kyuyoun0702 – Page 2 – Postcards from GW

National Harbor at Maryland

AdminFebruary 29, 2016

What I was surprised by the most in United States is the overwhelming power of nature. Seoul is an iridescent place with skyscrapers and buildings, and the only remnants of nature I could see were the trees along the pathway. However, United States is a country that doesn’t predate over nature; it coexist with it, as huge as their territory is. This is where I realized that earth is not only for humans to live, but also for other elements in the earth to reside in harmony with the humans.

Another epiphany struck me when I went to the National Harbor at Maryland today.

Look at the sky! The sun had just disappeared down the horizon and only the slightest lights remain. It gets fainter as its farther from the sun, and sky is mostly filled with different colors of blue.

Even though the sunshine almost penetrated my sunglass to the extent that my eyes itched, I still couldn’t take my eyes off of the beautiful sunset.

Surrounding the National Harbor are the streets filled with people and shops. As it is around the harbor, there were a lot of seafood restaurants as well as chain restaurants such as Chipotle, Ben and Jerry’s and Potbelly. Since it had been raining for few days this week, I guess people were excited about the amazing weather today. There were families, couples and group of friends who came to enjoy this wonderful amalgam of city and nature.

My parents were excited as well. My dad just came back from South Carolina for his business trip, and it had been a while since we went out as a family (except my brother who was exhausted from his basketball game). They went ahead of us to have a little chit chat, and the whole picture was so beautiful that I couldn’t resist taking photo of it.

Tah-dah! What an amazing day! except that I have another midterm exam on Tuesday….! I really don’t like how midterms are so dispersed. I am taking three midterm examination and one midterm essay within the course of three weeks, which is frustrating me so much!

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

AdminFebruary 23, 2016

By kyuyoun0702

I honestly can’t believe its already midterms. My friends at Yonsei aren’t even done with their vacation, and here I am, studying so hard (not really) for my mid-terms. Heavy workload and my intrinsic laziness combined has resulted in this synergic outcome called ’screwed-for-exam’ phenomenon. Even though I am less pressured than the GWU students are to receive amazing grades, I’ve been too much stress from studying.

During the weekend, I attended a forum hosted by Center for Strategic International Studies on North Korean human rights issue, and on my way home, I went to the mall with my dad to do some grocery shopping.

Everything except studying for the exam was intriguing to me, so I scrutinized the mall as carefully as I can, and I noticed that there’s a whole section on the ingredients for homemade cookies, tarts, bars, cupcakes and breads!

I’ve been living by myself during my entire college life, but I have never cooked nor baked for myself due to lack of cooking utensils and again, my innate tendency to be lazy. I thought this was a great opportunity for me to learn how to make food in the future, and also considered it to be a great stress reliever for my exam as well. So, why not get the ingredients?

I decided to try making a no bake nutella cheesecake. The ingredients are nutella, butter, whip cream, oreo and cream cheese. Due to my lack of experience, I was a bit afraid to try making food that required usage of oven that could literally burn me.

First, I tried to make a crust with the oreos. I took out 24 oreos from a big pack which was on sale, but…how do you crush it? I put it in a glass bowl but I had no idea how to start crushing it. What if I crush the bowl as well? So I put them in a ziplock, hit them as hard as I could, and put them back on the bowl as if nothing had happened. Then, I mixed these crusts with a 1/3 bar of melted butter in order to prevent the crust from falling apart.

Next, I mixed nutella with creamcheese and whipped cream that failed to whip itself. However, whipping the cream was inevitable for me because the cheesecake had to have a whipped cream on its top. So, I tried again, and fortunately, I was able to plaster the whipped cream on nutella base.

On the top, I put five oreos that represented each member of our family (mom, dad, younger sister, younger brother and me :)) It’s not that they were the only remaining oreos! (they were)

I was supposed to refrigerate the cake for four hours, but I misread the instruction and froze it. Stupid me!

But I guess it turned out to be a success because my family thought it was pretty good even though no one finished the entire piece. It was symbolic enough though that it was the first cooking attempt I have done in about 2 years.

Thanks to this cheesecake, I was able to get rid of the stress I’ve been receiving, at least for that moment:) I hope midterm ends soon so that I can take a break from studying during the spring break!

Back to Japan? The best Donburi place!

