Start of something new

After a project meeting for the module that I was taking in SKKU, our 'group leader' suggested lunch together. We call our group leader 'Oppa' because Korean guys love being called Oppa as it means dear or darling (when used in a Korean context) even though the literal meaning is big brother. I like our Oppa. Despite having some communication barrier at times, you can feel his sincerity in wanting to forge a friendship with you. He is so kind and will always be on the go, running from place to place to recee the venue, checking if there are available seats. He's very sociable and he makes me laugh so much with his perpetually confused face.

There were 9 of us and finding a place was difficult so we ended up going to different eateries before settling for the one that we ended up in because it could accomodate us. It was a place near school that served Dak galbi (닭갈비). I was dying to eat because I was so hungry!

Dak galbi is a dish made by stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a gochujang (chili pepper paste) based sauce, and sliced cabbage, sweet potato, scallions, onions and tteok (rice cake) together on a hot plate. Dak galbi appeared after the late 1960s as an inexpensive anju (안주 - food that is eaten while drinking) in small taverns, on the outskirts of the city to replace the comparatively expensive gui (구이 - dishes which are grilled over charcoal).

Dak galbi before it is cooked

 

Starving and wanting to start eating now!

 

Finally cooked!

 

Fried rice on the pan

It was a satisfying meal, but nothing to rave about. I generally like pan-fried dishes in Korea because I like to eat my food hot and continuously cooking the food in the pan allows it to remain hot for as long as I am eating it! The chicken was quite tasty but could have been more well-marinated. I wish that the fried rice on the pan could be more spread out so that it could have been more charred and they could have added cheese into it. What a pity.

All of a sudden, Oppa left the table and ran out of the eatery like superman on call. He returned back after a few minutes with a tube of 'Yakult'. Initially Baby and I thought that it was the original Yakult but Oppa later told us that it's the Korean version of Yakult and is much cheaper and tastes better than the original. Indeed it was really delicious!

Korean version of Yakult

 

After lunch, Baby went back to school for Korean class and so I left to do some sightseeing! Wow! Today marked the first time that I travelled alone in a foreign country. There was this initial slight discomfort when I left on my own, but I was very confident of where I wanted to go and how to get there. Very quickly, my confidence grew and the discomfort disappeared. Being in a foreign country on my own meant that nobody knew me and so I won't bump into anyone I knew and could do whatever I wanted!

After something like a 15-minute walk from school, I found my way to my destination -Changgyeonggung (창경궁). Changgyeonggung was a side palace which was built because the main palace, Changdeokgung (창덕궁), was getting too crowded. Changgyeonggung mainly housed the concubines, princes and dowagers during the Joseon era. Although it is supposed to be a smaller palace relative to its parent palace, Changdeokgung, it is still rather large. I can barely imagine how big Changdeokgung is.

Although only about 30% of what Changgyeonggung used to be remained, I must say that the conservation efforts of the palace must be complimented. The palace has managed to maintain it's beauty and charm. The exquisite designs on the roof remained intact and showcased the artwork of what it was like in the Joseon dynasty.

The moment I stepped into Changgyeonggung, I almost felt like I had returned in time. I conceived how the guards and kings and queens must have behaved in the palace and imagined how the guards standing at the sides of the walkway served the king sitting on the elevated seat of his. Ahh, the effect of too much traditional shows that I have watched on television.

I love taking photos of things and more so of myself and was so glad that I shipped in the traveller's tripod from the States because it became handy today! I was initially slightly embarrassed when I took the tripod out and started standing randomly in front of the different buildings of the palace to pose for the camera. Just as I was fixing the traveller's tripod to prepare for my first picture with it, a really nice ajosshi (uncle) who saw me using much effort to fix the tripod laughed at me and offered to help me take the photo. What an embarrassment! He was really nice that I could bear to tell him that the photo did not turn out as great as I thought it would but put a thumbs up sign when he asked if it was okay.

Thankfully it was a weekday and there weren't that many people in Changgyeonggung so I could camwhore on my own without any awkwardness or embarrassment. What a great day!

The gate of the palace

 

The 'runway' where the guards will line up to greet the Emperor

 

The Emperor's high seat

 

A pavillion

 

Elaborated roof design

 

Hwangyeongjeon - Sleeping quarters of the current king and his wife

 

Yanghwadang - The residential quarters of the empress dowager

 

A bridge to cross to go up to Changdeokgung

 

No! Don't stop me!

 

Punggidae - Stone pedestral to tell the speed and direction of wind

 

Taesil - Shrines where the royal family stored the placenta and umbilical cords of their children

 

 

Chundangji area - Ponds

 

The greenhouse

 

Changgyeonggung is really pretty and I wish that I could really go back in time and visit the palace during that time, or if better, be a princess during that lifetime of mine. =P

 

Changgyeonggung (Palace)

Hyehwa Subway Station (Seoul Subway Line No. 4), Exit #4,

Walk along Daeyeonggeory street to the end of the street,
Walk along Changgyeonggung-ro street for about 1 km or take bus 172, 162, 272 - 1 stop away

 

Done with sightseeing, I went back to school to look for Baby and we had dinner together near our hostel at a restaurant called Twoowy because she was craving for Korean fried chicken. Korean fried chicken is traditionally eaten as fast food, at bars, or as an after meal snack in Korea. It is not often consumed as a meal but that was what we did - eat it as dinner!

 

Korean fried chicken

 

Because Korean fried chicken is prepared in a way that removes the fat from the skin, the crust outside is thin and transparent. The fried chicken was crispy on the outside but juicy and tender on the inside. Because the crust on the outside was thin and light, I could go on eating the chicken without feeling uncomfortable. When I usually eat the usual types of chicken like KFC, the flour batter on the outside of the chicken meat will leave me feeling quite sick/nauseous after I am done with the 2-Pcs chicken meal. The crust on the outside of the chicken was also very well marinated, rendering the chicken tasty, but not too salty. The sweet chilli sauce went so well with the chicken and it is a must have. Finger-licking good!

 

Twoomy

Sungshin Women's University line 2

Exit 1

Turn right and walk into the street

At the second cross junction of the street, turn right

The restaurant is on your right

What I love to do - eat and shop!

It is the fourth day of my summer program right now and I am totally enjoying myself! I have to say that I am really excited about what in store for me in Korea even though I am getting so tired so easily.

It has been raining quite a fair bit and that's making me rather annoyed. I bought a brolly from Korea because I had no choice but to; the rain was getting too strong and too frequent. Also, because of the rain, I'd rather be back in the hostel than to be outside shopping or sightseeing.

We had lunch at this restaurant near our school called Biya. It was reccommended by the Korean in our project group. Biya sells the dish called Budae jjigae (부대찌개) a.ka. "army base stew" in english. It originated in Korea during the Korean American war. During and after the war, meat was scarce and people had little to eat. People made this dish by using the leftover hot dogs and Spam from U.S. army bases and anything else that was available to them at that point of time and boiled them in a traditional Korean spicy stew. Nowadays, Budae jjigae has become a more luxurious dish and incorporates ingredients such as instant ramen noodles, sliced American cheese, ground pork, sausages, rice cake, tofu etc. It's like a steamboat and you can basically throw anything you want in it.

The side dish was hashbrowns which were deep-fried so well that we kept refilling it. It was crispy and fragrant and yes, I love potatoes!

The Budae jjigae was so delicious and the soup tasty. I think whatever paste that they put inside to make the soup base made the whole dish so flavourful. We could continuously add much ramen as we wanted till we got full! The ramen would soak up the taste of the soup so well that it tasted so good with every mouth that we took. I also loved the onions that was over-cooked after we left them to boil in the soup for a long time. The soup base is spicy and it would be a great dish to have during winter when it's cold. It was so spicy that my nose was watering after eating dish for a prolonged period of time. But I guess that's what I like about this dish as well - the spicy soup base.

Budae jjigae before cooking

Budae jjigae after cooking

Delicious food!

 

YAYY! BIYA!

Biya (in Seoul)
Anam (Line 6), Get off at exit 2 and facing the intersection, turn right and keep walking for 5 minutes – it’s on your right.

Baby and I intended to go to the Korean War Memorial initially but because it rained non stop, we ended up going to Dongdaemun Market to shop. Dongdaemun Market is a shopping heaven with endless stuff to buy. It's where the locals go to to shop for their fashion. Dongdaemun Market can get a little confusing because it is massive but I suppose with the map, you can make sense of the direction easily. Section 1 (the left side of the below map) is where most of the malls (Doota, Migliore, and Hello apM) and retail stores are located. Section 2 (the right side of the below map) is where most of the wholesale shops are located. The stores here also sell things at retail, but they mostly deal with bulk sales.

I ended up buying so much in Dongdaemun Market and I only actually managed to make it as far as the shopping malls such as Miglore, Doota etc, because it was raining and the shops lining the streets weren't open.

Don't forget to bargain and try to visit that place with friends so that you can buy in 'bulk' and get a greater discount. It's basically 'the more you buy, the more discount you get'. Some shop owners can be really nasty and just chase you out of the shop when you bargain, but just do it. If the shop owners chase you away, you can always go to another shop and get something else even though the shops don't sell the same stuff.

What I liked about Dongdaemun was the fact that there was variety - shops don't exactly sell the same stuff. There is the outdoor and indoor sections, which means that you can still shop around that area when it rains!

Dongdaemun Market
Subway line 2, Dongdaemun stadium station exit #2 or 14

First lesson day in school

Day 3 in Korea marked the first lesson in school. The professor was really boring and the content itself was dry.

Its funny but people of the same country tend to associate together and move around together. I wish that i'd have the opportunity to talk more to the foreigners or locals. Singaporeans aren't exactly the most interesting people. Well, I can't say much about others because I haven't spoken much to them.

It has been quite a fun day today. After lesson, baby and I and some other CBE friends went for lunch at some western food restaurant. I guess everyone was getting very sick and tired of Korean food. I wasn't though. I love Korean food and I think that when you are in a country, you should try as much as possible to eat the local food. You have to try anything and everything once in your life and there are so many local dishes that you cannot find back in Singapore. Moreover Korean food in Singapore is expensive! Well, that's just typical Singaporeans for you. Lunch was pretty crappy in my opinion.

After lunch, baby and I headed off to take some neoprints at this shop. it cost us only 6000W, which is about 7 sing dollars. Cheap isn't it? We could even put on wigs, hats and hairbands which were so cute! It has been a long time since I last taken a neoprint. I remember taking loads of neoprints back in primary and secondary school. Many of us will try to squeeze into one neoprint so that it'd be cheaper for one person. Ahh, those were the days! We were such poor kids.

Baby and I trying out the wigs and hats before taking the neoprints

 

Our neoprints

We headed back to school after that and visited the traditional village (Free of charge). The traditional village consists of Seoul Munmyo, which is a shrine where the memorial tablets (wooden tablets inscribed with the name of the deceased) of Confucius and both the Korean and Chinese sages are enshrined, and where ancestral rites are observed, facilities such as Dongjae, Seojae, Jongyeonggak and Yanghyeongo. Dongjae and Seojae were the buildings where the students stayed. Jongyeonggak functioned as the library and Yanghyeongo was where the officials handled the income and expenditures of money and grain for educational purposes.

I am contemplating checking into a traditional house someday so that I can live with the locals over there. I love the traditional wooden houses and how the small and cute the doors are. You can sleep on ondols, heated floors with mattress which really excites me to try it one day.

Tradiational houses

The outside of the traditional houses

Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)
Alight at Hyehwa station of line 4
Take exit 4, turn left at the exit and walk along the street (Daemyeong Geori)
When you reach Watsons, cross the street to the traffic light and cross that traffic light to Dunkin Donuts
Keep walking straight and SKKU will be on your left
Baby and I had quite some funny moments today taking photos. I was taking a photo of chrystal at the school gate and was so concentrated on taking a photo of her that I did not see a bus behind her. Then she asked, "Is there something big behind me?" I snapped out of my own world and then suddenly the bus went BOOOP BOOOP! Shocked, we ran to the side. HAHAHAHAHA! I totally did not see the bus at all! What a dangerous!

Baby dangerously going to be knocked down by the bus

We had dinner with Kian Beng and Joel at the BBQ restaurant near our university (SKKU) called Cozy & Grill Eatery. What a random occasion. I have never spoken to them before in CBE. When we were walking down the street, we saw them and surprisingly, I asked them out for dinner. They are actually really fun and interesting people to talk to.

BBQ meat dinner

Dinner was amazingly delicious and really cheap! All the meat were fresh and tasty and the beef was especially tender and juicy. We each paid about 10 000W and the meat that we ordered were all marinated very well. 맛있어요!

Cozy & Grill Eatery
Alight at Hyehwa station of line 4
Take exit 4, turn left at the exit and walk along the street (Daemyeong Geori)
When you reach Watsons, turn right to the traffic light and cross that traffic light to Daiso
Keep walking straight and Cozy & Grill will be on your right (You will pass by the bakery Tous Les Jours)

First day of school at SungKyunKwan University

Life has been treating me quite well these days. I am starting to get use to life on my own. I am starting to learn how to be more independent. It honestly doesn't really matter when you are alone. I find myself being able to strike a conversation with random people in a group. I just talk rubbish.

I am so thankful that I can speak a splatter of korean (after learning one module of korean language). I am able to at least communicate with some Koreans and get to some places. It really helps because here and there that I understand a little of what they speak and I can try to ask them questions. If I did not understand korean at all, I'd probably find moving around a little more difficult because we will be lost in translation. There will be this language barrier between me and Koreans because most koreans on the streets only speak Korean.

I am actually kind of loving Korea because the people here have been so nice thus far. I think that i am lucky to meet the nicer koreans because the other CBE peeps have complained about how rude/angsty some koreans are.

Baby and I bought some waffles from an Ajuma yesterday and she was so nice! Because I was taking a photo with the waffles, she came out and signalled a photo together! Today some Ajuma gave us FREE gyozas after I bought some hotdog from her! She gave us something like 10 pieces and told us to bring it back to our hotel to eat! While we were buying bags, the korean who sold the bag to us was so friendly and approachable! He kept joking with us and teasing us. Here and there, random Ajoshis will say hi to us when we camwhore!

While walking around today, Baby and I bumped into so many cute toddlers! I find it adorable how the koreans are so particular about looks even though it is so realistic and many will find it superficial. I see it as a form of respect that they want to look good for themselves and for others. Anyway we requested to take a picture with this little boy and his mum immediately grabbed his chopsticks away and neatened his hair before telling him to pose nicely for the picture! He was so obedient and we got a good picture with him!

Baby and I realised that almost ALL koreans are attached. Everywhere we walk on the streets, we see couples holding hands. It's pretty sweet! I wish that I was attached too! =((

The first day at school was fun! We watched some really awesome breakdancing by hot korean guys! They were muscular, charming and gave off cool vibes! *thumbs up* The koreans i met in my orientation group were all so friendly. there was this VERY pretty girl, one handsome guy from germany and one cute guy from korea. I honestly love looking at pretty people. I couldn't help but keep staring at the pretty korean and she's really nice.

