Are You in SHINee?

The name on everyone's lips lately is Kim Yu-Na. The 19 year old won the gold medal in women's figure skating last week and put Korea on the map. She is literally everywhere I look here. There are a handful of companies who have plastered her face all over their TV commercials. The day she skated her flawless performance everyone was glued to their TV cell phones. It was all anyone could talk about. After all the pressure that was placed on this girl to perform for her country and with the 'fate of Korea' in the 2010 Olympics on the line, I was so happy to see her win. She must have been overwhelmed with joy. She must have also breathed a sigh of relief. If it was the U.S. or Canada and she had fallen or slipped up and gotten the silver she would still be deemed a hero. I'm not so sure people would have reacted the same way here in Korea.

I never thought I would witness the mass craziness that was the grand opening of H&M in Korea. The European store is popular back home in America, but nothing to make a big fuss over. The clothes are cheap, cute, and a bit trendy. The store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago is always busy. H&M opened it's doors in Myeong-dong, Seoul on Saturday and it was pure insanity. I never thought people would make such a huge deal over a clothing store. My friends and I thought we would get to shop and check out one of our favorite stores from home over here. We thought wrong. There was a red carpet. There was a VIP entrance. There were men guarding the lines in suits with ear pieces. There was a line that was broken into three parts. The last part stretched all the way around the block. There was no way we were going to get anywhere near that store today. Oh, well. It'll be here next time.

the line for H&M grand opening in Korea

Korean women are obsessed with beauty. They are also not afraid to look at themselves in the mirror in public for minutes on end. In western culture, people fear they will be thought of as vain if they stare at themselves in the mirror for too long. Not here. There are mirrors literally everywhere; the subway, bathrooms, on the street, on cell phones. People take major advantage of this and I have even caught men scrutinizing over their faces in public as well.

I wrote about K-Pop and the craze over here. My friends and I love a group called SHINee that is composed of 5 boys between the ages of 14-18. They are very talented dancers and have decent voices, other than that, they are just darn cute and girls go nuts over them. They have a certain look; well combed hair (often to the side), perfect skin, cute face, skinny build, skinny acid washed or black jeans, blazers, dress shoes, etc. Every time we see anyone that fits the description my friends and I are tempted to ask if they are in SHINee. We also point them out to each other and say "I see a SHINee!"

The new school year begins this week and I have three new co-teachers to work with, new students, and a new schedule too. Looking forward to getting back to a normal routine with school.

Spring, where are you? Please come soon.

Happy March!

Namaste