Xweing away... in Korea

The Land of...

2012-01-31T00:57:00.001+08:00

For the past month I have been giving some English tuition to my professor's daughter. Her English skills are quite good for an average Korean high school student cos she goes to a special language high school. So I try to give her more lessons on conversation. Although it's not a language exchange, but it's somewhat like a cultural exchange session when she tells me stories about Korean stuff and I tell her Malaysian ones.

That day I was curious about why Koreans like to wear white so much. When I first arrived here in spring I was shocked to see almost all the university students wearing white Converse or Nike or Adidas sneakers. White canvas Converse are the worst cos it feels like I'm reliving my primary-middle-high school nightmare in which I had to do the weekly routine of scrubbing my white canvas shoes and slicking white paint on to cover the gray stubborn stains that wouldn't come off. Nevertheless I still bought a pair of white canvas Converse sneakers here... just so I could fit in. In summer, people like to wear white shirts too. The best thing is...... for "red" or auspicious events (喜事) like wedding, New Year, we Chinese usually give out red packets. It is a taboo for us to give out white packets cos they symbolize unfortunate events (白事) like passing away, etc. But for auspicious events like wedding and New Year, the Koreans give out money in white color envelopes! God forbid that a Korean does such a faux pas in a Malaysian Chinese auspicious event!! :-S

Anyway, my student told me that Koreans pride in the colour white cos they are known historically as "the race clothed in white" or 白衣民族. Like when you see those period Korean dramas the men like to wear white swaths of cloth with a black top hat. Those are usually high ranking officials or scholars. I can imagine all the washing that their wives/mothers have to go through to keep the costumes dazzling white....... :-S

Hence, I feel like this is The Land of People Who Like To Wash Stuff (빨래 좋아하는 민족) cos apart from washing their white clothes, the other obvious thing that needs washing is the dozens of small dishes used to hold all the side food.................

2011 Movies I Watched

2012-01-31T00:19:00.001+08:00

Here is the list of titles I watched in 2011. List of 63! 14 more than 2010! Wowwwwwwwwww

Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows
Final Destination 5
The Holiday
Home Alone 1
Mission Imposible 4: Ghost Protocol
法证先锋 III (HK drama)
天与地（HK drama）
窃听风云 2
Friends with Benefits
Immortals
도가니 / The Crucible
Last Night
美人心计 (China drama)
武侠
Horrible Bosses
사랑한다 사랑하지않는다 / Come Rain Come Shine
Ladda Land
김종욱 찾기 / Finding Kim Jong Wook
意外
The Hangover II
Going The Distance
谈情说案 (HK drama)
Rise of Planet of the Apes
第二处女 (Japanese drama)
Never Let Me Go
Captain America ( First Avenger)
Just Go With It
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part 2
犀利人妻 (Taiwan drama)
CSI Season 11
Transformers 3: Dark Side of the Moon
Insidious
The Lincoln Lawyer
X-Men: First Class
49 일 (Korean drama)
Pirates of the Carribean 4: On Stranger Tides
Hello, Stranger (Thai)
5 Centimeters per Second (Jap anime)
Fast & Furious 5: 4D
No Strings Attached
非诚勿扰 II
Thor
鱼跃在花见 (HK drama)
Julie and Julia
Red Riding Hood
Desperate Housewives Season 7
The Adjustment Bureau
The Tourist
Tangled
The Ugly Truth
House Season 6
만추 / Late Autumn
Superhero movie
Mr. & Mrs. I
Van Helsing
Secret Garden (Korean drama)
第 36 个故事 / Taipei Exchanges
Love and Other Drugs
The Town
Wanted
American Beauty
The Social Network
Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

New HDD!

2012-01-30T14:57:00.003+08:00

After two years in Korea, I accumulated 100GB of photos. And another 200GB of movies, dramas, songs... etc. =_=''' My trusty beautiful 300GB Samsung ruby baby is not enough to store all my data (including years before...) So I had to buy a new portable one.

Simply bought one online based on recommendation from friend... Seagate 500GB portable HDD, price 99,500won. I actually wanted to buy Samsung cos it looks so beautiful... or Buffalo cos there's pink colour design... but my friend kept on saying Seagate better than Samsung blabla so what the heck I'm just gonna give this a try... I actually ordered in silver but they delivered it to me in black!!!!!!!!! *ANGRY*

It comes with a USB3.0 cable and cable adapter which allows the device to be connected to Firewire 800 and eSATA. No idea how to use the other upgradable stuff, maybe hubby can find out a way to maximize its potential. =_='''

Arghhhhhhhhhhh if I could do it all over again I would get my Samsung baby a macho 500GB Samsung boyfriend... in piano black or pearl white! Hmm.. maybe I could use this Seagate device to store movies and plug into my TV at home... matching black........

After I bought my portable HDD, I formatted it using XP following instructions here:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_format_and_partition_my_new_external_hard_disk.html

I personally feel that everything looks neater if I partition my HDD. But some of my friends said actually I need not do it, just make it into different folders. What do you think?

Busan Toboggan

2012-01-29T23:59:00.000+08:00

From my last post, I mentioned that me and my friends are getting desperate for it to snow in Busan, as winter season is almost over. By chance I saw in Busan Haps that a toboggan slope has opened in Busan (artificial snow, of course!) so we decided to head there for some fun.

Location: Hwa Myeong Waterfront Park, Buk-Gu.

How to get there: Get off from Sujeong Station (Line 2) and walk towards the Hwamyeong Park near the Nakdong River. The toboggan slope is near the outdoor swimming pool. The park is fenced up for a longgggg way... shortcut is to enter the tunnel where the cars go. It is not easy to find... so be prepared to walk a lot!!!

Period: Jan 6-Feb 19, 2012.

Entrance fee: 4,000won for adult. 3000won for youths. 2000won for kids.

The toboggan slope

The line of people queuing to get the inflated toboggan tube. Although it seemed like many people, but the process was fast and we got to do around 8 rounds!

At the starting of the slope, there's an announcer who rattles of a long string of Korean words for people to put their hands and legs in the proper place... then Start!

Off we go down the slope!

Some of the children are decked out in the cutest winter beanies and ear muffs!!

View from the top:

After we finished playing at the toboggan slope we went to a flat ground and played with the sleds. Then they tortured me by pelting me with snow balls.

End of the day... it was fun!!

Walking on ice

2012-01-26T22:13:00.002+08:00

Yesterday it was so cold till the fish pond on campus froze........... It was one of the coldest days this winter so far, in the range of 0 to -11 degrees Celcius. Although it still hasn't snowed yet. (Oh God, please let me see snow in Busan before I leave next month!)

A thin layer of ice had formed on the surface of the pond, although I was not sure how it would hold if I stepped on it. The frozen pond looked dirty and yellowish, an amber shade gleaming under the midday sun. I used my fist to knock it, it seemed as if it would hold. So I tentatively put one foot after another on the surface. Gasp! It actually held...

Walking on the ice now. It was quite scary as I kept hearing crackling sounds under my feet as I moved slowly forward. Although the pond is very shallow, I didn't want to risk falling in it and looking like a wet duck walking to the lunch hall.

Also, I wonder where all the fish have hidden, and whether they're freezing too, under there.

After many many false starts, I finally braved myself to walk to the big rock in the center of the pond. I used a small rock to chisel off a small block of ice surrounding the big rock where I stood. The ice surrounding that area is thinner and easier to crack. The ice layer was not very thick, maybe just as thick as my finger. But the wide area of frozen water made it possible to carry my weight.

Cool... at least I actually walked on the frozen pond on campus... my first time in my two years here! Haha... now I can go back with at least one more thing off my mind. *^^*

Celebrating CNY in Korea

2012-01-24T21:53:00.001+08:00

This year is my first time to spend Chinese New Year away from family in Malaysia. 终于尝到了留学生在农历新年期间身处国外的感受。Frankly, the feeling is not that bad. Feeling kinda liberated from all the hustle-bustle going on back in Malaysia. Don't have to do anything special, or put on any face to please anyone. I can enjoy my holiday in peace and quiet, sleeping till the sun comes up. Don't even need to buy any new clothes if I don't want to. But I guess this gonna be the first and last time I get to spend CNY this way.

I guess many people might be interested to know... Do Koreans celebrate CNY? How do they celebrate it? The answer is: yes and no. CNY in Korea, or the Korean New Year 설날 (seollal), is like a non-event, compared to us Malaysian Chinese. Sure, there is the obligatory family reunion breakfast/ lunch, visiting relatives, giving money packets to children, and the Seoul-Busan highway jam, but the similarity kinda stops there.

This is because in Korea most people celebrate the start of the New Year on January 1st, and seollal is treated more like a cultural family affair than a celebration to herald in the new year. There are no cheerful CNY songs blasting everywhere, no red and gold bling decorations everywhere, nobody goes out to shop for new CNY clothes, nobody makes and sells CNY cookies and biscuits, no restaurants booked full for reunion dinner. What they have is only 2-3 days of holiday, peace and quiet. During seollal, the Koreans visit their ancestral homes or the house of the first uncle. All the wives in the extended family will gather together to cook the big meal, which is usually the big breakfast held after the "praying to the ancestors' ritual" 제사 (che sa). I had the chance to try some special seollal meal which consisted of fried food like shark meat, big octopus meat (the special ones!), shrimp, and red potato. Also another type of special seollal food is rice cakes in soup 떡국 (tteokguk) which I haven't tried yet but seriously doubt its taste. :P

Ah... so as a conclusion, the Korean New Year is of a much low-key affair compared to what we have. That's why we Malaysian Chinese here in Korea are always complaining how we don't feel any "CNY mood" here. Luckily for us, some of my friends here made a grand housewarming/ CNY reunion dinner on 年29!

This is all the food for the reunion dinner.. mixed vege, mushroom chicken, deep fried shrimp, tomato beef stew, ginger spring onion fish, deep fried crabsticks! It's not food comparable to what our moms make but we made it ourselves so YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!! Hehe...

And all of us gathered at Sarah's house to eat the grand meal. With some other international friends like Korean, Japanese, Papua New Guinea, Mongolian, African... etc. And after the dinner it was what Chinese do best... the gambling den :P

The Korean greeting for the New Year is: 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (seh heh puk mani paduseyo) which translates as "May the New Year bring you much Prosperity".

So... 새해 복 많이 받으세요!!!
Happy CNY!!! and Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

The past few days.

2012-01-17T22:55:00.000+08:00

When the cat is away, the mice come out to play. Haha this phrase always hits my mind whenever professor is away~ Anyway, using my remaining available time here to sight-see as much as I can...

If there is any building here in Busan that most closely resembles that of a North Korean architecture, I am sorry to say that it is the *gasp* $150 million Busan Cinema Center that opened last autumn to host the Busan International Film Festival. It is a massive gray cement block building that takes up a huge amount of commercial real-estate next to the Shinsegae Department Store in Centum City. Why do I say it looks like a NK communist era building? Cos when it is not lighted up by the 42,600 LED lights at night it looks like a gigantic, depressing, dull piece of gray to me. Not to mention it is a white elephant for most of the time except during the BIFF period.

Went for a walk at the Busan Cinema Center during one of the boring Sunday afternoons when I had nowhere better to go...

At the entrance foyer of the Busan Cinema Center

The massive outdoor cinema screen

With my newly acquired poinsettia plant in front of the massive outdoor cinema screen

The 4,000 seat outdoor cinema - the opening & closing ceremony movies were premiered here

Taking a stroll along the Suyeong River

Then I got bored walking around in the cold wintry air and went to Shinsegae instead. :P

And today I went for a hair trim at the salon! Love how the hair-stylist roll-curled my hair until it looked smooth and wavy. Wish I was clever enough to DIY this look everyday~

Thesis submitted!

2012-01-09T16:14:00.002+08:00

Ta-da.......... presenting the fruit of my Masters Thesis!!!!!!!!! Managed to sign and pass up my written work on the day of the deadline itself... but not without going through some last-minute shocks and emergency reprints first! @_@!!!

Thesis printing is so expensive in Korea... the hardcover printing costs 130,000won for a minimum order of 20 copies. Softcover print is cheaper, around 4,000won for one copy but the minimum order is 10 copies. Luckily the requirement for masters thesis is softcover. (I might need to get something done later and re-print it in hardcover... but this is it for now!)

Also this morning I finally dragged myself to the post office for the first round of shipping my stuff back home! So goodbye to my summer clothes, book, stationery, skincare items....... I'll see you soon in Malaysia ;-)

Today feels like Chinese New Year cos I got some cute chocolate souvenirs from Aji Ichiban! Golden piggy golden 招财猫 golden coins golden 元宝！I *heart*~~~~~~~~

Break it up and inside got chocolate! ♥♥♥

Spicy!

2012-01-04T23:17:00.000+08:00

During winter, I find myself craving for super spicy food. Anything that will keep me warm inside.

This is the shop we call "nuclear jjampong" cos it is sooooooooooo super duper crazy spicy it has a Dangerous sign outside. And before entering the shop I can see tiny droplets of steam forming on the insides of the glass door. Scaryyy. I am only brave enough to eat it once a year.

Spicy-ness level: 5/5 (and this is coming from someone who can bite and swallow cili padis whole!)

Nuclear jjampong - check out those swollen lips!!

This is something a little less spicy, but I'll still go crazy after drinking a lot of that soup........ can't help myself though, the soup is so flavorful and fragrant. ^^ Usually served with tteobokki floating inside and kimbap and fried mandu on the sides. And whole cartons of iced apple, peach and pineapple juice free flow!

New Year Resolutions

2012-01-03T00:16:00.002+08:00

To get it off my chest, let me rattle off my resolutions for the New Year.

Find an engineering job which I really like, which makes me want to wake up to every morning.
Continue my church life when I go back to Malaysia. Find a cell group. Be involved in a small active part in church by end of July.
Buy a good cook book and a bakery book and cook every page from front to back.
Grow back my heavily-bitten nails. (But I need to get out from this dry weather first!)
After I return to Malaysia, get back in shape to the way I looked during my wedding two years ago.
Now for the most difficult one -- Stop procrastinating and do stuff faster!!!
Go to hair salon at least once a month.
I bought a photo journal containing beautiful images of Tokyo - sakura, pink bicycles, cafes and all that girly emo stuff. I hope to jot down stuff in it. My work plan. Church stuff. Travel thoughts. Bits and pieces. But I need to carry it with me, all the time.

Random:

My Korean friend is insisting that I am 30 years of age now as I step into 2012. Because the Koreans start counting their age (and everyone else's) starting from the year they were born. Which makes me 30 now (starting from the first day of the NY). But nevermind I get to reset back one year the moment I step foot in Malaysia. HAHAHA!

I think I spoke, or "posted" on my fb wall, too soon that: "Conclusion: This year is better than last year. Busier, more tired, but HAPPY *wide grin!*". Actually some things happened before Christmas which made me feel very sad and distressed and left in a daze. I just hope that the people involved will learn how to let go and realize that happiness and health is the most important things in life. I am also trying to learn how to deal with it, to not let my feelings get too involved, also to not get affected too much, since there is really nothing that I can do about it.

Since I was so lucky to see a speck of snow, drifting in through the window yesterday I guess that must mean a good omen. A tiny snowflake, on the first day of the year.

Last but not least, here is something which I should have bought earlier - an electric hand warmer!!! I really don't know why I hadn't bought it last year... and my poor hands had to endure the cold........ T.T....... This year, the Korean government has gone crazy and decided to switch off the heater from 10am-12noon, 5-7pm everyday, to conserve energy. And we actually aren't allowed personal heaters cos there will be someone coming in the lab to check, and we will get penalized for having one. Crazy!!! Don't they know it's freaking cold?!?!?!!??! Anyway, this mini hand heater is really a life-saver... for now.

My mini-heater which looks like a speaker (to hide from the prying eyes of the officer who comes to check), a little rabbit wearing a hanbok - souvenir from Jae Ho who bought it from Insadong, and my graduation gift from the lab - 16GB mini-USB drive which costs 30,000won. Woohoo!

