Today’s update: Charity, Lou and I went to Daegu today (yesterday, Korea time). Well, we were expecting to see just Daegu but Lou’s friend ended up bringing us to Gwangju province “to see a folk village”, which turned out to be… Shilla Millennium Park. As in the filming location of Queen Seon Duk and where Jihoo sunbae’s house in BOF is located. Needless to say, Lou (who is HyunJoong’s secret girlfriend - one of them,anyway hahaha) literally picked herself off the floor when we realized where we’re going. We didn’t see the actual place used as Jihoo’s house, though, because it’s in the restricted area of the park. But a lot of other scenes from BOF were also filmed there so it’s ok. For me, I was more thrilled at the QSD part of the park because QSD is currently the hot K-drama in the Philippines now. But BOF or QSD aside, it’s a nice park. Entrance fee is relatively cheap, too. I mean for a theme park, I find it cheap. It didn’t even reach php1,000 when converted.

We had wanted to check out the Six To Five outlet store in Daegu because that’s where Bi signed the “Agent” autograph, but our companions just don’t understand the importance of it so they brought us to an entirely different mall. Oh well…

We’re supposed to do Inkigayo tomorrow, but I have no idea what happened to it. If that doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to hit the streets of Seoul tomorrow. Come to think of it, we’ve been here almost three days and save for a couple of trips to Dongdaemun in the wee hours of the morning, we haven’t actually traveled anywhere else in Seoul. Well, Charity, Lou and myself, anyway. Also, I’ve been here almost three days and I’ve slept a grand total of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Maybe I’ll stretch it a bit today. I’ll sleep for 2 hours and 45 minutes.

===

The non-Cloud people in our group (Jean, Joelle and Ellabel) went to SM Entertainment’s office last Friday because it’s U-Know Yunho’s birthday. According to them, there were lots of fans waiting outside the building, but the security people would not accept gifts for Yunho. They didn’t bring gifts, but they still approached the security people to try and ask if they could go inside the building - Jean is with them and she’s just simply the kind of person who wouldn’t want to let any opportunity pass - and you know what the security guy said when they told him that they’re from the Philippines? “Did you bring buko pie? No? Then go away.” See? Buko (coconut) works in this country! Now I totally do not regret that we brought those bukayo along even if it’s such a pain to carry. Let’s see how it will work for J Tune, JYPE and DSP Entertainment…

We’re in Korea! And my face is freakin’ frozen.

Two things I learned today:

1. It is really best to condition your body before going to Korea by climbing as many stairs as you can weeks before your trip. (Baguio trip optional.) I was able to maneuver every single flight of stairs at the subway with a 20-lb suitcase, a 10lb cabin bag and a heavy bag containing 30 packs of bukayo (coconut sweets) with not much difficulty. And my legs did not scream murder! I am so proud of myself.

2. If you’re staying at Jongro area, TAKE THE BUS. It costs more, but less stairs to climb. Faster, too.

I seem to be surprising myself a lot today. Not only was I able to win over the stairs, I also was able to win over -2 degrees C temperature with just a thin long-sleeved blouse, a scarf and my bubble jacket which was just an impulse buy from SM Surplus Shop for barely 700 bucks (about 12USD). Save for my face being frozen, everything else is nice and warm. I should thank Ann for pushing me to buy stuff that I never thought would end up being useful someday. She was the one who pushed me to buy that jacket and my ultra-light suitcase even if it’s not on my budget.

I’m off to look for some late night street food. Tomorrow (make that later) is Full House day, so my friends are excited. Me, not really. Or not.

Leaving for the airport in a couple of hours. The next time that I’ll be online, the flag beside my name will bear a different country. Please take care of this place while I’m gone. There’s internet at the hostel but I’m not sure if I will still have enough powers to blog because our itinerary is so packed. Although history tells me that even if I’m so tired I will still blog when something needs to be blogged, so I don’t know.

