Seoul City Tour

HI GUYS!! It's finally 1st of September aka AUTUMNNNNN aka MY FAVOURITE SEASON OF THE YEAR!!!!! It also means that the Fall semester has started. I just had my first class at 9 this morning and since it was an intro class, it went for only 20 minutes. My next class will be at 5pm.... I know.... 5... in the evening....... so I'll probably kill some time by blogging about the Seoul City Tour!

Korea University organised a Seoul City Tour for exchange/visiting students on Thursday, 25th August. It costs 40,000won, which is about AUD$47?? This includes lunch, transport, and tickets for the NANTA performance. The itinerary was as follows:

9am: Meeting point at Nokji Stadium
9.45am - 11.45am: National Folk Museum of Korea, Blue House, Gyeongbokgung Palace
11.55am - 12.25am: Leave for Insadong
12.30am - 1.45pm: Lunch at Insadong
1.50pm - 2.10pm: Leave for NANTA theatre
2.30pm - 4.10pm: NANTA performance
4.30pm: Return back to campus

Meeting up at Nokji Stadium was a breeze, because it was only 2 minutes walk up hill from my dorms. I met new friends, of whom some of them are in my KUBA group :D I met April, who was from China, and also Miwa and Yuri, who were both from Japan. I also got to know that Miwa studied an Islamic Law unit back at her home university in Japan, which is sooooo cool! I didn't know Japan had those kind of courses. Anyway, afterwards we headed off to our first destination - Cheongwadae Sarangchae.

Cheongwadae Sarangchae / Blue House / Gyeongbokgung Palace / National Folk Museum of Korea 
First up, was the 청와대 사랑채 (Cheongwadae Sarangchae), which is an exhibition hall that promotes Korean culture (located on the first floor) and history of former Korean presidents (located on the second floor). We only had like 15 minutes for this place, so we only looked around the first floor. On the first floor, there were facts about different historical places in Korea, of which btw, some of them are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. There was also an exhibition on Korean food. I was trying sooo hard not to drool because the food looked so good, even though they're not real LOL. They also provided kimchi recipes that you can take home!!!! Oh.. and did I tell you it's free admission for this place!

Back then, there were no refrigerators, so Koreans
used to store their fermented kimchi/soybean in the snow.

Can't remember the name of this kimchi, but it looks goooooood.

This is a typical Korean meal that is served, with main dishes and banchan.

Next was the 청와대 (Blue House), which is where the president lives. We didn't enter the place, so we just looked at the place.... from afar... with all the security guards..... at the gate....

Blue House, with the beautiful backdrop <333333

Afterwards, we headed into the grounds of the 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung Palace). Gyeongbokgung is the largest palace that still stands today. And oh my god, even though it was really hot that day, I couldn't help but admire how beautiful this place was. I still can't believe how the palace grounds is preserved up until this day. Picture spam coming up!!

One of the buildings that has a library at Gyeongbokgung Palace

The ceiling of the library <333333

Library part one

Library part two

I just love this photo.
Lotus petals in the water, the building and the backdrop <3

Another photo that made it onto my instagram lol

  

  

The main hall of the Gyeongbokgung Palace.
This shot is from my GoPro, which is why the photo looks kinda odd.

I think we walked around for about an hour or so, and then we headed off to the National Folk Museum of Korea. We were so tight on time, we only had 10 minutes to look around. It was pretty much historical artefacts that Korean people used in their everyday lives. I remembered one exhibit that really reminded me of Deokseon's house. (Note: Deokseon is a character from a Korean drama called 응답하라 1988, or Reply 1988. If you haven't watched this drama pleaseeeeee watch it!!! It's one of my faves because the plot is all about families/friendships, and not necessarily your typical love story.)

Insadong / NANTA
We headed off to Insadong next for LUNCH!!!!! The food was soooo good oh my god. I can't remember what the restaurant name was, but it was a little cosy restaurant tucked away from the main street. And since I can't eat their meat, I opted for a vegetarian option. They gave me a bowl of leafy vegetables with soy sauce and gochujang (Korean red sauce). Anyway, the vege bowl wasn't the one that got me drooling, but it was the grilled fish, the banchan (side dishes, which included fishcakes, kimchi and ddeokbokki), and fluffy steamed egg pot. It doesn't sound like much, but it definitely made me so full until I almost fell asleep in the bus LOL. Sorry I don't have pictures though, but if you have me on snapchat, you would've seen the spread of food!

