Daehanminguk 2014 Day 5 ♥

16th June 2014.
Everland!

We decided to spend the whole day in Everland! What's Everland? Most people would have heard of Lotte World but not of Everland! In terms of convenience, Lotte World is more convenient as it's in Seoul itself. Everland on the other hand is on the outskirts of Seoul so it's more troublesome and difficult to get to.

Just like most of the mornings, we would have breakfast at our favourite Myeongdong station stall before heading out. This morning, we decided to takeaway 2 rolls of kimbap as the food at Everland wasn't cheap. Since it was a theme park, everything there had like theme park pricing.

So anyway, here was our breakfast. Or was it brunch? The details are fuzzy already by now ><

We had ddokbokki and odeng!

This trip was my second time going to Everland. I went there once in April 2012 and so it wasn't that confusing since I roughly knew the route there. But I think the route I took back then was no longer available so we went by another route. There are a few different routes you can take as stated on the KTO website. We decided to go by the Gangnam route as there was a clear description on the Everland Official Website.

Initially I was quite worried about finding the bus stop and kept referring to the map given on the website. Thankfully we didn't have any difficulties finding it especially since there was already a long queue at the bus stop. So we joined the queue and I think after 10 minutes of waiting bus 5002 arrived! Unfortunately we weren't able to board the bus. It was a long distance bus (the red buses) so people were discouraged from standing on these buses.

There was like a bus uncle at the bus stop in charge of the Everland bus. So he would make sure we were queuing and like tell us when to board and things like that. I'm not sure if he's there throughout the day but he was helpful and friendly. He told us that the bus fare would be cheaper with the T-money card. And the T-money card was something I recommended in the 'Useful things for Korea' post :>

So anyway, we finally boarded 5002 and got comfortable in our seats for the journey! It lasted around 40 to 50 minutes. If you are worried about which stop to alight at, fret not! There's the awesome in-bus announcement system and the announcement for Everland is, of course, in English! Plus, it the stop where most of the people alight. Hahaha. So that should be easy.

Sorry for the chunk of words! I'm trying to explain the journey in detail so it's easier for those who want to go there. 

At the Everland bus stop, you have to take the shuttle bus to Everland! It's a shuttle so it really just brings you to Everland from the bus stop and back to the bus stop from Everland.

Finally, Everland!

The weather was super warm that day! So we were already perspiring when we got to the ticket counter >< We went to the international ticket counter as we had a discount coupon that we printed from the Everland website. Without any hassle, we were issued out tickets and Everland here we come!

What we saw when we passed the ticket counter.

We studied the map and chose the rides that were fun. Well technically I didn't ride anything cos I had motion sickness so I was the official bag sitter for the day. I honestly can't really remember what we did there already so I'll just let the photos do the talking!

If I'm not wrong this was the second ride that Vaneh and Liting went on. The first ride was a spinning disco something ride that my sister went on too. But after that my sister didn't want to ride anything else. Hahaha. What I liked about the rides at Everland was that each ride had a estimated waiting time displayed at the entrance.

I don't remember the order of how we went around the park but anyhow it's not that difficult to get around, all you need is the map :>

The magic viking at the children's section. It wasn't a big ride so my sister went on it too.

The rose garden for spring or summer?

The T-express! It's the most popular ride there and the whole ride is made from wood. I think Vaneh and Liting went on this ride after dinner cos the waiting time was too long in the afternoon.

Why I prefer Everland over Lotte World was the fact that there was a mini zoo in it as well! So we went to the zoo side to look at the animals. But of course we didn't spend too much time walking around as we went to see the animal shows! I think the animal shows are hourly.

Anyhow, moving on to the photos!

Was it a Racoon?

Kangaroos!

Pretty carousel in the evening~

The sister posing with her fav friends.

The huge tree display in the middle of the path somewhere near the entrance.

The night view and the last photo of Everland while we were leaving.

I think we left around 8-ish before getting to see the fireworks. We decided to leave early considering the long journey back. It would be easier to leave before everyone decides to leave together, then the shuttle would be crowded as well as the bus stop.

