I was in Myeongdong today and when I saw the koreans carrying christian banners (the kind where it wrote "you go hell if you dont believe in Jesus") around I cant help to think about the city harvest church incident.

50 million. Seriously?

Is hard to believe that people are donating so much so the church when there are so many other less fortunate people who need help. What is the reason for donating so much to the church every month? To get more funds to have a better church? To ensure that you have a good life ahead? So that you will be blessed? So that you can go heaven? To me all these are just pure selfishness. If this is really the church teaching, I am disappointed.

If we have faith in ourselves is there a need for all these?

Went to an Asian restaurant in gangnam with chaelim and sooyoung because they have some free coupons and were craving for phd thai. Ana thanks to sooyoung who won 4 straight wins(1,000,000won) in the female vs senior knockout match, this meal was on her.

I think almost all koreans love this dish but I think the pad thai in thai express taste 5 times better than this. And the food here are so expensive!!

Tom Yum. Never ever let korean try this unless you are trying to kill him or you just hate him so much. All the koreans I know HATE this dish. I know hate is a strong word but yes, this is the perfect time to use such a word. This dish is rather disgusting to them haha, completely opposite from pad thai. Anyway it taste really good to me.

Green curry! A dish i will order when I go thai express. But i dunno why the meat and potato here are more than the curry....

Over the weekend I went to this go camp in ansan with my school friends. I was quite excited about it at first but when I reach ansan station i thought i was in south east asia because 80% of the people there look like thai or Cambodian. And standing 1 and a half hours on bus before reaching the camp site. On the way I think even the koreans were shocked because the place was very very countryside....

And I thought I was transported back to my grandparents kampong days... Is so different from yongin (the place i stay which I thought was quite bad already). I think if i die here it will take a few months before anyone smell my decay..

The camp is held in some english village and I happily thought we can only speak english in here, hahaha.

Even the direction signboards are in english!!!

Of course, no one gives a damm about speaking english here, haha. After playing 2 rounds of games we have some bbq party which lasted for about 1hour only because there were no lights in the competition area but some enthu koreans bring torch lights along so that they can continue drinking their favorite soju.

I am really amazed how korea can get so many aunty and ah ma to play go.  I dont see this in other countries. I tried to ask around but even my korean friends dunno why. Looks like I need to ask my professors.

Anyway after dinner we took a 30mins bus to get to the nearest k-box and we spend like 4 hours there. Is actually my first time going k box in korea, quite a cool experience. After that went back to our countryside dorm where we play this interesting game call "how many mosquito can you kill" and I manage to kill more than 10. Look at the beautiful blood stains on the wall..

Had my first mos burger meal in korea which turns out to be a huge disappointment.As you can see from the pic, the meat in this teriyaki chicken burger look so different and there is NO ICE MILK TEA!!! The only plus point is that is way cheaper than sg.

Went to our department semester ending party yesterday and reach home at 9am the next morning. Yes, it was crazy.. I had soju, beer, makgeolli (korea farmer wine) and vodka. If there is one thing I have learnt, it would be never drink all these different kinds of shit in one day because I end up having itchy rashes. Good thing is that they were gone when I woke up.

After the the party, 60% of the people are either drunk or knockout and I thought it would be the end of the party (maybe if is in Singapore) but it turn out that there is a round 2!! I am starting to think that i could make a small fortune just by selling alcohol in Korea. After the the second round 95% of the people are clearly drunk and yet they still want to play bowling.. Is just so funny seeing most people sleeping on the chair when waiting for their turns to bowl and is my first time seeing people fall down when not able to balance themselves during bowling. I mean if they are so tired why dont they just go home and rest?

And yes, why was I not surprise that there was a round 3 drinking session after bowling. I have also learnt that never ask anyone "are you drunk?" when they are obviously drunk because they will look at you angrily and say NO and you will start to see them sitting on the floor or roll around. And I discovered that my alcohol tolerance level is quite good because I was one of the few alive ones even after the whole event.

But I guess I wont be drinking all these shit anytime soon because the minute I see a beer bottle or soju bottle, I feel like puking.

