KOREA 2014: DAY 9 ~ SEOUL: MOM (Kyuhyun), Gangnam, SBS Inkigayo (Super Junior This is Love & Evanesce Pre-Recording)
25 OCT 2014
Directions when you get out of Exit 6 off Myeongdong station; you should be able to see the sign peeing through from a brown brick building as you face the road right behind the GS 25. Walk down towards the nearest traffic light (yes cross the road safely) and walk straight up the hill on the right of the buildings; that is where the entrance is located. (it is not easy to spot; there is a flight of stairs which leads up to it)
The cafe is right when you enter the place. However, despite being a hostel/dormitory it has a lack of lobby space so the two hobbos had no choice but to spend our waiting time sitting on the flight of stairs and hoping no one would come down.
Thankfully, the male staff took pity on the hobbos and requested for the cafe to open earlier so that we could be shifted in. Thank you! =)
We chose a nice seat next to the flight of stairs leading downwards near the counter and in front of the projection screen. A thank you once again for the efforts taken to screen Super Junior videos on the projection screen for our viewing pleasure =) I borrowed the clean toilet and took a couple of pictures of fan gifts.
I also stole my favourite cushion off the couch cause I thought it was adorable ;-)
(please dont mind my make-up-less face)
We proceeded to order our breakfast soon enough and I had ice cream waffle with some hot tea. I wasn't feel well at all; I was down with virus on the verge of falling sick so my stomach wasn't exactly cooperating well with me. Hot tea definitely helped soothe it.
After a fulfilling meal, we bid goodbye to HM as we ushered her to the train station before getting us into a cab because two hobbo ahjummas were dead tired by then and there was no way we could have lugged our luggage to our apartment in Gangnam.
We were there extremely early at about 11am and messaged our dear airbnb host if we could do an early check-in. She informed us that the cleaner would be clearing the apartment and she'd try her best. Despite that, we headed to the apartment anyway and met her there whilst the apartment was getting cleaned. We apologised for being early since we were dead exhausted and couldnt move. Hanna was kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage while we chilled at a convenience store below the apartment. We bought some drinks and sat at the road side, admiring the large number of luxury cars passing by every second while the rich hurried around. It was also the first in Korea I was greeted by the staff at the convenience store in Korean =S I must look like some rich plastic-surgerized gangnam bitch.
Hanna messaged us soon after and aided us in locating a nearby shop which sold CD (because I needed to get my hands on a Mamacita album for the pre-recording session at SBS). She even left us an opened bottle of wine ;-) Hanna was a real sweetheart and her place was comfortable, convenient and it definitely felt nice acting like a resident of gangnam district haha.
Here's the link for her apartment: https://www.airbnb.com.sg/rooms/3002745
And the review KH left behind for her:
My friend and I stayed at Hanna's place for two days and it was a very enjoyable experience. Hanna is very responsive via Kakao Talk before and during our stay. When we requested to check in earlier, she was very accommodating and allowed us to leave our luggage with her while the apartment was being cleaned up, and she also allowed us to check out slightly later than usual. When we asked about CD stores and supermarkets in the area, she went the extra mile to (website hidden) for us. Her place is very comfortable and well-equipped with cooking tools and washing machine. The location of her place is also very ideal, easily accessible from Seolleung Station. We really enjoyed our stay at her place and will highly recommend her place to others!
All I can say is; good location if you intend to do loads of Super Junior related stuff ;-) You'll see as I share my adventures for the next few days =)Anyway the first thing we did at the apartment was of course....bathe and then SLEEP! Yes we were totally sleep-deprived and it was the most peaceful sleep we had in a week!!!
*Oh yes, note that the apartment floors (and walls I believe) are heated so be careful about leaving chocolates on the floor. It of course made us very comfortable in the cool Autumn =)
We woke up at about 4plus in the afternoon and mission #MamacitaAlbum began....
I was being a smart-alec and I assumed since Apgujeong was where their freaking company was, it made sense to have CD shops around that district; also we didn't know that the SM Pop-Up Store there had disappeared. So basically, it was an epic fail and all I got was this picture with a poster for Leeteuk:
So the next try was COEX, the place that Hanna had initially recommended because duh, its a huge mall with a huge bookstore so off we went; BACK the way we came from.
We stayed at Seolleung station so it was a good place; at the intersection of two lines.
So running around COEX, we headed straight to the information counter just to learn that...the bookstore was closed for renovation and there was no other CD shops nearby. Fck. I was cursing and swearing by then about how it was practically easier to find a Kpop CD in Singapore than in freaking Korea itself. Pissed. I was frantically messaging Rebecca for help and thank god the angel guided me to the Hottracks at Kyobo (Gangnam or Sinnonhyeon station).
