Odds and Ends: Happy birthday, Dramabeans!

157 February 18, 2017February 17, 2017

by javabeans

javabeans: It took us a week to recover, but we wanted to thank everyone who came to our 10-year anniversary party in LA last weekend, which was hugely fun. At least it was for me!

girlfriday: And me! And the rest of our minions, some of whom had never been to a Dramabeans meetup before and were just as excited as the crowd.

javabeans: Not to mention that WE hadn’t even met some of our minions in person before, despite chatting on a near-daily basis online! We somehow crammed 11 of us into one house and borrowed cars and made it work.

girlfriday: Okay THAT part was fun, the DB slumber party. I don’t even know how we managed to share bathrooms and squeezed everyone in, and I was convinced we’d leave someone behind every time we piled into the cars.

javabeans: The bathroom thing amused me greatly, because I realized halfway through the weekend that it was working because we had amassed a team of a dozen hyper-observant, introspective types, and while it looked like we were just sitting around, everyone was actually stealth-watching everyone else to find their shower-time opening. Every twenty minutes, somebody would slip away and come back with wet hair. At one point I realized I was noticing someone noticing someone else noticing someone else. Someone probably noticed.

girlfriday: They didn’t even complain that we put them to work all weekend long, and made them decorate the party venue and eat jajangmyun delivery. But the place looked great! So a very special thanks to HeadsNo2, gummimochi, awcoconuts, dramallama, LollyPip, chickachunga, tineybeanie, CandidClown, and murasakimi for being such a great minion army that weekend!

javabeans: Not everyone on the team could make it out, but hopefully at some point in the future, we’ll have more of them involved. We were grateful to have the team around to keep things running smoothly, because apparently girlfriday and I are big geeks and couldn’t just throw a party with food and drink and free conversation. We decided to keep everyone occupied with K-Drama Pub Trivia, which I think went off swimmingly, given how much useless trivia everyone seemed to know!

girlfriday: That’s the whole point though! We need a place to apply all this useless drama knowledge stored in our brains, so why not put people in teams and award them prizes for it? Trivia was super fun, even for us to run it, and I totally want to play again. I was also really thrilled to see people making friends on their teams.

javabeans: I liked how people who arrived early did a circuit around the tables, because we’d themed each table/team with an actor’s picture (Team 1 was Song Joong-ki, for instance), and picked based on favorite oppas.

girlfriday: That cracked me up, because whadduya know, Team Park Bo-gum was filled instantly even though it was at the back of the room. I hadn’t expected that, but it was hilarious to see how seriously people took the choosing of the teams. I talked to more than a few people who were standing in between Team Lee Jong-seok and Team Kim Woo-bin going, “But… you’re making me choose?!”

javabeans: I noticed there wasn’t that much angsting over the actual choice, however! We were glad people did well in the trivia (I was worried it would be too hard or too easy, but it seemed about right), which included rounds like Name That Drama Scene and Name That Drama Soundtrack.

girlfriday: The OST round was especially entertaining because you had the whole crowd going, “OH! OH!” and singing along before figuring out what drama it was from. There was even some dancing!

javabeans: We also thought our 10-year party would be a good time to preview Big, Important things that are in the pipeline for the very near future, like a total website redesign with more responsive features, easier navigation (we hope), more community features, a much-improved mobile site, and a new logo. Coming soon! Very, very soon! Just as very soon as we can manage!

girlfriday: Yes! There are big changes around the corner, and we’re working very hard to make the new site a place where the community gets to participate more actively and be more engaged with other fans.

javabeans: And merch! We plan to finally have Dramabeans merchandise, and maybe even sell some other drama-related items on the site.

girlfriday: I will buy ALL OF THE THINGS!

javabeans: I know K-drama and K-pop paraphernalia make for really random purchases sometimes, but I can’t help seeing a pretty face slapped on a pointless trinket and want it anyway. Partly, we want to make things easier and more convenient for our users to get their hands on stuff, and partly (to be transparent) it’ll help defray costs of running this site, because we hate glitchy ads (we hear you! We’re trying) and we want to be able to run smoother ads with less problems.

girlfriday: So… save up all of your money to splurge on merch? (Is not actual life advice! Don’t listen to me!)

javabeans: We expect there to be some glitches after we make the changeover to the new site, but hopefully those bugs will be kept to a minimum, and we encourage you guys to let us know if you come across anything. RIght now, we’re too excited at the prospect of finally getting a better design (fingers crossed) that I know we won’t catch everything.

girlfriday: We can’t wait to show you guys the new design. Soon! We pinky swear!

javabeans: Some of us might not even be crossing our fingers behind our backs!

