bits and pieces of my daily life…

the perfect environment to study.

under one condition: I MUST BE ALONE

Halfway through the summer of 2008.

Practically everyone I know are currently attending a hagwon. I, on the other hand, am working on SAT, AP, and other subjects on my own. I was given a choice to go to hagwon or not, but I decided to just give it a try. Was it a good decision? I still don’t have an answer to that.

These days I’ve been studying alone, trying to stay on track. I realized it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. People that go to hagwon are given a certain time to wake up. They study for a limited time, but stay concentrated for a couple hours without distractions. They are taught by a teacher and all they have to do is listen. It’s just so easy. Me, I have to wake up and start studying on my own. I have all the distractions of my macbook, television, bed, and food to distract me every minute. It’s hard for me to stay concentrated for over an hour. Then, why did I choose to do all this hard work on my own?

My dad once told me, “I know it may be hard to stay on task. You’re going to go through a lot of stress and be distracted. However, you have to look that this from far away. At the distance, you’ll end up doing it anyways. You and your friends will have the same results as long as you try hard. And once you reach that goal? You’ll be the one feeling all the pride and joy. Why? Because you did all that by yourself, while your friends had to get help. You were able to do all that BY YOURSELF. You just have to believe in yourself.”

I gave a lot of thought in assenting this idea and ended up trying to do as he said. Well, I’ll find out how all my hard work turns out.

I just have to keep trying.

Photo: kreg.steppe

It’s been quite a while since that last time I blogged. After all the stressful APs, SATs, and finals, summer has finally come. People from across the seas are back in Korea for their yearly visits. Going out everyday to meet friends, I feel as free as a baby bird first learning to fly. The weather these days are just perfect for being outside. Sunny, but not enough to sweat all over. Windy, but not too cold. Warm, but not the usual stickiness.

Now that I’m officially a junior, this summer is probably one of the most important times of my high school life. There are just millions to prepare for. While all my friends are off to hagwons, once again, I’m stuck all alone in my house to prepare on my own. This stereotype that our school teachers have about all Korean teenagers going to hagwon is one that I really dislike. I feel that it’s not true. I’ve only been to hagwon twice my entire life–both of which I only went for desperate needs. I want to think of this summer as an opportunity to really prepare myself on my own and try to build a better routine that will help me stay on task throughout my high school career.

I realized this year that things won’t be as easy as before. My grades clearly showed that studying like before won’t get me the same grades. So much more time and effort has to be taken into every task for the same, high results. Now that summer break started, it’s time that I take a break from my daily TV-watching hours and time spent on my macbook. I have a whole two months ahead that I must use the time wisely for a better year as a junior.

Here we go.

Life. When if finally seems to come to an end, comes another start of a whole new life.

Yesterday, the class of 2008 finally graduated. With tears and laughter, love and anger, these seniors went through four amazing years in this school (for some, not as much). KIS without our seniors? Well, let’s just say that it really won’t be the same. Who will now cut all of our lines during lunch? Where will we hear people screaming, “SENIOR PRIVILEGES!” across the hallways? Who will make fun of us everyday that we have such a long way to go until we graduate? Who will be there to make the weirdest jokes, and yet still manage to end the conversation holding our stomachs and roaring with laughter?

I have been at this school since I was in the 6th grade. I’ve watched these seniors (now, they’re back to freshmen!) live their everyday lives based on whatever was going on at KIS. However, now they’re entering the “real world.” They’ll be meeting new people. Going to new places. Doing new things. Whatever it is that they’ll be doing outside of these walls, I know that they’ll make it through well. With their shining and everlasting spirits, anything is possible. So, watch out world. They’re on the run. Ready. Get set. Go.

Created by Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill is an American teen drama. Here is a brief summary by tv.com:

Basketball lover Lucas Scott has a best friend, Haley James, who becomes involved with Lucas’ bad boy half-brother Nathan Scott, whose previous girlfriend was depressed cheerleader Peyton Sawyer, whose best friend is wild child Brooke Davis. Together, they have managed to get through high school. Even their parents have complicated relationships going on in their lives, including Dan who got Karen pregnant in high school, resulting in Lucas, until Dan met Deb and got her pregnant, thus making Nathan, and Dan’s brother, Keith, is in love with Karen. But now, life have thrown everyone in a different position and place. They must now deal with…adulthood.

The show stars Chad Michael Murray (Lucas Scott), James Lafferty (Nathan Scott), Hilarie Burton (Peyton Sawyer), Sophia Bush (Brooke Davis), Bethany Joy Galeotti (Haley James), and many more stars. It started out in 2003 as another one of those obvious teen dramas about a boy playing basketball and the dramatic chaos that teenagers go through. However, as time went by, fans grew more and more into the story and, eventually, ended up as finishing their 5th season this month. With one of the most loyal fan base of all other teen dramas, it has been announced that One Tree Hill has been renewed for a 6th season.

Mark Schwahn first had this show in mind for a movie under the name Ravens, not a TV show

I began watching this show around October of last year, 2007. I had heard my friends talking about how fun it is, but never really thought about watching it myself. However, I was so curious about how good it was to last this long without losing any of their fans, so I decided to try watching the first season. Well, not so surprisingly, I became addicted to this show (just like a million other girls out there). It wasn’t just that the stars starring in One Tree Hill were awesome, but the story line itself really caught my mind.

Around the same time I began watching One Tree Hill, my friends and I had also began watching the O.C. (with Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody, and Benjamin McKenzie). Unlike the O.C., One Tree Hill seemed to deal with problems with a more realistic background. The characters of the O.C. were all wealthy people in Orange County, California. The problems dealt in that show were pretty much obvious to me (although I turned out to be a huge fan). However, One Tree Hill had both the wealthy and average-classed people living in one city/town, dealing with realistic problems. To me, teenagers like myself could relate more to One Tree Hill, and probably get a better influence.

One of the things that really got me clinging to this show was the music that they played. Peyton Sawyer, played by Hilarie Burton, was a girl all for music and every now and then, there would be an actual artist starring in the episode, playing at a club or some other cafe. While watching this show, from Season 1 through 5, my choice of music changed completely (now I listen to a lot of oldies pop). Now, I’m just waiting for the next season to come out, because once summer break begins I’ll be all for One Tree Hill again.

Soccer has been one of the most important things in my life for the past several months. The joy of running with the ball, being with my teammates, and just being a part of the game were my reasons for playing. Yesterday, we came back from our yearly Far East Tournament with schools from all over the eastern side of Asia. This year’s tournament was at an air force base in Iwakuni.

The first two days were quite miserable with all rain, but it was rather a pleasing experience. With our bodies not ready for all the games, the rain actually helped us stay cooled down (although sometimes we were a little too cooled down). The second day that we were there, we had three games. However, due to too much rain and because the ball wasn’t able to roll across the field properly, our last game was canceled and redone the next morning.

Watching and playing with so many schools that are incredibly skilled, our entire team learned so much. The girls from other schools became my role model until I become a senior. Even though our team only won one game, this entire trip was a great experience and a booster for myself and the team to practice harder for our next season.

We all know that this isn’t the end. Although our seniors are leaving (and I’m going to miss each and every one of them so much), our team is going to keep on playing. Summer is here, and we have a whole year to improve.

Thank you Mina, Elaine, Shana, Angela, Christina, Hyein, Jaimie, Ashley, Cathy, Lisa, Sarah, Lydia, Stephanie, Sharon, Jenny, Jane, Grace, and Alex for an awesome season!

*Here is a video of one of our boys’ team’s goals (that I somehow took the video at the right time).

[kml_flashembed movie="http://kr.youtube.com/v/Yd0s0vU-NUA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Loud music. Bright lights. People crowded around the stage. Drinks being passed around. Cameras here and there, taking pictures and videos. Jumping along with the music we know.

Last night was the Project Global Cooling (PGC) concert at SPOT in Hongdae: a great way to bring people together and help the world. At the same time, people enjoy their time with great music. The craziness of this day–with the fire alarm going off, people being raised up in the air, and missing the last subway of the day–was actually quite brilliant because of the music played that evening.

Photo: Annie, Pola