[Part 2] 121. I'm beginning to like Tuesdays

I MADE IT TO THE GYM TODAY! I always feel really good after a workout and tell myself that I should go to the gym every morning. But the problem is that I sleep really late every night and it's difficult to drag myself to the gym the next morning when I have to choose between exercise and sleep. Most of the time, I choose sleep, obviously. So I haven't been utilising my gym membership at all and it'll be expiring next Saturday :( Actually, Jeannie woke me up today when she knocked on my door. I was really tired but the fried chicken and chocolate I had in my stomach from last night haunted me and I HAD to go. Yuhong said that I should eat fried chicken and ice cream every night so that I'll go to the gym the next day.
After our Consumer Behaviour meeting, Yuhong and I went for lunch at an eatery near the main gate while Jeannie went home to sleep. I had kimchi stew with rice but it seemed more like bibimbap. I love it that Korea University is surrounded by so many eateries and study cafes that NUS will never ever have. These, I'll sorely miss :(

I actually made it to Korean class after lunch. On most Tuesdays and Thursdays, I feel tempted to skip Korean class after having lunch because the class is so slow-going and I don't learn much and the worse thing is that I can't map it back to NUS. The afternoon was spent in Soul Kitchen Coffee Cafe opposite Caffe Bene, which I now declare, as my favourite cafe in Anam. It's the perfect study cafe that's nice, quiet and with a great ambience. A cafe that is conducive for studying! The wooden seats were heated too.

YW came to the cafe to look for me in the evening and we went to Hanoi Star for dinner. Beef noodles for me! But the chili padi in the soup nearly killed me. I don't take to chili well :( We went to Caffe Bene to study after that but I think it was a wrong choice. Soul Kitchen Coffee Cafe is so much better! It was too dim in Caffe Bene and it was more conducive for sleeping rather than studying.

While you were sleeping...

I spent the day studying for my Corporate Finance quiz tomorrow. For the first time, I actually studied for my Corp Fin quiz! But back in my room, after skyping with Yuhong and Jeannie, I discovered that M&A is tested as well. CRAP.
I studied hybrid financing and bankruptcy.
Yuhong studied bankruptcy and M&A.
Jeannie studied hybrid financing and M&A.

1 December:
But actually, after taking the quiz, Jeannie studied the right topics. Yuhong and I studied an extra chapter. Also, it was only after we had taken the quiz and the prof resumed teaching Bankruptcy that I realised that we weren't done with the Bankruptcy chapter yet so I kind of "read up" for it already.

[Part 2] 120. Another long day in school

Alright, it wasn't quite a long day since I actually skipped 2 classes: IFM and Korean.
And I had to run to school again because I was late for my 3.30pm Strategic Management class. The Bonjuk Beef Mushroom porridge for 7,000KRW (rather pricey) that I ate with Jeannie at 3pm was so hot that I nearly burnt my tongue and I took 30 mins to finish it.

After our last class, Jeannie and I headed to an eatery near the main gate of school where I had Jeonju bibimbap for dinner. I love it and it's the first time my bibimbap came with black rice instead of normal white rice. I really really really love Korean food so maybe that's a possible reason why I don't feel homesick at all here, unlike Jeannie and Yuhong!

My Strat Management meeting stretched from 7pm to nearly 10pm. Yuhong called me at about 8.45pm, asking me to accompany him for dinner but I was stuck in my meeting and I couldn't find any excuse to leave early since I didn't even turn up for my meeting last Thursday :( His meeting was from 6.30pm-9pm; mine was 7-10pm and Jeannie's was 7-11pm. Last minute group meetings and rushing through work with presentations due next week and our final exams the week after.

9.13pm C: Not done leh... :(
9.14pm Y: Shit.
9.26pm Y: I am dying.
9.27pm C: I don't know how to leave leh.
9.33pm C: Finishing soon!
9.34pm Y: Please find my corpse near the main gate.
9.40pm C: Where do you want to have your 1st meal in heaven at?
9.41pm Y: Anam...I am now a wandering ghost at KUBS.<--- Korea University Business School

After finally meeting him and saving him, we headed to Anam for chicken (my 2nd dinner of the day) before having ice cream in Caffe Bene for dessert. The dark chocolate ice cream for 2,500KRW is nice! Actually, I wanted to have the green tea mochi ice cream at Baskin Robbins but it closed at 11pm and so did Coldstone so I was left with Caffe Bene. I feel so guilty for eating the fried chicken and ice cream. I MUST GO TO THE GYM TOMORROW!

