DISCLAIMER: This is going to be a really looooooooooooooong post. My fangirl feels are currently overflowing even if it's been 3 days since the event. C'mon 3 days is actually not enough for me to come down from Cloud 9. I'd probably have a month of hang-over from this. I kid not.
I've been sooooo hyped about this event from the time they announced that it's actually going to happen. During that time the line up wasn't fixed and they keep changing it. I don't really mind if they change it a few times as long as I still see the names of the groups I'm really dying to see (the last phrase is true, go ask my friends if you need proof of my undying like). Then the final announcement came and my fan girl heart was about to burst. So I took to Twitter to start spazzing with fellow fangirls like me.
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| Confirmed!! |
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So the dates were set and I'm so hyped I forgot that you have to have money to be able to buy a ticket. Ha! And as I was never a fan of planning ahead, I've put up actually buying my ticket last minute. After we came back from our trip to Bangkok that was when I began to panic. I don't look it, but I was thinking of ways to actually acquire a ticket (selling my kidneys was one of the option ^.^) and I was thinking that it was meant for me, I'd be able to go regardless.
And thanks to my lifesaver, Hazel Belleza, I was able to get the ticket I wanted. VIP Platinum is the closest I can be to the stage without me actually going broke. It's a lucky ticket and I wouldn't trade it for the most expensive ticket at the concert. Read along so you'll find out why.
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| Proof Shot! |
I wasn't kidding when I said that I was spazzing from the time that I got the ticket until the actual event. It just gotten a bit worst when it was a week before the event. I was on a high the whole week, regardless if I don't get any sleep, I'd still be hyper. and it felt like nothing can make me mad or sad or anything. I'm oozing with positive energy the whole week that upon recalling it I felt like I went crazy during those days. And I didn't care, I was excited!! Psyched to see my Baozi and my Pineapple.
A day before the actual concert there were a few mishaps that made me stay awake. Aside from the fact that January 18, 2013 is the first time that my biases stepped into Philippine Soil (11:30 MNL to be exact).
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| Kim Sung Gyu, Kim Myeong Soo & Lee Sung Jong arriving at NAIA |
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| Kim Sung Gyu being escorted out... Haha! Ahjusshi there isn't any trouble anywhere. And LeaderGyu are you actually wearing a mesh shirt?! | . |
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| Hello there you gorgeous Human Being you |
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| Kim Myeong Soo, Lee Sung Jong & Lee Seung Yeol |
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| I would be ogling them too if I was on the same line | |
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| Myeong Soo was asked by the Immigration people to take off his glasses for identification. I bet manong just wanted to verify if he really was human and not some walking mannequin. ^^ |
Infinite arrived with U-Kiss and Tahiti for the press conference that afternoon. EXO was also supposed to be boarding the same plane as them but there was trouble with immigrations. You see, 4 of the 12 EXO members are Chinese, 3 of them had a problem with their VISAS, apparently you have to have a VISA if you're Chinese and visiting the Philippines (a pretty little detail their management actually forgot and had to fix last minute). I was about to flip a table when I read this on Tumblr because the reason why I was excited to see EXO is rumored to not be coming anymore. And a few rumors about EXO-K being harassed at the ICN Airport by vapid fangirls and some netizens started blaming EXOPh fans to be the one doing the harassing when they haven't even stepped foot here. Anyway, enough of the ranting. They were able to board the plane first and the other half of EXO (EXO-M) arrived the following morning.
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| Kyung Soo-omma at the airport looking adorable |
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The following pictures are not mine credit to the original owners. Check the watermark. I'm spamming EXO airport pictures because there's just a lot of them. (Infinite's arrival was so guarded only a few people were able to see them *sobs*)
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| Kyung Soo being Kyung SO.O |
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| Uri Leader Kim Joon Myeon with Omma and his giant son |
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| Another Omma & Appa pic with their youngest, Oh Se Hun and Kim Jong In |
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| Oh TheHun (It's actually Se Hun but since he has a lisp he says his name that way, it's an inside joke with EXOTICS) |
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| Omma what did you see now? |
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| Kamjjong, I mean Kim Jong In and a wild Chan Yeol |
The next day at around 11:30am, EXO-M arrived, they were supposed to be with Girls' Generation but I believe they arrived later in the afternoon. Pic Spam Time!
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| Lu Han and Kim Min Seok aka Xiu Min (Sleepy Princess Lulu and His Baozi) |
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| Kung Fu Panda Huang Zi Tao is not amused |
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| Kris, EXO-M's Leader (Duizhang, the airport is not a runway... Please) |
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| Kim Jong Dae, aka Chen aka Danshing Masheen, looks happy |
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| My adorable Baozi |
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| Zhang Yi Xing aka Lay aka the real Dancing Machine |
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| Look how organized these kids are... Joon Myeon Appa really needs to learn from Duizhang on how to discipline his kids |
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| Yeah I know you're cool Wu Yi Fan, go away! |
The last one to arrive is Girls' Generation. I'm not a big fan of them. I mean I listen to all their songs but I'm just fond of Seo Hyun and Tiffany. Another Pic Spam!!
