I think I'm really lucky to have met and taught Youngjin in Singapore, all thanks to Sungkyu oppa who posted my tuition advertisement on the Singapore Korean community website. Initially, I taught Youngjin's cousin, Sujeong, English. Later on, her aunt (Youngjin's mother) asked me to teach Youngjin mathematics as well. When Sujeong left for Korea for good, I taught Youngjin both mathematics and english. Now that he's back in Korea for good, I'm here staying at his place for 12 days and will teach him English to earn my keep :)
This morning, Jeannie and I woke up to a Korean breakfast prepared for us by Youngjin's mother whom I address as 어머님. I love the rice because it's not plain white rice but multigrain rice. She said for the Koreans, breakfast is their heaviest meal, followed by lunch and then dinner, an inverted pyramid. I've always advocated this but my mother's used to not eating much for breakfast and eating the most for dinner so I ended up like her.
Post-breakfast, 어머님 drove us to the shopping mall near their place, called New Core 뉴코아. Just before turning out to the main road, she stopped for Youngjin and Taehyun to buy ice cream.
At New Core, 어머님 brought us to the Electronics floor and helped us enquire about the cost for purchasing a handphone for us foreigners. I think we'll just purchase a 2nd hand handphone and a topup card instead of purchasing a brand new phone and getting a line because the monthly subscription fee is between 20,000-30,000KRW and there is a 80,000KRW fee for an early termination before 1 year is up. So I still don't have a handphone :( Youngjin's father said that we can send our Korean phones for hacking/unlocking for about 30,000KRW so that we can use them in Singapore as well.
Just before Youngjin left for Seoul to visit his grandmother, Jeannie and I bought him a Major League Baseball (MLB) baseball cap for 49,000KRW as a belated birthday present. I'm really fascinated by the Koreans' fascination with wearing caps. I can never wear a cap because my head's so big and I look awful in caps.
We also went to Hyundai Department Store nearby and there are luxury brands such as Burberry, Coach, etc. there! I was quite surprised because I thought only big cities will have such luxury stores. Even Chanel, Gucci, Prada, etc. sunglasses are displayed openly for customers to try, unlike in Singapore where such expensive items are kept in glass display cases. You know you're truly in Korea, a brand- & image- conscious society!
I asked Youngjin's mother what's the best B.B. cream in the Korean market currently and she suggested Estee Lauder but I want a Korean brand so she recommended Amore Pacific's Moisture Bound Tinted Treatment Moisturizer SPF15 which costs 70,000KRW. However, she said she can get it from Seoul at a 10% discount with lots of free samples for me by the time I'm back from Jeju. I'll have to go back to the department store to check which shade I am.
We did some window shopping on the ladies' apparel levels at both New Core and Hyundai Department Store but I found the prices to be quite steep because Youngjin's mother had told us that the clothes are very cheap, especially for Korean brands which are usually quite expensive. Well, the prices were above 100,000KRW for the blouses that I liked :( I fell in love with a chiffon brown blouse which sadly cost 159,000KRW. Now my "bad"/pricey 43,500KRW Dongdaemun purchase pales in comparison...
Initially, we wanted to have lunch at a Japanese restaurant in one of the shopping malls but it was full and Taehun (Youngjin's younger brother) decided that he wanted pizza instead of Japanese food so we went back to their apartment. We didn't know that 어머님 had called for pizza delivery before we left the shopping mall and when we reached the apartment, it was perfect timing because the pizza delivery boy arrived at the same time! Youngjin's father was home and we all had a delicious Papa John's potato pizza for lunch. 어머님 gave both Jeannie and I 2 slices of pizza each...but the law of diminishing marginal return set in. In future, we'll only eat 1 slice of pizza. It was nice talking to Youngjin's father and both Youngjin's parents gave us advice about accommodation. They even offered us their place for the whole duration of our semester which we obviously politely turned down because we don't want to inconvenience or impose on them for 5 months. So they offered us their place till we find accommodation. I'm really grateful to Youngjin and his family! They're the nicest Korean family to me and even when I was in Singapore giving tuition to Youngjin, 어머님 always cooked delicious Korean food for me. It's good to have people to turn to when you're in a foreign land with a language you can't understand fast enough.
We spent the afternoon and evening packing up our very messy room which was half filled with 3 huge luggages and a small hand carry.
Dinner was kimchi pancake with the same delicious multigrain rice we had for breakfast as well. We chatted with Youngjin's parents, watched television, talked about the differences between Korea and Singapore before heading to Caffe Bene around 8.30pm for patbingsu for 8,900KRW which Jeannie and I shared. I love the ambience and layout of Korean cafes, so warm and cosy! I'll definitely go back to Caffe Bene to take better photos. The stroll back to the apartment was nice because the weather got slightly cooler.
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