First snowfall

Snowing! !!!!!!!

Interesting life now

When my life is not interesting at all, I have the time to blog.
When my life is interesting, I don’t have the time to blog.

Post mid-terms, I’ve been kept busy. MT, Nami Island, shopping in Sinsa, photoshoot in Gyeongbokgung, Everland, etc.

And today, I had dinner with my marketing prof (who has a D.B.A. from Harvard and is into film-making) and 4 classmates from my business case class at a pretty Italian restaurant near my dorm. It was a great dinner with discussions about soccer (I’m now used to it) and favourite scenes from favourite movies.

This weekend will be a great one too because we have a 야유회 picnic on Saturday morning and then it’s my friends’ triple A birthday party in Itaewon and Hongdae after that and then maybe Paju for shopping on Sunday.

And I’ll be off to Ulsan next week too.

And when I’m back, there’ll be our end-of-year party at Hyatt Hotel for all Yonsei MBA students, be it global, corporate or executive MBA students. Which means I’ll be busy preparing our band and dance performances. And then, we’ll have another class dinner party in early Dec too.

My uncle’s coming at the end of the month too. And I have my final exams in mid Dec.

Busy busy busy!!!!

[Part 2] 65. End of mid-term/final exams

What an unexpected turn of events today.
Time and time again, it has been shown to me that the best things happen when I least expect them.
Which means that I should just give my best without expecting anything in return from now onwards.

Last week, I thought we did really well for our presentation but we ended up as the runner-up and didn’t win the 100,000KRW prize. A few weeks back, we were the runner-up for our trial presentation too but the wining team gave us 10,000KRW to split amongst us.

This time round, I was just beyond tired and wanted to be done with all my deadlines, with this Business Presentation and Case Competition class’s 2nd leg presentation the last of everything for this week of mid-term/final exams.

Yesterday, after my Econs final exam ended at 11am, I worked on the slides and flow for the presentation all the way till 4.30pm before rushing off for my Korean exam at 5pm and then starting work on the slides again after watching the Heirs (my biweekly relaxation time)…all the way till 3am! And I resumed work on the slides again from 10am all the way till 1pm that my teammate had to send me a message asking me to stop editing the slides and to go to school for our rehearsal.
12 hours spent on doing up the PPT slides. Can you believe it?!?!?! I was so sick and tired of everything that I told my other 2 teammates that they have to buy me dinner because I did so much for us!!!!!!!!

So anyway, we rehearsed through our presentation, just once, and then rushed to the classroom only to draw lots and got the 1st slot to present. I was in a major WTH mode because I didn’t even had the time to rehearse my part and we didn’t have a thumb drive to transfer our slides to the main computer. Thank goodness Sara’s group wanted to go first so we swopped ours for their 6th slot. If not for them…

We wouldn’t have won!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, so unbelievable. Considering how we’ve been the runner-up team for 2 out of 3 presentations and how last minute we were this time round with me presenting the most important part of our presentation but not being able to rehearse sufficiently before presenting… in terms of content, I think we did well this time round, but definitely not for delivery! So yeah, we will have our names engraved on the trophy and receive 1,000,000KRW to be split among the 3 of us.

I was really in shock when I went up to receive the trophy.
For the 1st leg presentation, the 2 judges didn’t really like our presentation. This time round, there were 3 more judges, including the vice-president of CJ E&M International, and I was quite discouraged from the feedback about our 1st leg that I just wanted to get this class over and done with. And actually, I had a very bad week which resulted in me breaking down in class just before my Korean exam yesterday. I know that the things that happened are none of my business because it’s the way others want to live their lives but their actions affected me directly/indirectly. Our grades are bell-curved. If you cheat and you do better than me, you deny me of a better position and grade. And that’s not fair. That’s morally wrong too. And I have zero tolerance for cheaters. And then there were 2 friends who couldn’t turn up for our exam because of an inexcusable reason which I shan’t reveal online. Here I was, being stressed over my presentation and working hard on it (for the BPCC class, we are graded on 3 presentations, that’s it, and the final one was the most important) and yet,  I still went for the exam. And they asked me to inform our teacher instead of doing so directly themselves. If there’s anyone who can’t make it for the exam, it should be me because I didn’t have enough time to finish the slides. The 2 of them didn’t even take the class so I don’t see how they could not go for the exam. So yeah, I was in a major irritated mode and winning was the last thing on my mind.

Much thanks to my classmates who came up to me and complimented me. Really felt the love and support! I have never received such compliments before back in NUS.

Anyway, the class was supposed to end at 5.30pm with the after-party starting at 6pm but the class ended at 6pm instead and we only set off for the dinner venue at 6.30pm. I had to catch the KTX to Ulsan at 8pm and I wasn’t able to change my ticket for a later timing because the tickets were sold out. Since it doesn’t make sense to go to the restaurant to say hi and bye and then go to Seoul Station, I decided not to go at all, even though my team’s the supposed star for the night :(
So while everyone else was celebrating the end of module, I had a quiet dinner in the KTX and slept all the way to Ulsan where H was there to greet me at the platform. But you know what??? I was so blur and tired that I almost got off the train without my overnight bag!!!!!!! Thank goodness I remembered my bag at the nick of time. Oh gosh. I really scare myself sometimes with all the stupid things that I do, especially when I am tired.

It has become our routine or so that right after I arrive in Ulsan each time, we would go to Homeplus to shop for cereal and snacks. We got chicken too because I was really hungry. Feels so good to be back in Ulsan :) Being in Ulsan’s like a dream. Seoul’s reality, Ulsan’s a dream.

Our favourite ice cream and cereal

Moral dilemma

Wow, I never expected to be in such a position.

What will you do if your friend cheats during an exam?
Will you report him/her?

