Okay. Fail.

January 20, 2011

Yes, I totally failed at updating my blog.  I hope to at least have some journey pictures/stories up in the next few weeks, but with the busy-ness of Penn kicking in, it seems highly unlikely.

Oh Penn. How is it that I'm busier here in the first 2 weeks of classes that I *ever* was in Cardiff?

I forgot that the last week of all-nighters I pulled when I was in Cardiff for essays = every week at Penn.

The workload is back-breaking, and I already had two emotional breakdowns.  Classes started on January 12th.  It's been 8. days.  Someone please pray for me.

Of course, God never fails to set me straight:

"May all your expectations be frustrated
May all your plans be thwarted
May all your desires be withered into nothingness
that you may experience the powerlessness
and poverty of a child
and sing and dance
in the love of God
who IS
the Father
Son
and Spirit"
- http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com/2011/01/prayer/

Amen.  Taken from a blog that I have followed for a while now.  Sometimes, He strips everything away from us so that we can run back to Him to realize that HIS grace and HIS love are the ONLY THINGS that satisfy in this highly unpredictable world.

Days 40 & 41: Penn Londoners' Adventure in Wales

Day 40 (Saturday, October 30, 2010):

The day started out with a large brunch at the Taf.  We each had a version of the English Breakfast:

This is a typical English Breakfast meal - beans, eggs, toast, bacon, sausages, and tomatoes!  It's similar to the American breakfast, minus the pancakes plus beans and tomatoes.

I had originally planned to take my friends to Tintern Abbey and another castle that I had never been to, but due to transportation issues we just ended up going to Caerphilly Castle instead.  I had already visited Caerphilly Castle (as can be noted by this entry), but it was still nice to visit.  We were blessed with gorgeous castle weather.

As I had mentioned on the previous entry, I managed to break my camera in the pouring rain in our venture to pick Christian up from the bus stop.  We discovered that the camera was still functioning but the screen was broken.  Although I couldn't see what I was taking pictures of, I ended up clicking away anyway.  It was interesting to just let go for once and have some fun while taking pictures - I feel like often I get so caught up on how it looks that it becomes more like a chore.

Gorgeous Caerphilly Castle

Picture credits to Jen

Photo credits to Jen

I feel like I rarely take pictures of the ruins; I always try to take pictures of the gorgeousness instead of the damages that years have done to these historical sights.  Jen's pictures have given be a different perspective on things, which I guess is good if you've already seen Caerphilly before in my previous entry.

We have some hilarious pictures from this trip; we spent literally 20 minutes trying to take a 'jumping' picture of the 4 of us.  We put Christian's camera on auto-timer and tried to jump at the correct intervals.  We utterly failed.  It's quite hilarious to see the pictures on Facebook, where you can click really fast through the album - it looks like we're doing some sort of weird dance.  I wish I could share it on this blog, but I don't put up pictures of people due to privacy reasons - if you are Facebook friends with me, try to go find it!  I think Christian put that particular album to public...

We headed back to the Cardiff Bus Station in time to go to the Medieval Village.  We were joined by Alisha, Suwei and Alana - but the trip was actually quite disastrous!  The Medieval Village was having a special Halloween event on that night, but due to the rain we ended up coming back early...and we were completely soaked.  Waiting for the bus to come in the pouring rain with only 3 umbrellas to spare among the seven of us was quite momentous!

We came back to my room and somehow managed to fit all six of us (Alisha had gone to see a movie) in my tiny little place.  We were all drenched from the rain so it probably worked to our benefit that the room was so cozy :)  We had plans to go out to the Union that night and although none of us felt like going out after the adventure in the rain, the tickets were paid for so we had no choice.  We pre-gamed a little bit in my room to our song of the night - Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA".  Yeah, I know.  I think all of us had been missing home...

