!!!AKARAKA!!!

AKARAKA was so much fun! It was crazy how many people there were! I heard aprox. 10,000 people; almost ten times as many people there as students at Beloit! haha. Emily and I met 토 (Ghetto) and 뽈뽈 (SooAh) at ttebang at 12:30 and then we went to lunch. We went to a donkasu restaurant which was good and then we had ice cream. yum! At 3 pm, everyone who wanted to go to AKARAKA with tte met at ttebang. I think people tend to go with their major departments. People's majors here are kind of their friend groups too. I was talking to 개토 and he said that he chose a club and his major; so things he might otherwise do with his major he does with tte (his chosen club). So, not everyone from tte was there, but a fair number. We headed over to the stadium. This is what it looked like as we waited in line to get into the stadium. We got into the stadium and went to find our seats. Each club/major had an assigned area they were supposed to sit in, but people were sitting in our area, so we (well, not me per say...) had to negotiate with the group in front and behind us to get our spot.

!tte people!

I stood by 뽈뽈 who explained what was going on and showed me what to do. She brought her friend from Korea University, which is Yonsei's biggest rival. Her friend wore a blue shirt, but there were pockets of red here and there from Korea University kids coming to "disrupt" AKARAKA. Really, I swear they were there to have fun; they didn't do anything. We were there from 3 pm to 10:30 pm, when the show ended. In the beginning there were some performances by Yonsei students, including a dance group with one of our fellow CIEE friends!

go Andrew! he is in the back.

They actually showed a PowerPoint before the main events started! Yonsei has an actual AKARAKA cheer team (akaraka is actually the name of the cheer group)!!! They're extremely enthusiastic and wear funny costumes. I heard from someone that its very rigorous and most people can only withstand one year; they go through a highly selective selection process, and if you have that you were an AKARAKA cheer person on your resume, you're almost guaranteed the job. I'm not sure if thats entirely true, but its a very highly esteemed position.

They taught the crowd a few new cheers, and lead a few others. Then the big name singers came out: Jewelry, VOS, Big Bang, Sonyashidae (Girls Generation), 45rpm, Sweet Sorrow, Gummy, JYP (Pak JinYoung), and others. I only knew of Big Bang, JYP, and Sonyashidae... It was funny because there are two people in our drumming group who are going out. When Shonyashidae came out the guy got sooo excited and everyone jokingly said his girlfriend should cover his eyes. Then when Big Bang came out, the girl started screaming and jumping up and down, and switched spots with someone so she could see better.

Girls Generation

These singers are some of the most famous/popular singers in Korea. According to my roommate Pang who is a huge HUGE HUGE K-Pop fan, Big Bang is bigger than N'Sync or Britney Spears ever was - they've been number one on the music charts for weeks.

Big Bang

My favorite part was the cheering. It was really fun. Everyone knows the cheers, so it was a stadium of approximately 10,000 people doing the same cheers at the same time. For each cheer they would have the lyrics projected onto the screen on the front stage and everyone sang and did the actions. If you didn't know the actions, you could look around and copy someone or look at the cheer group on stage, who were also doing the actions with large grandiose movements in really odd faux renaissances costumes - the theme this year was Renaissance in Yonsei.

look at their kooky costumes!!! haha. They were so serious too!

~The End~

대동제, 몽몽이 aka Dog Meat, and 짐질방!

Hi!!

Wow, so I'm done! We had our poongmul performance today for Yonsei's spring festival (대동제). It was soooooooo much fun! These past two weeks which lead up to our performance were by far the highlight of my study abroad experience. In total we had approximately 54 hours of practice from March 28-May 13th, plus our performance was about two and a half hours. whew. It was a huge time commitment, and I admit at times a bit hard to keep to. I only missed one practice and that was to go out to dinner with my Korean class. I was to scared to miss, plus, I really did want to go, but our whole class was going out. So, our Korean teacher called Dahwa, the president of 떼 "tte" and told her that we had to miss! I love everyone in tte!!! They're all so nice, friendly, and TALENTED! It's insane how good some of them are! and they learn from other students and sunbae (former students!).

