Day 1: 29 June 2009 Monday

Today was the 1st day of our NUS-Yonsei Immersion Program.

We didn't quite know where to go to in the morning because we aren't in the summer program as the rest of the foreigners so we just stood around in the entrance area of the Korean Language Institute (KLI) where we met 조선생님. She came to Yonsei University just to make sure we got to the right places and stuff. I like 조선생님.  Our classroom's at 218호 and our Korean language teacher is 홍선생님. 

From 9am-9.50am or so, we had our placement test which was obviously difficult for me since I hadn't touched my books after finals ended.

At around 10am, we were brought to a room on Level 1 for the commencement of the Yonsei-NUS Korean Language Immersion program and introduced to our buddies. My buddy's 박용준. I didn’t expect to get a male buddy because from the conversations we have had with 지선생님 prior to the trip, we were given the impression that we would be getting buddies of the same gender. 

From 11am-1pm, we did self-introduction and that was the end of today's lesson.  I wouldn't really say we had a proper Korean lesson today since we only did self-introduction. But anyway, the real fun began after school.

Once the lesson ended, I rushed back to my room with Wan Ling to dump my books and get ready to head down to 이대 Ewha Women’s University Shopping Street. Along the way, I stopped by Etude House and you know what happened. I like Ewha Women’s University Shopping Street because there are many cool boutiques and shops along the street.

Why is it that their subway station is so pretty?

And why is it that 이대역 has escalators but not other stations?!

The 1st shop I visited there was my favourite shop- ACCESSORIZE where I found the hat I’ve always wanted back in Singapore going at half price for 19,500원. Almost bought a beautiful but expensive ring for 29,000원. Unfortunately, the store didn’t have the ring in my size, which I secretly considered a blessing in disguise since it meant I would be spending less money.

Wan Ling and I found a café selling Singapore kaya toast.

But she didn’t deem it as proper food so we went in search of proper food and found this eatery that sells porridge. I quite like the place for the ambience and the good food. I love Korean porridge now.

Walking along the streets.

So, after lunch, we started window shopping until Wan Ling bought a pair of heels. The 1^st hair salon we walked past quoted 130,000원 for digital perm. The 2^nd hair salon that we went into quoted 45,000원. Obviously, it was too good to resist so now, I have a perm. But it’s quite bad because my hair’s thick and today’s the 1^st day so I have a va-voom hair that’s humongous. Wan Ling went for magic-straight (something like rebonding) which I should have done and I totally regret doing the perm now because I look gross. What if I still look like this after a few days? And of all days, I’ll be meeting my Korean buddy tomorrow like a freak. Oh well.  Melissa Huang, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry! Was supposed to have my hair permed with you but the price was too good to resist and I guess I should be a guinea pig and test it out. If it’s good, I’ll bring you there when you come to Seoul k?

That's what my stylist asked me to do. Look at my FRINGE. OMG.

 

There's something wrong with my hair texture. Everyone's hair always looks nice after a perm. Like Melissa Tan's, but somehow, mine just looks terrible because of the volume.

After spending about 3 hours at the hair salon from nearly 3pm till 7pm, we finally got out of the hair salon and met Jeannie and Pauline for an Italian dinner in a restaurant nearby.

Really cool and cute menus!

After dinner, it was time to shop for hair products for my newly permed hair and I got them from Etude House and TheFaceShop before taking a cab back to my dormitory with Wan Ling.