Well this certainly brought back memories.

why discriminate?
discriminate: treat unfairly on the grounds of race, sex or age

this time around im not goin to talk about me. nada.

im going to talk abt discrimination tht is still happening around us no matter how far we are in moving forward in developing a better nation. ok, lets juz cut it to the chase. im not goin to find other places or people as a subject of point here. it happen in my school and ironically, d last trial exam question asked about 'how to promote unity?'. sadly even d people here didnt practise it.

what am i talking about? ok heres d thing. graduation day 4 d form 3 n 5 is at d end of this week. n teachers n admin staffs are bz selecting for d best student award. in my fickle mind, i personally think, juz choose d best student among d rest no matter who he or she is. and dat person dat fit d shuz is a chinese girl whom i tot is d perfect choice. but, no. she's not. she was merely chosen as a student wit academic achievements only not with overall achievement. d best one is reserved 4 a malay boy whom ive never heard of. ok i noe he got brains as well, but scoring an average 3.7 every semester compared to a 4 pointer flat every semester by dat chinese girl, i think kindergarten kids can make d difference who's d best.

well i think dats not juz all. she is also active in sports and co-curricular activities, even know how to handle most of d stuff in d school way better than d teachers i guess. im not choosing sides but ive never heard of dat boy in any skool activities make it publicly or non..but when i asked, whos d best student award 4 dis year? d answer i got, d malay boy. why? coz he's a malay..knp? d answer i get : 'kita kena mempertabatkan melayu.'

so, it doesnt matter if we are good or not but wat matter d most is pride n dignity of malay? come on.. this is d survival of d fittest. let d best one win not because of preference. why must we still have dat way of thinking? kalau macam tu, buang masa aje promote 1malaysia.

to hell with unity that way if we are still in d same box of space of thinking.


Happy birthday,
To a teacher I always respect. Thanks for being there for me, once upon a time.

So me and ruxy went for a summer trip in Seoul - It's NOT summer at all. In fact, when it's raining, it's similar to what I experience in autumn of Taiwan. Well weather's a bit nasty I have to say, killed off the opportunity for good photos (sigh). We opted for day trips outside of Seoul as Seoul was really too city-like - like few Orchards combined at different towns? I literally got bad mood on the day flying back from Jeju (seriously). Am very thankful for all the blogs that provided us so much information on (especially boboandchichi.com - stumbled upon their blog posts and that's why we had these day trips) day trips - so yeah writing this down so that anyone planning day trips can have more reference :)

✅ Our daytrips outside Seoul included:
1. Paju Day Trip (Odusan Unification Observatory ➡  Gyeonggi English Village, Paju Camp ➡  Heyri Art Village)
2. Gangchon / Chuncheon Day Trip (Gangchon rail park ➡ Dakgalbi street at Chuncheon)
3. Pocheon Day Trip (Pocheon Art Valley)

The weather on the day we went to Paju was quite bad, we had drizzle whole day long - to the extent that I have to wear raincoat to keep me warm. Paju is really a wonderful place for photography, if not the best among the day trips (seriously).

    Heading to Paju

How we got there:
1. Subway to Hapjeong station (Line 2, Exit 1)
2. Outside of Exit 1, locate a red, rounded bus sign of Bus 2200 (intervals of 15 minutes), take that bus to Heyri Art Village :) - should take about 45 minutes

On the bus, we were quite worried as the first few stations are announced in Korean Language (SO DID THE STATION NAMES ON SCREEN) - we waited until it approaches the art village, and was so relieved that English announcements are made. (One thing I like about travelling in Korea!) We followed another blog's advice to go down at entrance #4 of Heyri Art Village as there's more cafes and museums (The bus stops at #1, #4 and another one at the back.) - but the weather's so rainy - we literally sat at one of the shop's bench and waited until the tourist information center starts operating at 10am *Tourist information center can be found right at entrance #4, a colourful booth that is!

Heyri Art Village's sign post!

The tourist booth (sorry, no photo on that) is the place to buy some combo tickets to enter some (affiliated I guess) galleries and museum, some including drinks / food voucher; or if you can read Korean - it's the place where a map of the village in Korean can be obtained. The young gentleman in the tourist booth did a real great job in telling us directions to most of the attractions we read about in other blogs, and to Odusan Observatory and English Village as well (even printed us coloured-maps to help us out). After getting the directions, we figure that we should go to the observatory first before spending more time later in the village. So here we go:

Odusan Unification Observatory

Admission: 3,000KRW

This is an observatory built on Odusan, overlooking the border of North Korea. Highly recommended if you have a thing for the mysterios North Korea!

