EPTFor SNSD in NYC - Round 1, read about SMTOWN Concert and the fan meeting here.
All of my pictures from NYC can be viewed here and downloaded here.
The third time in just over 6 months seeing SNSD, and it keeps getting better every time somehow. How can you beat seeing a solo concert in Seoul, or SMTown in NYC and the fanmeet? How about being right there with them for their American debut? How about getting to talk to eight of the members and getting their autographs? Yeah, this week was epic.
My flight arrived in New York just a couple hours late to be able to go to Letterman, and as soon as I checked into my hotel, I walked over to the Ed Sullivan theater in hopes of seeing the girls leave, but I had just missed them by about an hour. I met up with Soy and Thesarahbot at Times Square and we did some shopping at the Disney store to get a couple plushies for the girls. Disney sold out of dukongs! After that we all went back to our hotels to watch Letterman.
I slept for about 20 minutes before Letterman started, and then the show began. “Music by Girls' Generation” the announcer stated...It was real, this was happening, American late night television. “We'll be right back with Girls' Generation” It was getting closer. Then the girls came out and slayed a remix of “The Boys”. I muttered “Oh my god...” when Sooyoung began the first dance break. I couldn't believe I was watching this on CBS, on David Letterman. SNSD performed so hard and it was a perfect debut performance. The live band sounded amazing, the dancing was extremely crisp, and their vocals were impressive. After it was over I was just staring at my TV. They did it. I was so proud of them for their hard work, determination, and killer performance when it counted the most.
Around 2am Soshified trip friends got in from Boston and we headed out to the ABC studios to begin lining up for “Live With Kelly” which started at 9am. There were six people ahead of us already, one of which who had been there since 9pm the day before, and one from 1am. It paid off for them as they got to go backstage and meet the girls. It was cold. It rained. When SNSD arrived in their bus everyone ran over to see them, and by that time the rain had stopped(seemingly just in time for them). They were carrying Starbucks and looked incredible. Sooyoung especially blew us away. She is SO pretty in person. Taeyeon was adorable.
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This is random, but we also saw Shining Smile and Flying Petals who flew from Korea together to take pictures and try to attend the events. They brought their own step ladders with them, how pro is that? They were really cute holding hands walking around. Shining Petals!
By the time they were letting standby people in there were over 100 people in line. They let the first six in and said that was it and told us to get in front of the SNSD bus to cheer on camera. We yelled out, “Just five more!” and a few moments later the producer came out and said “7-13 let's go.” We ran in, got our bags checked and headed quietly into the studio because the show had already started. We couldn't believe our luck. Kelly Ripa and Howie Mandel were pretty funny, and then after a pre-recorded spot with Jennifer Lopez, SNSD came out.
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The studio was very small, so even though we were in the back, we were still pretty close. We cheered and said hi and the girls waved back at us. They were so cute warming up their voices. Sunny said “Hi Kelly~”, how adorable! Kelly introduced SNSD and then the performance started. We fanchanted as loud as we could. Kelly and Howie immediately turned around with a look of awe in their face when we yelled “GG” and did the Korean fanchant at the start. The girls smiled at the loud fanchants. Kelly was dancing with the song. We weren't expecting a skipped verse and shortened version so we were caught off guard for the dance break but we still fanchanted loud with a “SO NYUH SHI DAE” and Kelly turned around with a huge smile. She turned to Howie with a thumbs up and an amazed look when the girls dropped to the ground with the spiderman move.
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Hyoyeon was definitely the crowd favorite. During her rap part she got so many cheers from the audience. They loved it! Also, Taeyeon's “My heart~” high note which she nailed got a huge reaction from the audience. They were really impressed by the girls' singing and dancing. It was a great performance and I couldn't believe we just witnessed their morning show debut in person, on the biggest morning show in the country.
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Fellow Soshified trip buddy imyoona_ha yelled out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOOYOUNG!” right when the audience died down and the girls laughed. Kelly and Howie's shock on the broadcast about fan participation was not a joke, they were genuinely surprised and impressed. SNSD and Kelly bantered back and forth with a really cute and fun interview, especially Tiffany's “You gotta squat and pop your booty.” As the girls were leaving after taking a picture with Kelly, they all waved at us sones in the crowd, and Tiffany said to us “Thank you~” as Hyoyeon came over to our side a little bit and waved. Sooyoung gave us a heart over her head and Sunny waved at me and gave me a heart over her head. They really appreciated us being there for them. Afterwards we heard K-SONEs were extremely proud that we had done the Korean fanchant. I am glad that we could show that SONE has no borders.
