#this was a private dog park i rented to get some of her beans out

[abirddogmoment]

it's giving cryptid

(you may be asking, was this video taken at midnight or perhaps the early hours or the morning? but alas, it was 5:35pm)

[hangryandlazy]

africa jul 19

wow lol it’s taken me 2 years to actually put this post together. a LOT has changed since then and it makes me immensely happy to recognize how lucky we were that we’d had 2 insane years of travelling right before the pandemic hit. but this post is not to dwell on that, so let’s get on with it!!

this was our amazing 2019 africa trip~

jun 30, 19 ••• we make our way from hong kong to the netherlands on klm airlines. i distinctly remember how impressed i was with the quality of service and the comfort of the 12ish hour flight. after around 16 hours of commute, we just want to stay in and chill, so we order room service and call it a night early. i recall wearing a fun t-shirt that read, “not to be rude, but shut the fuck up” which i personally find hilarious and endearing, but which made the guy at the front desk quite uncomfortable. lollll oops!

jul 1, 19 ••• yay! we had a full day alone in amsterdam. we (i) decided to walk from the hotel to the town center, because it’s fun experience new cities by exploring them on foot!! why not? you come across many things that you just couldn’t have planned to find.

look how beautiful the canals in amsterdam are! anywhere you turn, it’s picturesque.

we had lunch at wagamama because i saw that the avant garde vegan, gaz oakley, had done a collaboration with them at some point, so there are some guaranteed vegan options. we then walk around the bloemenmarkt and find our way to the cannabis college, which had 2 verdampers for rent! yesssss! i was so happy. 

we explored and walked around more, then stopped by a coffee shop to smoke a bit more. there was a lovely vegan cafe right next door, which i’d been eyeing when we went in to smoke, so we had a top up on coffee and matcha there. we saw a cute frenchie across the road and missed the dogs so...

we had dinner at this place called cafe frijdag (which means Friday!) which was delicious! so happy that amsterdam had vegan options for me

jul 2, 19 ••• we got up bright and early to meet my parents for breakfast and we go to the airport to catch our flight to kigali. about 10 hours later, we were buying sim cards at the kigali airport. we then checked in to the radisson for the night, and it was feeling very surreal to be in africa. i remember feeling anxious.

jul 3, 19 ••• today started on a somber note. we went to the kigali genocide memorial. i cried a lot, especially at the exhibit with the photographs of only a fraction of the victims during that time.

then we drove at turtle speed to our next hotel, which was a loooong long way away. we arrived at the lake kivu serena hotel in time for a very late lunch. the cuisine here consists of rice, tortilla-like wraps and papadum-esque crispy rolls.

this fruit tastes disgusting... it looks like a tomato but isn’t sweet at all. i only remember spitting it out, trying another piece from another plate, and still hating it.

thankfully everyone wanted to relax and take it easy, so we ordered in for dinner and spent the rest of the night chilling.

jul 4, 19 ••• we drove out to see the border between rwanda and the democratic republic of congo. we were told to be very careful about taking photos of the police officers there, so we were. it felt strange to take photos of the border, i’m clearly very ignorant of the relations and history. it was a very busy juncture, with a sea of people crossing this way and that, lots of cars bumbling about and a lot of fruit, as i recall. hahah.

we then drove out to see a makeshift hot spring. we were asked if we wanted to take a dip, but none of us wanted to..... felt bad saying no, but really not worth it, sorry.

https://vimeo.com/568059672  (okay, i’m unable to embed more videos so links will have to do until i figure out something better...)

we took a boat ride along the lake, but there wasn’t that much to see around there, it was pretty dirty and murky... reminded me of the hong kong harbor, with trash floating around. it was also freezing, so i wasn’t having any fun at all.

we went to the gym and worked out a little bit because there was a lot of time to kill in between returning to hotel and our private pre-planned bbq dinner on the beach. we were lucky enough to enjoy traditional rwandan dancing which was absolutely gorgeous.

jul 5, 19 ••• we spent most of our morning in the car, having crossed the border to the republic of uganda. we stopped by a cute cafe along the way for lunch, but it was a grueling 4-5 hour car ride to mahogany springs, which was our hotel for the gorilla trekking. we managed to arrive around 715pm, by which time it was pretty dark and scary outside. the other car had broken down twice, once in the dark as well, so spirits were low and there was a lot of muttering and grumbling done under people’s breath. everyone was ravenous by the time dinner was served, but despite how late it was, it was absolutely delicious and i was happy! (also grateful for our car not having broken down)

jul 6, 19 ••• we woke up VERY early in anticipation of gorilla trekking. we waited around the hotel lobby after some coffee and biscuits for breakfast. it was an awful lot of waiting, but i didn’t sense anything wrong until i saw how pissed off our tour guide looked. it turns out our permits had gotten stolen! probably bribes.

here we were mucking around, still anticipating gorilla trekking.

we didn’t let it slow us down though. i actually am grateful for how things turned out because we wouldn’t have gotten to experience uganda like that without this turn of events. we joined a community tour that showed us how tea is harvested, how coffee is grown, harvested and round, as well as how bananas may be used to make juice, beer and gin! very cool

african tea leaves

jackfruit??

these are flowers from the coffee tree

the different stages of the coffee plant

this is henry, he owns this coffee plantation. here, henry shows us how to the use this contraption, the purpose of which is to grind coffee beans into powder

here henry is, sifting the coffee powder

here are my parents, having the time of their life (lol at my dad)

fresh bananas

these are the different stages of a banana’s life: from raw to ripe to fermenting. it can be made into juice and liquor.

we then visited a local school, where we were entertained by kids from kindergarten to 6th grade. we learned about their mission and goals to educate the younger generations by providing classrooms and a dining hall and even dorms for boarding. the singing and dancing was BRILLIANT. loved every single second of it. wish i’d joined in and not cared about what anyone thought.

we stopped by a women’s community center and saw a lot of cool crafts and art. that was on the way to the batwa pgymy tribe. we learned how they integrated with the batwa community. they showed us some dances they have dedicated to the gorillas, for which they are very grateful because it brings tourists in and therefore gives them an income. they showed us how to use a bow and arrow to hunt, and how they weave baskets and make handicrafts.

alan with the leader of the pgymy tribe

one of our guides spotted 2 chameleons, which was super impressive. he even brought the chameleon down close to us so that we could see it. i won’t ever understand how he was able to spot it in the wild, and from so far away as well.

