Young Adult Summer Retreat

It was two days a night we were together. I love how I feel so relax at the place for retreat. It was one of the best moments in my life.

Orientation Day for Graduate Student

UST Orientation Day

Three nights and four days were the days that determined for the orientation. On August 20, we headed from KIST-Seoul City to UST-Daejong City around 12 by luminous bus. It took 2 and a half hour to get there. 

It was totally horrible on the first day of orientation. We did not have breakfast before going, and lunch after arriving at Daejong City. I was freaky hungry and mad. But fortunately I had a packet of snacks and a bottle of water, so I could survive for a while by consuming them. 

Pose together with new students of UST

right after the entrance Ceremony at UST, Daejong City

After the entrance ceremony, we were divided into two main groups: the International students and the National students (The Korean students) to start the orientation. I don't know what the Korean student did at the moment, but we the International students went to a seminar room and got a lecture for about 1 and a half hours. 

Then we took a luminous bus and moved to Daechon City. After 3 hours finally we arrived at Hanhwa Resort, the place that we were staying for the rest days of the orientation. And yes, we finally had dinner there.   

The resorts that we stayed during the orientation

Pose together with the members of group 2 after lego dacta house project

Me at Daechon beach. It was sunny but super duper hot

Graduation Day

My Big Day

Tuesday, August 13

Thank you Jesus JJJ ! 

Yesterday, August 13. The most important day of my life just happened. The word graduation means more than a ceremony for me. It changed my life, to reach a higher stage of my life, the time to become a new person, the time to grow up, the time to follow my dreams and separate responsibilities from fun. In short, every beginning comes from another beginnings end. 

I still cannot believe that I did it. 4 years I studied at Sogang University, I faced hard times and got stress almost all the time. If I looked back at those moments that I've been through, there're not so many memorable moment that I've made, all that I could remember are pains. 

However, I still feel happy that finally I can say good bye to Sogang University J. I have been dreamed that I wanted to leave this school as soon as possible, so that I could start again my life from the very beginning again because I could not hold more those pains that I got. And finally, the time has come. 

Below are my graduation photos that were taken at Sogang University. These photos are really mean a lot to me. They contain every single different moments as well as the feeling that that I felt at that time.

Behind me is Ricci Hall. It houses the Mathematics and Computer Science Departments as well as the research Institute for Technology. I used to spend most of my times for studying there.

My best friend Sonia and me at Sogang University's sports ground

Well, let me introduce my school. The school that I just graduated from is Sogang University. I know that it is enough to you if I call the university's name because you can get complete information from Google or any other search engines. But, I am sorry that I still want to describe a little bit about Sogang University.

Sogang University is a Catholic School, well known as "International High School" in South Korea. Located in downtown Seoul, Sincheon, Sogang was established in 1960 by American Jesuits. Because of its US-style education system and strong financial support from the Jesuits, it quickly became one of the top universities in South Korea. Although the university's leadership is secular these days, the university maintains the Jesuit tradition of high academic standards and an emphasis on good citizenship. Incoming undergraduates typically belong to the top percentile of high school students.

Here is the photo of me with my family in front of a tower. The tower is a symbol of Sogang University, the Albatross, is named after the white bird of the sea and is shaped in the image of the character "ㅅ" and "ㄱ" of the Korean alphabet. The characters are the first two letters of Sogang written in Korean. At the central part of the monument (or tower) are the words "Obedire Veritatis", which means "Obey the Truth" in Latin. 

From left: Mr. Caetano Guterres (Ambassador of Timor-Leste to South Korea), 

Me, and my sweatiest boyfriend Avelino 

in front of Albatross Tower, Sogang University symbol

The motto of my school Sogang University:

                "Be as Proud of Sogang as Sogang is Proud of You"

Nami Island & Pettite France

TRIP WITH MY BESTIES

It is a long story my friend~

It was Saturday/August 10, me and my boyfriend decided to go on a road trip since we haven't go to trip for almost a year. Then, we came up with an idea to rent a car, and go on trip with some friends of ours. At night, I texted my friends, Sonia and Cornelio, asked them if they wanted to join us. And what I guessed was right, because I know well my friends. They never say NO for this kind of program "TRIP and PARTY". Our destination was Gyeonggindo. We four decided to visit Pettite France and Nami Island. 

