Not unlike the majority of my time in Korea, I was the only non-Korean the other night at the party that my wife and I hosted.  She and I had both been wanting to host some our Korean friends for dinner and drinks.  The Korean community in Hattiesburg is fairly small, and most Koreans in the area attend the same church.  JJ and I have made friends with most of them through our one visit to the church or through school.  It was nice to see everyone, but once again I was reminded of how much my Korean language skills have diminished.  I had trouble following the main idea of the conversations and was quite discouraged even though I have made some progress in the last couple of weeks.

It was a great chance to hang out with folks who I really didn’t get to see during the semester.  We were all so busy with school that besides seeing them on campus we really didn’t get a chance to meet.  JJ and I do not attend the Korean church so we don’t have as much contact as others in the group.  JJ made kimbap, and I cooked my world famous baked buffalo wings.  Our guests stayed late, and JJ and Jinju ended up cooking kimchi jjigae at around 2AM.

I am always amazed when I think that all of these grad students are attending classes, taking exams, and writing papers/dissertations in a second language.  This really inspires me to continue with my Korean studies.  Maybe one day in the future I would be able to take classes at a Korean university in Korean. Anyways, we had a great time, and it is a shame that it will probably not be until the end of the semester that we will all get together again.

Preparing to Make Kimbab

Making Kimbab

Healthy Choices

The Gang(Probably Should have made everyone look at me)

Some of Our Guests Had a Cat Phobia

SG Is Gonna Kill Me

Intense

Ed!

It Must Have Been Something I Said