Check-in, Seoul City: Ideal Cut in Seoul 2018
I think it’s befitting that I start this blog for the people who are important to me. I’m beyond grateful to see Seventeen live for four times this year, and I want to share with you all of how my trips and experiences ignite my passion on travel, photography, and music.
IDEAL CUT IN SEOUL, 06.29.18 | 07.01.18
The first one was in summery Seoul last June and July. After the hassle of purchasing tickets, booking flights and accommodation at short notice, I took my first step in Korea for a four-day concert. It’s unfathomable that I’d do this in my life, though it is in the unexpected that life seems more vivid. There’s not much of a difference in the weather here and in there, so packing wasn’t that difficult, though our baggage limit still did exceed. I’m glad I could wear my dresses there more often since people are relatively more um, civilized in Korea than in here.
I’m not a big fan of spending way too many bucks on transportation, and so does my sister who I went with, so we whirled around Seoul subway’s Line 2. We also rode a few buses, though to save time, we opted for subways instead.
The crowd outside Jamsil was super chill, and the area wasn’t really that big. I stand by this comparison from the Olympic Dome, which I’ll write about in the third section. The great part about this was I got to meet my college schoolmate there, who was with us pre- and post-concert. As I am a newbie at experiencing a concert in Korea, I didn’t have the tolerance to lineup for the official freebies (photocards!), and up to this day I still feel bad about it.
Since ticketing will never guarantee a seat beside someone you went with, me and my sister were separated. I don’t hold the wifi egg —she does —so I took the liberty of... napping before the concert. The staff is superbly strict with camera usage, as taking photos before the concert is prohibited. I’m tad disappointed at such, though it did bear good consequences, so... here we go!
The concert was beyond my expectations. My carat bong really served its purpose of joining in the sea that lit up for the boys. The camerawork was in full HD, so you can really see their pimples and strands of hair (TMI but LOL). Their solos and exclusive performances that they only do in Korea and Japan were wicked; I most especially liked Vernon’s because of its lyrical content, as well as Jihoon and Soonyoung’s ‘날 쏘고 가라’ since it was bone-breaking yet fluid, a composition that really fit the two. Seungcheol had every staff cleaning the stage because of the shards that came to be after his performance, Mingyu looked like he was getting married, and Wonwoo did his solo rapidly and intensely, but with that genuine and softness that underlie in his lyrics.
The language barrier was a big hindrance, of course, but I know what I signed up for (I can pick up some of their words, though!).
Day Two: Performance Unit
The clouds were gray, so the weather was terrible. Wise decision maker me opted to swap my sneakers for my leather sandals.
This was... unprecedented. Originally we only planned to buy merchandise because I thought the concert shirt looked good and I didn’t have any extra shirt left, so from Hongdae, we zoomed to Jamsil. Twenty-two stops meant time for dozing! Arriving there was the funniest situation I’ve ever encountered in my life, as me and my sister ran from the subway station, passed by the baseball stadium and the parking lot before arriving at the gloomy facade of Jamsil Indoor Gymnasium under the pouring rain. The merchandise booth ran out of most goods, including my desired shirt, and the Carat post box and Carat Zone were also closed.
My sister turned to her back and probably saw the ticketing canopy with a lightbulb hanging over her head. After all, we are Highlight’s fans, too.
This time, only a person sat between us. I truly hoped that that Carat didn’t snicker at us in her mother tongue, because we smelled like rain water.
Performance Unit lives up to their name, really. Chan really impressed me when he caught his mic because I have poor reflexes, Junhui’s sheer top was Level One of my mouth gaping, Hoshi’s infamous ‘Touch’ had my mouth on the ground, hence Level Two, and Minghao did ‘Night and Rain’ so dreamlike, charming, and sad at the same time.
As this is the last concert day, more tears started pouring in. Junhui seemed to be having a hard time lately due to his and Minghao’s Chinese survival show, so I understood why he was going through a lot. Chan cooped himself up between his legs and chest, which was a thorny sight to see, since you can’t do anything but watch the people you admire go through such.
Post-concert had us running to the nearest restaurant that is not 7/11, because I haven’t eaten anything since that morning. The triangle kimbap was divine, a classic convenience food staple which I can’t get here easily, but I’ve had probably burned the calorie intake I have incurred from it after a long day.
If you ask me my leather sandals are still usable, but they’re badly beaten up.
