Moose Girls

Two first year Korean-American girls from California attend Smith College. What could possibly go wrong?

[moosegirls]

Happy Halloween Weekend! 

I (June) went to an Icona Pop concert on Halloween night which was such a fun experience! Raves are definitely not my thing though... The girl in a majority of selfie photos is our friend Pema who was featured in the ramen video! Katie and I had a fun Saturday night as Pineapple and Watermelon for our house's annual Halloween party. Be excited for next year's costumes. 

Another vlog will be up soon and be excited for my post early next week.

#June

[moosegirls]

i know duckbooki

Korean food is so delicious. ^_^ We hope to make more food and post more videos about it! 

#June

[moosegirls]

i'm from boston

Hello! Boston is a beautiful city. I loved visiting so much!! I'm so excited to go back. 

#June

[moosegirls]

This be Kristina ^^ I finally caved and made a Tumblr account literally five minutes ago. I couldn't help but resist to say that I love this blog~ (BTW we still need to hang out soon...ㅋㅋㅋ)

Hi!!!!! YAY. :) YES. Talbot is having a party on Nov 1 if you wanna come ^_^ we can always go eat Korean food/watch movies sometime!

[moosegirls]

Ways to Have a Great Day

Hi it's June! Happy two month anniversary to new college students (at least most of you)!! I’ve been feeling very overwhelmed by everything. College is hard because you can’t really separate school and home life. I’ve felt that I didn’t have the space to turn off my social lightbulb. College gives you a lot of space to explore and determine your own goals and set your own pace for classes, and life. While that sounds awesome in theory (and most practical senses), it puts a lot of pressure on you to keep yourself in check. These two months have been an adjustment period and there are a few things I’ve learned on how to have a great day. 

Make time for yourself. This was especially hard for a very, very, very extroverted person. I was sleeping at really unreasonable hours, not because I had SO MUCH work but rather because I didn’t know how to balance socializing and doing work efficiently. Sometimes group work is great. I love to study biology in groups, but only after I have learned the material myself. Within the recent weeks, I’ve started working in my room alone (without the internet on) so that work is done. It’s really important to separate work life and social life even if it means having to be alone (which hard for extrovert me). 

Start the morning right. Mornings are such an important part of the day. I am NOT a morning person, by the way… I used to wake up at 8:40 am for my 9 am class. I felt so groggy and not actually functioning for the entire day. Whenever I wake up at 8 am and drink fluids (milk, juice, enough water), do some homework, eat a little bit of food, I feel so refreshed and so much happier. Having time in the morning to set daily goals, review what you have to do, and the luxury not to rush is the best way to have a great day. 

Get at least 6 hours of GOOD SLEEP. Sleep is actually pretty important. Make sure you are sleeping to that REM level and feeling actually refreshed when you wake up. 6-7 hours is decent and 8 hours is great! Too much sleep will also make you feel sluggish and meh. If you have extreme sleep deprivation, you cannot make that up by sleeping 10-12 hours on the weekend. 

Reflect on each day. This is similar to the second point but it’s really important to reflect on each day, once in the morning and again right before you sleep. Reflect on your day. What were the highlights of your day? What was the hardest part? What could you have done differently? What did you learn today? :) 

I hope your day is going well. Hopefully these tips will help you as much as they have helped me! HAPPY MONDAY. 

#june

[moosegirls]

Hello everyone! We made a Q&A video describing how well we know each other. Keep in mind that it's only been 2 months... 

Have a blast watching!

[moosegirls]

Hi guys! This is our second video ever!! You can check out the Korean food Katie and I made last night. Katie is really skilled at baking and cooking and I well... I have difficulty doing anything slightly domestic. This video features a lot of the cool people that live in our house and I hope you guys enjoy!!

Sorry this video is in weird proportions. I'm still trying to figure that one out. We filmed with an iPad this time. Any cheap video technology recommendations are super helpful!

We also love any type of feedback.  

#June (I think I'm going to start doing this here now)

[moosegirls]

June and I went to a concert with one of the upperclassmen in our house. She's super cool and really tall...in comparison to me and June. Oh! She's also nice and super chill :)

[moosegirls]

The reuniting of friends after Fall Break :) 

Katie is on the left, Youngjoo in the middle, and our awesome friend Evelyn on the right.

[moosegirls]

OH NO! I'm Sick and In College!

Hello all...We are back from fall break! Technically, we've been back for like two weeks.... whatever :)

Soooo over the fall break I (Katie) caught a nasty old cold. I was fine one day, and the next it was like death warmed up on me. However, I fell ill at a particularly good time. I had five days to rest, and nowhere to go and nothing to do (Cause why would I do my hw?) And being sick alone, without the comfort of my mama taking care of me, proved to be a great learning opportunity for me. So here's what you should do when you're sick, if some people didn't know.

