as soon as I reached London, I headed straight to Lyle’s. haven’t heard of it? well, Lyle’s a restaurant that focuses a lot on the natural essence of each ingredient which made it one of the 50 world’s best restaurant. and I couldn’t WAIT to try it. and so I did! and here’s my review about it. mainly because I really liked it (of course!).
Frantzen’s Kitchen is probably the only one true Swedish restaurant in HK and it is also opened by Michelin 3 star chef Mr.Bjorn Frantzen who’s restaurant Frantzen is the first Swedish restaurant to get 3 michelin stars. funfact: they just got the 3 stars this year! (the restaurant in Sweden that is.) I was very excited as I actually came here on my birthday and it’s actually my second time having Nordic fine dining, the first being at Taipei’s MUME. and also because of the recent modern cuisine taking the world by storm, especially when NOMA in Denmark was ranked as the best restaurant in the world. have you tried Nordic fine dining yet? Continue reading “[HK: Sheungwan] Frantzen’s Kitchen”
hello everyone.
today, I would like to talk about my fulfilling student life. as much as older people tell you “enjoy your student life” and that they say that they wanna go back to that “free” life, I can’t entirely agree. I think it is much more important to have a fulfilling student life. and that, is not by just enjoying, but by creating all these memories that when you look back you’d tell yourself “so much happened, and they were all great memories or an experience to learn from” rather than “I just smoked, clubbed and repeat.” which I never got to understand anyways. but the fulfilling student life I had was in my opinion, the greatest thing happened.
in Korea, people tend to do a lot of club activities and be in groups rather than work alone. being a foreigner, it was never easy to fit into the locals but if you are just true to others, trust me, great friends will come. people around me would know that I am far from being a “chill” person despite how I may portray myself on social media. I am always very anxious, I’m a perfectionist, and I want everything to go as planned. but I do notice that that was/is also my biggest flaw. and I am trying very hard to overcome that.
but did that make me regret? nope, I definitely don’t regret my student life. why?
because I took every opportunity there is. Continue reading “my fulfilling student life”
hello all! hope you guys love ramen just like I do. in Japan, ramen is deemed to be a man’s food and me liking it made my friends call me a.. ramen-girl because it’s so odd to have a girl as a ramen fan. I used to eat ramen so often that I could eat it everyday! well, because it’s cheap and it’s just so slurpingly good!
while many people thinks that Ichiran and Ippudo’s the best, the thing that foreigners don’t know is that.. there is a ramen for everyone, and I highly urge everyone to try out different ramens to find their perfect fit! Continue reading “[Tokyo] Marukin Ramen”
nothing’s better for an expat working in hectic HK other than Saturday brunches. I just felt like brunch is the only time where I can slow down at this very fast-paced city. there are quite a number of places offering brunch in HK but they are normally over-crowded, not brunch-like and over-priced. but classified, a chic european styled chain here, is really my style. Continue reading “[HK: Wan Chai] Classified — best place for brunch.”
hello all!
it’s been a long time. time flies and I’ve already lived in HK for over 2 months. it’s crazy how fast time goes by when you’re busy at your desk. I thought I would have a lot more time to blog because I get off at 6pm sharp everyday haha but my brain’s pretty much paralysed at the end of every day. but it’s going to be better. I hope. haha.
for today, I thought it would be interesting for me to share about the (crazy) living expenses in one of the most expensive countries in the world.
if you’re a long-time reader, you probably would’ve known that I am very (very very very) frugal. but as frugal as I can be, this city definitely isn’t cheap. at all. and living expenses here is like 4 times of what I spent back in Seoul, which isn’t the cheapest city out there. the average salary here is 16,000HKD which is around 2,000USD. starting salaries are obviously different across industries but it can go as low as 9,000HKD and as high as 70,000HKD for fresh grads in the financial industry. honestly, it may sound a lot to some people but very little to some as well, especially when HK is considered one of the most expensive cities out there. but let’s do a little breakdown on what’s “normal” from my observations so far. Continue reading “Living Expenses in HK”
one of the highlights of my trip to Taiwan was this — AAD. or in other words, Addiction Aquatic Development because it is a pretty version of Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo (and as clean) despite the much smaller scale. So, what is AAD? a fish market? a supermarket? or restaurants..? well.. why not all?!
so right before leaving Korea, I went to one of the most amazing (and hip) cafe I’ve ever been to. unlike many other cafes’ that’s only pretty and ONLY instagram worthy, this place is a little different because not only is it great for instagram, it has one of the most delectable cakes in Seoul — baked FRESH. Continue reading “[Seoul: Bukchon] Layered – Cake Cafe”
Hello all!
I have been away for a while haven’t I? As much as I have loads of things to talk about, loads of ideas and places stored at the back of my mind, I wasn’t able to find time to post them. But I will try!
