Sheer Madness: Finals, Drumming Performance, AKARAKA

Hey!

So, I don't know what came over me when I decided to commit to doing the poongmul performance with Tte, the day after my writing final, on the same day as my huge paper final, and the day before my oral interview, but...
It was a stretch from the start, but then I got sick which really threw a wrench into things. I ended up missing 20 hours of practice! Yikes!
But, when all was done, I pulled it off.  WHEW.

The night before our performance, we had practice as usual.  I studied from 1-5 and then the changoo players,무공 (Mugong), 따지 (Daji),창현 (Chanhyun aka Bennett from New Zealand), and me (별님 Byulnim)met up for dinner to energize ourselves for our performance the next day, so we went out for samgyaetang, chicken/chicken soup.  YUM!  Interestingly, Koreans don't know what a wishbone is! I guess they don't have a huge turkey holiday, but still.
 

 Samgaetang - it doesn't look that great because I started eating it before I realized I wanted to take a picture...

 ~Ddaji and Mugong eating~

 ~Changhyeon and me~

After dinner, I worked on my paper hat (고깔 모자) a bit. I still wasn't done with it and I was kind of freaking out, as I needed it for the next day.  People were very nice and helped me out! I had 5 poms to make and I think at one point I had four people helping me.
Then we had practice.
I was in Ttebang until 10:30 finishing my hat, and I was kind of having a heart attack, as I had my big paper test the next day!  But I finished it and it didn't look too terrible...

My reading teaching is awesome, and let me take my reading/listening test early from 9-10am instead of from 12-1, as my performance started at 1:00.  So, I took my reading/listening test, then my grammar/writing from 10-12 and then booked it out of class.  I realized that I had forgotten to wear a white shirt! so on my walk to Yonsei from Sogang (about 20 min), I ran into a PJ store, but they didn't have any white tshirts. I bought a tank top just in case, but then went to GrandMart and found a $5 tshirt.  Of course the sports wear was on the top level, so I rode the escalator up and up and up looking for tshirts. When I finally found the floor, the lady asked me what I was looking for and I told her I needed a white tshirt she directed to me and asked me if I was shopping for my husband. Um, no.
I just kind of looked at her and then she switched to boyfriend. weird. Since I was running really short on time, I just went with it and pretended to be shopping for my non-existent boyfriend. 

Normally, I really appreciate how Korea likes to give you good service and presentation, but after I bought my shirt and she was trying to wrap it up in cellophane.  I told her it wasn't necessary and she seemed rather regretful that I wasn't going to have my shirt wrapped up in a clear plastic bag.  Then, she tried to put it in a regular plastic shopping bag, which I also told her I didn't need.  I probably should have just let her, but what a waste.  Anyhow, she finally handed over the shirt, I thanked her and booked it back down 7 escalators and to Yonsei, all the while, shoving kimbop in my mouth, as I didn't have time for lunch.  haha.

Anyhow, I got to Ttebang and went to change really quick.  Kyungmoon and Nik came, and Sarang brought her two English students, and Susie, her friend Celine and her boyfriend, Mark came!  Unfortunately, we were supposed to start at 1 but there was some sort of scheduling conflict because there was a taekwondo demo where we were supposed to perform. Lame. So, we had to parade around the streets for an entire hour.  Which was really too bad because I had another friend coming, but since we weren't where I had told him, he couldn't find us, and Sarang, Susie et al. and Kyungmoon had to leave before we even started our actual performance....

 wandering around campus killing an hour...

            1. wandering and playing                                                  2. Susie and I

 taekwondo demo.. grrr.

Nik came extremely prepared and was the most amazing camera/film person.  He had his computer with so he could continually upload videos to make space for more footage on the camera memory cards.

Sunbaes hydrating someone with a cup of makoli, rice wine

The actually performance went well! I was no where near perfect. lol! So, two years ago when I performed my problem was getting enough turns in. This time I had the exact opposite problem.  I over turned. I continued to spin long after we had moved on to the next step, which is particular obvious in the video of Seol Changoo, the changoo solo piece. Oy vey. Oh well. ^__^

 The End! 인사

The weather was absolutely perfect though and overall the performance went really well! and of course, was lots of fun!

group picture after our performance

 복범 (Buk leader and club president), 망사 (sangswae), 헤금 (sogo leader),무공 (changoo leader) 

- '08

 *Changhyeon, Ddaji, and me*

After the performance, Nik and I wandered around the festival a bit.  There was a lot of international cuisine available; Nepali, Turkish ice cream, "american food" whatever that is, etc.  We bought Yonsei shirts that say: "With out saying, Yonsei" on the back and have Yonsei in sign language on the front. I didn't look at it too closely when I bought it, but when I looked at it later at home, I realized they didn't even use Korean Sign Language.  The shirt has BSL, British Sign Language. Randomly disappointing.

We went to a cafe for a bit so I could attempt to study for my oral interview... That didn't work so well. haha. And we met up with Tte later for dinner/뒷풀이 (relaxing time aka drinking and eating).  We had samgyupsal and soju, the traditional fare for 뒷풀이 haha!  It was really fun! Nik came along, and showed some of the video footage he shot of our performance.
I sat next to 클클 who was in tte two year ago and I think we had our first full conversation! It was so nice to be able to have an actual conversation with her! and of course to see a tangible example of how my Korean has actually improved.  ^^
Everyone went around by year and gave a self introduction and talked about their thoughts on our performance and experiences during the past two weeks.  There were 33 people and it only took about 30-40 minutes! I think that's record time for Tte! haha.

