Pepero Day: DIY Pepero

Hellooooooo! 

Assalamualaikum :D

11.11 marks as Pepero Day in Korea. It started as a symbol of wishing to be slimmer (like how pepero looks like) and then eventually a celebration among friends and couples (read more here). I heard some people give pepero to their teachers/lecturers too. I thought it's interesting so I'm all excited to celebrate the day too. 

Instead of buying the peperos gift set etc, I wanna try making my own. 

Some of pepero gifts I found in Artbox:

Besides these gifts in shops, supermarkets or convenience stores like CU, Lotte mart, Homeplus, I also saw a lot of DIY ads on online shops. I thought it would be more fun to make (I mean decorating plain stick pepero) them myself instead of just buying ready made ones.

I asked my friends on where I can get the supplies. Jin Hong helped me to buy the stuff and ingredients at Bangsan Market. It's like a baking street where you can find so many baking ingredients; thus, the name, get it? Thanks to Jin Hong, I had fun looking around and shopping there! (psssttt... spent 30,000KRW for everything. Got 40 big pepero and 30 small pepero. *imma happy kid*)

Things you need

Cookie crumbs in melon (green), strawberry (red), oreo (black) and cookie (chocolate). Topping set and cute choco mold with Korean words and emoticons. Edible pencils in vanilla, melon and strawberry.

 There are other flavors of cookie crumbs and edible pencils like blueberry, mango, chocolate etc. ((rambang mata muntah pelangi))

I chose different brands of coating. 

 The chocolate one is the most expensive and working way better than the other two. The taste is great. The only thing I don't like about it is that it takes quite a while to freeze. Strawberry sucks. It doesn't wanna coat the pepero. White isn't too bad. It takes less than 2 minutes to coat so I have to decorate quickly.

Pepero plastic holder. 

Plain pepero sticks.

The process

It took me around 10 hours to finish making all 70 pepero. But I really had fun. I think it will be so much fun to do it with friends too. It's my first time (and could be the last since we didn't celebrate pepero day in Malaysia haha).

Melt the chocolate coating

I started a little by a little to get to know which one is coating faster and manage to figure out later. When I knew that strawberry and white coat really fast, I made them first and I double coating some of them with chocolate one. Taste good! ^^

I got the white oil paper for free :D

My personal favorite is cookie crumbs coating! ^_^

Result

Ready to make others happy. :DD

Thanks to Jungmin and Minki oppa for these :'D

And 20 pepero for le hubby. Ing~ <3

T'was fun, really. Some of the receivers said I can even sell them because I made them so pretty LOL. XD N'ways, you should try it too (provided you've time and interest hah!). 

A Date: 4 months of Marriage

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.,

Exactly 4 months after our marriage, we had a date to the Dream Forest Seoul, the fourth largest park in Seoul nearby our home in Seongbuk-gu. It was a short outing but totally made our day. 

The park was just 6-7 stations away by bus from our home. There's no entrance fee to the park and we spent around 2 hours to walk around the park. It's fall now so the view is breathtaking with red, orange, and yellow leaves around the park. There's also a small deer farm there. If you're not afraid of height, go to the observatory to see Seongbuk area, Nam Mountain (Namsan) and Bugak Mountain (Bugaksan) from there. Even if you are, brace yourself for the spectacular view.

Small Hanok (korean traditional house) area

The wind was 5m/s that day. Super cold. Saw some people camping around the park and saw this cool 3-in-1 kite played by one visitor.

Heading to the observatory. ((Dizzy. Gayut saya))

Oh. IRIS was filmed here too.

 Of course, a cuppa coffee will do in this kinda weather at the top 2nd floor of observatory park, The price isn't that expensive too! (Definitely a bonus) 

How the observatory building looks.

Asked him to take the maple leaves. (perangai bini pun...)

Cak! Hi deer~!

Selfie is a must (mehehehe)

It might not be the best park in Seoul, but it worth a visit if you're in the area, with time-constraint and just wanna hang out for a while. I should come back again to hangout or probably read a book here (yes, summer).

If you wanna know more details and how to get there, do visit here.

Thanks for reading! ^^

Busy Bee is Me

Samekom... (genX manakah dari zaman MySpace ini) Lemme start again. 

Hi! Assalamualaikum! 

It's my favorite month again! Yipeeee! 

