JJ and I checked into the Marriott, which was free thanks to my reward points, and rested up for a bit. We had decided that we were going to make a brief stop at the casino before having dinner. We budgeted about for gambling, and less than 30 minutes after arriving, JJ was already up about 0. She was playing a “Super Jackpot Party” machine that sent the player to a bonus round if a certain combination came up on the reels. The player had the chance to choose a number of gift boxes, and JJ was one box away from making some serious money. Even though she didn’t advance to the big money round, we were happy with her profits. JJ and I have a method to keep up with our winnings; since the machines no longer dispense coins, if we are up a large amount, we print out a claim ticket and pocket it. At the end of the night, we cash in all of our tickets. I added another in tickets to our winnings and since we were up, we decided to sit and play roulette for a spell. We spent about an hour playing and after a couple of late hits, we broke even and changed out our roulette chips. We then cashed in our tickets and came away with a healthy profit. We walked away feeling great and ready for a nice dinner.
We left the casino and made our way to Felix’s Oyster Bar. This has turned in to our go-to place for seafood. We ordered our favorite beer and a dozen char-grilled oysters. We also ordered a couple of shrimp-oyster Po-boys and were enjoying our dinner when suddenly we kept overhearing a group of customers speaking Korean. The hostess had sat a group of four a few tables behind us, and it was fairly obviously that they really didn’t know what to order. Since I have been embarrassed before by trying to help a bilingual speaker navigate in English, neither JJ or I got up. After listening to them struggle for a few minutes, I finally walked over, greeted them in Korean, and asked if I could help. They were happy with the assistance and my help consisted of getting JJ to translate for them. They ordered a few different dishes and seemed to like the jambalaya, and they all claimed that it reminded them of bokumbap. Both the Koreans and the waiter seemed relieved that JJ was their to help translate. It brought back memories of my first visit to Kimbap Cheonguk, and the nice older lady who spoke enough English to come to my rescue and help me order. At that time, this looked like nothing but a bunch of gibberish. I can only imagine what the menu at Felix’s looked like to the group of Koreans.
We said goodbye to the grateful Koreans and headed down to Bourbon Street for fun. We tried to break up our usual New Orleans agenda and try a couple different venues. We hit Tropical Isle to see if my buddy’s band was playing, and unfortunately, they were scheduled for Saturday afternoon so we missed seeing them. We did stick around and have a Hand Grenade and listen to the band, The Hangovers. They were pretty good, but we only caught the last 30 minutes of their last set so we left and moved down to Pazzo’s to listen to their band. For a Thursday night, the bars were very empty, but we still had a great time. I was shocked that the bars were so empty since there are two big football games coming up. The Saints play the Lions in an NFL playoff game on Saturday, and the BCS championship game is on Monday night. We saw members of both Alabama’s and LSU’s football team enjoying the Quarter and the casino, and ran into a few players hustling back to their hotel to meet their 12 am curfew. I guess most fans were going to arrive on Friday. Which was kind of nice since we had the place almost to ourselves.
Potent, but Tasty Hand Grenade
We stayed at Pazzoo’s for awhile even though I wasn’t real happy about paying for two drinks, but the band was good so we stayed for about an hour. We ended the night at Pat O’ Briens piano bar as usual. We had one drink, requested a few songs, and then decided to crash out for the night. It was a nice break from Hattiesburg, and it was great trying a few different establishments. I actually have a list of other restaurants and bars that I want to visit, but those will have to wait for our next break from school. We will be back in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, but there is no way we will be able to visit any of the more popular restaurants/bars since the city is so crowded.
We woke up late, checked out, and made our way to the Korean grocery store across town. We had lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant next door, made a few purchases at the grocery, and headed back to Hattiesburg. We have a little more than a week before our final semester starts, and JJ and I are both excited about getting this last semester behind us.
Some of our relatives gave us an electric roaster oven as a wedding gift over two years ago. We had never tried it out and when we were doing a little “spring” cleaning, we decided to try it out. We found a recipe for beef stew and gave it a shot. It turned out well, but I think next time we are going to add some garlic, a little more salt, and pinch more basil. Even though we cut the recipe in half, we still have enough left over for a few lunches this week.
