Sun Ye – Leader of the Wonder Girls

Project done for Spectacle! Forums @ www.wgspectacle.com

Just a quick drawing I did of Sun Ye (the leader of the Korean K-pop group Wonder Girls).  This is for a T-shirt project for Spectacle!, the English international forum for the Wonder Girls.

If this design gets picked, it will be published in T-shirt form and sent to Sun Ye herself as a gift.  So let’s see if my art will get that far!

By the way, Happy 21st Birthday too Kim YooBin of the Wonder Girls.  I hope you’re having fun!

Parasitology, Wonder Girls & Spectacle!

Hi everyone!

I just thought I’d drop a line in the blog while taking a break from studying for my two parasitology lab tests this week. It’s been pretty grueling for me, mostly because we’re having two tests back to back and I’m really worried that I won’t be fully prepared by the time the tests come up. As a matter of fact, I’m still in the midst of finishing up some flash cards for the exams, in which I’m about two-thirds of the way though. But I’ve been at this for hours, so let me take a quick bit of time to relax.

During my breaks today (which I guiltily admit that there were many of) I’ve been hanging out at an international forum called Spectacle!, which is devoted to the Wonder Girls. If you haven’t noticed from my previous posts already, I’ve been kinda obsessed with the group since I’ve downloaded their album. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been a fan of pop-music, but especially interested in Asian pop-music. I remember back to the days when I was a big fan of BoA (a Korean artist who is breaking into the American music scene) and Utada Hikaru (a Japanese girl, who graduated from Columbia University and went back to her country to become a pop-star). Now there seems to be a Wonder Girls craze, and I’m caught up in the rush.

I’ve made a couple of new friends at Spectacle!, many of whom I was pleasantly surprised to learn were located in the Philippines. There are apparently a lot of fans like me here, and it’s been nice getting to talk to some of them.

If you guys are a fan of K-pop and happen to be located in the Philippines, I wanted to get this article out to you. Click here to read it. It’s a little exciting, and the prospect of bringing some beloved K-pop starts for a national concert would be totally sweet. Not only would it keep the Korean-Filipino relations strong, it would allow us all located in the Philippines to actually go and see some of our favorite stars. A lot of my friends here are K-pop fans, and I guess it’s not surprising since our countries are so close to each other. The influx and exchange of cultural ideas such as music were bound to entice us at some point. So basically if there’s enough demand, famous K-pop stars might be able to come and grace us with their presence for an awesome concert. I would love to see BoA, 2PM, Big Bang, f(x), 4 Minute and of course the Wonder Girls come for a national concert. The best part of it would be that it would be this November… a time coming up where I’d have a little more free time than I have now. I would totally buy a ticket! So if any of you are in the Philippines and want your favorite K-pop starts to come on over make your voices heard! I know there are plenty of you out there.

Ah… okay. I guess I’m a little too big of a fan, but seriously listening to K-pop music has been getting me through this studying. I’m off to finish up these flash cards, and then I’ll be reading my laboratory manual some more. Then hopefully off to bed. Guys, wish me luck!

And shoutouts to the Wonder Girls, Spectacle! and all the other K-pop stars who have inadvertently been keeping me sane these past few days. Kamsahamnida!

The Start of a Test Filled Week

I’m done with my Parasitology exam. Let’s hope it went well. The material I expected was on it, but there were still a couple of things I wasn’t sure of.

I’ve got a Ruminant Production lecture exam tomorrow as well as a Pathology lecture and lab exam on Friday. I’m gonna get started on that material in a little bit.

But let me first recap on what I was up to this weekend. This past Saturday my lab group in the Ruminant Production class, who consisted of my classmates Kim, Glorilyn, Francis, Adi and Brion visited Badaco dairy farm in Batangas. Batangas is located about an hour and a half south from where I am now, and is pretty close to the coastline of Luzon. Badaco is a dairy cooperative with three farms, each somewhat large with 64, 21, and 74 hectacres in each. We went to the 64 hectacre one which was the main dairy processing plant out of all three. There, cows were milked and the products were distributed from there. Their main employer is Starbucks–pretty big I’d say.

Their farm consisted of around 280 dairy cattle. A lot of them a mix of Sahiwal and Holstein-Fresian, Brown Swiss and Guernsey. As I’ve mentioned before, Holstein-Fresian cows are some of the best milk-producing cattle in the world. The only problem? The are not very heat tolerant. Meaning that in a place like the Philippines, their milk production tends to drop drastically. By mixing this with a Sahiwal breed of cattle, which is a tropical breed, they get optimal milk production while also being protected from the heat. They also get the benefit of being pretty tolerant to most parasites (Sahiwal tend to be that way).

We met up with a dairy manager to talk and ask questions about the cooperative. Everything from their average milk production to their biosecurity measures to where their cattle were from. We asked if they used any kind of milk replacer and they said they didn’t- use it much. They said they tended to get better results from using the mother’s own milk. Colostrum was administered immediately at birth (which is typical) and the young and mother are separated a day after birth.

It seemed that they ran a pretty tight ship. Although it was raining profusely that morning, we still decided to see the milking parlor and take a small tour of the farm. The farm was quite large, and the cows were at the other end of the pasture (remember, we’re talking 64 hectacres here) and it was too early for them to come back, so we just took a look inside some of their barns and took pictures of some cattle that were in the area.

After a quick tour of the facilities we headed home. Before that though we decided to take a trip to a local Batangas staple restaurant. One that served bulalo, a typical and tasty Filipino soup filled with vegetables, bone marrow and other good stuff. Since it was a relatively cold day due to the rain, it was a great meal. The soup was great and very delicious and with good helpings of rice it ended a busy morning.

After that we headed back to Los Banos where I would continue to live in my Parasitology prison. Haha…

Now it’s Tuesday. Who would’ve thought that things would go so fast? I need more time to study for my exams! Wah! Hehe…

Meanwhile, I’ve been listening to a lot of Korean pop-music these past few days while studying. Especially a lot of the Wonder Girls. If you haven’t heard about them yet, you should check them out! I don’t know why, but lately I’ve been watching and downloading some of their performances and am kinda obsessed with them now. They have a new single out called “Nobody” and it’s worth a listen, even if you’re not into pop-music. They’re actually in the US now touring with their English version of Nobody and Tell Me. I’ve never seen a bunch of Asian music artists break through in the American market, but they seem to be gaining a lot of popularity with people there. I wish I could go to one of their concerts! If they came to the Philippines I’d be the first one to buy a ticket!

Alright, I should get back to work. Wish me luck with the rest of the week!

P.S. — My favorite Wonder Girl? YUBIN!!!! Go YUBIN!!! =P