My favourite Professor in UQ

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!!!

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!!

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….

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…

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here comes the Mid-term break!

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

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