we returned to the lodge and had lunch. the veggie stir fry was pretty dang good. it was served with posho, which is a maize bread, beans, and also matate (???) which reminded me a lot of plantain. back at the hotel, we chilled (without tv or wifi) until dinner. alan fell asleep, and i kept myself busy sorting out photos. dinner was early, and our night was early because we were promised gorilla trekking in the morning!

delicious!

jul 7, 19 ••• we were up and ready to leave by 7am. we were in the clear! we drove a little bit to the bwindi impenetrable national park for some entertainment (dancing and singing) from local students and a hilarious briefing on what to expect and do’s and don’ts of the trek. 

we then had separate meetings within our trekking groups. ours was quite big, with 10 tourists, because michael and our guides had spent HOURS the day before handling our stolen permits. an exception was made to accommodate us all, so our group consisted of the starke’s, alan, kerstin, a couple from oregon, and an english family. we had to get in another car and drive a bit to the mountain, where we met our porters and then began our trek!

the hike up was difficult, and at times i legit feared for my life because the mud/rocks were loose and one wrong step would have had us tumbling down the edge of the mountain... and that was me at age 28!! cannot imagine how my parents were feeling...

alan with meddie

as we made our way to the gorilla family, we encountered a solo young male who was soooo friendly, he cut across our group, like right down the middle, and he even reached out and touched my mom on her jacket! it was wild that a gorilla was that close to us, and then he left as quickly as he had joined.

this is the photo my mom managed to take when the young gorilla male was right next to her

we kept on hiking and found a large. our guide, meddie, told us that we were lucky to have found such a large family doing a whole bunch of different activities: we saw mothers nursing their babies, babies swinging from the trees and playing with one another, sub adult males beating their chests and other members of the family eating and feeding. we even got to watch as a silverback gorilla pulled a very healthy poop out of its butt, and we ran into him snacking again later on.

on the way down, it started raining a little bit. we all slipped at one point or another, but it was especially dangerous for my dad so we all had to slow down our pace a little bit to match his speed. thank god he had a porter there to help him out and save him. 

we returned to the same place as where we had started our morning for a debriefing, and we each received a certificate to show that we had been on this trek. we waited around a little bit for the other group to arrive, and were once again very grateful that our experience was much more pleasant. one lady in the other group had to leave the trek on a stretcher, and the others were caught in the rain on their way to the gorillas, so it must have been a cold and awful experience on their end. 

us after the successful completion of our gorilla trek!!

we headed to a local inn nearby where we had a late lunch and could change into dry clothes. we then drove a bumpy 4 hours to mweya safari lodge, located inside queen elizabeth national park. we made a couple of stops along the way (one of which was in the middle of nowhere so that people could go pee out in the open where animals are potentially roaming around?!?!?) and when we finally arrived, it was already 830/9ish pm.... we insisted to order room service because we were pooped, and we got showered and hit the hay.

this cute sign was outside the lodge!

this super old school cash register was at the lodge too

jul 8, 19 ••• today started off with a game drive, early in the morning! 

we drove around the gorgeous park and saw elephants, warthogs, antelope, eagles, all sorts of bird and butterflies, buffalo and weird-looking lemur or ferret creatures. we thought it was great, but some other members of the group were underwhelmed. 

this is the view from the car we sat in for the safari

this gorgeous tree houses sooo many bird’s nests! do you see them?

cute antelope we saw on the tour

after lunch at the hotel, we went on a boat tour around the kazinga channel. i think it was called lake edward? we saw many animals again, including crocodile, elephants, buffalo, all sorts of birds, and hippos.

favorite photo of my parents ¨̮

we followed a few elephant cuties along the bank. it drizzled for a little bit in between.

dinner was delicious. it was a great buffet, although i was severely grossed out by the ants that joined us on the dining table.

there were so many animals on the grounds of the lodge. don’t be fooled by how cute these guys look, we saw them fight over raw meat at some point! we also saw a warthog stroll around.

jul 9, 19 ••• we were up bright and early today for a quick breakfast before heading right on out. on the way to entebbe, we stopped by a local motel for lunch. the service was SUPER slow (maybe because we had such a huge group together!) but it was delicious and worth the wait! i ordered a coleslaw and avocado vinaigrette (this was THE HUGEST AVOCADO i’ve ever seen in my life?!?!?), a veggie biryani and some of paul’s aloo matar. we then filed back into our cars for several more hours of “african massage” to the next destination. had an early night, i think we ordered room service to the hotel room and tried to get our butts to bed as early as possible because it was another EARLY day the morning after.

we stopped at the equator in uganda to take some photos, of course!

i was sooo happy to be able to order room service! we felt like we were finally back to civilization... 🥺 we had wifi and tv and hot water... ugh it was amazing

jul 10, 19 ••• my alarm was set for 4am this morning.... 🥲😅 we left the hotel at 5am for the airport and obviously i was tired and grumpy and just in a crappy mood overall hahahah. our first flight was barely 45 minutes.... to mbarara i’m guessing?? i was assigned a middle seat on my own originally but no one was in the aisle seat so i moved over woohoo! our first layover was 2-3 hours, not too bad. we hung around at the lounge area. 

our second flight was to harare. alan and i managed to snag 2 joined seats towards the back end of the plane so that we could watch conan’s traevel shows on his ipad. there was a pretty scary drop when we were descending imto harare. i think we just stayed on the plane for about half an hour so some people could get on the plane and join.

we flew about 3 hours more to cape town, and we were EXCITED to arrive. it was a hell of a time checking in, and it was a nicer hotel in a nice area so we decided to just stay in and order room service again. we had a slow night and it was SOOOO needed. cape town felt a lot closer to the first world and we were enjoying and appreciating it to the max. we even started playing pokemon go and its harry potter-themed equivalent (oops forgot the name), but to be fair, we didn’t get cell phone service everywhere we went, so it would cut on and off.

jul 11, 19 ••• eek, cape town was COOOOLD! luckily i brought a jacket along, we really really needed to cover up and stay warm! got to sleep in a bit, we left by 830am to drive to the pebble beach by the water to take some gorgeous photos. we stopped by chapman’s peak for another photo op, then drove to boulders beach in simon’s town to see the penguins!! it was such a dream, loved every second of it.

