Day 17 in Korea

Countdown: 98 days.

Today is a lazy and sunny day. I managed to meet some friends and chill out. Nothing really interesting that happened except that this female Korean student showed me a really good BBQ pork restaurant in Jeonmin-dong :)

See you tomorrow.

Day 16 in Korea (Seoul)

Countdown: 99 days.

To begin with, the day started uber early @ 6:30am when Nina, Melodie and I went to school on bike to meet Nara (a Korean student who stays in Seoul). We called a cab to fetch us to Daejeon Terminal to take the Korean Train Xpress (KTX), which takes approx 49 minutes to reach Seoul station. Nara brought us around the vicinity upon arrival and we had a fun time taking photo and chilling out before we went to a palace near the area to watch a daily procession that is put up for tourism interest. I manage to take some photos with the Royal Guard!!

Noon time, Nara brought us to this famous Noodle House in City Hall (nonono, not Singapore City Hall) to eat Din Tai Fung-styled noodle & "xiao long bao." Bon appetit. Nara had to part ways with us because she had to attend a dental appointment, as well as to go home to rest and mug for tomorrow's chinese test (WTH?? Test on Sunday??). So Nina, Melodie and I formed an alliance and advance the rest of Seoul on our own. We followed Queen Nina's command to go to Gyeongbokgung station by subway to view Seoul's largest palace. The scenary is ultimately beautiful. Unfortunately, the weather and the construction deterred us from advancing further into the palace. We then head for the museum to see some historic artifacts before going to Sinchon station to chill out @ Starbucks Coffee (uh-uh, Green Tea Latte for the win!!). We walked the entire radius of the area and tour around before settling down @ a Duc-Khal-Be restaurant, but this time it is less spicy and more cheesy!! It is like you can never get enough of nice foodies in Seoul + the eye candies are definitely much better than those in Daejeon. Rock on~

Finally, we decide to walk on foot from Euljiro1(il)-ga back to Seoul station. Man, was it tiring but yet fulfiling and we had the "privilege" to watch a minor bike-vs-car accident but thank God the motorcyclist (a Pizza Hut delivery dude) was left unhurt while the car just hit and run. We managed to catch the 9:13pm normal train back to Daejeon - price 10,500 won, time 2 hours approx.

Okay, time to chill and shower. Have fun and good night people.

Day 15 in Korea

Countdown: 100 days.

Where should I begin? Movie and Society class today was superb. I had a lot of fun learning about films, movies and cinematography. We also discussed quite on social, cultural and industrial impact. Man I just love the assignments - we have to watch 2 movies (it is compulsory), Independence Day and Good Will Hunting.

After class, I went for lunch as usual and I had this Japaghetti (which is supposed to be Japanese-styled spaghetti) but it tasted nothing more than a black-sauced Maggi Mee!! *Disappointed* I went to computer lab to do some self-study (woah that is a result of really bored-to-the-point-where-I-don't-even-know-what-to-do-anymore syndrome) until 2:50pm before hitting my last lecture of the week - Information Policy.

Here is the tricky part - the lecture is conducted in English as per normal, but the textbook is in KOREAN language?? How the heck am I suppose to read and understand the course if the textbook is in Korean language and they didn't even prepare an English version or a similar text in English. I am doubly disappointed. In the end, I decide to drop the course after attending it for 15 minutes.

End up I went back to dorm to put my bag down and then met the ladies back in school for Duc-Khal-Be (Korean BBQ) dinner. The ladies never fail to fascinate me with their uber phobia of spices and what was little to me was quite "HAWT" for them!! I had a fun time laughing @ their misery. We met Enazi along the way for coffee before going back to school to meet the UnI club members to hang out @ Jeonmin-dong (AGAIN?). We hang out @ this bar and man, the jug is really huge!! I can just get fat on it. I also had my first taste of Korean Soju here (a little like vodka but very mild)!! Howard and I drank like there is no tomorrow. We played "Truth or Dare" and the entire crowd just gone wild, it was so darn FUN!!

Unfortunately, time do not permit us to stay long as we need to travel to Seoul early in the morning to do some shopping!! Hehe... Good night for now.

Day 14 in Korea

Countdown: 101 days.

