Saturday, May 31, 2008
Project Chungguk: Day 14
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Project Chungguk: Day 12
Fact #1: This keyboard sucks so I am less inclined than ever to make a long post describing what I've done.
Fact #2: I am learning so much Chinese at least reading-comprehension-wise. It really helps to be in a context where everything is Chinese and you really don't have much of a choice. Plus, trying to read about idols in my magazines requires me to squint at the characters and guess. Oh the things I do for you, SuJu.
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But to recap a few days:
Day 8 (Sunday):
We met Fu Chen and went KTV-ing with her and Awesome Chinese Boy. We sang awkward Korean songs and English songs and Chinese songs, yes! There was so much food too, it was amazing. I will forever be spoiled by Asian karaoke, my god. I have pictures to show how awesome the entire building was: so hardcore, guys. Asia takes its karaoke so seriously. Then we took the Beijing subway for the first time to Tiananmen and walked around a bit at night. We also passed WangFuJin Street but, well, it's super pricy and we can ge cheaper stuff almost anywhere else in China. Thus we were not that interested.
Day 9 (Monday):
Michelle and I were so tired today we did absolutely nothing. We went to the bank in the morning, ate at a super-expensive cafe that lied to us (so deceptive, we had no idea it was so pricy ;_;) but had a sullen subservient boy who made me laugh. He was so lonely, operating the entire store by himself. Michelle and I thought about inviting him to drink but not seriously. Oh Chinese boys, they amuse me so much. That night we also discovered a drama on TV called 雪在烧 (Snow is on Fire?) from episode 7 or something and got entranced by how very bad and predictable it was. It's so cute. The main female lead reminds us so much of Yeonhee from ZLY's MVs and thus also reminds us of Sungmin as a girl. Oh Sungmin, so pretty. (Donghae said if the members were all girls, he'd date SM b/c SM was so cute. Yesss, I approve.)
Day 10 (Tuesday):
We shopped. We both now have so many clothes and it's not really our faults! Shall I talk to you about how very aggressive these salegirls are? My god, they flatter and push clothes at you until you feel obligated to buy something in order to escape. They're all so...I'm not sure what it is about Chinese fashion nowadays, but the in thing is to perm your hair, dye it blonde, and apparently wear heavy eye makeup and all sorts of bling clothes. I will attempt to get a picture to demonstrate, but seriously, these girls, they all look like manga/anime characters come to life. Sometimes I turn around and think I'm looking at a foreigner, but it's just another Asian girl with super blonde hair. It's sort of tragic. On a different note, Asia is also incredibly good with cosplay. I've seen some cosplay photobooks in the bookstore and, goddamn, if I could've taken pictures of it, I would've. They're so elaborate and hardcore and amazing. Oh cosplay.
Tuesday we also went to the zoo! We saw giant pandas and tigers and various other things! I don't have too much to say about this because zoos make me depressed and this one was really no different. The scenery was really gorgeous though: I love willow trees next to lakes. So Asian, so zen.
We ate dinner at a porridge place though. 粥饭! Zhou Fan! I am one. :D And then we watched more of that awesome drama featuring Sungmin-as-a-girl-lookalike. Sadly she is no one we know.
Day 11 (Wednesday):
That was yesterday! We went to the Summer Palace in the morning and ran into all sorts of tourists groups, both Chinese and foreign. We walked around a lot and took many pictures. There's really not too much to share if I can't show pictures, because nothing exceptional happened there except possibly inappropriate conversation about Kibum's godly genes and need to procreate. We have this conversation a lot at various locations throughout Beijing. I sort of hope someone will understand us one day and agree, haha.
After the Summer Palace, we ate lunch at a barbeque place near Beijing University and then found a bookstore! The bookstore was amazing. I bought the entire Coffee Prince drama and stared at some others, and also I found Jay Chou's basketball movie! Does anyone remember the news about China making a Slam Dunk-based movie? It was ages ago that I heard about this and I totally forgot until Fu Chen mentioned on Sunday that Jay Chou did pretty well in his newest movie. So I went on a mission to find it and I did! He looks like he still has only one expression in it, but Awesome Chinese Boy says Jay Chou can actually play basketball so maybe it has some merit. The movie, by the way, is called "Kung Fu Dunk". Somehow I suspect that it is not entirely similar to Slam Dunk.
