Conclusion

And so, this is the end for my KOREAN LANGUAGE 한국어 IMMERSION 2009 trip. 

Thank you to my dear readers for having followed through my 39 entries. I know I've been slow on updating this blog towards the end of the trip because there was just no time for everything I wanted to do in Korea. I didn't want to rush through my blogging and do substandard entries just for the sake of updating every day which I did so initially. Hence, my entries were quite backdated towards the end but nevertheless, I hope you've seen how beautiful Korea is. The country means so much to me and I have never ever made it an effort to blog everyday before. But just for this trip, I did so, so that I could remember as much as possible about my glorious time there.

My next trip to Korea will be next year, on a students exchange program to either Yonsei University or Korea University, about one year from now.  So till then, take care and I'll see you again next year :)

Day 6: 30 July 2009 Thursday

My last day in Korea, my 39th day here :( It was a mad rush throughout the day.

At around 9.30am, we headed to Insadong’s Bizeun to purchase rice cakes. Chun En was right…we should have made reservations for the rice cakes in advance because when we reached the store, certain types of rice cakes that we saw in the store on Monday weren’t available. I managed to purchase a few boxes of rice cakes but I didn’t get to buy the ones that I knew my mum really wanted.

After getting the rice cakes, Garima and Chun En went back to the hotel on their own because they were taking Korean Air and their flight was in the afternoon while Mel’s and my SQ flight was in the evening. I felt bad because I didn’t really say a proper goodbye to them as we were rushing. I had no idea how long the hair stylist would take to do Melissa’s hair and we had to rush back to the hotel to check out by 2pm. So from Insadong, we took a cab to 이대 area and I brought Mel to the hair salon, Hair Club (just behind Yes A PM Building) where I had my digital perm done a month ago.

Day 5: 29 July 2009 Wednesday

Today's my second last day in Korea :(

In preparation for my imminent departure, I made a trip to the post office which is just 5 minutes away from the hotel, accompanied by my dearest friends who helped me with my 19.05kg load.

I think this yellow plastic bag of 3 Korean textbooks, 1 Korean grammar book, 1 Korean story book and 3 Korean magazines weighed 13kg.

Day 4: 28 July 2009 Tuesday

I think today was the highlight of our Seoul Trip because...

we went to LOTTE WORLD :):):)

We reached Lotte World around 9am before the amusement park opened at 9.30am. As you can see in the picture below, there wasn't much of a queue at the entrance to the amusement park at 9am.

Day 3: 27 July 2009 Monday

A great start to the day: running on the treadmill in the hotel's gym before breakfast :)

I miss the good old treadmill! I can't believe I actually survived nearly 6 weeks with only 1 run around the university and a one-time usage of the treadmill :( And I haven't played golf for nearly 2 months! Good grief :(

Breakfast comprised of a bread and chocolate muffin from Breadtalk which is just less than a minute away from the hotel. I had my favourite sunflower seed bread but it is pricey at 2,000원 (approx. S$2.29) when I could have got it for S$1.50 back home.  After breakfast, we split up: Garima and Chun En went shopping around our hotel area while Melissa accompanied me in my hunt for a spectacles shop to have a pair of spectacles made for my cousin. In the end, I went to the same one that Phyllis went to when we came to Korea 5 weeks ago (gosh, it's been so fast!). My cousin's spectacles cost 50,000원 and only took 20 minutes to make!

After meeting back in the hotel room, we set off for Insadong 인사동.

The banana milk they love but I didn't quite like. I just can't drink any milk on its own...I can only drink it with cereal.

Day 2: 26 July 2009 Sunday

Daily routine

Day 1: 25 July 2009 Saturday

It was a mad rush this morning and I was both stressed (because I was running really late) and tired (with very LITTLE sleep). The journey from Sinchon subway station all the way to Incheon International Airport was at least an hour long and I slept on the trains in between the 3 line transfers I had to make.  In the end, I was 15 minutes late and the "Welcome to Korea" sign I made for Melissa wasn't put to any good use because she was already out of the customs area by the time I reached the airport. Oh well, at least my dearest friends: Garima, Chun En and Melissa arrived safe and sound in Korea to join me on the last leg of my trip :) After days and months of talking about our trip, I couldn't believe it when I finally saw them at the airport, that they're really here with me afterall!

We took bus 6015 from the airport to Hotel Ibis in Myeongdong and each bus ticket cost 9,000원 which is really cheap, compared to taking a taxi which would easily have cost us 65,000원 and above. The journey was about an hour+ long.

Day 26: 24 July 2009 Friday

My final exam went quite smoothly and I wasn't that nervous for the oral exam. The oral exam comprised of 2 different role play situations and 1 directions-giving situation. The first role play situation was something I've been doing almost everyday in Korea: shopping for clothes and a typical conversation I'll hold with the sales assistant. The second one was a telephone conversation which we've practised quite a number of times back in NUS, and the third component was giving directions which was quite alright. As for the essay writing, we were given 2 options: our favourite place and our life in Korea 한국 생활. Naturally, I picked the latter because I've already done the first essay in class before and I didn't feel like doing it again. Furthermore, if 홍선생님 remembered what I wrote previously, she would be able to identify the vast difference in my standard of writing with and without help from her and my electronic dictionary.  I felt that it was quite apt to write about my life in Korea given that it was the last day at Yonsei University for us.

It was a really busy day for me. After the exam ended at 1pm, we had a farewell/program completion party of sorts in our classroom.  My Korean language teacher 홍선생님 bought us donuts and fruits and drinks. Yes, fruits! I've a serious lack of fruits consumption since I came to Korea because over here, there are only seasonal fruits like watermelon, grapes, plums and banana. I didn't see any apples! Ok, maybe it's just because I didn't go to the correct places that sell the fruits I wanted. But whatever the case is, I didn't eat much fruits here in Korea and I certainly miss eating them. Back in Singapore, I eat a big plate of fruits every night.

The 2 ladies sent by 홍선생님 brought us donuts and fruits and drinks.

Day 25: 23 July 2009 Thursday

I didn't do much today after class because I spent the better half of the day packing my luggage in my room. When I was on the plane to Seoul on 21st June, I thought that my 6 weeks stay was going to be really LONG. But before I knew it, time passed so fast that my 5th week here is soon coming to an end. Today was the last day of Korean language class. We'll be having our final exam tomorrow but I don't think I'll be studying much for it, other than memorising the stuff for giving directions.

I'll miss Room 315. I've actually come to love this room, the dormitory (despite the hill we have to climb up and down every day when I don't take the taxi), and Yonsei.  I hate farewells.

Day 24: 22 July 2009 Wednesday

Most of the ABKs didn't attend the cookery class today because they went for the one yesterday so the kitchen was rather empty and quite a number of us worked alone. I did the cooking by myself because my Morrocan cooking partner wasn't here today and it was quite disastrous -_-

Before the lesson started...