Day 16: Monsoon rain attack!

It was cloudy the entire day. July is the wettest month in Korea, and also the most humid month. Which means there will be a lot of rainfall. Well, it rains a lot in Singapore too and I hate the rain when you have to go out. It's nice relaxing at home on a rainy day though.

But Korea's monsoon season is nothing like Singapore's rain, so for those who are interested to go travelling in Korea, I will say skip July and August. The monsoon rain really dampens your mood, and makes travelling and sightseeing hard especially if most activities are outdoors. August, on the other hand, is the hottest month of the year. The temperature might be just 32 degrees celsius (so normal in Singapore), but the sun rays really burn. I got a few shades darker despite spamming sunblock on my last 10 days of trip (which happens to be the hottest period ever).

Showing you a typical meal in SKKU canteen. Tada~! And I believe most canteens too. Kimchi are usually free flow and self-service, but take only what you can finish please. Soups may or may not be complimentary. Menu of Day 15 was Omu-rice, and honestly I hate this brown sauce that they drenched over Omu-rice in Korea. This was my third time having it drenched all over my rice but I personally felt that it was a bit like plum sauce - sweet and sour, and anything sweet doesn't go over my main meals, they are only for desserts.

Oh, btw, this costs about 5,000KRW. So yeah, canteen food isn't much cheaper than outside food too.

We wanted to go Myeongdong again this evening, and also to settle our dinner there. But the heavy rain really put us off. I've tried being stuck in Myeongdong twice with heavy rain - it sucks. You have to go in and out of shops in Myeongdong so if it rains, you have to keep hiding in the shops, and everyone is also hiding in the shops, so you cannot shop because it is too crowded, but you cannot go out into the rain too.

But we still have to settle dinner. Lydia was reluctant to step out in the pouring rain so Jenny and I decided to meet. I waited for 15 minutes but the rain did not show any signs of it getting smaller, so we just decided to head out anyway. (Also cause it's almost 8pm and we're dying of hunger) And 10 seconds after I am out of the guesthouse, my feet are soaking wet and I am drenched already! 

From that day onwards, I was pondering about whether I should get those rain boots that Korean girls wear. Rain boots come in so many designs in Korea - high cut, low cut, flowery, plain etc etc. No doubts about that though because Koreans are so into fashion. But my Korean friends told me the 10,000KRW ones really hurt and cut your feet and no way am I gonna get those 50,000KRW Hunter boots because there was only two more weeks of school and I will be on a 10-days road trip already. So... say hi to more wet shoes and soaking feet.

Jenny and I met and then settled down at a Chinese restaurant in between her dorm and my guesthouse. Actually, we have been wanting to go there to eat because we always see them delivering jjajangmyeon and stuff in their bikes with a huge metal box to put the food. So they must have been quite a traditional Chinese restaurant. I had some clams kalguksu (noodles) while Jenny had her jjajangmyeon again. I guess she hasn't satisfied her craving for jjajangmyeon hahah. I really wanted to try jjampong but I'm afraid that it was too spicy and I didn't really know how to tell them to make it less spicy. Turns out the owner speaks Chinese , though a little bit hard to understand. I think he is from some province of China - a very strong accent/dialect of Chinese we couldn't really catch. He chatted with us though and told us that his son is also studying in SKKU but of course we wouldn't know his son.

But still, I think it's quite comforting to meet people whom you can understand (sort of) and strike little conversations with in a foreign land.

Day 14 & 15: Meet-ups

Day 14
I met up with XQ, who was here for travelling after she finished her exchange in China. She was only here for about two weeks I think, and we tried to find time to meet asap, and luckily we did. After lessons ended at 4pm, I got home to wash my laundry. YES, YOU SEE THAT CORRECTLY. Hahah I'm amazed too that I survived well on my own, because I don't do any housework back in Singapore. Well, but not doing (because I'm too lazy) and not knowing how to do are two different things. I always watch while my mum does it, so I do know the basics at least.

So, I rushed to Myeongdong to meet XQ for dinner. Because she (or we) were both feeling meh about Korean food, we decided to have western food. Brought her to Han's Deli (which was my all-time favourite western restaurant in Seoul) and it's my third time at Han's Deli already, in my short 14 days in Korea. And not to mention, it was my 7th time in Myeongdong. Well, because partly because Shan and I went to Myeongdong every single night (also because it was only 15 minutes from our guesthouse) during our 4 days in Seoul. There is just this amazing feeling about Myeongdong that keeps drawing me back somehow, maybe I will talk about it some other time.

XQ was my senior when I went for Freshmen Camp back when I was in Year 1. We seldom have a chance to catch up, so meeting up in Korea was pretty good, and also heartwarming to see an ever-so-familiar face in a foreign land. I think it's also XQ's first time meeting up with a friend (other than her exchange mates) for her long 7 months away from Singapore. A pity the rain kind of dampened our mood, and also I wasn't feeling well that day, so I left shortly after dinner. But it was still a good catch up!