We alighted at Gangnam station since it was on the same line and the walk was....extremely long. It was a straight walk but it took us almost 20minutes? and we were not slow. I also made an effort to ask for "Kyobo" every ten steps I took to make sure that we were on the right track. A couple of guys spoke in Korean and started laughing; cracked some joke I suppose but I couldn't understand so I just smiled while they were laughing and holding my bag =S Weird.
But alas! Hottracks was the right place to go as I immediately grabbed a copy of Mamacita Version A and B; not forgetting to ask for tax refund. (Note that albums here are NOT cheap. They were even more pricey than the buying it in Singapore which was a huge shocker and turn-off)
After securing our albums, also known as our "entry passes" to the SBS pre-recording, we decided to fill our stomachs with food and caffeine to last us the whole night.
The whole area was full of restaurants at the "back alleys" and in the end we settled on a restaurant which looked like a fusion of Japanese and Korean food. After scanning through the menu, I decided on some omelette rice with prawn and attempted to order my rice without vegetables. The waiter had zero knowledge of the English language and I had zero knowledge of the Korean language but somehow our body language communication succeeded and ta-da! Lo and behold; my special order meal:
When my food was served I was so elated I tweeted that I could "kiss the waiter" - really I could, he was a decent looking young guy haha. He was adorable, he noticed that I did not pour the curry into the rice and motioned for me to but I just signaled by nodding and smiling and stuff because my reason was; I knew but I didn't feel like it haha. Yes stomach was still queasy =(
After a fulfilling dinner, we walked around a bit in search of a coffee place but the place didn't have much and Phoebe being Phoebe was being her paranoid self in fear of getting a number to enter the show so by nine plus we set off for SBS building; taking the train from Sinnohyeon station and alighting at Gayang station. (straight with no switching)
Upon reaching the venue, we couldn't find any group of people gathered and after looking around for quite a while (in the dark!) we found two pieces of paper being taped to the ground. I took a snapshot and sent it to Rebecca for help and I was lucky that my friend KH could read the words "Super Junior" in Korean and the cafe name was written in English. So upon Rebecca's confirmation, we headed to that cafe to look for the ELF fanclub people. The old man greeted us upon entry and pointed us towards the group of ELF; so nice! (And I don't know why he assumed haha)
Ok here goes; surprisingly, the girls were quite nice to me (yes with me being a 'cockroach' and all). They asked me in Korean if I was an ELF member to which I answered no to; which was kinda weird since I asked them if they were there for "Super Junior" in English and I obviously do not look Korean =S Anyway, after confirming I wasn't official ELF, they asked me for my name to which I tried to spell out alphabetically. That failed. I volunteered to write my name myself but they didn't let me and asked me to write it on a separate piece of paper instead to which one of the other girls tried to read it out and the person wrote my name in hangul via pronunciation. My name pronounced in Korean was quite cute haha. After which they told me to come back at 4am. I was a paranoid idiot so I was like flashing my album and confirming if that was all I needed and the time to report was 4am; to which they very sweetly answered me. Well that was a very surprisingly pleasant encounter with the infamous official ELFs. (note they spoke in Korean throughout our entire conversation =S)
With almost 6 hours to kill, ahjummas' first rest place was coffee place!
We only managed to stay there till 11plus because the cafe was closing and we were chased away =( Wandering around, we stumbled upon a bar and they told us they were open till 4am so yippie into the warm and comfortable bar we went!
Happily nestled within, we spent the next few hours with chicken and coke, handphone and naps haha. Yes KH slept inside the place. But oh well it was comfortable and nice. Does not and will not ever understand how those fangirls camped outdoors overnight.
But soon our comfort was taken away from us as we braved the cold and started standing in line for entry into the recording. After saying hi to dear Rebecca of course =) A lot of ELF started arriving soon and the very organized fanclub started calling everyone out by name. We were very very far at the back and I had to tell you, I was worried sick for the whole 3 hours we spent outside before gaining entry.
First round, we were lined up accordingly by the fanclub. It was then that fans started screaming and cheering at the arrival of a certain van; turns out it was this:
Nice aye? Apparently coffee was served to ELF (to shorten my pain, I will just mention now that it was given out according to queue number so I got none) It was a sweet gesture nonetheless, our oppas are the best ;-)
The SM lady soon came and "issued" us numbers by writing on our wrists after we show our CDs. (Note you have to open up the covers and show the actual disc, a mistake I made by maintaining my album sealed)
BTW, once again everything happens in Korean so the only way we survived was because we could "guess the meaning" by linking it to Chinese words which sounded the same =S Nope, no kind help was offered. When queuing according to number I basically grabbed the wrists of people to check their number out and position myself hahahahaha. Yes Phoebe is forever shameless.
