Happy birthday to me!

Wow, what a late post about my birthday..... but in the spirit of updating blogs, I might as well put this one on too.

First celebration came from Cathy taking me to Half & Half..

With free upgrades for summer! Mmmmmm..... yum!!

And then we didn't know where to go for dinner.... so we decided to go to Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong! I think I gave up speaking Korean to Korean entirely after I came back :( I think it's just too weird to try speaking Korean when they all know how to speak English..... I probably will have to wait until I am in a class setting or around Koreans who cannot speak English to practice. How sad :(

But back to the bbq... it was really good!

Even with just one set, both of us were so full......

So yum!

.... I miss Korea. I don't know if I'll ever get used to Koreans though..... I always feel like my efficiency is too low for them..... sigh.

Anyways. On my actual birthday, my sis gave me these Sugarfina candies. Too exquisite!

I like the pineapple one from France better than the marshmallow eggs from America. Probably because they taste much differently from the American ones.... mmm...

And then I made a cake for my birthday buddy! I think he is the best birthday present I have... even though he's not really my present, it's just so awesome to have a birthday buddy who is so cool! I hope he turns out cool in the future too ;)

And that's it for my birthday!!

KCON 2017

The long awaited KCON post.... is finally here. Yeah, it's been a month since KCON happened, and I pretty much was dragging my feet in writing it... because... writing blog takes so much time, especially one with a lot of videos! Eek!

Anyways, the whole KCON thing was quite epic. First, Amanda took hours trying to get us tickets... and was only able to get the lowest priced section, which turned out to be pretty decent seats, but it was such a hassle. Second, the whole KCON thing was CONFUSING!! There was this thing called the "Fan Engagement" ticket, where if you get one with an artist's name on it, you get to go to a smaller room with lesser people than the entire KCON full of people, so you can see them a bit closer. Well, Amanda and I really want to see Got7, but we weren't sure how this ticket thing was gonna work.

So it turns out, you have to "check in" early so you can get your goodie bag along with this Fan Engagement ticket. Now, that is not the end of the story. Not every Fan Engagement ticket guarantees that you WILL be able to meet an artist. AND, the Fan Engagement sessions are set at different times, different days, for different artists.... and they randomly give these things out. For example, if you bought your ticket to the 2nd day concert,  so you picked up your SWAG the 2nd day, but you "could" still get a ticket for a 1st day session. Which renders your ticket useless. I know it's confusing, it took me a long time to figure out what was happening.

Long story short, I didn't want to miss a chance of not getting a ticket, so I planned to go at 7am on Saturday (even though our concert was on Sunday) to get the SWAG. However, since I don't want to pay for parking at LA Convention Center just to get the stuff, and Amanda has an open house that day, I asked Joyce if she can come along. She said yes, however, she will meet me there, and I was to pick up her mom from Diamond Bar, drive her to LA to meet Joyce because they were going to try on wedding dresses that morning. So... I picked up Joyce's mom early in the morning (sorry Joyce's mom), drove her to LA Convention Center, and gave her mom all the concert ticket stuff and sent her to find Joyce, while I drove around. I had no idea how long the whole thing was gonna take, but it went by pretty fast.... BECAUSE THE OTHER PEOPLE ALREADY PICKED IT UP ON THURSDAY OR FRIDAY! Geez, crazy girls! Joyce's mom had trouble finding Joyce and the SWAG pick up location at first, so she asked some girls who were there "is this where the Korean popstar is?" hahahaahahah... oh my goodness....

So it turns out that we didn't get anything :(

When I first saw it, I thought "SORRY" was a KPOP group I've never heard of. But no, it just means "Sorry, you got nothing". Bummer. 

However! I was looking on Facebook for a place where people can trade their Fan Engagement tickets and found some people selling Got7 tickets! Woohoo! Some people were quite scary... selling them for $400! No thanks! I didn't think that I would buy it, but since we're already coming to KCON, if the price is right, why not? So then I eagerly looked for tickets that day while Joyce was trying out her dress... and found two people who would sell each to me for about $20-25! Ok, acceptable price, I'm down!

