PurpleHello98

Right, finally, here's my promised post with the haul from my Korea trip! The K-pop haul, at least--I bought some snacks and some other random things beside this, but this is the centrepiece of my trip's haul. Twenty-two albums in all (including three platform version albums) plus one season's greetings. But first, let me tie up some loose ends regarding the rest of my trip.

I actually did get to check the last item off my Korea bucket list before leaving--eating ramyeon! In Incheon Airport, I found this restaurant in the food court that sold ramyeon, which I had some of for my breakfast/brunch/first lunch/time zones are weird. It was really good, albeit so spicy I had to eat it slowly and so I couldn't finish it before we would miss our flight.

We had an extra-long day on the 22nd, and we even saw two sunrises! Since we were flying "back in time", so to speak, and hit early morning darkness somewhere over the Pacific. In total the day lasted about 36 hours or even a bit more! So we left Korea at 11AM and arrived back in Missouri at 6PM, despite travelling for most of 24 hours in there, including a layover in San Francisco where my mum and I split an almost-twenty-dollar airport quesadilla.

I watched Wicked on the plane ride back! I thought it was pretty good. Not the best movie of all time, but I can see why people like it so much. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Ervo have really great voices that meld well! Unfortunately I did sleep through the part of the movie with "Popular" in it, though, and that was the only song I knew from Wicked because Ariana Grande did that remake-type song of it back in 2013 or so, which is so full-circle!

And so now the past few days have been me unpacking my trip stuff and college stuff and trying to organize it all, and also dealing with jet lag. Let me tell you, people, waking up at 5AM and not being able to get back to sleep is hellish.

But anyways, not for the haul! Here's the photo:



My main haul was Verivery: from left to right, on the top row, we have:

• Liminality EP:Love - Over version
  • my favourite aesthetic-wise, I think
• Liminality EP:Love - Shy version
  
  • this version, inside the sleeve, actually has a cardboard texture on the photobook to match the paper bags that they wear in the photobook! Which is really cool, although the paper bag thing probably sounds really strange if you don't know what I'm talking about with the photobook.
• Face Me - official version
  
  • this is one of my favourite albums from them so I'm excited to finally have the physical version! It also includes a lenticular photocard, which is where pictures are printed on triangles so you see a different picture depending on the angle you look at it from--look it up if you don't understand because I don't know how else to exlpain it! LOL
• Face You - official/normal version
• Liminality EP:Dream - Plan version
  
  • I already have the Play version, which is the other version.
• Veri-Chill - official/normal version
  
  • I can't believe I don't already have this one! This is the coolest, I think--the photos are all really good, and some of them have glitch effects that are totally epic. Plus, there are photocards of the members with transparent backgrounds! I don't know why, but that's pretty cool. This album also makes me nostalgic because this is the first Verivery album where I clearly remember the hype of the buildup, teasers, etc. I was in a KakaoTalk group chat for Verrers (Verivery fans) back at the time and we were all super excited! I wish I could find my old account and see that chat again.
• Liminality EP:Love - platform version (Over concept version)
  
  • This is my first platform album! Basically, for people who don't know what platform albums are, it includes a QR to download the music (instead of a CD), usually through some crappy app instead of something like iTunes. Besides that, it might have a little booklet, but it's mostly just photocards--made so people can collect photocards without generating as much waste through getting a lot of identical CDs, photobooks, posters, etc. In return these are significantly cheaper than normal versions.

After that, I have:

• TWS - Sparkling Blue - some platform version
  • I really thought this would have a CD--it's bigger than a CD and the girl working the counter in the store thought it would. Knowing that, I would've bought the official version, especially since me buying the rest of the album besides the one song I already had on iTunes--because if I buy an album, I want the music--cost a good chunk of the difference between this version and the normal version. But oh well.
• The Boyz - Phantasia Part 1 - I think it's the Eric version!
  
  • This was cheaper since it's a member-specific version as opposed to the standard version, but thankfully still had a CD. I just wanted it for the single Lip Gloss and also for the hope that the other songs would be good--I haven't listened to it yet, though.
• Waker - Vanilla Choco Shake - normal version?
  
