Some Belated February Stuff

Liberty department store

I know Valentine's day was a while ago, but I was thinking about it last week. Well, not Valentine's day specifically, but the sisters appreciation events that a lot of guys in Christian groups put together during the Valentine's season. Usually, the evening consists of the boys providing the girls with some sort of food and entertainment. Everyone dresses up and the girls relax while being catered to by the guys.

English Breakfast tea & a salmon sandwich

Btw, the pictures from this entry don't really relate to the text. The photos are from an afternoon tea at the Liberty department store hosted by the Seven College Conference of London for jya students (junior year abroad) from the Seven Sisters schools. There was also one boy there because Radcliff, a former all women's and Seven Sisters college, merged w/ Harvard, so Harvard was also invited. The tea was nice, but honestly, I think we all expected more haha the scones were good though!

scone w/ clotted cream & jam; pouring the tea

Anyway, I've been to a sisters appreciation event before, and I've seen lots of pictures and heard stories about them. Although I enjoyed the event and can appreciate the effort put into them, did you ever think about how this reinforces gender roles? (I know, I know, I'm a sociology major that analyzes everything blah blah)

• Why is it usually the boys doing stuff for the girls? Because girls are more into all that lovey dovey stuff and guys aren't? (related - VDay: An Opportunity to Remind Us That We Are Opposite Sexes)
• If we are going to adhere to socialized gender roles & behavior, why would fellow brothers in Christ be fulfilling the desire of females for romantic stuff?
• If you think about it, its kind of a like a mass date...the boys are showing the girls their potential as future boyfriends --> *cough*senior scramble*cough*
• Why doesn't everyone do an activity together instead of the guys just putting on a show and serving the girls all night? Aren't there activities that involve everyone? Or, is there a need for a special event to show appreciation, or can it simply be shown through how we treat each other everyday?
  

a lot of stuff was already gone by the time I took a picture of the tower

Most importantly, what does this have to do with faith? Isn't Valentine's day a secular, constructed holiday? It doesn't celebrate the love of God, which is not about feelings and hearts. What's the need for these events? Because we might feel too lonely on Valentines day otherwise? God is good all the time, including Valentines day. By clinging to God and living by faith, we can truly know what value is and show appreciation for our fellow brothers and sisters.

Bryn Mawr representin'; shot of the tea room

Perhaps I am over analyzing this. I'm not saying the guys are secretly trying to seduce the girls or have a hidden agenda. I just felt like something was weird about these sisters appreciation events and was thinking about what their purpose is (or the social function they perform a la Gans & poverty). Honestly, I think for most girls, they use events like this as an excuse to get dressed up haha ;)

Mandu Madness

My sleeping patterns have been very messed up since reading week :( I stay up for no reason, missed and have been extra late for class, ay yi yi! I've been way too relaxed about work this semester and feel like I have a lot of catch up to do :/ My classes are interesting so I don't mind the reading, I've just been lazy. Time is going by so fast...I'm planning for Easter break right now, and then classes end, I have exams, and its over!

Things on my mind:

• construction of tradition & romanticized notion of history
  
• normalization of gendered speech and acting (did you know German has a female, male, and neutral nouns?)
• being "cultured" and class discrimination
  

As I previously mentioned, I've been doing a lot of cooking here. Thanks to Aeri's Kitchen and Maangchi, I've been making a lot of Korean food =P And I just found this blog Closet Cooking that makes me want to be more experimental and try new things. My flatmate Pauline took a Chinese cooking class and made beef dumplings for us one night (see above pictures). After that, I was inspired to try! So I used Aeri's kimchi mandu recipe.

Preparing the mandu fillings. Ingredients: veggies, noodles, beef, and, of course, kimchi :)



I ran out of the store bought wrappers and made my own. Mad tedious -_-



Yay my creations! The whitish ones are the store bought wrappers and the rest are made from scratch.



Mandu fail.

You're supposed to freeze them all separately, and then can store them together in a bag. I threw them all in a bag. And now have a giant lump of mandu.



I still had mandu filling left so I made more and this time froze them separately. I also made 2 mini mandus because I can. And they're adorable. :)

Hmm...where to go for break? Sweden? Brussels? Sleep for days? What to do what to do...

Please Recieve Many Blessings this [Lunar] New Year

Happy belated Lunar New Year! 새해 복 많이 받으세요 :) We had a lil get together to ring in the lunar new year. Good stuff. I made dumplings with my friend. Yes, made as in made from scratch!! I will do a post on mandu soon, i've been making mad mandu these past few weeks...

I hope everyone's been enjoying the snow! And staying safe and warm :) I'm not gonna lie, i'm happy I missed the snow haha but it is cold and rainy here :( Weather.com said there was a 20% chance of rain the other day, and I come back to my flat soaked from head to toe. Today, there was a 60% chance of rain/snow. It was sunny & spring-like, I've never seen this many people outside enjoying the weather. Anyway, its my reading week so I had no class this week! Hopefully, tomorrow and Friday, I will be exploring Bristol and Bath.

Lunar New Years :)

Flat-cooked food :)

A very happy hostess with flowers from her namj in the states.
Amy making her family's spring roll recipe for the first time.

The pork dumplings we made! They taste better than they look :)

"I used to step in high school..." Show us! Show us!
Who will be the selfish person* that takes the last piece?

*I was that selfish person haha but i took one for the team! It was just sitting there while we all kept saying we didn't want it.

Very yummy candy from Taiwan :)

I finally got to fulfill my dim sum craving today. Its ironic, I basically came to London to cook Korean food and go to chinatown a lot haha. I have yet to eat fish and chips, but will very soon! I don't think I can go very long w/o eating Asian food though, I get tired of Western food...

Dim Sum at Leong's Legend

Taiwan mini kebab with pork.
Wontons in spicy sauce.

Pork xiao long bao.

Because xiao long bao has broth inside, you're supposed to pierce it with your chopstick and drain it first. I learned the correct method to eat it...after I put one in my mouth whole and burned myself with the hot soup :(
I love char sio bau (roast pork bun).

What's inside?

Sticky rice w/ chicken!

p.s. - Happy hell week to my Bryn Mawr ladies! I'm really sad I'm missing it, but I hope the freshman are having fun, especially my grand hellees!

Trying to Make My Blog More Posh

Hi hi. I'm tryna make things look more professional :) I finally figured out how to get rid of those borders around images! Next...I will make the spaces in between the pictures disappear! And center the posts! o.0 Anywho, these are pictures from last weekend when I went to Camden Market. I preferred Portobello Market, Camden was a lil too touristy for me. It was realllly cold that day though, so that might have affected my enjoyment level haha.

I also went to New Malden, which is the Korean (ish) area outside of London. I paid about £10 for transportation (tube & train) and £16 for dinner. In dollars, thats about $44 -_- Life is hard when the exchange rate is not in your favor. I didn't know it would cost that much! I haven't been much of a big spender over here other than that dinner and my 5 ring. I'm living a thrifty student life! I've been cooking a lot of Korean food on my own so I shall do a food post soon.

I wandered around central London for 4.5 hours with my friend the other day looking for a cafe. London only has pubs! And Starbucks. We settled for overpriced bubble tea but were happy to be in Chinatown :) I have been making good use of the guidebook my BM (and Nova) girls got me. I will do more touristy stuff soon! And explore! And eat fish and chips! But for now...I sleep. I miss you home family and friends! Byebye :)