twenty three

This song is just perfect for me today.

And probably for another 12 months.

I'm officially 23 now.

It's actually harder than I thought to try to keep up with how fast time flies. People are already graduating with degrees and masters. People are already getting married and having kids. People are already buying their own houses. I am nothing near all that. I'm in deep trouble.

Turning 23 in Korea has been nothing but great. I'm thankful for all the love and blessings I have been receiving. All thanks to God, honestly.

Today I was surprised with a small cake from Natalie and Azreena. Even though they really couldn't get the candle lit up and I had to light up my own candle, I'm happy enough. They tried real hard. I mean, they even went on Youtube and Google and then try to understand the mechanisms of a lighter. This one really deserves an A for effort.

I also received a lot of messages from my loved ones back in Singapore. Oh how much I miss them, but Korea has been so great to me... I actually love it here, minus trying to cope with the cost of living here.

So Azreena and I went to Yang Good today for dinner as a form of my birthday celebration and sigh the meat here is still so good. I can't even describe how happy I was just to be back there on my birthday.

I was planning to walk around after dinner but we were both too tired. 

I've been taking Taekwando classes here and boy, it's sooooooo tiring. But today. Omg today. Something funny happened. So I was sweating so much and this smart dear self started rubbing her eyes. I then couldn't see clearly so I thought I lost the left side of my contact lenses. Everyone in the class went around to search for my lenses on the floor mat. The teacher eventually ended the class early so that we all could find my lenses only for me to realize that it was on my eyes the whole time. I'm still touched by whatever they did tho, because he even cleaned up the room just for me so that dust won't get into my eyes in future. Too touched.

Dear Self,

You'll be fine. Things will be fine as long as you keep believing in God's plans. Keep calm, work hard and fear nothing but God. Always always always keep Allah SWT close to you, closer than anything. Keep your family and friends close to you too. Keep working hard to get to Jannah. Better if you do it together with your loved ones. It's tough but do not ever give up. May you be blessed with wealth and always in the pink of health.

Love, Yourself.

zion.t over jay, oops

Clearly I can't keep up with this daily update on this blog. How do some people actually do this so effortlessly?!

Two days ago I went to Hongdae with Azreena and we literally shopped till we drop. We bought too many things till I had bruises on my arms. The sale at Bershka here is crazy! I can actually get stuff at 5,000₩ like what sorcery is this that's cheaper than some stuff at Hongdae. Singapore's Bershka better step up their game!

Yesterday Azreena, Natalie, my cousin Syasya and I went to KBS Arena Hall to catch a few of my boys live for the NBA Buzzer Beat Festival. By my boys... I mean, Dean, DPR Live, Sik-K, Zion.T and many more.

Sik-K was sadly disappointing.... I expected a lot from that younghotyellow94 boy. Ugh but you're still my habibi because you were hot on stage yesterday. Tapi... tak faham why he sweat so much when he sang only 3 songs?!! STOP IT SAK.

But heyyyyyyy guess who saw Okasian live and sang IT G MA together with him?! That's like one tick off my bucket list! It would be great if I meet KOHH and sing it live with him too!

I ditched Jay's performance for Zion.T and all I can say is that.... I made a great choice! I mean I've seen Jay so many times in Singapore, what are the chances I will see Zion.T again? His whole performance was so magical. He made me feel closer to him with his performance and his songs ugh he definitely needs to come to Singapore and have his own concert. Best part is, I sang Yanghwa Bridge with him. I HEARD YANGHWA BRIDGE LIVE. Just soooooo amazing, I almost cried.

One thing I was annoyed about this festival is the fact that we couldn't pay in cash. Thankfully tho, the koreans here are soooooo nice. They used their cards to pay for my kebabs and mineral water while I pay them back in cash. Bless all you nice people.

haji lane in korea

I finally got time to blog today.

I was so busy with household chores when I got back from school and dinner. I'm so domesticated, everyone back in Singapore will probably be shocked by this new me. Or, I'll just go back to the same old me when i'm back home. We shall see. Time will tell.

Combo Sandwich

Gyro Platter

I went to have dinner at The Halal Guys with Azreena and this new Singaporean friend of mine, Azri. It was sooooooo good! I love it a lot. The portion is big tho. I shared the sandwich with Azreena. To me, it was enough. But she felt it wasn't enough. She was seriously contemplating whether she should get another sandwich. Azri ate the platter. I took a little bit of his platter.... not disappointing too!

The Halal Guys, time for you to open a store in Singapore! I need more halal food places in this world. Come on y'all!

We then walked around Itaewon and discovered pretty looking shops. They sell unique shirts and bags. Reminds me a little bit like Haji Lane. There are cafes around too, but sadly they were closed by the time we came.

