Exchange Day 80

Today nothing much happened. It's probably the most boring day so far here. But the weather was really cold again today, it dropped to 3 degrees Celsius. My classmate told me that the newspaper reports this year's winter to be the coldest yet in Busan. My first winter and bam I got a big one. I really miss sunny Singapore and frozen yoghurt that actually melt.

Breakfast was half a packet of Snyder's Honey Mustard and Onion pretzel pieces I got from PB yesterday and six waffle biscuits. I was supposed to finish the entire packet but it was so salty I think I'll never ever buy it again. Nor try any of its other savoury flavours. The caramel one was pretty good though although it can potentially break my teeth. But, I love challenges.

As I didn't want to leave the room until I finished typing out my essay, which my professor didn't even bother checking (I think he forgot), lunch wasn't until I reached school and had only half an hour to chow down a meal. I hastily settled it in the school cafeteria.

I was deciding between tuna omurice and 정식 when I figured I owed myself more than just tomato rice and a thin slice of egg so I took the latter. I love it when a lack of time forces bursts of decisiveness out of me. Time's always wasted pondering over the many choices I always have to preempt myself on my next move. Sounds so robotic.

(left to right) Minced meat patties, fluffy white rice, kimchi cabbage, kimchi kelp, spicy mungbean sprouts and cabbage soup and potatoes with quail egg. No s.

Since lunch wasn't all that satisfying, I bought a packet of Chicken Pop! This time, I made sure to try the other flavour - Hot Chicken. Sure enough, it was hot. It's the first spicy snack to ever make me feel warm inside out (a wonderful winter snack) and I swear if I finished the entire packet in one go I could breathe fire.

My classmate gave me a chocolate from Jeju Island. She got it from her mother's friend, who had travelled to Jeju Island. It's so cute and tasty.

Dinner was a small cup of fried chicken and hashbrowns from the stall opposite school and our favourite Isaac Toast! I should have tried other flavours but I didn't feel like being adventurous so I stuck with the usual ham and cheese.

The christmas drinks are out at Starbucks! As usual, I drank Toffee Nut Latte. The two other flavours are Christmas Cookie latte and Mocha Praline. My room mate took the cookie one and it tastes like gingerbread. I shall get that the next time! Okay I have nothing else to say, good night.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 79 - A day of surprises

I woke up late today so I couldn't have breakfast at the dormitory cafeteria but thankfully my room mate gave me some waffle biscuits the night before so I didn't have to eat nothing for breakfast! I think I'll have to start stocking up although it probably means that I'm going to more of a hermit.

On a random note, sometimes I wish I can wake up not caring about how I look and what I should be looking like. I really want to be happy with myself and I know that some things cannot be forced but I just can't stop comparing myself to others.

I went out for lunch though I didn't eat at a fancy restaurant! I wanted something satisfying like caifan with lots of small dishes but I ended up walking into a noodle shop because it said it sold well-being food. I'm a sucker for health foods and I thought well maybe there'd be disgustingly healthy dishes that I've never tried before (I love trying new things), but it was just like any other noodle shop with the exception of two items on its menu - mung bean soup noodles and noodles in red bean paste.

I was so intrigued by the idea of handmade noodles in a sweet red bean soup I hastily ordered it, to the delight of the boss, and sat down at an empty table, patiently waiting for my meal. While I was waiting for my food, the boss, who was idling, started handing out Jeju oranges to the customers in the shop. The orange looked really pretty and tasty although I'm not a big fan of citrus fruit. I prefer orange in the form of tea.

Soon after, my food came! Honestly it looked really boring but what else could I have been expecting when the name of the dish states so clearly what it was. The bowl was steaming hot, which was comforting in the cold but I realised I'm too much of an impulsive kid to enjoy hot noodles. I preferred something cooler that I could stuff heartily down my throat and feel its goodness filling up my entire mouth.

I love kimchi radish and the radish here were the largest I have seen by far!

Smooth handmade noodles in a hot red bean broth.

I thought the red bean soup would be sweet but not only was it not the least bit sweet, it even tasted a little salty. My wish for something special and unique came true, but I wasn't satisfied at all by the meal even though it did fill up my very hungry tummy.

So when I reached school, I bought a packet of crackers from the school welfare shop, something I've been eyeing for very long but I didn't feel tempted enough to actually buy it. It's called POP and resembled popcorn chicken, which I think was what it was really modeled after. There are two flavours - Spicy Chicken and Hot Chicken - I'm not sure what's the difference but I think Hot is spicier than Spicy. I bought Spicy but I think I could have had challenged Hot because Spicy wasn't the least bit spicy.

