SUMMER IN SEOUL: 마지막 인사(DAY 29,30)

DAY 29

The day started off with games in our own classroom. Quizzes related to Korea and stuff like that. We had to guess the korean titles of disney movies!!!! Was pretty fun. Then we went to another room for our graduation ceremony. Each class had a representative to talk about our 3 weeks as a class. Kotomi was forced to represent us because she got the highest score in class. She gave a really touching speech; I wanted to hug her that instance. She's a year younger than me but felt like an older sister to me. The Level 2 class seemed to have the most fun, and I kinda wished our class had more fun together. 

After the speeches, the teachers distributed our certificates, and treated us pizzas! 

I thought I could have done better, but oh well.

Then it was photo-taking time!!!!! Introducing my lovely classmates♥♥

Laurane, fellow rilakkuma lover! Girl spent her entire summer holiday in Asia (Japan, then Korea). One of my closer classmates :3

Debbie! Her parents are from HK, but she was born and raised in York. I love her english accent *.* She is hopping from universities to universities taking up korean language programs. She's still in Korea as I type this, and I believe she will be there till July 2013. Jealous!!

Kotomi!! She was the first person to talk to me on the first day of school. I remember her telling me that she thought I was japanese. kekekeke 暗爽. I love how bubbly she is most of the time, and she is so friendly and kawaii! When we talk to each other, we use 3 languages - english, korean and japanese. Hahaha. 

Widya! Indonesian studying in China. A very quiet girl. She sits beside me in class but we didn't really hang out. :( 

Asako!! Japanese living in China. She teaches japanese there~ We only talked more during the last week of school. Told her I'd probably be in China in December, and we promised to meet up! I hope we can ^^

Annice! Indonesian working in Singapore. She is obsessed with the TV show - 2 Days 1 Night. Hahaha.

Daryl! Fellow Singaporean but working in Japan. I remember asking him "어느 나라 사람이에요?" (where are you from?), to which he replied "싱가폴 사람이에요" (i'm from singapore) and I went like "OMG I AM ALSO FROM SINGAPORE!!!!!!" & then there was a suddenly outburst of "leh/la/lor" in our convo. He is also my neighbour at our dorm! Felt more safe knowing that help is just a door knock away if I ever need any. Lol. Seriously, I always thought I was the only one living in that dorm because I didn't see anyone there during my first week. 

Pau! We didn't talk much but he was nice~

Ichiro! He is so funny hahahaha. Most of the time he comes into class looking like a walking zombie, and we'd be like "what happened to you?" and he'd say "I went drinking with my friends till late." He also thought I was Japanese! watashiwa singapore jin desu!!

Kyo-hyun!! Her oral presentation was on HK delicacies and omg......... Wanted to faint at all the good food. Only talked to her more towards the end of the program. :c But we will meet in HK!!!! Hopefully!!

Mark didn't come for the graduation ceremony so no pictureeee.

Lastly, a class photo of us at the entrance of SNU. 

I am so thankful to have such nice classmates during my stay in Korea. Most of us came alone, so we really depended on each other for company and help. They were like my family members in Korea; having meals together, looking out for one another, having fun together. This trip was such an eye opener because I got to meet people from all over the world, and got to learn so much about these countries. 

It was such a sad moment when we headed to the subway station together, and one by one, people left. I was never good at goodbyes, and it was even more heartbreaking to know that we might never meet again. People you saw almost everyday for the past 3 weeks, people you had lunches together, explored Korea together. After exchanging hugs and saying goodbyes for the last time, we will be returning to our own countries, connected only by the internet. At that moment, I wished we spent more time together :( Sigh, 너무 보고 싶어요 여러분!!!ㅠㅠ 

I met up with ze sister to have lunch at Hongdae before going to Gangnam to cancel my olleh wifi plan.

There were a lot of GD's advertisements (his 2nd solo album) in Hongdae done by fans. And the famous GD mural:

After walking around Gangnam, we went to Rilakkuma Cafe for another round of goodbyes. 

Talking to me must be hard but thank you still, for trying. Thank you for always giving us free food hahaha. Too bad I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to the others who work on other days. 

I was so tired I can't even remember what we did there except taking instax. Went back to the guesthouse to do our packing. 

Mess, mess, mess. Had to throw away lots of freebies because we could hardly squeeze our own things into the luggages.

