[School] Hanyang International Summer School (HISS) 2015 Review- Academic related

Hey readers,

Finally back again with HISS 2015 review, this time round on academic related issues.

It seems that my recent HISS post was quite popular, and I'm guessing its because people are now making plans for their summer break already.


General info:

• Hanyang University (HYU) offers modules with 3-credits (which is equivalent to NUS 4 MCs)
• During HISS, you can map up to a maximum of 3 modules back to NUS.
• Classes offered at HISS are in blocks of 3 hours
• First class starts at 9am, 2nd class at 1pm, 3rd at 4pm.
• IF IF IF you intend to go to Korea with the intention to explore the whole city and perhaps even travel to Jeju, JUST TAKE 2 MODULES ( I would personally recommend taking one in the morning and the other in the afternoon)
• There is a one hour lunch break in between the first and second class.
• You are free to travel anywhere around the school campus for lunch (or even out of school if you think you have enough time to fly out and fly back) but people normally just eat at the Business School Canteen (although the food menu on certain days suck; anyway, more on food in my next post! I'll introduce you to more school food- which many others do not know of)\
• Last lesson ends at 7pm which is a very sad timing since you end up spending your precious evening in class
• Professors are mainly from the States since most of the profs are from the partner universities of HISS (and their students from these partner universities actually gets free accommodation!!!)
• Don't worry, lessons are conducted fully in English
• Worried about passing the module? Don't worry, you'll need to try very hard to fail this module. And you can do so by skipping 2 or more lessons in your entire 4 weeks.
• Korean language modules are EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE. Do camp in front of your laptop early to reserve a space.
• Since the programme is a 4-week one, midterms are held on the 2nd week. (PLEASE DO NOT FREAK OUT, the midterms were not that bad)
• Clearly, finals would be held on the final week.
• Don't be worried if the midterms are all held on the same day (mine did) and I turned out fine.

Health Equity

Prof: Dr Sunshine Cowan from UCO

Class hours: 9am to 12pm

Content and class routine:

Content revolves around Epidemiology, how everything in your environment affects your health. Class is very interesting since Prof Cowan is very entertaining, and she is extremely kind and lovely. This module is great for people in NUS that want to map back as a Public Health module; perfect for Minors in PH.

We usually watch videos about the different areas in US and how living standards varies in the different parts of the world and how exactly do these differences affect the way we live and how it impacts our health.

Midterm: Week 2 morning. Fill in the blanks, MCQ and some short structured questions including 1 bonus question. Paper was out of 100 points.

Finals: Week 4 Thursday morning. Can't really remember the format, but mainly comprised of fill in the blanks, short answer questions and 2 bonus questions. Note that you will not get back your finals exam scripts. You can only view your final grade once you touch down in your homeland (around 2 weeks time for results to be published on their own 'IVLE')


Money and Banking:

Prof: Mr Lee ( I forgot his full name, cos we never ever call the profs by their names)

Class hours: 1pm to 4pm

Content and class routine:

Money and banking was quite popular also as it hit the maximum class size of 36 quite quickly during course registration. Covered simple interest rate and money related stuff. Very basic things that I think would be covered in an introductory course to money and banking. Prof was a bit monotonous and we didn't listen much in his lecture. The Korean oppas sitting beside me were all watching baseball, rugby matches and MMA fights with their laptops. My Kazak friends were sleeping in lecture the whole 4 weeks (minus 2 lectures which they didn't attend)

About 2.30pm- 3pm, Prof Lee will get us to break into our small groups of about 5 and do the questions at the back of the textbook (which he photocopied for us the questions)

Then around 3.20pm, he will randomly call out a group to present their answers on the board to the entire class, but sometimes we were just too lazy to do it and Prof Lee wasn't that strict though so you do not need to worry so much about this component.

Prof Lee is super adorable that my friend asked him to take selfie before she exited the exam hall. Everyone was trying to hide their laughter cos Prof smiled so adorably to the camera and even asked my friend which is the camera black dot to look at (:

Midterm: Prof Lee was so 'on' about his midterms that he prepared 6 different papers labelled A-F so that everyone around you will not get the same paper and we would not be able to copy each others' answers. Paper was fully MCQ though, so it wasn't that bad.