Time pass really fast, is already the final semester exam period now. These few days were quite crazy for me not in terms of drinking but for the time I spent in school for report, exams and presentations. When I saw how late minyi stayed in nus for her project and stuff I was like "siao dont need to sleep meh?" Seriously... really dont need to sleep. I was in school from 12pm to 5am on monday doing ppt and studying for some life and death class. And on tuesday I somehow have 2 different group meetings at the same time, a very unique experience. Great that I am still alive. 3 more reports to go!

I saw 경낭 on monday carrying like 6 library books I was like wah, you are so hardworking. Then she replied "the test is open book test so I borrow all these books hoping it can help" But in the end she told me that the books were useless in the test. Muhahahaha! I have never seen anyone taking so many books to a open book test.

Finally I have some free time to blog. Have been so busy recently, leaving my house at 830am and reaching home at 12am almost everyday. So many stuff happened these past few days, not sure where to start..

A random drinking night with seungjae, sooyoung, moon kyo in a bar beside our school. I really hate the taste of soju but this drink call lemon soju is bloody nice, I am going to drink it often, haha. We somehow manage to persuade seungjae to stay over in yongin because he was thinking of catching his last bus at 8pm which is like so early! So he end up sleeping over in my place and we spend like 3 hours talking about korean language and culture, never thought this topic could be that interesting.

I am still amazed how korean can make such great desserts.

Indian food in Korea!! I think I ate more indian food in Korea than my whole life in Singapore. I dont really eat indian food in sg thanks to my mum who brainwash me by telling me that a certain race in singapore doesnt wash hand after shitting and they yet they use their bare hands to make food. Thanks mum. Anyway the indian food in korea is really good, too bad there isnt one near my place :(

The reason why I am having Indian food is because Prof Nam invited me and philip out for a dinner. During the talking session we somehow found out that the 3 of us were born in the rabbit year. OMG..prof nam is 12 years older than me!!! Anyway I was telling Prof Nam how environmental friendly korea is because they classify their rubbish and doesnt issue plastic bags and i was surprised that she dont enjoy doing the rubbish classification. I have to agree, imagine having 6 different rubbish bins in your house... Actually is a good business idea to set up a company to help ppl classify their rubbish, i am sure many ppl out there doesnt enjoy doing it too.

I think I am going to die sooner than I expect because I have been drinking beer almost everyday for the past few days thanks to the gatherings and meetings. I really dont know how people do the one shot thingy for beer because it really burns your mouth and throat, impressive... Anyway the brand CASS is not bad.

We have this picnic lesson for one of our class today and I am starting to suspect that the teacher is lazy or run out of stuff to teach so he just pay for all the snacks and talk cock with us in the field haha. Sooyoung opened one of the snack and I was like what the... isnt that dog shit?? And she keeps telling me  맛있어 맛있어 (delicious)...omg.. Good thing that the picnic mat has lots of dogs pictures and I shall prove that is really dog shit..

See!! I am right!!

Is amazing how a human being can sleep in this way. He totally look like a roast pig on aluminium foil, hahaha. He is the oldest senior in my department and if he knows that I took this pic I think he would chop off my hands.

I need to be a happier boy.

I wonder how other people managed to do it..

 The one food that is 100 times better than Singapore's. Korea's version of ice kachang!! I should learn how to make all these because it will be really popular in sg. I shall think of my shop name now.

 GO STOP! Korean card game. I tried to learn this few years back but is bloody difficult. Unlike poker card, there are no numbers or suit on the cards, just pictures!!! Even if they belong to the same group is so hard to link the pictures together, my brain is too old to learn this. Anyway I love how koreans flick the cards, it looks really cool haha. The guy on the left is the fashion leader among the freshmen. How many singaporean guys dare to wear that pants? haha.

Welcome to myongji university mortuary. Everyone is so tired everyday. Tough life..

 Last week there was this festival in our uni, something that is organized once a year. I dont really know whats the point or objective of this festival but I guess is  to let students go crazy while the school can earn a bit here and there.

