There was a free K-Pop festival/concert in Seoul this weekend at Seoul Olympic Stadium. It was so amazing! So fun. Before coming to Korea, I had never heard of K-Pop. But these are huge stars here (they're known worldwide, actually, I just haven't been into Korean culture until now).
Lineup: BEAST, EXO, EXID, Girls' Generation, SHINee, Block B, BTOB, CNBLUE
CNBLUE was one of my favorites:
Koreans can be very attractive...ahem...whew...
The sound quality of the videos I took is terrible. So scroll down for links to the groups' official music videos. Consider it your "K-Pop 101 from Aubree." You're welcome.
BTOB was super entertaining. I loved the dancing:
Ehh...the girls groups weren't nearly as fun to watch as the guys...
EXO is apparently super popular with the elementary-aged Koreans. This is Chen, one of the main singers of EXO:
(Again, the sound sucks, but he had an amazing voice!)
These guys (Block B) were really hot...the rapping was awesome. And I loved their style:
The guy on the right with the blonde hair was wearing awesome red plaid pants. Koreans can pull off some of the weirdest fashions. But it totally works on them.
This next dancing group was cool, I'm not sure who they all were...some looked American even...
(I split the video in 2 parts to fit on this post)
I maybe fell in love with SHINee, eye shadow and all... but it's questionable which team he plays for... *sobs and tears*
This walk...
Whoa. They were so hot. Whew.
And this is BEAST:
They were okay, but not my favorite.
Okay, check out these links if you're interested in what the groups really sound like:
CNBLUE was awesome. They were the least "poppy" of the groups, more like a real band.
Can't Stop (I love this song!)
Block B (Very weird...I'm not necessarily promoting this one, haha. But it's kind of entertaining.)
EXO
Call Me Baby (ahh...such good dancing, haha)
BTOB
WOW (umm...can I admit I like this song?)
BEAST
Girl's Generation
Gee (this song gets stuck in your head...)
SHINee
We were starving after the concert, so we took the subway to Gangnam (you know, "Oppa is Gangnam style"--yeah, that city).
And...ate McDonald's! It was so delicious.
Yes, they have a shrimp burger and a bulgogi burger. I went for the bacon burger. It was good, but I didn't love the sweet and sour sauce they used instead of ketchup...
Ahh, but it was still so nice to have American food!
We left McDonald's and were on our way to find a jjimjilbang when a group of Korean guys, all around my age, came up and asked me if they could take a picture with me. Haha, um, sure... They asked if I was here traveling. I told them I'm an English teacher, and they were like, "Wow, it's such an honor to meet you." Haha. And then one of the guys (his name is SuBin) asked for my facebook information. So, now I have a Korean friend in Gangnam, haha. I don't know why they wanted my picture. Maybe it was a dare, or maybe it's a thing in Korea to see if they can collect American friends...who knows.
Hehe...I had SuBin send me the photo over facebook. ;) He's the guy on the right.
Cris and I left and continued our search for a jjimjilbang. We had to backtrack a little and go through the underground subway to cross the street. As we were coming up out of the subway, who do we run into? SuBin. Haha. He ended up walking us to where a "really good" jjimjilbang was (he said he just lived across the street, so it wasn't out of his way).
The "really good" jjimjilbang was only average...kind of dirty, not as nice as Sea La La. And the sleeping rooms were super hot and stuffy. I was sweating all night. Plus, I woke up in the middle of the night and found that a Korean man had made his bed on the mat right next to me. Like, right next to me. So I scooted closer to Cris and fell back asleep. But then I woke up later and my leg was touching his leg: he kept getting closer every time I moved away (not in a pervy way, he was dead asleep). Cris had the same problem on the other side of her with a different Korean dude. I'm telling you, it's quite the strange experience to be wedged between random Koreans on a bamboo mat all night in a dry sauna room...haha. In the morning, I had to gently pry my phone charger cord from underneath the guy's head next to me... Soooo awkward. And funny. Seriously, only in Korea.
We didn't explore much of Gangnam, because it decided to rain like crazy on Saturday morning. But what we did see was a lot of high-rise official-looking business buildings.
The rest of Saturday was spent wandering the underground shopping malls, at an orientation session in Itaewon for Teaching North Korean Refugees (which, as cool as that would be, I don't think I'm going to participate, because I think I need a break from teaching on the weekends), and at the movie theater (we saw Ricki and the Flash--in English with Korean subtitles, haha).
This picture of Korean fashion, for your enjoyment:
English contractions are confusing...
Gaah! Now I've gotta go lesson plan for 5 different classes tomorrow. Wish me luck. :/
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