I wanna try something here. Just go with me on this for a sec (no matter how bored you get - read to the end!).
NOTE TO JOEY: You definatly wanna read this one. Trust me.
NOTE TO MIAH AND SOME OTHERS: You guys are gonna get bored. Its mostly kpop xD
So for a description of today's day in Seoul, South Korea, I'm gonna present it in two different posts.
1. Negative post (Everything presented will be given in a negative form)
2. Positive post (Everything written will be given in a postive form)
Both posts are gonna be about today so they'll hold the same general content but but they will be presented differently.
Now since most of us are pessimists, lets start with me describing today in a negative way. Shall we begin?
WARNING: This negative post will be HIGHLY exaggerated.
------------------------------------------------
Negative outlook (Sunday July 11, 2010):
Aish! Today was a horrible, disappointing, useless, money wasting day! I don't think I've ever had a day which had SO many disappointing things occur all in the same day! Lets name them one by one.
1. So yesterday (but it was after midnight so technically today) we looked at the weather forecast and saw it was rainy and heavily cloudy the next couple of days! Most of the activities we want to do require good, unrainy weather! We wanted to go to the "63 building" today. It is this HUGE TALL building, where you go right to the top, into this open area and see the WHOLE of Seoul. But how can we have a nice view if it is cloudy weather? Nevertheless we decided to wait and see in the morning what the weather would be like.
2. We woke up in the morning and realized it was cloudy as crap and we couldn't do the things we had planned.
3. Then I went to this DBSK website and and saw that the three members from DBSK (Jaejoong, Yoochun, Junsu) were coming back to Korea today from LA. Since we were desperate and and know for SURE that DBSK will not have any concerts during our stay in Seoul, we came to the conclusion that we will never get to see them, and so we decided to succumb to our desperate needs and try meeting them in the airport. But like the thousands of fans that do go to the airport and meet them, we could not do that cause we didn't know how to find out their flight number and when they were landing and which airport they were landing at. We tried finding these details but but since the sites we look at are in English, there is very limited knowledge on these sites. The many fans that do go and watch them in the aiport are koreans, most prob, and therefore know a LOT more. But we can't go to those websites, that the Korean fans run, cause they are ALL in KOREAN! So our dream for seeing three members of DBSK in the airport got crushed.
4. Then we looked at the schedule for Super Junior on their official website and and found out that three members from SUJU (Heechul (Haha I wanna see Joey's reaction here), Leeteuk, and Eunhyuk) were going to be going to this area where they will be signing CDS! Oh we were excited! We thought this would FINALLY be our chance to see them! And and this would in some ways be even better than concerts because we would actually get to go up to one of the members for signing our CD! The signing event was going to begin at 7:00 pm. We realized that people would start queueing REALLY early and they of course wouldn't allow ALL the thousands of fans that showed up to get into the signing event. It would be on a first come, first serve basis. So if we wanted to get the chance to get a CD signed then we would have to go early as well to queue. But it was already quite lateish - 2ish AND we didn't have the latest SUJU CD, which is a must for this signing event. So first we would have to drop by the CD department (well first we would have to find one since we don't know where the CD stores are) and then go to the signing event. Being able to get into the signing event didn't seem very likely.
5. We decided to try it out anyways. The brother, from his computer, told us the way to the place where the signing event would take place. We went to the CD store, bought the CD and then went towards the event area. However it was REALLY hot and I finished a LOT of my water on the way. We realized that if we'll be queueing for a good 2-3 hours, we'll need water and food. So we stopped by this store to get some water. Then afterwards we realized that the bus we thought we were suppose to take, actually does not take us to where we wanted to go. We asked a few people who tried to help but it didn't work. And the clock was ticking. There must have already been maaaany fans queueing up. We really didn't have a chance of getting into the event now.
6. So we decided to take a taxi. It would cost but we were desperate. But everytime we tried stopping a taxi either the taxi was full or they just didn't stop. And the clock was still ticking.
