Xmas in a foreignland....

Yah... havent been blogging for awhile...

Recently many things happened within these few days.... Of cos the major event was to celebrate Xmas... Yah in a foreignland... Nt as if its my 1st Xmas in Korea bt the 1st Xmas away from my families and DARLING friends in SINGAPORE!!! (i missed out ah gek jiejie's bday cum xmas PARTY!)

Hereby wishing YOU A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNIFER!

Thanks Jennifer for the gift, jessie, ah kat, gor gor, ben, nic, jiejie, stuart, marcus, shawn, steffi, jacith (oh shit how do i spell her name) for the warm wishes and CALL!! Though its so noisy I didnt quite picked up wat u guys were saying hehehe... but i can felt that you guys were right beside me!

So how is my xmas here? sad to say it was nt a white xmas tis yr... No snow on xmas eve nor xmas... n worst of all I WAS SICK!........ haiz..... Down with a terrible flu... now turning into stomach flu i guess...... n my worst NIGHTMARE, COUGH!!!!

Yes, i knw i must TAKE CARE of myself cos no one can take care of myself while i m in a foreignland! But no worries, sisters n brothers out there, I am very obedient I ate my medicine on time... I have my meals on time too...

Just 2 days ago... Something major happened to a friend of mine... Oh yesh wat can b major... a BREAK up.... a breakup wif the world's mOST lousy GUY! a GUy I HAVE NV seen to be SO LOUSY in my LIFE b4~!! i think an animal can b better off...or should i nt call him a GUy, he shld be name some creature or wat... so this breakup its kind of a gd ting for my friend too..

Cos of this idiot, I fought wif my friend.... n wif him... a totally senseless idiot... Why must he be so stupid?! Something happened and I was being very reasonable... I knw i have the reasons on my side... But i just cant understand how can someone b so totally idiot or senseless? Or perhaps u can say SELFISH...

If you received up to 5 missed calls from a friend at 4am in the morning... following a msg asking you for help... What will you do when you wake up in the morning for work?

a) Call that friend and asked what happened?

b) Send the friend a msg and asked what happened?

c)its already in the morning, the friend should b fine, ignored and continue to prepare for work

pls tell me, if that was ur friend wat will you do in the above situation?

I believed anyone wif a least a HEARt will nt choose option C...but true enuff there were 3 persons whom I knew wished option C....... What can I say... Mayb I should just end my friendship wif these 3 persons.... I guessed they are not worth my friendship either.... I know I made a right choice and all my families and friends will agree with me!!

nvm at least it taught me a lesson... I learnt from it!

My 1st snowboarding experience!! (8 Dec 07)

i always thought its so cool snowboarding!

hohoho!! my 3rd wish of the year had been fulfilled!!! That is to learn how to snowboard......

On 8 Dec, we made our trip to the Ski Resort... Trying our very best to minimise our cost, Junwoo reserved the free shuttle bus and ski lift coupon so we can have further discounts... So thankful to him!

its always stylish to carry the snowboard!!

On the very morning, we woke up early and make our way to Kangnam station where the shuttlebus picked us up. Made about 1 hr plus journey, we finally reached the ski resort! We were all excited, went in to the ski rental shop, got our ski clothes, snowboard and boots....... hahah had a hard time wearing the BIG boots......

whoosh... me on the snowboard!

Finally, we were all geared up and ready for our 1st snowboarding experience! Went over to the entrance. There were already a long queue of skiers waiting to get their ski-lift coupons. As we were carrying the snowboards, Junwoo queued up and ushered for me n Tiff to wait....

Models for snowboard....

After a long wait..... WE finally make our way up the escalator to the slope!!!So excited to see the WHITE snow SLOPE!!! Everybody were already geared up and people were already having great fun sliding down either on skis or snowboards...... So we did our warming ups and proceeded to the ski-lift....

we up on the slope

Junwoo brought us to the 2nd slope to take the ski-lift... I was totally terrified! It was my 1st time on the snowboard, I dun even know how to stand nor fall and yet he brought me up the slope!!!!! He kept telling us, this is the way to learn... you have to get down from the slope.... So on the slope (nt so gentle) we learnt how to get up on the snowboard... GOSH its so EXTREMELY difficult!!! The moment I tired to get up, my board slide further down......


