YonkoJeon

I am a big sports fan. I was raised on American football and soccer. Every Sunday at my home we had the game on the TV all afternoon and then watched highlights from the other games that we had not watched. Since my birthday falls around the time of the Super bowl, I am used to being surrounded by fans and cheering for sporting events. I have played soccer and have attended many different types of sporting event imaginable growing up and have had many experiences with fans and the different types of cheering that they do while watching and supporting their teams. But I was not expecting the enthusiasm and passion that came from the cheerleaders and the audience members at both the baseball game on Friday and especially at the Soccer match that was on Saturday. 

Ok, before I get in to my long monologue about how different the cheering styles are, let me divulge into a quick summery of what cheering culture means to me as a college student who hails from the South Eastern part of America. At baseball games, there is not much cheering, mostly what I have seen is that most of the audience members are sitting down and only really stand up to go get food or if there was a passionate play out on the pitch. Same with soccer and football games at my university. There is some standing up to cheer on a particularly interesting or good play, but most of the time people are sitting down in the stands and watching the game more than the cheerleaders or whatever is going on in the sidelines.

But not in Korea, or at least from what I saw at YonkoJeon. From the time that I entered the stadium to the end of the game (with the exception of a brief 15 minutes for the half time show) the other students and I did not sit down in our seats once for the whole entire game. We all were on our feet yelling and cheering our hearts out following our 10 leaders whole where dressed in frilly colorful outfits dancing up on platforms down by the fields. The cheerleaders did not stop bouncing and dancing for the whole game and did not once stop and turn around to watch the game that was going on behind them.

Sure they switched up the members on stage every once and a while. So times it was just the girls and sometimes the guys would be up there dancing a long to EXO’s Growl, but for the whole game they (and us students) did not stop cheering. At times, I even forgot there was a game going on down on the field. I was having too much fun singing and moving along with the huge crowd of blue that I was surrounded by in the stands.

And when I say cheering, what I really mean is dancing and swaying with the person next to you while you cheer and sing until you lose your voice. After two days of this non-stop cheering at the three games that I went to, I was so tired that I passed out around eight at night. I have no idea how the cheerleaders were able to last for all five games, dancing around in their high heeled boots (yes, even the guys had some lift in theirs) and leading the gigantic sea of students in front of them.  And when Yonsei would get a point in the game, oh man, all hell would break loose; there was streamers, fireworks, confetti, big blow up dancing things, and smoke machines going full blast. And obviously there would be another round of singing and cheering, only this time even more louder , if that was even possible!

I had always thought that back in the states we were pretty supportive with our teams; there would be some cheering and celebrating during the game, but in reality now that I think about it, most of the cheering and comradely comes before and after the games in the form of tailgating and after parties, not really in the game itself. In fact I think that that is the only things that I think we Americans are a little better at. We actually watch the games and put our full attention into what is going on the field. At some points in all three games, I had to remind myself to actually watch the game and focus on what the players were doing rather than cheer with the other people in the stands.

But the feeling on unity that was in the stands was unreal. Everyone was together, cheering the same cheers and doing the same motions; it was so surreal. Added to the fact that Korea University was doing the same thing to different cheers, it really was like two oceans were meeting in voice and motion in the stands. Truthfully out cheering the other school was almost as important, if more so, than the game that was being played out on the field.

at the baseball game

so many students!

our fearless leaders

cheering Yonsei on the victory

fireworks for one of the goals during the Rugby game

full stands at the Olympic Stadium for the Rugby game

the Medical Science dept had their own flag

our fearless leaders leading us in the cheers for the soccer game

the packed stands for the soccer game. The two big banners were eventually taken down and the seats filled in during half time for the soccer game

final celebration for the soccer game.

Loved being part of the big blue cheering ocean!

Idols, Chick-fil-a, and Charades

So fun news, yesterday I was able to go to a live filming for Arirang's After School Club's Chuseok special live with BTOB. I  had applied a week ago and was selected to attend. I was ever selected to go on stage and play games with the members. So when the people at Arirang called me, they told me to be at the studio by 1:20 pm so I left the dorms at 11:30 and with my Seoul subway map and the hand drawn map of the area around Arirang (so I would have less of a chance of getting lost) and arrived at 1:10. After signing in and being told to come back at 2, another Melody (BTOB's fan group) and I went to a near by coffee shop/cafe and got iced drinks, because man it is so hot here in the city again. But the cool thing was we tried to go into the studio via the main doors to find the cafe, but as we were walking up the steps, we saw that the members of BTOB were having a Q&A/ Photo session on the lobby floor! So mid step, we turned and went back down to the street and looked somewhere else for drinks. We got back to the studio around 1:30ish so we waited with the other fans for them to call us back to head up to the rehearsal room.

