TAEYANG CONCERT [round two]

it is a well-established fact that i am a crazy person, somewhat fangirlish, and kinda obsessed with bigbang. therefore, i fully support the solo efforts of each of the five members of bigbang. so when it was announced that taeyang would be giving TWO performances of his first full-length solo concert [he had a mini solo concert maybe 2-ish years ago when his mini-album, HOT, was released], i knew that attending both would be a necessity to my life.

on sunday, i went to the second and last performance of taeyang's solar concert.

my seats were located on the third floor, sixth row, right side. the previous night, i sat on the left side of the first floor; it was good to get a different view of the concert. since the concert hall was very small, the third floor seats weren't bad at all--i actually had a really good view.

the second concert was amazing and perfect in every way, just like the first performance. there were a few minor differences, and two major differences between the two. the minor differences included slightly different dances and lyrics.

the concert began with the intro track from solar playing, along with a video showing taeyang entering the concert hall. the lights dimmed. the fangirls screamed. and then, slowly, a white circle was lowered down onto the center of the stage. taeyang, dressed in a quite bling-y white outfit with his signature aviators, was standing in the circle. he stepped onto the stage and the band began to play the opening notes of 기도 [prayer]. i screamed enthusiastically--기도 is my favorite taeyang song.

every song was perfection [or at least, near-perfection]. i was amazed at how the band was able to transition seamlessly from song to song. and at how perfectly the song order had been chosen. he sang songs from all three of his albums: mini-album HOT, solar, and solar international.

my one criticism is that he sang the song "you're my" which i absolutely and utterly despise because it is pretty much the worst song ever [ok, so maybe not...but it's not good]. although, i will admit that hearing it live is approximatly one million times better than hearing the recording. also, when taeyang sang "you're my" he was looking pretty spiffy [and by "spiffy" i mean "hott"] in a suit.

the best outfits [worn by taeyang and his backup dancers] were, in my opinion, the ones worn during the songs "superstar" and "breakdown" [<--my favorite song from solar]. they looked like part of a drum line: red military style jackets with white pants worn by the guys, and the girls wore the red jackets with red miniskirts, white boots, and red hats with a white poofy feather on the front. sooo cool.

actually, "breakdown" was probably my favorite performance during the show. i lovelovelove the song, the outfits were amazing, and the choreography was excellent. also, taeyang just looked like he was having a lot of fun during that song.

IU was there as a guest performer both nights. [she's so cute.] she and taeyang sang a duet, and then she sang a solo song. both songs were in english. [taeyang sang 2 other songs in english as well during the concert.] it was quite impressive.

he ended the concert with a remixed version of 나만 바라봐 [only look at me]. sooo amazing. after finishing the song, he walked off the stage and the lights dimmed. but the audience wanted more, screaming for an encore for several minutes. suddenly, the band began to play once again, and taeyang came back [as we all knew he would]! he sang "where u at" and "take it slow"--a perfect encore. "take it slow" is a song written by taeyang himself, and is absolutely gorgeous live; it suits his voice so perfectly [and that boy can sing].

both the saturday and sunday show were like that...but, on sunday...

...OH.MY.GOSH. 2NE1 was there!! they are definitely my favorite of the kpop girl groups, and they sang 2 songs off of their new album: "can't nobody" and "go away".

also on sunday...

TAEYANG GAVE A SECOND ENCORE.

it was much, much later. the house lights came on, and EVERYONE started to leave. myself included. i was waiting in the lobby on the first floor when suddenly, i heard screaming. i wasn't about to wait and see what was going on, and instead, i immediately took action.

i went running back into the concert hall. some security people said something to me, but i didn't listen. i didn't care. all i knew was that taeyang was walking back onto the stage and i was absolutely going to be there to see it. due to my quickness and stealth, i found myself FREAKING EIGHT FEET from the stage and from taeyang himself. OH.MY.GOSH. i nearly died.

also--and importantly--i'm pretty sure that taeyang saw the sign i made. [결혼하고 싶어요 "i want to marry you".] me and my sign also [briefly] made it onto the screen during the second encore ANNDDD, before the concert, me and my sign were filmed by someone from some tv show. which means that my plan of making bigbang aware of my existence is moving along quite nicely. excellent.

during the second encore, taeyang sang 나만 바라봐 and "take it slow". during 나만 바라봐, he let the audience sing the chorus, and it was beautiful and wonderful and amazing and perfect. i really didn't want it to end.

sigh.

the concert hall at kyunghee university.

me and my famous sign...with taeyang ^^

coleen, allison, and me...sooo ready for the saturday night performance

at the sunday night show...the crown headband is totally legit [it's bigbang's symbol]

i was THAT close during the second encore on sunday--EEEEKKKK~!

OH.MY.GOSHHHHH. [i stole this picture from coleen ㅋㅋㅋ]

TAEYANG CONCERT [round one]

태양 [taeyang]: famous for randomly ripping off his shirt and having perfect abs. oh, and also for being a super talented dancer, singer, and pianist. [or something like that, his abs are kind of distracting.]

so last night, i went with coleen and allison to taeyang's first solo concert: solar.

