"Just Hatched"

So back when I was working on my acceptance to the TaLK program, which would let me venture to South Korea, I meet a girl in my professor's office. She was also applying at the time to go to Korea through the same program. I remember standing there and seeing a pin on her bag, instantly recognizing the face on the pin to be Daesung of Big Bang, I questioned "Did I had found someone who knew what Kpop was beyond Gangnam style or if she only knew of a few sorts of the Kpop world, as do most stony brook students because of the immense Korean population here?" I piped up and said "nice pin." She upon exiting the professor's office just blew up in a huge rather concise conversation about not only Big Bang and Daesung, but Kpop as a whole. I was taken aback. Never have I ever met another person who was non-Asian who not only enjoyed Kpop as much as myself, but understood it's deeper fabrications and workings of it as a business.

Yes... I made this.

At first I was a bit weary about this girl.  I mean I have to be honest, but there are a lot of insane Kpop fans and I didn't know who she was at the start of our first meet. We casually exchanged numbers and found one another on Facebook just to keep one another updated on the steps throughout the TaLK application process. Later on when I bought my new Samsung Galaxy phone, my very first smart phone I downloaded a popular Korean social app called Kakao Talk and found that she also had it, months before I knew of it. Later I also decided to make a twitter account to help promote K-Entertainment and to also leave my poor Facebook friends alone about it. I immediately began building up my twitter base with K-pop, K-dramas, K-media, Korean Corporations, and other fans around the globe who help keep me in the know and found a nice community of followers in return. Again I found this girl with a heap of popularity all over the twitter sphere. Not only did I find a girl who is in the know but is an active participant in the K-entertainment world, just as myself, but admittingly she's actually more advance at it than I. Does this mean she knows more? Maybe on Big Bang stuff, but what I mean is that she's been at the game longer than your author here. She's an admin for the Website for Big Bang Updates which I have no comprised experience nor have I been exposed to K-pop as long as her as I've founded out. Aigoo. 

But... I have come a long way since over a year ago. Just because one person has been exposed longer shouldn't always constitute for more knowledge, she certainly has seen some of the trends come and go, as I've only known to read about them. I know more about Korea and it's entertainment business than some Koreans have stated to know, and so I have incorporated the values and many cultural aspects as my own. I am truly "An American Girl Stuck in Kpop Culture" and am never willing to change that, if anything I only want to dive deeper from here. And so from weary starts of this girl I formulated a rather strong bond with her through the application process of this TaLK program. It started when she got a rather bad scare, a possible denial from the program. She called me and we spoke about it over the phone for about an hour. And each day after that I tried to ease her worries of what might happen. Together we went through the rest of the process of getting our travel documents Apostilled and even spent Christmas Eve together. In the short time we grew closer and my worries of her not being able to come with me now became the focus of my own worries. 

Well, I'll stop here and say that she was accepted after having conducted a second interview. Now... we're both co-authoring a new blog together called Just Hatched in Korea. We just published it yesterday and though there is only one introduction post on it, the visits from the page are gradually climbing. I said I wanted to document my life in Korea as I am there, and this new blog will be the main engine for that adventure! So your author will be working double time with this blog and my new one. I hope you guys check it out and subscribe. It's supposed to document our experiences with you and show you what Korean culture consists of up close. So for now... 대박! ^_^

PS. Aren't you more curious to know who this new partner of mine is?

PSS. I just burnt my pizza writing this post... so now you should feel obligatory to check it out... Why are you still reading? Go!!! Go check it out!!! ;D