With all my free-time I was able to finish a video today that was shot a few months ago. Remember when I went to Lotte World and promised I would be finishing the video shortly? Yeah well shortly meant 3 months. Enjoy!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Stuff I missed in 2010, la tercera parte
And we're on the home stretch! The third and last edition of this trilogy will include general things I have yet to blog about. One of them being, Korean Pop Music, or K-Pop. One of my friends, Chris, has a segment on her blog called "K-Pop Friday" where she adds a new K-Pop video every week. It's an awesome idea and she has some great stuff on there. To find her blog click here or look for it on the right hand side of my blog's homepage.
Anyways, K-Pop is by far the most popular genre of music in Korea and is even one of the biggest music industries in all of Korea. From what I've heard, we will be hearing some K-Pop on our travels to SE Asia (!!!). From my experience here in Korea, kids and teenagers go nuts for K-Pop stars. Almost every clothing market sells shirts and socks with the likes of Rain, 2NE1, MissA, 2PM, and others printed on them. And when I want to keep kids' focus levels up during class, I'll throw on the occasional K-Pop video just to keep them entertained.
While American Pop stars are celebrities, K-Pop stars are idols. Teenage girls scream, and I mean scream, just hearing a song. For the latest and trendiest fashion, hairstyles, etc. you need to look no further than the newest K-Pop video.
The other interesting thing about K-Pop is that it is completely manufactured. By that I mean, every single band or group has been created by major record labels. Music execs pick the best combination of dancing, singing, and looks and ensemble a group out of it. The entire industry follows the ideology of P. Diddy's "Making The Band" where Mr. Diddy hand-selects individuals that he thinks would be successful. And in Korea, successful it is.
Here are some of my favorite songs and videos from 2010. The first is a popular favorite among my friends in Korea. Not to name names or anything, but 2 of my guy friends, we'll call them Scho and Eric for the hell of it, think that the blond guy in this video, TOP, is the best-looking dude in all of Korea. In fact, hey're in love with him. The song is pretty tight though. It would probably be popular in the States, but as far as I know has yet to make it to mainstream USA.
The next video is "I Me My Mine" by 4Minute. It's a pretty cool video with a catchy chorus if you listen to it enough times. It also brings up another staple of K-Pop. The English. K-Pop songs almost always have English in them, but rarely does it make sense. For example, "I My Me Mine" makes no sense. It's just 4 consecutive words all dealing with first person possession. Gotta love it.
Anyways, K-Pop is by far the most popular genre of music in Korea and is even one of the biggest music industries in all of Korea. From what I've heard, we will be hearing some K-Pop on our travels to SE Asia (!!!). From my experience here in Korea, kids and teenagers go nuts for K-Pop stars. Almost every clothing market sells shirts and socks with the likes of Rain, 2NE1, MissA, 2PM, and others printed on them. And when I want to keep kids' focus levels up during class, I'll throw on the occasional K-Pop video just to keep them entertained.
While American Pop stars are celebrities, K-Pop stars are idols. Teenage girls scream, and I mean scream, just hearing a song. For the latest and trendiest fashion, hairstyles, etc. you need to look no further than the newest K-Pop video.
The other interesting thing about K-Pop is that it is completely manufactured. By that I mean, every single band or group has been created by major record labels. Music execs pick the best combination of dancing, singing, and looks and ensemble a group out of it. The entire industry follows the ideology of P. Diddy's "Making The Band" where Mr. Diddy hand-selects individuals that he thinks would be successful. And in Korea, successful it is.
Here are some of my favorite songs and videos from 2010. The first is a popular favorite among my friends in Korea. Not to name names or anything, but 2 of my guy friends, we'll call them Scho and Eric for the hell of it, think that the blond guy in this video, TOP, is the best-looking dude in all of Korea. In fact, hey're in love with him. The song is pretty tight though. It would probably be popular in the States, but as far as I know has yet to make it to mainstream USA.
The next video is "I Me My Mine" by 4Minute. It's a pretty cool video with a catchy chorus if you listen to it enough times. It also brings up another staple of K-Pop. The English. K-Pop songs almost always have English in them, but rarely does it make sense. For example, "I My Me Mine" makes no sense. It's just 4 consecutive words all dealing with first person possession. Gotta love it.
