Delightful 김치

Lunar New Year in Korea

2012-01-27T18:23:00.001+10:00

Lunar New Year has always been my favourite holiday of the year as I get to spend a lot of time with my family and relatives. I get to meet the relatives whom I get to see only once a year during that time and we always gathered to play games, make fun of each other and catch up on each others’ lives. This year though, being in Korea, was the first time I spent new year away from home.

I got to experience how Koreans celebrate lunar new year when I made a trip down to Daegu with my bf to visit his family. It was my second time meeting his family so I wasn’t as nervous and I felt much more comfortable while I stayed at his home.

Before LNY, my Korean class actually had two chapters that covered the customs of Koreans when it comes to celebrating LNY. So I basically had the knowledge of their customs but really experiencing it was another thing.

Just like Singapore, Korea has two days of LNY holidays, 23rd and 24th of Jan this year. Bf and I stayed at his home from 20th to 24th Jan but we had to leave for Seoul on 24th Jan so we only celebrated LNY on the very first day.

On the morning of 23rd Jan, the first day of the lunar calendar (설날, new year, 初一) bf’s family and I woke up earlier than usual. The men had to wear formal suits for the ancestor ritual (차례) which is usually done on every major festivals such as New Year and Thanksgiving Day (추석 aka Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival). Thus, in the morning, bf’s family and I headed to his grandparents’ house (5mins walk away from their home) where most of his paternal relatives have gathered. Before having breakfast, the men of the family would pay respects to the ancestors. The altar is a table filled with all kinds of food prepared by the women of the family, along with a tablet with Chinese characters (I assume that represents the ancestors of their family). The ritual lasted for only 5-10mins.

After the ritual, the women got down to preparing breakfast while the men sat together for a drink of the wine they offered to their ancestors. I didn’t have to do anything although I am a woman because I’m not part of the family and was a guest so they kindly offered me a cup of the wine. After that, when breakfast was ready, the men sat around to have breakfast while the women continued with their food preparations. Women of the family are the busiest on such huge festivals as they have to prepare a lot of food for the ancestor ritual and for a large number of family members since they have all gathered. As for the men? They sit around, watching TV, talking and just eat. Such is the life of a conservative Korean family. If I were to marry Bf… I wonder if I can take on such a traditional role of a woman… … …

Anyways after breakfast, the men proceeded to visit another relatives’ house while I stayed behind with the women, who rested, watched TV and napped while waiting for the men to come back. Bf’s grandparents live in a traditional house, a very very humbled version of hanok so I basically sat on the floor the whole day. I watched TV and ate the whole day, all done sitting on the floor. My whole body was aching by the end of the day… ><

Just like Singapore, Koreans have their owns games played during LNY. The most popular Korean card game is called Hwatu. I’ve learnt it from Bf more than a year ago when he was in Australia and have never played it after that so I’ve sort of forgotten most of the rules. However, Bf’s family didn’t play any games at that time so it was quite a quiet new year’s day for me. This compared to the new year spent in Singapore where it’s always crowded and noisy for my family.

Spending LNY the Korean way was a new experience for me and it was good meeting bf’s relatives. However, I still prefer Singapore’s style of celebrating LNY, the noisy way, from the chattering of the aunties/uncles, shouting during gambling and all the RED-ness.

Classes made more interesting

2012-01-19T18:48:00.001+10:00

For the last two days we had interesting activities replacing our normal study period. We had a class dedicated to ‘Arirang’, a popular Korean folk song that actually has numerous versions from different provinces around Korea. The most popular one would be the 경기아리랑, Kyeong-gi Arirang, the one which K-pop singers would sing at the end of a major K-pop concert. Well, that’s the only reference I can give based on my own experience with the song… Okay, a video should be way much better:

On that day, KLEI invited a couple of Korean students majoring in Korean traditional music to perform arirang for us during our last period of class. They attempted to teach us but the response was a little lacklustre. All 4 morning classes of level 4 gathered but our voices cannot be compared to the main singer who came to perform for us. Still, it was an interesting experience and after hearing the word ‘arirang’ so many times, I finally learnt more about its origins and meaning.

The next day, we actually had to put up a play of an old Korean folk tale about ‘흥부와 놀부’ aka the Heung-bu and nol-bu brothers. The story is about how the kind brother received good fortune while the evil brother was punished for his misdeeds. I played Heung-bu’s wife and had to put on a hanbok for it. It was actually more fun than I expected. ^^ Luckily we only had to perform in front of just ONE other class instead of the entire level 4.

I think it’s great that KLEI has such classroom activities that involves a deeper understanding of Korean culture and at the same time, enhances our Korean language ability! I wish UQ’s Korean major could organize such activities when I took Korean classes in UQ. Okay, actually UQ’s Korean major cannot be compared to the Korean classes that I’m having now. In 10 weeks, I can actually learn so much and for that amount it probably will take me a year to learn in UQ. The learning pace in UQ’s Korean major is not only insanely slow, the teaching standard is not that great as well. Okay, maybe I should stop defaming the Korean major in UQ… or leave it for another blog post next time!

Already halfway through my stay in Korea

2012-01-10T22:24:00.001+10:00

5 weeks have past since I began studying at the Korean language education institute in SNU. We have even taken the mid-sem exams last week. I did pretty well for the exams even though I studied last minute… something which I hope won’t happen again during the final exam as I’m going to aim for an even higher score!

From my exams, I realised my weakest point is my Korean listening skills. Somehow my listening skills aren’t always the best even with English and Chinese. I remember that I don’t do very well for my listening tests when I’m in primary school. So from now on, I’m going to make myself listen to Korean radio everyday. I actually have two Korean radio channels i listen to occasionally:

1) Park So Hyun’s Love Game

2) Super Junior’s Kiss the Radio – Has an iphone app which you can listen and watch them live while they’re on air! :)

I am absolutely loving the life I’m living right now in Seoul, enjoying every moment, even when I’m in class, even when I’m studying! The past 5 weeks in Seoul couldn’t beat the 2 and a half years I spent in Aus even though life in Aus has been great fun. Here in Korea, I get to spend a lot of time with bf, Korean lessons are interesting (not always but most of the time), and I get to use Korean everyday and everywhere I go! I feel much more confident using Korean right now.

The only downside is that I’m not making Korean friends in Korea because I’m studying in a Korean language institute so there is minimal chance of meeting other Korean students. Luckily, I made Korean friends while in Aus and have met a couple of them since I came to Korea. One of them, 수빈언니 (Subin unnie) has invited me and bf to her house for dinner tomorrow! She has been so nice to me, providing me places of interest to visit in Seoul, many of which are not the usual tourist spot but she highly recommends them.

The weather in Seoul is freezing but it isn’t as cold as last year. 5 weeks in Winter Seoul, I’ve probably become used to the weather already. Every morning, I make sure to wear enough before stepping out of the house. In the past, even though I know it’s cold I thought I would be able to tolerate the cold, so I wear a knit sweater and a winter coat on the outside. But that’s actually not enough especially when it gets below 0dc. Two layers underneath is the least that one should wear not to feel COLD (like trembling cold) outside.

Right now, I just have to make the best of what Seoul can offer me and spend the next 5 weeks working hard towards improving my Korean even more.

Last post for 2011!!

2011-12-31T23:24:00.001+10:00

Yes, this blog is lack of updates but here I am making the last post for 2011 before it ends! Summing up the most significant events that took place in 2011:

1) Graduated with a (regular) Bachelor of Arts.

2) Starting and completed one semester of Honours in Korean.

3) Came to Korea twice, once at the end of 2010 that stretched over to 2011 and right now, at the end of 2011.

4) Met Bf’s family and friends while he met mine in SG (beginning of the year).

5) Embarked on a language course in Korea and leaving the life like a Korean!

There were lots of ups and downs during the past year but these events have made 2011 a memorable year to look back on. I am pretty sure 2012 will be quite a ride be it good or bad because it’s my graduation year. Who knows what lies ahead in 2012?

Oh and remember the movie ‘2012’ and all that prophecies about 2012? I don’t believe them but I can’t wait to laugh at the movie and prophecies… ;p

Have a happy new year and a great 2012 ahead, everyone!

Korean classes so far…

2011-12-17T14:09:00.001+10:00

2 weeks have past since the start of my Korean classes in SNU’s KLEI (Korean Language Education Institute). I’m studying at level 4 at the moment, a level that starts to focus more on more difficult grammar that are usually used in news, reports, books, radios and dramas, i.e. not as conversational as the past 3 levels.

My textbook, practice book and notebooks.

Classes start from 9am to 1pm, a schedule that is totally different from my uni timetable in Aus for the past year. Usually 9am or later is my wake-up time in Aus since my earliest classes start only at 10am. However, in Korea, I made it a point to sleep early so that I can wake up early and not feel all sleepy and drowsy during class. I adjusted to the early timings easier than expected!

As mentioned before, we have three teachers teaching our class and I’m still not too fond of this idea. Each teacher has their own style of teaching, that is, while one teacher explains the new vocab words in great details, the other may not, and while one teacher may choose to finish teaching all the grammar points before moving onto the practice book, another may go through each point with the practice book. Of course it’s not that of a big deal, but as a student I prefer one or at most two teachers so that I don’t have to switch “learning modes” almost everyday.

In regards to how well the teachers teach, two out of three teachers can explain vocabs and grammar points pretty well while it takes a bit of an effort to understand what the third teacher is trying to explain. Overall, all the teachers are nice and approachable, one of them knows I’m a DBSK fan while the other likes to put on Korean music during our class breaks!

My class isn’t the most exciting bunch, I’d say it’s a very quiet class. My classmates don’t really mix around with each other A LOT. We do chat during short breaks, but during the longer break, most of them would look for their friends in the other classes or do their own things. I tend to chat with the classmates sitting beside me, go out and buy food together during breaks, but after class we just go our separate ways. And I’d go for lunch with MK, the only classmate who I’d hang out with after class. The other classmates are JUST classmates because they already have their own circle of friends from the previous levels.

However, I’m enjoying my classes and wish that they could be extended to more than 4 hours! Sometimes, we have interesting learning resources like Korean movies and advertisements shown during class. I heard that the popular sitcom, High Kick 2 will be shown later during the semester! ^^

Greetings from Seoul!

2011-12-08T17:49:00.001+10:00

Here’s a brief outline of what I did during my first week in Seoul:

Spent most of the time with my BF (more later).
Packed and tidied (just a little since bf did some cleaning before) the studio unit (원룸/ one room) where I’ll be staying for the 2.5months here.
Went to e-mart to get daily necessities, e.g detergent, toilet rolls, hangers, food, etc…
Went to FT Island’s Encore Concert in Seoul!

Met up with Gabby (friend from UQ).
Find my way to Seoul National Uni (SNU) and the building where I’ll be attending my classes. I’m staying two subway stops away from SNU but there are buses that go to SNU from the area where I’m staying so it only takes me ~25mins in total to get to school, i.e. from my unit’s door step to classroom. ^^
Did not do much tourist-y stuff, but explored certain areas like Shillim (신림) which is where I’m staying, and around Ehwa Women’s Uni (이대).
Took my Korean placement test that determined which level I should attend. The test consisted both writing and speaking segments. I was placed in level 4 (6 levels altogether), where I will learn more advanced Korean mostly found in news, radio, novels, etc. I actually predicted that I’ll get into level 4 because I’ve seen SNU’s older version of level 3 textbook and I’ve learnt most of the contents before.
Went for Korean Wave Concert in Yong Pyong Resort with Gabby!

남친과의 만남~

The first 8 days were well-spent with bf who I haven’t seen for 9 months. So the list above was all done with him. When I first saw him in Incheon airport, I was very happy but at the same time, I felt SOOO awkward. I felt both familiar and foreign at that time… We saw each other quite often through the webcam but it’s still very different when you see each other in person. The awkwardness just engulfed me at that moment! >< But he who is always so easy-going helped me overcome the awkwardness quickly. ^^ Although we haven’t meet for 9 months, I felt that we have definitely become closer. Constant communication throughout the separation period is very important!

His uni term hasn’t ended so he travelled back and fro from Cheon-an to Seoul a couple of days last week. We spent time together doing the usual couple stuff that we couldn’t do when we were separated, like watching movies, going to cafes and going to 노래방(noraebang/ karaoke). To us, these were such valuable moments together… From this week until the next, he will spend most of the time in his Uni due to the exams period, so I will be alone!!

한국어 수업이 시작했다.

However, Korean classes have started this week, so I don’t feel that lonely! So far, I’m loving my classes because I’m learning more difficult grammar, vocab, and the teachers are nice! I’m not sure how the other Language institutes work, but I find it weird that our teachers change on certain days, so we have 3 teachers teaching our class. Mon/Fri= one teacher, Tues= one teacher, Wed/Thurs= one teacher. That means we have to sort of switch modes to accommodate to each teacher since they have different styles of teaching.

Classmates were distant at first because most of them knew each other before since they advanced from the previous level while I was new in SNU. But I’ve made friends with an American born Korean (named MK) who is attending SNU for the first time as well, and right now gradually with the rest of my classmates. ^^

I’ll blog more about my class next time! Here are some photos to make you salivate!! LOL.

Forgot the name of this dish.

쪽발~ ♥ Pig’s leg

닭발~!! Finally I got to eat chicken leg, cooked the Korean way! This was actually delivered to our unit. You can’t imagine the types of food available for delivery! Korean delivery services are 짱~!!

Closer look. It’s veryyyyyyyy spicy! For Korean style chicken leg, you don’t have to eat and spit out the bones. Most of the inedible bones have been removed, so you can eat comfortably without having to spit out the small tiny bones like we have to when we eat chicken legs in Sg.

Transit in SG, off to Korea!

2011-11-25T19:27:00.001+10:00

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… ><;

The scarf might not work out…

2011-11-17T12:21:00.001+10:00

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!

No difference

2011-11-15T14:33:00.001+10:00

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

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…

해피 빼빼로 데이~! Happy Pepero Day!

2011-11-11T13:42:00.001+10:00

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.

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~!

Korean drama, European vibe

2011-11-08T13:14:00.001+10:00

“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!

공주의 남자 The Princess’s Man

2011-11-03T16:38:00.001+10:00

This 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.

Also, 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!

Excitement rolling in

2011-11-02T18:08:00.001+10:00

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.

Anyway, 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.

동이 Dong-yi

2011-11-01T19:50:00.003+10:00

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.

For 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!

Knitting for beginners

2011-10-26T23:15:00.003+10:00

Before I start on the topic of knitting, I just wanted to announce that all my classes for this semester have officially ended!! I had my last class today and I felt a load of weight lifted off my back! It felt soooo good! But the last class had me a little worried about my next semester, about what I’m going to face. A little scared. Of course, I don’t really have to think about that for now… So I’m just gonna shove that to the back of my head for the time being! :)

So, knitting! That’s what I have been up to ever since I finished my last assignment. I am actually working on a project (that’s how knitters call their knit work in-progress) right now, a secret one, not from my blog readers but my bf! Sadly, (or fortunately?) he does not read my blog. Actually in most ways, it’s good because then I can blog about more things, like this post, and rave about my idols as much as I want! He can get a little jealous when it comes to idols. :P Anyway, as I mentioned, I’m knitting something for him right now as a Christmas gift!

