Last week was Chuseok, which is a holiday known as Korean Thanksgiving. Chuseok fell on Wednesday this year, which meant that we got an extra long break - 10 days off. My mom came to visit!
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I had breakfast at the guesthouse and checked out to head over to Jusungolli cliffs (주상절리). The rain let up shortly after I arrived and it cleared up to be a beautiful day.
At the beginning of the month I went to Pyeongtaek for a Native English Teacher workshop. There were about 80 other foreign teachers and we spent 2 days discussing EFL teaching and learning new techniques. We stayed overnight in dorm rooms and it was actually a lot of fun - except that I had a headache from speaking so much English. There was also a cafeteria there and the food was surprisingly good.
At the end of the first day they had a performance for us, and it was a band playing traditional Korean instruments as well as a pansori singer. I'm actually really interested in pansori, which is a form of musical storytelling which originated in the 1600s. I've been trying to compile the pansori madang but it's difficult because they aren't very accessible to non-Korean speakers. Even though I can't understand the stories, I still think it's nice to listen to and I appreciate how complex it is to sing pansori. The singer who performed for us was lovely.
I think I have a new favorite restaurant in my town. They have real pizza! And pasta! With an alfredo sauce that isn't terrible! However, I went to this restaurant three times with three different friends in the same week and the same employee took my order all three times, so I need to not show my face there for a while.
After lunch we went to a cafe which is owned by a famous actor (I've never seen any of his movies or TV shows, though). It was on a lake and there were gardens to walk through. It was pretty. We were there for maybe an hour and I spent a good amount of that time trying to get the attention of a German Shepard that was sleeping on the porch. I was mostly unsuccessful.
I'm desk-warming all this week, then next week I'll be in Jeju-do!
On Saturday the 8th I went to Seoul World Cup Stadium to see SMTown Live. SM Entertainment is a huge entertainment company here and there are quite a few artists signed under them - including SHINee and EXO, as well as two of my favorite girl groups. I've actually seen this concert before - they came to Madison Square Garden back in 2011. I think it was the second kpop concert I attended. EXO hadn't debuted yet, and f(x) still... existed.
I got there early because there were a ton of things to do before the show - they had a whole area of tents set up with activities. There was even a karaoke tent. It was raining on and off all day, so I had reason to buy the SHINee rain coat I'd been eyeing up a few months ago.
Luna - Free Somebody
This next video is absolutely not mine, but I'm not posting my video because it's really just me yelling the lyrics. Jonghyun (the husband) performed one of his solo songs, so if anyone is interested in what the four solo shows of his that I went to were like, this is it.
SHINee - Replay
SHINee- Sherlock
I have to post this other SHINee video that is not mine because the fanchants here are amazing, and the SHINee fan section was to the left side of the venue so the boys kept pointing over that way and singing to them and throwing hearts. You can't really see that in my video. They're such hams?
About a week before this concert, President Obama was in Seoul for a conference and he mentioned SHINee in a speech he gave. SHINee heard about it and one of the members posted a message to Obama on his sns. The whole exchange was brought up during the show, and they put pictures of Obama giving his speech up on the screens. In that moment, I was proud to be an American.
The whole thing is extra funny because for the past few years it's been a running joke among kpop fans that Obama's favorite kpop group is SHINee, so for Obama to actually mention them was like confirmation - the joke became real.
EXO performing Drop That live never gets old.
I forgot that this concert is like 9 days long... and almost didn't make the last bus home. Actually I totally missed the last bus home. The subway stopped running, too, so I took a cab to Gangnam, because I figured if I was going to spend the night chilling in a 24-hour McDonald's waiting for buses to start running in the morning, I should be in a Gangnam McDonald's. Luckily I made it into Gangnam in time to catch a different bus that goes to the town I live in but drops off on the other side of town. So I eventually made it home after a long walk across town at 2:30 am.After barely making it home Saturday night, I got back on a bus to Seoul on Sunday to see Guckkasten play Olympic Park Hall. Another band that I've liked for years but never thought I'd have the opportunity to see live. I don't even have words for how amazing the vocalist of this band is.
Guckkasten - Mirror
Guckkasten - 한잔의 추억
Guckkasten - 한잔의 추억
You might notice in this last video that... there's no one on stage. This was after the encore. The crowd just didn't leave. Like, the band had probably left the building and we were all still standing there like maybe, just maybe they would come back on stage. The guys in the booth ended up playing a few songs for us, stage lights and TV screens included, and everyone danced like the concert was still going.
Guckkasten - Sink Hole
