Spring is here~

Spring is finally here as leaves have started growing on trees and flowers are blooming. The weather is slightly warmer (though not a lot), and it is still cold at night and during cloudy/rainy days.



The flowers are really pretty, there are pink, yellow, white and red ones. The campus is famous for its spring time scenery so I'm looking forward to seeing the full blooms.



Credits to rx for her photography and not to forget her canon camera~ haha =)

And yeah I've received another parcel~ Its a carton of instant food this time round. I miss Singapore food...

More activities during the weekend

After visiting the village and Insadong, we saw a group of people staging protests at Myeong Dong area along the way. It was quite a spectacular sight to see as there was a big group of people gathering at a place, waving flags and shouting slogans; and there was an even bigger group of policemen standing guard. The motive of the gathering was to protest against the South Korean government from sending troops to Afghanistan.








The following day, I went to Yongsan technomart to get my handphone with the help of flora's korean classmate, HyungMin. The place is really similar to Sim Lim back in Singapore and the shops in technomart sells a huge variety of nice handphones ( those which you can flip, slide, turn... You can also watch tv on some models. Really cool phones!) I bought a used Samsung slide phone which costs 30,000 krw (sgd 50) and comes with 2 batteries and 1 charger with no contract. I think its a bargain as the condition of the phone is good and I like its design. Too bad Korea uses the cdma technology for its handphones and thus the phone is not usable if I bring it back to Singapore.



Later in the night, we meet up with the KU people for dinner and had a meal of "chicken rice". Here is a picture of the chicken...

Namsangol Hanok Village

We visited Namsangol Hanok Village during the weekend with flora's buddy, yoon jung and her 3 friends, 2 koreans and 1 japanese. We had an enjoyable day there as it was a beautiful village displaying tradtional korean living from the Joseon Dynasty.

And we also witnessed a traditional wedding ceremony between a french man and his korean bride taking place. Notice the lady dressed in khaki behind the groom. According to our korean friends, she's actually an actress and relative of the bride, though we have never heard of her before.

The next place we visited was Insadong which is a cultural street bustling with activities. It sells lots of traditional arts and crafts and has numerous art galleries, antique stores, traditional tea houses and other shops. Lunch was traditional korean cuisine in a tea house and we also tried the famous cinnamon bun there which is delicious. Insadong is definitely worth a visit~

COEX Mall

Last saturday, I went to COEX Mall with rx and flora to visit the famous COEX aquarium, which a few korean dramas featured in their scenes. It was not that spectacular after all, as it was kind of small in terms of the varieties of marine animals displayed and the area of the place.

We also window shopped around the mall, which is really similar to Suntec City. It has convention halls, hotels and shopping arcades in the mall that are a few times bigger that those in Singapore. To end off our day, we had a sumptous dinner of egg omelette rice with hamburger steak at the foodcourt . It was simply delicious, a refreshing change from the usual korean food which we had been eating for the past few weeks.

And along the way, I saw an advertisement of a sports brand featuring Lee Jun-Ki and took a picture of it as I think he looked really different from his usual image. Quite cool and good looking. Heh~

TGIF~

Yeah another friday has arrived and its time for play~ Met up with 2 friendly koreans, BonHong and MinJae who went to SMU for exchange last semeser, this time. As usual, there were 3 rounds of activities for a typical night out.

Session 1: Dinner

We ate traditional korean dishes for dinner, which consisted of pa-chon (korean pancake fried with sotong, assorted vegetables and tastes delicious... similar Singapore's or-lwa), bbq pork trotters (I did not really enjoy it. The taste is alright, just that it is kind of fatty) and a pot of korean rice wine. The rice wine is definitely much nicer than soju and beer, its slightly sweet and light in taste. In addition, there were other korean side dishes to go with the main dishes, so we had a satisfying meal.

Session 2: Drinks

We went to a pub for drinks next and played drinking games. I think I'm really bad at playing reaction and number games, drank till i felt sleepy. But luckily, the next session of activity woke me up!

Session 3: Ktv at Noraebang

And the last session of the night, Ktv. I had a fun time playing with the tamborine. MinJae told us the ktv etiquette here is to sing only happy songs. No sad or slow songs are allowed! Look at Bonhong sing... It was obvious that koreans enjoy singing alot~

Pizza in Seoul

We went for dinner in this pizza chain called Mr Pizza at Sinchon due to our cravings for pizza. We decided to try something different and ordered 2 large pizzas: Bulgogi (korean style bbq beef) and Potato King (which has ingredients such as potato, sweet potato and such) and were pleasantly surprised by their good taste, especially the potato pizza which is so special. Though its fattening for its high carbohydrates, we still could not resist it.

And thanks to my sis for sending me stuff. Look at my happy face when receiving the parcel. Heh~ Hope to receive more in future... =)

First Day of School

School has finally started so I'll have to start waking up early for lessons. Fortunately my classrooms are all near my hall so I wont have to travel long distances like what I did in NTU. I'm taking 3 subjects here and one of them is Strategic Management.





My prof is a Korean who's educated in the States, so he speaks American ascented English. I'm taking this subject at Yonsei's Business School ( I heard it is quite famous in Korea), so there's a mix of Korean and exchange students. I'm glad that I'm in the same class as Flora and RX as I have companions to go for lessons together and we'll be doing projects in a group too.


The other 2 subjects I'm taking are Topics on Korean Language and Culture and The United Nations and International Organizations. These are taken at the Division of International Exchange and Education, so my classmates are all exchange students. I hope it will be quite slack as there is no exams for this 2 subjects, so that I can relax and enjoy this semester.

The days that snowed

The weather had been cold for the past week. I heard that it gets especially chilly in the first week of spring, so I hope the weather will turn warmer by next week. It snowed thrice here in Seoul since I arrived, so here's some pictures to share.

The snowfall on Monday was very light. But we were still very happy and excited to see the snow flakes falling, so we just dashed out from our hall without changing into warmer clothes to take pictures. As it was too cold to walk any further, we had instant rice with korean dishes for lunch.

On Wednesday, it snowed again and this time the snowfall was heavier.

It really felt good to see the snow falling and walk around in it even though we were freezing cold. Our ears and hands felt numb as though they were going to fall off anytime. But we had a great time playing with the snow and taking pictures. I think its really nice to live in countries with different seasons. My friend told me people living in these places have good complexion and whats more, they get to change their wardrobes every season. Isn't it great if Singapore has 4 seasons too?

Weekend Outing again~

We met up with the Korea University people again last weekend afternoon. This time we also had sn, my roomie, with us as well. The first place we visited was Myeong-dong. At Myeong-dong we went to Shinsegae, a high class shopping mall selling luxury brands. The place is really posh, so we had a good time window shopping there. Myeong-dong is a place where many Japanese visit in search of luxury goods, so the place has strong Japanese influence in terms of service, product display and packaging of products.




Next up is Namdaemun...

We also walked pass Seoul train station and took some pictures.

In the evening, we visited Korea University with the guide of the KU exchange students. The school is nice as it has beautiful scenery and some buildings really look like palaces.

To end off the day, we had a cosy dinner of hot plate (which consists of ramen, vegetables, ham, beef and spicy sauce fried in a pan) at an eatery called Biya just outside KU.


And on our way back, we bought face masks on the streets that cost 1000krw ($1.60) for 3 pieces. It was really a bargain as the quality of the mask is good and they smell nice too. Really satisfied with the buys~ =)