Less than 24 hours.

It's like another 10 hours or so to my flight. And probably 20 hours more to be stepping on the ground of Korea. I'm excited!!!

And nope, a typical direct flight to Korea from Singapore isn't that long. But I'm going on a transfer flight, so my transit timing is about 3 hours, which explains for the long travelling time. A typical direct flight from Singapore to Korea shouldn't take you more than 7 hours.

And I'm engulfed in some sort of mixed feelings right now. Nervousness, excitement, uneasiness.

Nervous because it's my first solo trip abroad, and for a whole 46 days somemore. I'm kind of worried on how I can survive there. To be honest, I'm totally not housewife material. I can't cook, wash clothes, neither do I do housework. I really really admire how my mum does it so effortlessly, although she never stops complaining how tiring it is. This is a test of my own independence and survival skills. Or I shall survive with half-cleaned clothes hahah.

Excited, but of course. Korea has been #1 on my must-go countries list. (Sharing the same honour as Taiwan, but I have already went Taiwan a month ago) It's like I can live the life I have been dreaming of, wake up feeling happy everyday that I am in the land of KPOP, K-dramas and K-variety. Of course, that wasn't the main driving force for my love for Korea. It started mainly because of K-variety, but also because of the rich history of Korean culture. K-dramas and KPOP did not contributed much to the initial burst of interest.  I wasn't into KPOP until a few months ago, and even so, I'm not that into KPOP now as well. And not to mention, my favourite bands, SHINee and CNBLUE are both in Japan promoting while I stepped onto their land. (Haix)

And last but not least, uneasy. I took up Korean language in school mainly because I wanted to go on a summer program. Korean 1 was really purely so that I know some basics if I get to go Korea. (I plan like way ahead, 1 year ahead for this program) Korean 2 was because Korean 1 raised my interest in the language. And now, here I am, going to step onto a foreign land, hearing Korean everywhere, but not understanding them. I am quick in the grammar but really slow in the conversational part. I don't even know if I can order food and survive there. But if my friends who know 0 Korean can, I really hope I can too.

P.S.: I am already missing my bed, my mama and all the food I can eat here.

(Next time I post this, I shall already be in Korea!)

5 days to Korea.

I just settled a bunch of things.

I met up with my travel buddies for the second time. I was kind of glad that I wasn't travelling alone. I was even more glad to find a bunch of lovely ladies to travel with. It's amazing how we weren't awkward despite seeing each other twice.

I still got many things yet to settle before I leave. Like my after trip accommodation.

Will be travelling to the less-explored parts of South Korea. We didn't want to limit ourselves to Seoul only, and anyway, we will be spending 4 whole weeks in Seoul already. For the after trip, we are covering a total of 4 destinations in 8 days. Pretty rushed I must say. Gangwon-do, Gyeongju, Busan, and Jeollanam-do. I am not sure how many sounds familiar to most people, perhaps only Busan, but honestly, I wasn't confident of navigating around Korea myself too, so thank gawd for these girls.

Anyone with suggestions on activities/accommodation on these places, please do let me know!

I hope to be able to update this space every single day. And that it will contain bits and pieces of my 46 days in South Korea, which hopefully will be helpful to anyone going to Korea for any purpose.

Next update: Korea summer schools

Preparations.

This is the place that I have wanted to be in for the past 1 year - South Korea. Backtracked to 1 year ago, I took a brave step and signed up for a summer exchange programme alone. Without knowing a single person, I decided to embark on this journey to this country which I have been so fascinated about for the whole time. Fast forward a year, here I am, counting down to Korea in just merely 12 days' time.

This is the path I will be taking to school every single day.