For EXO 2013

So I was writing about all the good things that happened to me this year, thinking I could make a post about it. When thinking about this year, I have to say, the greatest thing that happened that comes to mind is not really about me but my boys EXO.

Miss Korea vs Topokki

If you’re a looking for a restaurant in Birmingham, UK to eat some nice authentic Korean food well… there are only two restaurants LOL. Good news is that they are both awesome, cosy and the food and atmosphere is really nice. If you like kpop even better because they both play kpop (at times).

The two restaurants are Miss Korea and Topokki. Both are in close proximity to each other in the Chinese quarter of Birmingham.

Here’s the back story. Miss Korea showed up just a few years ago and I’ve been there 5 times, with different amounts of people, mostly at lunch time but I’ve been there in the evening as well. Topokki came on to the scene just about 2 years ago and I recently went there for lunch. Since the two restaurants are so close to each other and are the only Korean restaurants in Birmingham (to my knowledge), I’ve always wondered if they had any kind of rival-ship at all. Miss Korea was the place I first had Korean food ever, so it holds a special place in my heart, although Topokki has received a lot more positive reviews, well… even if there is no rival-ship between them, I will be putting them against each other in this post.

Muahaha!

>_<

Atmosphere:

I keep hearing on review websites about how small Topokki is, well lol because Miss Korea is tiny. But Miss Korea is cosy as well because of that and it's not all compact together like Mount Fuji (sorry Mount Fuji).

Now a big part of the atmosphere is what music is played. I will never forget the very first time I went to Miss Korea with a good friend of mine who was not a kpop fan. For the two hours we were in the restaurant they played just kpop songs with only two or three tops J-pop songs. It. Was. Awesome. I could not stop dancing! Really, I embarrassed myself in front of my friend that day lol. It was fun. But since then, when I went there, they started to play more American pop (bleurgh!), but I still always hear a few kpop songs while I’m there. Topokki, however, did not play one single kpop song! What the heck Topokki, this was it’s main down fall, I swear. My happiest moment is eating Korean food while dancing in my chair to EXO. Is that too much to ask for? All the time we were there they played some Michael Buble and then they had a youtube playlist of American pop songs like Miley Cyrus (barf!!) LOL We were going to ask if they could play at least one kpop song but haha, we didn’t in the end. It’s funny because I have heard they play Korean music sometimes, maybe we just went on the wrong day or the wrong time. I bet just as we left the restaurant we would have heard an ‘Awooooo…’

As Duizhang Kris used to say: Maybe next time.

The Menu:

Miss Korea’s menu is a lot more impressive than Topokki’s. Sorry Topokki. It is basically a large book with black rubber cover and there are pages and pages of delicious food to choose from with really good photography. You have lots of starters, main dishes, soups, side dishes and beverages. It’s all very affordable as well. Just to tell you what you can expect on the menu, you’ll see the classics like ddukbokki, bibimbap, japchae, kimchi jjigae, barbecued skewers, lots and lots more. If it’s your birthday, the chef will treat you to a special free dish Korean people apparently eat on their birthday which is basically a big bowl of delicious soup with my favourite kind of noodles – Udon noodles!

You are also given a tiny bowl of lettuce with vinegar before your meal, it makes you hungry. I think they give you this because it does take quite a long time for you meal to come out. I’ve never timed it like an a--hole but I’m guessing it’s around 10-15 minutes before you see your actual starter.

Topokki’s menu is smaller but I was so very impressed by the massive selection of types of bibimbap. There must have been ten or more. I didn’t even know there could be that many types of bibimbap. Miss Korea only gives you four. I’ve had the sea food one, very nice. I definitely need to try another kind of bibimbap next time I go there.

One awesome thing about Topokki is that you are going to get your food quick. Well at least that’s what happened to us, we got out food within 5 minutes I swear. It was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such fast service. You’ll probably have to wait longer in the drive-thru at McDonalds lol.

Topokki menu still has quite a variety of choices including your classics, despite it being smaller than Miss Korea’s. I found it hard to choose even though I planned to get me some Japchae before I even entered the restaurant. What you’ll see in the Topokki menu is basically the main dishes, followed by side dishes, and beverages, they do have two choices of deserts as well (ice cream lol). Soon patbingsu will be added to the menu – which I find that strange because patbingsu is generally eaten in the summer and… it’s winter now… oh well.

