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 :)