Eating dinner

강박 Kangbak - last years Tte club president ('07), 알싸 AhlSah  ('09), 뽈뽈 BbolBbol ('07), 깔삶 Ggalsalm - last years changoo leader ('07)

Mugong and I - two years ago she didn't know how to play changoo and now she is the changoo leader! way to go Moogong 무공!

'07 class, the largest class, giving small speeches/introductions

Unfortunately, I had to leave around 9:30 because I had my oral interview the next morning at 9:20... So, 뒷풀이 has something like four stages, eating and drinking is only the first.  So, apparently, they were out to noraebang until 3 am.  wow. That's hardcore.

My interview was terrible, or so I thought.  For our midterms, we were interviewed by our speaking teacher and it was super chill and informal.  But for our final, a level 3 teacher interviews and records your interview.
The teacher mainly asked me questions that required reported speech grammar.  Initially, I just answered normally, but the teacher kept repeating herself until I realized she was looking for reported speech. Ugh. It's so dumb, but while I was studying the night before, it honestly didn't even occur to me to study that.  I can use reported speech in reading and writing fine, but implementing into speaking is HARD!
I walked out feeling pretty bad about how my interview went, but I ended up getting 90% on my oral interview, so whatever.  It must have been okay...

Anyhow, after my test I met up with Nik and we went to G.O.A.L in Hongdae.  I received a partial scholarship from the organization to study Korean at Sogang, but hadn't made it over to visit their headquarters yet.  The people were really nice and Nik (previously interned at GOAL) and I set up their book display.

Then I headed to Yonsei for AKARAKA at 3:30.  I hadn't been planning on going until the night before when 무공 the lead changoo asked me if I wanted to go.  Initially, I thought I wasn't allowed to go, as I'm not a Yonsei student, but they managed to get me a ticket! I'm really not that into Korean pop music, and a lot of stars come to AKARAKA, so I wasn't too upset. But I'm sooo glad I got to go! I was sooo much fun! Honestly, I had more fun this time, than when I was on study abroad. I think that's partially because I knew more of the singers that came this time, including my favorite Korean singer, Yoon Mi-Rae, and also because I had one AKARAKA under my belt, I knew the cheers and actions better and was able to follow along.  It was insanely fun, and I felt like I let out all my stress from tests and performance prep. through jumping around, dancing, and screaming. ^^ And the weather was perfect!

AKARAKA Pics - click on them to make them larger

1. New Balance sponsored

2. students in the auditorium

Mugong and me

1. crowd

2. Beast - Kpop group

1. DJ Doc group

2. Drunken Tiger and Yoon MiRae = amazing

KBS (Korean Broadcasting Station) passed around a huge flag - I think we were on TV

1. the flag

2. Psy - singer

peoples' cell phone lights

1. Fireworks!!!

2. Yonsei Univ. band

the AKARAKA cheer group - I heard from someone that if you have that on you're resume you're guaranteed a job.

Ddaji, who is learning Korean Sign Lang. and me with our shirts on

After AKARAKA in front of Ttebang

~THE END~

first drumming lesson!

So I had my first poongmul class today. It was awesome! I had tutoring from 5-6 (we ended at 6:16), so I was running a bit late... I had to get from sineemoon to nambu bus terminal for my lessons, which takes aprox. 1 hour, and my lesson was to start at 7:30. So I booked it to the bus stop, transferred to the train station and took the metro there.

The weather is super messed up; it was snowing and dark and I was late when I got to nambu bus terminal, so I decided to take a taxi my lessons instead of walking and getting lost and wandering around for like 30 min, which is totally what would have happened had I tried.
The taxi driver had no idea where this pilbong school was, but he was really nice and drove me around. He asked someone but they didn't know. I called Dongwon and he told me to wait at the GS25 and someone would come get me. I so almost found it! It was right across the street from the GS25, and I drove by it about like 3 times...

Anyhow, Eugene, one of my classmates met me and we went back. I met my two teachers and the main teacher and I got a bit acquainted. People started showing up around 7:40ish (definitely running on Korean time) and we started class.
We played changoo first and I was happy to find that my level was pretty on par with everyone. Whew. I really wasn't sure what to expect. Dongwon mentioned that it would be all adults, so I was thinking a class with a bunch of ajussis and ajumas (middle aged people) but the people turned out to be roughly my age! So, that was a nice surprise.

There are 4 girls, including myself and one boy, who goes to Sogang! I think today was the first day... Maybe. It was obviously my first day, but also Eugene's first day and YoungIn's (boy) first day. Anyhow, back to class. We played changoo for the first part, and then ggwengari for the second part, and sogo for the third section. It was my first time playing sogo, besides that one day I tried to learn it in Tte bang at Yonsei and miserably failed. I just remember they kept telling me to be more "flowing." I'm still not very flowing, but I kind of got it by the end... lol. The playing style is definitely different from what I've learned previously, but I really like it. It seems more relaxed. The teacher is extremely friendly and nice, so that helps too.

After class, the three newbies (me, Eugene, and YoungIn) went out with our teachers to drink beer and eat chicken. Nice. I said I'd go even though I hadn't finished my homework... And I think I'm just going to do that tomorrow because I wanna go to bed now. Eugene lives kind of near me, so we rode the subway to hwegi together. She is really nice, is a 4th year at her university, and is majoring in Education!!! The language issue is still a big barrier... I need to study my butt off so I can hold a semi coherent conversation... Ugh. The school offers other classes too, but of course, just my luck they are on the days that I tutor (Mon and Fri), so unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to make them, which kind of sucks. But I guess I can only ask for so much.^^ Anyhow, good night!