Big Bang 4th Mini Album Review

I got the album last Friday, and haven't had a chance to review it until just now.

But a warning. It's really long. And also, it's only at my tumblr page. I am trying to transition so my tumblr is all kpop all the time and my blogger is more personal, with focuses on Korea and teaching and my life here, not just kpop (which believe it or not, is only a part of my life)

Anyways, CLICK THIS LINK to read my review!

Bigbang Big Show 2011

I know I said I would keep this mostly kpop free since I started www.reallywally.tumblr.com but this is like the most exciting thing that's happened to me in Korea ever. So here's the post:

So. I went to the Big Bang Big Show Friday night.

I know I might get bricked by some VIPs for this but my review will have some negatives.

That being said, there will also be a whole lot more positives.

I went with my boyfriend who is not a huge Big Bang fan, but he loves me, so he will go anyways. His first concert ever in his life was YG Family Concert, and this show is number two.

Actually my day basically went wrong in every way humanly possible before the concert, so I actually wasn’t that excited until we basically were in the hall. To list my problems: we lost our plane tickets for our summer vacation home because the travel agent essentially lied about the price and we cannot afford them, my two kittens still haven’t met, and I had to go home before the concert to feed them, my usb drive broke, I had to go to the other side of town to get the Big Bang cd, and I realized I left my Big Bang lightstick at home roughly five minutes after it was too late to turn around and go get it.

But, enough on that. We got to the stadium and thats when everything started to get better. My boyfriend (who used to take lifeguard training classics at the olympic swimming ppol next to the main olympic stadium) found us some secret bathrooms that had no line as opposed to the 50 person line in the concert provided toilet stalls.

Got in line, where everyone was pretty friendly if not moderately terrified of how tall we are. They all were nervous about standing behind us.

We waited as the sun set and they slowly began to let people in to the standing sections. We were in section 5, which is , if you are looking at the stage, to your left a ways, but still standing and relatively close. We managed to get right into the corner where two walkways would meet, so we thought we would be able to get lots of close-ups with Big Bang walking by.

It got pretty hairy as the rest of our section poured into the standing area. I would say about 60-65% of the fans were really young (high school or younger) and the other 35-40% were about my age. Anyways, a group of middle school or so aged girls ended up standing right behind us (foolish move) and proceeded to complain loudly about how they can’t see in Korean as if I couldn’t understand. Then they said to my boyfriend that they couldn’t see, and I firmly informed my still green concert going boyfriend that we would not move for anyone, regardless of how short or whiny they were. If one person gets in front of us, we may just throw up a neon sign that says, step right up. The girls were pretty unhappy with me, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

Just before the concert began, some very severe pushing started within our section. It was pretty horrible, and I just thought plain unnecessary. Everyone was just temporarily out of their mind and shoving everything within sight to get as close as possible. It was really frustrating and before the show even started, I saw a girl get carried away by security because she had passed out. That’s how intense it was. In the course of the evening I personally saw about 6 passed out girls carried away, as well as one illegal camera use escorted out.

Anyhow, the security was super tight around me so I didn’t manage to get basically any pictures or videos, which is a total bummer. But, I was really close to the stage, so that was lucky, or at least I thought it was.

There are other posts that tell the exact line-up, I’ll just say my best memories:

1. The show opened with a revealing of the GD&TOP 집에가지마 video which was just spectacular and retro and so perfect for them. after the m/v, my boyfriend kicked something on the ground. He asked me what it was because it was a cylindrical box of some sort, and I looked down and discovered a box for big bang merch. I didn’t actually get to the merch table, so even though I knew the kind of stuff they were selling, I didn’t see any of the packaging to know waht would be in the box. But, regardless, I thought, that’s MINE now. I carefully picked it up and put it under my arm as the next song began. The pushing started back up again as people attempted to get every millimeter of closeness possible. In the next lull, I opened up the box and discovered, to my extreme joy, it contained the new edition of the light stick which I had been whining to my boyfriend that I wanted to buy since I left my old one at my house. So basically not only did I get standing seats to the concert, I also snagged a free brand new light stick.

