Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Dear Friend,

I think you should know who you are after reading this post, but if you don't then maybe that's a problem in itself. 

I feel as if we have been drifting apart for a while now, even if I do see you regularly (or not), on the emotional level, I don't feel as connected to you anymore. Many times I feel like I'm being taken for granted or my existence isn't appreciated. Because of this, I've grown bitter and bitchy, and worst of all impatient. Once I've grown impatient with someone, I feel like it's a downward spiral because there's really nothing that can fix it. 

I've already talked to you numerous times about this issue, but they were either disregarded or taken very offensively. So I feel as if I've done my part already, at least in terms of communicating. 

So what's the whole point of this blogpost? I'm not too sure, a combination of a declaration and rant. This isn't a confrontation, though. It might cause a conflict or maybe some tension, or both, but it's probably gotten to the point where it's better than keeping it in because I'm passive aggressive af. 

Am I still your friend? Yes, but I feel less "devoted" than I have been in the past. Have I been a good friend if I'm complaining about it? Probably not. My attitude has been pretty shit because of all this, tbh.

I think I've learned some things about myself through this and maybe it can help me be a better person/friend. I hope you can learn something from it too.

Sincerely,
The Salty Friend

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Seoul: N Tower & Cheonggyecheon

December 28, 2014
So the plan for the day was to visit the N Tower and Cheonggyecheon Stream. I actually had trouble finding more things to do.. there didn't seem to be much in Seoul that I could do T_T;

The way I went:
Chungmuro Station Exit 2 (Line 3/4)
Turn left (I think) and soon you'll find a bus stop
Take bus #2 (550 won)
The bus basically takes you to the top (last stop), I was a little scared that I missed my stop and was actually supposed to walk part of the way.
From here, you can see a view of the city. I think even if you don't go to the N Tower, this alone is a pretty nice place to go to.

When I purchased the tickets, there was a bundle for the Observation Deck and Alive Museum for 15,000, so I was like okay sure since I wanted to do more activities.

But turns out that it's one of those 3D museums (I had no idea what the Alive Museum was, or at it was even there) so it's super awkward when you're alone because a lot of it has to do with.. taking pictures or even just seeing each other with the stuff. ;~;
The observation deck of the N Tower was basically like a higher view of the city. The elevator up was pretty cool and interactive (or am I thinking of Shanghai?). If you go down one level, there's this place with a lot of couple locks.
After the N tower, I took the bus (I think 4 or 5) to Myeongdong and walked to Cheonggyecheon. I think it was a really long walk because I remember walking quite a lot. Or maybe I took the subway because I vaguely remember getting out of a subway station as well. Maybe I did both.

Anyways, Cheonggyecheon is a super pretty long stream. Also another coupley place.. it's like so prominent in Korea. Couples are everywhere.

Wishing well. I actually forgot what my wish is, but I know I made it in. Hopefully it came true, whatever it was.

Shopping haul:

Next post on Seoul is the last one and then the next adventure is Singapore :D

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Seoul: Shopping at Edae

December 27, 2014
My friend was still miserable from food poisoning, but we had brunch at a cafe called Buccella before sending her off to go home. I moved to a different guesthouse in a few minutes from Gangnam Station. It's really small, but clean

(Here onward was drafted on the day of)

So I didn't do much today. I stayed in until quite late actually because now that I'm actually in Korea, I have no idea what I wanna do. (See a pattern here..?) 

I asked my friend and she recommended Edae for affordable, pretty clothing. It is on line 2, Ehwa's Woman's University exit 2 or 3 (either works). It's about an hour away from Gangnam Station. 
It was a bit confusing at first because I wasn't sure how big this place should be, like is it one long street? A few streets? If so, which one is the "main" one? Etc etc.

Initially I didn't buy much.. Then I went back again and looked around more carefully and found quite a few things that I liked :X I spent like maybe 2-3 hours here somehow. Maybe less because it didn't feel like I went into a lot of shops. 
I ended up buying 4 dresses (10000/each), 1 jacket (10000), 1 cotton cape coat (65000 down to 47000), 1 pair of shorts (5000), 1 skirt (5000), and 1 bag (10000). So I spent a grand total of 117000 won for 9 items which averages out to $13 a piece.

I didn't actually try to bargain for any of it since it was already one of the cheapest items there. But the coat I did since the girl (UJ) was trying to convince me that it was a sale so she went from 65000 to 58000, then I told her I had to think about it because I really did. I already got two coats made in Shanghai and a coat is bulky for my already overflowing luggage. I wasn't looking to spending that much in Korea either because I already spent too freely in Japan, especially if you look at how much I blew on the UFO catchers ($50+). 

