Seoul Day 4 [30th July 2011] Missed Jeonju trip and Moving house

Woke up at 8am to prepare myself.
Same as the previous night, all types of noise could be heard. BUT it's ok! I am shifting out today! =)

Today was supposed to be the day that I will be visiting Jeonju (Just 3 hours bus ride away from Seoul). However, due to the Goshiwon issued, I have to give up my Jeonju trip in order to shift house since it's the only day that my senior is free.

I managed to get a ticket to Jeonju for free from Visit Korea Year website.

VisitKoreaYear is the website. They have 3 options for you. Jeonju, Gyeongju and Busan. Sad to say, Busan bus are always FULL of people. They only have 1 bus, but there are so many of them who apply for Busan bus.
For my Jeonju, there are like 72 applicants applying but I still went ahead to apply to try my luck. 10 days before your departure, if you are being selected, they will e-mail you your tickets for you to print it out.
I was super super excited and happy when I received the e-mail from them. I was 1 of the 24 or 48 successful applicants! But I have to say bye to my free ticket. If you are unable to make it, please do inform them at least 1 day beforehand so they are able to give your ticket to others who are still interested.

Therefore, I did last minute packing and throwing of rubbish. Do not want to return to the Goshiwon again so I left the room at 10am for breakfast.

Breakfast for the day is Paris Baguette! =) Delicious bread at 1800won. Had it at the store opposite Hoegi Station. Which is also one of those that had a cafe inside. Didn't want to get stuck inside the cafe and so I brought the bread with me and went roaming around the streets to look at the morning scene.

Went to look at the small streets where they sell the daily products like vegetables, fish, fruits and etc. It was a nice experience. So, true enough, the watermelon are really expensive in Korea. Watermelon is selling at 10 000won to 15 000won each. As well as the other tropical fruits that we usually eat them in Singapore.

Since I enjoy looking and walking around the "Market", time passes by very fast. Went back to Hoegi station at around 12pm to wait for my Senior.

Senior came with her Canada Classmates and we went up to the Goshiwon together. The boss was not in so we end up talking to his helper. Spend around 15minutes negotiating. At first the boss didn't want to refund a single cent to me because he mentioned that, "I had already gave you the room and turned others away. So I can't refund you the amount." The standard way of doing business, but the helper managed to help me get half the amount back from the boss. Really thank you very much.

And so the 3 of us, chat and drag the luggage all the way to the Goshitel.

Goshitel!

Went up to look for the boss. He came down and told us that I will be shifting to the apartment beside his house because the one without toilet is not available now.

Therefore, the 3 of us hop onto his Hyundai Santa (I suppose it's a Santa. It looks like a Santa but I didn't take a look properly.) 5 minutes ride and it was a 20mins walk to the school.

The boss's apartment place. My place for the next 2 days too.

Settle down with the auto door lock and main gate lock. It was a one-room-tel. (One room with toilet + personal kitchen and balcony.)
After everything, I went out with Senior and her friend. We decided to walk to school. On the way, both of them were like telling me, where's the nice things to see and eat around the area.

We went to Cheong Un Gwan (General Lecture Building) because they needed to use the toilet and draw money from the ATM. It was known as the only fully air-conditioned building. Student canteen, bank, stationery shop, book stores, snacks stores, post office, specs shop and electronic store are all located here. It's a good building!

Cheong Un Gwan

Since their teachers were not around, they decided to leave for Hongdae. While I stay back to roam around the school. Thus I decided to venture to IIE. It takes a lot of courage to go to IIE building because...

It's a steep slope to get up. Photo doesn't show that it's steep though. 

My main destination is the red board at the far end of the photo.

Okay. Halfway already. 

Standing at College of Human Ecology (I think! If not it should be Media Center.)

Finally reached my destination.

IIE building.

(More staircase coming for you!)

Took a walk around the building. There are still staffs working on a Saturday. They look at me and I look at them and smile and continue to take a tour. After which, I decided to head down to other places.

Looking down from IIE. Looks scary as it's quite steep.

Decided to leave the school and do my touring another day since I will be going to school Monday to Friday. 

School Main Gate. 

(My friends and I always got honked at when we cross the road here.)

Road towards school.

Away from the school.

Decided to head to Aritrum to look at my skincare which I never bring at all. Aritrum was having 15% off for everything. Since it was the last day of sale, I decided to purchase them. The two sales assistant was very nice and friendly. 1 of them is like mother while the other is like a sister. Spend like more than an hour or two inside the shop. Reason was after getting what I need, I stay inside to chat with the sales assistant. We had so much to chat. Lucky there wasn't much or anybody when I was there.

After chatting, they suddenly asked if I had eaten. Nope, I had not eaten anything except for the bread I had in the morning. Knowing that I'm from Singapore and alone, they introduced the Chinese restaurant which is just opposite Aritrum to have ZaJiangMian. I was really craving for it too. Agreed and she decided to bring me over.

ZaJiangMian @ 4000won

The Ajumma was very generous! The serving was big. 

The onion, prickles and kimchi was yummy. The ZaJiangMian was even more yummy! 

The Ajumma thought I didn't know how to eat a ZaJiangMian so after she served me, she decided to help me do everything. Like a mother helping a lost child. Therefore, she stirred it for me and telling me at the same time that stirring is important as it will become more tasty. After stirring them, she pick up the scissor and proceed to cut it for me. OMG. Really nice! 

