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... ><
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!

The day I (almost) flew.

Today, I woke up on a day that seemed like the perfect conditions to sleep in. Lazy Monday. The sky was as overcast as it can get, and the rain went pitter-patter on the windows...
I prepared for school and checked the weather forecast to learn that it was 100% rain the entire day. So I put on my rainboots and brought my trusty pink polka-dotted umbrella.

It was raining decently when I stepped out of International House. I was looking forward to a normal rainy day. But I can't be any wronger than this.

Family class went pretty alright. Except that we were late ): I think we were marked late but I'm not sure if it counts as any penalty >.< I hope not, seriously...

The rain was pretty heavy after the lesson so we decided to wait a little more. We ended up slacking at Samsung Hall for about an hour before I decided it was pointless for us to stay...

And we stepped out of Samsung Hall hopefully to make our way to Students' Union Building. The winds were pretty nasty but we survived. Anything below our chest got wet though, I was wearing my pullover so almost my entire pullover got damp.

I dropped Rekha off at the Students Union Building while I made my way back to dorms in hopes of getting some rest.

And that was where everything went wrong. I was innocently walking past one of the halls beside the Students Union Building when this hugeass wind started kicking up. It was so bad that everybody just had to stop walking to brace it with their umbrellas.

My umbrella was like my lifeline. I stood there in the wind, as I saw its branches bending scarily. After about 3 seconds, it wasn't the only thing that's bending. THE TRUNK OF THE UMBRELLA WAS BENDING, AND IT DID INDEED BEND. OMG. And when it happened, a few more branches bent for the worse and my umbrella looked like a wreck.

Trying to adjust it back, the trunk just gave up on me and broke into two.

Poor brollie.
I wasn't even halfway back to the dorms yet ):

So I just quickened my pace with my dead umbrella, hiding behind whatever shelter it could still provide. The wind threatened to blow again a few times but I survived and made it to the underground Global Plaza to get some food.

That was when I met James, Ian, and Sherman. They were having lunch at Burger and Shake, so I joined them since they invited me. I ate a delicious burger and for a moment forgot about my misery. Then James told me that today was actually a TYPHOON DAY.

WTH? I didn't even know! And why didn't they close school for today T-T He said it was kind of like a last minute thing, so schools were not cancelled. The typhoon killed my umbrella!

I had to buy myself a new umbrella. Then met James to walk to school together for Virus and Host, beginning of part 2 of typhoon chronicles.

I walked with my spiffy new umbrella, while James used his foldable one. We braved the winds pretty well, albeit getting wet a little. When we were about to reach our venue, a good 200m away... The hugeass wind blew AGAIN!

I tried to shield James and his umbrella from it, and it worked a few times but at one point it got too huge that his umbrella threatened to break like mine. So he had to let it go and it flew to nobody knows where. Because of that, we took the wrong road and had to navigate ourselves through the building to the next.

Oh yes, while trying to shield James, my umbrella put up a good fight too. It almost gave! But fortunately, only three of the pins attaching the plastic sheet to the tips of the frame came out so it wasn't permanent damage. But the second time the wind blew, get this - ALL THE DAMN PINS CAME OFF THE FRAME! I was left with a sheetless frame, but the sheet was still attached to the top...

I fixed it while inside the building then patted it a little giving it a mental note "You've done well, dear umbrella."

So yeah, we sat toastily in the classroom while the winds howled outside. Rekha and I printed notes while James waited for the rain to slow since he lost his umbrella. ):

And after that, I joined Rekha and her LanguageExchange buddy, and her neighbour and her LanguageExchange buddy, for dinner. We ate at the western cafeteria and I had my usual. Surprisingly, I could talk and joke with them quite alright... We hung out for a short while before we walked back.

Fortunately, the typhoon seemed to be over (:

And I find myself in my room now, finally comfortable.

But as they say, the storm will soon pass, so smile anyways in the face of a storm~

First time ever I'm wearing a blue Yonsei tee. Showing support to Yonsei because they didn't win Yon-ko games... I think the winning school has enough attention already, so for now Cassie will dote on Yonsei~

Maybe after awhile I'll return to neutral status!
But good job to players on both sides!

^_^ Thanks for reading!