Night creature

Is everyone enjoying summer? I can’t say that I am as I’m working a lot, but my body sure enjoys the warm weather. Somehow, summer really makes me more energetic and optimistic, which is why I always end up being very depressed around the autumn. It’s been about six weeks that I started my new job at a big chain hotel but it feels like I’ve been working there for much more than that. Doing that many hours, I got accustomed to the place and its people. Lately, I worked night shifts to learn the night auditor job in order to replace regular people when they go on vacation. To my own surprise, I find myself enjoying it. During night time you don’t have to speak to a lot of guests and just do some paper work so it’s less stressful. I’m not saying I don’t like talking to people, but doing 150 check-ins in a row can be very tiring.  Anyway, new job is okay and my brain is very working hard to absorb all the new information.

Another thing that’s been on my mind lately is the purchase of a new laptop. I love my little toshiba, but it’s now 5 years old. It gets hot easily, crashes once in a while, is slow and doesn’t have enough memory (100Gigs…yup..you can laugh). Now the question is…what do I buy? I was thinking about another PC but my dear friend shmuberry has been telling me about a mac…Since I like watching videos, creating things like websites, pictures and video footage, it would be the intelligent choice…but then, all these stories about incompatibility really scare me! What to do…what to do…

But the most and foremost thing that I must think about right now is me moving out of my apartment next week on Friday. I’ve already packed a lot of boxes but there is still a lot to do. I foresee many hours of boxing coming up…yay…but the good thing is that I go the day off to move! I can’t wait to unpack, redecorate and move on with life without thinking about boxing and all that.

Home makeover – The canvas

Yes, I know…I do a lot of posts with many parts, but I promise I will finish all of them. Lately I’ve been busy with a new job, where they pay me much better and actually give me working hours! It’s been about a month since I’ve started now and I’m getting used to it, to the system…The other thing that is keeping me busy is the moving preparations! On July 1st, like many other people in Montreal, I’ll be moving to a new place. The place is empty right now so I am slowly planning the decorations.

For almost a year I’ve been living in a small apartment that I have to pay alone and it’s been a burden on me. I decided to find a new bigger place where I could get a roommate and split the rent and the bills. After some research, I finally found a place that I like and also found a roommate (she will come in the fall). The place isn’t perfect, it is an old building, but it is a typical Montreal apartment in a developing neighbourhood. As the moving date is approaching, last week I started planning the decorations with my great high school friend Marilou, who just happens to be studying in interior design right now.

It is quite hard to decide between colors, but since I have already colourful furniture, my choice was narrowed down to only a few of them. I already knew I wanted a yellow kitchen, so it was only a matter of choosing what shade of yellow I wanted (there are like a million of them!!) After looking at many shades, I finally decided to go for “Spring Honey”.

As for the bedroom, I went for an aqua color, which in this picture came out much more like sky blue. In reality, the color is more of a “blue-green” or should I say “Mediterranean Mist”. You gotta love the name of the paint colors. I’m sure there is someone who’s job is to come up with color names. Since I have red and white furniture in my bedroom, the aqua seems like a wise choice as it will make the colors pop. I didn’t want to go with a pink or beige because it would be too boring. I’ll chose boring colors when I’m like 50 or something. I found some inspiration on the internet to help me support my choice:

Of course it’s more flashy this way, but it does confirm that both colors go together. Before buying the paint I went to my new apartment, which is now empty, and brought Marilou along. She wanted to see the place and make sure that the color would match the walls and the light.

  The place has a long corridor and I might consider painting it later…it’s not a priority right now. Marilou was also unaware that I was taking pictures hehe :D

My future bedroom which has no window but has French doors connecting with the living room. It isn’t as big as the room I have right now but I think I can fit most of my furniture. I love the double closet and the mirror makes it look a little bigger. Can’t wait to put color on the walls!

The French doors leading to my bedroom will stay closed most of the time and I will shop for curtains eventually. I’ll need to create some privacy especially if I want my future roommate to be able to use the living room without feeling like she’s actually in my bedroom. As for my future roommate’s bedroom, I won’t touch it because she will probably want to do something personal with it. For the first months I might put boxes in there until I find a place for all my stuff. As for the living room, I do not intend on painting the walls. I already have a blue couch and some colourful accessories so adding a color would be a bit extreme. I’m going to give the living room a little retro look.

At first I wanted to find fabric and make my own curtains, but while shopping for fabric I realized how expensive it is. We also went to a shop on St-Hubert street where they had an interesting fabric, but the owner was so uptight and mean to us that I started disliking the fabric. It’s crazy how someone’s attitude can have an influence on your shopping choices! After a while Marilou suggested that we go to Mont-Royal station, to a boutique called Farfelue (843 mont-royal street) where they have lovely decoration items. There’s a little bit of everything and it is so colourful. They had curtains and this is where I found mine.

