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Friday, November 25, 2011

Transit in SG, off to Korea!

My tolerance for the humid tropical weather in Sg has lowered drastically after experiencing almost perfect weather in Aus.

Korea. Tomorrow. Nervous and excited to see him. Scared to go to school. Looking forward to meeting my friends in Korea. Can’t wait!!

I ought to spend more time in Sg… Feeling sad that I can’t spend CNY at home but I’m going to Korea with the aim to improve my Korean by heaps to aid me in my translation thesis!! I need some motivation though… ><; 

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The scarf might not work out…

So I sort of wrapped the 3/4 completed scarf around my neck to see how it looks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look very nice because of the colour pattern!! Omg, I don’t even know if it should be worn out… I am distraught and considering not to give him this as an xmas present!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

No difference

Yesterday I sat for my one and only exam for this semester and returned all my library books, marking the end of the academic year! Even so, I don’t really feel much of a difference with before and after the end of semester, besides no deadlines to pursue and exams to think about. I still have to continue studying for Korean though, a process that can never be paused (at least for a long period of time) when it comes to acquiring a second language with the intentions of becoming fluent in that language. Adding on the fact that I’m going to Korea for 3 months of “language training” 2 weeks later, that only puts me in a semi-holiday mood.

The revision period for my exam has been a total slack as well, I watched one movie a day one week before the exam while allocating few hours for revision. So I was already in a semi-holiday mood at that time! I also completed 여인의 향기/Scent of a Woman, watched the Big Bang Theory and continued knitting the scarf for bf during revision period. ;p

IMG_1259

I’ve already gone pass the light brown colour section as seen in the photo right now. I do hope it’ll pass off as a good looking scarf… so far I’ve never seen such a colour pattern before as usually scarves have either striped or solid colours. But I didn’t have enough yarns due to the yarn sale, so I settled for this colour pattern, i.e. large sections made of different colours.

Anyway, I’ll be going back to SG next Monday! I don’t feel that excited yet… actually I’m just neutral right now. Maybe because there is still a week left or maybe I’ve gotten used to it… 

Friday, November 11, 2011

해피 빼빼로 데이~! Happy Pepero Day!

As you should know, today’s date 11/11/11 is special because of the same number for day, month and year which will happen on one day every 100 years. Some people are even claiming that if you make a wish on 11/11/11 at 11:11pm, it will definitely come true.

image

For the youths in Korea, 11/11 has always been 빼빼로 데이, Pepero Day for them and this year it seems, the digit for the year has made it even more special. Here is a brief explanation from Wikipedia:

Pepero Day is an observance in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resembles four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts. Lotte denies starting the holiday and instead states that they noticed a bump in Pepero sales around November 11th and after continued popularity they decided to then encourage the holiday with special gift boxes and other promotions. Some consider it to be a contrived holiday and some teachers have encouraged children to exchange healthy snacks to help combat obesity. An alternative "Garaetteok Day" (sticks of white tteok) has been proposed.

According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1996 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".

In Japan, a similar Pocky Day was started; however, it has failed to gain traction.

Isn’t it sweet? As some may call Seoul the underdog city of love, I do agree with that in most aspects seeing that they have Pepero Day besides White Day (Valentine’s Day) and a lot of couple matching things, even couple handphones, same brand and ringtone! To the Koreans, Christmas is another special celebratory day with their other half, not with their family as most Westerners do.

On this special day, all the more do I wish to spend it with him, my love. Alas! Our greatest challenge in this relationship has never failed to put me in more agony. But, on a positive note, I am absolutely sure that we will be able to get this through together as I eagerly wait to seeing him again (after 9 monthsㅠ) in two weeks’ time!

To all my lovely family, friends and readers, have a wonderful 11/11/11, Pepero Day~!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Korean drama, European vibe

image“If today is the last day of my life…”

I have to say, the background music used in 여인의 향기 (Scent of a Woman) makes the entire drama feels like a movie from Europe. Imagine a woman with nothing to her name in Paris, the city of love, caught in a whirlwind romance with a very handsome man. You know, she gets sweeps off her feet by him and enjoys this kind of romance she’s experiencing for the first time, savoring every bit of it. The storyline of this drama isn’t like that, but it is the kind of feeling I get from it. In this drama, perhaps it is the appreciation of life and enjoying every bit before it ends when the female protagonist founds out her that she has only 6 months to live.

There are a lot of tango, bossa nova, jazz and RnB background music used in this drama, which somehow accentuate the romantic and bittersweet atmosphere surrounding the characters. One of the dying wishes of the protagonist is to learn tango which is probably the reason for the tango vibe in the drama. However I’m guessing a large part of the tango “concept” was adapted from the old movie also titled, “Scent of a Woman”. I’ve never watched this movie before but I found that it has a tango scene with music that was also used in this drama.

The music is called "Por una cabeza" by Carlos Gardel

“Por una cabeza” is also part of 여인의 향기 OST along with several other tango music. I think it’s been long since I’ve watched a rather “mature” drama, with no quirky lead characters like Dok Go Jin (in The Greatest Love) or Cha Ji Heon (in Protect the Boss) or characters from High Kick. You know how these characters make the drama more “eccentric” while Scent of a Woman is more toned down, focusing on the bittersweet realities of life. It’s refreshing and the accompaniment of background music makes it more of an enjoyment to watch. I’m currently halfway through the series and liking every bit of it.

Last but not least, the following is one of the beautiful OSTs sang by Junsu, who made a cameo appearance in this drama!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

공주의 남자 The Princess’s Man

imageThis is one of the very few dramas that I follow so closely with the Korean broadcasting period. Usually I tend to wait until the entire drama has finish broadcasting and uploaded online, or start watching only when a few episodes have been broadcasted in Korea. Because I hate waiting, I hate how the drama will leave you hanging in suspension each week. But ‘The Princess’s Man’ was so good that I was willing to bear the torment each week as I fervently follow the Korean broadcast of two episodes each week.

The drama has managed to reel in a lot of love from its local audiences, depicting a tragic love story that parallels the widely known story of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Much more appealing is the fact that this Romeo and Juliet story is set in Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, an entirely new adaptation apart from the usual Western/European film adaptations of the star-crossed lovers.

Briefly, the story revolves around the two main characters, Lee Se Ryung and Kim Seung Yoo, who did not know that their fathers were arch enemies when they first met and gradually feel in love with each other. Following on was a series of tragedies that threatened the love between both parties. What kept me watching each week (besides Park Si Hoo dressed in hanbok) was the way they fought and persevered through those ordeals, even as tragedies of tragedies occurred such as lives of their loved ones lost and family ties severed.

imageAlso, I personally found the male actors in this drama outstanding and no I’m not being bias here. Park Si Hoo and Song Jong Ho did their parts convincingly well. Song Jong Ho managed to make me hate yet pity his character at different points of the drama, sometimes both at the same time, which I guess was what his character set out to achieve. Moon Chae Won wasn’t bad, but I can’t particularly say she was very good as I find myself looking a lot at blank expressions and wondering what she’s thinking several times throughout the series. However, both Park Si Hoo and Moon Chae Won together made themselves a seemingly genuine couple.

Good news for haters of lengthy drama, this drama is only 24 episodes long, which is short for a 사극! The casts, beautiful music and not to mention, the beautiful hanboks, make this a must-watch drama!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Excitement rolling in

Here comes November! The month when I’ll take on the last assessment of the semester, the month when I’ll head back to Singapore and the month when I’ll go to Korea! Specifically, my Korean translation exam will take place in two weeks’ time, a week later back to sg and 5 days later off to Korea. Exciting times.

I have plenty of time to study for my Korean exam, which is the reason why you see me blogging more often, watching dramas and movies more often and just taking my time with the studying process. You could say I’ve started my holiday in advance! :p This isn’t really procrastinating since I’m studying bit by bit everyday right? I just spend more of the day relaxing than studying… I know. I should change that the other way round.

This week is SWOTVAC week. I went to school today to meet professor Jung (my Korean prof  and supervisor for my honours thesis), submitted my translations to him and borrowed his Korean-English paper dictionary for my Korean translation exam. He’s so nice. When he heard that I would be going to Korea this coming vacation, he said that I could contact him and perhaps meet up in Seoul in January since he’ll be there at that period. He said that he could bring me around Seoul! It would be cool to meet him in Korea, maybe I could then introduce my bf to him, but I think the whole situation would be kind of awkward… I’d think about this.

imageAnyway, as I expected, there was a huge turn out of hardworking students cramming in the library. I felt a little guilty that I was kind of enjoying swotvac week (more like “holidays” to me), not feeling any stress and definitely not cramming. But I resolved that I would study harder when I get back home, spend more time studying in a day than watching The Big Bang Theory. Oh, that comedy sitcom is hilarious, which I supposed many of you should know since it has been very popular since 4 years ago (I am slow when it comes to American sitcoms)! I spent about 4 days finishing the first season which is pretty short and now I’m starting on the second season. But I found that you’ve got to have a certain level of knowledge in science, sci-fi stuff (e.g. movies, comics, etc) to understand some of their jokes. Nevertheless, it’s a comical sitcom that keeps my mood up when I’m feeling down.

About blogging, as you can see, I am now quite the active blogger as compared to the past year. Besides the extra time I have now, after reading a lot of blogs recently, I’ve suddenly found the motivation to blog more. I’ve also changed my blog layout to a much simpler one and have added labels to my recent posts. Comments are welcome in the comments section after each individual posts. I’d be adding a profile page soon… hopefully.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

동이 Dong-yi

I’ve finally finish watching 동이 (Dong-yi), a 60-episode Korean historical drama about the life of a King’s mother. The drama depicted how Dong-yi, with her kindness and intelligence, raised from being a lowly water maid in the palace to being King Sukjong’s concubine. In the drama, Dong-yi faced numerous adversities as she gradually gained power in the palace, yet all along she stayed true to herself. Her selfless-ness portrayed in the drama (as with so many others) could sometimes seem unrealistic to me because she appeared too kind and selfless, leading me to think if such a selfless person like her really exists in the world today. Probably a thought that stemmed from the absence of such value in myself but then again, it’s a drama which meant a lot of things are dramatized.
Fan-made mv depicting the love between King Sukjong and Dong-yi.

I’m a fool for love stories especially the ones between unlikely couples which in this case, a 천민 (cheonmin, lowest class of people) and a King. Despite the struggles faced by Dong-yi as part of the main storyline, the drama still managed to stay focused on the emotional bonds between the characters, especially between Dong-yi and the King, and the brotherly love between the Crown prince and Prince Yeoning.
imageFor a lengthy 사극, the story can be quite draggy and unfortunately, Dong-yi has also fallen victim to draggy storylines. From the few 사극 I have watched, there is always the typical storyline and I like to label them as “battle no. 1”, “battle no. 2” and so on, depending on how lengthy the drama can get. These fights are between the group of protagonists and antagonists, with several rounds throughout the drama. The protagonists might win the first round, but the antagonists would take the lead in the second, but ultimately it usually ends with the protagonists winning, unless they have a tragic ending in real historical records. In Dong-yi, I felt there is quite a never-ending of “battles” for Dong-yi until the very 2nd or last episode. Although these battles might be gripping, it’s personally quite tiresome to have to keep following them. Overall the storyline was good and it is definitely worth watching (almost) all 60 episodes!