Today I went for my Game Theory lecture and I got my first assignment for the season... YAHOO!!! Finally I got things to do, constructive things to do!!! For the past week I have been lazing around and all my subject modules are not confirmed and I am just a wandering ghost moving between lectures, appearing at one moment and disappearing at the other. This is the lecture I look forward to every week. It is a business course, but I call it the arts module. Why? There is no right or wrong answer; just how you justify your stand. Woohoo. Smokey smokey~

After lecture, I went for lunch and then attended the SAFE meeting. SAFE meaning Student Association For English *lol* What kind of lame name is that? We are supposed to plan a program with the students to promote English. Their kind of activities are like speech contest, English quizzes and all those academic stuffs blah blah blah. No wonder this university is so boring. I propose song writing or like an English debate contest where we dish out controversial topics for people to argue and maybe poke fun into. They seem a little afraid to execute the plan. What a wuss. The teacher in-charge got this damn snobbish kind of face and attitude, but then again, who am I to judge?

Back to a more important topic - I can't seem to thank God enough to make the impossible possible. Last week only 6 people signed up for the Computer Animation class and the entire course was supposed to be closed by this week due to lack of numbers to kickstart the course (min. of 10). Asking 4 people to last minute join this class would take a miracle and God performed that miracle right before my eyes. He enrolled 5 more people into this course and that makes 11. Woohoo~ God is good!! Anyway.,this course is darn important to me cuz it is a level-4 elective module I have to take, die die also must take in NUS. Since I am here, why not take it and then S/U it? Haha~ Shiok... I got my hands on 3D animation using this program Maya Unlimited 5.0. It is super duper awesome. You can create your own characters/objects using the template shapes and polygons or being tracing them out using a pre-made image file. AWESOME DUDE~

Okay, I haven't eaten anything yet so I am gonna head out to Jeonmin-dong, just behind school to makan. Take care take care take care!!

Day 13 in Korea

Countdown: 102 days.

Okie, today is my free day so I decide to laze a little in bed till 1pm before heading out to school for lunch. I went to the gym to work out @ 2pm til 2:45pm. After that, I went to Mr Jung Il Lee office to redo my course registration. Lucky I met Enazi in school and got his motorbike, so I drove to E Mart and did some grocery shopping - bought bread, ham and milk just in case i feel hungry in the middle of the night. I was searching high and low for a sepak takraw ball, but to no avail. Let's hope I won't get rusty for IHG. I went back to dormitory to put down all the barang barang before coming back to school to attend an English meeting for all students. They call it SAFE, but actually I don't know the full name for it. It was nice hanging out with Korean students and lecturers who can speak good (and fluent) english. I made a couple more "funky" friends who know where are all the hotspots for nightly hangout!! AWESOME DUDE~!! I got treated to free dinner, as well as desserts. Woohoo~ This sure is a good club eh!!

I followed the students back to their dormitory on-campus, played a couple of table tennis and pool with them before coming back into this inferno-like computer lab to blog. Pretty much for a day and no pictures today as well...

I forgot the cammie!!

Day 12 in Korea

Countdown: 103 days left.

Okie today no photo cuz I never bring my cammie out.

I went to school for my Game Theory class, went back dormitory to sleep and then come back here for an Operations Mgt lecture, which was a disaster because the language of the entire lecture during the course of 13 weeks is gonna be fixed as Korean. In other words, I am gone. The module is gone for me!!

Haix.

Day 11 in Korea

Countdown: 104 days.

Okie, today is a rainy day and I got no classes today because thanks to ICU, my subjects and schedules are all screwed up now. Sucky life!! I came to school in the morning to work out @ the gym because I figured if I keep eating and not working out, I will turn into a fat pig in the later part of the year. Shape up or ship out!!

I headed back to dormitory to shower and get changed and smell good before going to meet my Asst Professor (of Engineering), accompanied by Mr Jung Il (pronounced as Jungle) Lee. We discussed the issues about my subjects and like after half an hour of debate and complaints, he finally agreed to work out something for me. Just at this moment, I received good news from my faculty administrator, Arifah that 2 of my modules are not approved for mapping, but they can map them to a dummy code module and write it off as my elective. Praise God!! Also, 1 other elective module has been successfully mapped over, so now I got 3 down with 2 more to go.

After that, I was cordially invited by friends to attend CF @ the basement of the school. It was fun time to meet other christians from all around the world and the first person that caught my eye was this really beautiful worship leader and her name is Becky. She reminded me of this close colleague/buddy I used to have when I was younger (her name is Yixian or I would prefer to call her XianXian). The entire meeting was really great and I get to make new friends as well; friends I have seen in school but never really spoke to. What a coincident?

It is still raining cats and dogs outside and the weather is getting chill-ier these days. I am gonna hang out for awhile before heading back to dormitory - the student prison!! ARGH!!