K-drama Review : Boys Over Flowers
After my “You’re Beautiful” obsession, I searched for more Asian dramas to watch. I’ve always wanted to try watching Boys Over Flowers because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. Since I was completely obsessed with “You’re Beautiful” when I started watching BOF (and because I already had an idea of what the story was about, having watched “Meteor Garden”) I didn’t think that I would like it that much, but I actually enjoyed it.
QUICK SUMMARY:
The story begins when Geum Jan Di, a “commoner” working at a porridge shop , is offered a swimming scholarship to Shin Hwa high school, a prestigious academy made exclusively for the children of the elite members of society. This includes the infamous F4, a group of four boys led by the notorious Goo Jun Pyo. F4 is well known throughout Korea for their good looks and the power they have over society. When Jan Di’s friend, Oh Min Ji, gets into trouble with Goo Jun Pyo, Jan Di sticks up for her and ends up declaring war against Jun Pyo. Completely new to the idea of someone standing up to him, Goo Jun Pyo finds Geum Jan Di’s strong will interesting and soon starts to develop feelings for her.
Cast
- Koo Hye Sun as Geum Jan Di
- Lee Min Ho as Goo Jun Pyo
- Kim Hyun Joong as Yoon Ji Hoo
- Kim Bum as So Yi Jung
- Kim Joon as Song Woo Bin
Extended Cast
- Kim So Eun as Chu Ga Eul (Jan Di’s best friend)
- Kim Hyun Joo as Goo Joon Hee (Jun Pyo’s elder sister)
- Lee Hye Young as Kang Hee Soo (Jun Pyo’s mother)
- Han Chae Young as Min Seo Hyun (F4′s best friend/Ji Hoo’s ex girl friend)
- Lee Min Jung as Ha Jae Kyung (JK Group’s CEO’s daughter and Jun Pyo’s fiancee)
- Lee Jung Gil as Yoon Seok Young (Ji Hoo’s grandfather)
- Jung Ho Bin as Jung Sang Rok (Kang Hee Soo’s Chief Secretary)
(I’m too lazy to write about all the characters, so I’ll just talk about F4 and Jan Di)
(EZRA) 20/52: Still Doll
Also forgot to post Ezra’s portrait last week.
Her description:
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This week, I went with my sister and her friends to Liliw, a municipality in the province of Laguna here in the Philippines. It’s a place famous for selling low priced, good quality shoes and sandals. I bought a pair of really cute Mary Janes and decided to use it for my SP this week.
I got my title from the ending theme of Vampire Knight’s first season by Wakeshima Kanon.
Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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Week 20/52: I am a question to the world, not an answer to be heard
(Forgot to post this last week)
This wasn’t actually supposed to be my self portrait this week, I just edited it cause I was bored. I kinda like how it turned out so I’m submitting it. I shot this last Thursday, right before we left for my grandma’s house for her birthday party.
My tripod broke the other day and I haven’t gotten around to fixing it, so I’ve been having difficulty taking self portraits. Also, I haven’t had any good ideas for a photo these days. I think I used up all my creative juices in the three mini-shoots I had this month with my friends.
Anyway, I had fun editing this photo. It reminded me of my earlier days here on Flickr when I used to be addicted to textures XD
Foliage swirl brushes from redheadstock.deviantart.com
Title from the lyrics of the song “I’m Still Here” by John Rzeznik
Behind the scenes of Elbi Chic shoot
I’ve mentioned in my Liliw entry that I had a shoot with Moy that morning for her online store (Elbi Chic). She’s getting rid of all her old stocks by having a huge sale, and she needed pictures of the outfits for her site.
Aprille volunteered to be the creative director/stylist/driver for the shoot. We were supposed to start around 9am, but hair and makeup took longer than expected. Moy and Aps picked me up around 10:30 and we headed over to the university to look for some nice locations. We didn’t really have a specific place in mind, so we drove around and just stopped at random locations that we liked.
