Big Bang, Flowers, Hiking (and more things, probably, because I have a lot of feelings)

Hello all! I know it's been a while, but here is the long-awaited update!

I've been pretty busy these last couple of weekends, and also during the week. I've also been under the weather, and expression I never realized makes no fucking sense whatsoever until my coteacher was like "this expression makes no sense to me" so yeah.

Anyway, exciting things are happening here in Seoul. 

Our weeks were pretty busy with lots of missed and changed classes, so So Jung and I had to be really on top of our planning to keep things chill. 

Here is So Jung under her desk fixing one of the million things wrong with her computer.

Last Friday we got paid and I needed to update my spring clothing since I came at the end of summer and have very little to speak of. After we exhausted ourselves shopping, we decided we needed some quality cat time. Sarah, Tina, Janell and I hung out at a cat cafe!

Cuuuuute

This guy was adorable and soft.

And this one refused to leave Janell's clothing. He loved her coat and sweater. 

Saturday was the day we've been waiting for: the Big Bang concert! Ahhhhh!

It's been 3 years since their last comeback, and while I have only been a fan for about a year, the excitement was insane. They're such good showmen that it was sure to be a great concert.

To prepare, I tried plopping my hair, which consists of tying it up in a cotton tshirt to help the curls stay better.

My first attempt at plopping during the daytime turned out like this.

My first attempt at plopping overnight turned out like this.

It's trial and error, much like everything I do with my hair.

Anyway, with my hair game so strong and my heart ready for all the VIP (Big Bang's fandom name) madness to come, I headed across town to meet up with Tina, Janell, and our friend Grace from dance class to see the show of the year.

BIG BANG. BIG BANG. WE BACK AGAIN ONE MORE TIME.

The lines to get tickets were insane, so we split our group up to accomplish various tasks: get tickets, get water, get food.

I also managed a Big Bang light stick. It has a reaction mode that goes in time with the music! 

After our successful missions, we lined up (yet again) to get to our seats. I almost didn't get in because of my stupid camera, which I had packed for the next day's hike. The security girl searched my bag like hella hard (Tina and Grace got through a different line with no problem while Janell and I had every bit of our bags searched) and found it and told me I had to go find a locker. Grace speaks Korean and assured her I was not going to use the camera to illegally record the show. I know it's a big problem here and they certainly check foreigners pretty intensely everywhere, but I did not pay $100 to take crappy videos from the nosebleed seats and get kicked out of the concert. Thankfully they let me through and we got to our seats with no more incident.

I did miss/vaguely catch iKON, a not-yet-debuted YG group come to the concert to see their sunbaes (elders/group with more experience) which was a mess. Working security at these things must be such a draining job.

Anyway, I did sneak some pics of the arena to show how crazy it was. Over 10,000 people came to this concert. I was so glad we weren't in the standing section. We did stand for most of the show, but we got to sit in between songs and not get crushed by the sea of fans who shift whenever the artists move around the stage.

The VIPs light up the arena with their light sticks!

I cannot even begin to describe how good the show was. Even now, Tina and I turn to each other and say "Hey remember how we saw Big Bang?" They're such good performers. Big Bang is often described as being a group of artists rather than idols (a bit of shade thrown at groups like EXO and Super Junior but whatever) so they don;t have as intricate dances as the other groups. Or really many dances at all. Even their "Fantastic Baby," an iconic song for the group, barely has any dancing. But they're really good singers live, and they know how to put on a damn good show. The lights, sound, pyrotechnics, and literally every aspect of the performance was awesome. They could have done another hour on their concert and had plenty of time leftover for shenanigans. They didn't do some of my favorite songs, but they more than made up for it.

So glad we got to see this together, bella! Thanks for making me a VIP.

So we got the privilege of hearing 2 new songs from the new album MADE: Loser and Bae Bae. YG is releasing 2 songs or something like that every month and then at the end in September releasing the whole album. He thinks that this is some of the best stuff Big Bang has ever made (all the artists in the group are really involved in the process) so he thinks just releasing a title song and some singles isn't good enough. In other words, he's got a crazy good business plan. Anyway, here are the two songs. I love them both!

