Mixed bowl

So many things happened since the last time I posted...Did a lot happen? Well I definitely got busier.

   The Mac

It was time to say goodbye to my good old Toshiba laptop. I used the thing for 5 years and it was slowly dying. I can still use it but it is so slow and becomes hot after only a few minutes then crashes. I am now the proud owner of an iMac...which I am still learning to use. (not to mention the changes in blogger!)

  Acting School

It's been a dream of mine since I was very young but when I finished high school my mind wasn't there...I was obsessed with Japan and Korea and wasn't ready to enter an acting program. Last year I realized that I couldn't just let go of that dream and work hard to find an office job that I don't even want to start with. So I auditioned for two acting schools, the National Theatre School of Montreal and Dawson College. I didn't get into NTS (they pick 12 people out of like 800) but got into Dawson yay! I like it a lot and I'm learning so many things every day it's crazy. It isn't easy though because the average age of students is 18 and most of them are straight out of high school. At first I didn't feel comfortable, but now it doesn't really bother me and I tend to forget about the age difference. So I'll be there for 3 years, given, of course, that everything goes well. 

Korean grandmother make up and clothing ^^

 Minzy

My little kitty has been growing faster than I could imagine. She's as cute as ever and very healthy. 10 days ago she got sterilized so I had to make sure she would heal correctly. It was very stressful because she ripped off her stitches only after two days. That got me very nervous and I kept on imagining her insides coming out of her belly. Fortunately for me, my father's girlfriend is a vet and she reassured me and now Minzy is healing correctly. 

I will try to write part 4 of the Misuda adventure, it just takes me longer than a normal post because I go through my files, find the perfect pictures and try to structure the whole thing (I also ponder about what I can put and what I should censor...sad but true).

 Music

I'm very happy because on this Thursday I am going to see Evanescence. Yes, I hear you saying whatever you think about them, but I like their music and I WILL go. Also, in Kpop there has been some interesting new releases (many horrible ones too but they don't deserve our attention). One song I've been addicting too is "Sixth Sense" by the group Brown Eyed Girls. I think the song is powerful and doesn't use sexiness in vain. I'm not exactly sure what the song is about, even if I understand the lyrics, and there are many interpretations. That's the beauty of it I guess.

 I have ideas of posts I would love to do...one of them concerning the history of some Kpop groups. At first I wanted to make videos, but I doubt I will have enough time to work on that. Anyways, we'll see. Being busy is a blessing, because sitting and doing nothing gives too much times to think, and for me over thinking can be very dangerous. 

I'll be back soon! Promise! 

The “Misuda Adventure" Part 2

First Part

September of  2006 went by fast. School had started and I quickly realized that school would be quite easy as the program for exchange students really doesn’t aim high (And I’m not talking about UIC, which is a totally different branch) I was eager to do the show and I was slowly finding my place at school, especially by joining a drama club, about which I’ll probably write in other posts. I remember one day, I was in the drama club room and I got a call from one of the show writers. They were getting everything ready for the show and they were trying to add a touch of entertainment, so she asked me if I could sing a song. I told her I’d like to sing “달” (Moon) by 박정현 (Park Jung Hyun or Lena Park). I was nervous and I chose a verse and a chorus to sing. It isn’t an easy song to sing but if I adjust it to my voice, it’s fine. For those who are curious, listen and watch here.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to sing this song. A few days after suggesting this piece, I received another phone call from the writers. They were asking me if I could dance. I said yes, why not. Then they asked me what kind of dance I could do. Since I was thinking about  normal club music I simply said “Eum…Hip hop?!” You have to remember that I was trying to make myself understood with a really limited knowledge of the Korean language. I let it be, without asking too many questions…

D-day arrived. Vivian, Clara and I happily missed a day of school and all went together towards the KBS annex situated on Yeoui-do,  a little island that many Koreans like to call the “Manhattan of Seoul”, since a lot of companies have their offices there and because most of the television stations built their studios there. It is also the island where you can find the national assembly. Of course, it is far from being Manhattan, but I still understand where the comparison come from. My memories are a bit blurry, but I still remember a few anecdotes from the day.

