General Happenings: 111001~111004

Okay, so. In the time since I wrote my last post I managed to lose my notebook that I had all my notes written about this weekend in it. I finished writing the bit about Saturday even before my post about the days before it, but for the rest I'm going to have to try and do my best to remember everything that happened. I will say right now that I literally do not remember much of Sunday.




Saturday Oct. 1st, 2011
(( Most copypasted from my original post on my Tumblr, the part that isn't will be after a **. Fangirling galore. ))

Basically, after already not having had much sleep the night before, I got another night of almost no sleep because of having an MT with my dance school here. I got to bed at around two and woke up at 4:30am to get ready. My laptop that I brought here from the states like completely fried and wouldn’t start up after a few minutes that morning so I freaked out pretty badly. (Obviously I have a new one now, or I couldn’t post this.)

I took an express bus (around a half hour) up to Ilsan where Music Core is, and ended up arriving at where the Inspirits (Infinite’s fan club) had to write their names for the name checks later around 7am. I was the 8th person on the original list. The person taking names told me to be back at 11:30. So yes, I had a good four and a half hours to wait before even the first name check.

Spent time then doing my homework (that’s right, I’m a good student now!) before going walking around some to waste time. I ended up going to Daiso (a Japanese dollar store that has tons of stores in Korea) to pick out a present to get for Sunggyu. From Daiso I ended up getting a small stuffed rabbit and a little journal/schedule book and writing a message inside it. I also bought the ribbon I ended up using to ‘wrap’ the present. I already had some Snickers (available in Korea, but they taste different) that I planned on giving too.

Eventually I headed back to be lined up. Because I’m not an official Inspirit, I was then moved back once. And then because I didn’t have the music bought online (which I pretty much can’t do since I’m foreign and don’t have an alien registration number), I got moved back even more. And then because I didn’t have a paper with the fan chant printed out (no printer, don’t want to pay for a PC room) I got moved back even more, so I was way near the back of the line. This is the last time I go that early.

Behind me in line were two Japanese girls. And then in front were two Korean girls who at one point turned around and spoke in shaky/broken Japanese asking which photocard the Japanese girls had gotten. They spoke back and forth for a while, and after a while I gave up and sort of cut in saying that I could speak Japanese and some Korean. Then we had a little group to chill and talk in, yay!

I had given my Hoya photocard to a foreign ELF who I hung with in the morning waiting time who said she liked him in Infinite, so I didn’t have a card to trade when one of the Korean girls said that she had three Sunggyu cards. Eventually I was just like, “Okay, I’ll buy the CD from you.” and… so I did. And now I have a Sunggyu photocard. <3

We were able to head in for the prerecording at around 1:35, and I was in a seat farthest on the left of the room. There was no standing at all for the day. I still had a pretty decent view of the stage, though Sunggyu is mostly on stage right. They only had to go through the song twice and they were done! Kaoru says that the first part was a run-through? I don’t know, haha.

As they were heading off stage I called out to Sunggyu, and it seemed like he noticed me and waved back! Yay. There were plenty of people waving to them, so I may be imagining that he looked at me. Let me live in my crazy fangirl world.

While we were being let out B1A4, who I also like, came out onto stage. The BANAs (B1A4’s fanclub) had yet to be let into the room, so while I was walking out I shouted, “SANDEUL~!” and he looked over right away. The room was quiet so he was obviously surprised. Insert me waving like an idiot and him smiling and waving back. I wonder if he recognized me as the girl he yelled ‘I love you’ to…?

Because I couldn’t stay for the live I went ahead and walked over towards the Lotte LaFesta shopping center where the Synnara the CDs had to be bought from was at. It’s around a 15 minute walk, and you go through a pretty nice park. It’s called the Lake Park, but I have yet to see a lake there. It has a really nice statue… thing. Or at least I like it.

There was some sort of festival involving selling cacti going on, even though it’s starting to be cold enough to need thick jackets here. In Kansas, something like this temperature would be fine with just a thin hoodie or something, but because here so much time is spent walking outside I need to get something thicker soon. As time goes on it just feels colder and colder.

I got lunch at a restaurant that serves various types of tonkatsu, and I got an omurice and tonkatsu set. I had to explain to them somehow not to put on mayonnaise, and thankfully managed to after a couple of tries! Korean success? Not really, but it’s getting better. It was delicious and came with miso soup and a salad as well.

After eating I walked around some to try and find something to finish off my present to Sunggyu. In the end I decided to get him a beanie, since he likes hats, especially ones like that. I got a pretty plain black and grey striped one with a poof ball on top, but it should go with most things so I hope at some point I get a fan-taken picture of him wearing it or something like that!