Same as the previous year my department has a booth at night for selling food and drinks. At the end of the day you can see people vomiting all over, drunk people who are dead being drag away forcefully (i finally understand the meaning of 被拖走), drank people behaving like they just strike a lottery (jumping here and there, behaving worst than my cousins) and many more. To me all these scenes are so much interesting than the festival, haha. The most shocking stuff I saw is how my prof behave when he got really drunk. Seriously that one particular image is still stuck in my mind, is just too.....

 Korean pancake. The pic is quite dark so it looks like shit here. Since is my last year I decided to help out in the kitchen and so my job was to cook korean pancake. This is actually one of my favourite dish in korean but is not easy to find. Anyway I stood for 6hours straight cooking more than 40 pancakes. Yes, I think I can even close my eyes when cooking it now. Even thought is freaking tiring I manage to learn many stuff and got closer to the freshmen, something that other foreigner are not willing to do.

Cooking area of another dish. Seriously I thought someone just vomited on the table. I cant imagine what will happen if the customer walks in and see this haha. And the worst part of cooking is during the end of the day because ingredients will start run out so we need to cut the cabbage, carrot etc to refill. But because everything was so rush there was no time and manpower to wash them before cooking it. Morale of the story, dont order food when is near closing hours.

I must say that being a korean freshmen is tough because they have to manage the cooking area and clearing up and by the time everything ends, is already 3 plus in the morning and they still have class the next day. Thats not all, they still have to practice some performance which is more hardcore than this cooking mama thing cause they are not allow to sleep and have to practice all night.

Went to a dinner party of another class today and we had bbq meat. I never know there is such a nice and affordable bbq place on the other side of my place.

Drinking was crazy and I have never drank so much soju mixed with beer in my life before. Is not a good idea to seat near the professor because when they offer to pour you drink, it is not really nice to reject them. I used to reject all the time but it creates really awkward moment because everyone else will stare at me with the "wah, he is so brave" look and the teacher will look a bit unhappy.

I dont understand why they love doing the one shot thing, it makes me full so easily and I cant eat the meat anymore!! I think I drank 4 glass of beer/soju and 1 glass of beer/cider and when I step out of the restaurant I can feel the after effect of the alcohol. I dont get how people can get so high after drinking, I just feel a little giddy.

There might be a chance that I might stay 6 more months or 1 year after I graduate in dec. I am still not sure so I have set a target for myself and if I cant reach my ideal target before I graduate, I will go back in jan to eat my chicken rice.

Last week I had mid term exam for my GO evaluation class. Is the first time in my entire life that I have no idea what and how to study for an exam because the notes are all in Korean and the content are mostly statistics which most of my classmates have problem understanding. One of my friend even have to resort to this...

At first I thought he got a new tattoo then I realized he wrote down all the formulas!! haha.

After looking through all the questions in the exam paper, I got a little panic attack because none can be answered using common sense and it means that I have no clue what to write at all. Then I remember  my teachers in secondary school always say that never leave blank in your exam paper, write as many things as possible so that teacher can give you marks. So for the next half an hour, I started writing bullshit and things that dont even make sense to me. I just hope that my professor dont have a weak heart.

I dont know how my prof managed finish marking in less than 2hours, this is what they call speed marking. Anyway he told us to write any 4 numbers so that he dun have to show the names when publishing the results. I got a shocked of my life because I wasnt the last or the second last!! I am proud to say that I got the highest among those who fail, hahaha. I am just too impress of all the bullshits I wrote, muhahahaha!! Love my secondary school teachers!!

Finally I stayed over at blackie's place last night. It was quite a crazy night because we were playing 3 person big 2 and I lost big!! 3 person big 2 is quite interesting because there will be 4 decks and every time you pass you have to draw a card from the 4th deck so the card you draw can either save you or kill you. I can only say that Dia is one bloody lucky person, look at all my chips in front of her!!!!

The more I study in blackie's dojang, the more I feel that people in western countries have very different thinking and values compared to people in asian countries. Sometimes I just cannot stand the stuff they say, is either too childish or too offensive and they got no sense in helping out stuff. I think I will go mad if I am blackie, is a blessing in disguise that he dont understand everything they say. And I wasnt the only person who think this way. I just hope that western non-go players are different.

