Jongyesa, Changdeokgung (New)

Went over to a temple today, cause Yong Hui and I hadn’t been one here yet. We decided upon Jongyesa, cause it’s one of the more grand ones. And it was really really big and nice! When I first looked at the Buddha statues in the temple, I stood in awe for a while, cause it was so big and stoic, and seemed to fill up all the space inside the temple.

Actually the Buddhist culture in Korea is pretty strong. When I was there, I felt almost like it was Sunday church day, cause many families were here and participating in the activities. There were religious classes, bonding sessions for the children, dance activities for the elderly and more. It’s really a stark contrast from the scene in Singapore.

   

We chanced upon the canteen by accident, and the helpers there were so nice! They gave us lunch for free even though we were obviously foreigners. And the dishes were good too!

Since there was a palace nearby, we headed to the palace too. This one is called Changdeokgung (昌德宫). Like all other attractions in Korea, this one is pretty cheap too, only $1.50! We were lucky, cause we needed to join the English tour in order to enter the palace, and coincidentally the English tour just started when we got to the place.

Notice how the temple pictures on top looks like the palace pictures. In ancient Korean history, only temples and palaces can be painted in bright colours, hence the similarity in looks.

Notice the small sculptures on top of the roof: they are actually sacred animals that watch over the palace and protect the emperor and his people.

Here’s our English guide. I have no idea what her name is, but she was really engaging and told us much about the history of the palace. Without her, I don’t think the palace trip would have been so interesting and fruitful.

The small stones below are the place markers for officials to stand at, when addressing the emperor. Of course, the emperor sat in the palace, and the officials had to stand in the sun. The chinese words on each stone signified the different rankings, and the administrative officials stood on one side whereas the military officials stood on the other side.

The wooden panels below are actually the doors for the palace. In the summer, where the weather is hot, the panels were left on top, parallel to the ceiling, to ventilate and cool the place. In winter, the panels were let down, so that the doors could be closed, blocking out the cold wind.

Here, the guide is standing on a cement step, which was used in the olden times by the officials to climb onto horses.

The pavilion in the middle of the pond is known as the Lotus Pavilion, due to its lotus shaped roof. In the middle of the pond, there exists another circular piece of land, covered by lots of flora. There is a reason behind this as well. In the past, people believed that the Earth was flat, and the heaven was round. Hence, the water in the pond represented the rectangular Earth, and the circular part with the greenery represented the heavens. And since it was situated in the palace, it signified that the emperor was born in the place where the Earth meets sky.

To end off the tour, we went over to the Secret Garden, which is a giant garden behind the palace. This is probably the most majestic of all gardens in the 5 major palaces. Only 30% of the land is accessible to the public. However, since spring just began, we couldn’t see much of the scenery. Still nice enough though!

Sinchon (Updated)

Went for a project meeting outside of school today. Our consumer behavior group (consisting of me, Valerie, Suzy and Hyung Tak) met up at this cafe at Sinchon, which is the supposedly cool area for students, since 2 of the top universities, Yonsei University and Ewha Womans (Not typo hor! Correct spelling!) University, are situated there.

Suzy was the one who suggested this place. The exterior looks rather Marche-ish, and inside, there are individual rooms for people to rent. We went to one of such rooms. It’s rather cosy inside, with cushioned seats and a very large table for people to discuss. I guess the cafe is opened with students in mind, since they can meet up and chat or discuss projects in the comfort of an individual enclosed room. Each room is fitted with wireless internet as well, so that the guests can make use of the Internet.

The first 3 hours cost $5 per person, and subsequent hour costs $1. And we were allowed to ask for unlimited drinks from the menu, as well as a one-time order of food (we all had ramen, which was the most filling). Not too bad for a place to meet up!

One interesting thing happened though. When our 3 hours of booking was up, we wanted pay and extend our room usage. However, it was not possible, cause someone else had earlier booked the room. So, one of the waitresses actually came into our room and KNELT DOWN in front of us to apologise. I was so surprised that she suddenly made the move I had nothing to say. Suzy was cool though; she actually insisted we stayed till our time was up, rather than leave slightly earlier so that they can clean up. She probably has encounted such scenes often here.

Bottom picture: Sinchon. Like most other neighbourhoods, this place is pretty good for resting, eating, shopping and other leisure activities.

After the project, Hyung Tak, Valerie and I went over to a Korean-Chinese restaurant for dinner. This place is rather special, as it only serves one menu, loosely translated as phoenix chicken dish. And it is really really good! The stew comes with chicken parts, onions, rice vermicelli, potatoes and is really spicy! Especially at the end when the vermicelli started to soak up all the gravy; that was so amazing! The good thing was the chilli heat did not linger in the mouth and throat long; downing water relieved the spice immediately. And eating the chicken with rice was so satisfying! Woah, I have not eaten a meal that makes me sweat for a long long time, and I really liked it so much. Average cost per person: $8, but it was so good that I will gladly pay the same price to come again.

