End of May

Just came back from a business trip back in Malaysia.

Some things didn't run smoothy but there're new opportunities coming in.

It's a bit tiring, flying Seoul-KK-Kl-KK-Seoul within 4.5 days.

But was glad that I can catch up with a few friends I've not met for several months or years~

Busy weeks a head as spring comes to an end and summer begins..

unfinished assignments...

It's the first time I spend more than 13 hours doing 3 questions and still cannot solve it correctly despite having the solution manual.....

Started doing my Heat and Mass Transfer assignments at 7.30pm on Monday night. Thought I should be able to finish it within 5 hours since I have the solution manual.

Was doing it with another friend of mine who was good in solving these sort of questions.

Yet the two of us worked through the night and till day break at 6am not able to finish the 3rd question....

Slept from 6am to 830am and went to class...
Didn't even study that hard during my exams last semester and this semester..

Well, I call that a new experience^^

Result < Time*Effort

Just finished an exam. Management Information System.

I feel that business subs exams are weird. The exam questions were T/F, Objective and fill in the blanks.
It's a bit frustrating because it's like: there's 1500 things and I remember 1200 things but they only questioned me on the 300 things that I don't remember~

Result for my Heat and Mass Transfer also came out last Wednesday.
Was above average, but I thought I'd get a better result because the questions were similar to past years questions.

But did so many bloody mistakes~~

Will need to do quite well in my next 2 exams if I wanna get an A for this sub....

Salmon's Life

Salmon are anadromous: they are born in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce, and die. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they were born to spawn, tracking studies have shown this to be true but the nature of how this memory works has long been debated.

Chinook and sockeye salmon from central Idaho travel over 1400 km and climb nearly 2100 m from the Pacific ocean as they return to spawn.

Not many people are born to die. There are a lot of things that we would like to achieve in life. Wealth. Fame. Longevity.

Yet Christ set an example for us, and said that unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces a lot of grain.

If a salmon, guided by the hand of God, is willing to undergo such long, hard process to give birth to their next generation, what is stopping me from carrying out God's will so that many more may experience His gift of new life?

I long to take the road less travelled, seing things from God's perspective rather than from my own. Yet if I'm not willing to make greater sacrifice, will it be possible?

If I haven't died to myself how can I experience the power of resurrection?

-just some random thoughts after listening to todays easter sermon-

Final year...

I'm now a senior in Uni.
Can't wait to graduate.
Amazing how 4.5 years passed like rushing water.

Not that I hate studying, but can't wait to see what God has in store for me.

Working with my current company?
Graduate school?
1 year mission trip?
Work somewhere else?

I want to serve God and be in a position where I can influence others for Him.

I want to share about what God has done for me. He has been gracious and good to me.
I want to share what He has showed me during the last few years and apply what I've learn.

Should I be choosing the road less taken?^^

Winter Vacation 2008

Sat for my last paper on Monday^^

Officially our school exam week started on Monday and finished tomorrow.

However, out of consideration some professors will make the final exam one week before the exam week so that students will have less to study during the official exam week.

Normally it's a good news.

But unfortunately ALL my professors did that.

So 2,3 weeks right after my mid-term I was busy preparing for my finals.

Compared to last semester, I think I didn't manage to do as well for the finals.

Not likely that I'll get a scholarship this sem but still hoping that my results won't be too bad.

Finals in 1 week~ ^^

It seems that I can hardly do any updating during the semester.

Hopefully next year will bring a brighter future to me^^

Anyways, finals will start next Friday, with 7 subjects to go.

Most of my mid-term exam results are not out yet, but I think I'm somewhere around the average for most of the subjects.

I'm expecting my exams to end by 18 Dec so that I can make a trip back to Malaysia before my Fast and Pray Retreat at the end of the year.

Also looking forward to my 2nd China Mission trip in January.^^

Summer Vacation~

More than one month has past since my summer vacation started.

I really looked forward to this vacation due to the stress and fatigue I accumulated throughout this semester. It was indeed the most tiring semester out of the past 4 years here in S.Korea.

Went to the CCC Summer Conference in Jeju. This is my 3rd year attending CCC Summer Conference but due to the fact that I've just transferred to this uni and I didn't spend much time with them throughout the semester, there were quite a number of new faces.

This year we had it in Jeju in conjunction with Korea CCC 50th anniversary and Jeju Island 100th year of Mission work. Actually throughout the semester I didn't plan to go because I was thinking of taking some easy subjects during summer class to jack up my overall grades.

But finally decided to go since it's KCCC Year of Jubilee and wanted to see what God will be doing in the island of Jeju. I hoped that God would give me a not too bad result to compensate my not being able to take summer class.

And indeed He has been faithful. Though I'm not sure whether I'll be able to get the scholarship, but getting a CGPA around 4 in Korea University was not something I'd expected.

Getting an A for my Quantum Chemistry was also something I had not expected. Thanks to God and my friends and seniors whom we had last minute group study with.

Getting my result during the conference was like an assurance from God of His faithfulness and and that everything is in His hand.

Right after the Conference I came back to Malaysia on the 9th of July. My BKD boss bought the ticket for me wanting me to go back to rest, and WORK.

On my way back to Kuching my stop at KK wasn't fruitful. But my trip last week has brought a lot of advancement to our projects. Hopefully our current and new projects can start soon and I'll be able to say I've done my part well and bring glory to God.

1 week left before I return to Seoul.

Finals

More than 3 months has past since I transfered to this new Uni.
only 2 weeks left of the semester.

Wanted to take summer class to improve my overall CGPA,
but the time clashes with the CCC summer conference held at Jeju Island.
Thought of not joining the summer conference this year and take my summer class as most of my friends are taking.

But after some thought and some discussion decided to go for the Conference as it's in conjunction with Korea CCC 50th anniversary and Jeju Island 100th year since missionaries first went in there.

After that probably will be going back to Malaysia for work and enjoy.
This time will be back in Kch.

And last but not least please pray for my exams that are coming up, the first beginning this saturday.

6/14 - Biochemistry 2-4pm
6/18 - Marketing Management 9-10.15am
- Current English 1030-11.45am
6/19 - Biotechnology 1030-12.00pm
Reaction Engineering 3.30-6.00pm
6/20 - Quantuam and Surface Chemistry 7-9.30pm

Thoughts...

1 more week to my final exam.

Then it's the end of my first semester here in Korea University.

Life here is quite different from what I expected it to be.

Never thought I'd have so much pressure.

Never thought that my dreams will be gone within a semester.

Finding new meaning. Finding new dreams.

Though there's one deeply hidden within me, I'm not ready to accept the challenge.

Be with me O God.

So that my life will indeed be a pleasing living sacrifice for you.

2nd Quantum Chemistry exam

Just finished my 2nd exam of Quantum Chemistry yesterday.
In my uni's college of engineering, we have up to 3,4 exams a semester for the harder subjects.
The logic behind it is so that student don't have to crack their hard and study too much during the mid-term and final exams.

There are pros and cons to this tho.
Pro is that you have more time to prepare for the exam because you don't have any other exam during this period and the amount that we need to study per exam is less.

The cons however, includes spending too much time preparing for 1 exam and neglecting other studies, assignments, revisions etc.

So right now I have tons of stuff to catch up with in subjects like Biochemistry, Reaction Engineering, Biotechnology etc.

After having 1-hour exams for 2 years in Dongyang Technical College, I was surprise that the exams in this uni last is like other normal uni and M'sia, taking 1, 2, or 3 hours depending on the subject and professor.

So after the 2.5 hour exam last night went for a drink with 2 seniors and another of my friend who's taking the subject as well.

Spent nearly a week preparing for it. Though I know the result is not going to be beautiful, I'm glad that I put it a lot of effort^^

Played from 10pm till 2am ^^
Now I understand why Koreans drink so much and play so much.
There's just too much stress~~~

3 more weeks till final exams and 1 more month till summer vacation~~

1st Exam in Korea University

Had my first exam after transfering to Korea University last week.
All in all I sat for 6 papers in one week, which is very uncommon for most students in my uni.

Was quite nervous as this is the real challenge in Korea after 4 years.
The past 4 years was spent learning language and studying in a technical college, which relatively wasn't that hard.

Though I didn't expect some easy question, the test was far from what I expected, except for Marketing^^

Did quite poorly for my second paper, Reaction Engineering and last paper, Quantum Mechanics.
For the last paper, I was so tensed and pressured the previos night that I couldn't concentrate and study. So I slept early, woke up late and started preparing for the exam at 11am.

Thank God that the exam was at 7pm, which gave me about 6-7 hours to study for the paper.
Though I did quite bad for the paper, other students didn't seem to do well as well.

However, I think I'm the only one who did terribly for Reaction Engineering. 1,2 of the questions were't that difficult, but I was confused and counldn't think properly and solve it.

Well, it'll be an interesting week, seing my results come out one by one....

Korea University

3 weeks have passed since I came to Korea University.

I had a list of 5 unis to choose from after graduating from Dongyang Technical College, with Hanyang Uni and Korea Uni having the highest possibility.

Ever since my Korean Language Course I wanted to go to Korea Uni because it's one of the SKY university, the top 3 prestigious universities here in S.Korea. The other two being Seoul National University and Yeonsei University, which we couldn't go.

However, I had some dilemma last year due to this ABEEK thing, something related to engineering accreditation etc. Hanyang Uni promised us that we can complete ABEEK within 2 years, but there weren't much assurance from Korea Uni. Though later on they told us that they'll try their best and help us, I was a bit skeptical.

But finally I chose Korea Uni instead of Hanyang Uni due to its name value, though in general Hanyang Uni is recognized for the performance of their Engineering School.

When I made that decision, I had in my mind 70% of not doing ABEEK, because there was a high chance that we need to extend another year if we were to take ABEEK in Korea Uni. (it was confirmed to be so few weeks ago.)

I was excited about coming to Korea Uni and had lots of expectation. Enjoying uni life was part of that expectation: studying hard and play hard. I had in mind a picture where I study with a bunch of friends in the library till midnight on weekdays and we'd go lepak, go movies etc on weekends.

But....things didn't turn out exactly the way I expected...

except the part where I study till midnight.

Most of the time I was studying alone. Most of my friends don't go to the library, and those who goes prefer to study alone.

I don't mind spending hours studying if I understand the subject after putting in my effort.

But it's depressing when after hours of reading, I don't know what I read.

And finally there's no one to play with....most of my Korean friends either stays very far from school or they're busy on weekend as well..

Life is indeed VERY different from my previous college..

I thought I'd be very active in CCC, but I'm having some hard time adjusting to the difference between Seoul South CCC and Seoul North CCC.

C-mens here are very hardworking and they study a lot, compared to my previous college...

So after 3 weeks I haven't build any deep relationship with them..

On the other hand, I feel much closer to the other transfer-student, those transferred this year like me and other seniors who transferred 1,2 years ago.

Though it's still too early to make any conclusion, but in general everything is different from what I expected...

Exam~~ㅠ.ㅠ

Having an exam in 2 days time and I haven't laid my hand on it.
It's the exam that will decide how many points I can transfer to Korea University should I choose to take ABEEK.

In my heart I'm not so sure whether I want to take ABEEK.
On one hand there's this "it'll be very important in the future" "Your degree might not get recognize if you don't have ABEEK" etc
On the other hand I was thinking "I might not be doing engineering in the future" "I want a life in uni, not just study" "I'll be doing master so it doesn't matter" etc

Can't decide yet, but if I get less that 60% in this upcoming exam I will surely NOT take ABEEK^^

The uni told us about the exam 1 week before hand, and they don't even have a given range or scope of the exam questions. Just basic Maths and Physics question.

WHAT DOES THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN??????

I donno. And I have an backache that if I sit for more than 1 hour it starts to hurt.
And I had such a packed schedule throughout the whole week.
And I'm busy preparing for my trip back to M'sia this week~~~

ARRGGHH~~~~~

Well, whatever will be will be^^

Another AI gathering

We gathered last night at SoJeong gsn's house yesterday for our official AI AFTER GATHERING
In Korea there's this "AFTER" gathering after every camps, training, workshop etc^^

Had dinner, something like Curry Chicken and Andong Steamed Chicken. Then chatted till late at night, had some bossam and then watched a movie before falling to sleep.

Think they're going to go skating today and would've love to join them if not for my part-time job.

Well, commitments are commitments.

AI Gathering~^^

Some of you might asks (which I doubt it cause I haven't been updating my blogs and no one has been reading them anyway) what AI is？

Well AI= Asia Impact

It's the name of our short term mission trip group to China.
Actually we're AI 2, cause there was a team who went during summer and we're the second team.

Anyways, we met up yesterday, 5 of us (4 Koreans and me) who didn't pulang kampong or who've came back from kampong met up at 9am yesterday for a movie.

In Korea, there's a Morning Ticket, which costs 4000 won, compared to the normal 7000, 8000 won. So usually poor students like us would rather wake up few hours earlier just to save a few thousand wons~

It was a Korean movie, "The Man Who Was Superman". When I first heard the name I didn't think that it'll be a worth watching, but turns out that it has a lot of things for me to ponder after watching.
Hope you all won't miss it when it's in DVD~

I thought that we'll only be watching movie, have lunch and go back home, but turns out that we lepaked the whole day together^^

From Yongsan we went to Myeongdong where we had lunch and went to a Boardgame Cafe for 2 hours, then roamed the downtown of Seoul (cause one of our member wasn't familiar with Seoul so we decided to show him around).
Walked from Myeongdong to Cheonggyecheon (Cheonggye River) to Insadong and then to Jongno.

It was fun meeting them again (though it's only been a week), and brightened up my otherwise lonely New Year.

BBQ on CNY^^

Went to my senior's house near Korea University and had indoor BBQ there^^
I must admit that it's my first time having BBQ on the 1st day of CNY~
It's much easier to prepare than Chinese food where you need to buy lots of ingredients.
For BBQ, all you need is a just meat~~~ and probably some kimchi and garlic and bean paste to go with it^^

But again, spending CNY eating BBQ is an interesting experience, but not one that I want to have every year.
Hmm....is it the type of life I'll be living if I stay here and work after I graduate?
I prefer the visiting type of CNY back in Msia~~

Anyway, going to my senior's house again after nearly 2 years brings back a lot of memories.
The 1st time I set foot on their house was Feb/March 2006 on the day they just moved to the house.
The 2nd time was about a few weeks later when they had house warming.
And this is the 3rd time...
2 years gone..
Just like that..

Happy CNY 2008~ ^^

Came back from China on the 2nd.
Spent the last 4 days meeting friends and juniors.

Though this is not my 1st time spending CNY overseas, it's some how very different from the previous few times.

In 2005 and 2006, all my friends from my Batch couldn't go back so we ate together, played together and visited each other.

This year however, all my Batch's friends are back in M'sia except for a Malay and an Indian. Haha, guess we're representatives for each of our race^^

Kindda miss the happy joyous Chinese New Year atmosphere back in Malaysia.

Here in Korea though they do have celebration, they celebrate by going to their granparents house, eat there and talk there.
No visiting culture like what we have in Malaysia.

But still, glad that I have juniors and seniors who didn't go back to M'sia.
Spent last night eating "Reunion Dinner" with them and going to my senior's house later today^^

Boasting^^

something that i've come to notice:

I'm right most of the time^^

but the way i convey my thoughts makes people do not believe in me.

and at the end of the day I say "I told you so~"

and I hurt their feelings...

Fast & Pray Training Course

well, actually the name is just 금식수련회, fasting camp/training,
but to me fasting is meaningless without praying, and the whole theme of the camp was more on praying than fasting.

It's a annual camp by Korea CCC.
3 regrets I had last year was
1. Not joining the Fast and Pray Camp
2. Not joining Gideon's Training
3. Not joining 순장 Training

So the main reason I stayed back this winter is to participate in all 3 camps, and STMT as well.

The camp was from Dec 26-29, with a total fast of 7 meals.
It was indeed a great time for me, being away from my normal daily routine and just spending time talking to God and to hear what He has in store for my future.

1 Challenge I had was to start a OCF, Overseas Christian Fellowship in Korea Uni next year.
I'm quite certain it's a task God wants me to do, but well,
if it's not God's will it will just not come into being right?
So no harm in trying~ ^^

Happy 2008~ ^^

My last paper for my last semester in Dongyang Technical College ended 3 weeks ago on 12 Dec.
But just didn't take the time to post anything up.

Life has been great~
Went for a few movies during the last 3 weeks^^
And by collecting 33,000 points for CGV (name of a cinema) I'm officially a VIP for 2008~

Looking back at 2007:
there's just too many things to be grateful about. just to list a few:-
1. Meeting CCC freshman 순원~
2. Soon Gathering with Ling Yen, Ruying, Lionel, Adrian, Ting Yong and 성화.
3. CM 2007
4. Mongolia STMT
5. Meeting my new mentor, my 아빠 순장님~
6. Reconciliation with a few of my friends during the last week of 2007
7. and ya, a clearer vision of what God wants with my life

Looking to a better 2008 ahead^^

Finally~ MId Term Exam is Over

Finally after 3 weeks my mid-term exam is over.
Sat for 6 papers all in all. For the first 5 I think I did quite well, but for today's paper.....whew~
I mean, it's a chapter I studied once last sem (ok, half the chapter), I spent a few days preparing for it, doing all the even number questions in the book, had more confidence that the previous 2 sem, yet it's the worst out of this 3 semester of Engineering Mathematics.....

Thus once again proving that "Input= Output" is a false statement.

What I'm more upset about is that I actually KNOW how to do all the questions, but just a few minor +,- mistakes at the beginning leading to a horrible end...........

Anyhow, glad that the mid term exam is over and I can enjoy life for the next 4 weeks before my Final Exams...

All the best to all you who're preparing for your exam out there~ ^^

CM 2007

I'm now here at Busan, here for the Leadership Conference held before at Bexco.

Went to Incheon airport this morning and met with the other foreigners before coming down to Busan together.

Arrive at the airport at 8.30am. At the counter I saw Malaysia CCC team members, 19 of them from Sabah and Sarawak, who flew in from KK on the 27.

Then about an hour later met up with the other MCCC people who flew in from KL. there were all in all 153 of them. I never knew that Malaysia has so many CCC members and I never thought that so many of them would actually make it here to Korea. Praise be to God who brought them here safely and may He continue to be with them that they may have a blessed them here for the next whole week.

Checked into our room at around 7.30pm. Seoul Sourthen District CCC memebers will be staying at Grand Hotel.

Mine's a standard room. But instead of a twin bed we have 2 single beds. It looks quite nice in this photo and it is indeed quite nice. But imagine squeezing 6~8 people in it.......

STMT After

Short Term Mission Trip After, meaning gatherings after our short term mission trip.

As our team that went to Japan was made up of students from different campuses, we (Korean students) usually have STMT After.

We had our gathering at Cheonan, a city about 2 hours by subway from Seoul. It was great to see everyone after the STMT^^

20 years old....

No more "teens" for me...ㅠ.ㅠ From today, I'm officially 20 years old... It's not a short time.... Probably a third to a quarter of my life...if I should live till 60 or 80. Many ups and downs... Yet one thing for sure... God has always been there with me...^^ And He has given me a lot of good friends and family^^ Thank you God^^ Thank you to all my friends^^

(with housemate)

(with church friends)

(with homestay parent)

DYTC 06/07 Committee Member

On Sep 9, we officially become the Committee Members of our campus CCC. Usually 2nd-4th year students are selected to be Committee Members of their campus' CCC, but due to our campus situation (most of the courses are 2 years course), 1st year students are elected to be Committee Members.

I had been looking forward to it, being the 1st Malaysian student in Korea Campus Crusade for Christ^^ I was eagerly looking forward to this moment. Hoping that I can bring some change to our Campus, waiting and praying for our juniors that will be coming in next year, carrying out all the program es and events in our Campus etc...

Soon Camp

From August 7-8, we had a Soon Camp. Here at Southern Seoul District CCC, we have Soon Camp every summer. Soon, which means a sprout/a shoot/ a bud is a term use in CCC. It's something like the concept of cell and cell group.

We went to Incheon CCC headquarters and spent a night there. On the second day, we went to Incheon beach.
(Praying for 2 of our brothers, one because it's his birthday, another because he's going to the military)


(Taken at the beach all 06 hakbon [entered uni in 2006] )

STMT Japan

From 7/11-22,
I went to Japan on a short term mission trip.

Actually I was planning to go to China with my friends this summer...
But after thinking it for a while...this might be my only chance of going on a STMT....

At first I wanted to go with my church to Ukraine and Russia because it's cheper...but the problem was that I don't know the language. So after some consideration, I signed up for a STMT to China (through CCC)
However..it seems that China wasn't God's plan for me...so in the end I ended up going to Japan..

Japan's Christian is less than 1% of it's population...yet seing their passion and love for God, I'm quite ashame of myself...
Furthermore, the Japanes Christian (like the Korean Chirstian) has a vision of evangelizing to all their race..
Well of course I have the heart to reach out to my fellow M'sian as well, but the race barrier seems to be something that's keeping us M'sian Christian back...

Back to my trip..
the whole trip was good....we went to Hokkaido, visited two cities - Sapporo and Hakodate.
We stayed at Hitzejikaoka Church-- meaning hill of the lamb..
Visited an old folk's home nearby and held a performance there..
We joined all the service and gathering held by the church during our stay - dawn prayer meeting, ladies fellowship, wednesday prayer meeting, sunday school etc...
The members of the church was very nice to us..brought us out to eat and invited us to their homes.
The pastor also brought us to a few tourist spot near the area.
And on the last night, we held a Korean night. Cooked some Korean dish and had a few performances.

Campus Mission 2006

Held from 6/26-30 ,
It's a summer conference held my CCC (Campus Crusade for Chirst).
About 10,000++ students attended the conference. 8000 from Korea and 2,3000 from USA, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, UK etc
We had morning gatherings (praise and worship and usually talk by CCC worker/staff), then we go to different rooms and have lessons on LTC (Leadership Training Course)- about how to share our faith with others using the Four Spiritual Laws.
We had 2 special class than we can choose-- there were a lot of choices, and the two classes I chose was New Testament and Islam.
Then we had rallies at night.

few of us in the room

We cook our own lunch and dinner

Raw materials~

The small gatherings are held in the rooms~

3 months~~

Wow~~~ didn't realize that I haven updated my blog for such a loooong time~
Sorry to my few fans who come to this site once in a while~~

In order to make the update quicker and to give better insights to how and what I was doing, I'll post of some photos within the next few days~

June 2006

I have quite a few things planned up for this month~~

1. 1st I have my final exam from 12-21 June....