Then I headed to the Synnara to ask about what I had to do for the fansigning. I was alone, so I was really confused as to what to do… And they basically told me it was far away and that I should take a taxi, since it’s far from the station it’s ‘closest’ to as well. So here I am panicking asking what I should do, and some really nice girls come up and try explaining to me in Korean more (after I explained that I could understand Korean if they spoke slowly). Still at a loss for what to do I left the store… and then they came and found me and said that one of them going to the fansigning too and that I could take a taxi with her and their other friends who had been picked among the 200 to be able to go.

First they were meeting with their other friends who had gotten picked for the fansigning at a coffee shop before heading over, so I followed them along. I listened in on their conversation and was included quite a lot as well, asking whose fan I was, where I was from, what my favorite song was, things like that. They also asked me how many CDs I had bought for fansigning lottery entries; 2, which is a really small number compared to a lot of people. They were all amazed that I was so lucky.

We then took a taxi to where the fansigning was actually being held, Goyang Literature Hall (고양문예회관), which was a good thirty minute plus taxi ride away from where we bought the CDs. That’s really far, so it was strange and it’s like, okay, how in the world was I supposed to understand how to get there. But the taxi was only like 6 dollars for the whole ride, so we split it even and it was around 2 dollars each.

Heading into the hall’s entry area we got our seat tickets after they confirmed who we were. At that point, one of the girls who was with us (the older one, so an unnie) spoke to me in English and she was really good. I was like, why didn’t you do this earlier! She was one of the ones we met up with at the coffee shop so she wouldn’t have been able to explain to me earlier anyway, but she was so nice and helpful even at that point.

After around ten minutes we headed into the actual auditorium hall and took our seats by number. I was 135, and the nice unnie was 136 and another of the friends was 137. At this point my heart is pounding and I’m so nervous. Time passes as we’re filling in, and the fan staff explain that we can’t take pictures, video or audio recordings during the fansigning. Before they were out it was okay, though, so I took a picture of the banner along with a picture of my completed present to Sunggyu. I ended up sticking in more Snickers. They all look so skinny, so I hope they eat them all.

Then the members started coming out on stage. I’m already a mess, because they’re so close. They introduced the group (“1… 2… 3… We’re Infinite!”) and thanked us for coming before taking their seats at the long table they were at and the fansigning started. There was quite a while before my row went up so I sat almost in awe watching.

Basically what happens (for those of you reading who don’t know) is they bring you up and you go along the table, getting a signature in your album’s picture booklet and talking to each member along the way. It’s approximately 20 seconds or so with each member, though there’s no set time, so sometimes somebody will be left without anything to sign and nobody in front of them.

During that time the people still sitting out in the seats would try and get them to make hearts or wave or yell things at them. I didn’t do it much before going up, because I was still almost in shock and freaking out just to be in the same room as them and seeing them interacting with people. I just watched in awe and laughed at some of the silly things they (or the fangirls) did.

Two girls who were obviously friends were wearing matching hoodies and hair ribbons that stood up to look like small rabbit ears. When they got to the middle of the table (in front of Woohyun and Hoya) they got up and did some sort of silly, obviously rehearsed dance. Both Infinite and the audience cracked up.

And though this girl was after me, I’ll go ahead and talk about her now. She brought one of those little mini chairs/stools along with her on stage. She got over to in front of Myungsoo (L), the first in the line, without him seeing it and just sat down. She was on the same level of the girls that were kneeling or crouching, so Infinite was none the wiser. But everybody in the audience was cracking up as she and moved along by pushing it with her feet. By the time she got in front of Dongwoo they were all laughing so hard that she just stood up.

The whole audience started chanting at her, “Sit down, sit down, sit down!” in Korean and Infinite caught on that there was a chair there, laughing along as well. After that she moved on to Woohyun and, frustrated or something of that sort, she lifted up her little stool and sort of slammed it down on the table. The things fans put on the table are generally presents, so Infinite’s managers were sort of confused before taking it. Later when she went to go off the stage when she was done with getting signs from everybody they tried to give it back, but she was like “no, just take it!”

There also was one male fan at the fansigning, like there was one non-Asian fan (me). I found it rather amusing that Infinite seemed more surprised by the guy than they were by me.

During the time I had waiting I wrote a sign that said, “Hello! If you speak slowly, I can understand Korean. (Japanese is OK too!) My name is Shelbi and I’m from the USA.” By the time I would be able to say all of that, quite a bit of my 20 seconds would be used up so I guessed that a sign would be best. I also tried to plan out things I wanted to say, though I didn’t end up using them.

When you go up to wait for your turn to get on the stage and move along the table they give you a post-it to stick on your CD with your name so they don’t have to take time asking you what it is/how to spell it/things like that. I wrote my name in English and Hangeul (the Korean alphabet) on it. Then, finally, it was my turn.

In the train ride home I wrote down as much as I could remember of each of the conversations that I had with the members along with small notes. So without further ado, I will reveal my conversations with each of the members and what happened. Please note, random statements of “You’re so cool” in any of the three languages I speak to some extent were peppered throughout along with fangirlish squeals and squirms, haha. As the conversations happened for at least part they spent it signing the album.