I am actually very irritated/angry with this person because this person made me unable to concentrate on my exam as I battled with the moral dilemma of whether to report or not. An extra cheat sheet, using his/her handphone to surf the internet for answers (throughout the exam) and even poking me to ask for answers?

Such low standard. Seriously.

What a coincidence that I have my Ethics exam tomorrow. I used to be of a deontological position but now, I are more of a utilitarian/relativism position, according to my prof’s Throughput Model. You probably know my next course of action. Life’s unfair. The world’s never fair right?

Focus Clara

When I’m kind of free, I don’t feel like blogging.
When I’m not free, I keep wanting to blog.

Reminder: blog about Pink Ribbon Marathon volunteering session last Sunday, and my 1st meeting with MBA students from the other schools in Seoul: Korea Uni, Ewha Women’s and Sungkyunkwan.

Anyway, I really want to revive this place again so please wait for me :) After my mid-terms/finals next week!

The end of Module 1 is coming

Last week, my buddy treated me to tea.

This week, he bought me dinner. 

I need to do something. 

Anyway, over dinner, I asked him to consider bringing Topshop and Warehouse into Korea. 

Right now, Korea doesn’t have many UK fashion brands. They have the Spanish and US brands but not Topshop and Warehouse. So if you see these 2 brands in Lotte next time, thank me :) 

Can’t wait for Module 1 to end next week! 

I’ll have a 3-day week from end Oct-end Dec which leaves me with Thursdays and Fridays off to do photoshoots around Seoul and make the most of the coming autumn foliage. 

Where am I from

Alright, at the post mid-autumn festival gathering/lunch for Singaporeans earlier, I was asked if I were a Singaporean -.-

I always get asked this question even in Singapore.

And then I was asked if there's anyone in my family who's non-Chinese.

I am 100% Chinese.

Well that guy thought that I'm from Myanmar or Thailand :'(

In Singapore, I get the Indonesian Chinese answer the most, followed by mainland Chinese.

In Korea, I get Korean, Japanese and Hong Konger.

Interesting.

Stolen mail at SK Global House

WTF. Seriously, this is the first time that this happened to me.

The parcel was delivered on Saturday but I didn’t know until I checked my Gmarket account just now.
But actually, for the past few days when I walked past the table with all the parcels, I didn’t see mine at all. I just went down to double-check the table again, and sure enough, my parcel wasn’t there.

I’m in an extremely foul mood now.

Beware if you move into SK Global House. Your mail may get stolen.

I miss Silla’s Global Town where all parcels are delivered to the security guard’s room and he watches you when you go in and you have to sign on the file after you’ve collected the parcel, under his watchful eye. And he knows who you are and your name.

Buddy meeting!

I met my Corporate MBA buddy today and it was a great meeting, despite being only 15-20 mins long!

I can’t wait for our future meetings because he said he’ll bring me around the Lotte department store that he works at in…Bucheon! I haven’t been to Bucheon for a long time…brings back many wonderful memories of my summer spent there with Jeannie back in 2010. 

I told him how I have to go to the department store and walk around every now and then. It’s one of my favourite past times. I mean when I was young, my mum used to bring my brother and I to Orchard every now and then after she picked us up from the childcare centre. And when I was studying at RGS, Orchard was like our playground, especially Far East Plaza. Buying chicken rice back to school, telling my favourite rojak store uncle that I wanted rojak without sauce…ahhh the memories. 

Ok, my skin is really bad these days. I’ve tried expensive skincare products but nope, they don’t work. Maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping really late between 2-3am these days. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been exercising. Maybe it’s the weather. I keep complaining about my skin, I know. But it’s really so bad. Gone are the days when my problematic areas were only confined to my T-zone. 

I shall stick with hot lemon water every morning from next week onwards, sleep by midnight everyday and exercise more regularly. But I really don’t know what to do in terms of products to use for my face. Maybe I should go to a 피부과 and get a facial but I read online that extractions aren’t legal in Korea now. I feel like selling my Clarisonic now too. 

상견례

Ok, I haven’t been blogging properly, like what I used to do on a daily basis.
There are many reasons why I haven’t been doing so, aside from being busy with school.
I really wanted this blog to be something that I’m proud of, something that holds all my memories from every single day spent in Korea. But sadly, this blog didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.

Module 1 is the busiest module for my program. By the end of October when Module 2 starts, I’ll only have school from Mondays-Wednesdays and I hope to spend 1 day a week exploring Seoul and taking nice pictures AND blogging about it.

But other than being busy, the real reason is that I don’t want my blog to be read by some people because I don’t want to be judged on what I do or buy. I don’t want this blog to be used against me. So until I figure out how to balance what I want or don’t want to share, I will not blog about things that are too personal. Maybe I’ll lock my blog and if you wish to follow my journey here, you could let me know and I’ll invite you. I’m still undecided on that. But today’s entry will be an exception because I really want to share what I experienced! So please keep the contents of this entry to yourself. Thank you!

I had one of the most authentic Korean culture experiences today: I attended a 상견례 (official meeting between the bride and bridegroom’s families before the wedding) and it was like what you normally see in Korean dramas- a private room with both families seated opposite each other, bowing, being very mindful of every word used and every action so as not to offend the opposite party and to gain favour for the marriage.

H’s brother is getting married and his 상견례 was held today in a Chinese restaurant in Wonju 원주.
My plan was to make a day trip down to have lunch with H and his family since Wonju is nearer to Seoul than Ulsan is and I can’t meet H as often as I did when I was still in Busan. But then his parents wanted me to join them for the 상견례 too because they seldom get to see me and they wanted me to spend more time with them. However, it was weird too because a 상견례 is only for immediate family members but they said it’s alright, because I’m a foreigner. In Korea, being a foreigner means you can get away with some things haha.

