Korea: Day 1-5
The stars didn't fall today; Sunday, June 30
I jet off for Korea on Wednesday and arrived at my guesthouse on 2.30 a.m. on Thursday. Went to Gyeongbokgung Palace and saw the huge King Sejong statue at Gwanghamun on that Thursday as well. /superwoman mode/ On Friday, Sakinah and I went to Bukchon Hanok Village in Anguk and met up with Ayse to have lunch at Itaewon. On Saturday, we went to Dongdaemun to shop a bit. Wanted to go to Myeongdong afterwards but I was getting tired (I've got the foot of an old woman :/) and Sakinah was falling sick so we just went back to our room and laughed our asses off watching funny 7-second Vine videos. This morning, we checked out of our guesthouse and went around Ewha University to look at things (clothes and Artbox!) and have lunch. After that, we set off for our dormitory at Yonsei University, which is called Mu-ak Dormitory or 무악 학사.
At first, we took the bus to go to the dorm as instructed. We alighted at the wrong stop but it's okay, just lugged the freaking bag onto the next bus and alighted at the 3rd and right stop. After that, we were supposed to walk all the way to the dormitory. It was supposedly a 15 minute journey. Okay. Fine.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION AND GENERAL KNOWEDGE, KOREA IS A VERY HILLY PLACE. AND I MEAN, HILLY. IT'S LIKE 70% HILLS OR SOMETHING. AND IT'S REALLY STEEP. JUST...
So yeah, it was fine until we had to start climbing the hill. Like damn. It was at least at a 45-degree angle and I freaking kid you not. THIS is why Korean people are slim. Not because of kimchi and all the goat food that they eat but the hills. And we weren't even sure if we were going the right way. So we stopped and Sakinah went off to see if this particular road was the right way and I was just standing there at a junction in a neighbourhood in front of someone's house, taking care of our two luggage. Hais.
So I was standing there when I heard the beautiful sound of English, accentuated with wonderful Singlish, coming from behind me and voila! Fellow Singaporeans from the same university. One of them was even from the same lecture and had the same tutorial as me :D Alhamdulillah. So they were like, GET A TAXI. Even though we were right in front of the dormitory, the entrance that we were going towards was only accessible by stairs and there was no way that we could lug our bags up. So okay, we just hailed a cab and it took us right to the entrance of our dorm, alhamdulillah. The trip was so short that we paid only the basic fare. LOL.
So, now I'm in my room and my roommate is this Vietnamese girl, who is a Year 4 archi student in my university. She's pretty nice actually. I wanted to room with Sakinah but I've decided not to ask for a change because I think this will be a good experience for me. Also, Sakinah's parents may be upset were she to room with me because they told her that one of the reasons they were happy she was going on this immersion programme was because they wanted her to experience carrying out her Muslim obligations even with a non-Muslim roommate. So yeah.. But I guess I'm good with this. It'll be a good experience for me to speak English (and I mean totally English) when I'm in my room. Ahaha.
Anyway, school starts at 9 tomorrow and there's a placement test and all that sheesh. I totally forgot everything and has not touched my textbook since exams ended. Yay. By the way, for those that are unfamiliar, meet Sakinah!