Myungsoo (L)

When it was my turn I walked from the stairs up onto the stage over to where Myungsoo was sitting, and his face obviously brightened up. I greeted him in Korean (안녕하세요!) and he sort of said it back along with ‘Hi’ in a surprised way. He started reading my sign out loud, and then the conversation went like this… (The language each thing is said in is indicated in brackets (), K is Korean and J is Japanese! E is English.)

Myungsoo: (K) Oh, you speak three languages?
Me: (K) Yes.
Myungsoo: (J) You can speak Japanese?
Me: (J) Yes, I can! ^o^ I watched you in your drama, Jiu.
Myungsoo: (J) Ah, thank you!

He took my hand and laced our fingers for a few seconds, smiling. When they held fans hands (which they did for almost everyone) they almost always laced fingers like that, so it’s not like it was anything special, but it felt amazingly special anyway. When it was time for me to move on he waved and smiled more before turning to greet my helpful unnie.

Sunggyu

If it’s not obvious enough to most of you reading this by now, my favorite member of the group is Sunggyu. Heading over, I was really surprised when he said hello and asked me how I was in pretty good English.

Sunggyu: (E) Hello! How are you?
Me: (E) I’m good! Uhm… (K) Please accept this. *pointing to snickers* This is candy from the US.
Sunggyu: (K) Ah, candy?
Me: (K) Yes~.
Sunggyu: (E) You’re from America?
Me: (E) Yes~.
Sunggyu: (E) Where?
Me: (E) Kansas.
Sunggyu: Oh~ *nods, though obviously doesn’t know*

At that point I was getting waved on by the managers. I had been holding his hand, so I let go, but then I daringly tried one of the things I had planned to try saying to Sunggyu…

Me: (K) Please give me a hug!
Sunggyu: (K) Ah… okay.

And so I got a sort of one armed hug from Sunggyu. He seemed hesitant about it, though he had hugged another of the fangirls before in the same sort of hesitant way, though my guess is that it’s because he seemed a bit sick. He was yawning a ton, and coughing quite a lot. At that moment I sort of wanted to fall over in happiness and shock (I was sure he would say no or that he couldn’t) but I had to move on to the next person.

Update: This wasn't in the original post. I did end up getting sick a couple days afterwards with a pretty bad cold. I don't think I had ever been happier to be sick, haha. Sunggyu germs! I don't even know. The things that make fangirls happy...

Dongwoo

So I scooted over the two feet or so to Dongwoo, and first he tried to confirm how you say my name after looking at my sign that I had made. This took place in English.

Dongwoo: Hi! … Selby?
Me: It’s Shelbi~.
Dongwoo: Oh, Shelbi…

But that was when I started getting really surprised. He continued to speak in English… and there was hardly an accent at all and it was at a normal conversational speed with no real mistakes or anything. He supposedly lived/studied in Canada for three months at some point, but his level of English ability definitely wasn’t something you could get just from studying it in a Korean junior high/high school and three months abroad. He has to have worked hard at it at some point.

Dongwoo: So where are you from?
Me: I’m from the US!
Dongwoo: Yeah, but where in the US?
Me: Kansas. You know, like the Wizard of Oz. *laughs*
Dongwoo: *laughs* Oh~, I have a friend who lives in California!
Me: Oh, cool! I’ve never been to California, but I want to go!
Dongwoo: Really? I want to go, too!
Me: … Your English is really good.

He laughed and grinned and lifted his hand up and gave me a high five before I had to move along.

Woohyun

Woohyun also spoke to me in English, and though he had an accent and he didn’t speak quite as much as Dongwoo or Sunggyu it was still pretty good.

Woohyun: Hello! What’s your name?
Me: My name is Shelbi.
Woohyun: *as he’s writing* Shel… bi…

And while he was finishing up writing my name and then signing, put up my fingers of the hand I wasn’t using for the sign I had made to start doing his bunny aegyo (acting cute), sounds included, and he looked up and did it along with me for like a second before I had to flail and squeal. He then reached out to take my free hand before reaching for my other hand and taking it as well, lacing our fingers together and sort of moving our hands in circles.

Woohyun: I love you. So much.
Me: *dying inside* I love you too! ^o^

As I was moved along and started moving over, he didn’t let go of my hands for an extra second or so before smiling and pulling away.

Hoya

Next was Hoya, who I was expecting some funny things from, but he sort of exceeded my expectations in that aspect. He also spoke to me all in English. He signed quickly before looking right at me and smiling pretty big (though he looked embarrassed).

Hoya: Where are you from?
Me: From America.
Hoya: Oh~! U. S. A~! I love U.S.A. Where in U.S.A?
Me: Kansas~.
Hoya: Oh~! I love Kansas! What your name?
Me: It’s Shelbi.
Hoya: *grins more* I love Shelbi! Bye bye~

And I had to move along then. Though I was flailing tons over his adorable English (and lack of much else to say but ‘I love ____’) it was pretty hard not to laugh. Especially for the last reason. But I waved and said bye back as I scooted over.