So lots of nice choices on both menus and great presentation. Here's my meal, I had Japchae and kimchi, but you can't see the kimchi :) 

Very Important Factor: The Kimchi:

I had to compare the kimchi because it’s Korea’s most important signature food. They eat kimchi with everything. Two years ago when my Korean teacher went to Miss Korea, she told us that the food was awesome but the kimchi was too salty. Seeing how Maangchi on youtube used a shockingly generous amount of salt, I was surprised that my Korean teacher thought the kimchi was too salty but when I went there for myself I thought it was OK. However, in comparison to Topokki, their kimchi is sooo much more fresh tasting and a lot less salty. It actually tastes like I’m eating something healthy but also delicious. I’ve heard that Miss Korea buys their kimchi instead of making it fresh themselves which may just be true with what I’ve tasted but uh… I’m not going to spread any rumours.

Topokki’s kimchi is better than Miss Korea’s. Sorry.

Customer Service:

If you are Chinese, or speak Chinese, you will get to feel comfortable speaking to the waitress in this language at Miss Korea as 4 out of 5 times I’ve been there, the waitress was Chinese. One time, I heard her speak to one of the customers in Chinese. The other time I went there the waitress was European 0.o but all the waitresses (there are never any waiters) are friendly, helpful. They greet you when you’re coming in and when you’re leaving, thanking you for eating there. In Topokki, as we were leaving, it was like no one even noticed or cared that we were walking out. I never experienced that before and it wasn’t like the place was full, because it was lunch time! I don’t know. Anyways, the waitress and waiter we had were both attentive to us in Topokki whilst we were there. Our waiter was actually really happy and chipper. I liked him lol. He gave us a 10% discount which I thought was reeeally nice. Thanks so much waiter, if you’re reading this hahaha.

Prices:

All the times I went to Miss Korea, my friends and I would all end up paying around £15 each every time with ordering a starter, a main meal and a drink (the Korean tea has an unlimited refill) and sometimes they would offer you a free bowl of rice if it went well with your meal. When I went to Topokki, the two of us had just a main meal each and a £1.50 small side dish of kimchi. With our 10% discount , the overall price came to £16something overall. This is just over half of what we would have paid if we ate at Miss Korea that day.

The Miss Korea menu is set out so that you would always naturally want to order a starter and a main meal. Topokki's menu just shows the main meals and then a few side dishes near the end of the menu, followed by the beverages.

Because of this, you're going to naturally spend more money at Miss Korea because you'll be ordering a starter and a main meal (of course you can choose not to) but in Topokki you'll only be paying for the main meal. I don't know if this was Miss Korea being clever or it's just how things turned out but for the customer Topokki is better in this aspect. In terms of business, Miss Korea has the upper hand here, they're obviously making more money by tricking customers into ordering a starter lol. Hmm... clever.

Overall Rating:

I'm going to be giving Topokki a 5/5 rating based on the fact that the price was surprising low with the portions being nicely generous. The waiter we had was really chipper (lol) and nice. We felt really welcome at the restaurant.

The only thing that would have been better is if the menu was as impressively long as Miss Korea's, but that kind of feels like nitpicking so I shouldn't even really include this point especially with Topokki's two page spread of about 10 different kinds of Bibimbap. Daebak!

And also the food came out within 5 minutes and it was hot and the kimchi was fresh, big difference to Miss Korea.

Oh, yeah, it would've been nice if they played some k-pop while we were there but I've heard they have played it at times.

Miss Korea's rating is a 4/5. I'm sorry. I love the restaurant and I will definitely go there again, but the wait for our food is a lot longer and the kimchi is not fresh. You're always going to spend more money at Miss Korea because of their tricks with the menu, lol, it's true. Also the food coma at the end if absolutely unbearable sometimes. It's nice that their giving us lots of food but gaaad; my stomach is not that big. However, I love love looove that you are always guaranteed to hear some kpop while you're there no matter what time of the day it is.

Topokki: 5/5
Miss Korea: 4/5

Reccomendation: Go to both!!

P4A 2013: Liberty in North Korea

YAAAAY!!!!

Kpopmart sent me an email saying my EXO albums have been shipped with a picture of them being packed away (like they usually do). I'm so excited, I just had to upload the picture.

I ordered Miracles in December (both versions) and 1st Album Repackage (both versions) on the day Miracles of December was released. I know I'm super late on the Repackaged albums, and I normally would pre-order EXO's albums but I did not have money at the time and I had to wait until I did. I finally decided I did when their 2nd mini album came out and I was desperate to get it. I need to support my boys!

I thought I would recieve it before Christmas, but I'm thinking that I won't now, unfortunately. I'm expecting it in early January (around the 6th). But I'm still super excited. I already have all the tracks on my iPod and phone so I've listening to it every day since. My favourite song has got to be 'Christmas Day'. (It's Lay's favourite song too! :D).

Hey, should I do a album review soon? Before Christmas?
Haha. I was thinking of doing another k-drama review on 'The Heirs', but I don't know, is there really much to say there other than me ranting my frustration on Kim Eun Sook and how she cheated us Youngdo-Rachel shippers? lol

Update on life! (Studying Korean, Japanese, Uni, The Heirs...)