Finals: Similar to the midterms, with 6 different MCQ papers. I think he just jumbled up the questions, but all 40 questions were the same I guess. Similar to Uni exams, once you were done with the paper you can just leave. So if you complete it quickly means you can either end school early or have a long break before your next class (evening class).


Introduction to Sociology:

Prof: Kitsy Dixon

Class Hours: 4pm- 7pm (Very bad timing for class tbh)

Content and Class Routine:

This module actually scared me at the beginning because a graded essay assignment was given during the 2nd lesson and was due in 3 days time. Can you imagine, I went there as a freshie, not knowing anyone, not knowing how summer schools are supposed to be, and the first thing I needed to do was a graded Soci essay?

Turned out to be ok, thankfully as prof marked the essay very leniently. Every lesson had a discussion component so we were supposed to break into groups to discuss the topic for that day. Prof was quite strict about using phones in class and maintaining class order. So whoever did anything that broke her regulations meant getting lectured. During the first class she set her rules very strictly and expected us to follow her regulations (no phones in class, no sleeping, etc.)

We had an excursion session during one of the lessons where we went to the Emart at Wangsimni station to observe people's expressions, behaviour, etc. I did not manage to attend that session cos my friend and I had alternative plans *ahem*

We also watched videos about linking the sociological models and perceptions in our society tht

Class usually ended at 6.30pm and it was a good time head out for dinner with your friends.

Midterms: I can't remember much about what was covered in the midterms, but I remembered very clearly that Prof told us the paper is full MCQ but turned out that she tested a flow model which required precise labelling and I totally did not memorise everything in the flow model in term as I was out at one of the fieldtrips organised the day before.

But turned out to be not too bad although I had friends getting full marks for the paper. Prof Dixon just tested the main concepts to ensure we really understood the key definitions.

Finals: Very similar format to the midterms. Content covered is much wider.

All in all, I was very worried at first because the first lesson made me worry about passing the modules, especially for Money and Banking but I wasn't listening much to prof but was watching Running Man or The Return of Superman. But everything turned out fine. If you intend to get straight As for all your mods to be get the Top Student Award at the Graduation ceremony then please be more attentive in class.

To be honest, I think class hours are great for making new friends and learning a new culture. I had classmates that were from the U.S.A, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Netherlands, etc. It was a great experience conversing with them and getting to know their culture like.

Also, different Profs guest lectures each other's lessons so it was really cool getting to know more Professors. All of them were really really nice and tried not to give us work on Thursdays to allow us to enjoy the fieldtrips on Fridays and for us to enjoy our weekends. I really did not regret taking 3 modules in the end, as I still managed to use the time after my last class for bonding dinner with my international friends(:

If anyone has more queries, do feel free to comment below.

Feel free to share the blog with your friends that are considering/ in the midst of application to HISS!(:

[School] Hanyang International Summer School (HISS) 2015- Accomodation

Hello readers!

Back with a post, finally! Back with a review on my 2015 Summer Exchange experience. I had a blast during my summer break in 2015, and had no regrets going for the Hanyang Summer Programme. The friends, the activities, the food, the shopping!! One word, SHIOK!!! Gonna focus on accommodation for this post, so watch out for more posts regarding other activities/queries about HISS 2015! On a side note, please do note that I am NOT sponsored to write any of my blogpost. I am just a typical blogger that wants to share my experience to all, to help those that need more info/ help.

If there's anyone from the local universities (NUS/SMU/NTU/SIM, etc) intending to head for summer school in the near future, I would definitely recommend Hanyang International Summer School (HISS). Looking for a cheap destination for Summer exchange? Checked. Looking for a location filled with loads of fun activities? Checked. Looking forward to loads of shopping and food hunting? Checked. Looking for free fieldtrips? Checked. Looking for fun profs? Checked! The list goes on and on, and really, you wouldn't regret it (EVEN IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO GO ALONE, like I did!)

I spent around SGD2.8K on accommodation and programme fees for the 1 month exchange. Roughly 800SGD on housing, which I chose off-campus dormitory and it turned out pretty well (especially the location!!!)I got Roseville in the end, out of all the other off campus dorm, which includes Hyosung, Sunny House, Vision and some other names I forgot, but there were a few others.

