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SAY WHAAAA 7 DAYS BEFORE I LEAVE

Yes, literally, this is all I have to say. Seven days before I leave. I am so excited, but not so excited for the plane ride. I have bad experience with long 12+ plane rides that I am not looking forward to it. Never thought I was able to hold my pee for 12 hours but hey, I did it and I did not enjoy it. So rule of thumb, always always empty your bladder before you get onto the horrible 12+ plane ride. Let's hope that I get aisle seat so I don't have to hold me pee again.

With only 7 days left, I have a lot of things before I leave. When I say a lot, I don't even how much I have to do. But one thing I must do is visit my awesome friends at CSB. Even though I will not get to stay with them for the whole week like I originally have planned, one day will be enough. No, I don't miss the school or the classes or the homework, but just all the awesome people, so it is a must that I have to visit them before I leave. Today has been a day full of packing but fear not, I am almost finish with packing. I just hate packing because I do not know what to pack, and I am probably packing too much but hey, it is better to over pack than to under pack.

**random, but yesterday I was able to apply for Korea Tour Organization performance support, which enables foreigner to enjoy cultural events and performances for free. Yes, you read that right, it is FREE FREE FREE. Only problem is, I don't know whether I will be picked or not. And I do, then I will blog everything I saw here. Even though it won't be the same as experiencing it first hand, it is still better to hear it from someone right??? Cross fingers and toes hopefully luck will be on my side this time too and help me to gain this awesome opportunity.

Much love, from the Procrastinator,

Maria X.

#Randomness #7days before I leave #I am starting to like blogging #NOO now i need to go pack again #pengyou i will see you guys soon

Thought I should share this while I take a break from packing. Don't worry! Because I am almost done packing, let's just hope that I did not over pack considering that I am bringing two suitcases. Yes, people has told me that I need to pack lightly, and I will be doing some shopping. But guess what, this lady right here needs to pack HEAVY, haha not literally, but you know, a chunky lady gotta do what a chunky lady gotta do. Randomness aside, I thought I should post this awesome email that I recieved in my school email earlier, I was picked as one of the lucky ones to win the sweepstakes to see Aziatix perform live! Who wouldn't want to miss this awesome opportunity right?! I know I would not. But sadly to say, I will be in Korea during the time of the performance so I will not be able to attend it. Like I wrote on Facebook earlier, "I must have save Earth my previous life to be this lucky!"

#aziatix #luckyone #2014ismyyear #NOOwhydoeskoreahavetogetintheway

101 Things to Do in South Korea (or while in Korea)

Hello Awesomely Beautiful People!

Thought I should update before I forget to, AGAIN! I know! I am horrible at this when it comes to updating. but hey, updating now then never. I now officially have 18 days left before I will set foot in Korea. I am so excited yet nervous. I think I have been thinking too too much that I cannot sleep at night- like what should I do upon arrival, when should I go to Japan, or what is the first thing I should eat before I get there. Of course, I have fourth months there, but for sure it will fly quick.

As promised, below is my 101 things to do in Korea or simply just while I am there. I will cross off the things that I do and blog constantly about it. Hopefully I cross off everything on my list.

Here goes my wonderful list!

101 Things to do in Korea

Arrive in Busan safely

Go to Jeju Island

Go visit YG Entertainment

SM Entertainment

Try not to become a crazy fan

Go to Hongdae

Go Karaoke

Go Clubbing at least once or twice ESP to NB1 or 2

Go to one Kpop concert

Go to Myeongdong to get loads of make-up samples

Go to a sauna and sleep there for the night

Go to Lotte World

Make some Korean friends

Make some really good looking Korean boy friends

Get wasted in Korea at least once

Go shop at Dongtan Metapolis Mall or 'Kingdom Mall' in Master's Sun

Eat out as much as possible!

Go to a Kpop Fan signing event

Go to a Running Man Filming sigh

Meet at least one Kpop group and try to take pics with him/them

Eat live octopus

Eat food at the street stalls

Try soju

Eat/ Order Jangjamyun like in dramas

Go Barhopping

Go club hopping

Go café hopping

Go to Coffee Prince Café

Write on the walls of a famous cafe/restaurant

Visit cafes and restaurants opened by celebrities

Vistit at least 20 cafes before leaving

Visit So Ji Subs Café

Try on a hanbok

Tour DMZ

See the 5 Royal Palaces

Visit Han River

Watch a movie at the movie theater

Watch a 4D movie at theater

Go to dog, cat café

Take sticker photo with friends

Learn how to make Kimchi

Learn how to make some Korean dishes

Shopping!!!!!! At the biggest mall

Have a conversation in Korean

Drink domestic Beer!

Drink the Banana milk

Eat patbingsu (shaved ice)

Play drinking games, Korean style

Traditional tea tasting

Get hammered just to see if Korean hangover soups work.

Take a cable car up N Seoul Tower

See the Han River Banpo Bridge rainbow show

Visit Namsam Tower and leave behind a Love Locket

Thoroughly explore all of Korea University

Watch a bboy performance on the streets

Ride the subway

Ride the public bus

Make Korean friends while on your trip

Get your fortune told by a Korean fortune teller

Go to a bar in Itaewon

Purchase a bulk of Korean cd albums

Bargain with shopkeepers / street vendors

Shop at Hongdae Free Market

Find a sock truck and buy a lot of cheap sock

Meet an idol / celebrity on the streets

Get celebrities’ autographs

Tour around Seoul during Spring photographing cherry blossoms

Buy some “couple” things

Must meet EXO loves

Go to Art Museum- Trick Eye Museum

Visit the Blue House

Stay out all night and do something crazy!

Shop til I drop haha NOPE!

Visit Korean Folk Village

Go to a beach

Visit a Buddhist temple

Shop at COEX Mall

Visit the stinky Fish Market

Buy something exotic only available in Korea

Buy or play a Korean instrument

Go to a game, maybe soccer game

Do something reckless in Korea

Take a taxi

Sleep at a hostel or hotel once

Get a massage

Do a photoshoot

MUST HAVE PHO

Purchase a Korean book

Purchase some Korean makeup

Try Western Fast Food Restaurants

Go to Plastic Surgery Clinic Pitangui Medical & Beauty, South Korea

Take the cable car

Meet some Hmong People

Go to Japan to visit my LOVE

Take photos with celebrity cut out boards

Must attempt to find Sriracha Sauce and Hot Cheetos in Korea

Go Hiking

Make sure I do not go broke before June

Complete my “TO BUY” Souvenir list

Star Avenue Lotte Town

Go to shows hosted by Kpop artist like Simply Kpop or After School Club etc

These last two are just some extras that came to my head after I made my list:

Make sure everything fits in my two suitcase and carry-on

Come back from Korea Satisfied and no regrets!

Most of these ideas came from myself after doing some major research on my own, But honestly, I would not complete this list without the help of Seoulistic.com. That page is awesome. It's everything I need to learn and read before heading to Korea, so do check them out!

Lastly before I quit yapping my mouth of nonsense, I officially am set to go! My visa came in, got my TB shot, flu shot, and medications. So now all I need to do is pack and enjoy my last 18 days before I fly 18+ hours in the air!

Until next time!

#random #nothingbutrandomblogs #101thingstodoinkorea #KU

Traveling ONCE Again!

Hello Beautiful people,

I hate to admit it, but I am super slow at updating my blog, more like too lazy to write anything on here because I barely get to go anywhere. But do not fear, because I am setting my feet somewhere else this semester! In exactly 30 days (1 MONTH), I will be leaving to Korea and attending Korea University as an international student. AMAZING RIGHT?! Sometime one year ago, I actually planned to get my studies done at CSBSJU and travel afterwards. However, not everyone gets the chance to study abroad as an international student? And it happens once in our lifetime, if I miss it, I knew I wouldn't have the chance to ever go.

So why not take the chance and go somewhere where I know I may not get the chance to go? Therefore, I decided to chose Korea- a place that is not offered through CSBSJU and somewhere I have always wanted to go. Being the KPOP junkie I am, why not enjoy this time there, a KPOP fan and a international student. I can balance these two tasks there right?

