Midterms start tmrw and I'm so unprepared for it. Such is the life of an exchange student.
I think I don't have to study hard, I've been putting in like 10-30% of the effort I put in when I'm in NUS. But the emotional turmoil that I have to go through, like feeling really scared about the midterms and failing is just unbearable. I'm unprepared but I want to at least pass all my modules, what a dilemma!
Can't wait for midterms to be over. After that it's Seoraksan for the weekend. Not really looking forward to it cus I don't particularly like hiking, exercising or bungee jumping. Seoraksan is the third highest mountain in Korea and I'm afraid of what the hike will bring. A few weeks ago, we went to hike one of the mountains in Seoul and I wanted to die. It was so dangerous climbing all the steep rocks :(
Oh well, maybe it's time for me to embrace nature x_x
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Cooking Adventure
I've been cooking a lot in Korea and recently I've been trying to cook some new stuff. Mostly I cook stew with veggies, enoki, crab stick and stuff, fried rice or rice with omelette and another side.
I have a self imposed grocery budget of $20 for 2 weeks so it's quite hard to get fresh items as they are quite expensive. I try to alternate the fresh items I buy every 2 weeks. I bought 20 chicken wings this week and they cost me about $7.70, expiring in about 5 days. After 2 weeks, I'm going for prawns :D Koreans like to put expiry dates on everything, even on veggies. I've eaten a piece of fishcake that was 1 week past its expiry date and I was okay. So I don't really care...
Decided to pan fry chicken wings and it was a success :D The inside was fully cooked as well. When it was cooking, I poked 2 holes in each wing in hopes that the hot oil will reach the insides and cook it!
End product: Mushroom omelette and pan fried chicken wings! Wanted to eat it with rice but there's currently no more rice in the hostel. Meanwhile I should treat it like I'm on a diet with no rice. Had a banana as a source of carbs. On the topic of fruits, fruits are really expensive in Korea! One watermelon goes for 20,000W, which is $22.60. Isn't it crazily expensive? One watermelon cost like $4-$6 in Singapore if I'm not wrong. Sadly, the only fruit that I can afford is my most hated fruit - banana.
I do hope I'll become a better cook in time. Not that I'm a bad cook now! Haha. Meanwhile I will try to add more dishes to my belt :D
Friday, October 5, 2012
Angsty me
I'm so fucking angry with this guy right now, let's call him j.
So fucking angry, I can't believe I'll have to see him for another 3+ more months. I might die.
I don't know how someone can be nice and then obnoxious. In the same person. I've to say j is sometimes a nice person but sometimes obnoxious. j helped me when we went hiking. I was the weakest link and he always lent me a helping hand. But fuck, yesterday he's just obnoxious.
Yesterday was my birthday so I told my friends I would treat them. Okay, normally I don't treat my friends, or we don't have the tradition of treating friends on birthdays. But before I had my birthday party in SG, I thought I would celebrate my birthday in Korea, so I told my SEP friends that maybe I'll have a fried chicken party. Hence I felt like I had an obligation to treat.
We went to Kyochon (damn delicious) and we ordered 3 plates of chicken. j wanted to order beer and I said he would have to pay for it himself. Cus I was quite pissed with his jokes previously, when he said we'll be going to an atas seafood restaurant blah blah blah, and said I didn't need 21 shots, I just need 1. When we were halfway done with the chicken, he wanted to order one more, I retorted "not full meh?". Normally when we go to a fried chicken place, we would order 2-3 plates only. He said he wanted to try everything and said he would treat us the one plate cus I wasn't willing. Like wtf?? It's like don't give me face. Yeah after the food arrived, we all ate and then when we were paying the bill, he only paid for his alcohol and DID NOT PAY me the extra one plate. It's not me being calculative or what, I just feel that he should HONOR what he said. After that my friends said I shouldn't treat and gave me back the money. I accepted after some refusal cus they said they will need to give me a birthday present and they think I would prefer cash.