Amongst all the other off-campus dorm, I think mine was in the most strategic location. Thank you Lady Luck!(: The allocation was completely random so it depends on where you were allocated to. Roseville was a 15-20minutes walk to school, it is right beside the main gate of Hanyang University. However, by entering from the main entrance means that you will have to conquer the 65 degrees slope upwards every morning (which was the most tough thing I encountered in Korea for that one month). Although, halfway through the programme, my roommate shared with me a route via entry from the backgate which was significantly less steep- and yummy Kimbap en route to school! (Thankful to nice friends made there!)

Roseville was such a great place to live in, there is a busstop right in front of the dorm, a GS25 right at the lobby of my dorm, 2 minutes away from University shopping at Wangsimni station, 30seconds walk to Paris Baguette for fresh bakes, free wifi on the streets and even if you're worried about safety, the police station is right opposite the dorm!!!!

To be honest, I wanted on-campus housing so badly because it was so much cheaper, but they said there wasn't any more availability (which was a lie... the admin were just a lil lazy to do extra processing since I was allocated off-campus dorm already) If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, go for on-campus dorm. I heard from my friends that the female on-campus dorms have private bathrooms, which isn't what they indicated on the webpage, but its a good thing right!! Also, so near to school cos you can wake up late!! However, the downside is that they don't have free in-room washing machine (which I had in Roseville), no fridge for you to store your Banana milk (which I also had and managed to store Banana and yogurt milk for Breakfast in Roseville) and that they have curfew (so if you intend to go clubbing then you'll be locked out of your dorm...)

Off-campus housing is the most expensive shared room option. However, again, based on luck, it depends on which housing you get allocated to. There were 3 different housing for off-campus housing for HISS 2015: Golden Forest, Golden Forest City and Konkuk University Dorm. The best one would be GF, not the one with the 'City' word cos they are very different!! GF, as mentioned by my friend, was like a hotel. They had complimentary bottled water everyday, a housekeeper to pack their beds, it was just luxurious. However, it was quite a distance away from school which means you had to wake up earlier for school since those that stayed there had to take a subway 2-4 stations to Hanyang University station.

Any issues on dorms, do pm me, i'll try to answer! Also, do comment if you have any particular worries/ query about the programme that you wish for me to address in my next blog post!

Till then, cheers!

[School] NUS Module Review AY15/16 Y2S2 EC3101

Hey readers,

Am back with writing module reviews! I am going to do a review for EC3101, Microeconomic Analysis I which I have taken for AY15/16 Sem 1.

Lecturer: Timothy Wong

Lectures: Tim just completed his phD in June/July and this is the first time he is teaching EC3101. I would say he was not bad at conducting his lectures, except for always having 1hour (prematurely ended) lectures instead of 1.5hour ones and that isn't too cool since it was an 8am lecture (ok, maybe minus the 'more time for breakfast' happiness)

Tim was quite clear in his explanations (for the lectures that I attended, 3 out of all 12 or 13 lectures) but sometimes he is not clear of the content (i.e when a student poses a question, he cannot figure out how to solve it on the spot). Also, every lecture slide definitely has at least one error (which makes it troublesome if you intend to skip the lecture/ you're not paying close attention) Although most of the time he will re-upload the newly amended lecture slides, sometimes he doesn't.

All in all, not too bad for lectures as self reading works for this sem's 3101. Reading the recommended textbook should suffice. All decent except for 8am lectures!?!?! (Don't ever choose 8am lectures especially if you stay in the East)

Tutor: Song Hong

Tutorials: This tutor honestly isn't that good. I think she is knowledgeable but does not know how to share her knowledge and problem solving skills to us.

The strong Chinese accent makes it even harder to understand her in addition to her being soft spoken. She goes through the short problem sets super quickly. We once ended tutorial in about 15 minutes (so there was a guy that came in late for tutorial ended up attending tutorial for 3-5 minutes)

Tutorial problem sets' difficulty is decent. Definitely some slightly challenging questions are added in. However, questions are different from what you might encounter in the midterms and finals, which means they were not too helpful in revision.

