Korean (...or My) Christmas Eve Party!!!

Before you read!!!

This is not me, this is my boss speaking,

and he's a more direct, nicer person and doesn't use such biting sarcasm as I do.

So if you're suddenly thinking that I became nicer,

then I'll pop your bubbles right here even before you start creating it.

So here he is:

My brother and I work multiple jobs, so 

we get up early in the morning,

and sleep early in the morning.

We thought we deserved an End-of-the-year party to blow our stresses away for a little bit.

Luckily, my friend was opening a party in his parent's Korean barbecue restaurant.

It was so considerate since they were closing the place for the day for our party.

Since it was a Christmas eve,

we decided to do something like a secret Santa

Except I bought one more gift for all the friends:

Lottery!!!

We promised that if any of us wins the lottery, we'll all get an equal share.

I know it could look naive and totally immature, but who knows... We'll keep you posted on this! :)

Back to secret Santa....

Not really.

We decided to spice it up a notch by writing numbers on the paper and choose the gifts

according to the number we picked...

This is me giving out the pieces of papers with a number on each of them.

I looked pretty weird, so I photoshopped myself with a big glass that came along with the big eyebrows, a nose, and a mustache...

I don't know why, but our friends started getting a little crazy...

like this guy wearing a big, blond wig for the picture. Hmmm..

Well, he got a ... Air plane toy...?

And he seems to really really like it...?

He opened the box right after the picture, all so excited.

Then he shuts the box tight after seeing all the parts of the plane he has to arrange.

The guy on the left really likes to drink, so he got a bottle of soju and a message that says "No Alcohol This Year". He likes it. I don't know about the "No Alcohol This Year" part of the gift...

The girl on the right got a CD of the concert we recently went to, and an iPhone accessory.

Is that a triangle he's holding? Oh my god, that's so exciting. So exciting. The best gift ever.

He's also got an angry.... grey rubber gecko...

It's so unfair that he's got this.

He's getting all the nice gifts!!!

Me = Santa substitute

This light is pretty.

And its switch is made of... Oh my God.

Her hand touching the "switch" was kind of trembling... lol

So we eat, drink, eat, drink, eat, and drink.

When the atmosphere is casual and jolly enough, we play the game called

"Bokbulbok"

The one who picks the paper that has something other than an "ok" or a "pass"

has to drink this "health drink" which is a mix of one raw egg, and a shot of soju.

Let's see who's the unlucky one for the day...

Looks like thisguy's it.

Cheers!

Eww.... Here the worst part of the  "health drink" comes....!!!

The second unlucky one for the day was this guy.

He's a really squeamish guy, so I bet his reactions will be priceless.

Yes. His face. Priceless.

Everyone was having so much fun :)

The girl on the right was even drunk enough to shoot me a... a gecko.

How DO you even shoot a gecko?

Does pulling its tails make a bullet come out of a gecko's mouth?

This one stole the wig from the other guy.

Haha, this wig's pretty popular.

By the time we brought out the Christmas cake at 12:00 AM,

some people were falling asleep.

It's okay. We'll just very generously give him a cake-cream face massage.

Even after he woke up, he didn't know he had it on his face for hours. :D

Anyway, it was a great party.

We didn't do anything too exciting (yeah. right.) but the whole point of

the party was to finally get to spend some time with your friend you normally cannot spend time with.

I used to think that holidays existed for companies to make people spend money,

but now I know it's for people to spend time with their friends and families.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

K-pop: SNSD/The Girl's Generation Wins the Award Again?!

BEFORE GOING INTO DETAILS!!!
Let me make clear that I am neither a fan nor an anti-fan of SNSD,
so please understand my sarcastic ways of speaking that I always have been using!!!!


So the drum rolls....

and it's time to announce the best singer of the year.

You're thinking,

'Verbal Jint? Wait, no, it must be Jaebom Lee. No, wait, wait 2NE1....? Oh here they announce!!!!'