So one person said to meet him/her at the convention, but I wasn't gonna go in until Sunday (your wristband is activated once you enter, and is only active for 24 hours), so I asked to meet him/her outside.... and after a long conversation here and there (and after messaging at least 10 people to try to find a decent priced ticket... it was like the FB mom's selling board....), they said they will meet me outside the convention center. So again, I drove to LA Convention Center, and this time, Joyce went down to meet this person. Since I communicated with him/her on FB messenger, I gave Joyce my phone to meet that person. I had no idea how this person looked like since they didn't really put a decent profile picture... so Joyce kind of just walked to the convention center. After 10 minutes or so, she came back and I said "so did you get the ticket from her?" And she said, "actually, it's a guy". I was like.... what?! She said she walked there and the guy walked to her and said "Ann?" and she said... "yeah?" and did the trade there. She said the guy looked more like a homebody, which I suppose may be interested in KPOP???

But hey! One down! So happy!

Apparently there were also a lot of scams on these tickets.... I mean, if you can sell them for $400, there is definitely a market! I mean, they were selling concert ticket at $1200!! Seriously! That's round trip to Korea! Seriously a rip off!! But I'm glad this one was authentic.... or else I would be so sad :(

I planned to get the other ticket from another girl the next day.... and that was Sunday. Which means we all have to go to church first before we get to convention, and this Fan Engagement thing starts at 12:30pm, which means we're gonna be cutting it really close. However, we got there around 11am (going to an earlier service) and I tried to look for the girl there. It was really hard finding these peoples..... because every one of them is at some event waiting to see another star. When we got there, everyone was waiting to see Wanna One at the entrance...

And so was that girl! It took me a while, but finally found her and got my second ticket! Oh by the way, we didn't get to see Wanna One at this first "gathering" because they came out the opposite end and we totally missed the direction. Oh well.

Alright, so we got in with our wristbands and all that good stuff.

It was almost time for the Got7 fan engagement to start.... so we quickly headed over there and whoa.... there was still a lot of people.

But.... we finally got to see them close enough in person! Whoa!! I can't believe it! After all these months of watching them on YouTube (haha), we saw them in the same room! Wow~

They looked super unenthusiastic and tired.... probably because they just arrived from Korea the day before. The only ones who seemed more energetic are the youngest ones, Bambam and Yugyeom. Life of entertainers.... hard job! But they were still good sports to entertain their fans.... 

So that was part of the highlight of the day :p.

As for the convention itself, it's really just alright. There was a lot of KPOP dancing, a LOT of Korean brands promoting themselves or just the KPOP culture in general. And a lot of free stuff that requires waiting in line. Innisfree made us go through three hoops to get three kinds of samples. Bleh. Here's one of the hoops... a picture with Innisfree booth on Instagram.

Oh well, we both look pretty good, so I'm ok with doing that to get samples ;)

We went to this workshop by my favorite Talk to Me in Korean host, Sun Hyunwoo! I also can't believe I saw him in person! I've been listening to their Korean podcast to learn Korean for almost 4 years (of course, on and off, or else I would be speaking better than I am now)... and he had a workshop on understanding Korean culture through Korean drama. Both Amanda and I felt that we understood the Korean culture a bit more after the session, although we felt that it wasn't as earth shattering as some of the other people felt in the room, probably because the Asian cultures are so similar, it wasn't as shocking to us as it was to the American culture.

Since the convention itself wasn't super exceptional, let me just combine all the cool stuff into one large section. 

Toyota had a section to promote their car... with these cameras set up so it can do this 180 degrees spin on the picture. So cool!!

This was definitely one of the highlights of the day! 

Took some pictures with Wanna One poster.

I looked too old to fit in.

Bibigo trying to promote their products by drawing with their sauces.

And then Bride of the Water God promoting their drama (it's not that interesting. Did not watch). They have really cool accessory for you to try!

We tried waiting for Wanna One again at this other booth... with lots of other people trying to get a glimpse of them.... and people sacrificing themselves to help their friends/daughter out. Quite a touching scene (I do say it with a bit of sarcasm).

I really don't know Wanna One that well enough to tell all 11 guys apart! All I have to say is.... their makeup is really good. They look like how they would on TV! Craziness!

Alright, time to eat.

