Siksa Yejeol (Korean Table Etiquette)

My love for Korean cuisine started with my uncle, who had lived in Seoul for a couple of years. His ramen recipe was the best! This year I would love to try out some restaurants too, but it's not usually fun alone.

[Speaking of Hansik, if you are a big fan of Korean food I really recommend the drama ''Let's Eat''! It stars Yoon Dojoon (Highlight/B2ST|) and idk, I just love him as an actor! But the drama focuses a lot on food and there are so many scenes where they are just eating delicious dishes. I haven't watched Season 2 because Season 1 was just so perfect.]
 

Anyways, back on topic. This week's homework at the K-pop academy is about Hansik and table manners. If you ever dreamed to visit Korea someday, knowing the language may not be enough. Knowledge about culture and etiquette is a must if you want to make a good impression.
It's all a matter of respect for others really, and the rules are quite straightforward!

K-Pop Academy Week #3: Korean Cuisine - Hansik

[I missed last week's lessons about Pansori due to the London snow disaster, lol sigh]

So this week's theme at the K-Pop Academy was about food (Hansik)!!!


Now, when it comes to cooking, I barely know where to start. Sure, I know how to make a few items most essential for survival (aka ramen!!), but I can't even dream to be Gordon Ramsay. I would be so lost in a kitchen. Talk about foreign cuisine, ha!

My first day at the 13th Kpop Academy!

Okay, this was supposed to be two weeks ago, but I needed to catch up with deadlines and sleep. And yes that's another story. Hello!

This is a mini series of blog post, documenting my experience with the 13th Kpop Academy at the Korean Culture Centre UK.

I would like to start by saying how excited I am to be part of this journey! Being a huge fan of kpop and the Korean culture, this is a big opportunity to learn more about the country aside from its pop culture. But it was also nice to meet other people from the same fandom. (SOO MANY ARMIES, BLESS YOU!)😍

We started the first lesson with mini-introductions to get to know each other and share a bit about how we got here. For my presentation, I talked about how I got into Kpop because of B2ST/Highlight, how I became fascinated with the culture because of my uncle's stories (he lived in Seoul for a few years), and the K-dramas that I love.

Then we moved to the lesson of the day: a look into the Hallyu effect and influence of the Korean music industry, delivered by Dr. Haekyung Um.
From all the other topics in the curriculum, I was especially looking forward to this one! She has so much insight into the evolution of Kpop to how it became a global phenomenon, like BTS at the Billboard, Twice killing Youtube.
We had a discussion about how much we, as fans, know and reflect on what makes Kpop stand out from Western music:

• Unlike the privilege of Western artists just going up on stage and killing it, K-pop and J-pop (and C-pop?) idols have to work so hard as trainees in different companies before they can actually debut. This can take several years of training and mastering dance, vocal, visual, language skills! 
• Every song and music video is produced with great attention to detail. Everything from the group's concept and visuals to the filmography and choreo has to be fit in with a certain aesthetic. The result is then just mind-blowing. I mean, don't we all remember the good old days making BTS music video theories? Not like it's gonna stop anytime soon...
• There are more fanservice: v-live interactions, fan-signs, etc. 
• Korean drama like ''Goblin'', with killer storyline and OSTs. 

However, with good things also have a bad side. We noted that the K-pop industry is especially competitive, to a point that the agency may start treating their idols as a marketing product. There is also a lack of emphasis when it comes to taking care of their physical and mental health during promoting period. 

There was so much that we talked about, but my words cannot bring justice to how beautifully Dr Haekyung Um described everything. As this was two weeks ago, I sadly cannot remember much. But I will be adding to this if I remember some points to add. 

Oh, and at the end, we all went home with a box of goodies! Inside there were some Korean snacks, face masks, pictures of famous landmarks, a magazine booklet and more. It was so thoughtful!

But overall, the class was fantastic. It was a well-spent Saturday for a ''me'' who promised that she will be going out more during the weekend instead of burying myself at home (tempting as that always sounds!). I, unfortunately, had to miss last Saturday's class because of snow day. 

I will be back again with another detailed post soon this Saturday. We are going to have a cooking class in Korean cuisine!

I have been so stupid

Not news. I'm sure I've talked about this somewhere before. My whole life has always revolved around one principle: Always assume the worst outcome so that you're prepared for it when it happens.

It was sort of like a self-defense barrier to me. By preparing for the worst outcome, I wouldn't be as strongly disappointed as I would be. I had called it a realistic approach to things in my life, and I would also make sure to balance out the negative and the positive aspects of every single thing I was dealing with. All this while still maintaining a neutral attitude

I can't say that this method was a bad idea though. Being a thoroughly positive person has never worked out for me, as being someone who can't handle failures and hardship well. 

Looking at the dark side is a way of looking out for myself, while thinking of the bright side gives me hope that things could get better. I am my own motor and brakes. 

The other day, however, I thought about my life a lot (as usual) in conjunction to something I learned quite recently. It'd about the Law of Attraction: which is basically a belief that you alone have the power to attract the things you desire in your life just by directing your thoughts and attitudes toward it. 

Coming back very soon

I have been out for a while and I miss writing my blog so much. I had so many excuses: I wasn't getting anywhere with my blog, very few views and followers, and lacked inspiration. I started to wonder if I should switch back to Tumblr but I like this theme so much and I worked hard on it. I guess it will be a pain to move everything to a new domain, so I suppose I will give some more time and experiment around.

Update:
so yeah, I decided to stay here. I tried making a Wordpress website it's hard to create the theme I want. I think I've grown fond of Blogger / Blogspot (whatever you call it). My reason for wanting to move was simply because I wanted to get my own domain and have more control over my contents. For now, I will just stick to building my writing style and follow my ideas rather than focusing on views and followers, even though it gets frustrating at times. Here's to hoping that the rumours that Google will shut down blogger don't come true!!