Happy days with awesome buddies!

I slept really late last night so I slept in today and woke up to have lunch. Caili went off to palace with her Korean friend. I read a little bit of my Korean after lunch and then prepared to go out.

The rain finally let up and I look forward to a sunshiney weekend!

Reached Dongdaemun about slightly after 3pm. Went out the wrong exit and ended up in some shoes wholesale center. Took the opportunity to look at rainboots, and saw quite a few, but didn't ask about them coz (I shy). Anyway the weather was really hot, and after contacting YuYang to meet at Doota! entrance, I bought fishie ice cream to eat!

This is one of Jacq and Kangwei's favourite ice creams, and I took that picture just to make them jealous. HAHA!

Anyway, met YuYang a little while later without much difficulty. We spent the next almost 2 hours walking around Dongdaemun.

He bought 3 shirts, but in my opinion, they were too overpriced. He still bought it anyway -,-

I bought a playsuit for 15,000won! Finally found one that is the right size for me, and it wasn't TOO expensive either. Other than that, walked around FaceShop to buy two nail colours and shampoo + conditioner set... Then to Etude House to buy a few more things. I liked it that there were people in FaceShop that could speak English! Super impressed coz I've always been spoken to in mandarin for the past few days.

We went back to Doota to meet Jacq and Kangwei, and also Yuyang's friend Nigel. We made our way to the 14,900won BBQ buffet. It was a really sumptuous meal and I had my fill of delicious Samgyupsal (삼겹살)...

We ate till we're pretty full, but didn't have any plans. After some discussion, we decided to go have Patbingsu, to my enjoyment! Just that we didn't know where to find it. Wanted to find Paris Baguette, since they're all over the place, but... as we have it, when you wanna find something, it never turns up.

After much walking and searching, we decided to have our patbingsu at Caffe Benne. They had some special flavours, so we ordered those. Ordered two to share among the 5 of us.

Looks delicious, isn't it? ^^ The one on the left was Wine and Cheese flavour, and the one on the right is matcha flavour! The bowl was bigger this time so it was easier to mix everything around! Woohoo~ Very, very delicious!

But I learnt something today. A lot of food in Korea comes in big portions! This forces people to come to eat with friends. Good marketing strategy no? But I don't like it coz I am more or less used to having food alone, and sheesh, I can't eat patbingsu alone.

We had a damn fun time, eating and talking... Even Nigel was comfortable in our conversation!

After that, Jacq and Kangwei suggested trying the Makgeolli coz it was so cheap here in Korea! We tried to find a bottle, but couldn't... In the end we just got one from 7-Eleven at Migliore, and settled down on the banks of Cheonggyecheon (stream in the middle of the city!) sharing a bottle and talking.

YuYang and I had to do a forfeit in the end because we both had the highest number of guessing the number of fingers right. Nigel was encouraging all these things too, even though he was new to the group -,- Yea, thanks yo, Nigel...

Anyway had a super fun time and was a little bit sad to have to go home coz we haven't been together together since vacation started... YuYang is gonna be here only for a short time so.. yea...

Hmm.

Tomorrow I'm trying to go to church, so I better rest soon...

Thank you thank you thank you for reading!

If you don't know yet, I love all my readers!

KU ISC Party day!

Even though it was lessonless day, I had to wake up at the same time because I had to have breakfast. Breakfast was really simple and not too enjoyable. Maybe it was due to me being tired and all on a restful day.

I had originally wanted to make a trip down to Seongbuk-gu catholic church but I was feeling really easy and just wanted to trust the directions that Google maps gave me. So I stayed in the room the entire day, oovoo-ing Samuel and Kevin. Small HTHT groups are really efficient and it's easier to say things that we don't normally say to more people.

It is really fun, and we ended up chatting for about 6 hours. (Kevin joined us a little later.)

After all the chatting, I had to go and get ready for the party.

My buddy, Han Seung-Ik, fb messaged me pretty early in the day and told me he was already there doing all the preparations. The party starts at about 5pm, but Caili and I have decided to pop by at around 5.30pm. In the end, we left for Star Beer at about 5.45pm and reached there about 6pm-ish.

When we got there, there my buddy was, right at the entrance taking pictures for those who were entering the venue. He recognized me the moment he saw me from a distance. But there was a huge crowd so I didn't go say hi. When the crowd cleared a little then I went to say hi, but he was busy taking photos for the people coming in so I just greeted him, said a few words and went off into the pub.

Well, it was a pub. WAS. They turned it into a club-lookalike. They removed the pub tables, and put up black curtains, added lights, and loud music. They also had a complimentary beer for each person (I didn't take) and also some food.

