Korea Life - Day 8 (Week 2) / (Seoul) Coex ; A familiar story (Musical)

Korea Life - 2 Mar (Day 8 Week 2)

Thanks to PQ's friend, we have free ticket to a musical !! At first thought give us also no use as I still can't understand korean much yet, but the musical is in English, and since there is free ticket and we have nothing planned for today, so we went for it !

The musical is located near Coex, we decided to go there earlier (not afraid there is nothing to do, we can go Coex walk walk before the shows starts too). Took the subway to Samseong station, and followed the direction to Coex. First thing that I noticed was that, it a very big place currently under renovation. Because of the renovation, only a handful of shops are open (and some even only grand open yesterday!! LOL). Since there was nothing much to see, we went for lunch first

Twin Cook restaurant 

Cheese Ramen 

The cheapest food we can find there were this restaurant name < Twin Cook>. Maybe because of the price, it was fully packed while we went in. Waited for 5 min before there were seat for us to sit down. As many were still waiting outside for the seat, so we leave once we finish our food.

But it was still too early for us to go over to the theatre yet, so we sat at the centre area to waste some time first. At least there were WI-FI, we could do something with our phone (isn't that a normal thing to us? Handphone never leave our sight).

There was really nothing much left we could do so we just went to look for the theatre. While walking toward the theatre, I noticed that there was a photo booth that we could take passport picture, so we took a min to let me take picture first as we will need this picture to do our ARC card and might school need it too.


PQ did her homework before back home, so it didn't took long before we found it. Went to the counter to collect the ticket and was shocked with their english standard that they had !! Didn't know they can speck English! It was only after that then we know that the staff were almost all American Korean. At first they had problem looking for the ticket so it took some time, they found it and gave us special seats for letting us wait !

Tickets to <A Familiar Story The Musical by Eumin Production>

Baekam Art Hall that held <A Familiar Story>

Saw the crowd queueing outside the theatre to go in, then I know that this is a family productions for kids and families to enjoy. Many of the kids were able to speck english very well, and of course their parents too.

Shows started and is very very good show!! I had a great time watching it even though is a kids shows. The actors and actress were so handsome and pretty too *hehe, shy*. I don't mind coming back again if they have new show in the future !

When we walked out after show, we saw that the bus stop has bus back home, we just boarded the bus and sit all the way back (but we took the wrong seat, sat in from of the back door, evertime people alight, the cold air will blow toward us -_-!! LOL). Takeaway some food from nearby eatery back home to eat as the weather is getting colder (want to get back before it get any colder !!)

Can't sleep too later but don't know if I can sleep a not tonight as school is going to start tomorrow!!! OMG, I already can feel the butterfly flying around in my tummy, I'm so nervous for tomorrow !! I just hope tomorrow can pass by peaceful with nothing big that will shock me.     

Korea Life - Day 7 (Week 1) / (Seoul) Insadong

               
Korea Life - 1 Mar (Day 7 Week 1)

So fast I have been living in Korea for a week now, in just few more days school is going to start. I need to spend my days to the fullest or else once school starts there will be no time for fun !! Therefore today we are heading to Insadong

Insadong 

We had a straight bus from out place to Anguk station, so we chose to take the bus instead of subway! Bus ride wasn't long, but we were able to see thing that we normally don't get to see (normally we take subway and the subway is underground). The streets, the roads and even the peoples, so difficult from my own country.

It's a less than 5 min walk from the bus stop (and subway exit 6 too). Maybe because we were still slightly earlier, not people around but as time getting later, more people appear at Insadong. Then we know is because it was Korea's independence Movement day, there is why there were alot of people holding the Korea flag and walking around as a group. [ I still through was there a riot or what as they were moving around in very big group!! ]
(If you can read more if you are interested in Korea's independence Movement day here - http://thaholiday.com/south-korea-public-holidays-schedule-2014/ )   

The moment I saw the crowd, my headache start to ache [I really dislike places with lot of people. I like to stay away from people.]. We went for lunch to stay away from the crowd. Went to my favourite lunch place (I go back to that restaurant everytime I goes to Insadong)