Actually, it's a wonder how one's body can acclimatize to the weather. Last year it was so freakingggggggg cold my body was shaking and my teeth were chattering until they almost fell off. But this year it seems fine, somewhat warmer and at least my body is not shaking a lot. Does it mean I'm fatter or that I simply got used to winter? Haha... but anyway too much good weather is not good... I want snow and I want it now!!! Signing off~ ♥

해돋이 First Sunrise of 2012

2012-01-01T20:32:00.001+08:00

Sunrise 2012 - at Haeundae beach, Busan

It feels so surreal now that a whole year has passed - and I have to flip open a new calendar, a new photo album, a new blog post - for the Year 2012. The Koreans take their first sunrise of the year (신년 맞이 해돋이) very seriously - they gather at dawn before sunrise at beaches and on mountain tops to view the first sighting of the sun and to make their wishes for a good year ahead.

This year I chose to see the sunrise at Haeundae Beach because last year I saw it at Gwangan Bridge. I didn't have to stay the whole night awake at the beach - I just woke up at 5.30am and took the subway there. The subway was soooooooooo crammed with people I had to shove myself in and take in a deep breath before the door shut right in front of my nose!

This is how many people were in the train this morning

There were some traditional drums, dance, and brass band performance by the beach. I was too tired and cold to walk around, I just wanted to see the sunrise. So I went to stand right in front of the beach, to get a good view with nobody blocking my sight.

An elderly man walked past and scrawled a line of unintelligible characters.

For the birds, it's just another brand new day.

A few boys trying to act macho and leaping into the water and running screaming back when a tiny wave comes. I say, if you wanna be so macho just take off your shirt and do a polar bear swim. That being said, I was kinda disappointed I didn't see any polar bear swimming competition take place!

And this is me! Happy New Year... this year I learnt to say, with a twist... 새해 돈 많이 주세요!!!

Christmas in Busan

2011-12-29T15:04:00.001+08:00

The best place in Busan to feel the festive joy of Christmas is at Nampodong Christmas Tree Festival. For the entire month of December, the main shopping street at Nampodong is sealed off to traffic. Christmas trees, big or little, line the streets on both sides. Couples walk hand-in-hand and groups of families bring their kids out to enjoy Christmas, taking photos with the brightly lit trees and decorations.

I like the plain white snow crystal decor at Innisfree skincare shop

Swan, polar bear and penguin lanterns afloat on a long bench filled with water

Christmas toy train

This year the most special installation is a big Noah's Ark with the theme "His Story". Many old CRT TVs are mounted on the ark, each playing an individual movie of The Passion of Christ. Although at first glance, not many people would understand the significance of the ark and the TVs, and nobody really stood in front to watch the movie, but at least people would look at it and ask, "What's that???"

The portrait painters set up their easels again during this season~

OK now for more vibrant pictures.......... the Nampodong Christmas Street:

Baby Jesus, born in a manger

I'm very glad to be able to celebrate my last Christmas in Korea with some friends. I brought the new Malaysians to visit the Christmas Tree Festival at Nampodong together and it was a fun time... although we were almost freezing to death...

Some Malaysian friends and one girl from Kazakhstan

My church group also had a carolling session on the big stage below the big Christmas tree on Friday, the 23rd of December. So many many people from our church turned up this year to sing carols together, almost 40 of us! I felt extremely proud and happy to sing out His Story on stage.

Carolling with my church members

Instrumental performance by Onnuri church members

On Christmas Day, I went to church. I always feel that the best way to spend Christmas Day is in church, celebrating Jesus's birth along with all the church members. I don't mind people who only turn up in church on Christmas Day or Easter's Day, cos at least they care enough to show their faces. In a few year's time, I hope that I'll be able to attend church with all my family members. And next Christmas, I'll finally have a home in which to put up my very own Christmas tree and deck out the ornaments! Can't wait for that time to come...

The church kids participating in a sketch of The Christmas Story... loveeeeeeeee how the younger kids have these sheep and cow masks on their faces, they look like little angels! So cute!

This year we even had Santa Claus! One of the church members dressed up in the red costume.

Members of my community group

And of course, not forgetting my Christmas lunch with stuffed turkey and Korean food!

One week to Christmas!

2011-12-18T23:32:00.000+08:00

Can't believe there's only one more week left until Christmas! Time flies by so fast when one is busy. Can't really feel Christmas in the air here in Korea though even though it's winter, except when we visited Nampodong Christmas street (blog about that in the next post). I feel like the festive mood is stronger in Malaysia, decorations in shopping malls, shops blaring Christmas songs, etc. Here I seriously don't feel anything except when I go to church, and that's why I play aloud the Glee Christmas album and Michael Buble and Home Alone soundtrack when I'm in the room alone, to surround myself with some Christmas joy. ♥

Some randoms:-

The "Christmas tree" is up in my room! *^^* Well, actually it's a Sanrio Christmas tree card sent by my hubby last year... I love this card so muchhhhhhhhh cos it can stand up and it's got presents beneath the tree and when I pull the paper handle on top the tree leaves actually open and can see little Santas hiding inside! So cute!!

Christmas card 2010

Just received this in the mail this evening... it's Christmas card Part II, of the same Sanrio series... also sent to me by my dear hubby. It's a big house with many Santas inside! And it has glitter all over it to represent snow... got glitter all over my desk and hands while opening the card! Love it!

Christmas card 2011

Finally... the Santas are out on the street! Although this Santa is not handing out goodies to kids sitting in his lap. More like holding the 50% banner for Nature Republic!

Skincare during the dry winter season:-

♥ Got this miniature IOPE moisture lasting sample kit a while ago which consists of softener (toner), emulsion (lotion) and cream. IOPE is one of the high range skincare brands in Korea, which is quite expensive, so till now I can only use their sample handouts. Love the nice scent of the softener which is not too overpowering. And the cream keeps my face deeply moisturized at night, which tends to get dry because I turn on the heater in my room every night.

♥ MISSHA year end sales! I got the following items all at 30% off a few days ago. From left toright: BB Boomer (8,260won), SPF33 water based sun block (5,600won), Super Aqua pore ideal serum (11,060won), and Super Aqua oxygen micro visible deep cleanser (12,460won). The BB Boomer is a boosting cream used before applying bb cream, it has pearl inside it to make my face appear more radiant - very good because my face looks so dull and dark all the time, and double cream is not too oily for winter skin. I've used the SPF33 water based sun block during summer and I found that it absorbs very quickly into my skin, and not oily at all - perfect for when I go back to Malaysia! This is the first time I'm trying out the Super Aqua range... the serum tester felt very light and easily absorbed into my skin. Nice refreshing for use in Malaysia too. And the oxygen cleanser sounds very interesting - apply the liquid to dry face and soon you will see foam bubbles appearing on your skin, after that wash off with water. Good as a makeup/bb cream remover I guess. ^^

Even the bakeries here have got into the Christmas mood! Paris Baguette Americano take-out costs only 1,000 won now due to the stiff competition. And chocolate chip and hazelnut cookies wrapped in a nice blue ribbon! Perfect as a gift for a friend's house party. ^^

And enjoying myself with a nice hot latte at Angel-in-Us! See they changed their paper cups to Christmas red too!

A little something happens everyday.

2011-12-14T16:38:00.001+08:00

11 more days to Christmas... why hasn't it snowed yet??

As I walk to the lab each morning I see workers maintaining the pine trees along the road. Did you know that pine trees are very expensive to plant? But there are so many in my university campus... I see the workers spraying jets of water onto the trees, and the acorns all fall down. The acorns look like brown, insignificant Easter eggs lying on the ground, waiting to be found. And some of the bigger trees get their branches sawed off. I guess that's because the workers are trimming off the frivolous things, so that the trees don't need to spend so much energy during the winter.

Last Sunday our challenge for the week was to find something to be thankful about, everyday. Well, you might not know it, but a little something happens everyday.

♥ On Monday my work computer almost died on me. Thankfully, I managed to fix it until it's up and running at the moment. It just needs to last around 8 more weeks... hope it doesn't act up again.
♥ On Tuesday the receiver in my project just couldn't work. I removed the previous circuit on my board cos I thought it was simple enough to rebuild. But it just couldn't work! Thankfully, I had taken a photo of the previous circuit and so I rebuilt it according to that and it is working now!
♥ Today is Wednesday, thankfully, so far so good... I hope no more shocks happen throughout the week!

Sometimes the "everyday" gets so mundane that I fall into my depression routine, thinking life is so meaningless and all that shit. But I forget, that without those little shocks I get, jolting me back to reality, life that is boring and mundane can actually mean being carefree and calm.

Sigh... also, just when I thought I can be free after my thesis defense...... I am even busier than before. Before the last week of December, I need to complete:

- 1 journal paper

- 1 conference paper (so that I can go attend the skiing conference)

- update 9 months of work into my laboratory notebook

- debug and test my receiver circuit! omg...

I have no time for my pile of books stacked up by my bedside... but I keep Fashion Babylon (Imogen Edwards-Jones) at my lab desk so I can read it whenever I am waiting for something to load up, and Bag of Bones (Stephen King) by my bedside so I can sneak in 10 minutes while falling asleep to King's lengthy drawl~

Winter season makes me wanna snuggle up in my warm heated room every moment of the day. ♥ After getting back from the lab, I get a nice long hot shower and dress in my comfy cotton long pants, make a hot chocolate mixed with milk, put on my specs and snuggle under the covers and get hooked on to Forensic Heroes III (Kate Tsui + Ron Ng = ♥ forever!).

Last but not least, not forgetting the total eclipse of the moon that happened on Saturday night. I think this is the second eclipse I have seen since I was in primary school. Anyway, it was very fun. Me and my friend lay on our backs in the stadium grounds with our faces toward the sky, watching the red moon above our heads. We watched it until it got too cold for us then we went back to the dormitory.

Red moon, total eclipse, December 10th

Eulsukdo Revisited

2011-12-11T20:07:00.001+08:00

Winter time is bird-watching season again....... this time I brought my junior to re-visit the Eulsukdo (을숙도) Migratory Bird Park.

Eulsukdo is actually a small "island" located at the lower end of the Nakdong River. The Nakdong River estuary ranks as Korea's largest habitat for migratory birds. During winter, migratory birds fly from colder grounds (such as Siberia) to warmer places such as South Korea. Among the birds to watch out for include the whooper swan, spoonbill, and greater white-fronted goose.

I was very much looking forward to this trip cos I hadn't been able to see any swans the last time I went there. >.<'''

On our way there I stopped one of the elderly men who were carrying around some big camera equipment to ask about the location to see the birds. In Korean, he said, "longggggg". So at first I thought he meant the road leading there was very long. Then he said, no he meant that the bird is very "long".

Indeed, when we reached the tip of Zone A for bird-watching, we saw many "long" birds, or huge birds with long necks, in groups, floating on the water. I think they might be giant geese. Some looked like swans from the graceful shape of their necks, but we couldn't be too sure as they were really far away. The place was so quiet that we could hear the loud squawking of the geese/swans. The birds were very sensitive to our sounds and movements. As soon as they heard our talk and approaching footsteps, they just took off and flew/swam further away!

More pictures of the bird sanctuary:

Mandarin ducks swimming in pairs

I really love mandarin ducks cos they are always swimming in pairs, so lovely. The male duck looks very prim and proper with the brilliant green color of its head and white collar around its neck. It looks like it's dressed up for a formal dinner event.

Eulsukdo Migratory Bird Park

Met two new friends, a girl from Kazakhstan who is an exchange student in my university, and a solo guy traveler from Singapore.

We also visited the Nakdong Estuary Eco Center. A big museum dedicated to the education and preservation of birds and small creatures in the wetlands. This museum is very nice, designed by a Japanese architect. Often there are various educational outdoor activities organized for groups of school children.

Feel as free as a bird every time I visit this place. Feels like the land is so huge and the air is so fresh that I can take in huge amounts of it into my lungs and breathe out. Feel the warm sunshine on my face.

Haeundae Beach in Autumn.

2011-12-04T23:33:00.001+08:00

If you ask me what is there to do, in that gap of time, after all the colored leaves of autumn have fallen to the ground and with the chaser lights of Christmas still 25+ days away, I would say -- go to the beach. What go to the beach in early winter when the water's cold and there's no bikini girls to see?

I love the winter coast. The beach isn't as crowded as it is in summer when all the girls in teeny weeny bikinis come out to play. The sea is a dazzling blue, as is the sky, where you can see for miles and miles away, and even see Tsushima (Japan) on a clear bright winter afternoon. And the flock of seagulls and pigeons. They mesmerize me the most.

There is an army of seabirds on the sand, those little white specks on the sand. The seagulls like to stand, very still, facing the breeze, letting it glide through their oiled wings and smoothen their feathers. I guess they feel happy and comfortable, smug even, on such a beautiful day. The seagulls are too proud to mix with the pigeons with gray feathers. They stand in different crowds. Occasionally a seagull walks into the flock of pigeons and tries to grab the food away from the pigeons, thinking they are lord over the gray ones. The proud, fair and lovely seagull raises its voice and squawks loudly at the pigeons, like an irritating fellow who doesn't know that he is irritating. The pigeons just gently ignore the seagull like a crazy fellow and continue to feed. Cos there is plenty of food. If you hold a prawn cracker in your hand the birds will hover in mid-air and peck the tidbit from out from your fingers.

We decided to walk up Dalmaji Hill and along Moontan Road since it was such a beautiful day. I didn't feel cold at all even though the temperature was 10 degrees Celcius. The weather was so good till I felt that the walk was a short one. At the end of Dalmaji are the twin lighthouses - one red and one white. The name of the place is Cheongsa-po （青沙浦） fishing village. I am always amazed by the twin lighthouses but nobody seems to really stop by and just continue along the way when they are in their vehicles.

Lighthouses just mesmerize the hell out of me. They evoke a sense of picturesque postcard romanticism, like I can imagine hanging up a framed picture of these twin lighthouses in my dining room and stare at it all night and all day. The bright red lighthouse and the subdued, pure white lighthouse, against the maddeningly blue sky. I'm in love.

One Day in Beitou (在北投的一天)

2011-11-28T19:19:00.001+08:00

On the day after my conference session, mom and I went to Beitou (北投) to enjoy the hot spring. It was really a day for me to relax because I had finished my "official duties" in Taipei.

I think it was drizzling a bit as we rode the MRT, but thank God when we reached XinBeiTou station the skies cleared up and we could walk around a bit.

The Beitou MRT platform (waiting for exchange to XinBeiTou line) is such a delight to behold! Took many pictures of the cute structure there. The building is a replica mix of the Plum Garden & Beitou Hot Spring Museum. And there is a Japanese-like hot spring deity in blue. There are a couple of cartoon statues dressed up in Ketagalan (Taiwan natives) costumes too.

We continued the walk up ZhongSan Road (中山路). It was a leisurely walk on a beautiful day, the weather was warm but not too hot, and the sun was not so bright as to sting our eyes. This was my second time to Beitou but my first time to walk up ZhongSan Road. There are so many beautiful things to see there - the big, brick bungalow which was formerly the public bathhouse, now changed into the Hot Spring Museum, its lush, green compound, lotus pond filled with pretty pink lotus flowers, the crisp green air which can no longer be found in Korea at this season.

The interior of the Hot Spring Museum. It is a huge, two-storey bungalow - the upper floor has a nice hall filled with tatami mats and Japanese-styled doors. The paper wood sliding doors reminded me of the Japanese-week furniture I wanted to buy in The Sims Social but which cost too many simoleons. There was a big balcony overlooking the huge compound of the museum.

The ground floor is a remnant of the public bathhouse, now just an empty pool filled with stained tiles and window glass from the olden days.

Continue walking up the road we reached the historical building Plum Garden (梅庭), formerly a Japanese-style house which became a summer retreat for the famous calligrapher 于右任. The house is kept simple yet elegant, with a very poetic nature to it, like it has a tale to tell of its own. The wooden beam ceiling of the house were hung very low, a trademark of the old Japanese house because Japs back then were very short. The location and architecture of the house were superb, truly a befitting mansion for a man of 于右任's stature.

We stopped for a quick brunch at some cafe near the junction uphill from Plum Garden. By stroke of luck, I accidentally found the entrance to Beitou Thermal Valley (地热谷). I didn't know we had to turn left after the junction; I had thought to go straight. Luckily I didn't or I would have missed it because the entrance was not very significant. Beitou Thermal Valley is a place which I missed on my last visit to Taipei, so I wanted to visit it very much this time. The place looked very beautiful but dangerous.