  • I heard the single on-line and liked it enough that I figured the rest of the album would be good too.
• Zerobaseone - Blue Paradise
  
  • I love the single "Blue"! And I'd like to get more into ZB1. Actually, this album has a board game inside, complete with little cardboard game pieces of a few of the members! You also get random challenge cards for the game from the members, so each album's game is different. Sadly, the non-member-created challenges are mostly boring stuff like "stream the music video five times", "tell three" and similar--which makes it seem like it's just a way, albeit a creative one, to further promote the album that someone's already bought. I think they could've made more creative ways to still promote the album, but in a way that's actually fun and game-like. For example, you could have a challenge be to, instead of doing the normal choreography on Tik-Tok, make up your own dance to the song and put it on Tik-Tok! Or take a picture of the little cardboard game pieces of the members in somewhere blue and post it on-line--bonus points if it's somewhere extra creative or weird. See? It could be so much better!
• The Wind - Hello: My First Love - Love version
  
  • This album is so cute! :) And it includes film strips inside in addition to photocards
• EVNNE - Hot Mess - one of the members' version
  
  • I really like the song! And they're a junior group in the same company as Verivery, so I feel a sort of connection to them. And to their fans, because their company (Jellyfish Entertainment) is arse.
• The Wind - Beginning: The Wind Page - Youth version
  
  • I bought this album on iTunes ages ago and didn't expect this concept for the physical album! It looks way different from the digital album cover. But it's pretty cool in a way! But anyway, this might be my favourite album of theirs musicwise--I'm not sure.
• TWS - Try With Us - Mini-CD edition
  
  • This is insanely cool! I've never seen a mini-CD of a K-pop album before--actually, I don't know if I've ever seen one at all. The retro tech resurgence keeps winning! Although sadly I don't think it'll fit in the CD tray on my computer or in my car, because they're both slot-loading.
• The Wind - Hello: My First Love - Keychain platform version
  
  • This one was so cute I had to buy it! It has pictures of each of the members included that you can out in the little photobook keychain thing. This is dangling off my purse now!
• NCT Wish - poppop
  
  • This was such a cute album design--the bits of confetti move around if you shake the album! And I like the title track pretty well, as well as the b-sides!

Finally, on the bottom row:

• Girls' Generation - 2025 Season's Greetings
  • I kind of bought this on a whim because it was the last one in stock and I wasn't finding any Girls' Generaiton stuff. I like it nonetheless!
• SMTown 30th Anniversary - The Culture, The Future
  
  • This was a pretty cool album overall, although of course Girls' Generation's cover of "My Everything" by The Grace is my favourite song. I actually even managed to pull a photocard of Seohyun from GG! Which made me very happy. :) Although the lady at the store also gave me some sort of bonus photocard--but it seemed to be lost in translation, until she just asked me if I liked Jaehyun from NCT. I said sure, and she gave me an extra photocard of him and bid me on my way--but if I had known she would ask that I would've asked for a member of Girls' Generation, probably Sunny. But oh well!
• Eunhyuk from Super Junior - Explorer - keychain platform version
  
  • I thought this was such a cool version! There's something like four keychains inside, all different kinds, and one of them has the NFC chip you need to load the album digitally--which I'll have to try one day, because apparently it has special behind-the-scenes content or something. I love all these extra inclusions in albums these days! Although I did just end up buying the rest of the album on iTunes anyways, music-wise.
• Then we have a set of three:
  
  • NMIXX - FE304
  • Loossemble - One Of A Kind
  • Viviz - Summer Vibe
  • I got all three of these from a super-cool store in Myeongdong called K-Mecca! They had random album grab boxes for about $15-20 with three albums inside, which is really great pricing! I guess it's probably to get rid of old stock. Sadly, the boy group version was sold out, but I got the girl group version! I would've gotten one of both anyways. I haven't listened to any of these yet, but I like Viviz's title track off the Summer Vibe album--I bought that song on iTunes back when it came out. Anyways, this was a pretty cool box!

