BTS Arirang Concert - Tampa D2

 It's hard to believe it, but I think D2 was even BETTER than D1!

The Goodyear Blimp that had been flying around took this great picture from D1 as the sun was setting over Tampa Bay. 

But now, for D2!  Our day started early when Ayala and Ellis arrived around lunchtime. We chatted with Ayala and my mom for a bit while Ellis got ready after the long drive up from Fort Lauderdale. Then Ellis, Natalie and I drove to Ybor City to get some Korean food from this REALLY cute and delicious restaurant called Sweet Krunch. The whole place was decked out in BTS stuff and playing BTS music.

WAIT THEY HAVE TORNADO POTATOES!? That's cheaper than getting it on the street in Myeondong!

You know I love me some tornado potato. 

Ellis and Natalie hung out with Hattie and James while Cory, Brie and I chatted - and my brother played my coolest BTS playlist while we waited for Greta to get ready (she had just come back from soccer!)

We snapped a couple of cute pics of me, Ellis, Natalie, Greta and Greta's bestie Lila. Lila did Greta's hair in the cutest buns! I also gave Greta my Shooky headband to wear!

Once we got to the stadium, Ellis met up with some of her oomfs - I love meeting up with oomfs! Natalie and I met up with some on D1, but we didn't get any pictures which was really silly.

We were VERY nervous because we were entering at Gate B today, the scene of the incredibly long D1 lines. But no worries, it went fairly fast and everyone was in good spirits. Except the girl who passed out from the heat and needed the medics to be called. I feel bad for her- I hope she got to see the show!

OK, here we go! Greta is providing everyone with the cooling fan. Meanwhile, someone handed Ellis a can of glitter spray so she sprayed herself, Natalie and then a few other ARMY. Greta and I opted out of the glitter!

We finally got to our seats and OH MY GOSH ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Wait, can we make these letters bigger? OH MY GOSH ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THESE SEATS!!

But the seats were hot in the setting sun, so we went to get drinks and go to the bathroom. I don't know this guy but he's literally the best dad ever.

I mean, am I even a 2013 debut era gangster if I don't have the world's biggest Bud Light in my hand?

This whole experience was so weird to me. Here I am, about to see one of my favorite bands of all time and yet- here they are in my childhood football team's stadium! (Jin later called this the "Viking ship" and that just made me laugh!)

Everyone thought it would be so cool if they performed Swim from the pirate ship - but of course, they didn't. That's a liability!

The Goodyear Blimp continued to send signs to ARMY waiting in the stadium. Thankfully at this point, the sun had gone down!

Ellis did a GREAT job staying off of social media and not knowing what the set list was, so she was surprised with EVERY single song.  It was her first time seeing BTS despite being a long time fan!

Fireworks. The Goodyear Blimp. Bangtan.

Watch this watch this beat going Hooligan...

We pop out we acting a fool again...

HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA (did I get that right????)

Also, I love Min Yoongi. 

But Greta... GRETA was asking us who this fine specimen was. This is Jimin. He's your bias now. Welcome to ARMY.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN NAMJOON AND JIMIN ARE THIS CLOSE TO ME

Jimin, please don't hurt yourself.

WHY IS JIMIN SO CLOSE TO ME I CAN'T BREATHE!

Once you Jim-in, you can't Jim-out!

I posted this picture on some social media and someone wrote, "I've never wanted to be a bearded man more in my life!"

Jimin is definitely looking at us. So is Namjoon. 

During Idol, they walk around the stadium and this is how close they all got to us.

I mean, HELLO!? Jin, Jimin, Namjoon, Yoongi and Jungkook - all right there in front of me!

Taehyung was bringing up the rear with his red bandana with J-Hope next to him.

After the break after Idol, they came back out on stage and Jin had a "7" Bucs jersey on, just like he did at his solo show last summer where he wore a Lightning jersey! What? This is all still so weird to me! When world's collide!

This is the point at which we start getting super excited because WHAT WILL THE SPECIAL SONGS BE???

But first, some words from our sponsor, Namjoon.

The first special song was Boy with Luv (as J-Hope said, "Shout out to Halsey!") BUT WAIT. WHAT IS THIS? My bias Jungkook coming down our little walkway???

He forgot the Boy with Luv dance and then some fans had to help him remember it.

YES MY MAN!

After Boy with Luv, there is still ONE more special song. At D1, people had signs for Pied Piper. At D2, they did the same. But Jin was tired so he went to the edge of the stage and sat down.

I can't handle you all. I need a break.

And what song did we get for the second special song?  I think you can guess by this imagine of Natalie absolutely having a meltdown. We got Pied Piper! Her favorite BTS song of all time!

LOOK at my cuties. Ending ments are always the saddest. Jin promised he would bring the boys here, and he did. And they said they would come back!

I absolutely love that they end the show with Into the Sun. It's so fitting.

We very happily and very sadly walked back to the car after the show, but we snapped one more selfie before we drove back to Pinellas County. Now- that took FOREVER, and we almost got into a fight with an Uber driver, and then we finally got to Pinellas County, and then Ayala missed her exit and had to cross the Howard Frankland and go all the way to Tampa to turn around, and then we decided we were starving, and then we found a Dominos, and then we ordered a pizza, and then we had a dance party to some 80s tunes at Dominoes before Ayala finally arrived to pick up Ellis! BUT WHAT A NIGHT!

Greta spent the night with us at Nana's house and since Natalie and I had late flights on this Monday, we were able to hang at the pool with Greta because she didn't have school this day - how fortuitous! Nana got us some Cane's chicken for lunch, too!

But alas, all good things must end and Natalie and I had to head to the airport. There was weather all up and down the central US, and there was some confusion as to what flight Natalie was on (this one or the later flight to Chicago) but she made the early flight and was confident she would get home to Columbia.

