Boys Over Flowers... or the one where I fell in love

When my sister first told me about Boys Over Flowers, I was a bit skeptical. I mean really... a high school for rich kids where the four top students call themselves F4 and go around torturing the poor kids? What is that all about? I say to all you skeptics now: Wait and see.

Cast:

Ku Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di (aka strong female lead)

Lee Min  Ho as Goo Jun Pyo (aka rude jerky protagonist)

Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo (aka awesome, amazing, spectacular, sweet, thoughtful co-star)

Kim Bum as So Yi Jung (aka Casanova)

Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin (aka Don Juan)

Kim So Eun as Chu Ga Eul (aka best friend)

Plot:

I guess that I should start out with a bit of an explanation. Welcome to ShinHwa High School, school for the rich only, ruled by the mysterious F4 (F standing for 'Flower', meaning pretty boy). Things happen. Geum Jan Di, who is the daughter of a dry cleaner, ends up being given a scholarship to ShinHwa. Due to her strong personality, she ends up butting heads with Goo Jun Pyo and he declares her an outcast. Because of that, she is tormented at school without much relief. Only Ji Hoo helps her and he certainly does it in a roundabout way. However, it is the first scene that really makes the difference. You can watch the whole thing, but at this moment I would recommend only the first 5ish minutes.

Hee. When I first saw this, I remember smiling stupidly just like Jan Di does as she walks away from him. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a pretty boy who plays the violin. And the guitar. And the piano... :)

The hair... it grows on you. Seriously. Not just literally. 

Of course Goo Jun Pyo finds her defiance attractive and feels like anything he wants, he can have. So he gets pushy. And of course that leads to other things, but I shan't spoil the entire show for you here. Suffice it to say, I can't stand Lee Min Ho and his "Aish!"

Suffice it to say, Kim Hyun Joong is the shining star in this show. :) Aww... I'm blushing.

Rating: 9.5 Watch it and you'll understand, in the end, why I docked it half a point. 

The Secret Garden

One of the more popular Korean dramas, Secret Garden came second on my list. I don't know how it happened, I wasn't particularly drawn to it, I just started and didn't stop until it was over. :)
Our two main characters are: Ha Ji Won as Gil Ra Im and Hyun Bin as Kim Joo Won.

The story line is fun if a lot unbelievable. Gil Ra Im is a movie stunt woman and she has some pretty sweet moves. Kim Joo Won is the CEO of a large company and a total jerk. By chance, he mistakes Gil Ra Im for a popular actress which is how they meet. She, naturally, thinks he's a good for nothing son of a gun which oddly attracts him to her. Through a bicycle incident, a mysterious restaurant in the middle of the woods, and bottles of liquid that should probably read: "WARNING: this looks bad for your health. This IS bad for your health. Do not drink.", the two switch bodies. And that's where the hilarity of it comes in.

Hyun Bin does a fantastic job as Gil Ra Im. That's why it's so enjoyable. I'm not saying that Ha Ji Won does a bad job, merely that Hyun Bin does better. But then, it's easier for a guy to overplay being a girl for the most part. Anyhow.... funny.

RATING: 7

The best part about this drama, for me, was when they had switched souls. It got a tad bit long, but still thoroughly enjoyable the whole way through. Both main characters did a fantastic job.

Next up: Boys Over Flowers/ Boys Before Flowers

LIE TO ME or... where it all began

As promised, I am starting my long list. I hope you're open-minded aka... ya'll ready for this?

It started with Lie to Me, starring:

Yoon Eun Hye (aka the Korean Amanda Bynes)

and....

Kang Ji Hwan (I thought he was the most attractive thing I had ever seen... I should have waited to make a statement like that)

Storyline:

It's a pretty involved beginning and, I will admit, the first episode was a bit rough  to get into. But at the time when I started the show, I had already watched episode 8 with my sisters so I had a little bit of insight into what I was getting into. Awesomeness!

The show starts off with the hero: Hyun Ki Joon. (My sisters and I had a running joke about calling him "Hunky Joon" :) Anywho, he owns a massive hotel and right off you can kinda tell that he's OCD. He has a particular thing with buttons being undone. I digress. You eventually find out that he's searching for his younger brother who let the country a while back because of some reason... which ends up being a girl, of course. I shall leave the rest of that to your viewing. No, I shant say another word.
Our heroine is the lovely Gong Ah Jung, also known as "Ah Jung-ahhhhh". (That will make sense to you later. :) She works for the government and after a mishap at an important event, she's feeling a little bit... undervalued. She goes to a club to get drunk and write her resignation letter on a napkin which is where she meets... nope, not the hero. She meets the hero's younger brother, Sang Hee. Sang Hee is a bit bored and he finds Ah Jung's drunken rants to be a bit amusing. Unfortunately for him, Ki Joon finds out that he's back in Korea and at the club and comes to crash the party. Sang Hee steals Ah Jung's resignation napkin and takes off. As both Ki Joon and Ah Jung follow him, they end up meeting and Ah Jung, due to a bee sting (yeah, I know) and her excessive drinking, collapses. Realizing that this crazy woman might just know something about his brother, Ki Joon takes her to the hospital and waits all night for her to wake up so he can ask her. She ends up knowing nothing and he feels bothered but she wants to repay him for her hospital bill. It doesn't end well. She's mad, he's mad. They part. The end. Or... not.