At the bookstore, we also found photobooks! Photobooks! Michelle acquired a BOBO photobook in her effort to prove that they are indeed famous and well-liked and you better be jealous that we met them, damn it. I bought a Super Junior fan book type thing--some pictures, lots of info. It's all in Chinese (the things I do for you, SuJu!) and pretty much amazing. I think once I get back to the States I'll be translating some of these interview/bio sections to spread SuJu love and practice my Chinese. I love Donghae. I'm so biased. I read his and Teukie's over the closest and they both made me cry, but Donghae's more because his was all about his dad. Oh baby, I want to adopt you and also marry you at the same time. I'm so conflicted.
Last night, Awesome Chinese Boy and his si mei (the ELF!) came over to drop off the CDs she bought for us (she got them chepaer). We now each have an SJM CD and I have the Don't Don CD. :D Does anyone want an SJM CD? Since now I have two? Must think carefully as to who to gift this to; they must appreciate SJM fully. Anyway, we talked and hung out and ELF was sane and sweet and liked Henry and ZM! It made me happy. We may all go out drinking on Friday night, which would be awesome.
Day 12 (Thursday):
Today hasn't really started for us yet. I found some fancams on Youtube that make me giddy and happy (this one in particular: http://youtube.com/watch?v=iOlpTKC4qlY OH TEUKCHUL ILU) but also hate Thailand. Boo, why must SJ be in Thailand? Anyhow, later today we're going shopping again (bookstore, not more clothes, never more clothes, we have so many clothes forever) and then to the Botanical Gardens where ELF-girl (LiLing I think) will hopefully meet us.
Mm, Beijing. I approve.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Project Chungguk: Day 8
Sichuan had a 6.8 aftershock yesterday, another of many. It makes me really sad. Also my brother emailed me to tell me that Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe had been killed in a London nightclub fight and I went "alkdjldk WHAT" but some research proved it was Harry Potter film actor Robert Knox, not DR. Still, goddamn.
Too braindead for more comments, I'll write about more later, but know that China continues to be amazing if draining.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
I forgot to add--
1. Kibum should sleep with anyone he wants to anytime he wants to, because he has perfect genes and should be generous in spreading them. So fucking hot, man. Go forth and have sex!
2. Heechul is bisexual.
3. Certain SuJu members are not virgins, but taking the time to recollect which ones we mentioned is too hard and I'm short on time.
Relating to that was an incident from today, Day 7:
Awesome Asian Boy (aka Wang Bing) flipped through one of my fan magazines, stopped on a pin-up of Kibum, and exclaimed, "Wow! Great genes! Very good-looking!" Michelle and I flipped out. I pointed at the next page and asked about Siwon, but he only thought Kibum was amazing. Oh man, you guys, you know Kibum's got godly genes entitling him to any sex he wants to when even geeky Chinese boys thinks he's hot.
Project Chungguk: Day 7
Does anyone know BOBO? They're a Chinese group of two boys (I've yet to learn their names...) from Cao Nv Kuai Nan (Super Girls & Happy Boys (?), the Chinese version of American Idol) who became famous. Sort of. I still insist they count as celebrities because they were in all my fan magazines and had an official fanclub (named Baby Face). It's so ironic. Michelle and I got on a random bus this morning, planning to get off at either Beijing University or a random stop, and then wander the streets in search of SJM. We did end up getting off at a random stop and then we wandered across a mall plaza where they were setting up for the benefit concert (10% of proceeds went to earthquake relief) and autograph session. Buying BOBO's new CD (50yuan each) got Michelle and I tickets to the autograph session. This was at eleven a.m.
Three hours of waiting later, at 2 p.m. (let's not talk about those three hours; we were fairly roasted by the sun for those three hours oh god), BOBO finally showed up and alkjdsf. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THEY ARE. DO I CARE? Well, only sort of. I would've been far less bitter about the wait and the crazy press of fans if it had been SJM. But complaints and whining aside, WE SAW FAMOUS PEOPLE. WE TOOK FANCAMS. We were right up against the front of the stage and were almost killed by their pyrotechnics. We have pictures, close-up ones, and someone on this damned internet better be jealous. And then we totally got our newly-bought CDs autographed by both members in gold sharpie.
