My dad (parents) x Ginseng chicken

The relationship is 5ever.


Wahahaha my parents are here!!

Hahahaha they arrived yesterday and refused to reveal the faces so ok here's them photo bombing a photo of me and the Sungnyemun (gate which only recently reopened in March this year after restoration as it was burnt down by some guy). How time flies!! The last time we were all here (my parents + I), this gate was still under restoration - that's 2 years ago.

Anyway, now that my parents are here...... Christmas also came early for me!!!!!!! Wheeeee

My new timbuk2 bag and New Balance running shoes are with me now~~~ I'm so happy hahahaha my mom kept it a secret that my shoes had already arrived (she was supposed to bring my old shoes over cos my new ones was supposed to arrive a day after they flew) but everything turned out well after all!! Love my new shoes so much.

They're so light and comfy and I feel like I'm walking/running on pillows (haven't tried it yet but I'm sure it would feel that way). Or maybe clouds wahahaha cos hazyxclouds lolol ok bad joke

I told Ah Shan I'm gonna run at least two marathons with this pair LOLOL but let's see lah huh

Umbrella art display near City Hall station (along the way towards Gwanghwamun) super pretty! Apparently they change the displays every once in a while. The last time it was traditional Korean art? Now it's pictures/drawings/portraits of people!

We had ginseng chicken at the famous 토속춘 (to-sok-chun) near Gwanghwamun for dinner yesterday cos my dad's CRAZY over Korean ginseng chicken. He even picked the 100 year ginseng kind of ginseng chicken lol

White and black 100 year (those flaky stuff) ginseng chicken

We also had jeon (Korean pancake) and roasted ginseng chicken (OMG this was SO GOOD) and I had a bowl of rice too because hey, I'm not called a 饭桶 (loosely translated: rice bucket hahaha) for nothing right? Hahahaha nah just glad my appetite is back to normal in Korea haha

Today we went to Mustoy (무스토이) over at Hongdae because my dad liked the idea of drawing on your own porcelain figurines and drinking coffee at the same time. But it turned out that the cafe's focus was on the drawing and less on the coffee drinking (my dad's a HUGE coffee drinker lol) so I guess he was kinda disappointed :-( but we had Holly's Coffee at Myeongdong afterwards which I suppose is pretty legit.

Outlining my lifejacket bahaha

Colouring in the lifejacket!

Created this little baby because NUS WOMEN'S (and men's!!!!!) DRAGONBOAT TEAM WON SPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR AT NUS SPORTS AWARDS 2013 LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

Photo from Ah Shan :')

Aaaaahhhhhh so happy!! I was freaking out over whatsapp with Ah Shan cos it's kinda like our big aim for the season after what happened last year. So every competition we aimed for the top and I'm so glad our team made it :') really proud of everyone of them especially after the extra 6 weeks bomb (quote Ah Shan here unquote lol)

I finally feel like our season has ended and I'm so glad it ended well. Also, so glad we finally achieved something together with the guys :')


This one's for y'all. #nusdbburnsbrighter #eveninkorea

PANGZAI!!!!!!!

Jumping, jumping!! (yeah)

EVERYBODYYYY~~

(Watch this video if you have yet to!!)

Haha this is the global version, the more famous Korean version (and the version often sung at noraebangs) is here. Also the version I first watched and was like "Huh how can this song be popular?!"


Crazy day today, ran to Engineering buildings after class ended at 6+ cos Crayon Pop was coming to school. And Kian is crazy over them so after class ended we started brisk walking towards Engineering direction and ended up RUNNING because the group chat reported that they were already there and singing Bar Bar Bar!!

By that time we were already pretty near, it was just a last stretch left that was UPHILL and my god the fanboys were all chanting and it was quite funny haha

Our initial view. They were waving to the guys at the side and I told Kian to wave back and he did HAHAHA

Then we went over to the other side to get a more frontal view of them and we saw the rest standing on a bench that Konrad choped 1 hour earlier lolol best part is he doesn't even fanboy them haha

Extreme fanboy-ing: climbing a tree to watch them LOL

Afterwards when Crayon Pop left, we watched him descend the tree and he was doing really well until he missed his footing and landed on his butt LOLOL quite funny. He looked quite zai until that happened hahahahaha


Interrupt with an #ootd shot haha (not instagram worthy enough because of the lack of leaves dayummmm)

Autumn #ootd

After that we had cheap cheap Korean Chinese canteen food at Engine (only 2500won!!!!!! #seoulcheapcancry). Then we started walking back to hall in the dark (the school is somehow not that brightly lit at night huh). And we stumbled upon people practicing traditional Korean musical instruments or what not IN THE DARK it was kinda scary cos it was dark and we could only see shadows hahaha

They looked like a cult according to Konrad lol


And nearing hall (or dorm, whichever haha) we saw a festival going on! It was the Gwanaksa Dormitory Festival or some sorts and we had to go around booths collecting stickers in order to exchange them for free chicken and beer!

The beer one was easy, just had to get to Yes(s) on this dart board and you'd qualify for a cup of beer lol Konrad got it on his third try.

The winning board. LOL

Then we discovered a booth that was exactly what Kian loved: old fashioned tea and cultural stuff like traditional music was playing in the background and all. And we had to write a poem, it was the Korean traditional poem - the famous 3 word poem thing? I don't know how to describe but we often see them playing it on variety shows and stuff (I most recently saw it on Appa Odiga! But that was a pretty dated episode cos I'm still catching up lolol)

Anyway, after all that tea drinking and poem writing, we could take part in a lottery which was kinda like a lucky draw. Bahahaha everyone got empty lottery picks but I got the number 2! So I got this pretty pretty gold metal SNU bookmark as a prize. Love it so much hahaha and I don't need to buy this from the SNU shop now lol #cheapo

Wheeeeee my parents arrive in Seoul tomorrow! And we finally collect our Alien Registration Cards (ARC) tomorrow so we can FINALLY make atm cards and student cards and what not.


And I finally signed up as a member at the gym!!!!! Can't wait to lift #eatclean #traindirty HAHAHA

This October.

Strong is the new skinny.






HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Happy mid-week y'all!

The weekend's almost here!

Damn the iPhone still can't take good night shots :-(

I had dinner with my roomie today and we had Bibigo! cos the dormitory food choices were pretty bad hahaha. Took her scooter out to the Bibigo restaurant and omg I wanted to freak out but told myself not to. I've never even rode pillion on my parents' bikes and now I'm riding on a friend's one?! Seriously sometimes I live in a really #yolo manner I surprise myself too lol (maybe my result from the Dr. Phil's test is accurate afterall ha ha)

There's a really nice view at Bibigo!! But it's really cold once the sun goes down and the sun sets way earlier these days. Last week it was still 7pm? But now it's down by 6.30pm latest boohoo

Anyway, we went to the College of Engineering afterwards to see a nightview (BAHAHA likea romantic only) cos roomie said we could see Namsan Tower from there! HAHA but we couldn't. We could see 63 Building though but I'm not sure how it really looks like plus my eyes were tearing so I couldn't tell. Tearing cos of the wind when riding the scooter lol not that I was too gan dong or anything hahahaha

And roomie showed me her bf's photo today lolol but I had teary eyes so I'm not sure if the guy we met at Engineering (they switched scooters so that we could ride comfortably back lol before it was quite a squeeze) was her bf lol but I have a feeling ah

Ok hope tomorrow goes well and that can see some superstars in school even if the superstar's song is annoying and somewhat fail. HAHA doesn't stop the song from being addictive and applicable to every part of our lives right now right? Jumping jumping~!

Daegu: the sequel (bahahahaha)

I think I didn't mention this before, but this trip I went with Yeesee, two NUS friends, and two Taiwanese friends. So the main mode of communication kinda became Chinese hahaha also because in Daegu we met up with a Korean friend, HH who majors in Chinese in university! The Taiwanese friend who went on the trip with us used to be her buddy when HH went to Taiwan for exchange. HH ended up being our tour guide for the trip! She was super attentive and hospitable :')



Anyway! Part two of Daegu~

After we went to the polka dot exhibition, we decided to go to our hostel to drop stuff off and basically check in haha before going off for dinner.

Our mixed dorm with 3 double decked beds!

The hostel people are super friendly omg they just talk non-stop haha! And they're very very funny people. Oh, and most Koreans struggle with saying my name Hazel, they can't romanize it in their heads (same with saying my Chinese name lol seriously going through an identity crisis here) but in Daegu they got it right the first time LOL. I will normally tell them "Hazel, like hazelnut latte" etc but they managed to get the hazelnut latte themselves haha!

