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.