DAY 30 (LAST DAY)

Original plan was to have Yeolbong for the last time, but while packing yesterday, we realised the metal tag was still on one of our clothes from H&M so we went all the way to Myeongdong to get it removed. Had a quick lunch there and went back to the guesthouse. 

Called a cab because we couldn't manage 4 luggages..... & a huge rilakkuma.

Can't decide if this is hiphop style or pyjamas style LOL.

We had to pay for the excess baggage because our luggages were...... overweight? Ugh. So fucking ex!!! Asiana shouldn't even charge us because both our flights (from SG > KR) were delayed for hours when we came. Should just waive off the charge as a form of compensation lor. Tsk.

Okay, this post marks the end of my adventure in Seoul. Looking back, I should have visited more places. Besides that, it was a wonderful experience. Met a lot of new friends, lived alone, etc. Can't seem to find the right words to express how I feel. I will never forget this summer. 

SUMMER IN SEOUL: DAY 28

23 Aug 2012 - Final exam. There were 4 segments - reading, writing, listening and speaking. Needless to say, I was dead worried for the speaking, and I really screwed it up..... ;~; 

It was drizzling (it was raining almost everyday during my last week in Seoul) that morning and I vividly remember being the second to reach when I was usually the last few. 

We started off with the listening test in our classroom, before moving to a bigger room for the reading & writing tests. Our teacher called us out one by one during the tests, for the speaking test. After the speaking test, you go back to the room to finish up your paper. I was the last one for the speaking test so I waited and waited and waited........ >< 

The speaking test was really weird. I expected it to be a conversation kind of thing, but it was really just a Q&A. It was easy, yet I screwed it up. We were given a list of sentence endings (e.g. 입니다, 거예요, etc) and were supposed to answer the questions asked by the teacher using those sentence endings. For example, if the first on the list is 입니다, you answer the first question asked using that. I was quite confused at first, so I made a few mistakes. After my teacher explained that I got to follow the list, I kinda panicked and couldn't even answer simple questions she asked. Wanted to stab myself so badly TnT 

After the test, my teacher and I had a chat. She asked if Level 3 was too easy for me, and said she thought I should have gone to Level 4. I said it was manageable; there were a lot of grammar points that I haven't properly learnt so I didn't request to be transferred to a higher level. Anyway, I was flattered and so happy when she told me that hehehe. 

Went back to the guesthouse after the exam!

After nua-ing with my sister, we decided to have late lunch at Blanc. It's just a 5min walk from our guesthouse, 2min walk from Hongdae Stn Exit 4! 

Pardon my face. Did I mention I was surviving on 3h of sleep everyday that week? Busy completing my homework and revising for the final exam. Oh, and also moving all my stuff from the dorm to the guesthouse!

I can't remember how the food tasted like, but I love the layout of the cafe^^

Headed to Myeongdong after lunch. 

Had such a hard time bringing these back....

SUMMER IN SEOUL: DAY 21

15 August is Independence Day in S. Korea, so it was a public holiday!! No school!!!!! n__n 

I was really happy because I had to go to school on 9 Aug (Singapore's National Day), so 15 Aug kind of made up for it! But.........

IT RAINED THE ENTIRE DAY.

Original plan was to head somewhere with ze classmates but the rain wasn't stopping so we kinda just nua-ed in our respective dorms/goshiwons.

The best part??!!?!? I had no food at home. At all. I was starving but I didn't want to head out to buy food. Poor me. Hahaha.

I forgot what time it was, but the rain didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon, so the classmates and I decided to just set a time to have dinner together. Only 3 of us met up in the end. My other Singaporean (but working in Japan) classmate, Indonesian (but working in Singapore) classmate and I. The Singapore clan? \o/ 

Gloomy day. 

3/4 of the day was already gone, and the rain really dampened our mood. Couldn't decide where to go, or what to eat. Walked around 서울대입구(Seoul National University station), and settled down at a small restaurant. 

For some 보쌈(bo-ssam)!!!!!! Don't know what it's called in English. It was my first time eating it!! Nomnomnomz. You basically wrap the meat in the kimchi, and add whatever you want inside your wrap. 

Also ordered kimchi soup for 2. We ended up adding ramen into it. Hehe. 

While eating and talking, they found out that I haven't tried 막걸리(rice wine) before, so we ordered a bottle!

The ahjumma was pretty surprised when we asked for a bottle. Gave us this flavoured one and said the girls will like it. I don't know how the original 막걸리 tastes like, but this wasn't so bad! :3

After filling our stomachs, we decided to head to D-CUBE to check out the Pororo Park.