Anyway, I took the 10.50am bus to Wonju from the Seoul Express Bus Terminal for 10,400원. It was a 우등 bus ride which means more spacious seats. There are 일반 ordinary buses to Wonju too but whether it is a 일반 or 우등 bus depends on the bus timing. The journey was supposed to be 1.5 hours long but thanks to heavy traffic, it took almost 2 hours for me to reach there. And I could have taken an earlier bus too but I got lost in the subway station. I didn’t know which exit to go to and whether Wonju belongs to the Honam Line 호남선 (Central City Bus Terminal) or Gyeongbu Line 경부선 (Seoul Express Bus Terminal). I didn’t find Wonju in the Honam Line so I decided to go to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal to try my luck and see if a bus to Gangwon-do’s there. Thank goodness it is! H didn’t tell me at all and I never learnt about Honam or Gyeongbu or Yeongdong or how to take intercity buses during Korean class -.-

I reached Wonju at nearly 1pm and we headed off for lunch shortly after that. Barley rice 보리밥 (7,000원 per bowl), eaten in bibimbap style! The food was really delicious yet cheap. And potato pancake 감자전 (7,000원) is so amazing!

After lunch, we were quite full so we walked around before heading to Baekgunsan Recreational Forest 국립 백운산자연휴양림 to walk around and take some photos. The weather was perfect and there weren’t any mosquitoes in sight. Some of the leaves were turning red too!

Hello lil froggy! 

My pretty shoes from Clark

His best modelling photo to date 

Lovely afternoon spent soaking in nature

So sweet haha 

Back at his brother’s apartment, his brother went for a haircut while everyone else fell asleep because they were tired from the 4 hours car journey from Ulsan to Wonju at 6am. I spent my time planning my schedule for the next few months. Busy Business School student! And at 5pm, everyone started rushing around getting ready while I started feeling a bit inappropriately dressed because H’s dad and bro wore suits and his mum was quite well-dressed too. At 5.30pm, we rushed out of the apartment and were in the restaurant’s private room before 6pm, just before H’s gf/fiancee and her family arrived. We had to stand in a line behind the chairs (I was standing in front of the chair until H told me to get behind it instead) and bow when the other family came in and only sat after they sat. I don’t know if the bride’s family has to be more respectful to the bridegroom’s family or the other way round but I think that because the future bride’s parents are much older than H’s parents, his parents were more respectful. I think it’s so stressful to be a Korean because you have to watch your manners and be careful not to offend the other party! Before eating, I had to make sure that everyone ate first before I ate. But H was really sweet and he kept watching out for me. He even peeled peanuts for me! Ok, I don’t get it but Koreans think it’s dirty to eat the skins of roasted peanuts so they peel them away too. The same for desserts which was a bunch of grapes. At the end of the meal, everyone’s plates had the grape skins and grape seeds while mine only had the grape seeds because I ate the grapes AND the skin. Oops.

The 상견례 went quite well (IMO) and thank goodness the bride-to-be’s elder sister, husband and toddler came along too so there were 5/6 of them and 5 of us and we were entertained by the little boy during the dinner because he kept wanting to eat jajjangmyeon. And later on, he went around massaging his parents, grandparents, aunt, H’s bro, H’s parents and ignored the 2 of us, maybe because he deemed us too young for massages. This is another thing that I’ve noticed in the Korean culture: kids learn to give massages to their parents and their grandparents from a young age and I find this so endearing and sweet. You’ve probably seen the kids doing so in 아빠, 어디가 variety show. During the dinner, his mum gave him corn to eat and he used it as a telephone too hahahaha. And when eating the grapes, he put me to shame because he peeled off the skin from the grapes first before eating while I ate them all. The bride-to-be’s sister and brother-in-law are from Korea University and the brother-in-law is a doctor. The food was pretty good and it was interesting to eat a 8 course Chinese dinner in Korea because the Chinese food’s localised to Korean taste. No sharks’ fin or fish maw soup; instead we had 누룽지 soup which was delicious. No fried rice or mian (I can’t remember the names anymore); instead we could choose between jajjangmyeon and the spicy seafood noodles soup. And bunches of grapes for desserts! I’ve never eaten them like this in a Chinese restaurant before.
Oh, and I didn’t take any pictures during the dinner because it would have been rude to do so.

The only photo taken at the restaurant

At the end of the dinner, we saw them off at the car park. Us standing in a line again, bowing and shaking hands and waiting till they left before we got into the car. H bought me my bus ticket back and this time round, I took the 일반 ordinary bus and reached Seoul at 10.20pm.

What a long but interesting and fulfilling day!

School life

Yesterday, I Skyped with my parents and complained about how stressed I am because I feel like I’m the only one doing everything. My mum told me not to kay kiang. I said I am kiasu.

I am on 2 scholarships now actually. The government pays 5,000,000KRW in tuition fees, max. And the Business School’s 미래육성 scholarship that I’m also on pays off the balance of 13,806,000KRW per semester.

Which means…my grades matter.

Which means...I have to serve as a TA for about 10 hours or so a week.
I’ve never been a TA before and while my fellow scholars weren’t too happy about additional work, I’m pretty excited about being one! I've just met my Prof yesterday and he has a Ph.d in Management from NYU. For now, I’ve been tasked to vet his lecture notes (in English) for his Strategic Management class for the undergrads.

And today, I was assigned my corporate MBA buddy who’s in Sales Management in Lotte Department Store :)

Alright, this is the latest update on my school life and I have a meeting in half an hour’s time for Marketing. I've just gotten free rings from our President who used to work in OST. Yay!!!!!

