buffets break dietsit somehow still saddens... or rather, scares me... the idea of graduating. the whole thing seems so surreal and to tell the truth, i can't get used to the fact that after studying for... 15 years, i'm going to be out of it. at least the phase of formal education.
went back to nus to collect my academic dress today and the whole process just makes me uneasy again. am i doing the right thing? should i have stayed on for another year... even though i would end up with a funked up honours degree that would not justify 365 days? maybe i should have worked harder.. but lo and behold.. let's just let these pass. *grieve*
met up with yuenling and mingjie, then tay and nellie at the hall... seriously the academic dress looks horrible. i mean.. it just looks so puffed up and... that mortar board.. i have no idea how to wear it properly. sometimes it feels fine... sometimes it feels too big. and it's definitely not my head changing sizes so it has got to be that mortar board.
after that, nel drove us down to heeren. poor nel.. please for goodness sake, take care of yourself on the road and stop bumping into other people's car!! we wanted to eat at han ka ram but it was closed (all your fault, nel... all that waiting! *hmph*) so we settled for buffet at sakae. but nel left early.
this was my first time having the buffet and i really do not think that i will go for it ever again.. unless i haven't been eating for days. all the while we were thinking of hitting at least seven plates to make it all worthwhile but before we even realized it, we had each eaten ten plates.
i had 4 temakis. i must be crazy.we ate sooo much we were pretty much hating sushi. then we moved on to cine where we were just in time for the five fifty pm
king and the clown show. right.. i don't know what's the big hype because while i think it was nice and touching and exciting, i don't get all the hoo-hah. or maybe i'm not that deep a person yeah? but lee junki was freaking beautiful. how can any guy be that beautiful? sheesh.
after that.. mingjie, yuenling and i went to galilee at cineleisure for some light food after shopping at sol mart. yuenling finally overcame herself by finishing that one pack of kimchi. but seriously, that pack of kimchi is nothing like the real one. so.. yuenling~ good luck~~
yuenling, mingjie and i... a little too dark but never mind ~i miss my jap classmates~ i think they were the only real friends i made in nus.. as in.. these are the people whom i still keep in contact with and would continue to do in the future..
and it's great that they are learning korean too! haha from the same teacher somemore.. haha..
i'm turning cam-whorish. bleah.morning shift again tomorrow.
dammit. i hate it because people who say they are available say they can't cover my shift. then why the hell do you put yourself as available?!
listening to: utada hikaru -- this is love
back on track and losing hope*phew*
after what seemed like forever, i'm finally done with my pseudo-travelogue. that sure took me a long time, and i felt like i couldn't go on with my life because of that.
so what did you guys miss in my life while my seoul travelogue got stuck?
1. my commentaries of all three games that the koreans played in fifa world cup 2006. no. don't get me started on the last one. that was a complete foul and the referee was european-biased. he deserves to be kicked. but by the way.. i totally *heart* park ji sung, ahn jung hwan, lee chunsoo, lee woonjae and lee young pyo. again 2002 in 2010! i'm telling you, i'm going to south africa for at least one korean match in 2010. and i mean it.
2. my brother's wedding last saturday. okay actually it wasn't that far away. it was fun but tiring, considering that i didn't sleep at all because the dreadful korean match kept me up all night. i think i may still talk about .. in my next post perhaps.
3. usual rants of work. i don't like working at where i am now even though it's part time and i just want to get a full time job ASAP. i'm losing hope here because it's getting late and i have things to pay for. geez.
i hate most of what is going on in my life now.
listening to: cherry boom -- dear prince
last day in seoulwell.. last full day in seoul meant we have to catch up with visiting all the famed places and also, buy stuffs back to singapore for relatives and friends!
early in the morning, we decided that the gyeongbok goong was the first thing in the itinerary for us today! it was pretty near and we went by subway.. it was probably a holiday in korea because there were a lot of families over there.
when we reached, we were just in time for the guards procession.
posing for a picture is not easy.. because the sun is in your face T_Tessentially gyeongbok goong is boring. oops sorry... it's beautiful of course, and if you watched the drama
goong, you'll feel like you're in the set. but ultimately that's all to it. everywhere looked like everywhere else.
some garden... as explained on some slab of stone.
i was laughing during this picture.. i think the guard thinks i'm crazy.we left the place after an hour or so, and our next stop was namdaemun.. qiaoyan wanted to get some ginseng powder for her family and i wanted to see if i could get anything for my mother too. it was the place to get auntie stuffs and eventually i got ginseng powder for my father too, since i didn't know what to get him..