And it looked a little like this. When I went to talk to Seung-Ik for a little, he mentioned that the buddies arrived at 11am to prepare the place for us! He also showed me the before photo of the pub, and it really did look like an innocent pub.

Anyways, Caili left early because she didn't like the environment. I stayed on because I had wanted to meet new people. But people just cliqued together and there wasn't as much interaction as I imagined. After we stayed around to enjoy the super freaking loud music (louder than Butter Factory), we left because some of the Singapore group decided to go 노래방 (noraebang). Which is Karaoke.

Took a picture with my buddy Seung-Ik before I left.

By the way, he doesn't have weird hair. The hair from the guy behind blended into his hair in the picture. -,-

Met the rest of the Singapore group, like Zhang Quan, Teresa, Alwyn, Joalin, Wei Jun... I also met a new friend Fernando Moon, who is a Korean living in Paris. He was really sociable and stuff and talked to everyone of us in the group! And we went to Apgujeong to find SM's everysing for 노래방. It was a super cool room that fitted all of us!

We sang Korean songs for about an hour. I could sing Blue by BigBang smoothly coz 선생님 taught us to sing that during one of her classes. And also EXO-K's MAMA! But that one I learnt by myself. And like I was the only one singing... Thanks yo, Teresa, for choosing that song. My favourite!

Got like 100 points for MAMA yo! I even did the 죽고, 죽이고~ Part properly!

Here's a group photo of us we took!

After that we decided to go have some patbingsu! For the first time! I was super the happy! 

All of us ordered four patbingsu of different flavours to share. The table nearest to me had the normal patbingsu and the matcha/green tea patbingsu!

So I learnt today that you pour the milky over the patbingsu, and you gotta mix the patbingsu really, really well to fully enjoy it. And that was what we did!

I absolutely love the patbingsu, especially the matcha one! The normal one tasted good too (:

Ahh...

After patbingsu we went back to Anam by train. But a few of them got hungry so we stopped by 7-Eleven for a quick meal. I bought a small milk, and the rest bought 라면 (Ramyeon), also known as instant noodles. I sat there and did my first feeding of Korean mosquitoes. Super, freaking, itchy. Darn you Korean mozzies! D:< Cassie no happy.

Tomorrow I'm finally going to meet my awesome lecture buddies! Nomnomz yo!

And we're going to dongdaemun! I hope I will be able to buy a pair of rainboots for wearing to school. So not going to get shoes wet coz of rain seriously. Damn irritating.

Anyway the EMS that my Dad sent hasn't even reached me, and he sent it on Monday -,- So much for express. I bet if it was though normal mail that stuff doesn't happen to it and it will still reach me safe and sound.

But this EMS thing is disappointing me manz... What the...

Oh ya, today Boon Loong told me that I could buy a secondhand phone in KU! And it isn't very expensive so I think I might just get one! (: See how la, don't anyhow waste money...

Getting late so, good night and thanks for reading!

End of the week for lessons!

Lessons have really begun to pick up their pace! Received my first assignment today, which was a review essay. Kind of looking forward to doing it. But I will be resting a little for today.

Today I woke up to gloomy weather. Fortunately I brought my umbrella, pretty pink, to school with me today. It begun drizzling on my way to school and it got really bad during lessons. It hasn't let up a little even at this moment. Ah, rain.

Was afraid my shoes would get wet. I saw people wearing rain boots! I am really tempted to get one of those for days like these. Maybe I will get them while out with my lecture buddies (: Better than wearing slippers out, looks super NOT glam. At all.

Anyway, I have to climb these flight of steps everyday to get to school, or to even get to the subway station! If you can see clearly, we have more than 4 flights to go. Walking under the umbrella in the rain, trying to scale the steps isn't a joke at all! >.< Though I think now you know why I can look forward to a healthier me.

If you think it's bad, Frontier House is actually closer to the outside than CJ International House is! There is another slope leading upwards where I was standing to take this picture, and CJ I-House is way higher up from where Frontier is. Good luck walking all the way back.

Always feel a sense of accomplishment everytime i finish climbing those steps and reach the foyer to Frontier House!

Today the class that stood out to me was the media and pop culture class. We learnt a lot about the perception of Saeteomin, who are North Korean refugees (but not very nice to call them that.) I learnt a lot about how society view them and the problems they face coming from North Korea. A very insightful lesson, really! The video screening was also really informative and eye opening.

See, these are the kind of things you'll never learn by just being in the Korean society.

