I had a bad week... Hmm perhaps "terrible" sounds more appropriate. Sigh.. Firstly I am having problems with my internet connection. This is already the 7th day!! Sigh.. ITCare just sucks. I called them on Wednesday and the person told me to forward my case as "urgent". After hearing nothing for 1 day, I went down and I was told that it usually took 1-2days for them to assist any case. I was like what the fuck.. then told me urgent for what.. Sigh.. after exchange of shouting through the phone, I just gave up. OSA also sucks and cannot give any assistance. Wow I am really surprised with how one of top 30 uni in the world can have such a fucked up administration. What surprised me even more was the fact that satisfactory rating for this fucked up uni improved -_-

This made my FYP research delayed. Haiz.. But stressing over it is also useless. After meeting yesterday, there are changes to my project again. So yeah it's like my research is mostly wasted. Sigh.. Well I cannot protest actually. I have no idea what I wanna do or how long things will take so I shall just listen. Anyway I am very stressed. I promise to submit the draft for my proposal by the coming Friday o_0 and now I still have nothing to write...

I need to relax!! Haiz.. Seems like I am stressing myself because I want to rush through and hoping for easy cruise through my FYP.. Haiz.. It seems like failure is normal and success is miraculous. So yeah I need a miracle.. Sigh.. And Eli's homework is due in 3 days time.. I have given up on it and will resort to copying. But copy from who T_T sigh...

I am experiencing itchiness around my waist sigh. It is such an inconvenient location. So am I supposed not to wear any pants and underwear? Bleah.. There is one area that I keep scratching until it is wounded quite badly o_0 Thick application of prickly heat powder does not get rid off the itch. I am thinking to take antihistamines but I wonder whether it is a wise thing to do. Sigh... On a similar note, I think I am somehow allergic to my own sweat!! How can that be possible? Yeah I am also wondering... I think all the itch is because I run.. And the last time I ran, both of my arms were itching too. Please don't question my hygiene! I bathe twice daily ok LOL..

And Youth Olympic Game was just over.. To be honest, I felt a bit of regret not signing up as a volunteer. I seriously think it would be a great once-in-a-lifetime experience. Sigh.. I hesitated because of my project.. Buat after these 2 wks, I guess it makes no difference.. Not volunteering I also still cannot progress significantly sad...

Emo part 2

Grrr.. How unlucky can I be? I just checked my mail.. And guess what, I had a $50 voucher off for my handset. It was sent on 9th of July and it expired on 25th of July. Wow great.. FML! It's really quite a blow to lose $50 just like that...

And to make my feelings worse, I am burning with jealousy right now.. My sis is on her way to tour Europe. Wow great...

I am just an fucked up kid with a fucked up life..

Down again

It's just the beginning of the third week and I am really feeling down. The amount of schoolwork is just too much with the limited time I have, even after the fact that I have been on facebook etc less frequently. 2 nights were spent for Exco interview last week. But haiz.. just take it as one responsibility down eh?

Anyway my emo-ness started on saturday. CNBlue came to Singapore!! Oh yeah.. I was so eager to work to catch them. And guess what, I got door duty again. Fuck fuck fuck!! Haiz.. Why am I always being posted at doors when there are some celebs!! Haiz damn fucking shit! I am so disappointed. The condition inside the hall was loud and so much fun and filled with fans craziness. Haiz I want!! Looking the brightside, perhaps I was quite lucky to my door. At least I could hear the live singing (sound only T_T) through the emergency door. How that was possible I also wonder how since the door was tightly locked. Sigh.. I caught a glimpse of them during the rehearsal (yep, I swear that they didn't lip-synch! haha) but it was too difficult to see them due to the lighting. Before the event ended, I anyhow left my post to go inside and to see them awhile haiz. Sad... Now I am feeling worse when I bumped into their videos posted on youtube!! Grrr... How lucky those people were able to record etc and I was only at the door.. You know, this maybe my closest chance to attend a concert by a famous boyband. I mean at my workplace, it is sitting concert hall and it is thus quite civilised. I cannot imagine myself going to typical concert halls: must stand and jump and scream while being squeezed up down left write front back by crazy fans!!

Well, I am actually not a fan of them =x Haha.. But I have to admit that I like their songs. I came to know them while I was in Korea. There is one song which was played quite often at the cafes there.. Then I saw them on TV singing another song which was also ok for me. Then I realised that both songs are by the same group so I guess the group is pretty good ba.

 

The song that I like.. It's called "Love Light"

Okay it's time for some videos from the concert. I just picked 3 songs which I am more familiar with la lol

 

The fans had wrong pronounciation of "encore" eh? Lol

A proof that they sang live!! Haha..

My internet was down from saturday afternoon to sunday evening. I was sooo furious. I could not see the tutorials for this week (I am doomed!) and I could not do any search for my FYP also. Sigh.. I decided to do my Research Methodology tutorial and it just pissed me more and more. The teacher doesn't freaking teach anything!! I had to do "trial and error" until I get the numbers he provided magically appear. Sigh.. And guess what, I only finish 20% of the whole assignment -_-". I cannot do the same thing for the rest.

The Mass readings for yesterday were just apt for me. The second reading was about taking difficulties as God's ways to train his sons, afterall, which father does not train his son... Haiz.. The Gospel was the best! It just told me that Heaven is not guaranteed for me T_T Oh mianz.. But still, it doesn't make me don't want to die though.. I still feel that I rather die than continuing on with my purposeless life!! Grr

And today, I woke up early to laundry. I chionged for some of my literature search. Haiz.. Only the background info is more or less okay. Have yet to find or read the things directly related to the experiments =x Sigh... Now it's time for my tutorials then T_T

If only I have 48hrs a day.. Oh no.. if only I have a statistician friend to do my research methodology assignments.. and if only I have a chemist friend to tell me the reactions I need... or at least if only I have a librarian friend to find me the relevant reading materials haiz..

Year 4 finally...

Sigh.. This marks the coming of the end of my education. I am totally not looking forward to it.. I hate working life. I enjoy school life :D And university life is the best, especially with the freedom to skip lessons as and when I like it.