Lunch - Top Bibibap ; Below Kimchi soup

I was here the last time too but I always forget the name of this place as I care the food more than the name of the place !! (haha, sorry !!) As you can see from the picture from the left, they serves 4 different small dishes for free! and our main course cost not even W$6000 (which is S$7)

Actually we planned to go Insadong to look for postcard as we planned to send back home 1 postcard per month, so by the time our parent received 12 postcard, it means that we will be heading back soon. But there wasn't much that caught our eyes, expect for this shops that sells kids drawing as postcard (other places were selling Seoul's views postcards.) And with PQ as ex-preschool teacher, kids drawing is something she can't miss. But in the end, I also can't control myself, gotten a few postcard from there too !! :p

Went to have ice-cream after that. We saw that many were queue for this ice-cream, so we also queue for it (Singaporean way, seem people queue, I also queue, LOL).   It has a very unique shape ice-cream cone. Well, it depend on how "dirty" your mind is, to see it !!!

unique shape ice-cream cone

I see it as a saxophone but do hear some other tourists talk how they see it. Well, it's too dirty for me to mention there!! *shy*. As the crowd are getting bigger and bigger, we chose to leave this places before we drown in the crowd! Since we took the bus here, we decided to do something difficult from this morning, we took the subway.


Don't want to spend money, don't know what to do, don't know where to go, so we went back home and stay in. Thank god at lease the WI-FI connection is better good in the room, or else there is really nothing good about this livingtel and we will really bored to dead.

Hahaha, sound bored ?? It is bored but is better than wasting money outside !! Being a student, we have to be care with where we spend. And I wants to go to other states in future, I need to save all I can. I don't think I can bring my family out to eat good thing when they come, as I didn't eat anything good till now (only cheap thing because want to save !!)
       

Pictures !! 

Shops selling nice kids printing as postcards

My favourite street food - Hottdok 

                             

Korea Life - Day 6 (Week 1) / (Seoul) Ewha woman shopping street ; Isaac toast shop

Korea Life - 28 Feb (Day 6 week 1)

Last night discussed with parent and we decided that we will move to the new livingtel, even if we might lost our current half month rent. PQ had informed the new livingtel via Kakao talk and they asked us to go back to submit deposit and sign contact  

We were slightly earlier than appointment, no one was there. Luckily there were nice girl helped us to call the person in charge to come down. Because the guy can't really speck english, PQ had to translate what the guy said to me. After all the explaining, we were asked to sign a contact. Actually was quite scared to sign as we can't read at all, but we had to sign since we agreed to move in. 

We headed to Ehwa woman's shopping street after all that was settled. Maybe we were still too early, many shops were still starting to open shops only. Even with the cold weather, there were people shopping and walking around. This place actually is also my favourite shopping area, just that now they had not really start selling spring clothes, so I didn't got anything. 

[if any one interested, to go Ehwa woman shopping street, just take the subway to Ehwa station, exit from either exit 2 or 3, walk straight up and you will see Ehwa university, Ehwa women shopping street is just left side of the university. ]

Ewha Woman shopping street

We don't want to be late for our appointment this morning, so we left our place without breakfast and headed here straight once we finish the chat with the new owner. Since there was nothing we were interested in, we went to look for food instead !! I remember the last time I was here, I knew there was a popular toast shops located somewhere but I can't remember where. After a few turn, we found the place !! - Isaac toast & coffee cafe. Normally is just a takeaway store for people to buy and go, but this outlet has place for people to sit down and eat. Maybe because of that the price are slightly higher than other outlet. Although is slightly highly, I'm willing to pay !! IS THE BEST TOAST IN WHOLE KOREA !! is a best try toast if you are in Korea !!  

Best toast shop in Korea !!! 

Left - Hamburger toast ; Right - Pizza toast  

Headed to Hongdae after that since it was only 2 stop away from Ehwa station. But maybe because we were there too early, there isn't much we could see (is a more nightlife place). We left that place to look for post office instead as PQ wants to send back a birthday card to Singapore. And we had to face the fact that we needed to inform our current owner that we want to move out. 

We listened to the new owner advice and bought 2 cans of beer before headed back. Gave him the beers before telling him that we will be moving. We didn't dare to tell him that we will be moving to a new livingtel, we told him that we will be moving to a friend places while is located nearer to school. At least he didn't look angry, but keep saying it is a waste as we can't get back the rest of money and waste that half month rent. 

