Day 1 and Day 2 in South Korea at Yonsei University

First of all, I’d like to apologize that there will not be any accompanying pictures with my blog.  Unfortunately, I did not bring my connector thing for my camera to the computer.  But, I will update with pictures once I get back home.

So anyway, I’ll begin with the flight over to SK.  I have to say, the flight was pretty decent.  I mean, when I used to go on long flights, I always had air sickness.  So I expected to puke like a madwoman and not be able to eat the food offered on the plane.  But, I was able to eat this time!  Yay!  I had Bibimbap (for the first time) and chicken.  Yea, the second meal wasn’t so great, but I loved the Bibimbap.  Yummy!  I remember after the first meal, I was so nervous of getting sick… 😦 I kept playing with the air sickness bag because I thought, any second, I was going to throw up everything I ate.  Hopefully the flight back will be just as fortunate.  And besides the whole food thing, the 2 men beside me were really kind.  They were both really Korean.  They used Korean to speak to the flight attendants, I mean, I was the only one using English.  Dammnnnn….  Any who, the old guy next to me (btw, I was the middle seat on the window side) kept talking to me on the flight over to Seoul.  He was asking me questions about New York and my family, and whatnot.  And, of course, he explained his story to me too.  He was chatting up about how he was a business man and he’s been to America several times to attend conferences and speeches by professors.  The guy also talked about how he loved ‘Mamma Mia.”  Quoted exactly: “The Korean culture is so conservative.  It was weird to see a girl not know her father because the mother was with many, many men.  But, you know, they could just look at her face, or take a DNA test.  Technology is so advanced.”  LOL The last part made me crack up.  And then he also bought a whole bunch of stuff… like, dude, plane stuff is so expensive… he bought a Lancome make-up set for his wife, chocolates, Cognac wine, and a set of crayons for his soon-to-be grandson.  So, so sweet.  😀  The best part of it all, was that when it came time to take your stuff out of the compartment, I was too short to reach.  Yup…. 1 of the guys next to me helped open the compartment and the other helped to take my stuff down.  Thankful!

Anyway, I have to go quick because it’s like, 11:40 PM right now.  I have to sleep or else I won’t be able to get up!  I still have circles under my eyes…. it’s kinda creepy 😦  So, I’ll move onto Day 1 now, which was very short may I say…

Day 1

The New York group was the last to arrive.  How wonderful… So, my roommate is this girl named Ting.  She’s really nice and funny, but really sleepy at the same time.  I feel like we get along well (I hope she feels the same way >.<).  But, I mean, okay.  We walked into our dorm expecting this luxury dorm room because the SK Global House is fairly new (opened in Feb. 2010) and it was beautiful outside.  Yea, no.  Nothing like I expected.  There was no balcony because my room is on the 7th floor and the 7th floor has no balconies, I guess?  But you know what else, me and my roommate are the only ones on the 7th floor.  😦 I feel isolated.  And I can only begin to name off the crazy stuff about our room.  Here we go!

1. No lesson in how to turn on air conditioning.  So the first day was spent w/o air conditioning in our room.  Extremely humid, I was sweating a pond!

2. There was a woody smell to the room, which made me feel sick and light headed.

3. No door exists for the shower area.  It’s just out in the open.  And the toilet is separated from the shower and sink.  Weird?

4.  There is a garbage pale the size of a large cup of McDonald’s soda.  It is located in the toilet room.  How sucky.  2 pieces of garbage fills up the pale!

5. The linen was definitely not clean.  I dusted it, yet there was still hair all over the place.  Especially on my blanket!  So disgusted, I just grabbed that blanket and shoved it under my bed.  Bleh…

6. NO T.V. OR FRIDGE IN THE ROOM!  So, so boring without the T.V.!  and oh my goodness, I was dehydrating last night!  I avoided water on the plane so that I wouldn’t have to bother the old man next to me to go potty.  So I ended up screwing myself over.  Darn.

