Whoa....November flew by! I uploaded the pics (there are many more in the album) from the past two weeks but didn't quite have the time to blog. So here we go...

Thanks to the Paiks we were able to get some awesome BBQ nearby our place at Cubby's in Hackensack. Jersey folks: the food was great, came out super quick (free refills on soda!), make sure you get the sweet potato fries, and the owner is some sort of CIA/FBI secret agent .

pulled pork sandwich and half a rack of ribs

Later in in the week we went to the new gelato place in our neighborhood w/Sue and Lonns. I really liked the gelato but only tried the non-fruit flavors. The inside was super comfy too (perfect for taking silly pics)

This year's Thanksgiving potluck was awesome. We had way too much food, fun and football (well I guess you can never have too much football keke)
The guys started cooking while the ladies relaxed...

Lonnie's awesome stuffing...this stuff is sooo good!!

Then Suseok oppa got really tired so Marie and I went in and took care of business...
  
The guys were sooo amazed and appreciative

The couples shot...don't you love how we're all in our Florida gear

Eating and watching football
 
For dessert Eric bought us goodies from the Palisades Park Bakery (I love this place!)

After dinner we decided to catch a movie. The only one we all didn't see was Beowolf. All of us had no idea what to expect- we didn't realize the movie was 3D (the movie starts and we're like "the screen is blurry" ) and that Angelina was gonna be nekkid in 3D .

Gotta love the glasses though. Very 1980s Ray Ban

The next day we decided to take advantage of the beeyoootiful weather and play some football!
Here some pics of us getting warmed up...

The guys took turns trying to kick a field goal.

Lonns was a little short...

Kyu made it...

Eric made it...playing soccer pays off =P

The teams: Lonnie, Marie and Kyu vs. Eric, Ethan and Eugy (whoa we could have been Team E keke)

During the game there was some trash talking and showboating going on...

"Lonnie let me show you what I can do...

 get OFF of meee!" 

Girls touch downs were worth 9 points... the guys really didn't want Marie to score but she showed them...

The outcome: First game Lonns, Kyu and Marie's team won 23-14
Second game Team E won 23-14. God is so fair. kekek
   
We all decided playing football after Thanksgiving will be a new tradition.

Later that night we went to the East Village for Momofuku ramen. Suseok and I love Japanese ramen and really want to try out all the places in NYC. Their's wasn't too bad but it was too trendy and loud for me. However, one highlight was that we saw Lucy Liu there. She has gorgeous skin and is prettier in person than in the movies.
It was too dark in the restaurant to take pics. But I got a shot of my bowl...

I'm super duper thankful to all our friends in the Northeast. Having you guys nearby makes me feel like a piece of Florida is here with us in Jersey. Thanks for the great Thanksgiving guys! I'm also just feeling super thankful and blessed in general. This past year has been awesome and both Suseok oppa and I have really experienced so much love and generosity from the people we've befriended at church and work. We can't wait for all the things the new year has in store.

When I was down in FL I met a ton of new faces at the B.A.S.I.C. retreat, my college church's annual Fall retreat. It brought back all kinds of memories from retreats past and also just made me feel like I was in college again with the requisite hanging out in the parking lot after lunch and then hanging out at someone's apt and just talking and laughing for hours. We didn't really do anything but it was so much fun hanging out like that again. I feel like now that I'm married and working there are so few moments like that, where you can just chill out at home with friends and just not do anything in particular but let the conversation between friends guide the time and leave room for spontaneity. 

It's sad how the older I get, the busier life seems and that "to-do" list in my planner never seems to get all checked off. But I'm grateful for the infrequent yet awesome moments that provide a breath of fresh air and give me a chance to just sit back and enjoy God's blessings- friends, family and comfortable surroundings. I'm hoping to do a lot of that this weekend during the 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Potluck Extravaganza (in college I liked to name the events I planned for my church like this heheh)- which will just be a small, chill gathering of some good friends that live in the area. I know the weekend will be filled with great food, football and friendship. I hope everyone's Thanksgiving will be a stress-free, fun and safe holiday.

Below is a short clip of John (one of the cool and funny sophs I met during my brief visit to Gville) singing to the ladies at the jam session we had two weekend's ago at Lyn & Qme's place. I also finally got serenaded by my good friend James. I don't have a good clip of it but it was awesome. Thanks James for indulging your noona.

