When I’m stressed, happy, sad, mad, frustrated, hungry, mellow, tired or annoyed, I always listen to music. Somehow the beat and the rhythm of sound is able to penetrate me and work its magic to spread the beauty within. There is absolutely nothing that can express your emotions as easily and well as music. It has its own power and quality that makes each piece unique and different. I can’t imagine the world without any music for it would be too boring and plain. Take movies for example, if there is no music in the movie, there wouldn’t be any connections between the audience and the movie itself. The fact that music is very broad, each person has his or her own favorite to listen to. Regardless of the genre, they all spark its magic to express the beauty within. Feel it. Enjoy it.
I think it’s time to introduce you all to a very good friend of mine, Dayeon Song. She is funny, nice, pretty, and extremely intelligent. Out of all these good qualities, there is this one specific thing about her that makes her truly remarkable and unique. Her silly mind and “out side of the box” quality makes me smile and laugh so much that my stomach becomes a wooden, solid plank from non-stop laughing. She tends to think differently from others and this is what makes her stand out from the crowd. Her brain twists to become mr. noodles and as a result, she comes up with the craziest, totally unexpected ideas and thoughts that I couldn’t possibly imagine. I suppose this is partly the reason why she is a straight A student but without doubt is this quality that makes her such an amiable person. She is loud, and extremely talkative however a single word from her forms a smile on my face. For these reasons, she is sometimes known as “E.T” due to her unique, crazy ideas. No matter how different and outgoing she is, she always cheers me up and I am so glad that I have a friend like Dayeon in my life. Keep being yourself.
Love,
Chaeri
Sometimes I think that the society in general tends to be too picky and careful about things. Recently South Korean president made a decision to once again allow the import of US beef into South Korea after five years of suspension due to Mad Cow disease that occurred in United States. The citizens of Korea became outraged at his final decision because some still believe that Mad Cow disease that happened five years ago will affect the society and cause some serious illness breakout. Okay, so this is just my opinion but considering the fact that the Americans are currently perfectly healthy and have no problems, shouldn’t they now forget about the event that happened in the past and move on? However I do think that it was kind of wrong of him to make the final decision without discussing with the nation for I think that a good president always include his people’s opinions into the decision making. Nevertheless, I think as a South Korean, we should all calm down and realize that Mad Cow disease was in the past therefore should trust the president. I mean, the president wouldn’t have made this finalized if he thought that this decision will cause harm and peril to his people.
It’s finally over. I’m starting to see a little bit of light to summer utopia:) For the past couple of weeks, I was clueless about MUN. I had absolutely no idea about what we were supposed to do during the conference. It was all vague to me and I started to regret my decision to participate in this conference. Nevertheless, I signed up for this about a month ago so I basically had no way out. With anxiety building up in my stomach, I dragged myself to my very first MUN Conference. However, this conference will always stay in my memories for everything that should and shouldn’t happen in the conference happened. One word describes it all: Unexpected. Here are the list of totally unpredictable things that happened for the past three days during the conference.
1. we had 8 resolutions and ALL of them passed. This rarely happens in MUN conferences. Nevertheless, it did.
2. People started falling asleep and I heard them all snore.
3. One of the pages accidentally gave the notes from my friend to the chair which was actually intended for me to receive therefore caused a big misunderstanding.
4. We passed our resolution 
(We thought it wouldn’t but it did so it was a big shock for us, in a good way)
5. One of the cafeteria ladies dropped this korean food on a dirty towel yet she picked it up with her bare hands and put it back on the plate to serve to the students. I was the unfortunate victim.
6. Our forum included about 95% IIS students, and 5% KIS students which made us feel like foreigners who just stepped on new land
7. My toe started bleeding from walking up the countless number of stairs in heels
8. I managed to make 6 POIs and 2 for speeches which was shocking considering I am incredibly shy in front of people.
9. Made really good friends
10. My friend, annie, won the hottest delegate award in her forum. Congrats!
As you can probably tell, MUN conference turned out to be challenging and difficult yet fun and exciting. All this time I thought that MUN conferences were only for serious people but I was wrong. People with different personalities and characteristics participated and some delegates made really funny speeches that made the whole house laugh. Of course a little bit of downfall occurred but I’ve realized that that’s what make MUN so diverse and enjoyable. The outcome of all these versatile happenings result in great exhaustion. It’s nice to lie down on my bed again after all the chaotic things that occurred. I just can’t wait ’till the next conference
Good job Annie, Da-yeon, Yura, Sarah and everybody who participated in this conference
I remember the first day Ms. P introduced us to blogging. I was in shock with the fact that we had to write two blogs a week. It felt like another homework assignment for me. So, for my grades, I kept up with my blogs. It was all meticulously written, and I’m pretty sure that everyone could tell that I was trying to sound professional and flawless as possible so that I could get the traditional A. So I was reading my previous blogs and the more I go back, the more I find myself trying to sound like a rocket scientist or something (which I am definitely not). 
