Seventeen Concert

Today's main even is going to Seventeen concert... but first, I went to church in the morning. I went to my classmate's church in Yeoido as was recommended by him, but he wasn't there today because he got bronchitis :( It was good and small.... there were probably about 20 adults there and then probably like 15 kids. English worship, so everything was understandable. One lady commented that my voice is good :) (not sure if she meant singing voice or speaking voice....)

Since Yeoido is on the south side of Hangang, when I took the bus back, I was admiring how nice Hangang looked. I've always liked Hangang and every time I cross over it, I always get mesmerized. So I thought of the more or less crazy idea that I want to take some pictures on Hangang. Of course, people have done it before, but I kind of just did it on a whim.... so I just took the nearest stop after the river and started walking back.

Let me tell you, it was kind of scary getting there. Why? Because to get to the bridge, I had to cross the street that had no signal light with traffic coming off of the bridge, which is like getting off of the freeway. It was really really hard to cross.... thankfully, some nice cars stopped to let me cross, or else I might have waited there for a very long time.

There are sayings written all over the sides of the bridge. The bridge I took is the Mapo Bridge, but there are lots of bridge crossing Hangang... Mapo Bridge is just the one closest to where I live. I was reading the sayings and amazingly, I can understand some of them!

This one says, "how was your day?"

This one says "I understand even if you don't say anything"

And then I realized that these are not disconnected phrases - they're all part of a larger dialogue. So it's written from left to right, as if the bridge, or the person who wrote this on the bridge, is speaking to the person walking on it. And it has the name of the person who contributed to it at the end. This one is quite inspiring, but it's quite long..... so I don't want to waste your time by posting it.

Here is a video of something similar, but shorter. I think it's asking whether you like this or that.... and then it says don't worry so much, because the correct answers to life.... and then I forgot to film the end. Dun dun dun.... we're forever in suspense..

And then here comes more artistic pictures taken on the bridge. I really love it on the bridge!

Now to the Seventeen concert. This is my first real paid concert at a popular group where there are real fans! I've never been to anything like this before........ I guess I didn't quite live the young people life before. I was really blown away about how good they made it!

So they held it in Jamsil Sports Complex, which is an outdoors baseball stadium. It's been raining, so it was quite scary whether it was gonna rain or not. Thankfully, it didn't rain at all, but I was prepared with my raincoat and umbrella.

It is this member's birthday tomorrow, so they had a trailer all decorated about it. We even sang happy birthday to him at the end of the concert!

The tents are where I picked up my tickets.

Tons of people here.... of course, 99% are girls!

Standing room only is at the front. I'm not too into standing for the entire concert, so I picked the closest seat possible. I was super close! However, the standing room means that the stage extends way into the crowd so the fans can see the group much closer.

I look so much older compared to them.... haha.

Alright, so they said there's no photography during the concert, but there are a lot of clips floating around. I didn't take any during the concert because I don't want to get kicked out.....

And.... and extra thing that happened was that this group called Nu'est also came to watch the concert! I don't really know who they are, but before the concert started, I heard girls screaming. We all looked from our section and although we couldn't tell what happened, we can tell where those people were walking to because the screams moved section to section...... which tells you their location.

And then the screams moved over to our section, and it turned out to be Nu'est (which I didn't know at the time), and they actually came up to our section to sit next to us!

It was quite a shocker! I didn't think I would ever be THIS CLOSE to any Kpop star (unless I've already passed by them on the street, but not recognize them). It was kind of sad that I had to ask the girl next to me who they are...... Just so shocking they'd choose to sit next to the fans! But I think it just created too much commotion, so they moved away from us and went to an isolated section to sit.

A few thoughts about the concert:
- Wow! It was so awesome! I've never been to anything like it! There was lights, fire, fireworks, WATER SPLASHED AT AUDIENCE, extended stages, the stars waving at us, the stars entering the concert really really close to our seats! It was just super awesome!

- It was a real test of my Korean.... I think I probably understood 20% of what they were saying, but I had to really concentrate. Bleh. The whole time I thought they were saying "LG", so I thought "hmm... maybe LG sponsored them?", and it turned out to be "Edge", which was the name of the concert. -_-.

- Korean fans are so calm and polite. At least at this concert. NO ONE ran out of their seats towards them at all. NO ONE grabbed them when they stood on the edge of the stage. Everyone is always super nice... saying "it's ok", or "don't cry", or most of the time "he's so cute....". I mean, even when Nu'est sat next to us, no one grabbed them.... AT ALL! That's amazing.

- Kpop groups all have a fan group, and their fan group always have a name. And each Kpop group always has a light stick that they wave during concerts. So Seventeen's fan group is called Carat (like diamond), and almost every girl has a light stick. I don't have one and it was just so weird to be clapping when they just wave their light stick.

- The way they "cheer" at concerts is so different from what I'm used to. When I cheer, I meant "hey, you did a great job!" so I just clap and shout "woohoo!" But these girls don't do any of that. They scream... like they're shocked or scared. It's not really a cheering your sports team on cheer, it's like "ahhhh you scared me!" scream. And then they just bob their light sticks.

- The girls are pretty crazy with their light sticks. I got hit twice today by the wavement of light sticks. I think the best way to avoid this is to move in the same direction everyone is moving. For example, when they sway left and right to the song, their light sticks will sway as well, just go with the flow to avoid further attacks.

- I cannot emphasize how calm these fans are compared to what I thought crazy fans would be like. When they shout "encore", they do it for 10 seconds and stop, and then some sections start again, and then die down. I'm like..... if you want an encore, keep shouting until they come back out! You know they built it in the show anyways, right?!?!?!?!?!

- When the group told us to stand up (the people in the front are already standing), our section had to look at each other to see if it's ok to stand. I'm like "people, just stand! if you stand, the people behind you will automatically stand because they can't see!"

- When they say no photography, I really feel like most people follow the rule. Although of course there are a lot of people breaking the rule, which is why there are a lot of videos of the concert floating around out there.

- Regarding no photography, I wonder how they even reinforce it..... there are tons of people and it's dark most of the time, with people holding up light sticks which a phone screen is just as bright.... I don't know, it's just not strictly reinforced, but people seem to obey the rule anyways.

- When we exited the concert, I was met with TONS of parents waiting for their kids. There were some where it's just one parent, some with two, some grandparents, some the whole family (sins teenage daughter) were there. I just thought it was so funny to see that...

Overall, I was impressed by the concert. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of Seventeen now because there are just too many of them, and they're quite young..... their songs are catchy, and their image is pretty pure at this point, which makes them a pretty good group :)

Next week is the last week of Sogang KIP :( So sad.... the days are counting down now........

Before I finish today, another Jibang sighting.