Take a look at my stash and how my current project looks like:

Can you guess what I’m making? I can’t remember if I ever mentioned before in my previous posts about this… but in any case, it’s quite obvious what I’m making from the way my work is turning out. I’m making him a scarf! I know it’s an easy project but I just learnt knitting in July and I didn’t have the time to further my skills during the semester, so I’m starting easy!

For me, learning how to knit has been a fun and easy process, no thanks to Youtube! There are a gazillion of videos on knitting, from the most basics to advance levels! It’s outrageously easy for anyone to pick up knitting! As long as you have the right “tools” and materials, you can learn all the basics in a day. Before I really got down to starting the knitting process for the very first time, I searched and read about it on the internet. The “getting started” is probably the most important part that every beginner has to know about before going out there to buy your needles and yarn. Personally, I find Knitting Tips by Judy a very helpful guide on the starting process as she explains about the types of needles and yarns out there, as well as the best needles to start with for beginners. In addition, the website has an accompanying youtube account which was like a bible to me throughout my learning process. Judy’s youtube account is fantastic for first-timers as her demonstrations are clear and easy to follow, as compared to other youtubers. Also, her account covers a whole range of stitch patterns, tips and advise for the type of project to embark on.

Before I started on my project, I practiced a lot like what Judy has advised in her videos. I spent a lot of my July semester break on practicing- learn a new stitch, practice…, learn another new stitch and practice again. Because knitting is all about repeating the process, but if you don’t practice you’ll make mistakes often while working on a project and you wouldn’t want to re-do something after working on it for so long.

Right now, I’m still quite the beginner and I have ran into several mistakes when I embarked on this project which is my first one ever. When I first started and successfully decided on the type of yarn I was going to use, I thought that just using the needle size as suggested on the yarn label is right.

As seen here, the needle size suggested is 4.00mm/8UK/6US (all the same, they use different measuring systems). When I bought that needle size and started knitting, I found that the stitches were small and tension was really tight for a scarf. I think I’d probably take several months to finish this but I need to finish it by Christmas! So I went back to the store, hoping to find a large type of yarn but sadly, Lindcraft was having a clearance sale of yarns, which was good and bad. I could get the yarns at half the price but a lot of the thicker and better yarns were gone. However, as I was browsing through the shelves, I chanced upon a knit magazine specially for the brand of yarn I bought. There were different types of projects in there and of course, scarves for men too! I read through them and realised that I didn’t have to use 4.00mm needles and that a scarf for my yarn needs a 4.50mm needle size for the right tension- not too tight or loose! And yes, the needle size was way easier to knit as it wasn’t as tight as before.

As for the colour of the scarf, I wanted to knit everything in the navy blue but I only managed to buy 4 yarn balls before all of the same colour sold out! So I had no choice but to mix colours so that the scarf will come out long enough. It’s just a pity Lindcraft does not have a great variety of THICK yarns although their range of thin yarns is rather impressive. Winter in Korea requires THICK yarns which understandably something which Brissy doesn’t really need. So I have to settle with something thinner.

Right now, I’m enjoying the knitting process. It gets very addictive and you don’t really feel like stopping once you knit a large part of it (like where I’ve stopped in the photo above). The best thing is, I save time but knitting while I watch my Korean dramas. Ain’t that just perfect? :) I think I’ve found myself a new hobby!

FT Island, once again!

2011-10-25T23:51:00.003+10:00

Guess who’s going to see them for the 4th time?! That’s right, I’m going to FT Island’s concert next month on my 2nd night in Korea! I just bought the tickets off the ticket site: Interpark, which thankfully has English version for international fans! That means a Korean ID is not needed for buying tickets! :)

This time, I’m going to attend a concert in their home country! AND bf (I’ve decided not to address him as “A” here because it can be kind of confusing at times) will be coming along as well. Haha, I don’t know how crazy I will become when I see FTI with bf beside me. o.o;;; I tend to be FREAKING crazy and let my hair loose in concerts… Not sure if I want him to see that. X)

The last time I saw FTI was in Thailand during their Asia Tour Concert, Feb 2010! Can’t believe I’m going to see them again. This is too surreal.

FT Island's song, "Like Birds" from their recent album, Memory in FT Island.

사극 (史劇)

2011-10-24T18:25:00.003+10:00

사극 (sa-geuk) means historical drama. I realised my love for 사극 has almost completely replaced Korean dramas with modern settings. Whenever a new 사극 is released I find myself looking forward to watching it with more enthusiasm than other dramas on my must-watch list. To me, one of the most appealing aspects of 사극 is the protagonists’ abilities to solve different kinds of problems without the presence of modern technology, i.e. computers, mobile phones, cars, etc. I know that THAT IS what 사극 is about and THAT’S just the appealing point! In our age and time, the issues that people faced at that time could easily be solved with modern technology. But it amazes me how people of that era employ tactics and strategies to work their way around things, solving puzzles and mysteries without the use of modern technology.

Another appealing aspect of 사극 is the rich cultural content vividly displayed on-screen, the historical cultural roots that characterised today’s Korean society (or Chinese or Japanese, because this applies to their historical dramas as well). The historical and cultural roots flamboyantly displayed in these dramas are also the reasons why they are well received in the home country- the traditional clothes (hanbok), the houses, the lifestyle they led and so on. Even as a foreigner, I find the hanbok so beautiful and appealing. In addition, it’s an entertaining way to learn Korean history! It’s through the drams did I learn a lot about the Shilla and Joseon dynasty.

One of my Korean friends admitted that Korea makes awesome 사극 and I agreed.

Although I’ve watched 대장금 (dae-jang-geum/da-chang-jin) on TV, I didn’t really follow the entire drama, just bits and pieces. If I remember correctly, 일지매 (il-ji-mae) was the first 사극 I completed. The reason was because Lee Junki starred in it so I watched it even though I wasn’t too attracted to the idea of watching a 사극 drama at first. But the storyline kept me hooked besides the fact that Lee Junki’s acting was top-notch.

After that, my second 사극 was probably 이산 (yi-san), the one with 77 episode starring Lee Seo Jin. The storyline was so good- a mix of treachery, betrayal, love and action! This is probably the drama that made me look at 사극 in a whole new way. That 사극 surpass modern Korean dramas in so many ways! Oh my god, one of the best dramas I’ve ever watched! Or so I thought before I watched 선덕여왕 (Queen Seon-deok). I did a drama review (more like a drama rave) post before so I will not go into much details but if anyone is looking for a 사극 to start on, watch Queen Seon-deok (62 episodes), one of the most epic drama ever. It’s amazing to watch a female ruler rise to power in the country that will later be gripped by Confucius values, pushing the status of women to the lowest ever during the Joseon dynasty.

If you’re looking to watch a shorter 사극, try 공주의 남자 (The Princess’s Man) that recently ended in Korea at 24 episodes, a Joseon Romeo and Juliet love story that will keep you captivated throughout!

선덕여왕 (Queen Seon-Deok)

공주의 남자 (The Princess’s Man)

It’s a pity 사극 aren’t receiving as much love as the other modern Korean dramas internationally. Well, sometimes the length may be quite a turn off (even to me!), but what makes the story is the development of storyline and characters that go with it.

I am currently watching 동이 (dong-yi), which I had stopped for awhile due to assignments, and starting on 뿌리 깊은 나무 (Tree with deep roots).

Does “weird” even exists in Star Wars?

2011-10-23T19:05:00.001+10:00

So I’ve been watching the Star Wars saga recently, from episode 1 to episode 5 where I’m at now (there are six movies altogether if you didn’t know). Even after 5 movies, it still perturbed me whenever I see aliens and humans interacting and even living together in the movie.

I know it’s all fiction, but after watching episode II I thought about why the Queens of Naboo (name of planet in Star Wars) are required to paint their faces entirely white. It’s that some kind of make-up only for the Queens? I thought that was kind of weird. But then again, if that is weird, what about the other species (aliens) with three eyes, horns, and so on? Of course they are weird from our point of view (in reality) but what about the “world” in Star Wars? I just wondered how do they even define “weird” or “strange” if there are all sorts of creatures living together, even appearing to share similar cultures! Does the word, “weird”, even exists in their world? Maybe not.

Korean study vacation confirmed!

2011-10-15T23:12:00.001+10:00

If you guys saw my recent facebook status, you would know that my coming “vacation” will be spent in Korea! Vacation with quotes because I’m going to study Korean for 2.5months, so I don’t really have a break… I’m not complaining since I wanted to go on my own accord. Of course, being in Korea with A, I’ll definitely play as well, that’s why I wrote Korean study vacation as my title! heee.

I’ve already booked my flight and paid for the course fees, so it’s a 100% confirm! I’m really excited because this time I have to be more independent in Korea which is GOOD so that I can know my way around Seoul, travelling on my own, buying my own stuff, and so on! Previously when I spent a month in Korea, I depended SOOOOO MUCH on A. Even when I was shopping for girly stuff, I had him to speak to the salesperson for me, everything was done by him! I want to learn how to live in Korea! I want to live in Korea like how I’m living in Aus right now! Of course, with the language barrier, everything will be so much more difficult but it will not only strengthen my independence, my Korean abilities will improve as well! Hopefully!

There’s just 1 thing which I feel regretful about, that is spending time with my family and friends in SG. Especially the special time of the year- CNY! It will be the first time I won’t be able to spend CNY with my family which sucks! My favourite time of the year has always been CNY, seriously. I won’t deny that dressing up in new clothes makes a big part of it, lol. But it’s the only time when I can see long-distance relatives… I’m just curious about how they’re doing, how much have they changed since a year ago, are they still the same… things like that. And it’s the good feeling of spending the start of the new year with the family that makes the occasion even more special. OH YES, the HONG BAOS as well!! As a jobless, young, unmarried person that’s my yearly income! :P

On the bright side, I’m probably going to spend CNY with A and his family! If you didn’t know, Koreans do have Lunar New Year as well and they also spend it together with their family. I’ll definitely be looking forward to that! :)

Potential Plan For Upcoming Semester Break

2011-09-24T12:52:00.003+10:00

What a frustrating day I had yesterday!

Okay, firstly it has got something to do with my application for the Korean language program in Seoul National University. My passport, certificate and academic transcripts were needed as part of the application so I had to go to school to scan them since I don’t have a scanner. The scanner in school was the huge multi-purpose photocopying machine in which you can photocopy, scan and print. I had such a hard time scanning the documents because once I scan them, they will be saved into my usb but then I can’t see if they were scanned properly. The only way is to get a computer and check the images. After scanning all my documents the first time, I went to check them on the computer and realised only 3/4 of each document were scanned properly. So I had to go back…. This happened a few times, so I made many trips back and forth- scanning and then finding a computer…. It was so frustrating!

I knew it was the problem of aligning the documents properly so the machine could scan the entire doc. But the first time I did it, it was properly aligned and it turned out only 3/4 of the docs were scanned. After so many attempts, I finally got them properly scanned. Frustrating!

Anyway, I manage to apply for the program yesterday. It was quite a hustle because I had to sign in, register, etc… AND I had to upload a photo of myself onto my profile page which I presume an official resume kind of photo was needed, but damn I didn’t have such a photo. Thus, in my desperation I went to Facebook and find a photo of myself, download it and crop it. Haha… Well, I have no choice!

For the Korean language program, if I manage to get accepted, I will be there for at least ten weeks because that is how long the program will take. That means I will be there for most of my holidays…!! I cannot even celebrate Chinese New Year at home… It took me some time to think about applying because of these aspects and more, but I really hope to fast track my learning progress for my own abilities and for the translation thesis I’m doing right now. There is also the matter of my speaking ability which has not seen much progress… Even though I may have a Korean boyfriend, his English is better than my Korean, so I end up speaking English to him when I can’t express myself in Korean. That’s something which will NOT help in my speaking abilities because I have to push myself in speaking Korean if I want to get better. I’m sure my speaking abilities and confidence will improve heaps when I study in Korea.

Skip spring and move on to summer instead!

2011-09-19T23:02:00.001+10:00

Typical weather of Brisbane… From winter, skip spring and bring in summer instead. The temperature heated up to 33dc yesterday, bringing in serious bushfires around Queensland causing the entire city to be engulfed in haze today. Well, I’m not sure about the city but suburban areas and UQ were definitely affected.

Surprisingly, I was not really use to wearing summer clothes again today. Especially exposing my legs without stockings and jeans… maybe after all the time my legs were hidden under the long pants and stockings, it was weird looking at them bare. haha. >.< But it felt good to be wearing summer clothes, lighter and less clothes, more comfy!

Although the sun can be blazingly hot, unlike the humidity in SG, Aus weather is much drier so I don’t feel as sticky. The good sides of Aussie weather~ minus the blazing hot sun. ;)

I just hope the weather won’t go overboard before I head back to SG. On that, the future is quite bleak….

Already half-way through the semester.

2011-09-05T18:04:00.001+10:00

As the title says, September is here, I’m halfway through the first semester of honours. A very very overwhelming first half and I doubt that will change for the rest of the semester! Although overwhelming, I find myself absorbed into a quicker pace for learning Korean, because I have to do translations which are, sad to say, most of the time beyond my abilities. It is saddening and stressful at times, but I get to learn a lot of things along the way, practicing and hopefully, advancing my Korean abilities. I try not to let stress get in my way and positively take up the challenges as this is the only way to improve!

One of the greatest challenges I’m facing right now is having to translate a Korean novel for my translation thesis (for my honours, lazy to elaborate right now).

Yes, I have this novel! It’s called <우리들의 행복한 시간> AKA “Our Happy Times".

A gave it to me last year when he was still in Brisbane! :D I tried to read it last year but it was soooo difficult that I gave up after a couple of pages. Haha. Now I have to face it because it’s going to be part of my translation thesis wherein I have to translate about 15,000words of it. I chose this on my own accord, of course. It has also been adapted into a movie, which some of you may be familiar with:

Kang Dong Won!! Hehehe.

I haven’t get down to watching it yet but I will do it very soon. A told me that the contents in the movie should be almost the same as the book’s.

The thing about translation is I have to be good in Korean and even better in English. I may be translating something but I am also writing it in English, and it has to be at a novelist level since it is going to be treated as an English novel. This is another aspect which I’m struggling with- WRITING IN ENGLISH! WRITING. WRITING A NOVEL. Sad to say, I’m not very good at writing and I think this is an area which I have to work on as well.

There are too many things to work on……

(MUST-READ) My translation of a news article in relations to A’s achievement!!!