***

Anyhow, I'll back up a bit to explain my title. So, this past Monday (May 12) was a holiday (Buddha's Birthday) so we didn't have class. Sunday night I met up with my friend Stella (Korean) and we decided to go to 짐질방 (JimJilBang - kind of a bath house/spa). It requires that one be naked in front of others, which I wasn't so sure about... but I decided I ought to suck it up and give it a try. I'd heard really good things about them. So, Stella and I walked to one my friends had seen near our apt. but it was really sketchy. It was small and empty. We paid the guy and walked in, but Stella changed her mind and told the man we wanted our money back! He gave it to us, which surprised me. I called one of my friends who recommended one near Yonsei. We were close to Ewah University and so we walked all the way over to the East Gate of Yonsei which is where it was supposed to be. Except... it was past there. We ended up asking six different people for directions and wandering around for an hour. One of the people we asked was this middle aged woman shaking her laundry out of her window! It was pretty funny. We, meaning Stella and the lady, had a conversation through this lady's window while she folded laundry. We finally made it! It was so nice! It was only W9,000 (apx. $10) and you can stay as long as you want. We walked in and received our clothes (matching shirt and pants). Deposited our shoes in a locker and headed down to the changing room. The changing room and bath room (literally, where the bathes are) is where one must be naked. It was weird! There were women working there at the front manning the desk and selling snacks etc. They were fully clothed, but they were working in a room full of clothed, half clothed, and naked women. I was self-conscious and not really willing to be naked in front of everyone, but I went for it. Stella was already completely undressed by the time I decided to start unbuttoning my pants. The thing is, its completely normal to everyone so no was paying the slightest attention to me, and no one looks at other people. We showered and got into a tub. It was really nice! Very relaxing. Then we got dressed in our jimjilbang clothes and went upstairs to where the snack bar and restaurant were. We ordered PatBingSoo - shaved ice/red bean dessert (팥빙수) and Shikye - sweet rice drink(식혀). Both were delicious! Then we went to the sauna. I don't like saunas, but I was trying to be agreeable to maximize my experience. haha. It was so cool! We walked into this room which was pretty cool (temp. wise). There was a pile of sandals at the entrance. We each slipped a pair one and went down. There were people sitting/lying on wooden platforms around little grills chatting, sleeping, and eating. There were four small tent-ish looking things next to the wall. Turns out they were the entrances to various temperature saunas. They look like a small Bedouin tent might look. They're was a dark colored blanket covering each entrance. We chose the medium temperature sauna and walked in. It was dim in there; only one mining light was one. The floor was made of wooden planks and the walls and ceiling looked like they were made out of mud. It was HOT! and silent. No one was talking when we walked in. We stayed in there for a while; I surprised my self. After we went out side for a bit and then sat and talked. We bought a sweet potato and a rice cake to cook over the grill, which was fun! Everyone was so friendly. Some lady tried to make conversation with me. haha. She asked me where I was from etc. There was this crazy looking old lady who looked really disoriented and had a huge cut on her head; I asked Stella if she was okay. When Stella asked her the lady flipped! and got all mad and got up and left... weird. The next day was Buddha's Bday and I was bound and determined to go to a temple. Emily and I were planning to go together, and coincidentally, this jimjilbang was right next to the temple in Sinchon. Stella suggested I just sleep at the jimjilbang and get up the next morning to go the temple, so I called Emily around 1 am to see if she wanted to come to JimJilbang. I called her while I was sitting in a 76 degree Celsius room (WOW! I just got on line to see what temp that is in Fahrenheit and its 168.8). Oy! Emily came and we cooked another sweet potato and some normal potatoes, and went into one of the rooms again. We hung around for a while and decided to got to bed around 3ish. There were sleeping rooms. BAD IDEA! There were too many people in there and I swear, it was like a snoring chorus! At one point someone else in there yelled 시끄럽다! shup-up! and the snoring stopped for a good 10 seconds before someone started again... haha. I lay there for a good 4 hours but didn't sleep a wink. At 6 I decided I'd had enough. I woke up Emily and told her we ought to just go to the temple now and then go back home and try to sleep a bit. people heading up to the temple Originally, we were going to sleep there, get up around 9, go to the temple and then go to ttebang to meet the drumming group for lunch. Instead, we went to the temple at 6 am. Took a few pics, half a sleep and then took a taxi back and crashed for four hours. The temple was gorgeous and I wish I had been awake enough to enjoy it!

