{서울} of 한식 & 슈주 part one

before you say anything, i know.. i took forever to write this (i apologize!) - for some reason, this was the most difficult entry to start thus far.. probably because this event was where i experienced the highest and lowest points of my korean trip and i just wasn't sure how to put it in words.

but first, a piece of not-so-good news :: as i was writing, i realized how long this entry was going to be, so i decided to split it into two parts >_< so there will be a bit of waiting for the whole story but not too long! (don't hate me! i promise you 2nd part of the hansik event is in the works and it's almost finished!)

i decided to write the title in hangul + english because it fits in one line and i thought it was fitting! :) {서울} of 한식 & 슈주 part one translates to {seoul} of hansik & suju part one

oh and a fair warning :: a lot of fan girl-ing moments ahead throughout the entry so please bear with me.

{february 23rd, 2012.}

it's marked as the day when i had to demonstrate my kimbap-shaped bibimbap. most importantly, the day when i met DONGHAE in person! and the other four members of super junior..

the morning started out with a lot of nervousness. (twitter was showing 2/22 because it was still on US time) but surprisingly, i was still able to stuff myself silly at breakfast - i was probably hoping to eat my nerves away!

did it work? not really.

as we walked into the venue, i noticed the media was setting up their equipment and i was thinking to myself 'omg, i feel like a celebrity or something...!' and then immediately, my next thought was..."do i look picture ready?!" while trying to make sure i looked presentable! lol

as they briefed us about the day's event, we were given a chef's coat to wear over our pretty clothes, which btw, took hours to decide on what to wear for the event...(up till today, i'm still asking myself ..and others..what was the point of me worrying about what to wear since i had to put on the chef's outfit anyway >.<)

i had mixed feelings about the chef's outfit - a lot of my friends thought it looked cool, i thought it made me look kinda guy-ish. lol. anywho, we finished up a few final prep steps before our demo went underway.

throughout the whole demo session, i was secretly hiding my smirks while the cameras and videos were pointed at me... actually, i was mentally battling with myself... should i be smiling? or should i look serious as i cook? i figured the best thing was to be myself and try to look as natural as possible...

however, i ended up looking so serious that the pictures showed like i wasn't having fun which was not the case at all!! i mean.. c'mon, we were cooking to super junior's song playing in the background...which is exactly how i would be doing it at home!  haha. ^^

i even met some of the top chefs in korea (eek!) and learned a tip or two about rolling kimbap from a guy who is affliated to a popular restaurant chain in korea called, school food :) which is so awesome imo! (inner foodie and cook coming out! ^^)

after we were done with our demo, we went to the restroom to clean up before the arrivals of vip. (you know who i am talking about..) a few minutes later, we suddenly heard a ton of commotion (including speedy clicks of camera all over the place) in the dining room to which nhung came to the restroom and excitedly informed us that 슈퍼주니어 was in the building!

O - to the - M - to the - G! we were finally meeting them in person! eeeeeeeeeek! *fangirl mode on!*

what i remember was there were a lot of pushing and shrieking involved as we tried to get a peek behind a room divider/panel screen thingi by the restroom. we sneaked our way (not very ninja-like, sadly) to our table while stealing glances at the five members..  literally a second later -.-,  the organizers suggested to us to say hi to our favorite boys before the start of the formal event to which we ecstatically and nervously agreed!

okay... i've always said/thought that.. if i met super junior in person, i was going to be myself... you know...treat them just like i would when i meet a new friend for the first time....

.....except when i was in front of them.. my mind blanked... or had too much thoughts running through my head...either one... but one thing for sure, i froze... with a perpetual smile stuck on my face (i probably looked silly... or worse...creepy >< lol)...

 >.< YUP! STARSTRUCK! that was what i was..

. . .

which i was so sure i wasn't going to be... except... in reality, i was.... *facepalm* only nhung went up to eunhyuk (her bias) and shook his hand.

it felt so surreal...it felt like a dream to be there! after a couple more minutes of us staring at them shyly and grinning foolishly from ear to ear, the organizers pulled us back to reality as they shoo-ed us back to our table to get the event started.

as they walked towards the front table, well, i was hoping (& praying hard) that donghae would be sitting in front of my tag but it turned out to be leeteuk instead which is nice too....

anywho, i'll just let the photos do the talking :) ::

ahh..donghae my donghae! :)

the event began with a short interview with super junior... mostly conducted in korean language so we were pretty much clueless since there wasn't a translator. oddly i didn't really care since i was so satisfied to be taking pictures of them as i continued being in the state of starstruck.. although come to think of it, i wished i understood what they were saying. i think it had something to do with korean food (since it is a food event!)

hae looked almost out of it throughout the event and he looked really tired. :( but he still looked so freaking good looking though! be still my beating heart! *swooon*

candid photo :: this is me, overly excited... i look so silly - this is somewhat embarassing ><

once all the speeches (in english, phew!) by the organizers were out of the way, our food was served at the front table and it was really amusing to watch them go ooohhh and ahhhh as each dish were brought out one at a time and explained! lol. they looked "impressed" with my food that i felt kinda proud of myself! however, they ooooh-ed the loudest when yuiko's dish came out!



before they could dig in into our creations, we had to do self introductions. i was going to attempt to at least greet them in korean but since it was a formal event, i didn't want to use the wrong politeness level so i resorted back to english. i watched a video of my introduction that my friend took which is a lil embarrasing to listen to myself but it surely was worth it to see them nodding intently while i giving my lil speech although i'm not sure if they knew what i was saying... <3 that they tried to look like they understood - so polite!

captured moment :: when peyxen was giving her introduction in korean & asking about ss4 msia i love it that they are all smiling :)

i passed the microphone to peyxen for her self introduction and the members were taken aback for a second when she started speaking in korean. they were definitely thrilled to hear someone from another country speak their native language. :)

finally....okay you'd have to wait for part two for the rest of the story. (a rather abrupt end... haha)

part two is currently in progress (i promise it will be out sometime end of this week/early next week) which includes the tasting session :)  more suju moments + pictures to be shared! be excited!