image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/margolove/1810357551/

Yup that’s right. I’ll shut up after I finish writing this (I tend to mumble when i write). Probably, every student on KIS blogs have at least one post about stressful academic life. I promised myself this international blog shall not be my private journal (Ms. Patterson warned us), especially something about my stupid dumb-low grades, but after 5 new updates on Edline, our school’s grade updater for students and parents, I want to burst out into tears on a peaceful Friday night.

It’s been at least 2 months since most teachers updated our grades. And how surprising….

My heart is pumping- my brain is shaking. Why am i freaking out about college, right now, this moment- when I have 2 more years.. Not to be a sick show off.. Although my english may not be perfect, I used to be a perfect A student at Santa Catalina School, a private-at least in the top 50s in the US. But what the HACK is happening with only 3 weeks left of sophomore school year. I have an ugly…. GPA.

A sickly lowering B in math, dangling A-^s, and barely living A^s. It’s not my parents, It’s me. I want my painful high school years to be worth something. Please lord teachers………. HELP ME

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10864405@N05/2089403584/

I decided to write something mature and outside the ordinary box. With an artistic title, “Contemporary Collaboration” I had nothing in mind to write about. I thought, “maybe photographs will be able to enable my stiff brain to expand and flex and give me something about this CC.” There were some photos related to this title on Flickr.

The pictures were mostly related to the actual type of art- contemporary arts. Then there was this photograph. Title: collaboration- follow your art+death to contemporary arts. I didn’t understand the second part of this title: “to contemporary arts” but my brain started to move side to side up and down.

There are so many myths about the dead existing here on earth with us. But what I want to focus is not about ghosts. It is about life and death- the beginning and end of our life. It is really scary to admit the fact that one day, without any hints, our days, rather it’s happy or not, will be over. Wouldn’t it be great to be alive and dead at the same time, if we had the choice to not die if we had the choice? I guess I am going back to the idea of ghosts. I’d rather exist as a ghost if I am promised an eternal life. Why am I so afraid of death..? I don’t know. I’m always afraid of change.. Or more or less- endings sometimes terrify me.

What I love most is not going shopping all day with my mom’s credit card, or watch BigBang perform their latest hit songs. It is to sit at a quiet pretty café with few of my closest friends and talk about absolutely nothing. Talk about school, work, future, teachers, friends, boys, people passing by us, parents, clothes, celebrities, music, food, nails, hair and so much more.

Here’s one in Busan- near the sea.

Image Credit: http://map.cyworld.com/theme/tour.map?cmd=detail&tour_id=554

As a café loving lazy head, it brightens up my day to see all the pretty new cafes here in small Korea. Personally, in California the only café or coffee shop I ever saw or went to were StarBucks, or brunch restaurants. But here in Korea,, the café industry is developing and modernized. Although you, the reader might not be able to understand Korean, check out this website. The pictures are of a small toast café in Hongdae, Korea. There are son many places like this in Korea and makes me jump out of my chair in excitement of visiting these recommended shops. This is another café, at Dae Hak Roe, the “college street”.

The café industry, or the restaurant industry has extremely improved and have been modernized. Most cafes here in Korea are eye grabbing like these two places. In my opinion, the must-have aspects of a café are three main things. They are: the look, food, and manner.

Isn’t this what men look for in women? (:

A 4 hour non-sitting concert was very extremely painful and infected me with those evil viruses. At my school, Korean International School, one of the clubs, opened a fund raising concert called the Project Global Cooling Concert in order to help the global cooling project with the tickets sold. The concert took place at Hongdae, one of Korea’s hippest young partying cities. The party was held from 4:30pm through 8 pm. Although, I was able to hide the painful standing from the performers- it indeed gave me the evil sore throat. Band performers were mostly from my school. Three KIS student band performed and kept me awake with a moving head and feet, following the rhythm and beat. More surprisingly, the two faculty bands were incredible. I’ve never imagined my own teachers could be so passionate about music when they always seemed to prepare for classes. Rock on Mr. Brightman with your fabulous drum sticks and Mr. Joo with your cool stage manners and singing skills! But most of all, the SIS band, from Seoul International School, gave me goose bumps. Unlike my fellow schoolmates, it was my first time hearing and seeing the famous SIS band. Simply, they were like real professionals.  The guitarists, drummer, vocalists were outstanding and moved the whole crowd as one. I heard they had a personal website, but I don’t know the address right now. I will for sure link it on my blog!

It was a great way to help the earth and have a fantastic time experiencing the talented people at my school and fellow high school students.