After the filling lunch, we went to the NANTA performance. NANTA is a comedy perfomance that uses rhythm and sound. I think all NANTA performances have the same back story, so I'll just tell you briefly.

Three cooks have to prepare food for a wedding banquet. Meanwhile, their manager puts his nephew on the kitchen staff, and he's not exactly the best person to be working in the kitchen. They have to work against the clock, and within this preparation time, a lot of incidents occur.

NANTA stage :D

I cannot recommend you enough to go and watch this show when you're in Korea, because it's suitable for people of all ages. And you don't have to worry about the language barrier, because they barely speak! And when they do speak, they speak in English! It's a super hilarious perfomance, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, I only had one photo for this because no photos/videos were allowed during the performance.

And that concludes the Seoul City Tour! It was a fun day, but I reckon it'd be better if we had an actual tour guide who could explain to us about the different historical places that we went to. For me, I managed to get some bits and pieces of information about these places through a Korean buddy, who was so very nice to explain about Korean history.

I'll blog about my dorm in the next post!!! :D

melb-sg-seoul and orientation

Can you believe it - it's been ONE WEEK since I touched down in Seoul???????????? Actually, to be honest, it feels like I've already been here for more than a week LOL. I think it's because I was always out doing something every day. But anyway!! Time to blog in full detail about o-week in Seoul.

21/08 - Flying off :( :( :(
Man, I reckon this would be the toughest part of this entire journey. Not being able to see my family and friends for five months... It's a tough gig. I felt so homesick when I was in the plane....

Idk why GoPro switches to fish-eye effect in camera mode??????

Anyway, touched down in Singapore at around 12.15am local time and checked into Aerotel. Aerotel is one of the two transit hotels available at Changi Airport. Even though it was only for a few hours, I had a good experience - quick check-in, extremely comfortable and cosy room, shared bathroom was in perfect condition. And apparently they have a swimming pool too!!!! I didn't check it out because all I wanted to do was to crash into a comfy bed and sleep LOL.

22/08 - On route to Seoul
My flight from Singapore to Seoul was at 7am local time, and it took roughly 6 hours to get to Seoul. At this point, the homesickness went away and I was super excited for what's to come. Reached Seoul at around 3.50pm and headed straight to KU's airport pick-up service. I was originally supposed to catch the 4pm bus, buuuuut was held up at baggage pick-up because it legit took 30 minutes for my luggages to come out >:(

The KU airport pick-up service was pretty easy to find, because there was literally a huge group of exchange/visiting students from different universities across Korea... and all I had to do was to find the KU group. While waiting for the bus, I met a few people from all over the world at the airport - Canada, China, Singapore, US.

Bus ride from the airport to my dorm took roughly two hours (inclusive of traffic). Reached my dorm at about 8.40pm, and all I wanted to do was to sleeeeeep. Skipped dinner and off to snoozeland I went.

23/08 - ORIENTATION DAY ONE!
All exchange/visiting students to Korea University had to gather at Inchon Memorial Hall at 9am for orientation. From my dorm, it was a 10 min walk (downhill) to the hall.

Pretty cool, huh?

They covered a lot of things during the orientation talk - from academics to safety. It took about an hour and a half for all the speakers to finish their speeches. One of the speeches, in particular, was about KUBA (Korea University Buddy Assistants). KUBA is a group of dedicated individuals who will be helping exchange/visiting students to adjust to Korea. In addition, KUBA holds events for all exchange/visiting students throughout the semester. For my batch (i.e Fall 2016 students), there are eight KUBA groups in total, and within each group, there are several buddies. And every exchange student will be assigned to a buddy.

Soooo after the orientation talk was over, I finally met my KUBA buddy!!! Her name is Yena, and I found out afterwards that she's actually younger than me. I feel so old :'(((((( I also met Jacelin, who was from Singapore, and she also has the same buddy as me :D Anywaaaayyy, after everyone met up with their buddies, my group went to have lunch at the cafeteria....... and honestly...... the food was meh. :\

After lunch, we went to a computer lab to get our KU portal ID sorted. The portal ID is for students to communicate with the university and staff via email/announcements/resources etc. Thankfully, for me, I've already sorted it out before arriving in Seoul, so this session was a breeze.

