Love . . .

“Everyone has a different definition of love. Love to one person is… letting go even if it hurts them. Another would give up love for someone in a better situation. It sometimes starts with imagination. It’s motivation to live for some… and it’s mystery to solve for others. Regardless, love is a blissful thought that makes heart flutter… and is a hope.” - Surplus Princess

Petite France!

I went to Petite France! Finally, after many days wishing I was there in the Korean Dramas :) 

More details on my travel blog here: http://worldbooktravel.blogspot.kr/2014/06/little-town.html?spref=fb

Palace of Wonder and Garden of Dreams

The Changdeokgung Palace is a step back in time. From the imperial gate to the secret garden, it has been the movie set for many historical Korean dramas. The picturesque view and the artistic atmosphere draws in tourist after tourist. But for me, it's more than that. Once I arrived, it was like walking in a Korean fairytale. I could see the crown prince running along the game field. I saw the servants walking through the gate quickly with laundry to the great well next to the public garden. And of course, the minute I walked over the Geumcheongyo (stone bridge) I could see the crown princess with her ladies in waiting, and the procession that followed. 

This palace also has a forbidden garden, that we were lucky enough to grab tickets for, right before it sold out. (I reccomend geting them as soon as possible- they sell out fast) The great pavillion was a private resort for the royal family and a few selected noblility. The garden itself was a quiet retreat for tea, and it even has it's own area for the rice only eaten by the royal family. 

The area was beautiful, and reminded me of many Korean myths and legends. 

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find books about Korean folklore, but their history begins with a myth, and slowly turns into facts. The Kingdom of the Four Winds begins Korea's tale, and from then on, the history unfolds. But actually walking around the regal and beautiful buildings gives you a taste of what life was like whne men feared Gumihos, women were chosen to be the crown princess, and the great school of Sungkyunkwan was the most promising school in the country. 

This area of Korea, preserved in the Joseon period is inspirational and its own work of art. 

Some of the Korean Dramas filmed here include The Moon that Embraces the Sun, Sungkyunkwan Scandal, Gu Family Book, Goong, Goong S and of course Queen Inhyeon's Man. 

A Thousand Years: Kang Chi and Yeo Wool

Because this was too beautiful to not share.

Writing Prompt 52: Something that makes you smile

Tae Hyung's fan test for Go Mi Nye

Her answers were priceless!

On Taking Opportunities

"Everyone is living his life for the first time. The world has hidden transforming points in life. If you make them your opportunities, then you will not have regrets about your life." - Cyrano

This is probably the best quote I have come across in a long time. Another piece of wisdom that really speaks to the heart and reveals a wisdom beyond pride and ego.  We all have those moments where things didn't go as planned. Most likely we made mistakes, got hurt or even became humiliated. 

These events, even though they are painful, teach us something important as we grow. I'd like to believe this anyway. 

Every event that has left me with regret, a broken heart or even wounded pride are the events I remember, and the events I expect in the future. But I never took time to reflect on these events, and what I learned from them. Instead I was caught up in the pain and humiliation, only thinking of how horrible these events were to me. 

But I need to remember that these events are important, and they have taught me more about life, the world and myself than I can even comprehend. 

Regret, I think, is caused by not doing what you really wanted to do in the present moment. It's not so much of a "what if?" as a "why didn't I do that?" 

I know that people say to live in the present and forget the past. You can't be worried about the future all the time either. So where do you stand in that jumble of Past, Present and Future, in order to make the most of your life? You can't always expect the best, but you can't always expect the worst either. And, in certain situations, you should not expect anything. 

Maybe these are ramblings, but finding balance within these thought processes has always been a challenge in my life, and most likely everyone else's. But there are some people who seem to have no regrets. They really do live in the moment. They don't analyze or think about what might happen. They don't worry. They just have fun!

It is these people that I envy the most. That mind set is just not a simple thing for me to achieve. Yet, I envy them. I admire them. I wish I could be them. 

I want to live my life, yet I feel like I haven't even begun. Sure, I have good memories, but I do have regrets. I have fears. I have doubts. This is normal. I'm sure. But unlike me, some people don't let these things become obstacles. Instead, they face that fear. They ignore their negative thoughts. They just go for it! Whatever it is. Maybe one day, I can be like that. 

Speaking your mind is one thing. Actually pursuing something you want is another. 

Gu Family Book- Kang Chi's bracelet and Yeo Wool's love

Kang Chi thinks of Yeo Wool to stay human.