***

LUNCH with TTE Emily and I went go up four hours later to go to lunch with 때 "tte". We met at 떼방 the room at 11. Emily and I fell asleep on the floor until 11:30, when the group left. We went to a restaurant that serves 삼개탕 (boiled chicken) and 몽몽이 dog meat! (hmmm.... dog or bird flu?...) One the way there some of the people were trying to explain to us what we were going to eat. They got all embarrassed by what they were going to tell us and kept trying to figure out a nice way to break the news to us. It was funny to see them squirm and try to figure out how to say it in English.

can you guess which one is dog??? : )

We got to the restaurant; everyone was order. I'd say more than half of the group ordered dog (out of 15ish people). Emily and I decided we couldn't eat an entire order of dog, so we both got chicken, but tried the dog. There was individual orders of dog that came in some sort of stew and then there was a platter of dog in the middle of the table for people to share. Emily and I got up the nerve and each tried a piece. It was funny because we psyched ourselves up so much that we just popped the piece in our mouth; the people at our table were like "oh... you're supposed to dip it in the sauce." So, we tried another piece dipped in the sauce. It was ok... It was a brownish, slightly grey color; not good and not bad. It tastes like how it smells and the meat is really soft and tender. Afterwards, we went back to tte and had practice.

***

Tuesday evening tte was in the parade to kick off 대동제 (our school spring festival). It was really fun. We just played some simple things as we weaved our way down the street. We were in a parade with a bunch of other student clubs. At the end there was a stage where groups were playing covers of Red Hot Chili Peppers etc. Our group won third place and received a case of soju. After that we went back to our room, got changed, and had practice. I think that was the best practice we had. Everything went really smoothly and was lots of fun!

It was Ome's birthday that night - she got caked. The other pic is of a bunch of people from drumming outside on campus-there were lots of food stands set up for AKARAKA.

***

The next day was our big performance!!!! I had class from 11-12 and then went straight to ttebang. We all met and ate lunch together and then got ready. We got to wear these really cool towels on our head so our big hats didn't slip around. We got ready at 1 and our performance started at 2. A bunch of friends from CIEE as well as our CIEE resident director came to watch! (and take pics and videos - sadly, my videos were accidentally taken in time lapse... so there's no sound and we're playing super fast. haha) It was so much fun! We started at two by parading up and down the main street. We got to our actual performance spot - in front of the library and started playing. We played til about 4ish. 1. group pic 2. tte hydrates themselves with makoli!

the snail... ugh. 너무 힘들었어!!!

After our actual performance people started adlibbing, dancing and just messing around. There were a lot of sunbaes there who borrowed peoples' instrument and started playing. This lasted for another 20 minutes or so. Then I headed back to get changed. Luckily I went straight to the bathroom to get changed and had my hat with me. When I got back most of the hats were on the ground and people were jumping on them, like a pile of leaves. Then they stuffed them in a huge garbage bag. I love my hat! it took me a long time to make too! but I guess they make a new hat for each performance. Someone told me last semester they made a chirstmas tree out of their old hats! Anyhow, we actually ended up going to Korean class for the last half hour. Our teacher knew we had had a performance so she wasn't upset that we were really late. After class, Emily and I went to dinner with tte. They were at a samgyupsal restaurant and we went to meet them. It was REALLY fun! we just hung out and ate. A lot of people got drunk. We had to get up and talk about how we felt about our performance. Outside the restaurant we got in a circle and they all put their arms around their neighbors shoulders and started singing some song and jumping around. Then they pushed a few people in the center and kept jumping around them and pretended to kick and step on them. (I later realized that this was one of hte AKARAKA cheers - the people in the middle are supposed to be Korea University students; Yonsei's rivals) Afterwards we went to this really neat bar. The inside had dirt floors and mats to sit on.

my hair looks a little sad in this pic-from being squished under a hat all day...

The next day was AKARAKA!

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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!

***

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.)