One of my many life goals has been accomplished today, hah! First fan meeting and it was thrilling even if it was people I really didn't know or care about. I don't think I'll ever like BOBO, or that one song they played on endless repeat over the three hours of waiting, but I can brag about this, can't I? CAN'T I? I think I earned that after three hours of waiting in the sun and one hour being shoved up against people. I hope there will be fan meetings every day in Seoul. Again, I don't even care who it is as long as I get close enough for pictures or touching or autographs, and can brag about it at some point. (Though I do want Sukira and such too; SuJu, I still love you best.) I am a shameless fangirl, so what?
After the fan meeting, Michelle and I were at a loss for what to do after accomplishing such a huge goal. We wandered around the streets of Beijing some more and after walking, seriously, something like five miles, we randomly ran into Awesome Chinese Boy (Wang Bing) from last night. What were the odds? It was amazing. He decided to join us for dinner where we had reasonably priced and delicious dumplings, and he laughed at us when we showed him our signed CDs and fan magazine. We were going to go to Tiananmen afterwards but ended up at our hotel room just talking for hours on end about all sorts of things, from TV shows to American movies to relationships (we asked him all sorts of awkward, personal questions, now that I think about it) to Michelle's sketchy encounters with middle-aged men to China's corruption. Everything. It was only briefly interrupted by him accidentally locking himself in our bathroom, which was cause for more hilarity. He's so cute, so cuuute. Michelle and I both want to give him lots of gold stars. He's so sincere and friendly and thoughtful about politics and life, and manages to be nationalistic without being overbearing about it. He genuinely believes that despite the things he will freely admit are bad about the country or the people, China and Chinese people are deep down good people. Aww. I want to believe that too.
So, yes, today was another amazing day, if filled with too much walking and too much time in the sun waiting for people we didn't really know or like. They were cute though, BOBO. I liked it best when they were whispering in each other's ears. I'm predictable, aren't I? What can I say? I like it when boys are silly and cute with each other. Or when they are silly and cute with us, like Awesome Chinese Boy.
No concrete plans for tomorrow other than KTV with Awesome Chinese Boy and that girl (I will learn her name), the daughter of one of my mom's professor friends. She wants to practice English with us. Singing counts, right? We mostly want to solicit her for places to buy posters and fan merchandise. We have priorities, guys.
And I swear the cultural stuff will get accomplished. Don't doubt!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Project Chungguk: Day 6
My mom woke me up this morning at 7:30 with a phone call about reserving a youth hostel in Seoul. After we sorted that out, Michelle and I got up and got ready to face a day of tourism in matching outfits. We both wore newly bought clothes that were yellow (yellow! so cheerful!) and jeans - me in long pants, her in shorts. A student working in the department of the college where all the professors know my mom was going to accompany us today, and we speculated that maybe it would be a Super Junior fan.
He showed up and we thought, "Oh, suddenly far less likely than we imagined." But we warmed to each other and, yes, I fangirled him. He's so cute. And I mean this in the geeky cute-like-JJ Lin-is-cute way. He was 25/6 and was very happy to speak to us about, well, anything. We wanted to know if all Chinese college boys fell into the geek stereotype and asked him if he played computer games - oh that got him embarrassed. It was adorable. He admitted that he used to but he was breaking himself of the habit now, really! Counterstrike, World of Warcraft, Starcraft...aw, sweetie, you walking stereotype.
Honestly, though, he was really cute and he totally laughed at us the entire day, but in a fond and not a patronizing manner. We went to the Ming Tombs and toured underground before heading to the Great Wall. Michelle and I both failed and our cameras both ran out of battery, so he volunteered his camera and services for the day. We had some ridiculous poses that he only shook his head and laughed at before posing - we were practicing for Korea, see. I had the worst urge to run around calling him "oppa" for a while, but I got over it.
On the Great Wall, we climbed all the way to the highest point (in the Beijing area, anyway) and there were many pictures! He posed for some too and it was really, really cute. I think I'm going to keep saying that because it was. We were talking music and politics and history and it was such a nice day. Chinese boy (really named Wang Bing) was a sweetheart and I'm really glad he accompanied us.
