안녕하세요! Annyeonghaseyo from Seoul~

안녕하세요 (Harloe)!

Wow, in a glimpse of eyes, this marked the 12th week of me in Seoul, South Korea.

In these 12 weeks time, I had also completed my first level of Korean Language Education.

The journey in Seoul National University (SNU) had been fun and challenging so far.

The challenges of having to memorize new words and being introduced to many new grammars in such a short time (the course was really intensive); the need to prepare for weekly role play and weekly speaking test require either high concentration in class or best self discipline at home.

The lecturers basically speak only Korean with minimum English so they naturally train your listening too.

It is somehow surprising that even with my level 1 Korean, I am now able to understand some dramas or TV programs without looking at the subtitles.

I am now too more confident to talk to a Korean.

I can also go to karaoke (which they called nuraebang 노래방 in Korean) and sing Korean songs.

So the environment really does help to forcefully improve my Korean.

These are some pictures during my completion of first level there.

There are few types of different accommodations here available for students if you did not get into the university dormitory like me. 

- The Gosiwon (고시원)

- One room

- Apartment

Staying in Seoul is not cheap and can be rather expensive especially if you are going for one room or apartment. They usually require a lot of deposits and minimum of one year contract.

I am now living in a gosiwon.

It is rather similar to our country university single room dormitory but is smaller. 

It is very small believe me.

The cheaper one can be around 200usd a month with shared bathroom.

The room only has the length of a bed or a few inches more and the width of near to two single beds.

I do not think that my room can fit even a king size bed.

But of course you can go for the better one with attached toilet but it will make your room even smaller as the toilet occupied a lot of space too.

You will usually get a study table, super tiny wardrobe that can hardly fit any clothes and a television.

I accidentally deleted the picture of my room thus unable to share it here.

This is the view from my gosiwon's balcony.

Even though there are a lot of working middle aged adults living in our Gosiwon,

it can be scary at times but some can be sweet and caring too.

We had received free seaweed, chicken, kimchi while we were cooking our meals in the kitchen.

At the beginning, we packed the left over food every time because we could not finish the food.

We reheated them, fried some vegetables and there goes another meal for the 4 of us.

But sadly, now that our appetites got used to the huge portion of food, nothing has left to be packed home now. We are all having a gorilla appetite now!

And of course, the increased of body size T^T

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So now move on to my university.

SNU apparently is being ranked as the number 1 university in South Korea.

We had met some parents during our placement day which coincide with the university's graduation day.

Those parents were absolutely proud of their children.

We met some parents during the enrollment day as well. 

A single mother came all the way from out of Seoul to university just to see her son's enrollment ceremony.

This is the main gate of the university. 

The graduation flowers stands along the street. 

 The benefit of staying near the Seoul National University subway is that the university provides free shuttle bus to school on everyday.

Transportation fees is expensive in Korea.

The minimum fees is 1050won each way and goes up depending on the distance.

But the public transportation in Seoul is very extensive and there is no additional charges apply during transition of bus and subway or vice versa within 30 minutes.

The free shuttle bus run from exit 3 of SNU subway and stops at the front of the administration building.

Then you can choose whether to walk to your department or catch the in campus shuttle bus.

My language center is not too far from the administration building thus I choose to walk to class on everyday.

The journey requires about 10 minutes and it involves some uphills and downhills.

So, yeah, I am exercising everyday.

The journey is somehow beautiful to me as I get to witness the change of the scenery from just dry branches to flowers blooming everywhere.

It was the beginning of Spring when I first got there but the weather was still very cold having average of about 0-5c or sometimes -5c.

It did not snow when the weather was very cold then it suddenly started snowing when the weather was a bit warmer. We got so excited seeing the snow.

But the weather after snowing was crazily cold again especially when the killer wind brushed against you~!

This is the free shuttle bus. The queue is always long but the bus come quite frequent. So do not get freak out if there is a super long queue because the bus come every 5 minutes when the demand is high.

This is the view from my classroom, facing the business department and tennis court. 

In Malaysia universities, the canteens usually offer the same variety of food everyday.

You just need to choose what do you want to eat and pay.

Here is SNU, there are a few cafeterias around the whole campus but I always come to the student center's because it is spacious.

First, you need to choose what to eat from the offered menu (usually 3 types of set menu - 1700won, 3000won or maximum 4000won), then order at the cashier, paid and pick up your food at the respective station. 

Below are the pictures of set lunch I ate.

They are mostly delicious, big portion and best part is, refillable! 

