Siwon & Donghae in Manila for Bench

Hello everyone! If you're a fan of Super Junior, then you already know that Siwon and Donghae were here in Manila yesterday for the event of Bench at Trinoma Activity Center. Sadly, I was unable to enter the contest held by Bench wherein I will get the chance to see them up close (near the stage) and therefore I was also not eligible for the raffle draw during the event where in the winners will have a chance to have autographed shirts or posters and take a picture with them..Although, come to think of it, how many raffle tickets should I have in the first place in order to be picked so that I can be part of it? According to the mechanics, for every Php1000 you buy from Bench, you'll get one raffle ticket and Bench will choose 700 people from there. I'm pretty sure those who won have more than 1 ticket each because the fans club of Super Junior is BIG and everyone wants a chance to shake the hands of Siwon and Donghae ^_^

Me and my sister just decided to go early to look for a spot to stay and watch them from afar since the Activity Center of Trinoma is open. We settled for Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the 3rd floor because it faces the stage directly and we can relax until the event starts. I would have preferred my spot beside the stage on the 2nd floor escalator (That's where I stayed before when Kim Hyun Joong arrived for The Face Shop and it has a great view coz it's unobstructed) but my sister doesn't want to squat there the whole day (hay naku) so I gave in.

We arrived around 10:30am or at most 11am at Trinoma (It's late but my sis moves so slow!) and there were already a lot of people and we already don't have a table near the side rails (boo!). But we still found a good spot to stay, thank goodness. We had Roast Chicken and Mushroom Fustini pasta (this one is so good!) and my fave decaffeinated White Chocolate Dream Latte for brunch.

Here's the makeup I wore yesterday...I don't know why fans bothered to look very very nice (yeah, it's not just us who took care in what we look hehe) when we won't be seen by SiHae, but still there's hope! I decided to go with a "No Makeup makeup look" because I know I will get sweaty and I want my makeup to fade well just in case you know LOL.. I also wore my hair in a neat hairstyle (I braided my bangs and put it in a one side ponytail) so that I won't look wasted after I jumped up and down. It's successful! ^_^

FACE:
- Dreamworld Mineral foundation Mix (I have mixed a lot of shades hehe)
- Aromaleigh ultra-resolution finishing powder in Peaches and Cream 
- Pop beauty blush -- shimmery peachy-pink (can't remember the shade coz I transferred it on a different container when it got broken)

EYES:
- Tony Moly berry lovely girl tip concealer #1
- Christian Dior eyeshadows - nude and peach
- Tony Moly backstage eyeliner in Black

LIPS:

- Watson lipbalm in Wild Cherry (this gives a pretty red tint)
- H&M lipgloss in Sweet Cherry




THE CROWD:

Trinoma was jam-packed with fans on all 4 levels and anywhere you can see the stage. Here's some shots showing how many people went just to catch a glimpse of Siwon and Donghae ^_^

This is where I was located... (above photo)

View from the top and bottom

I think more than 5,000 people were there because on the inside of the reserved area alone there were already around 800-900 people including the 700 winners, Bench's staffs, security personnel media men, VIPs and medics.  And add the number of people around the ground floor and the other 3 floors where we have at least 3 lines from the side railings.

It was really a sight to remember and can you just imagine how loud it was when each one of us shouted at the top of our lungs? My bf and my sis' bf got shocked and irritated at the same time hehe


THE EVENT

They started the event with a raffle on who will get a chance to go up and shake hands with Siwon and Donghae.. I was really jealous coz they were able to hold their hands and have a picture taken and also get autographed stuffs :(

They entered in style and did their usual introduction as Super Junior ^_^

Then they had a Question and Answer portion with the MC. I am not sure if the translation is the same since there is no pause for the translator to give the MC the answer of SiHae before she says it in English...Nevertheless, I was still happy to see them in person and to hear their voices live ^_~

After the signing and picture taking, they said good bye to the fans. ..BUT the two of them came back with their own digital camera so that they can take a picture with everyone as the background! They also did fan service and sent us hearts and kisses before leaving the stage for good.  I really got teary eyed because of too much happiness ^_^

I hope they'll go and include Philippines in their lineup for the Super Show 5 ^_^


NOTE: Lee Min Ho is the next Bench model!!!