Basically I was just screaming and yelling my head off.... So me and tiff went on learning how to get up and slide a little while I told Junwoo to go ahead to snowboard... hehehe... So the morning half went pass quickly.... I just did a slide down on that VERY slope... can u imagine tat?! ok... truely speaking i walked down half way hehee.... cos I cant control my direction. Tiff was mastering better while I having difficulties to even brake?!!

So half time.... We went for our lunch.... were chatting and so.... Afterwhich, I said I cant go to the 2nd slope so we went to the 1st slope where beginners were... Tried my best to learnt it, get up... fall, get up... fall.... Tiring but it all paid off when I finally master to get up, slide down at the speed I want, brake, fall correctly.... IT was really addictive, after knowing the basics... I slide down and went up again and again... Its really FUn...

So after awhile, Junwoo came back from the expert slope and checked on us... Tiff was too tired so she was resting on the slope while I go up and down the slope. Hahah trying to make full use of my money paid!!! hahaha.... So having master the basics, Junwoo taught me how to slide from side to side... haha basically to learn how to siam ppl on the slope..... Tiff caught us on the camera while waiting for us... You can see how stupid i was on the snowboard.... hahaha...

Times really flies when I am having fun... Soon its 5pm, we have to leave the ski resort.... Sad but I am really satisfied to at least be able to slide on my own for mayb 2-3 times down the slope without falling! YEAH!! a mission accomplished... At least my money well-spent!

me clearin the snow from my snowboard

Friends out there... IF you have a chance do try it out ITS REALLY FUN!!! bt of cos you pay a price the very next day.... MUSCLE acheS!!!!!!!!!!

Korean Moving House...(6 Dec 07)

Having stayed in Korea for almost coming to 9months, this is one of the special encountered I had... On 6 Dec 07, a day after my final term exams, my boarding house auntie moved from her old house to live in the same building as our boarding house.

At 1st, I was still wondering how do korean moved house as most of their 5-6 storey buildings do not have elevator... I was thinking perhaps they would hire professional home movers to move their huge furnitures etc one by one up the narrow staircases. But it still ponders me as how can these home movers move up a queen or king size bed or a piano etc...

So all these questions in my head were finally answered on 6 Dec when my boarding house auntie moved to stay on the 4 storey of our boarding house. What they do is hire a professional home movers (as wat I had guessed) . But these professional home movers are different from those we had seen in Singapore...

They were equipped with a special lift which is attached to their lorry. This lift helps to transport furniture etc up... This lift can go up as high as 5-6 storey. I was totally amazed by this hence when I returned home from school on 6 Dec, I ran back to my room to get my camera to snap a few photos and some videos....

Personally I felt so amazing by this act but still I felt that its kind of dangerous... PErhaps its the Singapore KS (Kia si) instinct?

I guess pictures and videos speak a thousand words... So enjoy watching....

Our self creation: STEAMBOAT 23 Nov 07

hehee... Yes steamboat!! Having been in Korea for nearly 9 months... I really terribly miss Singapore FOOD! As you know I have been eating kimchi almost everyday...... Not that I dun like kimchi but just that it will get kind of bored when everyday you see food that are only red color.... But after been in KOrea for 9 months, I realised that there are so many varieties of kimchi!!! I should also praise my boarding house auntie, she made fabulous Kimchi!!!

K back to the Steamboat.... Just a few days before 23 Nov, I invited May (my classmates since Level 2) to my boarding house... May is a sweet girl from Beijing, China. Like Wangbo, she has no air or attitute despite being very rich... (sorry perhaps this is my stereotyping of rich people...) K, so we were chatting in my room when we started to say how we miss our hometown food and chinese food (chinese food in Korea are expensive and doesnt taste as good) So we came up with the idea of having our own steamboat, preparing the food in our own style instead of the korean shabu shabu....

The initial plan was to have it out in the open (as its about 10degree), how fun right?! hehe... but too bad this didnt came true as it was raining the whole day on 23 Nov 07 (how sad rite?!)

On 23 Nov right after our competition, me and Tiff went to the supermarket to purchase the grocery needed for our steamboat.... Sad to say, we cant find the button mushrooms we had in Singapore.... I missed tat too.......

