We set off in high spirits to Changi airport in the early dawn of the day. The adrenaline rush could be felt as there was laughter and excitement in the air as Innova students gathered together for check in. For the A level graduates, it was a well long awaited reward. For the JC1 students, it was a holiday break for them to recharge and get ready for a new year ahead. However, all of us had the same aim, which was to enjoy the ski camp and for an enriching cultural experience. After some teary farewell, we boarded the plane. We were served some Korean dishes onboard the plane. While some fell asleep, the others were busy chatting away and catching a glimpse of the movies.
Upon touching down at Incheon Airport, the cold breeze of Korea welcomed us. The temperature was as low as 5 degree Celsius and it was a total change for us. Immediately, we pulled on our jackets and embraced the cold weather. We met our Korean guides who were very friendly and approachable.
We boarded a bus to Seoul Women’s Plaza for the night’s stay. Each room could stay up to 10 students. It was dinner time after that. Our first official traditional Korean meal. The Kimchi tasted spicy but delicious to most of us. The meal was also very filling with many other side dishes. It was indeed a remarkable experience.
After dinner, it was free and easy for the three different groups. We took a train with our guides onto the streets of Incheon. It was freezing cold in the night but the time spent was memorable. It was shopping time for all of us. The shopping malls sold many similar things to Singapore. On the streets, there were many other stalls selling basically the same item. Winter wear. It was rather a disappointment as we were looking forward to buying unique Korean souvenirs. Nevertheless, the time spent with our guides and friends coupled with the sight seeing tour around the city kept our minds busy.
It was soon time for us to head back for the night. We left the city in the train and had a short debrief before sleeping. There was still a long and exciting week ahead of us.
Snores…
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Felicia's Day 2
We woke up early in the morning, all ready to set off to our ski resort. Our first breakfast in Korea, felt that the breakfast was too sumptuous. The whole travelling journey took us about 3 hours. It was torturous! Luckily, we got to stop by this nice place to get some snacks and catch a breath.
When we arrived at our ski resort, everybody was like ‘WOW-ing’. We took quite sometime to choose our ski gear and to settle ourselves in our own rooms. The condition of the room is way too good. Clean, nice view and have all that we needed. Then, we proceeded to have our lunch, next to our first ever ski/snowboard lesson. It was my first ever snowboard lesson. It was cool… The instructor was rather strict with the rules, but ultimately, he was a very funny guy. Our first snowboard tryout, it was way too fun. Though we fell down countless times, the feeling of sliding down the slope fast and on a snowboard is simply too great.
After the snowboard lesson and dinner, we went to the family mart to purchase food for the party at night. Day 2 was GOOD!
Eve's Day 3
We woke up in the morning at 8am and got ready for breakfast. We were greeted by the aroma of sweet and sour pork when all of us reached the cafeteria; and let’s not forget the usual rice and kimchi :) After eating, we separate into our respective group of snowboarding and ski people.
Like the day before, we started off with the easiest slope in the morning with our usual practice of A-stopping and A-turning. After going up and down on the slope and the gondola like a thousand times doing the same thing over and over again, I can bet with you that we are absolutely “pro” on stopping and turning. Soon it was lunch and all of us realize that it was the freaking same lunch as the day before! Alvin and Vishnu then ran off to eat their lunch at Burger King, ditching us :/ But the food was great, nonetheless and all of us have fewer leftovers than before!
Like the day before, we started off with the easiest slope in the morning with our usual practice of A-stopping and A-turning. After going up and down on the slope and the gondola like a thousand times doing the same thing over and over again, I can bet with you that we are absolutely “pro” on stopping and turning. Soon it was lunch and all of us realize that it was the freaking same lunch as the day before! Alvin and Vishnu then ran off to eat their lunch at Burger King, ditching us :/ But the food was great, nonetheless and all of us have fewer leftovers than before!