Went for dinner afterwards and wow finally saw shops and people and the place didn't seem like such a ghost town afterall hahaha. Had Japanese ramen (pretty authentic but I miss the Japanese ramen back home~ although if we do go to Japan - planning in the works - i would like to eat ramen for all 3 meals HAHAHA #fatdiehz)

THEN! We saw a Gongcha 2+1 deal!!!!!! Omgggg drinking Gongcha totally reminds me of home hahaha all those after training treats at Gongcha with our Suntec meals... memories~~ anyway 2+1 deal OF COURSE MUST BUY RIGHT so yesssss finally decent bbt at only 3000won #seoulcheapcancry

The rest went to have ice cream and afterwards we went to a noraebang hahaha i foresee this becoming one of our favourite hangouts with the must-sing songs being Bar Bar Bar and No No No lol what's with Korean song titles and repetition I have no idea

Day 2 

We wanted to climb a mountain 爬山 but it was too far and we didn't have enough time :'( so we went on a city walking tour which featured several old churches and also went past Daegu's medicinal street - pretty cool.

Breakfast for the champs (insert my fav bicep emoticon hahaha)

Morning flowers I whatsapped to a several people hehe (brighten up your mornings! bahaha)

Took this using the panorama function on my phone so it's a bit strange/distorted looking. But it was the only way to capture the entire church! Haha

This was another church overgrown with weeds because it isn't in use anymore.

Afterwards we met up with HH and went to the Daegu Arboretum! Basically, it's kinda like their botanic gardens hahaha lots of flowers and plants and even a bamboo forest!!

Baby's Breath! One of my fav flowers after sunflowers haha

Another one of my favourite flowers!! Daisies~

Bonus shot of me trying to be a flower even in Daegu, South Korea. Lolololol

Many families were gathered there and they were having picnics and stuff. Super chill place (except that it was pretty hot that day!)


Then we went to HH's house for lunch - super nice omg the house it's soooo HUGE and the design is really pretty. I mean like, there was a theme in the house design and stuff haha. In Singapore our houses are all about functionality. Yeah, some houses to have a theme and design but not mine lol so I really liked her house!

Panorama again hahaha currently one of my fav camera functions LOL

And her mom prepared so much food!! Authentic Korean food, plus food that Koreans eat during Chuseok only. Wowowow just thinking about the food makes my mouth water lol it was so good I ate so much haha. And there was desserts and fruits afterwards omg it was just never-ending cos HH's mom was worried we weren't eating enough. After finishing a platter of fruits she came back out with another platter :9 hahaha #fatdieus but fruits are so rare in Korea!


After lunch it was time for us to leave for the bus terminal where we would be taking a bus back to Seoul. The bus was scheduled to leave at 5.25pm and I don't know why but I had this feeling that we would be reaching Seoul at 12midnight so I was dreading the whole ride HAHA I tried sleeping but I woke up after an hour and started being restless lol so imagine my joy when we reached Seoul at around 9.30pm. There was still time for dinner even!! Wheeee no need for cup noodles ahahah


Ok abrupt end. I have to finish my religion readings and start on the review. And I also have to read about African history omg been playing and sleeping too much the past few days I've hardly done any work lol

But just another tiny bonus:

It was my grandma's birthday dinner back home on Saturday and my dad took an insta video of all my relatives at the table waving at me hehe and look @ that caption!! He called me "hz" lol usually only my friends do hahahahaha (plus my dad only got insta because I keep updating my whereabouts on instagram LOL so he basically made an account to "stalk" me HAHA kidding

Awwwwww missing everyone back home

Daegu 대구 大姑 (I mean, 大邱)

Just got back from a 2D1N trip to Daegu yesterday~

We mysteriously cancelled our seats for the train to Daegu ahahahahaha what a joke!! But we still managed to get on the train by buying standing tickets. It was a 4 hour ride to Daegu btw hahahahahaha but it's ok, we spent it hoboing in the cafeteria on the train where we sat on seats/floor.

Didn't see Key :-( HAHA but it's ok we went to a very cool polka dot exhibition by Kusama Yayoi on day 1.

She's a Japanese artist and she's super eccentric and OCD. And she loves polka dots, thus most of her art is about the dots hahaha.

Super psychedelic lights room

One of my favourite rooms hahaha felt so happy and polka dotty in it!

And there was a neon room!!

My shoes glowing in the dark~~

You could stick dots/circle stickers onto anywhere in the room. Basically meant for the kids but we had fun too hahaha felt quite dizzy being in this room.

Bahahaha I happened to wore polka dotted socks hahaha matchy matchy with the theme~

Ok end of day 1. I saw a pair of shoes in the VANS shop that I immediately fell in love with lololol gonna try and find it at the shop in Hongdae later.

It's super prettyyyyyy right!!!!! And super apt for the coming autumn/winter cold. Gah I want them on my feet now hahaha in other news, someone needs to stop my shoe craze. It's getting out of hand now that I have money and my parents are coming soon bahahahahaha

Happy 추석!