Update

Saturday 3/22 I went to Samulnori lessons in the morning. I met this cool lady who is here on a fullbright to do research on ethnomusicology and what types of music are used in Korea dramas. I told her that I was taking a class on hallyu (the Korean popculture wave that has spread throughout asia) and she got all excited and actually came to our class later that week! I went to noraebang with some of the kids from my Korean class. They were all super into it. I don't really like singing alone, but they were from Japan and Singapore, so we didn't really any mutual songs. too bad. : ( I went to the Hyundai Dept. store with my friend for dinner. We got pizza, which was pretty good and expensive... Afterwards, I bought a dress on impulse. Its so unlike me, plus, its so unlike me to even buy a dress. I didn't even see myself in it... but my friend Vianey said it looked nice. However, I tried on the white one and then decided to get the black one. When I got back I tried the dress on and it didn't fit!!! Now, I need to figure out how to return/exchange it... Later some of my friends and I went to Dongdaemun to go shopping. It was pouring rain outside though, so it wasn't that fun. A lot of the shops are indoors, but still... all the vendors are outside. I think I hit three people with my umbrella and I got stuck between a vendor and the wall... I thought if I kept walking my umbrella could squeeze through; not true. It was a wet night. Sunday 3/23 Happy belated Easter to those of you who celebrate Easter! I was going to go with my friend Vianey to a Spanish speaking church, just to check it out, but it turned out the service was much later than we though. I was supposed to meet my Language Buddy, but she never showed up. My phone ran out of minutes, so I couldn't call or receive any texts. Later when I reacivated it I found six text messages from her... oops! I waited outside (but under an awning) for an hour and then left. Man was cold out! Monday 3/24 nothing exciting that I can recall Tuesday 3/25 Pang and I met up with our former classmate (we all took Korea together last summer at the University of MN) and friend Kaitlin. We had donkasu for lunch and then went to Angel-In-Us-Coffee after. (the name makes absolutely no sense). I had a pumpkin latte. Very interesting... You know how in the states pumpkin is full of spices etc.? I don't really like that, but this was basically straight up pumpkin pure with milk. It was interesting; there were nuts in it too, and when I got to the bottom there was a whole chunk of pumpkin. Later, after class, we went to our poongmul meeting. We got these free facemasks that some org. was handing out at the subway station, so later that night we got really silly and pretended we were ninjas... we got yelled at by other casaville residents because we were being to loud in the hallway. oops! Wednesday 3/26 I had class from 11-12 and then I went to lunch with my language exchange partner SungEun. We had shabu shabu!!! yum! It only cost W6,000 and included ice cream for dessert! Then we took sticker pictures, which was really fun. It only gives you a certain amount of time for each pictures, and then decorating, so we kept running out of time. Then Emily, Pang, and I went to get our haircut. There is a hair salon below InKAS in EeDae where adoptees can get a free haircut. I think we should have gone with someone who spoke Korean though... I do NOT like my hair cut. Afterwards, I freaked out. I was so bitter!!! At least it was free. Pang and Emily's hair cuts turned out really well. I just wanted a trim and then my bangs cut. I tried to tell them how to cut it and the lady was like 이상해 ... (weird...) Really it wasn't. All I wanted was what half the female Korean population has; side bangs. She obviously did not understand... So she cut them and then, I tried to tell her I didn't really like it and so she came back and razored them! which made them way worse. Basically she cut them too short, and there is nothing I can do about that except, let them grow back out. They washed, cut, dried, cut, dried, and curled my hair. It took so long we missed class... oops! Another lady curled my hair with a straightener which totally fascinated me. But my hair wasn't cooperating, and it kept getting bigger and bigger! the lady kept adding hairspray and trying to re-curl it, but eventually she just gave up. Afterwards, I was so sad about my hair I ditched the rest of class and dragged Pang to InsaDong with me. haha. Thursday 3/27 I finally met my language buddy (I have two through two diff. programs). Her name is MinSeo and shes a freshman. It was really funny because Korean school year is opposite from ours. So, this is their first semester, and our second semester. So, really this girl has only been at Yonsei as long as I have. Went went to lunch and had BoriBap (like bibimbop but with barley. it was really good!) Afterwards we were walking around campus a bit and she was so fascinated with everything. It was really funny and cute! Later Emily, Pang, our friend Ryoma, and I thought we had poongmul club. Turns out the meeting was cancelled because there was a school wide protest/demonstration against the school administration against raising tuition etc. So, we just messed around with the instruments and I showed them some of the beats the group is playing. Then one of the members came in to the ttaebang and invited us to go out with them. I guess all the Yonsei poongmul groups rented out a restaurant. All the new leaders for each group had to drink soju out of a big bowl. The bowl was passed around table to table and people could add whatever they wanted to it (salt, twedgigoki, onions, garlic, milk, radish etc.) We all thought this was very amusing. Little did we know, this was similar to what would happened to us this past weekend. haha. Friday 3/28 I went to Sarang's parents house! I think there was a misunderstanding, because I tried to tell them I had class til 6, but I think they thought I was going to arrive at 6. So, her dad called me right as I was walking out of class. oops! I takes me about 25 min. to walk back to my place from school. I grabbed my bag and ran out to the subway station. About two stops later I realized I left my phone back in my room... So I had to go back and get it. Sarang's parents live about 18-20 stops away, so it takes quite a while. The line splits too, which Sarang told me about, but I didn't really understand it, until it split... So I ended up on the other side! I asked these two women who looked to be in their mid-twenties if they spoke English and could help me. They told me what to do and eventually I got there!!! yay! I saw Sarang's parent's new building. Its so nice! There is a restaurant (where we ate dinner at) on the first floor and then office space and the top two floors are theirs. They house is so cool! Everything is automatic. (Sarang, I took a bunch of pics for you). The next day, we took a drive though the country. I think they wanted to show me the spring flowers, but it was raining, so we didn't really see any... too bad. It was fun though!

