Brutal Boston

My first post of this year will be about the winter in Boston. This season is by far the most snowy winter for not only just me but also Boston as a city itself. They spent the most dollars shoveling and removing the snow, and the inches hit the highest number as it says in the news. Yesterday was officially the day that marked this season the 3rd snowiest winter in Boston and it doesn't seem to be stopping at this point. Anyway, here are some footages of my winter so far!

That's just a selfie picture of myself. Hopefully my next posting will has less snow with more fun stuff! 

Blessed, 

Minju

IU (아이유) - 무릎 

She released a song for fans before her new upcoming album is released and I AM IN LOVE WITH IT.  Her voice and the acoustic melody harmonize so well that it's like she is singing right next to me. The lyrics of this song is about a girl reminiscing her past lover troubling her to fall asleep. Coming out of few broken relationships with scarring remnants, the emotions of this song perfectly aligns with what I am going through right now and it always makes me gooey inside every time I listen to this song. 

Lyrics

모두 잠드는 밤에 혼자 우두커니 앉아 
다 지나버린 오늘을 보내지 못하고서 깨어 있어
누굴 기다리나 아직 할 일이 남아 있었던가
그것도 아니면 돌아가고 싶은 그리운 자리를 떠올리나
무릎을 베고 누우면 나 아주 어릴 적 그랬던 것처럼
머리칼을 넘겨줘요 
그 좋은 손길에 까무룩 잠이 들어도 잠시만 그대로 두어요 
깨우지 말아요 아주 깊은 잠을 잘거예요

Blessed, 

Minju

To Love at all is to be VULNERABLE

My heart is also torn and damaged like the balloon in the cartoon from relationships in my past few years. I am scared to be emotionally vulnerable and exposed again because it will get thrown away like it happened multiple times before. This cartoon perfectly depicts what I went and am going through right now. The best part of this cartoon is the last few slides where the heart is fixed and she finds someone she can be vulnerable again. I do not know if I will find that one person... but through God there is hope. He is our ultimate healer and provider of everlasting love. His words are alive and utterly comforts me that I will be fine. 

"To love at all is to be vulnerable..."

with hope, 

Minju

New orleans, NAWLINS, or NOLA

This is such a late post.. Long story short, I went to visit Yvette who works in Lafayette, LA for my summer break in August with some other CMU friends, Karen and Ling. Though our trip was only 4 days, it was definitely one of my favorite summer trips in my whole entire life. My first impression of Louisiana can be described in two words: humidity, and hospitality. Being away from Boston summer, which was chilly and breezy, it was great to be back somewhere like seoul where I can wear summer clothes to the fullest and sweat as much as I can. I love talking to strangers in louisiana because they always refer to me as ma'am or dear :) That's something that is hard to hear from someone from the streets in Boston. These are some pictures that summarizes my best memory of this summer!

Reunion with my lovelies, Karen and Yvette :) 

we went to this place called "shady oak cafe" to eat southern take out lunch! Heard the restaurant started by a guy who just likes to cook for other people and it got so popular that he made his parking garage into a huge kitchen to start actually selling this souther homefood. 

We visited the tabasco factor in Avery Island, LA. Seems unbelievable but literally ALL tabasco bottles in the world are produced in one factory that we visited! 

Had Boudin (pronouced BOO-DAN) for the first time and it was so juicy and flavorful :)

One thing we cannot miss in Louisiana is... LIVE MUSIC!! We went to blue moon saloon where the back of the house is turned into a small pub, but the band was all cleaning up after the concert :( so we approached the lead singer and he sang live acoustic version of his song just for us girls. That was so sweet. Side note: Louisiana local beers are SO GOOD!!! i highly recommend to try ABITA series.

Here goes the New Orleans photos!

Walking around the french quarter of NOLA made me feel like I was in Europe. This is probably because new orleans was once ruled under France back in the history so the streets, architecture, small structures had strong french influences. It was absolutely beautiful. 

