[Part 1] 94. Girls day out :)

I couldn’t focus in class today because I was too excited about going out with Kawita after class :)
We went to the pasta restaurant that I wanted to go to for the longest time and I had the clam pasta that my bro and I kept eating when we were in Italy. It was quite good but the portion size was too small.

Side dish that came with our lunch set

My alle vongole :) 

Actually, Kawita and I wanted to get our hair treated in Nampodong and watch Breaking Dawn today but there wasn’t much time left after we had lunch so we decided to just watch Breaking Dawn at Seomyun instead and window shop at Lotte Duty Free before the show started. I need an air-ticket before I can shop at Duty Free and I don’t even know if I’ll be allowed to leave Korea :(

Breaking Dawn was GOOD though I felt that Kirsten’s acting wasn’t that good in the first part of the movie. We met up with Azeem and his elder brother for dinner and headed to a very good shabu shabu restaurant in Seomyun, called “Shabu Hyang 샤부 향”. Thank goodness we ordered the Seafood Set A for 3 persons instead of 4 because the portion serving was quite big and we were so full!

[Part 1] 93. Getting busier

For the 1st 10 weeks before mid-terms, life was good and school was pretty slack. Now, we suddenly have a lot of work thrown at us. We’re using Yonsei’s Book 5 and it’s so much more difficult, compared to Sogang’s book which was more conversation-based. Apart from starting on a new textbook, we’ll now have tests/quizzes every Tuesdays and Thursdays -.- Ahhhhhh

Alone in the gym today and I actually felt scared. At first, I used the treadmill on the extreme right but my back was directly facing the entrance and I couldn’t stop looking over my shoulder when I ran so I had to change treadmill halfway. Really hate having my back facing a door :( 

[Part 1] 92. Daddy’s birthday

Today’s my dad’s birthday and this is the 2nd time I celebrated his birthday over Skype :’(
Time passes so fast…Back in 2010, I celebrated his birthday over Skype in Da Vinchi Cafe in Anam,

And now, 2 years later, in my room in Busan. 

2 years ago, I didn’t feel homesick at all during my stay in Korea, not even when I Skyped my family to celebrate my dad’s birthday because I knew that I would be back home within 2 months. But this time round, I’m not on an exchange. I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to return to Singapore during my winter vacation next year. I’ll be here in Korea till end 2014 or early 2015 and it’s my first time being away from home for so long. When we were singing the birthday song to my dad, tears welled up in my eyes and I almost cried in front of my parents. But I didn’t want to ruin the mood so I had to control my emotions. Later on, I cried while bathing :’( Never felt homesick before till today. Really miss my parents and lil bro! I’ll also always remember the day we met up with my parents in Paris and went for the Seine River cruise together. I was so happy to see my parents after travelling around Europe for 2 weeks with my bro and Melissa and it was just so wonderful, being in Paris together. 

I forgot to get the candles this time round :( 

Daddy ready to open his presents

Happy birthday, Daddy. I love you ♥

[Part 1] 91. The progress report

So…I didn’t do that badly for my TOPIK mock test last Friday after all!

Alright, I wouldn’t have posted my results here if not for the fact that my score for the 1st mock test that I took back in September is also on my results slip. See the drastic improvement, especially for 어휘문법?
Well, actually I’m sure that I would have gotten a higher score for the 1st test if I had guessed (most of) the answers. 선생님 said to answer only the questions that we could answer and not guess so that was my score then. This time round, it was a combination of knowledge (still very meagre) and guessing (maybe 80%) that resulted in my more than 100% increase in my average score. At this rate, I’ll be a 6급 by Jan right? Fat hope hahaha. Improving my 쓰기 will take more than a miracle. But it’s ok, I’m in no rush for 6급. I just need to get my 5급 before I start my MBA so that I can receive an extra 100,000원/month in allowance^^ Money makes the world go round.
During my consultation with my teacher just now, she asked me for my motivation in getting 5급. I just told her frankly that I want the extra 100,000원/month. My MBA will be done entirely in English, unlike most of my classmates and friends who will be doing their masters/PHDs in Korean.
However, I love the Korean language and I want to be proficient in it. So I do wish to obtain 6급 by the end of 2014. I have 2 more years to obtain it so there’s no rush for me. But there is a rush to get 5급 before I start my masters so that I can get a higher allowance $$$

Today’s Esra’s and Valentina’s birthday so the group of us headed to Sasang for dinner. We had a hard time deciding where to go for dinner because we wanted to sit together but no restaurant was big enough to accommodate us. In the end, we we decided to go for 칼국수 knife-cut noodles at an empty eatery behind the subway station exit. The owners were quite fascinated to receive such a big group of foreigners and the chef even took photos of us haha. They were very kind too; gave us larger portions and even an extra bowl of 칼국수. Apparently, the eatery was featured on TV recently for its purple noodles because the chef uses some kind of purple cactus to make the noodles and the benefits of consuming the cactus are listed in the flyer.

With meat (5,000원)

Without meat (4,000원)

The eatery

After dinner, we popped by a convenience store to buy drinks before heading to a 노래방. My friends’  teacher joined us for the noraebang session too.

[Part 1] Gmarket purchases

For the whole of last week, I was soooo busy shopping on Gmarket, going through pages after pages of search results and item links to find the cheapest and the nicest knit wear for winter.

After spending a long time evaluating all the pieces, I finally made my order purchase and paid for the items last Sunday night. On Tuesday, 7 out of my 8 items arrived! I was really amazed by the speed of delivery :) But the security guard was quite pissed off with me because almost all my items arrived at one shot and he had to take delivery for so many items. Oops. The thing about shopping on Gmarket when you’re in Korea is that the items in one order are sent separately to you, rather than as a whole like that of international orders.

Bought a LCD cover for my S100 camera, a microSD card for my Samsung S3 and a bag organiser that came with a free pair of pearl earrings

• Knit top- DK 롤업니트[베이지] (+ ￦18,000) ￦29,800
• Skirt leggings- P117_기모플레어치마레깅스-차콜 (+ ￦7,000) ￦13,900 

• Knit top-  에이원꽈배기N2338-베이지 (+ ￦8,000) ￦20,900
• Zipper leather leggings- W185)지퍼레더레깅스_블랙 (- ￦5,800) ￦10,300

I was so excited about my new purchases that I wore one of the knit tops to school the next day. 

Matched it with a pair of boots I bought from Gmarket 2 years ago

The last 8th item arrived on Wednesday and I wore it on Friday. I’m glad that it isn’t so thick that I can’t wear it under my coat. 

Matched with the zipper leather leggings and my black coat from Gmarket bought in 2010

• Knit top-  입술라인.knit(민트) (+ ￦4,200) ￦20,000

On Wednesday night, I bought this book and it arrived in my dormitory by Thursday afternoon. Fastest delivery EVER! And it’s cheap too…8,000원 for Volumes 1 & 2 combined :) Recently, I bought quite a few Korean books and I haven’t even started reading them. But my teacher mentioned that this book was one of the bestsellers in Korea a few years back and it’s a book that most Koreans read so she recommended it to us. 

• Book- Marshmallow 이야기 

I’m still glued to Gmarket everyday because now…I’m on the hunt for a pair of long boots with heels (for variety since I already have a pair of boots without heels). I’m also on the hunt for a new pair of ankle boots because today,  I just discovered the bad state of my boots -.- So I need a replacement because other than my brown long boots, I only have my Converse shoes for winter. My oxfords are too tight and I feel like throwing them away when I’ve only worn them for less than 5 times. Any takers??? 

Ankle boots from Myeongdong (bought in 2010)

Oxford wedges bought from Edae in 2010

[Part 1] 88. 신라태풍 축구경기

I’ve finally unlocked my blog. Please take note of the new address!
I’ll be removing the redirecting soon (once I figure out how to do it).

I decided to lock my blog, for reasons that can’t be mentioned online.
Eventually, I figured out that a change of URL would be better and I did this for the 2nd time since I started this blog about my life in Korea. If you’ve been following me since 2010, you’ll know that I changed my URL suddenly back in 2010. That time, it was as a precautionary measure. This time, something did happen and I decided to lock my blog to mitigate the situation.
I really hope that I won’t have to change my URL anytime soon because I’m running out of names that mean something to me and I just paid for this domain for a year!

Anyway, this morning, I got up early to accompany Kawita and Hung to Busan Station. I bought a KR Pass for Kawita because she doesn’t have a foreign credit card to use for the purchase. In order to exchange the pass for a KTX ticket, you’re supposed to present the credit card used for the purchase, as well as the e-ticket and your passport. Hence, I had to be with her when she exchanged the pass for her ticket. BUT guess what…the ticketing staff didn’t ask for the credit card at all so…I kind of went down to the station for nothing. Oh wells. At least I woke up early which meant that my day started early and I could spend some time studying in a cafe before meeting the boys to go to a football field in 연산 for their match against Nay’s football team.

The football field was quite a distance away from 연산역 so we had to cab there.
It was a beautiful day with a clear blue sky BUT it was freezing cold and so poor Alex and I froze while the guys had their games.

The boys won almost all their matches. Well done :) 

By the time we reached school, we were so hungry that each of us had a bowl of egg rice and ramen. Oops. That’s for eating breakfast at 8am and having chips for lunch. 

[Part 1] 87. Just another day

In place of our normal class today, we took a mock TOPIK test and it was a…MAJOR failure.
At this rate, I definitely can’t take the January TOPIK test.
I spent 3 hours guessing most of the answers -.-
When will I ever get my 5급??? ㅠㅜ

After the test, I wanted to watch Breaking Dawn but someone was so reluctant to go with me that I decided not to watch it anymore :’( Instead, we chilled out in Starbucks and enjoyed a free java chip frappu. Love Starbucks! If you buy a tumbler, you get a free drink of any value :)

My glitter tips can’t last :(

Back in my dorm, I thought that I would accomplish much from my afternoon study session. But no, I spent 1 hour stressing over a toilet bowl. And after that, I couldn’t study anymore. 

The woes of living away from my parents. Whenever something goes wrong at home, I just call either of them. Here, I’m alone to fend for myself. Back to the toilet bowl. So I erm, caused it to choke and my numerous flushes didn’t help. I didn’t have a plunger at hand too. After 1 hour, I finally gathered the guts to report to the admin office and the nice ajusshi came to my room again. Last week, he came because I accidentally leaned against my roommate’s wardrobe door’s lock pad and that door got locked. This week, he had to come because I accidentally caused my toilet bowl to choke. Brilliant. 

And with 2 pumps within 1 minute, the clog was removed. I wasted 1 hour of my life -.- 

Aftermath because he wore his shoes into the bathroom

[Part 1] 83. Surprise party 깜짝 파티

Thank goodness I had the foresight (ok, it should be common sense) to reserve the cake for my roommate yesterday because when I went to Paris Baguette in the evening today, the cookies & cream one wasn’t available on the shelf anymore.

I overestimated the time required to prepare for the surprise party and we had to wait in the pantry for 10 minutes which resulted in 1 balloon bursting :( At 11.58pm, we decided to go into my room because we couldn’t wait any longer lol.

Happy birthday Shu Hua!