Dongbyun Idol!

Yesterday, we had no classes, just multiple talent shows! The first one was an English pop song cover contest. Some of the songs students sang were "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5, "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson and "Creep" by Radiohead. The funny thing is, they didn't censor them at all. I cringed but also laughed a little when the Radiohead boys sang "You're so fucking special"...

I have some videos of this show but they won't upload here for some reason. The "I'm Yours" performance is on my Facebook.

Before the next show they had an intermission where they played some games and stuff. During one of them, there were about 10 students on stage and then they were told to go find a teacher. Two boys ended up without one so they called me and the vice principal on stage. It took me a while to realize they were talking to me but eventually I was on stage paired with one of my students. The kids seemed excited that I was getting involved. I had no idea what the activity was and my partner didn't speak English very well so luckily, one of my advanced students was there to translate: "Follow this action. If he does like this, you do like this." So basically, the students would dance and the teachers were supposed to copy them. My partner didn't have very interesting dance moves, so we were eliminated fairly early but it was fun.

The next show was a Korea pop song/dance cover show. This one was a lot of fun to watch. It was clear that the students put A LOT of work into their performances. For some reason this is the only video that will upload, but it was also one of my favorites.

"Dongbyun Style" 

The stars of Dongbyun Style!

After this show, there was a classical music show in a small auditorium where students played instruments. I only saw about half of it. Two girls played piano together, a 3rd grade (US-9th) boy played violin, and then a group of 13 students played piano, violin, flute and cello. That one was especially beautiful. 

They also had artwork displayed in the entryway of the school.

Needless to say, there are some really talented students at this school. After seeing all this, I actually have a lot more respect for them. Most of them go to private academies for more classes after school and on top of that, they practice instruments and were coming to school on weekends and after school to practice their performances for the talent show.

Yesterday was cool, not only because of all the performances, but I also got a chance to talk to some of the students outside of the classroom environment.

Three girls did a cover dance to this song and I really wish I would have recorded it. They were joined by three boys who did the dance with them for about 30 seconds, it was hilarious.

Artist: Orange Caramel

Song: Lipstick

Album: Lipstick

Released: September 2012

DMZ and Seoul Sisters

Again, this post is SUPER late. I have to get better at keeping up... This one is about two weekends ago (Oct. 12-14) when I went and visited Sandy in Seoul.

It was my first time going to Seoul and my first time on the KTX (Korea Train Express). I ended up in first class because all the regular tickets for the time I wanted were sold out. First class was awesome! I had my own seat and more leg room than I'd ever need. The trip took about two hours, which wasn't bad at all. Sandy met me at the station and we went back to her apartment where she lives with her dad. We took it easy for the rest of the night because we had to be up early on Saturday for the DMZ tour.

In case you don't know what the DMZ is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Demilitarized_Zone

Saturday morning we got on a bus to take us to the DMZ. Our tour guide was a 30 year old Korean guy who spoke pretty much perfect English. I was really impressed by his ability to understand English as well. There was a guy on the tour whose English I could hardly understand. On the way to the DMZ, he told us some interesting things about Seoul and some history about the DMZ and the Korean war. He also pointed out places where you could see North Korea. You can actually see the difference. The mountains in South Korea are green and the ones in North Korea are brown. Apparently it's because North Korea still uses a more old fashioned heating method and they don't replant the trees they use.

There was a stop along the way before the actual DMZ that had some food and a few shops, along with some monuments and stuff. At one point, Sandy called the tour guide "ajussi", which kind of means "sir" but usually refers to an older man. He suggested "oppa" instead, which means like "older brother".

These flags had messages written on them, I'm assuming for the people who fought in the war.

We broke this rule...

At the next stop, we went in a museum type building that had some scenes behind glass that depicted things like North Koreans digging tunnels and South Koreans patrolling the borders. We also watched a video about the Korean war and the DMZ. After the video, we were able to go down into one of the tunnels the North Koreans had dug. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the tunnel. It was a long way down a ramp and then we walked the tunnel for a while before coming to a closed off section and turning around to go back. It was a little eerie since the tunnel was narrow and there was no way out except the way we had come. According to our oppa, the North Koreans spread charcoal powder on the walls of the tunnel so they could claim they had been mining charcoal. We could still see the powder in places, as well as holes with yellow circles around them that they had supposedly put dynamite in. We were given hard hats, which was good because at places, you had to duck to avoid hitting your head.

This shows how they patrol the border. Apparently they flip those strips to either red or white to show that that length of fence had been patrolled.

After seeing the tunnel, we went to an observation deck where we could look through binoculars at North Korea. There was a yellow line about ten feet away from the end of the platform that you had to stay behind to take pictures. There were soldiers who would make you delete the pictures if you took them from across the line. 

North Korea. I zoomed in all the way for this picture. 

The final stop on the tour was a train station. It was strange. I think he said only a few people use it and they're hoping to use it when/if North and South Korea ever...go back to being friends I guess.

A memorial at the train station.

Sandy and me with a soldier at the station. 

After the tour, we got bibimbap for lunch and then went back to Sandy's. She and her dad went to church so I went to a mall in Seoul. I there was a bookstore there where I found tons of Girls' Generation stuff. It was kind of like Christmas... When Sandy and her dad got back we all went and ate burgers and then Sandy and I hung out at this park where there was an outdoor concert going on nearby. 

