I'm quite reluctant to blog again since the last of my entries about my somewhat "interesting" stint in Shenzhen, which, on hindsight, is unworthy of any mention now. I felt that the attachment had no value-add to my academic or career advancement; I only met people that caused a slight stir in my otherwise uneventful life.

Ever since that Shenzhen experience, my impression of CNP has been on the down slope. Before I came to Korea for the exchange programme, I made a conscious effort to take note of those who were coming as well. On the list, I found two ominously sounding Chinese names, which immediately gave rose to the idea of history repeating itself (like in SZ...). But 11 days later, on this fateful night, I know that anyone can be disgustingly annoying no matter which part of the world you may come from.

First, let's just clarify one of the Chinese sounding name actually belongs to a half-Chinese, half-Philipino Singaporean (who's yet to arrive in Korea) while the other name belongs to a rather nice CNP (TR) whose company I've grown to enjoy. Then there's my friend (MY) whom I've known for two years and another Singaporean girl (let's call her ER) whom I only knew of after checking the list.

ER has some health problems, although not debilitating, which she has so consciously made known to us. It's nothing serious I guess, especially since she told me that the therapist that she went to taught her some ancient science about treating her symptoms. I find it obscenely dubious.

The university that we're admitted to resides along the slopes of a mountain and basically we need to traverse along the slopes (sometimes with extreme gradients) to get around. Apparently, this posed a slight issue for ER if any trip had to be made over long distances. There are many shops near the entrance of the university and we like to move around the area to shop and eat for the past 11 days. Where I'm at, Geumjeong-gu, is really a nice place with some nice people and some unruly morons. Otherwise, it's rather boring. As the whole area is built upon the slopes of the mountain, shops can be seen lining down streets. This is quite unique for me because I don't see this in Singapore. The downside is that when we have to return to the hostels, it's an uphill task. So, for ER girl, she finds it a little tough given her condition.

We also have buddies from the university to assist us when we first arrived and we have since made steadfast friends with them. I find them endearing, friendly and also pleasantly looking (but constantly wondering if they have gone under the knife at all, and for which part of the face). At first, we didn't know the place around so they took us around. Gradually we just meet up for dinners and drinks.

I think most of us have settle down well into Busan, able to move around quite easily, despite our abysmal knowledge of the Korean language. I feel that we have been fortunate to be bestow such helpful exchange buddies to help us get phones, buy whatever we need and show us around. In any case, it has been quite fun and relaxing, for now.

I don't think I should enter any misgivings or bad feelings I have in this maiden entry since I've arrived in Korea for unfounded superstitious reasons. But for the sake of my short term memory of the events for the past 11 days, I shall, in a breath, make some noteworthy comments and observations I have made in this time.

I have no issues with anyone (not sure about the Philipino/Singaporean yet) except for ER. At first, she seems nice and pleasant sounding. But my impression of her has gotten somewhat wrecked as the days go by.

Normally, people would want to bring as little things as possible, especially when they know that they have a back problem and carrying more bags than necessary for excessively long periods of time is by no means practical. Coincidentally, ER has a back problem, her legs get tired easily and she carries two bags - a satchel and a shoe bag. The purpose of the shoe bag is to carry her water bottle because whenever we dine outside she only drinks water at room temperature. She has to carry two bags because if she puts the bottle in the satchel, her back will crack from the extra load of the water bottle as her spinal disc gives way and the entire fragile nervous system will be wrecked, rendering her permanent paralysis... Okay, it's not entirely true but you get the drift... She doesn't like to shop, which explains why she wears the same dress and black tight pants for three days consecutively, today included. So when we shop after dinner, she may begin saying that it's late and she wants to return first.

This evening, we met up with two Korean buddies for dinner. The buddies suggested some wok noodle thingy but much to ER's horror, it's spicy. ER, on the advise of the ancient science therapist I supposed, only drinks room temperature water and avoids food that will fragment and decimate the immune system of the human body. But after some voting, she caved in to the extremely overwhelming vote for the spicy dinner. In the end, the noodles were not as spicy (there was only pepper) and I supposed she was fine with stuffing herself with white rice. I think Koreans care a lot about verbal hygiene so I passed around the chewing gum for everyone. When ER tried the gum, she immdiately said: "The gum is not nice." I let it pass. So, after dinner, we shopped around the streets and I came along a guy's clothing outlet. I feel that it's difficult to find discounted clothes on the streets compared to the ladies' and almost every street vendor, it is almost exclusively women's fashion. Even clothing outlets are populated by women's clothes. Women's clothes sell for as little as KRW5000. For the shops that I've been to, guys' clothes range from - probably - KRW10000 to much more. In the shop that I entered, after much fickle-minded decision making and making little conversation with the owner, I bought a sweater for KRW30000. It's reasonably priced I supposed. In any case, I thought I heard ER complaining outside that I was taking so long to choose some piece of clothing and making four girls wait for me. I admit that I'm fickle-minded when it comes to shopping. This behaviour is made worse when the price is beyond what I've hoped for, which is what happened in this case. Maybe I was taking a little longer and I felt bad but hey, I think compared to the total time for the girls to choose, try out and pay for their clothes, I'm pretty fast. In any case, I believe she was joking.

We ventured on several stores until a store with many discounted tops entice MY and TR inside while the person whom proclaims that she dislike shopping stood outside with me and the Korean buddy. We made small talk and here's what roughly happened (in mandarin):

J: "Girls' clothes are cheap, hor."
ER: "Ya... You spend the most, lor. You really know how to spend money."
J: "There're a lot of girls' stuff here, mah... So surely cheaper. And there are so few street vendors selling cheap guys' clothi---"
ER: "--- you don't have to explain to me so much."
J: ... (Looks away with absoluate disgust and annoyance).

I really thought we were holding a decent conversation until she snapped back with that untactful sentence. This is just one of the uncomfortable moments I've had with her and I foresee more to come. I take no offence if she wants to criticise me in the spirit of humour but from the way she said that, I thought she made no joke about it. Maybe I'm too sensitive about it. I might also be overly sensitive that she suddenly said that I'm a "hypocrite" during dinner when I jokingly lied - to everyone's knowlege, of course - to the Korean friends that TR was a crazy woman.

In any case, my slight discomfort with her weird bahaviour has - as I'm typing - made me think of how I should be even more tactful now when I joke about other people. Sometimes, even one minor faux pas can have dire repercussions. Also, imagine the karma I might have accumulated for all those jokes and teases I've made. This is a lesson in life! Learn from others so that you will not make that stupid mistake yourself. Sigh, I think I'm going to sleep and forget about revising Korean language...