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Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Korean Diaries Part 3- They're finding their roots, we're leaving ours.It was the first day of school on Monday, 25th. I was looking forward to it because I expect a school brimming with students from all around the world. Black, white, orange, yellow, blue, green. Everywhere. The building that hosted the International Summer School was situated on a steep terrain, which meant climbing uphill every morning. By the time all of us reached the place (and on time too, because I woke up on time. Yay!) we were sweating like pigs and/or panting like dogs. I'm taking "East Asian Cinema" and "Understanding Korean Popular Culture and the Korean Wave" this special semester. The first one because I'm very interested in it, and the second is because I'm along in it. Seriously, almost everyone in Singapore is being swept away by the torrents of Song Hae Gyo and Bae Yong Jin and Rain. My first class was "East Asian Cinema" at the 7th floor, and there were about 15 or more people in the classroom. The funny thing was, I fell asleep during the screening of the film that the teacher showed. It was "Perfumed Nightmare", a critically acclaimed film which used a LOT of stock footages and long shots. By my defense, the movie was terribly boring at the start. But Chee Harn, who also happened to take this module, tried to help by nudging me from time to time. Somehow, they don't really work though, because I fall right back to sleep. (Even had a 10 seconds dream while snoozing, too!) The second class was much better. However, most of the class was dominated by students from the America. They are actually Korean Americans and I suppose they're here to find their roots. They spoke American accented English, peppering their words with "like, whatever" and anything Paris Hilton-like. Of course, I'm stereotyping because there are a few that gave stupid answers. The teacher had asked why do we watch korean shows, and some groups said "Because there's hot girls. There's hot guys." Enough said about them. Nevertheless, we got to interact with 3 korean Americans who seemed nice. One of them is even learning chinese because she (quotes) "like China". It's amazing how us Chinese people in Singapore are not so receptive to the language that we've been learning all our lives and over at the other side of the world, a whole bunch of people are fascinated by everything chinese. Hmm, time to reflect on this issue before bedtime. My second and third day of school went smoothly, with the occasional naps during super-boring parts of the films shown. We had a discussion session for my Cinema studies module, and that's when I find out the importance of studying internationally. Among my discussion group, there were 3 from US schools and one korean girl. The ideas that were brought up during the discussion was so to speak, "too fast too furious". Ideas were flying here, there and everywhere and I'm still trying to process the last point but the next point is already half out of someone's mouth. Pretty much felt dumb over there, but I guess that's a good learning experience. In conclusion, interacting with people from different nationalities is, by far, the most intellectual experience ever (even though some sound bimbotic). I look forward to contributing feasible and logical ideas in the classroom.
2:58 PM
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Korean Diaries Part 2.2-- "Is this the highest? I don't think so."Check out this video at http://s101.photobucket.com/albums/m50/cheeharn/?action=view¤t=SeoulLand.flv
8:48 PM
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Korean Diaries Part 2-- "For your Amusement."Day 5 Location: Seoul Land  Hey hey! Adventurous us decided to go to a theme park in Seoul to have fun on friday. Chee Harn, after doing research and getting discount vouchers from the family he's staying with, (Yeap, we embody the Singapore spirit of Kiasu-ism even over here!) suggested SEOUL LAND. First, we set off at 12pm from Hwa Jong Subway Station, and endured a butt numbing (ok la, not really butt numbing cos we don't always get to sit down) 1 hour 30 minutes underground subway ride to Seoul Grand Park station, where the theme park is located. After the subway ride, we had to take a tram up to where Seoul Land was. The tram journey was fast, but it passed by a children's zoo. Now I can say part of the journey stank. Hehe.  Look at our faces of joy when we finally reached the theme park. (Poor Chee Harn is at the ticketing counter buying our tickets) Going inside Seoul Land, the first thing that caught our eyes were the "magical" decor of the place. Floating taps- check. Giant carraige ala Cinderalla's- check. Flowery mazes in different colours- check. SCREAMs coming from the inside of the park- PRICELESS.    So just how much fun we had? Look below.      This is a twistin' and turnin' roller coaster called "The Black Hole" which runs all over the park. I've never sat a coaster like this before. After screaming my lungs out when the coaster goes up, I found out that when it twists, my body automatically bend into the carraige because of the air pressure. So it wasn't as scary as I imagined at all!   