We Cut This in Half
Done!
Next week, we are going to try some Galbi Jjim or we might just do plain Korean style short ribs if I can find some meat at a decent price.
I had not planned to get JJ an expensive gift for Christmas, but between getting an unexpected refund check from a very old 401K account and a Citibank error, I decided to get her something that I knew she was not expecting. I paid off my Citibank in October and even though I had a zero balance, they still processed an automatic draft from my account in November. By combining this payment with the 401k funds, I was able to get JJ an Ipad on Black Friday. It was fairly difficult to keep the secret because every time we turned around someone was talking about Ipads. My father also bought one for my mother, and after the party, JJ told me that she was excited that Mom was getting one so that that she could “borrow” it. We went to another dinner party on Thursday night, and the host was also using his to browse the internet. After hearing JJ talk about wanting one, it was hard to keep the secret; I almost let the cat out of the bag. Needless to say, she was surprised when she finally opened the gift Christmas Eve.
JJ and I took our friends Wanhee and Seungae to Kentucky to spend a few days with our grandparents. We left on Thursday morning around six in the morning and arrived in Kentucky at four in the afternoon. As soon as we arrived, my grandmother starting cooking and really didn’t stop until we left. I think that we all gained weight from a constant barrage of well-cooked southern food. I was so excited about eating these meals that I forget to take photos. Besides the country breakfast pictured below, we also enjoyed homemade fried chicken, pepper steak, and fried catfish with all the fixings.
It was a great trip that wasn’t long enough. We really didn’t do much besides making a trip to the Elk and Bison viewing area at the Land Between the Lakes and driving over to Illinois for a quick stop at the casino. As soon as we got to the casino, everyone headed to the restrooms except for me. In the 3 minutes they were gone, I won 0, printed out my winning ticket, and hid it in my wallet. I ended up giving JJ some gambling money and spent a little more of my winnings playing poker. After paying for dinner and gas and funding JJ’s gambling fund, I still came out ahead, which is always a great feeling.
The trip was entirely to short, but we will actually get to see my grandparents again very soon. My mother has two younger siblings, and my grandparents alternate Christmas vacations between the three children. This is our year, and we are all looking forward to seeing them when they come down to Mississippi for the holiday.
Bacon, Eggs, Biscuits, and Grits are a Great Way to Start the Day
My Grandfather aka MacGyver at work saving me a couple of hundred dollars.
Getting Acquainted with Cleo
JJ is the Animal Whisperer
Frying some Catfish and Hushpuppies
JJ and Gram
Looking Back at a Field of Bison
The was the only bull we saw
#575 was not happy with our presence
Not as good as my Grandmother's home-cooked meals
Wanhee Taking a Shot
Although we all had a great time, I had a hard time not thinking about all the school work that I had due. I struggled with knowing that as soon as I returned to Mississippi, I was going to have to give up all my free time for awhile to finish a paper. Although this weekend was homecoming and was supposed to be a great football game, JJ and I both had so much work that we had to give up our seats. I ended up giving away my tickets to a friend so at least someone enjoyed our seats. The rest of the semester is going to be fairly high-paced and JJ and I are already getting excited about Thanksgiving break.
Thanksgiving was a bit different for us this year. My parents decided to head to Florida for an early wedding anniversary trip so there was no family feast this year. JJ and I both have a ton of work to do so we thought that we wouldn’t miss the turkey…I guess this is going to make Christmas dinner that much better.
We headed to New Orleans after school on Tuesday, and took advantage of my Marriott points. We grabbed dinner at Felix’s (Right Across from Acme), and we were both impressed with dinner and the service. If you find yourself in New Orleans and do not want to wait in line at Acme, you should try Felix’s.