157

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51 kthln

February 18, 2017 at 11:34 AM

Happy 10th Anniversary Dramabeans!!!

Thank you for bringing this community together. I am specially thankful that I have dramabeans as I do not have anybody in my life to discuss kdramas with. I will always be eternally grateful to dramabeans for especially introducing HEALER and SIGNAL (my no. 1 kdrama so far) to me.

I am also thankful to my fellow beanies for always making me feel happy that there are so many like me going through all the happy and frustrating phases of kdrama watching. Sometimes I feel that I am still immature and acting like a teenager with the amount I squea and fangirl, but then I come here and see fellow beanies my age doing the same thing, I feel validated and revel some more in my addiction, lol!!

Here's to many more years of collective squealing and kdrama madness. Cheers!!!

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52 Evelia

February 18, 2017 at 11:53 AM

It was pretty cool, though I was pretty shy when it came to talking to other beanies, but I did manage to join one of the teams since a beanie invited me over to join their team.
I arrived at 5pm and was received by a friendly greeting by the DB team. Then I got my name tag and wrote on a piece of paper my question for DB and if it got chosen one could win a prize. There was also a photographer taking photographs.
There was a bunch of balloons with different actors, green balloons. The food was good, I liked the chicken the best and the cake.
I was bad at the trivia questions. There were five rounds. In between rounds Girlfriday and Javabeans answer the beanies questions. Then they talked about the cool new website and what to expect. The idea is pretty cool since one can interact with other beanies, and for example liked their comments.
Then as I was seating there eating cake, they were giving away prizes. The Healer OST, and other OST's until finally at the end they were going to give the Goblin OST my name was called and I couldn't believe it. Until I heard it again. :)
Anyways looking forward to buying some DB merchandise.

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yayabean

February 18, 2017 at 2:25 PM

@Evelia

Thank you for sharing your experience from the DB. Congrats on winning the Goblin OST - I'm hooked on it!

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Evelia

February 18, 2017 at 10:19 PM

You are welcome. :)
I had written a longer one but it was a bit too long to put in the comment.

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53 refinnej

February 18, 2017 at 12:04 PM

Happy 10th!!

I am sooooo new to this entire world but DB is already a daily part of my life. It was so great to actually meet & hear the 'origin stories' of so many at the party!

Looking forward to the new site and many MANY more years of KDramas & Dramabeans!!

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54 spazmo

February 18, 2017 at 12:11 PM

YAY, PHOTOS!!!! i was checking the facebook site, hoping to see photos of the event -- looked like TONS OF FUN!

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55 Saner

February 18, 2017 at 12:46 PM

Happy anniversary!

For those of you British-based Beanies thinking that this looks fun (the meeting part - I cannot promise such levels of organisation that guarantee you sitting at oppa's table) some of us are trying to organise a meet up in London on the 4th of March - join us here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839518532953981/

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56 nchoe

February 18, 2017 at 2:11 PM

Happy 10th anniversary Dramabeans!!!

Thanks for all the hard work JB, GF, and the minions. I always have so much fun here. Great job!

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57 yayabean

February 18, 2017 at 2:21 PM

Woo-hoo! I have a piggy bank and I can't wait to break it to load up on Dramabeans merchandise!!

I'm glad all went well at the DB party. Thank you for sharing the photos of the party with the rest of us who could not attend. Hopefully, there will be a next time.

I look forward to the changes the DB crew has in stored for the site and look forward to splurging on Dramabeans swag!

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58 ar

February 18, 2017 at 2:25 PM

Happy 10th anniversary! Just realized I've been reading dramabeans, often lurking about for 9 of those. Where has the time gone?

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59 Hanjanman

February 18, 2017 at 3:10 PM

Happy birthday Dramabeans! And a huge thank you to JB noona for creating this wonderful website that I go to practically everyday for the past 10 years. I'll be wearing my Beanie beanie with pride. To noona and the rest of the team, congratulations!