We were so relived, felt so relax, was so nervous thinking how would he react, at least not very angry. Since is confirmed that we will be moving on 8 Mar, we need to start cooking some of the food that we bought from Lotte mart or else we will have too many thing need to move on 8 Mar. Therefore we had our first homecook after 6 days of outside food!

I'm luckily to have PQ travelling with me! I can't cook at all, so I can only leave the cooking to her and do the dishes for her after that, or else I have no homecook for a year !! Chef PQ cooked spaghetti for tonight's dinner. Too bad we can't find can mushroom in Korea (fresh mushroom were too expensive) , so we put meatball and lunchmeat in instead, but it still taste nice!!  

Didn't had things to do as we stayed in. So we choose to do some laundry. Truth is it was my first time doing my own laundry !!! Because we didn't have much place to put our laundry, we can't wash too much at one go. Now that I know that laundry isn't a very difficult thing, just that we have to split the colours on the clothes only, and as long as you know how to use the washing machine, is a super super easy job. While waiting for the laundry, PQ told me she had already started to pack for 8 Mar, I was like <so fast ?!?! LOL>. Since it was still too early to sleep and I had nothing to do, I also started to pack some things into my luggage too !! 

Korea Life - Day 5 (week 1) / (Seoul) Lotte Mart

Korea Life - 27 Feb (Day 5 week 1)

Since we had settle down in our small house, PQ and I decided was time we buy some food to fill up our fridge is better than we eat outside everyday every meal. Therefore we heard to the biggest super mart (that we know) - Lotte Mart at Seoul station 

Before that, we headed into Seoul station to look for something to eat first before heading to lotte mart. While we were eating our food, PQ told me that she is really totally unhappy and piss with the room. She felt like she was cheated as the room is totally not the same as what the guy promised her. Before because I'm not the one discuss with the guy, I just accept what we though we had booked. She suggest to go to another livingtel for viewing and see. And I was like since we have nothing else to do after shopping lotte mart , why not? So she book with the owner and we will head down this evening. 

We headed out of Seoul station to Lotte mart (which is just next to it, not Lotte mall that is connected to Seoul station). Lotte Mart is like the old Singapore's Carrefour (in suntec city WHICH already close down). There are 2-3 level selling all kind of things. We skip the other counter and went straight to the foods session. We can't buy alot of thing as there was only the 2 of us (and we will be going back to Myeong-dong to buy PQ shoe that she can't decide to buy yesterday). We only took the things that we think we need for now and want to eat. After getting PQ shoe from Myeong-dong, as we still have some time before our meeting with the other livingtel, so we head back to rest. 

What I bought from Lotte mart 

The new livingtel is located at Hyehwa, very near school (walking distance; take bus also can - about 2 stops ; current livingtel need to take 5 stops ) and there are ton of eatery nearby (current livingtel only got 2-3 only.) Most important is the living standard !! OMG, is so much better!! The place is so much brighter and clearer. Although they left with room with no toilet (only shower area which I still can bear with it), only have a small window facing the corridor and more expensive but I feel that I can take it as my home better than the current place. Because of their location and clean environment, alot of people want to stay here, they need us to give them an answer asap and hope we could move in latest by 8 Mar or else they will have to give it to other people (with means that I will have to waste my half month rent in the current livingtel and pay more to move in to new livingtel.)

Went to our house nearby eatery to eat cheap first again. For the first time I try the cheese ramen and I didn't know it was so good!! It made the soup so much nicer. Hehe, going to eat this more!! Headed home to discuss with parent if we should move or not as we need to give the new livingtel an answer by tomorrow morning 

Korea Life - Day 4 (Week 1) / (Seoul) MyeongDong ; Hyehwa-dong

Korea Life - 26 Feb 2014 (Day 4 week 1)

Yesterday finally gotten all the things I needed for the room, now I can afford to be tourist for the next few days before school starts. First stop, of course to the MOST popular place of all in Seoul -
Myeong-dong

Myeong-dong part 1

Myeong-dong part 2 

Since we were just shopping around, I tried to look for shoes as I only brought winter boots with me (was totally cheated by the weather forecast app that I downloaded in Singapore.) But the shoes were either too small (not have much big size shoes.) or I'm not interested in the design. Can't find what I'm looking for, we just went to look for food

Lunch !! - Pork Rib soup 

With nothing in mind, we walked in a cosmetic shop and we drop into buying trap. LOL. Actually was looking for face moisturiser and sun block only but in the end, we bought more than what we wanted and needed. We bought 50 pac of eye mask (with free 20 pac face mask), shoes refresher, face moisturiser and sun block while cost us a bomb. Totally felt so regretted the moment we took the money out !! -_-!!