We waited quite some time for the bus to arrive. Once again we didn't manage to board a bus so we waited for the next one. We met some nasty Koreans as well. Maybe she just didn't really like foreigners or she was just a total B...... But anyhow! We made it back safely and I don't remember if we had supper (which was usually free ramyeon from the guest house) or headed back to our rooms straight.

And so here's day 5 of our trip! Look forward to the post on day 6! I'm sure most Kpop fans would be interested to find out who we saw on day 6! I'm actually quite surprised with our fangirl luck. Hehehehe. You may guess who we saw but I think it'll be quite difficult to guess everyone ;)

토요일 Tunes #13 긴 생머리 그녀 (Miss Right) ♥

Kpop. Shuffle. Play.

Back to the usual style of song recommendation posts! Pressed shuffle on iTunes and Teen Top's 긴 생머리 그녀 (Miss Right) starting playing!

Although I still can't differentiate the members (other than Niel cos he looks like Vaneh), I've a few Teen Top songs in my music library and this song is one of my favourites!

As you may or may not know, I think I've a favourite style of music. I'm not really sure what style it is but it's more toward the slow side. Something like Super Junior KRY's Loving You or ZE:A's The Day We Broke Up or EXO's Into Your World. Love at first listen! But I did quite like this song when I first heard it. I think I liked their song 미치겠어 that's why I checked out this song rather quickly.

The lyrics to this song, strangely reminded me of McFly's 5 Colours in Her Hair. It's a really old song but it was the first thought that came to my mind when I saw the lyrics. The lyrics are just basically talking about a girl that has long hair and how they keep thinking about her. 

Nonetheless, I really like the beat and the tune! Even the dance is good! But it's not a surprise since it's Teen Top. They're known for their dance skills! Though I haven't been paying much attention to this group, there are a few songs of theirs that I really like! Maybe I'll be paying more attention to them in future? Hehehe.

So, that's about all for the weekly Kpop song recommendation! Although it's a little short, hope that you'll check this song out and check Teen Top out as well! Click like at the bottom if you've liked this post or just like this song :>

xoxo, Fid♥

Drama Discussion: Marriage Not Dating ♥

Off late, I've been watching quite a lot of dramas! Usually I take a break after a drama and then not watch anything for some time. But these few months, it's been back to back!

연애 말고 결혼 Marriage Not Dating

I was watching Fated to love you and this drama at the same time. After my short break after Emergency Couple. I was following the drama weekly and even live streaming the episodes on this mobile application. That's how desperate I was.

I started watching the drama maybe after 5 or 6 episodes aired and once I started, I couldn't stop watching! It kept me interested like Emergency Couple. Yes, it's strange that TvN has such good dramas this year. I mean for a cable channel. And after I caught up, I've been watching the episodes live and like was practically addicted. 

The characters. 

I thought they did a good job in character development. Every main character had a believable back story and their own characteristics. So it was good as viewers were able to make sense of why they said this or did that unlike some dramas where it's just so random. It made it less confusing as it was pretty constant throughout the drama.

The female lead, Joo Jangmi, played by Han Groo. What I liked was that she wasn't girly and she was portrayed to be independent but with a sad past as her weakness. It was sort of unusual since most of the Korean dramas would have their female lead written in a certain way. Like I don't know, pretty and feminine and you know, just the typical girl. It was kind of cool that she was like any other normal girl not a drama character girl. If you get what I mean.

However, Gong Gitae, played by Yeon Woojin was just the typical Korean drama kind of guy. He was rich. He wore nice suits. He had nice hair. I guess the purpose of them having their male lead this way was maybe to attract the hearts of the female viewers? Just like all the Korean dramas out their. Typical way of writing their male lead. But well, I guess it works. I totally fell in love with Gong Gitae or Yeon Woojin after a few episodes ♥

The supporting characters were pretty important as well. Han Yeorum (Jinwoon), Kang Seah (Sunhwa), Lee Hoondong (Heo JeongMin) and Nam Hyunhee (Yoon Sohee) really tied the whole drama together. Therefore I conclude that the scriptwriters for this drama were pretty good. They were able to like cover everyone's story and not just focus on the main couple.



The plot.

Well, it was a really complicated drama! Since every character played a part or were related to each other somehow, it complicated things even more. But nonetheless, despite that, it was still interesting and kept me at the edge of my seat while watching every episode.