Arrogance level: 3.8 out of 5

It's been just over a week since I last updated and I left you with a negativity post as well! lol. I'm OK. I didn't get depressed and kill myself. I actually feel quite happy these days. I feel a certain level of security that is rare for me to reach because of the scar left from my high school days. I wrote a post explaining about that scar so maybe you could understand me better but I'm not sure if I want to upload it or not. It might make me look like a loser or will be too sad. I think it's more sad that what you hear in those 'Draw My Life' videos on YouTube. Speaking of YouTube videos, I've been working on doing the '50 Things About Me' tag but as a post on this blog. I think it might me interesting for you to get to know me better by reading some random facts about me. Unless you don't want to know about me. But how could you not. I'm so mysterious. lol
미안...

So, moving swiftly on... I've made great progress in my studying of Korean. Basically, weeks and weeks ago, my Dad contacted our connections to some Koreans to find me a Korean tutor (that sounds weird but I don't know how else to describe it really) and an old friend got back to us saying there was a girl who wanted to tutor me (yay!). When I finally got through to her and spoke to her (because that took a while) we set up lessons straight away and now I have a personal Korean tutor that I meet once a week. Which is awesome!! I'm so happy with this. I mean, we only had our first lesson last week, my next one is tomorrow. We mostly talked. Well, she did most of the talking ...in Korean. I had to really use my listening skills. But it was all good because she's super genuinely nice and we talked about ma boys EXO and watched two EXO videos. It was awesome.
I've been really motivated to study Korean like everyday this week. I've been using talktomeinkorean.com I've known the site for years and watched a few videos from their youtube channel, but I never used it religiously to study Korean, now I do. It's awesome, I really recommend it if you want to start learning Korean or if you already are and want a useful website to help you learn in a fun way. By no means am I affiliated with this website, I just like using it a lot now. I even followed them on twitter, tumblr and facebook as well as subscribed to their youtube channels. With this I believe I can learn much faster (because I genuinely find studying Korean fun) and be able to talk to my Korean tutor better and understand her more.

So yeah, uni. We recently (well, more like 2 weeks ago) did a test in my Japanese class and we found out the results for the test and guess what.... I came first place out of the entire class! Ye-ah. No seriously, it's a big class as well. I didn't even think my %-age was that high. Ya'll should've done better. Maybe I should make a post about how frustrating my fellow Japanese class students are; maybe not. I already put all my pent up annoyances in my journal. I still enjoy my Japanese classes though, just 'cause I love learning Japanese and the teacher likes me because I'm the best. lol.
You don't understand, I'm never #1 in anything (well, apart from my Korean class two years ago).

In other news, the student union STILL hasn't gotten back to me on withdrawing my membership from the Hip Hop classes. It's ridiculous, it must have been like 6 weeks already since I first contacted them. I'm getting tired of their attitude towards this. They obviously just want my money - my entire £20 smh -__-
Oh well.
I'm just laughing at them really. How a group of people that are supposed to be professional operate so unprofessionally.

Well, I could tell you some other things but I might be the only one who finds them interesting. lol. Things are calming down workload wise, so I will be able to upload more often. If I get ideas. I might put up that '50 Facts About Me' post and I'm watching 'The Heirs' right now and plan to do a review of that once it's all over. I swear it's sooo interesting now. With *spoiler alert* Young Do pushing Eun Sang against the wall. I'm sorry (not sorry) but that was so so sexy! I actually like Young Do's character ever since last week. I was forcing myself not to like him (it wasn't that hard) because although Kim Woobin is one of my top favourite Korean actors, Young Do was such an immature bully; I wanted to put a bucket over his head and push him down the stairs (I want to do that Kim Woobin anyway..). But now things have changed: I now accept Eun Sang and Kim Tan as a couple ever since they were staring at each other with tears flowing from their eyes. But I feel so so bad for Young Do. He's kept Eun Sang and Tan's secret (just about) and he's just heart broken because Eun Sang doesn't want him, she wants his worst enemy. Poor baby. He's just such an unlucky little kid, really. I just want his mother to come back and give him a big hug while he cries into her shoulder. It'll be such a touching scene that someone finally loves him. I also want him to get together with Rachael. Seriously, they were made for each other; both troubled, both abandoned by the ones they love, they need each other and they look so good together. In fact, I ship them in real life. Forget that Yoo Ji Ahn.

Anyway, life's good. How long will this last? When will it get better?

Yo, you should follow me on google+ I post some really interesting stuff on there. :D

Negativity post: The dark world of kpop + uni workload

The k-pop world is messed up seriously.
Sometimes I just want to escape it but EXO.
I've been feeling negativity these past two days from k-pop.

