[POST-FINALEXAMS] A day at the Nitobe Memorial Garden

Today started off not much different from the past 200+ days of my life. I woke up, got out of bed, took a shower, skipped breakfast - nothing out of the norm. All of this, the same as any other day, except with a completely different mindset. No longer did I have to worry about upcoming assignments, exams! My mind was filled with hearts and chocolates :3

So I wasn't sure exactly what to do as I hadn't thought of planning ahead (which should be one of my goals as well this year too) so I decided to head down to the Nitobe Memorial Garden to have some time to myself and some exercise (if you consider walking an exercise) and pretty much just enjoy the few days I have left in Vancouver before I head to Taiwan for summer!

And there I was finding myself surrounded by all these cherry blossom trees, all this green and pink and all I could think of was "WHY DIDN'T I COME HERE EARLIER!" I'm not sure if it's only this pretty during Spring because of the cherry blossoms but the sight amazed me and I had to stop so many times while I was enjoying my walk down nature avenue to capture the stunning scenery before me with my phone camera. I wouldn't say I'm a photographer (I don't know anything about photography!) but I do love taking photos and I think that's all that really matters. I don't think it's that much of a necessity to understand all the details of light, pixels, and colors as long as I enjoy the photos I take and as long as I'm happy with the results. In particualr, I like to take pictures of things with the theme of 'color' in mind. Oh, and I'm a sucker for cherry blossoms, they're really a gift from the heavens. Without furthur ado, a couple pictures I took today with my Galaxy Note 2's camera. Enjoy :)

SNU LEI Application + Acceptance + Registration

SNU LEI REGULAR PROGRAM APPLICATION


It was a pretty big hassle because I had to get my hands on my transcript which I had to dig out from piles and piles of stuff (I should be more organized!) and then I had to get my mom to scan a copy of my graduation certificate - which I was not happy to see again because I did not like the photo they used for me! I also had to write a statement of purpose to... I guess state my purpose of why I want to learn Korean at the institution? I wonder how much that ways into their decision or if they just want to make sure you are sane (normal?) and then admit you. In all honesty, I didn't put too much effort in the statement of purpose and typed it up in only a couple minutes - around 3 paragraphs I think stating this, that, and such.

Info on the documents required for the application can be found here:
http://lei.snu.ac.kr/site/en/klec/regular/application.jsp 
At the bottom of the page, you will find the application button. However, you will need to first make an account in order to apply! The sign-up button can be found at the top of the page.

The MOST difficult part of the application process was having the pay for the application fee, which is 50,000 won. There are two ways to pay, one is through credit card (online) and the other is through wire transfer. It took me a total of THREE (yes 3!) weeks to finally get my application payment through to SNU. Why did it take so long?

1. At first I wanted to pay through credit card online as it would only be around $50 CAD. And so I installed the plugin but somehow the plugin just would not start up properly on my computer at the time (my first try!). And I tried and tried and tried and it just would not work. Mind you, this was on MOZILLA FIREFOX.

2. Because my previous attempt at paying through credit card did not work, I decided to go to the bank to fill out a wire transfer form to get my money transferred to their bank account. When I finally got to the bank, the bank representative told me that they could not wire any money for me if I did not have my passport. And so I went home and decided that I would go another day. So after a couple of days I brought my passport with me to the bank! After filling out all the required forms and such, the representative started typing away at his computer only to realize that for some reason THEY DON'T TRANSFER IN KOREAN CURRENCY!! Are you kidding me?! How can you not be able to convert to korean currency? That should be one of the most common conversions, especially in the vancouver area where so many koreans live. I asked the representative if it mattered if I transferred it in CAD and he said he would ask his representative. After a couple minutes the representative said that they used to be able to convert to won but for some reason they changed it. And also she wasn't sure if the korean bank would be able to take foreign currency and if it were to be rejected, my transfer fees would just go bye-bye :c And so I decided that I would go back home and call SNU LEI to ask if it was possible to transfer them CAD.