 

I think it looks pretty good with the stuff I already have. My friend Marilou then sketched what she imagined my living room would be:

She did that in like 5 minutes, I’m not kidding. Of course I might not put the furniture in exactly this position, but it gives you an idea. Finally, the kitchen…there is still a lot of things to repair in it and I’m hoping it will all be beautiful when the renovation guys are done with it. I know for a fact they will change the floor, which is a relief because it is so old and dirty. Also the washing machine and the dryer will be in the kitchen so I think this room will be pretty crowded. I will need to add a lot of things for storage and a few things here and there to decorate, but before anything else, I’ll need to paint it!

Marilou was explaining to me how I could position the table. Notice how both counters aren’t the same colour…yeah, it’s an old apartment indeed. BUT! It’s even more of a challenge so I won’t get discouraged.

At some point during the day when we opened the back door there was someone’s cat on the balcony. He or she just came in and walked in the whole apartment. It was so sweet :)

We’ll see how I manage to make this place pretty and warm. I can’t wait to start!!

I visited the land down under – Australia Day 1-3

Yes, my lack of updates is quite inexcusable. I will say there are a lot of things happening in my life nowadays so I’ll just use that as an excuse, although it’s inexcusable…oh well!

I wanted to write about my trip to Australia, because it was quite an adventure. This country is so far from Canada that when I was a kid I never even dreamed of visiting it! So last year, around February, a heart-broken me decided that she would leave Korea for good, but that before that I should visit a country. I wanted to travel, but also I needed to vent all that negativity my recent break up caused. So I thought about South East Asia, but then because I’m allergic to all kinds of nuts, I didn’t think it was safe for me to go there alone. It might sound silly, but food allergies can really poison your daily life :( So Instead, I chose Australia. It seemed like the logical choice for me: it’s closer to Korea than it is to Canada, my sister recommended it to me…but it’s definitely not affordable to everyone. I was lucky enough to have gathered money to go all the way down there. After a lot of planning and shopping I booked my ticket for April 6th, departing from Seoul in the evening. A night flight, which was a first for me.

   A view of Korea as I left

Day 1

The flight was long and I couldn’t get myself to sleep; I almost never can sleep on an airplane. Luckily enough, the seat beside mine was empty so I could stretch a little more. I was very excited when on the map of the plane screens we crossed the equator. My first time in the southern hemisphere! At 6AM, when the sun slowly started to rise, we arrived near Australia. We flew above Sydney and it was just crazy to be able to see the Opera House from above. I got excited and forgot how tired I was. Getting out of the airport wasn’t hard either, for the customs I was an easy person compared to all the Korean men and women who had never been abroad (they were a group of 50-60 years old and I understood from their guide that they had never been further than Jeju Island). Most of them didn’t speak English and the Australian customs really didn’t have patience with them. Of course, many of them got their food confiscated. The one thing you should know about travelling to Australia is that you really CAN’T bring food in. Their laws are very tight about that. So I got noticed by a fat custom lady and she put me out of the long line, noticing that all I had was a backpack.

I found my hostel, Sydney Central YHA, very easily, but I was exhausted. I couldn’t access my room until noon so I just sat down on the lounge couch of the hostel until I could check in. After checking in, I didn’t want to make the mistake of going to bed, so I showered and went out to visit Sydney. I went through Chinatown (where Big Bang’s 마지막 인사 was playing loud…I just got out of Korea lol), Central Station and ended up at Hyde Park, which is beautiful and so clean. It was also full of couples smooching on the grass!

 I guess if you’re confident enough to show off your chess skills!

   Travelling alone means “self-cam”! Very tired but amazed to be in Aussie

I quickly realized that food in Australia is very expensive, especially coming from Korea where you can have a really good meal for around 5 bucks. It’s a good thing there is no tip in Aussie! I found myself to be very lonely even on the first day. Travelling alone has it’s good sides but many times you find yourself wanting to share impressions with people but you can only think it. It’s completely different. On the evening of the first night, I met a girl from the UK in the hostel lounge and we decided to have diner together on the next day. I went to bed early and “enjoyed” the nice 8 people bunk beds room.

Day 2

I couldn’t sleep well the night before because of all the noise in the room, the sudden rash around my mouth from the airplane ride and just normal travelling stress. So instead of waking up at around 8am like I had planned, I stayed in bed until around 10am. The guy cleaning the room even came in, but I was too tired to even care. I knew I had another alone day ahead of me so no need to rush. I took the Sydney subway and went to Circular Quay where I saw the very famous Opera house.

 Picture would have been better without the unknown couple!