Following the KU portal ID session, we all went into an empty room and all the buddies in my group introduced themselves. One of the buddies studied in Australia for exchange, which I found pretty cool, considering that all the other buddies either studied in the US or have never studied anywhere else. It was also pretty cool to know that two of the buddies are majoring in Spanish. Like duuuude how cool?!!!????

Anyway, after the introduction session, I headed off to Dongwon Leadership Hall where I paid my ticket for the Seoul City Tour that KU organised. I also met a bunch of Singaporeans there as well. It was a nice feeling... Knowing that there are people who you're familiar with, even though you've never met them. I don't know if I made any sense LOL but anyway moving on....

Afterwards, I went out to Daiso to get my daily essentials and had dinner with my two new friends - Atirah, of whom I met via Li Ying, a friend I made at the hall, and Kelvin, of whom I met at the airport. We found a halal Indian place nearby my dorm. Do you know how happy I was??????? Like finally, meat???? After what seems like a long time?????? T_________T (Actually I lied, it's only been 2 days)

Finally, a halal outlet near my dorm. Couldn't contain my happiness. ^_^

Anyway, the food was okay-ish. The curry didn't taste like a real, genuine Indian curry, but managed to finish all the food because I was that hungry LOL.....

24/08 - ORIENTATION DAY TWO!
Day two of orientation arrived, and it was a reaaalllly long morning. We had to fill in pages and pages of forms for our student ID card/bank card, which will only arrive in four weeks' time zzzzzzzzz. So for the meantime, we'll have to use a temporary ID card, which I must say, is verrrrryyy flimsy.

After that meh experience at the cafeteria yesterday, I decided to join Jacelin for lunch to have.... SASHIMI!!!!!! We had like a plate of 24 salmon pieces for 9,000 won. 9,000 WON OKAYYYY. HOW CHEAP CAN SASHIMI GET??????? And in addition, we had a tuna sashimi bibimbap, which was also super delicious. Sorry, forgot to take photos :((((((((

After lunch, we headed off to Dongwon Leadership Hall againnnn to get our temporary student ID. This hall is the worst place to be, because it's always filled with people. I actually felt like I was in a moshpit for a concert lol. Anyway, after getting my temporary student ID, I bought my certificate of enrollment, which is a document needed for my Alien Registration Card application.

Lastlyyyyy, I went to a workshop about "Life in Seoul". It was meh, because they pretty much outlined what to expect with the Korean culture, which I've already established from Korean dramas ehehehehehehe. I met Atirah and Li Ying here as well, so it was nice to see familiar faces.

In the evening, all the KUBA groups went out to have 치맥 (read: chimaek stands for chicken + maekju. Maekju is beer in Korean) for dinner. Due to the fact I was super tired/can't eat the chicken/don't drink, I decided not to go to the dinner. Buuuut it's okay, at least I managed to catch up on sleep and finally unpack my luggages.

And that concludes the two-day orientation!!!!! I'll blog more about the Seoul City Tour and my dorm very soon ^______^

Planning process: finally the last part!!!!!

Hi everyone! Can you believe it - I leave for Seoul tomorrow????!!!!!! Pretty exciting yet nerve-wrecking!!!!! I've packed most of my stuff and most of them consisted of foooooood hehe. Anyway, I'll finish off blogging my planning process. I realised that my previous blog posts were really toooo lengthy, so I'll try and keep it in easier-to-read paragraphs. I've also edited my previous blog posts, so that it's easier to read.

Certificate of Health

This is one of the important documents that I needed to hand in. The application process was in late April-early May (if I'm not mistaken), and this certificate is due in July, so I had ample time to get it done. I had to check my immunisation history (MMR, chicken pox) as well as my tuberculosis (TB) history. Since the prevalence of TB is quite high in Asian countries, I understand why they needed TB results.

Anyway, I thought obtaining this certificate was easy, because I figured that all I had to do was to do the TB test, and getting my GP to certify everything. Fast forward a week before the due date, I realised that I had no history of a chicken pox shot. Siiiiiighhhhh. I was really worried, because as far as I know, me and my siblings didn't have chicken pox when we were little....