The first step was to get make up and hair done. I must say that I was very excited to get pampered like that. Not every day do you get your make up done by a professional! After, we had to get dressed and this is where the mini-drama started. One of the writers was there and she started talking about my dance. She asked me what I prepared and if I needed pants to dance. I looked at her with big confused eyes. She thought I would do a hip hop choreography but I will still convinced that I would sing! Then she told me “No, you’re going to dance, there are two other girls who will sing. Your song was too slow, too dramatic”. I was very disappointed…I had prepared myself. I really wanted to sing on TV and I felt as if my only chance was fading away. I thought “They could of called me and ask me to change my song to another more up-beat one”, but no. It was too late. In the end I was still lucky to end up with a decent black dress. I was satisfied enough. As for Vivian, it was another story. She usually wore boyish, relaxed clothing so she really wasn’t digging her pure feminine look!

 We immortalized our dissatisfaction (Also notice how white our faces are…the necks are darker!)

Maybe from an outsider’s point of view, all of this seems very superficial, but the truth is, TV is a really superficial business most of the time. We all wanted to project a certain image of ourselves because for some girls and me, we had imagined this situation in our most crazy teenage girl dreams. So no wonder I got disappointed since my expectations were so high.

Still, some great stuff happened on that day. Vivian was very glad to meet a girl called Eva Popiel, an English-Japanese girl who had previously worked on a show called Full House with none other than the rising stars of the time, Super Junior. As Vivian was a fan of the group with the most members in Korea, she was very pleased with her meeting with Eva. As for me, I hadn’t seen the show, but I still took a picture with her.

 Vivian, me, Eva

Each of us was assigned a seat and a number. I was number 3, so I got seated in the front. It was probably to give me space to go out and dance my hip hop (facepalm…) In the end, it was a really good seat for me, but sadly, Vivian got seated in the back.  

 I don’t smile much….nervous?

The shooting started and I don’t really remember what subjects we covered. We talked about food, clubs, Korean guys…I only understood like about 30% of it. I got the chance to talk a few times but to be honest I don’t dare watching the video of this show. It makes me uncomfortable to see myself being so shy. The only time I look comfortable is when I stood up to dance (because I DID dance, but just some improvisation dance) with  천명훈 (Cheon Myung Hoon) a singer from the group NRG. I didn’t know the other guests for our show, but it was to be expected: All the singers I liked were in transition and weren’t recording any albums and many were heading for the army! I was still satisfied with the whole thing, but I told myself that only a few people would watch this show…eum…?

After the shooting, we went drinking together in a bar near the studio and kept contact with the writers and producers. I really wanted to do more. It was back to student life for me!

To be continued…

The “Misuda Adventure” Part 1

Misuda? What type of alcohol is that? You might wonder…

Misuda is short for “Minyeodeului Suda” (미녀들의수다) a Korean talk show which roughly translates as “Chit chat of the beauties”. The show  aired from October 2006 through April 2010. It’s concept: 16 foreign women who all speak Korean, from beginner to expert. The subjects: anything that is discussable on Korean TV! Presented on KBS2, the national channel of South Korea, Misuda became a phenomenon often hated but also greatly loved by the South Koreans. I was a part of this great adventure, but it definitely didn’t look like it was going to be a success from the beginning…

In August of 2006, I was packing my bags for a complete year of study abroad in South Korea. Excited as a little girl on Christmas, I was also very scared, but a good scare. I had been into Korean pop culture for so many years that I just couldn’t wait to actualize my dream of living for a year in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. I knew so many singers and their song lyrics, that I probably came off as a real freak…but I was very passionate about it. Also, I watched a bunch of Korean soap operas and had learned the “hangeul”, the Korean alphabet, so that I could sing my favourite songs at the Montreal Korean karaoke. I think I was ready.

