Oppa Outings #9 and #10
This weekend we had two oppa outings! Including one with our new oppas, who are currently oppa-ing as a pair, because we don't have enough oppas to do them individually just yet. But anyway, it works out, because JB and Jinyoung used to be in a duo together, known as JJ Project. <3
Here are our oppas:
To the left is JB; to the right, Jin-young.
And here are their avatars -- as you can see, it's an eerie likeness.
JB is represented by a dog in a bee costume because ... long story. In Korean, "JB" sounds like "jayeebee" so initially we wanted a bee. But I couldn't find any cute bee plushies (some of them were frighteningly realistic), so I went with this instead. But it ended up being perfect, because now we call him "개비" HAHAHAHA. Sounds like "KB" but the 개 means "dog." You'll just have to take my word for it that it's a good pun. I even drew in the twin moles by his left eyebrow. HEEHEE.
Jinyoung is represented by a dog because in one of the things GOT7 did, he wore what we thought was a dog costume, and also, he was born in the year of the dog. Later, we found out that his costume was actually that of a kangaroo (really?), so now it's less perfect but oh well.
The first place we went -- as with many of our Saturdays lately so this is probably really repetitive and boring -- was Gyu-kaku, for some delicious Japanese BBQ. What made it special this time though was that![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
slitherhither was able to join us, and it was her first time there! So that was cool.
It was the first time I didn't upgrade my rice, but instead got a vegetable (spinach with garlic) and the cheese fondue. It comes with a bowl of plain rice, but I ended up for the first time not having any leftovers!! Even though I nearly ate the whole bowl of rice! WTF.
Afterward, the three of us went to Midori Bakery. I got a latte and a peanut butter cookie sandwich thing that was their take on a Nutter Butter (per the name they had for it, that I can't remember), but was way better.adelagia got the strawberry danish, while B. just had a cappucino.
We then bid adieu to B., who had to head back over the bridge, and Adelagia and I headed to Federal Way. But first! I had to get gas, and the oppas "helped" with that...
At Comma Karaoke, we sang all our usual songs, but we have been attempting a couple of new ones like GOT7's Hard Carry:
And we also tried JJ Project's Bounce... though that did not go so well.
We made up for it by rocking some other songs, though!
Afterward, we ran into E. from Korean class. It's the first time we've ever run into him, even though we frequently talk about the same places in FW. He invited us to join him and his friends for Hanmaum fried chicken, but a) I was still kinda full from a heavy lunch so didn't really want fried chicken; and b) there's nothing Adelagia and I fear more than idle chit chat with people we don't know very well. We prefer to be openly dorky on our OWN, tyvm.
Sooooo we ended up back at our fave seolleongtang place, where I ordered brisket instead of tongue and regretted it. I normally love brisket, but there's something about the way it's cooked for seolleongtang and pho that I'm not a fan of. So next time I'll go back to getting tongue.
Then it was time to go home and get some rest, because...
...the next day, we had an Eric Nam concert to go to!
I decided to bring Park Hyungsik oppa, because he was small enough to carry around, and the string on his head enabled me to tie him to my belt loop during the concert. I didn't have my bag, because I hate having to carry around and worry about belongings at concerts and such.
We met K. from our Korean class near Safeway/Jack in the Box, and she drove us into Seattle. We parked at the Convention Center, then went to Kizuki to meet up with E. and S. (also from our class), who ended up being over half an hour late. -.- S. was doing something, she like sells her art or something at fairs or something like that, but seriously. Like, I am not super punctual, but over 30 min late is just ridiculous and rude. Also, S. brought her boyfriend, which she neglected to mention to anyone that she was going to do, which is also not great. Still, they're cool people so I got over it. I totally forgot to take pics of Hyungsik oppa with our food, so I will just say that I had the shio ramen, low sodium, with spinach and a seasoned egg added. Oh, and I upgraded to pork belly. Kizuki's ramen has always been fine to me -- nothing out of this world, but okay.
Afterward, we went to Salt & Straw, which was busy but not overly so. I did a split scoop of my favorite, sea salt with caramel ribbons, and a local flavor, Beecher's cheese with peppercorn brittle. I'm not super crazy about peppercorn in ice cream and I'm not sure why ice cream makers insist on using it. I liked it enough to get as a half scoop, but ultimately I wished I had just gotten a whole scoop of the sea salt caramel. That's what I get for trying to branch out!