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| Jessica & Yoona |
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| Tiffany, Seo Hyun and Soo Young(?) |
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| Sunny & Hyo Yeon |
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| Yoona |
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| Seobaby!! |
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| Sunny, Hyo Yeon & Jessica |
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| Jessica |
January 19, 2013. D-Day. Woke up at 7am to prepare. (No, I'm not posting a ridiculous picture of me wearing that canary yellow shirt so they'd know I'm an Inspirit). We were supposed to meet at around 7am but I decided to be fashionably late for the fanchant practice since I know I wouldn't be able to follow it anyway. I'd be so busy screaming my head off to actually remember which part we're supposed to sing and which part we'd have to recite their names (Kim Sung Gyu, Jang Dong Woo, Nam Woo Hyun, Lee How Won, Lee Seung Yeol, Kim Myeong Soo, Lee Sung Jong, INFINITE Nekkeo Haja!).
I arrived at the venue at around 10am (I didn't get lost! Yey! I rode a TAXI.) and was having a hard time finding my group, turns out they were just at the entrance for VIP and it was just right there were the taxi driver dropped me off, I was just stupid to walk further down and they saw me already (Who wouldn't, hello? Canary Yellow shirt, remember?). It was awkward at first because I've only been speaking to one of these people through Twitter and the rest are complete strangers. I'm not good with strangers, I tend to look stiff and a bit of a snob. But since we're all people with the same goals and aspirations (Meh! Lame, I know...), we bonded automatically. For the sake of seeing oppa (even if I'm older than OPPA) sing and dance and do fan service.
I haven't had breakfast yet and was so unprepared that I haven't even thought of buying food before going to the venue. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who's hungry. So three of us decided to go to McDonalds to buy food while we wait. While walking, that's when I realized that it was a really huge event. I mean a lot of us are closet KPop fans so I wasn't expecting a huge turn out. And the tickets are expensive. And these are kids, mostly teens but... Where the he*l did you get money to buy SVIP?!
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| This is just one side, the seaside entrance. That guy wearing a wife beater actually looks familiar. Cosplayer maybe... |
Four hours later, after we've learned the fan chants and practiced a few dance steps (to impress oppa, of course), everybody started standing up from their seats. I thought they were asking us to line already, it turns out that EXO is doing rehearsals (They're the last group to do rehearsals because EXO-M has to rest a bit and eat and stuff). There were a lot of tall kids with me so I mainly listened to know who was practicing. But when they started playing EXO songs, everybody started singing along (Me included).
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| Park Chan Yeol, can you not... |
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| Kai and a high Chan Yeol |
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| Idiots during practice, Ooh there's my Baozi being squishy... |
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| I hate you r/n... Stop being cute... |
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| The chaos that is EXO |
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| Chan Yeollie!!! |
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| Another Chan Yeol-Is-Cute moment |
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| Byun Baek Hyun |
We were fangirling outside, and there was someone recording the practice session. They were so hyper and cute and squishy and I need to stop (Bantay Bata 163?). The practice didn't last for long and we were impatient to get into the venue already since they said they would let people in by 4pm. It's already past 4 and everyone's not in a good mood because there wasn't any line and those who were there early was pushed in the back of the line. I didn't want to add to the chaos so I just stood there patiently waiting for us to be ushered inside. At around 5:30pm we were asked to form a line. My newly acquired friends and I got separated and decided to just meet up inside the concert venue so we could find a decent spot. The line was chaotic (to put it MILDLY), there were people who were supposed to be the first to enter the grounds that got pushed too far back, we started to think they'll be entering the Gold section (that was a joke, haha.).
When were finally able to get inside the venue, our bags were inspected. They don't allow professional cameras since they have hired people to do the pretty pictures you only see on professional blogs. But a few fans (those who took super HD pictures you'll see later on Part 2) were able to hide their cameras in I don't know where and was able to bring them inside. We weren't allowed to have pens in our bags as well, mine got confiscated and they were newly bought pens *sobs* but well, not going to make a scene just because of a bunch of pens.
They stamped our arms with basically nothing, it's actually a glow in the dark ink which I didn't have time to take a picture of because 'feeeels'. When we entered the venue all three of us (Chin and her cousin, I forgot to ask her name) went fan girl crazy, literally. It was so surreal being there and thinking that any moment you'll see them perform.
Here are the pictures I took of the venue.
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This is how close we are to the stage, see the cute oppas over there? they were cheering for INFINITE ^.~
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| A landscape view of the Platinum Section |
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| The GOLD Ticket section |
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The LuMin/XiuHan Banner that luminous.net prepared for Xiumin. Oh and that part of the venue is SVIP sitting. Only a few people bought tickets for that. Why should I be sitting when I can run around and follow oppa instead.. ^__________^
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| A fellow Xiu Min fan. I wanted that towel but wasn't able to find one. |
End of Part 1 (told you it's going to be long). Part 2 Would be the spazzing part, don't read if you can't stand keyboard smashing 'asdfghjkl' type of fangirling. I'm currently writing all of these on feeeeels so don't say you haven't been warned.
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