For the Kids

Love this video. I can't wait to get my mac and new ipod soon. I'm soooo behind on music....

Quick concert recap

The concert on Friday was really amazing. One of my best times ever so far in Korea.

It was at a smaller venue, and I still wasn't able to get right up close enough to the stage because I got there about half an hour before opening time and the line went allllll the way up to the roof...., but the crowd was pretty darn close to the performers.

The opening acts were Supreme Team, D.N.G., Beatbox DG and Beanizzimo (spelling?? Don't remember.) and of course, Epik High. And dude, DOK2 is two years younger than me! Dammit, younger kids who are more accomplished than me...

Every time I see these hip hoppers, I get closer each time. And dude, I totally have a big crush on Beatbox DG now. The man is freaking HOT. And actually, there are quite a few attractive hip hop artists in the Korean hip hop/rap scene. Keke. xD One of the guys in Supreme Team is really really cute.

I'm getting more exposed to Asian Hip Hop obviously. The Korean scene is just the beginning. There are Japanese Urban artists that I was just about to get into before my laptop crashed and died.

Is going to these concerts having an adverse effect on me? I don't think so, I just hope this new path might take me somewhere someday.

Having no camera really sucks.

Because since that unfortunate day, there have been many events where I wished I could snap so many awesome shots of art and people and just memories. Ugh.

Well, on the plus side, I am currently eating cereal for the first time in Korea in Madison's room. Ooh, the nostalgia. I love cereal, haven't realized how much of an American necessity it is.

But on the other negative side, I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for when I leave Korea in about two weeks and it makes me start to feel sad about leaving all the friends I've made here, plus just missing the city of Seoul. So recently and probably until the end of my time here, my feelings will go bipolar on me. >.<

From having an awesome time and feeling like the luckiest girl in the world, to feeling anxious and sad about the inevitable. I know deep down that I will definitely be returning to this country soon. Hopefully, soon.

On a totally different note, can someone scream lucky coincidence? Apparently, Epik High will be introducing their new Map the Soul member DOK2 (pronounced doe-kee) next week at a venue ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM MY UNIVERSITY.

HAH. I'm totally going to make the effort to go to this event. Not sure if I'll be able to reserve a space online since the payment method has to be the Korean way. But paying at the door is only two dollars more expensive, and I suppose it's a first come first serve for those who didn't reserve. Hm.

We'll see.

Free Music Rerecorded

This isn't the main video I meant in my other post. This rerecording has been sitting in my computer for quite awhile now, waiting for me to finish it up, and it just so happened that I did so today.

The video that I really want to get done soon, hopefully by tomorrow, is a response message to the Aussie Team. As you know, I've met some Australians at Hongdae, and apparently they've found out I do rap videos. Madison and I went clubbing with them and The Frenchies on Friday night, and they requested that I bust out a freestyle on the spot, but I was too slow and too tired to come up with anything, so I just settled with a short Epik High cover.

Basically, it's an ego thing, and I just want to secure my spot as a potential female Asian rapper in this music biz, hah.

Epik High [e] Parade Concert video clips

I finally figured out how to successfully upload videos onto youtube in Korea. Use the Japanese youtube site, and upload only avi formats. Good God.

Anyways, one of these days, I really need to get myself a higher quality camera. Or even a digi camcorder or something...

Saw a cutie at church today xD

He was sitting in the row in front of me to my right side. I couldn't get a chance to view him face front, but his profile side is quite cute, haha.
Too bad he left right after mass ended.

This is just a picture post for the Epik High concert. I realized I must have said enough about the concert in my shoutout rap video, so here are just the pictures. More are on my facebook. I really wanted to post this with the video clips, though, but it's just taking too much time to wait until I could meet Madison and ask to use her Mac.

 

 

 

 

Chuseok

This week is finally over T_T.

It wasn't a bad week or anything, don't worry. It was just really packed, and a little stressful. And I had a couple of off/anti-social days, where I just did not want to do anything at all. >.< Like I said earlier, the Cheonju trip threw off my homework schedule like major, and I wasn't the only one. Other international kids too, haha. All of a sudden, everything was due in the same week.

