† Happy Rabbit Chinese New Year †

Wishing all my readers Happy Chinese New Year!

Sincerely yours,
Keat

Bugok Middle School Festival 2010

I have spent the last week or so editing the video and photos I took at the Bugok Middle School Festival a couple of weeks ago and created a video with the highlights. The video is a compilation of the footage from both the talent show and field day. It is pretty entertaining and a good example of the kind of things I see everyday as the English teacher at this middle school.

I had some trouble exporting the video from imovie, so it is unfortunately lower quality than I had hoped for. I will post some of the photo's in the video separately in high quality so you can see them better!

I hope you enjoy the video!

2010 Bugok Middle School Festival from Chris Bailey on Vimeo.

KPOP (tuesday)

Hello Everyone!

Lots to catch up with! Last week at school we had our Annual Festival and Exercising Day. They are pretty much a glorified talent show and a field day; however, two of my favorite days at school so far. If you can only imagine how amazing it was being the only white/non-Korean at an Asian middle school talent show. I am going to put together a short video with the pictures and video footage I captured over the two days of middle school bliss.

As a teaser I am going to show you a clip of a student performance of a very popular Korean girl jam call "Bad Girl, Good Girl" by Miss A. This song is everywhere in Korea right now, even at Bugok Middle School's Festival. First check out the student's rendition and then watch the Miss A video for "Bad Girl, Good Girl."

Please enjoy Miss A "Bad Girl, Good Girl."

† Happy Halloween 2010 †

Happy Halloween 2010. Well, is there Halloween in Malaysia? Short answer? No, not really. Halloween, if it can be found at all here, is barely visible to the naked eye.

Halloween is something of a non-event in this country. While the stores in much of the western world are without a doubt by now ensconced in Halloween candy, decor, costumes, pumpkins, and all manner of things Halloween, in Malaysia there is nary a sign of it. It is decidedly odd to not see any advertising or preparations for trick-or-treaters, haunted houses, or costume parties. What an interesting festival to miss.

† Happy Moon Cake Festival 2010 †

Happy Moon Cake Festival to my dearest girl friend Alicia Kang! This is the first Moon Cake Festival we've celebrated and I wish to celebrate it together with you for the next coming years. Once again, 中秋节快乐!!

† Revealing The Mystery of Moon Cake Festival †

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, Zhong Qiu Festival (中秋節), is a popular festival celebrated by the Chinese and even the Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. The festival is sometimes known as Lantern Festival or Moon Cake Festival. There are many stories behind this festival and I only like the following stories shown below.

Story of Chang Er (姮娥)

This famous story of Chang Er was written back in 2170 B.C. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching and torturing the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer named Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns and left one that only appear in the day time, but hidden in during the night time. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess and became a ruler full of cruelty. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.

Story of Wu Kang (吳剛)

Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went to live in the mountains where he met up an immortal to teach him the path to achieve immortality. First the immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him something else. So the immortal to teach him chess, but after a short while Wu Kang's enthusiasm again waned. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience, the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still.

Story of Jade Rabbit (玉兔)

In this legend, three fairy sages from the Moon Palace transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a the animals. In this story, a fox, a monkey and a rabbit were involved. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."

Present Day

Tea and moon cakes are the main dish of this festival. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather around to enjoy the moon cake and tea drinking, as well as admiring the bright harvest moon. Accompanying with the celebration, additional cultural activities are also being practiced by people from different places such as carrying lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns, fire dragon dance, poetry and singing competition and etc...

† Pink Turning Into Red †

2010 is perhaps a special year for both Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. Due to the date that move from year to year according to the Lunar calendar, Chinese New Year arrives on the same day as Valentine's Day, which has proved a headache for many gift shopkeepers who have had to try and sell gifts for both festivals at the same time. Valentine's Day is fine if it's a slow day in February, but matching up against the mighty Chinese New Year, it's no competition. Apparently the romantic pink has turned into red. Thus, I hereby wish my dear readers happy Valentine's Day and happy Chinese New Year!

† Welcome 2010 †

Welcome to my life year 2010. 2009 was eventful where tons of good and bad things happened in my life. However, those events have become history of my life. A new chapter has now begun at 12:00:01am of year 2010. Happy New Year!

† A Magical Christmas Movie: A Christmas Carol †

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" is an animated retelling of Charles Dickens' classic novel. This is a great film to watch during Christmas season. Its a simple but very meaningful film. What impresses me the most is its Christmas soundtracks and thank God I've owned all the songs now.


The story goes like this: Ebenezer Scrooge, a bitter old man who is selfish and keeping himself nasty to everyone around him for years.


During one of the Christmas eve, he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley, who is now forced to spend his afterlife carrying heavy chains forged from his own greedy ways.


Marley warns Scrooge that he will suffer an even worse fate if he doesn't repent, and foretells that he will be haunted by three spirits that will help guide him.


The first spirit who visits him is the Ghost of Christmas Past, a small ghost made of fire, shows Scrooge visions of his own past that take place on or around the Christmas season, reminding him of how he ended up the greedy man he is now.


