Looking Back: A Journey of Firsts (in the works)

MY FIRST TIME...

1. It's my first time travelling without my family for a duration exceeding two weeks.

2. It's my first time walking around Seoul (in particular, the streets of Sinchon) on my own.. eating and snackin' of course heh.

One fine day at Myeongdong and another equally fine day slurping on milk on the train :3

3. It's my first time rooming with someone who is neither family nor friend (she now is!).

4. It's my first time going for a concert(s) in Korea.

 (from left) 5MayStar Concert, Someday concert and (not pictured) Dream Concert 2014

5. It's my first time cooking a complete meal (consisting of a rice, main dish and soup) for myself.

6. It's my first time washing and drying all my clothes on my own.

7. It's my first time climbing hills on a (almost) daily basis.

8. It's my first time in a multi-bang (멀티방).
A multi-bang offers not just karaoke but also movies, TV, WII, internet access and even comical photo-taking sessions!

My very talented friends dancing along to Orange Caramel's Catallena (rolls over laughing) :D

9. It's my first time watching movies at the theatres in Korea.

10. It's my first time watching a baseball and basketball match in Korea.

11. It's my first time chasing stars around (read: Running Man members) and actually getting to see them - though they are Polly Pocket-sized!

12. It's my first time getting to meet and take photographs with celebrities (although they were a rookie group...).

ANTM's Miss J and BTOB

13. It's my first time watching music shows in Korea (a dream I've always had).

14. It's my first time ordering takeout in Korea - and trying exotic flavours like Sweet Potato Pizza (first picture below), Potato Pizza and Bulgogi Pizza. Yumz!

 Pepperoni pizza?

Pizza PARRTYY Time!

15. It's my first time bringing friends around in a foreign land!

16. It's my first time drinking (alcohol) anything more than a sip of beer, which I had washed down with a cup full of water.
In fact, the very first time I drank 'properly', I ended up drinking 6-7 paper cups worth of a beer-soju mixture. They were out to get me drunk so they bought a few bottles of soju, one of which had the highest alcohol content - fortunately, I held up well enough.. but boy, that was a huge jump from I-do-not-drink to I-drank-till-I-became-tipsy.. T^T Advisory: Young kids, please do not follow suit.)

17. It's my first time seeing cherry blossoms in full bloom!

18. It's my first time sleeping at 3.30 to 4 a.m., like ever!

19. It's my first time travelling out of Seoul alone and making friends along the way! (:

20. It's my first time giving a note (of admiration) to someone I hardly know.

21. It's my first time visiting my ultimate idol's cafe, Jholic! <3

22. It's my first time at the airport and flying home on a plane alone!

 

Very diverse in-flight entertainment

Ack.

I have like, 14 drafts in my folder to work on! :O

I'm going to post them in chronological order so you won't see them appear as new posts but if you're interested, you can always scroll down and look for new posts! ^^

Sleeping time!

He brings a smile to my face (:

If that's not enough, there's more of him here! How can anyone be so insanely adorable?!! ^^

I'll take you up on that offer! (grins)

Sour Lemons.

So I decided to log into YSCEC one last time and to my surprise, I realised that my CCG professor (the one with the 12-hour exams) had actually sent our individual class participation grades through the instant messaging service a few weeks back. I do think I've mentioned previously that class participation is entirely done through peer evaluation and this time round, amazingly, my class participation grade is almost at the very bottom of the class! I didn't think it was possible for it to drop any further but it did!

Woohoo! **** them all! All this for a class in which I had made it a point to participate actively in (it was part of a self-improvement challenge) and for which I had done most of my weekly readings. This simply leaves me speechless. There were so many other people who didn't even speak up that much (much less done their readings) and one of my fellow classmates definitely spoke much lesser (read less too, that I know for a fact) and yet, she's probably among the top few students? I know that I don't speak as assertively as she does - my guess as to why they remember the few occasions on which she spoke up - my voice's probably not that memorable as well but hey, someone should have been kinder and dropped me a memo to inform me that they're grading fluffing abilities! I mean, then I would have caught up on sleep or went out to play more instead of burying my nose in the mountain of readings! If participating actively and getting cold called all the time ain't count for nuffin', then heck it! After the mid-term grades were released, the professor did say that the quality (of participation) was not a problem so I pushed myself to speak up more in the subsequent half of the semester. Despite that, my grade just plummeted further (if grades can go through the roof, my class participation grades probably smashed through the lithosphere into the molten core of earth - that's how bad it was). As for the professor.. thank you so much for the anxiety and agony caused through the incessant cold calling. Not that I have to earn your recognition, or anyone else at that, but.. (shrugs) (continues flipping da table)

It's not really the grades that matter. Personally, I am glad that I've managed to improve my class participation (judged against my very objective internal standards, of course) and that I am no longer as reluctant to volunteer answers or raise questions in class (although I find that even when in Korea, I still prefer 1-on-1 Q&A sessions with the professors). Rather, it's the fact that my effort has gone unnoticed and unappreciated that sucks big time. It's like.. working very, very hard for something, only to find out in the end that the reward has been given to the slacker in the company. I'm definitely not working hard for these people's recognition (ugh, don't make me sick) but it would have been nice to receive some form of acknowledgement for trying so hard. Oh well.

That said, I have learnt quite a few valuable lessons from this experience. I'll continue to work on certain issues and ensure that history will never repeat itself again.

End of rage.

First week.

Why.

So distant, I've lost even myself.
In this huge world where we are nothing more than specks of dust.
Life is transient, but love is eternal.
That is why I say a little prayer for you.
With a sincere heart, may those blessings come upon you.
Let this faith be enough to help us all pull through.

Third day back.

And the weather's driving me nuts.

On a happier note, I'm back with my family!