Went to this restaurant that sells only sor-long tang for lunch today. I have walked pass this place many times but because the school version of this dish isnt really good so I wasnt willing it give it a try. The school version only give 2 dark-dry-hard-thin slices of beef plus tons of onion. Non korean will think that the onion is the main dish and meat is the side dish, haha. Anyway after eating this, I finally understand what it means by "the meat melts in your mouth". I always thought this term is just a lame phrase used by food program host who watch too much anime or cant think of anything to say. I hereby declare that this phrase is not a result of watching too much cooking anime, is TRUE! it does happen!! I am going to eat this everytime i pass by this place!!!!

Summer is coming and as much as I love the heat, this is one scary season. Because all my little friends such as mr.spider and ms.centipede will all resurrect from somewhere and they will find all means to come to my apartment to find me.

Just minutes ago I saw this freaking big fat juicy spider near my bed. I almost scream... I took like 15 secs to choose my murder weapon because my friend here is slightly bigger then my thumb and his/her ass is so fat and round, can you imagine the amount of juice that is going to splatter on my weapon after it land on my "little" friend?

AND IS NOT EVEN SUMMER NOW!!!

Yes, I can finally say is SPRING!!!! Look at the beautiful sakura, something I wont be able to see in Singapore. Maybe I am really getting used to the weather cause I can go school with just 2 layers of shirt while I was packed like a dumpling last year this month. My last spring in Korea!

I am still not used to eating this kind of rice in korea because of the black stuff in it. It look exactly like lizards shit. You wont be able to tell if they are real lizard shit or rice grains, isnt it dangerous? haha.

Dinner with Korean friends. 10 people drinking 11 bottles of soju. Either they have lost their taste bud or it taste like water to them cause I need to emphasis again that it taste like crap. Is always interesting to see the Korean culture during dinner time like 2 hands holding the cup when senior pours you drink, u dun pour drink for yourself, the junior have to do the cooking or take stuff when needed etc..

Indeed seniors are like king but sometimes i cant help to think that junior respect them out of fear and not purely respect. Some seniors are just freaking fierce, to the extend of  abusing their "authority" and I wonder if this will be a vicious cycle where the junior vow to revenge when they become the senior. I do see really good seniors too and I believe that those are the people who will do really well in future.

Korean drama is going to destroy all my plans to study korean language and GO because they are just damm nice to watch. Have been watching this drama call rooftop prince and is really a very lame and funny drama. There is this particular sound track which i love so much that I even went myeongdong to get it today haha. A korean friend told me that he dont understand why so many foreigners like k-drama cause he thinks that they sucks compared to CSI etc.. But I personally think that currently korea produce the best drama in Asia. I am so glad that no one in korea ask me to introduce them singapore drama.

I have been playing this fb game called backyard monster for I think 2 years plus and this morning when I saw my fb notification I was like stoned for 10secs. Because this game will randomly post my progress on my wall and my baduk department professor (prof jeong, 9p) went to click "like" on that post, muhahahahaha!! Is either he is impress that I have a good score or he is too bored hahaha.

Today I experienced the heaviest rain in korea this year so far. I never had so much fun carrying an umbrella in the rain because the rain wasnt my concern but the WIND!! Can you imagine you see everyone around you holding their umbrella with both hands and you have to like force your way against the wind when you walk. I have seen so many umbrella fly away or getting destroy by the wind, so exciting right? I am quite impress of my umbrella, being able to withstand the crazy wind.

I dont understand. I really dont understand.

I know we should not change the person immediately and I am not asking for that.

I know everyone deserves a second chance and of course we should give the person one more chance to present.

But the one thing I dont understand is that why would you suggest "that thought"? The way you reply me makes me wonder if I overreact because you sound like I am making a big fuss over a small matter. Till now I still think that it was very wrong of you to even suggest that.

I am just trying to help, trying to make it into a better project. Please dont make use or take advantage of it, it will only be unfair to my side.

Finally I ate unagi in Korea!!! I have been craving for this because is so hard to find fish related food in Korea. I would say fish is not a very common food you can find in normal korean restaurant.

