Rainism

Oh my.....yesterday was awesome!

Titania has the best hook ups in Korea. She had a friend of a friend call her yesterday and ask if she wanted to go to a free concert with her at her university. They have been meaning to meet up for awhile, so this girl thought Titania might want to come to the school's 60th anniversary party. She wasn't really feeling it until she told us that Rain was going to be there and we freaked out!

Back story on Rain:
Born Jeong Ji-hoon in 1982. Know as 비(Bi) or Rain in English. Hit the stage in 2002 with his debut album. He has also stared in some very popular Korean TV dramas. In 2007, Rain topped Time's open online poll. He beat Stephen Colbert by 100,000 votes; Colbert jokingly retaliated by producing a parody of Rain's music video for "Ways to Avoid the Sun" called "He's Singin' In Korean". Stephen Colbert has since challenged Rain to a dance-off "or a cuddle-off, or a spoon-off". On May 5, 2008, Rain appeared in a "surprise" guest segment at the end of The Colbert Report and proceeded to engage Stephen in a dance-off. It was hilarious. Also, I have a calendar with two years worth of pictures of him on my desk at school.

So, at first we didn't really believe what she was saying. How is it possible that 4 white girls are being welcomed to a free concert with arguably the biggest pop star in Korea? We were intrigued, excited and ready for disappointment at the same time. We ran out after school to try to get to this concert having no idea what we were getting ourselves into.

A 50 min train/bus ride got us to a really college campus, with tree lined streets and everything. It made me very nostalgic....the girl (crap, now I can't remember her name...) met up with us and said that her friends had saved us seats. We battled the crowd to an outdoor stadium where we sat on stone benches. The whole time we were walking there we were all debating if it was really crowded enough to be a Rain concert or not. I looked at the crowd and felt like it was just a typical Korean even crowd....I think that might be a sign that I've been here too long, because it was packed.

We were in our seats around 6:15 and there was plenty of entertainment for the rest of the night. The first act was the school's own dance students. They were doing a lot of ballroom dancing type things. It was like watching a very bad version of the show "So You Think You Can Dance", where people try their best to dance a style they just aren't meant to.... A band with a student singing. A countertenor sang and Italian art song, which sang along to at the time, but now I can't remember what it was... and some other singing acts that did a lot of what I call "ajama" (grandma) music. It sounds like Korean polka ballads. And then there was the pop music.

It turns out they had quite a few pop acts that I had heard, but I just didn't know what I was listening to before. It made it that much more exciting, because the crowd would go crazy, we would ask our hostess who it was, we wouldn't recognize the name but when the song started we got excited because we knew it. Four major groups preformed: After School, Son Dam Bi, Lee Hyori and Rain. They only did about two songs each, but it was AMAZING!!!! I have a really bad video footage here. I also highly recommend youtubing these wonderful k-pop entertainers. It was a totally surreal experience. Can you imagine ever having a completely free concert with Justine Timberlake, Beyonce and the Pussycat Dolls that just anyone could walk into? This would have never happened back home. When I asked why they had this concert and how they got these famous people to come she just said that since its the 60th anniversary of the school, so the school put it on. Beyond that, she did seem to think it was all that crazy that Rain and Lee Hyori just performed.

Sadly, our hosts had to go do something afterward, but since it was only 9 pm at the end of the concert we stopped to get a drink and some food in this fun new area we had to explore. We went to Dorthey's Diary, which had a Wizard of Oz theme. Each page of the menu had a title such as "Run Scared Lion" and "Tin Lumberjack". Yes.

And now I leave you with a quote from the T-shirt I bought walking back to the subway:
I am a great person in the world. Love myslef... Some on who loves you will love the others about sojunghame...

True story.