Shortly after conquering The Black Hole, we went straight to "Columbia"  This is Columbia. A double-looped roller coaster with a tunnel (see the black part) that is full of flashes of light which would have given me a heart attack if I was epilatic. Same thing with the air pressure happened when we went through the loops. Can't see nothing except my pants. I thought it's not bad that I conquered my first BIG roller coaster ride with not 1, but 2 roller coaster rides. Big pat on back. There was one ride which was terrible though. I don't want to show the picture because I feel nausous on seeing it. Eyuck. It flipped us around and hanged us upside down for about 5 seconds. And because of that, I felt my stomach churning and floating. During the ride, Coldplay's "A rush of blood to the head" kept playing in my head. Kinda felt like this:  On a brighter note, here's more pictures!   Act S.H.E. Wahahahaha. Well, the day was well spent, even though the other 5 were really trigger happy. They snapped so many pictures altogether and I spend the time gazing about and trying not to look at the machine that made me nausous. Alright. I'll leave you to be jealous (or not) of me with these pictures!    (neigh-neigh-ni-bu-bu) End of part 2.
9:30 PM
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Korean Diaries- Chronicles of a non-revolutionary person in a revolutionary place.Alright, this shall be the start of a special series that is titled as above. These posts will be my journal what I've experienced throughout my entire stay in Korea. They may be accompanied by pictures or not because I don't have money to buy a camera so I'm stealing pictures from the others who are trigger-happy. If you don't like the pictures I post, buy me a camera. So without further ado, let's just get started, shall we? Before I really delve into the heart and seoul of my trip, (Pun intended) I want to introduce the 5 other people who are my companions on the trip.  1) Victor- The thrill seeker Mr Victor Ma goes for anything and everything extreme-- shopping included. 2) David- The photographer David is either taking pictures of anything or taking pictures of something. Getting him into the above picture was, as a matter of fact, a chore. 3) Chee Harn- The guide Chee Harn knows very basic korean, but that's good enough. Many a times, we seek his help when we start speaking "chicken and/or duck" to the locals. 4) Estelle- The high stamina shopper Estelle's main strength is plying through street after street after street, and still look fresh and vibrant while some of us (including me) look like old haggards walking on old man sticks. Her favourite activity while not shopping is jogging, hence it proves that her legs are really really meant for walking. 5) Joyce- The saviour Joyce also knows basic korean, so when the girls are out shopping, there's no one else to look for when we want to haggle for a discount but we can't get that point across. In other words, she comes to the rescue when we have a point to make but nowhere to begin with. 6) Xiao Hui Sadly, she is staying at the hostel in Yonsei University and can no longer be with us in our adventures. This is a tribute bullet point for her. The owner of the house, known to me as "The Uncle" shall make special guest appearances because sometimes he's at work and sometimes he's not.  So here's the Korean Diaries. Part 1- From home to a home away from home. I'm staying in an apartment, close to the supermarket, the bus stop and the subway station. I sleep in a room with Joyce where she sleeps on the bed and I'm on a mattress, just like it was back home. My clothes are still in my lugguage, because there's just no space to take out my clothes and arrange them neatly like doing flower arrangements.  This apartment is small, but self sufficient. It has a small stove, refridgerator and a washing machine so we're basically set to live a life of independence. However, here in Seoul, food delivery is everywhere! Unlike in Singapore where only the meager few fast food joints offer food delivery, the whole country here is INTO food delivery. And get this, they deliver and then collect the remnants after you finish. Hence a nice solid bowl with proper food and hassle-free eating. Cool!   I walk across this street when I need to go to the subway station. It is choke-full of shops with bright neon signs in decorating the skyline. Looks a lot like the streets of Hong Kong doesn't it?  And the subway. It is a criss-crossing, mind-boggling system of up to 8 different lines with most of the interchanges around the city area. It's also easy to find out whether the train is coming-- wind gushes through the underground station and we all feel like we belong in the movie "Titanic" for that one brief moment. (I'm flying! I'm flying!) There is strong wind because the stations are all underground and the force of the train creates the wind but the wind has nowhere but into the train stations to go to. Hence "titanic" moments every 5 minutes. How's that for a theory? Alright. This is the end of the introductory chapter. Next up will be my chronicles of the first few days over here. Taa taa .