Afterwhich, headed to Skinfood to take a look and purchased the nose pack. Olive Young to see the different types of things that they are having. 

Purchase of the day. 

Laneige Sensitive Refiner, Emulsion, Cleanser, Water Bank Essence, Water Sleeping Pack, Skinfood's nose pack and Aritrum's nail remover.

Need to buy my toiletries at the supermarket but they only sell the large ones. Like for example, toilet rolls are in 12s instead of 2s. Feeling depress, walk to the FamilyMart near the apartment to buy them instead. It should be more expensive than Supermarket but I have no choice since I was alone. So I purchased 1.5litres of Mineral Water, 1 packets of toilet rolls and the most cute stuff....

Hello Kitty T-money @4000won.

It was the 2nd last piece. I was deciding between the handphone chain and the card design. Decided to purchase the card as I still have not purchase my Korea handphone yet. The Ahjuma told me that this was the more popular choice too. 

T-money is like our ezlink card in Singapore. Basically, you just have to tap it onto the sensor when you are taking the bus and the subway. Only for Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area. 

Each ride is only 900won. If you travel more than 10km, it will be 1000won. Like for example, when I take the subway from Hoegi to Edae, it will costs me 1000won. 

The best part is transfer.

If you take a bus and then transfer to the subway, the first/last ride is free! So if you transfer less than 10km, your fare is only 900won. But please make sure you have to tap your card within 30mins after tapping out. If not your fare starts from the beginning again. 

Slowly walk back to the apartment with the shopping stuff on my hands. The main gate lock was fine. But my room's lock was faulty again. -____- Walk to the boss house to ask for help but he wasn't home. So the wife came over to save me. Pretty wife! The wife gave up on the door lock and got his husband to come back home. Spent near half an hour unlocking the door. After getting in, we switched on the air-con and the water starts to leak. What a bad day. The three of us laugh at the problems. 

So at night, the boss, the wife, the child and me. 4 of us. We chatted a lot. The wife's English was better than the boss. So our conversation was in half Korean and half English. When I was lost in speaking Korean, I will speak in English and the wife will have to do the translation work. They like Singapore and is planning to come over again. 

After sometime, I decided to ask about the internet issue when I see no cable in the room like the previous Goshiwon. He told me there's no internet but there's Wifi. However, the Wifi was very very very weak.

Decided to bath. The cold water feels like ice water and it was raining. So different from Singapore. So I thought of using the heater but the heater was not working. OMG! What a cold battle.

Try to skype with my friends but it was so failed. The connection was getting from bad to worse. 

So, switched off the laptop and did some revision and fall asleep.

Seoul Day 3 [29th July 2011] Renting of Goshitel

Falling asleep at near 4am and getting awake at 630am. I looked at my watch all the time.

The whole night was terrible. Getting to sleep was difficult. I heard all types of noise.
- Koreans speaking at the top of their voice.
- Toilet flushing sound over and over again.
- Some random giggling sound. (I seriously wonder where did it came from!)
- Etc.

I got myself ready at 7am. Stuff the net and chatted with my friends who are working. Rush down to FamilyMart to purchase mineral water as I do not dare to drink the water from the Kitchen.

By 9am I decided to walk all the way to the Goshitel. Walking slowly and taking in some nice morning air of Seoul. No matter how slow I walked, I reached the Goshitel doorstep at 9.20am. Knock on the boss's room and getting no response. I knew I was too early but I couldn't help it.

Finally after a long wait, a lady, I suppose it's the helper, came and ask what do I need. Told her that I am here to take a look and she told me that there's only 1 room available. Only the one without toilet attached. My heart almost dropped when I heard it but still request to take a look. The room was really bigger.

Took a look, thanks the lady and walked off.
Feeling depressed, called up my senior and asked her how. We decided to call the boss. Used my Singapore hp and called up the boss. I think the boss just woke up, coz he was like speaking so softly till I couldn't heard him. Got help from an uncle who owns the Chinese restaurant under the Goshitel.

Listening to his conversation, he is really sleeping still. He requested me to give him 15mins to come over.
So I play my HP while waiting.

Waited here.

By 9.45am, he came up and spoke to me about the room when I ask him about the room with toilet attached. He told me it was available still but it's without window. I was too tired to explain what I need and want, so I told him that I am not very competent in speaking Korean, and ask him whether can I get my senior to talk to him. He was okay with it and he passed me his phone when he saw me using my Singapore phone. Quite obvious because he was like, Samsung? Not Anycall? Use my phone instead coz international calls are very expensive.

The room that I want will only be available on Monday. So when I shift in the next day (saturday), I will have to temperoy shift to the room without toilet attached. I was totally fine. Settle everything within like 5minutes. He brought me to see the room that I will be staying from Monday onwards. The student was actually still sleeping when he knocked the door. Told him I should be reaching at 1pm the next day. Gave him my deposit and left the place feeling happy to the max!

Goshitel rooms are like 2x bigger than Goshiwon. I like!

Walk around and went to Mister Donut.

Sugar Donut and Chocolate. 

Had these for breakfast + early lunch at 4900won. (1500won + 3400won).

