trip to South Korea

Alright, so as I mentioned yesterday, I'm finally back in Singapore. I'll be blogging about the trip to South Korea in this entry. The photos will be uploaded soon, don't worry!

Monday (17/11/08)
My parents went to see me off when I went to Changi Airport T3 to check in my luggage in the morning. After the checking in of the luggage, we had breakfast while the rest went to buy sweets since their parents already rushed home after the photo-taking. When the break ended, we had to quickly assemble at the check-in point, where we bid our goodbyes and arrived at the customs to board the plane to the airport in Incheon. The plane is a Singapore Airlines plane which was supposed to fly to Vancouver and transit in Incheon.
When we arrived at the airport in the evening at around 6pm, it was already pitch dark in South Korea. The weather was also quite cold, but the wind was gentle so it was okay. Also, when we landed in South Korea, Jerome's handphone's LCD screen cracked. I think it should be something related to the Turtle Curse? Hmm... I think it's best not to talk about it right now. Hahah. We then took the coach to have our dinner after all the passport and luggage issues were taken care of. Our dinner was actually barbecued pork, which was very yummy. The Muslims went to eat at an Islamic restaurant. We took photos of the yummy spread of food which I think I still have it in my handphone. Hahah. After that, we just went straight to our hotels which was pretty boring because I forgot the room numbers of all my friends. Sigh, so I turned in early.

Tuesday (18/11/08)
We started the real tour on the next day. We had our breakfast at the hotel and it was hilarious. When we wanted to have our drinks, there was grape juice and orange juice, but the Koreans' English was so bad that they labelled the drinks wrongly. In the end, the orange juice was called "grape juice". When we went to take our meat dumplings, the label on the tray said "a fried dumpling". Hahah!
After our breakfast we took the coach to the National Museum of Korea. That place was huge, I'll put up some pictures of it soon. It looks grand and has a cool ceiling. The exhibits were boring, though. I was looking forward to seeing some paintings but in the end, it was all sculptures and historical remains of clay jars and stone carvings. Boring. Yawn! We went to take pictures at the stairs outside the building, but it was freezing cold and the wind was blowing like there was no tomorrow. The scenery was great though.
After touring the museum, we found out that we ended early and managed to go to an extra tourist attraction after having our lunch, which was ginseng chicken soup! Yum yum. We went to the shopping district of Myeong-dong, which was located near a super branded department store (Shinsegae, I think) and Namdaemun Market. There were a lot of stores with lots of labels like Adidas and Nike and the food stands sold really yummy and steaming hot food which was really good (in such weather like the one in South Korea, at least). However, the wind was merciless so we were eventually forced to go down to an underground shopping mall near the shopping district. I love shopping in South Korea, it is so fun! Hahah.
After that we took a one-hour long ride from Seoul to Incheon to go to the school (Incheon International High School). When we arrived, we were shown to our dormitory rooms and it was huge! Four people shared one room and there were two bunk beds. We then went down for dinner. The food was edible but not very tasty and Jerome gave us a shock when he saw the menu - he told us there will be snails in soup for lunch the next day. After dinner, we camped in our dormitory rooms for a while until we went down to the auditorium for their welcome performance. The school had an orchestra and a band which had electric guitars and drums, and a traditional music group. There was also a harmonica performance which was unbelievably great. I enjoyed the band's performance the most - they played to Green Day and Kelly Clarkson songs and the vocals were not bad too (but the Since U Been Gone was kind of a... disaster). The weather was VERY cold... still.
I turned in after having supper at the school's cafeteria, which I forgot to mention was really different than the canteens in Singapore schools. The food is presented like a buffet and the students just take their food plates and eating utensils and get the food from the trays. They dispose of all their eating utensils (spoons and chopsticks), food plates and soup bowls in designated trays. The waste food is thrown in some special container with a cover. They don't even have to buy the food! But I'm not saying that the canteen in Ngee Ann is horrible.

