Thunder in the skies

I heard thunder for the first time in Korea. Not a clap, just a slow rumbling crescendo. The air, temperature, lighting resembled a secondary school classroom in Singapore. Then the lecturer started the lesson in his Korean accent.

I snapped out of my daze and began to concentrate. Then tried to concentrate. Before giving up unknowingly.

My mind drifted with the wind whizzing by the window, followed the burgeoning clouds into the sky and got shoved back into my head by the rumbling thunder.

I feel like I've been everywhere and nowhere. Gone through time but stayed in the present. Been everybody and nobody.

I wonder what Einstein's mind went through when he built the theory of relativity.

A trip down south

Sometimes I wonder what's the whole point of me writing these stories. But oh, what the fuck.

A bale of turtles were making their way down south for the winter. Every day, they will swim and feed together, and at night they will find somewhere safe and each will retreat into its private corner.

One night, one of the turtles befriended a small school of fish from near where he slept. The next morning, when the turtles were having their morning feed, the turtle introduced his new friends to the rest of the group.

The bale fed with the school, and they all set off. Midway, the school of fish said they were making a detour, and would meet the turtle and his friends at their planned stop for the night. The next morning the fish fed with the turtles again, and left midway through the journey again, only to share quarters with them at night again.

And again, and again, and again until one week past.

The bale of turtles started travelling slower and were getting hungry quicker while travelling. Finally one of the turtles spoke out.

"Hey, we are not having enough to eat because the fishes are always eating our food."

"Really? They always give me food to eat. You just have to spend more time with them and they'll share your food with you."

"That's not the point. It's one thing if they ate your food, and another if they ate ours. If it wasn't because it was safe to sleep with us, and we always fed in places with abundant food, I don't think they'll even bother saying hi."

"They are fine animals. Really."

"I don't care. I don't like them, they never think for us, I don't see why we should always sacrifice for them."

Cat got my tongue

Repeat title.

Someone teach me to hold a proper conversation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Evening in Wonderland

And the Mad Hatter says "So why did you do that?". Hare replied "I love hats." And a wave of deafening silence swept the den.

"Why am I the Mad Hatter when you are the hat lover?"

"Because I love the hats, but you are mad about them."

And they lit the fire and pondered about their lives that past.

"Is it snowing outside?"

"No."

"So why did we light the fire?"

"Because there is a fireplace."

"Will you pass me a mushroom please?"

Hare passed Mat Hatter a mushroom and they ate in silence.

"How long has it been since we had a random girl falling into the rabbit hole?"

"Since last December I think. Do you think it could be the recession?"

"No, stupid. It's because you relocated to North Korea."

"North Korea didn't have the recession."

"They don't have girls running around either."

"Would South be better?"

"Forget it. You'd have to go over to China first before you can even get in. Let's go over to the South pole. At least there can be random penguins when the girls don't fall in."

"There is no point. I can't speak penguin. Ostrich, I can though."

"I don't like ostriches. They stare."

And they fell back into silence listening to the crackling fire polish up the wood.

One Exciting Weekend - A Tale of Six Screwed-up Girls

We made a decision to travel south down to Jeollanam-do over the weekend. What. a. decision.


We arrived at Gwangju in the afternoon, made reservations at 3 motels, turned up at one, and got scolded by another (for not turning up)

our dodgy hotel. comes with a porn channel.


Then we went over to Jindo on Saturday morning. Arrived in the afternoon with no accomodation planned, and followed to Hong Kong-ers to some mountain-top art bank with all our luggages and still no accomodation.


So we started asking the staff at the art bank if they had any accomodations to recommend. We stood around for about half an hour while they helped us call motel after motel. In the end, we asked if there were any homestays around. The man who was helping us all along said "Yes. My house."

And off we went bundled into two vehicles to his house!




Namda art bank

Frontyard of our homestay. They own a kindergarten.

opera singer who later woke us up during the show cos the 6 of us fell asleep.




schoolbus for the kindergarten kids. and us.



Jindo.



Gumpo. Cross-dressing street act.

Jindo mysterious sea road. Surfaces only one week per year.










Grandmother Ppong and the tiger.





On the sea-road itself.

Our room in homestay. and 3 of the 6 screwed up girls.

playground in their backyard.

their house has a mini soccer field



AND a swimming pool!

Leaving Jindo.................


Exciting or not?

Midterms in Korea

Notices on midterm exams here are hm.. interesting.

"... Water or a soft drink is allowed in the exam, food is not allowed.

During the exam, please respect and be considerate to your fellow students – be as quiet as possible.

If you have any questions or problems during the examination, please raise your hand. If that does not get the instructor's attention, throw something at her/him. Whatever you do - please do it quietly.

And. Do it well!

***************************************************
GOOD LUCK!!!"

I wonder why those in NUS are always so stoic.


.
.
.


Ok la. I thought that notice was (and still is) damn cool!!!

别这个样子

为什么你一定是对的呢？只有你的想法和一切才是对的吗？我做我自己是错的吗？

我珍惜我们的友情，却不知不觉的发现我越来越不喜欢和你有共同的空间。你总是让我觉得我做的事情是错的，别人的想法和做的事情也是做的。只有你才是对的。我好讨厌你这个样子，厌倦跟你说话。

就请你不要让我不开心了。

Snapshot from skiing trip

Somehow I just couldn't get this scene out of my head..

Ski instructor: chaemissosoyo? (was it fun?)

*silence from the rest of the van

Sheena: Neh! Chaemissosoyo! (Yes! It was fun!)

*three seconds of silence

Sheena: Was it fun?

Rest of the van: YES!!!

Comaradie is when you hear your native tongue, complete with accent, in a foreign land.

