Travel
Shopping Trip and Beach
Aug 22nd
Took off this morning for a short day trip to Gulfport to get some shopping in and we ended up dropping by the beach for literally 5 minutes. I really needed to pick up a couple more pair of suit pants and more dress shirts. We met Jumi and Seungae through Wonyoung and we all drove down together. Seungae and Jumi are both new grad students and seem to be a lot of fun.
Beach Pics.
Wonyoung
Jumi
New Grad Students
JJ and I are hitting the library again after lunch tomorrow. Hopefully, I will have a little bit of free time tomorrow night! To say that life has been crazy the last 5 days would be the understatement of the year. JJ and I are both in the process of trying to figure out how to balance our study and work times.(More on that later)
Topics to blog about later this weekend
- First week of Grad School
- New computer
- Korean connections
- GA work
- Money(or lack there of)
- New Korean Books
Last Free Weekend
Aug 18th
Our good friends ,Jason and Jennifer, bought a boat at the beginning of the summer and have been trying to get us to out in the Gulf with them all summer. We finally had a weekend that we were all free. It happened to be our last free weekend before school started. Our other friend who was joining us happened to have lots of comps from the Island View Casino so he hooked us up with a suite and free meals. Check out the common room !
The Den
We had dinner at the new Carter Green Steak House and used every penny of his 400 dollar comp. I wish that I would have brought my camera. It was probably one of the best steaks that I have ever tasted. I had a Filet Mignon topped with lump crab-meat. AWESOME!!!! We topped off the meal with creme bru lei and bread pudding. It was a good thing that I didn’t have to pay for the meal. I would have had no money to gamble with.
We left dinner and hit the gaming floor for a few hours. JJ and I ended up sitting at the center bar playing video poker and enjoying free drinks. We didn’t win any money but still had a great time.
We got up around 8 and waited for the weather to clear before going out and buying fishing licenses and launching the boat. The weather was still somewhat overcast but it looked like we were going to be able to have a great day of fishing but it was not to be.
Heading out into the Gulf
The Captain and his first mate~!
JJ and our friend Dana
JJ and Glen
It took us about 45 min or so to get out past Ship Island. The sea was a little rough and JJ and I both were feeling somewhat seasick. We were just about to start fishing when Jason checked the radar and saw that a storm was coming into Gulfport. We decided that we would probably not enjoy being in really rough water so we ended up calling it a day.
Trouble Brewing
Even though we didn’t get to do any real fishing, it still was a great day. I can’t wait to get back out on the water in better weather. We did see some oil booms set up around Ship Island but didn’t see any oil in the water. We really didn’t get south of the islands and I was real curious to see if there was any oil washing up but the weather prevented us from checking it out. We made it all the way to the harbor when the rain started. We got the boat on the trailer in the rain and headed back to Hattiesburg.
New Orleans Day Trip
Aug 2nd
The city of New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the world. Every trip has been a blast and this past Saturday was no different. JJ and I decided that we needed to take a quick day trip to get out of Hattiesburg after spending all week working on school related stuff. I have had a long love affair with New Orleans. This city is the reason it took me an extra semester to finish school. During my undergraduate years, it was nothing to go down for the night/weekend/week. People always ask when is the best time to visit. I have been during Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, Super Bowl Weekends, Sugar Bowl Weekends, Halloween, New Year’s Eve and when there is nothing else major going on. I really don’t think there is a bad time to visit.
JJ and I headed south around 12p.m. and had plans to eat a late lunch at Acme Oyster House. Acme is featured in about every guide ever printed for New Orleans and there were about 30 folks waiting in the unbearable heat to get inside. We kept walking and ended up going to Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House next door. I knew the Brennan name from other restaurants in the city but had never eaten here before. We were really impressed with the food and the service. JJ had the seafood gumbo and the shrimp remoulade which was suggested by our waiter. I had a shrimp poboy.
