Raaaant.

Brissy’s weather is really going insane. One moment it’s so damn hot, the next freezing cold. Today was like… “brrrrr…” super cold. Probably one of the coldest days I’ve ever experienced ever since I came here. Because it rained last night, so it was rather gloomy and cold in the day.

Currently, I’m in a panicky mode. Essays due next week and I haven’t got the slightest clue on how to start writing! I’m feeling stressed up and it’s all thanks to my undefeatable habit of procrastination. To hell with it!! >:(

Socially rich… :P

I’ve been busy meeting up with friends lately. It’s just awesome!

Especially yesterday, when I managed to meet up with Jennifer, a Korean friend, who shared her home-made rice cakes with me (I mentioned about this in my blog). It has been about 3 weeks since I last saw her. Was really nice to meet up with her.

We do have a bit of gap in terms of our age but she teaches me a lot about Korean culture- like why do Koreans always use only their right hand to eat? (it’s something that has been bugging me for a long time) And some others related to food and table manners (I’m just too lazy to type everything out).

Also, I’ve been hanging out a lot with a M’sian friend, LN, whom I met on a bus. She said hi to me and all… etc, etc. We’ve been meeting a lot the past few weeks and we’re hitting off quite well! I like hanging out and chatting with her because she’s a really happy and optimistic person.

LN gave me a mini-facial today. She’s awesome! She came to my place at 9+pm to do the facial for me! Though she just learnt the skill of facial massage, I thought she was really good at it. In the end she sort of miss an early bus and had to take an 11pm bus back home. Her home’s not very near from mine actually. She’s really great. We’ll be meeting up again tomorrow and on Sat… We’re just so busy!

Oh and lately I’ve been eating a lot of Korean food! I had Korean cuisine for dinner last Fri, yesterday and this evening. I can’t get enough! There’re still so much to try! <3

Today’s dinner…

My dinner looks damn good, doesn’t it?!

Dishes are Japanese curry with potatoes and carrots, and stir-fried beef and onions!

The taste was not bad, but I definitely have lots of room for improvement! And OKAY, I have to confess the Japanese curry is instant curry (microwave-d it) except for the potatoes and carrots which I cut and boiled. XP

 

You know what, I think one of these days I’m going to die of heat stroke. It’s HOT LIKE HELL here and it’s not yet summer! No more comfortable, air-conditioned weather anymore. :( Can’t wait for next year June… Lol.

I can’t imagine summer time

Today’s temperature was 35 degree Celsius in the day. DAAAAAMN HOT! I felt like I was in a readying sauna. The air was hot and stale. Not humid like SG, it was just HOT.

One day it was winter, the next, it became summer. But I don’t think this is summer yet. Winter was supposed to end in the month of September! I guess it ended early this year. If this is (so-called) spring, I really can’t imagine SUMMER. Luckily I’ll be in Singapore during the PEAK of summer. I cannot stand the scorching sun!

Australia’s sun is so poisonous!

One thing good, though it’s not that distinctive in Brisbane, is the experiencing of four seasons! In SG, the weather’s either hot or rainy. It’s definitely a life experience for South-East Asians!

 

And on a super happy note,

All About Dong Bang Shin Ki: Season 3 DVD arrived today!

My happiness just reached the peak! XD

Cover of the DVD

 
Front covers of the box set

Back covers of the box set

Front covers of the 3 DVD cases

Back covers of the 3 DVD cases

DVD cases plus photobook

 
Folded poster (chose this over the rolled-up because the latter is too expensive)

Attempting to straighten up my poster! XD

 
DVDs inside the cases! ;)

A peek into the photobook

 
Mine!!!

I mean the box set okay… XD

With 6 DVDs, DBSK fans will get to enjoy 540 minutes (that’s 9 freaking hours!!!) of programs in them! SO WORTH IT! AADBSK DVD series is a must-have for all DBSK fans! It is literally ALL ABOUT DBSK. *faints*

Update on my Uni life thus far

Every week I would suffer mental stress from having to think, read and write critically. There are weekly “blog entries” to write, 20 pages of materials to be read. I have to analyse the topics critically. I have to be critical. It’s difficult when in the past I just take things as it is without asking much of the 4W1H.

And that’s for my Asian Studies major of course.

Korean major is going fine so far. I’ve learnt some of the materials before and being in touch with Korean music/dramas/variety shows definitely helped me to learn the language faster! It’s gradually becoming a non-foreign language and I love it! I loooooove Korean, even if the classes can be a tad boring when the seon-saeng-nim just goes on and on… XD

Korean’s class today was exceptionally awesome because SX (the GOESS translator I mentioned before) and I were continuously gushing about DBSK and sharing our own experiences within the fandom. We were so “HIGH”, the seon-saeng-nim came and asked us what were we talking about that is so interesting. We laughed and went “ehhh…”

You cannot believe the things she experienced on the many trips she made to Korea. To a Kpop fan, it’s really effing awesome!

But my evening later on was like shit. Huge contrast between afternoon and evening. Too tired and lazy to type everything anyways.

In Singapore and to Singaporeans, eating alone might make the person seemed like a loner, an anti, pathetically friend-less. But here in Brisbane, I love the fact that A LOT of Caucasians eat alone. Be it in Uni or in public places, I witnessed a lot of them having meals by themselves.

It’s like they take life as a pinch of salt. Enjoying the times they have by themselves while not caring about what others think. I love the sight of that. I love to observe a Caucasian, just sitting on the grass eating her lunch or just chilling out.

But S’poreans on the other hand are very “ai mian zi”. Cannot eat alone, cannot go to movies alone, cannot this and cannot that. I admit that sometimes I feel that way although I’ve eaten (in foodcourts/restaurants), gone movies alone in SG.

Here in Brisbane, I eat alone and do things alone with ease. Not having to think about what others think of me. Hanging out alone in Uni is cool but not so much if you’re lost in the campus! ><

Out with the long, in with the short!

So what do you guys think? Good or bad change? :P

Casino Royale

Today was a public holiday for Brissy!

They call it Exhibition Day because of Ekka which is an annual festival that takes place in Brisbane. The festival lasts for a week but they have a special public holiday for busy people to attend. Cool, eh?

I haven’t been to Ekka yet. Probably this Fri or Sat. Am excited to go! All that cool stuff to buy and all the things to do! Will blog more about when I’ve personally experienced it myself.

Spent half of the day today at the Casino in Brisbane city. Heh.

Played Jackpot and Roulette.

No wins at all! Lost quite a bit. I’ve got no luck today. Booo.

But I realised Roulette can be quite fun.

Today’s incident with Roulette has made Kel hate the number 15. Kel asked me about my birth date during this one round. So she just bet on the row of numbers where 15 was in, instead of ON the number itself. Because what are the chances of the ball landing on the number you bet right? Nobody puts their money on only 1 number unless you’re EXTREMELY confident the ball will land on the number.

BUT THE BALL LANDED ON 15 THAT ROUND!!!! :O

OH.EM.GEE. WE TOTALLY FREAKED OUT! FREEEEAKED OUT MAN.

If only we had bet on number 15 itself! We would win 35 times our “capital”! WTH.

After that, we felt so… ARGH! Just ARGH!

Really wth and omg.

No luck!

Went to watch the movie, My Sister’s Keeper, on Monday at 9pm. Reached home at 11pm+.

The movie is so sad. Even sadder than the book, I felt. Probably because of visual effects. Seeing the sick Kate is quite upsetting… But the movie has a different ending from the book but I think that’s fine. Because the ending in the book is, though saddening, kind of lame. To me, that is. :P

Video freak. Internet addict.

What.The.Hell.

I used 5 GIGABYTES of internet bandwidth in 2 hrs.

Downloaded 4 episodes of Family Outing. I freaking miss this show man. I haven’t been able to watch the latest episodes ever since I came to Aus! But now that I’m using school’s internet, I managed to dl the episodes I’d missed out!

And watched… I don’t know how many HD vids in utube. :x When I watch K-performances, I must watch in HD, if not I’ll feel very… “gao wei”. Lol.

I can’t imagine the bytes I’ve been using back at home in SG while I was slacking. 100gb? 200? 500? ><

Plus, UQ’s internet is just like my SG home’s internet!! SUPER HIGH SPEED! I think the library is going to be my second home… Lol.

Will blog more later when I get back home! Yes, I’m in the library now! Sweet internet! :)

Another Korean friend!

I finally met up with the Korean salesgirl today! I mentioned before that I met her in a shopping centre. Her name’s Jenny (I forgot to ask for her Korean name :P) and she’s 4 years older than me.

We only had lunch together today as she had to work late afternoon, so the meeting was rather short. Short but nice. We ate a Korean restaurant in the city! It’s my first time going to a Korean restaurant with a Korean. The feeling was definitely completely different from going with non-Korean friends! The waiters/waitresses were all Korean and Jenny naturally spoke to them in Korean. It was SO COOL.

During lunch, Jenny said we should start speaking in Korean. My Korean really CMI, man. Most of the time it came out as rojak- a pile of messy Korean words. LOL. At least it was understandable. ><

And then I told her I like DBSK. I asked her who she likes and she said Big Bang. So typical. It’s either DBSK or BB. Lol. But she say she only likes their songs which are very addictive, not so much of the members.

After that we began talking a lot about Korea and a whole bunch of things.

Oh yah… (again LY you’re not going to like this, LOL) Jenny invited me to go to the KOREAN CHURCH where she always go to. She knows I’m a free-thinker that’s why she invited me. Seriously, I didn’t even know there’s a church just for Koreans. WOW. Count me in! Haha.

She say I’ll be able to practise my Korean and meet a lot of Korean people there! COOL OR WHAT?!! Way cool! :D

Actually she invited me to go this weekend, but I already had plans so I’ll be going next week! YAAAAAY! I’m so excited. ><

Vision ain’t 6/6 anymore

This is bad. Just when I start Uni, my vision has to bail out on me. >:(

I need a change of glasses but not here, not here in Aus. The prices are AHHHH-worthy. That means super duper diduper expensive.

Guess what? Kel was sick and she went to the GP last week. It costed her over 100 bucks for consultation and medicine! If we see a specialist doctor in SG, it may not even cost us 100 bucks per visit. WTH… just for her sore throat and fever= over 100. Luckily we’ve got 100% coverage from OSHC!

Back on topic, I really need to have my vision checked. I’m having a little bit of difficulty reading small (not extremely but fairly small) words on screen during lectures.

Life here sure is getting interesting by the minute

I made a new Singaporean friend in Korean class yesterday. Turns out she’s a PRO in Korean. SERIOUSLY. I’ll slowly reveal the interesting bits of information about this friend I made.

She has learnt Korean for 3 years! I learnt Korean from NUSex in SG and the level I reached was level 3 but she took level 7 classes there! She also attended Korean classes in NTU and she said all the classes she attended in SG were super easy to her. *rolls eyes*

Like me, this semester is her first sem and she just joined the level 2 Korean class as well. I don’t know why she even joined this level. It’s all too easy for her.

She has been to Korea 5 or 6 times? She loooooves Korea.

Envious much…

For someone so enthu about Korea, I just shoot the question straight away, “do you like DBSK?” Whenever I meet a Korean enthusiast, I not going to beat around the bush anymore.

Here comes the MORE interesting bit.

After I asked her, she told me she TRANSLATES their articles and videos. O_O!!!!!

What’s more, she is a translator for GOESS, which is THE BEST and MOST POPULAR subbing squad for DBSK’s videos!!! *jaw drops completelyyyyy*

WTF!!! I download almost all my subbed vids from GOESS okay! WTF again!!!

She told me her nickname she used for GOESS and it was pretty familiar to me. But it has been about a year since she translated anything for GOESS.

What are the odds of meeting a GOESS translator? WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!

