busy buzzy bee

geraldine is busy once again and she knows she is owing a lot of posts.
in a while.....................................

we meet again.. ^^

Remember the friends that Geraldine met in Jeonju? Subin is back in Seoul! So Geraldine met her up for dinner at Wangshimni, the place where they both stayed. Not knowing what to eat, they walked by an Italian restaurant at Wangshimni Plaza and decided to pop in.

After dinner, they had icecream at Coldstone and chat chat chat chat chatted. Put two girls together and that's what you get!

Subin told Geraldine about her studio apartment and Geraldine was really interested in it, so Geraldine requested for a mini tour. Geraldine did hear that accommodation in Seoul is exorbitant and she wanted to find out what one gets for paying 500,000W a month on top of a 20,000,000W deposit.

The room while standing at the door..

Panorama of the room from the opposite end..

Her wardrobe.. Too small! Girls need something much bigger! ㅠㅠ

Although it's really quite cool to have a bed, toilet, kitchen top, fridge and wardrobe within one step, Geraldine concludes that accommodation in Seoul is indeed crazy.

Friend. Chingu. 친구

Geraldine is really glad to have friends in a land that she is not so familiar with. After work, she met Minyeong 오빠, who had gone to her school earlier in the year to present about Songdo IBD (송도신도시) and they had dinner together.

They met at Hyehwa Station 혜화역 and at first Geraldine wondered what was there since it was slightly out of the central area of the subway map but she realized after that that the area is popular with university students.

Minyeong 오빠 brought Geraldine to this restaurant called Donghak 동학, which used to be an old religion that many Koreans used to follow. However, of course the restaurant has nothing to do with the religion. Geraldine loves the ambience and the food...

Minyeong 오빠 being seriously shy..

The food, Geraldine forgot what it's called.. And bamboo wine that came in a cute bamboo clay teapot..

After dinner, they went to play pool and it really reminded her of when they were in Singapore with other friends. Geraldine thinks Minyeong 오빠 lost to her on purpose.

[Picture Coming Soon]

On the streets, Geraldine saw a guy playing the "chop-plastic-tiles-to-win-soft-toy" game but there was no girl beside the guy for him to impress. Minyeong 오빠 explained that those kind of games are for

1) Guys who want to impress the girls with them
2) Drunk guys

Geraldine wonders when will be the next time they will meet after she moves to Ansan.. =(

Chicky Ginseng

It's summer! And the girls are in Korea! What else to eat other than Ginseng Chicken?! Samgyetang! 삼계탕! Tired of waiting for people to bring them to eat, Geraldine and Shuyi walked into a random shop near their workplace and ordered confidently in the little Korean that they both know. Compared to the Ginseng Chicken Soup that they are so used to eat in Singapore, the Korean version is not as herby and the yummy sticky rice is used instead of the Thai rice most Singaporeans eat. And the rice is hidden in the chicken! Geraldine remembers her tutor, Cheekien, who told her about how he ordered Samgyetang and waited and waited for the rice but it never did come. Mwahahhaa!

Quack Quack 오리고기

When Geraldine's friends suggested duck meat for dinner, she was super duper excited. Geraldine misses lots of Singaporean food, like chicken rice laksa hae-mee kaya bak kut teh tomyum satay nasi lemak roti prata ice jelly hokkien mee wanton mee bakchoy mee kwaychap chilli crab koloyok rojak tauhuey zichar. So after work, Geraldine and her friends went for some exotic duck meat. It was delicious, albeit different.

And there is Jenny, being very satisfied with her food.

Be A Star! *

Geraldine joined a makeover/photoshoot for fun last month (secretly to get the freebies and free subscription to the magazine) and God knows how she managed to get into the final 8. The photoshoot is now out in the latest issue of Kozine, an English-Korean magazine in Singapore. Do have a look and give her your support! You are not obliged to vote for her though, if it goes against your conscience.

(Click on images for larger view)
Vote now for the 3 you think should be on our cover and stand a chance to win a goodie bag consisting of LANEIGE products, food vouchers and makeover packages worth more then $3,000. Only 30 goodie bags up for grabs! All you need to do is send an email to admin@mykozine.com indicating your 3 choices with your name, IC/Passport number, address and contact number by August 31 2009. Remember, it is a must to indicate 3 choices. Good luck!

우선 저희 Be A Star 메이크 오버 컨테스트에 참여하신 모든 독자들께 감사의 말씀을 전합니다. 생각보다 많은 여러분께서 참여 하셔서 톱 8분을(파이널리스트) 선정하기가 힘들었습니다. 파이널리스트 8명은 The Makeover Inc.에서 재미있는 포토슛을 하였습니다!

다음 페이지에 라네즈 화장품을 사용하여 예쁘고 멋있게 변신한 8명을 소개합니다!

