I haven’t been having much luck with k-pop experience in Korea, which is strange since it’s one of the main reasons why I had always wanted to come to Korea… but I was lucky enough to be able to attend a show recording for Immortal Song with my Mentor’s Club cell!

There were less than 20 tickets, and originally I was supposed to be still on vacation on the day that they were going. But Stef and I had to cut our trip short because we needed to buy Akaraka tickets, and we ended up not going to Boseong to see the green tea fields and try green tea flavoured food. Which was alright, since we had already gone to the Osulloc Tea Museum on Jeju Island.

I ended up going with some of my friends from the cell, and Claudia too since she’s part of my cell!

We took a bus to the KBS broadcasting station in Yeouido. I’ll admit that it was more than a little bit exciting to go into a broadcasting station since I’ve been watching Korean variety shows and dramas since a long time ago, but I’ll also admit that the first thing that I thought of when I walked into the vicinity was about how broadcasting stations don’t actually report the truth (thanks, IEE3317!).

We just stood there for a while as Soyeon, the Korean mentor who got the tickets for us, figured out where we were supposed to line up. Then we joined a line, but it was just to get in – it didn’t matter how far up front we were since we had assigned seats already, but I was slightly annoyed because these old people pushed in front and budged in front of me. I was going to stand my ground and not let them go in front, but Joonha, another one of the mentors, just told me to let them go first. When he asked me if I was surprised, I said “No, not surprised, but just a little bit angry, because just because they’re old doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want.” I understand that Korea respects their elders very well… but still! This is a tangent but I’ve seen so many old people around in Korea just doing whatever they want – pushing past people, budging in line, shouting extremely loudly… and it just makes me slightly annoyed.

Eventually we got to head in, and our group was divided into two – the Korean mentors were really nice and let the foreigners sit in the very front, really close to the stage, and we could even vote for whether we liked the performer or not.

The lineup that day was Park Bo Kyung, Boowhal, Homme (2AM’s Changmin and 8Eight’s Lee Hyun), Sam Kim, Kim Taewooand two other women that I don’t remember the names of at the moment.. I tried to look but the episode isn’t up yet. It was the Baek Youngho special, where they remade songs in tribute to the late composer Baek Youngho.

Even though I didn’t know any of the songs, it was amazing to hear the singers perform – especially Homme and Kim Taewoo!

It was also really interesting to see how Korean shows are filmed inside studios. It seems obvious that it takes time to switch up the set for each singer who performs, but I didn’t think about what it would entail if there was a live audience.. turns out they have someone else to entertain the audience while the staff changes everything and gets everything ready – they even gave out prizes to some people, like signatures and polaroid pictures!

I’m really thankful that I got placed in the cell that I’m in now. Although I thought that my cell wasn’t fun compared to Stef’s cell, my cell has actually done a lot more stuff than all of my other friend’s thanks to Joonha’s efforts. One point for Mentor’s Club!