Once again I donated generously to the korea economy by signing up a monthly data plan for my galaxy tab which cost 29,000won per month. Is a good decision because I get to kakaotalk with other korean friends and sometimes i am forced to read and write in korean which is a good thing. I just realize I only have 7 and a half months left in korea. Cindy seems to be so happy when the date for her to leave korea gets nearer and nearer but how come i feel the opposite? Sometimes I feel worried when I hang out more with my friends, getting to know them better, gotten into better friendship cause it will only make me more upset 7.5 months later when I have to part with them.

The world expo is in Korea this year!! Maybe I will be going there with korean friends and is 4hours away! Maybe 5 hours from my countryside place.. haha. So excited, wonder how the Singapore exhibit will look like. And finally, I can spam my singlish (lah, loh, meh, sia, siao) to the people there, hahaha.

I wanted to blog this in the MT post but i forgotten about it. I met a korean who has been learning chinese for 2 years and he was happy that there was someone he could practice his conversation skills to. So we started talking and as usual he asked my age as part of the korean culture and when he knew I am older than him he suddenly face me, bow and shouted "大哥“. I was really shocked cause I am used to hear 형 or 오빠 but 大哥 is my first time, is like I am in some qing dynasty. Is was awkward... 

 Called for lunch delivery last week because canteen as usual was full of hungry people. Wanted to order the pork with rice I used to eat but I seem to have ordered the wrong thing because I was given more of the pork portion and of course more expensive.

Seriously either the government is providing free supply of oil to this restaurant or they are trying to kill their customers by making them get cancer (which make no sense cause we are their god of fortune). Thats why they always say home cooked food is the best. 

This is another stunning dish we ordered during MT meeting. Is called Pizza-Kimchi-Sweet and Sour Pork. I should feel lucky that I am still alive after eating them, haha. The appearance and name of this dish is just so wrong. But the taste is better than I thought, imagine pushing sweet n sour pork, kimchi and pizza, all 3 items into your mouth, delicious right?

One of the most difficult and challenging question I faced in Korea is- What is the difference between China Chinese and Singapore Chinese. Today I was having a conversation with a nurse and we talk about where I was from, being a chinese in Singapore bla bla then she asked.."when you graduate are you going back china?" I am really curious what my facial expression was when she pose that question. I realize many korean or most korean dont really know about Singapore (of course, how can anyone know when it cant even be seen on the world map) and they think that because we can speak chinese and we look like chinese we must have come from China. Is so hard to explain all these especially in Korean.

An advice for anyone who wants to come korea to study, start practicing on americian english pronunciation now. For example the word RED is pronounce as "rat" without the T ending. People are starting to tell me that my pronunciation is not good and now I have to speak slowly and act like one ang moh in front of them haha. If i go back SG, pls forgive me if I sound like an americian hahaha.

I almost scream when I woke up today because it was 12.05pm and my class starts at 12pm!! It just amazed me how come I didnt hear my alarm clocks (when I have 2 of them) and they are so near my ears! Nevertheless being a hardworking and diligent student I decided to go school and attend the class. And because it was near 1pm when I reach the class, I was like a hungry ghost praying that the class will end before 3pm so that I could get some FOOD!

I must be really lucky because when I reach class, it was group discussion day plus picnic in class! sooyoung even gave me a hard boil egg for my brunch, haha. Discussion of the day- What is the difference between Influence and Thickness.

I was randomly invited to another's class outdoor picnic after my class end, most probably because I am a foreigner. So I ask one of them y is their class today so special? And he reply "because the weather is good" muhahahahaha!!! See.. when I say the weather here is terrible, I wasnt exaggerating, look at how much they treasure good weather, haha. This kind of outdoor picnic lecture will be quite rare in Singapore because either people will die of heat stroke or strike by lighting.

Bowling event in our department today! I would say is more like a competition because the losing team has to buy drinks and pay for all the fees. We should have this culture in Singapore and it will be more fun! Lucky me, my team won both the matches.