i believe this was chapman’s peak??

what a model

this was at the pebble beach at the cape of good hope. 

saw a cute ostrich on the way somewhere

next we went to cape point. we took the funicular to the top, then hiked up to the lighthouse. we took pots of great pics but omg it was EVEN MORE freezing there. we had lunch at the two oceans restaurant. fancy and delicious! the calamari was bomb, the arancini was alright, but the main of chickpea and mushrooms was delish. after lunch we headed right on back to the hotel.

when i said it was cold, i wasn’t joking... it was FREEZING at the top. i had a horrible time because i don’t do that well in the cold

alan and i walked over to woolworths to get water and makeup remover and snacks. on the way back we stopped by PLANT for dinner. i was sooo excited to try out their vegan fast food, so i ordered a lot of the menu. we got the quinoa salad, mac and cheez, seitan lasagna, schawarma, pot stickers, siu mai, spag bolognese, tiramisu, milk tart and a bunch of other random vegan snacks. i was in HEAVEN. even though some of the stuff was cold by the time we got back to the hotel and ate, it still tasted DELICIOUS. i was soooo impressed.

this was the lasagna. omfg i need an encore of this restaurant one day!!! wish i knew how to cook like this

jul 12, 19 ••• today we went to a wine blending workshop at grande provence winery. the first step was to blend 3 different mixtures. after tasting them all, we decided the last blend was the winner, with 40% zinfandel, 10% shiraz and 50% cabernet. so then we blended up a big bottle of it, corked it, thew on a hand-signed label, and then walked around the beautiful indoor and outdoor art galleries.

this was our group!

wine blending is literally mixing different wines together in different proportions and figuring out which you like the taste of the best

there was a lot of cute art at the winery! i loved all the dogs and greyhounds around the property. these 3 dancing pigs came a close second

we drove a little way for lunch at another beautiful vineyard. i had a charcoal ciabatta, tomato quinoa salad, root veggie risotto and steamed veggies on the side. we skipped the wine tasting because our lunch overran a bit and our bus driver buford said that the traffic would be pretty heavy on a friday afternoon and it wouldn’t be worth it to be stuck on the bus. so we just walked around the cute little town we were at, franschhoek (??)

there was a lot of cute art and small local shops around this town! we strolled around and got some souvenirs ¨̮

love this

we had a dinner booked way ahead at fyn restaurant. it was stunningly delicious. i loved every single course and was thoroughly impressed.

UGHHHHH just soooo good.

jul 13, 19 ••• FINALLY we had a day to sleep in!!!! we let our group know the night before that we didn’t want to join the walking tour around the city. we woke up and made our way to the company’s garden, which was directly next to our hotel. we played harry potter wizards unite and ran into the tour group. my mom told me later on it was a good decision of ours not to join haha.

we walked to addis in cape for an authentic ethiopian meal experience. we washed our hands at the table, ate the whole meal with our hands, and finally i was able to taste injera. it was 100% teff injera and it did not disappoint. i ordered a vegan platter while alan got a combo. the amount of food was PERFECT for us, we finished every single thing. 

we ordered dessert but the hot berries never showed up and the ice cream was interestingly very gummy and very very sweet. the coffee was strong and served with a beautiful platter.

after that, we needed to walk our full tummies off. we headed to the waterfront, where there were many shops and stalls in indoor and outdoor malls. it was just a really good time walking around there and we saw soooo many things. there was bubble tea in south africa, a yogurt bar that made me sooo happy, dogs were up for adoption, and a bootleg jabbawockeez performance at the city square. we walked back to the hotel after that and got ready for bed.

jul 14, 19 ••• we woke up at 430am to head to the airport by 530am. we caught our first flight from cape town to johannesburg, then transferred to a direct flight back to hong kong. it was a TIRING trip but wow, the memories!! really want to go to back soon

[seventeen-scenarios-blog]

[SCENARIO] How the Vocal Team will Propose (JH/JS/WZ)

A continuation of one of our earlier scenarios (How the Hip Hop Team will Propose). We will also be doing one for the performance team as well, so we hope you look forward to it!

A/N: WHOO! And that wraps the Vocal Team up! We really tried our hardest to make each of them unique in their own way, so we hope you like them!

Enjoy!

-Scooped ✌️ -junnie :>  -jihooned

[JEONGHAN/JISOO/WOOZI] | [SEOKMIN/SEUNGKWAN]

SYNOPSIS

I think we all know that the Vocal Team are definitely the shyer, less expressive ones (other than Seungkwan) in the group, so we can see them turning to simpler, but sweeter ways to propose to their significant others. True to themself, their proposal methods may be really cliche but it will definitely melt any girl’s heart.

JEONGHAN

Totally totally romantic about it

May not seem like he would put in much effort

But he WILL i tell you HE WILL

No matter how long you’ve dated him, he will know if you are THE ONE

Ponders night after night for a month or so

Would be calculative about it

“if i marry her will it benefit both of us?”

“She has a lovely caring family so i won’t have such a hard time”

“My mum already treats her like her daughter in law”

Alright why not

Im at the age anyway

Yo best friend Seungcheol and Joshua i need your help like pls mani mani help

Seungcheol: “Anything for you bro”

Joshua: “Totally bro, I’m happy for you”

“Dino-ya whose baby are you”

“ugh must we do that hyung”

“Tsk answer me”

“Jeonghannie hyung’s baby”

“Alright glad you know let’s get to work”

First he will ask you out on a normal date

First will be meeting you in a posh car

“Rented it just for you babe”

“Imma make you feel like the queen today”

Will Pay to give you a makeover and a new set of clothes

While waiting for you to finish makeover he will be slowly preparing the next part of the surprise proposal

He will rush back to the boutique and sit there for 5 mins just to tell you that you look great when you appeared

Pretending that he was there all the while

And once you go back into the makeup room/dressing room/ hairstylist etcetc

He would rush off elsewhere to prepare

Once you’re done and you look stunning

He would definitely praise you on your looks, and then tip the shop assistants for helping him keep his cover

Would bring you to a beautiful restaurant

Probably wanted to reserve the whole restaurant for you

Got into a fight with the manager of the restaurant because he wasn’t allowed to reserve it all

Still goes there anyways because that’s your favourite steak place

While ordering the food, Jeonghan would recite every single detail about the food that you would order

From no peas to more cheese

Then when you’re done with your food, he brings you out for a walk at a nearby park.