This weekend, Sunday was a rugby day! Sandy joined a team called the Seoul Sisters, which is made up almost entirely of other foreigners. We met at a hotel and took a bus about two hours away for the game. Since there aren't really any other women's rugby teams around, the team splits up and plays themselves a lot of the time. This time, we did that...but we also played middle school boys. Two firsts for me this day... I played in the backline, and I played against boys. I think we played better than the boys but they were so DAMN FAST. If they ever got the ball away from us, it was game over. In the end, they beat us but it was a lot of fun. 

Running to help Sandy!

Seoul Sisters

This team was a lot of fun and I'm super excited because they've invited me to go to the Philippines with them for a tournament in November! It's only for a weekend so it'll be kind of crazy but I couldn't refuse!

As promised... miss A's new song!

Artist: miss A

Song: I Don't Need a Man

Album: Independent Women Part III

Released: October 2012

The White Sokcho

Okay so this post is SUPER late, but better late than never, right? This one is about what I did for Chuseok, which is kind of like the Korea equivalent of Thanksgiving. We were off school from September 30th, to October 3rd, so most people took some kind of trip to another part of Korea.

I went with a group of seven people (including me) to a town called Sokcho. One of its main attractions is a national park called Seoraksan, where you can hike up mountains, so that was kind of our big plan for the vacation.

We ended up renting a place to stay from a Korean guy named Brian Kim. One of the guys in the group set everything up with him and it was pretty painless for the most part. (Except that Brian Kim accidentally gave us the wrong apartment number and we scared the crap out of this Korean lady by trying to get into her place...). Brian Kim called his place "the white Sokcho" and we could see why. EVERYTHING was white. 

We were also able to go on the roof, where there was an awesome view!

Saturday: The first night was pretty chill. We had Korean barbeque at a place near the water and then went to get some groceries for the trip. After that we just hung out at The White Sokcho and drank a bit. We actually ended up going to bed relatively early, which was good considering our hike was the next day.

Sunday, we went to Seoraksan. There are a number of trails you can choose from and we chose Ulsanbawi. In terms of difficulty, I think it's somewhere in the middle. There are other ones that will take you pretty much all day. 

 Massive Buddha statue on the way to the trails.

 It was actually more of a hike than I was expecting. I had been telling people that I was going to be climbing a mountain over Chuseok and I was exaggerating a little...turns out I kind of wasn't There were times during the hike when we were literally just climbing rocks. It started out pretty low key with only a small incline, but eventually we were climbing really steep stairs...and rocks. The following are pictures from the hike. I'm actually pretty frustrated because none of the pictures really seemed to do it justice.

This is probably about halfway through the hike.

Right before we started the really steep stairs. 

Same area...that's the same tree as the one in the other picture.

Some of the stairs. It was really pretty impressive. There were old women and young children on the hike, too.

Almost to the top, climbing up rocks.

View from the top!

Going down was almost as difficult as going up. You had to be careful about where you put your feet and it was difficult to control your pace. It was less physically challenging though, and we were able to relax and talk a little more than on the way up. We were expecting to be pretty sore the next day but I actually never ended up feeling it as much as I thought I would.

Monday: We decided we should recover from the hike, so Monday was pretty relaxed again. We went to smaller park area (that I can't remember the name of) with a temple and some statues and a really nice view of the water. After that, we sat on the beach for a while.

I wish I knew what this statue is but it was really cool.

I'm guessing this is some kind of "holy water" or something.

For dinner we went to a fish market. It was really interesting. They had all the fish, squid, crabs, etc alive in tanks and you just chose what you wanted to eat and they killed it and cut it up minutes before serving it to you. Everything was served raw except the soup.

I didn't know people ate these...

King Crab

Where we ate. There were tons of these places and they all looked pretty much the same. They were open on either end, so it was like being partially outside.

Our food! I mostly ate the fish in lettuce wraps.

The soup. This part of the meal was cooked.

After dinner, we made our way back to The White Sokcho where we spent the rest of our last night. Overall, it was a great first vacation in Korea. It was a really fun, easy going group which can really make all the difference.

Just introducing this group because they have a new song, which I'm posting on the next one. :P

Artist: miss A

Song: Bad Girl Good Girl

Album: A Class

Released: July 2011

 

Excuse me...

There's TONS of stuff I need to post about so hopefully I'll get some time over the weekend but right now I'd like to share a quick story from this afternoon.

I was drinking coffee and reading at Paris Baguette when I hear, "Excuse me, where are you from?" I was surprised since it's pretty rare around here to hear someone speak English. Well, there was this Korean guy at the table next to me and I told him where I was from and turns out he went to a university in New York City so he spoke very good English and knew quite a bit about the U.S. He was really friendly, pretty funny, and interesting to talk to. I talked to him for about half an hour while he waited for his girlfriend. I don't know, I guess it's really not much of a story but it kind of made my day since I don't really get to talk to many people outside of work during the week. It's nice that there are people who are so friendly and willing to speak English when they don't have to!

Artist: GD & TOP

Song: Oh Yeah (Featuring Park Bom)

Album: GD & TOP

Released: December 2010