AHH-MAY-ZING [does not even begin to describe it].

coleen and i sat on the left side of the auditorium [the concert was held at a college campus, which was beautiful, by the way]. first row on the second section of the first floor. row fourteen. like, thirty feet away from taeyang. holy crap. and when he sang on the side stage, he was even closer.

he ripped of his shirt like two times. and he threw it out into the audience. i guess he can't throw thirty feet, though.

he brought a girl out of the audience to sing to her on the stage. i hate her a little bit.

there was a g-dragon sighting before the show. but, even though taeyang collaborated with him on a song, g-dragon never made an official appearance.

also, T.O.P never made an appearance. i would be sad, if taeyang wasn't so amazing.

i made a sign that said "결혼하고 싶어요". which means, "i want to marry you". i am uncertain whether or not taeyang actually saw the sign or not, but i'm just gonna go ahead and assume that he did.

today i'm going to see taeyang again. because i am slightly crazy. but it's ok, because he's worth it.

above: hottness.

busan

since i had an entire week of NO SCHOOL [yayy!!] i went to busan with my friend, coleen. it was a really...interesting...trip ㅋㅋㅋ

tuesday, 21 september [mythical pizza hut]

so the bus ride to busan took seven hours. for real. it was horrible.

by the time we arrived, we were tired and half starved. we checked into our hostel [indy house] and headed out to find something for dinner.

we saw a sign for pizza hut, and thought that would be a good idea.

it would've been, had the pizza hut actually existed.

we entered the building, and saw a sign claiming that the pizza hut was on the second floor. so we got into the elevator, but there was no "2" button. seriously, it went from "1" to "3". sooo, we decided to step inside the other elevator. this one had a "2" button, but when we pushed it, the elevator went up, and then right back down to the exact place where we had started. frustrated, we took the stairs. we stopped on the floor that said "2", but when we exited the stairwell, we noticed a big sign in the hallway that said "3".

apparently, pizza hut in busan does not exist.

soooo, we went to 해운대 [haeundae], the beach area, instead.

and then we went to the aquarium. which was superfun because it had penguins!!

wednesday, 22 september [doppelganger day]

it rained allllll day.

we ended up going to the museum of modern art which was...interesting. and then we went to the mall.

since it was 추석 [chuseok], a korean holiday, we wanted to do something a little special. so that night, we got dressed up and went to see the play "jump!", a martial arts comedy.

best. play. everrrrrr.

the guy who played the son-in-law looked almost exactly like donghae [from super junior] who, coincidentally, coleen is in love with.

the guy who played one of the burglars looked almost exactly like T.O.P who, coincidentally, i am in love with.

sigh.

thursday, 23 september [i'm pretty sure busan hates me]

the weather was absolutely beautiful. soooo, we went to the beach!!

we spent a couple of hours at the beach in haeundae, walking around and enjoying the views. it was really nice and relaxing.

in the evening, we decided to go to the busan tower/park/area. we had to climb a million stairs to get there. at one point, i fell down a couple of the cement stairs. i was laying on the ground, bleeding, and this man [who saw the whole thing] pointed at me, laughed, AND THEN gathered some of his friends to join in the laughing. [seriously, who does that??]

regardless, the park area was nice, even though it was super crowded.

friday, september 24 [tricky busan]

since our train didn't leave until mid-afternoon, we decided to go to the U.N. Korean War memorial in the morning.

too bad the directional signs in busan lie.

it took us forever to find the park. oh.my.goodness.

we started walking in one direction, following the signs, until we realized that we were right back where we started before we got on the subway.

so, we turned back and started walking in the other direction. about forty-five minutes later, we finally found it. according to the website, it should have only taked us fifteen minutes to walk there. [at least we got our exercise??]

best week ever??

maybe~

this week may very well be the best week. ever.

1.) NO SCHOOL THIS WEEK [yayy~!!]

2.) tomorrow i'm going to busan with coleen. for four days ^__^

3.) 추석 [chuseok--korean thanksgiving] is on wednesday. [i mean, i'm not korean so i don't really celebrate this...but whatever. holidays are cool.]

4.) TAEYANG concert on saturday. i'll be only FOURTEEN rows from taeyang. and hopefully T.O.P [sigh.]

5.) TAEYANG concert on sunday. much worse seats, but whatever...it's freaking taeyang. and hopefully T.O.P [yeah...i'm going twice. don't judge me *^^*]

yayness ^___________^

LOVE.

what i learned in korean

this week, i met with my korean tutor, just like i do every week.

but this week, she taught me something that i think will be particularly useful. and also awesome.