2. Then I'll have my 2006 Summer Conference from 26-30 June.....something I'm looking forward to^^ Organized by KCCC (Korea Campus Crusade for Christ).

3. Then my aunt is coming....she told me she'll be coming from the 30 of June till 10 of July...but I heard from another of my aunt that she'll be coming on the 14...hmm...still need to conform...

Christian Student

^^
Haven blogged for a long time....had some interesting things that came up the past 2 months, but was either too busy managing my cyworld or was rushing my report or playing lineage, which I plan to stop playing from now on...

As mentioned in my previous post, I joined CCC, which I'm glad I did. It's helps me stay connected with God and my fellow brothers and sister in Campus.
Am attending the morning group devotion (though they call it prayer meeting, it seems more like a group Quite Time to me^^)
Went on Campus Evangelism once, but wasn't prepared yet....but have decided to join the Evangelism group~

Had my mid-term exam 2,3 weeks ago. It wasn't as hard as I had expected (except for one subject), and haven did any revision or study after the exam.
Like what my seniors says, studying a week before the exam is sufficient (with a few exceptions of course~)
However, though we don't have to study that much, I have lots of assignments to do every. 2 reports to write each week. And it takes me 4-5 hours to complete one.....
Because of this have been sleeping 5hours a day for the past whole week....

One thing that come into my mind quite often these few days is my role as a student and a Christian....
Well, as a student we attend lectures, 3-6 hours a day, we spend another few hours doing our assignments and projects, and during exam period we spend more that 10 hours a day studying.....to most of us students, that's just something logical and natural to do...and I think I'm being quite sucessful as a student (in Dong Yang Technical College that is^^)

But when I consider my role as a Christian, my heart is hurt....aren't we suppose to be seekers of God? Isn't God the most important person in our lives? Haven't we dedicated our lifes to God? Haven't we say that we'll live for God?
Yet the time I spend with God, the time I spend reading His word; the time I spend praying; the time I spent sharing Jesus with my friend, is less that half the time I spent studying....

Is not God the centre of my life?.....
How can such a life be called Christ centred?

I'm in a lost....
I just feel that I've failed being a Christian.....

VIPS~

Went to Yeoido with my CCC friends after our 1st Semester mid-term exam (April 21).
On our way home we say this VIPS sign and decided to go in for a try~
The food was great, and the salad bar was buffet stlye~
but the price was "great" as well~
About RM90-110 per person~
the most expensive meal I ever had~

Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC)

Joined the CCC on my college campus. I first heard about it from a senior, who told me that there's such a Christian group. He himself, however, didn't join it.

So, after entering the college, on one afternoon when I was going home, I poped into the room, and met the people there and have "formally" joined the 동아리 (club?).

Met lots of people there, some living nearby, some who came from far south of the country and currently staying together, some who travel 1 and a half hour to school everyday etc...and the common thing that we all have besides studying in the same college is that we are all bro and sis in Christ.

In CCC, there's Tuesday evening service, Friday evening's gathering and Devotion in the morning, which I only went once. Am quite use to go and lepak at the room (each club are given a room) whenever I'm free or in between lectures.

One thing that "horrifies" me is that every Tuesday noon, there'll be gathering in front of the campus and sing praise and worship songs. Something I'm not accustomed to in doing.......singing Christian songs publicly openly in front of so many non-believers.
So when I joined them for the first time last Tuesday, I was really nervous. I mean, it's something I like, I enjoy doing, but doing it on campus, where lots of people that I know walking around is a bit.....

But will try my best^^ I'm taking it up as a challenge^^

Dong Yang Technical College.

Started my engineering course in Dong Yang Technical College. Well, actually not an engineering course yet, it's Applied Chemistry Course.

Some of the things our seniors tell us about this college:
1. Most of the students here are those who's result aren't so good and can't enter college.
2. The students don't study a lot....they spend their time drinking at pubs and singing in karaoke
3. The lecturers are of high qualification but they need to teach according to the student's level,
which is quite low.
4. It's relaxing in this college.
5. The teacher will tell you what will come out in the exams.

So, after being in here for 1 week, I agree with most of the things the senior said, except that I HAVE quite a LOT of HOMEWORK. 2 reports to write each week, one report costing me around 5 hours, that's 10 hours gone a week just for 2 reports.

And the things that I need to memorize is a little more than what I expected.....

But anyway, haven't really mix with the students in my class. We 3 Malaysian always stick close to each other in class, not talking much....yet.
The most playful and noisy student in our Applied Chemistry Department is in my class, and because C class was the "worst" class last year, our assistant teacher has a bad impression about us.

Went for an interview to join a study group, which I now regret. Thought that it would be fun, doing experiments in labs, helping the lecturers, staying in campus from morning till night and getting some allowance as well.....

BUT after going to CCC (Campus Crusade for Christ) a few times, I feel that that's where I belong. And although unlikely....I fear that I'll pass the interview and become a member of the study group....which will leave me absolutely no time for CCC......seeking God's will......

Alright then, will stop here....for the mean time.....

Graduation

Had my graduation ceremony on the 16th of February. However, this photo was taken 3 days earlier. 1 and a half year........quite a meaningful period of time I'd say.....learnt lots of things....met lots of people....was taught by several teachers......all coming to an end now.....

As I was one of the editors for our Batch's magizine, was quite busy 2-3 weeks before our gradution. Collecting essays, article, designing the background of each article, adapting to the use of 2 software, Corel Draw and Microsoft Publisher.....but it was fun. The teacher bought us dinner (nearly) all the time when we stayed back^^


We had our Level 6 Korean Language exam on the 13th and 14th of Feb. The exam wasn't as hard compared to the mid-term exam, so was quite ok. Got around 96%......


The 5 editors for our batch's magazine and the 3 advisor^^

Reunion Dinner^^

Reunion Dinner, a must for most of us chinese on the eve of Chinese New Year. 2nd Chinese New Year for me and my friends here in Korea, this year we decided to gather all the chinese in my batch and have a reunion dinner together.
My friend's sister, who's also here in Korea, joined us, and so were 3 other juniors. Two of my friends and I went hunting for a chinese restaurant the day before our dinner. We thought of going to a one near my house, but the menu was a bit expensive and there are not many entertainment places near my house. Furthermore the "feeling" isn't there if we went to a shop too close to our house.

Two out of the eight dishes that we had. As the place that we went to didn't have round tables for us, we sat at a rectangle table.

So the food shown in the pic is for 4 people. We had two soups, whick included a bowl of (fake?) shark fin for each of us. The food was quite good, and the atmosphere of the place was good as well. The decoration of the place gave it an antique feeling. One of the table that we use was an antique as well^^ (strange owner...he has another shop with the same name downstair, but the decorations are modern design)

After diner we went to sing a few songs. Though this noraebang isn't as luxurious as the one in Hongdae, it has its own unique design. All 22 of us managed to squeeze into the room and had a great time. 6 of them went back ealier as they didn't want to spend the night outside (girls) and another wanted to phone his family. All in all spent 2+ hours there.


After midnight, we went to a pub. As we wanted a brighter atmosphere, we chose the outdoor part. Ordered some snacks (sausages & chicken) and 3 3000cc beer. As the place didn't have soju(a type of distilled liquor), my friend smuggled it in from a convenience store. Made cocktail out of it^^

We played a few games from 12+am till 3am. Drink, play, eat, talk. We had quite a good time there, though one or two almost got drunk....
Our plan was to kill time at the pub till the 1st subway operates, around 4.45am. But the store closed much earlier that night, at 3pm. So we moved on to the next place...............................

.....a dvd bang(room).

I've heard about DVD rooms in Korea before, but never actually been to one. And my first experience was great. The normal rooms can fit 2 person at a time while the biggest one could fit 4. Consifering the facilities provided, the price was also quite reasonable, at 5000won (RM 18) per person (A normal ticket at the cinema would cost around 4000-6000won.)

We booked all 6 rooms, and chose 6 dvds that we wanted to watch. My friend Hock Siang and I chosed "Fantastic Four" while others chose movies like "Saw", "Monalisa Smile", "Chainsaw Massacre" etc

After watching the dvd, it was already 5.30am . Got on a subway and headed back......tired, sleepy but enjoyed ourselves^^

JSA (Joint Security Area)

As we all know, Korea is the only divided country in this world. Ever since the Korean War(1950-1953), the two nation has been divide for the past 50+ years. Roughly divided around the 38th Parallel, the two country's only neutral place is Panmunjom.
While the place used to be "neutral", in the sense that North and South Koreans could move about within Panmunjom, the place was again divided after an axe incident. The two guards shown in this pic are South Korean soldiers. The white building at the top of the picture belongs to North Korea.

Ski Trip (8-10 Jan)

Well, better late than never. Here's some photos of the ski trip I had early this month.
It was indeed a wonderful time. Learning a new skill while enjoying the fellowships of friends around.

We arrived in the evening of 8 Jan. Got out of the bus, unpacked our stuff, rented our ski equipment and started our basic training right away. The teacher brought a few students to another ski resort and taught them the basics there few weeks earlier. So they in turn taught us how to ski.

After the basic training on the 1st day and the "A" skiing style on the morning of the second day, we went up the very beginner's hill. It was the easiest ski site in the camp. We were escoted by our trainee on the 1st round, but after that me and my friend went up on our own. It wasn't as hard as we had expected. And it was FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

As we didn't buy the afternoon pass, we couldn't go skiing in the evening. Instead we had a walk around the camp. Enjoyed the scenery and had a round of bowling.
The room where I stayed. All in all there were 5 rooms. The room was cozy and comfortable even though there were 15 of us in the room. We had endless provision of food, drinks, cakes and desserts during our stay (provided by our lecturer^^).

On the second night, we were each given a free pass, allowing us to go to any site we want within the camp. But of course, our lecturer only allowed us to play in the safer zone (though a few went else where and got themselves into interesting trouble^^).

The excitement is indeed beyond my ability to express. Skiing down the 1km slope with such high speed was indeed enjoyable. Trying not to bump into anyone along the way was even more exciting. Now I can actually understand why some enjoy "high speed" sports like racing^^

At the end of the day, I find skiing much more easier than skating. Will try to go for another ski trip if the opportunity arises^^ .

For another summary of the event by my friend please go here. Guess I should've blogged on it when my memory was still fresh. But don't think anyone will be reading this so it doesn't really matter^^

Drunk? almost....

-If a tiger begins to eat vegetables, what else is impossible in this world?-

Had a meeting at dytc on Friday to register for our course. So finally, I'm stucked with chemical engineering. There are all in all 10 of us Malaysian, 6 girls and 4 guys.

After the meeting went to look for a pair of ski glove at Lotte Mart but to no avail . We then went to have Sam Gyeob Sal (barbequed pork) for dinner. It's one of my favourite Korean dish- you're given the raw meat, and then you barbeque it on a grill provided.

The difference this time is that the normal shop I used to go is no longer there and this time I'm with 2 other friends that I like, but first time going for Sam Gyeob Sal with them. All in all there were 6 of us.

The owner of the store was fun. Few our seniors go there very often, so the owners know quite a lot about them. Later went to a pub to have a light drink. The owner of the pub is a relative of the owner of the Sam Gyeob Sal shop that we had dinner, so we got a plate of refreshments for free(costing ~RM25) ^^

Had a great time at the pub. Was my second time at a pub(1st time during my senior's b'day), but 1st time with friends from my own batch. Talked, joked, laughed etc. The other 5 used to go for drinks quite often last time, so I was the only "new" person at the table.

Thus one of my friend was trying to see me drunk(?) and gave me two Bomb drink(폭탄주) -where a shot of whisky is dropped into a glass of beer and then the whole thing rapidly consumed.

Luckily, thank God that I wasn't drunk after drinking the second one (my friends added a few shots of whisky into it). But was feeling strange in my head....(depends on how you define drunk, that symptom might be catagorized as drunk, but I don't wanna admit it cause if I were to do so God will kill me for being drunk :P).

But all in all, was indeed a wonderful time. Especially looking back at how my relationship with one of my friend was, it's really unbelievable that we'll be sitting together eating drinking joking and laughing.

Well, that's one thing I thank God the most throughout last year^^

Happy New Year^^

Hehe...guess it's a bit late but Happy New Year^^
May all of you have a blessed new year ahead^^

So, this year I decided not to make an actually list of resolutions. Been making new year's resolutions these few years, but in the end I end up not doing what I wanted to do...

BUT there are a few things I'll try to improve on:
1. Spend more time with God - longer quite time and spending more time praying.
2. Continue the Bible reading plan I started in November and finish reading the Bible cover to
cover within this year.
3. Spend more time on my studies.

Well then, will stop here for now.^^

Amsa-Dong Prehistoric Settlement Site

We were asked to make a short video clip as part of our assignment. So, since it's holiday, we thought of catching 2 birds with one stone - visit an interesting place in Seoul while doing our assignment.

This place represents the largest neolithic settlement site in Korea. During a flood in 1925, many pieces of comb-pattern pottery was uncovered, therefore revealing the site of the settlement.

22-26 Dec

Quite a few things came up this few days....

Firstly, my deepest sympathy to Usha on the death of her father.......

22nd- Our lecturers brought us to the ice-skating-ring at City Hall. Not my first time there, but
first with nearly 60 other Malaysian students^^
Went for dinner after skating. Food was delicious: tofu stew, tuna stew, steamed egg and
fried squid.
Went to Chonggyechon with my friends after that. There was a Luminarie in Seoul event
being held there.
And finally to end the night, our lecturer, Mr Ham brought us to Starbucks and bought us
coffee^^ 2nd time going to Starbucks and 1 st time in Korea^^















24th- Went to my piano teacher's place. This year there's 6 Malaysian. 4 from my batch and 2
juniors. Had seafood soup and 2 cakes^^
Stayed at her place till nearly midnight.
6 of us waited at the bus stop for quite a
while,but no bus came our way.However
we did see a pedestrian quarrelling with
a taxi driver..and imagine on Christmas
eve!!
Decided to take the subway instead, but
by the time we reached the subway
station, it was closed.
So had no choice but to take the taxi.
Got a phone call from my aunt at 12+am.

25th- (Strangely, surprisingly, sadly) didn't go
anywhere else besides to church. After all, it is a celebration to remember Christ's birth^^

26th- Went to ebs broadcasting centre to attend "Morning Special", an english radio program, as an audience. 6 other friends came along as well. For being there, we were each given an
international calling card worth 20,000won.
And for simple saying a few sentences, I got a Estee Lauder whitening essence (they told
me it's worth 100,000won ~RM400). Not that I have any use of it...so decided to bring it
back and give it to my mom next year^^

Pilot G-2 pens

Bought two pilot pen through the internet.
After opening an internet banking account, I've been going through stuff on the internet.

Am using a G-2 pen, find it comfortable and nice (thought sometimes the paper gets dirty because I accidently touched the undried ink)

As the one I'm is gonna finish soon, I tried to look for it at a few stationaty shop near my house and at school, but couldn't find it.

So, searched on-line and found an on-line company. The price for one pen is 1,500 won. Filled the forms saying I'll pay when I receive the goods, and asking them to sent it next door in case no one is at home.

And it actually went next door, but since I wasn't at home, they didn't collect the money. One of my housemate was asking me not to pay them till they phone, but thought that it's not a good idea so phoned the company and ask them for their bank account^^

반계탕- Half a chicken soup(?)

Hahaha^^
Had half a chicken for lunch this afternoon.
At first I thought I'd skip proper meals and take some light snacks for lunch, but when I saw the chicken, it was just too tempting.

Half a Chicken Soup, at least that's what I think the menu said.
Usually when we cook at home, 1 chicken can be cooked into 2 meals for 10-12 people.
So I feel "xing fu", blessed^^

The price was the normal school canteen price- 2,500won (~RM 9). And considering that the price for a chicken in korea is about 4,000won, it made us wonder whether it was imported from some country with bird flu....

Last Semester of Korean Language

Well, it's the end of the 2nd week of my last semester in Language Education Institute, the place where I learn my Korean.

Before I go any futher, just a bit of updates about my holidays 2 weeks ago:
11/30 - Went to Suwon's Folk Village and Hwaseong Fotress with 7 of my friends. The village was
nice, but would have been much better if we were there during spring or autumn.


Ok, back to my topic.
It's the last semester of my Korean Language. Though I know that my Korean language skills are still far from "ok" and Dong Yang Technical College(DYTC) is not the best institute of higher education in Korea (heard that it ranks 88, though in terms of Technical College some say it's the best), I'm eager to graduate from here and start a new live in the college.
Maybe it's because we've been stucked there for nearly 1.5 years...looking for a change..

And hmm..well not much to talk about I guess...celebrated 2 of my housemates' birthday.
Got addicted to a Korean drama (Jewel in the Palace) and to Stargate Atlantis (My brother put it in my com but never touched it till recently).

Stargate was still ok, as it's a series and each episode has a story of its own. But the drama was so interesting, the plot, story line, suspense, and etc making me eager to know what'll happen next, so I watched 2-5 hours a day.
But finally decided that it's bad for my health^^ and a disturbance to my study, so going to pause it for a while and wait for my week-long-holiday end of the month.

And ya, sent a few Christmas cards to my friends. But guess it won't reach them in time^^'..

Well then, guess I'll stop here....

Oh ya, started a cover to cover Bible reading plan after hearing the sermon of a pastor. It really challenged me. Seeing how little we know about the God's word. The little time we spend reading the scriptures compared to the time we spend studying.
And imagine a doctor in the emergency room suddenly asking:"O my, where's the liver?" , picks up his medical book and going through it in the middle of an operation.
It may not be as "severe" in our lives, but how much do we know about the Bible? How are we to answer when we face problems in lives or questions from others?

I was even more challenged when I accompanied one of my friend to the house of a Jehovah's witness. Though I do not agree with the doctrines she believes in, but one point about her conversion strikes me right at the spot.
She said:" When I 1st met those Jehovah witnesses, I was amazed. How come they dare to go around preaching and sharing the word of God? Unless they know the Bible well enough and know where to refer to each time someone asks a question."

Well, will stop here now.

A day out all by myself^^

After planning for more than a year, finally I set foot on the grandest palace in Seoul - Gyeongbokgung.

Set my alarm at 8am this morning, but turned it off and slept till 11am.
Got out from my house at 12 noon and arrive at the palace site at about 1pm. Waited till 2pm for the english tour guide to start.

The palace was indeed beautiful...built in 1395 during the Joseon Dynasty, it was burnt down by the Japanese in 1592.
In the year 1868 it was restored back to its' former glory, but to be burnt down again by the Japanese in 1910.
Plans of restoration was carried out by the government in 1990, and the current palace is but 30% of it's original scale...The palace is still under construction and by 2009 40% of the original buildings will be complete.
However, sad to say but it can never be restored to 100% cause information concerning the palace isn't complete.......

A place that one shouldn't miss if you're in Seoul...the guided tour is only 1 hour.

Next to the palace was the National Folk Museum. Went in, had a look and followed a tour group which I didn't recognized....just to listen to the guide who were explaining some of the stuff in chinese.

Went to Kyobo bookstore after coming out of the palace. Kyobo is the biggest bookstore here in Korea. But the collection of english book is still quite unsatisfying..and you can hardly see any chinese novels....

Spend 2 hours browsing around the book store and bought some Christmas cards....can't believe it, but Christmas is just around the corner^^

Went for dinner at Burger King which was just outside of the bookstore.
Had bacon double cheese burger set- 5000won (RM 18.00!!)
Spent 2 hours in there having my dinner and reading some magazines..it's just so...fun...and relaxing..Nothing to worry, just enjoy my dinner and reading...something I haven been able to do for quite some time...

Before coming back home dropped by at Lotte Mart, the biggest supermarket near my house. Bought some snacks to teman me for this week, when I'm watching movies or reading^^

A day out..all by myself...never thought that it can be quite fun as well^^

Thanksgiving Dinner^^

It's my secong year in Korea and it's my second time 'celebrating' thanksgiving as well^^ For those who don't know, the American Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of November.

Last year I was the only Malaysian, but this year another of my friend, Hock Siang, went with me as well.
This year it's held at Ps William's place, cause he has the biggest apartment among the absk members(?).

Anyway, the night was fun...had turkey, TURKEY for dinner^^ It's my second time eating turkey in Korea. The first time was at Sarang Community Church last year.

And after dinner we had a fun time playing sequence. It's indeed an interesting game. Thinking of buying this board game if I come across it...

Hmm..thus ends the first day of my week-long holiday^^

updates...

Had a supposedly busy 3 weeks.....

On the 7 of November our lecturers brought us to Lotte World, the most famous indoor theme park in Korea and also the world's largest indoor theme park. It's also the 3rd theme park that I've been to in Korea, the other two were Everland and Seoul Land.

On the 12, we had a Hari Raya open house. As most of you might know, I'm currently staying with 4 Malays and another chinese guy. So my Malay housemates held an open house and they were busy the whole afternoon preparing all the food and stuff.

Then on the 13, we had an annual dinner. It's a time when all the Malaysian students under JPA comes together and have dinner (duh....) with the ambassador and the officers who are in-charge of us. This year it was held at Holiday Inn and we had quite a lot of raw fish.....which didn't really appeal to most of us.....and I wasn't in time to grab the lobster....

After coming back from the dinner, I stayed up till 6am just to finish a report and a slide show that I needed to present in the afternoon. I had been procrastinating the thing for one whole week...but luckily was able to finish it in time and I could at least sleep for 5 hours....

