An Update

Hello universe, it me, Squish

I don't know what exactly it is that made me want to write a blog post, but I'm just gonna roll with it, because the last time I wrote one, I was just starting off with university, and now I only have a year left before I complete my degree (yay!) .

So much has happened since then that I don't even think there's any real point in trying to remember and put it all in writing. But here is what's important:
I'm growing and becoming a person I like, I am in a stable relationship with an amazing guy, I have good friends and am doing pretty darn well academically as well. There are always all sorts of negative things bothering me of course, as they would any STEM student, struggling to make their way into the world of science and research, but what the heck right? I'm happy? Hell yeah!

Sometimes I'm not happy, in fact, I'm downright miserable, but that's just a part of the whole deal.
In the last 8+ months I have been injured quite a few times, and had to deal with some things differently to how I would have had liked, I've had to make some tough decisions that ultimately were the right ones, and I have also grown and become more understanding of others. Before, I feel like I may have been more rigid and incapable of accepting some changes in my life, but now, even if I'm not 100% just a super chill cool person, I feel like I have evolved.

This last paragraph was full of "I" and "me" and was all about my thoughts, my feelings, my life blah blah. But what the heck, it's my blog and I'll spam it with self-obsessed posts if I feel like it.

So yeah, I'm all good, it's crazy writing a post now, after 3 years almost, of inactivity.
But I'm hoping I'll try writing more in the future.

See ya,
Squish :)

Off To The Unknown

YOUR GIRL IS GOING TO UNIVERSITY

That's right.
I'm off to uni.

So I don't want to divulge too much about where and stuff, but I'm going to a really great engineering university (in India obviously) to study Biotechnology.

So as you know, I started off my junior college (high school) with the intention of pursuing a profession in the medical field. I had wanted to become a surgeon...
But over time I kind of realised that my interests were more just 'understanding cool concepts in biology' and 'application of biology in various research endeavors', than becoming a doctor.
Also, I heard that just doing an MBBS does not guarantee anything and the poor students are made to work like crazy before their PG entrances.
While getting a BTech (the degree I'm going for) is also no laughing feat and requires hours of lab-work, studying till you cry and projects... It won't be nearly as painful as medical.

Anyway enough technical talk (:

The scariest thing about this whole university thing however, is leaving home.
I have never lived away from home, without my parents, for more than 8-10 days or so.
In my 18 years of existence on this planet, I have never actually had to take care of myself completely independently. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do without my mum and dad.
Of course, I'm staying in a hostel with roommates, so we get food at the canteen and I won't truly be alone... But you know, it's kinda scary.

kinDA SCARY?
IT'S FREAKING TERRIFYING WTF

okay.
I'll calm down.

I'm going to be SO homesick. I can already feel it and I haven't even left home yet.
I'm leaving soon, though. *takes deep breath to stop self from imploding with anxiety*

Anyway, I have some packing and stuff to do now so I better go do that...
(I'm visiting the relatives for a few days before leaving)

I'll write a good post about more interesting things soon!
Sry this one was lame af :p

Alvida,
Squish


PS: Here's a cute pic of my OTP (Drarry= Draco & Harry, for all you heathens) for no specific reason other than to warm your heart and lighten your burdens by a fraction (:

Have a great day,
좋은 하루 보내새요,

Okay byeee ❤❤

UNLEARN

Unlearn: 

Gender roles
Sex may be defined anatomically but gender is in your mind. It is the identity that you embrace because of the chemistry of your brain. It is not something one can change and it is not something you can decide for someone else. So stop bringing up children with the idea that they have to somehow conform to these narrow roles of men and women laid down for them by a harsh society. Stop trying to squeeze them into a mould. Stop trying to orient your daughters towards dolls and sons towards sports. Stop smothering your children's potential before it can even begin to bud. There may be a ballet star hidden in your son who you wish would pursue something society labels as masculine. There could be a fierce fire of a debating champion roaring within your daughter who you coax into being subdued and quiet like all little girls should. Stop destroying the potentials and talents that could be the building blocks of tomorrow's society. Just stop. Please raise your children without any gender specifications and let them discover what they're comfortable with. Let them understand themselves... And for the love of god, stop believing in the existence of a gender binary. It never existed and it never will.

