Seoul - Gyeongbokgung Palace

Perhaps one of the most striking things about Seoul is that there are these little pockets of little forgotten worlds within such a large metropolitan city of about 10 million people. One of those little pockets is Gyeongbokgung Palace. This palace is right in the middle of the city and, once you enter its' grounds, you would never know that you are inside a big city. It is that well sheltered and isolated from the modern outside world surrounding it. The grounds are huge and I lost count on the number of different buildings I saw while inside the grounds, and they are not even finished restoring more than 40% of it yet so far. I found it to be quite an amazing place. It's like being on a set for the movie "Hero". But, of course, this is real and that particular movie was about another country as well. All in all, quite an awe inspiring experience. Probably the most unique thing I have seen so far while in Korea.

Of Mutts, Maids and Attics

Ever since PMR is over, I've got nothing much to do lately. However, there was a few highlights of the week these past few days.

First off, lets start with last Tuesday. Apparently, mom and dad found this mutt (the expensive type) lost at the field outside our house and took her in.

As you can see, she's obviously not a stray because:

a) Its an expensive dog. No pampered dog like that could possibly survive the real world.

b) Even if she were a stray, she would've been eaten already or something like that...

c) She has a collar, which totally seals the deal.

And to top it all off, that mutt was on heat. She's been dropping blood. Why, mom? WHY??? Well, since we've never known the name of the dog, lets call her fuzzball. My dog wasn't too happy about Fuzzball either; she's been whining ever since her arrival.

Anyway, my mom let Fuzzball spend the night here. While I was watching a movie at night, that damn dog WON'T STOP BARKING!!!! That mutt has been barking her head off for no reason. Even my dog had to sit right in front of Fuzzball and stare at her like some kind of retarded creature or something.

I tried everything to shut that dog up; gave the evil eye, came over and smacked her on the head, I even threatened to chop the dog up, boil it in stew, grill it, burn it, and throw it into the oxydation pond! But that made the stupid dog bark all the more! See? this is why I hate keeping stupid dogs like that in the house. I have no idea whats so cute about chihuahuas or shitzus and things like that. To me they're more like accesories rather than pets.

Luckily, just as I was about to blow my head off from all those pointless barking, the owner showed up! THANK GOD that mutt is gone!!

The next day, when I told one of my friends, Nailah about it, she went like "Oh! Does that mean the dog saw a ghost?"

....

OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!

I can't believe that she believes in all those old wives tales! That's just total bullshit!

And lets continue with today, shall we?

Well, starting yesterday, we have this new cleaning lady who comes every morning to clean the house. Her name is Janet and she's from the Philippines. To be honest, I like this new one because we hadn't had another maid since 3 months ago. She speaks english and she's really hardworking. She even cleaned the impossible places without being asked to like cleaning my bookshelves. You have no IDEA how messy my bookshelf is, its all piled up with books and you practically need a shovel to find a book in there! As soon as I came into my room, it looked like as if a fairy came into my room and transformed it!

Its soo amazing! It would've taken me one whole day to accomplish something like this.

Later in the afternoon, my mom discovered a leakage and wanted to check out the attic which is in my room...

Throught my whole life living in this house, I've never entered the attic before. So to me, its like another dark world up there in that black hole.

Mom and dad went in first. After a while, I've finally climed up as well.

As I climbed up the shaky ladder, my dog, Speedy came along and seemed to be waving goodbye at me.

It was pretty dark up there and looking down at my bedroom, it looked like a different world down there.

So THIS is what the attic looks like eh? Well, I never really knew that I have an attic anyway. As I was coming down, Speedy was on my bed. Usually, this is a no-no in my room, but its only because she wanted to climb up too, so whatever...

Man, how bored could I possibly get?

Going International!

What's up Bloggers? Its good to be back, and I'm officially FREE!!! YAY!!! I've just finished my last paper for my PMR examinations and I'm soo relieved!

Ok, so I know that its been a long time since I've updated my blog, so here goes: MY ARTICLE HAS ACTUALLY GOT PUBLISHED IN AN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS MAGAZINE!!

