Korea Day 1- Hongdae

Once we exited the gate, we headed straight to the information counter to grab the railway map and brochures. We were told by some friends that it is important to get the brochures for some tourist destinations in order to get tickets at discounted price (same goes to jeju. grab the brochures once you arrive at jeju airport).

After which, we went to get T mobile card (3,000 won) from the 7-11 convenience store near the Incheon Airport metro station (note: it cant be bought from the counter at incheon airport station).

T mobile card works just the same way as ez link card in Sg. The good thing about their self-service top-up machine is that they have a lot of options of the amount you wish to top-up and it can go as low as 1,000 won (about 1 USD). So let's say you only want to top-up 3,000 won but you only have a 5,000 won note; you just click on the 3,000 won tab on the touch screen, feed the machine with your note and they will return you 2,000 won, IN NOTES. I just cant get why Singapore's SMRT top-up machine can't dispense notes. But the downside of their train system is that there is no such thing as control station. Therefore when people get stuck on either side of the gantry and it seems to be due to a problem with their T mobile card, they always look so helpless and anxious. We experienced that during the later part of the trip and we felt just as lost too. D:

Our hostel, Hongdae Uncle Residence is located 10-15mins walk from the Hongdae metro station. For anyone of you going to korea but still undecided on the hostel/hotel to stay at, I would highly recommend you guys to stay near Hongdae station. There are 3 railway lines intersecting at that station thus making it really accessible and convenient. For people with heavy luggage, do not attempt to take the train like we did. There is no elevator/escalator to help you to get out of the station!

We exhausted every ounce of energy we had in our body by the time we reached the hostel (which is on level 4 without lift). But I would still recommend this hostel due to their fabulous rooms. Every room is equipped with private bathroom, tv, computer, cabinets, shoe cabinet, fridge and washing machine, regardless of how the number of occupancies in each room. There are also 2 common hair dryers free for use.  Coffee, bread (toaster available), biscuits in the pantry are complimentary too!

Our meal was settled at a kimchi jjigae restaurant (B.S food) just right beside our hostel's bulding. Famished, we just entered the first restaurant we saw but it turned out to be our favourite restaurant of the trip! Ambience is good, food and service are fantastic. We ordered 2 portions of  kimchi stew with pork belly to share and the bill only came up to 12,000 won! SO CHEAP. Something unique about the rice they served was that millet (which is supposedly good for digestion) was mixed into the rice and it was really yummy!

Dessert at Michaya to complete the meal! We ordered a cake and 2 coffees to share. The mocha was soooo goood. Espresso bitter blended nicely with chocolate sweet- such perfect harmony on my taste buds! Needless to mention, the pure cheesecake was superb too. Every forkful of the delicious pure cheesecake brought us to heaven for as long as it lasted in our mouth. In fact, every cake on display looked so drool-worthy we had such hard time choosing!

It was a rainy first night so we just walked around hongdae. It had only been a few hours but I'm already in love. <3

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Korea Day 0. Transiting at HK airport

8:42am Transiting at HK airport now.

We had a light meal at 翠萍餐厅 after getting off the plane. Food varieties are limited at the departure area. I just settled with anything that looks more appetizing to me (Tom Yum Kung). The noodles tastes surprising good! It is soft and QQ at the same time. The prawns were fresh and crispy toooo. I felt so deprived of seafood though I just had BBQ sambel stingray for my dinner last night. I want to eat pots of mussels in Korea! Hope I can find it at busan or jeju. *Slurps*

I think T and G are feeling rather lethargic by now. In fact, G is sleeping. hahaha. On the contrary, I'm really super excited for Korea! I think I haven't boarded plane for a long time thus the excitement and energy. So suaku :P

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終わります。

17th May 2013

Poster day. It marks the end of my university life.

Even though I did not accomplish much for my FYP ( I chose an awareness campaign project rather than a lab-based project), I still felt a sense of achievement when I submitted my thesis and completed my poster presentation. On the whole, I had my fair share of fun and hard work in NTU which was evident from each sem's results. I'm glad that I pulled through it though the course I enrolled in was neither my interest nor my first choice. At least I attempted research work through attachment at a professor's lab before and the brief experience of a Research Officer life was enough to let me realise that it will never be considered as one of my career options. As much as I loved the lab's environment ( mostly due to the freedom to listen to music, chat with labmates ), it may not be the same in other labs and the nature of work is just too 'stifling' for me. I need to interact with people, I need to move to around.

My lab mates with Prof Valerie. 