My Shrimp Po Boy
My poboy was great but JJ’s shrimp remoulade was out of this world. I was impressed. It contained boiled shrimp, fried green tomatoes, melted mozzarella cheese, greens, and some type of spicy dressing.
JJ's Shrimp Remolade
I think that we may skip Acme intentionally next time to visit the Bourbon House again.
We then moved to the River Walk and enjoyed a little bit of shopping before heading back down to the French Quarter.
I have probably visited about every bar in the the area and still head back to Pat O’Brien’s for the original Hurricane every trip. Pat O’s has a wonderful piano bar that is always filled with tourist having a good time and enjoying way too many hurricanes.
JJ had never experienced the piano bar before. We were looking to get out of the heat and were lucky enough to find seats inside. Of course we had a few hurricanes and were surprised by the number of Mississippians in the bar. Not only were we surrounded my folks from Jackson, Greenwood, and Hazlehurst but both of the pianist were from Mississippi as well. We got to listen to Henrietta Alves from Winona and another lady(didn’t catch her name) from Hazlehurst play.
Ms. Alves keeping everyone entertained.
We stayed here for a few hours enjoying the music. Not only could they play and sing but their banter with the crowd was hilarious or maybe it was the hurricanes. The pianists take requests written on napkins and can pretty much play anything you want.
Tunes for Tips
I did hear them say that they didn’t know “Get Crunk” but that was about the only request they turned down.
The Piano Bar
Photo Via Pat O'Briens Website
On of my favorite parts of the piano bar is the man that comes out to stand between the pianos to tap on a silver tray covered in coins while wearing metal thimbles on his fingers. There used to be an old black man that played on Friday and Saturday nights when I used to visit. I spoke with him a couple of times back in the day and he was always curious about where we were from and if were enjoying ourselves in New Orleans. I got curious since he was not there when JJ and I visited. I started searching for him online and found out that he passed away during Katrina. He was a fixture at Pat O’s having worked there for more than 67 years. His name was Eddie Gabriel.His grandson also wrote a great article about him for NOLA.COM
Mr. Babineaux playing the tray!
Mr Gabriel was wonderful but there was also another “tray player” who has been working for Pat O’s for over 40 years. His name is Alvin Babineaux and he is also extremely talented. Read more about him here. Here is another article written about Pat O’s and Alvin Babineaux by John Swenson.
After a few hours in the piano bar, we made our way down Bourbon Street and then back to Hattiesburg. It was a quick trip and we didn’t do much but that is why I love the fact that New Orleans is only about a two hour drive away. We are already make plans to go back for a weekend when the weather is a little bit more bearable. The weekend after mid-terms is sounding better and better.
Thank You H-Mart
Jul 25th
We left Gatlinburg and drove the three and half hours to Duluth, GA. Duluth is about fifty miles outside of Atlanta. We had heard good things about the H-Mart there and we were not disappointed. We spent an hour walking the aisles and were impressed with the selection of great Korean products! We spent way more than we needed but did end up picking up a new portable grill and a few other home-ware items.
Ahhhhh Kimchi~!
We spent a lot of time here~!
Both images above via H Mart’s website
We bought a couple of buckets of kimchi and enough Korean cabbage for JJ to make her own as well. If you live in the South and have ever asked yourself “Where do I buy kimchi?”, then this is the place for you. We bought 부추김치(leek),전라도식 포기김치(Jolado style),오이김치(Cucumber),포기김치(regular kimchi). We also bought a few packages of Samgyeopsal (pork belly), a bunch of ramyeon, and even a couple bottles of makoli.
We got home around 8P.M. but still wanted to test our new grill!
Nothing like pork belly! Too bad I ran out of soju.
JJ got to work soon after dinner and made a batch of 겉절이 kimchi. After tasting hers and the store made kimchi, I wish that we would have bought more cabbage so that she could have made more.
Washing and salting the cabbage
I am sure that it won’t take too long for us to be ready for a trip back to Duluth. Next time I want to spend the night in the area and hit up a tuna sushi restaurant and a singing room.
