I got to the airport and my flight had been delayed for an hour and ten minutes. Despite a freakishly long security line (they only had around four security scanners for the whole terminal) I got through relatively quickly and had a couple of hours to kill before my flight left. Unlike KCI airport, there is plenty of things to do within the security at Narita. I went to get McDonalds for breakfast. In Japan I found a new affinity for the Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddle, so I went ahead and got that again. Unlike the American breakfast sandwiches, for Japan and Korea they actually cook a full egg instead of having the weird processed folded thing that McDonalds likes to call an egg.
I ended up getting to Incheon Airport in Korea at around 1pm, and I caught the 6002 bus from the airport to the nearest bus station to where I'm staying. However, that did not prevent me from becoming completely and helplessly lost. I knew the general area, but there are many small roads in a small area and I started losing track of where I had checked and where I hadn't. Thankfully, I happened to pass by two foreigners who also go to Yonsei's Korean Language Institute, and one ran to his nearby apartment quickly to check the address. It turned out I was only one block away. Either way I was thankful that they decided to help me, and helped carry my heavy suitcase up the stairs to my gosiwon.
They walked me through all of the rules and where everything was in Korean and I did perfectly fine... And then I realized that the young girl who usually runs the front counter completely understands Japanese. So now with her I speak Japanese if I need to ask anything that I don't know how to say in Korean. In the past couple of nights I have also learned that almost all of the people staying at this gosiwon are Japanese. While it's also a relief, it means I don't get to work on Korean quite as much, not that I'm talking to people too much.
The room is pretty small, but this place costs 100,000 won (around $100) less than the next cheapest thing like this in the area. I have a TV, cabinets, a refrigerator, and everything like that. All utilities and internet are included in the price. I also get as much rice and kimchi as I can eat, and the ahjumma here is nice and often makes dinner as well.
That night I went out to meet with my penpal who goes to another nearby university, Hongik University, and he showed me around Hongdae (the area around Hongik) walking. It's known for being an area that's popular with young people for hanging out, and as it got later the area got more crowded. We got smoothies, and though he wanted to take me eating I wasn't feeling too well so we just walked around quite a bit more. It really was awesome. I also saw a noraebang (Korean karaoke) that is famous for a whole wall being made out of windows and being open to the street... Which I recognized from an episode of Infinite's variety program Sesame Player Season 2, so I freaked out for a few moments thinking I was in the same spot members of my favorite boyband had been in.
On Friday I tried to go out and get a cell phone (it didn't work) and I also went to buy the newest B1A4 mini-album so I would be able to go to the music shows on Saturday and Sunday. You all have already heard about Music Core, which was amazing in and of itself, but then on Sunday after debating I did decide to try going to Inkigayo even though it's a smaller venue. I got there at around 7am, thinking that B1A4 would have a prerecording again, though they didn't. I spent 8 hours sitting around and waiting, with some of them spent without my foreign friends around because they were inside for their group's prerecording. So it was pretty long and boring. We were able to wait for the groups and MCs to head in before the show, though, and that took up a bit of time. I was able to see U-Kiss, which I was happy about. And when one of the MCs, Kikwang from BEAST, showed up I actually snapped a picture of him while he was waving. I wish I had a newer camera so I could zoom in more!
Eventually it was time to hand out tickets for the show... and the B1A4 fans ran out of tickets. I was near the back of the line despite being super early because I'm not a member of the official fan club. The fan staff ran around to other groups looking for more tickets, found some more... and they still didn't have enough to get back far enough in the line to me. At this point I was getting upset because I had been there for eight hours sitting on concrete and standing around doing nothing and I wasn't even going to get to go in...
And then the fans of a group called Sistar ended up having spare tickets that they gave to the B1A4 fan staff, and I ended up with a ticket. Embarrassingly, I started crying with relief and made a fool of myself. But I was that desperate. I ended up being able to get in... And because the ticket I had gotten was a low number, I ended up being able to actually sit in a seat instead of in the isles or on the stairs! I was so happy~. The show was once again amazing.
