"Just Hatched"

So back when I was working on my acceptance to the TaLK program, which would let me venture to South Korea, I meet a girl in my professor's office. She was also applying at the time to go to Korea through the same program. I remember standing there and seeing a pin on her bag, instantly recognizing the face on the pin to be Daesung of Big Bang, I questioned "Did I had found someone who knew what Kpop was beyond Gangnam style or if she only knew of a few sorts of the Kpop world, as do most stony brook students because of the immense Korean population here?" I piped up and said "nice pin." She upon exiting the professor's office just blew up in a huge rather concise conversation about not only Big Bang and Daesung, but Kpop as a whole. I was taken aback. Never have I ever met another person who was non-Asian who not only enjoyed Kpop as much as myself, but understood it's deeper fabrications and workings of it as a business.

Accepted! 한국에서 가세요!

Destination Korea!

 I was just notified at 4:30am this morning that the Korean government has extended the offer to me to teach English under their TaLK program! Finding this out at such an hour, i was vehemently breathing trying to stifle my screams of overwhelming excitement, to not wake up my roommate and the rest of the dorm building. So I postponed my excitement screams and victory dance till morning. Which I have to say, I did sleep very soundly. Worry free and high on life.

What the Author has been Up To: The Inside Scope

I must say from my deepest regrets that I have not been able to spend any time on my blog for the last two months. I come to check up on it from time to time and always see the numbers steadily climbing. It makes me happy to see that it still has it's potentials. Now that the school year is coming to it's close, there is a lot that I plan to do with this site. I wanted to revamp my blog to make it look cleaner and function better. However, because I'm not a web designer wiz this might be a far fetched idea for a girl who is also really busy with preparing her plans to go to Korea!

The Studies

It's been nearly a year now since I first began studying Korean as a language. First independently then moving on to a classroom setting. I have to admit that it was a big commitment on my part. I was doing well in studying Spanish, hardly did I ever study or care about the upcoming exams. But when I switched my academic language to Korean it all changed for me. I am consistently pushed to my limits to curb my learning, replace English words such as "Library" with "도서관" and phrases such as "where are you going" with "어디 가 세요?"  Dedicating about at six hours to studying or practicing.  This incredibly different language is incredibly difficult.  Spanish was easy and I would of became an awesome fluent speaker in Spanish  if I would have kept with it, but It wasn't rewarding to me and I actually grew a bitter hatred for it. So I dropped it.

The Kpop Image

So just about a month and a half ago I made my first twitter account. And already I find myself making surprising connections with some of my followers, who in turn I also follow back. But I am noticing this trend among them all, let me add that they are also all K-pop fans such as myself, that they are being too harsh on themselves for not looking like Hyorin, Dara, or one of the girls from SNSD. And this is not something that is subjected to just the girls, guys are also feeling the pressures in this day and age to look and dress like the K-pop idols from SHINee, B2ST, or from a variety of drama studs who flaunt their fashion and amazing good looks. Because I have that  "lean on me/ motherly" character, I feel like I should in my own sake of morality, reach out to these girls (and guys) who I know are probably just a few years younger than me, and help them to realize that K-pop celebrities, just as any celebrity caught in a culture that sells beauty as an image, is an illusion. But who am I to say anything?

Dara (Kiss MV)

Hyorin

I too am caught in this illusion trap. I actually get my sense of style from what I see in Korean dramas and strive to look and be as fashionable as those actresses, such as Han Ga In in 나빤 남자 (Bad Guy). So I have no real right to tell my twitter followers or even my friends that "its an illusion and you should just except yourself this way." I am contradictory to my own advice. But one thing that does separate me from most other girls is I do have a sense of love for myself. I like to dress up nice not because of an insecurity, well not entirely, but because I have a love for myself that makes me want to take care of me. Think about it. If someone is depressed, they will initially spend less time taking care of themselves. Maybe skip out on meals, bathing, and yes... their clothes will turn into a mesh of frumpiness, a wardrobe taken from the laundry hamper. Why? Because they most likely gave up on themselves. 

Supporting the EYK Family

If there is one thing I love about the internet, its amazing bloggers and video vlog artists like Simon and Martina who are the hosts of Eat Your Kimchi at Eatyourkimchi.com. Yesterday morning when I got online I saw a post from the two Canadians, now living in Korea, that they were in need of help. They announced that they will be continuing their website and will be building a EatYourKimchi  business in Seoul, about 15 minutes from where they are currently living. However, they needed to buy a townhouse studio to make it work, and as for foreigners living in Korea, making a business there is way expensive on top of the expenses to purchase a living space in what is one of the top busiest cities in the world. So they gave a shout out to their viewers stating that if only half of their 200,000 subscribers were to donate even $1 it would be more than enough for them to get the townhouse studio.

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