So they had this Korean food street set up outside.... and it was so expensive! I mean, tteokbokki was $10! What...!? They were just 3,000 won in Korean :( So I got this bulgogi rice bowl thing.

This Hot-Star chicken is definitely not Korean.

Ok, time to go into the concert. We were in line for a while and right when we got to the front, the lady told Amanda she cannot bring her iPad. What?! Lesson learned, always check the restrictions on the venue before going! So we walked back to our car to put it away and came back to our line :( But we were early, so no harm done.

Long story short.... it was so fun!!!! Here are some videos of the people I recorded...

Heize wept a bit when she was singing... because the lyric says "is the star looking at me?" and we all took out our phone's flashlight and waved it around... she has such great voice!

Wanna One... I really don't know them very well...

And I want to apologize for my camera skills. I think I have a realization of how to record in a concert after reviewing my own video. 1) don't record the people AND screen at the same time!! 2) don't sing and wave your camera..... 

Got so excited when Got7 came out!! So cool!! And they sang live too!

I have to say that "Hard Carry" is one of those songs that I don't like from Got7.... most because I cringe every time I have to say "hard carry". What the heck is hard carry anyways! I hate singing English that doesn't make sense...... 

So fun!! We'll see who they have next year to decide whether we'll go back.... but the whole experience was so awesome. And I saw my student there who had been shocked to see me, even to this day.... 

Korea: Final thoughts & travel tips

I can't believe I posted religiously for the past 6 weeks!! I don't even write diaries at that consistency! And thank you guys for reading my blogs..... it gives me enough encouragement to keep going! I haven't liked taking pictures for a while now.... probably because I always figured that someone else will take it. But because I need to tell a "story" on the blog, I forced myself to take more pictures than I normally would.... which is good because now I actually have documented memories!

Alright, here are my final thoughts about Korea.

Korea:
Favorite places to visit in Korea:
Disclaimer:Alright, I realized that my rating of favorite mostly had to do with the amount of people (the fewer the better), the neatness of the place, and the scenery. Haha. So yeah, if those places suddenly have an influx of people or is disorganized, they might get off of my list....

#1 Hangang (Han River) - I really really love that place! Every time the bus drives over it, I have to pause and appreciate the view. I love being on the bridge AND in the adjacent picnic areas underneath the bridge. I was able to go to the Gangnam area at night to watch the water show and the Yeoido area at night for picnic. I just LOVE being there! People just generally have a great time eating and chatting there...... and it's not crowded (since it is a huge are), and the scenery is just amazing. I can't describe it.... I just love being there!!

#2 Namsan Tower - Just a great place to be.... so highly decorated and pretty! I don't think it's necessary to be in the observatory. You might want to go once just to see it, but it's very unnecessary - it looks just like any high tower overlooking a metropolitan. However, the other places inside Namsan Tower are just so pretty and definitely worth the time. If you have extra time and energy, you might want to hike up or down from Namsan Tower, or even walk around the old city wall a bit. Nice chill walk :)

#3 Bukchon Hanok Village - This area is quite big, if you connect Insadong and Samcheongdong, and other neighboring small traditional villages together. I like how it's touristy, but it still kept its traditional look. The area is quite big, so you can visit all the historical stuff, while still have places to shop and look around.

Least favorite places to visit in Korea:
Disclaimer: in the same logic as my idea of favorite places to go.... these are often the most crowded places.....

#1 LOTTE department store or any department store - Unless you are there for a specific shopping purpose, it's just like any other department store. They usually sell more American stuff, because those are the rare items you can't get in Korea. LOTTE is FULL of tourists who want to get a lot of make up in bulk at tax free prices. Too many people and too many tourists. I really don't like to go unless I really have specific things I need to buy....

#2 Hongdae - I know, a lot of people like to go there for the shopping and atmosphere... but personally, I don't feel that they are that big on shopping. Clothes-wise, there aren't as many stores to shop from than Ewha University street. They have a lot of restaurants and A LOT of noraebangs and clubs. There are also a lot of buskers that garner a lot of attention from onlookers. This is young-people central..... which is very happening at night. But for me, I really don't find it very interesting... and I often finish walking around in 30 minutes or so :(

Favorite Food in Korea:

#1 Spam Dosirak - Every time I tell Koreans this is my favorite food in Korea, they always say "but spam is not Korean" and I wanna say "have you ever seen anyone else eat spam like this outside of Korea?! This is sooooo yummy! (my mouth is watering now) I had it twice because it's so good. I introduced it to my Singaporean friends and they raved about it too. No joke. So good.

