Nothing says 'summer fun' like mecha!

So apparently, this is becoming more of a bi-weekly blog. This is what I get for being kind of boring. That, and I got a somewhat unpleasant cold, some two weeks or so ago. Nothing a bit of aspirin and sudafed couldn't fix, but 'I stayed home 'cause it was rainy outside and I couldn't smell anything' makes for a dull blog entry. My Cousin went to an event called Mudfest. I skipped out myself, as I heard it was fairly...uh, tourist-y. Still fun, from what I gathered- if folks are interested, I'll see if I can get my Cousin to whip up a guest blog entry on it.

But! Worry not, things have gotten far, far more interesting in the meanwhile. School, for one, has been a bit crazy. For one, we went on a field trip last Thursday! Now, they kept telling us 'we're going to the pool.' Which is fine! But, as per the whole communication gap in Korea, we didn't go to the pool. Rather...we went to the Oktokki Space Center (which has a pool).

Also, the place had life-sized (ish) giant robots. I didn't have my camera with me, but fortunately one of my fellow teachers was kind enough to snap pictures on his iPhone. Thanks!

So the kids splashed around for an hour or so. During this time, I tried to keep track of at least some of them during all the chaos- got to play the old game of 'count the lifeguards' (though I eventually spotted at least four Korean lifeguards lurking about, so kudos on them for that). The water was pretty shallow regardless- barely waist deep on me (and I'm short!). Still, a good time, even if I'm pretty sure I tossed at least one Korean kid who wasn't from our school onto a raft. Oops.

The actual swimming part was probably the easiest. Getting them all dried off and changed AFTERWARD was pretty ridiculous, however. Especially when you've got the occasional absentminded kid with the tendency to lose...everything.

"Wait, where are your shoes?"

"I don't know!"

"Were you wearing them before you changed?"

"I don't know!"

"Hey! Don't wander off! Where're you going?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Thankfully, we found the kid's shoes (eventually) at which point we scarfed down a lunch of...dubious quality (hey, it was science-center cafeteria food, essentially) and proceeded to take a tour of the space center. Honestly, it kind of pales in comparison to, say, the St. Louis Science Center, but it's pretty unfair to make such comparisons, as it's like a quarter of the SLSC's size, if that. Also didn't help that the exhibits were in Korean, so it's not like I can critique them on their educational content.

They had a couple of, uh, 'interactive' rides- which mostly consisted of the kids getting onto some sort of pneumatic elevator that would take them up in the air twelve feet...and then lower them back down. The sign next to the exhibit said 'space elevator,' but it really seemed more like a carnival ride sorta situation. Which got a little silly, considering said rides only held like 4-6 kids...and we had 30 of them to go through. Yeeeah.

We also watched some 3-D mini movie. It was in Korean, of course- but it was fairly straightforward. From what I gathered, it was something about the ant version of Indiana Jones (Indianta Jones?) getting chased around by locusts and spiders and a forest fire for...some reason. Huh.

Anyway! I survived the field trip...all the better for weekend highjinks! My friend S (proper names have been redacted in the interest of anonymity- but people have wanted to earn passing mention here anyway) had a birthday party, so a bunch of us trucked out! Individuals consisting of myself, my Cousin, C, K, D, J, T, Afrikaner Lawyer (he gets a proper codename 'cause 'S' was already used), Iron Maiden Guy (he joined up with us later. Rad dude, though I'm not sure who's acquaintance he was), and a bunch of other people who I couldn't quite keep track of. It was that kind of a night.

In any case, after consuming a lot of meat (and more beer), we wound up hitting up a norebang. Norebang is the Korean equivalent to Kareoke- it's different from the American style, in that there isn't just the one stage- you and your friends all pile into a room...about the size of the one I'm living in, and dial in songs for singing into the system.

This is a thing that happened.

There's actually a halfway decent selection of English language songs, too- Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, Electric Six, The Killers, Queen...and, uh, those are the ones I remember, mostly because those are the ones I sang along to. Badly. Of course, the machine was dialed up to ridiculous reverb, so no matter how well you sang, it mostly came out sounding terrible. I've been told there are ways to fiddle around with the machine and fix this...but we made do with sounding terrible. It was fairly hilarious.

Really, I think I might like the Norebang experience a little better than 'regular' Kareoke- at least, if you have a big enough group. It's essentially the equivalent of having a bunch of your friends over with your own karaoke machine- no need to wait/suffer through strangers singing, for better or worse. Though now that I think of it, I think it'd be even radder if we could find a place to play, say, Rock Band as a big raucous group. Because if you're gonna make a fool of yourself, you might as well have a plastic toy guitar in your hands, right?