Around 1:50ish, a lady who worked as one of the stage managers came down to call the next group of "gamers" to the stage. She only needed five, even thought there was about eight to ten of us there who were told we would be able to participate in the day's games. Yep, that is right there were going to be only ten out of the twenty people that had applies that were actually going to be able to participate in the games for the shows! So the remaining group members quickly got into a circle to play rock,-paper-scissors to see who would be the remaining four members to the last group (there was a guys there, and since fanboys are such a rarity, we decided to let him go). I threw rock, as well as two other girls, while the others all threw scissors, so we were able to get into the group. The last girl to join our group came three rounds later, so finally we were a big happy 5 member team!

Once inside the building we were made to wait in the hallway outside of the studio/waiting room for BTOB. We all got to know each other and started talking about the band. We decided to take a group picture in front of one of the signs in the lobby we were at, but as we walked by the door that lead to the waiting room/studio, we saw that the boys were there and that all of them (esp Peniel who is form the States and thus can understand English VERY well) were in there and not on the stage, so they were able to hear everything we were talking about; everything from our classes to who our biases in the group were and the reasons why.

Eventually we were brought into the studio to do a run through of the program and our cues. We we entered, the first star that we meet was Hanbyul, one of the hosts of the show and also the lead singer of LEDApple, and Tia form the group Chocolat.

Tia never really talked to us, so I don;t really have much to say about her, other than she is really pretty and extremely young ( I think she was born in 1997/1996!!). But Hanbyul did not seem real to me. He was so hyper and 4D  that it was almost like he was an animation come to life. As soon as we walked in and were seated behind the host seats, he turned around and started to ask us questions about where we were from and what we were doing here in Korea.

Eric Nam, the other host and a wonderful solo singer, came in a few minutes after we were seated and started asking us the same questions that Hanbyul did. When he heard that I was from North Carolina, he was super excited to have another Southerner there with him (he is from ATL) and we started talking about how much we missed Chick-fil-a and I started to tell him the wonders of Cheerwine. And guess what, he even know about Sewanee and even had friend who had gone there. He is the second person who know about my university that I have met here in Korea; who knew my little liberal arts school on top of a mountain would be so well know on the other side of the world! Plus I was able to talk and connect with him! All this was taking place while Hanbyul was talking with his cousin through the Google hangout, while the other gamers were just looking around the studio and taking everything in (anyway, I need to move on before I start letting my inner fangirl take over...).

SO before I get to into the story, let me give you a run down of the boys so you know what I'll be talking about:

The whole group: BTOB, under the CUBE Entertainment Label

Eunkwang; Leader; vocalist; extremely nice and interacted with our group the most

 

Minhyuk; vocalist; looks smaller in person; self proclaimed "sexy member"

Ilhoon; main rapper; BEAUTIFUL EYES OMG; very cute and childish, yet mature at the same time

Changsub; vocalist; so 4D (weird and random) out of the whole group; kept making faces that would make us laugh, idk if he was goofing around or he did that to cover up the fact that he had a limited idea of what we were all talking about; beautiful voice; super nice and really interacted with he fans; super fit and has a really cool tattoo on his inner arm and back

Hyunsik; vocalist and writer of most of their song off newest album; always smiling and has the best smile that I have ever seen; super nice

Sungjae; main vocalist; youngest member; usually pretty goofy & 4D, but was kind of reserved for the show, I think it was b/c he did not really know what was going on because of all the English; tallest member and was about 3 to 4 inches taller than me

Peniel;  rapper; my bias in BTOB; grew up in Chicago, so speaks English better than Korean; Was host for another show on Arirang; usually pretty quiet of television, so I though he would be very shy, but really his is a gigantic sassy fool. He was always creaking jokes and for us native English speakers, we could tell that a lot of what he said could have been taken in a different light (so sassy!)