It was still early when we finished Myeong-dong, so we chose to head back to rest for a while first, later dinner time then come out again. PQ & I were here 4 years ago and we remember that we had a great and cheap dinner at Hyehwa station. We decided to head back there for dinner today

Because earlier today we had wasted so much money on cosmetic, we need to eat cheap tonight. Headed out to Hyehwa where university student normally hang out*. This place totally look the same as 4 year ago !! Although the street food store that we were looking front is no longer here, but we still had street food for dinner (as it is the cheapest of all). Walked around and recall our memories of this place before having a cup of sommthie from Sommthie King before heading back home


*Korean student tend to hang out in these places - Ewha, Hongdae and Hyehwa - as these places have a few university located around that corner, so the thing and food there are slightly cheaper for the student.

nice restaurant that is slightly exp

My favour shop of all !!! (something like Art Box)

Smoothie King in Hyehwa 

My first time drinking Smoothie King !! Blueberry Heaven cost W$4300

Korea Life - Day 3 (Week 1 ) / (Seoul) Alien Registration Card ; Daiso

Korea life - 25 Feb (day 3 - week 1 )

After my first night in my tiny little room, felt so depressed. The room is too small that I don't like staying in, so this morning, we left the room early in the morning.

We decided to go and do the alien registration card* but I forgot my document that I had to go up that slopes again to get my thing (-_-!! ). While I was fighting with the slope, PQ study the immigration website again. And it seem like we should report to school (did I mentioned that I'll be studying at Sungkyunkwan University ? ) first as immigration office will keep our passport while they get the ARC card ready. So change of plan, we head to school instead

* [ Alien Registration Card is our national identification card that proves that we are legally allowed to live in Korea. We have to apply within 90 days of entry (we will get kick out if we don't apply it) - you can read more if you are interested - http://www.eslsouthkorea.net/alien-registration-card.html ]

There was a direct bus from the bus stop just outside my livingtel to the school. When we reach the bus the school's bus stop, there were alot of people sending flowers and people walking toward one direction. Is always easier to follow the crowd rather than going the other way, so we follow them and they were really heading toward Sungkyunkwan university. Then we noticed there were so many people is because there were graduation going on.

[OMG, there is so many people and the biggest horror was that the school is located on top of the SLOPE (OMG, SLOPE again !! -_-!!)]

But because there were alot of people walking around, we don't feel odd walking around the campus. The email that school sent to us didn't wrote where should we report to, so we walked around and looking for the admission office. After an hours of finding, we finally found the correct place to report to. In the end, we just had to let them photocopy the passport and tell them where are we staying and we are free to go !! LOL , spent so much time looking for the office to report, in the end everything is done within 5 min.

Since we are done but there were too many people, we decided to leave school and go to Daiso* to buy thing for the room. The branch located near Sungkyunkwan university have 3 level, it took us at least 2 hours to finish walking all and get our things. Luckily there is a straight bus from the bus stop nearby to our house. Then we headed to Namdaemun to buy blanket and pillow (weather still quite cold, no blanket cannot !!).

* [Daiso is a daily household items including beauty care products, stationery, laundry items, food, utensils and even cleaning supplies. Most of the places has more than 2 levels, and it offers diverse daily use items at great prices (very cheap price that students can afford). you can find out more at -  http://wwe didn't want to go to far away from home (we went back straight home after we finish shopping at Daiso) so we just had dinner at a eatery nearby our places.

My bed with my new blanket and pillow

Maybe because of the culture, the blanket selling here are so expensive !! The cheapest that we can find at least cost W$50,000 (about S$60) and the pillow itself also cost about W$20,000 (about S$30).  But the owner is a good people, know that we are student gave us discount. In the end, we paid W$45,000 only for the blanket

By the time we finish buying our thing and took the subway back home, it's almost dinner time. So we went out to a eatery nearby our place for dinner as we want to be able to reach home earlier later as we still have alot of thing await for us to arrange into our small place (thing that we bought today).