7. This was the MOST disappointing part of today. Oh so sad. Made me smad. So we get to the signing area (finally were able to stop a taxi!) and its really weird cause i dont see a big LONG queue anywhere, no signs of fan screaming, no sign of fans in general. What happened? Either SUJU had really lost a LOT of fans or we were just in the wrong area. But after looking around for a while and walking here and there, we came to the entrance of the area and saw maybe around 10-15 fans sitting outside (the doors weren't open yet). We got quite excited. But it was still strange. Why such few fans? We knew for sure we were in the right area casue we asked them but it was weird that there were such few fans. Then the gates opened and we went inside this hall area with a stage and there were maaany seats put up. We went and sat in the front row and started talking to a few fans, they were reeeally nice! The time was 5 pm, so two hours till the event began! Somewhere in the back of my mind, the fact that there were such few fans at 5pm bothered me, but i dissmissed it cause the other fans said they will come later. I decided that I was exaggerating when I thought that people would start linning up 10 hours before.
But alas. Sadly I wasn't.
We were SO happy. Really sitting there, thinking we'll finally get to see Super Junior (HEECHUL!) in JUST a couple of hours was woah. We were in bliss. But of course that came to an end as soon as it began. This fan girl we were talking to told us that this signing event was only for the people who were chosen...
We were like O_O? We didn't understand what she meant. She told us that a few days ago, all the people who wanted to go to this fan signning event had to put their names in this box. Then from the box, 200 people were randomly selected and ONLY those 200 people were allowed to come to his fan signing event.
Suddnely it all made sense - why there were such few fans. Those 200 knew for sure they would get in so of course they wouldn't start queueing hours before.
So basically this WHOLE trip was a waste.
The transportation money was a waste.
The time was a waste.
The taxi was a waste.
Our hopes were a waste.
Our happiness was a watse.
(I warned you I would exaggerate so STOP rolling your eyes!)
8. The fan told us not to lose hope and go ask a manager if we would still attend. She said since we are foreign fans who are not staying here long, they might make exceptions. We did just that. We went out talked to this person (lets call him Bob for convenience sake) who had a friendly looking face and spoke English quite well (I think he lived in the states) about our situation. He seemed really nice and told us that he didn't have much control so he would have to ask another manager when he came and that he would try his best but cannot promise anything.
The other manager came. We saw them talking about us. We saw the other manager look at us. He didn't seem very friendly. Bob came back to us and told us he doesn't think it would be very possible because arrangements have been made ONLY for the 200 (like seats, names, extra things etc etc). We said we'll quietly stand at the back and observe, nothing else. We'll be invisible. He said he'll try to get us in.
9. Bob came back with a negative answer, but told us to wait some more. The time was 6pm. Many fans had arrived by now.
10. Bob came with a final negative answer. We couldn't get in.
11. The crappiest part: IF we were able to get in, I was definitely gonna go to Heechul's line and get him to sign my CD. Yes, of course I would go to his line because I am a huge suju, heechul, fan but my friend, JOEY, is an even bigger Heechul fan. I had it all planned out in my head. If he asked for my name, then I was gonna say "Joanna Li" (My friends name), so he would address the signature to her. Then I would give her my CD. Even if he didn't ask for my name, and just signed his name, I would still give her the CD with just his signature. She is a HUGE SUJU fan. Especially Heechul. She would have been ECSTATIC with this CD. (Plus then she would owe me forever! xD)
12. We went to the backish area of the building and saw a few people standing there. We realized that those people were waiting for SUJU's car to come. There was a back entrance to the hall, so the three members were gonna go through that door. We decided to wait till 7 pm and see. The time was around 6:30ish pm.
We waited for a bit and then saw this white car approch the parking area. There was only one spot left for the car to park and we were right in front of that spot. It was a bigish white car and since the fans started screaming, we realized that it must the three members in the car.
I thought I would start jumping up and down, like the other fans did, at this knowledge, especially since we were like right in front of the parking area and would therefore be SO close to them when they came out of the car, but I guess today's experince taught me something about myself - I am not the screaming around, jumping type when I am gonna meet someone I admire. I just sorta stood there like my math teacher was gonna pop out of that car (Actually I think I would jump and react much more strongly if my math teacher came out).
13. The car came into the parking area, and then backed out. Me and my chingu made sure we were standing a little away from the car park so the people in the car would have space to get out and leave but some of the fans were standing way too close and were getting SO excited and started moving TOO close to the car, like some fans were literally running in front of the car. So therefore the car backed out and left. Well, it seems like we just weren't meant to see them.
14. After the guards calmed the jumpy fans down and gave them restrictions on where they could stand, the car came back again. But those jumpy fans did it again - got too excited and the car left again. The time was 6:57 pm.
