Wednesday, April 5, 2017

My Spring Break with SHINee World V in Dallas

I had a wonderful vacation a week or so ago, from which I am still recovering (work is hard!).  It was spring break, so I got Friday off work, and that just coincided perfectly with me being able to go to SHINee World V in Dallas (without having to take any work off!)  I was super stoked because 1. I love SHINee, and 2. it was going to be Curdy's first Kpop concert ever.


You all might remember Curdy being previously being referred to as my non-kdrama/kpop loving roommie/friend, but that has since changed.  She has converted to the right side/dark side/good side, and has taken the plunge into a much better world.  She has since become obsessed with it, like the rest of us had years ago.  Her current favorites are Super Junior and obsessing over Hyungsik.  We've taught her well.

So when I figured out that my paid vacation was the same day as the SHINee concert, I went to Lizabreff and Curdy and said: "Let's do this!"  So we did.


At the airport we ran into a group of girls who were also going to the concert.  We recognized each other by those signs that only K-Things fans would know.

Me:  "That girl's wearing a BAP shirt!"

Lizabreff: "Should I show off my BIGBANG shirt to see if they recognize it?"

Later.

Me: "I think they're talking about my Drama Fever water bottle." (Hey, I got it free that one time I blogged for them.  It's perfect for travel, because it comes with a clip, and it helps make new friends.)

Curdy: "We should just ask them, guys.  Make new friends."

Then it was time to board.  In line we still couldn't give up the conviction that they were fellow K-Pop fans.  Luckily one of them happened to be sitting in the row behind us and actually had the courage to ask, which lead to a long conversation about K-Pop and what K-Dramas we were watching.  This continued when we got off the plane and could meet all of them, and we talked shop all the way to the car rental center, where we had to split ways because our car rental places were on opposite sides of the center.  It was nice to meet K-Fans from our neck of the woods.

It took forever to get our car.  There was only one clerk at the desk, and we were second to the last in line.  No joke, it was an hour.  Good thing we had some entertainment to liven things up.



Of course our car was a Hyundai.  We didn't plan it that way.  The dude asked me if a Hyundai was ok, and I was like, "no problem."  It was super brand new.

I was super windy that first night, so a bit scary.  My arms got sore, but we made it all the way to our friend's house in one piece.  Did I mention that the best part of this trip was that we had friends in Dallas who let us stay with them AND took us around Dallas to see the sights?  They're pretty much the best.


Friday was our concert/do all the Korean things day.  Besides the part where we ate lunch at Bread Zeppelin that is.  The best named restaurant ever.  We couldn't not eat there.  I'll probably post a lot about the food we ate.  Food is one of the dearest things to my heart, next to K-Pop/Dramas, etc.


To get pumped up for the concert, we of course listened to nothing but SHINee all day, with repeated choruses of AREUMDAWO!!!!!! as well as other favorites such as Prism, Feel Good, and Married to the Music.


We also went to Carrollton, which is the little Korea town of the Dallas area.  We went to the H-Mart and had Korean Barbecue.  We happened to pick the fanciest place, Gui Rock BBQ.  It had the best reviews in the H-Mart area.  It was really fancy.  They cooked our meat for us, which was awkward at first, but made it tastier since they knew just how to do it.


At the H-Mart, we all got flat chopstick and spoon sets.  I also got Pororo training chopsticks for my nieces and nephews to use (because yeah, I'm the cool aunt).  We also got a bunch of those paper masks, and got our friend to buy some too, so all us girls could have a facial mask party Saturday night (her husband didn't seem to want to do those, but he did get excited over the Korean Cheetos flavors at H-Mart).


We also had to buy a selection of Korean snacks for when we were waiting in line or during the concert.  I got some chocolate Pororo crackers, which were basically animal crackers that made you really thirsty, and lots of Pepero.

We were super smart and forgot to bring cash for parking.  Who forgets to bring cash while travelling?  Just us, apparently.  I had to drop Lizabreff and Curdy off and then travel to the nearest sketchy gas station and use the sketchiest looking ATM of my life.  I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it.  It was nasty and shoved in the corner by the bathrooms.  Yuck.


A post shared by Lizabreff (@lizabr3ff) on


We met up with some Twitter friends outside the venue.  That made the wait until the doors opened awesome.  We didn't even really wait in line, we just waited until it died down enough to be manageable.


I forgot to dump my water out.  Apparently that was a bigger problem than the snacks I was bringing in.  Ok.  Whatever, we made it in, found our seats and then the magic began.




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I'm the one with the Minho socks.


Some favorite moments of the concert:

When they played all my favorite songs, and danced to them so perfectly.

Key was the best at English, of course, so he did most of the talking.  The best part is he knew how to play the audience.  He told the best stories too, and had them become a running joke throughout the concert.

