I know you gals have been anxious to hear about our gathering and I promised coco to write about it, but as a slow and disorganized person, I have not been able to put all the thoughts together. Thanks to our diligent, loving, thoughtful dear sister Jaime, I feel that my life is spared. She has done such a good job describing our meeting, I feel such a relief, thank you so much Jaime for being such a talented writer. All I need to do is to fill in my thoughts here and there.
First of all, I am so sorry that I failed to provide Jaime a photo of me before our meeting, which caused so much of her anxiety. Jaime did send a couple of hers, so I knew what she looked like, and the first impression of seeing her photo was she looked mostly like what I imagined, sharp, stylish, pretty, slim, except only one unexpected, she looked more serious than I thought after reading a bunch of her bone-tickling, hilarious writings of being a fan with "BYJ Syndrome", "What's with the Hair", etc. I recalled she assured me that she is really not as serious as she looked in the pictures. Now meeting with her this time, I believed what she said. She is such a graceful, beautiful, kind, sweet, smart, sensible, generous and fun sister. She is obviously a lady with soft and gentle heart, and very easy going. The way she talked, moved, the atmosphere around her was made so gentle, I feel so fortunate to get to know her. But even though I knew how she looked like from the pictures she sent me, I was still struck when I really see her in real human forms - 3D, ok! moving 3D, live 3D, gosh, this is the most amazing experience in my life - seeing an internet ID w/ photos turns into a live human in front of me, and more amazing, with her husband standing beside!
Now as soon as we finished embracing each other, there popped out 4 other family members of Jaime, if I recall, the men were all wearing black, were they prepared to overpower me if I turned out to be a villain? HeeHeeHee... just kidding *_* My real feeling was, I must look real absurd in the eyes of Jaime's family. Thank goodness Jaime's family are all kind hearted understanding people, her sister is truly warm and open minded and outgoing, she smiled at me with the humorous knowingly smile, her eyes and smiles seemed saying "I know you girls little secrete, it's childish but it's OK", and she was quite surprised to see me meeting them by myself. I told her that this is my very first time driving down to Boston alone, and first time coming to the famous Quincy Market. She kept asking me how long I have lived in this area and could not believe that I have lived here for almost 9 years and never visited the famous Quincy Market. It's such a shame that I looked more like a tourist than Jaime and her family. Jaime you are so lucky to have such a big loving and protective family. You know what, on top of many obvious reasons to thank you for coming up all the way to meet me, there is one more thing I would like to thank you for your visit, that is I finally got a chance to check out the Quincy Market, one more item on the list of must-see in Boston. It's quite an interesting place after all.
I have the same mixed feeling as Jaime, that we seemed to have known each other so much through exchanging emails and writing and blogging, but when we met, we seemed to know too little of each other, the imagination and reality eventually met. We seemed to be very close and very far at the same time. Indeed we are so different people, from different country, different background, different culture, different upbringing, we are so far away of our walk of life, I can never imagine that our path would cross like this in my life, yet we are so close in our heart because of the same love of an ideal. I feel that this love washed away all the differences of our personalities, and brought us together to rejoice in the goodness of this life. I think I should propose a Nobel Peace Prize to our HRH, i.e. BYJ. HehHehHeh... (At this moment, I can't help to include a message from Coco on thoughts of nominating HRH for a Nobel or "Noble" Peace Prize - Here is the excerpt ---
H, I loved your idea of giving our Prince a Nobel Peace Prize -- and then I started thinking it could also be a "Noble" Peace Prize! We could nominate him for the real thing (tho I'm not sure how one goes about doing that, but I am sure we could find out!), and we could also bestow a Noble Peace Prize upon him from his Family! Do you like my idea??
I often think about how far-reaching his love and his spirit is.... It extends all throughout his beloved Asia, and waaaay past that, to Europe and Australia and North America.... It is an awesome thing for sure! Is it time to write to People Magazine again? Should we think about how we can give him a wonderful "prize", to let him really know how grateful we are to him for all that he has given to us?? What are some of your thoughts???
I totally agree. I like the idea of bestow a Noble Peace Prize upon HRH from his fan family. Wanna do it?)
I totally agree. I like the idea of bestow a Noble Peace Prize upon HRH from his fan family. Wanna do it?)
