폭죽 필요하세요?

"Do you need a firecracker/sparkler?"

So I've noticed that whenever buying something, I always have an issue with understanding...I still haven't quite gotten down the phrase of "For here or to go?" but I'm trying! Which results in a lot of 네s and 아니요s (yeses and nos). I don't know if it's because it's such routine that it's said really fast or what, but I've noticed there are some key phrases I should figure out...one I did find out recently was "현금 영수증 필요하세요?" I always wondered why when I said no to it I was still given a receipt (영수증 is a receipt). Apparently a 현금 영수증 has something to do with getting cash back on certain purchases or something. The line above refers to an event this weekend that I'll recount in a bit.

It's funny how the simplest things like these lines that you're asked after buying something can be some of the more difficult things to master in a language. Or maybe my listening skills are just bad hehe ^^. But as another example of it, I realize that whenever you're speaking a foreign language, numbers (especially large numbers) take quite a while to figure out how to say (as well as to understand) in the other language, especially considering that Korean works on the 10,000 system and not the 1,000 one (so 100,000 is "ten ten thousands" for example).

I've had a lot of fun with my language partners though ^^. The first one I met particularly takes an interest in the subtleties of English and likes to help me with the subtleties in Korean too. It's pretty tough but is really great for my vocabulary, not to mention explaining English subtleties in Korean helps my explanation and defining skills so much. One thing I've realized is that prepositions in English are a nightmare. Why do we say "Let's meet on Tuesday" but not "Let's meet on next Wednesday?" And why do we "arrive at the post office," but "arrive in Korea" and "arrive home" (with no preposition). Eesh.

My language partner also tried to explain the differences between 아깝다, 아쉽다, and 안타깝다, all words that express regret. The first one implies regret at a loss, the second one regret for having missed a chance, and the third one more like irritation and regret for not having been able to do something that led to a loss. Now, those are what I THINK are the differences. I'm not positive...and not to mention she also explained to me the differences between 미미하다, 미세하다, 세심하다, 근소하다, 미묘하다, and 사소하다, all words explaining smallness in detail. I won't bore you with the differences, but it was pretty fascinating for a linguistics geek like me haha :).
Wednesday night Margaret cooked dinner for Bob, Mirabel, and me. It was chicken breast with this delicious zesty sauce and scallions, mm mm!
Complete with yummy funny shaped cookies too hehe.
Now Friday was a particularly fun day because our class (well most of us) decided to meet up for dinner! And for once I wasn't a 청일점 hahaha, because Akihiro came too! Xiang Yang and Zhang Ming didn't come, but they often don't anyway, shame.
And Keiko (in the middle to the left of that snack wrap ad) brought her son Yosuke along! He was extremely popular with the girls as you'll see soon haha. From left to right: Akihiro, Yuki, Kana, Meng Ju, Keiko, Yosuke, Hiroko, Leng, Muriel, Bai Hua.
We ate at 지글지글, the samgyupsal/kalbi buffet place, mm mm. We were all really stuffed after it haha.
Seeing the grease slide off the pan into the trough is pretty gross...yet we still love it. Why! Hahaha. Also all that garlic, mm mm. Korea has made me fall in love with roasted garlic ^^.
Yosuke kissing Xue Qing. And the following picture showing his super popularity haha.

Yesterday, Bob, Sneha, and I slept over at Sneha's friend/mentor Jaeha's home (which is slightly south of Seoul). Sneha and I had a minor fiasco making it to Sadang on time to meet Jaeha and Bob. We first decided to check Crown Bakery for cakes and well, it was torn down--not even closed, torn down. So we're like okay let's go to Paris Baguette. Well, guess what, that was torn down as well. What luck, eh? Haha. Also goes to show how fast buildings are torn down and built in Seoul! We finally went to Tous Les Jours, where we got a pretty butter cake (which was less likely to melt than the ice cream ones). We don't really know what we were saying yes to when the lady asked us some questions, but the last question was whether we wanted a 폭주 pokju. After asking what it was, she made a hand motion of stretching something and she went PONG! Hahaha--we assumed it meant a sparkler or some sort of noisemaker and said we didn't need it. I guess we should have also paid attention to the other questions she asked us, because the cake box read "Congratulations!" For what? Having us over? Hahaha. Clearly, we're incompetent =).
His mom made this delicious delicious mushroom dish and I'm really curious now what kind of mushrooms they are...! Not to mention they had the delicious grapes that a lot of Korean homes appear to have. Hmm, I really should find those grapes, but I'm sure I'd devour them within a day haha.
Of course, being me, I had to find fun Engrish :D.
And in the morning as we left, we saw the really nice courtyard of the apartments.
Phew, I'm so jealous of people who live in places like these ^^.

Hehe, sorry for the rather dry posts lately :). Unlike last summer, I haven't been sightseeing much! But, we'll see what's in store for Chuseok 추석 (the moon festival) next weekend! Then again, with midterms coming up, not much might happen...but, we'll see! I'm also considering a trip to Thailand to see my relatives during the November break we have at the end. We'll see!