[Part 2] 119. Happy 50th birthday, Daddy!

It's my dad's 50th birthday today and I called him early this morning to wish him a happy birthday and to tell him about what I had planned for him and my mum tonight. But my plan was foiled because my dad was down with stomach flu and he also didn't want me to spend money on a dinner buffet at The Line, Shangri-la for them :( I had to call Shangri-la Hotel immediately to cancel the reservation and thank goodness they hadn't charged the credit card yet! I had asked them to allow me to make payment in advance. Phew! But I think my phone bill for this month will be quite high because I had to call back to Singapore a few times, especially when I made the reservation!
I was supposed to meet Sean for lunch today but he wanted to have breakfast instead so I suggested going to Table B for brunch. But that place was CLOSED :( On a Sunday?!?! No brunch on Sunday? It's almost always closed whenever I want to dine there. In the end, we went to the Japanese eatery beside Da Vinci Coffee Cafe for an early lunch of sushi, donkatsu and udon.
Back in my room, I managed to finish up my report on poison pill for Corporate Finance but I spent such a long time on it that I didn't even get to read Crisis Economics for my book review due tomorrow as well :(
It was snowing when YW and I stepped out onto Anam Street after having dinner in a Chinese eatery. Finally, I got to see snow in Korea again! We went to an arcade to play some games which I obviously sucked at. I never quite seem to be able to play any video or sport or drinking games well :(

Since my birthday plan A for my dad was foiled, I had to think of plan B so I decided to take my music books and head to Hana Square in the Science Campus to record some of my parents' favourite songs on the piano for them. I haven't played the piano FOR AGES :( On top of that, I had to play in front of quite a number of other KU students in the lounge who had probably heard River flows in you by Yiruma a million times. But because I haven't played the piano for such a long time, my fingers were rusty and I had lost my touch so I needed to practise but I didn't dare to play the song too many times because I could feel people's eyes burning into me for playing the song twice already. The last time I was there with Sean, a woman who wanted to use the piano as well, told two guys off for practising their songs there because they should find a piano practice room instead of playing at the lounge. So yes, here are the songs that YW recorded for me with me rushing through the pieces as usual and not being able to flip my pages well (because the book was too new!) :(

 

When we walked out of the building, it was snowing more heavily! I went back to Co-M Livingtel again to get my laptop and my book before heading to Da Vinci Coffee Cafe with YW. I bought a slice of cake there to get ready for my Skype session with my parents and to celebrate my dad's birthday with them through Skype. BUT unfortunately, the cafe didn't have any candles so I had to run over to a bakery nearby to buy 5 long candles for 500KRW. The cake I got was called "Cafe Chocolate" but it was actually coffee chocolate -.- Since when did "cafe" become equivalent to "coffee"? 

After skyping with my parents, I tried reading my book and stayed up till quite late to finish my book review. In the end, I only read the introduction, conclusion and bits and pieces of the body area. Thank goodness the review was only supposed to be between 1-2 pages! Obviously, I only wrote 1 page! Haha. 

My BIG down feather jacket which I wore to Korea in Winter 2005.

We watched the staff set up the christmas tree

I think I can ski down this slope soon if the snow is thick enough!

[Part 2] 118. Samsung Total Kimchi-making event!

I love waking up to delicious home-cooked Korean food for breakfast! I missed having breakfast in Youngjin's place in Bucheon but at least, I got to have a nice breakfast in Hyunju's place in Seosan today :) My morning would have been perfect if it had snowed in Seosan too. YW texted me that it was snowing in Seoul- the real first snow in Seoul (apparently, it was hailstone that I saw a few weeks back, not snow) and I wasn't there to see it :(

