Was busy meeting with friends and reading lee chango and lee sedol biography these few days. Met up with chang seok last week for a farewell lunch. He is one of the first few closer male friends I have in Myongji and he helped me with my room internet when I was first here. His english is also one of the better ones among guys but he always use very difficult words in a conversation. For example "I am happy", he will use words like ecstatic, on cloud nine etc.. instead of the word happy. He is one reason why I think Koreans are pro in memorizing english vocabulary. Is sad to know that he wont be pursuing a GO career in future, most probably sick of GO during his insei times and wanting to earn more money.

Had seba final gathering yesterday and we had a late christmas exchange too. I was so worried about receiving present from "u-know-who" but in the end I got something which suited me best among all the present, a flip clock!

Went to watch Les Miserables together and before the movie, my sis was telling me how much she loves the movie. Honestly this is the worst 3h movie I have ever watched :( I wont say is a bad movie is just that I cant appreciate this kind of musical movie. I was suffering inside a movie theater for the first time in my life and if I were to watch alone, I would have walk out halfway through. And is impossible for me to fall asleep cause whenever I was about to enter dreamland, I would get waken up by their singing!! And whenever they change a scene I was hoping so much that they can just talk normally like human being but THEY START SINGING AGAIN!!!!! I think the effect was worst for the koreans cause so many of them (even Koreans that I dont know) were fidgeting and after we exit from the cinema, most of their face were blacker than mine hahaha.  

Had my first and last overnight mahjong session in school yesterday! It was really fun and we played for 8hours straight and in the end I won 900won (90 cents), tough money!! I am always impress by people who can pick things up so quickly cause is something that I cant. One of my Korean friend who learn on the spot can start playing already!!

 I have seen this drama poster many times but I was not keen to watch cause is another time travel drama like Faith. Minyi intro me this few weeks back and after watching it, I can understand why she likes it. It is really a romantic story and the main actress is so pretty! And after the drama, the couple in the drama end up as couple in real life!!

 Went to school on sun to study but the room was electronically locked by the security guard so I have to study at the entrance of the department. One thing I hate about our school is that the heater is not warm enough and it off by itself after sometime. They say is some government regulation to save mother earth but I think the school is just trying to save money!! haha

 Went to the school dorm for dinner. The food is... well, is free so I dont expect much.

I saw the school magazine and I was surprise they openly rate the president! Imagine if we do this to LKY, we will all end up in hell, haha. Anyway the presidential election is tomorrow and the legal age for voting in Korea is 18 (19 in korea). Isnt 18 still very very young? I mean even when you are 21 I am sure there are still many things you dont know about politics.

 After dinner in dorm, a few of us went back to the department to study. My last night study in Korea :(

 And we ordered this for supper!!!!! OMG, how can I not get a tummy with all these sinful food.

 Monday morning I was surprised to see some of my friends reaching early to mug for the chinese exam few hours later. I was so confident of the exam because I studied everything the teacher told me to even though I am tested in Korean instead. When I saw the first page of the paper, I could feel the smile on my face but when I saw the 2nd and the last page, I got a shock cause the teacher put in other topics!! When I asked the teacher about it he said he forgot!!! Thanks ah..

 And after the test, chicken again!!!! gosh....I really need to run run run when I am back in SG. The end of this exam also means that I have unofficially graduated from Myongji. Feel excited and a bit scare of the life of a non student next year onwards. No more getting $$ from parents and it will be a whole new different world. Will miss being a student though I still hate studying.

22 more days..

I suddenly felt that is impressive of mikyung to study her diploma in Singapore. I have long known that she is studying in sg but getting a diploma in a second language is really not easy.

Is tough memorizing all the korean GO terms for my baduk chinese exam on mon. I have seen korean friends memorizing english words and they just have to write a few times on paper to get it into their brain. I have tried this method but after writing the 5th word, I would totally forgot about the first word I wrote. So for me I have to create story to link the korean words (some words make no sense at all) and chinese words , the lamer the better so that I would have deep impression of it. While studying I came across this korean character that has the most stroke I have ever seen 밀어뚫다. Yes, the 3rd word.

Ok, 4 more pages to go!

The time has come for me to slip and fall during winter and it is bloody painful. Today Korea welcome the "best" weather combination, raining when the ground is full of snow. OMG... it is really slippery, is like walking on a melted ice skating ring, one wrong move and you will fall like a fool. hahaha. The worst part is walking up the slope to my school, it is so slippery that if you stop walking you will just slide downwards. Good thing about my fall is that it was during night time and no one was around if not it would be really embarrassing. No wonder I didnt get to see old people on the road today.

Ordered dinner from a new shop and it taste better than I expect. And is my first time seeing disposable utensils from delivery! Cause normally the delivery man will come back to collect all the utensils back. Even though is not environmental friendly, is a good choice in this crazy weather.

Last exam left. Baduk Chinese!!!!

25 days left. gosh...

Finally!!!! I finally found the title of this song. Love her voice.

 Have been so busy preparing my exams and forgot about updating my meals photo until my sis asked if I only ate on monday so far this week haha.

Had chinese delivery for lunch on tuesday. Food delivery is super convenient especially during winter where you dont have to take a step out of the room. But poor delivery man, tough money. I was surprised that people from hong kong dont like korean version of zha jian mian, or rather they hate the black sauce. So far all my singapore friends like this dish, i will miss it.

HUAT AH!! Had mj session after lunch cause one of my friend bought a mj set from china during an exchange program and she wants to learn how to play. Mj is such a great game and of course, they were hooked immediately! Too bad that my sg GO friends dont really play mj.

