Exchange Day 85

It's the election period for the Dong A Student Union this month and it's funny to watch how the students campaign. Other than printing huge banners with their faces blown up, they also dance cheerleader style on the roads opposite the shuttle bus stop. I might start voting if the nominees start dancing back in NTU too.

Look at their zest hahaha I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.

I had a late lunch after my group project meeting, which was very efficient (I like), at Bongusu Burger opposite the Bumin campus. My Korean friend brought me there, although I've had it once, because I think he wanted to show me how to eat the rice burger Korean-style. In Singapore, we eat our rice burgers like normal burgers but over here, they serve the burgers on plates and we use spoons to eat them like normal rice.

According to my friend, the first step (other than unwrapping) is to pour a little water on the burger, so that the rice grains will not stick to the aluminium foil. Then, you wrap your burger again and flatten the burger with your palm. Unwrap the burger and mix the rice and the other ingredients thoroughly before enjoying the burger! Honestly, I don't know what's the point of having the rice in a burger if we are going to mix it up before eating it.

My original burger, which has kimchi and tuna mayo!

His chilli chicken ribs burger, which he describes to be 'messier' so I should take a photo of.

It's interesting knowing a different way to eat the burger although I still enjoy it most like a normal burger. :)

Dinner was fried udon noodles from GGgo, where they serve all their food in cups. I had always wanted to try it for it looks cute eating from a cup and today I finally forced myself to do it. Other than udon noodles, there's also fried rice, buckwheat noodles, curry rice and chicken cutlet rice. For my udon noodles, I had a choice between spicy or spicier (which is actually not much of a choice) and I reluctantly took spicy.

I could smell the bonito flakes the moment I opened the lid and so could everyone who were in the same study area as I was. I apologise if I made any of you hungry. The octopus cubes were very chewy and some tasted a bit like it was fake. The udon noodles were very tasty but they were so spicy I don't think I'm gonna order it again.

xoxo, ❀

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 78 - Cheapskate no more

Breakfast was a purple sweet potato rice cake that I bought from the station yesterday and a huge banana! I bought the bananas from a truck near the station too and they were really cheap (and delicious) at six for 3,000W. The banana I had was a little tart though, perhaps I should wait a while more before I devour the rest.

I was a sloth the entire morning but I can't help myself. I thought if I refrained from storing food in my room, I would go out more often because I had to eat but I guess I didn't know myself well enough. It's so true how they say that when you go on exchange you learn something new about yourself every day. I always thought that hunger was my achille's heel and I'd brave fire and water to eat, but I guess I was more resilient than I thought.

Thankfully for my tummy, us poor students have to attend classes whether we like it or not, so I headed out although I very much preferred loafing in the warm comforts of my room. I usually eat the same old things around school so that I'll be in time for the free shuttle bus but today, I am a changed woman.

I resisted my cheapskate urges and walked all the way to the subway station in the chills, determined to eat some good food for a change. Since I wasn't familiar with the area, I decided to just go for the first restaurant I saw and that was how I ended up in Outback Steakhouse. Prices at Outback Steakhouse are outrageous for the average Joe and you won't find anything lower than 10,000W (apart from drinks) in the standard menu. It would be cheaper to order a combo to split amongst friends but expect to spend an average of at least 25,000W per person.

However, luckily for single diners, they do have heavily discounted set meals from 12:00 to 17:00 every weekday, which I would say still isn't cheap but was very worth the price. These set meals start from 10,250W and are split into various price ranges to suit customers of all budgets. For each price range, there would be an option of a pasta, salad or steak. Since I was intent on being lavish, I ordered a Carribean Steak Salad for 19,250W, part of the middle-range courses.

(clockwise) Sweet rye bread with butter, Carribean steak salad, strawberry ade and cream of corn soup.

Each set meal entitles the diner to a main course, fruit ade of his choice, bread and butter, a bowl of soup and a cup of Outback Steakhouse's home-brewed coffee. For the health-conscious, the ade can be upgraded to a cup of healthier fruit juice for a small fee of 1,100W. Coffee is served after the meal but I opted out since I didn't like coffee.

The portion of soup was generous and I'm grateful that it was heartier than the effortless Campbell concoction.

I was given a choice between cream of mushroom and cream of corn, and naturally I chose the one that wasn't so common but I'm not sure if these soups are seasonal or kept fixed on the menu.

I was expecting the ade to be a cheap ripoff of a flavoured soft drink but it turned out more like fresh juice with fizz!

It's fun when you get the bread served on a chopping board and you have the liberty to slice your own bread but I didn't like that both the butter and the bread were so sweet they felt sugared.

