I came to the realization about a week or so ago that I've been in Korea for TWO months now. Crazy. As I've mentioned before, it can be easy to get into a routine- too easy, I fear, as that would make for a fairly boring blog. But! Thankfully, things are picking up.

Next week, for example, is going to be super cool. Observe:

Monday: Typical Monday...which means I don't have too many classes to teach. Neato!

Tuesday: Field trip! Going to some castle/fortress sort of place. I'm really looking forward to this.

Wednesday: Regular day. Meh!

Thursday: Day off, woo! It's a Korean holiday known as 'Children's Day.' Dunno what I'll be doing then, but I'm sure I'll find something fun.

Friday: Okay, so it'll be the busiest day of the week, as my Fridays usually are. But I will endure!

Not to mention my cousin's (rather, my cousin in-Seoul's sister) flown into town! So we will definitely have to hang out and have various misadventures. Good times.

Speaking of misadventures, I've not been idle!

For one, my sister sent me a care package for Easter, and it is wonderful. Candy! Comic books! Cans of Steak & Shake chili! Always a highlight of my day when I get cool stuff in the mail. I've been rationing the comic books- I've only read two so far, but they've both been pretty good. I'm just a little afraid I may get a couple of chapters into this 'Age of X' event Marvel's got going on, and then have to wait a long, long time 'til I can find out how it concludes. (Or at least 'til I can read spoilers on wikipedia). Then again, that fanboyish wait is part of the fun!

Saturday was pretty wet and miserable, weather wise- but I didn't let this deter me! I made a quick trip to the grocery store- where, in addition to picking up food, I also grabbed a couple of other things to make my apartment a little more liveable. A pearing knife, a jar to put change in, a mouse pad, one of those grip-exerciser squeezy things- trivial, cheap things...but somehow making use of them seems to make the apartment feel a little less like a dorm room. It probably helped that I also took the rainy day as an opportunity to clean up a little bit- sure, the place is still cluttered, and the TV is still on the floor, but it's at least better than what it was?

Of course, with the weather as it was, I aaaaaalmost didn't go out on Saturday night. It wasn't quite driving down in sheets, but it was enough to give me pause. Ultimately, I powered through, and went on down to Hongdae. After all, I had waterproof boots and a water-repellent fleece jacket to help me endure the elements.

I'm glad I did.

I went to a place called V-Hall- it's an honestly HUGE venue, considering the location. It's not as big as, say, the Pageant, but it was surprisingly big. Maybe about the size of a small school gymnasium? Hardly the kind of place you'd expect to find three floors underneath the streets of Hongdae. The crowd was...I dunno, maybe a quarter, a third of the crowd was expats? Possibly more- it was dark, and I tended to pay more attention to the band.

Adding to the sense of the size of the place, there weren't any chairs or tables or anything- just a stage at one end of the room, and some bleacher seats in the back. The walls were lined with lockers, which seemed like a good idea...but other than that, there wasn't much to give the room a sense of character like you'd find in other venues.

Also, the only alcohol available was Cass. On tap. Huh. The bartender (an American girl, it's worth noting) also said I looked like 'That guy from the Big Bang Theory.' Johnny Galeki, that is. I guess that's a compliment?

Unfortunately, I got there a little late, so I missed Kingston Rudieska. I'm not too tore up about it, however, as I've seen them before- and I'll likely see them again.

Oh, and I'd like to apologize in advance for the crappy pictures- it was dark, and the musicians were usually in motion. That, and I'm a crappy photographer. I should probably work on that.

The next act was a special guest: Conny from Japan (the 'from Japan part was how everyone kept referring to her, so I feel obligated to do so as well). She had the Rocktigers (well, most of them, more on that later) playing for her...and while I couldn't tell what she was singing (my Japanese is worse than my Korean), she still had a damn good set of pipes on her. She played a relatively short set, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Next up was a Korean band called Lowdown 30. They had a pretty interesting sound- kind of a delta blues/grunge rock mashup. Musically, they were really good- but I think their vocals could use a little work. Maybe the Korean accent just doesn't lend itself well to blues-style growling? Still, I've seen worse.

Then? It was time for the main event! The Rocktigers. Korean Rockabilly- or Kimchiabilly, as they describe themselves. And damn if it wasn't a great show. They have a great sound- and their live performance is even better. Velvet Geena, the singer, really knows how to work a crowd. And damn if she doesn't work HARD at it, too. She was always in motion, going back and forth- whenever she wasn't singing, she was goading the crowd- often thrusting her microphone stand into the crowd like a pike so everyone else could sing along.

It was pretty fun, seeing a style of music with such deep roots in American culture filtered through another culture. Heck, they even brought a guest fiddle player for "Come Back," which I realized was basically an old-style country song.

So yeah. Great show! Probably the best I've seen in Korea, but that's not a fair comparison, given I've only seen one other show here. Still, a couple of observations nonetheless:

1) Less Merch. The Rocktigers had one T-shirt, one CD, and a towel with their logo on it for sale. Conny from Japan had a CD and a T-shirt. That's it. I guess I'm just used to bands having a bigger variety of stuff- or at least the headliners tend to. Maybe the Rocktigers just operate on a really small scale? Who knows.

2) Less rowdiness. This might be the biggest thing that caught my attention. At least, less rowdiness from the crowd. Very little moshing, and no crowd surfing, either. There was a little group jumping around and dancing and such (I joined them, of course). I guess I would've expected a little more of a commotion at a show back home. Said commotion's not even a bad thing, mind you! A good pit can be a surprisingly friendly place to be, if the people inside know what they're doing and aren't dicks about it. Again, maybe I'm kinda spoiled.

3) Earlier shows. The show started at 7:00, and wrapped up at about 10:15. Admittedly, I rabbited out the door once they brought the house lights up after the Encore, but still. I really can't complain, as it allowed me to catch the train home. Not that all shows are like this- the ska/punk show I hit up last month went 'til...well, some ungodly hour of the morning, I'm sure. I guess I'm just too used to staying up later when I saw shows in St. Louis.

Still, being able to make it home and get a proper night's sleep certainly isn't something to complain about!

Which brings us to Sunday, today! A friend of mine had set up a picnic at Banpo park via facebook, and so I went ahead and went. My cousins did too, so it was really nice to see them. Banpo Park is a little strip of greenery on the south side of the Han River...it was, well, alright. Really, the fun was in getting to hang out with a bunch of other expats. Have some cheese and baguettes, drink some drinks, and otherwise be sociable. Certainly more interesting than just roaming around Ilsan, at least!

Don't worry. We cleaned it up. Eventually.

Which brings us to...well, now. And despite having a picnic lunch, I was still kind of hungry. Mostly because everyone had brought fairly light foods and snacks (I myself contributed some Girl Scout cookies, which were quite popular), but not quite enough to constitute a proper meal.

Which is why I took some of the chili my sister sent me...and I created THIS.

 

 

Yes, that is a homemade slinger. For those not in the know, it consists of:

Cheese on top of Chili, on top of a fried egg, on top of a hamburger patty, on top of some hashbrowns. It is a monstrosity of deliciousness. And I ate it ALL.

Diner food is surprisingly easy to make- which, admittedly, is kind of the point. Sure, there isn't the same ambiance as hitting up a smoky diner at some ungodly hour of the morning, but there's not much to be done about that now, is there?

In any case, stay tuned! I'll probably be posting a field trip report before too long.