A long weekend in Busan [6th-9th June]

This is a long over-due post so let's get things started, yeah? I just realised this was a month ago *sigh* so much for updating things better... oops...

Thursday 6th June was a national holiday and my school also gave us Friday off so, woohoo! 4-day weekend! What was also nice and convenient for us here in Gwangju was that there's now a bus that goes from Emart terminal all the way to Busan (and even to Haeundae beach) without the need to go into Seoul first. Me and Hanneke went together and met up with her friends before they left Korea.

We spent Thursday getting to Busan, it took about 4 or 5 hours in the end, but it was only a short walk to Haeundae station and then to our hostel. There's loads of places to stay around there and we managed to get a last-minute booking at Hello Guesthouse. We went down to the beach - only a short distance from our hostel - and walked up to the end where the small harbour is. We ended up grabbing a taxi and going a short way up the hill to Dalmaji Road, where we could walk through the trees and look back down on Busan and the sea as the sun went down. We were able to get a cab back to the main part of town too, which was lucky as it's a little far to walk but at least it's only a cheap fare.

Thursday night we went out to one of the Thursday Party bars before moving on to Fuzzy Navel where the barmen did tricks spinning bottles and things with fire. We ended up in a very quiet Wolfhound Irish pub for a last drink before making our way back.

On Friday we went separate ways; me and Hanneke went on the train to 경주시 Gyeonju whilst Melissa and Jongun went to another part of Busan (they had more time than us and were going to Gyeonju the next week anyway). It took about 90 mins but was worth it! Plus I think each single-trip ticket cost us about 6,000 won/£3.50, which was awesome.

We had gorgeous weather that day too - we walked although there are plenty of bike hire places and most people seem to cycle instead. Each place was a little far but slowly strolling around was fine, although we didn't have time to see everything in just one afternoon. We walked around some of the main historical sites, firstly 첨성대 Cheomseongdae (the astronomical observatory), then through the park/over the hill where there was once a fort to Gyeongju National Museum.

Music Core [15th June]

First off, excellent directions/hints/tips for MBC Music Core can be found at Korean Codex, here.

Warnings; extremely long post and lots of fangirling.

I'd decided to buy CD's for MBLAQ's fansign in Ilsan and as a friend was going to MuCore anyway there on Saturday, I decided to join him and see them at the music show as well. I went up to Ilsan on Friday night and crashed a friends place for a few hours before getting up at stupid-o'clock in time to get to MBC around 6am. They just started taking names for the list, and I ended up being 18; Corey came a few mins later and got 22.

Took me a minute to work out that this was actually an "18"...

We just sat there talking until it got to 8.30 or so, when we lined up again to take our actual numbers and for fan staff to check our things. Luckily, Corey had told me what I needed and I'd spent an hour on Friday night  trying to deal with iTunes and my friends glacially-paced laptop in order to print things. We had to have;

1) Photo ID - I used my ARC (Alien Registration Card) but I saw others used their passports.

2) A physical copy of the Sexy Beat album.

3) printed proof of the bank transaction when I sent them money to become an official member (the 3rd season A+ membership cards haven't been sent out yet).

and 4) printed proof of an online purchase of Smoky Girl song (I used iTunes which was fine, usually you have to buy from a Korean music site like Soribada or Melon, and I have absolutely no idea how to use them).

Most international fans would be able to sort out 3 of these (especially with being able to buy the single on iTunes), but I think not having official membership will put you way down the list, after official fan members (but I don't know for sure).

The MBC studio building is actually quite pretty!

Our time for pre-recording meant we actually queued up almost straight away and we were inside around 9.30 even though MBLAQ's pre-rec wasn't scheduled until 10.30. Sistar were currently filming, and we also saw Rainbow too. As the girl groups finished, all the fanboys in front swapped over with us in the standing area - it was a mad rush for no reason, and my bag got caught between other people, which was a bit nuts. Corey managed to go straight over to the side in the corner, and there was loads of room at that side. The fans next to us were there for Shinhwa, so they let us come right to the front in that corner and there was room for everyone and I could put my bag down too.

One OK Rock concert, Osaka [1st June]

Yet again, I flew over to Osaka for the weekend for a concert (previously, I went to see Daesung in Kobe). I was up at crazy-o'clock on Saturday to get the bus to the airport... but it was lovely and quiet in the middle of Gwangju at 6am!

