OMGOSH!!!!! I am absolutely tearing my hair out over this week's readings!!! Particularly HS 102! Killer... All over 10 pages, one with 23 pages, all in difficult language that I can't begin to comprehend. Whatever happened to English? It is definitely possible to convey complex ideas in simple English, so why are they trying to cause murders with their words?

Eotokke??!?? Thank goodness I'm not presenting tomorrow, but still... doesn't bode well for future presentations...

Isn't it sad that less than a month into uni, I already know this is just another one of those things in which I will not do well? The other two were... oh, let's see, secondary school and JC. But this is worse, because they don't "spoon-feed" us. I like to think, but never critically. So when all they do is ask questions, that leave me looking at just a question mark, it's perfectly understandable for me to be worried. I want answers. When I was in secondary school and JC, I could barely do well even when I was being given answers. So how in the world am I expected to succeed here?

This comes after two days that have included three tutorials and two lectures (well, I haven't watched the third one), in which I find my interest waning during lectures, and being rendered speechless in tutorials. Especially HS 103. I doubt anyone from that class except perhaps Pat will be reading this, but I apologise anyways, because the class is seriously dead. Every facet, not just the topic. I could feel my brain cells floating up with all the question marks nobody's bothered to answer, and wither sadly in the air. Pat and I have made a pact to speak up in every single tutorial, so of course we said something each. Beyond that, however, I could feel no comprehension nor stimulation happening in this thick skull of mine. Eoteoke?

Well, perhaps in anticipation of needing consolation at the end of today, yesterday Pat and I had planned to watch UP! today. And our new friend Jennifer came along too. UP! rocks! Like, seriously! I know it's just a cartoon, but it was so sad I could count at least four different occasions during the movie when I cried. Not shed a tear, but cried. It's not supposed to be a sad movie. In fact, it was downright hilarious at most parts. Perfect comedic timing and all. But the parts that were there to invoke sympathy just left me bawling my eyes out. PMS; don't worry about it. But even without PMS I would probably have shed tears, because the scenes and music were designed to break your heart without needing much dialogue. UP! is definitely a must watch for anyone - funny parts for the kids, funny and sad parts for babies like me. <3<3

Yesterday, at Syaz's invitation, Diana and I attended NUS' Malay Language Society's Iftar, which means "eat" in my understanding (lol). Saw many familiar faces from BP, as well as older brother's friends. Plus, my cousin attended too. Seriously though, how much ulu can NTU get? I realised that the appropriate answer is: A LOT. Because I took one and a half hours to get from that function room in NUS to my hostel bus stop. And Boon Lay isn't even that far from Clementi! I arrived at the hostel at 11, to find water everywhere because apparently there'd been a water fight with pails of water. Glad I missed it haha! (Shyness is such a bane T_T)

And so here ends my rant against my own state of "lack". There will be more, rest assured - I was born this way, and will probably remain this way forever, so there'll be plenty more reasons for me to complain about myself.

G'night!

fina

What's uni life all about? It's all about being scared shitless

Go to lecture, have brunch, answer the questions that are part of your readings and then find out it's redundant...

Go back to your room, watch Korean variety shows for an hour, have dinner, do readings for an hour or two, wile the rest of your night away on forums while waiting for the right time to fall asleep.

Is it really supposed to be as mindless as this? Granted, most of it's my fault since I can't muster up enough brain power to make sense of my readings, or enough motivation to look for more things to study.

I miss home, I miss the FUN mindlessness (because it's at least entertaining) that goes on at home, the seemingly-wasteful interactions with other family members which actually serve to make your feel comforted and at ease.

I'm glad my family's been calling to check up on me on the nights I've actually stayed in. And Pat's called too =)

So emo... one more minute till ten. I think that's a good enough time to start preparing for sleep. Packet Milo and yum bar for breakfast again, it seems haha.

fina*

(Readings scare me so much! As do essays... Aigo...)

