Birthdays, Dances, and the D

안녕하세요! Hello! I got mistake for being a Korean this week when I said it and no one was looking hehehehe.

Anyway, another week over and gone. I can't believe it's July. Time is going so fast!

I'm exhausted from this weekend. This week was so busy too. No wonder time goes so fast these days.

Here is my current love:

The package says for two people but my heart says for one.

Cheese ddeokbokki that I can make at home. It't more expensive than buying it from the nice ladies down the street from me, but it's really good.

Me in my most attractive state, probably.

I haven't posted a lunch pic in a while:

Sometimes we have quail eggs which I freaking love. 

Anyway, my week was a bit crazy. We didn't have Korean class on Tuesday and Thursday so I was ready to be a hermit and relax all week. The Universe had other plans.

On Tuesday, Leeteuk from Super Junior tweeted that he would be at his cafe in the evening. Since I didn't have class, Sarah and I decided to try our luck and go. Tina was having a dinner with her Korean class instead of having class, so she couldn't go.

We traveled there after school and made our way through the rain to wait at the Kona Beans in Apgujeong, which is clear across town.

We were such sweet summer children.

 We got there around 6:30 and waited. And waited. We had said our cutoff was 8, then 8:30, then 9. Sarah (perhaps rightly) gave up near 9, but I don;t know how to do half measures so I decided to be in it for the long haul. I'm stubborn and decided that being tired tomorrow was better than being disappointed that I wasted my whole evening waiting and not even seeing him.

We suspect he had another schedule that ran late, since he tweeted "evening" not "night" and he's generally pretty considerate. He showed up at 9:20.

This is the car he rolled up in:

I was informed by a German girl that this car is worth about $150,000

Here is him rushing into the cafe.

 After waiting for him to arrive, I then had to wait for my number while he took orders and chatted.

He kept getting gifts.

I was in the smoking room and could see him pretty close through the glass.

At 11, yes 11 PM, when the Cafe was going to close, he stopped taking orders after only getting through 105 people. I was actually having a panic attack and almost left in tears and shaking anxiety because I was like "oh my go you idiot you have school tomorrow you're so stupid this was stupid and you won't even meet him and this is useless." Thankfully I didn't.

My number was 106, so they lined us up from there and we were allowed to just chat and say hello.

Me lined up.

Him, checking his phone.

Me taking selfies with him.

Him, being a tiny human.

He asked me if I was from France, and I was like no. Then I told him I was from the USA (this was all in Korean) and he said, "I love USA!" in English. The coordinator of the event then told him he had to hurry since so many people were waiting, so he switched to handshakes and saying hello and thank you.

Except he didn't shake hands starting with me.


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He got through like 3 people, seemed to realize what he had done, and ran back up to me and apologized and shook my hand and said thank you.


I ran out after that because all of the crazy vultures who hadn't had numbers and had DSLR cameras or who had already met him and were still crowding the cafe suddenly tried to rush at him and I got out before it became a problem.

One last picture so I can remember how happy I was at that moment.

I got to the subway and with my phone dead I had a long ride home. I got home at like 12:30 and knew I would be super tired the next day, which was true.

Now that I've been to two of these things, I will probably not go again. But if I do I know to expect like 5 hours of waiting haha.

I'm a little wiser now, and I've met 2 members of Super Junior, so I think it was overall a win.

Wednesday was exhausting.

Wednesday's lunch: Black bean rice! and a giant mandu!

I actually took a nap at my desk for real, which I haven't done yet.

Sarah and Tina and I went to look for shorts after school since none of mine fit, but we had no luck. Alas.

Thursday I finally got to hermit, but I had to venture out to the Daiso near me for a new sleep mask!

Cat mask!

So cute!

By the time it was Friday I was like "whoa Friday what??"

My kids are apparently so done too. This was their attempt at my classroom's calendar:

The months have been flying by but man July feels really long...

After classes, Tina, Sarah, and I met up with their friend Priscilla, who is leaving in August to go back to Canada. We got delicious foods:

We went to a famous ddeokbokki place.

And desserts

Famous dessert cafe. I have been craving this since I got it with my coworkers last week.

One mango kind wasn't enough so we got a chocolate one too.

There are no words to describe how good these things are.

An early night after such foods was exactly what I needed before the 4th.

We finally got to celebrate Janell's birthday!!!!!!!!!

We went to The Alibi Gastropub in Gangnam and got some good food and good beer.

Tina took off some of the bacon and I called her unamerican.

They lost her reservation but still managed to have enough space for the like 17 of us.

It was good! She has some Korean friends and it't hilarious when Koreans realize there are other Koreans there because they have to get all formal and ask ages and stuff and bow and whatever. 

Most of us continued on the club Syndrome, where we had a VIP table and drinks. It was so much fun! It was my first time at a club in Seoul and it did not disappoint!

Hawaiian princess and her cake.

VIP's!!

Happy Birthday, Janell!

You can smoke in clubs which bothered my sense a bit, and it was hella crowded. We found space in the "hip hop zone" and they even played part of "Crazy," the dance we all learned a few weeks ago. After about 2:15AM I was finally danced out. I finally got to wear my clubbing clothes and dance the night away, but we subscribe to the "nothing good happens after 2AM theory" and headed home.

Thankfully I didn't drink too much and we didn't get home too late, so I was fine this morning if a little tired.

Tina and I made it to dance class! We were supposed to learn Hyuna's "Red" but at the last minute it was changed to Taeyang (from Big Bang)'s "Ringa Linga." Now, I love this song and was excited that after last week's Big Bang song "Bang Bang Bang" that we could continue the Big Bang love.

Holy shit this dance is so hard. Like so fast and hard hitting. Plus there were only 5 of us today, and 3 of us had been partying pretty hard the night before. I knew I wouldn't be great at it but it was like my brain and my body were totally disconnected haha.

I'm still glad I got to go and had a lot of fun, but man am I tired. Hence I ate enough ddeokbokki for two people.

Anyway, here is our attempt at the first part of Ringa Linga:

Oh man. 

And here is the actual dance done by the sun himself (Taeyang means sun):

In other music news, Big Bang has once again absolutely SLAYYYYED this month. They are doing their MADE series, and releasing two tracks each month til they release the whole album in September.

M - Loser an Bae Bae

A - Bang Bang Bang and We Like 2 Party

D -   맨정신 (Sober) and If You

E - ???? Who knows but it's going to be fucking incredible.

I've been dying to make this joke, but I really love the D. Hahha.

No but seriously. I've liked all the songs so far. I wasn't crazy about Bae Bae at first, or even Bang Bang Bang on first listen. But now I really like them all.

If You and Sober are incredible. I loved both of them on first listen. Sober is a more upbeat party song and If You is billed as the saddest song Big Bang has done.

Oh man they do not disappoint. I cannot say enough about how much I love these songs. Here's the video for Sober:

Pay attention to the white fog. Dreamy white fog versus sober reality of the white room. Amazing.

This song reminded Tina and me of MGMT's "Kids" and of some other western artists like Death Cab for Cutie. We think the slightly western feel appeals to us because we're more used to it, but it's still awesome for a kpop song.

And here's If You. I may have teared up upon first hearing it:

I like when people color code them and tell me who's singing. Wit Big Bang I can tell more, but with large groups like Super Junior (where I know all the members names but not their voices) or EXO (who can even keep track of who's in that anymore??) it's harder to tell. 

Ah man. Another week of school is upon me. Not too long til vacation! 

Stay well, everyone!