I’m sure there were plenty of other stuff I complained about.  But that’s long forgotten.  I’ve learned to just get used to it.  I guess…  My roommate and I filled out this survey we were given and basically complained about every freakin’ thing in the room.  We requested maid service and all!  LOL… This morning, when we handed it in to the lady downstairs, she was so shocked, her face-  she kinda looked like this: “-o-”  I can’t get her face out of my mind LOL.  So yea, I went to sleep… woke up every 1 to 2 hours though.  It was hard to sleep through the night.  Don’t mean to complain and whine so much, but knowing that last year, the kids stayed at a luxury apartment, it’s bothersome.  arrggghhhhh!

Day 2

Woke up in the morning at 6.  It wasn’t that hot, but whatever.  Went down for breakfast with my roommate and all.  Satisfied my thirst with lots of orange juice.  lol… and then we happened to have to wear formal wear today.  but we also did a lot of walking!  Oh man, my pants were suffocating my legs!  I was sweating like a beast and my legs were numb with heat!  August is so freakin’ humid and muggy in SK!  Well, anyway, we did an orientation to welcome ourselves and then moved on to our First Lecture.  The lady professor talked so much and she went really slow with the teaching Korean part… Oh my goodness, I was falling asleep and whatever she taught just flew out of my head the second it went in.  It was more of a cram session than it was actual learning!  Ughh… but I took notes and hopefully I’ll use it to do some self-studying.

After, we went to this formal luncheon that had a cool buffet.  Food was good, I ate some sashimi.  Yum… but it was only salmon.  😦  Then, we did some more walking.  We did a campus tour.  Extremely hot. I was sweating non-stop.  Uncomfortable.  Then we just chilled in the Global Lounge.  They gave snacks and drinks.  Perfect.  Honestly, I’ve never cherished drinks so much before.  Nothing big.  I feel like I’m leaving something out, but I’m doing this really rushed.  I need to get to bed soon!  gahhhh~ Dinner happened.  The meat looked gross, but it tasted pretty good.  After, I shopped around with groups of people.  Didn’t buy too much.  I bought a cellphone key chain for my sister and 11 clips for my mom.  Hair clips are expensive in Korea!  Damn…. they must make some pretty hot clips.  These better be sturdy.  They feel sturdy, so I hope my mom likes them.  Mad expensive.  life sucks.  Some more sweat happened.  Went back to the dorm and ended up here blogging.  My roommate is probably sleeping now.  lol… I should go back, but I want to watch Autumn in My Heart.  erghhhhh…  Sleep doesn’t exist for me in SK.  Lawllzzz.  We got a free t-shirt too.  Yup, it’s pretty hot… small… really small… I should try it on later to see if it fits.  I’m like a small/medium.  Whatever, I’ll lost weight on this trip anyway.  Lack of sleep and loss in appetite.  Yup… my weight is going to drop pretty soon.  Okay… I’m going to stop blogging now before I really lose it.  I even feel like I’m hallucinating now.  I’ll be back tomorrow for more blogging about Day 3!  Woo~ I mean, this time, I won’t squish 2 days in one post.  Too long of a post and too much of a hassle to type.  Ugh.

O wait, I must mention that I took a picture with Kim Hyun Joong of SS501 today.  LOL, or should I say the cardboard version of him.  lovely… new fb picture, no?  and Goo Hye Sun was everywhere… I guess it’s because she’s really pretty and has beautiful skin.  And….. I saw Super Junior albums in the music store, along with SNSD, 2PM, Arashi, Kat-tun, Autumn in My Heart OST, Personal Taste OST, Boys Over Flowers OST, and etc.  Okay.  Time to watch a part of an episode to Autumn in My Heart before bed.  Night!

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A Love That Grows Over Time

It seems like a lot of relationships out there these days are based on the fact that one person “grew” on the other.  It’s fairly common, no?  But in a way, it kind of seems… romantic, I guess.  It’s as if one person is so in love with the other that they can’t take any sort of rejection.  They’re… motivated.  And if they work hard enough, eventually, the other person will slowly begin to fall in love with that person.  Of course there are situations in which it never follows through.  BUT, usually, the case is a happily-ever-after story.

