[Korea Diary] 28th March 2013 + Games

This post should be upload loooooooong time ago. but... I am _ _ _ _. (fill in the blank). XD

20th March 2013


Such a colourful page... This is to disguise the fact that I gained my weight since I come to Korea.  I had gained 2.5kg!!! There is a big electric weight scale below my dormitory and every girl who is free will use it. *sigh* I think I should drink water only from now on. My friends also told me that they had gained weight (the more the better, HA... I am a petty person :P) At least I am not alone but my friend had sore throat and suddenly her weight dropped back to her normal weight. ==




My lecturer did a surprise activity in class. He told us to write Korean essay in 5 minutes and later he will select some students to read out his/her article. My mind blank for a minute and tried to remember more vocabularies to write and grammar to complete it.

Sidenote: The korean classes is meant for level 4 students and I passed level 1 and should be palced in level 2 or 3 class according to their systems but there were no other students like me so they only had level 1 OR level 4 available.

I kept on thinking that I might not be selected so easily since I have no "toto lottery luck winning" life (solely based on own stupid assumptions)... My lecturer told everyone to name himself/herself in "1,2,3,4,5" individually and I am the "3" group.  He wanted to select 1 but later he suddenly changed his mind and asked 3 group to present... Never I thought the number 3 will caused such adrenaline rush to me.

O-O <-- My shitty expression at that time
I think I should go and buy my lottery at that time.
You know? Having problem in writing Korean is my major problem (I turned all the grammars upside down) and reading it in a fluent way is my biggest obstacle. So... I read like a retarded kid by stuttering all the words and the intonations are so weird. When I finished, he calmly said "Good job".

O-O <--Again my shitty expression at how dishonest my lecturer was.
Well, at least he is so kind enough to console me (instead kick me out of this class) so I continue to tebal muka (shamelessly) to stay. Heee...



28th March 2013


I had a "friend-introduce-friends" situation today and I am worried how deadly pan I will be because I warmed up slowly with new friends. Luckily we got closer faster than I thought I would be by eating together. Food, world best enemy and buddy to me. <-slogan?

Big surprise: How bad I am in games. Seriously. I basically lost in every games they introduced to me and I lost every of them. Shitty luck. We went to a game cafe after eating and we paid for 1,500 per person for 1 hour and were free to play any of the board games.


Halli Galli: Kinda like "hear attack" game in Malaysia but you need to keep your mind straight by counting all the fruits available on the table. Sounds easy but my stoned hand always react slow.
Rules here.

Cost: 19,000 won (4-5 persons play)
          24,000 won (5-6 persons)
         Around RM60++

Regretted for not buying it because it was quite expensive to me at that time. Pfft...







Blokus:  I sucked in this game too. *sigh* I played this without much strategy and end up losing.

Quite a static game.











How to play:

Tumblin Monkeys

Rules: The 'tree' has five levels. Six sticks (two of each colour) are threaded through holes around the side of each level. The monkeys are tipped in the top of the tree so that they are suspended by the criss-crossing sticks. Players take it in turns to roll the dice and remove a stick of the corresponding colour from the highest level that still has a stick of that colour. If a player makes a monkey fall out, they get to keep it. If there are no sticks left of the right colour, the player doesn't have to remove a stick that turn.

We later changed to arcade game center to play other games. This was how I got surprised by quiet friend! We played an arcade game where it looked more like "The Hardest Game 2" game and she is so incredible that she passed and win all the mini games in it! She was a little quiet during the gathering because her English is lacking but I totally amazed by her when her hands touched all the buttons like a pro!!! Suddenly she had a spotlight above her head when she played games. (Hallucination of a hand-retarded girl)

End.

[Korea Diary] JimjilBang Day

Jimjilbang!! Yay or Nay?

A Jjimjilbang (찜질방) is a large, gender-segregated public bathhouse in Korea, furnished with hot tubs, showers,Korean traditional kiln saunas and massage tables.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang 

My definition: Scrubbing and naked. Hehe.. I prepared my mental strong enough to go there alone but when my friend know I were going there alone she thought a loner goes to jimjilbang alone is no fun so she asked me to go with me. To go with me. With her. And her friendSSSS. o-O 

Wow. Didn't saw that coming but didn't reject her because she was kind to go with me even though she was busy with exam that time. 

Retarded hand caused blur effect. =P

 Price differs everywhere.

First you will go to put your shoes in the locker and you will get a key from the shoes locker and you proceed to your clothes locker. Most people will put the key (rubber keychain) tied to leg or hand for convenient. 