I wouldn't complain if a rich guy comes along in my life right now. I'll make him cool, no worries. 💅🏼

And please always be a considerate user of a public toilet.

conservative, really?

Fan Dance's shoes

So currently I'm taking up some traditional dance classes in Korea. I kinda underestimated it. Thought it will be an easy one but clearly it's not. I've always been a really bad dancer since secondary school days. So I don't know what got into me and how is it I was confident that I could do well in this.

But!!! I had fun. I'm slowly getting to know more people here. It's been really hard for me to open myself up to people lately and here I am hoping an oppa comes along HAHA #needtogetbacktoreality

Today, Azreena and I ate out for dinner. We were walking around Myeongdong and found this halal Korean place so we decided to just try it out.

The bibimbap costs 8,000₩ which is considered quite a standard price here. Living in Korea is really no joke.... I thought the prices in Singapore were crazy enough. But then again, it could be because the Korean won is higher than the SGD.

Anyway, the ahjumma in this restaurant was sooooo cute. I requested for "no beansprouts" for my bibimbap. Initially she couldn't understand me so I had to google a picture of beansprouts and then went... 🙅🏻  she started saying something in Korean which probably meant "Oh no beansprouts! Ok got it!" So glad she got my order right! She then google translate "beansprouts" and played it a few times to really get that word in her head. WAY TOO CUTE. Oh, and A for effort!

Azreena bought this and claimed that it's highly raved by Youtube gurus. So I'm gonna steal some of it from her and put it to a test. The packaging tho... are you guys really a conservative society, Korea? 😏

bumped into monster woo

Today is the official starting day for my crazy summer boot camp that I just signed up in Korea. Well, that's how I would like to put it. Oh, and probably a real cultural immersion programme.

I've made lots of friends alhamdulillah I hope I will continue to make even more friends preferably Korean because I've been getting to know way too many Singaporeans compared to Koreans when I'm actually in Korea.

I'm so done with the hills in Korea so I just ditched my loafers and put on my comfortable shoes. I don't even bother if they don't really match my outfit. I am THAT done.

And the places I have to go are really really far from the subway so hence, more hills more walking.... NO JOKE.

I better successfully lose more than 5kg by the time I'm back to Singapore.

I also met Monster Woo today while walking around at Hongdae's Stylenanda. I've seen him around instagram a lot, and it was pretty shocking for me to just go up to him to ask for a photo. Thank god he was alone but what's even more shocking to me... he just grabbed my shoulders.

I'm now a step closer to Dok2 HAHA

taeyang or tiang

The real reason why my parents and those who are close to me were a little worried about me being in Korea for a real long time is because they know how easy it is for me to be friendly to people.

And today.... I shouldn't really have done what I did.

I went out with 6 Malay dudes that I just got to know from NUS and NTU.

Luckily Azreena was with me.

We went around Dongdaemun and had some halal Indian food. The portion is HUGE. No joke.

Two of the guys are staying in our building, hence we made friends.

But wrong move for me to actually just follow them around. I mean, thank God they're nice people if you know what I mean.

I was just looking around at the surroundings when Azreena went like... "Omg babe, that's Taeyang!"

I was really hoping to see Taeyang for a moment. Oh well. 😒

One of the guys actually asked me if I wanted to take a photo of a TIANG (refers to pole in Malay) and then laughed at me... come on, I'm the biggest Taeyang fan ever. I was about to whip out my fan edits with him in it ugh

We had bingsu together and sadly, it was just... meh. I definitely need to explore more of nice eating places here in Korea. Also, sightseeing places.

Today's Dinner

I cooked Kari Ayam Merah which I seriously was hoping to be like Ayam Masak Merah. But it's okay, it tasted pretty fine. Maybe, I'm just easily pleased with what I cooked.

I hope I will continue to be this rajin doing household chores and cooking even when I'm back in Singapore.

I saw this teddy bear while throwing the trash and... well, I guess someone either just had a bad breakup or got rejected pretty badly even with this cute thing. I mean, there's no other reason why you will throw something so adorable.

I had a great day today honestly, but dear self, please don't just agree to go out with random people next time. It's way too dangerous, especially in a foreign country.

new member of BLACKPINK, i wish

I'm really trying my best to update this blog everyday so that I can read them all again once I'm back home. It's so hard to keep this going honestly, how do full-time bloggers even do it? How do people even keep up with having a diary?

I had lunch at Yoogane with Natalie just now. A friend from Hong Kong and... she's 19yo guys. I'm feeling sooooooo old. I didn't expect being in your 20s would feel this way at all.