"The K-pop award winner for the year is......

SNSD, the Girls Generation!!!!!!!!"

...and the crowd may go wild,

OR

they may kind of awkwardly do a slow clap, and go "...again...??"

as they DON'T go walking on the red carpet because they're overseas somewhere (Europe?).

Well, I think they do deserve it in a way because they're getting pretty popular internationally.

Like.... come on!!

They're getting this three years in a row!!!

They're all like "Oops!" we're not there for the third time.

"Oops!" *shrugging*:

I'm sorry for showing so much distaste for them receiving the award,

but I really don't like that they're receiving it over other singers who may look not as pretty but who may sing better....

I admit they're so cute. I love it when they dance and sing and wink,

but I get disappointed whenever they sing on live and sound really bad...

It's really hard to sing and dance at the same time, but still...

Not all of them are bad singers. For example, Tae Yeon and Jessica can sing pretty well.

But I guess many people would disagree with what I think of them...

including tons of Koreans from their tens to their fifties.

SNSD or the Girls Generation takes up the first place for

10's (43.2%) 

20's (40.6%)

30's (43.1%)

40's (33.0%)

and 50's (21.6%)

It also looks like they've been taking over since '09 or 2009.

... I must admit, before seeing some horrible videos of some of them not being able to sing,

I really really liked them and cheered for them, too :)

Despite my sarcasm and disagreement I have about them receiving the best singer's award,

it doesn't mean I dislike them by themselves.

It's only their receiving the award that I disagree with.

They're quite adorable, and frankly, they're adored overseas too, and we're proud of them.

Next year when they receive the award for the 4th time,

I hope they're more mature not only in terms of age, but also in terms of their singing skills.

Nolita in Korea's Got Some Pizza & Pasta

I'm in Chicago right now, so I can get some original, non-Koreanized pizza and pasta,

but I know I won't be able to have these food so easily in a month, when I go back to Korea for college.

Fortunately, there's a place called Nolita near where I work, where they sell original pizza and pasta.

They keep it just the way it should be, instead of modifying the food to Korean taste.

I have lots of pictures of the interior because I think

that the interior contributes to their numerous numbers of guests flowing in.

Cozy place, isn't it?

These were our appetizers.

They had olive oil and balsamic vinegar with some great tasting breads.

The breads are for unlimited refill; there's actually a bread buffet where you can just grab all the bread you want.

It was nice, but the bread were kind of Koreanized, I must admit...

It's softer than ones I usually get from the U.S.

This one's another part of our appetizer: Caesar Salad.

I really liked it, but I think people like salad with chicken better than just caesar salad... Meh.

Here our BIG meal comes...

You guys can easily find these in Panera or any pasta restaurant,

but Korean carbonara sauce is less salty and more creamy.

I personally prefer the Korean carbonara because I like cream and subtly salty food.

Uhh... honestly, their pizza was a bit too greasy.

I think it's because all of the food we ordered today are either creamy or greasy.

But it tasted pretty good. Just too much cream and grease for the day...

Some Garlic pasta with garlic and garlic stems.

This one canceled some of the greasiness out of our systems, lol.

Marinara Spaghetti with Roasted Chicken.

For some reason, more male guests tend to get this than female guests.

Weird... why?

Seafood carbonara!!

They had some nice shell fish and shrimps in there...

My favorite!!!

Another seafood pasta.

Except it's not creamy this time.

They were both good, but I like the creamy one better

because this restaurant makes some really good carbonara cuisines here.

Another marinara spaghetti!

Except this time it's sausages and marinara sauce with angel hair spaghetti.

I really should have ordered some seafood marinara...

Those would have been really good!!

Boy, did I utterly pigged out today.

So while I'm at it, I'm going to pig out even more on their delicious bakery.

Which one to choose from, which one to choose from....

Decisions, decisions...

Which one would you like if you had to pick one? :)