You’re probably wondering how on earth I started thinking about this topic.  Well, I was having a conversation with a good friend the other day and it seemed like she was having this issue.  So that got me thinking, “huh,,, when love grows on you?”

So here I am, thinking about this.  Even last night, before I fell asleep, I was contemplating about this kind of love.  Here are the results:

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It Started with a Kiss

Remember the drama It Started with a Kiss (I’ll be referring to the Taiwanese one)?  Well, as I thought about it, Zhi Shu and Xiang Qin fell in love this way.  In the beginning, Zhi Shu thought of Xiang Qin as a nuisance and was always telling her to bug off.  He simply thought she was stupid and foolish.  But Xiang Qin was persistent with her love for Zhi Shu.  She would follow him everywhere and try to get close with him.  After a long while, Zhi Shu started to like her, just the slightest bit!  One day, Xiang Qin just wasn’t annoying to him anymore; he began to enjoy her company.  In the end, he rightfully stole her back from Ah Jin and they married and lived happily ever after.  So, you see, Xiang Qin used this method to captivate Zhi Shu’s heart.  Although she was a pest to him at first, she eventually became someone he loved very dearly.  And if you watched ISWAK2, Zhi Shu even tells this to his little brother, Yu Shu.  Yu Shu asks him how he started to like Xiang Qin, and Zhi Shu responds with “Every day, she would annoy me so much, and then one day, that annoyed feeling went away.  That’s when I started to like her.”

Devil Beside You

In Devil Beside You, same sort of love AGAIN!  In this story, we had Ah Meng stalking Qi Yue.  Omgzzz I remember, in the beginning, Ah Meng was such a creeper.  He was everywhere Qi Yue went!  And all the while, Qi Yue didn’t even like him!  She liked Yuan Yi!  But, again, Ah Meng was always bugging her and making her do stuff, and pissing her off, and blah blah blah…. Eventually, she fell in love with him!  She rejected Yuan Yi and chose Ah Meng.  Sadly, the story did not end here.  It went onto another issue that I won’t talk about here.  But the point is, is that Ah Meng’s love grew on Qi Yue!

Boys Over Flowers

One of my favorites is the story of Geum Jan Di and Gu Jun Pyo, from Boys Over Flowers.  So, maybe this isn’t ideal for our topic, but in some ways it fits.  Think about it: first, Jan Di and Jun Pyo were absolute enemies.  Jun Pyo even gave Jan Di the Red Card from F4!  *gasp*  But Jan Di had a lot of courage and stood up to Jun Pyo!  She stood up to him every single time he tried to impose an F4 punishment on her.  Now, Jun Pyo never faced such an opponent.  So this ticked him off.  For days, he would think about Jan Di and how to intimidate her enough to make her kneel down to him and apologize for going against him.  Finally, all this thinking about Jan Di made him fall in love with her.  Only, Jan Di was already in love with someone else: F4 member, Yoon Ji Hoo.  And there was NO WAY she would fall in love with a mean maniac like Jun Pyo.  Yet, Jun Pyo was intent on making Jan Di fall in love with him.  The more she repelled him, the stronger his love for her was.  Weird.  But obviously, in the end, they ended up together.  Jan Di grew to like Jun Pyo.  She realized this when she was on a date with Ji Hoo; all she could think about was Jun Pyo.  At the end of the drama, Jun Pyo proposed to Jan Di and they lived happily-ever-after!

Fated to Love You

And lastly, one of the best Taiwanese dramas ever, Fated to Love You!  The chemistry between Ji Cun Xi and Chen Xin Yi was played so well by Ethan Ruan and Joe Chen.  Anyways, in this drama, Cun Xi also began thinking that Xin Yi was an annoying pest to his life!  He was annoyed that he might hurt the relationship between him and Anna.  So he kind of took advantage of Xin Yi’s goodwill and naivete.  Even though she was very patient with and kind to Cun Xi, he treated her badly because he was so annoyed at her presence in his life.  It wasn’t until Xin Yi lost their baby and left his life that he had realized that he actually enjoyed her presence in his life, despite how he always yelled at her.  So there you have it.  He, like all the other characters I talked about, allowed Xin Yi’s love to grow on him.