we settled lunch at a roadside pojangmacha... and we finally had bulgogi!!!
all these for less than twenty bucks. sorry no such luck in singaporeeating there was a bliss.. the sky was a little overcasted.. and it was a little chilly.. eating something piping hot just by the road is BLISS.
somehow we ventured into a wet market and this old ajumma was soooo sweet~ she let us sampled everything and she packed sooo much kimchi for us!! she's sooo cute!!
then the whole day was spent shopping at dongdaemun to get whatever we needed~~
spot what's funny in this picture!dongdaemun market is so freaking big it deterred me occasionally.. gee walking around is killing. clothes and everything was not that cheap.. frack i can find cheaper deals on the net!!
they sell dogs in the middle of nowhere!!!! aaah soooooo kyoooote~
our finished dinner of oden soup, haemul pajeon, tteobbuki and fried pig intestineswhen we got back to the guesthouse.. we had such a hard time squeezing everything into our bags.. we even had tomatoes! by the time we were done, it was already 2am.. and we were to wake up at 4 to catch the early shuttle bus back to incheon airport.
we caught the bus at 4.50am and we were the only passengers on the bus.. at 5am, the korean national anthem played.. why do i know the tune? because my dear sang it during the opening ceremony for two events =D so proud of that man. haha
anyway korea's sky light up pretty early in the morning. by six am.. it looked like it was eight in singapore. we were the first few to check in because it was so early so the nice cathay people blocked seats for us.
in no time we were back in hongkong and i finally had the chance to drink starbucks out of singapore.
unfortunately... i make better mocha fraps. the one at the hongkong international airport sucked. it was sOOOOOOOOOOO icy. did they even blend it?!
--
oh well i cut a lot of things... but there you have it.. my days in korea.. it wasn't even a week but it got me missing it so badly. when i came back, i hated the weather.. i hated that every traffic sign was in english instead of korean.. i hated not having drink machines at the train stations... heck i even keep their train ticket card in my wallet T-T
i'm going back there!!
and i miss my dear so badly.
listening to: utada hikaru -- blue
last few days in seoul~you know.. i think i can never move on without finishing my entries on seoul. goodness it's been more than a month already... so for goodness sake.. *to myself* LET'S GET THIS OVER AND DONE WITH~!!!!
day 4the day started early for me today... erm.. or shall i say.. it ended late? because we slept at 5am in the morning despite having just attended a concert~! and shinhwa's concert at that!! what was i doing up so late?!
yes.. porn on the ocn channel. i forgot what we were watching because we WATCHED SO MANY. was it the french one? or the one with maggie gyllenhaal? okay i think it doesn't matter.
anyway... sleeping at 5am proved to be a disaster as the day passed. i woke up at 8am to meet yingying for the special option at the same place where the concert was, seoul olympic park. which meant that i had to take that freaking long train ride again. not a good start but anything for my men =D
pictures that have me in them are RARE. this is outside olympic park. i don't understand the artifact behind me but never mind. 
Flowers were all over the place in the complex, good wishes for the concert
basically the whole special option thing was to let you tour the concert site and a chance to win autographed cds. i won't say it's a complete waste of time but yes it's a waste of time. argh.. and we thought there would be an autograph session.
it was fun, nevertheless to go on stage and tell yourself "oh my god... my dear was standing RIGHT HERE LAST NIGHT~~~" haha... okay.. so much for trying to console myself.
the place where my dream came true... truly the theatre of dreams 
they were blasting shinhwa vids all over the place
the stage... extension, to be exact. yes my dear was on it!!!!
they pasted the whole concert rundown on the stage.
i'm on shinhwa's stage!!
shinhwa's 'brand new' mtv on the biggest screen i've ever seen them onwell the event was really short.. and in no time, i was on my way to another part of seoul, waaaay different from where we've been so far. today.. we were to go hiking because qiaoyan wanted to see the other part of this city, the nature aspect. so we arranged to meet at dobong-san station which...
turned out to be a disaster for me because happily i took the wrong train again. this time... instead of changing the train at the hoegi station to uijeongbu direction... i happily forgot all about it.
instead of continuing my ride on the SMRT, i ended up on the ktx train that to my horror, was stopping at stations that were NOT on the subway map. imagine my horror.
normal stations look like this....