We went around Hongdae after lunch.... I kinda miss having Daya and Nenek walking around with me all of a sudden. But I'm glad I'm back again in this country, hopefully coming back as a better person than I was before.

BLACKPINK had a pop-up store and lucky for me, I got the chance to visit the store because today was the last day. They didn't have anything much honestly, just a nice place for me to snap some insta-worthy photos of myself. I can totally be the fifth member of BLACKPINK. 💁🏻

I'll be your Bonnie and you'll be my Clyde.

sleeping with some shades on, maybe

3:41 a.m. here in Seoul.

I know I'm in Korea right now, but a part of me feels like I'm in Malaysia. Of course, minus the amazing availability of halal eating places. But it's all good because so far, all the halal restaurants that I've explored here serve delicious food.

But omg, living in Korea is so damn expensive. I will definitely think a million times before I migrate here for good. The food here is generally SGD10-SGD12 for each dish. I definitely can't eat out all the time so... Azreena and I tried cooking just now.

Aglio Olio

Our Aglio Olio tasted so bland but still edible.... only to realize that we forgot to add salt and we used too little garlic. I really salute people who can cook so well. I'm not even kidding.

Because.... guess who burn the popcorn using a microwave oven today?

My future husband will definitely have a hard time living with me.

Still, I had a great day at Ewha today. The clothes they sell now are a little bit more pricier than 2 years ago. It's all about 10,000₩ which is still relatively okay for me... but I was expecting cheaper like 5,000₩.

I bought new shades on impulse.

#noregrets

I was just walking around while waiting for Azreena to try on some clothes and then I saw this pair of shades. I've always wanted to try wearing something like this but I'm just not daring enough. But since I'm here far away from my home, no one probably knows me... I just went YOLO on it. I mean, when else can I show off that I am the coolest person on Earth? 💅🏼

I asked the male cashier first tho, whether this pair of sunglasses looked good on me. He was taken aback at first obviously, but hey... he said yes.

And now, I can't stop wearing this pair of sunglasses.

Both of us even wore sunglasses on the subway, underground.... everywhere while it's at night.

I might... I just might be sleeping while wearing this.

back to the land of kimchi and oppas

Current Location: Seoul

The last time I came to this country was 2 years ago with Daya and Nenek. I'm back here again and I don't know how to feel about everything. I just hope only great things will happen from here on.

This time round, I'm here with Azreena. So far things have been great, and Seoul... ugh serious all these Koreans. I know this country is crazy about having a skinny figure, but why just why do you have to make commuters walk so much just to transfer from one line to the other? Thank God my legs didn't give up on me just now.

The aim for me right now is to lose at least 5 kilograms while I'm here. Gotta get back that weight when I first came here... at least.

But easier said than done.

The first place I went to have some good food.... Makan Restaurant because I miss the dalktoritang so much.

Help me, oppa?

i touched gray, callmegray

We're already in the month of May, and all I can say is that.... the next few months will be so eventful. I'm excited but a little bit, scared? Hehehe 😁

I started May really well, all thanks to AOMG. 

I finally got to see Simon Dominic live! He's actually quite short and not as good looking as I expected him to be, but he got this charming aura. 

Gray looks really good in real life, it's annoying. Like how can someone be so good looking?! And yes, I casually put my hand on Gray, touched him because... you know, when else?

Loco. Omg Loco got me really surprised! I saw him the other time at UMF, few months ago. And now, he lost so much weight.... he looks so cute?!?! Do we have to lose weight to look cute too?! Is this God's way of telling me to lose weight and keep fit again?

My cousin did my makeup on that day. She really wanted to put makeup on for me, so I just said yes. I found it weird to see more than usual makeup on my face. I'm bad at makeup guys, someone send me to a makeup lesson ASAP please.

This is us waiting in line before the concert.

People always think I'm too crazy over all these Korean idols, but really guys... I'm not THAT crazy. *lives in denial*

One of the Z's grandchildren got married last 6 may 2017. 

So Halijah's wedding was held at a mosque. The theme was pink for our family and the females had to wear the tudung so I had to figure out how am I gonna look less weird with this whole hijab look. I thought I'll be more prepared after Ain's wedding the other time. I guess not.

I stood too near to the light at the photobooth, hence the reason why I look way too fair than the rest 😂

And on that same day, Aisah got engaged too!

My best friend is finally engaged. Just the other time I was there for her while she was still all... "I've never had a boyfriend before" and now she's someone's fiancée.

She wanted to make it really small initially and kept it a secret from everyone including me... but of course, I got it out of her and kinda self-invite myself to the event. 💅🏼

I hope the next few months will be blessed with even more happiness, and maybe more wealth lol

NEED TO FIND A WAY TO SUSTAIN MY CRAZY LIFESTYLE 😩