 

I'll get around to posting more pictures and chronicling the last 3 weeks in Seoul soon but for now.. I need to settle my sleep debts!! (and yes, I have (somewhat) finished Agent YS's mission! Don't rat on me anymoree!)

Chuncheon: We cycled, we walked, we ate, we conquered.

We started off the day at Gangchon Rail Park, a popular tourist attraction where visitors can pedal along old railroad tracks while taking in the lovely Bukhangang River scenery. If you watch Running Man, you might recall them filming an episode here (see episode 144)! The rail park operates from three stations: Gimyujeong Station, Gangchon Station, and Gyeonggang Station. The most popular station is Gimyujeong station (almost always fully booked) and I have no idea why. In any case, it was too difficult to make a reservation (online only, unless you're planning a group reservation) - you need a local phone number and payment mode - and even my Korean host couldn't manage to make the reservation. So Charleston and I decided to just try our luck the very next day at the less popular starting point - Gangchon station. If they didn't have any more bikes then, we would just continue on our way to Chuncheon.

Thankfully, there were still quite a few rail bikes left when we arrived at 9.20am (we should have reached by 9am but thankfully, we could still get the bikes!) and we happily hopped on. The scenery was good even though it wasn't as amazing as I thought it would be - the fields just roll on and on and on and there are only about three changes in the scenery along the way. Perhaps it's better in spring or winter? That said, I still enjoyed the cooling morning breeze, the wonderful corn fields, sunflower patches, never-ending mountains and the refreshing ride.

The only downside that day was that we were assigned a faulty bike which refused to cooperate with the motorised/automated part of the tracks (I suspect the contact point on the bike was broken because throughout the entire ride, I kept hearing this annoying plasticky sound of something hitting against the base of the bike) and so, we had to exert so much more force during the entire journey. There was this guy who was stationed in the middle of nowhere and I think he either heard the awkward clanking or rattling of plastic parts or saw us cycling so hard (when it was supposed to be automated) because he came running over to help us fix it. A few minutes of tinkering and he sent us off cycling again. To our pleasant surprise, it worked! Our bike was finally getting that electronic boost of energy it needed! Alas, the brief respite lasted all but three minutes and soon, the rattling sound resumed and our legs were put to strenuous work again. (RAWR) There was this particular stretch towards the end that was crazy incredibly difficult to cycle.. We were huffin and puffin' for 10 minutes straight because the couple behind us kept zooming uncomfortably close to our bike (their bike had the automatic boost the entire way) and we wanted to maintain a safe distance from their bike. By the end of the ride, I think I arrived at Gimyujeong Station with jelly legs.. Orz

It took me about 2 hours from Mapo Station to Gangchon Station so if you're planning to visit the rail park, do set off early! The earliest starting time is 9am (I believe they have depart every other hour) and since we didn't want to get fried in the afternoon sun, we arranged to meet at 6.30am before we set off for the long trip. You might not get seats on the train either so.. make sure to get a good night's rest before that!

Directions to Gangchon Rail Park
Take the Gyeongchun subway line (towards Chuncheon) and alight at Gangchon Station. You might have to make a few transits in between (eg. at Wangsimni or Mangu Station), depending on the direction you're coming from. After you alight at Gangchon Station, hail a cab - there are many cabbies hanging around the area so no worries - and tell the cabbie, "Gangchon Rei-il Par-keu, ka-ju-sei-yo (I would like to go to Gangchon Rail Park)." It costs about 4000W, which is only a tad more expensive than a bus ride for 2 so.. just take a cab!

Distance
The distance between Gimyujeong Station and Gangchon Station is approximately 8km. According to the site, it takes an approximate 80 minutes to reach Gimyujeong Station. (we reached in about 65 minutes(?) because we pedaled far too much T^T)

Cost
25,000W for a 2-seater and 35,000W for a 4-seater

For more information
Visit http://railpark.co.kr/main/index.asp (it's useful to create an account so as to check the number of available rail bikes left)

 

Special highlight along the way - light shows in the tunnels!

 Came across loads of my favourite flower, much to my delight!

 Pictures taken at a rest stop!

And before our weary legs even knew it, we've reached the destination! :D (the one on the right.. act yi ge!)

Then after we were done with our rail biking, we set off for Chuncheon!

Reach liao!

I'm smiling but deep down.. DAMN TIRED OMG. (I think I slept for.. 2.5 hours the night before? No thanks to drinking games and the World Cup match..)

 The only reason why Charleston wanted to visit Chuncheon.. to eat his Dak Galbi. He seriously travelled to Chuncheon just for this stir-fried chicken... he came with no other plans at all..... (tsk!)

I'm not sure how to walk here.. ask Charleston.

Chuncheon is famous for its 닭갈비 so yeap, this marks the start of the Dak Galbi Street.

Um.. after a long lunch and a lot of bumming around - Charleston's butt was literally glued to the floor - we left to go explore the shopping area. After which, we went looking for the dam. Dam, what was its name again?

 Some glass observatory thingy.. which is pretty cool (not). It was wayy too hot to be standing on that metal-glass hybrid structure.

This picture basically sums up the rest of the day after lunch. Which was spent walking, walking and more walking. I think we walked at least 5 or 6 kilometres that day. Possibly more. It was almost 11pm - or was it midnight - when I got back to my guesthouse. With 0.05% energy left (was running on pure adrenaline the whole day). To walk up the steep roads and climb the hill. I'm surprised I didn't just fall asleep by the side of the road. It was so late and there were hardly any people on the streets (was actually quite frightened walking back alone) but I simply didn't have any energy to run all the way up - which was the original plan. Once I saw how steep the hill was, haha I just gave up on the ambitious dashallthewayhome plan and settled on checking behind me every 20 seconds or so. Thankfully, I made it home safe and sound. 

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