the begining and the end

Been and back from Bintan. i love the beach, the huge waves, the fine soft sand.... one can never see such a beach in spore. A resort which i wouldn mind going back again.

3 months of torture will soon begin. keeping my fingers cross my preceptor, the ward sister and staff are nice. the 2 weeks break is simply too short, ive only just started to have the holiday mood but i've got to start work tmr alr.. i'm so not ready for it! argh!!!!

Misses the beach. Butterflies in stomach.

Seoul, Korea [ 5sept - 15sept 09]

A 6 hours night flight to Incheon Airport which my mom and myself barely slept. The temperature ranged from 20 to 30 degree clesius. Despite the bright sun shinning like in spore, it feels cool, as though we are in a shopping centre in spore. Imagine when its in the night and early morning... Lovely! Till now, i'm still having difficulty adapting back to spore's tempt!

Homestay
Sarah and Feraldine (din) were in Seoul earlier so as to experience homestay. They were so comfortable with the environment that they requested that we homestay with their host sister's house, which we did. It was definitely a great experience.

My host, Dr. Andy/WooYoung is a director of Hansei University and his wife works at the hospital. Thankfully our host is able to speak english as for his wife, it was hand signals and guessing. Their one and only 12yr old son is currently studying in the states, which would probably be a till he graduates from University, approx 10yrs? Though our host was hardly at home (and at that point of time they has some family issues), they treated us like part of their family. They had even bought an extra bed, hairdryer, toiletry, food..... Most importantly, they are extremely patient!

Our other half-host was very motherly who had prepared breakfast for everyone. Every morning at 8.20am (Spore time: 7.20am) my mom and myself would take a one min walk over to her house for breakfast!맛있다! (delicious) She has 3 boys. Namely Lee Kyuho (10yrs), Lee Minho(9yrs) and Lee Eunho(7yrs). With din and sarah staying there, it feels like she just had 2 extra kids! 시끄러운( noisy and loud). Haha.. Being with this family gives a very homey feeling.

Shopping
Most of the days we spent shopping! We would set off at 11am and be back at 9plus with only shopping at only a single street! Apgujeong Dong has the coolest clothes and the lastest fashion in korea BUT its extremely 비싼 (expensive) shopping there. Its where celebrities will shop at and celebrities hidden in huge black tinted window vans.

Dongdaemun sells extremely cheap clothes but definitely worth buying unlike spore cheap clothes and accessories! I think there are 3 buildings but one of it is for those tour groups to bring the tourist to so naturally it would be more expensive.

Myeong Dong! Probably my most favourite street to shop at! Everything you want or need can be found there. From clothes to accessories to comestics to facial products to shoes... Facial mask are given out for free which are sold like $10 per piece in spore!!!

Sinchon which have a few Universities located around that area, attracts students to shop around that area. Not exactly as big as the other markets though. Close by Sinchon is Hondae which is also another shopping area! Yes, Shopping!

Yeoju is really far from where we stayed. I think it is not within Seoul? Anyway we took abt 3 hrs to reach our destination? Anyway, Yeoju sells all the branded and sports stuff at a MUCH cheaper rate. Mind you, its all original! xD

Coex is one expensive place to shop at. Its like a huge orchard road only that its in one building. Lotte World is also a huge shopping centre with an internal and external amusement park inside. Its similar to Genting actually. GS mart and Lotte Mart are places where we bought our food, chopsticks and what ever we had brought bach apart from clothes and accessories. xD

Sightseeing
Bongeunsa, a chinese temple surrounded by many trees. It feels like it is in a tiny forest where across the road are classy and upgraded buildings. There is a waterfountain where water can be drank from. The water is really cool and refreshing!

We went to Gyeongbokgung palace and manage to catch them changing shift. It was pretty cool! xD

We went to N Tower using the route by foot. (the other is by cable car which had seemed nicer) The view was great and it was cold! Many couples can be seen there. There is a railining where couples would buy and hang their couple locks in the railing. It was pretty much filled up.

Olympic Park! My favourite sightseeing place. It took us abt 3hrs to complete the whole park. It has rained just as we reached the park and my, extremely COLD. Even with my thick pullover i was still feeling cold! And my mom broke my umbrella, actually the wind did. hahaa. Anyway, its really beautiful there. There are flower plantations, Squirrel forest and containers for people to pick up the nuts and put then in there for squirrels to eat!

Relax
We went to 찜질방(Jjimjilbang). It is korean bathhouse that is open 24hrs. A place where koreans will go there to relax. The showering area is separated into males and females and we will shower and scrub ourselves till we are red lobsters to remove the dead skin on our body. It is an open area while showering so yup, you will be all exposed! After scrubbing and changing into their clothes, we will head to the hot room tempt ranging from 60 plus to 90 plus celsius and ltr to the ice room with a 0 celsius and just keep switching. They have a room thats filled with oxygen. At the 찜질방, they provide food, gym, mats for sleeping and everything that you need. Its definitely an experience there.

Post Korea Syndrome
Korea is a place where i wouldn't mind going back again for a holiday again. Its really safe there. I love it there!
I miss the food.
I miss the weather.
I miss my dongsengs.

*Pic will be up in my FB.*

2pm Park Jaebeom, Suju Kangin, Seoul

Current thoughts

KOREA

Officially last day of lessons

Exams

Camp

Damn you politics

Jerangkang Waterfall!

Okay, my first and hopefully not my last expedition. It was simply memorable. Keeping my fingers crossed that i have time to get my canoe first star cert and go for the water expedition. xD

Day 1
Went to sch to learn how to pitch tents, the proper way of doing BOing and PUing by creating cat holes (hopefully i rmb correctly), repacking and waterproofing our bags. Later we had dinner at mac and discussion for talent night while waiting for the bus to come to send us over to msia. And sam had to choose a horror movie on the bus to watch which i tried to sleep through.. hahaa

Day 2
Cooked our breakfast outside the mosque and had a 45min ride in the lorry up to close our camp site which we ltr trekked up. After reaching our camp site we went trekking through the forest and trekked down by the water. Did a few jumps into the water from low cliffs, had lunch beside the waterfall. totally shiok!

Day 3
Woke up to have a dip ourselves into the waterfall at 7am. It was super duper cold and everyone was shaking, literally.hahaa Later we made salad and andy made 'potato chips' using our potato skin.. nice and fattening.. xD everyone was stealing our chips! haha Later we played washing machine and was thrown into the water. Nice... We were given time to enjoy the scenary and let our thoughts flow..

The whole day was pretty slack which felt good. I played everything there which includes the abseiling, jacuzzi, more jumping off a 'cliff', sliding down a 'rapid' and sliding down the waterfall which was so damn cool. xD

Later in the night we had a cooking competition and our talent show. it was very entertaining. xD

We had to do century and making sure everything and one was safe. And we had barley for supper. xD

It has rained through that night but it wasnt too heavy thankfully.

Day 4
Once again we had our crazy morning dip in the cold waterfall after packing up all our stuff and combed the area clean. And then we were back to spore. Back in sch, we had to unpack the logistics and wash everything up which means getting wet again. cold~ hahaa

Then cabbed home with atiqah. xD

Back there i felt totally relaxed, stress and worry free! it felt so so good. Really..

I would say its a very well organised expedition which the standard had surprised me in fact. A tiny part of me regrets for not joining ADC back at yr 1. I'll tell my juniors to go for their expeditions and future presidents to let the club know that its worth going!

Anyway my pics are all in facebook so u can just make your way there! xD

1 week more of hols before it becomes super busy with proj, fyp, test plus aikido stuff! so thankful for the expedition. *grins*

she misses everything there and loves it...

Her wants..

The weather is extremely hot till she is having a headache.. It has been further made worse after trying to read up a journal article for FYP. She feels that she function better in the night so she would most prolly leave it till then. But then again, she has got to wake up early tomorrow for training. She's pretty tired of training as it is taking up too much of her time and energy. She wants to do it at her own time and pace.

She wants to catch the movie x-men but everyone around her has already caught the movie. Plus she is too busy to do so too..

There is a new handphone that looks super nice and she is eyeing on it. Samsung ultra touch... She's contemplating if she should get a new bag pack..

Many thoughts but blank.

Was pretty surprised with the number of freshies whom had turned for on wed for the orientation. Now i'm just waiting for the number of people who will be joining and would eventually stay on.. I'm definitely glad that club crawl has finally ended.

I can't really make out if yr 3's work load is madness or my cca. But i definitely do know that i'm going crazy. lol

She needs her sleep but everyone is lying on her bed which is irritating her as she wants to sleep now.

swine flu

Points

Today it shall be in points...

• Aching leg muscles and fingers. Probably due to partnering Peter.
• Training has been a torture lately.
• 4th and 5th training
• Expecting 20 to 30 freshies
• A cockroach just ran over my leg. OMG!
• Projects
• Swine flu
• Wavered
• Haggard
• Whinnie the Pooh