2. Secret Garden parody was the best thing ever. They mimicked the scenes so well, and with such nice comedic timing and I really enjoyed it. There was lots of kissing, and lots of GD grabbing his fake Gil Ra-Im boobs, and Taeyang wearing a hilarious wig, and Daesung being the perfect mother of Joo-won (TOP) and the perfecrt recreations of all my favorite scenes: situps, cafe kiss, oska socks, I’m Gil Ra-Ims fan, farewell letter (omg, TOP CRYING), Seungri’s hair for Oska was perfect. Seriously perfect.

3. Taeyang’s solo performance of Where U At and I’ll be There. I wasn’t sure what he would perform or even if he would perform, so this was nice. Where U At is my boyfriend’s favorite song by Taeyang/Big Bang so he got really excited. Downside? As most people mention in other fan accounts, no shirtless-ness from Dae the ENTIRE concert. Major let-down.

4. 뻑이가요 performance by GD&TOP complete with segways, ridiculous suits, and a big ass tank on stage which GD climbed up on. Also, Oh Yeah featured Bommie live, which was great, and then High High all the boys came out on stage, which was also really exciting.

5. Seungri is typically my least favorite in the group. There is always something about his boasting and general loudness that I find a bit annoying. However, I’d like to officially retract all the negative things I’ve ever said about him. He was the only member of Big Bang to really show any love to our section at all. The walkways I was sandwiched between? Virtually unused. GD rolled by on the segway at the opening of 뻑이가요, Daesung walked by once. But in the middle of the show, Seungri heard our section begging them to come to our side, and he listened. He seemed to really show our section love, coming over to ourside (basically right in front of me) and pointing and singing and dancing right in front of us. It was nice that he recognized that we were getting basically no love and he helped us out. Also, his solo performances were really good. I don’t even own his mini-album, but after the concert, I’m tempted to buy it if only to express my gratitude for his concern during the show.

6. During the Encore, Taeyang stopped basically right in front of (there were maybe four people in front of me, but I’m gonna go ahead and assume he saw me and said, this is just for that sexy foreign girl right there, and he danced and sang and did this unbelievably sexy vibrating dance I am almost died right there I was so excited.

7. During the encore performance, TOP had the sexiest hip thrust I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I swooned so hard. It was right in time with 1, 2, 3, BIG BANG (jumpring down from the platform at three hard core hip thrust at BANG). I was like, yo top, come bang it over here in my direction.

8. The pyrotechnics were great! They went light on the fire and heavy on dope fireworks. The fire is awful because it severely impedes your vision and is fucking hot. The fireworks are just bad ass. There were some green ones that exploded and created really trippy smoke rings when they popped in the air. I was really intrigued by those.’=

9. Daesung’s Solo performance was the most memorable of the night. Actually, his performance throughout the concert was essentially flawless. He killed every note, and his new song Baby don’t cry was beautiful. It’s so nice to hear him sing a ballad. He was amazing. I love him.

The negatives:

1. Way too much pushing and hostility from the fans. It was uncomfortable and dangerous. A bunch of people fell in our section, and people were passing out right and left. This is common at concerts like this, but still, it’s depressing to see how fans get when their emotions take control.

2. No love on our side, including almost no attention to our neighboring walkways and a big light blocking a portion of the stage.

3. Security too close for any good pics

4. NO TONIGHT MUSIC VIDEO. This was the most disappointing thing as they announced on THURSDAY that they would premiere it and then Big Bang had to say that it didn’t get finished. They showed an unfinished version, but i actually really wished they hadn’t shown it at all. The clips were good, but they werent timed properly to the music, and it was super choppy and just disappointing

5. Serious technical difficulties before performing their newest songs. Fans shouted 괜찮아 but it took forever for them to fix the issue. Disappointing.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that.

I have to go take care of my just been neutered kitten who is lethargic and semi-depressed right now. Plus, I’m starving.

xoxo

By the way, did any of you go to the concert? What did you think?