I've been experimenting with food photography these few days. I really like close up shots of food!

POP was satisfying so I didn't feel too sad about my miserable lunch.

I had dinner at Midarae again, it's a Japanese restaurant located right outside the street leading down from the main entrance of Dong A Hadan campus. The last time I went there I was really disappointed by their sashimi so this time I thought I'd try something new.

True enough, you can almost never go wrong with tonkatsu, especially when you have cheese and 고구마 (sweet potato) in it. It's by far the crispiest I've ever eaten in Korea and bonus points for not coating my mouth with grease like most fried food. The salad was fresh and not soaked in dressing and the fluffy rice tasted great with the furikake. The tiny hashbrowns were also fried to perfection and two were just right.

My favourite part of the tonkatsu had to be the sweet and fragrant goguma paste!

I tried to take a good photo of the stringy cheese but I ended up pulling them all out into a huge cheese ball.

It's been long since I had tonkatsu with that familiar sweet sauce and I'm not sure where I've eaten it before but it really brought back memories of my childhood. Normally I don't eat the same thing twice if I can help it, but I think I might make an exception for this. :')

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 69

I did nothing today but watch an entire idol drama starring Victoria from f(x) and Zhou Mi from Super Junior M. This is why I don't follow dramas because once I start, I have to end it. There's no waiting, and I tend to skip away lots of parts as I'm only interested in finding out if the bad guy gets his just deserts and if the leads get together in the end. Like every idol drama, of course the leads got together in the end after a series of unimportant problems, which they could have solved long ago had they been more resolute, and the bad girl (in this case) became good again.

I got the poster off the Internet! It stars Calvin Chen and Shao Xiang as well! Victoria's really cute so it makes watching the very predictable Cinderella plot okay. 

Breakfast was three quarters of the blueberry and cream cheese baguette I bought from Familia Bakery yesterday. Familia is just outside Exit 6 of Hadan Station and sells delicious but pricey bread. It is however very generous in its sample portions so you sort of get your money's worth from sampling all their bread.

I didn't expect the bread to have cream cheese inside it because it wasn't mentioned on the bread's description label. Plus when I tasted it at the shop, there were only bits of blueberry and blueberry jam so the cream cheese came as a pleasant surprise. The baguette was quite tasty but I have to say everything tasted better as samples in the bakery.

Lunch was the remaining quarter of the baguette and two persimmons from yesterday! I bought a whole bag of persimmons for 5,000W and there were fifteen rock hard fruits inside that I could use to attack any robber that decides to mob me. They looked a little green and bruised (a marvel for something so hard) at first glance so I felt cheated by the friendly imo who told me that I won't regret it as they are delicious. Come to think of it, nobody would say otherwise about their own goods.

But since I already bought it, I thought I had to at least cut them open and try them before I decide if they are truly inedible. Surprisingly, they turned out to be crunchy and pretty tasty, although they were not as sweet as the softer ones I had in Singapore. But I like it! This shows that appearances may be deceiving and we can't judge a persimmon by its skin.

Sitting in front of the computer staring at it all day long is really bad and I could feel it in my bones so I decided to go down to the dormitory cafeteria for dinner, regardless of what was on the menu today, partly because I had no more food left in my room except for a bunch of fruits and I was too unmotivated to head down the mountain for food.

It turned out to be the worst decision I had ever made but at least I learnt (although through the hard way) that the 비빔밥 (bibimbab) here is truly inedible and not an exaggeration by my friends. The beef, rice and soup were okay, although they weren't particularly tasty but the vegetables really, let's just say I tried my best. I left out the hot sauce because I can't take spicy food and now I understand why it had to be there in the first place. Being a bit too raw (vegetables) is okay for me, I like vegetables so I'm not that adverse to its natural taste but tasting of soap really makes me wonder what goes on in that kitchen of yours.

Beef bibimbab for 2,300W.

Dinner was so bad I bought a chocolate bar to cheer myself up. It's similar to Top, where rice crispies are embedded inside the chocolate to give more texture to the creaminess, but this rice crisp tastes a little different from the usual. It tastes more like wheat, so I guess it could be healthier but it wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be.

I shouldn't have stayed in sigh. Let's hope tomorrow will be better!