On the 19 we had a PPMK Annual Meeting. PPMK stands for Pelajar-pelajar Malaysia di Korea.
So basically it was a meeting where all students meet together and hear the report of the AJK's in the last session and elect new AJK for the next session. This year's meeting was quite interesting because they were a few students who quarreled with the officer in-charge..the student was actually writing a memorandum to sent to officer back to Malaysia....
Anyway, the meeting lasted from 1pm till 10pm...

From the 22nd till 25th I was packed with exam....
22nd- Korean language exam, with some Korean form 4 science subs in it as well..and as the syllabus isn't totally the same as M'sia, there were quite a few things new to me.

23rd- Had my physics exam,or actually "open your book and copy the answer onto the answer sheet exam". It's one of the mosty ridiculous exam I had in my whole life.

24th- Had my computer exam. It's was quite fun....never thought that I'd come to like it...^^

25th- Math exam. I planned to really study hard for my math since my mid-term exam...but didn't really manage to. All my housemates were playing around and I didn't have the mood to study as well throughout the week...so I can just imagine how my Maths' result will turnout to be.....

2nd Mt Gwanak Trip

My second trip to Mt Gwanak.
My first one had some bad memory with it...but this one was good.
Went with Hans, one of the member from ABSK bible study group.
The whole trip took about 4hours, and after the trip we had 산체비빔밥 (rice with mountain vegetable) for lunch^^

Hari Raya

Selamat Hari Raya to all my Malay friends and any Malay who's reading this post^^

2nd Raya in Korea.
As usual, my housemates got their parcel's of cookies and stuff within last few days.
This is the 2nd year they'll be celebrating Hari Raya away from home, and for the next 4 years they'll not be able to celebrate it with their families...


But with the advancement of science and technology, they can hear the voices and see the faces of their love ones^^

Flunked My Maths Exam as well........

One of the worse Maths exam I've had in my life.
It reminds me of my Form 4 days when the Add Math teacher gave us 3 logarithm and index questions for our test.
And the result? I got 14 that time...

Quite a number of us thought that it was an open-book examination like my physics, so when we found out that we can't refer to our books, I was horrified.

The exam began at 11a.m. But after 10 minutes, the teacher realized that most of the students can't do the questions. So she permitted us to refer to our text-book.
After another 10 minutes, the teacher again walked around the room, and found out that despite being able to refer to the book, lots of students still weren't able to solve the questions. So she began to gave us tips..little by little till the whole exam lost it meaning.

Not only that, they were students discussing around and passing answers here and there!! One of the worst exmination hall I've seen.

For me, before opening the book, I could only do 1-2 out of the 10 questions. And even after refering to the book, there were 4-5 questions left which I couldn't solve. In the end I actually circled the answer that were being pass around for 1-2 of the objectives.....

Man!! What in the world is wrong??!! The other class had exactly the same questions, and lots of them knew how to do it.
Some of the students would put the blame on my Maths teacher, blaming her teaching method and so on....
But for me I fell that...if I'd just studied a bit more..if I'd just memorized a few more theories...if I'd just did some more exercise......I could have done better and not disappoint myself, my Maths teacher and face God without shame.......I feel guilty not spending more time on my studies....

But let the past be the past...I'll try to do better next time. This is something I promise myself.

Flunked My Physics Exam

I think this is the worst physics exams I ever did.

There were only 12 questions, 8 structure and 2 essay.
Besides the 5 questions taken from the textbook and the 2 general essay about engineering, I didn't know how to do most of the rest....and imagine that it was my first open-book-exam!!!!!

And even for the questions from the textbook, I simply recopied the answers from my textbook...

Man!!! What am I doing with my LIFE??!!

Though I'm not the only one, it feels kind of weird not knowing how to do 45% of the test questions......

And I have no confident at all for my Maths exam this Friday......

The worst thing is to fall sick during exam period, and that's the condition I'm at right now....
Having fever, cough and flu for the past few days.....
Worst still, I have to worry about my house problem, whether to move or not to move and where to move to and with who....

95%

Got my Level 5 mid-term exams results back on Thursday.

From the results of the students, the exams this time seems much harder.
No more 99% student for my batch.....the highest was 96%.

Some might put the blame on the Science subjects, which is somehing new for us. At first I thought my marks would be pulled down by the science subs as well since I didn't do sufficient revisions for it, but thank God all my blah blah here and blah blah there was accepted as correct answers by the teacher^^

For me personally the listening part was a bit hard. Couldn't here all the words clearly.....think I should watch more Korean dramas to improve this skill.
Then my pronounciation is another problem as well. I tend to have this "interesting, weird tone" which I do not know what to do about it....

But anyway, glory and praise be to HIm^^

Daniel Dawn Prayer Meeting

Went for my church dawn prayer meeting at 5.30 this morning.This is the second dawn prayer meeting I attended this year.

Basically my church is having an event asking the church members to bring their friends and non-christian to church this Sunday.
They had the hold thing planned few weeks back. Sending letters, calling the people they intend to bring.

So this week's dawn prayer meeting is focusing on this event.
Though I doubt I'll be bringing anyone, but attending the service and praying for others that will be turning up is the least I can do.....

But due to the Tuesday Service last night and the dawn prayer meeting, I slept less than 5 hours last night and was drowsy the whole day at school...

Tuesday Service

Went to a Tuesday Service with few of my church friends.
The service is organized by YWAM Korea, every Tuesday evening. They usually hold their service in a church building belonging to Yoido Full Gospel Church at Kangnam.

The service started at 6.30p.m. and was attended mostly by young adults and youths. From what I heard the congregation ranges from 2000-4000 each week. I think quite a lot didn't turn out last night due to the university mid-term exams..

Anyway, the service was wonderful, from the aspect of praise and worship that is, and also prayer. Well, I guess it's something to be expected from people who would come to a churh service on Tuesday evening. They were passionate. In their worship and prayer (not that I understand all, in fact I can hardly understand what they mumble during prayerㅠㅠ).

Now do I understand how come the Gospel could spread so fast within Korea. It's by the effert of all these prayer warriors. Those who are serious in seeking God. Seeking His Kingdom.

Guess there are lots of things I can learn from those bunch of people....

A Week

I don't think there has ever been a week that I wished it passed by faster except last week.
Having a bandage around my mouth and not able to talk and eat as I wish is really something unbearable for me....
And having to cook porridge for myself 3 times a week is something new as well.

BUT, all those are gone now^^

Went to the hospital just now and had my check-up. The doctor said that the "thing" was cause by the blokage of the saliva glands in my lower lips, at least that's how I understood it.

After searching the net to get more details on it (I got the name from the doc: mucocele), this is what I got:

Pathophysiology
1.Results from traumatic rupture of Salivary Glands
2.Results in mucin spillage into lower lip

Signs
1.Benign lesion 1-2 cm diameter on lip surface
2.Round, regular, translucent or bluish Nodule

Management
1.Surgical excision

And here are some pics of it.

Well, at least now I don't have to worry any more, Thank God^^

Pumpkin Porridge...

Was thinking of having something soft and easy to swollow for dinner, so went to a shop near my house and ordered porridge.

At first I thought of ordering red bean porridge, but they have pumpkin porridge, prawn porridge, beef porridge; but red bean porridege wasn't on the menu......

So, fearing that the prawn might cause my wound to become itchy, I ordered...pumpkin porridge.
The first few scoop was quite alright, tasting something different, but half-way through I gave up..it was..err....doesn't suit my taste...

I believe the tuna porridge I cook the other day was better. And even my pineapple porridge during my financial crisis early this year was much more bearable.....

Minor Surgery

Went to the hospital this afternoon to have a check on my mouth.
Had an ulcer since 2 months ago, the ulcer grew and burst, burst then grew again.
So, at first I thought it was due to some virus or bacteria, so didn't take much note of it, but it became so big last week that few of my friends and seniors suggested me to go to the hospital.

But yesterday when I woke up, the ulcer burst again, and it seemed to be getting much better, so I was thinking " still need to go see the doctor ar?".
But as 2 of my friends were going to that area this afternoon, so I thought of going with them, after all no harm mar. All paid by jpa^^

But after the doctor had a look at it, he said that it seemed like something, some foreign object got stuct in my lip (inner lower lip), and right away they started to take it out.
And what seemed funny to me was that the doctor even took pictures of it before doing the surgery.

The whole surgery process wasn't that painful, I was still awake, they only gave me anaesthesia for my lips. But the doctor asked me to closed my eyes and covered my face with a piece of cloth(?) so I weren't able to see what they were doing....

The thing that I can't figure out is: the thing was inside my lips, how come I have a bandage outside??

Right after the surgery I didn't feel any pain, but after an hour I could feel my swollen lips and it was a bit painful...
And I can't even brush my teeth for the next few days.... The doctor gave me medicine for me to wash my mouth after every meals.....

So, for the next one whole week I can't go swimming, and had to cancel my plan of going rafting tomorrow....

But Thank God everything was alright lar^^ Hopefully I can recover faster...for a talkative like me, not being able to talk as much as I want is something much more painful than the pain on my lips itself...ㅠㅠ

Glad^^

Met another of my church member today in Campus.
I know 3 of the church members that attend SNU, the first one I met last year when I first came(though I wasn't that church's member yet), and today another one.

Was indeed really really glad. It's like...well...it just feels good to met another church member in school...kinds of reminds me of the the times I used to see the other church members in Batu Lintang....

Had lunch with him, and as what I expected from a Korean who is much older than me(6 years), he paid for my lunch^^

My Name is Kim Sam Sun

Just finished my first Korean drama in Korean without any subtitle this week^^
Strange that, though the Korean drama fever has been around for quite sometime, I never actually finish one whole drama from beginning to the end. Either I was interested in it or didn't had the time or miss a few episodes due to my tuition and stuff like that....

My Name is Kim Sam Soon- quite an interesting drama. Can even be considered as this year's biggest hit drama (in Korea maybe). The influence of the drama on the society was indeed big, especially for the not-so-skinny women^^

But what I like best was her job as a baker....hmmm...yummy yummy^^

2nd, 3rd B'day Cake^^

Pulling out the candle with your mouth(a Korean tradition? ^^)


My housemates waited till midnight on 9/18 for me to come back, but I was with the other chinese seniors and juniors having our Mooncake Fest gathering....So celebrated on Monday night^^



Seniors taking me out for BBQ pork during dinner time^^.
Actually the other chinese seniors and juiors were eating else where, but we didn't join : P


With Senior



With church friends after church service. Our Bible group leader brought the 5of us to her family's shop, Cold Rock, near Dong Yang College^^


My first ice-cream cake^^

Birthday Pics

19 Years Old....

This is my last "teen"age years....but actually in Korea, I'm 20 today cause they count the age 1 year older than the actual birth date....

But anyway, had a great time just now^^

Was with my friends at a pondok(small shelter) next to Anyang river (about 20mins walk from my house) just now. The weather wasn't on my side. At first we planned to stay at a basketball field by the river, but due to the rain the ground was too wet. So, we changed our location to a pondok opposite the river. But come to think of it, isn't it romantic? I mean, how many people get to celebrate their birthday in a pondok beside the river on a raining day? ^^

So, the 8 of us gathered there, with 2 BBQ chicken, a cake, 1.5 packet of bak po , a bottle of beer, a packet of twisties and a bottle of home made soya bean milk. With that, my friends celebrated my 19th Year old birthday with me^^

This is my second time celebrating my birthday overseas, in a foreign land far away from my families. It's during such times that you really appreciate the presence of your friends around you....

So after the dinner cum supper, came back home and waited till the right time to come on-line^^ And just as the clock on my com turned 12, my msn messenger was flooded with birthday wishes^^ It was indeed really really fun^^ Thanks everyone^^

Here I'd like to thank those who sent me all those creative, cute, beautiful e-cards, all the msn greetings and wishes, all the friendster's birthday testimonials, all those who spent the evening with me just now, and the presents that you all spent the time searching and buying, THANKS^^

Thanks a lot you all^^ Really really appreciate it^^

Outing^^

Today we had an outing, 60+ of us students and 3 teachers.

We gathered at Yeoido (an island in the middle of Han River, and where the world's largest church, Full Gospel Church is located) at around 2.30pm and started our bicycle hiking at around 3.30pm after some warming up.

The trail that we took was along the Han River, from Yeoido to Jamsil (where the Olympic stadium is located). All in all it took us about 2hours to complete the 19km journey, with a few stops in the middle to have a rest, admire the surroundings and take pictures^^

Then from Jamsil, we had our dinner (food provided by lecturers^^) beside the river. Food was nice, scenery was great, and the atmosphere was wonderful!

After dinner, we rested till 7.30pm. Then we took a boat (a bit similar to the beautiful mini ship in my Sarawak river^^) back to Yeoido. The 1 hour cruise trip was something me and my friends planned since a year ago but didn't have the chance to ride. At last tonight we can fulfill another of our plan : )

The 1 hour on the boat was indeed something amazing. Most of the students were quite, I'm not sure whether because of the bicycle hiking or what, but most of them just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the view. Some of them were deep in their thoughts...(thinking about their relationship thing I presume)

Indeed it was a wonderful day. My cramped leg didn't do anything stupid today(Thank God^^).
And it was just..fun...going biking with friends, talking, playing along the trail, having dinner together and coming back on a cruise together as well....
Coming overseas to study...this is something which ought to be cherish...the fun, memorable time we spend with our friends^^

Cramp....

Just received the photos that I sent to wash through the internet.
It's my first time buying something throught he net, and indeed it was quite interesting^^
First of all, the price is much cheaper, about 40sen for a 4R digital photo. And secondly, you just need to do a few clicks on the keyboard and everything will be send to you...well that's for most cases..but for mine case, cause I don't have a credit card and my h/p is a prepaid phone, I had to walk to a nearby bank and transfer my money to the online shop's account....but the whole process was fun^^

All in all I printed 285 pics (33750won, RM 118 including delivery fee). But now I'm facing the problem of how and where to keep my photos......

Talking about pictures, I was planning to take a pic of my biten hand last night and blog about it. But later on was just too tired and cancelled my plan..

Here's the story:
I was having my swimming lesson as usual yesterday morning. After about 30mins, I felt a bit of cramp in my right leg. But since it's not the first time, I didn't really cared about it, just rested for a while then return to my lesson.

Then suddenly, when I was half -way through the pool, my leg strarted to cramp like mad!! I stabled myself with the rope at the side of the pool and pulled myself to the side.
When my teacher saw me, she asked:"Are you alright? Come out of the pool."

It's logical that if your leg cramp you should come out of the pool, but right at time I couldn't even bend my leg, how am I suppose to come out? So I asked again:" Come out of the pool??"
And she said:" Yes, come on out!"

So with much effort I finally managed to I pull myself out of the pool. (And imagine that the teacher didn't even lend a helping hand!! I suspect she wasn't feeling well cause she didn't enter the pool throughout the whole morning)

But just as I stepped out of the pool, the other leg started to cramp as well!! I was shouting there and couldn't even sit straight nor stand up right!!
Seeing this, the coach quickly came and massage my legs. But the more she massage, the more painful it was!! I had to bite the back of my hand just to stop myself from screaming out loud!!

My cramp kept on worsening till my lady coach had to ask another guy coach to help loosen the cram on my leg by rubbing and massaging it.
I was like:" Ouch!!! Ouch!! Don't you have any medicine to stop the pain!? Ouch!!"
And both the couch kept saying: " No, no, we have none of those medicine!!"

But finally after long last the tightness in my leg started to loosen up bit by bit....Thank God!!

Though my leg is much better right now, there's still some pain in it....and we'll be having a bike hiking tomorrow! Arghh...!! Not sure whether I can complete the whole course (more than 10KM) with my injured leg....

After 2 Months

Hmmm....it's been 2 months since I updated my blog. So, what have I been doing all this while?

First of all, continuing from my last post, which was the result of my Level 4 mid-term exam.
At the end of Level 4 the teacher gave us the result for the whole semester, and well, I'm quite satisfied with my result.
1 mark less than the previous 3 levels, I got 96% for Level 4 ^^

And the day right after I got back my exam results, I was on my way back home --my sweet sweet Malaysia.

I had 3 weeks holidays. Spent the first 5 days around Selangor.
I thought I'll be staying with my aunt most of the time, but it turned out that I spent 2 nights at my friends' place and 3 nights in 2 different hotels rented by my aunt....don't know what they were thinking...

Anyway, visited lots of my friends from INTEC, but sadly weren't able to meet up with my friends from secondary school and primary school who were in KL.

Throughout my 5 days there, I went to Shah Alam 3 times: friday night, monday afternoon and again on tuesday afternoon.
Saw my juniors (all here in Korea right now) in INTEC. About 30 chinese this time, one of them my friend's sis from SMK Batu Lintang.

And ya, met another one and his dad during my stay at my friend's place. It so happen that My friend's father has a friend who's son was offered jpa coming to Korea as well. What a small world^^

Then was back in Kuching for 2and a half weeks. Met some of my friends, but not all. All the form 6s seems so busy... : ( Then went for breakfast with one of my primary school class teacher as well.

Was watching animations downloaded by my bro most of the time: Shaman King, Gundam etc...
Tried to stay at home more just to teman my family....

And it was also a coincidence because my aunt from US came back for a friend's wedding, so I was able to see her as well. Who knows when I'll be going back again? Though I have my own plans, those may not be the plans God has for me right?

So there goes my 3 weeks summer break. Visiting friends, spending time with my family, got a laptop, renewed my bike's L license, watched some anime and read a few comics and story books...

Well then, guess I'll need to wait for another year before I have a longer holiday^^

93.3%

Haha...breaking my Korean Language Test history...got only 93.3% for this mid-term exam.
Meaning that the chances of maintaining a 97% for this level is near impossible unless I get 100% for the final exam, which is harder than plucking the starts from the sky^^

But at least I was among the top 8 people who got 90% and above for this exam. Man, was it hard! I was shocked that I got 4 wrong for my listening test. Well, I couldn't hear a question properly, so I thought the most I'll make is 1,2 mistakes. But 4 !!??

The lecturers complain that we're worse than our seniors. Not in terms of intelligence, but in terms of hardworking. We put in much less effort than our seniors. At least that's what the teachers said...

Guess I need to watch more Korean drama within this month to improve my listening skills...

Juniors

Juniors are in INTEC!!!!

Well, it's hard to explain why, but I'm excited to hear that my Korean Programme juniors have finally arrived^^

But then....yet again....
I was excited to meet my seniors as well last year, before coming to Korea, and so were the seniors, can't wait to meet us....
But after coming here, I rarely see them at all.
And the excitement of meeting seniors vanished quicker than it first came...
Well, maybe it was due to the unreasonable orientation....but even excluding that...we seldom meet our seniors...
Guess this is life....
Will history repeat itself between me and my juniors?

I'm glad by blogs could be of help to some of them...knowing what to expect, 3 months in INTEc and life here in Korea....
At least that's the least I can do for them...
Well, hope you all enjoy your time in INTEC....as I've said, I miss lots of my friends back there....

Ghost Pic

Picture taken during one of my friend's birthday.

We had some sort of makan-makan at 근린공원, a park near our home.

Notice the darkened lips...not photoshop effect...

But yet again, I'm not the sort to believe in ghost pictures...

Cyworld

So, I'll do some random updates for the things that happen throughout the past few weeks...
It may not be according to chronicle orders...

After much persuasion by my student, I finally registerd for a cyworld account.
It's something lots of Korean, maybe 1/2 of them have. It's a cyberworld where you can write your diary, share your pictures, post notices, visit other friends who are using cyworld...kind of like Friendster...but more complicated....and you need to buy the stuff to decorate your "mini room", something which I haven't done...firstly no $, then the process of buying is quite troublesome, for foreigners....

Here's the chinese version of it.

Homestay

The homestay family that I stayed with for a weekend on the 11-12/5.

We went to a movie shooting place, something like a small Hollywood for Korea.Even the famous Taegeukgi was screened here.

Besides that place I basically spent the whole time in their house, at Incheon. The father is a pastor, so he was busy preparing for the Sunday sermon.They invited their relatives over for dinner, and I had fun playing with their two primary school cousin.

One thing that surprised me was that most of them slept at 10p.m. I always have this thought that Korean stays up till late at night. But seems that I was wrong. The girl(3 years younger than me, High School 1st Year) kept herself staying up till 11p.m, watching a video that we rented. But eventually she was too tired and went to bed as well.

Well anyway, I'll be seeing them again end of next month when we invite the homestay families to our school.

Way

Distance

Hanji

We had a class on Korea's famous paper, the Hanji.

Went to the Koea House near Samsung Station. There we made this beautiful boxes.

Well, though we didn't make the square box, we pasted the Hanji around, in, out and above it.

Beautiful isn't?

Another student??

Was suppose to go to a Noraebang with my Soul Friend (small group in youth) group members as it was our last gathering(starting next month we'll be divided into other groups).
However, our plans were interrupted preparation for the "Adult Ceremony", a ceremony for those who are 20 this year.

I stayed and watch the ceremony, the pastor prayed for the "adults", had a speech from a youth and a reply speech from a parent.

And ya, after church service this afternoon, I was approached by a fellow sister who's majoring in Chinese.
She wants to have Chinese conversation class with me, asking when am I free. Talking, as most of you know, is one of my hobby. So I agreed to it.
So from now on I might be busy on Monday and Thursday evenings....

1st Anniversary- Entering INTEC

A year ago, I walked passed the main entrance of UiTM INTEC, having received a scholarship offer from Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (Public Service Department).
I had mixed feelings at that time: on one side, I was happy and thanked God for offering me a scholarship, though it wasn't the country I chose; but at the same time I was quite worried that I'll be having a hard time coping with the language and the "study pressure" that Korea is famous for.

But looking back at all the things that happened throughout this 1 year, I'm glad that I took up the offer.
Studying here is not as hard as expected. My Korean language is progressing at a normal speed, though I think my pronunciation is a lot horrible that some of my friends......

On the other hand, my social circle is much smaller than it used to be. Last time there were classmates, schoolmates, tuition classmates, church friends, primary school friends......
"But here, I'm faced with the same people everyday and go out with the same few each day. Well, it's not something bad, you get to know them well, but then when they're busy, you have no one to go out with...." that was what one of my friend said to me.
At least I still have my 3students and the few church members I see once a week^^

1 year, quite a lot of stuff happened. It's a pity I couldn't record all that happened, but this blog in itself was written so that I'll have something to remind me of....