I asked K. to hold my ice cream and Hyungsik oppa while I took a pic, and she was like, "...wait what? What am I doing? What is this?" and I was just like, oh I like to take pics of these little plushies when I go places. And she was like, oh okay. LOL.
After that we headed to the concert venue, Neumos. S. had misunderstood the line she saw earlier... she thought there weren't very many people, but it stretched around the block! Eric Nam was one of two recent concerts there to sell out, which, good for him. But it did mean that we were in line for a looooong time, and were drizzled on the whole time (stupid Seattle). At some point they opened a side door and let some people in that way, including those BEHIND US, which was kind of embittering. So we were one of the last to go through the doors, and thus all the good spaces upstairs in the balcony area and way up in front of the stage were taken. I didn't have any appetite to try and push to the front, and neither did anyone else, so we just stayed where we were.
At first it was okay, even though there were many short Asians like myself there and yet we somehow ended up behind two of the taller Asian guys in the place. -.- Then the opening act came on and they were fine, but NOT my cup of tea, and I was already tired from having stood in line all that time, and they were super loud, and I wasn't into them, and it was just like, UGH what am I even DOING HERE. I mainly went for the experience, and to be social with the peeps from our class, not because I was a huge Eric Nam fan. In fact I barely knew his music at all, so I had this misconception in my head that it was going to be like, Eric on stage with a guitar, LOL. I could not have been more wrong.
I started to feel stifled with being in the crowd, and the people in front of us had shifted so that my view was EVEN MORE BLOCKED, so I decided to go toward the back of the space to see if I could see better. And indeed, I COULD, but that was because of the empty space in front of me. I knew that if the place got more crowded, I would lose that line of vision, so I decided to check out the upstairs (which you could only get to after showing ID, because it was the bar area). It was actually super spacious and nice up there, and not crowded at all, but that's because unless you were near the balcony you couldn't see the stage act at all (other than on TV screens). Just seeing the chairs made me want to sit down, but I knew if I did that I wouldn't get up again, LOL. And also once Eric came on there would be a rush for a good vantage point, so I needed to try and stake something if I could.
There was a SLIVER of space at the end of the balcony, where it ended and the stairs began. I stood there and got in the-girl-next-to-me's space a bit, to encourage her to move over, and bit by bit it began to happen. I was afraid I was close enough to the stairs that the security guard would make me vacate the space, but it turned out that I was in the last legit spot you could be in before the stairs, so all night someone would try to stand next to me and the security guard would shoo them away. One time, though, there were these two women who were talking all through an ENTIRE SONG, and they had to yell to hear each other above the music. It was so annoying and disrespectful to the people trying to enjoy the concert. If you want to do that, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Like, out of the venue. God.
Anyway, Eric was really awesome. Like I said, I don't know him very well; the other gals at least know him from watching the variety programs he's on or whatever, but I didn't even have that. He was funny in between songs, his performances were great, and I came away from it being a much bigger fan of his than I was before. I even have some of his songs on my iPod now! The only issue I have with him is that his pitch is kind of high. If he had a deeper voice I think I'd enjoy his music a lot more (same goes for Henry). Also, he doesn't have a ton of original songs, so the concert ended at a decent hour. Even though I had a really good time, it doesn't change the fact that I am old, so I kept having to stretch out my back all night because both it and my feet were aching. (So it was a good thing I was in a spot where there was no one right behind me, because I would have been unable to stretch, or been sticking my butt out at them all night, lol.)
Afterward, A., K. and I had to find K.'s car again, and we initially went to the wrong garage, because the doors to the Convention Center (which we exited when we first arrived) were locked at 10, and it was like 10:45 or something. We finally found the car and were able to drive home, but we had some interesting conversation on the way. The conversation TO the event all centered around GOT7 and Kpop, but the drive back was more on real life stuff, including K.'s personal thoughts about her marriage and what it's like to be a mom, and stuff like that. It was particularly interesting because I think she's a lot like me in terms of what she needs on a personal level to feel fulfilled, so hearing her thoughts really vindicated my own decisions in life and confirmed things I'd always suspected about having a husband/kids when you have personalities/approaches like ours.