I took the seat beside the window. Relax, read a book and spent time observing passer-by. It's really something I do not have the time to do in Singapore. Totally relaxing.
Spent near 2 hours inside Mister Donut. I am glad there wasn't much people that day.

Shop around the streets to see what's there to see and buy. Buy in the sense of daily necessities.
There's Olive Young. 1 of my favourite store. It's like our Watsons in Singapore. But I found out that some items are more expensive.
Paris Baguette. My favourite bakery shop in Seoul! I end up having their bread for breakfast everyday. The bread are so much nicer than Singapore's. I do hope that they come in to Singapore soon.
And many others like, Tony Moly, Skin Food, Aritrum, Etude House, Accessories Cafe, Starbucks, Caffee Bean, Coffee Bean, Burger King, Hollys Coffee, Dunkin Donut, Baskin Robbins, Smoothie King and many many more.

Went back happily to the Goshiwon to do packing since I unpack everything when I reached. Packing things back to where it original placed was such a hassle. Packing and chatting with my friends at the same time totally make my day.

Finally at evening time, I broke the news of I am shifting house tomorrow to my parents. My sister was like, "I knew something was wrong when I am skype-ing with you. Your face looks so grumpy. So this was the problem."

After which, I went out to search for dinner. There were so many kinds of food stores around the area. Streetfood, Chain Restaurant and Family Restaurant. Basically, Hoegi is like a food street.

Walk around Hoegi and the area towards Hankuk University of Foreign Studies station.
And I decided to settle with Streetfood for dinner.

Tteokbokki at 2500won.

Actually I did not take the Korean Rice Cake (Tteokbokki) picture. Totally forget about it. This was actually 1 of the Tteokbokki I've eaten that looks super similar to the store. The taste of the Korean rice cake was nice and spicy. I totally liked it. The spicy level is like X10 times of Singapore's.

Requested for "Take out" (They use Take Out instead) and bring it back to the Goshiwon to enjoy them.

Continue to pack my things and clear all the things in the room. 

Should not have bought the necessities like Detergent, Air spray and stuff. Too many things to clear and pack.

The whole night I was smiling like an idoit throughout because I just couldn't help it. Nobody can understand the feeling of "YESH! FINALLY SHIFTING OUT!"

It was like 2am and I decided to fight with the battle to sleep peacefully....

Seoul Day 2 - Part 2 [28th July 2011] All about Goshiwon

After a long ride, I finally arrived at Cheongnyangni Airport Bus Stop at 11.15am.
So from 8.35 to 11.15am. It took 2 hours 40mins! Thanks to the heavy jam! If not, it's really fast.

Thanks to Daum map for the picture.

Yes, that's the 6002 Airport Bus and the Bus stop at Cheongnyangni Station.

Alight from the bus and pass the uncle who's standing at the bus stop my tickets. After handing him my tickets, he passed me my two luggage bag and kept the tickets for himself. I guess this is to prevent people from complaining lost of luggage bag issue.

It's also time for me to drag them to the taxi stand next to it to reach my dorm.
The weight of my luggage was alright. But i was a little too tired to drag it over. I mean, i have not sleep yet. Of coz i'm tired. HAHA. The uncle was so nice to get the taxi driver to come over to me instead.

The taxi driver was nice too. He offer to help me to load my big luggage bag and ask me to show him my address instead of me showing him.
When he started keying the postal code into the GPS. I so much wanted to tell him that actually i know how to go. No need to key in. It's a very short distance.

I used DAUM MAP to check out my road around my area before. It was because my parents wanted me to show them where I will be staying.

It's a website that works like our google map. But this website is really cool. It totally looks like you are in Korea even though you are just sitting in front of your laptop/desktop. They show you the roads with picture of buildings. All you have to do is to type your address that you are heading to.
However, the bad point is you only can type in Korean.
It's really very helpful. I used that before I go to Korea. But when I'm there, I didn't use it at all.

So within 5 minutes I reached the dorm area. With taxi fare of only 2400won. Feeling terrible, I gave 3000won since he helped me with my heavy bags and I didn't have smaller notes too.
Two adults working around the area came forward to helped me when they saw my luggage. 1 uncle around the age of 40 plus and 1 aunty around the age of 50 plus. They asked if I was heading to Ovills Dorm. HOW I WISH I WAS HEADING THERE! =(

I was hopping to get that but the dorm was full. With that I found a Goshiwon beside it and made my bookings and down payment with the help of my friend who was here for spring semester. A room with window and toilet. I wanted a window so that fresh air can come in. But everything was broken into pieces when I reached the Dorm's gate.

In case I'm like blogging some alien language, here's some explanation of what is Goshiwon (고시원) and Goshitel (고시텔) after doing a lot of research before flying.


Goshi (고시) means Exam in korean. It was used to be a place for Koreans to stay and study for their examination. It's a room for them to focus on studying and getting to the university of their choice. It's a room that is build very very small with the basic things like, bed, table, chair, closet, fridge, tv, air con and toilet which is very optional. There's really no space for you to walk around. They can only accommodate 1 person. And the most 2, but I doubt there's space to even walk. 
However today, the trend of Goshiwon and Goshitel had changed. They are now usually rent by foreign exchange students and those working in Seoul. But the space of the Goshiwon and Goshitel is still like the past. Small still. 
Of coz the best part of it is, there's no curfew time. The school dormitory has a curfew time at 12am sharp. 


