Today I went to korea baduk association with zhang qian to watch LG cup selection. At first I thought this trip was just photo taking and enjoy looking at their games but when I reach the competition venue I was taken by surprise by the atmosphere and the intensity of the games.

Firstly I have never seen so many pro players at one place competing against each other. The atmosphere is totally different from amateur competitions and you should see how serious all of them were. The time for this selection is 3hours, 5 times 60 seconds each. Can you imagine yourself seating there for more than 6 hours (u have 1 hour break), some even close to 7 hours just to finish one game. The pro players can really think a lot. I was there from 2pm to 5pm and just by looking at the various games I felt like vomiting when I left the place. Is really not easy to be a pro player. And this is just the second round of LG selection.

The competition area. Some matches were over before lunch break.

I think this is the youngest player in this selection and he attract quite a number of attention.

When I saw this player from far, I thought he is like the coolest pro player I have ever seen. Then i went nearer to see his name and I got a shock... He is the son of TAKEMIYA MASAKI (武宮 正樹).

The guy on the right is from myongji. I think this is one of the games that made me shake my head. The game covers only half of the board but the amount of calculation is scary...just one wrong move and you will need to resign.

Match fees. Wah!! You get more than SGD300 even if you lose the first round!!!

I thought the player on the right is going to scold the F word very soon. Why? Look at the next pic....

The time difference is just crazy... I think this is a good way to torture impatient opponent.

Seriously who on earth would have thought that this uncle here is a pro player. I mean he look exactly like the uncle at my void deck selling newspaper.

After today's trip I come to this conclusion.

GO is a damm bloody difficult game.

For the first time, all foreigners in the baduk department gather in Sebas room. We were there not to learn english but to play cards!! haha.

Side dishes. I come to realize that i am quite addicted to kimchi. Maybe because they are available in every meal so my itchy mouth would want to try them, haha. Some kimchi taste really good but there are some with weird taste (kimchi in canteen) but still edible.

Cindy and the China gang.

After the chinese guys finish their dinner (zha jiang mian), I saw this in their bowl. Did the boss of this restaurant get free supply of onion from the government?

Speaking of eating, I am not sure if i have mention this in my previous post, I got a culture shock when I see people eating in bus and in their MRT!!! So much freedom here!! haha. I think it will be super funny if you see people eating steamboat in front of you in the train.

Yesterday was tony's birthday and we went to a pub to celebrate. The beer in Korea seems really cheap, a pity that I dont drink them.

The student club president was there and he suddenly ask how old am I, I told him 25(korean age) and he smile and say "friend friend" and start shaking my hand (well, he is 25 too). Then he ask the chinese guys their age and they say 24, the president reply was"hmmm"... and he look some where else. hahahhahah. The power of age. I think the koreans can never imagine how we make fun of jc or james age in singapore.

Beef Lunch Box. Thanks to the efficient meal delivery service in Korea, I am getting lazy to walk to the canteen for lunch.

Welcome to Genting. I think the school looks really cool after rain.

Today after Chapel, we were all given 2 easter eggs. I have never seen anything so cute, muhahaha. Once I walk out of the chapel building most koreans have already started eating the hard boil egg. Seems like I am the only one who appreciate the design, haha. I wanted to keep one as souvenir BUT.... someone ate MY EGG right in front of me. Yes, I want to kill him.....

The time was 11pm when this photo was taken. Yes, I was still in school studying with some other korean friends. I am so hardworking right? haha, And guess which subject made me study so hard... Yes, is the game call bloody bridge. After 2 years in green uniform (army), I was afraid that my brain become too stupid to study but on the other hand 2 years of constant email engagement with YOU KNOW WHO balance off everything.

Went to seoul and we came across this tourist attraction. I am not very sure what is the name of this place.

A lot of people!! There was some ceremony on how the ancient korean guards change their shift in palace (i guess...). Actually I was more amaze by the view behind the gate, the mountain is really beautiful. Lets play a game, where is cindy and bf?

