Guess who made Korean spicy rice cakes?

With the help of some online research, I was able to whip up some delicious 떡복이/ddeokboki/spicy rice cakes!

Turned out VERY spicy but still delicious! Had onions, mushrooms and the round fish cakes mixed together with the rice cakes. :) It’s easy because I bought the instant ddeokboki sauce from the Korean mart. When I get back to SG, I’d probably try making the sauce from scratch, with hot pepper paste and chilli powder. Now I can save some money when I crave for Korean food! Awesome!

And today I was watching SATC (again). THIS was so epic!

Fat Guy: Hey red head, move your fat ass!
Carrie: Excuse me? What did you just said?
Charlotte: Her ass isn't normally that big!
Miranda (red head): Yes! Thank you for reminding me! (to Charlotte) My ass is big because I just had a baby! (to fat guy)
Samantha: What's your excuse?!
Carrie: Yeah! You having triplets?

So epic I had to post it on my status update in fb. hahaha :P

OH and from facebook I learnt that Hayley Warner (runner up for Aus Idol) is releasing her single next month! YIPPPEEEE!! I love her, man!

What have I been up to?

Watching movies, having meals and just some catching up with my non-sg/msian friends. Met up with my Korean friend for a meal and movie in two days. I wonder when will I see her again. She’s going back to Korea in January for good. Probably when I visit Busan? Hopefully soon! Hehe.

Last evening, had dinner with my Korean Language classmates who are either from Taiwan or HK. Had a great time with them! Only thing was… I didn’t feel like talking while hanging out with them. I could only just sit there and laugh at their jokes. And it’s all due to the language.

Mandarin. Coming to Aus have decreased my contact with the language to say… 20%. It’s so so bad. My mandarin just sound sucky whenever I hold a convo with any of my Taiwanese/Hong Kong/Chinese friends.

Plus, I went to watch movie with a Chinese friend today. I can’t believe I’m saying this but it’s such a torture for me to talk. It’s okay if I speak to sporean/msian with my bad mandarin mixed with singlish. But to these Chinese native speakers, it’s a total headache for me AND torture at the same time. :/ Their mandarin is so accurate and smooth… while mine just comes out like a load of gibberish or so.

Well, if it wasn’t for them I would be slumping away at home feeling all bored and lonely. Nice to have people to hang out with even when the usual people I used to hang out with in Brissie are not here.

I’ve been spending my days with the friends and nights with my movies. Besides going to the theatres, I’ve occupied myself with tons of movies and the hit English drama series, SATC. :)

What’s SATC? Guess.

All by myself…

This is it, truly alone. Housemate went home this morning. Almost all my Sporean and Msian friends went home already.

Luckily, my other nationality friends are still around and we’ve already made plans to hang out, stuff like that. Because of these meet-ups, packing of stuff, shopping for “gifts” and etc, my whole week (before departure) seems to be filled with activities. That’s good because I won’t get bored. :)

Oh and I’ve got like a bunch of downloaded shows to watch. I just watched the 1994 awesome movie, The Mask. Re-living childhood, hey? LOL. That was probably the first movie I watched of Jim Carrey and ever since then, I would always think of him as the Mask Guy!

After The Mask, I continued watching Ponyo Over the Cliff. Hehe. Such a cute movie!!! Enjoyed it heaps!

For random’s sake:

Isn’t it a cutie?!!

Fun times

The past couple of days were filled with fun times spent with friends who are going/went back to Msia/Spore this week.

Yesterday, I had buffet lunch with LN together with some other friends in Brissy city’s casino. Was pretty worth it though it does not have a huge variety as compared to some buffet restaurants I’ve had in Spore. We had fun chit-chatting over meal while enjoying the food. After lunch was a mini exploration around City Hall, brissy’s history museum (I think). Heard the old building had a few cracks and could topple down anytime so they are planning to do a bit of renovation to the building thus it’ll be closed for 3 years. We didn’t want to miss out the chance of not being able to explore the museum before it temporarily close down.

LN went back to Msia this morning! Tomorrow my hsemate will be leaving for Spore.

Helek and I spent our day in Sea World today. Awesome stuff they have got there. Epic moment was seeing the dolphins so closely for the first time in my life! This gentle creature can’t be easily seen in Spore except the Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa which you have to pay heaps of money to watch. :/

Anyways, we watched a couple of animal shows, touched some marine  creatures and sat some rides! Most of the rides in Sea World isn’t very scary and that’s a relief for me! Because… honestly I don’t like roller coasters and I’m SCARED of them! XO Helek is also as chicken as me but she always wants to challenge herself. LUCKILY one of the (seemingly) most thrilling rides wasn’t open today, so we tried the other rides. The best ride would be JetRescue which I sat for about 4 or 5 times? And Helek sat 5 or 6 times. I couldn’t sat anymore due to my motion sickness. I was really giddy after a few rounds of JetRescue.

It’s a ride that ZOOMS away really fast and at high speed, it twirls side to side rapidly. Thrilling, fun and dizzy (for me) at the same time. Anyways, the entire day was pretty funtastic! :)

Queenslanders have this VIP pass to Movie World, Sea World and Wet n Wild theme parks. So we pay 99.95 bucks for unlimited entry to those theme parks any day that lasts till June 2010. Awesome ain’t it? Hehe. So we can actually go to the theme parks anytime we want, say during weekend or whenever we feel like it. :)

 
We’re VIP! :D
Excuse our photos because it was taken on the spot, outdoors with a webcam. We look horrible. Especially Helek’s because her face is so dark! And you can only see one earring in my photo. =.=” PHAIL.

A biatchy post not worth your time reading

I know this is bad. I know this is biatchy. But I need a place to rant about someone.

You know, sometimes I feel like she is kind of stuck up. She likes saying things that make me feel like an idiot. Sometimes I know she does it intentionally but it happened so many times I began feeling frustrated.

When people say you’re good, just accept it and say thank you. I know it’s pretty much instilled in Asian culture- being humble and whatnot. But when a lot of people keep saying the same things, don’t keep saying “I don’t think so. No leh I feel like .. (the opposite of what people praised her for).” When things like these happen, I feel like she’s so stuck up. This is not being humble. It’s being annoyingly stuck up with a facade of humility.

It has become pretty unbearable that I tried not hanging out with her but I just can’t NOT hang out with her. I happened to have decreased hang out time with her by going out with my other friends but it’s impossible to quit hanging out with her unless…

And sometimes she can’t take my jokes. =.=”

When I tend to joke with you, it means I feel close to you as a friend. When I’m all stiff, expressionless and careful with words, it means I’m NOT okay with you. I know that in this world there are a lot of different types of people and not everyone can accommodate to you. Therefore I understand the way she behaves. I understand different people has different behaviours, thoughts and actions.

I just wish people can be more understandable.

Here comes the overly-hyped movie…

New Moon would be just as boring as Twilight if it weren’t for Taylor’s dominance in the movie. Just came back from the movie session with LN. Finally, after sooo long, exams and whatnot, I finally went for a movie!

I just can’t see why Twilight (and the other books/movies) is (are) so popular and why so many girls are head over heels for Rob Patz but I know for sure that I watched the movie for Taylor Lautner, the sizzling hot 17yo!

I don’t get why there are so many silent and awkward moments between the characters, intense staring and the plot(now it’s about the book), so unexciting. I’ve never read New Moon so just basing on the movie itself, I thought the plot was pretty weak (but I know that movies are generally worst off than what’s offered by the book). All I know after watching New Moon is that Bella was totally messing with Jacob’s feelings. Poor Jacob!

There were only 2 exciting parts in the movie- the fights. Emotional parts go to Bella-Jacob interactions. I don’t feel anything from Edward at all. He’s only best at frowning.

Anyways, the Twilight saga is totally overrated.

Just a little teeny tiny bit crazed

Aussie Idol is up for the Grand Finals this Sunday and I absolutely can’t wait till then! I’ve got to admit that I’m a little teeny tiny bit crazed over the Idol competition right now. Since I’ve got limited internet quota connectivity, I can only rely on local entertainment so that would explain my heavily decreased “spazz” over K-entertainment when I’m in Oz. I’m sure when I get back HOME, those will eventually spring back to life. :)

But for now, Aussie Idol! I am really rooting for Hayley Warner to win this but the deep gut feeling I’m having is that the results will not be what I want.

Check out http://www.australianidol.com.au if you want to know what I’m talking about. :)

I’ve been posting a little bit of comments here and there on their (Aussie Idol finalists) facebooks as well. hehehe what fun! Aussie Idol at the Sydney Opera House this Sunday… how I wish I could be there. XD

Oh yes, in just a couple more days I’ll be freeeee! And then a week exactly from now, will be all alone because all my close friends here would be going back HOME. Well, guess I gotta find some ways to entertain myself and be on my way to shopping for things for all you people waiting for me back in SG! –silence-

…………

Here’s a cute lil photo sent to me from my hsematey:

AWWWWWWW!!!!!! SO CUTE! :D

fyi, it’s a pug which happens to be my fav breed of dogs!

Lunch today (photos for mum)

My mum thinks that no photos of food meant that I didn’t cook at home. XD

I try to cook almost everyday but sometimes when I go out, I'll eat out with friends or sth, ya know? lol. And what I cook are just really basic dishes which I don’t see the need to post up here because they’re nothing fantastic. Just like what I cooked today, but I’ll just post some photos to show my mum.

I gotta say the above dish is delicious! Because of the nicely marinated chicken! :P

Losing the “Sing” flavour?

Australian Idol is going on right now and it’s up to the Final this coming Sunday! I got to admit I’ve been following the show quite closely, a factor due to it being my first Aussie Idol experience. At first it didn’t seem so spectacular and at one point of time I was even bored with the show, but when more people got eliminated and the last ones standing started to shine, they eventually caught my eye.

There’re a lot of good singers and you know how these kind of competition goes that even good ones start to get voted off towards the end to leave the best of the best. I gotta say, the finalists still standing strong are no doubt awesome! And surprisingly, I love them all – the finalists Top 3 that is. :)

There is no one competition that I’m agreeable with all finalists getting the crown until now. Ain’t that just great. No sadness no matter who wins. Heh.

Anyways, due to my anticipation of Aussie Idol recently, I remembered that SG is having our own Idol competition as well.

In the midst of my revision yesterday, I went to youtube and searched for SG Idol vids just for the sake of satisfying my curiosity over how the “idol” competitors are doing even though I’ve got no high expectations. I began watching and realised with a shocking revelation that listening to the Singaporean English (not Singlish with all the “lah” “leh” “lor” but proper SG english) is making me cringe a little.

Hearing the singers sing is one thing (which is really really horrible) but cringing when hearing Sporeans speak is another. OH NOOOOO. What is this? Am I getting too use to the Aussie English (proper English?) here? Most likely.

But I don’t speak like an Aussie of course, I’ve only been here for like what? 4 months? It’s just that my ears have “fine tuned” to Aussie English and the sudden SG English hitting back is causing the cringe in me. Anyways I’m sure when I get back to SG, everything will fall into place naturally. And THAT, people!, will take place in less than a month away from now! Spectacular!!! Hehhh.

Ohhhh and one more thing! I added the Aussie Idol Finalists in facebook!!! Can you believe it? Hahahaha~ Awesomeyyy! I’m stalking these freshies everyday. They’re all younger than me, damn it! FRESHIES. XD

Exam period

What’s been going on after the Sydney trip is just working on my take-home exam. I finally finished it today! Yippee. Though I felt like I could do better. :x

During this revision period, UQ libraries have been packed to the max! Students are mugging from early hours to late evenings. It’s really difficult to find a decent desk with a plug for my laptop. >:( Unless we go super early to school. :/

That’s why LN and I have been studying in different places these days. Indooroopilly library, Mac and cafes. They are all within walking distance from where we’re staying so we actually save travelling time to school. :)

Funny thing is when we study together, sometimes we can’t help but recall things that happened during our Sydney trip. It’s so fun reminiscing the time spent in Syd. We would talk about it and get so distracted from our studies/work.

Ahhh… Once again, Sydney trip was great!

Okay anyways, now I can concentrate on studying for my Korean oral and written exams! This is the first time I can’t wait to get my hands on studying. X)

Sydney trip was awesome~!!

The 4 days 3 nights spent in Sydney was filled with laughter and fun! We didn’t buy much because shopping would burn an incredibly large hole in our pockets. Sydney is not a place for shopping but definitely a place for eating and sight-seeing! :)

The city is really beautiful because it’s rich with European-ish buildings. I finally got to see so many iconic structures of Australia like the Sydney Opera House, Queen Victoria Building and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

One of the photos that you have to take in Sydney: Both the Opera house and Harbour Bridge together in one photo! :)

We also went to eat at Pancakes On The Rocks! It’s the MUST-EAT restaurant in Sydney. The variety of pancakes they have is awesome! And they’re trulyyyyyy delicious!!

Do you guys know the chocolate brands Lindt and Guylian? OMG… THEY HAVE LINDT AND GUYLIAN CAFES IN SYDNEY MAN!!

We only tried the Lindt Cafe. I had Lindt Ice Milk Chocolate and tried some of their lovely macarons on one night. The next morning I tried the Lindt Hot Dark Chocolate which is so so so good. So that’s how the people get “BIG”. They have such cafes to spoil chocolate lovers like me.

Don’t worry people in SG! I’ve brought TONNES of Lindt chocolate for you already. HEHE.

We also went to the Taronga Zoo, Chinatown and flea markets.

OMG the Chinatown and flea markets in Brissy cannot be up to par with Sydney’s (duh!). There is this CD shop in Chinatown (Sydney) that sells a whole bunch of Asian music and guess what? Kpop is the dominant music in that store! I felt like I was in heaven when I walked in.

Look at all the posters:

ALL KPOP!!! And the above pic is a corner where DBSK posters are.

I haven’t seen such a shop in Brissy’s Chinatown yet. :( Or maybe I just can’t find it.

Oh and the flea markets in Sydney have like SO MANY things. BUT SO EXPENSIVE.

I wanted to buy something from the flea markets because the things they’re selling were so unique and nice. But the price held me back eventually. It was really reallllly expensive.

Anyways there were a lot of things in Sydney that I could buy in Brissy so not much shopping, just lots of sight-seeing!

Last but not least, the people I was able to hang out with are so so awesome! They’re all from Perth and I got to know them through LN. They are such fantastic and humorous people! You can see them in the photos I uploaded in fb! :)

Disgusting creature

ON OUR COOKIE CONTAINER!!! AND MY RICE CRACKERS!! 

Outside my room (the closed door is to my room).

SOOO DISGUSTING.