OH MY GOD YOU GUYS
www.allkpop.com/2011/06/g-dragon-gets-his-nails-done-in-front-of-ehwa-womens-university
THAT'S RIGHT WHERE I AM. OH MY GOD.
Not all that much to report today. The folk village was cool, but it was rainy rainy rainy, and then I got all sleepy on the bus ride back. Also it's COLD and I have no long sleeves at all. My plan is to go find a jacket somewhere, get coffee, and study hangul some more. I really need to learn me some vowels.
But I did get a pretty hair thing. And there are concerts that I probably can't go to since I have to feed myself with what little money I've got here but CONCERTS. I gotta go to at least one. I owe it to the lovely idols who inspired my interest in this place.
OH MY GOD. IF I GO TO THIS G-MARKET CONCERT THING, I WILL GET TO SEE G-DRAGON SHAKIN' HIS THANG ON STAGE LIKE FOR REAL. OH MY GOD.
EDIT: Yeah, the G-market concert thing is a no-go, and I think it's too late to go see JYJ, but that's okay because there's still plenty of other fun to be had. We're seeing what it takes to get into Inkigayo tomorrow (which means 2PM and F.T Island, AW YEAH. Also Boyfriend, who are a refreshing breath of adorableness. Mostly I just love that the twins look like anime characters irl). Also, shortly after I finished writing, I ended up going on another expedition to Myungdong with totally different group of people. We ate at this fantastic tonkatsu restaurant that was right below an omurice restaurant; so basically, we're totally going back and eating at the omurice place next time. It was raining like crazy, but we still had fun running from shop to shop, continually shoving our umbrellas into these special little plastic umbrella bags all stores have just to keep people from getting water EVERYWHERE. Honestly. That's what outside is for.
We spent quite a while in Étude House (the one that Dara endorses), and I ended up getting blue nail polish, some awesome mascara, and some hot pink lipstick. Mostly I was just screwing around with stuff, making myself pretty, but then I liked how it looked, and the people I was with said it looked good. What sealed the deal was an older lady (maybe in ajumma stage?) who had been eyeing me while I applied my bright lip color coming by and saying, "Nice lipstick". I was kind of tickled, and it's like what the hell, why not wear crazy-colored makeup? I'm in Korea for frick's sake, where tangerine is definitely an "in" shade, thus my hot pink should not be so out of place. And I looked pretty snazzy with my hurr all did up and my new makes ups, which made it feel less weird when people stared at us.
Because I didn't really notice it the other day, but people will stare somewhat openly. It just feels a bit strange when you catch on to "the gaze", as this German girl we were running around with put it (she'd been in China for a while, so she was somewhat used to the feeling). It didn't bother me too much though, and was actually somewhat amusing once I realized just how many people looked at us. It's easier to just ignore the attention of the masses and focus on the attention of the few; I was quite pleased that my bright lipstick and bright shiny smile made a rather attractive Korean man (not that there's any shortage of those around...) do a double take when I looked at him. For serious. I feel extremely accomplished as a female.
And I only say that because he had a good expression on instead of an OH GOD what is WITH these goddamn FOREIGNERS expression. Bonus.
After wandering a sufficient amount, we decided we needed to try soju, so we found a bar and had ourselves a drink. Soju is actually quite mild. It was somewhat like a vodka-flavored cough syrup, not too terrible nor too good. To accompany our liquor, we got some ddokbeokki that was extra spicy (it had red pepper flakes in addition to the red chili paste; my suspicion was that they put them in because we were foreigners and they thought it'd be funny if we couldn't eat it), but so delicious, as ddokbeokki has no choice but to be.
Then we found our way back to our dorms, stopping at a 7-11 on the way, where I purchased that banana milk that SHINee drank on Hello Baby (and yes, that's the only reason I bought it, though if it turns out to be good, I'll have another reason :D). And now I'm sitting here writing this and reminiscing about all the various pictures we took with idol posters today. Lots of fangirly posing with the cardboard cutouts and posters. And I love that the people I'm with are fangirls too, because then it's not weird to ask them to take pictures of you with cutouts and posters of random Korean popstars. It also means I don't have to beg people to go with me to try and find the restaurants that are owned or somehow connected to various idols. That has already been discussed. It's happening.