(Sorry for the bad quality! but this is the only photo I had with them:{ )

Time passed too fast. So many things have happened in these 4 years. I forged new friendships, fell in love after a 6 years hiatus, lost a considerable amount of weight, experienced ups and downs in academics, and many more. I will definitely missed all the fun times with my coursemates. Although most of us are just acquaintances, you guys have brought much joy and laughter to me during my days in SBS, making school days less boring. I would also like to thank many of them for rendering help in my studies in one way or another. Most of you were so selfless when it comes to sharing knowledge though we were in fact competitors (or maybe my results are so bad that I'm not even considered as a competitor?? HAHAHA). Even though my academics performance was constantly and consistently below average, you all would still invite me to discuss past year papers together though most likely I would not be able to provide with correct answers/ useful explanations. I felt like I had made really sincere friends in SBS and I would miss all of you at some point of time. I wish all of you are able to land in your dream job and continue to bring positive energy and influence to people around you.

Last but not least, thank you Pyrox for being with me through my uni days!

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3 days to 한국에 오신 것을 환영합니다 (welcome to korea) !

Hello Hello! Me is so super excited for Korea! My flight will be on 18th May 2013, 1:15am. And my poster day is on 17th May 2013. So everything will pass like a whirlwind and before I even realise it, I will be in the land of kimchi! Met with my travel mates, G and T, today for a brief trip planning for the first 3 days. I was so high that I kept going non-stop about what I found out about Korea. It is a bad habit of mine that I find it is so hard to kick. When I get too hyped up about a topic, I will forget to quieten down and listen to what the rest got to share too. This may pass off as too forceful and domineering to groupmates at times which is an image I hate to portray. And such may impede me from performing well in my future career too as I may just blabber on in class and become oblivious to students who have trouble catching up. I should be more aware of this from now on and friends do remind me too!

Found these 2 pics when I googled unhelpful teacher. hahahah. I think these 2 are the most common situations I experienced as a student. Hope I will not be like this when I teach next time!

15th May 2013

It's a wet day at Sentosa Adventure Cove Waterpark! The water theme park first opened its doors during the last quarter of 2012 and has since been in operation daily from 10am-6pm. It is located at RWS, opp of USS and 200m behind S.E.A Aquarium. The ticket costs $29 which comes with 15% food discount voucher which can be used anywhere in the waterpark. Personally, I felt that the ticket is very decently priced considering that one of the features, Rainbow Reef, involves snorkelling. This alone makes adventure cove all the more unique and worth the visit!

Rainbow Reef

Picture credits to littledayout.com

This is my favourite of all activities at the waterpark! I was so excited to try it that I insisted that it shall be the first stop of my adventure! There are more than 20,000 fishes in the big water tank with more than 15 different species (in fact I think there are a lot more). Most of the fishes are angelfish. TRUST ME. Once is not enough. If time allows, do go for it a second time! There will be new surprises hiding at various corners of the reef. While most are natural coral reefs, there are artificial reefs too. However, it is definitely not obvious to a non-marine life expert like me. Do listen to the instructions at the beginning to avoid gulping unnecessary amount of salted (mixed with fish waste and fish food) water. Yes it happened to me but I still enjoyed the experience thoroughly! There are also panels of glasses around the tank that allow you view the beautiful fishes while relaxing on bean bag couch available at several spots around the waterpark.

Water Slides: Dueling Racer, Pipeline Plunge, Riptide Rocket, Spiral Washout, Tidal Twister, Whirlpool Washout

I must say the rides were a little disappointing as they are not as thrilling as I thought they would be. Also, most rides are too short and end too sudden. Out of the 6 rides, the one and only exciting one was Riptide Rocket which involved 3 U-shapes in the course! And it was during the process of queuing up for this ride that some thick-skinned and uncourteous queue-cutters nearly spoilt my day. Despite telling them politely to queue up as there were many people behind who patiently waited too, they ignored me and went straight ahead to the front. I was totally fuming inside but frankly speaking there was nothing I could do anymore. Quoting love, "let this be the only shortcut they can take in their life". Indeed. 

Unhappiness aside, I suggest that you guys should try out the other 5 rides before going for this. For me, I went on the riptide rocket first and later on found the rest of the rides much less exciting. At times, when out of a sudden you are turned 180 degrees, facing backwards in the middle of the ride, giddiness will overpower all the thrill you may feel. I experienced that in 2 of the rides. Other than feeling giddy at the end of the ride, I did not know what happened during the course at all. One thing I knew was that they were not that exciting anyway therefore I did not bother going for a second time.