In any case, we're on a 'summer intensive' schedule at school now- which comes out to me teaching for four hours straight in the mornings...and then I don't have any classes in the afternoon. Fairly neato, I must say.

Of course, this pales in comparison to the fact that summer vacation rapidly approaches! And, for summer vacation, I'm gonna meet up with my folks in Hawaii. Sweet! A blog post will be of course be made on such adventures, but it won't be from the expat perspective so much as a regular touristy one- so the clever/nerdy pun won't apply. Pity!

Another music post!

Okay, I know, I missed a week. This happens.

Fact is, I had a fairly boring stretch recently- a combination of crappy weather and generic summer slothfulness made for a fairly quiet stretch of time there. I kind of doubt 'I read some P.G. Wodehouse, wrote a little, and then watched The Supersizers on Youtube' would make for a very interesting blog entry, at least.

But! Don't worry, I finally overcame my laziness to go out and DO THINGS. Exciting.

For one, last week, I went out exploring. I meandered out past Ilsan's Lake Park, and found...this. It's pretty interesting, to go from an urban area to a (heavily developed) agricultural area in the span of a 25 minute walk. I would've gone farther, but it was a little warm, and the place wasn't very pedestrian friendly (seriously, tiny little roads). So I went back to Ilsan proper before too long. Was interesting, however, as Ilsan is pretty much a grid of urban development that's a couple blocks wide, a few miles long...and it's surrounded by farmland. Odd little juxtaposition, but that's Korea for you.

Also, there were giant frog statues out in the country for some reason. 

Thankfully, this past weekend has been much more interesting! Saturday night, I went back to Hongdae to catch another punk rock show. It's a thing they do the second Saturday of every month, so I guess I'll always have ONE show to each month. Woo. Forgot to bring my camera, however, but what can ya do?

Anyway, Hongdae! It was as bustling and crowded as one would expect it to be on a Saturday night, not to mention pretty warm. I probably could've gone a little later, when it'd theoretically be cooler, but eh. Hindsight and all that.

So most of the acts were perfectly serviceable punk-rock trios- Korean and expat both. Definitely more interesting than most dance music some clubs play, but that's just my own personal tastes. However, out of the bunch of bands on the bill that night, two really stood out in particular.

The first? Nacho Pupa. I want to link to their website here, but I can't seem to find it. Shoot.

In any case, the first thing that got my attention was when they were setting up. I watch them fiddling around, bringing instruments out of cases and so on, and I had to do a doubletake and ask myself: "Is that an accordion?"

Intrigued, I looked closer, and found it was. At which point I asked myself another question: "Is that a banjo?" (It was). Not exactly common instruments in the US, much less on the other side of the world. So I'm curious, and eagerly wait to see just what they've got to offer.

So they started to play, and not only did they have an accordion and a banjo, but they also had a guy playing one of those tiny celtic flutes. And they started their set with "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ya."

That's right, it was a Korean-Irish-Punk band. And they were AWESOME. I wasn't the only one who was impressed, either- that was the point in the night that folks started moshing and/or skanking. Good times! Nothing like Celtic punk to get you nice and rowdy (in the best possible way, of course). I picked up their CD in a heartbeat, but I fear it's not nearly as good as their live show. Ah well!

The other notable band of the night was SKASUCKS. (For the record, they don't suck). I'd actually heard of them before, but this was the first time I've seen them live. In any case, seeing them play brought up an academic (read, music nerdy) and arguably existential question. Namely, is it possible to be a ska band without a horn section? As they've got everything else- pork pie hats, a rockin' keyboard, the two-tone beat, they even did a Specials cover!...just no trumpets or trombones in sight.

Regardless, they were really damn good, and I had a great time at the show! I'm gonna have to hit up this Second Saturday thing more often.

Sunday went a little slower, but no less fun. As my cousin and some friends of mine invited me down to go hang out with them, which was quite fun. It was a lot slower paced than going out on a Saturday night, but there's nothing like whiling away a Sunday afternoon drinking beer and just lazing around.

We also hit up a really tasty galbi joint- one of those resturants where there's a grill in the center of the table, and you pretty much roast your own food. Which can be a little offputting in hot & humid weather, but you soon get used to it. It's really no different from grilling outside, except you're just sitting down.

In any case, it's Monday now, and so it's back to the workaday grind. Things are going to be pretty crazy busy at work for the next two weeks, but it's nothing I can't handle (I hope). And in three weeks, it's vacation time! Quite excited, as I'm going to meet my folks in Hawaii and have all sorts of crazy tropical adventures.

 I've got some other stuff I'm planning on checking out before the big trip, however. I'll even try to remember to bring my camera. Stay tuned!