So, the next morning, Sunday/August 11, my boyfriend and I went to the place of car rental. We were so excited. However, because it was my boyfriend's first time of experiencing driving in the city, Seoul, he felt a little nervous to drive around. The problem was that, he was unfamiliar with the both Korean highways and expressways. Of course there's navigation in the car, but still it's confused. 

So, we stopped at "Amsa-dong Prehistoric Settlement Site" which is not far from the place of car rental. It was our second time to the place as well.

The ticket only costs 500 won ($0.50) per person

The guide brochure is also available at the information desk

You can get it for no charge

Once you enter, you will see these high-collared jars

There, we discussed whether we could make it or not, I mean the plan to go to Nami Island and Pettite France due to the problem of unfamiliar with the streets.

The weather was damn hot at 12:00 PM, but super sunny though. While we walked around, we talked and thought to decide. And finally, he asked me to text Sonia and Cornelio, told them that we couldn't make it. They felt so disappointed, so did I. 

Then, my boyfriend and I drove inside the city for a while to be familiar a little with the city. After around one hour, we then went to Sincheon, Sogang University and had lunch there. We ordered Spaghetti and Oriented Seafood rice for lunch. But again, while we were waiting for our order, he changed his mind. Oh Yeah!!! I felt happy. He said he wanted to drive us to the destination that we canceled a few hours before. 

I then called Sonia and Cornelio to come to Sogang without letting them know that we will go to Nami Island and Pettite France. 

Before we finished our lunch, Sonia arrived. While eating we tried to discuss something else, but it didn't work due to the complaint by Sonia about the sudden cancellation of the trip. I was going to laugh but I tried hard to hold it. She had no idea about the last decision that my boyfriend and I made. But, later on, she found out by seeing some photos of my boyfriend and I with the same outfit, and with the car on the camera. 

We almost finished our meals, but still Cornelio didn't appear on time. After 20 minutes of the appointment time, he then showed up. He had no idea at all. He did the same thing as Sonia. He started complaining as soon as he arrived. We three tried hard not to laugh in order to surprise him anyway.

We walked the way to Bellarmino dormitory, because we parked the car nearby the dormitory. And when we reached, I opened the car, and he was WTH??? LOL~~DAH~~he surprised finally! And yeah he felt HAPPY as well of course since it was his first time to Nami Island and Pettite France after living here in Korea for five years. 

And we set our destination on the navigation, aaaannnddddd GO GO GO~~~~~

Here are the photos that we were taken during the trip. 

The interior design of the restaurant that we went for lunch

Songang University

While waiting for our order, I captured some views of the restaurant interior design  

Otw to pick Sonia and Cornelio up 

So cool, and I have no idea where was this

Selfie time babe

Oh yes!!! Excited!!!

Us at Pettite France!  Thanks GOD we arrived sound

The boys

Again the boys in action

I am single girls! Who wants to sit next me??? LOL

The GIRLS at Nami Island

나미섬의 가로수길

Crazy act

He’s doing his silly thing here

Otw Back home

On the way back home, I swear we were stuck in the same place for almost 2 hours because of the TRAFFIC JAM. But, it was OK since every one of us enjoyed that TRAFFIC JAM. LOL. 

Overall, it was tiring, however, I had so much fun did trip with these awesome people, and so did they. I hope we will set another program.

Summer Dessert "Patbingsu"

PATBINGSU

Well, talking about summer season, we are never be apart from ice cream, sherbet or such. However, here in Korea, what can we do when it is a bazillion degree outside and we are like super over hitting and melting??? Nothing is better to eat on a hot day in Korea during the summer season than this dessert.

