Happy New Year^^

Hehe...guess it's a bit late but Happy New Year^^
May all of you have a blessed new year ahead^^

So, this year I decided not to make an actually list of resolutions. Been making new year's resolutions these few years, but in the end I end up not doing what I wanted to do...

BUT there are a few things I'll try to improve on:
1. Spend more time with God - longer quite time and spending more time praying.
2. Continue the Bible reading plan I started in November and finish reading the Bible cover to
cover within this year.
3. Spend more time on my studies.

Well then, will stop here for now.^^

Amsa-Dong Prehistoric Settlement Site

We were asked to make a short video clip as part of our assignment. So, since it's holiday, we thought of catching 2 birds with one stone - visit an interesting place in Seoul while doing our assignment.

This place represents the largest neolithic settlement site in Korea. During a flood in 1925, many pieces of comb-pattern pottery was uncovered, therefore revealing the site of the settlement.

22-26 Dec

Quite a few things came up this few days....

Firstly, my deepest sympathy to Usha on the death of her father.......

22nd- Our lecturers brought us to the ice-skating-ring at City Hall. Not my first time there, but
first with nearly 60 other Malaysian students^^
Went for dinner after skating. Food was delicious: tofu stew, tuna stew, steamed egg and
fried squid.
Went to Chonggyechon with my friends after that. There was a Luminarie in Seoul event
being held there.
And finally to end the night, our lecturer, Mr Ham brought us to Starbucks and bought us
coffee^^ 2nd time going to Starbucks and 1 st time in Korea^^















24th- Went to my piano teacher's place. This year there's 6 Malaysian. 4 from my batch and 2
juniors. Had seafood soup and 2 cakes^^
Stayed at her place till nearly midnight.
6 of us waited at the bus stop for quite a
while,but no bus came our way.However
we did see a pedestrian quarrelling with
a taxi driver..and imagine on Christmas
eve!!
Decided to take the subway instead, but
by the time we reached the subway
station, it was closed.
So had no choice but to take the taxi.
Got a phone call from my aunt at 12+am.

25th- (Strangely, surprisingly, sadly) didn't go
anywhere else besides to church. After all, it is a celebration to remember Christ's birth^^

26th- Went to ebs broadcasting centre to attend "Morning Special", an english radio program, as an audience. 6 other friends came along as well. For being there, we were each given an
international calling card worth 20,000won.
And for simple saying a few sentences, I got a Estee Lauder whitening essence (they told
me it's worth 100,000won ~RM400). Not that I have any use of it...so decided to bring it
back and give it to my mom next year^^

Pilot G-2 pens

Bought two pilot pen through the internet.
After opening an internet banking account, I've been going through stuff on the internet.

Am using a G-2 pen, find it comfortable and nice (thought sometimes the paper gets dirty because I accidently touched the undried ink)

As the one I'm is gonna finish soon, I tried to look for it at a few stationaty shop near my house and at school, but couldn't find it.

So, searched on-line and found an on-line company. The price for one pen is 1,500 won. Filled the forms saying I'll pay when I receive the goods, and asking them to sent it next door in case no one is at home.

And it actually went next door, but since I wasn't at home, they didn't collect the money. One of my housemate was asking me not to pay them till they phone, but thought that it's not a good idea so phoned the company and ask them for their bank account^^

반계탕- Half a chicken soup(?)

Hahaha^^
Had half a chicken for lunch this afternoon.
At first I thought I'd skip proper meals and take some light snacks for lunch, but when I saw the chicken, it was just too tempting.

Half a Chicken Soup, at least that's what I think the menu said.
Usually when we cook at home, 1 chicken can be cooked into 2 meals for 10-12 people.
So I feel "xing fu", blessed^^

The price was the normal school canteen price- 2,500won (~RM 9). And considering that the price for a chicken in korea is about 4,000won, it made us wonder whether it was imported from some country with bird flu....

Last Semester of Korean Language

Well, it's the end of the 2nd week of my last semester in Language Education Institute, the place where I learn my Korean.

Before I go any futher, just a bit of updates about my holidays 2 weeks ago:
11/30 - Went to Suwon's Folk Village and Hwaseong Fotress with 7 of my friends. The village was
nice, but would have been much better if we were there during spring or autumn.


Ok, back to my topic.
It's the last semester of my Korean Language. Though I know that my Korean language skills are still far from "ok" and Dong Yang Technical College(DYTC) is not the best institute of higher education in Korea (heard that it ranks 88, though in terms of Technical College some say it's the best), I'm eager to graduate from here and start a new live in the college.
Maybe it's because we've been stucked there for nearly 1.5 years...looking for a change..

And hmm..well not much to talk about I guess...celebrated 2 of my housemates' birthday.
Got addicted to a Korean drama (Jewel in the Palace) and to Stargate Atlantis (My brother put it in my com but never touched it till recently).

Stargate was still ok, as it's a series and each episode has a story of its own. But the drama was so interesting, the plot, story line, suspense, and etc making me eager to know what'll happen next, so I watched 2-5 hours a day.
But finally decided that it's bad for my health^^ and a disturbance to my study, so going to pause it for a while and wait for my week-long-holiday end of the month.

And ya, sent a few Christmas cards to my friends. But guess it won't reach them in time^^'..

Well then, guess I'll stop here....

