While I didn't spend very long in Busan, I still had a great time there. The first day in Busan I was a bit out of it as I was suffering from lack of sleep. We went to noraebang (karaoke) the night before and instead of getting some sleep we just decided to hop on the KTX (high speed train) to Busan and sleep there. Anyways, the first day we went to the Lotte Duty free shop, got dinner, and then relaxed at Jjimjilbang (public bath house, but that's a whole post in itself!).
The second day it was just Wen and I so we did a bit of shopping in the subway. I bought my fabulous OST watch there which I love and have been wearing everyday! We also got black noodles for lunch. However, most of the day we spent at the beach. I love the beach and it was my first time at the ocean since I went to Hilton Head last summer. It was absolutely beautiful there! Wen also took me on this mountain hiking trail which was very relaxing.
Wen looking gorgeous like always ^_^
The trail also went by a famous hotel. Since Wen spent the past year studying in Busan she had been there before, and of course she happened to be there on the same day that T.O.P. was there!! Unfortunately she didn't know who he was at the time, but I was still insanely jealous.
Who wouldn't want to meet T.O.P.?
Wen was such a good tour guide and we had a lot of fun in Busan. While I must admit I didn't enjoy it as much as Seoul, I would still love to go back and have fun at the beach again. Who would like to join me? ^_~
Since Super Junior released their fifth full length album earlier this week, I thought it was about time to devote a post to them ^_^
Super Junior
Super Junior is made of 13 members (yes, 13!). However, only 10 participated in their newest album, Mister Simple. They debuted in 2005, and have been taking over Asia ever since! Some of their favorite songs of mine are Sorry Sorryand Bonamana. Let me start to introduce you to the members as this might take a while!
Leeteuk
Leeteuk is the leader of Super Junior and in addition to singing, also does a bit of rapping. He has also been the MC of many different shows. It sounds like he plans on starting his military service towards the end of the year.
Heechul
Kim Heechul is a vocalist and rapper for the group. He has appeared on many variety shows, including one I started to watch not too long ago, Good Daddy. Heechul is famous for spending a lot of time on the computer. If he sounds familiar to you, "Kim Heechul" was a worldwide trending topic on twitter for four days last October!
Han Geng
Han Geng is from China and is one of the main dancers of Super Junior. However, in 2009 he chose to left the group and now has a successful solo career in China.
Yesung
Yesung is the lead vocalist of the group. Last year, he was in the Korean version of Spamalot as Sir Galahad.
Kangin
Kangin is one of the singers of Super Junior. Currently he is about halfway through his military service so he was unable to participate in Mr. Simple. He enlisted in the military after getting into some trouble (a DUI charge). He also appeared in We Got Married and I thought he was really cute on the show!
Shindong
Shindong is one of the main dancers and main rappers of the group. He frequently writes his own lyrics. He is known for being really funny, and he also proposed to his girlfriend in the liner notes of Super Junior's 4th album!
Sungmin
Sungmin is a main vocalist for Super Junior. Since debuting with Super Junior he has also had an active acting career.
Eunhyuk
Eunhyuk is the lead rapper as well as lead dancer. Last year he came down with a case of swine flu but luckily he is all better now!
Donghae
Donghae may be one of the most talented members of Super Junior as he is one of the main vocalists, a primary dancer, and a main rapper! He is also probably my favorite member due to his being a part of the drama It's Okay Daddy's Daughter. He has also spent a majority of this year acting in a Taiwanese drama.
Siwon
Siwon is a main dancer and singer, as well as and occasional rapper. He has devoted a lot of his time to acting, he has appeared in Athena which is the spin off of Iris. He was also in SNSD's Hoot video. Lately he has been known for his buff body.
Ryeowook
Ryeowook is a main vocalist for Super Junior. He is interested in songwriting and wrote some lyrics for Super Junior in the past.
Kibum
Kibum is one of the rappers of the group. He went to high school in California and has family in Florida. Perhaps I should be on the lookout for him during my next trip? ^_~
Kyuhyun
Kyunhyun is a main singer and dancer. He is also the youngest member of Super Junior.
There are also various sub-groups within Super Junior;
Super Junior-Happy: Leeteuk, Yesung, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, and Eunhyuk. They perform "happy" pop music.
Super Junior-KRY: Kyuhyun, Ryeowook, and Yesung. They sing ballads.
Super Junior-M: Han Geng, Siwon, Donghae, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, Eunhyuk, Sungmin and two other Chinese members who are just part of this sub-group, Henry and Zhou Mi. They sing in Mandarin.
Super Junior-T: Leeteuk, Heechul, Kangin, Shindong, Sungmin, and Eunhyuk. They sing trot style songs.
Please enjoy their newest music video, Mr. Simple and support Super Junior in their promotions for this album ^_^
All the food that I had during my trip was delicious. The first night I was in Seoul my friends and I got dinner at a BBQ place.
Sandra ^_^
That's pork meat. Since Sandra and I had never eaten at a Korean style BBQ restaurant before, Wen was in charge of cooking the meat. Once the meat is cooked, you wrap it in a piece of lettuce with some rice.
