Around The Neighbourhood

Eunhae and Sowon, the 2 Korean girls who were exchange students at NUS last year, came to meet Geraldine and Shuyi today to orientate them around the area and helped them open a bank account. Anyone interested in depositing money into Geraldine's account please send her a private message. She was really surprised that it is possible to open an account without putting a single cent into it. They did that because they haven't seen an ATM with the cirrus logo so were unable to access their moolah. They also bought their T-money, otherwise known as EZ-link card in Singapore. What amazes her is that the Koreans are so innovative to make T-money available as handphone accessories too! (Sorry she didn't take any photos!) When you go out, you would definitely have two things with you - phone and transport card. Put the two together and taadaah!

They went to Wangshimni (왕십리), where the nearest subway station is, to buy some daily necessities like toilet paper. It is times like these (away from home without mommie) that you realize how important toilet paper is. And of course, mommie too! Haha. They bought toilet paper, shampoo, soap and detergent, and wanted to get tissue packets but Korean supermarkets don't sell them. That's because every restaurant in Korea have serviettes so they don't have the habit of bringing personal tissues around. So if you are wondering, no, obviously they don't have the I-chope-this-seat-with-MY-tissue-paper-you'd-better-go-somewhere-else culture. At the shampoo section, there are smell samples. How interesting! She doesn't know why Singapore doesn't have cool stuff like these.

The two girls attempted to make contact lenses at a spectacle shop and guess what?! Contact lenses can be tried on! They are so much cheaper than in Singapore and they will let you try before you buy! Geraldine tried on two pairs but they didn't fit so she didn't buy eventually. Shuyi got a pair and she's really happy with the bargain. Another weird thing about Korea, they don't have monthlies. They have dailies, bi-weeklies and 6-8 months. How strange. At least to Geraldine.

Today, they learnt how to take a bus too! It's the same as EZ-link, just tap-and-go, but the deduction system is slightly different. The moment you tap your card, the basic fare will be deducted. If the fare is higher, it will be deducted again when you tap your card upon alighting.

The girls really wanted to treat the Korean girls dinner for their really kind help the whole day, but both had to go home. =( So Shuyi and Geraldine went on their own adventure around the neighbourhood. They feel a great sense of accomplishment for being able to order their own dinner and have the ahjumma at the shop understand them. =] Food's good and not very expensive. Shuyi had kimchi ramyeon (김치라면) while Geraldine had dumpling ramyeon (만두라면).

After dinner, they continued to walk around, and they saw more zebras than they've ever seen on the road.

In all directions! Isn't it lovely? Bet Singaporeans would love it since we are always taking short-cuts in everything.

Last highlight of the day is that Shuyi and Geraldine managed to look for a shop with Go-stop cards and purchased them with not much difficulty. They went to a few shops and were told that they don't sell it, till in one of the shops, the kind ajeossi told them that a shop further down the road has it. In Korean.