"Easiest Slope" for beginners
Going up the gondola on the easiest slope with Siow Ai & Luo Ling
We went back to our snowboarding and skiing lessons, and for us skiing people, we had a small test to see if we can do our “stunts” properly before we proceed on to the next level – EASIEST > EASY. But hey! Don’t look down on the word EASY slope ok, ‘cos when we went down the slope, it was freaking fast, like 20km/h (without braking and doing ‘II’ all the way duh!) Of course, with our incredible talent and intelligence, we passed the test with flying colours! Once we reached the easy slope, we didn’t learn anything more since the trainer wanted us to concentrate on our skills on a steeper slope than that grandmother hill we been practicing on. But it was really fun actually! I’m glad we finally went on the EASY level for all of us.
After we had dinner at the cafeteria again, we are going to have our Cultural Exchange with the Korean youths! The whole group of participants was separated into 3 groups, mainly the Wushu and Shooting, Track & Field and Floor Ball, and Cross Country. Most of our performances were related more to the Singapore National Day theme and the multi-racial harmony in Singapore. Although it was all quite a last-minute performance, it was still a success anyway. The Korean youths were mainly from the local university and the local high school with performance on the modern and traditional elements of their society, showing the unique blend and their embrace for modern living and cherish of traditional values and culture. The first Korean performance was by a hip hop dance group with a mix of music from Rain, Wonder Girls etc. We later realized that the group actually copied the exact dance moves from their MTV! But it wasn’t easy anyway. The second Korean performance group was a traditional drums performance, consisting of 1 small gong, 1 big gong, 2 gigantic drums and 2 two-faced drums. The small gong represents Thunder; the big gong represents Wind; gigantic drum represents Cloud; and two-faced drum represents Rain. It was a really LOUD performance in which I nearly became deaf from it!
Their traditional costumes and instruments
After that it there was a surprise performance by Vishnu and Kumaran of an Indian rap and (borrowed Korean) drum performance. It was really cool and every Koreans were awed by Vishnu’s beat-boxing skills and Kumaran’s drumming skills!
Our first group performance was by Track & Field, by “modernizing” IJC school song through hip hop and DJ mixing (by Vishnu), followed by a introduction and catwalk of the 4 races in Singapore. Next performance was by the one and only Cross Country team! We sang the song “Where I Belong” and “We Will Get There” with a duet by Jemimah and Vishnu. It was a hilarious performance by Vishnu! Lastly 2 songs by the Wushu/Shooting Team (but I forgot the titles anyway).
Finally, we played a game with the Korean youths – 007. I’m sure everyone knows how to play the game; it was fun, since it involves hitting people! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Soon it was time to part, since they still have to attend school the very next day.
Needless to say, we took pictures
We took pictures with them and the whole group of us went back to our rooms to sleep our ass off and prepare for skiing lessons the next day! Good night!
Zhi Ming's Day 5
Finally it is the last day at the Dameyung ski resort and quite a no. of us did not go for morning ski. Obv we were rather tired n bored of skiing liaoz…esp me hu had a great time falling down jus the nite before lolz. So I jus went to put back the ski bag n helm and eat breakfast (same old stuff but better den nth) before gg to slp back in my rm with the others.
After 2 hrs or so, we packed up our lugguage n ski attire and hav usual lunch before assembling at the 5th floor while the teachers do those admin stuffs. After a long drag, we r finally outta the resort and headed straight towards the Gangwon PE high sch by a coach bus. Wow, the 1st and only ting I saw when gg inside the sch was a usual red track with a field of dying grass n there was nth special bout the surroundings too… how disappointing =(… Ofc the place was freezing and some of us decided to do some warm ups and run a few rounds (pretty lame) while some others hum ji (oops, no offence) and decided to watch the ‘‘show’’ nvm bout them…so ended up Alvin, Wee Hong and two other track ppl competed with korean youths in a 400m 4 x4 relay…and we lost but the results were real close oh damn it. Anyway it’s no big deal since they r nt conditioned to the damn weather mainly or else we woulda won n show them hu’s boss lolz.
