[Part 1] 009. 10 August 2010 Tuesday

Breakfast for today was toasted bread with strawberry jam made by Youngjin's aunt.
This is Youngjin's sugary bread.

After breakfast, Jeannie, Youngjin and I went to New Core and Home Plus as Jeannie needed to withdraw money and help her friend, Yuhong, make the balance payment for his accommodation at CJ House. We chatted as we walked and after I used the word "rationale" in our conversation, Jeannie asked Youngjin if he knew the meaning of the word. He said, "I don't know the word "rationale" but I know "Chanel"."
Along the way, we stopped by Daiso and a handphone shop. Youngjin's so funny! Both of us wanted to buy a paper fan but he forgot what a fan is called in Korean -_- Gosh, I think he has stayed in Singapore for far too long. So he showed the sales assistant his fan and asked if a similar item is sold. She was so amused that he didn't know the word for "fan" and kept looking at us everytime we walked past her in the store. And in the handphone shop, the salesmen were amazed by Youngjin's ability to translate Korean into English for me :) Thank you, Youngjin, my tutee and translator!

While waiting for the bank teller to complete the transaction, we took photos. All Jeannie wanted to do was to deposit cash into a Hana bank account but a passport and identification card was required and the whole process took about half an hour.

Back at Youngjin's place, we had a delicious lunch- ginseng chicken and rice prepared by 어머님. Minjoo came over as well and we had lunch together before leaving the place at 3pm to pick up Minjoo's brother, Dongsu, and proceeding to the baseball stadium to catch a baseball match.

The ride from Bucheon to the stadium was the horror car ride of the century as Taehun decided to torture us by digging his nose and rubbing his nose dirt on Jeannie and I -_- He also continuously shook his butt in front of me and stepped on my toes. Basically, he was irritating during the car ride. We'll never sit at the back of the car with him, ever again.

As luck would have it, it was raining when we reached the stadium but as there was no news about the cancellation of the match, we alighted from 어머님's car and went ahead with the purchase of the tickets for the match at 8,000KRW each. But just after we had bought raincoats, reserved our seats at the stadium and went to the shop area for shelter, we heard from others that the match was cancelled -_- thank goodness we could get a full refund for the tickets!

Hence, we left the stadium and went to Bupyeong Station's underground shopping centre where I bought my Korean handphone! Like finally!!!

Dearest Youngjin was my translator and Dongsu helped me with all the paperwork. Thank you, guys! The salesman who served us was pretty amazed by Youngjin's language ability...I guess he never expected that a young kid like Youngjin is better than him in English and able to translate for me. Initially, I wanted to get either the Ice Cream phone 1 or Lollipop 2. But Ice Cream 1 is no longer available because it's a very old model while Lollipop 2 is a new phone and currently, it is not free when you sign up for a subscription plan. Since Ice Cream 2 is free, I decided to get the pastel pink one. 12,000KRW per month is the basic charge and I took the sms plan for an additional 8,000KRW for 500 smses. I guess some important information could have been lost in translation because I was suddenly told that I have to pay 6,480KRW for something if I do something. See, that's how good translations can get. Looks like I have to ask Byungsoo or another Korean friend to explain to me about my subscription plan when I'm back in Seoul. I think what Youngjin could have been trying to tell me is that I have to pay 6,480KRW for a total talktime of 60minutes if I start making calls or I have to pay 6,480KRW if I exceed a total talktime of 60 minutes. In addition, I have to pay 8,500KRW for the 1st month of subscription for some additional service, even though I don't want it -_- so I'll have to call 114 on 1st October to unsubscribe from the service. What a way to earn money!  But whatever it is, getting a brand new phone through signing up for a line is quite cheap. Jeannie bought her second hand phone from Busan last year for 40,000KRW and her total topup value for 6 weeks was 40,000KRW. I can't remember the total topup value I had to make but I didn't have to pay for a phone because I borrowed my Korean friend's phone. This time round, I want to have my own phone to keep for good.
By getting a line, my monthly subscription fee is 20,000KRW or perhaps 30,000KRW maximum (I think...if I were to include the 6,480KRW and round off) for about 4 months plus 80,000KRW for a brand new phone (I'm treating the fee of 80,000KRW for an early termination of the line before 1 year is up as the cost of the phone). But I also need to find out what happens after I terminate my line before I leave and how I can get my line reinstated if I come back to Korea again in future, although I think it is highly probable that I won't be back till many years later, unless it's for business purposes. My dad doesn't like it that I keep coming back to Korea because he feels that I should spend the money traveling to other places instead of going to the same place again and again, if I were to travel, that is. This is my 4th trip to Korea.
I've also realised that opening a bank account and getting a handphone is really foreigner-unfriendly in Korea. Thank goodness for Korean friends! They helped me settle everything so I'm really, really, really grateful!

