it's a brand new year - new hopes and dreams for the future. shall blog about my birthday celebrations soon. this space is collecting dust and cobwebs. 

Graduation Trip To Seoul Day 6, 7 & 8

the last of #7inseoulheaven for keepsake :)

on the 6th day , which was also the most epic day ever, we visited the carribean bay. 

didn't get to visit the water theme park since it was winter during my last visit. 

our minds must have went bonkers from all the shopping because in the morning, we decided that we shouldn't bring our individual wallets but a fixed amount in one pocket instead. we did some research online and after much calculation and consideration, we brought a total of 180000won. we thought we would have more than enough. 

never did we imagine that the actual price of an entrance ticket is way higher than the ones stated on the internet.. nearly went nuts when we thought we couldn't enter after the long long journey. the prices stated on the visitkorea web weren't accurate at all, for most of the attractions we've included in the itinerary. it was so frustrating because we were told that we've to rent life jackets even when we barely had enough to cover for the cheaper ticket which admits entrance at 2pm. nevertheless, we decided to just play by ear and went ahead to purchase the tickets and enter. 

after we entered, we encountered yet another financial issue. we had to purchase a card to rent our life jackets and the minimum amount was 30000won. we were short of 3000won. literally had to give the counter stuff ( who's a very nice lady ) the puppy eyes as i narrate our very unfortunate circumstance in my very limited korean + english before she allowed us to pay the 18000won for the life jackets in cash. & then we were told we had to buy swimming caps which we obviously couldn't even afford one with the meagre sum left. thank god, we noticed a few locals who weren't wearing them in the wave pool and decided to just go without them. it was all worth it because the wave pool's so fun and it was truly entertaining to see feli scream at the top of her lungs as the wave swept her back. at the later part of the day, felicia decided that the rides were too overwhelming for her so she would rather utilise her 42000won worth of entrance fee in the hot jacuzzi. fortunately for me, rachel was gutsy enough so we managed to take a few rides. 

& then it was home sweet home after bathing with all the naked ladies in the bathroom. as luck would have it, our subway card had insufficient value. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? & the angsty bus driver wouldn't allow us to pay in cash , even when a nice local tried to argue on our behalf. we had no choice but to take the subway which will take us x3 of the journey time. you know what? time wasn't even an issue, money was. we decided to get to the main city line and utilise every cent we had to get as near as possible to hongik station (where we were staying). when we reached the main city line, we realised we were only short of 3000won to get to our destination. we actually thought of taking a cab to our hotel while one of us run up to the guesthouse to grab money to foot for the cab fare but the thought of being hurled obscenties by the ferocious cab driver deterred us. in the end, we had to ask for some tokens from the kind locals. it's truly an epic, embarrassing and whatever you deemed approrpriate day.. 

we were starving by the time we reached the guesthouse and scrambled for dinner after which. 

day seven was so much better. 

here's a picture of our outfits which got our day started. 

we went back to edae to continue with our unfinished shopping :) managed to grab the last few pieces of the laneige sunpowder which was completely wiped out in all outlets. i was gonna make it HG when they announced that this product has been discontinued and replaced with the bb cushion. isn't the idea of a sunpowder brilliant? it's hard for us to reapply our sunblock when we have our make up own but sunscreen in the form of powder would totally do the trick. keeping my fingers crossed that some brands would manufacture something similar. xx 

went broke after shopping so we needed to replenish our korean wons but there weren't any money changers, even in the popular streets of hongdae. we couldn't even change money in the banks because it was a public holiday and the banks were closed. we were told to head all the way to myeongdong when we chanced by this in seoul station. managed to get the cash converted at a pretty good rate :) 

to sum up the day  : we had yummy kimchi fried rice with seafood toppings, went mad shopping at a grand mart and had delicious kimchi stew with bbq bacon and ended the day with ice cream waffles at caffe bene 

then it was the final afternoon in seoul . got up much earlier and usual to chill in hongdae. 

second visit in this restaurant which serves shabu shabu. love how they are so generous with the portions and sauces which went so well with the food :) it was only 11SGD per person. 

we meant to just take a walk after a meal when we chanced upon banila co, yet again. banila co x rachel&felicia is such a lethal combination. we went in , got our pockets emptied and went back to the guesthouse. our favourite brand in seoul. it's more expensive than the rest like nature republic, etude house , innisfree and all but it offers really good products which are comparable to MAC (in my opinion) my eyeliner wouldn't stop smudging because of my oily lids and they had this miracle primer powder which allowed my eyeliner wink to last throughout the day !! imagine my happiness when the salesperson introduced it to us. 