Our next destination was the sports exchange program with the korean youths and I thought for a change dat it would be more interesting but guess I was wrong zzz. Okay so we got there and c ppl practicing taekwando while our own wushu team put up a performance. Seriously there isn’t much to tell since the koreans there hav been doing the same old warm ups and training. Man…hw boring…wish there was some sort of sparring gg on or smth (too bad Sherjie wasn’t feeling too well and couldn’t display his skills in front of everyone else). Anyway the koreans seem to be reali fond of shouting out loud when they train and the last few words they utter according to EL translation from Wai Ching sounds like ‘‘wat the shit!’’ LOL! So the entire afternoon was kinda wasted on these boring activities u c.
After a long wait we eventually arrived at Chuncheon city by the bus and there was a group of korean youths waiting for us…somehw they all look the same wif the same nerdy hairstyle and specs from 1960s. One by one we jus went down to be ‘‘adopted’’ by the korean youths for the next 2 days. Wai Ching and I were actually paired up to stay wif one guy called Son gyu dong. Den after dat we took a cab to his place and had our/my 1st unforgettable dinner – instant noodles/rice. This sounds kinda sucky for our 1st meal (though it tasted nt bad) but too bad his parents weren’t at home for the moment. After which his parents came back and his mum prepared fruits for us after dinner.
Thru-out the nite we were trying to communicate with each other and true enuf it was kinda hard since koreans’ EL standard isn’t dat gd and we dun understand korean. So Wai Ching conducted a ‘‘Q&A’’ session wif our new fren and I asked some qns as well to delay more time zzz when we ran out of qns to ask. After which Wai Ching even played dota on his com and taught him hw to use MSN to chat online and wikipedia n youtube to search for relevant info n videos. So ended up Wai Ching spent an hr + chatting on his MSN acc while I watch TV wif his family. Okay after all these we were feeling real tired and the 3 of us jus slp in the living rm.
After 2 hrs or so, we packed up our lugguage n ski attire and hav usual lunch before assembling at the 5th floor while the teachers do those admin stuffs. After a long drag, we r finally outta the resort and headed straight towards the Gangwon PE high sch by a coach bus. Wow, the 1st and only ting I saw when gg inside the sch was a usual red track with a field of dying grass n there was nth special bout the surroundings too… how disappointing =(… Ofc the place was freezing and some of us decided to do some warm ups and run a few rounds (pretty lame) while some others hum ji (oops, no offence) and decided to watch the ‘‘show’’ nvm bout them…so ended up Alvin, Wee Hong and two other track ppl competed with korean youths in a 400m 4 x4 relay…and we lost but the results were real close oh damn it. Anyway it’s no big deal since they r nt conditioned to the damn weather mainly or else we woulda won n show them hu’s boss lolz.
Our next destination was the sports exchange program with the korean youths and I thought for a change dat it would be more interesting but guess I was wrong zzz. Okay so we got there and c ppl practicing taekwando while our own wushu team put up a performance. Seriously there isn’t much to tell since the koreans there hav been doing the same old warm ups and training. Man…hw boring…wish there was some sort of sparring gg on or smth (too bad Sherjie wasn’t feeling too well and couldn’t display his skills in front of everyone else). Anyway the koreans seem to be reali fond of shouting out loud when they train and the last few words they utter according to EL translation from Wai Ching sounds like ‘‘wat the shit!’’ LOL! So the entire afternoon was kinda wasted on these boring activities u c.
After a long wait we eventually arrived at Chuncheon city by the bus and there was a group of korean youths waiting for us…somehw they all look the same wif the same nerdy hairstyle and specs from 1960s. One by one we jus went down to be ‘‘adopted’’ by the korean youths for the next 2 days. Wai Ching and I were actually paired up to stay wif one guy called Son gyu dong. Den after dat we took a cab to his place and had our/my 1st unforgettable dinner – instant noodles/rice. This sounds kinda sucky for our 1st meal (though it tasted nt bad) but too bad his parents weren’t at home for the moment. After which his parents came back and his mum prepared fruits for us after dinner.
