Week in Review: June 23-29

The Good

- I am officially done with my after school class. The girls were very sweet, but their attendance was spotty, which was super-extra annoying, especially for a conversation-based class. Getting three girls to talk is, surprisingly, FAR more difficult than getting 8 to talk. I made them burritos for our last class and they really seemed to enjoy them.

- I managed to find all the ingredients for burritos. This is an impressive feat for anyone who lives outside of Itaewon. However, sour cream still eludes me. I hear-tell that you can only find it in non-bulk packaging if you go to Costco (*shiver*).

- Seung Hyun and I went on a MASSIVE walk on Sunday, it was about 3 hours long but it was also pretty awesome.

The Bad

- My friend Pandios has officially left Korea. ㅠㅠ Sure, his apartment smelled like it was being used to test how bodies decay and his dog always peed on me, but he was a quality guy and will be deeply missed by all of us in the Suyu Crew. He is the first of many people that will be leaving in the following two months; I'm not sure I'm prepared to say goodbye to all these amazing people.

D'AWWWW

- Seung Hyun is in America for 10 days on business. We are currently on day 4, 6 more to go. I hadn't realized what an enormous part of my life he has become, and I do NOT eat very well when he's not around. Feeding myself has always been one of my more difficult daily tasks. He's attending a conference at the University of Oregon with the president of Korea University and then KU is PAYING HIM to take a vacation in Seattle and Vancouver for a few days, because he's so awesome.

-My back is KILLING ME! It's horrible. It kept me awake most of the night last night. If anyone has a recommendation for a massage place in Seoul I would owe you a dinner. I'm going to hit up a jimjilbang next week, so maybe that will cure it (blog post on jimjilbangs coming soon). Tonight: NyQuil.

Music Video of the Week:

This week was a little difficult. There were no new releases that my students insisted upon hearing in every single class, so this week's music video needs to go to a more impressive feat in the KPop world: a song that is popular for more than 1-2 week. This week's music video is B1A4's "Baby Goodnight."



WHOOPS! That's not the right music video! That's the VASTLY superior track and video from G Dragon & TOP released last year under the EXACT SAME TITLE. Seriously, every time my students request "Baby Good Night" I PRAY that they are requesting this video over this one:



Don't get me wrong, it's an alright song. I LOVE the part in the beginning where Baro (aka 차선우 or Cha Seon Oo) is doing his cute little "What chu doin' babe? You still awake? Aw, girl! I feel bad for you! Goodnight!" I'd like to take a second and address the conundrum that is Baro. He is EASILY the cutest guy in B1A4 and does almost an obscene amount of 애교 ("aegyo" or "korean cutesy face," blog post to follow) BUT he is also the group's lead rapper and has the deepest voice. These contradictions flabbergast me.

If you, like a person with a life, don't know the names of the guys in B1A4, I will allow you to guess which one of these has the lowest voice...

IT'S THIS GUY! *bwing bwing!!!*

So why exactly do I prefer GD&T's "Baby Goodnight" to this one? Well, other than the fact that GD&T are EXPLODING SEXY in their video as opposed to B1A4's cavity-inducing sweetness...

... I'm sorry, what was the question?

Well, maybe it's because the GD&T has a storyline that doesn't make MY BRAIN HURT!!! Seriously... WTF IS HAPPENING IN B1A4'S MUSIC VIDEO? Is half of it in the past and half of it in the present? Or in the present and future? Or in the present and CNU's fantasy world?

What kind of a weird fantasy world involves getting an awkward phone call on a date?

There is no way of figuring out the timeline on this music video. I DARE YOU! Seriously, if you figure it out in a way that makes sense I'll buy you brunch or something. And, in the end, the chick is with some other dude... WHAT THE HELL? This girl makes NO SENSE.

Also, the dance has ONE good moment in it (other than all of Baro's improv moves) and that is during the "whoa-oh-oh-oh-OH" where their hips are just... a little magical. The rest of the dance is just too femme for me. I realize that B1A4 is in the middle of an identity crisis where they are starting to age past Flower Boy Status (Korean guys who act REALLY effeminate, because Korea girls eat that shit up). In their song "Baby I'm Sorry" (hmmm, pattern) and its video they seemed to be maturing a lot more and CNU actually wrote the song, a rarity in the KPop world (so he gets a SMALL pass on the horrible Konglish throughout the song). However, I think it's time for these boys to accept their adulthood with the same grace as SHINee, TVXQ, and, to an extent, Infinite. You can still tap into the cute, but you don't have to go all Lisa Frank on us in every video.

I DID IT! I made appropriate Lisa Frank references in THREE separate blog posts! Where's my massive following?