Announcing my move!

I have decided to make the move to wordpress!

For my close friends/family who have been following my blogs for a long time, I know this is AGAIN one of the MANY huge changes I have taken over the past 5-6 years (?). I myself can’t count how many times I’ve moved blogs, changed names, etc. I get tired of THINGS easily, I admit that. But I have been contemplating to change my blog name for a while now… so why not make a complete change of blog host? Fear not though, because I have exported all my blog entries to that new blog. There are just too many precious entries in this blog I don’t want to chuck aside.

See all of you on the other side!

http://scribblesatdusk.wordpress.com/

The Downsides to Korea…

I realised I don’t really blog much (or never) about the downsides or bad experiences I’ve had with the culture or society. Well, I didn’t really experience anything bad personally until the last time when I had stayed in Seoul for 3 months, albeit not long but longer than a normal tourist would stay, I had realised some societal problems. I’ve been wanting to blog about this during my stay in Korea (Nov-Feb), but thanks to severe procrastination and lack of motivation, this post is finally churned out 2 months after ending the awesome stay I had in Seoul.

Smoking and the very bad traffic regulations in S. Korea (in particularly, Seoul) are the two particular thorns that I’ve experienced during my stay. Perhaps the fact that I’m from Singapore where traffic rules and regulations are strict and drivers, most of the time, would adhere to them compliantly has made me quite sensitive to the audacious traffic in Seoul.

In Korea, I always had to put on an extra guard when crossing the road because even when the traffic light is red and the green man is on, a lot of the cars would just zoom by! Alright, so I’m talking about a small one-way road with one traffic light and I believe that the drivers think that it’s not necessary to stop to allow pedestrians to cross. But certainly, that is no excuse! Of course, on bigger roads, drivers tend to comply to the traffic lights but with the amount of reckless drivers in Seoul, a pedestrian always has to be extra extra careful when crossing any roads.

It’s not just the dangerous interaction between pedestrians and drivers but it includes the absence of driving etiquette between drivers as well. It is very common to see drivers cut lanes abruptly, without giving signals or some drivers would signal but the other drivers wouldn’t allow the drivers to change lane by dangerously tail-gating the front car. I supposed this might stem from the Koreans’ competitive attitudes, especially in the capital city where everyone seems to be in a hurry, even when they’re walking on the streets and in the subways.

Once, I was lost in the subway for about a few minutes because that station had so many escalators leading to different lines. So I was kind of walking slowly, unsure of which escalator to take and suddenly in a split second, a large crowd of commuters rushed past me. A middle-aged man almost ran into me but he prevented the collision by swerving past me expertly. It was kind of scary being lost in a crowd of seemingly unfeeling, hoggish strangers.

Some of these strangers can be rather inconsiderate, which brings me to the thing about smoking in Korea. It is widely known that Koreans smoke a lot and this is also frequently depicted in their media outlets, from movies to photo shoots.

Son Ye-Jin, being portrayed as a sexy smoker in a photo shoot for Singles magazine

Kim Hye-su in movie, ‘타짜’ / 'The War of Flower’

Why is Won Bin so hot even with a poison stick?

Sometimes media tend to blow things up a little and I didn’t think that the situation would be even more serious in reality than movies, dramas and photo shoots. I was taken quite aback to realise that there are so many restaurants and cafes where they allow smoking indoors. Majority of the cafes have a small separate smoking room for smokers to kick back and relax but there are SOME that allow smokers to smoke everywhere they like. I’ve encountered a couple of such places and it was just horrible. It was excruciating to sit there, trying to swallow a cup of caramel latte while staring at the white streaks of smoke surrounding me in an enclosed place where there is no where else the smoke has to go except into my lungs! Such cafes are definitely not for non-smokers to hang out, chit-chat and enjoy a cuppa. Honestly, I was completely astonished when I had such an experience for the first time in Korea.

Restaurants have an even worse record. I cannot count on my fingers, how many of the Korean restaurants I’ve been to allow smoking indoors without separated areas. Bf said that most 술집 (bars ; literally “alcohol house”) allow smoking indoors and so do some restaurants that serve alcohol, so that’s probably more than 80% of the restaurants in Korea. It was always such a huge downer to see white streaks of smoke floating in front of me when enjoying my BBQ pork ribs meal, and realising the people at the table next to ours were smoking. That means I was not only filling up my stomach with food but my lungs with poisonous gas throughout the entire meal.