• In recent news: Ailee's naked pics from when she was young were revealed online by allkpop. Her ex-boyfriend who was her boyfriend at the time of her taking those photos is the vice-president of allkpop.
• A guard at an airport in Hong Kong forcibly pushed Jessica (my Jessica /sobs/) into a railing where she hurt her head and slumped to the floor. It is believed the guard thought she was a fan.
• T.O.P.'s comeback is in like 3 days. It's very sudden (this isn't negative news but I'm just worried that I won't like his music and that's bad because I'm his fan and have been since the very start of my kpop days).
• Minzy got a nose job. Her nose is visibly thinner. Her reps are denying the allegations of plastic surgery, claiming that she "just became prettier". :3
• Our beloved Boom has a gambling scandal.
• So does Andy from Shinhwa.
• Shinhwa are beating EXO in MAMA votes.

hmm, what else...

I don't know, maybe I'm just feeling negative because I'm running on such little sleep because I have so much uni work to do and it's only my first year. The prospects of having much more work in the second year is looming over me. If I can't even sleep because of the workload now, how will I survive next year?


To leave this on a happy note:
I'm not even sad about EXO not winning the Worldwide Act at the MTV EMAs. The whole ordeal was although tiring, a lot of fun and unified k-pop fans from different fandoms together. The fact that EXO got that far to represent Japan and Korea is a huge achievement in itself. And it's something that no other k-pop idol has ever done. I think one of the greatest thing's we as EXO-stans got out of this was Directioners converting to EXO fans :) Welcome to the fandom!
I'd like to take this opportunity to say congratulations to Chris Lee. She deserved it as much as EXO.

K-Drama: 'Secret Garden' review [Almost No Spoilers]

I wrote this review this summer after watching the drama, and I'm putting it up to be read now :) lol
I hope you enjoy!

Starring:
Ha Ji Won
Hyun Bin
Yoon Sang Hyun
Kim Sa Rang
Phillip Lee
Lee Jong Suk
Yoo In Na
(Quite a star-studded cast)

Synopsis:
The drama tells the story of Kim Joo Won (Hyun Bin), an arrogant and eccentric CEO who maintains the image of seeming perfection, and Gil Ra Im (Ha Ji Won), a poor and humble stuntwoman whose beauty and body are the object of envy amongst top actresses. Their accidental meeting, when Joo Won mistakes Ra Im for actress Park Chae Rin, marks the beginning of a tense, bickering relationship, through which Joo Won tries to hide a growing attraction to Ra Im that both confuses and disturbs him. To complicate matters further, a strange sequence of events results in them swapping bodies.

Review:

I first planned to watch Secret Garden because I watched Big Bang’s parody of it for their big 2011 comeback which really took the funniest parts of Secret Garden and made it seem like a really light-hearted drama and after seeing Big Bang portray these characters from the drama I totally had to see the original. Another reason why I planned to watch Secret Garden is that it was such a huge success when it was broadcasting in South Korea. I remember that Se7en as well as other Korean celebrities were watching it at the time and were really addicted to it, so I thought it must be good. Another reason was, of course because there was a certain someone I wanted to see act in it; Lee Jongsuk that is. After watching School 2013 early on this year, I became totally obsessed with him (lol) as I’m sure a lot of girls did after watching that drama, so I began to watch Secret Garden.

Now, Secret Garden certainly isn’t what I expected it to be at all. For one, Big Bang definitely played up the whole “Freaky Friday” kind of theme a lot more than it actually featured in the 20-episode drama. However, the biggest difference from what I expected and what I actually saw from watching the drama was the depth this drama went to and the dramatic storyline. I was expecting a light hearted funny drama but instead I found a much deeper storyline. That was no relief after watching such a tear-jerking drama as School 2013 but it was amazingly clever and I can definitely say it was unlike any Korean drama I’ve ever watched.

Secret Garden starts off very slow. The first four episodes just seems to drag on and while watching those I doubted why the drama had been so successful and was so famous, but I soon came to realise that even though those few episodes were slow, they were necessary to build up the back story, because this story does not just start as the drama starts, the characters story cleverly starts many years before the time the drama begins. By episode 5, that’s when the body swap happens and things hype up a lot. This is of course consequently followed by many hilarious moments and encounters like the time when Gil Ra Im (Joo Won’s body) and Oska go to the jimjilbang – I’ll leave that to your imagination. It’s that kind of humour that Secret Garden is filled with but it’s not too much so that it takes away from the seriousness of the drama. For example, Secretary Kim’s character I find absolutely hilarious. The way he’s so OTT sometimes, his affection towards Gil Ra Im’s best friend Ah Young and the way he gets jealous of his boss Joo Won in that one episode and his little temper tantrums are the cutest thing.

