Thursday 21 November 2013

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

Tuesday 12 November 2013

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.

Thursday 7 November 2013

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

Saturday 2 November 2013

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