Sungyeol

Sungyeol’s was possibly the strangest of the encounters. He as well greeted me in English, saying hi before signing my booklet on his page and then taking my hand. He stared right at me and into my eyes, and I was expecting him to say something… But he didn’t say anything. I still don’t know if he was completely at a loss of English to say, which is very likely, or if he was trying to build up tension, because after the long silence between us he just blurted out “I love you.” pretty intensely. I squealed a bit and said I love you back before I was ushered on to the last of the seven.

Sungjong

I still don’t know if Sungjong was the only one to actually ready my sign after Myungsoo or what, but he spoke to me in Korean right away.

Sungjong: Oh, so you speak Korean well?
Me: Yes, sort of.
Sungjong: Well then, I’ll speak in Korean~.

He signed my album with an adorable smile, so of course I had to blurt out…

Me: You’re so cute.
Sungjong: *grins* Thank you~. How long have you been in Korea?
Me: Just one week. I study Korean at Yonsei University.
Sungjong: Oh~, Yonsei!

When I said that Sungyeol like snapped his head over and said something too quickly for me to pick it up, but it was about himself and Yonsei. As far as I know he doesn’t go to Yonsei, so I don’t know what in the world he might have said. Maybe something about a sibling or friend who goes there? If anybody who is reading this happens to know anything, I would really appreciate knowing hahaha. Because I was getting sort of waved on Sungjong took my hand for a moment before pulling his away to wave cutely.

Sungjong: We’ll meet again, right?
Me: Dlaks;dj. Yes, we will!

I then grinned and turned to head off stage clutching my album happily and head back to my seat. That was then when the shock really hit me and I started shaking and flailing in my seat. After I had calmed down some, they were still going on with the signing, and now whenever there was a gap I would try to get people’s attention.

I got Sungjong to wave and make hearts at me quite a bit, and he grinned cutely each time. One time he even seemed to try and get my attention and waved and grinned super happily when I saw him and waved back. Sungyeol wasn’t being too friendly with the fans in the seats (if anything, he facepalmed at them quite a bit) but I got him to wave. I also got Hoya to wave and make a heart.

Then one of my favorite parts of the whole fan signing was when I saw Woohyun looking my general direction, so I made a big heart and threw it at him. He pretended to catch it looking right at me before throwing me a big heart back. All of the K-Inspirits started throwing hearts afterwards as well, but then his look was more like he was doing it because it was simply what he always did instead of being quite as excited about it. I will point out, Woohyun’s grease was majorly fan provoked. There were some things (like the butterfly heart during the picture time) that are his own doing, but most was definitely caused by the fans doing it at him first.

Myungsoo always had someone coming to him, since he was the start of the line, so he wasn’t ever really free. Sunggyu is super polite and if he didn’t have someone directly in front of him he would watch/join in on their following conversation with Dongwoo, or turn towards the person in front of Myungsoo and wait patiently. He never let himself get distracted by the fans except for one time when some girls like screeched his name and he smiled a bit and waved. Dongwoo would do some pretty interesting things, including making weird babbling/nonsense noises at the crowd when they would call out certain things that I don’t remember.

I mentioned a picture time. At the very end, once everyone had gone through the line they gave us a picture time of a around two minutes. As it was being explained, Sunggyu took the mic that was in front of him. Though I can’t be exactly sure what was said, I’m pretty sure this should be close:

“So we’re about to have a picture time. I know a lot of you will put these on the internet. I would like to ask you to make sure to use photoshop… Our skin is pretty bad today.”

Both the audience and the rest of Infinite started cracking up laughing. Then people started taking pictures, and after several seconds of flashing and such he brought the mic back up to his mouth again and legitimately said “Okay… start.” which brought out more laughs. My camera is old, so this picture you see below… is actually the farthest I was able to zoom in.

They left the stage waving and doing more fanservice, waving and making hearts. There was actually a heart that Sungjong made that I’m pretty sure was directed at me for at least part of it’s lifespan that made it onto a gif, so I’m really happy~. And then they were gone. People started getting up and heading towards the door, though because Infinite had to head out the same doors we had all come in and needed to head out of, they kept the auditorium doors closed for a good while before we could actually leave.

** After we were finally let out my group waited some so that my new unnies could wait to talk to the fanstaff. Eventually we called a taxi to take us to the closest station. We took the taxi and everything was going rather normally... Until the driver didn't slow down (if anything, he sped up) while we were approaching a crosswalk that had a middle-aged woman walking across it. Yes, she was wearing all black with black hair and was hard to see even for me and our taxi driver was old, but still...