Hey all! I was going to do another massive picture update but things are a little hectic this week. I've uploaded tons of new pictures to the Fall/Winter '07 album, including:

• Halloween at the office
• Ladies Flag Football Tourney
• Hillsong United Conference (Relevant podcast, photos from set up and during the praise (courtesy of James Choi), after party @ Hard Rock)
• Visit to Gainesville

Even though I had a blast at the United Conference and it was super exciting to meet the United gang, probably the highlight of the week was when we picnicked on (well right by) Florida Field and met....

Coach Urban Meyer!!! (if you don't know he's the head coach for UF's football team)

Have a great weekend everyone!! Go GATORS!!! I think there may be an office rumble if UF plays UIUC in the Outback bowl.

I'm back from Florida. While I had a great time in Orlando and Gainesville, I think I'm completely allergic to my home state. I couldn't stop sneezing and got extremely congested, sinuses and all, during my trip. My nose is slowly dripping out all the nastiness.

Ok, so anyways...despite the allergies I had a wonderful, hectic, inspiring, tiring yet energizing time in Florida. Sounds a lil crazy right? hehe

First thing first- Hillsong United, the Hillsong pastors and crew were awesome, truly God-glorifying people! They were all so passionate about building the global church and inspiring youth and leaders alike to worship God in all they do. We were able to meet and talk to every member of United, including the pastors and the behind the scenes team members.

~When I first met them at the Relevant podcast I was surprised b/c they look like super trendy (shaggy hair, skinny jeans and canvas tennies), rockstars, like a band you'd see on MTV. But the moment they open their mouths- no rockstar attitude, instead they are super humble and nice.  They were all incredibly friendly and down to earth and just pumped to be in Orlando for the conference.

~The Australian accent is way fun to listen to. Throughout the whole weekend we were repeating the cool things they say, like "heaps" and I love the way JD is pronounced, "Jai Deeay."

If you weren't able to see the live feed and webcasting over the weekend, you can still go to the Hillsong United Xanga to watch the highlights from the conference or go to archive and pick a date and time you'd like to watch.

Some of my favorite moments:
*Brooke and Gabe's interview (especially Brooke Fraser farting during our interview)
*Hosanna Live   (my coworkers and I were pretty busy during the whole conference and were covering things from behind the scenes, but when they played this song, Chris and I came out to listen and worship for a bit. I love this song, it's definitely my favorite on this album. It was so awesome to hear it live!)
*Relevent interview  (who knew there was an awesome Christian entertainment/publishing company in Orlando? very cool)
*Annie's interview (she's the sole American in the group, super nice and beautiful)
*The closing portion (go to archives, click Sat, Nov 10, and then type in 8:22 p.m., about 30 seconds into it you should see Joel Houston praying and then they do the final couple of songs for about 30 min or so, this was awesome!)

At the conference I was able to meet up with James Choi from Dallas and briefly saw Michele Kim from ATL, DL and Pomi from Orlando. There were about 7,000+ ppl in attendance and over the course of the webcast we had more than 20,000 hits on the United xanga. The event went really well and we received lots of positive feedback. If you tuned in thanks and if you didn't don't worry I think there will be more events like these coming up. =)

I wasn't able to give a shout out to Ji unni during the webcast but I just want to thank her for all her help with the interview questions. Ji unni I'm so jealous of you, living over there in Australia, partaking weekly in the awesome worship and activites at Hillsong Church.

I'll post some more pics up soon but here are some my coworker took...


With some of the United team: Annie, Joel, Brooke and JD


Sound check on Friday


Last night of the conference, the church was packed

More to come....

Update: we'll be starting off tomorrow with the Relevant Podcast
Hopefully I'll get the chance to update tomorrow. Thanks everyone for your encouragement. I hope you all will tune in. =)

Some great news!!

YAY!!! So I'm being sent to the conference with my coworker Chris, camera in hand and an all access
pass.

This is first worship conference that Hillsong will be holding in North America.  We will be streaming the conference and a concert!  So, if you couldn't get tickets to the conference, you can actually join us through the web - here are the events we're planning on hitting*:

Nov. 8th, 12p.m. - 2 p.m.
- Visit to Relevant Podcast

Nov. 9th, 8:30 p.m.
- Live feed at the conference, including a message from Phil

Nov. 10th (pre-event)
- 10:30 - 11 a.m. - Interview with questions from chat for Jad, Timon and Annie
- 1:00 - 1:30 p.m. - Interview with questions from chat for Gabe, Peter, Tenni and Brooke
- 1:30 – 4:00 p.m. - “Choose Your Own Adventure” at the United Conference
- 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. - Interview with questions from chat for JD, Joel and Phil
- 4:30 - 5:00 p.m. - Sound check time
- 5:45 - 6:00 p.m. - Before the service, guys getting ready, praying and walking on stage
- 6PM – LIVE SHOW!!!