Which means.. I didn't post anything last month. T_T I kept trying to write something but everything ended up half-written and left as drafts. I couldn't even finish my articles writing for my internship program last week. Oh yeah. Have I mentioned about the internship? I'm trying to make myself busy with an internship program for two months. It's a good opportunity for me to keep writing (because I either skip writing on this blog or my daily journal). I have to write at least two articles weekly and at the end of the day, I will get a certificate, incentives like ticket performances or shows (which I enjoy) and yeah... experience. 

Besides, I'm teaching private 1:1 English conversation for my side income- the best part. Not only I'll get some cash for that to cover extra eat-outs, it's time to put the theories and learning into action here. I remembered how I was complaining about having to write lesson plans everyday, never thought it would come in handy here. 

Events and other activities in SKKU? Been to lots. Enjoyed them all. But these, will be posted later. 

Taking 5 courses is fine for me. I only have 4 days of school, 3 days of library date with le hubby. Or so I thought... *evil laugh* Le hubby is in the finale of his degree, having two tutoring part-time jobs, thesis to be completed and has a childish-cranky-kuat makan-lazy to study-newbie cook-wife to take care of; in conclusion, he is the real busy bee. I'll be the honey trying to distract him from working so hard but all he's saying is "this is for us/I'm doing this for us (interchangeable every now and then since I can't stop disturbing him while he's doing his works), jagiyaaaa *meleret-leret*" OK.. *dalam hati awwwhhh laki aku ni :')*

OK ah. Dah dapat semangat balik.

Jom study!

How does it feel to be married at the age of 21?

First of all, obviously, I'm 22 this year but I don't wanna admit it since it's not my birthday yet. Duh. 

Second, the title might as well be rephrased to "how does it feel to be married to a foreigner at the age of 21". 

Eh, lupa. Assalamualaikum, w.b.t.

It's been a long time here. Since my last post, I was preparing for my akad, and then my exchange student program, shopping, packing, and settling in Korea. And now, I'm here in Seoul *phew*. Can't believe I make it here after years of having South Korea as my one of my countries-to-visit-before-30. 

from Instagram : snfad_diela 

from Instagram: jeyoungpeterkim 

Some families and friends might say, "Balik kampung ke Fad?". While some are worried and exaggerated my 6-12 months away from Malaysia. I mean.. eh helloooo I'm not leaving here forever lah please jangan tacink lebih nangis nangis cenggini korang kenapaaa *heart's crying tapi tunjuk macho in front of others*. Or so I thought... And I'll be like omg this is so heartbreaking and exciting (that I'm leaving Malaysia for studying and travelling to Korea), I miss my family.. my sisters and brother especially TT_TT *crying*.

Then, Hakim be like "자기야~~ 울지마~~ 마음이 아파~~ I'll make you happy yada yada *hugs*". OK tak nangis dah *lempang* leuls

So, can you deduce my answer to that question? 

Let's see if any of you get it right.

What does it feel to be married at the age of 21?

How does it feel to be married to a foreigner/Korean at the age of 21?

Answers:

1. I'm feeling busier than usual. Perasaan emak-emak pun datang dengan harapan perkahwinan di usia muda membantu saya untuk menjadi lebih matang dan berdikari, memasak sendiri "Esok abang nak makan apa? Nak breakfast apa?" "What do you wanna have for breakfast/lunch/dinner?", buatkan air untuk suami "Abang nak minum apa, sayang buatkan" "Do you wanna drink anything? Coffee? Tea?", tunggu suami depan pintu, kemas dapur hari-hari, beli barang dapur, check barang apa yang takde kat rumah tiap minggu etc etc. My husband helps with almost everything but there are a lot of things going on in my mind like now I have few additional boxes for "fefeeling wifey" "menu for today" "apa lagi nak buat kuasa2".

2. Remind of my mother(s) every few minutes. After being married, then I truly realized, "so this is how my mother have been spending most of her days". *grateful* *sayang ibu* :') <3

Siapakah kanak-kanak riang di Legoland itu?

Happy roomies at Beryl's Genting Highlands.

Sungai Congkak <3 MOCHUB

the6

My XOXO girls XD
Photo from : Danny's Instagram

3. Cherish the good times I had. Maybe it's gonna be a lil' bit hard to have girls' day out (GDO/GNO) now that I'm married so I'm grateful and I appreciate the good times I had with my friends, the sleepovers, the gossipings, the travels etc. p/s: you can guess what's GNO, can't you?