The first moment I saw the timetable, I was elated. 2 free days and 3 half days. Haha.. Wow!! Nice.. But it is all just a facade. Although there are only 3 modules this semester, the workload is just crazy. Haiz.. Pharmacotherapy is tough!! There is too much info. And to be honest, I think it's time for me to learn the drugs seriously and no longer just for exam purposes. And yeah I still have no time to do that. Research Methodology sucks. I just hate SPSS and all the bullcrap. There is an assignment given from the first day of the lecture. Sigh.. It will take me quite sometime.. Pharm Prac is the worst and crappiest module (well as always).. It is just so troublesome with all the nonsense. Bleah..

FYP has yet to start but I have felt unhappiness towards it even from the start. I have lots to curse about the balloting etc but oh well, as a believer of God, I believe whatever I got is His plan. And I am sure that would be the best for me. My supervisor seems to be good.. I hope we can clique well and we have similar working styles. I also hope the same thing with the grad student I would be working with.. There is a chemistry major student who is doing the exactly same project as me. I wonder whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. Sigh.. Anyway it is less than 1 month for the submission of the proposal. I am already very stressed. Up to this stage, I know nothing.. I don't know where to start. I don't know what I need to know. I don't know what I need to do. Basically I don't know anything! Next meeting will be on Thursday and I hope everything becomes clearer.

Oh well, I am feeling very sleepy and tired now. Had been having insomnia lately :( As usual, lack of sleep makes me a bit depressed and emo. I hate my classmates more and more. Haiz.. Sometimes I really think people should have more common sense. The whole stupid monograph thing all over again. Haiz.. 1 student can do 3-4pages and for 100 drugs, that means 300-400 pages thick! I rather hug my reference book and read from that. But for the sake of the selfish and brainless majority, I shall burn a few days of my life to reference the things sigh...

Moving on to better things, I just accompanied a friend of mine to attend a concert this evening. It was a vocal show accompanied by a piano. Well to be honest, it sounded very boring!! Haha.. Ironically, I actually enjoyed the show!! Haha.. The songs are not the typical boring boring classical opera songs. And I am really amazed (and jealous) with the vocals of the 2 singers. They were impressive! So yeah, it was good and not a waste of time yay! Definitely better than the guitar ensemble concert I watched last year XD

Final Fantasy IV (DS)

Wow another masterpiece by Square! Too bad it's in DS!! Waa.. I played the original FFIV and I seriously would like to replay it.. If only it's in PSP.. Haiz.. dunno why Square only halfheartedly made a remake! They should make it to be like FF Dissidia or Crisis Core!! Oh well, anyway, I am quite disappointed with the ending. The opening video is stunning (and I love the song!) but guess what they give as the ending: NO FMV!! OMGWTFBBQ!!!

Handphone Woes

This whole matter gave me headache for almost 2 weeks. It not only affected me but also my sister and my friends. Haha.. I keep asking for recommendations and they ended up getting pissed due to my indecisiveness. To be honest, I never found myself to be that indecisive before. Ironically, I didn't even think that much for more important decisions in my life eg: choosing whether to continue study in Singapore, choosing CCA, choosing JC, choosing uni course.

Anyway, the first hurdle was to decide whether I stayed with M1 or I hopped over to Singtel for $100 off my new handset. Haha.. My friend told me to stay with M1 for better customer service (which I agree!!) and per second billing. But few months back, M1 handset prices were ridiculously higher (up to $200+ difference) than Singtel. That was what tempted me to change since I thought I didn't really make so many phone calls. After much deliberation and reading people's experiences on online forums, I chose to stick with M1! Lately M1 prices are only within $50 from Singtel so I guess I rather pay more for the better service. After all I am a complainer and a noob so I would need a lot of help from the CSO. Lol.. I would be damn pissed if I am kept on hold and on hold..

Moving on to the bigger hurdle: what model to take! Again my indecisiveness made things worse. Initially, I wanted to get only Android and the latest ones! Price didn't matter!! After that my priority shifted to phones which support wi-fi and Flash browsing! Then it shifted to physical keyboard! Then I became anal about budget! But hey.. where is the camera? Lol.. Camera has always been my number #1 priority! I always consider it subconsciously. Haha.. I went through so many reviews and considered so many models.. Below is the list to let you know why I was so stressed

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini

Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro

Samsung Wave

Samsung Jet

Samsung Omnia II

HTC Wildfire

Iphone 3GS

Iphone 4

Sony Ericsson Satio

Sony Ericsson Hazel

LG Optimus

LG Lollipop

Motorola Flippers (don't remember the exact name)

The Xperia X10s are androids but unfortunately they don't support Flash so I striked them out. Since there were too many to consider, I decided that I should go to the shops to try the touch screen. I hate touchscreen so much because I am a heavy SMS user. I want to SMS quickly and preferable without looking at the screen. Samsung phones are out after I find the alphanumeric input is rather weird: 4 columns instead of the usual 3 making the 'buttons' smaller and making me missing the inputs. HTC is also out since there was no model to try on and I heard the battery is quite bad. I hate Apple and the reason IPhone came into the picture because I was thinking of buying it for my sister. She would then buy me a phone from Indo and we swapped. But IPhone 4 uses microsim which may not be available in Indo so yeah bye IPhone. At this point of time, I discovered that physical keyboard suits my need very well that's why I don't really consider IPhone.  Touch screen wise, only Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones can follow my pace of typing haha.. That's also why Satio came into the picture as well as LG Lollipop (nice flip design, nice colours) but unfortunately Lollipop lacks of one web capability which made me discarded that as an option. LG Optimus' touch screen was a nightmare for me (hard to aim and to press) so it was out.

And guess what phone I chose eventually: Nokia C6! Hell yeah! It was not even in my consideration before! Why did I finally choose that? The price was quite low $98, it has physical keyboard,  nice specs and nokia touch screen is okay for me. And after this my real hell began! Yeah.. 

I hate that phone in just less than 24 hours of using it. I could not bluetooth the contacts.. Contacts from my sim card turned out weird.. The gallery load time was like shit! The system was laggy and it actually hang once within less than 24 hours! I could not manage the content of the memory card via computer and I could not even install the Nokia programme to my com. I was going to demand an exchange and guess what: I discovered that it had a lousy speaker!! Bleah.. Dun even talk about smart phone if it cannot even be used for basic function of making phone calls! Not sure whether I got a faulty set or Nokia just sucks but I am glad that I can exchange to another model. I decided not to try my luck to get another set of C6 after meeting a friend who testified her Nokia phone went bonkers after just 1 month lol.. I am really thankful to M1 CSO (that justified my loyalty!!) in helping me to ensure that I could make an exchange..

