Last Weekend (May 8-10)

It's Monday morning -- and raining. Actually, I'm rather grateful for the rain since it gives me an excuse to just sit around and relax a bit. This touristing business requires a lot of energy! The weekend was filled with activities, all of them fun, but in total rather tiring.

Friday began relatively slowly but then sped up. Met HaeJung in the afternoon at the mobile phone service center. My cell phone had been out of commission for a couple of days, and, while I don't get many calls, I do have the need to be able to communicate. After completing that mission successfully, we went to pick up MinJu at her ballet lesson (has it been a whole week since I attended her class?!). We stopped at a nearby coffee shop for some needed sustenance (for her). HaeJung and MinJu presented me with a lovely red carnation to celebrate Mother's Day (actually, in Korea, Parents' Day) which is May 8. It brightens up my room, even though my "vase" is not too lovely (water bottles have many uses).

I had to rush back home to change clothes in order to meet InSook and InAe for dinner and a performance. The dinner was a Mother's Day gift to the three of us from InSook's younger son. Her elder son had provided the tickets for the musical. As always, the food was good -- and too plentiful.

The musical play was quite fun. It is a well know Korean tale 대장금, the Great Jang Geum. It had been a 54 (!) episode drama on Korean television in 2003-04. InSook obtained an English synopsis of the story so I had some idea of the outline. The story is loosely based on the historical figure of Jang Geum, the first female royal physician of the Joseon Dynasty during the early 16th century. It is definitely a soap opera with intrigue, poisonings, exile, disease, miracle cures, and, of course, a love story.




I had just been to the "theater" since the musical was staged at the Gyeonghui Palace which I visited on Wednesday's tour. It looked a bit different at night and provided a great location for this Joseon era story. The weather was lovely which made the outdoor location enjoyable.

The choreography was extremely well done. There was a scene of the young men of the court playing ball which was spectacular. The dialogue and lyrics were translated into English on a screen at stage right. We, however, were sitting at stage left where I could clearly see the Japanese translation! But I could read enough of the English that, along with having seen the synopsis, I could follow the story. Some of the English translation was a bit questionable anyway. I am still trying to figure out the exact intent of "sublime man," a frequently-used phrase.

Didn't get home from the late-night activity until almost 10:30!

Saturday morning was a return to my janggu class after last week's Buddha's Birthday holiday. Only 11 students were there, down from the 25+ who attended the first day. It's getting more complicated as we move into more, and more difficult, beats. I don't understand how those who don't have drums available for practice (probably everyone but me!) can memorize since even with practice I have trouble.

Took the subway back to home territory and met HaeJung and MinJu in front of Deoksugung. Since it was 1:40 and everyone was hungry (starving!), we went to eat at a nearby 샤브샤브 (shah bu, shah bu) restaurant HaeJung knew of. Diners are provided with a pot of boiling beef broth kept hot over a burner in the center of the table into which a variety of vegetables, noodles, and beef, sliced paper thin, are placed to cook at the table. Delicious! I was very glad HaeJung was there to take responsibility for the cooking.

At Seoul Plaza I had picked up a mask-making kit, distributed free as a part of the Hi Seoul Festival, and gave it to MinJu. She worked on it as we waited for the food to be cooked. She really loves art and craft activities. The finished product looked very good.





We went from lunch into Deoksu Palace where the Hi Seoul Festival was presenting the fourth afternoon of World Music concerts. Dong Won Kim was scheduled for a 3:40 p.m. performance with his new, still nameless, group. I was glad for him to have the chance to meet HaeJung and MinJu and autograph a copy of his children's fairy tale in English that I'd bought to give to her. MinJu and I are "twins" in our Hi Seoul Festival official t-shirts.


The concert was shorter than the club version I saw a couple of weeks ago -- and probably included a higher percentage of more traditional jazz. It was fun and well received.
As I was watching the performance a Hi Seoul Festival volunteer asked me to fill out a questionnaire about the festival. I was happy to do that but was somewhat surprised that apparently the festival organizers care only about the opinions of foreigners; they didn't want HaeJung's opinion. Since I'd estimate that 90% of the people participating in Festival events are Koreans, one would think the organizers would care about what the people actually attending (and paying for) the Festival think. As a thank you for doing the survey, the volunteer handed me a "present." When I looked at it, it turned out to be a package of correction tape. I have not used or seen used correction tape since computers became dominant. Somewhere some organization apparently had a left-over supply which someone decided to get rid of in this way. Rather amusing.

Sunday I went to church and then for brunch with Jim, an American contractor working with the military, and his Korean-born wife Sung Hee. We ate at Muscus, a very nice restaurant with a good salad bar. It's particularly noted for sushi which Sung Hee loves and I, of course, skipped. I returned home to change clothes and then head out to see what was happening at Seoul Plaza with the Hi Seoul Festival.

As I crossed the street heading for the plaza, I heard -- yodeling! It turned out that the last day of the festival is Seoul Friendship Fair which highlights other countries, and the group entertaining as I arrived was from Austria.



There were also booths representing a number of countries. Most had two booths, one with food and one with crafts, all, of course, for sale. With booths from a number of the "istans" -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc., as well as Iran and Iraq, I saw more women wearing hajibs in one hour than I've seen in my entire stay to date.

To accommodate the booths, an eating area, and an art exhibit, several streets were closed off thereby extending the Festival from the Plaza into the neighborhood.



















I left the Festival area, deciding to walk to Jogyesa Buddhist Temple to see it when not surrounded by thousands of people as it had been at the time of the Lotus Lantern Festival. It was much more peaceful. I enjoyed the combination of whimsy and beauty in the art.
After viewing the temple, I walked to nearby Insadong to do a bit of shopping for Minnesota friends. Just outside Tapgol Park at the foot of Insadongil, I first heard and then saw this poongmulnori performance.


There was a combination of costumed and street-dressed players, and a number of people jumped up to join in and dance -- including some men who looked a bit worse for drink and several who looked as if they might live in the park. There was a jing used as a contribution bowl, and it looked as if collections were pretty good.

Being worn out by all the activity and walking, I broke down and took a taxi home. Then spent the evening watching TV. Saturday Night Live is broadcast on Sunday night here.