And finally we have a guilty pleasure of mine by one of Korea's favorite boy band 2PM called "I'll Be Back". A funny tidbit about this band: after they had some measurable success a new band, named 2AM, came onto the scene. That's like forming a band called M'Sync, Lady Tata, or Kanye East. Anyways, the song is pretty good and every time I play this for my middle school boys they sing along and attempt all of the dance moves. Like a lot of K-Pop, it's not that good it's just catchy.
And finally, I have been mentioning it throughout this latest batch of posts, but I am leaving for Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam this Friday! I am extremely excited because a) I've never been to any of these countries, b) I never thought I'd be going to these countries just 5 months ago, and c) it's hot there and Korea's freezing cold! There's probably a d), e), and f) as well but we'll limit it to just those 3. I'm borrowing the following format from my friends Chris and Scho because it's the best way I've seen it done. My itinerary is as follows...
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Penang
Thailand
Phuket
Koh Phi Phi
Bangkok
Vietnam
Hanoi
Ho Chi Min City
Phu Quoc
And here are a few pics of what I'll be checking out...
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Thailand
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
I. can. not. wait.
Thanks for reading thus far! I'll be back to tell you all about my travels in about a month. Oh and Mom, Dad, and Seegz have fun in WDW. Don't forget to hit up ToT more than a healthy amount of times. And think of me when you're grabbing dinner at the World Showcase. Miss you guys! (You too B, M, A, and T)
I'm out!
Snapshot of stuff I missed in 2010, Part Dugay: Christmas and NYE
My fingers are a little sore from cranking out that last sucker but hopefully I can type through the pain.
This installment will include our Christmas get together in Guri and New Year's Eve in Hongdae. If the tone is a little bitter I apologize, I just streamed the Badgers throw away a 9 point lead with 2 minutes to go against Michigan State. ashkjdhakjdhsdjhdkjlasdhkjadshkjhv
The week leading up to Christmas (9 points!!!) did not really feel like a jolly saint week. I've been conditioned to expect all-nighters, College Library, and coffee the week leading up to Xmas. Fortunately, I didn't have to lose sleep over finals this year (am I really not in college anymore?) but I did have to watch "Shrek The Halls" 20 times. Was it an upgrade? It was if you like hearing the painstakingly piercing shrill of Ginjy the Gingerbread Man's voice. "Shrek! Shrek! I have an annoying voice! Shrek!" (There was only 2 minutes left in the 2nd half!!!!).
After "teaching" on Friday the 24th, Julie and I ditched our pad in Yatap and head to Guri where our friend Eric lives. He's got a pretty nice place and kindly agreed to host a shindig. Speaking of Guri, this reminds how difficult it is sometimes to say Korean words in front of Koreans.
One would think saying ger-ee would get the point across, but no way jose. I tried telling my coworkers for about 5 minutes where I was going to spend Christmas. It wasn't until I spelled it (because I was losing patience) that they understood. "Ohhhh Good-ee!" The smallest change in pronunciation and they have NO idea what you're talking about. The exact same thing probably happens with non-native English speakers in America, but like I said before, I'm in a sour mood and don't really care for sensibility right now (they were 34-1 when leading/tied with less than 4 minutes to play!!! Ughhhhhhh!!!). Other examples of this pronunciation failure includes: CostCo (Ohh Coosco!), Lotte World (Ohh Lotte Whoaa-rld!), and coffee (Ohh copy!)
But alright I'll try and keep the ranting to a minimum from here on out (9 POIN.......rants to a minimum). Being Christmas, I figured I needed something to help get in spirit. So what better way than drinking spirits! We had the secret santas, the ugly sweaters, the paper snowflakes, the awesome Christmas songs...
...all we needed was eggnog! Since you can't really find eggnog here you have to make it from scratch. I looked at a couple different recipes online and learned that it's pretty simple: milk, raw eggs, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and booze. And being Korea, why not throw a little makgeolli (milky rice wine) in there too?
My trusty Sous-Chef (Scho) and I whipped up a batter back at Eric's place and it turned out pretty decent. The girls who showed up late because of The Nutcracker even got to try some. Unfortunately for Eric's kitchen, making eggnog was not a clean affair. And unfortunately for the eggs, we didn't turn down the burner in time. Fortunately, everyone was able to get at least one round in before the nog started to scramble. Aaand that was the end of that. Just like Arrested Development, it was good while it lasted.