For today, it will be a rather texty kind of post because.. I am blogging in the subway with my.. phone.
As some of you might’ve noticed, I have officially moved out of Korea and into Hong Kong! No, I am not from Hong Kong I wonder if many people get that idea because I chose to work here or perhaps because I speak cantonese. But it’s okay, people ask me where I’m from even in Malaysia, so I get it that I look rather confusing.
As outgoing as I seem, I actually love math and I of also love finance, so here I am, grabbing my opportunity working in the financial capital of Asia. Korea will definitely remain to be (one of) my home that nowhere can replace as it’s the place I felt I really grew up at; a place where I had the most memories made.
Many asked me why did I not choose to work in Korea. Well to be honest, you really shouldn’t even try predict the future for yourself, because I’ve always foresee myself working and even building my own family in Korea even though the educational systems probably not the best for my kids. But the thing is, as a foreigner, I will always be a foreigner. Especially as a business major, many companies will look more at your languages instead of the value you are able to add from pure talent or skills. Because let’s face it, business is not a skilled major like IT or engineering. Further, the job market hadn’t been too good even to the locals what more for foreigners.
I have to say that I have been very, very lucky in job hunting eventhough the start was rather rough. I was offered two positions in Korea and both of them actually involved real skills instead of just purely the use of my language (eg: real estate agent for foreigners, anything catering for foreigners). Although I must say knowing many languages is definitely a plus anywhere. As much as I wanted to stay in Korea and maybe pursue my original path in Social Media/writing/publishing, I was not exactly satisfied because a part of me wanted to pursue my dream in the financial sector. But another part of me was afraid of all the stress and crazy lifestyle that it may demand.
At that point of time, I felt like there wasn’t much of a chance to begin with as the financial sector in Korea had no demand of foreigners and relied heavily on relationships and finding a job in another country might be even more difficult given that I had never lived there hence visa issues. I wasn’t half as wrong because most of my interviews were tossed out of the window after they found out that I am not living in that particular country. (I tried for Japan, HK and Singapore) But I carefully went through every listing and picked out the few that I really want and spent more time on each. No high hopes, but at least I’ve tried I thought. With luck by my side, I landed on my current job!
I guess the moral of my story here is again, as I always say, if you never try, you’ll never know. Even if some things feel impossible.
On to my work life, I have currently worked for almost 2 months. But with 6-7 weeks worth of training, I would say I’m still in the embryo phase of my job. Haha. You get me? Not even an infant yet. ?. Okay cold joke I know. But it has been so far so good. Working in one of the best companies to work for in the world, I would say, is really rewarding despite having to put in a significant amount of effort to it. The balance is good. There’s a lot of intrinsic motivation going on and I think that it’s really great that people do things because they want to improve themselves instead of thinking that it’s just “work.”
Life in Hong Kong though, is just very different. I am not used to the food here despite being Chinese and there’s no good Korean food that I’ve found so far. Technically, no reasonably priced food (non-Chinese food) tastes good. What more is the size of every property being so small (and EXPENSIVE) it’s crazy. Living here for the third week now, I found the people to be much kinder than I thought. I’ve always been here as a tourist and the places were very touristy; hence I met a lot of rude people who’s probably sick of their job serving thousands of foreigners per day. The common life here is much more chill and laid back than expected and Hong Kongers are just full of lame jokes. But yes, HK is very crowded and most of the time I felt so small, but it’s pretty similar to Tokyo, it just takes time getting used to it and everything will seem normal, even the Shinkansen speed escalators. I guess I will start thinking that the whole world’s escalators are slow after living here for a few more weeks!
But whatever it is, I will try my best in adapting to both my job and the environment I’m in! HK seriously has so much to offer. What people say about visiting HK for 3 days is aplenty is really an understatement because I think even a month wouldn’t be enough. Well, I guess that’ll be my mission to show people how much this place have to offer!
Time to work! Until next time.
it’s been almost 6 years, since the day I moved to Korea. it was a decision I probably made since I was 8 and I was so certain that I wanted to stay in Korea and call it my home for the rest of my life when I first saw Korea on the huge box TV. “where’s that?! that place is beautiful! I want to live there in the future!” was what I told my mom. she was amazed at my undying love for Korea (that was way before Korea became cool) and always suspected me to be Korean in my past life. so when I was 19, I moved to Korea for REAL. and I never regretted it. although I studied probably much more than the local students even, I still had fun; I became independent, I learned a new language, lived a new life, and somehow turned into a 3rd cultured kid. what I think was the biggest take-back from my experience abroad was probably my view of things in life. as foreigner as I am, I am culturally pretty Korean, but not fully. I guess it really takes understanding on both ends to come up with your own views in life. not just Korea, but my (almost) 1 year exchange in Japan had taught me a lot too.
so you may think, what’s the best thing I learned from Korea and Japan then? Continue reading “Leaving Korea.”