15. The car came back after a while and finally it settled in the car park. The person I saw come out of the car was Eunhyuk. The second person I saw was Leeteuk. And finally I saw the back of Heechul's head. Aish. Only was able to see Eunhyuk's face. I saw a part of Leetuck's face and didn't see Heechul's face at all - only the back of his head. AND to top the disappointment - they were wearing pink, ewww. (Remeber the warning and stop rolling your eyes). They were wearing these pink uniform type of clothes. They had just come back from doing this live performance in another area so I guess they were still in their costume. They stood in front of the entrance for about 5 seconds and then were ushered inside. And well, that was that.
16. We saw the weather had cleared up and decided to go to "63 Building." We went there and once we got there, we asked the receptionist lady (who did not speak very good english) to give us tickets to the top most floor. Surely the view from "63 Building" would cheer up this, so far grey day! We went on the elevator and started rising and OW my ears started hurting! Going to the 60th floor, that to really fast, didn't make my ears happy.
17. We got to the floor we were given tickets for - but this wasn't right! This was a closed area with art pictures. And of course it had a LOT of big, huge HUGE windows, on ALL the walls where you could look outside and see Seoul but but this wasn't right! We were suppose to go to the top most floor where the wind would blow on us and we would be able to look around and see Seoul without a stupid piece of glass in our way. We knew it was possible to go to the top most floor becasue we saw this couple do it in a korean show called "we got married." So why weren't we up there when we asked the reciptionist for those tickets?
18. We talked to a women who was working up there. She didn't speak very good English but tried explaining. She told us the top most floor was closed and only opens at certain times for special events.
WOW. So bascially going to this building was a waste of time, money (money for transportation and money for going into the building), and hopes. Nice.
Not knowing Korean has gotten us into a lot of trouble. Firstly we couldn't find out info about DBSK. Secondly, if we knew enough Korean, we would have already known about the circumstances for SUJU's signing event. Thirdly, we would have been able to communicate to the receptionist lady and would have realized, BEFORE paying for the ticket, that we wouldn't be able to get what we wanted.
What a day.
Oh and btw, that bottle of water I bought was a complete waste as well. I barely drank from it.
----------------------------
SO here is the negative version! Positive version will be posted later. Some things from the negative version + some things from the positive version = the REAL version.
Not everything in this negative version is true. It is highly exaggerated.
Positive version coming up tomorrow! Oh plus, the post after that will be back on track (Rather than me experimenting with this postive, negative thing) and will be about some of the other days.
ALL-nim
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
Day 12 - Dedicated to my sink in Denmark + MANY random things! (June 29, 2010 - July 10, 2010)
Annyeong!~
We have oh SO much homework from the academy (Korean Metro acadamy - MKA - our language school in Korea). So now a week has passed in MKA (we started on July 05, 2010). It is a lot of fun but but getting more and more difficult! So this is how our academy schedule looks like:
- Morning classes (where we learn to read, write, grammer etc etc): 10am - 11:50am. The teacher ONLY speaks korean in this class. NO english!
- Afternoon classes (which are called survival classes. We learn phrases, greetings, how to talk in shops etc etc): 1:30pm - 3:20 pm The teacher in this one speaks korean and english to us.
So therefore we have two main seonsaengnims! The morning seonsaengnim is called Choi Seonsaengnim. She is really really nice and yeppo! And and when she is teaching us, she uses the bands we like (especially Dong Bang Shin Ki) a lot! She really knows how to grab out attention! Very clever. She looks SO young. She told us she is 31 years old but but she looks like she is 25 or something.
The afternoon seonsaengnim is called Kwon Seonsaengnim. I reeeeeeeally like her a lot too! She is so so so so so nice. I am so happy we have such wonderful teachers! She is really good in teaching as well and her friendly face makes me feel really at ease in her classes. She also looks pretty young! Haha, she mentions bands quite a bit as well xD Once our seonsaengnims learnt that we like kpop music, they use it a lot to teach us. Kwon Seonsaengnim gives us presents in class sometimes xD And and she gave us chocolate in our first class!
