My sister’s impression of Korean society & Seoul

I got an ask about how my sister has experienced living / working in Korea, and thought maybe more people would be interested in that, seeing as most people who are into k-pop will also have a certain interest in the country itself!

• Seoul is a very odd mixture of old and modern, western and Korean. Basically you’ll find skyscrapers next to an old temple, and you have ultra fast internet access everywhere while there are still people in the streets towing their goods in old-fashioned wooden carts. 
• ‘Beautiful’ isn’t a word she’d use to describe Seoul: when you compare it to a city like Paris or Venice there is no contest at all. It lacks the historical center most European cites have (instead the old buildings are more scattered). Rather, she’d describe it as ‘exciting’ or ‘interesting’, all the more so, of course, because it’s very different than she’s used to.
• It’s very evident that Korea is / has become a Christian country. You can spot a church tower at almost every corner and on Sundays the streets will fill with people dressed at their Sunday best, Bibles in hand. 
• My sis spent an earlier summer in Tokyo, and naturally started comparing a lot of things. One of the most obvious differences to her were the people: in general they were a lot ‘rowdier’ (loudly talking in their phones, conversations on the street etc.) and also more open to contact. If she took the subway in Tokyo, for example, she’d feel the whole compartment stare at her, but as soon as she looked up everyone would look away and busy themselves reading the newspaper or whatever. Here people might talk to her to practice their English a little. In that sense she liked the atmosphere in Seoul better (though sometimes people could get a bit too rowdy, in traffic for example, where you really had to watch your back.)
• Through the various variety programs it had already become evident that Koreans liked to drink, and proved to be right. It’s common to see men go drink a beer or two after work before heading home (for women, on the contrary, this isn’t common at all.) In general Koreans can hold their liquor better than the Japanese can, but if she drank with Koreans they’d still get red-faced or rowdy when she’d barely emptied half of her glass.
• K-pop is everywhere, basically. In shops, on tv (almost every ad has at least one idol in it) and also in clubs. Though it was to be expected, it’s still good to hear that Big Bang was the most prominent of all! On the radio they’d often play Blue, Monster, and Fantastic Baby, and also older hits like Haru Haru and Tonight. In the clubs, Fantastic Baby was very popular, alongside High High and 2ne1’s I am the Best. Most popular of all, though, evidently was Psy’s Gangnam Style: the song was everywhere and she’d described it as ‘her Seoul song’ (all the more so because she stayed in Gangnam herself) Therefore she was really surprised when some time later people at home started posting on Facebook and the like, haha
• Speaking of clubs: there are endless options for a night out: you could probably stay there for two weeks and go to a different club every night and not get bored (though evidently tired haha). So yeah, Seoul’s nightlife is famous for a reason, then!
• Fashion-wise most young people are dressed trendy and always have their eyes fixed on their smartphones. Older people are not so very fashionable and can be seen wearing tracksuits and the like.
• One of the things that was advertised most for, was plastic surgery: you could see a lot of posters or billboards with before-and-after pictures (usually of eye and nose corrections, but also to make the face look slimmer.) This wasn’t really a surprise because evidently Korea is a country with one of the highest plastic surgery rates, but still it’s kind of weird to see it advertised so openly and so much (here you’d only find those kind of advertisements in the back of some trashy magazine)
• Koreans love food, which is only natural, because Korean food is love, basically, haha. I suppose everyone who’s ever visited a Korean restaurant will know what I’m talking about. It’s to be expected, then, that half the emails and pictures my sis sent were dedicated to some new dish she’d tried, haha, be it sea food or some weird candy or good old-fashioned Korean bbq. Special mention for the ice cream which is apparently heaven and which you can get in countless different flavours (I see where you’re coming from T.O.P, haha)
• Despite being a metropolis, Seoul is quite cheap: you can get a good meal for only four euros (!!!) and a fifteen-minute taxi drive won’t cost you more than 1,5 euros (!!!!) This is very pleasant if you’ll be staying there for awhile, obviously, and again a stark contrast with Tokyo where everything is just ridiculously expensive.
• The weather in Seoul during summer can best be described as ‘hot’, basically. Often the sky is cloudy (she says she’d hardly seen a blue sky) so any pictures will be quite misleading: it may look like only 15 degrees but it really is above 30. There were also a lot of sudden, heavy rain showers.
• The English of most Koreans isn’t that good: they can say some things, but either they’re too shy to carry on a real conversation or they’re simply unable to. Some of the people my sis worked with would just talk in Korean to her, knowing full well she wouldn’t understand a word.
• The North Korean situation is in the news daily and you will come across American bases right in the center of town (which is off-limits for normal people) and also often see military men on the street, in front of you in line at the grocery store, etc. It isn’t like it influences everyone’s daily life, but it’s always there in the background.
• Overall it is a very exciting city, and she’d definitely recommend anyone to visit :)