Image Credit: http://scareyshop.com/catalog/images/Sore-Throat.jpg

I feel sick to my stomach. I now understand and feel sympathy for those who are unable to talk. I guess the hard rocked on weekend is getting me. This weekend was crazy. After a full 12 hours of partying to celebrate Yoohee’s birthday, I traveled for over 1.5 hours just on subway to watch the 4 hour loud hot standing PGC concert. With barely sleeping 5 hours for 2 days, I felt like somebody kicked and punched me. A better description for those who don’t know the pain of being physically heart, like me, would be comparing it to the stiff headache after traveling in a plane for 12 hours straight from California to Korea. I passionately dislike riding planes, but took an imaginary trip with NO intention this weekend. After 2 days of partying like WILD animals I have the worst sore throat. It feels like swallowing melted foil paper whenever swallowing saliva. There is no sound coming out of my throat. Even after sleeping for 12 hours everyday it feels like I slept for 12 seconds, or suffered from waking up every two minutes even without the need of going to the bathroom.

My body is definitely too week to defend those evil bacteria in the awful air in this humid world. Today, I got a healthy ant-bacteria shot on my butt. I haven’t had a butt shot in over 6 years, it was extremely embarrassing. But the embarrassing butt shot isn’t so effective. “Like colds, the vast majority of sore throats are caused by viral infections. This means most sore throats will NOT respond to antibiotics. Many people have a mild sore throat at the beginning of every cold. When the nose or sinuses become infected, drainage can run down the back of the throat and irritate it, especially at night. Or, the throat itself can be infected.” (Medical Encyclopedia)

Pass my bacteria to hell and let it burn…. Gosh it’s so incredibly painful.

What’s on the news today!!

Image credit: http://cynews.cyworld.com/service/news/ShellView.asp?LinkID=1&ArticleID=2008051910331111210

A lonely girl friend-less college student invented a 2D fake girl friend in America. How amazing. I always imagined for a fake 2D boyfriend. Like the picture shown, the girl on the right is not n actual person. It’s a 2D, laser picture of a young woman lying down with her back facing the ceiling. Although it is not 3D, a talking robot, it definitely is an improvement from a totally lonely soul. This college student from NYU says that the computer can notice the movement of the real person and activate the 2D laser to also move its body. I would appreciate one like this! When we’re so extremely busy, if we have a temporary, only existing lover, when we want one in our bed times is extraordinary!

It also partly scares me of what loneliness and desperation can do to us. Furthermore, there are many loneliness filling items such as a pillow dressed in a man’s pajama with one arm sticking around for women to forcefully put the pillow arm around their shoulders and many more. Gee… I’d like one!

(From the left: Victory, G-Dragon, Tae Yang, Dae Sung, and TOP)

BigBang is a 5 boy group- and their name is self explanatory. Right after they’re first debut, no doubt their songs and style was a huge BANG in the Korean music industry. Even before their official debut, they were famous from a Korean version of “Making The Band” with Yang Hyun Suk, not Puffy.

• G-Dragon is the leader of this group and has been apart of the YG family since he was a little child, almost for 8 years now. He produces Big Bang’s album and writes songs that unites the millions of  ring tones in Korea as one- Big Bang’s songs. And he is a fabulous rapper.
• Tae Yang is a vocal in this group. Just like G-Dragon he has been apart of this entertainment for almost 8 years, with G-Dragon. His vocal chords are like a huge trumpet because of his echoing deep voice.
• Victory, _{or Seung Ri} is the youngest of the member. His dancing skills are incredible and has a high pitched voice that adds a little spice to the songs.
• Dae sung is the smiling machine. He also is the vocalist with his husky, unique voice. He is extremely funny with his boring jokes. I adore him for his unique 4D, not 3D, mindset.
• Last but NOT LEAST, is my favorite member: TOP. Yes, he is the ^TOP on my list. He no doubt has an extremely deep voice, sometimes compared to a “creature’s voice.” He is another rapper in this group and brightens up the group with Dae Sung and their unusual jokes.

This is the first boy group I ever went CRAZY with. If you mess with Big Bang, you mess with me..
(Be careful John)

This year, they produced an all-English recorded album called “For the World.” This was for their international buisness. Some of their best hit title songs are: Lie and Last Farewell. They have so much hit songs that it would be easier for you to check out the Korean group- BIGBANG.
Check out their website and listen to their Banging songs!

The Korean music industry has 3 MAIN Entertainment management companies.

They are: SM, JYP, and YG. All the names of these three companies stand for the names of the president of the company.

• SM: Lee Su Man is the owner of the SM entertainment. Although Lee Su Man was not a singer, his company has been extremely successful. All of his idol groups have been successful in Korea. Dong Bang Shin Gi-a 5 member Korean Pop Idol group is mentioned in the book of Guinness World Record for having the most fans in the world..
• JYP, mentioned in the previous posts was an ugly, one of Korea’s sexiest man singer when he was young, and still is today. He works at America with one of the greatest singers as a producer today.
• And lastly YG, was part of Korea’s BIGGES IDOL group- Su Tae Ji and the kids band when he was younger.