Here are our oppas:
To the left is JB; to the right, Jin-young.
And here are their avatars -- as you can see, it's an eerie likeness.
JB is represented by a dog in a bee costume because ... long story. In Korean, "JB" sounds like "jayeebee" so initially we wanted a bee. But I couldn't find any cute bee plushies (some of them were frighteningly realistic), so I went with this instead. But it ended up being perfect, because now we call him "개비" HAHAHAHA. Sounds like "KB" but the 개 means "dog." You'll just have to take my word for it that it's a good pun. I even drew in the twin moles by his left eyebrow. HEEHEE.
Jinyoung is represented by a dog because in one of the things GOT7 did, he wore what we thought was a dog costume, and also, he was born in the year of the dog. Later, we found out that his costume was actually that of a kangaroo (really?), so now it's less perfect but oh well.
The first place we went -- as with many of our Saturdays lately so this is probably really repetitive and boring -- was Gyu-kaku, for some delicious Japanese BBQ. What made it special this time though was that
slitherhither was able to join us, and it was her first time there! So that was cool.It was the first time I didn't upgrade my rice, but instead got a vegetable (spinach with garlic) and the cheese fondue. It comes with a bowl of plain rice, but I ended up for the first time not having any leftovers!! Even though I nearly ate the whole bowl of rice! WTF.
Afterward, the three of us went to Midori Bakery. I got a latte and a peanut butter cookie sandwich thing that was their take on a Nutter Butter (per the name they had for it, that I can't remember), but was way better.
adelagia got the strawberry danish, while B. just had a cappucino.We then bid adieu to B., who had to head back over the bridge, and Adelagia and I headed to Federal Way. But first! I had to get gas, and the oppas "helped" with that...
At Comma Karaoke, we sang all our usual songs, but we have been attempting a couple of new ones like GOT7's Hard Carry:
And we also tried JJ Project's Bounce... though that did not go so well.
We made up for it by rocking some other songs, though!
Afterward, we ran into E. from Korean class. It's the first time we've ever run into him, even though we frequently talk about the same places in FW. He invited us to join him and his friends for Hanmaum fried chicken, but a) I was still kinda full from a heavy lunch so didn't really want fried chicken; and b) there's nothing Adelagia and I fear more than idle chit chat with people we don't know very well. We prefer to be openly dorky on our OWN, tyvm.
Sooooo we ended up back at our fave seolleongtang place, where I ordered brisket instead of tongue and regretted it. I normally love brisket, but there's something about the way it's cooked for seolleongtang and pho that I'm not a fan of. So next time I'll go back to getting tongue.
Then it was time to go home and get some rest, because...
...the next day, we had an Eric Nam concert to go to!
I decided to bring Park Hyungsik oppa, because he was small enough to carry around, and the string on his head enabled me to tie him to my belt loop during the concert. I didn't have my bag, because I hate having to carry around and worry about belongings at concerts and such.
We met K. from our Korean class near Safeway/Jack in the Box, and she drove us into Seattle. We parked at the Convention Center, then went to Kizuki to meet up with E. and S. (also from our class), who ended up being over half an hour late. -.- S. was doing something, she like sells her art or something at fairs or something like that, but seriously. Like, I am not super punctual, but over 30 min late is just ridiculous and rude. Also, S. brought her boyfriend, which she neglected to mention to anyone that she was going to do, which is also not great. Still, they're cool people so I got over it. I totally forgot to take pics of Hyungsik oppa with our food, so I will just say that I had the shio ramen, low sodium, with spinach and a seasoned egg added. Oh, and I upgraded to pork belly. Kizuki's ramen has always been fine to me -- nothing out of this world, but okay.
Afterward, we went to Salt & Straw, which was busy but not overly so. I did a split scoop of my favorite, sea salt with caramel ribbons, and a local flavor, Beecher's cheese with peppercorn brittle. I'm not super crazy about peppercorn in ice cream and I'm not sure why ice cream makers insist on using it. I liked it enough to get as a half scoop, but ultimately I wished I had just gotten a whole scoop of the sea salt caramel. That's what I get for trying to branch out!