So, here I finally am, spending my first night in my hostel room, sans roomie. Since there's nobody here and I've had my sandwich and vitasoy dinner, I'm feeling mega sleepy and bored. Really don't feel like reading anything. But I shall endeavour to anyways, because I have to wait until it's a decent time to go to sleep (plus, there's nothing for me to do on the internet).

Here's a picture of my room:

Haha yup, I brought my cheetah with me. Along with that hige red cushion, that red bolster, and two pillows. How over-packed am I? Haha

Oh yea, not to mention the cereal, breakfast bars, baby biscuits, instant noodles, mini snacks, packets of vitasoy and milo, ovaltine, and a few boxes of pills in case I get my usual runny nose.

There're lots more things, but too many that I'm too lazy to type it all out. Dang am I bored! Should do readings now...

I wonder how well I'll sleep alone tonight in this strange place...

fin*

Omo, I'm almost hyperventilating because Lee Junho,

the actual Junho from 2PM, updated his twitter while I was online!!I got a shock when I saw that his twit was only a minute before i came online. It's so cute how he uses "yo" a lote haha.

I naively replied, thinking I'd be the first fan, but no, turns out there are just as many lucky girls/ fanboys out there... oh wellz.

The screen-capture was way after the first tweet, 'cos I'd already logged out, and logged back in to capture this historic moment when a 2PM member actually starts twittering continuously. Ohh... now I'm never logging out of Twitter in case Jay, Woodong or Taec goes online. AAAHHHHHHHHHH: totally fangirling.

what's even better is that he updated with pics!!! Omo...

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay I passed my basic theory test!!!! Now I'm only left with the Practical and Final Theory. ... =(

Tip: One-time proper studying should be enough. Mind you, I said PROPER, especially if you're a ditzy forgetful person like me. 369: 3 metres away from hydrant, 6 from traffic junction, 9 from bus stand. Red triangle= warning, red circle= prohibitory, blue circle= mandatory. Driver must ALWAYS give way. Full stop.

Tomorrow I collect keys to my room at Hall 9, NTU. ... Really don't want school to start.

fina.

Yesterday, I realised something: I am so not ready for school! The freshmen welcome ceremony was held yesterday, so i got to see who my classmates were. They all look way more prepared than I am, a lot more serious and nicely dressed (of course I wasn't). Pat looked great too, but as we were laughing and talking in the LT, we turned to look at everone else, and nobody looked like they were having fun. It was daunting. HELP!

Anyways, I must be one of the greatest procastrinators of all time! I haven't blogged about, nor posted any pictures of, my trips to Sri Lanka and Australia. I was going to do it last week (really, I was!), but with the funeral and all... Haven't been in the mood.

So let's just take this slowly, and start with my cousin's wedding nearly two (two!) months ago. 6th June, I think, and I remember because it was the day of Singapore Idol auditions!

As you can clearly see, I have a lot of pictures, so I lumped a few pics together.

My brother was Mr Popular on that day, since he's the only male cousin who isn't still in in secondary school or lower.

Extended family! (minus a few)

These pictures were taken the next day, at the reception held by the groom's parents.

After the wedding, we headed back to my grandma's house to pluck rambutans in the backyard.

And then we had dinner.

The End.

So that was the wedding series. Coming up, the Sri Lankan series!

This past few days has been quite the rollercoaster ride. But although some parts were especially sad, at least the entire family (except my brother who's stuck in Germany) was able to be together for a few days. My cousins from Melbourne flew in on such short notice, arriving on Friday morning even though they got the news only Thursday evening, and they flew back yesterday. We got to finally visit the grave too, on Sunday. May he rest in peace.

On another note, I took the Basic Theory e-trial tests, and I passed both, so I'm feeling quite good about the real test. I'll try to book it for this Friday, otherwise I'd have to wait till 14th August. Loooonnngggg wait. I really want to pass!

