Ring ding dong Ring ding dong Ring diggi dingdiggi... [The Soccer DreamMatch]

Oh yes! Oh hell yes! I was blessed by the presence of many popstars today. Oh god... let me tell you a story of epic'ness.

Jeju, back in the day, hosted the FIFA World cup and had built a massive professional soccer stadium. Now in all honesty I think the field is actually a bit too small and the nets are definitely too small, but that doesn't matter cus this wasn't any mere normal game... no! This was the soccer game to remembered for an eternity !! (Well the Zidane headbutt MAY beat this)

[Note: that there is literally a moat between the stage and the soccer field.]

First off the Soccer game was between Jeju and North Korea. Or maybe some northern part of China, but the players were north Korean! SECOND AND MOST IMPORTANT was that after the game there was a K-pop Exxxxxtravaganzzza Concert! Yes there was about 10 K-pop bands playing their #1 hits! You literally can't get any luckier than this, especially when you consider....

it was FOR FREE!

So we got there at a reasonable time, but unfortunately it was one hell of a cold, wet and windy day. Oh Jeju... known for Rocks, Women and Wind. And we sure got the last 2 with the raging wind and the screaming girls (I guess not really women). Actually thank god we found a sheltered place and free jell warmers or else I would have been a cranky Jenny. The odd thing about the entire weather experience is that everytime I thought I saw snow flying about, it turned out that it was just garbage floating in the air. At one point my friend received a massive chunk of ash on his arm. Delightful.

[Jeju United in jerseys that were clearly stolen from construction workers]

So we first sat through the game. And to be frank... it wasn't quite up to the standards I was expecting. I've kinda seen the same stuff from some of the advanced teenage teams in Canada. But the game was entertaining enough with Jeju winning 2-0. Which is a miracle when one considers the last game my friends saw with them in it, saw them lose 8-0. But it delivered in entertainment to be sure. It would have even been worth the 10,000won the ticket claimed to be worth!

Now for the K-pop. The stage was pre-set up and let me tell you, it was sexy! Of course... it was across the field and I ended up watching the TV most of the time. Which sucked a bit.

The presentation included:

Kara

Brown Eyed Girls

4Minutess

Girls Generation

Jewelry

f(x)

Some Japanese group that had big paw mittens and cat ears and sung something that we think was 'luck-y' but sounded much dirtier

U-Kiss

SS501

SHINee *Girlish Squeel*

2PM *now all the Koreans squeel*

Park Jin Young aka JYP Entertainment CEO (the name of the company is his initials) [He should stick to being a CEO]

And some annoying comedy group

[Kara performing sooooome sorta song. You'll be distracted by their bums anyways, they're quite hypnotic. However if you look closely I'm up in the stands to the left towards the top. Covered from the wind]

I'm pretty sure I'm missing more K-pop people. But I mean this gives you an idea of how epic this presentation was. These are all groups with either current chart topping hits or had some in the past. And they were ONLY singing the chart toppers. It was filmed on tv live and had fireworks and well.... fire.

[SHINee. Addictive music & terribly underaged (for me anyways) ]

Not all groups were quite as energetic of course. A couple groups were flat out lazy in their dance routines, and one band.... was oddly boyish looking. I'm still not sure I believe my friends insistance that one of those girls was NOT a guy. SHInee which I am a fan of (despite the cutest one being 16... we won't discuss that), really turned out to be very skinny. Christ, all of these K-pop stars are skinny, but boy do they take the cake. And it's not as though kids don't notice. My students dubbed SHINee as 'beggars' because they look so mal-nourished.

I've posted up the video of 2PM -Heartbeat which is currently making the girls go wild. Partly because the lead singer (whose actually American) got in a big fiasco for calling Korea 'gay' (which is ironic when you consider that many Koreans don't think Gays exist) back in his youth and it came up to haunt him later on. So he ran away to America. So this is a bit of a comeback. But mostly I posted it up cus the opening made me laugh so hard!

This was basically the K-pop Experience of a Lifetime! And it was Epic!!!





Oh... And the soccer was cool too!

EDIT: I decided to upload this video. It's epic. The lyrics.... boy well they sounds dirty. The lyrics are actually bo-peep bo-peep but enjoy listening anyways. Enjoy the paws...

The Incredibly stupid (but AWESOME) Museums of Jeju

So you may or may not be aware of this fact (it should have been a giveaway with the Loveland post) but Jeju is filled with a massive amount of stupid museums. One could argue that this is because of Jeju trying to boost its image as a honeymoon destination, or maybe it's because the Japanese long ago burnt down all their traditional buildings and they needed new attractions.



Whatever the case, Jeju has a plethora of the most ridiculous museums, ranging from a Miniature Land (world landmarks, like the The Great Wall of China, in mini form) to even a Hot Air Balloon maze park (I have no idea what that would be...). I honestly can't tell you how many of these museums/lands there are! I mean, what is Alligator Town? Or Happy Town? Or Dreamland? I don't know, but I'll find out!


But today I'll discuss 2 museums that are very stupid but awesome! Teddy Bear Museum (I visited this months ago) and Trick Art museum (which I visited last weekend).

Teddy Bear Museum

Basically this is a museum of teddy bears that reinact famous moments in history or in film. I hate to say this, but there really isn't much to say about this museum... I mean it's a bunch of bloody teddy bears.

There are paintings of teddy bears, and there is even is a outdoor... park?... of teddy bears! Sometimes they're cute and sometimes they're creepy. At the end of the day, I was left thinking about whether or not my Grandfather (who fought in WWII) would have appreciated WWII being represented by teddy bears.

Trick Art Museum

This museum was actually far more interesting than the Teddy bear museum. Basically this museum has a bunch of classical or famous paintings recreated on a brick wall. They're recreated with extra shadows and also have portions of the painting popping out of the frame. The idea is to put yourself as a part of the painting so that it appears as though you are somewhat a part of the painting.

Luckily my friend Mike came with me, and his camera (and his camera skills) were really quite amazing. So his shots looked very much superior compared to mine. This museum is perfect for anyone who likes to take silly photos. Which seems to be most Koreans. There is an entire store in Jeju that has nothing but those small photo booths you find in malls & amusement parks and costumes to dress up in. Furthermore, for whatever reason, it appears that EVERY Korean owns a huge professional camera, and yet I sincerely doubt they're all avid amateur photographers. So i'm pretty sure that this museum is targeting that audience in particular. Either way, it's still a fun museum

In the end, the museums were definitely worth it. You certainly can't find any like this at home. And there are plenty more for me to check out!