It also seem like there are a lot of instances when people smoke anywhere they like even though certain places are forbidden, such as in the cabin of a subway train:

  

I personally think that certain rules, which may face heavy criticisms by the Korean public, such as prohibiting smoking indoors (EVERYWHERE) and decreasing the amount of smoking-areas around the country need to be implemented by the government unless they want this VERY disturbing trend to proliferate even more. And, what about the non-smokers who don’t want to be second-hand smokers but cannot help it?

I suppose this angst in me to the two issues I faced in Korea stems from the fact that I am from Singapore, where the strict country rules have pretty much regulated a smoking-free environment and cultivated relatively decent driving etiquettes in drivers.

Lastly, here’s an old clip of DB5K singing the ‘Stop Smoking Song’ back in 2008, with a strong focus on second-hand smoking (간접흡연).

큰 칼…

I don’t know what to say of this situation that occurred yesterday.

While translating '”우행시” (abbreviation of 우리들의 행복한 시간), AKA “Our Happy Times” which is the novel that I’m working on for my thesis, I came across an intertextual reference in one of the paragraphs. The author made reference to one of Korea’s most famous folk tales, 춘향전 Chun-hyang Jeon.

춘향이가 큰 칼을 쓰고 앉아 있는 것은 청승스럽고 미련스럽고 아니면 무언가 위엄 같은 것이 있어 보였지만, 그건 어디까지나 훗날 당연히 이몽룡과 함께 도래할 극적인 정의의 반전을 위해 비참하면 할수록 좋은 도구이겠지만, 21세기가 다가오는 때, 실은 그건 좀 충격적이었다.

My translation: When Chun-hyang was in a cangue, she had looked pitiful and silly, if not somewhat dignified, but the more miserable she looked, the better it was for the inevitable dramatic reversal of justice that came along with Lee Mong-ryong.

The translation is a revised version. At first, I thought that ‘큰 칼’ supposedly meant ‘large knife’ so I had translated the front clause as “When Chun-hyang was sitting down, using a large knife,…” Apparently, there was a second meaning which I didn’t know of when I first translated it so when I presented the un-revised version to my supervisor, he was quite confused. Why did the author mention Chun-hyang using a large knife in this context? Mind-boggled, he went to google Chun-hyang Jeon to look for clues to this ‘knife’. After briefly looking through an online text of Chun-hyang, he suspected that 큰 칼 was referring to a ‘large cangue’ instead of ‘knife’, but he wasn’t sure. So he asked me if I knew Gong Ji-young’s (author of novel) email or contact details so that he could ask her about it. I said the only way I knew how to contact her was through her twitter. So I logged into twitter and he sent a message (in Korean, of course) to her asking about the meaning of ‘큰 칼’.

After that, I didn’t dwell on this matter anymore but waited for the author’s reply. At night, when Bf came online, I took the chance to ask him about the meaning of 큰 칼. After a few minutes he was able to give me a perfect answer of the word. Indeed, besides meaning ‘knife’, it also meant ‘cangue’ or ‘pillory’. He said it was in the naver dictionary! The dictionary which was like my bible during the translating process had this word?!! I was dumbfounded. Why didn’t I look it up in naver? I had assume it ONLY meant ‘knife’… And I felt so embarrassed for my prof and about the message sent to GJY. She must think, I’m not dictionary, look it up yourself. And no, she didn’t reply my tweet.

떡볶이 Ddeok Boggi/ Spicy Rice Cakes: Recipe (Translated!)

떡볶이 Ddeok Boggi/ Spicy Rice Cake

For people who are interested in making authentic Korean dishes, I believe that learning from the Korean themselves is the best way of making them. So I decided to translate this recipe from the blog of a published Korean cook for those who are keen on the attempt of making a good ddeok boggi dish from scratch, i.e. no instant sauces! In addition, this recipe is aimed at making home-made ddeok boggi to taste as good as ddeok boggi sold in cart stalls on the streets of Korea (usually a feat that is difficult to achieve at home as claimed by the author). Unfortunately, I cannot copy and paste the wonderful HD photos, taken for each step, from her blog. The photos are very helpful and perhaps, one can even cook up a dish JUST by looking at the photos! Click here for the original blog post!!