The difference between this 2 is that, Goshitel is slightly bigger than Goshiwon. (Yes! I will talk about that again!) Other than that, I don't see much differences between them.


There was also another choice like boarding house (하숙집). It's a place where the house are usually owned by 아줌마 (Ahjumma). The house itself has many rooms for you to rent and meals (Yeah, korean home cooked meal!) are included. You also get to interact with Koreans and bush up your skills. I heard that it's most expensive than Goshiwon and Goshitel.
It was one of my option but because I was being informed that the one that the school locate does not come with either Air Con or Internet connection. I strike off the idea. I needed both badly. Air con is a must in summer. If I'm in winter, I will definitely take it.

Alright, back to why I was so sad about the Goshiwon that I had rent.

It was full of shoes when I step out of the lift. It was in a big mess too.

The boss came out to helped me to carry my bags to my room.
When he open the room, I did not realise much about the cleanliness. So he help me to place them in my room and bring me to look around the dorm. First, he taught me about the gates. Like how should I unlock the Main Gate to get into the dorm. It was easy. However, if you were to leave the dorm, the boss will know coz his window were directly in front of the main gate.

Next he show me the kitchen. That was when I totally got a shock out of my life! The kitchen was in a mess. Take a look at the website that they show me. Look at the kitchen.

Woah. That's very clean right? But hell no! The kitchen was not in this state! The area where they had the table and chair show in the picture, was full of boxes! Okay, not only that, when the boss open the fridge for me, a very bad smell came out. It doesn't smell of Kimchi. I know how Kimchi smells coz I do have Kimchi at home always or everyday. But this smell was terrible, it smell of something that has gone bad. Then, he proceed to show me where the noodle are placed at. And lastly, he show me the basin. I immediately got another shock again. The basin was full of rubbish! There's a lot of leftovers. I really don't understand why people do not wash after they had used the frying pans. Even if they don't wash them, the boss should help to clean up isn't it? To make the place clean and tidy.

Lastly, he proceed to show me where's the washing machine. He told me that should I need to use the washing machine but not sure how to operate, I can go to him again and he will teach me how. By the way, there was only 1 washing machine and 1 very small area for hanging your clothes. I see that he had tied 4 strings for the students/workers there to hang their clothes.

So after explaining the basic things for me, I return back to my room.

This is the picture of the Goshiwon shown on the net.

Looks clean and nice. My room was in green too but, it was far off from what the picture had shown me. 

More horrible things came. When I turn the knob to close my door, I almost screamed. There's a noodle left on the door knob. And the noodle was already dried off! It was those very dried kind. I guess it was already there for at least a month! Seriously. So I decided to look at the rest of the room. The floor near the door has noodle too.

The steps of the toilet was at least 2 steps. This means that I would need to climb them instead of just stepping in and when I get out of the toilet, I would need to jump and not hurt myself. The picture on the net doesn't look like it was 2 steps right?!?

The toilet was very dirty too. The wall was very bad. There was hair and some soapy thing which I can't understand, left over.

Alright, that's all about the toilet. I decided to look at my cupboard. That's was something I cannot understand. The cupboard was built on top of the bed. This would means that, I would have to step on my bed in order to reach my cupboard. It really doesn't make any sense to climb onto my bed to get my clothes. How would people build it in such a way?

Enough of the cupboard and the room, all i want to do was to set up my laptop to get connected to the world. The table was very dusty and so it was the floor. The fridge, needless to say, it was very dirty too, with hair inside. In conculsion, nobody does any clean up for the room. It was very dusty and dirty (hair, yes many and rubbish.) You name it, yes, the room have it. There wasn't any picture of the room and the dorm on my side as I was really depressed upon seeing them. I have 0 mood of taking any photos! I kind of regret now. I should have taken the picture of the room and show it to do a comparison on real life and internet picture. =(

After getting connected to the world to update them about me, I was thinking of switching a Goshiwon or do some clearing up. I end up deciding to do some clearing up because I had already paid the rental amount of 450 000won. That's like S$530 for a month.

I went down to GS25 (nearest place to me) to get the basic items. I wasn't fully converted to speaking Korean, so I end up speaking in English to the shop assistance. Yup, she couldn't understand. All I wanted to buy was a hand wash washing powder for my clothes. But I couldn't remember what was that in Korean, so I asked her in English and she totally got a shocked on her face. I was quite apologetic to her and kept apologising. She was nice to offer her laptop to me so that I can use google translate for help. I find that she's around my age, so I decided to ask her how old she was. True enough, we were of the same age. Haha. Okay, next on my must buy list was detergent for the toilet. No, they don't sell them. She wasn't sure where to get them too.

Just then, a lady walk in and the sales assistance asked her for some help. The most shocking thing was, she say she would bring me over to the area to purchase them and she told me that it's very cheap. So nice of her. She was a Japanese lady. I paid for my stuff and we went to the DAISO near Hoegi Station to purchase all the things that I need very badly.

On the way. we chatted and that was when I found out that she's studying at the same school as me. She was already there since Spring semester started and was in Intermediate level. She wanted my number but since it was my first day in Seoul, I do not have a Korean handphone and number yet. So I took her number and promised to message her when I get a phone. That was how I made my very first Japanese friend in Korea. (After I settle down with a HP a few days later, we met in school and dinner dates. We still keep in touch till today! A very good friend and important friend to me. She will also teach me some Korean powerful sentence to use.)