First, "Loser." All the artists talk about their demons and how they look like they have the perfect life, but this song is a way to show that they still get insecure and lonely and such. It makes me really emotional. Also, this song broke the record previously set by EXO's "Call Me Baby" for most views in 24 hours (4.3 million I think) and for how quickly the song got to 5 million views (25 or 26 hours). As I type this, the song has 11.3 million views. It was released May 1st at midnight.

As if that's not incredible enough, the second video, Bae Bae (rated 19+), currently has 9 million views and was released at the same time. Big Bang is dominating music charts, getting several perfect all-kills (being the top of every chart) and beating records all over the place. Big Bang is literally fighting Big Bang for the top spot.

The best thing is this: these probably aren't even the best songs on the album. Why release the best first? Big Bang is such a big deal here that they can pull this stuff and produce such high quality music that all the songs have the potential to top the charts. I hope more people in the USA will come to love them! They should be going there on their world tour, and a lot of the stuff for the MADE concert was filmed in LA.

Big Bang (or it's members, G-Dragon, TOP, Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri) have 12 of the 50 most viewed Kpop music videos, and all of those have over 30 million views. Most have more than 50. "Fantastic Baby" has over 100 million views. They're really awesome, guys.

Please support these incredible artists!

I never was super into bands and groups in the USA. I liked some music and followed some groups little by little, but oh man has Korea awakened something crazy in me. My top groups (Beast, Super Junior, and Big Bang in no particular order) make me so happy and I love following the groups on variety shows and whatnot. It's awesome. Nothing makes me feel as giddy as a 14 year old like Kpop.


Anyway, now that I'm done gushing over some oppas, on to other things.

Exhausted from the concert and coughing up my lungs, naturally the next day I went hiking with Tina to Goryosan to see the azaleas.

We got a late start and had some traffic with the buses, which is becoming a constant problem in my life, but we managed to get there in one piece.

The hike was difficult by my standards. That is, I don't really hike, so Korean hiking is kind of intense. It was really steep and dusty, neither of which agreed with my lungs. My lungs also decided that they did not want to function well anymore, so it was a difficult time.

Still, it was really nice when we finally got to the top of the mountain to see all the flowers!

Wahhhhh!

It looks like a landscape from a fantasy novel/movie or something.

So many flowers. So many bees.

Look at how much taller I am haha! Just kidding. Look at how we match the scenery! 

It was overall a fun day despite the problems with timing. I should know by now to add like 2-3 hours on to any Korean estimation of time. Especially with flower things. If they only bloom for a certain amount of time, a ton of people come to see them in the short window. Yet no one seems to account for traffic in these plans. Alas.

Anyway I posted this on Facebook but it't worth sharing here too so I don't ever forget how I felt in that moment:

"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for" -Tom Bodett.

Thanks, Christina, for always being my someone to love and for always making something to do. Here's to hoping for many more wonderful adventures with you, bella heart emoticon

I cannot express enough how lucky I am to have an adventure partner like my sister. She inspires me to do all sorts of wonderful things, and I don't know how I would do any of this without her. With that, we were off to have more adventures.

I was pretty sick for most of the next week with what I thought was a cold and or allergies. The jury is still out on what exactly I have, but I'm taking medicine now.

The week was short, thankfully, as my 4th and 5th graders had a field trip until Wednesday and we had Friday off. 

On Friday Lauren, Tina and I chilled at Yeouido park by the river and got chimaek (chicken and beer). Lauren's boyfriend Gahyeon made it too, which was nice since I haven't seen him since like Christmas and we made plans to see the Avengers!  

After a long afternoon of basking and sunbathing, Tina and I headed to her apartment to catch up on Sensory Couple (this awesome drama we're watching) and get ready for our exciting weekend ahead!

Tina and I signed up for a zip lining trip ages ago, and here it finally arrived. We set off for Jeongseong in Gangwon-do (way to the east) for the steepest zip line in Asia. 

