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