Miho Polyvore Set: Fox Rain

I've been watching Gu Family Book lately, but I also remembered another Korean drama about a Gumiho. I loved Miho's outfit in the series, and I finally found the pieces to complete the look. I bought the dress at Charlotte Russe, but I'm afraid the plaid shirt was more complicated than I realized. I finally found one at a thrift store, and now I can cosplay as Miho anytime!

In the set, the white dress and plaid shirt make up Miho's outfit. I added the fairy tale book for the Little Mermaid reference. The perfume bottle represents the one Miho kept her sacred orb in. The fox ring was just too cute to pass up, and the flats seemed to fit her character. I added the rain for obvious reasons :)

View the whole set here: http://www.polyvore.com/miho/set?id=83231157

Music Discovery - 사랑이 불어온다- Lee Ji Young

One of the main themes for Gu Family Book, a really great show :)

Writing your own fairytale

Anxiety is a trap. It keeps you in a prison that you have created yourself. Harsh words, bad memories, worries and insults surround you as you look out the window, wondering what life really is to the people passing you by. There's only one way to find out, and it's not like you don't know this, but you're scared. You're scared that someone will break you, once you've already been broken, you're afraid to trust others and you don't think optimistically in order to avoid being let down. Welcome to Go Dok Mi's world. To me, it sounds really familiar and terrifyingly miserable. Enrique saves Go Dok Mi by helping her save herself. He helps her see that you can trust people, and that they won't abandon you or let you down every time you need help. Go Dok Mi is annoyed at first. Her daily routine is no longer the same familiar pattern, and someone is constantly knocking on her door, telling her how great the world is. She hates it. Over and over she tells him to stop, and she does all she can to push him away. She tries to stick to her routine, but she can't avoid being with people forever. She begins to get used to this interruption, and starts to expect it. Enrique gives her a list of things that she should do everyday, and he creates a board game that will determine which risk she has to take daily in order to enjoy living. Go Dok Mi accepts the gift but doesn't use it right away. After a while, she gets curious and rolls the dice. This is her first step to healing. Once Go Dok Mi starts to hang out with people and learn about Enrique, she gets scared and runs away. But by that point, she has become so used to doing things, that she can't just stay in her room all the time anymore. It takes time, but Go Dok Mi finally becomes part of the world around her. She hangs out with friends and starts to learn about her own goals and dreams by helping others. She wants to write, and loves fairy tales, so she decides that she will write a fairy tale of her own. Enrique learns this, and tells her "Live, and write your own fairy tale."
This Korean Drama is one of the most inspiring and heartfelt stories that I have seen. Each small step is painstakingly slow, but necessary. I learned something by watching this series. Small steps are not nothing. When facing anxiety and fear, the small steps are extremely important, and they need to be appreciated instead of ignored. Regret is one of the motivators to change your life. You don't want to wonder  "what if" for your entire life, and if you take a step, instead of freeze, you probably won't regret it.
You can also think, "Why didn't I learn this sooner?" "Why couldn't I know then what I know now?"
Because life is a process, and lessons are learned through mistakes. Mistakes aren't always bad, and some mistakes can turn into blessings. Like Enrique tells Go Dok Mi, "you can start a journey with anger in your heart, but that anger can change to happiness." Go Dok Mi learned to live and now she's writing her own fairytale. My goal this year is to do the same. It's time to live, and write my own fairy tale.

Rapunzel versus the Witch : Flower Boy Next Door

I think this voice rings true for people like Go Dok Mi and myself. It's interesting that Go Dok Mi admits that she shut herself away, which makes her more of the evil witch in Rapunzel than the character of Rapunzel herself. But this is something we all do sometimes. We become our own enemy, with brutal internal criticism and excuse after excuse to keep us from achieving what we really want. I think this is the beginning of regret. Once you trap yourself in a situation, you only have yourself to blame, but at the same time you are still a victim, and still feel powerless and helpless to venture into the unknown. Go Dok Mi is wise in both admitting and accepting this about her situation. After all, they say that acceptance is a step forward from the trap of bad habits. Once you admit you are doing something wrong, you are motivated to change your habit and move forward to create a better way of life. 

Flower Boy Next Door Quote

If Rapunzel never left the tower . . .

there would be no story.

I'm currently watching the Korean Drama "Flower Boy Next Door" where a girl in her twenties named Go Dok Mi lives her life in her room and rarely ventures outside. Due to a traumatic past, she never speaks to people unless she has to, and stays in her room, watching her crush from the window as much as possible. With a job that doesn't involve meeting people (freelance editing) and a simple routine to keep away from strangers, you would think that Go Dok Mi would succeed in her goal of staying away from the world.
Then Enrique, her crush's younger brother catches her staring at the apartment and won't leave her alone. He is determined to make Go Dok Mi face her fears, and encourages her to live life the way it's supposed to be . . . with other people.
I find that I can relate to this story in more ways than one. I may not sit by myself and stay in my room all day, but I do avoid others as much as possible, and I observe instead of live. But as I watched this show, I thought of something. Characters have to act. If they don't, there literally is no story. Readers don't tend to enjoy people that ponder over things and never come to a decision. In the end, a decision has to be made, and the main character must leave the familiar and face the unknown.
So if Rapunzel never left the tower . . . there would be no story.

Amazing Kdrama dialogue

I've seen a lot of Kdrama and witnessed some amazing dialogue, but the most recent Kdrama Cheongdam-dong Alice just triumphed over every single scene I have been amazed by.

In context, Cheongdam-dong Alice is the story of Se Kyung, who is the Alice of the story. She is poor and loves fashion. One day, she decides to enter the Wonderland of Cheongdam and become a famous designer. In order to do this, she takes advice from a former enemy in High School who has achieved the finer life and has invented a formula to make it happen. She is the Queen of Hearts in the story She tells Se Kyung that she must find a "white rabbit" to escort her into the finer life.
Enter Seung Jo, the mad hatter character who poses as Secretary Kim to avoid being treated differently by Se Kyung. Once he falls for her, he eventually has to reveal this secret. He has gone from the bottom of the ladder to the top as president of Artemis, a well known and famous fashion brand.
Because Se Kyung doesn't know he is the president Jean Thierry Cha, she seeks another White Rabbit and succeeds in becoming well known to a famous designer who becomes the White Rabbit. Misunderstanding Se Kyung's intentions, the White Rabbit believes that she is a gold digger out for an opportunity for money. This continues once he discovers that Secretary Kim is Jean Thierry Cha, and he believes that Se Kyung has known this all along.
At the same time, Se Kyung's friend tells her who Secretary Kim is, before he does, and begins to feel guilty after he finally admits to the lie, and confesses his feelings for her. So she does what anyone racked with guilt would do, she avoids him and runs away. She also tells him that he is too above her in status.
Meanwhile, the White Rabbit won't let her relationship with Jean Thierry Cha go without consequences, and he bribes her to leave and go to a fashion school if she will stay away from him. After the contract is laid out in front of her, Se Kyung proceeds to tell the White Rabbit that her feelings and Seung Jo's feelings are genuine, but the White Rabbit doesn't listen and tells her that she is dirty because she is a poor person in love with a rich person.
Se Kyung is left to choose, leave for France, or be with someone she loves, but she is still racked with guilt, and every attempt Seung Jo makes to get close to her, she runs away. Seung Jo doesn't give up and prepares a major dinner to confess directly, but Se Kyung doesn't show up. After a pep talk from both his friends and Se Kyung's friends, he decides to find her.
After they track her down, Seung Jo finds her at the bottom of a stair well. He runs down the stairs (symbolically showing that he has left the pedestal of his status) and stands in front of a surprised Se Kyung, ready to confess. When he does, this is what he says:
"Don't go!  Today I was going to confess to you. I was going to play a really cool movie ,and following the script ,I was going to do a  really cool confession! I used too think that love was something you felt only at first sight. I didn't know that you could drown in it slowly . If love had a time limit, I want my love to last ten thousand years. Until the day I die, will you love me? I don't want ththat. Until the day I die, I will love you! And, well ,I was going to confess using this cool script, But none of this is right. That kind of stuff isn't me. I am a coward, because the person I love might throw me away. They might leave me. I am afraid. I get scared! When I was little, my mother let go of my hand and left me. Once, the person I loved suddenly packed her bags and left. These things haunt my dreams.  Sometimes I'm so afraid that I turn the lights on. Now you know. I am not a cool CEO. I am not a prince who can save you. I'm just someone who loves Se Kyung.  An ordinary man. Se Kyung, I love you to the point of being annoying. So if you are able to accept a person like me, decide, Ms Se Kyung. Please, instead of abandoning me, instead of running away. Se Kyung, rescue me."

After hearing this, Se Kyung begins to cry and asks him if he can wait for an hour. She runs back to the White Rabbit and tells him:
"You said love is like a name. Like the thousands of thousands names in the world, doesn’t matter what you call it, it is the mind of the person saying it. You’re right. My feelings for Cha Seung-Jo are ugly. But ugly love is still love. So, from now on these feelings of mine for Cha Seung-Jo, I will call it ugly love. You said I could call it whatever I like so I will. It may be ugly, but it’s my love for Cha Seung-Jo. So YOU give up. I will never give up my ugly love." 

These monologues are absolutely amazing!

As a side note: These actors do a great job, and they are so cute together. 

 

Kdrama month prompt 30: A Kdrama that made you sad

 I have two once again:

Autumn in My Heart (Autumn Fairy Tale)

This was a sad tragedy, but the actors did a great job making the audience believe in the complicated past and binding fate that brought these characters together again. All of the symbols of Autumn meant something important to the story and created the atmosphere of a sweet love story. I liked all of the season based dramas made by the same writer who wrote Autumn in My Heart, but this story was the most sad of the four in my opinion.
Quote:  “I want to be reborn as a tree; that way I can plant my roots down, never move and can never be separated from the ones I love.”

49 days (Pure Love)

This was such an amazing  drama, and even though the ending wasn't unexpected, it was hard to accept. Ji-Hyun and the Scheduler found all the answers they needed, but the way of the world doesn't change. The characters most affected by this resolution were Hang Kang and Song Lee-Kyung. The ending of 49 days was realistic, and moving. But it was the saddest ending I ever saw in a Korean Drama.

Kdrama month prompt 29: A Kdrama that made you happy

Rooftop Prince

From the classic frying pan scene to the Joseon Power Rangers, this drama was a comedy, historical story and a mystery. The prince and his subjects getting used to the future had me giggling endlessly. Not to mention Park Ha's babysitter role in the first five episodes to show them the ropes and help them blend in. I really enjoyed this drama because it was a different type of genre, and it had many great symbolic and well written scenes that helped you figure out the mystery in the end.

Some funny stills :)

Frying Pan

Learning about the Escalator

Crane machine

Job interview

Kdrama month prompt 28: A Kdrama not loved by many, but you seem to like

I have two:

Goong S (Prince Hours)

I loved this drama. It was more light hearted than Goong and Yang Soon Ae was a strong female lead character.  I also liked Shin Sae Ryung in the end because she had her own story and character arc that helped her understand that she didn't have to pursue royalty in order to be happy.

Big

This drama was cute, sweet and really funny. I loved Kyun Joon's character and watching him find a family of his own was really moving. All the fun Kdrama references to The Moon That Embraces The Sun and Queen Inyun's Man were great along with the random English phrases Kyun Joon would say when he was upset, really happy or confused. The mystery of Yoon Jae's past was also intriguing.

Kdrama month prompt 26: Your Recently Finished Kdrama

A Gentleman's Dignity

I really enjoyed this show. It was complex at times because of all the different characters, but I enjoyed the clever dialogue and the ending was amazing! Best proposal scene in a Korean Drama ever. This show was really about growing up, facing fears and living life. It was focused on the many challenges you face in order to get by and the plot revolved around coping with many difficulties that life throws your way and making life fun at the same time.

Kdrama month prompt 25: Your First Kdrama

Goong, Palace, Princess Hours

This is the show that introduced me to Korean Drama. It started with the Manwha and then my friend introduced me to the show. After that, I watched until it was over. This was another form of therapy from College. I loved the idea of a modern prince and a down to earth girl as the crown princess. The royal life is fascinating, and High School has always been a roller coaster of ups and downs. Putting these together made an interesting story with lots of comedy and history. I also loved the music which was a mixture of classical and historical Joseon era  music. The teddy bears were also cute and cleverly put to retell moments in the show.

Kdrama month prompt 23: Your Best Couple

Ko Seung-Ji and Pan Da-Yang

These two may meet on a bit of a cliche, but their relationship grows from being business partners to friends and possibly more than that. They seem very real. They fight, they get along, they plan fun days together, they go through challenges and do what they can to overcome them.

I'm adding a best secondary couple here:

Jason and Pil-Suk

These two had a lot to learn about singing and performing from each other. Jason taught Pil-Suk to believe in herself and follow her talent. Pil-Suk taught Jason to respect other people's talent and appreciate working as a team player.