1 year, my relationships with my friends here in Korea grew better and closer, except for one, which after our quarrel in INTEC, we're still like having a cold war......
Regrettable, but then again things can be viewed from a few angles. If I were close to him, I might have broken more of the hostel rules back in INTEC and I might have done a few things that I don't think pleases God, especially when we first came to this Land of the Morning Calm...
But frankly, given me another chance, I think I'd have acted differently....

Well, anyway, this is a good chance to start a new resolution, after seeing, hearing, experiencing all these...

5 more years to go.....^^

Busan's Pic

In Busan Tower

At Daecheong park

View of Busan from Daecheong Park

At Taejeongdae

Busan- Day 2

Slept till 9,10 a.m before preparing for out journey.

Our first destination was Jagalchi Fish Market, the country's largest fish market. Before going there, I kept wondering what's so nice about this fish market. After all, it's just another fish market. I've seen lots of that. Back in Malaysia, and even in Seoul.
But after being there, I'll certainly recommend it to anyone that's going for a trip to Busan. Even if you're not planning to buy anything, it's a good place to see all the strange, weird, gigantic sea creatures, for FREE^^

Had ikan bakar(grilled fish) for lunch before moving on to PIFF Square, a modern youth street like Petaling Street. Later we headed to Gukje Market (International Market) which I think is Busan's largest market. (But doesn't really interest me)

In the evening we went to Daecheong Park, where we had a wonderful view of Busan from Democracy Park. The Daecheong Park monument was also quite interesting. A place to remember those that were sacrificed during the wars.

Lastly, we went to the famous Yongdusan Park, with the 118m Busan Tower located in it. Though we were disappointed by the so called aquarium (we thought we would be in some tunnels, but in turned out to be some small aquarium, like that of a normal roadside fish shop), the night view of Busan from the tower was able to cover that part.

Before taking the 11.00pm train, we dropped by at a roadside stall and had our dinner.

Thus ends our 2days2night Busan trip. The trip in itself was wonderful, beautiful scenery, fresh air, friendly people.....but what I liked most about the trip was the precious time I spent with my friends^^

Busan (1)

Although I think it's a bit too late, but then I just don't feel like skipping this post on my trip to Busan. Thus, I'll just put up a quick and short one^^

We left for Busan on Wednesday night(11/5) taking the 11.09pm train. It was my first time riding on a train, in fact only 3-4 of my friends took a train before.

Knowing that we'll be having two long days ahead of us, I took the opportunity to get some rest in the train. Though most of my friends didn't manage to get enough rest, I had a good sleep^^

Arrived in Busan train station at about 4.20a.m. Our first destination was Taejongdae Park.
The park was indeed cool and refreshing. Coincidentally, we met a guy in the park who was there for a walk, and he voluntarily showed us all around the park. The weather was perfect that day, allowing us to have a good view of sunrise.

Next we traveled to Beomeosa, where according to my Lonely Planet guide book, some consider this magnificent Buddhist temple as the best sight in Busan (but I strongly disagree!!)

After that we had lunch before heading to Busan University. Well, frankly I don't remember why I wanted to go there....is it because of it's fame? or possibly because my friends might be studying there next time...I don't know why, but we WERE there, where my friends began to complain "I am tired" "Let's find a place to rest first" "Can't we go to the beach faster?" "I want to sleep"

But after an hour of complain and half an hour of rest inside Mc Donald, we continued our journey east to Haeundae, the most popular beach in Korea. It is said that during the peak season umbrellas mushroom across the 2km beach and about 500,000people drop by annually.

From Haeundae, we went to look for a motel near Gwangalli. We found one that was very near the beach, and the price was quite reasonable, though at first we didn't know why the manager asked one of my friend to show her identification card, only to find out later that there was a sign infront of the motel with "above 19" written on it.

Had Seafood Soup for dinner, which cost about RM30 per person, and enjoyed the night view of Gwangalli beach and the nearby Gwangan Bridge, which was magnificent at night.

Went back to our rooms at midnight, chatted for a while and dozed off

Seoul Land

Went to Seoul Land yesterday.
All nine of us who are going to Busan this Wednesday night went there.

The place was indeed fun. Though it's not as glorious as Everland and some of the buildings seems a bit old, there were quite a number of rides there.

We played most of the EXCITING rides, double decker, pirate ship, roller coaster, Aladdin's Carpet and all those.
This time I think I did quite well, vomiting only at the end^^

The Aladdin Carpet was really interesting.
After playing most of the fun stuff, we were just walking along the park when we saw this old, not-well-maintained "thing" with no body on it.
Since we were a bit exhausted after the whole day, we decided to take the relaxing carpet trip.
When we walked near it, we saw a few Koreans who had the same idea. So we hop on to it.
WOW!!!!
We were nearly thrown out of our seats.
The carpet was fast and a bit scary. What's more was that we were expecting a soft relaxing ride, so we weren't prepared.
And when the ride was coming to an end, a Korean cried out "Ancho" and the operator, after being bored for a whole day, decided to grant him his wish without consulting the rest of us!!
So they we were, flying on the magic carpet again!

Another interesting ride was the SKY-X.
" Flying as high as 55meters above experiencing thrills like Bungee jump and Sky-diving. Imagine that you are flying high above in the sky! You will fell like a flying bird."
-taken from Seoul Land's homepage-
Though I still think that Bungee jump will be more scary and exciting, the ride was worth our 8,000won.

But to me, the highlight of the day was when we came out of the theme park and gathered outside the subway station to play games and finish our Kimbap.
At tried playing a few games at the beginning, ghost story, but it was all too boring.
So finally we agreed to play Truth and Dare.
I was asked the question:" We heard that there's two people that you like in our batch, so who are the two?"
Of course as you all know, I'm good at playing with words. Since they did specify the gender, I told them the two male friend that I like.
But I may not be as lucky if they play this game again the next time.

AND, one most important secret that we were able to korek from one of our friend was the girl he likes the most in our batch^^

A day worth remembering!

After 20 days....

It's been more than 20 days since I last posted. Had been quite busy. Missed me? Hope you guys did^^

So here's the updates:

Still having my Discipleship Training every Wednesday evening and Chinese Class every Tuesday and Saturday evenings.
Got my first pay in Korea end of last April: 100.000won, about RM380. It's not much, but it feels nice to work and earn some money while meeting people.
And ya, currently I have 3students all in all^^

Then I finished my back stroke, and registered for frog style this month, but unfortunately I missed two lessons last week. Hopefully I can still catch up with the rest.

Then we had our level 3 Korean Language Exam, and the result came out just as I predicted, I got 97% AGAIN!!!! That's 3 times in a roll....

And now I'm having my week-long holidays^^

Planning to go to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. Let's see whether our plans succeed or not....

Black Day

So it was Black Day yesterday.

In Korea, we have Valentines Day when girls give boys chocolate; White Day when guys give girls sweet and candy. Besides that, we also have Black Day, a day for those who have no couple to gather and eat Jajang Myeon (a type of Korean Chinese food, something like soy sauce noodle).

I were expecting the canteen to have Jajang Myeon as one of the menu or at least side dish, but to my disappointment there was none.

After lunch I was busy till night. When my friend came back from his Taekwondo lesson, we went to the pasar to look for Jajang Myeon, but all the Chinese Food hawker stalls were closed. So we had fried squid instead for supper.

My first Black Day yet I missed the chance to celebrate it....

Discipleship Training

Went for the Discipleship Training Programme last night at church.

At first I wasn't sure whether to join or not, since my time is not fixed and schedule are in a mess. But on the last day of registration one of the sister encouraged me to join, at least for the sake of understanding the Sunday sermon better.

The whole course is divided into 3 "levels". Level 1 will be held for 7weeks, Level 2 about 10weeks, and Level 3 for a year(?!).

So there I was last night, the first lesson of the course. And again I couldn't follow completely what was being said and discuss.
But fortunately last night was more on introduction of the course and getting to know the other group members better.

Well, hopefully things will turn out better...

Language Exchange (2)

Had our first language exchange class last night, and things turned out more or less like what I predicted.

We had some small chat before I started the class. He was like saying,
"Since we're doing it for an hour, let's divide the time into 3parts. For the first 20minutes You'll teach me Chinese, the next 20minutes I help you with your Korean, and the last 20minutes we'll do revision by our on."

But as things turned out, the whole one I hour I was the one doing the teaching. He was curious why didn't I bring any Korean books along, and I told him that our teacher teaches little by little everyday and goes according to our standard, so usually we can understand all that the teacher taught in a day.

He seemed a bit embarrassed, since it was a language exchange yet I was the only one teaching. So he told me that he majored in computer graphic design, and if I feel like learning it I can go to his office and look for him.

Haha.....but I doubt that I'll do that...

Language Exchange

Just when I thought that my life was too routined, there's something coming up.

After church service yesterday, two of the church member came up to me and said that they would like to either learn Chinese or improve their English, and since I'm learning Korean, they can assist me in the field, why not do a language exchange?

Frankly it was a bit unexpected, both of them in their late 20s and early 30s......to learn a new language right now?

The idea of language exchange did appeal to me when I first came to Korea, but now I'm packed with piano class, swimming lesson and danso lesson that I'm not even putting much effort into my studies.....
What more is that our lecturers are good, meaning not extra classes won't be necessary for us...

But then I thought that it was a good chance to get to know people, and maybe practice my Korean conversation. What's more is that it'll give me a good reason to revise my Chinese...

And ya, they were saying either English, which is the international language or Chinese, which is becoming more important by the year, so I decided to teach them Chinese.
One of the reason is that I think it'll be easier to teach them something new rather than to change or improve something they already know.

Changes are difficult, that's what I believe....

So starting this week I'll be busy Tuesday night and Sunday after service....

Arbor Day...bye bye

It's Arbor Day today here in Korea. Arbor Day started off as a public holiday after the Korean War, until this year. This is the final year Arbor Day will be celebrated as one of South Korea's public holidays....

It all started during the Korean war in 1950. The war between the communist North and the democratic South was so severe that forest and mountains were destroyed, along with the trees on them.

So, on the first spring after the end of the Korean war, the South Koreans had a country wide celebration of Arbor Day to begin the reforestation of the war ravaged country.

The Korean government designate April 5 as Arbor Day and made it a time for all the citizens to plant trees and other plants. Decades later, the forests have returned. Nowadays, citizens still plant trees and flowers and clean up the surrounding hilltops and mountain areas, and the day serves as a reminder to respect nature and the environment.

But from what my lecturer told us, the government decided to cancel this public holiday starting next year due to a few reason.
One is that since last year, most company and civil servants only work 5days a week, which causes slight drop in productivity.
The other reason is that now a day not many actually participate in tree planting on April 5, thus it's pointless to keep such a holiday.

Anyway, bye bye....my sweet public holiday

JEJUDO(3/29-3/31) Day 3

The last day on the island.
Visited 2 places before we headed to the airport.

The first was Mysterious Road.
After driving up this road, turn off the engine, shift to neutral, and the car will appear to roll up hill. Amazing?
It's actually an optical illusion due to the the angle of the road and our sight lines^^

The last spot that we went to was Yongduam Rock, Dragon Head Rock.
As it's name suggests, it's a rock that looks similar to that of a dragon. And if you look closely, you can spot not only the head but the tail as well.

Well, that ends my Jejudo trip^^

JEJUDO(3/29-3/31) Day 2

The places covered on the second day include Udo, which literally means Cow Island. Located just off the northeast coast of Jejudo, it's a relaxing place despite its 1800 inhabitants.
The island is known for its beaches: one has white sand, one has black and another has coral.
We visited all the 8 Sceneries of Udo, which took about 2hours all in all.

After lunch we headed to Seongsan Ilchulbong,which is actually an extinct volcano.
Ilchulbong means the peak where the sunrises. Thouht we weren't in time to see the sun coming up, but it was still a splendid sight.

We also went to Seobjikhoji, the place where the Korean drama 올인(allin) was filmed.

Another of Jejudo's attraction that we visited was the Gimnyeong Maze.
It's something like the hedge maze that we see in European movies.
The maze's outline mirrors that of Jejudo Island, and it is said that when viewed from above one can see icons pertinent to local culture:horse, ship etc.....none of which I was able to spot though....

Like the previous night, we didn't do any sight seeing during the night.
Instead, we had a camp fire. We were quite worried whether we would be able to have to camp fire as the wind was very strong. But fortunately the wind was on our side. No BBQs though. Just some games round the fire and BBQed potatoes and sweet potatoes

JEJUDO(3/29-3/31) Day 1

We, (65students +5teachers) went to Jeju-do for a 3days 2nights trip. We are the first batch that went to Jeju-do with our teachers instead of going to Gyeongju, where our seniors told us that it was so boring and the only thing they looked forward to was the meal.

Paradise, Hawaii, Disneyland......Jeju-do has been compared to all three and all three comparisons have their place.

Jeju-do, the biggest island of Korea, a place where honeymooners flock to, was interesting. Though we didn't get the chance to climb Hallasan, the tallest mountain in S.Korea, we were able to visit quite a few places.

We departed from our house at 5.30am to catch the 7+ flight.

The first place that we went to was Hallim Park, which is famous for it's lava tube cave, botanical garden, and a mini folk village.
The cave was most interesting as it's one of the few lava tubes in the world with stalagmites and stalactites.

We also went to a Teddy Bear Museum, where the world's smallest teddy bear is located(if I'm not mistaken).

We were at a tangerine(mandarin orange) farm, just for the sake of taking photos. As the season for tangerines is in autumn, we were not allowed to pick any of the fruits because if we do so, the part won't be able to produce any more fruits.

The other places that we went to on the first day was Jusangjolli Rocks and Cheonjiyeonpokpo before heading to our chalets and prepare for the night activities.

Each class came up with a some performance(all dramas). My class got second, but the present was something I like.
And as I was the mc for the night, I was given vouchers worth 10000won^^

Dawn Prayer Meeting

Well, as I mentioned when I was still in Intec, I finally joined the famous Korean Dawn Prayer Meeting.

Woke up at 5am just now and went to church. But frankly, the people who turned up are much lesser than what I expected, and not many youths were there.

Anyway, it was quite good. As this week is Holy Week, the passage today was about the death of Christ on the cross.

It did seem quite weird for me yesterday, going to school on Good Friday. I nearly forgot that it was Good Friday since there was no holiday.
Kind of unexpected from a country with 25% of its population being Christian.

And tomorrow is Easter Sunday. I'm still not sure whether to go to the stadium in Jamsil and see the combined Easter Celebration or go to church and see how the church celebrates.
The combined celebration is not something done often, so I want to go: but on the other hand this might be my only year attending Gocheok Church and I want to see how they celebrate......

Ah~~~

Maths and Com Exams

Just sat for my Maths and Computer today.

I thought I did quite well for both this time, but my teacher told me that I made too many careless mistakes here and there, and most likely I'll be getting lower than 90% this time :(

Well, looking at the brighter side of things, my com was perfect this time. There were all in all 4 questions: the teacher shows us a Hangeul(Korean Word, something like Microsoft Word) document and what we have to do was create something like the teacher's within the given time.
The previous time I wasn't able to finish 2 questions, but this time I did it all =)

Well, will just wait till my results come out next week.

Bamboo Flute

My friends and I are taking up a traditional music instrument course at the The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts. The course is especially designed for foreigners to help them understand Korea's tradition and culture better.

So for the next 11Saturdays, I won't be able to sleep till 10,11am in the morning, geesh....

I'm taking up Bamboo Flute, an instrument created during the The 3 Kingdoms period. Well, actually I wanted to learn the 12-stringed music instrument, but I won't be able to keep it as a souvenir after I finish the course and buying one is out of the question( 1million won!!!)

Anyway, back to my Bamboo Flute, it's not as easy as we thought, even after the first 1and a half hour lesson , some of my friends still couldn't make any sound with it.

Hmm, let's see what we can accomplish after 11 more lesson......

97.3%

Got back my exam results today.

As it's clearly shown, I've got 97.3%......can't seem to run away from the number 97.

Praise and Glory be to God^^

Frankly most of us (the Chinese students, those who studies Chinese) thought that this time it was much easier and were expecting a much better result, but then, it turned out the other way round.
The oral was much easier but the listening and writing was much trickier.

But amazingly I've got a friend who got 99.9%!!
But she did put in a lot of effort (at least compared to the lazy me) and sure deserves it^^

Arghh....sick....again

That's right, sick again.

And this time it's not just sorethroat, I'm having flu and I think some fever as well.
What's more? I'm having my mid-term exams next two days!!

Yesterday was White Day.
Nothing special to me. Not that I have any special person to celebrate with........
I actually bought some candies to give to those who gave me chocolates the other day, but since I didn't meet them during piano lesson, guess I'll have to eat it myself^^

I'm waiting for Black Day which is more appropriate for me.

So fast......

Heard that SPM result came out yesterday.
It's been a year.....
Still remember that I was having my driving lesson while the news came out on radio announcing that SPM result was release last year.
I wasn't really content with my results. But hey, what more to complain? I got my JPA scholarship, though it's not where I wanted.
But looking back at things, I'm glad I was given Korea. Met lots of interesting people, new experiences....
And I don't think I can study well in an environment like INTEC.
But one thing I really miss is the fellowship with my Christian friends......

Getting busier......

Was out at Sinchon on Sunday night with Debbie, a friend from China. We went to this cute shop that specializes in bean curd, from toppings to drinks to dessert to main dish. Splendid! Delicious!
After dinner we dropped by at a Board Game Room, it's a place that has a similar concept with a cyber cafe but with comfortable chairs and tables and they have different collections of board games, card games and the sort. Funny I never knew that such a place exists in Korea after being here for half a year.
Enjoyed my time:)

Starting this week, my swimming lesson is at 7am in the morning. I repeat 7AM!! Meaning that I have to wake up by 6am!
Well, sleeping at 4,5 o'clock in the morning is something I'm quite use to now, but WAKING at such a time is something I've not done since my trip to Seoraksan. Worst still is that it's 3times per week!
Kind of reminds me of my secondary school days......

SNU Philharminic Orchestra 26th Concert

Bulgogi/ 6 Months

6 Months!

It's actually 6 months since I set foot on this Land of the Morning Calm.
How ever did I survive without my Kolo Mee, Laksa, Teh Tarik, Chah Kueh Teow, Wanton, Kueh Chap, ABC, Rojak and all my favorite Malaysian food?!

Well, enough talking about Malaysian food. Yesterday marked the 1/2 Anniversary of my arrival in Korea, and it so happen that the Bulgogi making lesson which was suppose to be on next Monday was brought forward to yesterday.

The Bulgogi was indeed delicious! It reminded me of the first time we ate the beef wrapped in lettuce and mint leaves(?) last year during Moon cake Festival.

Will upload the photos later on.

Going for an orchestra performance later on.

Ah! My hand hurts!

After not swimming for more than half a year and suddenly swam for about an hour!

I'm taking up swimming lesson as well stating this month. Well, I know I'm already busy with my piano lessons and was busy with my mask dance and calligraphy before that, but I just can't help it.
I like learning stuff. And I would have registered for the Taekwondo class near my house if I had the money to spare.

Anyway, its' my first time going to a swimming pool after coming to Korea, but as I've heard from my seniors about it, so I wasn't shocked when I couldn't find any personal changing room and seeing people walking around naked.
And since I'm here, I just followed the culture and did what others did.

But then the question of whether it's wrong to do such a thing came across my mind. Well for the Muslims it's definitely a taboo to simply stand naked in front of others, but for me...?
The chapter on Abraham and his son came across my mind, but Iconcluded that the main concern in that passage was him being drunk.

Well, anyway, if someone has an answer, tell me. If not I see no point pondering over something I cannot solve.

Youth Revival Festival

Joined the revival meeting organized by the church from 27/2 till 1/3 (Sunday till Tuesday) .

Frankly, I saw the leaflets few weeks back, I'm really interested about it but had quite a lot of worries as my command of Korean is still very poor.
And I really dislike sitting alone in a corner of the hall and being the only person in the whole room who can't understand what's going on.

But then, my soul friend, sister 혜진 (Hye Jin) encouraged me to go, saying that there's lots more other activities beside the sermon. So I decided to follow her advice and registered for it.

On the first day(Sunday afternoon), Hye Jin came to me and said that as her brother's going to the military the next day, she needs to go back home. But responsibly she asked someone else to "look after" me.

Well at first I was quite lost. Not knowing where to go and what to do. We played games in teams in the afternoon. And as the games were quite easy, I agreed to participate in one of it when 흥렬(Heng Ryeol), the brother who's taking care of me asked me to.
BUT, it seems that God's favor wasn't with me because out of all the games, the one I participated was the only one I couldn't understand at all!!

However, things came to a turning point during dinner when I was introduced to quite a number of people. They were nice and friendly. Although I was introduced to more than 20 people, I couldn't remember more than 2 names.
But accordions to Heng Ryeol, at least I can remember their faces next time I see them in church, and they'll most likely remember me. The main purpose was so that I won't feel so lonely the next time I come to church, one of the main problem which I had been facing.

On the second night, we had small group discussion till 12midnight. After that I was out to movie with 3 other members till 4.30 in the morning. And THAT's really something new to me.
I really enjoyed my time(though the movie was different from what we expected) with them.

And on the last day (yesterday), we had group activities in the afternoon. Our group was assigned to take photos with the grandmothers in a park nearby and then go to a subway station to give away tissues (with the salvation message written on the cover).
Though I've seen such scenes every week at the subway station, I never thought that I'll be in their shoes. But it was a good experience. For me I carry the hope that someone might actually come to know Christ through the words written on the tissue cover.

The last service was indeed very challenging. Well.., it wasn't exactly the sermon that challenged me (I had to gather all my might just to keep me from falling asleep), but rather the worship songs.
It's been quite sometime since I last felt such....such ...I don't know...feelings? The Spirit of God? But no matter what we call it, it's a feeling I long for everyday. The longing to live for God. To be holy.