And that's it for my insane album haul! And by extension, my coverage (what am I, a field reporter?) of my trip to Korea. This was so exciting to go on and I hope y'all have liked reading about it as much as I have living it and writing about it! :D (Side note, this post took me three whole freaking days to write! I do it because I love you guys, and K-pop too--evidently!) Since I got home I've had some interesting stuff happen, I guess, but that's for another time. Toodles!

Okay, so our last big trip into Seoul was the other day when we went into Gangnam and Myeongdon! Yes, there's a statue with the hands from the Gangnam Style dance, and yes, I took a video of me doing the dance in front of the statue. (I promise I wasn't making a cake of myself, everyone was doing it!) Then we went to one of the big malls in Seoul, to Korean McDonald's. They have mozzarella sticks over here, which are really good, and the bulgogi burger was yummy, too!




And I went into a K-pop shop called KTown4U and found... let's just say a haul. I'll lay out all my albums and upload a photo to the blog when i get home, but for now let's just see my total haul of the trip is... a lot. But I finally found some Verivery albums! Naturally, in the wild! I bought a good few--one of every one I didn't already have, and even the other versions of albums I already have! It was EPIC.

We also went to see the K-pop bears! They have bears along a street in Gangnam, which is one of the streets that's so posh it has two Louis Vuitton shops. I'm not kidding. But they're all themed after older second-gen groups, including one themed after Girls' Generation! So of course I got photos with all of them, but especially that one.

And then we went to Myeongdong shopping district! It's a bunch of little streets with shops, and street vendors/street food in the middle! It was freaking AMAZING! There was an elderly guy on one of the streets who was singing anime theme songs and Chinese ballads whilst dressed as Mario, so we sat down and watched while I ate some dumplings.

And I found this other amazing K-pop shop called K-Mecca where I bought some fun souvenirs, and a cute phone loop for my flip phone (which sadly still doesn't get any service in Korea), and a random album box! Sadly, the boygroup version was sold out, but I got a girl group random album box. It was a big brown box with three little albums in! Full versions, three of them, for about $20 altogether!! I got Viviz's Loveade album, which I'd wanted for quite a while, and an NMixx album, and I forget the other one. It was really cool!

And somehow I even managed to tire out my Travelbug Aunt! I had plans to go and explore the K-pop stores underground in the Myeongdong train station, but didn't get to. Oh well! (I want to say there's something else I'm forgetting but I can't remember. Oh well.)

And that's about it. I have to go finish packing now because tomorrow morning's my flight! :( I'm really going to miss Korea--although this hotel, not so much. But this has been some of the most fun I've ever had. I really want to come back one day! But until then, so long Korea. It's been amazing being here. I love you!

It's a lovely evening here in Korea. My uncle's fixing dumplings for dinner and after that I'm going to take a shower and my cousin and I are going over to the mall a couple blocks away to walk around and hang out. I love having a mall so close--living in American suburbia, if I want to do anything or hang out with anyone except my parents or the squirrels in the backyard, I have to drive (or get a ride since I don't have a car... or my licence, oops). And the nearest mall is the next town over, and is one floor compared to anywhere from eight to ten floors here, depending on how you count.

Today we had some fun here in the town we're staying in, a satellite of Seoul. We had bibimbap (or bip 'n' bop, as my aunt pronounces it) for lunch, which was really good! I realized it's basically warm, deconstructed kimbap, which I also loved. My mum and I also took a walk along this little river nearby, although there was a lot of netting and some work being done--not quite as picturesque as my aunt portrayed it. Afterward, we all (including my cousin, AKA #1) went to this local fortress, where we saw a sort of martial arts demo! And then we went through this little shopping street and had bingsu (or, as my mum thought it was, "bean soup"). It was really great! My mum got us mango flavour, and I'm not really a mango girl, but it was really good--even the mango bits! My aunt says that's probably because they can get proper mangoes here, that are nice and sweet--all I've ever had back in the Middle of Nowhere, Missouri, have been past their prime, and thus not as good.

