Oh Osaka! (1)

So im finally here in Japan! The pre-Japan trip has been nothing short of stressfulness, starting from the planning, to the buying of wrong dates of air tickets, to forgetting to pay the deposit of the hotel and booking the wifi box. And not to mention the crazy anxiety we all felt when we thought we would not get our alien registration card number in time to leave the country, and to finally missing the flight cos we mistook the airport we were supposed to fly off at and ending up having to pay extra to book the next earliest flight out. So many obstacles and difficulties we faced just trying to go for this trip, it was as if we weren't meant to come here at all. I seriously felt so tired and stressed I almost dint wanna come at all already. But well im glad I did! Osaka has been awesome so far, and it's only the first day but im enjoying myself! So enough of the negativity,  my blog shall only be filled with positivity!^^ Life happens, shit happens, money is not everything and can always be earned back,  so I guess all that is important now is to make all that struggles worth it by enjoying myself as much as I can here! No point crying over spilt milk :))
(P.s cos of the missed flight, I got my 1st experience in a jimjilbang!  Stayed in a jimjilbang overnight at the airport haha it was really quite cool cos we paid like 20,000w and we have overnight access to the sauna, hotspring, baths and the common room to sleep in! Really a new experience for me and I enjoyed it cos Singapore will never have such things!)
So we reached Osaka and travelled to our dorm just in time for lunch! I was pretty shocked when I reached our dorm, it was really not what I had really expected.  It is clean, but it is rather small and stuffy and theres this weird rattan smell in the room and I think im allergic to it cos im sneezing real badly in the room now haha. And it's freaking hot.(no a/c only fan)But but but the toilets are really clean and the staff are very nice! And my room is clean la, so it is still worth the price I paid for it. ($18/night)

We asked the staff for recommendation of food nearby cos we were starving and it was almost 3pm. Luckily for us there is this famous oknomoyaki shop just around the corner of our hostel so we decided to go there to eat. IT.IS.FREAKING.GOOD. I felt I was in heaven when I ate it no kidding!! And it was really filling too! The owner uncle spoke really good english and he is also very very friendly! Hahah we took a picture with him but they are all in my camera so I can only upload them later when I get back to Seoul and have a laptop. Definitely gonna come back here to eat again soon!!

As it was pretty late already and we were kinda tired from the flight, we changed our plans to go to Shinsaibashi street to walk around instead of minoo park cos it was nearer to us. Sinsaibashi is actually a shopping street that is famous in Osaka. The train tickets in Osaka are really cute and old school, they are still using the punch ticket system!!!! We were in total awe seeing the machines haha omg long long time since we all saw and used them!

Shinsaibashi street is quite nice and has many things to look at, but I only bought some stuff at F21 cos they were the cheapest there! (Mostly less than 20sgd clothes) The sales in Osaka are not really sales haha, like the shoes sales are like still abt at least $25? Compared to Korea's 10,000w shoes (about $10). Walked around a bit more and ate ippudo ramen which was honestly average only. I hope I can find better ramen around before i go back!!

Where is my Mr. Glico man~

Back to the hostel early after dinner cos we were all very tired and my eye had some infection and its all red now:( gonna sleep now hopefully my sore eye and runny nose gets well by tomorrow!  Gg to the food street and spaworld tomorrow omg excited!!!!;))

Start of school~

Heehee so the 1st week of school has ended and I finally have time to blog about it. I have been really busy and i dont even know why! Everyday im so tired like I get 6 hours of sleep only?! But school has been well okay I guess! My mods are finally settled, pain in the ass is finally done haha so I can heave a sigh of relief. I still haven't found a nice place to take a picture of the school haha but it really is beautiful. Now I understand why my friend who went to SNU last year insisted on me walking to lessons instead of taking the bus. Haha it indeed is beautiful, but you got to be here to see it for yourself!
Anyway, I dropped by here for a short update on certain things in school I found interesting! First up is the school canteen/cafeteria. In Singapore you will expect a canteen to have at least 5 or 6 stalls to choose from, but however here in Korea, or at least in SNU, every cafeteria only have 2 choices everyday.  Yupp 2 haha. And the menu will be placed at the entrance of the cafeteria.  Students then choose which set they prefer to eat, before proceeding to the meal ticket counter to purchase a "ticket" for the food they want to eat. Following that, they will queue up and drop their "tickets" off at the counter and get their food. Haha some pictures of the canteen~

And canteen food!!

And I also visited their gym! Korea's gyms are pretty cool, basically you go there and get a set of gym clothes provided at the gym, change into them before you go and gym. After exercising, change out and throw the clothes into the basket provided and you are done!

 It's a pretty good idea cos it saves you a lot of trouble doing the laundry often (since its perspiration and all and will stink up if you dont wash it for a few days) and best especially for people like me who exercise a lot but did not bring sufficient exercise clothes.

Roughly how the gym clothes looks like. The sizes are huge btw. I took the smallest size but I still looked like i was wearing a sack hahah! But well at least no laundry so im not complaining!!:D

Moving into Dorm!!~

I have finally moved into dorm!! Crazily excited about it cos its the first time I am staying in the dorm(in Singapore I stay at home loll) but yet also nervous cos I got the apartment dorm, so that means 6 people are living together. I was worried cultural differences or different living habits may make it difficult to live together. But the good thing about the apartment is that we have our own toilet, fridge, living room and washing machine. So anyway yeap with these mixed feelings I left Yeesee's house at Hongdae for Seoul National University Gwanaksa Dormitory.

I must say I was really surprised when I entered my room after all the registration!!
This is the living room! Huge right!!

 My bed side haha! My comforter super doesn't fit the bed but I don't care I bought it on impulse cos it was so cute hahahahah

 And my table haha sorry for the mess still in the midst of unpacking~

 I was really glad cos the room kinda surpassed my expectations in terms of its size! But the toilet was pretty dirty, the school did not really bother to keep the place clean. Like there was so much rubbish left behind by the old occupants! Spent awhile cleaning up the place. And the aircon is only in the living room, haha so the room was a bit stuffy but it was alright I guess. I slept quite comfortably and even used my comforter. The weather will turn colder soon so I guess it doesn't really matter if I din't have aircon in the room!:)

And I met my roomie as I reached into dormitory. Shes an American and she seems really nice!! Talked to her abit and I am hoping we will get along well the coming months! The other girls in my dorm includes 2 Brazilians, 1 Korean and another girl that hasn't moved in. hahah multi-national dorm to the max man hahahhaha! But they are all really nice so Im really excited to get to know everyone better and learn about their cultures!:)

Today is the first day of classes, wish me luck heehee I hope I don't get lost! I went running this morning around school and got lost and spent almost 2 hours outside jogging before I found my dorm hahahah. So I better leave early for lessons later!! I can't really get a nice picture of the school while I was jogging, the best I could get was the main gate...haahah cos I tried taking pictures, like when I am seeing the mountains and all around school they look really beautiful, but on the picture they just look like...bumps. hahaha so well when I get a better picture I will post it up haha. Must find a good spot first!!

The main gate is actually a Korean character called 샤(Shyea). In Korean, SNU is written as 국립 서울 대학교, which is actually putting ‘ㄱㅅㄷ', the first Korean consonants of each word together. Pretty cool huh hahah!

Oh and special thanks to my friends who helped me in the moving in to the dorm, I couldn't have done it myself and for letting me stay in your house for the past few weeks, THANK YOU!!! I really appreciate it:))

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!