Semester ending party was more peaceful than I expected because is exam period so not everyone attended the dinner and the drinking was not much too. Thank god. Have been to this restaurant only 3 times in my 2 years. Maggie mee in spicy soup and chicken in very very spicy soup are not my cup of tea.

Went to a pub after the dinner and I got to eat this again!! The secret recipe to this bloody nice desert is 70% milk, 30% cider and lots of cut fruits. I must make this when I am back in sg.

 I totally forget to take any pictures on Wednesday because I was too hungry in the afternoon and too tired at night. And the worst part is I had delivery from the same restaurant for both meals..

 Because it was such a bad dinner, I have to buy cakes from the cafe beside my house to cheer myself up haha. I never know lemon cakes are so nice.

 Had lunch today with my class because our teacher wanted to treat us. This time I totally forget to take pic because I was too excited to eat even though is just chinese food. Koreans are really scary..despite having exams few hours later, they still wanna drink chinese wine (56% alcohol level)

Dinner in dormitory  I was quite happy when I see the dish but the taste is........haiz.. bad memories haha.

Really like watching King of Dramas cause I have not watched such funny dramas for a long long time. Is good to laugh. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

was planning to wake up at 10am, have lunch in sch, do my report and meet friends for dinner. Whao, it was  my perfect monday plan. BUT when I woke up, it was already 1pm, shit..plan gone...have to get my lunch in this bento shop on my way to school.

I was upset by a very small matter. I got this friend (non korean)and we were in this same class. We are going to have this kifu exam this thursday so we are suppose to print out 7 kifus n memorize them. Today I wanted to print them so I went to ask him if he needs a copy and his reply was he already printed. I mean isnt this like "sense" (konglish) to ask if I need a copy when he is printing his especially when we are the only 2 foreigners in that class? If my son is like him in future, I think I have fail my job as a dad. These are the kind of stuff that are not taught in school so how are you going to teach your kids about it?

Had these fatty pork for dinner. They are really nice but the downside is that you will smell like shit after leaving the place. Will miss this.

since is my last month in Korea, I shall post the food I eat for my last 31 days starting from today.

went to this chinese restaurant in a mall 45mins away from my place. I always wanted to eat there but it looks so "high class" and I was afraid that they dont entertain 1 person cause is like those restaurant on the 6th/7th level in takashimaya. Black noodles was the first thing on my mind but I end up eating this beef with rice because it look really like a real chinese food. You can see how desperate I am to eat non korean food haha.

5 reports, 3 exams, 31 days to go.

Yes, it is the start of the winter nightmare! The average temperature now is below 0 and as I am typing, the temperature in yahoo weather (my best friend now) shows -7. I remember that I almost died last year cause it was really really cold for me but this winter seems so much better. Is still cold but bearable maybe because I know what to expect already.

Snow is really beautiful when it is from far. But when you need to walk in snow, it is a total horror. First your hand will be as cold as ice cream and the floor is so bloody slippery when they start to melt so is impossible to walk at normal speed. I asked my korean friends if they have special shoe to counter the slipperiness and they say there is some special stuff that can be tied to your shoe to make it work. And when I ask why no one seems to be wearing that, she replied is not fashionable. hahaha. Indeed, all koreans are fashion leader.

And because of snow, a lot of classes are cancelled due to the bad traffic. Even prof Nam, who is famous for finishing her class till the last min release us half an hour earlier!! She say the snow is big, should go home earlier. I was thinking how bad can the traffic be. Well, normally the journey for her to go back is half an hour but on that snowing day, it took her 6 hours!! Is crazy!!!

Had my last presentation in myongji university today. Dont understand how can time pass so fast. Next week is the end semester party and I think I will be forced to drink a lot since is my last few weeks in Korea. NO!! I dont want to die!!!

33 more days :(

Skipped school for a week and joined my relative for skiing and tour in seoul. Skiing was... well, looks really fun but not the sports for me. I think I almost break my leg during the skiing lesson, was quite a nightmare for me. The instructor was quite impatient with us because his english was not good and he find it hard to communicate with us. I am sure he rolled his eyes behind his oakley sunglasses when we have difficulty doing the basics, haha.

Through this trip, I get to know my cousins better. The real him is so different from the person I saw once a week in our granny's place. Overseas trip can really let you know more about a person. Looking at him makes me think of how I used to behave when I was his age. Time flies.

 After looking through tons of camera reviews, I went to buy my first fujiflim camera. I never thought that I would buy this brand because the normal brands are samsung, sony,canon, nikon etc..What attracted me is the retro design, the quality of the pictures and of course the PRICE. I was planning to get those mirrorless camera where you can change the lens (not dslr) but most of them cost 100 more :( Need to start reading up on how to use the all features in this camera.

This was my previous camera and it has been with me for more than 5 years. Unlike my new camera, I did no research when I bought this camera. I just walk into the shop try a few times and bought it. I was lucky that this camera is good and durable to last me this long.

39 days before leaving Korea. Hope to take more pictures of Korea before leaving.

Alvin has been telling me to watch the Korea movie "old boys" for sometimes and halfway through I gave up because the content is a bit dark and extreme. Then after reading zx's blog about this show, I decided to endure throughout but still I dont understand why they think is a good movie haha. I understand the twist at the ending is unexpected but I am just too turn off by the middle part.

Few days back I was in Seoul and I was walking behind 2 old women with a dog. We passed by a crowded place and one of the old women was left in the crowd and the women with the dog carry on walking. Then after a while, the dog refuse to move and when the old women look down at the dog asking why, the dog turn its head and face the crowd telling her that her friend is not with them. When I saw this moment I was really surprise. I know dogs are smart but I didnt know that they are so this smart haha.