Korea Life - Day 2 (Week 1) / (Seoul) Dongdaemun's 김밥천극

24 Feb 2014 is my second day in Korea and is also my worst nightmare

Took the free shuttle bus from hotel back to the airport. We had problem to even carry our luggages up the bus, luckily there are nice uncles that willing to help us with our baggages. Found a place to sit down and eat some thing and settle the SIM card that we didn't get it settle last night. After settle with all, we took the airport limousine to Dongdaemun (동대문). To look for our livingtel* that I will be leaving for the coming year.

* [Livingtel 리빙텔 (aka Goshiwon) -
Essentially, goshiwons are for student preparing for exams temporary accommodations where they could focus exclusively on studying with not distractions from home life. While a lot of goshiwons are mainly for students from outside of Seoul and people working, it reflects its original purpose - rooms are very tiny and contain basic essentials only - a mini-fridge, small television, WI-FI, wardrobe and a bed. Price depend on which room kind of room that you choose, you can choose either room with shower stall and sink or with neither (use shared toilet) and window facing inward (facing corridor) or outward (facing outside) affects the prices too. Kitchen and washing machines are shared in the common area. You can read more here - http://danainsoko.wordpress.com/tag/livingtel/ ]

the steep slopes that I need to go up !!

I had to move 40kg of luggage around whole Dongdaemun, and we still can't find the place at all! When we gave up and want to take the cab, in the end it drive 200m ahead only and we had reached the  place  that we will be living (-_- III ; LOL)!! When I thought our miserable problem is over, a super steep slopes appeared in front of me that I need to go up before reaching the livingtel !!!! I had so many thing holding in my hand that I wasn't able to pull up my 40kg luggages up the slope myself , I had to  stop there and get PQ to help me or else my luggages will all roll down the slope in front of me!!  

[Although this is not my first time in to Korea, but only now then I noticed that THERE ARE SO MANY SLOPES AND THERE ARE NOT MUCH OF  SMOOTH SURFACE GROUND EVERYWHERE (there are alway holes and area poping up) , so different to walk around with luggages (with wheels). ]

Finally got all the thing up the slopes,  and the nightmare not over yet !! We still had to carry the things up to second floor !! ( as the livingtel is located on the second floor. ( OMG !! feel like crying, I just want to settle down !!! ))

Where I'm going to stay but I don't suggest people to stay here !! (I still have to protect it as they are nice ppl)

We were brought to the third floor, the guy opened the door of the room that we will be living, places our thing in there and follow him back to second floor. He asked us to sat down for a while while he read the email on us, then he explain some of the thing area the place to us and left us to explore our room. And OMG, the place looked totally different from the picture we saw on the website!! PQ & I was shocked until don't know what to said.

The room itself is super TINY and it smell (both the room and the toilet). I had to clean all the thing before daring to put my thing down on the table and floor. The toilet has so many dirty and black spot in the corner that I feel my hair stand everytime I look at it. I'm still consist lucky as PQ's room was much worse than mine !! And the kitchen is the worse, the place seem dark and it make it look dirty, I don't feel like cooking in this kitchen at all. Washing machines is in a cupboard and OMG it smell inside, I don't know how to throw my clothes in there to wash. OMG, this is really my worst nightmare !!!!

We took the whole later afternoon to get our thing in place, but we will have to eat. So we just left the thing and went out for dinner. We headed to Dongdaemun and chose to eat at <김밥천극 >. Heard from PQ, this is a popular place for kimbap and ramen, but we didn't choose to eat ramen as we were hungry after all the moving and clearing that we had done this whole evening. So I still can't read Korean, PQ had to translate to me then I can decide what to eat, but I'm not a picky eater, so I leave it to her to order for me.

First Dinner in Korea 

After all the food, we had to walk around to digest the food abit before heading back. Went in to look for shoes as PQ don't has boots for these kind of weather. But didn't found anything of her liking, so we headed back to our home and continue with what we left off. Tomorrow going and get things for the room to make it really feels like home.