I originally was going to call this blog 'From the land of 10,000 Lakes to the Land of Kimchi, but I have a feeling this title is too cheesy, although I feel that I am creative enough to come up with this amazing title. I still have a lot of things to update, but I will stop for now since I am a person will poor word choices. I am also terrible at description, so bare with me.

I still have more to come, like my 101 things to do in Korea list, photos, and random updates.

Until next time beautiful people,

#csbsju #KU #travelinggoodies #thoughtishouldupdatetokeppthistumblrlively

TEACHING EVERYDAY BUT NOT EVERY HOUR

We have been teaching everyday but only for 2 hours to 5 fives hours a day which is fantastic! There are some days that we will have class in the morning at 9 but majority of our classes are at 3pm, 5:30 pm, or 7pm. We have a lot of free time in the morning that we can use to tour My Tho City alone WHICH we have not taken the advantage to do since my bicycle ability is poor and Abby doesn't know how to ride one. We are also not used to the streets yet.

TALKING ABOUT STREETS:

I don't remember if I ever mentioned about the street here in Vietnam in my previous posts, but it is very different from the American streets. There are no street signs and there are barely any street lights. BASICALLY there are almost no driving rules. It is also really rare to see people have car here in Vietnam. Almost everyone owns a motorcycle (moped) or a bicycle. HONKING: Honking is very common here. Everyone honks for almost no reason. They honk to other drivers to let them know that they are right behind them and the other driver should give them way so they can pass through. I don't think I can challenge myself to ride on a bicycle alone on the streets. I won't get far and I know it! OKAY, back to the story, I love my students on the weekdays a lot! They are 15- 25 years old and they are really enthusiastic. But for my students on the weekend, they're EH and they are little kids age 8-12. I mean, I love little kids (sort of), but my little kids are so naughty and cute. Some kids listen to me but some kids just love to rebel against what I say! No doubt they are some smart kids, but they are some cute devils. As a punishment for them, I made them recite the alphabet! I love it when my beloved students teach me Vietnamese. I know I suck at it but hey practice makes perfection! PLUS, I think they love singing here! In ever class, they would try to make me sing. SORRY KIDS! I cannot sing! ANOTHER PLUS: I love it whenever we have a class that consist a bit of KPOP in it. Big Bang, Girls Generation, Beast, etc are super big here. KPOP really do bring different people together! LOL

LASTLY, THE NIGHTLIFE OF DA LAT

The nightlife in Da Lat is so awesome. It feels like the city never sleeps with lots of food stalls and clothes stands that you can bargain for a cheaper price. There are a lot of amazing coffee cafe. BUMMER that we didn't do a coffee cafe hop (like bar hop) LOL.

LINH PHUOC PAGODA Temple of a famous Buddhist. This temple is seven story high, which we went to the very top floor of the temple. Each floor have its own statue of a Buddha. The whole pagoda is made out of small tiny pieces of glasses which a lot of influence from the Chinese.

Mystery Turning Table It is known that if you think or want the table to turn a certain direction, it will start moving according to what you are thinking or telling it what to do. BELIEVE ME IT WORKED BECAUSE I HAVE TRIED IT! It is also amazing how it understands English. As long as you are touching the table and tell the table to move according to the direction you want, it will move in that direction. In this picture, a boy is sitting on top of the table while everyone puts their hand on the table and tells the table to move in one direction. It actually moved to the demand that was made. This table is just a regular wooden table, there isn't anything that is controlling the table.

LANG BIAN! Liang Bian is on the very top of a mountain. Correct me if I am wrong, but according to my memories, legend has it that there was a loving couple that met there everyday. The girl was from a poor village while the guy was from a rich village. Both sides didn't agree on both of them to love each other. They then decided to die together on the mountain. Women from the village at the bottom of Lang Bian comes up to Lang Bian Mountain to sell the things that they make. it is awefully cheap. It ranges from 5000 VND- 135000VND. They also offer food up on Lang Bian. It is sort of like Kabobs, but with different kinds of meat such as wild boar, beef, rabbit, alligators, and ostriches. I have no idea what I ate but it was good!

