After I return?

Some people might be wondering what I will be doing on this blog after I return.
Honestly, I don't really have any idea since I won't be in Korea anymore and won't have new things to talk about.

However, there are certain things that I haven't covered in my posts, so I might just reflect back a little and perhaps post about Korea and how I experienced it, in general.

So don't worry, I will try this keep this blog up as much as I can. In the event I have nothing to write, I might start a new blog or something. =/

I started this blog to help my fellow juniors in school intending to take up a programme for studies in Korea, as well as to help people who are going to such programmes... People from anywhere. Or people who want to know about Korea in general, from a student's point of view.
Therefore, I can't use this blog for my personal thoughts or anything that isn't Korea! We must stick to its original purposes! >_<

In any case, I hope it did help people around the world. If you have friends who are intending to go to Yonsei for exchange programmes, or to Korea University for summer programme, feel free to share my blog with them (:

I answer questions too, so they can choose to drop me an email, or leave a comment on one of my posts~

Once again, thanks for reading!

A little taste of Singapore

A long overdue post, my apologies! Now that I am done with school (for now), I can start writing about some of the stuff that I've missed out during my exchange..

One of which was the Singapore Embassy event. To be honest, I am not a very 'hapz' person, so I don't usually go to such events, especially during school days. However, I saw that the Cedar Girls' Secondary School Choir was going to be putting up a performance then, and I just HAD to go!

It would be cool, right, to meet Ms. Chye again? (:

So after we were done with lessons on a tiring Tuesday, Rekha and I met up with MengYu and Lea, and we took a cab down to Lotte Hotel near Myeongdong. Rekha and I didn't dress up that awesomely because we thought we couldn't go. They had some RSVP list and we didn't make it, but we went anyway on last minute notice... And found out that, apparently, there was absolutely no need to be on the RSVP list to attend the event. (Scammed!)

There was a short opening address by the Ambassador, and to be honest, it was pretty heartwarming to hear the Singapore accent again. To top it off, everyone there just spoke in our uniquely Singapore accent, and it was cool. For once we didn't need to speak in pretentious accent just so people would understand what we were speaking. (Koreans learn English the American way, so they can't comprehend our Singapore accent that well) 

After which, the Cedar Girls' Choir performed. They sounded angelic! Ms. Chye, doing excellent work with her choir as usual...

The choir gown is still the same color, but I thought the white looked really good on them. Well, the weather was too cold to wear ONLY the gown. They sang Singaporean songs, one of which was the medley of three songs - Geylang Sipaku Geylang, Ikan Kekek, Chan Mali Chan. I still remember during my time, we sang that exact sang medley. It brought back SO much memories. Haihz.

They sang a few other songs, which were really impressive as well. Ms. Chye seemed to be in a good mood. (:

After the choir was done with their performance, they invited SKarf to give a performance too! For those who don't know, SKarf is a 4-member girl group, with 2 girls from Singapore, and 2 from Korea. So apparently, MengYu is friends with one of them. Wow!!!
SKarf performed two songs, and I guess it was cool because usually when there are celebrities, it is usually a screamfest, or something crazy happens. But since it was a small, private kinda-of setting, it was cool. Just chillin', watching some KPop.

After that we managed to take a photo with them (:

And after all the performances were done, we could start eating. Initially we didn't want to take the food because they only catered for people on the RSVP list. But we didn't really care because we were getting hungry, and had some realllllly good food. Buffet style, with Singaporean flavours, taste of home!!

This was just a small portion of what they really had. Lots of seafood, some chicken, sushis, wow!
Had a really good dinner (:

Oh yes, and I managed to go greet Ms. Chye, who, to my pleasant surprise, still remembers me (:
It's really a conincidence. I haven't been back to Cedar much ever since I left, but now here we are, saying HI to each other in a foreign country (: FATE!

It was overall an enjoyable night~ Left me smiling widely the entire night, haha~!

Thank you, Singapore Embassy!! <3 and SKarf, and most importantly, CGSS Choir!

A smile for you, my dear readers! <3

Travel Tips: Packing!

Whenever I return from a trip and open the luggage, my mum always go, 'Wah!'
Because I pack well. Not the sort of very neat well, but I pack very efficiently.

Traveling from one accommodation to another while on my 6-month trip to Korea, packing has become one of my fortes. And here I am to share my tips with you!
(Fact: International House at Yonsei is the 5th place I've moved to within 6 months.)

Before leaving for a trip
Packing before leaving on a trip is pretty easy. First, you got to make sure you know how long your stay is so you can plan appropriate amount of clothing. And on the topic of clothing, you need to consider if you are going to be doing laundry. If you are, you can actually reduce the amount of clothes you bring, and it is absolutely necessary for long trips.