Return back to the dorm to start to clean up. By 3pm. I was very tired. I had my lunch by eating the bread from Crystal Jade Singapore, Changi Airport. Yes, the bread was in my handbag since last night. HAHA! Taste so yummy. Eating and missing Singapore at the same time because of the dorm. After that, I decided to clean up faster so that I can take a rest.

Another horrible came. It was something that I shouldn't see. A bible book. Yes, it was a bible book. I did not discover it was a bible book, until I stared at it near 5minutes at the cover page. For someone who had no knowledge of Korean will not know that it was a bible book because the book comes with the school logo. A bible book and school logo doesn't give me a link at all. Till today, I don't understand why these 2 items were link together. So I quickly place the book at the correct place and close the cupboard, telling myself, I will not use the cupboard at all.

It was very stuffy in the room. The air con was not controlled by me. It was controlled by the boss. So I decided to open the window to let fresh air come into my room. Well, you are able to open the window (very very dusty. You can see a thick layer of dust.) but there was no way that the fresh air could come in. There was wire covering it. So all I can see were just day light and blur vision of the buildings opposite me. I totally gave up and told myself, it's okay. It's just a month. I will only come back at night to sleep and leave for school early in the morning. I laid on my bed and decided to nap for a while before heading out again to look at my surroundings in the late night.

This time round. This horrible scene makes me very determine that I will look for another Goshiwon or if there's any space with the school dorm by any chance I will definitely shift out!

The moment I close my eye, trying to rest. I kept seeing some figuring in front of me. I thought i was too tired of everything, so I did a few times trying to close and open my eyes to ensure that I wasn't thinking too much. But it just didn't go away. I got frustrated and scared at the same time. The room temperature got so cold suddenly on a summer. I was very sure it was not the aircon's problem. It was really something else. I try not to think so much and sleep again, but it just got so bad that I sit up to think of a solution. Out of a sudden, I thought of my room's key so I take a look at the area where I placed them. The room key that I place at 1 part of the table gone missing. I was really stunted. I really remembered very clearly that I had place it there because that's the most convient area for me to place the key. After shifting my eye sight to look at another area for my key and back to the same spot again, my key reappear again. And it happened quite a few times in a row.

Giving me a scare, I decided to calm my nerve down by doing all sorts of things. Praying and talking to god. After everything, I really cannot stand it anymore. I pick up my courage and call the school using my Singapore line. The school dorm was full as expected and the person in charge wasn't in Seoul. He will only be back on Saturday. Oh lord, I couldn't wait anymore so I decided to e-mail him for help. At the mean time, I also e-mailed my senior to inform her that I have reached and I need a change of dorm BADLY.

In the meantime while waiting for their e-mails replied, I decided to get out of room and walk to the next building to look for a Goshiwon. However, the apartment beside my Goshiwon was too expensive. The Goshiwon near my area was either full or does not come with a toilet. =(

When I returned, a Korean lady who looks like a few year older than me started talking to me when I reached the Main Gate. Realising that I can understand Mandarin, she decided speaking to me in mandarin. We chatted for a while outside my room. Realising I do not have a pillow and blanket, she told me that since it's summer, she had 1 more blanket extra and she wanted me to have it. She immediately ran back to her room and get the blanket for me. No matter how much I decline (I feel that it's not very nice.), she insist that I must have them. So I took it. And then she decided to bring me out to buy bedsheet coz she herself also feel that the bedsheet was not very clean. When we were walking to the stores behind Hoegi station, I decided to ask her, how she felt about the Goshiwon. She told me, she's also looking for another better Goshiwon as she felt that the current one was quite bad. All got cheated by online. =(

Poor thing, the shop that we went do not sell the one that we used in Singapore. They are the Korean type. Which means, like the one we see in shows. Big and Puffy type. Went back to the dorm and thing of solutions. And since the bed was really dirty, I went down to the DAISO and purchase table mat at 1000won.

With senior and her friend's help, I was able to find back the dorm that she had stayed before. Looking at the website again, I can't seem to trust pictures anymore. I was so afraid that I will get conned again, I kept pestering my senior on whether is the place really CLEAN. I am very afraid of dirty Goshiwon already. I don't really want to move and move for my whole Seoul duration. Senior was so patient with me, keep assuring me that the Goshitel that she stayed at before was good and the boss was very nice to her. With her assuring, we proceed to call the boss at 1130pm Korean time. It was late but the boss still pick up.

ROOMS AVAILABLE was like the best word I've heard.
With toilet was 380 000won per month and without toilet was 330 000won per month. Told the boss to leave the room available for me and I will be down there early in the morning to take a look. He agreed. =)

Feeling much better than ever because I know I will be shifting out for sure. 1 part of me was happy and another part of me was worried on how to sleep for tonight. The room's confirmed not 'clean'.

Proceed to blast some music from my laptop and try to sleep for the night......
No pillow, no blanket. Just a bed with my table mat.
I definitely can survive of coz.

Seoul Day 2 - Part 1 [28th July 2011] Incheon Airport, Collection of Summer sale card and Airport Bus

As soon as the plane was back to stable mode, i tried to settle myself down.
I was ok again. And therefore, the 2 flight stewards decided that i am alright to be left alone.
Actually i was alright, just that i am very emotional at times.

