Jeollanam-do: Living it out in the countryside

I was lamenting the fact that my friends could all lose weight while abroad because their body rejected something about it. Despite how my first two months or so here when I first arrived in Korea being riddled on and off with colds and such, I never had any digestive problems and I never had major moments of weight loss other than the steady toning up due to nightly taekwondo work outs. My mother likes telling my friends that I would gain weight after merely drinking a glass of water. Well, turns out my body decided to listen to me for once: on the morning of October 6th, I woke up feeling sick – and when I say sick, I mean nauseated and incredibly hot.

I wasn’t ecstatic because, of course, this had to be the same morning of our trip to Jeollanam-do with Adventure Korea. I had booked this so my friend (and I) could experience a little something about Korea outside of what most foreigners experience. The tour advertised itself as harvesting crops from the countryside, making green tea, and staying in a traditional Korean house called a hanok. I eventually got myself better after taking a cold shower but I lost my appetite. Even so, we were off because we had already paid and it was too late to cancel for a refund. After a five hour bus ride from Seoul and two rest stops later, we were finally there.

JUNIEL and Yonghwa – Debut Single Duet

I admittedly tend to stay away from female singers. It’s not that I don’t appreciate them, but it’s because most some of them tend to have these really high-pitched voices that grate on my nerves or they try too hard to be cute. Perhaps it’s also because it strains my voice box too much when I try to reach those high notes when singing along, but that’s not the point. As a result, I find myself sticking to more androgynous type female celebrities if I do end up following them. However, there is one general exception: duets. I find that the male parts balance out the female one and I like contrasts and they’re usually cute (I really liked that duet by Wang Lee Hom and Candy Lo, because the male part was sung in Mandarin and the female parts in Cantonese; it helps that her voice doesn’t go too high).

Well, recently, there has been news of a new singer-songwriter by the name of JUNIEL (주니엘), who is apparently new to the Korean music scene but has already released a mini album (Ready Go) and a single album (Forever) in Japan, following her win on the Japanese version of American Idol, Niji Iro Supernova. Now, she’s signed under FNC Entertainment (under which both CN Blue and F.T. Island are signed under) and her debut album, titled My First June, is set to be released on June 7th.

The track list is as follows:
(01)  llla llla
(02) Ready Go!
(03) Everlasting Sunset
(04) Mask
(05) Stupid (with CN Blue’s Jung Yonghwa)

**links added 2012.06.08

Norazo Surprises Once More

I’ve recently decided that Norazo (노라조) is one of my favorite Korean music acts. Sure, I started off listening to k-pop (even if you want to ignore it, it’s hard to when you lived in Korea and some of them are just so catchy that you can’t help but find yourself humming to it while doing the dishes one day – it happened to me), but I’ve recently gotten into looking up indie Korean groups. That was off topic, as Norazo isn’t an indie artist. By the way – the term “indie” when paired with a music artist’s name in Korea means “independent” – meaning they’re not signed to a particular company and is not a particular genre of music.

There isn’t much information on the group in English, but here’s the little that I gleaned from what I found (1, 2, 3, 4). Norazo’s a Korean rock (or “pop-rock” as this site says) duo, made up of members Jo Bin (real name: Jo Hyun-jun) born in 1974, and Lee Hyuk (real name: Lee Jae-yong), born in 1979.

Lee Hyuk (left) and Jo Bin (right).

Two meanings can be gleaned from the name Norazo (노라조): “play with me” from norajwo (놀아줘) and “bird earnestly blowing a [brass] horn” from nula’niao (努喇鳥). The latter sounds a bit awkward but what I have isn’t much better (a bird exerting strength to call out.. or something). The duo is famous for their unique lyrics and eccentric appearances.