My clothes locker

First culture shock: Many n**** ahjumma and kids everywhere and I started to shy away even though I just faced their butts only. (I can handle it, I can handle it... *self encouraging*) My friends asked me to change into their sauna attire(undergarments still attached on!) which I again need to self-talk again to change in front of my friends. I decided to run to other row (still open area, just away of my friend to change the clothes).

There are a many sauna in the jimjilbang with different healing effect and temperature. There was a cold sauna room but I think it smelled like a raw food refrigerator so I fled out after 1 minutes.

This jimjilbang was tolerable to me but my other friends can't take it so we change to other pretty fast. 

 My snack share.

See the water? It is the iced rice water! It is refreshing and nice to have after went in to the sauna for awhile. See the 1,000W? It is just a hard boiled egg. pfft. Sausage, I felt skeptical because it taste neither like any meat in it. My teeth couldn't handle the squid stick and I saw no future of me with the squid stick after long time biting and chewing it so I shared it to my other friends. The smiley is the rice biscuits that come with a big packets and it was made my friends who try to shape the originally round biscuit into other shapes (full moon, half moon, sleek moon(?)).

 This was the snack we sneaked into the jimjilbang because the interior snack bar in jimjilbang was a higher than the normal. The banana snack taste nothing like banana. Oof...

Hand shacking again. Running man Lee Kwang Soo licked by the giraffe time. XD

Sleeping place where you can take a nap more privately rather than the hall.

After the sauna, bathing part. Epic. I were shy at first and tended to hide here and there when I went it but my eyes were full of n**** ladies and sooner or later I didn't think it was a big deal so I were ok after a moment. Heh. I like the scrubbing part and a lot of nasty dirt came out. HA.

After thoughts:

I think the experience is valuable and I become braver(?) after that.

Jimjilbang in Seoul:

ItaewonLand

Take Subway to Itaewon Station (# 630) on line 6. Go out of Exit 3. Walk straight for less than 5 minutes. On your right you will see long stairs right next to the sidewalk. 

What To Do When Korean Speaks Korean To You

Being in Korea for exchange program make me to have the opportunity to talk to Korean and sometimes even they know you do not really understand their Korean but they still speak in anyway without their realise. Kinda same theory for someone (minority?) to speak foul language when they are under extreme stress. (Not me!)

I have been feeling guilty for not updating my blog for awhile during my exam and travel period so I am thinking that I should at least draw it on paper instead of using my beloved wacom. :)

 Full view:

1. Laugh/ Smile

2. 네 (Has many different meanings depends on the context)

3. Run Away

My Korean level is still at a very blur stage. Not really skillful but still manage to guess the meaning if I use my mental power (in 100%) to listen what a Korean said. Sometimes, my mind will wander to another place if I listen to too long Korean sentences. I am talented in tuning out Korean when I am alone or I am not require to. Heh.

Going back to Malaysia soon. I want to write a post about the cafes I went during my stay in Korea. Stay tuned!

Korea Diary 12th-16th March

**All the photos in this post belonged to me. Please do not re-upload and take it as yours. Thank you.**

12th March 2013

Getting used to the student life here in Korea. All the students here ARE FASHIONABLE.  All the girls legs are slim and long. No joking. Their legs are LONG. Everyday play as a peeking tom to hamsup  

Because I cannot changed my short legs (pathethic, sigh I know... ><) so I went to play badminton in our university. 2,000 won for 1 hour play. Sweating out is good for body and eating after exercise is good for body too. (who say?) XD 

We strolled around the school after badminton play and talked Cantonese + mandarin + Malays (when we suspect the person in front of us was Chinese. Heh.) Suddenly a guy came out of no where showed up and asked us if we were from China. We said no and said we were from Malaysia. 

He said: " Good!  Tell me more about Malaysia! I want to know more about it! Come and sit on the bench near the pond!".

**Seriously I don't know whats he was up to and he had the suspiciously looking files hidden under his coat. And there were a lot of couples dating around the pond and what for I sat with a ahjussi (uncle) at the pond?!!!

He talked for a long time and asked a bunch of questions and the mysterious files still had not showed up so my friend and I simply told him we need to get going to meet friends to escape. I still wondered what was his intention? Weird.

13th March 2013

The weather in March was still freezing cold and the strong wind blowed never failed to make your teeth chattering. Getting used to the FREE food (Yay!) food in dormitory food. Well, it was the dorm food and sometimes the food sucked and we ended up fried chicken delivery to cure our sad stomach. XD

If you wondered where I gained my fats from. Here is it.