After that, while we were walking back, he talked about me winning 2 blogging contests. He said I SHOULD TREAT CUS I WON 2 BLOGGING CONTESTS. Excuse me, why should I treat you? You didn't even fucking contribute anything to me winning the contests. It was creativity and my hard work, coupled with the help of some of my friends. Why should he expect anything?
Or maybe, it's me. I'm the petty one.
So fucking angry, I can't believe I'll have to see him for another 3+ more months. I might die.
I don't know how someone can be nice and then obnoxious. In the same person. I've to say j is sometimes a nice person but sometimes obnoxious. j helped me when we went hiking. I was the weakest link and he always lent me a helping hand. But fuck, yesterday he's just obnoxious.
Yesterday was my birthday so I told my friends I would treat them. Okay, normally I don't treat my friends, or we don't have the tradition of treating friends on birthdays. But before I had my birthday party in SG, I thought I would celebrate my birthday in Korea, so I told my SEP friends that maybe I'll have a fried chicken party. Hence I felt like I had an obligation to treat.
We went to Kyochon (damn delicious) and we ordered 3 plates of chicken. j wanted to order beer and I said he would have to pay for it himself. Cus I was quite pissed with his jokes previously, when he said we'll be going to an atas seafood restaurant blah blah blah, and said I didn't need 21 shots, I just need 1. When we were halfway done with the chicken, he wanted to order one more, I retorted "not full meh?". Normally when we go to a fried chicken place, we would order 2-3 plates only. He said he wanted to try everything and said he would treat us the one plate cus I wasn't willing. Like wtf?? It's like don't give me face. Yeah after the food arrived, we all ate and then when we were paying the bill, he only paid for his alcohol and DID NOT PAY me the extra one plate. It's not me being calculative or what, I just feel that he should HONOR what he said. After that my friends said I shouldn't treat and gave me back the money. I accepted after some refusal cus they said they will need to give me a birthday present and they think I would prefer cash.
After that, while we were walking back, he talked about me winning 2 blogging contests. He said I SHOULD TREAT CUS I WON 2 BLOGGING CONTESTS. Excuse me, why should I treat you? You didn't even fucking contribute anything to me winning the contests. It was creativity and my hard work, coupled with the help of some of my friends. Why should he expect anything?
Or maybe, it's me. I'm the petty one.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Chuseok Weekend in Busan
Life's been good. Just came back from Busan and it was fun! I loved the hostel we stayed in. Initially I was quite against it cus I had Angel Hotel in mind. A night at Angel Hotel will cost about 24,000W and the guesthouse that my friend recommended was 30,000W per person. Furthermore Angel offers room service and is in a central location while the guest house doesn't and is located in a corner of Busan but it was near Haeundae beach (must go for Busan). In the end we had to go with the majority and the guest house won. Not a bad thing afterall
Took a 4hr bus ride to Busan. At first I didn't want to go to Busan cus I've been to Busan last year. However, we did not visit the Haeundae beach as it was raining. If I don't go with my friends, I would be alone for 3 days, which is quite scary so I decided to join them.
The view from my bed :) The guesthouse was 44 floors high!
The huge living room. It felt so good to be sitting on the sofa! I missed lounging on sofas.
Went to Spaland, which is like a high class korean bath house. It was quite awkward for us at first cus we must be completely naked inside. The Koreans had no problem and were quite open. For us, we covered ourselves with towels and the people inside were staring at us :X Each of us showered in a booth then we went out to enjoy the jacuzzi tubs of water with different temperature. They also had an outdoor spring and sauna! We sat in the 80 degrees sauna for awhile and couldn't take it. After that we showered, dressed ourselves in their t-shirt and shorts, we went to their rooms with different themes.
How one of the rooms look like. Something will supposedly emit electrons at us and has some health effects. Don't know if it's believable.
After Spaland, we went to dapao fried chicken and had supz in the living room. How I wish my current place in Seoul has a living room for us to hang out!
Huge oysters!
