Recovery of my korean exchange trip blog posts...

 A small peak of my Jeon ju photos
Thursday January 10th 2013
MY GOODNESS. ITS ALREADY 2:59AM KOREA TIME. WHAT AM I DOING HERE.

Hahaha. Yesss I know its kind of late now. But if I don't jot this post down, I know I will be busy from now. My school will be starting tomorrow <ahem sorry> today. 5th Level, its gonna be a challenge ahead and I know I won't have any spare time to think anything else except school work. Yes its that hectic, at Yonsei Korean Language Institute. But I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO IT~~!!! ^^ Because I'm happy to start school. I missed school. Having the second chance back at school; I cherish it a lot. So dear friends, if you have any idea how I had been through Level 4, my daily routine goes like this:

9am - 1pm : School
1pm - 2pm: Lunch
2pm - 6/7pm: Revision
7pm - 8pm: Go back home, bath and for dinner
8pm - 11pm: Starbucks for continued revision.
11pm - 7.30am: ZZZZZZZ, and there you go, the next day comes arriving.
7.30am - 9am: Prepare for school

I'm so glad I have a kaki friend with me for the previous level. She is really good and guided me a lot. Because I was not familiar with the exam formats and the method to study for language education, I failed 2 segments during my mid semester test, and with her guidance I pia up for an satisfactory pass for those segments I had failed.

Anyways, students who wish to come over to South Korea for language exchange, welcome! Teachers from the language institute are pretty well prepared and know what they want to teach and communicate to the students in general (from any university language institute, that is ;)). The objectives are very clear and there are assignments to achieve and do so I can say you will be very occupied throughout the semester not to worry.

I would say for Yonsei KLI Level 1 - 3 are fun levels, is more of an enjoyment while learning korean. Level 4 onwards, its pretty academic as they gear you up towards university admission goal normally for foreign students who wish to enter their university for a degree course or a MBA.

Anyways, some updates from me~ :) How did I spend my winter vacation for dec'12 till beg jan'13?

At first it was a long holiday vacation. I tried to keep myself occupied. Classmates were all preparing to fly back to their own countries as it was a long holiday break. Zijing was there till mid dec, we did some sightseeing around Seoul. As a foreigner, I have to admit, I felt the loneliness impact. What to do for the day, what am I gonna do for the rest of the vacation? I hadn't felt this when I was back in Singapore, I would be totally fine alone. But here I couldn't stand it. And I needed some 'getting used' to it, the need to overcome and to live with it. Its certainly not easy. The impact was bigger than I had imagined. Definitely not easy to be an overseas student; now I had totally understood the feeling. Never been through, would never feel it was what I had felt. No wonder Liz was totally emo over it and kept crying over that initial period. Because I did the same thing too. During the night, the feeling of loneliness would be even greater and tears would just fall subconsciously. These are all the thoughts when there is just nothing to do. Of course, some students will not miss as well; and some returned home thus won't experience the big break in overseas. This happens to students who are first timers to overseas I realized after chatting with some other overseas students. There was a thought that had slashed through my mind, shall I just immediately buy a ticket back home?

Hahaha obviously I didn't, no $! XD I MISSED HOME, BADLY. MISSED MY FRIENDS TOO.

There was a girl friend, Minnie who came over from Hong Kong, so I accompanied her around for two weeks after Zijing returned back to sg. Pictures will start flowing from here and I shall stop writing because a picture speaks a thousand words and will say how much I had enjoyed, living with the loneliness. ~~ Happy. I'm good. ^^

I went Jeonju with Minnie! Great place. First two pictures were from Gyeongbokgung, and one of them was taken in Lotte World. Rest were from Jeonju. I loved it. Peaceful and slow.

Absolutely loved my jumps!! More to come, after I process it~! Hehehehehehehehehehhehe nice right?? ^^

Jeonju. I will write more of Jeonju when I upload in detail in the next post, will describe more in that post. 

These are just.. teasers? Hahahaha.

Another one! XD

 The village of mural paintings~ So prettyyyy. 

In awe with them, after seeing this, others have not impressed me so far.

THANK YOU so much MINNIE!!! I had such a great time with you! ^^ 

Hope I can meet you up.. REAL soon. Loves.

Life. Absorbing it all here. Now. In South Korea. 

Love, Carrot.

 Well, life's been busy, school's stressed, but I'm immersing myself into the stress and fun simultaneously.
Sat, oct 20th 2012
Well, the above has explained clearly about what I'm doing now.

Time has passed fast; it has been a month since I've been here in Korea. 

School has been stressful. But its a reason for me to study hard. I had felt the big impact when I had been placed into level four. The stress level went up to my head, ringing a bell about how much improvement I needed to brush up. Furthermore, the language which I had studied in my leisure time previously has now become my main cause of concern; it certainly pushes me to work even harder. Time's precious; this kind of chance won't come again, I told myself again and again. And again. I treasure this very much.

