seoul search

well not much to say, i came back from seoul and it was a complete failure. kthanx

its not me, it's your intimacy

so its exam week next week here at KAIST, which means classes have temporarily finished. i've finished my homework for the time being which means i have some spare time laid upon me.

in that spare time, i've attempted to join some co-curricular activities such as taking up chinese classes and also i'm helping a korean guy learn english.

but even with that, i've still a handful of time so i've decided to take the time to listen to some albums i've wanted to listen to for a while in their entirety, (not an album review, just what i my impressions)

intimacy - bloc party
and
it's not me, its you - lily allen


intimacy -

i can't say im too much of a indie guy. but i relatively enjoyed this album. i dont enjoy the current trend of this rock electronica dance blend so thus i didnt really enjoy listening to the songs on this album with that element. my favourite two songs from the album is prob: ares and halo. when it comes to rock i enjoy the heavy hitting and fast paced drums that was present in both those songs and a hard and heavy riff which was more existant in halo. i'm still getting used to kele's voice on a song like ares, just feels it would be better if there was an angry white guy screaming on it (corey taylor or chester bennington or someone) so give me some time. but those two songs were enough to suggest i should check out their other stuff.

it's not me, it's you -

i quite enjoyed her first album, theres something about her bitchy attitutude that makes her songs that good. even though i enjoyed the "bitchy" songs on her first album i also enjoyed her reflective songs and emo songs. i don't think this album is better than her debut, but i think given time it will grow on me like the first album did. favourite songs on this album are: the fear and who'd have known. Even though i think katy perry is hotter, lily allen definitley has more attitude and that extra bitchiness that delivers her songs with perfection. so when shes singing emo songs its like: nawwww she has feelings too haha. now im just rambling.



another album that recently downloaded in it's entirety is...

Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde


i've heard lots of songs from this album prior to downloading this album, but i really enjoyed this whole album. it was such a shame that i couldn't see them live when they came down for good vibes. this for me is really what light hearted golden age hiphop is, its just so energetic and so chilled at the same time. can't really pick two songs i like the most, but if i had to it would be between a couple of songs haha: Otha Fish, Officer, Return of the B-boy and Oh Shit.
Return of the bboy really made me feel like it was 87 or someshit, or better yet, 2009 and hip-hop was back from the dead. they just dont make songs like these anymore.


thanks for reading, heres a present:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7tEtWUfUkY

gyeongju

so the ISO organised a trip for all the exchange students to gyeong ju on saturday, and we spent the night there.

i think the trip would have been alot better if we just skipped the temples and had a whole day of rest before the binge drinking at night.

i simply cant binge drink if i get no sleep the night before due to inconsiderate people talking extremely loudly in the corridoors of the dorm 3 in the morning, i was just about to go kick all their asses when the janitor kicked them all out, thank you.

must have sucked to visit gyeong ju if you were a japanese, in which there were a few i heard.

every relic you visit, is either incomplete due to japanese stealing apart of it, or it was restored or completely rebuilt because the japanese burnt the whole thing down.

damn japanese

oh fitzwilliams

fitzwilliam says:

*haha

*i've had to pee for like an hour

*just so you know

*lol

back from seoul city

so we went on club night which is the last friday of every month to a district named hongdei, basically you pay for one club and that gets you entry into about 5 or 6 different clubs.

it was a good night haha.


at the club, they played linkin park, i was extremely happy. i realised that the ppl in the electronic clubs are generally alittle bit more ugly than the ppl in the hiphop clubs. there are LOTS of american black guys everywhere that night, some with their trashy americankorean girlfriends.

i spent 20 bucks at kfc, seemed like a good idea at the time.



going back next month...this time without spending 200 bucks...


funny story:
a frenchman named yan, he had sooooooo much to drink apparently he caught a taxi from seoul to daejeon (where our uni is about 2 hours away), so thats like someone from bendigo coming to melbourne getting drunk and accidentally catching a cab back to bendigo. so basically when he got to daejeon, he realised he didnt have his wallet or any form of ID, so he sat in a police station for 1 hour before they contacted our uni. he then took the same cab back to where we all were in seoul just as we were waking up, so it was like nothing happened. i thought he was joking when he told me he went to daejeon, but yes, surprisingly the whole trip only costed him 40,000 won which is only about 45 bucks.

his wallet is still in seoul because he put it in a locker and he lost the key...gg

to seoul!

going to seoul this friday and coming back on sunday, shold be very exciting! keep y'all updated off what i get up to.

ive finally downloaded continuum in its entirety, very good album. gravity is working against me.

i failed miserably at the automatic baseball machines where they throw balls at you and you try to hit them, but i redeemed myself by playing the "kick the ball as hard as you can" game by breaking the machine with my awesome kick. go me.

and happy birthday to YOU!

1k

i will apply for travel grant for second semester which shall add another 1k to my netsaver!

my whole body is sore and ive got bruises on my knee and wrist cause ive found a place to train finally.

im starting to hate the ppl in my dorm, someone keeps opening the staircase door which keeps being banged by the wind at night, i closed it twice last night but someone kept opening it. :@

its raining outside, i don't like the rain.

im settling in, adding people to friends list (in real life, not facebook).

need to go seoul, daejeon is pretty boring. i also want to go drinking and go karaoke.

i would have killed to be in somewhere like rye for this week, im sick of winter. i need sun, i need sand and i need to sit somewhere and do nothing but stare at some water for a week.

ok, got korean class in 2 hours, enough rambling. bye now

window side

there is just something about being window side in a foreign country that makes you want to ...

scholarship

i received a 5500 dollar scholarship today. go me

also i visited the hiphop dance club... no comment.

Day ?

ken. says:

i was walking down the streets

ken. says:

and i saw this huge crowd of girls

ken. says:

gathered

ken. says:

and i heard music

ken. says:

so i walked up

ken. says:

and there were dudes breaking

ken. says:

so i broke in there

ken. says:

and no one spoke engglish

ken. says:

and then all the korean girls gasped

ken. says:

coz i was from overseas

ken. says:

and i wasnt ugly

ken. says:

coz 90% of korean bboys are pretty ugly

ken. says:

anyway

ken. says:

so like 2 hours later

ken. says:

im just walking down thee street

ken. says:

and then a group of girls

ken. says:

was wlaking past me

ken. says:

and then they just suddenly sotpped

ken. says:

and stared at me

ken. says:

for a good 5 seconds

ken. says:

before one of them was like

ken. says:

beebui?

ken. says:

me: ?

michelle ma belle (ap) says:

LOL

michelle ma belle (ap) says:

haha

ken. says:

them: beebui?

ken. says:

me: OH BBOY! yes that was me

ken. says:

and then they were all like: wooooowwww

ken. says:

and then they all hi fived me

ken. says:

and giggled

ken. says:

and stared at me for another 10 seconds

ken. says:

and then they said bye bye

Day 3.

well my day 3 in korea was no where near as filled as the other days.

first of all, friday night i went out with the europeans and man they are so full of energy. and plus they are white so they can do crazy shit and get away with it. eg dancing on the street and outside of a club, when they do that, koreans take photos with them. if i did that, i'd prob get arrested.

i took my saturday off, bummed around with mus, bought some more domestic stuff. also bought noodles and lunch boxes and what not coz we cant afford to eat out every night.

semester starts soon, gotta find out about my classes and what theyre all about.

i think from today i'm gonna stop posting every day...unless i get super bored of course, which is a high possibility.

peace

day 2.

i ended up getting that medical exam, man do i hate blood tests.

i have made some new friends, lucas (brazillian), laura (finnish), mus, sarah, mimi who are all french.

i have learnt how to say "i am tasty, i am crazy, i am crazy for you, i am tasty tonight, i am crazy tonight, i am crazy for you tonight, i am vulgar, i am vulgar for you tonight etc" in french, and i have also learnt how to say "i love pears" in finnish. i have a feeling im gonna know more useless french than i am korean this semester. 

today has been a huge day, from med exam in the morning,  to finding a place to eat, to buying groceries and what not and to opening a bank account. i have lost my passport photos so i gotta take some another day.

i really need this weekend to get some cleaning done. sooooo tired.

keep y'all updated.

day 1.5

so i am near the end of my first day in korea.

so far it has been disappointing and facinating at the same time.

its great to be able to experience the campus uni life that you see in the movies, its disappointing its not a 24 hour party like it is depicted in american movies.

i cant speak a single word of korean and everyone in my dorm seem to be local students. i dont have a dorm buddy so i have not spoken to anyone really.

i am asian so ppl assume im korean and speak korean to me and i have to say i dont speak korean in english.

my dorm is so bloody dusty and dirty, i really need to go and buy a vacum to clean this shit up. the broom just lifts all the dust into the air.

i have to walk about 50-100 meters to go to the toilets, not good coz i go like 2 -3 times a night.

my room is heated quite well, and by quite well i mean i have to walk around naked (not really) and i dont know how to turn it down.

my guide says i have to do a medical examination tommorow, but so far no scheduling according to my guide as been correct so maybe i will just pass on it.

hope korea gets better realllllll soon.

peace

Day 1.

So let me just start by saying i aboslutely hate china eastern airlines, partly coz the planes are so crap and partly coz it was delayed by 1.5 hours.

i got to shanghai 1.5 hours later than i should have and i checked into some really crappy hotel.
the bed was rock solid like all other beds in shanghai and the shower has no pressure so i cant take a shower. 3 star my arse.

in about 3 hours i will be on my flight to incheon airport, seoul and in another 2 hours i'll be at my university in daejeon. i dont know how its gonna go, i dont speak a single word of korean, actually i know how to say hello and sleep with me. but i dont think thats gonna do much in getting me to the university. great.

i forgot to buy a lan cable so im gonna steal this one at the hotel so i can use at the uni. keep y'all updated.

(ps: i miss you all, especially YOU, you know who you are)

peace

CNY

happy lunar new year everyone.

for those who dont know, i shall be departing for the republic of korea on wednesday. i will be there for about 4 months and then finally to shanghai again for my internship which will carry on til the end of the year.

anyway, i felt alittle inspiration last night and i decided to do some simple photoshopping to some photos i took at charley's. its amazing what simple tweaks and not so simple tweaks could do to photos.

these two are my favourites:




the rest is on my facebook, but these ones are prob the best ones.

now to learn how to take photos like that without photoshop

the dream

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." - MLK '63

"although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to have a black president" Tupac Shakur '95


history will decide.

burncity

ive taken some time to enjoy the little things of melbourne that i wont be able to enjoy whilst im in shanghai/ maybe korea:

watching alpha male seagulls fight off other seagulls for my attention

sitting on the grass (all greenery in shanghai is pretty much sealed off)

seeing nimbus clouds and a clear blue sky

enjoying golden sands with blue water

enjoy being able to walk around without people bumping into you everywhere

enjoy the fresh air

being able to drink water out of the tap

the high water pressure.

but there are things that i have gotten used to in asia:

public transport actually running on time (and trains coming every 5 minutes)

taxis being really cheap

food being really cheap (in shanghai, not hk)

being able to buy whatever i need

never being more than 5 minutes away from a metro station

completeness

i have nothing to say, i just wanted to see how it felt to update my blog outside of a nice cafe with a cup of warm coffee.

shai city.

today has been an extremely boring day.

well for everyone who hasnt spoken to me and is dying to read a blog (cissy) haha, i shall update.

i arrived in shanghai on the 23rd of december and its all been a big blur since then.

in short, i've had excessive amounts of beer almost every single night ive been here. and i have pretty much been moving from place to place every night, rarely do i sleep on the same bed two nights in a row.

nye didnt exactly go to plan (sorry ed and charley) but it was still ok. i spent it with jazel, her friend thu, tai gorilla and lucy. thankyou jazel for those shots haha.

i've met the bboys here too and ive been dancing a couple of times already with edward and once with charley.

but really, theres not much to say, its cold as hell here and dark as well...hell too. assuming hell is dark and...cold.

anyway i will be back in melbourne on the 13th of jan, i look forward to seeing everyone who is ever so eagerly waiting for the return of the king. (gone again by the 31st latest)

hk day 3

yes i hav enothing better to do at night in hongkong than to sit in the lobby of my hotel and update my blog. i took like 300 photos today
, went to visit the big buddah on the top of the hill and also the worlds most happiest place on earth.

by now i have realised mongkok aint the best neighbourhood in town haha. nothing much to write about today, really tired. update with photos when i cbf.