Adventure River

Tubes are free for use at all entrances to the adventure river. This river is longer than any lazy river I tried before. Spanning 620m in length, it offers as many as 14 different habitats for you to experience as you float through with the current. One of it includes an underwater tunnel which showcase quite a few marine life species! You will be able to see stingrays too! I think I was so hungry and all I could think of when I saw them was sambal stingray. Don't judge me please. hahaha

Bluewater Bay

The wave pool! We did not exactly try it cause the depth was simply too shallow to let us be freely pushed around by the waves. The wave pool at Sunway Lagoon KL was much deeper. At bluewater bay, our feet were able to touch the floor the whole time and we were just standing there like rocks while the kids around us were having fun screaming and shouting as the waves hit them. Nevertheless, you could enjoy the waves too as long as you sit on your tube. We were just too lazy to get on it :{

Fun for Kids: Seahorse Hideaway, Big Bucket Treehouse

The seahorse hideaway was simply a baby pool with deckchairs surrounding the area. The big bucket treehouse (as shown above) features a playground with a slide suitable for kids. The slide looks quite fun actually from the picture. If you all buay paiseh can try and tell me if its indeed fun! hehe

Though we were warned that the rides would be suspended soon due to lightning detection, we went ahead as love and I would be out of town soon. The ticket is available for 2 weeks from the date of purchase! So if you are warned about bad weather on the day of visit, you may choose to return again any day within 2 weeks if you have already bought the tickets. Actually, I wished that there was stronger and brighter sun that day. But I guess I should already be feeling lucky that the rain did not pour down afterall despite the grey skies throughout the day. There was suspension of rides on and off yet we still managed to complete all the activities as there wasn't too many visitors. 

Major love: The shower facilities. 1. It is clean and dry. 2. They had rain shower head. 3.There is hot water. I was so happy bathing that I totally don't wish to get out. Really very satisfied with it!

Tips:

1. Don't use the locker at the main entrance. Use the locker near to the Bay restaurant. That locker is more centralised thus easily accessible from whichever ride/activity. We frequently retrieved our phones to snap pictures thus it saved us a lot of energy and time walking to and fro. 

2. If you are heading there with only 1 or 2 friends, all of you should bring soft, unstructured bags so that everything can be squeezed into a small locker. Rental of small locker costs $10 while big locker costs $20. Big locker is really much bigger as can be seen from the picture below. You may use the locker for the entire day and may reopen as many times as you want. 

3. Bring some snacks in if you do not wish to spend too much at the waterpark. The only restaurant that I saw people dining at is the Bay restuarant. They serve western food at around $15 per main dish. There are also pushcarts selling snacks and small bites around the waterpark. There were pizzas selling at one of the pushcart which looks quite delicious. Pizzas are priced at $9 each and they seem to be slightly larger than pizza hut's personal pan pizza.

4. No need to carry big bottles of water. There are water coolers outside the washrooms and at certain other spots.

Lastly, pardon all my dark pictures. But as you call tell, there really wasn't much sunlight on the day of our visit, much to our disappointment. Oh wellssss...It's alright! I hope that you guys have a chance to visit Adventure Cove soon and I wish for the most beautiful weather on those days! ((:

The waste bins around the waterpark. Outside the waterpark's entrance there is one too and we saw a man spitting into the 'plastic only' wastebin. How does it look like a spittoon to him. :\

You can see funny rock structures all around. The most common is this sotong and 3-headed tortoise. Hmmmm...

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Happy Mother's Day!

Today was just like any usual Sunday where everyone is lazing around in the house. My sis and my brother-in-law were taiwan-bound since yesterday for a final holiday before my sis ends her maternity leave thus we had a family dinner last weekend to 'celebrate' in advance. Inverted commas cause there wasn't anything out of the ordinary that day; no cake, nothing fanciful. We had dinner at a zi char stall near our house; the zi char stall where we go to on typical weekend dinners. Maybe the only thing that made it seem like an occasion was that we ordered black pepper crabs. This is the simple Tan family. (:

As a traditional family, none of us is comfortable with showing love for each other openly. We would not shout 'happy mother's day!' and run to give our mum a tight embrace. Neither would we buy her flowers and attach a hand-written lovey dovey card with it. Instead, we would express our love in the form of gifts, meal treats and service in our everyday lives. For instance, if my mum was craving for a certain food, I would go and get it for her. Or if she needs me to do anything for her, I will try my best to help her with it. These may seem insignificant but I think every filial act, big or small, brings warmth to my mum's heart and the thought of this makes me happy and want to do it.