It is "Patbingsu" (팥빙수) which is actually ice cream with combinations of many things including ice shaved, or in other words is ice flakes with various topings, as you can tell from the picture above. 

Let’s describe what patbingsu means. Technically, 

Pat = red beans (boiled)

Bingsu = Chinese world for ice + water, but everyone understands it as a "shaved ice" dessert.  

There are so many different levels of patbingsu which is actually using the same ice flakes and adding some different ingredients. For instance, strawberry Bingsu which is ice flakes with strawberry on the top and other ingredients on.  

The basic ingredients are: 

1. Shaved ice

2. Sweet boiled red beans

And the rest you can add 

3. Ice cream 

4. Fruits (strawberry, banana, kiwi, etc)

5. Dduk (Korean rice cake)

Christmas Holiday

Christmas Holiday

Yes, this is my fifth Christmas holiday without my family. So sad!!! Christmas to me is a celebration, which includes spending time with my family, decorating the entire house inside and out, and shopping for the people I love. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me.

Spending Christmas with my family is very important to me. We usually gather and celebrate at our house, in Dili-East Timor. A week before the Christmas celebration, we spend the day baking cookies, making cakes and preparing a big Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. Doing those activities for Christmas are so much fun. I remember when I was little I loved to see my cousins and friends the same age as me. We played game, ate cakes, and watched fireworks.

But, since I stay away from my parents going study abroad in another country, I started to feel a different Christmas culture. I feel totally different. No Christmas songs around the place I live and the weird thing is people always get busy with other things despite of busying preparing for Christmas. Another funny thing yet surprising is when it comes to Christmas, it seems like Valentine’s Day. Whenever I go out on Christmas day for dinner with my boyfriend, it is hard for me to see Korean people spending time with their family. What I see are couples everywhere. And me and my boyfriend look each other and say “Are they serious???” I mean I don’t want to judge them or such, but you know, Christmas supposed to be with family. It is important. OMG!!! It is just strange. I just hate to see it, because they got me so jelly, how bad I want to spend my Christmas with my family, but I just can’t because I we are not together now, but they have their family around. Super crazy I think when I see this.

Anyway, Christmas here was not that fun, but I tried hard to make my Christmas become a special day. On 24^th night I, my boyfriend, and one of my friends went to church. After that we then went for dinner nearby. We planned to spend the whole night playing around,  eating cakes, singing in karaoke, and other things, but it didn't work out because the weather wasn't kind. It was so cold and I just don’t know how to describe. But, I actually enjoyed the Christmas with those two beautiful people though.

I rarely go into department stores, but during the Christmas season, I love doing shop because the stores are so beautifully decorated and very festive. I can easily get carried away, with spending so much money. I must admit the thought of spending too much money hardly comes to mind.

Although I am not with my family during the Christmas holiday or another special holiday such as thanks giving day, but I feel so fortunate to have my boyfriend and my friends throughout the year, especially at Christmas time. When showing, my friends just how much I love them and what exactly they mean to me. That is so very important to me. Christmas, for me is about being with family, loving each other and showing each other just exactly how we all feel.

Satirical Essay on Starving Children In Africa

Far More Likely to Provide The Hunger 

Poison than Food

By: Natalina (Sogang University)

There are so many starving children in Africa spreading like wildfire in the forest. Thousands of children die from starvation every single day under the eyes of international community. Many organizations such as United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Red Cross, Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Organization (UNO), and many more are failed to provide substantial amount of nutrition to save the hunger. All they did was showing how delicate is the situation by broadcasting awful images of starving children crying and dying. There’s no one who could help to stop the children from dying in a terrible and pitiful way. Even those organizations did more harm than good. They humiliate as well exploit African by showing to the whole world that they are dying from starvation. 