We have morning classes everyday (Monday - Friday) but we have afternoon classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays we get off early, after morning classes. And and on Thursday, after morning classes, they take us out! Like site seeing in Korea. For site seeing we have another Seonsaegnim! I can't remember her name yet xD Only had her once. But, ah i say this a lot, she is SO SO nice as well! And she is SO cute! She is really friendly and easy to talk to. She doesn't speak much english so most of the time she was speaking in korean. With a little bit of charades, few english words and few easy Korean words, we are able to communicate! The thursday that just passed we went to Insadong! There we went to this workshop type of place and could make things. I made something for my sister ^^ My chingu also made something for her sister. My chingu talks about her sister a lot! I like that. She really loves her. I like it cause when she is talking about her sister, it reminds me of my sister ^^ Some things about my chingu reminds me of my sister, which makes me easier to be far away from her since she lives in the states. But i hope my sister likes what i made for her! ^^ I can't wait to see her when I get back to Denmark!
kay so other than missing friends, family etc etc you know what I really miss? My sink in Denmark. Really, I think I dreamt about having a sink one night.
NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE SINKS: Don't take it for granted. Cherish it. Tell it you love it. Give it a name. Be nice to it. Keep it clean. Treat it well. You never know when you won't have one. "All I want for christmas is a couple of sinks, a couple of sinks, oh just a couple of sinks!"
Got a disappointing message from my friend, Joey, on facebook which got me down for the whole day. (THANKS JOEY!)She lives in Jylland but might have been moving to Copenhagen and joining my school. But then she told me that that is not happening. I felt irritated the whole day by that. Really annoyed. I want her to come live in Copenhagen (Only so I can annoy the crap out of her of course). "All I want for christmas is Joey in my school, Joey in my school, oh a Joey in my school!"
Actually I think I want the sink more. (Saranghaeyo Joey!)
Oh we get SO much homework! On the days we have morning and afternoon classes we get off around 3:20 pm, get home around 4:30 pm and then rest a bit and then start homework. It is becoming impossible to go around Seoul cause our homework is getting more and more. So now we have only weekends and Friday to see Seoul.
Will talk about a few places we have been too, the wonderful nice, young looking receptionist at MKA, our two new Korean friends that we made who we went out with yesterday, the family we are staying with, and some other things in the next blog. This one is already too too long!
NOTE TO MIAH: I am still trying to find the perfect leaf for you. Do you want an oldish looking bruised one with holes and such which looks like a part of Korea. A fresh looking, classy, pretty one or or what? ^^
Kay I gotta go do homework. Plus I need to get around studying for normal life in Denmark as well. Aish.
oh oh no wait. The host mother just called us to eat lunch - dukbokki! So eat and then study.
Miss you mom, dad, didi, Miah, Joey, Aggie and and more people!
MISS YOU SINK!
ALL-nim
We have oh SO much homework from the academy (Korean Metro acadamy - MKA - our language school in Korea). So now a week has passed in MKA (we started on July 05, 2010). It is a lot of fun but but getting more and more difficult! So this is how our academy schedule looks like:
- Morning classes (where we learn to read, write, grammer etc etc): 10am - 11:50am. The teacher ONLY speaks korean in this class. NO english!
- Afternoon classes (which are called survival classes. We learn phrases, greetings, how to talk in shops etc etc): 1:30pm - 3:20 pm The teacher in this one speaks korean and english to us.
So therefore we have two main seonsaengnims! The morning seonsaengnim is called Choi Seonsaengnim. She is really really nice and yeppo! And and when she is teaching us, she uses the bands we like (especially Dong Bang Shin Ki) a lot! She really knows how to grab out attention! Very clever. She looks SO young. She told us she is 31 years old but but she looks like she is 25 or something.
The afternoon seonsaengnim is called Kwon Seonsaengnim. I reeeeeeeally like her a lot too! She is so so so so so nice. I am so happy we have such wonderful teachers! She is really good in teaching as well and her friendly face makes me feel really at ease in her classes. She also looks pretty young! Haha, she mentions bands quite a bit as well xD Once our seonsaengnims learnt that we like kpop music, they use it a lot to teach us. Kwon Seonsaengnim gives us presents in class sometimes xD And and she gave us chocolate in our first class!