Then we were treated to dinner by his professor, a friend of my mom's, Professor Kong. A couple of other random people came along as well, including Awesome Chinese Boy and his nuna and dongsaeng (in Chinese: si jie and si mei). The younger girl? SHE WAS AN ELF. WE MET AN ELF YOU GUYS. We met an ELF and the first thing I did was alienate her.
We were asking about where we could buy posters in China (so much harder than you might think) and one of the other men, a forty-something friend of my mom's, Professor Chen, offered to look around for us if we wrote down the names of who we were looking for. (So cute! Middle-aged men offering to go fangirl-shopping for us!) I managed a few before my Chinese utterly failed me, but the girl spoke up (Li Ling, I think her name was), and said, "You like Super Junior? Me too! I'm a huge fan. I'm an ELF." Then she offered to write down all the names of SuJu and DBSK and random celebrities we were interested in, it was so amazing. AMAZING, I tell you. Then she asked us if there were any SuJu members we didn't like or weren't interested in getting merchandise/posters for and we said, "Yesung," and she went ":O No wai! He's my favorite!" And then Michelle and I died a little inside. What are the chances, what are the chances?
Another part of the night I loved was the alcohol culture of China: we drank beer freely (oh Chinese beer, doesn't leave me tipsy at all) and everyone constantly toasted other people and challenged them to finish their drinks and aww. Awesome Chinese boy fanboyed his professor so much, it made me happy. He was constantly pouring beer for everyone, eldest to youngest, very respectful, and always watching out about getting food for other people. You know how Chinese people are always putting food in other people's bowls, encouraging them to eat? Yeah, he did that, only in an adorably respectful way. And he remembered random facts about life and such that Michelle and I told him throughout the day! If I had a gold star, I'd totally give it to him.
China, so amazing. It made me so happy today, which made up a lot for yesterday. We didn't end up in Tianjin, by the way, because we did some research the night before and we realized that the autograph session was limited to GS Club members (no, I have no idea wtf that is) and that said members had to call in a few days ago to secure a spot. Ohhh, so bitter, you have no idea. So we stayed in Beijing and wandered around looking for a store that sold music so we could buy SJM proper - CD or poster would've been nice. Tragically, Beijing is sadly lacking. We finally found a bookshop, but it sold only Rain and Tohoshinki. Michelle did randomly find a beautiful Jaejoong (oh, so pretty) photobook at a newsstand though, and I bought another magazine with pretty people in it. Overall, though, yesterday was mostly disappointing and full of insane amounts of walking. Eight hours, roughly. Even climbing the Great Wall today was a lot less painful - granted, I was in sneakers rather than flip-flops today.
Not sure what else to say. Tomorrow we want to go to the zoo and also wander around Beijing in hopes of running into SJM. No idea why they're going to be in Beijing tomorrow but how exciting! Even if we don't see them, we will be in the same city! It will be so close. Oh how I pine.
Sunday we may go KTV (karaoke) with Awesome Chinese Boy and some other people around our age. It will be kind of amazing, especially considering how few Chinese songs we know. I'm sure they'll have English songs though. Maybe Japanese or Korean? We shall see!
I'm going to go now before I die of lung cancer from sitting in this smoky internet cafe next to someone who keeps breathing smoke into my face. Thanks, but no thanks. I do not fangirl you, Not Awesome Chinese Boy. Fail. No gold star. Exit right, please and thank you.
from the Great Wall to this
A post later tonight will probably detail why Tianjin did not happen, stalking plans for Saturday, and karaoke plans on Sunday.
For now, have this tidbit:
While trawling the streets after HG's mom's dumpling restaurant, reading a map and searching for what we believed to be a magical shop selling awesome things like HG's posters but was in reality another fucking dumpling shop (guess whose business was so good they had to expand?), we stopped in front of a small clothing shop that was blasting Marry U loudly from its speakers. It was like a balm upon our downtrodden souls, in the form of cheesy pop ballad in a language we couldn't understand. A girl that Michelle swears was a middle schooler exclaimed, "Marry U!", ran over, and promptly started singing and dancing to her friends. We stared at her in bemusement and realized that she was wearing a shirt with Sungmin's face printed on it. Michelle wanted to take a picture of her. I wanted to ask her directions to a magical shop selling HG's face on every possible merchandise. Sadly, she escaped us before we worked up the courage to fully discard our dignity.