I didn't have lunch today because it was raining. But I realized it served me well later in the day... and you'll find out why in a moment.

Also, my water bottle has a crack in it. I realized it yesterday and I don't feel like bringing it out anymore. So sad... This bottle is super the cute and I can't believe it broke. Now I have to go water bottle hunting... Maybe I should get one that is winter-friendly.

Anyway after my last class today, met Shireen and the others. I tried calling my parents using Kakaotalk and Viber but none of them picked up. Super neglected sia. ):

But they wanted to go to B2st's Yoseop's family's naengmyeon shop at Seokgye station for dinner. Asked Caili along and we went down to have dinner.

It was pretty easy to locate, since it's very near exit 2 of Seokgye station!

 The inside was a cozy place where we take our shoes off, and there were pictures of B2st, especially Yosoep! We saw a lady that looked like him so we assume that was his mom... She is a really pleasant lady!

We all had relatively different things. Yi Fong and I had normal Naengmyeon, Victoria had bibim-naengmyeon (dry naengmyeon mixed), and Shireen and Caili had dumplings soup. It was really delicious, compared to the naengmyeon I had the previous time. The noodles weren't tangled up, so they were easier to eat. The portion was really huge too! I finished them all coz I was hungry from not having lunch during the day.

So relieved that school is done for the week! Not that I don't enjoy lessons, but I just wanna have a normal, restful day... But really looking forward to meeting Jacq and Kangwei again for nomnoms..

Haha!

Thanks for reading!

Lessons and strolling

Second day of lessons!

Woke up, had a simple breakfast of seaweed soup and rice, then prepared for school. As usual I walked down to campus while enjoying the sights of the shops along the way. And as always, the patbingsu shop tempts me everytime I walk by it.

You know what patbingsu is? It's like our Singapore ice-kacang, the normal types. But there are other types of patbingsu which is shaved ice with toppings. Awesome food for summer. I have yet to try it.

Well anyway, social psychology class was pretty interesting. Developmental psychology today wasn't very interesting as today's lesson dealt with genetics and inheritance, which I have studied since a long time ago. Media class was interesting today too. He talked about multiculturalism in Korea, and I learnt many new things.

For lunch today,

Banana milk and bibimbap-flavoured Onigiri! There's a Korean term for the onigiri but I really forgot. It's 삼각-something. I have a feeling this is gonna be my lunch for a long, long time.

Anyway after lessons ended for me today, I decided to go for a walk around campus. It was just a stroll to clear my mind and my heart, you know, just to enjoy the solidarity.

After not seeing real cats for a long time, today on my stroll I saw two kitties! Just so happened today I was wearing a dress with kitties on it. Maybe that's why I could see cats, haha! But anyways they were so cuuuute! And totally made me day.

Kitty #1 sitting on the fence, and Kitty #2 taking a walk in the shrubs.

I ended my stroll at the Samsung Centennial Hall, making my way towards the center plaza where the bookshop was located at. I had initially planned to buy a KU shirt and KU foolscap, but unfortunately they do not have KU foolscap. There were various designs for the KU shirt, and I was deciding between two designs but ended up getting the design that most people got. Love the crimson of it.

I actually really, really, really wanted to get a KU jacket because the colour was awesome. Love red.
But as some of you might know, I will be going for exchange programme with Yonsei University, and these two schools have some sort of 'friendly' rivalry between them.

And since it will be fall by then, and it would mean I need my jacket most of the time, I have decided that it wouldn't be practical to get a KU jacket since I can't wear it to Yonsei campus. ):

I hope Yonsei has nice jackets too...

After I got back to hostel, it was almost time for me to have dinner! Made me happy because I was so hungry!

Pretty yummy stuff actually. It's pork for main today. They also gave us tofu (the green box on the right)! The soy sauce beside it made it absolutely, heavenly delicious. And there it is again, my radish kimchi! Oh and the thing on the top left corner was uniquely delicious. I have absolutely no idea what it is though. Has a chewy/crunchy-notsosurehowtodescribeit feeling. 

Was kinda tired when I got back. So just read abit of Korean, did my other readings, and now I find myself blogging.

Looking forward to meeting Jacq and Kangwei again, with YuYang this time ^^ Nomnomnom together!

First day of class at KU ISC

My lessons started at 10.50am, but I woke up at 8.30am so I could go down to have breakfast. 

Pollock soup with rice and a variety of kimchi and pork with egg. Super filling! The pollock soup was delicious, and I especially like the mushrooms in the second slot. Yums! 