Internalised misogyny
The idea that women could hate women seems, at first, quite a strange supposition. But it's possible. Women have been berated and hated on for so long, that we end up finding ways to pull each other down instead binding together against men with fragile egos that are fueled by said misogyny. We need to stop holding banners proclaiming ourselves as feminists if we still slut shame and body shame other women on social media. We need to stop accepting the idea of a hateful mother-in-law and realise that while saas bhi kabhi bahu thi *, it's about bitching time she changed her attitude. Stop settling for situations just because you're a woman! You have every right to stand up to your husband's family members who treat you like crap, including his damn mom. You have every right to not want to have children. You have every right to have a more voracious sex drive than your male partner without feeling like there's something wrong with you. You have every right to dress up and have fun and pursue your dreams. And you have no right to tear other women down for doing any of these things. The whole "I'm not like other girls" mentality needs to be wholly revamped into "I'm not like other girls and other girls are not like other girls because we are all different and diversity is beautiful". If you want to bring down the patriarchy in an all consuming ball of flames, then it has to be while being shoulder to shoulder with that girl whose shorts are really short, that girl who has dated seven boys, that girl who got drunk at a party, that girl who posts too many selfies, that girl who can't speak good english, that girl with a loud laugh, that girl who doesn't shave her armpits, that girl who you've never met and most importantly, that girl in the mirror who you have such a hard time accepting because all her little special details are seen as flaws and somehow she has come to believe in that too. So women, stop hating each other, stop hating yourselves and band together to SMASH THE PATRIARCHY YAAAHHHHHH.

*Saas bhi kabhi bahu thi: This means the mother-in-law (saas) was also once a daughter-in-law (bahu) aka a woman newly wedded into her husband's family. It's talking about how the 'saas' was also once an innocent woman introduced into her husband's family, ready to please all the members and fit in. Then she was mistreated and eventually became hardened into the same 'saas' that she had once feared and had been forced to obey. 

I guess it's kind of a way of softening the way we perceive the harsh mother-in-law and bringing to light a reason behind her cruelty. But in my opinion, why are we not questioning the root of WHY she had to become like that? Why a woman being treated badly by her in-laws is such a normal event in Indian (and even other) societies? It's so normal that a vast majority of Hindi and Bengali (probably other vernacular serials too) are about that. Yes saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, but we need to change that! We can't just sit back and let so many woman be miserable after marriage due to the exploits of her mother-in-law. 

This is one of those things that we can't change with a movement. It's one of those things that change due to internal pressure. The wife needs to stand up for herself. Her husband should stop cowering like an idiot and stand up to his parents when they're being unjust. He married her so doesn't he want her to be happy in their married life? Why is he okay with his parents constantly interfering? Shows where women break through and make changes are emerging nowadays, which is good. Hopefully they can make some sort of impact. I know some Bengali dharavahiks (serials) that are quite progressive and it gives me hope. 

White concept of 'Asian'
For anybody who is not completely ignorant, China, Korea and Japan are not the only countries that constitute Asia. Asia consists of:

Afghanistan
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Brunei
Cambodia
China
Cyprus
East Timor
Georgia
India
Indonesia
Israel
Iran
Iraq
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Lebanon
Malaysia
Maldives
Mongolia
Myanmar 
Nepal
Oman
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Korea
Sri Lanka
Syria
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Thailand
Turkey
Turkmenistan
United Arab Emirates
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Yemen

So please stop adhering to the "east Asia= Asia" concept created by racists in the west and realise that Asia, the most populous continent on the planet, actually is TREMENDOUSLY DIVERSE. We have so many different cultures and people, who are all so beautiful. We have dark people, light people, tall people and short people. Hairy people, thin people, fat people... i could go on forever. Stop forgetting (or intentionally excluding) a huge bulk of countries that are not highlighted by mainstream media and waKE UP. 
I find it especially and quite hilariously stupid when people don't consider India as a part of Asia. First, I pray thee to find thyself a map. Second, we are literally 30% of Asia (population wise) and 1/7th of the world's population. Where is your brain.
If you love kpop and anime that's fine (i do too haha) but the next time I hear "omg what I'm totally not racist I love Asians!!? Kpop is so lit! Kawaiii" I will slap you till East Timor and back.

