Back to reality; start of school term

one week after the start of a whole new semester...

I'm glad this first week has been great. somehow, I'm able to speak up more in class now than in previous semesters. I've been seeing exchange students around and would really love to hang out with them someday. it would remind me so much of my exchange life in Seoul..

I'm really excited about my trip to Europe in December. but at the same time, I'm also worried about my accomodation at my friends' place and spending too much time in Germany. The thing is... december is 4 months away from now. Nobody will know how will the situation be like then. What if my friends get attached, wouldn't it be strange for me to bunk in at their apartment?

Meeting Nico, martin and ayaka have been great. It's really awesome to see these people again because it makes me feel that the time I spent in Korea was not unreal; it was not a dream. The friends I made during exchange are a part of me now.

I miss Korea, Ewha, Ihouse, 7th floor kitchen, my room, my roommate, my neighbours, my friends, the food, the shopping so much..... and above all, the freedom and living in a foreign island with all my new found friends who got so close with me over a period of weeks and months resulted in a state of excitement. Because we were away from home, we were daring. We did all we wanted to do. No fear, almost no shame, and absolutely no barrier. Nothing stopped us from doing what we wanted. No reasons or excuses required. How thrilling is that? Learning new things EVERYDAY from the people I met there who grew up in such different environment and culture as me.

In any case, as much as I miss my life in Korea, I have to look forward and I hope I am. I am looking forward to my trip in Europe, possibly a 6 month internship after that, graduation, searching for my ideal job, earning money and finally travel around again. That is my motivation.

Martin and Ayaka came to Singapore for 5 days and now they're gone.

They stayed at my place. It was awesome meeting them again because I missed them so much before. It was like.. learning how to adapt to my life alone in sg and now, having to relearn it again.

I miss phillipp, alex, nico and rio so much. I miss being around people all the time, going out with them and coming back to the same ihouse every day. Everything felt fresh and different when I came back from Seoul. I attended the first choir practice and right away, I learnt that choir taught us to be patient. My conductor was going through the bass parts and I felt a little impatient because I had to wait. But I've never felt it before I left to seoul. I was used to it then. It was amazing how we oblivious we can be to our surroundings that almost everything seems natural, but they're not! It's so important to step out of our comfort zone, so that we come back seeing things afresh and learn to appreciate them more.

Of course, the side effect is that I became more critical. When I just reach Singapore, I was comparing Singaporeans with foreigners. I was comparing Singlish and English. I was being critical of my surroundings. It's not necessarily a good thing. It was about learning to accept and embrace the differences. Learning to love being a Singaporean, which in a way, could mean being unique. On the second day I was back, I was ordering some food when I overheard the stall lady saying "This one how much ah?" It was so unusual for me. Immediately I thought, Singaporeans should improve our english. Singlish is unique, yes, but it is also important to speak good english to be able to communicate with non-singaporeans. It is okay to speak singlish but also, it is important to know what the correct sentence should be so that we can use it when it is necessary.

It was nice that ayaka and martin visit me here. I visited MBS and the new sentosa. I visited the places that only 1. tourists or 2. couples would visit. Haha. Being single, these are the places I would not visit. So it was cool that I got my chance to visit those places. Ahah... I brought them around to eat Chicken rice, Bak kut teh, 126, goreng pisang, and of course the other local delicacies like char kway teow and all... and they love it! Nico is coming in august and I will bring him to all the awesome food places again :D

Separation is always hard. Now, I need some time to get used to living by myself again.

My last week in Seoul was crazy. I clubbed almost every day. And something different happened almost every night.

I'm back home now. Everything seemed to have happened so fast in Korea. During my last week in Korea, I met Dorian and his gang (Mr. Rio). They were fun to hang out with but too bad, I think we met too late in the semester (just like what Dorian said).

During my last days, I also started hanging out with Phillipp. The german guy whom I thought was gay on my first night clubbing in Seoul because he didn't appear to be interested in girls! My impression of him actually improved after we started talking during the last few days. I was always drunk when I saw him. But last week, we spoke more often, like what real friends do. I found him to be a nice guy :) I gave him a card before I left.

I met Youna, my peace buddy on my second last day in Korea. We had an awesome lunch and she bought me a gift and wrote me a card :)) how sweet of her.

And on my very last night, Alex came and finally said what he wanted to say to me. We humans always wait till the last minute to finally feel the pressure to do what we always wanted to do. tsk tsk.