Both of you would sit at a nearby bench and talk about everything under the moon

Then Seungcheol’s dog would approach and give you a letter

“Dearest (Y/N)..”

While you were distracted by the dog, Jeonghan probably left to get the helium coloured (Gold, Silver, White)balloons from dino and a bunch of flowers from joshua who were hiding nearby

You gasped as you spotted him coming back with flowers and balloons

“Thank you for being there for me 24/7”

“It has come to a point where i need you, i want you, and i love you.”

“Will you marry me?”

// gets down on one knee and opens the ring box revealing a simple, yet eye-catching ring, while giving you his 1004 smile <3

Would definitely jump for joy when you agree to his proposal

Puts on the ring for you, holding onto your delicate hands

And he will forget to hold on to the balloons

And they would all fly up

Jeonghan and you would laugh it off,

WOULD definitely share his whole plan with you after the event, recalling and telling you about every single problem he faced while planning

From seungcheol’s dog not cooperating to dino almost losing the ring

Ends up wanting to cuddle back at your house, emphasizing that he was your husband already

Would whine if you didn’t let him

Ends the date by giving you a warm, passionate kiss

JOSHUA

Joshua is known as the gentleman of Seventeen

He’ll definitely want to date for a few years before marrying you

But before that, you’ll have to meet his ENTIRE family first

That includes his grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles

You’ve met his parents before when they visited him in Korea

But the rest of his family is in America which means both of you will get to travel overseas together ✈

His parents has a good impression of you and they already treat you as if you’re their own daughter

Tbh his family won’t worry much as they know and fully trusts that Joshua is capable of making the right decisions when it comes to his significant other

Somewhat means that you’re gonna be accepted and welcomed into the family hehe

They’ll keep complimenting how both of you are perfect for each other

And his grandparents will start hinting to him to officially make you part of the family

*insert Joshua’s super shy smile weeeee* 😜😜😜

He’ll want to make his proposal a simple yet super memorable one

Joshua’s from LA and beaches are quite a thing there so he plans to propose on a beach

He’ll take you for a simple western dinner at a cosy restaurant by the sea

After dinner, he’ll make you walk with him along the beach

The sky’s getting darker and it’s getting chilly - so he’ll make sure to take off his jacket and put it over you to keep you warm

He’ll suddenly stop and turn to you

“What’s wrong?”

He takes your hands and puts them over your eyes, “Nothing, jagi! Just wait here, and don’t open your eyes until I tell you to!”

“But Josh-”

“Just do it!”

You’re clueless about what he’s gonna do but follow his instructions anyway

Meanwhile, you can hear the clicking of lighter and guitar tuning sounds

“Okay jagi, you can look now” he comes behind you and removes your hands from your eyes

He then turns you around so you’ll be facing him, and he hands you a bouquet of your favourite flowers, baby’s breath

He then steps aside and you’ll see something like this:

Tiny glowing candles in the sand forming the shape of a big heart

“Joshua, what’s this?”

“Surprise!”

And he pulls you so that you’re standing in the middle of the heart with him

He picks up his guitar that’s lying on the sand and sings you 20

He chose 20 because he feels like the lyrics deem fit for what he’s about to do...  it’s one of your favourite Seventeen songs

“I wanna be your morning baby, ijebuteon be alright. Hamkke inneun morning baby, I want you to be my night ~” (I wanna be your morning baby, from now on, be alright. Spend it together, morning baby, I want you to be my night.)

And you can’t help but just smile and stare at how beautiful he is when he sings 

How he glances at you dreamily while singing 😍😍😍

You can’t help but wished that this moment will stay like that forever

But sadly, the song ends at some point and he puts down his guitar and steps closer to you

Suddenly, you feel yourself blushing as you try to avoid eye contact

He senses your shyness, raises your head so that your eyes meet and teases with a smirk, “Did you like that, jagi? 😏”

You didn’t want to give him the satisfaction, “Well… the candles are pretty…”

“Really? That’s not all though. 😉”

“You mean there’s more? 😯”

Joshua’s smile fades away as he takes a deep breath before he continuing

“Y-y/n, I know that loving me isn’t easy. It’s been tough on you and I am grateful that you’re still here. Thank you for caring for me, being there for me, being true and being you. But now, I want to be the one who looks after you…”

As he said those sweet words to you, you can’t help but tear up

“Being with you makes me happy and I really can’t afford to lose you…”

Joshua gets down on one knee and pulls out a ring from his pocket and presents it to you

“Y/n, will you be mine forever?”

You were so overwhelmed by emotions and all you could do was smile and nod 

Joshua’s eyes widen as a smile spreads across his face as he takes your left hand and puts the ring on your ring finger

He then stands up, wipes away your tears and pulls you into his chest for a warm hug

He whispers into your ear, “Thank you, y/n. And you can never remove this ring.”

You look up to see him gazing at you with his perfect almond eyes that shimmers under the moonlight

“What if I don’t want to listen to you?” you teased

“You don’t have a choice. You’re officially-ish mine. 💖✨”

WOOZI

He’s so shy

So damn shy

He definitely wants to do it in a private place where its only the both of you around

Aka his studio

The two of you would have probably dated for like a pretty long time now

Because he wants to make sure that you’re the one for him

And you want to make sure that he’s the one for you

(But honestly the two of you are a match made in heaven)

Maybe at first, he probably wouldn’t see the point of having a proposal

I mean, you’ve been dating for so long, you’re practically a married couple

he’d think that it wouldn’t be necessary because it’s already so obvious that you’re going to marry him anyway, proposal or not

BUT OF COURSE, Seventeen would never tolerate such nonsense

“YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT OFFICIAL YOU TWAT,” screams jeonghan 

so he finally obliges and decides to surprise you

Jihoon being Jihoon will end up spending months pondering over how to propose

He will worry about everything

Even the smallest details

What coffee I should drink that day?

What should I wear?

What time should ask her?

He will probably consult all the Seventeen members for ideas and stuff

Literally ALL the members

He might also ask Ailee for some tips because he’s a clueless bean

“Girls like roses right? So I’ll just buy roses for her?”