Yesterday was homecoming day and this is when alumni of our department come back for meet up and friendly GO match. The number of seniors who came back was fewer than I expected but overall the event was quite good. There were 2 groups of competition, one was the open group where most players were ex insei, 8/9d in tygem. Is a group format of 5 and is by the school year. In the end 09 got champion. The other was the EVENT group which is a random pick of groups of 5 and it consist of 3 different rounds GO. The first round is call plus/minus GO. There are a few plus and minus sign on the board and if you play on the minus point (usually good position on the board) you have to throw dices and the amount will be deducted from your overall territory and plus sign are usually at the first line or bad position on the board. Second round is call ~~ (dont remember haha) where is normal GO game but you cant form positions where 4 stones are connected together like 4 in a row, the L shape, the Z shape and the square shape. My opponent for this round resign because a net move cause his large group to be trap and when we were about to review, he suddenly scream cause I wasnt able to block if he try to escape from the net. I was like omg... i din see that too hahaha. The last round was GO, korean chess and i chess group match.

We should have all these interesting and not so serious games for youth connection to bring the different schools together. And after looking at fb pics of swa events I realized that if I am a newbie in GO and I want to know more about these events, there are no ways for me to know because these events are not publish on the website. In future we will need to publish simple writing for every event and competition like those in TOM so that members know what is going on.

Watched this movie about a girl entering marine despite all the discrimination against female in crazydrama yesterday and I am so impressive by korean army (even though is just a show). Their army system is quite different from Singapore's and I like the way they salute to each other and shouting out 충성 or 필승, I think is so cool, haha. In sg army, everyone will just heck care and try to avoid eye contact if they pass by officer, haha.

In game theory class today, we learnt the difference between chinese chess and korean chinese chess. While they look 98% similar, the movement of some pieces are completely different. First there are no river in korea c chess so our clumsy elephant friend can go where ever they want. The way elephant move is different too, instead of the 田 move, they have to move one space forward before playing the 田 move. 炮 cannot capture 炮. And the strangest rule is that if you want you can switch the position of 象 and 马!! oh and the 将 starting position is in the middle of the palace (on the second line)

What interested me more is Shogi!!! The rule is quite amazing because the pieces you capture can be reused as your own piece and you can drop them anywhere on the board (with some restriction) anytime you like. But it took me a while to memorize all the movements of the pieces as they are more complicated than chess. I really like the shogi pieces cause the wording is so nice, got this very art feel haha. I must get a set for collection!!

NO!!!!!!!! Why so fast -1........

Is my first time seeing the windy symbol and indeed is very windy. Good day to stay at home and watch drama, haha.

My secondary school friends are coming in end dec for tour and gosh...the planning part is a nightmare. Everyone has a different mindset of the trip and is so hard to please everyone. Worst is I might have to do all the advance booking. How come I din face such problems when wj and xw came to korea last year.

Not sure if I blogged this before, in almost all restaurant, bars, pub etc. they have all kind of charger and customer can charge their dying phone for free! Is so customer friendly in Korea :) In singapore they might say that electricity bill is too high to provide such service, haha. Or they do provide now?

Really like this song. From the drama "Horse Doctor"

Someone told me that from my blog entry my life in korea seems so good and that I should blog about bad things too. Ok, your wish come true.

I remembered reading minyi's blog and there were 2 entries that totally describe how I felt as a foreigner studying in overseas especially the part where she said she miss being able to express herself. Indeed, is just so so difficult to express everything I want to say and for someone who likes to say lame stuff and talk cock, this is very torturing. It is very difficult to explain everything in details, is difficult to start a conversation, is difficult to express how I really feel, is difficult to participate in discussion. And because of so much difficulties, I usually end up keeping quiet and observe what is going on instead. Last month in KPMC, there was an incident where one of my friend got scolded for being late and in his defense, he said that it was me who didnt inform him the correct time when it was him who overslept. Is difficult to explain all the details to defend myself and if I insist on doing that, I might make things worst. This are the times where I hope I dont understand Korean at all.

And because I am the only Singaporean in my department (most probably in sch too) is difficult to travel around Korea like how other singaporeans exchange students do where they travel in groups during their weekend. Most of my sg friends who do their exchange here traveled to more places than I do. Travelling alone is boring and is not that I dont want to ask korean friends out but almost all of them go back to their home which are dunno how many donkey hours away during weekend.

Tough life I have in Korea.

Went to watch the James Bond movie today and it turned out to be quite bad. I remembered the past 007 movies were really action packed but this one has too much talking scenes. There is this scene where one of 007's female colleague enter 007's room and started helping him shave his beard and the conversation between them has no link to the movie at all. And why does this version of James Bond looks like a villain?? I thought this character is suppose to be smart and good looking. Anyway he look a bit like Voldemort...

Speaking of movies, the movie theater I went today is really good. The chair will vibrate according to gun shots or explosion and the seats are so spacious where you can cross your leg without hitting the seat in front. And there are couple seat which are sofa kind and they have tall separators dividing the different couples like a cubicle. And the best part is that the seat are placed in such a way that no matter how big the person's head is front of you, it will never block your view.    

I still dont understand the refill culture in Korea. For someone who is born and grew up in Singapore, this refill culture is too good to be true! Like you can refill your drinks in almost all fast food restaurant and in our school canteen if you finish your food you can get them to refill the food for free!! I was wondering what will happen if a Korean (who thought sg got the same culture) ask for refill in singapore McDonald? I would want to see the expression of that staff.