How we got there:
1. Walk over to the bus stop at entrance #4 of Heyri Art Village (opposite to the ones we alight) and take the Bus 900 (green) down the slope
2. We told the driver that we are going to Odusan Unification Observatory (he's so kind to listen to us and brought us to the shuttle without charge as he has no passenger on bus at that time) and he dropped us at a place where the shuttle to the observatory operates (every 20 minutes)

Bus to the observatory! Free of charge :)

For me, this is really a must-go if you are in Paju, especially if you are there on a sunny day. Seriously! Here's why:

• Be just few kilometers away from the North Korea 
• Get the chance to have a peek at the mysterious country with binoculars 
• Understand more about how people living in North Korea (at least from what was observed)
• Cheap alternative to the expensive DMZ tour which eats up whole day, this serves only as another destination on the trip to Paju

Nope. Um, just a layer of greys and whites seen.

A 3-D illustration of how near are you to North Korea

Gyeonggi English Village, Paju Camp

Admission: 7,000KRW

This is one interesting place, seriously. Apparently it is built because the authorities recognizes the importance of learning English - so they created these (there are other villages at other places as well) English villages, incorporating concepts of an English Language Learning Institution in. The village is complete with facilities like classrooms, city hall, shops, clinics - quite a cute concept! Everyone is encouraged to speak English in the village - we are so relieved to finally find some Koreans well versed in English - we had been relying on the Korean Language translator app for some time already.

On a side note, we got some discount on the admission ticket because we found the coupon book online for the Gyeonggi province - it's still valid through 2016-2017, it covers a lot of areas including Gapyeong area (Garden of Morning Calm, Petite France etc), be sure to give it a search if your destinations is covered. Some of the coupons required printing, some are okay to even accept coupons in your electronic devices.

How we got there (from Odusan Unification Observatory):
1. Walk out of the shuttle bus area to the bus stop outside and wait for Bus 2200.
2. Tell the driver you are heading to English village! Here you go!

The walls of the village have these on it - we walked right to the end to the main gate to enter the village.

Very impressed by their admission ticket - you get an English Village Passport and have to go through a customs check

The day we went was apparently a holiday - there was no classes conducted in the village, so it's pretty empty and quiet. The village is literally a place where every single building is built beautifully - extremely suited for photographs. Don't know if they allows wedding photo shoot in the village itself - but it is really a nice place to.. take photos.

The Outdoor Theatre - I guess it's used for large scale events - but this looks perfect for a wedding haha

The gloomy English Village

The city hall - with raindrops sticking on the lens haha.

Heyri Art Village

Julian and his dried flowers. Really curious on how he kept his flowers coloured after dried up

I was actually quite inspired when I read Timothy Teoh's dayre when he went to Jordan and kinda did an everyday travel log like sooo interesting - so I was thinking if I can do one during my elective trip to Taiwan too :)

Ok lah not that ambitious I guess, just figured that trip that I didn't write about tend to just fade away

TET = Taiwan Elective Trip ahaa

Prologue:
Two of my friends and I were accepted into Taipei Veterans General Hospital for electives for 2 weeks :) Hmm okay don't wanna talk about the application part - so after sleepy plannings after our tiring elective project work - here we go at 29.11.2014 :D Hmm nope I have no such determination to post photos and upload photos in instagram and facebook and blog everyday - so it's a delayed release hahaa :)

I wake up 29.11.2014 at 7am because I FREAKING LEFT MY LUGGAGE UNPACKED BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP LAST NIGHT. Hmm things are complicated last night - but I do have a list of what to bring and I was just thinking today morning will be just collect-things-according-to-list-and-dump-it-inside @@

And when I open up the green luggage belonged to ZhiXi that I PROUDLY BRUSHED with all energy I had yesterday - I was so damn freaked out because THERE IS ACTUALLY STUFFS INSIDE. A bag, and another bag with a lot of tissue papers. All wet T_T Even the water proof layer inside the luggage was wet.  :/

And at that moment of time mom helpfully woke up from sleep. And patiently helped me to look for another luggage and helped me with packing, and vacuumed my winter clothing up into the bag. I love you mom. Always.

It was just in time when I finally pack all stuffs up (luckily bro woke up too, and gave some suggestions to me on how to just use the vacuumed bag as a layer and stuff other clothes and shoes on it) and finished gulping down my breakfast - we are off to airport.

Freaking headache on the way to airport - who will expect a starting of trip like thisss

Mom and dad only managed to drop me off at the side of airport - and i'm all on my ownn. Argh when I go in my friends were inside already - waiting for me at the check in counter :s My friend's brother was there too, he helped us to label our luggage as fragile (because stethoscope is inside) and told us that Hong Kong airport is darn big so be prepared to run later.

