{Monday Morning(ish) Therapy with Dongsaeng} The Perfect Pilgrimage

Good morning/afternoon/evening all you wonderful addicKts you!  Boy oh boy, do I have a lot of ground to cover today.  I'll probably save some for Unnie to chat about on Wednesday, but then again, maybe not.  We'll just have to see where we go with this.

First of all, if you were following our sporadic postings on FB/Twitter, you could probably tell that we were having the time of our lives this weekend.  Seriously.  Wow.  We are talking full K-immersion.  Southern Californians?  They've got it going on when it comes to this stuff.  I texted The Husband while there and told him that I had found my personal Mecca.  Picture this - entire malls 100% Korean.  Stores, food court, clientele, everything Korean.  Holy freaking moly - it was so awesome!

Before I go any further, I realize that some of you may just want to hear about the actual concert and not just our travelogue, so for you, I will do you a favor and start with that before launching into the full tale of our travels and time together.  See, I'm still on the post-concert high and feeling very generous.  I love the whole world and everyone in it today.  I saw Big Bang.  Big Freaking Bang.  In person.  They were in the same arena as little ol' me.  TOP, Daesung, Taeyang, Seungri, and GDragon.  They sang and danced for me (and a few other thousand-some-odd people).  It was like the crowning point of my life.  It's right up there with wedding day and the birth of my children.  Can I be perfectly honest?  It may have even been better than those events.  Don't tell my family that though - it'll be our little secret.  ;)  The whole thing was just overwhelming and is kind of a blur.  Certain moments certainly stand out though, like GD's face while singing.  That image will never leave my memory.  It's there for all time.  And I can pull it out anytime I need a pick-me-up.  I adore that man.  He is...just...yeah.  Wow.  Naughty Dongsaeng approves.  The Husband should be grateful I came home instead of becoming a groupie and following Big Bang all over the world, that's all I'm saying.  ;)

So, I don't have like the set list or anything.  I can't tell you everything that they sang.  Like I said, it's all just one amazing haze of awesomeness.  I was thrilled that GD did a full version of Crayon.  And like Unnie said in her post, we got to sing happy birthday to TOP, who's birthday was, if you're going by the time in Seoul, that night.  I videoed it same as Unnie, but again, our seats were nosebleeders, so the quality isn't the best.  However, Seungri?  Yeah, he was in a perfect spot, right there on stage and so he videoed it for us.  Wasn't that nice of him?  He's pretty amazing, that Seungri.  If you haven't seen it yet, check out this video.  TOP is absolutely totally and completely adorable!!!


They did a phenomenal job.  The whole concert was just indescribable.  The encore was amazing.  They did another, uhm, like 4-5 songs maybe?  Don't know - the number was lost in that pesky memory haze which wasn't helped by all the crazy fangirl moments like Taeyang running around the crowd without his shirt on or TOP receiving a shirt/clothing item of some kind from a fan, wiping his face on it and then handing it back to the fan.  Or the water Daesung was flinging all over the VIP section.  It was a fanatic feeding frenzy of fantastic fangirl moments.

*Happy, contented sigh*

Okay.  That's what I'm going to say about the concert for now.  Time to log all that travel now.

Unnie flew into town on Thursday and spent the day with her sister.  Then that evening she came over to my house for a bestie slumber party.  We had a lot of visitors stop by to see the guest of honor - lots of old friends from when she lived here.  She is a very loved individual which probably surprises nobody.  She's just so lovable, isn't she?  Anyway, so we partied late into the night with our old friends (well, her old friends, my current friends since I still live here and all - potato, potato).  Then Friday morning after getting kids off to school and taking care of a few things, we hit the open road.  By 4-something Friday afternoon, we were all checked in to our hotel which was literally across the street from the Honda Center - the venue for the concert.  We could see it from our room - how awesome is that?

After getting all settled in it was time to head over to meet in person a group of ladies that we have, up until now, only known online.  We've mentioned here before a Facebook group that we are members of that consists of Kpop/Kdrama fans, and over the months have grown close to many of them.  Seems weird maybe, and it's kind of hard to explain, but there it is anyway.  It's actually possible to make real friends and connections over the internet.  Who knew?  So we went to one members' home that lives in the area to meet everyone and enjoy a lovely dinner together.  There were 6 of us total from all over the country (actually, one was Canadian too) gathered together for this concert.  Meeting them was incredibly cool.  It wasn't even weird or awkward even though technically we were strangers.  It was all smiles and big ol' hugs and girly squeals from the get go.  Our hostess for the evening's husband made us the most amazing Korean meal.  Seriously so good.  We hung out and laughed and played and had a blast.  Then we hit the town!  Our hostess took us to where we could find our first installment of Korean immersion.  Oh yeah - we hit the norebang baby!  We sang our little hearts out and shocked the employee when we told her we didn't want Michael Jackson or Justin Bieber - that we were there for BigBang and we wanted KPop and only KPop.  Her response?  "But you're so..."  Our collective response?  "White?  Yeah, we know".  "Old" would have worked too.  We were shocking them all left and right this weekend.  Our hostess' husband at dinner said, "I never thought I'd live to see the day when white people would like this [Korean/Asian] stuff" (he and his wife are Chinese - it would probably make more sense if you knew that I guess - he wasn't being offensive or anything - it was actually quite hilarious).  So we started calling ourselves the 8th wonder of the world.

Saturday was LA KTown day.  This was when we got to see the all Korean malls.  And we found the 'crack' store as we so lovingly call it.  It was a store filled with Kdrama and Kpop paraphernalia.  Pictures, postcards, pens, socks - you name it, they had it.  We were like kids in a candy store.  It was a feeding frenzy.  After shopping and sufficiently draining our bank accounts and/or doing our best to keep Visa alive and healthy, it was time for the food court.  This isn't your average American food court.  Oh no siree!  It was an all Korean food court.  With real Korean food.  And a whole lot of it.  The portion sizes are gigantic!  You get a lot for your money.  It was delicious.