There was this tee shirt that I bought from Melbourne, which says Pop Art, and costs about SGD24.00. I really liked it, but I think I'm not fated to wear it. The first time, I spilled iced Milo on it and the stain wouldn't disappear for a whole week and a half. My mom finally got it out, but the colours got faded. The second time I wore it, (yup, even though the colours are faded) I spilled chocolate gelato ice-cream on it. WHY??!!!! (oh yea, and I spilled the ice-cream everywhere around Ion and Wheelock Place) I got it cleaned with bleach, but I don't know how the tee's holding up. =(

fina

Bling (Confessions of a King)

Aigoo... After all my hard work the night before, I realised that I missed out Daesung's name from the jigsaw of Keobuki Islanders up there. FYI he's the one in between the robot's legs (not on purpose, of course). So I will have to add it, then re-upload the picture, then replace it in the code.

I was suddenly hit with a very strong craving for something this afternoon. And no, it had nothing to do with me fasting and being hungry. Because it was a craving for something I've never tasted before, something called ddeokbokki, a Korean dish. It's basically rice cakes in chilli stew, or something similar to that. It looks so good in pictures! And I really like starchy food and spicy food. A good match, wouldn't you think? Yup, I think so too.

Plus, in an episode of Idol Army, it's the dish Wooyoung (or Woodong, as he's been christened) of 2PM begged two girls to buy for him. 2PM were fairly new then, so they didn't recognise him. Then he begged the ahjumma (old aunty) to give one to him. He stamped his feet and pleaded, and suggested he advertise for her. So he sang a song about ddeokbokki to passers-by. It was so cute! "DDeokbokki, ddeokbokki~" And he got one for free. Hard work for one piece of ddeokbokki. That passion for ddeokbokki was so... touching. Actually, he was only trying to complete a task set by the producers. But ddeokbokki still sounds good.

Now I want one too! Out of all the halal Korean eateries in Singapore, not one sells ddeokbokki, to my knowledge, even after extensive googling. So I want to make some of my own. Mission for this week: get some ddeokbokki!

Next week's my hall camp, to which I don't know if I should look forward. It's six days long, and I want to completely slack at home before school begins! Bahhh-. Can't believe I'll be staying at a hostel. Won't be able to see anyone from my family for 5/6 days every week, and I'll have to go all the way back home every weekend. Troublesome, really. I'll totally miss my room, and KBS World. We'll see how it goes after 2 months. Maybe I'll be able to take travelling back and forth every day.

For now, it's 2:20 in the morning (time for some music by 2AM! lol) and I have to go iron some clothes. Good night to you, good day to me.

fina

Ddeokbokki, ddeokbokki~

Let me go to sleep now.

Another fully sleepless night, editing the pictures for my blogskin. Extremely useless work, but i enjoy doing it. Once you get one picture, you've just gotta get more. I started from scratch again so that i could fit in more people. Really, Keobuki Island is getting over-populated brcause of this.

Yesterday's sleepless night was spent watching "My Tutor Friend" on mysoju.com. Nice movie. I wanna watch the sequel!

I'm sleeping during the day 'cos I'm fasting (paying back last year's absenteeism. I'm really tardy, I know). So I stay up, eat breakfast at 5, sleep at 6, then wake up in the afternoon and break my fast at sundown. You'd think I'd be bored staying up so late alone, but there's always something to do. Never anything actually productive, but i always have a good time.

I'm going to sleep now. I think only I (and maybe Pat) will take any notice of the pictures in my blogskin, but it brightens up my day. So I'm happy.

good morning. guten morgen. annyeonghi jumushyossoyo. selamat pagi. zzzz

fina

jokwon: britneyspears christinaaguilera jyp2am2pmwondergirls...

wooyoung: i am fogi.

I've been back since Tuesday 12:00AM, but haven't posted because I've been trying to create a new blogskin (I was inspired by Pat's blogskin!).