I kinda regretted of not getting the LG Lollipop now.. It was $0 and I realised the most important feature for me is actually to call and to sms.. As long as can call and sms, other things are secondary :( Oh well since I can only change to something equivalent or more expensive, I considered Hazel ($98), X10 mini pro ($198) and Vivaz pro ($198). X10 mini pro was too mini and I had difficulty typing so yeah.. it's a no for me.. I settled on Vivaz Pro eventually. Hazel was too similar to my K800i.. and as much as I hate touch screen I thought I should try learning since maybe in the future, all phones would be touch screen XD and at least Vivaz Pro has the physical keyboard..

So yeah now the big question is: how happy am I with my Vivaz Pro?? The gallery load time is fantastic :) The keyboard + touch screen is ok :) And that's all. Haha.. The rest are minus points for me. The battery sucks.. It doesn't last even 2 days without wifi etc etc. The start up and the shutting down are quite slow. It used Symbian (and I come into conclusion that I fucking hate Symbian.. and since Symbian is made by Nokia, I will forever be hating Nokia). Thank goodness the Sony Ericsson programme could be installed to my com and it made the editing of the contacts less hell-ish. Since the load time and sms capability is ok, I guess I still can survive well ba..

But wait!! Lately it has problem recognising my simcard zz!! I don't know it's the simcard problem or it's the phone problem!! Roar!!! Why am I sooo unlucky!!! Haiz.. I am gonna check it out this weekend and see how for the updates.

So after all, I am quite regretful.. Perhaps I should just go for the Lollipop.. It's free, it's stylish, and it's fully keyboard. Haiz.. Looks like my K800i is still the best for me..

Last 2 weeks of holidays

Waaa I am late late late in updating my blog. Haha.. My new semester has begun! And I am still talking about my holidays here. Lol.. Basically after coming back from Korea, I had about 2 weeks left of my holiday. I think I was not being myself in these last 2 weeks. I am still in my touristy mood and I spent more than normally in Singapore haha..

Firstly, let me talk about movies. Yeah, when I came back, Nodame Cantabile movie: The Finale was already out. I watched that and as expected, it was kind of disappointing ending for such a nice series so far. The love story was pretty good (at one point of time, I was thinking that it would be nice to have a girlfriend too T_T) but the music and the songs were not of my taste. To make things worse, the humor was kinda lame.. Basically it failed to be on par with the first movie ba...

On another day, I had a movie marathon: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Despicable Me, and Inception. The Sorcerer's Apprentice was not as bad as expected. My friend warned me not to watch that but I thought it was quite enjoyable. Kinda hate the main guy though.. and I think Percy Jackson was more entertaining and action-packed lol. Despicable Me was a disappointment. My friend insisted on me watching it because it was funny. To me, it was lame.. and story-wise: it was kinda pointless.. The highlight was Inception. It was really a genius piece of work. I expected to be lost and could not understand the story or caught the conversation. I did pretty well though. Haha.. The action was pretty cool but the best for me was the theme! Wow.. It was really cool to be playing with dreams, considering I am someone who often experiences vivid dreams. It is quite true that everytime we 'die' in our dream, we will wake up! Lol.. But in the movie, pain won't wake the people. For me, I wake up due to pain eg: when I dream of a dog biting my ass. Lol.. Still, it was a great show!! 

Secondly, there was matric fair. Hoho it was quite interesting ba.. But it was not like what I visualised. Lol.. Like hardly anybody was interested in my CCA so I was there really just to be there o_0 Well seeing some of the CCAs made me thinking of joining a sporty CCA since I don't need to focus on points anywhere. Oh well, I am still not that lucky. This is the 7th semester that my timetable will be clashing with archery!! Sigh.. Ah the only interesting thing about matric fair was there was this guy interviewing me about some financial advisory stuff. Not that I find the interview was interesting, the interesting was that this guy actually remembered me! Haha.. When I came in for the second day (which was actually 3 days after I was interviewed), he still remembered me and actually said "Woa everytime I see you, you are carrying different things". Lol.. Ok la... Not important but I think it was quite nice of him to still acknowledge me. He could just have not given me a damn, after he got my survey form already ma =x

Next thing was HANDPHONE! But this would be a very looong story haha.. So I think I will write in a separate post.. Perhaps I end this post with my happiness that I was spared from moving to a new room this time around! Hehe.. Sooo lucky and sooo happy! It saved me one day of moving out and moving in. Lol

Reflection...

This is long overdue haha.. But I have been planning to write a long essay about my thoughts and reflection after my Korea trip. It was quite a good trip and I learn to see things in a different light now. And I guess so far my life is not so bad afterall. Well perhaps it is still not an ideal, but it could have been worse.

About APPS

To be honest, it was quite a disappointment. I think I got nothing beneficial out of it. I also did make that many friends. Well my group was relative okay. The problem was the programme line-up was rather bad. What was the point of grouping us when most of the activities were not group-based? Oh well.. Anyway it was partly my fault also. I came with the wrong mindset: just go to enjoy Korea. Haha.. Anyway, I don't see what the point in making friends if after that there  is no more contact? Oh well, then I remember that sometimes God just place several people in our lives for just that short period of time. After that then life goes on as usual. Kinda ironic since I guess I make quite good friends with a few people there.. But oh well, that's reality of life. If the friendship continues, then it's good. If it doesn't, then it's okay. The memory stays. Haha..

APPS also made me realise that I am still proud being an Indonesian. I found it akward to say "I am from Singapore". I was more comfortable saying "I am from NUS" or "I am studying in Singapore but I am an Indonesian". Haha... Anyway the Indonesians made me proud with their items during international night. I think it is still the country with the richest culture in this part of the world hehe.. :)

It was also quite ironic that despite Singapore has only 1 organisation, we were the most 'separated' group. Yah, I guess pretty much the mindset of the people. Everyone just came for holiday. I found it ironic that people from other countries (and they were from different cities, different uni, etc) made friends with one another and were more united. I don't even know my juniors! Haha.. Oh well, cannot be bothered anyway. But it was kinda pathetic when someone asked "Ah do you know this person? He/she is in the same group?" then to answer "Erm.. I am not very sure who that is" and to be replied "Eh? I thought all of you are from the same uni". Haha..

About Pharmacy

As much as I hate the condition here, I guess it is not much different with other countries. It is like an international standard that nobody listens to pharmacists, especially in hospital. Even in the more  pharmaceutically advanced countries like Australia. Haha.. More surprisingly, South Korea already had a separation of prescribing and dispensing rights since 1990s! Wow.. Really unexpected for an Asian country to do such thing. It is really interesting to find how they can convince and change the Asians "doctor is the best" mindset. But hey, I think Singapore should not fight for that. Why? Because there is no point of separating here. Separation only benefits the retail pharmacies and retail sector has not much room to grow here anyway. Haha.. And with separation of the rights, there is a problem currently: doctors insist that only drugs in the script are to be dispensed. Meaning if a doctor wrote a particular brand name, pharmacists should not offer generic bla bla bla.. To the countries who yet to separate the rights, they should foresee this problem and start tackling this first eh??

And no matter what, to improve the image of the profession, I still think that community is still the best avenue! Haha.. Unfortunately, many are more interested in doing clinical stuff in hospital. Yeah there is more prestige bla bla bla, but what's the point of hiding comfortably there? Public don't see what you do and don't see your relevance! So please! If you want people to know/be aware/respect, go do community! Then people directly know how you help them with minor ailments and drug info bla bla bla. It's rubbish to do awareness campaign once a year then hide in the hospital for the rest of 364 days.. And that's the first step to convince the public of pharmacists role and capabilities. After then can talk about separation rights.. or getting some prescribing rights bla bla bla.. Otherwise, just dream on~~~

About Korea

I think Korea is a very interesting and advanced. Their trains ran very fast (when I saw the scenery, I would get dizzy because the trains moved faster than my eyes focused on an object) and I wonder whether the MRT here will ever operate at such speed. Haha.. But then during their peak time, the crowds were crazy. It was nothing like in Singapore! It was really body to body contact! Perhaps as bad as Japan? Lol.. Anyway, as gracious as the Koreans are (they actually form queue at the carriage doors during peak hours), once the doors open, they become vicious too. I was quite shocked because during one occasion, I was already like the last person against the door. A few seconds later, guess what, I was pushed and 2 more people managed to squeeze behind me.. Crazy! Phew... still, it is a good eye opener that the human traffic jam in Singapore is not that bad.. But well, I think here has more disgusting odours.. so yeah, even without close body contact, the MRTs are already quite sickening during peak hour.

The announcement in the buses and trains (at least in Seoul) is in English and in Korean. In Busan, some train stations have announcement in Mandarin and Japanese too! Wow... Yeah, this makes it very friendly for foreigners. The irony is: only the minority understands English in Korea. So it is like imagine in Singapore, suddenly there are announcement in French or some other languages that is not normally used. Must create a lot of unhappiness and akwardness among the locals I guess.

I also like the weather. It is hot because it is summer now. The sun is scorching but I don't sweat! That's why I like it.

Overall, Korea is a good place ^^ Lol.. I don't mind staying there. I only have 2 biiig issues. Firstly: they hardly speak English! Ouch.. If English is more commonly used there, I am sure the nation can advance even more rapidly since it would become even easier for expats to move in. Secondly: the food. Haha.. I just cannot take in all the vegies.. and to be honest, it is quite boring. Go to every different places and it is still the same food! Lol..

I would definitely love to come back to Korea. There are so many places that I have yet to visit: Jeju Island, Lotte World, Everland, Shooting places of Winter Sonata and Daejanggum, Fortress, etc. Sigh.. Perhaps in winter next time then?? Haha then I can experience snow as well as skiing or snowboarding. Must be cool! Haha..

About my own life

I have been cursing my own life so far. Haha but after comparing with other people, I guess mine is not that bad after all. My Malaysian friend dreaded the thoughts of serving his 3-year bond in some forest/jungle that he has no say in choosing. I dreaded the thought of serving my 3-year bond which will hinder me from pursuing higher education or going elsewhere. Lol.. Coming to salary, his pay would be 1/2 of mine. But I complained that I got so much also I had nothing to spend on here! Haha.. The hospitals there are not as modern but I find that Malaysia has many more opportunities for industry!! The grass is always greener on the other side eh? Haha...

I feel so stupid and self-inadequate as a final year pharmacy student. Well, seeing people from other countries, it seems that everyone is equally inadequate. I guess most of the knowledge will be learnt through working experience though.  However, I applaud students from other countries for their bravery and enthusiasm, especially those from non-English speaking countries. It must not be easy for them during the patient counselling stuff.

At Busan, I stayed at my friend's place. She is already working. Pay-wise I guess it would be roughly the same as what I would get. But seeing her place, haiz..., I feel so lucky. I think with the same rental fee, I can get a better QOL here lol.. No offense but that is really my personal opinion.

So as much as I hate my own life, perhaps this trip has opened my eyes. Things could be worse... of course things could be better too... There are always things to be grateful for and there are always things to dream of too ^^

Busan (13th July - 19th July)

This is the last part of my fantastic journey in Korea. I would start by saying how impressed I am with Busan. I think it's a very cool place. It's a city surrounded by mountains and beaches, yet the city planning and design are quite modern. Truly it shows how man and nature can co-exist harmoniously. The weather fluctuates a lot and I was when my friends were telling me that they always take note of weather forecast. After staying there, I understand. I still love the weather though, especially at night. Surrounded by mountains make it really cooling and windy at night. So yeah, I love Busan ^^

Day 10 - 13th July

It was raining pretty heavily upon arrival in Busan. I was quite surprised that I had to take bus from the plane to the terminal. Looks like regardless of the country, domestic flights get the same treatment eh? Haha.. So perhaps Indonesia is not bad after all. Lol.. Ah surprisingly I managed to locate my friend's boyfriend who picked me up. It was kinda akward in the taxi due to language barrier though.