After that, when our class ended, we walked to this place where we were about to go our separate ways but we just stood there (in the middle of nowhere) and kept talking about Kpop. My heart was bubbling with excitement when I talked to her because she knows the stuff in depth, probably more than me since she’s Korean savvy.

So that was yesterday.

Today I made a new friend again! It was through the academic workshops which I attended this morning. She was sitting beside me and the teacher required us to ask the person beside us about something (I can’t remember). So we introduced ourselves and I found out she’s KOREAN! She doesn’t have that typical Korean look though. Sometimes when you look at Koreans, you would know she/he is Korean, but for this friend, no.

I told her I’m majoring in Korean, so we started chatting…

We spent our lunch together on the Great Court. The Great Court is a big field place where students will sit on the grassy field to just chill out, eat or even study.

It was nice hanging out with her… She let me try her home-made dduk bo gi! So deliciiious! She’s very nice and down to earth. Too bad her main campus is at Herston though she’d come to St Lucia every two days a week.

 

I need to get on with my Korean! ><

I am not freaky and random… hopefully.

I did something ridiculous today. Okay, it is ridiculous to me.

Last week, I discovered that a Caucasian classmate in my Korean Lang class is a fan of DBSK! More specifically, Jae Joong. We didn’t know and talked to each other before so how did I know? She has a keychain of him on her bag!!

So I wanted to approach her last week, but I didn’t dare to and she was talking to her friends… Approaching a group of Caucasians can be so intimidating to me. ><

Well anyways, after class today, on the way to the bus stop I realised she and another friend were walking just right in front of me! I really wanted to just let it go… but I thought, to hell with it! I approached them and sort of “jumped” on them because I was so nervous and they had this O_O look on their faces. LOL.

I said “HI! I’m from the Korean class earlier on! You’re Sarah (the fan), right?”

Sarah, still having that O_O look on her face, “Oh hey. We didn’t see you… And what’s your name?” (Note, we have never spoken or say hi or smiled or acknowledged each other before)

I introduced self and went on quickly to… “You like Dong Bang Shin Ki?” :D

S, “Yeah… (Looks at keychain) Jae Joong actually.”

I grinned sheepishly and just said, “ahhh… i see… cool!”

Then, AWKWARD.

Seemed like I interrupted their conversation and it was CLEAR they wanted to continue so in the end, I just said see you guys tomorrow… and then bye. That’s it. That’s it, man.

Awkward much?!!

I was so nervous I didn’t know what to say. I’m not the kind of proactive person who would approach people (she was less than a stranger but still a stranger) and say hi. So I was tingling with nerves but the feeling was good. It’s kind of like a boost of self-confidence? :p

Hopefully I can strike up a better conversation tomorrow… ><

My brain needs some kicking!

OMFG. Can you believe this? I can’t. I just can’t! This is so outrageous!

I spent 4 hours plus to write up a stupid 150-word “blog entry” for my Japanese Popular Culture assignment! 150 words in 4hrs plus? Way to go, mayz. :/

I tell you my brain is just scattered and I can’t piece things together in an organized way. We have several topics to choose from and I jumped between so many topics that’s why I took so long. I wasted so much bloody time. The end result turned out “bleaaah” as well. Geeeez.

I need to re-organise my mind. Make it more organised again. After months of slacking, it’s obvious my brain has gone gooey. I need to go for those academic workshops no matter how unwilling I am.

My dinner this evening

I should have cleared the table when I took this photo! I can’t lie about me making the pizza myself. XP
Of course, the very simple mushroom omelette is made by muah. Plus the side salad to make the entire dinner a little more healthy. If you want to talk MORE healthy, I ate grapes after the meal. Maybe a banana later on in the night. :P
I know this dinner is an idiot-proof one but I still feel good by getting everything together on a plate. Besides it gave me a reason to post something here. Beats having no new posts right?

Nothing much going on today as Kel has come down with a fever and needs to rest at home. We had to cancel our plans of attending unicell dinner this evening. Maybe next time.