Both seats were mine as the flight was not full. =D I end up sitting in a very relaxed mode.

Passport and my favourite swarovski pen at the moment.

First drink on flight.

Apple juice instead of the usual orange due to unwell still. But after the first drink, I started drinking the usual again. HAHA.

After they distribute the tibits and drinks, it was sleeping time for the flight.
I looked around, everyone was asleep or starting to sleep!

At 12.30am, it was not my sleeping time yet. Yes, i sleep very late like 3am in Singapore.
So i decided to watch "A Big Big World" that i did not catch in the cinema earlier this year. It was a nice show but, throughout the movie, my connection went crazy, so i got to ask the air steward for help to restart. Then, entertainment was being cut off due to bad turbulences. Can you imagine how i watch the movie. On and off. HAHA!
It was a nice movie. I didn't know how Great World City was like in the past until the movie. After the movie it was around 3am. The movie was very short but it was longer than expected.

I still could not sleep at all. I really wonder how people sleep on that flight when the turbulences was 1 of the worst i had taken so far.
Thus, I decided to read up my textbook to do some revisions. At least the revision makes me recall everything back. Soon at 4am, i was very sleepy and i decided to sleep.
Just when i wanted to sleep, OMG, the bell rings. It was time for breakfast!
So i decided to stay awake for my breakfast coz i was very hungry too.

It was very obvious on what i will choose. 하하!

Blur due to unstable flight. I couldn't focus!

저는 서양 음식을 좋아해요! (I like western food.)

SQ food is forever so delicious! Yummy! 맛있어요!

Eating and enjoying the morning scenery at the sky is such a luxurious thing to do. I hope to enjoy this often. =X

Finally after all the delay. I landed in South Korea - Incheon Airport at 7.15am South Korea Time.
The Singaporean guy behind my seat offer to help me with my handcarry and laptop. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Actually during the journey, I wanted to turn over to scold him for constantly kicking onto my seat making me so unwell. Because he placed both of his leg onto my backseat when he's sleeping. Lucky I did not. If not, I don't think he will be that nice to help me with my things.

Since i was sitting near the back, I was one of the last few to get out of the plane.
SQ landed at Gate No. 103.

(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

Yes, it's at the concourse.
Follow the sign from the board to immigration. (Immigration/Transfer) is the sign that you should follow.

Before that on the plane, you should have already fill up 2 forms.
1 for the arrival.

(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

1 for the declaration.

(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

So, when I went all the way down the escalator, I was thinking, "Am I on the right track?" Cause on the way, I went to the washroom. And when I came out, the area was so quiet. You can rarely see anyone. It feels like my flight was the only flight that landed at that time.

My family members who had been to Korea did not inform me about having to take a Shuttle Train. Being curious, I decided to walk towards the security guy to enquire, in case I am in the route for Transfer.
The security guy was very nice to me. He spoke in English, though it's not perfect, I would say it's already very good. He told me that I am at the right track. I would need to take the shuttle train and it will leads me to Immigration. After thanking him, I turned around and saw the group of SQ flight stewards who's working on the same flight as me. Yes, they came up to me and we chatted while waiting for our Shuttle Train.

The shuttle train runs every 5 minutes. So if you miss it, you just have to wait for 5 minutes.
The shuttle train works like the one in Changi Airport. Exactly the same. Transporting passenger from Concourse to Terminal.

After the shuttle train ride, you just have to follow the word (Immigration) again to have your Immigration check.

Passing through Immigration, I look for Belt no.9 for my luggage.

Since I was one of the last few to get out of the plane and also the last few to take the shuttle train, my bag was already on the belt turning around.

Try so hard to pull the trolley out but it doesn't work at all. So I approached a Korean guy standing next to it. I concluded it wasn't my own problem coz he really used so much force to pull it out for me. Thanks!

With that, after collecting my bags, I pushed all the way to the exit gate.
While pushing them near to the gate, there will be a security guy standing somewhere, all you have to do is to pass him your completed declaration card when you pass by him and that's the end of the whole Incheon Airport route when you arrived.

As I exited nearer to the counters selling the Airport Bus Ticket, I decided to purchase my Bus ticket first before doing anything else.

There are 3 ways to get to Seoul.

1)By Airport Bus.
2)By AREX
3)By Taxi.

Taxi solution was out for me since it is about 50 000won to reach my destination. And since I arrived in the morning, it's not advisable at all because the jam will costs your taxi ride to be 70 000won onwards.

AREX just opened all their routes to Seoul Station. I wanted to try them but looking at my things, I don't think I can handle them by AREX and later switched to Subway Line 1.
AREX is also 1 of the cheaper way to get to Seoul. From Incheon Airport to Seoul Station, it only costs you 3900won.

So Airport Bus was the most preferred method of all since I was all alone.
This should be the website that you should be looking at if you want to take the airport bus.

http://www.airport.kr/airport/traffic/bus/busList.iia?flag=E

The station I was heading to was Cheongnyangni Station.
Therefore, I had to purchase Bus no.6002 ticket.
For those who do not speak Korean, it's best that you check out the routes that the different bus heads to.
Then just tell the counter in charge the Bus No. that you want will do. They might also ask you for your destination name to ensure that you purchase the correct tickets.