Club Initiation

This afternoon/evening my friends Pang, Emily, and I went to the yonsei poongmulnori club meeting between the sunbae (alumni) and the hobae (current club members). We got to ttaebang (the poongmul room) at 3 pm and didn't get back until 11:30 pm. I have to say, I think I've just had a once in a lifetime experience; it was a really interesting combo of tradition and college life. We arrived around 3:00 and people trickled in for the next half hour. We were then split up into two groups, the new people, and the old members. The newbe group consisted of me, Pang, Emily, DaeGil, and HoSuk (two freshman). We were to come up with a skit to present to the sunbae to "amuse them." It took us a while to decided; there was some communication issues. We decided to do a skit that demonstrated how to get ready for a date. We used one guy, HoSuk, and one girl, Emily, for the couple. Pang sat behind Emily and I sat behind HoSuk and we used our arms to apply make-up, brush their teeth, do their hair, and eat. It looks funny because the people sitting behind can't actually see what they are doing. So, we headed to GrandMart to buy a toothbrush and back to Casaville to gather necessary items. When we got back to ttaebang, everyone moved over to a bigger room in the Student Union. Most of the current members were dressed in their poongmul outfits. They set up an alter in the room with an old buk in the center. Someone had drawn on on the buk to make it look like a pig head. Dahwa, the leader read from a piece of paper and then lit the paper on fire - their wishes for the new year were written on the paper, and they burned it to make their wishes come true.