So then she dropped it down to 52000, saying how it's a secret secret and telling me how ippuda I look lul. Had to think about it still and she told me 48000. In the end I left because I really wasn't sure :( and wanted to look around to see if she was actually giving me a good deal. I found it I two other stores for 52000 (?) and 56000. So before I left, I came back to buy it. Final attempt and this time I tried to be the one to put down a price but she only budged to 47000. Bargaining skills getting rusty from being away from Shanghai for too long. 
Kinda got lost on my way back to the station because I forgot which direction I came from but that's okay. Stopped by Chicky x2 for their Chicky Red Rice before heading back home. I couldn't find my way to the station because I kept walking in circles, so I ended up losing my original direction. D:

I still don't have that much space in my luggage... And I'm sure I'm going to find stuff I like in Singapore and Malaysia too sigh. 

Friday, May 8, 2015

Modstock 2015: Ludacris

Thursday marks the last day of classes for this semester! I have three finals to study for though. I have a conflict for one of my final exams being scheduled at the same time, but now I have to take a different one because of that but I hope it's not harder :( 

I woke up at 5:00PM the day before and didn't get sleep until around 6:30AM, but class was at 8:00AM so I decided to just stay up...and afterwards, I had to run errands and then went to my friend's university to see Ludacris perform. 
It was so crowded though because I was trying to get to the front. Used those skills from Shanghai though and made it pretty close to the stage. But half the time I was shoving and getting shoved >< No personal space at all, but what do you expect lol. I don't really remember too much of it because I know at some point I was pretty focused on getting close. Oops. 

After that, I just hung out with some friends that I haven't seen/hung out with in over a year. 

When I'm in confrontational situations, I either bitch back or be speechless because I wasn't expecting it. Luckily this time, it was the former.

There's this one girl that I used to see at gatherings in my freshman year. I don't think I really saw her last year. Anyways, I don't know her that well aside from her name.. since I never really spoke to her. After Ludacris, some of us gathered back at one of the dorms and the girl came back too and she was eating. She dropped food on her lap or something and told my friend to eat it off of her. 

Like a normal person, my reaction was, "What the fuck?"

And she got angry at me for reacting that way wtf. I don't remember exactly what was said afterwards, just that she was being pissy. But I just ignored her existence after that.

Later that night when I saw her again because we separated for like two hours, she was super nice and friendly so I thought maybe it was all a misunderstanding because she was drunk or I don't know. But then I found out that she actually didn't like me lol. So I was just like oh, okay. 

It's pretty flattering whenever your existence means something to someone else when they're a nobody to you. 

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Hey, London

So I went more in depth about the possibility of studying abroad this fall [here]. I ended up submitting my application on April 7, but the advisor form took like a week to actually show up on my account, so I don't think they even looked at my application until then :'( Anyways, they promised to notify in 2-4 weeks and they finally got back to me today May 6, just short of four weeks. Tsk.

SO ANYWAYS...
I've already convinced myself that I was going to go abroad next semester already for the past month, and fortunately, I did get into my London program :) 
I just remember being super excited last time for Shanghai but I'm feeling a bit anxious now. Even going to the page to accept it, it's like ahhh commitment -doesn't want to click accept- But it doesn't mean I don't want to go either lol. So I guess there's some mixed feelings there.

One of my worries last year was not being able to find anyone there but then I found Cory because of our obsession with being able to get mobile data immediately. Turned out that we were very alike in a lot of aspects that it kind of freaked me out sometimes but I'm glad I found her :D WHERE WERE YOU MY FIRST TWO YEARS OF COLLEGE? :( I only know a couple of people going to London next semester, but other than that, nada. So I hope I won't end up alone or something :'(

I guess I'll write more about it over the summer, but just wanted to post about the acceptance for now. 

Oh yeah, I only have one final left, but I don't think they're going too well. In a way, I'm not as concerned as I should be because from now until the end of the year, I have an internship and London to look forward to, so I'm not thinking too much about this semester. Though..probably not the way to go about it.

Anyways, until next time!

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Lost in Neverland

"Lost in Neverland" was inspired by Escape the Room and created as a fundraiser for a school club. My friend from Wellesley invited a bunch of us to get together for this. After recent events, I felt like I should put more effort in maintaining contact, especially in person.
It's themes are Romeo and Juliet, Peter Pan, and Harry Potter. The first two I vaguely remember from middle/high school days and I never watched or read Harry Potter before. So when part of my team told me that they prepped for it, I was like wtf cuz I didn't know anything. :( So useless. But turns out the whole thing was literally, just themed, and we didn't have to actually know anything.
We had a time limit of 50 minutes, but could get extended if needed because we were the last group. They hosted this for two days, but no groups got it D:!!