“Woozi, just because Google said so, doesn’t mean that she’ll like it. -.-”

Ok so on the day he’s gonna propose

He’ll probably be writing music in his studio while you accompany

And it feels like a normal date because the both of you have done this many times

But Jihoon’s extra awkward quiet that day and he won’t even look you in the eye when you talk to him

You figured that he was probably really stressed

The times he acted like this are usually during pre-comebacks when he was under the heavy pressure of creating new songs for their group

And you decide that you shouldn’t probe him further so you returned to lying on the couch and scrolling through your phone

But in actual fact, he was just really stressed about how to propose to you

Seeing that you’re not going to attempt to talk to him, he decides to take this as a chance

Jihoon goes over to a corner of the room to retrieve a small box from his bag

He joins you on the other side of the couch, hands clutching onto the box as if his life depended on it.

“Hey, I got something for you.”

He hesitates before passing you the box

Your hand reaches out to open the lid but before you can click it open, he stopped you?

“If you’re not ready for it, you can just give it back to me” trying to act all cool just because he thinks he’s a manly man

You kinda know where this is headed but you refuse to believe that this was happening

So you’re like “o..kay?” and stare at the box for like a long time

Jihoon obviously cannot stand the silence so he’s just like

“(Y/N), will you marry me?”

He says this while looking everywhere except you cause he’s nervous af

“I--I mean, we’re going to get married some point in the future, anyway, but the boys insisted I do this whole... proposal thing.”

You’re shooooook but you sort of manage to crack a smile?

“Thank god you said yes” he whispers to himself, eyes still darting everywhere

So you kinda have to hold his face in your hands to make him look at you

And you smile while kissing him, telling him how grateful you were to have him

Sometimes it sucks how Jihoon’s a smol, unromantic, emotionless creature and you question how the both of you started dating in the first place but now you can’t imagine life without him <3

[tinymixtapes]