There are thousands of photos and videos on the Internet and news which show the pitiful starvation of children in Africa. Those are the results of hard work of the media and press that went to Africa for filming and broadcasting their suffering. By showing those terrific images on the TV, Newspaper, Magazines, and the Internet, the image of Africa is spoiled all over the world. Of course, the main reason they share things happen in Africa is to get the world’s attention for responding these food and humanitarian crisis and find potential donators who can help to end world hunger. However, viewers outside there just take pleasure to watch those miserable children dying as if they are watching FIFA world cup or such. Rather, their ultimate purpose of broadcasting news of starving children issue by showing a bunch of underweight children will just make people feel bad for only a few minutes, but then they will forget. So, conversely this is just to spoil the image of Africa, not to get people for helping Africa. Hence, they better stop filming the awful situation of starving children in Africa because people in today’s world are more shocked by the gay marriage issues or relationship between celebrities, or other interesting gossips instead of the images of pitiful starving children. 

More interestingly, if we try more to find out why International Journalists want to report the shameful situation of Africa, there is a basic reason which is revenge. Some countries in Europe that had colonized African more than 60 years to get the natural resource that Africa has, but they failed. So, they use International Journalists to tell the word that Africans actually has no ability to live their lives. They want the world know the truth that Africans still depend on them. Seriously, aside of spoiled African image, this situation has brought many bad influences on Africa’s economy too. Why? Since people are bombarded by the media, they are more likely to believe on what they see on TV and internet. They are making another problem that is worst for the economy of the old continent. 

Therefore, I suggest that rather leave starving children die because it is way less painful than trying to help them to survive. If it takes long for them to feel their pain, then those organizations that help children’s around the word, such as UNICEF, UNHRC, Red Cross, NGO’s, WFP, UNO, far more likely to give the victims of hunger food poisoning to end their pain as quickly as possible. Just stop providing the medical supplied and necessary food, because if you let them die from starvation is way more inhuman. Also, since it’s too paining and pitying to watch them suffer, there is no other reason to live than die. You know, people were born to die anyway. So, it is insignificant that each year millions of dollars are spending to buy foods and drugs to save the children in Africa from malnutrition and starvation, because none of them reach the actual population in need for. If you do so, then it is just like you spend money for nothing. Keep in mind that life is meaningless if we cannot afford to live anymore.

Besides, there is also another way to stop saving children from starvation. Slave trade can be a good idea. By using the donation money, some starving children could be sent to another country to be slave. Because people who live in big development country, in today’s world, they spend too much on their pets. Do you know how much they spend to raise and save their pets? I can say they spend too much. Comparing the pets that do nothing for their owner with the human being, I think it is better for you to spend money on starving children of Africa. I bet they will do more for you than pet that you have does. You can ask them to do what you want them to do. So, save their live, raise them instead of pets and give them little good place to stay. It is OK to make them as your slave. 

Stop complaining, step back and take a look at how much you have

Take the time to realize that you have so much to be grateful for

On the other side, if we see clearly, the fact that happened in Africa is the aid sometimes does not get to its intended recipients. The main reason is because of corruption on the receiving end. Some of the countries are run by people who take the aid and sell it elsewhere for their personal need rather than donate for hapless families. And, another reason is because of the charity’s overhead. Some charities spend more on the overhead (salaries and such) than on actual aid. These are the charities that get into legal trouble. Therefore, stop acting like an angle that is sent by heaven to help those children. It will be better acting like an evil that provides poison instead of food so that the children will die peacefully. 

In short, those International Medias and Organizations sponsored by the international community still cannot reach their main goal. Not enough is being done for this situation. What they are doing still is more harm than good in their intervention on the starvation situation in Africa. However, don’t surprise me that you are agreed with me. Do not get me wrong too. I am here not to say that people who give contributions to starving children in Africa were totally negative. I just sometimes don’t want starving African children to survive. I questioned to myself that do people really care about them? If they do so, then why there are still so many people starving to death? Of course, they support hard, but still the more they support there is no end to this problem. Since I consider the fact that they might not be aware of the real harm they are causing and just believe that they are doing incredible charities. Likewise, poisoning the children might not be the best solution too. Although they are still unable to end the hunger

Hope of Africa