2011-08-17T18:33:00.005+10:00

KUT, two students awarded with the Director’s Award at the Campus Patent Strategy Universiade.
Ranked 6th among 89 Universities in the Pre-existing Techniques Investigation segment.
Students from the Korea University of Technology and Education (hereinafter referred to as KUT) were awarded with 2 Patent Director’s Award, 1 excellence award and 1 participation award in the Pre-existing Techniques Investigation segment at the 2011 Campus Patent Strategy Universiade Competition.
In this competition, KUT students Choi Sang-Jin (3^rd year in the school of Mechatronics Engineering) and Yoo Seung-Mok (4^th year in the school of Energy, Materials and Chemical Engineering) were awarded with the Patent Director’s Award, while Kim Dong-Ha (4^th year in the school of Mechanical Engineering) and Lee Byung-Cheol(3^rd year in the school of Mechatronics Engineering) were awarded with the excellence and participation award respectively.
The competition, divided into the segments of Pre-existing Techniques Investigation and Patent Strategy Groundwork, had large companies lay down questions in the areas of power/electronics, shipbuilding/mechanical/metal and chemistry/biotechnology. It comprised of patent strategies, in accordance to the questions set, proposed by undergraduates, post-graduates and their advisors.
In the Pre-existing Techniques Investigation segment, a total of 2393 students from 89 universities nationwide entered this year’s competition. They then submitted their answers to 29 questions, wherein 1153 students passed the writing evaluation. After which a total of 169 students passed the presentation round and advanced to the finals where students Choi Sang Jin, Yoo Seung Mok and Kim Dong Ha were awarded accordingly.
Although KUT, producing 4 winners in this competition, ranked 6^th place after Kyonggi University (12 winners), Chungnam National University(10 winners), Inha University(8 winners), Yonsei University(6 winners) and Kumoh National Institute of Technology(5 winners), the institute was praised for having 2 winners awarded with the Patent Director’s Award through the achievement of excellent results.
Park Keom Jin, the technology support team leader, said, “From last December, over a period of 10 weeks, there was progress for more than 40 student patent representatives that extended over patent concepts, law in relation to patents, methods of invention, ways of searching pre-existing patent information and lessons from visiting professionals. The students’ responses were extremely good.” (t/n: Not too sure about the translation for this paragraph. ^^’’ )
Yoo Seung Mok and Choi Sang Jin who received the Patent Director’s Awards revealed, “Since last summer vacation, we attended lectures about Patents during our spare time and familiarised ourselves with the basic concepts. Until the competition in May, we prepared for it diligently with the help of Patent lectures and visiting instructors.” They added, “In order to solve the problems, we always consider them through the stance of the companies, and that helped us a lot.”

Patent Director’s Award- Choi Sang Jin, Patent Director’s Award- Yoo Seung Mok, Excellence Award- Kim Dong Ha.
Original article from: 충청일보

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bolded name, Yoo Seung Mok, is A's Korean name. ;)

OMG, it took me ages to translate this article. Actually I’ve been practising translation for the past few weeks on shorter articles and this was the longest I’ve ever did. Of course I HAD to translate this, it’s about A’s achievement in the recent Patent competition he participated in.

Last week I posted on my facebook status about his photo appearing on naver.com, it is because of this article! :) There were several other shorter news articles and I heard the article was published in the newspapers too! But since this was the first one listed on Naver with his photo included, I chose to translate this article! It’s just mediocre translation as there are certain parts which I’m not too sure of but I try to make the article sound coherent and logical.
Anyway, I am SO SO SO proud of him! ^^The award he won, the Patent Director’s Award, was the second prize after the Minister’s Award (1st prize). There was prize money and it is quite a lot! He said that his school even made some sort of a banner (with the photos above) that showed off their achievement.
This sure reflects how hardworking and diligent a student he is… ㅠ.ㅠ He’s my role model…

New semester, honours year… Tougher than I thought

2011-08-08T21:09:00.001+10:00

It’s already the third week into the 1st semester of my honours year. There is definitely a level of intensity that is beyond the normal undergrad level. Because I’ve taken the challenge to do a translation thesis, it requires high proficiency of the Korean language. Right now, I’m trying to improve my proficiency level and at the same time practice doing translations which can be immensely challenging. But I welcome the challenge as it is always better than it not being a challenge. At least I will learn something out of it.

These days though, I feel a bit of a motivational-drain… I want to study, but I keep getting distracted by things and by the end of the day my to-do list will always be incomplete. That is very annoying and it kills my motivation even more. But oh well, I just have to keep fighting…!!

Sometimes I feel that I can be a little too ambitious too, wanting to be fluent in Korean in an instant and then getting frustrated when I realise my Korean isn’t as good as I want it to be. I want to really sit down and mug, just like a Korean high school student –studying 20 hours or so a day. LOL. Okay that’s too intense for me, I still need to cook, do laundry, clean, wash, ~~drink bubble tea~~, etc… Hehe. But I’ve done quite a fair bit of studying when it’s only the third week. I just feel that I need to study even MORE. Yeap, I need to but knowing me, I get distracted so easily.

I realised that in the recent months, I’ve absolutely no inspiration or (the word again) motivation to blog about anything…….. When I look at my blog, I’ll go “ok I’ll blog another time” and it’s the same all the time until now. One thing is I guess I can easily pour out my feelings through twitter, in an instant! Also, right now I feel that I need to put more effort into blogging well, language wise. Write well to improve my writing skills… that thought alone sort of kills my motivation by 80% already. LOL. And this blog post is like… almost close to effortless because I don’t want to care anymore…. I need to revive this blog!! ><;;

끝.

Winter Break is coming to an end

2011-07-22T00:07:00.001+10:00

Winter break is coming to an end soon! I’m actually more happy than sad because it’s going to be a whole year of intensive Korean language!! I’ve been revising my Korean during the holidays, although not as much as I wanted due to the holiday mood I have. I still have so much to study but I’m only left with a weekend before the new semester starts! But I find myself actually quite disciplined in revising my Korean, it’s the passion I guess! hee~ ;p

Besides studying, I’ve been enriching myself with skills and knowledge! Utilizing the time I had, I started learning how to…

KNIT! :) The photo shows a practice patch I knitted out while learning how to knit two colours together. I haven’t knitted out anything useable so far as I’m still practicing. There are so many different kinds of pattern stitches to knit and each pattern requires a different method of knitting. But I’m taking it slow as I have a lot of time before December comes!

And today I FINALLY got down to making the Korean sushi, Kimbab! I’ve wanted to make kimbab for so long but was too lazy to find out which Korean mart has the ingredients I need as not all Korean marts have kimbab ingredients!

For a first attempt, it’s quite successful although I need more practice with rolling the kimbab! ;p

It’s been quite a purposeful holiday, travelling with sister and cousin, studying, reading, knitting, cooking, hanging out with friends and saying goodbye to some. Soon I’m going to embark on my honours year!! OMG excited.

Semester 1, 2011.

2011-07-10T23:58:00.001+10:00

Results for sem 1, 2011 were released few days ago and as I expected, my results were not on par with the previous semesters’. Definitely no Dean’s list this semester!

Can’t say I’m not disappointed because I expected at least one 7 for either MSTU or POLS. But I also expected to see a 5 for COMU, good thing it’s not! My first grade 5 in my whole uni life received in the last semester (for my normal BA). What a pity I could not keep my results purely 6s and 7s. Argh, Buddhism. From the first moment I learn about this course, I knew I would not do so well if I were to take it. It’s religion, it’s philosophy. The stuff that makes my head go haywire. Alas! I proved myself right. I worked quite hard for Buddhism, did lots of reading which is required actually, if not you can’t write shit. But well, other courses were quite as time-consuming with looooots of readings to do. I guess for this semester, without a Korean course, I was kept busy on my toes just like a “more” normal uni student. Every week, tons of readings to do.

The thing is, although my grades are not as good as my previous semesters, I felt that I learnt the most for this semester. Perhaps it’s because of the readings, but I would also credit my Buddhism prof (oh the irony!). Throughout the semester, he stressed on the importance of reading and writing. Reading is essential for everyone because it is through reading that we gain knowledge (mostly), which of course is true. Besides learning from lecturers, profs in school, we gain most knowledge through reading (be it textbook or other academic books). Besides that, having taken the political science course has made me realised how little I know about Asia. I reckon that I should not only focus on Korea and expand my knowledge to other parts of Asia as well, especially SEA which shamefully I have the least interest in. >< Because of this course, I am cultivating the habit of updating myself with current affairs around the world (especially Asia, since I’m majoring in Asian Studies). There are actually so much more that I’ve learnt this semester but I’m just too lazy to type it all out… lol.

So, now I’m officially a Bachelor degree holder and moving on to another year of honours! I’m sooo excited for the new semester to start! Only two weeks of holidays left, I have to take this time to study and revise my Korean due to the lack of Korean practice last semester. ><

Short post on the Melbourne/Gold Coast trip!

2011-07-07T22:52:00.001+10:00

I have been fighting the unmotivated will to blog all these while and finally I’m here still struggling to type what has been going on in my life since my last blog post. I see blogging as a practice for sustaining my writing skills although it is not something I want to boast about and it may not be an effective practice (due to the lack of a 3rd party proof-reading) but it is still SOMETHING which is better than nothing! That’s why I don’t want to give up blogging.

June was a really really busy month which is kind of obvious considering my number of blog posts. I was busy with exams and assignments, after which I went on a vacation to Melbourne and Gold Coast with my sister and cousin. It all ended within the month of June! A month mixed with working hard and playing hard.

Melbourne/Gold Coast trip was really fun. I was pretty impressed with the amount of things to do in Melbourne city! There is the Fed Square where we participated in the winter light festival on one of the weekends, where there were performances and a beautifully lit pyramid of lights. Chinatown in Melbourne was bustling and seemed authentically Asia, heaps better than the Chinatown in Brisbane which is labelled as the red light district (danger zone). As our hotel was located at Chinatown, we had to walk past Chinatown everyday. I think I have been to Melbourne’s Chinatown more than Brissy’s. Melbourne city closes way later than Brisbane city as well which is super awesome! Woolies was still open at 9+ near 10! Certain boutiques were still open at around 7+, 8 on Sunday when Brisbane shops closes at 5 sharp on Sunday!

But the less populous city of Brisbane appeals to me more. The amount of people in Brisbane is just nice to me, not too many and not too little. That’s one of the good things I like about Brissy, other than the weather!

Besides city touring in Melbourne, we went on a day tour to Great Ocean Road and Philip Island. Although it was freezing cold, it was still a great experience! The good thing about the tours was that I didn’t have motion sickness!! It was probably because I ate medicine and slept almost throughout the whole bus rides. Waking up really early in the morning for the tours helped too. ;)

I’ve nothing much to rave about for Gold Coast since I’ve been there 485720302348023 times. Hahaaa, you know that’s figurative right?

I will blog more soon…. I think I’ve depleted my writing juices last semester (sem 1, 2011).

My favourite Professor in UQ

2011-06-09T21:43:00.001+10:00

This evening, while taking a bus home from uni, I spotted my Asian Studies prof sitting a few seats in front of me. Apparently he was reading some sort of Japanese catalogue on Japanese visual art, i.e. paintings, calligraphy, ceramic art, etc. I thought in my head, “that is so Dr Low”. He never ceases to amaze me with his passion towards Japanese culture and his overall enthusiasm towards Asian Studies. Of course, being the Asian Studies major convenor he SHOULD be passionate towards it. But compared to other profs I’d encounter in my uni life, he exudes the most passion for the courses he’s teaching. Whenever I coincidentally spot him somewhere in uni or on the bus, he would be reading something. And he always provides lots of reading materials during his classes each week. I’ve taken his courses for three semesters and always enjoyed his classes, no doubt writing blog entries each week is kind of troublesome at times, but I think that it does reinforces what we learnt during lessons.

Oh his passion for Japanese culture goes way back I reckon. It seems he had lived in Japan for a few years and is pretty fluent in Japanese. He’s an Australian born Chinese/Hong Kong, I think. And he teaches Japanese popular culture in UQ, a course which I took in my first semester.

I find that he’s a really good example for me. His passion and quest for knowledge seems limitless… well that’s the feeling I get from him whenever I attend his classes, or see him reading some article about Asia/Japan. I hope I can cultivate this kind of passion towards reading and gaining more knowledge. Also for this passion to keep burning till I retire or even after!!

Busiest semester of my uni life!!!

2011-06-07T23:31:00.001+10:00

Very busy, very very busy. Just taking a break to blog….. about me being busy. –_-;

This busy life will not end even when my exams end because my sister and cousin are coming over to Aus and we’ll be busy playing!!!

My free time will start in July and that’s when I’ll be very free, very very free.

Our one year anniversary!!

2011-05-22T22:40:00.001+10:00

I can’t believe I’ve been in a relationship for a year!

Although we spent most of our time apart, I have never felt so in love in my life before, even now. There were definitely times I didn’t feel positive about the relationship but his assurance and love for me has kept me going… In an LDR, trust is the most important thing that will keep the relationship alive (probably for a non-LDR too) and he has managed to make me trust in him completely… When we were physically together during those short period of times, he made me feel like I can depend on him. He has done so much for me, I even feel guilty not being able to do as much for him.

Before being committed in a relationship, I always thought how people could get married and stay together forever… Won’t the love fade away? Won’t they feel sick of each other?

But this relationship has taught me, that it is possible… maybe it’s too early to say now, but I feel like I can stay with him and love him forever… I really love him so much. ^^

I can’t believe I’m blogging like this… like a typical teenage girl blogger talking about how she loves her bf and blah blah blah.. Hehe. I really hate reading those kind of blogs but now here I am typing those things myself.

Negativity….

2011-05-07T10:57:00.001+10:00

I’ve been feeling horrible these few days. This negative feeling has been residing in me for a couple of weeks now. I feel so unhappy, unloved, unimportant. Maybe I’m just being overly emotional……

OMG…

2011-05-03T00:07:00.001+10:00

I can’t believe how LITTLE I’ve done for my assignments during the Easter break!! I’ve only achieved 10% of the things I’d planned to do!! I slacked, watched shows, went karaoke and spent most of the time on this tutorial presentation that isn’t worth any marks!

Okay, so I did some work, but really I played a lot and now that the new term has started it’s going to be HELL. T.T

Guitar learning has been slow but definitely progressing. I find myself getting more and more keen in wanting to master the guitar each time I practise. I can also feel the thickening of skin at my fingertips although the pain is still there every time I fret. Hopefully I am able to keep on practising everyday even though the new term has started!

One of my favourite meals!! Roasted (and nicely marinated) chicken, with steamed veges and rice! It’s soooooo good because the chicken has been pre-marinated when I bought them! LOL. It’s affordable too!

And some random funny photos:

Listening to DBSK’s songs all over again.

2011-04-28T13:27:00.001+10:00

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.

---

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!

2011-04-26T14:11:00.001+10:00

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

2011-04-15T21:55:00.001+10:00

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

Guess what?!

2011-04-13T18:13:00.001+10:00

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.

2011-04-13T00:37:00.001+10:00

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?

2011-04-10T00:48:00.001+10:00

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.

2011-04-05T13:54:00.001+10:00

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

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

Bizarre Story

2011-04-03T15:25:00.001+10:00

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…

2011-04-01T00:10:00.001+10:00

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…

Motivation seeping away

2011-03-22T18:35:00.001+10:00

Oh my god. I have been awfully unproductive the past few days ever since last Friday. Did not complete my readings for tute on Monday, have not start working on an essay which I had planned to during the weekend and just absolutely no motivation to start reading anything else! The only thing I achieved was completing my weekly homework early for one of my courses! That is by far the most interesting course, the course on Asian Visual Cultures. Even though it’s all about art and film, and can be a little difficult to write about, but compared to the rest of my courses it’s the most interesting one. The rest are just… snooze-worthy.

Cooking…

2011-03-19T17:11:00.001+10:00

I’ve decided that I cannot keep having stir-fry chicken with vegetables or ra-myeon or tom-yam noodles or sandwiches for the rest of the 8 months in Brissy. I’ve also decided to take cooking a little more serious and attempt to up my cooking skills. This, I will start from mastering Korean dishes!

So far out of all the Korean dishes, I have made Korean pancakes and Spicy Rice Cakes (with instant sauce) before. After an evening of home-made Korean “feast” with my housemates last week, I honestly still need lots of improvements for those even though I have cooked them multiple times. Yesterday I made two new attempts at the Spicy rice cakes (떡볶이) and Korean bean paste stew (된장찌개). Instead of using instant sauce, I made spicy rice cakes from scratch, using hot pepper paste, chilli powder and dried anchovies.

It was a little tad salty, but other than that I thought it was pretty good. Hehe.

Oh I added instant noodles, so it should be called Ra-bokki (라볶이) instead. Ramyeon+ ddukbokki.

For the Korean bean paste stew, I went online to Korean search engine naver.com to look for a simple recipe. Actually I skimmed through several bean paste stew recipe but I used the naver recipe as my base point and started from there. Apparently there are different (but not big in variation) ways to make a stew (찌개) be it bean paste stew or Kimchi stew, etc.

Ingredients I used for the stew. (I didn’t use carrot)

Boiling stew, looking good.

Ready to eat. Boiling stew looks better with the spring onions on top… :P

I actually modified the recipe a little since I don’t exactly have all the ingredients needed to make an exact same stew but I want to make one that Koreans usually make. It’s a little difficult to do so since I have to go to the city to get ingredients. Oh wait, a new Korean shop just opened around this area, I should go and check it out. :P

Anyway as I’ve stated in Facebook, the taste of the stew didn’t taste too bad but I definitely need more practise. However, since I don’t eat a lot of Korean bean paste stew at Korean restaurants, I’ve forgotten how they should taste like! Yesterday I was not really sure if it tasted right although the taste itself was okay, but does it have that Korean taste, I’m not so sure. I need to go to a Korean restaurant soon to do “research”. Lol.

Of course, I am not going to restrict myself to just Korean food, it is just my starting point.

One of my favourite LDR songs

2011-03-13T13:43:00.001+10:00

Do you think time
Would pass us by
'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could
Just see you...

If I could fall
Into the sky
Do you think time
Would pass me by
'Cause you know I'd walk
A thousand miles
If I could
Just see you
If I could
Just hold you
Tonight

My timetable

2011-03-09T00:18:00.001+10:00

Thank goodness my courses are finally decided! After half a day of running around the campus, meeting advisors and waiting for the Language and Cultural Studies school manager, I am finally up with four courses instead of two. Here’s my timetable:

Obviously the cross ones are not my classes. As shown, I have two massive breaks in between classes in a week. There will be so much waiting to do this semester. Argh! But I’m really glad my courses have been sorted out and it will be such a “colourful” semester because the courses I’m taking differ from each other completely.

Here’s the list of my 4 courses:

Buddhism (Religion)
Asian Visual Culture (Art and media)
Crossing Bridges: Intercultural Communication
Problems in Asia-Pacific Security (Politics).

It’s crazy yet interesting to be taking a whole variety of genres in a semester! Now this is Asian Studies, where you learn everything and anything in regards to Asia.

Can’t believe it!

2011-03-07T23:32:00.001+10:00

I always think that super hardworking people are just insane. They’re just crazy people who can be so disciplined that they cut themselves from all outside world, stay in their room/library, at their desks and study FOR HOURS. Yes I admire them, but I think these people are just mental! How does one just keep studying for hours without distractions, I do not know! And these people, in return of their hard work get brilliant results, like perfect scores!

The thing is, I can’t believe my BF is one of them! O_O;

It’s only the first week of school but he’s mugging like it’s the exam period. –_-; Sometimes I am pretty sceptical when he tells me that he’s been studying the whole day, cooped up in the library. But his ALL-KILL results from last semester tells me that it is true and also why would he lie to me (unless you know..?). But the thing is I have every reason to believe that he really has been cramming a lot. And he says he’s going to to cram like this for the rest of the year.

O_O!!

But he says, it’s a highly competitive society in Korea so he has to work super duper hard!! When I say he’s crazy, he says there are thousands more Koreans in the country studying like that too.

I’m not really complaining here, because I know it’s a good thing that he’s hardworking and smart and gets ALL-KILL results. It’s just that I can’t believe he’s my BF!

Has school started?

2011-03-05T00:05:00.001+10:00

It has been almost a week since I came back to Brisbane. Coming back again feels like the 3 months away in SG never happened. Like the vacation was just a figment of my imagination… which is similar to my 6 weeks with A. :/

Anyway, the first week of classes was just… erm, wait- what classes?? See, I only attended TWO classes this week because so far, only TWO subjects are listed in my timetable. It was such a SLACK week I didn’t feel like I attended any classes at all. Double :/

It’s just that my Korean major classes are not confirmed yet because I’ve already taken all the classes being offered this semester. The problem is I need to take two classes this sem to complete my BA on time and continue my honours the next sem. With a loooooot of effort in attempting to discuss this issue with my prof (he is very very busy), I managed to contact him today and he said he may have some solution but needs to consult another prof on this. So I have to wait on it… until he contacts me again. T-T Korean major can be so frustrating at times…

About my TWO classes, OH EM GEE. Haha, you cannot believe what I’m taking. I’m taking Buddhism and Asian Visual Cultures. Buddhism is religion, obviously… and taking a religion class for academic purpose is kind of new to me. Especially since I’ve been growing up with Buddhism around me (my dad), yet I know nuts about it. Gosh, my dad’s a Buddhist yet I have superficial knowledge about the religion. Honestly… I don’t have much interest in it, but I have no choice but to take this course because the other courses are worst. ^^;

The other class is more of an ART and MEDIA class. I have to decipher certain meanings behind why a certain art is like that or why certain films are made like that. OMG, it’s not that easy BUT the prof is very lenient and nice. I’ve attended his classes for 3 semesters so he sorts of remembers my name and even said “welcome back” to me when he took the attendance. :p I love his classes actually, because he likes to use visual aids like videos/photos/etc during his classes and tries to make them more interesting.

So I don’t even feel like classes have started because there are only 2 classes. Haha.. but it was nice meeting up with my friends in Aus! Miss hanging out with them. :)

I hope my Korean classes get fixed soon…

Life in Daegu

2011-02-23T19:50:00.002+10:00

I decided to blog more about the cultural experiences that I had while in Korea, especially my stay in A’s home.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of his home or its surroundings. I guess I was too overwhelmed with EVERYTHING; the fact that I was meeting his parents, the fact that his house IS actually located in the mountains (he told me before but I thought he was kidding), the fact that I’d be intruding his home for a week, the fact that everyone was speaking satoori, the fact that… oh I shall continue this later.

So in an effort to allow people, who has been asking me how his house/area looks like, to imagine how his place is like… I found some photos on the internet which look kind of similar to his home area.

His house is located at quite a mountainous area like this:

Unlike the houses in this photo, his house is located relatively deeper in the mountains (can’t be seen from the main roads to the city) and if I’m not wrong it sits on the middle of a mountain. There are other houses around where some of his relatives reside and neighbours around pretty much know each other. They know each other so well, they just let themselves into each other’s house anytime they want!

Although we do see that in dramas but it still freaked me out the first time someone came in without knocking/pressing the bell (if they actually DO have one). They do not have to lock their doors and cars! I’m actually kind of sceptical about not locking the doors/cars (well maybe it’s my culture or sth), I don’t feel safe, PLUS it was in a rural area which made me feel even more UNsafe (something about the wilderness…). But everyone’s part of the “village” so they trust each other, in a way as neighbours they also look out for each other. Even so, sometimes I wonder what if a criminal (not part of the village) appears out of the blue?? He may be a psychotic killer, or a thief??? ^^;;; Just scaring myself with these scary thoughts.

But I felt pretty safe during my stay there. Probably because it’s his house and he was around so there was nothing to worry about.

People from Daegu, Busan and the Kyeong-Sang province speak similar satoori… Click! What is a satoori?

Luckily A’s family do not speak heavy satoori which would be very different from the standard Korean. But it was still difficult to understand what they were saying, especially when my Korean is still not good, it makes things even worse! ^^;;;;;; Although I can’t really understand most of the satoori, once I know what it meant, I found it quite funny when I compared satoori to the standard Korean I’m learning. Hehe. I learnt a little satoori from A and I can’t stop laughing whenever I spoke them myself!! It’s just so funny and interesting!

Staying at A’s home and “exploring” the surrounding areas were eye-opening for me. I even got to ride on a tractor while going to his family’s farm!! So exciting, just like a mini-roller coaster ride! His family owns a cow farm selling milk and, boy there are sooooooo many cows there! It would be nice milking a cow with one’s hands, experiencing a REAL farmer’s life but they don’t do that anymore because it would dirty the milk.

The good thing was, A’s house is modernized so the rooms, kitchen, toilets are similar to Singapore. So even though his house was located in a rural area, it was modernized inside. Come to think of it, it’s pretty nice to live in a nice house among nature! The air is fresher there and the surroundings itself encourages a healthy lifestyle… climbing mountains and taking a stroll around the village. As long as one has a car there, the city is just 30mins away.

First attempt at translating!

2011-02-23T03:04:00.003+10:00

FT Island- 행복합니다/ I’m Happy
잘 가
마지막 인사로 사랑을 보냅니다
아직은 좀 부족한 사랑에 그대를 잡지 못합니다
이젠 오랫동안 그댈 만나지 못하지만
그대가 그 동안 내게 줬던 사랑을 기억합니다
때론 아팠던 기억에 눈물도 났었지만
그대와 함께한 순간은
내 생애 가장 큰 선물이랍니다

My Love 부르고 불러도 보이지 않는 내 사랑
언젠가 다시 품에 안기길 난 기도합니다
My Love 이름만 들어도 눈물나는 내 사랑아
어디든 내게 오는 날까지 행복해줘요

나는 행복합니다
그대와의 사랑과 이별 모두 다
소중한 추억이 있기에
무엇과도 바꿀 수 없기에
너의 빈자리는 내가 항상 지켜줄께요
그대만을 사랑합니다..

가끔 그리운 사랑에 눈물도 나겠지만
다시 돌아올 그댈 위해
웃음만 짓고 살아갈 나랍니다

My Love 버리고 버려도 지울 수 없는 내 사랑
끝없는 그리움에 지쳐도 난 기억합니다
My Love 평생을 살아도 하나뿐인 내 사랑아
눈감는 그 날이 온다 해도 사랑해요

My Love 부르고 불러도 보이지 않는 내 사랑
언젠가 다시 품에 안기길 난 기도합니다
My Love 이름만 들어도 눈물나는 내 사랑아
어디든 내게 오는 날까지 행복해줘요
My translations:
Goodbye
With my last farewell, I send my love away.
I could not hold on to you with a love that is still lacking.
Now, even though I won't be able to see you for a long time,
I will remember the love you had given me all those times.
Sometimes I would tear thinking about our painful memories, but
the time spent together with you is the biggest gift in my life.
My Love I call and call yet I cannot see you, my love.
I pray that one day you will return into my arms again.
My Love I tear just hearing your name, my love.
Wherever you are, until the day you come to me, I will give you happiness.
(rap)
I am happy
The love and farewell with you, everything.
With the precious memories,
unable to change them for anything,
I will always take care of your empty seat
I only love you...
Sometimes I would tear for the love I miss
For you, who will come back again
I can only feign laughter while living through my life.
My Love I forsake and forsake yet you cannot be erased, my love
I remember even though I'm tired of the never-ending pining.
My Love Even if I’ve lived my whole life you'll be the only one, my love
Even till my last breath, I love you.
My Love I call and call yet I cannot see you, my love.
I pray that one day you will return into my arms again.
My Love I tear just hearing your name, my love.
Wherever you are, until the day you come to me, I will give you happiness.
---
I’ve been listening to this song so many times that my attempt at translating it was not that tough though I can’t guarantee 100% accuracy. ^^; If you look at the translated English lyrics, the bolded parts are those that struck me the most, especially during those times when I missed him so much… This song became one of my most-frequently-listened songs in the 2nd half of 2010. <3

Comparing myself!

2011-02-19T00:41:00.001+10:00

I’ve been meeting up with old friends and several people have been commenting on my weight loss. I admit that I’ve slimmed down ever since I came back from Aus. Besides my appetite getting lesser by the end of previous semester (because I controlled myself), I was sick twice before going to Korea. Those times, I didn’t have much appetite so I lost a lot of weight.

When I went back to look at my photos taken in Aus, I realised how fat my face was!!!! O-M-G…

My face is so fat in this photo I don’t know what to say…

I know it’s the angle, but still! Wah… so unglam and fat.

Right now…

Not as fat as before…

Getting sick is not totally a bad thing.

Meet ups~

2011-02-17T10:02:00.001+10:00

A song I’m addicted to recently. ^^

I’m suffering from insomnia again. However it’s not as serious as the last time when I couldn’t sleep for the entire night. This time, I abruptly woke up at 5:15am and after an hour of attempt to fall back asleep again but realising I became more and more awake, I eventually gave up and found myself here. :/

Recently during my usual extremely free holiday time, I have been catching up and meeting with my friends, something I realised I need to do so since I may be extending one more year of studies in Aus! Haha, not that it’s unnecessary to do so if I’m coming back in July this year.

I’m really glad that I still get to stay in touch with some of my friends right now. Like how last week I met up with my ex-colleague, Germaine, from my part-time job in Vzion Optique (@AMK Hub) for shopping and movie session!

Last week I also spent a fun (but really really hot) day touring the NTU campus with LY, MS and KH (the last two being students of NTU). I couldn’t believe the library study desks were all completely filled up by students at this period when the major exams are still months away. In UQ, this kind of situation, when libraries are filled to the brim by students, will be seen only, say.. about one month or so from the exam periods. :P The four of us spent quite some time in a Chinese heritage building in NTU, probably one of the few places in campus for touristy activity like museum-visiting. There is this Chinese library in the building with a vast collection of Chinese books, it made me feel like I was in China. After some time touring the building, we moved to Jurong Point and spent another chatting-session in Old Town Cafe. T’is always nice to have a few old friends together and talk about stuff! :)

This week, I met up with error (poly friend’s nickname! lol), spending the evening of Valentine’s Day with her watching the movie, Black Swan. She has been quite busy with exams lately, so I was glad to be able to meet up with her before I head back to Aus. The movie, Black Swan, was pretty good even though it turned out to be a quarter-horror movie with several shocking and bits of gory scenes. It also made me want to watch a ballet performance of Swan Lake! Great attribution of the film to the Swan Lake ballet.

-rant- The past few days I feel like I was being sucked into a black hole… Internally hurt… disappointed… lost… An internal battle with myself… I want to let go but I can’t… This one thing about being a Taurus is so true- Stubbornness! Why am I soooo stubborn, unwilling to let go? I know this has always been my weakness, I can be so stubborn it even hurts myself to know that. The only comfort I can give myself is that as I grow older, I’ve attained more strength in curbing the unnecessary stubbornness in me. I guess it’s part of life’s many lessons to learn and grow from it. –end-

Korea, A and I

2011-02-15T20:44:00.002+10:00

I’m finally blogging about my one-month stay in Korea. The dream I didn’t want to wake up from and the bitter-sweet experiences I had during my stay.

Straight to the point- I was able to tour the main cities of Korea thanks to A’s meticulous guidance. Seoul, Busan and his hometown, Daegu are the three biggest cities in S. Korea. We also went to Kyeong-Ju, a city in Kyeongsang province to see the first sunrise of 2011, and Cheon-An, where his school was located at.

Out of the 3 major cities we visited, I enjoyed Busan the most. I think it’s such a lovely city, just like Seoul but less crowded. The haeundae beach is beautiful~! It was kind of warm at the beach so I enjoyed walking there with him and watching the Busan’s gal-mae-gi (seagulls) flying around. hehe.. And the most important thing was, it wasn’t as cold as Seoul and Daegu! For all major seafood lovers, Busan is THE place to be. They have everything and anything… it’s either weird looking and tasting seafood which I’ve never seen before or the way they eat certain seafood which is very different from Singapore style.

@ Hae-un-dae beach – Love it there! But I may not say the same for summer…

Seoul is no doubt the most buzzling city out of the three with all the happening events there!! The capital city is not only a metropolitan city but it also preserved significant historical sites. Shopping there is endless as well… the famous dong-dae-mun and myeong-dong are every girl’s heaven!! Insa-dong, where tradition is heavily preserved, offers many sweet treats to tourists and locals! I enjoyed my time there, drinking traditional tea and savouring on traditional treats!! Hehe.

The only negative point about Seoul is that it’s THE COLDEST CITY OUT OF THE 3 CITIES. When we were there, the lowest temperature was -18dc!! Freeeezing cold… Sooo cold we couldn’t really enjoy walking outside. That day we even went up to Namsan tower and couldn’t really stay outside for long when we went to hang our “love lock” there! My hands turned cold so fast, it freaking hurt and was a little swollen- even with gloves on. Luckily I had a heat pack with me or else I would return finger-less!! LOL.

Our love lock- He bought it.. lol. We wrote our message behind.

Thanks to my “good” luck, after taking a few photos at Namsan, my camera battery died. So I couldn’t take much quality photos while I was up there! I took some with my phone camera which obviously sucks in quality. I have yet to upload those photos yet because it’s so troublesome to. :P

In Seoul, we also went to other places like the Han River, 63 Building, Hanok village (same place I went to in 2009; he thought the one I went to was located at another area), Seoul’s City hall (outdoor skating rink), Coex Aquarium (one of the places RUNNING MAN went to in their recent episode), Kyungbok Palace and Cheong-gae-cheon~

Daegu is the third largest city and it’s also A’s hometown. As compared to the other 2 larger cities, Daegu does things in moderation of course, just like the amusement park we went to. It’s not as large as Seoul’s amusement parks but at least it still has Daegu Tower where we could ice-skate inside! While I was in Korea, we went ice-skating twice (the other time was outdoor skating in Seoul). Even if I’d ice-skated a few times in Singapore before, it’s understandable that I can’t skate right? To me, able to skate= able to move with skates on the ice! But to A, able to skate= able to glide around like Kim Yuna (so it seems to me). :P He was able to skate fast and quite stably but he still said he CAN’T skate. –_-; For me, I was like walking on the ice because it has been so long since I last skated and I always walk on ice when I skated in the past. Haha. I needed time to practice!!!

our 2nd ice-skating date at Daegu tower~

We also went to Cheon-An, another city located at Chungcheong province, to visit his school for a day. That day, it was snowing!!! It snowed a looooot and from the photos you could see snow covering everything. I was so excited seeing the snow… but A was passive about it because of his bad experiences with snow (especially during his army days).

A’s uni, looking beautiful covered in snow..

When we returned to Seoul from Cheon-An, I got really sick the next day. It was from the inflammation of my throat (from SG) which worsened due to the cold weather- I had a high fever, headache and flu. It was so bad I had to stay in bed the whole day!!!! T-T Just like in dramas (hehe), A took care of me the whole day… he went out to buy medicine and porridge while I lied in bed. I don’t know if I was sick or the porridge tasted really horrible. When I’m really sick, I would lose my appetite almost completely and anything would taste horrible to me. Furthermore, I’m not a fan of porridges so I had such a terrible time eating the porridge but A said I had to eat no matter what so that I would have strength and energy to fight the sickness. In the end he had to feed me… haha… But honestly the porridge was sooo dry which is the kind of porridge I hate the most. Watery porridge is still acceptable but dried out porridge is just bleeeah!! >:P

There were a few other times when I needed to eat medicine. One time was when I got hurt while playing baseball at one of the arcades in Daegu. Yeah they have this baseball area with real baseball bats and balls, and if anyone wants to play, they have to enter a cubicle and insert coins. Once coins are inserted, the baseball balls will be shot out towards the player. I was such an amateur I had my hands held so high on the bat that the ball actually hit my thumb!!! –_-;;; DAMN HELLISH FREAKING PAIN!!! It was like having a drawer slammed onto your thumb but 100times more painful!! The injured area was at the base of my thumb nail. It bled a lot from the tear of my skin. But I think I was really lucky not to have the ball slam into my thumb bones (joint) or elsewhere!! Or else I cannot imagine what could have happen to my poor thumb!!! Lucky me.

I actually have other sicknesses but I’m not going to type everything here because it’s getting too damn long. Haha~

To end it off, although I was sick a few times, I had a greeeeeat time, especially spending each and every precious day with him…

St Valentine

2011-02-14T23:42:00.000+10:00

Do you know what’s worst than being single on Valentine’s Day?

It’s when you have someone supposedly to celebrate with but you can’t.

Changed Again

2011-02-14T02:16:00.001+10:00

Hello, I changed my blog layout again. And I changed the blog title as well because I thought it sounds quite artistic. Haha.

I am currently considering extending my studies to take up the Honours course so that I could graduate with an Honours degree which I think would bring me more chances of landing a better job. At the same time, I could strengthen my language ability that is still lacking…

If I do take up Honours, that means I would only graduate in July 2012. Honestly, I’ve almost made up my mind.

3 more weeks of chillaxing~

2011-02-08T17:38:00.001+10:00

It has been so long since we, cousins, spent time with each other. Especially the four of us, childhood playmates!

We have grown up now with more commitments in our hands, thus the time when every Sunday meant playtime for us has become history. That’s why this CNY has been really awesome because we spent a lot of time together, blackjack-ing, daidi-ing, minigoring, being sarcastic to each other and making stupid jokes. LOL.

That’s also why CNY has always been my favourite holiday~ You not only spend lots of time with family, you get money too! (of course, that changes when one gets married. :p)

Now that CNY holidays are over, I have 3 more weeks of chillaxing (chill+relax) to do before heading back downunder to finish up my 2-year course!

Currently, I seem to be back on track to catching up with the latest Kdramas…hehe~~!! I’ve been watching Paradise Ranch, My Princess and Dream High. And OMG I love Paradise Ranch!! I can’t believe I can see my favourite guy from my favourite group (DBSK) for 16 episodes!! Changmin is sooo super handsome in the drama, with his short haircut and smart suits.. =^w^= But sometimes it’s such a torture to wait for the release of new episodes every week. Torturing!

Anyway, recently my techy things have been really nasty to me!! Firstly, my beloved HP laptop decided to bail out on me the day A went back to Korea. When I tried to log in, a white screen appears… so I can’t do anything except shut it down. I tried restarting it many times, but the white screen never fails to dash my hopes of using it. I hope repairs do not require reformatting (though I highly think they will) because there are so many photos/videos which I hadn’t save onto my external HDD. :(

Speaking of my external HDD, I really wanted to DIE that day when ALL my files in the HDD were unknowingly deleted!! I managed to retrieve most of the files with a file-recovering software, however many of the videos retrieved became corrupted!!! So I can’t watch them even if I retrieved them!!!!! KILL ME PLEASE. –_-;;; Especially “FRIENDS” series 4 and 5 which A downloaded for me in Korea… the entire folder is corrupted after I recovered them!!! I’ve waited an entire semester for the series, I can’t believe this happened to me!! My large collection of Kdramas transferred from my friend in Aus weren’t spared as well as they are either corrupted or couldn’t be retrieved back. Cannot believe my lousy luck… T-T Guess all I can do is re-dl them… Geeeeez!!!!

Anyway, I’ve been writing about my Korea trip because I decided that I should blog “a little” about the trip. However after starting to write, I realised the entry has become quite long… filled with words just like this post, except that this post, at least, has a photo up there. I don’t think I want to scan through the many photos taken in Korea again to re-post here in my blog when you can simply go to fb and look at them yourself. Hehehe :p ALSO, some of the photos in my HDD were not able to be recovered back… I’m so saaad…. luckily I’ve transferred all of them to A so at least he has another set of photos with him. I will be posting about the Korea trip soon… I hope.

1st Post of 2011

2011-02-02T00:05:00.001+10:00

First of all, a belated happy 2011! :P

Secondly, I seriously don’t have a clue where to start in regards to blogging about our long-awaited “date” in Korea and SG… It was a 6-week “date” so there are maaaaany things I can talk about. I may not even blog about it… just go to FB and the photos will tell the entire story. ;D

Thirdly, have a happy lunar new year to all celebrating this festive occasion!!! :)

Korea… Here I come!!

2010-12-19T20:47:00.001+10:00

Here’s a last blog entry before I leave for Korea!!! Omg, I will be leaving in a few hours and I’m super super super nervous, more than being excited… I can’t believe after 5 months, we’re finally going to meet again!

So happppppy… and super nervous. :p

Our 200th day!

2010-12-08T02:09:00.000+10:00

200일 축하해!!

This is my favourite photo of us…

This month is going to be OUR month. Haha. Only less than 2 weeks before I can finally be reunited with him. Miiiiiissssssssssssss him to death… I can’t believe it. We’re finally going to see each other again…

Congratulations to our 200th day. :)

O.M.G.

2010-12-06T01:45:00.001+10:00

2 MORE WEEKS!!

Semester Results Released!

2010-12-01T21:05:00.001+10:00

Semester results were finally released today! This semester I fell short of 1 grade to get into the Dean’s List. So damn close!

I can’t believe that I receive a 7 for LTCS3005 and a 6 for LTCS1000. I was expecting the other way round. If only I had gotten a 7 for the latter, I would be on the Dean’s List for the 3rd time! Maybe my prof doesn’t feel like I deserve two 7s, noting that both courses were taught by the same prof. The funny thing is, I spent a week writing LTCS1000’s take-home essay and just 2 days writing LTCS3005’s take-home exam. OH THE IRONY!!! –_-;

But I’m super glad I received a 6 for Asian Studies Project. I was expecting a 5 since I didn’t really think my essay was logical enough to get a 6. And my presentation for that was totally crappy.

Anyway, I am satisfied with my results because 3/4 are not Korean courses. Korean courses are easy to get 7 but it’s not so with the rest as seen above.

Hello I’m back in SG!

2010-11-24T22:48:00.001+10:00

Can’t believe I’m finally back home after 9 months… Everything feels strange but familiar at the same. It’s funny how once I reached home, my independency seems to vanish and I would get the “I-don’t-feel-like-doing-anything” feeling. So nice to have the food all cooked and ready to eat when one’s hungry, so nice to just throw your clothes in the laundry basket and come back all washed and cleaned. Wondrous life…

But, the weather here in SG is ridiculously hot and humid. The past 9 months in Aus, I’ve been enjoying dry and cool weather (mostly), very very awesome weather although winter months were a tad too cold. The weather’s so lovely, I wouldn’t get sticky throughout the day at all. I miss the weather there terribly… Right now, it hasn’t been mid-day and I’m stinking of sweat (well, probably because I was walking around a lot) but still, I am just not yet adjusted to the humidity.

Today I was walking around a lot because I had to replace my I/C and driving license. I had to go to ICA and then to YCK, realising that SSDC has moved to WDL. Damn it. Now I have blister on my sole because I walked/stood too much. I even went to Sembawang to get some stuff. What a day. I realised I hadn’t quite get the Sporean feeling of taking MRT or just the fact of being kiasu. It feels foreign yet familiar at the same time. Being away for too long, yet not too long might have stirred up such mixed feelings.

I miss the friendly people in Aus too. I had forgotten how unfriendly S’poreans can be, not until I interacted with them in ICA and elsewhere… especially aunties and uncles. I also forgotten how kiasu S’poreans can be and how ungracious the guys are.

The only bad things about S’pore is the people (insulting myself? lol), difficulty in finding healthy food and weather as compared to Aus. The rest, I would say, S’pore beats Aus hands down. I’m lazy to go into details about healthy food, but in Aus, it’s so easy to get really healthy food, with lots of leafy, fresh veges, wholegrains, etc.

Anyway I’m so happy to be home… with my family. I can’t wait to meet up with my friends too. :)

And and and and… only less than 1 month to see him! OMG so so so excited…

The time is nearing…

2010-11-11T14:24:00.001+10:00

I have finally completed all assignments!! *phew*

Because this semester is so filled with assignments, now that I have no more assignments to do, I feel a little lost. What should I do now? Of course, I still have to study Korean, but the days spent in front of the computer, racking brains to churn out logically interconnected words are over which gives me a really weird feeling. Now that Korean is the only exam I have left, I can start my conquest of K-dramas and variety shows. Slowly but surely. ^^

Only less than two weeks to home. Only less than 2 months to him. :DDDDDDDDD

Oh and just being random, 2PM, a Korean male group recently started promotions for their new mini album. The MV below is the song they’re promoting now, but what I want you guys to watch is their choreography!

Funny run-on-the-spot dance. :P

Every time I watch them dance to this song during their performances, I cannot help laughing because of their “running/walking on the spot” dance!! XD It’s just too weird and funny, especially when the members dance at the back with that “running” action. LOL. :P But I like the song though.

P.S. It’s been so long since I posted something related to Kpop.

You must be curious?

2010-11-05T22:57:00.001+10:00

I think I need to blog more often. My days may not be filled with VERY happening events right now, but I still do have a life. To think that I blog about almost everything when I first started blogging few years ago. I can’t remember when I started blogging but at that time, I was so enthusiastic I blog about almost everything that happened even when nothing really happened. Hehe… always the same for first-timers? Now I find that I don’t even blog much about my relationship… ^^;

Undoubtedly, the enthusiasm for blogging is fading due to several factors. Haha~ I guess I need to regain that little bit of enthusiasm towards blogging to keep my blog alive and to keep you guys updated about what I’ve been doing :)

Sometimes I find that my blog entries are so full of words. What to do if I have no photos to share?!

So I’ll take random photos to add colours to my entries.

Just like this photo of Sesame Paste (zhi-ma-hu), the yummy dessert that originated from Hong Kong (I think?). I wish I’d made it, but I didn’t. It’s instant in which you add hot water to the sesame powder to form the paste! Instant but still delicious, of course it doesn’t beat the real thing (which I’m going to Chinatown for it when I go back!! LY are you with me? haha)

Boxes of magnum (or magnum minis) were on sale so I bought one! A stress reliever for me during this period of time. Yummy~~~

I’ll update a little about A and me since I’m guessing that some of you might be curious about our relationship… :P

My feelings for him is still the same as when he was with me in Brissy (still deeply in <3). Never changed, as if he has never left my side.^^ I guess that’s because we talk to each other everyday such that contacting each other has become part of our daily routine. Of course, there are times when I miss him so much, I become emo… especially when he’s so busy he can only send me a text message a day (like last week when he was really busy with his cousin’s wedding). I would actually feel like my day is not done if we didn’t talk to each other/send text messages (that’s when I feel a little emo).

Other than that, we (at least, for me) are very happy even though we’re miles and miles away from each other. Maybe it’s because our tolerance level is high which has been helping us withstand the test of time and distance! X)

I hope nobody is getting goosebumps after reading that. Hehe. Sometimes I get goosebumps while reading other people blogging about their love lives. Well, my threshold level for goosebump is pretty low in the first place, so I tend not to (or TRY not to) write very lovey-dovey stuff but with appropriate expression of my feelings towards him. ^^

School's out, only thing left is exams!

2010-10-30T23:24:00.007+10:00

Last week of classes for semester 2,2010 has finally ended! I've also completed my 4000-long research paper so that's it for LTCS3007. YAY! v^^v
Now I just have to focus on my take-home exams which consist of 4 essays, 5000 words altogether and I have to hand those up in the 2nd week of November which is not very long from now. So far, I've been resting (bombarding myself with videos) and just slacking away. It's crazy how facebook looks so damn boring when you want to slack, but when you've tons of things to do, facebook becomes an attractive, fun place to be at.

Speaking of facebook, Gabby and I went to watch The Social Network yesterday. It is pretty cool to know how that miracle of a website was created and what the founders went through. Although there were a few boring parts, especially when Mark Zuckerberg was blabbering away about IT stuff. By the word, 'stuff', you'd know I couldn't really catch what he was saying at some points and when I don't, my mind just shuts down. But generally, the film is pretty interesting, though I wouldn't say that it's worth going to the cinemas for. Hehe, I personally think that movies worth going to the theatres for are mostly action-packed or gory films. Because those films look so much better with the big screen and surround sound.

I also wanted to share something which was shared by my friend on facebook. If you've seen my postings in fb, you might have read it but if you haven't take a look! It's a script for a talk held in NTU and what the speaker say, I'm 100% with him. It's very very true, just read: Don't work. Avoid telling the truth. Be Hated. Love Someone

Here's a cool photo I stumbled across through Time.

Ultimate Abstinence… or not?

2010-10-18T22:32:00.001+10:00

Wow, I can’t believe this semester is going to be over before I could even watch a complete series of Korean drama. I have completely abstain myself from watching K-dramas this semester because I wanted to curb my addiction. This semester has heavier workload than ever so I wanted myself to concentrate on work and not get too hooked onto dramas. I am seriously in such a tortured state preventing myself from K-dramas, especially when Micky Yoochun’s drama is currently airing! I actually couldn’t control myself and watched 3 episodes of his drama, but when I found that my flow of concentration was dissipating I had to stop myself! :(

K-dramas are evil to me. That’s why I took a different route of entertainment (I’ve got to have some sort of leisure time right?) this sem and settled on just K-variety shows and english shows. Some of you would know, I’ve been watching Friends, The Simpsons and Gossip Girl.

Friends is OLD but still an awesome awesome comedy sitcom! I actually got 7 seasons of Friends from A before he went back to Korea. BUT he doesn’t have season 4 and 5, so now I’m stuck at season 3 refusing to continue on to season 6. I absolutely cannot skip TWO seasons of Friends and continue the rest! A said he had already downloaded season 4 and 5 in Korea and will transfer me the seasons when we meet. Woopee~!

It’s too bad I can’t continue now… Friends is soooooooo funny, I laughed like mad at almost every episode. There was once I watched with A, and I laughed so hard he was like, wow today I can see your happiness. (LOL)

I’m still enjoying and taking my time with Simpsons because there are freaking 21 seasons and there are about 24-25 episodes in each season AND the show is still broadcasting in US!! I’ve been watching it every time I have meals at home. Meal time is like my eating + resting + leisure time.

But now Simpsons is being put on hold when I started watching Gossip Girl. Well, I guess it IS really good. When people were so into GG, I was like, is it that nice to watch girls bitching around? I realised that it isn’t ordinary bitching and there’re twists and plots to the stories so I guess it’s pretty good. I’m at season 3 now. Season 4 is the latest which I heard was just released. If you didn’t hear this before, fashion in GG is awesome! I am starting to get hooked onto headbands thanks to Blair Waldorf. Haha :P

Anyway, I can’t wait for ultimate leisure time to come so that I can kick back and catch up on all the K dramas I’ve been missing out so far!!

5 more weeks to SG!!!! FREAK OUT! LOL.

Looking forward to summer vacation!

2010-10-15T00:18:00.001+10:00

In the midst of this hellish period, I can’t help but think of ALLLLLL the things I’m going to do during the coming summer holidays!

One thing is that I’m looking very very forward to going back home to SG after 9 months!! That is such an understatement but what can I do? Blogging can only produce this much excitement. Dear family and friends, I miss you all so much!!! My cousins, especially, love to tag me in photos taken during family dinners. I love having family dinners and because they kept tagging me, it made me miss home so much!

Also, my dear niece who has grown from a baby to a toddler now. As you can see in FB, many of my tagged photos are of a cute little toddler. Awww… no more Baby Sheryl. It’s Toddler Sheryl now. ^^

Can’t wait to see you all when I go home next month!

The most important thing that is going to happen in December is this:

As stated, I will be spending one third of my vacation in Korea. I actually booked the flight about 2 weeks ago… but I haven’t really got the time to blog about it until now (when I’m procrastinating).

First and foremost, I get to spend lots of time with A in Korea (Christmas and New Year especially)! Second, I get to travel around Korea with him within the month (hopefully)! Third, I am going to meet his family and friends (OMG). Fourth, hang out with LE in Korea! LOL. Fifth, if I have the chance to do so, attend Kpop concerts! Sixth, HELLO IT’S KOREA! Nuff said!

As the days go by, the time for both of us to meet is getting closer and closer. It has already passed more than half of the total time that we’re separated for. Just a little more and we’ll reunite once again! <3

After Korea, A will be coming back to SG with me!!! It’ll be his turn to explore SG and meet my family and friends. Hehe. But the sad thing is, he is only staying for 2 weeks as he has to go back home for Lunar New Year. :( Can’t spend CNY with him…

Anyway, I’m going to be honest here, I can’t wait to show him to my family! LOL. I actually hope he and I can spend more time with my family (even extended family members). Hehe. Then you guys can see why I love him so much. :P

Just typing this entry made me soooo excited!

Riverfire 2010

2010-10-05T22:14:00.001+10:00

Riverfire 2010 (from my apartment)

VIEW SLIDE SHOW

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Thai Culture and Food Festival!

2010-10-05T21:55:00.002+10:00

Everyone’s favourite bubble tea shop: Hazeltea!!

Unfortunately, my camera doesn’t have photos of J, my newly made friend, who I went to the Thai fest with. Although we didn’t enjoy much of the Thai fest due to the terrible weather, we were still able to chat and chill out at Hazeltea!

Random photos I took while going home:

P.S. Go to Jesslyn's blog for more photos and updates! :D

:(

2010-10-02T13:17:00.001+10:00

An unfortunate incident has befallen upon me… It is due to my carelessness and stupidity. My loss may not be recovered, but I’ve learnt something through this harsh lesson. I was so mentally tired because of this incident… I felt guilty and regretful. For the past two days, I felt like everything was going against me. I am so unlucky…

However, I’ve learned to move on. Like what A said to me, we will encounter bad and good things in life. The thing is to learn from my mistake… I’ve learnt my lesson and will not do it again… Although the feelings of regret, anger, disappointment and sadness still lingers in me, I’m okay now…

Semester break

2010-09-26T01:36:00.001+10:00

The one-week semester break is finally here! It’s only a week, so there’s not much I can do except drown in dramas and hopefully in my pending thesis as well. >_>”

After the week break, it’ll only be another 4 weeks of school before exam period. Wow, time is passing by really quickly which is what I had expected. Before I head home, these 2 months will definitely be quite a hellish one. Definitely a 2-month worth of obstacle to overcome before I can jump on the plane to “paradise”. There are so many things for me to do that thinking of it gives me a headache… T-T

Mapuo Tofu!!

2010-09-15T00:59:00.001+10:00

This evening, I decided to try something new which was easy to cook and tasty on the buds! The recent trip to Sunnybank (unofficial Chinatown) has stocked my food supplies with more oriental ingredients and that include tofu, kangkong and mapuo tofu sauce!

Well, amateurs like me will have to settle for instant sauces so I was delighted that I could get such a dish so easily without much effort being made. Hehe. Absolutely delicious!

Also, I just bought myself a packet of brown rice yesterday. It is so difficult to cook due to the layer of husk around the grains. I had to cook the rice 2 times in the cooker so that it’s soft enough to eat. It’s so troublesome… but to comfort myself, it’s healthier.

If you didn’t know, I’ve changed much of my food intake to whole grains such as bread, cereals and now, rice. I’m actually attempting to change my diet into a healthy one so that I can curb my weight increment! I don’t take those sweet cereals (chocolate or honey coated kind) like I used to anymore, I try to include vegetables in every meal and I drink more water than before. I also eat fruits everyday, mostly just apples. And I try not to eat fast food/potato chips. If I want to indulge myself in snacks, I eat rice crackers although they are not THAT healthy either but definitely better than potato chips. Last but not least, I try to lessen my meal portions as well. Sometimes I realised the portions I cooked could feed 2 persons! It’s not like I want to eat so much. My portion estimation is really bad.

Only 9 weeks left before I head home. WTH! Super fast! 8 weeks has already passed since the new semester started. I’m SOOOOO psyched!

Chase the Fats away. Invite the Fats again.

2010-09-11T22:36:00.001+10:00

Last night, I stayed over at LN’s place! That’s because we planned to go for Mt Cootha climbing the next morning (which was today) and since I stayed so far, she suggested I stay over at her place.

This morning we woke up early to have our mountain climbing exercise. Initially I had expected there would be cemented walking trails for climbers to conquer the mountain… but I had forgotten how nature-conservative Aus is and only realised later that the pathway we had to take was treacherous and tedious. The walking trail was all forest-y and jungle-ish. We had to trekked through bushes, cling onto trees to climb up and “slide” down, and I even had to use a tree branch to help me balance myself on the steep ground. It didn’t take over 10mins for me to feel exhausted from the uneven trekking. I am THAT unfit!

To be honest though, it was pretty fun because since I’ve never really trek or climb mountains before (except once in Jeju Island) it was sort of a new experience for me. In addition, it’s really good exercise which I need since I haven’t been exercising since… forever? Haha. Okay, not forever, since last semester.

Summit of Mt Cootha below. (It’s also the place where A, LY, KH and I went to in July during the night time. So it was the first time I could see the day-time scenery.)

(other photos might be uploaded to fb soon)

Anyway, all that fats-burning went to waste when we went for yum-cha after the climb!! It’s been about… 2 months since I went for dim sum. The last was with A, at the exact same place where we went today (oh the memories~!).

The egg tart is so damn nice, it melts in your mouth. Xiao Long Bao is incomparable to Ding Tai Fung though.

Oh (tummy) fats, how do I get rid of you once and for all?

Stressing myself out

2010-09-09T22:46:00.001+10:00

I realized that my achievement of entering the dean’s list in the past 2 semesters has produced an adverse effect on my self-esteem. A mere pass or credit is now insufficient for me and if I do get one, instead of a distinction or HD, I would feel upset and discouraged. Like today, I got back my grades for my proposal plan and realized I’ve got a 7.5/10. The first thought that came to my mind was, omg so low. Indeed, it was kind of low because it seems the rest of my classmates got an 8 or above, at least that was what 2 of my classmates sitting beside me had received.

Gosh… am I stressing myself out a little too much? I do not think that this semester will be a dean’s list worthy one, because writing essays critically is not my forte and 3 of my courses require me to write essays! The first assignment which I submitted on Tuesday was done poorly. I procrastinated so much and completed it half-heartedly… ><” Today my professor said, “good news is, those who have submitted their assignment all passed.” Then in my head was, a pass is not good enough!

I should change my mindset, huh? Credit or pass is good enough… ><

100th-Day Present

2010-09-07T22:20:00.001+10:00

As you know, A and I “celebrated” our 100th-day about more than a week ago. He told me that we cannot celebrate our 100th and 200th day together but when the time comes for us to meet, we can celebrate all of them at once. ^^ So I didn’t think that he would actually send me a gift… about 5 days after our 100th day, I unexpectedly received a parcel from Korea! I didn’t guess that it would be a present for our 100th day, probably just a random gift or something.

When I opened the parcel, I got such a beautiful surprise!

The box is so beautiful…

Chocolates, card and the gift!

Gift!! I forgot to take a photo of it by itself because I was too excited. :P

He is so sensible in choosing the right card… ^^

This is the gift~! Looks like a very normal mug…

So cute… and once again… the words.

Surprise! More chocolates inside! <3

Let me show why the mug is so special:

1) Original state

2) After pouring hot water into the mug…

Look at that!!!

너를 만난 건 내 생에 가장 큰 행운이었어. 메이야, 사랑해~ <3

The biggest luck (I have) in my life is meeting you. May, I love you~ <3

I called him immediately after opening the present. He told me to pour hot water into the cup and something magical will happen. I was so anxious to see it, I went to make myself a cup of tea. I was soooo shocked as I didn’t expect to see the photo and words slowly appear as I pour the hot water in! It was so beautiful and cute!

He has the exact cup too! But the words are addressed to him instead (from me to him). He used the message I put for my MSN personal nick because few weeks ago I told him that’s what I want to tell him. ^^

I love him so much… and it’s true…

“Love is that I can feel you even if you are not with me right now.”

Tumblr!

2010-09-05T16:24:00.001+10:00

People who have been following my twitter would know I’ve just created a new Tumblr blog! www.delightfulddok.tumblr.com

It’s mainly a photo blog where I will post random or not-so random photos on it. Unlike this “private” blog, my tumblr will be more publicised as I’m not going to post as much personal thoughts as I would here. So go ahead and talk about my tumblr to anyone because I will if you don’t. LOL. I might share other stuff besides photos as well because I just discovered that sharing online goodies (songs, videos, links, etc) is so much easier with Tumblr than blogger! :)

I guess my “short hiatus” isn’t much of a hiatus now. :/

A little of A

2010-08-30T22:06:00.001+10:00

Just a random photo update before I go on a short hiatus from my blog to do my assignments!

When we have the time, A and I would webcam through MSN. I should try to screen-cap our webcam sessions more often since right now that’s the only time both of us can be together in a picture! Also, I don’t usually tell him when I take a screen-cap… hehe.

In his sister’s room:

Yesterday he moved into his school dormitory as his Uni officially started today! So the photo below was taken just yesterday.

In his school dormitory:

heh heh.. my handsome guy doesn’t know I took a screen-cap. :P

I want to change those geeky white specs! Probably the first thing I would do when I return back to SG! Not literally of course!

Will blog once again when I’m freed from those dreadful assignments… *sigh*

Our 100th day

2010-08-29T23:11:00.000+10:00

백일 축하해~!

Happy 100th day!

Today marks the 100th day since we first dated. I don’t like using mawkish words to express myself… I’m just going to say I feel extremely thankful and lucky to have such an understanding and generous bf like him. We may not be able to celebrate this day together, but we can do so in the future. Well, what matters most are the mutual feelings we have for each other no matter where we are…

I miss him sooo much…

P.S. 100 days are commonly celebrated in Korea. I’m not sure about SG since I’ve never dated in SG before so I was not really concerned about the anniversaries Sporeans celebrate. But I think generally, Sporeans celebrate yearly anniversaries and probably monthly as well? (Enlighten me on this if you know)

P.P.S. Photo taken 3 days before he left for Korea.

Assignments after assignments…

2010-08-28T21:48:00.001+10:00

It’s mid-term which means assignments’ deadline are fast approaching! Oh my god. I spent so much time researching for my Asian Studies individual project for the past month which led me to neglecting the other two courses in which I have to submit an essay each in the first and second week of Sep.

For the individual project, I have to write a thesis paper of 4000words. I have chosen to write on the women’s movement in Korea. Gender politics and the likes of it. Politics is a very foreign subject to me and I chose to do because of that exact reason. I think I need to gain more knowledge in this area which I feel would be helpful in the future (somewhat I think).

While doing my research on Korea, I discovered my new-found interest in ancient history- during the period of the three kingdoms. I read quite a bit on it and wanted to focus on ancient history for my thesis but my supervisor advised me not to as there is a lack of materials on the topic. I guess if I was doing my PhD I would be able to look at original historical materials (how cool is that?!!) but right now, at this stage I can’t do so due to limited resources and time.

For my next assignment, I have to conquer a literature review. OMG. There’re a lot of readings to do because I have to review lots of literature materials. The entire concept is different from previous essays, so it was difficult to comprehend at first. But I’ve grasped the idea now, after some explanations and emailing to the prof.

Hehe. I’m whining about school. I told you there’s nothing for me to blog about except food and whine about school.

Well actually I could blog about something else. The past two days I’ve had some shopping done but I didn’t buy much, only the cheap stuff which are on sale. Retail therapy… it doesn’t help me, instead it worsened my condition as I couldn’t concentrate after enjoying myself. Geeez!

Oh and lastly, this blog layout is so pretty, isn’t it? I even changed my profile description at the side bar. Heh heh.

Scrambled!!!

2010-08-25T23:21:00.001+10:00

These were the very simple yet delicious dishes for my dinner this evening. Scrambled eggs with red onions and prawns, and little bak choy with oyster sauce. Truthfully, it was my first time making scrambled eggs- like eggs beaten with milk. When I cook eggs, I usually don’t add milk and just churn out an omelette. Guess I didn’t have the guts to add milk with eggs because it seems weird when I vision that in my head. Now that I know how easy and delicious it turned out to be, I’m going to attempt scramble eggs more often now! :D

Curry-fied

2010-08-19T21:37:00.001+10:00

After having dinner at a Thai restaurant near UQ with Gabby on Tuesday has led me to do some experimental Thai curry cooking! Okay so far I’ve only cooked up ONE curry dish but I’ll definitely make more within the next few days to finish up my coconut milk ASAP.

My first ever non-instant curry dish as seen above wasn’t much of a success in terms of texture. It was too dry. I needed to add in a bit of water and probably more coconut milk. I only discovered that after starting on my meal. And I have to admit, I did some cheating with the chicken and vegetables. I’d already cooked the broccoli chicken with oyster sauce dish the day before (sometimes when I feel lazy, I just cook up 2 dishes, sometimes 3, at once). So I just added the dish into the sautéed curry paste. That’s why the taste was not too bad.

I used Massaman curry paste and when I googled this curry awhile ago… I got this photo from Wiki:

Compare the above photo to mine, it’s heaps different! Mine was absolutely DRIED curry. :/

I think it all stems down to courage of adding more sauces, water or whatever seasoning while cooking and I know I lack of that whenever I cook something new. Like, the first (or 2nd) time I cooked broccoli chicken with oyster sauce, it was so bland because I didn’t add enough oyster sauce. But now I’ve gotten better with the dish which has become my favourite dish to cook because it’s sort of healthy, tasty and easy to cook.

Anyway, I will try cooking the curry again tomorrow and hopefully the result will be as similar to what is seen above. :P

I think that from now on, I will be blogging more about food that I cooked because I’m trying to save money by not eating out so often. That also means I will stay at home more often so I have nothing else to blog except FOOD and whine about school.

Life without my mosquito

2010-08-15T00:25:00.001+10:00

How have I been coping without A… without his physical being by my side… It’s been 3 weeks since we parted. I am gradually being adjusted to life without him.

It was really really difficult at first. I had spent most of the previous semester studying Korean/English with him every week and then spending every single day with him during the semester holidays. Suddenly he left, leaving me lost in a world between the singles and the attached. How can I describe it… I was like on a roller coaster ride of emotions. I missed him terribly… I wanted to talk to him every single day, if I didn’t, I would feel very upset and EMO. I would keep checking my phone for any messages from him. I felt like an emotionally needy deranged GF, except I didn’t tell him how I was really feeling… I successfully hid the on-the-verge-of-insanity me from him. I just told him life was difficult these days, with me feeling stressed over school and me being homesick. But really, I was feeling the after-effects of not having him by my side.

Well, I didn’t want him to think that I get upset so easily, that I am “starving” from his lack of attention to me. Although I really was.

I thought that this can’t go on… I can’t keep checking my phone and feel upset when there’s no message from him. I can’t keep waiting for his call and I can’t keep missing him TOO MUCH. I would probably unknowingly end up in an institute for deranged patients. So I told myself this cannot go on… I need to control my emotions, keep them in check. Tell myself, he’s back in his hometown and he has got lots of catching up to do with his family and friends. He being home means he’s back to his original place… he has his own things to do too. So I have to do my own things as well… keep myself busy, distracted and happy.

School work – oh I’ve been trying to drown myself in work and it did help. Although many a times my mind just wonders off…

Friends - These days I felt like I’ve lost a good friend or 2 because when I tried to hang out with them, the connection isn’t there anymore. And that’s because I spent so much time with A last sem, I had sort of “neglected” them and they have had their own circle of friends. But I still do have some friends I can hang out with… which I’m really happy to be able to spend more time with them now.

As time passes, I find myself adjusting back to the “singlehood” life… with a BF in Korea. My heart is recovering from the sudden “loss” of him physically.

The good thing is, he makes it a point to contact me almost everyday while I do the same too. I am not exactly sure how he is feeling about all this LDR stuff… but being back home does heal the heart so I reckon he’s having it easier than me.

Because of this, I found myself feeling homesick more often than ever… thinking about my family, friends and everyone back in SG. I am already counting down the days to going back home which is just 3months++ more!

Guess I have to keep my focus on my studies… READ READ READ: this semester’s motto. From news, to books, to journal articles (a must) to magazines. Reading not only keeps my mind off him, it also gives me knowledge and helps with assignments. Although I do read non-school-related stuff. Like the book I bought 2-3months ago. The Sex Life of My Aunt. I FINALLY finish reading it this evening. Took me soooo long but hey I could not touch the book at all during the July holidays because I was so busy. The book was not bad, a few surprising turns of events here and there. Some characters in the book reminded me of people around me, that’s why I decided to pick up this book and give it a try. I have to say I didn’t regret doing so. :)

Ekka! Hm…

2010-08-12T22:59:00.001+10:00

So there really wasn’t much to blog about for the past week until yesterday when I made a trip down to Ekka with my friend, gabby. Ekka is an annual festival (that lasts up to 10 days) held in Brisbane to showcase the agricultural industry in Queensland. It is originally called an Exhibition- to showcase the harvest made in Queensland for the year. One gets to enjoy performances by Aussie artistes (only available on certain dates), watch some k-9 competition, feed and come into close contact with farm animals such as sheep, lambs, calves and horses. If you’re lucky enough, you can even get to witness the birth of a lamb!

Well, I wasn’t lucky enough as I only got to see the after-birth lamb (photos to follow suit after this). Before heading to Ekka, I was pretty excited because I remembered having lots of fun last year. But somehow I wasn’t very hyped up when I got there. Things were almost the same and maybe it’s due to my experience in the morning that dampened my mood a little. Also, I was supposed to meet LN and her friends there, but due to some difficulties in contacting with each other, we didn’t manage to meet at all. :(

Anyways, Ekka was almost the same as last year. No wonder I heard how the Ekka business was reducing each year. Well, DUH! If you keep showing the same things every year, people will definitely get bored!

Gabby and I.

Cutie little kitten!!

After-birth of the lamb. Spot the yellow lamb- it came out 4 hours before we reached the place. And look at the mother’s BACKSIDE. I don’t know if that’s the umbilical cord…. but it’s from after birth.

Hello hello hello~~~~!!! If it’s none other than my favourite breed, the PUG!!! It is so so so so sooooo cute! It just has that dazed and pathetic look in which I just want to hug it!

So cute!!

OMG. I just found my 3rd favourite breed of dogs- the Pembroke Welsh Corgi. In short, just corgi. It’s so cute and has the stubbiest legs!

Corgi again.

Pineapplessss. Haven’t had one for so long. We got to try some “samples” and we just kept going back for more because it’s so sweet and juicy! XD I shall head down to Coles one day and get one pineapple.

Monster truck! Woooh~~~~

Fireworks- always one of the main highlights of Ekka! :D

Mini cookies and cream cupcake! Couldn’t resist trying it once I saw them! Delicious~!!!

I wish I could’ve spent Ekka with A but oh well…

Other than Ekka, there really isn’t much to blog about because I’m just spending most of my time in school… doing research and studying. It’s not that I want to spend time in school doing all that boring stuff but I have to. This semester is no joke! ><”

Look at this cute note I found stuck in one of the library room walls:

The meaning of dreams…

2010-08-04T21:25:00.001+10:00

Sometimes we dream of the weirdest things that will never ever happen in reality. Sometimes our dreams are reflections of our thoughts in the day. The past 3 consecutive nights, I have been dreaming about my mosquito (A)…

Also, I recently realised that when I have a very happy and relaxed conscious state of mind, I don’t usually dream at night. The time I most often dream is when I feel stress or nervous and when I suffer from insomnia. Insomnia, like when I lie in bed trying hard to sleep but can’t even when I’m sleepy… then when I finally drift into dreamland, my sub-conscious starts to get really active. Well, at least that’s the kind of dream pattern I realised although I know it’s not exactly 100% accurate.

Back to the dreams of him… For 3 consecutive nights, I dreamt of him with 2 of them reflecting the thoughts I had during the day and 1 that reflected something similar to what has happened in the past.

I thought it was kind of scary… because I’ve never dreamt of someone for so many consecutive nights. But I guess it’s because I miss him too much… and I tend to think a lot about him in the day.

Sometimes it’ll get too painful… so I’ve tried to distract myself by thinking more about my research paper and assignments.

Good thing it works. Bad thing is it tends to give me more stress! Either way, it’s not good, so I prefer thinking about my assignments.

This semester is tough

2010-07-31T22:10:00.001+10:00

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m doing 3 courses from my Asian Studies major and 1 Korean course this semester.

This is my last year in uni (yippee for that), so it’s expected that I’ve got to take on more challenging subjects. And oh boy, 3 out of 4 are courses you’re supposed to do in your last semester but I’m doing it on my 2nd last. Well, besides that fact, I also have more assignments this semester than ever before. ><””

It’s only the first week and I’m uber stress already. I have to do this research paper which takes up 65% of the total project course marks. It’s a semester worth of work… and I can choose a topic myself which makes things even more difficult because I have no idea what to write on although I’m in the midst of searching for a topic now.

I’ve been heading to school everyday for research even though I’ve only got 3-days classes/week, yeah even today, a Saturday. I feel like I need to camp in school or something… haha if only I could.

SCHOOOOOOOL…

2010-07-27T18:03:00.001+10:00

…has started! The new semester has begun and I’m already feeling stress for my Korean class. I’m taking an advanced class, actually the highest level, so the teacher uses Korean like 95% of the time. And that’s also the amount of % I can understand which is fortunate. This class has also more pros like Koreans who grew up in Aus and people who have lived in Korea for a period of time. But that’s a good challenge for me… it’ll drive me to study harder!

This semester I’m only taking one Korean class while the rest of my classes are part of my Asian Studies major. I’m taking Issues in Contemporary Asia, Research for Asian Studies and Asian Studies project.