But here's something really cute and funny:

There's this cute kid actor that they've asked to make five different facial expressions, and then they ask Nichkhun to do it too. But the seriously funny part comes when they get this old guy (some celebrity or other) to do it.

Will post pictures soon!

It's 11.34pm in Melbourne, which makes it 9.34 back home. I'm back from what has been the most tiring day I've ever had in Australia: Toboggan-ing on Mount Baw Baw!

My first time seeing snow, and it was such a surprise! The guy down the mountain wouldn't rent us toboggans because he said the snow might be too little for that, so I wasn't expecting much. But as it turned out, there was loads of snow! And although the snow suits we rented was to keep the cold out, it got pretty warm because of the sun's reflection off the snow, and running up the slope as soon as we'd slid down.

Tobogganing just basically means sledding down a slope. It's so fun! The only thing was I had to apologise to many people each time I went down the slope, cos I ran into everyone!

Will update with pictures when I get home and self-quarantine! Seriously though, nothing in Melbourne points towards any swine flu problem. Strange.

fin*

\\would you believe I've bought 14 tops so far? ... money's running out! $200 left//

Hey guys, I'm in Melbourne, like, finally! I flew in alone from Perth on 1st July, then on the same day drove for like 10 hours with my cousins and their dad's friends to Sydney. And now I'm finally back in Melbourne. Glad to feel comfy again, cos the cabin in Sydney was serously darn cold even though Sydney's supposed to be warmer than Perth.

I must say, I reall really really miss Perth and Singapore. Singapore mostly because I miss showering without shivering and watching Korean shows amd eating food that actually has spice. (And family, of course) Perth, because I miss everyone!

Staying with Pat and Dan at Aunty Marie's (Dan's aunt) house was so fun. We shopped for our own breakfast, but sometimes Aunty Marie cooks yummy familiar food for us. The house is so comfy and welcoming, and we saved on transport since Aunty Marie almost always helped us find someone to drop us off. I think it was only on Sunday that we took a bus somewhere... and got caught in the rain afterwards haha. Silly us!

Most of all I miss the company. Holidays fee different when you're with friends, because each day seems like an exciting new adventure. Plus we're all shopping junkies, so we had the same objective in going out haha. We got to touch kangaroos and a wombat, a lizard and a koala. We explored a prison. We ate Perth's Top 5 fish and chips (at two different places). We love Supre! And we love Aunty Marie! Haha. Wish my time in Perth didn't fly by so fast...

But now I'm in Melbourne, so I fully intend to enjoy myself and shop like mad at all the factory outlets and markets. Will write more!

Pictures will be uploaded when I get home, cos there's lots.

fin*


Would you believe I took a plane all by myself from Perth to Melbourne without any mishaps? I did leave my jacket at the security screening place, but I got it back, so no harm done.

Gosh... The trip to Sri Lanka was so, so fun. But now it's 3.45 in the morning, and my luggage is inadequate to fit in everything I need, so I may need to carry two hand-carry luggage including a laptop, as well as my heavy over-budget thick down jacket. I'm not finished with packng. I'm tired. I'm in an absolutely bad mood.

I'd already started writing a long long happy post about events last week, but had to postpone it since I'm lacking enough time. And it looks like it'll have to be postponed again. *Yawns*

Good night y'all. I'm going to sleep regardless of whether I've finished doing everything that needs to be done before I leave. I wonder if NTU will take harsh action if documents come in a day late...

fin*

Finally, I shall try to post without mentioning Korean pop people that are obscure to everyone but me! Thus, I shall not say that Kyu Jong of SS501 has put out his solo teaser for the 2o minute SS501 music video...

I keep wanting to post stuff that's been going on, but whenever I get to the com, I always get sidetracked by other things (like AllKpop.com...)

Even now I'm on my way out to shop for a nice warm jacket and hat, so I won't be able to post much. But I swear, one of these days, I will blog substantially about my life, and not other people who aren't even in Singapore (and some not even of legal age).

