I Lived In Korea For 5 years And It Was The Best Fanboy Years Of My Life (Part 1)

I am Paul Bernard Salvador, or you can call me Poli and I'm from the Philippines. In 2014, I was given the opportunity to go to Daegu South Korea for 1 ½ years to study for my masters degree and of course as a hardcore K-Pop fan at that time I didn't let the opportunity of seeing my favorite K-Pop idols pass.

I lived 4 hours away from Seoul though so I did just focus on my studies first while I was there but after graduation I went all out fanboy mode guns blazing. My semester was going to start on March 2014 but I arrived in Korea around the 3 week of February so I had time to settle in, adjust and of course, try to see some K-Pop idols.

Here is my first K-Pop adventure when I tried to go to "MCountdown" to see the K-Pop group SPEED, and because my knowledge of Korean language was very limited at the time I didn’t know how the process go. So, I was there, I think, at 6:00 AM outside the CJ E&M center in Sangam-dong. I tried seeing the Daum Café for info, but again my Hangul was limited, and Daum didn't have a "See translation" button at that time so all I know is SPEED will be pre-recording. It was cold and to wear 2 layers of clothing was a big mistake. As someone who came from a tropical country, that was really a harsh weather condition for me. I remember seeing CNBLUE lining up, SM Entertainment had SM the Ballad pre-recording also that day and I saw them lining up. I remember seeing the fan manager of SPEED and she calling out "SPEED fans" to come as it was time to line up and check the requirements to get in for the pre-recording.

Picture from Poli

A pro-tip for anyone trying to get in for a pre-recording of their idols if they are in Korea is to PLEASE RESEARCH before going. You can only use your "I’m sorry I’m a foreigner" card like once or twice, sometimes even not at all, and I saw this play out so many times in my adventures as a fanboy in Korea. At the time, all I had was the physical album of SPEED’s latest release and I didn’t know you needed more like ringback tone, ringtone, download from Melon, Genie, Bugs or Soribada (at that time), identification; you needed to have signed up at the fancafe before hand and it really varies for different groups and companies.

Okay, so I approached the fan manager with only my album and passport. She just told me to stay at the back but she wrote a number on my hand, stating my priority order like I'm the second to the last, I guess. And now, she gave us banners and we waited till we could go up to the studio for recording. So before going inside the studio, we had to wait outside the door going inside the recording studio and guess who passed by? BTS passed by all smiling and saying "Annyeonghaseyo! BTS-imnida! Jal butakdeurimnida," which means, "Hello! We are BTS! Please support us." They were exiting the studio and going down the staircase to the dressing room. I remember them so vividly as they were smiling at us and bowing. Like even they knew we were fans of a different group, they wanted us to support them. At this area, you can't bring out your phone or they will kick you out and you get blacklisted more on that later. But yes, BTS is the very first group I saw in Korea by mere luck and I’m not a big fan, but I'm really happy they get to be successful artists now. But there will be more stories along the way where I meet BTS unintentionally.

We go inside to pre-record for SPEED, and I was a huge of Co-ed School fan in 2010, and although we missed out on 5DOLLS, I swore that I would try my best and see SPEED. So there I was inside "MCountdown" studio with these huge cameras, the lights, the stage- I was holding back my tears at this point because I never in a million years thought I will be there and I was used to just seeing it on my laptop or on the TV but I’m actually there! As a K-Pop fanboy, this was a huge accomplishment for me.

Picture from Poli

On the left side, you can see them retouching their make up and monitoring their dry camera rehearsal. Once they went up on stage and introduced themselves, it was so magical for me. I still couldn't believe that the boy group I was just seeing on my computer was there right in front of me. It was so surreal and it was truly a dream come true. Just a little tidbit- when we pre-recorded the first time, SungMin did the flip at the end perfectly fine, and then we pre-recorded again and they made a mistake where he landed face first. We all screamed and were so shocked but he stood up and the members carried him and they checked on him but they went back and performed one last time, but they didn’t do the flip anymore and from this point on, they modified it. The incident never made it on the news or made a buzz around it, but I felt really bad for SungMin at that time.

Picture from Poli

Anyways, we went out after the recording, and we were told we can comeback at the afternoon for the live show, and as you can see from the pics above, I made sure I will remember the time I was there. I was going to meet speed for a fansign that I got in, but I didn’t go because I was stuck at dinner with some friends, which I kind of regret in the end, because I didn't know there would be member changes the next time I'll be seeing them. I saw SunMi, LADIES' CODE, BESTie, GaIn of Brown Eyed Girls, and many more artists that day, which really made the whole experience memorable for me.

Forward to June of 2014 where I have my first vacation of the semester. At this time, I was really looking into MAMAMOO. They debuted the week before my vacation so I was hoping to see them when I go to Seoul for my vacation and I remember how few we were- I think we were like 8-12 fans for MAMAMOO that time, and I was like “They are so talented; why are not many people supporting them?” Little did I know, they would become one of K-Pop’s greatest acts.

Picture from Poli

I clearly recall how amazing their live vocals are, and the way they command the stage is just chef’s kiss amazing! For "Music Core" and "Inkigayo" pre-recording, they did an event for us who came. They took our albums and signed it, which I thought was really sweet. MAMAMOO’s fancafe is really strict with the fans so you always have to be actively interacting there or else, they will rank down your membership.

Picture from Poli

Afterwards, I think, was one of my last K-Pop adventures in 2014 while in Korea. I was there to study after all, but I think I went to a concert with a friend and it was a free ticket given to me by a Korean friend who used to study in the Philippines. I will continue my story in Part 2 about my K-Pop adventures in Korea 2015.

Picture from Poli

Picture from Poli