*events subject to change

However, in order to make this happen and support this event, it's for anyone who gets a copy of their latest CD/DVD. 

http://store.integritydirect.com/product.asp?prodid=1652

I just bought my copy and can't wait to listen to the new songs. I hope ya'll will get yours too! They will email the all access code, so even if you don't choose to expedite the shipping, you will be able to get the info you need to tune in this weekend.

Also, if you didn't know, David Crowder is also webcasting: http://www.xanga.com/emprise34

I still haven't gotten around to organizing all my PEI pics quite yet. But I will write a review and recap of our trip there very soon. (hopefully keke). In the meantime I wanted to post about the past week. It was one of those weeks that you imagine having in NYC. I guess I mean it was really fun, filled with events and it was all free (well almost)!! A very cool, fun week....

It all started out with my pack of Big League Chew! I didn't even realize they still made this. My coworker Justin gave me one and when I ripped open the little pouch a million memories of growing up in Orlando came flooding my mind- playing street baseball w/a tennis ball, pick up bball, riding bikes in the "sandpit".....playing with the boys... all kinds of fun stuff!!

Suseok oppa received free tickets to the Big Apple Circus from work! Those who know me well know I hate clowns but thankfully there was only one tame clown at this circus. We had extra tickets so we took our lovely, newly-wed friends Janet and Jason.

 

It was the first time Janet and Jason went to the circus, so it was great to share the experience with them. Unlike, Ringling Bros, the Big Apple Circus has that old timey, intimate, circus-you-see-in-the-movies feel to it. You can't tell from the pics but we had great seats to see all the crazy stunts and prancing poodles and horses. I was surprisingly very entertained by every act.  Another cool thing was that Noah Wylie (Dr. Carter from ER) was the celebrity ring master that night. He's very tall in person! After the circus, the Paiks took us to Saigon Grill- an awesome Vietnamese-fusion place on the Upper West Side.

The next night I threw a party at work for two coworkers that were leaving. Our office is a tight knit group, so it was pretty sad to say goodbye to these guys but we sent them off with a bang. =) I had a great time planning the shin-dig. We had a catered dinner in the office and then went bowling at Leisure Time in Port Authority. Which I highly recommend! The bowling alley is newly remodeled and super nice. If you reserve lanes online you can get a 20% discount.

 For privacy sake I'm only gonna post this one pic from the night...

The next morning I got up and baked my coworker Amy cupcakes for her bday.

Oppa helped me decorate. He did a great job! Amy really liked them and my coworkers seemed to also. 

On Saturday we watched the Gators fall to UGA.  It was mucho sad, not only cuz we lost but b/c Timmy was hurting pretty bad.  To cheer ourselves up we made a pizza, inspired by Giada De Laurentis from Everyday Italian on the Food Network. Not only can Suseok oppa decorate cupcakes but he can roll out pizza dough too!  

The pizza came out super-delish! It almost cheered me up....almost...hehe

The next night after church and small group we went to see an off-broadway musical. Oppa's friend gave us tickets to see "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!" The musical was funny and sarcastic and touching all in one.
 
We had a great time and ended the evening with dinner at Hell's Kitchen, the restaurant.

The whole week really  made us grateful to be living up here, so close to NYC. It's so nice to go to shows and enjoy "big city" life. We're also super grateful for all the hookups from last week.  Yay for free stuff! keke

Did ya'll see the UF game on Saturday against Kentucky? Oh man, it was a good game...felt good to see our Gators win after the past two games.

I love TIM TEBOW!!

I found this pic on this site . Cracks me up! I'm playing on my church's women's flag football team and our quarterback can run it in like Tebow. I like to call her Jae-bow. keke  Can't wait for the FL/GA game. Go Gators!!!

We're back from PEI and completely refreshed! Thanks for all the Happy Anniversary wishes. =)  I'll have a PEI update soon but first I gotta do a lil backed up picture posting from Sept and earlier this month.