The moral of this story is that dignity and self-respect do you nothing as a Kpop fangirl.
Tomorrow, we will know better.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Project Chungguk: Day 4
Day 3 was more interesting. I braved the Beijing roads again (with aid and with a proficient Chinese driver - these roads are murder; I would not volunteer to drive on them) to pick up Michelle at the airport. In the afternoon, we browsed a shopping mall but the fashions were so bling as to totally hurt our soul. I feel that, however, had Big Bang been girls, they would have all been very happy there. I say this with love because I adore BB, but guys, they are so bling. True facts.
We got invited out to dinner that night too by all of my mom's Beijing friends - past teachers, colleagues, friends, etc. - who had all seen me crawl around their floor and laps when I was barely two years old. They adore me and I appreciate it because they pay for things. :D I know how to be gracious. Michelle and I had a lovely dinner filled with delicious (and expensive but, hey, we weren't paying) Chinese food that was impossible to find in the U.S. We each finished a giant bottle of Chinese beer too, because we could and because peer pressure (or not so peer, seeing as these were all adults well into and past their prime) is a very, very effective method of persuasion. We have some tipsy pictures. More importantly, we came to some amazing tipsy conclusions. I bear to you: 1. Donghae is perfect. 2. Donghae is more perfect than Jesus. 3. Donghae is Jesus. (And God is damned glad for him as a son, let me tell you.)
But even better, you guys, and far more important and exciting is Day 4. That's today. LET ME TELL YOU THESE TALES. Oh lord, where do I even begin? Michelle and I began the day by discovering the internet cafe across the road from our hotel, where we promptly spent two hours trying to find SJM's schedule in Tianjin tomorrow. After all that, all we discovered was that the location and time of their autograph session was a temporary secret. What the fuck?! Make our fangirling lives so hard, so tragic. We preservered though, and found the address of and directions to Han Geng's mom's dumpling shop: Mei Hua Jiao Zi. (We were so hardcore. It's too bad I can't upload pictures to illustrate: we took a camera shot of the directions for future reference. We were amazing. I will at some point, later, post the address and directions to the place in English, for the sake of anyone else who wants to go! Fan info networks are awesome.)
Then Michelle and I wasted about two hours shopping. I won't go into this much but just know that we saw so many shops we started getting dizzy, and we each bought two articles of clothing and spent under 10USD each. And these were nice articles of clothing. (Pictures later! Pictures of so much!) Our total purchase per girl was about 60yuan.
Then we took the bus to the area where the dumpling shop was. We got a little confused but we asked for directions and found it. WE FOUND THE DUMPLING SHOP HAN GENG BOUGHT FOR HIS MOM. WE TOOK PICTURES. WE HAVE PROOF FOREVERMORE.
We went inside and the walls were plastered with pictures of HG, no joke. I actually hadn't expected that at all. It was both hilarious and also slightly unnerving. Two women met us and seated us and took our orders, but neither was his mom. We ordered two plates of dumplings and some spicy shrimp dish, plus a giant bottle of green tea. Let me list you the prices: 12yuan for one dumpling dish (lamb meat), 18yuan for one dumpling dish (seafood), 30yuan for spicy shrimp dish, 8yuan for the drink, totally 68yuan. So that's one meal for two girls at a little under 10USD.
Okay, I'm going to move on a little bit right now. It might sound like a tangent, but bear with me, I will get back to the dumpling shop. Now, before I came to China, I heard all sorts of horror stories from my mom and from various internet blogs, etc etc. People are going to steal your money and your purse, they are going to rip you off if you seem foreign, they are going to be rude and unhelpful and if you're not careful you will end up broke or dead. All lovely stories, and as far as I've seen, not at all true.