The other side to this story is in Ah Jung's past. In college she was madly in love with one of her school mates. She felt sure that if she passed her exam to work for the government, that he would notice her as more than just a study buddy and they could get married. Unfortunately, while she was doing all of her studying, her witch of a best friend ended up seducing and getting engaged to said man. End of friendship.
Back to present: Ah Jung is at a salon, getting her hair done when witchy ex-best friend AND husband (aka Ah Jung's first love) come in together. Ex-best friend proceeds to make Ah Jung feel terrible by saying "oh, you're not married yet? Well, that's all right. Not just anyone can get married, etc. etc. etc." At that moment, Ah Jung's phone rings. It's a sales recording, but Ah Jung pretends that it's her honey ("yahbo") just so that she can wipe the smirk off of the witch's face. It works.

And THIS is where the REAL story begins.

Through a series of unfortunate events (I suppose not so unfortunate), Hunky Joon is mistaken for Ah Jung's husband. The rest is for you to watch and find out. Hee hee. You will die laughing.

RATING: 9

On my scale of 1 to 10, when I first watched it, I rated it as a 10. I now rate it as a 9, simply because I have seen better, but not many... :)

Up next: Secret Garden

When you think He doesn't care, He showers you with LOVE

I'm sure many people have had similar experiences... life gets hard, sometimes really hard. And then some miracle occurs that turns your life around (or perhaps just your perspective). And we're so grateful and we thank Him every night in our prayers and promise to remember all that He has done for us. And sometimes we do. And... sometimes we don't.
As I'm sure many of you know, the past year has not been the easiest for me. There were a couple of times when I looked to the sky and said, "Heavenly Father, I'm trying really hard to understand why all this is happening to me. I'm trying to see it as a blessing but really, isn't this a bit too much?" Things just kept going wrong. Even as my life slowly started to improve and I didn't feel like laying in bed with a bag of almond M&Ms every day, there were still problems, things that I had to deal with. I got pretty frustrated.
And then, one after another, two miracles happened.
1) My sisters discovered Korean culture in the form of a tv show. I mentioned it here. (Go reread or read for the first time, or completely ignore- whatever suits you best.) I wasn't terribly interested at first... I mean, I've been a fan of Bollywood movies for several years and this seemed fairly similar to that so I wasn't against them. After some persuasion on my sisters' part, I sat and watched an episode. Two words. Life. Changing. I should probably dedicate an entire post to this. And I will. Once I finish my 12 page persuasive writing research paper. Ha. For now we'll just say that it started me down a major path. One that I never imagined or expected. Enough said on that for now. TBC later.
2) Acceptance into the India Study Abroad for Winter 2013. First thing people say when they hear that. "Wow." Second thing: "Why India?" I'm going to say it now and only once, so pay attention. I have no idea why India. It was pretty much a whim. I saw a big poster in the SWKT one day while walking to class and I figured that I didn't have much to lose. I applied, doubting that I would get into the program. I was sure they'd want me to focus on completing my degree so I could graduate. But somehow I was accepted. And then it was a great battle within myself. Should I be focusing on graduating or should I actually go to India? And what about the money? Thousands of dollars don't just materialize. And there were things that I wanted to do that I wouldn't be able to do if I did go to India. And then people started suggesting that I go someplace else. India is so very far away. Four months is a long time. It's not a clean place. It's so different there.... things like this. And even though I didn't want to, I started to get nervous. It took me a while to talk myself down. I kept telling myself that I needed to try something different. Stepping out of my bubble and into the real world would help me grow by leaps and bounds. I'm not a weak person; I can handle reality. But money was still an issue, as it usually is. So I went to the temple. The irony of it was that it was probably the shortest amount of time that I'd ever spent in the temple, but I still got my answer. I didn't know how, exactly, but I knew that everything was going to be all right. So I put my trust in the Spirit and pushed forward, putting down the payment to secure my spot and beginning the preparations. Despite the fact that I still didn't know how I was going to come up with the money for the trip, I didn't worry. I knew that He would provide me with the answer at the right time.
Two months ago, I received a grant from the government. Oh, what a blessing! It wouldn't cover the whole fee, but it would certainly help.
About a month ago, my mom told me to go to this Veterans Affairs website and fill out this form and submit it for a little financial aid. Thursday I received a letter saying that I my application had been accepted and I would be receiving the aid. According to my papa, $900 a month for up to 45 months. When I saw that, a huge weight lifted off my chest and I literally felt His love and I could feel Him saying, 'Yes, Christina, I do love you and I am looking after you.' I am so blessed to have a loving Father in Heaven who takes such good care of me despite all of the silly things that I do. He loves me unconditionally and He gives me great opportunities to grow and to experience incredible things. That is the beauty of this life.

Brave or My Very Own Disney Princess

The current Disney Princesses

Here's a little bit of info on a random part of my growing up years. I never had a Disney Princess that I thought of as "mine". I loved them all for different reasons but I never truly connected with one specific princess. I admired Jasmine for her spunk, Snow White for her graceful sweetness, Sleeping Beauty/Aurora for her innocence, Cinderella for her ability to forgive, Pocahontas for her courage, Belle for her acceptance, Ariel for her perseverance, Mulan for her resolve, Tiana for her dreams, and Rapunzel for her understanding. But never did just one jump out at me. (Okay, maybe Rapunzel did, but it wasn't exactly the same. She wasn't 'my' princess).
And then, at the midnight preview of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (AWESOME!) I saw a poster. There wasn't much to it; it looked like a deep green forest with a red blob in the middle. Upon closer examination, I discovered the blob to be a head of red curly hair. And something sparked. My friend Mikey, who I was seeing the movie with, pulled up the preview for the movie on his laptop. There still wasn't much to it, but I was intrigued and I kept thinking back to that red-headed girl despite the fact that I had no idea what the movie was even about.

Okay so it's not as foresty as I remember

And then an extended preview came out. And it was EPIC!!!! See here.

And I got all these bubbles in my stomach. This was someone who I could relate to. And it wasn't just the hair. It was the heritage and the "I want to let my hair flow in the wind as I ride through the glen, shooting arrows into the sunset" and being brave enough to change my own fate. 

And I finally saw it yesterday with all of my princess friends. Merida is my hero. She is my princess. The movie was everything that I wanted it to be and more. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I won't spoil it for you so GO SEE IT! But it fills my heart with so much happiness and excitement. And now I feel as though my childhood dreams are complete because I have my very own Disney princess.

Be Brave. Change your own Fate.

News flash: You can't please everyone

I'll tell you what now. Being a hero is not even worth it. Not even close. I should know. For the first time in my life, I thought I was a hero today. Turns out... I just caused a lot of drama and problems. And over what? This. Little ducklings. You wouldn't believe the amount of drama over these 5 little guys. You wouldn't believe it because I couldn't believe it and I was smack dab in the middle.
It turns out that rescuing ducklings from the storm drain isn't necessarily the good thing I thought it was. There's a lot of relief and clapping and back-slapping and then there's a pause. What to do now? Should we take them to the duck pond? Should we find the mother? We should definitely give the mom a chance to find her babies, for sure, right? Well, not everybody thought so. Whether a group decision or an individual, not everyone was going to be satisfied. So I set the ducks down in the shade with some water and went on my merry way. I'd done what I wanted to do for them and what happened next was not up to me, but up to the Almighty Creator. Perhaps by rescuing, I was doing a bad thing... survival of the fittest and all of that. Maybe they could have happily survived for a long time in the storm drain as opposed to getting eaten by a cat or run over by a car. Regardless, I did it and it was done. And then people started biting my head off. What did I feed it? It needs more water! We can't leave them alone, they need protection! I give up.

PEOPLE: They're cute, but they're DUCKS!

No good deed goes unpunished. All helpful urges should be circumvented. I'm just sayin'. Elphaba had it right. Morally, there's no right answer so I step away and say, "I just don't care anymore. Please leave me alone and I promise I won't go rescuing helpless animals anymore."

And there you have it.

....

Don't worry. If you fall down a storm drain and can't get out, I'd probably rescue you. But don't ask me to take care of you afterwards.

Vision

The title is for two reasons.

A) My poor doggy is going blind. It is so sad to me. She has been a light in our family for so many years, particularly the years that my mom had cancer and was going through chemotherapy. Her name is Theeb, translated from Thai to mean Angel. And she is definitely an angel. Best dog ever. Our neighbor used to say about our family, "They all have curly hair. Even the dog has curly hair." Yup, that's my little baby.

B) It is currently Vision Conference at work. Think of it as a company retreat. One person said, "We don't use the term 'retreat'. We call it a tactical withdrawal." Let me break it down for you: all of the full time employees are away for two days and all of the students get to play! Ahem. Well, we call it work, but it's basically permission for us to have a little bit of fun without being supervised by our bosses. I spent the time learning 한국의: vocab and double vowels. It's fascinating stuff! I'm also learning the lyrics to the song Love Like This by SS501. Should you like a listen, see here. CAUTION: View with an open mind and an understanding that this is a completely different culture. So don't be racist and make fun of them for stupid reasons. I am very passionate about this and will come beat you up with a noodle. You have been warned. Back to Vision Conference. Lots to think about and lots to plan for in the future. It requires a lot of thought and I am doing my best to look into my future, despite how that's not really possible. But I digress. Life, in each minute, is good and beautiful and I have very little to complain for.

There, you have been caught up.

Shout out to my Brissa! ;)