My korean friends started the craze of playing the game "scramble with friends". I am seriously blind when I play this game, is so hard to find a word. Then when I look at all the available words at the end of the game, it felt so ridiculous cause the words suddenly seems so obvious! I need to stop inviting people, is too disgracing hahaha.

슈퍼스타K 4 - [슈퍼스타K4] 로이킴&정준영's "먼지가되어" Two thumbs up by Gangnam Style "PSY"

This song is quite popular recently due to the audition program "superstar K". I always thought this is an original song until today when chaelim told me that it was a song from a genius singer who committed suicide more than 10 years ago. Is such a good song and a pity that we cant hear better songs from him anymore.


The original version.

65 more days to D-day. The day that I will have to say good bye to korea. I used to think that I will be really sad on this day but I think I will be too excited to feel it cause I will be going london on this particular day. Guess I will feel the sadness when I start unpacking my boxes of stuff from Korea.

Was removing the posters in my room and I felt a little regretful on why I was so enthu in the first place putting up all these crap because the bluetacks are leaving marks on the wall!!! I am so dead... The landlord is going to deduct money from my deposit :( I still remembered very clearly that when she came into my room on the second day after I moved in to fixed the toilet, her eyeballs almost pop out when she saw me pasting 20 small posters in one corner of the room. Is a good thing that she doesnt have heart problem because 2 weeks later, there are 50 more big posters on the wall.

Anyway I should be the one getting heart attack because when I reach the bottom part of wall to remove the posters, I saw big patch of molds on the wall!!!!And in my sleeping position, my head is just a few cm from this disgusting black molds!! AHHHHHHH!!!! Can you hear my scream!! Is so bad that I leave my posters there covering the molds. Time to change my sleeping position....

Morale of the story: bloody black molds do grow underneath your posters. 

Went to 광주 for KPMC and work as the kifu recorder there. We were planning to stay there for only 2 nights but because there were no more bus seats, we have to go back to the hotel for 1 more day. At first I was worried about this part time job because most of my friends decided last min not to go due to some salary unhappiness and only 1 korean I know from my school is going. Even though the rest of the part timer were from my school, I have never seen them before because they were either in NS or taking school breaks.

Have been sleeping for only 2 hours every night for the past 3 days but these 3 days were really memorable. I got to know new korean friends and even though is just 3 days, it felt like I have known them for so long. The experience this time was totally different from last year mainly because of my slight improvement in korean language. One of my biggest regret is not having to work hard enough to study more korean before I attend myongji, so I have decided to continue studying korean even when I graduate so that I can keep in contact with the friends I made in korea. These 3 days were definitely one of the best memories I have in my Korea stay.

Ok, now to the "bad memory" of this trip. We were playing cards on the last night and because there were no GO stones, we have to use snacks as chips and halfway through a drunk senior suddenly came into our room. The next 2 hours were the most torturing 2 hours in the whole trip. First, he started eating our chips and we couldnt do anything about it because his "rank" (age) is is 2 or 3 years higher than me and the rest of my korean friends were 2 to 4 years younger than me. Then he started giving "lectures" to everyone and because he was drunk he keep repeating the stuff he said, like he asked me which year I am currently now at least 3 times. The worst part is the 1 shot drink. There were no beer at that time so we used water instead and I felt like I was back in my army tekong days where we were forced to bottles up every few hours. This drunk senior keep offering us cups after cups of water and is impossible to reject him. After the 3rd cup, I felt like vomiting on him.

Personally I think that this is the "dark side" of korean culture. As age is authority, people younger cant do much but to obey almost everything the senior say. If this drunk senior incident happen in Singapore I think we will most probably force him to vomit out our chips and then kick him out of the room, hahaha.

In the game theory class today, prof nam intro the game Checkers to us. When I was in Singapore, I remembered seeing people playing this game especially in front of malay barber shop or sometimes in coffee shop. Even though I have seen quite a few times, I wasnt curious about the rules at all because it looks too "simple".

The game turned out more interesting than i thought and I was really having fun playing it. It reminds me of the time when I first started GO. Sad to say that if is not for today's game, I would have forgotten that I once having this kind of "feelings" for GO. I guess the reason why I was really enjoying playing Checkers is because there was "freedom", I could play anywhere I want. In GO, of course I can play anywhere I want but when you have reach a certain level (eg.1dan), you will get to know more knowledge about the game and this will restrict you from playing as freely as a beginner. And the fear of losing to someone weaker than you adds stress to every game you play. Still I hope I can find back the motivation and passion to improve more.

I was surprised when prof nam told us that the most popular game in korea now (korean version of bejeweled) was created by a student from myongji!

Few days back, I decided not to renew the website of GOSHOP when the web host have expired. It was quite a sad moment for me cause my sis put in quite an effort when making the site and I didnt managed to take one last good look before it was terminated by the web host. I learnt a lot through this experience, be it business area or when dealing with baduk player. I did not regret making this decision of setting up GO SHOP. To be honest, I was a bit sad and disappointed when some of my closer friends in swa did not buy any stuff from the shop. Is not about the money I want to earn from them, if is for money I would not have started this. Is about the kind of support friends give to a seller and even if they get the cheapest stuff, it would be very much appreciated. To a seller, this kind of support means a lot. Last year before going back singapore for vacation, I remember asking munyi on fb what I can get for her in Korea and she replied "dont really need anything but I wan to get your tumbler". When I saw her reply I was really touched and I know I will never forget this. Another incident which upset me was the removal of the shop link from swa site. I did not pay a single cent to swa for putting up the link and is perfectly reasonable if they want to remove it but I was upset that no one tells me they are going to remove it when everyone in the exco knows me. I understand they replaced it with the tygem link but when I look at the next link, "world go oza 2008", a link which expired 4 years ago and is still hanging there makes me feel hormones unbalance. 