I'll just briefly summarise the plot so as to not spoil anyone who wants to watch it.

So basically, Gong Gitae doesn't want to get married but he's from a rich family and so they want him to get married as soon as possible. Joo Jangmi is someone who wants to get married as she dislikes being alone. So the main gist of the story is that Gitae introduces Jangmi to his family as his fiancee, knowing that his family wouldn't accept her. Of course like things get complicated from there. So I really would encourage you to watch the drama if you want to know what happens! Believe me, you wouldn't be bored!

I really liked how that although it was complicated and dramatic, it wasn't like boring or draggy. I don't know if other dramas have had similar story lines but it was my first time watching a drama with a steady flow of events and it wasn't too much to grasp.

There was also a good mix of happy, sad and funny scenes. I thought it flowed really well. Like it wasn't chopping between scene changes or anything. Plus I liked how the producers styled each episode. Like they had a little teaser before the episode started. It's like a hook that makes you wanna keep watching. Hahaha.



The ending.

Don't worry, I won't let out anything or spoil it. Some people said the ending was predictable but to me, it wasn't. I mean if it were predictable then it would like be obvious from the start but the fact that there was room for a plot twist made it not predictable. But I'll leave that up to one's personal choice. Hahaha.



Thoroughly enjoyed watching this drama and it's probably also the most detailed review I've written for any one drama. Maybe since I liked this drama there were more things to write? I'm not exactly sure too. Haha. I really recommend this drama! I thought Emergency Couple was good but this is totally better! I think I foresee myself watching this drama from the beginning again.

xoxo, Fid♥

Work Talk #2

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:" Ecclesiastes 3:1

Haven't blogged about work recently. It's slowly starting to get busier so I've like not had time to sit down and reflect on whatever that's going at work. I think recently I've had a lot on my mind and I'm still trying to figure things out.

Work life balance.

I think that's something I'm still trying to figure out. Sometimes, I've the urge to do work at home and my colleague told me I shouldn't bring work home to do. I've been trying to like get out of the student mindset where I had to do homework or do some work at home every other day. So in order to keep myself busy, I've been blogging and watching Korean dramas. But as the important deadlines draw nearer, I still can't help but want to do work at home. There's just not enough time to do work while working. If only I could cut myself into two.

Also, everyday after work, I'm like so drained. How can I meet up with friends? So far the only solution I've found is meeting up on Fridays or the weekends. But anyhow I usually mostly just meet Mich or Vaneh. So that's like all the socialising I do. Better than nothing right? But I think my body has gotten used to the sleeping and waking up times :>

I've to constantly remind myself to divide my time up so that not everything I do is just related to work only.

Enthusiastic VS Willingness to learn.

I think there's like a thin line between these two terms. I don't think I'm like super enthusiastic but I'm willing to learn. I mean being overly enthusiastic is usually viewed as a bad thing as someone who is enthusiastic or overly enthusiastic may not be willing to learn.

I'm still like trying to get the hang of things and learn as much as I can. I'm not afraid of trying but I still wouldn't take up tasks or do things I've no confidence in or unsure of. The consequences of my actions can be quite serious at times, if you know what I mean. But nonetheless, I've to remember that I'm no longer working part time and I've to slowly get used to being a full timer. There are many things that I'll get better in as the time goes by.

There are times that I also forget that I'm still considered a newbie. I have high expectations for myself and when I'm not able to meet them, I'll get a little discouraged. But then I'll remind myself that I still have a lot to learn! I'm thankful for the colleagues working in the same level, I've learnt a lot from them!

As the busy time comes, I hope that I will get enough rest and won't fall sick easily. There's an important purpose for me to go to work. There are these little people I've to think about even before I can think of myself. But it's ME TIME once I leave work!

xoxo, Fid♥

Caught in a Sticky Situation ♥

It's been 3 weeks since the EXO concert here. Time definitely does fly! How I wish I could prolong the time we had at the EXO concert and hoping that they would return again soon with cheaper ticket prices! Hahaha. Of course we know that's not possible.

Anyway! Back to the topic of this post! Recently I bought some EXO stickers! I found out about them from when we were going around gathering fan banners and other items before the EXO concert. There were a few people sitting outside the stadium giving out stickers. I got a Suho one and it was really adorable!

