Long time no update.. Internship was too busy. We are currently preparing for an event in Singapore and there preparation work is more than what we initially thought. I just realised that coming up with prizes for a contest is so difficult as you have to cater to majority's interest and because we can't physically collect those gift vouchers, we have to source for those which provides postage service.. Really painful process. But I learnt a lot because of this. Moreover, we are trying to run for 2 events before we end our internship. So all the more we have a lot of things to do.. But I think that this is the most fruitful internship that I have as compared to last year >< At least there are experienced people here to guide me and give me advice. And they are not those snobbish or in-affable people. I'm so lucky!
Just heard that the haze in Singapore is getting more and more serious. PSI 290! What a magical number.. At first I thought the NEA website has a typo.. Seems like the haze is really getting more and more crazy.. Take care people!! Drink more herbal tea and wear a mask! Don't feel that it is very troublesome to wear a mask, health is more important!
Ok, I'm going to update on the place that I have been to for the past few weeks, besides those that I have already posted in the previous posts. Thanks to my housemate who planned for all my weekends and make it so fruitful and eventful every week.
This is a village situated very near the DMZ area. It is a very peaceful place with interesting architecture design. There's this Farmer's cafe (if I didn't remember wrongly) which is one of the filming scene of Korean drama called "Boys over flowers" (yes that one..) where Gu Jun Pio told Shan Cai where to meet for their first date while she was eating alone in the cafeteria. However, I was rather disappointed as the layout has been changed and I hardly see any resemblance of the place I saw in the drama... but there are banners of the drama and pictures around to tell people that this is the filming place.
We visited a museum about the modern history of Korea. I saw much similarity in the way people leave in the early 1950s.. Their daily activities, the houses, occupations are very similar to what I understand from Singapore. It is a rather interesting place to visit.
We also went to a toy museum where they have a lot of collection of the toys all over the world. We went in was because it was too hot outside and we wanted to have air con and this is a place with a relatively cheap entrance fee. Hahaha!
Then, we went to a village called English Village and apparently everyone there has to speak English (of course we would love to). We were given a "passport" before we enter and I think we have to go to some stations to complete missions in the village itself. We were greeted by an ang moh before we enter to get our "passport" chopped. She asked many questions and I thought she was interested in where we come from. But I realised that she asked every visitor the same questions... Haha! Maybe because we went in too late, there wasn't much things to look at except some fountain and westernised architecture.. No wonder the entrance fee is 3000 won only..
In the evening, we went to a restaurant that has barbecued eel. It was very nice and we took turns to cook. However, it is rather expensive with 32k won per kg of eel.. But it's ok.. Just once is enough and at that point of time, we just gotten our pay. So we don't really feel the pain. Haha!
Dream Forest
A park where many families and couples will go during the weekends. An observatory is situated there where the drama Iris was filmed there. Not sure which scene cos I didn't watch that show. There were a few lifts to bring us up the observatory as it is pretty high up and we have to queue up for it... I don't understand why Koreans like to build elevator that goes on the hypotenuse side of the triangle instead of building it straight up. Isn't it more efficient to just travel up instead of side and up? Anyway, I guess it is because of this, the lift travels very slowly and can only take up to about 15 people at a time... And we waited for the 3rd lift to come before we finally get into the lift (cos of some irritating people who cut our queue *whatthehell-look*).
Finally we went up and the view was really good. Many people took photos there and us included! But somehow when our colleagues asked us where we have been to during the weekend, they don't really know of dream forest.
Sungkyungwan University
Have you heard of Sungkyungwan Scandal drama? Yes! The show is filmed based on the buildings that are currently situated in this university. It is a university where all the elites/scholars go to during the Joseon dynasty. So the alumni of this university is quite strong and well-known huh. Haha! And we were told that the guy printed in the 1000won note is from this university.
This is a very interesting university whereby the joseon dynasty architecture are situated just beside the current/modern architecture. It is a very tranquil place and I guess it is a very good place for study. We went there on a Sunday and we saw many students are in the school studying.. Sounds familiar huh... Guess every student in all universities still have to work very hard even during holidays... Sigh.. Why...