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60 dynasty

February 18, 2017 at 3:37 PM

Happy Anniversary Dramabeans
?????✌??????

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61 wackycashew

February 18, 2017 at 4:20 PM

Wow!! Looks like y'all had a blast!! Excited about the upcoming changes!! Happy 10 years and many more!! A big thanks to the amazing team at DB!! *finger hearts*

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62 refresh_daemon

February 18, 2017 at 4:57 PM

Was glad to be able to join you in celebrating that evening. I hope that everyone else there had a wonderful time and I'm especially looking forward to Dramabeans 3.0. Keep up the fantastic work.

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63 nomad

February 18, 2017 at 6:41 PM

that looked so much FUN!! HBD, DB!

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64 misty

February 18, 2017 at 6:59 PM

Happy anniversary Dramabeans! Was looking forward to this write up and the photos of the birthday bash! I was part of the small group of Singapore Beanies at the lunch meet up organised by Growing Beautifully to coincide with your event. Thanks to Lunatic4kd who gave us a virtual tour via Skype, we managed to catch a glimpse of the party happenings and the gorgeous faces of recappers and fellow beanies. It looked like so much fun!! And the photos bear witness to it ?

Big thanks to the team led by JB and GF for all the hard work that makes this site one that is welcoming, inclusive and encourages such a great community spirit. May DB continue to be around for a very very long time and give us kdrama fans a safe platform to squee, fangirl and exchange our thoughts and insights. Can't wait for the new website and merchandise! Am sure they will be squee-worthy as befits the No.1 kdrama website in the universe!

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lunatic4KD

February 18, 2017 at 9:02 PM

Yay @Misty - it was my pleasure - as chaotic and noisy and crazy as it was! I could never tell if I was aiming my phone in the right direction but people sure loved saying "Hi Singapore!"

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purpleowl

February 18, 2017 at 10:20 PM

Yes! Saying "hi Singapore" was very cool.

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misty

February 19, 2017 at 2:25 AM

Love reading your comments @Purple Owl! So spot on!

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purpleowl

February 20, 2017 at 12:54 PM

Thanks ?

misty

February 19, 2017 at 2:24 AM

@Lunatic4KD it was the closest we could get to the event from 20,000 miles away, so thank you! It was nice hearing the laughter and squeals in the background. Definitely girl power all around. Though we did see a sprinkling of brave men here and there in that ocean of estrogen!

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Mermaid Scribbler

February 19, 2017 at 5:09 AM

How fun! I wish we could see pictures of all the other meetups.

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LollyPip

February 19, 2017 at 7:41 AM

We all thought that was so cool how you coordinated that, and loved getting to say hi to beanies from the other side of the world!

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Growingbeautifully

February 20, 2017 at 2:15 AM

Hi Again DB Team!!! and Lunatic4KD! :D And thanks @Misty for joining us and posting this.

It was so much fun synchronising our time (a very early lunch!!!) to catch you at your party time in LA. Thanks so much for your great idea @Lunatic4KD! Thanks to your deft mobile phone action, we got to see you and our hard-working, trusty recappers! We were so excited and delighted.

It was great putting faces to the monikers and just seeing the persons behind the words. It was fabulous hearing your 'Hi!' as well! It was also wonderful to meet Beanies right at home, and having more friends to spazz with!

As always, I'm so grateful to DB for this forum, this space and the exchange of ideas. For making it possible to even have a Singapore meet-up because no DB = no Singapore Beanies...LOL.

I'd like to say "Good job!" to you all, and all the best of good health, great inspiration, lots of time for Kdramas and many more decades of DB to come! :D

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65 amy

February 18, 2017 at 7:39 PM

Happy birthday!!! I love the beanie community! Thank you for creating and maintaining this wonderful space for us drama lovers. I have just one request for your future consideration: pleaaaaaase hold an East-coast gathering!!!!

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66 oneearedgirl

February 18, 2017 at 8:15 PM

HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY! YAY TO MERCH!

Looking forward to the new design, but will surely miss the old one!

BTW the gathering seems like a blast! You guys are real sweeties!