4. Knowing someone will always be there for you. Don't get me wrong. I have a bunch of friends who I can lean on, every time. But the feeling, the support you'll get from your other half is totally different. It feels pure, soothing, romantic, I think you get it (before I go corny) *chuckles*. 

4. BEST OF ALL. When the relationship is being built in the name of Allah, it makes us stronger together, learn about/from one another, develop ourselves towards a greater person in and out, accept the differences. Since my husband is a Korean and I'm a Malaysian, there are a lot of cultural differences, not to mention the religion (at first). For example, most Malaysians will be late for an appointment but try to carry that bad habit in Korea, none would wanna make friends with you. He used to get mad at me every time I was late but then after, he will nag like a mother sampai nipis telinga kau. Ok tak buat lagi. Kali ni betul-betul. In fact, during the pre-marriage course (kursus pra-perkahwinan) that I took, one of the speakers reminded us like all the time. You have to remember and be aware of these little/big/you-thought-it's-nonsense differences between men and women. What more if you're being raised differently. These differences should not make you apart from one another instead grow as high/big as possible. Together. 

So, that's that. 

Thanks for the picture, Amree!

안녕~~! ^_^

Marrying a Foreigner in Malaysia: Documents Checklist

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

Hello!

Salam Ramadhan.. :)

Our 'akad nikah' ceremony will be in less than 16 days yet we still have lots to do. It's not that I'm freaking out. No, not really. But because the whole process is painstaking. There are a lot of documents needed to be prepared actually. Good thing is since my future husband is a foreigner, one of my friends advised me to settle his first and yes, it helps a lot. 

Image from :bridalmusings.com

Believe it or not, I don't even have 'kursus pra-perkahwinan' yet (gonna take it this weekend). In fact, we haven't submitted the form to registrar office or PAID. LOL *ketawa sambil menangis*

Even though oppa asked me a few times on what else should be done/prepared, is there anything else I could help/do, there's nothing really. Just the process of going back and forth, here and there (of which he can't do because he's in UTM preparing and getting ready for IELTS the same day as my kursus. Even if he's here, he can just follow me around, not really talking as most of the offices I'm dealing with have minor command in English including the jabatan issuing his Islamic certificate in Johor). 

This one from here

Thank you for this image 

Anyways, here's the checklist if you're a Malaysian girl to marry a foreigner in Malaysia.

Bride :

1. Photocopy of IC

2. Photocopy of 2 witnesses' IC

3. Photocopy of wali's IC 

4. Certificate of pre-marriage course (kursus pra-perkahwinan)

5. HIV test 

6. Parents' marriage certificate

7. Form 2C - get it here

8. Form 1 (if the address in your IC is different from your current address)

Groom:

1. Photocopy of passport

2. Photocopy of 2 witnesses' IC

3. HIV test (previously, when I asked Islamic Johor Center about this, they said he doesn't have to take it but the one in Selangor insists)

4. Form 1 (use the bride's home address and ask head of the village to certify)

5. Letter/Islamic Card (for mualaf - new brother/sister)

6. Approval letter from

         (i) groom's consular/embassy (he paid USD4 = RM12 for this *price varies according to                  embassy I guess) 

        (ii) Malaysian Immigration 

7. Form 2A - get it here

So, that's about it. Ours has been done 80%. Oppa said that the paperwork in Korea is simpler (I hope so!). If you're in the same shoes, all I can say is good luck! 

** Note that the pictures are just decorations to let your eyes rest. ;) I know how does it feel to read without pictures especially with such a boring writing of mine! Haha. 

ok.. Happy breakfasting!

Travelling to Korea: preparation part 1

Assalamualaikum. 

Salam Ramadhan al-Mubarak. :) 

Warning : This post is wordy.

Another 2.5 hours to breakfasting so I decided to update and share my preparation for the trip to Korea. In my case, studying abroad in other country for more than 2 months. I need to prepare. Throughout the preparation, I sometimes feel like not doing anything else but just the preparation alone because I feel excited whenever I want to travel. I don't know since when travel has been part of my interest. 

