ODu. bezich (mod.Du. bezig), LG. besig; no cognate words are known in any other Teut. or Aryan lang. The ME. typical form was bisi, bisy, bysy: the form busi (with ü = OE. y) occurs in the later text of Layamon, but otherwise the u form is not found before the 15th c.: its prevalence in modern spelling, while the pronunciation is with i, as in ME., is difficult to account for.]

We started school last Wednesday. I began working my assistaintship hours the Wednesday before. I won’t go into too much detail on my GA work but will say that it is challenging and hopefully will be rewarding as well.  JJ started her GA as well and is working in the Math Lab and Math Zone tutoring students.

I am taking 12 hours/4 classes this semester with only one of those classes having tests. I was thrilled about this at first and then I started looking at the amount of work required for each class. 2 of my classes are online and require an insane amount of work. History of English , the one class that has tests, will probably be one of my favorites. This class is going to require hours upon hours of studying but the subject matter and the professor are great. Dr. Hauer is going to be a thorn in my side great motivator.  His knowledge of the material and excitement for the subject matter is contagious.  I have already tried to find out if he will be teaching any possible electives for me next semester.

Besides History of English, I am also taking Reading in ESL/EFL Instruction, Applied Linguistics in Second and Foreign Languages, and Teaching Second Languages: Theory into Practice.  Teaching Second Languages is my other class that I am taking on campus.  I met with the instructor this past summer and am really looking forward to her class as well.  I really like her teaching style and can see that this class is going to be a lot of work as well.

About two weeks ago, I finally ordered my new computer.  I ended up getting a Dell Studio XPS Laptop(I didn’t pay near as much as the one that the link shows, don’t know why that one is so expensive) and really am enjoying it.  The screen quality is so good that my eyes have been killing me.  I am probably going to have to get a screen cover or lower the resolution.

Ever since I moved to Korea, I have felt a connection with the country.  When we moved back to the states, I thought that bond would slowly diminish.  I was extremely wrong.  Not only did we meet some great new Korean friends when we first arrived but have already met a few new Korean students at USM as well.

• Strange connection #1- JJ had her first day of tutoring in the Math Zone when she met a nice young who worked in the zone last year.  He asked if she was Korean and went on to explain that his girlfriend is Korean.  We later ran into them at Walmart and I ended up giving him my Sogang Series #1 book.
• Strange connection #2- I have to read Second Language Teaching & Learning by David Nunan for one of my classes. I bought a used book and opened it to start reading and noticed that through out the book there are notes written in Hangul.  Apparently, a Korean student used it before me.
• Strange connection #3-Go to my first class and guess who is sitting next to me?  A Korean doctoral student who I just happened to have met the week before at a party.
• Strange connection #4-Get an email a couple of weeks ago from a Korean student who needed to a ride to his university.  There are two universities in Hattiesburg and he was going to the one south of town.  He was going to be stuck at his hotel so I offered to give him a ride to his new dorm.  JJ and I drove him to the school, helped him find his dorm, wished him luck, and dropped him off.

We are patiently waiting for our student loan refunds.  Refunds are processed on September the first and then a few days after that our money should be deposited into our accounts.  Our first GA paychecks should come through at the end of September.  Even though the extra GA money is nice, it won’t cover all of our expenses.  We are really going to have budget well.  That should not be a problem as we have almost lived entirely on savings for almost a year now. (I did bring in a few extra dollars doing landscape work and then there were the Korean classes that we got paid for as well)

Han Books- I ordered two books from this online company and was thrilled with their service and speed.  If you need any Korean language learning resources, I highly recommend them.  I will review the books in a later post!

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

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.

옛날 어느 마을에 한 할아버지 살았습니다.  이 할아버지는  아주 착했습니다.  그런데 이 할아버지 턱 밑에는 혹이 하나 달려있었습니다.  세수할 때나, 또밥을 먹을 때 아주 불편했습니다.  그러나   할아버지는 혹을 떼어낼 수가 없었습니다.  그래서 할어버지는 언제나 슬펐습니다.

Once upon a time there was an old man who lived in a village.  This old man was very kind-hearted. But this old man had a lump that was attached to the bottom of his chin. When he washed his face and ate food he was very uncomfortable. But this old man could not remove the lump.Therefore this old man was very sad.

I also downloaded Talk to me in Korean‘s workbooks for level 1 20-25 and level 2 1-10. I did pretty well on them but had forgot some of the vocabulary that I had learned.

I also cracked open Sogang’s 2A and started to work on chapter one again. I have finished about half of this book but have forgotten a great deal of it.

Other Korean Language Activities:

• Started sending messages to Korean friends on Facebook in Korean.  I should have been doing this a long time ago but always revert to English.
• Working on a letter that I am going to send to my Father-in-law.  I will probably use Lang-8 and JJ to help check my work before I send it.