Anyway, I had to do an extra test, just to check whether there was any chicken pox antibody in my body. And thankfully!! Results came back and I have the antibody in my body. Honestly, I was sooooo worried because if I didn't have the antibody, I would need to get a chicken pox shot in Melbourne as well as in Seoul. But thank the lord because I didn't have to go through that procedure.

Health insurance

Thankfully, Monash provides ALL exchange students with free travel insurance, which of course, includes unlimited medical expenses. The only flaw for this insurance is that it doesn't cover all my electronic items, which sucks big time. To play it safe, I bought an extra travel insurance from STA Travel at a very reasonable price to cover for my electronic items.

Visa application
For Australian citizens, if you are staying in South Korea for more than 90 days, you have to apply for a visa. And in my case, since I am an exchange student, I have to apply for the D2 visa. The process was pretty simple. All I had to do was to fill up the form, pay for the visa and hand it in directly to the Korean consulate/embassy in your city, and for my case, it was in Melbourne. Unfortunately, the D2 visa that they offer in Australia is a single-entry visa, so no travel outside of South Korea for me during the semester :((((((

Flights

Getting your flights sorted is a simple and straight forward process. I'd recommend going to a travel agency to get your flights sorted, especially if you want to do extensive travel after your exchange! They'll really help you out plan your itinerary and what not. I was really contemplating on going to Japan after my exchange buuuut with much thought, I realised that my bank account would be weeping if I went to Japan.

I went to STA Travel at Werribee Plaza to sort out my flight details. Nikki helped me organise my flight details and explained every fine detail to me regarding my flights. She was honestly the best person to talk to - she was super pleasant and extremely helpful. I'll definitely seek assistance from her again in the future!

Accommodation
This process was simple yet the one of the most nerve-wrecking experience during this planning process. The application process was during my exam period, but thaaaankfulllyyy I didn't have an exam on the day the application opened.

Before the application opened, I read up some blogs/reddit posts from past exchange students from KU. They mentioned how competitive it is to get into the on-campus accommodation, especially CJ International House. So being the very kanchiong (read: Singlish for panicky/worried) person I am, I was on the website the minute the application opened. I got my choices sorted and handed the application in.

Mind you, I had to wait A MONTH for the accommodation results. Now you know why it was a nerve-wrecking process. Aaaand when the results came through, I managed to get the room that I wanted, which was a single room!! I was thrilled when I got the accommodation, because that's one less thing to worry about on my list.

After getting the results, I had to upload my TB results and pay for my housing fees. We only had a week to do so, or else our rooms will be up for grabs. Once that was sorted, I could finally rest for a week.... before the madness begun. And that madness was course registration. Aka THE most frustrating process everrrrrrr.

Course registration
Probably the most nerve-wrecking experience in the planning process. Course registration was hands down, extremely competitive. It felt like The Hunger Games..... without all the killing, of course. Originally, I had planned to do 6 courses while at KU, as it was equivalent to my full-time study load at Monash.

Two weeks before the actual course registration, I had already put at least eight courses on my preferred course list. The preferred course list speeds up the registration process on the day of course registration, because all you have to do is to click the register button and you'll be registered.

Anyway, I managed to successfully register into four courses, and I was put onto the waiting list for the other two courses. I was, of course, very frustrated because I had to wait for another two weeks, just to check if I made it onto the registered list. >:(

Two weeks later, and I didn't make the cut :( :( :( But luckily for me, the four courses I had registered earlier was still considered a full-time load according to Monash. (Just a heads up: It was a requirement for me to be studying a full-time load while abroad. The requirements may be different for other universities, so it's best to check with your university.)

So these are the courses I will be studying at KU!!!!
1. Bioinformatics (English)
2. Bioinformatics (English)
3. Microbiology II
4. Introduction to Korean History and Culture (English)

So why am I doing two Bioinformatics courses, you ask???? Well apparently, both courses have different content, and I have to do both according to my faculty lol. And as you can see, for Microbiology II, there's no English next to it, which means the course will be taught in Korean. I don't know how I'll manage that, but hopefully, it'll help me improve on my Korean listening and reading skills. And I reeeaallly hope that the professor is going to be lenient on me and give me assessments in English....

