탈춤 (TalChum) -Korean Mask Dancing!



Cool mask, eh?



So last week on Wednesday, the day half of Seoul flooded, our whole NSLI-Y group learned a little about Talchum, Korean mask dancing!

We got to make our own masks and then learn some Talchum ourselves!



탈(Tal) is basically anything used for disguise. The masks the performers of 탈춤(Talchum) are called 탈 singularly, but 탈 can also refer to makeup, costumes, etc.



Abel and one of the dancers...Abel was supposed to be flirting with the male head of the house ;P



춤 (Chum) means "dance," so the effective translation of 탈춤 is "Mask Dance." Talchum, back in the day, were performances that usually told stories using dancing, miming, speaking, and sometimes singing. 



my mask!! Floam is the coolest stuff ever O.o



The folk dramas reflected the frustrations felt by the lower classes towards the Confucian literati Yangban. They were almost like performance-political cartoons, and the lower class used them to vent their frustrations to the upper class during their performances. Talchum also sometimes uses long sleeves, somewhat like the long sleeves in a lot of Chinese traditional dances.



One of our Korean teachers playing with the sleeves we got to keep



We got to see a rough, short Talchum, and then we learned a few moves of our own :)

It was some pretty cool stuff, despite being completely soaked through by the rain ^___^

Yay for Korean culture!

Signing out~

<3

~Kat





Keeping Up~

So it's been ridiculously impossible to get to a computer recently...I tried to go to a computer lab at Sogang University at about 9 AM, and the entire floor was closed for cleaning (from what I understood on the sign) until 12. So I came back at 12:30...and the place was still closed. Talk about morning wasted...

Sorry for not keeping up! I'm going to try to make separate posts for all the main events that've happened...sorry if it's a bit out of order ^^;;

So recently my host brother has been wanting to get a piercing on his ear...so I figured he'd...you know, go to a salon like normal people? But no...I was sitting at home, and I see my sister coming out of her room with a safety pin, and there she goes and just pokes a hole in his ear. The whole time I was just sitting there like "uhh...what just happened? .__."
Definitely not what most people do. and all the while my sister was dyeing her hair orange-ish (which didn't turn out so well 'cause it's more streaky than anything...but hey: she didn't have to bleach it at all. Ohh the wonders of Korean hair dye O.o)

Disinfecting his safety-pin ear piercing

Sis in her makeshift shower cap ^_~

So yeah! Eventful night there...

The next morning (last-last Thursday, I believe), I went out with my supporter both in the morning AND the evening!
We went to the absolute COOLEST 노래방 (Noraebang) ever. The room was two stories! I wish my house was like that O____o

L-R, T-B: Morgan, Me, Sophia, Duri



Morgan, Duri, Me, Sophia :D

Yup. Coolest building ever. I'm definitely going back.

In the evening, we went somewhere I'd wanted to go for a while! Namsan Tower! If you don't know Namsan Tower...it's basically one of the symbols of Seoul. Located on Namsan (mountain), it gazes over Seoul...and at it's base is a very famous photography spot: a wall full of locks.
Urban Legend has it that if you put a lot on the fence/wall with your significant other, your love will last forever...or something along the lines of that. All the couples just put the locks on anyways ^_~
We didn't actually go up in the tower (it costs like 30,000 won -$30), but the view was still really great from the base (which was at the top of the mountain anyways)!

Did I mention we took a cable car up there? :DDD

THE WALL

Pretty sculpture thing next to the wall :)



Our group decided to put some locks on there too...for friendship and not love though ^^;;



Inside the base of the tower, there was a really small arcade..and I think this old ajumma playing this game just made my life

Yay for Namsan!

and this definitely made my day :) There's still hope out there <3

I really wish my pictures of the wall and everything were better, but my camera just wouldn't focus on ANYTHING. I tried so many different "better" angles than these, but they all turned out blurry and focusing on the wrong thing (as some of these are anyways). Sorry for epik bad photography skillz (or lack thereof) :X

But the trip was great! Noraebang in the morning, Namsan at night...good day :)

Onwards!

<3
~Kat

Korean Highschoolers~!!!

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted! A LOT has happened since...last weekend? (WOW).

So I figure the biggest thing that has happened isssss: Camp in Bucheon with other Korean highschoolers!
We got to stay overnight on Saturday at a dorm/hostel thing with about...75 Korean Highschoolers? It was a lot of fun!!!!!

So going in order:
We left on Saturday morning at about 8:30 or 9:30 AM on a bus...got to the hostel thing about an hour later, went to a short orientation, and then got paired into groups! I was with Group One with the dark blue bandanas...and we were definitely best group ever. FO SHO.
I didn't get any group pictures (other people did though, so those should be on facebook soon), but I got some individual ones :)

After some ice-breaking activities, we were given a sort of scavenger hunt mission. First, we had to come up with a short logo-performance or something, then go to a Manhwa Museum (Korean manga, or comic books), and then go to a botanial garden and take a picture with some flowers.
Our short performance....didn't really go too well. The YES-International person judging them said that ours was too lame and made us redo it about 5 times. (His name was Youngmin, for future reference). So after our late start, we rushed onto a bus and went to the Manhwa museum (which I was actually really excited to go too...yes, yes, I am a nerd).

The museum wasn't really as cool as I had expected it to be, but I guess I can blame that on my preference for manga instead of manhwa xD

Some pictures...

Just for Angela, in case she's reading this ^_~

Sorry bad photography...camera wasn't focusing, so I the wall didn't end up straight while I tried to fix it >.<

Some of my Korean friends! Eunjin, Jaekyeong, and Yaeyeong <3

This was the "Tree of Fame' or something like that? L-R: Abel, TaeKyung, Brett, and JinSeob

Making our own comic ;D

So the last photo regards my next part. While at the museum, we were supposed to make our own comic...but we had no idea what to do! So we made a comedy about Youngmin (the guy who wouldn't let us go with our "bad" performance) singing really badly at 노래방 (noraebang), then being rejected by his almost-girlfriend at 남산 (Namsan) Tower, and then eating some bad street food and having to go to the bathroom...but finding there was no toilet paper! I think it was a good representation of Korean culture, don't you? ^_~

We then rushed to the next bus to get to the botanical gardens...but we decided we didn't have time, so we bought some roses and found a park and took a picture. Fooled them perfectly >:D

Abel and our group leader, SaeHwan

Everyone on the bus!

My beautiful rose <3

Sitting exhausted back at the hostel

After that, we had dinner, practiced for our talent show the following day, and then spent the rest of the night chatting and playing games with our new friends! No pictures 'cause I was too busy playing, but it was fun. I learned a game called 달기 (Dalgi; strawberry) and 홍삼 (Hongsam; no idea what it means), and마니마니(Mani Mani; again, no idea). BUT THEY'E FUN. and very loud.

The next day, we had our talent show. Almost everyone in the program participated, and it was actually pretty awesome. Me and my group o about 10 danced to Roly Poly by T-ARA (look it up)!
We got first place and 10,000 Won gift cards (about 10 bucks). YEAH!
The video might or might not be up on youtube under my friend Elaine Huang's channel.
Gotta go! finish later :)

SO it was a really eventful weekend, and I made a lot of Korean friends :)
Yay!

<3
~Kat

Fishies!!!

No, I didn't eat them :(
But they were pretty to look at!!

So today a bunch of friends and I returned to that huge underground mall, COEX, and went to the aquarium inside! I have to say, they got pretty creative when it comes to water tank placement. A few examples...

Inside a refridgerator...

Inside a fire extinguisher...

and a washing machine!

Inside a vending machine!





...and a don't forget the typical telephone box, diver and all~



 So yeah! It was pretty cool...they had a water tunnel and penguins and jellyfish and everything. The place was absolutely packed with people (almost as much as the train xD)...crying babies and all. But I think we managed to seee just about everything. A few more highlights:

Best sign of the year!

The picture I got was a bit blurry...but the picture of the turtle's description makes everything all better ;D                       read it if you dare ^_~



the best animal there...this fuzzy turtle plushie. omg it's so fluffy.



So yeah! My day was pretty long...the train ride there takes 1.5-2 hours alone. It was definitely worth it though...and I've fallen in love with this turtle. It's so fluffy I'm gonna dieeeee~!!!!

And on top of it I got a backpack that's really cute (something I've been looking for ever since I got here and realised I didn't want to have lopsided shoulders). So yay! Saw some fishies, some turtles, got a backpack, ate some dumplings (did I mention the dumplings? om nom nom), and sat on a train for a total for about 4 hours during rushour. YEAH!