OK, that's it for now. Uber short, but it's only the beginning of a two-part non-Kpop series haha.

fin*

Shorts:

DFS met up!

Met Dan and Pat!

Stopped work!

Went out with cousins!

My cousin got married!

Onew, Taemin, Key, Minho, Jonghyun

I've been wanting to do a SHINee post for some time now, and since I'm free at work now, here it goes!

Basically, SHINee (pronounced shiny) is a group made up of five guys, most of whom are younger than you and me. The youngest was born in 1993! Their fanbase is made up largely by older noonas (which is what boys call older sisters), since anyone born before December 1989 is a noona. And boy, do these noonas lavish their power of love and money over these guys! There's a story about the expensive gifts they bought for one of the members for his birthday. And they do that for every member's birthday!They sing well, and they dance well. And they wear bright, tight pants and strange tops. There's something feminine about more than half of K-pop boybands, but I've taken it as nothing to gasp over. Anyways, most of the K-pop boybands are prettier than you and I.

First up, their leader:

His name's Onew, but his real name's Lee Jinki. IMHO the least good-looking member of the band, but he's cute when he smiles. He's also the oldest in the band, born in December 14th 1989, which could partly be why he's the leader.

He's 181 cm tall, which is tall, whichever way you look at it, especially since the average height of South Korean males is 173cm, and that's the tallest in all of Asia! Haha

He does the vocals in the group. I think he has a rather nice, clean and strong voice. Did I mention that they sing well LIVE? haha

Anyways, for his birthday, the noonas gave him, among other things, a CD player, an iPod Touch, a digital camera, and a whole bunch of expensive colognes like Versace, Bvlgari, Boss and CK (and more!) See, noona-fans are better than pre-teen girls because they have money!

Second:

Jonghyun!! Finally, someone our age! He's an April 8th 1990 baby, and the shortest in the group at 173cm, which is average. His nickname's Bling Bling Jonghyun. Don't ask me why; maybe he likes SHINee stuff.

My first impression of him (when I first saw their A.Mi.Go. mv) was that he's the handsomest in the group. Because everybody else is just pretty. Haha But look at the jaw on that boy! Sharp enough to cut paper!

He does lead vocals in the group. His abilities are off the charts! He sings really high notes, and even live it sounds good. So good! I'm in awe everytime he sings live! He's the one who really carries the group vocally.

Third...:
Key! His real name's Kim Ki Bum, but I guess they changed it since there are like two other Kim Ki Bums in the music industry (one from Super Junior, the other from U-Kiss), and a Kim Bum (as Pat may well know). He's one year younger than us, born on September 23rd 1991.

He was a model before he joined the group (well, most of them are anyways), and he's 177cm if I'm not wrong.

He does vocals, and raps too. If you hear a deeper voice singing in any of the SHINee songs, you'll know it's him. I like him , 'cause I like people who are multi-talented. His looks are a plus too haha. But then, all of them look good.


Fourth is:
Minho!He has the funniest of all the nicknames - they call him Flaming Charisma Minho! I pity the poor boy; I'll bet he wasn't the one who chose it. He's one year younger than us (December 9th 1991) but look at when he modelled for Andre Kim...

He looks older than us, and so handsome! He hadn't even turned 17 when he did this gig. It's pictures like this that make me feel paedophilic haha. But who would have guessed that he was 16? *shakes head*

Minho does the main raps in SHINee, and sings sometimes. He's the other deeper voice in the group, besides Key. Can't say much about his singing, except it's in tune. His rapping's okay too, I guess, but I really hated his rap in their newest song called Juliette (It's a re-make of Corbin Bleu's Deal With It, but I don't mind since I haven't heard of Deal with it haha). My favourite rap would have to be in A.Mi.Go, where both he and Key rapped.


Finally, the magnae of the group:

Taemin! He's the noona-magnet, whom he attracts with his sparkly eyes and cute smile. He's a July 18th 1993 baby, which still makes him an illegal good for all the greedy noonas out there. Too bad! Haha

He's quite tall now, but really too skinny for my liking. I'm thinking their management is purposely trying to keep him skinny so he doesn't grow up too fast and lose all the noona-fans, but seriously, boy needs to eat. He looks too thin to be healthy for a sixteen year old boy! Just watch any Juliette video or performance, since it's the most recent (and while you're doing that, you can check out Jonghyun's singing too! Don't really dig the song, but Jonghyun is an attraction in himself).
He's the lead dancer of the group, having choreographed alot of their moves. Many have commented that they're like invertebrates, since they dance so smoothly that it looks like they have no backbones. Haha such unflattering description, but they really do look good dancing. Taemin doesn't sing solos much, although you can hear him in Juliette.




Okay, so that's it for SHINee. Lots of pictures. =))

fin*

okay, SS501 next!

SS501 1st Asian Concert Tour coming herrrreeee!!!!

hehe

oh, and so are FT Island, although this news is a bit late. They'll be having a showcase-type thing at St James Powerhouse (I think) on the 27th of June, and omgosh did I mention that all the boys are swoon-worthy? And they actually play their own instruments, and the lead singer can really sing.

You can't really see their faces, but they're super adorable in action.

Okay, I'm finally having doubts about travelling to Melbourne. Not really for Perth, still, but Melbourne's really starting to scare me. I was prepared to be quarantined or something when I got home, but then I suddenly remembered that I'll be taking the plane to KL and not into Singapore! So that means when my parents pick me up, all of us will be at risk, and so we can't have contact with anybody else throughout the entire drive back into Singapore. Of course, those precautions will still seem like not enough, because if it does turn out that I got H1N1 then the Govt. would want to do contact tracing, and it'll be harder if they have to trace it back through Malaysia, even if the people I got in contact with were only the immigration officers.

I don't want to leave my cousins hanging, since I've promised to visit them since three or four years ago, but I'm starting to think I should postpone the Melbourne trip. So if we still get to go to Perth, I should probably book a flight back home and cancel the flights to Melbourne and from Melbourne to KL. Gosh, such a headache. And all I've wanted to do since I finished A levels was to get to travel to Australia and go skydiving. Why must it get so hard??!!

That being said, I think my next post will definitely be about SHINee, whom I think are adorable, and then SS501 who are having a concert here in December. Pat, scream!!!

Haha. And New Moon should be coming out right around that time too, so double reason to scream! I saw the trailer, and it looks like Taylor Lautner (if he can finally act) seems like a good fit for the role of Jacob. I had my doubts, but that boy has definitely been working out haha.

fin*

So many shadows cast over the up-coming Australia trip. Number one on the agenda:

SWINE FLU!

Bloody pigs! Haha Although, I did hear that animal rights (or something) activists were the ones who requested the name-change from swine flu to H1N1 because it's not the pigs fault. Poor piggies. But Australia has over 600 cases now, with 521 occuring in Victoria, and 2 in Western Australia.

Now, this means that Perth is relatively unaffected, and probably safer than Singapore considering that Singapore has 9 (or was it 10?) cases. But Victoria! Melbourne hosts 70% of the Victorian population, which means that of the 521, chances are that 365 or more are from Melbourne.

For now, my plans remain unchanged, since my main priority in heading to Melbourne is to spend time with my cousins and not just to go to tourist attractions. If anything should happen, I'll just have to deal with it. Intense (well, compared to anything else I've done at home) research has proven that H1N1 is like normal flu, and you're more likely to get it if you're a smoker...

I guess I'll just have to see how it goes...

fin*

A must-watch! SS501 practising their Engrish by saying "Sugar Syrup" and "I am a boy, you are a girl", and "Hollywood Bowrrl!" Haha. So cute!