The next day (Christmas morning!) we opened our secret santa presents. It still didn't really feel like Xmas, but that's ok, it was still a lot of fun. I had Nate, who unfortunately (or awesomely rather!) went snowboarding. The one and only Sammy Lazar had me. She got me a sweet tail (long story), a cool green tie, and some other goodies. I know I'm getting old when I get excited over a tie, but what can I say, it's a great tie! Other gift highlights include Eric getting a Ne-Yo (or Neyo, maybe Ne Yo?) CD, Justine getting her own Youtube video (a la Joanna), and BG getting a......"sweater".
After lounging around, playing a game called Superlatives, and munching on some delish Chinese food (great call Jewish community!), Julie and I headed home to Skype the fams during the American Xmas morning. It was great to finally see my family, albeit on a computer screen, but it felt weird to not be there. Don't get me wrong, I love my life here in Korea (I'm getting paid to study abroad after all!), but during the holidays there's no place I'd rather be than relaxing at home with my family. And since my Pops is amazing and brought over gifts when he came to visit, I was able to open presents right along side my siblings just as it has been for years and years and years. Those gift highlights include a new backpack for my trip to SE Asia (!!!) and a Nook, Barnes & Noble's e-reader. I wasn't crazy about jumping on the e-readwagon, but I'm starting to come around to it. I send my thanks. No really, I just mailed them this week.
Photos from Xmas.
On to NYE...
We had heard New Year's Eve was best spent in Hongdae and, after doing some research, it turned out to be true. A major plus for that weekend was all the guests in town. We were graced by the presence of Nate's girlfriend Dori, Mo's brother Jack, and Olivia's boyfriend Sal. It's always nice getting the chance to meet the people who make up such a large part of our friends' lives back home.
As for the evening itself, we started with a noraebang pregame (noraegame) to give the visitors a taste of how our nights in Korea go down. After belting out some notes, taking a bunch of pictures, and listening to a couple Scho speeches (or Squotes), we headed out to catch the countdown. We said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011 at a bar called Mama Gorilla (Papa Gorilla is just down the street.....no really!), mainly because it had no line to get in (it was already like 11:45 at that point).
After a quick celebration, some NYE kisses, etc. we tried taking the crew to a club, but they all had massive lines out the door. So we instead turned to our old friend Oi, the bar that looks like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. It ended up being a great night. We finished it off by getting food at our fav late night food spot which goes by the name of "Noodles" because we don't know the name of the restaurant.
Almost done...
New Year's day was spent lounging around and hitting the links. I may have already posted a little bit about this when Julie and I went in September, but screen golfing is one of the best things that's happened in Korea since Lee Hyori. It's Tiger Woods on the Wii, actual golf clubs, beer a telephone call away, and huge couches all wrapped up in one room. You pay around $10 (depending on day of the week) for 9 holes to play lazy man's golf. No getting sweaty chasing your ball around (or the bev cart), no losing your ball out-of-bounds, and no 4 hours of frustration and mosquitoes. It's quick, it's easy (scratch that, it's hard as hell), and it's fun. The States, specifically where winter golf is non-existent, need this game. When you're asking about me 20 years down the road and say "How did that Quinn guy make so much money?" The answer will be 2 words: bathroom gloves......no no no, that's a different idea. The answer will be: screen golf.
This installment will include our Christmas get together in Guri and New Year's Eve in Hongdae. If the tone is a little bitter I apologize, I just streamed the Badgers throw away a 9 point lead with 2 minutes to go against Michigan State. ashkjdhakjdhsdjhdkjlasdhkjadshkjhv
The week leading up to Christmas (9 points!!!) did not really feel like a jolly saint week. I've been conditioned to expect all-nighters, College Library, and coffee the week leading up to Xmas. Fortunately, I didn't have to lose sleep over finals this year (am I really not in college anymore?) but I did have to watch "Shrek The Halls" 20 times. Was it an upgrade? It was if you like hearing the painstakingly piercing shrill of Ginjy the Gingerbread Man's voice. "Shrek! Shrek! I have an annoying voice! Shrek!" (There was only 2 minutes left in the 2nd half!!!!).
