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