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Kelly came up to the crowd and started saying it was incredible how much we participated in the performance. She was curious what we were saying, and we told her it was the fanchants for the song, and she wanted to hear them again! She was really nice and fun during the commercial break. After the show she tweeted a few times how much she loved SNSD and their performance. She legitimately enjoyed SNSD and was impressed with them and their fans. We left right after that to try and catch the girls leaving the venue. We ran out to the bus and we got there just in time to see the girls come out to loud cheers from the rest of the fans who were unable to get into the show. In my opinion, as great as Letterman's performance was, the “Live With Kelly” appearance was absolutely perfect in every way. They had a great performance, fans were acknowledged for being supportive even though this was technically their debut here, and they had a fun interview that showcased some of their personalities.
Considering I had slept a grand total of twenty minutes in two days, this was the time to get a couple hours of sleep. After a short nap we all went to K-town for lunch, and afterwards as we were walking around we stumbled upon SNSD's bus outside their hotel. We arrived just in time to see the girls head out for interviews. A couple people managed to run up to the girls and get some autographs. Taeyeon walked out in this preppy outfit that just made all of our jaws drop. We couldn't believe how amazing she looked. Even the paparazzi paused just to stare. Seohyun was especially striking as she practically glided across the street looking like a real goddess. Everyone had the same reaction, that she seemed to be floating because she was so beautiful. We all said hi as they walked right in front of me, smiling and waving as they got on the bus. Talk about good timing...
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Later we went to Shake Shack with Soy and Limmybum (one of the two people along with Taengdukong that Kelly was nice enough to bring backstage to meet the girls). That place has amazing burgers. After dinner we shopped around Times Square for a bit, going back to the Disney store and also Toys R Us for random goofy gifts for the girls.
The line at Best Buy wasn't supposed to start until 6am, but didn't want to take a chance, so we headed over at 12:30am, and there were already over 100 people in line. Sones were bundled up with blankets because it was very cold. Eventually, over 1,000 people were in line outside, and the Best Buy security and reps said they were quite impressed with how orderly all of us were. 300 people were let inside the store to line up to buy “The Boys” CD and get a wristband that would guarantee a spot in the fan signing.
Later in the day when we got back to Best Buy there were already hundreds of people crowded at the front of the door, lined up on either side behind barricades. Security came out and said they were calling the cops for extra security because there were well over 1,000 people outside the store and sidewalks were being blocked. They eventually let the people with wristbands into the store to line up for the fan signing. In line we talked to some Japanese media who said that “SNSD is huge in Japan. This is a big story”, and also a New York Post photographer who said he heard about SNSD on NPR in Iowa while he was covering the Republican debate. Best Buy reps said we could only get the inside jacket of “The Boys” signed, but many people had other plans for getting items signed.
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It was almost time. We heard loud cheers, and I saw Yuri lining up to take a press picture with the rest of the girls. Everyone's hearts were racing. The girls took their seats at a long table and the fan signing began. I walked up to Tiffany and she greeted me with an enthusiastic “Hi!”, and I said “Hi Tiffany!” and gave her my “Into The New World” album to sign. She looked at it with a surprised look and exclaimed, “Oh, the original!” I told her that SNSD is really amazing and also thanked her for taking my letters at SM Town NYC in October and she said “Thank you so much for writing them!” with a bright smile.
Hyoyeon was next to her and she greeted me with a big smile. I said hello to her in Korean and she lit up with surprise, “Oh!” and we both said thank you to each other. Hyoyeon is so ridiculously hot in person and her voice is so cute. She has a really fun personality that makes you feel at ease and makes you smile. Sooyoung sat up and had a huge smile and bright eyes as she almost yelled “Hi nice to meet you!” at me because she was so excited. I said “Hi Sooyoung happy birthday!” and gave her a small charm from my old college, and I explained to her in Korean that it was from the best Christian University in America. The managers were pushing me to move along, so I started moving away from her and she leaned over and said in English, “Thank you God bless you!” Sooyoung really is a kind-hearted girl. To me, she has been the member that really goes out of her way to show her appreciation for foreign fans. She is amazingly pretty in real life, much more so than on camera. Her eyes are so big and bright and her smile is very warm. It was really easy to talk to her.