Baram

baram-dungi playing. He has been really crazy tonight. Maybe he is as excited about bigbang's comeback as I am

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Oatmeal

You know, I went on this intense oatmeal kick my senior year of university and I ate the stuff most everyday, sometimes two packs a day, always the same ones, maple and brown sugar, or cinnamon sugar instant quaker oatmeal packs. I had my mom ship me some to eat this winter, but I was only able to down one packet before I my head was pounding and I felt like I was going to go into a legit sugar coma.

What happened? I guess I just don't eat nearly as much sugar sweet foods as we americans eat on a daily basis. Even Korean deserts and cookies are noticeably less sweet than American versions. I made sugar cookies with my students, and they were like, teacher, that's too sweet. Uh, the primary ingredient is sugar, it's supposed to be sweet. But now I'm off-topic.

Today, I discovered this blogger's recipe for instant oatmeal, and I thought, hmmm, I could get behind this. For the rest of you eating quaker instant oatmeal packets, why don't you use this recipe to make tastier, customizable, less expensive, way better for you oatmeal? If I can find oats, I'll try this out myself. If I botch it horrible it's only something like 10 bucks down the drain.

xoxo
A

One little kpop spam

Okay, so I've been pretty good at keeping this mostly k-pop free because, well, I started that tumblr account of mine that is pretty much strictly dedicated to all things k-culture (pop, drama, culture) and this is going to mostly anecdotes and stuff from life in Korea, food, school, activities, events, etc. If you are interested in that stuff, I recommend you head over to tumblr and subscribe/rss feed/read religiously/ask questions/etc!

But, tonight at 12 a.m. marks a major moment for me personally here in Korea. It's BigBang's comeback (after 2 years and 3 months... but who's counting?) and as lame as that may be, I am anticipating this and hyped for this more than perhaps anything in my whole life. This, to me, is more exciting than making the varsity basketball team, getting into college, starting university, turning 21, getting a bid to college nationals for ultimate frisbee, getting a job right out of uni, leaving America to teach English in another country, traveling to 3 continents in less than 12 months, and any other major life moment I can remember.

It's just that this group has really defined my experiences here. If it weren't for bigbang, I think a lot of my life he would just be lived in a state of: "this is just temporary, so don't bother getting attached" but via my love of bigbang I have been able to engage my students and initiate deep and meaningful relationships with them, have opportunities to meet people (both famous and not) that I'd never have met before, and learn a tremendous amount about the culture I am living in first hand.

If it weren't for big bang, I think I'd probably still believe that my living in Korea is 2-5 year commitment and just a break from a "real" life beckoning from America. However, this "temporary" Korean life has become so much more than that, and I can frankly say that this 2-5 year commitment has suddenly developed into a love that will last my whole life for a culture that I was turned on to at age 21 when I first saw the video for 거짖말 on youtube.

Thanks big bang for 2 years of memories and amazing experiences, and hopefully to many many more years filled with your music and concerts!!

Anyhow, here's the last teaser before bigbang has their comeback at midnight tonight. I hope you can see in it some little sparkle of love that I have huge quantities of.

p.s. In another life update, I'll add that I got my first kitten, Casanova, last friday, and am picking up my other lovely baby tonight. He doesn't have a name yet, but I will post pictures tomorrow. I promise.

p.p.s. OMG BIGBANG BIG SHOW IS FRIDAY. I'm dying.

A Story of North and South

I went on a teachers trip a couple months ago to Ganghwa Island off the cost in Incheon. We had this fantastic tofu lunch (I had more varieties of tofu in one sitting than I've had in my entire life... it was lovely) and then I watched as my coteacher slipped on a patch of ice and fell literally 1 minute after I said, be careful you might fall and then fell again while she was trying to get up. Then, we went to an observatory on the top of this mountain and a p.e. teacher said to me, that's North Korea right there, and I got all excited and impressed and then she declared, nah, I'm just messing with you. That was disappointing.