The highlight of my meal, look at those juicy cubes of steak!

The salad was really flavourful, perhaps a little too much I would say. I like my greens raw and fresh but the ones in the salad were drenched in salad cream and spicy salsa and that was after they had been marinated in olive oil. I felt that this took the whole point out of eating a salad as I might as well have been eating a steak with all the trimmings. The fried crisps added a bit of crunch to the salad, which would have been great had the calorie count not already been skyrocketed by the excessive dressing. The beef cubes singlehandedly salvaged the salad and I have to say I didn't regret my order. They were succulent and not overdone, with an even distribution of meat and tendon. Amazing.

Dinner was at DB Roll, a cafe in the basement level of the Dong-A Bumin campus. I had been wanting to eat their tempura ever since I saw my classmate having it that day and now I finally have my chance! The tempura (튀기) comes in a set of standard 4pc or premium 6pc, and since I wanted hot 오뎅 (oden) as well to warm my freezing self, I took the standard set for 2,000W. The difference between the two sets, other than the quantity, was an absence of tempura prawn, which was only available in the premium set.

(left) Oden and (right) tempura.

Normally I won't order this as I don't like its plain taste but the one here was umami and it helped warm me up!

There's a variety of fried sweet potato, yam, dumpling and kimbab. Too delicious!

The weather's really cold now and I'm starting to miss sunny Singapore so much. I have come to realise that as much as I hate getting a tan, I cannot live without the warm embrace of the Sun, which is probably why I will never be a fair maiden.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 59 - My heart breaks into two

If the price of the air tickets doesn't drop, I swear I'll never forgive myself. I might forget but I'll probably never forgive. (depressed)

The other day I was searching for cheap tickets back to Singapore from Taipei when I found unbelievably cheap tickets from Scoot at S$125. It really baffles me why I didn't buy it on the spot. What else could I possibly be waiting for? The sky to drop a free ticket?! So today when I finally worked up the nerve to book my air ticket, the price soared to one and a half times its original price. No doubt it's still affordable but the very thought of having to fork out $60 just like that really kills me.

I'm going to wait for the price to drop again. (determined)

For breakfast today, I had a blueberry and cream cheese danish and a stick of milk bread from PB! Maybe it's because I left the danish overnight, the pastry turned soft and wasn't as crispy as it ought to be. The blueberry jam and cream cheese tasted great individually but I wanted it to blend and I could only choose one per bite, owing to my small mouth (teehee), so it was sad. Come to think of it, maybe I should have folded the danish so that I would get both flavours in each bite without having to tear my cheek muscles. The milk bread was so-so, as the Koreans like to say. The milk tasted more like airy whipped cream and lacked the fragrance of milk, which was disappointing.

(left) Blueberry cream cheese danish for 1,600W and (right) milk bread for 700W!

Lunch was, in comparison, so much more satisfying as not only was I famished by lunchtime, my favourite 닭갈비보끔밥 (satay chicken rice) was on the menu!!! I was so tempted to get another serving after I gobbled my first plate in a hurry over an intense discussion of who the true heroes of Korean nationalism should be. We can always count on the stress of exams to ruin the joys of eating.

Under the pretext of compensating myself for having lost a discount and being lied to when they said exchange was all about having fun, I bought myself a vanilla ice cream cone! On hindsight, my day turned out great so I should probably spit out the cone. Although I felt a little guilty eating sweet treats without gymming (I haven't been hitting the gym for a while now), it was so worth the calories as the ice cream stayed frozen to the very last bite, just the way I like it!

Every exam day is a day to enjoy good food, so I had kimchi dumplings and cheese kimbab at 김밥전국! 김밥전국 is a popular franchise that sells the usual korean food such as kimbab at affordable prices. Depending on the size of the outlet, the number of variations of the same dish may differ. Although reviews from friends say that it's not that delicious, I wanted to try for the sake of it, for it's very commonly found in Korea and it would be weird if I left without visiting at least once.

The kimchi dumplings had a chew to it, which I liked, and were tasty although I would prefer the kimchi taste to be stronger. The cheese kimbab, on the other hand, was too salty for me as they used American cheddar cheese, which overpowered the other ingredients in the roll.

The part after dinner wasn't that exciting and to summarise my non-food portion of the day, I had two papers, both of which were doable and made me a relieved and happy girl.

xoxo, ❀

Exchange Day 46 - I survived 6 crazy hours without food

After yesterday's wild goose chase, I took extra care to ensure that history does not repeat itself when I head down during my long break today to get my charger examined. My heart cannot take such excitement twice in a row.

