Best Spot in the House

Modern Korean culture surrounds us here. Our carpetless, dishwasher-less, central-AC-less Korean apartment has a floorplan like no apartment I've seen back home. At lunchtime, when our windows are open, the scents of cooking fish and foods I can't recognize drift in from other people's open windows. When we go out, I stare at the clothes the Korean women wear, because I've never seen so many people get so dressed up for just another average day; in the States, at least 80% of the people you see are wearing jeans, and here, 80% of the people you see aren't.

So, despite my actually very small experiences of Korea, I feel like I have some idea of their modern culture. I have no concept, however, of their more traditional culture. I guess it's available, in the temples and the museums and stuff, but I've only been to a few temples and only one museum. That's why the Korean culture show at our Army post was so interesting.

A couple of friends and I were sitting maybe 15 rows back from the stage 'cause the front rows were reserved. I couldn't get good pictures from there, so during the pause between a drum show and the first dance, I ran up to the front row and asked a lady who was 3 feet from the stage if I could sit on the floor in front of her. She said I could. I think I almost sat on her feet a couple of times, and I had to hold on to the stage to stabilize myself, which means I had THE BEST SPOT IN THE HOUSE.

We saw traditional instruments being played, traditional dances, and traditional clothing. We also saw Tae Kwon Do guys kicking boards in half, but I don't have any pictures of that because I went back to my seat so I wouldn't get splinters in my forehead.

After the show, we had the opportunity to try special sweet rice cakes filled with bean paste which originally were only served to royalty. Mine had a faint grape flavor. It was disgusting.

I don't know how hot pink became an anciently classic color here. I think they do that in India, too. I learned that my camera takes really grainy pictures when set to a high ISO. It's time for me to leave now, and I don't have time to figure out how to nicely wrap up this post.

THE END