Before we went back, we went over to Yonsei University as well. For those who don’t know, Yonsei is one of the 3 top universities in South Korea, with Korea University and Seoul National University forming the other two (commonly known as SKY universities here). Unfortunately, it was really dark by the time we got there, so we couldn’t get a good view of the school.

Also, the place was rather deserted, probably cause it was a Saturday. Look at the picture below, doesn’t it look like a haunted house? I am so glad I am studying in Korea University. Apparently, the rivalry between Yonsei University and Korea University is so strong that KU students don’t dare to wear the school jacket around Sinchon, for fear of being jeered at. Exciting sia!

Forever 21 and me

Woah bought my first ever clothing from Forever 21 today. The Forever 21 store in Myeongdong is really huge, comprising 3 storeys, and sells male clothings too! (though I feel really wierd carrying the shopping bag, since Forever 21 only sells female clothes in Singapore)

I think Valerie is getting irritated with me, cause I keep practicing the Korean I have learnt in class on her. And of course, my Korean standard is really KNS, and I have to keep pausing so that I can think of the right word to use. Just now, I was in an underground tunnel and it was freezing cold, so I shouted out 'Cold!' in Korean, and the girls in front of me actually turned to look over at me. Later on, Valerie told me my wierd accent made it sound like 'I like you!' instead. Wah, damn paiseh!

And interestingly, my main medium of communication nowadays is actually Teochew and Hokkien! Cause there are more people who can understand Mandarin than English, and most of the time, when we Singaporeans don't want the other people to understand what we say, we speak in dialect. And we always get stares in our direction, probably cause we are speaking in such a wierd tongue. Apparently, Sheena, one of our NUS exchange friends, loves speaking in Hokkien, cause she can curse and swear all she wants and nobody would understand. And she really does that often (even said the full KNNBCCB in front of the class)!!

Long Car

Just now when I was going for lunch after class, I managed to catch the longest car (excluding mrts and buses) I have ever seen in my life! It's so long that I couldn't fit the entire car into my Iphone camera. The car's owned by New York Life Insurance, which is hosting some kind of recruitment talk for the business students. And there's lotsa refreshments available for them! Damn cool lah!

Snow

Oh my god! It just started snowing! I was on the school shuttle bus just now when I thought it started to drizzle, except that the dust-like particles were floating in the air! I was so surprised, especially when flowers are already blooming here and leaves growing again. It's my first time seeing falling snow, and probably for many of the exchange students too, as we were all exchanging smses and exclaiming our shock. I hope the snow gets heavier tonight!

Baseball finals

Koreans are crazy over baseball! The baseball league had been going on for the past few days, and each time Korea's in a match with some other country, most tvs around school would be broadcasting the match, and everyone (like seriously everyone) would sit near the tv and cheer for Korea. And the noise, woah man! Sounds just like a stadium! Everytime they cheer, I will 'chuah (4) jit eh', especially during lunch.

Today is the worst! It's the finals match between Korea and Japan, and the mood here is just crazy! My Korean friends even wore baseball caps and other memorabilia to cheer on the team!

And for my first class, my finance lecturer came in and said, "I won't be taking attendance today, cause I know that many would have skipped class to watch the finals," followed by, "Shall we all go watch too?" And then he proceeded on to cancel class and got everyone to go to some cafeteria to watch the match! Wah lao, if only Singapore can on-soccer, den I can get to skip lessons alr!

Of course, I cannot understand the game at all, since firstly, I have never played baseball at all, and secondly, I don't think I even play any sporting games! But damn paiseh mah, if I just go off liddat, so in the end stayed for a while to catch the game and sneaked away after that.

And seriously, every tv in school was tuned to the match, and everyone were glued to the tv screen. I even saw guys running to the cafeteria after class so that they could catch some action. And whenever Korea scores, woah, it's so deafening the floor can shake that kind! Even the girls were screaming, till the throat can see vein kind. Unbelievable!




Oh no, this post is so Singlish! But no choice, cause I needa rush out to go shopping (as part of my school project, not playing k!), and when I rush, all sorts of nonsense comes out.

Durians

I was at Yongsan just now for a school project and look what I found at the supermarket - Durian! But that is not the surprising thing. This one single durian costs $78!! My goodness, I can eat like at least 10 durians with that insane amount of money! Even the durian that we bought for Byeori's birthday (which is probably bigger than this one) costs only $8, and that is in Seoul too! Amazing how giant supermarkets can hike up prices of imports by so much.