Naturally, our bus luck did not hold. This weekend, a lot of people had off the same days as us (do not get me started on the ways that this is not helpful, Korea), which means everyone is travelling at the same time. As a result, there are massive delays. Our longest ride estimate of 3 1/2 hours turned into 5 1/2 thanks to traffic problems and axle/tire scares. Sigh. Thankfully, Tina and I have adopted the "there is literally nothing we can do about this so let's be frustrated for a second but not dwell" mentality that allowed us to be fairly optimistic despite raging bladders and runny noses. 

When we got there, man was it worth it.

They have a skywalk just like the Grand Canyon, which we got to do as part of our trip. It was awesome! Check out the view. This is basically the view we got before zip lining too. 

Wow so pretty! And high. Imagine flying down to the bottom of that later.

On top of the world!

Eeeeeeep! Don't look down!

After the skywalk we made our way to an observation deck to check out where we would be zipping down from. It was scary to see the adventurers hurtle towards the earth from our height, but it did get the adrenaline going.

Our hair seldom cooperates.

We got in line and began our wait. Thank god we ran into the trip leader, as we were misinformed by our bus driver about our meeting spot and the availability of food. We got food and dodged many bugs during our wait, and then we waited in anticipation for our chance to fly.

"What did we get ourselves into?"

Alas, I have no pictures of us going down. Sometimes you gotta put the camera away and live in the moment, ya know? Also I was 800% certain I would drop my camera in terror.

They set you up in seats, so it's not like you're hanging on with bare hands.

I suppose they look less secure when emptily hanging there, but there are a ton of belts and buckles meant to keep you from falling to your death.

You sit in the seat and your knees are right against the door. When the door opens YOU FUCKING FLY DOWN THE MOUNTAIN. My eyes were streaming with tears, my nose and mouth running and I screamed so loud. Once you get over the initial drop and your life stabilizes, you can really appreciate the fact that you're flying down this mountain. It was incredible. 10/10 would recommend, want to do again, want to try other ones, want to try bungee jumping and a million other things now.

A reflective pause to look back up the mountain from where we flew down. 

We did have to wait a while for everyone to finish. It took about 7 minutes between each set of 4 to get everything set up. Some people in our group also had to deal with our reservation running over into some Koreans' and the Korean reaction was not pleasant. Apparently they thought they deserved to go first because of what country we're in. It caused a lot of issues with the staff and our group, but everyone got through eventually.

We boarded our bus to get to our hotel in Sokcho, and after forgetting some people due to miscommunications and rounding them up, we finally got there. Literally every other bus from all the other cities made it there first, so we met our hotel roommates and got to relax.

They left us the room to share. 

I like firm pillows, but these rice ones take the cake.

We also got to hang out at the hotel's sauna and basically hot springs. They had outdoor pools of varying temperature, and Tina and I tried them all and tried the steam room and everything. It was relaxing and awesome.

Too tired to go out into town, we got some convenience store food (jajjangmyeon - black bean noodles!) and hung out in our room with our roommates and their friends. Had we gotten there earlier or had a larger group of friends with us, we might have made it out. Alas, we still had a really good time before we finally went to sleep.

The next day we awoke to dreary, rainy conditions. Perfect for hiking!!!

Look at me not letting the rain kill my mood.

So Jung told me she thinks the rain wants to be my friend since every time I plan something it rains. Rain, I do not want to be your friend. Unless you are Korean star Rain. Then I want to be your friend. Regular rain? Go away.

I was concerned for the day, but it went great!

With very little traffic, we made it to Seoraksan, one of the more famous mountain/parks in Korea.

Cue all of my Misty Mountains/Jurassic Park/ World of Warcraft references 

The rain couldn't stop Tina and I from having a good time. It did, however, cause more than a few spills on my twin's part. Thankfully she broke nothing but a sweat. 

Look at her. So cute with all her rain gear.

First we hiked to the waterfall. It was the easiest of the hikes offered haha.

Rocks. We don't have those in America.