But anyways. As you all may or may not know, tomorrow is Chuseok, the Korean Thanksgiving. It's a three day celebration that actually starts today, and ends on Sunday. Gina has invited me to her place to spend the day cooking and doing Chuseok stuff, I think.

I'm looking forward to this break.

About the Epik High concert and Cheonju Trip, I'm having problems with youtube and facebook upload. My laptop that has not fully recovered from the last virus attack, will freak out sometimes when I try to upload pictures. And for some reason, my laptop just won't upload anything onto youtube. I had to use Madison's Mac to upload the Butterfly Effect video, which took just one try. =_= Right now I'm having difficulty uploading the Epik High concert clips that I compiled together in one video.

Midterms is coming soon now that I think about it o_O.

Oh my. Is it that time already??

To Do list getting a tad longer and weekend plans.

Soooooo, I've been getting a little busier. In case you hadn't noticed, lol.

No worries, the blog will still be updated quite regularly, but there will be times when the traffic is slow due to some special circumstances. Like this weekend, starting tomorrow actually, I'll be going on a trip with the International Center and other International students to a tour that will last until Saturday, which means I won't have computer access for those two days. We're going to a place called Cheongju, and I'm not exactly sure what we're doing, and I'm not sure how many people will actually go. I do know that Madison and Esther will both be going too, so it should be fun.

I really hoped that I would be able to post up RSS's dream interpretation, but to no avail, as I actually had homework due this week. And next week too, and because of the trip this weekend, I had to try to get as much done for next week as possible. >.<

Oy.

I need to find a spray bottle, do handfuls of sketches of plants and flowers, and finish two paintings, still. Wah. All of a sudden, I have lots of things to do. What happend to all that free time? 

Oh yeah, and I still have to figure out what to do for the next self portrait thing. >.< I hope there will be some down time this weekend for me to figure all that out.

But anyways. I'm really really hoping that after the trip, I can put up RSS's dream as well as a recap of the Epik High concert last Saturday.

My next post probably won't be until Sunday. Saturday night at the earliest. Hwaiting to us all!

Butterfli Effect

This is the second self portrait assignment for my drawing class. =D My teacher loves it, haha.

Again, he likes what we've been coming up with, so now for next week I have to think of something else to do besides this now....maybe I'll do another rap with dancing footage?

Shoutout Rap

I struggled so much with this simple task of uploading videos. You have no idea.....>.<

Rushing

Some quick updates:

Almost done interpreting RSS's dream.
My roommate, Juyoung, and I talked for hours last night. We got to know each other a lot better.
Bought a bunch of Epik High CDs the other day at COEX, and right now I'm about to leave to head over to Olympic Park for the concert.
Saw the movie "9" with Gina yesterday. Great movie.
I still haven't been able to decide between the eye sketch or the book sketch yet.

Hmm. Yeah, that's all I can think about for now.

Burger

My current roommate, Juyoung, is so nice. Well, we both started leaving each other snakes and stuff on each other's desk since the semester started. Juyoung started the trend, I think, to be nice and make me feel comfortable, but I started to give her treats too in return, and it's been like that since. Today, she got me a little mini burger for dinner from the convenience store. It's not a fancy dinner, but the act is very nice of her. I'll be leaving cookies on her desk tomorrow morning, haha.

What you see here is a picture of the Olympic Hall that Epik High will be performing at. My ticket gets me standing in that Purple Section B part in front of the state on the right side.

I spent about an hour grinding ink today. For the Oriental Watercolor class. I bought premade ink too, though that is just for practice, and probably in class. Tomorrow, we start sketching plants. I'm a little nervous for tomorrow. While I am well settled in my other classes, it's only the second time I meet tomorrow's teachers, since the semester started on a Tuesday and not a Monday after all. I hope I don't make a total fool of myself. >.<

Epikness

 

I have a chance to go see Epik High at Olympic Park next Saturday after all!

Here's a story I have yet to mention: While I was still studying Korean at Berkeley this past summer, I met this Korean girl on the bus. Her Korean name is Kwon Dongjin and her English name is Gina. The way we met seems way coincidental like, meant to be or something.

It was on one of those days on the bus in the morning on my way to Berkeley, and I was studying my Korean daily vocabulary as usual. Gina noticed my notebook with all my Korean writing and practicing in it, but she hesitated talking to me at first because, usually people really keep to themselves on the buses, and in my case, I was just really concentrating on studying for the next vocab quiz.