And on my last morning, Oni, Akiko, Willy, Phillipp, Alex, Rio, Nico, Jing, Basti and Sascha sent me off. When I was at the bus stop waiting for the airport bus with the rest, everything felt unreal. I cried so much for the last few days but when I was at the bus stop, I couldn't feel anything. It was as if I was in a dream. Then we hugged and I left on the bus. And then, I started realising that I was leaving Seoul. I started crying in the bus. And then on the plane, I felt so bad but I didn't allow myself to cry because there were so many people around me. I met pf and jx at hk and that night, I was drunk. I was so upset that I sobbed so hard at the hotel lobby while I was skyping with Ayaka and Martin. I need some time to readjust back to my life before.

I miss seoul SO much and especially the friends I met there. Martin and Ayaka will be paying a visit soon. It's gonna be funnnnnnn :)

Almost the end of semester.

Again. It's amazing how things can happen within just a short period of 3 weeks.

I was pretty disappointed 3 weeks ago because of something that happened. Since then 3 weeks passed, things changed so quickly. I feel better now because I know I'm not the problem. Afterall, I realised it's better to take things in my stride. It's good now.

This week is the last week of the semester. There was a "graduation" and farewell party last friday. We were given certificates of completion for our exchange in Ewha. Also, we had pizzas! It was so awesome. The pizzas here are much better than Pizza hut ones and Canadian pizza. I haven't tried the Pizza Hut here though.

Last Saturday, we had a see-you-again party at the rooftop followed by barfly. The music suck pretty much so everyone was outside with their beers and hanging out with people. I met some guys from Yonsei. One of them is really hot and yes, he's not korean. I don't know why but the korean guys I see at Sinchon are really not attractive. It's so different from what we see on TV in Singapore. I was pretty disappointed when I reached here. Well, Ayaka told me the guys at Gangnam are much better looking so.. I should go to Gangnam soon.

My exams just ended. I really didn't study a lot. I know I would have done better if I had spent 2 more days studying instead of starting on my studies 2 days before the exam. But well, I'm satisfied anyway. I got one of my grades back already. It's freaking good for my kind of attendance and my kind of attitude towards the subject. I would have to put in 20x the effort in SMU to fare the same grade. I just hope for a pass for the rest of my modules...

Many international friends here are leaving soon. Some have left already. It's really kind of sad to say goodbye. It will be less happening here.. Now we have to wait for the summer students to come before there can be more happening things here once again.
Basti and me :))) one of my soulmates here. we're so similar :)

My korean teachers, 이성생님 and 박성생님, and my classmates on the last day of classss :))) Ayu, Tadayoshi, Yuzhong, Chen Si, Siera, Valerie, Benjamin, Victoria, and Mika. Akari wasn't there.


Alex goh came to seoul last week. Met him for samgeopsal and cocktail soju at Sinchon


Oni, Ayaka and me with our certificates :))

Ayaka and me at i-house rooftop :)

Picking up bits and pieces

Almost coming to an end of my exchange semester here in Korea. I'll be having my finals end of this week and the beginning of next week. After which, probably would travel more frequently around Korea before going back to Singapore.

Just as I said things were finally in place, it's on rocks again. I was chatting with a friend in Singapore who had been on exchange and he was telling me that I may be making decisions based on the current situation, which is true. I would have done things differently if I were in Singapore. Anyways, I should embrace whatever I did and will do here regardless of whether they were stupid or smart. Been there, done that and no regrets.

Last week was a lazy week. We partied from thurs to sat. Other than that, we basically did nothing. Nico left to Jejudo with his family and will only be coming back a week later... and Martin's dad is here so he would be spending lesser time with us. Meanwhile, I'm closer with my roommate now and would most likely be travelling to Busan and Gyeongju with her after my exams. I remember on the first night I checked in to dorm, she was not around in the room and she came back in the wee hours so I only met her the next morning. My impression of her was that she was such a neat person and maybe a party animal at the same time. As time passed, I saw that she was not as fond of tidiness as her bed got more and more crowded with laptop, food and books. She could practically live on her bed. Haha. And also, I became the party animal instead of her. I'm always out especially on weekends and she's home most of the time. As she's not really fluent in English, I did not communicate with her that often and I didn't see her in the room most of the time. And I guessed we began to be close friends as we started partying together. We shared problems with each other and she's now my lovely roommate. We're kind of labelled as the lovely roommates by the others. I think I'm really lucky to bunk in with her. She's such a traditional conservative japanese. We're so different from each other that sometimes I am convinced that upbringing and cultural beliefs and values have such a great influence on individuals that we grew up with different personalities, principles and attitudes.

