what inspires me about Korea?

1) k-dramas

my obsession towards korea originally caused by k-dramas. the first k-drama i watched (and most malaysians imo) is winter sonata. it was back in 2002 (10 years ago!) when i was still in form 3 (lol yes i'm 25 yrs old now). i was so obsessed with this drama prolly because of the different storyline, concept and beautiful sceneries (oh nami island!) compared to hk/taiwanese/etc drama that was an in-thing at that time. then local tv started to show more & more k-dramas, e.g autumn in my heart, full house etc. then k-drama became quite phenomenon in malaysia and everyone started to use korean words they learned from k-dramas like calling ppl oppa, eonnie, appa, omma, aigoo etc lol. 

basically k-dramas are more than just dramas. it's like a magnet, keep attracting people to learn more & more about korea. from k-dramas we can learn about korean cultures, foods, language, places etc. it also makes me eager to go to those places featured in those dramas i've watched, e.g nami island (winter sonata), namsan tower (boys over flowers), gyeongbokgung (deep rooted tree), dongdaemun (cinderella man) and lotte world (stairway to heaven). i'm glad finally i've went to those places when i visited korea last january hehe.

besides modern dramas, actually i like to watch sageuk (historical) dramas too! i think most ppl don't really like watching them lol. maybe i'm the weird one haha. at least i can learn about joseon history from those dramas. after quite sometimes, especially in my few last semesters in uni, i became more addicted to kpop and started to abandon k-dramas haha. but now, my k-drama addiction is back! currently i'm following rooftop prince (sbs wed-thurs), the king 2 hearts (mbc wed-thurs) & fashion king (sbs mon-tues) every week. and no, they are not sageuk dramas, just so you know lol.

and even now, my mom has become a k-drama addict /more than me to be honest lol/ starting from the day we subscribed onehd channel on astro since it airs so many family-type of k-dramas. she dragged & forced me to watch all these dramas too instead of those commercial dramas /coz they have more family & positive values?/ lol mom waylt.

2) 2PM (and kpop)

 

yes obviously it's because of my favourite oppars, 2PM !! haha. i might need 5 posts to finish my rants about how much i love 2PM lol but i'm gonna make this short. my addiction (and love) towards them started when i was  in my internship semester in uni. i was too bored in office so i started to watch some kpop vids on youtube and i became attracted with this 1 group and started to google about them and bla3. not gonna write or say anything about their past history coz everyone need to move on, is it? (insert junho & woo move on as bgm lmao). i'm happy both parties are success in their own way now. full stop :)

my love towards them grows bigger day by day. before this, when i was still in uni, i don't really care about buying their official merchandises, fansite's fangoods, even albums (obviously because i was still a student and student doesn't have $$$ lol). but starting from last year when i started working, i tend to buy.. well, EVERY SINGLE THING they produced lmao. korean albums, japanese albums, all those 45783783 merchs, fangoods (from junho fansites) etc. sobs why am i like this.

on nov 2011, 2PM came to malaysia for the first time (like finally!) for their 2PM hands up asia tour - kl stop. of course i went to their fansigning, concert & even stayed in the same hotel (sasaeng much? ofc not! :p) with my other hottest (2PM's fangirls) friends! it was such a bittersweet  moment during their 3 days stay in malaysia (bitter = coz of the amount of money i spent for it LOL, sweet = to see them live in front of my eyes).  and on feb 2012, i went to bangkok with my hottest friends for their 2PM hands up asia tour - bangkok stop. crazy much is it? and yes we do have a plan to go to seoul for their comeback later lol *fingers crossed*

junsu & junho bb were looking into my polaroid camera sobs :')

besides seeing their performance live during their 2 concerts, my unforgettable experience with them is when we went to bangkok for their 2PM hands up asia tour bangkok concert, i brought my polaroid then junho & junsu were looking into my polaroid! hehe. and also when me & my other hottest friends join the 2PM soompi contest & we won it! and also when junho read & answered my question during their interview with oneHD. kekeke. will never ever forget it sobs :')

   

 

besides 2PM, i like to listen to other kpop songs too. well i like korean music coz they are so freaking addictive. the lyrics, the beat, everything, it's something like u wanna listen to over and over again. well i'm glad i've seen nearly all my fav kpop artists (other than 2PM of course) to perform live in front of my eyes when they came to malaysia for concert/showcase; e.g super show 2 & super show 3 (super junior), beast fansigning, u-kiss fansigning & showcase, jyj showcase, digi live kpop party (beast, 4minute & g.na), twintowers live 2011 (wonder girls), 2AM fansigning & showcase, korean music wave in malaysia (gd&top, u-kiss, teentop, 4minute & ft island), mnet ultimate live (super junior, miss A, f(x) & b1a4) & finally, 2PM themselves during 2PM hands up asia tour! :) 

 3) foods

my most fav.. jjajangmyeon!

this might be boring. yeah i know. but i still wanna share it coz it's a fact that i love korean food so much! it was hard to find halal korean foods here in malaysia few years back. but now there are so many halal korean restaurants (e.g the street cafe, sweetree, pak z kopitiam etc - just to name a few). my fav korean foods basically are bibimbap, jjajangmyeon & kimbap. i can even have jjajangmyeon every single weekend if i was in my craving mood lol.

our lunch at myeongdong on day 2 - bibimbap, acorn jelly & mushroom pajeon.

our lunch at nami island on day 3 - dosirak.

during my trip to korea, i managed to try korean foods there, fresh from the oven! hehe. it was like the best experience ever. although it was quite hard actually to find korean foods that are edible (= halal :p) but we managed to do so! we got to try bibimbap, acorn jelly, mushroom pajeon, dosirak & street foods like odeng, kimbap & hotteok. i really wanna try jjajangmyeon in seoul so freaking bad, but i know there wouldn't be any halal jjajangmyeon there coz usually it has chicken/meat inside it. tsk =.=

4) subway system

seoul subway map :p

lol this might be weird and i don't know about everyone else, but for me, i was so in love with seoul's subway system when i visited seoul last january. we didn't use any tour guide & we're travelling on our own, thus we are solely depends on subway & bus to go anywhere. and yes it's a really convenient public transport ever! it might looks confusing for tourists at first since it has 10 different lines with so many stations, but with informative maps & directions at each station, it doesn't make me confuse at all. and the time intervals is only about 5-10 minutes, which can save our time (which is already limited). ahh thinking about this makes me wanna stay in seoul now! /exaggerates

5) language (hangugo)

my first hangul guru LOL

since my daily life is surrounded with kdramas, variety shows, 547358223 vids of 2PM etc, i feel so annoyed watching them but didn't understand any single thing without translations. thus i take one step ahead, to learn hangugo! at first i learn it online by browsing some free korean language tutorial sites. but after few months, i didn't feel improved at all lol. then i decided to join a weekend korean language class with my friend. now we're at level 3 already hehe. and yes it helps us a lot during our last trip to korea. we can understand whatever hangul things displayed everywhere, and we can have basic (at least.. lol :p) conversation with ppl there. ahh it feels so worth it. kkk. hopefully my hangugo skills can get better and i can be more confident to use it in my next korea trip hehe. :p

all these 5 things finally made me to visit korea on january 2012. it was such a wonderful & memorable trip ever. i've blogged about it in my 7 days trip to korea posts lol. sadly there are still some places i haven't yet visited since we only go there for 8 days ;__; obviously i will visit seoul again soon, and this time i'm gonna make it.. a 2-weeks trip! :p p/s: made this entry for Touch Korea Tour blog contest by Korea Plaza KL. do visit them for more info! :)