My mum is a woman with very traditional and rigid (imo) thinking. She felt that whatever she told her children to do, her children should simply accept and follow. And that there should be no room for argument. Sadly, there are one too many things I could not agree with her. Being a straightforward person, my mouth tends to act quicker than my mind. Everytime I talk back, a verbal battle unavoidably ensues. We said hurtful words, we had cold wars. But at the end of the day, either one of us will not be able to endure the silent treatment any longer and thus try her best to break the ice. This is simply because we know that we are bonded by blood, the attachment is always there. We still wants to chit-chat together, laugh together, share life with each other. Even though we share a mother-daughter relationship for nearly 23 years, I'm still learning the art of communicating with my mum. I am not saying that she's hard to handle. Just like chatting with a friend who hold very different views from you, as a talker, you will try to put across your opinions with tact while as a listener, you will put yourself in their shoes and understand their perspectives. And frankly speaking, I'm not good with these at all. I'm still trying my best to be the good daughter she yearns for.

To mum:
Though I may not be the ideal child in your eyes, the fault lies in you cause you're the one who made me! HAHAHAHH kidding I know my temper is bad. I know my attitude is atrocious, at times. But do remember that I still love you no matter what and I will take care of you for long long time. xoxo

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Chill when you can.

I think from now till the day I start work, I should go ahead and do all the things I wanna do, go to all places I wanna go. For instance, I have been wanting to visit sentosa, marine life park, aquarium, river safari, all the cafes, and many many more. But I guess all these can only be accomplished when I am back from my korea trip on 4th June. I really need to get down to planning for korea trip, pack my luggage and settle accomodation for vietnam too! So many things on mind but I'm glad that at least I'm done with my poster design, just left with printing and presentation day. :D

4th May 2013
A relaxing afternoon at Prive Cafe, finally! My friend, Neo, picked me up from novena and drove down to this cafe located at Keppel Bay. We were lost at first but google map saved the day! So for any of you who intend to drive there, you should be driving along the VivoCity side of the road and do take note not to turn in at keppel club. If you see a direction sign indicating keppel bay, it means that you have overshot. Turn in at KEPPEL BAY DRIVE.

Judging from the inaccessibility of the cafe and beautiful scenery, I was expecting a menu full of overpriced items initially.   Personally, I tend to associate inaccessible places with 'being exclusive'; they are only accessible by car and in Singapore, only people with a certain level of wealth/income own cars. Just like local private housing, they do not usually have bus stops or mrt stations near them. But Prive surprised me with a wallet-friendly menu, and the cakes were delicious!

We had a drink each and 2 cakes to share. Yes, the erdinger was mine and responsible driver Neo ordered a chocolate banana milkshake. Their cheesecake was average but the hazelnut praline tasted superb! Definitely gonna order it again the next time I visit Prive (:

I seriously got think I look good here. HAHA

My photography skills were not doing justice to the scenery I swear. The ambience was serene and chill, really a good hiding place for a laidback afternoon.

My OOTD. Loving how this nude pointed kitten heels from Charles and Keith make my calves look smaller than usual. hehe

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Just have to keep trying.

So.... yesterday I failed my practical driving test. To be frank, I somehow expected it. The night before the test, I felt exactly the same as I did the night before my Plant Biology paper in Yr 3 Sem 1. I cried so badly in the wee hours before the morning paper cause I didnt't feel confident about it at all, like I was not even sure if I am able to pass the paper. In the end, I paid 50$ to visit a doctor to get mc for the paper the next day. I attempted the paper a year later and scored a B+ for it! I know it's not that a super fantastic grade but simply sitting for the paper and conquering my fear was enough to make me feel so proud of myself.

HAHA!

Back to yesterday, I was so nervous from the moment I woke up that I had stomachaches. I could not even perform well during the lesson before the test.When I was sitting in the room waiting for my tester, my heart was so flustered that it could not even decide how to react. For a moment it could be palpitating so hard that it felt like it was going to break out of my ribcage and another moment it could turn all numb and weak. I was simply paralysed by fear and anxiety. Being so overwhelmed with emotions, I knew that it was impossible for me to do well at all. The results eventually turned out to be exactly what I expected, or maybe worse.

Although I'm feeling very demoralised by the test results, I decided that I should not just stop here after gathering advice from various friends. Whatever is the case, be it continuing with private lesson or signing up with school, I am just gonna keep trying till I get it right!

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