I have to start packing the things I want to post back to Singapore since it's impossible for me to bring everything back with me.

I had dinner with Rio and Ayaka yesterday. We had fish, aka "Saba fish", more commonly known to Singaporeans. Apparently, the Japanese girls told me that "saba fish" is the name of the fish in Japanese and it is a kind of Japanese dish. The one we ordered yesterday was __galbi. Anyway, it was awesome. It tastes much better than those in Singapore.

Korean grilled fish and sundobu jjigae (spicy tofu soup)

3 weeks more to the end of the semester T.T

Time passed so fast. I still remembered how it felt like when I just got here. Everything was new to me. Me trying to get to know the people around here, those living on my floor, joining the international students for dinner though I know almost none of them.. I was talking with Alex on Sat morning when we came back from Mama gorilla. He told me he was surprised by my english when he first hanged out me when we went to Jamsil. He didn't expect anyone from an Asian country to speak good english. They definitely know nothing about Singapore then. And he told me about how Nicolas asked him if he ever saw me after the first night at Barfly and yea, we bumped into each other every other day but Nico never bumped into me even though we live on the same floor. It's so hard to think that we will have to be separated in a month's time. The guys will still be in Seoul for internship. Hopefully they will visit Singapore after their internship in Seoul.

Martin will be visiting Singapore in mid July. I'll certainly show him around Singapore :) so excited about it.

Everything's pretty much in place now. It really feels like we've come a long way to finally find this balance.. but, everything will end soon, slapping us back to reality. I feel so much for them that it's definitely going to be hard for me. Good things never last.

Last thursday was Martin's birthday. We planned a surprised birthday quest for him at midnight. We gave pieces of paper with the next destination written on them to some of the people he knows who live in the i-House. It was like amazing race for him. And then everyone gathered in my room, last destination being my room, and we celebrated his birthday with a cake and beer as usual. We could all tell that he definitely enjoyed his small little birthday quest and our accompany :) It was awesome party lest the mess in my room which I had to clear the following day.

We went to a bar with many others the following day to celebrate his 25th birthday. We had so much soju that many of us were drunk then.

I still have no plans about where I should travel to after the end of the semester. But since the guys will be here for internship, I guess I will most likely still be with them till I leave to Hong Kong.

Strange.

It's been 2 weeks since my last post. A week ago, I went to taipei with the crew.

It was absolutely impromptu. Our plan was to go to Japan but the ferry tickets were sold out so I convinced them to go to taipei instead. We booked our flights at 3a.m. in the morning for the noon flight on the same day. FREAKING impromptu, as usual. haha.

We stayed at a strange and cheap hotel in Ximending. Cost only about.. $20+ SGD per night. It was strange because it seems like a .. whore hotel, hearing strange noise in early mornings or at night.. even during the day. 5 of us stayed in 1 room. With 2 King size beds, it was enough :)

We visited Yeh liu, Yang ming shan, CKS memorial, Taipei 101, shilin and rao he night market and so on.. It was a great trip and we partied 3 nights.. The unlimited drinks nights were traps.

Somehow during the trip, attention was mostly on Alex and Martin. Nico seemed to have lost something.. maybe we neglected him. He went to Hong Kong before we went to taipei and during his Hong Kong trip, I was closer with Alex. So maybe because of that, I kind of neglected his presence after he came back. Somehow things changed.. and after Friday night, he doesn't really speak with me and he behaves strangely towards me especially. It's so complicated.

Went to watch a baseball match yesterday with the crew and Jaeyeon. It was pretty interesting. It's nice to watch with people I'm close with, having beer and fried chicken and a burger. The whole stadium was filled with spectators. They were really enthusiastic about the game. Nice~

There will be two weeks after the end of my semester where I would be here in Korea. Most of my friends will leave before I do. It's gonna be lonely during the last week. Ahhh...

Nico's

A trip to Seodaemun Prison Hall with the crew and Jaeyeon was great. The place used to be a prison for prisonners-of-war during the war between Japan and Korea. It showed scenes of people being tortured, the kinds of tools they use, prisons where they stayed in and stories about key personnel who defended the country. It was interesting to know.

It was Nico' birthday on the 27th Apr. Martin and I went around Sinchon to look for a baseball for Nico because it was that one thing I remembered which he wanted badly and we finally found one in a shop at Dongdaemun.

