Thursday, June 12

I know it's been a while since I've written, but honestly, life's been pretty boring. But I thought I'd talk to you about tomorrow a bit...

You see, Taemin and I did manage to stay in contact. What's more, I had enough money in my savings account to buy a plane ticket. If you haven't already put two and two together, I'll just tell you where I'm going with this. I am going to Korea to visit Taemin!

That's right! I'm actually going! Taemin and I talked and talked and we arranged the whole thing. I'm flying over tomorrow and he's gonna send someone to pick me up at the airport. Now you may be thinking "But Hannah, where are you going to stay? You don't have enough money to stay at a hotel in Seoul for a whole week!" You are absolutely right! After buying my plane ticket, I am TOTALLY broke. I'm lucky my parents like me enough to help me pay to make my one way ticket a round trip ticket so I'm not stuck in South Korea for the rest of my life! (Although that may not be so terrible)

But, to answer your question, I will be staying in SHINee's dorm. I'm really excited, but also still kinda like... "Wait... What? SHINee? I'm going to meet them? I'm gonna LIVE with them?" It should definitely be interesting.

Now before you get ahead of yourself, which I know you probably are already, Taemin and I will NOT be sharing a bedroom. The members of SHINee have agreed to rearrange themselves so I can have my own room. So stop your giggling...

Anyways, it's 8:00 here, and I have to finish packing. Next time I write in my diary, I will be in KOREA!!!

Friday, June 13

9:35am

Okay, so I'm not in Korea yet. I'm actually still in Atlanta... My flight leaves in about half an hour and I'm bored... My first flight is to Pheonix, Arizona and takes 4 hours, but I'll arrive around 11:00 thanks to the time change.

Anyway, today is Friday the thirteenth (ooooooh) so if I was at all superstitious I would be worried about dying or getting stuck somewhere. But as it is, I think this is gonna be a really easy trip and I'm excited to get to my destination.

3:08pm

I am now in San Francisco! I spent about an hour at the airport in Pheonix, an hour on the plane here, and I've been here for about an hour. My plane WAS scheduled to take off in an hour or so, but it was just delayed until about 5. So, not a huge setback. Luckily I have a large selection of K-Pop on my phone so I don't get bored.

4:36pm

My flight just got delayed again. Now we leave at seven. According to my calculations, I should get into Seoul at about 11:00 pm. Of course, when I get there, because of the international date line, it'll be Saturday. It's pretty confusing. Anyway, I gotta go find some food and a comfy place to sit for the next two and a half hours. I might try to connect to wifi... It's confusing and I haven't really needed it, but I'm starting to get desperate.

5:12pm

Well, I found some food. I don't really have much new to say; I was just remembering my trip to El Salvador in the summer of 2011. Specifically the trip home. The day before, me and my three friends had accidentally had some of the water. It's fine for the residents to drink it, but it had some kind of something in it that we had no resistance to. It made us all throw up and have diarrhea. Not fun. But on top of all that, we were stuck in the El Salvador airport, because our flight was delayed, for 9 HOURS. It was pretty awful. We didn't get back to Atlanta until 3 in the morning.

I'm trying to stay positive here. I'm really tired of traveling, but at least I'm not sick!

5:57pm

This just in! My flight has been... Cancelled. Fabulous. Luckily (if you could call it lucky) there's another flight today! At midnight...

I just went and got my new ticket, but I'm gonna be stuck in this airport for the next 6 hours... :P

I already called Taemin and told him that I won't be getting into Seoul until 4:30 Sunday morning... The flight to Seoul is 12 and a half hours long, and I'm gonna probably be asleep most of the time. So don't expect to hear from me until late Sunday afternoon at the earliest.

Later

I don't exactly know what time it is... I think it's 5:00 in the morning San Francisco time? Which would be what... 9am Atlanta time? I don't know and I don't really care. I'm exhausted. I'm on the plane, but because I'm such a light sleeper, I haven't slept in 24 hours or something. On the bright side, I'll be really tired once I get to Seoul, so I'll probably sleep till noon, which will help me not have as much jet lag. Regardless, I'm still gonna try to go to sleep...