Dolsot Bibimbap (rice and vegetable in hot stone bowl) with all the banchan (side dishes) - $10.  Not bad for all that food.  And this picture was taken as I was finishing all I could eat.  

So we spent all day shopping and absorbing all that KTown had to offer,

Unnie found her Hyun-y!

then it was back to Orange County to get ready for the concert!  And since I already told you all about that, I'll skip to the end.  We were on such a happy high after the concert.  We all hung out in the hotel room squeeing and reliving every moment and fangirling over our boys and how hawt they all were.  Then Unnie and I dropped the other 4 back off at Miss Hostess's house and went back and crashed for the night.

Sunday we all kind of did our separate thing since we were staying separately.  The 4 went out for brunch while Unnie and I hit Huntington Beach.  Unnie grew up in the area so of course we had to go back to her beach and see the ocean before heading home.  It was lovely just sitting there in the sand, soaking up the sun and enjoying the sound of the waves.

HellO ocean!

Then it was time for goodbyes.  We met up with our friends after they finished their lunch, said our farewells, took a ton of pictures, and then we hit the road once again, Unnie and I.  After a quick detour to see her old stomping grounds, we drove back to Arizona.

Looonnnggg, boring drive of vast nothingness. Thank goodness for all that KPop we had ready on hand to keep us sane (you know, relatively speaking lol).

Then this morning I took her to the airport and she flew home.  And now here I am, going through withdrawals.  It was such a spectacular adventure and a memory I will treasure for always.  I am grateful for friends, old and new and for the shared love of Big Bang that brought us all together.  :)

Unnie and Dongsaeng - together again <3

Sorry for the long travelogue all about us.  It was just such a cool experience that I wanted to share with you all.  I hope you don't mind.  We'll get back to business soon enough.  Maybe once Big Bang leaves our country.  Until then, I can't help but be distracted knowing that they're here on American soil.  Golly gosh gee willikers - I heart those boys!

Now, it is nearly 10pm my time.  Obviously the whole "Morning(ish)" title doesn't apply to this post.  My apologies.  I had to take Unnie to the airport in the morning and then go out to lunch with my poor, sweet, neglected husband.  After that the kids were home (early release day of course) and bogarting the computer for homework or some junk like that.  Sheesh.  Homework.  Psh!  Lame.  xD  I hope you all had a spectacular weekend as well.  And if any of you were at either concert, drop us a line and let us know what you thought.  We can collectively SQUEEE together as we remember the good times.  Until next time, may your week be filled with wonderful dramas!

Thanks for stopping by!

<3



P.S.  And if you live in America - be sure to get out and vote tomorrow!
{Public Service Announcement paid for by The Crazy Ahjummas who approve this message}

it's not all about dramas and music

My original obsession with dramas led to my obsession with K-Pop.  And somewhere in between, a growing interest in the people and culture of Korea as well.  This is the part of my "journey" that the Husband has appreciated and encouraged the most.  You see, he's a foodie kind of guy.  He loves to explore all different kinds of cuisines.  I, on the other hand, typically don't.  I'm not very adventurous in my food choices.  However, as I have grown interested in Korean culture, some of that discovery has involved food.  Sadly, I don't live in an area that has a lot of decent Korean restaurants to choose from.  Last summer though, my family and I visited Orange County, CA, which I understand does have quite a few decent Korean restaurants.  Coincidentally enough, one happened to be right next door to our hotel.  The Husband was very eager to try, and thanks to my "hobby" I was easier to convince than I would normally be.  I wasn't brave enough to actually venture out and try it myself (I know, I know - wuss.  I freely admit and own it), so the Husband went and picked up a few things for us to try in the comfort of our room.  Side note:  I don't know why we always try ethnic (read: strong smelling) foods while we travel.  It makes our hotel room smell strong for the rest of the day.  And something that smells great when you first get it doesn't necessarily smell so great the next morning when you wake up to it and it's gone stale.  But I digress....

So, we get some Korean food for the first time.  At that point I knew nothing about what I was eating.  Since then I have educated myself, so I can now tell you what I actually ate.  He got a bibimbap and a japchae and then something else for the kids, but that I don't remember.  For the record, the restaurant was chosen because of its location, not reputation.  So take that in to consideration with the rest of what I have to say.  The bibimbap was not to my liking.  Too much fermentation, from the banchan it came with to the red pepper paste it was covered in.  But the japchae?  I was in love!  It was delicious!  The noodles fascinated me.  The sauce was flavorful and not too unfamiliar of a flavor.  It was a perfect intro to Korean food for me.

Fast forward to post-vacation.  I found myself craving that japchae.  First I had to figure out what it was because the Husband couldn't remember what it was called.  A fair amount of Googling later and I had a name and a recipe.  Since, like I mentioned above, I live in an area with few Korean restaurants to choose from, I had to try and recreate it on my own.  It was successful enough that I have since made it a few more times, once was even for a crowd at a Lunar New Year party (I'll have to post about that awesome experience sometime).  I have tried a couple of different recipes and have even done a bit of "fusion" with it, mixing it with other Asian stir-fry concepts.  It has become a family favorite, with LP#2 especially.  He loves it and asks for it all the time.  Success!

I now have a growing list of foods I would like to try and have started looking for restaurants in the area that have those foods (and yes, someday I will even give bibimbap another go).  I begin this portion of my journey with a bit of trepidation but also excitement.  After all, I need to be prepared for the day when I finally get to travel to Korea, right?

So, I'm curious, what's your favorite Korean food?  What do you think I, a Korean food newbie, should try?