在眼前看见的是一片热气袅袅上升，蓝色的湖面看起来平静，底下却危机暗伏。我不禁想象着要是失足掉入水里，是否会霎那间皮开肉绽，滚烫的泉水立刻把肉身化为乌有，只剩下一副白骨。哈哈，我想一定是小时候《西游记》看过太多遍了。再想想，温泉温泉，水温应该顶多是六，七十度，只会把人给烫伤，还不足以致命吧~

Finally, reached our destination - Spring Hotel Resort (春天酒店). Cost NT800 per person. Only summer season have free beer. Went there the first time with Leo and had a very good impression of the outdoor pools so I brought mom there to try it. Tried all the different hot spring pools (there was one with very nice rice wine smell) and fell asleep on the hot stone slab..........

After I came back I read other people's blog on Spring Hotel Resort then only I realised that taking photo is not allowed at the outdoor pools... hahaha. No wonder many people were looking at me while I used my camera. But Taiwanese are too polite and seldom tell off people outright, unlike the Korean ajummas here.

Feeling all refreshed after the nice hot spring, took the longer road back to the MRT station. Passed by the very beautiful Beitou Public Library and went in to take a look. Reminded me of those days in Chandler where we used to visit the nice public library.

Random

2011-11-27T22:36:00.001+08:00

The sky is heartbreakingly blue. I remember my friend once told me that the sky is most beautiful in autumn - not a hint of a faint wisp of cloud to mar the brilliant blue canvas, where the blue is even-colored for miles and miles away.

The copper colored leaves still hang dearly on to the tree branches, few as they may be, like coins hanging from the money-tree we read of in storybooks. I look at the leaves, which seem to have frozen in time, and it is like everything in the world has stood still for a moment. Then the leaves quiver, all so slightly, and everything starts moving again. I am woken up from my dream.

A puppy looked up at me today and suddenly had a shocked look on his face. I have never seen a puppy with a shocked face before. I wonder what I did - I didn't even put on a naughty face.

After a few days of chilly early winter nights (-1 degrees Celcius), it suddenly feels warm again (6 degrees Celcius). I wore a navy-colored short sleeved dress underneath a thin gray-colored fleece coat. But as I was walking back towards my dorm, the wind stole underneath my sleeves. And I felt cold again.

I have been reading Stephen King's latest short stories collection - Full Dark, No Stars. I enjoy reading them horror novels, which never seem to give me any nightmares, which is a good thing. :-) Finished reading the book below a month and now I can't get enough of King. So I borrowed "Bag of Bones", which will be a nice, long, good read to last me the winter. :-) There were many "hearts" in between the Full Dark, No Stars pages. Maybe those were what kept me from having nightmares and giving me sweet dreams instead. :-)

My thesis defense is over.

2011-11-23T19:22:00.001+08:00

Yes, my masters thesis defense is over.
Many people congratulate me on and off Facebook.
I suppose I should celebrate it like some kind of milestone is over.
But I am left feeling with some kind of inadequacy, some sort of anti-climax.
Maybe because I feel what I did is not enough.
Maybe because I feel what had been building up all this while, the suspense, the practices, all... were ultimately a let-down.
When the reviewers don't even care about my thesis to take a look beforehand.
When the primary reviewer was late and I even had to go to his office to call him.
Maybe because my Korean labmates were late. (Well if you need to be late, please don't even come...)

I suppose I should have seen it coming.
Well, I had known what to expect, after seeing examples from last year.
Anyway, not feeling very good about it.
But people who know me well, who have been with me through and out this journey tell me, "in the end, it doesn't matter".
Hahaha... knowing that, cheers me up.

I need to do better for the next round! (No, no more thesis defense, but I still have max 6 more masters seminars to go and 2 more papers to write...)

After that, treating myself to a sumptuous medium rare STEAK and wine ade at VIPS................. mmmmmmmmm

Attending my first International Conference.

2011-11-20T21:34:00.001+08:00

November 14-18 (Monday to Friday) 2011, was the first time I participated in an overseas International Conference. Not exactly my preferred venue as I have already visited Taipei 3 times, (hence I would much more prefer cities like Xi'an, Tokyo or even Ho Chih Minh), but I guess I should feel thankful. (Afterall, it is also Thanksgiving Sunday today.)

Felt a little grown-up (my first "business trip"! Hurrah!) so I put on my nice ladylike autumn trench coat and set off to the airport. Didn't know that the Air Busan flight would provide lunch so I had a little breakfast on my own - samgak kimbap (or Leonard calls it the Korean-style nasi lemak), a sausage (not shown here) and a can of cold Starbucks doubleshot espresso & cream (1,500won).

Flight meal (from Busan to Taipei) - Hmmm finally I tasted the most delicious kimchi ever... 30,000 feet above the air in a small little vacuumed-package of NongHyup KimChi. How ironic.

My presentation session was to be held in the evening of the 2nd day. Went there on Tuesday morning to register my attendance and get some freebies (a nice slingbag, USB pendrive, and damn, couldn't exchange the Zigbee module!) The conference venue was Jiantan Overseas Youth Activity Center (剑潭海外青年中心), which was surprisingly pretty, a red brick building set amongst a lush green background with a pond (with geese and storks flying overhead!) and with the famous Yuansan Hotel in the background.

Jiantan Overseas Youth Activity Center (剑潭海外青年中心)

I was glad my mom flew from Malaysia to Taipei to join the trip with me. Had the chance to bring her around to experience the nice Taipei life. Took some pictures at the conference venue and rushed off to our next stop - Taipei 101. Will blog about the other days later after I finish my thesis defense on Tuesday.

I am getting less anxious now to give presentations. Although my heartbeat still tends to quicken at the last 10 mins before it's my turn. I guess it's because I have gotten used to giving presentations and now I am more familiar with my topic. Still, I need to remind myself to take deep breaths (slowly, surely, steadily) before I go up, and I remind myself: "Nobody knows this topic more than you do, (well at least the ones that do are not here anyway :P) and you are just explaining your work to the morons sitting down there... :P"

Ximending Shopping Street （西门町）

Impressions of Taipei:

When I got to Taipei I had a faint illusion that I might still be in Korea. At the shopping streets with the stalls selling clothes, they played K-pop. At the restaurant in Ximending too. Some Taiwanese girls in the same boat with us to Danshui Fisherman's Pier were trying to speak some easy Korean (나쁜여자!) and talking about their favorite K-pop singers. A guy checking something out on his Samsung Galaxy S II. A girl buying clothes on Gmarket Mobile using her smartphone. The girls on the streets everywhere were dressed up in boots and late autumn clothing even though the weather was a humid 22 degrees Celcius! I fell asleep watching a Korean drama dubbed in Chinese on the hotel TV. Korea has conquered the world! (Or Asia, for that matter.)

Stuff that I bought:

"My Beauty Diary" foam cleansing scrub, "My Beauty Diary" sleeping mask, "Burt's Bees" pomegranate flavored lip balm (costs RM25 in Korea but only RM15 in Taipei), "Ma Cherie" moisture treatment for hair, and some 森田药桩 masks (buy 1 box free 1 box).

Some RM20 clothes and RM25 bra-panty set (TOO CHEAP!!!!!!!!!)

All the flats below cost RM19 a pair (including the "Ugg" boots)!!!!!!!!!!!! TOO CHEAP!!!! And the purple canvas Nike's which I had been eye-ing for an entire summer and autumn in Korea cost RM98 compared to RM120 in Korea.

Also went to Eslite and bought a few books from there.

Clouds outside my window seat on my return flight from Taipei to Busan. I can imagine bouncing on those heaps of clouds................

3 more months, and I'll be back in Malaysia.............

Remembering October

2011-11-03T10:15:00.001+08:00

Finally, October has passed.......... it felt like time went by so slowly in October, as though the month would never end. I had a host of things to do during October, in which I completed writing my thesis draft and experiments and stuff.

It is the season of changing autumn leaves again, the entrance leading into campus lined with trees of changing brown and gold and red leaves. At the road near my lab building, it is fiery red, like the sakura trees it-selves are now on fire.

October was also a month of contradictory weather; it was like the skies couldn't seem to decide whether to be sunny or rainy. A few days it was so cold like winter, and a few days after it felt like we were going back to summer.

I bought a set of new frames from the shop near my university. It cost me only 25,000won (~RM60). It's big and makes me look very nerdy. Many Koreans were this type of frames.

My friend's camera has this 3D photo function. So we're playing around with it to take 3D photos. You can view it after wearing those 3D specs.

I still haven't embarked on my quest to visit every cute little cafe and take dozens of pictures of it. I'm procrastinating too much, must start soon........

Near the front gate of my university there's this tree with a whispering hole in the middle. Now it's laden with huge, heavy fruit! This type of fruit is called 无花果 (fruit without flowers). One day I walked past and I was saying to my friend, why don't you pick one for me? It looks too big. Then the tree heard me and plopped down one fruit with a loud "thud" on the ground. It was bigger than my fist!

Finally, I didn't make it to Halloween street party at the back gate of my university after all. Cos it was pouring heavily on that day thus our moods were dampened. Celebrated Halloween by treating myself to yummy ghostly-shaped donuts at Dunkin Donuts! Yummmmmmmm

And that's the end of October!

*Shit... now I'm feeling it went by too fast and I have millions of things to complete before the half of November!

Biking in Sasang

2011-10-27T12:05:00.001+08:00

I've been going outdoors a lot to enjoy my last autumn here in Korea. Frankly speaking, sometimes I prefer outdoor activities such as hiking and cycling more than shopping, cos I don't have much money to spend here anymore. Going out also helps me relax, takes my mind off a lot of stuff.

Just breathe in the fresh, autumn breeze..............

Last Sunday it finally stopped raining after two days. And the weather was slightly warm. So I grabbed the chance and went to Sasang to cycle. There are free bicycle rentals down by the Sasang Park, but rental ends at 5pm. We took a nice route along the borders of the park lined with weeping willows, heaps of water reeds, and some marshlands with lily pads.

The reeds were taller than my head! I thought of the giant reeds in San Francisco Golden Gate Park that were much bigger and taller than these.

Did you know my Chinese name means something like a reed? It bends and sways ever so gently according to the wind, but never ever breaks, even in a strong wind.

The cosmos flowers are still here. Walked along a trodden path, saw many families bringing their children and pointing out bits of nature to them.

I stood still for a bit and a dragonfly flew and rested on my shoulder. It had big, multiples of green eyes and I saw tens of my reflection back in them. I gasped in shock; the dragonfly stared back at me with its tens of eyes and flew away.

Saw grasshoppers mating in the nice weather.

I learned how to ride a bicycle after 28 years.

Last summer, my friend taught me how to ride a bike. We have those free rental bikes in the university campus too. After starting and stopping for two days, I finally learnt how to balance myself without falling.

Now I'm good. But I still fall down if I get too stressed from riding on a narrow path with someone beside me, or when another bike or joggers come from the opposite direction. And especially if I'm riding beside a busy road with many cars whooshing past.

But I enjoy it. Especially during autumn, the biking season.

BIFF & Prêt-à-Porter

2011-10-18T15:16:00.002+08:00

October is the month of fabulous events - from the prestigious Busan International Film Festival (釜山国际映画展) to the fabulous Prêt-à-Porter 2012 Spring/Summer Collection. I missed both events last year, so no matter how busy I was, I was gonna catch it this year!

I have really only seen one real artist my whole life, and that is Cyndi Wang (王心凌) when she was filming an interview in Shanghai Haagen-Daz. And even that, she took a jacket and covered her face when we got close to try to take photographs at the window. Well, this October I saw quite a few of them! ;-)

Takeshi Kaneshiro (金成武), Tang Wei (汤唯) and director Peter Chan (陈可辛) promoting their movie 《武侠》!

Takeshi looked really dashing in real life and Tang Wei looked very sweet and coy in her blue-green dress. Tang Wei was the more friendly of the two and answered many questions from the Korean interviewer. Takeshi answered very coolly to all the questions and sounded like he had a bad day, but he still managed to smile and wave to the audience. However Takeshi doesn't seem to be very popular among the Korean audience, maybe cos there are too many handsome and famous actors in Korea. So the only people chanting his name were the Chinese... and of course me! (Sarang haeyo, 金成武!!!)

Side profile of Korean actor So Ji-Sub (蘇志燮)

I also went to the BIFF opening ceremony held at the spanking new Busan Cinema Center behind Shinsegae, with my friend Faith. Didn't manage to see any celebrities walking the red carpet cos there was a human wall in front of us, but by a stroke of luck, we managed to catch "Always" actors So Ji-Sub (蘇志燮) and actress Han Hyo-Joo (韩孝珠) doing the interview at the emcee stage!

"Always" is the opening movie for BIFF this year. There are so many movies I wanna watch - "Always', "The Lady", "Tokani", but all of those will have to wait until after I hand up my thesis...........

The emcee stage for BIFF which is shown live on TV

Last but not least, a few of us went to support the Prêt-à-Porter event at BEXCO where Jia Mei was one of the designers for the university-section fashion show. She had to design two pieces as a requirement to graduate her fashion design course. We were lucky to get there on time as the doors closed as the show started and they wouldn't let anybody enter after that. It was my first time sitting so close to a real, runway stage! The clothes were all very beautiful and well-crafted. Haha I really wish I could try to write a review just like in those fashion mags... a real, proper one. Will try it out when I have time after completing my thesis!

A Korean Wedding

2011-10-10T13:32:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday, I attended a Korean wedding. Not the traditional style Korean wedding which I posted up on Facebook a while ago, this is the typical wedding which young Korean couples go through. Thanks a lot to my friend for asking me to tag along to his ex-university coursemate's wedding, cos he knows I really really wanna see a real Korean wedding!

A Korean wedding is usually held in a wedding hall during the day time. In this case, it was 12 noon. I was really slow and late, thinking that the wedding would not start on time, just like "Malaysian-style" weddings. My friend was getting frustrated in the end so we took a cab and rushed there. The wedding was held at Marin Wedding Center near Busan Station. The wedding center is a tall building facing the marina, with a few halls on different floors which I guess had a few weddings going on at the same time. It was already 12 noon when we reached the hall. Took the elevator up to the 3rd floor, and was greeted by this huge, romantic sakura tree at the entrance!

Usually on such a festive occasion, the parents of both the bride and groom will be decked out in colourful hanbok, or the traditional Korean costume.

We rushed to the small room next to the wedding hall, where usually the bride sits there and everybody queues up to take a picture with her. When we reached there, the bride wasn't the one we wanted to see! OMG... at first I thought the groom had a change of heart... haha... but actually the "real" bride had already entered the wedding hall. The bride sitting there was the next one to get married at 1pm.

The "real" bride... my friend's friend... hahahahaha... already on her father's arm, preparing for the wedding march! Although I felt very sorry for being late and making my friend not able to take pictures with the bride, but at least we didn't miss the bride walking down the aisle. In Korean weddings, there is always a "helper" helping to arrange the dress and suit of the bride and groom. Helpful indeed, but always gets in the way of the photographers!

After the wedding officer gives his speech, the couple exchanges their vows. The couple bows to each other, which I think is pretty cute. Reminds me of Taekwondo sparring, the contestants also bow to each other before starting to fight! Haha!

Then comes an emotional moment where the bride and groom bow and thank their parents for bringing them up and caring for them until they get married. The groom will kneel all the way down to the floor!

Then the whole wedding ceremony is over in just half an hour. Before the end, suddenly a violinist appears out of nowhere and starts to serenade the crowd with a couple of joyful songs. At first I thought it was a friend, (like in our Malaysian weddings sometimes a good friend will sing a song for the happy couple), but the violinist is actually prepared by the wedding hall as a celebratory gesture. The groom was really sporting and he started to dance to the violin tune... quite funny that part!

Then group phototaking session, the speaker will announce the relatives to take a group picture first, then the friends, etc. Lastly the crowd will disperse to the lunch venue (usually in the food hall upstairs) and the next wedding takes place......

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Before continuing, I wonder if my friend sees this will he scold me for blogging about his friend's wedding... haha cos I think he will consider he to be somewhat rude...)

