Last TGIF of the Month

On every last Friday of the month, it's CLUBDAY in Korea! That means you just need to buy one entrance ticket and are free to roam to any of the clubs! Sounds like a good deal right?

Geraldine and her friends went to Hongdae 홍대, near Hongik University, 홍익대학교. That area is dotted by clubs.

The girls dolling themselves up..

Buying the entrance tickets which come in a wristband form, much like that of an amusement park.

Look at the sea of people! It's crazy with a capital C!

But despite the madness of the crowd, Geraldine bumped into her Singapore friend! At Hongdae in Korea! How coincidental is that! Korea is almost 150 times bigger than Singapore!

Anyway the nicer clubs were so packed with people, you don't even have to walk. The crowd will carry you. The only way you could breathe was to go to the bar counter and stick your head into the bartenders' territory. (--.)~

So Geraldine's friends decided to get out onto the streets to have some Soju fun..

bootiful hair ^^

Ooh im a guest blogger!~ okay, a vaguely squeal-y, sometimes emo guest blogger, but never mind. Anyway, I’m putting in a little bitty fun-sized post on gerri’s blog about our lovely hair day, since it was a biggg leap from our ‘old’ selves. Hair is totally as important as clothes and shoes, if not more. So since obviously drying out our hair with flat irons [ not that we possess any ] didn’t sound like a good idea, it was off to 이대 for HAIR DAY! Anyhows, being the impulsive people that we are we stepped into the 1st [ maybe 2nd] shop from the subway exit, ably assisted by a flyer toting auntie [ they call them ahjoomas here ]. You’ll probably see photos of gerri in the process of rebonding, but NOOOO not me. I forbade her to take photos of me on pain of DEATH. Oh alright, not death, but like, her beloved pink cat might mysteriously find itself at the bottom of our dormitory sometime ^________^ *smiles sweetly* I firmly believe in non-violent measures. Stuffed animals don’t count. Strangely, the process didn’t take as long as I remembered, but I was quite pleased with the results, even though I have a sneaking suspicion my hair isn’t straight enough and won’t last *cries* But I can hope. And Gerri’s hair is nice and long and straight [ mine grows like a snail ], although she’s absolutely sure it isn’t perfectly straight but im sure it’ll be fine! The back is poker straight anyway, heh. Alrightys, I’m all done *squeal* Shooooooyi says CIAO! Oh wait, wrong language. 안녕! ^^

Lunch with Professor Shin

Professor Shin Sung Woo invited all the NUS students for lunch. It was quite a stressful lunch since it was such an important lunch meeting. So important that Geraldine's senior, Seonho-seonbae called/smsed/nateoned profusely to remind everyone not to be late.

During the meeting, Prof Shin gave a mini welcome speech and also informed everyone which company they are attached to for internship. Finally! Everyone has been waiting since forever, and were getting quite worried when no news was received other than the internship commencement date.

Geraldine is attached to Space Group, the best (because she's there =pPp) architecture company in Korea. http://www.spacea.com/eng/main.asp After lunch, everyone went to the famous COEX mall in Korea. Tired of shopping, Geraldine and Shuyi followed their Korean friends to the new art extension building and headed to the cafe for a nice cup of coffee, while waiting for the rest of the Singaporeans.

Lao Di Fang

Geraldine misses her friends in Korea University of Technology and Education (KUT), so she went to Cheonan-city to visit them 2 days ago. They 1st met in January this year when Geraldine went for a student union exchange with KUT. They met again not long ago in Singapore when her friends came for the exchange, this time hosted by National University of Singapore (NUS). She felt like a VIP when her friends fetched her at the bus terminal and brought her around. They had lunch at Yawoori Departmental Store, the area in which Geraldine has quite a bit of memories of.

Guess who Geraldine saw after lunch!

Teeheehee. And Geraldine bumped into Seohui-oenni too! At the bookstore in yawoori. Donne, if you are reading this, the following picture was taken for you, as requested by Shinho-oppa.

And Geraldine saw super cute T-money "card" being sold in the bookstore.. If only they weren't so much more expensive than the normal boring card.

Just wanting to catch up with friends instead of rushing around to visit "famous" places like a tourist, Geraldine felt really satisfied doing things like just sitting in a cafe with her friends, taking neoprints (known as sticker photo in Korea or 스사), going for dinner and a game of bowling.

The group took a bus to the campus and Geraldine was shocked to find out that it's a 40 minute bus ride from downtown. Shinho-oppa explained that the parents wanted the school to be in a ulu place so that their kids would study.

When Geraldine reached KUT, she was pleasantly surprised by the VIP-like welcome from her friends. They were so cute to stand by the roadside!

One of Geraldine's favourite Korean food, samgyeopsal (삼겹살).

After dinner exercise..

Supper to replenish the energy lost. The 2nd photo shows Korean-style "co-lo-yok". You know that delicious fried thing that pretends it isn't fried? Otherwise known as sweet and sour pork.

The next day, Geraldine had a sumptious lunch and played squash and table tennis in the afternoon. Wondering why she played so many sports? Because her Korean friends know that she loves sports and they accomodated her. 고마워요!

Thanks to Youngji's senior, Minwoo-oppa, the girls had a crash course for squash. And for dinner, Geraldine had yet another sumptious meal. This time, she tried something most people might not like. Sundaegukbap (순대국밥). No, not sundae as in sundae sold at Macdonalds for SGD1.5 but unknown fillings (to Geraldine) stuffed in pig's large intestines. It was delicious though. Favourite sundaeguk restaurant of KUT students. Geraldine eats everything except insects and worms.

Being tired out by the squash game in the afternoon, Geraldine opted to go back to her buddy, Youngji's dorm to take a shower and a rest before meeting the rest up for a game of pool (known as pocketball in Korea).