I am sorry for being MIA, dearest blog.

MBA life has been a very busy one, in particular, this first semester.

But right now, all I want to say is that my blood is boiling.

Substandard work, heck-care attitude, free-riders…
I am dealing with a group in which less than half of us are doing the real work?
Other groups are running at like a 7-member strength speed…and we are like...
Come on guys.

This is testing my limit.

Next semester, I will pick the right people and hopefully, we don’t have to stick with our orientation groupings.

[Part 2] 13. Day 2 of school but it feels like Day 200 or something

Hi, so the title of this entry pretty much seems it up.
I was in school from 9am-9pm today with a few short breaks in between.

The Blue Room- the room for us GMBA students to hang out in since our building is pretty much used by executives from big companies in Korea, we should only study or talk loudly here.

The 1st 2 weeks of a new semester have always been slacked for me but this is ONLY day 2. Yet, I feel as though I’ve been in school for a long time. Back to the rigour of being a business school student where you have group presentations and projects and assignments due for almost every module. When the normal work load for a student is 15 credits a semester while I have 21.5.
But it’s alright…just slightly after a month, I’ll have a 3-day week.

Today started off with Organizational Behaviour class with a rather cool professor and it was more or less an introductory class. Lunch was spent with my Marketing Management group in the cafeteria of the Student Union Building where I had some pork dish for 2,500원. The pork was more like a side dish rather than a main dish and I was left hungry in no time -.-

I don’t recommend this dish.

We had some time left before our next class so we sat in the park and brainstormed for a new product for our project before going for our Ethics class which almost fried our brains for the next 3 hours. After class,  my group brainstormed again for another 2 hours before I had 1 hour of dinner break before my Korean class from 7 - almost 9pm.

3,800원 for 떡만두국 from the Korean Language Institute cafeteria

What a loooooooong day. I was actually contemplating dropping Korean class because I don’t welcome the extra workload and I thought that after a year of Korean language classes, I was done with studying Korean. But nope, I’m now in the advanced class with just 2 classmates haha. One’s a Korean who grew up in Canada while the other is a Korean-German. So if any of us drops the class, the class might be cancelled. But given that it’s a really small class, we get more individual attention and we get to talk about other stuff too. And I figured that while people have to pay to attend Korean classes at Yonsei, it’s provided FOC for us and we will be learning Business Korean too. So yes, I shall continue with Korean classes for the next 1.5 years.

Ok, I’m really tired and I haven’t done anything since my last class other than printing my notes.

National Day Reception tomorrow! It’s gonna be my first time meeting the other Singaporeans in Seoul :)

[Part 2] 11. Failed trip to Incheon

It’s strange how that period comes on the dot at a certain time.
And it came just before I was about to set off for Incheon.

I thought the first day shouldn’t be that bad but JUST IN CASE. I took 2 Panadols anyway and headed out. BUT the pain worsened by the minute that 1.5 hours into the journey, I had to get out of the train to get a seat on the platform where I winced in pain for a few minutes until I decided that I had to return to my room. There was no way I could continue travelling another 30 minutes more while standing on the subway and then putting on a nice persona as though I’m alright for the next few hours before making another 2hr+ journey back to my room. I was feeling feverish and then breaking out in cold sweat and hoping that no one would see me because the tears were coming down from the pain and I was pretty much in a very bad state. So anyway, I decided to turn back and so, I can’t meet Youngjin before he leaves for Canada to study for the next few years ㅠㅜ 너무 미안했어 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Well, the next time I visit my ex-tuition kid’s family in Incheon, I’m going on a weekday because there are shuttle buses between Yonsei’s Sinchon campus and its International Campus in Songdo, Incheon which is just a few minutes away from their place. And the next time, I will not travel far if it’s that period for me.

I guess the patbingsu for dinner yesterday was to blame. And then, maybe I was also hungry though I couldn’t differentiate between gastric pain and abdominal pain. Anyway, I figured out my stomach needed something hot so I went to Bonjuk for my usual mushroom oyster porridge before coming back to my room.

Last few hours of freedom before school starts! And then, my weekends will never be the same again until my next break.

[Part 2] 4. Thoughts on SK Global House for now

Well, I moved up to Seoul on Thursday.
And I miss Silla University’s Global Town A LOT.

ROOM
Other than the fact that I am in a single room now with a more well-designed desk and that I’m just 1 minute away from the main road (via the East gate), I’m paying about 625,000KRW/month, which is more than 3 times the rent of my Silla room, for- a puny wardrobe half the size of my previous one, a puny shoe cabinet half the size of my previous one, a door without a door stopper so I struggle every time I come back with many things, and the most irritating of all- electricity that only exists when my room card is slotted in (tried slotting other cards in to keep the electricity on but it doesn’t work). So basically, every time I leave my room and come back, I am in complete darkness until I manage to slot my card in (which isn’t easy when I hold many things) and I have to reset my digital clock EVERY TIME. And I don’t get why they give us a mini fridge too since we can only use it when we are in the room. Oh yes, and my room is right at the end of the hallway which is sooooo far from the lift lobby (ok, maybe it’s better since the view for the single rooms nearer the lift lobby is the KLI and I don’t people to see me in my room). And the view from my assigned room is so bleh. I’m comparing this place with my room for the past 1 year.

Irritating fact: I have soooo many things that I can’t even think of moving to another place. I wonder if I can stay here for the whole 1.5 years. What if I am assigned a different room for every semester??????? I think if that happens and the office really won’t let me keep my room, I’ll move off campus.

FRIENDS
I am the only KGSPer here I think. And this place is almost full of foreigners. From being one of the few foreigners in Global Town, I am now one of the many foreigners here. Almost everyone I have seen here for the past few days are foreigners. So much so that I don’t feel like I’m in Korea at all. Most of all, almost all the foreigners in Global Town were from my program and I had so many friends there. I’m all alone now.