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However, Yoona was next and she was not easy to talk to, but not because she was distant. Quite the contrary actually, she was super excited. She greeted me with a big “Hello!” and I replied “Hi Yoona!” and that was all I could come up with. I was literally speechless. Yoona, looking up at you with her doe eyes and a wide smile...You just can't prepare for something like that. I've seen her in person multiple times before, but this time, a foot away from me, I couldn't even think. She is the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my entire life. I had all these things planned to say to the girls, but Yoona was so disarming that everything just left my mind at that moment. I moved over to Seohyun who leaned really far forward with an excited eye smile and said “Hello~ Nice to meet you!” You know how I said Yoona was the most beautiful person ever? Well, Seohyun is tied with her. I was really shocked at just how pretty she was. She has such a baby face, naturally since she is the youngest, but she has really grown up and matured into a beautiful girl. I'll never forget the look on her face when she greeted me. She was just so happy to meet us. I said “Thank you Seohyun” to her in Korean and she giggled so cutely and said “Thank you” in English.
When Seohyun was signing my CD, Sunny looked over at me and pointed excitedly at my hat and exclaimed “Oh! Oh!” I was wearing her SPAO 515 hat (I may be a bit Sunny biased), which I knew she really loved from SM Town NYC in October. I waved at her really quick because I didn't want to ignore Seohyun, but when I got in front of Sunny I said “Hi Sunny!” and she also said “Hi!” really high and short, so cute. Tiffany might be the eye smile queen, but I'm pretty sure Sunny could dethrone her. She was so adorable! I gave her a small toy airplane and said “Catch Me If You Can fighting!” (She had just been cast in the "Catch Me If You Can" musical as Brenda). Sunny did her really cute high pitched laugh and said “Oh thank you!”, and her sister who was behind her also laughed. There was so much I wanted to say to Sunny, but with literally just a few seconds and Yoona unexpectedly sabotaging me earlier, it was all I could do.
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Next up was Taeyeon, and she was so tiny. She's like this precious snow white doll, it's really fascinating. She was extremely pretty and after we greeted each other I told her “Your voice is really amazing” in Korean, and Taeyeon put her head back with her trademark cute ahjumma laugh. She said “Thank you~” in a high and cute voice. Her laugh...it is really an awesome sound! The last member was Yuri, and she was really beautiful. I think I was most nervous to meet her, but she was really outgoing. She was constantly smiling and held eye contact longer than any of the other members, even as I was walking away, so it was impossible to turn away from her. She said “Thank you!” about four times, it was so adorable.
As I left, I gave Soy the remaining gifts I had for the girls because I didn't have time to search in the bag in line. Korean media was there interviewing people, and they cornered me for an embarrassing clip because I couldn't even think straight after what I just experienced. Outside Best Buy, more than a thousand people were still there cheering, and everyone was spazzing over their newly signed SNSD items. We went behind Best Buy to the SNSD bus where another few hundred people were gathered and saw the girls get on the bus. Hyoyeon and Tiffany were so amazed they started taking pictures and fancams of all the fans. Tiffany doesn't lie when she says SNSD is honestly a fan of SONEs.
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Afterwards, a bunch of us went to K-Town for Korean BBQ to celebrate the amazing night we had, followed by some hilarious noraebang. Partying with SONEs was so much fun, and since the trip to Korea, it was obvious that we have become really close. As strange as it is, being a fan of SNSD isn't just about SNSD, but also about the SONE family.
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On our last day in New York we walked over to the girls' hotel just in time to see Taeyeon dart out with her manager. All the girls went and did things in the city like watching musicals and shopping. We saw Sunny come back with her sister in a cab, and everyone was surprised because she just walked right by us nonchalantly. Hyoyeon came back with her manager and as she was going in I said “Hi Hyoyeon!” and she turned around in the doorway to smile and wave. She was really outgoing with fans. As Sunny was waiting for her cab with her sister later on to go to the airport, I stopped about ten feet from her and asked for an autograph on my 515 hat, but then behind us a pack of rabid fangirls and paparazzi came running at her. She was absolutely mobbed with people right on top of her and she had to go back into the hotel. She came back out with bodyguards that got a cab for her, but the paparazzi was still right in her face. So rude, I wanted to punch those guys. As she got in the cab she turned to me and smiled, and even without makeup I still think she has such a charm about her.
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Tiffany came out next, but we created a wall so people wouldn't mob her. It didn't stop the paparazzi from getting close and snapping unflattering pictures though. Tiffany waved at us as we called out to her saying “Bye Tiffany!” a few times when she got in her car, while some dumb girl was shouting out “Bye CL!” as a kind of stupid joke. Nobody laughed and it was really disrespectful. We left for a very late dinner and went back to the hotel, our time with SNSD officially being over.
I've watched the Letterman and Kelly appearances countless times since NY, and each time I'm overwhelmed by pride and memories of an amazing few days with SNSD. I don't know how I can top this experience, but as the trend with SNSD seems to be going, the next one will somehow eclipse this. 2012 will be an incredible year.
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sounds so exciting. great blog.
Writing something like this most definitely enhances your memory of the whole ordeal.