Ok ok enough with the chatter. Let's get to business. I'm gonna try to help myself (and if possible, you) to prepare for this long travel whether you're on your own or with someone else. Good thing is you can divide the work if you're travelling in group. Best part is if you are most probably have overweight luggage before or after departing, you can share the burden too. Truly is the best part if you're like me TT_TT I remembered how I went off to USA with 20kg and came back with almost 100kg luggage just what on earth did I buy/get there?! Really can't put myself on hold for more ramblings huh?

Serious. Kali ni betul-betul.

School

Since I'm going to study in Sungkyunkwan University for one semester (4 months), I need a student VISA. To get the student VISA, I need:

1. Acceptance letter from the host university
2. Verification letter from home university (stated that you are a student in the U and you have enough money to study there)

When I went to get a VISA to USA before, I only need the acceptance letter. Guess different VISA needs different kind of documents.

House

Regarding accommodation, I'm not gonna apply for off-campus housing (in SKKU the options are iHouse, Koart Ville and Migaon Ville which cost $1700/sem around RM5k++) because I'll be staying together with my forever boyfriend. :3 However, since both of us are still in Malaysia and Mr.BFF is busy preparing for IELTS, we hardly find a place to be rented online, especially when most of the landlords don't speak English. And tell you what, housing rental isn't cheap in Seoul. Like at all.

More info on housing

Still, we contact so many websites and owner for the housing. The problem is the big amount of key money (security deposit). Only today, I found a nice place that we like, in-between both of our universities (but closer to mine) and still within our budget- the most important part. Hehe. You may find your preferable here (there are many others :

Habang - If you would like to save money on housing, good location, not sharing the room with others, don't mind a small room, Goshiwon is the place.

Eden Realty - find your own apartment for you or/and your family.

Jays Real Estate Agency - you need an amount of key money, find your own officetel/one room here.

Craiglist - a lot of houses and rooms available.

Seoul Loft - if money isn't a problem and you wish to live in an apartment like you see in k-dramas. LOL *gelak unbelievable sambil nangis*

Money

Since the currency of Korea Won to Malaysia Ringgit is 3:1, you should expect to pay 3 times higher than in Malaysia for almost everything. Not only accommodation is expensive, the living cost is no joke too. At least for someone from a developing country and not rich. LOL *nangis tepi katil* I was informed in the student's handbook I received that the average monthly spent in Seoul by the students is 600,000won which is around RM2k++ YES. But.. Do you know that the Korea government offered a few scholarships for students? Here you go. You gotta ask the host university you're applying to whether there's any scholarship offered by the university or other organization. Thank God I asked and the university informed me when it's open. Applied for it and.... 

Fresh from the oven. Alhamdulillah... :')

Shopping before going
Faham tak kenapa tulis before? Faham tak? 
I can't promise you that I won't shop there. Well at least not that much I did in the US. My BFF already told me that we need to buy a few things before we go to Korea especially things that are expensive there:

- medication

- books (heard from a friend of mine that English books are not that easy to be found)

- winter clothes
- contact lenses
- hair products

Besides, for Muslims, it's not easy to find halal food  and if it does, expensive. So I decided to buy a stock of foods before leaving like instant noodles, tomyam paste (I plan to cook on my own to save some money on food) etc. Kalau nak cerita pasal shopping boleh habis 2 3 entri. 

See you soon on the next preparation phase ok!

Starting your FYP

Salam and good day!

I'm writing here after my meeting with Dr. Tina. I thought I should put it all here faster while it's still fresh in my mind (short-term memory lost can be very dangerous for me). But before I start, I must tell you that this is post is regarding final year project (of what we call FYP or PSM). Final year students have to do this if they want to graduate (hell yeah guess it's obvious). 

Dr. Tina advised a few things to bear in mind and to start doing it- the most important thing like if you wanna go somewhere by car, you have to fill the gas or else cycling from Klang to JB won't be enough in 4 months (what? *insert meme*). OK move on.

Thank you, Dr. Tina.
I loiiike conteng2 cenggini sebab nanti bila lupa, tengok balik mesti ingat apa details yang digebang-gebangkan.

TOPIC - READ
First thing first, to be able to do a research, you've got to have a topic. And how do you find that topic? READ -- LOTS of READING. This will be a pain in the ass for those who don't like to read or worst, allergic to it. Can't help you with that though.