There are two things that make this drama really stand out from the others, firstly it’s supernatural element of the body swap – although I still do not understand how or why that happened – I guess Gil Ra Im and Kim Joo Won could not have gotten so emotionally close without it being forced by something so extreme as a body swap. In the normal world, someone like Ra Im (a stunt woman) would not have so easily crossed paths and began a relationship with Joo Won (a department store CEO). This point is heavily enforced throughout the drama. The fact that they are not supposed to be together as it is so unusual and therefore unacceptable. As a writer who loves to write about forbidden and unusual love, I find this storyline comes very close to heart.

That brings me on to the next point that makes this drama stand out, the entire amazingly written storyline of a man and woman that came to know each other under such tragic and unusual circumstances. Unusual because of their different levels of in social class; tragic because… you’ll see when you watch the drama (but this is what I mean of how their storylines go back many years before the drama begins.

It is like Joo Won and Ra Im are star-crossed lovers, like it was meant to be that they would stir up something different in each other’s hearts. Deep, I know. But this is why this drama is so different. It’s not a cute high school romance; Secret Garden deals with death, loss, heartbreak, unrequited love and inevitability like I’ve never seen in any other drama I’ve watched (and I’ve watched quite a good amount; those for younger audiences like Dream High and Heartstrings and those for older audiences like Iris and Coffee Prince). These two characters love each other so much and do not want to let each other go despite the consequences and I’ve never seen a love more intense and inspiring in any other Korean drama I’ve watched.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

cr: asianwiki.com, dramawiki.com

Give yourself permission...

“Give yourself permission to immediately walk away from anything that gives you bad vibes. There is no need to explain or make sense of it. Just trust what you feel.”

-unknown

K-Drama: 'White Christmas' review [No Spoilers]

I watched White Christmas in July this year (quite a funny time to watch a drama set around Christmas but it didn't affect the mood). I wrote a little review of it afterwards with zero amount of spoilers. It's basically my feelings on the drama with a rating out of 5 at the end.
Anyway, I forgot all about this rating until I was surfing through my files today so I'm uploading it now.
You may already be interested in this drama is you like model/actors like Kim Woobin, Lee Soohyuk, Hong Jonghyun, Bang Sungjoon, Kim Young Kwang. They're all in this.

Enjoy! :)

Starring:
Kim Sang Kyung
Baek Sung Hyun
Kim Young Kwang
Lee Soo Hyuk
Kwak Jung Wook
Hong Jong Hyun
Esom
Kim Woobin
Sung Joon
Jung Suk Won
Lee El

Sypnosis:

In the mountains of Gangwando, there is a prestigious private high school named Soo-Sin. The school is located in an isolated area and all the students and staff stay in dormitories. The students at Soo-Sin comprise of the top 0.1% of all the students in South Korea.
In order to get into Soo-Sin, students must prepare from elementary school. It is even harder to get into than Seoul National University. Because of this, students at Soo-Sin must compete fiercely and study even on weekends. Their only vacation days are the 8 days from Christmas Eve to the first day of the new year. During this time, the students and faculty leave the school. The school becomes empty.
On December 24, 2010, a bus full of students leaves the school. Diligent honor student Park Moo-Yul (Baek Sung-Hyun) stays behind because of a letter a received a couple of days ago. The letter is full of hate and states they will die, but leave a curse on Park Moo-Yul. At the school, only 7 students stay behind...

Review:

Let me warn you now, you heart will ache and your mind will tire from watching this drama. This is the first drama that has honestly made me want to watch episode after episode even though it wasn't doing me any good. Despite there only being eight episodes, each character held a special place in my heart in the blink of an eye because the story is so fast paced and each character has their own individuality that makes you want to protect them and the most heartbreaking thing is that anyone one of them could die at any moment, and later on in the drama any one of them could die by any one of them because the list potential murderers expands.

I barely sat on the edge of my seat and I bit my nails until there was nothing left of them. I squealed and gasped and covered my eyes too many times. I paused the drama in a high intensity moment screaming that I would not watch any more of it. I don’t know if everyone who has watched this has had the same experience as me as watching it but I don’t see how anyone could not. It got too much at times but I kept watching. I don’t even know how. It was heartbreaking in one moment but elating in the next. How could the writer have messed so much with the audience like that?

I must say, White Christmas was absolutely amazing. I have never seen any other Korean drama like it and I don’t think I ever will. The way it was written was genius; there was a lot of thought put into the characters and the way the storyline all came together. It makes you think. It makes you think about how someone could be so obsessive; how a normal person could become a monster; what it takes; how much can one endure. The high school students were all very strong and smart in my opinion. I can’t imagine myself being in their shoes.