Ingredients:
20 pieces of rice cakes
3 pieces of fish cake
¼  white onion
1/3 carrot
7 pieces of sesame leaves
½ stalk of spring onion
a pinch of sesame seeds

Anchovy Kelp Broth:
A handful of anchovies
1 piece of white radish (100g)
1 piece of kelp (10 by 10cm)
1 piece of dried chilli
7 pieces of raw garlic
5 cups of water

Seasoning Sauce:
4 tbsp Korean hot pepper paste
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp starch syrup
½ tbsp soy sauce
½ tbsp minced garlic

Instructions:

1) Anchovy Kelp Broth

Brew the soup stock according to the ingredients listed above. Once the water starts boiling, reduce to medium heat and boil for 20 minutes. Although most of the time kelp is removed from the water in the middle (of the boiling process), it is better to keep it boiling until the end for a strong and thick flavour of the ddeok boggi’s broth. This strong flavour is what makes the street food ddeok boggi. As condiments (T/N: MSG, etc) are not used, a strong flavoured soup stock is needed.

2) Seasoning Sauce

Make the seasoning sauce by mixing the ingredients listed above. The amount of hot pepper paste has to be more than the chilli flakes, and the amount of starch water has to be more than sugar. This will bring about the thick flavour of the sauce found in street food ddeok boggi.

3)  Cut the fish cakes into triangular shapes. Slice the onions, carrot and sesame leaves into strips, and chop up the spring onions.

4) Soak the stiff rice cakes in warm water before cooking them. There is no need to parboil the rice cakes. As the rice cakes will be boiled down in the sauce, there is no need for the rice cakes to be soft (before cooking). You can use ddeok boggi rice cakes or cut up the long bar rice cakes into fine slices.

5)  Once the broth has been well brewed, remove the broth ingredients and set the cloudy broth aside.

6) Pour the prepared seasoning sauce into the broth and start boiling.

7) Once the water starts to boil, add the rice cakes in.

8) Add the fish cakes, spring onions, carrots and onions as well. Boil until the sauce thickens. Use high heat and gradually reduce to medium heat while boiling until sauce thickens. As the sauce boil, stir to prevent the rice cakes from adhering to each other. The sauce of street food ddeok boggi is quite watery. Adjust the boiling time according to your preference for the thickness of the sauce.

9) Once the sauce thickens, sprinkle sesame seeds.

10) Serve with sesame leaves on top. Add sesame oil according to your preference... but without it, the taste of street food ddeok boggi can still be achieved.

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I made ddeok boggi twice within two weeks with the same recipe because the first attempt was quite a failure. I had added too much water the first time and the taste was too bland. I learnt from my mistake and was quite successful the second time! The photos will show the difference between the two:

Left Photo: Failed attempt / Right Photo: Successful attempt

Actually making ddeok boggi isn’t new to me. I had make this dish a couple of times last year but with instant ddeok boggi sauce which is what anyone can do. Thus, I’m glad to be able to whip up this dish from scratch with the simple recipe above! The sauce of the ddeok boggi is the most important element. The taste, colour and texture of the sauce is what determines the overall taste of the ddeok boggi. Remember not to overestimate the water amount when you’re making this! I also recommend adding sesame oil because in my opinion, it really adds to the flavour of the dish.

Ddeok Boggi has always been one of my favourite Korean dishes. I absolutely love the tender texture of rice cakes accompanied with the bright red sauce which is both spicy and sweet at the same time. Having spent a period of time in Korea, I have tasted really delicious rice cakes sold along the streets of Seoul. If some of you didn’t know, ddeok boggi is the street food icons in Korea, loved by people of all ages. It can be eaten lightly as a snack in between meals or part of a  meal accompanied with other street food such as fish cakes (오댕), intestinal sausages (순대) or ramyeon!

Boyfriend and I have had lots of meals like that when I was in Korea because they are not only delicious, they are convenient and can be found almost everywhere. One won’t go hungry on the streets of Seoul. And very fortunately for us, there was a small and modest stall in Sillim, the area where I stayed at, that sold really delicious ddeok boggi. The sauce was really rich in flavour. Bf was immediately hooked when we had our first snack there. For a few days, he kept having ddeok boggi from that stall, even the ahjumma there could recognize him. He even asked me to practice making it until I can achieve a result that is as delicious as the ddeok boggi sold there. Maybe that’s one of my motivation for making this dish. ;p

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos, especially those of the Korean ingredients (fish cake, hot pepper paste, etc). If in doubt, don’t hesitate to ask me about the kinds of ingredients used!

Affirm your ♥ through ♥

질투로 사랑을 확인하지 말라. 밀고 당기기로 사랑을 확인하지 말라. 그 사람의 부재로. 괜한 말다툼으로. 다른 사람의 입을 통하여. 사랑을 확인하지 말라.다만 ♥으로 ♥을 확인하라. 1cm 중

Don’t affirm your love through jealousy. Don’t affirm your love through give and take. Don’t affirm your love through the person’s absence, pointless arguments and through the words of other people. Instead, affirm your love♥ through love♥. From 1cm (a Korean inspirational book).