He spotted the lady before actually hitting her and had started slowing down some, but not much at all. She also noticed the taxi and had gotten far enough that she was hit sort of by the side of the front. Right away the taxi driver stopped and all of my unnies were like "Eotteokae, eotteokae..." (What should we do?) and we all got out of the taxi and helped the lady into the back seat.

She wasn't seriously hurt (if you can judge by how she gave the taxi driver a mouthful), and the taxi driver called an ambulance. Just in case we were needed at some other time to talk about what happened, the unnie who was good at English gave her phone number to the taxi driver and we walked the rest of the way to the station. Thankfully it wasn't too much farther, and I got on my train to go home.

When I got home I went to the shared computer to check e-mail and everything like that. These two Japanese girls came into the kitchen (where the computer is) talking about B1A4's fansigning and I started talking to them. I helped them check if they had been picked for the B1A4 fansigning on the next day before explaining that I had gone to the Infinite fansigning. They flailed and asked me to bring out my CD to show them.

I ended up awake chatting with them in the kitchen until well past midnight, but... that's not all that uncommon here. When do Koreans sleep? I still don't know...

Sunday Oct. 2nd, 2011


The next morning I woke up at an unbelievable hour after not much sleep to go and meet up with friends for a 'flash mob' event. With my computer crashed I went to use the shared computer again and tweeted once at each of the Infinite boys. Though some of these things are based on sort of 'inside jokes' that the group has going, I'm going to go ahead and post (+ if needed translate) those tweets here. I tweeted to them in the order we got to talk to them.

@INFINITELKIM 안녕해세요<3 어제 팬싸에 왔던 Shelbi이에요. 친절하게 해 줘서 감사해요^^ これからもがんばってください！

(Korean) Hello <3 This is Shelbi who came to the fansigning yesterday. Thank you for being so kind ^^ (Japanese) Please keep working hard from now on!

@leadergyu 성규오빠 Helllo! 어제 팬싸에 왔던 셸비(Shelbi)예요^^ 상상 이상에 친절하고 영어도 잘 해서 놀랐어요. 그래도 좀 오빠는 힘들어 보였어요. 몸의 상태 조심하세요! 잘 쉬세요! Get lots of rest!! 감사해요!


Sunggyu-oppa, helllo! This is 셸비 (Shelbi) who came to the fansign yesterday ^^ You were more kind than I could have imagined and so good at English, so I was surprised. But you seemed really tired. Please be careful with your health! Rest well! Get lots of rest!! Thank you!

(( Yes, I made a typo with 'hello'. Also, oppa literally means older brother, but girls use it to refer to guys who are older than them but not too old to be a sibling. ))

@ddww1122 This is Shelbi from the 팬싸인회~! Your English is amazing, I was so surprised! Hopefully I'll get to see you again soon <3

(( No translation needed! The one bit of Korean means 'fansigning'. ))

@wowwh 일산 팬싸에 왔던 Shelbi예요! 우현오랑 인피니트 멤버 다 너무 친절해서 놀랐어요... 인피니트 멤버 다 내 남자친구에 할게요! 딴 놈들을 안 만날게요! <3

This is Shelbi who came to the Ilsan fansigning! You and the other members were so kind, I was surprised... I'll make all of Infinite's members my boyfriends! I won't meet any other guys! <3

(( More typos... aaargh! Just 'o' instead of 'oppa'... Haha. The joke behind this is that Woohyun calls all of the fans his girlfriends, and often uses a line of their song "Nothing's Over" '딴 놈 만나면 안돼' (you can't meet another man) to tease the fans. So I turned it around on him. ))

@hoya1991 팬싸에 왔던 Shelbi예요! 호야오빠는 I love ~~만 했는에, 너무 행복했어요 <3 I love you too~ 다시 만날 때 더 말해주세요 ㅋㅋ 감사합니다!

This is Shelbi who was at the fansigning! You only said "I love~~", but I was still really happy <3 I love you too~. Next time we meet please say more haha. Thank you!

(( Haha, making fun of his English some... but it's in a loving way! ))

@Seongyeol1991 Hi! ............... I love you! ㅋㅋㅋ 팬싸에 왔던 Shelbi예요 <3 아무말도 안 해도 성열오빠를 만날 수 있어서 맘이 떨렸어요 <3 또 만날 때 더 이야기해 주세요~ 감사해요!

Hi! ............ I love you! Hahaha this is Shelbi from the fansigning <3 Even if you didn't say much my heart was pounding just meeting you. <3 Next time we meet let's talk more~ Thank you!