The front gate of Truc Lam Buddhist Temple, and the beautiful scene of of the mountains and the rooftop of some of the temple. Our cable ride cost us about 70000VND each person which is about to 3.50 USD! Everything is so small from up high. The city looks super small from up high!

Elephants in the rain! It was sad that we didn't get to ride on them. However we were kinda close to them so that's worth it!

The waterfall is so beautiful from afarrr~~

Do we look Vietnamese enough after our four weeks stay?

To the Beautiful Da Lat!!!

DA LAT: BEAUTIFUL, AWESOME WEATHER, and I think I am in LOVE! Going to Da Lat brought me some Minnesota sensation. The weather was awesome with high of seventies and low of sixties. Downside- it rained throughout the whole trip! Going to Da Lat from My Tho City wasn't easy at all for all I remembered from the back of my brain! The ride to and from our destination took 8 hours which required us to wake up at 3:30 in the morning. We went through multiple cities and towns, went through two mountains in the hard rain and fog, rocky roads, and lastly, experienced the traditional toilet in rural areas (which required squatting down to do your business). We arrived in Da Lat around 2 in the afternoon with our first attraction site: the waterfall (which I forgot the name). When we arrived there, it started to rain so we didn't experienced much. However, we went under the waterfall and saw elephants! The elephant ride was too expensive, therefore, we didn't ride on the elephants but they were cute. At least I get to see real live ones then I am satisfied.

Since Da Lat is an attraction site to foreigners and to its native people, hotels were hard to find and there wasn;t any parking for us! After settling in our hotel, we went for a ride around Da Lat and our coffee and dinner date.

That is only the beginning of our fun trip. Saturday was packed with LOTS of fun attractions and some extravagant ones. Some attractions/activities highlight of the day:

Linh Phuoc Pagoda

Truc Lam

Cable Car Ride

attempt to go to one of the last emperor's palaces(which we failed)

attempt to go to another waterfall (which we failed again since they closed the sight down for construction) & a rough rocky road through the mountain to get to the waterfall

Lang Bian

Da Lat Flower Park

Mystery Turning Table

Late Night Shopping

Skyview coffee "date"

I will update them slowly one by one with pictures of my trip

Sorry! HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATING FOR THREE WEEKS!!!

I will update from memory for this past three weeks. STAY TUNED!

First official crazy day in Vietnam

May 20, 2012

Weather: HOT as usual then SUDDEN, HARD rain

We woke up in the morning to start our official first day Vietnam with Pho as breakfast. Pho taste fantastic here! They don’t put all those ingredients or seasonings in Pho at all. Just simple onion, beef, and cilantro, noodles, and broth and it taste good already. We also had coffee with condensed milk as a drink which tasted really good on a hot morning. After that, we went to Dong Tam Zoo which is famous for keeping all sorts of snakes here, having a lot of animals that are close to extinct, and keeping the zoo close to forest look alike as best as they can. There were tons of snakes such as pythons to poisonous snakes. There were also weird looking tortoises that I have never seen in the US and beautiful peacocks. After going through majority parts of the zoo, we headed to one of the oldest temple Pagodas in My Tho City-Ving Tranh Temple. With Chinese ruling Vietnam for almost 100 years, Vietnamese had inherited some things of China such as the religion. There was a huge Buddha sculpture that was so gorgeous! It is like 1000000000x bigger than me! After the temple, we had lunch at an outdoor restaurant called Loc Pho. We ordered seafood hotpot which tasted different than what I have imagined. The taste was fabulous since it reminded me of Thai’s cuisine Tom Yum. As a dessert, we had fried tofu. The texture of the tofu was a bit different compared to the one that I tasted back at home since the texture is so smooth and soft. After lunch, we head back to our apartment. My ankle swelled up bad that I couldn’t feel my ankles at all- it was numb. We also had the opportunity to go to Ngan’s grandma’s house. They have a little farm which consisted of oranges, plums, jackfruits, durian, etc… I had the chance to taste real jackfruit, coconut, and a fruit that was really sour called YAO (strawberries in Vietnamese).