So that's about it! That ends my three-part series of my preparation for Korea!!!

I shall blog again when I'm in Seoul. :)

Planning process: part two!

Hey guys!
I'll be flying off to Seoul very soon and I think I've gotten all of my admin stuff done, to the point where I can begin packing! It still feels so surreal to me that I'm actually going to Seoul very soon....

Anyway, I will be blogging about my long and ardeous process in applying for the student exchange program. I promise, this post (and the next one) won't be as long as the first one. Sooooo I finished my story off when I completed and handed my application to my university's abroad team. This was in December 2015, and the abroad team told me that it takes about six to eight weeks to get a nomination letter.

... In reality, it took 4 months for me to get it. I even went to the pre-departure session for exchange students, even before knowing that I was nominated. So anyway, the letter just pretty much outlines what I have to do, which was basically applying to the partner university directly. Also worth mentioning is that my university advised that nothing is confirmed until you receive the acceptance letter from the host university, so booking for accommodation/flights at this point is not recommended.

For Korea University, I had to provide them with the basic required documents: academic transcript (which costs me 30 freaking dollars!!!!!), personal statement, copy of a valid passport, certificate of health and health insurance. And also, you needed a GPA of at least 2.5. The personal statement is pretty much the statement of purpose, as mentioned in my first post. The certificate of health and health insurance wasn't required at the time of application so I didn't really think about it until after my acceptance.

Aside from those documents, I needed to provide them a list of my proposed units that I plan to do while at Korea University (KU). Initially I thought it was for my course registration period, but turns out it was for visa purposes, which I will mention in the last post for this planning process. Also another thing was that I had to print and sign off a form called the oath of good conduct. As the name describes, it was a form where I had to sign my life away so that I will be a good student who represents KU well.

That's it for my KU application process! It was way easier than my university's application process, and maybe this was because I've already had most of the documents prepared. I sent off my application to KU and waited for about 6 weeks until my acceptance letter arrived, which was in June 2016, just before I headed off for my holiday in Singapore.

...... And that concludes my second post for the planning process!

Until next time!

Planning process: part one

Hello everyone!!

As I've mentioned before, I'll be blogging (extensively, in three parts) on how I started planning for this trip. Not sure if anyone got my hints, but I will be going on a student exchange trip for a semester to Korea University, located in the capital city of South Korea, Seoul!!!!!

Contrary to what everyone would be feeling right now, I'm actually pretty nervous for this trip because it'll be my first time being away from my family for quite some time (Five months isn't that long... but still...). It's also a first for me to organise everything, from visa application to accommodation to flight tickets, so I guess it's a good way for me to be independent. However, before all of this started, I had to do a lot of research.... which all up took a year.... and to whoever that is wondering, I started researching about this when I commenced my university studies in March 2015.
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First off, before I could even think of going on exchange, I had to ask for my mum's permission. Maybe it's a habit that I'm used to since I was in primary school... that I always ask for my mum's permission before I do anything. Initially, she didn't agree on the idea but with much persuasion and influence from her friends, she finally gave in and agreed.

After getting the green light from my mum, I had to do a lot (and I know it sounds like I'm exaggerating but it honestly took me six months in total) of research. First and foremost, I had to decide where I wanted to go. To be honest, if you've hung around me for long enough, you would know that I would go to Seoul, without a doubt LOL.


Open-advising session + second opinion
Anyway, after making that really difficult decision (lolol), I had to go to an open-advising session with the Global Officers, who are current students that have gone on exchange before. This session provided me brief information (i.e admin stuff mainly) about going on exchange. They also shared their stories while on exchange, which all sounds exciting to me, because their adventures are endless. However, while this session was informative, I still felt like I needed to hear more experiences from other people.

That's when I found a very nice person who has been to Seoul for exchange, in Monash University's exchange group (of which btw, a very good group to be in as they have so much information about exchange) on Facebook. She shared her Seoul experience and also gave me in-depth information on the application process for the student exchange program. It was very reassuring to listen to her experience as it helped me to eliminate all the doubts that I have about going to Seoul.