A very quiet Gwangju

I met up with Jess at Incheon and we flew together. Sam had caught a slightly earlier flight, so we were able to meet up with her in Kansai Intl instead. We had a hotel very close the venue, which was really convenient so we could drop our things and go straight to Osaka Castle park.

By the time we arrived at the venue, there was quite a long line for merchandise, but luckily it moved quickly and we weren't waiting all that long in the end! We had a lot of stares from others in the queue, especially as it doubled back on itself. No-one was brave enough to talk to us though everyone was clearly curious about us... ^^;

Osaka-jo Hall

We all bought tour t-shirts and slogan towels! Someone kindly took a quick photo for us~ We went in the venue fairly early because we weren't sure where we had to go as we had 'block standing' tickets and entry numbers. It turned out we could go in straight away, which was good as we could stick together easily. Our tickets were for standing up at the top, behind the seated rows so our view was of the entire arena. We were able to find one of the last spaces without standing behind other people along the side and towards the front. This was fine until the girls in the seats in front of us came along and one was really tall and right in our line of sight..! Typical~

Jess, Me and Sam outside the venue

We managed to each find a spot where we could see the stage at some point, usually by leaning forwards or going and standing behind some guys to the right of us. It was actually nice to be in standing but still have room to move around, where we could jump about and have fun. We also had plenty of space behind us, so we didn't get squashed.

C.N.Blue concert [25th May]

I first saw C.N.Blue back in September in London last year. Before then, I have to be honest that whilst I'd heard their songs, I wasn't that much of a fan. Seeing them live converted me, and I really wanted to see them again in Seoul. I missed their concert in December because the tickets sold out so quickly but this time, I managed to buy tickets myself for me, Sam and Hanneke.

Humongous poster outside Jamsil Indoor Stadium

 The afternoon was ridiculously hot and humid, but we took time to grab some photo's in front of the boards;

Me and Sam~

Whilst we were hanging about, we didn't realise until a little too late that a staff member wasn't just taking our photo but filming us for the DVD.... He didn't actually tell us he was filming so we all thought it was just for a photo *rolls eyes* Here's hoping that doesn't make the cut because it was a bit rubbish... I'd have liked to put the stuff down in my hands and then I would have happily done hearts and shouted 사랑해 etc. and they'd have some useful footage instead!!

Me and Hanneke~

They also were raising money for the new school they want to build in Africa. Donations from fans has already contributed to building one school, and they want to raise enough to build another. We spoke to the people fundraising for a little bit, we had our photo's taken again and they let us mess around with the cut-outs;

Sam wanted to steal the Yonghwa cut-out (don't we all?)

We finally went in, climbing all the way to the top on the 3rd floor. Next time at this venue, I won't settle for not having 2nd floor seats... We were so high up! Plus, people on our floor didn't stand up and jump around really like they were lower down, which was a little disappointing as me and Sam wanted to be a little more active.

View from our 3rd floor seats

Anyway, the concert itself was brilliant. They had tons of energy and Yonghwa in particular had about 10 times more confidence being in front of a home audience (than in London, I mean). He definitely played to the crowd,  with cute little dance wiggles every so often, making us scream even louder. They all seemed to have a fantastic time, with huge grins on their faces throughout.

It felt like they played heavier rock versions of their songs too! I came away feeling up-beat and with Love Girl stuck firmly in my head for the following week.

Lotus Lantern Festival

Two updates in one day?! What's going on? Who is this? Who am I? ....anyway, this weekend, I was in Seoul for the Lantern Festival. This was part of the festivities for Buddha's Birthday on Friday, which also means a day off school/work, woohoo!

Warning; picture-heavy post!

After Korean class, me and Sam went up to the Bongeunsa Temple, which is near the (flipping massive) COEX shopping mall. It was pretty quiet, maybe because it was near the heat of the day and it was utterly gorgeous out but people were also preparing for the parade later on.

There were so many lanterns up, it was difficult to get a photo of them all! We walked around the temple and it was lovely and tranquil. It really didn't feel like we were still in Seoul, which was nice as a breather from the city.

Curved roof of COEX in the background

My first glimpse into Korea's punk-rock scene

This was hands-down the most interesting wedding reception party I've ever been to. I happened to see a link to this event somewhere only a few hours before it started. I'd been helping Steph to move in to her new place in Seoul and we wanted an evening out. A quick bit of googling later, found it was within walking distance, so was perfect!

The gig flyer (src; Chincha magazine's Facebook)

The bands that all played were friends of the bride and groom (himself, the vocalist of the band Rux). We  also saw No Brain, Gogo Star, Crying Nut and Galaxy Express. There's some more information from before the gig here including this from the groom, Won Jong-hee;

"One of my favourite songs from Rux is 'Our Life, Our Stage'," says Won. "Anyone can put their life on a stage.... So I thought why not get married on a stage too... After we chose to have our wedding on the venue's big stage, we had to decide on some wedding singers for the reception. So we said, 'F*ck it! Let's just have a big punk rock show instead.'"

There were clearly a core group of fans for each band present, but everyone was so easy-going and fun. This was the nicest mosh-pit I've ever experienced even though it still got pretty insane by any standards. We stayed a bit out of it and stuck to the main non-crazy-crowd standing/jumping. People were able to crowd-surf! And fans jumping up on stage wasn't a cause for being kicked out, it was all so... friendly?! I don't think alcohol was even being served and people were there just to jump/flail around, have a good time and rock out to the bands.

I took a fair number of photo's on my phone, more to test the camera than anything by trying to get at least one good shot of each band. Also, it was an attempt to remember who was who for when I came to (finally) writing up this post.

Any which way, me and Steph had a good time; it's always fun when spur-of-the-moment decisions work out well!

P.S; I'll update this with pictures later, but I just wanted to get this post published and feel like I've actually gotten somewhere with catching up on all these things I want to write about...

P.P.S; I just realised this was a month ago. Where does time go here?!?

Summary of Liz & Kirsti's visit and our last day~

Alternative title; Stuff I Ran Out Of Space For Or Forgot To Mention In The Last Post.

I'd only found out on Thursday that I actually had this Monday off school for the school's anniversary. It was perfect timing, as it meant I could spend extra time with Liz and Kirsti for their last full day here.

We started off by making our way to Hapjeong, to the YG Entertainment building. We didn't spend all that much time there, though we saw some trainees or staff every so often and TOP's manager go in (later he was smoking on the balcony and watching us - apparently a common occurrence).

As it was April Fools and friends knew we were at YG; the opportunity was too good to pass up. Between us, we tweeted we'd seen Seungri and that he'd gone blonde. Cue lots of uncontrollable cackling over our phones, watching our Twitter mentions explode. Liz even used my phone to take a blurred picture of the back of one of their vans parked in the car park and we pretended we missed taking an actual photo...

It was even more hilarious that a couple of other fans who were there had no idea what was going (although we did explain to them later about it) and TOP's manager was with another YG staff member, who were smoking and watching us. One of the other fans kindly took a photo of us all together - again, we had our UK Big Bang banners!

After this, we went back to Hongdae (as it's only one station away on line 2) and did a little bit more shopping. We ended up in Artbox, where Liz and I both bought small wheeled suitcases. Liz needed hers to get back home and... after all the stuff I'd somehow acquired over the weekend, I needed one too... But it'll also be really useful for short trips!

G-Dragon solo concerts with Liz & Kirsti [30th/31st Mar]

"Not another concert!!" I hear you cry! Well, yes.. but let's just get on with it, as then I can go back over more things since January that I still didn't get around to writing about yet. Something is better than nothing, right?!

Liz, me and Kirsti~

TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read); it was an awesome show and I had a heck of a good long weekend with Liz and Kirsti.

Kirsti rocking GD fan-Mickey Mouse ears.

For starters, Liz and Kirsti flew in on Wednesday and spent the day in Hongdae before coming out to Gwangju on the bus. I still had work of course, but we went for kimbap and deokkbokki that night, which was yummy. They went to the COEX shopping centre on Thursday and we all went for samgyeopsal (also with Hanneke, the new teacher at my school who replaced Steph) in the evening. On Friday, again they went off into Seoul with all their stuff to the pimp suite in Gangnam, and I joined them for dinner in Edae with other international VIP's who were in town for the concerts too. We all also went to Teddy's Twosome cafe in Hongdae afterwards and met up with even more people before eventually making our way back to Gangnam.

UKBB represent!

Saturday was the first concert day~ I still went to Korean class (as for a change, it was only 10/15 minutes away instead of 90 or so) and went to Olympic Park to meet up with them afterwards. We queued for some fansite goods, met up with lots of people for tickets and things, and generally soaked up the atmosphere. We chilled out in the Tous les Jours there and kept running into the same people throughout the afternoon! We didn't bother with the merchandise queues, but instead chilled out in front of the big Gmarket-sponsored screen, singing and dancing along to the music videos. I have video evidence that Liz knows all the words to the Gmarket song that GD did a few years ago - useful for future bribery, ahaha! Hanneke also joined us later on and eventually we all went in as we had seats and didn't have to queue for standing.