We had a birthday surprise for him at 12 midnight in my room. It was funny how we tried to convince him to coming to my room.

Celebrated his birthday again with the rest of his friends at Kkunori and partied in 709 after that. It was crazy. Everyone was sleeping in somebody else' room.

On Friday, I went to a English meeting with my friends. It was a place for koreans to gather and communicate in English to practice their English and meet people. Chris introed it to us and we went. It was COOL. With my new hair colour (according to Alexis), everyone there thought that I was Korean. It was quite hilarious. And the koreans were so welcoming and so curious about Singapore. I sat at a table with maybe 10 other Koreans and I was the only foreigner there. It felt as though I was in for some interview with a panel. They were eager to share more about Korea with me and also asked me questions about Singapore. It was amazing.

I never want to leave this place. It's sad to think that we're only left with 2 months here. I'll miss this place so much.

Happy Easter Day!!!

HAPPY EASTER DAY!!!! My dorm distributed easter eggs to all of our mail boxes! They're so cute!! :))

I realised that just outside my school, there're at least 10 beauty stores.

I did some shopping today and I bought 1 IOPE eye cream and some cosmetics. For just 1 IOPE eye cream which costs about SGD 50, the sales girl gave me 1 set of Laneige sample which has a mask and trial kit, 4 sample sets of toner and moisturizer, 4 satches of IOPE facial cream and 1 tube of facial cleaser. Then I bought a blusher and powder from another store, she gave me lots of samples again..

I read from a forum and it said that IOPE is one of the best brands in Korea. It's more expensive than laneige in the store I went to. But the eye cream seems quite rich. I probably would not be able to use it when I go back to SG cos it might be too rich for me. Anyway, I shall post up some reviews about the product a few weeks later.

We (the crew) went to Sinchon for dinner yesterday with two other guys, Jonas and Phillipp (another extremely tall guy). Phillipp was in Singapore last december and he said that everything is so expensive in Singapore. Haha. Cigarrettes in Korea cost about $3.30 (marlboro ok... haa) and beer about $5 for heineken (and cheaper for local beer), tequila shots about $2.50 - $3.50, jack coke for $8 a glass. The only thing I think is more expensive is probably food comparing to hawker centres and kopitiam and foodcourt in SG. The restaurants here are definitely cheaper than SG though. and did I mention about the singapore kaya toast? There's one cafe here which sells kaya toast (you can't get Kaya anywhere in Seoul) for $4 (2 slices of toast just like yakun's) which is freaking expensive already BUT their TEH PENG cost $6!!!!!!!!!!! OMG I really felt like I was a CHAI TAO when I paid almost $10 for 2 slices of kaya toast and 1 cup of teh peng. SERIOUSLY.... what money are they making?! But I really missed SG food then so I still paid. I will never buy the teh peng there again. It made me felt damn STUPID after I bought it.

Alex and I went for some awesome chicken wings and beer on wednesday which was GREAT. The chicken tastes AWESOME. We should really have some chicken and beer place in Singapore. REALLY.... I should host a beer and chicken party when I go back. It's simply awesome to have them with friends :)

Photo of Victor and Billy at a dinner I had with them at Sinchon. AWESOME spicy chicken and vege!

Another lesson of my life - platonic friendship does not exist unless one of them is gay.

Spring is coming! :))

This week is cherry blossom week! we went to Hangam riverside to view cherry blossom. and the cherry blossom along the streets of Sinchon bloomed too! They're so PRETTTTY.

what a beautiful campus! spring is here :)))

April 14 was black day for the koreans! Singles dress in black and have zha jiang myeon. It's something they do to have better luck in romance. Thinking about that, the majority of koreans are attached. There's a practice here among the youth, Soegettin, which also means blind date. It's common to go on "group" blind dates. And after the first meeting, if both parties agree to meet again for the second and third time, they're almost officially together. It's so... old fashion but it's amazing how they take it as a pinch of salt. It's so common here that nobody would get a shock if they hear about someone going on blind dates. And I heard from my friend that if you say you're single, people would be eager to introduce someone to you. It's so different from Singapore.

This weekend is the least happening weekend of the week. Other than Friday night, we didn't party. but on friday night, my roommate and her friends had a party in my room. It was crazy.