1:17 PM
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
From End To Start.Well, here's a photo-diary kind of post to show you what's Korea like. Too bad I didn't bring a camera, so I stole pictures from my friends here and there. (Teehee) It's not in chronological order because I'm lazy.  This place is in Dongdaemum, a tourist attraction. It sells a HUGE assortment of clothes at low low prices. Here's David mesmerised by the huge amount of clothes.  This is dinner, which is called Sam Chuk Sam (very very looooose translation it means meat in vegetables) We ate barbercued pork off a stone tablet on top of a stove. Before eating the pork, we add all sorts of vegetables and wrap them up in a huge lettuce leaf.  Taa daa!  This is the subway station. It runs underground.  This is Dongdaemum. It's a huge ancient gate right in the middle of a busy roundabout. When I first saw the sight, it felt like history and modern times making contact with each other. It's a very awesome structure with stone walls and a washed out facade. Funny, no matter how washed out it looks, it still stands out like a majestic artefact of the lost world.  The one uncle is the guy whose house we are staying. He brought us around for one day and showed us where the nice food are.  This was our first night in Korea, where the uncle brought us to eat fried chicken in a small little shophouse (NOT KFC!) I spotted no KFC, no Macdonalds and only two 7 eleven to date. Backward? NO. They have so many other things.  It says "Fried Chicken"-- I think.  On arrival at the korean airport.   Here's when we reached Korea. And Joyce is sneakily flashing a smile behind. 
11:45 AM
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Greetings from another land.I used to think that I can't get enough of plane rides, because I always fly direct, hence I only had one take off and one landing per ride. Multiply that by the teeny weeny number of times I actually get to fly, and you get what I mean when I say I just can't get enough. Well, with that note, I can safely say that I have enough of plane rides. From Singapore to Thailand, then to HongKong (a stopover) and finally to Korea, I endured 3 take offs and 3 landings yesterday. So I'm DEFINATELY not complaining anymore. Well, so here I am in the land of dramas and rich history. I was welcomed by this man (sadly, I still can't remember his name) who is our landlord in Korea. He picked us up from Incheon Airport, and drove us home. What's fascinating about this place is that it doesn't close. So many places selling food are opened even after 12am. I remember the first thing I saw out of the airport. A traffic light that plays soothing music when the green man appears. WOW! And they drive on the left, which is mind-boggling because we say goodbye to Yellow boxes and welcome a very fast left lane and a right filter lane. I'll never be able to drive when I get back. So far, I haven't really been CULTURED SHOCKED (not that I'm not looking forward to...). The only difficulty is communication. Well, I don't think anyone can expect much from a girl who learnt her korean from drama serials on TV, who can only pick out short phrases like "Pa Bo!", which means stupid so That eliminate chances of using them often. For lunch on tuesday, I ordered my food based entirely on the picture of the food. Don't know what's inside, don't care. Just point with one finger repeatedly until the person got the message. Cool eh? You ain't heard nothing yet. I ended up picking off this bowl of Seafood Ramen, even though I distinctively remembered I ordered something with lots of yet unidentified meat. So imagine my surprise when I tucked into a bowl with lots and lots of cockles. Cockles and meat looked very different. It was delicious, so I thought, hey, I'm not bad at this! So when Chee Harn brought his bowl over, and said "Er, I think this is yours. I ordered the Seafood one and the person gave me this bowl with meat", I was.... speechless. Oops! I think I should start learning a few korean phrases a day-- just in case history repeats itself. It's not just for safety, it's to save myself from embarassment. But hey! Tomorrow's another day, and tomorrow's the day I write about this huge shopping mall with pretty dresses (for the ladies) and a cool baseball stadium (for the guys). As they say, anyonghaseyo! (sadly, it's the greeting to start the day, not end it. I don't know how to end it. Pardon me hor.)