Thru-out the nite we were trying to communicate with each other and true enuf it was kinda hard since koreans’ EL standard isn’t dat gd and we dun understand korean. So Wai Ching conducted a ‘‘Q&A’’ session wif our new fren and I asked some qns as well to delay more time zzz when we ran out of qns to ask. After which Wai Ching even played dota on his com and taught him hw to use MSN to chat online and wikipedia n youtube to search for relevant info n videos. So ended up Wai Ching spent an hr + chatting on his MSN acc while I watch TV wif his family. Okay after all these we were feeling real tired and the 3 of us jus slp in the living rm.
Siow Ai's Day 6
It's the morning after our first night with our homestay family. Finally we slept on BEDS instead of blankets! HAhaa.. My fellow homestay people are Eve and Gracie. Not forgetting our hosts, Jun Ha, Pil Min, Jun Ha's parents and elder brother, who drives us around. PS: he drove us back home at 2am later in the night after our crazy party.
The breakfast was totally NEW to us as it's RAMEN~ Wootz.. this is specially prepared for us as during the previous night supper, we were telling our hosts that we had rice for almost every meal. As such, we asked if it's actually a Korean culture to eat rice more than any other carbohydrate. The ramen is prepared by Jun Ha's mum who has to work in the day. That answers why the dinner is cooked by his Dad. I must say both their cooking skills are pretty good (pic). Even if u just see the pics, u'll probably drool. Anw, thanks Jun Ha's mum for giving the 3 of us each a sleepwear pants that's so colourful and colourful like Jun Ha's monkey pants (pic). Totally Korean style type of sleepwear...
After breakfast, we went to Jun Ha's room to eat ice cream again in the morning where he surfed the net while Pil Min had to wash the dishes.(pic) Interesting isn't it? The boy who's living in his own home doesn't wash the dishes while his friend does it for him. Yeah, and Pil Min will then say,'' Korean guys are very tired, have to wash the dishes, clean the room, cook..... blahblahblah '' Carried on with Rain's song, 'Rainism' where he'll say Jun Ha is a bad boy while he's a gentle man. He loves Jun Ha, but Jun Ha hates him? LOL. But hey, 9 months of friendship. Thinking about it, they're really very close! Like what Gracie said to Jun Ha, he would have died without Pil Min who acts as the translator as his English is much better off. Most importantly, Jun Ha is a 15 year old boy who gets panicky and shy whenever we ask him questions and will start dragging Pil Min over even if he was doing the dishes. He skipped one year of elementary school. Hence, same level as Pil Min who's 16. Interesting fact that we realised- Korean count their age starting from the time their mum is fertilised!~
The breakfast was totally NEW to us as it's RAMEN~ Wootz.. this is specially prepared for us as during the previous night supper, we were telling our hosts that we had rice for almost every meal. As such, we asked if it's actually a Korean culture to eat rice more than any other carbohydrate. The ramen is prepared by Jun Ha's mum who has to work in the day. That answers why the dinner is cooked by his Dad. I must say both their cooking skills are pretty good (pic). Even if u just see the pics, u'll probably drool. Anw, thanks Jun Ha's mum for giving the 3 of us each a sleepwear pants that's so colourful and colourful like Jun Ha's monkey pants (pic). Totally Korean style type of sleepwear...
