Icheon is quiet. Music is not.

Again, I'm overdue for an update. Oops.

Icheon! The whole place doesn't look like this, honestly, but I liked the picture.

In any case, I've been keeping busy. I've gotten settled in (mostly) in my new apartment and at my new school. The kids are older, and therefore easier to manage- but at the same time, they're also a lot harder to get engaged. The kindergarteners I taught before were ridiculously enthusiastic, practically climbing over each other to answer questions. Here, I get elementary/middle schoolers who are decidedly 'whatever' about everything.

What hit me hardest was a lesson I did for some 12 year olds. They're a high level class, and pretty good kids, really. The music lesson was about music genres- rock, classical, country, reggae, etc. So naturally, I burned a CD full of examples for them to listen to. And almost universally, no matter what the song, they were like "What is this? I don't like." I'm not even talking about the obscure stuff on my itunes, either! I mean, who can hate on straight up reggae? Pretty much the only reply I could coax out of them was "I like K-pop. Only K-pop." Ah well. They're young. Perhaps they'll branch out once they get older.

Though that did lead to a pretty amusing interchange.

Me: "What's your favorite band?"

Student: "Bestuu."

Me: "Bestooh?"

Student: "No, Bestuu. B-E-A-S-T."

Me: "Beast?"

Student: "No, Bestuu!"

Ah well.

So school is different, but it's alright. Icheon itself is kind of a quiet town, though. On the first weekend in November, I didn't get up to too much- went bowling with some of the other expats, and hit up the expat bar (which is a fairly decent-ish joint, I guess). Went to E-mart on Sunday to get tortillas and imported beer- nothing warranting its own blog post. Took a few pictures, of course.

I'm pretty sure I saw this in a Resident Evil game once.

RX, the local Expat bar.

A traditional Korean gravesite.

While wandering around, however, I came to a realization. Namely, Icheon reminds me a lot of Jefferson City, MO. It's rural-ish, but still developed. Kind of hilly. And...boring. Now, there may be some awesome places to go in Jefferson City (or Icheon!) but I'm afraid I'm unaware of them.

This was thrown into stark relief LAST weekend, in which I went to Seoul! The bus ride's honestly not too long. It's a little over an hour, which is about how long it takes to take the subway from Ilsan to Itaewon. It's certainly less crowded, at least.

My reason for hitting up Seoul was to catch Club Spot's Second Saturday punk rock show- it was Whatever That Means' last show in Korea, so I figured I'd hit it up. They were one of the first bands I saw in Korea, so, y'know, bookending.

In any case, I rolled in, and soon a Korean band, The Attacking Forces, did an Oi-punk cover of "A Message to You Rudy." The evening only got better from there.

Skasucks' frontman, in his element. Not pictured: EVERYONE SKANKING.

Skasucks once again proved they didn't suck, and they really got the crowd (including myself) moving. The frontman really knows how to work a crowd, and it helps that a lot of their songs are really catchy and easy to sing (well, yell) along to.

In between sets, I would exit the club to get some fresh air and roam around Hongdae a bit to take it all in. Club Spot is right by the Park- which is a little playground that is nightly overrun and turned into a street party thing. It was particularly bustling that Saturday night- at one time, there was a breakdancing competition (there's ALWAYS breakdancing competitions in korea), a pole dancing performance, and some indie band playing, all in different corners of the park. Unfortunately, given that I'm pretty short, I wasn't able to get a very good look of any of the acts. Pity!

So yeah. Whatever That Means did a great set- their last in Korea for some time. But! If any of you readers happen to be on the west coast, they're doing a tour in the States, so you should check it out. Google is your friend, and all that. I also picked up a compilation CD of a bunch of Korean punk bands- it's really interesting, as each band on it does a cover of a more well-known song, and then one of their own. I've given it a few listens so far, and there's some really good stuff on here. If nothing else, it lifts my spirits that not EVERYTHING here is saturated in K-pop glitz. Just, uh, a lot of it.

...Whatever That Means.

In any case, I'm just hanging out for now, taking it easy. I'm sure I'll find some more stuff to post about soon! If nothing else, there's another concert I wanna see at Club Spot in two weeks or so. Bunch of Japanese bands will be playing, as well as Nacho Pupa, who I really wanna see again. Should be a good time!