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That’s what I thought about before sleeping last night. 🙂  Haha… But do you really think if someone works hard enough at chasing the one they love, it’ll work?  I happen to believe so.  It’s kind of like magic?  XD  One person can chase and chase and chase, and if they do it at the right time, the other person will slowly begin to fall in love with them.  A type of brainwashing in love if you ask me…  But, it sounds cute enough.  And for the person who’s chasing, their lover ends up being their prized possession.  As for the lover being chased, they, well, feel so valued and special.  Isn’t that a wonderful ending?

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✿ Con Te Partiro ✿

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Ahhhh… isn’t the place above so beautiful?  It looks so relaxing and calm… I wish I was there right now!  Well, if you haven’t guessed already, it most certainly is the city of love: Venice, Italy.  Oi!  Ever since I was in grade school, I was attracted to the mystery of Venice.  I remember my mom telling me how there’s this place in Italy where it is all water…  I was amazed by this as a little fellow!  Haha… ya, so at that moment, I knew I wanted to take Italian as a language in school.  I planned to master Italian and go to Venice to see the wonderful site myself!  And so here I am after taking 3 years of Italian.  Hopefully, I can continue to work hard and become very fluent in the language, for I want to visit Venice!!!!!

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Now, also very recently, Venice was featured in the awesome 꽃보다 남자 Boys Over Flowers!  You have NO IDEA how excited I was when I found out that Geum Jan Di and F4 were traveling to (fake) Venice to visit Gu Jun Pyo.  O how lucky the cast was to see such a beautiful place!  I guess that’s what they get for being famous! And when Ji Hoo and Jan Di were on the gondola, OMGZZZZ, I was flipping out because they actually got to ride a gondola!!!!!  Hehee… and the guy rowing for them was singing too! How fun!!!  … Even though they were only at this hotel that emulated Venice, it was just as exciting because the place actually looked like Venice.  But kudos to the drama for advertising the beauty and mystery of Venice.  By that, I mean with the whole love triangle thing (or square if you count Ha Jae Kyung already) between Jun Pyo, Jan Di, and Ji Hoo (all J’s!).  And it was so awesome that they also incorporated the whole Carnevale masks in there too!  That was so cute when they all bought masks and played hide and seek with them.  But, it was sad when Ji Hoo tried to unmask her and she wouldn’t let him (b/c she was upset and didn’t want him to see her).  Oi! Those masks were damn cute though!

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It is so amazing how Venice is a place for lovers, yet it holds so much mystery.  I love it though.  One day…. I hope to travel there and find what I’m looking for.

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❤My Prince Charming❤

So, I started watching the Japanese drama Hana Yori Dango a few days ago.  It’s SOOOOOOOOOOO addicting and good just like any other drama.  I’m already up to episode 8!  XP  Well, I decided to watch HYD after watching the popular Korean drama Boys Over Flowers.  After watching BOF and in the middle of HYD, I began to ponder about the character of Yoon Ji Hoo/Hanazawa Rui.  Let’s discuss BOF first.  Throughout BOF, I’ve wondered why Jan Di couldn’t completely fall for Ji Hoo…  Sure Jun Pyo wasn’t bad looking either, but Ji Hoo had that sweetness about him.  He’s the type that would take care of a girl and cherish her.  Ji Hoo was the type of guy I would want in my life.  For instance, he was there for Jan Di whenever she was being picked on or was in a melancholy mood.  He even gave her his handkerchief!  Now in HYD, Rui was the same way.  He’s always there for Tsukushi.  And in both dramas, both guys let their love go for a friend.  That is just tooooo sweet!  If I were as lucky as Tsukushi or Jan Di, I think I’d faint!  O dear, how I wish I were those girls, to be admired by such cute and caring men!  But, you know, watching these also makes me think when I am going to find my prince charming.  Do these guys from dramas really exist?  If so, I’d certainly want one to chase me.  But love carries us on unexpected paths… =(  I wish I knew where my love life was taking me.  I hope I can fall for the right person and experience a wonderful love just like Jan Di and Tsukushi.  😀

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