First of all, I just wanna say that after attending the Korean wedding, I felt very grateful and blessed that in Malaysia, I could take the time to have a proper celebration throughout the entire (day)night and have my family and friends share my happiness with me. We didn't have to feel rushed, we didn't feel like "going through routine" and that everything was prearranged. We actually had the choice to make our wedding special and put our personal touches to it. I especially appreciate the "fetch the bride" session where my family prepared a buffet-style dinner the previous night and all my relatives and friends came to stay with me and to see me off the next morning. And the "heng dai tuen" ("brothers" of the groom) and "ji mui tuen" ("sisters" of the bride) where it made the whole affair seem so lively and fun and really cheered up the atmosphere. Then during the night everybody had some time to mingle around and look at the powerpoint presentation on screen, reconnect with old friends, and going up on the stage to careen a few songs for the bride and groom. Looking back at our wedding, Leo and I always say that it was very warm and personal and we were very very happy that our wedding turned out to be so memorable because of our friends and family.

OK I digressed too much. =_=''' After that I asked my friend, why are Korean weddings held in such a rush? As in hourly sessions, and everything is done very routinely. The wedding hall arrangement cost around 3-4 million KRW, I think inclusive of lunch? Then I suddenly realized the answers:

Korean population is double that of Malaysia, that means twice the amount of couples getting married each year
In Korea, land is scarce and living cost is expensive, which means they don't have the luxury of choosing from many wedding options unlike in Malaysia (hotel, beach, garden, etc.) For them to have a beach or garden-style wedding is almost unthinkable for the normal couple, it is too expensive!
Korea has four seasons, and not everybody likes to get married when it is freaking cold outside...

But nevermind, before getting married, "paktoh" / dating in Korea is so much more romantic than Malaysia anyway with all the beautiful four seasons........... heheheheheheh!

P/S: Feeling extra-romantic today cos today is my 2nd year ROM anniversary with my beloved LEO! Missing my hubby so much... yesterday we had a virtual "anniversary" dinner which consisted of him eating delivery pizza and me eating instant bakuteh noodles... hope that next year anniversary dinner will be better! But I know it definitely will... because by then we'll be back to our "happily ever after".................. :-))

Andong Hahoe Village

2011-10-05T17:07:00.000+08:00

Here comes October again, a beautiful month for travelling and sightseeing as the weather is not too cold yet, and there are many festivals held around Busan and out. Although I am busy with my thesis and paper, I still try to travel whenever I can because these are my last few months here and I simply cannot afford to miss anything! Besides, travelling helps me de-stress and I can finish my work better when I have something to look forward to...

Last Saturday I traveled with a group of friends to Andong (안동), a traditional city in the middle of South Korea. Some interesting facts about Andong:

Andong is a very old city, founded around 1B.C.
Being a very conservative city and a center for Confucianism, it produced many scholars.
Many people started their first family name in Andong
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Korea, she requested to visit the 'most Korean place in Korea'. Therefore she was brought to Andong for her birthday.

From Nopodong bus terminal Busan, it takes 2.5 hours to reach there. Initially I had hoped to stay a night there as I was actually visiting the city to see the famous Mask Dance Festival (안동 탈춤 축제). However due to some circumstances (the journey took too long, went to the wrong festival site, places in Andong too far, couldn't spend the night, etc.) we missed the whole Mask Dance Festival, which was the whole point of me wanting to visit there, and that made me quite sad for a couple of days. But anyway, what can't a few videos on Youtube solve nowadays? :-)

After we got off the inter-city bus at Andong bus terminal, we took the No. 46 local bus to Hahoe Traditional Village - UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There were miles and miles of flat terrain planted with rice which shone golden yellow in the afternoon sun. The surrounding low mountains and traditional houses in between made the whole place look like a painting... Also, the weather was beautiful, the sun was above our heads but it was not hot at all.

Walked around, taking pictures of the curious folk village houses, which people still live in today. Saw some traditional Korean playground with the very high swing, and played jumping see-saw with my friends... one of the guys even fell down cos he lost balance!

Some pretty autumn scenery...

Even bees come out to play - they had this magenta pink flowers all over the place which was so beautiful!

Autumn is persimmon season... many ripe ones dangling from the trees, out of reach!

A spider dangling from the bare branches.
A tame Jindo dog (진돗개) which craves for attention and instinctively turned around for me to pat it when I got close!

Caught the Farmers' Song performance....... although this was not the main event I wanted to see.......

Traditional cow - can you see the size of its dangling 'balls'? Hehe...

Planting of the paddy then harvesting...

Reached the 삼신할매 (grandmother wishing tree) which grants wishes like abundance, harvest, child-bearing etc. We wrote our wishes on a thin strip of paper and tied it to the tree branches.

Busy writing.......

Stopped to take picture of some souvenirs but didn't buy........ Andong mask magnet, straw-weaved bird house, straw-weaved baby shoes...

Friends :-)

Finally, saw the wide river terrain which Kok Shin, Nic, Xuan, Jo etc visited last spring! It was really amazing....... grandeur scenery in the sunset........

Tried to take some nice pose there...

Exiting Hahoe Folk Village, and its beautiful scenery...

Cute Korean baby on the bus

For dinner, of course we had to try the specialty braised chicken dish andong jjimtak (안동찜닭). There was a long street of andong jjimtak shops, and one of them had an impossibly long queue of people, possibly the most famous there. We were so famished, having skipped lunch, so we went to the opposite shop to eat. Hmmm... compared to the pongchu jjimtak chain restaurant near PKNU, this dish was too sweet and less spicy. But still, it tasted so great served with steaming hot rice! The gravy was thick and the chicken was tender, along with some vegetable strips and carrot and potato. Skipped the andong soju cos it cost 10,000won per bottle. Too expensive...

Andong jjimtak

Lastly, called it a day and left by bus at 8.30pm! (Last bus back to Busan is 8.30pm...) Missed the nice fireworks show at Hahoe Traditional Village cos we didn't have time. Anyway, it was a good time especially to hang out with the new Malaysians and bring them around. :-)

Oryukdo Islets

2011-10-03T22:18:00.003+08:00

Had a nice, relaxing 3 day holiday weekend. The Korean National Foundation Day (Gaecheonjeol 개천절/ 开天日) which literally translates to 'Opening of the Sky Day' falls on today. It celebrates the creation of Ancient Korea (Gojoseon) by the first king, Dangun Wanggeom in 2333BC.

Woke up late for the past two days, spent the mornings lying in bed and reading the book "The Girl Who Played With Fire", cooked some noodles with shrimp wantan in the room, snacked on peaches and green tea and mooncake bought for me by my parents whenever I felt like it, watched a sad Korean movie called "Come Rain Come Shine" by Hyun Bin, and took a hike to Igidae (이기대/ 二妓台) in the evening just now.

At first I thought it would be an easy hike today, cos the walk uphill at Igidae and the coastal path is quite leisurely and more of a scenic walk. Then we reached the signboard and changed our minds. The two new Malaysians (one boy and one girl) I went with are very young and active. So the boy was like "Let's go! 3km hike to Oryukdo"... and I was feeling very excited too cos I had never been to Oryukdo yet. Oryukdo (오육도 / 五六岛) is a group of small islets which is named the 'five, six islands' cos sometimes when the tide is high we can only see 5 islands and sometimes we can see six. Oryukdo had always been kinda a mystery to me so I wanted to see with my own eyes how many islets there were....

Me & YK among a bunch of pine trees

Tired after hiking 3.8km uphill........

After following the sign for 3.8km, we reached a junction and again walked 1.5km to see the Oryukdo islets........... By the time we reached we had missed the orange red sunset............. but it was still beautiful, all the same. Had a stick of red bean (팥) icecream halfway through the hike, the feeling is so nice to eat a cold stick of icecream in cold autumn weather! *^^*

Oryukdo islets, from this view still unable to see clearly how many islets are there... There are some beautiful apartments called SK View, overlooking the coastal area.

Beautiful silhouette of the accompanying islands backlit by the sunset

Luckily we didn't have to hike all the way back cos we could easily just take bus no.22 back to the dormitory... was so famished by then... went to eat samgyupsal for dinner omg all the hiking effort gone...... :P

Anyway, it was a really enjoyable time... haven't felt this healthy in a long, long while.

P/S: Some fruits that I eat now... peach and giant pear. Peach is free, given to me by professor and giant pear costs only 1,000won, bigger than my fist!

Drowning in the deep.

2011-09-27T23:03:00.003+08:00

自从马来西亚回到韩国以后，心情不曾好过。
一直很想把各种事情都做好：把新来的学弟教好，把论文做好，把 paper 写好，把实验做好，把 presentation 发表好，把私事处理好，等等。
东西多起来心情也跟着着急起来，到头来发现一切有心无力，很想一切都做得很好但是好象什么都做不好，就欠缺什么，感觉到很没有把握，很没有自信，很失落，心情很不好。
举例：很想把 paper 写好，但是没自信 paper 会被 accepted。
举例： paper 欠缺一些实验成绩，但是无论怎么试都还 debug 不到，找不出失误在哪里。
举例：很想多做几个实验，但是不会做，不明白，而且 paper 要先写，因为赶着要交。
举例：很想把论文赶快写好，但是 paper 还没写完，不能继续专心写论文。
举例：很想把东西都好好传给 junior，但是好像很多东西都不能充分地了解，要怎样跟人家说呢。

心情不好得错把 Adele 《Rolling in the Deep》记成《Drowning in the Deep》，这就是我心情写照吧。
今天荷尔蒙泛滥导致腹痛导致我必须去病房拿 painkiller 然后突然伤心得眼泪竟然不受控制在楼梯间哭了好久好久。
要不是你帮我，要不是你在我哭的时候陪在我身边，我想我已经崩溃了。
你每次提醒我做事情要一步一步来，我有听，这句话仿佛成了我的人生指标。
所以我哭完了还是把眼泪擦干化了个妆，然后去发表 presentation 了。

还有五个月，五个月过后我在这里的生活就结束了。
所以我也不管这么多了。
不想让他随便多喝我的 Coca-cola 两口就把它抢回来。
不想看到他在的场所就干脆不出席。
只选择我自己喜欢做的，去做，不喜欢的就头也不掉的走开。

Anyway，了解自己这么 emo 其实主要是因为生理期的问题。
相信一切都会好起来的。

爱上 Olivia Ong 演绎的《梦一场》:

A glimpse of our new nest ^^

2011-09-22T10:20:00.000+08:00

Spent one week in heaven... in our cosy little nest, doing nothing, worrying about nothing, just enjoying each other's company and doing some little decorating touches to our nest. Baby had supervised the renovation, painting, furnishings a few months back and now I'm so glad I'm able to see it with my own eyes... touch the fresh new glossy paint on the walls, bounce on the comfy bed that feels like sleeping on miles and piles of thick fluffy clouds, have home-cooked meal on the wooden dining table, playing with the lights on-and-off, blasting K-pop on our brand-new Samsung LCD TV system, wasting energy from the air-cons, and luxuriating in the beautiful swimming pool... haha

Fresh paint and new wall clock I bought from Korea

Living room with DIY wall art by my baby

Birds-on-a-tree-branch wall sticker which I bought from Korea

I like our house better after adding the wall stickers... feel like the interior is more lively, extending nature into our home. There's actually 2 more stickers on the glass pane in front of the kitchen sink area of a potted herb garden but forgot to take picture of it. :P

Dining area and kitchen in the background. Hanging lamps from IKEA.

I love, love, loveeeeeee how the kitchen had turned out! The old kitchen cabinets were taken down and totally refurbished, I still remember my baby spent many months designing and re-designing the kitchen layout and wood varnish design till perfection! Gonna be a comfy, nice area for me to sharpen my kitchen skills when I get back... gonna learn how to bake and cook all those yummylicious food and Jamie Oliver recipes!~ Love the dining table too, it's so lucky that me and baby readily agree on almost all the same style of furniture (except that when I want something he almost always vetoes it :P)... the dining table chairs a bit too hard, *makes a note to buy soft cushions from IKEA later.

Our comfy bedroom

And the view from our condo!!!!!!! Gorgeous, luxurious view... I woke up one morning to birds chirping on the balcony and caught the sunrise at 7.30am~

Sunrise

Bright golden orange sun rising from the horizon

And the night view of the Penang Bridge

I spent one week in heaven, yet forgot to take more pictures of heaven...
cos I know I'll be back soon...
5 more months...

Catching the last bus...

2011-09-20T14:40:00.004+08:00

From Incheon Airport to Busan.

The airplane touched down at Incheon International Airport at 9.47pm last night, after flying 6 hours and 25 minutes from KL LCCT.

The last bus which I was rushing to catch was at 10.20pm.

I bounded out of my seat as soon as the seatbelt warning lights went out. Got on the first airport transfer train and rushed through immigration check (the kindly officer said.. "ah.. Pukyong.. u have Mr. Pizza and subway station there right?" and i was thinking: "doesn't every university street have it?"). Arrived at the baggage claim area, used the waiting time to go to the girl's room, and was surprised to see my brown luggage among the first five to fall out onto the conveyor belt. Thanking my lucky stars, I picked up the bag and rushed through the green lane at customs. Reached the airport bus counter and enquired about the bus to Busan. The lady looked at me impatiently and yelled in Korean: "3 minutes left! RUN!!!!!!" So I ran all the way with my 19.7kg luggage and backpack and handbag from Gate 3 to Gate 10. Made it in time at 10.23pm to Gate 10 to see the bus driver already locking up the baggage compartment and going up the stairs to his seat. I said, "I wanna get on the bus!" He asked me, "do you have a ticket?" I said no. He asked me to go grab one. The ticket-selling counter lady was equally impatient, she asked me to HURRY!

By the time I got on the bus, I was sweaty even though it was a cold autumn night, the first of many long cold nights to arrive. I ate a charsiewpao, drank a bit of water and tried to relax, thinking, I had made it after all~ 9.47-10.20pm... quite an achievement! Thank God~

Reached Busan Nopodong bus terminal at 3am. Took a taxi back to my dormitory which cost me 23,000won (1,000won extra for taking the Gwangan Bridge) and was snugly back under my duvet before 4am.

Good night Malaysia and good morning Busan.

Can't wait to be home ♥

2011-09-08T11:10:00.003+08:00

September is a happy month for me for I will be going back home to Malaysia in two more days to be with my hubby and family!~ ♥ Really looking forward to going back... this will be my first time to see my lovely new nest that my hubby decorated... and also see my dad and my mom once again...!

It will be a de-stressing trip for me because I forgo-ed my summer holidays so that I could go back on Chuseok. I'm rushing all my work now (thesis, experiment, journal) so that I can go back and fully enjoy one week of holiday~

Also I booked morning KTX to Seoul so imma gonna dump my luggage either at Seoul Station or Incheon then go sight-seeing!! Am thinking Deoksugung and Insadong hehehe!!

Enjoying the last few hot days of summer end/ early autumn... oh this was when my hair was still long...

Having my favourite latte in Angel-In-Us, Haeundae!

Discovered this makkoeli (Korean rice wine) place at the back gate of my university where they mix these yummylicious flavours along with the makkoeli - honey, banana and milk!! The name of the place is 꿀통 'kkul ttong" which means Honey Pot. The place is decorated with fairy lights and has a Pooh bear and honey bee theme to it... so cute. ^^ I love sitting there with friends, just soaking in the char-grilled aroma of the place... drinking the sweet-flavored makkoeli while the workers BBQ the meat for us... simply love it and can't wait to try out the milk makkoeli....!

Also, my fifth time to Intractor restaurant Seomyeon! I love the reaction from the first-timers after they step out from the rickety lift... "WOW!!!" when the live atmosphere and interior design of the place hits them hahaha. Again, comfort food - pasta and pizza... took a photo of the entrance which is decorated with a variety of different-sized chairs...

Last Sunday, I visited Busan museum which is just 10 minutes walk away from my university. Good place to spend time and learn more about Korean culture without needing to pay any money... the best thing is that it is so near but it was my first time to visit it... However I wouldn't dare to visit there alone at night... lest the scary-looking life-sized human dolls come alive at night.......... grrrrrrr...

They had this glass platform underneath my feet which has a miniature layout of Busan town during the post-Japan occupation days...

It's starting to be autumn again......... red leaves at the Busan museum......... like to play around with online photo-editing these days, making the photos look more interesting ^^

Also, quick update about my life here at the lab. There's 4 new students - 2 are from Malaysia, a girl and a boy, and 2 boys from Africa, one is from Botswana (which he says are famous for diamonds) and another is from Sudan. Was busy giving them some advice about course choice and helping them get started in the lab... I'm feeling happy and good for the refresh of environment in the lab! I'm anticipating some good vibes from the "clash of cultures" in the lab... may be a good thing! Let's see how it plays out........... also hope I can get along well with the Malaysians... and erase all the bad memories of past winter, then I'll be home!