After "teaching" on Friday the 24th, Julie and I ditched our pad in Yatap and head to Guri where our friend Eric lives. He's got a pretty nice place and kindly agreed to host a shindig. Speaking of Guri, this reminds how difficult it is sometimes to say Korean words in front of Koreans.
One would think saying ger-ee would get the point across, but no way jose. I tried telling my coworkers for about 5 minutes where I was going to spend Christmas. It wasn't until I spelled it (because I was losing patience) that they understood. "Ohhhh Good-ee!" The smallest change in pronunciation and they have NO idea what you're talking about. The exact same thing probably happens with non-native English speakers in America, but like I said before, I'm in a sour mood and don't really care for sensibility right now (they were 34-1 when leading/tied with less than 4 minutes to play!!! Ughhhhhhh!!!). Other examples of this pronunciation failure includes: CostCo (Ohh Coosco!), Lotte World (Ohh Lotte Whoaa-rld!), and coffee (Ohh copy!)
But alright I'll try and keep the ranting to a minimum from here on out (9 POIN.......rants to a minimum). Being Christmas, I figured I needed something to help get in spirit. So what better way than drinking spirits! We had the secret santas, the ugly sweaters, the paper snowflakes, the awesome Christmas songs...
...all we needed was eggnog! Since you can't really find eggnog here you have to make it from scratch. I looked at a couple different recipes online and learned that it's pretty simple: milk, raw eggs, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and booze. And being Korea, why not throw a little makgeolli (milky rice wine) in there too?
My trusty Sous-Chef (Scho) and I whipped up a batter back at Eric's place and it turned out pretty decent. The girls who showed up late because of The Nutcracker even got to try some. Unfortunately for Eric's kitchen, making eggnog was not a clean affair. And unfortunately for the eggs, we didn't turn down the burner in time. Fortunately, everyone was able to get at least one round in before the nog started to scramble. Aaand that was the end of that. Just like Arrested Development, it was good while it lasted.
The next day (Christmas morning!) we opened our secret santa presents. It still didn't really feel like Xmas, but that's ok, it was still a lot of fun. I had Nate, who unfortunately (or awesomely rather!) went snowboarding. The one and only Sammy Lazar had me. She got me a sweet tail (long story), a cool green tie, and some other goodies. I know I'm getting old when I get excited over a tie, but what can I say, it's a great tie! Other gift highlights include Eric getting a Ne-Yo (or Neyo, maybe Ne Yo?) CD, Justine getting her own Youtube video (a la Joanna), and BG getting a......"sweater".
After lounging around, playing a game called Superlatives, and munching on some delish Chinese food (great call Jewish community!), Julie and I headed home to Skype the fams during the American Xmas morning. It was great to finally see my family, albeit on a computer screen, but it felt weird to not be there. Don't get me wrong, I love my life here in Korea (I'm getting paid to study abroad after all!), but during the holidays there's no place I'd rather be than relaxing at home with my family. And since my Pops is amazing and brought over gifts when he came to visit, I was able to open presents right along side my siblings just as it has been for years and years and years. Those gift highlights include a new backpack for my trip to SE Asia (!!!) and a Nook, Barnes & Noble's e-reader. I wasn't crazy about jumping on the e-readwagon, but I'm starting to come around to it. I send my thanks. No really, I just mailed them this week.
Photos from Xmas.
On to NYE...
We had heard New Year's Eve was best spent in Hongdae and, after doing some research, it turned out to be true. A major plus for that weekend was all the guests in town. We were graced by the presence of Nate's girlfriend Dori, Mo's brother Jack, and Olivia's boyfriend Sal. It's always nice getting the chance to meet the people who make up such a large part of our friends' lives back home.
As for the evening itself, we started with a noraebang pregame (noraegame) to give the visitors a taste of how our nights in Korea go down. After belting out some notes, taking a bunch of pictures, and listening to a couple Scho speeches (or Squotes), we headed out to catch the countdown. We said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011 at a bar called Mama Gorilla (Papa Gorilla is just down the street.....no really!), mainly because it had no line to get in (it was already like 11:45 at that point).
