Strikes a chord in my heart

I saw this on Facebook and I could really identify with what was written, so here's to sharing it with you!

We still hadn't learned, though, that growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.

Each time, you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize that there are more flavours of pain than coffee. There's the little empty pain of leaving something behind - graduating, taking the next step forward, walking out of something familiar and safe into the unknown. There's the big, whirling pain of life upending all of your plans and expectations. There's the sharp little pains of failure, and the more obscure aches of successes that didn't give you what you thought they would. There are the vicious, stabbing pains of hopes being torn up. The sweet little pains of finding others, giving them your love, and taking joy in their life they grow and learn. There's the steady pain of empathy that you shrug off so you can stand beside a wounded friend and help them bear their burdens.

And if you're very, very lucky, there are a very few blazing hot little pains you feel when you realized that you are standing in a moment of utter perfection, an instant of triumph, or happiness, or mirth which at the same time cannot possibly last - and yet will remain with you for life.

Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it.

Pain is a part of life. Sometimes it's a big part, and sometimes it isn't, but either way, it's a part of the big puzzle, the deep music, the great game. Pain does two things: It teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. It leaves you wiser, sometimes. Sometimes it leaves you stronger. Either way, pain leaves its mark, and everything important that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one degree or another.

~Jim Butcher, White Night

Snow in Seoul

It's snowing in Seoul, and the weather is damn freaking cold! As I'm typing this entry, it's currently -14deg outside. Despite me wearing dr martens with ankle socks, my feet feels cold within 10 minutes of walking outside. And within like 30 minutes, I can't feel my toes :( I'm either buying fake uggs or buying a thicker pair of socks! Or else my toes will drop off one day I swear!

It's my first time seeing snow and I must say, the moment is magical. White specks floating down slowly, covering every surface white. However, the aftermath is not pretty! People will try to melt the snow using salt. After melting, the water freezes back to ice due to the cold weather cus the highest temp here in a week haven't crossed zero, it's all minus something. The thin sheet of ice that forms on the pavement makes the streets really slippery. I've slipped and fell twice, even with my dr martens (which I think the sole is quite good). That's the thing I hate about snow :( I walk really slowly and deliberately now, like I'll plan the steps I take to make sure I won't slip. Anyway Korea University is really pretty with all the snow :)

Me in front of the main building in KU. Beautiful campus, isn't it?

Another spot in KU, with the bare wintry trees!

Depressing Thought

I was doing work when a depressing thought hit me.

岁月不留人

How I'm growing up/old too fast. Time is passing too damn fast! Now I'm in my 20s already and I feel like people's expectations of me changed. I am supposed to be more mature and serious. Soon, all of us will take on new responsibilities, like getting married and building a new family, getting a car, paying off that housing mortgage, making decisions on my own. All these... Sounds so depressing. I like where I am now and I don't want anything to change. I guess what I do during school holidays also changed a lot. From playing, to studying and doing internships. I really want to go back to those days where I can while all my time away. There's no need to worry about heavy responsibilities or whether I will be successful in my future career. Sounds really carefree isn't it?

I don't know what this is

Poorly done collage on PhotoShop

HAHA this collage looks super ugly. Spent some time doing this collage so I don't care how ugly it is, I want to post it on my blog! These are the clothes I like. Actually no, they are just photos of some of my clothes. I really like this houndstooth pullover on the right (10,000W, about $12). The berry peplum and neon blue lace dress are bought from Forever21 Korea.

I really really really like the F21 KR Online Shop!! It's so nice to shop! They constantly have this sale going on and I think they update it every Monday. And it's full of summer clothes!! It's damn difficult to find summer clothes in Korea nowadays cus of the cold weather, so I'm buying some to wear back in sg. Bought 5 items and I just received them after 2 days through the mail. The bad thing is 2 out of 5 pieces are too big for me :( I think I don't have enough confidence. I kind of know my size is S but I went to order M for this neon blue lace dress and a pair high waist shorts. Cus these two pieces looks tight on the F21 skinny models so I thought I should order a size bigger in case I can't fit. I was wrong, should have ordered all S! :(

I bought 2 dresses, 2 tops and a pair of high waist shorts for... guess!!