Graded Homeworks: There were 2 graded homework. First one was similar to the tutorial questions, however the 2nd one was challenging because his instructions wasn't clear. (One moment there's U(K) the other moment there's U(x)) Both constitute 10% of final grade if I remembered correctly.

Midterms: He assumed that you still had knowledge of 2101 and tested on perfect complements which he did not cover at all in his 3101 lectures. All in all, manageable midterm difficulty.

Finals: TBH I cant remember what the finals tested on, but I only remembered that it was challenging and tested a lot on application. Not confident on my performance for finals though so I cant comment much. It wasn't at all similar to the tutorial problem sets.

Updated: Tim Wong is currently still lecturing EC3101 and is also the prof for EC3322. No longer Eric Fesselmeyer for Industrial Organisation I. Tim Wong is ok given it is his first attempt conducting a module.

Generally, if you like microeconomics, you should be able to score well. I did quite badly for 2101 but still did decently in 3101, so if you're worried, don't be. I personally felt that the content was pretty interesting.

[Travel] Experience Taking Vietnam Airlines to Seoul, Incheon Airport from Singapore, Changi International Airport

Hi all,

I'm back with travel reviews! This time round for my flight experience with Vietnam Airlines. I booked my tickets in May 2015 for my summer school in July 2015. I booked a return trip and paid SGD529.10. I agree that this is really cheap for an air ticket to South Korea, the land of Kpop and amazing Korean dishes. However, I was utterly disgusted at their sales tactics.

I booked the flight in the evening at 5pm on a Saturday over my laptop, extremely delighted to get my tickets at just SGD100 which was the Special deal tickets. However, after I attempted payment via VISA, the screen indicated an "Invalid action, payment unsuccessful", and then I refreshed the page as saw that the Special Deal tickets were sold out. I was worried I had to spent SGD1K on SQ kind of tickets so I reluctantly bought the SGD150 tickets, spending SGD100 more instead.

To my horror, the next day from morning to night, when I looked through the fares, the Special Deal tickets were back again at the price of 100SGD! Not only the next day, even in Mid July when I checked through the webpage, the SGD100 air tickets were still available. I WAS SO PISSED, because when I emailed the sales management team, they said strictly no refunds, but "you can choose to cancel your reservation and pay the administration fee for cancelation".

I was just too pissed to reply him, because it was totally stupid. I already had keyed in payment information and everything, but payment was rejected just because I was a few seconds late, but yet the sale tickets were continually available at the same price for 1 month?! Not too sure if I was just unlucky or what.

Remember, when choosing your flight timings, always make sure transit timing is as short as possible, as there are connecting flights that make you transit for 12 hours or even up to one whole day. Unless you intend to tour Vietnam then please see the date and time of transit arrival and departure carefully.

I took the 8.30pm flight and we reached Vietnam local time 10pm, it was a 1 hour plus flight. Note that the airplanes are not linked to a gate, so you basically need to climb down the stairs and enter the airport bus shutte to bring you to the terminal. The flight to Ho Chi Minh came with food and beverages plus wet wipes upon boarding the plane. It was a really small and old plane, but decent and worth for the price paid. After landing, there would be a long queue for transit because most of the passengers are transiting to Korea too. You just need to go through a customs check, and you can head to the gate. There's wifi at the Ho Chi Minh airport, which made the transit of 2h 25min bearable.

Dinner part 1

Amazing skyline of HCM

Upon arrival at HCM

 Similarly, to board the next Vietnam Airlines plane, you will need to board the gate which is at the ground floor for you to board the shuttle bus that brings you to the airplane itself. This was an old Boeing too, but it was an even older, smaller, more crammed and air conditioning which was equivalent to Sauna. It was really hot, so my plane buddy and I had a hard time falling asleep. Thank god I managed to sleep for 2 hours, but without any blanket on since it was really too warm. My buddy on the other hand, was fiddling with her MacBook the entire time, editing videos. Kudos to her for not sleeping. The food was good too, with beverages like alcoholic drinks served. For some tips on booking, you can check the plane model on the VN website to see if its a big or small plane. The big plane I took from Seoul back to HCM to SG was super luxurious and comfortable. So you can actually plan beforehand if you are very particular about space and comfort.

