Chillax, Relax~

Finally, a day I can rest and wake up as late as I want!

Although, I didn't manage to sleep soundly till 10.30am because the sun woke me up. Having been conditioned to wake up when the sun is of a certain brightness, my consciousness woke me up. Panicked a little because I thought my phone was spoilt, but seriously, the time was only 6.30am.

Summer.
-shrugs- Oh well.

Anyway I just went back to sleep until my alarm woke me up for real at 10.30am. And the first thing I told Caili was, 'I feel like a zombie. Do I look like a zombie?' -rubs eyes-

Well after getting past my zombie state, I just washed up, and went back to flipping through a few more pages of Korean grammar. I think I'm taking it a little too fast coz sometimes I can't recall what I've studied. Sigh.

And after a cup of Milo, which Caili graciously offered, I went off and made my way to Anam Station to meet Seung-Ik, who yesterday offered to have lunch and then bring me to go ask about phone plans.

We had Donkatsu for lunch (: And we talked a little, but apologies if he didn't understand much of what I said... Singaporean accent isn't something that is easy to understand... ): I'll speak a little slower next time...

[And hello to 승익 오빠 if you're visiting my blog (:]

Decided to go visit Jacq and Kangwei at Sinchon after that. And thanks to Seung-Ik, I had a much comfortable time travelling there by taking Line 6 all the way to Hapjeong and then switching to Line 2 up to Sinchon. I actually had a seat on the subway!!!

Oh ya, for Big Bang fans in Singapore (or anywhere in the world), Big Bang is telling you to come visit Korea!

Both Jacq and Kangwei were studying when I arrived... So I just took a rest, practiced a little bit of Korean writing by writing a short paragraph of what I did. Went out to Seoul Station after both of them washed up so we could go to Lotte Mart to buy stuff for home-cooked dinner yay!

The funny part came when Jacq was trying to squeeze everything into her bag as they didn't bring any bags to carry stuff home. I was wondering why they weren't using the boxing station, until I brought it up to them. Apparently, they didn't know they had such service! XD And they've been here longer than me... =p

So, a note to people planning to visit Korea, some supermarts do provide boxing stations so you can pack your purchases into a box and bring them home using eco-friendly methods!

Maybe Singapore should implement such systems... (But my guess would be that there would be aunties coming in to take those cardboard boxes out to sell 'em, cultural differences, I guess. =/)

Was in a good mood anyway, so I bought us a quarter of a watermelon to eat!

There, the chosen watermelon. 3,500 won.
In Singapore we can get one this size for $3?
But anyways, the watermelons here are super huge as compared to the ones we have in Singapore. One full watermelon can easily weigh 10kg, no joke. Those in Singapore can be lifted with one hand easily... But this? NO!

We had a hard time finishing this slice of watermelon, but it was really juicy and sweet, so no regrets.

Me enjoying some watermelon...

Haha, expression of happiness there, do you see it? (:

And oh yeah, during our grocery trip, Jacq and Kangwei bought some skewer for sharing, and they're as sweet as the watermelon I got. Ta-dah! Great friends, no doubt.

Went back to hostel at about 10pm. Reached back at hostel... not sure, I didn't check the time!

Going to church tomorrow (: Really super glad that Seongbuk-Gu has a catholic church..

Getting tired!

I shall end here then~ Catch you guys again tomorrow! And thank you so much for reading!
(If you have any comments or questions or requests, feel free to list them below alright?)

A smile for you~!

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! (: