Monday, March 30, 2009
8:22 PM

after spring comes, winter misses the world and comes back to visit for a week or two. so after a week of birds chirping and outfits without my coat, winter is back again and i once again find myself digging through my pile of clothes for my scarf and beanie.

but even though winter is back, the 11 of us mad people ( 6 singaporeans, 3 japanese, 1 korean) still decided to go ahead to Kyeongju to erm...sightsee. knowing us, this trip was completely spontaneous; it was discussed for 10 mins during dinnertime, and no other planning was done after we all agreed to go. haha. but of course, as chaotic as spontaneity is, we had fun.

the trip started hilariously, as usual, with me ordering the others to meet at 7a.m at our domitory's 'lobby' (yes, we like to think that we live luxuriously), followed by incidents such as Kawai waking up only at 7, Pheuron forgetting her towel which reminded Yutaka that he forgot his towel, followed by Kawai coming down with a bag with nothing but his guide book and PJs(we were staying overnight!), followed by us sending him back to pack in his towel, etc etc etc. and so, we finally managed only to reach the bus station at Nopodong, where Su hyeon was waiting for us, at 9am.

so after a 50 min bus ride, we finally finally reached Kyeongju. like all touristy places, we were immediately accousted by a 'tour guide' ahjushi who was extremely persistant in offering his services. of course, being exchange students and not just tourists (something that we are quite proud of, thankyou), we refused to be cheated, and thus walked ourselves to our hostel.

the hostel which i booked was Hanjin Hostel, which is run by Master Kwon(an old grandpa) and his wife (a old grandma). it has a very homely vibe; a very simple and well-preserved old building with a courtyard and a balcony. for 15,000 won a night only, we were pretty satisfied.

it was only after this that our adventure truely started. we rented bicycles and were adviced a cycling route all the way from the bus terminal to bulkoksa. "if you leave now (about 12 pm) you and go up to bulkoksa, have a delicious bimbimbap lunch and come back here by 7!"

with hopeful hearts and reality-blinding thoughts about bimbimbap, we hopped on our bicycles and started our journey. no sweat, we thought, since the distance looked pretty okay from the map.

5 mins of road and padestrian path cycling made me realise that my two-time cycling experience, once in westcoast park and once in bishan park respectively, is no use on the crazy roads here. of course, having too much pride, i wobbled my way behind the others.

our first venue was the shilla tombs and it was beautiful. the beautifully shaped tombs yellow during spring, against the pinkish sakura trees and the cloudless blue sky - breathtaking. there is one thing here that i will truly truly miss the moment i go back home is the breathtaking nature here. flowers, trees, yellow, pink, green, brown, blue, white..... it is truly a feast for the eyes here.

our second location was to the Shilla museum, and what was mainly on display were the ceramics, jewelry (huge gold crowns), amoury used during the Shilla dynasty.

on our way to Bulkoksa, which we later found out was 12 km away, we had a couple of incidents, such as Kenny's bicycle tyres spoiling, me falling off my bike, us starving from the lack of breakfast and lunch, etc. from sheer exhaustion, starvation and frustration (on my part, for my lack of cycling skills), we finally decided to stop at a random roadside foodstall to try its jajiangmyeon. it was surprisingly good, and the noodles were very Q!

during lunch, the very very kind Su Hyeon helped arrange for the bicycle shop uncle to bring a double bike and this was how i ended up riding a double bike with Kenny.

on our way up Bulkoksa, it suddenly occured to us that it was getting dark and the temple might be closed already. thus, Su Hyeon made a call and this was how we realised tt, with only 2km more to go, we were too late.

our way back was even more... exciting. Huishan nearly got knocked down by a truck on the highway, Yutaka got lost in the dark, we got a little lost, and all our butts wanted to split after riding the bike the whole day.

finally, at about 830pm, we finally stopped for dinner at a crowded restaurant for the unique kyeongju bimbimbp (i didnt think it was very good actually) and finally sent the long-suffering su hyeon back to the busstation at 1030pm.

that was our kyeongju experience... and it was only day 1.

Love, Ruth

Sunday, March 15, 2009
11:48 PM

a quick update on this week:

- the first thing that came to my mind was: our toilet bowl clogged up! hahah!! it clogged up yesterday (sat) evening and pheuron and i looked a each other and started cracking up. had to google the korean word for 'toilet bowl' and 'stuck' before going down to the security ahjushi for help.