1) Before you're sick, stock up. When you are sick-you're not going to want to walk to the Campus Center and buy marked up medicine, or trudge all the way down to the nearest drugstore. So before you're sick, buy some cold medicine, cough drops, soup and crackers-and basically anything you want.

2) Rest...yeah. Just go to bed. Or try to stay as relaxed and not do anything strenuous.

3) If you are sick and have people around you, let them know. In my case, one of my housemates was super sweet and offered to get me medicine and soup :) There's always someone around willing to go out and get you what you need (Because they care, but also cause your constant coughing will annoy them).

And yeah...That's all I learned. I basically took soooo much Nyquil and Dayquil, that I was in a hazy comatose state. Yup. Basically do everything your mama or daddy taught you: Take medicine, dress warmly, lots of fluids. Eventually it'll pass and everything will be fine :)

Alrighty. The end.... hope you don't catch a cold

#Katie

[moosegirls]

Independence: A Love Story

Hello everyone! I want to consider this post my first “real” post, a post with some kind of meaning and some kind of opinion. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to write a post yesterday since I was unashamedly being a tourist in the beautiful city of Boston. I left the suburbs early in the morning and arrived in this picturesque city with lines of brownstone buildings, surrounded by the autumn foliage. I have another one of those short videos in the works. I’m also sorry that Katie and I don’t have a vlog up since we weren’t together and she was battling a cold. We aren’t too good at this whole scheduling thing so you can expect one post from me early in the week and one from Katie in the middle-end of the week. WE WILL TRY REALLY HARD TO GET ANOTHER VLOG IN THE WORKS. So anyways today, I wanted to talk about the importance of a liberal arts education and finding one’s place in education, and life.

I have really missed Smith after being in MIT for two days. I miss being in a place that is not number centered and full of so many unfamiliar faces. My friends really like it at MIT (which is so great!!) but I definitely feel a little out of place. I realize how many great opportunities there are at Smith, and at any liberal arts colleges, especially for development of support systems and understanding of one’s self. It was really striking to see the difference in the type of education we are getting.

Smith really encourages building up a community and creating positive changes. Awareness of politics, gender, culture are very important aspects of a Smith education. Liberal arts colleges are definitely underrated. MIT makes sure that you are on a specific track with a specific purpose in mind. While that is very important, I love having the independence to take whatever classes I want without being worried if it fulfills a requirement for a certain major or what category (distribution) it falls under. Having the time and energy to explore what exactly you’re good at and what you bring to the classroom are some things I would miss out on if I hadn’t gone to Smith. Smith gives you the freedom to not know exactly where your life is going as a first year. 

College is that time to take advantage of discovering who you are and what exactly you were meant to do. Feeling like an adult, an independent person capable of taking responsibility of actions, comes in weird waves. I feel like such a grown up human being when doing the laundry (I literally watch the clothes spinning and turning with a friend while doing face masks) or deciding a spontaneous fall break trip to Boston. There are moments of panic when you arrive at the bus station ten minutes before the bus leaves because no one is there to lead the way and take control. There are also moments of regret when there wasn’t someone glaring at you when you took another brownie (the freshman 15 is real. VERY REAL). However, I’ve felt more exhilaration and excitement to decide my own classes, what time to get up in the morning, what I want to do with my morning, how late I stay out on a Saturday night, and how to spend my money (although that has been going extremely poorly).

Don’t do anything too crazy ;) have fun and find your place in the world! I am so in love with being independent. 

[moosegirls]

This is a recap of my Boston trip! Photos to come later :) I'm going to post a "real post" later. I hope you enjoy!

[moosegirls]

I'm Sick

As you can see from the title- I'm (Katie) sick. It's fall break, and we had Saturday-Tuesday off-so not enough time for me to fly back to LA and see the fam. But apparently it was enough time for me to contract this horrible thing called the flu...or the cold...is there a difference? Idk, June can tell me-she's a bio major. 