And we were on planeeee. Head was freaking in pain and tried to sleep but when it's time to distribute meals on plane the seats were straightened up and it's so hard to sleep :/ But however I did spend the time when my seats are up to finish 'Begin Again' :) (Keira Knightley was so pretty)

And hi airplane meal after 9 years ahhaaa. Can't quite stand a meal without vege though :/

Airplane food isn't very tasty because our sense of smell and taste decrease by 20% to 50% while flying.”
— Classified Facts (@classifiedfact) January 3, 2015

I don't know, but the flight to Hong Kong and to Taiwan was quite awful - I was feeling nausea and restless urgh. And having to board the plane for two times was so tiring :s I actually got searched at the Hong Kong customs because I forgot to remove my handphone outta my pocket and went through the metal detector. So stupid i cannot stand myself.

When we arrived at TaoYuan Airport it's already 8 something near to 9 at night. Bought Fareastone simcard (eh i highly recommend this company! Bought at NTD900 for a month of unlimited data supply and free NTD450 worth of call) and called miss W for our checking in procedures. Got on a cab to reach Taipei city (apparently Taoyuan is like an hour away from Taipei :O) - and the driver uncle was so proud of his new car - said there's only two of them in the whole Taipei city and we are boarding one of it :O He roughly introduced the toll system of the highways (which deducts your money silently when you pass through the detector at whatever speed) to us and told that coming to Taiwan for exchange in medicine is the best choice of all - well we hope so :/ Headache sleepy nervous for what will happen soonnn ergh. From the uncle we learnt that only taxis at the airport can pick customers to their destination from the airport - other taxis can only do the 'to airport' trip :O

See how Rux's camera working seamlessly in low light condition. Yeah. I am amazed. Oh ya this was the taxi. GPS, Speed detector, traffic updates, and an invisible toll paying system. Cool.

I like Taiwanese people like almost instantly hahaa don't quite know why. They sounded so polite in speaking :)
And maybe because the uncle helped us with our bags when we reached the hostel. :) But the whole trip was like NTD1100 sobs.

Waited for Miss W to come and hand us our keys - and there she was - a 30s looking lady with her helmet - but I just really think that she's quite business minded because by accepting us in during the weekends she got to ask us to pay NTD700 more per person :O And we thought that it was a standard procedure but she said there's no receipt for it.

Okay then we know where the money is going to. So obvious kannn.

But okaylah we still willingly handed in the money because she showed us around the hostel area and told us about some transportation information and stuffs. But then it still felt awkward when she told us "Okay that's all with intro. Now I want my money." with a big grin. Ergh.

A glimpse of the room. Hi room for two weeks. Hi. PS: that's my new coat from Uniqlo yeay. Like it because it reminded me of the smelly towel I used to hug when I was small. So niceee to touch hahaa.

The hostel has a bathroom with the hot water supply (but the equilibrium between hot and cold was just so hard to be reached :s Note: maybe because it's me who's adjusting. Spent 5 minutes on that every time before bath), toilets which you can't throw tissue papers in (maybe the sewage system there only treats faeces and liquid eh?), washing machine, drying machine (yeay!) and double lock access system for female hostel. And we are actually staying at the neurology nerve regeneration building which another lift will bring you to the wards :O Miss W said there was an elective student student from Austria named Hannah living next door, but when she knock she was not in (and we were just too tired to say hi. :s)

And bro's universal adapter can't fit in tightly at the socket lol. It just sorta hang there and when you pull the wire a bit harder the thing pulled off. Hahaaa we got quite annoyed actuallyyy

It's time to rest and charge camera and we will be going out tomorrowwww yeayy zzz

#TETDay1 #tired #letssleep

LOL as expected - even after I edited my own blog template until it looked so luring for me to post new posts - I still didn't write anything until now lol. Elective (although it's only during Wednesdays and Thursdays) were freaking tiring and other times I was enjoying life ahha - sleeping and planning my trip to Taiwan this SATURDAY I super excited :) Ahhahhaa

Today's post is about roommates. Because. I grew super touched and happy (exaggerated ergh) after reading my roommate's blog - which actually thanked me and Jia hui for being supportive towards her during the exam period >< I don't know why felt super happy lol!

Err this was a ciplak from blinkthasn.blogspot.com arrrrr copyrighted copyrighted

Hmm I shall not go into details, but since third year the room was really a nicer place to stay compared to first and second year - maybe because now - we are 3 different people who loved to be alone, but will just click when we got together. YES things felt MUCH BETTER this wayy seriouslyyyy

Sincerely praying for Jia Hui to pass her exam in December so that we can go eat something nice for celebration :)

#G02 #SueSien #JiaHui #RoomFeltBetterThisYear #ThankYou