BTOB the joined us for a full run through of the show. As soon was the boys got in we all just stared. They were dressed in their black leather costumes from their Thriller MV and looked REALLY nice (*wink~). During the breaks for videos, they would wave at us and interact with us through gestures; at one point the three in the front (Eunkwang, Ilhoon, Peniel, and Hyunsik) started to wave at us. Eunkwang started off waving both hands at us and after we all waved back stopped, but as soon as he stopped, Ilhoon started to wave to us and once again as soon as we waved back stopped, but then Peniel waved at us and then Hyunsik. So we just went down the line waving at each other and making eye contact. When we came to the game part, we were placed on Hanbyul's team with Peniel, Eunkwang, Hyunsik, and Ilhoon. Because it was rehearsals, we were given a random sketch book that had random things on it like:  #BTOBASC, (Hanbyul's) Butt, USTEAM, Insoles, etc. Well we went through the words ( I actually got insoles and guessed right! It was pretty cute, because it was Hyunsik who was acting it out for me and he pointed to his foot and then at Eunkwang!!) and then went back to our seats after only guessing 2 words right. As we were walking back to our seats, Eunkwang gave us all thumbs us in a 'good job, at least you did your best, so well get them next time' kind of way. OMG I felt so bad that we lost.

When it was the other team's turn to go, we all sat back and watched Sungjae, Minhyuk, and Changsub act out the things on the sketch book.  At one point, Sungjae got the word insoles and took off his boot to mime the shoe lift, but of course he did not have any in his shoe because of his height, but when he had to go to the back of the line, he hopped around trying to get his shoe back on.
When we got to the next game, a traditional Korean game played during Chuseok (pretty much like hakky sack but the ball has streamers all around it). The boys were then asked to pick one of us who they though would be a good person to play. Eunkwang came over to pick form our team, asking if any of us wanted to try and choose the only guy there ( and the only other person from the states in our group), David, and brought him over to the center of the stage. As they were standing next to each other, Eunkwang only came up to David's shoulders (Eunkwang is about the same height as me) so the other members in the back were laughing and making fun of their leader for being so short.

Well, we lost that game too, but Eunkwang just smiled and told David to keep the ball and practice. As the rehearsal went on, I really go to see how normal the boys were. When Peniel was talking, he was completely different form how he was on the past shows that I had seen him on. IN the past he never really talked all that much because of the limits in his Korea, but here in the all English show, he was a great big ball of sass; making jokes with the hosts and slightly loading his responses with sarcasm. He did this to some extent during the live filming (See part where girl is eating him in the bread) but I feel that it was more prominent during the practice. Hyunsik was also different from the live filming, while during the interview about his writing the songs for the new album he was asked why he decided to make the songs, he was talking about how he really wanted to get more involved with their music, but at the end of his response, he made the Korean hand sign for money (upside down ok gesture) and smiled at Hanbyul (who had asked the question). You could tell he was joking, but what was really funny was that Hanbyul turned around and did the same hand sign to us and smirked (he turned around to interact with us a lot--almost to the point that the PD had to tall him to stop and focus). But that was how the rehearsal went. Everyone was just relaxed and being them selves, and Hanbyul and Eric were being very hyper and borderline ADD at some points. They were hyper during the show, but they were even more so during the practice that we had.

After the rehearsal, all ten of us "gamers" were brought outside to hand over our bags and cell phones to be stored until the end of the filming and to get our name tags. We were then brought back into the studio, were the BTOB boys were back in the side room resting and the hosts were also there getting ready. The other live studio audience was brought in  and told to take there seats. When the hosts came in to take their starting positions and the BTOB boys were off standing just behind the cameras to wait for their cues, the other people started to get a little starstruck and started to slightly freak out. Those of us "gamers" were actually really calm. It may have been because we had been with them for about and hour and a half with just us in the room and had freaked out then. And so with a minute and a half until filming started I just took in the audience and giggled when 30 seconds till, Hanbyul was yelled at by the PD to stop standing on his chair talking to us on the left side and to get to his place in center stage.

I am not gong to go into much detail about the actual filming, because 1) it is all online  here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ClMwbkdns  and 2) it passes in such a blur that the whole 90 minutes felt like only 20 minutes maximum! But even during the filming (when the camera was not on him or there was a video playing) Hanbyul would make comments to us about whatever was going on at the time.And just for the record, the other members of team A/ Hanbyul's losers/team Awesome and I are in full agreement that it was rigged and that the other team was given the easier set of words!

My fellow group of "losers". Loved getting to know everyone and had such a fun time!

The really fun part was once the filming ended and the ending music video was rolling, the BTOB members and the hosts came around to all of us and gave us all high fives and started passing out the food from the set. I got a high five form all three hosts and all the members! The cool thing was that because I was part of the show because of the games, all the members and the host told me thanks and that I had done a good job. Eric was passing out the rice cakes and brought the basket over to our side so we could grab some. Changsub showed us his tattoo and attempted to talk to us. But the coolest thing was that as we were being led out of the studio, Hanbyul gave me a hug and shook my hand again while he was walking in the opposite direction to the waiting room.

