First of, don't mistake South-Korea for North-Korea! North is the one with the dictator and South is the one who makes, i think, at least half of your household appliances, tv, tablet etc. Now i don't know where you are from, but they are ahead of our country not only with technology but also fashion and make-up, and they have waaaayy better wifi (even in Buddhist temples halfway up on mountains there was perfect wifi).
So, you want yo know where my love for k-pop, k-drama, k-variety, the korean culture and country comes from?
It's all my ex-boyfriend fault! Although he himself has absolutely nothing with Korea. Long story short? No, it's a blog...we'll do the long version ;p.
My ex has been into comics, those card games and cartoons from the moment i met him, it was his thing not mine. But he's good at bugging me about at least trying it, that's how i also learned how to play "magic the gathering" card game, tried it....still not my thing. Same thing with cartoons, at least that's what i called them then, it where anime's. He kept bugging and bugging me to watch a anime movie once, but i always said "the only animated movies i watch since i'm not a kid anymore are Disney's". But one sunday afternoon when i had nothing better to do i gave in "Fine put it on".
He put 'Howl's moving castle' on, when it ended i was bouncing up and down on the couch "i want more, i want more!", i was hooked. So i started watching anime's myself, first some movies and soon i started with series. The first one i watched was "fruits basket" and i still love it, i got the whole manga (=comics) series complete.
After having watched several anime series i watched "Boys before flowers" and fell in love with the series, later i also managed to get the manga complete, that was not easy! I found out there where also real life shows (drama's) made from it and of course had to watch them, the first i watched was the korean version (there's also an japanese and taiwanese version, and recently a chinese one). That's when it all went wrong...
The drama was absolutely awesome and i fell in love with the lead actor and wanted to watch more drama's with him, turned out he was one of the most popular actor at that time and choose really good drama's to play in. That's how i got from anime's to korean drama's.
The popular korean actors are not only actors, most of them also sing and have albums or singles, he did as well. Being his fan by now of course i listened to his single, guess what? I loved it! I only listened to his single (about 6 songs) at home for at least a year before i finally decided i wanted to hear something new (i'm really good at repeating things over and over and over again, also some good drama's i've watched 10 times already or something).
On my search for something new there was by now only k-pop on my mind, listening on spotify to k-pop playlist worked the best and whenever i liked a song i looked up the group to get to know more. Soon i stumbled over Shinhwa, i liked their songs and an extra bonus was that they're a boy-band from my age! They are an extreme exception, most boy-bands don't go over the age of 26/27 at most, but they are now 39 and 40 (western age). Their name means "myth" or "legend" in korean and that they definitely are!
Like actors are often also singers, singers are also often actors or variety show people, and idols (= the boy-bands and girl-groups) also appear on variety shows allot to promote themselves and their music (actors as well). And Shinhwa being a boy-band for 21 years and still going strong there are many, too many, shows they where on. One of them being their own show, of course i watched that one first and i got to know them true the show. The first episode wasn't even playing for 5 minutes and i had tears running down my face from laughing, i hadn't laughed like that for years!
One of the more recent shows i watched after that was Runningman, there where 2 episodes with Shinhwa and i had a blast. Later i ended up watching other Runningman episodes and by now i'm re-watching the show (over 400 episodes and ongoing) for i think the 5th time or something, when i started watching there where about 300 episodes. So there is my variety love from, mainly just Runningman, i don't really watch others much.
While watching that country, their culture and beautiful nature true those drama's and variety shows i wanted more and more to go there and see if it really was like that, to walk in that city i saw them running around in and see those things i saw with my own eyes.
It's all my ex-boyfriend fault! Although he himself has absolutely nothing with Korea. Long story short? No, it's a blog...we'll do the long version ;p.
My ex has been into comics, those card games and cartoons from the moment i met him, it was his thing not mine. But he's good at bugging me about at least trying it, that's how i also learned how to play "magic the gathering" card game, tried it....still not my thing. Same thing with cartoons, at least that's what i called them then, it where anime's. He kept bugging and bugging me to watch a anime movie once, but i always said "the only animated movies i watch since i'm not a kid anymore are Disney's". But one sunday afternoon when i had nothing better to do i gave in "Fine put it on".
He put 'Howl's moving castle' on, when it ended i was bouncing up and down on the couch "i want more, i want more!", i was hooked. So i started watching anime's myself, first some movies and soon i started with series. The first one i watched was "fruits basket" and i still love it, i got the whole manga (=comics) series complete.
After having watched several anime series i watched "Boys before flowers" and fell in love with the series, later i also managed to get the manga complete, that was not easy! I found out there where also real life shows (drama's) made from it and of course had to watch them, the first i watched was the korean version (there's also an japanese and taiwanese version, and recently a chinese one). That's when it all went wrong...
The drama was absolutely awesome and i fell in love with the lead actor and wanted to watch more drama's with him, turned out he was one of the most popular actor at that time and choose really good drama's to play in. That's how i got from anime's to korean drama's.
The popular korean actors are not only actors, most of them also sing and have albums or singles, he did as well. Being his fan by now of course i listened to his single, guess what? I loved it! I only listened to his single (about 6 songs) at home for at least a year before i finally decided i wanted to hear something new (i'm really good at repeating things over and over and over again, also some good drama's i've watched 10 times already or something).
On my search for something new there was by now only k-pop on my mind, listening on spotify to k-pop playlist worked the best and whenever i liked a song i looked up the group to get to know more. Soon i stumbled over Shinhwa, i liked their songs and an extra bonus was that they're a boy-band from my age! They are an extreme exception, most boy-bands don't go over the age of 26/27 at most, but they are now 39 and 40 (western age). Their name means "myth" or "legend" in korean and that they definitely are!
Like actors are often also singers, singers are also often actors or variety show people, and idols (= the boy-bands and girl-groups) also appear on variety shows allot to promote themselves and their music (actors as well). And Shinhwa being a boy-band for 21 years and still going strong there are many, too many, shows they where on. One of them being their own show, of course i watched that one first and i got to know them true the show. The first episode wasn't even playing for 5 minutes and i had tears running down my face from laughing, i hadn't laughed like that for years!
One of the more recent shows i watched after that was Runningman, there where 2 episodes with Shinhwa and i had a blast. Later i ended up watching other Runningman episodes and by now i'm re-watching the show (over 400 episodes and ongoing) for i think the 5th time or something, when i started watching there where about 300 episodes. So there is my variety love from, mainly just Runningman, i don't really watch others much.
While watching that country, their culture and beautiful nature true those drama's and variety shows i wanted more and more to go there and see if it really was like that, to walk in that city i saw them running around in and see those things i saw with my own eyes.
So about 3 years after watching my first k-drama i was on a plane flying to South-Korea, by myself and never traveled anywhere before....
---> continue on my blog "Girl around the World".
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