Tip #1: Open your luggage early and put whatever you remember into it
When I am anticipating a trip, I take out my luggage bag at least one week before the actual date. This is because a person cannot remember every single thing at last minute. So during the week when I remind myself that I need to bring something (especially if you do not use it regularly at home), go get the item, and throw it in the bag.

Some things that I find can be packed early are...
- Travel soaps (those small bottles, surely you don't use travel-sized things at home...)
- Winter apparel (now, in Singapore you don't ever use them, so put them in first.)
- Travel adapter (you don't use this at home, duh.)
- Medications (if you need it while at home you can retrieve from the bag)

Tip #2: You need space for shopping
If you have to force everything into the bag, chances are that you will not have enough space for your shopping. Your other option is to buy another luggage while on your trip. Before the trip, pack your things in comfortably. The zipper should close easily. If you need to sit on it for it to close, you're doing it wrong... Try a larger luggage or removing what you don't think you need.

Hint: Some people think that the bigger the luggage, the better. I beg to differ. If you're taking a plane, chances are that the maximum acceptable weight is 20kg. If your bag is too huge, you will be incurring extra weight charges. If not, you'll find that you will not be able to utilize your luggage space fully.

During the trip
Whether you should unpack or not depends on the duration of your stay in that place. If it's for a long period, then feel free to unpack. If not, then don't unpack.

Tip #3: Laundry
If you are planning to do laundry, check whether the place you reside in provides detergent. If not, a bar laundry soap may be good for doing your laundry in the sink (:
You might choose to bring a string to hang your laundry too.

Tip #4: Organize your shopping
Try compressing your shopping frequently. You might end up with a lot of shopping bags, but it will be good if you can compress all those shopping into minimal no. of bags.

Preparing to return
Oh no! Is it the end of your trip already? Well, no matter, you gotta go home anyway!

Tip #5: Roll up your clothes
Remember you didn't roll your clothes when you came? Well, they are just buying you extra space. Fold the clothes, and roll them up, stack them, compress them in their rolls. Magic happens and you get so much more space! (:

Tip #6: Fill up those boxes
Have some boxes? Open them up and put small things inside to fully utilize the space inside the box! If you have no space, surely you do not want to waste it on carrying air in your luggage!

Tip #7: Hand carry winter jackets
If you really need more space in your luggage and have no vacuum packing, consider hand carrying your bulky winter jacket. You don't have to hold on to in for most of the time, so just chuck it in the overhead compartment and remember to retrieve it later on!

So these are some of my tips for travelling and packing your luggage!

I took so long to write this because I had to pack my own luggage towards the end, as I finish my school examinations and prepared to move to a temporary accommodation (:

Have a good trip!

SNOW WHAT?!

So I haven't been here in a long time, as usual. Time flies really fast. So okay, to be honest, I wasn't blogging for a long time for a few reasons, as listed below.

1. I failed two midterms, and has been feared into studying as and when I could, weeks before the finals. So not the life of an exchange student...
2. I like to play computer game.
3. I sleep late everyday.
4. Communicating with people back home.

So I do actually want to blog about things over here. I don't go out as often anymore because it gets so cold here and the cold just makes me want to snuggle up to the blanket on my bed. 

Few things that I haven't blogged about and eventually would (even if it is after I return home).. are

1. Singapore Embassy Event
2. Ski Trip to YongPyeong

Honestly those are the two things I've attended so far.

So today I decided to blog because we experienced our first full-blown snowfall today! Over the past few weeks, we only ever had two incidents of snow flurry. Very tiny bits of snow falling randomly from the sky that melted as quick as it came.

Then the weather forecast predicted snow today, and indeed it came!

It occurred while we were in our Introduction to Family class. The lecturer was going on about family therapy when she exclaimed in Korean that it was snowing outside.

Synchronously, the Korean girls in the class went 'WooooaH~' and everybody just stopped to look out of the windows.

Yes! It was snowing heavily! Then the lecturer mumbled to herself about the snow and resumed lesson.

We were all distracted throughout the lesson due to the snow. Haha!

And after it ended, Rekha and I spent some time taking photos in the snow. In an hour, the snow settled on the ground to form a significant sheet of snow. Suddenly the campus looked unfamiliar as it was dressed entirely in white. 

Sir Underwood, are you feeling cold there?

Even the forest path back to the dorm looked like winter wonderland. There were people there making snowmen even! 

Snow after lessons!

Rekha doesn't even need to try to be cute.

Anyway, it may all seem so amazing here but there is more to snow than just the beauty of it.

Today we learnt how difficult it is to walk when it's snowing.

Look at how thick the layer of snow is! And the thing is, the more people walk on it, the more compact it gets, and dirtier it gets.

So when we walked through the snow with our umbrellas, we realize it doesn't help much. Despite the umbrella being all glorious shelter its user, the snow flies in from everywhere else to stick to your pants, coat, bag, boots, and if you're unlucky, your face.