Last but not least....... perfect summer song to end it all!~

Do As Infinity - Summer Days

Finding Mr. Destiny/ Finding Kim Jong Wook (김종욱 찾기)

2011-09-02T11:08:00.002+08:00

Took a time-out from the lab and snuck out for a movie night with some girlfriends at her apartment. Love her one-room apartment, it looks so cosy and nice with family and friend photos and FT Island posters stuck on the wall and stacks of books and DVDs lying around. It looks like a college dorm room. Oh wait, I live in a dorm room too and have piles of books lying around but why doesn't it look half as cosy? I should really start sticking up photos and posters on the wall but then I remembered I'm trying to be minimalist and I've got half a year left so I shouldn't be doing that... hahaha.

Anyway, back to the movie. We started out watching Ryan Reynold's "Just Friends" but the script and acting was just so typical and boring and filled with slapstick humour and stupid sexist jokes that have been repeated time over time. We decided to switch to a Korean rom-com instead. I just feel that Korean rom-coms are so much more funnier and original and something just tugs at your heartstrings after watching. So out came the "Finding Mr. Destiny/ Finding Kim Jong Wook" (김종욱 찾기) DVD. It was a movie that I had wanted to watch in the cinema but didn't have subtitles available.

Synopsis:

김종욱 찾기 is about a girl (Ji Woo) who employs a "Find your First Love" agency guy (Gi Joon, the same actor in Coffee Prince) to find her first love, a guy named Kim Jong-Wook. Ji Woo met Jong Wook 10 years ago while backpacking in India, and spent many romantic and memorable moments together in an exotic place called the Blue City. They were supposed to meet again on the return flight back to Korea but Ji Woo pulled out at the last minute, deciding to "leave their relationship to fate". But after that, Ji Woo could not forget her first love and even rejected the marriage proposal of her boyfriend, a pilot. Therefore, under pressure from her dad who wants her to marry fast, she sought out the services of Gi Joon to find Kim Jong-Wook.

Ji Woo is a sentimental girl who is really very insecure and afraid that endings do not turn out as what she imagines. Therefore she has many quirky habits such as not finishing the last snack in the bag cos she doesn't want the memory to end, and reading books but not reading the ending cos she doesn't want it to happen differently like what she imagines. On the other hand, Gi Joon, the agent who is helping her, seems dorky, timid, uptight and is a neat freak compared to Ji Woo who is always a mess. However during their many trips together to find the Kim Jong Wooks all over Korea, they somehow "find each other"..............

**********

Love this movie so much cos it's so sweet, cute and funny. Especially the title Kim Jong-Wook... it is such a common name in Korea... I even have a friend in DSP lab who has the same name. I laughed out loud when they were trying to find all the different Kim Jong Wooks over Korea! I guess romantic moments are always unforgettable especially when you're on vacation, carefree and in an exotic location and need to rely on each other for help during travel. Some of the moments being with my hubby which I remember the best are the ones on vacation - in USA, in Taiwan, in Jeju, in Korea...

If you have time, I highly recommend you to watch this rom-com. I borrowed a DVD from my friend which has the same actress (Im Soo-Jung) in it, acting opposite Hyun Bin. Movie name is called "Come Rain, Come Shine" (사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다). I hear the movie is sad!!!

剪掉三千烦恼丝

2011-08-30T10:55:00.000+08:00

Well, summer has come to an end so... goodbye to my long locks! Feeling much lighter now, before my hair was so tangled and in such a mess cos I hadn't cut it since I permed my hair in April! :P

Even after cutting it still looks dry and bad... hmmm the transformation is not complete... gonna grow it out a bit first then maybe do a straight volume magic perm on the ends...!

Haha having short hair means I can add some cutesy accessories to my head eg. a polkadot ribbon headband!

Graduation Day (...but not mine)

2011-08-26T15:25:00.000+08:00

Today is Graduation Day again. For those who graduate in the beginning of fall, they call it "graduate cosmos". That's because this is the time when the pretty pink and white cosmos flowers open... such a lovely name, right?

Three of my lab members graduated - 2 Masters and 1 PhD. Took picture with Heung Sub and Rohit who graduated! Congratulations to them!

My lab members (part of them): (from left) Dr. Lee, who's doing post-doctorate in our lab, Sang Joong, a PhD candidate and "head" of our lab, Heung Sub, graduated Masters, Sung Mo, Masters student, me and Jeong Heon, 4th-year undergraduate who's doing internship at our lab.

More pictures: Rohit, his sister Nidhi, me and Heung Sub

When is it gonna be my turn????????????????

The answer is February 2012..... but till then... I have to plough through my thesis, debug why the damn signal is not correct, etc etc etc..................... *sad and worried and everything and feeling hopeless sometimes...*

I really hope I am able to graduate next year and go home to my loved ones! Miss them so much... :-(

Counting stuff I

2011-08-23T18:26:00.004+08:00

How am I ever gonna live the Minimalist life? My bathroom already has:

1 toothbrush
1 toothbrush holder
2 old toothbrushes (i find them good for cleaning hard-to-reach places in my white Converse sneakers)
2 tubes of toothpaste (the weird tasting Korean herbal 1 left over by my ex-ex-roommate)
2 bathroom baskets (for putting my loads of bathroom stuff)
3 shampoos (1 was left over by Tiina)
4 conditioners (1 left over by Tiina)
1 scalp care
1 face scrub (yummy pineapple)
3 foam cleansers (1 left over by Tiina)
1 jelly scrub
1 body scrub
1 bar of soap (left over by ex-roommate)
4 body wash (1 lavender bath to soothe me when I sleep, 1 milk bath to make me feel enriched, 1 peach shower gel to make me feel awake in the morning, and 1 olive bath left over by Tiina)
1 foot scrub (left over by Tiina)
1 foot polisher
1 razor
1 clothes brush
2 toilet brushes
2 pails
few sanitary pads
few facial care/ body wash packet samples

And that's already 35++ items of stuff in my closet-size bathroom!

And yes, I'm bored :P Just finished my experiment - able to transmit and receive, but the ECG signal looks weird... need to change the sampling rate I think... dunno what's wrong :-((((((((

Soldiering on with my efforts to finish using my tonssssssssss of stuff, resist the urge of adding anymore junk to my life, and living a minimalist lifestyle~~ ^^

Fukuoka Part IV - Late Night Sushi in the Red-light District

2011-08-22T11:46:00.002+08:00

We saved our stomachs for a late-night supper near our guesthouse. At first the yatai foodstalls were on our itinerary, I planned to slurp down a hot bowl of tonkatsu ramen and eat a few sticks of grilled yakitori, but I think at that time we were too full for a heavy supper. So we decided to find 100-yen rotating sushi shop instead.

Pictures above: Brightly-lit yatai (foodstalls) along the Nakasu-Kawabata district. It felt like Malaysia 大排挡 foodstalls again! Here in Korea we seldom get to see this... Also the taxis in Japan are so old fashioned... like those taxis in 1980s-1990s..

By the Hakata river

Me holding the cheap plastic umbrella that we borrowed from the guesthouse... everybody was using the same kind of umbrella, when we left it at the 100-yen store it got stolen... or taken by mistake since they all looked the same haha.

When we walked around the Nakasu-Kawabata area, little did we know that it was a redlight district! There were many "salary men" (office workers) walking around in their black suits and ties and girls dressed very sexily standing in wait...

The picture below is a very blur picture of a girl dressed in a wedding gown! They were at a flower shop...

Shirly: "Heyyy look at that girl wearing a wedding dress... why is she wearing a wedding dress at night?"

Me: "Errr... maybe they just finished their wedding dinner..."

Shirly: "=_='''''' where got wedding dinner until so late and the bride still walking around after that 1?"

Wow... Japanese "taste" really different... haha... really all sorts of kinkiness level........ =_='''''' And their 7-11 convenience store even sold lace panties with hole in the middle... again I asked (naively), "why this panty got hole 1???" Hahaha... for convenience-sake I guess!! =_=''''''

Nakasu-Kawabata red light district!

Cute owls in a display window

Finally, we saw a 100-yen rotating sushi shop and went in. This is what 3 girls ate... not too much huh... but everything was so yummyyyyyyyyy the salmon was so fresh!!!

And lastly, back in the comfort and safety of our guesthouse........ zzz... prepare for our next day adventure early the next morning...

Red Japanese paper umbrella

Autumn is here again.

2011-08-22T11:07:00.000+08:00

Autumn is upon us all of a sudden... I saw my first golden leaves today, they shone out amongst the thick, dark green leaves of the sakura tree. Autumn came upon us as fast as the hot, humid showers of summer, it rained one day last week and I found it to be surprisingly cool after that, unlike the summer rain that leaves the residue sticky feeling on my skin. I stopped using air-con at night and opened my windows to let the fresh air come in (although the quality of air is debatable, considering my window opens to a big, noisy road outside..), and I started wearing cardigan again.

It is depressing to see autumn again, this means that summer is really over. I didn't expect autumn to come so soon, I remember last year I wore short-sleeves shirt well into September and after my short Fukuoka trip I came back to Busan, and saw everybody was already in long-sleeved cardigans.

Living in a four seasons country, I am able to witness that summertime is really flighty, no wonder so many people jam-pack the beach whenever they can. I don't like autumn where all the leaves start to fall off the trees and it starts to get cold and you don't see the sun that often and I have to layer-up but I'm not good at mix-and-matching my clothes. Although on the bright side, my friend kindly reminded me that "summer is over, after autumn, after winter, you'll get to see your hubby again!"

Random 3

2011-08-19T19:43:00.003+08:00

a) A bad case of stomach ache reminded me yet again that I should steer clear of oily food. I should try to eat healthy, except eating healthy really here means forcing the cholesterol-free yet awfully bland dormitory menu down my throat, twice a day! Couldn't take it anymore during lunch, so I had instant food - microwaved sausage, microwaved rice and ate it with my mother-in-law's heavenly sambal except -- having microwaved food is really, really bad. I didn't feel very good afterwards. :-( And just now my senior labmate bought me dinner cos I helped him with his English so I succumbed again to a plate of yummy yet greasy yakisoba. Reminder: need to drink hot green tea and eat two nectarines later.

b) Uninstalling/ re-installing/ installing/ cracking software + making everything work together smoothly is just one of the many technical hurdles (small, yet complicated!) of an electronics major student. How I wish that everything were just pre-installed and working nicely on my workstation so I could proceed directly with my research and not care about the details!! Sigh.......... *uninstalling Labview 9.0 now and installing the cracked version (albeit in Korean)... pray that it'll work for me!

Fukuoka Part III - Skydream Marinoa

2011-08-18T12:19:00.004+08:00

Our next destination was Marinoa City, although I didn't quite know what to expect there except for the pier and the giant ferris wheel (Skydream Marinoa). I have this obsession with theme parks and seaside boardwalks... colorful, childlike and romantic fairytale-like... reminds me of carefree summer days, lolling on the beach with my loved one. The best pier I have ever been to is still Santa Monica pier in California, wish I had better camera skills to capture the careless charm of that place.

How we managed to reach there is a blur to me now... I vaguely remember us taking the subway and changing to a bus. One funny thing happened at the subway... I had tried to ask directions from an elderly subway guard but the only Japanese I knew was "xxx doko desuka?" (where is xxx?) I even tried drawing circles in the air to gesture a ferris wheel. The old Japanese man gave me a puzzled look, and started to follow me by putting his finger in the air to draw a circle too!!! OMG... my friends LOL-ed like crazy.....

It was already dark in the evening when we got off the bus at a big, vacant parking lot. The place was somewhat deserted, like most of the "tourist attractions" in Fukuoka, we continued to feel puzzled about the lack of crowd. But in front of us towered a gigantic white Gothic-style building in the night sky, a castle so big and beautiful, glistening in the moonlight, the three of us girls were drawn to it at first sight. So we walked nearer...

It turned out to be a five star luxury wedding hall - Notre Dame Marinoa. From what I experienced in Korea, there are specially-built function halls to hold wedding ceremonies and dinner, quite different from Malaysia where we normally have our wedding dinner in restaurants, hotel ballroom or public-function halls. The strange thing about this place was... you guessed it... again, there was nobody around! Not even a security guard or receptionist in this grand, elegant place. It was starting to feel a little creepy... like the Twilight Zone... but still, being girls, we explored the beautifully decorated lobby and took as many pictures as we could! ^^

Then we walked to the Evergreen Marinoa factory outlets located nearby. Again, there were very few shoppers cos it was a weekday ( I guess...) There was even a Coach outlet!

Next, crossed the road opposite to the Skydream Marinoa Ferris Wheel! It was located by the pier, amongst a row of restaurants and shops selling clothes, soft toys, and Le Creuset cookware... It was so serene and beautiful, looking at the bright neon-colored ferris wheel rotating splendidly in the night sky...

Dinner time! We just randomly picked a restaurant that looked authentic (read: looked affordable) and went in. Good for me the menu had pictures! I didn't wanna risk ordering something that wouldn't turn out as familiar Japanese fare... especially as I was dead hungry. We ordered grilled mackerel, sushi platter and tempura prawn to share amongst overselves... and boy was it AWESOME!!! Much better than any of the Japanese restaurants in Malaysia (and Korea)... hence our conclusion: you can walk into any random shop in Japan and still feel it's so awesome............ really missing the food now... yum yum

Grilled mackerel

Sushi set

Tempura ebi don

Summer

2011-08-17T16:19:00.002+08:00

First, I'll start by getting the food out of the way... hehe

Had ginseng chicken soup (삼계탕 samgyetang) on the third hottest day of summer (말복 malbok) to fight the summer heat with heat (以热攻热)! Surprisingly, it felt really good after that! This is a samgyetang shop in Haeundae, my first visit to that shop.

Wall lined with bottles of medicinal herbs... ginseng, roots etc, they even had pineapple in one of them

Samgyetang

Had a fun afternoon at the beach... it was very very hot and filled with pastel colors! Love my Dunkin Donut's float... ^^

Then went to Seomyeon to buy farewell present for the Malaysian girls who are leaving... saw a soju promo event there... Seomyeon is like the central district of Busan... but I had never really walked around that area at night. Went to eat the grilled shellfish... miss it so much! There was this shop with 'grilled shellfish + eat-all-u-can sausage + beer can chicken' near my university but it closed down and changed hands...

Soju bottle and cup taking a rest...

Seomyeon is so nicely lit up at night! I never knew...

Grilled shellfish and octopus in spicy buttered sauce

Recently discovered this little beer place near my university... looks like the owner had been to Bali cos I can see those wooden cats and paper-mache notebooks lying around... The ceiling is very low... but I love the place cos it's so funky with the funny drawings on the wall and so cozy with the chess games and cheap draft beer and potato fries~~

That day after lab seminar we had a free dinner... 마포갈매기쌀 samgyupsal with egg around it... this is the first time I'd been to this place... however service is really bad...

Went to play Disco Jump one of the days... had heard about it a couple of times from MJ and Shirly... so went to try it... It's this amusement park ride where everybody sits in a circle and grasp hold of the railing and the controller will toss you up and down like a pancake! Back pain like hell and arm muscle pain till now... T.T

Disco jump!

Went to a petting zoo too... saw some cute animals~

This rabbit is so adorable!! Begging for food...

Hamsters...

Even the hamster house is so cute!!

Piggy... this is a house-pet!

Check out that dripping-wet snout!

Piggy very lazy... rolling round and round on the floor...

And this is a spotted pig...

And last but not least... inspired by this blog: The Minimalists ...Check it out! The guy said he has only 288 belongings...

This is my latest snapshot of my shelf and desk in my dormitory room... I have sooooooo much stuff! I have at least:-

3 soft toys,
a dozen ballpens,
6 packs of wet tissue,
3 hats/caps,
3 combs,
3 sets of untouched facial items,
3 sleeping packs,
20 nail polish and
uncountable free samples of skincare items, sleeping pack, BB cream....

OMG... do I actually need all that stuff? But actually it's not entirely my fault, half of it is free anyway, the sales people here just like to stuff us mad with freebies! But for the rest... I just feel like I'm so guilty for creating so much garbage and waste in this world... we were born with nothing and we should go with nothing, why do I need so much stuff?! So my resolution is... stop buying stuff until I finish using all of it!

