the 43rd day of my winter vacation

wow, It's been 10 days since my last posting.

So many things to tell but I forgot. Haha

Liburan tinggal 1 bulan lagi. Semoga sisanya makin ga bosen. huhu.. 

Joana had gone to Manila and now I'm alone here in my house. Kinda miss her... :(

Monday January 26 was New Year in Korea. Nothing special. 

I just went to Herb Hillz again with my Indonesian friends who are studying master degree here. They had plan to go to Daegu since long time ago but I don't know which place is good for them to have fun. Haha. Yah, Daegu is only the 4th biggest city in Korea. The population is high (but don't compare with Jakarta please) but I think the tourist attractions are so so. Mountain.. Mountain.. Temple.. temple.. museum.. museum.. park.. garden.. something like that.  

Then Finally, on Monday morning, after I woke up because of Mas Ikhwan, Randy told me about Herb Hillz. I opened the site and I thought it's not a bad idea to go there (for the second time ^^).  I saw the picture in that site showing there is something like a small ice mountain. woooooww! really wanna go there. So, I called Mas Ikhwan, I told him "Let's just go to Herb Hillz! Let's meet in downtown and take bus from there!" 

After that, I prepare myself as fast as possible. After some minutes, Randy called me asking to meet in main gate of our campus. So, I went out.. *almost forgot my jacket* huahaha

We took taxi from main gate to downtown and after 5 minutes we arrived there because the traffic was not crazy.. ahaha. We waited them for around 15 minutes maybe. We met them in the underground shopping center and like usually, they took so long because they took so many pictures in every place they passed. huff... Finally, That rombongan came.. Mas Ikhwan, Mba Vita, Mas Boy, Bang Tumpal, Mas Noka, Mas Hengki, Mas Bowie, Mas Puji, Mas Haris, Mas Ragil... dan Mas2 yang lain. ahhaha. ya semua itulah yang kemaren dateng ke Daegu. I was so happy because they came here to spend their holiday. Jarang2 ada orang main ke Daegu sengaja buat jalan2 gini. :D

We went to waffle stall first because we were so hungry since we didnt have our real breakfast. haha. I got an apple jam waffle. After that, We said goodbye to Mas Boy, Bang Tumpal, and Mas Puji because they would not go with us to Herb Hillz. Mas Boy went to Mushalla Al-Amin and Bang Tumpal and Mas Puji went back to Busan. They need to prepare something for Kak Asih's Farewell Party. 

We took 704 bus from Daegu Station Junction bus stop. I felt so cold when we were waiting for the bus. Ga sabar pingin liat Herb Hillz lagi setelah 2 tahun. Jadi inget jaman2 dulu waktu ke sana bareng temen2 ber10 itu waktu masih level 1 Korean Language. Erica, Joana, Juliana, Hsu, Randy, Muugii, Dorj, Eranga, Arthone.. 

Finally we arrived in the main gate of Herb Hillz. Surprised... the snow fell a little while we were queueing in the ticket booth. kawaii! Wow, Herb Hillz' decoration was changed in winter season. There is also Snow Sleigh. But still It's more beautiful in spring. It will be long if I tell you the detail in Herb Hillz. Hmmm. I think It's better to enjoy the pictures. hehe..

The water fall spring 2007 and winter 2009

The direction guide spring 2007 and winter 2009

The big trees spring 2007 and winter 2009

The Main Gate Spring 2007 and Winter 2009

the 31th day of my winter vacation

I went to immigration office with Erica and Joana just to accompany them because they wanted to make re-entry permit visa. They will go back to the Philippines next Sat (24). We planned to depart from my house at 10 pm but I and Joana just woke up at 9.50 am. ahaha. Actually I woke up early that time, mm around 15 minutes to 7 but I slept again after having lil chit chat with Data in msn. I set my alarm around 8.30. I heard the sound of it but I turned off because I am so lazy to wake up since Joana was still sleeping. 30 minutes... 30 minutes.... Still.. and finally it's almost 10, Joana called my name while washing her face..

"Mut, it's almost 10. We're late. Haha"

(Pretending everything will be ok) "Really? So just call Erica, tell her that we just woke up and ask her also if she really have exam today."

"Ok, I'll call."

after phoning.....

"Mut, Erica doesn't have any exam today. So let's sleep again. Ahaha. We can go anytime if she doesn't have any  exam today.."

"Ahaha. 미쳤어!"

Then.. I had my breakfast - took a shower - prepared everything until Erica arrived in our house. Got there by taxi. When we went there, fortunatelly there was a little people there. So It only took around 5 minutes.. DONE.