The ticket looks like this. Very simple.

The ticket costs 10 000won. Yes, they have since increased the price. It was used to be 8000won and 9000won respectively when my seniors went over.
Mine was a Standard Limousine Airport Bus ticket. There's also Deluxe Limousine Airport Bus for other area.
Standard Bus has more stations than Deluxe Bus. Standard bus seats are the normal school bus seat. Deluxe ones are like the one when people take to travel to Genting Highland. Those seats that are 2-1 sitting.

I can head to either 5B or 12A stops to take the bus.

(Credits to Incheon Airport Website)

But hey, I'm not done with my things at Incheon Airport yet.

Since I arrived was a summer sale period, there's a counter for me to collect my goodies bag as I had printed the "free goodies bag for foreigners" online on Tuesday.

Counter 48 was the place for Visit Korea : Summer Sale Card collection and collection of goodies bag.
I wanted to take out my printed coupon but the lady just pass me 1 with Chinese wording assuming I was from China and I needed Chinese version. Know why I say assume, here's our very fun conversations.

Lady: 来来。 你是来拿卡的吗？ 你是来自中国对吧！（Turn to her partner who's inside the counter helping her with the disturbution and say 종국.)
Me: (Still in a very tired mode) huh?
Lady: 你是中国人吧。 中国哪里？
Me: (HUH.....) Oh, I'm from Singapore. 新加坡。
Lady: huh?
Me: (Huh?) oh... 싱가포르에서 왔어요.
Lady: Oh... Nice place nice place. Have a nice trip.
Me: Thanks. (Smile and walk off with my sale card and goodies. Still in a very blur mode.)

So after the conversation, i concluded that, is either she don't know Singapore or she is embarrassed to make the wrong comments when she saw me walking over. But it's ok anyway. She's trying to be nice.

Here's the goodies bag!

Yes. This year is SUPER JUNIOR.

The goodies bag includes things like facial mask, pins, wet tissue, maps, discount card, Super Junior and 2PM Post card.


Saw MINISTOP and I rushed all the way to buy a bottle of Mineral Water. I'm thirsty after every flight every time even though I requested many glasses of water. The cheapest Mineral Water costs 700won.

I wonder what happened but it seems like everyone was very weird with me.
Conversation between me and the cashier.

Cashier: 칠백원. (700won)
Me: Okay. (digging my money out coz the smallest I have was 10 000won after purchasing the bus ticket and the rest was 50 000won notes.) Ah... Here. (Passing her my 10 000won notes.)
Cashier: 칠백원 칠백원.
Me: 알아요. But, that's the smallest note I have now. =(
Cashier: (Take my money...) 칠백원...

Funny conversation right? I just landed. So I don't have small notes with me. =(

So now, it's time to head to 12A!

When you reached 12A, just stand behind this board will do.
This board also shows you the time that the bus will arrived.

시 is the hour.

분 is the minute.

So for me. I took 8.34am bus coz when I arrived, the 8.18am bus went off.

When the bus arrived, pass your luggage to the uncle at the area. He will help you to load your bag to the bus. He will also tag a number to your bag and pass you the ticket number for your bag like this too.

Tickets.

You have to keep this ticket with you safely till you alight because they are the tickets that you have to exchange for your luggage when you alight at your station. Every Airport bus stations, there's an uncle helping you to unload it. No, they will not listen and tell you which bags are yours. They will only look at your tickets. Simple and good right?

12A is the first station at the Airport. After everyone hop up on 12A, the bus driver will move to 5B for a pick up.

And once everyone settle down, the bus driver will ask everyone to fasten your seat belt as the moment he drives off from airport, it will be the express way. It is a must to fasten up your seat belt.

From Incheon Airport to Seoul, it was very fast. I hit the very first airport bus station which is Hapjeong Station after a 45mins bus ride. At that moment, it was also my very first time experiencing traffic jam in Seoul! The jam was so bad that from Hapjeong Station to Hotel Seokyo Station, it took more than 30mins.

No. The bus driver did not witch on the audio for English station name which they should do. Instead, he shout out in Korean informing us which station we are now at. I'm glad I could understand what he's shouting at that moment.

After the bus stops for passenger to alight at Hotel Seokyo, I got the whole bus to myself. So i decided to pass my time by making small chats with the bus driver. The bus driver was so nice to introduce places to me. Like pointing to the area, telling me where are we right now and such.

The journey goes all the way to Cheongnyangni Station....

Seoul Day 1 [27th July 2011]

It's finally the day to fly off for Korea.
My flight was at 11.55pm.
Reached airport at around 9.30pm.
Took Singapore Airline. It's one of my favourite airline.

Since I've already check in online or in fact, I had already had my seat settled when I book my tickets, I do not need to head there that early.
However, I went a little bit earlier to weight my luggage. I try weighing them at home with a normal weighing machine, it shows that my check-in luggage was 20kg and my hand carry was 5kg.
Decided to weight them in the airport again, to my surprise, it was 22kg and 6kg respectively.
I wonder what did I bring for a 1 month trip.
Check in and the actual weight was 22.8kg. Alright, since it's over just a tiny bit, I wasn't required to pay any fines.

