Pure Fanart

Hello,

If you've been reading my blog, you'll know I recently went to Korea and met this new rookie group name PURE. After returning back to America, a couple of tour-mates and I created an international fan page for this talent group. To make the page feel more official we got to have banner of some sort right? So here is the banner!

Enjoy!

Here is PURE debut MV if you havent listened to it yet:

Sukira Sungmin Chibis

Hello!

These chibis were suppose to be done for Sungmin (SJ), in hope that I can give it to him when I see him on my trip to Korea. My goal was to draw all his different outfit from his 2012 year of Sukira, and make a huge poster out of it. Sadly, for the time I had, I wouldn't be able to finish, so instead i dropped this project and drew him a portrait instead. I saw him at his radio station but I wasn't about to hand my gift to him. Hopefully when SJ come to North America for SS5 I will have another chance to give it to him.

ENJOY! =)

KPOP UNITED DREAM TOUR KOREA!! THE END

DAY 7
Today was the last day of the tour. We packed our bags, ate breakfast, checked out, and headed to our final location, Coex Mall for some final Korea shopping before heading out to the airport.

Coex Mall

Cool building across from Coex Mall

Coex Mall was HUGE! We only had about 2 and half hours there and just by walking into a couple stores it was almost time to leave. We stayed awhile in this Everysing/CD store buying albums and kpop goods.

Everysing Section

Also in the middle of Coex mall they had a HUGE Samsung area, filled with Marvel characters. You were able to test Samsung products, have your caricature drawn, and a whole lot of other stuff.
They also had a really cool Iron Man statue.

Iron Man

Finally, the tour must come to an end and we are force to say our goodbyes. Tears were shed, hugs were given, and pictures were taken. This tour has really done its job, by bringing us kpop lovers together and creating new connection and friendships for us. The tour really does try to bring everyone out of their shell, encourages you to learn about each other, and create bonds. I really thank K-pop United for creating this tour, because I had an amazing time and met some awesome people.

END DREAM TOUR KOREA~

My friend and I extended our stay for 2 more days so we can explore Korea and do more shopping on our own. It felt kind of lonely being in Korea without our Dream Tour family, we just got so use to it. With our first night alone, we decided to get us some Korea Pizza Hut! Since there was one really close to our new hotel.

Pizza Hut Menu

I don't exactly remember the name of what we got, it was like Golden Potato. With the sweet potato crust! OMG! it was soooo YUMMY! It actually had potato wedges on it and CORN!

Yum...I want some now.

The only thing that was disappointing was the price. It was like $30 for a "Medium" size. And its like slightly smaller than an American Small size. With $30 in America you can get like a LARGE pizza! But since we can only get this in Korea we decided just to try it. But if I lived in Korea, I probably won't eat this often.

Afterwards we went to go find J. Tune Camp for 2 hours and failed. So we decided to head to Gangnam for some underground shopping. We spent a couple hours there and decided to head home around 11pm. Got lost again because we didn't know what direction our hotel was out of the subway exit. Finally we gave up and just have the taxi show us the way back, turns out we were walking in the opposite direction the whole time. Finally we arrived back to the hotel all tried and sick of getting lost.

END DAY 7~

-I didn't really take much pictures when we were on our own because I was too focused on not trying to get lost, and my camera had no memory.-

DAY 8

We went back to Edae for some INTENSE 4 HOUR SHOPPING! We pretty much used up all our money there, and carrying those stuff back to the hotel was such a work out. We missed having the bus carry all our stuff. It was so much more simpler. After shopping we got really dehydrated, so we found us a Boba Tea place and decided to try it out. ( I LOVE BOBA TEA!)

Mmmmm Bubble Tea at a Bubble Tree :p

We just got our poor selves some regular O' Milk tea with boba. It was very refreshing, slightly watered down, but I'm fine with that because it was still good.

Then we tried to look for Super Junior's Kona Beans but got lost for 2 hours again. And we were late at meeting up our other friends that extended their stay at Korea as well. Good thing we made it in time before they started heading out. We decided to grab ourselves some ramen for dinner.

Ramen shop in Coex Mall

 Then we went out to grab some coffee and dessert at a cafe near our hotel.

Cameral Toasty

It was pretty tasty when it was warm and soft right out of the oven. But as it got cold, it became really hard and wasn't tasty no more. 

And that's how we ended out 8th day in Korea.

DAY 9

The next day we woke up early to get PURE's debut album at COEX MALL. Bought some freshly made kimbap for breakfast at the Hyundai Department. Final beauty product purchasing at Etude House. Then back to the hotel for check out. And from there we had to say bye to the amazing time we had in Korea.

Last pictures of Korea as we were heading to the airport.

This was a great experience, and when I have money again, I will definitely travel back to S. Korea. So please stay awesome and await my return!

So my blog entry of Dream Tour Korea has now come to an end. It was a awesome tour and it felt like a dream. If your thinking of embarking on the next Dream Tour Korea, hopefully reading through these entries make you want to go even more! It really was an amazing adventure and I don't think you'll ever regret your choice of going.

THANK YOU K-POP UNITED!!