-English translation by me :)-

Uneventful.

Life’s a dull ever since the semester started. Everyday I’m just caught in the web of research, my honours thesis and translation theories. Somehow, I just cannot seem to organize these theories in a logical way for my thesis and inside my head is just a bunch of information all messed up… It’s been like that for the past three weeks, but now I’m catching up on research, reading up “quite” intensively and trying to push my way through on starting to write this thesis which is actually called a critical commentary intended to address translation issues I face in my translation project. Because it’s not the conventional kind of thesis, I am having a little difficulty starting on it but I am glad that I don’t have to write 20,000 words of thesis. This translation thesis that I’m doing is 2/3 translations and 1/3 critical commentary, so it’s about 5,000words of commentary that I have to write.

This semester, I have no official classes. It is just basically thesis-writing. So it’s really such a dull without much of a campus life, only the meetings with my supervisor would bring me to UQ twice a week. I’m just on my own the rest of the time. I meet up with some friends once in awhile, but without cliques to hang out with, I feel quite lonely at times. Good friends have all graduated and gone home. This is probably one of the reasons why I can’t wait to graduate and leave this place as well.

On the bright side, I have been trying to achieve multiple tasks with the time I have. Besides working on my thesis, I am also self-studying Korean, translating other kinds of short texts and trying to cultivate the former habit of spending more time with books (non-academia). When I was younger, I used to read quite a lot… series and series of books but why did this habit die throughout the years? I love reading, but I realised that I cannot stay reading as long as I did last time. So right now I’m just trying to cultivate the reading habit again.

‘Heaven’ by Ailee (에일리)

Once in a while, as a practice for both my language and translating skills, I would find something to translate (Kor-Eng), be it lyrics or quotes or anything else that doesn’t take too much of my time. Of course, they have to be meaningful at the same time. Today, it’s Ailee’s debut song, Heaven, which is gaining a lot of love in Korea and the rest of Asia right now. I was actually a little late in discovering this awesome song and regretted not opening up to her when she first released this song in February. I really love the beginning of the song in which her voice and melody really pull you into the song. 

Heaven  (English translations by me)

Where you’re at, I’ll be there too
Where you go, I’ll go there too

I smile everyday for you, I pray for you
I fall asleep thinking of you, I wake up calling your name
Stay by my side and stick up for me
You are my heaven

You’re my only way
I only want you, I am thankful for being by your side
You’re the only one babe
I am happy to be with you who showed me what love is in this harsh world
Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven x2
If we’re together, we will never cry never never cry

Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven x2
Together, forever, never gonna be alone

I breathe in your arms, we kiss in your arms
I feel like I’m dreaming listening to your voice
I can tell from your eyes, I can know your love
You’re my heaven

You’re my only way
I only want you, I am thankful for being by your side
You’re the only one babe
I am happy to be with you who showed me what love is in this harsh world

Heaven, My only one, yeah, the one whom I’ll protect
Whatever sadness, whatever pain, if I’m with you
I do not envy anyone else… Hold my shaking hands
Because you are the reason I live

You’re my only way
I only want you, I am thankful for being by your side
You’re the only one babe
I am happy to be with you who showed me what love is in this harsh world

Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven x2
If we’re together, we will never cry never never cry
Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven Heaven x2
Together, forever, never gonna be alone
Oh, so alone.

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Words in purple are the original English lyrics. And click here for the original Korean lyrics. As you can see, there are quite a lot of original English lyrics and there wasn’t any difficult vocabulary, so it wasn’t really that difficult to translate. Even so, I’m still an amateur at translation, so I welcome any feedbacks from experienced translators, fellow language learners or just casual readers (to check English errors)! :)

Koreans: Addicted to Coffee or Cafes?

I don’t know if an average tourist spending a 1 or 2-weeks vacation in Seoul or other major cities such as Busan and Daegu would realise this but these cities are flooded with cafes. I began realising this after a few weeks into my stay in Seoul and there are cafes EVERYWHERE in the cities. Be it large or small, commercially or privately owned, simply or beautifully decorated… you can find an abundance of cafes with different concepts and ambience.