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 58 - Exams Day One

Today's the first day of my midterms and I'm not too worried about the paper today as all I have to do is pass. Getting a perfect score would be more for my pride.

Breakfast was steamed egg and chili octopus with rice and spicy tofu and radish soup. This has to be the most horrible cafeteria breakfast I've ever eaten so far in my stay here. The steamed egg was cold and bland, the chili sauce had an unappetising fermented taste to it and the octopus wasn't chewy and did not seem fresh. The only saving grace of the meal was the spicy soup, which was deliciously addictive although I don't normally take spices well.

Breakfast was followed by a horribly unproductive session of attempted mugging as my cheatsheets fought to be seen and heard in the presence of the tantalising Bitstrips and Pottermore. Of course the distractions won. If only we were tested on Harry Potter.

Lunch was spicy (yes you might exclaim "not spice again?") fatty pork slices on rice today at the cafeteria and since I was too lazy to hike down the mountain, I settled for a chicken riceball, potato chips, instant chicken bar and chocolate milk, what I would call 'the convenience store meal'. The 'convenience store meal' is highly adored by college students, yet neither fills you up nor does your wallet good. But we eat it religiously anyway.

The riceball and chocolate milk were boring, the chicken bar was tasty but not exciting, but the potato chips, I tell you, had enough appeal to make this sad meal smiley again. Inside the packet was a dip to go with the chips, which was interesting, although I felt that the chips were yummy enough plain. The shop only had two flavours - sweet chili and barbeque - but I think you can probably find more options in bigger stores. I chose sweet chili and there was no question about it. It tasted sweet and like chili.

Since lunch was unsatisfying, I had dinner early at, what my friends like to call, 'the happy uncle shop'. I had kimchi fried rice for 3500W, which was fantastic and the legendary apple salad that my friends keep gushing about even made its debut appearance in the seven side dishes that the eatery generously dishes out. (no pun intended)

The apple salad turned out to be just apple cubes drenched in mayonnaise (frowns), but as a loyal customer, I finished all the side dishes and almost all the rice, without a care for the judging looks of the other customers who were just secretly in awe of the hearty appetite of a girl courageous enough to eat solo in the couple-oriented world of Korea.

My exam turned out to be even easier than I thought it would be, which is a feat in itself.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 57

I woke up early to get breakfast from the cafeteria even though I still had cookies leftover from yesterday! Breakfast was spicy greens and ketchup minced meat with rice and spicy radish beansprout soup for 2,300W. The cafeteria lady gave me a packet of salted laver today, which was weird because the laver is normally distributed only when they run out of food. Could it be part of their secret exam welfare? Today's the first day of midterms but I don't have a paper so reality hasn't struck me yet. It will tomorrow.

Guilt has finally caught up with me so I decided to spend some time mugging today instead of wasting my time away! I should have done this long time ago because even though I didn't study as much as I would like to, it was the most fulfilling day by far! Not only did I finish compiling notes for two modules, I even had time to Bitstrip and level up on Pottermore! Wonders of time management.

Lunch was tonkatsu with ham fried rice for 3,000W. Although I don't particularly enjoy fried rice, I was too lazy to hike down the mountain to get other food plus the fried rice here tastes better than the ones back home because they use short-grained rice which I love! So I ate it, albeit a little begrudgingly. It turned out to be a good choice as the fried rice was actually delicious! It was much drier than the last time I had it, which was a turnoff because I absolutely detest wet and mushy rice. Partly why I rarely eat porridge too. The tonkatsu was fried to crisp perfection, although the mushroom sauce tasted a little sweet.

Although I complain that the yoghurt drink yesterday was too expensive, I bought another flavour today because I can't resist trying everything at least once. I liked today's apple version more than the strawberry one though because it was not as sweet and rich. The yoghurt felt lighter and smoother as it trickled down my happy throat.

I didn't go down to the cafeteria for dinner because two meals of rice was enough for one day. I can't eat so much of the rice here lest I suffer from constipation again. But I did spend the entire late afternoon munching on my potato chips and biscuit stash. So much for ingesting less carbohydrates.

This is my favourite out of the five even though I'm still not quite sure what it is! It tastes a lot like Subway's White Chip Macadamia Nut though!

Chocolate walnut tasted meh.

My favourite cheese flavoured baked potato chips! Tastes like french fries and doesn't reek of oil like some potato chips do! One box of four packets for 3,150W!