This is not a scene in da chang jin. They were standing outside the palace gates scaring tourist, haha. The wind was so strong and I wonder what happen if their fake moustache got blown away?

Had this for dinner with my korean friends after a talk by a pro player few weeks back. Is spicy tuna with rice. This is one of my favourite dish in Korea but is just too spicy. After the meal I will look as if i just finish bathing...

Haha, I will surely treat my sis to this when she comes korea. She hates mushrooms... muhahaha

Dinner in sebas club (english speaking club). I have never ate so much pizza and fried chicken when I was in Singapore... I am like eating them at least once a week now. Gosh i am going to be fatty daniel...

Xing wei is currently in Korea for tour with his family. I will be meeting him next week in Myongdong to shop in SPAO and walk around. Speaking of Myongdong, my shopping passion seems to die down, maybe is because I went there too many times. Great!! save money!!!

I need more alarm clock. Today for the first time I miss chapel. When i woke up, it was 10.20, the meeting time with Cindy for breakfast every wed, and she was outside my door pressing doorbell, muhahaha.

My strategy for waking up is to have 2 alarm clock placed far away from my bed so that it will be noisy enough to force me to wake up, walk towards them and off them. After a few weeks, this method stop working. When I hear them ring my brain will say, ok nice sound, please try harder, then I will continue sleeping. Maybe I should get 5 more clocks.

Today is the X times someone (restaurant owner) thought I am a korean. As long as I keep my mouth shut I think I can blend into the korean society with no one doubting my nationality. I realize I am getting whiter and whiter, no chance to expose to the wonderful sun in Singapore.

I think after 2 years my english will have slight improvement because when I talk to koreans here i have to speak properly with no singlish or sentence with both english and chinese. And when they ask me english question I cant reply "dunno la", "really meh", I have to construct my cambridge english carefully so that that wont learn the wrong thing, haha. Today chaelim ask me, what is the difference between 'Why dont we play football' and ' How about playing football'. Gosh......I have never thought of this question in Singapore before. To make sure I dont teach the wrong stuff I msg minyi and got her to ask her teacher and thats how I got the answer.

This friday is stupid brigde test. Y isnt it a Big 2 test? Maybe I should buy a huge bottle of wine and bribe the teacher before the test starts.

Delivery service!! As you can see there poker card on the table, I have introduce the wonderful game BIG 2 to my korean friends!! hahahah. Actually some koreans already know how to play BIG 2 but the suit sequence is different...

Singapore BIG 2- Spade, Hearts, Club, Diamond

Korean BIG 2- Spade, Diamond, Hearts, Club

Bridge- Spade, Hearts, Diamond, Club

These games are going to screw my mind.. I am afraid I might turn mad soon.

I know the gal on the right look like Cindy, well because she is Cindy!! haha. I think this is the first time I took a pic of her with other koreans.

Dinner. I spend most of my free time in this room cause it can stop me from shopping and I can communicate with more koreans.

I just realize the korean player in Man U, Park Ji Sung graduate from Myongji University. As I was reading about him in wikipedia, there was one sentence saying that he was selected into the olympics team due to a game of GO!!

When I communicate with some koreans, I was very surprise that quite a number of them who know about Singapore thought that Singapore is like North Korea. Not in living environment or economy but politics. They thought LKY is like KIM JONG IL.... one man showing controlling everyone. Well... are they right or wrong? haha

Went bowling with some koreans on fri. Wah, i never knew bowling can be so serious... They took like 5mins to decide the number of player on each lane and another 15mins to decide who is on which team. Is as if whichever team lose will have to have their hand chop off. At the end of the game, I was told that the losing team has to pay more. Of course my team won, muhahahaha...