We then headed to the Union; I almost always have fun with people from home, so it was really nice :)  Christian and I did the usual routine of calling friends at home - we definitely took advantage of my free bonus International minutes that night ;).  I think Christian left Brittni (one of our friends back home) a song on her voicemail about how she wasn't picking up...that's our group for you.

Here's a picture of the party scene, stolen from Alphonse's album:

The rest of us except for Alana came back to my room to play some games afterwards :)  We had fun, to say the least!  Christian and I ended up walking Suwei back to her 'student accommodations' (aka dorm); we then had a nice chat on our way back where I realized how much I had missed a good friend's company. I'll forever appreciate such walks when I get back to Penn!

Day 41 (Sunday, October 31, 2010):


The day started early despite the fact that we had stayed up quite late because Alphonse was leaving at 9am.  I took a quick shower and walked him back to the station; then, I walked back to wake Christian and Jen up.  We ate at Wok to Walk, which was an interesting British fusion Asian food...we then got on a bus headed to St. Fagan's!

It was my second time going to St. Fagan's...but this time around, we discovered the Buttery Castle, which somehow I had missed on my first trip there.  St. Fagan's was gorgeous with all the fall colors:

We also had toffee apples there, which were absolutely delicious:

Christian even had two :) I bought one for myself and one for Alisha, which we enjoyed after dinner that day.

When we came back, we had some trouble with the bus so we couldn't have dinner.  I escorted them back to the bus station, came back and had dinner with Alisha at the Taly Social.

That pretty much ended the weekend!  I'm so, so behind on updates but hopefully I'll be updating again soon :)

Diversion #2: Just a list...

October 15, 2010

Diversion #2 today and a quick post because I suddenly felt homesick:

I miss.........

• Having good Korean food right around the corner
• Big, wide streets
• DRIVING [on the correct side ;)]
• Authentic Mexican food / EL TAURINO'S
• A P O (need I say more?) (website curtesy of my Little <3 )
• Staying after exec meeting, not working when we should be working, "studying" (aka singing Disney songs), random trips to Wawa at 3am, being trapped in the APO Bubble and going to eat at random Thai restaurants, celebrating when it's not raining/dreary for once in Philly, throwing really bad surprise birthday parties, having email chains with big "meow" and "rawr", yelling at Omar/Christian.....(the list can go on forever)
• Walking through the Penn Bookstore to get to class
• Skipping class for various reasons ;)
• Staying up literally all-night because of really good conversations
• Studying at Meyerson until 5am (I hear it's been renovated? whattttt?)
• ^ Going to McDonald's to get coffee at all hours of the night (I want coffee SO badly right now)
• Walking down LOCUST WALK. I even miss flyering on it! Oh my...
• Doing random things like: going to FroGro at 1am to buy a blender and make smoothies, going out for walks in the rain, making snowmen instead of studying...
• Going out to BYO Dinners with the group!

There is so much more, but I'm stopping now because I really need to go read for tomorrow's seminar...

Although it is true that I miss Penn and home a lot, I know for a fact that when I go back, I'll be missing Cardiff like crazy. I guess this just goes hand-in-hand with my last entry (diversion #1)...

Clarification: I still really, really love it here. :) I'm SO thankful for SO many things right now, including all the people I've been blessed to meet here and all those that are back home, supporting me no matter what. 

Receiving the Visa = Highlight of My Week

August 22, 2010

Finally!

I finally received my Tier 4 General Student Visa in the mail earlier this week after an anxious instance where my application was almost denied!  THAT was pretty scary, but I'm so glad everything got sorted out!  Who knew that the UK had such stringent requirements?

I received in the mail the visa along with all the other documents that I sent them minus the actual applications (yes, there were three different applications to be filled out).  I still think it's kind of ridiculous how I had to send in my no-longer-valid Korean passport as well - what would they have done if I no longer had it in my possession?  I mean, it's not valid anymore since I am no longer a citizen of Korea...