Going back to the campus by taxi and I said to them that I wanna go to the post office to send bday card for Anggia and post card for Rista. Suddenly, Joana said she want to try the new coffee shop inside the student union building. So after post office, we went to that coffee shop. The place is beside shinhan bank. Actually it's not new I think. I saw it there since last year. Coffee shop is one of favourite places for Korean to enjoy their free time. I don't know why. Three of us really don't feel anything when we went there. haha. 3,000 won and 3,300 won coffee. It's my and Joana's first in Korea. :D We really think more than twice to have coffee inside the coffee shop here, especially *bucks. The most expensive in the world is in this country. ckck. Finishing the last sip of our coffee, We went back to our house (erica to her dorm). 

I felt the day is long if I start it from morning. If I dont sleep until 1 oclock in the afternoon. 

Around 6 pm we went to Erica's teacher house. He drove his car. We thought that we would just have dinner around north gate but He brought us to his house. He said his family is waiting for us to have dinner together. His little son was very excited, he prepared a guest room for us with violet blanket. Wow. But we didn't have plan to spend a night there so we just told them that we will not sleep there because we didn't prepare anything. His wife cooked samgyeopsal, made by pork. I couldn't eat that, and good that his wife had already predicted that one of us can't eat pork. So she cooked seafood cream spaghetti special for me. :D It was sooooo delicious. Like the one in Ti Amo. 

Before eating, the kids showed us their house. Their house is not wide but very beautiful. I love the white kitchen. looks so clean. I love the living room also, wow, there is a fireplace. It's my first time to see a fire place in Korea. I didnt know before that there are some house also that use fireplace for the heater. I thougth they only use ondol. 

After eating, We had our time in that living room. drank traditional chinese tea while sharing a bunch of  story. His little kid is so cute. The older one is so handsome. I drank 3 kinds of tea last night. She kept on pouring the tea to my cup, it's like having soju. haha. also ate apple and tried the dried persimon. 

It's almost 9 o'clock so he decided to take us back to our place. He drove his other car until near dormitory. needed to walk to reach our house...

2008 NIIED Scholar Fellows Year-end Party, Seoul (Day 2)

Hari kedua...

bangun, mandi, bangunin yang di sana, trus siap2 sarapan di bawah. Sarapan pake roti selai stroberi, trus scrambled egg, jeruk..  beserta ham babi (tentunya ga gw makan T.T)

abis itu kita menuju ke daerah lingkungan rumahnya presiden Korea. Rencana awalnya diubah. Tadinya kita mau pergi ke national museum of Korea, tapi berhubung kita udah pada pernah ke sana, akhirnya kita request sama tour guidenya supaya ganti tujuan. Akhirnya kita pergi ke sana ngeliat blue house (nama dari rumah si presiden). Dinamain blue house karena atepnya warna biru, dan itu emang melambangkan warna Korea, yang mengandung arti tertentu. gw lupa artinya. 

blue house

next destination. changdeok palace. WHAT?! this place again? noo.. ke sini lagi? ckckc. bosen skalii.. gw paling ga suka emang klo diajak jalan2 liat2 palace korea kya gini. :D bosen aja bentuknya sama aja kya gitu semua. akhirnya gw tinggal aja di bis, tidur. ga cuma gw aja yang tinggal di bis waktu itu. ada arthone, joana, muugii, dorj, amara juga. 

abis itu... lunch time. kita pergi lagi ke itaewon buat makan siang. di sana gw makan haemultang, isinya seafood gitu. enak banget deh ini. oiya, di hari itu, malemnya, kita menghadiri acara utamanya, yaitu Year-end party for NIIED Scholar Fellows. 2008 batch bakal manggung, jadi kita kompakan pake sweater kembaran buat nyemangatin mereka. cowo2 warnanya abu2, cewe2 warnanya ijo. 

haemultang

Year-end party taun ini diadain di Auditorium Kyunghee University. WOW! itu yang pertama kali gw bilang pas liat kampusnya. gila keren banget deh gedung2nya. europe style gitu. big auditoriumnya dari luar itu kya kastil2 di harry potter, mirip gereja juga. tapi keren banget!! kenapa KNU ga kya gitu si gedungnya. hmm, dan year-end party taun ini, bener2 disiapin banget sama NIIED. Korea tajir banget siii. Kali ini acara dibikin keliatan jauh lebih mewah daripada taun lalu yang diadain sederhana banget. penampilan2 dari tiap university juga keren2. penuh persiapan. ga nyesel banget dateng ke acara ini. makanannya juga enak banget. tempuranya huhu.. enaaaakk. semua enak pokoknya. speechless. oia, taun ini ada beberapa anak dr KNU yang dapet prize karna nilai2 mereka. Mereka adalah mas rio, mas andri, nadee, joshua, dan hsu. selamat ya buat semua. semoga gw nyusul taun depan. amin.. 

Kyunghee University Auditorium

Kyunghee University Main Building

yah begitulah hari kedua, diakhiri dengan keceriaan karena abis nonton penampilan2 yang keren2. plus kita dapet present lagi dr NIIED, calender 2009 sama 2gb usb flash disk with finger print protection. thank you.. :)

2008 NIIED Scholar Fellows Year-end Party, Seoul (Day 1)

Back..

Now with Year-end Party edition. Yeah, I went to Seoul with other KGSS from KNU on Thursday (18) until Saturday (20). The original schedule was on 22 until 24, but a week before the day, NIIED told us that the program would be held on 18 until 20. That's why some of our friends who decided not to go because of the first schedule and after the changing of the schedule they said that they wanna go but it's too late because the office of international affairs had already booked for the hotel and everything. So They really couldn't go with us to Seoul. Poor Erica and Eranga.... 

We were asked to gather in front of the main building of our campus at 8.30 am. So I went out from our house with Joana at around 7.45 because at 8.00 we, the 2007 batch, planned to take picture together in front of main building.

On the way going to main building, we met Arthone near his dormitory. He went first to the main building because I and Joana would withdraw our money first in the ATM near dormitory. When we almost near to the main building, we saw no one's there. what?! It's almost 8.15 but only us came there. tsk tsk.. so finally, they all arrived in front of main building. We were all in a hurry because it's already 8.30. We took the picture as fast as we could. Randy prepared his Canon 40D and I helped him to set the tripod and the 'model'. :D This is one of the result...

Finally, we departed from our campus to Seoul. iyey!! trip again to Seoul and it's all FREE! In the bus, there were some activities happened. talking, listening to the mp3 player, taking pictures and videos, eating the snacks, and others. Ah ya, we got present also from our advisor, Mr. Kim Byunghae (we call him ALOHA). We got a pair of glove and a winter cap. 

We arrived at Seoul around 12.30 pm then we went to a restaurant in Itaewon. Actually it's the restaurant where we had lunch also last year in the same event. The lunch menu was pibimbab (비빔밥 = korean mixed rice and vegetables). It was so delicious because it's one of my favourite Korean food. We also met the tour guide in this restaurant. She would be our tour guide during our trip in Seoul. She is Korean who fluent in some languages; English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian.

  

After lunch, we went to Seoul Tower. Again.. Seoul Tower. (It's my third time) Hmm, I was not really interested in going there again, but since it's free it's OK. :P I thought I will only take some pictures there. There was a big red-white teddy bear christmas tree in front of the ticket booth. KAWAII NE!! I took many pictures there, you can see in my facebook. :)

  

teddy bear xmas tree

After Seoul Tower.. Cheonggyecheon stream.

I've been there also. hmm.. It's better going there in spring or summer. so cold in winter... however, it's really beautiful to see cheonggyecheon in night because there was a laser attraction and snowflakes shaped decoration light. 

After Cheonggyecheon stream.. Namdaemun market.

again namdaemun market.. huff. why didnt they bring us to other place huh? We didn't have much money so we decided to go to odeng seller and bought some odeng there. haha. went to Seoul only for eating odeng. :D

Finally.. dinner time! we were so hungry, haha. near namdaemun market, there is a samgyetang restaurant. I think it's not really delicious. I couldn't finish all because of its taste. ~.~

What a day... fun but tired. :D After that, the bus brought us to the hotel (7 pm). I thought they would provide us with the 4* hotel like last year. But nooo.. They only provided us with just small hotel in dongdaemun district. hmm, we understand sir. Now we are 30, so it will be very expensive if we stay in the 4* hotel. moreover, we would stay there for 2 nights. The hotel is not really bad anyway. 1 double bed and 1 single bed. cable TV and computer. clean bathroom. 

I slept with muugii and joana in one room. hmm, that night I planned to get my new guitar, which I bought through mas Beni, in mas Beni's dormitory in KIST. (I asked mas Beni to find a good quality guitar) So, after I washed my face and prayed and blablabla, I went out again with Randy, Farra, and Zahra. also enjoying Seoul night in one time. hehe :D We went there by taxi and prefered to take subway from there to the hotel. 

I was so happy.. haha finally I got new guitar. iyey!! thanks mas Beni! 

Ok, after some chit chat with mas Beni, we went back to the hotel by subway. Actually we don't know exactly where is the hotel but just trying to go to the nearest subway station to dongdaegu market. When we arrived there, haha, we didnt know how to go back to the hotel. Then, we called the receptionist asking how to get there. I was really tired.. arriving in my room, i turned on the computer, checked my village in travian, and signed in YM to see if he's online or not. 

Sleep time...