Grad School Orientation

Tomorrow is my first day of graduate school. It's becoming real. I'm getting a little freaked. I blame orientation.

Thursday I spent all day on campus with the other people in my cohort (which consists of everyone going into rehabilitation, clinical mental health, marriage and family, and school counseling). The professors spent the day spending half the time congratulating us on getting into the program and the other half of the time telling us the next three years are going to be Hell. I exaggerate, of course, but it was still a lot of information in a short amount of time and a lot of us were a bit overwhelmed. I met some fun people who I hope to get to know well over the next three years.

I've spent the majority of my free time since then getting organized for next week. Picked up my room some, got some online things done for school, cleaned up my bookmarks so that they are a little more organized. All I need to do now is get my books, figure out how to put my school email on Thunderbird (it's being a big pain), and finish organizing my room.

Aside from school, I have work which is going as well as can be expected. We are trying to find some new people to hire on, but that is proving a little more difficult than the owner could hope. We have a new dishwasher who turned out to be from my parents' ward and was friends with my sister. Funny how things work out. 

So with school, work, and my limited social life, life is pretty good. Things are going to be insanely busy for the next three years. My first year is supposed to be the "easiest" and I plan on getting as much fun things as possible fit into that span of time. Hoping to have a Halloween party and we'll see how that works out.

Wish me luck!

Salt Lake

 After hanging with my chicky, I headed up with my friend Mindy for a long weekend of fun in Salt Lake. I spent Thursday all alone in her house while Mindy went to work to make some monies. She took Friday off so we could spend some more time together.

On Friday we went to a little area with a Korean gift shop, Korean bakery, and Korean grocery store! We got all the makings for kimbop (Korean sushi (kind of) ), Chapaghetti (a ramen with black bean sauce and veggies... one of my favorites!), chocopies (like moon pies, I've been told), and tasty treats from the bakery.

That night we went to visit with Mindy's Russian friends from church and Anya made Korean chicken and rice porridge. It tasted like really good chicken and rice soup from Cambells. With whole cloves of tasty tasty garlic in it. I am making it. While we waited for it to cook, we watched an episode of a new Korean drama that looks very promising.

The next day, Mindy and I got up and made bulgogi kimbop! Sooo good! We took a piece of seaweed, spread some rice, then added pickled radish, spinach, carrot, and bulgogi before rolling it all up.

Isn't it pretty? Mindy does such a good job. Here's one that I rolled up! It got a little rice on the outside, though. Sad. :(

More tasty shots of kimbop.

 While we (meaning Mindy...) sliced it all up and rolled it into foil for when the Russians came over, I said hello to an old friend of mine from college.

It no longer smells like marshmallows, which is sad, but it still always makes me really happy to see because I remember when Mindy would accidentally set things on fire. Cookbooks, eggs, beans... Good times, good times....

I didn't take any pictures (which is a real tragedy), but we headed down to European Tastees, a Russian bakery and grocery store to buy candy (which I am still working through...) and meet up with my friend Nasa. She is currently going to grad school at BYU and had an internship at the Mongolian embassy in D.C. (did I mention she is from Mongolia? And super adorable? And that my parents almost adopted her? True story.). We caught up and talked about the crazy happenings in our lives since we saw each other at Halloween. I started per-requisites for grad school, she got engaged. Same old same old. Yep, my Nasa is getting married in D.C. next July and wants me to be a bridesmaid and help plan her wedding. I am so happy and feel so special. ^^

Diane came up and brought her baby Emily (who had surgery a few days prior, so she was a little clingy to Mama, though she did walk a little for us!). I had seen her and Anna (with baby Noah), a few days earlier, but it was fun getting to see her again and talk some more.

After Diane headed out, Nasa, Mindy, and I went to another Korean restaurant and had some more tasty Korean food: bibimbop in a hot stone pot (veggies and meat with egg and chili sauce over rice), japjae (glass noodles and veggies), and clear soup (I think it was a kind of miso?). I always taste the kimchi and usually hate it, but the kind there was pretty mild and not as sour as some places. I actually kind of enjoyed it and ate several more pieces.

Man... I want bibimbop so much right now. Mmmm....

Sunday we went to church (P.S. Mindy's ward has some pretty adorable boys in it) and then headed over to The Russian's house to make and eat tradition Cuban food: ropa vieja (shredded delicious beef), black beans, and rice. It took SOOOO LONG to make! We didn't get to eat until, like, 8pm. But it was SO worth the wait!

 Then we sat down on the couch with our tasty food and watched an episode of a Korean drama. It was a multicultural evening. :)

Monday was my last day in Utah. Sad day. But we made the most of it by making panda cookies! You might have noticed that we made/ate a lot of food. This is absolutely true. I think I was hungry all of ONCE while I was in Utah.