The visa was mailed via UPS "next day air" method (although I'm confident that it didn't fly here from the British consulate in LA, which is literally 20 minutes away from my house).  It was kind of nice how they were extremely prompt about sending off the visa - one good thing out of this stressful experience!

I met with a couple of friends from Penn today, and we ended up hanging out in a spa, which was a really cool experience (but I'll save that for another day).  Since Penn's Fall 2010 semester is starting so soon, this was the last time I would see them until I came back from Wales.  It feels so weird that I won't be there in the fall!  I feel like I should be doing some sort of preparations to go back to Philly.  I am really sad that I'll be missing out so much in the fall, but I'm sure the semester would fly by as usual, and it'll be *gasp* the second semester of junior year in no time.

I'm not going to lie - my thoughts about studying abroad and Wales aren't all just filled with excitement - I'm actually more worried now than before.  There's so much to prepare, and I am so not ready!  Clock is ticking....

Spring

Spring must be coming.

I had noticed the emergence of flowers earlier this week on the road that I always take to go from my room to the Quad, where I work (37th street). But it wasn't until today that I noticed how exactly how many had sprung up - I was greeted by entire rows of white, yellow and pink flowers on my way back to my room today, and it made me smile much more than flowers had ever done before.

I guess this is part of living the East Coast life. Learning to appreciate flowers after such a dreary dark winter. Learning to love the white piles of snow, despite the insane coldness that strikes at your core.

In LA, flowers are everywhere, 365 days of the year, by default. So even though they are there, looking pretty all the time, people don't really pause to appreciate them. Or at least I never did.

Now, "spring" has a really different meaning for me. It means that enduring through the long winter ultimately has a reward, and life does go through these cycles that ultimately lead back to rebirth and growth.

Although it is typically said that the seasonal cycle begins in the spring and ends in the winter, I would like to think that it begins in the summer and that it ends in the spring - just so that the result is happiness, not the other way around. After all, it is a circle, right?

I am really hoping that spring will bring some spring into my own life; beneath it all, there is a hollowness that is waiting to be filled.

Locust at Midnight

In the past few days, I have barely spent any time in my room. Literally, I get back at around 5 or 6am and sleep for a couple of hours, only to trek off around 9am and not to return until 5am the next morning.

Today, right around midnight, as I was making the trip across campus from a friend's room to Meyerson Hall, I noticed something that everyone always did at this hour on Locust Walk: glance through the darkness to see if there is someone you recognize on the other side of the road.

I am not sure if we normally do this all throughout the day, and it is only more noticeable at night, or if it is some strange phenomenon that occurs when Locust Walk isn't so busy, and there is enough space in between people to slow down and look at each face on the other side of the road.

And even as I noticed myself doing it, I could not stop but glance over to occasionally awkwardly meet the other person's eyes, only to quickly turn away and focus on the person behind him. For me at least, I think it is a sort of a relief from the fact that although I am walking at such an odd hour where "normal" people ("normal" defined as not overambitious college kids) are asleep, I am not alone on the long trek back to studying. I think it is also partly in hopes to find a familiar face on the other side, just because at that hour I am often frustrated due to the workload and want to just hear the warmth and comfort of a familiar voice.

It's an interesting road, this college business. As I have expressed to various friends before in reflection, I think I will miss these days - even the ones filled with complete frustration and utter pain of inadequacy. We only get one chance each day to spend it to its best; likewise, we only get one chance to take advantage of the proximity that college provides to build relationships and unforgettable memories.

Above all, I am thankful that I have people that suffer through with me during these ridiculously late study nights (more like, everyday). Time is flying by way too quickly. I hope this semester will go by slowly; "I want to smell the flowers as I make my decline".

Something New is in the Air

Today I realized that for some odd reason, life here at Penn has become so much better.

Having so many classes crammed into one day sucked - especially because it was Monday - and the fact that work was so exhausting sucked, too, but there was something else in the air today that made me really happy.

I think I have found my peace.