Poobutt (aka Minho) also tried really hard.  His broken English was adorable.  He just lacked confidence, but at least he was trying, and that was awesome.
The others had a translator, which is fine.  It was hard enough to get Taemin to say anything in Korean, don't even try for English.  They actually made a joke of it, making all the more English shy members announce the next songs in English.

"And now Onew will announce the next song, with perfect pronunciation!"


 Key's Gucci

This story was just the best, because of how he told it.  Apparently in Toronto, after the first set.  Key went back to change his costume.  It was going quickly and smoothly.  He took off his Gucci and gave it to his stylist, who then put it "somewhere."  That somewhere happened to be the lighting box.  The Gucci caught fire.

His Gucci burned.

"My Gucci burned!"


Key and the Uncomfortable Coat

They all took turns talking to the crowd, especially during one of the costume changes.  It started off with Key and Minho talking about costume changes.  Key apparently didn't like the coat he was wearing.  He helped design it.  It looked cool.  It was one of my favorite looking coats.

Key: "See this coat?  I helped design it, but I hate it."

Thanks, Youtube, we weren't this close.

Apparently it was very uncomfortable.  But dang those golden skinny jeans.  Mmmm!


The best part of that story was the fact that when Key said that backstage, his mic was on... so he had to come out and explain it to us.

The Soft and Stiff Coats.

Then Jonghyun and Onew came back and the other two left.  Onew is extra as he tries to say something that doesn't translate well.  Apparently it doesn't even make sense in Korean as Jonghyun looks at him like he's the biggest weirdo.  He just laughs and says something about it meaning there was a lot of people.  So adorable.

Taemin comes back on.  Getting him to talk is like pulling teeth, but he's doing pretty good.

Key (coming back on stage after changing): "And my Gucci burned!"

Taemin: "We weren't talking about that."


They performed all of their newer songs, but they also took time to do all their classics, which was the best.  We all just went crazy when they popped out the Sherlock, Lucifer, Ring Ding Ding, and Everybody.

They had some killer solo stages, and dance solos.

All of the videos in between the sets were amazing.


I've never liked Woof Woof so much as when they were being extra extra while wearing 90s activewear.



They were just awesome.




On Saturday we did the Texas thing, because none of us had been outside the DFW airport ever, so we had the full experience.

Cattle Drive and the Longhorns at the Stockyard

There were only like 20 cattle in the drive, but it was still impressive, because longhorns are impressive.  Look at those horns!

This was the epitome of the Texas thing.  We went to the historic Stockyards, watched a mini cattle drive, looked at the longhorns closer, and then Curdy and I went to the Cowboy Hall of Fame... I didn't know any of the cowboys, but the carriages were cool.  I happen to love cows, I grew up around them, although not longhorns.  So this place really felt more like home to me.  Although without all the Texas part.


Tex Mex Tacos at Torchy's... delicious.

I got the "Brush Fire" despite the flour tortilla because mango and the Diablo hot sauce. Yum.

TexMex is much better than regular "fake tacos" and this place was given the stamp of approval by the picky taco eaters (our hosts), and it was super delicious.  In fact, it was "damn good."

I really loved that... devil cherub?

Steel City Pops

Banana pop dipped in dark chocolate with roasted coconut.

Wow, what a good popsicle.  The shop was a bit hard to get to, not a lot of parking, but that popsicle was definitely worth it.  Delicious.  They place had a hipster vibe to it, but on the cute side.

Samurai Exhibit


This place was hard to find, because it was hiding over a restaurant that was way too fancy.  It had a bunch of fancy rich people hanging out in it, who looked stereotypical rich peep fancy.  It was weird.  But once inside, that exhibit was so cool.

Those are some fancy-a arrowheads.  Lizabreff: "What if they lost an arrow?"

I was pretty giddy the whole time because I studied a lot of Japanese History during my undergraduate (which was in East Asian History), so this exhibit was like a fantasy.  It was also free.

Even horses get masks, making it look like a dragon.

You should see the detail on the inside of the palanquin.  It even had arm rests.

Texas Barbecue at Pecan Lodge


The brisket melted in my mouth, the pork ribs were too smokey for me (not my favorite flavor, sorry), but the mac and cheese was the best I have ever tasted.  Literally my favorite part.  Also, that was the most vegetables I ate the whole day.  Yep, pickles.  It was very delicious, and I recommend that place.


The JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theory Tour


This might have been my favorite part of Saturday, because our tour guides (aka our friends) told it in the best way possible and showed us all the evidence, etc.  It was fun.


Plus we got to see some lovely buildings.

Then we went to get shakes at Hopdoddy's.  Yum!

We also had to make sure we got fried chicken at Raising Cane's before boarding our plane on Sunday.  The best fried chicken I've had in a while.  Crispy and tender... super tender.

The only vegetables we got served on Texas day were pickles, onions, and coleslaw.  Wow.

Long and wonderful weekend.  Goodbye, SHINee!

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