But then we got to the entrance gate and the guard informed us that yes, indeed, that was North Korea after all. And there I stood, less than one mile from North Korea. We went to the top of the observatory tower and listened to a woman speak about North Korea for a while. And by we listened, I mean, everyone listened while my youngest co-teacher (only 4 years old than me!) and I unlocked a locked door (the lock was located atop the door, but I'm really tall so it was no issue) and snuck outside to look at North Korea and get fresh air and then throw snow at each other.

But we returned, nervous that we would either a) get caught and severely reprimanded, or b) Have snipers in North Korea somehow shoot us from just under a mile away for doing nothing but playing outside in the snow.

But I'm glad we returned because I got to hear this story:

Some years ago (less than 20, more than 5), there was flooding in the area bordering North and South Korea, including an area of neutral waters between Ganghwa Island and N. Korea. A result of the flooding was that a cow from North Korea got swept off mainshore N.K. and was carried to a small island in this neutral territory. This North Korean cow was thusly stranded in neutral waters and the neither the North nor the South could send in a rescue party to procure the cow because of the long standing neutrality in and ban on entering these waters. So, naturally, the UN, which only takes a stand in the most worthy of causes, stepped in an retrieved the cow and brought it back to South Korea. Unfair right? Wrong! Because South Korea then had one of it's prized Jeju lady cows brought up to Seoul. And, in a moment of peace and as a sign of hope for reconciliation, the North Korean cow and the South Korean cow were bred together, a symbol for the coming together of two unjustly separate nations.

The End.

But this story leaves me with this question:
The baby cow. What happened to him/her? Did he belong to South Korea, or North Korea, or to the U.N. who so graciously saved this baby's father's life. Was he raised and slaughtered in the hopes of becoming a part of the great reconciliation feast that after such a great sign of partnership between the two conflict-wrought nation was sure was to come without delay? Or did he get shipped off to the North, given that the father has final rights, only to live a life oppressed and without civil liberties? Who knows.

It's kept me up some nights just wondering what happened to the little baby not-south-or-north-just-Korean cow baby and whether he lived a life filled with democracy and justice in the South, oppression and poverty in the North, or general impotence and sanctions with the U.N.

Just something to chew the cud over. HAR HAR.

xoxo
A

If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?

This article from The UK's popular daily newspaper, The Guardian, was posted by my Korean tutor on facebook. I think it's an excellent read, especially if you are interested in any of the following: 1) Asian food culture 2) Japanese food history 3) Processed foods and their effects on health 4) fighting MSG 5) ramen

I'll add my own short anecdote:

As many of you know, I've been cooking a lot these days. Usually Korean food, but often American favorites too (Velveeta Mac&Cheese, anyone?), and I've brought some of it to work. Anyhow, my coteacher Mrs. Oh ate some of it and she said it was really delicious, and we started talking about cooking (she has no idea how to cook, she thought it'd be a good idea to boil some beef and quail eggs in 4 cups of soy sauce... just soy sauce. gross) and recipes and she told me that she has a secret too make good food. She said to me, "I cannot cook so I always use 다시다 (dashida) and it makes everything better." I didn't know what dashida was at first, but then I realized that it's soup stock, which is basically MSG + salt (as if msg needs more salt). I said, "isn't that bad for you?" and my teacher replied, "maybe, but it tastes good so who cares."

I kind of want to go back to her and say, "look! It's not unhealthy!" but that wouldn't prove anything because she doesn't care one way or another.

But this also explains why in most Korean recipes that require some kind of broth you are told to soak 다시마(thick dried kelp) in water, because it produces the non-stabilized version of MSG (called glutamic acid, or after fermentation glutamate) which occurs naturally in high levels in kelp and, among other things, human milk, parmesan cheese, soy sauce, tomatos and walnuts. So, this is what adds that deep savory flavor to my jangjorim and ddeokbokki... You mean to tell me that instead of soaking kelp for 30 minutes to an hour, I can just sprinkle in some "not un-healthy" MSG and it's all the same? SIGN ME UP.

