[280412] Graduation Ceremony

Late updates! I went back to my hometown for my graduation ceremony!! So I was having a sweet time there and when I left, I had a severe withdrawal. Well, who wouldn't? Other than being welcomed by my parents, grandmother and elder brother, I have been missing my beloved pet cat so much. Just to let you see how gorgeous he is:

My Cat Having a Noon Nap at The Living Room

When he was just a kitten, he looked totally white. As he grew, all those brown fur started to pop out from nowhere. He was quite dumb as a kitten. If we were to scold him, his legs get weak and he will end up suddenly sitting on the floor on his butt. Great companion during my university years. Slept on my bed while I was doing revision. Signal? "Dear miss, it's time to get some rest. Don't stress up too much on studies" Good cat, I'll take a noon nap with you first before continuing!

The whole graduation ceremony ended without me realizing because there were too much to catch up with all my university friends. I was a bit confused because I didn't knew which was my priority: taking photos with family members or with university friends or with lecturers? I did my best to do all but I hoped that I took better photos with my family, especially my parents. Anyhow, they paid for half of my school fees (Psst, the other half was settled by scholarship). But hey, considering that I'm the only one who graduated with distinction (between my own circle of close friends), they should be quite proud about that already.

Graduation Teddy Bear and Flowers From Parents

Managed to catch up with one of my close friends who is still studying at the university. I have been close to her since I noticed we have the same passion in organizing events and have similar leadership style. Well, thanks to her that I get involved greatly in KPOP. She's a Cassie for many years. Actually the only thing she did was asking me a simple question when I posted a video of DongWoon screwing up his part in Beautiful at a radio show. The question? "Are you referring to DongWoon?" At that time, I had no idea who was who in Beast (except for YoSeop). I shared that video merely because I was really entertained by their reactions after that guy (whom I later knew was Dongwoon) forgotten his lyrics. Since she asked, I took all my effort to remember all the members faces and soon recognized their voices. This wasn't easy as I suck in recognizing faces of celebrities. I tried to remember 2AM before (I thought it would be easier with just four members), but I failed. If I weren't really interested in Beast, I wouldn't be able to remember.

Chocolate Cake From a Close Friend

Such a great friend, she prepared a graduation cake for me and another few more girls who graduated the same batch as me. Well of course there is a story behind that cake but I'll skip that part. We sang a few Korean songs at the 노래방, but it was a bit hard for me since I couldn't process Korean words as fast as the rhythm. Plus, I am only a Beast/FT Island fan so I don't really recognize songs from other idol groups. Sorry friend, I will work harder to learn Korean.

Graduation ceremony over. I am so going to miss my university friends!

[220412] Epop 7th Anniversary Fan Meeting

I went to EPOP magazine's 7th Anniversary Fan Meeting event this afternoon. Actually if I could, I would rather want to attend B2ST 2nd Fan Meeting event at Korea today. Anyway, there was a small exhibition of photos of the Korean artists who came to Malaysia. There are really quite a lot of them. Super Junior, Jang Geun Suk, Lee Min Ho, of course B2ST and FT Island. For some other groups, I don't really remember their individual members' faces so I was quite clueless. FT Island didn't have much impressive photos so I focused myself on B2ST's photos. The red suite photos should be during their showcase in Malaysia while JunHyung's photo should be taken during the Digi event in January last year. I just realized there isn't a photo of GiKwang. They left him out somehow. And they didn't show any B2ST MVs.

Photos of B2ST shown at the little exhibition

There was a coupon in their magazine that I bought last month. I brought it along for hope that I can get some free items back for this trip. Apparently I didn't. The queue was very long as I tried to estimate the possibility of me getting them with the least effort. I even witnessed a lady arguing with the staff because the line hasn't even moved a bit for a very long time. Not to mention I only had one coupon, there aren't many things that I can redeem for just one coupon and I didn't want to spend the extra bucks to get 'free' items. In the end I went for the other queue, which really offered free item. Well, it is just four stamps actually. I chose two B2ST, one TVXQ and Big Bang (those are for my friend). After my turn, the staffs decided to only give out two stamps per person.

B2ST Stamp - For Fila

Anyway, I bought 4Minute's Volume Up album. Please ask me why. Because I am never a huge fan of them. Of course there must be a reason. Actually I bought United Cube CD, but I changed to Volume Up after quite some time. Well, the actual reason is because they had lucky draws for every album purchased. The girl who lined up behind me got 2AM's hand signed album and B2ST's Shock of the Era T-Shirt. I was jealous, so I bought too. Jealousy really kills! I wanted B2ST's signed poster for the Digi event badly. But I got 2AM's hand signed clear folder. It's still good, happy regardless as 2AM is my third favourite Korean singer group after B2ST and FT Island.

2AM's Hand Signed Clear Holder File

One interesting thing is that they have a special corner dedicated for fans to write 'Love Letters' to their favourite groups. I was told that these letters will be sent to the singers. I tried my best to write in Korean as I know that it will be most unlikely that the letters will be translated. I wrote one each for B2ST and HongKi.

There was a fashion show in between but I find it quite disappointing. The models were clueless of where to stand and pose. They didn't even know whether they should continue to stand on the stage or return to the back. It was a total mess if you would want me to comment. Spicy Colour should had more rehearsels arranged for these poor lost girls. Special dance performances from the dance groups were quite entertaining. Good effort in learning their dance steps.

I saw a lot of ELFs (Super Junior fans) there. They got super excited when Super Junior's MVs were played and they are super obsessive with DongHae and EunHyuk's Oppa Oppa that they were chanting along the whole song. Hey, I could had followed and chanted 'Oppa Oppa' with them if I wanted to. There was even a video clip specially recorded for this event. Some fans were so touched that the MC said he thinks some were almost crying. I don't really understand why though.

I didn't join in any of the games session. Apparently I only have general knowledge in the overall KPOP industry and detailed only in B2ST's biography and history. It didn't make any sense for me to join in as I will not be able to answer the questions without humiliating myself. But I think the participants really enjoyed themselves for the whole game session.

From the event, I can see that Super Junior is used as the main attraction of the whole fan meeting. MVs, dance performances, video clips, special giveaway and so on are all Super Junior-related. Indeed Super Junior has the largest fanbase over here (probably along with TVXQ, Big Bang and Girls Generation). But I would like to have some mixture of other groups actually. All of the staffs were patient and friendly. Thought I will think that it will be more efficient if they had all information printed on one board to avoid all the confusion and questions from the fans. I personally have to ask a few young KPOP fans and the staffs to fully understand the whole event itself. Even the queues were confusing.

It was a nice experience and I hope I will be able to see more of these coming up! ^^

[140112] Play! FT Island in Malaysia

Exactly three months ago (14/02/2012), after I moved here to work for only half a month, I attended my first ever Korean artists concert - Play! FT Island. I am kind of reluctant to use the term "K-Pop" since I consider FT Island's songs more to "K-Rock". It isn't hard to guess on how I became their fan, or specifically, HongKi's fan. The popular Korean drama 'You're Beautiful' shown me his great acting skills and the OSTs released made me fascinated with his singing abilities. Anyway, I was really delighted to know that they were going to stop at Malaysia for their Asia tour on a date which I have already moved to this area.

I bought tickets from a girl who somehow won complimentary tickets for the rock zone. So I had to queue up a few hours in advance so I won't be too disadvantaged during the concert. The waiting process wasn't a boring one. I enjoyed looking at the Japanese fans who dressed up nicely with high heels, their love for FT Island is really amazing. I get to know a couple of other fans too, the ones whom I remembered the most is the mom-daughter pairing who came from Kedah. They were marking English test papers while waiting, so that made me very curious and so I started a conversation. I can't believe the daughter managed to make her mother to become their fan and even willing to drive from Kedah, AND even stand at a rock zone! Kudos!

There are so many fan accounts about the concert itself, so I wouldn't write all the details. Well, not as if I can really remember everything. There was one song which I am particularly concerned with though - Love Love Love. I have a friend who really wanted to go to the concert with me, but she couldn't. Her favourite song from FT Island was this song so I particularly recorded the whole song for her. But I am yet to show her yet. The thing is that HongKi changed the high key on the last syllabus for "나를 떠나 부디 행복해" to a lower note. Probably he wasn't feeling very well or for other reasons, it felt awkward for me. Nevertheless, the other songs were awesome. FT Island's songs are really hard to sing. HongKi really have to take good care of his throat.

Unlike other Korean singing groups, FT Island is well known for NOT being idols who can dance. Well, it's expected since their CEO started the company to train talented people with musical instruments and singing instead of dancing. But that doesn't mean HongKi only knows to stand still on the stage! His energy was explosive! Jumping up and down, shaking his body freely according to the beat. I do think that the performance was even greater than a dance choreography. He was so free on the stage to do whatever action that he thinks is suitable to express the song better.

The photo above, I personally think that he would have saw me from that angle! Ok, no fan-girling here. When the concert ended, I couldn't believe it. Time really flies when we are enjoying, right? To see them for one more time, I even waited behind the stadium. But all of us were fooled by the van parked in front of the gate. There was already another van inside the backstage, which the boys had already sat inside when the gate opened. Disappointed, I left soon after seeing the van drove away.
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The concert was great and I am so glad FT Island had given me such a nice experience for my first ever concert. This is indeed a very good memory to keep forever. Not long after the concert, I attended B2ST's Beautiful Show too. I will blog it at a later date. I would probably compare my experiences for both concerts. Just for info, these are the only two Korean groups that I really admire and bother to keep updated with. So, I don't think I will ever blog about any other concerts unless I am given free tickets (which, doesn't require me to enter whatever Facebook-most-liked-photo competition or whatsoever).

Right after the concerts at Malaysia and Singapore, they went back to Korea and HongKi filmed the MV for 'Severely'. The song had won them several awards at various music programs.