I am really running out of stuff to eat in Korea. Compared to Singapore, the variety of food here is so little. Ok, I think is unfair to say little, maybe because I am picky, I dont like to eat instant noodle, western cutlet style food, cold noodle, the korean dough, spicy meat with rice. The food I dont eat look little here but the variety of them covers almost 3 quarter of the menu. I have been like eating the same food every few days. And the funny part is that their menu look so similar....is like they are all sharing the same menu. Kimchi fried rice taste better than I thought but some are too spicy. Ok, I will try something new tmr.

Today is a special day.

Because is the day I got my internet (FINALLY!!!!!). Now I dont have to go to PC bunk and come home with cigarette smell all over me.

Weather in korea is getting slightly better. The problem with spring is that if you wear too much is too hot, if you wear too little is too cold. Well, I am still figuring the right wear for spring. Another big problem of spring is that all the insects (siao gao's friend) will start to come out. I saw the first spider in my home last week. Cindy say centipede appear in her house before. I cant imagine what will happen if centipede crawl into my mouth when I am sleeping.....

When I was in sebas club, I saw one of the guys resting his legs (no shoe, only socks) on the back rest of a chair while another other girl was sitting on that chair. I was so surprise that the girl didnt find it weired or uncomfortable. Impressive... I mean if I do that in Singapore, most girls would have chop off my legs, those gentle ones may just fracture my legs. I should start to organize korea exchange program for my singapore female friends.

A senior in sebas club said some stuff to me during game review. The words he say seems to inflict a really big impact on me and I just cant forget what he say.

Oh, the reason why people are wearing military uniform in my previous post is because that day was reservist day for most guys in our school. Their reservist is only one day!!!

Went to korea university on saturday because there was a friendly match between the top 3 korea university and myongji university.

Yes, very fierce logo. Korea university is one of the top 3 uni (in academic, not GO) in korea. Seoul national and Yan Sae uni are also in the top 3 position. I was wondering why the korean name for this school is not han guk dae hak kyo then someone told me that last time, the korean name for korea is korea not han guk.

The campus is bloody nice. It doesn't even look like a school at all.

Competition area. 2 sections, a team format section and a individual section for freshmen.

This is the team format. This whole row consisting of only female players are from myongji uni. Because the players in our sch are too good, we are only allow to send female players, sort of like handicap for the rest of the school. But still, we won the other 3 uni.

Lunch!!! I think this is one of the cheapest bento in korea and it taste really good.

After you mix everything, it look like lunch for my best friend, siao gao.

After the whole event, yes.......BBQ again. Haiz... i think i am going to die of cancer real soon, I have like 2 BBQ dinner this week. Another reason I dont like about BBQ is because when you reach home, your whole home will smell like another BBQ restaurant.

One interesting thing about korean BBQ is that they BBQ kimchi too and it taste not bad.

I realize that LV is such a popular brand here, I see people carry this brand everywhere even in school. Some of my classmates carry such a huge LV bag I think even a blind man can sense the brand. And when I thought the queue outside takashimaya LV is long, ho ho ho, it is nothing compare to the queue here.

Getting on a bus is very interesting in Korea. When i frst came korea and saw how people board bus, i was a bit shock. Because even when the bus is 3 to 4 bus length away from the bus stop, you can see people running madly towards the bus as if they are going to get a free ride.

Last Thursday was the so call radiation rain in Korea so our lecturer for Baduk Education being a very kind man treat us lunch by ordering delivery so that we dont have to go out into the rain.

Chinese style food. Is funny to see that food sold in korean chinese restaurant are not available in China. I think the delivery man is a sad man cause he will have to come back a second time to collect back the plastic bowl.

Everyone is really hungry... maybe is the effect of radiation.

There was a performance competition between the ARTS School during the night in the chapel hall.

President of the 5 department in Arts School. Design, Sports, Baduk, Movie&Musical and Music.

As usual there was Korean BBQ after the whole event. Baduk department got 3 in the competition.