We were at Sinchon on Friday night. We stopped by a roadside stall which was always crowded. The man (chef) grilled chicken like it was art. After he's done with grilled, he spreaded cheese powder on the stick, drizzled mayonnaise and mustard over, sprinkled pistachios and peanuts on the stick and finally finished it with a dollop of cream and an almond on the tip of the stick. A skew of chicken only cost 2,000 won which is equivalent to SGD$2.40. It's totally worth it.

this is seoul gooooood.

because it's now or never, things get much more complicated than ever

CHEN JIAXUAN and siblings and friends came to SEOUL!!! haha. It's amazing. I felt so homely when I met them on Thursday night. We're so singaporean just that we were physically in Seoul. COOOOL. We had a nice dinner and did some shopping at Myeong Dong and Hongdae before we head to Sinchon to meet the rest of my exchange friends. :))) It's always nice to be in our comfort zone. We don't have to explain ourselves much. We could communicate silently. She could understand me without me verbally expressing what I want to say to her. Communication became a simpler thing,

We had a floor dinner on Friday night. Everyone who lives on the 7th floor went out to have sam geop sal (korean BBQ) together. Though we lived on the same floor, we did not interact much with everyone. It was always the usual few so it was a great opportunity that we got together. It was the first time I spoke to one of them, Andreas. Anyway, it was g reat dinner. We played some games and I lost so many times... so I had to drink a lot of soju. After dinner, we went to a bar and that's when I got really drunk. I could not remember a single thing at the bar the next day. My friends said I french kissed one of the floor mates, a girl. -__-

Floor mates!!

My room mate, Ayaka, and floor mate, Akiko

Saturday night was dramatic. How could things get so complicated. I would not have imagined that the life of an exchange student could be so complicated. Anyway, I'm surprised by how Japanese can be so expressive but conservative at the same time. They're so different from most of the Singaporeans or people around me. When they like someone, they just tell him or her. And I'm especially shocked because she's a Jap girl and she's so conservative at the same time. I'm amazed. I would never be able to do the same.

The Crew.

Mid terms are coming and I haven't been studying!!! This week is really the week to study hard and more importantly study efficiently. No time to waste! I miss singapore food so much. At the same time, we've been cooking our own meals more often. Anyway we drink so much beer that we probably don't need any food.

Regular class room in Ewha Womans Uni.

Life in Seoul

My half-completed ceramics house! :D

This week is one of the most happening week I've spent here so far.

I had homecook dinner, again by Nico. AWESOME. He added the tomato paste for Spaghetti into the tuna + rice mix and it was AWESOMEEEEE. I will definitely do it myself when I go back to Sg.

I visited a flea market at Dongmyo last sunday with Wisara, Oni, Shalini, Alison, Max and Aaron. There was nothing much at the flea market, basically old stuff for the older people and a lot of food.

During the week, I went to Insadong and Namdaemun with Nico. Namdaemun is a market that sells stuff for old people and a lot of food. It has nothing much but Insadong is really interesting. It's touristy with nice looking shops that sells Korean traditional masks, cutleries, paintings and food. It has fancy looking restaurants. We went into one shop that sells traditional masks and the lady who attended to us was soooo cute. She's about 50 yrs old, speaks pretty good english (it's rare here) and was joking with us the whole time. She thought that Nico was a brazilian and I blabbered, "oh no, brazilian guys are hotter." haha. Anyway, Insadong is certainly worth a visit :)

We went to a bar on friday. They have some games for their customers. One of them is beer pong where cups half-filled with water are placed to form a triangle shape, just like bowling. The opponent then have to throw a ping pong ball from a distance. Each cup with ball thrown in will be removed from the triangle. So the team who gets rid of the cups the earliest wins. Pretty cool but I suck at it. haha. The other one is to stuck nails on a wood table and the players take turns to hammer their nails into the wood. The player who hammers his nail completely into the wood the earliest wins. I think it's probably a game only for guys. It was barfly after that, pretty usual.

Yesterday was farm experience day. About 100 students went to visit Garume village, located in Yang-pyung Kyung-ki province. We took a 2.5 hour bus ride before we finally reach there. We made some pancakes, rice cakes and rubber guns! The last activity was strawberry picking! We had an empty box each and we went to a strawberry farm, picked the strawberries and went home with it :) The strawberries taste seoul good. They're sweet :)

Last night was really happening. We met up with Jaeyeon, Younhee and her friend, Jihan. We had pretty good dinner at a Korean restaurant then we went to Papa Gorilla. It was really a real clubbing night. We had several tequila shots and Rio got wasted. So Nico, Martin and I took her back to dorm and we partied in 709 with some awfully loud music and Yoghurt Soju. The rest joined us after that and it was crazy. Everyone was drunk.