After a quick celebration, some NYE kisses, etc. we tried taking the crew to a club, but they all had massive lines out the door. So we instead turned to our old friend Oi, the bar that looks like a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. It ended up being a great night. We finished it off by getting food at our fav late night food spot which goes by the name of "Noodles" because we don't know the name of the restaurant.
Almost done...
New Year's day was spent lounging around and hitting the links. I may have already posted a little bit about this when Julie and I went in September, but screen golfing is one of the best things that's happened in Korea since Lee Hyori. It's Tiger Woods on the Wii, actual golf clubs, beer a telephone call away, and huge couches all wrapped up in one room. You pay around $10 (depending on day of the week) for 9 holes to play lazy man's golf. No getting sweaty chasing your ball around (or the bev cart), no losing your ball out-of-bounds, and no 4 hours of frustration and mosquitoes. It's quick, it's easy (scratch that, it's hard as hell), and it's fun. The States, specifically where winter golf is non-existent, need this game. When you're asking about me 20 years down the road and say "How did that Quinn guy make so much money?" The answer will be 2 words: bathroom gloves......no no no, that's a different idea. The answer will be: screen golf.
Monday, January 10, 2011
"Desk warming" and a snapshot of the things I failed to report in 2010, Part Un
Ello ello.
There's so many cositas that I failed, forgot, and promised to blog about in the past 5 months that I was sadly considering leaving them out for good. I mean seriously, how am I gonna blog about Halloween nearly two weeks after New Year's? Well...doing it this way, that's how. And since I'm leaving for Southeast Asia in 3 days (!!!!!!!!!), I am in serious need of cranking these out now or never.
And there's no better time for reflection than while "desk warming" the week away. If you are unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain.
Quick back story: In Korea, kids receive the equivalent of the American "summer vacation" during their winter break. The school year usually terminates some time between Christmas and New Year's, lasts about 2 months, and starts back up again in early March. Typically, native English teachers like myself have to teach a winter camp anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks. If your camp is only 1 week, as it was in my case, you have to sit at your desk for the remaining time. There's really nothing to accomplish other than to "keep it warm," hence the term, "desk warming." And if it weren't for Youtube, TV shows, books, the occasional game of ping pong, and planning for Malaysia-Thailand-Vietnam, it would look a little something like this...
Fortunately for me, I actually kind of enjoy desk warming. I get to catch up on "talking" to people (albeit via facebook and gchat), blog, and most of the aforementioned activities.
Since the school doesn't provide lunch during winter break, it means going out or ordering in every day. And since Korea is all about social hierarchy, the group's eldest / most esteemed usually pays for the group's meal. Now I have offered to pay for my share just about every time but it is usually politely declined. Not bad. If I'm not staying in to dine on some good ol' Korean takeout, I'm hitting the town with muh boys Jun Young (who finishes up his 2 year stint at Young Sung this Friday) and Roger.
But okay! I recently got back from Dunkin Donuts with my Korean counterparts, so I'm Hot Americano'd up and ready to lay a serious blog post down. Booyakasha. First up, Halloweeeeeen...
Adjummania 2010
We all ended up making very nice hauls and it was getting late, so we decided to call it a night. Extremely proud of our purchases, Julie and I got on the subway and tried mentally preparing ourselves for the hour plus journey ahead of us. Still punch-drunk exuberant from the last 2 hours of my life, I followed Julie out of the subway car. And then it hit me like a Clay Matthews blitz in Philly.
"Julie you have my bag right?" She didn't. Talk about dropping the proverbially ball on that one. All of my prized acquisitions from the night were chillin on a warm subway seat while I, dumbfounded, was not. I had never been so angry with myself. How could I have prematurely parted ways with such precious items? It all happened so fast and is one of those moments you wish could have back. Julie, thinking fast, recommended we go to the information booth and immediately report the missing pieces. A friendly man translated everything and we got a missing report filed right away with the subway officials. Unfortunately nothing turned up. All that hard work to waste. Some adjumma must have looked into that unmarked bag and hit the jackpot. The absolute jackpot. Imagine Larry King finding a suitcase full of suspenders or this kid opening an N64 on Christmas morning. At least I made someone's day I guess.
After putting on a show for an hour or so, we took our inflated egos to the nearest costume contest, stat. We didn't think there was a chance in hell we couldn't not win with the sort of Korean reaction (Koreaction) we got. Long story short, the ONE GUY in charge of the contest gave the awards to some Austin Powers fembots (damn you scantily clad women; woulda been funny 10 years ago...), some Care Bears (yaaaaawn), and something else I can't remember because it was a boring costume and 8+ weeks ago. Bottom line, adjummas got more love than expected out of the Korean population and not an ounce of foreigner-appreciation. One word can sum up our contest snub: jealousy.
All in all, Halloween in Korea was more of a blast than any of us saw coming. And I think a lot of that stems from the quality of the people I hang out with here in Korea. Certainly something I didn't see coming while imagining what my time here would be like. These friends have become very good friends in a short 4 months. It didn't matter that Koreans don't really celebrate the 31st of October, you could have put our crew anywhere in the world that night and we would have had a blast.
(Oh and courtesy to Chris Bailey for all the photos! I only brought my Flip out that night)
Dad + Santacon Seoul = ROKin' Weekend
If this blog post were the Oscars, the music would be playing quite loud by this point. With that being said, the first installment of this trilogy will be cut short very, very soon. Bear (bare? bear? mmm bear sounds better, right?) with me.
About a month ago I was lucky enough to have my father come visit. He notified me a few months back that he would be coming over to my Asian neck of the woods and that he would try and stop by. Try and stop by. Well after twisting some arms, I got him to agree to spend an entire weekend in Seoul before heading over to Hong Kong for bizniss. Score!
After weeks and weeks of dialogue with my parents about what my Dad should bring, what to wear, what to do, etc. the anticipated weekend finally came. Lucky for us, Santacon was going on that weekend as well. Being an event I couldn't pass up (duh?), I picked up an outfit for Jules, my Dad, and myself.
After doing some fantastic touristy stuff in the city all day Saturday, we headed to Hongdae for Santacon and dinner with friends. Getting to spend a weekend with my father was very solacing. Korea really does feel like a bubble at times and it's refreshing to spend time with those closest to you.
And being that my parents are amazing, my Dad brought over 7 jars of Trader Joe's peanut butter (aka crack cocaine) and some Christmas gifts that I opened with them on Christmas via Skype. I guess Santa really does find you no matter where in the world you are (or how old you are.......).
There's so many cositas that I failed, forgot, and promised to blog about in the past 5 months that I was sadly considering leaving them out for good. I mean seriously, how am I gonna blog about Halloween nearly two weeks after New Year's? Well...doing it this way, that's how. And since I'm leaving for Southeast Asia in 3 days (!!!!!!!!!), I am in serious need of cranking these out now or never.
And there's no better time for reflection than while "desk warming" the week away. If you are unfamiliar with the term, allow me to explain.
Quick back story: In Korea, kids receive the equivalent of the American "summer vacation" during their winter break. The school year usually terminates some time between Christmas and New Year's, lasts about 2 months, and starts back up again in early March. Typically, native English teachers like myself have to teach a winter camp anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks. If your camp is only 1 week, as it was in my case, you have to sit at your desk for the remaining time. There's really nothing to accomplish other than to "keep it warm," hence the term, "desk warming." And if it weren't for Youtube, TV shows, books, the occasional game of ping pong, and planning for Malaysia-Thailand-Vietnam, it would look a little something like this...
Fortunately for me, I actually kind of enjoy desk warming. I get to catch up on "talking" to people (albeit via facebook and gchat), blog, and most of the aforementioned activities.
Since the school doesn't provide lunch during winter break, it means going out or ordering in every day. And since Korea is all about social hierarchy, the group's eldest / most esteemed usually pays for the group's meal. Now I have offered to pay for my share just about every time but it is usually politely declined. Not bad. If I'm not staying in to dine on some good ol' Korean takeout, I'm hitting the town with muh boys Jun Young (who finishes up his 2 year stint at Young Sung this Friday) and Roger.
But okay! I recently got back from Dunkin Donuts with my Korean counterparts, so I'm Hot Americano'd up and ready to lay a serious blog post down. Booyakasha. First up, Halloweeeeeen...
Adjummania 2010
One of the best weekends in Korea so far has to go to Halloween weekend. About a month prior to Halloween the perfect idea hit me in the face like a drunk soldier at a club in Itaewon; an adjumma! Reveling in the sure-fire success of my idea, I started doing a little costume research. At that point I realized I was nowhere near being the first to think of going as an old Korean woman. Ah well. I was justifiably taken down a few floors from my skyscraper-high costume pedestal.
