Day 23 in Korea

Countdown: 92 days.

Today the Koreans hail Chu-Seok (also known as Thanksgiving) and they declare 3 days holiday til Monday (now how come we Singaporeans don't have such a festival?). All my friends have gone back to their respective home town and the streets are uber quiet and most of the shops are not open, so it sucks for me. 

I got up uber late, round 2pm cuz last night we were out clubbing till late and the house music is still ringing in my head. I had to eat bread and wait for the French ladies to get ready before we head out in the evening @ 7:10pm to E-Mart to makan dinner. We had Popeye, (woohoo I thought only SG has Popeye) then walked around to shop for some daily necessities and foodies before going to Time World to watch Mamma Mia *for all the musical and ABBA lovers out there, this is the right show for you*

Shortly after, we took a cab and taa-daa, I am back in my room, writing this boring blog.

Yawnz~

Day 22 in Korea

Countdown: 93 days.

Due to last night noraebang (aka K-Boxing), I woke up late and missed my Movie and Society class today but it is all fine because according to my mates, the lecturer did not go through anything major. I woke up around 2pm, then took the shuttle bus ride to jeonmin-dong to makan lunch @ Isaac Toast (man, I think I am addicted to the burger that the auntie prepares and she is a very nice lady). My initial plan was to go to school lab to complete my C++ programming assignments, but to my disappointment (or rather happiness), the lab was closed because tomorrow is the beginning of Korean Chu-Seok day (aka Thanksgiving day) and will last till Monday. Shiok~ I got excuse to postpone my submission date!! I went to chill out @ the computer room before going to jeonmin-dong again for dinner (how interesting right?). Lucky for me, I met Mr Jungil Lee @ the duc-khal-be place and got a free treat from him!! Woohoo...

On the way back to school, I met Ha Mok and Sung Jin and went with them back to their dormitory in school to relax and talk cock sing song play mahjong before meeting Enazi to go to Santa Claus (a favourite hangout for foreigners). We were supposed to meet the French ladies there, but we came too early so we waited around. Just nice saw Malaz and Simuel @ the Shisha House just nearby, so I went in and talk cock with them, smoke some Shisha and drink latte. Half an hour later we head onto Santa Claus to drink beer and meet some new foreign friends. Amin, a super cool Tunisian guy brought us to clubbing areas in Daejeon. For a moment, I feel as though I have been revived again. Just when I thought that all hopes are lost for this boring city, a beacon of light came to my rescue. The place we went were filled with shopping malls, clubs and pubs. The people here are generally more well dressed and much more exciting than those people in my school area. We settled down @ J Rock Bar where we meet even more foreigners (Americans, Canadians, Kenyans, Columbians etc). We danced the night away with all the loud blasting R'n'B + House music and went to Mac @ 4am for the breakfast!!

Nice pipping hot Big Breakfast Meal awaits me~

ICU Bus Schedule

Okay,

I am damn lazy to bring the guide book along with me everywhere I go, so I will post the bus timetable here so I can check whenever I log onto the internet.

Day 21 in Korea

Countdown: 94 days.

Today is my most "siong" day - Game Theory from 10:30am to 12pm, S.A.F.E meeting from 1pm onwards, Computer Animation from 1:30pm to 3:30pm, Lab from 7pm to 9pm. I kinda hate Thursday.

Lucky for me, today I met James (Bond), Max and his 2 cousins and we all go for a Guys' Night Out to noraebang near Gung-dong. The city life lights up in the night and you can see all the flashy lights firing away into the sky with young and hot-blooded Koreans littering the streets. We went to this "Singapore"-style karaoke and we sang our hearts out in the room like little mad boys on steroids. It was fun - we laughed, we cheered, we jeered and we partay in the mini room like we own the entire place. After 1 hour of throat breaking session, we went to a beef barbeque place nearby to have our supper before going back to munji dormitory. Man, the beef + vegetables + the side dishes were fantastic. Too bad I left the camera in the car, else, I would have shot them and enticed you, my viewers!!

All good things must come to an end and so we went back to ICU @ 3:25am, waited for the shuttle bus and took the 4am shuttle. I feel so alive!!