The most drama part came when I realised I had grabbed wrongly my sister's medicine instead of mine. Both plastic bag were tied the same way and so I just take and go without thinking so much.
I was running a very high fever of 38.5degree, 2 days before I fly, so the doctor gave me all the medicine that I usually eat.
Since I had took them wrongly, I returned to my sister on the spot and thinking what should I do.
Suddenly, I thought of Ms Ng, who's still at home. I called her and there she came all the way from her house to my house and to the airport.
Thanks Ms Ng. My bff always.

As usual, my parents will always want us to get in 1 hour earlier, being me, I do not like to head in 1 hour earlier since I'm alone, well, I was actually feeling worried since I'm taking the flight alone. If not usually we will head in after checking in to shop and had coffee bean inside. The usuals.
So this time round, I dragged till 11.05pm.
Took some photos and off I went in.
(Didn't take much at Changi so I will take some photos off the net and credit them accordingly for this post.)

Entered from this door.

Everything was so smooth. Because I went to the line where I just used my finger print and my first security check was very smooth. Everything was ok until when I reached my gate.

My jaw dropped instantly.
The number of people Q-ing up for security check, was terribly long. No one would ever expected it. 3 flights were leaving around the same time.
The line doesn't seem to be moving at all. And air stewards were all cutting the line to board the planes like us. I looked at my watch, getting worried. It was already 11.25pm and there's still 10 people in front of me.

Looking at them, I thank god that those in front of me were all in business class or first class when I peaked at their tickets. Most of them only had laptops and handphone to scan.
Soon, it was my turn for security check. I took a look at my watch again. It's 11.35pm. I left 10 mins for my flight.

My security check was not smooth at all.
They requested me to open my bag. Alright, I was ok with it anyway. Since it was security check and its their job.
I remembered my dad place the packet of Milo into my handcarry as he said it's safer since it wouldn't burst and dirty my clothes.
At that instant I thought of my Milo. Yes, I brought Milo over as I'm too used to having Milo in the morning. It gives me energy even if I didn't eat anything. But it was not an restricted item that I couldn't place in a hand carry. Since my dad place it in his bag always, I did not think that it's a restricted items at all.

And guess what they say when they open my bag and see the packet of Milo, "CHEY. Milo la. Nothing la girl. You can go. Have a safe flight!"
I locked my bag and dashed towards my plane at 11.45pm.
I was the last 3 to dash in for the flight.
Settled down and I made a short call to my sister. And a short message to Ms Ng.
At 11.55pm, the plane started to move. I would say that SQ is very punctual most of the time.

Yes, i took Airbus A330. I purposely chose airbus flight because I really love airbus. Really. The seats were better. (Photos credits to Singaporeair.com)

The inner side of the flight. I was sitting on the right side and both seats were mine. (Photos credits to airliners.net)

Emotions caught me at that instant when the plane started to move away from Changi Airport and to the runway.
Tears started to flow down. Yes. I cried on the plane. Silently of coz.
A lot of things flash through my mind. 1 of the things that flash through my mind was, "OH MY GOD! Have I gone crazy? I'm heading to a country which I have not been to alone - all by myself. What if I can't make it over there how? It's a month. Hello a month. A month is very long if things don't turn out well."

I know in the morning, I told my parents about getting a bit worry. And dad keeps telling me that i know my basic Korean, and I shouldn't have much problems.
At that point, I suddenly felt that I had forgotten all my Korean. All those that I've learnt, even the most basic greetings, I couldn't even remember at all. My mind was in a blank.
I was getting more and more worried that my tears flowed down non-stop.
And I attracted the 2 air stewards who were on the back shift.
I am very sure I didn't cried like someone was dead. All I did was, my tears just flowed down with no crying sound at all.
Both of them were so worried that they kept asking if am I alright. No matter how much I tell them that I'm fine, they just don't seem to leave me. Until the signal went off for air stewards to go to their seats as the plane is really flying off.

Looking to the right, it was the window. Yes, I'm really flying off, leaving Singapore.
"Bye Singapore. See you in a months time." I said to myself as the plane fly off from the runway.

Pre departure blues.

It's a few more days to my departure for Korea - Seoul.

I'm feeling excited, and yet worried at the same time.

This is my very first time travelling out of Singapore alone. Yes ALONE. You never read it wrongly.
Many of my friends were like, "What the hell are you doing? Alone?" "Your parents allow meh?" "You sure or not?"
Of coz, my two BFF were very supporting. They were like, "You can do it!"

Yes, I'm really heading there alone. 

Usually I will have friends or family members with me on a flight, but this time round I am all alone.

I will be alone doing all the things myself.

I did not waste much time thinking when I submit my applications to the school. All I think was, "I want to experience it all. Do things that I want before I grow old and regret. I want experience studying oversea even though it's such a short period."
Even my Korean teacher was worried about me going alone but she encourages me to go over and experience more things than what Singapore classes are providing. So after reading more on people's blog on language exchange program, I am more determine to go over even though all the readings I read, they went with friends.

I feel that this trip is not just about studies for me, instead I feel that it will build up my confidence and courage even more.

I'm looking forward to this trip even more.

Maybe it's Korea. Because this is the place where I can start communicating in Korean to the people there. At least what I learnt for the past year won't go to waste.

Back to do more packing.

Welcome to my blog on my life in Seoul!

This is my blog on my life in seoul.

A place where i blog down the things i do in seoul.

Will try to blog down on places of interests, must visits and important notes.