And because of that, we get damp whenever we enter a building and get warmed up -_-

Not only that, snow makes everything slippery. Especially compacted snow. When the treads in the boots get filled up, and you step into a building with normal flooring, it's slipping galore! >_< No I didn't slip, but there were many near experiences. No joke at all.

Even on snowed floor, there were people slipping! Rekha almost slipped off the curb onto the road -_-

But the snowy weather brings about emotions... Especially on exchange where you're away from friends and family, you kinda just miss their warmth in the coldness of winter. And also, seeing something so beautiful, and something you don't get to experience in a tropical country... You just wished you had them to share it with.

A loved one who you know will be there for you even when you're cold and lonely ^_^

So about this snow thing, there is mixed emotions... Like it, but don't like it at the same time, haha!

My many expressions in the snow...

Not sure what to make of this snow..

Frustratedwith snow flying into me!

Like a grandma taking a stroll through the woods

Damn I look so ugly in all these photos -_-

I made it back into the warmth of my dorm safely anyway~!! ^_^

And oh yea! Today is Jacqueline's birthday~ She must be blessed for the snowfall to occur on her birthday ^_^ Happy 21st~

Signing off,

Cassie!

Yonsei University: SK Global House? International House?

Are you coming to Yonsei University for a summer programme? An exchange programme?

I think one of the questions you'll be asking yourself is where you will be staying; and if you're staying on-campus, you probably have to pick one of two choices: SK Global House, or International House.

So as much as possible, I'll give a brief introduction to both choices and hopefully make it easier for you to make you choice!

Background:
I live in International House currently.

General information about both SK and IH (things they don't tell you!)

• Both SK and IH are connected internally. This means you can move freely from IH to visit your friends in SK, and vice versa, without having to go out in the open. Entrances to both residences are separate though.
• However, you can only enter and exit from your respective residence. This means that even if you want to visit your friend in SK/IH first before going back to your room, you have to enter through your own side first.
• You can use facilities in both SK & IH if you are a resident of either one.

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE (I-HOUSE)

General stuff about I-House:

• Only has double rooms. In my opinion, it's pretty small, but it's more of cosy than too small. 
• Toilets and showers are shared per level.
• A lounge on every floor. Includes water dispenser, hotplate for cooking, microwave over, large fridge. Also has television with cable, cosy sofas, and coffee tables.
• Fully air-conditioned, ondol also available (during winter).
• 5-storeys, Lobby, two for guys, two for girls. Basement (not accessible by elevator) has laundry rooms and study room.

What's good in I-House:

• Refrigerator inside the room - Store your personal groceries without the worry of them spoiling or being stolen (unless your roommate steals them). Refrigerator works even if nobody is in the room.
• Level-shared washrooms - No need to buy toilet paper, no need to wash toilets. The toilets are kept clean at all times, unless it's the weekends. That's because the janitor does not work. Then the toilets are really clean again on Monday. Even so, on weekends, they are still clean, just not super clean. 
• Good storage solutions in the room - several cubicles for you to organize and categorize your items. Makes use of vertical space so you have more places to put things compared to SK.
• Air-conditioner works all-year round (I think) - Don't need to return the remote controls even when the weather turns cold (unlike SK)

What's not-so-good in I-House:

• Washrooms are outside - May be inconvenient for some
• No shelter whatsoever to the entrance of I-House - Rain or snow, or when the weather turns cold.. You need to walk out into the cold just to buy food from Global Plaza. You have to run through the rain just to get home.
• Motion-sensor lights, even in shower - It isn't very smart. Sometimes it switches the lights off right when you're in the middle of shampooing/soaping yourself, or washing your face. Stuck in the dark, you hastily wrap yourself up to wave at the motion sensor, near the entrance to the showers.
• Less facilities than SK - more inconvenient to walk a whole big round just to print notes at the computer room, or us the gym, or whatever.

SK GLOBAL HOUSE (not a resident so might be lacking in some details)

General stuff about SK:

• There are single as well as double rooms.
• Personal bathrooms
• More storeys than I-House
• Lounge available, various types of rooms around are accessible

What's good in SK:

• Bathrooms inside the room - Convenient
• Slightly larger than I-House rooms
• Directly connected to Global Plaza, KLI, and New Millenium Hall - You can wear your comfy clothes to get to Global Plaza to grab some food, because you won't be out in the cold at all. Speedy travel to KLI and NMH for lessons.
• SK lobby is a great place to chill - don't need to be a resident to sit there, quite a lively place too

What's not-so-good in SK:

• Bathrooms inside room - Clean it yourself, buy your own bathroom supplies including toilet paper. Trust me, cleaning the toilets are often the source of perpetual frustrations especially with roommates who suck at cleaning up or keeping it clean. Single room, not too bad, I guess.
• The entrance only allows one person to enter at one time - Troublesome.
• Kitchen with cooking equipment at the basement - Gotta go all the way down to cook if you want to. Inconvenient.
• Less utility of space for storage - You gotta find somewhere to organize you items.
• No refrigerator in the room - You can't store your milk or other groceries ):

TIPS AND OPINIONS (important! You will regret not reading this part)

• If you are travelling by cab, access I-House through Yonsei's main gate and drive all the way in, and stop in front of New Millenium Hall, that's the closest you can get to I-House. For SK, if you use this method, you need to take the elevator down to the basement level to access the lobby. 
• There are TWO wall sockets at your desk. One is used for the table lamp, the other is for the IP Phone (which we never use). If you need more sockets, I suggest getting an adaptor for your HOME plug, and then bring an extension (like in this picture: click) in your home format, so you can easily use those sockets without hassle.
• There is NO WIFI in the room, please bring LAN wire, and learn in advance how to share your ethernet connection through wifi using your computer, so your phone can tap on it.
• The troublesome part about both SK and IH is that the power slot (the place you have to put your card key in so there is power in the room), only accommodates ONE card. It's a stupid design, especially if your roommate is one who is not spontaneous enough to make their card easily accessible. Imagine this, you wake up in the morning wanting to go for lessons and your roommate is still sleeping. You don't know where their card is, so you leave the room, with your roommate in a powerless room. (My roommate is one such person, she always keeps her card to herself.)
• SK and IH are located very far away from the nearest subway station. 15 minutes brisk walk to get there. Inconvenient much.
• Getting to lessons on main campus is also a pain in the butt, always prepare sufficient time to walk.
• In I-House, laundry rooms are split into Male and Female, although you can access both freely. In each room, there are three washers, and two dryers. Washers take 37 minutes per wash (1,000 won), and dryers take 45 minutes on high heat (always use this. and it costs 500 won). Detergent dispensers are available. Coin exchanger at the lobby. Yes, there is an iron.
• Global Plaza has convenient store, food, florist, nail shop, fastfood (burger & shake). On Sunday, only fastfood and convnient store are open. Food isn't cheap or exceptionally good, in the day, you can go to KLI basement for some good Korean food at lower prices (:

So that's all from me about IH and SK, both sides have their good and bad, so pick one the suits you better. Although, SK seems to run out of rooms faster than IH does so... yea. It doesn't mean IH is a bad place, it has its charms (:

Midterms and what it brought

So it's been some time since I've wrote anything about what I've done here.

Basically though, things have been generally about the same week in and week out.

Weather. It's been dropping significantly. Nowadays, don't even think of exposing any skin for extended periods of time outside! Especially since my body has been living in a tropical climate the past 21 years, the cold is not something to get used to with a snap of the fingers.

But I'd say, compared to just jumping straight into the blistering winter condition when I was here for vacation twice before, the dropping of temperatures does wonders for acclimatizing. A few weeks ago, 18 degC nights will make me shiver my butt off while walking. And now in the day, it is easily 11 degC, and I shiver minimally. I'd say a good job to myself and my body (:

Also, I love it how when I wake up the sun is already up in the sky. This is provided my roommate cooperates and not pull the blinds down all the way, turning my room into a cave/dungeon. I rely heavily on the sun to wake up, even back in Singapore. If it's dark, my body says it's not time to wake up yet. But because it's fall going to winter, the sun sets ever so early. Usually in the evening when my roommate is in, my room becomes a dungeon and the only light source I have is my table lamp (which I  still have to shield by opening my books in front of it and stuff because she complains it shines right into her eyes).

The leaves are starting to turn yellow and then red. Now, there are more of those 'blond' trees because this is the week where the trees will all decide it's too cold to put up all these burdensome leaves and decide to shed them all.

I haven't been shopping much because of the hassle of walking. Schoolwork is also catching up fast and nowadays, GMarket has been my best friend for all my coldwear needs! I've bought boots for about 20,000 won, a coat for less than 20,000 won, and a few pieces of long sleeved shirts at a decent price. It won't stop there, trust me. Too convenient, too reasonable a price. Some shops do shipping overseas, so if you are considering getting some coats and winter wear, do drop by GMarket!
(Not an advertorial)

Winter boots for the near future!

The one time I did went out for some shopping at Ewha, the only purchase I was really happy with were these Rilakkuma socks, because they were the cutest things ever.

Alright then, let's jump in to the main topic. MIDTERMS.

We have just finished midterms, it was last week. It killed us in several ways. Firstly, there was no term break, or a 'reading week'. You see, in NUS, we have a term break in the middle of the semester, and right after that is the hotspot for midterms. Although we have no stipulated midterm-week per se, the week after term break is where most midterms take place. Of course, there are a few that take place before term break and some that occur the week after the hotweek. So our midterms are pretty much well spread out most of the time.