Good for nothing LG

As I've mention in my previous post, I got a hand phone. But to my disappointment I can't send any international sms =( Thanks to that good for nothing LG company.

They actually had the sense of creating a phone that can only insert 11 digits, that's enough for domestic sms, but short by 3 digits for international sms:access code(002)+ country code +phone number, which requires 14.

And considering that the model came out less than 2years!!!

But than there's nothing I could have done about it. Even the h/p sellers didn't know much about international sms....

Handphone

Sooner than I expected, I got a handphone.

Went to Yongsan in the afternoon with 3 other friends. One of them were planning to get a second hand phone, and having the thought of buying one myself soon, I decided to follow them and see what's the price and options.

So after dropping by 3 shops, I finally decided on getting an LG Cyon phone. It's not a new model, has been around for more than a year, and the phone itself has been used for about 6 months.
But as I'm not the type who care so much about fashion, and the purpose of owning a phone is plainly for communication purposes, I bought it after some consideration.

Now the only information I'm looking for is how on earth do I send an international sms!!!?

Mask Dance

Photos with my mask dance friends.

The two girls are from Japan while the other guy is from Germany.

Went out for dinner on friday evening with the black hair Japanese girl, German guy and our teacher as our German friend, Schilling was going back on saturday. The dinner was great, had a few glass of beer(actually it's the most I've taken one go, but I think I can handle more than that).

Millionaire

...at least nearly. Just received my February and book allowance, accounting to 840 thousand all in all^^

Frankly I might have bought a com right away if my March allowance was given as well. But, according to the embassy, they forgot about it!! What a joker. Not likely for someone to forget about 70 million won(460thousand*150students)!!

Well, anyway, though I'm not planning to get a com so soon, I doubt there'll be much money left after the first week of March.

I'm having piano classes; planning to take up swimming lesson next month, which means I need to buy my swimming equipment; planning to register for the Spring Semester Pronunciation Clinic to improve my Korean pronunciation; going to Jejudo Island at the end of March.......
Moreover, I plan to get a handphone soon if there is a good bargain. Didn't think I'll need one so soon, but like what my friend told me: Handphone is a necessity in Korea.
Though I don't fully agree with him, but having one will surely be more convenient. What's more? I can send sms back to my beloved Malaysia as well^^

Upgrade Hotmail Account

Hey!
it's time to upgrade your hotmail account from 2MB to 25MB....for FREE
Check it out here.
I've increased mine^^

Chap Goh Mei (15th Day of Chinese New Year)

Went to 국립국악원, The National Center for Korean traditional Performing Arts with Kai Rou, Lelong and Jie Ying.

There was a Royal Performance, bringing to live the scene in the king's court in the olden days. We had free admission as my mask dance teacher who works there gave us free ticket^^
After the Royal Performance there were some outdoor performances: Samullori, campfire and Lion dance.
The whole thing was really interesting, worth skipping my homework:P

But as usual, I forgot to bring my cam along!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's the point of having a digi cam if I keep forgetting to bring it with me every time I go out?!!

But yet again it's something to cherish in my memory. If it were captured by a photo then we won't have much space to elaborate isn't?

A Series of Fortunate Events

Last Saturday, Hadi, my housemate, and I were walking home from the market after getting some stuff.
Just as we turned into the alley in front of our house, a middle age woman came up from behind and tugged my friend's jacket. She took out a packet of strawberries from a plastic bag she was carrying, and presenting it to us saying :"Take this."
The two of us were quite surprised, but we took it and thanked her for the gift.

Last night my housemate, Faisal, who rarely goes out window shopping, suddenly suggested that we go to a shopping centre in Yeongdengpo. I was quite reluctant to go as my backside and leg were still hurting due to a fall I had before the performance yesterday morning.
But after being persuaded and wanting to look for a pair of swimming trunks, eventually I went with him and Hadi.
We went to Yeongdengpo, but weren't able to find what we wanted, so on the way back I suggested dropping by at Guro Station to see whether the stores are still open. But to our disappointment, the stores were all closed. To make the stop worthwhile I brought the two of them to CGV theatre as they've never been to the one in Guro before.
After walking around the food court, arcade and applied for a CGV card, we decided to go back. But just before we went downstairs, I thought it'll be good to check out what movie is being screen at the cinema.
And ta ta! As we were looking at the timetable, a lady approaches us and asked whether we were planning to buy movie tickets. She then presented us with four movie tickets for the movie "Red Eye" and asked whether we want to watch it. She further explains that she bought the tickets but wasn't able to watch it and would willingly give it away for free.
Though Hadi and I don't like horror movie , we decided to watch it anyway as the ticket was given to us for free.

Coincident? Luck? Whatever it may be I believe we met few of the nicest Koreans in town^^

Barbecue Chicken and Draft Beer (with butterfly larvae as well...)

Went out with my piano teacher, her friend (who's also learning and teaching at the centre), her daughter and Chiam Yu.

Actually my teacher and her friend were planning to go alone after lesson because my two Malay friend who are taking lessons there can't eat the non-halal chicken.
But, today they so happen to go back half an hour earlier rather than wait for me and Chiam Yu.
Thus, the two of us were able to follow our teacher out for dinner.

We went to a eating outlet near Dong Yang Technical College, which specializes in barbecue chicken. Ordered two chicken for the five of us and 3 glass of draft beer for Chiam Yu, our teacher's friend and me.
One thing about Korean is that due to the limited amount of land they have, they do not have garden to organize outdoor barbecue.
This is my second time having barbecue, first time was at Mt Seoraksan, and first time finishing one whole glass of beer by myself. Well, once you get use to it, it's quite ok.

And ya, tried butterfly eggs for the first time as well. The smell is still too strong for me, so didn't really eat much. But it is said that it is high in protein and good for men's health^^

Photos

Some photos of Everland uploaded.
Though it's 2 months late, but drop by and have a look here or at the sidebar under Memory Lane.

Valentines Day

     Happy Valentines Day to all the couples arond the world. May you cherish the love that you now have. And to those who are still single, just tag along...
      Well, this may be the first year I didn't receive any angpow during Chinese New Year, but it's also the first time receiving so much chocolate (or is it the first time) on Valentines Day      

      Strangely in Korea, most of the people who gives chocolates on Valentines Day are the females. Heard that there is another day when it's the guys turn to give away chocolate instead, but not so sure when it is. will update on it. 

      The pictures show all the chocs that I received, except the one that my piano teacher gave to me. Didn't cross my mind to take a photo of it before digesting it with my enzymes. Anyway, it was a mini ice-cream shape chocolate.

      All the ones listed are given by my friends, except the packet in the middle (ate a few from it) which was given by the church. And ya, talking about church, I  advanced from the »õ°¡Á· (New family Group) and am currently attending the normal group. Their discussion wasn't that diffucult to understand, at least compared to the sermon. Anyway will give more deatail about it next week. 

Chinese New Year

Summary of my first Chinese New Year being away from my beloved family.

New Year Eve
Went for a movie entitled "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Jim Carrey with 2 of my church members in the morning. This is my 3rd time watching a movie in a cineplex after coming to Korea.
Went out with 3 other friends accompanying 2 guy from Malaysia. Brought them for skating at City Hall and after that to Myeongdong and tried out the squid burger at Lotteria.
Dropped by at Home Plus on my way back to buy my new year's clothes. After shopping for half an hour, got a pair of jeans and a shirt. Broke my record by buying the least new year clothes since my birth(?).
Lepak at a cyber cafe having Starcraft tournament with my friends till 2 in the morning then overnight at friend's house.

Da Nian Chu Yi (1st Day of Chinese New Year)
Woke up at ten and came back home.
The four Chinese girls came to visit and we chit chatted till late afternoon before watching a ghost story (The Grudge?) on my friend's computer.
Went to the girl's place at Gocheok for a combined Chinese New Year and Awal Muharram (Islamic New year) celebration.
Made a few calls back to Malaysia to give my friends some surprise^^
Went again to cyber cafe and came back at 1am.

Da Nian Chu Er (2nd Day of Chinese New Year)
Stayed at home all morning, then played a round of Generals before watching Spy Kids 2(dubbed into Korean) on the TV.
Went to the girls place in Daerim at 5pm. Their place have more of a Chinese New Year "flavor", mainly due to the cookies and keropok sent all the way from Malaysia.
Played cards, ate and talked till 10pm before I came back.

Thus ends my 3 days of holidays and New Year celebration. Well, hopefully it'll be better next year.... ",

"See You In Heaven"

Imagine these words coming out of a 14year old boy!
And I thought I was the only one who would use such a phrase...

On my way back from class last week, I met these bunch of people who were giving out leaflets about some gathering for Chinese during Chinese New Year at a Chinese church.
The first of the gathering was on Sunday, and those who are interested were to gather in front of the Language Education Institute at 5pm.
At first I planned to go, but then when I got back home from 고척교회(Gocheok Church, the church I'm currently attending), it was already 4pm.So I thought of going out to get my New Year's clothes instead.
Thus I called up a girl who stays near my house whether they want to go with me. But to my surprise, they were actually planning to go to the gathering. So eventually the 5 girls and I went to LEI.

When we reached there, they were not a single soul in sight. We thought we were tricked. Moreover when I called one of the phone numbers provided, the person had no idea of what I was talking about!
In the end, the girls decided to accompany me to buy my clothes.
But just as we were walking out, there came the guy whom we met last week. Seems that it's God's will that we should be there after all^^

BUT, to our surprise, the place that we were heading to was actually in Incheon! Well, guess I should have expected it, after all that's where the only China Town in Korea is located.
Upon our arrival, we noticed that it was actually some sort of Evangelical event, trying to minister to those Chinese who are working here in Seoul.
However, we didn't tell them that 2 out of the 6 of us are actually Christian, and they don't seem to expect Christians coming out of Malaysia...

To cut the story short, we had a good time fellowshipping with them the first night, except 2 of my friends, one who didn't really understand what was being said and another who seemed to be offended by the message.
But what caught my attention most was the pair of twins who were present there. They're Korean Chinese who went to study in china last year and back for New Year gathering.
And it was due to their persuasion that the four of us went again the following night.

On the second night before dinner, I was talking to one of the twins, saying that we wouldn't be able to come on the last two days as we have other things planned.
And again he came up with the question that he pounded us with the previous night "What happens if you die tomorrow night? Where would you be going?" Imagine, a 14year old child!
But in reply I said that I'll be in heaven if I were to die. And he asked "And how can you be sure of that?"
So I said,"Because I believe that Christ died for me and took away all my sins."
And my, he was so shocked, saying to himself " hey! He answered correctly!" (I had the feeling I was bullying a small kid:P)

And after confirming it several times, he was so shocked and happy, but wanting to make sure of my salvation, he dragged me to few of the adults, but who seemed to think it's too offending asking me directly, except his dad....
But I was really touched and encourage seeing him. Though we know that heaven rejoices over a sinner who's save, it was the first time I see someone being so happy about my salvation.
And I was encourage seeing someone so young yet so passionate about God and the salvation of others.

In the end when we were about to come back, he came up to me and "See you in heaven."
My I was shocked! But indeed very happy^^

Visiting Minister

Was at and Indian restaurant, Ashoka Restaurant, located in Itaewon's Hamilton Hotel this evening.

Our Malaysia's Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan Hal Ehwal Pengguna, Datuk Shafie Apdalis in Seoul.
As such, the Malaysia Embassy organised a meeting between the minister and student. Due to the number of seats available, only 100 students were chosen, and I was one of the lucky ones.

The meeting was supposed to start at 4pm, but as usual he and his wife were late for about half an hour.They just came right from shopping.

In his speech, he spoke about the recent tsunami issues, that the department donated money to the MERCY team in Aceh. He said that as Indonesia is our close neighbor and that Aceh was one of the main factor that our country diidn't suffer much the tsunami caused by an 8km wide crack on the bottom of the sea. Unfortunate for Aceh but fortunate for us because if Aceh was not in the way the states of Kedah and Pinang would have suffered much etcetra etcetra.
Followed by his speech was the normal questioning session. Among some of the questions were consumer's right, doing business as a student and women's role in our country's economy and politics.

All in all it lasted an hour and ten minutes.

And after that was DINNER. Great food. I liked the fruit custard best.
Ate till our heart's content^^

Grandma's Care

I was coming back from class on Thursday when I saw my neighbor who stays on top of us. And as usual, I greeted her.
So she was like asking me, what panchan ( Korean side dishes like radish, kimchi, spinach, bean sprout, ikan bilis) do we usually eat at home. And I told her that we usually just have one or two main dish without any.
So she says she'll bring us some kimchi and cuttlefish later on.

And when she arrived at our home, she looked around and told us that the way we handle our garbage is wrong should separate the bottles, paper and plastic. And so she began to dug out our garbage one by one and put in into several plastic bags.
Then she opened our fridge and saw that it was dirty, and asked us to clean it, saying that we'll fall sick easily with a dirty fridge. She even kindly "adviced" us how to arrange the items in the fridge.
And finally, seeing that we have barely anything in our fridge to cook, she asked us what do we usually eat? And proceeded to make some kimchi stew with the kimchi that she just brought for us. She even returned to her home and brought some tofu and gave it to us^^

End of Starvation : )

Finally, after bearing for a few weeks we can come out of our starvation :)

Got out allowance today, just when I have no more than RM 3 to spare. Praise be to God.
But we thought we would be getting our January and February allowances at one go, but it seems that February's allowance will come in much later....
Anyway, at least now I don't have to depend on pineapple porridge to survive and six growing youths don't have to share a can of sardine.

Coincidentally, today's my piano teacher's birthday. Having no present prepared in advance and no money to spare, I cracked my head and finally had a great idea of changing a card I made some time ago into a birthday card.

After our lesson, she brought us for dinner. We had some sort of fish stew and kimchi beef stew. And my, after not being able to eat such a decent meal for a week, I wallop up 3 person's portion.

Anyway, it's good to be able to live a normal life again^^

Starvation

Thanks to our scholarship sponsor, JPA, we have the rare chance to experience what starvation is.

We thought that we would receive our January allowance around 18 of January, so we budgeted just enough with hardly any to spare.
BUT according to the information I just received, we'll be getting our January's allowance around the first week of February.

So my housemates and I had the experience of eating oiless fried rice, plain porridge, pineapple porridge, plain rice with chicken-less curry and much more.....

Thanks to that and the cold weather these few days, I'm feeling sick all around. Malnutrition. I'm so tired I slept for 12 hours today and am feeling tired even right now....

If the money doesn't come any sooner I might become a skeleton lying beside the main road....

Salt vs Sea Water

A way to look at things:

Which is saltier: salt or sea water?

Which ever your answer may be, the point here is that some sea water can taste so salty that we chock at it.
But the truth is, even the saltiest Dead Sea contains no more than 8% of Sodium Chloride(table salt).
Such a small amount of salt when dissolved in sea water can produce such amazing result!

We as Christians are the salt of this world. Shouldn't we be able to produce great impact towards the society around us?
Yet according to this, the world percentage of Christian is dropping.....

Wasted Time

I used to like holidays a lot, but now I think that holidays are more of a life wasting than fun thing.

I'm coming to the end of my week-long holiday. I actually had a lot planned before the holidays: revising my Level 2 Korean, doing some preparation for Level 3, finish Odyssey by Homer, wake up early and exercise at the park near the place I'm staying....
But in the end I only manage to learn some basic typing...with a hopeless speed of 60+ per minute. I can type faster using just two fingers.

One week...so much that I could have accomplished....

Incheon: Korea Open Badminton Championships & China Town

Went to Incheon to watch the Daekyo Noonnoppi Korea Open Badminton Open Championships Incheon 2005.
There were all in all about 30 students who went. I, for one, am not so keen about badminton, but just to give support to our own Malaysian players, which we were not able to wait till their turn to show up.
Anyway, we met a Malaysian couch who's couching the Korean national team. He told us that most of the interesting matches with Malaysian players will be on Thursday and asked us to come back again on Thursday.
Still haven't made up my mind whether as to go or not this Thursday, but we'll see.....

So about 3pm, we decided to go to the beach, since we were already at Incheon. The idea was quite tempting, as none of us have been to the sea since our arrival in Korea.
As one of the tourist guide book told us that we could reach the sea at the next station, which is the second last station before Incheon station, we decided to save 800won and walk there instead.
So off we went, and the whole journey to the sea actually took us more than 2 hours, because there were no beach or sea at Tong Incheon station and we had to walk further down to Incheon station.
The view at the seaside was...erm....not bad, BUT the air pollution there is horrible. You can literally fell the dust sticking on your face.
We took a walk around, then went back to China Town, the only China Town in the whole of Korea.
As it was near dinner time, we decided to have our meals there. While the others wanted to try the Ajumma restaurant, those typical Korean food stall,my friend Weng Joe and I insisted that we try some Chinese food since we were in China Town.
So after much debate the rest gave in and we went to a Chinese restaurant. At first we had only Jajang Noodle in mind, which is about 2000won. But after entering the restaurant and looking at the menu, we ordered set dishes for 6-7 people, which cost about 10.000won per head.
And so the 12 of us Chinese celebrated our Chinese New Year's Eve dinner way in advance^^

End of Level 2

Sat for my Level 2 Korean Language test last week and officially ended my Beginner's Level of Korean class.
I dropped slightly on my writing, but improved on my oral, so still got the same result as I did in Level 1, 97%. Glory to God.

So I'll be having a week-long holiday, with lots of stuff to prepare: computer test coming up, Chinese character tests, Korean Language Proficiency Test by the Korean government and so on.

I'll be starting my Intermediate Korean lesson next week, Level 3, which we heard there's a field trip going to Jejudo Island planned for us. Can't wait for it.

But the most depressing thing came up yesterday when I was in church. The preacher was using Psalms 23 as reference, which I knew quite well and thought I'll understand the message easily.
But to my disappointment it was one of the hardest compared to the ones I've heard this year. And considering I just finished LEVEL 2!!

Well, maybe the problem is with me not having enough patience, but it's not easy being the one who sits there blankly when everyone else is laughing like they just heard the funniest joke on earth.

Good Habits

The pastor was preaching about the importance of good habits, quoting from Luke 22 on Sunday. Though I could hardly catch most of what he was talking about, but I believe the 1% that I so happen to understood was the main point: the combination of all the small habits that we have produces our character, thus a person who has lots of good habits will have a good character.

But even after looking into the mirror I went away without doing anything. But I did share some of my thoughts with a friend. And his reply was that he's always had the habit of waking up late and going to class late(something which the pastor touched specifically (Koreans?)), and so the next day he decided to wake up early and start his day doing better stuff.
Well, that's a quality I don not have. The reason is simple, because I think that even if I changed for the coming weeks, I'll eventually fall back to the same situation again.
There are numerous times where I said I want to change but look and me right now. All the New Year resolution down the drain!

But anyway, I took his words as a challenge and decided to do likewise. So since yesterday morning I've manage to wakeup earlier and do my devotion (which is actually part of my New Year's resolution...)
I guess it's in my genes that I need some challenges to move on. I am the type who likes competing with others.

So please do pray for me....

House Warming

Went to the house of a women who's learning piano at the same place where I am last Saturday.
She just moved into this new apartment recently and invited our piano teacher and us 4 Malaysian students over to her place.

The apartment is situated quite near where I'm staying, about 5-7 minutes by bus.
We arrived at her place around 1pm.
As this lady wasn't so used to cooking, she catered some Chinese style Korean food, which includes something like butter prawns, some black sauce (oyster sauce?) noodle, wanton and seafood noodle. Yum! yum!
And after the meals, we had lots of fruits as dessert: bananas, strawberries, kiwi, tangerine, pear and also some tidbits.

That's the best thing I like about house warming, the endless amount of food:)

Scolded

Celebrated my friend's birthday yesterday night. It's unbelievable how long we've managed to survive in this hostile world despite all the natural disasters and accidents all around.
Finally we've come to the final year of out teen-age years.

It seems that I've not been replying to my mails as of late. Got a phone call from my aunt yesterday, was quite surprise actually.
I used to do my e-mail checking and writing in the afternoon before going to piano lessons, but ever since the piano class was changed to the afternoon due to the winter vacation I've not been able to do so.
Will try to work on it....

On the other hand, my culinary skills are improving by the day. Been cooking quite a lot at home since I'm now free in the evening.
Among the most successful one was the spicy squid rice, which was even spicier than the Malay's food. My housemates had stomachache after eating it.

Studies have been quite ok. We learned the plain form this week. At least now we know why we were SCOLDED by one of the 아줌마(Mak cik/ middle age women) as if we murdered her puppy few days ago.
This plain form is a form of speech used among close friends and by a person with a higher status(seniors etc) to a lower status (juniors etc), or by an older person to a much younger person, and between some other types of relationships.
It's considered very rude when a younger/lower status/juniors use it with older/higher status/seniors.
Well, still trying to get use to it so I that won't run into trouble gain next time.

Happy 2005

My first post for 2005.
It's the third day of this new year yet everything seems like last year except the change of date and calendar.

Well, frankly I didn't think of making any new year resolution, given my past record of not archiving/continuing most of them till the end of the year.
But looking at my current state, I really need to make some resolution, even if I only stick to them for the first few weeks of the year.

So here goes:

a) First and foremost is my devotion. Been neglecting it quite a lot, though I've come up with "reasonable" excuses, it shocked me when I realized that I haven't finish The Purpose Driven Life after more than 100days since I first started reading it in October.
Will try to sleep earlier so I can wake up earlier and start my day with some quiet time.

b) Academically I've been doing quite a lot of last minutes lately. Think I should at least complete all the work and extra exercises so that my intellectual mind doesn't go rusty.
Will also try to start on Matriculation/STPM/A-Level Science subjects by my own. I'm hoping to enter university after my language course(that is if the JPA allows) rather than doing my diploma in a college first.

Well, I guess that's all...And ya, might try to go through the Bible in Korean if possible,well, at least the New Testament =)

Last Day of Year 2004

New Year's Eve...........

It's shocking how fast time flies...The time between my SPM exams and now seemed to be lost somewhere....It was just like yesterday when I was sitting in the examination hall in my former school and now suddenly I'm transported through time and space and sitting in front of a computer in Seoul.