Jingoism and Xenophobia
Loving your country is one thing. Hating other countries and cultures... It's not just wrong but also an anti-national act in itself. Think about it. You're hating other countries thus basically asking for soured relations and possible severing of ties with those countries which will ultimately affect your own beloved motherland in some way or the other. Ahem yeah Donald? Can ya take some notes maybe? You're making people hate America more than they already do with your  antics.
But I'm not just hear to trash the trump, I'll call out my own people too... For instance:  I see a lot of Indians (in YouTube comment sections) getting their nationalist fuse sparked by the slightest of things. If someone makes a video talking about how a governing body needs to improve in a certain area, there will always be some people relentlessly defending that body. Not to mention, the endless 'Go to Pakistan' insults that ultimately just get memed. We need to redefine nationalism along the lines of "Always looking for ways to improve one's country by accepting and analysing internal and external criticism". We need to stop having this heinous belief that by bringing down our neighbours, we can rise above them. Countries, borders, lines of control, demilitarised zones; these are all creations made by us and based on these divisions we forget the one most important thing: we all are, in fact, human beings. Militant nationalism is like two people standing in a marsh of quicksand and shooting at each other. What are you guys doing? Stop and help each other, you bellicose morons.
So yeah. We need to stop spreading overly nationalistic propaganda in younger generations by teaching them biased history and make them realise that wars have never had "winners".

Yep.

I have been accumulating this writing on my phone over time. I just wrote them randomly whenever I felt a rush of  "WHAT IS THIS WORLD" (mostly at 4 am lolol)

Thanks for reading till the end.

Ta 

Language Session

Happy Independence Day!

If you're wondering wtf I'm talking about, it's Independence Day here in India today (August 15)!
 On August 15, 1947, the first Brexit took place.
ohhhhhh
that reference thooooooough
sorry
*covers face*
I'm really lame

Basically, the british empire finally left India and so we commemorate today as Independence Day.

It's not something we celebrate like 4th of July with fireworks lighting up every inch of the sky and everybody getting drunk (that's how modern day TV and media have portrayed it to me so sorry if I'm a tad inaccurate). We have this big parade in New Delhi (our capital) and flags are raised everywhere at schools, colleges and different institutions while people sing the national anthem. But the main attraction is the public holiday I guess :D
Even my hell-college has given us a day of rest. (I have college on Sundays as well so it's actually a bit surprising they declared Aug 15 a holiday in the first place lmao). I got to sleep late and have a luxurious breakfast and generally just not absolutely hate everything about the universe this morning.
When I say sleep late, I mean I got up at 8:25.
I usually wake up at 6:15 on college days okay so this is BIG :D

Anyway, in the spirit of this holiday and desh-bhakti (patriotism) I'd write a post teaching you some stuff about Indian languages! Since I've recently been more fascinated than ever about languages, I'll attempt to teach you some important (and maybe even some slang *winks*) words in Hindi and Bengali (the two Indian languages I'm fluent in) for no particular reason

[NOTE:  no one reads this blog so this is just a place where I can talk to hypothetical readers about things that I would like to do, like teach someone language stuffs lmao I'm so alone]

Cool Stuff in Hindi (H) and Bengali (B)

Basics

1. My name is _________
H: Mera naam _______ hai.
B: Amaar naam _________.

2. What is your name?
H: Aapka naam kya hai?
B: Apnar naam ki?

3. It was great! (if someone asks you how somethings was)
H: Bauhot achha laga!
B: Khub bhaalo laglo!

4. Where can I catch a taxi?
H: Taxi kaha milegi?
B: Taxi kothaye dhorte pabo?

5. Is it spicy?
H: Teekha hai kya?
B: Eta ki jhaal?

6. How much is this?
H: Ye kitne ka hai?
B: Er daam koto? / E gulo koto kore? (for asking individual price of something from a group)

7. I'm feeling hot.
H: Garmi ho rahi hai.
B: Gorom lagchhe.

Okay so I know pronunciation isn't particularly easy if you don't have someone actually saying the phrases, but I tried my best to capture the sound in english! English is extremely limited when it comes to writing stuff from other languages phonetically. I thought I could write the phrases phonetically in korean so that if someone knew how to read hangul, they could follow the pronunciation a bit better. But since I have to use a web-keyboard, and no one actually reads this blog anyway, why put in the unnecessary effort. (sorry I sound so pessimistic but it's true you know haha :p )
Moving on to........ *drum roll*

SLANGS (I'll explain these a little too)
(remember to never use these for anyone other than people you are super close to. Never for anyone older than you, even if you're close friends. Also, if you're really seriously mad at someone, these words are not very effective as while they may be rude, they're not as strong as real curse words which I will not teach on my blog)