Of course, when I got there it was another story…a country is never EXACTLY like it is represented in its pop culture and even if I knew that, I was still a little shocked! At first it felt as if the city was very harsh and loud (Seoul is definitely a city that never sleeps and even if at first I got intimidated by it, in the end it became natural and I just loved it!). Anyway, I’ll keep my impressions of Korea for another post, let’s go on with the Misuda adventure.

I don’t remember exactly when the email from school came  , but I know it was in the first 3 weeks of my stay in Korea because I was still living at my friend’s house. I didn’t even have a cell phone! So I was at home and got an email from the school, the Mentors Club, which is a group that pairs Korean students with foreign students for language exchanges. The email said that we had an opportunity to be on TV for a one time special show for the holidays and that it was open to foreigners, even the ones who didn’t speak Korean. I was very surprised and eager to know more, because most of my references came from Korean TV. A little later in the week, another email came, saying “Oh, well actually, you have to be a girl, and you have to speak Korean, sorry…” I was now insecure. My Korean was pretty limited. I knew how to say “I love you” in a hundred ways, thanks to Korean power ballads, but I couldn’t really express myself in complete sentences. Still, I gave it a shot and called the number of the writer at KBS. I don’t remember the conversation, but I actually managed to get myself an interview with them. Luckily for me, the TV station was very close from my friend’s house. I was all set and ready to meet the script writers…

As I went in the office of the writers, I saw a bunch of Asian girls getting out. I was told later that they were from Mongolia…they never appeared on the show…So I sat with the chief writer and the other writers looking at me around the desk. It was intimidating, but I really wanted to be on TV (ah, the things you’ll do). She asked a bunch of questions but as I didn’t have a lot of anecdotes in Korea, all I could tell her were my first impressions. I think what killed them is when I started to enumerate all the singers I knew, they just didn’t believe it…I was like this encyclopedia of Kpop. That’s probably what got me in, as most white foreigners knew very little about Kpop back then.

School started a little afterwards and I got the phone call telling me I’d be shooting the show with them at the end of September so that the show could be aired on the Korean Thanksgiving, which on that year was at the beginning of the month of October. I was very excited and also learned that two girls from my Korean class were to be on it too, Clara from the US and Vivian from Singapore. I would end up being very close with the latter. Before the shooting, we would have to meet up with the production team and answer many questions on the phone so that they could build up a script and an outline for the show. I suddenly felt that my Korean was improving every day and that I’d have no problem at the meeting…but god was I wrong.

The first meeting we had with the team and the other girls from the show was a disaster for Vivian and I. We were sitting in a room and the producers and writers would ask questions to us but our Korean was so limited that we ended up being very silent in front of the other girls who had been in Korea for 2, 3,4 some even 10 years! After that the whole idea of going on TV seemed like a bad idea…but I consoled myself by thinking how awesome it would be to meet celebrities. How shallow ;)

Fortunately for us on the day of the meeting, the producer got us a spot in the audience of that day’s Music Bank, a weekly music show showing off the latest Korean songs, sometimes live, sometimes lipsynced. I had fun, it did break the magic a little bit, but I got to see Koyote, a dance/pop group with a really goofy but charming singer, Kim Jong Min.

Singing “I Love Rock N’ Roll”

I took a few photos, which was obviously prohibited but none of the middle school girls seemed to care either. On that day The Trax, Lee SeungGi, Park Jung Ah, Lim Jeong Hee, Paran and some others came on. It was a nice first look at Korean celebrities from up close and at that time I felt like I was on the moon. When I look at it now, it feels like I was over exaggerating, but it was something I was very passionate about. I just had no idea that I would end up on the other side of the camera for many years…

Tune in for part 2! My first experience on a Korean TV set…full of drama, as usual!