Anyway I must say I was quite impressed with the organization done by the fanclub which made the life of the SM staff so much easier and we were able to get in on time when the sun was rising.
This is our shagged but relieved and happy faces knowing we could finally go in:
Once in, the official ELF members are the only ones on the floor (and yes the Super Junior boys wer all set and ready to go on stage as well =)) So the rest of us filled the seats; 3 blocks in total in this order: centre, left and then right. Since I belonged to the last batch, I was lucky to be at the front of the group where we were ushered to the right block; which meant, I was second row in that block!!! I was so damn happy with my seats because it was indeed near the stage considering the studio is pretty small.
To sum it up; the "This is Love" recording was fun and was definitely an experience by itself as I blew up my blue Super Junior balloon and waved it around as I screamed for Super Junior and enjoyed all the in-between recording entertainment provided by the boys themselves. It was definitely an emotional moment for me as I soaked in the atmosphere and relished in the moment of seeing my boys after more than a year. I only realized how much I had missed them when I saw them and yes I cried when I saw Leeteuk and my dear friend was a sweetheart consoling me =) They did one dry run before going into the multiple recordings. Let my tweets sum up my spazzing:
"Omg they're here fuck they look like dolls"
"Ok ive watched this is love eunhae dance part live I can die happy"
"Eunhae is on my side 90% of the time"
"Lee bros just walked off stage and fans died haha"
"Oh yes and I'm literally doing a striptease here...hyuk saw me removing my first layer and donghae saw me unbuttoning my second"
"Omg leeteuk keep popping out from doors to boo and fans scream"
"And now he appears on our count of 3 haha"
"Omg the retarded one stole someone's lightstick"
"Ok TIL over...now hoping I can get in for one of my fav songs off the alb Evanesce...btw I love KH for accompanying"
"Oh yes and I collapsed when heechul came out and hugged hyuk hahaha"
Yes, do not question my state of mind because...I have no idea either haha. Oh for the last tweet, it was pretty embarrassing cause I screamed pretty loudly and I was right behind the controls where the crew were....oops.
After the recording we were ushered out and then commenced the crazy trying to get back into queue session with shameless wrist-grabbing and then they gave out the posters we were waiting for! Ryeowook and Kyuhyun Mamacita posters (either) =) It was quite hilarious because she had finished giving out her stack when it came to us and I panicked because I thought there wasn't anymore posters and she laughed and assured us in Korean that she was gonna get more haha. Then she came back with another stack, shuffled them and gave it out randomly and we were both lucky enough to get what we wanted - RYEOWOOK!!! =)
The sun was up and all so we were both in a better mood when we were admitted for round 2; Evanesce!
I was sad because they only needed a total of 3 takes and I wanted to enjoy the song more haha. It was sentimental, the boys were too perfect safe for the one moment of stupidity from Lee Donghae which I shall not elaborate on. Here goes my live tweet rants again:
"Oh yaye first row now hahaha"
"Kyu is sick..."
"Donghae stop staring in my direction..."
"Im happy they wore pretty outfits today =) no ugly black with off nipple white circle"
"Donghae just...fucked hyukjae off the stage....i dont know wht to say..."
"Wookie and donghae coughing just like me =( maybe its the dry weather"
"Oh and I got 'still you' acapella..."
Alright I guess if you want more juicy details you can contact me privately =)
After exiting the building, we decided to wait along the road (OFF THE ROAD) on the pavement for the cars to go by before we bid goodbye to our Super Junior adventure. And guess what? Kangin suddenly appeared!!!
I managed to run forward and snap these few shots amidst the mad crowd. HE IS SOOOOO HANDSOME OMG
I didn't actually realise that there were other members that but my camera did capture a few blur pictures of Hyukjae and Heechul ;-)
After which we took our spot by the side of the road again (safe place off the road once again, it really kinda disgusts me those girls who ran on the road attacking their cars tbh) and first car was Kangteuk!
Followed by a cute Ryeowook!
And guess what happened while I was checking my video for Ryeowook? Eunhae went by. Yah they did. And all I could do was stare. And my friend also failed to capture a video/picture. Talk about bad luck. haha.
All I can say is; I can't stand the way Hyukjae's eyes changed when he caught mine and he stopped waving. Such a Eunhae thing urghhhh. Oh well at least I got eye contact hurrrr
Anyway after that me and KH bought some bread from the convenience store before heading back; it was a long and tiring journey and we decided to sleep until lunch =)
Despite it being a mad exhausting day, I don't regret it one bit. Big shoutout to Rebecca my angel who guided me to fulfill this destiny. Love you babe. =)
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