1. Stupid
H: Dhakkan
(So there are a lot of things one can say obviously, but this is my favourite. The words actually means 'lid' like the lid of a container. But it's used as a slang to call someone stupid)

B: Boka
(This is very common and it just means stupid, idiotic, someone with low skills)

2. OMG!
H: Arre baap re! ('Arre' itself is a very versatile word which is used by Indians in so many situations. It doesn't actually have a meaning but is very useful in expressing your emotions :p I think there's a Buzzfeed video about it's situational usage, go check it out :p )

B: Oh ma go!/ Hey bhogoban! ( You'll hear this a lot in Bengali serials. But more than these, there is this very typical sound that Bengali women tend to make when shocked that's very characteristic. I do it too lol)

3. This is rubbish.
A: Bilkul bakwaas hai.
(Bakwaas is an absolute favourite of almost everyone. It's used to describe something that doesn't work, not up to standards, kind of lame etc. Bilkul just means 'totally' or 'completely'

B: Akdom khaja/ akdom baaje
(Khaja means useless, inexperienced, but we use it a lot like bakwaas. Baaje means 'bad' and is used a lot too. Akdom means 'totally')

I would love to keep going for a while and teach some more, but I have to go clean my room and sort out a lot of stuff unfortunately.... :(
So seeya folks for now!

And if you actually read till the end (or just scrolled down lmao you sneaky rat), here's a bonus phrase in not 2 but 3 languages!

Eng: It looks kinda weird.../ I think it's a bit weird...
Kor: 좀 이상한 것 같아.... (Chom isaang han got gat-tha)
[informal phrase]
[note: idk official romanization rules of Korean language, this is just the most natural way to pronounce it]
H: Thoda ajeeb hai...
B: Ektu odbhut lagchhe...

Okay! That's it!
I love learning and sharing languages so much yayayay :)

Alvida,
안녕,
Squish.

PS: This was really really fun to write! Maybe I'll make a series out of this and teach different phrases from the languages I know every now and then :D Because what's the point of knowing it if you don't use it. I often count in Hindi and my friends are like... why? (cz we generally count in english and they don't know the numbers in hindi despite being able to speak hindi. In these situations I'm like, I know the numbers well, so why not use them? Whenever someone asks me what the time is, I tell it to them in english and then in my head, I repeat it in Korean, just for practice.
Omg. I'm gonna make a post about how to learn languages!!!!
YES.
Awesome.
I love how my own aimless babbling in the post script got me an idea for an upcoming post.
*shakes head*
chalo byeeee

Random Lame Post That You Can Avoid

Hi!
안녕하세요 여러분!

How's it going.. good? bad? not sure?
I'm in a weird mood where I want to write a post, but I'm not quite sure what I want to write about.
I just feel like writing...
So this post may be completely random and disorganized... Sorry in advance :)

I'll tell you about what's going on in my life quickly...
I recently had this really big test. Then directly after that, unit tests in college began. I am currently in the middle of them and am so DONE with everything and everyone. I also have this dance exam coming up on Sunday and I am hella nervous. Basically, I have too much stuff to be stressed about!!
But I think up till now, I've handled it relatively well... 화이팅

When it comes to what's going on in the world, I don't even know where to begin.
Horrible news pieces are splashed across the headlines everyday. The new channels constantly broadcast disturbing imagery of bomb blasts, shootouts, hostage situations, accidents and so on. It's so painful to see so much destruction and not be able to do a single thing about it.
When people say "be the change.." they mean it for smaller things and not for going out there physically and stopping people from inflicting violence upon others.

I am increasingly getting more and more annoyed with some trends in internet culture nowadays which I want to talk about. But that requires an entirely separate blog post for itself. There are just some things I see people, young and old (by old I mean in their early twenties lmao) follow. I need to rant about them. But right now my mind is way too confused and in a flurry to actually right things in a logical order.

I started watching a K-Drama called Doctors and I was getting really into it but now I can't find the remaining episodes. And whenever I go to the well-known K-Drama streaming websites, they say 'not available in you country' and I'm like bish whyyyyy. Ugh. I seriously want to know what happens next. But I'm glad this same thing didn't happen while I was watching 태양의 후예 (Descendants of the Sun) because then I seriously might have murdered someone.

Okay. Turns out there wasn't anything particular I wanted to write about.
Ick this post is such trash.
Sorry :/

But hey, no one reads this blog anyway so I'll do what I want.

