Sunday, May 16, 2010

home

I'm home! The day I came home, my parents decided to buy a new sofa, move bookcases around, and switch my "room" and my brother's room. The house that I moved into 8 months ago is all the more unfamiliar now. It's in a neighborhood where I have no high school friends, I don't know where the post office is, and I could not tell you where the extra dish soap is. My house is not my home.

Nevertheless, I came home and had some hearty food. My father prepared haemultang (해물탕), which is spicy seafood stew (see pic), and there were the familiar side dishes like kimchi (김치), spicy pickled napa cabbage, and rice. My stomach was so happy, because during finals I have been eating cereal and milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner sometimes. Instead of snacking on Doritos, Ben & Jerry's, and Skittles (all brand name items, I just realized) I have been munching on healthy snacks, like steamed corn, sweet rice cakes, and orange slices. My stomach is home. :)

9 comments:

Bradlee P. said...

That looks surprisingly yummy!

(Class of 2014 :D )

Azorín said...

You should try eating at a Korean restaurant! Although I hear the ones in Charlottesville are not up to par, if you visit a major city like NYC, DC, or LA, you'll get a pleasant surprise. Charlottesville is known for its Thai restaurants. Off the top of my head, I can think of five Thai restaurants in the vicinity of UVA.

Bradlee P. said...

I definitely want to get out and explore the world of food, so I think a trip to DC (since it's the closest) would work well in starting that goal. I'll have to stop by a Thai restaurant when I get to U.Va in August. I ate at a Vietnamese restaurant once and found my meal quite interesting. Trying out new things is another exciting aspect of life :)

Azorín said...

Cool. Sometime or another (when the money isn't tight), I want to "travel on my stomach." That means travel and eat! A very hedonistic lifestyle, yes, but one that I would enjoy.

Do you like to travel? What are you interested in studying at UVa?

Bradlee P. said...

I would be interested in living like that, just so long as I keep off the unwanted pounds, haha. I love traveling! I actually use to live in Germany, so traveling is definitely a goal of mine for the future. I plan on majoring in Global Development Studies and Foreign Affairs, but I also want to undergo some intense language courses. My goal is to become multilingual in Spanish, French, and German by the time I'm 35. So hopefully I'll accomplish that starting at U.Va.

Azorín said...

Haha good point on the extra pounds. However, I'd imagine that traveling would require a lot of walking, so I hope life will be good.

Have you thought at living at the German House (http://www.virginia.edu/housing/options.php?id=german&type=transfer) or the International Residential College? You can live at the IRC as a first year, but to live in a Language House you'd need to be an upperclassmen.

Bradlee P. said...

I should hope so, haha.

I thought about applying to the International Residence College, but I didn't really think about the language houses (which I guess is okay, since I would have to be an upperclassman anyway). I actually applied to Brown, so hopefully I'll get in there since I didn't apply anywhere else. I find out... tomorrow, I suppose, since it's almost 3 in the morning, haha. I really hope I get in after that application... the last thing I wanted to do was write more after graduating, so hopefully all that writing will pay off. If not, there's always the next year I suppose. Then maybe I'll look more into the German House. The excitement is building...

Azorín said...

Hey Bradlee! What's the update? Did you get into the IRC or Brown? Also, are you a Third Culture Kid by any chance?

Bradlee P. said...

Oh hey, I haven't commented on here in a while, haha. I didn't get into Brown my first year, but I lived in Woody, which was pretty great except for some of the immature guys living in rooms surrounding mine. My roommate was also pretty awesome; we got along surprisingly well.

I applied to Brown a second time as well as the German house and to be an RA. I didn't get the RA position or into Brown initially, but I did get accepted to the German house where I chose to live. Close to the end of the first year, however, I got an offer to Brown, and I took it because while I would've loved the German house, I kind of wanted my own room (well, it's more of a single than the alternative). I'm a strong introvert, and while I lucked out on getting an awesome roommate my first year, I decided I wanted to have more of my own space second year. It's easier for me to study when no one is around (as I discovered second semester when my roommate was almost always gone all day for pledge stuff). So Brown it'll be for my second year. Hopefully it'll go well!

I wasn't sure what Third Culture Kid meant, but I looked it up on wiki and I suppose you could say I am somewhat. Since I've lived in Germany twice I feel somewhat German and pretty much love the culture and area, and I want to live there again at some point. I love different cultures. While I could speak some German, I forgot a lot when we came back to the states, but I'm learning it now. I've already taken two courses and I plan on continuing German and maybe even majoring in it. I love languages (I'm doing the Summer Language Institute to study French in a few weeks), so that's definitely a focus of mine. I'm pretty excited. :)