On 8/3, Hera and I went to Junsu's concert at COEX Hall D in Gangnam. We bought Standing VIP tickets, and ended up 2 rows back from the main stage. However, he spent a large portion of his time dancing on the stage in the middle and behind us, and it was awkward to turn around... so next time, I think standing further back would be better (at least you'd only ever have to look forward). He sang a number of his songs, and had some fan interaction time in the middle, but he didn't sing my favorite song (of his), You Are So Beautiful, from Scent of a Woman's OST (from Aug/Sept 2011). :( It was the background music to a slideshow during a costume change, so I guess I'll have to settle with that, heh.
Top: A building near the mall. Bottom: Concert logo.
The rainy season here hasn't been too bad (the "humid season," i.e. summer, is far worse), but there have been a few days where it's just poured. Luckily, my $3 Daiso umbrella I bought in the spring has continued to serve me well. I have to wear flip-flops most days, though, because sneakers just end up soggy.
Heavy rains at SNU.
Class ended on 8/9. I did well, but I wasn't the top level 3 student (as I was for level 2). Ah well. :)
Rows: Reading (of 20), Writing (30), Listening (20), Speaking (30).
After the final class, six of us went to see the Busan Lotte Giants play the Seoul LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium. My friends bought $13 tickets for the Giants (the away team), located right behind third base. We ended up losing pretty badly, but it was still a lot of fun. :)
Top: It's BYOB/F, so everyone brought something to share. My contribution
was two Pizza School pizzas. Bottom: A view of the outfield and infield.
Baseball in Korea thankfully follows the same rules as in the US. They don't have baseball in China, so the Chinese kids had no idea what was going on. They speak English well, and I tried explaining it, but... it's kind of hard to explain because the vocab isn't something most people would know, unless you know baseball. (How do you explain a "double play" or an "RBI" without using other baseball terms?)
One thing that is different is that Korean teams have cheerleaders. Ours were located just above and behind us (about 20 rows back from the field). Unfortunately for us (and fortunately for the guys in front of us), this provided a nice up-skirt view of all the girls while they were dancing. Some boys filmed every time they danced... as high schoolers will. Still...ugh.
Me watching the guys watching the cheerleaderz.
Also, they're big on things to help with cheering/team spirit. They sold these inflated...sticks (that you beat together to make noise) for $2 outside the gate. And at about the midpoint, they passed around these orange bags (our colors are orange and black). Most people inflated them and tied them off, and hooked the handles around their ears (me included... but I was super-sweaty, so I'll spare you from the photos heh), but a few girls instead made pretty bows.
Top: Noise sticks. Bottom: Bags on our heads for team support...
On the three hottest days of summer (sambok or boknal), people eat hot foods to cool down. 8/12 was malbok, the final "hottest" day. Previously, people ate dog meat stew (bosintang), but these days, most (younger) people eat chicken ginseng soup (samgyetang). Iza and I went to the same restaurant in February (when I had a cold and wanted something like chicken soup). It was practically empty then, but we went the day before malbok and the place was still packed.
Samgyetang (chicken gingseng soup).
I'll have another post soon about my trip to Taiwan. Hopefully it doesn't take a long to finish as the Japan ones...^^
No comments:
Post a Comment