Accommodation
Thanks to the company, we don't have to worry about our accommodation after our tsm trip as they settled it for us. They are paying for our house rental and electricity bills too! *grateful much*
Just some photos of my house/dorm.
It is basically a studio apartment with no room but a room for the toilet (do you consider that as a room?). But it is very comfy and clean! I love the bed the most and the blanket. It is so soft and smooth that I hate to wake up every morning! Haha! And it is a queen size bed while mine is a single bed back in S'pore. We have extremely huge TV in our house consider the size of the house. There are washing machine, heater, microwave, rice booker and vacuum cleaner. I'm very satisfied by the apartment :)
New experience
Our home wifi only came in on the second week of our internship. So for the first 2 weeks, during the weekends, we would sit at the convenient store just nearby our house to tap on the hair salon's wifi opposite the convenient stall. I think because the drainage system is just nearby, you will smell interesting "fragrant" when surfing the net. Random ajushi will also approach you to ask for something when you are halfway skyping with your family.. Hahaha! During some of the days when we went to Gangnam to eat, we would always walk back home as it is relatively near and stop by a cafe to tap on the wifi. We even know which spot has the best connection! LOL! Imagine standing outside a cafe for about an hour when the temperature is 12 degree Celsius just for the wifi. Interesting experience! And back in our apartment, we watch TV most of the time and sleep at 11+pm Korea time (10+pm Singapore time) as there is nothing to do. Most of the channels are in korean so we don't really understand, so we often try to guess what the story is about and voice over the actor and actresses.
We can hardly find any dustbins in Korea.. So what we do is every 2-3 days, we will throw outside the convenient store nearby where there are a lot of other trash bags around too.
We celebrated our colleagues birthday and a farewell of a colleague on 31st May. I was expecting serviettes and cake cut for everyone. But I start to see a distribution of chopsticks and everyone just crowded around the table and started to dig in on the piece of cake still intact with the original aluminium covered plate! They say that this is so much more convenient, which I totally agree! And we sang Happy Birthday song in Korean. Hahha!
Almost everyday, we will receive pamphlets and brochures pasted on our door. And you know what is the most shocking thing? These pamphlets have magnets at the back to stick onto your metal door! Some are even in a nice oval shape with the catering company's name and telephone number printed so that you can stick it onto your fridge. This simply shows how much effort they put into marketing as compared to Singapore. However, I feel that this is quite environmental unfriendly to throw the magnets away...
I'm Growing Up
Since it is an overseas internship, I would have to stay in the country for about 3 months. I have to take care of myself and manage the daily chores which I always leave it for my mum back in Singapore. OK, the following content might sound like a daily thing and obvious fact to you but I only done it and realised after managing my own life for a month.
- Any clothing that states "Hand Wash ONLY" is super annoying
- Must throw the fruits trash and other dried trash separately if not the dustbin will stink the next day.. No wonder my mum always throw them separately.. *dumb dumb me*
- I always complain why my mum wants us to sweep the floor at home EVERYDAY. Now I know why... You will always see chunk after chunk of hair daily no matter how careful you vacuum the day before.
- Swing your clothes hard enough after using the washing machine to wash cos if not it will crease when it dries
- Strawberry is the easiest to spoil, followed by orange then apple
- Managing healthy diet is not an inborn thing cos I will often wait for my mum to cut the fruits for me back in Singapore that I forgot that I need to have fruits here until she reminded me during one of my calls back home.. sigh..
- Managing expenditure is another thing to learn as I don't have a bank account here and is depending on my monthly remuneration, which is rather limited as an intern. Cos back in Singapore, you can always withdraw money from the bank or ask parents for money and I can't do these here
Yea, I have come to realise that parent's naggings are based on what they have experienced and these are short cuts-in-disguise so that we don't repeat those mistakes that they have done in the past.
Fun!
I stared at this heading for a while cos there are too many things to talk about, don't know where to start.. I shall start with the company I'm interning in.
It is a slightly larger startup with 20+ employees and has recently moved to a larger office as they have expanded quite a lot. Everyone here is very friendly. Even though some of their English language skills are like my Korean language skills, they still make an effort to talk to us. Everyday, they will initiate to go for lunch together once the clock strikes 1pm. I'm quite certain that they source for restaurant around this area back in the office as they always seem like they know where to head to even though all of us are new to this place. Thanks to them, I get to try many kinds of Korean food. We also tried a place called coop-ship (don't know how to spell but it is pronounced this way). It is like a canteen whereby everyone pays a fixed price of 4,500 won and the menu is same for everyone. You can take as many as you want but it is a one-time thing. It is a good place to go if you can't think of anything to eat for that day and feel like saving money for the day.
I think it is because the area in which my office is in, the food here are relatively expensive as there are many office here. Cheapest is 6,000 won. It might sound rather cheap but imagine every meal cost 6,000 won, one day will be 12,000 won and one month will be 360,000 won (401.12 SGD)! Expensive sio! Moreover, 6,000 won dishes have very little variety, so sometimes we have to pay 6,500 won or 7,000 won for better food.. *I miss hawker centre and kopitiam! Cheap cheap!*
Ok, I have strayed away from work, shall direct it back. I'm working as a "Value Marketer" in this company. All the positions in this company will always start with a "Value" as they value all our effort. There's no hierarchy and they tried their best to remove it by calling one another their English name. This is because for Koreans culture, if someone is older than them, they will call hyung or oppa or eonni or nuna, which will kind of create a hierarchy.. That's why they want to eliminate it.
Just some pictures of the office, with some unglam shot of my colleagues *oops*
I'm sure most of you will be interested in the pantry of a start up. Tadaa!! The pantry is always full of drinks and all kinds of korean tidbits. Everyone here is well-fed by these finger-licking tidbits and they deplete so fast that my colleague has to replenish it after 4-5 days.
During weekends, we will always go tour around Seoul like a tourist! Our employer will always ask "So where have you gone to last weekend?". Then we will answer him with the name of the places we have been to. He will always reply "Oh! That's a dating spot!" -.- Why always dating spot...
Somehow Singaporeans like Korea so much that many of my friends are coming here for graduation trip. So far I have "hosted" my cousin and my close friend in Seoul. It is interesting to actually host people when you just came to the country 1 month earlier than them.. Haha!
We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace with our tsm team in the day last month and it usually closes at 630pm. Then we realised that there is an annual event of opening Gyeongbokgung in the evening till 10pm for just 3 days. So we took this chance to take a glimpse of the night scenery of the palace. Again, pretty!
Day
Evening
Night
Ok, will talk more about the food we eat during lunch hours and the places we visited during weekends! Stay tune! :)
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