Met Cindy and her gang yesterday at her place to play card game instead of the usual sunday because I will be going to our department orientation camp this weekend. Actually is just an excuse to play more, haha. We play like mad for 4hours plus just for 1000won (SGD1.20). It is a team format game and it was so serious that after every round there is review session on where we play wrongly!!! muhhahahahhhaha. This is really mind sports.

Cindy's gang seems to have bad experience in the past orientation camp so they wont be going. The korean call it MT, i dunno what it means though. We had a draw lots session to divide the team and I hope i can communicate with my team members cause they cant speak much english, there are 2 pro in my team though, is that consolation? haha.

Outside of Cindy's apartment. I dont know why but those people who paste the advertisement on the doors are as if they are in some competition. Before I left for school, there was nothing on our door, few hours later, BOM!!! 6 different advertisements. I would normally take them down because too much advertisement on your door is an indication to burglars that you are not at home. Is the same as the signboard "please watch your belongings" Even though is out of goodwill to warn innocent people like us, this signboard might make us more vulnerable to pick-pockets because most of us will unconsciously touch our wallet to make sure it is there when we see that sign thus pick-pocket will know where to aim for. Our weekly party in Cindy's place. She will cook different stuff every week and it taste quite good.

Tang Hoon, carrot, potato and chicken!!

Our activity after dinner. Dou ti zhu and dunno what egg game. We would normally play from 7 to 11. HUAT AH!!

I have to say that age is such a powerful thing in Korea. When a 1986 guy walk into the classroom, you will notice everyone suddenly stop what they are doing and stand on their feet and bow saying annyonghasae-yo. I was like WAH!! when I saw the scene, is like LKY just walk into the class. If the president of korea walk into the classroom, i cant imagine what will happen.

Went to Seoul on saturday to watch the female team match. A super long banner of the competition outside Korea Baduk Association.

The control room for Baduk TV. Is really interesting to see how a live baduk competition broadcast works. You can see the commentator(a pro player) doing funny face to relax himself minutes before he go live.

I was surprise to see her (the only human in this picture) outside the competition area cause she was my classmate (the one holding toothbrush in my previous blog). Her part time job here is to press clock and count byo-yomi timing, I think is quite a interesting job.

As you can see the lighting in the studio is super bright. The guy behind her is not her bodyguard, is the judge and a pro player too.

There are so many sequence they need to follow. They have to wait in a corner until a certain timing and walk into the competition area while the camera is rolling. Tang Yi look so pale, I think she play too much GO, haha.

The process of nigiri. Is faster than I thought. No wonder they are pro, haha.

If you have notice, instead of switching go bowl after nigiri, they switch places. Maybe moving the bowl might affect the visual effect in TV(live broadcast).

Lee Hajin 3p. When i went to the discussion room, I ask the cyberoro reporter who he think will win. He say without hesitation (he is a korean)"of course rui nai wei". Most people dont think Hajin will be able to win this match because she is now spending more time in university than researching GO.

Rui Nai Wei 9p. Hmmm... yar, ok.

Reporters doing their job.

Outside the discussion room.

Not many people in there. Basically there are 3 camps, chinese, korean and reporter. Huge LCD tv showing the live games. It will be so interesting if SWA have these kind of stuff.

Everyone from the korean team came down to support their team mate.

Their discussion is very relax, not as serious as I thought.

Only 2 chinese representatives. Wang lei looks fierce... and i think he watch too much zhou ren fa movie "god of gambler"

The review after the match. Hmmm... rui nai wei sound quite novice. I mean for a female pro player who has win many top male players and even enter into top few position in international competition, I was expecting her to sound confident but... disappointed.

Talking about the sudden snow last thursday in my previous post, I shall put up some pic of snow.

I took this pic outside my building. I was quite excited when i saw this scene because it look really nice. Thanks to the flag, the building beside my apartment look like a United Nation office. Is quite common to put up so many flags in Korea, maybe to attract foreigners.

This is outside E-Mart.

Walking in snow in a weird experience. Is like ice-kachang dropping on your umbrella.

Banana milk. Korean loves to drink this and it taste delicious! There are a lot of brand and this is the number 1 brand. Cost 1,000won.

