Korea University!

Today I bade a temporary farewell to my buddies Jacqueline and Kangwei as I moved out of Chocolate Tree and into Korea University's Frontier House. Hope they are doing well now (: Past few days have been fun and all but I think they'd appreciate the privacy without me.

Anyway I took a cab from Chocolate Tree (Sinchon) to Korea University (Anam). It was a pretty long trip due to heavy traffic conditions, which was a result of the rain and the weekend. The taxi driver uncle seemed friendly but a bit too much for my comfort. He kept trying to talk to me when I didn't want to talk to him because my Korean still sucks, and he didn't speak or understand much English. 

He appeared nice until we reached our destination. You see, he couldn't find where Frontier House is. So we had a hard time. In the end, we got picked up by Mr. Jang at the main gate so he could send me into Frontier House.

The taxi uncle charged me an extra 2,000won! >:(

I didn't know why, but gave him the 20,000 won in the end la. Argue also no use. At least saved me the trouble of traveling using the public transport. Mr. Jang told me that he charged me extra because he had to wait. Seriously, WHY??

It isn't exactly my fault that he couldn't find the place! I even called KU Hotline to guide him there. What a scam.

Well anyways check-in was really quick and I got settled down well. Went out with Caili to get our necessities. I bought about 40,000 won of stuff for my personal usage. Damn I'm spending so much.

We went to Seoul Station's Lotte Mart. Before that we had lunch. Caili had Seafood Fried Rice and I had Tuna Kimbap. It was cool because the provided soup and pickled radish along with the Kimbap. Had a fun time learning the norms of a Korean food court.

Really love Kimbap to the max. It's so easy to eat, and it is packed full of delicious ingredients!

Norms of a Korean Foodcourt (or at least the one I went to)

1. You order your food at the counter at the entrance. There should be a menu there.

2. You pay for your food and are issued a receipt.

3. Find a seat and wait for your number (printed along with receipt) to be displayed on the screens.

4. Go to the stall dispensing your food and give the staff your receipt stub.

5. Enjoy your food!

6. Water is usually provided free of charge. 

7. You have to return your tray to the respective return points (usually near the stall) after you finish your food.

After that we headed to Lotte Mart and bought lots of stuff. Caili and I initially wanted to buy bedsheets, because she didn't have any, and the bedsheets I brought couldn't fit onto the mattress in the dorms. However, we realized that Koreans have a different system of lining their beds.

They have a fitted comforter/quilt layer. This is different from Singapore's as we usually have this layer elastic banded onto the top of the naked mattress. This layer in Korea is fitted on like a bedsheet. Then they have another layer placed on top. I think they call it a bedspread, and this layer is movable. And then they have the blanket.

In the end we got so confused that we just ditched the bedsheets and decided to use the weird piece of cloth issued to us as bedsheet and just live with it. Frontier house provided pillow, bedsheet and blanket! The room also has air conditioning. There's even a bathroom inside the room! The desk is spacious and organization-friendly. 

A brief view of my room, super obvious which side of the room mine is... The only problem is that my tabletop LAN port isn't working! I had to use my own LAN wire to connect to the wall port directly before getting any internet access.

So anyways we bought a lot of stuff from Lotte Mart and had to carry them back without the use of plastic bags. Caili brought two huge recyclable bags and we had to squeeze everything in... Until we saw a boxing counter. We put most of our things into two boxes and carried them back to our room. Fortunately it wasn't all that heavy.

Oh, another thing that made us sad was that there was no refrigerator anywhere! This means that we can't buy milk to drink because it'll spoil. ): Both Caili and I are people who like to drink milk. But unfortunately that won't happen. We can only buy in small cartons to drink.

Anyway that concludes our day for today. We missed the dinner period in campus so we had to eat the cup noodles we bought earlier. Hope tomorrow we get to eat normal food /=

Until then, see ya and thanks for reading! (:

Getting a prepaid SIM card in Korea!

After being here for about 5 days, I finally got my prepaid SIM card in Korea!

Following a guide (http://singaporeaninkorea.blogspot.kr/2011/04/life-in-korea-getting-phone-line.html), I went ahead and got my own number too. However, there were a few tips I'd like to add, so let's go!

Firstly, you cannot get a prepaid SIM card when you've JUST entered Korea. This is because you need to give the goverment/immigrations some time to enter your records into their big system. This 'registration' does not require any effort on your part except to wait for it to be done. It will take about 3 to 5 days. So before that, do not waste your efforts going to either the phone company or the bank to register for anything. It doesn't matter if you have a visa or not.

So I did my waiting and today (my 5th day in Korea), I went to buy my prepaid SIM.

Preparation:
What you need to bring along!
1. Money - The cost of the card is about 5,500 won, and you have to top up a minimum of 10,000 won on the spot. More is welcomed too.
2. Passport!
3. Phone you intend to use the number on, and its IMEI number. If you are iPhone user, the IMEI is already inside the phone information, so no worries there.


ONE: (Destination - Olleh Square)
Take the subway line to Gwanghuamun and follow the exit leading to Korea Telecommunications Building. Once you exit from the subway station, the building on your right is the building you are looking for, and it looks like this:

After you recognize the building, the next thing you should look for is this entrance shown in the picture above. Yes, recognize the rotating doors. Enter.

Note! If you want to take bus to this area, make sure the bus goes to Sejong Center for Performing Arts. Cross the road from there, and you'll see Olleh Square.

TWO: (Getting the SIM)
You should see a cozy cafe-like place inside. Turn right and walk towards the place with counters. There will be service staff there issuing queue numbers, so tell him/her that you want to buy a prepaid SIM card and you'll be given a queue number.

Don't worry because there are English-speaking staff there! And their forms are in English too (:

The staff will explain to you the plans available. For prepaid, there are three different plans: Standard, and two others which names I forget.

The only difference between the three plans is the price per minute of calls. Otherwise, other usages are the same pricing. Apart from standard, they will charge per day. Which means that even though your price per minute for calls is lower than standard pricing, there is a fee deducted everyday even if you don't use the line. So for low usage users like me, Prepaid Standard would suffice.

And nowadays, who doesn't use 3G for on-the-go internet access right?
Good news! With Prepaid SIM you are able to use their 3G network! However, everything comes with a price. For each 0.5KB of 3G usage, 0.28 won (yes you saw it right, there is a decimal point.) will be deducted.

Each prepaid SIM will last 3 months if you top-up 10,000 won on the spot. Topping up more amounts will lengthen its lifespan.

Fill in some forms, sign a few times, and congratulations! You are now the proud owner of a Korean mobile phone number!

Day 4 - Lotte World

Today we decided to go to Lotte World. Didn't go so early because we felt like we shouldn't need to spend the entire day there. So we went at about 2pm. We had a discount because we had this coupon thing from Chocolate Tree, so we paid 29,000 won for the 1-day Special Pass with access to all rides.

Took a simple photo with the Lotte raccoons Lotty and Lorry before entering the theme park (:

The first thing we took was the adventure of Sinbad where we sat on a boat thing and was brought through a labyrinth of caves with magnificent displays. The ride wasn't very very thrilling, but the displays were really good. After which we took the viking ship, at Jacqueline's recommendation.

She was actually afraid of these sorta rides with the huge drop because she's scared of the feeling. But Kangwei told her that the viking ship will help her get used to the G-Force. She screamed during the ride, and a few girls infront of us turned back to stare at her. -_-
But I thought like omg so rude.

Us on the viking ship ready to take off.

Jacq and KW after the viking ride

Yea well, after the viking ship, Jacq made an effort to overcome her fears and took TWO scary roller coasters with us today! She was so happy that she bought the official photo taken from the indoor roller coaster we took in Lotte World.

We spent most of our time queueing actually. I think the queues were really long because of the summer break now. But nonetheless we got to play the rides that were the most fun. We didn't try Gyro Drop because they were maintaining it when we went. The swing tree made us all really giddy. Think coz it spun really quite fast and the thing was small. Was woozy after that.

Comet express was fun! An exciting ride that Jacq wasn't very scared of! It was like a roller coaster, but no drops and 360s, just alot of spiralling downward tracks, and the pods we sat on are freely spinning during the ride, so it's pretty cool.

Lotte World Magic Island (Outdoor portion) is a really pretty place! Though like every theme park seems to have a castle theme to it... Hmm... I haven't been to Singapore's USS so I don't know how Lotte World is compared to USS.

The evening came pretty fast, so we took the carousel. It didn't really have a queue so it was pretty quick. A good cool down ride after taking all the thrilling rides during the day.
Jacq was really pleased with the pretty designs. Seriously my third time here and I still enjoy it.

Really had a fun day with my friends today! Weather was good so we were in a good mood too!

Special mentions to Mummy Jacqueline for being super super brave today, taking all the scary rides with us! <3<3<3

Day 3 - Itaewon, Sinchon, Hongdae!

Today, we woke up late again. Jacqueline made us all breakfast, really sweet of her! ^^
After a simple breakfast we changed and went out. Decided to visit Itaewon so we headed to the subway. Maybe because it was in the day, Itaewon was really boring for us. There wasn't much to shop, to be honest...

See the streets were really quiet! Plus the weather today was really hot too... We walked around to give it a chance but no can do, there really wasn't anything of interest there! ): We decided to go have lunch somewhere else, and ended up at Anguk. We weren't even supposed to be there, we just got the directions wrong. But anyway we found a cosy shop and just had our lunch there.

I ordered Naengmyeon (냉면) for lunch. The buckwheat noodles were actually pretty hard to chew, a few times I didn't chew properly and almost ended up choking on it... -_-
Jacq had a bibimbap with octopus thing, and Kangwei had a cheese cutlet. It was a delicious lunch, haha!

We went back to Sinchon to shop because we didn't finish walking the area yesterday. Managed to buy a pair of shoes that will be comfortable to wear to school or to shopping. Kangwei managed to buy something for himself too as we found a street that had guy's fashion! Also, that street had wifi access, which I have no idea why... So I took a happy photo of myself!

After more shopping, we got tired and decided to head for dinner. On the way to get a cab, Jacq found the fishie-icecream that she has been looking for! She was so happy that I had to take a photo of her and her fishie!

Can't help but say that the photo is so so so epic. So cuuuuuute!!

And... guess where we went to for dinner....

Did you see that?! We went to Haha's restaurant at Hongdae! Fortunately when we went there, they opened not too long ago and we didn't have to wait in a queue to get in. Food pics coming right up!

Pork intestine and Samgyupsal! Cooking on the grill~ Sizzles!

Wrapping it up in sesame leaf before nomming it all down...

Second round!

Haha's restaurant has a nice environment! Food was kinda pricey though, which means that if we're on a budget it won't be a good place to eat. But I must really say that the food was really, really, good. Not to mention we're in a celebrity's restaurant!

Walked around Hongdae after that. (Look at my dress, cute no? ^^)

Hongdae has a very vibrant evening/night life... Didn't buy anything though, but did drop by for a quick bite at one of the Dunkin' Donuts! Rainbow munchkin!

Anyway after that we walked all the way back to Chocolate Tree, and rested for the rest of the night. Since I had some time, I took a few photos of some of the things I bought so far. Ready?

I made a new friend today! Waited to get this for a long time but finally got one!

Stitch! Cute right?

This bag I bought too. Brought it out today! Love how it's small and organized inside. Very easy to get my stuff out! It's a really sweet colour, though the photo doesn't do it justice.

Daily mask from Etude House recommended by Deborah! It's really expensive in Singapore but I bought it for 9500 won! About a third the price of it in Singapore... :D

Also bought some accessories these few days. Some people would notice the strawberries! Yes, I am a strawberries person! Super cute! The cherries ear stud also very pretty. 1000 won each! Cheap yo! (:

Yep!

Tomorrow we're planning to go play at Lotte World. Hope we'll have fun!

Hope my lovelies in Singapore are doing well and having fun too! Miss them already! <3

Thanks for reading!

Day 2 - Sinchon and more!

Today, we had originally wanted to wake up at about 8.30am. The alarm did ring, but my two buddies weren't waking up even though I woke up... So we continued sleeping till about 10+. After which we had Nutella toast for breakfast, reminded me so much of SCamp! This time, though, we could have as thick a Nutella layer as we wanted!

We walked down from Chocolate Tree to Sinchon Women's Street. They had really cheap women's clothings! A lot of things there were at about 10,000 won each, some even only 5,000!

Streets were pretty quiet where we were. Took this when my two friends were having fun in a store looking at bags and shorts and whatnot. The weather was pretty hot, but not too hot that I'd perspire that much. The winds were cool, unlike Singapore's...

