Jung-ah (Jung-soo's sister) and I took the subway to Yeouido, an area in Seoul that has tons of office buildings (including broadcasting stations and the Congress building), where we met my aunt. Before meeting up with her, Jung-ah told me that the Congress building is "Seoul's biggest trash can," haha! Anyways, we met with my aunt who bought us lunch. I had 메밀국수 (which I don't know how to translate...memil noodles? Morisoba?) which was delicious. I didn't take a picture but the one below (thank you Internet) is exactly the one I had!
You add the noodles, here, to the broth, top right.
After eating, we got Belgian waffles, which seems to be the craze here in Korea. They were amazing! They looked like normal Belgian waffles but I guess the dough is special and it was kinda sticky and more sugary... Delicious, nonetheless.
We drove all the way out to a suburb of Korea, where the larger MBC building is. There, we waited around and saw a cute little history of MBC museum where they showcased old cameras and recording devices. Finally, my aunt's friend came down to show us in to the recording/live show studio. I felt so much like a VIP. During the rehearsals for Music Core, we got to stay seated while the other fans were shown out the door. Here are some good pictures before we were told we couldn't take any more...
This is Jang Woo Hyuk recording "Time is Over." If you have back-up dancers, you're allowed to rehearse more and record your performance.
The stage. The lines in the back are all images that are controlled by one person. She was in charge of switching the images to match the song--crazy accurate!
Some cameras. They used about seven to tape the show.
It's funny. This is supposed to be live on TV, but only some performances were. If you were more famous, it seemed, you were allowed to rehearse and get it "perfect" and just use that for broadcasting. Though, the groups that did that still performed on stage for the audience in the studio. This allowed them to improvise, which I though was great.
Anyways, it's hard to detail the order of the performances because it seemed randomized! I'll just post pictures and sort of explain them, I guess. That'll probably be easiest. Also, the pictures below were all from my phone, stealthily taken. =)
Kim Hyun Joong. He first was successful as the lead singer in a Korean boy group SS501. He made his debut as an actor starring in a Korean drama "Boys over Flowers." Now he does his own stuff. He's a great dancer with crazyyyy fans.
The computer with all the background images is a little hard to see...
8eight was amazing to hear live. It's a little hard to describe their style so I just encourage you to check them out. This was their performance.
FT Island is an indie rock type band. They were great, except there was a girl sitting two rows back that was screaming a part of the chorus as loud as possible. It felt like she was screaming in my ear... Everyone in front of her looked miserable.
There were more pictures of groups but they didn't turn out very well. If you want to see what I saw, you can look up MBC Music Core 110625 on YouTube. Anyways, this was 2PM, a super popular boy band. Real crowd pleasers. =)
2PM, again. They were by far the best entertainers and got the audience engaged the most. Because they had recorded earlier, they were free to improvise on stage. And they did just that. They were hilarious and fun to watch.
After the show, we went "backstage" (out the doors and up a couple floors) to the dressing rooms of the performers. There were plenty of offices there too. Because we had amazing connections, we got to take a picture with all of 2PM!!! I was shaking because I was so excited, haha.
Jung-ah is on the left. 2PM! A once in a lifetime opportunity for many. Sooo lucky I got this chance! Taecyeon, third from the right, was by far the nicest. He was acknowledging everyone involved in producing the show and thanking them. He seemed so humble compared to the rest of the group. They were all nice enough though to take a picture with us. ^^
A sign in the bathroom. It reads, "Please don't put toilet paper in the toilet! It hurts the toilet. T_T. Signed, the toilet." I thought it was funny (referring to oneself in third person sounds okay in Korean, but weird in English). Btw, the plumbing system isn't too great in Korea so they don't want toilet paper clogging everything up.
Proof that we were behind the crazy security in the station.
After this adventure, Jung-ah and I returned home. But first, we went the wrong way on the subway. >_> Not to worry, though. Jung-ah says she frequently gets lost so she always knows how to get back, haha! We went home and shared all the pictures with the rest of her family.
We then ate Italian food at a cute little restaurant called Covent Garden and then went grocery shopping. The supermarket had three floors of parking, one floor for food, one for "home stuff," and one for clothes. It was quite incredible.
Then sleep.
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