In Yonsei University though, or I would say, ALL Korean Universities... There is a dedicated midterm week. Which means that during that week, there would be no regular classes so we just go to take our midterms. Which also means that all the midterms are clustered together. Studying for midterms like that, is no joke.

The papers are marked pretty fast too. Out of my 4 midterms, I've gotten results for 2 of them. Sadly, I failed one of them with 59 marks. What? Did you just thought I passed since I scored above 50%? No, because in Yonsei, a passing grade (which means anything higher than an F), is 63.
Yea, you heard me. The other test, I got 80. So it was alright, didn't feel anything special about that.

It is terrible because everytime we hear from seniors saying that exchange is usually a breeze and we should play when we can. We (Rekha and I), had studied for this, staying up late (more of on Rekha's side), and we get worrying scores. That's just nuts.

Somedays, Rekha and I stroll back to our dorms and on the way, we sadly just wonder why we made this decision.
(Though, apart from academics, we have fun with Korean living and culture. It's great.)

Oh yes, so I failed one. And on the other one which I scored 80, the professor was nice and decided that he would give everyone a second chance in the form of a retest, and he would take the higher score. Now, why wouldn't the other professor be nice and give us a retest too? Though, he also said he recommends people who scored below a 90 to take the retest. Argh. Fine.

Apart from struggling with exams... I've also been to Tea Club meetings. We drink tea, eat some snacks, have fun and usually they go out for dinner and a whole night of drinking. I don't drink alcohol, so I usually don't join in at those last parts.

I actually learnt how to brew tea properly, a lot of different teas. The setup above is for oolong tea or red teas. I also learnt how to properly use a tea set, something which nobody bothers with back in Singapore. A delicate art! (:

One of those meetings ended one day and we went to have BBQ ribs for dinner. It was really fun because ever since summer ended, I didn't have a group of friends who'd go out for food and stuff. This is actually one of the rare times I get to eat BBQ with a large group of people!

갈매기!

Looks delicious? (: Yea, it was delicious. We also had a lot of fun chatting and talking about different countries with the other members ^_^

Also, one day, Han decided to be awesome and played on the prize machine. He got Rekha and I each a really cute phone holder!

The green one is for Rekha and the blue on for me!

You know Rekha has been an awesome friend, so glad I've got her. We've had lots of laughter together, we share room stories, she listens to my night life on the computer and I listen to her night life outside.. HTHT!! She's like my person over here -touched-

I like it when we eat together. Especially because when we eat together, we sometimes have chicken, like that. Chicken is awesome. It is SO good, that we're willing to pay that much for dinner even though most times we can't finish the entire thing. Super unhealthy, I know, but one does not simply say NO to chicken.

Anyway recently, I've been battling with mosquitoes, again. My roommate isn't spared from this either, and this is probably the only reason why she bothers waking up at all. Sometimes I worry she might have a trypanasoma infection. (just kidding about this)

Battle scars from 'The War with Mosquitoes'

(The roommate complains every single time a mosquito bites her and it itches. I get huge welts like that and I don't whine about it.)
ANYWAY!!!
Yes, there was a night we both couldn't sleep because mosquitoes kept buzzing around my ear. I tried putting a towel over my face while I burrito-ed myself with the blanket but eventually got really warm in there and had to give it up. A few seconds later, I heard the mosquito buzzing at my ear. That was when my roommate stepped out of the room and I switched all the lights on and did mosquito hunting. I smacked the one nearest to me dead, and went back to sleep.

She then came back in awhile and I told her about the mosquito. We tried to go back to sleep but she insisted there was another one, switched on the lights, and shook me up just to smack it for her (this is really terrible behaviour, never do this to your roommate). So she kinda just pointed it out to me and I smacked it and we tried to go back to sleep. But because of the adrenaline, we couldn't fall back asleep and stayed awake, studying till the boredom got to us.

While studying, I killed another mosquito. That makes three. THREE of them. Not funny at all.
I eventually bought a mosquito mat, something that heats up a mat drenched with mosquito-killing chemicals, and causes death to mosquitoes. We haven't had much trouble since.

Die, you stupid bloodsucker.

Speaking of sleep disturbance, I was really pissed one day when I had three hours to sleep before I had to take my TOPIK (Korean language proficiency) test. During that night, my roommate once again proved to me how awfully loving she is -please sense the sarcasm here-.

Without any verbal notice, she went to switch on the main lights while I was about to enter deep sleep. She just did it without saying 'excuse me' or 'sorry but..', she just did it, like a boss. Not only that, she announced, 'Cassie! There's a mosquito in the room and it bit me..' wanting me to wake up to deal with it. I'm sorry but you're two years older than me, please grow up and deal with such things yourself, with consideration for others. Since I don't want to entertain such people and I was running low on sleeptime, I just pretended to pull the covers over my head and desperately tried to sleep. IGNORE. seriously.