The scenery really was wonderful. My kind of hike. Full of rocky roads and shaky bridges, it was fun to explore with Tina.

Looks like a movie setting. Or like Tomb Raider or something like that.

The path started out pretty easy then got increasingly more difficult and dangerous, especially while trying to balance umbrellas and walking on uneven rocks in the rain.

This bit. Looks kind of like stairs. Does not feel like stairs.

After a few missteps, we made it to the waterfall!!!

It is very pretty.

It was a bit of a letdown for us near Niagara Falls natives who used to go to Akron Falls and jump off the waterfall in the park there, but it was quite nice and pretty. A fitting end to the hike. We hung out and snapped some pics and recovered our strength for the just about hour long hike back down, taking special care around the areas where Tina fell (I am never letting you forget this, bella kikikiki)

On the way back we basically just took stupid pictures the whole time since we got most of the scenery on the way up. It really was fun.

I take credit for the idea to use the railings, but the pose is all Tina.

I suck at holding poses but Tina is patient and got some good shots.

"Do a warrior pose"

I fucking love this picture. Love you, Tina.

After our little hike, we got some food and waited for our cable car timeslot, wisely purchased in the morning and chosen to give us time to both hike and go up to the top of the mountain.

Now that I look at the pictures, it's kind of scary. But when we were up there it just felt like we were walking around safely in the clouds. Which, we were walking around in the foggy clouds because it was raining so much. And Tina wouldn't let me get too close to the edge. Such a good sister.

It was really pretty. I can only imagine what the view is like in the sun.

I really love this picture of Tina. She looks so cute and not at all scared!

We wandered up as high as we could go. There is a rope you can use to help yourself climb up to the Korean flag, but it was rainy and dangerous so we only looked from below. Someday I'll go back and make it all the way to the top!

If you look closely you can see the flag in the mist.

We made our way down in the cable car (I have very few pics of that because it was crowded and also you could see nothing for most of the ride....) and began winding up the day.

Giant Buddha!!

We got some more food and chilled until it was time to board the buses one last time. After an exhausting day, we knew we had a long ride head of us.

Bye, bye!

The ride back didn't take quite so long as we thought it would, but it was still long with the traffic. When we finally made it back to Seoul, we still had about an hour commute back to Tina's apartment, where we hibernated for the next day.

We watched one of my new favorite actors, Nam Goon Min, in "We Got Married," a Korean show where famous people basically pretend to be married. Sounds kind of silly, but it's hella entertaining. His show wife, Hong Jin Young, is also hilarious and an awesome singer. I recognized one of her songs because my 4th grade babies do a dance to it for exercise class and So Jung and I always join them for class. They're

So cute!

 Also, dude has abs for days.

Are you not entertained?

On Tuesday we went to see the new Avengers movie! It was pretty good. I liked it more than the first one. Superhero movies still ahve too many long CGI fights for me and I think we needed a Black Widow movie before this one to really tie it all together (GET IT TOGETHER MARVEL), but it was pretty entertaining, if a bit long. Still, there were some genius lines ("Are you two playing hide the zucchini?" chief among them) and some pretty cool action sequences. I look forward to more Marvel movies, perhaps with more women in them hopefully please Marvel seriously it's time.

Most of my friends had to go back to work Wednesday, but I had it off so I went to the doctor for my persistent cough and nose issues. It's cool since the visit and the medicine cost me less than $10, but it was a bit difficult since no one spoke English at the clinic that is in the building right next to my house. Thankfully I know enough Korean to muddle through reception and the doctor understood and spoke some English. So I hope I can get better!

I've probably posted these before, but I am still obsessed with Big Bang from their concert. Aside from Loser and Bae Bae, here are some other favorite songs:

"Bad Boy"

And because I cannot resist:

"Good Boy"

And last one:

Tonight

These songs have been stuck in my head since the concert, so take a listen if you're looking for some awesome tunes.

Here's to a two day week and to feeling better! Phew! We made it through this long post. Fighting, everyone! Have a good week/month/year/always!