& it was time to head to the airport. we had too many baggages so we couldn't fit into one public taxi. two public taxis would cost us close us to 90000won so we decided to book the maxi cab , with the help of the owner of the guesthouse. so thankful that we changed extra cash the day before or we wouldn't have enough for the cab fare.  that sums up the entire yolo grad trip xoxo. till the next vacation, ladies ! :) 

Thank god it's wednesday

On Wednesday , I decided to give myself a break from all the tuitions and spent some quality time with my loved ones - friends and kunny ( who's abandoning me for Aussie in 2 weeks time ) 

brought him to my trusted brow salon , rupin's at holland village to get his eyebrows trimmed. 

he's been dying to try eyebrow threading for sometime, bugging me to bring him when we were in bangkok . the thing about my boyfriend is, he's very very "adventurous" and he always fazes me with his new idiosyncrasies.  bicycle stunts, body building , beer brewing (?!? most extreme) to name a few..

we managed to get tickets for monsters inc at shaw's lido after our fruitless hunt for winter jackets. 

please bring along a cardigan when you visit the movie theatres at lido because their aircon's on full blast and we were freezing throughout the movie . i had to hide my arms kun's bag to keep warm. 

____________________________________

met up with the uniclique for dinner at timhowan. 

we had to queue for 1.5 hours, from 6:30pm all the way to 8pm. the queue was madness and it didn't help that sammi cheng and andy lau were at the foyer for some movie fan meeting. 

it's pretty hard for big groups to secure seats and they need everyone to be present before they allow you to have the seats. it's much easier if you were to go in pairs. 

then again , going in big groups all us to try a variety of dishes . we ordered almost everything on the menu and the total bill amounted to about 24 per person. there were a few hits and misses, but it was a satisfactory overall. i heard it's much cheaper and better in hongkong's original branch though . 

Peihao ordered this to satisfy his chinese porridge craving after months in Aussie. 

this was a miss . we ordered three portions and no one really liked it. 

love this two fried dishes too :) 

chee cheong fun in three different kinds of fillings - mushroom, shrimp and charsiew. 

i'm a fan of CCF so i wouldn't give this a miss but i thought the mushroom filling was a lil weird. 

one of the most popular dishes - osmanthus flower jelly . 

the super sharp fragrance put us off quite a bit. it's like you're consuming perfume. 

not really a fan of herbs so this is a miss for most of us. 

these two are my ultimate favourites - yam puree with sago and BBQ pork buns. 

i'm sure BBQ pork buns need no introduction and it's so popular that it's only limited to one portion per pax , regardless of dining in or takeaway. we ordered three portions for our dine in and were told we can only takeaway a maximum of 5 portions. the staff has kindly provided us with takeaway boxes and plastic bags to divide our takeaway share. i thought that was a thumbs up on CS side :) 

yam puree with sago was soooooo good. i'm not really a fan of yam or the popular or ni yam dessert but this is such a refreshing change from mango sago dessert. i'm deserting the later for the former for sure :) 

picture snapping time after a hearty meal 

headed off to marks and spencer to accompany our dearest rachel to stock up on some snacks for work. 

she has started on her first official job as an accounts executive last week and she's already so swarmed with work. she almost couldn't make it for dinner because she has a few projects on hand ( too pro! ) and i'm so proud of her and yet feel so sad that we won't be able to spend so much time together. we used to see each other everyday to mug and whine about all the revision and non existent social life. 

i.still.can't.believe.we.are.stepping.into.the.workforce.already. 

i would be joining the working crowd (hopefully) after i'm done with all my tuition assignments on hand this year. alot of my friends encouraged me to pursue full time tutoring and i've put much thoughts into it. after much deliberation, i've decided that i should not go into the private teaching field full time because teaching from 7pm-9pm ( the usual teaching slot ) would mean that i've to miss out on dinner gatherings etc. I also felt that if i were to go into teaching, i should go through the proper channels of NIE ;  i'm not sure if this is the route that I want to pursue,  having chose the Business Degree in the first place. 

life is all about making choices and sacrifices. 

Graduation Trip To Seoul Day 4 & 5

it was our fourth day but lyla and the rest were scheduled for home on the evening :( 

yenqin took a picture of us, the three vainpots, going about in our morning routine. 

we only had one mirror and toilet so we always didn't manage to set off on the agreed time #fail 

the four of them set off first since it was their last day and they had a long list of shopping to do. 

we were headed for ewha university area, which was very near hongdae so cab was cheap. 

so here comes the most epic incident of the day..

we were on the cab to edae when rachel started to rummage through her bag for her cellphone. 

we started to panic when we couldn't find it in her bag/on the seat/on the floor. 

she couldn't remember if she brought it out so we decided to make a u-turn back to the guesthouse. 

it's samsung note 2 we are talking about and rachel uses it 24/7 to text her bf back at home. 

i got out of the cab, sprinted across 50m to the building of our guesthouse (like a mad woman), smashed the lift button and ran ( like a mad woman, again) to our unit. i was SO relieved that the phone was still sitting on the ledge. 

 stooped down to catch my breath , turned back only to see darsarina literally taking her morning stroll to our unit. THIS SKINNY WOMAN'S GOT GUTS, really.  irritating woman actually went on to say " i mean if i really lose it what can i do ? cry meh ? hehe " 

made me run and lose my demure image in the hip town of seoul.. 