Four members played while everyone from each group went up and bowed. Our group started. We went up and did two traditional bows and one normal bow. Then we drank makoli (traditional rice wine). I was last to drink and there was still more left in the cup. I tried to give it back but Dahwa said we had to drink it all, so I took another sip and passed it back down the line - apparently, I was supposed to just down the rest of it. The current members went next, and then the sunbae went last - then, Dahwa sprayed us with a bit of leftover Makoli. After, all the players started messing around and ended up playing for quite a while, which was really fun to watch. Then we headed over to another room in the same building that was even larger. They laid newspaper on the floor in a circle for us to sit on and placed dishes of snacks around. There were also a bunch of liter bottles of makoli and pop. We all sat down and everyone received a dixie cup full of makoli to make a toast with. First, everyone introduced themselves to the group. Then they explained that all the new initi-ees had to drink makoli out of a gwengwari (small gong used in the ensemble). They would be called one by one to the center of the circle. We were to introduce ourselves (there was some specific saying, but we got out of that because our Korean isn't that good) and then take the gwengwari to our "favorite" person sitting in the circle. That person would then fill it with makoli and what ever else they want... anything goes. Of the current members, some had yet to be initiated, so they went first. The people they chose did things like rub their hands all over the floor and then wash their hands in the makoli, crush various snacks into it etc. pretty gross, however, they had to take a sip of whatever concoction they made before giving it to the initi-ee. (It was all in good fun). Then everyone from their designated group was to come into the circle and take a drink while everyone else chants a song. The person who's turn it was had to take the first sip and then finish whatever was left after everyone had taken a sip. After that, their group members would go back and sit down and the group chanted this cheer and person would have to do some sort of skit, like sing or dance until everyone in the room was satisfied. I was soooo nervous! Our group had five people, so we had to drink five different concoctions. The first person from the newbe group was Daegil. His concoction was the worst; it tasted like pure dirt. He asked one of the sunbae to do his. He washed his hands in the makoli, put some of it in his mouth, swished it around, and spit it back out into the gwengwari, and he rubbed his hands all over the floor (the room was extremely dirty) and then washed them in the makoli. The second guy, HoSuk, asked Dahwa. She started to take off her sock with the intent of washing it in the makoli, and everyone groaned, so she refrained. She washed her hands in it and drank some and spit it back out. At the last second, she took her sock off and washed her foot in it as well. Suprisingly, it didn't taste too bad. I went third. I introduced myself and then asked Ome to pour my makoli. She got all embarassed and was really nice; she did nothing to it! She took a sip, because they have to before giving it to you and I was expecting her to spit it back into the gwengwari, but she just swallowed and gave the gwengwari to me! For my skit, I sang san toki toki yah, complete with actions. I was thinking about doing the macharina, but one, I wasn't sure if people would even know what I was doing, and two, I wasn't sure I remembered all the actions. Everyone was way nicer to us, and let us off the hook easy. I was allowed to leave when I finished my song. I think everyone thought it was really cute because everyone else had sung pop songs or something like that... but san toki was the only Korean song I could think of that I was confident enough to sing. Pang went next and asked SooAh to fill her gwengwari. SooAh put instant coffee into it. It tasted gross, but I knew there was nothing really dirty. She sang a traditional Hmong song. Emily went last and asked ClrClr (everyone in ttaebang had nicknames, her's stands for Clean and Clear). I think she spit into it and washed her hands. Not bad. Emily sang part of I Believe I Can Fly. After that we moved yet again, to an even larger room. This time the member did their actual performance; AWESOME! It was so much fun to watch! They played four different sets, each featuring a specific instrument: sogo, buk, gwengwari, and janggu. After their performances, the sunbae all got together and played Uttari NongAk. It was fun watching them because they were all following each other trying to remember the piece. They did a fantastic job considering... some of them were pretty old, they grad. in '97ish. Then, they played around and had the "audience" aka other club members join in. I tried out sogo and buk. It was really fun. I think I loosened up quite a bit towards the end because I got a bit buzzed from all the makoli I drank. My face turned bright red! Pang told me my face was red but I thought it just a little pink. But when I got up to go the the bathroom I realized I was a bit dizzy and I was super embarrassed when I saw my face in the mirror! I really wasn't drunk or anything, but my face turns red really easily... someone asked me if I was hot after running around drumming during the ending because my face was red. Anyhow, tonight Kangta (former member of Korean pop band HOT) had a concert at Yonsei, right above the ttaebang, so when we got back, we could hear him singing! It was pretty cool. We tried to sneak upstairs which didn't works so well. There was lots of security, but I did get to look into the auditorium. However, it was too dark and to far away to really see anything. I heard a lot of screaming girls waving glow sticks though. We went to eat afterwards with ttaebang people. I hadn't eaten since lunch, so I was kinda hungry. We were getting ready to leave the restaurant; putting our shoes on etc. when we got called back by the sunbae. They wanted to meet us and give us a drink. We went over with SooAh, a fellow group member who is fluent in English. The sunbae poured SooAh a full shot of soju. Pang groaned (she doesn't generally drink) and so when they were pouring for me, SooAh told them chogum (just a little); they poured us all half a shot. thank god. haha! Anyhow, they never let us pay for anything because we are "freshman." They count your class not by the year you graduate but by the year you enter. Since this is our first (and only) semester here, we are considered freshman. Ironically, we are older than most of the other members, most of whom are sophomores. All the girls can't believe we are really born in '87 because we look so young, especially me. They told me I look like I'm 16... haha. Most of the other girls are '88 or '89 and the two other boys in our initiation group are '90 and '91. I feel old. Wow! I've been up 22 hours. Well, thats all for now.