Upon reaching my friend's place, I was initally quite shocked with the mess and the small size of the room! It's really small for a house considering the toilet is there, the kitchen is there, and the tv is also there. Even my PGP room (which has no kitchen) is of similar size of her house. Woa.. Well since I am bunking for free, I shall not complain. So the whole day I just slept until the evening when my friend finished work. We had dinner (which was too bony for my liking). And I had dinner with cold water. I was wondering how on earth she can survive with no heater.. It turned out to be I did not know how to on the heater haha...

Day 11 - 14th July

I started the day with camwhoring (ooops). I slept pretty quickly after I washed my hair the previous night so I woke up with a very nice standing hair. Haha.. Looks like I found a new way to style my hair after wax and gel all fail on me haha..

I really appreciate my friend's friends who accompanied me shopping on this day, even though they never every see me before.. Oh gosh.. I doubt I will do such thing in Singapore to strangers.. Hmm.. I owe them and I guess I must pay it forward.. if I have the chance. Anyway we went to Centum City which claimed to be in Guinness Book of Record as the largest department store. I beg to differ haha... On the highest floor, there was an iceskating ring. I would really love to try! I never try it before that is why I thought it was a good chance: it was not crowded so if I fell down, not many would see and laugh. Bleah.. I had to forgo it since I was expected to have my own gloves and they only rented shoes. Wtf... After that, I was brought to the riverfront near the mall. In the opposite bank, I saw people jet-skiing!! I also want!!! Huhu...

Next stop was shopping at Nampodong. It was the place where they hold Busan International Film Festival. It was near Busan Tower but who cares? Lol.. Seoul Tower was already a disappointment so what is this Busan Tower. Rather than paying to view the city from the Tower, we went to the sky garden of the nearby Lotte Mall. Good enough for me. I looked for clothes to shop but I didn't really find anything good. One good thing was I finally fulfilled my cravings for Pa-Jeon (Korean Pancake!). Wow.. Haha... Though the vegie was too overwhelming for me to like it haha.. I prefer the one at Yongin Folk Village.

 Busan Internation Film Festival Gantry

 

Even King Kong, Spidey, and Catwoman cannot resist alcohols when they were in Korea lol

Busan Tower

The day was still young! After work, my friend (and boyfriend) brought me to see Gwangan Bridge. It was a pretty sight.. The weather was nice and windy and cold. So it was a good photo opportunities. To my surprise, there was a beach nearby tooo!!! OMG a beach in the night!! That was really so cool!! Even the sand was cold and the water was cold!! Hohoho.. I really love it since the beach front was not that wide also.. A lovely place indeed (no chance to visit it again during daylight to witness its full splendour though). Tried many many jump shots but all failed due to low light haha.. and the wind kept blowing my shirt up and exposing things which should be left to imagination. Haha.. Since this time onwards, I shall stop doing jump shots until I lose that ugly fat!

 Gwangan Bridge at night

Day 12 - 15th July

The previous day was a long and tiring day so I woke up pretty late today. Haha.. A bit of gastric problem since I only had the pancake for dinner the previous night.  Today another 2 new friends (wow!! thanks so much) accompany me for shopping for clothes!! Whee.. I really have to thank the guy friend for knowing where to bring me for male clothings haha.. Anyway I spent 70000 won for 1 hoodie and 2 vests (1 formal and 1 casual). Wow.. There went all my money haha... It ended my shopping session too (I am satisfied finally!) although it also meant that I had to break down my US$. Overspending liao haha..

It was scorching hot at noon but at 6 onwards the cool breeze came. Nice.. Had fried chicked (very good!) as dinner. Supposedly it's a favourite supper for the university students nearby. I can clearly understand why haha..

Day 13 - 16th July
There were no tour guides for me today so I just slept in the whole day xD Anyway it was a good thing because I hardly slept the night before. Haha.. I woke up several times due to cold, mosquito, and the worst: gastric! Darn.. I took 2 tablets of antacids and they still didn't work. I decided to have many smaller meals this day.

I was quite proud of my achievement to be able to go buy McD and Angel-in-us Coffee on my own! Lol.. I regretted to assume that the people in McD could not speak English. So to be save, I ordered Big Mac. I actually wanted to try the stuff not available in Singapore.. Oh well..

For dinner, I had BBQ! Yay.. Missed the Korean BBQ at Seoul due to the sickening Bibimbap but at least it was revenge time now! Haha.. I wanted beef but that BBQ shop only had pork. Aaaargh but oh well, it was still a very good meal.

Later at night, I was brought to experience Koreans night lifestyle: drinking!! Lol.. Bought makolli (rice wine). It came in a huge bowl and it was scary. Anyway I got tipsy after my first serving (much smaller bowl) already. My whole body turned red, I felt pain in the eyes and muscles, could not walk straight and so on. Woo.. but still managed to finish 3 bowls haha.. The side-dishes were good too! I never expected there were other combination of pancakes. There was kimchi pancake!! Yo yum yum. Too bad I already deleted the picture of the makolli!! Arrgh.. Wanted to show how big the bowl was!

Day 14 - 17th July

It was Saturday and my friend could finally bring me around. Yay.. The weather was fantastic: cloudy and windy, not sunny and not rainy! Wheee.. perfect weather to camwhore and to walk around. The day's destinations were: Nurimaru (APEC House) and Hauendae Beach. But the highlight was the beach front between the 2 places. Wuih.. What a great place to take photo. Nurimaru itself was just so so. But Hauendae Beach was just stunning! Wow.. The wave was nice and strong (how I loved to be able to get into the water and play T_T) and the beach was very very clean, no single litter! Wow.. It is definitely a must-visit-again place when I go back to Busan in the future. This beach makes me officially a beach person now! Haha.. I used to like mountains more than beaches. But this beach just rocks!!

 Views from the walkway between Nurimaru and Haeundae

I tried the sticky Turkey Ice Cream too haha.. Not very nice la taste-wise. But the maker was funny, if I could steal the cone from him, I could get the ice cream for free. I grabbed the cone but it broke! Haha.. The cone was too lousy that there was no way of grabbing it without snapping it lor! Haha...

