Since Japan... Passover Seder, Mountain Climbing, and Poongmul!!!

Since Japan... I've been really busy. We had midterms last week. On Thursday I went to one of the most awesome plays I've ever seen with Stella, my friend from Shinparam (신바람 MN drumming group) who is also going to school here! She's majoring in theater, so her class had to go watch this play and I went along. The title is roughly translated as The Attack of the Washer. The actors were extremely good and it was really well done. Afterwards, she came and slept over.

Here is Stella and Pang (my roommate).

Friday I met up with a friend who grad. from Beloit! and is now teaching English here. I finally got to see the famous Kang-Nam, which is supposed to be the "rich" area. It was noticeably cleaner and less crowded, and there were a number of upscale restaurants. We walked around for a good while before deciding to come back over to Sinchon.

Jesse and me - he grad. last year

On Saturday I had samulnori class and afterwards I went to Sarang's house. Actually, first I went to her grandparent's house and had lunch (mandu guk - dumpling soup - which was amazingly good!!!). I saw her uncle which was really nice! I haven't seen him in like two years. After lunch Sarang's dad and I climbed Achasan Mountain; man does he climb fast! It was such a nice view though!!! I kept slipping because I was wearing my old converse which have absolutely no traction. Luckily, I came out unscathed. Later we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and had tangsooyook, chapchae bop, and of course, jajang-myun. yum! What a way to start Passover, with breaded/friend pork... I felt a little guilty, but its really hard to try to keep kosher here... However, I did a pretty good job of keeping Passover the rest of the week. (Thanks for the Matzah Mom!!!) Anyhow, I had a really fun time.

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Sunday, I was planning on studying - I did, but only a little. I ended up having an impromptu Passover seder. I was planning on attempting one at some point and decided why not Sunday? It turned out pretty well. My mom sent me a Passover Hagadah written by a family friend (Richard Codor's Joyous Haggadah: The Illuminated Story of Passover as told by Richard and Liora Codor - its really good and you should all check it out!) so all I really needed was the food. I had matzah from my parents and the rest really wasn't too bad.

making charoset

Our shopping trip to GrandMart to find the ingredients was pretty interesting... I was looking for some sort of bitter herb, parsley, apples, honey, cinnamon, nuts, wine, and a some roasted chicken to use for the shank bone and to EAT! I bought roasted chickens at GrandMart (haha, kinda pathetic I know, but they're pretty tasty!). Luckily I held this before I knew the Bird Flu was in Korea... No one is sick yet, so I think we'll be okay. I made charoset with Asian pears, apples, honey, wine, and honey coated walnuts. It was actually really good! I must admit, I was really impressed with myself. Man is honey expensive (as was the wine)!!! I was going to buy it, but the smallest bottle was very large and expensive, so I found a small can of honey coated walnuts which I thought would do the trick and cover both the nuts and honey aspect. Unfortunately they didn't so I ended up going back and buying the honey... My friend Emily and I tried asking for nuts and then cinnamon. We found one of the workers who was selling feminine products who spoke a bit of English and we hounded her with questions. haha.

note the bowls and chopsticks; choice passover utensils!

The seder was really fun! none of my friends really knew about Passover, so we went through the haggadah and read all the little comics etc. I made everyone sing Dianu too.

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Monday and Tuesday I studied my butt off... I think I should have started a bit earlier. But it all worked out. I got my test scores back from my Korean test today and I did ok. I'm not sure how I did on my Pop Culture test. We were given four questions and we picked two to write essays on. I thought my first essay went pretty well, but my second one was not well structured. I'm still studying... I have my last midterm, Korean Grammar, tomorrow. We'll see how that goes... that class is hard because there are so many levels; every thing from absolutely no Korean language knowledge up to fairly fluent. The teacher teaches to probably an intermediate level, which is slightly above me.

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This past weekend was super fun. I had Samulnori class on Saturday morning. After class, Vianey and I met up with Lonny and Pang to go to Sarang's house. Her parents invited my to bring a few friends over for patbingsoo (a dessert with ice cream, fresh fruit, shaved ice, and sweet red beans). We ate at the restaurant in their building. They specialize in smoked duck, but since the Bird Flu is here, they aren't serving any foul. So, instead we had smoked pork; the neck and the belly. Afterwards, we went on a walk around the Han River. Sarang's dad suggested we go to Achasan, the mountain we climbed last weekend. Her mom interjected and suggested the Han River. I chose the river because I really don't think my friends would have appreciated climbing a mountain. On our walk around the river, they were about 10 to 15 ft. behind Sarang's dad and I at all times. haha. It was cool; we got to see wind surfers!

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Tonight marked the start of a two-week, everyday, three hour poongmul practice. I'm psyched! Tonight we didn't actually drum; we watched a poongmul video and then learned how to make those big huge puffy hats they wear! its surprisingly easy! we all get to make our own. They're made out of tissue paper and cardboard; all the supplies comes in a kit! Sorry, I'm so busy, I've been writing this post over a few days. I started making my hat!!! Its fun! So, this evening was our third practice. As of yesterday, we have started drumming. It is really hard, but really fun! My legs are so sore! wow... we practice at this open gravel place, kind of like a baseball diamond, but its large like a soccer field. There are lots of people who use it; soccer teams, Yonsei football team (they're funny), random people walking their dogs or just walking/jogging to get exercise. tonight we started out by stretching a bit and then we had to run around the field twice. After that, we split up into our respective groups, based on what instrument one is playing (buk, jangoo, gwengari, and sogo). The walking aspect is what is really difficult for me. First off, I feel like my legs don't quite bend in the way "Korean" peoples legs do. I think if you can do the "asian squat" then you can also do the "poongmul walk." Unfortunately, I can't really seem to do either very well. I guess I'll have to stretch a lot... Your calves have to be really flexible and you have to walk a certain way; bending your knees and going "deep" as they tell me - at the same time you must be graceful, or "flowing." Let me tell you, I am not a flowing person. However, I'm having so much fun! My schedule has becomes completely full for the next two weeks. I can't imagine how the other 떼 tte members do this, with a full course load of difficult classes!!! We practice from 7-10 Monday-Friday, which is actually 6:50-10:20ish. On Saturdays I have my other drumming, on Sunday we practice from 1-6, and the next two Monday's are holiday's and I thought I heard someone say we're going to practice all day on those days! After each practice, we sit in a circle and have a debriefing session. The sangswae announces a instrument which works like sections, and the people who play it take turns talking and reflecting on practice that day. The normal order is sogo, buk, jangoo, and gwengari. It adds about fifteen to twenty minutes to the end of our practice, so really we don't get done until 10:15 or so, but I really like that get time to reflect what we've learned. People actually put thought into it and some talk quite a bit. I really can't see this happening in America, especially with such a large group (off the top of my head I'd say 25ish people)I think it's very useful exercise, plus, I get to practice my Korean. (I try to say new things, but it generally includes the words hard, tiring, and fun.)