Music Review: Matthew Revert / Vanessa Rossetto - Everyone Needs A Plan

Matthew Revert / Vanessa Rossetto Everyone Needs A Plan [Erstwhile; 2018] Rating: 4.5/5 ‘Tis not, what once it was, the World; But a rude heap together hurl’d; All negligently overthrown, Gulfes, Deserts, Precipices, Stone. – Andrew Marvell, Upon Appleton House Things are not going so well, my friend. Yes, you could even say things are bad. I dropped my cellphone in a sewer grate when a cyclist hit me. I got fired from my job after some abstract budgeteer, embedded deep within abyssal bureaucracies, determined I was a luxury that my department could no longer afford. A tooth fell out of my head. I thought it was a dream, but that conspicuous void in my mirror image only confirmed what was so sinisterly suggested by the dusky greenish molar on my bedroom floor. Though, it’s not really all that bad. I’ve got all my fingers, and they even work well enough. Enough cash sits in my pocket for a few weeks of rice and beans. Free time piles up by the ton. Even more, there’s my brother’s old Discman, complete with patented anti-skip technology, a pair of batteries freshly pilfered from a friend’s remote control, and CD-R smeared over in Sharpie, the words “everyone needs a plan” scarcely legible. It’s such a beautiful day, and no one could take it away from me (a hurricane is set to pass through here). Groan out the door, lick lips, click start, click, hum, buzz. Wrong order. Uncertainties for uncertainty, as steadfast as the Pillars of Hercules, Everyone Needs a Plan glides and crackles. As canny and crafty as ever, Matthew Revert and Vanessa Rossetto move through — move through what? No, they push through, emerge from, insinuate into contingencies. Contingencies link hands with compositions, with foundling sounds, static, and babble. The skin of atmosphere is stretched taut and made permeable to all species of sound: a moan, a pluck, a bowed string, a refrigerator drone, words spoken softly and words spoken gruffly. I have a hard time discriminating what belongs to them and what leaks in through the worn padding of my headphones. I slam the button at the crosswalk and hear its metal click in my head; the little man trapped in the button says, Wait. --- “How busy and perplexed a cobweb is the happiness of man here, that must be made up with a watchfulness to lay hold upon occasion, which is but a little piece of that which is nothing, time?” – John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions Excuse me, in antipodean tone, an interpolation floats into the music. Seated on a park bench, an old man and a freshly shorn St. Bernard pant in the September dregs of summertime heat. I drop my headphones to my collar, shuffling and sizzling and whining close to the necklace. He waves me over, Know anything about American novels? He points to the newspaper in his hand, folded over to the crossword puzzle. “Best-seller by Dale Brown.” I scan the clues, probe the sites of collusion, mentally trying to solve the downs. What are you listening to? I attempt to explain and hand him my headphones, Discman still tirelessly twirling. Minutes, many of them, pass. Letters in monkish isolation reach out to one another, make suggestions for new members of the fraternity. Minutes, many of them, pass. Expressions at tectonic pace shift into one another, write new features on the landscape. “damon, abode, yards, soto, offers, delete, hatch, ethos, duc, thigh, eero, sealed, teddy, pisa, adolph.” I look up, and he removes the headphones, handing them back to me. What instruments are they playing? I don’t know. Could be dozens. Could be none at all. He unzips the plastic skin of a granola bar, breaks it in half, and hands me a piece. The dog turns her ponderous skull just enough to shoot me an envious glance, knowing that bit would be hers were I not there. We chew for a few moments. I pencil in, “dayofthecheetah.” Never heard of it. Neither have I. I get up. We thank each other, bid each a good day, and share a wish for security from the coming storm. What’s her name? as I deliver a parting pat on her heavy head. Lucy. Like the song. He begins to whistle an unfamiliar tune. It’s weird. You’re right, I’m sure you could understand. It’s a saturation point. I’m at a new part of the composition, but I’m not entirely sure I can tell. I acknowledge my failures here and resolve to correct them. Finding a perch on the stone wall that separates our small park from the rest of the town, I begin to take notes. The graphite scratch and grind, my pencil pulverizes itself into grit as I cross the page. Wait, I’m writing with a pen. “This is music of and-another-thing. Each scrap of sound gives way to something new, heterogeneous yet linked. At 75 minutes, it has the feel of a shaggy dog story, a discourse on futility written in futility. But how? How do you do this, how do you compose this? Linear time makes it confusing. Perhaps it would be better laid out like a map or a sky chart, connecting into the constellations the stars that stud the album cover. Strings pull and loosen like a chamber trio warmup sliced and scattered, like slivered almonds sprinkled over a salad.” My stomach rumbles. A long, loud tone reminds me of my condition. The granola bar was good, but not so filling. I read once that some tech billionaire was buying up the blood of the young, so he could drip it into his own arm. How much of myself could I scavenge and sell to a vampire? How much blood do you need? We’re all walking goldmines. I’ve had things happen to me. The chirps and scrapes and hums and mumblings all float through my head, intermingling with the calculus of rent payments, utility bills, food expenditures, healthcare. The sounds adhere to my piling debts, inverted pits in mimicry of Babel. Absorb and absorbed. Another universe, inside our own, though no lesser, spins inside my brother’s Discman. I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll have some time. A dizzying, growing, building, cresting crag, the contents of a life assembling in a funeral pyre that begs to be set ablaze. Napoleon supposedly claimed “Geography is destiny” before beginning his campaign into Russia. Freud, in his On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love, offered his revision: “Anatomy is destiny.” Looking down from the heap, vertigo twisting my guts about, I advance that precarity is destiny. Amidst the frozen choruses, bourgeois mutterings, and radio fizz ringing in my skull, I want to vomit. --- “Thus thin and lean without a fence or friend, I was blown through with ev’ry storm and wind.” – George Herbert, The Affliction (I) Everyone needs a plan. That much is clear. I had one. And a backup, and a backup to the backup, and a backup to so on. The chain uncoupled at every link, and I fell. The trapeze artist is only daring if there is no net. In my free descent — how jealously I watch those paired pilots — I blame the state. Custodian of the short shrift, so eager to deny promised security with assurances that privation guards against even grander, even more unforeseen catastrophe. What a crock. Individualism is atomization, it is comminution, and all we can pray for is clinamen. The swerve of an atom charging through space, the swerve of a body falling through air, the swerve of a bow pulled deftly across strings. They’re playing your ears. Everyone needs a plan. They’re right, you know. There’s a reason Revert and Rossetto ally here and elsewhere. Our only certainty is our insecurity, a shared value and vulnerability among every shred of matter, regardless of how much we have been conditioned to deny that fact. In the common ground of contingency, we are linked. Who is to say that my plan should not be complement to your plan, and your plan should not supplement her plan, and her plan should not dovetail with their plan, and their plan not be keystone to our plan? To vanish Rigel would be to vanish Orion. It is upon emergent occasions that devotion — devotion to one another — is so necessary. Our responsibility to learn forms of trust that we have been taught to reject appears in the urgencies and exigencies of crisis, of insecurity, of collapsing ground. We are citizens of the world risk society. Entrammeling nets perpetually descend upon us. I see precarity looped around every neck, precarity haunting every fragment and every whole. Always in danger of dehiscence. Everyone Needs A Plan by Matthew Revert/Vanessa Rossetto I am this process. Giving is difficult. “All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language,” but no one can read this language. Its illegibility threatens the volume, makes meaningless the text, destabilizes and robs it of robustness. Each entry exists in reference to each other, each chapter draws meaning from each other chapter. There is no just-me, and there is no just-you. It is always and processually me-and, you-and, Revert-and-Rossetto-and. Our world proceeds by polysyndeton, but it seems to me that some force always seeks to amputate our ands. Respect and care not to any universal Other, but to those particulars that greet us in our contingencies. I’ve been talking for a really long time now. Everyone Needs a Plan is an akousma, a thing heard. It is the milieu and the objects that populate it, and those unseen ethers that crowd the interstices. With a finessed sort of freebooting, it is the arrangement that communicates, that references itself and that outside of it. It constitutes a space and occupies it. It reticulates. It would be impossible to catalog each sound. It does not so much matter whether that sound is a bolt bouncing in a bedpan or a marble dropped into a bucket, an accordion shuddering along or a synth wheezing its breathy best. I think I heard my own voice in there, flaking against some guitar strings. --- “Thou best of men and friends! we will create A genuine summer in each other’s breast, And spite of this cold time and frozen fate, Thaw us a warm seat to our rest.” – Richard Lovelace, The Grasshopper Revert and Rossetto have a sort of narrative here. At first sparse and underdetermined, they begin taking turns telling stories. Fragments, strange rememberings of strange events, intimations of insecurities, mutterings mount upon mutterings. By the close of the first hour, Revert and Rossetto are speaking over each other, speaking over themselves, starting new thoughts before the old close. Each scrap of language reaches out to others, some present and some implied. Unseen actors, merely suggested, enter into the scene. They, along with the words that summoned them, become part of, inseparable from, the texture of squeaking, clinking, slurping. Backwards noises rush by and suggest alternate methods of reading the text. It should come as no surprise that this piece ends with both Revert and Rossetto expressing their gratitude. Gratitude owed to those who helped and supported, who gave them time and resources, who respected their work and that they were working. Mentions of positive reactions supplied by emails, feelings of personal empowerment and satisfaction, appreciation for those others that silently occupy the psychic space of the record, swirl about each other in the closing moments of Everyone Needs a Plan. A pas de deux gesturing toward a wider network, a complete community. The record closes on a recognition of the circumstances that created it, a reference to the material world that constitutes and that will be the only medium by which it can be heard. Arbitrary yet complete. Complete yet embedded. It might just be my own position, he of grumbling stomach and missing tooth, but I hear in the work of Revert and Rossetto an acknowledgement of how common vulnerability is and how much we can do for each other to combat it. What is weird is that I don’t feel anxiety about it. I feel a sense of power and liberation because we didn’t hold back. You have allowed us to be exactly what we wanted to be. And I just want to thank you so much for making this happen, for putting me in a position where I can be so liberated. Just thank you for everything. The stolen batteries in my brother’s Discman died during the storm. Two days before, my neighbor, an old woman of protruding bone and shuffling step, carried four gallons of water to my door. She told me that she had heard of entire families dying of thirst in the aftermath of hurricanes. Such ironies are only possible in the wake of catastrophe. Now as I listen back to this record on the computer at my local library, I hear her voice mingling with all the others. http://j.mp/2CB355v

[chuck006]

The essay below was written by my college friend Patrick.  He is just back from 12 days in Cuba. Their are lots of Photos from Patrick’s trip at the bottom of the story.

