First cookout!:D

This morning I woke up feeling fat so I decided to go for a run. Lol no la i already decided the night before I will run in the morning and I was determined to get back into my healthy lifestyle so yes to cut the long story short I went for a run around Hongdae. Im so glad I went for a run though. Seoul looked so different in the morning when there aren't much people on the streets. And I saw so many pretty cafes!! Too many cafes in Seoul I really wanna go to all of them! Hopefully I can visit many more when I am here. I was just so in awe and excited I kept snapping random pictures along the way haha so enjoy the following pictures~

 The graffiti was found at some random underground tunnel I went through, super pretty:))

 In the afternoon, I went cafe hopping with my friends at Garousil-gil. It is located at Sinsa Station, exit 8!Garousil-gil is a more upmarket place compared to like Hongdae or Edae, something like Singapore's Orchard Road? The cafe we went to was really awesome though! It's called Cafe Oui. I don't really know how to get there cos I was just blindly following my friend haha but Im sure googling it will lead you to the place:)

 My pancake and waffle brunch:))

 Gave bread as an appetizer on the house!

The food was really awesome and in a huge portion, I couldn't finish it all! And the ambience is really good! I took some pictures of the exterior but they are in my dslr camera, so I will post them later haha.

Went walking around the area after a filling lunch.

 This is a really pretty cafe that we walked past, sorry my photo-taking skills sucks!!

 Heehee Ma cafe in Garousil-gil~~

And finally at night, we decided to head to my friend's house for a cookout session! Really excited cos it was the first time I am doing such a thing!!:)) Stopped by some supermarket to get groceries and off to my friend's house to cook!!

Spot the 2 faces in the small window behind hahah:p

Dinner was a success and it was AWESOME:))Had soup, veggies, macaroni,salmon, gyoza, eggs and dessert!

 I must say all of us are good cooks!! Hahaha self praise but the food was really awesome. Maybe it was also cos we were all missing homecooked food. And the company definitely made the whole experience better:)) Can't wait for the next cookout!
Moving into dormitory tomorrow, can't wait to see how it is!!!!!:))

Carribean Bay!!!

Woke up today feeling pretty excited cos I am going to Carribean Bay! After coming to Seoul 3 times before, this is the first time I am actually going there cos it is the right season. Heehee yeap so even though we had to wake up pretty early, I was in high spirits.
Met the rest at Gangnam station and waited to take bus 5002 to Everland. Met some rude Caucasian people that nearly ruined our day!! Everyone was queuing properly to enter the bus but they pushed their way through and forced their way up. OMG SUPER PISSEDDDDD you have no idea unless you were there. But enough about them, talking about it makes my blood boil only!
 We had to take a shuttle bus up to Everland Resort after the bus 5002. And finally reachedddd!!

 

 See how blue the skies were? We were really lucky heehee forecast said it would rain in the afternoon but it didn't so glad!! And that is about all the pictures I had at Carribean Bay LOL cos we deposited our stuff into the lockers once we got in so I didn't get to take any pictures. But overall I would say Carribean Bay is a must visit especially during summer!! The rides were really fun!! Especially this group ride called "The Boomerang" or something. haha basically we will go down this really steep slide very fast and the momentum will cause the float to go upwards so its like a U-shape slide. lol don't know if yall get what im saying but its kinda like the U shape slide in Wild Wild Wet but way more thrilling and fun!!
 Some stuff I thought was amazing about Carribean Bay was their system there. So in order to minimise the things that we will need to bring into the theme park(such as money etc), we could get this hand tag thing that we can deposit money into.

 The minimum you could deposit was 30,000w? But don't worry, whatever you did not use can be refunded at the end of the day!!:) Also, if you are feeling bored and tired after some rides, you could try going to the Beauty Zone at the Aquatic Center. Hahah I was in a good mood that day so I decided to treat myself by going for a massage. (in a theme park LOL). The massage wasn't superb, but I thought the mud mask that I did was really refreshing! They were really generous with the mud haha put like a damn thick layer on my face!
AND THE TOILET. THE TOILET IS AWESOMEEEEE. hahah it was really clean cos we had to remove our shoes before entering the toilet and the toilet is carpeted and really huge! I think Singapore should really adopt the "No Shoes" rule in toilets at like public swimming pools and whatnot cos it not only lessens the cleaner's workload, it is also much more pleasant looking! Other than the fact that there were like...(*caution: obscene info coming up*) naked ladies walking everywhere in the toilet hahah which was like a culture shock to me, the toilet is really damn awesome hahah. I can't believe I can talk so much and rave about a toilet, but yes it is really good!!

