Friday, May 24, 2019
Today was a bit of a wake up call back to real life. Most of this week we have had later starts, today, we had to be up and going at 9. I know 9 isn’t that early. Most days I am already in the office for 30 minutes by 9, but here, slow mornings have been really nice.
We made our way to Cheil, one of the top ad agencies in Korea. Cheil was a name I recognized, and I was surprised to hear they were actually founded in Korea, their headquarters is still is Seoul, and now, between this office and the ones they have acquired, they are one of the top agencies in the world. Go Cheil!
After the visit we made our way to a convention center to attend KOBRA, the Korea International Broadcast, Audio & Lighting show as personal guests of KBS – the Korean Broadcasting System. They toured us around a few booths, and we had plenty of time to walk around and take in the sites.
Walking in, I had work flashbacks thinking “I am not wearing the right shoes for a trade show. My inserts are at home! Where is the cushioned carpet?!” Once the PTSD passed, I had a good time wandering around. Broadcast, audio, and video aren’t really my area of expertise, but it was really interesting so see what some brands were doing. There were also plenty of photo opportunities.
After a quick food court lunch (bibimbap round 2 was much better than the plane but I was so hungry I missed the photo op. I’m sure you are also disappointed) we made our way over to KBS’ broadcast studio for a K-pop concert! When our professors were finalizing the agenda, they promised us a K-pop concert. Again, K-pop isn’t really my thing, but hey, I’m always into music. This was not your average concert, we got tickets to KBS’ Music Bank show!
The best way I can describe it is being in the studio audience of a VH1 top 100, if all of the music videos you saw on tv were performed live in studio. It was really cool.
We were seated in the second row from the front and the crowd was going wild. BTS is currently on a world tour, but there were plenty of fan girls, and guys, for the rest of the groups. They brought light up wand things (think Disney World light up spinners) signs and lots and lots of screams. Walking in, I missed the sign saying that if you were caught taking pictures during the show you would be removed from the audience. I was told this as I was setting up a picture. Oops. Well, I’m never one to turn down a challenge, while none are great in terms of being able to see who was on stage, here are the four less than approved photos I snagged.
We ended up seeing some 15 bands over the three hour studio record. I wasn’t able to catch all the names but a few were: Cherry Bullet, The Boyz, Eden, Exid, Come Back Loveleyz, Kim Dong Han, and AB6IX.
Coming back, we experienced rush hour for the first time on the train. They really pack folks in there. A benefit, when you are this smooshed, you don’t need to hold onto anything. There is no way for you to fall over.
After a long day out and about, the day wrapped up nicely with a sushi dinner and scoop of ice cream at a place near by campus. The sushi was accompanied by mandarin rice wine. It had a bit of a vinegar/sweet taste, but wasn’t bad.
