Finale OIAP KOREA - Back in Singapore... =(

Kinda sad to leave korea... no more Ewha, no more CRL, no more swimming lessons, no more subway, no more comfy dorm!!! Three months just flew by like tat... still remember all that crazy preparations for this OIAP, winter stuff, packing, the dilemma between going for IVP or OIAP, the fear of getting sent to China... etc etc.

Then the day itself, woke up and getting all panicky cos my luggage seems to heavy... crazy decision to repack( i din, btw), and off to Changi Airport after dinner of Bah Chor Mee at MacPherson. Thankies to TKD-ers for coming to send me off... it was a monday and there was training that night. Thankies for all the well-wishes!

Walk through the gates and the adventures begin! We are on our OWNNNN from that moment!

Spent the entire night watching movies and playing games, couldnt sleep... not sure if it was the heat or what (the plane is freaking warm!!!). Reached korea about 7am? Saw Dr Seonock and off we go to our destination! Ewha for us! Met CRL(sung-jin, eun-ji, in-young, and the lady in purple coat) peepos for the first time!!! Dragged our luggage all the way back to the dorm, it was reallllllllllllllly far and steep and they din bring us to use the lifts!!! BARGH!!!

My room for 3mths! A706, great roommie!!! Comfy room!!!

Met Prof Song at the favourite cafeteria, thanks for the treat! Went to the Natural History Museum... whoopsie, the combination of sleepless night + heavy lunch made me DROWSY!!! I think i sleep-walked most of the time, and... well, i dont like museums or history... so... SORRY TO THE CURATOR!!! I Did not listen to what you said most of the time!!! Then we head to Ewha shopping area, yup, still sleep-walking! Sorry... ii i appear to be to rather aloof that day??? Hehee, first tour of ewha area guided by In-young and... the lady in purple coat that day! Went back to the office and was briefed by Sung-jin... again, i apologise as i think i fell asleep most of the time!!!

First day of work! Completely screwed up the DNA extraction! LOL, threw away the spin column containing all that precious DNA... whoopsie, hehehe, thanks to Eun-ji for all that guidance! And the working starts! DNA Extraction, gel electrophoresis, PCR, gel loading... but a major problem, WHERES THE CO1 band?! after weeks of trying, somehow it was shelved aside and we started the DEG project. RNA Extraction, *cant remember* ... got into my first accident then! Foolishly dipped my finger into liquid nitrogen to make some finger popsicle! Had my entire hand wrapped up cos of one finger... andd... brought to the medical centre by In-young! Sorry for all that trouble caused = ... and thankiews for all the concerns! =)

Visited many many many places over the many many many weekends. Shopping at Dongdaemun, Nandaemun, MyeongDong, etc etc. Sightseeing at Seoul Tower, 63building, cheonho, etc etc etc. Fun fun session at Everland, gyeongbok gung... It was fun shopping, sightseeing, and most of the time cam-whoring with the OIAP koreans! Trixy, Felicia, LPY, Michelle, Shimin.

Cos of the Jeju trip, i fulfilled one of my to-do-list for years, to learn SWIMMING! Signed up for swimming classes conducted in a totally foreign language. Luckily, i had the patience-est swimming instructor!!! She guided me very very well! Andd... i am still proud to say that... I think i am the only one whom she calls by name in class!!! Under her guidance for 2mths i could finally swim FREESTYLE, swim on back, and had the courage to swim in a 2m deep pool! *to coachie... please do keep in touch!*

End of 2mths plus and finally, the long awaited JEJU trip! Met the diving shop owner + wife + the rather lame diving instructor... i think Jeju peepos are all very nice!!! Diving was coool, the plunge into the water was rather nerve-wrecking though...!!! Seeing huge colonies of coral underwater is sooooooooooo different from seeing them in the centrifuge tubes! Much much prettier!!! GREAT EXPERIENCE !!!

Climbed my second mountain! Hallasan! Sung-jin was really really somewhat jittery about the trip. LOL... almost like my mum... heeeheee! Hallasan is about 1900m high?! Satisfaction upon completion!!! Befriended a group of Ajussi-s who took care of of me... so nice of them, we were merely acquaintance along the trek and they yet they treated me like... well... their daughter perhaps? Back to Seoul on the third day and In-young became the oh-ma... haaahaa!!!

EVERLAND WAS FUN!!! HOPE TO VISIT LOTTEWORLD SOMEDAY!!!

time passes sooooooooooooo fast and we had our farewell party at Prof Song's place on the 24th. Purena & anna are soooooooooooo cute!!! Warm, fuzzy and CHUBBY! Gave pressies to CRL peepos, hope they like it... =) it was fun fun fun fun fun!!! But getting drunk and puke-y was not. Sorry for the trouble again!!! Thanks Eun-ji for the tea and stuff, In-young for the watermelons, Sung-jin for preventing me from getting more drunk and the super FATHERLY Prof Song's husband!

The day before departure was really emotional!!! Haix, couldnt bear to leave the chair where i've spent three mths rotting on it... the pillow... the lab... and most importantly, the PEEPOs. Shed my first tear in korea. =(

Finally finished packing at 3am in the morning... visited CRL for the last time... =((((

Hope to come back to Korea again... Hope to see the CRL peepos again... =)

Trixy, Eun-ji, In-young, me!

missing sung-jin though...

+ calicogorgia granulosa!

and dendronephthya suensoni too!

the last having lunch together photo! and it has to be blurry!!! ARGH!



*reminiscing all the wonderful memories in Korea*

Jeju STUDY trip.

LOL, in the midst of the OIAP, i had the opportunity to visit their(CRL) study site for, erhemz, FIELD SURVEY of octocorals in Munseom.. NOT THERE TO PLAY HORRR.



