[Part 1] 001. 2 August 2010 Monday

I still can't believe I'm really in Korea and completing this entry in room 1727 in Hotel Ibis Myeongdong. After all the talk about going for exchange, going to Korea, I'm finally here and it seems all too surreal.

Everything moved so fast yesterday and before I knew it, I was at the airport with my family and girlfriends.

with my family and cousin, Ben, who was flying off to Tokyo 10 minutes before my flight

with my dear family who made this trip possible and helped me with packing and carrying my luggages

with my girlfriends (thank you for the farewell card!)

my hand-carry luggage and 24+kg check-in luggage

goodbye Singapore!

I really regretted not hugging my parents and brother before I left :( I should have, but if I did, I would have cried in front of everyone. Just before I entered the boarding gate, I called them and cried while the Koreans around stared at me. Thank goodness I didn't fly alone and had Joanna for company, if not I would have been really depressed!

The flight was a bumpy one with turbulence almost every hour. I was stuck in a small Airbus seat and nearly got a headache because of my awkward sleeping position as the Korean guy in front of me had to lower his seat :( I watched Shrek and listened to Korean songs and arrived in a cloudy Seoul at 7.30am after our plane had to wait to land as air traffic was heavy.

We took bus 6015 from the airport to Hotel Ibis for 10,000won, deposited our luggages at the lobby as check-in was only available at 2pm, and headed for shopping in Myeongdong. We checked out H&M, Zara, Etude House, Missha and boutiques; had lunch at my ex-"favourite" porridge store (not my favourite anymore because the porridge isn't so tasty now, the seaweed wasn't crispy and there was no more free pancake) and did more shopping before checking into the hotel to rest...and opened what Jo got for me from Paris and Italy :) Oh what joy!

After our short rest, we headed to Ewha Women's University area for Hair Messe, the hair salon where Mellissa and I had our hair permed at last year. It's behind Yes A Pm and surprisingly, at 4pm+, the hair salon was really crowded! Furthermore, I had difficulty communicating with the hair stylists what kind of perm the 4 of us wanted, with my horrible command of the Korean language. I didn't have time to revise what I had learnt since my last Korean lesson in April because of my internship and a flurry of packing in my last 2 weeks in Singapore :( I've really got much to learn in these 5 months! My perm costs 50,000원 this time round (not sure why but I'm guessing it's inflation). Anyway, customers just kept streaming in and there were over 10 customers with only 3 stylists attending to all so we ended up at the salon for more than 4 hours, leaving only at 8pm+ with very hungry and noisy stomachs :( We either slept or nearly fell asleep while getting our hair done!

Dinner at a nearby Korean restaurant

After dinner, we spent time at Thefaceshop and Etude House shopping for hair care products before heading back to the hotel after a long day with a lack of sleep.