First week in Korea

My lappie is really lagging now after I've installed some safety net program from HYU for our browsers to work. Bloody..

Anyway, here's a quick summary of what have happened over the past few days in Korea.

Day 1:
Air-sickness. I don't know whether any of you know about this, but it is my first time taking the airplane. And let's just say there are some barfing action involved and it's not a nice experience. Thank god Vannesa had some motion-sickness medicine with her. The rest of the day is spent on grocery shopping and tidying up that day. Got our first taste of language-handicap and the spiciness of Korean food.

Day 2:
Shopping at Myeongdong. It is still by far my favourite place to shop. Will definitely go back there again.


Day 3:
Shopping at Dongdaemun. Went to Gangnam to shop at first, coz we heard that there is a "paradise" there, but couldn't find the place. So, left after getting some toast from Isaac as our lunch. Yummy~~
Dongdaemun has seriously lots of stuffs to offer. But enclosed within a building so small for so many stalls and goods, my claustrauphobic-ness kicks in. The shopkeepers will tend to overcharge you too if you don't know how to bargain. This shoe I bought was quoted at 40 000 won initially before I "sha jia" to 13 000 won!
What the bleach lor...

Said-shoe. A bit small for me though.

There was a dance battle going on outside where they just randomly asked people from the street to come onstage and dance to some K-pop songs. Very interesting and the inner K-pop fangirl is being kept happy.

Day 4:
Shopping again at the vicinity of Hongik University. Planned to go sight-seeing at some palace at first. But then the other gang "jio-ed" us to go Hongik. We changed our plan coz we were too paiseh to reject them again after so many times. Hongik turns out to be a very interesting place with lots of quirky little shops and cafes. But the stuff not so cheap there la...

Nice window display.

Charlie Brown cafe. Love it.

"Atas" cafe.

Day 5:
Too tired to go out after so many continuous days out from day to near mid-night. Nua at dorm and finally went grocery shopping to get all the other important stuffs which we missed out during our first trip.

Day 6:
Alien registration. Yeah, that's literally what they called the foreign registration stuff in Korea. Unfriendly huh? Anyway, one of our mentor, Sung-ni, brought us there and guided us through it. Thank god she's around. The journey there is bloody long and the wait for the queue is even longer. After the registration she took us to this jumbo bookstore, Kyobo, which has plentiful amount of cute and nice stationary. I'm usually not a stationary person but will definitely go back there to get more souvenirs. Chatted a lot with Sung-ni throughout the journey and wait. It's really fun and I really wanna meet more Koreans. Lesson faster start la~~~

The very nice and friendly Sung-ni unnie.

Day 7:
Sight-seeing at Changdeokgong. Pretty. Really pretty. No wonder it is recognised by UNESCO as a world heritage place. Too bad the guided tour is in Korean and we didn't managed to take as many photos as we want to. And it was freaking hot today too. I think I got tanned after the trip..

It was a really hot day outside. What autumn?

The magnificent palace.

Pretty landscape. Like what I used to picture at school when we were asked to draw for Pendidikan Seni. Except that my drawings turned out nothing like this..

My attempt to re-enact the scene in Memoirs of a Geisha. Damn failed..

The scholar tree. Hugged this for luck in my studies.

My Singaporean friends are facinated by ariels like this. Budak bandar...

Went to Insa-dong after that. Lots of folk handicrafts. Again, unique and pretty, but not something I'll be willing to spent so much on.
Handmade traditional mask.

There's this really nice building there.
I love this building.

And we left our ink there.
The four of us. I draw wan. Pity we have no marker pen with us then.

I don't usually do this but since a lot of you have been saying that I look like Korean, here's a pic of me selca(short for self-cam, Korean slang), Korean style.


Bare-face with completely no make-up. Big nose and pimple scars included.

So, what do you think? I personally don't think I look like one. Wait till I show you more pics of the real Koreans here.

Oh, you can't see it but I absolutely love the pink shirt I'm wearing in that pic! It's a loose wide collar shirt with a HUGE pic of the 3 infamous chipmunks (Alvin, Simon, Theodore) in black on it. Cost only 2000 won(SGD 3)!. Absolutely love. Only regret is not getting more. Will show a pic of it next time.