After breakfast, we went to Jun Ha's room to eat ice cream again in the morning where he surfed the net while Pil Min had to wash the dishes.(pic) Interesting isn't it? The boy who's living in his own home doesn't wash the dishes while his friend does it for him. Yeah, and Pil Min will then say,'' Korean guys are very tired, have to wash the dishes, clean the room, cook..... blahblahblah '' Carried on with Rain's song, 'Rainism' where he'll say Jun Ha is a bad boy while he's a gentle man. He loves Jun Ha, but Jun Ha hates him? LOL. But hey, 9 months of friendship. Thinking about it, they're really very close! Like what Gracie said to Jun Ha, he would have died without Pil Min who acts as the translator as his English is much better off. Most importantly, Jun Ha is a 15 year old boy who gets panicky and shy whenever we ask him questions and will start dragging Pil Min over even if he was doing the dishes. He skipped one year of elementary school. Hence, same level as Pil Min who's 16. Interesting fact that we realised- Korean count their age starting from the time their mum is fertilised!~
Jemimah's Day 7
I don’t quite know why, but I recall dreaming about flying back to Singapore. Yet, I knew that I really wanted to know more about Korea. I’ve only seen a tiny bit of Seoul, Chuncheon’s city area… that’s hardly enough to know a lot about the Korean culture. Never mind the absolutely freezing winter cold; its an experience I’ve never had anyway.
Guess it was my home stay family’s 10year old boy that brought me out of my daydream. I was still sleepy eyed when he carried the brown wooden chess board into his sister’s room, where Swee Hong and I were sleeping, Korean style, on the heated floor. “9 o’clock, play chess?” he asked.
His broken English sounded so cute, I had to say yes.
Alas though, we never got to play the game of chess. We were called to breakfast by his dad. It was to be our last meal with our home stay family in Korea.
Our meal was the usual breakfast that families had in Korea. We had kimchi (a must for Koreans at every meal), ramen (a type of Korean noodles) and leftover food from the dinner that Ajimah (Korean term to refer to an older woman, in a respectful manner; in this case, it was the boy’s mother) had cooked before.
“After breakfast, we go E-mart… ok?” Our host family’s 12 year old daughter looked hesitantly at Swee Hong and me, to make sure we understood. We did, and nodded in agreement, E-mart is a hypermarket in Korea, similar to the Carrefour and Giant Hypermarket outlets we have in Singapore. The mother of the 12 year old girl I stayed with (not writing her name because I cant spell it…), worked at E-mart.
At E-mart, the family tried to get us a farewell gift. We felt bad, because we had not done much for them, except maybe keep their kids company, and our smattering knowledge of Korean hardly facilitated much exchange of information about the differing lifestyles in both countries that was intended. We did manage to learn more about each other’s culture, just not as much as I had hoped, and we felt that their getting a gift for us was too much for them to spend. After much persuasion, we finally accepted their offer. As their dad drove us to our meeting point at Taebak Garden, we said “thank you” in Korean, and I’ll never forget the smile that their dad had on his face when we said that.
We then took a bus ride to Incheon International Airport, stopping at a restaurant for lunch. But it was at the airport, as I saw my friends taking photos with the Chuncheon YMCA staff (who were university students who took time off their studies to accompany us) that I realized that the trip was really coming to an end. I kinda hate to admit it, but I was sad. Maybe it was because I had so much fun finding out about life in a country I had previously never set foot in, or maybe it was because I missed conversing in half Korean, half English. But I still think that I would miss our Korean friends who accompanied us throughout the trip.
As the rest of them went to shop, I stayed behind to ask them more about the Soyang River that my host family had taken me to see (I cant really spell this one right, but its pronounced that way). The conversation drifted to our impending parting.
“Go back to Singapore with us?” I pointed to the luggage bags witting in front of a closed check-in corner and laughed.
“Yes yes... I go into your luggage, " they said laughing.
But I think we knew that it was merely a joke. We exchanged email address, and since Yoon-Hee had a facebook page, I promised to add her on mine. (And I will… really really soon)
The teachers helped us to reflect on our trip, a bit I think. I cannot really recall exactly what was said, but for me, the most important was what Miss Sim said. She mentioned how in such a large group traveling together, our communication was ok, but it could be improved. I agree with her, because besides having fun on the trip, I think I also learnt, first-hand, how important maintaining good communication between people is, regardless of what is the activity really.