I’m leaving you all with your favorite topic: BiKyo. Actually, not entirely BiKyo, just Kyo. This was just alerted to me. Apparently, there was a post yesterday at a Seattle-based blog that someone recently saw Wannabe shopping with his girlfriend. Who, as we all know, is supposed to be Hye Kyo. Wait… I know Hye Kyo hasn’t been visible lately but it’s because she’s busy doing a lot of things: training for the Wong Kar Wai movie in China, shooting CFs in Korea and New Zealand, and filming in Busan with Kang Dong Won. How could she be in Seattle?

Ponder that thought while I’m away.

Note: According to my sources, the blog post did not mention any names so the identity of the woman with Wannabe is unknown. We’re just assuming it’s Lola because the post said he was with his girlfriend, and their agencies said Hye Kyo is his girlfriend. One thing is for sure, though, he was seen shopping in Seattle because the blog is supposed to be about everything Seattle. And if you know Wannabe’s whereabouts, you would know that he is currently filming a movie in Seattle. Now some of my esteemed readers are probably wondering how come I know his schedule when I’m not exactly a fan. The answer lies in Sun Tzu’s Art of War: know thy enemy.

One day before we leave for South Korea tomorrow, and I get a free day at work. It’s a holiday in our province today.

===

I’ve been reading the South Korea thread at my favorite Pinoy forum to gather more ideas and tips for our trip and I read there that per CNN reports, North Korea is attacking South Korea again. Again. It’s the same news we got before we left for SoKor last 2006, to the point that my mom asked me to cancel my trip (what, and miss the Rain’s Coming showcase??). Why does this happen every time I go there?!

Although if you ask anyone who is currently living in South Korea right now, they’ll just laugh it off. They said Koreans have been hearing that same news practically everyday since the 1960s.

===

Weather check: temperatures will go as high as 3 degrees C this weekend and it’s going to be bright and sunny. I guess I’ll have to pull out practically half of the contents of my suitcase, then, since I won’t be needing that many layers anymore (except when we go to Yongpyong ski resort to… take photos. We can’t ski. ). Three degrees C? I managed 4 degrees C with a light jacket and a thin, long sleeved shirt before, although at some point I had to ask my companions to huddle around me because my teeth were chattering like crazy. I’m armed with two industrial strength bubble jackets, turtleneck sweaters and several mufflers, gloves and hats now, so I should be safe.

===

In other matters…

Whadya know, the things that we avoid discussing at Soompi is being discussed now. No, I’m not talking about BiKyo - it’s still a taboo topic at this point - I’m talking about Rain’s seemingly decreasing popularity as evidenced by the bad ticket sales of majority of his Legend of Rainism concerts. What we have avoided speaking out loud in the past, someone FINALLY did. As expected, it was the gutsy Bambiina who did. Of course, there will be fans who will continue to be in denial and say, “it’s impossible, according to this and that blah blah blah” and ignore what I said about press releases being exactly just that, press releases. I have actual experience to back it up, in fact I have video and photo evidences of it. I just didn’t want to talk about it openly because nobody else did. I’m already the resident Nimbus Cloud, as it is.

Anyway, since we’ve been discussing that topic here for the longest time, I won’t bother re-posting what I said there in my blog. It’s actually the other way around: the things I said there are things we have already been talking about since… I dunno, 2006?

To that Filipino staff of the Korean embassy who held back the release of my passport and visa for whatever reason and required me to appear personally to claim it: admit it, you’re an H2 fan, aren’t you?

