LOL

I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard. My spasms of laughing induced a hip cramp and caused tears.

ENJOY!

R-16 part 1

Last weekend was r16, a big international bboy competition. I had been looking forward to the competition since I bought tickets over a month ago. It turns out I reserved tickets 20 and 21 of everyone there. I also went to the r16 preparty, which was hella dope.

Anyways, I guess first I'll talk about the pre-party since that's the first thing that happened on my weekend. I went with M and Dre to Lotte Hotel in Jamsil (which by the way is hella fucking far from Incheon... 2 hours-ish). We got there early and we had time to eat dinner. Actually, where we ate there was a restaurant called Uncle Wong's. This is particularly interesting because in Dumbfoundead's Grindtime battle with Tantrum, Dumb says, "You're not just an Uncle Tom, you're an Uncle Wong."

Then, after eating, we headed to the party. It was a little confusing to find because we weren't really sure where we were going. naturally. We got to the place eventually and it was still hella early, like 8 p.m. At that point we caught the tail-end of some pre-competition elimination popping and locking battles. They were okay, and at the time I thought pretty good, but nothing compared to what we saw the following day. But that's for later.

Then, after the competition was over, we took a break and just sat and rested. It was kind of strange being there because I am not really part of the break dancing community. I mean, sure, I listen to hip-hop a lot, and I've watched a whole shit-ton of graffiti, scratching, and breakdancing videos online, but as for actually participating in the hip-hop culture, I fall definitively into the observer category. It's not that I'm a bad dancer, it's just that I'm not a bgirl.

Anyways, so it was weird with everyone being so talented and then me just kind of hanging out and watching.

While I was standing around one of the dance circles (everyone was breaking in circles which was cool to watch), I saw DJ Zo, and he said hello to me and gave me a hug and we chatted. Then later in the evening I saw dumb and said hello and he also recognized me and gave me a hug. I know that I probably sound ridiculous and fan-girl-y hear, but they just seem so cool and chill. I know they aren't super famous and it's not like they have millions of people banging down their doorstep for autographs and shit, but still, I've seen less famous people act like total dicks to their fans. It's nice to see artists who haven't let a little bit of fame and internet popularity get to their heads. In the off chance that one of the two of them sees this post, thanks guys for making my night a little bit more than just a concert, but an interaction. You guys are cool as fuck and I hope y'all stay that way.

So a bit later, dumb and djzo hit the stage. They absolutely fucking wrecked it. They did most everything that I really wanted to see and I got some great pictures and footage and whatnot. They did bullets of truth, Mr. Nice Guy, plus Dumb freestyled a whole lot. Plus he even called up other MCs and invited them to do a short freestyle on the mic. It was really cool. Like 4 or 5 people came up and spat verses in English and Korean. It was really cool.

Then M and Dre left because they were tired and dumb finished and that's the only reason they really went. Unfortunately, I wasn't ready to bounce so I was pissed and ended up staying alone to watch DJSoulscape (basically a Korean legend as far as DJs go). Soulscape was just ridiculously talented, and it turned out to be better than I had expected in spite of being alone. This Korean girl came up and talked to me and said I was a really really good dancer, and she thought I was a dancer (not that I was like poppping or breaking or anything), and that was very flattering since there were a lot of other dancers there and she was impressed by me.

Anyways this is the video I threw together this afternoon of the video/pictures I took during the concert. Enjoy, and check out my other videos over on my youtube channel! Thaaaaanks!!

NEW JAY PARK VIDEO

So here's the new Jay Park video. He does some sort of flip jump thing I don't know the name of. He raps a verse and then sings the chorus of BedRock by Young Money. Then he covers Usher's Foolin' Around. Then there is some clip where is friends/roommates scare him while he is eating some Pocky.



Oh and one other thing, I LOVE JAY PARK.

Also also, if a bunch of tweeny Korean middle schoolers make me miss out on seeing Dumbfoundead, Jay, and some really kick-ass breaking at R16s, I'm gonna punch someone in the damn face. For Real.

Taeyang bringing sexy back.

