For me, I've been interested in Korean Culture since I developed my interest in K-Pop. No, I'm no "sasaeng" fan or a "Koreaboo"... But K-Pop allowed me to appreciate the Korean Culture more. Overtime I began attending more events involving Korean Culture and even started working at Korean Culture events such as London Korean Festival and the Kingston Welcomes Korea Festival. 

I started being interested in K-Pop around when I was about 13-14 years old, in 2011. My first K-Pop group I became interested in was SNSD otherwise known as Girls' Generation. I remember my cousin introducing me to them, which led to me watching their debut TV show. Also, I remember listening to Wonder Girls' Nobody, which was my second song after "Into The New World" by SNSD. However I took a 2 year gap away from K-Pop, before coming back and becoming interested in SHINee by one of my other cousins. Since then, I've been in the K-Pop fandom back and forth, attending K-Pop Workshops to K-Pop festivals. If anyone was curious, my favourite groups would have to be BTS and DAY6 (but I love all groups to be honest) and my favourite soloist is Ailee!

Another reason which made me want to attend this event was the fact there would be screenings of K-Dramas. In my spare time, I love to watch dramas, and have watched nearly 100 dramas (according to mydramalist). My first drama I watched, was actually a K-Drama (but I didn't even know it was a K-Drama till I searched it up later aha). My mum was the one who actually introduced me to my first K-Drama because we were watching the drama in Vietnamese dub (although I would usually watch English subs nowadays). You're Beautiful was my first drama! For someone who loves music, and has been a big fan of Park Shin Hye ever since, this was one of the most lovable classics, I've watched. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it already!

Anyways! Enough about me, let's talk about the overall event experience! 

The first part of the programme involved watching two K-Drama screenings. What was really cute was the Pepero snacks which we received for the screening. 

Our first screening was for "Another Miss Oh" or otherwise known as "Another Oh Hae Young". At first, I was really confused by the beginning of the drama but as we continued watching, I was captivated by the idea of the drama. The drama is a mixture of comedy, drama, romance as well as features of psychological themes - although these aren't all conveyed in the first episode. After the screening, I found myself going home to watch the rest. Thank you, London Korean Film Club! I've actually recently finished the drama, and personally enjoyed it a lot. In some cases it was very sad, but in some cases I couldn't help but laugh or cringe. I remember for one episode I was literally sitting there cringing and grinning for a whole straight 10 minutes of the beginning of an episode aha!

After a short break for the viewers to take a breather, we proceeded to the second screening. The second screening was for "The Producers" with the famous actor, Kim Soohyun (known for his roles in Dream High and You Who Came From The Stars), along with IU, a famous Korean soloist (you may know of her songs such as "You and I", "Good Day", "The Red Shoes", "Twenty-Three" and "Peach"). The drama gave us an interesting insight on how production teams work and what it was like to be a newly recruited employee of a company. I remembering thinking, poor Soohyun, when certain situations happened and he kept being put to blame despite not being the one who was at fault. With IU, she is playing a role of an idol as well, however she is known as "Cindy". Her role is very different from how she is as an idol in reality, so it's quite an interesting contrast to see her act the way she does for her drama. She plays an idol who aims to get what she wants, and if she doesn't she rebels and argues - as demonstrated in the first episode. 

And thus we proceed to the fooooooood!! After two hours of watching Korean dramas, I'm sure we were dying for the Korean buffet which was on offer. Usually I would of taken so many pictures of the food, but because I was so hungry like many others I got carried away eating... I had about 3 plates or so of the buffet, it was so good!!! There was a variety, from Kimbap, to Dumplings, to Japchae, to Korean fried chicken and more! I remember going downstairs where K-Pop music videos were playing and laughing at the K-Pop fans getting very into the music videos, chanting and singing, and I definitely heard some fangirling/fanboying when certain groups came on the big screen.

After the buffet, we proceeded all to sit in the Multi-Purpose Hall and get ready for the showcase. This showcase highlighted different elements, from speeches from one of the 9th K-Pop Academy graduates, Marta Corato, to talks from Diana Chan, the founder of "Inspire Me Korea" as well as our very own MC, Margarita Letitchevski, who talked about the opening of her very own website! 

We also had some performances such Hannah Osuntolo (a former 8th K-Pop Academy student/graduate) who sang Yoon Mirae's "Always" from Descendants of the Sun - a popular Korean Drama aired this year, it has an incredibly worldwide influence. As well as, LoKo who performed a Xia remix for us. The co-founder of LoKo, Caroline, was one of the 9th K-Pop Academy graduates. Check out an excerpt of their performance below: 

After the performances, we had our raffle event. At the beginning of the day when we entered the Korean Cultural Centre, each of the attendees were given a raffle ticket. I was given the raffle number "30" and I was telling myself "this feels like a lucky number" and you know what, I actually won! But before I tell you what I won, I'll talk about all the prizes available to win! The prizes ranged from K-Drama posters, to a chance to participate on a Korean food TV show. We also had prizes for vouchers such as H-Mart and Kimchee, as well as a chance to win Korean study books, an Inspire Me Korea box, a K-Pop album and more!

I won a Kimchee meal voucher (which I have yet to use) and also received a hug from the Korean Ambassador - he was lovely. I'm really happy to be able to win a free voucher for a meal, considering my love for food. Come on! Who can deny an opportunity for free food right?

One of my friends, Marco, won the "Inspire Me Korea" subscription box. Oh my, he totally gained a lot of attraction on his way up to get the prize. From dabbing, to representing that he was TWICE "trash" with his hand-made, TWICE t-shirt, saying Tzuyu on the back - you can totally tell who his main bias is aha! You can check out the content of his "Inspire Me Korea" subscription box below:

After the showcase, we proceeded onto the final section of the programme. For those who managed to get a place in LoKo's BTS' Fire dance workshop, they went to their workshops. Unfortunately, due to the high demand, I wasn't able to attend the workshop. If you weren't able to attend the workshops, then if you went downstairs, you were able to try out Korean Calligraphy and Hanboks.