I am missing Busan sooooooo much. And Global Town too.

When I was at the Express Bus Terminal yesterday, just 2 gates away was the gate for the bus to West Busan i.e. Sasang where I can just take Silla’s shuttle bus back to Global Town.

I woke up at 11am+ today and unpacked and packed all the way till the late afternoon before I explored the area around my dorm and walked to Edae to get more stuff from Daiso. Edae’s dorm looks really pretty.

Orientation starts tomorrow!

The end is near

I had my final exams over the last 2 days and today, I had my mock TOPIK exam. Which was the first in a looooooong time. Surprisingly, the paper was rather do-able, though whether or not I score is another question altogether. I was hoping that I would be able to answer all the questions for the listening section today BUT of all things, I got distracted by a…SPIDER.

I saw it scuttling across the table and as it came towards me, I flicked it away with my test paper and I thought that was it, good-bye. Halfway through the listening tape, it crawled to the middle of my test paper and I panicked like crazy. It was rather big, maybe the size of a 10-cent coin? So I flicked my test paper really hard and it was gone. But thanks to the spider, I didn’t listen to the dialogue which wasn’t even repeated so I lost marks for 2 questions. And then, it appeared AGAIN towards the end of the listening section and again, I flicked my test paper (really hard this time round) but it didn’t fly off at all. Instead, I discovered that it had spun a web down from the tip of my exam paper so I frantically flipped my test paper like crazy until it was no longer dangling from the tip. And seconds later, I saw it on the ground and stepped on it. So that was it, end of the spider and end of my listening section and I lost marks for another 2 more questions. Argh.

For the past 2 days, I was pretty irritated with 2 Korean girls, especially on Monday. I mean it’s basic courtesy that if you see that there are people waiting to use the treadmills, you should limit your workout to 30~40 minutes, right? But no, the 3 treadmills were occupied for more than an hour before one girl finally left. The remaining 2 girls actually used the treadmills for a total of 1.5 hours (because I spied on their workout details), and 1 of them walked the WHOLE time at a rather slow pace. I’m sorry for being so mean but I get upset whenever I see people walking on the treadmill and hogging it for more than 30 minutes while watching drama on the TV. I mean if it’s your personal treadmill, by all means, I have nothing to say. But it’s not your personal treadmill and when you see people waiting to use it, don’t you have any sense to limit your workout duration? And it’s not even like you are walking on incline that justifies why you need to use the treadmill to walk because our gym’s treadmills’ incline function doesn’t work. If you want to walk, you can walk outside. But for those who want to run/jog, it’s difficult to do so outside because our campus is basically on a mountain and running or jogging outside isn’t good for the knees. Plus, it’s too hot outside for running or jogging. I don’t think you perspire as much from walking. Ok, fair enough if you really want to use the treadmill for walking, who am I to control you or say what you can or cannot do. But for the sake of others, please limit your workout duration and be more considerate? 참 예의없어.
So on Monday, I was at the gym at 4.45pm (around my usual workout time slot) and I saw the 2 girls there for the first time. Waited till almost 5.45pm for an available treadmill. Yesterday, I decided to go earlier, at 3.30pm and the 3 treadmills were occupied and 1 of the 2 girls was waiting to use the treadmill. I didn’t have the time to wait but I really had to exercise because of my class dinner (buffet) later that evening so I had no choice but to return to my room to load up on my sunscreen before making the long walk to the sports stadium and running 5 rounds around the track before conceding to the heat and returning to the gym to stand in front of the air-con to cool down for 20 minutes. 장난 아니였어. The heat during summer in Korea is no joke, ok. And I saw the 2 girls walking on the treadmill again. Seriously.

So today, with another class dinner (buffet again at the same restaurant) in the evening, I had to work out so I wanted to go right after mock TOPIK to make sure I won’t have to wait for a treadmill. But I was tooooooo hungry. I almost wanted to leave the exam room after the listening section because my stomach was embarrassing me with all the loud sounds but thankfully, I managed to control the hunger pang, somehow, and complete the paper. My classmates were hungry too so we scrapped the plan to work out before lunch and decided to have a light lunch instead so that we could work out earlier. In the end, Hung couldn’t make it so I went alone. And guess what, I decided to go to the gym at 2pm to be ahead of the 2 Korean girls. So much for being kiasu and vengeful (I had some stupid plan). At 2pm, there was no one in the gym while I was still quite full from lunch. So I walked for 20 minutes before sitting down to study until almost 3pm when a girl came to use the treadmill. So from 3-4pm+, I actually jogged for 45 minutes! I broke my personal record again and covered almost 8km. And the 2 girls didn’t turn up today. God’s telling me not to be vengeful too. Yeah, so that’s the story of how I was in the gym for the longest time today and how I broke my personal record too.

I had a really nice class dinner today with my teachers for this semester. Yesterday’s was with my teachers for last semester. Today’s was better because we talked more and about more personal stuff like our first impressions of each other. My main teacher thought that I would be the problematic female student of the class for her hahaha! 까다롭다고 말했대. That I was the female student to watch out for because I might be very vocal about any dissent that I may have and all…BUT I didn’t because I’m not that sort to start with. I mean, I definitely don’t do that to my teachers because I respect them lol. And my teachers didn’t think that I’m from Singapore too. They thought that I’m from Hong Kong or elsewhere.

Anyway, I had a wonderful time with everyone today. My classmates are like my family here. I’ll miss everyone!!!! Tomorrow’s our last day in school and after our graduation ceremony on Friday, that’s it. The end :’(

1 full month left in Busan

I can’t believe that it’s already JULY.