LIST KEY TERMS
However, you can't read blindly or else you will go nowhere. To read efficient and effectively, list down key terms or key words that you're interested in. For example, I'm doing TESL, so my topic has got to do with language. I'm interested in literature, second language acquisition, linguistics, teaching language etc. You must have done a lot of assignments these past 3 years so try to narrow down the key terms into maybe .. formula? approach? context? Like literature in ELT or Linguistics and gender difference. 

300 ABSTRACTS - A FEW RESEARCH REPORTS
After you've listed down all the key words that interest you, now go to any database you know (Google Scholars/UTM online database-my favourite) and find at least 300 abstracts, read them. How are you going to do this? One of the best ways is to put a period range (advance search) - eg: 1990-2013. By doing this, you will know the trends and patterns of previous researches thus, be able to find gaps and your paper's contribution in the field later. These two things are actually the highlights in graduates papers. She said that for undergrad level, you are actually finding what you're interested in through a research. But of course if you've those two, it would represent the novelty in your research. Not easy, but definitely not impossible. 

FRAMEWORK - PARAMETERS
After that, select a few research reports that you think best as reference to your topic of interest to get a topic. Then, you've to set a framework to your own study to put parameters to your work. This is crucial because you only have 4 months to get 3 chapters done (trust Dr. Tina, it will be amended a few times throughout the second semester). So, whether your topic is a suitable PSM topic as in it's not too complicated or too simplified, refer to SV (supervisor), always. I guess that's all for now. 

Things to bear in mind :

- FYP is a continuous project. You have to follow through every now and then or you might not have a synchronize chapters (the major problem undergrads have as mentioned by Dr. Tina).
- Find your own way to study the research. It is a process to make you a thinker, responsible of tour own curiosity and interest. That's why you have to be interested in the topic. If you aren't, how do you expect the readers to be interested in reading it? zzzz
- These are only tips from ONE lecturer. I believe there are many other ways of starting off your research. But since she has been doing so many researches (and still on-going too), supervised a lot of students (undergrad and postgrad) previously, these tips will definitely do. 

Good luck!

Night routine

Peace be upon you.

Hello! :D

I was about to hit the sack when I suddenly remembered that I haven't done a few things. 

I have a list to almost everything (a syndrome I don't know what it's called). Shopping list, Wish list, Spiritual list, Books-to-read list, Movies-to-watch list, Kdrama-to-download list and the list goes on.

Before I sleep, I will list at least 3 things that I'm thankful for today. It's one of the ways to remind myself - how fortunate I am. Besides, focusing on the positive things will develop positive energy in your brain, a way to be happier (sure I read it somewhere).

I learn that forgiving someone makes me feel better. Be able to forget it is the best feeling. It's not for the sake of those people you're forgiving but your own. Try it. Do it sincerely and you shall live in peace.

Sometimes I just hate to do this before sleeping - drink plain water. Because I might wake up in the middle of the night answering nature call. But can't help it since it's good for my body. 

A very organized person like me (ehem if you know what I mean) has this syndrome of listing things-to-do for the next day before they sleep. I have to admit that I skipped this one regularly but when I did it before I went off to bed, I felt better the next day. In what way? In a way that I have goals to be achieved that day, wake up and feeling high-spirited (ecewah), feeling good crossing the dots every time. 

For this one, hmm.. I started to have this skincare routine after I met my boyfriend who's particular on it (typical Korean, huh? kkk). Before this I don't really care if I sleep barefaced. Tapi lepas dah kena tarbiyah tazkirah apa semua dengan dia, terus jadi amalan wajib sebelum tidur haha. It's really important, you know.. yada yada blah blah.. - said one who has a nice skin. Haruslah patuh dan taat. K. 

Done everything, AURORA TIME!

A new kid on the block.

Thank you warkah.net

OK now I have a blog. Yeay! What's next? Header. Checked. Then? Write.

I have been thinking of what I should write as the first entry for 3 days when suddenly it strikes me... For God's sake, just write. And here I am, writing my first entry. 

Actually, truth be told, this isn't really my first entry. I had a blog once (bukanblogjiwang, if you happen to read it before but it's so lame I can't believe I was the one writing ^*E#^EJs&%*@!). Well, let's just say.. I'm turning over a new leaf. :3

So... Hello! Welcome! Nice to meet you. I'm the new kid on the block, 잘 부탁 드리게습니다~~

Fadhi thinks : Keep planning and thinking won't do any of it. Better start doing it to make it comes true.