54,950W!!! About $60? What a steal right. Don't think can get it anywhere in sg! I'm going to be so broke if I'm continuing shopping on F21. Hope they will have Black Friday sale or something soon hahaha

Vlog - Talking about coats

Yeah yeah I know I said I won't do a vlog, but here it is!



Sorry for the poor quality, filmed using my macbook's webcam haha.

좀바빠

Hiiii! Sorry for my lack of updates recently. I've been pretty busy as what my blog title suggested :(

As expected, I didn't do well for my midterms. I just passed for most of my papers and this gave me a motivation to do better! If I'm at the borderline, I might be pushed down for the finals.

Life's been pretty good. I think I've got used to staying in Korea, cooking my own meals and living in my small room in a goshitel. Haha. The weather's pretty cold nowadays and I bought 2 trench coats :((( Haiz, they cost quite cheap but compared to my friends who just bought one, I felt guilty. I just hope I won't need to get the down jacket (puffy puffy) when winter comes. Anyway I really like my trench coats hehehe. Will post photos if I have!

While traveling

Currently I'm on a long bus ride back to Seoul from Busan. It's so freaking long, about 4.5hrs if the bus doesn't stop. I realized long bus rides are really good for self reflection. Been thinking of certain things recently while I'm on the bus, and I like it, the pensive me.

I've been really busy lately. After I finished my midterms last week, my friends and I headed to Inje for some outdoor sports, like white water rafting and bungee jumping. Bungee jumping is really cheap in Korea, about 40,000W (45 SGD) but the height is quite short compared to other countries. My friends wanted to do bungee jumping. Bungee jumping wasn't one of my to-do list in Korea and I don't think I would ever have the courage to really step off that platform and face the icy water beneath me. I went white water rafting with the guys instead. It was quite fun despite me being quite cautious. I can't swim and I didn't want to fall into the water x_x

The water was so clear!

My friends didn't want to try bungee jumping in the end so we headed to Sokcho for the night. This was in preparation for Seoraksan. Seoraksan is a famous park in the Korea and has a series of mountains. The highest peak is the Dae Chong Bong which stands at about 1.7km, the third highest mountain in Korea. Not wanting to squeeze with the crowd, we headed to Seoraksan at about 4+am and started climbing at 5. It was pretty scary as it was still dark, really dark. Darker than in singapore. One of my friends bought a torch light and we began the ascend. Oh my, we climbed for 5.5hrs and we still didn't reach the peak. Previously, I've saw online that it would only take 8hrs in total for both up and down. I was very very very wrong. The uncles and aunties who passed by us when they came down the mountain told us we at least had another 2 hrs to go. It was majorly depressing cus my thighs hurt so much and I took more than 1 second to climb up each rock. I used so much effort and I felt like dying. Finally, the girls decided to go down cus we need to go to YangYang for the salmon catching festival. The guys were staying for another day so they persevered. I WAS SO GLAD that we were heading down! Even the descend took quite long, about 3.5hrs? I really really really wanted to die cus I was so tired and my whole body was like crumbling.

At the highest spot ever.

Autumn: the supposedly best time to visit Seoraksan for its foliage

Pretty autumn foliage.

Bye Seoraksan, I never want to see you again.

Subsequently we headed to YangYang to catch salmon using our hands. This is one of the highlights of their festival! For 25,000W (28 SGD), we were given gloves and some time in a shallow pond with artificially released salmon. The salmons can really swim, I went after a few but I couldn't catch any. Finally, a kind Singaporean guy caught and released a salmon into my direction and I caught it with my bare hands!! Haha. After that we paid to butcher to cut up the salmon and we brought it back. So, I'll have salmon to eat for awhile :)

Me and my catch :D

That's pretty all that I did last weekend. I came back last sat night and went on a free tour on Sunday morning to Buyeo, Jeonju, Suncheon, Yeosu and Busan. I'm currently returning to Seoul from the tour. can't wait to be back in my room ^^ Will blog more about the free tour soon