Just when I want to start saving money before graduating from Korea, I realized is almost impossible to give myself a fixed amount daily. My original goal is 15,000won per day which is more then enough if I eat in the canteen for both meals. But sometimes the canteen is so full like some free food party and I have no choice but to order delivery. During dinner it is always good to hang out with the rest because of the bonding and I may get to know more people thus spending more money. Big group dinner is the worst because usually the senior will divide among themselves and pay for the rest and this year, I become part of this group :( hahaha.

If there is one thing that never fails to amaze me in Korea, it will be how surprise my korean friends look when they know my age. Whenever I tell them I am 26, the most often reply will be 동안, I am starting to think that korean guys look slightly older than their actual age because I have never heard it in sg before. I should really treasure the remaining months in Korea while having a 동안 feature here, Muhahahahaha!!

마지막 MT

 This year's MT is very near school compared to the last year one. I had already prepared myself for the worst because I dont expect a good place for MT especially in yongin, a very countryside place.

 But I was wrong, very wrong. I was surprised to see how big our accommodation was. Compared to last year again, this is like a 5 star hotel! Everyone except freshmen has to pay 25,000won and I think is worth the money haha.

The place is a 2 storey chalet and there are like 8 rooms!!! Yes! plenty of space to sleep!

Time for korean's favourite game! Preparing the transformation of our group freshmen representative. Look at how happy he is, enjoying every single moment, hahaha!

Again from my group. They won the best couple award by repeating this game for dunno how many thousand times. My group won like almost everything except the performance part.

 I can only say that the 2 "thing" on the right can win an air ticket to thailand. Especially the most right, he is so different from the original person. I have to pity them because the weather was so bloody cold on this day and they have to wear so little. It was so cold that the second part of the program has to be carried out indoor.

 I was so glad that there was a indoor dining area for the dinner because the weather was really bad and last year we had the BBQ party outdoor which is crazy!!

 After the BBQ dinner, time for the crazy night. When I say crazy, i am not joking because some of them can drink so much and vomit all over. One of the drunk guy almost got into a fight because he entered one of the room and vomited inches away from a senior's head who was sleeping. Others can drink and play from like 10pm to 7am the next day. Seriously i am really really amazed by their stamina.

He is not praying in a specific direction and there is a reason why there is a pot beside him. I cant believe this drunk guy can sleep in this position. I seen so many drunk friends and some of them are so so hyper which is crazy because is hard to control them and they keep spamming on alcohol, best part is that they have no idea what they are doing. Because is my last MT, I took a sip of soju to find out why they love drinking that so much and to my disappointment, it taste like shit. And after asking around I realize many koreans doesnt like soju too, is just part of their culture to drink.

The craziest group left. They drank and play till the next morning. Honestly if my child is doing what they are doing now I will be very heartache because the hangover they had the next day is crazy. They look exactly like zombies in hollywood movies, and they can even save the make-up cost.

This is the part where I dont like korean culture. I understand that we have to respect seniors and so on but that doesnt mean they can do anything they like. When everyone else finishing partying and went to sleep, this particular senior went to every single door and wake those freshmen who are sleeping, asking them to "fall-in". After falling-in the seniors said that they are the main "star" for this event so they cant sleep. In the end they just sit around doing nothing. To me this is really unreasonable.

The main topic of this picture is the jacket they are wearing. The number on the left sleeves decides your status in your uni life. After witnessing the freshmen fall-in, i asked around and find out that the system is actually like the army system where the senior (high rank) can order junior  to do shit. I already know this but i didnt know they have so much power. In the morning, when one of my friend who helped to settle the fight last night due to the vomit incident saw the senior smiling and laughing, he said to me, wah, so glad that is is not angry or mad anymore. Just because their level (the number on their jacket) are different, he has to treat him like some king. And during breakfast time, the lower level has to make sure that the higher level had their share first before they can take. In singapore, I think everyone will be like some hungry ghost snatching the food like mad.

The crazy drunk fellows sleeping in some weird positions.

My group in MT. I just feel sad because this is my last MT. Every event I join this year will be my last time and I know I will never get to see some of my friends ever again. I am quite scare when is time for me to graduate in Dec because I know I will have a hard time saying goodbye to them.