Immediately after work, I came to my house and tapped on the friendly office man’s door, and told him my room number and asked if there was a delivery for me. Guess what? There was! The Big Bang ‘Extraordinary 20s’ photo book. It was actually waiting for me yesterday, but I didn’t have time to claim it. I skipped back to my room and stared at the box. Staring contest! I lost. It was time for me to cut this sucker open.

I forcefully scissored the box. I could already smell the delicious book smell. It smells like an I Spy book. The best kind of book smell in the world. This is the box the book comes in. Yes, the book is so special it requires two encasements!

The cover of the book itself. Very high quality. The edges of the pages are shiny gold. There’s a little fake photo negative wedged into the front cover. The seemingly random phrases at bottom are the names of the different themed chapters.

The book comes with a small poster and this photo frame with interchangeable photo cards. The Daesung one is just plain awful and doesn’t even look like him. The other ones are okay. I really like this theme- it’s very ‘street’ and ‘legit’ and not ‘manufactured.’ Even though, obviously, it is.

The book has A LOT of these random quotations, all in English. In fact, there is nothing Korean in the book at all. Only English. YG must have gotten a way better copy editor because the English is so much better than any of the previous stuff they’ve put out. BigBig Bang world domination, go!

TOP is moody and never smiles in any of the pictures. Protecting his 2cool4school image well.

Lots of b&w shots, and many of them are very casual and seem natural. I like it.

Aw, who HASN’T fallen for Daesung’s smile? He smiles like a baby.

At this point, things started to get a little weird.

Yep.

Yep squared.

TAEYANG IS SHRINKING. Seriously, last time I saw him (in person; don’t believe how tall he looks in photos because I think they make him stand on boxes) I would have put him at 5’4” or 5’5” (being generous with the later,) but if GD claims to be 5’8” but is really closer to 5”6” and Taeyang is THIS short, I must conclude that Taeyang is a garden gnome.

So, was this $35 book of well-groomed and manicured Korean men who are very talented in singing and dancing worth my money? Yeah, I think so. I like the style of all the pictures, the design and packaging are great, the random English interview quotations which are never attributed to any individual member are kind of weird, but who even reads these days anyway? 

girlinseoul:

Who wants TaeYang to put a damn shirt on. Like its more sexy if I don’t see it all the time

I want Taeyang to put on a shirt… so he can tear it off again. And again. And again.

robotrei:

This is hott with two ‘T’s and also really reminds me of the “Everybody Backstreet’s Back” music video which I used to own on VHS. I am pretty sure Brian who is dressed up as a wolf does both of these poses in that video. Taeyang is definitely howling at the moon.

(Source: rcouk)

Apparently there is some serious drama going on in the Kpop world because an up-and-coming boy group, Chaos, is named Park Taeyang. And YG wants him to change it because that’s been Taeyang of Big Bang’s stage name for a long time. But! This new guy’s real name is actually Taeyang. And his mother doesn’t want him to change it. So who has the ‘right’ to the name Taeyang? Can’t both Taeyang’s live together in peace? DRAMA. 

Right now I am going to admittedly and unapologetic broad, sweeping stereotype about Korea. And that stereotype is: Korean men named Taeyang are hotter than the sun (get it?!)

Taeyang #1 {hanging out in a dump because that’s what Korean pop stars do all day, of course}

Taeyang #2 {swoon!}

While looking for the Charlotte Theater, we had to walk through the gigantic Lotte complex connected to Jamsil Station. This building is enormous; it houses the Lotte Department Store and Lotte World and Lotte Mart and who even knows what else. It also houses Lotte Star Walk, a well-placed tourist attraction designed to attract the eyes and money for foreign non-Korean visitors who really like Kpop and Kdramas. I had wanted to check this place out for some time (although now the free Kpop stuff in the Korean Tourism Center makes paying for Star Walk kind of unnecessary) and we ended up walking by it on our way to see Cats. 

These are only the displays outside. Inside there were some little sets that were recreations of famous drama sets, and you could take a picture there. And there were some more costumes in glass cases. I’m not sure what else you could do inside. It was closed and the lights were off. It didn’t seem as exciting as I thought it would be, and for that I am sad. 

Taeyang and Seungri for Lotte Duty Free

GD&TOP (swoon)

Rain’s display… I wonder if those abs were accurately sculpted?

Big Bang’s Lollipop-inspired display

So, my hand was too big to fit into ANY of the hand prints except TOP’s. G-Dragon’s and Taeyang’s hands were small like a child. Cute.

Early this morning my body decided to fall up the stairs to my classroom and I have huge bruises on both my legs and some cuts on my left leg. I am also currently walking with a slight limp. I went to the school nurse. She is really, really sweet. She sprayed something on one of my bruises and it instantly felt okay and hasn’t bothered me since. Then she put some kind of ointment over my cuts and bandaged them up. The bandage sticks out under my black tights and teachers I don’t even know (like, high school teachers and the school guards) have been pointing at it and saying stuff to me in Korean (which I don’t understand. I don’t know how to say “I fell up the stairs” in Korean, haha.) Anyway, that certainly ruined my plans for tonight, which were to go to the gym and then walk about twenty minutes and back to get a sandwich at Subway. Looks like I’ll be in bed all night!

I had a good night in Myeongdong last night, hanging out with my friend who was looking for some presents for his/her significant other (don’t want to give away details in case anyone sees it!) I got there kind of early and spent a long time in H&M and got a cute rust-colored cropped jacket I’d wanted for awhile. It had finally gone on sale at 50% off. I’m wearing it now and one of my co-teachers told me that I look “very thin today.” 

When my friend made it, we ate at the famous Myeongdong Gyoja restaurant, which has a line winding far down the street on weekends. Even on a Wednesday night, it was packed. This was my first time eating here, but my friend had been before. This restaurant is known for three things: 1. being really old (about thirty years) 2. its knife-cute noodles (kalguksu/칼국수) and delicious mandu (dumplings) 3. its extra spicy, garlic-y kimchi. The kalguksu was delicious and so filling. And the kimchi was the spiciest I’ve ever eaten. By the end of the meal, my eyes were stinging and my tongue was raw, like after eating a spicy pepper. It had so much flavor; i was like eating raw garlic! I can still taste it in my mouth. It was that intense. The people who work here walk around constantly replenishing your kimchi and I think the woman near us understood us. We noticed that there was only a little kimchi in our dishes so we remarked “They must think we don’t like kimchi because we’re foreign, but we actually love it” and seconds later the woman came back and piled up our dishes. I would definitely recommend this restaurant and it also seems very popular with tourists. I mean, it has a website in Korean, English, and Japanese. Plus, I saw a ton of Japanese people wander in clutching their Myeongdong shopping maps. If you’re in Seoul, check it out.

Nothing else was really uneventful about the night although… I’m so ashamed to admit this… I bought the newest Super Junior album. Am I 13? The picture of Siwon on the front is so “sek-shi” and it’s big like a record and really colorful… these are my excuses. Anyway it was totally worth it because this is what the inside looks like: 

Now, just one more class to get through today, and it’s my grade ones, and they’re the best, so I’m not worried. I do need to make my lesson plans for next week, though. I guess I can do that while I’m stuck at home in my bed tonight.