If you are reading this in a RSS reader I apologize for the glitches over the last couple days. I am trying to fix some old posts and few of them are showing as new posts on this blog.

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.

Case #1
We had some questions regarding our financial aid. I scoured the website and still couldn’t find the answers to my questions. I called the Financial Aid Office and spoke to a gentleman named Patrick. He answered every one of my questions and helped both of us with our funding problems.

Case #2

JJ had to meet with her adviser on Thursday. Not only did he go out of his way to help her but even followed up with a few emails that contained information that he thought of after having met with her. She is thrilled that she has an adviser that she is able to talk to and to have someone that will guide her.

Case #3

JJ had to get her second MMR shot and we went to the University Clinic to get it taken care of. After she had received her injection, the receptionist stopped us and asked where JJ was from and wished us good luck in the upcoming semester.

Case #4

The Graduate Admissions staff has been wonderful.  We have dealt with a few different people in the office and everyone of them has been extremely helpful.  I felt like I was asking them way too many questions but they took the time to solve every problem that I had.

Case #5

Ms. Anderson is the administrative assistant in my department.  I worried her to death by constantly checking on my application.  She was nothing but patient and very helpful but probably glad that I finally got all my paperwork turned in and accepted.

I hope that our luck of finding good staff members to deal with will not end.

More Good News

• JJ got a partial assistantship for the fall semester that covers her full tuition and gives her a partial stipend.
• Our student loans have been processed and we were awarded the max amounts.
• JJ gets a school laptop to use because she has an assistantship

Bad News

• Checked the price of our books for the upcoming semester. It looks like we are about to drop $1,000 to $1,200 for our books.

• I didn’t get the assistantship that I wanted but am busy trying to secure one.

We are heading to New Orleans for the day tomorrow.  We are looking forward to getting out of Hattiesburg for the day.  This week was extremely busy and between working part-time and trying to get everything arranged for school; we need a day of fun.

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.

]]> http://www.mississippitokorea.com/2010/07/thank-you-h-mart/feed/ 2 http://www.mississippitokorea.com/2010/07/accepted/ http://www.mississippitokorea.com/2010/07/accepted/#comments Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:55:06 +0000 JR http://www.mississippitokorea.com/?p=2792

Congratulations! Welcome to Southern Miss!

JJ and I both received emails with the above as the subject title~! We are thrilled, excited, and nervous at the same time to start grad school at USM. We have a little over a month until school starts. We are now in the process of getting our funding lined up. (It looks like my student loan balance is about to sky-rocket!) I am still waiting to find about assistantships and will probably start applying to various other departments next week. We will also meet with our advisers next week to begin choosing classes for the fall.

I will be studying for an M.A. in Teaching Languages with an emphasis in Teaching English as a Second Language.  JJ will be working on an M.S. in Mathematics with an emphasis in Computational Mathematics.

For the record, JJ received her admission letter a whole two days before me. I have heard this more than once..hahah.

As for now, we are both working part-time jobs and patiently waiting for school to start. We are hoping to be able to get out of Hattiesburg to visit some friends before school starts but time and money may come in to play.

Hungry Guy

Another Hungry Bear

The children then wanted a chance on the mechanical bull. The guy running this wasn’t making any money at all before we showed up. After the 4 children rode the bull, the line was snaking around the corner. We should have gotten a discount.

Maybe a future cowboy?

The next day we all met up for an Old Style photo and then JJ and I spent the day shopping. Can you believe that we passed a Beef Jerkey Outlet store????? Then in the late afternoon we all gathered again and went to Cade’s Cove. Cade’s Cove is usually a great place to spot wildlife but we were not so lucky. We mainly just stayed in the car and only stopped a couple of times. 3 of the kids rode with us and believe me when a four year old tells you she has to go to the bathroom, that means now~! Not later……DOH!~, so after we cleaned my car……

Photo of Photo

We stopped at a really old Missionary Baptist Church and there was a small cemetery in the back. There was one stone that stood out and it broke all of our hearts.

Too sad.

Hayley have a great time looking for deer.

As I mentioned earlier, we didn’t see that much wildlife but we did see this guy on the side of the road as we were leaving the park.

10 point in velvet?

We stopped for a quick group photo.

The light was awesome later in the evening. I love this shot.

We got up early the next day and headed back to Hattiesburg via Atlanta.(That will be part three of our road trip)

I really wish that I would have had a chance to get out in the park in the evening or early morning for some better photos. I am considering going back alone in the fall. I hear that the colors are unbelievable at that time of the year. This was my first time to visit Gatlinburg in the summer and honestly it was way too crowded. I have visited in the winter and it was much more enjoyable.