So in late August Sue unni came back to the US. Yay! She stayed with us for a couple of days while she was apt hunting. It's been awesome having another Northeast  UF/CCF alumnus in our area.

We didn't do anything touristy with Sue unni. Just hosted her and did normal things, like take her on our monthly trip to Sam's. hehe


Then B came to visit straight from the Motherland. His visit's theme was basically "Welcome back to America!" He's one of the few visitors we had that didn't want to eat anything Korean. So for his first night back in the states we took him to Red Lobster. I think he enjoyed it...


B came on Labor Day weekend so like last year we went to Central Park, but this time we brought food. I think this may be a tradition for us.



  
Later that night we went home and met up with Kyu and celebrated B and Kyu's bdays with a cheesecake from Junior's. Their cheesecakes are soooo good!!
     



The rest of Brian's stay was filled with eating, eating and more eating.
   
Brian's visit was fun! I hope he'll one day join the NE branch of UF/CCF alums too!! (come back B!!)

While B was in town Suseok oppa and I went to a coworker's wedding. It was mighty fun to see the xanga folks all dressed up!
Congrats to Chris and Esther!!


The following weekend Kyu invited us to his housewarming/UF game in Allentown. Where we met another soon to be NE UF/CCF alum.


The next week I had a couple of visitors at work...


And then a couple of days later Dianna came to visit!

We had a lunch date and enjoyed a cupcake from Cupcake Cafe. It was as tasty as it was pretty!

During Dianna's visit, Jen and Joonil came by our neighborhood before interviews. We went to our fav kalgooksoo place and then took them to our fav dessert place in Pal Park for patbingsoo.

                             


Later that week, we were all invited to Sue unni's housewarming/UF game viewing party in Westchester. There was good food and great company but unfortunately our Gators lost to LSU.


The next day Dianna went back to Miami, but not before getting in one more patbingsoo at Paris Baguette.


Phew...Sept and early Oct were crazy busy with guests! We had a great time with everyone and can't wait to see more people in the coming months.

One of my childhood wishes is about to come true!!  I'm going to Prince Edward Island this weekend w/ Suseok oppa to celebrate our 2nd anniversary!! You ask, what and where is Prince Edward Island??

PEI is an island off eastern Canada, famous for its beautiful scenery...

mussels and potatoes...

red soil...

 and Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series, my favorite books of all time !!

My mom was a huge fan of the books growing up in Korea and bought me the set when I was in 5th grade. Since then I've re-read the books at least 10 times and read many of the other stories LM Montgomery wrote set in PEI.  I'm so excited about going to the island and seeing the places the author wrote about and just relaxing and celebrating our wedding anniversary in such a beautiful place. I know things have changed greatly since the time Montgomery wrote the books but I've heard the island is still gorgeous and there are tons of national parks that are well maintained and preserved to look how they looked in the early 20th century.

I've watched the Anne movies too and enjoyed the first one, which was most like the book. However, people don't realize very little of the movies were actually filmed in PEI (less than 5%). So, I've started reading the books again to prepare for the trip. One of the great things about this trip is that Suseok oppa is excited to go there too because he read the books as a child in Korea! He's one of the few guys I know that really enjoyed the books and shares my love for the characters and places. =) (one of the many reasons why I married him! hehe)

The only bad thing about this trip is that my mom can't come with us. =( I know that sounds weird, but she and I used to say we would go together to visit the island so I feel a little guilty. One day I will take her though! It would be great place to take the women in your family, maybe one day when I have my own little girl we could all go together. =)

If you've never read the books I highly encourage you to read them. They're soooo good and timeless!
Next week when we come back I'll have another massive picture update. =P Everyone have a great weekend!

Yay it's Friday! It's been a busy week and for some reason this week I feel super irritated and moody. = Maybe changing of the seasons or maybe it's just my usual wackiness. Anyways...

So one of my coworkers and his wife are headed to Gainesville for some business. I offered to give them some recs on places to eat. This is what I got so far:

Gainesville:

• Sushi Matsuri
• Gainesville Ale House
• Mi Apa Latin Cafe
• Satchel's Pizza
• Maude's
• Dragonfly
• Emiliano's
• McAllister's Deli

I know there are more good places but for some reason my brain stops there. I want to recommend non-national chains. Can anyone think of some other good places I'm forgetting?

Shoot- thinking about Gainesville food makes me miss Gville sooo much! hehe I wish Matsuri could deliver to NYC.