(Most of the BTS pictures below were taken by Aprille)
Choosing the first outfit
Aprille watching the car while Moy and I take pictures
Clicking away
Yes, I’m THAT short – *sob*. But in my defense, Moy’s taller than your average girl, and she’s wearing killer heels in this photo
(EZRA) 19/52: Up ahead a majestic story awaits
Ezra’s portrait last week. We’ve all been really busy so I forgot to post it.
Her description:
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I was recently watching Jang Geun Suk’s music video “Black Engine” and he had a scene where he was rollerblading so I thought I’d also do an SP of me on rollerblades.
I’m really out of practice, but I still decided not to wear knee pads because it might not look good in pictures, hehe. When my dad saw me going out in my rollerblades without knee pads he immediately told me to wear them because he knows I easily trip and fall down with or without rollerblades, but I told him I’ll just be really careful.
I wanted a picture with a lot of movement, so I kept trying to do different poses while moving even though my sister told me to just stay still. As expected, while I was doing some maneuvers I fell down which resulted to a really big bruise on my knee. After that I decided to just keep the movements simple, hehe.
I got the title from the song “One Way” by Sid. Thanks a lot to my sister for taking my picture and editing it!
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Nom Nom Nom : Scorpions for dinner anyone?
(Late post. I wrote most of this while we were in China last month but forgot about it until now)
Every time my family visits a country, we always feel the need to try out (or at least look at) as many different foods as we can. This will be my first food post on this blog since it’s still fairly new. (Some find it lame when people write about what they ate, but I enjoy talking about and seeing pictures of food so bear with me.)
I’ve mentioned in a past entry that our hotel was just a 2-minute walk to Wangfujing Road, a place famous for shopping and for its “snack street”. You could find all sorts of exotic food being sold along the side of the road, such as scorpions, snakes, starfish, beetles and even sheep penis. (Our tour guide told us that Chinese people eat everything on two legs, except for humans – and everything on four legs, except for the table.) We weren’t daring enough to try all these things, so we just looked around and took pictures.
Wangfujing street stalls. They open at around 5pm and pack up around 10pm. We know this because on our 2nd night there we all fell asleep after our tour, and we woke up around 9pm. We decided to grab dinner at Wangfujing Street because we thought they remained open until around midnight, but just as we passed the third stall, they turned the lights out. We ended up eating instant noodles in our hotel room for dinner.
Here are some stuff we saw there:
Silk worm cocoons and some stuff with tentacles
Scorpions! Ezra actually wanted to try these, but each stick contained 3 scorpions. She only wanted to eat one, and no one was willing to share with her.
Beetles and centipedes on a stick. The guy grabbing a stick in this picture actually bought one while we were there so we watched him eat it. He finished the entire thing in about a minute. I think he bought another stick after that, I’m not sure.
Lovely Day (Park Shin Hye) : You’re Beautiful OST – piano cover
I’ve already mentioned in my previous entries how much I love the entire “You’re Beautiful” soundtrack, but “Lovely Day” is definitely one of my favorites. I don’t know why, I just feel happy whenever I listen to it 
Maybe it’s the bouncy melody, or Park Shin Hye’s adorable voice, or the fact that it reminds me of so many sweet scenes from the series.
I actually have two videos of me playing this song. The one above is the first one I recorded, but I forgot that my camera was set to low so the video quality turned out terrible. I decided to post it anyway since the audio is pretty decent. So instead of seeing my hands you guys get to stare at the A.N.Jell members XD
Although I played it a bit fast, I like this version better since I made more mistakes on the other video.
If (for some reason) you guys want to watch the version where you can see my hands, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E9kc1sI24I
Sheets available here: Lovely Day Sheets
Here are some pictures of the A.N.Jell members for you to look at while you listen to the song XD
Cute Jeremy and Tae Kyung
Awwww~
One of my favorite scenes in the series 
Look at Shin Woo’s face! LOL
Jeremy and Shin Woo
Tae Kyung and Mi Nam – so cute!
A.N.Jell doing weird things
I suddenly want to watch the entire series again~
Liliw : Slippers slippers slippers!
After my photoshoot with Moya yesterday for her online shop (blog entry to follow), the girls and I headed over to Liliw for some shoe shopping. We’ve all been to Liliw at least once before but none of us really knew how to get there. Armed with half a tank of gas and our sense of adventure, we set out to find the Tsinelas (Slipper) Capital of the Philippines. We had to stop for directions a couple of times along the way, but eventually we made it.
The six of us (Ezra, Brinks, Camille, Aprille, Moy and me) started out shopping together, but we soon went our own ways since everyone was looking for something different (I wanted slippers, Ezra wanted Mary Janes, Brinks wanted wedges, etc). Aprille, Brinks and Moy went off on their own, leaving Camille, Ezra and I behind. After a few stores we found Brinks wandering around on her own. Apparently she got impatient and left Aprille and Moy behind at one of the shops. She wanted to go off and find the same shop where she bought her wedge sandals from (about two months ago) but we managed to convince her to stick with us instead.
Camille, Ezra, Brinks and Aprille at one of the first shops we stopped at.
After about two hours of trying on shoes, our bags were much heavier and our wallets significantly lighter. We ran into Aprille and Moya while buying some snacks for pasalubong, and we decided to stay together since we’re all practically done shopping anyway. All of us were able to find something we liked, even Ezra who’s extremely picky when it comes to shoes. Camille didn’t really buy anything since she won’t be able to wear them because of hospital dress codes (she’s a medical intern), but she did help us choose which shoes to buy.
Here are the sandals I bought yesterday:
First purchase of the day. They’re really casual and comfy, great for everyday use.
Camille picked this out for me. We saw it at one of the first shops we stopped at, but I didn’t buy it at first because I wanted to check out other shops first. Apparently other stores don’t carry this design (or we didn’t see them) so I ended up going back to the store to buy them. I wish they had these in brown, but purple’s nice too.
Brinks “picked” this out for me at the same store I bought the purple sandals. Actually, she wanted to buy them for herself but they were a bit small for her, so I ended up getting them instead.
I normally don’t wear slippers when I go out, but since it’s so hot these days, I feel sorry for my feet when I wear my usual sneakers. A few weeks ago, I discovered that I don’t own a decent pair of flat slippers that I could casually wear outside. I’m more of a sneakers girl, and if I do have to wear girly shoes, I usually prefer ones with wedge heels to give me some height (which I badly need). I’ve been meaning to go shopping for flat slippers for a while now, so this Liliw trip came at the perfect time.
By around 7pm, we decided we’ve all had enough and that we should start heading back home.
Reunited with Aprille and Moy
Group shot before heading home (taken by the guy selling fruit shakes) I had fun girls! Sa uulitin!
Week 19/52: One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.
Was finally able to use my panda beanie and panda plushie (from my Beijing trip) as props for my 52-week project this week. (Story behind the plushie and beanie here: China Shopping Experience)
Title is a quote from the Disney film “Kung Fu Panda”. LOL
(EZRA) 18/52 : If our love was a story book, we would meet on the very first page
Ezra’s portrait last week was with her boyfriend, Kurt.
Her description:
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This is the first time my boyfriend (Kurt) and I are together for our anniversary so we decided to have my sister and her friends take lots of photos of us.
I really had fun on this “shoot” but I felt sorry for Kurt because he’s still adjusting to the hot weather in the Philippines. It was pretty uncomfortable for him to have the pictures taken outdoors. But it was all worth it because the pictures turned out great! Thanks a lot to Steph for taking the picture and to my sister for editing it.
I got the title from a line in the song “Breathless” by Shayne Ward.
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Outtakes:
Rawr~
Its been a while since Kurt has seen indian mangoes
*heart*
Rock on! \m/
Afterglow (photoshoot) : Outtakes and Behind the Scenes
Had a quick shoot with Steph and Brinks two weeks ago.
I picked up Brinks up at their house and we met Steph at CEM. We were supposed to start around 9-10am, but it took us forever to get ready. By the time we were done with our hair and makeup, it was already 11:30.
Curling Brinks’ hair.
Brinks and Steph doing their make up
We didn’t really have a location in mind, so we just drove around campus looking for places where we can stop and take pictures. We found some nice locations, but I wish they were more secluded. Most of the places we stopped at were near the road (although not many vehicles pass there), so we kinda attracted some unwanted attention. (Madaming KSP spectators na umepal, badtrip~ Nagpapark pa sa tabi namin para manood.) It was pretty hard to pose knowing that you’re being watched, so the pictures didn’t turn out as nice as they could have. Also, the sun was killer that day, so we were squinting or looking down in most of our shots.
My favorite location was the gazebo, mainly because it was shady. And also because we had the place to ourselves, so there wasn’t that many distractions.
First location
Checking if the pictures are in focus
Afterglow : Steph
Pictures of Steph from our shoot two weeks ago
More from our shoot (previously uploaded)
- Shots of Brinks
- Shots of me
- More outtakes and behind the scenes here
“True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.”
Meet Brinks, my “kupo”.
Quote in the title is by Dave Tyson Gentry
I don’t know if this is true for Brinks and me though, I don’t think we’ve ever had a moment of silence together XD We’re always chatting nonstop about random things. Sometimes we just blab about two entirely different topics, not really listening to what the other is saying. Kinda like voicing our thoughts, not really caring if the other person is listening. But it doesn’t really matter since they’re just random stuff anyway. For some reason, it just feels good saying stuff out loud when you’re with a friend. That, and knowing that if ever you do have something important to say, that friend will be there to listen to you ^___^
Outtakes:
One of my faves
Brinks and me : KUPOs~
More outtakes and behind the scenes here
Rrrrrred!
I was at Watsons the other day when I suddenly remembered that it was about time for me to color my hair again, so I picked up a box of Revlon’s Colorsilk Hair Color in Light Reddish Brown. It was the same color I used on my hair last time and I liked how it turned out, so I decided to stick with it instead of trying something new.
The last time I had my hair colored, it was Ezra who applied the dye for me. She did a good job, except she missed out some parts of my hair in the back, so they stayed black T__T Fortunately they weren’t that noticeable. This time, Ezra wasn’t around to help since she had to go somewhere with Kurt, so I had to apply the dye myself. I thought it’d be hard, but it was actually pretty simple.
Ready … Set … COLOR!
I mainly focused on putting the dye on my roots, since the rest of my hair still looked okay. It’s been more than 3 months since I colored my hair, so my black roots are clearly visible, yuck.
before and after
RED! The color fades to brown after a while though.
I think I did a decent job, considering it’s the first time I colored my hair on my own ^___^
I’m a responsible citizen
I have just exercised my right to vote
I was hesitant at first, because I’ve been hearing about how people were lining up for 2-3 hours at their precincts to vote. I was thinking of just skipping the whole process but I didn’t want to give up my vote, and I wanted to be part of the Philippines’ first automated election. So I charged my PSP, cellphone and ipod, dressed comfortably, and prepared myself for the long wait.
But when we got there, there was no line at all. It turned out that most of the people decided to vote in the morning, which was the reason it was so crowded. By the time we arrived, most of the crowd had already left.
I panicked a bit at first because when I sat down to start filling in my ballot, I couldn’t find the “kodigo” that my dad and I made that morning. Luckily he was in the seat near me so I asked him to give me his copy. I filled in the bubbles on my ballot (which was fun XD) then I headed over to the machine where I dropped my ballot in and waited for the “CONGRATULATIONS!” message. I was done in about 10 minutes
proof that I voted ^___^
Etude-inspired nails
Pink and black nails
The other day, I trimmed my nails and painted them with pink nail polish. Yesterday, I spotted my makeup bag from Etude House and decided to recreate the pattern on my nails, just for fun.
I don’t really love how it turned out, but I’m too lazy to redo them. My sister has been teasing me about how my nails look like they have chicken pox T__T I think they look more like watermelon seeds.
Week 18/52: Starlight Tears
Had another photoshoot with Steph last week. This time Brinks was able to join us. Ezra wasn’t available though, so it was just the three of us.
Brinks took this picture. Thanks kup!
We shot at many different locations, but this was my favorite. The sun was extremely harsh that day, so most of our pictures came out with us squinting or looking annoyed. It was shady in this gazebo, so we looked a lot more relaxed. It was also the place I felt most comfortable with since there weren’t that many distractions. In the other locations, we kept getting weird stares from random people.
Title came from the soundtrack of the K-drama “Boys Over Flowers”. I know its daytime in my photo and there are no stars, but I just love this song and I’m enjoying the drama a lot, even if the plot’s almost identical to the old T-drama “Meteor Garden” (which I also enjoyed).
Outtakes:
(Thank you to Ezra, Raffy and Ckloy for helping me pick my main upload)
More outtakes and behind the scenes here
Ebay: Yamapi’s “NIGHT” earrings + some other stuff :)
During the holidays, I ordered a couple of stuff on ebay using Kurt’s account. Unfortunately, they arrived at Kurt’s house 2 days before our flight back to the Philippines. His house in Palm Springs is about a 2-hour drive away from my aunt’s house, so I wasn’t able to get them from him due to the lack of time. We agreed that he would just bring them with him to the Philippines when he visits us over the summer.
Kurt arrived from California the same day we arrived from our vacation in Beijing, so I was finally able to get my stuff from him.
Crest Whitestrips. This wasn’t actually from Ebay, I just asked Kurt to pick up a box for me at Walmart. I wanted the Pro or the Advanced kit, but I guess he couldn’t find them. This is fine too, I just hope it works. I keep forgetting to put them on everyday though.
Facial hair remover. I first heard about this when Helga mentioned it in her blog, and I got curious as to how the thing actually works. I found some videos on youtube showing viewers how to use them. It seemed easy enough, so I figured I’d get myself one. I got one for Brinks too but I keep forgetting to give it to her. Anyway, I like this product a lot. Its quite painful, but it does the job well. I’ve only tried it on my upper lip, I don’t know if you can use it anywhere else.
The purchase I was most excited about, Yamapi’s NIGHT earrings from Dragon Zakura!!! I watched the series about 2 years ago and Yamapi wore this in practically all the episodes. I’ve been looking for where to buy these earrings ever since then. Ezra found them on Ebay 2 years ago and we agreed to share the cost, but in the end, Kurt bought them for her as a birthday present so I had no one to share with T__T After all these years I still wanted them badly, so I decided to just buy them for myself.
Aren’t they cute?
My sister and Yamapi with their earrings (he plays a delinquent high school student in this drama). Yamapi’s earrings are gold though, Ezra and I bought the silver ones. Gold ones are available on Ebay too
There were so many other things I wanted to buy on ebay, but I had to control myself, especially since I was using someone else’s account (and I was on a tight budget XD). Thanks for letting me use your account and credit card Kurt!
Behind the Scenes of “Wake me gently, my sunshine” mini-shoot with Steph and Ezra
Last week, Ezra and I met up with Steph to have a mini-shoot around campus. It’s been over a year since my last planned outdoor shoot, so I was pretty excited. I’ve been too busy the past months, so most of the time Ezra and I just hold our mini-shoots in our garden at home. It’s nice to be able to do a shoot outside our house again. This was also my first time shooting Steph, and the idea of a new model got me even more excited. It’s like having a new doll to play with XD
On the morning of our shoot, Ezra and I picked Steph up at Vega and we headed off to my mom’s office to get dressed. Since it’s summer break now, my mom usually only comes in during the afternoon, so we had the place to ourselves. We changed into our outfits, did our makeup and styled our hair.
Helping Steph get ready. Ezra tied her hair up in pigtails and I curled them afterwards.
We didn’t apply that much makeup because we expected it to get extremely hot outside. Caked and runny makeup – not a good look. Besides, Ezra and I have gotten used to doing shoots with absolutely no makeup on. We tend to get lazy, especially when it’s hot. Thank goodness for Photoshop. Digital makeup FTW!
At our first location. I love this place. This is the 2nd time I did a shoot here, and I’ll definitely do more in the future when I get the chance. The best thing about it is that it’s pretty secluded, so we don’t have to worry about getting strange looks from passersby.
Ezra and Steph
My turn to be the photographer. I don’t know why I’m carrying so many bags
Wake me gently my sunshine
More pictures from my shoot last week with Steph and Ezra.
My favorite one of Ezra and me. Thanks Steph~
Summer Breeze
Meet Steph She’s the one who took who took Ezra’s and my portrait this week for our 52-week project.
I’ve been wanting to get Steph to model for me for the longest time, so I’m glad we finally had the chance to do a shoot together. Ezra and I enjoyed styling her. Isn’t she adorable?
Knee high Converse shoes belong to Ezra. Steph’s feet are a bit bigger than Ezra’s, but they were able to get them to fit.
Outtakes:
Week 17/52 : “Remember me and smile, for it’s better to forget than remember me and cry.” -Unknown
Went on a photoshoot with Ezra and Steph the other day. This picture was taken by Steph. I love it. Thanks Steph! I’ll upload the rest soon.
(Post-processing by me)
The bag and the shirt were a gift from my cousin, Bam. He gave me the shirt more than 5 years ago, and the bag on his last visit to the Philippines, about a year ago. He loved giving Ezra and me bags, clothes and lotions whenever he visited us. I think he enjoyed dressing us up.
(Dirty) boots belong to my sister. She wore them on our trip to China. We enjoyed snacking on street foods during our stay there and spilled a lot of stuff on them (she’s a very messy eater).
Outtakes:
(EZRA) 17/52: Despite knowing there’s no way I can possibly take the plunge and say goodbye, I’ll always hold you in my heart.
Ezra’s portrait this week was taken by Steph. (Post processing by me)
Ezra’s description:
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My cousin Bernard (Bam) died last April 20, 2010 and it’s been really hard on me and my family.
The bag I’m holding is from him, he gave it to me 4 years ago and I’ve been using it almost every day ever since. I’m really going to miss him a lot that’s why I decided to dedicate this SP to him.
Thanks a lot to Steph for taking the picture!
I got the first part of my title from the song “Sleep” by Sid and then I just continued it with what I feel about him. Rest in peace Bam, I love you very much.
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Outtakes:
(Also taken by Steph)
(I took this one)
Unleashing my inner fangirl : Jang Geun Suk on YouEasy magazine cover
In my previous entry I mentioned that Ezra and I found a magazine in China which featured Jang Geun Suk. We were so thrilled that I’m actually making a separate blog entry about it. If you can’t stand how immature and shallow I’m being, then go read something else XD
The magazine costs only 7.50 yuan (about P50) so it’s really cheap! The last time my dad was in Japan, we asked him to buy us magazines with JE boys on the cover and they cost about 10 times more than that. (My dad went around Tokyo carrying a piece of paper which had Yamapi’s name on it – in Kanji of course – asking every magazine stand he saw if they had a one with him in it XD)
We saw the names of a few other Asian idols we were familiar with on the cover, which made us even happier.
FT Island and C.N.Blue – Jeremy and Shin Woo’s bands (from “You’re Beautiful”)
Yamapi! (We’ve memorized how to write his last name in Kanji since it’s so simple, hahaha XD I still don’t know how to write his first name though)
Ezra and I carried the magazine with us all day as we explored the city since we bought it at this stand near our hotel. We were so excited to head back to our hotel that night to finally look at through it. I took a few snapshots of the pages, which I’ll share with you guys:
