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By kyuyoun0702

I still cannot forget what SAT had brought me - disappointment, destruction of relationships, low self-esteem and anger. Unlike APs that actually test you how much knowledge you have in that area, SAT was just like an IQ test for me. No matter how many SAT words I memorized (which I barely use in my life), and no matter how many practice tests I solved, my score just wasn’t going to show even the smallest sign of improvement. That’s where I decided to attend an SAT prep classes, where I got to meet a precious friend of mine, Brian.

Brian was an unique student in the prep class. What I noticed about him was that he wasn’t like typical high schoolers who were forcefully put into the class by their parents. He had a set worldview, gentleman-like manners and a dream. Even though he left shortly for an internship opportunity, we became close friends, and kept in touch for three years.

When I told him that I was accepted to an exchange program in GWU, Brian was so happy I would be nearby. We were only able to meet once a year because he decided to attend Johns Hopkins University while I decided to stay in Korea. Few weeks after my arrival, he invited me over to Baltimore and I pleasantly took the offer. Ye Tteul, my fellow exchange student from Yonsei University came with me to Baltimore, and we had such an amazing time together.

seafood

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Our first destination was a restaurant. As soon as we arrived, Brian immediately took us to a restaurant saying “My girlfriend gets aggressive when she is hungry, and I hope you guys are not like that.” (But we unfortunately were…) The restaurant was called Philips, and it was renowned for crab cakes and seafoods. Saying that he was happy to have us as a guest, he didn’t hesitate to pay for the entire meal.

scallops

We ordered three signature menus in total. The first one is composed of scallops, crabs and mashed sweet potato. Scallops were so fresh and the sauce was creamy but a little spicy, which made it much more abundant in flavor. I also never knew that crab went along with mashed sweet potato so well. The second one is crab mac and cheese. I didn’t expect much from this menu because I thought the flavor of cheese would dominate over the food, but it didn’t Even though I could taste the cheese and macaroni, the scent and flavor of the crab permeated over the entire dish. The third one was the crab cake. Even though it didn’t quite look as what I expected (I was expecting a legit cake), it tasted fine except it was a little salty. However, it went along very well with the homemade sour cream that came with it.

wonka

Next, we visited IT’SUGAR, a shop full of rare sweets. I was so surprised how sweets could get this big! Look at the Nerds, oh not us. The candy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next destination was Johns Hopkins University. While we were on the bus, Brian told us that the street we were passing by was a ‘danger zone.’ I looked outside, shocked, and I noticed some bizarre atmosphere surrounding the town. Brian told us that the campus was safe enough, but it was still scary. (GWU is the best! Hurraaayy)maryland

 

It was a pleasant weekend and I had so much fun in Baltimore. I hope Brian visits D.C. sometimes soon, and I will be happy to tour him our campus and show him around the beautiful city of Washington.

Oh by the way, my SAT score didn't improve a bit, so attending the prep class was a zero-sum game (because I met Brian!) 🙂

By kyuyoun0702

One thing I realized during my stay in DC is that CUPCAKES ARE SO AWESOME!

It is not an exaggeration for me to say that about 90% of my energy comes from sugar, and cupcakes are excellent energy resource for me. It had been this way forever, and I don’t regret the fat cells that came along as a side effect (Well I actually do).

Therefore, my quest for sweets served as one of the most important missions for me in my life.  Every weekend, I went hunting for sweets that would be both satisfactory in taste and helpful in accumulating energy that would help me survive for the rest of the week. I searched for blogs and reviews before visiting so that I would have an idea of what the sweets are like in that particular shop, and to get an idea of what is recommended and what is to avoid.

When I first came to Washington D.C., my parents greeted me at the airport (my family lives in D.C.), hugged me, and whispered “Kyuyoun! You look so healthy!” As soon as I heard this, I immediately sensed that this is a euphemism for “Kyuyoun! I think you gained weight and its obvious even at one sight!” In actuality, I gained 5kg (11 lbs) in total because of the stress I received last semester and the consequential increment in my sweets consumption. I was so determined NOT to get any fatter, and I decided to say goodbye to my sweets-oriented life.

But shame on me…My visit to cupcake shops in D.C. totally nullified this idea - they are just so awesome! I didn’t have to do any googling for these cupcakes; no matter what cupcake I picked, it didn’t fail to surprise me every time.

The first cupcake shop I visited was Baked & Wired. Baked and Wired is located in Georgetown, which is about 15 minutes walk from campus. After having a decent lunch at a seafood restaurant in Washington Harbor, I realized that Baked and Wired was just around the corner. I thought it was a great idea to visit Baked and Wired to get cupcakes for dessert. The bakery itself was pretty small, but the cupcakes were actually enormous in size. I chose Red Velvet cupcake which I believe to be the best choice. The frosting  on the top was pleasantly sweet, which went along well with the cake that was spongy and mild.

cupcake1

The second cupcake place I visited was Red Velvet Cupcakery. I liked how its name was so concise - I could tell that it sold Red Velvet cupcakes, and my sixth sense detected the “We are good” aura that surrounded this shop. It was unique in that they sold low-calorie cupcakes. Even though my parents thought that low caloried ones wouldn’t taste as good, I decided to try it. My parents were wrong; it was AMAZING. Personally, I liked this cupcake more than that of Baked and Wired. First of all, it was not so big (which allowed me to try other flavored cupcakes as well), and secondly, it balanced out sweetness and mildness pretty well throughout the whole thing. I am actually planning on taking my fellow exchange friends here since it is not as famous nor renowned as it deserves!

cupcake2

It is not that I gave up on losing weight. This is my logic; after a semester of being in this cupcake heaven, no other Korean desserts would satisfy my upgraded criteria in evaluating sweets. Therefore, I wouldn’t be as attached to sweets as I was, and I will eventually lose weight! Well, humans are animals of adaption and I am pretty sure I will continue to eat a lot in Korea, but it is better to think this way to justify my reason for conquering cupcakes shops in D.C.. My next stop: THE Georgetown Cupcakes!