The 8 hours of work, I had transitioned myself into studying 8 hours everyday. Liz couldn't stand it, she said I needed a balance of study and play. But what am I supposed to do if I don't study after class? The time is there for me to study. Not for me to play around when my objective is there to become a full time student. I've played enough last time during my poly times. I've wised up. Yet I still feel that time is insufficient. DX

Yonsei is a university full of vibrancy from the way I look at it. A library that provides a very conducive environment for students to hold their discussions and self study as well as for them to do their individual projects fully equipped with power sockets and computers if you don't have one. If given a chance again, I would like to go back to SIM and use their library facilities which, unfortunately I had failed to step inside for more than 30 times during my 2 years course of study. Nahh, but I'm satisfied with what I had achieved. And I move on, without looking back. That was such a good experience.

I've been enjoying life as well, amidst of school and studies. I'm heading to Dae Jeon via Yonsei for an expo event today.

I'M ENJOYING LIFE. :) Living life, without regrets.
One thing I had felt it deeply, THIS is the time to come for me.
Things would have drastically changed if I had came here two years ago.
I would not have been able to handle this study exchange as well as I am doing right now.
At present, my head is functioning twice as clear as the fountain water.
I know what I'm doing. I'm proud of myself.
Well done carrot. You have thought well.
Hope you can continue this attitude well.

 P.s. Sorry for the self praise to myself. I'm writing this for myself, not for anyone else. Sometimes people just have to compliment themselves for doing well. To motivate us to carry on. Study exchange isn't that easy. Especially when you have money budgets to adhere to, and learning to be independent. People who can afford to study abroad aren't easy. I feel. And for such a study exchange like this, a lot of people come here together bearing a lot of different objectives individually, thus its crucial that we come knowing clearly what we want to achieve during this study. If not, it would be easy to stray away.

 Our dinner after our visit to Namsamgol Hanok Village
Friday oct 12th 2012 published
30th Sept 2012, Sunday

Its chuseok!! Luckily some food shops were open for the day. After a day of visiting, and several hours of study-revision, we got our dinner fix. Fried chicken!! XD

This salad is worth it. Same price as compared to sg restaurant caesar salad, but the amount here is much more.
I can't live without vegetables in my life. Meat as well. Both!

Nagisa's satisfied expression. heheheh. XD

 The sundujjigae sold in school
Wednesday oct 10th 2012
28th Sept 2012, Friday

A friend of mine has commented why my blog has so many food photos, I think, when I come back to sg in future, my sides, would have expanded. Hahha. One thing I forgot to correct her though, yes I do take lots of food photos, but I also didn't take photos of all the hills here that we have to climb everytime! My boarding house (hasuks, they call it here, literally meaning homestay) here is situated on a hill, I practically have to go up and down the hill everyday. My school is located on a hill too. I hope to slim down!! Healthily.

The tofu is really soft and delicious. Ah. Something I wanted to mention. Koreans eat a lot of beans.
The oil that they used is also made of soy bean, they have a lot of soy beans products, and the food they eat is also beans-related too. i.e. tofu (either the soft one or the slightly rough texture), soy bean milk, bean sprout. My impression is that I keep eating a lot of beans-related products here.

Mr Pizza after school orientation
Tuesday oct 9th 2012
26th Sept 2012, Wednesday

Got to know which level I was placed in and met Lizzie for dinner. She recommended Mr Pizza which was yummy. Slightly cheaper than Pizza hut if I didn't remember wrongly. And there were more flavours.

It was delicious. No need for the salad bar, seriously here the salad bar is nothing as compared back to sg. Just order the pizza, its scrumptious, cheaper too. Why waste the stomach space for those stuff on the salad bar when this is the lead !!
^^

 Alien card registration at Omokyo, School recce
Thursday oct 4th 2012

20th Sept 2012, Thursday

Back in Seoul on Wednesday, right on thursday I went to register for Alien card. Nearest subway station from Sinchon was either Jongno or Omokyo, I chose Omokyo.

Exit 7 if I'm not wrong.

Then walk on straight till you see an intersection, turn right and you will see the immigration building clearly. Do head there earlier because there will always be a lot of people applying for alien card. The process only takes about 10 mins but the waiting time can get you quite bored, its about 2 hours wait.

Back to Sinchon, had some more spare time around and I thought it would be good to recce my school for a while before I start class next week. Seriously now that I had turned into a full time student, I hadn't managed to transition myself well. I missed work. Say me a workaholic, but I am not used to the do-nothing-all-day-long. Maybe when my school peaks, then I will have some work to do. I better make full use of this free time to sort out my photo backlog.

Its a long walk from the school, a 15 mins walk. Up the hill. The school is very big. Yonsei uni. Food is pretty okay in school at the language institute, costing about 2800 won minimal spend (treat it as 2.80 USD)

Sinchon, is a very happening place, once you get off the station and walk in the streets you can totally feel the vibrancy of the area. 3 universities are all in close vicinity (Yonsei, Ewha woman's, and Sogang), a lot of university students, for sure that's the reason. Enjoying the live band, that is quite frequent here.

Here in Korea, there is bubble tea too, makes me miss KOI Tea back at sg. Tried their green tea flavour, but is not what I like, its the matcha powder flavour, instead of our brewed green tea. I think I better choose their best seller taro flavour next time. And their pearls are not as chewy. The weather is turning cold, peeps~ am enjoying the aircon weather right now, albeit a little chilly when its at night.