Second Housewarming Party

September 17th, 2010
I went to the Korean language grad seminar on life in the 조선 Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) in the morning, met Karjam, had lunch, went to E-mart, came home and that’s about it (except for computer work and such).

September 18th, 2010
Went to the 아현시장 Ahyeon traditional outdoor style market for some ingredients, 김치 kimchi and other good stuffs, came home and prepped some food. Then I went to meet my 합기도 관장님 Hapkido instructor from 대구Daegu, 김유림 Kim Yurim, who was up in Seoul for the day and had a really great talk. We met at Hanyang University, decorated with protest signs but, as you can still see, built on a Western university model.



After that I rushed home and finished cooking shortly after three of my guests and before the final guest arrived for my second sort of house-warming. These were all friends I’d met at 임실필봉농악전수관 Imshil Pilbong Nongak Training Center last summer. It’s hard to mix Koreans of age, educational and class backgrounds, so I didn’t bother, plus our house is too small. Our guests were 최유미 Choi Yumi, 윤원로 Yun Wonno, 권은정 (도령) Gweon Eunjeong, and 양은석 Yang Eunseok. They all know each other, but the first three are members of 개전연 and Eunseok is not.

I wish I’d taken a photo of the amazing feast I made them (I may get some off FB from Wonno later). I made several 반찬 banchan (side dishes) from scratch, soup, kimchi and tuna to go with rice. It all came out well and was a big hit, But enough was left (and enough exclamations of being stuffed were voiced) that I don’t worry I underfed my guests. I did much better than for the previous party, partially because I prepped earlier and partially because I didn’t try to make a dish I wasn’t highly familiar with. After we ate we had fun with music- Karjam sang as did everyone else, and Yang Eunseok (who is an excellent singer and works for an arts organization now that he’s done with college) did a solo and taught us all a singing game, too. Everyone, including Karjam, had a great time despite the general lack of English or Chinese or Tibetan amongst our guests (only Wonno speaks English and he’s shy, also it seemed Yumi had studied a little Chinese, but long enough ago to forget a lot).
Photo on Wonno's cell phone of Wonno, Karjam and yours truly.



Photo:
I saw this outfit on the subway on a Japanese girl. She was practically on top of me, so this is the best I could get, I wanted to include the fact that the outfit was shorts that cut off barely past her butt cheeks and was worn over black tights, and the outlandish make-up, but this was the best photo I could take. It's like Madonna in 1985, but without the skin.

A Visit to the Yangju Byeolsandae Complex

September 8th, 2010
Originally we were scheduled to visit 양주별산대 Yangju Byeolsandae at lunch time, however the schedule was changed to 3pm, making my housewarming party on Wednesday suddenly seem like a bad idea.

I met Kathy and we took the long subway ride out to Yangju, where the 회장님 Director of the troupe met us at the station and drove us to their center, it would have been more than a ten minute walk on country roads, we were not in the city anymore! The facility was amazing, totally worthy of envy. Their stage was large, the seating spacious, with a central 마당 madang and a raised stage (so they could incorporate different sorts of performances), and a roof made appropriately for sound quality (not like the roof at Seoul Noli Madang). This theatre was attached to a building with central lobby, offices (multiple full time office workers!), a practice room (large, high ceilings!), and upstairs we were told there was a VIP reception area. The rest of the facility included a dorm with kitchen for visiting college clubs and what not, a school for traditional arts/Yangju Byeolsandae teaching programs (hosting over 14,000 students between now and the end of December in various programs!) and an exhibition hall with old masks, the earliest photos, a time line of the art, certification documents from when they become certified as a national intangible cultural asset and similar items. The Human Treasure met us in the office and we sat with one of the staff members the director and the Human Treasure and I helped Kathy make her plea for items for her exhibition. Then we went to the practice room, it turns out they have these wooden practice masks, that really from the front are identical to the traditional masks. They were willing to loan (free of charge) two to Kathy, and sold her a top and a belt that would go with one of them (for a reasonable price). Later they will forward some photos that show both characters together in costume in performance, but the costume of the second character was much too expensive to consider lending, usually it costs around 1,500 USD to make one. This was amazing good fortune for Kathy for her exhibition and she was very pleased as we returned to Seoul.

I rushed to buy some things and prepare for my housewarming, arriving home at the same time as the first guest (who was early). The guests were 지수 Jisu, 경호 Gyeongho, 경진 Gyeongjin, 현경 Hyeon'gyeong (Hyun from UCLA Musicology), Ian, Aniko and 회정 Hoijeong. After we’d finally eaten dinner (Jisu helped a lot, since I was so late to start cooking) my landlady also came upstairs and joined us as we ate fruit and drank juice and cold tea. It was a really fun time, I am so lucky to have so many amazing friends (all swear they spent less than 10,000 won on presents but I now have lots of fabric softener, fruit, a new towel and a big Starbucks mug).

Photos by Karjam