투표하고 선물을 받으세요 파이널리스트 8명의 사진을 보고 가장 마음에 드는 3명을 뽑아 admin@mykozine.com으로 이메일 보내주세요. 이메일 보낼 시 성함, IC (주민등록번호) / 여권번호, 주소, 연락처를 함께 보내주세요. 투표를 하신 분들 중 30분께 선물을 드립니다. (라네즈 화장폼, 레스토랑 쿠폰, 메이크 오버 페키지 포함)

*이메일은 8월31일까지 보내셔야 합니다.

These are the 8 finalists. If you are lazy to look at pretty and handsome faces, you can simply send an email to admin@mykozine.com with the subject "Be A Star! Vote & WIN" and with the following:-

Choices:
1. BAS05
2. BAS(pick a random number from 1-8)
3. BAS(pick a random number from 1-8)

Name:
IC/Passport no.:
Address:
Contact no.:

If you would like to spam, go ahead! They didn't say we are not allowed to. =]] Spread the word and give others a chance to win the goodie bags too! ^^

If you would like to read the magazine, click on the icon to the right of this blog. Or simply go to http://www.mykozine.com/.

Have a nice day ahead! 좋은 하루입니다!

Internship in Space

As of today, Geraldine has survived 100 hours (10 days of 10 hours) in Space. She didn't see B-612 along the way so she couldn't meet her Little Prince. =(

Anyway, she promised that she will share about her working life so here goes..

0645h - Rise & Shine (although the sun would have been shining for more than an hour)
0715h - Bus and Subway
0800h - Reach office
1200h - Lunch
1300h - Back to office
1800h - End work

Did she mention that this is the ideal? It's more like..

0704h - Grumbles in bed
0726h - Chiongs to the bus
0808h - Steps into office building
1200h - Eat and grow fat
13++h - Still at lunch, drinking coffee or eating ice-cream (with colleagues of course)
17++h - Tea Time if the team isn't busy
18++h - Hangs around till she is given the green light to go

Reporting for 1st day of work..


Geraldine's table..

Stuff she received.. The 1st shows a floorplan and names and photos of her colleagues in her division. Her cute colleague, 현주선배님 gave it to her. It was really helpful. Geraldine wrote 习字 with her colleagues' names to try and remember everyone. By the way, she's quite sad that her name was spelt wrongly. =X

Lunch on 2nd day of work.. (Geraldine didn't dare take pictures on the 1st day of work) Barley rice bibimbap! Barley as a main course. Geraldine has always eaten barley as a dessert, so she was pleasantly surprised. Korea doesn't have barley drinks though..

Dinner with colleagues for the other intern, 두한선배 in the team who will be leaving. Chicken with beer.. Egg dish.. And Golbangi! (골뱅이) Which keeps reminding me of "Go bang head!" (Long pia).. Anyway Geraldine doesn't know if it's a shellfish or a snail.. And more beer after that.. Archi is really a male-dominated industry.

두한선배.. Didn't get to talk to him much during the 4 days that we were in the same team.. He says he is shy.. >.< Don't you wonder at times whether you should eat rice or noodles during mealtimes? Fret not! Just eat both! 부대라면?

Restaurant in the day.. Home in the night.. Isn't it smart? The two pretty ladies are Geraldine's colleagues..

Hyunsuk-seonbaenim 현숙선배님, modelling for the Kimchi Jjigae (김치찌개) and noodles..

Geraldine's 1st task - to do a scale 1:600 model of a mixed-use project, 강복미아 5구역 도시 환경 정비 사업. A compilation of the process..

The completed work..

Guess the difference between 감사합니다, 고맙습니다, 고마워요, 고마워. Answer: No difference! In terms of meaning.

The Korean language has different formalities, meaning you speak differently to people of different seniority levels even though you are saying exactly the same thing! It is especially evident in the office where everyone holds a certain position. Geraldine is glad that her superiors do not fault her at times when she did not speak formally enough. There are generally 3 levels of formality - honorific, formal polite and informal polite.

Honorific - for your grandparents, parents, big bosses, announcements and signages, customers
Common endings: -십시오, -입니다, -습니다, 합니다, -세요.

Formal polite - 70% of conversations are at this level. For people roughly around the same level as you, but maybe not so close, and seniors in school. Geraldine is most used to this.
Common endings: -이에요/예요.

Informal polite - For close friends.
Common endings: -야.

SingSingSing

Geraldine sings Hallelujah because her friend, Zixu, managed to recover most of the photos in the SD card that went crazy... Pictures will be up really soon. And if you are wondering, Geraldine did not disappear from Earth; she was just too busy with internship but she will be posting new entries to show you her 8-6 routine soon..