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!