I'm picking up later now--the dumplings were scrumptious! After dinner I went to the mall, although without my cousin since he was watching his show. I walked around, bought a K-pop album and a couple random goodies that are going to be souvenirs for my friend, and then I went into a bunch of stores and didn't buy anything (I'm sorry if I made any of the mall workers hate me!), and even went into a perfume store and pretended I was going to buy their perfume just because I really, really liked the song they had playing. What can I say?

Speaking of K-pop albums, I got an order today of some albums! I haven't been able to find any Verivery albums or merch anywhere, but I went on Coupang, which is kind of like the Korean version of Amazon, and bought a Verivery haul! I got seven posters from albums I didn't already have--including a poster from an album that I bought ages ago, but didn't get the poster from since they didn't tell me it was preorder-only! I was really ticked off about that. Anyways, I also got two albums--Veri-Chill and Face Me. They're really cool! Face Me even included a holographic (is that the right word?) photocard! Very cool. :D

Speaking of Verivery, I actually sang one of their songs yesterday in a noraebang (Korean for karaoke)! I went to this place in Seoul called HiKR Ground, which is funded by the national government. Not sponsored, of course, but it was really cool! There's a noraebang room, where I butchered two Verivery songs--I got a 0 (!! Because they score you) on both, but that might be because I don't think the mic was on. Either way, it was very embarrassing and a humbling, harrowing experience. There's also place where you can make your own dance videos and stuff with all sorts of different backgrounds, which was insanely cool! Although I realized I don't actually fully know that many Verivery choreographies. I mean, I sort of know most of them, but not well enough to confidently do in a dance video. Girls' Generation are only my second favourite group, but somehow I know more of their dances--solidly, at least! Maybe it's because they're also girls/women/whatever you want to say so I can relate to them more psychologically.

I also ran into this big group of Belgians there who were doing the "APT" dance video and I went in and danced with them! It was really cool to meet some other francophones, and when I thanked one of the girls in French and she asked "oh, tu es francophone aussi?" ("Oh, are you a Francophone too?") I have to admit I felt like a part of the cool kids club. Even though I think one of them thought I was a man, but I couldn't tell since there were about ten of them, all talking amongst themselves as they tried to send me the video. They did randomly give me some Belgian chocolates, though, which was really sweet! And getting to practice my French with someone who actually speaks the language (unlike my poor mum whom I subject to French, albeit that she really tries for me!) was super cool.

Actually, I've noticed that Korea seems to be a super francophile country, but in a subtle way. In the mall, if a store's name isn't in English or weird brandspeak of mashing up random words, it's in French. (Although sometimes the French can be... questionable. I suppose it's just the opposite of all the clueless white people thinking they're getting a tattoo of something super deep in Chinese and it actually says "Peking duck".) And there's "French-style" bakeries everywhere. The croissants and other stuff are actually accurate, at least from my experience! Although there's some stuff in there I don't think you'd ever find in a bakery in France, and you also pick things up with tongs and put them on a tray which you then take to a cashier to buy them--it's not like most bakeries in Europe and elsewhere, where you just go up and ask them for what you want.

Another highlight from yesterday: we went to this palace in Seoul and did a walking tour. It was really cool and we even got to watch the changing of the guards! Although my feet soon started to complain, as did my mouth. We stopped at a Daiso and I got some in-soles IN SEOUL!! Ha ha!

We were going to go to a ramen place for lunch but got the wrong place--a tonkatsu place the floor below. The waitress immediately, without saying a word, as we approached, pointed at a sign that said in at least two languages--Korean, English and maybe Chinese or Japanese--"we don't serve ramen and don't ask us if we do", Well, at least they were honest! We went to go to the ramen place, but the line was super long so we went back to the tonkatsu place anyway. The pork tonkatsu was really good! Although the cold noodles I also got were decent--but would've been better hot. I agree with my mum that cold soup just... seems wrong, at least to our palates.

I also randomly happened upon a K-pop store in the subway station we stopped in! I bought a couple of albums--the SMTown 30th Anniversary album, Zerobaseone's newest album, and EVNNE's Hot Mess album. I stumbled through an interaction where the cashier asked me what bonus photocard I wanted, but I didn't understand so she just gave me NCT's Jaehyun. Nothing wrong with him, but if I had known what she was asking I would've asked for a Girls' Generation member! I did naturally pull Seohyun anyways, at least, but still.

And that's about it! And the K-pop isn't even over yet, since tomorrow I'm going to see the K-pop bears in Gangnam (yes, that Gangnam) and do some K-pop shopping, if I can do so without breaking the bank. And now it's getting late, so I should get to bed. Good night!

P.S. One more tiny story I just remember. Someone in front of me in a checkout queue at a shop today had her son, who was walking around her and just generally being cute. I told her her son was so cute (Speaking English, but in a French accent, because why not?) and she said thank you, and then the kid stopped what he was doing, looked at me, waved and said thank you too! It was so adorable :D

Alright, well I just got back from visiting this insane mall, but more about that later. For now, let me talk about the flying experience!

We left California at around midnight and got served dinner at 1-ish AM? It was actually pretty good--I had curry as my main dish with some assorted sides, and it was surprisingly delicious! Just like the stroopwafel I had as my snack on the Missouri to California plane ride. But then at I-don't-want-to-know-when AM, they gave us these weird chicken salad sandwiches--not the best snack I ever had. It was good at first but the more I had, the more it grated on my taste buds. And the protein bars were horrible! Breakfast was oatmeal that was good on the top and overly soggy on the bottom, Greek yogourt and fruit--decent, but not enough to keep me full. Especially after spending an hour or two in immigration, etc. Actually, they didn't examine our baggage in immigration--which makes sense, since we had been in security since Missouri, but still.

And let me say: I am never doing a long-haul red-eye again. We were on that flight for well over twelve hours, and I had the kind of sleep where you don't know if you actually were sleeping or not half the time, even though I was "sleeping" for most of the flight. I also re-watched Pride and Prejudice (the 2005 movie--quite good, but not such a masterpiece as the BBC miniseries). And when we landed in Korea, it was 5:something AM, but the sun was already coming up. But since the flight was so long, we basically had an eighteen-hour (or so) night last night, since the sun went down before we left California. And I kept waking up in the night, thinking I must have been sleeping for three or four hours, and we only had a couple hours left, right? But no, it was all in one-hour spurts. Ridiculous! It felt utterly interminable--like some sort of purgatory. Thank God I'm out now!

This place is insanely urban, even though it's only a suburb/satellite city of Seoul--the buildings here are taller than any I've ever seen before! And people are always rushing and always busy. It's ab-so-lute-ly insane. And I felt super rushed, and honestly even guilty when I had trouble understanding the airport shuttle bus driver once we landed when he was helping us with luggage, etc.--I couldn't really understand his accent sometimes, and some of his sentences just kind of didn't make sense?--probably because I was so tired. (He also started off speaking to me--the white girl, I'd think pretty obviously a foreigner--in Korean. I appreciate his optimism! Because I always get a little annoyed when I go to a Chinese restaurant and they give me normal silverware because they think I can't use chopsticks. But this man, I guess, had the right spirit at the wrong time.)

But yeah. We're about to go have kimbap for lunch now--I'm excited! So I'll blog more about today later--toodles!

Well, I'm currently having my very first airport experience! That's right, ya girl had never flown till today--and technically still hasn't flown, because we have another hour until boarding starts. Although unfortunately I haven't yet witnessed any Love Actually-style scenes of someone running to a gate to make a love confession. Real life is so unromantic.

But anyways, we took the shuttle into the city and made it through perfectly alright. There's really not much else to update on yet, other than my flip phone is working perfectly well so far, and so on. It took another night last night staying up late fiddling with .apk files and juggling my carrier's app between my new phone, my old iPhone and my iPad, but I finally managed to buy a roaming pass as well. So, despite my OCD-induced worrying late last night (very late--I didn't go to sleep till nearing on two), everything seems to be going very smoothly! So I'll update you later--from the layover airport if I can, but maybe from abroad if not. Ooh, and now I'm going to watch how they extend the tunnel thingy to the planes! Toodles!