First of all, I would like to apologise to myself before apologising to all of you for my absence from this space.
When I came back to Korea last August, I had promised myself to blog everyday.

But May was a busy month for me because my parents and brother came to visit me for 2 weeks. So I had 2 weeks of backlog to clear and sooooo many photos to edit. I can only go crazy taking photos when my brother is around. We do the silliest things ever and we take the funniest shots. In front of him, I can pose all the day long and force him to take photos for me. It’s when he’s around that I get to be the model, rather than the photographer that I’m known to be here.
And in June, my Gugu, uncle and cousin came to visit me too.

It got to the point where there was just too much backlog to clear and given that I don’t have much time left in Busan now, I’d rather make the most of my time here by spending time with my friends or exploring Busan than to sit in my room clearing the backlog of entries.

Hopefully, I can get back to blogging for every day of my life here in Korea when I start my MBA in Seoul. But I can’t promise myself because I have no idea how hectic life will be when I’m in Yonsei.

Anyway, it’s July and I have 2 weeks of Korean lessons before having a week of exams (including TOPIK!). And then, I would have completed 1000 hours of compulsory Korean language lessons under the terms of my scholarship.

I managed to get a single room in Yonsei’s SK Global House so I’ll be moving up to Seoul on 22 August.

Received a few love calls from my dearest friends in Seoul. I’ll be there soon!

But then again, I can’t really bear to leave Busan. I’ve fallen in love with this place. It’s my happy place. Very chill, relaxed and I know that Gwangan and Haeundae are just less than an hour away from me whenever I need to unwind. I feel happy when I’m there. In fact, I feel like I’m coming home whenever I’m on the KTX back here. Busan’s like my 2nd home now. Maybe I’ll be singing a different tune after a year in Seoul lol.

시원섭섭하네. Ambivalent about leaving Busan and moving up to Seoul.

I’ll try to blog every now and then :)

What was and what is

Every time I land myself in some situation, I seem to learn new words and phrases that relate to my predicament in class.

Over the weekend, I discovered something that has left me very shaken, to the very core. Maybe it’s karma. Thinking about it again makes my blood run cold.

I know you have no clue as to what I’m talking about, except for a select few whom I’ve confided in. But this being a public blog, I can’t say much. And I don’t want to bother with the hassle of maintaining a private and a public blog at the same time. I’m sorry that you have to play the guessing game. But at least if you know Korean, you get to learn new stuff from this entry! :)

The 속담 proverb for yesterday was: 열 길 물속은 알아도 한 길 사람 속은 알 수 없다. 
You may know the depth of water but you’ll never know the depth of a person’s heart/mind i.e. you can never really understand a person.
Coincidentally, or maybe not, this proverb also appeared in the chapter that we’re working on for this week in Yonsei’s 읽기 Reading Book #6.
According to the chapter, the meaning of this proverb is: 세월의 여과 과정을 거치면 관계의 실상이 이내 드러나게 된다는 소리이다. Through the filtration process of time, the real facts of a relationship will surface. 

The proverb was further explained by these:
인간관계의 뿌리를 이루고 있는 예절과 신의는 어느 한때만 가지고는 헤아릴 수 없다. 
시간이 지나가면 그 사람의 본바탕이 드러나게 마련이다. 
As time passes, it’ll only be natural that a person’s true colours will surface. 
아무리 그럴듯하게 생긴 상대일지라도 속에 든 것이 바닥나 버리거나 신의가 없으면 번데기처럼 시시한 대상이 되고 만다. 
그러나 지극히 평범한 상대일지라도 어느 날 문득 자신이 가장 소중하게 여기고 있는 일에 대해서 지대한 관심을 가지고 열정적으로 이야기를 나누게 되면 그가 새롭게 돋보인다. 

Oh, and to express “love is blind” in Korean: 맹목적인 사랑.

For people studying/living overseas who are separated from loved ones and friends or people in LDRs, these words are meaningful too:
진정한 친구란 두 개의 육체에 깃들인 하나의 영혼이란 말이 있다.
The definition of true friends is that a single spirit/soul dwells in 2 bodies.
그런 친구 사이는 공간적으로 멀리 떨어져 있을지라도 결코 멀리 있는 것이 아니다.
Even if these friends are separated by distance spatially, in the end, they are not far from each other.
바로 지척에 살면서도 일체감을 함께 누릴 수 없다면 그건 진정한 친구일 수 없다.
Friends who live in close proximity with each other and yet cannot share or enjoy everything together are not true friends.

I know my translation is not exactly up to mark, but this is the best that I could do! It’s pretty frustrating learning Korean at times because it doesn’t have hanyu pinyin like Mandarin so you can have a word with various meanings for different Chinese characters -.- and not know which is the correct meaning for the given context.

And so, the monsoon season 장마철 starts today. 2 weeks earlier than the norm!
Yesterday, I whacked my room light with a book to smack the flies and mosquitoes which had flown into my room within the 1-2 seconds I took to close my window and pull down the insect/mosquito net. They aimed right for the light and I smartly smacked the light only to have them all fall over me with almost no time for me to get out of their falling path. Haiz. Sometimes, I do things without thinking.
And then I had to pick up their body parts on the floor.

Hate summer because of the insects and my forever enemy- mosquitoes. I already have 4 vicious bites. These are mountain mosquitoes that I’m dealing with ok. No joke :’(

Everytime I decide to spend the day clearing my backlog of entries, something will crop up.
And tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Seoul to be with my relatives for the next few days :)
Not looking forward to the heat though.