Of course I am no longer upset since all these had long pass. 

Went dinner with the prof assistant and the masters students because they wanted to have a belated birthday dinner with me. The topic that we talked about during dinner was quite interesting and it once again let me understand more about korean culture.

The most unexpected topic is plastic surgery. I am surprise that even koreans asked if korea ps is really that famous and popular because this seems to be a well known fact to everyone. And I was told that the reason to go through ps is to have a better chance in job interview or prevent getting bullied in school for being "ugly". Indeed, first impression is too important in Korea. This reminds me that is so difficult to spot fat people in Korea, especially in university.

Personally I think ps is ok because if going through ps can make a person happier or make someone gain confident and as long as you dont get addicted to "changing of face", what harm does it brings? As people get more exposed to dramas and good looking people, I believe that this "first impression trend" will start to develop in other asian countries too, even in singapore.

Like few weeks back when I met my sis friend (5 years younger than me), they were looking for insoles or boots which will make them look taller and they all use facial products. When I was at their age I would never imagine myself putting facial products and who on earth will try to wear insole at the age of 20 in singapore? Times change.

During the dinner, I also asked how koreans have such great complexion. And they say is "all money" because some koreans may spend a lot on facial shop and cosmetics. And when I look at the complexion of those people telling me this, is so good... 설마..

 Brought a group of chinese exchange students and teachers from wuhan to seoul today for one final shopping before they leave tomorrow. After today's experience, I wonder why have I been complaining about friends who can really shop in my previous post. Seriously they are nothing compared to this group of people. They are so scary... they can shop inside this small nature republic shop for more than half an hour and I dunno what they are trying to do when they have walked around the shop for more than 10 rounds. Impressive.
I asked one of the student when they started looking tired..

me: 你的老师不累吗？
student: （无奈的表情）她是搞体育的。。。

hahahaha!! I really find her answer funny. If is not for the official dinner with the Koreans professors, they would have continue roaming around and I think I will most probably need to get a wheelchair.

I was so afraid that they choose the typical red and spicy korean food for the dinner but it turned out to be international buffet!! This is definitely one of the best meal I had in Korea.

I saw something weird in one of the sushi. Is it the latest trend in the sushi world to put these color sprinkles on sushi? I think if the traditional japanese sushi master sees this, he will most probably chop off the hand of the chef who made this.

As I was enjoying choosing the buffet food, I suddenly saw this in one of the corner and I was like WTF!! why is there a memorial service here. Then when i read the banner it wrote "happy birthday". I was totally stunned because this scene look exactly like memorial service in the US, how can it be birthday?? Anyway is good to know that we share the same birthday. haha.

After dinner our professor and the professor from wuhan university sign some exchange program agreement and I thought this kind of scene only appear in tv or in news. I actually felt amazed to see the actual thing, hahaha!!

Happy 25th Birthday!! It took me a few seconds to remember my actual age because I have been so used to the korean age system for the past 1 and a half years and sometimes i actually forget my real age, haha.

Having 25 years of experience on earth, I have learnt many things, met good and bad people, been to countries that my parents have not been before, tasted food that others may not have. If you ask whether I am a happy person now, I would say yes. But if I were to answer this question 2 or 3 years back, I would most probably say no. Is always never enough for people, we just want more but I have learnt that we should slow down our pace and look around us, appreciate and treasure what you have now because they wont be there forever. And stop complaining about everything because there are people who are in a worst situation compared to you.

25 years old will be my last year studying in school. I know very well that I am not a study person and I am really grateful that I managed to pass all my major exams especially my poly exams. I see myself as more of a creative, think out of the box, not following the norm person and because of this people may see me as being unrealistic. To me the word unrealistic means a different mindset or perspective. 10 years ago, if someone were to say that he will come out with touch screen phone and it will be smaller and thinner than any other phone (at that time) , people will say that he is siao and being unrealistic. But because of this unrealistic idea, it brought us changes.

5 years from now and I will be 30. Where will this unrealistic brain of mine brings me to?

I was on the bus one day and I suddenly realize that I am a descendant of people who survived the WW2, the WW1, the china revolution, the Qing, Ming, Yuan dynasty (too many to list), the 3 kingdom period etc. Is impressive how my ancestor managed to survive all those terrible wars and fighting. Even though I was born in Singapore, my grandfather was from China so if I have a chance, I would like to go to his hometown and know more about my "blood line".

5 years ago on my birthday, I received a call in bugis clubhouse telling me that one of my taekwaondo friend pass away in an car accident. He was my first friend I know to have pass away. Looking at his memorial youtube video brings back so much memories of taekwondo life and reminds how cheerful and kind a person he is.

Ah Wee, I hope you are in a better place now. Rest in peace.

I am so dead. I woke up late for my class again, 1 more time and I will be in deep shit. Time to get my fourth alarm clock.

It was only until today that I realize google map is such a useful tool! I was using it to explore Singapore and I am no longer homesick! haha. I am so fascinated by it. Ok, I know, i am a bit outdated haha. Use google map to explore the area we are going to stay in london and the exterior of the hotel looks so disappointing. Pictures in hotel website are indeed deceiving. I hope the room wont be that bad.

I finally give up on J.K Rowling's latest book. I think I wasnt even halfway through. I tried my best to read it but I end up dozing off almost 99% of the time. I want to sell this big bloody bulky book, anyone interested? haha 

Mahjong session in class tmr! I read up the Korean rule abit and is quite different from SG's version. The biggest difference is that they dont use the bamboo suit and the minimum "tai" to win is 2 points. Hand is getting itchy!!