But in reality when I sit down and recollect all the things that have happened this year, there's actually quite a lot of it.

(i) Got my SPM results. Not as good as I hoped for, but I can live with it.

(ii) Got my first pay check, and I mean CHECK, working as a administrator and teacher in a tuition centre.

(iii) Got my driving license, though I'm not sure whether I still remember how to drive.

(iv) Was accepted into Labuan Matriculation College where I stayed for 2 weeks before

(v) I was offered a scholarship by JPA to pursue an engineering degree in Korea. Though it wasn't the country I applied, I took the offer anyway, not knowing what lies in store for me but putting my trust in God.

(vi) Went to INTEC Shah Alam for 3 months to undergo a Korean language preparation course. Most memorable thing about INTEC was that I met lots of friends there.

(vii) Came to Korea in September and experienced the worst Orientation I had for the past 18 years.

(viii) Started my one and a half-year-long Korean Language programme.

(ix) Learnt a bit of calligraphy, learning a bit of Korean traditional folk dance, and finally got my chance to learn piano as well.

(x) And ya, got my chance to see snow for the first time^^

I guess I did went through a lot of things this year, but everything happened so fast I just didn't really have time to save it on my brain....

But that's what blogs are for isn't it? To save all our experience on the net.

Christmas

Went to church in the morning. Few of my friends who were not Christians came along as well. I was actually quite surprised.

After service went back home, called a Korean friend to wish him "Merry Christmas" and then slept till evening before a friend phoned and asked me to go 구경 (walk-walk, lepak).

This time we went to Myeongdong, a popular shopping district in Seoul. There were lots of people there, fully packed as usual.
We went to Lotteria and had dinner. This time I tried the Squid Burger. After that, it was like the previous night, walking around aimlessly till we were tired and then went back home.

Got back and phoned my sweet Malaysia ^^

Thus ends my first Christmas in Korea:)

Christmas Eve

It was my first Christmas in a foreign land....

There was a Christmas dinner at church. Registration fee was 10,000won, which is very cheap at other times but rather expensive at the moment as we won't be receiving our allowance till February next year.

So on Christmas Eve I went 구경, walking around Gwanghwamun and City Hall with 11 of my friends.
Our lecturers told us that there'll be lots of people there, and indeed it was quite true: lots of couples dating there......But nothing to our interest.....

Ironically despite the cheerful atmosphere around me, I kind of felt....lonely....out of place....What on earth am I doing here!!!??? I was quite curious and still do, how did I spent all the Christmas Eves back home?
Went for dinner with my friends, had Squid Fried Rice...of all things for Christmas Eve

As we couldn't find anything else worth doing, we decided to go for Noraebang (Korean style Karaoke). One of my friend was given 20,000won by a Malaysian women she accidentally met at Everland the night before. So we decided to spent the money together.
It was my second time to a Noraebang, but this time I just wasn't as joyful as the first time. Firstly because I didn't have the mood and secondly it was already 12midnight!!!

By the time we reached home it was about 2.30am, and as there were no more buses, I stayed overnight with a friend in Oryu.

Everland

One thing different about the Malaysian programme at our Language Education Institute is that we have more fun than the international programme.
And the peak event for this year was - EVERLAND.
It's the biggest Theme Park in Korea and is the 6th most popular theme park in world ranking.

And many thanks to our lecturer who manage to strike a miraculous bargain for us: 10,000won for a one-day pass which also includes dinner and transportation. (The normal price would have been about 50,000won)

We went to Everland on 23rd December. The location of the theme park is outside of Seoul, and the journey took about an hour from Yangjae.

One of the most popular things in the park was the snow sledge, which unfortunately due to the lack of snow and the relatively warm winter this year, 3 of the most exciting course wasn't open.

I went in agroup of 6 people. We tried a few of the thrilling rides, but my memory of Times Square still haunts me so I didn't go for ALL the rides. Furthermore my friends were not so keen on the thrilling rides as well.

We went for the safari as well. The cool thing about it was that we hop onto a bus and the bus brought us into this park where the animals roam around freely and the animals were just inches from us right outside the bus.

But above all, the most interesting thing was the snow sledge. Although the more interesting course weren't open we still enjoyed ourselves. After all, it was the first time for nearly all of us.

Took our dinner at Maharajah. Our lecturers asked them to prepare Seafood Fried Rice in advance, as the Malays can't eat the other stuff.

At night we watched the "Magic in the Sky"- a fantastical fireworks and searchlight performance, then followed by a "Moonlight" parade.

We really had a great time at Everland, despite the untimely lack of snow. A wonderful remembrance to end this year....

Out with Piano Teacher

Went out with my piano teacher on the 18 of December. She invited all 5 of us Malaysians student over to her place for Christmas celebration. One of our teacher's friend was also with us.

We went for a movie at Gwangmeong in the morning to catch the first show of the day. In most cineplex in Korea, all the first movie of the day is about 30% cheaper.
We wanted to watch the Incredibles, but it was dubbed into Korean and there were no subtitles, so we watched Taxi instead.

After the movie we went to our teacher's house, where she prepared Seafood soup for us. It was kind of like our Malaysia's tomyam soup. The cake and fruit salad were also splendidly delicious.

After resting for a while, we went to 노래방(Noraebang), which literally means "music room". It's kind of like a karaoke, but much "cleaner and safer", though I've never actually been to any before....
It was my first time to a Noraebang, and I really enjoyed. It was kind of like a revision of all the Korean songs I know.....not that much though....

Fun Day

Our lecturers brought us to the Seoul Art Centre to have an experience on Samulnori, which literally means the "play of four things". It's one of the most popular performance using 4 traditional music instrument being played together.
As each of us can only chose an instrument due to the limited time we have, I chose the drum, as it was easy and because I'm already taking a 10 weeks course on Korean traditional Mask Dance, which might give me the chance to learn the other instrument.

Tried the fast food at Lotteria, a fast food chain store originated either from Japan or Korea. Interestingly, they have Sotong Burger (Squid Burger). So my Malay friends either take the Sotong or the Prawn Burgers here in Korea.

Then went back to campus to have my first hair cut in Korea. But the result wasn't so satisfying. Think I better try Blue Club - a chain store for fair cuts - next time....

Had quite a fun time at the Christmas Party organized by the Office of International Affairs. It's the second party being organized by that the department. The first was the Wine and Cheese Party in September, if anyone still remembers...

And finally ended my day with some music at the Cultural Centre on Campus. The Christians from the Music College had some performance there. As it was mostly just music instrument performances, language wasn't a problem.

Updates for the Past 2 Weeks

Wow can believe it's half a month since I did my last blogging.....Where did all my time went to....?

Let me recollect....

Got my exam results back, 96.9%, 0.1% less than the previous test, but improved slightly in my oral exam.

Had a 100th Day Party on December 11....A party to celebrate our arrival in Korea for a hundred days...time really flies....
We booked a Pakistan restaurant at Itaewon. The place isn't really big, just about the size of Dong Guan at Central Park or Ameerali at Shah Alam.
The food was quite good though. Had nan( is it the correct spelling?), fried chicken, lamb, pudding, fried rice and some other food that's quite similar to Malaysian food....but of course Malaysian food is still by far better....


And then I went to a Korean church near my house last Sunday with a senior. I'm planning to attend that church next year. Thinking that since I have to learn Korean, might as well learn the Scriptures in Korean as well, and secondly it might help improve my vocabulary and thirdly I'm keen in meeting and making more Korean friends.

Speaking of Korean friend, there was this guy whom I've been bumping into once a month since my arrival in Korea.
The first time I met him was at the Wine and Cheese Party at Seoul National University in September, then at a bus stop near my home in October and November, and last Saturday night at Sindorim bus stop when I was coming back from the party.
We were suppose to meet again on Sunday to go to church together, but he had something on last minute and went to an earlier service, thus continues our jinxxed relationship.
But guess will be meeting him often once I start attending the church.

Exam....... : (

Will be having my exam today and tomorrow.
Having my oral test within an hour and will be sitting for my listening, reading and writting tests tomorrow.
Here goes.....

First Allowance : )

Got our first allowance after coming here, HOORAY !!
This time we got an extra 50000won for household items allowance.
But on the contrary, we need to survive on this for more than a month and a half because January allowance will come in late, as usual......

Who Am I ?

Artist: Casting crowns
Song: Who am I lyrics

Who am I?
That the Lord of all the earth,
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt,
Who am I?
That the Bright and Morning Star,
Would choose to light the way,
For my ever wandering heart,

Not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done,
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are,

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean),
A vapor in the wind,
Still You hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling,
And You've told me who I am..
I am Yours.

Who am I?
That the eyes that see my sin,
Would look on me with love,
and watch me rise again,
Who am I?
That the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain,
And calm the storm in me,

Not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done,
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are,

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean (ocean),
A vapor in the wind,
Still You hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling,
And You've told me who I am...
I am Yours, I am Yours.

I am Yours,
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
'Cause I am Yours,
I am Yours.

~Corrected by Samantha "Raven"~


This is a song I heard recently.
It really touched me when I heared it....

Thanksgiving Party (Again !)

After seeing a poster indicating that there's a party with of FREE food at a place called Hope Hall in Kangnam last Saturday, I took the effort to go there.

Arriving at the Kangnam subway station, I head straight out of Exit 5, the exit I was suppose to take in order to arrive at Hope Hall.
However, after coming out of the station and searched for about 20 minutes and to no avail I knew I must have got the wrong exit. As the party was suppose to begin at 6pm and it was already 6.20pm, I gave up the search and decided to go back.
Just then, a saw a sign that reads "사랑의 교회 (name of a church) 400m ". It was a church that I've heard several times and some of my seniors used to attend the church.
Being curious of how the church looks like and fearing that I won't be able to attend service on Sunday due to the Mesyuarat Agung PPMK (Persatuan Pelajar Malaysia Korea), I thought of checking it out to see whether there's night service in English which I might attend.

And WHAALA!!!

It turns out that Hope Hall Is a Building in that church !!!

And so I had the chance to feast at the party: with turkey, cranberry, mashed potatoes, salad, buns, apple pies and pumpkin pies!!!!
After dinner there was some performance by a jazz band, music performance and some drama. There was also an invited speaker who shared on.....ermm.....well I can't seem to remember....hmm....

But anyway, I really enjoyed myself : ) I can't wait for the coming Christmas Party...Muahaha !!!

첫눈 SNOW

SNOW!!!!!!

Got my first chance to see snow this morning at 11am :)

We were all listening to our lecturer when suddenly my friend who sat closest to the window shouted " Look ! It's snowing! "
The rest of us turned and looked, and within seconds, half the class was outside trying to touch snow for the first time.

It's really amazing seeing these white things dropping from the sky. At first it was like the ice we use to make ice kacang, 팓빙수, but after a while the wind turned stronger and flakes of snow was falling from the sky!!!!
We were all so delighted at the sight of it.

And as we were having another lesson on "food ordering at the restaurant", our lecturers actually asked us to phone a pizza shop and ask for a delivery to be sent right to our classroom !! : )

Today is indeed a great day : )

Application for Alien Registration

Had an stomachache when I woke up this morning, thought that it might be the bread pudding I ate last night.
Was feeling much better by late morning, but suddenly my head started to ache like it was going to burst open.

Despite the sickness, I had to go to Mokdong to apply for our Resident Certificate as we need to make it within 90 days of our arrival in Korea.
So there were about 40-50 of us and by the time I reached there, my number was 270+ while the current calling number was 70 !!!
As we do not want to delay the registration till other day, we decided to stay till our turn.

So there I was, waiting for more than an hour with my sick body and dizy head.

And of all things, when the first of us Malaysian student's turn arrived, then person in-charge told us that our documents were not complete and that we need to raise our visa status from D-2 to D-4 which will cost us another 50000won!!!!

So we had no choice but to head back home and get the documents and come again on the appointed day, which is this coming Monday.

Another Hari Raya Open House

Went to Mr Hamdan, the government officer in-charged of us JPA sponsored students and other government staff trainings in Korea, house at Oksu yesterday evening after church service, for the free food of course.

He had an open house yesterday but as he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to accomodate us 200++ students at once, he divided us into 7 groups from 3pm till 10pm at night.
But as any Malaysian would have guessed, most of us didn't go according to scheduled. Some went earlier and some later. Of course they were some who never showed up as well.

One thing worth mentioning was that the food was delicious, beter than the one we had at the embassador's home. There were rendang, curry, chocolate cakes, cheese cakes, fruit cakes and much more.

Really had been a great weekend. Two days of feasting for my stomach : )

Thanksgiving Dinner

Went to one of the ABSK Bible study group member's house at Shinchon for a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday evening. Thanksgiving falls on 25 November this year but as there's no holiday this Thursday, they decided to celebrate it a week earlier.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the first Thanksgiving dinner I've ever attended. But sadly as they couldn't find turkey they decided to use chicken instead. Roasted chicken, yum yum !

Drama

Went to Korea University this morning to see the 2004 Korean Play Contest for Foreigners. Some of my seniors and friends took part in it, so our lecturers brought the whole batch of Malaysian students to give moral support.

They were 5 teams all in all, 4 playing some Korean tradisional story while another team performed a Koreanised Cinderella.

Well, in the end our team didn't manage to come at first, but but they won a best liked actress ( who was actually a guy playing the roll of a fairy).

I wanted to join The Seoul Players drama the other day, but couldn't find the location. May be I'll give it another try sometime later.

Record Breaking

Muahahaha !!!!!!

Completed book one for my piano lesson in record time. Of course, most of my competitors are children below the age of 12.....

Anyway, it feels great to complete something, providing me with the enthusiasm to continue learning it : )

DeepaRaya

As everyone knows, it was Hari Raya on Sunday. Instead of the Kongsi Raya that we had few years back, we had a DeepaRaya celebration.

My house mates stayed up till 2-3am in the morning cooking rendang, sent from Malaysia by their parents, while listening to some Hari Raya songs downloaded from the internet.

Well, personally I won't think that there'll be such a celebration if the ambassador wasn't changed more than half a year ago. And the new ambassador happens to be an Indian!

So on Sunday he had an open house and invited everyone to go. We, as loyal faithful Malaysian, went to visit his home, for the free food of course. I don't think that most of the people who were there would be there if not for the food.
It's no surprise actually, after all we wouldn't know what to talk about with him.

It was not that bad after all. Met some other Malaysians who came by themselves under the scholarship provided by some Korean (art?)university .
The food was filling, BUT I was actually hoping for more than what was served. But what can you expect when you have a party organized by someone who doesn't eat beef and most of the people that come doesn't eat pork?

Piano Lesson

After 18 years, I started my first piano lesson on Friday. I've always wanted to learn piano, but hadn't been able to do so.....till NOW.

It's kind of strange though, when the other students are all below the age of twelve, except for we Malaysian students, that is.
Frankly, I like music quite a lot. But I don't think I'm musically talented and strangely I'm a rare specious among my friends as I know nothing about the "hot" singers and all their pop songs.

Though I'm having such an enthusiasm right now, I wonder how long it'll last. There was a senior who wanted to learn piano as eager as I currently am when she first came to Korea, BUT, she stopped after a month....

I like the feel of having a tighter schedule. It makes me think that I'm doing something worthwhile with my time rather than sitting in front of the TV everyday playing Kingdom Under Fire, Mortal Combat and other games like what I did for the last few weeks.

Bible Study Group

Today as I was going for calligraphy class, a Korean approached my friend and asked him whether he's a Christian. And not being one, he asked me to talk to the guy instead.
So they were telling me that Bible study is an important part for a Christian, we should study the Bible often, and so on.
He also invited me to join their Bible study. The place? Anywhere in the campus ground.

So being a curious person like me, I tried it out. Actually he wanted me to meet another guy who is better in English, but the person had other things to attend to and could not make it. So we had to communicate with my weak Korean and his English.
Fortunately the passage was a familiar one - Parable of the Seeds. So he did the best he could and we ended our short session.
However I'll be meeting his other friend tomorrow, and we'll see whether we'll be able to communicate better in English.

So back to square one, I'm confused whether to continue with this group of people as I'm currently joining another Bible study conducted by ABSK (Asian Baptist Student Koinonia) every Wednesday evening.

Guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Korean Language - level 2

Starting my Level 2 Korean language lesson today. Though it officially started yesterday, we had a Korean language proficiency test set by the government, and gosh! It was hard. Lots of vocabulary and grammar that we've not learn. But by God's grace I manage to obtain 90%.
So the test took about 3 1/2 hours and another half hour was used for a brief orientation.
Starting this level, we'll be having hanja, Chinese character in Korean language. These characters are the traditional ones. So though I can read, writing will be something new.
We'll also be learning Mathematics and some computer skills this level. And the activity that we're all longing for is the trip to Everland!!!

Well, lots to look forward to : )

For those who wants to learn Korean, this is a good place.

Daejeon Metropolitan City

After weeks of planning, finally I manage to go to Sophia's home in Daejeon. Even before I came to Korea, she gave me her contacts and told me she'll be back at the beginning of October. But sadly I was occupied with other things at hand and didn't manage to visit her then.
But anyway she invited me to go to her place and meet her brother and spend time with her family. And that's exactly what I did.

Frankly, I'm very impressed with myself. Being a young, inexperience foreigner in this country not more than 2 months yet I go out and about by myself, not without troubles, of course.
While Sophia asked me to buy a bus ticket to 대전정부청사, yet her brother asked me to get a bus heading for Yuseong. In the end, I bought a ticket to Buyeo, before making a transfer to Daejeon....(another of my typical ability -- getting myself loss).
I departed from my home at 9.00a.m and arrive at about 4.00p.m.

Despite the "tough" journey, I really enjoyed my 2 days 1 night stay at Daejeon ( which is literally "Great Field" from the Chinese charater)
I had my first trip to a cinema in Korea. Went to watch the Korean movie "My Brother" with Sophia's brother, John. And ya, the shop run my his mom is indeed beautiful and the food is great.
I also had my first experience of singing in a "music box" (?). It's this square box equipped with karaoke system in it.

John introduced me to 3 of his friends who are taking the same major as him. There were wonderful people as well. It was fun to be with the four of them.

And of course not to forget, it was my first time joining a Korean Church. We attended Central Gate Church on Sunday. As the whole service was conducted in Korean, and my Korean is still at kindergarten level, I could barely understand what was said. Fortunately the passage was a familiar one : Isaiah 6.

Daejeon, Daejeon....lots of memories to recall within the 2 days I was there.....

X-Box

Finally, at long last we got a X-Box!!!!! Not that I was longing for it, bit at least there's something to entertainment me before I get my computer...which is still quite some time from now....
So that adds up to our current household items which includes a 29" TV, a 10kg washing machine (why did we ever buy such a big one?), a toaster(which has only been used once)and a 270liter(?) fridge (which is not big enough).
This is our home.

The X-Box came loaded with 40 games. Unfortunately, I wasn't there on the spot to chose the games. So must of them are sports: basketball, football, racing, hockey, ice hockey, wrestling.....and the sorts which doesn't appeal to me.
The only game I'm playing right now is Kingdom Under Fire.

Anyway, I don't think this Xbox enthusiasm will last long, though....

Marathon

Took part in the marathon at Seoul National University this morning.
Well, not that I thought I could win, but every participant gets a free gift. Hahaha...it's especially tempting for poor, students like us : )

Anyway, the course was one round in SNU's campus. It was the first time we walked around the campus on foot. And indeed the sceneries were beautiful. Being able to see such wonderful creation of God is worth the 45 minutes walk.

Mt Seorak

Went to Seoraksan (Mt Seorak) on Saturday with some of the people I got to know through a Bible study group. Got up at 4am, took breakfast with my Muslim friends and set off for the bus terminal.
One of the thing I noticed was that the people taking the bus and subways were the elderly people, which reminds me of the social problem I heard recently.

Anyway, the trip up to Mt Seorak was indeed worthwhile, though it took us 3 1/2 hours just to get there.
We didn't go for the highest peak though. Actually, few of the their church members were having some sort of health programs there (trying to loss weight by exercises, mountain climbing and the sort) . So we went to the place where they were staying.
However, we did hike up one of the lower peak till we reach Yongsa Waterfall. As it's autumn and the leaves are turning golden yellow, it's the season which attracts lots of mountain hikers to come.

We had an outdoor barbecue at about 5pm. An outdoor barbecue is actually a rare occation in Korea. But as the sky was getting dark, we burnt quite a number of the food. But it was a wonderful experience. It seems more like a campfire tome, as the weather was quite cold and everyone gathers around the fire.

Anyway, by the time we finished dinner and head back to Seoul, it was already 8pm. We got back to Seoul at 11.30pm, which some of us manage to take the last train back to their home. I wasn't so fortunate. Had to take the taxi back as the buses didn't run so late. Actually I'd rather spent the night in a 24 hour bathhouse than spending the amount for taxis. But anyway.....

Ice Skating

Yesterday was the last day of our Level 1 Korean Language class. Got back my results for the language exam. Got 97%. The highest among us was 99% and the lowest I think was 85%.
We also had price giving for those who got 90% and above. It was a golf tower (do they think we are rich enough to play golf?) , but better than nothing right?

To celebrate the end of Level 1, a few of my friends and I went to Lotte World and spent 3 hours skating on ICE!!!
It was my first time and considering that I have no roller-skating background I think I did quite well. Had a few falls, but in the end manage to "walk" around the rink several times without falling.
Too bad my camera ran out of battery ( why does this always happen to me?) or else it would have been a good remembrance......

Had dinner at 12 midnight last night (this morning?) waiting for my friends to come back from the mosque. It's the beginning of Ramadan today.

Mt Gwanaksan

Today our lecturers brought us to Gwanaksan, a mountain that is right behind our university. We gathered at 9.30am, took breakfast and started our journey up the mountain.