(( More making fun of their English... ))

@infiniteyounges 귀엽고 멋있는 성종이~ 팬싸에 왔던 Shelbi예요!! 한국어로 이야기해 줘서 감사해요 ㅋㅋ 또 만나요! 만날 때 손을 흔들어 줘요~ <3

To the cute and cool Sungjongi~ This is Shelbi from the fansigning!! Thank you for talking to me in Korean haha Let's meet again! When we meet wave at me~ <3

(( And then the last one~. ))

After quickly whipping out those tweets to each of them (hence the typos...) I logged off and hurried to go meet some of my other foreign friends here for what was supposed to be a Super Junior flash mob for their supporting the Super Star K auditions. If I had known the auditions were actually happening I totally would have gone for them... Aaargh. So we got there early like we were supposed to before we were brought in on the floor of the large stadium where the auditions were placed and given seats there...

That's when the television program that runs them decided to say "well, no, we can't have them dance out here, so they have to dance in their seats." before saying that it just couldn't happen at all. We sat through the opening MC bit and a performance by a Korean rock singer (very good!) before being made to leave the stadium floor so they could set up for the auditions and for Super Junior actually coming.

Because we would have to sit through all of the auditions (think of a day of American Idol auditions) I snuck off (we weren't supposed to) while we were re-lining up inside by our entry numbers. Then I went to Yongsan to buy my new computer. It's an HP Pavilion g4 and it is red. *o* It was 700,000 won, which at the current exchange rate is right around $600 dollars. Along with it I got a free mouse and mouse pad along with an awesome laptop bag. So even if those things were on the cheap side, it's like I got an awesome laptop for $550. Oh Korea, you and your free gifts that come with things, I love it.

After that I met up with Tien and we went to chill around the Brand New Stardom building. She's been really wanting to meet up with Block B (more specifically Kyung) at least one last time before she has to leave the country. And it's always fun hanging out with her and I'd like to meet them at least once too, so I always tag along. We went to the basement of the building (where the headquarters is) to sort of check and we heard some of the song the company's new girl group is preparing... It sounds great so far! Other than that nothing much came out of it, but we hung around the usual coffee shop on our laptops for several hours. One of her friends who is a Korean fan of Block B spotted us and came to hang out for a little. Insert surprise when the white girl helps translate the Korean sometimes... haha.

Headed home pretty late, but I still got to sleep earlier than the nights before and got a bit more sleep than the other nights as well.

Monday Oct. 3rd, 2011


I don't remember what I did for the morning of the 3rd. I know I went out walking and found a new (amazing) brand of BB Cream (foundation + sunscreen + acne control + all sorts of awesome skin stuff) that I love. BB Cream is wonderful and it covers so much with so little make-up, so one thing lasts for a very, very long time. The shop that I bought it from was having a special promotion where if you buy one thing of BB cream you get a second one for free. So basically I have like more than a year's worth of make-up that I got for just 20,000 won. Whaaat.

That morning was also when I discovered that I was sick with what was possibly/most likely Sunggyu germs. I took a shower and blow-dried andstraightened my hair for the U-Kiss fansigning later that day.

The fansigning started at 5 o'clock, and I met up with friends (Tien and Mel) here in Sinchon before that to go shopping for gifts at the two local Daisos (like the dollar store). I got a pillow for my favorite member of the group, Soohyun, and then I had a genius idea... I decided to make each of the members guess my age, and whoever got it right would get a big bag (with the design of a giraffe saying 'right!' on it, haha) filled with snacks, gum, and a package of balloons that are shaped like rabbits. There were also consolation prizes: a cute gift-bag sort of thing filled with coffee-flavored candies, haha.

After that we booked it down to Coex mall, where the fansign was taking place. To our surpise... it was in an open area. So although fans got to sit closer and actually go up on stage to get their CDs signed, other people around were able to gather as well. Because of that (and partially because it's U-Kiss) they weren't strict about taking pictures at all and everyone was snapping photos left and right. For some reason, the fans who got there earlier were sat way off on the side where we could hardly see the boys where we were sitting, so I didn't get any.

I did, however, snap one of them from behind as I was in the line going up to the table.

I'll explain right now, the U-Kiss fansigning was moved along a lot quicker than the Infinite one. U-Kiss isn't nearly as big of a group, and their company doesn't have enough money to rent anywhere out for very long. So we barely got enough time to say a few words with each of the boys. I will also explain, because three of the members speak English fluently (two native speakers, one who went to an international high school) and the others are usually great at another language or decent, they have a lot of foreign fans. They actually have more Japanese fans than Korean, and their international fans far outnumber the Korean ones. So it was nothing like Infinite where I was the only white person there. A lot of the foreign fans go to a lot of their things, so they recognize them, but I was new so they ate it up.

I got up to the first boy in the line, the maknae (youngest of the group), Dongho. It is known pretty well among foreign fans that he's really good at English, though he's not one of the three fluent ones I mentioned above. But it seems that recently he's gotten tired of it, so the first thing he would say when a foreign fan (even one that he's seen many times and even spoken English with before) he would say "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." I laughed and just said, "It's okay, I can speak Korean." to him, and he made the biggest oh no face I can even imagine. Then I asked him in Korean how old he thought I was, and he guessed (in what I'm assuming are Korean years) that I was 19 (= born in '93). Giving him a consolation prize and saying he was wrong I was quickly moved on to the next member.