We were lined up in the hallway outside and told to wait. Thankfully they took the gamers and the three VIPs were taken out and given our bags and gifts first then let go (the gift was a really nice three pocket card holder).  A few of us went down stairs and waited by the elevator trying to figure out what we wanted to do next. While we were waiting, BTOB stepped out of the elevator and transferred to another one. When they stepped out, they thanked us again and waved. Changsub even wished us a 'Merry Chuseok' and bowed a little while thanking us. They were so normal looking compared to what we had seen in the studio. Even though I had said they were normal before, this was very normal in comparison: they were just in their shirts and pants (no fancy jackets and vests), they were hanging off each other and just appeared to be a group of very close friends that were just hanging out (very attractive and talented friends to say the least). If I had been made to wait with the other audience members this would not have happen, so that God that I was able to be let out early.

The day ended with us waiting on the street to wave goodbye to the hosts and BTOB members while the drove away. Hanbyul passed right by us and waved and thanked us again, while Eric and BTOB went the other direction.

So that was my first kpop experience here in Korea and it was AMAZING!! Really looking forward to want might happen in the future!

Living the Country Life

I am loving being in Seoul; the city is always up to something, be it clubbing during the nights or shopping during the day, to the smells of cooking meat drifting from the grilling restaurants mingling with the warm smells that waft from the many street vendors that dot the streets. From the rushing cars and the "always moving" mind set that Seoul lives by, I have pretty much learned to adapt, with a few minor things that I probably will never get used to (totally different post).  But what about life outside of the globalized capital?

Before school started, CIEE took us on a 3 day, 2 night excursion to the Chungcheongbuk-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do provinces to see the mountain ranges, temples, and historical sites that dot the sides of the forested slopes. We left the Global dorms around 8:30 in the morning and started the three hour drive out of the city. I really did try to stay awake for the whole ride out so that I could watch the scenery change and get a feel of where we were gong to be staying, but sadly I passed out after the first hour. I'm sorry, but when I had my music playing and the bus was swaying  with the road, I could not keep my eyes open, and anyone who has been with me for long car rides knows that I am terrible at staying away for longer than an hour once the car starts to move...

Anyway, when I woke up after we stopped at a large rest stop, think restaurants and stores (much like in Southern France) we were only a couple minutes away form our first stop which was the Sobaeksan National Park. I loved the park, we walked up a path to a stream to have lunch in and among the rocks.

 I really felt at home there because everything reminded me of North Carolina, especially Sugar Loaf mountain! After lunch a few of us decided to walk up the path to a small Buddhist temple that was on the top of the mountain. Well, we walked for about thirty minutes to an hour and we still had not made it to the top, so I decided to turn back early so that I would make it back to the bus on time. Well even though I did make it back on time and the people who kept on going were late to the bus, I was really only like 5 to 10 minutes away from reaching the temple when I turned around on the path. At least I was able to find theses really cool rock stacks along the way!


But it turned out ok, because the next place that we went to was the Buseoksa Buddhist Temple that was one of the largest and main Buddhist temples in ancient and modern Korea. Buseoksa was pretty cool. Since it was a working temple, I could not take too many pictures inside of the buildings, but the sculptures and murals were amazing!

Every piece of roof and ceiling were decorated in colorful designs and had been updated, so everything looked new and bright. But in and amongst all the "newness" was natural wood that had been worn smooth by hundreds of years of touching by visitors and monks a like.

Even though the day was a little overcast, meaning we could somewhat make out the mountain ranges peaking out in the distance, the way that the late afternoon sun shown between the trees in the forested parts of the temple were just magical. I also learned about the rock stacks that I saw everywhere. They are part of a Korean "wishing" system. When a person sees a sight or feels a spark of divine inspiration, they are to add a rock to an existing pile or create a new one and make a wish. If the pile falls, then the wish will not be granted, but if the pile stays, then the wish will eventually happen. Let's just say that I made lot of wishes that day and even created my own pile!

For dinner, we ate at a small family run restaurant down the road from the temple's main gate. The chicken was pretty good, especially when we dipped the pieces into a salt and sesame mixture. But my favorite part of the meal was the mountain fresh veggies and the apples that we got to eat for dinner.  Just to let you all know, produce, esp fruit, is crazy expensive here in the city and I had been craving apples and fruit since I arrived because this is the start of apple season back home in NC; so that apple was a Godsend!