I have apparently worried my mother to death. The fact that her baby daughter is sick in a foreign state on the other side of the country is breaking her heart...Sorry mama. She literally almost flew over here to take care of me-but I have survived the night, and her frequent flyer miles will not be used :)

While June has been galloping around Boston free spirited, I have stayed here in Northampton getting some well needed TLC. Maybe I'll post something interesting tomorrow..but Nyquil is a wonderful but powerful thing. Well that's it for now. Bye... :)

#Katie

[moosegirls]

Hello! This is my (June's) second day of fall break. It was a really wonderful afternoon. I woke up around 12 pm haha and had a traditional American breakfast, consisting of popovers, bacon, and scrambled eggs. Although I'm starting to miss home a bit more, it was nice getting a glimpse of what a different suburban life across the coast is like. I finished up the night with this annual pumpkin lighting festival.  I just got this new app called Snap Video and it allows you to film short video segments and piece them together to create a short video. I love it and I hope to share some more of my creations continuously throughout the blog.  Fall is in full swing and I'm kind of excited for the first snowfall. 

[moosegirls]

My first official day of fall break has been amazing. I'm staying with Lily, a Smith friend, in a little suburb of Massachusetts near Boston. She is really awesome and I'm really appreciative of her letting me stay during fall break. Yesterday her family and I had Korean food and today we explored LL Bean and H-Mart, an Asian market. Although I love Smith, it is really relaxing being away for the long weekend. I really miss Korean everything, but especially home-cooked tofu. Stuff here is so expensive compared to Korea because of shipping and what not. 

Outfit of the day (ootd): hahaha... I'm wearing two sweaters (one that you obviously cannot see), jeans (ergh jeans..), blue blazer, and giantt scarf. Life in the East Coast is tough as a California girl. So cold. so cold.

I have now acquired snow boots from LL Bean, a staple for any East Coast school. This girl is one step closer to being prepared for winter. My real post is on Monday but I just wanted to update you guys on what I've been up for fall break. More photos of Boston are to come. I'm just really bad at taking the initiative to blog without Katie. Separation is hard.

[moosegirls]

My friend Jodi cut June's bangs with my safety scissors....But it turned out well!!!

#katie

[moosegirls]

5 Tips to Battle Homesickness

Hello everybody, and welcome to my (Katie) first individual post! I hope you guys liked June's picture and her own personal post. She was actually going to write about homesickness on Monday, but I stole her topic :) I was also supposed to post yesterday....(wow I'm bad at this)

Anyways! Homesickness. It's a real thing! I have been at Smith College for over a month now, and I am homesick. For the first few weeks, I was like, "PSHHH. These weenies are homesick. I AM NOT HOMESICK NOR WILL I EVER BE!!!!!" wow....I was a little turd...BECAUSE I AM HOMESICK NOW

I am now one of these "weenies" who miss my mommy and daddy and older sissy :( Maybe it's because I'm super close with my family, or maybe it's because I'm 3,000 miles away from home. I'm here at Smith, and they're all the way in some fantasy land called Los Angeles.

Now, I learned how to cope with homesickness, after my breakdown...So a couple nights ago, I was reading a letter from my family (they were being all super nice and cuddly and telling me that they love me-I know, I have the best family ever) and then all of a sudden, I just started sobbing. All my school stress and personal stuff going on coupled with my homesickness was not fun. I ended up locking myself in the bathroom and hysterically crying. And then I went outside for some fresh air (and so I could stop acting like a weenie). I sat on the porch swing and just sat there, until angels of kindness came to cheer me up. One of the upperclassmen came out and gave me a kit kat (Thank you Stella!) and a bunch of my other friends (I'm looking at you my Chuckett lunch pals) took care of me and made me happy again. So here are my 5 Tips To Battle Homesickness

1) Don't kid yourself. If you feel small inklings of homesickness, just be like, "yup, I miss home. Now let me move on with my life." Don't do what I did and perpetually lie to yourself about being sad. 

2) Don't suffer in silence. Someone else is most likely homesick too. Bask in your sadness together and then bond and have fun with that person to combat your sadness.

3) Talk to an upperclassmen. At Smith College, we live in houses. So the house community is pretty nice and tight knit. Everywhere you look, there's an upperclassmen willing to help you out. Just seek one out, and they'll cheer you up. Also, I bet they have better advice than I do

4) Keep contact with your hometown family and friends. But don't constantly compare your new college home to your old home. Your hometown will win-and then you'll be sad. It's time for us to adapt y'all. 

5) Unfortunately, you will get homesick eventually. If you need to cry-just cry. Or eat chocolate, or I dunno...do something. Once you let it out, you'll feel much better. Just don't hysterically sob in a locked bathroom (heh...cause like, that never happened to me or anything XD)

And that's it! If these 5 hints are horrible and incredibly inacurate---I'm a first-year... what do I know! If these help, then...yay! I like being helpful. 

Alrighty....this is all I've got to say for now....erm...ok. Then End. 

#KatieChong = this means that I, Katie, wrote this post. Clever right? :)