Breakfast was my favourite blueberry bagel from Dalloyou, which I happily munched on the way to the subway station. The free shuttle bus to the Bumin campus, where all my classes are at, does not operate between 7:00 and 10:00 so for people who have classes in between, they'll have to take public transport. Supposedly if we use our matriculation cards (they act as a t-money card too) to pay for the subway, we could claim the money back through a series of unclear and complicated procedures. I have yet to try it out but for the sake of my sallowing wallet, I will.

Class was boring as usual. The professor always speaks extra slowly because he thinks that doing so makes it easier for the Korean students to comprehend his American accent and that once they understand him, they will answer his questions during class. I don't really think the reason they're keeping mum is because they don't understand him. They understand him fine, even if he were to speak faster, it's just an Asian thing to be modest about speaking up in public.

Anyways, I had lunch in the school's cafeteria with my classmate since school food is cheap, so that I wouldn't have to spend any unnecessary money at the mall. The school's cafeteria is slightly different from the cafeteria in the dormitory, as its offers a selection of food instead of dictating your meals. I took 칠리닭갈비 (chilli dalkkalbi) for 2,500W, which was served with potatoes, coleslaw, fishcake soup and kimchi. 닭갈비 means 'chicken ribs' and although I rarely eat spicy food, I like this dish as it tastes a lot like the canned curry chicken my siblings and I always eat. 

So spicy but so homely!

After lunch, I whizzed to TUVA. I have a 6-hour break in between class every Thursday but I still ended up being half an hour late for class. Thankfully the professor wasn't mad and could still joke with the class that I was late because I was at the BIFF. It wasn't that I took a long time to get there, or I waited for eternity for my turn. It was just that the lethal combination of a language barrier and my inability to be assertive about what I want cost me three queue numbers.

In my first consultation, I was sure that my charger had broken down so I wanted to enquire if a repair was possible and how much would it cost. Mac users should know that our chargers comprise of two parts - the battery and the plug. In Singapore, we use the squarish three-pin plug but over here, they use a round two-pin plug. So the guy replaced my three-pin plug with his own to test the charger and to my utter embarrassment (and relief), it worked perfectly well. He stared at me like I was wasting his life and I had to make a quick exit from the awkward situation.

I sat at their lounge for ages thinking about what just happened and I was so sure that something was wrong with my charger. I couldn't be that stupid to go to all that trouble without properly ensuring that something was truly wrong right? (this is when the audience should chorus a loud yes despite the number of times I have been a muddlehead)

Then it dawned on me that the three-pin plug could be the one that was faulty! I quickly took another number and patiently waited for my turn. The guy, on his way out for his break, saw that his pesky customer was still here so out of kind obligation he asked me if something was wrong again. I told him that I would like to purchase a two-pin plug and wanted to know where I could get one. He stared at me with a you-are-such-an-absurd-girl expression and replied that there are no instocks in Busan and I would have to go to Sincheon (which was in Seoul) to get it.

Thankfully, I decided to bank on my foreigner right to be shameless and I asked another guy if I could purchase a two-pin plug. He, who was so much more helpful, told me that it's possible for their resident engineer to make an order but it would take four days and asked if I was alright with that. Of course I was alright, you're such a funny man. Surely the plug would cost much less than buying a brand new charger, why would I not be alright? In fact, I'm not just alright, I'm over-the-moon-whizzing-about-in-space-like-an-atom-high-on-sugar alright.

I forgot to take a photo of my third number in my elation, I enthusiastically threw it into the bin.

Their resident engineer turned out to be Guy A who went out for his break, so I had to wait another hour for him to be back before I could place my order. I think the reason why he was so hostile was because he didn't knew that I was a foreigner. (secretly happy about being mistaken as a local) So in the end I paid 12,000W for the plug, a tenth of what a new charger would cost. Budget Daphy is very happy.

All this hoohaa took a ridiculous four hours and I was running really late for my class. I contemplated to skip class but I can't let my precious three chances of cutting class go to waste just like that so I had the brilliant idea of using Naver's directory to check for the shortest route back to school. What happened next affirms my suspicions that I am a hidden genius and to cut a long story short, with the help of Lady Luck, a kind imo and my broken Korean, I manage to make it back to school before class ended. I think I exhausted my one year's worth of luck.

The originally grumpy and worrisome day ended on a great note when I had pizza for dinner with my friend. Good food always makes things better.

The huge pizza that was more than enough for two hungry girls only cost us 9,900W, inclusive of the soda! We ordered garlic chicken which was great but I think I still prefer the thicker crust of the pizzas back home.

Exam welfare from the dormitory! Coffee, chocolate milk, spicy cup noodles, peanut butter bun and green bean bun.

xoxo, ❀