I gotta go now... I have to go to college in a bit for my Physics unit test :((((

Alvida,
안녕,

Squish

제일 좋아하는 케이펍그룹: 방탄소년단 (my favourite Kpop group)

Wow! New post so soon? What happened?

I have some time right now and since I shifted my focus to research instead of medical, I've been breathing a little easier, not because it's going to be a simple feat to get into any of the research-oriented colleges but because it feels like a load off my chest to finally have made the decision to drop medical... :)
So now I allow myself to spend a bit more time on things other than studying.
It's not like when I still wanted to do medical I didn't do other things at all, but then, it was a sad, guilt-ridden affair. Now, if I say "Okay, I'm gonna listen to some music and write a blog post for the next hour" then I do without thinking too much about the studies I could be completing in that time.

YES I remember the sneak preview I gave last time of this time's post.
So without any further ado....

방탄소년단 항상 사랑한다!!

Yep. I love BTS.
They are by far my favorite kpop group for many reasons:-

1. They are so close! They are more like a family than anything else and have always had each other's back, right from their trainee days. I love the amount of respect the 막내 (younger) line has for their 형 (older) line and at the same time they're not afraid to express their feelings.

2. They are so talented! I'll talk about this individually for each member as well but as a team, they are SO talented.

3. Their song lyrics are incredible! Many of their songs are extremely relevant to the youth, have really beautiful lyrics and are super catchy. Other songs are just fun to jam to and the choruses are fun to sing. (because the raps are too damn fast haha)

4. Their personalities are so diverse and they're all crazy in their own way which I love. They have their quirks, strange talents and catchphrases (infires ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ) and once you know more about them, you somewhat feel a lot closer to them, as if you are in on their inside jokes.

5. They love their fans. They are always thinking about how to make a good performance, involve the audience, make it entertaining; and last but definitely not least, they practice SO MUCH. They work really hard on their choreography and are always pledging to work harder. While one may say, "obviously they have to love their fans... Without the fans, they wouldn't be so famous!" Yes, but it's a common occurrence for idols to become famous and get airs about it. BTS have remained ever so humble about their fame.

6. They're all so pretty ahhhhhh

Okay I could go on for a while but I'll talk about the members individually now... :)
Let's go age wise shall we? (oldest to youngest)

1. 김석진 (Jin)
 
Jin, is truly the mom of the group. This however is not a derogatory profiling. He is caring and always takes care of the younger members. (I love 엄마 진 and 정국이 's relationship... Especially in the new Eat Jin which was both hilarious and awkward at the same time ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ) His love of food is unbeatably adorable and makes me happy because eating is one my favorite things to do haha :p He is the visual of the group (not wrongly so) and is so cute and fluffy :p
A lot of people brush over this, but Jin has an amazing voice! In my opinion, his voice is more suited to softer melodies and ballads. If you listen to the live version of I Need You (I'm not sure where it was... It was some radio broadcast that BTS did) and his cover of 난 너를 사랑해 and 엄마, it's obvious that Jin has a soft voice that's brimming with emotion.
I also love his awkwardness ^^
2. 민윤기 (Suga)

Suga is the coolest and I absolutely love how he is 900% done with everybody, 900% of the time :D
I love the weird things he says, how he can literally sleep anytime, anywhere and his devotion to the Army. He is ridiculously hard-working. He spends a lot of his time composing songs, writing lyrics, thinking of melodies and working with Rapmon. He helps produce many of their songs and that is actually quite unique because many groups have other people write their songs for them don't participate in production at all. He's very creative and actually wants to get through to people with his lyrics.

3. 정호석 (J-Hope)

Hobiieeee ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He is an actual ray of sunshine :D He is the hyper, funny and loud member or BTS who's not afraid to express himself. Of course, he's not carefree all the time and can be serious and sincere too. I love that side of him too because it clearly reflects that he is older and loves what he does. He is so passionate about dance and is freaking FANTASTIC at dance. All his solos ever and practice sessions are SO good. Even though he was not originally a rapper, he kills that role too<3  I am completely in love with his rap part in Save Me. His voice is so deep and there is so much fluidity in how he raps. I also love how excited he (and Suga) was in Satoori Rap. Go J-Hoooooorse

4. 김남준 (Rapmon)