- i went shopping on friday, saturday and sunday. *gulps* there are just too many nice and affordable stuff here i am going crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- celebrated our jap friend, Kawai(his real name)'s birthday on Friday. at a bbq pork restaurant. (hurhur). the cake was delicious: it was not too creamy, not too sweet and really really pretty (check out facebook for pics). and it only cost us 12,000 (about SGD12)

- monday - friday was spent going for lessons. btw, my timetable is coincidentally really easy to memorise. from mon to thurs, i have classes from 10-12, 2-4. on fri i have classes 9-12, 2-4. classes here are generally interesting, made some korean friends already. but only my lit class has cute guys leh (there is this really cute guy who seats at the back of the class and doesnt talk. hahahhahah BUT I SIT IN THE FRONT ROW DANG!!) and yes, i have a whole bunch of homework and readings to do. contrary to what you and i myself previously thought before, the readings are TOUGH. my political science textbook consists of papers written by Lasswell, Max Weber, etc. i think thats why korean students need to study 24 hours a day.

its late i am tired! PICTURES IN FACEBOOK! (its too tedious to post pics here!)

Love, Ruth

Monday, March 9, 2009
10:20 PM

the classroom culture here in PNU is very much different from NTU's. the fact that i use the word 'classroom' is that all the classes here are very small (about 15-20 students a class). thus, as with small classes, the students are able to interact more with the professors, and the professors will also attempt to remember the student's names.

to me, the atmosphere of the classes here are somewhere between university and JC. its like a university in terms of inter-student interaction. different students from different majors, all unfamiliar to each other hence there is minimal interaction between students. however, its like a JC in a sense that the students greet the professors very enthusiastically and they are proactive in answering questions. classes are usually 1 and a half hours long and nobody brings a laptop to class(which means u cant be distracted!).

this new style of learning is rather refreshing because it's been some time since i fully concentrated during lectures (ah, the downside of having a laptop) and its been some time since i felt less conscious answering questions during lectures.

students here are also very willing to volunteer to be class reps. i was quite shocked to see that when a professor asked for help, within a minute someone volunteered.

My professors are all pretty nice. there is professor gallant who is super hardworking, professor pore who constantly smells like tobacco, and goodness gracious how can i forget professor Shin who left such a deep impression in the first lesson.

The moment he stepped into class, we all kept silent because he looked rather stern. however, as the lesson progressed i found myself swept into his whirl of insanity. he is a 'Nobody'-singing, pen throwing, clock-watching, table banging, drama mama - all in all, the queerest professor i've ever met in my life.

Love, Ruth

Thursday, March 5, 2009
9:00 PM

Although i posted the previous post only today, it was actually written sometime ago. i know i havent been blogging much (ok, at all) because everything is happening so fast i havent even had time to come in terms with it myself. time passes so fast everyday passes with a blur and sometimes i find myself thinking: "wow... i'm actually in Korea!"

But since i'm a rather lazy blogger, i will be posting more on my thoughts and feelings throughout the entire exchange and as for pictures, check out facebook! i promise to post them quite regularly. heh.

today is marks the end of my first week in PNU and the constant thought in my mind has been "i'm so blessed". Blessed with a wonderful group of friends here for physical and emotion support, blessed with a great roommate, blessed with a good room, blessed with a good buddy,etc. the blessings have been plentiful, and everything that i've prayed for, and even more, have been give to me. Praise the Lord for his bountiful blessings.

School has finally really started for me (went for my first lessons yesterday) and subject registration is finally finally settled. All the lessons i'm attending are conducted in English (i seriously dont think i can pass if i take lessons in Korean), and i'm mainly taking classes on Political Science, International Relations, English Lit, Marketing, Linguistics and Korean. I think i have the heaviest workload out of all the NTU students here but the classes have all been pretty interesting.

The professors are all nice and accomodating and although the local students are still a little shy in communicating with us, they r nice too. However, for every english classes taught by a korean teacher, they will fail to reconise us as exchange students, and sometimes slip into Korean. so after every class, we'll have to go up to the professor and introduce ourselves to make sure that they are aware of our existance. haha.

oh yes before i forget, Korean students are SUPER hardworking ok! the library is CONSTANTLY flooded with students AT ALL TIMES. and my friend's buddy even told him that he intend to finish reading his textbook even before classes start. goodness! and to think that we thought that Singaporeans are hardcore enough.

The weather here is pretty ok, i think i'm slowly adjusting already. its about 5 degrees, but it is only REALLY cold when the wind blows (ok, quite frequently). although its cold, i'm slowly able to see the benefits of cold weather.

1) i dont perspire!

2) my clothes dont stink!

3) i get to wear my stockings (2 stockings at a time), coat, scarfs, hats....(wahahaha)

4) smoke comes out whenever i speak!

point 3 is like TOTALLY the main point. haha!

but then again...spring is coming. :)

Love, Ruth

Monday, March 2, 2009
12:04 AM

Greetings from Pusan!

i finally realised how much discipline it takes to maintain a travel blog because it took ALOT of procrastinating before i even ended up on this page typing. but anyways, everybody 안녕하세요 ! ^^ (v korean hor haha!)

Pusan has been fantastic so far and time really flies over here. i was not able to update earlier also because i couldnt get any internet connection until Saturday evening. so i'll try to recap everything that has happened the past few days.

Day 1:

The entire journey to Pusan felt really surreal. Yes it was me hugging my love ones goodbye, yes it was me going through the customs, yes it was me who struggled with 30kg worth of luggage… yet it didn’t feel like me. I’m supposed to still be back in Singapore still waiting for the day it would finally be my turn for exchange; so how did it finally happen so fast?

The sendoff was very very heartwarming. My most heartfelt thanks to all those who came down to wish me the best. You guys gave me the determination to come back a better person than I was before. I’ll still regretful that I was not able to properly say goodbye because I was in a rush but really: Thank you thank you thank you.

The plane ride to Busan was largely uneventful… except for the fact that the plane we transitted to from Bangkok to Busan HAS NO TELEVISION. Just as I was being so excited about finally being able to ride in a non-budget plane. Haha.

All the buddies were really punctual at picking us up (Pheuron’s very enthusiastic buddy even reached the airport at 5:30AM. And we were due to arrive only at 730am!)
AND SO EVERYBODY…. THIS IS MY BUDDY!

Her name is Park Go Un(she is really cute in real life this photo doesnt do her justice at all) Although she’s not a hot guy, she is the best buddy one can ever wish for. She really nice and we genuinely like each other. She also majors in Law at PNU.

She and Pheuron’s Buddy Jun Sung also treated us to this feast. It’s an alternative to the classic barbequed pork because the pork is cooked not bbq-ed. And the lettuce in Korea are purple. And much smaller than the ones that we feast on in far east plaza, girls!

My Buddy Go Un and Pheuron's buddy, JunSung

The feast they treated us to

And this is my roommate, Pheuron. She’s from NTU too and its easy living with each other. And everybody, behold, my room. It really really far exceeds my expectations because it is very big( space is not an issue here at all) and we have a closet each and a shoe cardboard.
And the best of all.. our own personal toilet and bathroom.

Thank God for his countless blessings.

Love, Ruth

Saturday, February 21, 2009
1:58 AM

With just 5 days more to go, i'm feeling really excited. i think this explains why i've been sleeping at 2a.m yet posess the ability to wake up at 8-9am the next morning. definitely a sign that i am extremely excited because i am really geeky this way. :)

i have so much to be thankful for really. the fact that i can even think about embarking on this journey is a blessing. Thank You Lord.

Thank You Mummy and Papa for being so supportive all the way in this entire process. i remember tearing up when i first received the email from INSTEP informing me that i've failed to be allocated a slot for exchange. my mom was beside me at that time i remembered that she was more upset than i was.

And of course, Thank You Mummy and Papa also for the financial support, without which i would not even be thinking about going for exchange. I know that its not easy but Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

and I love You (both of you!) very very much :)

Love, Ruth

Saturday, January 24, 2009
9:30 PM

Thank God that the dorm applications were approved (didnt spend 8 bucks in vain!) and we are good to move in early. the only pity was that this year they shifted the early move in to 1 day earlier, which means that we will be wasting 2 days worth of dorm fees! :(
but never mind, as long as we get a dorm, i am THANKFUL :)

hmm next have to figure out how to wire money over to PNU.

and as for visa, bless the kind hearted sumin at korean embassy for being such a great help. (she never fails to answer her emails by 10am and she's super nice about my insignificant questions) so as soon as everyone is back after cny, we'll get our visas done!

also pre-registered for korean class. thank God that unlike my previous worries, they do not only offer basic korean, but other levels too. with a leap of faith i opted for korean convo 2 as well as korean reading and comprehension. its going to be difficult i think, with the course description stating that we will learn how to speak about political, social, cultural issues. :O
but oh well, might as well make the most of it while i'm there. HAHA (i am kiasu this way)

thats all for now.

Love, Ruth