On the sticker, in small print was the username of the person who did this fan art. So I tagged the artist on Instagram and eventually came to find out these cute stickers were on sale on Carousell. So I decided to purchase them!

The prices go like this:
1 for $1 with minimum 3 pieces
12 for $6
(Taken from hellopoppimeshi on the app Carousell)

I decided to order a total of 12 stickers for myself, my sister, Vaneh and Leho. The artist replied promptly so we confirmed the deal rather quickly. And within a week, I received my stickers!

Left out some stickers as I gave them to my sister already. I got 12 stickers but not one of each member, there were a few repeats.

The artist was so sweet to even include a little bookmark with a short message!

I usually don't buy things online or even buy fan made goods but these stickers were too cute and the artist was really friendly!

So if you're interested in getting EXO stickers to decorate anything, you can check these stickers out! The artist has many other Kpop fan art designs on her Carousell page so you might be interested in that too!

I'm really pleased and will definitely consider purchasing more stickers from her again soon! And I decided to write this as I was really happy with the customer service and the stickers, of course. Hehehehe. So, do check these out!

xoxo, Fid♥

토요일 Tunes #12 사랑이 멎지 않게 (Raining Spell for Love) ♥

This should be the last of the Super Junior special for the song recommendations! I've written these few song recommendations to promote and celebrate Super Junior's long awaited comeback! Hehehe. And I know I haven't been regular in posting up these song recommendations posts that are meant for Saturdays. So I'll try to be more regular and less long winded? Hehehe.

This week's song that I would like to recommend would be Super Junior's 사랑이 멎지 않게 (Raining Spell for Love) from the 7th Album MAMACITA.

This was the first song I listened to from the album other than the title track of course. I really like everything about the song! Even though the lyrics are sad so like it's a sad song. But nonetheless, the English translation for the lyrics don't come out weirdly and it surprisingly is translated well. So the meaning from the Korean lyrics isn't affected that much.

Honestly, I normally don't pay attention much to the lyrics. Then why am I focusing on the lyrics first this time? Hehehe my friend wrote the lyrics!

Pretty cool right? I'm not being biased when I say her lyrics are good. I mean it got chosen by SM right? It definitely must be good!

I was super excited and happy for her when she told me her lyrics got chosen! I knew it was a sad song but I didn't know what it would be like until I heard it when the album was released. The lyrics matched the tune and like the whole nature of the song perfectly. So I thought that was awesome!

Ryeowook even tweeted about this song with Eric Nam and they were talking about the title. Unfortunately, the title was changed by SM so Joohee doesn't know like what exactly is the reason behind it as well. She didn't write the rap part so I think Eunhyuk wrote it on his own.

I'm sure most of you would be wondering how she got like this job. My friend studied or still is studying lyric writing under a company and this company works with SM. So it's not like anyone can just send their lyrics into SM ><

So that's it for this week's song recommendation, do check out this song and the whole album if you have already done so! I'm so glad that MAMACITA has been winning 1st place on music shows. Hehehe.

Next week's song recommendation will resume it's normal style where iTunes shuffle will randomly pick the song for me. Stay tuned!

xoxo, Fid♥

The Face Shop Color Control Cream ♥

Haven't written a post on makeup in a long time. I've been wanting to blog about all the products I bought in Korea but haven't gotten down to doing so yet. I think I'll try to blog about more makeup things in the future though I'm not sure like anyone will read it since people seem to enjoy reading Kpop or Korea posts.

But anyway, let me begin!

Previously, I did talk about this product in the post about the BB Creams and mentioned that it wasn't very good. However! I decided to buy the refill and I'll be talking more about this product in this post.

Before, I mentioned that many people said this product didn't suit their skin and I wasn't sure if I would be buying it again. In the end I did get it again. Why? Though it felt sticky at times, I liked how it made my skin look brighter and the coverage is pretty good. So I do actually apply lesser so that it wouldn't be so sticky.

Apparently, this product seems to be quite popular here and there was like some award attached to the shelf. Plus I received at 20% voucher so I decided to get the refill along with my toner. I think the refill itself was pretty expensive and I wouldn't have gotten it if it weren't for the discount voucher. Let's see how long it lasts!

