New Years Fun

Date: 1/1/11

So I love facebook because it is such a social network tool.  AND  I can steal photos from friends.  So, here are some photos that I stole from  New Years, along with some of my own, just to wrap up the New Years adventure. 

Final Subway Ride of 2011

Oh...we need our ticket number in order to pick up the tickets.   I didn't read that notice...

I love my serious face.  Really, its like "STRIKE A POSE!"

 So, after not being able to use the Mac store computers for some reason, I perform a surprise attack on a poor unsuspecting soul in the middle of the coffee shop. 

"Excuse me, Can i use your computer?" 

Quickly trying to get into my email....Success!  

After we get our tickets and eat dinner, we come back to the mall and Sarah and I go exploring the place.  I deciede to be a goof (which really isn't not normal for me) and dance on the catwalk.

 Dance Dance Dance...I think I was bitten by a jitter bug!

 Back in the bar/pub/dance hall area.  We meet this cool Korean guy named "Alex" and his girl friend.  He actually came up to talk to us, which is quiet uncommon for Koreans--they are a shy bunch.  Anyway, I had fun dancing with him, but I don't think he girlfriend was too pleased. 

 At one point, the girlfriend actually dragged Alex away from our group--after he and I did some goofy dancing.  Sarah and I ran into them one more time around 11 pm and Alex stopped to chit chat, but his girlfriend again dragged him away.  I don't think she liked me too much...

 I didn't care...I had fun dancing!!!

 And being a goof. 

Celebrating the New Years...with a balloon fight!  PERFECT!





I think Scott lost...

This is after the New Years event, around 5.30.  Our first subway ride of the New Year!  It was absolutely freezing!

Look, we're still awake!

 For all of five minutes. 

Katrina let us sleep at her place for the morning...which was so great.  We were soooo pooped.  And then Freddie, Sarah and I went to the DMZ the next day!  What a great weekend!

New Years Kiss

Date: 1/1/11

So, time for Culture Lesson:

In America--we all watch the ball drop, half way sing "Old Ang Sing" (Because who actually knows the worlds--their in Scott or Old English or something like that), and kiss your partner.  But....if you don't have a girl/boy friend, then you usually kiss a stranger.

I had confessed this to Sarah and Freddie the night before--and they were quiet captivated by the idea.  In South Africa, you air kiss everyone's cheeks.  I think it's similar in New Zealand, because Scott and Kat were also bemused.

Anyway, this turned into Sarah and Freddie trying to get me to make a "Free Kiss at Midnight" sign all night.  Which, I never got around to.  And, throughout the night, we would all mention "oh, Midnights almost here!  Maggie, get ready to pucker up."

At one point in the evening, I even asked the crowd of Koreans around me if anyone was single, explaining the custom.  The whole group pointed to a cute Korea guy and made "Oooh"-ing sounds.   The poor guy turned about 17 shades of embarrassed red.   Then, "mysteriously" the crowd soon separated us from this group of friend Koreans.

After that I didn't put much effort into finding a friend.  And News Years came and went, I was sad not to get a kiss.  I went back to the Balloon Fighters and sort of sulked about it.  Which prompted Kat to pop up and say, "Well, let's go find someone!" (Which, btw, was not what I was expecting!)

She grabbed my arm and we headed back into the crowd.

I should point out here that I am not one of those foreigners who is trying to get X-many notches in my bedpost during my time in Korea.  There is certainly a subculture here that will facilitate that, if it is your wish.  But not me, no thanks.  So, this was a little out of character for me.  I don't go around trying to kiss guys--Korean or otherwise....

So, when Kat walks up to a pair of guys and proceeds to explain the American custom, its my turn to turn red.  This is basically how we dumbed down the culture:

Kat: "My Friend.  American.  Migok. [Korean for American]  In America, at New Year....kiss. *kissing sound*  You kiss my friend?"

We went up to one guy and he said yes, to my surprise!  But it was weird....

So, Kat grabs my arm and takes me to another pair.  At this point, a fellow American Patricia (A friend of Scott and Katrina's, and the one who told us about this CountDown event) had joined us.  And she speaks Korea--she's actually the best foreign speaker I have meet.  She explains to the pair about the American custom. This guy's friend gets really into it....laughing and grabbing the guys camera.  Which is the perfect opportunity for Kat to grab my camera.

