둘이 먹다가 하나가 죽어도 모를 만큼 맛있어요

Sorry I missed an update last week--I'll try to make it up--perhaps in two weeks when I will hopefully have a super awesome vacation :).

So about the title of this entry--it's a phrase I could probably apply to a lot of the food I've been eating lately (which has consisted of way too many types of 삼겹살 Samgyupsal--literally "three levels flesh"--a super delicious pork dish that's *similar* to bacon).

The title: 둘이 먹다가 하나가 죽어도 모를 만큼 맛있어요
Pronounced (roughly): Turi muhkdaga chuguhdo moreul mankeum mashissuhyo

Is an expression that we just recently learned from Chapter 2 of the new book we're starting--Sogang's level 3B book, the beginning of the second half of our semester. The chapter was on food--and this was the longest and most excellent expression I have learned so far. It means:

"This food is so delicious that if two people were eating and one were to die the other person wouldn't even notice"

How great is that? Haha--I've gotta get this phrase down and be able to recite it easily and flatter many many people :). It applies very well to my last week because my last week was busy due to preparing for my oral midterm and while doing so hanging out with friends often while eating delicious food--should've brought my camera more often :).

One thing I've discovered is surprisingly how much work I can get done in a café with friends in it--I discovered that when working in a café with class friends and also with Yale friends. We found an especially nice café (thanks to Becky and Jesse) called Été here which has really comfortable couches and not too many people--great environment for study. The only annoying thing about cafés is how much you end up spending in them x_o. Most drinks are $4000 and up--including juice and definitely coffee, so it's quite a blow to your pocketbook, but not *too* bad an investment if you don't go too often ^^.

Unfortunately because of my oral midterm (a deadly combination of both a 3-5 minute presentation [I did mine on my best friends :)] that had to be memorized and about 20 dialogues to be memorized--three of which would be picked out of a hat to be performed--luckily, my partner and I picked the easy ones :)--that was a really long parenthesis), I don't have many stories for this week, but here's the short, albeit still fun, picture summary :).

First off--last Wednesday, I met up with my friend Will from high school. It was a short, but fun meetup, which we'll probably do more of before we both go back. He was confused at why I took the picture after all the food was gone though haha (this is my first day of a few in a row eating Samgyupsal T_T).
Friday was fun--here's Ryan and Jessica being very silly haha. And I really need to start taking pictures of food WHILE we're making it. But like the phrase, it's just so good that I can only focus on the food and not taking pictures of it! (Day 3 of Samgyupsal T_T).
Whoa! Quite a surprising picture isn't it haha. No, we didn't take a trip to Alaska. Ryan, Jesse, Becky, Christie (another Yalie who's in the Yonsei program), and Yoshiko (my friend from my level in Sogang from Japan) went to an ice bar in Hongdae called Sub-Zero. Yes, it is a bar made of ice--other than the floor. And yes, we were given parkas--even then it was quite cold so of course we couldn't stay too long before leaving haha.
Yes, a pretty gross picture--this is frozen pee. Yeah, you heard me right, frozen pee. It's from people who didn't want to leave because they wanted to set a record for staying as long as they could in the ice bar.
Ryan and Becky have a deep conversation in front of the pee, while Becky drinks her delicious hot chocolate.
Didn't these guys perform quite the feat? Staying in here for a whole 13.5 hours! I hope not without any clothes like in the picture.
Even had an ice carved Thinker haha. Becky is quite the deep thinker.
Sometimes I just don't know what Koreans think--A bar made of ice is one thing. Frozen pee is another. Random creepy masks and hats like these...? Haha.
Funny enough, the ice seats had fur on top to prevent your butt from freezing off haha.
And because Noraebang is SUCH a tradition--we just HAD to go afterwards! Yes, it's the nice place that Reiko introduced to me once again :).
Don't Stop Believing by Journey--the one song that is sung at every karaoke session by Americans--seems to be a rule haha. Jesse and Becky get really into it too!
As does Ryan :P.
And the needed group picture :). Such a great place. 18,000won (about $18) for a room, fun instruments, comfortable couches, nice view, great songs, FREE ICE CREAM (chocolate, vanilla, melon, or strawberry) WITH REFILLS, and SERVICE. I'm gonna explain service now (서비스). So in America we give *tip*. Well, service is kind of the opposite of that which is awesome. For example, when six of us ate at a restaurant, we got drinks too and Jonathan asked for "service"--meaning that the drinks were given to us for free because we had ordered enough for six people! Here in karaoke, we got about 30 minutes extra of "service," randomly inputted when our minutes would go down (like when we got to 9 minutes, we suddenly got 20 minutes extra because of service, and later 10 more minutes). Such a great system :D.
The next day, I went to Kangnam to meet up with Kyusun (Q), one of my best friends, Julina's freshman year roommate in Columbia. She's an international student from Korea and took me out to eat Budae Jjigae 부대찌게 (basically a mix of ramen noodles, rice cakes 떡, hot dog, bacon, vegetables, kimchi, etc etc other random things--it was invented during the Korean War when random scraps of food would be put together--I've had it before at 김밥천국, a restaurant that's basically everywhere in Seoul--kind of like Starbucks in New York--but yeah, this Budae Jjigae was so delicious :)) as well as Samgyupsal (4th day...).
We caught up--spoke some Korean which was good practice ^^. Hung out at a Starbucks afterwards (insane prices once again--$5.90 for a Tall Java Chip, which is about $3.70 I believe in the US and $5.70 in Sinchon haha, slightly cheaper than luxurious Kangnam ^^). Took another mandatory group picture :P (to the left of Q is her boyfriend Gyuwon [Kevin] and on the far left is Yongwon, their good friend).

Afterwards I hung out in a café in Kangnam Subway Station, waiting for Adam and Jessica for Mexican food dinner. When they came, I met Julie--Jessica's friend, Audrey--who works with Adam, and Joe--whose mother works with Adam. Fun night, pretty good Mexican food for an Asian country! :)

Sunday, sadly, was spent all day on preparing for my presentation T_T. Turned out pretty well though, so I'm happy :) (Oh right, and I ate some more, well, not Samgyupsal, but Moksal--which is only slightly not as bad for you ^_^. Ahhh Korean BBQ).

Right, I need to stop using so many parentheses.