After the rain, we called a taxi to take us to the clinic for a massage. The total cost of the massage was less than 2 dollars! I was able to get a full body massage including a butt, shoulder, arm and leg massage that lasted 30 minutes. We went to the shopping mall to buy cleaning supplies and some personal items. We were being stared at from left to right like celebrities which I didn’t mind since I knew it was going to come. People were nice enough to give me way since I had the shopping cart and it ws mad crazy busy! It was so hard to get from point A to point B which was overwhelming. However, it was a fun experience to shop for once at a shopping mall. After shopping, we went back to the apartment and had our dinner- rice with fried chicken drumsticks. The night ended with massive cleaning of the house because we found a big cockroach in our sink. We had to call Ms. Nyguen to help us take the bug away. It was an exhausting second day since so much has happened and there are so many things that we have to get used to before enjoying our trip.

so many updates in one!

May 19,2012

Night time in Vietnam

Weather: Horribly hot even though it’s late at night

When we got to Vietnam, we had a warm welcoming from Ngan and Ms. Nyguen with flowers and presents. They took us to eat out in a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. We had beefsteak which honestly was the smallest portion that I have ever seen, since in America, portions are pretty big that will stuff you up. While we were eating, an old lady came to us and asked us if we wanted to buy one of the slips of paper she had. We didn’t know what it was until Ngan told us that it was lottery tickets. Lottery tickets here are popular and people sell it and buy it daily. The first thing that I noticed that was different from the US is the driving. It wasn’t reckless driving, but more like there were no strict rules for driving, so they are free to do whatever they want. There was times when people will drive on the opposite route. There will be motorcycles that cut in closely to get in first. Honks were continuous throughout the road. Honking here has a different meaning compared to the US. When people honk in the US is because the driver in front of the other is going too slow, forgot to go when the lights turn green, etc. But when people honk here in Vietnam, it indicates that you need to go through and other drivers need to give ways which people are totally fine with it here. Unlike America, Vietnamese people don’t get offended at all if they were honked at.

After food, we cruised a bit around town to go to My Tho City. Every street that we went on has shops ranging from food, clothes, to electronics. I spotted a big building that was three story tall dedicated to KFC food! I didn’t know that American food was this popular here! There were also a lot of Karaoke places in Ho Chi Mihn City and My Tho City. We exited Ho Chi Minh City to our official destination My Tho City. The highway was one straight shot and there wasn’t much exits to other places. It took us about an hour or a bit less to get into My Tho City. We went to our apartment which is better than I thought it would be. It was air conditioned with a bathroom and a kitchen. There is also a TV and a Computer here for us to use. The bathroom was a bit difficult for us to figure out since there was no tub but a bucket and a drain. We Somehow we went with our instinct and shower the way we think it is correct. After the long flight and night, we were able to catch some sleep before waking up at 8 am for another fantastic day.

I lied. I haven't been blogging daily

Date: May 21, 2012

Weather: Super HOT

I am going to blog from May 18 to May 21, 2012. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the time to blog.

Thursday, May 18, 2012

The process to get through the airport is so confusing but I successfully went through without any problems. I feel asleep through majority of the plane ride from MSP to Dallas. Then we boarded the plane from Dallas to Japan. That flight was packed and I was stuck sitting in the middle of the row. Luckily, I was asleep throughout majority of the plane ride. I will wake up most of the time when the flight attendants brought us drinks or food. There will be times that I will stay up for 30 minutes to an hour watching movies or Disney channel. I went up once to use the bathroom on the long twelve hours flight which is a record since I usually go often. After that long flight, we had an overlay of four hours in Japan. I had my first legit Japanese authentic food which was fried vegetables and pork ramen noodle. It was delicious but I don’t think I will ever spend ten dollars on a bowl of ramen again. When we got onto the plane to our final destination, I feet started to swell up like a pregnant lady. I don’t know why my feet started to swell up since I had a lot of room to myself in the plane. I also slept throughout the plane ride. I woke up two times when they brought out food and drinks otherwise I didn’t wake up until our plane was landing. My foot felt numb rather than it was hurting. However, I was able to walk normally. If I put pressure on it, I can feel pain on my toes.

All in all, the plane ride was super long yet, it felt like it was only a few hours on the plane that I didn’t realized that two days have passed and we have arrived to our destination-Vietnam.

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