Epikness

 

I have a chance to go see Epik High at Olympic Park next Saturday after all!

Here's a story I have yet to mention: While I was still studying Korean at Berkeley this past summer, I met this Korean girl on the bus. Her Korean name is Kwon Dongjin and her English name is Gina. The way we met seems way coincidental like, meant to be or something.

It was on one of those days on the bus in the morning on my way to Berkeley, and I was studying my Korean daily vocabulary as usual. Gina noticed my notebook with all my Korean writing and practicing in it, but she hesitated talking to me at first because, usually people really keep to themselves on the buses, and in my case, I was just really concentrating on studying for the next vocab quiz.

Here's the thing: we both got off at the same stop, and because we seemed to be walking towards the same direction, she decided to ask me about my learning Korean. I figured she was a native Korean since she has an accent, and she seemed really curious and friendly, so I decided to hold that five minute conversation with her.

Turns out Gina is a nurse doing an English abroad program for six months at Berkeley. She was to go back to Korea in September. I told her I was taking Korean because I was going to Hongik University this fall semester. She was really impressed, for some reason, haha, and the more we learned about each other, the more eager she was to talk more later. We exchanged emails that same day.

Since then, we only saw other one or two other times on the bus. We had class around the same time, but we kept missing each other from taking the bus at different times. However, she started emailing me and we've kept in touch since. She gave me tips on what clothes to bring to Korea for the fall semester, how excited she was to show me around in Seoul when she got back, and all sorts of stuff. I figured, hey, this is good, I have one other person to look forward to meeting with in Korea.

I gave Gina my Korean phone number after I got it on one of the emails I sent her. Earlier this week, she texted me, said she recently returned to Seoul, and we should meet up for lunch on the weekend. Today, I met Gina for the first time in Seoul since we last saw each other in Oakland. At the Hongdae subway station, she announced that she's taking me to see 창경궁 (Changgyeong Palace), one of the five palace areas left from the Chosun dynasty.

It was really cool, and fun to chat with her again. Despte what she says, her English is pretty good, and I'd say better than my Korean as we had conversed mostly in English today. After lunch and during the crazy rain that plagued as soon afterwards, we kind of took the liberty to talk more about the differences between English and Korean and apparently, she's talked about me to a lot of her roommates (while she was living in Oakland) and her friends in Seoul. A Vietnamese-American girl learning Korean to study abroad at a prestigious art college. I don't understand how they find that so fascinating, but apparently her friends all want to meet me at some point. They called Gina a couple times and all times Gina said she was with me and we were waiting for the rain to stop so we could go to Changgyeong Palace. We also did a lot of Korean/English 101 with each other, haha. She'd ask me some things about English, and I'd ask her some things about Korean. Totally mutually beneficial, this meeting, and future ones to come.

It was like something from a sitcom or some feel good Asian drama, haha. We got caught in the rain, soaked despite the umbrellas while rushing to a nearby cafe, and just sitting there sipping our milk tea and coffee waiting for the rain to subside, talking about all sorts of things, and in awe of how we've come to meet under such circumstances.

It was great that it rained before going to the Palace, too, because when we got there, everything smelled fresh, and looked greener. I took so many pictures, just wait till I upload them soon. After the rap video is up, of course. I recorded a first take already, and depsite how I like the way I looked in the video, I need to uh, practice more and then record a final version....>.<. Sorry for the long wait!

But anyway. We had lots of fun today. And she helped me a lot too. (I'm just getting all sorts of help from people these days. I suppose God's way of sending me help xD). When she asked me about what I usually do on weekends, I tell her sometimes I go out to do errands, and sometimes I go out for events (I think Gina was also indirectly asking so that maybe we can make it a weekly thing to meet up since she wants to introduce me to her friends too). Then I mentioned that I really wanted to go to the Epik High concert that's going down next Saturday, but I don't know how to buy the ticket and I joked about sneaking in.

Amazingly, Gina said she would buy the ticket for me online, and that I could pay her back later. OMG. Just out of blue, no beating around the bush, she just said it.

I was, like, no way. Am I really getting the chance to see Epik High again?? Too good to be true. Well, I didn't want to get my hopes up too high, so I joked again and said, I bet the tickets are totally sold out by now, and there's only a week left before the concert, so I would just call you (Gina) up and plan to hang out, or something, lol.

Well, after our day of fun, and we parted, and I got back to my dorm room, Gina texted me not too long ago, and confirmed that there were still tickets left for the concert. ohmygeeeeeeeeeeee. xD

And, I guess you can just figure out the rest. We decided to get a ticket in the standing section of the concert hall. You know. The spots that are IN FRONT of the stage.

This, is going to be my first ever standing concert. First ever concert in another country. Second time seeing Epik High ever, within a year.

Don't try to wake me up from this dream. I'm already living it.