Hope you enjoyed reading! Till next time =)

KPOP UNITED DREAM TOUR KOREA!! DAY 6

DAY 6
This was the last full day of our tour, so we were going to make the best of it! We started off the day by learning some Korea History at the Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was cold and rainy that day, and the Palace ground was mainly made out of sand. So make sure you're not wearing heels or your favorite pair of shoes/jeans because it got muddy. We had a tour guide take us around the Palace grounds and explain to us the history of everything, sadly I don't remember much of what she was talking about because it was so cold. Although the intricate design and architecture of the whole place was really beautiful.

Outside the Palace

The Kings Throne

The 2 golden dragons

We spent almost 2 hours there, and headed over to Insadong for lunch. For lunch we had Ginseng Chicken soup, and it was so tasty and prefect for the weather that day. It warmed me up right away!

Ginseng Chicken Soup

Rice inside the chicken..yummm

After the warm lunch, we headed back out into the cold and rainy street for some shopping. If your looking to buy some antiques or more traditional looking Korean goods they have a lot here. There were also a couple of stores that sold kpop goods, and cheap clothes! And a photo booth/studio where you can take pictures of yourself in a traditional Korean Hanbok.

Insadong

When we were eating lunch, our tour guide surprised us with some awesome news! He said there was going to be a Fashion Show and the guest stars were Exo-K and Shinee, and asked if we were interested in grabbing a more simple dinner and go there instead. Of course everyone agree to go in a heart beat, you don't need food when you get to see Kpop Stars!

The Fashion Show

They got us VIP sitting so we sat on the floor level, only a couple of rows away from the stage. So the guest stars for that day was N-Sonic, 9Muses, Exo-K, then finally Shinee. Once Exo and Shinee preformed it felt more like a concert then a fashion show, with fan chats in the background and everyone pushing they chairs closer to the stage, and snapping shots like crazy.

9Muese

Exo-K

Shinee Minho

Shinee

The pictures look so far, but in real life, I was much more closer. Anyways, the performance that day was superb!

On the way back to the hotel, we had an awesome sing/dancing party on the bus!

We ate sandwiches for dinner at the hotel and afterwards whoever wanted to followed our tour guide for night shopping at Dongdaemun was free to go! We shopped in the mall Doota instead of the back street allies because it was rainy. There really wasn't much to shop there and most things were kinda expensive so we ended up leaving around 11pm.

A building with moving shooting stars across from Doota

Back at the hotel we decided to do a little hang out thing but after about an hour or 2 people starting falling asleep all over the place, so we just end up heading back to the room at 1am.

END DAY6~

KPOP UNITED DREAM TOUR KOREA!! DAY 5

DAY 5
The next morning after breakfast at 9am, we departed for the Lotte World Theme park! It was a lot smaller then it looked on dramas and TV shows, it was like a miniature Disneyland.

Lotte World Entrance

The hallway to the kid section

Handbands: A must get if you're in Lotte World! And wear it around.

Panorama view of the indoor park

Bridge to go to the out door park

I actually didn't ride on much rides, and spent most of my time wondering around and eating theme park food. For the fun looking rides, they had really long lines, and I didn't want to spend my time waiting in line so I just went on whatever ride that had a short line.

After walking about and playing for 4 hours we headed down to Hongdae for out K-pop dance lesson. We all voted on learning SNSD - I GOT A BOY 

Dance Studio

We only dance for about an hour, but it felt so short, probably because it was so much fun! If you do go on the tour, this is definitely something you should do! Because it was really fun and refreshing, I even wish it was longer.

After our day of play and sweat, we ate fatty meat ( I forgot what it was called, I just remember the guide saying fatty meat) for dinner.

Dinner!

When we were done eating we had a couple hours of free time in Hongdae before we headed back to the dance studio for a B-Boy show.

Hongdae Street Graffiti

The Cast of the B-Boy Show

It was a fantastic show! I really enjoyed it, and I'm really glad I went because we could've chose to continue shop in Hongdae.

It was almost 10pm when the show was over, and the tour guide gave us an option to either head back to the hotel, or they can drop us off in the Hongdae Club area. So a couple of tour mates and I decided to explore and see how Korea people party. The area was indeed very crowded with drunk people, ALOT of clubs, people handing you flyers, and of course many cute guys/pretty girls. We didn't actually go into any of the clubs because one of the tour mates forgot to bring their ID. (But according to other tour mates that actually went into the clubs, it was CRAZY! Super packed, and everyone was rubbing against everyone.) So with nothing left to do, we headed back to the hotel around 11pm.

END DAY 5~

KPOP UNITED DREAM TOUR KOREA!! DAY 4

DAY 4
Since DAY 3 was such a long day and we didn't arrive back at the hotel till around 12-1am. The next day started off 12pm instead of 7 or 8am like usual. I knew we should catch up on some sleep, but I wasn't going to be in Korea forever, so I took all the free time I was given to explore Korea some more! The previous day we didn't have much time in Myeongdong, so my friend, 2 other tour-mates, and I took the taxi back there for a more extensive shopping.
-NOTE ON TAXI: It is very cheap! But just make sure you have the KOREAN address on you (not the romanized Korean). And YES some taxi drivers do try to rip you off, especially at night so be careful. Most taxi rides didn't cost over $10 for us-

Taxi dropped us off here

Yesung's Shop again! But it was closed :(

(We were there at like 10am, I guess everything opens at 11am)There was no street crossing, so you gotta go underground to get to the other side. And look what we found a KPOP STORE! Sadly, it was closed, there was a lot of awesome kpop stuff too.

Kpop goodies!

Went back to SPAO, because I totally didn't know there was an "Everysing" there on the 4th floor.
And got me some official Super Junior merchandise! Good way to start my day!

Heck yeah SJ plastered everywhere!

Then we met the group back at the hotel around 12pm and departed for Hongdae. The tour guide handed us $10 each for lunch that day, and we picked where we wanted to eat. At first we wanted to try and find Babtols, which is Yesung's restaurant. We looked for a good 20mins but couldn't find it and the information booth couldn't find it either. So we gave up and went to the HELLO KITTY CAFE instead!! (I know there's 2 Hello Kitty Cafes in Hongdae, I'm not sure what the difference is though.) IT'S SOOOOO PINK!

Hello Kitty Cafe!

Cute looking Hello Kitty food

It's pink everywhere!

Hello Kitty Waffle, Strawberry Cake, and Caramel Latte

This place was none the less super cute! But some of these look a lot better then it taste. The waffle was super yummy! I loved it! The cake was so-so, it was half cake and this sorbet ice cream. The cake part was good, but I didn't really feel the sorbet part. And the latte was super water down, not yummy at all. This is all depending on my friend and I's taste, it could be different for everyone.

After grabbing lunch in Honghae one of the staff took a small group to Edae ( Ewha Girls University) for better shopping deals.There was so much to see, but so little time.

SNSD as we were waiting on the subway

Edae!

After shopping we met the group back at Hongdae, and with some extra time left, we went to check out YG!

YG Bulding

Fan waiting at the entrance

Yet again we didn't see any artist or got to go in, but we lived the life of an everyday fan for about 15mins. When a black van drove up, we all take a step forward and whip out our cameras in case anything happened. Other then that, we just stood there waiting for something awesome to happen. Props to fans who do this everyday, it takes dedication.

After 15mins of standing out in the cold, it's time for the REAL STUFF! Mnet M! Countdown! As we were walking towards the M! Countdown building we saw Moon Hee Jun recording! (Ex member of H.O.T!!) His solo comeback was pretty awesome too!

Moon Hee Jun

For the live recording we actually stood REALLY close to the stage, we were between the 1-3 row, minus being pushed around later on. Some of the stars preforming that day (not in order) where: ZE:A 5, Infinite, Electroboyz ft. Nana, G.NA, Pure, Davichi, Younha, K.Will, Lee Hi, LunaFly, DeLight.

M! Countdown Stage

We aren't allowed to take pictures, so this is pretty much all I got.
After the show, the new Rookie group PURE, (which debuted that day) actually had a little fan meeting outside the building. So we were able to grab pictures and shake hands with them. They were really handsome, tall, and might I add, had very soft hands. 

PURE

They captured all of our hearts, so we decided to make them an international fan page to show them support. So if you want to learn more about them go check out our fanpage: PUREdiamonds

After fan-girling over cute boys, we headed across the street for some Galbi Dinner.

Vegatable for making wraps

Grilling the beef

That day involved a lot of shoving, pushing, sweating, and fan-girling energy. So after out delicious dinner we headed back home around 10pm. My friend and I decided that today was the day we visit Super Junior's Kiss the Radio. We headed out at 11pm and just like our tour guide said, it's difficult to grab a taxi at night. But we finally grab one and he took us to KBS.

KBS!

This is what it looked like when I got there around 11 something. The window was packed with people! Luckily one of the fans were nice enough to let me stand on her stool for a bit so I can see into the window. But, it was still very hard to see. So then I just went inside KBS to wait for the show to be over since Sungmin and Ryeowook always comes out to say bye. So right at 12am, Ryeowook came out first, waved bye and disappeared. Then Sungmin came out waved bye, bowed, nod, and left. All of a sudden all the fan turned around and rushed outside, so I just followed. Then a black van drove out of the parking lot and Sungmin stuck his hand out to way bye. This was the best couple minutes of my life right there.

As I stated before, after 12am taxis are not required to stop for you and some may even charge you extra. Out of the KBS building was already a line of taxis waiting to rip people off. (I'm not positive if all of them want to rip you off but the one we went up to sure did) He told us it was $30 because it was late and whatever excuse. But it was only like $7 to get here. So we decided to just take the subway. We didn't know where the subway was, so we just followed the hoard of people hoping that they would lead us to the subway. AND THEY DID! 2 stops before we get to our station the subway stopped, turns out the subway closes at 12:50am. So we ended up having to grab a taxi, which took us a bit of time, we even had a taxi that denied driving us too. But we were finally grab one for $2 and got home around 1 something.  It was a loooong day, and I couldn't wait to hop into bed.

END DAY 4~