Just take the subway to 신도림(Sindorim) station!

We walked around, shopped at Eight Seconds before we went up to Pororo Park. Lo & Behold........

IT WAS CLOSED..............

Talk about bad luck -__- 

Still managed to take a few photos because they have a viewing area! 

When I heard we were going to the Pororo Park, I expected it to be a theme park kind of thing. Turned out to be a children's play zone. Mm. Don't bother if you don't like Pororo. 

On a funnier note, Pororo's supposed to be the iconic cartoon of Korea but ask someone. 3 out of 4 wouldn't know what the hell Pororo is. Lol. 

SUMMER IN SEOUL: A DAY IN SCHOOL [BUZZ KOREA]

Pardon the blackberry-camera-quality picture><

SNU's Building137 had been my school for 3 weeks this summer. Even though this language institute is in SNU, I was told the institute is not directly linked to SNU? I.......am not very sure. 

Anyway, the schedule for this 3 weeks intensive course is:

Mon - Fri / 9am - 1pm 

Breaks were - 9:50am - 10:00am / 10:50am - 11:0am / 11:50am - 12:10pm

Complete a textbook

I had 3 선생님s (teachers); I have the same teacher on monday & friday, tuesday & thursday, and wednesday. I prefer having just one teacher for the entire three weeks but I guess they have other classes to teach. 

This is the textbook I use. It was also SNU's first time using it, according to one of my teachers. There were 9 topics in this book, and we were taughtt 1 topic everyday. Had homework everyday, 2 quizzes, 2 roleplays, 1 oral presentation and a final exam; and all played a part in determining your final grade at the end of the program. 

On a typical school day,

I wake up at 7am if I am not feeling d e a d. Lol kidding, I snooze my alarm till 7:20am almost everyday because I really CANNOT wake up. (✖╭╮✖) Some days I jump out of bed at 7:40am because I fell asleep after 'waking up'. Hahahaha. 

I need to take a bus to school and the bus recommended by the dorm assistant is always super crowded because (i think) it's the one of the few buses in my area that goes to the subway station. After squeezing (or trying to) myself up the bus for about a week, I finally realised there were plenty of buses I could take if I wanna get to school. And most of them are empty!! I KNOW RIGHT, after 1 week then I realise -______-

Takes about 5-10 minutes to reach school, depending on the traffic. Trust me when I say you should always just take a seat when taking a bus in Seoul. The drivers are so good they turn your bus ride into a roller coaster ride. You don't wanna try a roller coaster ride while standing right?? Mmhmm. 

I usually have lunch with my classmates after school; mostly at the school canteen (before my sister came over). You can't buy food from the school canteen if you are not a student, so we were issued this.....letter, and we have to show it every time we get food.

This is how it looks like! 

This canteen only has 2 sets of food for you to choose from for lunch. Changes everyday. Not the best food, but cheap (i.e. 2,500won- 4,500won). 

Some food I've tried while I was there. 

On less lazy days, we head out for lunch.

After lunch, we sometimes hang out together somewhere, or just go separate ways.

Am really missing those days...... TnT 

SUMMER IN SEOUL: 3RD WEEK

I don't know where I should start. 5 days of school had passed, 9 more to go (15aug is a public holiday in Korea, so no school! I guess it makes up for my 9aug)!! 

Not trying to brag, but what I am learning in class is quite easy. I've learnt most of them in Singapore, and I could opt to try a tougher level but then I decided to stay because I wanna get my grammar right. Hope it will be by the end of the remaining 9 lessons...... 

Besides learning/improving korean, I made friends from different countries. My class has 3 japanese, 2 indonesians, 1 swiss, 1 uk, 1 hk, 1 german, 1 spain and 1 more singaporean. And they all have complicating backgrounds!! Like indonesian working in singapore, singaporean working in japan, blabla. And I am like - singaporean living in singapore. Yup, lol. Everyone's really nice, thankfully! And I have 3 teachers. But of course, I still like my 박효재 쌤 (from Inlingua) the best! ^___^;; 

I will blog some days in details and just skip the rest. How is it possible to blog all 30 days in Seoul right lol. Pictures as sneak peek first!! I am feeling under the weather and the sound of my washing machine is really distracting. 

Time flies. I kinda don't wanna go back to Singapore lol.