Later that night, we went back up to the temple to watch the night prayer service that the monks hold every night. A few of us were given the option of sitting in the back of the temple during the chanting and bowing part of the service. I ended up being part of that group that hung in the back of the main temple. I personally did not participate in the bowing and chanting, but I did sit and listened to the service. It was calming sitting in the dark with the smell of incense burning in the background and the sounds of the monks' chants setting the mood in the hall. At one point the golden Buddha in the center of the room seemed to be moving, breathing in and out at the same time as me. Of course it was an illusions spurred by the flickering candle light and my eyes staring down the statue, but at the time is was spiritual and deeply stirring.

Now I know a few of you reading this will wonder why, a Southern Episcopalian would find a Buddhist ceremony spiritual, but let me tell you what one of my aunts told me when we visited her in China a few years ago and went to the Lama Temple in Beijing. When I asked her why she loved to go to the temple when she was not Buddhist, she told me that even though it is not a "house of God" that he could still hear us and it was still a  place where we could get close to him. So that is what I did, while the monks were chanting and bowing, I sat there enjoying the atmosphere and thanked God for allowing me to have this opportunity to study in Korean and learn more about myself and the world through this experience.

After the ceremony, those of us that stayed in the temple were the last ones to leave the compound, so we had to walk down the mountain in the dark. Again I just kept getting flashes from when I had to walk down to our mountain house in the dark after watching the sunset from the outer laying cliffs on the western facing side of the mountain. wen eventually made it back to the bus after buying some snack from the corner store where I was told by the lady running it that I did not nee to use the super polite form of thanks that I have learned to use here in the capital. That night we stayed in traditional houses. This place was also a museum, so there were mannequins and such in rooms by ours (that I found in the morning thankfully!). I really liked the rooms and slept perfectly fine on the floor with only a thick comforter.

the inner courtyard of my house that I stayed in

The next day, we packed up our bags and put them on the bus while we toured the village that we stayed at and learned all about the next stage of Korean history that came after Buddhism, Confucianism. We toured the old Confusion school that was nearby and also learned more about the Confusion way of life and how it created the hierarchy that still exists in Korea today.

we even learned about calligraphy and decorated our own fans!

After the tours, we started to drive to the next village on our schedule. But on the way, we stopped at the Korean ginseng hall and got a brief rundown of the ginseng market and how Korean ginseng, especially red ginseng is very coveted around the world. For dinner that night, we had samgupsal, or grilled pork belly!

That night we stayed at a resort in a nearby town. Very modern, at least compared to  the village we stayed at the night before. Since we had the night off, we all just hung out in each others' rooms and bonded over games, drinks, and music (some of us more than others).

For our last day, we went to Mungyeongsaejae Park and explored the ancient defense walls and the trail up the side of the mountain.

I walked up to the second gate and then decided to head back down so that I could visit the filming set that SBS (a major broadcasting center) had built for the filming of their historical dramas. One the way back down, I ran into a group from my program that had found a group of kids that were under the care of a single nun, so they were helping the kids down the mountain. OMG, these kids were adorable and so cute. We ended up hanging with this group for about an hour, just talking and playing with the kids. I was a little hesitant, just because I was not sure about what the lines were for interacting to kids that are not part of your group. But in the end it was fine. One of the little boys even came over to me and called me "noona" (older sister) and asked for me to help him put his shoes back on.

Once the kids left, I did go visit the filming set and looked around. It was really cool, because there was a smaller replica of the palace here in Seoul that I had visited a couple weekends before. But what I liked was that on the outside, the building looked real, but when you looked into them, you could see the plywood and leftover chairs from filming. Even the stone bridge that they had was made from set materials; the bottom was stone, but the top part was made of rubber sculpting cement and was squishy, like the floor of a water park.

Throwing what I know

Love in AOT!

For our last activity, we went to a pottery museum and created our own pieces that are going to be fired int he traditional way and will take about a month and a half to bake. But it was fun to feel and mold clay between my fingers again. Even though we were not really making the bowls (we were using stamps and molds) I had a lot of fun.

Once everyone was finished, we got back on the bus and make the three hour drive back to Seoul. The staff had put on a movie for us to watch about a North Korean Assassin and the South Korean Detective working together (still need to find the name of it...), even though they were pretty sure that most people were going to pas out and sleep the whole way. Well they were right. I thin I was one of eight people out of the group of 36 who stayed awake for the whole drive.

Even though it was a few weeks ago, now that classes are picking up and I am starting to get used to the bustle of the city, I still like thinking back to all the peaceful and historical insights that I gain while in the countryside of Korea. Really wishing that I am able to get back out there sometime later this year.