Today marks the five month anniversary of my arrival in Korea. Today was also my last day of regular school for the semester, but I've still got two weeks of summer camps ahead of me. Fortunately, summer camp is more of a time to have a good time with the kids than to actually make them study or learn anything new. So, I've got some fun activities planned. We're designing t-shirts, making pinatas, playing ultimate frisbee, and a bunch of other stuff.
The day after camp finishes, I'm going to Thailand and Cambodia with a couple friends. We're stopping over in Hong Kong for about five hours between flights, but I doubt that will give us enough time to do anything. Anyway, I've heard it's nice to fly over and look at the city. Thailand is a really popular vacation spot, so lots of my friends have already been, and they've been giving me a little advice about where to go and what to do. We've only made a few general plans, but we're mostly going to play it by ear, go with the flow, and fly by the seats of our pants. We'll be there for two weeks. I am going to gain at least ten pounds.
A few weeks ago, I got out of school early (for some reason I can't think of) and took the opportunity to go into Seoul for the night. A friend and I spent a few hours in the afternoon at an amusement park called Lotteworld. Lotte is a really huge corporation in Korea that owns basically everything that doesn't belong to Hyundai. The atmosphere was a little obnoxious and kiddie (understandably so), but there were a few fun rides. I hadn't been on a roller coaster in ages.
The rest of the night in Seoul was pretty standard, and I ended up catching the first bus back to Chuncheon. Korean kids have school every other Saturday, and this just so happened to be one of those Saturday mornings, so as I was walking home from the bus station, stinking of sweat and booze, I got to say hello to all my students as they walked to school.
EPIK paid for me to go to a concert in Seoul, and even though I wasn't very interested in the artist, I figured it would be a fun trip nonetheless. Well, the trip ended up being pretty boring. We saw a Korean/American singer named Lena Park, and although she's a fairly talented singer, the music really bored me. Every song sounded basically the same, and the concert lasted for two and a half hours. Plus, the people in the theater were total fascists who made us spit out our gum (???) and put away our cameras. I only managed to snap this one photo before the show started.
Last weekend, I went to the Boryeong Mud Festival, which is a huge gathering that takes place on the west coast every year. It's really popular with foreigners, so there was no shortage of drunk assholes in attendance (myself, I'm a friendly drunkard). By the time we got there, late Saturday afternoon, almost all of the mud was gone (the mud is actually imported), but my pals and I smeared on whatever grotty leftovers we could scrape up off of the ground. One of my friends found a mud-caked cigarette butt stuck to his body. How sanitary. Anyway, we ate Korean style barbecue and clams and quaffed enormous amounts of makkoli (Korean rice wine) and soju (Korean nail polish remover). Over the weekend, one of my friends lost his cell phone and wallet, another friend fell down a flight of stairs, and another friend went other emergency room because he stepped on a shard of broken glass. All in all, I'd say we had a great time. The weather was pretty nasty, and it rained some on Saturday and all day Sunday, but we made the best of it regardless.
There was a mini-noraebang on the train.
There were also a few elephants on the side of the road. Four bucks to ride.
Above, Kenny G playing amongst the crashing waves. Below, a tiny man.
I found the visor in the mud.
Looking tough at the beach.
On Friday, my school held its annual (or bi-annual, maybe) festival. A couple weeks ago, some kids asked me to act in a commercial they were putting together, and I agreed. I only had two lines - one in Korean and one in English - and when I said my Korean line, the audience of impressionable teenage boys broke out in a mixture of gasps and chatter (even though I'm sure they've all heard me speak a little Korean before). I'm glad it was dark in there because I'm sure I turned beet red. Then, after the performances (which were surprisingly great), the kids kept repeating my line and complimenting me as I tried to hurry home! At least they have the whole summer to forget about it.
The kid who dances to "Mambo No. 5" totally reminds me of Daniel at that age (and even sort of now).
I got my new Canon Vixia HV40 HDV video camera in today! It's an updated version of the camera I shot Polecats with. Since I got out of school early today, I went for a jaunt on the hiking trail near my apartment and shot some footage. It's nothing especially exciting. I mostly just wanted to test it out. Take a look.
A Stroll from Justin Taylor on Vimeo.
At the end of my walk, I came upon a house where an old woman was performing a pansori song (actually, it was just her singing and playing the drum, so maybe it's not considered pansori) in full traditional Korean garb. She was sitting in her living room with the doors wide open (old Korean houses have sliding doors that open up an entire wall of the house), playing this beautiful song. I stopped in and said hello and asked, in broken Korean, if I could film her. She looked embarrassed and said no, but I have a feeling that if I had known enough Korean to talk a while I could have convinced her. She was really friendly. It would have made for some really great footage, but oh well. Only my first day with the new camera!
