Week #10

This week was a busy one. Many of my labmates, who came back from overseas, came to meet my professor. Poon and Aa oppa came back from New York while Min Pyo oppa came back from Australia. I am not sure about Young Kyu oppa though. But, his English is really good. He can speak in normal English, with correct sentence pattern and grammar. I was quite shock when he spoke to me in perfect English. He looked different from his photos on the lab’s website as he has changed his hairstyle and wearing contact lens now. Poon and Aa oppa’s English are better than normal Korean’s, above average but sometimes their pronunciations are not so accurate. Min Pyo oppa looked the same as in his photo, but he sure is different from what I expected. He was a skinny and average height guy. I expected him to be the tough kind of person from the looks of the photo.

On Wednesday afternoon, I went down hill to Hanaro mart to buy some groceries. It was a big shopping to refill my food supply and I really had problem carrying all those stuff home. The weather was cloudy on that day as 2 days before it had been raining heavily and the wind was strong. It was drizzling when I was walking back and I had to rush back to the lab. When I reached Internet Engineering building, Singh reminded me of the university shuttle bus. Ah… what a fool of me for not taking the bus.

At night, we went with Wei Shi to meet his Vietnamese friends. We took the subway to Kyungsung University/Pukyong University station. They are all quite short, except for a few who are taller. The way they talked and expressed themselves, makes them really cute. Their looks are almost the same as Malaysia Chinese. All of them can speak Korean as their major is Korean literature or Korean language. One of them is currently working in Kojedo Island. It was her one day trip on that day, we are lucky to be able to meet her. We had dinner at a restaurant near the subway exit. It was something like fried rice in Malaysia but not exactly the same. Wei Shi treated us for this meal.

Then, we went to the “noreban” (karaoke shop) just opposite the restaurant for some singing. The decorations of the shop were really different and cute. There were around 10 of us and it costed around 1, 500 won each(RM6), without food and drinks. We sang Korean, Vietnam and English songs. It was really enjoyable. I was the first time I had been to such a place and with people that I had met for the first and maybe the last time. They will be going back to Vietnam within a month. Van treated us for this. Thanks a lot!

Around 9.30pm, we departed back earlier as Wei Shi and Eileen had something to work on and I will be attending Qiao Lei’s farewell party at the sky lounge. Qiao Lei, the China student studying here for 6 months English program will be going back to his country the next day together with his good friend, Okano, a Japanese guy. Okano, who is very fond of Chinese food, will be going there for a trip.

On Friday, I went to Seomyeom alone for sight-seeing and shopping after I had completed my assignment in the afternoon. I was kind of lost as I get out of the bus at the wrong place due to lost of directions. I walked down from the bus at around Beomil-dong, which are 2 stations after Seomyeom. I found my way back by following the signboards and with the Lotte department store as target. It was lucky that I somehow managed to get back. But, it was a good experience as I got to know the area better. I went shopping in mainly 2 stores. One of them is a shop selling only clothes and another one is Mini Mall. There was something weird about the fashion shops in Korea, most of them do not have changing rooms, unless you are going to those expensive, branded shops. The clothes here are quite cheap during sale. It was even cheaper and more fashionable than in Malaysia, and the most important thing is, it was made in Korea.

Though it is a small building with around 7 floors, it has a lot of customers. The place is always packed with people. Mini Mall is really a paradise for girls. Most of the things there are really cheap, compared to normal price. The 1st floor was selling a mixture of stuff and underwear. At 2nd floor, they were selling cosmetics. There are a variety of brands there, both imported and Korean goods. There are around 2 rows, only for eye shadow; 3 rows for lipsticks and lip gross and many more. All the cosmetics come in a variety of colors and package. There are testers available, even for those expensive brands. We can go around testing it. They are selling aroma and shampoos on the same floor as well. At 3rd floor, they are selling hair accessories, necklace, earrings etc. The designs are really nice and it is cheap, for the given design. The other floors are selling male and female clothes, dolls and shoes. Only the male session have a lot of guys for this shopping mall. I got to meet a Korean girl here. She is an English and Chinese language student in Pukyong University and is of the same age as I. We even exchanged email address.

I went back after spending around 4 hours there.