Few of my favorite singers- Big Bang, Gummy, Se7en, Jinusean- are part of the YG family, or also called the Yang Goon Entertainment. The owner of this entertainment, Mr. Yang, was part of the biggest Idol Group in the history of Korea, “Su Tae Jee and the kids.” It would not be an exaggeration to describe the YG Entertainment as Korea’s biggest Hip Hop & Pop management company. Check out their website. Because of their international extensions, it is easy to view the English website.

: JYP

: SM

These videos are the performances of singers during the end of the year concert in 2007. In my opinion, the best overall company is the YG family (my personal favorite), then JYP, then SM. SM entertainment singers are almost products- rather than singers. They can’t sing….

But sure YG can, and maybe JYP (:

      
Hmm… I wonder what I should get my friend for her birthday? Let’s GOOGLE what summer born need for their birthdays…. What? “Students born at end of school year more likely to struggle?”

As I was randomly looking up what I should buy my May- born friend for her birthday, I got to read this article about how the UK proved that summer born tend to slip during the school year than those who were born during one of the early months of the school year. I cannot but disagree with this article, written in London pretty recently in 2007. First of all, it might be smarter to say all summer born students tend to slack rather than months at the end of the school year because the date system differs in different countries. Of course all summer born students are not stupid. Most of my friends for some reason have summer birthdays but no doubt does better in school than me, a September birthday girl. In this article, the first three paragraphs talk about how the government proved this theory… And the rest of the article is how the researchers are trying to justify the testing system for those students born during the summer time. How STUPID? They think they are justifying, but no. They are making ‘supposed to be smart’ students, like me, mad.
But one aspect I liked about this article was they compared the better grades of the September birthdays to the lower grades of August birthdays. As I was partly enjoying this pride building article, I confused my self for awhile. Although August is part of the summer season, it’s when most high schools begin their new school year. So perhaps, shouldn’t the GPA percentage of students with August birthdays be higher than students with September birthdays? Because TECHNICALLY August is when school starts, and August is the real “beginning of the school year” and September is closer to the “end of the year” and according to this article, September students should be NATURALLY stupider than August borns.

In many ways, this article is a complete nonsense and probably written for fun by researchers who think they are SO smart, just like Algy says. There are so many more aspects of the human brain that can be tested and studied. Let’s not make things complicated with BIRTHDAYS now…

Image Credit: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/images/070504-sumo-pictures.jpg

This photo is a picture in Japan during one of their traditional rituals. Japanese people believe that a Sumo wrestler is able to help a baby cry out his or her wish for good health in the later future. This superstition seems to be a very appropriate ritual for Japan; the mix of Japan’s traditional sport, Sumo, with the healthy future of children is a perfect match for Japan. But where do these superstitions come from? Who started blowing out candles with a silent wish in their hearts? After researching about the various superstitions throughout the world, the world is very CREATIVE.

• Number representations: In the three biggest Asian countries, China, Japan and Korea, number 4 is an unlucky number. In all three languages, the pronunciation of number 4 is similar to the word death. Here in Korea, in some buildings, many times the 4th flour does not exist. For example, the 5th flour is after the 3rd flour, or the letter ‘f’ represents the 4th flour instead. In the West, the number 13 symbolizes bad luck.
• Direction representations: Although, horseshoes are not easily seen in normal houses, it is believed that when the horseshoes are seen as a U, it brings luck. But if seen reversed or upside down, it is said to bring bad luck.
• Personal Experience: I have broken many mirrors throughout my 15 years of living. Every time I break one mirror, people told me I would face trouble for 7 years. On Superstition-Wikipedia, it says that to undo this evil bad luck; I should bury the broken pieces under the moon-as the ancient people recommended. Also I always dry my umbrella at my indoor basement. But it’s written that an open umbrella indoor is unlucky. (Hope these are not true)
• In Sweden: Simply setting a key on the table signifies bad luck. There is a fairy tale-like superstition (my favorite from this research). It is said to believe that on midsummer, (just like Shakespeare!) putting 7-9 flowers under a pillow will able the dreamer to see the future lovers face!
•  Never heard of superstitions: In Scotland, setting new shoes on a bed brings bad luck, coming from the old traditions of marriage. Also, walking under a ladder is not recommended, but the spell (?) can be undone by speedily walking back under it. Placing a hat is bad luck in North Carolina. In Russia, it is best to sit on one’s suitcase before taking a trip.

Is it possible these could be true?

Information Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition