Service Reflection

It was so cool to watch my local creek go from nasty and full of trash to beautiful and full of life. After a couple months of cleaning it up and hiking, there was lots of life flourishing where there was previously only weeds and not much else. I also had the opportunity to teach children about Chinese culture, giving me an opportunity to learn how to teach and also provide insight into a unique culture. Without these opportunities, I don’t think I would have as good a grasp on how small actions have large effects, and I don’t think I would have solidified my knowledge of Chinese and Chinese culture without this teaching opportunity.

Activity Reflection

I am so proud of myself! I stuck with an ab challenge for a month, I danced almost every day for two months, and I went hiking bi-weekly. I am probably in the best shape that I have ever been in, and I had a lot of fun getting here. I never put much effort into working out because I thought it would be too much work and too boring, but when you have motivation and fun ways to work out, it goes by quickly and doesn’t even feel like work.

Creativity Reflection

This was definitely a journey, working on these various things throughout the past year. I learned a basic amount of Korean, learned several choreographies, am now able to sing in Korean, and even went so far as to audition for a Korean entertainment company. I learned and did a lot, and I wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t do this.

Audition Success

The BigHit audition was today! It was such an interesting learning experience, and I feel like I can understand BTS a lot better now that I have gone through at least a portion of what they have done. I arrived at the audition location, filled out an application form, then waited for them to call my number. Surprisingly there were only around 50 people auditioning, possibly because the criteria was restricted to males born between 1998 and 2010. My number was called after an hour and a half of waiting, and I was told to go into the room. There were two female judges, and they asked me to stand on an X in the middle of the room. I sang Trauma by ARS (Choi Youngjae) acapella, then danced to BOSS by NCT U. My voice cracked a little bit while singing the high note before the chorus, and my knee slipped while spinning during BOSS, but overall I think it went well! The judges were smiling, which I think is a good thing because everyone else had taken this so seriously, and I was able to bring a little more joy to the situation. The audition only took around five minutes total, but the whole experience was so much fun and very enlightening.

BOSS Intro and First Verse

I learned the first part of the dance today! The audition is coming up quickly. I don’t think I have enough time to perfect the moves, but I have the whole dance memorized at least. I haven’t practiced one part though, because I am supposed to get on the ground and spin on my knees, but every time I practice dancing I am always wearing shorts, and I don’t want to hurt myself haha. I’ll practice more tomorrow.

Here’s my progress on BOSS by NCT U! I just started learning a couple days ago so it will still need some work, but I think I’ve made some good progress!

BOSS - NCT U

I started learning the choreography to BOSS by NCT U today. It is a pretty intense dance, and it goes pretty quickly. I am more used to feminine moves that require fluidity, but this dance was by a boy group and you can definitely tell by the choreography. The moves for this dance are very sharp and require more strength. I was able to learn the chorus moves after only practicing today for a couple hours. Hopefully I will be able to learn the intro sometime soon. I am only learning the intro, first verse, and first chorus, as my audition for BigHit says that you can only dance for one minute.

I recorded a cover of Lee Hi’s Breathe to continue working on my Korean pronunciation. I really enjoyed working on this, but the recording process kind of went wrong. My voice was too loud compared to the audio backing, but overall it was still good.

Our final cleanup! The creek has changed a lot since we first started picking up trash, and honestly I’m very happy with what we have done. I feel like I really did something to help the environment, and it has taught me about how little actions can have huge outcomes. On our first time walking the creek, there was little life to be seen. Some trees, small plants, and running water was pretty much the only things living here. Then, on our last cleanup, as we were walking we heard lots of scurrying of small animals. We saw lizards, ducks, and even a bunny! Over the course of just a couple months, we were able to clean up this local habitat and witness more life coming.

BigHit Audition!

One of my favorite K-pop bands is 방탄소년단 (Bangtan Boys, or BTS). They are signed under the entertainment company called BigHit, which is a relatively small company that happened to create the very successful group of BTS. They recently posted to their twitter that they will be hosting global auditions to find more male trainees, and they have an audition spot in Los Angeles! The audition is on April 22nd, so I have around a month to prepare a song and a dance. I’m so excited to test out my new skills!

Cleanup 4

Wow. This time when walking the creek, we walked really far. Probably two miles or more. Although we walked a ways, we only collected enough trash to completely fill two bags, as there was less trash the farther upstream we walked. My friends and I noticed that the grass was starting to look a lot greener, and the water was looking clearer as well. It is so cool to see things start to change, especially since we have been a direct influence to help clean up the area.

Ab Challenge

I haven’t kept up with this as best as I had hoped to... but I still did it at least three times each week! I have been steadily losing weight, which I hadn’t intended on doing because I am already at a healthy weight, but I don’t mind it either, as I can start to see a slight outline of abs now. Since I’m going to be dancing a lot more, I don’t think I’ll continue this in the same was as I have been for this challenge. I’ll try to do it three times a week, but only one repetition, just to keep toned. I’ve felt a lot healthier and had more energy since I started this challenge, so I definitely want to continue exercising. Overall this helped me learn the effects of consistently exercising, and how small things each day can lead to long term results. 

Our third time at the creek! I really enjoy spending time here, and it’s nice to see it staying cleaner compared to when we first came. We only filled slightly more than one bag full of trash this time, but we also only stayed for an hour and a half this time, due to conflicting schedules. We plan to come back in a couple weeks, instead of next week. We decided this so that we don’t waste trash bags that are only half full, as it is not expected to rain any more right now so there will probably not be as much trash.

Help 10cm

To practice my Korean, I’ve been singing on a karaoke app on my phone. It is called Sing! by Smule, and I sing duets with people across the globe. For this one, I sang Help, by a band called 10cm. It is available at this link.

Cleanup 2

I went to the creek again! Surprisingly, there was still more trash to pick up. It only sprinkled this week so I didn’t expect a lot of trash to wash up, but there was still enough trash to fill two bags. My friends and I were able to walk a bit further this time, as we found a way to get around the tree. There wasn’t very much trash past the tree, but we’ll walk farther next week to see if there’s more.

Lip & Hip (Update)

I finished learning the whole dance to Lip and Hip by HyunA by Valentines day. I had planned to film a full cover with my friends dancing the other parts of the dance, however, none of my friends finished learning the dance because they had other commitments. I am still proud of myself for learning the dance in such short time though! The last time I tried learning a K-pop choreography was last year, and it took me a month to learn only the chorus of a song. So I’m definitely improving!

International Week

My little sister’s school hosted an international week. She no longer attends this school, but I already knew about the event, and since I know a lot about East Asian culture, I asked to volunteer. I showed up and hosted a booth for China. I made dumplings and taught about the cultural differences between China and America. I really enjoyed it, and liked seeing all the children get so interested in Chinese culture. Several Chinese parents also came to the booth, and were surprised when I spoke to them in Chinese. I hope to volunteer again next year, but I will probably not be able to as I am going to school across the country. Overall this was a great experience. I was able to practice speaking Chinese and really test all of my cultural knowledge, as well as learn some good ways to teach about a certain subject. I am also glad that the children were interested in learning about it.