By: Patrick Biederman

The People. Cuba is a wealthy country in the sense that they have immense resources. They have oil, fish stocks, vast farm lands, beautiful beaches and coral reefs. But the best asset they have are their people. The Cuban people are highly educated, innovative and an industrious people. They are also beautiful inside and out, I can’t say enough about their incredible kindness and their tremendous loyalty to family. When you walk into a family member’s home you must greet them by kissing them or hugging them or both. If you leave five minutes later you must again kiss them all before you go and again when you return.  I came into the house from the outside and I made the mistake of not greeting Ray’s very vibrant and very intelligent 93-year-old grandmother with a hug and kiss, she noticed and let’s just say she has no filter. But at 93 can say whatever she wants, and she does… What I learned is that they all love their country, even the ones that want to leave. They are all nostalgic for Cuba, some are nostalgic for the Revolution and others are nostalgic for the pre-revolution Cuba. Politics divides many families, but political statements critical of the government are always whispered. I also can’t say enough about their generosity, the people outside of Havana really have nothing, the average monthly income is  $20.00 per month, that is US Dollars. They have ration cards that allows them to purchase 5lbs of rice per month, 4 oz of beans and a few ounces of chicken per month. When Ray’s mother cooked me black beans (the best I have ever had) they were only for me. I didn’t realize until later what an honor that was, my beans were her entire month’s rations. It was a sobering realization that people of Cuba have nothing, but will give you everything.

  Driving in Cuba. When arriving in Santa Clara, Ray rented a car for the length of the stay. The rental car “agent” wasn’t at his post so when he was called we were told he was away and would be back in 40 minutes, two hours later he arrived, this is common customer service in Cuba for the Cubans. The car requested three months prior was an Automatic, the car that was available was a standard shift. There are no other cars available. There is a severe shortage of rental cars. Ray doesn’t know how to drive standard shift so I had quickly become the driver and instructor. Driving in Cuba is the most dangerous activity known to man. The roads average anywhere from very poor to outright dangerous. Pot holes are everywhere as the roads haven’t been maintained for 50 years (with the exception of tourist areas like Varadero and Revolutionary Squares). Luckily driving on the highway means not having any traffic, there were many times we had no other cars within sight even with 6 lanes to travel on. There are however a lot of horse carts, bicycles and people and dogs just walking in the streets. While driving at night and dodging pot holes, you can quickly come upon a horse cart with no reflectors or lights, I found this to be the worst “shit your pants” experience. Most cars in Cuba are relics from the 1950’s, Soviet era Moscovich or Lada’s. Cars are almost always put together “frankensteins” because they often have diesel engines and are pieced together from whatever they can find. On my first trip on the highway to Havana I was shocked by the lack of transportation for the people. It is nothing to see hundreds of people on the highway standing on the side of the road in the hot sun, some with children begging for rides to whatever town they need to get to. Getting 30 miles away from home can be an all-day experience for them. Taxis are common but out of reach of the average Cuban. The Cuban busses are usually nothing more than old trucks with welded together chassis made into a “bus” of sorts. Sometimes it just an old dump truck with people loaded in the back. The second to last night we were coming back from Havana and trying to navigate home, it was dark and we were told twice to be careful on a certain road because it was very dangerous. Needless to say, “RAY” hit a pot hole and blew out two tirea. I changed the back tire and then drove the car flat for about 3 KM until we got to the highway where we “VERY LUCKILY” found a few men who fixed one of the flats. We got home a few hours later. I have driven through Atlanta at rush hour and I drove my mother to Canada in an RV, those were VERY stressful experiences, but nothing and I mean nothing compares to driving in Cuba.

Food in Cuba. There is plenty to eat in Cuba. While some foods are scarce and often unavailable to the average Cubans the island is plentiful in food. There are many great restaurants to choose from, if you are in Havana many of the finer establishments with the best decor are state owned. But Cuba instituted a policy to allow ordinary Cubans to open their own restaurants called Paladars. Paladar is from a Soap Opera where the main character opened a restaurant and now any private restaurant is called a Paladar. They are usually part of people’s homes and the food is grown locally. You won’t often find a menu with a price on it. They have selections for the day, they might have fish, pork, chicken or something exotic like goat and hutia (a rodent creature, I ate one). Once you order what you want to eat they will bring you dishes of rice and beans, whatever vegetables are available usually cucumber, tomatoes and yuca. The food is prepared in make shift kitchens and the meat is often butchered in a shed behind the house. They often only serve one type of beer, mojitos or some sort of juices. Always only drink bottled water. The usual cost of a meal is around $5.00 CUC which is around $6.00 us. There are no supermarkets in Cuba to speak of. While in the mountains we went into the town at the bottom of the mountain and looked for additional vegetables. The open air government market was bare so we drove around the city looking for where people were gathered around small carts buying whatever was offered. We didn’t find anything so we went to a local small farm where they literally pulled the vegetables out of the ground for us. It is a daily struggle for Cubans to find sources of food, especially in the towns and cities. On our last night in Cuba we drove to the north side of the country to a small town directly across from Miami which reminded me of the Keys. We went to a small restaurant which had seating for about 20 people on their dock on the water. We ate local fresh snapper, lobster tails so large they couldn’t be eaten, the local custom is to cook them in a sauce however you can have them grilled, but I recommend the sauce. The stone crab was especially surprising because of the size of the claws. They were bigger than my fist. Feeding five people this way including drinks, 3 appetizers, lobster, crab and fish, dessert and coffee our bill was $52.00. The name of the little town is Isabela De Sagua and the Paladar to visit is Cayo Esquivel. Take a taxi there because you likely won’t find it, you can hire a taxi and they will wait for you and take you back when you are finished. If the world ever finds out about this hidden gem of a little town I have no doubt it will be flooded with American Tourists. Some things to watch out for in Havana especially, some restaurants will add gratuity. Others will call it a Tax of 10%, which is just a scam to get an extra tip. Tip generously but don’t be taken advantage of. I honestly never had a bad meal in Cuba, and by far my favorite were my black beans made by Ray’s mother Candida.