Wednesday (19/11/08)
We had our breakfast at the cafeteria that day. It was unusually cold for a morning and the breakfast was something like lunch, with vegetables and stuff. After that, we went up to the dormitory and prepared for a tour around the school.
To be quite honest, the school's facilities were really very good, but it's because the school is new (it was established this year) and thus the faculty is very small. Anyway, it was a bad day for a tour because the weather was just too cold. The school itself was very large and they had an outdoor court for games like basketball. The school also had a broadcasting station which I think they use to film videos for the school news or something like that. I didn't see any TVs around in the school though. The school's library was also quite cool as the seats and shelves make it a good studying place. They also had racks for newspapers and magazines. They also have a conference room where they hold debate sessions and things like that. Also, they have a huge gym with a transparent ceiling where they exercise and play indoor sports during winter. However, what surprises me the most is that they have a study room where there are individual desk with textbooks for them to study. The teachers also claim that they will study up till midnight, which was just plain crazy, in my view. Seriously, I think work weighs more than play in that school for the students, even though they have CCAs to make up for their studying time.
Anyway after the tour of the school, we went to the school computer lab to type in our comments for the blog. We then went to have a Technology lesson, where we had to assemble a car with a mouse trap on top. After that we went to have a Chinese lesson, which was hilarious because the teacher taught us to read the lyrics of a Jay Chou song. LOL!!!!! And she slowly read every sentence and also those words like "Oh" and we had to repeat after her. OH MY GOSH, IT WAS SO FUNNY. HAHAH! She even talked about DBSK/TVXQ (東方神起, some popular South Korean boy band) and showed us one of their music videos. How... strange for a Chinese lesson?
After our Chinese lesson we went for a Physical Education & Health lesson. The Singaporeans were up against the South Koreans in a basketball match and we lost both rounds by a notch. The way the girls played was super hilarious, no one was there to defend and they swarmed like bees after the ball. And Ya Xun was super funny, when she got the ball she just screamed and anyhow threw it to the South Koreans. Super funny, LOL!!!!! After that we went to have our lunch.
When we finished our lunch, we went to have an International Issues lesson (I think), but it was taught in English. It was about racism in America and was quite interesting. However, Jerome said that the lessons here were more interesting than that in Ngee Ann in front of Mdm Sharizah and when we were debriefed when our lessons ended, she lost her top and scolded Jerome. Hmm, it was actually quite inconsiderate of him to compare schools, but comparison sometimes helps us improve, right? But I don't think he should allow that fact to slip off his tongue, it's just very disrespectful. He even blogged about it, I think.
After that we went to tour the nearby buildings of the school, which was quite boring because I didn't understand half of what the guide was rambling about because I didn't really pay attention. But I know that Incheon is actually trying to become an English-speaking city like Singapore, but I think Seoul is more important for that? And I don't know why the school isn't located in Seoul. Hmm.
We then went to the Science and Technology Institute which was epically boring, no offense. Hahah. I was kind of angry that time because when we went to look at the exhibits, Wan Jing and Hui Yen were there and Wan Jing left when Hui Yen was taking pictures. I was looking at a map and when I finished it she was gone and I went up and down trying to find the students. It seriously freaked me out big time. Then, a man showed me the way to the Planetarium and I reckoned he knew I was lost since I had those expressions. Hahah. I mean, when Hui Yen left, she can just tell me to leave soon instead of just leaving like that. Plus, I'm in some foreign place and the thought of being abandoned is frightening. I was fuming mad then but the Planetarium show made me calm down. Thank goodness I didn't go crazy, if not bad things might happen. I was also angry over the fact that my friends didn't realise I was lost. I was mumbling the F-word under my breath when I walked to the Planetarium, to be honest. At least pangseh me in Singapore.
After we left, I was talking to Hui Yen and Jerome always tries to purposely get in the way. I'm fine with that if it's just jokes, but I didn't really have a chance to talk to her for the whole trip because when I do talk to her, he will tease us and say that we are a couple. I have no idea of what's his problem, but I guess it's alright. I don't really want to get angry over such matters.
We then had some rest and went to get our dinner and after that, we went stargazing with the Astronomy Club. We saw the constellations and they were beautiful but pathetic because the lens was so small. I knew that Aquila and Cassiopeia were constellations but I didn't really notice they were used to name the worlds in MapleStory. Hahah. Hui Yen wore five layers of clothing while stargazing and she couldn't even stretch her hand. It made me laugh my ass off when she was trying to. LOL!!!!!
After that we went down to have supper. I had cheesecake and some fruits, and I kind of remembered how I loved cheesecake last time. It's still as yummy as ever. Hahah. Then, I went to play basketball with Jerome, Jeremy and Sofee to warm myself up in the cold and went to sleep.

Thursday (20/11/08)
It snowed quite heavily while I was sleeping the previous night. When I woke up, the school campus was covered with layers of snow. It was so amazing. Hahah. We went to have breakfast and then I wrote messages on the snow with Jerome and Kiat Kiong. After that Hui Yen went down too and I also enjoyed the snow. Then, I had to rush up and get my luggage, until I realised it was actually SNOWING!!! I saw my very first falling snow that day. I tried to take pictures but the snow was not thick enough. Sigh, I'll get to experience that again, I'm pretty sure about it. Hahah! After some photo-taking and assembling, we were taken to Incheon International Airport to do our CIP. We had to pick garbage outside the airport under the chilly weather from gate 1 all the way to 12. It was tiring but fun nonetheless. I even went to The Coffee Bean to buy iced coffee, because it was so warm in the airport even after I did my CIP outside. After the CIP, we bid our goodbyes to the South Korean students and set off for a 1-hour ride back to Seoul to have our lunch. We had seafood steamboat, and the seating arrangements were kind of messed up and in the end I sat alone without my friends but with Wan Jing, Ya Xun and Li Hao. Ya Xun was being very nice by helping us pour the soup and giving my the squids. Hahah. Both of them were funny too. When we went out of the restaurant, it rained and the rain turned into ice. So it kind of hailed, but it only lasted for around five minutes. How amazing. Hahah! I saw my first hail. After eating, we set off for the Digital Pavilion. The technology there was very advanced but it was really very boring. After that we went to the Seoul Digital Media City where they had a presentation of their technology and we only walked around the first floor. Boring, yawn! By then, it was still very early. We took the coach to have our dinner, but there was a jam so it was delayed for around an hour. Our dinner was simply Chinese food and I had it with the teachers. Hahah! I kind of like Mr Lim Bock Boon and Ms Sayuri. Mr Lim is really nice, you'll find out why later. Ms Sayuri actually took the effort to pronounce my name. I was actually quite surprised when she knew what my name was when we arrived in South Korea in the first day.
After we had dinner, the real fun began. We checked in the hotel to put our luggage in the rooms and then we went out to take the Seoul Subway to Dongdaemun Market to do some shopping and enjoy the nightlife of Seoul. Hahah! Shopping in Seoul is really fun, honestly. We mainly walked the streets because the malls were actually wholesale retail outlets, that means all the nine floors are swarmed with clothes. I'm not really interested in clothes, hahah. I bought some food from the stalls to eat and without any doubt, they were yummy! They prepared the pizza and put it on a waffle. How creative. I enjoyed every bit of it, even if it has cheese. Hahah.
We then walked and walked and eventually, we ended up at a "Red Light District". Actually, we didn't really end up there. The Sec 3 guys told us it was there and Jerome was curious to go. Hahah. It wasn't very enjoyable and we walked away instantly after we saw some... explicit stuff.