We have morning classes everyday (Monday - Friday) but we have afternoon classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays we get off early, after morning classes. And and on Thursday, after morning classes, they take us out! Like site seeing in Korea. For site seeing we have another Seonsaegnim! I can't remember her name yet xD Only had her once. But, ah i say this a lot, she is SO SO nice as well! And she is SO cute! She is really friendly and easy to talk to. She doesn't speak much english so most of the time she was speaking in korean. With a little bit of charades, few english words and few easy Korean words, we are able to communicate! The thursday that just passed we went to Insadong! There we went to this workshop type of place and could make things. I made something for my sister ^^ My chingu also made something for her sister. My chingu talks about her sister a lot! I like that. She really loves her. I like it cause when she is talking about her sister, it reminds me of my sister ^^ Some things about my chingu reminds me of my sister, which makes me easier to be far away from her since she lives in the states. But i hope my sister likes what i made for her! ^^ I can't wait to see her when I get back to Denmark!
kay so other than missing friends, family etc etc you know what I really miss? My sink in Denmark. Really, I think I dreamt about having a sink one night.
NOTE TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE SINKS: Don't take it for granted. Cherish it. Tell it you love it. Give it a name. Be nice to it. Keep it clean. Treat it well. You never know when you won't have one. "All I want for christmas is a couple of sinks, a couple of sinks, oh just a couple of sinks!"
Got a disappointing message from my friend, Joey, on facebook which got me down for the whole day. (THANKS JOEY!)She lives in Jylland but might have been moving to Copenhagen and joining my school. But then she told me that that is not happening. I felt irritated the whole day by that. Really annoyed. I want her to come live in Copenhagen (Only so I can annoy the crap out of her of course). "All I want for christmas is Joey in my school, Joey in my school, oh a Joey in my school!"
Actually I think I want the sink more. (Saranghaeyo Joey!)
Oh we get SO much homework! On the days we have morning and afternoon classes we get off around 3:20 pm, get home around 4:30 pm and then rest a bit and then start homework. It is becoming impossible to go around Seoul cause our homework is getting more and more. So now we have only weekends and Friday to see Seoul.
Will talk about a few places we have been too, the wonderful nice, young looking receptionist at MKA, our two new Korean friends that we made who we went out with yesterday, the family we are staying with, and some other things in the next blog. This one is already too too long!
NOTE TO MIAH: I am still trying to find the perfect leaf for you. Do you want an oldish looking bruised one with holes and such which looks like a part of Korea. A fresh looking, classy, pretty one or or what? ^^
Kay I gotta go do homework. Plus I need to get around studying for normal life in Denmark as well. Aish.
oh oh no wait. The host mother just called us to eat lunch - dukbokki! So eat and then study.
Miss you mom, dad, didi, Miah, Joey, Aggie and and more people!
MISS YOU SINK!
ALL-nim
Thursday, 8 July 2010
Day 6 – Meeting an ELF! (July 04, 2010)
(Day 2-5 havent been written. If my memory doesn’t fail me and I remember something big happening in those days then I’ll write about it in a later post).
Most of this was written on July 04, 2010 the day the following event written in this post took place, however once again laziness won over and stopped me from posting. Plus now we have started our language school and we get homework which gets bigger and bigger every day so getting less and less time.
Oh I’m tired. Sleeeeepy. Today was quite an uneventful day. But nevertheless it was quite exciting and a day full of first time experiences – Yes I know, I am sorta contradicting myself. Just go with it.
We didn't do much in the morning at all. Looked around for places we want to see in Seoul and also looked for possible concerts coming up that we would be interested in. But we didn't go out till much later.
So. Once it was later, Me and my chingu went to the SM entertainment building! No no, before you get all excited and jump up and down and start screaming at the top of your lungs, in the process waking every single other person in the house – STOP! We didn’t see anyone! So sit back in your chair, close your screaming lungs and let the people you live with be in peace.
kay. Relaxed?
So we went to the building, all excited to see what it looks like, and and we had to walk a loooong way from the metro station to get there. I had this image of all mighty SM entertainment ready in my head - tall, glossy, pretty, powerful looking, magnificent etc etc.
So we reach the station – Apgujeoneg - and came out into the wonderful heat that was awaiting us outside the station. The area was rich. It looked rich and had this glamouress feel to it. At this point I really was anticipating what SM Entertainment looked like. I wondered - would it be just as beautiful as these other affluent buildings in the neighborhood? Or would it have an even bigger charm?
So we walk around and we come across these group of girls standing around, some of them talking to each other, some of them looking excited as if they are anticipating something and some just plain bored like they have been there for hours and want nothing but their bed. They were standing near this average looking yellowish building that, in my opinion, didn’t really suit the neighborhood.