suburdan ones look like this.. freaking hell it was still under construction?!so i panicked.. and quickly got off at a station which further reminded me of my distress. it looked like i was at the wrong side of the city already. i approached this old couple and asked them where i was... they looked like they were in a hurry but luckily for me, they were kind enough to tell me to take the train back to hoegi and transfer.. they even quarrelled even though they were ultimately talking about the same thing .. haha ...
well anyway.. in no time, i was glad to find myself back on the NORMAL subway line already. finally at dobong-san station... i found qiaoyan and candy at the subway station's control station.. and it turned out that they were asking directions from the staff there. not much help though.. the uncle tried calling up some people to ask around, even the young counter lady helped but it ended up futile.. we still had to take a cab there. but we appreciated their offer even though i wanted to tell the uncle to give up and just let us take a cab. haha..
the kinds folks.. cheer up ajusshi!train station ajusshi brought us all the way to the other side of the road to hail a cab. as usual.. cab ajusshi asked us where we were from... and started to offer information on how to descend from that place later... he told us there were bus services and we could leave on a shuttle bus.. oh yeah that would be good... since it was going to be cheaper.
when we got there, it was chaotic. there was some festival at the temple and we were stuck, the taxi couldn't move on. cab uncle told the guard that we were tourists, but the guard wanted to see our passports. in a good show of faith, cab uncle forced his way and drove past the furious guard. MAH SEH AJUSSHI!
at the entrance to the hiking area... it seemed like a mistake the moment we started to hike.. sorry for being such a bitch.. i was whining and cursing and wanted to go home.. hahaha sorry... i've never been a sports person and sleeping for only 3 hours previously was not helping.
but what touched me were the nice koreans that were descending.... they were very kind and encouraging!!
ajusshi: very tough? (i think our faces said it all)
me: yes very tough!!
ajusshi: have anything to drink?
me: yeh~~
ajusshi: be careful!
me: you too, walk well! (erm.. that's literally.)
the journey took forever... but when we finally reached... i don't know... i just feel... tired T_T
sitting on a big big branch!
like i've said.. pictures of me are rare. hahah
we made it! then we realized that there was another peak further up!
the real peak of the peak.. maybe the motif on the ground was to mark that.
the scene that awaited us after two hours of climbing. 
how about this for a cd cover?
we are survivors!!when i was at the peak.. i called my mother and wished her happy mother's day. oh my god.. i heard her go silent for a while.. dear mum... are you too touched for words?!
we wanted to go down, taking our own sweet time but then we met this group of ajusshis and ajummas who came to hike, apparently, regularly. they offered to bring us down and one of the ajusshis thought qiaoyan was cute *wink*. we chatted while going down and they asked a lot of things, including who singapore's president was. they also kindly told us, in simple english, some hiking stuffs..
being so friendly and kind, the group even bought us beer and food!! and by definition, 'food' was made up of a cup of snails and fried beetles. i was taunted into eating that beetle but i quickly washed it down with maekju. trust me, the beetles didn't have any taste and the bite was like rice crisps... crispy and crunchy. oh no, stop reminding me.
eventually, we bade farewell to that group of people and that ajusshi who liked qiaoyan even gave her his namecard (did you email him by the way, qiaoyan?!). we took a taxi down and shared it with two other guys.
by this time, our feet were all sore and dying.. so we decided to reward ourselves with a good meal. back at myeongdong, we ventured into a shabushabu house and had some beef shabushabu..
there was this noodle thing inside.. dang it was so good.because we were TOO TIRED .. we went back to the guesthouse after this... god i swear my toes were dead.
i think we watched maggie gyllenhaal's
the secretary this night. okay.. too much porn, i don't even remember when i watched what.
state of the artalright. let me see.. when did i come back from korea?
16th may.
what day is it today?
now at 12... it's 3 june.
so why the hell am i still updating my blog on my korea trip?
because i've been freaking lazy, that's why. alright. my bad.
DAY 3 -- SHINHWA 'STATE OF THE ART' TOURso i was talking about drinking all that soju crap and burning my throat yeah? that didn't dampen my mood at all.. oh no no~ i mean.. how could i think about containing my excitement with shinhwa in sight?! am i nuts?!
when we got there.. wow.. the number of japanese fans there.. you would think you're in japan. from afar.. we could already see a big hot air balloon in the sky... marking the location of the concert venue, olympic park gymnasium~
it says: 'shinhwa concert - shin hyesung'..courtesy of my dear's fanclub
we queued quite a long time to get the concert merchandises.. which included stuffs like handphone straps... and some other things like notebooks... we didn't get much.. our package already included most things.. our main thing was to get the t-shirts..