Day 15
The girls wanted to meet up for dinner at Edae. Partly because I wasn't feeling well still, I decided to give this a miss. Jenny and Lydia brought Okta along though to meet Cheryl and Winnie. I believe they had a good time shopping and eating, and I had my instant noodles for dinner.

It was not too bad for me too in the sense that it was the first time in 15 days I can just sit down and relax and not do anything but just scroll through Facebook etc and wasting time.

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As you can see, I combined both days into one entry. No photos even HAHAH. (Except one with XQ) Kind of because by day 15, I got a bit bored and tired of going out consecutively for two whole weeks. I kind of just wanna rot my life away hahah, and also because the monsoon season in Seoul was arriving and it was irritating to get my feet soaking wet everytime I step out of the room. But thankfully, I started to cherish my very limited days in Korea again and go out more often. But for now, I guess you guys have to bear with this for a bit. :P

Day 13: My first day of school!

Sorry I haven't been active for some time. Because it is my examinations period.

Anyway, taking a break (as if I did study much) to blog about my first day of school in SKKU.

I took Strategic Management Formulation as my morning class, and I took it alone. This course is a business module, and there was no one from my home university in business course (not that I know of). So, I was alone. But it was my core, and I am more than glad to clear it. Subsequently, I got to know a few other SIM students, even though I wasn't close with them, but glad to hear Singlish around in the class. :P

Anyway, we had a group presentation to do, and we were allocated into our groups. So thankful I don't need to find my own groupmates, if not it's gonna be so awkward for meeeeeeee. We were a pretty international class - I thought we had quite a lot of balance in terms of nationality already. For your information, there were A LOT of Singaporeans going for SKKU ISS program. Hundreds and hundreds. From SIM and NTU, I heard there were at least 200 each. And even though I wanted some comfort and thus some Singaporean friends around, I did not come to Korea to hang out with Singaporeans again. So I was so glad that we had a pretty good ratio in the morning class.

My morning class ended very early that day. Only an hour long instead of the scheduled 2.5 hours because it is the first lesson. Since I was so early, I decided to take a walk and snap some photos of my school compound. I love the 600 years old campus and all the rustic feel.

Jenny and I then met (because our classes were in the same building) and contacted Lydia (who was in another building) for lunch. She brought along some friends who she had met in her morning class, which are mainly HyoEun and Oktavia. Mainly meaning those that we met for the next three weeks of school. HyoEun was the first Korean girl that I met as I have mentioned earlier. And Oktavia is a lady studying in Netherlands but she is an Indonesian. Okta is an amazing lady! She is 27 but looks just like us, plus she has so much life experiences and stories to share, because she left Indonesia on her own to study in Netherlands when she was just a teenager.

Best thing, I realised that Oktavia is in the same afternoon class as me!!!! We went together to class after lunch and were grouped with two very awesome Korean ladies for presentation and group work. The professor was an American who is teaching in SKKU and the class was "Poverty, Inequality, and Economic Growth". It was something like a mix of history lesson and geography lesson, but I personally find it rather interesting. (Though I always fell asleep when he played videos, because we had such a good lunch in the school canteen everytime.) Jihye and Minkyeong spoke pretty good English for a Korean, and in addition to that, Jihye speaks Mandarin too, because she lived in China for a few years.

For dinner, Jenny and I met to explore the other side of Hyehwa, which was equally happening and had lots of nice cafes which we swore we had to visit (but didn't manage to find time to). We passed by this classy looking restaurant and it serves Chinese food, and we kind of crave for it because it has been Korean food everyday for so long. Food there wasn't as cheap (around 10k won) but it was once in a while plus it was pretty good.

Day 12: Everland

Finally, the day for Everland arrived!!! Jenny and Lydia and I were all very excited for this trip hahah because it is one of the main highlights of my trip! We met up with three other friends of Lydia at Hyehwa  station at 9am and set off for Everland early. Because it is a long journey to Everland, which is in Gyeonggi-do, outside of Seoul.

There are a few ways to get there, and I will suggest two:

1) Express bus. This is the most convenient but of course more expensive way of getting to Everland. There are a few places to take this express bus. One of them is at City Hall station, exit 5. Another one is Samseong station, exit 5. This express bus service is operated by Daeseong Tour and reservation is required. So, please dial 031-919-1244 to reserve seats beforehand. 12,000KRW for round trip. However, do note that this express bus service will send you back from Everland at 6pm, but the 9pm fireworks display is awesome and not to be missed! So, I think you have to weigh the pros and cons yourself.

