How long have we been here?!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Jane & Ching-ching


Hello, this is Ajenai.

Jane is a friend of my moms and she has a two-year old son named Treasure. Jane is from Africa and she lives in a nice house across from a market. She lives near my street, up a huge flight of stone steps and to the left..

She is a nice woman and is very friendly. She goes to church on Sunday's and goes places with her son. She speaks English well and her son is a good boy for his age.

She makes food by hand like in Africa. She makes the dough then cooks it and sometimes she makes treats. She is a very nice woman.

At Jane's house I played with her son. We played with his toy instruments and he rode around in his toy car. We watched a little TV and then I read him a story. He put in his Barney DVD and he watched that. When it was over I helped Jane make an African treat called Ching-ching.

I helped cut the dough into little squares while Jane made more dough slices for me to cut. When the dough was in little squares, Jane put them in a pot of oil and fried them. I took another chunk of dough from the big piece of dough and flattened it out.

I folded it over and layed it out. Then I cut int into small slices and gave them to Jane to cut into little cubes. We made three batches and put the fried cubes into a bowl. We ate them hot. Jane made more batches of the Ching-ching treat while I played with Treasure again. At eight, Treasures dad came home and I left.

Ching-ching Recipe
Here is a recipe for an African treat called ching-ching. I learned how to make it at Jane's house. You can make it too!

You Need:
flour
butter
sugar
nutmeg

1. mix with hands
2. take out a chunk
3. roll out flat
4. cut into strips (toss out edges)
5. cut strips into small cubes
6. fry in oil till brown
7. enjoy!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Visit from America!!





Hello, hello!








My mom was here! and my sister, of course!








They stayed for almost 3 weeks and guess what? I wasn't even ready to kill them by the time they left! It was a really nice visit (even though I was kicked out of my own queen sized bed and had to sleep with the kid!).






The most important thing to check out when anyone goes to a foreign country is. . . the food, of course. So I had an entire menu of my favorite places to show my mom and sister. Thai food (Pattay, my favorite place!), italian food (Santorio), Mediterranean food (Petra), greek food (Istanbul, yum), baked goods (Paris Baguette!), Australian food (Outback Steakhouse), and even good old American food (Subway, Friday's, Bennigans, McDonald's, & Costco!).






After a few days my sister was like," Am I in Korea or where the hell are we? I want some Korean food!" Sorry, no can do. I've been in Korea over 200 days and guess what? Not a fan of the food! I couldn't even think of where to go let alone recommend a place to go. So, Mikaela set out on her own Korean Cuisine adventure. Once she found some things she liked she had to drag the rest of us (kicking and screaming!) along for the ride! And, it actually turned out not to be too terrible! A slide show of one of our adventures should be posted too.



We actually went to two different ones. The first was in Insadong. Mikaela found some place cause she said, "look, there's lots of Koreans in there. That's always a good sign!" Which is not a bad guidline I guess but it's pretty scary when you sit down and the menu has 6 items on it! I was like, where's the rest! And you could tell we were not happy at first! But then the food came and we each liked something so it was cool. Second place we went was a Korean BBQ. The lady brought dish after dish after dish out to the table until there was barely room for it all. Then she brought a bowl of water which she put on the grill and a bunch of leafy greens, which also went on the grill. Next she brought out the meat. We were sitting there staring with what must have been blank looks on our faces because she commenced to show us exactly how to eat the food! Once we got the idea of what went with what, it was actually quite tasty.




Anyway, I had a great time when they were here and was sorry to see them go. If anyone else wants to come visit. . . I have 2 bedrooms. I'm just saying! It would be nice!




Until Next Time!




a & a

Monday, April 14, 2008

Viewing Ne Yo Pictures

Hey, you know I'm new at this! If you click on the title of the below article, you can view my slideshow!

Enjoy

a & a

Pictures From Ne Yo Concert

Hello hello!

So, I have finally uploaded some new pictures. These were taken at the Ne Yo concert we went to last weekend.

Enjoy! And more to come. . .

ayanna & ajenai

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Ne-Yo in Seoul

Greetings from Seoul!
Sunday I went to the Ne Yo concert. The name sounded familiar and I thought it would be fun, but, I could not name a Ne Yo song if held at gun point. Once there though I recognized 2 songs.
So, we wanted to party like we used to in our 20's (cause most of the folks who went with me ARE in their 20's!) so we got tickets for the floor. You can imagine the chaos. We were right at the stage, with bodies about 9 deep between me and 16 year old Ne Yo (that's about how old he looked!).

Now, you know Koreans have no sense of personal space on a normal basis, so trust me when I say I could barely breathe on the floor. I just kept the attitude that this was all in the spirit of fun.

So when the chick next to me kept bumping me in the face with her armpit, I thought, spirit of fun. When the 200lb. Korean boy behind me stepped on my foot more times than I could count, I thought, spirit of fun. When the army dude behind me screamed out Ne Yo's name as if he was being murdered, directly in my right ear, I thought, spirit of fun. When the blond girl behind me spilled her Chilsing Cider (sprite) down my back, I thought, spirit of fun. When the tall white dude behind me hit me in the head when he tried to throw his baseball hat on stage, I thought, spirit of fun. When the brunette on my right banged her elbow into my back, looked at me and said, let's push our way to the front! I said, HELL NO! GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME!!! Hey, spirit of fun only goes so far. :)




But it was fun. The funniest thing was being surround by all these Koreans who knew every word of every song Ne Yo sang. And they were not shy about yelling them out, either. Whether they had a good voice or not. Most, not. Sean Kingston opened for him. He was alright I guess, but we could have went to a club with a DJ and had the same experience.




Afterwards, we played the groupie thing. Hanging around the stage waiting for someone from the band to show up. Finally, the DJ came back on stage and my girl Kisha handed him her business card and said she was a friend of a friend and for Ne Yo to call her. I won't hold my breath. But, at least he took it!


Now, of course I could have gone to a Ne Yo concert in the US, but really, who would be on the floor with me? Exactly, so I count this as a Korea only experience!


It's interesting hanging out with a bunch of intercontinental late 20 year olds. They have a different concept of time and priorities. I vaguely remember thinking that way!


Until Next Time!


Ayanna & Ajenai


PS: My sister took my USB cord, so as soon as I get another one I'll add pictures!