Asian Studies project has only 4 classes throughout the semester because it’s individual project that requires us to write report and do presentation. Reminds me of FYP in poly. :/ Good thing is we can choose our own topics related to Asia. Grand! :D

So my timetable is pretty slack:

Monday 10-12pm
Tues 12-1pm
Thurs 12-2, 3-5pm

Well, on the topic of A. He has gone back to Korea on Sunday night. He went back on such a good timing- the night just before school starts. School helps to get my mind off him so that I won’t miss him too much. And the days when he went to Syd/Melb has also helped me become mentally stronger.

I realised I didn’t blog much about him, so I guess you guys don’t really know much about him (except for LY and KH). It’s kind of difficult for me to blog about him and the stuff we did together because it was all too lovely to be put into words. ^^ I reckon it would be so much better if you guys meet him in person.

The next time we meet will be during our next school holidays in dec/jan.

I miss him…

It’s Friday

2010-07-23T11:57:00.001+10:00

…and that means a few things-

1) He’s coming back from his Syd/Melb trip this evening.

2) We (A and I) are going to Moreton Island for our last vacation this weekend.

3) A is going back to Korea in 2 days.

4) 2nd semester of 2010 is starting in 3 days.

5) I am feeling a mixed of emotions.

After so long…

2010-07-20T23:34:00.001+10:00

I’m finally free enough to blog. It’s been busy busy busy ever since the last day of exams. I could not find the time to sit down and blog until now… until now, when A is away on a 4-day vacation in Sydney/Melbourne.

The past month in a nutshell:

Two besties, LY and KH, came over to Brisbane for about 12 days. Together with A, the 4 of us spent all those days travelling around Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast. Everyday, from early morning till late at night. We went to so many places, probably all the tourist attractions in Brisbane and GC. We even rented a car for two days- 30% of the time I drove while A drove for the rest of the time. I was pretty scared while driving because it has been 6 months since I last drove and I’m not very experienced, plus Aussie roads are so different from SG’s. ><”

Photos have been uploaded by LY in FB.

I love this photo! Lol~

Had so much fun with them~

After LY and KH left, I was pretty sad because of the sudden emptiness I felt. But of course, with A’s company, I felt better. We spent all our time together… plus, most of my friends in Brisbane went back to their home country. So I was only left with A~ not that I mind. :P

But… he’s going back to Korea soon… :’(

Go Reds~!!

2010-06-15T00:00:00.001+10:00

You guys have to see my dinner today:

It’s bulgogi (bbq beef), kimchi and one of my favourite Korean soup dish, 육게장 yuk-ge-jang! (Spicy beef soup)

The soup is cooked by A’s friend (who is also his roommate). Home-made yuk-ge-jang, how awesome is that?!

The bulgogi was also given to me by the same friend. He actually gave me a whole box of marinated bulgogi which can probably last me a week or so. It’s too much actually. ><

I’m always heavily pampered when I visit A’s place. He’ll cooked for me, his friend will cook for me, and what do I do? I just sit there and be served. Well I do help out with the dishes but I still feel too pampered by them.

Anyways, World Cup season! Everyone’s going nuts over this tournament! On the day of the match between Korea and Greece, my friends, A and I watched the match at this open restaurant in the middle of the city. ALL the Korean restaurants broadcasting the match are fully booked so we had to settle for an Aussie restaurant that regularly broadcasts World Cup matches. It wasn’t so bad. Many Koreans were at the restaurants too… probably also the ones who couldn’t find any other place to watch the match.

Watching a Korea match with Koreans is soooo different. You can feel the intensity, the awesome atmosphere and the pride for their national team. They would burst out in loud cheers when a goal was scored then followed by the national cheer, “대한민국!” (dae-han-min-guk!) *clapclapclapclapclap* Not only when a goal was scored, Koreans would clap whenever the Korean goalie saved a goal from being scored. The Korean team really did well that night, they were really alert, many good saves by the goalie and the national soccer hero, Park Ji Sung who scored the 2nd goal swiftly. So good.

Some of you might have seen my photos in fb. After the victorious match, Koreans in the city were cheering and dancing. You can hear the cheers from different corners of the city. It’s crazy! Haha. We joined the crowd in cheering as well. ^^

That same day in the afternoon, A and I went cycling! :D It felt good to cycle again after so long but my leg ached a little after that. Understandable since I haven’t hit the gym for some time. :x

Exclusive photo once again~ I hate wearing the helmets, seriously. It flattens my hair but it’s illegal to cycle without a helmet.

Completion

2010-06-04T20:09:00.001+10:00

…not of my assignments but of reading “The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time”. After saying good-bye to A this evening, I went to one of the quietest foodcourt in the city and decided to finish the book right there. I just sat there for about an hour reading the book because I always like being alone and having to sit there reading alone gave me a peaceful feeling. Even though it was peak hour during dinner time, the foodcourt was still rather empty and that’s why I chose that place, plus it kept me away from the cold outside.

I felt so accomplished after reading the book! A refreshing feeling because I haven’t read in a long time. I love the book! After closing the book, I looked at it and thought, “too bad this isn’t mine and that I have to return it.” To the library.

It’s weird how once you start reading a book, you would want to keep reading even when you’ve finished with it. I’ve just moved on to another book but I think this time I’m going to spend more time completing it since this is exam period and I still have got assignments not done.

That’s the book I bought a few weeks ago and just started after finishing “The Curious Incident…”

I didn’t buy it because of the title although it was definitely the one that caught my attention. LOL. I bought it because the story seems interesting enough and it’s only $7aud.

Oh. This is just random, but today I saw one of A’s female co-workers and was stunned by her beauty! She’s Korean (all of A’s co-workers are) and she was so pretty…. I don’t know how he can like me when he’s surrounded by pretty girls.

The End…

2010-06-04T00:28:00.001+10:00

And there we have it. The last day of classes for Semester 1, 2010. Once again, typical words for this- HOW TIME FLIES!! It’s half of 2010 already! Just one more semester to go and it’ll be LONG vacation which means HOME. :D Oh how I look forward to that…

This semester has definitely been a super KOREAN-fied one as all my courses are part of the Korean Major. And that’s all really really good. But next semester I have to focus more on the Asian Studies Major… which means toning down the Korean stuff. However, I would definitely try to take at least one Korean course next year to keep my knowledge of the language intact!

Anyway, less of the future more of the present, right now preparations for exams are on its way. Except that I still have a couple of assignments to complete and fret not, the deadline is on the last day of exams! :D

Last day of exams is also the day LY is going to arrive in Brisbane! My goodness, exciting times are coming ahead! Follow by KH who is coming 2 days after her. I have to start planning an itinerary for them. Revision week, I promise. :P

When by myself…

2010-06-02T22:23:00.001+10:00

Recently, I started reading “The Curious Incident of The Dog in The Night-Time”. I’m sure most of you would have heard of this title before since it’s quite a famous novel. The book is very interesting and engaging to read. It is written in the view point of a 15 yr old who has Asperger’s Syndrome, which is very intriguing! It’s not everyday that we get to come across people with autism much less understand what they’re trying to express. So having able to read in the view point of someone who is psychologically different is quite fascinating. I’m into 3/4 of the book after just two days and I think that’s quite something considering how long I have not read a complete novel in so long. :P

Today, while crossing one of the streets in Brisbane city, I came across an old lady driver in a car, which was about to exit from a carpark, smoking. Her cigarette caught my eye because it wasn’t just any cigarette. It was a cigarette in a cigarette holder- just like the one Cruella Deville in 101 Dalmations always smokes from (photo below).

Initially I didn’t know what it was called, so just according to my observation, which is a metal tube holding a cigarette, I googled “cigarette holder” and I was right! At least to Wikipedia. :P

So, for awhile I just stared at the old lady smoking from the cigarette holder. Seeing something new in person for the first time usually leads me to staring at it for a few seconds and what went through my head was, “woah, it’s not only seen on TV/movies!”

My precioussss~~ hehe

2010-05-31T19:44:00.001+10:00

Once again, exclusively for blog readers only. :P

Sorry for the lousy lighting and the unrevealed birthday card. The card is too mushy for words. LOL.

Queen Seon Deok- Epic drama!

2010-05-28T22:55:00.001+10:00

Okay, I realised I haven’t blogged anything about Queen Seon Deok after finally completing it 2 weeks ago. This drama totally deserved all that hype it has received ever since airing in Korea. It is SO good. So so so awesome. Each episode leaves you at the edge of your seat, with the twists and conspiracies entwining the characters, it definitely is worth watching even if it’s a 62-episode drama!

This drama has casts who were pretty under-rated before but ever since Queen Seon Deok, it brought their status to a much higher level which they well deserved. Each character was played out so well, it was difficult not to be immersed in the story. Go Hyun Jung and Kim Nam Gil playing Mishil and Bidam respectively have definitely received the most attention among the casts. I must say both characters were indeed unforgettable and convincing.

The multiple expressions of Bidam.

Oh yes, not to mention Yoo Seungho, the very talented child actor and currently one of my favourite actors, also played an important role in this drama. He is such a talent! I really like him~ ^^

The ending of the drama was a peaceful one although Bidam has too much of a tragic ending. :( I wish the writers didn’t have to give him such an ending. Well, I guess Bidam’s ending was the only unsatisfactory factor of this drama. Other than that, this drama is ‘a’ to the ‘w’ to the ‘e’ some!

Andrew and I

2010-05-28T18:05:00.001+10:00

Exclusive photo for my blog readers~ hahaha. :P

taken today at UQ~

He came to UQ for me and we had lunch that I made. The rice I cooked was horrible- super hard… didn’t put enough water. Compare with the food he made for me, my lunch was so terrible. Lol… ><”

Argh… I’m wearing the birthday present he gave me but it’s half hidden in the photo. :/

p.s. I seriously need a hair dye. Look at my ugly black roots!

What’s been going on?

2010-05-27T23:11:00.001+10:00

Korean tests tests tests- oral and written! ><” This week and next week…

Thanks to A I’ve got some practice for oral tests ^^ but you know when I’m nervous I tend to forget a lot of things. That was what happened for today’s oral. :( Although my prof said I did well but I don’t think so.

There’s another oral test tomorrow. For that test, we need to write up something on our own- anything about Korea. So I decided to write on my favourite Korean variety show- Family Outing~!! :D It’s a familiar and fun topic to write on. Even though I had difficulties trying to come up with a variety of sentence structures, I had fun doing it! And the prof only requires us to write half a page, so it was not too difficult.

As for my new commitment, things are going great so far even though we can’t see each other so often due to our schedules. I reckon we’ll have more time together in July when he quits his job and me having semester break. You know, he is so so so sweet. He did many many things for me even before we became official. ^^

If you’ve seen my fb…

2010-05-24T22:22:00.001+10:00

….yes I am attached! I still don’t believe it. I am not SINGLE anymore. I have a BF. Still feels surreal. Especially since he’s Korean.

The Golden Key

2010-05-19T21:06:00.001+10:00

I am finally 21, the legal age. For all 89ers, this year is our year! That’s why events and photos of 21st birthday parties are popping up every now and then in Facebook. Although I felt that it was really such a pity I could not celebrate this important birthday in Singapore where all my family and close friends are, I looked on the brighter side of things. Thanks to my good friend, LN, we managed to throw a successful 21st party on 15th May 2010.

It was a Saturday, the perfect day when everyone could just stay out a little bit later than usual and slack a little. Initially, the party was supposed to be held at the BBQ area of my apartment but when it became evening, the lights at the area went off! The area was so dark, we couldn’t even see each other’s facial expressions. In the end, we all moved to my place where, luckily, it is big enough to hold a party. :)

My party was a potluck party so I informed everyone to bring food (either cooked by themselves or bought). Most of my friends brought food which they cooked themselves! Such a homely sight and I really appreciated their efforts! The food was so delicious and it was like a home-made buffet. There was so much food as well… everyone ate till bloated! Well, at least I did!

After dinner, all of us sat around the living room to play games that LN and I have planned. We played “dare” and “indian poker”. Dare game was awesome because of the punishment but naturally I got picked the most to do penalties since I was the birthday girl. The penalties were madness, though I was one of the creators but I still had to admit that! Anyways I felt super embarrassed doing those penalties. Had to pole dance, do stupid actions… LOL. But I guess that’s the whole point of making it fun!

After games, we had “cake-cutting”! But in my birthday, there is no cake. There’s only DONUTS to make up for the cake! The reason why there is no cake is all my fault. The day before my birthday I was supposed to order a custom-made cake before 2pm but I TOTALLY forgot it. TOTALLY until 5pm which was too late. :( I was crushed that time because the cake we wanted to order was huge, all chocolatey and in the shape of “21”.

But well, it could not be helped. So instead of a normal cake, I decided to use donuts to make it more special. I mean, normal cakes are always used during normal birthdays but 21st has to be a little different. ^^

I’m so glad the party was a success and that everyone enjoyed it! As I’ve never held parties before, I was a little worried at first that the party might be a flop… but thanks to my awesome friends it went well!

Looking on the bright side, in future if anyone was to ask me how I celebrated my 21st, I would have a different answer than most Singaporeans and that is, I celebrated in Australia by having a party! I feel really thankful for the people who turned up and really appreciate them for making the party such a success!

-Photos in FB-

Hi and bye

2010-05-18T00:11:00.001+10:00

Been busy with two tests these two days. Will update about my awesome 21st party soon! Tomorrow, I promise! But anyways I think some of you might have already seen the photos in facebook. :)

Always fun~

2010-05-09T18:15:00.001+10:00

Yesterday went out with A, T and C again! Haha~ We went to watch Iron Man 2 together. The movie has a lot of boring scenes! So many dialogues! Too little action! I almost fell asleep at a point. Generally, I thought the whole movie was kind of lame. Not worth going to the cinemas.

After the movie, we went to eat at a Singapore restaurant. I don’t know, it doesn’t seem like A and T were impressed with the food that they ate. Anyways the restaurant wasn’t selling authentic Singaporean food anyway. But it was one of the easily accessible place to get a close to home kind of food in the city.

When dinner was done, we didn’t want to go home so early so we went to 노래방 (noraebang)!! It means karaoke. We only sang for an hour though but I still felt good, after so long of not going to a karaoke. Plus, I can sing Korean songs! Very shiock. But I thought we weren’t very high because we’re not close so I didn’t want to go crazy in front of them. LOL.

After noraebang, we went to drink soju!! LOL. Soju again! :P But this time super fun because we played drinking games. Haha~ T taught us a new game… it was so fun and he himself kept losing thus having to drink more. And the rest of us kept sabotaging him as well. XD

Gosh, I had a fun time yesterday. ^^

And well, I’m looking forward to next week because it’s going to be a special day and I hope everything being planned will go smoothly! :D

In love with…

2010-05-05T22:48:00.001+10:00

… this song: There is no love by Gummy