A Nice Cold Andygator
Seafood Gumbo
Char-grilled Oysters with French Bread for Dipping
The Spread
We left dinner and headed to Pat O’ Briens to enjoy the Piano Bar. Since we don’t have access to a Korean-style singing room, I guess this is the next best thing. We had planned on only staying about an hour, but we ended up having a blast and staying longer than planned. We left the Piano Bar and walked over to Harrah’s to play some low-stakes roulette. After losing a few dollars, it was time for a late night snack, and we somehow ended up at Krystal. We got up on Wednesday, had Pho for lunch, and then did some grocery shopping at the Korean market in Metairie. We got back to Hattiesburg in time for a nap, and although we had a great time, we missed having the traditional Thanksgiving dinner
A Little Too Early, But We Got Great Seats
After working non-stop for ten hours on my article and classwork, I decided that So-Hee needed a close-up so I broke out my flash stands and umbrellas. These smaller versions really do not give the images justice. They are going to look great enlarged and printed out.
Zach came over and treated us again with his culinary skills. Zach made Sukiyaki, and it was awesome! We don’t get much time to hang out without having to worry about studying so it was nice to kick back for awhile.
Kung-Fu Tofu
Here's the Beef
Sohee was only slightly interested in the cooking
Prepping the Broth with Sugar and Fat…..My Kind of Sauce
With stunning prose and a sensitive eye for detail, Mun unfolds five years from age 14 in the gritty and difficult life of a young Korean American runaway on the urban streets. Not only does Joon quickly lose her innocence and succumb to the seemingly soothing beguile of drugs, leading to heroin addiction, she must fight for a lost identity as she attempts to reconcile being the daughter of an Korean American Books, Korean American Readings, Korean American authors
I recently started teaching a class at the English Language Institute here at USM. I am teaching a level 2 vocabulary class, and although I have enjoyed getting back into the classroom, it has also taken some getting use to; I have never taught a class where the majority of the students do not share a native language. I have also enjoyed using many of the theories and ideas that I have learned since I started the MATL program.
I am pretty much free to do whatever I feel will best help my students increase their lexicon. We have a textbook, but I have spent most of our class-time using realistic materials and making the students use the vocabulary they have leaned through task-work. Almost all of the students are hard workers and haven’t had to stress the importance of studying hard. The students have gone out of their way to get their work done, and this has made my job a lot easier.
I will only teach this class until Christmas break, and I am not sure if there will be enough language students enrolled for me to teach class next semester. Since I graduate in May, I have already started looking for potential jobs at other university English language programs, and I have already narrowed it down to a few programs that I hope will have interest in hiring me. Hopefully, JJ and I can stay in the south, but we are not closing any doors yet.
Ch’ae Man-shik (or Man-sik), who wrote stories and novels during the colonial period, is considered one of the greats of Korean modern literature. Like his other work, these three stories hone in on individuals who face the dilemmas of their times, those dilemmas of culture and historical circumstance which offer a tragi-comedy of errors. His renown rises from targeting the common man, not the Korean American Books, Korean American Readings, Korean American authors
The famed South Korean writer imagines meeting his North Korean brother after the death of his father–a defector to the North in the narrator’s youth (a fact that parallels the author’s life). The narrator, a professor of history who has suffered as a result of his father’s defection, joins a tour group to Yenji, a chinese border town from which groups are allowed to see the famed Mt. Baektu and Korean American Books, Korean American Readings, Korean American authors
JJ and I checked into the Marriott, which was free thanks to my reward points, and rested up for a bit. We had decided that we were going to make a brief stop at the casino before having dinner. We budgeted about for gambling, and less than 30 minutes after arriving, JJ was already up about 0. She was playing a “Super Jackpot Party” machine that sent the player to a bonus round if a certain combination came up on the reels. The player had the chance to choose a number of gift boxes, and JJ was one box away from making some serious money. Even though she didn’t advance to the big money round, we were happy with her profits. JJ and I have a method to keep up with our winnings; since the machines no longer dispense coins, if we are up a large amount, we print out a claim ticket and pocket it. At the end of the night, we cash in all of our tickets. I added another in tickets to our winnings and since we were up, we decided to sit and play roulette for a spell. We spent about an hour playing and after a couple of late hits, we broke even and changed out our roulette chips. We then cashed in our tickets and came away with a healthy profit. We walked away feeling great and ready for a nice dinner.