(Source: couleursdautomne)

Account of my sister’s shoot with GD! (spoiler free)

My sister sent an email with a detailed account of the shoot, and I’ll share with you those things that are ok (though because of that the post will become a lot shorter than it’d otherwise be)

• My sister was told by her agent she’d have a shoot with a Korean singer, and she expected it to be some ballad singer or something, but never G-Dragon. When he told her it was GD from Big Bang, she could hardly realise it: she felt excitement but it was kind of a distant excitement, like, it was too surreal to be true, you know? Anyway, they were having some kind of party but my sister left early because she realised there was no way she could be late tomorrow, she’d have to completely ready for this (in her words) ‘epic occurence.’
• It was a two-hour drive to the shoot, they went to Incheon (the island with the airport) to some industrial site with a lot of barracks that are often used for shootings. It was supposed to last from 10 a.m to 2 p.m, but it turned out it  only started 4 p.m. and lasted till 8. (I’ve never heard of a shoot that didn’t start hours later than planned, to be honest.) Part of the reason for this was GD himself, who really took his time in his trailer or in-between shoots. Some of the models were annoyed because of this but my sister was kind of like ‘well, he’s the star, so it’s expected / he can do that’. All the models were Western by the way, though later in the day there also arrived some Korean models.
• The first time she saw GD he was doing a solo shoot and it was completely surreal. I think it’s kind of like you’re walking in a dream, you know, like it’s not actually real and therefore you don’t have a freak-out moment (if that makes sense.) Only when she started shooting with GD it became reality for her, but by then it felt normal (I presume because this is work for her, but again also because of her down-to-earth character).
• The shooting itself went very smoothly and fast, it was clear that GD (and also the team) were professionals. GD took everything very seriously, he followed the instructions of the photographer but also showed initiative. And both GD and the team paid attention to every little detail: if there was one little hair styled wrongly, it was corrected immediately. 
• The lunch also very nice, which is always a very important factor for my sister haha. The food consisted of rice with red beans (azuki) lettuce with mushrooms, seaweed soup, bbq meat Korean style, and fruit. I’ve included a picture of the box she got her lunch in below, I think it was a gift from his fan club or something because it says ‘GD supporters’? GD had his own catering, though his food was probably the same.

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• All right, there were a lot of different themes and my sister liked them a lot though again I can’t say anything about that (which is kind of frustrating, I constantly have to check if I’m not giving away something haha) During the fist shoot my sister wasn’t standing next to GD, but there was one model in-between them. That model was constantly touching his hat, and she didn’t know if this made him annoyed but the crew looked kind of worried haha
• Speaking of the crew: she said they really are like servants, there are constantly five people surrounding him and following him everywhere, there’s even a person who always holds his water bottle for him. He also went smoking several times and everyone had to wait for him then. 
• There was a shoot with little children and even though usually GD acts really cute with them, this time he didn’t. The little boys were constantly staring at him wide-eyed haha, especially at his hair.
• One model was taking pictures of the shoot, but the crew asked her not to because they didn’t want the shoot to leak. A different model also asked for a picture with him, but he said ‘No, sorry’ presumably for the same reason but maybe also because he was tired / didn’t feel like it. During shoots, he barely smiled, but when he was at his own trailer he laughed a lot. She thinks maybe he is a bit nervous or shy around people he doesn’t know (and who are foreign) but more likely it’s the distinction between GD / Jiyong. There was a cute moment when he was sitting somewhere with his staff and had two bags of chips in his hand (he never puts on any weight so he’s allowed to eat that haha) and someone said something and he laughed really cute, GD-style. She thought that was a cute moment.
• In the second shoot my sister did stand next to GD (jeeej!) so this time she could observe him well, haha. She says he has a nice, smooth skin and is also pretty tanned. He didn’t really smell like anything particular (I asked this, haha) but looked pretty much the same as in pictures. He looked nice, and fashionable, and had a lot of swag haha. He also walked in a ‘cool’ manner but the look in his eyes or his movements still were kind of child-like sometimes. He’s also very small / short. 
• She hasn’t really spoken with GD, except when he sighed and my sister said ‘It’s hot, right?’ and GD said ‘yeah.’ Haha, but that’s better than nothing right? She’s already content with the fact that she’s made eye contact / has spoken some words with him / has had the chance to see him up close / and ehm features in his photoshoot. 
• When my sister finally left, GD wasn’t done yet, he still had a couple of solo shoots to go. She figures he must have been exhausted and definitely respects him for handling it all well. All in all it was an amazing experience, needless to say! :D