Here's the thing: we both got off at the same stop, and because we seemed to be walking towards the same direction, she decided to ask me about my learning Korean. I figured she was a native Korean since she has an accent, and she seemed really curious and friendly, so I decided to hold that five minute conversation with her.

Turns out Gina is a nurse doing an English abroad program for six months at Berkeley. She was to go back to Korea in September. I told her I was taking Korean because I was going to Hongik University this fall semester. She was really impressed, for some reason, haha, and the more we learned about each other, the more eager she was to talk more later. We exchanged emails that same day.

Since then, we only saw other one or two other times on the bus. We had class around the same time, but we kept missing each other from taking the bus at different times. However, she started emailing me and we've kept in touch since. She gave me tips on what clothes to bring to Korea for the fall semester, how excited she was to show me around in Seoul when she got back, and all sorts of stuff. I figured, hey, this is good, I have one other person to look forward to meeting with in Korea.

I gave Gina my Korean phone number after I got it on one of the emails I sent her. Earlier this week, she texted me, said she recently returned to Seoul, and we should meet up for lunch on the weekend. Today, I met Gina for the first time in Seoul since we last saw each other in Oakland. At the Hongdae subway station, she announced that she's taking me to see 창경궁 (Changgyeong Palace), one of the five palace areas left from the Chosun dynasty.

It was really cool, and fun to chat with her again. Despte what she says, her English is pretty good, and I'd say better than my Korean as we had conversed mostly in English today. After lunch and during the crazy rain that plagued as soon afterwards, we kind of took the liberty to talk more about the differences between English and Korean and apparently, she's talked about me to a lot of her roommates (while she was living in Oakland) and her friends in Seoul. A Vietnamese-American girl learning Korean to study abroad at a prestigious art college. I don't understand how they find that so fascinating, but apparently her friends all want to meet me at some point. They called Gina a couple times and all times Gina said she was with me and we were waiting for the rain to stop so we could go to Changgyeong Palace. We also did a lot of Korean/English 101 with each other, haha. She'd ask me some things about English, and I'd ask her some things about Korean. Totally mutually beneficial, this meeting, and future ones to come.

It was like something from a sitcom or some feel good Asian drama, haha. We got caught in the rain, soaked despite the umbrellas while rushing to a nearby cafe, and just sitting there sipping our milk tea and coffee waiting for the rain to subside, talking about all sorts of things, and in awe of how we've come to meet under such circumstances.

It was great that it rained before going to the Palace, too, because when we got there, everything smelled fresh, and looked greener. I took so many pictures, just wait till I upload them soon. After the rap video is up, of course. I recorded a first take already, and depsite how I like the way I looked in the video, I need to uh, practice more and then record a final version....>.<. Sorry for the long wait!

But anyway. We had lots of fun today. And she helped me a lot too. (I'm just getting all sorts of help from people these days. I suppose God's way of sending me help xD). When she asked me about what I usually do on weekends, I tell her sometimes I go out to do errands, and sometimes I go out for events (I think Gina was also indirectly asking so that maybe we can make it a weekly thing to meet up since she wants to introduce me to her friends too). Then I mentioned that I really wanted to go to the Epik High concert that's going down next Saturday, but I don't know how to buy the ticket and I joked about sneaking in.

Amazingly, Gina said she would buy the ticket for me online, and that I could pay her back later. OMG. Just out of blue, no beating around the bush, she just said it.

I was, like, no way. Am I really getting the chance to see Epik High again?? Too good to be true. Well, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high, so I joked again and said, I bet the tickets are totally sold out by now, and there's only a week left before the concert, so I would just call you (Gina) up and plan to hang out, or something, lol.

Well, after our day of fun, and we parted, and I got back to my dorm room, Gina texted me not too long ago, and confirmed that there were still tickets left for the concert. ohmygeeeeeeeeeeee. xD

And, I guess you can just figure out the rest. We decided to get a ticket in the standing section of the concert hall. You know. The spots that are IN FRONT of the stage.

This, is going to be my first ever standing concert. First ever concert in another country. Second time seeing Epik High ever, within a year.

Don't try to wake me up from this dream. I'm already living it.