Dinner part 2 aka Supper

First sign upon waking up after a 2 hour nap

Upon landing, thank god the plane was connected to a gate although our gate was the extreme last gate of the terminal (which means a lot of walking). The travelators made it much better, thankfully.

 

All in all, it was a good experience. I find that it was worth the money to travel with VN, however, if you ever see the Special Deal tickets ever sold out, wait for the next day to check back. Chances are it will be available the next day. The transit was good as I got to experience climbing down the airplane, and being able to capture photos of yourself standing on the ground with the airplane in the background.

On my return flight from SG to HCM, I met this really cute baby who was fed milk every single time she cried. (Pardon my bare face without make up, my skin condition got really bad when I was in Korea)

Let me know if you need more info on the flight experience(:

Cheers,
Rachel

[Travel] Tips for fashion shopping in Korea

Hey readers!

I'm back with some tips for fashion shopping in Seoul, Korea!

You must be thinking, the usual shopping places must be like Myeongdong, Dongdaemun (and that's about it right?) 

There are really many other places to shop for cheap and yet fashionable but of good quality clothing! I can only list places for female clothing but for guys, I would think the best place with the most number of guy clothing stalls (although all sells similar shirt designs) would be Ewha University Street!

Tips for shopping (Guys):
1. Always walk around and explore all the shopping streets. Most of the clothing store are homogenous amongst the stalls.
2. Remember which stall you first saw it
3. Note down the price and if possible, get a picture as a reference for the design.
4. Continue shopping cos most likely you would be able to find a stall (in a more secluded and quieter street) at least 5,000won cheaper (which means you get to save SGD6!!)

I almost bought a shirt from this stall which was nicely lighted and the shop even invested in plastic covers for their shirts, but their tee costs 10,000won each! I decided to look for other designs and came across another shop which sold the exact same shirt at only 5,000won! It's a guy's tee! Not even kidding!

You must be thinking, "It's damn hard to go shopping in Korea for guys since it's a women paradise". While I must agree to the 2nd part of the sentence, the first part is totally an incorrect statement!!! Ewha and Myeongdong are both great places for shopping for guys! (Although honestly, Myeongdong tends to sell them at a slightly higher price; or they make you buy a minimum quantity (eg. 2 for 10,000won, 1 for 8,000won) In that case, just buy two!!! You wouldn't know if you realize you need to get a gift for a friend(: )

Ok for ladies and teenager girls, my recommended areas are: all underground shopping centers located in subway stations, Dongdaemun, Ewha, Hongdae, and Sinchon!

These places are listed according to my preference!

1. Underground shopping centres

They are simply amazing places to shop at. From 2,900won you can get nice blouse and occasionally dresses, while I doubt they are brand new, the quality is as good as new! I got THREE 2,900won blouse on the first day i touched down in Korea and they look perfectly new! The best underground shopping centre would be at Express Bus Terminal followed by Gangnam which I visited at least 5 times throughout my 1.5 months there. The good thing about Express bus terminal is that it's a good place for wet weather plans cos you can spend at least 2 hours there shopping! The clothes there are really nice, although I wasn't able to get discounts at any of the shops since they were already priced really cheaply.

Everything I bought there (dress, dungaree, oversized tee, casual tee including shoes) ranged from 5,000won to 10,000won. Average spent per piece of fashion clothing would be 8,000won. And I have to mention the clothes in Korea are super comfy! There are 2-3 shoe shops in Express Bus Terminal which all shoes are sold at 5,000won. If you see a big sign in their shop and you're not sure, if everything is 5,000won, get a design you're interested in getting and act like a Korean and ask "wu cheon won isseoyo? (Is this 5,000won?)" If the shop keeper says "ne" means yes!

They sell really cheap fashionable caps and hats (very k-fashion designs) and sunglasses at 4,900won. So many designs, and they are of really good material!! Grab some home with no regrets. I managed to get cheaper sunglasses at Forever 21's summer clearance sale so I didn't get any from these shopping centers.

These underground shopping centers usually have some small food eateries at the end of the shopping street (so if you're hungry you can just get something to eat at the ends of the streets, no worries at all!)

2. Dongdaemun 

With so many malls around at Dongdaemun, it's just a shopping heaven. Knowing me, I'm the typical budget shopping queen. I mainly got stuff at Migliore and HelloAPM  ladies area since they have 5,000-10,000won clothing. I love this shop on the 3rd floor of HelloAPM  in a corner cos they have really nice designs on sale at 5,000won. The same design I got over there was selling in a local blog shop brand at SGD23! 

Although there are many malls, the others malls besides the 2 I've mentioned above are relatively more expensive. Notably, Doota mall! But when you get there, try to go to the tourist centres and see if they have a sale booklet with different vouchers for different boutiques. Doota normally will have a small coupon cut out in the booklet for you to redeem a free gift. During the 2015 summer period the gift was a really nice multipurpose pouch. 

3. Ewha Women's University street

Great for shopping from noon onwards! Perfect place for good and cheap food and for nice and fashionable clothing. Fashionable clothings can be found in almost every lane. My best buy from Ewha is plait tartan long outerwear of a good and comfy material for only 10,000won! The locals there are really friendly. Can always attempt to get discounts when you're purchasing more than one item! I would suggest to get there at 11am, explore the Ewha campus, lunch, then do your shopping after. Get street snacks while shopping cos they are really cheap there, as compared to other places like Myeongdong and Dongdaemun.  Then settle your dinner here too: I would recommend Alchon flying fish roe rice!

4. Hongdae!!

The amazing place for shopping in the evening! Best time would be to reach at 4-5pm! Cos shops close by 9pm except the clubs (obviously). Lots of shopping here, but I find that it's generally more expensive than the other 3 areas I've listed above. Except for one shop, which was having a clearance sale, he had a rack outside with loads of clothes for just 1,000won! Yes you didn't read wrongly! 1,000won! Only SGD1.20! I bought almost 20 pieces of clothing there, from blouse to dress to denim shorts! No words can explain my joy when I got such a good deal!(:

5. Sinchon

This is mainly a place for food and cosmetics shopping. I love the Etude house at Sinchon cos it's a cute little pink house at a very prominent location opposite Sulbing! Clothings and fashion stuff are similar to everywhere else!(: It is a good for evening shopping as shops here closes pretty late! They have really nice food here and I would recommend the 8 flavour BBQ pork which is a lot cheaper in Korea than in SG! 30,000won for a set that can feed 2-3pax.

Ok that's all for shopping in Seoul for now! If I have any updates I'll edit this post!(: If I missed out anything feel free to comment below too! 😀 Thank you for reading I hope this will be useful! Sorry if the last 2 locations have really short descriptions. I will try editing them to include more info!

Cheers,

Rachel

[School] NUS AY14/15 Year 1 Semester 1 Module Review: EC2104

Hi all,

Back with module reviews again!

Many people are asking me if EC2104 should be taken in Y1S1 or Y1S2. My stand is to take it in Y1S1. When I took it in AY14/15 Y1S1, I took it without knowing what it was about. It sounded a little tough from the module description and my Econs senior was telling me that Roy Chen is a good lecturer, which was why I decided to take it in Sem 1 to make full use of my free S/Us! (Thank god for gradeless first semester!)

EC2104

Lecturer: Roy Chen, the Asian guy with really strong American accent. He was a decent lecturer, I wouldn't say he was a perfect lecturer (seriously, define perfect..)

Workload: Decent. Just the usual take home and discuss in class: problem sets. Presentation in tutorial is a must to get your participation marks. Try to discuss with your friends the answers, cos correct answers definitely help in presentation scores (although the profs always says that accuracy isn't important, its the effort that counts...)

Difficulty: Not that difficult. It might seem a little confusing if you do not read your lecturers before classes, but I usually read through beforehand to roughly know what that lecture is about. And then read through it again after lecture. Everything will make much more sense if you choose to study that way. It worked well for me.