Ordered their king crab to try too! It was awesome, and I could take out the meat in the leg with a small tug like in those travel shows.
Crab fried rice but I could barely taste the crab meat.
The amount of roe in the crab!!
A must try in Busan, gukbap. It's just pork soup with rice. However it's not very common in Seoul and is a Busan specialty.
Friends. Changed hostel room on the second day and it was awesome again.
The manager prepared Chuseok breakfast for us, which were japchae and some mochi thing (not sure about the korean name)
Pasta at Thursday Party near Haeundae.
Haeundae beach, one of Busan must visit places. The water is so much clearer compared to Singapore's!
Took a 4hr bus ride to Busan. At first I didn't want to go to Busan cus I've been to Busan last year. However, we did not visit the Haeundae beach as it was raining. If I don't go with my friends, I would be alone for 3 days, which is quite scary so I decided to join them.
The huge living room. It felt so good to be sitting on the sofa! I missed lounging on sofas.
Went to Spaland, which is like a high class korean bath house. It was quite awkward for us at first cus we must be completely naked inside. The Koreans had no problem and were quite open. For us, we covered ourselves with towels and the people inside were staring at us :X Each of us showered in a booth then we went out to enjoy the jacuzzi tubs of water with different temperature. They also had an outdoor spring and sauna! We sat in the 80 degrees sauna for awhile and couldn't take it. After that we showered, dressed ourselves in their t-shirt and shorts, we went to their rooms with different themes.
How one of the rooms look like. Something will supposedly emit electrons at us and has some health effects. Don't know if it's believable.
After Spaland, we went to dapao fried chicken and had supz in the living room. How I wish my current place in Seoul has a living room for us to hang out!
The following day, we went to Jalgachi market which is a seafood haven. Tried live octopus for the first time! We ate the small octopus so it wasn't so bad. Tasted just like normal octopus sashimi just that it moves if you don't chew.
Huge oysters!
Ordered their king crab to try too! It was awesome, and I could take out the meat in the leg with a small tug like in those travel shows.
Crab fried rice but I could barely taste the crab meat.
The amount of roe in the crab!!
A must try in Busan, gukbap. It's just pork soup with rice. However it's not very common in Seoul and is a Busan specialty.
Friends. Changed hostel room on the second day and it was awesome again.
The manager prepared Chuseok breakfast for us, which were japchae and some mochi thing (not sure about the korean name)
Pasta at Thursday Party near Haeundae.
Haeundae beach, one of Busan must visit places. The water is so much clearer compared to Singapore's!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
When asked about how I'm doing in Korea
I would answer that I want to come home. Why so? Cus...
"Haha omg this sentence I don't know how to use Korean. Haha I want to come back cus it's really so good in sg, like I don't need to wash my own clothes, don't need to worry about what to eat every meal, and don't need to clean my own room... Over here I have to do things myself. It's a good experience la haha but nothing beats the comfort of home :) I'm enjoying myself here, like I really like my new found freedom, like I can go anywhere anytime! Haha. And Korean food is nice! Class is slack cus I don't need to score well! And the weather is good ;)"
What I typed to my friend over whatsapp. I guess this is how I really feel about exchange. I always thought going on an exchange would be glamorous and I would have lots of fun. Boy, was I wrong. I mean it's right to some extent but people on Facebook just don't show you the photos of them cleaning their room, doing their laundry, spending time planning their trips and having disagreements. These are the scenes behind the "having fun and good food" photos on Facebook.
A good way to enjoy exchange is to bring my whole house with my family there. Haha joking.
Above are just some of my late night muses.