AdminFebruary 16, 2016

By kyuyoun0702

Even though I am a Korean by nationality, I've spent a huge portion of my life in Japan. Therefore, I've always missed Japan, its atmosphere, its people and ... its FOOD. That's the reason that I was desperate looking for good donburi places when attending college in Korea, and even though some places were decent enough, they weren't fully satisfactory. Since Korea is renowned for its food culture and its ability to mimic foods of diverse countries, I thought they were the best Japanese food I could have in a foreign country.

But, I was wrong.

Right before I went to bed on Wednesday, my friend texted me and asked me whether I like Japanese food. I answered yes, and she told me she knew a great donburi place in D.C.. Despite the fact that she has lived in D.C. for more than 7 years, I was a bit suspicious because I've never tried any sort of Japanese food since my arrival here.

We met after class on Thursday in front of Gelman Library, and caught an Uber. We got off near Alex Morgan, where the streets looked so marvelous and Beverly Hills-like (where I've never been but I'm just guessing). The donburi place was pretty small, and the seats were full of people. However, we luckily got to get a seat within less than 10 minutes.

The restaurant was unique in that we paid for it beforehand. I picked Salmon Donburi without any hesitation.

I was astonished by their swiftness in processing orders! The donburi was in front of me within 3 minutes after my order.

Starving since 10AM in the morning, I couldn't wait to enjoy the meal. My trembling chopsticks carefully took a hold of a piece of fresh salmon. Right before it went into my mouth, my friend stopped me and told me that I should comply to the 'real way' of eating donburi. According to her, I was supposed to plaster a bit of wasabi on the salmon piece, dip it into soy sauce for a second and then take a bite of it. She was right. The donburi tasted so good I can't find a word to describe it.

Not only was the donburi incomparable to those I had in Korea, but it was also actually better than the ones I had in Japan. I really didn't want to admit it, but it was just the way it was. The salmon was so fresh I couldn't feel any greasiness (the phenomenon that often happens when eating too much salmon), and the sauce on the donburi matched both he salmon and the rice well.

It was surely the best meal I had in D.C. so far. So glad I took another step to mastering Washington D.C. attractions !

My visit to Georgetown

AdminFebruary 9, 2016

By kyuyoun0702

I have remarked earlier that my next destination would be Georgetown cupcakes, and I got to have this accomplished in a relatively short period of time. An upperclassman of mine from Yonsei University also came to Washington D.C. for an exchange student, and we decided to meet up and have a good lunch together. I was wandering around Georgetown while I was waiting for her to come, and found Georgetown cupcakes. There weren’t much people because it was pretty early, and I thought this was a chance for me to get some cupcakes.

It was an arduous task to pick what cupcakes to buy since every one of them looked so marvelous. Having trust in my sixth sense, I just randomly picked what came to my sight when I was ordering. I only got to try Red Velvet and I thought it was pretty awesome. What distinguished this from other red velvet cupcakes I have tried was the cream on it. It was not too cream-like but not too artificially solid, and I could feel the scent of cheese at the top of my tongue. it I heard later on that it is one of the signature menus of Georgetown Cupcakes (yeay to my sixth sense again!!).

At about 12pm, we met together in front of Georgetown cupcakes. It was surely bizarre to see her in the U.S. but I guess we both got used to living here. We were touring Georgetown with ease.

The first place we visited was Luke’s Lobster. I forgot to take a picture, but it was pretty good. The lobster was fresh and it went along well with the bread. The mexican beer and the chips that came along with the roll were decent as well. However, the price was more than merely surprising - it was $41 for two roll set. I know that lbsters are good, and I know that Luke’s Lobster is renowned for its lobster roll, but it was way too expensive for college students to have for a meal.

Next, we went searching for a good place for dessert. That’s where we found a hidden crepe and bubble tea house with a cute fox character on its door (I forgot the name). We were trying to go to Baked and Wired, which we later realized that was right next door, but we gave up and went inside any dessert shop we could find. However, it turned out to be amazing! The crepe was really good, and the Chai bubble tea was the best bubble tea I had in a while.

Unnie (which is a Korean term for an upperclassman) offered me a ride back to school. I thought it was a great great day until I opened the cupcake box and realized that I was a very stupid person.

Even though my mother told me it was still good, I was so stupid I didn’t realize that cupcakes are fragile. One lesson learned; carry your cupcake box as if you’re carrying a baby.

Trip to Baltimore

AdminFebruary 2, 2016

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.

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.

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.

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)

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!) 🙂

Cupcakes!!

AdminJanuary 26, 2016

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.

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!

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!

Review on the first week of school

AdminJanuary 20, 2016

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.

Brand new life at DC

AdminJanuary 12, 2016

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.