 When I say that "we" made panda cookies, I kind of really mean Mindy. I did a little mixing, but I mostly took pictures.

I am not the most adept cook, and I felt that my lack of skills would only be detrimental to our, er, already sad looking cookies.

We found that our cookies might have smooshed a little before they made it too the pan. They look better than the bread we made last time I was there... but still not all that great.

We used raspberry Jello to make the pink parts, so it tasted really good. However, the poor pandas look really sad. And by sad I mean smooshed.

Then it was time to go home. I took my suitcases, my poster (Van Gogh Tardis!!), and headed back to Oregon where I get to take care of the animals and clean the house and go to work. Utah is way more fun.

Also, I am now currently obsessed with several new Korean songs: Gangnam Style (you might have heard of it), Sexy Free and Single (BIG BANG!! I'm sorry I won't see you in L.A. in November! I have to go to D.C. next summer and I can't afford both of you! I'm sorry! D: )...

And Marshmallow. It is SOO CUTE. And soooo very deep. *snicker* The song raises several deep philosophical questions: What is the significance of the giant marshmallow man? Why does she cook a fish in her bedroom? Why does a shark chase the marshmallow man across the stage at the end?

You know you want to watch it! Do it!

And that's it for now! I went back to work today and it was pretty good. We got four new ladies in. I hope they stick around longer than the last few. Come on! It's a fun store! With food! And awesome people! Come PLAY!!

P.S. I start up grad school FOR REALS at the end of the month. Can you believe it? It's kind of surreal for me. We'll have to see how that goes soon.

Hanging with my Chicky

Well, friends, after two weeks in Utah, I am back in Oregon. A little bittersweet. My Chicky is having an awesome time at college (we've been texting back and forth), Mindy is back to work as usual, and I'm home procrastinating cleaning my room (as usual).

So, funny story, our first full day in Utah, we went to California Pizza Kitchen and the waiter dumped soda all over Jesi's back and into Mom's two new purses. All electronics, clothing, and purses were saved and lunch was on the manager.

Then, the Saturday the parents were leaving, we went out and ate lunch first with my old college roommate, Mindy, at Red Robins. And, what do you know, the waiter dumped water all over me and MY purse! Once again, all electronics were saved and the purse is now dry and happy now. But STILL! Twice in one week?! What the heck!

After the parents left, I stayed at Jesi's apartment and we had a fantastic time. There are only three people in her apartment so I was able to sleep in a bed while I was there instead of the couch. Pretty nice. My original plan was to go up everyday and eat lunch with Jesi on campus, but after the first day, I decided it was SO not worth the effort! Ugh, WAY too hot! Bleck! >.<

We did have a good time hanging out. One night, we made Korean style pizza! Well, not so much. One of my favorite pizzas in Korea was Pizza School's Goguma Pizza (Sweet Potato Pizza). Soooo good! Well, Jesi didn't like the sauce they had on it and so we nixed the sauce and instead brushed the dough with olive oil and minced garlic. That part was good. We then added corn and onions (a MUST on any Korean style pizza). I honestly don't know why we don't get to have corn on our pizza in America. It's SO GOOD!! Anyways, then we couldn't find any sweet potatoes at Wal Mart so we used yams (there IS a difference!). We realized that if we cut them up chunky like they did on the Pizza School version, then the potatoes probably wouldn't cook all the way, so we instead sliced them really thin and put them on top. In hindsight, we probably should have also rubbed the potatoes with olive oil. Oops. And cooked the onions as well. Double oops.

It was still okay... but definitely not what I wanted when I was thinking KOREAN PIZZA!!! Oh well. Better luck next time, eh?

We got some of Jesi's room fixed up: a nice bookshelf, a side table, a fancy desk topper shelf thing, cute pillows on the bed, and a cute sticker on the wall that says, "Grow Wise Little Chicky" That I got for her at the mall. We also got her two (well, three... Mr. Grumpy Gills jumped out of the bowl his first night with us) fishies to keep her company in her room. ^^

Wednesday night, Mindy came down from Salt Lake and we all went out for Korea foods. I love Korean food SO MUCH. You would think that a place like Beaverton, with such a huge Korean population, would have some good restaurants, but I am sad to have found that most just aren't that fabulous. Sad day. We did enjoy some great dukboki (spicy rice cakes), bulgogi (kind of like teriyaki beef), japjae (glass noodles with veggies), and all the potato banchan (side dishes) we could eat. Then I said goodbye to my beautiful baby and headed up to Salt Lake for a long weekend of fun.