Oh ya, started a cover to cover Bible reading plan after hearing the sermon of a pastor. It really challenged me. Seeing how little we know about the God's word. The little time we spend reading the scriptures compared to the time we spend studying.
And imagine a doctor in the emergency room suddenly asking:"O my, where's the liver?" , picks up his medical book and going through it in the middle of an operation.
It may not be as "severe" in our lives, but how much do we know about the Bible? How are we to answer when we face problems in lives or questions from others?

I was even more challenged when I accompanied one of my friend to the house of a Jehovah's witness. Though I do not agree with the doctrines she believes in, but one point about her conversion strikes me right at the spot.
She said:" When I 1st met those Jehovah witnesses, I was amazed. How come they dare to go around preaching and sharing the word of God? Unless they know the Bible well enough and know where to refer to each time someone asks a question."

Well, will stop here now.

A day out all by myself^^

After planning for more than a year, finally I set foot on the grandest palace in Seoul - Gyeongbokgung.

Set my alarm at 8am this morning, but turned it off and slept till 11am.
Got out from my house at 12 noon and arrive at the palace site at about 1pm. Waited till 2pm for the english tour guide to start.

The palace was indeed beautiful...built in 1395 during the Joseon Dynasty, it was burnt down by the Japanese in 1592.
In the year 1868 it was restored back to its' former glory, but to be burnt down again by the Japanese in 1910.
Plans of restoration was carried out by the government in 1990, and the current palace is but 30% of it's original scale...The palace is still under construction and by 2009 40% of the original buildings will be complete.
However, sad to say but it can never be restored to 100% cause information concerning the palace isn't complete.......

A place that one shouldn't miss if you're in Seoul...the guided tour is only 1 hour.

Next to the palace was the National Folk Museum. Went in, had a look and followed a tour group which I didn't recognized....just to listen to the guide who were explaining some of the stuff in chinese.

Went to Kyobo bookstore after coming out of the palace. Kyobo is the biggest bookstore here in Korea. But the collection of english book is still quite unsatisfying..and you can hardly see any chinese novels....

Spend 2 hours browsing around the book store and bought some Christmas cards....can't believe it, but Christmas is just around the corner^^

Went for dinner at Burger King which was just outside of the bookstore.
Had bacon double cheese burger set- 5000won (RM 18.00!!)
Spent 2 hours in there having my dinner and reading some magazines..it's just so...fun...and relaxing..Nothing to worry, just enjoy my dinner and reading...something I haven been able to do for quite some time...

Before coming back home dropped by at Lotte Mart, the biggest supermarket near my house. Bought some snacks to teman me for this week, when I'm watching movies or reading^^

A day out..all by myself...never thought that it can be quite fun as well^^

Thanksgiving Dinner^^

It's my secong year in Korea and it's my second time 'celebrating' thanksgiving as well^^ For those who don't know, the American Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of November.

Last year I was the only Malaysian, but this year another of my friend, Hock Siang, went with me as well.
This year it's held at Ps William's place, cause he has the biggest apartment among the absk members(?).

Anyway, the night was fun...had turkey, TURKEY for dinner^^ It's my second time eating turkey in Korea. The first time was at Sarang Community Church last year.

And after dinner we had a fun time playing sequence. It's indeed an interesting game. Thinking of buying this board game if I come across it...

Hmm..thus ends the first day of my week-long holiday^^

updates...

Had a supposedly busy 3 weeks.....

On the 7 of November our lecturers brought us to Lotte World, the most famous indoor theme park in Korea and also the world's largest indoor theme park. It's also the 3rd theme park that I've been to in Korea, the other two were Everland and Seoul Land.

On the 12, we had a Hari Raya open house. As most of you might know, I'm currently staying with 4 Malays and another chinese guy. So my Malay housemates held an open house and they were busy the whole afternoon preparing all the food and stuff.

Then on the 13, we had an annual dinner. It's a time when all the Malaysian students under JPA comes together and have dinner (duh....) with the ambassador and the officers who are in-charge of us. This year it was held at Holiday Inn and we had quite a lot of raw fish.....which didn't really appeal to most of us.....and I wasn't in time to grab the lobster....

After coming back from the dinner, I stayed up till 6am just to finish a report and a slide show that I needed to present in the afternoon. I had been procrastinating the thing for one whole week...but luckily was able to finish it in time and I could at least sleep for 5 hours....

On the 19 we had a PPMK Annual Meeting. PPMK stands for Pelajar-pelajar Malaysia di Korea.
So basically it was a meeting where all students meet together and hear the report of the AJK's in the last session and elect new AJK for the next session. This year's meeting was quite interesting because they were a few students who quarreled with the officer in-charge..the student was actually writing a memorandum to sent to officer back to Malaysia....
Anyway, the meeting lasted from 1pm till 10pm...

From the 22nd till 25th I was packed with exam....
22nd- Korean language exam, with some Korean form 4 science subs in it as well..and as the syllabus isn't totally the same as M'sia, there were quite a few things new to me.

23rd- Had my physics exam,or actually "open your book and copy the answer onto the answer sheet exam". It's one of the mosty ridiculous exam I had in my whole life.

24th- Had my computer exam. It's was quite fun....never thought that I'd come to like it...^^

25th- Math exam. I planned to really study hard for my math since my mid-term exam...but didn't really manage to. All my housemates were playing around and I didn't have the mood to study as well throughout the week...so I can just imagine how my Maths' result will turnout to be.....

2nd Mt Gwanak Trip

My second trip to Mt Gwanak.
My first one had some bad memory with it...but this one was good.
Went with Hans, one of the member from ABSK bible study group.
The whole trip took about 4hours, and after the trip we had 산체비빔밥 (rice with mountain vegetable) for lunch^^