waterbird12

Yes. Oh my yes. And about everything else too. Like, asking someone’s age I get, cause you need to know that in order to know how to address them. But all the personal questions, all the time! About your love life, about finances, about religion. And not that I really mind telling people, because I’m getting more used to it, but it just feels weird. And also the mannerisms, beyond just the content of conversations. People are very direct with the people they’re familiar with, so everybody is yelling all the time (it feels like). And the head teacher and the VP will get into shouting matches in the teacher’s office over things, except they’re really not fighting, just discussing things, but it still feels…uncomfortable. It’s like, a lot of people say whatever they think without stopping to censor it, or even pay attention to the tone they say it in.

I’ll be online on Friday, but it’ll have to be an early(er) night for me cause…4:30 AM wake up ><
But Sunday for sure :D

Uh, about the AB blurb…I don’t recall seeing one, unless you sent it with a whole bunch of other ones, cause I’m only 1/4 the way through those ones you sent in like October xD But send it right along. I’ll have a lot of free time the week after next because we have pre-finals study halls (again O.o how did finals get here already?), and then I’ll be traveling the week after that, and then a slow week again, and then BREAK! Are you traveling at all for the holidays?

Thank God for recaps! My brain always edits out the content I don’t want to remember…there have been multiple instances of “hey, family! Watch this movie with me! It’s really good!” and only until we start watching it and I’m cringing do I remember how much language or other offensive material happened to be in it. It’s not so bad now that my sister’s grown up, but when she was ten, oops xD Which is why sites like yours are so helpful for brains like mine.

Ah, really? Not as good how? My ETA friend is watching it (well, she’s Korean-Am so she can actually understand TV :P) and is in love with it!! We got into an awkward stand-off on a crowded subway (awkward cause she was fan-girling in public place where we already kinda stick out) last week cause she insisted I needed to start it RIGHT NOW, and I don’t watch things that are currently airing. So I was kinda convinced. I’ve heard that too, I guess, but also that it’s hard to compare them because they’re different kinds of stories; this one is about college students. But idk for sure.

I agree, and I think the style was part of the charm, more so than detracting. But, I got confused a lot. You know, actually I didn’t realize until episode 14~15-ish that there was supposed to be suspense going on, because I was really confused and thought early on that they had told us for sure that SSW marries YTW. And then I felt really dumb but really happy when I realized YYJ had a fighting chance! And that made the whole thing more enjoyable and less stressful anyway, so yay.

I started the review last night. It didn’t get too far, because I skyped my Mom instead, but it will eventually happen. Oh, and I forgot to tell you maybe, including in the letter (it has like three PSs on it already, anyway) I just mailed you, but I didn’t get the copy editing position ? I’m no good at interviews. I need to fix that before I look for my next job >< But that’s ok! Because I will have a lot of free time to travel over winter break, and I’m already having too much fun working with you on the website, so I don’t really mind!

Yeah...although, I'm not really sure if it had a beginning or a middle either, and that right there violates the whole definition of "narrative". I really like slice of life-y stuff, and this was very much that. But I kept getting confused, cause things would happen with no explanation. And then I'd worry if I had missed half an episode somewhere. Even the episodes themselves didn't feel very...episodic, neatly contained. It was more like a collection of scenes revolving around common themes than a plot. Wow, analyzing this for a term paper would be really fun and frustrating. The review's probably gonna be both of those :P

I was thinking of starting Reply 1994 soon. Are you watching that too? I'm /way/ behind you on Heirs! I won't be back until late on Friday, like maybe 10 or 10:30 PM, but we could watch an hour then. Omma and I are leaving for Seoul on the 6:00 AM bus on Saturday, but I could do Sunday morning before church or Sunday night.

Oh yeah, forgot about that one! I've been thinking about the Heartstrings one all week, but working on our magazine stuff has been keeping me busy.

The shape was almost more awful than the gold...
Aw, it's ok! It still made me super happy to get it :) I wrote you back today.

ahh, and I finished Reply like 5 minutes ago! Technically it was a happy ending, but I still feel bittersweet. Not because it ended, but because of all the things they said at the end. Ah. I guess Heirs is up next.

Me? Really? Haha, I guess I did watch a ton last year over summer break. But have I really seen more K-dramas than you?
Anyway, your main beef is with the unnecessary plot twists, yes? You might actually like Reply 1997. It’s pretty unique, and has a more realistic feel. It’s follows a group of friends growing up through high school and college, has a lot of humor and awkward teenage moments, but also a lot of poignant scenes.

The main female lead is also a huge fan girl of a boy band, so that is quite amusing. And it takes place in Busan, so you get to hear Busan dialect and see some of the culture. The overall feel is a lot like everyday life in Korea than a Cinderella love story. And the acting is great. And it’s only 16 episodes!

Sungkyunkwan Scandal is also really good! It’s historical, but it’s a gender bender and really, really sweet and funny. Good bromance. There’s some drama and it’s not 100% realistic, but the plot keeps moving forward so I never got bored or frustrated. Also, I'm in love with Song Joong Ki's voice, so that was a big plus xD

Who’s in Fabulous Boys? Is it funny?

Hmm, that is a difficult question…up front, Japan was more comfortable because I was already pretty familiar with Japanese culture before going there, and I could communicate. Korean culture still catches me off guard sometimes, but I’m getting more and more used to it. People are more open, which makes it a little easier to connect, and also I’m less inhibited about speaking Korean, although not sure why that is. But people are also more loud, in your face, and don’t listen as well when I try to express myself.

I’m in a “small town” here, and in Japan I was in a big city, so that part of my Korean environment is more comfortable for me. Also, I have a host family and a great support network through the program that takes awesome care of me and spoils me and has helped me get settled, where in Japan I had the bureaucracy of the university administration to deal with.

I don’t know…I think a Japanese workplace would be more stressful and uncomfortable than where I am now, but maybe Japanese culture overall is a little easier for me to slot myself into. I mean, my personality fits better into Japanese culture than American culture sometimes; I’m really not sure yet how my personality type fits with Korean culture. But give me a year, and maybe I’ll get used to all the yelling and brutal honesty?

Aww, thanks! Sharing is caring ;) And it always helps to be reminded I’m not alone. There really is no good answer why, although you’re right, it doesn’t keep myself from struggling with that question sometimes. I’m so glad you found a support network there :)

Ooh, awesome! One of the neatest things about studying abroad is making all kinds of international friends ? What part of Korea is she from?
If you send me a pic, I could translate the message for you, but decoding it from scratch sounds like fun ;)

The "hairy cupcake" is almost worse than the one I couldn't stand! xD The gold lame sweater happens to be a 500$ Marc Jacobs piece, btw.

Also, your letter got here today :D I'm super excited to read it at lunch tomorrow. Thank you!

I feel vindicated.

http://www.gurupop.com/fanclubs/leeminho/243546-This-made-me-laugh-sorry-LMH

Yeah, but Japanese background is helping a lot! Both languages have a lot of loan words from Chinese, so sometimes the words are the same or I can kinda guess, and a large percentage of the grammar structure are similar, so sometimes I can guess there too. Has it helped with Chinese at all? Probably the characters?

I’ve really missed talking to you too! You are my first mdl buddy, you know. Thanks for remembering me when you have the time ? Recently I’ve been busy traveling and stuff on weekends, but I managed to finish Akai Ito, Heartstrings, Protect the Boss, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and I’m thiiiis close to finishing Reply 1997. Maybe tonight ;) Wow, that’s actually more watching than I’d realized I’d done! What didja watch? I think I’m gonna tackle Heirs next.

Yeah, dramacrazy is no more. That was the big drama of the summer, although fortunately I never really used that site much so I can’t miss it.

Awesome! I’m so glad to hear that, even though I assumed you must have loved it ;)
And also really sorry to hear about the bullying! Are you ok? Probably I told you, but I had a bullying incident in Japan, and it still…sometimes something will throw me right back into that moment. But it was a learning experience, if nothing else. And those people are clueless and horrible to treat a wonderful person like that, so don’t believe anything they said or did.

Wow, good luck with Chinese! I tried and it didn’t stick. I should try again, but I’ll stick with Korean for now. Isn’t that feeling great though, when you find your language learning groove and everything is exciting and you feel the progress? I’m slowly getting there with Korean. I can have really basic conversations with my host family now, although there is sooo much I don’t know. I try to go shopping, and then halfway through getting help from the sales person I run into all these words I don’t know. But that frustration is pretty much the best motivation to study for me. I bought the first Harry Potter book in Korean this weekend, and it takes me about an hour per page.

Also, Jung Yonghwa was on TV last night...is he in something right now? Or maybe he was guest-starring?

Ok, so I don't know what episode it was, but we watched Heirs again last night (Bobin's already seen that episode 4 times, so she was quoting all the dialogue) but have you seen the part where KWB and LMH basically fight over her (PSH) in the cafeteria?

See, you're smart! I can refresh if I need to, I'm only 8 eps in. But that review...is going to be hard to keep it succinct.

Send away~!

Awesome, thanks.

So, the longer I watch Reply 1997, and the longer I think about trying to write a review of it, the more daunting it seems. Every episode has potentially objectional content at least insinuated, and I'm already losing track of it all >.< I should have kept a list from the beginning.

And the thing is, I don't want to write this, that, and the other thing on that review that would turn people off, because, yeah, it's all there, and some people would mind about it even being implied, but it's a really good show despite all that (because of all that?) and it's not graphic or anything.

Thoughts? Sorry for all the info dumping today.

Yeah, I haven't been super impressed by Heirs so far, but I haven't given it much of a chance (but don't know if I will).
Ah! Is Reply 1994 good? I'm working on Reply 1997 right now.

Nice to meet you too :) Have you seen Pride? It's one of my favorites, although I haven't seen Love Generation or Long Vacation.
I'm watching Reply 1997 now. It's really good! The sequel/spin off is airing right now, too. And the last one I watched was Protect the Boss which is also good if you like comedies.
Hmm...it keeps changing, but right now I really Song Joong Ki and Yamashita Tomohisa. Have any recs for me?