Except, she definitely did NOT get to Columbia. It's a wonder she even made it to Chicago- look at the route her flight took!! Once she got to Chicago, she found out her flight to Columbia was cancelled but we got her a hotel room and she had a nice day in Chicago before her evening flight the next day. 

But I made it home just fine! Goodbye Raymond James Stadium. Thanks for giving us such amazing memories, even if your bag policy sucks.

As I was on the flight home, I saw this (thank you JetBlue free Wifi for T-Mobile customers!) WHAT. Wait. You're telling me that BTS was playing pickleball (PICKLEBALL!) only five minutes from my mom's house where I was all day? I could have invited them to come to the pool with us! No one in the mobile home community would have known who they were- they would have had total privacy!

What a great trip - so good seeing my favorite group with my favorite people! Until next time, BTS - see ya in Foxborough!

BTS Arirang Concert - Tampa D1

 We have been waiting YEARS for this day!!!  The return of BTS in concert with their Arirang World Tour!

But first, I had to get to Tampa, which was the opening city for the North American leg of the tour. Yes, Tampa! After his concert last summer in Tampa, Jin convinced the other members that they had to come back - he made good on his promise! 

Meanwhile, Hobi posted an airplane selfie, so I had to also.

Tampa airport went all out- and so did the Tampa Bangtan Besties (you can see them on the right greeting ARMY who we arriving at TPA).

They even loved that Todd and Grant stopped by!  They're just ARMY by association though!  They got there a few days ahead of me and Natalie for spring break at my mom's house. They had a blast going to the beach, going out to eat, playing pickleball, and going to Adventure Island (a waterpark in Tampa).

Of course, I took a selfie when I got there, too! Although I got there too late in the day to greet the Bangtan Besties.

Social media and other ARMY had a fun time playing with all-things Tampa. Here they turned the Tampa Bay Buc into ... Jungkook! (For the record, if you don't follow StessieT - you should! She's amazing!)

Natalie arrived the day after I did - and she almost didn't make it! The already now-defunct Spirit Airlines saved the day though. Her flight from Columbia to Chicago on United was delayed so much, that she was going to miss her connection to Tampa. So we bought her a cheap ticket from Chicago to Tampa on Spirit - she arrived VERY late Friday night, but with plenty of time to go to the D1 show, where we dressed up in our 2013 Debut Era jerseys.

Such baddies. (The 7 is for the 7 members of BTS, it's not a gang sign!)

This is the look we were going for, back when BTS was so emo and wore a ton of eyeliner. We were absolute ROCK STARS at this show. Everyone complimented us - we even had people leaning out of cars passing by that were yelling, "I LOVE YOUR OUTFIT!" Really, it was the accessories that made it!

We drove over to Raymond James Stadium and parked super close to the stadium (later, this would prove to be a bad idea as it took us FOREVER to get to the interstate). But we walked around the stadium, went over to the merch tent at Hillsborough Community College so we could pick up Natalie's pre-ordered ARMY bomb, and then walked back to the car. It was HOT. Eventually, we even went for something to eat at the nearby Panera... which also took FOREVER.

But everyone was in good spirits and we even spotted this truck driving around airing concert footage on the side of it!

Finally, it was time to go into Raymond James Stadium. Natalie and I had 200 level tickets, so we went in via the Hyundai Club entrance. We met so many cool ARMYs - but getting into the stadium was a mess. This should have been a very fast entrance, but it was NOT. And we heard entrance B was even worse- so bad, that BTS was 20 minutes late to start the show because people were STILL coming into the stadium. They made you go through the metal detector with all of your stuff. THEN you put your stuff on the table and walk back through. What? Why????

We were so happy to be on the shaded side of the stadium! We have only seen BTS one other time (of course) but we had been in the nose bleeds! So this was a major upgrade!

WE ARE SO READY!

They opened up the show with Hooligan - the whole first half of the show was SO HYPE. They played almost the entirety of Arirang, and of course, some classics.

My bias, the golden makenae Jungkook!

Everyone was going absolutely BONKERS for Jimin's new long hair! (It's definitely longer but he also has been wearing extensions, ha!)

LOOK how close Jin and J-Hope were to us during Fake Love!!!

The VCRs were a little different than the ones from PTD (or other recent shows) - but they were so aesthetically beautiful!

The colors were so beautiful and of course, they had such ethereal photos of the members!

One of my favorite parts of the show was when they all walked around the stage during Idol. 

And there was so much confetti!  Our special songs on D1 were Permission to Dance (seen it!) and MAGIC SHOP!  Natalie absolutely LOST HER MIND!  But we were hopeful for D2 because just about EVERY sign during ARMY time said something like "Please play Pied Piper!" Which is Natalie's all time favorite BTS song. Mine is maybe either Silver Spoon (Bapsae, which I've seen live before) or We Are Bulletproof: The Eternal - and I know I'll probably never see that live, even though I'm CERTAIN that would have been the closing song to the MOTS:7 tour.

At one point, Jungkook just laid down. I can't blame him - they were so hype all night! 

The end of the concert was much more subdued than the beginning of the concert- they had this cool centerpiece that rose up and spun slowly while they did their ments and sang.

I can't tell you what it means to me to see these 7 together again after all they went through, and the years spent in the military, away from ARMY and each other. It's so ridiculous to say that a band changed your life, or that they ARE your life. But I literally do not know who I would be without them. I always say that they're my nephews - I'm so proud of them, they make me laugh every day, I feel their struggles, I want all the happiness for them, and I love them so, so much. Their style of connecting with the fans is so different from anything I've ever seen, and I love that they have our back, and we have theirs. Never change, BTS!

And we're on to day two!