I took a ferry leading to Manly, which is a stretch of island at the south of Sydney. There are nice beaches there and a lot of shops. It was nice but definitely a place you go with friends to swim in the sea and have a glass of beer on the side of the beach. The ferry felt so nice and I spent a lot of time texting my friends in Korea, especially the ones who had lived in Australia before. I guess I really felt alone surrounded with all these families and couples. In Manly I simply walked around, took pictures of my face and went back to Circular Quay. A bit boring I would admit, but it’s better being bored in Australia than back home haha!

 Manly…and my eyes which do not look the same size o.O

 The bridge, and some angry dude

I hung around for a little while but went back to the hostel, I just waited for diner with Sara, the girl from the UK. We both didn’t have a huge budget for food but still decided to eat at a restaurant on the side of the water, on a terrace. The only problem is that it started to rain. We finally found a place which had tables outside but covered by a huge concrete roof that was part of the building so even if it rained for a while, we were fine. The place had pastas and was pretty good, but again, very overpriced as always. It was nice talking with Sara. We both briefly summarized our lives and realized that we were both into Buffy the Vampire Slayer so it was easy to just talk about it for a long time. After diner we went around the Opera House to see it from up close. There is even a restaurant inside of it and it looks very classy. If only… Thanks to the rain, my picture of the Opera House at night came out pretty nice!

 It's much better looking at night

That night I had a very embarrassing moment at the hostel…So this place is so big that you have magnetic cards to enter rooms and even bathrooms. So in the middle of the night I feel this urge to go to the bathroom so I get out of the bedroom but when I’m about the open the bathroom door I realize that I do not have my card and that I cannot get the card now that it is inside the bedroom, which is locked…So I did what an embarrassed person who needs to pee has to do; I knocked on the door and apologized a lot to the girl who opened the door. I was so angry at myself. I could have gone downstairs and ask the front desk clerk to make me another key…but I didn’t think about that then.

Day 3

The weather was awesome on my third day so I woke up early enough to go all the way to King’s Cross which is the military/entertainment/sketchy town of Sydney. Since it was daytime, I thought it was very nice and walked around a lot. There were many interesting houses and sights. I saw MANY Aussie sailors and stopped by the famous Harry’s Cafe de Wheels where I ordered some soda and sat down a while next to some sailors (they didn’t talk to me :(

 Notice the drawing of the sailor kissing his girlfriend on the right!

After that, the Victorian era lover that I am went to visit Elizabeth Bay House, which was the house of Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay in the 1830’s. Back then there was nothing around the house except trees, the sea and apparently A LOT of flies enough to drive these little noble ladies crazy! The house was gorgeous; I could stand in a room more than 5 minutes just to appreciate all the details of the furniture. That’s when travelling alone is nice, because I doubt if I had a boyfriend he would love looking at Victorian furniture for so long!

 "Oh my god I feel like in a Jane Austen novel!" girly girl...

Visiting this house definitely brightened my day, for some reason I felt like I’ve had a constructive day in which I learned something. I had to go back to the Hostel to check out on time and prepare myself to get to the airport because I was taking a flight for Adelaide where I would start my Outback tour the morning after.

When I got at My Place Backpackers in Adelaide I was extremely annoyed because the door was locked. It was after 9pm and I guess they don’t expect backpackers to arrive this late…fortunately for me, some guy was in the entrance and opened the door for me. They tried to get someone to help me, but no one could be reached. After talking to the people who were sleeping there some girl offered me her bed, because she was sleeping in the room of her boyfriend. It was very kind of her, if it wasn’t for her I probably would have slept on the living room couch. The room had no window and felt very stuffy…the bed sheets looked old and kind of smelly. In all, I wouldn’t recommend this backpacker place to anyone. Also, the group of people talking loud in the kitchen really didn’t help me to fall asleep. I had to wake up at 5am to be picked up for the Outback tour…Which would be memorable.

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…

Remembering 46 South Korean sailors…

A year ago on March 26th, 46 South Korean sailors lost their lives when their ship, the Cheonan, was attacked by a missile shot by the North Korean army. Although North Korea still claims innocence over that incident, I strongly believe they are only playing the victim, as they always do.

I remember, I was still in Korea and was devastated by the news. As I had been in a relationship with a guy who ended up going to the army (not the navy) I can only imagine the pain one would feel upon hearing that her boyfriend, or son, or husband, died at sea, from a North Korean attack. The pain, the desperation, they would haunt me for months. These 46 lives represent 46 families, 46 groups of friends…This is probably the drama of more than a thousand persons. As everyone in South Korea knows someone who is in the army, this incident shook up the entire nation. In South Korea, military service is mandatory for about 2 years. Any healthy man must go unless he’s got a really good reason (or some really good contacts). It is very sad that they had to die while doing a work that, although they didn’t disagree with, they didn’t choose to do…it was forced upon them for most of them, because of their sex and because there is a crazy dictator living a few kilometres north from them.

Let’s take a moment today to remember the lives of these 46 sailors who right now would have mostly all finished their military service and would be making others happy…

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!