I, ran across the grand streets of hongdae in a striking colourful romper, for a skinny girl who doesn't really care about skinny phone. gave her a death stare and she gave me the sheepish look. totally should have let her lose her phone and cry buckets of river  

sent them a sulking picture because we couldn't find them initially and they were rushing off to the airport. as luck would have it, we spotted tracy buying a bbq stick when we were resting in the corner. 

it was a crazy shopping day and we only managed to have our first meal of the day in the noon. 

settled for a cozy homely restaurant which offers korean cuisine (y) a pity they didn't have kimchi stew 

Edae offers a lot of woman shopping. There were a handful of shops which offer male apparel as well. 

All the cosmetic brands were there - Banila Co (our favourite!), Innisfree, Nature Republic, Laneige, The Saem , Shara Shara, Tony Moly etc etc. It would be good to make a stop there before myeong dong because the prices are much more competitive in the Edae stretch and the retailers are very generous when it comes to free gifts and samples . 

There's this particular shop that sells parallel imports. Hence, the prices of the products are much cheaper than the market retail prices. For instance, a piece of innisfree mask was sold at 950won each but the shop sells them at 3000won for a pack of 10. we managed to get hold of the highly raved EGF eye masks too :) 

these had to be my best buys from the shop! i was on the hunt for a light, day-time moisturiser and was introduced to the water bank essence. This pack which consists of 8 travel sized bottles was only sold at 20000won !! don't we all love good deals?  i've been using it ever since my return and i love how it doesn't leave any oily residue while keeping my skin moisturised. 

finally managed to locate the hello kitty cafe which is hidden behind the main stretch of buildings. 

it was still operating but the waffles and cakes were all sold out :( 

   Day Five - HongDae ;  Express Bus Terminal ; myeongdong ; dongdaemun & hongdae again.

my outfit of the day. low back dress in neon pink from thestagewalk.

it wasn't pre planned but all three of  us were decked in shades of pink coincidentally :) 

first stop of the day - shabu shabu for lunch at hongdae. 

we paid about SGD 11 per pax and we loved the broth so much :) 

that meal could have easily cost us 3x more in singapore. 

check out the mountainous serving  of bean sprouts. the restaurant actually serves every table one huge mountain of bean sprouts. it's pretty wasteful in my opinion :( none of the tables came close to finishing them. the kimchi was very yummy and we shamelessly asked for a few servings to satisfy our cravings . we also added side dishes like cheese ddeokbokk which was very well received. 

we chanced by this restaurant while we were walking so i'm unsure of it's exact location. if it helps, walk straight once you get out of exit 8 of Hongik University Station, until you see Aritaum ( a retail outlet which houses many beauty brands under one roof ). The shop is located on the second floor of the building next to Aritaum ! There are alot of restaurants in the vicinity so you can check out the area. 

After lunch , we proceeded to Tricked Art Museum which is located in HongDae. We had a hard time locating the building and it turns out to be hidden in the basement of a not-so-atas building, tucked in one of the alleys of the shopping street. We managed to locate it after some tips from locals and google mapping. & of course, we didn't fail to stop by shopping streets and bagged home a few printed skirts for cheap. I was immensely inspired by the chic fashion in seoul - plain tops and printed skirts. Many of them , even the working class, look so effortlessly chic. 

Reached TAM , got our tickets, placed our bags in the locker for 500won and off we went. 

had to show our sincerity by praying in mid to atone for all the evils sins that feli had committed. 

Rachel sent this picture to her family whatsapp conversation and her mother actually believed that she went mad with all the shopping! I have to say though, we have been struggling to control our expenses, then and now. 

our nth couple shot. we're forever taking couple shots somehow :x

it was pretty fun at the museum and the entrance fee wasn't very expensive either. it's definitely worth a visit if you're heading to Seoul. we went on a weekday and it wasn't crowded at all. 

headed off to the much anticipated express bus terminal for shopping after we left the museum! 

endless stretch of shopping which offers cosmetics, apparel & even drawings/furnitures. 

you wouldn't want to miss this stop if you're looking to shop in Seoul. the stuffs in Seoul are definitely not cheap but i can attest to the quality of those that's "made in korea". i've bought alot of printed skirts and bold- coloured dresses like hot pink and bright yellow - none of the colour runs :) that made laundry a whole lot easier. it's really unlike those from bangkok/china. 

most of my purchases are 10000won except a few which do not exceed 25000won. 

keep your eyes peeled for the amazing prints and cheap bargains hidden in the racks. 

there are a lot of bargains but you have to hunt them in the messy racks , unfortunately. 

headed off to myeongdong to exchange more money because we went mad with shopping. 

& our final pit stop for the day - Angel In Us Coffee Cafe for patbingsu and chocolate toast. 

not a fan of the whipped cream and the patbingsu wasn't very fantastic either. nevertheless it was good to chill after a long day of mad shopping. we were doing exactly what we wanted - to chill in a cafe instead of mugging and it was pure bliss . 

up you go, till the next entry.