Today after school I was supposed to meet with my Korean language partner but she got sick and had to cancel. About ten minutes after she had canceled I found out that Lokty and two other girls were going to see the Mnet’s 20’s choice awards where quite a lot of celebrities where invited. I felt that I was meant to go: my Korean language partner canceling our meeting seemed to be a sign that I should. So, naturally, I followed along.
We arrived at the place after quite some time and trouble, as well as after fighting our way through the heavy rain. When we arrived we could sense that something was slightly odd. It turns out that even though we had been told that we would be able to get in without tickets that wasn’t the case. We stood around for a while not really knowing what to do. We were waiting together with some other foreign girls when two Korean girls came up and said that they had four extra tickets asking if we wanted to buy them. This is apparently illegal, but it still happens at every concert/celebrity event. There were seven of us all in all (there were some other foreigners that we didn’t know waiting for tickets as well though). The tickets were 40 000 won each (~200 Danish crowns). Personally when I heard the price I felt that it was too expensive. The three other girls that we were standing with each bought a tickets which left us with one. One of the girls that I went with is a big Super Junior fan (especially Heechul) and since Heechul was scheduled to perform today she really wanted to see him and bought the last ticket. She left us in order to join the line and the three of us where a bit bewildered as to what to do next. Neither of us wanted to pay that much for a ticket for an awards night held outside in the rain, but we really wanted to see the celebrities scheduled to attend.
We realised that there was nothing to do about it and headed back up the hill to go home. As we walked up I noticed that a lot of people were coming from inside the hotel at which the event was held, so I suggested that we cut through the hotel on our way back. This turned out to be my best idea of the day.
As we walked inside, trying to find the lobby, I noticed 4 Japanese girls discussing and pleading a security guard (in Korean) to let them into the concert place. The security guard strictly insisted that he wasn’t going to let them inside. We went further in and were certain that the lobby (that we had first arrived in front of with a shuttle bus) was just down the escalator. In front of this escalator there was a security guard as well and he stopped us. We spoke in English to him and said that we just needed to take the shuttle bus from in front of the lobby just downstairs. He didn’t speak English but told us to wait, went down the escalator and came up again soon after, signaling to us that we could go down.
What was down on the next floor was something quite different from the lobby that we had imagined. The place was a hall with small rooms: waiting rooms for the performers. We were all amazed at where we had arrived by luck but knew that we couldn’t stay (there was more security on this level) so we took another escalator down to what we were now almost certain would be the lobby. This time we arrived at a lobby alright, but not the one we had thought it was, this was the back entrance, and inside were a dozen reporters. Outside we spotted the blue carpet (the same thing as a red carpet except that it is blue) and more reporters. That’s when we decided that since we were already here we might as well stay and go undercover as reporters.
The camera man in front of us, who was supposed to film the stars as they arrived, somehow ended up turning his camera around to film us every five minutes, the funny thing about this is that I have no idea why they would need footage of us for as it was a live broadcast and there was a lot going on at the same time, with the celebrities arriving, the MC’s interviewing the attendees, as well as the ‘after’ interviews with the staff. I watched whatever I could find on youtube when I got home but I think that our faces were spared from TV this time around.
The first to enter were the Blue carpet MC’s.
Lastly, well actually they weren’t the last ones to arrive but I’m posting their pictures last because I was most excited to see these four girls: K-pop girl group: f(x).
Actually, seeing f(x) was quite shocking as they looked very different compared to on TV. From left to right: Victoria, Amber, Krystal, Sulli and Luna. Victoria wasn’t as tall as expected and her face was slightly different from how it appears on TV and in photos. Amber was prettier in real-life, she usually gets boyish looks, always wears boyish clothes and has short hair but seeing her in real life there is no doubt that she is a really beautiful girl and I couldn’t help but feel that it is a bit of a shame that she isn’t allowed long hair. Krystal on the other hand wasn’t as pretty as on TV, she had a bit more fat on her body and she looked quite fake (as in a lot of obvious plastic surgery). Sulli was actually the only member that was exactly the same as on TV. Finally, Luna, was very very pretty in real life, definitely slimmer than what I thought and with a lot of charisma.
After the blue carpet we were in a bit of daze again not really knowing what to do so we ended up hanging around the parking lot for several hours. Why? A lot of celebrities arrived late and they all arrived through the back door so by staying put we got to see a lot more celebrities, although photos were near impossible to get because the security man was a bit freaked out even though only about 10 fans (us included) had found their way backstage.
On the the third picture from the left you can see old H.O.T member Tony Ahn being interviewed by the staff. We also saw all Kara members (Hara, several times) and wow they were beautiful, especially Hara. We spotted, a lot of actors and actresses like Gong Hyo Jin, Cha Seung Won, Kim Gap Soo, Park Ye Jin and Park min Young. We also saw Kim Hyung Joon in his stage clothes as he went to perform, and displaying his six pack on his way back. I also spotted HyunA from group 4Minute, even though I couldn’t recognise her at first even though she passed just a meter in front of me, she was wearing so plain clothes that I couldn’t figure out who she was.
The event was supposed to go on just above the parking lot, but we couldn’t hear any music and were a bit puzzled by this. However we did get proof that the event was going on: a tons of balloons started floating down from above, down towards the Han river.
All in all: a lot of celebrities. Apart from 2AM’s manager the most scary thing was Chinese Heechul fans who arrived quite late to see him off in his car and ran to follow him in a car that they had rented for the occasion afterwards. Their desperation was quite… scary.
After having seen Heechul leave we decided to leave as well as we were very hungry and tired and still need to go to school tomorrow morning.
We walked to the other side of the parking lot (where the blue carpet had been earlier) and took a look out over the Han Gang (the Han river).
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