#2 Bibimbap and japchae kimbap at this one restaurant - I can't tell you how goooooood they are. Yum!! So good that I went back to this restaurant 4 times!! Yeah, that's right, 4 times. Craziness. Mostly because I keep introducing it to other people and so I bring them over as well. Super good! First time I've ever had spicy japchae.....mmmmmm... yum!

#3 Oden and tteokbokki (with twi-kim) - Oden is so good! But then again, you gotta find a good one. I've had it twice, and I'd have to say the one I tried in Myeongdong is much better... As for tteokbokki, everything just tastes better with the tteokbokki sauce. Mmm... twi-kim is just fried food... so you can choose what kind of fried food you want along with your ttoek and sometimes they mix it together in the same sauce. Soooo good.....

#4 Soup I have in the dorm - Yeah, I know it's gonna be hard to find.... but I really really miss the soup I have every morning and sometimes at night. Man...... so good...

#5 Sikhye and Hotteok - What can I say? They're so good! But you can probably only find sikhye at more traditional markets.... I'm not sure about hotteok though. Might be the same....

Favorite things to do in Korea:
#1 Clothes shopping - so cheap and so good. But take good care of them because some quality isn't so great, so they tend to break faster. You cannot try on any clothes (except some stores that let you try on pants or skirts by letting you wear a "tent" and then let you change inside the "tent"), so you gotta have a good eye on what fits and what doesn't. Most clothes I was looking at are either 5,000 KRW or 10,000 KRW. You can get a lot of nice looking stuff for cheap.

#2 Cafes - they have really nice cafes everywhere. But yes, the coffees are expensive.... you gotta be willing to pay for the price of atmosphere!

Things that I find surprising about Korea.....
Disclaimer: Not bashing Korea, because I really love that place! But there are a few things I don't understand about it... and just some of my thoughts at this time...

- I think something that still puzzles me is that why Koreans don't really say "excuse me" if they want to pass someone. They would either just try to squeeze through, or they would try to figure out how to squeeze through without talking to you...... sigh.

- People seems to always walk in danger of on-head collision. Somehow they always walk straight towards you and you're thinking "should I move now, or will they move when they get closer?" But no, they won't move.... it's almost like a joust and you're trying to determine the winner by seeing which more cowardly person is going to move away first -_-.

- The young people in Korea seems very self-absorbed in their lives and beauty. Everyone is very well dressed, but they seem to only live in their own worlds and have no thoughts about people around them. However, people who are married or older seem to be much nicer and would be more likely to help you out if you ask. HOWEVER, people are usually a lot nicer once you get to know them. Everyone Korean I know from the program is super nice! But I'm pretty sure it's because I actually have a relationship with them, so they are more prone to help me out.

- Korean makeup store employees will ALWAYS hover over you. It's really scary. Actually, a lot of store employees will always hover over you..... everything you touch they will say something about it. Just try to ignore them if you don't like their help.... at least that's what I've come to do...

- People don't wear sunglasses here. If you want to stand out a lot a lot, go ahead and wear sunglasses everywhere.

- Koreans drink a lot of alcohol. I always thought Kdramas overdramatize the drinking... but no! They do drink a lot! One Korean told me that the bbq places don't like it if you don't order alcohol because that's where they make money.... so you see a lot of people drinking in the bbq places even till late at night. People drink everyone... at parks, near Hangang, in airports (yes, I saw a bunch of Koreans buying Taiwanese beer at the Taiwan airport and passing one can to everyone, and they all drank it at the airport near the gate while waiting for the airplane. I was really shocked because they drink it like coke or juice...), baseball games, school (our program had a big party at the school stadium and I heard they drank until past 2am... I was not present to witness, but my roommate was).

