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~

!!!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!