Makes sense though. In my opinion, it's the best possible costume you can unveil in Korea. Well, "the best" if you've submitted yourself in a contest called "Costume to make Koreans go absolutely nuts." Because that's exactly what our costumes did. They lost it like Mel Gibson's lost his career (yes I've seen the trailer for The Beaver blah blah blah). More on that later.
If I couldn't be the first one to don an outfit suitable for Stevie Wonder if he were an old Korean woman desperately trying to hold onto to her sporty roots, I at least wanted to do something relatively creative. How about getting a bunch of adjummas together? Boom. Adjummania! But before I get ahead of myself, let me back up a little bit...
The week before Halloween a bunch of us decided to get together in Seoul for some adjumm-attire shopping. After grabbing beers and cheap wings in Itaewon (foreigner hotspot), we headed to the nighttime shopping market in the Dongdaemun district. Large, seemingly endless warehouses jam-packed with any-and-everything known to fabric.
Shopping in the Dong is kind of like if thousands of grandmas got together and made a coalition to sell off the clothes they thought were out of fashion. So you know there were some gems to be found. Ok not all of the stuff is that bad, and Korean men and women alike actually go nuts for the clothes there. Purple leopard-print blouses? Check. Matching lycra pants? Definitely. Flower print fanny packs? No doubt. The stuff here was cheap so luckily we didn't exactly break the bank getting outfitted (we actually saw the exact blouse I got for 8 times more expensive near my apartment), well some of us didn't at least (more to come on that...). In my unmarked black shopping bag (the Dong's style) I had a purple fleece ladyvest, purple fingerless ladygloves, a purple spandex leopard-print lady turtle neck, a flowery ladyscarf, and baggy zebra-print ladypants. Did I hit the jackpot you ask? You be the judge.
"Julie you have my bag right?" She didn't. Talk about dropping the proverbially ball on that one. All of my prized acquisitions from the night were chillin on a warm subway seat while I, dumbfounded, was not. I had never been so angry with myself. How could I have prematurely parted ways with such precious items? It all happened so fast and is one of those moments you wish could have back. Julie, thinking fast, recommended we go to the information booth and immediately report the missing pieces. A friendly man translated everything and we got a missing report filed right away with the subway officials. Unfortunately nothing turned up. All that hard work to waste. Some adjumma must have looked into that unmarked bag and hit the jackpot. The absolute jackpot. Imagine Larry King finding a suitcase full of suspenders or this kid opening an N64 on Christmas morning. At least I made someone's day I guess.
I ended up having to make the long journey back into Seoul a few days later to buy most of the same purple crap I bought 48 hours prior (are you sensing the bitterness?). I actually ended up making some upgrades in the vest and pant department and it turned out being a very worthy Halloween investment...
We decided to take our leopard-print-clad crew to the streets of Hongdae, where we heard the best Halloween celebration was. After a quick pregame in our go-to hostel, Backpacker's Space (or B-Space on the streets), we hit the ground running. First up? Hongdae main drag.
The public's response turned out be welcoming to say the least. A part of me thought we would offend more than a handful of people, which, believe it or not, wasn't the intention. Instead, the Hongdae youth was very supportive of our ensemble. After setting up shop outside a noraebang entrance, we let the dance moves fly (video coming.....hopefully). As a result, Koreans couldn't get enough of us. They kept coming and coming and coming to take pictures with us.
At the same time, I'm imaging how State Street would react if a bunch of Koreans hit the street on a virtually non-celebrated holiday in Madison dancing in pilgrim costumes or something. There'd be a few pictures taken I'm sure.
Julie was a roll of kimbap (Korean sushi). Genius if I do say so myself.
The public's response turned out be welcoming to say the least. A part of me thought we would offend more than a handful of people, which, believe it or not, wasn't the intention. Instead, the Hongdae youth was very supportive of our ensemble. After setting up shop outside a noraebang entrance, we let the dance moves fly (video coming.....hopefully). As a result, Koreans couldn't get enough of us. They kept coming and coming and coming to take pictures with us.