Bukchon Hanok Village+Movieeee

So today I went around exploring some tourist attractions such as the Bukchon Hanok Village, and also made a trip down to the school that I am going to be an exchange student at, Seoul National University!!
I have actually been to the Hanok Village several times before, but went again because my friend had not been there before and it is a really beautiful place anyway, so I didn't mind going again and was in fact really excited to show her around the place! The nearest MRT station to Bukchon Hanok Village is Angguk Station(Bright Orange line) and we came out of exit 1 because we wanted to eat this really awesome cheese tteokbokki ramen place near that exit. Normally people will go through exit 2 because that is the start of the Hanok Village, but well because we were too hungry we decided to go from the back instead and walk back to the start of the village.
So anyway, this awesome food place is called 먹쇠돈나, which literally means "Eat, Rest, Pay Money". Well you get the meaning of their name literally haha.

Awesome food seriously I think this is one of the best foods I have tasted in Korea haha. There's another outlet at Hongdae! It near exit 9, so do check it out if you happen to pass by!
So after a filling lunch, we were off to our "hike" up the hanok village, good way to digest our foods hahah. *warning* To those who hate exercising, this may be really tiring for you cos its all upslope hills hahah! I was pretty tired that day climbing up with my hugeass heavy bag and camera, and it didn't help that the sun was scorching hot that day. BUT the view at the top is amazing, so I strongly recommend you guys to go visit there, I mean that's what you do on trips right? YOLO all day, everyday hahaha!

 Yeap, so it was a tiring but nevertheless wonderful day spent with my friends:) So glad to have this group of friends to travel together, they make the whole experience 100000000 times better:') And I also caught my first movie here in Korea at night! Technically, it's the 1st movie on this trip(cos i have watched movies in korea before haha) I caught "The Fault in OUR Stars". Yeah, I'm pretty slow, didn't have time to watch it in Singapore, so I watched it here. Really awesome movie I must say. So touching, my tears flowed like its free LOL. But the ending is kinda...lame. haha can't have the best of both worlds huh. And tomorrow I got to wake up early cos I am going CA...CARRIBEAN BAYYYYYYYY!!~~ hahah pretty excited cos I have not been there before even though I have been to Korea 3 times before haha. Okay gonna sleep now shall update more tomorrow goodnight!!:)

P.s Oh I didn't manage to take pictures at SNU, but I will do so in future posts since Im gonna be there most of the time from now on hhaha!

치맥!!!!~~~~ (CHICKEN & BEER)

Back here for a short update cos its my first time ordering delivery for chicken and beer for supper!!!! SUPER EXCITEDDDD when the chicken came and I am actually a "eatclean" girl hahah so this is really sinful for me but nevermind, YOLO! I deprived myself of this chance last year when I was here so I was determined to try it this time. So at 1230am, we ate chimeg hahaha.

OMG DAMN DELICIOUSZZZZ i feel like eating it again LOLL but okay im on a mission to get abs here so control yourself Jaslynn!! So sad I couldn't get to upload the video here, don't know whats the problem, but I will try to take a video when I eat it again!

Busan Trippin' (2)

Majority of our trip in Busan was raining, but we managed to visit several places!
First up is the Gamcheon cultural village!

Pity the pictures came out like that, Im sure it would be way more beautiful if the sky was clear and sunny:( It was a pretty place though, worth visiting but I must warn first that the stairs there are C R A Z Y. hahah i felt like i was climbing the stairway to heaven cos its like never-ending and coming from someone that exercises pretty often, it is really tiring hahah. But worth it la,so do have a look if you are in Busan!:)
We also went to Haeundae beach and its a really beautiful beach! But too bad my phone camera= sucky pictures so the pictures will have to wait a little longer when my friend posts the pictures on her DSLR and I shall kope from her hahah. We went to the Taejongdae Lighthouse too! Lucky for the good weather on the last day, so we managed to capture some nice pictures:)

This picture is courtesy of my friend, Sophie!:) thank youuuuuu for the picture haha.And the lighthouse!