*finger hearts*

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67 meera17817

February 18, 2017 at 8:51 PM

Hearty wishes dramabeans???
Thankyou introducing a whole new world of kdrama where I found readers and veiwers of kdramas with whom I could connection. I dont have anyone with me to share my kdrama addiction and when I came across this site accidentally and found out about other drama fans you could'nt imagine my happiness and releif. Once again thankyou for connecting with the kdrama world.....???

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68 lunatic4KD

February 18, 2017 at 9:00 PM

It was SUCH a great party!! I'm such a grown-up...maybe at 65 probably the oldest one there... and I totally surprised myself by walking in and turning into a total fangirl when i saw Javabeans and Girlfriday...then I freaked out when I saw my favorite commenter, HeadsNo2!!! It was such fun to walk around the room and see the nametages on gummimochi, awcoconuts, dramallama, LollyPip, chickachunga, tineybeanie (who was a great bartender), CandidClown, and murasakimi and hug nearly all of them with joyful gratitude for their hard work. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for such a great time! And I still think our team of Kim WooBin did a great job with only four drama watchers around our table. The patient boyfriends were great additions as cheerleaders!

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Lord Cobol

February 18, 2017 at 9:37 PM

Nope, I've got you beat by a year.

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spazmo

February 20, 2017 at 2:54 AM

hey, we're The Gold Beans!
; )

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69 owl

February 18, 2017 at 9:22 PM

Happy birthday cheers to the team that gives beanies worldwide a fun format to talk about kdramas to our heart's content. Here's to another 10 years of kdramalovearama ♥

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70 Purebristles

February 18, 2017 at 9:31 PM

Happy birthday to Dramabeans and to all beanies celebrating, a (very, very) warm hello from Singapore! Congrats to the team for building such a warm and open site community, and international to boot!

I'm looking forward to the site redesign, but I hope that the commenting system works the same, or still allows comments without the need for a login. But I'm open to anything, so long as the site stays free and easy to use and participate in, keeps being warm and friendly to newbies and experienced dramawatchers alike, and keeps doing recaps and comments!

You need to franchise this; I think the world needs a similar site for all the other Asian dramas too - Japanese dramas, Chinese dramas, Taiwan dramas, Hong Kong dramas, Thai dramas...

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Mermaid Scribbler

February 19, 2017 at 5:11 AM

I feel like this thread is becoming one long wish list for me, but...

I wish for that, too!!!!!

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Mermaid Scribbler

February 19, 2017 at 5:14 AM

Oh my goodness - I'm imagining it - A Dramabeans Empire.

Wow - That would be great!

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71 ET

February 18, 2017 at 11:10 PM

Happy 10th Birthday Dramabeans!

This site was my lifeline when I first started watching kdramas and I still check in almost daily. Thank you for your wonderful recaps, insights and space to rave and rant!

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72 Needaname

February 18, 2017 at 11:56 PM

Happy Anniversary and Congratulations on 10 amazing years! Thank you so much for sharing! Looked like a lot of fun, love the decorations!

I am all for DB merchandise and links to Kdrama merchandise as well! Like buying OSTs, DVDs set, even actor/actresses photo albums or calendars! When I visited Korea way back then, I went on the Winter Sonata tour and bought Bae Yong Joon and other Kdrama momentos! To this day I still have the cloth hanging photo of Bae Yong Joon! A Lee Dong Gun photo book! A Lee Byun Hun photo book! Keychains! Yes, corny but at the time I thought I better buy these while they are still selling it! Now years later I have no idea why I still keep them...but can't get rid of them! So yeah, totally understand about the awkwardness of it all yet still wanting it! Oh well, I guess I am still hanging around this site so I guess that's why! Gotta keep feeding the Kdrama addiction! Thank you so much for all you do and plan to do! Looking forward to navigating the new site!

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73 Brittany

February 19, 2017 at 1:55 AM

Happy 10th anniversary dramabeans! I hope you're around for 10 more!

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74 lilly

February 19, 2017 at 2:25 AM

Happy 10th anniversary day, wish you many, many yearssssss ahend.

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75 Omotoferankdrama

February 19, 2017 at 2:35 AM

Annyeong! Beanies,all the recapers and .........lurkers?.I joined dis community in 2015 and have not looked back ever since . I have been a lurker most of the time on this site but still manage to comment here and there since from november/december last year thanks to wfkbj i just couldnt not express my love for the drama . I really want to be more active but school work interferes but im so glad this site exist thanks to gf , jb ,all the minions and in fact the first whole dramabeans community i have a safe haven to squeel and fangirl over all uri oppas and also read insightful comments that are true to real life. I will be forever thankful. I pray for better and more fun ahead for this site.SUUWEGG!