Well, I actually began noticing the cafes when I stumbled across a Charlie Brown cafe in Sillim, the area where I stayed. People following my facebook closely might remember the photos of a Charlie Brown cafe I uploaded while I was in Korea. The cafe was too cute that I told bf we have to go there for a date even if we don’t feel like drinking coffee. :p

Comparing the number of cafes I’ve seen in all the countries I had visited, Korea has got to be the country with the most. With random cafes along the streets, I find myself hanging out with friends in the cafes very often.

There are certainly many reasons as to why so many cafes line the streets of the large cities in Korea. A reason is probably to get away from the freezing weather outside, or having a good break from the pressure of the competitive society, but I believe that a bigger reason for Koreans to visit cafes so often is because of socialising. Hanging out, chatting, meetings, and even studying. I get this idea from their concept of DRINKING, yes beer and soju. Koreans are good at drinking, they go drinking very often because they think that chatting over a meal and sharing drinks would make them feel closer. It’s their way of socialising. I suppose that it is the same as going to a cafe. Some Koreans don’t drink or can’t drink, so perhaps a better way to get close with say, a colleague or a date is to go to a cafe!

What a name to give to a cafe. Exorcist Coffee.
If I remember correctly, the drink in the right photo is an orange peel tea. The taste was really strong, both very sweet and sour. I’m not an orange lover so it wasn’t much to my liking. I only picked that tea because it was the only tea left and I didn’t feel like drinking coffee.

I’ve seen a good amount of cafes with stocked-up bookshelves as shown in the photo above. There is the risk of people stealing them but it would great if cafes in Singapore could have free books for anyone to read!

AND THEN, there is the evolution of cafes in Korea: Dog and Cat cafes. These are where dogs and cats roam freely around the cafe while you enjoy a cup of latte. Dog-owners tend to bring their own dogs to these cafes and let their dogs socialise as well! So it’s a place for both human and pets to socialise! It is also definitely a great place for dog/cat lovers, just like me, to hang out and play with the animals.

I have actually been to the dog and cat cafes in Seoul and Daegu, and I’m sure Busan has one or two of such cafes. For people who are interested, the best dog cafe I’ve been to is called Bau House located at HongDae station in Seoul. As compared to the other dog cafes, for one it has great seats as can be seen below, and they sell treats for the dogs so it’s easy to attract them. In the other cafes, it’s difficult to play with the dogs when you don’t have any treats for them. As for cat cafes, they are not as active as dogs and they’re not as noisy as dogs, so it’s a little more quiet, for the more reserved people? ^^

Anyway, I have realised one special drink that could be found in almost every cafes in Korea but not that commonly seen in Australia and Singapore (only countries I’m familiar with). That’s the GREEN TEA LATTE! They can most definitely be found in large commercialised cafes in Korea but most of the privately-owned cafes do sell them as well. Indeed, cafes in Korea have a wider range of drinks available, besides the normal drinks that contain caffeine.

I personally love going to cafes even though I’m not a fan of coffee. I just love the idea of enjoying a cup of drink in a relaxed environment and having a good chat with friends. ^^

Spreading The Word For JYJ- DBSK

Last night, after reading this I felt like someone had dropped a bomb in my heart. Listening to the audio files in that article made me feel even worse. I didn’t really read more into the issue and went to bed feeling shocked, disappointed and sympathetic. Jaejoong cursing and hitting a fangirl… I was really in a state of shock because the vulgarity intruded the nice and caring idol I thought him as. I even dreamt of him being sent to the police station for hitting the fans. It was a mentally tiresome night, really. But from the audio, I could actually hear that he didn’t sound quite like himself. His words were slurring a little and I had the thought that he might be drunk.

 

From a TVXQ fansite, I came across a really long article translated by a Korean fan and it states that the audio was edited to make him sound really mean… It also states that JJ was indeed drunk at that time and lashed out when he realised a 사생 (sa-saeng aka private aka stalker) was stalking him. The article shows how insane these stalkers can get and how long they have been stalking DBSK. It’s just insanity. Jaejoong is wrong for resorting to violence, but what made him lash out? What triggered him to do that? It’s not 1 year of stalking, it wasn’t 5 years of stalking, but 9 years of stalking. There is always a limit to a person’s tolerance, is there?

 

CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE 

P.S. Can’t believe I’m posting this after not blogging about them after such a long time.

Clubbing in Korea

 

Photo taken from Google.

One of the most unforgettable experiences I had in Seoul was going to a club for the first time ever in my life! I have never gone clubbing before, not in Singapore, not in Australia so going to the club in Seoul was a real eye-opener and unexpectedly awesome.

I have always had the conception that clubs were sleazy places for people to hook people up or get hooked, and that it will be dirty, filled with smoke (from the smoking) and crazy drunken people. I guess clubs are more or less like that, but the club I went to was a little less like that though it was still rather smoky in some areas.

I went clubbing with bf and three of my classmates (a Chinese girl, and two other Koreans who were born in US and Brazil). SS (Chinese girl) was three years younger than me so she has never been to a club before and she was really curious as to how “clubbing” was like. That was the same for me. I was curious too. And since we had a classmate (the Brazilian Korean) who frequently went clubbing few times a week, why not join him for a night and experience it for ourselves?

I actually thought that people are supposed to drink tons when they go clubbing. But of course, the choice is up to the individual. That night, bf and I only had one bottle of beer which was actually a free drink that was part of the very expensive club entrance fee, 30-freaking bucks (apparently it was a special night for that particular club we went to). We only drank that and danced the rest of the night away!

I do not really know how the clubs in other countries are like but in Korea, MOST of the guys (not all) are really GUTSY and they throw out their conservatism completely out of the club’s door once they enter. On the dance floor, when a girl is dancing alone, she is most likely to be grabbed by a guy or crept up upon from behind while dancing. Those are from my own observations and personal stories told by my classmates. My Chinese friend actually experienced both grabbing and being crept up on while we were there! It was probably because she was dancing alone… my bf was always beside me so thankfully I did not experience that (or maybe I’m not hot enough? haha). A lot of times, if the girl allows it, the guy can get really touchy feely…! I’ve seen a few of such cases while I was dancing and it gave me the creeps.

What I really enjoyed while clubbing was dancing on the dance floor however you want! I mean you don’t have to be a great dancer to enjoy club dancing. Just move to the music and dance your stress/worries away! I also got the opportunity to flaunt my shuffle dance moves when Party Rock Anthem started playing! Not that I’m a pro but I actually tried dancing while at home because it seemed so easy when you see so many people doing the dance. But it was surprisingly difficult at first and it took me a few practices before I got the hang of it. Anyway, I love how HIGH the atmosphere was while on the dance floor. Even if you’re not a dancer, you would get pulled in by your surroundings (the people and music) then eventually move to the groove!

However, the downside was dancing too much made me rather tired and it was way past bedtime so for me, I cannot really stay the entire night or for a veeeeery long time like how most would do when they go clubbing. I actually got tired at around 2+am (we went there at around 12+), rested and pulled through until 3am when I finally admitted defeat and asked to go home.

I did enjoy the overall experience but I am not the kind who can go clubbing regularly. Too much smoking and too late into the night.

A Peek Into His Home

Okay, so here are some photos I took while I spent the Lunar New Year over at bf’s home in Daegu. (Finally some photos to show!)

This is the front of his home.

The backyard where two dogs used to live. I saw the dogs last year but they’re gone now. One was given away while the other was… I shall let you guess what happened to it.

The entrance where we take off our shoes.

The corridor that leads into the living room, Kitchen and the rest of the house. The door right there at the back leads to the toilet while the room (at the left of the photo) right in front of the entrance is his sister’s room.

The kitchen and dining room where the family never fails to have a meal together when they’re all at home. (That’s bf’s hand)

Next, a peek into his grandparents home where his eldest uncle and family is staying at as well. Their house is more traditional and you have to go out of the house whenever you want to go to another room.

Now the surroundings of their village:

As you can see, his home is located more in the rural areas of Daegu. His family owns a cow farm so that’s why they live in the countryside. It is kind of inconvenient since one really has to have a car to travel in and out. But his village is not as far from the city as it seems. By car, it only takes about 25-30mins.

Back to Singapore…

Yes, I landed at exactly 12am this morning from Seoul. Already I’m missing bf badly, and missing everything about my life in Korea. I loved my life in Korea, the times spent in school, with my classmates and of course, with beloved bf. My heart felt so heavy when I had to leave that place, I wanted to stay longer, I had that bit of impulse to prolong my stay there, but I can’t… because of the dreaded last semester I have left in Aus.

Isn’t it amusing that there is such a bipolar difference in my response towards my study abroad experience in Australia and Korea. Albeit it was a pretty short stay in Korea, but I still loved everything about it. I wanted to stay longer, even if I have to study… in fact I loved studying there too. In Australia, I just want to complete my studies ASAP and get out of that boring country. I never fail to look forward to leaving Aus… Always counting down to leaving during vacations, not really missing that place much besides the awesome weather. One of the reasons I dreaded leaving Korea was because of the fact that I knew the time for me to go back to Aus was nearing. If Aus was out of the picture, I wouldn’t be as reluctant. Oh wells. Too much for me to state WHY I feel this way so I’m going to leave it for now. Anyway, I’ve come this far, just one more semester and I’ll be out of the bore-hole for good!

Although I’m no longer in Korea now, I’ll continue to blog bits and pieces of my experiences in Korea!

Living in an ice box…

Actually the weather these days may well be colder than an ice box. Today’s weather is presumably the coldest this season, with the lowest temperature at –17dc in Seoul. Fortunately, having lived here for more than a month I have learned to dress warm so I don’t feel that frozen when I’m outside wrapped up in warm clothes. I have a great Fubu padding coat, a pair of cute ear muffs, gloves and mufflers to keep me warm!

Two days ago, it snowed really heavily. Although the aftermath of a snowfall isn’t pretty, I still find snowfall beautiful and enticing. My bf is sick of snow due to his snow-clearing duties while serving in the S.Korean army. He had to spend hours clearing piles and piles of snow in kangwon-do, the province that experiences the most snowfall in S.Korea. He added that snow causes accidents around the country too. Yes it ain’t all that pretty when you’re around to experience the aftermath of a snowfall especially when the melted snow on the ground freeze into ice, making it hard to walk on slippery areas that has the potential to make you fall and break your bones. Thus, the past two days has been quite a chore for me while travelling to school especially when the snow doesn’t melt that quickly since SNU is located in the mountains where it’s colder than the other areas in the city. Besides the caution I have to take while travelling to school, I still love walking on (non-slippery) snow and I still love snowfall. It’s still beautiful no matter how awful the aftermath may be. Perhaps people from tropical countries (Singapore, other SEA countries) may share the same sentiments as me!

Lunar New Year in Korea

Lunar New Year has always been my favourite holiday of the year as I get to spend a lot of time with my family and relatives. I get to meet the relatives whom I get to see only once a year during that time and we always gathered to play games, make fun of each other and catch up on each others’ lives. This year though, being in Korea, was the first time I spent new year away from home.

I got to experience how Koreans celebrate lunar new year when I made a trip down to Daegu with my bf to visit his family. It was my second time meeting his family so I wasn’t as nervous and I felt much more comfortable while I stayed at his home.

Before LNY, my Korean class actually had two chapters that covered the customs of Koreans when it comes to celebrating LNY. So I basically had the knowledge of their customs but really experiencing it was another thing.

Just like Singapore, Korea has two days of LNY holidays, 23rd and 24th of Jan this year. Bf and I stayed at his home from 20th to 24th Jan but we had to leave for Seoul on 24th Jan so we only celebrated LNY on the very first day.

On the morning of 23rd Jan, the first day of the lunar calendar (설날, new year, 初一) bf’s family and I woke up earlier than usual. The men had to wear formal suits for the ancestor ritual (차례) which is usually done on every major festivals such as New Year and Thanksgiving Day (추석 aka Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival). Thus, in the morning, bf’s family and I headed to his grandparents’ house (5mins walk away from their home) where most of his paternal relatives have gathered. Before having breakfast, the men of the family would pay respects to the ancestors. The altar is a table filled with all kinds of food prepared by the women of the family, along with a tablet with Chinese characters (I assume that represents the ancestors of their family). The ritual lasted for only 5-10mins.

After the ritual, the women got down to preparing breakfast while the men sat together for a drink of the wine they offered to their ancestors. I didn’t have to do anything although I am a woman because I’m not part of the family and was a guest so they kindly offered me a cup of the wine. After that, when breakfast was ready, the men sat around to have breakfast while the women continued with their food preparations. Women of the family are the busiest on such huge festivals as they have to prepare a lot of food for the ancestor ritual and for a large number of family members since they have all gathered. As for the men? They sit around, watching TV, talking and just eat. Such is the life of a conservative Korean family. If I were to marry Bf… I wonder if I can take on such a traditional role of a woman… … …

Anyways after breakfast, the men proceeded to visit another relatives’ house while I stayed behind with the women, who rested, watched TV and napped while waiting for the men to come back. Bf’s grandparents live in a traditional house, a very very humbled version of hanok so I basically sat on the floor the whole day. I watched TV and ate the whole day, all done sitting on the floor. My whole body was aching by the end of the day… ><

Just like Singapore, Koreans have their owns games played during LNY. The most popular Korean card game is called Hwatu. I’ve learnt it from Bf more than a year ago when he was in Australia and have never played it after that so I’ve sort of forgotten most of the rules. However, Bf’s family didn’t play any games at that time so it was quite a quiet new year’s day for me. This compared to the new year spent in Singapore where it’s always crowded and noisy for my family.

Spending LNY the Korean way was a new experience for me and it was good meeting bf’s relatives. However, I still prefer Singapore’s style of celebrating LNY, the noisy way, from the chattering of the aunties/uncles, shouting during gambling and all the RED-ness.

Classes made more interesting

For the last two days we had interesting activities replacing our normal study period. We had a class dedicated to ‘Arirang’, a popular Korean folk song that actually has numerous versions from different provinces around Korea. The most popular one would be the 경기아리랑, Kyeong-gi Arirang, the one which K-pop singers would sing at the end of a major K-pop concert. Well, that’s the only reference I can give based on my own experience with the song… Okay, a video should be way much better:

On that day, KLEI invited a couple of Korean students majoring in Korean traditional music to perform arirang for us during our last period of class. They attempted to teach us but the response was a little lacklustre. All 4 morning classes of level 4 gathered but our voices cannot be compared to the main singer who came to perform for us. Still, it was an interesting experience and after hearing the word ‘arirang’ so many times, I finally learnt more about its origins and meaning.

The next day, we actually had to put up a play of an old Korean folk tale about ‘흥부와 놀부’ aka the Heung-bu and nol-bu brothers. The story is about how the kind brother received good fortune while the evil brother was punished for his misdeeds. I played Heung-bu’s wife and had to put on a hanbok for it. It was actually more fun than I expected. ^^ Luckily we only had to perform in front of just ONE other class instead of the entire level 4.

I think it’s great that KLEI has such classroom activities that involves a deeper understanding of Korean culture and at the same time, enhances our Korean language ability! I wish UQ’s Korean major could organize such activities when I took Korean classes in UQ. Okay, actually UQ’s Korean major cannot be compared to the Korean classes that I’m having now. In 10 weeks, I can actually learn so much and for that amount it probably will take me a year to learn in UQ. The learning pace in UQ’s Korean major is not only insanely slow, the teaching standard is not that great as well. Okay, maybe I should stop defaming the Korean major in UQ… or leave it for another blog post next time! 

Already halfway through my stay in Korea

5 weeks have past since I began studying at the Korean language education institute in SNU. We have even taken the mid-sem exams last week. I did pretty well for the exams even though I studied last minute… something which I hope won’t happen again during the final exam as I’m going to aim for an even higher score!

From my exams, I realised my weakest point is my Korean listening skills. Somehow my listening skills aren’t always the best even with English and Chinese. I remember that I don’t do very well for my listening tests when I’m in primary school. So from now on, I’m going to make myself listen to Korean radio everyday. I actually have two Korean radio channels i listen to occasionally:

1) Park So Hyun’s Love Game

2) Super Junior’s Kiss the Radio – Has an iphone app which you can listen and watch them live while they’re on air! :)

I am absolutely loving the life I’m living right now in Seoul, enjoying every moment, even when I’m in class, even when I’m studying! The past 5 weeks in Seoul couldn’t beat the 2 and a half years I spent in Aus even though life in Aus has been great fun. Here in Korea, I get to spend a lot of time with bf, Korean lessons are interesting (not always but most of the time), and I get to use Korean everyday and everywhere I go! I feel much more confident using Korean right now.

The only downside is that I’m not making Korean friends in Korea because I’m studying in a Korean language institute so there is minimal chance of meeting other Korean students. Luckily, I made Korean friends while in Aus and have met a couple of them since I came to Korea. One of them, 수빈언니 (Subin unnie) has invited me and bf to her house for dinner tomorrow! She has been so nice to me, providing me places of interest to visit in Seoul, many of which are not the usual tourist spot but she highly recommends them.

The weather in Seoul is freezing but it isn’t as cold as last year. 5 weeks in Winter Seoul, I’ve probably become used to the weather already. Every morning, I make sure to wear enough before stepping out of the house. In the past, even though I know it’s cold I thought I would be able to tolerate the cold, so I wear a knit sweater and a winter coat on the outside. But that’s actually not enough especially when it gets below 0dc. Two layers underneath is the least that one should wear not to feel COLD (like trembling cold) outside.

Right now, I just have to make the best of what Seoul can offer me and spend the next 5 weeks working hard towards improving my Korean even more.