The second ghost is the Ghost of Christmas Present who laughs most of time, shows Scrooge the happiness of his fellow men on Christmas day.


The third and final spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge the final consequences of his greed.


Because of the three Christmas ghosts, Scrooge begins to realize how most of his life has been wasted because of wealth. Ever since that day, Scrooge has changed to become a nice and loving old man.

† Merry Christmas Dear All! †

MAY LOVE be the angel that watches over you.
MAY JOY be your very best friend.
MAY WONDER always find it's way to your door step.
MAY THE BLESSINGS of the season touch your heart and fill your soul.
MERRY CHRISTMAS dear all my friends, colleagues and family members.

Sincerely from Keat.
25th December 2009

† Christmas Memories With Mr. Bean †

Christmas is coming soon and I'm sure those who are born around the 70's and 80's will never forget Mr. Bean's Christmas episodes.

UNFORGETTABLE SCENES

Mr. Bean preparing Christmas gift for his teddy.

Mr. Bean doing shopping in the mall and playing around with the toys, directing his very own version of 'Baby Jesus Evolution'.

Mr. Bean cheating in order to get his 14.145kg turkey.

Mr. Bean's got his head stucked in the turkey's ass.

And finally my all time favourite episode where Mr. Bean conducts the Christmas orchestra by the roadside. Click to play the video.

† Joy of Halloween Party In Glasgow †

31st October... Its Halloween again where supernatural and spooky stuffs are in fashion. I'm sure many youngsters in the western countries are celebrating Halloween by attending costume parties.

I still remember years ago, I've attended a Halloween party when I was studying in Glasgow and it was totally awesome.

Searching for costumes, masks and make-ups really tested one's creativity. Here we have Royiez and Zin showing off their masks.

MONSTERS INTRODUCTION
There were too many monsters disguised by my university friends and I only publish a few interesting ones here.

On the left, we have Zin who disguised as the "Dark Orgre Magi" while on the right, Ash disguised himself as the "3-Eyed Bahamoth Witch", holding his sphere of fate and a turbo broom that provides a maximum traveling speed of 15km/hour.

The left photo shows Tong, the "Desperado Gay Devil". His cute little wing has made him filled up with adequate amount of gayness. As on the right, thats "Count Christo Lucipher" by Christopher. I wonder how Christopher could stand inserting such big vampire teeth in his mouth the whole night.

"Casper and Friends Duo" by IzaacRio and Royiez were really funny. Because of their last minute decision on selecting which monster character to disguise as, they ended up choosing this casper mask plus a lab coat in a rush.

And thats me, disguised as an "Asian Vampire". I still remember I've used up so much of the Gatsby wax to set my hair up and I ended up had a hard time washing off the wax from my hair.

Halloween party was totally awesome where we get to express our creativity. Of course the most important thing about it was that we get to party together in a big group because we rarely find the chance to do so.

† All About Halloween: 31st October †

Halloween is a popular festival in the western countries celebrated on the night of 31st October, usually by the children and youngster dressing in spooky costumes, going from door to door collecting candies. Halloween’s theme is often related to scary and spooky stuffs such as zombies, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, witches etc...


Black and orange are the traditional colors of Halloween. There are also elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins and scarecrows, reflected in symbols of Halloween.


In the ancient time, Halloween was celebrated as a traditional festival by the Irish and Scottish. Interestingly, the celebration was somehow containing some elements of death. It was believed that the border between our human world and the spiritual realm of death become thin on the day of Halloween, allowing spirits to pass through (Its very similar to Chinese’s Ghost Month where the door of underworld will be unleashed and spirits will go to the human world).


It was believed that both harmful and non-harmful spirits will visit the human world and thus in order to avoid those harmful spirits from disturbing them, the people must disguise themselves as harmful spirits such as wearing costumes and masks.


Halloween is sometimes believed to be associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when magic is most potent for example, Catalan mythology about witches and black magic.


Halloween has nowadays becoming a popular festival among the youngster and during the night of festival, most youngsters will make up and disguise themselves as all kind of ghosts and monsters.

† Chinese Valentine's Day †

The Chinese Valentine's Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar. It is said that if you raise your head in evening on this day and gaze at the stars, you will find something romantic going on in the sky. That is, on this evening, Niu Lang and Zhi Nu will meet on a bridge of magpies across the Milky Way. Chinese grannies will remind children that they would not be able to see any magpies on that evening because all the magpies have left to form a bridge in the heavens with their wings.

† Valentine's Day †

Aristotle used to say, "love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." When we talk about love, we think of Valentine's day.

February has long been a month of romance (of course it is, because its my birthday month too). Every February, across the country, candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved couples, all in the name of St. Valentine. So who is actually this St. Valentine?

According to some legends, St. Valentine was a priest who got caught by the Roman empire and was sent to the jail. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl: who may have been his jailor's daughter who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it was told that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine', an expression that is still in use today.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

by William Shakespeare