Me & Hanneke~

2nd floor view on Saturday.

Me and Kirsti were very close to each other on the 2nd floor on stage right, only two rows apart. She was able to swap seats with the girl in front of me so that we could be right next to each other. Liz was clear across the other side of the arena from us, also on the 2nd floor and Hanneke was up on the 3rd floor but at least in the centre. I was also sat next to three lovely girls from Hong Kong.

My super-quick visit to Kobe for Daesung's concert [23rd/24th Mar]

Why was I in Kobe for a weekend you might ask? All because of this guy;

Daesung~ (credit; High Lite, one of his fansites whose photo's I just adore).

In case you've not heard, I'm a big fan of Big Bang (vast majority of people reading this are well aware of that, but you never know). Daesung is my favouite member of the group and he recently released a solo album in Japan under his stage name there of D-Lite. He covered Japanese songs and they included Japanese versions of the songs he had on previous Big Bang albums in Korean; here's the trailer!

The concert hall and view from the lift at Portopia Hotel.

I know I'm so lucky really, to be able to fly to Japan and back in a weekend but I wish I'd had more time to actually even see Kobe because I essentially spent most of my time travelling. I flew into Osaka Kansai, then took the high-speed ferry to Kobe. My hotel and the concert venue were less than 5 minutes away from each other on Port Island, which was really handy.

Fans outside the venue in awesome custom-made overalls.

Backtrack to: St Patrick's Day [16th Mar]

Considering that I've never celebrated St Patrick's Day at home, it was awesome to do something different for this year. Usually, I just about to remember to wear green and that's about it because I'm not one for going out and getting trashed.

I'd started the morning nice and early, as usual at my Korean class in Gangnam. This is only significant for the fact I'd had hardly any sleep the night before (yay, meeting new people in Gwangju at WA Bar!) which meant the rest of the day was far far too long.

When we arrived at lunchtime

We met up at Sindorim where the Irish celebrations were starting. It was amazing how many people turned up over the course of the afternoon, and I'd never seen so many foreigners in Korea so far, even in Itaewon.

Later on in the afternoon!

We watched the girls doing Irish dances before joining in when the next band came up and they invited people to dance in groups. I'd dragged Samantha along from class (only met her that morning) and Boram joined us too and we spent as much time dancing as we could all afternoon. I think there's video somewhere. I had a great time and I've only really danced a ceilidh before at Chrissie's wedding so it was awesome to do it again.

We grabbed dinner in the HomePlus food court, then made our way to Itaewon to an Irish pub called Wolfhound to carry on and meet up with other people.

Some of us decided to leave eventually, and on our way up to Rocky Mountain (funnily enough, a Canadian bar), I suggested checking out Woodstock in case there was a decent band on instead. Which is how we ended up watching a metal band who were really good and our head banging/dancing motivating an otherwise fairly boring crowd... errr... and now I've completely forgotten their name, although we did ask them afterwards. They loved that we were there (we'd been the only foreigners when we walked in) and Eric had bought them all a drink.

Band playing at Woodstock, Itaewon

All in all, by the end of the night, we ended up at Burger King quickly for food before taking a cab back to Gwangju, squishing four of us in the back because Eric is awesome and can talk cab drivers into doing that kind of thing (even whilst pretty drunk). I think I got home around 4 am to realise that in 24 hours, I'd only had 4 hours sleep and then been on the go for 20-odd hours... and that was why I was pretty knackered by that point.

All in all, I had an awesome day! The weather was also warmer for the first time so that made me happy too - goodbye winter!!

Backtrack to: B.A.P's concert [23rd/24th Feb]

Well... I can't believe quite how time flies when I'm determined to write up more posts and then... never update with anything.

The huge poster on the front of the hall (and fanbase rice donations between the doors).

On the last weekend in February, I went to see B.A.P in concert on Saturday - but because of another thing (for Korean class), I didn't get there until about 1pm. I queued for merchandise and didn't manage to get everything that I needed to, but the up-side was that I met up with other foreign fans, so I had people to pass the time with! Some of them, I'd met at Inkigayo, way back in November when I went to see Epik High and B.A.P were also doing promotions. We then hung around the Tous les Jours and generally spent time near the venue for the afternoon and there was a pretty good atmosphere around the area~

My view from standing zone 4 - just in front of me, maybe 3 people deep, was the front part of the runway.