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 47 - MT Day 1

The days I dread came and left. Before these two days, I kept thinking of how I shouldn't go for the retreat (MT stands for membership training and is basically a small orientation programme) because I could use this time in so many other different ways, which I would definitely enjoy more. But then again, looking back at it, I'm kind of glad I went for it although there were many awkward moments and mixed feelings.

We set off from school very early in the morning with our buddies (mine wasn't there because she had a job interview) with everyone in a confused state between being half asleep and raring to get going.

My name tag for the two days.

The interior of the bus was really colourful and looked like one of those tacky 80s nightclub, which was kind of amusing. It was a four hour bus ride to our destination, Suncheon, which is located in between Seoul and Busan. Around two hours into the ride, we had a rest stop where we could spend half an hour exploring or taking selcas in the washroom.

I feel as though I'm back in Singapore with my family again and we're going on a road trip to KL. We probably should again when I get back.

There were many shops selling local delicacies and I couldn't resist buying a packet of 호두과자 (walnut cakes). I wasn't hungry, I ate lots of breakfast but since we're on a trip I figured I should cut myself some slack. My mission here was to try every single thing at least once anyway. Since it was almost noon, there were already lots of walnut cakes ready for sale so the machine that churns out the cakes was at rest. I wished I could have seen the shopkeeper prepare the cakes though.

I bought a small packet of cakes for 3,000W and there were at least ten huge cakes inside. Even after I shared them with my friends, I still had plenty left. The cakes were soft and warm, and the walnut paste was smooth with tiny cubes of walnut that honestly didn't add much bite to the cake. On the whole it had a delicious traditional flavour but I recommend sharing it with friends and family as you probably won't want to finish the entire bag by yourself. It's too filling and keeping it for later would make it cold and too soft.

If I knew that we were having lunch immediately after this, I would not have bought the walnut cakes. Throughout this entire trip, we were being fed like pigs and considering we only paid 20,000W for the entire trip, I wonder how much did the trip really cost and how on Earth did the organisers pay for everything. It remains a mystery to me till now.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant in a mushroom farm for beef and mushroom shabu shabu. We sat four people to a table, but the restaurant accepts parties of twos and threes as well. Other than beef, they also had other kinds of meat but mushrooms are a staple in their menu. I'm not too sure about the others but for the food we had, it was about 45,000W for four and take 10,000W off for every person less.

Since the restaurant was housed in a mushroom farm, we were served five different kinds of mushroom, freshly picked from the farm and we also tried their specialty mushroom tea. The manager told us that other than having various health benefits, the tea is good for cleansing our palates in between courses and also aids digestion of the oily food. Game for trying any kind of food, I savoured the entire cup although some of my friends bailed after one sip. The mushroom tea smelt like chicken essence but tasted...funny. I don't know how else to describe it. It was quite an experience as all the tea I've had previously were nothing compared to this.

Beside the salad bowl is the mushroom tea and in between the salad and the hotpot is freshly ground wasabi sauce!

This wasabi coleslaw salad tasted so refreshing and appetising I could have a pot of it!

(top) Spinach and spicy cuttlefish. (middle) Cold pickled radish slices. (bottom) Cabbage kimchi and coleslaw.

Sorry for the bad picture but look at all that mushroom!

The meal was split into three different courses - beef and mushroom, noodles and fried rice - and my table skipped the second course because we were simply too full. But we did try strands of noodle from our neighbouring table. The noodles were soft and tasty but I'm glad we gave it a pass.

As the staff had already prepared the ingredients for the fried rice, we gave it a shot and it turned out to be a delicious choice. You get to have the fried rice cooked in front of you, which was an interesting experience and the fragrance of the fried rice really tempts you to dig in. Just like us, my Korean friends say that the best part of the pot is the burnt rice at the bottom!

After the very satisfying lunch, we went to the Garden Expo at Suncheon Bay. Starting from this year, the Garden Expo would become an annual affair, which will be held for six months from April to October. We stayed there for around three hours, but the place is really huge so tourists who want to explore every single inch of the place should at least be there for an entire day.

The expo starts early in the morning at 9 and closes in the evening around 6 but visitors are free to visit the ecological park, which remains open until the sun sets around an hour later. Admission isn't free and you have to get a ticket, which costs below 5,000W (I can't remember the exact figure). Getting there might be a problem if you don't drive but I think there shuttle buses to the expo ground from the neighbouring cities such as Seoul and Busan.

