Monday, May 14, 2012

Vacation Adventures: Kpop America!

I just returned home from a vacation in Chicago, and it seems that Kpop follows me wherever I go. (Previously on a trip to Canada, I found SNSD’s “Hoot” playing on a TV in a furniture store, of all things.) But look what I found in Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg:

Kpop America Woodfield Mall Chicago Schaumburg

!!!


It’s a Kpop America store. Probably seeing pictures of idols in malls is not that unusual if you live in Korea, but as an American, these things are crazy rare for me, so you can imagine my excitement (and the bf’s epic eye-rolling).

I had no idea it existed, and I was basically...overwhelmed by the awesome. I wanted to buy everything but just felt too pressured and ended up only getting a Super Junior keychain. I utterly fail, I know. But also the stuff was kind of pricey. Still, I enjoyed mostly browsing and seeing Kpop stuff in a public place!

Kpop America Woodfield Mall Chicago Schaumburg

Super Junior, Miss A, and TeenTop in the window.


Kpop America Woodfield Mall Chicago Schaumburg

f(x) and SNSD in the other window with GD’s “Heartbreaker” and SHINee World shirts (sorry for the blurriness; I was pretty excited).

Most of the store’s stuff was somewhat oudated Super Junior, TVXQ (i.e. just HoMin), and SNSD. Not much Big Bang or BEAST or SHINee (other than shirts), unfortunately. :( They had a JYJ poster, but I didn’t want to carry a poster around; I just wanted a JYJ keychain, so I ended up getting a SuJu one as a compromise, lol...(I am the world’s most hardcore keychain collector, I think.)

Super Junior keychain

Horribly blurry, but: Ryeowook, Donghae, Leeteuk, Heechul, and Siwon from “Mr. Simple.”


Super Junior keychain

Flipside! Shindong, Eunhyuk, Yesung, Sungmin, and Kyuhyun.

The worker was a very nice middle-aged Asian man whom I suspect was the owner, maybe? They had a TV going with Kpop MVs on it! And my bf actually recognized BIGBANG’s “Blue,” mwahahaha. So that's something. Slowly I will corrupt him into a Kpop-aholic.

6 comments:

  1. Aww envy! I would buy a couple of tees. I like sleeping in fannish t-shirts (now am wearing a Harry Potter one) :) But I guess I'll live to see my retirement and k-pop will peter out completely before a k-pop shop is opened here. Good enough that I found a shop where to buy kimchi! Even if I have to travel across half the city to get there.

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  2. I would definitely have bought T-shirts if I had planned for it--as it was, it was totally random and I didn't have much money on me (or space in my suitcase), so a keychain it was.


    You're lucky there's a place to eat kimchi, even though it's kind of far away. I've still never had any, so I'm rather curious if I'd like it or not. Probably not, as I don't like spicy things or many vegetables, lol. /fail

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  3. Holy crud!!!! I live ten minutes away from woodfield mall. How the frick did I not know about this?!?!... well there goes all the money I saved up over the summer XD

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    1. Hahaha, this is a wonderful reaction. Isn't it great? Yeah, I'm sure this would be a budget killer! Be sure to get some bubble tea, which is next door. :)

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  4. where is this store ???

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  5. The store is Kpop America in Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, Illinois. :)

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