MSN

Wah lao! Damn proud of myself lah! Talking to a Hong Kong friend over MSN now and probably this is my first time typing so many Chinese words over MSN! My Chinese teachers must be really proud of me for remembering my Han Yu Pin Yin!

Hyehwa II

Planned to go for an orchestra concert in the evening so decided to go over to Hyehwa again in the late afternoon before heading down for the performance. According to my '100 Things to do in Seoul', Hyehwa, a neighbourhood that is slightly smaller than City Hall in Singapore, houses around 4 or 5 universities, performance centres for the art colleges and multiple theatres. And the best thing is, it is only 15 minutes away from Anam-dong by bus.

Oh, and spring is starting to show itself in the form of blooming flowers. Well, the trees are still barren, but I am starting to see some colours in the shrubery and smaller plants. Also, the sounds of chirps (and unfortunately the presence of a couple of small unidentified insects) too. And because the plants don't flower all year round here, I am starting to appreciate such small wonders of nature that I take for granted in Singapore. It's really magical to see small changes happening around you everyday unknowingly.

Hyehwa is like an art town, so the buildings here are also more unique looking. Check out the following pictures.

The bottom picture is actually the 'Lock Museum', which I have no idea what's inside, as it's closed. The building looks really good from far, with the nice brown and contrasting white branches and leaves. Upon closer inspection, the brown colour is actually caused by metal rust!

Here's a street snack I am holding. It's some crispy sweet pastry that contains red bean paste inside. And it's cheap ($0.40)! And I didn't intentionally point out my middle finger; it's just that I have really long fingers, and that thing is nasty hot!

Krispy Creme shop! The donuts here are supposedly really good. I've tried one during a party in KUBS, but that was left there for quite some time, and it didn't taste too good. I finally bought my very first Krispy Creme here at Hyehwa.

Here's my first store-bought Krispy Creme donut! It's called New York Cheesecake Donut and it tastes marvellous! The donut has a slightly chewy texture, and the crumbs on top are actually the oatmeal crust found at the bottom of cheesecakes. And there is actually cream cheese filling inside, and the whole slight-sour taste of the cream cheese, coupled with the chewy donut and crunchy oatmeal crust tastes simply amazing!

And FYI, I did not 自拍 this picture! Hahah look at my two hands; nope no camera! I was actually out with Chee Keong, but it's wierd to ask people to take pictures for us, so no group shots!

And since Hyehwa is famous for its arts scene, we managed to catch several free outdoor performances along the way, like band gigs, comedy acts and an a capella group at the park. It was mostly informal, and was really fun to watch!

Notice something unusual in the picture below? These 2 guys are actually playing badminton with 2 shuttlecocks! The result: twice the speed, twice the pressure. And they are not young; probably in their late 40s or early 50s! Great admiration for them!

Went to catch a concert back at school with Chee Keong and Ziyi. It was a concert held at the Ichon Memorial Hall by the Korea University Wind Orchestra. Watching the concert made me remember the fun I had playing in the band in secondary school/ JC days. I signed up for their band, so really looking forward to going for my first band session here! After 5 years of not touching my instrument, wonder if my skills have deterioriated already not.

Samgyeupsal: 1 Month Anniversary

Just celebrated my one month anniversary with the Singaporeans at a restaurant near school. We had samgyeupsal, or barbequed pork in Korean. It's really famous here, and often seen in Korean dramas, where people grill the pork and wrap it with lettuce leaves. This restaurant, which I forgot the name (like in most cases, since the name's in Korean, and I know only enough Korean to bargain for clothes and find the toilet), is situated just across the street from my school, and offers buffet (with many choices, like pork fat, pork, chicken, chicken innards, beef, octopus, sausages and a wide assortment of vegetables) for only $8! Another great example of why I love Korea so much.

Sorry Stephenie for the unglam shot. You look ghastly here.

In return, this is the damn overexposed and blur picture of me and Chee Keong. My hoodie sweater costs only $30 from Dongdaemun. Hoodies are really popular here; most of the guys in school wear them. I got mine in my bid to become more Korean-looking. It works of course, cause many Koreans talk to me in Korean, and English to Valerie, although Valerie probably speaks Korean a million times better than me.

One funny thing happened after dinner just now. We were all walking back to CJ House just now, when we saw 2 guys touching and feeling each other. Shan Ming screamed 'Eeee!!' immediately. The rest of us were so paiseh we had to walk away immediately in case they turn back to see who that was. Apparently, Sybil, Stef and Olivia was in class yesterday (I think) and saw a guy stroking the sideburn of his friend (yes, of the same gender) during class when the professor was teaching. Didn't expect Korea to be so open-minded!