Fukuoka Part II - Japanese Shrines, Ohori Park & Castle Ruins

2011-08-16T19:36:00.001+08:00

After Canal City, we went to visit the Kushida Shrine which was just nearby. Actually Fukuoka is kind of a boring old city, there were not many tourist attractions so we could cover nearly all of them in one day.

The Kushida Shrine is famous for hosting the Yamakasa-gion Festival in mid-July. According to the city website, "hundreds of near naked men clad only in tight loincloths and tighter buttocks vie to carry heavy wooden shrines through the streets over a set route in the fastest times". The portable Yamakasa shrine (山笠) is on the right top of the picture below.

It was my first time to a Japanese shrine, so it quite fascinated me - the huge red lantern with bold letters dangling at the main entrance, the bright orange gates marked with names of people who donated/enshrined at the temple, the huge golden carps swimming leisurely in the pond, the 1000-year old gingko tree, the small wooden wish-card that people write down their wishes, washing hands with the wooden ladle... I even tried clapping my hands twice and forming them to make a silent prayer.

Kushida Shrine (櫛田神社)

There was also this fortune-telling machine where we could get a fortune slip for 30yen. The machine even had fortune slips in different languages - Japanese, Korean, English, and Chinese. My fortune slip is still stuck to my desk behind a Hawaii magnet, it reads "Lucky - like a leaf falling in the autumn breeze". Hmm... whatever that means... but it didn't sound too lucky to me... hahaha...

Next, we walked to Tochoji Temple which houses the largest wooden Guan Yin statue in Japan and Big Buddha. It is the oldest temple in Fukuoka. This temple looked more serious, zen and less-touristy compared to Kushida Shrine. I only saw the Big Buddha but not the Guan Yin statue...

Tochoji Temple (东长寺)

More photos of Fukuoka along the way...

Gion subway station

One thing we noted was the subway stations were eerily devoid of people and very quiet. Once everybody got out of the train, they would be gone in a flash, leaving us wandering around in the silence..... very different from Korea, Korean subways are more lively... ^^

We took the subway from Gion to Ohori Park. Hmmm... I was feeling very tired at that time... got my leggings dirty and had to go to the toilet to rinse it. Ohori Park was just a normal park with a huge lake. Something like Titiwangsa Lake or DR Park in Ipoh because of the swan boats. It felt very serene and comfortable and was very green for my eyes cos there's not many big open spaces in Busan. We sat there for a while and walked around the lake to reach the Fukuoka Castle Ruins on the other side.

Ohori Park (大濠公园)

Love the corgi...... it's so fat!!!

Crossed the lake to the other side...

Entrance to the Fukuoka castle ruins... it was really just ruins... piles of rocks... zzzzz... exactly like what we had seen in Suncheon a few weeks back! We spent just a short while there and were eager to leave the place cos it was getting dark and you know what they say about Japanese ghosts.......... x_X

To be continued...

Rainy day

2011-08-16T11:24:00.002+08:00

A minor incident which almost turned into a major disaster happened yesterday. I was coming out of the subway on the escalator when I saw a crowd of people blocking the exit. Apparently it had started raining heavily all of a sudden so people were huddling under the subway exit roof, blocking the way out. As I reached the top of the stairs, the people in front of me could not step off the escalator as there were too many people in front of them. This caused me to bump into the girl in front as we reached the landing and the girl pressed onto the people in front of her. We were all in danger as the escalator was continuously moving but there was a human wall in front of us blocking the way! So I didn't care, started to shove and push my way forward so that the people behind wouldn't get stuck and start falling off the elevator. Luckily more people started to shout "get away! don't block the exit!" and those people blocking in front of us were shoved out into the rain.

It was so brainless and selfish of those people. Just because they didn't want to get wet they did a stupid thing which might have caused a major accident on the elevator stairs...

*On a side-note, I bought one of those transparent plastic umbrellas that we see so often in Jap dramas, of people using it at busy intersections, while walking under the falling autumn rain, of lovers huddling together... so romantic ^^ It cost 4,000won from Daiso.

Fukuoka Part I - Getting there & First Impressions

2011-08-11T12:00:00.005+08:00

Feeling inspired to blog about my Japan trip... which happened like... one year ago hahaha. It happened back in September 2010 during the biggest holiday in Korea - Chuseok, or Full Moon Festival - for three days. That time I was feeling bored about traveling around in Korea so I decided to pop over to Japan for a short visit together with two other girls. Although saying "I visited Japan!", we actually only had time to visit one city - Fukuoka (福岡) - which is the nearest city to Busan. We traveled there by Beetle jet ferry (book here) which cost 190,000won (~RM513) round trip per pax, and took us about 3 hours to reach Hakata Port (博多).

Inside the ferry

Inside the ferry - it was very comfy and even had stewardess selling food and drinks

Reached Hakata Port!

Hakata(博多) and Fukuoka（福岡）actually point to the same place. Around the city you can see the names Hakata/Fukuoka being used interchangeably. Hakata/Fukuoka is situated on the northern shore of Kyushu island, Japan. Historically, Hakata was the port and merchant district, while the samurai lived in Fukuoka. When the two cities decided to merge, the samurai gatecrashed the meeting to rename the city and forced those present to name it as Fukuoka.(copied from Wikipedia)

Day 1 Itinerary

Hakata Station-> Hakata Riverside Hostel -> Canal City Shopping Mall -> Kushida Shrine -> Tochoji Temple -> Ohori Park -> Fukuoka Castle Ruins -> Skydream Marinoa -> Nakasu Kawabata redlight district

Due to the proximity of Korea to Fukuoka, there are many signages in Korean language in the city. One helpful thing for travelers like me is that I can understand the Japan signages better than in Korea cos they are almost always written in Chinese characters!

Hakata Station - for subway and JR train

Walked around the street below to find capsule motel (wanted to try after reading Kenny Sia's blogpost). Before the trip I had managed to persuade one of my traveling companions to bravely take on the claustrophobic experience (sleeping in capsule which is like being in a coffin!) so we were all actually looking forward toward that. Imagine our disappointment (and maybe slight relief..) when the staff told us that throughout Fukuoka, all the capsule motels are for guys only! Not for ladies! Later, somebody told me that's because Japanese guys need to give the impression of working till very late everyday to their wife/family so some of them don't even return home straight after work and spend the night in a capsule motel instead. Btw capsule motel also comes with sauna service so I think it would be kinda relaxing to wind down and have some "alone time" too.

Street in front of capsule motel

So after being "rejected", we went back to Hakata Station. The information desk personnel at the Hakata Station was so helpful, she helped us to book our last minute lodgings at Riverside Backpackers Hostel Hakata. The location of this backpackers inn is really good (just beside Canal City and Kushida Shrine) so I absolutely recommend it to anybody traveling to Fukuoka.

Hakata River

Big shopping mall with cutesy name "eeny meeny miny mo"!!! Too bad didn't have time to go in...

Covered shopping street at Riverside

Restaurant and shops selling biscuits and small eateries

Our backpackers hostel! It was my first time staying in backpackers inn... ^^

The room was small, but okay-ish... just like what I would expect for a backpackers' hostel. Occupied the top bunk by putting my orange Nike backpack there... I was to share the room with another 2 Korean girls and 1 American later... my 2 Malaysian friends were given another room. When I opened the door to the bathroom... OMG! It was so small!!! Looked like the size of an airplane toilet, seriously... The bathtub was so small, if I were fatter, there would be no room for me to even turn around...!

Next, a short walk to Canal City Shopping Mall... of course we had no money to buy anything except souvenirs and food @@... so just did some window-shopping...

Feels like a garden mall with street performer in the middle stage

The street performer was a young Japanese lad performing some robot dance... halfway through it started to rain! But he still kept performing until his dance was finished... really very professional and 敬业. *Hats off

By then we were starving so we went in search of some yummy Japanese food... rainy days made me feel like slurping some hot ramen soup.............

Cute Japanese boys... just like in Jap dramas!!

Piggy dangling from the paper lamp

Once in the shop, I suddenly realised... my sushi Japanese was not enough for me to make an order!!!!!! OMG......... I only armed myself with some survival Jap like "konichiwa" and "doko desuka" (where is this place?) but forgot to write down how to order food!!! So I was like 比手画脚-ing with the waitress and doing the "what is oishii" pose until my 2 Msian friends started conversing in Chinese and the waitress said... "You can speak Chinese?! I am from Beijing!!!" Wow... that was a really 'zhadao' moment... luckily enough then we got to order some really delicious food... @@ That restaurant also had some kind of promotion going on, so we had a pretty affordable lunch...

Orange juice and mentaiko (fish roe)!

Fried gyoza and mentaiko!

Mentaiko (明太子) or marinated roe of pollock

I had been hearing so much about mentaiko mentaiko from my former labmate and that time it was all the rage in those Malaysian blogs. So I ordered some to try... hmm.... the taste was just so-so, it was cold and clammy and had a bit of fishy smell (腥味) to it... didn't really like it that much then. But after I returned to Korea my labmate gave me some Korean style mentaiko to eat with porridge... I changed my mind after that... mentaiko is so yummy! *^^*

Our Japanese noodles in hotpot... motsunabe (もつ鍋) which is a dish native to Fukuoka! Miss it so much... the soup is so creamy and flavorful...

Our Japanese noodles in hot pot - I think this is called motsunabe or something...

Another version of the motsunabe... that spongy-texture tasting thing... I got to know much later... was actually cow's anus!!! Can eat it in Korea also with the squid fried rice (nakji bokkum)

Oishii!! Slurping down my ramen~~ *^^*

After that went out and walked a bit more around the shopping mall... all the Jap candies and biscuits look so interesting! And that time was nearing Halloween... so there were lots of candies on sale... One thing bad about Jap stores is they don't really allow people to take photos of their merchandise...

Strawberry shortcake... anybody remember this drama from university days? Haha...

And the huge selection of mentaiko............

Really love all the cutesy soft toys in Japan................ especially that fat white seal!

To be continued...

Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask

2011-08-09T11:35:00.003+08:00

This morning as I was walking to the lab, the sun moved out from under the clouds and lit up the road in front of me. I was the only one walking on the wide road at that time. I could see the road in front getting brighter and brighter, like streetlamps were turning on one-by-one as I walked through. I felt like I was in a Broadway play and almost broke out in a tap dance on the street.

********************

The summer weather has brought many problems to my skin. Oily, greasy, clogged pores, pimples bursting out all over my forehead. Then one day I came across this blog where the blogger said she was using a clay mask to do her facial. Then it struck me... why don't I try out Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask? I've been wanting to try it forever and this product couldn't be too perfect for summer! So I got out and grabbed one from the store, which cost 12,000won for a small jar.

Innisfree Jeju Volcanic Pore Clay Mask - 12,000won

Yesterday was the second time I applied it on my face. Before applying, use toner to cleanse your face. Then apply the clay evenly over your whole face, while avoiding the eye and lip area. The trick is to layer the clay thickly at the problem area with a lot of clogged pores, such as the nose and the sides of the nose. Then leave it on for like 15 mins until the clay starts to dry and you can feel a slight pull on your face and you can see cracks appearing in the clay. Then wash it all off with warm water.

After I washed it off, I could see these whiteheads coming off from the pores! Then I used a towel to gently rub them off. Now my face feels much cleaner, dryer and balanced! It really works especially after my face is clogged with dirt after some outdoor activity or exercise. ^^

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A short sidenote on the stocks plunge caused by the S&P U.S. "AAA" rating downgrade. Today the KOSPI (Korean Stock Exchange) dived below the 1,700 level and was marked "Urgent" on the Korea Herald news site. Korea is heavily dependent on U.S. export and is one of the biggest owners of U.S. treasury in Asia.

Well, no direct impact to me yet and I don't hear anybody talking about it much here cos we're all students... duh... Only thing is the USD will weaken and the KRW will get stronger opposing to it so I think I gotta exchange my money fast. And the other fact is that my hubby and friends working for USA companies in Malaysia are getting less from their RSUs... sad........

Got this from church on Sunday from an American couple who came to share about evangelism. It's a mock version of the USD with Obama's face in front and a mock value of one trillion dollars. So funny! My hubby said that I should have two of these cos that's the credit limit that was approved by Congress. It is actually a pamphlet that raises the "Trillion Dollar Question" of whether we believe we will go to heaven after we die. Very interesting gimmick (and good souvenir) for evangelists on-the-go who wanna grab people's attention fast.

CGV Cloud

2011-08-08T19:41:00.001+08:00

Korean people (especially Korean girls) like to take photos so much (self-cam), there are free photo booths allocated at those famous tourist spots.

At Shinsegae Centum City CGV, there is a special photo taking device called the CGV Cloud. After your photo is taken, the picture is displayed on a huge touch panel attached to the wall, along with many other digital photos floating around. Then by using the touch panel, you can pull up a virtual keyboard and key in your email address and voila! your photo will be sent via email. Then you use your hand to drag your photo until it flies out of the panel and into the "cloud" of other photos floating around on the wall. Pretty cool, huh?

Photo taken in May

Photo taken in July with my baby

Heartstring Concert with Rynten Okazaki 岡崎倫典

2011-08-08T11:51:00.002+08:00

Today is the wettest day I had experienced for a year, though this type of torrential rain is not uncommon in Malaysia. When I reached the lab, my shoes were totally drenched and my quarter-leggings were soaked up to my thigh.

Two weeks ago, the downpour in Seoul was really really bad - they say it was the worst rainfall in 100 years - and the mudslides and floods killed many people in Seoul and the rural areas. And my friend told me Jeju got hit really bad by the typhoon yesterday. So I guess Busan is still relatively safe for now... in fact the weekend was really good despite the typhoon warning...

*********************

Yesterday I attended a guitar concert "Heartstring Concert with Rynten Okazaki 岡崎倫典". Normally I wouldn't attend these kind of concert but since it was held at the Busan Youth Cultural Hall, which is just a stone's throw away from my dormitory and my friend was bugging me so much to go, I decided to give it a try. And it seems that Rynten Okazaki is quite a famous guitarist and composer, even composing songs for some anime such as My Neighbour Totoro (となりのトトロ).

Okazaki's guitar style is "fingerstyle", which means playing the rhythm (plucking) as well as the background simultaneously. The music he composes are romantic style, which I imagine myself lying in a wide green field looking at the blue sky while fat, white, fluffy clouds float past my head. Or lying on a bed doing my facial with the CD player on.

During the intervals in between each song, he would introduce the song by speaking about his inspirations. I could gather bits and pieces from the little Korean I could understand from his interpreter. Okazaki draws his inspiration from places he visits and surrounding things, such as his hometown Hiroshima, his pet black cat which had 5 wives and 40 kittens, Lake Titicaca in Latin America, his daughter, etc. Most of the time he played his own compositions, and for a while he played other guitar classics such as Eagles "Hotel California", Eric Clapton "Change the World", Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair" & "Mrs Robinson", Teresa Teng's "我只在乎你". He also played the Winter Sonata theme song during encore, which I loveeeeeeeeee so much! Felt like buying his CD but it was too expensive (~20,000won)... it is difficult to find his songs on Youtube, most of them are covers by the Korean boy genius Sungha Jung. Enjoy~ :-)

Isle of Totora (토토라의 섬)

Small Island above the Clouds (雲の上の小さな島)

City of Tokyo

Living Naturally

I miss Japan :-(

Praying for accomodation.

2011-08-03T21:14:00.001+08:00

Sometimes I think I am really stupid in the sense that I like to create trouble for myself............ @.@

This morning I woke up, feeling really bored and thought to myself... "Gosh, I'm feeling so lethargic lately... I hope something BIG can happen and jolt me out of my sleep"............

Then around 11am I got a call from dormitory office saying that I cannot apply for extended stay from Aug20-30th because I didn't apply for next semester boarding. What the @%$#^%#&!#%&?!?!?!?!?

"It must be a mistake... it must be a mistake..." I kept on wishing as I raced back from the lab to the dorm office. But it was not. I really forgot to apply for next semester boarding in June cos that time we had to apply for 2 boardings (summer boarding and fall semester boarding) consecutively and I was busy with my Jeju conference so I think I got confused and let the dateline pass...

So sad... anyway there might be a few chances that I can get back in the dorm... a) my roommate js told me today that she applied but she gonna drop the accommodation for nx semester cos she's going to University Malaya for exchange program... so hopefully I can take her place b) a guy in the Office of International Relations told me to find him again on Aug 17 and he can maybe help me to get a place in.....