See, this is what you should NEVER do to your roommate, and should never do in a shared room. As mentioned above, the room is shared. Respect your roommate, respect her at least as her own person. I really hate being pushed around by a tyrant like that, but I'm nice, that's why I try to help when I can but no... Please, I'm not doing shit for my roommate forever. She just overstays people's kindness for her, seriously.

Oh, and also, 승익 오빠 sent me a letter all the way from the awesome Sweden! I was happy receiving it because it's the first letter anyone has ever sent me since here. My parents have sent some small items to me, but no, no letters. And I was happy!! People have asked for my address and the only person who has used it is Seungik... &gt;&lt;
Thank you!! I hope you're having fun in Sweden! ^_^ Keep warm in the winter there!

So oh wells, even though days are more or less the same here... There are still little things that spark a lot of emotions from me la. And it's not the whole point of this blog so I won't go into too much detail. I have been working on a post which compares SK Global House and International House (I-House) on accommodation on-campus, and it's not done so... yea.

A smile for you after so long. Missed all you readers, and if you're here again, thank you thank you thank you!

As an extra bonus, here's an ice cream for you!

Wizard's Halloween flavour from Baskin Robbins.. It's chocolate with kinda minty blue parts, and little crackly sweet bits mixed in. Pretty delicious, but not the bestest I've had (:

See you again soon!

Checking in for a peep

Hello there!

Nice to see you here again~ If you want to know, I'm fine. Apart from some personal issues and stuff, I am mighty fine and smiling everyday from cheek to cheek (:

Well, the weather's getting colder as we reach the peak of fall and everything is starting to cool into winter. We average about 20 degrees everyday recently, with the nights falling below 20, into the 16s and 17s!

It's hard to dress, to be honest. In the mornings, it's really chilly. But because they do not switch on the air conditioners in their classrooms so everyday it's really stuffy in the classroom >.< HELP!
Not only that, mosquitoes live in the classrooms and I see many of them flying around every single lesson.

I make it my duty to catch as many as I can, but let me tell you, it's a really disgusting thing to be grabbing those things in the air.

So if I wear something warm, I will be melting in the classroom, and if I don't, and I stay out late, then I freeze. Sigh.

Though, the weather is better than the hot hot weather Singapore is perpetually stuck in...

So throughout my school life here, I haven't been attending a lot of outings because they always involve drinking, partying, or clubbing. Neither of the above suits me at all, so I am quite turned off by it. Sorry, I'm not a party animal.

The drinking here is scary.

The smoking here is equally as scary.

I just avoid it.

They also stay out really late and it isn't good for health, I'd much rather stay home.

I know many people say that exchange is a time to let your hair down, experience their culture, and do whatever things you can't or won't do back at home. However, I refuse to change myself to be drawn into their drinking and smoking culture.

Health, is still more important. So is safety.

Having fun is one thing, and being true to yourself is another. I mean, nobody should force you to do things you don't want to do!

So well, anyway~ Looking forward to the leaves changing colour starting about next week! Actually some plants are slowly yellowing their leaves already (: Half-pretty sight~

Look at this building in Yonsei! The vines on it are starting to turn red a little (:

BLUSH!

Haha~ I'll post more photos when the trees are in their full glory.

Peace!

Hostel Series: What your roommate ISN'T

So I've had some experience living in hostels during my time as a student, and I have stayed in both shared rooms, and single rooms.

For those out there who haven't had the experience of doing so yet, Hostel Series will give you a brief glance of what it is like.

Why would you want to stay in hostel? For a variety of reasons mainly.
Firstly, you might choose to do so because your real home is too far from your school, and you don't want to spend precious moments stuck in transport when you could be rested and studying. Either.
Or you might be staying in hostel to make new friends, or learn to live independently, or learn some life skills. These are all valid reasons!

But more often than not, people start forgetting why they are living in hostel in the first place and that might be troublesome for yourself...

If you're someone who like privacy, opt for a single room. If you want to force yourself to learn to live independently, opt for a single room.

You see, having a roommate often makes you dependent on them.
You'll have twice the amount of resources and equipment, twice the manpower, stuff like that.

Living alone, you have to make sure things are in order for yourself. You train yourself to wake up on time so as not to miss any lessons in school. You train to keep your room neat if you don't want to live in a garbage dump. You train yourself to buy your own groceries, get your own appliances, get your own necessities. Because you know that if you don't do so for yourself, you won't get it done, and you don't get the things you want. Your life, is in your own hands.

That being said, living in a shared room is not easy for me to get used to after that. Being a seasoned hostel resident, I know what I need for living in the dorms. I bring them all, and I settle down nicely. Because of that, I have to share whatever I have with my roommate if they don't have a certain item...