Went to Kyungsung University in the late afternoon. The university seemed a bit old to me ba. Haha.. But the dorms!! OH MY GOD!! It makes my dorm a shit in comparison. The room there is huge.. The aircon is strong.. The corridors are wide.. The toilet is also huge and hotel standard. It was just fantastic! Wow cool..

And since I had 2 days left, I got a bit lenient with my spending. Haha.. I decided to try other alcoholic beverage. For the night, I tried Bokbunjaa. It smelled so good when I opened the bottle (and my friends agreed too!!). It tasted like a red wine.. It was an awesome stuff!! Haha.. At night, my friend bought beers and I tried few brands. Oh well, only liked one of them.. The rest was too bitter. But anyway, beer is not my thing. Haha.. Many days of alcohol seemed to affect my gastric adversely but oh well, last few days.. Might as well sacrifice my gastric lol.

 Bokbunjaa is the red bottle. The green bottle is plum dunno what. Haha..

Day 15 - 18th July
Beomosa Temple was disappointing. Bah.. They had services there and thus it killed my mood to camwhore. To me, because people were worshipping there, the place was a place of worship. Thus it was not so appropriate for me to camwhore. The Temple was on a mountain so I took it as a trip to mountain and forest ^^

After that we went to Taejongdae. It was rocky cliff.. It was stunning! It was beyond imagination. I could not describe the sight and experience. I shall put up a few pictures.. But still, nothing beats going there to experience it yourselves. Wow..

 My hand trembled as I was taking this photo. If my phone fell, that's the end of it -_-

 Aren't these stunning??

Last night already le.. Sad... Tried bokbunjaa's counterpart. Don't know what plum thing.. The green bottle looked tempting but the drink inside was not haha...

Day 16 - 19th July
The End of my journey.. Fin... Sad :'( I had 6 hours of transit at Incheon. Well, at least I experienced 'transitting' and taking 'connecting flights' etc. Lol.. Thank God (seriously!) for the Traditional Korean Cultural Experience Zone in the airport! It really helped to kill my time. I got the chance wear many different Korean clothes (the doorman's, the royal family's, and the King's!) Wow.. I wanted to try Prince's too!! :'( But anyway I was too shy already la.. Anyway each person supposedly can only try once lol.. But I waited until the person there changed shift lol.. Other than that I got to try their traditional painting and their traditional percussion (tried to take photo with it but I looked ugly so I deleted!) Haha..

Seoul (10th July - 13th July)

Day #7 - 10th July

Okay it was a bad start of the day. Initial plan was: to check out at 12pm. What happened was: we left at 10am. That was 2 hour less of my sleeping time. Then there was a bit of argument regarding the taxi too but I am amazed now that 4 of us and our luggages managed to squeeze inside that taxi. Upon reaching the backpackers, I was a bit shocked with the alley leading to it. The alley looked super run down!! Bah.. It turned out to be quite a safe area. And it was non sleazy too. So it was not bad after all. The backpackers was pretty good actually, with the free internet, microwave oven, water dispenser, and spacious toilet. The room was a bit small but who cares when I had a huge toilet? Lol..

After dropping our luggage there, we just crossed the street and tadaaa we reached Namdaemun. It was a bit of pasar malam type. I was not in shopping mode because I thought it was so near that we could go back anytime. So perhaps now just checked out the things and price first. We had pretty good meal. I had a super duper red Ramyeon! It looked intimidatingly spicy and red but it wasn't spicy at all. Cool.. But seeing that could not stop me thinking the possibility of getting huge diarrhea. We walked walked through some boring places until eventually we reached Myeongdong!! Weehee this was what I liked. High-end cool shopping malls even though the price deterred me from shopping. Haha what matters to me is ambience!

In the evening, we visited Seoul Tower. It was quite shocking to climb a steep hill from the bus stop to the foot of the tower. We spent quite a few hours having ourselves sketched. Haha.. I am quite pleased with my sketching results lol. But because of that, it was getting too late to see the Teddy Bear Museum. The tower itself was disappointing. Well, I am not a person who like night view and night lights whatsoever. So yeah, simply climbing up just for the sake of  "Since I am in Seoul, must visit Seoul Tower, yeah!".

 Seoul Tower

Day #8 - 11 July
The day I awaited for long was finally here. Yep, I got to visit the palace! Woohoo.. We visited Gyeongbokgung Palace, apparently the biggest out of the 5 palaces. It was really huge. We spent at least 3 hours and didn't even visit every corner in the palace. And guess what: the palace was actually only 40% of its original state. Woa... perhaps can really spend 1 day to explore it when it is back to 100% original state. I had a great time camwhoring. However, honestly I find the palace to be quite boring. Initially I wanted to visit all 5, but after this one, 1 is enough. Although the complex was huge, the buildings looked to similar. So actually it was rather pointless to go see every building also. Anyway the highlight was camwhoring and wearing the traditional clothes ^^ I am a bit disappointed with the clothes though. Firstly, it was all guard clothes! I wanted royalties.. Secondly, the clothes were way too big for me that I looked as if I was wearing a dress! Ew..

Gyeongbokgung Palace

My camwhoring went to another level. As I was boringly waiting my friends charging up their energy, seeing trees made me wanna jump, climb, and camwhore with them! Ya.. they were only trees for goodness sake! Lol.

As a result of my tree hugging feat lol

After that, we went to Insa-dong. It was disappointing again. Mostly souvenirs and the people were quite rude in my opinion. I had seafood bibimbap for lunch. The vegetables were overwhelming that I felt sick enough to have Korean food for dinner. Just had some bread and some fast food from the minimart.

I was a bit emo in the evening. I wanted to go Dongdaemun since it was already late and Dongdaemun mostly opens in the evening. I was damn pissed with the church church stuff. So yeah eventually we went to Myeongdong Cathedral and to me it was so so. Nothing spectacular to take photo. And forgive me God for blasphemy, I saw no point of attending mass in which I understand nothing about it.. I felt very rude and it was my worst mass experience ever: just queued for communion. Oh weell..

 Myeongdong Cathedral

Supposedly the building style is gothic. But I don't see anything gothic about it.