We went to an Italian restaurant after that and there food was good! Finally something which is not Korean and not spicy. Hahaha! I ate a pizza which has lots of cheese on top and have to deep into honey, if not it will be tasteless. It was good! I guess anything that goes with honey will taste good anyway..
On our way back to the subway station, we passby Artbox. We went in and I bought a very nice notebook for just 2000won. Haha! As we all know, the Artbox in Singapore is freaking expensive and I bought a notebook here at 2000won! Yeah! Going to buy more of it before I go back.
Muju Firefly
Muju is a very small village situated at the outskirts of Korea. We went to Nambu Terminal station and took a bus there. The bus ride was about 3 hours (sit until my butt ache) and we stopover at some place which has clean toilet and lots of cheap food (I was expecting dirty toilet like China..). When we finally reached Muju, we saw big posters of the firefly event. Of course, we were very excited and there were events held in that area. We saw many traditional dance and played some games there. We bought the tickets for the night trail to see the firefly. There was a well-decorated "theatre" which shown us the growing process of a firefly and saw a box of fireflies in the dark. It was quite worth the money even though we have to wait for very long just to get in.
While waiting for the night to come, we saw a few more traditional performance and we realised that there was a crowd somewhere. So we joined in and realised that they were giving out free light-bulb-lighted lanterns! As a typical Singaporeans, of course we won't miss out on the free stuff la! Haha! And we were holding it as there's a ceremony which will bring all of us to the river nearby to see more performance. While waiting, many koreans asked me where to get the lantern. At first I don't understand what they were saying but after much help from the body language (pointing at my lantern and looked confused), I know what they want. And I learnt something called "eodisoyo", meaning where. So I went "yogi yogi" meaning there there. Hahaha!
There was a traditional ceremony to welcome the firefly.. At first we thought that it would be interesting but we slowly realised that it was very boring. So we went around looking for a good spot to watch the performance later. There were water fireworks. Like Singaporeans, we thought that the fireworks would be something like our national day parade fireworks (those big big kind). But it was just like a few lighted thing flying down occasionally.. Quite disappointed.
After all the shows and performance, it is time to get on the bus to go to the mountain and look for the long-awaited fireflies! We boarded the bus at 10+ pm and the bus ride was pretty short. We arrived at a mountain with barely any lightings. We climbed up a mountain and saw some fireflies on our way up. Some fireflies even flew near us and landed on a toddler's hand. He was screaming but it was very cute when he slowly let go of the fireflies in his hand and everyone's gaze just followed where the fireflies went to! But we heard some other foreigners (I shall not name which country) who went for the event complaining that they only get to see a few fireflies from afar and they thought they would have a bunch of them flying together and lit up the place. Not just that, they even said that how the event organiser got the guts to call this a festival. *WTH* Please la... You read too much of the fairytale already. Fireflies don't fly together! And Koreans like nature very much and they won't hurt these tiny creatures to create a view which is against the nature.. Please get your facts right before complaining cos it will just reflect how shallow you are.. I feel so unfair for the koreans who organised this event...
After the whole event, it was too late to catch any bus back to Seoul. As Muju is a very small island, there isn't any 24-hours cafe, nor guesthouse or anything where we can stay for the night. At first we thought that we will have jimjilbang to go but it was closed! So we sat outside the jimjilbang as there are groups of people there bbq-ing. We thought we could stay there for the rest of the night till morning. But we realised we were at some place where only the government officials could be at and they were having some gatherings there. The organizer of the event was there too and he approached us to ask us where are we from and why we were here. Soon, he realised that we were stranded in the village and wanted to offer help. He asked his kakia to look for an available inn for us to stay, however to no avail :( Just when he was still thinking of where to locate us, there was a tent nearby and he told us to stay in it and gave us many blankets to keep ourselves warm for the night. They even offered us beer and chicken. Haha! I don't know whether to laugh or cry when someone offer such happy food when you were stranded at some place, with the risk of encountering different kind of bad people.. Of course, we didn't sleep well for the whole night as it was a tent and anyone can just barge in. Luckily the sun rises pretty early in Korea. We left the place and we wanted to thank the person but didn't get to see him. We bought our bus tickets and was desperate to go back to Seoul and have a good bath and sleep. Then we realised we have exchanged phone numbers with one of the government officials and decided to kakaotalk her and thank them for their hospitality last night and requested her to pass the message to the event organiser. They even invited us to meet up with them soon to play with their kids and definitely a nice place to stay in. Haha! Such hospitality.. I guess we can only find it in Korea...
