Kyung Hee University

This was my university campus!!!

I wasn't really a full time student there. I was a 1 month student there for the summer program (Global Collaborative Summer Program) in Kyung Hee University, Main Campus in Seoul in year 2013. I was never imagine that i will have a chance to study at this campus as it truly look amazing.

This is how my campus looks like. Is it looks great? The building in front is the University Administration Building while there is the Grand Auditorium at behind.

This building that look like church is actually the Grand Auditorium of the campus. There was a concert held in here on my first day in Korea.

This is Crown Hall named after it's outlook as the building itself look like the crown of a king. This was the place that the opening ceremony of the summer program was held.

This was the tennis court that i used to pass by everyday to reach my classroom. The building behind is where i spent my time with the lecturer and my coursemates every weekday.

This 3 photos were taken in the library. I had never seen any library like this. Yup, this is actually the central library and museum of Kyung Hee University. There is a statue at the entrance of the library which make me feel like i was in Europe more than Korea.

This is a lion statue at the centre of the campus with me and my friends taking photo in front it. My friends told me that there is a rumor in the campus saying that making wish to the lion and your wish will come true. I was not too sure about that. =D

If you have nothing to do over the summer break and interested to participate in the Global Collaborative Summer Program can log into the website for more details.
http://gc.khu.ac.kr/?hpDom=seoul&mhp_cls_cd=001002

Delicious JjimDak

Normally people will go for fried chicken or Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken) when visits to Korea. Apart from these, JjimDak is something worth to try as well. My friends and I had found this when we are looking around for our dinner near to our hostel that located near to Kyung Hee Hospital. 

The restaurant name

JjimDak is actually chicken with various vegetables cooked in Korean Soy Sauce. There are 

potatoes, cucumber, carrot, and super lots of dried chili. For me that don’t take in spicy food, 

I removed all the dried chili when the food was served. =P 

People normally will order a quarter or half of the chicken for a small group of people. Some
even ordered whole chicken for people of 6. We only order half of the chicken but 6 of us were
so full after finish the chicken.

Based on what I observed, Korean will finish the chicken first, and then mix in the rice into the sauce. For me, I had ordered the white rice and eat together with the chicken. 

Namsan? NO, it's Naksan.

I was confused at first and wonder why I would not able to search the place. It is Naksan 

instead of Namsan.

p/s: I like the background of this photo very much cause the green grass and colourful flower.
Kindly ignore my presence there. =D

Glad that my Korean friend had brought me here, a place that will not get into my plan to visit. We are supposed to visit GyeongBukGong but only found out it was not open on Tuesday. Therefore, my Korean friend had brought us here, NakSan Park.

We had walked for quite a distance after reach Hyehwa Station. The way to reach Naksan Park was quite tiring as it is like walking up to the hill.

Even though it was tiring, we still have a lot fun while walking up to the park. There were a lot of creative and beautiful murals on the wall that we pass by on our way up to reach Naksan Park.

The view was truly amazing even though we are just at the entrance of the park. There is also a Naksan Gallery for the visitor to understand better about Naksan. 

We reach the top of Naksan by taking the staircase. Step by step we climbed up through the staircase surround by the green trees. 

Finally, here we are at the top of the Naksan. The view was truly great that the whole city was captured by my eyes.

Of course, we will never forget to take a photo of us up here as the memory.

How to reach there?

Take Seoul Subway line 4 to Hyehwa Station, Exit 2.

Tosokchon (토속촌) Samgyetang (Ginseng Chicken Soup)

My friends brought me to Tosokchon (토속촌), one of the restaurants that famous with their Samgyetang (삼계탕) or also known as Chicken Ginseng Soup to have a try on it. 

We heard that there is always a super long queue of visitors every day. We were so lucky that the queue wasn’t that long during our visit. 

The interior of the restaurant was attractive as the restaurant was converted from a 

traditional Hanok. The restaurant was big with several different dining sections. Some are 

with low tables where customers will sit on the cushion on the floor, and some are with 

normal tables and chairs. 

We were shocked when the dishes were served. We had just ordered 4 chickens for 4 young ladies while 1 portion is enough to be shared by 2 people. The inner chicken was filled with glutinous rice, ginseng and other medical herbs and grains. 

They also served a small cup of Ginseng alcohol per customers and there are unlimited Kimchi 

and pickles on the dining table for the customers. 

How to reach there?

Gyeongbokgung Station (Seoul Subway Line 3), Exit 2.

Go straight about 170m and turn left onto Jahamun-ro 5-gil Road.

Tosokchon (토속촌) is located 10m ahead on the left.