Green bean ice cream to get us started!

This rock is actually a disguised stereo box.

We explored the maze garden and came out alive!

For those who don't like to walk much, don't worry, there's a guided bus service available at the price of 2,000W.

We decided to explore the hill right in front, where everyone was walking around in circles to reach the top.

I feel like I'm in Teletubby Land for some reason.

Almost to the top of the hill! The slopes are really steep and the path is really small, so extra caution needs to be taken or not you'll implicate those on the lower grounds as well.

Many little children come here for their field trip, which they'll end off by having a picnic by the streams.

Can you see the words? The tiny dots are actually tiny pots of colourful cacti neatly arranged to form pictures!

We stopped by at a traditional house for drinks and rest.

I got shikye, a traditional rice drink.

The cafe that we went to for a short rest was located in the Korean Traditional Garden section, where there were traditional houses being put up for exhibit and also traditional games held in the square for visitors to try their hand at.

After our break, we went into an indoor exhibition (partly to avoid the Sun) that showcased many different types of plants and also how people from various parts of the world decorate their gardens. There were so many Asian gardens on display but none of them were from Singapore, which was a pity. 

Koreans believe that if you make a wish upon a stone stack, the wish will come true if the stone stack doesn't topple.

We went into another indoor exhibit which turned out to be a huge bazaar selling potted plants and souvenirs from the different countries that participated in the expo. I wished I had the foresight to bring my wallet down from the bus, instead of having to scrimp on the few miserable notes and coins when buying presents back.

Presents for the pesky two kids at home!

I was so proud of myself for daring to ask the imo for a discount on the two ocarinas and she agreed, although a little annoyed. :') Now they can have one each instead of having to share a huge one. Sharing is weird when it comes to this, but these two ocarinas are kind of small to be played comfortably come to think of it.

Everyone was really exhausted by now so we headed to our accommodation for the night, which is a pension near Suncheon Bay. Pensions are the korean equivalent of chalets back home. The place was really spacious (enough to live five comfortably) and even had a toilet and small kitchen en-suite. This thrill and excitement would soon dissipate later in the night as I realised how hard the floor was and how freezing cold the natural air-conditioning was.

We had an hour of rest time before dinner so I went for a walk with my friend to explore the area. It wasn't much of an exploration as we ended up chilling too long in the room.

The area where we lived at was famous for its shellfish, so dinner was a seafood feast with lots of yummy side dishes. Although I was still stuffed from lunch, I couldn't help but devour the shellfish as I rarely find seafood in Korea and they were so delicious! The shellfish looked a little like cockles except when I opened it, I got a pleasant surprise for the shellfish meat was at least twice the size of cockles.

The fiery red mess in the middle is a spicy shellfish salad, which reeked of spice leaves but I still happily gorged on.

(left) Grilled squid, chewy sweet potato noodles, chives pancake. (middle) Grilled fish, fresh shellfish. (right) Kelp, radish kimchi, cabbage kimchi.

It was cute how our Korean buddies prepared games and prizes for us after dinner, but it ended earlier as the crowd wasn't that responsive due to the after-meal syndrome. My friends and I went out for a walk again, which also ended prematurely as the weather was too cold and we gave in to the temptations of having 빙수 (shaved ice dessert). The irony.

Although it was freezing, we ate ice and sat outside. The cold fried our brains. (the triple irony)

We settled for a mango bingsu and it was the best mango dessert I have ever had in my entire life. Totally worth the expensive 11,000W. The bowl was frozen so that the shaved ice will remain solid till the very last bite and the mango cubes were frozen too, which made them taste like sherbet instead of the soft fruit. Very refreshing! I don't know how, but the shaved ice was infused with a faint scent of milk that gets stronger as you plough into the bowl. My favourite part was the bottom layer of ice, which had the strongest taste of milk and was really creamy. The red bean paste was a little too sweet and the rice cake was unnecessary but on the whole, I would give this bingsu three thumbs up if I had one extra.

I was really tired and I can't drink so I didn't join my Singaporean friends who continued the party with their Korean buddies in the other room. I stayed in my room with the Japanese students and I made a new friend! She's the Korean buddy to the Japanese students and she speaks Japanese so well I thought she was an exchange student. Her name is Nayo and she studies Fashion Design in Dong A. Other than Japanese, she can speak a little French and English too, which is so cool.

Our poor aching backs.

xoxo, ❀