At the pool palour, it was a surprise for Geraldine to see only a single pool table. The rest are pool tables without any pockets played with just 2 red balls and 2 white balls! Geraldine's friend explained to her that it's a game unique to Japan and Korea. How interesting. Geraldine later on figured out that someone who is good at that game, will be good at pool for sure.

After pool, they all went to a pub-ish place and had some beer. Geraldine hates beer in Singapore, but Korean beer is so smooth she doesn't mind a little. The atmosphere of the place was quite nice and she enjoyed the company of her friends. ^^

Thank you to all those who took time out to come and meet Geraldine for a meal or two and send text messages to Youngji to say goodbyes to her, and special thanks to Boram-oenni, Shinho-oppa, Youngji and Eunbi who accompanied her the whole way!

자네들을 친구사귀서 정말 내 해운이에요.
나는 재밌게 놀아서 고마웠어요.
다시 천안에 자네들을 만나러 갈거예요.
그 때까지 보고 싶을 거예요.
서울에 오면 연락해 줘요!

Joy in Jeonju

Geraldine's friend, Dabin, is going into army soon. Unlike Singapore's army, when guys in Korea enter army, they really disappear for two years. Wanting to see more of Dabin before he evaporates, Geraldine made a trip to Jeonju herself. However, luck wasn't with her as Dabin's grandparents were at his house and he also had TOEIC to study for. There was some miscommunication and Geraldine found herself alone in Jeonju.

When Geraldine reached Jeonju, kind Dabin went to fetch her and had dinner with her. Geraldine heard that the bibimbap (비빔밥) in Jeonju is famous and wanted to try some but Dabin didn't know where the famous ones are. Geraldine thinks it's just like her not really knowing where to bring her foreign friends around when they were in Singapore. So Geraldine settled for some sushi thing and omelette rice.

Dabin found a nice little motel for Geraldine and left to catch the last bus. Feeling utterly bored, Geraldine decided to venture out onto the streets. It wasn't that late anyway. And guess what? She saw what she has always wanted to own in a little arcade! Those who watch 우리결혼했어요 the variety show would know. 서인영의 고양이!

Geraldine didn't have small change so she inseted a ten thousand won bill into the machine and was given 66 tries. She caught Cherri (yes, the kitty now has a name) within a few tries and was left with so many tries she didn't know what to do other than continue catching whatever looked possible. In the end, she rescued 4 more from the evil machine.

On the way back to the motel, she saw another arcade. This time with a basketball machine! Ignoring the fact that basketball is played mainly by guys in Korea, she inserted 300won for a game. That's like 3 times cheaper than in Singapore. Somehow, Geraldine was really on form that night. She just kept scoring, and she thinks she unintentionally stroked this guy's ego. Oops.

After going back to the motel with 5 new family members, she had a nice swimming pool-bathtub shower and slept sweetly, in preparation for the next day.

Yes, they tied a HUGE block of eraser to Cherri to make it difficult for Geraldine to rescue her.

The next morning, Geraldine was proud to have woken up without the aid of any alarm and set off to the streets armed with a hand-drawn map (artist: Dabin) and a Korean phrasebook. There were 4 places that she had chosen to visit, but getting to the bustop for the 1st destination was almost impossible. She was going to freak out. Luckily, she asked this deliveryman for directions and being not able to understand him, he gave the poor lost girl a lift to the bustop. At the bustop, Geraldine found the bus that she has to take to her destination. Wanting to check if it was in the correct direction, she asked this lady who was waiting at the bustop for her bus too. To cut the long story short, the lady's daughter is a student of Hanyang University, the school that Geraldine is to study at for the coming semester, so mother and daughter brought Geraldine around Jeonju. Geraldine's new friend is called Subin.

Following Geraldine's itinerary, 1st stop was Jeonju Paper Museum (반아시아 종이 박물관). Geraldine followed the history of paper and even made her own Korean paper (한지)!

Next stop was Jeonju World Cup Stadium (전주월드컵경기장). Not that there was a game there, but Geraldine read about the architecture. It is shaped like a fan. She thinks it's because of Jeonju's logo. There was really nothing much to see there. Not one ever goes there. In the day. At night, there will be food carts and people would be gathering at the large public spaces, Geraldine learnt from her Korean hosts. Sadly, the group weren't able to assess the internal of the stadium. It would definitely have been picture-worthy.

For lunch, Geraldine was treated to a sumptious meal of Jeonju's famous bibimbap. (Finally!) According to her Korean hosts, there are only 4 famous restaurants in Jeonju serving good bibimbap. In her head, Geraldine was thinking that no tourist would ever ever know secrets like this. Many would be fooled by every shop name that says "Jeonju Bibimbap", which are aplenty at the bus terminals, far from where the real deal is. Anyway, the four places are ????????????????????. The one that Geraldine went to, is Subin's mother's great-grandmother's favourite restuarant. How honoured she felt to be in a restaurant with such a long history.

After lunch, Subin brought Geraldine to Jeonju Hanok Village (한옥마을). Hanoks are tradtional Korean houses. If you watched 우결, remember Hwanhee and Hwayobi?

Following her mother's orders, Subin brought Geraldine to a major bookstore to recommend her an architecture book that her mom thinks is good. And then they shopped in the "Myeongdong of Jeonju". Hahaha. Meaning the shopping district in Jeonju.

When evening came, it was time for Geraldine to return to Seoul. She bade farewell to her new friend, but not without promising to meet for a movie when Subin comes to Seoul. See you soon, Subin!

Thanks to Subin and her mom, Geraldine enjoyed her adventure in Jeonju!