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Thursday Night : Sushi Rock Dinner
It's amazing what taking a solo trip in your early 20s (my trip to a PTX concert for my 23rd birthday) will do for your confidence about traveling by yourself and more surprisingly in recent months, confidence about traveling with and taking care of other people. Sorry, all, the "mom" in me came through. lol
I took Alex and Helen (XiaoQi) with me to Champaign to see my Pipsqueak's (little sister) VERY FIRST Kpop dance performance. Given that I don't know what the future holds for me time / employment-wise, there was no way I was going to miss this iconic evening for her if there was ANY WAY that I could make it there. We set out around 1:30pm and made it in decent time to grab dinner with her before the performance.
Helen + Alex at our dinner destination, Sushi Rock
lookie lookie at the sushi
happy Helen with takoyaki and seaweed salad
look at my buibui offering her sushi :3
I had a Crunchy CA roll (I think? lol) and a Mango Martini (no alcohol, calm down. It was a normal roll with mango sauce). Freaking delicious. Definitely having it again.
On that note, LaQuinta Inn in Champaign is actually pretty decent, guys. Affordable as well. :)
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Thursday Night : KConnect Event Photos, Videos, and Additional Thoughts about TBIT
Just to make things easier for everyone, I'll have photos FIRST, followed by videos.
Helen, Pip, and her extremely talented KConnect dancer + linguist friend, Maddi (girl was SLAYIN')
PC: Helen
pictures from sister's first dance item (with Maddi and Christine, another KConnect friend)
PC: one over-excited sister (me)
pictures from sister's second dance item (with other 6 KConnect members)
PC: one over-excited sister (me)
cute photos of all the KConnect people piling in for a MGP (mandatory group photo)
here's OUR MGP :P
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...the dance videos!! I had footage of the whole thing (on phone + camera), but to save us all time, I'm only putting the video of what I personally liked. Also, I have to confess that I pulled a STUPID move and didn't transfer the footage for my final project from my SD card (camera) to my laptop before the trip and was left with a significantly SHORTENED amount of memory :(
Hence why I started filming with my phone. I didn't realize the situation until it ran out on me. I had a SMALL 4GB SD card on me, which I ended up saving to ONLY film my sister's dances because I was so afraid I wouldn't have enough memory left if I risked it. And thank God I had the foresight to plan. Because 2 hours of footage does NOT fit on a card that small, guys. NEVER AGAIN. I'm not traveling ANYWHERE unless I have a completely EMPTY SD card on me. :(
Quick disclaimer, videos will be in the order they were in the event, and again, I'm only sharing the ones I liked. Event was split into thirds, first 1/3 was singing + instrumental items, remaining 2/3s was dance covers.
Part of the singing / instrumental 1/3. Performed by Pipsqueak's friends from KConnect (she dances a trio with them next). Favorite part was OBVS the rapping. Cheers to Maddi for her ON POINT drops. The dance (towards the end) was cool too and I appreciate their outfit coordination.
First "dance performance" of the night in the dance cover 2/3s. I thought how they brought in all the members over the course of the performance was really cute. Dance was well done and again, OUTFIT. COORDINATION. YES.
PIPSQUEAK'S FIRST DANCE
Back to my point on outfit coordination, I think my sister pulled off a successful "middle ground" between Maddi and Christine. :) the three of them looked GREAT and I love how they took turns being the center. I edited the lighting and color a bit because otherwise, you can't see their faces (or some of the movements) well at all. Can someone fix those lights, please? Also, my pipsqueak worked REALLY HARD. I saw it first hand and I'm so dang proud.
This section will be updated with 3 more videos AS SOON as I've got the time.
KREW
BAD INTENTIONS
MIXED MOTIONS
Which honestly breaks my heart because these three were AMAZING.
PIPSQUEAK'S SECOND DANCE
I liked the vibe of this one. Really youthful and carefree, so good job on pulling that off, guys! Lighting was slightly better, but STILL. These were (to my knowledge) all KConnect members.
The show's finale. The original is by ASTRO, which while significantly different from the LAST video (originally done by GOT7), the youthful vibe was very similar. I think it's amazing that they all managed to find baseball tees in different colors. These were (to my knowledge) all KConnect members. Way to end the show!!
All in all, I really enjoyed it. If possible, particularly if my pipsqueak's in the next one, I'll definitely be coming again! Who knows...if I am able to swing it, I might even join her (not to dance though) lol You MAY have a Kpop singing / instrumental cover on your hands soon...stay tuned!
...get it? Tuned? :P
I need to stop with the puns. It's getting to be a severe problem. lol
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Thursday Night : Coco Mero Dessert Time
Pipsqueak ran off for an after-party with her friends, so we had a miniature after-party of our own.
Helen with the campus statue
oh, look where we've gone...
here's a picture of the things we DIDN'T order lol
happy faces with our fro-yo
I went for my Japanese combo of green tea fro-yo, adzuki red bean, mochi bits, and sliced almonds
selfies
PC: Helen
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Friday Morning : Caffe Bene Breakfast and Goodbyes
Given my love for Caffe Bene, it is no surprise we ended up here. I'm just gonna talk you through the photos now and not belabor it.
group photo (people) and group photo (of food)
Pipsqueak got the acai bowl, Helen got a mocha cake, and I got a Honey Loaf (best decision of my morning) with cinnamon and honey
Helen's green tea latte
my honey loaf. this was so delicious.
Me: Piiiiiiiip, what're you doing on your phone?
Pip: *ignores*
Me: Fine, I'll go on MY phone then TT-TT
MGP #2! lol also, how CUTE is Alex's ribbon?
Pip and Helen.
PC: Helen
We left around 9am and made it back to C'dale just a little past noon.
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Sorry for the long / late post again, guys. For this upcoming #FeatureFriday, I'm gonna just share with you all the different lunches / dinners out that I've had with friends over the past couple of weeks. :)
In closing, I really enjoyed our trip up as quick as it was and apart from my major mistake of not emptying out my SD card beforehand, it went REALLY well and I loved every bit of it :)
Thanks again for being patient with me!~
xoxo,
Ari
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