When we went to take a look at the wholesale retail outlets, Hui Yen lost one of her gloves and it was nowhere to be found in the mall because it was clothes everywhere. We then went to Doota!, some shopping mall there and went to the basement because Jerome wanted to take a look at the Nike shop there. I almost lost both of the gloves Hui Yen lent me (she brought extras along) until I found it outside KFC. What a relief. Hahah!
After that, we shopped for a while more and then took the last train back to our hotel at Yangpyeong, where I talked with Hui Yen, Jerome, Jeremy, Wan Jing and Ya Xun about Jerome's relationships. We even stayed up until around 4 in the night talking about it and also some other random and irrelevant stuff. Hahah. In the end, we didn't even sleep at all and I was so bummed. I was also locked out of my room because Kiat Kiong got the key and I forgot to take it from him. He was in some hotel room having a night party with the other Sec 3 seniors and also didn't sleep. Hahah!

Friday (21/11/08)
It was the final day we were in South Korea. I skipped my breakfast to have some shut-eye. I lost my breakfast coupon anyway, and the buffet sucks. When I woke up, it was almost time to leave and thus I took a shower and packed my luggage to meet Jerome and Jeremy and go to the lobby. Everyone was so tired because they did not sleep, and Mdm Riza was annoyed because of their inconsideration. We had to wait for half an hour to get everyone down and when we took the coach over to the National Folk Museum of Korea, almost everyone was sleeping. The weather was exceptionally cold and the wind was blowing like crazy too, so we were glad to be in the museum. The exhibits were a little boring, so I spent my time at the souvenir shops buying things for my family. After that, we walked over to Gyeongbokgung, a palace in near the museum to look around it. It wasn't very enjoyable because it was so cold. When the tour ended, Mdm Sharizah wanted to find the toilet and went with the teachers. They took a super long time to finally get to the toilet and in the end we waited almost half an hour under the chilly weather too. We then rushed to get souvenirs at a store near the airport and I bought 50,000 won worth of seaweed. By the time we finished, it was already around 2.39pm and our flight was scheduled to depart at 4.25pm. When we reached the airport, it already hit 3pm and we had to check in our luggage too, which took an unusually long time. We finally finished checking in at around 3.55pm, which was seriously crazy. After assembling and doing a headcount, we went forward to check in to board the airplane. I was the last person to finish checking in and it was already 4.05pm then. The first batch had already rushed off, and I was feeling quite sad that none of my friends waited for me even when they knew they could catch up. Mr Lim, Kiat Kiong and Yao Hui waited for me even after they checked in earlier, so I was quite thankful for that. There remained about 7 of us only, with all the Muslim girls - Azra, Sherina and Hanis. We ran to the gate, but it was too far away so we had to take a skytrain, which was super troublesome. The most ridiculous thing was, we managed to catch up to the first batch but when we tried to run in the train, the doors closed on us. By that time, I was so freaked out already. It was already 4.08pm. Singapore Airlines even gave us a notice that they will close the gates 10 minutes prior to departure, so we had to reach the gate by 4.15pm! I was feeling so nervous then. They were already having their final call. When I was running to the gate, so many thoughts flowed through my mind. I was yet again angry that they didn't even realise I was gone. For that moment, I didn't even regard them as my friends. They left me alone throughout this whole trip, is that what you will call a companion? I was almost going to be stuck overseas, and they don't even seem to give their damn at all. I was sad. When we arrived at the gate at 4.14pm, I hastily went in and when the last person went in, the gate just closed. I was feeling so relieved, and I thank God for safely bringing the 7 of us back to Singapore. When the plane was moving, Jerome even asked Hui Yen if the 7 of us were back in the plane already. I seriously felt very offended - this really isn't a joke, I almost missed the plane if not for that 1 minute, and it is as if you and Hui Yen will leave the plane to find me. But I chose to feel relieved and I don't really want to care much anymore. I felt peaceful on the ride home, and I'm glad to finally be back in Singapore, blogging about this trip. I had a wonderful time anyway.