What else is famous in New Orleans? BEIGNETS! They are more like cousins of donuts without the hole and a lot of super powder. Their coffee is also.. AMAZING. For a daily coffee drinker, this treat of dessert and coffee definitely gave me energy to stay up for my night at the bourbon street :P 

Before we headed to the famous Bourbon street, Yvette took us out to eat at a Live Jazz backyard wine bar. The front store is a wine cellar and we buy the wine there to bring it to the backyard to enjoy with the food. The lightening and music just made the whole place so dreamy and full of romantic atmosphere. It was great catching up with everyone and reminiscing college memories :) Side note: the wine LOLA 2013 was the best wine I ever had.

Then we headed to the bourbon street, but this was not how it looked like when we went! :P psychh

We started our night with the famous HANDGRANADE DRINKS! thank you Karen for losing the bet and buying us all the drinks :)

After a crazy night, we HAD to stop by a pizza place to eat our mandatory late night food. hehe

Next morning, we woke up to get our brunch at Achafalaya near the Magazine St. 

Live music is EVERYWHERE!

 Bulldog Bar on Magazine St. 

We felt bad for Ling who waited for us for hours while we shop at these small vintage stores 

Beer time!  

Another dessert time! Snow ice cone :) 

Yvette is so cute in the background 

 Out dinner at Jacques Imo's 

If you want good flavorful spicy southern food, GO THERE!

Caught the mid-year Mardi Gras Parade :) 

Next day, we went back to yvette's place to get ready to go back to the east coast.. 

Before the flight, we had a 2-hr long outdoor bbq lunch with Yvette and her coworkers! 

It was probably my first and last time in the pool this summer. 

Overall, this trip was so far one of my favorite with my favorite people. The memories I made here will always stay in my most special place in heart :) 

Blessed to have friends, 

Minju

Cape Cod

I haven't posted anything in a while.. there are some major events that happened between this post and the past post but I will post them later :)

The KUPC Boston crew finally went to Cape Cod together after I moved to Boston! We picked the perfect weekend to go because the weather was PERFECT.. breezy, chilly, yet super sunny (I love SUN)

In front of the a brunch place, Crabapple's. 

Steak & Eggs

Time to go biking!

Break time by the shore :) 

Falmouth, MA

My favorite couple, Matt & Bex 

Coffee & Ice-cream time and reading about interesting facts in the Guinness world record book

 One of the big reasons why I love Boston so much. 

All the photos were taken by Jensen Ying 

Best, 

Minju

Hillsong No Other Name Concert

I finally went to a hillsong concert! everytime I wanted to go to one, the dates never worked for me.  When hillsong performed in Pittsburgh, I was not there at that time, and when they had a concert in Korea in 2012 and 2014, I was in the States. My coworker Sojin told me about the hillsong concert and this time I DID NOT WANT TO MISS IT. So I emailed my small group members and kupc members to see if they wanted to go and ended up gathering 8 people to go as a group! The tickets were 38 dollars for the floor seats not the bleacher seats.  Since I've already been to the NY hillsong church, I was expecting something similar but this concert was so much better in terms of engagement of the audience, the sermon / seminar, and the stage performance.  The stage work with the electronics definitely elevated the mood for the concert.

My favorite part of this photo is the cross in the back part of the stage. 

the bleacher seats were all filled as well

Of course, selfie group photo time after the show :) 

Godwin is hidden behind danny just showing his clean forehead

Do you see that NO OTHER NAME screen behind us?

Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) - Hillsong (in the No Other Name Album)

Although the concert was super tiring from jumping, signing, raising my arms up the whole time, it was totally worth it.  Giving praise to God for almost 3 hours with hundreds of strangers all in one voice was.. pretty awesome. It was amazing to see everybody in the room cheering and raising their voice for God as one body in Christ. Growing up in a conservative Korean church, this was not a normal experience of worship we get. I absolutely love all the songs from the newest hillsong album "no other name" I have been listening to the album on repeat at work when I am doing experiments and it reminds me every single day why I am sent here, and what I am called to do as a daughter of Christ. Also, I am so blessed that my workplace is super flexible that I am listen to any music I want at any time of the day! Praise the Lord. 

Blessed, 

Minju