These days, I have Koreans telling me to slow down and speak slower. Guess my speed of speaking in Korean is catching up with my English's, just like the way I play the piano too. My piano teacher used to ask me if I was catching a train because I would play my pieces really fast for no reason. That’s why I like the 빨리빨리 culture here in Korea. Just right for me!

I’ll be back!

Hello to my dearest readers!

I am sorry for being MIA for about a month, my longest period of absence!
Something happened at the end of last month and I got frustrated and worried and felt that I should lock my blog for awhile because I didn’t want certain people to read what I write here.
And then my parents and brother came to visit me for 2 weeks. My dad left last Sunday while my mum and bro just left on Thursday and I miss them already! 2 wonderful weeks spent with them and exploring Busan and Seoul together and…OMG, all the shopping. I can pretty much eat grass for the next few weeks or so since I blew my spending budget by a lot.

Anyway, I won a 2nd prize yesterday for our school’s essay contest. Totally didn’t expect it!!! More on that when I clear my backlog of entries. It’s going to take me sooooooo long ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Oh yes, and I’ve finally gotten rid of my previous blog url. This will pretty much be my domain for a long time since I paid for it too. I’ve to keep covering traces of me on the internet and I hope that this is the last time I have to change my domain!

OMG my Diptyque candle makes me dizzy/giddy/nauseous.
Maybe I just can’t take rose scents.
I think I’m gonna puke >.<

[Part 1] 219. When a man loves

My buddy’s still busy with her exams and my teacher probably had another meeting today so I had the afternoon off. Which I spent watching another drama “When A Man Loves” while studying for my upcoming test on Friday. I meant to watch only 1 episode but I ended up watching 3 episodes. Oops. At least I went to the gym too (because I felt guilty about eating kimbab and 2 packets of chips)!

Dinner

[Part 1] 218. Hooked

되지국밥 for lunch. I’m banned from eating mayo 덮밥

Dinner

I spent the most part of my free time after school today watching the 2 dramas I mentioned in my entry yesterday.

And at 10pm just now, I couldn’t decide which to watch: Gu Family Book on MBC or Jang Ok Jung on SBS. For about 15 minutes, I watched the latter before switching to the former and then switching back to JOJ again when GFB got too exciting for my heart to bear. And after JOJ ended, I hurriedly switched back to GFB again and both ended on very exciting notes. Argh. Can’t wait till next Monday!

[Part 1] 217. I need to do something about my skin

My skin is. SO BAD.
It wasn’t that good to start with and it got worse after I went to Singapore during winter vacation. Talk about climate change. For my skin. And then it worsened after I started wearing makeup when exercising, because of my bad skin. I used to remove my BB cream before I head to the gym but for the past few months, I didn’t and now, I have soooo many clogged pores.
My Clarisonic isn’t working its magic and maybe it’s also because I haven’t changed my brush at all since I got it last year and I don’t wash the brush head often enough. Maybe it’s because I’ve been slapping too many layers of products on my face twice everyday. Maybe it’s because of my diet because I rarely eat veg and fruits (thanks to the 711 and dorm cafeteria’s offerings) and I’ve been eating too much mayo 덮밥 which I’ve just realised, is very fattening. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been drinking enough water.
Words can’t express how sad I feel every time I look at myself in the mirror and think about the time when I had rather good skin where my problematic areas were confined to my t-zone only.

I can’t decide whether I should now spend my $ on more skincare products or go for a facial. The only place I trust for a facial is the clinic I went to in Bucheon back in 2010. Unfortunately, that beauty chain only has outlets in Seoul and Gyeongido.

Argh. For now, I shall watch my diet, exercise more and drink more water.
Can’t wait till I get a two-room in Seoul when I can finally have a fridge in my room and stock up on veg and fruits.

Goodbye, mayo 덮밥.

I’m not gonna eat this anymore. 

I’m hooked onto 2 new dramas! Gu Family Book and Jang Ok Jung, Living in Love :)

[Part 1] 216. Back in Busan

I was back in Busan by 1pm today and I spent the afternoon reorganising my wardrobe.
I’ve wanted to reorganise my wardrobe for the longest time and replace my fall/winter wear with spring/summer wear but I wasn’t able to find the pants hanger from the Daiso at Sasang and going to Nampodong’s bigger Daiso outlet is a waste of time and money. So last Monday, I decided to shop from Daiso Korea online and ordered 2 of the hangers which arrived on Friday :)
Now, my wardrobe’s so much neater! 1 hanger for my skorts/cullotes/shorts and another for my skirts and I freed up one shelf :)

I just spent 3 hours preparing (yet) another presentation on Singapore which I’ll be working on with 슬기오빠 and I actually started missing Singapore food for the first time. I rarely/barely/ever miss Singapore food but after searching for photos on Google, I got hungry and started thinking more and more about chicken rice. Oh dear...

[Part 1] 215. Ulsan for another day

I’ve lost the habit of taking pictures these days and I only have 1 photo for today.

EH’s parents pamper me too much. This morning, his dad asked his mum to buy me delicious food (oh dear, I think I just did a direct translation from Korean argh). So his mum bought a platter of sushi, a roasted chicken and a huge box of pizza from Costco for lunch.

In the late afternoon, we headed to 성남동’s Starbucks because I have a free drink voucher that’s expiring in a week’s time. These days, I’m quite suspicious of him and it doesn’t help that we no longer spend every day today. In essence, 반신반의 sums up my current state of mind and he tried to prove himself by singing a nice song for me at the 노래방 in an arcade.

Anyway, the plan was to leave for Busan today but I ended up staying another night because by the time we decided to go for dinner, it was 7pm and his mum wanted me to eat at their place instead. And since it was so late already, they asked me to stay for another night.

Our fav- java chip frap

[Part 1] 214. Ulsan for the weekend!