Nanta Performance
Nanta!!! Woohoo! One of the must-go performance in Korea! Thanks to my best friend who visited me during my stay in Korea, I get to watched it! It is an extremely fun show! I love the way they hit their chopping board and stuff to create certain tempo. I enjoyed myself very much as there's a storyline behind, which makes the whole show more meaningful.
CheongGeCheon Stream
This is a stream smack right in the middle of many buildings. It is very near dongdaemun. Again, we were told by our colleagues that this is a dating spot (not again...) and we saw many couples and families having outing there. There were busking there and those guys sang really well!
Seodaemun Prison History Hall
This is an old prison set up by the Japanese during their invasion during ww2. Once you step into the place, you can feel the sadness. In the past, the japanese would lock up those koreans who protest against them, torture and questions them till most of them died during the torture.. A very sad place. Somehow we were not allowed to take any photos of the execution place. Guess this is a haunted place at night... Brr...
Dragon Hill Jimjilbang
Jimjilbang! First time in a sauna, in a jacuzzi, in a hot bath and cold bath!! Interesting experience. There were low, medium and hot sauna. We went to both the low and medium but not the hot one.. It was super hot! I think if we went in and come out after 10 minutes, we could have been cooked. There was a super cold room, about 5 degree celcius and I heard is for closing of pores. Haha! We tied the towel given to us in the korean way with two circles lying on each side of the ear and we ate the egg! Some of us went to try cracking the egg on our head but we realised it was too painful and is not possible to crack it. Hahaha!
We then proceed to the hot bath. At first we were very hesitant to go as we have to be naked in there. Then we realised that everyone is naked there and we are all females with all the features a normal women should have. So we got a bit more comfortable and tried out all the baths available. Moreover, we are already at the place, so it is not worth walking out not trying their most well-known bath! I would say I have never regretted getting into the bath cos it is very shiok!
Cat's Cafe
During one of the Sundays, we visited a cat's cafe. We ordered an over-priced drink and sat at the cafe for hours, playing with the cat. I would say it is an interesting experience as we don't find such cafe back in Singapore (or do we have?).. I am not a cat lover, but slowly I start to enjoy myself there.. The cats there are pretty tamed except that there were occasions when they fought with one another..
Petite France
A place at GapYeong and you get to see a miniature of France with all the buildlings and intersting performance. There are museums of the book called "Little Prince" too and we took a lot of photos with it.
Morning Calm
This is a very pretty garden with all the pretty flowers and bonsai trees planted. Just nice, mountains are situated just behind this garden and you get to take picture of those flora and fauna with the manificient mountain at the back! Definitely worth going as it is really pretty! I get to unleash my photography talent and took many pretty photos of the flowers.
Nami Island
Ahhh this place... Have you watched "Winter Sonata"? Yea.. The filming scene (not again).. Hahah! It is a very small island and there's this long walkway with the trees at the side, which creates a very romantic atmosphere.. Many couples and family were there once again. And there were a few chalets over there. Guess it is a place like our east coast park except that the scenery is much better in Korea. Hahaha! We took pictures with the statues that signified the actors and actresses in the drama! Too bad we went there during summer, so it is more like a "Summer Sonata" where all the trees are green instead of white. Haha!
Oh ok now the PSI is 321... Indo, you win.
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