I asked K. to hold my ice cream and Hyungsik oppa while I took a pic, and she was like, "...wait what? What am I doing? What is this?" and I was just like, oh I like to take pics of these little plushies when I go places. And she was like, oh okay. LOL.
After that we headed to the concert venue, Neumos. S. had misunderstood the line she saw earlier... she thought there weren't very many people, but it stretched around the block! Eric Nam was one of two recent concerts there to sell out, which, good for him. But it did mean that we were in line for a looooong time, and were drizzled on the whole time (stupid Seattle). At some point they opened a side door and let some people in that way, including those BEHIND US, which was kind of embittering. So we were one of the last to go through the doors, and thus all the good spaces upstairs in the balcony area and way up in front of the stage were taken. I didn't have any appetite to try and push to the front, and neither did anyone else, so we just stayed where we were.
At first it was okay, even though there were many short Asians like myself there and yet we somehow ended up behind two of the taller Asian guys in the place. -.- Then the opening act came on and they were fine, but NOT my cup of tea, and I was already tired from having stood in line all that time, and they were super loud, and I wasn't into them, and it was just like, UGH what am I even DOING HERE. I mainly went for the experience, and to be social with the peeps from our class, not because I was a huge Eric Nam fan. In fact I barely knew his music at all, so I had this misconception in my head that it was going to be like, Eric on stage with a guitar, LOL. I could not have been more wrong.
I started to feel stifled with being in the crowd, and the people in front of us had shifted so that my view was EVEN MORE BLOCKED, so I decided to go toward the back of the space to see if I could see better. And indeed, I COULD, but that was because of the empty space in front of me. I knew that if the place got more crowded, I would lose that line of vision, so I decided to check out the upstairs (which you could only get to after showing ID, because it was the bar area). It was actually super spacious and nice up there, and not crowded at all, but that's because unless you were near the balcony you couldn't see the stage act at all (other than on TV screens). Just seeing the chairs made me want to sit down, but I knew if I did that I wouldn't get up again, LOL. And also once Eric came on there would be a rush for a good vantage point, so I needed to try and stake something if I could.
There was a SLIVER of space at the end of the balcony, where it ended and the stairs began. I stood there and got in the-girl-next-to-me's space a bit, to encourage her to move over, and bit by bit it began to happen. I was afraid I was close enough to the stairs that the security guard would make me vacate the space, but it turned out that I was in the last legit spot you could be in before the stairs, so all night someone would try to stand next to me and the security guard would shoo them away. One time, though, there were these two women who were talking all through an ENTIRE SONG, and they had to yell to hear each other above the music. It was so annoying and disrespectful to the people trying to enjoy the concert. If you want to do that, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. Like, out of the venue. God.
Anyway, Eric was really awesome. Like I said, I don't know him very well; the other gals at least know him from watching the variety programs he's on or whatever, but I didn't even have that. He was funny in between songs, his performances were great, and I came away from it being a much bigger fan of his than I was before. I even have some of his songs on my iPod now! The only issue I have with him is that his pitch is kind of high. If he had a deeper voice I think I'd enjoy his music a lot more (same goes for Henry). Also, he doesn't have a ton of original songs, so the concert ended at a decent hour. Even though I had a really good time, it doesn't change the fact that I am old, so I kept having to stretch out my back all night because both it and my feet were aching. (So it was a good thing I was in a spot where there was no one right behind me, because I would have been unable to stretch, or been sticking my butt out at them all night, lol.)
Afterward, A., K. and I had to find K.'s car again, and we initially went to the wrong garage, because the doors to the Convention Center (which we exited when we first arrived) were locked at 10, and it was like 10:45 or something. We finally found the car and were able to drive home, but we had some interesting conversation on the way. The conversation TO the event all centered around GOT7 and Kpop, but the drive back was more on real life stuff, including K.'s personal thoughts about her marriage and what it's like to be a mom, and stuff like that. It was particularly interesting because I think she's a lot like me in terms of what she needs on a personal level to feel fulfilled, so hearing her thoughts really vindicated my own decisions in life and confirmed things I'd always suspected about having a husband/kids when you have personalities/approaches like ours.