I was late for orientation because baby and I thought that the orientation was at 5pm (it was at 4pm) so when i joined my group, everyone was already there. the pretty korean girl (i cannot rmb her name) was so nice and she gave that awwww, what a sad that you are so totally confused with the time. The germany guy is probably mixed blood. He's VERY handsome and I like his smile! He has very deep double eye lids and he's tall and big built. The korean guy was very cute! He has smiley eyes so when he talked or smiled, his eyes will form two smiles!

Lunch and dinner were both VERY delicious! I ate so much that i think my stomach is going to burst! There are loads of meat dishes in Korea and I absolutely love meat!

Lunch was with baby, Abigail, Abigail's roomie and Benjamin at an eatery near SKKU. We had this dish called spicy cheese chicken (매운 치즈 닭). The chicken was succulent and tender. After boiling for sometime, the ingredients in that dish absorbed the spicy and flavourful gravy very quickly. The onions were so sweet and tasty from the gravy. The cheese gave the gravy a slight creamy and milky texture and taste which I like because I love cheese!

spicy cheese chicken (매운 치즈 닭)

In Korea, the locals usually eat their meat dishes with toppings such as ssamjang (a thick, spicy paste ), raw or cooked garlic, onion, green pepper or a banchan (small side dishes) such as kimchi wrapped with the vegetable, Ssam (쌈).

I don't usually eat raw food vegetables but because of a lack of leafy vegetables in meals in Korea, I actually ate the chicken with Ssam. What surprised me was how well the spicy chicken blended with the Ssam. Also because the chicken was spicy, the slightly cold (taken out from the fridge) and raw Ssam provided a refreshing feeling when eating the chicken.

The meat and rice cake in Ssam

After we were about 3/4 done with this dish, the waitress came over and asked if we wanted to fry rice in. Very curious and a little skeptical about what was the fried rice was like, we waited in anticipation as the waitress whipped up the fried rice in the pan in front of us with the remainder ingredients, adding mozzarella cheese and seaweed. When she put in the two bowls of mozzarella cheese and I watched how the cheese melted, I was salivating even though I was so full from the chicken earlier. I couldn't wait to try the rice!

The product - fried rice

The fried rice was absolutely delicious! The cheese allowed the rice grains to stick together, forming a cake. When I transferred the fried rice from the pan to my bowl, it was like removing a slice of pizza from the pan and the cheese had to be pulled before it could separate from the remaining rice in the pan. What a beautiful sight for a foodie and lover of cheese like me! As the waitress was frying the rice, she sliced the remaining chicken into bits and pieces. With the smaller surface area of the chicken, it was able to dry up and char slightly, giving it a slightly burnt fragrance. The bottom surface of the rice also had a slightly burnt fragrance, that of claypot rice that we Chinese eat. I loved everything about the fried rice! Highly recommended!

Not forgetting, that eatery served this really refreshing salad as a side dish. I don't like salads because I don't like eating raw food, but this salad was so just so amazing that I kept going for refills! Instead of using lettuce, they used cabbage which was very fresh, juicy and crunchy. The dressing was light and thin yet still creamy and so you won't get tired of eating it over and over again. I find it innovative that they added this sugared corn-flakes which added taste to the bland cabbage when eaten together. Amazing!

The salad

I forgot the name of the restaurant and how to locate it but for SKKU students, you can access it when you walk out from the backdoor of the university toward the subway. It's a really small shop with wooden furniture, loads of random posters on the wall (many posters from SKKU) and a lot of students from SKKU visit it because it's so cheap! We paid only about 6 000W each for the meal. The staff are all females!

Finally in Seoul!

 

It is my first day in Korea and it has been alright thus far. I wouldn't say that I am enjoying myself here at this point of time but I wouldn't say that I am not - I am feeling neutral towards things in Korea. I suppose this is the feeling that I am suppose to get when I am adapting to a new environment. Also, I guess it could also be because I did not really do much sightseeing except to walk around our neighbourhood (the hostel that I am staying in is called Koart Ville which belongs to SungKyunKwan University) and to familarize ourselves with the surroundings - what can we find around us? Where the nearest subway station? etc.

