Listening to DBSK’s songs all over again.

It’s weird that I’ve never been to a REAL noraebang/노래방 (karaoke in Korean) once during my one-month stay in Korea but in the past four days, I have been there twice here in Brissy! Gabby and I found a really nice noraebang, it’s not that cheap but I really like the entire ambience, the friendly staff and the nice rooms! Well, as compared to the other noraebang (I used to only know that one in the city), this new noraebang is so much better!

It feels really good to just sing your heart out and also to know that at least we have another THING we can do in the city. LOL. During these two noraebang sessions, I have sang almost all the DBSK songs they have, ALMOST. From this, I realised that I need to re-listen to their songs again, not because I don’t know how to sing their songs but because I’m in a new phase right now. This new phase refers to my grasp of Korean.

Back then, when I first became their fan, I relied on the musical side of the songs to appreciate them since the language forbade me from understanding the lyrics. It was a phase of zero Korean knowledge. Now that I’m in a whole new phase with a higher standard of the language, I find myself re-discovering their old songs. Songs which I had put on replay endlessly on my mp3, songs which only to their rhythms I can hum to. Right now, I have entered a phase that not only appreciates the musical side of Korean songs but the lyrical side as well. Currently, I found myself appreciating the lyrics of Korean songs more and more, but at the same time I had drifted away from DBSK’s songs because it’s saddening to listen to their songs when they were 5. It is also sad to listen to either 2 or 3 of them but I still do, just not as much as I used to.

Going to noraebang and singing their old songs, made me read the lyrics and that’s when I realised how beautiful the lyrics of their songs are. Back then, I wasn’t that keen in reading English translations because I thought reading them sort of destroyed the feelings I get from listening to their songs. But sometimes for non-Korean speakers, it is difficult to show them how beautiful their lyrics are without English translations (which might not do justice to the original Korean lyrics).

In addition, this new phase not only includes my grasp of Korean, my relationship status does make everything different as well. Hehe. Honestly, I tend to appreciate love songs more now that I’m attached. What is so much more emotional is when these love songs I appreciate comes from DBSK.

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Side note: If you guys didn’t realise, I took away my tag board because it seems kind of useless when only two or three people are tagging. Well maybe those are the only readers left (sad), but if any of you need to say something just post a comment in the post. AND, tick the boxes at the end of each blog post! Haha.. actually I ticked one of them myself in the previous post. :P

Here comes the Mid-term break!

I’m currently on my one-week mid-term break! Hoorah for that! After all that assignment writing and minimal playing in the first term, this break is a much-needed one. I’m also taking this time to start on some really huge assignments that are due couple of weeks after the break. If I can make full use of this break, life is going to be pretty okay, not as stressful, when the 2nd term starts. Hopefully I can because knowing myself, when my mind knows it’s holidays it will change into the holiday mood and to me, whatever assignments are just.. “I’ll do them later. I still have time. It’s the holidays, I need to relax!” And before I know it, the new term starts.

Anyway, I’ve started learning the guitar like what I mentioned earlier on! I remember learning a little bit of guitar during my secondary school days (8 freaking years ago). In my memory, it was horrifying due to the painful fingertips resulted from playing on the instrument! Now I learnt that playing the guitar requires the building up of calluses, which means the thickening of skin at the tip of your fingers so that it won’t be painful when you fret the guitar strings. Yes, as a newbie my fingertips are burning right now! It’s too painful, how can I practice?! According to the (almighty) internet and the book, Guitar for Dummies (borrowed from my housemate), practicing at least 30mins everyday will gradually take the pain away. Of course, if it REALLY hurts I’ll have to stop and rest. Sometimes it hurts so much I couldn’t fret properly. >< Because of the pain, it took me 5 days to learn and memorise 3 chords, thus I conclude that I have to be really patient before I can truly master the guitar.

Facebook world domination

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.

Guess what?!

I’m already more than half way through the semester! It’s week 7 and that means only 5 more weeks to go! Is that freaky or what? Times flies like shit! Not literally of course. After the Easter break, I’ll be so damn busy I don’t know what to say!!! So I have to play more during the break like 60% to 40% of studying! :P

Oh and I made a new Korean friend! He’s from my political science class! Woohoo finally a friend from that class! But he’s leaving at the end of this semester because he’s only here for one semester of exchange. Bummer. Why is it that Korean friends I make don’t stay long here… –_-;;;

I feel a need to post.

I just finished one of my assignments so I’m feeling pretty accomplished!! :D The past 3 weeks have been non-stop essay writing and thinking, occasionally I might feel brain-dead in the middle but I’m glad I managed to pull through smoothly. I’ve got only one assignment left before the “mid-term break”… that’s all good but I feel that if I lose this working momentum, it’s gonna be difficult to go back to working again! But one has got to relax, take a break, do some other things instead of assignments all the time right? :)

I have some plans for myself this Easter break since I’m not going to travel around. Besides starting on assignments (bummer –_-), I may attempt to learn the guitar! My housemate has a guitar which he rarely uses, maybe only on special occasions for his church activities, other than that the guitar just sits there collecting dust. He says he’s willing to lend me the guitar and even his guitar book! Awesome right? :) Also, he’s a drummer in his church, so when I told him I used to be in a band and I know such things as strokes since I was a percussionist, he was so shocked. Haha, but I had always stuck to the glockenspiel, xylophone or other accessories when I was in band so i didn’t had much chance to play the drums. He said next time we go to church, he can let me play on the drums.

It made me think back of sec sch days, when we were forced to go to Band. I kind of regretted not practicing more for my strokes, I regretted not getting more involved in band and I also regretted not trying to play on the drums. When I think back, CCA does help one to acquire an extra skill especially when you’re in a band, you get to play on the instrument which hones your musical skills. I think it’s really good to have an extra skill, besides just studying academically. “Hands-on” skill, be it a sport, instrument, arts & craft, dancing, etc.

Somehow I feel being able to do something else besides excelling in academics enriches one’s life. Because trying different things is what life is all about… Don’t just live for the sake of living, earning money money money, blah blah blah…

Since we’re living,  I want to try new things, learn new stuff, and make the most of life. This coming holiday in July, the one-month break, I’m also planning to learn something new. I’m not going to say what in here yet. It’s still too early… :)

Loner? or Individualism?

I don’t know what is it, that the problem lies with me or is this just Aussie Uni life? I have been studying in UQ for nearly 2 years now and yet there is not more than 2 people in my mobile phone whom I can call out for a meal without feeling like I’m disturbing them (because we’re not that close). I find myself eating alone during lunch time in school, spending free time away on computer instead of chit-chatting with friends in uni. I hardly make any friends whom I can hang out with after school. It is always “hi-bye” kind of friends. We sit together in class, we talk during class, but after the class ends, so does our interaction. Our interaction does not go beyond the walls of the lecture room.

I do have a couple of close friends (Asians, of course) in Brissy, but the thing is I don’t know if they think that I’m also THEIR close friend. We may contact each other few times a week, most of the time just once or sometimes even none. So I think of them as good friends but we don’t really hang out much outside school. It makes me wonder if they think me as their close friend…

The thing about Aussie uni life, a lot of people are OKAY with eating alone, doing things alone, hanging out alone in uni. Most are Aussie people but I do see a lot of Asians eating alone as well. Sometimes I even have the urge to go up to them and talk to them, have lunch with them. Maybe I should? I guess it does reflects the western individualistic culture in Aus. Students hanging out by themselves and being totally cool with that. Of course I would rather eat with a friend than spending lunch time alone. Sometimes throughout my uni day I would not even have the chance to talk. Like Monday, it is a full day of Political Science class and I have not made a single friend from that course. WTH am I doing?

I feel like such a loner eating by myself during lunch time in the noisy cafeteria where it seems like everyone has got somebody to talk to. But when I look more closer, there will be some other “loners” having lunch by themselves. On an even more closer look, there are quite aplenty of them. Was I forcefully dragged into this sphere of individualistic culture? Yes. But when one stays in a place with a culture that is so different from your own, you WILL get sucked in.

Am I a loner or am I just Individualistic? It depends on where you come from.

I wish my social life could be so much more vibrant than just school, assignment and home.

I want to go to Korea so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!

Because I miss him so bad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bizarre Story

In my Thursday's Asian Visual Cultures lecture, we were on the topic of Western images of Asia. We watched a documentary about how this French diplomat got into a relationship with a Chinese man thinking he was a female!  They even had a kid (fake one of course)! This actually went on for 18 years. WTH. Totally OhEmGee. You can read about this funny yet bizarre story here: http://zagria.blogspot.com/2010/03/shi-pei-pu-1938-2009-opera-dancersinger.html

The point my prof was trying to make in showing us this documentary was how the westerners held such stereotypical views of Asian people- that they are petite, shy and delicate. In a way, they had feminized Asian people. Of course, the link above doesn’t really go into much details of the whole affair as much as the documentary did. The documentary we watched was of an interview of the French guy himself, so he really gave full details of his experience with Shi Pei Pu, his Chinese partner. This story was then adapted into films and plays, so if you’re interested you can search for ‘M Butterfly’. I think it’s a really interesting story and if I do find the time, I might watch M Butterfly one day.

So little time now…

I have so many things I want to blog about, to share about what I’ve learnt in my classes but right now, deadlines for assignments are catching up so all I can do is read read read and write write write. :(

No time for anything else except a little bit of FB, chatting and eating.

I doubt I’ll remember what to blog about after all these…