Really pretty place but once again the hike up is crayyyyyy! haha we walked uphill for like 2km?!And back down another 2km.I think the whole Busan trip is an exercise trip not a relaxing trip lolll.( But im secretly happy cos i get my daily dose of exercise hahah) But the view is really worth it!:)
We also visited the Yonggungsa Temple, its a temple near the beach and perched on a hill. The view up there is really breathtaking, and I felt a sense of inner peace within me, like all my worries were gone when I was up there:)

Busan is famous for its seafood, so we had to visit the Jalgachi Market and try their seafood!

So basically stalls and stalls of seafood and we just chose one and sat down to eat. My friends ate the raw and live octopus and sashimi, but I didn't. Just couldn't bring myself to do it, but according to my friends it was really delicious hahah so if you're game for it, you can go ahead to give it a try!
Busan is also famous for this seed pancake called 싸잇떡, or ssa-yit-deok(loosely translated), it is absolutely DELICIOUSSSSS!!!! It tastes a little like humjipeng or butterfly, only 100000000times better cos of the ingredients inside.

Theres like peanuts,seeds, sugar and idk what else but its seriously gooddddd omggg im so sad I only managed to eat it once when I was there. Would totally eat it everyday if I could!!My Busan Oppa hard at work HEEHEEHEE

Busan Trippin'~ (18/08-21/08)

So I went off for a 4 day trip to Busan with my friends and I was really excited cos I have been to Korea 3 times before but this is the first time im going to Busan! I was anticpating a long post or maybe several posts for this Busan trip, but sadly the weather wasn't good to us. It rained heavily like 3 out of the 4 days we were there? So we didn't get to do many of the things that we planned there. I think we only managed a 30 mins at the Haeundae beach before it started pouring. And needless to say we did not even get to do any water activities. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable time there cos the company made it good:)
We stayed at HiKorea Hostel, which is about 5-7 mins from Haeundae station. I must say this is an awesome place to stay in!!! I really, really love it. Clean, pretty and cheap. The staff there were really nice and helpful too! Their English is pretty good too so you don't really have to worry too much about the language barrier.The only downside was that there were only 2 showers in the whole hostel. Haha i bet you can imagine hoards of girls queuing up to use the shower and that sucks seriously haha we even resorted to using the guys toilet(oops!) and even coming back at weird timings so we can avoid the crowd at peak period at night LOL. So this is the interior of the Hostel:

And this is our room! We got the 6-room and it was just nice for the 6 of us!

I got the top bunk! haha I secretly love the top bunk, it just makes me feel like a kid again when I get to climb up the ladder and have my own space, haha something like a treehouse you know? Kinda childish I know but I guess everyone will have an inner child in them:)

And this is their resident cat! She's called 백사장, or President Baek. She's really damn cute and tame! I normally don't say this cos im scared of cats, but she's really fun to play with heehee. I can't really remember where we booked it from or the prices, but google this hostel and Im sure you can find many sites that you can book from. Or you can check out these websites, www.hostelworld.com, www.tripadvisor.com, www.agoda.com. Okay shall continue my busan posts in the next post cos this post is getting too long! Cyaaaaa~

Shopping and Cafe Hopping

Immediately after I touched down in Korea, I met up with Yeesee!!:) So thankful because of her, I can haz a comfortable accomodation hahaha!

This is us on the way to a Singapore buffet celebration. Hahah apparently the Singapore Club in Korea had a gathering to celebrate National Day, so of course we went there for Singapore food. Funny cos I just arrived from Singapore and im eating Singapore food again haha. But im not complaining cos its free and its LOCAL FOOD! I love local food, can never ever get sick of it haha. Wanted to post some pictures of the food I ate, but the quality sucks cos im using my phone camera. Got to live with sucky pictures till I get my camera shipped from Singapore hahah.
ANDDDD!! met up with my exchange Chingus in Korea and we went Cafe Hopping! Haha went to this cafe recommended by eatyourkimchi. The cafe is called "You Are Here" and it is really pretty and chill, I wish Singapore will have more of such cafes, it would make such a good study place!!