Me and my chingu looked at them and wondered if those could be fans waiting for the artists but we kept doubting ourself because the building they were standing next to was nothing compared to our imaginations! It couldn’t be that little yellowish thing that looked out of place in this prosperous looking neighborhood! Plus it didn’t have the words “SM Entertainment” anywhere on it. So therefore we looked around a little more but the crowd of girls kept catching our eyes.
In the end we sucked up some courage and asked this girl with an approachable, friendly face. This is how the conversation went:
US: “Hi. Um. So we are wondering, what are you waiting for and why is there a crowd here?
HER: She just smiled and sort of laughed a little before hesitating to reply “oh… nothing really. I’m not really waiting for any-“
US: “Is SM Entertainment’s building around here anywhere?”
HER: Points at the yellowish thing “Yes. This is SM Entertainments building. We’re all just waiting for artists to come.”
US: O_O “That… building is SM entertainment? THAT?!”
HER: Laughing at our reaction “Yes. This is SM Entertainment.”
The tall, glossy etc etc etc image in our head went PUFF. We were disappointed. So I don’t want to sound too mean but that building wasn’t yeppo (pretty) at all. It looked run down and just old and so so so out of place. Kay so perhaps there is a slight, small, tiny chance that I am exaggerating but but you get the picture (hopefully).
So it turns out that some of the people there were super junior fans and we talked to one or two shinee fans as well. A girl told us that they had already seen Amber from fx, Jessica, Tiffany and some others from SNSD.
Oh! And some of them had been there since 2pm! We got there around 7ishpm I think. So they were there for a looong loooong loooong time! I don’t know how on earth they could wait for that long. Me and my chingu stayed there from an hour and we got pretty bored xD
In that one hour I learned a little of the way to do things if you are a kpop fan, Korean style. Every single time a car which was sorta biggish in size and had dark windows would turn into the SM parking area, all the fans would run towards it, wait till it stopped, start taking their cameras out and then anticipate the person who would come out of it. It was really cute to watch them. Actually I think I was more excited to see the fans reaction than see the artists themselves xD They were just so so cute and from the ones we talked to, they were really nice.
Oh! And for the first time I got to talk to an ELF fan (ELF is super junior’s fan club name). I was SO SO excited! Kay so it may not be a big deal for people living in east asia but but it was a big deal for me! This was the first ELF fan (or any fan from a kpop fan club organization) I was talking to! I was almost tempted to ask her for her autograph! xD
The whole experience was fun in general, even if we didn’t get to see any artists. But of course being able to see the ones you admire and listen to 24/7 would have been reeeeeeally awesome.
Oh but really, I’m still shocked at how they could wait for SO long. Their determination and loyalty was amazing.
oh oh and i got to talk to my parents and sister on skype today! My sister was on from the states and my parents were on from Denmark and and we all talked together! It was really cool actually. I didn't really talk much. I guess I was too tired but partially also because I just wanted them to keep talking because I liked hearing their voices once again - nagging me, asking if I am eating well, if i'm doing fine, if i'm drinking milk, if i remember to take my vitamins etc etc etc. Never thought those generally annoying nagging words would make me so happy xD
Till next time then (^-^)
ALL-nim
Most of this was written on July 04, 2010 the day the following event written in this post took place, however once again laziness won over and stopped me from posting. Plus now we have started our language school and we get homework which gets bigger and bigger every day so getting less and less time.
Oh I’m tired. Sleeeeepy. Today was quite an uneventful day. But nevertheless it was quite exciting and a day full of first time experiences – Yes I know, I am sorta contradicting myself. Just go with it.
We didn't do much in the morning at all. Looked around for places we want to see in Seoul and also looked for possible concerts coming up that we would be interested in. But we didn't go out till much later.
So. Once it was later, Me and my chingu went to the SM entertainment building! No no, before you get all excited and jump up and down and start screaming at the top of your lungs, in the process waking every single other person in the house – STOP! We didn’t see anyone! So sit back in your chair, close your screaming lungs and let the people you live with be in peace.
kay. Relaxed?
So we went to the building, all excited to see what it looks like, and and we had to walk a loooong way from the metro station to get there. I had this image of all mighty SM entertainment ready in my head - tall, glossy, pretty, powerful looking, magnificent etc etc.