Sunday, June 15 (It would be Saturday if I was in the US... I think)

1:10pm

In case you haven't already figured this out, I'm only going to include the time in the date if I think it's important...

Really quick, I thought I'd tell you what's happened since my last entry. My plane pulled into the airport at 4:30 or so. I got NO sleep and was really just ready for a nice warm bed. To my surprise, the person Taemin sent to pick me up wasn't there! Instead, Taemin himself was waiting for me... At 4:30 in the morning! That immediately brightened my mood. After a long hug, we got my bags and Taemin drove me to the dorm. Very quietly, he showed me my bed and the bathroom and I went straight to sleep.

So, at this point, I have just woken up from some much needed sleep. I can hear voices from the other room, and I smell something really good. Which reminds me, I haven't eaten in a long time too. I'm really hungry. I took a shower and got dressed, and I'm about to go out into the living room and meet SHINee... I'm really nervous... What do you say to complete strangers, who happen to be celebrities you really like, after coming into their home in the middle of the night? I have no clue.

Well, here goes nothing!

Later

Day one: completed! And without any major problems! SHINee is JUST as awesome as I was hoping! Apparently, they get Sundays off, so we were able to just get to know each other. And they made me feel welcome and comfortable right from the start. Well okay, that would be true, if it weren't for Jonghyun. He made me feel really awkward.

I walked out of my bedroom to see all the members of SHINee sitting around eating lunch, with an empty plate for me sitting next to Taemin. "Annyeonghasaeyo." I said shyly.

Taemin immediately jumped up an came over to me while everyone else responded "Annyeonghasaeyo!"

Taemin grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the table. "Hannah," he said, "this is Minho, Jonghyun, Onew, and Key! Everyone, this is Hannah!"

"Annyeonghasaeyo." I said again. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to say something else or what.

Then all of a sudden, with a huge smile on his face, Jonghyun said "so this is Taeminnies girlfriend!"

I was stunned. And it seemed that Taemin was really embarrassed. Girlfriend? We hadn't really talked about it, but I suppose it was true. I decided to break the awkwardness. "Yes" I responded. Taemin looked at me and smiled.

Jonghyun laughed. "Good! Please sit down!"

I took my place between Taemin and Key. It took me a while to stop feeling out of place, but not that long. The guys were all really friendly and kept asking me about myself and my life. "Just a moment" I interrupted. "Um... I'm still a beginner in Korean, so if I'm disrespectful to any of you, please kindly correct me. I would appreciate any help you can give me."

I was responded by a chorus of laughter and "of course"s. The conversation went on.

Anyways, I have no idea what tomorrow holds. But I'm sure it's gonna be awesome! These guys are all ridiculous and hilarious and I think we're gonna get along fine.

Oh and one more thing... I figure you're probably like me and enjoy every bit of sappy, lovey-dovey stuff you can get your hands on, so I should probably tell you this.

Just a couple minutes ago, I was standing alone in the main room, looking through the large window, thinking about all the stuff that had happened. All of a sudden, I felt a strong pair of arms slide around my waist. "You okay?" Taemin asked me.

"I'm fine" I replied. "I just can't believe I'm here. A year ago, even the idea of something like this happening would have seemed insane."

"But here you are!"

I turned around and put my arms around his neck. "And I am VERY happy to be here."

He smiled and kissed me. But this time it was a little bit... Different. To be totally honest, in the past, when Taemin kissed me, it was like the kisses that you see in Korean dramas. No joke. But today it was... Well, I guess you could call it making out. I love the feeling of his warm lips against mine. I would have been happy with just the kind of kiss he'd given me before, but instead he put his hand on my face and pulled me as close to him as possible. I was totally caught by surprise. But it was a good surprise. I tangled my fingers in his awesome hair and wished he would never let go.

All of a sudden, Minho cleared his throat (I had no idea he was even there). Taemin and I both jumped, looked at Minho, and started blushing. Awkward.

I think I'm going to be really happy here.