This is old, but omfg, I love it. Also, Keyshia Cole is amaaaaaazing. Loving this video right now. For real.

God I love Jay Park

Seriously though. Park Jaebum (박재범) was the leader of Korean super group 2PM until information leaked that he had written negative things about Korea on his personal myspace (he was born and raised near Seattle, Washington, and moved to Korea after auditioning for JYP entertainment). He is famous in Korea for being quite possibly the sexiest man alive, as well as his impressive singing and dancing abilities.  Anyways, now everyone hates 2PM (myself included) because JYP recently announced that Jay will never rejoin 2PM and members of 2PM (especially my once beloved Taecyeon) said some shitty things about Jay that simply can't be forgiven.

Anyways, he's back in the states and living in Washington again. He was recently at Rutgers for a major KSA thing, and he has been working the dance crew Art of Movement, and he is supposedly starting university in Washington (at some small school) in the fall. He recently started a youtube channel, which I am already a subscriber, and I just found some videos from his time at Rutgers performing, and OMG AMAZING.







Can I just effing marry him now? Seriously.


So that's all for now y'all.


Oh, and p.s. I got a macbook and it is tiiiiiiiight. Now I'm up for some seriously skyping because, you know, my macbook is amazing


xoxo
A

Weekend and my Apartment!

This weekend was crazy. Cocoon in Hongdae twice, plus I tried Chinese Beijiu for the first time. It tastes like paint thinner. Smells like paint thinner. It was disugusting. Cocoon is crazy. It was packed, mostly with Korean people, which was cool. Also, they played great music (mostly hip-hop) and there were a lot of AWESOME dancers there. There were like 4 guys who had almost choreographed dances to half of the songs. I wish I had taken a video. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera.

I went to Insa-dong, which is a big traditional Korean arts area, with tons of shopping. I'm almost done with Christmas presents, which has been a tremendous hassle. I got my first christmas gift from Eric & Kate, which is awesome. Unfortunately, I have no Christmas tree, so I've just put it on my coffee table and figure there won't be too many more coming in, so it should be fine. The biggest problem will be having the willpower not to open then before the big day. Christmas is going to be super lonely here this year. Sad. Luckily though, it hardly feels like Christmas here. Sure there are some Christmas decorations, but not nearly as many and they aren't nearly as gaudy. This is good because most of the time I've almost forgotten that Christmas is right around the corner. ^^

Anyways, I took the time this evening to make a video tour of my apartment. I know most of you have skyped me and have at least sort of seen my place, but a lot of you haven't. I figured you might be interested to see how I am living here. Old habits die hard friends, so you will see me in standard form. I did clean up a bit (I even vacuumed today), but I left it mostly in my natural habitat so you could see what it's like. Enjoy!



xoxo
A

Picnic Day. NOT.

So Friday was picnic day. This means that in lieu of classes, all the students and teachers go to have a picnic somewhere. Some of the students went to Incheon Park and some of them went to New Songdo City, a really fancy economic zone being built in southern Incheon.

Which one did I go to? How much fun was it? How was the weather?

Unfortunately I cannot answer these questions because I was not allowed to go to Picnic day. Instead, I went to school, where there were 3 other employees (not teachers, just staff), and the 7 students who are participating in the song/dance performance at the English Festival on October 28th. Yes, that's right, I missed out on a day of fresh air and sunshine so that I could practice a song and dance for 5 hours.

So it really wasn't that bad. It was actually kind of fun. I finally started to get the dance (although the performance is tomorrow and I haven't practiced since Friday), and practicing was interspersed with HEAVY snacking, which is always right up my alley. Chocolate mallomar type cookies (SO DELICIOUS). Then lunch of jajjangmyeon (Korean-Chinese noodle dish with black bean sauce) and mandu (dumplings), then apples and juice, then McDonalds snackwraps and french fries. Plus, the girls that I practice with are so so wonderful and good and fun, so in the end it really isn't so bad. ^^

Hopefully I will be able to have a coteacher take video/pictures of the song/dance at the festival tomorrow so the whole world can see me with my dancing shoes on. haha. It's not going to be pretty. Of that I can assure you. But it will be funny.