[Part 3] 150. Gyeongbokgung + Hongdae

I met up with my new buddy for next semester, Jaesuk, for drinks in Coffee Bean this morning. The welcome session for the incoming batch of exchange students to NUS Business School will be on 7th January, next Friday afternoon but I won't be back in SG till 10pm so I arranged to meet up with him in Korea first before he left for Singapore. It was quite awkward when we first met but we warmed up to each other quite fast and...what a coincidence! He was in my Consumer Behaviour class in KU and actually remembered me! Come to think of it, I think I saw him a few times...he sat in the row in front of me and never did I/we expect that we would become buddies for next semester! I promise to be a better buddy this time round! My 4th semester as an exchange buddy, out of the 5 semesters I've done in NUS. Talking to him about Singapore made me realise how long I've been away from home. I had difficulty remembering quite a number of things about Singapore! I couldn't remember the buses from school to Clementi or Bukit Timah but that's not just because I haven't been in Singapore the past few months. I guess it's because I started driving to school this year so I'm quite out of touch with taking buses to and fro NUS. But I don't dare to drive when I'm back...I'm quite scared of driving actually. I want to stay accident-free but the thing about driving is that it's not just about you. It's about others too. I can be a safe driver but others are not and I always seem to meet with erratic drivers. Alright, I know, I'm not a perfect driver either and I suck at parking. I haven't done parallel parking since my driving test 2 years back. Way to go!

I had my favourite curry donkatzu for lunch in an eatery on the other side of Anam which I had never ventured to before. It's near the science campus. One of waitresses was quite nice. While YW was taking a photo of me, she actually came forward to adjust my hair! And she said that I don't smile like a Korean because I have dimples near my eyes. Actually, Singaporeans don't have that as well. I know, I'm just weird. But at least I stand out from the crowd :) I like to be different!

We headed to Gyeongbokgung after lunch and actually caught the changing of palace guards ceremony. It was the first time I watched it even though it was my 2nd time to the palace this year and the 5th time in my life. Actually, each time I head to Gyeongbokgung, I would tell myself to venture beyond the green field where Mel, G, Chun and I sat on and took pictures at last year. In August this year when I was there with Joanna and Morten, it was too hot so we didn't stay there for long. This time round, it too cold and we were short of time. Ah...I should have gone to the palace during autumn instead and spend one whole day there! We met up with Jeannie, Phyllis, Kenneth and his 2 Singaporean friends in the palace later on in the afternoon. Jeannie and I were supposed to meet up with Jeehyun unni at 5pm. But at 4.30pm, we were still at the palace so we wanted to change our meeting time to 6.30pm instead. But Junghyun unni and Sungjoon oppa were also joining us and they were already on their way so we stuck to 5pm.

Calling Jeannie

Obviously, we couldn't make it by 5pm because at 5pm, we had just reached Gyeongbokgung Palace Station and only reached Sangsu Station at 5.30pm. We headed to Plan B, a cosily decorated Italian restaurant for dinner before having desserts at a cafe called Maman Gateau 마망갸또. Upon arrival at the cafe, Jeehyun unni said that the decor of the place had changed and she asked the waitress about it, only to be told that this was an entirely new dessert place that had replaced the previous one! But the dessert was good...maybe it was because the chef went to Le Gorden Bleu!

Jeannie and I with our buddies for NUS AY09/10 Sem 1 :)

Jeehyun unni did her nails herself!

Us with Sungjoon

Lanvin for H&M lookalike

I got the Tony Moly famed whitening tomato mask for 7,800KRW to try after hearing much about it. We also took sticker photos :) It's so cool here in Korea! You can have the soft copy of the photo emailed or smsed to you.