This is what contains some of the highest concentrations of glutemic acid in the world, and was the inspiration for MSG: kombu/昆布 (jap.) or dashima/다시마 (Kor.) or haidai/海带 (Chin.)

Tumblr Giveaway

Thinking about doing a giveaway on my tumblr.

Big Bang's comeback is nearing and I'm thinking about doing a special comeback cd giveaway. I'd like it to be special for tumblr followers because my tumblr is new, and it'd be like a bigbang comeback celebration + tumblr christening.

Anyways, check out my tumblr and comment/reblog/whatever the hell it is, if you are interested in getting some Big Bang tunes for freeeeee!

www.reallywally.tumblr.com

xoxo
A

Taxi Drivers and other Run-ins

As a 6'1" (186 cm) tall, blonde hair, very fair skinned woman in Korea, I get quite a bit of attention everywhere I go. It's 9 a.m. here and I've only been outside for maybe 25 minutes total, but I've already gotten about 10 uncomfortable stares plus two random "Hello"s from people I don't know. Standard for a day.

However, I particularly enjoy seeing the look of surprise on a Korean's face when I speak Korean to them. In the last six months or so, my Korean has improved dramatically from bumbling and slow, broken Korean to simple phrases come naturally and complicated explanations or conversations can be had if you are patient with me. And so, when I take a taxi or am approached by a Korean person I can generally make conversation with them without seeming like a complete idiot. It's a nice development and it only took 18 months to achieve.

I have two stories today:

On Valentine's Day I mentioned that I had a little grocery dilemma so I ended up at Home Plus where I made an unsuccessful attempt at finding cream. After picking up some hot dogs (which are HORRIBLE by the way... worst hot dogs ever), I hopped in a cab and said, "신포시장 가주세요" and off we went to Sinpo Market. After a minute he asked me where in sinpo I wanted to go, and I fumbled a bit as my apartment is kind of in a difficult to describe location as it relates to the market. So I just said, "길 알려줄까요?" Shall I just tell you the way? And he said okay. Then he looked at me and announced, I thought you were a Korean.

I beamed as I said, no, American. And we had the usual conversation: what do you do? Teacher. Where? How long? Do you like Korea? Do you like kimchi? You speak Korean well. etc. etc. Then he asked me "결혼했어요?" Are you married? To which I answered no. Oh, you're solo, he mused. To which I interjected, 근데 남자친구 있어요!" And so we started talking about my boyfriend. How old is he. Is he an English teacher? (HA) What does he do? I explained he is still in university, and the taxi driver asked, which university? 중앙대 I replied. And he said... oooooooh, GOOD! (Jungang Univerisity is considered maybe in the top 10 of Korea, just outside the SKY schools (Seoul, Korea, Yonsei University), so it's pretty cool to most Korean that he goes there. Then he asked what he studies. "채육" I replied. Physical Education. Ooooooooh, the taxi driver said, disappointed. "Engineering good! Doctor, good! 채육? hmph" I laughed and then we were at my apartment and I left.