The flight back to Singapore was rather uneventful…just this one bit…
Zul, my friend sitting next to me, said that the first thing he wanted to do was go and eat Singapore food (laksa and chicken rice). Made me realize that we missed Singapore. Guess I have to admit that while I love Korea and the unique culture, I really will miss the familiarity and comfort that I have come to associate with living in Singapore. Call me emotional if you want…but I really think that I will love to visit other countries, but Singapore is my home…
Haha…that’s in earnest… :)
Overall, I had fun, I learnt a lot of stuff…
Guess it was my home stay family’s 10year old boy that brought me out of my daydream. I was still sleepy eyed when he carried the brown wooden chess board into his sister’s room, where Swee Hong and I were sleeping, Korean style, on the heated floor. “9 o’clock, play chess?” he asked.
His broken English sounded so cute, I had to say yes.
Alas though, we never got to play the game of chess. We were called to breakfast by his dad. It was to be our last meal with our home stay family in Korea.
Our meal was the usual breakfast that families had in Korea. We had kimchi (a must for Koreans at every meal), ramen (a type of Korean noodles) and leftover food from the dinner that Ajimah (Korean term to refer to an older woman, in a respectful manner; in this case, it was the boy’s mother) had cooked before.
“After breakfast, we go E-mart… ok?” Our host family’s 12 year old daughter looked hesitantly at Swee Hong and me, to make sure we understood. We did, and nodded in agreement, E-mart is a hypermarket in Korea, similar to the Carrefour and Giant Hypermarket outlets we have in Singapore. The mother of the 12 year old girl I stayed with (not writing her name because I cant spell it…), worked at E-mart.
At E-mart, the family tried to get us a farewell gift. We felt bad, because we had not done much for them, except maybe keep their kids company, and our smattering knowledge of Korean hardly facilitated much exchange of information about the differing lifestyles in both countries that was intended. We did manage to learn more about each other’s culture, just not as much as I had hoped, and we felt that their getting a gift for us was too much for them to spend. After much persuasion, we finally accepted their offer. As their dad drove us to our meeting point at Taebak Garden, we said “thank you” in Korean, and I’ll never forget the smile that their dad had on his face when we said that.
We then took a bus ride to Incheon International Airport, stopping at a restaurant for lunch. But it was at the airport, as I saw my friends taking photos with the Chuncheon YMCA staff (who were university students who took time off their studies to accompany us) that I realized that the trip was really coming to an end. I kinda hate to admit it, but I was sad. Maybe it was because I had so much fun finding out about life in a country I had previously never set foot in, or maybe it was because I missed conversing in half Korean, half English. But I still think that I would miss our Korean friends who accompanied us throughout the trip.
As the rest of them went to shop, I stayed behind to ask them more about the Soyang River that my host family had taken me to see (I cant really spell this one right, but its pronounced that way). The conversation drifted to our impending parting.
“Go back to Singapore with us?” I pointed to the luggage bags witting in front of a closed check-in corner and laughed.
“Yes yes... I go into your luggage, " they said laughing.
But I think we knew that it was merely a joke. We exchanged email address, and since Yoon-Hee had a facebook page, I promised to add her on mine. (And I will… really really soon)
The teachers helped us to reflect on our trip, a bit I think. I cannot really recall exactly what was said, but for me, the most important was what Miss Sim said. She mentioned how in such a large group traveling together, our communication was ok, but it could be improved. I agree with her, because besides having fun on the trip, I think I also learnt, first-hand, how important maintaining good communication between people is, regardless of what is the activity really.
The flight back to Singapore was rather uneventful…just this one bit…
Zul, my friend sitting next to me, said that the first thing he wanted to do was go and eat Singapore food (laksa and chicken rice). Made me realize that we missed Singapore. Guess I have to admit that while I love Korea and the unique culture, I really will miss the familiarity and comfort that I have come to associate with living in Singapore. Call me emotional if you want…but I really think that I will love to visit other countries, but Singapore is my home…
Haha…that’s in earnest… :)
Overall, I had fun, I learnt a lot of stuff…
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