Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Exam Week~

What a life...




Will be off for 2 weeks~

The funny thing about solving maths problems is that it is easy to get the right method but always too easy to get the wrong answer.

Horrible right?

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Busy

3 minutes Presentation in Korean, Homeworks and Practicals.

*I am very busy*

Today, it is raining non-stop from yesterday night until now. I like rain, I like the smell of freshly mowned grass after rain. It always reminds me of the good old times back in Penang. Still a long way to go before I can be back to Penang. Still, I try not to be overly excited because it is too distracting. Hmmn...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Of thomas, kyle, korea

I am sure there are many things that we want to do in life. In the course of life, there will be times when we want to achieve what we had dreamed for but had to give up in the end due to financial contraints, scholarly attainments, etc. I had a dream too.

But, I shall not dwell into this. :) I believe that life is not about remembering the past but about the present and future. Though past are said to be the guide to never repeat the mistakes, I find it a stumbling block because by dwelling over the past, progress will be hindered by that thoughts.

So I progressed, I didn't look back, I try to forget everything about the past. Along the way, there were memories but I suppressed them. I prefer to start everything afresh. This is what I did when I came to Korea.

Life is not always rosy in Korea. Some might say it's great to be able to study overseas and stuffs like that. However, I had to admit that the days when learning Korean language was one of the best days of my life. During the course of stay there, I matured I change. Change is a must and without change one will not be what we want to be.

Throught the course of my stay in Korea, I had many nice memories and of course some bad ones, lots of first and plenty of suprises. Life is so unexpected sometimes, really... ;)

Life in university is somehow stressful sometimes, I am practically alone in my practical class especially chemistry because my partner was also a foreigner, a Chinese (why the professor did not give me a Korean partner??? wth!) and he is practically clueless in every classes so I did everything by myself.

Classes were okay, the books I am using are all in English but the lectures are in Korean. Contrary to popular belief that staying overseas long will make you well versed in the country's language, it is actually not that true. My Korean might be good when I write and sometimes talk, but honestly, it is still mediocre. I learned Korean for a year and it is definately not enough at all.

In Korea, I have develop a intense liking towards photography. I am more into film photography but the film costs make me think otherwise. This year, I will be buying a new good dslr camera, my current camera is not sufficient enough to fuel my appetite for quality photos. Right now, I am restained by the limited photographic capabilities of my camera. Likewise, I am also planning a trip to Egypt. I will try to travel to one country or two every single year in Korea. I did that this year when I went to China but it was not enough.

Well, that was the uhmmn part...

Anyhow, I did keep myself updated with the Malaysian Thomas Cup badminton match, but not Uber Cup, I am not interested because the women are not yet competent and matured to win, they need more practice and coaching. Yet, it was heartening to see many Malaysians supporting our players but sad to say the Malaysian players do not play against the opponents, they think too much, they play to win the cup.

They lost so much attention in the match maybe because the Chinese were so on offensive or because the Malaysian players can feel the stress of playing against the "feared" Chinese players and the stress of the people to see the Malaysian team win. I had that feeling too when I started off with my first competitive match. The nerdiest and "mind blowing" game - chess. When I was selected to represent my school for it, I was more than happy to accept the challenge, those were the days when I want to prove my worth. Nowadays I don't have that much feeling to prove that I can do this and that. To ladies readers - Guys are competitive in nature. Ladies too ler...

During the Under-15 state level individual chess match, I was very very focused and confident. I won 5 and half point out of 8 points, making me the third best player in my school and so I was selected for the team event. Then, there were the times when the expectations to win comes into my mind. Here, I started to be burdened by my responsibility to win for the team and from then on, it went downhill. So I don't blame the Malaysian badminton team :) Better luck and focus next time.

**

These days, I am experiencing writer's block. I couldn't write well and think on what to write in english these days because I speak, text message and do assignments so much in Korean that I feel more comfortable in using Korean than English. My English proficiency had really deteriorated. Ugghh. I need to write more!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

언제나 (Always...)


1 year and 2 months plus.

언제 난 집에 돌아갈 수 있어?