That was Kevin, one of the two native English speakers. He was raised (born?) in the US and raised in San Fransisco. He's possibly one of the most adorable people ever, and so friendly. He asked where I was from, I said Kansas in the USA and made the required Oz joke. We laughed and then I asked how old he thought I was. "Uhm~, around my age?" (which would be 21 in Korean years, 19~20 in international) was his guess. When I laughed and said no and gave him his consolation prize he gasped and looked (mildly) horrified. "Are you a noona?!" (= what a guy calls a woman who's older than him... which is what most of their foreign fans are.) I just laughed and reassured him that no, I'm not. I'm glad I look young enough that he would be horrified that I might be a noona? I'll take it as a compliment.

Next I was moved on to one of the newer members, Hoon. He is one of the few who doesn't speak English very well, though it seems like he can read it to a certain extent. He asked where I was from and I answered before asking how old he thought I was. He guessed 18, and even though I'm pretty sure he was guessing in Korean years (so it would be someone born in '94, so 16~17 years old) I went ahead and gave him the prize. His eyes lit up so much it was hilarious. Good job, Hoon! At that point we were really being rushed along, so I didn't get to say anything much more.

For the next two members I don't remember for sure which order they were in, but there was Eli (native English speaker) and AJ (the one who went to the international high school). Both were generic and asked where I was from. Both have sort of hilarious personalities, so even with the short bit I got to talk to them they were hilarious. Eli tries to remember where all of the foreign fans are from, which will end up being hilarious when I start talking about Tuesday.

I got to Kiseop and he spoke English to me. He's not too good at it... I only learned after the next day that he's one of the best in the group at Japanese, and he loves it when the fans speak Japanese to him, so next time I'll have to speak Japanese to him and hopefully make his day! He shook my hand and grinned. He's so good looking, it hurts.

Then last but not least was Soohyun, who is so amazingly friendly and adorable. His charisma is amazing on stage, but honestly he's probably the cutest of the group personality-wise. He was like "Hello! Where are you from!" super excitedly. When I said the USA he asked where and, being honest, I said Kansas. Now, most Koreans have no clue what anywhere in the US is besides LA, New York, and maybe bigger cities like Seattle or Chicago. He just grinned sort of open mouthed and nodded in the 'I have no clue where you're talking about so I'll just nod and smile' sort of way. I gave him the present and said to use it and rest well before shaking his head and being shoo-ed away. According to my friends I walked away bowing multiple times... It's a habit, okay? Argh. A habit that hasn't gone away since Japan...

After all of our friends had gotten done with going through the line, which didn't take too long, I went to get Korean pizza with Stephanie, Vanessa, Hime and another girl who I don't remember the name of... Of course, I ended up getting spaghetti and garlic bread instead of pizza in the end because nobody else wanted to split the price for a plain cheese pizza with me and all the cheaper 'specialties' were ridiculous.

While eating I got a text from Tien saying she was planning on going to BNS again that night. Leaving enough money to pay for my portion of the food I ran off to meet her in the actual food court. Chatting with her and some Russian k-pop fans for a bit we eventually took our leave and headed a couple stations over so we could go see if Block B might be there. Mel was also with us again.

After walking up the pretty bad hill to get to near the company... we noticed a bunch of girls waiting outside. That's a sure sign that yes, they area actually there, so we joined the group. In the group there was also a guy who claims to have met the head of the company who gave him advice for training and getting into K-pop and another foreign girl, along with two Japanese girls. Thankfully that evening I didn't have dance lessons (it was Korea's founding day, so there hadn't been classes that morning either) so I was able to stick around.

Waiting for a while (maybe around an hour?), we got to see who we assume are members of the new girl group come and go some before Zico, PO and a member of another group (BOM) came out of the building and trolled us. They came close to the fangirls and then pretended to dodge around us like obstacles in some game even though we weren't like attacking them or anything. Then they walked up to the cafe that Tien and I usually chill in. Supposedly they usually go to a further away cafe, but it was cold so we assumed that's why they went to the close one.

Because it was cold (and I wanted to do a bit of creeping... who can blame me?) I ended up walking up to get a cafe mocha. The guy who had gotten advice from the company's leader was there in the smoking room studying, though he hadn't noticed the three (and never did). When I walked into the cafe, the three of them right away were sneaking glances at me and saying in pretty loud Korean things like "Hey, that girl was down there, wasn't she?" and such. Ordering in Korean they then started saying to each other, still talking and not whispering or anything, "Oh, she speaks Korean." and freaking out some.

I sat down two tables away. They were still waiting for their drinks, and they fought in raised whispers over who should say something in English to me. Eventually the last of them got their drinks and they stood up to leave. As they walked by, PO said something that I think was supposed to be English but really sounded more like gibberish before all of them started laughing and walking away. I still had my drink to wait for, and I got that before turning around and noticing that one of them had forgotten their bag.