Can you believe it? I've never imagined myself to have my article published in a newspaper, let alone an international magazine.

I just feel so proud of myself, although most of the things I wrote was cut off and edited. To be honest, I rather liked my original writeup better compared to the one in the magazine.

But, I guess its mostly because they wanted my article to promote the companies that were involved with the Tioman trip that I recently went to with kids scuba (my article was about that trip just so you know). To read all about the tioman trip, click here!

http://glamorann.blogspot.com/2009/07/terrific-tioman-trip.html (by the way, that wasn't the one I wrote for the magazine.)

So this is the magazine my article got published in:

And THIS is the article I wrote!

Can you believe it?? I couldn't believe it myself either!

I'd really like to share my article from the magazine with you, but, its kinda troublesome to copy whatever they edited in there, so I'll show you my original article!

My Kids Scuba Camp Memories
By, Anne Wong Synpuhn.


When I first got to know about the Kids Scuba Camp in Pulau Tioman, I was thrilled by
the fact that my parents won’t be accompanying my brother and myself to the trip. That
meant that it would be ten times the fun plus no do’s and don’ts from my parents! The
very thought put me in a supercharged mood that I have never felt before. After all, its
time I stuck out on my own for a little bit and learn some real life experience that Kids
Scuba has to offer.

The departure to Mersing started off on a Friday night, due to the low tides in the
morning. By the time we’ve reached the jetty, it was already 2 o’ clock in the morning
and it was very cold outside. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the only thing that was
cold; the ferry we were boarding was colder still! I was shivering all the way because I
was cold, tired and hungry. In fact, I believe everybody was just as cold as I was.

In the morning, the day started off with a hearty breakfast and a dive for the Open Water
divers. Meanwhile, my brother and I went for a snorkeling trip ourselves. The fishes and
corals in Pulau Tioman are big and beautiful and I could’ve taken hundreds of picture of
them with the camera my father trusted me with.

Later in the evening, we had a quiz based on marine life and this is always the highlight
of the day to me. Every night, there are many prizes to be won, and every prize is
desirable to me. Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything that night.

Sunday was the opening ceremony for Kids Scuba and it was also the day we, the Fun
Divers take our first dive trip along with the Scuba Rangers as well as the Open Water
Divers. Our Dive crews, Tom, Richard and Adam are very friendly people and we’ve
warmed up to them straight away. Richard was our dive master for my group of 4 and the dive site was beautiful. The second was even better because I’ve finally spotted a real live
turtle in the wild while it was feeding! I was so happy that day!

Not long after we came back from our dive trip, we had a family activity and I enjoyed it
immensely.

The second night was the next session of our quiz and this time, I was sure that I’m going
to win something that night. But alas! Nothing for me either.

Monday was probably my favorite day of the camp because in addition to another great
dive trip, we’ve actually had a mangrove tour. I’ve never been so close to a mangrove
before. While following the tour, we have also been told to help clean up the mangrove
forest at the same time. I believe this is definitely a great way to teach the younger ones
to care more about our environment and I fully approve with this activity.

Finally, it was the LAST quiz of the Kids Scuba camp session that night and the prizes
were the best of the best. This time I’m DEFINITELY going to win something! One after
another, each prize has been given away to anybody but myself and the prizes got lesser
but better! Finally, as we got closer to the grand prize, the next one was a lovely blue pair
of open-heel fins. Fins! Now that’s what I need. The question wasn’t that hard, but before
I could even think of the answer, I quickly put up my hand. It took me a few seconds to
think of the answer, but I got it right and I am now officially the proud owner of the pair
of blue fins.

In the end, the camp with Kids Scuba was truly a wonderful experience for me. I made
new friends, snapped some awesome pictures, and best of all, I came back feeling more
confident and independent along with great memories of my time spent with Kids Scuba.
I truly enjoyed myself there.

What do you think?

To be honest, I think I can do better than that, but I'm quite satisfied with myself anyway.

And about my PMR exams, pretty much ok, take it or leave it.

Ok, for some reason, Blogger can't seem to publish this thing properly because I know its hard for you to read the article when the sentences are cut off abruptly. So do forgive google.