Koreans usually say that they aged 10 years whenever they’re put into shock or become severely stressed over nothing. I think I aged 20 years today. I almost didn’t make it to the allotted time for releasing of visas at the embassy because I had to report to my office and secure an affidavit from two disinterested persons stating that the names appearing on my passport and my supporting documents are one and the same person. Said affidavit cost me php150 bucks. I left the office around lunchtime, estimating that I’ll be at the embassy by 2:30pm (releasing time is from 2:00-4:00pm). For some reason, it was so difficult to commute this afternoon: very few PUJs available, the FX took a long time before it got filled up, and there was a throng of people at the MRT that they had to limit the entry to the station by batches. Long story short, I reached the embassy at exactly 3:42pm. Chie has been waiting for me at the lobby of Pacific Star Building and had thankfully already secured a visitor’s pass, so that saved us a couple of minutes. When we reached the embassy, there was no line at Window 3 but first I had to explain to the information desk what my case was. They just told me to go straight to Window 3 as allegedly told by the embassy staff to our representative last Friday. So straight to Window 3 I went, toting my affidavit and my office ID just in case they ask for it.

Unlike last Friday, a Korean lady was manning the window today. I told her that I’m there to claim my passport and naturally, she asked for the claim stub. Naturally, I said that I don’t have one because according to my representative who claimed our visas last Friday, it was not returned to him. The Korean lady said, no claim stub, no passport. What?! I tried explaining the situation to her, which was not an easy task because my brain was still on the process of converting to English mode and it’s not converting fast enough. The Korean lady insisted that there is no way that the claim stub was not returned to the representative because the procedure is, we give them the stub, they hand over the passport. She said it’s not possible that the embassy staff took the stub without giving something in return. I was on the verge of tears right there and then, but the Korean was insistent so I decided to just let her be as the last person I would want to piss off at that point was an employee of the embassy I’m securing a visa from.

I called our travel companion Jean as it was her staff who claimed the passports last Friday and told her what happened. She hung up to call her staff to clarify (unfortunately, said staff is in the province so he pretty much can’t do anything at that point, either). Meanwhile, Chie and I asked the information desk for assistance and they said the best we can just do is to go back to Window 3 and explain my case further. We both figured that it won’t make sense for the Korean embassy to hold my passport hostage just because I don’t have a claim stub, right? After all, I’m the owner of that passport. Jean called back and said that according to her staff, the Filipino who released the passports last Friday really did not return any claim stub to him.

So I went back to Window 3 - at that point, it’s already a few minutes after 4:00pm - and spoke to the Korean lady again. I repeated the situation to her and she still doesn’t want to give in. I told her, it’s my passport, anyway, so why can’t they release it to me? She said it doesn’t matter, no claim stub, no release. She then asked me what was the reason why I was asked to appear at the embassy. I told her what the Filipino staff told the rep, that is, she can’t release my passport because I have to appear at the embassy personally. The Korean lady was taken aback and said they don’t require personal appearance at the embassy anymore. Eh? What the hell?! She paused for a bit, then maybe she realized the absurdity of keeping my passport just because of a missing claim stub, so she asked me what’s my name. I gave her my ID, she looked at it, reached for something at her desk, flashed my passport at me and said, “is this you??” Aish. Un-fuckin’-believable. She muttered something about not understanding why my passport was not released, then she asked me to photocopy the front page of my passport (and cost me another php8.50 - ang mahal ng pa-photocopy nila, ha!), gave me a blank claim stub and told me to just write down on the blank part that my agency has lost my claim stub so I had to claim my passport personally. After all that, FINALLY, I got my passport. I quick flip through the pages showed that it has a visa. Whew!

So yeah, up to this very moment, the mystery of why my passport was held back remain unsolved. Because a certain Filipino staff at the Korean embassy is trippin’ on something, I was severely inconvenienced. Isn’t it tragic that the more considerate person at the Korean embassy in the Philippines is the Korean and not the Filipino?

It’s a good thing that Chie was gracious enough to keep me company at the embassy even if she doesn’t have to. I was close to panicking, but I was able to maintain my composure because she was there. Although I know that deep inside she’s also panicking as were my other friends. But all’s well that ends well. Lesson’s learned: (1) submit the application as early as possible; (2) go to the embassy as early as possible; (3) even if they said that personal appearance is not required, it is still more advisable to claim your passport/visa personally.