Jaime is a shy person. Am I right? Or how about this, She always has much more going through her minds than what she could vocally express. But she is also in the meantime, spontaneous. Lovely girl! I finally got to see the humorous side of her live! We were talking about our HRH, of course, what else! It was at the turn that Jaime was about to summarize on what she thought of him and why she was attracted by him, so she started in the lines such as "It is not just because of his face ... " As you know, even being a slow brain like me, I could predict what she would say next, such as "it is also because of his many virtues that we all fell in love him ..." phrases around that idea, righ? It has become our common consensus that we love HRH not only because of his looks, but mostly it is because of his beautiful personalities. But to my astonishment, what did I hear Jaime? I heard "all right, all right, it is his body as well ..." What did I hear? She reassured "yes, it's not just his face, it's also his whole body ..." Then I heard her murmuring "see how I have degraded to such a state, being so shameless, ..." what else did you say Jaime? I remember you blurred out quite a lot of self-blaming words, but your voice got lower and lower, I could hardly hear clearly as you keep going like that. HaHaHa, I could not help laughing, maybe my loud laugh overshadowed her self-criticism. Jaime Jaime, I see the internet Jaime coming alive! Oh my, oh my, I am really thankful for meeting a friend like this.
Sure we exchanged the experiences on how we started the bae journey. It's amazing that after all these exchanges on the internet, we've never touched on this topic - how did we ever started this bae journey. Well on my way to meeting her, I was reviewing in my mind about what exactly happened that lead me to the meeting of ours that day, I wanted to recall how I started to get interested in our HRH, trying to analyze what had happened exactly that I fell under the spell. So I went on and on, I guess I wasted a lot of our precious time talking about my boring story, that we did not get our quality time on more HRH drooling and on our sisters like you gals. Lessons learned - prepare a meeting agenda for limited meeting time.
But we should definitely include in our agenda for sharing the experiences on how we started the bae journey. Just limit the time allocated to me who babbles too much. Finally Jaime got a chance to share with me how she got started. It was that Winter Sonata, yes, who can escape from that spell! From her sharing I got to learn that she got a serious surgery, good thing it turned out to be benign. Jaime, I hope you take good care of yourself, try to be healthy. No wonder you are tired a lot. Please do not stay up too late, sleep more and eat healthy.
Talking about the photos, I was so moved by Jaime's artistic creation of this beautiful bracelet, the HRH pictures she picked was so handsome, and they were so finely made, I am sure she has spent a lot of effort and heart in making it, and she wrapped it up in such an elegant red fabric bag, very creative and thoughtful. I put it on and tried to show it to all you sisters, but it did not turn out as I expected. Plus I did not realize that Jaime is so tall, that when I improvised this posture of holding around her shoulder, it looked quite awkward, and even worse, I was shocked when I first saw the pictures, my tummy was exposed. I was very embarrassed at first, then a naughty thought came to mind - how I wish that person who was holding Jaime with tummy exposed be HRH, then I got to see that 6-pack muscles so intimately, hahaha... So next time we get a chance to see our HRH, we should concoct a plan to make him take a posture like that.
Here are some of the pictures I took on the bracelet. Her handmade bracelet is far more charming than what is shown in the pictures. I wish I had the skills of our talented photographer HRH.
Here are some more pictures of what Jaime brought me over as gifts. She is so generous and thoughtful, she brought me food for stomach (Godiva chocolate, Korean coffee mix), food for breathe (fragrant bag), food for mind and eyes (HRH DVDs), and food for my body (sensual bracelet so my wrist can absorb HRH's charm all the time and my eyes can see him even when I am driving). She even picked my favorite color red for the chocolate box, CD case, bracelet bag, etc., how thoughtful, how thoughtful! Here are some pictures of her gifts. I am keeping the chocolate in my bedroom dresser, not dare to consume it, it worth more watching it than eating it, never heard chocolate rot, so I'll keep it there for as long as I can. Fragerant bag is placed at my nightstand, it helps me having sweet dreams so one day HRH will appear. Hahaa... bracelet of course will be with me always, and I'll sip on the coffee from HRH's country while watching his DVDs. Wah, what else do I expect in life!
Jaime, It was so wonderful to have met you on April 6, 2007. This is an event that will stay in my memory for ever and ever, and ever Amen! I am so grateful to have such blessings to meet a nice sister like you in my life. You became a real real person in my life more than a name on the internet. I hope we can keep our friendships, we are so different in our life paths, but we come across each other's path because of our same taste, understanding and love of an ideal. This can only come from grace. Maybe we'll be on the same path for a long time, or for a while, or one day we'll depart to pursue our own paths, but I would sure to cherish this special relationship and memory. Thank you very much for coming into my life. I love your writings, you are a talented artist, please keep writing more, and please do put your artistic creative crafty talent into good use, we'll all love your bae-utiful hand-made crafts. I am wondering where you are now, what you are doing, what you are thinking, hey, does this sound familiar, isn't it something like from the Hotelier? Will the Japanese Hotelier have these lines? I think it perfectly depicted my feelings to you Jaime and you and you and you, all the bae-utiful gals on my bae journey.