K.Will - Please Don't... [MV] [HD] [Eng Sub]

My sis was asking me to watch this MV. She said it was funny but even after watching halfway through I still have no idea where is the funny part, I thought she said is funny because the guy in this MV is the lead in reply 1997 too. But when I finish watching this MV I literally open my mouth wide open. Is so impressive how they can make a twist in less than 4 mins.

I thinking I am losing my passion for shopping. Went to myeongdong and another big mall near my place (not really near, 45mins) and I actually felt bored. The urged to buy stuff is no longer there maybe because of the autumn/winter wear they are selling now. There goes one of my hobby in Korea.

Today is a really crazy day for me because I dragged a total of 35kg of stuff up my bukit timah hill university 2 times!! With the cold weather and everyone wearing long sleeves I think I am the only one sweating like a dog in my school. Anyway the reason for all these torture is because I am starting to send my stuff back to Singapore before the boxes in my school post office runs out. But when on earth did I buy this much amount of books? Before I came to Korea, my mum was telling me that her biggest nightmare is me buying too many GO books in Korea, man.. she is indeed my mum, knows me really well. But I think more than half of it are gifts from friends.

When I reach the post office, I was sweating so much that the staff pass me a box of tissue and ask if I want the air con temperature to be lowered haha. And after squeezing all my stuff into a box, the weighing scale gave a loud ring and went haywire The staff then told me that overseas package only allow a maximum of 30kg and my was way beyond 30kg. This means that I have to repack my books into 2 boxes and it will be more expensive!! I think my mum is going to scream when she receives them next week.

While I was packing my stuff, I saw the gifts my sis and friends gave me when they sent me off at the airport. This one was done by my sis and I remembered that I cried when I read it on the plane. It was really touching and it shows that my sis really grew up, not the crazy mad women I knew with the objective of destroying my room anymore. These 2 years she did much better than I thought and even got such a great job, I am really proud of her.

A 2011 handmade calender made by my secondary school friend huishan. I was really surprised by this because she did this despite her busy schedule and I think people at my age wont really bother doing handmade stuff anymore. She even wrote "future note" for every month where I should open up those notes and read them when I reach a different month.

How can I not mention the gift I receive my buddy wenjun. When I open up the first page and I saw 2 of his swa name card, I thought it was just 2 name cards so I didnt really flip through and put it back to my bag. One year later in Korea, I decided to re-read all these gifts and when I came upon wen jun's gift again, I "accidentally " flip through and I saw...

HIS HIDDEN MESSAGES!! Hahahaha I remembered I stunned for like 10 seconds when I saw that there were writings behind the name cards. Thanks friend for the surprise hahaha.

I got this from my poly buddies. When I saw the box packaging, I knew immediately that it is a container for GO stones from kino bookstore and I was expecting it to be the cheap plastic kind. When I open the box on the plane and saw the inner wood grain on the cover, my mouth was literally wide open. Because I have seen this exact same one few years back and it cost 220SGD! I really wanna thank them for being so supportive of my passion for GO and my decision for the 2 years korea studies.

And now less than 3 months to graduation.

Time is one scary monster :(

If there is one thing interesting about the baduk history homework , it would be the deep relationship between GO and the Nazi during the world war.

Is surprising that GO was involved in politics.

I was watching the US presidential debate last week and it turns out more interesting than I thought. Is impressive how they sound so convincing about their future plans when no one knows if they will really work, haha. Watching this kind of debate teaches you how to bullshit your way through and how to avoid answering directly to a specific question. Cant wait to watch the vice presidential debate in 2 days time!

In the party yesterday, a korean asked me if the word shut up is a rude word and my 25 years of human experience tells him it is. Tony a Canadian who was beside us immediately said that shut up is not a rude word and is used very commonly in his country. I have no idea if he is trying to attract attention or try to prove that he is a english native speaker. And I asked him "really? how is shut up not a rude word?" And this is his reply

"in school teachers scream shut up to noisy students" and he carry on insisting his logic.

which teacher on planet earth wont shout shut up to crazy kids unless that teacher is a monk. I really hate this kind of argument and if is not wanting the korean to learn the wrong thing, I wont bother continuing the conversation with him.

Just came back from a crazy drinking party. Soju mix with beer is really a powerful drink, I dont know how koreans can drink so many cups of them. Playing drinking games with koreans is a big disadvantage for foreigners because of the language and because of it i have to 1 shot two full cups of soju mix with beer. The main problem is not the taste but the stomach because you feel very bloated. Immediately after the second cup I can feel the giddiness in my head.

I have never been drunk before and I am really curious how it feels but after seeing what drunk people are capable of, i am worried. haha.

Forget to mention the reason for this drinking party. Our department won champion for the women soccer and we even won the sports department. When we were against the sports department we were given 2 points as handicap but in the end the result was 4-0 for us. Our main star player is chaelim, I dunno what is she doing in baduk depatment, she should be in sports department instead, a waste of her talent haha.

Met this korean who I knew in thai u go 2 years ago. He is serving army now and he came back for the party. I am surprised that he still remembers me because most go player I met before seems to have problem remembering people, haha. He told me that he is a very good friend of mikyung and is so amazing that I have met so many koreans who are really good friends with mikyung. There was once mikyung bought a tumbler from me and asked me to mail to one of her best male friend ( i have no idea who he was cause mk din tell me his name) and after like 1 year I then realize I know that person too haha. The baduk world is indeed small. Is just sad to think that this might be our last meeting since I will be going back sg and he will be in the army.