Research: university, credit transfer
Anyway, after that, comes the most tedious process of all: looking up on which university I wanted to go and researching for units at the exchange university. Luckily for me, Monash has exchange agreements with four universities in Korea: Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University and Sogang University. Originally, I had my eyes on Yonsei University because I've heard so much about it and it's a very popular university among exchange students... but after much research, I couldn't enrol as they didn't have the units that I needed to do. :(

It kinda sucks because for my degree, I have to do three core units and an elective every semester. And since they're core units, I don't really have much flexibility on what units I can choose, so it was a really tough process for me, because it involved a LOT of research (I know, it's my third time mentioning this). Anyway, after researching all the universities, only Korea University (KU) offered the units I needed to do. KU offered two of my core units for the semester, which was a huge sigh of relief.


Faculty approval
Afterwards, comes the second most tedious process of all: getting the KU units approved by my faculty. This has to be done in order for the units to be credited towards my degree. And as I've mentioned before, my units aren't flexible so it was a really tedious process. I had to compile the unit guides of all my KU units and forward them to my faculty exchange coordinator subject to approval. I had to email my coordinator a couple of times so that I can get more units approved... just in case the units I needed to do wasn't offered or maybe the classes are too full.


Statement of purpose
After all these tedious research, of which btw, it took me three months to do, I had to write up a statement of purpose, which outlines the purpose of my exchange, how I will represent the university and goals that I hope to achieve while on exchange. Writing a statement of purpose didn't take long because everything that had to be said has already been lingering in my mind for a long time.... This is a story for another day, so I'll probably blog about it very soon ^_^


Financial plan
Following the statement of purpose, I had to come up with a financial plan, which basically outlines how much you are going to spend while on exchange vs how much money you will actually have. It's good that Monash has included this in the application form, because it assists me in planning and budgeting for my trip.

Thankfully, Monash has an abundance of scholarships that they give out, especially for those who go on exchange/study abroad. Regardless of where ever you go, as long as you have the acceptance letter from the host university, you are entitled to get a scholarship worth a certain amount from Monash.

In addition, the Australian government also has the OS-HELP loan for students who are going on exchange/study abroad. Students can apply for this loan worth a certain amount, and for those studying in Asia, they give out a higher amount compared to those studying in other parts of the world.

It was kinda tough planning my finances because I couldn't really estimate how much I will need per week when I'm there, how much flight tickets are etc, simply because I've never been there before. For extra confirmation, I seeked help from the same girl I mentioned before, who once again, saves the day.


Referees + supporting documents
Last but not least, I needed to provide two referees and supporting documents for my application. It wasn't too hard finding a referee as I've known my Korean tutor for nearly a year and I got along with my other Stats tutor, of whom I've only known for less than three months. As for the supporting documents, I just needed to provide a copy of my passport and my bank statements, which isn't hard to obtain at all... You just need a scanner and the actual documents lol.

This summarises the application that I had to submit to the Monash Abroad team. Sorry for the lengthy post and lack of pictures lol. Anyway, do expect another lengthy post because I'll be blogging about the application process for my host university, which is a shorter process, but still very tedious!

Until next time!

First post!!!

Hello family/friends/acquaintances/strangers/procrastinators/stalkers (lol)!!!!!!

I feel like this is my 123876128332th time opening up a blog... simply because I couldn't be bothered updating my past blogs... lol. Anyway, I hope this blog won't be stagnant like the others and I hope to constantly update this blog.

The reason of starting this blog is to pen down all my struggles/experiences/adventures (or lack thereof) while embarking on this new journey of my life. I know I'll be experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions since I will be there for a considerably long period of time. Also in the past, blogging has helped me articulate what I feel so hopefully it will help me this time round.

ANYWAY! I hope I'm being very obvious on where I'm heading off to as it is my blog address lol. I've got less than a month before I fly off to a completely new environment where I have to adapt to the customs and traditions and face some cultural differences. I hope it won't be too difficult lol. Preparations are underway for my temporary move to Seoul and it's very nervewrecking because I have less than a month to do everything!!!!!!!!! I'm still getting admin stuff done first, which will probably be done in a week's time, and once that is complete, I'll move onto packing my stuff. Slowly but surely things will get done.

That's it for today, I'll probably blog about the preparation of how this all happened, which by the way, took a year to prepare.