Granted, people are a little ruder here. They'll bump into you and they won't say sorry, because there are just many damned people. You'd be saying sorry all the time. But no one has made even the slightest effort to steal anything or rip us off at all. The worst we've gotten are some funny looks from people as we walk down the street and jabber in English. We get some amused looks from people when we explain to them that we're visiting from America and that our Chinese is a little rusty/poor and could they please help us find insert-whatever-here (internet cafe, this one street, Mei Hua Jiao Zi, the bus that will take us to the zoo, etc.) - but other than that, nothing. And even if people are amused by us, they still help us. We have gone all over Beijing on the bus routes (1yuan per ride! Anywhere! And with the bus cards we now have 40cents for each ride; public transportation is effing amazing) and with aid, have gotten everywhere we wanted to go.
The food has been incredibly cheap. The shopping, also cheap! Really love shirts/shorts/dresses for less than 10USD that you'd be paying upwards of 30, 40, 50USD for in the States. Prices are amazing in China, even if the exchange rates have gone down. As long as you don't try to shop in the trendy Westernized department stores (where everything is the same price or more expensive than in the West), you will be able to buy so much for so little. It's incredible (and also makes me glad I'm not with my parents, who would question everything I bought).
Food, as I mentioned before, cheap. We had dinner tonight with two large plates of rice noodles, a plate of fried eggplant, a plate of fried shredded potato, and a bowl of tangyuan (idk how to explain this: tapioca balls with sugar and sesame in the middle, so good). Total? 37yuan. A little over 5USD.
So you wanna know something? We stopped at a convenience store afterwards and found the same giant bottle of green tea we had for lunch (that cost us 8yuan) - for 5yuan. (We also say Wang Lee Hom on the Wahaha water bottles, which made me laugh, but that's irrelevant.) The lady who treated us to dinner tonight also told us that typical plates of dumplings should be 10yuan. And that spending 68yuan at a dumpling shop for what we had for lunch? Kind of ridiculous. She laughed at us.
I cried inside, guys. Cried.
Han mama, I love you and I admire the hell out of you for raising Han Geng, but WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY PLACE IN CHINA THAT'S RIPPED US OFF SO FAR? Michelle and I have been so bitter, you have no idea. But don't worry, it's a laughing sort of bitterness, because part of me is still incredibly \o/ about finding the dumpling shop and, moreover, eating there. Who needs self-respect? I threw out dignity when I became a Kpop fangirl and I'm comfortable with that. Also, another part of me also admires Han Geng's mom (and the ladies, possibly relatives, possibly just close family friends) for using HG's fame to do business. 'Cause, damn, smart business sense; I would totally pimp out my son like that too if he were famous and hot and had bought me a dumpling shop. Fuck yes.
But I really did spend most of the afternoon going ;_____;. Why did we spend so much there? How could they charge us so much there? HAN MAMA, YOU DON'T EVEN NEED THE MONEY. YOUR SON IS RICH AND ALSO PERFECT. Second to Jesus.
(Then that led to a rabbit trail of God totally wishing he had made Jesus a famous boy bander 'cause that would've been hot. Exactly what Jerusalem needed. AND THEN WE REALIZED: 12 apostles + Jesus? OMG SUPER JUNIOR. It was meant to be, guys, meant to be. And God must approve because I've yet to be struck down by lightning.)
So, really, that sums up most of my adventures for the day. Tomorrow Michelle and I are somehow going to end up in Tianjin (an adventure with the train awaits us, I think...oh dear), and somehow find SJM and their fucking autograph session, and we will totally shout at Henry in English. I will wear my Canada shirt in his honor. It will be amazing, trust me. I will fulfill my life's goal (newly formed) of staring at SJM and possibly complaining to HG about his mom's dumpling shop's prices. I am so lying about that, of course, but yeah. I have no idea how tomorrow will turn out.
Another week and a half awaits me in China! Expect more shopping and more fangirling! Tonight I bought a magazine for 1.1USD with a free SJ poster, SJ in Ivy Club, random ShiBum pics, and also MatsuJun, Aiba Hiroki, Shirota Yuu, Yamapi, Toma, Kame, Jin, and various other random stars. It's kind of amazing. But don't worry, we're going to the Great Wall on Friday, and Saturday we're doing Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square, QianMen (idk), and TianTan (Heavenly Palace? I forget the English names). Touristy spots are go. At some point we'll squeeze in the zoo too, since we live pretty much across the street from it.
Beijing welcomes me. And baby I am living it up~ :D
Now to figure out how to get to Tianjin. I'll stay in touch, lovelies.