5 comments:
hahaha, you took more pictures of the gifts, you are so thoughtful. I should have done the same. like you, I still haven't eaten the goodies you gave me. They are so pretty that I don't even want to open the packaging. hehe, I guess we will have to wait for them to rot :)
Dear H and Jaime,
Thank you both for sharing your impressions of your meeting. Seems to me that 2 hours was way too short!
I see quite a few comments have been added to your April Snow thread since I last visited. I hope you can share your feelings on AS versus AS DC without feeling any constraint. It's okay to think the movie characters acted in a way we would condemn in our own lives and perhaps in others around us.
For my part, I think these things happen so it is interesting to explore why. I hope I would have the strength to 'say no' in a similar situation. Still, putting aside the fact that In-soo is played by almost-impossible-to-resist HRH, I see the story as being about more than attraction or nascent love. I see solace, there, a mutual giving of comfort between two human beings battered by hurtful events.
In In-soo, I see a need for re-affirmation of self, re-affirmation of being able to feel, of finding again the man he thought he was. In Seo-yeong, I see a young woman who is playful, more beautiful than she thinks she is, but also shy, scared, insecure, and so taken by surprise by In-soo's attention that she might very well have wanted to 'say no' but she didn't quite know how. It would have required seeing it coming.
I really liked the original version and how it forced us to fill in the blanks but I also like the DC, especially in the way it shows the awkwardness between the two in the intimate scenes (theatre and 1st time in hotel room). Most other movies assume that moments like those go smoothly, or that passion kicks in instantly. It's refreshing to see that a film-maker is willing to explore a radical alternative.
I especially like the scene when she comes out of the washroom and sits on the bed. You can almost hear what In-soo thinks: "What do I do now?" His choice of action is interesting too. Instead of going to her, he invites her to come to him but it's not a strong invitation; it's silent and he's not even looking at her, to keep the pressure low. And, yet, she comes! Does politeness play a role in that? It would be easy to think that she found him irrisistible (since that's what we think of the actor) but I think she was drawn by his need for comfort. I think that's the main reason she didn't say something like "I can't", which would have been so easy (if you exclude the fact that In-soo is played by HRH, of course). In fact, what I see is that she is conflicted, that she doesn't really want to go through with it, that she's on the verge of saying "I can't" a number of times, that it's not so much an attraction but a response to a call for help.
Ah, how I wish the director had shown us how they went from the hug, with both of them on the sofa, to the removal of the glasses, with In-soo kneeling in front of Seo-yeong! Since he left room for our imagination, here's a possible version: first, softening from her initial reluctance, she would have responded to the hug. Not in a passionate way, more in a comforting-comforted way, to continue the motive I've assigned to the scene (others should feel free to think otherwise). Then, he would have hung on to her arms and swivelled so as to sit on the coffe table, on his way to kneeling on the floor in front of her. Then, I see a near-repeat of the scene where he stopped her from peeling the apple, with reaching to touch her hair and the intense look they exchanged except, this time, there would be no inopportune knock on the door. She, too, would reach over, seemingly to touch his hair but, the playfulness in her and, perhaps, the truthfulness, would suddenly want no barrier to intrude in this look so she would take his glasses off. Whether she had meant it or not, In-soo would interpret this as permission to proceed, and the rest would go on as in the movie.
Okay, cut! Enough of me planting ideas in other people's head! And, please, don't be shy if you see it completely differently. Others have said they had strong issues with the theme of the movie and I would very much like to hear more in that vein or any vein you care to bring up.
In the end, AS and AS DC are good movies because they make us think, they make us consider how we would have acted. The mesmerizing presence of HRH is the cherry on the cake although, for my part, I have to give it to him, I truly saw In-soo, not BYJ on the screen, so that speaks to his talent. Also, (yeah, yeah, I said I had finished my comment and here I am, continuing), SYJ did a spectacular job and I think that both actors gave such believable performances because one's craft was enhanced by the other's and vice versa.
Amen.
Dear Jaime, please don't take any photos of things from me, I would feel embarassed on how simple they are. And do eat them and drink them, so you can experience my love and taste how sweet a bae sister is. Hahaha ... The one you gave me is so precious, I don't want to tear them up. See I can smell how fragrant you are from that bag of fragrance so I am experiencing you everyday.
Dear gosijo, I am sure you don't mind me posting your comment here about AS in my blog, I think it deserves to be on the post than being hid in the comment area. I am thinking about writing my thoughts on AS and ASDC, it is a very interesting topic. Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. Love your analysis.
Dear gosijo and gals who are interested, here is the link to one of my AS thoughts.
http://heippieh.blogspot.com/2007/04/gosijos-analysis-on-april-snow.html
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