At the same time, I'm imaging how State Street would react if a bunch of Koreans hit the street on a virtually non-celebrated holiday in Madison dancing in pilgrim costumes or something. There'd be a few pictures taken I'm sure.
After putting on a show for an hour or so, we took our inflated egos to the nearest costume contest, stat. We didn't think there was a chance in hell we couldn't not win with the sort of Korean reaction (Koreaction) we got. Long story short, the ONE GUY in charge of the contest gave the awards to some Austin Powers fembots (damn you scantily clad women; woulda been funny 10 years ago...), some Care Bears (yaaaaawn), and something else I can't remember because it was a boring costume and 8+ weeks ago. Bottom line, adjummas got more love than expected out of the Korean population and not an ounce of foreigner-appreciation. One word can sum up our contest snub: jealousy.
All in all, Halloween in Korea was more of a blast than any of us saw coming. And I think a lot of that stems from the quality of the people I hang out with here in Korea. Certainly something I didn't see coming while imagining what my time here would be like. These friends have become very good friends in a short 4 months. It didn't matter that Koreans don't really celebrate the 31st of October, you could have put our crew anywhere in the world that night and we would have had a blast.
(Oh and courtesy to Chris Bailey for all the photos! I only brought my Flip out that night)
Dad + Santacon Seoul = ROKin' Weekend
If this blog post were the Oscars, the music would be playing quite loud by this point. With that being said, the first installment of this trilogy will be cut short very, very soon. Bear (bare? bear? mmm bear sounds better, right?) with me.
About a month ago I was lucky enough to have my father come visit. He notified me a few months back that he would be coming over to my Asian neck of the woods and that he would try and stop by. Try and stop by. Well after twisting some arms, I got him to agree to spend an entire weekend in Seoul before heading over to Hong Kong for bizniss. Score!
After weeks and weeks of dialogue with my parents about what my Dad should bring, what to wear, what to do, etc. the anticipated weekend finally came. Lucky for us, Santacon was going on that weekend as well. Being an event I couldn't pass up (duh?), I picked up an outfit for Jules, my Dad, and myself.
After doing some fantastic touristy stuff in the city all day Saturday, we headed to Hongdae for Santacon and dinner with friends. Getting to spend a weekend with my father was very solacing. Korea really does feel like a bubble at times and it's refreshing to spend time with those closest to you.
And being that my parents are amazing, my Dad brought over 7 jars of Trader Joe's peanut butter (aka crack cocaine) and some Christmas gifts that I opened with them on Christmas via Skype. I guess Santa really does find you no matter where in the world you are (or how old you are.......).
For more photos from my pops being in town click here.
Yowza that post seemed longer than the 1934 version of Les Misérables.
Keeping the French theme going (my sister leaves for Paris in less than a month!!!!!) here's a tasty lick for ya courtesy of the one and only Geoff Johnson. Belle trouvaille mon frère.
Part deux coming très dès...
Yowza that post seemed longer than the 1934 version of Les Misérables.
Keeping the French theme going (my sister leaves for Paris in less than a month!!!!!) here's a tasty lick for ya courtesy of the one and only Geoff Johnson. Belle trouvaille mon frère.
Part deux coming très dès...
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ain't no thaaaaang
Thanks to the excruciating UW loss this weekend, I needed something to reignite my love for the place I called home for 4....[cough] 5...years of my life. That need was fulfilled.
Recently, the dearly beloved University of Wisconsin - Madison has been confirmed of its......belovedness according to the Global Language Monitor's 2011 TrendTopper MediaBuzz internet rankings. As reported by the good folks who work for the GLM, UW-Madison is the "coolest school in America."
Now I'm usually not one to brag, but when Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, MIT, and Columbia round out the Top 5 with Bucky claiming the top spot, I'm gonna tell you. Or you can read for yourself.
Recently, the dearly beloved University of Wisconsin - Madison has been confirmed of its......belovedness according to the Global Language Monitor's 2011 TrendTopper MediaBuzz internet rankings. As reported by the good folks who work for the GLM, UW-Madison is the "coolest school in America."
Now I'm usually not one to brag, but when Univ. of Chicago, Harvard, MIT, and Columbia round out the Top 5 with Bucky claiming the top spot, I'm gonna tell you. Or you can read for yourself.
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