One thing I noticed was that different from the mountains I climbed back home in Kuching, the mountains here are rocky, we need to walk and climb over stones and rocks to go reach the top.
The scenery was indeed beautiful. From the top one can clearly see that the city of Seoul is built on a mountainous terrain. There are hills near the centre of this metropolitan city.
We took lots of picture along the path going up the mountain. When we reached a place where there's a Korean flag, we stopped there and rested. I've heard from seniors that every year the lecturers would bring them to that particular spot for group picture taking.
Waiting for the others to arrived, we chit chatted. Some of us saw a higher peak and wanted to go there, but our lecturers were not keen to go up any further (most of them were females).
When they prepared to take picture according to class, suddenly they realized that 2 person were missing. They started to worry and searched the surrounding for them.

On the other hand, two other students were on their way to the higher peak, where there is a military base. One of them had told a lecturer that he was going to the place. As they walked along, they met a Korean man who was going up as well. So they joined the man and continued the journey.
Arriving at the peak, they found out from the man that there's a temple there and quite a number of people go there to pray.
After taking photos and meeting an old Korean man who went to Malaysia years back, they wanted to go back to meet their lecturers. They talked to the man who was with them and found out that he was going down as well (at least that was what they thought the man said), so they decided to go down together.
After a while they arrived at a place with lots of people and began to queue up. Sensing something strange, they asked the man where's that place, only to find out it was a restaurant.
Wanting to go back faster, they asked the man for direction to Seoul National University (SNU), where they started the journey, and the man gave them the direction. Thus they moved on towards the direction.
Along the path, they sense that it was a wrong way, but the other travelers told them that's the way, so they continued on. Finally they arrived at the bottom, only to find that indeed it's a different entrance, but somewhere near SNU.

On the other hand, the lecturers and students were shouting out the name of the students that were missing, and wondering what could have happened to them. One of the lecturer met two men who told him they met two Malaysian students at the peak, so he went there to look. As he was searching, suddenly he got a call from a lecturer at the Language Education Centre telling him the two students were back in the centre.

So they stopped their search and came back down. By the time they reached the bottom it was about 2pm, more than an hour later that the original schedule.

And the two students? Of course they feel guilty. Later on they found out that the lecturer was just joking when she allowed them to go.

End of Exam : )

Finished my exams this morning. It wasn't so hard, but I was nervous for the oral yesterday and didn't perform up to my standard (most of my friends suffered the same symptom). Thanks to all who prayed for me. God bless you all!

Anyway, surprisingly I didn't go anywhere this afternoon except to Daerim to borrow a convertor from a friend, so that I can get some contacts out of my handphone which is useless in Korea.

Did some planning as of where to go during the coming 10-days holiday. My plans includes COEX Mall, World Taekwondo Federation, Seoul Tower and a few historical sights in Seoul. Let's see whether my plans will come to pass.

Guess that's all for now. Waiting a phone call from a Korean friend so got to rush back home

Site Updates

Just added a photo gallery at the side bars. Not many photos taken yet though. Everytime I go out either I didn't bring my cam along or the sceneries weren't so attracting.

Will try to upload more during the week-long holiday that is coming.

Level 1 Korean Language Proficiency Test

Having an exam coming up this Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday I'll be having my oral test and on Tuesday I'll be sitting for the writting, reading and listening test. So do pray for me.
Due to the exam I may not be on-line till Tuesday afternoon.

Admit the exam coming up soon, lots of us went to watch the movie Brotherhood (In one of the classroom, not in cinema). It's quite a good film. Even more "real" than Saving Private Ryan. So if you have the chance, watch it.

By the way, I just signed up for a marathon that will be held in the campus on 18/10. Not that I think I'll win, but everyone who joins gets a free t-shirt. Haha..

Home Cooked Sweet & Sour Fish

After missing my home cooked Chinese food for nearly a month, finally I decided to try my hands on one of my favourite dishes --> sweet and sour fish.
I bought most of the necessary stuff, and to my shock one fish, the one usually used for sweet and sour(whatever the name is in English) costs 7000won, which is about RM 21!!
I tried to search for corn flour but the supermarket was quite small and they didn't have the stock. So I had to use potato starch instead.
I had quite a hard time frying the fish (it's the first time frying one without any help at all, mind you) but in the end it turned out just nice. Though the starch was "slightly" thicker, I really enjoyed it.

Exploring Seoul (3)

As it was Korean Chuseok Day on Tuesday, we didn't have any class. Initially my friends and I planned to visit few of the palaces on Tuesday, but we were so tired after the Moon Cake Festival gathering that all of us woke up late. So my friends decided not to go, and I had to go alone.

Firstly, I went to Deoksugung, one of the famous palace in South Korea. On other days, one needs to pay 500-1000won for entrance fee. But lucky me, I didn't have to pay a single cent because it was a national public holiday.
Deoksugung is indeed beautiful. But to my surprise there was a few western style building in it. Later on I found out that it was the Royal Museum. A place worth visiting, though many of the articles do not have English translation.

Coming out from Deoksugung I wanted to go to Namsangol Hanok Village, but ended up at Korea House. The Korea House had a display of traditional food, or was it food offered to the ancestors, I wasn't so sure. But anyway I didn't stay there for long.

Moving to my Namsangol Hanok Village (Korean Traditional Village in the Namsan Valley), I saw a huge crowd of foreigners and Koreans gathered there to watch a traditional drum performance.
The place is quite similar to the Cultural Village in Santubong, Sarawak. There's traditional houses, food, toys and the sort.
Walking around, I bumped into few of my seniors. They were "volunteered" by their language lecturers to participate in the traditional wedding ceremony. The ceremony was quite interesting, although I couldn't understand what the man was saying. It has some similarity to that of the Chinese tradition, though.

Moon Cake Festival

We had a gathering of Chinese and Indian students on Monday night to celebrate Moon Cake Festival. I've learn that it's an annual gathering to remember our festivals back in Malaysia and also an opportunity for all the students from different batch to meet and have fellowship.

The gathering was in a Galbi Shop, a Korean barbecue shop. The price is quite reasonable, about RM 24 per person for a buffet barbecue dinner. For the first time after so long I feasted sumptuously on beef, pork and lamb.

After the dinner we gathered at a nearby park. Our seniors brought lanterns and moon cakes from Malaysia during their trip back home in August. So we were able to enjoy Malaysia-made moon cakes in a far away country.

The night was followed by a ghost story telling, which I didn't really like at first, but began to enjoy later on. The reason? Our seniors were so horrible at telling the story that it wasn't at all scary, rather it was so funny till we all can't control our laughter.

Thus ends my first Moon Cake festival in this far Eastern country. Though the locals doesn't celebrate the festival, we Malaysian student's enjoyed it.

Home at Last

At last! After 20 days of my arrival in Korea, finally I get to see my home yesterday.

Though our house is relatively bigger ( still much smaller compared to the houses in Malaysia) than that of my friends, one of the two-person-sharing room (which I'm sharing with another friend) doesn't have a window to it, so it's very humid if the two of us were to live in there. In the end I decided to put my desk in another room and use the room to put the shared closet and for sleeping purposes.

Did the cleaning on Saturday afternoon. Our Juin, landlord was very nice . He changed the wall paper and carpet before we moved in. However, the bathroom is extremely dirty and there's no sink in there. Thus we need to brush our teeth in the kitchen everyday.

Anyway, it feels good to have my own home. Muahahahaha...!!!

Cooking Lesson

As the Malaysian programme over here is a Language and Culture Programme, our lecturers decided to let us watch a movie on Friday and give us a cooking lesson, cooking 3 basic Korean food.
The movie was nice, but the most interesting event of the day was the cooking part. We made Udong (Japanese noodle), Gimbap (Rice Wrapped in Seaweed) and Tteokbokki (Stir Fried Rice Cake).
The Tteokbokki doesn't suit my taste, it's just like eating plain rice with chilli sauce. Gimbap is better, the radish we used had a sweet taste in it. But usually thr radish used in the shops are extremely sour, which to me taste quite strange. However, the Udong was really nice. All of us like it best compared to the other dishes.

Seems that we still need some more time to get used to the food around here.

First Bad Impression

On Wednesday one of my friend wanted to buy a digital camera, so another friend and I accompanied him to YongSan, a centre for electrical items.

Frankly I didn't quite agree with him buying it at this time because none of them actually planned to get a digital camera while in Malaysia. But because a few others of our friend got it, he also wanted one. He was telling me that the budget will be enough. I can't quite argue with him on that because he'll be "puasa"ing next month and will be cutting quite a huge amount on food.

Anyway, the three of us went to Yongsan and have a look. We entered a camera shop and started enquiring about the digital cameras. The guy whom we talked to was quite nice, telling us the function and explaining it to us the best he can using korean, english and some sign language.

After looking at a few cameras my friend chosed one which he liked best. So he wanted to go to an ATM machine and withdraw money. As we know not where the nearest AT machine was, the man "kindly" accompanied us to it.

Coming back to the shop and paying the money, another guy from the shop suddenly talked to the person whom we were dealing with in Korean. (Looking back know we know that he was "hasuting" the man) . So the guy quickly brought a few other cameras and begin to tell us how much better those cameras are compared to the one my friend just bought and that he's willing to give us a good deal considering that we're students.

We were really confused and I began to feel suspicious. But not being able to understand fully what the man said, I decided to let my friend make his own decision. And after giving it much thinking my friend decided to buy one of those cameras, which the man told us was 6 mega pixels and other advantages. So he went to withdraw some more money and paid the bill.

After coming out of the shop, the other friend and I felt really suspicious. Fearing that our friend might have been cheated, and thinking that the shops around there might somehow be linked, the two of us drop by at a few other shops far away from the one which my friend bought the camera and began to enquire the price for the exact camera.

Alas! Our poor friend really got cheated by nearly RM 600 and the camera had only 3 mega pixels. Not knowing what to do, we tried telephoning a few people, seniors, friends, lecturer, but to no avail. The only way was to wait till the next day when our lecturer was able to accompany us back to the shop.

So on Thursday, Mr Ham , one of our lecturer, accompanied my friend back to the shop. I followed as well to keep my friend company and in-case they need any witness.

So in the end after about an hour plus of dealing with the shop owner (who told us the camera had 3 years warranty compared to others which only had 1 year and that's why it was more expensive) and going to the managment of that building, our lecturer manage to get a 128MB XD memory card for my friend.

It really reminds me of Petaling Street where I saw lots of foreigners being cheated. Now it's our turn being cheated as a foreigner.

To all those who are else where overseas, may this be a reminder to be more careful. Check out the price and details of things in through the internet before purchasing them.

My 18th Birthday

Today is my birthday! I was suppose to move into the house in Daerim-Dongand I was going to make it my birthday present. But, about 11pm last night, the senior in-charge of my house came and told me that I am no longer moving to the house in Daerim and that my home will be Gochok-Dong. And because the contract for that house is not fully settled, we can only move in this Wednesday or Thursday.
So, after coming to Korea for more than 2 weeks I still don't have my own home.

Anyway, wanting to out and lepak today, I phoned my friends to see what plans they have. Initially they wanted to come to my home in Daerim tonight, but our plans were ruined. When I phoned them, they were about to go to another person's home in Daerim. As I've never been there before, I decided to follow.

At noon, one of the senior, Pek Fang called and made an appointment with 5 of the Chinese girls to meet at Sindorim. Having nothing better to do, I followed.

From Sindorim, Pek Fang and Angella ( another of our senior) brought us to Myeong Dong for lunch. The steamed chicken there is indeed delicious. I would have thought that it was a Chinese delicacy if not for the two bowls of Kimchi laid in front of me. (Later we met another senior who told us that such a meal cost about 8000won (RM 24) per person, and they were 8 of us including the 2 seniors. What nice seniors we have!)

As we were walking around Myeong Dong looking at the clothes, we bump into 3 other seniors, one whom I forgot her name and the other two are Kokok & A Sid. With her persuasive skill, Pek Fang persuaded Kokok and Ah Sid to bring us for a threat at Baskin Robins. At Baskin Robbins, the two of them got a present for me.

Coming out of Baskin Robbins, we saw a stall that sells teddy bears. All 6 of us juniors got a pair each. My was paid for by one of my friends. It will be a remembrance for us : the best weekend we had after coming to Korea.

Thus this was how I celebrated my first birthday overseas. Contrary to what I imagine: buyng a cake, sitting in the room, eating the cake alone, it was filled with fun.
And surely I will remember it.

Exploring Seoul (2)

Wanting to continue my exploration, I went to Garibong with 4 of my friends on Monday afternoon after class.

My friends have heard that the things in Garibong Market are quite cheap, so we decided to go and have a look.
Coming out of Garibong Station, we saw a map indicating that Garibong Market is just across the street from the station. So we came out of the station and walk straight ahead. However, either the map was wrong or our map reading skill is horrible, we do not know. The thing is, we lost our way.
Stopping in front of a shop, we asked the shop owner for direction to Garibong Market. The guy was very helpful. He explained in detail the way to our destination. However, he's explanation was all in Korean, which at our standard we still can't understand.
So, he decided to draw us a map. But the roads in Seoul are very complicated and his drawing is too simple. Finally another man from the shop volunteered to bring us to the market.
And truely, the things there are very cheap. My friends, being girls, have in their nature the longing to shop for clothes. But I can't blame them. Imagine buying a shirt for RM 6.00 and a jacket for RM 7.50. I myself bought a shirt and a t-shirt for RM 12.00.

Finally, we decided to come back after "visiting" evry shop that sells clothes. But at least now we know where to get the cheapest summer wear, winter clothing and all that.

Exploring Seoul (1)

I was suppose to move into my house in Daerim-dong on Saturday, but unfortunately the contract was not settled, so I still can't move in. From what we heard the Malaysia Embassy couldn't pay the key-money, something like a deposit, so we need to suffer because of that.

The seniors were encouraging me to go out on Saturday, since I had nothing much to do. I wanted to go out with few of my friends, but I wasn't able to contact them as they still do not have their house phone. Those that are staying near by were busy buying furnitures and cleaning their house. At the end, I had to go alone. Not that it's somethig bad, just that I'd prefer some company.

Anyway, I took the subway and went to Myeongdong, a place where the young people of Seoul hang-out. The place is like a few Petaling Street joint together. Everywhere I went I could see people buying and selling food. I really wonder how Koreans can still stay fit even though they eat so much. Although the food seems quite delicious, I just did not have the appetite to eat. Missing my Malaysian laksa, chicken rice, chah kueh teow, kolo mee......
As it was raining quite heavily, I went into a shopping centre to avoid the rain. The one thing I don't like about the shopping centres here is that they are quite small. Some of the shopping centres are quite tall, but they are not as spacious compared to the shopping centres in Malaysia.
Following the seniors' advice, I didn't buy any unnessary things. In fact, I didn't buy anything at all becuase I don't know where to put them since I don't have a home yet.

As it was still quite early, I decided to go to Dongdaemun Stadium. My lecturer had told us that there is a flea market near the stadium every weekend. So, I took the subway and arrive at Dongdaemun Stadium's station, just to find that it was atill raining heavily outside and that I had lost my umbrella somewhere in Myeongdong Station. Feeling tired and not wanting to waste my money on a new umbrella, I decided to go back.

Thus end my first episod of Seoul exploration.

Cheese & Wine Party

Went to the Cheese & Wine Party at SNU yesterday. It was organised for all foreign students and lecturers in SNU, to let them meet each other and meet some other Koreans as well.
But sadly, most of my friends were busy moving into their new house and none of them wanted to go, so I had to go alone.

Overall, the party was quite good. At first I was not able to socialize with the others. Everyone seems to have come with their friends and they were sitting in groups chatting in different languages, and there I was feeling so left out.
Suddenly, I saw this guy who looks quite similar to one of my seniors. So I went up to him, just to find out that he's a Korean. But we manage to strike up a conversation. He and his friends were there observing how other people organize such an event, because their society wants to do one as well.
The funny thing was, though they came as a group, they were actually finding opportunity to know people from other countries. But to them, everyone was chatting with their friends in groups so they dare not go and intterupt.
So, through this experiece, I guess I'll have to take the initiative to know others when I attend such a party next time.

Orientation

Arrived at the airport safely, excited and a little tired. We were expecting warm welcome from our seniors, little did we know it's the beginning of a 5-days torment for us.
The Incheon airport is not as big as KLIA, but it's quite organised. The best thing I like about it is that we need not have to walk so far to collect our luggage and go to the exit.

After our arrival we went to Malaysia's Embassy in Hangnam-Dong, met the embassador and the other officers over there. Later the seniors took us to one of Korea Exchange Bank's branch to open an account.
As we went back to the embassy, none of us knew that we were entering the 'gates of hell'. It was the begining of our orientation. We were punished for coming back slowly, not bringing our files with us, and any other excuses that they could think of.
All in all throughout the 5 days orientation, whether we were in our motel or during the camp, we must be prepared to do pumpings, half- stand, marching and other activities anytime of the day, be it 6.30am early moring or 2.30am before dawn.
The one event that I believe all of us will always remember is standing with our clothes and shoes on in the swimming pool for 2 hours !
We cooked our own meals during the 2 days 1 night camp. We did quite a good job, considering that most of us never really cooked before.
We also didn't have enough sleep throughout the orientation. There was once where I only manage to sleep for 1/2 an hour, which made me woke up late and got hukuman for it.
However, we do understand that our seniors were trying to prepare us for the life in Korea which is full of pressure and tension. They were also trying to make us unite as a batch and help one another.
But, sometimes I still don't really agree with the method they use. I'll definitely not use this same method on my juniors next time.

Anyway, the air here in Seoul is worse than KL I'm still trying to get use to it. I'm still very tired, recovering from the orientation. Hopefully will be better soon.

Merdeka

Today is Malaysia's independence day. But to be exact, it's Malaya's independence day. Malaysia was formed on 16 September 1963. Anyway, the merdeka spirit is still up and about, and I'm proud of it.

Though Malaysia did not win any medals in Olympics, we still stand tall in the eyes of the world. Here's a little "comfort".

Nearing the end of my holidays. Wasn't able to accomplish much. Spent most of the time at home with my family and relatives. Did manage to watch Alien vs Predator, though. It reminds me of a computer games I used to play, Starcraft. The aliens are like the Zergs while the predators are like the Protoss.No matter who win, we loss. But at the end the humans sided with the protoss.

Truthfully, I'm quite excited about going overseas to study. It's the dream of lots of people. I was longing for a chance as well. I wanted to go as far as I could back then when I just finished my SPM. What's more, I'm going to one of the top universities in Asia. But 4 months of being away from home have taught me not to be so optimistic, especially in dealings with people. Maybe I'm letting the one bad experience I had haunting me, but then....
Well, there's just too much uncertainties that lies ahead, and I don't like the feeling of not knowing what to expect and what will happen.
But I'll take it as a test of patience and faith. After all, isn't faith about believing in something we do not see?

Home Sweet Home

I'm now back at home enjoying the haze and hot weather in Kuching.

Anyway, it's good to be back. Sleeping on my soft, comfortable bed with 3 pillows; waking up at 9.30am in the morning; having nothing much to worry.... it's just a luxury.
But I fell kind of strange, having nothing to do seem so weird. But I better enjoy and relax while I can. God knows what is in store for me in the days to come.

My mom and uncles have been talking about the death of my 2nd uncle. It seems that they're suspicious of his death. They think maybe something went wrong with the medication or the doctor did a mistake somewhere, and they keep on quoting cases where a person should be saved but died after the doctor gave them an injection or medicine.
It makes me think, how would I react if I were a doctor? I may blame myself for being careless; or blame the person for doing the check-up late; or just deny the whole thing.
Life as a doctor is not easy. But I know I have the heart and desire to help the sick. I believe I'd bring joy to my patiet and make them feel being cared for. I can cheer them up and make them forget of their pains with my lovely smile : )
Yet it seems that I'm taking a totally different path.......

Anyway, I'm trying to finish 1 or 2 books during this week-long holiday. 1. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey and 2. Not Even a Hint by Joshua Harris

Korean Day

Hooray!!!

Our Korean Day was indeed a success. Well, though there were some mistakes here and there, but overall everyone did very well. This was the best among all the practice and rehearsal. I was especially surprise yet happy at the same time to see the songs team performing better than I expected.

The number of audience was also very encouraging. There were people from the French Program, Russian Program and AUSMAT students. Our one-year-older seniors were also present to join our Korean Day.

The saddest thing was, I brought my camera, but the battery was too weak. So in the end I wasn't able to take any photos.

Today is officially my last day in INTEC. It's amazing how things over these 3 months have been. When I first arrived here, I was missing my friends in Labuan and I just didn't seem to be able to get along well here. Thus I spent most of my time studying.

Yet after 3 months here, I met lots of friends, Max, Alvin, Yi Li, Johnathan, Zi Hui, Daniel, Wei Xian, Ivy, Billy, Herman, Rose, Jimi..... And know I'll be missing them instead.
I'm also getting along well with the others in my own program. Maybe it's because we've worked together in many things: BTN Camp and Korean Day for example.
But, ironically, I've put in less effort in my studies compared to when I first came here. But by God's grace, I manage to do exceedingly well in my exam. Praise His name.

But no matter what happens, life still goes on. Whether we're sad or happy time does not wait for us to laugh or mourn. The thing that we ought to do is strengthen ourselves, carry on with our lives and prepare for the challenges ahead.

Death

Got the news yesterday afternoon that my mom's second brother passed away at 3 p.m. I would have long to be at home at such a time, but my things here are not finish and I've bought the ticket on 26/8. Ah~~

It never occur to me that I'd receive such a news at such a time.
But frankly I wasn't shocked to hear such a news. We all know that where there is a beginning, there is an end. Where there is life, there is death. Life on this earth is but a short period. Yet it is during this period that we determine where our eternal spirit goes to when we are no longer here.

Death, I've seen quite a lot within this month alone, and will be seeing many more in the years to come. Though death is no surprise for me, yet my heart hurts seeing many people uncertain of where they'll be should calamity befalls. What is there to be done about it?

" Am I cold-hearted and cruel?" This is a question I've been asking myself. I don't think I am. Yet why am I not in deep sorrow when my uncle who stays one street down from me pass away?
I do not have an exact answer. Perhaps deep within me I have this little assurance that I'll be seeing him again.