- Cheese is the "in" thing! You would think Asians don't like to eat cheese... not so in Korea! If it's trendy, it will have cheese on it. Cheese tteokbokki, cheese inside hotdog, cheese katsu (inside the katsu), and a whole lot of other cheese stuff.

- People who don't normally wear makeup will wear makeup everyday in Korea. Why? Well... we think of it as having "manners" in Korea. Koreans generally dress and groom themselves very well when they go outside.... so not wearing makeup is like you just decided to wear pajamas outside. I know Americans do that anyways, but it seems quite rude in Korea. Just so that I don't look super terrible to others, I try to wear makeup everyday if I remember. One day I got too lazy and didn't do it, my teacher asked if I had enough sleep last night because I didn't look so good..... yeah, my face doesn't "shine" if I don't do it.

- Koreans take care of their skin very well, so everyone wears sunscreen when they go outside. Which we really should...... so I started doing that more consistently now.

Other travel tips for Korea:
- When you shop at any store, if you spend more than 30,000 won, they will give you a tax deduction receipt for you to get tax return. If you have your passport with you, some stores will give you back the tax credit immediately. If you don't have your passport, they will give you a receipt that you can get tax credit back when you go to the airport kiosk to get it done.

- Google map was a big help for me. I think the Korean roads are a bit confusing for me... maybe I'm really used to the American roads where an intersection consist of only 4 directions. In Korea, an intersection usually consists of AT LEAST 5 directions and I get super confused on which way is which..... If it were not for the little arrow on Google map that points in the direction your phone is, I'd get super lost.

- Koreans don't use Google map. They mostly use Naver map. It's in Korean... so if you know a bit of Korean, it will help you more than Google map.

- Most bigger stores will have employees who speak Chinese, but not so much English. If you know Chinese, just ask them if they speak Chinese instead.

- Korean makeup store will almost ALWAYS give you a face mask in your shopping basket or in person when you walk in...... they're not free if you're not planning to buy something! But then again, some of them don't mind it very much if you take it. I've always lived in places that don't just hand you "gifts" that they WILL give you only if you BUY something.... so I was really nervous when they hand me those masks and I always want to give it back to them.....

- Definitely learn some Korean before you come.... it will help you at least a little bit :) Along that line, learn Hangul. It will take you less than a day to learn it (I learned it in 2 hours!), and it will help you at least read everything, which a lot of it will just be straight translation from English, or it will sound a lot like Chinese (if you know Chinese)... so you can just guess the meaning.

- Things to buy in Korea (from my experience) are makeup and clothes. Clothes are pretty trendy and cheap, and makeup are about the same price as in the US (Korean brands), but without the tax.

- Bingsu is expensive :( No matter where you go, it's about 8,000 KRW for one :(

- It's better to do currency exchange in popular places like Myeongdong. I exchanged some of my money in the airport and then realized the Myeongdong exchange rate is maybe 100 won per dollar better.... which if you exchange a lot of money, it makes a lot of difference.

- T-Money card is gonna be your best friend. I probably spent more than $50 on transit.... sigh. But yes, you gotta do it. However, I probably should have planned my day better so I don't keep taking subways or buses for one stop only.......

- While most tourists will be inclined to use subway as their primary means of travel, buses are sometimes the better option. Why? Because sometimes the buses take you from A to B directly, while you may have to walk to and from the subway stations. Traveling by buses is pretty easy.... if you have something like Google map with you ;)

- You don't need to press the button next to the light pole when you want to cross the street! Yes, I know we do it in America, but not so in Korea! I heard that they are for the vision impaired...... so they talk when you press on them. They don't make the lights go faster. Bleh. I was pressing them for 2 weeks until someone told me.

- If you take Asiana or Korean Air, you can check in your luggage in Seoul Station 3 hours before the flight so you don't have to lug them around if you still want to shop in Seoul some more.

General Travel Tips
- Eucalyptus oil! I was using them for the five weeks I was in Korea to prevent getting sick... and it works!!!! I gave it to Darren and Adele before going to Taipei thinking that I am at the last leg of my travel and there is no way I would get sick... well, I got sick. The people I gave to on the trip who have sick people next to them, used it, and never got sick! Seriously!! It works!