Walked to Woodang Hall with Grace, a girl I met at Frontier House. We were taking the same class! My first class was ISC263 Social Psychology. Shireen was there too! The lecture got a little bit boring in the middle but other than that the rest were good.

This was the room we had Social Psychology in. Before the lesson officially began.

Had a simple lunch of onigiri and milk under the trees. My satisfied smile says it all about lunch. There's milk, I'm happy.

After lunch was ISC366A Developmental Psychology. I like the lecturer! His lectures are really animated and points were easier to grasp thus. His readings are really thick though! >.< I'm still trying to read!

My last lesson was ISC282 Media and Popular Culture in Korea. This is the course that Jocelyn recommended to me, and it was pretty interesting. Though the lecturer is pretty strict... I hope I will be able to go for their field trips though! Coz the lesson before that might make my schedule bad, so might not be able to make it for field trip T.T

Oh ya, I got my student card today! Would have been prettier if they put our photo on it though... Like that like super plain design. But hehe, I am officially a student in Korea University now!

칼마시케시케시 고려대학!

(That cheer stuck in my head. But I don't exactly know what that means!)

The last lesson ended early so I walked around the streets near Anam station. 

Explored around and found Daiso! I just bought bread from paris baguette, acne patch from the pharmacy. OH YA, let me tell you, you can't find any pimple cream in Korea, unless you get a prescription from the dermatologist or something. So please bring some along if you need. It starte drizzling halfway, so I had to rush back really quickly. But it got quite heavy and I needed an umbrella anyway so I bought one from one of the small shops. Pink!

Streets of Anam are actually quite quiet, only few people walking. This junction leads all the way up to Frontier House!

Was really hungry when I got back, but had to wait till 5.30pm before dinner can be served. 

Dinner was radish soup with chicken! Kinda reminds me of the radish soup my mum makes at home that I actually love to the max. ;_;

The potatoes on the left were nice, and the radish kimchi on the right was nice too!

Nice dinner!

After that we just went back to hostel and did our readings...

And that concludes my day!

What about yours? (:

Thanks for reading!

Korea University ISC Orientation!

Today was my first day in the school main campus! Orientation was held in Inchon Memorial Hall, so we walked there from Frontier House. It appeared quite far on the map, but in actual fact it isn't! If we walked to school everyday we'll be able to tone our legs and get some exercise, not a bad idea at all!

Anyway at the foyer of Frontier House we met a new friend, Katie. She's from Northwestern University! She was alone though, so we took her along with us. ^^

Reached the Hall on time! They had a really cool fountain on the right where the pipes spray a fine mist! The effect was really pretty! Downside is that water flies around and you get a teeny bit wet after walking through there.

The building really looks like a castle, doesn't it? (: Just so you know, most buildings in Korea University look like this. It is a VERY pretty sight. Also, all the greenery in the campus are maintained well!

We went into the Hall and took a seat in their auditorium. Greeted by this sight. It was rather cool. Received a package like every other student, and was assigned to Group 1 for campus tour later in the day. They then had a few talks and speeches before they sent us off for lunch.

We had 2 hours for lunch! So we went back to the male dormitories near Frontier House to use our meal card and save money. Brought Shireen, Yi Fong, Celine, and Katie along with us as well. Lunch was good compared to breakfast yesterday.

We had some sort of chicken broil, sorry I don't know what's that called in Korean. The kimchi was alright as well. Especially liked the beansprouts and the Ojingo (beside the beansprouts).

After lunch, we went to take a look at the dorms at CJ International House. (I didn't take any photos coz it isn't nice to take photos of people's residences.) It was a nice place too! Compared to the hostel I've stayed in back in my home university, the hostels here are awesome to. the. max!

After the visit we explored the area and were just in time for the shuttle bus to leave! We took the shuttle bus and reached the main campus in no time. But we stopped along a road that was outside school so we had to find a way in through one of the small roads. It was easy, however, because Korea University gates are so distinct.

Anyway, we made it to Woodang Hall pretty fast.

Woodang Hall is where all our summer courses will be taking place! The interior is full of rooms similar to our tutorial rooms (but larger) back in my home university. It is pretty near the Students' Union building, where we went and got our course packs for some of our modules.

Lunch time was up pretty quick so we headed back to Inchon Memorial Hall. We had two performances lined up. The first one was by Harvard University A Capella group.

They put up a really enjoyable performances. Great singing! They incorporated quite a bit of humour too, so it was really really enjoyable even though after-lunch syndrome threatened to set in. :D

The second performance was by the KU Cheering Squad. I personally like this one!
Well, their cheering is not the typical stunts and what not, but they really really really focus on getting the entire school to cheer as one. Yes, get this right: THE ENTIRE SCHOOL. Not faculty. SCHOOL.