Otherwise my only choice is to find a one-room apartment outside the university... but it is very inconvenient and no aircon and the deposit is very expensive (Korean rental very weird.. need to pay one year deposit...)

Please pray that everything goes well for me and I will be able to successfully take my roommate's place tomorrow................. *sobs*

*Peace out*

*Update: Got my accommodation settled on 9th August! The dormitory office SMS-ed me to ask me pay for next semester boarding, that means I got a place in! Feeling so relieved and happy~~~~~ Gave the office lady a box of Taster's Choice ice coffee for helping me out~~~~~

Oedo Paradise Island (외도)

2011-08-01T14:27:00.000+08:00

Updates:

1) Weather is getting more and more similar to Malaysia now. My bangs are giving me pimples and clogged pores so starting from today Imma clipping them back!
2) Feeling a little sad and ajumma-ish cos yesterday somebody at church said I am 30 years old! And a little girl called me "i mo" (aunty) yesterday... *sobssssssssss Must be my hair! Must be me getting out of shape! Feel like getting a new haircut but just don't know what to do...
3) Professor is not around so I can relaxxxx a bit~ Everybody is doing the same... hehe
4) My baby's 30th birthday happened yesterday! Ordered some cutesy cupcakes for him~ lion & pig

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Oedo Trip

On Saturday I planned a daytrip to visit Oedo with my Malaysian friends. Oedo (외도) is a small, privately-owned island off the bigger island of Geoje. It is my third time in 3 months to visit Geoje island and frankly, I am a bit sick of crossing the Geoga Bridge already...

Transportation & how to get there from Busan:

From Busan, we took a bus from Sasang Intercity Bus Terminal to JangSeungPo (장성포). Then change to a city bus to ferry terminal. The ferry to Oedo costs 19,000won round trip. And when we reached Oedo, we had to pay another 5,000won to enter the island.

While waiting for our time to get on the boat we ducked into a small cafe called Olle for the aircon and some shaved ice (patpingsu). The patpingsu was delicious cos it had some fruits like kiwi and tomato! And we shared an affogato coffee which is espresso with lotsa icecream~

Affogato

Patpingsu (Red beans and fruit with shaved ice)

Haha... looking very summer-like in our straw hats... I like the big straw hat with polka-dot ribbon... too bad it is not mine... don't think I will spend money on buying one although it feels very "Pretty Woman"-ish!!!

During the boat ride, the captain ajosshi announced that we could go out on the deck and look at the surrounding islands. Felt like being on a island cruise in Thailand.

Jutting out rock which looks like a face!

After more than half an hour, we reached Oedo Paradise Island... the entrance wowed us with its Mediterranean-like feel...

Sphinx

Group picture:

Oedo written in Chinese means "the outside island". There is another island called Nedo which literally translates as "the inside island"

This part feels like Cameron Highlands

At the center part of the island was a Venus Garden with many chalk statues... Jing Huey said the owners of this island really know how to make money... just simply throw a few "Greece" statues around and collect entrance fee... hahahah really true...

Group photo at Venus Garden

Then we went up some stone steps called "Stairway to Heaven" to take in this breathtaking view... This place is also the scene of the final episode in Winter Sonata where the lovers reunite...

5th avenue

2011-07-27T21:27:00.001+08:00

是夜。
又来到一家酒吧，友人说今天晚上可以在这里换取免费的啤酒。
墙壁都刷上我喜欢的，灰灰蓝蓝的颜色。
灯光昏暗，最亮眼的是收银台旁边的电视机，播放着 National Geographic 的《Walking Trails》。

最近不怎么爱喝啤酒了，就换两杯鸡尾酒。
一个 Supa Long Tea，一个 Tequila Sunrise。
第一次喝 Tequila Sunrise，味道不怎么样，好像在喝甜甜的橙汁。
我要的酒精呢？···········

酒吧的中间有个 disco ball，折放出的光线在我们周围旋绕着。
我们望着墙壁上的空酒瓶，开始猜猜看的游戏，Jack Daniels，Bombay Sapphire，Absolute，哈我都能朗朗上口。
墙壁上还有一些指标，指向门外方向的是 yammy，还有 grill bar，other bar，room 等等。
Grill bar 上面刚刚还看到一大块烤得正熟的西式牛扒，转眼拿起相机要拍时已经不见了。

很快的酒杯已见底，好吧看在星期一的份上，还是不要喝这么多了。
下一次回来一定要试试看他家的 NY steak，还有那听起来好香的 Philly Cheese burger。

Summer Beach - Part 1

2011-07-25T22:40:00.004+08:00

有些事情，我是不是想太多了呢？
很想在接下来的天天，每一天，都象昨天一样开心，一切都完美。♥

夏天海云台人潮再现，穿上新的比基尼到海边戏水 *^^*
比基尼有点小可爱，颜色跟款式都是韩国女生爱穿的~~
不管了，再过两年 30 岁就不可能穿的这么可爱了哈哈
相比去年，今年肥了 2kg，还是去年那身 sporty 装看起来比较好看吧~~ *^^*　

海云台, 2011

海云台, 2010

丰盛的晚餐

游泳过后我们到海边附近的 VIPS 餐馆用餐。
这是我第一次到 VIPS，salad bar 果然好好吃，名不虚传~
吃了好多好多我超想念的烟熏三文鱼，烤玉蜀黍，celery，炒饭，荔枝还有提拉米苏。
嗯~~~~~~~~~~~ 食物让我开心！~ *^^*

On Love & Risotto

2011-07-20T21:37:00.066+08:00

一个炎热的下午，在图书馆的某个角落，巧遇阿兰· 德波顿（Alain de Botton）的小说《On Love》。
久仰阿兰· 德波顿的大名，是因为曾在张小娴的部落格里看见他的名字，写的都是关于爱的一些故事。
在这韩国大学的图书馆里头，英文书籍可谓少之又少，看到这一本书可真让我惊讶了一阵子。

躲进学校的 cafe，是为了逃避在外猛烈的夏天阳光。
但光线还是透过卷帘，斜照在我坐的沙发上。
可是这绿色大沙发太舒适了，我不想离开。
只有当感觉到太阳的斜晖照到我脸上来了，才懒洋洋地斜斜靠边挪动，躲开它的追踪。

朋友问我，“你想吃什么？”
我看了看餐牌，然后点了我人生的第二道 risotto。Garlic and chicken。
盘子端上桌之后开始后悔了。
意大利饭软绵绵的，carbonara 的酱太过饱腻。
偷瞄朋友的 Indian curry chicken 炒饭，还是粒粒分明，香喷喷的炒饭比较好吃。

Anyway，就好像很有闲情那样翻了翻《On Love》几页。
讲的是作家在飞机上遇见了他女朋友的故事。
然后再翻到最后，整本书都是在讲同一个人，Chloe。
接下来我猜想一定是成为他的另一半了。
回到研究室，打开电脑找阿兰· 德波顿的照片。
啊~~~ 原来是秃头的...................... （我朋友号称“skinhead”），顿时失去胃口再看下去。

想起了我前一阵子在看的那一本出自《Eat, Pray, Love》同一名作者　Elizabeth Gilbert ，讲述婚姻的书《Committed》。
觉得她就是讲来讲去都是在给于自己理由，和前夫离婚的理由，迟迟不愿意和现任男朋友结婚的各种理由，为什么选择不要生孩子做妈妈的理由。
到后来看不下去了，最后把它送给了我的那位芬兰朋友。
希望这本阿兰· 德波顿的《On Love》能带给我惊喜吧，不要象那盘　risotto 一样，单调无味。

Jeju Chocolate Museum

2011-07-20T13:01:00.000+08:00

Wearing my candy-striped cotton summer dress today makes me think of Chocolate Museum in Jeju. This was another place which I wanted to go with Leo, but dropped due to insufficient time. I'm lucky that Rohit and Tiina gamely went together with me, because Chocolate Museum is so far out to the west side of Jeju so the cab set us back 20,000won from Jungmun area. So expensive! But looking at the map it didn't seem too far, so when I discussed with Tiina later she said that the taxi driver seemed to have taken a longer route.

The Jeju Chocolate Museum is the brainchild of a Korean couple - Han Yae Seok and her husband Ju Jen Uine. Read more here and here.

Entrance of Chocolate Museum

Really really love this place... from the travel brochures hahaha. I imagined it to be a huge, grand place surrounded by acres and acres of green grassland. So I was a little disappointed to see that it was just a compound in a housing area. The wonders of Photoshop........ =_=''' But anyway, from the entrance the building still looked very grand, it looked like a castle moulded from dark chocolate, waiting to be eaten... nomnomnomnomnom...

Entrance fee was not too bad considering the taxi fee we had to pay in order to get here... 4,000won including a cup of hot Americano with a slight hint of chocolate!

There were many "antique" curiosities inside the museum. At the lobby, we were greeted by a knight's suit-of-amour and a "penny-farthing" high-wheeled bicycle. Love it!

On one wall, there were many miniature models of castles, horses and jostling knights. I really really like miniatures... hope I can buy one and put in on display in my home next time.

The other walls were lined with history of chocolate, how the Aztecs traded cacao bean as currency, and the modern history and development of chocolate in different countries!

There was also an interesting display of chocolate tins collected from all over the world... my favourite is the Hershey's "I Must Have OREO SANDWICH for Dessert" blue tin!! So nice! And not forgetting the Ghirardelli chocolate tin fashioned after the San Francisco cable car...

At one part of the building we could see the chocolate makers busy at work, making little chocolate delights in the factory!And some chocolate creations like the Chocolate Princess, statue, Eiffel Tower... etc.

At the gift shop, we were each given a piece of handmade chocolate to taste... yummmmm. But a box of the chocolates were too expensive to buy @.@... Saw my favourite nutcrackers and lighthouses for sale in the giftshop!

Ahhh this museum really makes me feel like a little kid again... there was a toy train running through a snow village inside a glass-case.

Toy train

The train was carrying cacao beans!

Last but not least, the room which is always Christmas. Felt transported back to Grand Canyon in wintertime, sitting by the cozy fireplace inside the cabin with red ribbons and ornaments strung all over the christmas trees~

All ready for summer.

2011-07-17T17:12:00.002+08:00

My frilly new bikini! ^^

The weather has been blazing HOT this past week! Getting a headache from sleeping too much in the afternoon just now in air-con room while the sun is so bright outside!

Also, bought a new bikini last week. Nude pink Arena with frills and an extra skirt outside, 49,000won. Haha it's ballerina dress pink and actually kinda looks more like lingerie than swimwear. But all the Korean girls wear this fashion at the beach. Not getting anymore younger so these are the last few years I can wear bikini so who cares! Hahaha...

Can't wait to go to the beach many manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy times this summer and get as tanned as last summer!!!

*Side note: Got my TOPIK (test of proficiency in korean language) exam over and done with in the morning. Haha left my room at 7.30am and lucky able to make it in time cos there was a small bus waiting for me outside the subway station! Had a momentary illusion of being back in Malaysia cos everybody on the bus was speaking Chinese! Haha... anyway I think I should be able to get Level 2. If I get Level 2 then I think I won't take Korean class anymore next semester. Haha...

Update! I got Level 2! With a average percentage of 91 marks!! Wow... surprised even myself... wahaha ^^

Ildo Beach, Jeju & Yongduam Rock

2011-07-15T21:49:00.001+08:00

It seems like my mood swings are getting worse. One day I'm happy, one day I'm sad. One day I'm excited about everything, one day I'm worried.

I don't like people belittling me, my ability. I hate people saying that "getting a masters degree is peanuts". It's really tough for me, taking my masters degree (especially when it's in research) overseas, alone. It's tough when my technical skills suck, tough when I really don't know the way to do it, tough when everything goes wrong and I don't know why and I don't have anybody to ask and guide me here. Tough to start the day, tough to end the day worrying about what work to do, what kind of experiment to setup tomorrow. So just because I don't complain about it all day long doesn't mean it's easy work and don't force me to get a fucking PhD degree cos you have no idea how much hard work it takes.

On the brighter side of things, I woke up to exciting news that my journal abstract got accepted to the Taiwan conference!!! So my chances of going to Taipei this year-end just got upped afterall! You guys have no idea how many sleepless nights I have gone through worrying whether my paper got accepted or rejected.

I am going to take the TOPIK (Korean Language Proficiency Test) this Sunday. I paid 40,000won for it myself, just because I want to gauge my grasp of the language since I have already been here for one and a half years. Spent one whole week studying the grammar (conjugation, connectors... fxxxing difficult) and memorizing essays. The listening/ comprehension part is easier for me and it would really depends on the day itself so I didn't really practice on that. Hope I can pass with flying colours and get Level 2 successfully. :-)

A delayed post on my Jeju trip:

24th June (Friday)

Today is the day of my presentation. Although I have had countless presentations (this being my 3rd conference presentation) on my research work, I still get the jitters whenever it is expected of me to go on stage.

Fresh in the morning with makeup on :-)

The venue of my conference is in Ramada Plaza Hotel at Jeju-si. It is a 5-star hotel located at a beautiful location just by the sea. The conference hall in which I presented is very grand too.

Some pictures of me during my presentation... ^^

Tiina & I after my presentation

Having some coffee after my presentation

Me being hiau-hiau in the hotel lobby...

And the bright vermilion colour against the blue sky somehow reminds me of Fukuoka...

After our presentations, we went out to play.............. passed through this underpass which had photographs of Jeju citizens lining each side of the wall... quite interesting.

Old people on one side

And children on the other side

First stop of the day was Yongduam Rock (龙头岩), or 'Dragon Head Rock' in English. Due to insufficient time, I didn't get to visit this with Leo last time so I wanted to visit it this time.

Our conference venue - Ramada Plaza - in the background

With Rohit. They say that this shot is a must-shot for honeymooners going to Jeju. Well... Rohit replaced my hubby in this photo hahahahaha.

Looking back at my photos, I just realized that I took many breathtaking shots here. Like the following two pictures:

This is the Dragon Head rock. Does it really look like a dragon?

Then we took a taxi to our next destination - Jeju Loveland. I didn't enter cos I had already been there the last time with Leo. So I went and sat in a cafe while waiting for them and fell asleep........

There was a nice big cloud following us everywhere...

After Loveland, we went to Shin Jeju-si (new downtown area) to take a look... then we found out that there was nothing there really except for the hotels and Shilla Duty-free Shopping Center...

Nice street lamp in Shin Jeju-si (Yeon-dong)

Took a picture of myself in the toilet... ^^

And finally... Ildo Beach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was the first time this summer that I went to the beach... and it was in Jeju! Ildo Beach was recommended to us by the taxi driver. I have this habit of striking up conversations with taxi drivers here cos I wanna practice my Korean and it really boosts my ego when I can actually understand when they're talking... hahah.

When we arrived at this beach, I was very surprised cos this was the place with the two lighthouses shaped like horses!!!!! I saw this from the airplane flying into Jeju but I had no idea that they were located at this beach! So I felt very very happy when I saw this... *^^*

Retro mood... ^^

Ildo beach!!

Hahah... I just get so excited whenever I go near beaches... Rohit didn't dare to go into the water due to his bad 'past experience' with seawater... hahah...

Yoohoo!

Saw a pretty ribbon-pattered seashell on the beach...
And drew some letters in the sand ^^

Chilled out somemore and bought some souvenirs until it was time to leave...

Saw a spectacular sunset at Jeju airport before departure...

인포미선 (A Dance Musical)

2011-07-13T14:27:00.002+08:00

Korea is a country that celebrates and encourages the arts. After I came to Korea, I have had much more opportunities to watch art performances as compared to Malaysia, such as - opera singing, dances, piano performance, paint exhibition etc. There is a famous university nearby (Kyungsung University) that specializes in the arts (singing, dance, musical instruments) so sometimes my friends who study in that university will invite me to go watch their performances. Many of the performers in Busan graduate from that university.

On Monday, my labmate Jae Ho gave me tickets to watch his girlfriend perform in a comedy ballet at Haeundae Cultural Hall. His gf was the 2nd main dancer in the musical. The title of the musical was "인포미선" ... or short for '인생을 포기 한 미선' （抛弃人生的女孩）. In English it means "Mee-son who gave up on life". The story centers around a 34-year old lady named Mee-Son whose life is temporarily "on-hold". She has no job at the moment and lazes on the couch at home all day, occasionally getting up to eat some ramen, ice-cream, or getting into a job-finding frenzy on the Internet and day-dreaming about various possible outcomes such as being a successful career woman, ballet dancer, or crazy office worker. The comedy ballet is actually not only ballet but is a mix of other genres such as jazz, contemporary, swing etc.