11:36 PM
Sunday, June 17, 2007
BelievingThere are always things undone and unfinished, and no, I’m not just talking about the packing. (Goodness gracious I’ve rattled and rambled on about my packing for quite a few posts now) This week, the highlight of the week is two days of unforgettable matches of a 3-on-3 tournament. It can be listed as the first minor tournament of the team, since most of us went out in full strength- and our competitors were no pushovers too. I was quite happy with the way we played. It was really more of a team game than individuals running about, flagging their arms as if independent of their bodies (yea, I do that sometimes). What I’ve learnt from this, and from all the trainings I’ve ever had with this team, is that no matter what, I want to keep improving. What touches me the most is that I see that there are individuals just like me too. We want to keep improving, so we show up whenever we can. We work on our shooting. Why, we’d shoot the bloody 5 consecutive shots a thousand times if we had to, because we want to. We play Murderer, not just to see who outlast, outplay and outwit (for that you play Survivor), but to train our concentration. Just two weeks ago, I’ve gained enough confidence to shoot my free throws without jumping- something I’d never have tried until I was so tired from the 5 consecutive shots we had to shoot. Now, that’s improvement for you. And when I improve, they improve too. It’s a matter of faith and believing when that pass is made to a teammate. You don’t just pass to someone because they are bloody free. You pass the ball to someone because you know that they will do something good out of it. But how do you know they’ll make something good out of it? From where do you start to believe? That’s a problem all of us face to make that leap of faith. Why squander a shot I can make even when blocked than to pass it off to a teammate who may just fumble it anyway? You start believing when you train. Together, no less. When you start as individuals but become a team. When you do your trial and error methods, just like you would practice your ten year series before you go for the exam. When you see for yourself that your teammate appreciates your belief, and makes the shot in return. When you realize the ease of defending as a team, of attacking as a team rather than having to hold the forte on your own. You start believing when you train together. In American football, there are blockers who’d go down on a notice, slamming their bodies into others just to pave the way for the quarterback for a touchdown. In soccer, there are left and right midfielders who’d dash down the flanks, throwing their defenders away just to cross the ball deep into the penalty box for the strikers to head it in. In basketball, it’s when I decide to cut in for a lay-up and Amanda graciously cutting off my defender so I’ll have an easy basket. It’s when for every free throw we get, someone shouts “Murderer” just to remind us the free throw trainings we’ve been through. It’s when Charlene shouts at me, saying that I shouldn’t play like that because I can do better. It’s when Amanda says “Deanna, you have been playing like a primary school kid.” and I say “Okay, I’ll redeem myself for that.” It’s when Cheryl tells me I’ve been standing at the wrong angle, hence my shots aren’t going in for each screen she does for me. You’ll start believing too. When you no longer need to dribble so much because you thought no one is free. When you no longer need to force your lay ups into 2 waiting defenders because you thought no one is making the effort. When you no longer need to use dirty tricks for defense because you thought you’d never get the ball if you do it the right way. When you no longer just shoot 3 pointers because you thought that’s the only thing you are good at. You’ll start believing. But you will have to give it a chance and see it first. Cos that’s what the rest of us did.