So we reach the station – Apgujeoneg - and came out into the wonderful heat that was awaiting us outside the station. The area was rich. It looked rich and had this glamouress feel to it. At this point I really was anticipating what SM Entertainment looked like. I wondered - would it be just as beautiful as these other affluent buildings in the neighborhood? Or would it have an even bigger charm?
So we walk around and we come across these group of girls standing around, some of them talking to each other, some of them looking excited as if they are anticipating something and some just plain bored like they have been there for hours and want nothing but their bed. They were standing near this average looking yellowish building that, in my opinion, didn’t really suit the neighborhood.
Me and my chingu looked at them and wondered if those could be fans waiting for the artists but we kept doubting ourself because the building they were standing next to was nothing compared to our imaginations! It couldn’t be that little yellowish thing that looked out of place in this prosperous looking neighborhood! Plus it didn’t have the words “SM Entertainment” anywhere on it. So therefore we looked around a little more but the crowd of girls kept catching our eyes.
In the end we sucked up some courage and asked this girl with an approachable, friendly face. This is how the conversation went:
US: “Hi. Um. So we are wondering, what are you waiting for and why is there a crowd here?
HER: She just smiled and sort of laughed a little before hesitating to reply “oh… nothing really. I’m not really waiting for any-“
US: “Is SM Entertainment’s building around here anywhere?”
HER: Points at the yellowish thing “Yes. This is SM Entertainments building. We’re all just waiting for artists to come.”
US: O_O “That… building is SM entertainment? THAT?!”
HER: Laughing at our reaction “Yes. This is SM Entertainment.”
The tall, glossy etc etc etc image in our head went PUFF. We were disappointed. So I don’t want to sound too mean but that building wasn’t yeppo (pretty) at all. It looked run down and just old and so so so out of place. Kay so perhaps there is a slight, small, tiny chance that I am exaggerating but but you get the picture (hopefully).
So it turns out that some of the people there were super junior fans and we talked to one or two shinee fans as well. A girl told us that they had already seen Amber from fx, Jessica, Tiffany and some others from SNSD.
Oh! And some of them had been there since 2pm! We got there around 7ishpm I think. So they were there for a looong loooong loooong time! I don’t know how on earth they could wait for that long. Me and my chingu stayed there from an hour and we got pretty bored xD
In that one hour I learned a little of the way to do things if you are a kpop fan, Korean style. Every single time a car which was sorta biggish in size and had dark windows would turn into the SM parking area, all the fans would run towards it, wait till it stopped, start taking their cameras out and then anticipate the person who would come out of it. It was really cute to watch them. Actually I think I was more excited to see the fans reaction than see the artists themselves xD They were just so so cute and from the ones we talked to, they were really nice.
Oh! And for the first time I got to talk to an ELF fan (ELF is super junior’s fan club name). I was SO SO excited! Kay so it may not be a big deal for people living in east asia but but it was a big deal for me! This was the first ELF fan (or any fan from a kpop fan club organization) I was talking to! I was almost tempted to ask her for her autograph! xD
The whole experience was fun in general, even if we didn’t get to see any artists. But of course being able to see the ones you admire and listen to 24/7 would have been reeeeeeally awesome.
Oh but really, I’m still shocked at how they could wait for SO long. Their determination and loyalty was amazing.
oh oh and i got to talk to my parents and sister on skype today! My sister was on from the states and my parents were on from Denmark and and we all talked together! It was really cool actually. I didn't really talk much. I guess I was too tired but partially also because I just wanted them to keep talking because I liked hearing their voices once again - nagging me, asking if I am eating well, if i'm doing fine, if i'm drinking milk, if i remember to take my vitamins etc etc etc. Never thought those generally annoying nagging words would make me so happy xD
Till next time then (^-^)
ALL-nim
Sunday, 4 July 2010
Day 1 - My first glimpse at Seoul, South Korea! (June 29, 2010)
I wrote most of this on June 29, 2010 – the day I arrived Seoul, South Korea. However I was too lazy to post it up.
FINALLY! After counting down for days we are here! (by we I mean my chingu (friend) Anne and ME!)
Well. first impression? I remember I kept jumping up and down and saying every few seconds to my chingu "We're in KOREA! OH MY PEE WE ARE IN KOREA!" But other than that I was really too tired to appreciate or look at anything. Once we got home we were served fruit, given lunch and then crashed to sleep. An interesting thing is that none of the rooms have beds (NO they are not vampires. If you read twilight you’ll know what I am talking about). Oh oh the food was cool! We had rice and this Korean soup with tofu and kimchi and maaaany side dishes.