Wheeee it's 추석 (Chuseok) in Korea from tomorrow (ah, it's already tomorrow haha I meant Wednesday aka today) till Friday so there's no school! Public holiday~~

Happy 中秋节 everywhere else, especially back home hehe


I only have classes Tuesday onwards so this week I only have one day of school. Plus my afternoon class got cancelled whoop whoop so I ended at 12.30pm today haha.

Since class ended that early, I went to a typography exhibition with Yeesee and her two schoolmates! They had to visit the exhibition for school. I was just tagging along really, trying to be all cultured and everything looking at the typography work. It's pretty cool.

It's the International Typography Biennale called Typojanchi. The exhibition is free and it's inside the historic Seoul Station (old train station) which has since been turned into an exhibition hall! Previously when I visited Seoul and passed by the station, it was under renovation/refurbishment. Anyway they refurbished it really well, and each room has a photo of what it used to be in the past and what it is now - I think they did a great job preserving the place.

Also, Running Man was once played inside here ahahaha I can still remember who the guests were - it was a hip hop episode and Yoon Mirae and Tiger JK were in it. Haha!


Anyway, here are some photos from the exhibition today! Taken and edited on my iPhone haha

This one was about how the blank ink changed and separated thus being colourful. My first thought was chromatography back in secondary school hahaha

Hehe I really like this one, the quotes are kinda motivational and super similar to those fitness ones seen on instagram ahaha. And if my memory doesn't fail me, these quotes were described to be "motivational and at the same time borderline angsty" (somewhere along those lines lol)

I really liked this room. It was clean, white and overall I felt extremely comfortable and at ease hahaha

My favourite exhibit hahaha

The last photo's a small part of a huge wall full of Google poems. If you know me, you'd know that I luvvvvvv Googling stuff hahaha. And now that I'm in Korea, my favourite thing to do after Googling is to Naver maps stuff (Naver is this Korean maps app) and it is super fun searching for the nearest Daiso, nearest noraebang etc.

Anyway, the exhibit's about "Google Poems", poems generated by the search engine's autocomplete suggestions - which actually yields some hilarious results. And the thing is, some of these poems make pretty good sense!! There's a blog Google Poetics where popular submissions are collected and collated. It's actually quite cool, because the thing about autocomplete is that is kinda says things people wish to say as it is based off previous searches.


Also, going out of Seoul this Thursday by train (whoop whoop I luv taking trains haha) to Daegu city!! Key's hometown. Omg maybe he'll be there. Haha kidding but I'm quite excited cos this is the first time I'm leaving Seoul (Jeju Island doesn't really count) by train and stuff. Will be back on Friday though. Heard there's nothing much to do in Daegu but since we're here we gotta go out and experience~


Omg I hope we get to climb a mountain in Daegu hahaha

Seoul far seoul good

Ahhh recently people have been reminding me how it's already September, which means it's 4~5 months to go till I go back to Singapore!

I can't wait to get back to Singapore, but at the same time I'm beginning to enjoy living here. Haha. Hard to imagine me saying this but apart from the crappy tiny rooms and squeaky beds (which are really uncomfortable, actually), this place is beginning to grow on me. Despite the unfamiliarity with things and places (I'm supposed to meet a new friend at the pond tomorrow before going for lunch together and I realize I have heard a lot about this pond but I HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY SEEN IT), I'm getting used to it.

I should probably not abandon my NUS friends so much too haha, I was all 宅女 yesterday. I realize I do like alone time, but at the same time I like being surrounded by friends and people/things I'm familiar with. I'm such an ironic person, actually.

Midterms + e-learning have already started back home and we're hardly into our second week of school here haha the disadvantages of starting late. I guess I should try stepping out of my comfort zone more, first step: MEET MY BUDDY GROUP ONCE AND FOR ALL.



Ahhh I miss everyone.
But ah, only 4/5 months left!

End of Week 1 of school

Week 1 of school has concluded!!!!!!! Hallelujah

School's fine, the workload for some modules seem a little heavy and my roommate and friend freaked out a little when they realized I was taking 18 credits (6 courses - the max an exchange student can take). Hope I'll be ok... I should be fine though haha know of a few other friends taking the same workload haha

I'm also really glad to have met the NUS exchange people in SNU, finally hahaha. I know I'm supposed to step out of my comfort zone, meet new people...but it's so hard especially since the people here all think that I'm one of them. Lol. First question I get asked most of the time (and in Korean!) is: "You're Korean right?" Noooooo

Thankful for the NUS friends haha they are all so funny and easy going. Our common topics include complaining about the inefficiency here (it's really quite bad haha) and our small, dirty-ish dorm rooms. Hahahahaha 


Two photos from last week's wonders at Jeju Island: