her stomach. Last night’s dinner was too good but she simply has a small appetite for any evening meal though.

Back at the lab, she pursued her lessons online. At almost 5:00PM, Prof. JY called her to his office in order to discuss her tasks for the semester. After having confirmed all that has to be done, she’s finally been given a project to start reading on. Hoping she does well, she listens to the professor intently and prays that God will help her in understanding the project particularly the derivation of all the equations that were shown to her. It’s been a long while since she last had encounters with the “curves” and “snake-like writings” on equations and she admits to herself she’s not a big fan of integration. But this time, she has to be braver in facing these “cobras” as this will be her foundation in building up her future researches and eventually, her thesis.

It was already 7:00PM and Prof. JY dismisses her. She returns to the lab and reads on it. She decides to also finish whatever document submission she can and set the schedules of her submission. MJ oppa then asked if she was busy and invited her to join them for dinner. So up she got and went with MJ oppa, Kiko oppa, and John, the youngest one who was always bullied by being dared to speak to her in English. It was drizzling outside so Juan they had to get them umbrellas for protection. To the familiar road they walked to where the restaurants were. This time, they brought her to the place that served kimchi fried rice. The restaurant was on a cozy place where one has to go up along the small, almost slippery, cemented stairway that led them to what seemed to be a house-turned-into-kitchen with a huge living area. A TV was open and it showed an American movie that starred familiar faces for Cathianne. She’d be glad to watch but was too hungry to be bothered. The food didn’t take long to arrive and whoa! There goes another huge serving of fried rice. She took her android out and took a picture of her food and Kiko oppa teased Juan by taking his own food for Cathianne to take a snapshot of. The three had each a bowl of kimchi fried rice with tuna and egg while Cathianne had almost the same but with a bit lesser servings and without the tuna. The dishes again came with several sidings like the kimchi, the yellow round sweet radish (that up to now, she’s still not one hundred percent sure if that really was radish even if she has eaten it several times), more sidings she can’t name, and a bowl of spicy noodles with sticky something that tasted like the familiar rice-made sticky meals eaten for breakfast or meryenda in the Philippines. Before they left, she paid 4,000KRW for the hearty, overly-full meal that she still can’t fathom as to how she can ever  finish one for the future dinners she’ll be having with them.

Back to the lab they walked as she tried to practice Hangeul in vain. *laughs* They still can’t get what she was trying to say when all she wanted was to practice saying “this is ---“.

After more readings in the lab, Cathianne finally ends her day by going back to her dormitory by 10:00PM. Looking forward to the National Holidays and she hopes to buy herself a good dictionary and the things she need to help her better work things out in her dorm room.