Tutor: I forgot his name, But I felt like he totally rolled out of bed to attend tutorials. Dressed in slippers and bermudas, not that appropriate an attire for a Teaching Assistant (given the amount of pay they earn)

Textbook: Essential Economics textbook which I did not touch at all although Roy kept telling the class that the textbook has important information. My friend went for one-on-one consultation with Roy and told me that he said the textbook isn't important. Focus on lecture slides, which I have always believe is the best resource for revision.

Exams: Not that tough for midterms since it was 15 MCQs and the average was about 9/15? I got 12/15 although that was totally unexpected. If you read through the lecture slides, redo your tutorials and attempted the past midterm papers, the midterm shouldnt be a problem for most, unless you were careless.

Finals was nerve-wrecking because I only knew how to do 2 complete questions. There was this theorem in the last few parts of the lecture (which I obviously don't remember its name) which I did not understand completely, and which I was praying will not come out. Ended up, almost all questions involved the use of that formula/ theorem ): I just attempted all the questions to the best of my ability, and at least not submit an empty, non-attempted question paper although I had no idea how to use the formula/theorem.

Thankfully, I did decently well for this module and did not need to S/U it. It is a fairly manageable module and I personally feel you should take this module in Y1S1 with your economics intro module. Once you have taken this module, the later modules like EC2102 and EC2101 will have some overlapping content(:

Cheers,
Rachel

[Travel] Korea, Annyeong-hasaeyo

Annyeong readers,

I'm finally back with a new blog post. Just gonna briefly describe my 1.5 months journey in Korea from July to August and what to do, eat and see.

Why is Korea such a popular travel destination?

The K-pop faze has definitely contributed to that (EXO!!), and definitely good food (TTEOKBOKKI!! SAMGYETANG!! BIBIMBAP!!), desserts (BINGSOO!!), and shopping (COSMETICS!!).

Where should you visit in Korea?

Shopping:

• All the university streets especially Hongdae have great fashionable clothings at reasonable prices! (5,000-20,000 won for really good quality ones though the 5,000 won ones were quite rare)

• Fashion Shopping: All the Underground Shopping attached to the subway stations!! Definitely I feel the Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping at Express Bus Terminal Station (brown line) is the best!! The main shopping area with 2 long lanes of fashion shops is apparently quite hard to find (even though I gave my friends pretty detailed instructions on how to get there). Will be posting more about it in later posts.

• Cosmetics and Fashion shopping: Dongdaemun. I stayed around this district for 2 weeks, and it was a great choice. There is also a wholesale shoe market which sells really cheap and fashionable shoes for 5,000-10,000 won, which I found elsewhere selling at 15,000-20,000 won! My friends were so envious cos I bought a similar designed as theirs for 1/3 the price they bought it at (hehe)

• Cosmetics Shopping: MYEONGDONG! HONGDAE! Myeongdong is definitely the best place to go for cosmetics shopping because they are really generous with free gifts and with great bargaining skills, you'll bring back an entire bag of samples. What more, act like you're not interested in going into their shops, and they will try to lure you in with FREE facial masks! (IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure you grab them before heading in, and have a bag conveniently placed at waist level to throw them in, or else the staff might take it back if you don't purchase anything- esp. The Face Shop and certain Nature Republic stores) My favourite brands: The Saem (which can't be found in Singapore), Innisfree and Missha. Regarding price range, all are definitely cheaper than Singapore! Catch them during the sale periods (best sales during Summer Sale!) to get ridiculously cheap cosmetics of great quality. I managed to get BB cushions at a wonderful price: SGD14 for 1 casing with 3 refills (woohoo!)

Food:

• University streets again, for sure! They have affordable food for the university students who are sick of their canteen food! My favourite: Alchon Flying Fish Roe Rice (IT IS A MUST TRY- tastes so good and so cheap that I want to bring a Franchise over to Singapore) Specific university street I would recommend is: Edae (aka Ewha), Kondae (aka Konkuk Uni), Hongdae and Wangsimni (Hanyang University shopping area)

• Sinchon, Hongdae, Edae area has many famous food. In this area I would recommend the 8 flavoured BBQ pork in Sinchon. More about this place in later posts!