This is one of the better lunch set in the school canteen. Kimchi Fried Rice with 3 tiny meat balls! This is the inter department football match (finals), Baduk department vs Sports department. Of course we lost, 3-0. Most of the players in the sports department are from the school team. Baduk department supporter. The girl in red was insei last month, will be taking her pro test soon. When I first saw her i thought she was still in secondary school cause her face and her size doesnt seems to be uni student. I have to walk pass this resturant everyday, it sells traditional korean food.

Went there to eat with Cindy and her fierce looking bf, haha.

Cost 10,000won (cheapest set) per person. Is worth it for the number of dish but for the quality, I thought I was in a temple having vegetarian meal. I pity the person who is in charge of washing the plates.

In our department there is a english club call sebas (i think so) and I was there last wed to do my stuff and to know more koreans. I was so surprise that this guy (most right in the picture) came in and chaelim (president) told me he just join the club. I mean he is like the fiercest looking guy in our department and he is someone you dont want to mess with, most importantly he dont look like he is interested in english, haha. But after that day I realise he is actually a nice guy and he treat us dinner (chicken and pizza). I think delivery service is very very common in Korea, a lot of people call for delivery and they will send the food to the exact classroom. Ok, some intro of this picture, starting from the right, the act cute fierce looking guy whom you will never expect in your life was actually an insei in group 1, yes I think he is one of the strongest amateur player in our department. Next to him is chaelim, president of sebas and she was insei too. Beside her is 3 bear (direct translation from her korean name), she is a professional byo-yomi reader in baduk TV, lastly the guy on the left was an insei in group 2, very strong too.

This is not the F word in korean... Is pronounce as CHANG HAN SII ONG. Yes, you are looking at my new funny korean name. Whenever the teacher come to this name, they will pause for a few seconds before reading out, as if they come across their dad's name.

Most people in Korea was surprise that Singapore speak english, they thought we only speak chinese because we look like we are from China, haha. I cant believe that some people thought I was from Philippines!!

Alright, will post pictures of my 2day 1night orientation camp.

7 different groups. I am in group 4 which consist of the most number of pro but sadly they dont speak english.

Met up with everyone in school on saturday morning.

This is our new jacket, cost 30,000won. Haiz, my jacket size was too big for me and I cant change it.

Koran version of "chalet". Is huge but there are no shops near here so you have to bring all your food along.

Everyone helping to move drinks and food into the chalet, wait.. I think most of the freshmen are doing the job, haha..

It look like a warehouse inside the chalet. Is huge!!

Look at the number of soju and beer!!! Korean can really drink!!

I am not saying the girl is short but that packet of snacks is huge!! I was wondering can anyone finish this whole thing in a day?

This picture was taken just before we board the bus on the last day... yes, no one ate it....

There is even a small performance/bbq area at the back of the chalet.

Lunch time!!! So we have to seat in our group and have lunch. As you can see everyone is having a good time eating bento. But for my group............

BBQ chicken with no rice.... Oh my god, i was starving even after this meal....

This is most probably the second smelliest place in this camp. First place goes to the toilet.

Welcome to Thailand. One of the game they play is to cross dress. Seriously if I see these 2 dunno guy or girl at night on the street, I will give them a kick in the face for scaring me, haha..

You are now looking at the korean version of SHREK.

Dinner. The president of the student club helping to distribute the meat for the different group.

I think this is a scary pic. Look as if she just kill someone. She is actually cutting kimchi.

BBQ and Singing.

Yes, it is still very cold. BBQ pit serves another purpose here in Korea.

So after dinner, we go indoor to have second round of drinking and games. I thought it was quite funny when I saw the food and drinks position in this picture because it looks like some offering in the 7th month...

Ok, this pic is better. People started to gather around and start drinking.

There are many small groups and people will hop around to experience the different atmosphere and games.

I was in this group because they are more active in speaking english, haha.

Why am I not surprise that the lunch for the second day is instant noodles.