Overall rating: 5 out of 5


cr: asianwiki.com

Choi Young Do...

I need to write about Choi Young Do.

I stayed up late to watch The Heirs on viki last night and the episode was actually really interesting because of Choi Young Do. He's evil, but I'm so amused by it all. I hate bullies, but I don't want him to go away... there's something so interesting and complex about his character.
And Kim Woo Bin's face... let's just leave it at that.

"Koreans eat dogs and cats!"

OK. People seriously need to get it out of their head that Koreans eat dogs and cats. It's really annoying now. Seriously, how could anyone be so ignorant? Koreans have dogs as pets in their homes and they don't even make them sleep outside like some Americans do. So why would they eat something they keep as pets?
Yes, dog meat is available in the country but not only do the vast majority of the population not eat it but they are also against it as well. Talk to some Koreans and they'll tell you honestly they've never had it. Cat meat? No.

It's your money.

I believe it's not right for anyone to look down on you for how you spend your money. Even if you didn't work hard for it, it's still your money and it's your choice to spend it on what you want.
If a girl wants to spend £1 on a chocolate bar then let her. If a girl wants to spend £350 on a Burberry  scarf then let her. It's her money, not yours, so what's your problem?

Update on things...

Still so ill. It's been just over a week now. This is bad. It's because when I got ill in the past, I usually take over a week off of school to get better and get my immune system up, but I've been going to uni, walking in the rain and cold for long periods of time; getting on germ infested public transport. It's all because I cannot afford to miss any lectures or seminars. You don't know which ones are important and which ones are not until you go there and sit through the whole thing. Seriously. It's Thursday today, so I have the next three days to rest at home. I hope I get better so I'll be fine by Monday.

Today, I planned to work on an essay that I have to do for uni (that I haven't even started) but I spent most of my day when I got home watching loads of episodes of High Kick 3. I watched 10 episodes! That's the most I've ever watched at once. It was only because I was inspired by my friend telling me today that she once watched 180 episodes of a drama in one night. I wouldn't do that, but it's nice to just sit down and watch loads of episodes of drama/sitcom at once, especially if it's as awesome as High Kick 3.

Talking of dramas; I watched The Heirs episode 3 today. I tried to watch it last night on Viki (because I was that desperate to see it) but the subs weren't complete, so I came home from uni today and watched it on gooddrama. That scene with half naked Kim Woo Bin though. I saw it on tumblr before hand and I almost died! No, I died. I definitely did die.

Oh right, about that hip hop dance class that I joined. After doing it, I started to feel that I shouldn't carry on with it because it's not nice walking around last at night/ or early in the morning when it's dark by myself - around this time of year. For that same reason I won't be going to the Christian Union either which is on the same day and time. I asked my parents for advice on whether I should do it or not but they weren't any help; I ended up paying my membership to the sport and then I regretted it a lot. I emailed the students union asking if I could withdraw my membership and get my money back but they still haven't replied. I'm a bit scared because it looks like I just missed practice today without saying anything. Oh well.
They better email me back tomorrow.

Well, other than that, life at uni is going well. I have been gifted with awesome people on my course so...
I have so much to do tomorrow, I better get round to doing it. Should I wake up early and go to the library?

I'm so ill.

I feel so ill. TT_TT I just want to get back to my normal healthy self.

Usually when I get sick (once a year), it would only last about 3 or 4 days at the most because I know how to take care of myself, but this is different. Since last week, I missed that training session on Friday morning, I missed church and today I'm missing uni. I really didn't want to miss uni but I knew going out would not be a wise thing to do.

Aigoo.. I don't usually like to complain but (this blog is a place where I can come and complain I guess..) I just wish I could get back to my normal healthy self.

I hope I'm recovered by tomorrow so I can go to uni and not make myself even worse

어떡하지 진짜

Guys, I absolutely love learning Japanese. I feel so cognitively sharp and accomplished when I'm learning it and I can remember everything. I swear learning a language is the most encouraging thing. It's like: I'm not stupid after all.
I can't wait until my next lesson. It's not like I love my lessons (because I haven't actually bonded with anyone in my class as yet - it's a big class)
Currently, I've learnt a few phrases and I've completely memorised all the hiragana with the additional sounds. I just need to practice everyday (like I've been doing) and practice reading hiragana sentences so I can recognise the characters faster.
It's very important that I do well in Japanese because it's as important as my other university modules and my teacher was saying: if I fail, I can't graduate. Yikes!

Let's Talk: 'The Heirs' episode 1 & 2 *spoiler alert*

So let's talk about the long awaited drama full of pretty faces with genuine acting talent, 'The Heirs'.