The books here are expensive. TT-TT 

Money gone money $$$

15th March 2013

Today my korean buddy took me to have a campus tour. We walked around the university and she explained to me some history. I don't remember them all actually. Wore skirts today since.... 2 years ago? Too used of wearing jeans and seemed to be awkward to wear skirts again. Maybe born to be manly? pffft...

Some guys and girls were playing near our school fountain and they all kinda dare each other to walk into the fountain to celebrate the spring arrival although it still freaking cold to me at that time.  

Halgeum is Korean traditional instrument and my Korean housemate showed me her halgeum skill!

It looked kinda like China Er Hu but they have some places differences. She played a few songs to us and we were impressed! Really amazed by those who have musical brain cells. I think mine.... didn't even exist before. LOL

16th March 2013

We went to Gwangju Folk Museum and Art Museum since some friends recommended us to go. Never thought I actually GOING to MUSEUM. Turned out it was an enjoyable small getaway. We saw a small forest of small maehwa and it was indeed pretty! I only see fake maehwa during CNY and nothing could beat the real one! We ventured a lot time at the Maehwa forest. Heh...

When we walked to the museum, two of my friends started to sing some chinese songs. Felt like I were on a school trip again. ^^

The entrance fee of Art museum and Folk museum were around 2,000won. 

A kind old man kindly be our tour guide of Folk Museum and he had explained a lot of the stories to us. He seems to be in his seventies and he were learning English to communicate with foreigner. *salute* 

One of the most memorable artifacts in the museum was Dutch's wife. It is a pillow that guys would use during Summer and they were willing to hug it rather than their wife because the weather was hot. Funny but I will kick my hubby if this was the case. +v+

P.s. Will upload more soon after I back from Busan. Cheers.

[Jeju] Sum Guest House

What makes a wonderful journey? 

Sometimes the people you met during your travel probably was the highlight of the trip.

I not sure since when I begin to choose guesthouse as my accommodation instead of hotel anymore. Cheap and home comfy is how I put it. I like guesthouse with decoration ideas.

I had travelled to Jeju for 4nights 3 days. Sorry for not upload any decent post recent because I were busy travelled. (Hee...) My diary book is lack of updates and I always struggled to finish updates but couldn't because I really went to a lot of places recently. Muahahaha... (<-got hit for being so braggy)

I went to Sum Guesthouse in Jeju and most of the staffs know basic English. See the one with cap in the picture? He knows English.(?) The luggages piled stacked in front of the counter was my friends and I. HA.

The reception (spoiled by my messy luggages XD)

The reception from a bit far view( and AGAIN spoiled by my messy luggages XD)

The resting area.

My favourite table in the resting area. 

The kitchen packed with all the unlimited cup noodles, juices, coffees and breads for breakfast.

(The cup noodles is yummy!)

I love their internal design of the guesthouse.

WOW factor:

They have so many stamps for you to stamp it in your book ( you can buy one Jeju Passport book to stamp too) and they are also provide the ink pad (with ink refill at the side) so no worries you have the stamps but no ink! (I encountered that tons of times ==)

Rooms:

It is kinda epic fail when I forgot take the room picture. Pffft...

I lived stayed there for 3 days (60,000) and book via Booking.com.

I actually booked dorm styled room(female only) for 3 days but some problems came out with the booking so the staff was apologetic to us and he let us to stay 2 days at their family room and 1 day in dorm room. (3 days accommodation turned out to be lesser than 60,000won because he had discounted for us. Yay!)

Family room for Day 01 and 02

This room is really large and comfy. ^^

Dorm style for Day 03

Lockers are provided too.

Powder room (female only)

Apparently SUM guesthouse boss know how girls tend to take a long time to get dress up so they provide a special powder room for us! Hehe... I forgot to take photos at that time because many girls were busy hairdryer their hair and makeup. ^^

Tips:

Sum Guesthouse provides a detail bus routes and time schedules and you can ask them for that! I am really impressed by their systematic info! '

Additional Service and info:

1) They also provide laundry service and free wifi (and computers too) in the resting area. 

2) They have the game called Halli Galli on the table and you are free to play too!

3) You can write your comments on their books to show your gratitudes ^^

4) I think the real charm of a guesthouse is you interact with other backpackers or staffs during your visit. Getting know more friends is never a bad thing. (The last time I tried, I went to Mt. Hallasan unplanned for 9 hours and got myself sore legs. XD)

How to get there:

I went to Jeju by cruise and I reached at their Jeju International Terminal (제주국제적터미널).  I took a taxi to the place and it costs around 4900won. You can actually told the taxi driver to go to Local Bus Terminal because the guesthouse located opposite the bus terminal(look for the signboard at the corner after you cross the road) and I think it is very convenient.