It was pretty easy switching out the old cartridge for the new refill one. Here are some photos showing how I did it!

The refill comes in a box that's similar to the normal one but this one has the words refill printed on it so make sure you get the right one!

In the box, there's a cartridge and a new sponge puff.

So here's how you remove the old cartridge and fix in the new one.

There's like a little gap where you can just use your finger or fingernail to hook out the cartridge.

Ta-da! It isn't difficult to remove.

So all you gotta do is fit in the refill and you're good to go!

So far I've used the new refill about two or three times and it's been pretty good. I seem to be liking this product more as I use it. Usually I would use a brush to apply and blend it out on my face but recently I tried using the sponge puff that came with it and it's does quite a decent job in blending the product as well.

I think in future if I were to buy this product again, I wouldn't be getting it from the local store but get it from Korea. It's really too expensive here ><

On a side note, it seems like the prices for Innisfree makeup products aren't that much of a difference from Korea and it's pretty affordable. Will elaborate on this in future posts so do check those out! Hope this was useful!

xoxo, Fid♥

Daehanminguk 2014 Day 4 ♥︎

15th June 2014.
Seoul Zoo. Bau House Dog Cafe. Mouse Rabbit Cafe.

By now it's been about 2 month since we returned from Korea. Slowly, I'm starting to forget bits and pieces of things already. Oh dear. I should really speed up the writing before I forget everything >< Keep delaying writing these post and writing other things that are happening.

I remember us leaving a little later than usual and our schedule was slightly delayed. We had a late breakfast or brunch just at the Myeongdong station.

Our usual meal includes ohdeng, ddokbokki and kimbap. Previously, we ate at another stall, nearer to Exit 3 of Myeongdong station. But it was closed as it was Sunday and the ahjumma was Catholic.

Our first stop for the day, we headed to the Seoul Grand Park zoo! It wasn't difficult to access as the subway brought us right to the Seoul Grand Park. It's the Seoul Grand Park station, Exit 2. From the station, there'll be a long pathway that leads to this building.

Along the pathway, there are many ahjummas sitting under umbrellas and selling like kimbap and other light snacks that you could probably carry with you when you're walking around. In the building above, you'll be able to take the Elephant Train for ₩1000. We didn't know about it and walked all the way in >< we were super drained and sticky by the time we (finally) got to the entrance of the zoo. Fortunately, we found out about the Elephant Train and was able to take it out.

The view on the walk to the zoo!

Seoul zoo!

There were quite a lot of animals! More than expected since I've heard from people that went there before that the zoo was disappointing. I guess if you compared it to like the local zoo here, then maybe you would feel disappointed? But I mean for ₩3000, it was a pretty good deal!

Below, are some of the animals that we saw and I remembered to take photos of. Hahaha. Sometimes I forget to document my experience especially when I'm so absorbed in it.

The posing porcupine!

I think the enclosures in this zoo were pretty well developed. I guess they have the space and land to just make it big and comfortable for the animals. Of course, with that, it also meant like tons of walking for visitors as well! There's a bus that brings you around the zoo but since we had to wait for it, we decided not to take it. I would recommend you to take the bus if you aren't in a rush. But that's just me and we were there in summer. I couldn't take the heat and the sun!

So guys, really, please bring sunblock if you plan to go to Korea in summer!

We left the zoo around 2pm or 3pm and headed to Hapjeong station on Line 2 (dark green) to meet Vaneh's friends. We were going to go to Bau House together! Bau House is a dog cafe and it's actually worth the visit!

Unfortunately I can't remember which exit we exited from but I remember the cafe wasn't too far from the station. So it wasn't difficult to get to and from it. 

What I liked about the cafe was that they don't charge you an entrance fee or anything of that sort. They just require you to purchase a drink. Which I think is quite reasonable since they don't give you a time limit. We got a drink each and stayed there for nearly 3 hours? My sister enjoyed playing and patting the dogs and time just flew by while we were there!

The dog cafe was spilt into two sections, separated by a gate. One with the small dogs and one with the medium to big dogs. We were ushered to the medium to big dogs sections since I guess we were all like adults. They placed young children with the small dogs. I love dogs but I'm not a fan of big dogs so initially it was quite terrifying especially since these dogs are friendly and they'll come right up to you. 