Drama Review: Skip Beat!

Happy Friday! I can't believe it's already another weekend tomorrow. I'm so excited! Anyway, I mentioned before that I love weekends because I watch some dramas, right? Well, I decided to introduce you to one of the drama that I follow right now, it's called Skip Beat or Extravagant Challenge.

Skip Beat is an on-going Japanese shojo (Shojo means it's a story about a young girl's life) manga written by Yoshiki Nakamura that was first released in 2002. The story revolves around a 16-year-old girl named Kyoko Mogami and how she developed into a great actress as a result of a broken heart. The story started when Kyoko discovered that the only reason her childhood sweetheart, Sho Fuwa, brought her with him in the city is for her to become a personal maid and to provide money for food and rent while he climbs the ladder of becoming a singer. Heartbroken, she vowed to become a great star herself so that she can overshadow Sho in the entertainment industry as a form of her revenge.

I don't know when it will end but I love following the story of Kyoko and I specifically love the way the characters are drawn. It's very pleasing to the eye and perfect for my type of anime drawing. It is similar with Fushigi Yuugi. I love the angles they create =)

For those who also wanted to read the manga but can’t understand Japanese, you can read an English translated scanned version on websites like Ten Manga for free. 

See how gorgeous the drawing is? ^_^

Also, due to its popularity, they decided to create an anime adaptation and it was aired on October 5, 2008 and it run for 25 episodes. I have watched this too and the whole Season 1 of Skip Beat anime covered Volume1 to 11 of the manga ending with the story of Kyoko and Tsuruga Ren (the black haired one) filming for Dark Moon. Fans like me are still waiting whether there will be Season 2 or not. I hope there will be ^_^

So, what started me with reading the manga and watching the anime is this:

I am a fan of Super Junior and when I found out that Choi Siwon and Lee Donghae are gonna act together in a live action drama I was hooked. Siwon is gonna act as Tsuruga Ren and Donghae will do Sho Fuwa. Now, I also got curious because Skip Beat is gonna be aired in Taiwan and those two are Koreans so I didn't have a clue how they will go about it so I decided to watch.

The first episode is kind of a disorienting experience for me. Halfway through, I noticed that they are Mandarin dubbed! The voices are different and I wondered if I was hallucinating haha but yeah, since they are not good in Mandarin, they are acting with Korean script and then some other people are hired to dub them over. I think this is what made me sad and also caused the mixed reviews from viewers coz they have some difficulty in expressing the emotions of the characters since the one acting and the one doing the voice over are different people.

But aside from that, I love this drama! Ivy Chen is great. This is the first time I saw her and I am glad that I am not disappointed. She was able to potray Gong Xi (Kyoko Mogami) flawlessly. Her expressions are spot on and her actions are funny like in the anime so I love watching her especially if she's having those weird self talk voodoo thingy haha ^_^

This drama is currently airing every Sunday so I just wait for 1-2 days for the English subbed episodes at Kimchidramas  DramaCrazy. Fan-made subtitles are my first choice whenever I am looking for English subs because they tend to be a lot more grammatically correct than those you find on pirated dvds you can find on the streets. It lessens the headache caused by incorrect spellings and jumbled words that you'll get from face cds hehe.

Now, I am just waiting whether this drama will end with the same thing as the anime or they will push through and end somewhere else in the manga. They are still on episode 13 and I'm not sure whether this drama will be 16 episodes or more but I'm crossing my fingers that it would be like Meteor Garden which consisted of 30 episodes..I guess it would all depend on the viewer ratings but I'm still hoping ^_^

Even though I already know what will happen next because I am reading the manga, I still love watching the live action one because they follow the anime very truthfully and that means a lot to me. I really hate those drama producers that create a new story based on a book but they just get the title and names of the characters and nothing else... so yeah I am happy with GTV right now because they really followed the story in the manga.

P.S. since the manga is still being updated, I don't have a clue who Kyoko will end up with but I am hoping Ren would be the one ^_^

If you were able to reach this point, thank you so much for reading my very long post. I hope I can have some comments here that also love to watch Korean and Taiwanese dramas like me hehe. Till next time, bye! ^_^