The Struggle.  Everything for Cubans is a struggle and I mean everything. From finding food to transportation and everything in between. Everyone struggles in life one way or another and I don’t minimize anyone’s hard road but the Cubans have to struggle in their daily lives in ways we know nothing about. Finding food can be as easy as coming out the door when the bicycle riding bread salesman rides by yelling “Pan”. Or it can be as tough as traveling from street to street looking in empty markets for vegetables to make a simple dish. Traveling anywhere requires planning, long waits, crowded transportation, generosity of other and sheer luck. Everything is controlled in the island; the government hand is everywhere. While in the mountains I was invited to see a Hutia (small “very cute” rodent eaten in Cuba), I walked into the small distressed house of the woman and her children and she showed me the many cages of Hutia she was raising to eat. She said told me she is required to report the number of animals she has to the government, she can raise them for family for their own consumption but is forbidden to sell them to anyone else. Coffee is forbidden to be sold on the open market, all coffee must be sold to the government. The same is true for tomatoes and beef. Beef is sold for export. Liquid milk is almost nonexistent, most people drink powdered milk.  Finding internet access is now possible in Cuba but it requires sitting in a park where wifi is available. You must purchase a wifi card for one hour of access. The cards aren’t sold at any vending machine or at the counter of the snack bar, you have to ask someone who has the cards if you are lucky to find the card salesman. The internet access is poor at best and overwhelmed by the sheer number of users. In addition, certain websites are blocked that are considered problematic for the government. Some American news websites are blocked. The scarcity of everything leads to incredible ingenuity, I saw a family that made a business out of making pizzas by creating two very make shift ovens with scraps of metal and an old metal door. The ingenuity of the Cuban people is remarkable.

 Communists, Capitalists, and Revolutionaries oh my.  I had misconceptions about the Cuban people before I went to Cuba. I thought it unfathomable that there would still be supporters of communism in Cuba. Ray would tell me there was still a lot of support for the regime, well, he was right and I was wrong. His grandmother is the last remaining communist in his family but the true communists can be found everywhere. The people in countryside seems to give the most support for the regime. I met several diehard communists in the mountains, who honestly mourned the recent death of Fidel. At a restaurant i was shown a glowing tribute video of Fidel by the owner who became emotional. I kept quiet and nodded through the video.

Propaganda is everywhere. The poorer the town the more propaganda there is. On the road into the town it’s not unlikely to see ten billboards extolling the glories of the revolution. The billboards are adorned with fiery rhetoric and pictures of some revolutionary victory calling the people to action are everywhere. Inside the town, you will find hand painted walls and murals proclaiming victory over capitalism and imperialism. The real irony is that these murals were on or next to buildings that have been left to rot for over 50 years. The decay and rot of the Cuban infrastructure lives in stark contrast to the proclaimed glories of socialism.

I also met capitalists, a new breed of island Cubans who seek a better life. There was the Air BNB entrepreneur Marrisolle who bought an apartment renovated it into modern standards and rents the two rooms for $100.00 per night (including breakfast), she plans on buying more apartments. I spoke with family friends about starting a business and what American’s expect and desire when traveling. They listened intently. The future of Cuba belongs to the capitalists of today, they the small entrepreneur who is constantly being hampered, harassed and limited by the state. They are scraping out a living standard better than their neighbors, one day soon the others will notice the disparity. Will they want the same or will the state step in to equalize them into poverty again? That remains the question.

I also saw the revolutionary Che, he is everywhere, his image is imprinted on anything that is printable and sellable. I misunderstood him. My view was always that he was a brutal communist who was responsible for the death of thousands of people and the suffering of millions. I still believe that to be true, but he was also a true revolutionary. He was a man who gave up a life as a doctor because he saw the suffering of the poor in Latin America. He was a devout communist and believed in the idea of global revolution. He lived, fought and died for his ideals and no matter what you think of his politics you must have respect for him, he lived and died by his convictions. The memorial for him in Santa Clara is beautiful, solemn and respectful. If you get a chance to go to Santa Clara it is in my opinion a must see.

Final Thoughts.  Other than Canada, Cuba is the only communist country I have ever visited. In these posts the past few days I have had many people reach out privately with questions and appreciation. I am surprised at how many Americans are planning travel to Cuba. For Americans Cuba, has always been the forbidden fruit, now, that fruit is within reach. If there was one thing about Cuba that struck me it would be this, as hard as their lives are, as hard as the daily struggles wear them down, as decay and rot of their infrastructure crumble around them, they are a happy people. It’s hard to find a restaurant or bar where music isn’t playing. When you walk on the streets you hear it everywhere. When the family gets together and a salsa song comes on they begin to dance. They lack all inhibitions of expressing joy. In short, the Cuban people are alive without the inhibition of expressing joy.

They are also incredibly kind, generous and curious. They constantly wanted to know what I thought of Cuba and what is America like. When a visitor comes, the first thing they offer them is a Cafe. With what little they have it is their natural instinct is to give.

A few recommendations for my friends that will be making the trip soon. Be kind, be generous but don’t be taken advantage of. Bring mosquito repellant, sun screen, wet naps, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, medicines especially pepto bismol or imodium and tylenol. Bring cash, enough for your trip and some to spare, using an ATM for an American is impossbile. And most importantly bring your ideas. Everywhere in Cuba there are propaganda billboards extolling the virtue of ideas. Now they have competition. With our hard currency, they have to allow us to influence them. I was asked constantly what I thought of Cuba and I had many discussions with business owners about what American tourists expect and want.

My political thoughts. I admit that I always had an unwitting sense of American arrogance regarding Cuba. That somehow, we can and should affect change for the betterment of the people there possibly through force. I realize now that it is not our place. Cuba is for the Cubans, they will make of it what they will. I can’t remember if I ever agreed with anything Barack Obama did with regards to foreign policy, but I agree with his policy on Cuba. Ray was right, he had to open completely without conditions. Some regard it as a capitulation because we received nothing in return. No dissidents were freed. Our Cuban American citizens are not able to travel to Cuba as Americans they have to travel under a Cuban passport which is exceedingly expensive and absurd. But I also understand that Cuba needed the US as an enemy to prop up the regime and hide their failures. Now as millions of us will travel there, the people will have exposure to our ideas and values and that is the price they will pay for our hard currency.

And as we flood their island we will bring pressure for improvements in their infrastructure which will require more freedom to meet that demand. The government will have a very hard time limiting that very fundamental human desire for more. I hope for change for Cuba, today rather than tomorrow but it is for them to decide their future. Whatever may come tomorrow, go to Cuba today and experience its incredible wonderful life.

My 12 days as a Cuban – An Essay The essay below was written by my college friend Patrick.  He is just back from 12 days in Cuba.