Along our way to an eatery for dinner near the station with Dongsu and 2 of his friends, we walked past a Missha outlet and saw that there was a 20% sale on the 10th of every month. So girls, if you will be in Korea on the 10th of any month, do remember to shop at Missha! We had fried rice with kimchi and chicken for dinner.

During dinner, Jeannie asked Dongsu and his friends what a 키스방 Kissing room is after one of them talked about PC 방 PC room, which is where Koreans go to play computer games. Almost instantaneously, all of them turned red! They quickly said that they didn't know what it really is and when Jeannie asked again, both Dongsu and one of his friends shouted "I don't know!" at the same time. We were quite tickled by the way they responded. We thought that it's just a room where couples go to makeout. So when Jeannie said one day she'll go in to check out what it is, they straightaway shouted "No no no no no!". They said that it's only for men to enter...so basically, what we gathered is that a Kissing room is for old single men who go there to kiss girls who work there. -_- We were quite disgusted after that. But it was funny, seeing the 3 guys' reactions.
They also asked if we've gone to Namsan Tower, Hongdae, Myeongdong, Sinchon/Edae, Coex Mall, Lotte World, etc. We even told them we've gone to Hangang and Everland and they kept telling us to go back to Singapore since we've covered/gone to where we should go to in Korea... hahahaha.

After dinner, the guys and us headed our separate ways and after doing some light window shopping at the underground shopping centre, Jeannie, Youngjin and I made our way back to Songnae Station. But it was quite a strange journey back because according to the subway maps, Songnae Station is just 2 stops away from Bupyeong Station but when we alighted 2 stops later, we found ourselves 4 stops away from Songnae -_- so we had to walk quite a distance to take a train heading in the opposite direction. How strange! When we were finally back at Songnae Station, we took bus 15 from Songnae Station and alighted opposite Home Plus, as instructed by Youngjin. Later on, we found out that bus 15 actually goes right to the front of his apartment but Youngjin didn't know and we ended up walking a distance back -_-

Back at Youngjin's place, we played around with our Korean phones and Youngjin taught me how to watch TV on my handphone using this feature called DMB for digital multimedia broadcasting. And the stylus-like object I see that is attached to most Korean phones is actually an antennae!

The fugly plastic cover that the salesman put over my phone...while I guess it does a great job in protecting the phone, it spoils the look of my pretty phone :( and I just can't seem to be able to remove it.

Youngjin tried to be funny and sent me this sms, asking me to die -_- But the sender's number was 112 and I got scared for a moment. Later, he taught me the function to change my number that appears on  the handphone of someone whom I send the sms to.

Youngjin and Jeannie are quite similar...both like to take selca shots!

After 어머님 got back from helping out at her sister's supermarket, she prepared some food for us and we drank Cass beer together. We had a heart-to-heart talk :) It's really nice talking to her and through our interactions, Jeannie and I think that she's a great mother for Youngjin and Taehun...our role model!

When 어머님 saw me removing my contact lens, she told me that lasik in Bucheon costs 1,000,000KRW for both eyes. That's so cheap!!! And earlier today, Youngjin said I have fur so I told him that he has feathers :) So when I casually said I wanted to do IPL in the future to get rid of my hairy arms and legs,어머님 told me that IPL here costs 10,000KRW per treatment. If I do 10 sessions, it's a near permanent effect.
If I can get both treatments done, I'll be a changed person by the time I return to Singapore! But I doubt my parents will allow and I feel bad for spending so much money :(
As usual, I slept really late again :(