As I am blogging now, it is SNOWING outside!!!!!! For someone like me to have witness snow for the first time, I have to say that the scene is really beautiful FULL STOP.

Yes, that is only only nice thing because the weather now is bloody cold and when you walk on the pavement, it is super duper slippery. If I ever die in Korea, it would be falling to death on the pavement in public during snow. I hope someone can remind me again that it is spring now, is a season where you can see smiles everywhere and people dont dress like dumpling, well... it is not happening.... Cindy told me to run out and build snowman.... look at how the weather in korea have twisted her brain, haha.

I just realise that some of my post are hidden because of the archive setting. The monthly thing is not working so I have to archive it weekly (as you can see the ultra long list on the right).

Will show the kind of food our canteen offer everyday.

This is the special set. Hmm... I am not sure how special it is to me cause it looks the same to me everyday. Maybe the color of the soup change slightly...


Western set. Is the same EVERYDAY........

Korean set. Seriously this is worst than NS food. The side dish are so little but i see alot of korean choose this meal.

If there is one thing people dont know about Koreans, it will be that they have a toothbrush with them almost all the time. I was so surprise to see people brushing teeth in toilet and walking around with toothbrush in their mouth!! I suspect Mikyung has a toothbrush in swa......

When I read swa email in PC Bunk last night, I know things are going to turn ugly. But I din expect Dr Sun to "charp ji car" and magically transform the original topic to a topic related to her daughter. God bless SWA.

Ok, lets return to the Korea Paradise (like real...)

I cant believe I forgot to blog about something super funny!!!

During the first bridge class the teacher was marking attendance and when she reach cindy's name she said " SILLY" !!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHHAAHAHHAHAAH!!!

This is hell.... Never in my life would I expect to lay out poker cards to do homework!!! This is the first time in my life i could not smile when i see a deck of cards. Instead of the S$100 entry fee to Singapore casino, those who wanna enter should have a bridge class, follow by a bridge test.

Just when i was wondering what picture to put on my handphone wallpaper, I thought of my best friend siao gao. Oh ya, I decide to call him siao gao since it sound more classy than ah siao.

As you can see, my school is located in deep mountain. What fresh air I have everyday!! Sometimes when I see people do sports in this crazy weather, I will unknowingly shake my head.... yes they r mad.

My lunch in school. 2,800won. Cheese kimchi soup I think and some stingy side dish...

vending machine in school.... if my sis study here, she will most probably empty this machine in 3 days.

This is one of the most frequent place I hang out in school. There is com, free coffee and people speak english there.

After dinner with some Korean friends yesterday, I came across this ice cream container in a shop. My brain stop functioning for 2 seconds when I saw the sign. Does it mean that Korean will get so excited that they will jump onto the container when they see ice-cream?

Bridge class today was terrible. If there is one game harder than GO, it will be contract bridge, to make things worst, I dunno what the crap the teacher is talking about. Heard that the teacher is a world class player and will be going to Malaysia for a tournament soon.

I am really grateful to the president of the bridge club in our department who stayed behind and try very hard to teach me in english. I cant believe there is joseki (that is the term he use) in contract bridge... formula will be a better word. GOSH!!! so many things to memorise!!! I totally miss floating bridge.

Maybe because I am a foreigner, some of the koreans are afraid to speak english to me and when they see me I got this feeling that they just seen a tiger escape from zoo. Good thing is they become very friendly when I start the conversation. I have a few problem though when communicating with them, some of them like to use the word "ok". They dont say it once but 2 to 3 times in a fast way like "okok", "okokok". The thing is when I ask " are you going home now?" he will reply "okok", "how old are you?", he reply "okokok". so i have to do some translation by myself, ok will be either yes or wait a moment.

Chaelim, the best english speaking student in our department will be going states for exchange next sem, looks like I have to start working on my Korean.

I cant seems to communicate with LH. I will need to discuss this topic with Cindy.

Weekend tmr!!! Have to start thinking what to do....

This is the place where I have breakfast most of the time. Is just toast but is super nice. Is call ISAAC. Singapore should have this, I think it will be super popular.

They have this special sauce in the bread, is like korean version of kaya which I think is 100 times better than kaya.

This building looks like some astronomy club but this is the place where I have Chapel.


The interior of the building looks like an auditorium.