1700won ham jiggae

3000won cheese pork cutlet

3000won spicy pork with tofu

3000won chicken chop

3000won bibimbap

2500won kimchi tuna top rice

3000won stewed beef

3000won chicken fillet

There are whole lot more of food that I did not captured.

So I am having my 3 weeks holiday now.

Due to the budget problem, I have not plan to venture out to Jeju island or Busan yet.

I am now exploring around Seoul and may be some places around Seoul.

This is indeed a very special experience in my life as every little thing is different from where I come from be it the culture, food, life style and etc.

I believe that my adventure had just started and it is going to be nothing less than awesome.

Do not hesitate to drop me any question at sinye1709@gmail.com if you have any question about getting into SNU LEI program. I truly understand your helplessness when most of the stuff you need to know is available only in Korean.

Stay tune for more interesting places I had visited during this period.

Too many pictures to be filter and edit before posting them up.

Have a nice day~!

This Is It!

It was just months ago that I decided to just put everything behind and to pick up something that is totally irrelevant to my current field. It was very impulsive that I literally gone crazy about it and took every chance to look up for related information.

Studying in Korea is relatively cheap but living in Korea is expensive (at least for a Malaysian)! According to some bloggers I seek advice from, 950,000won a month is barely sufficient (RM3.15 = 1,000won). So do get prepared with some additional $$ if you want to try something like this

Yonsei University was my first choice. The building is amazingly beautiful. Being the oldest university in South Korea and its strategic location, it does attract a lot of students trying their best to get enrolled. But at the same time, its fees are also higher than the other universities.

My second choice is Seoul National University (SNU). It is also one of the top three universities in South Korea (Seoul National Univeristy, Yonsei University and Korea University) which produced famous graduates like Ban Ki Moon, the secretary of UN. Not so many foreigners go to SNU as it is further away from all the happening places in Seoul. So in return, it offers program with lower fees as well as lower living expenses. Twin sharing dormitory only cost about 500,000won for 10 weeks! While off campus accommodation cost up to 500,000won a month.

As compared to Yonsei university, it seems to have less green. But it is alright since now $$ is the biggest concern and reviews had mentioned that SNU offers equally good korean language program emphasizing on both writing and speaking skill, not to forget good teachers too.

So, I had just received my admission letter to SNU Korean Language Regular Program (Spring intake). The feeling of finally doing something out of the box is indescribable. Trust me, it has never been easy letting go quite a well paid and stable job and emptying your three years savings into something you can't totally be sure of. Well, I guess that is the excitement of living the life you want, challenging your own limit.

Till then, I will be busy preparing letters and all the necessities.
2014 will be a great year for me, I am confident about it.
See ya, Seoul in 2 months time. Please treat me well.

.

Happy 2014.

2013, a year that was filled with tears and laughter, ups and downs.

Did not really set any must do resolution, just wanted to be a better person.

Sailed through the three quarters admiring what others had done or doing,

spent most of the time traveling and traveling, trying to find where do I belong.

Was not able to dive, not even once, although I was out at the beach 4 times last year, bad timing to be blamed. Met some new doctors, new friends, new acquaintances and some new blogs; new experience, new inspiration were instilled. Then I realized that I am so inadequate, for being myself. 

Last quarter of the year was challenging. Am not a K-Pop fan at all but I have to admit somehow, something triggered me and I am working towards what I wanted to do, to try something out of the box, to be different. I have never live abroad nor travel alone. Thus at the age of 27, I decided to leave the comfort zone and it is never easy on every step I took. Letters were sealed and sent, feeling of working on my dream was indescribable. It does not matter whether it is a yes or a no, the process of finding myself matter the most.

Happy New Year to everyone. May the new year makes you stronger, makes you braver. Never stop dreaming. Let us all have an awesome year ahead!   

Cheers.

Love,

Sinye

  

A Risk Taker

It has finally entering the 4th year of my working life.

Colleagues come and go, and I am still here at the same old spot.

Waking up every morning without the passion to leave for work makes me wonder,

wonder what is wrong with me?

I am definitely not overwork, nor have no time for getaways,

yet I feel tired each and everyday.

I guess it is the dissatisfaction to be blamed.

I started wondering, and slowly figuring, 

what should I do?

At least I am more serious about it this time.

Reminiscing the good old days when I was so naive,

believing the personnel from the education fair,

telling us how versatile this profession can be.

It is definitely so not true.

I, am disappointed. 