So after shopping, we went home preparing for our steamboat... Had to change our venue to our boarding house instead... Luckily our auntie was busy with the moving of her new house hence she wasnt in. We have the whole kitchen to ourselveS!! yeah!! Were busy preparing the food, marinating the meat etc....

me, tiff, Rui and Manami

So at around 8plus, me and Tiff waited till all the rest of the students to finish their dinner before we proceed to prepare for our steamboat... As we do not have our own steamboat, we used a rice cooker instead?!! hahaa.... But well it all turned out well.......

Tiff, Rui, Ah Han, Ah Han's cousin, Manami, Sister (Korean)

At around 8plus, I went over to our school to fetch Rui and Manami... Soon we started our steamboat session... and ard 9plus Ah Han joined us with his cousin. Wow... its really fun!!! We had our own steamboat which is cheaper compare to the restaurant and of cos we get to eat the food with our own chinese/singapore taste and most important of all we feel at home and can chat for the longest time!!! Koreans dun normally sit and chat over dinner... they normally have their food fast and exit from the restaurant. Reason being they felt that the restaurant is a place for eating and they shouldnt stay on to chat as there are other customers waiting or they might be disturbing the business....

Rui, Ah Han and Ah Han's cousin

WE finished clearing up at ard 10.30pm and proceeded to the KTV for our singing session. After KTV, we met up with Sueshi and Hwan and proceeded to Manami's house to drink... Afterwhich, we stayed till 6.30am to take the 1st bus back home.......

me and Manami

It was a really relaxing yet fun day! I gonna miss all these friends I have here........ Its really sad when we have to separate our own way furthermore in different countries...... I do wished to be able to travel to their country to visit them once in a while..... These are friends I do not want to forget............FRIENDS FOR LIFE!!

Our play -The story about Nolbu & Hongbu

hehe... yet another outdated blog...

a busy wk.... soon after meeting Sam (as mentioned in my previous blog), I had been busy with the upcoming role play competition at our school.... Yah another activity organised by our school, if you still recalled we had our singing competition in Level 2, so now in Level 3 we have our role play competition...

So you got to see the future actor-to-be and actress-to-be during this competition... Had been busy preparing for this competition. Thinking of what to act, who and what characters.... Being appointed as the class monitress (kena sabo lor!!) hence it's more of a pressure to me this time round compared to the last singing competition.

Whatever.... Its really difficult being the class representative... First, you got to take note of what is required for the competition after being brief by the teacher-in-charge (all in korean... can you imagine in level 3 I guess only a few of us were of other nationalities, the rest are all Japaneses) . Secondly, inform your classmates and come up with a plan on what to act, who and what kind of props are require.... Last but not least, to get everyone to memorise their lines and schedule for rehearsal........ STRESS STRESS.......

Sad to say, but my classmates are mostly people who couldnt care less about this competition hence we had a hard time deciding on what to act... Hence we had changed our plans for more than 3 times......

At 1st, we had thought of reacting Dae Cha Guem （大长今） but this ideal was given up cause we couldnt find the appropriate dressings and not everyone in our class knows the drama... Next, we decided on making our own script with some broadcasting theme... Everyone agrees but we had a hard time coming up with the script hence we gave up the idea again. Its kind of frustrating... I thought broadcasting was a gd idea but I have no confident in writing the whole script myself..... as no one volunteers to help. Sometimes I really wonder why can these ppl come up with their script during the exams bt not for this competition? All I can say is they r either selfish or they simply couldnt care less. Anyway, a classmate of mine managed to find a Korean bedtime story with script etc... Its the easy way out so we chose it.

As most of the students in our class are busy with their own lives, its rather difficult to get everyone together hence we only had a full rehearsal just 1 day before the competition. And you also have people who are not co-operative, who just dun want to do this dun want to do that..... arrggh.... But I should also say thanks to those who did put in a little effort in helpin me out... for staying back to rack our brains, to accompany me to buy the props.....

But anyway, I kind of gave up in the end.... So on 23 Nov 07 (Friday), we had our final last rehearsal in the morning at 8.30am (of cos you got those late comers.... ) before proceeding to the hall to watch the others performed..... I have totally no confident of winning at all just wishing that everything runs smoothly....

So at ard 9.30am, we went into the hall... The competition had started hence I had missed a few classes.... The other classes were well-prepared and had many props etc... Some were really hilarious... For instance, we had the snow white guys version, Cinderella Kr version and even one class reacted a class scenario!!