Story 2:
Yesterday, I was walking home and on the street leading to my school a Korean woman was walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. I had my earphones in, jamming to some big bang, but I did notice that she was crossing the street and seemed to be looking right at me. So I took my earphones out, and our conversation, entirely in Korean began:
Woman: Are you Russian?
Me: No.
Woman: Where are you from?
Me: America:
Woman: Oh! America! Do you speak English well?
Me: (confused...) uh, yeah.
Woman: Oh good, do you speak Korean well?
Me: Uh, a little.
Woman: You speak really well! What do you do here?
Me: Teacher. That school *pointing*
Woman: Oh, my son is in the boys school next door. 3rd grade.
Me: oh okay.
Woman: At my house I have a son. I want him to speak English. Teach him.
Me: Umm, I'm a little busy. I don't know *this is weird*
Woman: I want him to speak English well, so what can I do? How much would it be to teach him?
Me: I don't know... uhhh *mumble* 40,000 won/50,000 won, for one hour.
Woman: Oh okay, and when can you do it.
Me: Um, I don't know, I'm taking a Korean class and I am really busy these days.
Woman: Oh you're busy. I see.
Me: Yes.
Woman: let's walk together. Where are you going? Where do you live?
Me: Sinpo.
Woman: Ah, Sinpo, okay. Let's walk. How long have you lived in Korea.
Me: Since 2009. A year and a half or so.
Woman: Wow! You speak Korean so well!
Me: No, just a little.
Woman: How long will you stay in Korea?
Me: I don't know exactly. 계속 (continually... without end?)
Woman: Really??? No! Why? How? 계속??
Me: I don't know exactly. I like it here.
Woman: Will you teach at that school always?
Me: No, I want to study Korean.
Woman: But already your Korean is good.
Me: I want it to be better. And I will go to Seoul to study.
Woman: Ah. But you don't want to leave Korea?
Me: No, I like Korea.
Woman: Why? (She legit couldn't understand why I would like it here)
Me: The people are nice. The food is good. My job is good.
Woman: The food? Do you like kimchi?
Me: Yes, I like everything.
Woman: Would you like to eat some 떡국 (rice cake soup) at my house? I have 떡국. Let's eat together.
Me: I'm sorry, I have to go.
Woman: Just a little 떡국 and we can talk. And my son.
Me: I'm really sorry, but I have to go study. I'm sorry. *walks quickly away*

I guess I missed out on an opportunity to a) eat possibly delicious homemade 떡국 and b) get a sweet tutoring job, but it seemed weird. In America, we don't just go to strangers homes and eat soup. I guess in Korea I could do it. I told my boyfriend about and he was like, wow, good job! GO! I was like, uh no.

That's it!

xoxo
A

My Valentine's Day mistake

Welp, Valentine's Day was yesterday and it was pretty good overall. At school in the daytime,  I made that really cute card, which Hoon really loved and was super surprised that I made all by myself. Plus, the chocolates and peppero that I made turned out super great and the bags and everything were just about perfect. Like a professional! ^^

Then, there was this little mistake. I was planning to make this positively delicious tomato cream sauce pasta that I got a recipe for off Pioneer Woman (who just so happens to be one of my idols).

Well, after school finished, I went to EMart to pick up some ingredients (pasta, tomato sauce, cream, parsley). The problem I have with E-Mart is that their dairy section is constantly changing. Some items that they carry get removed mysteriously practically overnight. And others move to completely different locations, and then coffee drinks replace them. This is what happened to the heavy cream which three weeks ago, there were several different brands of and plenty of them at that. Yesterday, at EMart, I circled the coffee/cream/butter/cheese refrigerator three times without success. Then, finally I saw it! 크림! Cream! I snatched it up and was off.

Then I got home. As I was unpacking the food, lo and behold I discover this cream caveat that I didn't originally notice: *휘핑* 크림 aaaaaaaaaaaaaack. Whipping Cream.

For those of you who are completely clueless about cooking you absolutely cannot use whipping cream in a cream sauce pasta dish. Unless you want to make yourself sick. So here I was with two cups of whipping cream and no heavy cream. So I decided to make my way to Home Plus, another significantly larger supermarket in Korea. I was certain that what EMart lacks (which is often does, and in many ways) HomePlus would surely have.

I was wrong.

The dairy section (or more specifically the milk and cream section was virtually empty). I heard a rumor that they were going to stop selling milk in Korea and it looks like Home Plus was hit hard. They had hardly any milk at all. And the cream? I found the little price marker on the shelf for the cream, but there wasn't a bottle or jug or carton of the stuff to be found. Sure, I could find liters of strawberry milk, and about 2 dozen soy milks, but one 250 mL carton of cream? Completely gone.

So I gave up, after many an "아아아아 진짜? 없어? 어떻게? 정말 어떻게 하지?" and decided to make macaroni and cheese with cut up hot dogs.

Hoon may have been happier with the mac & cheese than he ever would have been with the pasta anyways. Funny how that works.

xoxo
A

Happy Valentine's Day!