Day 20 in Korea

Countdown: 95 days.

Days come and go. Today is Wednesday and Wednesday = FREE DAY!! Yahoo!!

I went for a soccer tryout for the university team for this semester and surprizingly I can play better than them!! Haha... The captain asked me to come back to train with them in the following week - does it mean I am in?? Haha... Who cares?

And I realized there is a ICU Rockers' performance tonight @ the auditorium!~! Yahoo x2!! I didn't even know that such a boring school in Korea do have rock bands performance; MUST SEE TONIGHT!!

~TONIGHT~

I went for the Rockers' performance and I must say, the in-house bands are not as good as I expected them to be. The guest band from KAIST University can pwn the *toot* outta our school's rock bands. The girl is pretty, the guitarist uses PRS and the bassist's technique and sound puts all the other to shame. It was a gre8 experience and an eye-opener, but I think the people @ KR can do so much better, right?? The only redeeming factor is the 2 girls in the band - 1 plays keyboard/guitar and the other sings. The keyboardist/guitarist is hot and the singer's vocal power is un-matchable (very close to Shi Li, but still Shi Li is the rock queen!! *lol* ultimate por-ness).

Day 19 in Korea

Countdown: 96 days.

I am so tired today because last night, I stayed up late to watch "Windstruck" featuring Jang Hyuk and Jeon Ji Hyun. It is a darn sad show and I am sucker for these kind of shows. I went for my Game Theory class and there is one thing I really hate about graduate students - they like to act like they know it all and ask lots of redundant questions in class. I developed a philosophy today: Geraldosophy - when things are simple,do not complicate it. When things are complicated, keep it simple. After that was a sumptous lunch - rice with pork. Not exactly tasty but still passable.

I went to computer lab to chill abit before going for my Multimedia class. The lecturer seems to enjoy murmuring to himself and I can't really understand him very well. I had to read the notes and follow on my own. The class was very short, so I quickly went back to dormitory to leave off my barang barang then chiong back to school to meet Enazi who bought me to buy my 1st ever cell phone in KOREA!! I bought a Samsung phone which I have absolutely no idea what model is it, but it looks good and it is maroon (close to red!!) - everything for just SGD $55. Song boh~

Due to large amount of language barrier, we came back to ICU late, but still in time for the welcome party organized by the student club UnI, to welcome international students. A huge saving on dinner for me!! I met more English speaking Korean friends and went to their dormitory in school and chill out with them, drinking coke and coffee, playing pool and table tennis.

What a fulfilling day!!

Day 18 in Korea

Countdown: 97 days.

Hmm I just love Monday and Wednesday because they are my free days!! Yahoo!! Although it is my free day, but I am determined not to let the day past without doing anything, so I got up in the noon and went straight to school to print out my "Game Theory" assignment + study ahead of the course schedule to get a better understanding. Also, I have to fulfill 20 hours of community service work at a Day Care Centre just behind my school for a module I am taking - Social Service.

I met Min Chul (a Korean student who is volunteering as well) at the centre and I was given my task for the day - (1) play soccer with the kids and (2) do the dishes. The first task seems fun as we had a lot of shouting and screaming and cheering and booing on the pitch when I interacted with the kids. Though I did not understand them and they did not really understand me, but I guess fun and laughter are universal language across borders, cultures and countries that need not be spoken because it is something we all feel most of the time. I really love the kids, they are smaller than I am, they are childish but I find it such a joy to hang out with them; it is like they have been my homies from way back then. Maybe I am just a kid stuck in a grown up body. After that, I returned to the centre to help washed the dishes. Man, this is the tough part because I seldom do my dishes and this is a good lesson in humility, a very smelly and dirty, but well it helped me understand how other dish washers feel when they have to do it everyday. I feel so fortunate.

Time for me to leave, I met Enazi in school and he brought me to town area to look for a mobile. Along the way, he kinda "stalk" a ChungNam University student (as shown in the picture). I mean, in all my years of experience, I would never ever go near a girl who is standing all by herself in the middle of the street because I don't believe in that kind of stuffs. But for Enazi, haix!! He can't control himself.