2) No. 5002 from Gangnam station, in front of Krispy Kreme donuts. This public bus is pretty cheap I guess. About 2,000KRW but the thing is that Koreans can be really rough sometimes. Really kiasu in fact hahah. The whole journey takes about 40-50 minutes, but if you do not have a seat, this journey can seem really long actually.

People have mentioned about the Everline, which is a line that extends all the way to Gyeonggi-do. However, I really would not recommend Everline because it takes too much time and effort to figure out the way. I used Method 2 (the public bus method) to get to Everland, and the Everline back from Everland. If I remember correctly though, I had to transfer line 4 times, and the entire journey takes nearly 2.5 hours from Everland back to Hyehwa. It was about 1.5 hours on my trip there.

Anyway, enough of transportation, here are some photos of the gorgeous place.

We had an early lunch inside Everland. One thing I like about Korea is that they do not purposely hike up the prices when in tourist attractions. For instance, this meal I had cost 9,000KRW. It is slightly steeper than the usual meals, but that is because food in Korea is not cheap anyway. Stepping into any restaurant costs at least 5,000KRW too. And this is so damn good, and a huge portion, and this is the more expensive restaurants. There are meals starting at 7,000KRW in other restaurants.

One of our stops was Safari World. Safari World allows us to take a bus around and view animals upclose. We got to see white tigers, lions, hyenas, brown bears. And these creatures were just roaming around in their designated areas (separated by their species) and the brown bears were just walking on the road!!! It is so cool to see the animals 50m away from you.

Besides Safari World, Everland of course has all those amusement park rides!! A pity though that we didn't get to sit on the ferris wheel (which I was anticipating for the longest time ever) because it was down for maintenance. Bumper cars caught our attention too because many of us haven't had a chance to ride on bumper cars before.

And definitely, this!!!! Everland is famous for its T-express, which is a roller coaster entirely made of wood, and it has the second steepest slope at 77 degrees. Can you believe it?!?!? A maximum vertical height of 77 degrees!!! It is also the world's ninth fastest, fourth tallest, and sixth longest wooden roller coaster. Amazing records!!! Also rated as the No. 1 scariest ride in South Korea. Definitely, we cannot give this a miss!!

Which is also the reason why we ate lunch so early. We hope to have our food digested by the time we went for T-express, because I don't think I will want to puke argh!! Truth be told, I do have a certain fear of heights, and I HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN ON A ROLLER COASTER IN MY ENTIRE 22 YEARS OF LIFE!!!! This is mad crazy, me challenging one of the scariest roller coasters in the world, while I am a total noobie in this!! I still cannot imagine how I manage to get myself on this. The 77 degrees felt way more than that!! And it was hurting my neck so badly because I cannot even lower my head because of the speed. Also, I couldn't even scream out loud because I was so scared that my voice got stuck in my throat. Literally screaming with no voice!! My throat hurts so much after that too!!

But if you love these games, you definitely have to go for this T-express! Strongly recommended! And I do not think I will ever have the courage to step up on this again.

Parade shows are everywhere in amusement parks, and of course there is one in Everland! We missed most of it, but it looks amazingly grand! 

I love carousels since young. Most girls grew up imagining themselves to be princesses, with their Prince charming come riding to them on a white horse. I am for anything princessy, and despite being a little lame, I still enjoyed this ride! :P

Amazing gorgeous view of Everland!! Besides all those rides, Everland is also famous for their Four Seasons Garden. They have lovely roses everywhere in this place and I snapped so many photos here and easily spend an hour here gawking over the beautiful flowers and amazing sights. Definitely come here too okay!

Everland is HUGEEEEEE so if you are wondering about the transportation within Everland, we took this sky tram thing from one location to another. Also, Everland is entirely outdoors too, so we were really lucky that day that it didn't rain a single bit. It was scorching hot and I have weird tan lines all over my body after that day and have my nose peeling due to sunburn. This skytram thing is cool and I was damn scared that my slippers will drop down and we were grabbing on to the bar firmly. And see the amazing sunset in Everland!!

Last but not least, there are definitely more rides and attractions to see in this place! Do try out the Amazon Express, and also the Hurricane. Some other amazing rides (which I did not get to try) include Double Rock Spin, and Let's Twist, as well as Columbus Adventures. Some of the rides though, scare me at the sight of it, because I get giddy and nauseous very easily. 

Also, Carribean Bay, the water themepark, is just next to Everland. And both are stated as not to be missed. However, I don't think it's possible to finish exploring both places in one day. So if you travel all the way to Everland, you might want to stay in their resorts, so that you can go to Carribean Bay the next day as well. (: Oh, just in case you are interested, foreigners get a discount and the 1-day ticket costs 35,000KRW. I frankly think it is very acceptable considering the price of USS in Singapore, and oh btw, souvenirs are pretty affordable too, so please buy more home for memory's keepsake. :D