The nearest subway station to our hostel is Sungshin Women's University on line 4. There are many eateries and shops selling clothes, accessories, bags and shoes.

Shopping Street near Koart Ville
Alight at Sungshin Women's University on line 4
Take Exit 1 and turn right and keep walking straight

Nevertheless, experiencing the local culture first hand over here excites me! Koreans are pretty much quite funny. They are occasionally awfully rude (they push you away instead of saying excuse me) when you are in front of them, yet some of them are really so sincere in wanting to communicate with you even though they cannot speak your language. Anyway, even if they had said "excuse me', i wouldn't have understood them.

I like how it when people are not able to understand me and that i can barely understand what they are saying. I find it intriguing and interesting when i am able to catch some of the words that they are saying and decipher a meaning from there.

Baby and I really love the food in Korea! We went to this place near Koart Ville called Hong Kong Banjum for lunch. Hong Kong Banjum is a chain and you will find them all over in Korea but we were really lucky that it's conveniently located near our hostel.

Menu at Hong Kong Banjum

I ordered jjam-pong (짬뽕), which is a spicy seafood noodle soup that is a mainstay of Korean Chinese cuisine. It was SO delicious. I am naturally a lover of seafood soups and spicy food so this combination really got me. Everything about this dish was right - the noodles were thick and chewy, but soft and absorbed the tasty soup really well, and the seafood was fresh. For only 4 000W, it was really worthwhile!

jjam-pong (짬뽕)

Baby ordered the sweet & sour pork (탕수육) for 9 000W. I was initially skeptical about it and wasn't so keen on her ordering it because I felt that we can easily get sweet and sour pork from Singapore and at 9 000W, I thought it was more expensive than the other dishes on the menu. However, it turned out to be one of the best sweet and sour porks that I have ever eaten. The pork was fried so well and was crispy on the outside. They used full big chunks of pork and the ratio of batter and pork was just right. The sauce was light and not too sticky. Because the sauce was drenched above the cabbage instead of directly on the pork, the outside of the pork remained crispy instead of being soggy and we could dip the pork onto the sauce before we put it in our mouths!

sweet & sour pork (탕수육)

Sparkling Korea here I come!

As I embark on my new journey in life, there'd always be a part of me that wants so much to hold on to the memories so that they don't leave. I am just afraid that I might forget the things that once made me really happy.

With a S$950 return air ticket to Seoul, transiting at Shanghai, with China Eastern Airlines, I was all ready to set off to a new phase in my life! The bbf and sis sent me off at Changi Airport and gave me some food to eat onboard the plane should I get hungry. Awww. How sweet they are.

 

 

Kelly even got the JC classmates to write me a card to wish me a great trip! It means a lot because it will be my longest trip out of Singapore (6 weeks), of which I will be travelling on my own for 2 weeks, the very first time that I will do a trip independently. Maybe I can read the card when I get lonely travelling alone and know that I always have friends with me.

There was a flight delay when Chrystal, Meimei and I transited from Shanghai to Seoul and ended up reaching Incheon Airport at 11pm. By the time we reached Incheon International Airport, we could only take the public subway halfway to our destination and had to take a taxi to our hostel.

We finally reached Incheon International Airport!

To our horror when we reached the last subway station that we could go to, our cards wouldn't work and we couldn't exit the gantries. There was no station master because it was already past midnight. Left with no choice, Chrystal, Meimei and I took turns to climb over the gantries and pulled our extremely heavy luggages over the gantries. What a night!

It was raining when we got out of the subway and we were so lost, not knowing where exactly we were and how far we were to our destination. There were two nice Korean guys who offered to share their cab with us but realised that we weren't going the same way and wished us good luck to get the next cab soon. Thankfully we finally got a cab and made it to our hostel at 1am!

Starving, I had my first meal in Korea - supper. I like how there's so much food around our hostel and the fact that Asians are so hardworking that you can find food so late into the night and there's so much variety!