Signing out~

<3
~Kat

Weekend with the Family~

So this weekend was pretty awesome~
Not only did I find out that my family is comprised of night owls (we went to Home Plus, which is kind of like Walmart, at 1 AM and then proceeded to have a party at home with the food we bought), but we also went to some nice places....at NIGHT! Which just makes everything like 20 times cooler.

So first we went to this one-one mountain thing with an observation tower thing? Sorry I don't really have any more information...I was kind of confused when they told me the name of the place (as per usual). But I haz pictures!!



The Observation "Tower" thingy? It's 8-sided :D



L-R:  Soungyun (bro), Anna (sis), Me, Omoni (mom), and UkByeong (cousin...but pretty much bro)

Haha poor Anna xD

After spending a little bit of time looking at the city of Seoul at midnight (It was pretty...but no good pictures 'cause the lighting was horrible. Plus, there were clouds 'cause of the rain, so you could only see a little),
 we went to 한강 (Han Gang...the Han River) and had midnight snacks and a bit of fun chasing each other around.


I love these guys <3



Abojii (Father) getting a piggyback ride from Anna...talk about role reversal xP

I have no idea how they did this...

So my weekend was great. (and I topped it off this morning with meeting some Indian people at a Foreign Food Market and eating some Indian food in Itaewon...home of lots of foreign things. Now I know how to deal with any culture shock I might have later...go to Itaewon and hang out with my brown friends and eat some Mutter Paneer!! Om nom nom <3

My amazingly tasty brunch <3

So it's Monday, and I'm happy to be back at school so I can learn more Korean, but the weekends are definitely something to look forward to with this awesome family. I can't even hope to express how happy I am that this family has welcomed me into their home for 6 weeks, but I still hope they realise how overjoyed I am to be with them. :)

Seeya later~

<3
~Kat

Kimbap!

So today I made something with my sister called Kimbap, which is basically the Korean version of sushi but with food other than raw fish inside (!). I didn't get any pictures 'cause my hands were dirty, but the ones from Google images are pretty similar to what I did~

I didn't really know what half the stuff I put in there was...but there was those yellow strips (top right), some egg, cucumber, ham, and some long brown veggie? My sister didn't know what it was called in English, so I"ll just be happy to know that it was tasty, whatever it was :)

When I brought all the kimbap I made to the Robot Academy where my host parents and brothers were, everyone was so excited and rushed to eat it. They couldn't believe that I'd made them...talk about a boost to my pride, eh? :P

That was my adventure for today! The rest of the day I've spent relaxing at home and reading after a long (but awesome) week. :)

Maybe a small amusement park tomorrow?

<3
~Kat

Getting Lost

So yesterday I had my first "getting absolutely lost" experience. I think I was almost in tears (actually was) by the time my host mom picked me up. Sadly, when I think about it, if I kept my head, I could've gotten home -eventually- on my own. I think it was the old guy saying (in Korean) "you're nowhere near there" when I asked him how to get back to my neighbourhood. (It was a LIE. I was like a 5-minute bus ride away!)

So basically what happened was:
Everything was going totally fine. I got to 구파발 (Gupabal) station (the station closest to my apartment) totally fine...and then realised I didn't know what bus to take. I'd never actually gone straight home from anywhere...I always went to my host parents' Robot Academy and then we drove home from there. My host mom had said that all the buses from our apartment went to the station...so I figured if I took a bus going in the direction of the apartment, I'd be good to go.
Only I went the WRONG WAY.

When I realised, I was already pretty far away (those bus driver go fast), so I got off at the next stop and tried to find a bus going back. But I couldn't find one. Sooooo I walked a lot, asked a bunch of not-helpful people for directions in Korean (most either glared or ignored me...or gave me the wrong instructions) and eventually, by absolute chance, found myself at the Robot Academy. But it was closed 'cause everyone had already gone home.
So I did the only thing I thought I could do: called my mom. She came like five minutes later to find me in tears and eating some random onigiri (hey, comfort food is good). Secretly, I think she probably thinks I'm an idiot for getting lost when I was so close to getting home...but oh well. At least she came and picked me up <3
Turns out if I had taken the next bus from Gupabal and not the first one, I would've gotten home 100% A-okay. FML.
But it was a good experience! and now I know my way around the complete outskirts of Seoul! ^-^;;

(hopefully it never happens again).

<3
~Kat