Goodnight x
"Haha omg this sentence I don't know how to use Korean. Haha I want to come back cus it's really so good in sg, like I don't need to wash my own clothes, don't need to worry about what to eat every meal, and don't need to clean my own room... Over here I have to do things myself. It's a good experience la haha but nothing beats the comfort of home :) I'm enjoying myself here, like I really like my new found freedom, like I can go anywhere anytime! Haha. And Korean food is nice! Class is slack cus I don't need to score well! And the weather is good ;)"
What I typed to my friend over whatsapp. I guess this is how I really feel about exchange. I always thought going on an exchange would be glamorous and I would have lots of fun. Boy, was I wrong. I mean it's right to some extent but people on Facebook just don't show you the photos of them cleaning their room, doing their laundry, spending time planning their trips and having disagreements. These are the scenes behind the "having fun and good food" photos on Facebook.
A good way to enjoy exchange is to bring my whole house with my family there. Haha joking.
Above are just some of my late night muses.
Goodnight x
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Oh Hi
Hello! Sorry for my lack of updates. The past week has been pretty hectic for me, all thanks to 2 modules: fixed income securities and service operations. These 2 modules have really heavy workloads!!
Main highlights of what I did in Seoul from last Fri onwards
Last Friday:
Woke up at 5.15am to take a train to 삼각지 station to Camp USO for DMZ. From Camp USO, we took a 1.5 hrs bus to the Joint Security Area (JSA). It's damn cool!!! I actually got to see the border between South and North Korea. Think it's quite exclusive and really worth the money. To go to the JSA area, we paid extra 43,000W (48SGD). For those who don't know, there is a 2km wide buffer zone on both sides of the border and they call it the DMZ. In the DMZ, there is a blue house that stands equally on both sides of the border. Leaders from both countries have meetings in the house! We got to visit the house and got to stand on the North side of the room! So I've been to North Korea :) haha
The blue house. The gray building opposite belongs to North Korea.
On the North Korea side of the room!
After that we went to the tunnel, which was dug by North Koreans to sneak an attack on South Korea. Also, we went to Dorasan observatory to look over to the North side. Nothing much could be seen :( Finally we went to the Dorasan station where South Korea built a train to Pyeongyang. However it's not in use :(
This trip has really made more interested in North Korea. I want to go visit North Korea when I'm slightly older and have the $$$ $_$ It would be really cool to see what's inside!
Last Saturday:
Woke up pretty late cus we were really tired from the trip. The previous day I was awake for 21 hours! Went to look at the Bukchon Hanok Village in the late afternoon and proceeded to Myeongdong for shopping and the dance night! Nothing special except that we missed the last train and had to cab back.
DJ spinning music on the streets of Myeongdong.
Last Sunday:
We went to the free Incheon concert featuring SHINee! It was damn far away, took about 2 hours to travel there via train and had to transfer quite a lot of times. On one transfer, the number of stations that we had to take was like 30?!! But it was worth it cus it was free and there was a lot of effects like fireworks and stuff!
My packed weekend last week was the reason for the hectic week. I only got home at about 1am on Tuesday and had to do a 3 page case report, study for FIS pop quiz and 11 pages of Korean homework by Wednesday.
I was so relieved that I managed to get past Wednesday! Haha
I have 고연전 tmrw! Will blog about it soon too x_x
Main highlights of what I did in Seoul from last Fri onwards
Last Friday:
Woke up at 5.15am to take a train to 삼각지 station to Camp USO for DMZ. From Camp USO, we took a 1.5 hrs bus to the Joint Security Area (JSA). It's damn cool!!! I actually got to see the border between South and North Korea. Think it's quite exclusive and really worth the money. To go to the JSA area, we paid extra 43,000W (48SGD). For those who don't know, there is a 2km wide buffer zone on both sides of the border and they call it the DMZ. In the DMZ, there is a blue house that stands equally on both sides of the border. Leaders from both countries have meetings in the house! We got to visit the house and got to stand on the North side of the room! So I've been to North Korea :) haha
After that we went to the tunnel, which was dug by North Koreans to sneak an attack on South Korea. Also, we went to Dorasan observatory to look over to the North side. Nothing much could be seen :( Finally we went to the Dorasan station where South Korea built a train to Pyeongyang. However it's not in use :(
This trip has really made more interested in North Korea. I want to go visit North Korea when I'm slightly older and have the $$$ $_$ It would be really cool to see what's inside!