Day #9 - 12th July
Slept until 10am because we had no plans yet. Many shops are not open on Mondays there. Initially I wanted to go to another palace but unfortunately, it was also closed. So we went to Dongdaemun and to our horror: really it was a night market. In the daylight, the malls were all not open -_-. Add some bad luck: some shops were closed on that particular Monday! Gosh. A bit pissed off because of the weather was hot. And also because I wanted to go there the night before! Sigh.. now too late already.. ask me to return in the night I also already no mood because my flight in the next morning was 6am! Bah...

Anyway, after lunch, we went to I' Park Mall since a friend wanted a keyboard. And yeah, we were just unlucky. The mall closed on one monday every month.. and out of so many mondays, wow great they closed on that monday when we were there =.= So basically we just sat down and wait at the train station there until it was late enough for Dongdaemun to open. Before leaving, I insisted on trying Lotteria (Korean McD copycat) lol.. not that fantastic.. I did not go to Dongdaemun because I wanted to rest early for my flight. I only slept about 2 hours.. Spent most of the time clearing my Seoul maps.. only to discover and regret that Dongdaemun got some nice shopping places too :'( One consolation was one of the malls close every Monday so yea... Haiz..

Day #10 - 13th July
My taxi came at 4am and it was too early. Sigh... Expected travel time to airport is 90-120mins but it only took me 45mins-60mins. So ya I reached there too early. Tried to sleep a bit but I could not because the aircon was not on! So ironic for a world class airport to actually have 'closing hour'. Bleah... Had difficulty finding food so end up eating the same McD where I had my very first meal upon arrival in Korea. What an irony eh? Lol..

I will continue with my arrival and the last part of my trip in Korea: Busan! This post also took me about 4 days plus haha so I cannot promise how soon my next post will be done ^^

9th Asia-Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (4th - 9th July 2010)

Day #0 - 3th July

My flight was at 10+pm. I am usually excited before travelling overseas but for this time around, I just felt very lazy and very tired to go. It seemed that all the enthusiasm had died down after months of waiting, months of no-replies, and bla bla bla.. On top of that I had a bad day with the taxi. It was damn hard to get a cab or even to call, and the one that was sent to me was rude. When I stepped on to the taxi, he was like "This taxi was on call you know". I was like "WTF". If it was not that hard to get a taxi that night and if I was not short of time, I would just ignore that bastard and called for another one.

Asiana Airline was pretty good although the in-flight entertainment was a bit of disappointment. In the in-flight entertainment guide, there were so many nice shows but in reality, there were only 4 available movies. I watched one and I hardly remembered what. Lol.. I had difficulty sleeping (even with the eye mask, the Mozart Ukulele songs, and changing position numerous times). I chose Bibimbap for dinner and I was noobish initially on how to eat it. Lol.. But it was good.

Day #1 - 4th July

After touched down, it was another crazy thing in Korea. The reception was damn bad. We were sent to the place we were staying by airport limousine (as good as public bus) with no guide. We were just told to get off at the final stop. And guess what, nobody picked up us there. Or rather, the people who were supposed to pick us up were late! Gosh.. We were thinking of walking to the place but after we saw the map of the university, it was not possible.

We all thought agony was over once we registered. But since we were there like 10am in the morning, the rooms were only ready for check-in at 12pm. O_o Tensions ran quite high (and it was only day 1! lol) because everyone was tired. We had not slept and bathed for the past 12+ hours and these really got onto our nerves. Thank goodness the room was good. It was hotel standard. Lol.. Initially I wanted to sleep awhile but my hunger took the better of me.. So we went out for lunch.

I find the Koreans to be very friendly. It was hard to find people who understand English but there were these 2 aunty in the subway who helped us to get the subway card. Then in the eatery, another patron actually helped us about the food. Lol.. This first meal in Korea was the best for me! Lol. I anyhow arrowed from the picture and I got a nice rice bowl with a good mix of seaweed and meat! Haha.. You will understand why I love the meat so much! The restaurant owner was so nice. He knew that we were foreigners and he gave us for free one of their traditional food. Wow...

With full stomach, next pit stop would be shopping. Haha.. The shopping place (Express Bus Terminal) was terrible. I hate crowded place with poor ventilation. To make things worse, it was all female stuff! And I was getting very tired (I need sleep!). And I was surprised that the locals just bulldoze their way through.. They never said "Excuse me" or anything.. They just walked through/brushed against other people. What an irony to see them actually forming lines in front of the train doors -_-

First day ended with a very lame Welcome Celebration. Firstly we had to WALK to the venue which was quite far.. and the terrain was quite hilly. Then the dinner was more like snacks o_0. Terrible.. We played lame games with our groups bla bla bla. So yeah, it was an extremely bad impression.

Day #2 - 5th July

Had to wear formal for official photo taking but guess what, the stage was too small and I was too short. So I was not even visible in the photo. What a waste of an extra formal shirt to bring. The talks were like useless to me. Afterall who cares about IPSF bla bla bla.. The PCE was ok I guess. But since the speaker is from Canada, I believe some things would not be applicable in Asian environment. So again, I don't think it was that useful.

At lunch time, there were more people to join the group. Apparently they arrived late and we didn't see them on the night before. So yeah there was this malaysian guy whom I thought was ok. I normally don't clique well with guys. So was quite surprised that we could talk about a lot of things from the start.

At night it was the International Night which was not too good for me. Haha.. The Korean Traditional Band was interesting. And the Indonesian put up a great item. Haha I am still proud as an Indonesian afterall. The rest was forgetable. So yeah, day #2 was still a disappointment. The only positive thing is to know new friends. That's it haha..

Day #3 - 6th July
It was Explore Korea day! We were brought to Yongin, Korean Traditional Folk Village. I was expecting to be able to camwhore but urgh.. I have nobody close enough in my group for me to ask for taking photos. So to be honest, I was quite bored at the start. The excitement began only after lunch. Haha.. There were horses. Lol.. I would not wanna miss the chance to take photo with horse! I even got the chance to ride one. That has been my childhood dream. Lol.. Though it would be better if the person accompanying the horse could speak English. At least I can tell when to slow down or run faster, or to pose for me to take picture.

Riding a horse whee!!

It was a good eye opener about Korean culture. I enjoyed the traditional band and the horse riding show. I learnt about the delicious Korean Pancake. I tried (and regretted) their cold noodle. Previously my friends (who tried it before) had warned me about cold noodle. But you never know how gross it is before you try it. The texture was so chewy that it was hard to chew and swallow. I choked twice haha.. Terrible. I also experienced their traditional games and one was quite dangerous as one can make the partner fall (sorry partner).