Afterwards, since I didn't have anything to do, I decided to stay and wait for the people to leave the studio. One of my new foreign friends Theresa decided to stay with me. Since the groups live in dorms they all leave together in their company's car driven by a manager. Many of the groups left without rolling down their windows, and the fangirls (and boys) just screamed and waved. Whichever member of Nine Muses was sitting in the front seat of their car rolled down their window, and they got stuck getting out of the blocked off parking lot because of traffic right by Theresa and I and we yelled "bye!" and she waved happily.
B1A4 was one of the later groups to leave. The boys are so completely friendly and love their fans... As they were leaving they rolled down their windows and stuck their heads out and waved at everyone. Of course everyone (including myself) is screaming and excited. I had my camera out so I video taped it. As they were driving by the boys on the side of the car closer to me obviously noticed me and looked happily surprised and waved more... And then they also had trouble getting out because of traffic. Working my way up through the fangirls I went to wave more. Theresa then screamed out "외국 사람! 외국 사람!" (Foreigners! Foreigners!) and all of them, including the ones on the other side of the car, leaned over to wave and grin and my favorite of all of them, Sandeul, stuck his head out from the back seat and yelled "I LOVE YOU!" in English. Below here is the video, you can vaguely hear the 'I love you' and such, and there are some pretty good (but shaky) shots of Gongchan, Sandeul and Jinyoung who were closer to the left windows. You might want to turn down your volume.
So far, my thoughts about the music shows here are amazing. It's a full day taken up (you have to get there early in the morning to have a chance, and are there until late afternoon/early evening) for completely free. While you're waiting for your turn to go in, you can wait for people to show up. Then (if you're lucky) you get in, that's around two hours of time, and then afterwards if you want you can hang around for another hour or so for the people to come out. Except for transportation costs and snacks, nothing costs anything, so it ends up being a whole day taken up for extremely cheap.
After that Theresa and I went back to my home area of Sinchon and went out for samgyeopsal, which is like pork barbeque. We were able to get rice, more pork than we could really eat, soup, and side dishes like kimchi, garlic and an Asian style salad for 5800 won ($4.85 USD) each. It was delicious, and I'm starting to love Korea more and more. We spent the whole time flailing about what had happened and talking about other groups we like. I'm sad that she has to leave Korea soon...
In just the two days I've known Theresa and the other foreign friends I've made here, it feels like I've known them for a ton longer. The power of fandom? I don't know, but it's nice having some really good friends in the area already.
Last night I stayed up until past midnight waiting for Infinite's new songs and music video to come out, despite being exhausted. I was not disappointed! Their new title song and music video are amazing, and I can't wait to be able to go buy the CD in a couple of days so I can go to the music shows for them this coming weekend! So here is my current song of the moment, Infinite's Paradise.
After that I fell asleep and woke up at around 7am today, got ready and headed up to Yonsei for the first time to take the placement test for the Korean Language Institute! To the front gate of the University from where I live is a five minute walk. But then to get all the way to the building where the language classes are at is another fifteen minutes walking up a mountain. I can tell I'm going to be getting in shape doing that every morning...
The test was set up so that you had a writing/reading portion and an interview portion. Both you just were supposed to do as much as you could understand and then stop, and everyone had the same test regardless of their current Korean level. One page front and back was supposedly one full level worth of Korean on the written test, and I was able to do the first page no problem. In the spoken interview I think I did decently for the amount of Korean that I know, and I made sure to use some grammar points that I know, so hopefully it will turn out well!
Afterwards I went looking around in the Sinchon area for a music store and greatly failed, so I went to KFC for lunch. Two other new students of the KLI (Danielle from Britain and Franz from Sweden) spotted me and invited me to sit with them and we had fun talking. I went with them to help Franz move into his new place to stay, which is the same as where Danielle is staying. They're just down the road from me! We hung around for a while and played with a baby rabbit that they're taking care of for a friend (so adorable...)
This evening I'm tagging along with a friend of my new foreign friends to a place where she takes dance classes... more specifically, K-pop dance classes! She said she got a year long membership for around $300, and then got the free K-pop dance class along with it. I'm going to ask how much the classes cost and such when I tag along, and hopefully I will have something to do on some evenings from now on. Language classes are only 9am through 1pm, so I'm still going to have plenty of time to do things.
Hopefully I will be back again soon with some more interesting things! :D
Sounds like a lot of fun!
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