오래 기도렸지만 아직도 소망을 이루지 않았다
가끔 밤에 혼자 있을 때 많이 생각이 나왔다
난 감정이 잘 숨겨서 사람들이 모르겠다
난 사람들을 내가 감정이 이야기 하고 싶지 않다
혼자 숨기고 혼자 견디다

이 느낌이 없으면 집중할 수 있어
왜 오늘만 이 느낌이 있는지 몰라
미안하다

Monday, April 26, 2010

Living in Korea

*Cost of living in Korea for a day*

Breakfast:

Normal/Budget
Bread (2.50 USD/1.50 USD)
Rice (3.00 USD/2.00 USD)
Milk (1.00 USD/1.00 USD)

Lunch:

Bibimbap (2.50 USD)
Rice and chicken cooked in Ginseng Soup (3.20 USD)
Sushi buffet (10.00 USD)
Spaghetti (4.00 USD)
Coke (1.00 USD)

It really depends on what you will be eating for that day, some might be a cheaper, like ramyeon noodle (USD 0.70) to nice restaurant meal with a glass of wine (at least USD 15.00)

Dinner:

Same as for Lunch but do try Samgyeopsal (about 10.00 USD for all you-can-eat)

Accomodation:

Hotel : No idea
Motel : At least USD 20.00, btw, this is in Daegu and not in Seoul.

Transportation:

Bus/Subway : Usually about USD 1.00 per ride but I had spent about USD 10.00 a day before when I was in Seoul last time.

Taxi : USD 1.70 per entry but the fare increases as you travel. Metered taxi unlike in Malaysia. Expensive but realible.

Car : Very cheap to buy a car in Korea. USD 6000 (about RM 20000) can buy a sedan in Korea. Malaysia. Haiyah, dream on.

Korea is an amazing country. For an average Malaysian, it might sound a little expensive but it is still a great country to visit.

The only catch is, you will definately be needing a Korean speaker to really enjoy your trip to Korea. English is not as widely spoken eventhough lots of huh hah over English in Korea these days

Finally, do you want to visit Korea?


Will be updating soon. Mid Term Exam finally over...

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Another ranting by me

I do not know why, how and what is wrong with me. No focus in my studies and so easily distracted. shit. It was so different last time. I am now yawning and spending my time typing this nuts. I might be hardworking last time but I think I lost a bit of focus now. Maybe I had spent my 2 years doing stuffs not related to studies like learning another foreign language.

My Chemistry exam is tomorrow. Do not know how I would fare this time. Felt disappointed with myself today. No work done. So many classmates think I could score but it was all a lie, I felt no confidence at all. Still, I shall not screw my paper... Hopefully...

Did not online and yet I was so distracted. Had a study timetable, I did it for every exam from SPM to STPM, but this time, I ignored it.
Felt dumb and stupid today. I have lots of "hopes" today and one of them is not to fail my chemistry paper. I will try harder in my next paper.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Come What May

"Come what may" Macbeth

- If you're prepared to do something come what may, it means that nothing will stop or distract you, no matter how hard or difficult it becomes -

My exam is next 2 weeks, but I am too preoccupied with other unimportant things than studying. Yesterday, I had a strange dream.

I dreamt that I was at a Skiing Resort in a mountanous place and my mum was so good in Korean. I was awed by my mum's ability to speak in Korean.

Maybe I think I fear that I could not really converse well in Korean in the future since I had stopped learning Korean like I previously did it in my Language Institute. I speak in Korean to my classmates but if sometimes when they could not understand me, I would be using English.



They always say my English is good.. Since coming to Korea, my English profiency had deteriorate to the extent of not being able to think of a nice topic to write for my university magazine. haiz...

But I am proud to say that I could converse in many languages. hehe.

Penang, Malaysia:

I really want to go back. By the time it's summer, I would had stayed in Korea for more than a year and half. The longest time being away from Penang was only 12 days, that was when I went to Singapore for some student exchange program. Nothing beats the smell of nice Malaysian food, craving for bak chang.



Wait till I am back.. and Bak Chang stall's owners will be laughing all the way to the bank. Good mah, they happy, my tummy also happy mah. In Korean standard, bak chang is cheap, even more for Char Koay Teow and Nasi Lemak (dirt cheap). But really, I want to taste on everything before I go back.