The morning after

I have barely slept and are still high on adrenaline (which would explain why I’m up at this early hour) but then again, it isn’t everyday your sister features in a photoshoot with G-Dragon, haha.

She said she would send a mail with more details, so I will make a post about that later (share her impression of GD, etc.) Again without any details of the actual shoot because though, because she said I couldn’t talk about that. Thank you for being understanding about that :)

I had some asks about whether she’s a Big Bang fan or not, and yup, she definitely is. She knew them before I did, actually. The reason why she’s so calm is purely her character (you won’t find a more down-to-earth-model than her) and also of course because she views this as work, she kind of changes into a different person I suppose when she’s at the job. 

Actually before she went to Korea we were kind of speculating like ‘it’d be great if you could meet / work with some k-pop celebrity’ but to be honest I would have never dreamt it’d be GD. If it was between a hundred random k-pop people or GD, I’d still take a photoshoot with GD, haha. Can’t do better than him! :-)

Anyway, despite the overdose of adrenaline and the lack of sleep I have relatively calmed down compared to yesterday. This is how my sister broke the news to me (in a characteristically casual way) and this is how I freaked out, basically. 

Sis: New hair colour GD

Me: What colour?

Sis : [talks about the hair]

Me: huh I didn’t see anything about that on Tumblr. weird.

Sis: I know, it’s because I saw him in real life today 

Me: hahaha yeah

Sis: No :p I think you’ll be having a heart-attack… but I worked with him today

Me: oh God no you’re joking right

Sis: no dead serious :) for his album pictures. there were a lot of other models but still

Me: you’ll be in his album????

Me: okay really is this 100% serious? please tell me you’re not messing with me right now ‘cause I can’t take it

Sis: yup :) I’m in the same picture as him (and five other models :p)

Me: OH MY GOD

[ten minutes of complete, utter freak-out]

Me: It’s really true, right?? I’m afraid you’ll suddenly go ‘Just messing with you!’

Sis: no no, it’s really true

[enter new freak-out]

So that’s basically how it went down, haha. I’m surprised no-one really noticed anything about me seeing as I was at work — though I think people probably did notice something about me, but opted not to comment haha. I mean, how do you keep a straight face when you hear news like this?

She said she’d first wanted to wait with breaking the news till I saw the pictures myself and suddenly discovered my sister to be standing next to G-Dragon, as a surprise (fortunately she didn’t because I think that would have given me a heart-attack for real.) 

It’s so strange to look at the poster of Big Bang in my room and realise that the person closest to me has worked with him, like, idk. So strange yet completely awesome. And obviously I don’t know how the pictures will turn out, if you’ll be able to see her properly or not, if some pictures will be cut, etc. etc. etc. but that doesn’t even matter to me. I’m really proud of her and I’m also still completely shaken, haha.

I think I am going to have a heart-attack

My sister just told me she had a photoshoot with G-dragon today, for his solo album.

She is in his album.

She has met G-Dragon.

I am shaking right now you actually don’t know.