Freaking out, I thought over whether I should wait with it or take it down or what. In that time I stuck my head into the smoking room and pointed out to the guy that they had been there. He got pretty upset with himself and I pointed out that well, the guys bad was still there. What should we do. Will he realize and come back? Things like that.

As we were eyeing the bag, PO walks back in and sees us, going all wide eyed. As he walked closer and grabbed his bag we said "You forgot your bag..." in Korean before he nodded a little and grabbed it. He then walked normally out of the cafe before making a break for it outside. He got caught up by fans asking for autographs and ultimately I beat him down to in front of the company before he went back in.

There was a bit more waiting before some other members of the group came out to leave in their car back to their dorm. This time it was Minhyuk (also known as B-Bomb, who used to be in training to be in Infinite before being dropped), Jaehyo and Kyung. Tien went up to Kyung to talk and explain that she was leaving, and I was sort of behind her... Even though I knew he was fluent in English (he lived in New Zealand for a while, and he doesn't look full Korean) it was still sort of surprising hearing all the English. He'd forgotten that she said she was leaving before, and seemed surprised and possibly a bit upset about it.

Jaehyo walked by and I didn't go up to him or anything because he was being bothered by some of the Korean fans. But I stood there and went wide-eyed and sort of derpfaced. He looked right at me, so I'm pretty embarrassed and curious as to how I actually looked... But he's known for being a derpy member of the group, so I suppose it's okay? Maybe? At least he'll remember me, haha.

After that we all headed back to our respective homes... And the next morning I actually had to get up for classes.

Tuesday Oct. 4th, 2011


My third day of classes. Not much remarkable happened except for that my class then knew of my love for Infinite because I happily showed off my signed CD booklet quite a bit. My class seems to be one of the more friendly of all of the classes in our level, because we actually talk to each other some, though I've just now started remembering names.

After classes ended I had a bit of time before having to head to Hongdae that evening... for another U-Kiss fansigning. This one I hadn't bought a specific CD for, so we were just going to see if it was possible to get in like some people had the day before. In the end they made us buy a new CD there to get in, but it was cheaper than at the regular stores, so it was good! This time the fansigning took place at a club in Hongdae which was... interesting, to say the least.

Plenty of talking with friends before they finally came in and the fansigning started. Once again it moved super quickly which was sort of sad. When me, Tien and Mel finally got up to the group (which was in a different order this day... I believe it was Dongho, Kiseop, Hoon, AJ, Kevin, Eli, Soohyun) we got to play around quite a bit. I asked each of them if they remembered me, and none of them did because I was wearing a hat that day... So sad! Does it really make me look that different?

When Tien (who was first) got to Hoon we pulled off a sort of inside joke from what they did at a Dream Team (Korean show) recording, chanting his name with fist pumps. He was overjoyed and joined in before we were pushed along. That day I had remembered my sign from the Infinite fansigning, and when I got to AJ he read it before asking (in Korean), "Oh, so you speak Korean?" I was just like "Yes..." and there was a few seconds pause before he smirked like he had caught me in a lie. Quickly I said, "I'm studying at Yonsei University here, so..." and his mouth dropped open and he looked amazed. He has no right to be amazed about Yonsei considering he got into Columbia University in the states with perfect SAT subject test scores.

That day Eli was trying to guess/remember where all of the foreign fans were from. And, supposedly, he tried to guess Kansas for everyone. Did I really leave that much of an impression? Though I didn't give him time to run through his list before just being like "I'm the one from Kansas", haha. For one of our friends he supposedly was guessing states before she was like "NO, A DIFFERENT COUNTRY." and he excitedly shouted "KANSAS." Oh, Eli...

After getting through and they had left we were trapped down in the club for a while longer as they left. They were playing their CD, so me and my dancing class friend Alyssa started dancing to Neverland, since we knew it. We are now officially known among the Kiss Mes (U-Kiss fans) as the dancing fans. Oh well. Have to make a name for myself somehow, right?

Afterwards I grabbed curry from a cheap street stand-like shop and sat on the curb pouring the curry over the rice 'like a hobo' and I just scoffed and stood up to continue eating. It's not like Koreans don't do that, so there was nothing that weird about it... And it was good curry. We hung around for a bit more, and it ended up being me, Alyssa and the girl Eli exclaimed "KANSAS!" at heading back to the station together.

All and all those days were really, really fun and awesome and exhausting, but so totally worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~

I'm going to try and be more quick about writing things from now on. My next post is going to be about this past weekend which was just as amazing if not more than the one I just wrote about, even though more bad things happened as well. I'm also thinking about doing a post maybe once a week over a song that I've gotten into where I sort of review and talk about it along with translate the song? We'll see~.

Start linking more people to this! And actually comment on the posts! It's sort of lonely... haha.