A few days before Pepero Day, Hyunju unni asked me if I was free this weekend because her father works in Samsung Total in Seosan and there would be a kimchi-making event on 27 November for the employees' families. Thank goodness, I didn't have any meetings yesterday and today so I could join her in Seosan for the weekend and it was certainly a fun experience!
I didn't know that we would be making kimchi outdoors and I also wasn't sure how I was supposed to dress to make kimchi. Luckily, Hyunju lent me her warm leggings to wear underneath my stockings and her yellow hoodie to wear over my checkered shirt and pullover, instead of my pretty (and rather stiff) black coat. She also wore her yellow hoodie so we were like "yellow sisters".  When we left her apartment at 11am, it was raining but thank goodness, it wasn't by the time we reached the factory. Hyunju unni's housing estate is for Samsung workers and buses were chartered to bring us all to the factory, which was about 30-45 minutes away. Lunch was even provided for all at the cafeteria before we were brought to the kimchi-making venue where tentages were set up for us. I think Samsung is a really family-oriented company and even organises such activities for its employees and their families to get together and have a day of fun. That's why the event was called "행복한 김장나눔행사 Happy kimchi-making event" and into its 2nd year of running. I got to meet many of Hyunju unni's father's colleagues and families. The French EVP and his wife, Samsung's Chinese and Japanese counterparts also participated in the event so it was quite an international event!
Actually, we didn't make the kimchi from scratch. We were given cabbage that was already prepared as well as red pepper paste to spread on the cabbage. That was all! So it wasn't that much of a hard work and everyone was done with the kimchi-making 1 hour away of schedule. It was fun making the kimchi, eating some while making and erm, staining my shoes as well :(

The box for us to bring home

The amount of kimchi we had to make

Our section 

Play area for the kids to keep them entertained

Signing the electronic guestbook...cool stuff!

This ramyeon packaging's material is made by Samsung Total! 

Done!

Bundled up in many layers. 

Korean snacks provided

The French EVP interacting with some ladies

The heater 

Amazing how they could perform in the cold like that!

Lucky draw and the top few prizes were kimchi refrigerators

Actually, I didn't know that there was a bus chartered to bring Samsung workers back to Seoul from the factory. Had I known that earlier, I would have brought my belongings along and taken that bus back at 4pm instead of taking the 5.20pm bus from the Seosan bus terminal because timing makes all the difference! What was meant to be a 1.5 hours journey back to Seoul became a 3 hours journey; just like how a 3 hours bus ride back to Seoul from Seoraksan became a 6 hours bus ride with bad traffic. What complicated matters for me was that I had forgotten to charge my phone and neither did I bring my charger so my phone died in the afternoon, leaving me with no way to contact YW. Thank goodness, I managed to remember his number before I had zero batt left! Initially, I told him to meet me at 7pm in Sinsa but after purchasing my 5.20pm bus ticket, I doubt I could make it to Sinsa in less than 2 hours so I changed our meeting time to 7.40pm instead. In the end, I met him at nearly 8.30pm :(:(:( It was one of the most torturing bus ride of my life. After about 2 hours or so, I thought I was in Seoul because I saw the skyscrapers, Shinsegae, etc. but somehow, the bus seemed stuck with bad traffic leading to the toll gates. But I thought I was in Seoul already so I don't know why we were only at the toll gates then. Basically, I had no idea where I was and I couldn't sleep from 7.30pm onwards because I knew I would never make it to Sinsa in time and I had no way of contacting YW unless...I borrowed a phone from the Korean guy next to me. But I didn't dare to do so initially because he seemed so engrossed watching some Korean show or playing games on it...until it was 8pm and I felt so terrible for making YW wait. So I plucked up courage to ask the guy and he was really nice about it!
Oh yes, before I left Hyunju's place, she gave me some kimchi to bring back for YW and her father drove us to the bus terminal. Hyunju didn't return to Seoul with me as she had to attend her friend's relative's funeral in Suwon so she took a bus there from the bus terminal as well. She paid for my bus ride back and her dad paid for my bread to eat on the bus! I had a really great time in Seosan and thank you for you and your family's hospitality, Hyunju unni!
YW and I had a Chinese dinner at Kuai19. Ok, I do miss Singapore food after all...fried rice! The one at Kuai19 was not bad because it tasted like Din Tai Fung's! But then again, Din Tai Fung isn't a local restaurant so it's not quite Singapore food, is it? After dinner, we did some window shopping in the cold. I couldn't quite walk straight because my head was turned to the side all the time, looking at the window displays of the boutiques as we walked down the street. I really love the autumn/winter fashion here but I don't have much time left here and it doesn't make economic sense to buy more coldwear here. But then again, I should do what I can do here while I still can...which is to dress up fashionably?
I wanted to have waffles at Beans Bins Coffee. The last time I had the delicious waffle there was when I was with Joanna and Morten in early August!!!!! Unfortunately, there were no seats at the cafe so we came back to Anam :( I have to eat my waffles soon!