Sunday

Arrived at Jeju International Airport around 8pm, took a 1.5hrs long bus ride to Seogiwipo, pass by all the nice nice huge Hyatt, etc, etc, and came to this little motel (Pak Ko Motel), kinda good! The room fits 4 person comfortably!

the view from common balcony! Big one is Supseom, small one is Munseom.

welcome to room 606, yul baek yul!



Monday - Diving day!!!

After a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee breakfast, off to dive!!! YAY! And damnit, my thunder calves had problem getting into the wetsuit, so blardy malu!!! ARGH, but nvm, diving is WORTH every malu-ness of it!

define MacDonald's Big Breakfast...



Some crash course on diving and we were set to go! Things to remember. "keep breathing", "equilibrate everytime!". The hardest thing is prolly the plunge into the sea, with weight belts and super freaking heavy air tank strapped onto yourself... and the fact that I CANT FLOAT!!! But okay lar, did it anyway. Then... problem no. 2, ears freaking ache cos i couldnt equilbrate them, think the mask is kinda big and i cant find my nose to pinch. sooo... descend and ascend like 300times.

ME!!! Holding on to a sponge ... getting washed away by the current!

CRL!!! We *HEART* corals! Soft or hard! Octo or Hexa


And... i din concentrate on the surrounding... my eyes were too busy looking around for my dive instructor. WASTED!!! ARGH!!! Took loads of pictures and went up... =( Din see many fishes or stuff... =(





Next up was Teddybear Museum, not my cup of teh so... yah, just a museum with alot of teddybears impersonating famous ppl and stuff.

big big teddies.

Teddy Lisa and a trying-to-look-seductive me!



then... CheongJiYeon Waterfall. The picture and the real thing is worlds apart... just a small waterfall, nothing like the describe, magnificient waterfall from the sky blablabla.

Bigggggggggggggggg waterfall.

@ the top!

meditation leads to nirvana.

Dinner time!

ALL DIVERS!!!

This is SEAFOOD SOUP! not just a few miserable slices of fish, prawn and tofu.

huge shellfish.

inside looks blardy gross...

huge HUM.

weeny crab.

park walkies!



Tuesday - Hallasan trekking!

LOL, in preparation for the trekking, they bought tomatoes, bananas, muffins, chocolate, kimbap as an ENERGY SOURCE. well, the only thing i ate was... the tomatoes and 1 banana. heh.



uphill was 9.6km of non stop walking!!! Time taken 8.54am to 12.17pm. YAYYYY. Meet a friendly group of Ajussi-s, so lunched and trekked down together. They are blardy nice...!!! HERH HERH!!! So touched! Trekking down was scary. The route was steeper, rockier and rougher, a never ending 7.7km route!!!

starttttt!!!

URGH!!! Never ending trail.

the pic is deceiving... not that SMILEY...

FINALLY?!!!! many hours later!!!

Friendly group of ajussi-s

they are kinda camwhorish... LOL.

Mal-Ko-Li, korea... rum?

downhill...

the great GuanUmSa trail.

Dinner of raw fishy, marinated RAW fishy and MORE RAW FISHY!!!



Wednesday - RAINY!!!



yeah... pacific land and some mini theme park thingy. BARGH!!! No horseback riding on rainy days!!! =(

see dolphins fly!

and smile!

Leaning tower of Pisa?

Harunbang... forgot to rub the nose! Aiya!

back to seoul!

Niceeeee... not very international actually. More like intranational.

well... plane got delayed due to the weather! First time for me!!!

souvenirs! She sells seashells on the seashore.


I MISS JEJU!!! Met the nicest ppl there!!! Had many of my first time experience there!!! =... (

Super Duper Ultra BORED!!!

Warning: HIGHLY IMAGE INTENSIVE. YOU CAN GRAB A BITE AND HAVE A DRINK WHILE WAITING FOR THIS TO LOAD. cos u wont have 100mbps LAN connection in Singapore!!! muaahahahaha!


stucked in the office waiting for NOTHING (prolly for the clock to strike 6pm)and the internet is not fast enough for me to watch movies!!! UUUURRGGGHHHZZZ!!!!

sibei sian.


climbed up 63building...

Yul Sam Piulding

Hangang River...


check it out!

OKAAAAAAAAAY.





okaaaaaaaaaaay, enuff of myself.

OIAP koreans

@ street of myeongdong!

Hi Seoul Fest 2007!!! Saw just ONE errr... burst of Fireworks!?

Hangang River @ night.

Chingay parade with boats instead.



Now for some CUTIES of koreaaaaaa....................














baby birds!!!!

maltese ?

pomeranian?


silky terrier?

spitz?

shih tzu...

piggggggggggg!!!


labradorrr


collie!!!


Lotteworld...

bball machine... super tiring arcade!

Pls keep your calls coming!!! 1900-112-CALL

All the power rangers! Plus the long gone WHITE ranger!!!

Got flash!!!ARGH!

scored 51%! no grouping. HAHAHA

twist? peace? finger!

the twist and the cow...

pokes!


Seodaemun Independence Park.



one of the Semi-Ds

quite FREAKY!!!

Lemme out!!!

Prisoner no. 52163

on Trial!

Guilty as charged!

For independence!

corpse tunnel...

goodbye cruel world.........................



Standing coffin. try it for 3days.



Ewha flowers!










FOODIES!

GermanChokolateKake

Chocolate Devotion

coffee lovers ONLY

Cold noodles. dont really like this... coff coff

i love Mandu!!! 10 at one sitting!

Korean PAO. NICCEEE!!!

Fried chicken boobs! FATTENING but nice!




I wanna go Hokkaido!!! Must start doing final interim report then...