1:22 AM
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Live our dreams.Like always, I'm counting down the day where I bid goodbye to this sad little country with no natural resources and venture out to the place of tears (or what it seems like on television). These few days were spent on doing things with others so that I can hold on to that when I go off. Not extravagantly holding a farewell party-- heaven forbid-- but rather having nice little conversations and lunch/dinner whenever I can. And the one conversation that strike me the most was the one with Zi Xiang, who has embarked full trottle on his dream of becoming a rock god. It's very fascinating to see someone whom you've known for a while pursuing his dreams just like that. Of course it's not without stress, pressure. We are, after all, in "S stands for Science" Singapore. But because he went ahead, there's progress. Progress in screaming fans, recognition by people, gigs. Probably he's the only friend of mine who is pursuing something totally different. While everyone chases paper (including me-- oh no, especially me!), he's writing songs, playing his music, rocking out. But at the heart of it all, he's still human. One phrase: Larger than life. Other than conversations with intelligent people like AppleLee who brought me to a luxurious buffet spread, (HELP THE D&D PEOPLE RAISE FUNDS! CONTACT APPLELEE!) and Sivalingam who drove me around in a Nissan March, the other activity that I engaged myself in is pure basketball with my teammates. Let's go catch the stars.
11:27 AM
Friday, June 08, 2007
Optimism may just be an illusion.'Twas the stroke of midnight and I've got Charlene messaging me that the results are out. Time to panic. And I can't seem to avoid the Bees--ever. No surprise in failing "F***king tormenting French," but at least I had the foresight to S/U it when I could, so it was an S/U well spent. Was it satisfactory to me? Well, considering I started off being really serious only in the second half of the semester, I was lucky to get better grades than last semester. With a slight, slight improvement in the GPA, I have avoided the pit of third class honours (yay, not like michelle saram!) but am still stuck in the second lower class honours strata. Stupid difference between second lower and second upper is a few hundred dollars in starting pay and bragging rights. (Of course I care more about the former than the latter. But it won't hurt to be legally known as one of the smarter people in the course. Damn.) Anyway, enough about stinkin' results. The fun things I did these days were with the good ol' jolly gang-- Gek Eng, Andrea, Shi Qi and Stephanie. We ate through Chinatown, then went chillin' and drivin' as a kinda "bon voyage deanna"thing. Had myself an enjoyable time. Dawned on me that this is the gang that doesn't need to see each other for eons, but still everyone will fit right in when we meet and talk about every single thing in the world. The only regret I have is being so busy all the time that I wasn't there for them when shit happens-- and yet they were always there for me. So, good ol' jolly gang made up of animals such as ants, chicky, lions and er, sausage lips (HEHEHE), I'll miss you guys in korea!
9:10 PM
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Truth Be Told.Tuesday was a special day. The day where I went down to the korean embassy with my coursemates to make the student visa that I'll be needing. The day where we went to visit the korean family who will let us stay in their house when we are over there. And it's the fricking day which reminds me that I NEEDA START PACKING! Shit man, and I'm getting soooo over-excited over this one and a half month trip that I keep spouting vigourous (can I use it like this? Hah.) rubbish to any random person in my house-- which made my mama quite irritated. I used to get super excited when going to the zoo, birdpark, whatever place of interest in Singapore. It's the feeling where the heart beats very fast, and the un-able-ness to sleep the night before. (Maybe it's like falling in love...) These days, ever since I reached the TIP of adulthood, (I say "tip" because I haven't reached adulthood. Nngh. I'm still so young. Muahahha) nothing much excites me already. It's the good ol' 'been there, done that' experience that destroys all circuits of excitement. On the bright side, no more sweaty palms! But still, life becomes a straight line on the heartbeat monitor. I think when I reach Korea, my heartbeat monitor will soar for a few days, then go back to being a straight line again. However, I'm still looking forward to living a monotonous rhthym there cos it beats the 19 years of monotonous rhythm in Singapore. My flight's at 8.10AM on 18th June. Thai Airways. TG402. So I gotta check in at 6AM. So don't say I never say ah....
10:25 AM
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Commiting murder.Well, one thing that irks me is losing a verbal battle-- which has happened quite a few times already after I was questioned about the fluctuating free-ness/busy-ness of someone. It seemed that the person could be free at one block of time and busy at another. Coincidence? I really don't know. So I'm sick of answering up for the person. Anyway, everyone also forgot the person existed. Is it a good thing, forgetting someone? I doubt so, but hey, as I've said, I'm sick of it. But it's a sad thing to be forgotten. However, it's true you know. You have been forgotten by them.
12:06 PM
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