They have a dedicated team of cheerleaders who will stand in front to lead the entire school during sports competitions. So for us ISC participants, they also tried to teach us their school cheers! Me being a very 'cheer' person, wanted to be super enthusiastic but like most of the students weren't very enthusiastic so I just went with the flow.

Can't really explain their cheers, but it is really different from those we have back in Singapore with the messy screaming. They had fixed soundtracks for each cheer! And the entire school would so some simple actions, and yell out 고대! or make 'animal sounds' at the right places in the songs. Super the awesome.

I LIKE!

Can really see the passion in their cheerleaders, and the way the KU student volunteers participated.

Anyway after that we went for campus tours with our designated groups. I was in the group that my KU buddy was leading! I only knew coz I saw his nametag, but didn't approach him coz there were a lot of other students and it might get awkward. The campus is super pretty, words can't properly describe it.

At the end of the tour, they called for people to go drink beer eat fried chicken. I decided to go along and then other friends joined in too. They booked an entire chicken place for us! Quite surprised we fit in the shop! Chatted with the rest of the people, though the people I chatted with are all from Singapore.

I did make a new friend outside of my home university though! Quite glad! He's also a Singaporean but studies out of the country (: Found more friends staying at Frontier House too!

And that concludes my orientation day at Korea University ISC.

I really enjoyed my day today, but it was pretty tiring. Everytime I climb those hills or steps, I look forward to getting better-toned legs! But other than that I hope lessons go well tomorrow!

Thank you for reading! (:

OMG retarded photo but oh wells.

Weekend shopping!

First night sleeping in my hostel was good. Temperature was good, blanket was cosy, Stitch and Peachie were happy... So I slept super well.

After washing up, Caili and I went to the nearby dormitory to access the cafeteria. Decided to buy a meal card which costed 185,000 won. This meal card (kind of like a meal plan) allows you to access the cafeteria during meal times and have food. If you don't have the card, each meal would cost 4,000 won. With the card and amount we paid for it, we can access the cafeteria 70 times, averaging each meal to be about 2,500 won. Good money-saving technique.

The cafeteria breakfast looked a little like this. Soup, red bean rice, meatballs, and a variety of kimchi. The one on the second slot from the left is sesame leaf kimchi, the one beside it I'm not sure, and the last one is cabbage kimchi. I won't say that the food is really tasty. It's edible yes. The red bean rice was pretty tasty though. The taste of sesame leaf takes quite some time to get used to. The one in the middle too.

Oh ya, rice and kimchi is free flow. So is water.

After that we took the subway to Myeongdong. It wasn't very direct transport so took quite some time. We spent almost the entire afternoon there. Sales started and everywhere was a crazy mess of sales panels, especially the cosmetics shop. I bought a few things from various brands. Body lotion and brush from The FaceShop. Two blackhead removers from The Saem. Makeup remover wipes and collagen eye patch from Etude House. Laniege Peeling Gel from Baviphat (they sold it cheaper).

We were hungry so we went to have lunch at this fried rice place at Myeongdong. 닭갈비fried rice!

We honestly didn't know what the place and food was all about. We just saw the menu looked interesting so we stepped in. So in the end we ordered and they brought out a huge pan like this and put the chicken in, separate from the rice.

The staff came around to cook the chicken for us, and when it was done, he did some swift hand actions and the rice was mixed in perfectly! Oh. My. Gosh. I was super impressed.

The taste was awesome, awesome, awesome. Simply delicious. The place was kinda smoky though coz of the frying. But for the awesomeness of the food, totally worth it. Each portion is only 5,500won!

We tried to go to Namdaemun, but couldn't really find things that we liked there. I just bought Korean chopsticks and spoon because I lack cutlery. Caili got three I love Korea shirts for 10,000 won.

It was still pretty early so we headed to Sinchon because it was a good place to shop. Found a good pair of pants and a pretty top. Spent 15,000 won on that, and another 10,000 won on a big baggy that I can put school stuff in.

After that we were really tired already, so we found a place to eat, ate, then headed back to hostel.

Well, today's weather was really good. Maybe because it just rained, the weather today was very cooling! Actually had a wear a cardigan out in the morning. It was kinda foggy too, but not serious la. Maybe coz of temperature also. Love the weather haha, it doesn't spam me with heat.

Whoever said HOT summer wasn't telling the full truth lor....