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76 kdramafan

February 19, 2017 at 3:05 AM

Happy 10th Year Anniversary!✨

Looks and sounds lovely like the party was a blast.?

Excited to see how Dramabeans evolves.?

Thank you as always to the Dramabeans Dream Team for making our KDrama life oh so much better.?

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77 purplesheesh

February 19, 2017 at 3:15 AM

I love you DB!!!

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78 littlecat

February 19, 2017 at 7:34 AM

Love the photos! Seems like such fun. :) Can't wait for the new site features and merchandise!!!

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79 erwinia

February 19, 2017 at 8:41 AM

what a lovely community bonded by kdramas. Happy Anniversary!

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80 jahprincess

February 19, 2017 at 9:29 AM

Thanks for hosting such a fabulous party. It was alot of fun hanging with everyone. Funny how the Park Bo Gum table came together. It was pure randomness.

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81 Jin

February 19, 2017 at 4:35 PM

Could someone give each name of DB team on that last picture? I've tried to do the zooming in previous pictures but only manage to read few of them :(

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82 Cha_JN

February 19, 2017 at 5:20 PM

The party looks FUN! So jealous! :) You deserve all the greatness dramabeans is getting. Looking forward to another 10 and another 10 and another 10 and another 10 and another 10..... :)

Congratulations! :)

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83 Lizie

February 19, 2017 at 5:46 PM

Muchas Felicidades a todos por su extraordinario Blog!!

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84 neener

February 19, 2017 at 6:04 PM

Congratulations DB ???! Everyone looks gorgeous and I hope the 11th anniv pushes through. I would definitely be there or celebrate by myself if it's not available in the area. ?

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85 Marine

February 19, 2017 at 7:54 PM

Happy 10th anniversary dramabeans !

Seems like the party was fun... Had it been in NYC, I might have flown over there but L.A.'s too far away.

I was wondering if there was some sort of worldwide "beanies map". I just moved a few months ago in a new city, not knowing anyone, and I often feel like discussing the dramas I'm watching, but I don't really know where to find others Kdramas viewers.

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86 Msheepops

February 19, 2017 at 8:20 PM

Happy 10th anniversary DB!
Thankyou for being my dependable go-to website everytime my drama cravings show up.
The party looks wonderful and how i wish wish wiiiiish i could plop there and join in the trivia quiz *sigh. If only i dont live 28-hours-flight from LA.
All the best for the future and just know that we'll support the new changes and goodluck guys!

Greetings from a 20y.o bum who's been lurking everyday on the site for the last 10years (hey its half my age alr!) love love!

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87 nanhe_ko

February 19, 2017 at 10:55 PM

"So… save up all of your money to splurge on merch? (Is not actual life advice! Don’t listen to me!) " I am totally going to listen to you and only you because this is the best advice I've ever get in my life hehehehehe :)

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88 mai-mai

February 19, 2017 at 11:05 PM

Wow!!! Congratulations DramaBeans!
I've been a beanie since 2011. Keep up the good work!

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89 emjemm

February 19, 2017 at 11:50 PM

Happy 10th anniversary dramabeans!!! i wish i could have made it out to the party! :) i've been reading your site since my high school days, so about 7 years now? thank you so much for all the years of awesome recaps and commentary.

i've had an on/off relationship with korean dramas since i first discovered it (you're beautiful!). i religiously read everything on this site. during my "off" periods from watching kdramas, I would come here for my fix and read recaps. i'm now in an "on" phase with korean dramas and i've been diligently working my way through both wonderful old dramas i've missed and new ones that catch my attention (this is both terrible and amazing at the same time. I'm procrastinating hard as a college senior ?)

now that I'm watching so many more dramas, I think: wow, I should have watched this drama instead of just reading the recaps for it! however, I always come here to read recaps after i finish watching an episode, because i love all the commentary and you guys often include things about a scene or korean culture in the recap that i don't catch when i watch with english subtitles.

I too can't wait for some merch as well! proud to be part of the beanie fam!! <3 sending much love to all the DB staff and fam