I have to finish 2 baduk history assignments tmr, hope I can complete them.

Hope I am not writing crap after drinking so much.

If there is K-pop group that I like, I think it would be FT-Island. Even though I have no idea how many members are there in the group and I dont even know their names, I really like their songs. The first song in my playlist now is a song from their latest album and I like the chorus part a lot.

Talked to long sheng past few days on fb and it brings back so much NS memories. I think I am quite fortunate to be posted to that particular unit because I learnt a lot from my boss and met many good friends. I can never forget how we can end up arguing regarding the air-con temperature because a group of us (mainly me) thinks that the air con temperature should be at 24 (which is already very cold) while another group wants it to be at 18 as they have this fantasy of making our office into Genting Highland. Miss the days where we stay in to play games, having night run around the camp, having our swimming and tanning session during lunch break, talking cock with ST staff etc.

 Many people may envy me because my vocation was admin so to them it means I could slack in air-con office all day long. But the fact is everyday I either see how "dirty" office politics is or I have to face office politics myself and this really enlightened me that EQ is so important in the working world and how fake the working world can be. The sad story is that school never teach us this thing call EQ and we can only learn it through observation and experience.

Went for a hair cut today and this routine never fail to surprise me. I went to the place where I had my 2 previous cut and today I was expecting the same person to do the cutting for me. When I reach, the assistant who was previously doing the washing and drying of hair guided me to my seat and asked me how do I want my hair to be cut. Then he suddenly took out a scissors and started cutting.

I am like, omg... when did he get promoted? And is obvious that he is quite green because of the way he grab the hair, hold the scissors, the strange cutting positions etc. If anyone there could hear my thoughts, he would be hearing me screaming throughout the cut. I am now considering if I should go back to the same place for my next cut.

Tomorrow is a public holiday again. Sleep :)

Met up with my sis's friends today and brought them around myeongdong and dongdaemun. Young people really have so much energy, I have never walk so long and so much around myeongdong. At first I was quite worry about the generation gap because we are like 5 years difference but everything turned out better than I expected. Looking at them makes me wonder what was I doing when I was 20, sadly i dont have much memories of it. In the past when people know that I am 6 or 7 years younger than them, they will tell me that being young is good and I always dont understand why would they say such stuff. Now that when I look at my sis's friends, I finally understand how they feel.

My sis and her friends were in the same primary, secondary and even poly, something I am so amazed and envious of. They told me how scary my sis was when she was in her primary school and how she bullied them. muhahaha! I find it so interesting to hear about my sis from another perspective because is impossible to know all these even though we are siblings living in the same house.

I was talking to 승재 on kkt yesterday and he intro this movie call bestkid, saying that is a very nice show. So I went to google it but I cant find this movie at all. He say is a show by jackie chan so i went to search bestkid in korean search engine and the movie turns out to be The Karate Kid... Is so rare that the korean name is so different from english one cause normally it sounds almost exactly the same.

Speaking of jackie chan I am surprised that his korean name is 성룡. Someone was asking me about him in korean and I thought 성룡 is some kind of food, hahaha. And all the koreans I met thought that he is from China. Not just jackie chan but all hong kong stars haha.

Today is 추석 and there are more shops out there which are open than I thought. I was still planning to have my meals in convenience stall.

Heard from a friend that zx quit GO. I was really shocked because he is known to be so hardcore in GO, someone I thought who will never quit this game even at knifepoint. I still remember the stuff he wrote in my farewell card almost 2 years ago, having the vision of creating a better GO environment. The reason he quit was even more shocking for me. The zx I know seems to change so much that is unbelievable for me. I feel as if I lost a friend and swa will be so different without his presence. Nothing stays forever. Treasure every moment and make good memories out of it.

Went to Gangnam yesterday to get J.K Rowling latest book. Is so funny that they wrote "J.K Rowling first adult book is here!" (maybe i am the only one who thinks is funny) Is harry potter really considered children book? I always have doubts when I see children queue up for harry potter books in the past, I mean are you sure they can finish the whole book? Maybe someone pay them to queue right? haha. Hope that this adult version is going to be as good as her previous books.

Blackie invited me over to his place to celebrate mid-autumn festival yesterday and when I reach at around 10pm, I saw most of them making the korean version of tang-yuan. Looking at all the flour on the floor and on their shirt, it looks more like some drug making session. I tried to make a few and is not fun, we should just buy from outside haha.

Got this as the mid-autumn festival gift for blackie. Is so good that they have all these different varieties  package in supermarket just for this festival. At night a few of us were playing Big 2 and I won 30kwon from this guy and blackie said to him "if someone ask who bought this SPAM for me, i will think that is you, not daniel" hahaha.

The next day blackie's relative came to his house and they cook a lot for lunch. This is the best korean meal I have ever eaten. Finally I see hope in Korean food after this meal. Looks like I have been eating shit food around school all these time :(

One of my friend broke up with her girlfriend and I think most of us were surprised because they were together for quite long and even put "engaged" on fb status. Few weeks before the break up, we saw a picture of her gf and a dog he was telling us they bought it together and is living with the girl now. Immediately I was like thinking, omg what will happen to the dog if they breakup, and suay suay, dio beh pio also not so accurate, it happened. Poor dog. Anyway less than 2 weeks after the breakup, he got a new gf!! I mean how can one get over this kind of stuff so fast, it makes me wonder if he treats the previous relationship as for fun. I really dont understand this kind of "for fun" attitude in relationship and maybe that is why i am still single.

 It will be like a ghost town in Korea tomorrow, hope I can find a place to eat.

