Winter Vacation Part I

This will be a really long post since I have quite a lot to report, so it may take me a few days to get everything typed out and all the pictures posted. If need be, I may make a second post just to break it down, but for now let's see how much I can cram into this one.

First, the Yamahon challenge. That was possibly the most horrendously tasty event I ever went to. Whenever the Japanese say anything about Westerners being gluttonous,  it is a hypocritical remark. I have never seen an American person eat nearly as much as this, and as soon as photos are up you'll know what I mean. It's just somehow the Japanese manage to stay relatively thin despite eating an incredible amount of food. At the restaurant there were three tables of our lab people, each table representing a team lead by a senior member of the PHD program. Here I decided to break the photos down into levels:

Level 1:

Level 2:

Level 3:

Level 4:

Final Level:

So my table containing a total of 5 people managed to eat over 80 plates. Since I only ate 6, it was the other members who ate nearly 20 plates a piece. Of course, we were not the winning table either... Yamamoto (Yamahon)'s team won the challenge with over 100 plates among their members. I pretty sure a few of the lab members went home sick, but it was one of the most entertaining dinners I have ever had.

My Christmas Party was also a ton of fun! Me and my Korean buddies went over to Kayoung's house. I made a Swedish Tea Ring, Haejoo made the main dish of korean style ribs, and Kayoung made the Christmas cake. We also ordered some sushi and some other extra foods to enjoy. It was a lot of fun, and we talked, laughed, and cooked just as I usually do at my home on Christmas.

My lab, the week before winter vacation, also had an end of the year party. It was also the same day as the big lab-cleaning, so that morning every member of the lab was dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, sorting, and sweeping every nook and cranny the laboratory and student rooms had. After that, everyone had worked up quite an appetite, so we all went to a Korean BBQ restaurant to eat together. Guiltily, I was late to this party since I missed the correct bus, but luckily I was only 5-10 minutes late, so I didn't miss anything other than drink orders. From what I could tell everyone had a good time, but I am pretty sure some of the lab members drank waaaaay too much ( you can tell by their facial expressions which ones). They were laying on the floor of the restaurant not too long before we had to go. Luckily that part of the place was empty, so they didn't bother people.

They also had Karaoke after this, but I respectively declined and went home after the dinner part. Somehow, I think Karaoke with a bunch of drunk laboratory researchers is not exactly my cup of tea. I wasn't feeling too great either, as I later found out I had caught a cold.

Finally, I had really great time over my winter vacation! I was worried at first because I had caught that cold during the week before I left, but luckily with the regular consumption of Zicam and chicken soup, I was feeling better before I left. The next post will be about me going to Kagoshima and Kumamoto to meet my family. Until then enjoy the photos above!