 Traditional Band.. The head movements are amazing!

At night, we were brought to Coex mall. It was a big disappointment. Haha I was expecting something wow since people were saying it was the biggest mall or something like that. I had Japanese Curry for dinner but wait.. it came with kimchi too!! Haha.. Now now.. that was surprising.. I guess everything in Korea will have kimchi as the side dish. After that it was free, so the nice Korean girl in my group brought us to see nightview of the Hangang River from the skygarden of a mall. The funny thing here was that there was alarm if someone were to lean against the glass panel. Another groupmate did that and we were like omg what was the alarm for. Lol. We talked about pharmacy stuff and I guess all over the world, pharmacy students and pharmacists are more or less facing the same issues.

The Hangang River as viewed from skygarden of Technomall (??)

The night ended with me trying Soju! Yup it's the famous Korean alcoholic beverage. I don't like it unfortunately. To me its taste was like ethanol in the lab. The smell and the burning sensation.. everything reminded me of lab. Lol..

Day #4 - 7th July
First day of proper symposium. I was quite eager to listen about the industries but the speakers were just too boring. Gosh.. So yeah.. Ended up sleeping through the talks haha.. There was a PCE competition too. The whole singapore contingent could not be bothered. Haha I signed up eventually because I thought: my classmates would be ponning that day and I could choose the offstage one. Holy crap la.. I don't know why they didn't pon in the end and I had to do onstage. Sian.. It was like embarassing myself.. To make matter worse, it was 'competition'. I had to lose.. To me it was like so embarassing to actually step up and lose.. Haiz disappointed with myself wor.. But anyway, I was the last one so more or less it was not very fair because I had a few friends telling me about the case.. Perhaps it's a good thing that I didn't win. If I won, it would be an unfair victory anyway.

The lunch was uber gross. I felt like a goat eating all the raw leaves and grass T_T Thank goodness dinner was pizza and fried chicked. Taste was ok but amount was not enough haha.. I was irritated that they bought many cartons of beers! Might as well use the money to buy food. Anyway it was a pretty disgusting sight for me to see many people drinking and get drunk and acting wild. Seriously, not the type of life I imagine haha.. I was willing to try beer actually. But since everything was in big bottle, there was no way I could finish.. And I would not risk myself getting drunk in public. So yeah, no no no haha...

It was auction night after that. Another lame event. And to end off the night, I decided to get myself drunk lol. Yup I was trying to drink the soju (the one I could not finish the night before). I failed to get drunk. I stopped because I felt that my stomach and face were warm. My whole body was red and it was kinda freaky. I got a bit tipsy but totally drunk to the point of losing consciousness or vomitting. Haha.. Looks like my body turning red is my personal defense against too much alcohol.

Day #5 - 8th July
We ponned symposiums and went out on our own. First stop was Coffee Prince Cafe. It was quite hard to locate the place and after we reached, it was not open yet. We decided to have lunch first. The concensus was: anything with meat! Lol.. apparently it was not only me who thought that we had enough of vegetables. After a sumptuous meal, we went back to the cafe. It was a  huge disappointment. The service was terrible. in fact, it was rude! The items were expensive and not nice. The place was not nice even to take photo. All the initial excitement went to a complete waste!

The Coffee Prince Cafe

I don't even watch the show so I have no sense of connection to this lousy place!

After that it was shopping time. We went to Sichon, Ewha, and Itaewon. Itaewon was quite bad haha.. We arrived there pretty late so most of the shops were already closed. But hey it was still 830pm you know! It was unbelievable to travel far there only to have BK as dinner =.= Sichon and the Ewha street were pretty good shopping place. But I was not looking for shirt so I didn't really shop. I got a discounted green (yay!) vest from Uniqlo. Wanted to buy a fake Calvin Klein formal suit (only 20000 won! damn bloody cheap) but I decided not to since there would not be much chance to wear in in Singapore anyway. Before going to Itaewon, we went to Hangang River. This time it was really next to the river, not observing from a building. Too bad it was not dark enough to see night life and the weather was drizzling. So it was not very good. But still, a few photos as mementos are good enough.

Day #6 - 9th July
Last day yay! Lol.. I chose for industrial trip in the morning. 2 hour journey meant extra sleeping hours haha.. The Handok Pharmaceutical company was damn cool! They even had a soccer field and tennis courts! Not to mention a Pharmacy and Medicine Museum as well as a greenhouse! Wow.. They were really high-tech. Even the receiving goods area were damn clean! They mostly use robotics and magnetic wow. And the best part was in the building design. They actually considered that they would allow visitors to come and see so they specially made corridors. We could see the machines and the production lines without the need of gowning bla bla bla. Cool! The lunch was sensational: spagetti!! To make things even sweeter, they gave us a 4GB Thumbdrive as souvenir. Haha..

After the journey back, there was still about 1.5hours free time. So I decided to go hunt for my green tie for the Gala Dinner at night. It was quite scary to travel in a foreign land on my own but hey I survived. Lol. And I got a green tie although not at the place where I saw it the first time.

At night was Gala Dinner, it was just camwhoring and food session. Food was good as compared to what we had for the past 5 days. But the dunno what duck meat made me vomitted. Ew.. It was quite interesting that one of my friends happened to celebrate his birthday too. Haha.. It was funny that he kept saying "thanks for these 300+ people to celebrate my birthday". Lol.. Would not expect him to be that kind of narcisstic type. Haha.. But oh well, he got a kiss from another guy so I guess that would leave him with a good memory of a lifetime.

Day 7 - 10th July
Bye bye APPS! Even up to the end, the organisers kept doing crazy things. My friends and I left pretty late at about 10am. And only by then notices about APPS cert was being posted. =.= So yeah, out of our goodwill, we decided to collect for the whole contingent..

This is the end of my APPS post ^^ 2 more posts on my experience in korea would be coming.. Not sure when since this post alone took me 4 days. Lol.. After not blogging for quite sometime, I get pretty rusty eh? And sorry for the lack of picture.. I camwhored too much that most of the picture got my face. And I don't intend on revealing my face on this blog lol