Side dishes
Every restaurant you eat at gives various side dishes with your order. Kimchi is almost always given, and we also often had seaweed salad, and sprouts.
Wen with her jajangmyun
Jajangmyun was probably my favorite meal while I was there. I enjoyed it so much I requested to eat it a second time on the last day of my trip. Jajangmyun is Chinese noodles Korean style. It is known for looking disgusting, but the taste is amazing. The black sauce is sweet and has potatoes and onions in it. I cannot tell you how many times I have dreamed of eating this since I have been back home.
Paris Baguette
Although not Korean, I fell in love with Paris Baguette while I was in Korea. In Seoul there is a Paris Baguette on nearly every street. They are pretty reasonably priced (on the cheap side in America) and carry a wide array of goodies. They have dozens of pastries, cakes, and sandwiches. I stopped there many times during my stay, partly because of the delicious offerings, but also because I found that my body could handle spicy Korean food a bit better if I had some bread during the day. This sandwich was particularly good. One sandwich innovation that I have brought back from Korea is putting sliced cucumber on my sandwiches. I know it sounds a bit odd, but that crunch of the cucumber really adds to any deli sandwich!
Chicken soup with Hyemi
The day I met up with Hyemi, she took me to eat traditional Korean soup. This place was packed because the president recently ate there. Also on the day we went, it was considered to be one of the four "hot days" of Korean summer so on those days everyone should eat hot food. So that's what we did! The soup was really good, the broth was similar to what we have in America. However, in the bowl that we got was a half a chicken stuffed with rice. It was really great! I also tried a ginseng shot here. Ginseng is popular in Korea and is supposed to be good for the body. I just wasn't expecting it to be that strong!
Korean style pizza
One day I had Korean style pizza. This one is half potato and half shrimp. Both were good, but I enjoyed the potato side better. This restaurant was pretty cool as they had a salad and dessert bar. The salad bar included salad (I wish we had Kiwi dressing here!), potatoes, and various fruits. The dessert bar might have been my favorite part though, as it was a yogurt bar! You got a small cup and could choose the toppings for your yogurt like honey, cereal, fruit, and granola. Yum!
Bi Bim Bap
And you can't go to Korea without eating Bi Bim Bap! This was when we went to Insadong, a traditional Korean street in Seoul. You can see how many side dishes we had.
I was going to include street and snack food in this post but I think I'll save that for another entry. I really miss Korean food so much, so this weekend I plan on trying out a Korean market about a half an hour from my house. I can't wait to tell you about it ^_^
Since I'll be heading to Iowa for the weekend I wanted to get in a blog post today. Instead of writing about my trip, I thought I would continue with my posts about the members of Big Bang.
T.O.P.
Although I kind of hate to say this since I really love everyone in Big Bang, if I had to pick, T.O.P. would be my favorite member. I kind of love how in pictures he tends to look cold and has a serious look but when you watch him in interviews he seems to always be laughing.
T.O.P. is the oldest member of Big Bang as he was born in 1987. He is one of the main rappers of Big Bang. He is kind of known to be the worst dancer of all the members which has led to some humorous moments during performances. T.O.P. has only released one solo single, Turn It Up.
Into The Fire
Instead of releasing solo material, T.O.P. has focused on his acting career. He was in the drama I Am Sam, as well as the drama IRIS in which he played an assassin. He has also stared in two movies, 19 and Into The Fire. Into The Fire is a movie based on a true story where student soldiers had to face an enemy army on their own. T.O.P. is the lead in this movie and he has won multiple awards for best new actor for this movie. And let me tell you, don't watch it unless you want to cry! But it is a great movie regardless ^_~
He even looks good with white hair
Outside of promoting with Big Bang, T.O.P. has formed a unit with G-Dragon and they released a mini album in December. Their mini album was the first K-Pop album that I was really excited for and got immediately after it was released. Every track on it is great. And it was the first special edition K-Pop album I bought during my trip (Play with GD&T.O.P.).
On the GD&T.O.P. mini album T.O.P. had a solo, Oh Mom. I love that he wrote the lyrics for this (he normally writes all of his raps himself), because you can tell he really means what he is saying. I hope that you enjoy T.O.P. as much as I do and hope that you will look forward to a possible future GD&T.O.P. album and more acting from T.O.P. ^_^
Sorry I've been slow about updating. I've been pretty tired since getting back home, I think my body still wants to be in the South Korean time zone! Because of that I'm going to try and keep this post on the short side. Before I left I wrote about wanting to visit Namsan Tower, and luckily I got to! Let me tell you about it ^_^
Over dinner my friends and I decided to head to Namsan, despite the rain. It was my first full day in Korea so I was beyond excited. When we started my friend told me it would be about a fifteen minute walk. Little did I know it would be almost all uphill!
ㅠ_ㅠ
Needless to say we were a bit tired but the thought of getting to Namsan kept us going! Sandra and I were really motivated by seeing where our favorite dramas were filmed. On the cable car on the way up we could not stop talking about Goo Jun Pyo and Jan Di!