So a lot of it was confusing because when I did it in Sydney, you basically have to complete certain steps before you can get to the next piece of the puzzle. But here, you can literally find each clue in any order, so that made it confusing because you wouldn't know which clue linked to the next one! To be fair, I'm comparing a business to a club fundraiser though lol.

After 20 minutes, we got it!!  

And I asked the hosts at the end because there was this one clue that I didn't understand, even though we found the treasure. She explained it but then questioned how we got the treasure if we didn't get this because this was the clue to the combination of one of the locks. Turned out my friend forcible pried it open because it was loose wtf. 

I didn't even know that. So I was like shit now they're not going to count this. But luckily they're still giving us the win, so yay!!

Our prize...?
Matcha Green Tea Pocky. I DON'T EVEN LIKE GREEN TEA THOUGH. A win is a win though. :)

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Snickerdoodles^3

I've been wanting to try making snickerdoodle cookies for a while now but never had cinnamon until now, so I finally had a chance to make it. 

But I was always either missing baking powder or cream of tartar for recipes that I found online, but I went ahead and just skipped those. I also used one cup of sugar instead of two (to try to cut down on it) and I think that made the cookies completely tasteless D':

I had a shit ton of dough because I didn't know if I should really half all the ingredients for the recipe that was meant for 25-40 cookies or something like that.

The recipe called for balls, so I rolled them up, but they didn't flatten and started to get burnt on the bottom!! :(
Fail #1

So I decided the next batch to use my Hello Kitty cutters.. I also added a bit of water to soften up my dough because it was pretty crumbly. 

This batch turned out fine, I think, but completely tasteless. Didn't even taste like flour or cinnamon or anything really. I tried eating it with Cookie Butter, but eating it just made me feel miserable. 

Fail #2 (kinda)

Last batch...
I decided to make them smaller and whatnot because the Hello Kitty sized cookies are quite big. When I took it out of the oven, it was still a bit raw, so I put it back in..and forgot about them for half an hour. 

They didn't look that bad...until you flip them over. They're also completely hard.
Fail #3

Hopefully next time they'll taste better ;_; My cookies are getting worse and worse each time I try to make them.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Mailroom Incident

Background: So the other week I ordered a package and accidentally sent it to my freshman year dorm (instead of my own dorm room) because the page refreshed and defaulted to that old address as my shipping address. I got the notification to pick it up (at least they didn't send it back) so I went like five days later. 

When I got to the counter of the mailroom, nobody was at the front (usually there's someone sitting right there). But there were people in the back doing who knows what, so I decided to just wait for them to finish up and not rush them to come help me. But then 20 seconds later, I realized that they were putting mail into each individual mailbox and had a pile to go through, so I decided to get their attention instead of waiting for who knows how long.

Me: Um, hi.
-maybe the girl didn't hear me, but then she looked over 3 seconds later- 
Her: -with an attitude- You should've said something to get our attention
Me: uh, okay. -hands her my ID-
Her: -looks for it but can't find it-
        Do you live on campus or off campus?
Me: On campus
Her: -rummages through the room more-
       I can't find it and our supervisor just stepped out. Can you come back in an hour?
Me: Oh, I don't actually live in this building but I accidentally shipped my package over here.
Her: -attitude comes back- I asked you if you lived here earlier and you told me no. 
Me: -sees the package and points to it- Um, no you didn't. You asked me if I lived on campus or off campus, and I told you on campus.
Her: Obviously that meant if you lived in this building.

And then... as soon as she handed over the package, I told her to stop giving me an attitude. 

I don't understand why she was being so rude from the start. Like can you not try to argue with me when I didn't even do anything wrong or wasn't even being rude in the first place. I wish it didn't catch me off guard or I would've sassed the fuck out of her. But also she had my package as hostage so :(

Where Would You Live?

So previously I kept badgering my brother to see if I could stay with him over the summer but he never gave me a straight "no" because there was the possibility of him not living there anymore. So finally we settled it that I won't be able to live with him and I asked my cousin if I could stay with him. But then my mom called me earlier and told me that he probably won't be moving any time too soon and agreed to let me stay with him, but... I dunno. There's pros and cons for each living situation.

1) Brother
Pros: 
- 20 minute commute to work
- Convenience to everywhere

Cons:
- I'll be a bum in the living room; won't have my own room
- There will be a total of 5 people including me
- Feels super imposing

2) Cousin
Pros:
- Own room
- Just two of us

Cons:
- One hour commute to work

So now I dunno :( It mostly comes down to the commute vs. living space (room). I'm a terrible person at waking up early, so that's why I'm worried about the commute.

I told my mom..WHY NOT HAVE BOTH? And switch around when I'm lazy. But she just laughed at me. 

Have lots of posts backed up, but since I don't have my own laptop back yet I haven't been able to upload photos with them.