Yes, I'd been looking forward to this drama to come for a long time, actually anticipating gloomy month of
October (which I never do) because that's when The Heirs would be beginning. But I just have to say I am quite disappointed in this drama so far. I didn't like episode 1 at all, episode 2 was a little better but...
I don't like the fact that Kim Tan and Eun Sang are in California because there a lot of opportunities to stereotype because of this. I'm talking about the whole stereotype of white American males. Also what's with all the white people; it reinforces the fact that Koreans think America is full of white people and that being American is actually an ethinicity. No it's not. I mean, we all know that L.A. stands for Lots of Asians*.
I really don't like the way white males are depicted in this drama and I'm not even a white male, neither am I white. But I can't believe no one else has picked this up. I am very open minded of how different races of people are stereotyped in the media and this drama is just reaking in nasty stereotypes.
Take for example, Eun Sang's sister's ex-boyfriend just happens to be a down and out mess whose moved on to another girl just as Stella moved out. I was quite surprised at this because I thought they would show perfect successful rich people instead of what was in this drama (sort of like Julien's character of Daniel in 'To The Beautiful You').

And all the sleazy guys that were hitting on Stella left right and center. Where do they get the information that American guys are like this and the rest of the Korean guys in the drama were walking around in their suits being all professional. The "American" guys were just:

running away from a young girl for a bag of "drugs". smh.

I surprised there wasn't a gang of ghetto-looking African Americans chasing Eun Sang for no reason than just to cause trouble and promote a thug-stereotype.

I have to say those fat guys running after Tan and Eun Sang in the second episode were funny though. "I'm gonna kill you." lol. Stella's ex has some funny friends.

Moving away from the depictations and on to the cringeful English. Aigoo... that's what I hate about Kim Eun Sook's dramas. They always contain way too much English and the thing is, it doesn't have to be that way. I can tell the way they're attempting the English is by writing it out for actors in hangul; bear in mind that the hangul alphabet does not have all the components for English pronounciation. There is no f, no v, no z. Lee Minho's English ends up unfortunetly sounding terrible. It was the same with Gil Ra Im and Kim Joo Won in Secret Garden.
There are coaches that can train the actors to pronounce the English in the correct or coherent way but still with a natural accent. Think Memoirs of a Geisha because that is exactly what I'm talking about. Some of those actresses/actors could not speak a word of English in real life yet on screen their English flowed effortlessly. It's not because they wrote it out in their alphabet and learnt it that way. It's because they worked closely with a coach that taught them the correct way to pronounce things. I just wish Kim Eun Sook's drama production would employ a coach like this. Please.
One of the things I just cannot stand in the world is the cringey English like what is in these dramas. Korean people don't sound like that when they speak English. Please, someone, fix this.

No Tan, it's really not. -__-

What I hope is that by the next episode Tan and Eun Sang will somehow find themselves returning to Korea so we can return to the comfortable normality of a korean drama.

Another thing, how the heck is Kim Woo Bin supposed to playing an 18-year-old, he already looks older than he is at 24, does anyone really thinks he can pull off the whole school boy thing anymore especially as he's gained more muscle after School 2013 and the characters are not wearing uniforms yet. Ji Won's character Rachael definitely looks like she should be attending University rather than high school.
I'm really watching this drama for Kim Jiwon and Krystal after woob broke my heart. I was a bit disappointed that Jiwon turned out to be the villain like in To The Beautiful You. I prefer her playing roles like in High Kick 3.
Krystal's character Bo Na, I love. She has a funny character again and I totally ship her with Young Do after the second episode.

Positively, I'm looking forward to seeing how things will go forward with Eun Sang and Chan Young (Minhyuk) as Bo Na (Krystal) is jealous of Eun Sang and Tan is jealous of Chan Young.

Well, we'll see...



credit: stills taken from gooddrama.net

Something we can all relate to. . .

"I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people, to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole."

-Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall


It's a lesson well learnt but I keep doing the same thing again. I'm only human, we all do it. And we all feel the pain again and again.


source

You CAN do it.

If there's one thing I've learnt since starting uni three weeks ago, it's that, you have to be prepared for what's inevitably going to happen. Even if you think you're not going to like it, just think you can endure it and maybe when it actually happens it won't be anywhere near as bad you thought it would be. And hey, it won't kill you.
Just in the same way I was wary that if I chose to do Japanese I'll probably be in a class full of crazy anime fans (no offence) that I couldn't relate to and if I started attending hip hop classes by myself I'll probably find it hard to make friends. I don't know if my negative thinking made those things happen just the way I thought they would be (especially the hip hop class) but I survived. I enjoy learning Japanese and I enjoy dancing, especially hip hop dancing.