By kyuyoun0702

Before classes started, I was so enthusiastic about my GWU life - I was more than ready to excel in academics, to join local GWU clubs, to travel around the city, and to search for good restaurants (which is the greatest passion of mine). However, right at this point when I am done with my first week of school, I realized that such ideal life is hard to pursue.

The biggest limitation I face is that classes are so intense, especially because of the extraordinary amount of readings professors require. I am taking five courses in which all of the professors casually claimed that they were expecting more readings than the average classes. My initial attempt to do the readings for all the classes failed from the very first day, and I guess my need for academics help center, which I thought I wouldn’t really have to visit, is increasing at an exponential rate.

However, I was captivated by the atmosphere of the classes. I am not saying that one is better than another, but the class style of my home institution and that of GWU are so different. At my home institution, professors mainly held lectures that were primarily composed of explanations. Even though they did receive question, they considered information/knowledge transfer more important than the discussion amongst students. However, all of my classes at GWU are discussion oriented, which makes doing the assigned readings important. Assuming that the students have already done the reading, professors expect students to discuss the readings and integrate what they learned from what they already know. I was astonished by the amount of knowledge the students have, and how they don’t really appear so shy in front of a lot of people.

During the weekend, I visited Smithsonian Portrait Museum in D.C. The museum wasn’t merely about portraits, but had remarkable artworks from different periods of time. The explanations of each artworks were written in such a neat and comprehensive manner, so that I didn’t know time had passed by so quickly by the time I exited. My favorite place was the president’s gallery, which contained portraits and detailed explanations of previous presidents. This is a picture of my at the entrance of the gallery, with the portrait of George Washington, the first president of United States. KakaoTalk_Photo_2016-01-18-18-04-36_84

By kyuyoun0702

When I accessed my gmail after an all-nighter for my finals, I was so exhausted to the extent that I typed my gmail password, which I've been using for 10 years of my internet life, wrong. Not even once, twice. However, as soon as I opened my inbox (with considerable effort), my half-closed eyes got huge and my mouth opened agape, not believing what I was looking at. It was an email from GWU, saying that I was chosen as a recipient of Blogging Scholarship for exchange students! YEAY.

So here I am at George Washington University - more specifically at the second floor of Gelman Library, on the first day of class, ready to write about myself and my upcoming GWU life. I would like to start out my blog post with an appreciation towards OSA staffs who have bestowed me such a great opportunity.

“What is your hometown?” This question is the hardest question for a Third Culture Kid, which is the simplest way to define my identity, to answer. I am a Korean by blood, but I spent most of my lifetime in Japan because of my father’s job. In addition to that, I have a high school diploma neither from Korean nor Japanese school, but from an American educational institution. Never have I ever appreciated the odd situation I was placed in. It made myself look like a miserable bubble who couldn’t belong in any particular community. I strived to escape out of this bubble, and the final destination I chose was Korea.

I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in Political Science and International Studies in Yonsei University, the best private university in Korea. Yonsei University has a reputation as the most westernized college in Korea, as the founder of Yonsei is a British-American pastor Horace G. Underwood. It also has the highest percentage of international students and is definitely the most popular Korean university amongst foreign exchange students.

Yonsei University helped me rediscover my passion for international relations, and I realized my unique background would help me achieve my dream in that my environment provided me with an objective way to view world issues. My enthusiasm lies on resolving conflicts amongst East Asia. Japan was major axis power during the World War II along with Germany. However, from what I observed, Japan doesn’t take as much effort as Germany in engaging with the victimized countries, especially Korea. As a Korean living in Japan, I’ve always felt terrible to see the tensions that never relieved between these two countries.

I believe my education in GWU would provide me with capability to deliberate on this problem. I am convinced that GWU’s International Affairs program would further broaden my perspective because it takes a multi-disciplinary method to analyze international event. Not only did GWU’s location in world’s political hub captivate me, the excellent professors who are actually are active participants of the international stage also made me apply to GWU as my first and only choice. I was so amazed to know that I could learn from professors that I could only get in touch with through theses and articles.

After my experience in GWU, I hope I would be able to come up with a practical solution for both Japan and Korea, for Japan not just to give an official apology, but to demonstrate its humane aspect that actually shows that Japan “cares” for the victimized country, and for Korea to have an accepting attitude similar to that of France and Poland to move on with the past.

Also, I would like to travel the city and get to know it. I've always been captivated by Washington D.C., the city that is in charge of operating and changing the world. My first time visit here was during summer 2014, but my family and I were only able to take a brief look at the city during that trip. During this semester however, I plan on visiting every single landmarks of D.C., taking time to observe it carefully and enjoying it as much as I can. From Washington, Baltimore and Pennsylvania are easy to access, and Florida and New York are not that far away. My day off on Friday would help me travel around different places as well.