i have no idea how long we queued.. almost an hour? i have no idea.. and there was this paper.. where we were supposed to put down our orders... we realized that we didn't have it and i was given the task to go search for it. but freaking hell~!! everyone had it except us.. i had to ask this korean fan standing before us to let me have a look at the paper... so finally.. i decided to approach this group of japanese fans at the end of the line.. haha.. my 3 years of japanese at last served me good... to think i actually spoke japanese in korea. huh.. that's pretty. out. haha.
by the time we got our stuffs.. a lot of people had already entered the hall. we got to our seats and shooed off some girls who took our places.. hahaa.. poor them but to hell with them. anywayz.. all the time, i couldn't think. like seriously.. this felt like a dream~! two years in the making.. this concert had been in me and ying's mind for like.. 2 years~!! and finally we are here.. not even in singapore.. but in korea~ their origin~~
you know.. i really don't know how i'm going to relate the whole concert experience again. i mean... i remember so much about it but i don't know what to say about it~~!!
my dear was great.. he was the first to do his solo part.. he performed
midnight girl first, from the latest album.. and it was all .. i don't know.. him! because he's just so good with ballads... and so.. syrup-y. haha~! i thought he would do
kat eun saeng gak but damn it he didn't~!!! he even hugged this girl on stage at the end of that song... i'm telling you, i will die to be in her place. AND I MEAN IT. I SERIOUSLY DO. just when i thought it was over... he came out with a such a breakthrough and did
livin' la vida loca!!! he's mad i'm telling you~~ i was so impressed.. my dear is not known to be a dancer.. or rather, known to be sucky at dancing... but he actually did a ricky martin track?~! it's breakthrough totally! he was soooo .. flashy! so.. i mean.. he wore sequins!! haha.. and he danced flirty-ly... goodness, for someone who would just burst out laughing around girls... ahhhh~ CAN U SENSE MY EXCITEMENT. haha.
second to do his solo was dongwan... he was a breakthrough as well... he turned into a full-time rocker.. and he looked like he was the vocal of some rock band. good try.. because he has such a powerful voice.. it served him good when he did powerful songs... and guess what? he did his ending at MY side of the stage.. he jumped and fireworks came out~ wow... and there was this blast of fire... all the fans immediately took a step back~ and i felt it on my face.. imagine.. i was sitting pretty far from there!
the lights came down but i saw something still burning on stage.. and i was telling ying, "eh.. it caught fire." true enough... there was this guy rushing out in the dark to step it out. lol..
andy and eric was their usual hip-hop state.. but andy, i'm telling you, improved so much in his rapping.. he actually sounded black. talk about being impressed~!! i didn't agree with their cornrow hair though.. but i guess they suppose that matches their hiphop look. their song was high and they even had junjin to do their new song,
highway star together. i just love this song~~ even before i found out it was in their album~! it had such a retro feel to it... and i love retro~!!! even the dance was retro.. junjin was PLAIN HILARIOUS.
my dear.. as usual.. was his lame self... his self-invented diet song was truly one of the highlights. it was a beautiful acapella and they were so harmonious.. but the song was being eating little and about burgers.. cheese... ham... bulgogi... i can't believe they actually even tried to make it sound like some serious ballad... they even introduced themselves as shinhwa, the acapella group. geez!
minwoo's solo was pretty him too.. i mean.. u know, the usual hiphop stuffs. but seriously.. that man, though small as he is, really just catches all your attention. sometimes i watch him on tv, i'm just like.. yeah minwoo... stop hogging the screen~! but when it comes to the real thing.. you can't turn your eyes away seriously. his stage presence was sooo strong! he did a cute song, the advert song from lee junki's guava juice advert.. and awwww. it was sooo cute~!!
junjin's solo was another breakthrough. he was more known as a dancer but he actually sang ballads~~! when he opened his solo with a dance, i was thinking.. man.. that's boring~ another dance? but when he started his ballads.. wow i'm impressed~! i heard he learnt from hwanhee of ftts.. but i swear he sounded like hyesung. haha.
they sang a lot of their 8th album songs.. and although i wasn't too familiar with them.. i was still screaming my head off.. so when
brand new finally came on.. i screamed even louder and at that moment, i really felt like my throat was going to burn. but i didn't care. this was THE SONG. the song that made my love full blast and the song that i was waiting for.. watching the dance live.. hearing the song live.. that's a huge phase of my life completed...
gosh.. i don't know where i would be if i didn't go... i would just... cry in regrets!!!