Last Saturday:
Woke up pretty late cus we were really tired from the trip. The previous day I was awake for 21 hours! Went to look at the Bukchon Hanok Village in the late afternoon and proceeded to Myeongdong for shopping and the dance night! Nothing special except that we missed the last train and had to cab back.
Last Sunday:
We went to the free Incheon concert featuring SHINee! It was damn far away, took about 2 hours to travel there via train and had to transfer quite a lot of times. On one transfer, the number of stations that we had to take was like 30?!! But it was worth it cus it was free and there was a lot of effects like fireworks and stuff!
My packed weekend last week was the reason for the hectic week. I only got home at about 1am on Tuesday and had to do a 3 page case report, study for FIS pop quiz and 11 pages of Korean homework by Wednesday.
I was so relieved that I managed to get past Wednesday! Haha
I have 고연전 tmrw! Will blog about it soon too x_x
Saturday, September 1, 2012
1st week of school
School started! It was okay except that most of the classes are quite boring with the exception of 2 modules. Each class at KU last about 1hr15mins and there are 2 classes a week per module. I really like this system because each class is shorter and I feel like I can pay more attention. Even so, I fall asleep like in almost every class so far x_x They have some panels on their ceiling which will amplify the prof's voice when the prof is standing under it! So cool! They don't need to hold mics. And I really like how the school look. Even though it's in Korea, the university looks like it's from UK! Almost all the buildings that I've seen are stone buildings.
#arm candy/#arm swag. I always see people posting photos of their arm swag on ig ( I follow some fashion accounts on ig) and I was so inspired I wanted to get one too! Went to DongDaeMun Complex yesterday to get the below! Nice? I don't know if it matches nicely cus I just bought what I like then I put them together x_x
One of my outfits for school. I got the top and bottom in Seoul for like 10 SGD altogether! I think it's quite a bargain! Mint green t-shirt with lace panel and black high waist shorts
Doing the favorite pose of my KUBA buddy
The BiBimNaengMyeon I had at DongDaeMun. It was damn damn damn spicy! It's cold and spicy at the same time. When my friend recommended this place and told me that their cold noodles was damn spicy, I was like "how can anything be cold and spicy at the same time?" The existence of this dish proved me wrong. After a bite, I was dead and my mouth went numb with spiciness after just 4-5 mouthfuls! I thought it was quite shiokz :) Haha. Must go to this place if you like spicy food!
It's a lazy saturday afternoon and I was lazy to go out x_x It's always those quiet moments in my own room that I begin to get emotional. I miss everyone a lot!! Sometimes I'm okay and I really enjoyed myself in Seoul.
Looking forward to my second week of school and third week in Seoul! Haha
#arm candy/#arm swag. I always see people posting photos of their arm swag on ig ( I follow some fashion accounts on ig) and I was so inspired I wanted to get one too! Went to DongDaeMun Complex yesterday to get the below! Nice? I don't know if it matches nicely cus I just bought what I like then I put them together x_x
One of my outfits for school. I got the top and bottom in Seoul for like 10 SGD altogether! I think it's quite a bargain! Mint green t-shirt with lace panel and black high waist shorts
Doing the favorite pose of my KUBA buddy
The BiBimNaengMyeon I had at DongDaeMun. It was damn damn damn spicy! It's cold and spicy at the same time. When my friend recommended this place and told me that their cold noodles was damn spicy, I was like "how can anything be cold and spicy at the same time?" The existence of this dish proved me wrong. After a bite, I was dead and my mouth went numb with spiciness after just 4-5 mouthfuls! I thought it was quite shiokz :) Haha. Must go to this place if you like spicy food!
It's a lazy saturday afternoon and I was lazy to go out x_x It's always those quiet moments in my own room that I begin to get emotional. I miss everyone a lot!! Sometimes I'm okay and I really enjoyed myself in Seoul.
Looking forward to my second week of school and third week in Seoul! Haha
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