This is the Valentine's Day card I made for Hoon:

Please ignore that big blue piece of paper in the middle. I accidentally forgot to take a picture before I actually wrote a note, and I didn't really want to share a personal letter to my boyfriend for Valentine's Day on the internet for potentially hundreds, thousands, or millions of people to read (I know, I'm thinking grand thoughts assuming that millions of people would ever read this lowly blog) so I had to cover it with a scrap of paper.

Instead, imagine that the whole middle section is that lovely rose pink color behind the blue paper.

It turned out really well, and it took way less time to make than that darn pop-up Christmas Card I decided to make two months ago. Unfortunately, this means that once his birthday rolls around, I'll have to come up with some new, even better card to give him, and idk what I'll do then.

In other news, there is some bug on my blogger-droid app so I can't post from my phone. BUMMER. It was working on Saturday just fine.

xoxo
A

Korea

A full update on my life was promised so here goes. The good and the bad.

1. I got food poisoning on Wednesday/Thursday. I was up all night doing, you know, food poisoning-related things, and not sleeping at all. I called in sick because at 6:30 when my alarm went off I was like oh good, I've slept a total of 40 minutes or so, and I just threw up 20 minutes ago. This doesn't bode well. So I slept all effing day and ate nothing while trying to let my body recover. Korea is dealing with some serious livestock diseases, but i don't think that's what got me. I think it was veggies that came in contact with raw meat and then weren't cooked thoroughly. But anyhow, I'm all better now thanks to lots of sleep, and plenty of water.

2. On Tuesday I bought two first floor standing tickets to the Big Bang Big Show which I am SUPER excited to see. I'm basically dying, I'm so happy. I will be among the first people to see Big Bang perform new songs live after a two year hiatus from Korean promotions. Granted, they have performed at YG Family Concerts and last year's Big Show, but nothing new, so this is super exciting. Their album will release the day before the concert and I will go get it and memorize every song in 24 hours if it kills me. Then I will buy the official Taeyang usb drive at the concert sales booth and then I will fangirl spazz for 2 hours while my boyfriend questions why he ever started dating me.

3. I bought the Taeyang Solar Concert DVD. I made a youtube video about in case anyone hear reads my blog but hasn't subscribed to my youtube channel (Uh... SUBSCRIBE NOW PLEASE). Anyways, it's awesome except for this one hilarious and awful English mistake where a page reads, "Let's get start it" which obviously makes no sense. This is disappointing because YG has tons of high level English speakers, and you'd think that for once they would check something like this. Over 100,000 of these DVDs were produced and no one thought to go to a native English speaker and say, hey, is this right? Listen, YG, I'm your girl. I can do this free of charge (except every English grammar proofreading required document must be personally delivered by either Taeyang or Se7en, but that can be arranged, right?)

4. Frisbee practice started this weekend. We had practice on Saturday and Sunday and I am sooooo tired. But it was really fun, and I'm really really looking forward to more practices in increasingly warmer weather.

5. Last weekend I played in a volleyball tournament. I've never had so much fun playing volleyball. Somehow, I think I got better at volleyball via not playing it for 8+ years. I remember kind of sucking back in my freshman year of high school and thinking, welp since I literally can't do anything except blocking (I was a beast at blocking but I couldn't hit, which made me mostly useless) I'm gonna go ahead and quit and focus on bball. And I did just that. But volleyball was awesome and it makes me wanna play a whole bunch more.

6. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I am actually pretty excited for it. Hoon and I are going to have a quiet night in. I am going to make dinner (maybe a revised hopefully even more delicious than last time tomato cream sauce pasta with garlic bread if I can figure out how to make garlic bread without an oven; can't I just crush some garlic, mix it with basil and butter, spread on a thick slice of baguette and sautee?) and give him my gift. In Korea, V-Day is different than back in the States in that only a girl gives a gift and the boy will give a gift to his girlfriend or crush or significant other on White Day which is on March 14th. So I will give a gift, which I will take a photo of and post later, and we'll do something again in another month. I like this time because Feb 5th was our 200 day anniversary (they celebrate every 100 days or at least the first couple, plus 1000, and then they stop, I think), then valentines day, then white day, then one month later is Hoon's birthday, and then two weeks after that is my birthday so it's like nonstop celebrations until May rolls around (but then our one year anniversary will be in July~ hahaha)

7. I might go skiing this upcoming weekend with Hoon and his family. Except we will go only one day and only at night, from like 9 p.m. until maybe 5 a.m. which will basically kill me (I have to go to frisbee the following day at 11) but I am really looking forward to it. Hopefully I can not totally suck at skiing so Hoon won't think I'm a completely uncoordinated loser.

8. I am trying to convince Hoon to get some of his Physical Education classmates to make a frisbee team to send to Jeju. I said I could be the coach. I think it'd be really fun and since they are all athletes (we're talking seriously jacked, run a marathon and then benchpress twice their weight, and then swim 4 miles and then take a 100 question exam on history of sports, sports rules, and human physiology without hardly breaking a sweat-type athletes... this includes the girls) they would probably dominate all the other beginner uni teams because they can run for hours without getting tired. Plus then I'd be obligated to get in better shape and practice frisbee with them too. Win-win, you see?

9. My school had graduation on Friday. I went, and it was only a little sad for me because I was still recovering from food poisoning and had to concentrate really hard on not falling over from fatigue during the ceremony. But, now that I think about it more, I'm pretty bummed. I've known all these students for two years, and they are AMAZING girls. I've gotten to known some of them (maybe about 15 or so) really well and I will certainly miss their smiles, hilarious jokes, helpful Korean lessons, sincere interest in English, enthusiasm for my class, and all-around good attitudes. The prospect of having these students in my classes later in the week helped me get through all the whiny, misbehaving, snarky students I had to deal with from time to time. I will miss them!!!

Also, in case you didn't know yet, I have a tumblr at www.reallywally.tumblr.com. It's basically 100% Korean culture all the time. Emphasis on kpop, but also with touches of food, drama, models, konglish and other interesting tidbits.

That's it.

xoxo
A

Announcement

I would like to take this time to make this announcement.

As of today, Saturday, February 12, 2011 (Korea time... Friday February 11, 2011 EST), this blogger is officially 100% debt-free. I have no debt whatsoever. I have no credit card bills to pay (at the moment) and my 11,000 USD loan from undergrad university studies has been completely paid off exactly 649 days after my graduation (Also know as  about 9 weeks shy of 2 years).

I would consider this my single greatest accomplishment since graduation. I can't decide if that's a little depressing that I consider that my greatest (when I take into consideration all the dope things I've done in the last 649 days: traveled to 6 countries on three continents, lived abroad for a year and a half, essentially taught myself Korean, taught English [mostly] successfully to over 900 students, etc) or it's really that great.

Anyways, CONGRATULATIONS TO ME

Oh, and this week seems to be full of exciting events for both me and my friends. My dear friend Kel had her first beautiful baby girl, Elorah earlier this week, and another dear friend, K-T will be married in less than 24 hours.

Congratulations to my wonderful friends half way across the world. I love you!

xoxo
A

Bathroom Humor

This never gets old to me. Imagine seeing a sign like this in America. As awesome as it would be, it will never happen. But in Korea it is commonplace.

In other news I had food poisoning and am almost all recovered. And today I have my first frisbee practice. I also bought my unqlo big bang hoodie today. Pics at my tumblr!♥ www.reallywally.tumblr.com

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this is irrelevant and being used for something else. Sorries.

Anyhow, a real update on my life will be coming soon enough.

Happy V-Day bitches

This is 320 pieces of paper that I cut at home to prepare for valentines my students will make this week. I had to precut them or else 35 students would totally use all my paper in one 45-minute block. Did I mention that there are another 200 or so more at my school that I cut while at work today. The 500+ papers will be enough for about 5-6 classes. That unfortunately means I have another 75 A4 pages to quarter. FML

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