Finally I had decided what I really want to do.

There is definitely a huge percentage of risk for stepping out the comfort zone,

giving it all out to something that might not even turn out well

and coming back to the point zero with nothing else left behind.

Thanks to the support of my family and a few friends,

financially and morally.

I think I am becoming a risk taker, or already is.

After all, I can always start fresh again.

I do not want to spend my next 20 years regretting I had not live my life.

I might not be doing well,

but at least I have tried.

* Pictures were taken in Phuket, Thailand*

sight seeing in Bangkok 2013

Bangkok had became my top visit place in these recent two years,

mainly due to its cheap and good shopping places.

Last year, it was all about shopping. 

The itinerary planned was kind of out of place hence we need to foregoing all the attractions.

This year, we decided to concentrated more on the sight seeing.

We did not go to much places but we were totally happy with the places we went and the food we ate.

One of the few places we went was The Grand Palace.

The entrance fees ain"t cheap now. It is about RM50/pax (400baht) which includes the entrance fees of The Grand Palace, museum of the weapons, as well as the beautiful Queen's wooden palace.

* strict dress code is required, google before you go*

These are some of the pictures of the Grand Palace:

The scotching hot sun!

The Hermit Doctor right at the entrance

The miniature of Angkor Wat

The Ubosoth at the temple

The main attraction in the Grand Palace:

The Emerald Buddha 

After visiting the Grand Palace, we planned to move on to the Queen's wooden palace.

Sadly, no tuk-tuk/ taxi is willing to take us there possibly due to the heavy traffic near evening.

So without further wasting our precious time, we walked across the road and headed to Wat Pho, The Reclining Buddha.

The architecture there is comparable to the Grand Palace. Details on the Wat are beautiful!

If you happened to be there earlier or you have some spare time over there,

you can look for the traditional massage done by the monks.

Many reviews mentioned that it is very different from the usual Thai massage.

Too bad we have another Wat to catch before the sun set, time is too short!

Ya, my wish is To See The World~!

Cool tattoo huh.

These are the little things that you should know before entering the hall of the reclining buddha.

After that, we moved on to our last attraction of the day - Wat Arun!

The only way to cross the river is by hopping on the water taxi which will only cost you 3baht.

The boat takes less than 10minutes to reach there.

Wat Arun is breathtakingly beautiful!

If you wish to further visit the internal of the Wat, additional 50baht is required.

Since we had been walking the whole day under the hot sun, we prefer to just chill on the grass with a bottle of ice cold coke in our hands, catching the graceful sunset.

Wat Arun, The Temple of Dawn.

It really is.

After Wat Arun, we hopped on a tuk-tuk to bring us to the China Town.

If you ain't looking or interested in buying some salted pork, smoked duck, or the seafood, it is best to leave it out. I believe Khao San road will be a better choice for younger travelers.

So these are the places we covered this time,

hopefully we get to cover more places, a bit more outskirt next time.

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Market on the railway dose exists!

Took this pic in front of my hotel.

A different kind of friend

Do you ever have a friend that taught you lots of things?

A friend who did and still doing almost everything that you wish you can do it one day.
A friend who constantly repeatedly trying to instill the world map into your tiny brain.
A friend who is quite equally spontaneous acting.
A friend who knows coke is killing and still drinking it with you when you ask to.
A friend who gives you lots of inspirations, motivations and courage when you are in doubt of yourselves.
A friend who make you think what is your true desire in life.

I am glad I met one.

Thanks for your 2 years and few months of companion,
Thanks for your stories, you might not know but you had definitely taught me lots of things in life.

Thank you, and I truly wish you good luck in everything that you do, non-stop striving for things that you want.
Be yourselves, and oh well, stay alive!

See you when I see you again.

Take care.
Hugs.

 

Squeezed!

Job list:

1. All inpatient work - screening, labeling, filling, counter checking, queries, DDA
2. Mon, Wed, Fri - partime counsellingSSS!
3. RVD-TB MTAC, biweekly
4. Monthly clinical meeting & data compilation
5. Monthly antibiotic usage
6. Antimalaria & antivenom report
7. All RVD-HAART counsellings in old block
8. Oncalls - A&E, 6PM-10PM, weekend call, lunch call
9. Expiry date monitoring
10. Monthly check & found in substore
11. KIV screening prescriptions in medical wards
12. QAP

I seriously not sure whether I'm overloaded with work or I'm just not capable enough.
I feel burdened and stressful. I am not superwoman. Lost.