Noryangjin Fish Market

Who will step into a fish market when they are traveling? I did that and I would really recommend this Noryangjin Fish Market to all who are going to visit Seoul. 

The seafood in Noryangjin Fish Market are for both wholesales and retails. There are a lot
of seafood choices for the customers to choose from. There are also restaurants in the market
that can cook the seafood on the spot.

 Not all the sellers there able to speak in fluent English but they will still understand the
basic English. I was lucky as some of them are actually speak Mandarin, make my trip in
Noryangjin much easier. 

The ahjumma (auntie) there were so enthusiastic to recommend seafood to us. After choose the seafood, the seller had recommend a restaurant for us and here we go for the seafood lunch. A steamed king crab, barbeque abalone and baby octopus shasimi is the menu for the day.

How to reach there?

688, Nodeul-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul.

Take Seoul Subway line 1 to Noryangjin Station, Exit 1. 

Cross the pedestrian bridge.

Oppa Dak 오빠닭

Korea is famous with the culture of Chicken & Beer where the working adults reward 

themselves with chicken and beer after the long working day. My Korean friends had brought 

me to Oppa Dak (오빠닭) / Oppa Chicken and experienced it. 

The logo of Oppa Dak

Oppa Dak is actually a short form formed by “오븐에 빠진 닭” which mean “Chicken that fell 

into the oven”. There are different type sauces that customers can choose from such as original, garlic, honey, sweet chilli, and others. 

My favourite chicken is this, *refer to photo below. I can’t recall what it’s name, but the chicken

is served together with salad and ice cream. It’s so tasty and healthy!

 

Garlic Flavour

Like it so much and so, I went back to eat again. Even though there are lot choices but still 

cant miss out my favourite. 

Korea City Hall

The first location that I went in Korea was the Seoul City Hall. I wasn’t visited there on purpose but was actually passed by when I am searching my way to reach Myeong Dong. According to Wikipedia, this Renaissance-style stone building was founded in 1926. I didn’t truly know much about this building, but I knew that one of the episode of the RunningMan was filmed in this building before. =P

I was actually amazed with the outlook of this building as I had never seen architecture like this.

I was there during summer and they are decorating the field with a Korea flag formed by flower, right in front of the Korea City Hall. 

There was an exhibition ongoing at the big field right in front of the City Hall. I was glad to have a chance to learn about the traditional game of Korean to train their stamina. It was a big scale of swing that people swing themselves on it.

A wrong demonstration by me

A Korean guy with good stamina

I wasn’t good in playing that and only able to have a light swing from front to back. There was a Korean guy had showed me the actual way of the game where he able to swing almost up to the sky.


How to reach there?

Take Seoul Subway line 1 or 2 to City Hall Station, Exit 5.

My staying in Seoul

My home in Seoul is actually the hostel for Kyung Hee University’s International Student.

During my summer program in Korea, I was staying in an off-campus hostel for international students near the main entrance of Kyung Hee University. There were several off-campus hostels for the international students and I stayed in International House 2.

It was a 5 floor building and I was staying at the top floor of the building. Fortunately, there was a lift in the building. I can’t imagine how am i going to walk up to 6 floors every day.

The room is a twin sharing room. It was small but it was well-equipped and comfortable. When step into the room, there is the toilet on the right hand side and a kitchen on the left. The room is equipped with television, washing machine, water heater, air-conditioner, refrigerator and a microwave. There is also a double-storey bed, wardrobe, and 2 desks plus cupboard.

As I was at the top floor of the building, I did enjoy the view by looking down from the window.

This room is truly amazing and my roommate and I love it very much. Truly wish I can have a room like this here in Malaysia.

Bright Star from Malaysia, Shila Amzah

Some of you might don’t know who is she, Shila Amzah, better known with her Chinese name 茜拉, was the winner of the first season Asian Wave in Shanghai in 2012.

It was a big surprise when I was told that Shila is coming to Kemaman for the 

Chinese New Year 2013 Countdown Celebration organized by Ministry of Youth & Sport 

together with YMM Chukai 2. 

Shila showed up on the stage after the countdown and firework show. She had started her performance with the “Zheng Fu” (征服) by NaYing(那英). Apart from that, Shila also performed “Set fire to the rain” by Adele and “forever love” by Lee Hom (王力宏).

 Shila's powerful vocal was truly amazing. I can hear her voice clearly when I was sitting right in front of the stage. Really touched by her beautiful voice... 

Shila had walked down to the stage to have a closer distance with all the audience during the performance. I was so lucky to have a super close distance with her as I was just sitting right in front of the stage.

This is how close we are. =P