감시 하지마세요. [gamshee hajimaseyo.]: Please stop watching me. [formal]
감시 하지마. [gamshee hajima.]: Stop watching me. [informal]

in other words, "stop being a creeper!" i plan on saying this as often as possible.

signage

i saw this sign while i was at everland.

i think it's supposed to mean: "don't go on this ride if you have a heart condition or back problems".

but what it looks like is: "don't go on this ride if you are a terrible dancer or have bad gas".

just say no.

everland

last sunday, stephen, coleen, and i went to everland for the day to celebrate stephen's last weekend in korea.

everland is a resort/amusement park/zoo/waterpark just outside of seoul. it's also quite awesome.

since it had poured alllll week and the sky looked threatening, the park was not crowded at all. the longest we ever had to wait in line was 3o minutes. also, it really turned out to be a beautiful day...it rained only for an hour, and since it was overcast, the temperature was relatively cool.

it was a really great time. we rode just about everything in the park, and we even had time to go to the zoo!! [it had penguins--YAYY!!]

the best ride in the park was, without a doubt, T-Express. this is the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world [the first hill drops at a 77 degree angle]. actually, this may be my favorite roller coaster of all roller coasters ever.

this past may i went to lotteworld, which is another popular amusement park in seoul. as much fun as everland was, i think that i prefer lotteworld because it's closer to where i live and the park is not as spread out. everland covers a huge amount of land, which means A LOT more walking. regardless, it was still tons of fun and i would most definitely recomment it. it's pretty much worth the 2 hour trip just for the T-Express!

good times! ^___^

yeah, we walked around the park like that...

the european section of everland...you can see the T-Express in the background.

movie

포화 속으로 [71: Into the Fire].

this is a really excellent movie. and i'm not saying that just because T.O.P is in it. [although he certainly made it better ㅋㅋ].

i watched the movie when it was released in korea this past june.

and now, an english subbed version is available online for your viewing pleasure!!

coffee prince

last saturday, coleen and i--on a whim--decided to go to hongdae for coffee. since coleen had never been to the hello kitty cafe, our original intention was to go there. but, we made an exciting, albeit accidental, discovery: coffee prince was just around the corner!

for those of you who don't know, coffee prince was the set of a really famous [and super good--it's one of my favorites] k-drama of the same name.

obviously, we decided to save hello kitty for another day.

on the inside, the coffee shop looked exactly the way it did on the tv show. the baristas even wore the same outfits as the characters on the show.

also, i should mention that the coffee was delicious. i got an iced caramel macchiato. we also ordered 팥빙수 [patbingsu] to share. yumm~~

너무 맛있어요~~

coleen and i outside in front of the flower mural.

To Anyone

my after school mission was highly successful. i managed to acquire 2NE1's first full-length album, To Anyone which was released today. i then promptly uploaded it to my iPod and raced off to the gym to give it a listen while running.

to be honest, i was impressed before i even listened to the music. the album art, in my opinion, is brilliant. each of the members shows a different look, and everything from their hair, to their makeup, to their clothing style is so cool! additionally, the lyrics and the thanks pages are all handwritten copies, adding a really unique touch.

i was hooked from the first song (can't nobody). it's happy and upbeat and the perfect soundtrack for a workout. my favorite song from the album is without a doubt 박수 쳐 [clap your hands]. it's just so catchy. but all of their songs are; they're so easy to listen to, and they make it easy to really get in to the music. another favorite of mine from this album is 아파 (slow). the song perfectly showcases each of their voices (and they are amazing singers).

the cd also includes previously released solo songs from the girls. of these, my favorite is most definitely "please don't go" by c.l. and minzy. but then, this shouldn't come as much as a surprise since they are my absolute favorites from the group. (especially c.l.)

as a bonus, the cd includes a reggae mix version of the song that put them on the map, "i don't care". since i absolutely love this song, i was really skeptical about the reggae version. but the mix just works. it seems to fit the song perfectly.

basically, i think it's a great cd, and i would absolutely recommend it. the majority of the songs are up-beat and dancey, but it does include slower songs that showcase the four girls' strong vocal talent. unlike a lot of kpop out now, they kept the autotune to a minimum. a good thing, for people who actually want to hear the singers. i don't really know what else i can say about this album [i feel like i've already praised it enough ㅋㅋ] except GO BUY IT. NOW. it'll be well worth your 14,000 won.

박수쳐

this video is tight. omygosh. i freaking love 2NE1.

their new look is sooo cool. and C.L. is awesome.

i literally cannot wait to listen to their entire new album, which i will [hopefully] be able to hunt down later today.

digital bounce

this song isn't particularly new, but i have been listening to it on repeat since i saw SE7EN at the incheon hallyu music wave concert.

omygosh. lovveee. SE7EN annddd T.O.P~~of course it's amazing. [the best part is at 2:27 when my boy hits the stage *^^*]



also, yesterday i somehow managed to score 14th row tickets to taeyang's solo concert on september 25. [jumps around ecstatically]
when tickets first went on sale a few weeks ago, i was able to obtain 3rd floor tickets to the september 26 show. yeahhh, so i'm gonna go twice. because i'm just cool like that.

ahh~~typhoons~!

apparently, there is a typhoon. i'm not exactly sure what this means, but i'm just going to go ahead and assume that it's something like a hurricane.

i'm not too concerned, but people here seem to be really worried.

ehh, whatever~

today my school had a two-hour delay. but after i got here, i found out that all classes have been cancelled for the day.

ordinarily, this would be great. except that now i get no christmas vacation because that's when we'll be making up these classes. awesome.