• Everywhere has good food in Korea, I'm not kidding. But the must try food are: Bibimbap, Jjajangmyeon, Samgyetang, Jjamppong (Seafood noodles- I love the broth omg), Tonkatsu (Pork Cutlet, they even have cheese pork cutlet specially catered for cheese lovers!) There are just too many to list all! 

• Must try the Self Serve bars (aka Korean BBQ buffet). I was quite upset cos I couldn't find the 9,900 won one in Hongdae/Sinchon area cos they all closed down. But I ate the one near Hanyang University at Wangsimni Station which had a good flow of Beef, Chicken, Pork, Squid, fried food (chicken, seafood, etc.) and cup noodles (Yes, all free flow!)

• Street food! DEFINITELY SOMETHING YOU CAN'T FORGO! The fish cakes (eomuk) are my favourite street snacks, and they are so cheap and good! To be honest, you can find it for 500 won per stick at Sinchon, but other areas like Myeongdong and Dongdaemun sells it for 1,000 won. Hongdae and Edae has it for about 700 won. Egg bun (Gyeran-bang) is a unique street food which may not suit the taste of many cos it's a little sweet and has no fillings (occasionally sprinkled with nuts over it) Can be bought at 1,000- 2000 won. More on street snacks in later posts.

Places of Interests:

• All the palaces. During the period I went in, there was free admission into all the palaces in the month of July. To be honest, the palaces all look pretty alike. I find that Changdeokgong is the prettiest of them all. Gyeongbokgung was just TOO CROWDED, although it is the biggest palace.

• Gwanghwamun Square. The two statues here are famous statues of King Sejong and Admiral Yi Sun Shin. It is beautiful place for photo taking with the Gwanghwamun in the background. What's more, you can visit the peaceful Chonggyecheon Stream just 2 minutes walk away. At the stream, feel free to dip your legs into the clear and cool water to relieve stress and tired legs. Do not eat by the stream though, there will be security to chase you away!

• Iwha Mural Village (a lot of walking and climbing, but once you reach the peak, the view is simply amazing) Great place for those that enjoy picturesque views and for those who loves to take pictures.

• Many many other places, but due to time constraints and I don't want to bore readers with extremely long posts, I'll post it in later posts. Stay tuned!(:

Lastly,

Accommodation:

• Best areas to live in according to personal preferences (with the criteria chosen as easy convenience to shopping and tourist attractions) and in ascending order as listed: 

1. Dongdaemun 
2. Myeongdong 
3. Hongdae
4. Wangsimni
5. Sinchon
6. Ewha

• If you are on a budget trip, stay in hostels. I personally find that the cheapest prices can be found on Hotels.com and by booking through them, they actually provides a Best Price Guarantee thing that makes sure you have the cheapest price for that same dates and same room types! It really works, cos I found a cheaper price on another site, and they matched the price by refunding me the difference. 

• The areas I've mentioned are good and convenient for shopping but if you want cheaper accomodations for budget trips, I would recommend Star Hostel Dongdaemun. (Gentle reminder: I am not sponsored for any of my blog posts, and it is all voluntarily written to help netizens with their plannings.) 

• Each night cost about $45 for a twin room and comes with ensuite bathroom. Rooms are fully air-conditioned, comes with soap in a dispenser in the toilets (shampoo and shower gel), bedroom slippers and towels (which were facial towels- would recommend to pack along a usual-sized towel cos the towels they provided were way too small for me to dry myself). Free breakfast was provided too (daily till 10am and self service), although simple: toast with jam or butter and cornflakes every morning, it was a nice gesture and can save a meal's cost (:

• The downside was that the room had no windows so we tend to oversleep since the room was just completely dark: no indication of the time of the day and it was as if we slept in a shed, separated from the world. Also, room was really crammed. I had 3 big luggage and 3 smaller ones, which made it impossible for me to maneuver around the room whenever I had to pack my stuff or get my clothes out (they had no cupboard too, just a couple of hangers below the drawer which served as a dressing table for me too). I had to do broad jumps over all my luggage, sometimes resorting to climbing on the bed to get to the door. 

• All in all, pretty worth it for the price I paid. Would recommend you guys to stay there if you're visiting Seoul!(:

Interested to know more about my Korea Trip, stay tuned~