Where do I start with this dude's talent? Let's start by saying that he fulfills his role as leader very very efficiently. He is tactful, chill (about his crazy younger members) and good at representing them overall. He, like Suga, spends a lot of time writing raps and trying to get a message out through his lyrics (which are great). He is SO hardworking AGH. He managed to learn english for god's sake and is now almost fluent! Initially, in his trainee days, he was not a dancer. He didn't like dancing much and was not good at it all. But after (obviously) hours and hours of practice he freaking ROCKS the difficult choreos. Apart from all this, he is really smart (becomes obvious even you watch half an episode of Problematic Men tbh haha), raps like an actual god and can sing too (listen to 알아요 by him and kookie). I also love his pervert moments 변태 변태 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

5. 박지민 (Jimin)

"Jimin, you go not jams"
Ahem I beg differ dear sir, but Jimin has ALL THE JAMS :p He is such a fantastic dancer. His high notes while singing are on point and his inability to do aegyo is so endearing. His personality is like that of the mischievous cousin who will come over to your house and hide your socks. He loves to fool around and bug the older members and it's really cute. I also love how he relentlessly tries to cheer up kookie whenever he feels down. I love his little monologues in Busan Satoori and uncontrollable laughter agh drool. He practices like a maniac so that he doesn't make mistakes in performances. He seriously slays all their choreos :O I also love his and Hobi's Yaja time dialogues and how in the end, he will always apologize and respect his hyung:)
 100% 잼들이 다 있습니다 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

6. 김태형 (V)

Our V from the star planet. (Btw I know that he doesn't like that, but he ain't gonna read this)
Before saying anything else, let me just mention that this guy has the MOST SOULFUL VOICE EVER. His voice has some absolutely insane kind of magic in it. It's deep and  fulfilling and makes me want to lie on the floor and contemplate my existence. When he sang 아나줘 with Hobi, I nearly did that tbh :p Even though he is not a part of the 'dance line' he is pretty fabulous at random dance and he should totally be counted as a part of it. He's so good at Japanese wow. Also his love of 노래방 (karaoke) is so cute. He can rap too wtf. He adores kids and dogs and does weird awkward things ahhh I can't. I love how all the members are totally cool with him being weird (like blowing out the candle too early in the recent Eat Jin hahaha). Lastly, his effin bromance with kookie!!!!! *dies* my little gay heart can't deal with it you understand ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

7. 전정국 (Jungkook)


















He is the craziest, most multi-talented 막내 (youngest) ever. He slays dancing, singing, rapping, drawing, acting, sports (holy eff is he strong and so freaking fast) and being weird. People joke about how he sucks at math and english and stuff, but in my opinion, if he was actually focused on academics, he would perform well. He just has that competitive, conquer-all attitude. (Btw I'm not saying it's necessary for everyone to excel in academics, I'm just defending this child's abilities okay haha). He's that quiet kid that is actually really weird (in a good way). I love his song covers and karaoke sessions so much, ugh his voice is a gift to humanity. There's so much one can say about this boy; from him teasing his hyungs but ultimately always being respectful and caring to being scared of girls ㅋㅋㅋㅋ. He's so caring! I have a ridiculous amount of affection built up for this dude.

And that's it!
Man that took a lot of time.
I had to use a Korean web-keyboard and copy paste my sentences :)
I hope this fangirling was accurate :p
I really liked doing this though! :) I've never written such a long post entirely devoted to a band, group etc. It was fun scouring my mind for ways to express how much I admire this group :)

Crap it's so late! I gotta go eat lunch...

Alvida,
안녕,
Squish.

of new interests and plans

It's kind of worrying that the last time I wrote a blog post, it was christmas. last year.
It's not christmas 2015 anymore.
In fact it's not 2015 anymore either.
So happy new year?

I'm sorry *inserts slo-mo gif of me being crushed by the burden of studying and the Indian education system so that you forgive my complete absence*  

Anyway, so I want to jump in and a give a quick update, before I go into other things:

So you know how I was very passionate about becoming a surgeon? I was completely set on the idea of going to medical college. However, recently, this entire idea kind of changed.
I am still very interested in biology and find human health and diseases fascinating. But not fascinating enough to make it my profession. I feel like treating real people and having a 24 hr job is not really my cup of chai (tea). And the medical field, barring the occasional excitement, doesn't altogether sound that exciting anymore? I don't know why this change took place in me, but now I am focusing on research more than medicine. I don't know what kind of research, but most probably in some field of biology. I love knowing one particular thing in a great deal of  detail and knowing everything there is to know about a particular thing, so research is right up my lane.