I didn't have to do that in the past >.<

So for the first Hostel Series, I'm going to talk about what your roommate isn't =P

1. Your roommate isn't your maid/housekeeper.
The room is shared by both of you. It isn't the sole responsibility of one of you to keep it clean. If you're a messy person and your roommate is a clean freak, don't expect them and don't ask them to clean your area for you. If they only wish to clean their own side of the room, that is their right. You clean up by yourself.

If you see dust somewhere and one day it magically disappears, you have to realize that dirt doesn't go away by themselves. Someone, aka your roommate, cleaned it. It's not their job and they only did so out of their own will. So be thankful, and don't expect more.

The trash bin inside the room, if it is shared, should be cleared by yourselves. If one day the trash bin empties itself, please, once again, note that someone (other than you) cleared it. With regards to trash, if you see that the bin is full, please just clear it. Don't try to squeeze more things in just to avoid doing so, and then state 'I could still stuff things in it' as an excuse. (I've actually heard this before. True story)

Everybody drops hair. Just because you don't comb your hair in the room, doesn't mean you don't have to sweep the hair up. I've also heard this excuse being used before.

If you have a washroom in the room, please also note that you both have to clean it. If you can't clean it, then keep it clean. If you mess up the sink, you clean it. And the sink trap in the shower, it's going to be filled with hair. Pick that up if you see it, don't push it around waiting for it to miraculously vanish. I told you, things don't get cleaned by themselves. Elves and pixies aren't real, they don't appear to clean things for you. If you haven't been doing your chores and things are still clean, get this: YOU WERE LAZY AND YOUR ROOMMATE DID IT.

You live in a hostel to learn independent living, so learn it.

2. Your roommate isn't your personal assistant.
Your roommate is still human and has their own life to run and keep on schedule. You can ask questions and confirm things, but incessant asking is not a good thing to do. Do not ask your roommate to remember your schedule for you, that is your own responsibility.

If you have to wake up at a certain time, get an alarm clock. It isn't enjoyable if your roommate has to wake up early just to get you out of bed.
If you are outside, please make sure you have your own key with you. If you have your own key, use it. Even if your roommate is in, it isn't their job to open the door for you (like a boss), if you brought your own key out. This just goes to show how lazy you are, so please learn.
If you have a question, please just try Google first before asking your roommate.

Respect your roommate's decision. Don't pester them into doing things for you, because it isn't their duty at all. You should only request for help when you REALLY need help. Sharing a room also means respecting each other's personal space.

3. Your roommate isn't equipment rental.
It's alright to borrow an item or two from your roommate when you need it. But just so you know, borrowing involves also the act of returning. You borrow, you return it in its original condition.

If you don't have something, you are only to borrow it for the time being. This involves you going out to get the item you need so that you can return the item to your roommate. This goes without saying. If your roommate has something, even if it's spare, it's theirs and they need it even if they don't use it.

You, learn to go get your own items. Your roommate is not a convenience store.

Even though you are essentially sharing your lives with each other, and you're supposed to help each other out... I still feel that it is important for both parties to have their own personal space. There should be a balance between what you receive and what you give.

That being said, you really should learn to live as independently as possible, and try not to ask for too many favours from your roommate. I always respond positively, more or less, because if there is unpleasantness between my roommate and I, life is gonna be shit.
So as much as possible, I try to help. It does annoy me at times because I have to weigh my own emotions against the prospect of living in harmony. More often that not, I cannot express my frustrations.

I write this post in hopes of letting people know what entails in hostel living, because I'm sure there are others who feel the same way as I do.

Till next time (:

Stuck in dorm

Complains.

Yea, the reason why I haven't been blogging, is because everyday is pretty much the same here. Ever since school started my days have been pretty much mundane, as I always go back to my dorm after lessons.

I didn't really want to type reflective posts here as I believe only close friends of mine would be interested to read. This blog here was created to help students who want to come study here in Korea (more for summer or exchange), and to share my experiences. Reflective posts? Nah...

But let me just do a comparison between my summer and exchange (so far) experience then.
As you might have known, I did a summer programme with Korea University, and now I'm an exchange student in Yonsei University.

Korea University is located at Anam, while Yonsei is located at Sinchon.

To be honest, I loved Anam more that I like Sinchon. I like the serenity and calmness of Anam, the quaint little shops, and how most of what we need can be found around the area, with minimal walking. The streets of Anam have Paris Baguette, Daiso, Baskin Robbins, Yoogane, Ms. & Mr. Potato, Mr. Pizza, Etude House, Tony Moly, Innisfree, and lots more.

While Sinchon has all these too, they are spread out, way spread out, apart from each other.

Convenience-wise, Korea wins without saying. While it takes less than 10 minutes to get from the dormitories to Anam station for KU... Yonsei's dorms are located about 25 minutes away from the station. Come on, please tell me how anyone would be motivated to go out when you have to walk 25 minutes just to get to the station?!

