Seoul -- part 1

I went to Seoul a while back with some Singaporean exchange students. It was real fun! We spent a day shopping for winter clothes and a day touring the historical sites in the city.

There are two main shopping districts in Seoul (I think). One of them is located at DongDaeMun and the other is at MyeongDong. DongDaeMun is a more casual shopping district whereas MyeongDong is a more high-end (relatively) fashion district.

This is a view into MyeongDong. Pardon the bad quality of the picture, I am not exactly a photographer. The actual place looks a lot more grand than the photo. You can find almost every big brand name.

Myeong-Dong is typically Asian. By that I mean there is a specific style of district planning/construction that you can certainly only find in Asia (and maybe France? I hear? But I have never been there so I don't know!).
The entire district is a promenade, and the roads are old, really narrow and crowded. Usually one would expect such a district to be dirtier/messier, since it is harder for cleaners to get inside and do their work. But in reality, the place is surprisingly clean. More interestingly, some of the most expensive brands (I only recognize LV, but there are others) tend to congregate there. Their elitist interior strikes a sharp contrast the the unassuming external environment, very classy I think.

Seoul is a girl's shopping paradise. Clothes and cosmetics can get really cheap (while still maintaining quality). I had enough winter stuff already so I did not buy much, but most of my fellow Singaporeans went back with at least twice the weight they'd come with.


Trivia: the chips in Korea are REAL TASTY. We saw a lot of varieties of corn chips in the supermarket and tried a few of them. All turned out to be excellent.

美人

This is an important topic, important enough to deserve its own separate post. :p

Perhaps due to the influence from Korean dramas, a lot of people believe that Korea is full of beauties and cuties. Before coming, I also wonder how Koreans look like (I mean as a country). I personally don't watch Korean dramas, but that does not stop EVERYONE around me from going crazy about them. -.-||

Korea is a very singular country, and this is reflected in Korean physical features. There is very little variety in their facial genetics. Everyday, I seem to see the same person passing by me a million times over. I really have difficulty telling Koreans apart sometimes. Not only do they look the same, they also like to wear the same style of clothes of the same color. During lunch/dinner time, the dining hall is filled with a sea of black/grey/dark blue. There is hardly any other colors in the mix...

I was in Seoul last weekend. The girls on the subway were very pretty, but they all looked so similar! Everyone has perfect alabaster complexion and high cheekbones. Their facial feature differ somewhat, but the bone structure is too similar for the differences to stand out. The men are more different from one another, but everyone seems to go for the same fashion style!

This is so different from my previous experiences. The U.S. is a melting pot society. There is more races than you can count and everyone wants to be unique and different. Singapore has 4 different races and n+1 different nationality imports. Half the country is 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants. Strictly speaking, it is also a melting pot society. China may be composed mainly of Han Chinese majority. But if you just take a walk in Beijing or Shanghai, you'd realize that the 'Han' blood has so much of everything else mixed in that it is impossible to define what 'Han' actually looks like. With Koreans however, you can tell at a glance!

If you place any of the Seoul subway ladies in Singapore or US, I would say they are very pretty. However, here, among the sea of similar looking girls.. no one strikes my eye. The two real pretty girls I see here are actually from Singapore. One was an air stewardess with SIA and another is an exchange student that hangs out with me. 毛豆标准身高，举手投足尽是清纯，但回眸一笑竟是无限妩媚。Her photos is up on my facebook if anyone is curious.

I hope to see more pretty girls when school starts. Most of the Korean students are not back on campus yet. So I am rather hopeful for the next semester.

The state with Korean guys are the same with Korean girls. Except that they are generally less handsome than Korean girls are pretty. Like the case with girls, the most attractive guy I have met since coming here is not a Korean. 看真人和看画像不一样。气质修养谈吐教养等都得算上。在这里碰到好多男孩子，各国各地都有。这里的中国人大多浮夸，华裔洋人心术不正，韩国人和越南人太安静，竟然是让个白人和一个蒙古人得了上乘。其中更要以蒙古人更为了不起，因为他的成长环境和条件要比旁人差了太多。一个穷孩子，能把英语练得那么正，能在各国学生面前不卑不吭，谈吐自如，坦坦荡荡，朋友照交。我真是开了眼界！佩服！当然，他长得也不差，好好一个蒙古人不知怎么地的愣是长成了一副清清秀秀的江南样子。

众口难调。什么是美／帅也不时由我说了算。各位看官看过就拉倒吧，就当是娱乐娱乐～不同意的话，欢迎丢砖～

 

Korea--First Impressions

I arrived in Korea a week ago. I should have updated sooner but there are so many things to do and so many places to be at!
When I arrived at Incheon International Airport. I had a good impression of Korea right off the bat. Incheon Airport was clean, classy and practical. Given that I just got out of the crazed chaos that was Shanghai Pudong, Incheon was heaven.

Korea is on the whole, a very clean country. It is about on par with Boston and Singapore in general. Koreans are polite and patient to a fault, it is an enjoyment to experience their service industry. 

arrived in korea!

It's 8pm. I just arrived at my dorm. I am freaking tired because I have not slept for the past 20+ hours. I am really excited and I will update as soon as I can.

Korea visa experience...

.. is the most tedious visa-application process I have been through! You'd
think I am getting really bored to start writing about such stuff. I am
surprised too. BUT NO~~ NO!

Well I am going to study away in Korea, so naturally, I need to get a Korean
student visa. To apply for a student visa, I need to prepare a few documents:
my passport, bank statements, Olin's proof that I am a current student and
KAIST acceptance letter.

So i brought everything (or so I thought) and left for the embassy. After an
hour of traveling and another hour of standing in the line, I realized that I
didn't bring my passport. Now that is very much my own fault. I left it in
another bag after going to Batan. First trip, foiled.

The next day, I made my second trip. This time, I made sure I brought my
passport. After another 2 hours, I got to the counter and presented my
documents. However, the guy took a look at it and told me that the bank
statement will not suffice. I brought a bank receipt stating that
there is X amount of money in the account, enough to pay for my Korea expenses.
But according to the officer (implicitly), I might have borrowed the money for
the day, put it there, so I may be a hobo with not a cent of possession.
Apparently, I need to bring the transaction history of a bank account for the
past 3 months, on an original bank-issued paper. Now this is starting to make
no sense, because my dad (who is paying) banks entirely online. He doesn't have
any old-fashioned-paper-record-accountbook-crap.

I do not get it. The US embassy accepted the same account printout fine 3
years ago. They issued me a 4 year visa to study in Olin without any qualms
about my financial status. Now, half the country uses online banking and Korea
embassy wants a 3 month bank-printed record. Just Great.

After much last minuted, bank-running troubles. I have the bank
statement(s). If you think this is ridiculous, read on!

So today, I made my third trip. Now, I brought my passport, I got the
correct, 3 months worth of bank statements. I got the rest of the documents and
I thought everything would be fine. But NO! Guess what the guy told me?! He
says my birth cert is invalid/unacceptable. The ORIGINAL, signed, stamped,
dated document is unacceptable. The only difference between my birth
certificate and the next one is that mine is issued in China. It even has a
page of translations in English. But the guy only recognize a Singapore birth
certificate so he wants me to present him with a Singapore birth
certificate!

I have a China-issued birth certificate due to the very blatant reason that
I was born in China. I was born in China, hence I have a China-issued birth
cert! What an amazing relevation! I tried multiple times to explain the fact to
the guy and he seemed insistent on getting me to get a Singapore-issued birth
certificate. (according to him, I can go to the high court?!?! and prove I am
my parents' child??!?!, and get something issued.)

I think I would have to give up on my trip to Korea altogether, if his
supervisor had not walked out at that point. I gave up on the visa guy and went
to talk to the supervisor instead. Within a minute, the supervisor accepted my
visa documents. What a crazy day.

there and back

Been back for a while. It is time to write things down.

My parents decided that I need to get a break from holing up. So we planed a short weekend trip to Batam, Indonesia. Batam is a small(?) island (twice the size of Singapore) 45min boat-ride away from Singapore. It is real easy to visit.

3rd-World Village

I was expecting a beach stay with lots of sunlight and lazing around. There was definitely lots of sunlight, but I did not get much of lazing around. We shopped for the most part and there was some (< 1hr total) of sightseeing.

I did not take this photo, but the whole place looks more or less like this. Our hotel building was one of the few large buildings on the island. It might be the tallest too.

From our hotel window. We do look like the tallest building around.

Lots of squatters like this one around. The local government generally lets them be(I suppose the government has to pay for their relocation otherwise) unless the land is taken back for development. The squatter inhabitants do not pay land tax but they have to find their own utilities source. Hence, we saw quite a lot of squatters around drains and rivers.

This is a miniature replica of a traditional Indonesian building. But I didn't get to see any house like this one on my entire trip.

Language

The most curious part of my trip was communicating with the locals. Indonesians speak Indonesian language, which, truthfully speaking, is a Malay dialect. Sad to say, after living in Singapore for over 10 years, I really only know 'Selamat Datang', which is some sort of hello. (Hence the tour group.) During most of the trip, we didn't need to talk because there was a tour guide. However on the last day, the tour arranged a 'free and easy' time in a shopping mall. Oops.

(In a restaurant)

Us:         Which dish is that? (points to drawing)
Waiter:  ???
Us:         Does anyone here speaks English?
Waiter:  ???
Us:         English?
Waiter:  ?? ... (shakes head)!
Us:         >_<!!!!
              This. (points) Which. (opens palm, shakes) Menu. (shakes menu, flips around, points around to everything) which? (flips hand)

(mime show goes on for a while, we managed to order some sort of noodles ahaha~~)

Us:        我的妈呀！好麻烦！ (omg! So troubleome!)


Waiter: 可以说中文(can speak chinese!)
Us:        arhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

This is the first person I have come across that speaks Chinese as the preferred foreign language, over English <3. It was real surprising. I also noticed random things have chinese characters on them. Like this one:

(It says No Arson despite the picture.)

Batan

Going to Batan, Indonesia in 6 hrs!