Cinderella Korean version

Snow white guy version

classroom scenerio

Soon its our turn........ Yah... Everything went smoothly as I had hope... Just that we werent as fanciful as the rest of the classes..... Since ours is a Korean bedtime story it wasnt as funny. Hence in other words its kind of boring... But I was kind of happy for my ideas of throwin the sweets and bursting of balloons did had an impact on the audience...

Phew..... Finally its over and I had lifted this class rep burden..... Its really difficult to manage a grp of ppl esp. when they have no interest in the tings and when you are not close with them/do not know them well.......Or perhaps the problem lies with me.. I wasnt a gd leader then. Now I realised its so difficult to be a supervisor, manager etc... I tink i still need more training on this.

Our play is about 2 brothers named Nolbu and Hongbu. Nolbu is a wicked elder brother and Hongbu is a kind soul. Its about how kind Hongbu helped a injured swallow and was repaid his kindness. On the other hand, how Nolbu was punished for his evil deeds.

Thanks Sam for the warmth.....

ho ho ho !! a very very outdated post... hehehehe... have been busy with the final term exams and simply too lazy to blog hence this blog came so late...... Time really flies and its already DECEMBER!!!

it was on 17 Nov morning 11am, when I received a call from Sam.... She had arrived in Seoul and is now at the supermarket shopping for some grocery before she proceed to the outskirt.... Was really happy to receive her call that morning despite me still in a sleepy mode....

She wasnt too sure about her travelling plans hence she couldn't confirm when she would be able to meet me.... So we had a short conversation over the phone and she said she would contact me again......

Soon the weekend went by, went to sch on Mon 19 Nov and after sch as I was walking to the bank at Sinchon my phone rang. It was Sam, she told me she could meet me that day.... So all the way from Bundang, she came to my sch....

I was walking back from Sinchon cause Jeff didnt know the area well hence I had instructed them to wait for me at the previous location where I had met Jeff the other time. Was walking in the cold when I spotted someone familar getting out of the car. The person was SAMANTHA! Was so happy to see her.... Not much of changes since the same old Sam I know hehe...

Had wanted to show Sam ard my sch but she urgently need to go to the ladies so I just brought her to a fast food restaurant. Over at burger king, I had my lunch while we were chatting about our lifes since we left Sentosa.... Was practically chatting for more than 2-3 hours... (dun exactly remember how long we chatted)

Afterwhich, Sam said she wanted to buy some earrings for her colleagues and a pair of boots for herself... Hence I brought her to Ewha Women University District.... It was really cold that day.... kind of freezin on the street....... Was really happy that Sam managed to find herself a pair of boots she liked.

Then we moved on to Kangnam as Sam wished to meet Junwoo... So we went over to Kangnam to have our dinner with Jeff joining us after his work. The moment we reached Kangnam it was raining heavily.... So we rushed into a restaurant... Were waiting for Junwoo who is rushing over after his work. As usual he didnt know the way.... Hahah... forgot to mention he is a 路痴. Hence despite being a Korean, he didnt knw the area as well as me... hehe!!

He got lost and in the end I had to get out of the restaurant to lead him...n As we were having our dinner with our rojak language (Korean, chinese, english, hokkien), it started snowing!! Its the first snow for this winter.... Its really beautifull bt freezing cold ........ Really happy to watch the first snow with my friends!! Ah... almost forgotten to mention, calls started rolling in... my friends calling to inform me of the 1st snow........Everyone is so excited!

Soon after we had our dinner, we decided that its still early so we went for a drink... Poor Jeff had to drink orange juice cause he had to drive. So we all had our soju while he drank his orange juice. Time really flies when we are enjoying ourselves... Soon it was almost 12mn so Sam suggested that Jeff send me back.... So we went back... Junwoo took a bus from Kangnam which is nearer to his house.

After sending me back, Sam gave me the gifts that she had brought for me from Macau... Was really touched..... All the things were so beautiful and useful... Keeping me warm this winter....

THANKS Sam for the gifts!!!!!!!!

Here are the gifts I had:

5 scarfs (enuff for me to wear a different scarf to sch everyday), my cutie thermal flask, 4 pairs of warm socks. (Not in the picture: my ba kua in the fridge)

However, was really sad that we could only have less than a day to hang around and we didnt even managed to take a photograph together!!! Wished there were more time for us to catch up.... But anyway we shall meet again and I hope it will be in KOREA again hehe!!!