I mean, regardless of the usage of fancy words, grammar, punctuation and etc, they don’t seem interesting…. they don’t seem to stick out… they don’t sound like me. I’ve realized that writing blogs is not rocket science, it’s about expressing yourself. Through writing, you can tell different characteristics about a person and I guess that’s what makes different writers/authors unique.. that they are themselves and not trying to be some kind of wikipedia/encyclopedia and etc. I mean, it’s okay if your opinion doesn’t fit everyone’s. That’s what writers do anyway. They say their opinions out loud. Don’t they? Anyway, I’m glad that as I read my recent blogs, they sound more like me. The best part is that it doesn’t take me 1 hour to write just one blog. It’s A LOT quicker.
The first sentence of my first blog: “Ever been to a place that just blew your mind away?”
The first sentence of my previous blog: “I can’t believe it!”
Now, what kind of a person would REALLY ask a person, “Ever been to a place that just blew your mind away?” Definitely not me.
I can’t believe it! May is almost gone and it’s almost June. Finally, it’s starting to feel like summer. The air conditioner has replaced the heater, no more sweaters and school is almost out. However, there is always a bad side to everything. The weight of all the major projects and assignments is overwhelming. How can one handle all the pressure? I find myself spending more time complaining and stressing out about the whole overload when I should be working away but how can I focus when there is just so many things going on in my mind?! I know that I went through these gruesome stages before but I always seem to find 
myself wondering how I managed to finish them. I mean, how did I? With mixture of chaotic thoughts occupying my mind, the outcome is always the same. Unintentional Procrastination. Here I am, sitting down on my desk, with piles of paper flying around everywhere, writing my blog while thinking about all the other things which I can’t even mention because they’re just.. everywhere.. scattered all over the place. There is absolutely no empty space for me to store my other “stuff” irrelevant to school. How is this even possible that when you think you are organized and on track, you always end up procrastinating over everything? What can I say. It’s life. Right now, I think of life as, unintentional procrastination as a result from thinking about absolutely everything.
So during PGC (Project Global Cooling) club today, Mr. Burrell made a really strong comment that made me realize something.
Someone needs to step up and take an action instead of blurting out bunch of things that will never happen if you don’t take any action. As young adults, you can influence others by speaking up. I want you to become leaders and learn to problem solve. If you think you can, then you can. If you think that it’s not possible, then it’s not.
Even though these weren’t his exact words, it was something very close to this line. Now, looking back at what our club has accomplished over the school year, it’s really disappointing to think that I haven’t made any major contributions in this club. I was originally responsible for video editing. I was to create short clips and upload it on the PGC site weekly. However, our film crew started to become inactive and slowly, I started to fall apart. It just makes me feel so bad that I haven’t completed my job as a video editor. I just kind of left it hanging, and thought that since the director isn’t giving me a film to edit, I should just wait ’till later. This “later” became “never”, leaving the PGC website with only 1 small video clip. If I hadn’t been lazy, the website could’ve been more filled and active. Who knows? Maybe we could’ve gotten more countries to participate and create even more connections around the world. I mean, having a concert was just the small part of our motive. By the end of the school year, we wanted the whole school to become more greener by doing simple things like changing the light bulbs to the energy saving ones and putting timers in the classrooms so that the classroom’s lights aren’t on when no one is even in it. It’s crazy how we’ve been sort of blurting out great ideas but most of them didn’t happen, because we were too “lazy”. The concert turned out great. But we could’ve done better. I think it’s time for me to make an exit now for if I continue, this blog would never cease. I feel so much better now that I’ve expressed my turmoil of emotions. I love blogs
What a blast! This year’s Project Global Cooling Concert was definitely chaotic yet successful. Many people came and supported Global Cooling to raise the awareness of Global Warming. Different bands from our school and other schools came and performed for us at the club SPOT in Hongdae. Even though some bands joined last minute, they sang and played as if they have been practicing for weeks. The club was almost completely filled with people having a great time while the bands poured their energy into the music to make the concert as enjoyable and successful as possible.
As a member of Project Global Cooling, I definitely felt the pressure and work that we had to go through to make this concert happen. We not only had to arrange a concert but also connect internationally with other countries/cities such as Honolulu, Kazakhstan, and New Brunswick through Twitter, Skype, MSN, and Blogs to start making small local changes that will hopefully lead to making differences world-wide. We also have a website of our own called Project Global Cooling that helps us create bonds globally to work together to hold a concert in each of different cities to emerge the consciousness of this serious issue.
However, making a successful concert is challenging. Taking into a consideration that this is our first time holding this concert, we started off being clueless about everything. As we progressed throughout the school year, we started to learn and experience the real business world. It was certainly a great chance for me to get out of the limited school environment and face the real world. I’m pretty sure that all the different skills I learned throughout the year will later help me sometime in the future.
Before the concert actually took place, most of us got frustrated and exhausted over all the problems that had to be fixed last minute. We got lost trying to find the club (an hour before the concert!) because for those of you who don’t know, Hongdae is like New York City (not as big) but extremely crowded and noisy. To pass through all the people and cars was just really exhausting. The bands even got lost trying to find their way! Once we entered the wrong street, it took us approximately 10 minutes to get out of that street back to where we originally started. It was the most chaotic hour ever.
Now that we’re know more about facing the reality, I’m confidant that next year, our concert is going to be even better
Photos: Pola Thank you!
Poverty, as I mentioned numerous times before, is a serious issue that is becoming more rampant. North Korea has been in poverty since 1990’s but unfortunately, the number of hungry people and children have doubled this year making North Korea in desperate need of aid.
The famine rate in North Korea is almost equal to the 1990’s massive starvation that caused 2 million people dead. Seoul’s Buddhist affiliated Group sent aid to the North and said,
“So far, mass deaths have not occurred as people have become more used to starvation than in the 1990s, but famine is a matter of time,”
North Korea has been feeding 23 million of their people through foreign assistance since the middle of 1990’s. However, this year’s famine has exacerbated due to flooding that destroyed its harvest land.
The World Food Program predicts that North Korea’s food deficit is likely to double from 2007 to 1.83 million tons. The UN also believe that 6.5 million people were facing food crisis and it could get worse if actions are not taken immediately.
Despite the fact that North Korea and South Korea don’t share a close bond with each other, it still affects me personally to think that a country, which we all use to share, is facing a serious food crisis. We often take more than we actually need to and end up leaving half of it that could feed many children in North Korea. Some worry about having too much food that could ruin their “looks” when 6.5 million people in the neighboring country don’t have any.
North Korea also refused to ask help from South Korea due to the new conservative government that took place in the office in February regardless of the fact that their people are going through their day in starvation. I personally think that all this tension between North Korea and South Korea should loosen because whether we are north or south, we step on the land that we once used to travel freely, speak the same language and have similar history. Regardless of the fact, I still say “I’m Korean” not, “I’m South Korean” because both North and South have affected my previous generations and ancestors.
A woman on youtube made this video about poverty in North Korea and I think it’s really powerful so please watch it.
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May 5th today and it is Children’s day!
(well in South Korea at least) From all the stress from school and yata yata, it’s nice to have a holiday to have fun and get presents (: Some countries don’t celebrate Children’s day at all but here, it’s a huge event. You go to grocery stores and departments stores and there is at least one Asian comic character handing out balloons to little kids while they stare at them with excitement and wonder. This holiday is meant for “children” and it led me to thinking ‘Am I still considered a child?’ Considering the fact that I’m 15 years old, close to being a Junior, the term, “children” is almost never used. But, does this mean that it’s “inappropriate” (the term my parents used just because the name of the holiday includes the word, “children”) for me to celebrate one of my favorite holiday of the whole year? So my parents say that I’m too old to go around having fun in children’s day yet they still hide presents for Christmas saying they’re from Santa Clause. Hmm.. odd much?
For me, the term “children” isn’t just a scientific term used to describe a certain age group, it’s a sort of an uncarved block and young spirit that lives within all of us.
So, I think everyone has the right to celebrate Children’s day despite their age.
Leave some.