We spent 4 hours of class time going through the mock TOPIK paper and at the end of the day, my teacher gave us our result slip and needless to say, I FAILED it. Oh wells, that’s what happens when you don’t study for TOPIK anymore after passing it 3 months ago *complacency* If not for my 쓰기 and 읽기, I would have passed it. But it’s not important, it’s just a mock paper :P
It’s a wakeup call for me though, if I still intend to have a go at Level 6 in July.
Right now, I’m just enjoying life as the weather starts to get warmer.

Right after class, I headed to Ulsan to meet EH who’s having his mid-terms.
I thought that we would just go to a cafe to study together before having dinner and then I’d return to Busan. But his mum wanted me to stay for dinner and for the night too so we ended up studying at his place.

1-for-1 Big Mac promotion with my favourite fries

Beef and pork for dinner; curry and rice (not pictured)

Really delicious!!! 

[Part 1] 213. Mock TOPIK

OMG I woke up so late today! Luckily, Jenna woke me up!
My alarm was set at 8am but since we were only going to take the Mock TOPIK exam at 10am today, I ignored my alarm and went back to sleep, waking up only at 9.28am.
I managed to get ready in just 15 minutes and ran to the International Building, just in time to take the mock exam, which I don’t know why everyone has to take. Most of us have already forgotten many Advanced level grammar forms because we don’t really use them in daily life and I think I might actually fail the mock test :’( Furthermore, I made the mistake of eating my medicine before the start of the mock exam because I got really sleepy. I suspect that the medication given to me causes drowsiness :(

Blur pic because I was embarrassed about taking a photo of my food so I did it hastily

We spent the afternoon class going through the TOPIK paper and a few of us sitting in front almost went deaf. We don’t know how to tell our teacher that she doesn’t have to talk/teach so loudly because our classroom is pretty small and after awhile, it just seems as though she is shouting at us and we can’t really absorb what she’s teaching us -.-

Spent the evening working out at the gym before having my dinner of cereal and muesli in my room. It’s Friday tomorrow!!!!!!

[Part 1] 212. Wednesday

I was supposed to have my language exchange session with 이 선생님 today but she had a meeting in the afternoon so, I spent the afternoon blogging before going to the gym.
My body seems weaker than it was last week, even though I think I’m getting better already :(
I’ve just started on another drama- Jang Ok Jung! I love 사극 period dramas.

Lunch with Hung

Dinner + 2 ice creams. Oops. 

[Part 1] 211. Trip to the doctor's

Last night, the right side of my chest started hurting, like there was something pressing against me and I had slight difficulty in breathing. I got pretty worried because this was the first time that I felt like this. It’s been about 3 weeks and I’m still sick. And according to Jenna, I made a lot of noises when I slept last night, apart from coughing incessantly. Apparently, I sounded like I was in pain. So this morning, I decided to skip class to go to the doctor’s since the clinic’s operating time is till 5pm and I have my afternoon class till 4pm today.

Under our Hanwha insurance policy, there are 2 hospitals in Busan that we can visit, of which 1 is just in Sasang. So I went to the one in Sasang (West Busan Centum Hospital), near Exit #1 of Sasang Station.
The hospital is not exactly foreigner-friendly though. Sure, the signs are written in English too but other than that, I didn’t know where to go first. If you have a cold and you are visiting the hospital, go up to the 2nd floor to the Register desk and give your insurance card, Alien Registration Card and student card to the staff before proceeding to the nurse station and giving one of the nurses a slip of paper that you’d receive from the Register desk. Wait till the nurse calls your name and have your blood pressure and body temperature measured. After awhile, I was called into the consultation room. I wrote down a list of my symptoms on a Post-it in English yesterday night and just simply handed it to the doctor lol.  I didn’t know the Korean terms for them and all doctors here can read English, I think. My KU buddy’s now in medical school and his textbooks are mostly written in English. The doctor asked me what I wanted to do. Well, I thought he should know what I should do or need but he asked me whether I wanted to have an x-ray taken or just get an injection and medication. To be on the safe side, I asked for an x-ray so I had to go down to the x-ray room on the 1st floor.
I had 2 x-rays taken: one from the front and the other from the side. Well, I didn’t know that I had to hold my hands up in the air to take the latter and when the guy instructed me, I couldn’t understand him. I only heard “손 something something” so I asked him if he could speak in English instead and he said, “Put your hands up.”. And the way he said it was so funny that we both burst out laughing. 2PM’s Put Your Hands up…
Went back to the consultation room and the doctor said everything’s fine for me and that I just have to get the injection and eat the medication that he’d prescribe me. The injection 주사실 is on the 1st floor and you’ll get a butt injection. I was really surprised though because I’ve never had an injection for a cold before AND on the butt. The last time I had a butt injection was when I was a baby.
After getting the injection done, I went to the pharmacy that’s outside the main building, and beside the entrance to the carpark, to collect my medication. All in all, I paid 15,000원 for my consultation and 7,760원 for the medication. The medication was repacked into packets for morning, afternoon and night. It’s quite cool that the medicine was repacked for easy consumption but I have no idea which medicine is for what and which causes drowsiness :(

I made it back to school in time for the last period of our morning session before going for lunch with my classmates and having 2 hours of 시사 class.

Dinner

[Part 1] 210. Errands day

Farewell gift from Kawita

After school today, I went to Emart with Ikbol. We still have some leftover money from our EOY performance prize money to spend so we got snacks for our class. After lunch at the food court, Ikbol helped me to bring back some of my grocery shopping while I went to Kookmin to remove the transport feature of my int. check card and to apply for internet banking too.

Emart will be closed on the 28th too! 

Dinner. I really love eating rice wrapped in 개잎! The instant soup’s quite good too.