Where Goo Jun Pyo and Jan Di spent their first night together
After getting off the cable car Namsan looked absolutely gorgeous in the night sky. It was kind of a magical moment because as soon as we got off the cable car there was someone performing and he was singing CN Blue's Love Light.
In front of Namsan Tower
The main store at Namsan Tower was pretty cool.They had things for sale from various dramas that had filmed there like You're Beautiful and Boys Over Flowers. Wen bought a really cute I <3 Korea luggage tag. Right outside of the store was the area where people could post their love tiles. I had never heard of or seen the love tiles before, but they are similar to the love locks. People (normally couples) buy a tile and write a message on it for each other. Then they post the tile on the wall, which is covered with thousands of tiles.
<3 Love tiles <3
My friends and I could not resist so we decided to write our own love tile. After much thought, this is what we wrote on ours;
The only thing left to do was to find a spot to put our tile!
If you ever visit Namsan, try to find our tile ^_^ I can't wait to go back and see it again someday. After we finished with our tile, we went outside to visit the love locks.
We didn't spend much time looking at the locks due to the rain, but it was really an awe inspiring sight! I can't wait to go back there again someday (and maybe leave my own lock lock ^_~). Who would you like to leave a love lock with? What do you think you would write on it?
Sadly, my trip to Korea has come to an end. There are not enough good things that I can even begin to say about my trip, and the country in general. I have never been to a more beautiful place, met more truly generous people, and tasted such delicious food. In honor of my trip, I will count down my five favorite things about Korea.
5. Historical Sites
Every time we went to a historical site I was amazed at how beautiful they were. I also felt a indescribable feeling for the first time. Seeing things that have been built over 1,000 years ago was really incredible. It put American history in perspective for me, my country only has real history that dates back about 400 years. So to go someplace where the history is nearly three times that....wow. I know you can read about history like that in books, but to see it in person is something that I will always cherish.
4. Food
I wasn't quite sure what to expect of the food before my trip. Although it was fairly spicy to me, every single thing was really good. My favorite was the black noodles. It was just the perfect mix of sweet and savory, despite their gruesome appearance. The street food was incredibly cheap (I already long for a $1 roll of kimbap) and allowed me to try many different tastes of Korea (squid anyone?). It was also a nice change of pace from the fatty, carb loaded, greasy food that is generally consumed in America.
3. Shopping
As someone who loves shopping, Seoul was the perfect place to go. The fashion there was really my style; cute, simple, and classic. Most things were pretty cheap compared to shopping in America. I spent most of my money on clothes (my first time buying the same dress in multiple colors) and cosmetics. My favorite cosmetics brand is Etude House, and it happens to be endorsed by Lee Min Ho. The great thing about cosmetic shopping in Korea is the free stuff you get. Whenever you buy something there, you get tons of samples of cosmetics, and even tote bags, makeup bags, and fans. A trip to Korea is worth it merely for the shopping alone!
2. Idols
I cannot even begin to express to you how rewarding an experience it was to go to Korea and see advertisements, hear the music on the street, and see the idols on TV that I have diligently been following for about a year now. It's so different seeing, hearing, and watching these things on my computer and then seeing them in real life. And how joyful it was to be able to turn to the person next to me and freely talk about what happened on We Got Married last week, or 2PM's new image! I spent entirely too much money on idol related things while I was there (hello special edition GD&TOP, Making of the Big Show, Listen to CN Blue, special edition of Hands Up, G Dragon post it notes, T.O.P pencil bag, and "I Love You Jung Yong Hwa" socks, among other things). I was just disappointed I didn't see any of them at the airport hehe.
1. My Friends
Without a doubt the very best part about Korea was getting to see all my friends again after two years. Spending time with them would have been magical anywhere in the world, but meeting them in Korea was really the icing on the cake.
I'm ready to go back to Korea right now, anyone else want to join me?
This is going to be my last post before my trip. I thought I would get another one in, but these past couple days have been pretty crazy. I feel like I always have something to do; running to the store to buy things for my trip, going to work, and I've been to two birthday parties in the past three days!
I still can't really fathom that I'll actually be in Korea in a mere three days (on the plane in two!). It's something I've wanted to do for so long. It's been about two years since I've seen my friends, and about a year since I got interested in Korean culture.
I'm so excited for this trip because I will get to spend time with my friends, but also for the cultural experience this is going to be. The only other country I've ever been to is Canada, and that doesn't really count. I wonder what it will be like to live somewhere for two weeks where everyone else speaks a language different from my own, where all the food is different, and where I won't know anyone outside of the few friends I am meeting.
I feel/hope like I've gotten a decent idea of what Seoul might be like from watching all my dramas and variety shows. I am really looking forward to getting to spend some time in a large city again. I was in NYC for a couple of days last year but I don't think I really got the true feel of a large city. And I can't wait to see other parts of the country. When I come back maybe I will be an expert!
I can't wait to share everything about my trip with you when I get back. Please anticipate some great future blog entries ^_^