Plus, Sinchon is too crowded. Too many people.

So yeah, I haven't been going out much. Since the weather is cold I did drop by Ewha to pick up some long sleeved tops, but other than that, not much. The amount of money I spend is also scary sometimes as I have long since stopped tracking my expenses. My parents came and after that the system doesn't work anymore, haha~

Oh wells.

Before I go off, I want to thank all who have been reading my blog so far and even though I don't blog regularly now, I still keep you in my heart <3

Feel free to drop me an email!

Cat Cafe~

I finally got down to visiting the cat cafe after James introduced it to me. There is one in Sinchon, which is really convenient and a good thing for me because I love cats~!

So I haven't been blogging very often, sorry~ Yesterday the Internet was down! Tough luck...

Anyway I will be writing about cat cafe, so if you hate cats then don't read >.<

It's located on the 8th floor, called 고양이 다락방, and it's a pretty relaxed place if it's a weekend. I went there twice so far... And on the weekday there were less people.. The cats were more excited about the treats, so they would swarm around you if you have one. But on weekends, they were overfed and were pretty indifferent towards the treats ):

So there were like a lot of cats there and basically it's awesome that they have such places here! Singapore only has pet cafes, where you bring your own pet... My Ricky isn't even sociable enough for such places! >.<

And yeah well, sorry again for not posting >.<
So, a smile for you~

Spicy foods and a little cafe later...

Tuesday flew past! But it was a really enjoyable Tuesday~
Justin and Han decided for reals that they were going to buy me dinner and cake as a birthday celebration thing for me since I treated them last week =D

So they brought me to a meat place in Hongdae because they claim it to be the most delicious thing ever, and that it'll beat whatever best experience I've had in Korea. So okay, here we go...
They were smart! They took the seats out in the open~ Since the night was cool, it didn't really matter. The best thing is that the smokey smell would diffuse so our clothes won't smell like BBQ.

I was about to comment that the bad thing about the place was that there was no wifi, but to my surprise, there really was free wifi!! Okay, so this has gotta be one of the best places ever to eat =p

They ordered in chinese, and I thought they were going to get samgyupsal.
But then it was the wrong order so they ordered again and we got a chicken fry/grill thing, which I don't know the exact name of. Something-something-볶음.

It was really spicy, but it was good. The guys were pretty bad at finding the meats, and I had to find it for them. There was this big piece of meat I found... And the two guys were like bickering as to who gets it, so I decided to join in the match to see who gets the meat... For the fun of it.

The match: Chopsticks war. We will all pinch the meat, and at the count of three, we will pull and the person holding onto the meat would be the winner.
Lo and behold, I won! Thanks to all the excellent traditional chopsticks training I've had. But nah, I left the meat for the guys to eat since they looked so sad. Haha!

After dinner and a lot of reminiscing about old computer games..
Oh ya, Ragnarok Online~ Woohoo~!

After that they walked past this prize machine thing which has a rod that pushes an item down. They spent 2,000 won on it, and got themselves a swiss knife! O_O Actually, to be more specific, Han did all the work, haha~ Congrats!

Yeah they decided to go find a cafe to have a cake and whatnot. But all we saw were really typical cafes, mostly coffee. So we decided to walk on a little bit more until we came across this strange alley with people walking out of it. He turned in out of curiosity and saw the sweetest cafe...

It's a home-style cafe, and it does look like a house. They served tea, a range of them. And some small cakes and stuff. The inside was really pretty!

They also have a porch on the outside, where would be a good place to sit in the mornings or evenings, I think~

So we looked at the menu and ordered some. We had royal milk tea, a creme brulee, and a chocolate lava cake (which took 20 minutes to prepare).

Tea came in a pretty pot, my favourite style~ Look at the strawberry designs! Also matching cup in the background, which Justin is holding...
Creme brulee was delicious. So delicious that they guys just didn't want me to eat much so they could eat more... Well, guess what!

They used real vanilla beans! No wonder it tasted heavenly >.<

Chocolate lava cake became my new birthday cake. When it was served after 20 minutes, the two guys started with their birthday song and I sang along =D

It was nice, super yummy, no other way to describe this.

So sat around a chatted a little bit more before we decided to head back.
We took the bus back, and before that Han and I were supposed to go look for the busstop while Justin went to use the washroom. We found the right one and were pretty lazy to head back, so we tried calling Justin. He picked up and after I said hi and asked where he was in Korean, he hung up! He hung up on me!!!

We had no choice but to walk back to find that person -_-

So yeah, it was a really chillax night despite them having to do 10 pages of handwritten notes as their home work...

And yeah, second part of celebrations! Not bad!

Smile~

Have a great day~~ Thanks for reading!