After awhile, I figured that if you showed the dogs you don't have any treats, they won't come near you at all. These dogs are clever dogs. They don't want pats and scratches, they want treats! 

The dogs at the dog cafe don't all belong to the cafe. It's also like a doggy day care kind of place. So people can drop off their dogs while they go run some errands and stuff. But of course, it's hard to say if anything will happen to your dog while you are gone >< 

Here are some photos of the adorable dogs we saw there! There were many many more but I just chose some to include here! I definitely recommend this place as a must visit place when you're in Seoul. It's quite therapeutic and relaxing just playing with these dogs :>

I think my sister had the most fun out of all of us. So it was worth the visit even though I was scared like most of the time. But I wouldn't mind going again! There are the cute small dogs that I can play with. Hehehe. 

We even made friends with a Korean family while we were there. They were at the next table and the kids were scared of the dogs. But eventually we got them to pat the dogs and like we chatted a little. The kids were learning English and we were learning Korean and it was quite a good match! Haha. I think only in Korea will I dare to speak korean so freely >< It's just weird chatting up random Koreans we see back home.

After the dog cafe, we headed back to Myeongdong for dinner. We ate at a restaurant near our guest house. We had mandu, jjajangmyeon and jjamppong!

I think at that point we wanted to go back to rest after. But we decided not to waste time by sitting in the guest house, we went to MoBit again!

My drink with the cute MoBit printed sleeve!

I can't remember what I ordered but it's usually either a caramel macchiato or a vanilla latte. I only drink the kind of coffees that are toward the sweeter side. No black coffees for me ><

And since it would probably be the last time there at MoBit since we didn't know if we were going to go there again, we mustered up the courage to ask for a photo with YeMum! Hehehe. Well Vaneh asked actually.

It's a little blurry. Oh dear.

So we headed back home after that. I think we took a cab cos we waited till MoBit closed so that we could take a photo or maybe even see Yesung again. Hehe. But of course we didn't.

Finally here's day 4 of our trip to Korea! Took me really long to write this post. I had other posts to write and then this just kept getting pushed behind. Look forward to reading about day 5 in Korea soon! Don't forget to like this post if you found it helpful or useful :>

xoxo, Fid♥

토요일 Tunes #11 MAMACITA ♥

It's not really a special post but it's still somewhat special. This week, it'll be another song recommendation post featuring Super Junior!

The 7th Album 'MAMACITA'

They're finally back!! You've no idea how excited I was for their comeback and seeing them on stage again was like super awesome! Oh, how I've missed them so.

Moving on!

The title song track of the album, MAMACITA (AYAYA), was surprisingly good! I actually really like it. It's not that I'm doubting Super Junior or their abilities but like I've been following their comebacks, songs and albums closely and I'm sure most ELF would agree that SJ needs more love and care from SM. But with their recent comeback, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. And I do not dislike any song in the album.

The lyrics of the song are pretty interesting! I mean it's not like any other usual love song or confession song but it's like about a couple fighting? It's almost like an angry song. Nonetheless I'm still in love with the song and their comeback! Hehehe. Oh! And I found out something interesting about the lyrics! I think there's one part where Kangin, Donghae, Leeteuk and Siwon's names were included and they sang the lines with their own names. Hehehe. Pretty cool!

I really like how they look on the stage and the choreography is awesome too! It's like I've not seen them on stage for such a long time that it's just so awesome seeing them again. Plus the MV was quite interesting! I was wondering whether SM would do something different or have them do the usual box set MV. I was so happy it somewhat had a story line but at the same time it had Super Junior's own style. It seems like they enjoy dressing up and doing strange things. Hahaha. I totally love it that they're so entertaining. Hahaha.

So, if you haven't heard MAMACITA and the other songs in the album, please do check it out! I can't wait to get my hands on a physical copy of the album! Hehehe.

Apologises for the delay in publishing this post! There'll be a song recommendation post every week but sometimes it takes me some time to churn something out and therefore the delay. It's hard to keep to a schedule sometimes >< Next week's will be another Super Junior special song recommendation! Keep a lookout for it! And if you've liked reading this, click the like button at the bottom! Hehehe.

xoxo, Fid♥