Confession: I am hopelessly addicted to KPop

Eh eh eh eh eh eh eh eh 2NE1

With my 23rd birthday (woo!) fast approaching, I decided to plan a shindig with a theme. Now, I hardly ever do anything that is themed outside of Halloween and Ugly Christmas Sweater parties, but this year required an exception. So I made an executive decision and made my 23rd birthday a day dedicated to 2PM/KPop. As always, there needed to be a dance party, and the local club JEEEP serendipitously is hosting a Boogie Nights dance party on the Saturday before my birthday (i.e. - celebration night). That fit perfectly with the plan but something else was needed...the theme.

Since coming to Korea, especially to an elementary school, I have not been able to avoid the spectre of 2PM, SHINee, Big Bang, and the other myriad poppy bands belonging to the genre KPop (Korean Pop). Example, this week I had my 6th graders create a "Bucket List" for the chapter on "What do you want to do?" Needless to say, 98% of the girls mentioned something about meeting/being/seeing/marrying 2NE1, 2PM, Big Bang, Girl's Generation, Beast, 4 minutes, Miss A, Wonder Girls, 2 AM, and MBLAQ. So it only made sense to dedicate my 23rd year with such an ubiquitous phenomenon, but I had really never listened to KPop, merely admired their ridiculous fashion sense from afar. This all changed this morning.

In preparation for my shopping trip this evening to acquire my proper KPop costume for Saturday, I began to listen to the bands which cause every Korean girl to scream and generally freak out. It began with 2PM's "Again & Again." Warning: 2PM is a gateway drug, people. Then it went to "RingDingDong" by SHINee. Then "Fire" by 2NE1. Then I couldn't stop myself. So now, I have spent every free minute of my day at work listening to KPop songs. Good news is that they really bring up my energy and place me in a fantastic mood. My students keep looking at me strangely as I rock out at my desk to, little do they know, their favorite bands.

Tonight will require many important decisions: fingerless gloves or fishnet? fake eyelashes or excessive glitter? gold or red tights? Girl's Generation or 2NE1???

All I know is that Saturday will be a great night. Shake it! Shake shake it!