For the actual concert, I had a standing ticket, which was pretty awesome apart from the ridiculous crushing at the beginning (especially when it hadn't even started yet) but happily it soon petered out as people moved off to the one side, where it was closer to the centre. I really don't remember all that much by now apart from some key moments! For instance, I do remember going nuts and screaming my head off during Yongguk's solo when the dancers ripped his top off. Yeah, I'm just gonna have to admit to that being a highlight.

Mainly, what I remember was looking across the crowd at precisely the right moment to catch Yongguk's eye as he was rapping during Unbreakable, spelling out the letters. He looked a little surprised but I just gave him a big smile and cheer and he managed not to spell out the word wrong, bless him. That was pretty damn awesome. I also had eye contact with Daehyun more than once, which was funny and adorable because he then looked all shy and then kept looking back at me, which I just found utterly hilarious. Sorry love, but you're too young for me so I'll just have to break your heart...

Another thing I thought was great was the band they had for the second half of the concert. They were a Korean band called Broken Valentine (which we all kept calling Bloody Valentine... ooops) who were pretty damn good. Personally, I rocked out to them in my own little oh-look-there's-a-weird-foreigner bubble when they played one song that was theirs whilst everyone else around me was really lacking in energy and barely waving their lightsticks. I thought it was a bit of a downer but I also know it's a cultural thing because it wasn't B.A.P on stage at that time, so they didn't want to cheer for them too much (because being a fan of a group can mean you're only a fan of that group...). I just like to jump up and down more anyway - and maybe it was just the people around me because in other standing zones, I heard from others that they had lots more energy! Oh, and plus the crowd around me were pretty young too - they're not really the age yet to be head-banging to rock bands... In these times, I like to play the foreigner card and do what I want to without being worried what others might think, such as rock out in my own space and cheer even if other people around me are being mostly still and quieter.

In the end, I went back on Sunday morning to queue again for merchandise that had sold out the day before; the signed CD's, matoki (their rabbit mascot) goods and the concert hoodies. I managed to get to Olympic Park for 7.30 am and even then, I got the last two hoodies (when I needed four). The Baby fandom is definitely crazy for how early they queue for everything... Plus, I think it came down to several things; TS Entertainment didn't seem anticipate the sales enough, and they allowed people to buy up to 10 of any item... and then allowed people to actually take more than 10 (this I heard from another girl who was there on Saturday; people were being allowed to buy more as they said they were part of one of the international fanbases, buying things for others). So for next time, I hope TS has learnt that they need to set proper limits and then stick to those limits. Many people were also clearly there to buy up merchandise in huge bulk orders to sell online or in Myeongdong. Plus, international fans were then accused of buying up everything - which yes, I'm there to get a few extra things, but they were for my friends and the most I bought of one thing was 5 signed CD's. There's also a difference between me buying four hoodies and someone buying twelve plus a bunch of tshirts to sell online with a massive mark-up.. For instance, I saw someone filling a suitcase with tshirts and hoodies about 10 people in front of me and it was overflowing. *sigh* anyway, it slightly ruined things.

My haul for me and several others (and this doesn't include even more that was sent back to Malaysia)!

I had debated getting another ticket for Sunday night (they were still selling them on the day at the box office) but decided to get back home instead and sleep!!

*whining noise of a defibrillator*

It liiiiiives!

I decided when I knew I wanted to move to Korea that I'd start blogging again. Mainly, it's taken me so long because I was thinking about making a completely new blog, but I still like that my old posts are here from ages ago and I don't have to mess about with templates or what-have-you. Really, it's just for my ramblings anyway and more as a nice way of being able to look back on things I did whilst I was here than anything y'know, useful.

So! To get me started again, I'm just going to write up some posts about what I was up to this weekend - snowboarding! - and go back over my trip to Hong Kong last month and the Big Bang concerts I was at. And maybe a few other general oh-look-I-moved-to-Korea posts too.

Suffice to say, much has changed since I last updated. I finished that final year of university and worked at home in the UK for a bit and so didn't really think about updating this.

So... blogging, round two. Korea edition; 시작!

And for anyone who wants to learn, here's hangul in 15 minutes. Yay!