...I LOVE THIS PLACE.
THAT'S RIGHT WHERE I AM. OH MY GOD.
Not all that much to report today. The folk village was cool, but it was rainy rainy rainy, and then I got all sleepy on the bus ride back. Also it's COLD and I have no long sleeves at all. My plan is to go find a jacket somewhere, get coffee, and study hangul some more. I really need to learn me some vowels.
But I did get a pretty hair thing. And there are concerts that I probably can't go to since I have to feed myself with what little money I've got here but CONCERTS. I gotta go to at least one. I owe it to the lovely idols who inspired my interest in this place.
OH MY GOD. IF I GO TO THIS G-MARKET CONCERT THING, I WILL GET TO SEE G-DRAGON SHAKIN' HIS THANG ON STAGE LIKE FOR REAL. OH MY GOD.
EDIT: Yeah, the G-market concert thing is a no-go, and I think it's too late to go see JYJ, but that's okay because there's still plenty of other fun to be had. We're seeing what it takes to get into Inkigayo tomorrow (which means 2PM and F.T Island, AW YEAH. Also Boyfriend, who are a refreshing breath of adorableness. Mostly I just love that the twins look like anime characters irl). Also, shortly after I finished writing, I ended up going on another expedition to Myungdong with totally different group of people. We ate at this fantastic tonkatsu restaurant that was right below an omurice restaurant; so basically, we're totally going back and eating at the omurice place next time. It was raining like crazy, but we still had fun running from shop to shop, continually shoving our umbrellas into these special little plastic umbrella bags all stores have just to keep people from getting water EVERYWHERE. Honestly. That's what outside is for.
We spent quite a while in Étude House (the one that Dara endorses), and I ended up getting blue nail polish, some awesome mascara, and some hot pink lipstick. Mostly I was just screwing around with stuff, making myself pretty, but then I liked how it looked, and the people I was with said it looked good. What sealed the deal was an older lady (maybe in ajumma stage?) who had been eyeing me while I applied my bright lip color coming by and saying, "Nice lipstick". I was kind of tickled, and it's like what the hell, why not wear crazy-colored makeup? I'm in Korea for frick's sake, where tangerine is definitely an "in" shade, thus my hot pink should not be so out of place. And I looked pretty snazzy with my hurr all did up and my new makes ups, which made it feel less weird when people stared at us.
Because I didn't really notice it the other day, but people will stare somewhat openly. It just feels a bit strange when you catch on to "the gaze", as this German girl we were running around with put it (she'd been in China for a while, so she was somewhat used to the feeling). It didn't bother me too much though, and was actually somewhat amusing once I realized just how many people looked at us. It's easier to just ignore the attention of the masses and focus on the attention of the few; I was quite pleased that my bright lipstick and bright shiny smile made a rather attractive Korean man (not that there's any shortage of those around...) do a double take when I looked at him. For serious. I feel extremely accomplished as a female.
And I only say that because he had a good expression on instead of an OH GOD what is WITH these goddamn FOREIGNERS expression. Bonus.
After wandering a sufficient amount, we decided we needed to try soju, so we found a bar and had ourselves a drink. Soju is actually quite mild. It was somewhat like a vodka-flavored cough syrup, not too terrible nor too good. To accompany our liquor, we got some ddokbeokki that was extra spicy (it had red pepper flakes in addition to the red chili paste; my suspicion was that they put them in because we were foreigners and they thought it'd be funny if we couldn't eat it), but so delicious, as ddokbeokki has no choice but to be.
Then we found our way back to our dorms, stopping at a 7-11 on the way, where I purchased that banana milk that SHINee drank on Hello Baby (and yes, that's the only reason I bought it, though if it turns out to be good, I'll have another reason :D). And now I'm sitting here writing this and reminiscing about all the various pictures we took with idol posters today. Lots of fangirly posing with the cardboard cutouts and posters. And I love that the people I'm with are fangirls too, because then it's not weird to ask them to take pictures of you with cutouts and posters of random Korean popstars. It also means I don't have to beg people to go with me to try and find the restaurants that are owned or somehow connected to various idols. That has already been discussed. It's happening.
...I LOVE THIS PLACE.