We were waiting for our food at a roadside stall when we heard a familiar accent asking what the store was selling. It was nice to answer in the accent, words and level of formality that was built in us, instead of always bowing and replying that we couldn't speak Korean. In Korean.

I'm not sick of Korea. Yet. It is just not so difficult to remember that this is not where I come from. The "Alien Registration" card snug in my wallet continues to be a reminder of my foreigness.

Imagine when the school holidays arrive and more Singaporean families come over for a holiday. Who knows. I might even earn a little from being their guide :)

Griping post

It's always an eye-opener to me how people know others are different but maintain the concept of "we" as a group of homogenous people. All communications with "us" must be acceptable according to "our" standards and all communications to "them" should follow "our" standards.

For claiming to be from a multi-racial and multi-religious country, Singaporeans are some of the most guilty people.

I find it such an oxymoron that our stress on maintaining inter-racial harmony should culimate into intercultural communication classes in university.

Some of us are so narrow-minded to accept that other people have their own norms and practices too. It's not that we have to be polycentric to live up to our name as a quiltwork country, it's not that we have to compromise our values. Why can't we just respect others for their own backgrounds they were brought up in, and acknowledge that others have different systems of getting stuff done?

I really wish that this other person reads my blog as well cos these words would fit exactly what I want to say to him.

You can throw it back at me that I'm too myopic to accept you have your own conformist styles, but maybe you shouldn't be talking so much when your worldview is the sky from the bottom of the well.

Lessons from Korea

1. The number of layers of clothes is not a choice

2. Gloves and beanie are basic necessities

3. When fingers are numb, a bump hurts more than a cut

4. Kids in winter clothes are freaking cute!

5. The (closed) windows brings cold air, aircon and fridge brings warmth

6. Provided meals are sooo wonderful

7. Delivery meals are damn cheap, and good

8. Never change before checking outside the window

9. Knowing the weather forecast is important

10. Make up feels damn good on the skin here

11. Face shop and skin food is everywhere, cheap and good. With freebies every single time you buy from them, no matter how little

12. Namdaemun sucks. Myong-dong is the best

13. "Yo"s are important here. "Ya"s are rude. And no one pays attention when you scream out hokkien vulgarities :)

14. Knowing how to speak Korean, or someone who knows how to, is sooo important.

15. I'm attending lessons with like the Korean GEP-ers

16. I'm going to miss kimbap when I get back

17. Sometimes, the sun is really good to have around

Skiing!

Breakfast in the subway! (You can eat in the trains and trains stations here)

First sighted flats in Yangji

My ski gloves!





Camwhoring after just alighting at Yangji

Me! We rented those equipment at half the price of the resort's from a ski shop outside of the resort. That ski shop was also where we met our instructor :D

That man is our suuuper nice ski instructor. He gave us free lessons, brought us out to dinner and helped us get our tickets back to Seoul!

Wee!! Haha those ugly bibs should be there to show we are first-timers, I think.

On the little ski "escalator" up the orange slope.

Huh?

Group photo!




Be-autiful sunset at Yangji.

32,000 won

32,000 won... bargain?

The science of taking the Korean subway

Korean has a very hierachical society. But they are very understanding as well, once they know you are not Korean.

But obviously, they wouldn't know it when they see two chinese Singaporeans fiddling with their phones. So when Shanming and I were at the subway, we really learnt how age earns you the right to almost everything.

Both of us just got our phones up and working, and were trying to figure out basically, how to use the phone. And we were sitting down in the train, as one of the buddies had very nicely literally put us into our seats when we said we were tired. Then one ajuma and ajushi couple walked in and just stared down straight at us.

Her stare was no menacing I immediately caught her meaning even though no words were exchanged, and I pulled Shanming away to stand in a corner. She was busy understanding her phone she didn't even notice the stare lar (!)

There was another time when a group of us were standing in the train, and one ajushi was just shoving his way through. Shanming eyes just grew wide with disbelief. Haha her exclamation was "He'll never get away with that in Singapore la!"

The Koreans really just let him have his way. There was a young girl of maybe 6? She was shoved aside as well, but her mum just pulled her out of the way instead of picking a bone with the man.

Senior citizens over the age of 65 can also ride for free on the trains!

They also have seats designated for senior citizens. The Koreans respect it so much that they would rather stand if all the other seats were taken. Comparing to Singapore..

Haha this might be one country where looking young may not be that advantageous..

Hello from Korea!

Have reached safely :) Weather's freaking cold but damn shiok! First time in my life I'm speaking with mists coming out of my mouth! Went shopping like mad these first two days. And here are some photos for all to enjoy :)

My funny roommate

Some huge expanse of land with patches of melted snow through the dirty bus window

My suitcase cracked!

Their subway stations always remind me of HDB flats..

Castle-like KU

Castle-like KUBS

I felt like I'm in Cambridge, my friends said they felt like they were in Hogwarts

Bits of unmelted snow!

Toilet in the middle of nowhere

Victory photo! After a really really really long trek

Our room!

Dinner on first night. There were three of us who were gobbling the ban chan up like cows la..

Man in orange selling stuff inside the train. Everyone else ignoring him.

Olympic village from Seoul Olympics 1988

DBSK portraits

Amazing people carrying bags on their heads. Balance isn't even their concern!

The more high-class Metro.

Very pretty cakes!

A rare chain of stops where it goes over land. And profile reflection is our shopping queen, Sheena!

Made a trip to COEX mall. BIG. And gross. There was one shop where they showed their fish tank of catfish and small fishes separated by a glass side by side. FUCKING GROSS! In the glass that separated both tanks were little holes choked with dead small fish. My goosebumps are all out just remembering it la. I swore immediately on seeing it lar. The fish were probably trying to swim through the holes, then they just got stuck halfway through AND DIED THERE!! DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT.

GOOSEBUMPS!!