This is the most popular game in Korea now, so many of my friends including prof Nam are playing it. It is the animal version of the game "bejeweled" and because it is animal version, this game produce so much animal sounds making you look like some zoo keeper.

I received a call from yongsam yesterday. I was really so surprised to hear from him because he was enlisted into the army last month. Army seems really tough in Korea because I could not recognize his voice at all and I thought is some old man trying to give me prank calls. Is sad that this might be our last conversation because I dont think we will be able to meet anymore unless he visits sg after his army.

I received a package from my sis yesterday and I am so amazed by the number of stamps on the envelop. Seriously, is there a need for so many stamps? I have been to korea's post office a lot of times and I have never seen them use so much stamps. And look at the size of the stamps! It looks more like scotch tape to me. If my sis was to send this to US, I think the stamp itself can be the envelop.

Attended Prof Choi lesson today. I feel quite sad for my fellow classmate because he is repeating and repeating AND repeating the same thing over and over AND over again. And it is so obvious (at least to me) that he is trying to waste time because he keeps looking at the clock and rephrasing the same sentence for dont know how many donkey times. Even with my kindergarten korean level I can understand all these, I cant imagine how my friends feel. No wonder I see most people playing with smart phone during his class.

Attended a school musical few days back performed by the graduate of musical department from our school. They were all talking in dialect and even though I have no idea what they are talking about, their acting skills are superb. But I was wondering what happen if they forget their lines because there are no NG in musical. Anyway is really a good experience and I will attend more musical in future.

After the musical we went to one of the korean's place for meat bbq and drinking session. I was so shocked when I saw his place cause I thought it would be a unit in an apartment but it turns out to be a building by itself like a chalet!

The place is not huge but it looks nice. I never know that a place like this exist around our school.

Eating and drinking session. Whenever I attend this kind of social event in Korea, the age thing and drinking culture never fail to make me feel amazed of Korean culture. Few days back someone was telling me that in Korea if you are not of the same age, is hard to be friends. If I hear this 1 year ago I would think that he is talking cock because in sg, age isnt the factor when it comes to making friends but after near 2 years in Korea, I have to agree with him. People younger are always so careful when speaking to people older than them and the tone becomes different when they speak to people of the same age or to people younger than them. If you were to ask me if this is a good or bad culture, I honestly dont know the answer.

If I have to choose my number 1 korean drama during my 2 years stay, it will definitely be Reply 1997. This drama is not just about love story but also friendship, kinship etc. stuff you will experience when growing up. After watching the last episode of Replay 1997, it makes me think a lot. It makes me wonder if I have treasured my secondary/ poly life enough, if I have made good memories out of my life such that if 1 day I would to look back will I be smiling or feeling regretful. We can only be young once and I hope that I can live life to the fullest.

I find it really amazing that I have kept this blog of mine for 7 years. Looking back at the entries 7 years ago, it brings back so much memories, things that I will never be able to remember if not for blogger and I really appreciate these memories.

Went to suwon competition today. I went to this com last year too but I was selling GOSHOP stuff instead of playing. They have many different category in this com and this year I join this category call "EVENT" where it is a 5 vs 5 team event but you change your seat after every 20 moves and your opponent for the 5 boards are different too. Before the start of every round we have to choose our GO bowl which contains  special "power" in some of them such as opponent cant play any move around the stone u just played etc. I remembered that I tried using this "power" to revive a bend 3 shape and I was happily thinking, oh yea I must be a genius to think of this method to save this damm dead group, even my opponent was impress by how I used the special "power". So while I was admiring my "magical" move thinking that my opponent will play somewhere else, he suddenly took out a paper and said that he will use his special power too (i didnt know he had one!!!) and that is to prevent his opponent from playing anywhere near the last opponent piece was placed, which means it is a direct counter attack of my special "power". I was totally stunned and I could hear the word F**K YOU so loudly in my head, hahaha.

I have been doing book summary for baduk history class and game theory class for the past few days. Is a torture because both books are either super duper boring or super difficult.  The book on baduk history is about how all these people contribute to the promotion of GO in europe but I dont understand why some of these people are mentioned in it. There are like 2,3 pages describing their grandmother story and only 2 sentences that are GO related, seriously I think I will be the second person (first is the crazy author of course)on this planet to finish reading all 3 volumes of this dumb series.

The book on game theory is even worst. The korean translator doing the translation for this book must have really good english level because I have no clue what I am reading at all. The first chapter is "Nature and Significance of Play" seriously it is too profound which means it make no sense to me. They talk about how ritual and religion is related to play etc, come on..play is play la have fun, someone needs to bring the author to disney land. And this f***ing book cost me more than 30SGD AHHHH!!!!! Imagine the numbers of OST I can buy!

This is my third time eating indian food in Korea and they taste really good. The curry sauce on the right taste like the small cheese cube (tomato flavour) with a cow pic, something I love to eat when I was young. When I go back SG, maybe I should try buying that cheese and mashed it on plain roti prata, wooo... sounds delicious. Anyway this dish cost around S$10.50, I think no indian in singapore will dare to sell it at this price

This is the best GO book I have read so far regarding games explanation. All the comments and tons of variations diagram are done up personally by LSD. I am not a fan of LSD because his playing style is too difficult to understand, even pro cant predict his next move. I remember few weeks back when he was playing with gu li in samsung cup, this pro commentator was so happy as if  he won a title match when he correctly predicted LSD next move. Anyway this is the first time I feel motivated to play more GO after reading a GO book. Cause normally after reading a GO book I will like "heck la, so difficult and tired le, sleep la" hahaha.