The coffees were great too! I had the grain latte, its has grains and cereals in it(?) and it reminds me of marigold's oat milk in Singapore. Haha if you do have the time go check it out! The address is 마포구 동교동 204-53 (Mapo-Gu, Dongyo-dong, 204-53). and for walking directions you can visit eatyourkimchi's website here.

Bon Voyage!~

So the day has finally arrived!! Flying off to Korea to spend my next few months and im super excited!! Thank you for sending me off guys and all your well wishes! I will have a great time in Korea and return safe and sound!:))

Dormitory application and Health checkup

Hello guys!
So after all that admin stuff for application is settled, you have...more admin application headache!!! yayyyy!! haha yeap now after all that what you would need to settle is the dormitory application. That is, if you are planning to stay on campus. I chose to stay on campus because it is way cheaper than staying outside after my research. Staying on campus costs about 500+-600+SGD PER SEMESTER whereas staying outside costs about the same amount PER MONTH. Yeap, so you do the calculations. Haha I actually really wanted to stay outside cos I wanted to live alone and have my own privacy(cos staying in dorm means compulsory roomie), but well I guess saving money for my Dad who has spent so much for me for this exchange sounds better huh?:) And that would also mean lesser load for me when I pay him back in future haha!!
Okay, so after you have successfully settled all the application stuff for admission, SNU should send you an email with the guide on how to apply for dormitory and the dates to apply. (NOTE: I am writing all these based on my experience for SNU, not sure how the other Unis in Korea work, so do find out properly if you are not going to SNU for exchange!!)The link for application guidelines can be found here. This is for 2014 Fall Semester though, if youre coming in other semesters, the school should send you an updated guideline but this is how it roughly looks like. Log into "My_SNU" portal and apply online. There will be instructions there as to how and when to get your waiting list numbers and when the announcement of the waiting list numbers will be out.
So once you get accepted into dormitory, the school will require you to pay immediately and send in your documents necessary for admission into dormitory, and that includes the health checkup form. But you must be wondering how to we send in all these in such a short notice right? There's no way the documents are going to reach the school in time. Fret not! Wait for another email from the school that will be providing a set of separate instructions for foreign students like us. There will be an extended deadline for us so our documents can safely reach there in time. However, do note that the health checkup results will take a while to be out, so try your best to get your checkup done as soon as possible so once you get the acceptance, you can send in all your documents quickly. As usual, I almost missed the deadline for submission again and went into panic mode. I actually sent in my documents a few hours before the deadline cos my health checkup results only came out on the day of the deadline itself. Imagine how nerve-wracking that was!! I was so afraid of them forfeiting my space in dormitory. Hence Im writing all these posts and I hope that this will be helpful to you guys who are going to come on exchange so you can get everything done before the deadlines! Korea is rather strict with the deadlines, I emailed them asking for an extension of deadlines but they did not allow. So yupp, best thing is just to get everything done as soon as possible!
Documents that SNU requires you to submit are:
1. Photocopy of your passport
2. Health checkup form
3. Photocopy of evidence of your vaccinations
The health checkup form will look something like this:

The vaccinations I took were Flu influenza, Measles, Tetanus and tuberculosis jabs. I think that SNU is more concerned only about the X-ray and measles results, so if you do not want to take the other jabs, you should be fine! For the health checkup, make sure it includes a blood test and X-Ray! And you should be fine! Send in all your documents and youre done!:)

Visa Application

Hihi guys! So this post will be about getting your visa application to Seoul done after getting your admission package. This is the link for the information on what, where and how to apply for your visa at the Korean embassy. Basically you will need these documents when you apply for the D-2 study visa:
1. A valid passport
2. Bank statement (that of whoever is sponsoring you for your exchange)
3. Bank record of transactions in the past 3 months
4. Birth certificate (a photocopy) and one of the parent who is sponsoring you
5. Cash:S$76 for single entry, S$114 for multiple-entry (this is when you intend to travel out of Korea whilst your entire stay in Korea)
6. A complete visa application form
7. Certification of admission
8. A recent passport-sized photo (taken within the past 6 months)
And this is the address of the Korean embassy in Singapore:
47 Scotts Road #08-00 Goldbell Towers Singapore 228233
And their contact details:
Phone:+65-625-61188 Fax:+65-625-43191 Email:info@koreaembassy.org.sg
They are opened Mondays to Fridays 9-11am only! The time period when it is opened is very limited, so don't forget to go down only during this time if not you will make a wasted trip!The collection of your visa will not be on the same day, so you have to make another trip down just to collect your visa a few days later.
YUPP! That should be it for the visa application! Feel free to drop any queries below or to my email!^^