I love the idea of becoming an experimental researcher and working in a lab. I know that life is not going to be some sort of dream with new things to discover and insane scientific breakthroughs everyday, but I feel that it will probably be more suited to how I like to live and my interests. By that I mean that I'll get a lot more time to do the things I like, outside of science, like music, dance, language studies, reading, writing, art blah blah blah

Okay! So that's that haha

Now other cooler things.................. ;)

I got a lot more into kpop!
Before, I was a lowkey fan, listening to some songs here and there, not really caring that much about the band members and more focused on just exploring a different type of  music.
But I began watching a few interviews around mid last year, and next thing you know, I'm a HIGH KEY FAN. Okay no haha not saesang or anything :D
But I really like certain groups about whom I'll gush later :p

I had always liked how the Korean language sounded. I liked the speed of speech (sometimes a bit overwhelmingly fast) and I liked the few Korean words I knew at the time. I had also read that the Korean language was one of the most well-structured languages with a completely phonetic script (which I also liked the look of :p)
So I decided to give learning a bit. Just some basic conversational stuff and some other kpop-related words to start with.
I started off learning how to read Korean and believe it or not, I managed to pick it up in 2 days.
DISCLAIMER: This is not me boasting about my fantastic skills at language, but in fact marveling at the logical and beautifully crafted Korean script. It seriously so much fun

Obviously, at the start I was reading very slowly and sounding out words like a one-year-old. But as time passed I learned more words and grammar points and became a lot faster at reading with practice.
Now I don't know how but I managed to pick up quite a lot of Korean and now can understand quite a bit! I sometimes even turn the subtitles off on some interview videos and stuff and listen hard and often understand the context of what they're saying!  It's so exciting! I love learning this language so much it makes me want to explode :D

I wish I could devote more time to it (I can only give a bit of time per week because of all the study pressure) because I feel like with more time, I could get a hang of it!
And when it comes to pronunciation and speaking, it's actually not that hard for me because  I already speak two Indian languages (Hindi and Bengali) and am used to a lot of the consonant and vowel sounds in Korean (and with correct enunciation, "reul" will come eventually too hehe). Knowing Hindi is especially helpful as it has a very wide range of sounds and has a similar grammatical sentence structure to Korean. So when I try forming correct sentences in Korean, sometimes I think of it in Hindi first :D

It would be very wrong of me to not credit the people who are helping me study Korean and that's Talk To Me In Korean.com !! (I love them so much)
They post videos on YouTube and have a site with pdfs and so many other helpful things. They also have a store where one can purchase text books but unfortunately, I haven't been able to buy anything as of now... Maybe some day :)

I know that actually being fluent in a language while learning from the internet is virtually impossible, but I believe that by listening and practicing a lot, I can get faster at it and improve my vocabulary.

I'm really proud of the progress that I've made in the short time I've been learning and I hope that when I go to Korea on vacation (after entrance exam season next year, I am going FOR SURE), I will be a lot better at conversation and comprehension.
I'm super excited about my language journey and once I'm out of this competitive-exam whirlpool, I'll definitely spend a lot of time on language-learning.

Oh heck I've babbled a lot today... :)
Okay, I have to go now

But before I go I'll give a picture-hint of the topic of next time's blog post....

Alvida,
Annyeong,

Squish.










                                        

ANIME ANIME ANIME

Hi!

Quick update: Today I had this state level test thingy... And I'm so glad it's over!

I came home and watched Howl's Moving Castle for the millionth time, then watched some Deathnote episodes, then browsed through some yaoi on Tumblr (don't judge) 

Then I reminisced to my dad on the phone about the time when I used to watch Naruto and Pokemon. 

Basically, I had a very anime evening

So here's a spam of shots from Howl's and Deathnote because they are my absolute favourites.

Aww <3<3

Guys with earrings amirite

The sassiest nan ever tbh

and THIS GUY ^-^

Now the deathnote spam

This'll be shorter cuz I have to go sleep

I have college at 7:30 tomorrow for which I have to get up at 6:20 for :(((

I like how when there is all this delicious drama happening, Ryuk is 

is just chilling, laughing and eating apples (you can't get much cooler)

I SHIP IT YO

Awwww 

(he's gonna get diabetic real fast)

Okay crap it's getting very late, I'm tired af

Byeeeee

Alvida,

Squish