There will be performance like this and the pastor will start talking lots of stuff, I guess is something holy. Everyone will then need to write on a piece of paper the summary of the chapel session and what new things I have learn, well this is the hardest part of chapel cause I have no clue what the pastor are chanting about and that piece of paper will decide your pass or fail. So I will have to come up with some crap which I think whoever sees it will think I am a holy person, haha.


I see this shop everyday cause is at the entrance of my school. The name of this shop is call TOP MART. But every time I see the 2 black wording I feel like laughing cause is sort of pronounce as 妈的....


I had mac for dinner yesterday. This meal cost me 3000won, around the price of Singapore Happy Meal. They have this chicken wrap which SG dont have and I think is nice. Bad thing is that they dont serve CHILLI SAUCE!!! only ketchup..


The condition of this mac branch is really bad. The table behind me is as if my best friend, SIAO GAO has been here.

Watched the movie World Invasion. Is the best movie I have watched so far in Korea, rather than an alien (there r some creatures inside) show I think is more of a army related movie. NS regular, NSF and those who want to sign up should really watch this show, is worth the money and time.

Finally!!! I am now an alien in korea. With this wonderful card I can get my bank acc, hp and internet!!


One of the first few things I did was to apply this card. Is a point card in E-mart where you can accumulate points to get discount (gosh, sounds like my granny). I think I spend more than S$700 in that place already.


Last Sunday I have no choice but to clean my room, is just too dusty....



I have to clear my bed and everything else cause there are dust EVERYWHERE.... cleaning up my room is worst than NS life. Maybe I should get a vacuum cleaner...


I have to practice my uno stacko skill in the balcony so that I can mop the floor. Stacking pillow, bolster etc like that is dangerous cause the balcony floor is super duper dirty, if it drops.. ho ho ho... i will slap myself.


I think I will be rich if I open cotton candy shop, dont need start up funds

Got a phone... motorola is the last brand I can thought of when it comes to hp but because my alien status in Korea only allow me to get prepaid card, my choice got quite limited. The shop owner choose this and this phone is a lot better than I thought.

Introducing my current best friend in Korea......

I still have not decided on his name, hmm.. most probably it will be either "ah-siao" or "siao-gao".As his going-to-be name suggest, my friend here is sometimes short circuit up there... Good news is he recognize me and seems to be really happy when he sees me (of course, i bring food) and I manage to train him to seat as shown in the above pic, haha. Yup, I have been feeding him everyday with dog food and even got him such a nice bowl, haha.

Act cute pic......

Stoning.....

Got him a new toy today, a ball!!! The moment I throw him the ball, I knew the 2 names for him were perfect. He started jumping around and tried to communicate with the ball.... Ok, should not talk about ah-siao/siao-gao anymore cause later Cindy thinks I dont treat her as a friend. Dont worry Cindy, your status is slightly higher than him even though I didnt buy food or bowl for you, muhahahha..

The first week I reached Korea, Cindy and her bf brought me to Korean BBQ Buffet. The price is really cheap, around S$11-S$12, where can you get buffet in Singapore with this price?

Even though is nice I have only ate BBQ in Korea for 2 times so far cause too much of it is really unhealthy. Think my sis will eat it everyday.

Of course I didnt take that fish, Cindy took it. Isnt it strange to bbq that? What if the eyeball suddenly burst?

The meat are really nice.

Bridge lesson yesterday was interesting. Contract Bridge is much more challenging then Floating Bridge, you have to think really far and plan ahead, wah, sounds like GO, haha. We have to buy bridge text book, it cost 10,000won (S$11+) and is all in korean.... Before we leave the teacher gave us a pack of poker cards as gift. Huat Ah!!

As I was walking back home from school yesterday, I realize it was Friday but I wasnt feeling the weekend mood at all. Maybe because everyday seems to be like weekend for me? So far i enjoy living in Korea cause you can do whatever you want, of course the bad part is that sometimes is quite lonely. Well, I think I am quite good at self-entertaining cause I manage to find things to work on.

My weekly plan to do up spring-cleaning in my apartment has failed, so far I have only did it once. Like most human, I am lazy... Thank goodness I bought a washing machine to do my laundry, if I have to hand wash them, I think I wont even have time to shit.