Exchange application

Hihi guys! Okay so after you successfully applied for exchange with NUS, there will be several admin stuff to settle but for those you will be given step by step instructions by the NUS exchange department so you shouldnt go too wrong or be too confused as to what to do in that aspect. Its basically handing up several documents like for example your passport copy, official transcript, bank statement and so on which NUS will then send to your exchange university for approval of your acceptance into the university. After that is done, your korean univeristy should send you an email accepting your application followed by the documents that you should receive and what you should do next. For me, I got accepted into Seoul National University, so I am not too sure on the process for other universities, but this is roughly the schedule that I received for SNU: --> Click on it and you should be able to see the details^^

Yupp, so basically NUS will inform you when to collect your admission package so you do not need to worry too much about it. And FYI, the unis in Korea take a loooonnnggg time in sending over your admission package, haha I received mine in late July even though I got the acceptance email way before, and my friends at Korea University also received theirs about the same time as me but a little earlier. So don't panic if you have not been asked to collect your package, it will probably come much later:)
After collecting your admission package, you will then have to proceed to make your visa(which i will touch on in the next post), as well as do your necessary health checkup if you are intending to apply for dormitory in SNU. For my friends in KU, they actually had to do their health checkup way before during the application process so I guess it differs for different Universities so make sure to check properly what your school requires!
In the midst of all these applications, don't forget to do your mapping! IKR, the pre-exchange process is actually quite tiring, so much stuff to do I almost wanted to give up on going exchange totally hahah. Anyway, I totally regretted not doing my mapping earlier, I rushed and panicked like crazy towards the end because the professors took a pretty long time to reply and my school bidding had started and I had no idea if I could map certain modules back and all so my timetable was pretty messy. Right now I havent even gotten all my modules yet so I am just waiting to appeal and hopefully the Korean professors will take pity on an exchange student hahah. YESSS, so as soon as the Korean University release the modules for the next semester, go find modules that you can map over. The link to look at modules for SNU can be found here.

So when you enter the page, you will see on the top right hand corner where i highlighted the word "Korean". It should actually read "English" so click that and the page will be auto translated to English for your convenience. And just a tip to shorten the hassle of searching high and low for English modules (Which i assume everyone of you is intending to take english modules in Korea unless your Korean is really good and youre really confident in it hahah), click on the button which says "advanced search" at the right.

On my screenshot its "quick search" cos I have already clicked on it. And after that you should see the box for "English Lecture" at the bottom left hand, check it before you go searching for your modules and then your search would then be filtered to english modules only:) And fyi, you dont need to log in to your account to search for your modules so do not worry so much if you haven't got your user ID and PW from the SNU side yet.And as expected, SNU takes a while to update their modules so if this semester's modules are not out yet, you can try seraching for similar modules in the previous years or semesters by using the filters on the top as seen in the screenshots. After finding modules, email the respective dpeartments in NUS for approval and you are almost done for mapping! So yes, I cannot emphasise more on how important it is to start early for mapping, it is really kinda tedious so do early if not you will regret like me!!
So that's basically about it for this post, hopefully its not an overload of information! It would be great if this has helped you and if there are any more queries, do drop a comment below of send me an email and I wil try my best to help!:))

Mandatory 1st post~

As always, a welcome post to start the blog haha. It's D-5 countdown before I fly! So excited and yet scared to leave my comfort zone. But im sure I will enjoy this whole experience! Im gonna try to update as regularly as possible about my life in Korea these 5 months, as well as try to help you guys with admin stuff before flying, hopefully you will find them useful!:) And just a short write up about me, my name is Jaslynn and im 22 this year. Im a year 3 student currently studying Communications and New Media at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences(FASS)in NUS. I love sports and I really love making friends! hahah okay I hope you will have fun reading my blog and I hope it will be of use to any of you who are planning to come on exchange in the near future! Leave a comment if you do have any questions and I will try my best to help you:)