Another Full Weekend in Seoul ^^

This past weekend was pretty grand. Kaleigh had her going away party on Friday. That meant makkeoli and food in Gangnam. Many of Kaleigh's friends showed up, including some people who I had never met before. Always good to meet new people, right? A lot of the party continued at Octagon (a really fancy club south of the river) but I ended up going to noraebang with a smaller group.
On Saturday, I spent the day volunteering for a sports festival being thrown by the Deaf association. I think they probably just wanted to have a token 외국인 (foreigner). I spent the start of the day greeting participants, After lunch, I worked pretty much as a cheerleader trying to get my team (TEAM BLUE!) to win the very variety-show style games.

After the festival, the volunteers all went out together for some budaejjigae. This soup originated during the Korean war when a hungry country would make use of excess food supplies in military bases (like hot dogs and spam), throw it together with broth and red pepper and any other ingredient they could fine. The result is surprisingly palatable, though I would never head to a budaejjigae restaurant if I had the choice.

The weather was glorious Saturday evening, so I decided to walk from dinner (near 용마산역) to my friend's housewarming party (near 청량리역). The walk was probably just around an hour and quite worth it. Look at these cloud formations over northeastern Seoul!

The housewarming party, thrown by my fabulous friend Magaly, was a great time with some wonderful people. Life is nice when you like the people you surround yourself with.

It also helps when your friends are so good looking

Sunday morning started with a breakfast back home in Haebangchon (HBC). C and I made a delicious breakfast from our home country: eggs, bacon and pancakes. ^^

More attractive people

After a coffee (and a terrace beer) with some of my favorite boys in Seoul, C and I met up with some peeps for the 2012 Incheon Music Festival. Foreigners were able to purchase tickets for the great price of 150 won. That is about ten cents. The lineup was pretty spectacular, with the top stars being Kara, Shinee, 4 Minute, IU and BOA. There were a bunch of other artists as well (some that I had heard of). Our seats were decent, the price was perfect, and though the vocals weren't always the best, my goodness can these artists dance.

I also met someone this weekend... could be a good match for me. We'll see where that goes.
Writing about this weekend tires me out a bit. It was quite full... I would say that I'm going to take it easy this weekend but I don't want to lie; I love full weekends!

Steamed Bok Choy with Ginger

I've mentioned how I've been cooking to share with my co-workers, and this is a dish that has worked well. I find it a little bland, but if you are cooking for Koreans, it's pretty easy on the palate.

Steamed Bok Choy with Ginger:

6 Bok Choy Clusters(?)
1 large tablespoon grated ginger
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1) Wash the bok choy. Chop the bok choy, separating the stems from the leaves. Roughly chop the leaves.
2) Heat the olive oil on medium high. Add the stems, ginger, and soy sauce. Stir the ingredients, then cover and cook for three minutes (perfect amount of time to enjoy listening to the perennial classic Gee by Girl's generation)

3) Add the chopped leaves and cover and cook for another five minutes. How about some Busker Busker while we wait?

4) When the bok choy is a nice bright shade of green, season with salt and pepper. Congrats! You've finished! And you've heard some good K-pop as well. 

Taetiseo: Twinkle

I'm like a little fan boy about K-pop groups these days. They started advertising for Taetiseo (a sub-group of Girl's Generation starring Taeyeon Tiffany and Seohyun) about a month back and I've been eagerly awaiting the music video. They originally had released some trailer videos of each singer doing a bit of the song. The music video is now out. Check it out:

Very glamorous, very glitzy, very twinkly. The song is less cutesy and airy than Girl's Generation's standard fare, but definitely in a good way. The song has a nice funky 1970s feel to it, and the girls do a pretty good job vocally. I wonder if they could sing like this live...
Now I'm just waiting for IU's next hit.

Advertising through music videos in Korea

This ad popped up while watching stuff on youtube today. It is pretty ridiculous. Particularly the chorus. O-raen-ji fanta! Pa-i-nae-peul fanta! Po-do fanta! It does kind of make me want a fanta...

This isn't the only time they've used K-pop to advertise products. LG's Chocolate phone had their own music video (and a sexy one at that) this time performed by the ever-popular Girl's Generation. The chorus was pretty catchy. Chocolate Love was often heard in clubs when it originally came out.

Chocolate Love doesn't really make me think of cellphones, but inter-racial relationships. Is that just me?

Big Bang and 2NE1, two groups I really like, also made a song and music video promoting the Lollipop cell phone. Aptly named Lollipop, the song was a big hit. Plus, the outfits in this music video inspire my wardrobe today.

I also really liked this Son Dambi and After School music video that was all about Samsung's AMOLED phone. The first time I heard this song, I really liked it but did not understand what the heck they were singing about. Then I realized it was an advertisement. Still, I heard this song a lot in clubs back in 2010.

 Are these phone commercials jingles or legitimate songs?

This beer music video / commercial is pretty interesting as well. The dance includes making the X's of the 2X Cass Beer. X bringing up images of the so-called X-line that some women strive for in Korea (and if you want to read more about the X-line, check out The Grand Narrative (one of the best blogs about Korea)). I like the music video though because it includes one of my favorite Korean actors: Lee Min Ho.



All of these music videos are pretty smart advertising. Not only are the songs earworms, but they also can be purchased. And you get tons of free advertisements from clubs and bars that play your songs.

I doubt the Fanta song will have the popularity of these other cell phone songs. It just isn't as catchy. Also, singing a song about cell phones may be cool, but singing about drinking Fanta instead of going to school is just, well, lame.

Girl's Day New Single: Oh! My God

I like Girl's Day... well, both of the songs that I've heard. There new music video is kind of ridiculous and cartoony, but still catchy. I've never seen a K-pop video with so many silly sound effects. And I love there outfits: very Korean. I don't think it is as good as their last single, but still worth checking out.

The guy at the beginning of this music video was the love interest in Twinkle Twinkle (반짝반짝). Apparently, he isn't popular anymore? Their earlier single is a lot catchier.

EXO-K Mama

Man, this music video is epic. The song is awesome as well.

The opening sequence is pretty ballah. It reminds me of my favorite fantasy movies from the 1990s. I guess this single was released five days ago and is the official debut of EXO. I'm a little confused by this group. Apparently, EXO is a twelve member group that breaks down into sub-groups: EXO-M and EXO-K. EXO-M perhaps is releasing their singles in Mandarin, while EXO-K produces music in Korean. But released at the same time? Is that right?

Anyways, this song is hardcore. I can't really see how this will work on the dance floor, but maybe we'll have some good remixes soon.