We ordered some food for lunch, ordered two to share amongst three because we weren't really hungry. The top one is dolsot bibimbap, and the bottom is pizza cutlet. It was delicious and filling!

Happy after having lunch... After which we walked around a little more and made it to Ewha Women's University! We didn't go all the way in, but we took some photos near the entrance. Even from the outside, the place looks fabulous! I wished my school back at home looked like that, even a little! This is too cool!

One of the entrances to the insides of Ewha University! There were doors along the stretch, and it leads to some places in there. Didn't really explore much...

Oh ya, today we tried to go to KT Olleh Headquarters (a.k.a. Olleh Square) to try to get a prepaid card for myself. However, my foreigner status hasn't been registered with the ministry yet, so I have to wait for a few more days before I can get my prepaid card. Same goes for the bank account. Before my status is confirmed with the government, there is no way I can get a bank account.

In any case, when I get my number, I will be writing a post about getting a prepaid card!

Hopefully, it can help travelers and students in the future.

Anyway I spent quite a lot today buying clothes and stuff. Not gonna take photos of my purchases aww... Oh btw, that bunny shirt there I'm wearing? I bought it from SPAO! Comfy yea! 

Somehow, today a lady in her car tried to stop us to ask for directions. But obviously we don't know! Do we really look Korean? Haha...

Today the winds in the evening was really cold. We went to walk at Dongdaemun a little, and then it started getting really cold! Something we will never get back in Singapore. It was so cold that Jacq was complaining, and cold enough that people who are afraid of cold will want to bring a jacket. Haha!

That concludes my second day in Korea... Only have about three more days of play before I have to live apart from Jacqueline and Kangwei. Sadded.

But more to look forward to, like visits from YuYang, Mel, and Gel... And my Parents! Too bad my boy Ricky can't come along. Here's a picture of my precious baby boy and me:

Oh wells, I shall be turning in for the night! See you guys soon and thanks for reading!

Special shoutout to my Korean Class buddies who sent me a lovely video greeting today!

Korea's - Day 0 and Day 1

After a rushed session of late farewells at Singapore Changi Airport last night, I am finally in Seoul, South Korea! It was my first time flying solo, and I must say, it was pretty awkward... Korean Air was good, and their bibimbap for breakfast on board was fantastic. I tried to watch Sherlock Holmes, but it wasn't very interesting, which contributed to me having sufficient sleep.

Re-energized by this bibimbap. Seriously, I was DAMN hungry, but eating half of it, I felt super full.

Touched down. Walked out of immigrations. Took my luggage. After which I contacted Jacqueline who just woke up. Following instructions, I took Airport Bus 6002 to Sinchon. It took slightly more than 40 minutes, but I got there pretty quick coz instructions were clear. Surprised Jacq and Kangwei!

We rested and chatted for awhile, then changed to go to Myeongdong.

There were many people even though it was a monday afternoon! It's my first time in Myeongdong... The previous two tours I went to never brought me here. So I had the entire day to walk wherever I wanted. But I didn't buy much, some things from Etude House and a shirt from SPAO.

SiHao and Don always mentioned this place and asked me to go visit it. And I did, but they didn't have anything interesting. Went to the merchandise place, but was full of Super Junior and SNSD. The merchandise weren't very fascinating either. But nonetheless, it was an interesting place to be, and to look at merchandise!


Oh ya! We had Seollongtang for lunch today! We went to this place in Myeongdong that has been used for drama filming several times. Here's what it looks like.

I ordered a basic Seollongtang, while Jacq had garlic one, and Kangwei has ginseng one.

Hungry yet? Haha. Fantastic. Delicious. Awesome.

Anyway we walked about an entire day, before we decided to head back. Jacq and Kangwei then decided to cook our own dinner today. They bought some smoked duck, vegetables, toufu, clams, and ramyeon. We put everything together and it looked like this...

Simply. Delicious. Once again. Veggies were cooked by me. My mummy seriously taught me well. Haha!

Glad I got to spend my first day in Korea with awesome friends. Without them I will seriously be a loner sia...

Anyway already missing my family and friends back in Singapore. Especially my Pharoans! They are like super onz now doing Rag and other camps, I feel super left out when it comes to group activities.. Fortunately for technology, I am still keeping up with them through Facebook and Whatsapp...

Tapping wifi whenever I can!

People back in Singapore, thank you for all your support leading up to my trip!