Just last night, I just went to the hip hop class that the Cheerleaders at my uni hold late in the evening (when it's dark and scary for a young pretty girl with no martial arts experience to be taking the bus home alone) and like I assumed the Cheerleaders are crazy. lol. But it's alright, I was kind of alone... but once I got warming up and dancing it was good. I really liked the choreography and that beats my fear that the choreo was going to be lame because I haven't seen much good hip hop dancing in this country - as opposed to the US.
Because of the fact that I went there on my own and was there alone I was heavily thinking that I should not go again because I HATE being alone. It's one of the things I hate the most. Of course I prefer doing certain things alone like shopping and running errands or something but things that are supposed to be done with friends I hate doing alone and that was one of those things. It's just scary to me, it's one of my fears, along with heights and paedophiles.
There was a fitness session the very next morning that started at 7:30am. I didn't even know about this before I went to the hip hop class in the evening and I was like: 7:30am! Hell no!
Seriously, I was very ill. Going out in the cold night wasn't a wise decision but it was something I had to do in as my last chance to do the hip hop class, but I getting to my uni for 7:30am the next morning would definitely not be a wise decision because it would mean I would have to get up at 4 in the morning which would mean I would have only 4 hours asleep. I'm sorry but I'm not a kpop idol, I'm a student. I need time to rest and recuperate because I am very ill. When you're ill, you need to sleep, not wake up after barely 4 hours and go out in the cold and then do some intense physical exercise. I saw on facebook, that the secretary was not happy that people did not show up that morning. That kind of scared me off going again even more, but I do plan to show up next week when I'm all better if they'll allow me.

Well... I wish I could 've found someone to do this whole dancing thing with me but... we'll see for now. I'm not saying I'm making a commitment to this especially as I feel like I don't fit in with these people. I just wish I could start a kpop dance cover crew. Message me if you live in the West Midlands, UK and you're interested. *gets no messages*

lol. The message of this post is: Take the opportunities that are offered to you, take them wholeheartedly and make the most of them. You don't have to write your name in blood and don't let anyone make you think that you do. Do as I say, as I'm trying to live by my own advice.

I'll never let you be alone.

I can't say that I've had one bad day since I started uni.
Of course, things have not always gone well. Negative things have occurred, mostly down to my own thinking I guess. Like how you think you've made friends with someone and then you realise... you just, haven't. But today ended well.

I met girls who are obsessed with Chinese and Korean guys (*sigh* they remind me of when I was young lol) I personally think that's a little insane and naive to be obsessed over some people like that but hey ...I'm insane too.
I have hope that there might be lots of kpop fans around our campus and we could possibly start a society if we figure out what to do when we meet.
I got some shopping done in my break as well. Of course I ended up going over my budget, but that's a given. I got my Dad a good birthday present after much struggle. And I bumped into a good friend from college that I haven't spoken to since we finished college. We had a nice conversation. I hope I see him around again. It would be nice if I could keep in touch with people from college but keeping-in-touch is really something I'm not good at...

I'm looking forward to meeting even more new people like I did today. That's something I love about uni; you can always meet new people and speak to people you've never spoken to before and they might have similar interests to you.

Well, I'm happy God will never let me be alone at uni. I seriously do like people, God knows that lol :)

9:46pm
Finishing my day with some Hiragana revision for my Japanese lesson tomorrow. I basically know everything. I revised so well in the week.

I can't believe I found you!

You know when something good happens in your day (it doesn't even necessarily happen to you) and you just can't help but smile to yourself about it for the rest of the day or rest of the night because it keeps coming back into your head.
I love that.
It's happened twice in the past 2 weeks.

Today... I found a kpop fan! In my uni. I have been talking to this girl for the past two weeks on some days whenever I've seen her because she was a mutual friend but a conversation we had today just kind of ended up along the lines of "cute korean guy" and then "I can speak some Korean" and then "Do you like kpop?" HELL YES! I can't believe it. Just the idea that I've been talking to this girl and she likes kpop! Not only that but she is a huge fan of EXO. EXO are my soul reason for living. Ok, not so much haha, but I do love them a loooot and to find another kpop fan in a sea of what looks to be non-kpop fans, was amazing. It was a God-send really. I now have someone to talk about my 12 boys with in my uni... I could just cry...

Well, that's what I couldn't stop smiling about today.
There are more kpop lovers on my campus I'm sure. I just have to find some, subtly.

Just do it.

Fear can really ruin a person. Don't be afraid. Just do it. Even if it means doing it alone. Don't be afraid of being alone in a crowd because it will not last forever. The decision you're going to make, that thing you're afraid to do might just be the best thing you ever went ahead and did in your life.
There are honest words from me and speak from experience: No matter what happens, do not be afraid. God is with you wherever you go, and with his strength, you can do anything.