Biro Tatanegara (BTN) Camp

I always thought that BTN Camps are held in some junglish places and we'll be sleeping in tents with lots of mosquitoes ready to charge at the campers. Well, I was wrong.
We were actually suppose to go to a BTN Campsite in Banting, but due to some problems, we were moved to a private campsite in Sepang, right beside the highway.
The facilities there are definitely better than my hostel, there were air-cond in every rooms. We were served 5 meals a day, to which I was hoping will make me gain some weight, but to no avail.

We had 4 lectures and 8 group activities. I was indeed very happy to see my fellow coursemates being active throughout the camp. Frankly, I thought I'd be spending more time with those in the French programme. But as it turned out, I was in my room most of the time , talking to my roommates, who are also my coursemates. We had so much free time I even manage to finish a book!

As a whole, the camp was good, it refreshed my knowledge of Malaysia. But above all, it builds up the relationship among the campers.

The camp ended with a test. Hopefully I'll passed it. As long as I have no phone calls from my sponsors, I'll be flying off on 2 September.

Preparing for the Worse

Well, I've prepared myself mentally to accept any unexpected stuff during the 5-day BTN Camp which starts this afternoon. Hopefully I'd be able to pull through it and come out in one piece...

Today reminds me of the orientation I had bout 2 months ago. There was also this morning that we were free and I went to a cyber cafe with Rose and another guy, Peter if I remember correctly.
I know I'm being sentimental but I just can't help it.
3 months ago I was only prepared to say "goodbye" to all my secondary school's friends. Yet now I had to bid farewell to the friends I met in Kolej Matrikulasi Labuan and soon all the friends I have in INTEC here.

Here's something I came across recently:

Forgive each other
Refresh each other
Invest in each other
Encourage each other
Nurture each other
Depend on each other
Share with each other
Help each other
Inspire each other
Pray for each other

Exam

Just finished my Korean exam today. So now I can at least sit back and relax for few weeks before having to do any study (not that I did much study anyway, but I'll try to do better.)

Well, frankly I think I did quite well for the exam this morning, considering the amount of time I spent doing my revision.
But we still have our speaking test once we arrive in Korea.

Hopefully I do well in it. I really want the incentive provided by Seoul National University.

Just to make things clear:
We'll be studying 6 levels of Korean, and if we manage to get 90% and above for 5 consecutive levels (which is hard but not impossible), we'll be awarded with 1/2 the tuition fee for the next level, which I still don't exactly know how much, but better than none.


Today is the last day I'll be seeing the ALMs, and I'm really overcome with emotions. Even when I was having my exam I was thinking about them.

To all ALMs:
farewell and God bless

Poisoned

Saturday 3.00a.m

Was preparing myself for bed.
Had a fun night in Cyber Jaya. After all, this is the last time I attend the cell group. I doubt that I'll be joining it again six years later when I come back from Korea.

Saturday 5.00a.m

Arrggg!!!!
There was this unbearable pain in my stomach.
My intestine and stomach was squirming inside, turning and twisting here and there.

"Never mind, get back to sleep, this is just another nightmare." I was telling myself. "How can my stomach hurt so much unless I'm dreaming. After all,I think I had this dream before, few weeks ago."

Never the less, the pain never decreased. It was getting worse and worse.

" O God! Stop this pain! I know if You're willing to You can!"

Yet there was another "suggestion" that arose in my mind, "Look, the balcony is just a few steps from you and it's not closed, just jump down from it. You'll just die and be in heaven and the pain will be gone. Isn't that wonderful?"

This suggestion seemed so tempting that I was actually considering it. Yet before I could take any action, another idea pop up in my mind :
" Just take some panadols. It's a pain killer. It will take care of the pain."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And so I knocked at my grandma's room and asked her for some panadols. Yet it didn't do much good.
As my aunt and grandma was going to the doctor that morning, I went with them and got the confirmation from the doctor that I had food poisoning.

And thus the last Saturday that I could roam around in KL was spent taking medicine and resting at home.

A Friend

Since the first day I came here, I've been asking God to give me a friend whom I can really relate to. And last night I've just met one. But ironically, he'll be having his holidays soon while I'll be away for my camp and I'm flying off in 3 weeks time.

I was having dinner with Wei Sian last night. We were talking there after dinner when he came to have his dinner as well.
Seeing that he was alone, I "forced" him to join us. The three of us were just talking and debating about praying for our food, going into mission, doing devotions etc etc etc.
Wanting to spend more time together, the two of us went for ABC after dinner.
And I guess that was when our relationship started to build.

Yet deep within I can't hide the fact that I feel sad because here is someone whom I really like, whom I can share my thoughts with,whom I can relate to, but we'll be heading separate paths soon.
I don't understand. If God wanted us to be friends, why not sooner? Why now?
But who am I to question God. He's timing is never wrong.

His experience is that he got closer with his former friends after being apart. Yet from my experience it's the other way round.

Well, may be as he'd said:"We'll meet in heaven."

LATE!!!

For the first time, as far as I can recall, I woke up late for class, and I mean REALLY late.
It's still bothering me, how did I ever manage to wake up at 9.50a.m when my class starts at 9a.m?
It's not like I slept late or what, I was already in bed at 11p.m last night!!
But fortunately my lecturer didn't get angry at me. She was actually QUITE shock seeing me knocking at the door with my uncombed hair at 10.15a.m in the morning.
Well, better late than never isn't?

3 more weeks before I leave for Korea.
I've been unconscience of the passing time. It's hard to imagine that I've been here for nearly 3 months.
What have I accomplish?
I didn't do my maths revision well enough and I don't think I did it well during the test just now. It's too late for me to do anything.

But, there's still my Korean language exam next week. Hopefully I'll do well in it.

Back to INTEC

6 days not connected to the cyber world and my mailbox exceeded its limit.

I thought I will be able to gain access to the internet freely once I got home, yet to my shock the computer isn't there anymore!!
The truth is, my brother brought it back to UTM, Johor with him.
I can't put the blame on him because he didn't know I'll be going back so soon and the computer was already collecting dust at home.

Anyway, coincidentally I was back just in time to attend the memorial service and funeral of my church member who was among the 7 involved in the helicopter incident.
I was hearing lots of rumor concerning the incident saying that the jungle is 'dirty' , 'creepy' and all the sorts, that's why the rescue team couldn't find the copter though it was just 5 minutes flying distance from the rescue teams' headquarter.
I don't really believe what was said, but I haven come up with my own theory yet. Maybe we'll never know the actual reason.
One main thing mentioned by the preachers during the memorial service was the question: "Why bad things happen to good people?"
The answer given was: "We may never be able to come up with a good answer to the question while we're still on earth."
It reminds me of the time when I used to ask my Sunday School teachers and youth leaders the same question. The answer that i got was : bad things happen because of people's sin; quoting Job's case and saying that it's a trial or test, and that at the end of the day Job was blessed.
Yet in real life when things do happen, all these spoon-fed answer just didn't fit into the picture.
I guess this is where faith plays it's role. *sigh*

Going back home

Went to support our INTEC badminton team in the inter-faculty competition last night. I never knew there's so much fun being on the spot to cheer for a team during a competition.
At least now I have a slight idea why so many people are crazy about going to the stadium and watch football matches.
Although our team didn't win, they put up a good fight. And the most amazing thing was that some of them didn't know each other very well though they were playing doubles in a team.

As many of my coursemate went to do their passport this morning, there wasn't any classroom lesson. However, Q1 SonSengNim gave another of his speech to us, talking about his experiences when he first came to Malaysia in 1991; telling us that foreign tourist have to pay more when they go to KL Tower, and when he sent a letter to the Tourism board concerning the matter the reply he got was "Because this is Malaysia"; motivating and persuading us to go to the top universities in Korea and informing us that getting a 'D' in those universities is considered quite good......

I'll be going back home tomorrow. Quite excited actually.
After all, this return is quite unexpected because my initial plan was to go back once only before I fly off to Korea. Now it seems that I'll be going back home twice.

Devotion

     On Sunday night when I was in Max's room,  we somehow decided to wake up at 6.00am every morning to do our devotion.
     I was sleeping in their room that night and I managed to wake up on time yesterday, though I slept less than 5 hours.
     But yesterday I had a good rest in the afternoon and slept early at night yet I couldn't wake up in time this morning!!! I can't even remember when did I turned off the alarm on my phone!

     I 'm really unsatisfied with myself. I'm out here far from my home, and everyday I rely on God's help to pull me through. Yet I've not been spending as much time in my devotion as I used to. Hopefully this is not the beginning of my fall : (

     During the cell group last Friday, they was this speaker who said something about passion. We use the word "passion" ever so often yet do we really know what it means? We hear people saying they're passionate about this and that, yet do they really know what they're saying?
     According to the speaker, referring to "The Passion of the Christ", the word 'passion' here actually means 'suffering'.
     So, how many of us are actually willing to suffer for something?    
     What the speaker said really struck me on the head. I'm passionate about God, yet am I not even willing to wake up early to spend time with Him?

     So, I'll try to do better in the future, maybe I'll join (at least once) the early morning prayer meeting  in Korea :)

Hostel?

    We watched "Classic" , another Korean movie this afternoon. Still, we wouldn't be able to understand the story without the sub-title. I wonder how long would it take before we can watch a Korean movie without sub-titles.

    2 of our seniors came back from Korea and we had some time to satisfy more of our curiosity about life as a foreign student in Korea.  It seems that our seniors had quite a good time over there.
    Learning a new language and culture is fun, if I don't need to depend on it to survive. But still, I think I'll manage to pull through, with God's help of course. 
   
    I'm planning to stay in the hostel during my first year in Korea, a thing which none of our seniors did before (not that they didn't want, but they didn't have no choice). Our seniors only moved into hostel after completing their one and a half years' language course.
    Thus, we do not have any info concerning life in Seoul National University's hostel as a freshman. 
    My reason for staying in the hostel is:  firstly,  I'll meet more people from other countries and I'll have more time to socialize with them.
    Secondly, it'll be more convenient to join activities held in the university, since the distance between the hostel and university is nearer.
    Lastly, I have the intention of going to Seoul National University to pursue my degree. I want to see how's the life, attitude and character of the students studying in the university first-hand.
   However, I'll talk this out with Jang SonSengNim before I make my decision.

 

Cuti-cuti Malaysia.....?

Imagine visiting Melaka without seeing A Farmosa, is that called visiting Melaka at all?
Well, that was my experience last Saturday when I went to Melaka. However, I did manage to ride on a horse and an elephant ( you can't imagine how much it hurts), watch birds doing magic show, elephants playing music instrument...
More of my  trip to Melaka here.

The thing I want to highlight here is that although the government has been asking people to travel in Malaysia, it seems that there are still many things the government needs to improve on to ensure that tourist, either local or foreign will enjoy their trip.

I went to Melaka, and being unfamiliar with the place, I went to the information counter at the Melaka Sentral bus station and asked for some brochures on tourist spots in Melaka.
To my 'amazement', the only thing they could provide me with was this small-photocopied-hardly visible-town map of Melaka. And THEY expect me to be able to travel around with just that?!
If the government really wants to promote tourism, the least thing they could do is to provide brochures at all major inter-state bus terminal!
 
What's more!
When I was taking the bus for a tour around the city, there was a foreign traveler going up the bus as well. She was holding some documents in her hand and showing it to the bus driver, asking him politely whether the bus will be going to that place.
To my disappointment, the bus driver didn't appear to be paying attention to her. He just shouted, "Naik saja cepat!"
I was so ashamed of my fellow Malaysian that I wished there was a hole for me to hide.
All these while we've been reading about articles saying Malaysians are kind and helpful. I really wonder how many of the articles are actually true.
I always thought that people from smaller town and city will be more friendly, because they don't face so much stress in life. It seems that I've made a wrong judgment.
 
It's kind of sad that  with the advancement of science and technology, people seems to be getting colder towards one another. They've lost their patience along the path so called civilization.
 
 

Birthday PARTY....

We had a birthday party in the lecture hall just now for those who's birthday is in the month of July. The party came as a surprise for all of us, because none of us knew about it. Our lecturers were the ones who planed it.
The party reminds me of all the Birthday Bash I had in my youth group back home. However, during the Birthday Bash we had fun and everyone would be laughing and enjoying themselves.
Yet I could sense that a lot of us had a sad feeling during the party this afternoon.
Maybe it's because of Q1's story: when he came to study in Malaysia, he had to celebrate his birthday alone. None of his friends in Korea remembered his birthday.
I guess it'll be the first time for most of us to celebrate our birthday without our families :(

Tried my hand on tennis. It's actually quite fun.
I figure that since I have to learn a language from the beginning and rely on it to survive, i might as well learn a few more stuff, right from the beginning.

....interesting experience....

On Friday, I took the City Liner bus wanting to go down to Asia Jaya and take the LRT to Taman Bahagia. When I told the bus driver that I wanted to go to Asia Jaya, he said that he needs to refill the petrol and so won't be passing through Asia Jaya. However, he said I could follow him down to Section 15 because there will be more buses there. So, I went on the bus and sat behind the driver's seat, so that he can tell me where to get down. However, the bus driver never said a thing and so I sat there like a dummy, knowing that something is really wrong yet don't know what to do. So, I was looking out the window all the time trying to figure where I am. Then suddenly, I saw a LRT train passing by. Trusting that there must be a LRT station near by, I got off the bus at the nearest stop and followed the trail of the LRT railway to its station, only to find that I landed myself in Pasar Seni. So, realizing that I must be somewhere near the centre of the city, I decided to go sightseeing. To my delight, I found out that Petaling Street was just around the corner. So although I got myself lost, it was quite rewarding at the end, as I got myself more familiar with the surrounding area.

I asked Wei Chun and Yi Loon to go out on Saturday. Sadly, Yi Loon said he wasn't feeling well and didn't want to go.
We went to KLCC and had our lunch there. One thing I learned there is that a plate of rice with a piece of fried chicken, some veg and a cup of soya bean can cost up to RM 8+ ( Luckily I wasn't the one who bought it :P ).
As we had absolutely nothing to buy, we wanted to take a tour to the bridge. Unfortunately, the tickets for that day had finish.
After that, we wanted to go to Mid Valley Mega Mall. When I was coming to KLCC from Taman Bahagia, I noticed that the nearest LRT station from Mega Mall is at Abdullah Hukum.
So, we took the LRT there and came out of the station looking for the Putra Line buses. As we could find none, I asked a Malay girl in school uniform how do I go to Mega Mall.
She told us that we should take the LRT back to Bangsar and wait for buses there.
As we didn't want to take another trip on the LRT, we decided to take a cab. Yet, all the cabs passed by without stopping. We were not able to walk to Mega Mall as it was raining quite heavily.
Finally, the girl from whom I asked direction came and asked us whether we want to "tumpang" or not, and we accepted the offer.

When I reached Mega Mall, I messaged Wai Peng asking him how do I get back to SS2. He told me I could take bus 99 back.
At Mega Mall, we met Shyr Jinn ( my secondary school classmate) and his mom and brother.
At 3.30pm I decided to go back. So, I came out through South Court (I saw that there is a bus stop there when I came) and saw a Metro bus 99 and on it was written " Mega Mall-SS2" , so I hop onto it. The bus driver didn't ask where I was going but just asked me to pay RM1.20.
On the bus I suddenly remembered it was someone's birthday that day. So I was trying to find out who's birthday it was, and I got to know that it was Chun Yang's birthday.
Suddenly I realized that the surrounding area seems very familiar. When I look out the window, I saw that Petaling Street was just outside the bus!!
And so I landed myself in Pasar Seni by mistake twice in 2 days time :~(
Again, it was a good experience, getting myself familiar with places and to remind myself always ask the bus driver which direction it's going....

nOstAlgIA

Starting to have more homework these few days from our Maths lecturer. This means that I'll need to put more time into my studies than what I had planned.
Well, looking at the bright side, this will stop me from going to the cyber cafe so often and wasting my money there : )

Our Korean lecturers showed us a movie just now, and of course it's in Korean (but we do have the subtitle or else we won't understand the whole story).
I dont know, may be it's because I'm getting old, I seem to be quite nostalgic lately.
I tend to think about how it would be like 6 or 7 years down the road. There will be many people that I might not meet again.
People whom we were closed with might not be close to us anymore.
Relationships will change. Most of us might not be who we used to be. Everything will change, for the better or for the worse...
Well, I know it's pointless thinking of all this, but I just can help it. Anyway, I might be too busy to think about all these next time, so I should think of it while I still have the opportunity, right? :p

new ETHICS assignment

Today we have a new Ethics teacher. She seems to be better than the previous one, she can talk, make some jokes and keep the class a little a live. But at the same time, she's also more demanding.
When we first heard that we'll have a new teacher, some of my classmates conspired and agreed that if the teacher ask whether we have any assignment, they would all say 'No'.
And that's exactly what they DID. So, the teacher gave us new assignments(actually the same one that our previous teacher gave, just that different groups are doing it now).
So my group (me, Vincent and A Jay) was given the topic: "Comparing Religions,their Beliefs and Practices".

6th weekend in S'gor

Went to IKEA last night to get some ideas on bedroom decorations. It might come in useful when I'm settling down in Korea.

Was talking with Wai Nyan this afternoon concerning pirated stuff. It seems that if I were to talk any longer with him on this topic, he might just be able to convince me not to use pirated goods.
I never gave so much thoughts about pirated things before this. It just seem ok to use them. Well, maybe when I'm financially secure I'll go against piracy. But not at the moment.

Seems strange that many people are studying the book of Ecclesiastes. First was during last year's church camp, now SIB KL, then this afternoon Wai Nyan told me his cf(if I'm not mistaken) is doing(or is it did) the same book as well.
It's true that sometimes life just seem so meaningless......at the end of the day all things lead to the grave.......why then do we study so much,why watch movie,why why why??.......ther's war going on, people are dying.....yet I'm here writting my blog....
Maybe we'll know the meaning of life when we see it from above the sun, but currently I'm not able to do so, yet.
So, all I can do is trust in HIM to lead me....

Was talking to my friends just now. Seems that I have a lot to catch up in my studies. I've not been working so hard since the orientation.
Will try to come up with a timetable so that my time can be more organized. Better get the stone rolling and catch up on momentum....

meanings...

Was chatting with Johnathan on Wednesday night about friendship best friends.
I was asking him did he ever thought of what does the term 'best friend' means according to his own definition, and, like what I've guessed, he never actually thought about it.
It just seem strange to me that we can know a word and use it so often yet we never really think about the true meaning of the word, or in other words, what does the word really mean to us.
And so that night we kind of discuss about each other's opinion, what does friends and best friend mean to us personally.
According to his opinion, my best friend would most probably be my wife. It's actually something for me to ponder about...
The thing is, I get along with girls quite well and girls are nice to talk with and be with. But there are just things that I won't talk to girls about...
So is it the same that there are just something a husband wouldn't tell a wife?

Last night I went to dinner with Kai Liing at Ameerali. We planned to go to cf together after dinner, and we even brought our bible along as well.
But as we were coming back from the coffee shop, he suddenly told me it might be the last time he'll be going, because he feel it's not nice going to two churches at once, although this is just a ca (campus alive) meeting.
And before we reach the van, he suddenly said to me :"I thinks I won't go today lar."
With that he went back to the hostel.
It actually gave me a shock because I never encountered such a situation before. And it made me think as well, what's MY purpose of going to cf...

Sometimes I just feel that it's a obligation to go. And if I don't go, I don't feel right with God.
May be it's because I've not been spending enough quite times with God, so going to cf is a way I can make up for it...
But it can be that it' the only place where I can worship God and sing praises to him freely...
I'm not sure which is the real reason...maybe it's the combination of the two...

Today is my first time coming to Wai Peng's house in ss2 from Shah Alam by bus and lrt.
Well, it's sort of achievement to me, and I feel quite proud of myself that I can go about alone.
It gives me the feeling of independence : )

Still haven't memorize my Korean song yet...:~(. It seems to take a long time just to memorize a line.
Hopefully I can memorize it by Sunday afternoon...

Lat

We were suppose to have Maths class this afternoon,but due to the Minggu Kualiti INTEC, our lecturer was busy, so she only drop in for a few minutes. So, again we have the whole afternoon free.

Was in the library just now doing the homework that I didn't touch for a week.
And it so happened that I came across 4 Lat's comic, so I borrowed all of it back. I never thought that a library would have collection of Lat's comic. Hopefully I won't be too indulge in it till I neglect all my homework.

Was trying to memorize the song that Q1 SonSengNim gave us yesterday, but it just didn't seem to sink into my mind. I better find a way to memorize it by next Tuesday or else I might be in deep trouble : (

Wanted to use the computer in the lab, but surprisingly the internet was not working in the campus. So had to come to a cyber cafe...not sure how long I can keep up with this
If JPA doesn't give us our allowance within the next 3 weeks I'll probably starve to death :(

Physic Class

Today we started our first physics class. As with every first class, we were asked by the teacher to introduce ourselves. Frankly, I don't see the point of having Maths and Physics class during the 3 months that we're here. It's not like we have time to go into the details and even if we do have the time it might not help much since everything will be in Korean next time.
The only reason that I could think of is that they want us to use our right brain as well instead of just our left brain. Maybe they want us to have a more busy life than we already have.
But, actually I like a busy life. I fell the meaning of life only when I'm up and about doing something. Life seem so meaningless when we sit back and do nothing.
So it seems that I SHOULD find a good hobby when I'm in Korea so that I don't waste my life there.

Following Toh Hui's advice, I'm starting to go to room 510 more often ever since the misunderstanding with Poh. It seems that I can get along with them quite well :)

Maybe I'm having the wrong concept that the grass on the other side of the river is greener, but sometimes I just feel that the people in the other programs are friendlier. Maybe I'm not spending enough time with the people in my own programs...

Just got the news that Jian Wei got the offer to go into ATU.
It seem strange to me that I didn't think of appealing ever since I receive the offer. Maybe I was very certain that this is God's plan for me.
I do hope I'm not making a grave mistake...

Asked Hock Siang to go to wai Peng's house this weekend, but he just didn't want to.
Well, maybe it's my nature not to feel ashame or guilty going to people's house and causing inconvenience for them :)

With so much homework in my hand and no companion, it seems that my plan of going to Malacca has to be postponed :(