Because the story is all about Mee-son, all the focus is on the main dancer to make the ballet a success. Although her dance movements were good, I felt that her facial expressions and character were not attractive nor cute/pleasant enough to captivate the audience and draw the audience along. The only salvaging point was the few eye-candies (cute guy dancers!) that appeared at some stages as Mee-son's probable love-interests! And the guy and girl pair who played the "fantasy ballet dancers" were really good. My friend's gf too was hot and sexy in her portrayal of the jazz-dancing-successful-career-woman-in-a-tight-suit-bundled-up-hair-and-dark-rimmed-specs. At the end of it all, Mee-son found her true love (quite comically) and had a bunch of kids. Maybe that's the true meaning of life to most women. :-)

Bedmates

2011-07-09T21:40:00.000+08:00

Added a few more animals to my arsenal of soft toys... my bed is like a zoo now.

Other than Rilakkuma teddy (from Katie), I now have:
Pooh bear - from Tiina,
Angry bird - from hubby,
hippo & giraffe - free giveaway from new opening bar down the street...

It's been raining so hard and won't stop... I want it to stop so that I can go to the beach!!

And it's really difficult to get a right-size bikini here in Korea... and I can't try on the stuff in Seomyeon! *Frustrated...

Now busy watching 犀利人妻 drama... really nice...

Random 2

2011-07-07T23:13:00.000+08:00

Just came back from a sumptuous dinner in Deacon Bai's house. Aunty Suk had prepared a superb meal for us - spaghetti, sweet sour chicken, stir-fry broccoli with prawns, mandu, and not forgetting her signature kalbi dish. For dessert we had green tea cream cake, walnut bread, watermelons, sweet melon, etc etc. It was such a blessed meal with great company. My stomach is singing with joy now, and I can't stop grinning from ear to ear. It's a fact. Food makes me happy. :-D

Sometimes I just wonder why I complain too much and get depressed. There are other people who have gone through/are going through much more tougher challenges in life compared to me. The mother who went to America to raise her two young children there alone, while the husband stayed in Korea alone, in pursuit of a better future for the family. People younger than me, coming alone to a foreign country to work, not to study.

I should feel blessed and happy given the chance to come here and study. Heck, I don't even have to worry about money! I have friends and family who love me and are eagerly waiting for me to return back home to continue life with them. I have a loving hubby who gives me all the care and encouragement in the world. I also have a more flexible schedule, as long as I can get something done. I have friends here whom I can turn to in times of need. And I have my loving Father in Heaven who provides me bountifully, unwaveringly.

Maybe it's just the food kicking in, causing this momentary happiness and satisfaction. Maybe the other times it's the stress, the loneliness, the frustration of not getting the results I anticipate. Enough is enough. I want to feel blessed. I want to feel satisfied. I must not take what I have for granted. For all the hurt and bad things in the past, I want to let go of it. For the remaining 1/4 of my study life, 我要做个快乐的留学生。

Kahlua Coffee

2011-07-05T20:07:00.000+08:00

There's always some interesting f&b stalls set up at the side gate of my university.
The savoury okonomiyaki that I grab as a fast but fulfilling dinner.
Last winter it was a handsome guy in a brown leather jacket selling grilled meat in red wine sauce, with some soft jazzy tunes playing in the background.

And today, just as I thought my head was about to burst, I caught a nice aroma coming from a stall which I had eyed a couple of days back.
I squinted my eyes at the menu.
One thing about Korean cafes/small coffee stalls is they like to write the entire menu in Korean and I have to go like a-me-ri-ca-no and blablablablabla.
Doesn't work when I have a splitting headache.
So I went like... "ahhh.........."
Thankfully, the guy said, "I can speak English."

The menu was special, they had Kahlua coffee, Bailey's coffee, the quintessential Americano, and something called Capricano (not even sure if that's how it's spelt..), and some specialty yoghurt.
So we talked a little bit while he prepared my Kahlua coffee, hot.
"Where are you from?"
"Uh, can you try to guess where I'm from?"
"India."
@.@............. "Uh....... yea I know right cos my skin is so dark. I'm actually from Malaysia." (stops the guessing game before he goes on to Africa...)
"Oh I guessed it from your accent (HUH?! Indian english accent?!?!)... some kind of British accent..."
@.@............. "Thanks" (though I think I sound more American than British @.@//////)
"I'll try the Bailey's coffee next time."
"OK!!! I'll remember your face!"

Gave him 2,800won and took my hot Kahlua coffee and left happily.
One sip and... omg... I should've ordered the Bailey's.
How could I forget that Kahlua already has a strong coffee taste and that makes the whole coffee... too strong... @.@

Bunny love cafe ♥

2011-07-05T13:15:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I had a nice long chat with my mom... about 1 hour++... showed her pictures of my new house, and talked about a lot of stuff. It is good to hear her laugh... I feel very happy when she is in a cheerful mood. ^^

**********

Chanced upon a bunny-themed cafe when hubby and I were walking about in the electronics district, scouting for stuff for my project. He was hungry in the morning... "I can't think anymore!!"... so we went to get some breakfast, even though lunch was 10 mins away~~

It was a nice cafe, though somewhat out-of-place among the maze of shops selling bolts and nuts and transistors and switches and cable wires and a million other nitty-gritty stuff. It had dark grey walls, a multitude of mismatched chairs (some comfy, some hard), an expensive espresso machine, French sketches hanging on the walls, small antique trinkets and six red ultraman dolls on the windowsill. And a big tree in the center (it is funny how Korean cafes always have these trees decorated with fairylights indoors) with small white chairs dangling from its branches.

Chocolate muffin with whipped cream topping

I can't even remember the name of the cafe now but we were pleasantly surprised when the shopowner, a young girl (maybe in her mid-20s) plopped down a small wooden tray with a bunny, two white round tablets and what looked like a shallow puddle of water in front of us. The porcelain bunny sat with its forearms perched on the yellow platter, it looked like it was thirsty and patiently waiting to take a sip. The shopowner gently placed one of the tablets into the water, and as it instantly bulged up in front of us, she explained that it was a wet towel. Amazing!

Then came our serving, two chocolate muffins with a generous serving of whipped cream on top, and sliced almonds drizzled in warm chocolate around the plate. Frantically, we dug in with our purple forks with golden ribbon into the muffin and brought it up into our mouths... the warm heavenly chocolaty feeling melting in our mouths together with the silky creaminess of the whipped cream. Together we had a lovely breakfast, with the iced caffe mocha and complimentary pretzels and chocolate chip biscuits. And when I asked for some water, she gave us ice-cold water in crystal glasses with zesty lemon slices in it, perfect for a hot summer's morning.

The pretty shopowner in her flowery summer dress and apron sat and chatted with her mom, while having their kimbap lunch, while getting up once in a while to water the potted greens in the cafe. I could easily imagine her as heroine of some drama, like her dream was to open a cute Peter rabbit-themed cafe like this, while waiting for her Prince to arrive.

And lunch afterwards at Interactor restaurant in Seomyeon, digging into a large plate of Italian herbs barbecued chicken and chips and cold draft beer.

Look at his happy face

The obligatory tree-in-cafe

And the view from the motel which we stayed, I left my camera in the room this time as he was always complaining about me taking a thousand photos whenever we were together but this time when I did not take any he said that he wished I had brought my camera along this time x_X... men are so complicated.

Baby visited me in July ♥

2011-07-04T16:12:00.004+08:00

Baby came to visit me again, for the fourth time in the ~1.5 years I've been studying here. ♥

Some observations:- ♥

Actually not being able to meet each other for a long time is not the worst part;
The time when we have to say goodbye to each other is.
It is not healthy to stay apart from your partner for a very very long time.
Sometimes I regret my decision to come here to study alone.
It is difficult to get a certain liquid-based thingy here in Korea.

His flight got delayed at Incheon so he had to stay overnight in Seoul, then catch the earliest possible KTX to Busan the next morning. I stayed alone all night, in the motel room overlooking the beautiful diamond bridge that I had booked earlier. Initially I was really happy and excited about spending a few hours all by myself cos I'd settled my hardware debugging stuff in the evening, I'd brought my Grisham novel and was planning to luxuriate in a nice, long, hot, bath with it, then put on a sleeping mask and lie in bed while waiting for him to arrive. In the end I still did all that, but felt sad cos he wasn't able to make it.

Hmm... the weather was overcast for a few days and it had been raining the whole of last week, but the good thing was the skies cleared up just before he came. :-) The motel that we stayed in at the Gwangan waterfront was expensive but totally worth it, cos of the location and proximity to my university area. I even managed to squeeze in lotsa activities during the short time he was here (two and a half days to be exact), such as bringing him to eat his fave Paris Baguette cream choux and onigiri (삼각 김밥) at the shop opposite my university. I even brought him to try the interesting cold noodles with a side serving of bulgogi, watched Transformers 3 in 3D (movie sucked without Megan Fox though), then a couple rounds of beer and cocktails at Thursday Party after that.

The next day we had warm chocolate muffins with whipped cream and caffe mocha at a bunny-themed cafe tucked away in the electronics district, Italian herbs barbequed chicken and chips with cold beer for lunch at a nice restaurant in Seomyeon, then samgyupsal for dinner with the beautiful Gwangan bridge serving as the backdrop, accompanied by the music of the belly dancers jiggling on the street. In the evening, as the colors changed from bright to blue to purple, we had a nice long stroll on the waterfront and sat on the rocks as we watched the lights of the Gwangan bridge start to turn on one by one. Then we extended the night by clubbing it away at Ghetto near my university.

On the last day, it was church and many introductions to the pastor and all my friends (to somewhat shocking gasps of "Megan! I didn't know you were married!"), then it was pan-fried spicy rice noodles with 100% apple juice for lunch and macaroons for dessert at Shinsegae then sending him off on the KTX back to Seoul and more tears at the platform *sob*.

He said Gwangan Bridge on an overcast day looks like Golden Gate Bridge in the fog

Wish he didn't have to leave so soon. I miss him so much already.................. *sob sob*

新屋入伙

2011-06-28T14:21:00.000+08:00

今天，我们的新屋入伙了。
很高兴因为，终于有了属于自己的一个家。还有新的家私，厨房等等...
今天老公特地　webcam 我，让我也通过网上参与新屋入伙仪式...
那一刻，真的觉得好感动，好彩眼泪还控制得住... :-)

Although feel a bit sad that I'm not able to be there, but I'm very happy that my parents-in-law and bro-in-law are there to help celebrate for him... haha ^^

When I go back, I wanna be a good wife!
Learn to bake cake and scones for the kids and roast chicken for him...
And occasionally make some traditional Korean samgyupsal, samgyetang, kimchi-jigae, kimchi-samgyup, green tea icecream, pajeon, shikye... hahaha

Can't wait to go back to my comfy little nest soon!

Windmill Lounge, Lotte Hotel, Jeju

2011-06-28T11:37:00.001+08:00

One of the most romantic places in Korea is the Lotte Hotel garden in Jeju. It has been the location set of so many dramas including All-In (올인) and Secret Garden (시크릿 가든 ). In All-In (올인), it was the scene where Song Hye-Kyo gave a birthday present to Lee Byung-Hun. In Secret Garden (시크릿 가든 ), it was where Hyun Bin gave a surprise meeting to Ha Ji-Won and Oska and had lunch together under the windmill.

Under the romantic lights of the windmill in the foggy evening

I first visited this place together with my hubby in August 2010. I was there to watch the volcano/fireworks show at 8.30pm but imagine the wonderful surprise I got when I saw the beautiful windmills, with their lighted blades moving in the night, cutting across the still night air. Took my breath away~ It was summer then and the weather was so humid and hot and I looked so tanned. Complemented my honeymoon look with a sexy red long summer dress ^^

Me in 2010

Me in 2010 and 2011~ :P

Lotte Hotel and poolside buffet

Romantic horse carriage ride in Lotte Hotel

One of my regrets during my Jeju trip with my hubby was that I shouldn't have thought about $$$ and went with him on that romantic Cinderella coach ride! Now I miss it~ :~((

It was one of my most romantic memories together with him... until the moment he got all sweaty and tired of taking a thousand photos of me :P Oh and since we didn't pay for the buffet, we could only watch part of the volcano/fireworks show from a distance.

Bad.

2011-06-27T17:46:00.001+08:00

Had an extremely bad day today.
Don't want to talk about it.
Just feel like shutting myself in the room and crying out loud.
OK, I shall do it now.

And get better tomorrow.

Jeju Itinerary - 2nd

2011-06-27T11:55:00.000+08:00

Back from my conference/vacation in Jeju island! It was my second time to the island and I'm still not bored of it! The best thing that came out of this trip was that I managed to get a taxi tour contact. ^^ Btw, I realised that Jeju needs at max 2 days to explore... with a well-planned itinerary.

Global Taxi service (taxi tour)
English speaking driver - Kim, Chi Seang
Phone: 010-3693-6033
Email: kkk4110@yahoo.co.kr
Price: Usually 150USD (9am~5pm) for one taxi, but I guess with some haggling you could whittle it down to 120USD. *The guide speaks good English, very friendly and carries a Samsung Galaxy Pad. Can book him through email.

This is our itinerary for 3 days:

Day 1 (We went to East Jeju on this day, it is a very long route and at parts, difficult to get transportation. So we followed the taxi tour cos it was economical and would save us a lot of time!)

9am - Reached Jeju airport
Checked in motel (opposite Ramada hotel, 30,000won per room per night)
Manjanggul lava tubes
Seongsan Ilchubong
Lunch - kalchi-gui in spicy sauce and salt-grilled kalchi-gui (damn, licking my lips now thinking of this meal!)
All-In house/ Seopjikoji (movie location)
Folk village (Don't buy stuff here, very expensive!)
Sangumburi crater
Mini-mini land
Back to motel
Explored the area around City Hall and had a beer

Day 2 (South Jeju - Jungmun area & Seogwipo-si, and a bit of the West. Transportation is easier in the south so didn't need to take taxi tour for this day)

8am - Took airport limo bus to Seogwipo-si (5,000 one way per pax)
Cheonjiyeon waterfall (can buy souvenirs here, pretty cheap)
Jeongbang waterfall
Go to Jungmun, visit Cheonjaeyeon waterfall
Lunch - abalone porridge, beef bibimbap, doenjang beef soup
Yeomiji botanical gardens
Chocolate museum (West Jeju... very very far ~20,000 one way for one taxi)
Dinner - go back to Jungmun area, black pork BBQ (MASSHISOYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Lotte Hotel walk around (very beautiful garden, must go)
9pm - Took airport limo bus from Lotte Hotel back to Jeju-si (5,000 one way per pax)

Day 3 (Jeju-si)

Went to conference at Ramada hotel
Yongduam Rock (Dragon head rock) - can buy souvenirs here, pretty cheap
Lunch at Yongduam area - okdong-gui fried fish and spicy soup
Loveland/ Mysterious Road (ask your cab driver to demonstrate at the Mysterious road)
Walked about in Yeondong - Shilla Duty Free shop
Ildo beach
Depart from Jeju airport

Bibim cold noodles~

2011-06-15T17:08:00.002+08:00

On left: Bulgogi On right: Bibim-style cold noodles

It's that time of the year again for the cold noodles (naeng myeon 냉면).......... Koreans like to eat this in summer time. It's so cool and refreshing for the body.

There are two types of cold noodles, I ordered the bibim-style cold noodles which has some spicy sauce added and it's dry style with just a little bit of cold soup. There's half an egg and some slices of cucumber on top. Use a scissors to cut it up, down, sideways (가위로 냉면을 자르다) and you're ready to go~! The shop I ate in just now is a favorite with the university crowd cos you can order a set of 2 naeng myeon + 1 serving of bulgogi meat for 11,000won. And get a free refill of yuk su (meat-flavoured hot soup 온 욕수) from the kettle. Yummers!!

And this is how I look like now after I went to the hairdresser's and got my dry, yellowish split ends all snipped off! Again 가위로 머리를 자르다........ the hairdresser helped me to blow-dry and style it so it looks volume-ish! *^^*