Emotions are brimming, heaven is pouring. Will you make it through the rain?

That day was the official first day of APPS. Everyone got into their formal wear to attend the opening address. The opening addresses were ok, not too boring =p but.. the APRO talk was bad. That drove most people to sleep haha. Patient counselling was not too bad because it involved more interaction and thinking.

As always, the koreans didn't put much thought into our meals..we were brought to a cafeteria which was closing =_= And for the next few days there, we ate their canteen food for lunch. After lunch was presentation by the various countries. We requested for ours to be first hahahaha...cos we are a bunch of playful pharmacists =p Presentation was done well and many were impressed!

Great job by our representatives! We stayed to listen to 2 more presentations before we decided that it was time to escape hahahaha. Amazingly, we managed to find our way back to the hostel. Their campus is really huge~thank goodness our guys went through army!

The group which decided to PON~haha

Knowing that we will not have a good dinner, our group went out to the nearest town area to shop for groceries and get dinner.

Dinner was quite alright, we had lots of chicken and tried their famous 长寿haha. When we were done, we made our way back to the hostel, only to realise that we were late for the buses which will fetch us to international night! Once again, the guys led us through the twining paths back to the place where we had our presentation (also the place international night was held.its like an indoor volleyball court =S) Two indonesians followed us in their heels and traditional costumes to the place up and down rocky paths cos they were also late. We were only in red and white and all of us wore shoes/slippers haha!

The performances were quite spectacular but eh singaporeans aren't as enthu as the rest in joining in all the fun ba. Anyway what's important is that we had fun among ourselves! =pp

LiJEin
Saturday, August 28, 2010

4th July, also our 3rd yr anniversay, was the first day of APPS.
Left hotel M and took the train down to the hostel.
Was lost for a while haha cos we had to take a feeder bus into the school from the train station
Anyway, we arrived at Hoam Faculty House at noon and were glad to see familiar faces!!

The first we saw was seng han haha! And helpful as always, senghan guided us to get our room keys. Guess the only luxury we had in APPS was their lodging. Hotel standard. Large and comfortable =)

We were so happy to see our classmates and couldn't stop sharing with them our experiences in korea! Brought them to get their T cards (EZ link), took train to Gangnam where they had their first street food and went to the kyobo bookstore. After that, they were too tired to move on cos they hardly slept on their night flight to seoul.

Fellow classmates buying T cards

So, jav and I continued to namdaemun and myeongdong again! hahahaha we missed the opening ceremony of APPS =pp It was a blessing in disguise cos the opening ceremony of APPS was disastrous as described by my fellow classmates. They had some ice breaking games and rice cakes for dinner. heehee. I had seafood pancake and street food!! =ppp

Seafood pancake~yums~

30cm long green tea yoghurt ice-cream!!

That was how we spent our 3rd year anniversay together haha.
Not very eventful but was very contented with the previous day's celebration and happy to just be in korea!!! =)

LiJEin
Friday, August 20, 2010

4th day of korea was on 3rd July, 1 day before the day which will mark our 3rd year together. That day was also one day before the start of APPS. Anticipated tt we won't have the chance to celebrate on the day itself, we decided to bring the celebration forward.

On arriving back in seoul, we checked in to hotel M. haha most comfortable hotel we had in korea! =p. Huge room, own computer, big bathroom etc etc.

The national assembly just outside hotel M

After settling down, we headed towards insadong AGAIN. This time, to make a surprise gift for mum since her birthday is around the corner. We spent a couple of hours there, ate yummy and economical simpo woori mando, before we went to seoul tower (the highlight of the day) =)

Simpo Woori Mando! This photo was taken before i tried the noodles. Buckwheat noodles.
Cold, sour and sticky!! Not my favourite =p

Look at the spread!! Kimchi stew, fried dumpling (thumbs up!) and cheese cutlet!
*buckwheat noodles was kicked out of the photo. Ooops!*

Seoul tower =)

We got to the top of the mountain via a cable car (The famous one in korean dramas hahaha), and managed to catch the view of seoul before and after sunset!! Our main objective was to put our customized lock onto the fence surrounding seoul tower. There were millions of locks there! It was so difficult to find a spot haha.

The key of the lock was thrown down the mountain so that nobody can ever open that lock haha. Aren't koreans creative and romantic? heehee =p They even had walls for couples to doodle on and leave messages! It was fun doing those things which we'll never get to do in sg. Besides, they provide evidence that we've been to korea! Maybe in years to come, we'll return to reminisce. =) After we were done, we took the elevator up seoul tower to the viewing gallery. Breathtaking night sky. We were at the top of seoul! Took lots of photos and had blueberry yoghurt ice-cream from ' A twosome place' Yummy!! I want the cafe to come to sg!

The han river

Seoul Tower is just walking distance from another famous shopping area, Myeongdong.

Myeongdong!!

Of course, the shopaholic in me did not give it a miss! I bought 3 bags on that night hahahaha. Poor darling had to carry it around for the rest of our 16 days in korea =pp Also got myself belts and tee shirts. Korea's a shopping paradise~!! Cheap and good!!

I didn't have much time that night cos we had to catch the last train. So~ I went back the next day! wahahahaha! Stay tuned for more! I have no idea when i'll finish blogging my 20 days in korea. I'll take my time! cos recalling the memories even after school starts will keep me motivated to mug hard =) two more days to the start of school!

LiJEin
Saturday, August 07, 2010

Sokcho is a coastal city located about 2 hours from seoul in Gangwan-do.

Beautiful, laid back place with quite a number of tourist attractions.

Could feel the sea breeze while walking towards our lodging at house hostel

Despite the bad weather, we decided to visit the main attraction of sokcho, Mt Sorak.

On the bus to Mt Sorak

Past by many fields on the way up. Fresh air gushed in from the bus windows

At the foot of Mt. Sorak

Had to get raincoats cos of the drizzle

Mt Sorak is a national park.
3 main routes up the mountain and we chose the toughest hahahaha =p
The USANGBAWI rocks. Catchy name! It takes about 3 hours to hike up to the peak of the usangbawi rock and 2 hours to get down. Started at~10 plus and ended mid afternoon. That is the tallest mountain i've ever climbed in my life. Unforgettable. Now everytime dar and I climb a long flight of stairs, we will be reminded of that hike. haha.
Lots of rocks, mud paths and stairs =p

Despite the fog that day, we managed to enjoy some really nice scenary. There was a huge buddha and a temple at the foot of the mountain. Suppose to have a super long history which i can't remember now =p

Tourists from all over the world wrote wishes on these slabs

The way up was mud trail and rocks initially. Followed by steps and more rocks haha. Was really tiring. But...even grannies made their way up. haha we couldn't give up.

A huge piece of rock out of nowhere =p

Steps...

the FOOT of Usangbawi...after about 2hrs of hike

steps....

more steps...

AND MORE!!!

We were already in the clouds!

When we finally reached the peak of Usangbawi, we couldn't really see anything

Peak of Usangbawi. We thought we were in the wrong place =p

Although the view was covered by the fog, we had a strong sense of achievement. That point is the tallest point anyone can reach at Mt Sorak. The winds can be chilly up there~but haha shiok.

Lunch at the peak! The tuna bread tasted so good cos both of us were starving =pp

After some of the fog cleared, we could see part of the scenary haha.
Better than nothing =p

Wwe stayed at the peak for a little while, got a souvenir and continued downwards.
It was super windy and cold

The walk down was so much easier and relaxing. We took our time to go back to the hostel, bathe and rest before we set out again. This time, with bikes.

The host and his pet =). Excellent host. He explained everything so well!

Their wet market. It was still open in the evening.

we continued cycling on the streets.
Beware of their alleys~cars can appear anytime =S

Everything went well until it started to rain extremely heavily. Initially, we wanted to make our way to the bus terminal to check the timing for the next day's bus back to seoul and visit some other attractions, but gave up. It was really difficult to cycle in the rain. I couldn't cycle beside him and couldn't hear what he was saying. Being at the back most of the time made me feel quite vulnerable.

So we took a break and waited for the rain to stop. Meanwhile, we decided to quit seeing other attractions and head for dinner. haha. Dinner saved the day! That was dar's favourite meal in korea. cheap and good. meat bbq buffet for just 7000won (less than 9sgd)!!

This is the shop. Go look for it if u ever go to sokcho!

The happy man~

That was not the end of our day haha. After dinner, we continued cycling in the rain to explore sokcho. Found a huge lake but it was too dark to see anything.

We were back at the hostel at about 10pm. Its a nice place with great people but rooms maybe a little run down. Had some rest that night and guess what, we woke up at 3 plus cos we wanted to catch the sunrise before going back to seoul =pp

Photo of the lighthouse early in the morning. We cycled in the drizzle again hahaha.

At the sunrise pavillion. The sky was too foggy to see any sunrise... but was still worth waking up early to enjoy the sea breeze and to watch the bustling sea port.

We also cycled to the market again that morning before we checked out of house hostel and went back to seoul. Come to think of it, its amazing how we accomplished so much in just one day at sokcho. It was a feat we accomplished together. Usangbawi especially. The tough hike made us cheer on and support each other, sang songs to entertain and we chatted about everything under the sun. It really made us stronger.
Now we firmly believe there's nothing we cannot accomplish together. =)

If given a chance, would definitely visit Sokcho again.

LiJEin
Thursday, August 05, 2010