Koreans:

Koreans are generally nice, they are also very kind but I find them being shy when they encounter/meet a foreigner. They could also remember my name so quickly and yet I could not even remember their names after a month of studying together. OMG!

Everyday I would hear them say : "Anyeong haseyo Jin Soon See 안녕 하세요 진순 씨!(How are you Jin Soon)" and I would say "Anyeong haseyo" without the name and we would continue talking. Haiyah. Can't remember their name lah...

Anyone knows how not to forget their (and other people's) names? Honestly, I have a big problem in remembering names, I could not really even remember some of my schoolmates/classmates' names and whats more with other people's name. Some people could not really understand me.

Good impression of my coursemates in my university. :)

Facebook:

I felt bored using facebook. Last time, we had friendster and I created it out of "Peer Pressure" and have more than 300 friends but only about 70 percent of the people in my "Friend's List" are the people I know. Is it really worth having lots of friends that just appear as one of your so called "friend's list"? I find it vague when I see some people have lots of friends that they really do not know. The final curtain was when friendster introduced the application thingy, it choked my inbox until I got tired of deleting it ONE BY ONE!

Then, I switched to Facebook. I can still remember how it started. It started when I was in Lower 6 and "abusing" my privileges as the head student counselor (During my time, I make it the same ranking as the school captain, been able to enter disciplinary room and make admendment on the student records, those were the days...) But to those critics, I want to say this, I did my best in making my Board the very best and we had proved that by been almost equally the same as the prefectorial board. But as a human, I am never perfect and I am prone to make errors.

Continue, I did open an account during my class lesson, I did not enter my class that time and I think it might be my ever boring Puan Soon's Chemistry class. Instead of facing the laborious task of listening to the ever boring monotonous, sleep inducing lectures, I took the "other" path. It took a mere minute to create an account and another minute to approve my pending invites, that was about 10 people already invited me. That was my first set of "friends".

I make it my rule to not make my "friend's list" the same as my former friendster account and I do not approve or add anybody I do not know. Since I started with only 10 friends, it was great because I could see almost everyone's activities without going one by one.

Within days, it became 27, I think I might be right because I have my first foreigner in my 27 friend's list. I am like a Jakun *A type of monkey that get overly excited over small things*. No. Actually, she was my former teammate in a student exchange program in Singapore. She was the first Korean that I had met.



And today it had extended to more than 360 friends with over 20 pending requests from some people that I had never met. With more friends, it means more time to check their "lifestyle" and like I wish that I have more time, I became lazier to check my peoples' profiles. This is why I prefer to have small list of friends and at the same time I want to have more so that I can at least keep in touch with my friends whenever it arises.

I like meeting more people. I like talking to my friends. But with so many friends, it had became a chore if we (I mean all Facebook users) are to check one by one and with so many spams and unwanted "Polls" and "You got hit by XXXXXX pillows this and that". It had became too much.

With so little time and the addiction to the Facebook games, Mousehunt and so forth, sometimes I slept late to complete my assignments and stuff like that.

Great.

Homeworks:

Korean lecturers are crazy when they give homeworks, they keep on giving homework without really explaining how to solve them. WTH. They always say that the questions are almost the same as in High School syllabus and you can answer it after refering to your high school books.

And the students, well, damn smart la. They had only stop studying for 3 months but I had not even touch a single book on my major for almost 2 years - 1 year of not doing anything in Malaysia and 1 year of learning Korean in Korea. It was tough and that was incomparable to other foreigners taking the same course as me. Some of them did not take that kind of mathematics before.



Most Koreans are 2 years younger than me and the lessons when they were at high school was equivalent to Form 6/A-Level! Wow.

But most of them have no life, after school, they had to attend night classes, usually until 11 pm, crazy. But when I think of it again, I did that too, after school, I had tuition until 8 pm and sometimes I had night tuition too but still it was not as severe than the Koreans.

Malaysians especially the students are lucky lots.

Thank God.

You might also like..

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" ~Winston Churchill~