In the few hours I’ve been in Korea I’ve learnt that acting is really important. The mother’s English level isn’t high and therefore she can’t really understand what we say. And since we are only a few hours old in Korea, our Korean level isn’t exactly conversation type either. So we try to catch the few Korean words we understand when they speak to us, and they catch on the few English words they know and then we play charades from there.
So after I woke up I met the brother who had just come from school. He’s really sweet. He speaks the best English in the house so he translated what his mother was saying to us. But he is VERY busy. He gets up in the morning, goes to school then comes back around 4ish. Then he eats, rests for a bit and then goes to this academy type of thing. It is kinda like cram school, where you learn more. He comes back at around 10pm. He eats and then starts on his homework and sleeps reeeeally late. Then a few hours later he wakes up and his day starts again.
I will try to never again complain about my school life. Really. IB is a breeze compared to what he seems to go through.
The father came home around 7ish I think. And and he got us this basket of flowers which had a ribbon that said “Welcome to Korea.” We were really happy! (^-^)
The whole family is really really really nice. We are SO lucky to get such a wonderful family.
Oh it seems that after every meal, or after almost every meal they eat fruit. I had fruits about 4 times today. I usually stay away from fruits xD
One strange thing – there are NO sinks. None of the bathrooms have a sink. (We have our own bathroom with just a toilet in our room and then there is a main bathroom with a toilet and shower area in another area of the house). Instead of a sink, there is this tap type of thing where the water falls to the floor of the bathroom. Of course there is drainage at the floor so the water goes down. But because of this the bathroom is aaaalways wet!
I miss having a sink. But I guess this is an interesting way of doing things.
Anyways. See you till the next post. (JOEY YOU BETTER BE READING THIS! I am mostly doing this for youuuuuuu! (^-^))
ALL-nim
FINALLY! After counting down for days we are here! (by we I mean my chingu (friend) Anne and ME!)
Well. first impression? I remember I kept jumping up and down and saying every few seconds to my chingu "We're in KOREA! OH MY PEE WE ARE IN KOREA!" But other than that I was really too tired to appreciate or look at anything. Once we got home we were served fruit, given lunch and then crashed to sleep. An interesting thing is that none of the rooms have beds (NO they are not vampires. If you read twilight you’ll know what I am talking about). Oh oh the food was cool! We had rice and this Korean soup with tofu and kimchi and maaaany side dishes.
In the few hours I’ve been in Korea I’ve learnt that acting is really important. The mother’s English level isn’t high and therefore she can’t really understand what we say. And since we are only a few hours old in Korea, our Korean level isn’t exactly conversation type either. So we try to catch the few Korean words we understand when they speak to us, and they catch on the few English words they know and then we play charades from there.
So after I woke up I met the brother who had just come from school. He’s really sweet. He speaks the best English in the house so he translated what his mother was saying to us. But he is VERY busy. He gets up in the morning, goes to school then comes back around 4ish. Then he eats, rests for a bit and then goes to this academy type of thing. It is kinda like cram school, where you learn more. He comes back at around 10pm. He eats and then starts on his homework and sleeps reeeeally late. Then a few hours later he wakes up and his day starts again.
I will try to never again complain about my school life. Really. IB is a breeze compared to what he seems to go through.
The father came home around 7ish I think. And and he got us this basket of flowers which had a ribbon that said “Welcome to Korea.” We were really happy! (^-^)
The whole family is really really really nice. We are SO lucky to get such a wonderful family.
Oh it seems that after every meal, or after almost every meal they eat fruit. I had fruits about 4 times today. I usually stay away from fruits xD
One strange thing – there are NO sinks. None of the bathrooms have a sink. (We have our own bathroom with just a toilet in our room and then there is a main bathroom with a toilet and shower area in another area of the house). Instead of a sink, there is this tap type of thing where the water falls to the floor of the bathroom. Of course there is drainage at the floor so the water goes down. But because of this the bathroom is aaaalways wet!
I miss having a sink. But I guess this is an interesting way of doing things.
Anyways. See you till the next post. (JOEY YOU BETTER BE READING THIS! I am mostly doing this for youuuuuuu! (^-^))
ALL-nim
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)