3. When I called SNU LEI, a lady picked up and told me that they accepted it but that it would be easier for me to pay online. I told her that it would not open the plugin for me and she said that I would need to use Internet Explorer as the plugin doesn't work on any other browser. Oh great! No wonder... and I spent all that time trying to pay through wire transfer... So FINALLY everything worked out and I finally paid for the application fee with my credit card. Phew~ At the time I was really beginning to worry that I would not be able to make the payment by the date of the application deadline because of all the misfortunes I had to go through to pay the application fee.


Here's what it should look like when you check under the 'Screening Status' tab of 'Courses I have taken' which is located in your 'My page'

The status will only say 'Pass' once you have been accepted into the program.

The acceptance letters will be sent out about a week after the Application deadline date and looks like this:

There's much more to the letter that I just haven't screenshot-ed because it is quite lengthy, but they tell you about the placement test, letter of admissions, and dormitory. I've applied for dormitory but results are out yet. I hope I get the on-campus residence because I'm completely unfamiliar with Seoul and it would really suck to get lost there. I'm the kind of person who needs to settle down somewhere and feel at home before I start going around and exploring.

And I registered for the class and paid the tuition today! It took me a good 2 hours on the phone because my credit limit is pretty low so I had to call to ask them to increase it for me so that I could pay all of the tuition in one go.

I wish myself good luck this May and oh boy am I excited! It's all a little surreal that I'm finally going to Korea, but yep it's really happening! I'm going to make the most out of this experience, and hopefully it will be life changing - in a good way of course. Cheers to a happy 2013 summer everyone ~ :-)



For more information about the SNU LEI regular program, click here .

VERY LATE 2013 Resolution

I’ve just finished my last exam – statistics – for this school year. Finally my third year of university is OVER!

This year was truly a breeze compared to previous years though. I only took a total of 6 courses for the entire school year (from September to April), which is less than half of the number of courses I took in my first and third year. The main reason for this was because I transferred faculties and therefore, was unfortunately unable to register in any of the courses I had previously planned to take this year… which resulted in my sad empty class schedule. Before school started, I already knew this year was going to be a lot more chill than my previous years where I was breaking arms/legs trying to stay not too far behind with the coursework for 6-7 classes a semester.Anyway, I had planned for this year to be productive! I was hoping that although I didn’t have as many classes as I did before, I’d use all that spare time to be as productive as possible, and by being productive I mean WORKKKK!

Unfortunately, I should have known myself a little better. I tend to be the kind of person to be all fired up to do something, only to lose all the passion when it comes to actually doing it. So, like you may have guessed, I ended up not doing any work, not doing anything productive, and not taking many classes. Hmmmm.

So what exactly have I been doing these past – urmmm – say 8 months?! Aside from the necessities of eating, sleeping, toileting, I’ve spent a great, great deal of time watching korean and chinese dramas. Do I only watch these? Well no, I also watch some american tv shows and japanese dramas. To be honest, I’ve never really understood the difference between a drama and a soap-opera and a tv show. And my conclusion from googling … is that dramas are short and soap-operas are long? And I don’t think I’ve ever referred to the shows I’ve been watching as soap-operas… it’s a really foreign word/phrase that just doesn’t roll well on my tongue. I would NEVER say “Do you watch any soap-operas, oh kind sir?” I’d probably ask you “Oh do you watch any tv shows/dramas?” Whenever I say dramas, I really mean korean and chinese dramas like ‘In Time With You’ (taiwanese drama) and Reply 1997 (korean drama). Oh wait and there’s the term sitcom! Oh sheesh! I will refer to them all as TV SHOWS! But then when I say tv show I really mean shows like ‘Desperate Housewives’ …


Getting back on topic -  I want to make a change in my life! I’m twenty, but I’m still relying on my parents to pay for my tuition, to pay for my food, to buy my plane tickets – golly, I haven’t really made a cent in my life and I’ve never “worked” before. Yep, my resume is as clean and shiny as a resume can get. Besides my telephone number, my name, my email, there really isn’t much about me that I can put on my resume.

I always think about getting a job,  but when I look at my resume, I get discouraged. Why? Because it’s empty and I don’t think many employers would even give my resume a second look. But EVERYONE has to start with an empty slate right? So why not start now? Why don’t I put myself together and start to build up this resume of mine? It’s better late than never!

And yep, that’s how I ended up here, making a blog, typing away my thoughts, my goals, bits and pieces of this and that.

I recon that if I publicly write about my goals, there will be a greater chance that I’ll follow through with them. Enough with the chit-chat and on with the important stuff!

So here’s my Official 2013′ Resolution:
1. Learn to cook – It’s not that I don’t know how to cool at all. I can cook spaghetti, rice, noodles, egg, mashed potatoes… but I’m not good at cooking. I want to be able to get my hands on some random chicken wings or pho noodles and be able to cook something decent tasting. I don’t want to always experiment and end up failing like I usually do and lose confidence in cooking. This summer when I head back to Taiwan I shall learn from my amazing mom! Being able to cook nice dishes is quite important to me because cooking = saving money. The prices for dinner/lunch are so priceyyy and it’s SO much cheaper to cook. And because I’m a super picky eater… if I get bored of some food, I can never stop myself from the temptation to buy some other yummy food to make myself feel satisfied, which results in me wasting a lot of money on junk food and expensive dinners/lunches. So I guess this goal is also my goal to cut back on bad spending? (win x2, yay me!)

2. Work – Yes, I REALLY NEED TO START ON THIS. I don’t want to spend my parents’ money forever. Sometimes I regret coming to Canada for university because it’s so much more pricier than if I were to study in Taiwan. Heck, the money it takes to study here for a school year can cover all four years in Taiwan… I want to become more independent and be able to pay at least some part of my living fees/tuition. And I don’t want my parents always worrying about when I’m going to get a job, when I’m going to do this, do that… so yes, I should start building my resume!!! So my real goal here is to one day, be able to not let my parents pay for things for me, and instead, pay things for them. They’ve been such amazing and supportive parents these past twenty years and I really need to get a grip and make them proud!

3. Learn Korean – I love korean dramas, and one of the biggest woes of being an avid korean drama watcher is NOT BEING ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON WITHOUT SUBTITLES!!! Sometimes I have to wait days just for subtitles to come out and it’s really a PAIN. And no, I’m not just trying to learn the language in order to watch dramas – ha! (although that would be an amazing plus if I could understand without subtitles, hehehe). I think the korean language will become really useful in the future. Especially with Samsung becoming a rising international brand and Korea becoming a leading technologically advanced country. I think it would be really useful for me if I learned Korean so that I will be trilingual (Chinese, English, and Korean aha!). It would also come in handy in Vancouver, with the booming Korean population here. I don’t believe there’s a single class I’ve been to that does not have a single Korean in. You pretty much hear Korean EVERYWHERE on campus here, not even kidding. Oh, and this will definitely be a plus to my resume too! I’m actually quite serious about this goal as I am most likely going to be going to Seoul National University Language Education Institute (SNU LEI) this summer for their Korean regular program. I’ve been accepted to the program and I’ve also paid the tuition. The only problem right now is the impending possibility of a war… oh please north korea will you PLEASE get a grip, it’s the freaking 21st century, grow up already? *_* If war really does break out, well obviously my plans will go to waste and I’ll probably stay in Taiwan and work this summer. But if it doesn’t, then I’ll definitely be heading over to Seoul to study Korean ^_^ One of my sub-goals to this goal is to pass the TOPIK examinations, which I plan to take in Vancouver when I come back here for next school year.

I guess those are my 3 big goals for next months/years of my life! Future self, be prepared! Work hard, do your dishes, stop being lazy, oh and another mini-goal : sleep normally (which means NOT sleeping at 3am OR 3pm!). I’ll be heading back home to Taiwan soon (next week actually) so 加油 (jia-yo) me!!! I may update sometime soon again, hopefully if I’m not too lazy. I hope this blog becomes a regular thing for me so I can look back at my own progress with these 3 goals (not even that many!) and -hopefully- relish in my amazing achievements ^_^

And with these goals, I begin a whole new epic journey in life! YIPEEEE!