I love this picture sequence.  It sums up the next minute or so perfectly.

This is: "Hi, yes, I know, this is a weird custom.  But Americans are strange.  So, do you mind?"

This is the "American attacking Foreigner" photo.

 This is the Success.

And of course, Kat was quiet helpful.  She says, "oh, wait!  That one was blurry!  Can you do it again?"

So, I got my New Years Kiss after all.

New Years CountDown!

Date: 12/31/2010-1/1/2011

To welcome in the New Year, DJ FreeTempo played for a while.  To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with the DJs--it just seemed like a lot of the same beats over and over again.  There were 3 DJ chunks in the evening and they were just too long (roughly 90 minutes each).  But, whatever--we had fun dancing for the first while and then went off and did whatever.

But we welcome the New Year dancing the night away--perfect!

Our New Friends. 

 Start the CountDOWN!

It was really funny to be in a crowd full of non-English speakers for the countdown.  You could hear a voice or two of 10, 9, 8, 7, but for the most part, the count down was in Korean.  That was cool. 

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Confetti Cannons!

I love this picture!

The only annoying part of the evening--this American.  God, he made me embarrassed to be American.  In fact, I heard another person say, "No, He's Canadian..."
He isn't too bad here, but later on in the night, he was simply obnoxious.  

Sarah and I were in the thick of the countdown party, but the rest of our party was hanging out in the back having their own party--or more accurately--their own Balloon Fight!

Here is what I come upon when I go back to say Happy New Years to them:

Kat is literally sitting on one of the balloons that dropped from New Years.  She's sliding back and forth, waiting for it to pop.  Scott is trying to help the process along by poking the balloon--but it was quiet content not to pop--UNTIL: 

POP!  

New Years Seoul CountDown!

Date: 12/31/2010-1/1/2011

We have gotten our tickets, wrist bands, drink vouchers, and head into the Times Square Mall to wait for the CountDown: Times Square 2011 to begin.  We freshen up:

Put one some perfume

Visit the super sleek bathroom.

And then get ready for some great performances--one of which we find out will be 2PM!   We didn't actually believe that 2PM was going to play because they are one of the biggest groups in Korea right now.  But, apparently they were!

So, for 66,000 won (roughly $66 USD), we saw 3 huge groups (2PM, FreeTempo, and Super K2), and a bunch of others (Crystalline, Yuna, and about 6 other DJs and/or bands).   Plus, 6 drinks (1 water, 1 coke/vitamin water, 4 beer/tequila).  And it went from 8.30 pm to 5.30 am.  That's a steal!  Unreal.  To see FreeTempo alone should be 66,000, but we got that and so much more!

You might wonder why it goes from 8.30 pm to 5.30 am.  Well, you see, the subways in Seoul shut down after 1 am (I think).  So, basically, if you were not within walking distance, you stayed at the event.  And then they put 2PM (the biggest group by far) to play at 2 am so that most people would stay until the subways closed down.  So we were both stuck there and enjoying it.  This was great because I don't know if everyone would have stayed if it hadn't been for 2 PM--and we wanted a party and this ensured it was a party for almost the whole evening.

I finally got around to taking photos of the place a little later in the night, but just to give you an idea of where we were--here are the photos now:

This is coming down the escalator from floor 3 to 2. 

Looking up from floor one. 

Floor 1 was the main stage.  Floor 2 was the VIP section (oh la la!).  Floor 4 was the Lounge Area where you could get vitamin water.  And Floor 5 had the bar/restaurant where you could watch the smaller gigs play.

First, we saw Crystalline:

Then we got some munchies--unfortuantely, semi-warm beer and cinnamon preztle didn't really mix.

Back to the pub area:

I can't believe I actually got this shot.  To say the least, these guys were sexy!

We were really hot so we sat down next to the window.  It was a sharp contrast with outside being around 1 degree Celsius!

I mentioned in the last posting that we bought ear plugs and I must tell you that these were essential to my enjoyment of the night.  Korean don't really differentiate between EAR SPLITTING and Loud.  So, I would have been down and out for the count if I hadn't gotten the ear plus--within the first hour.  Easily.   But...thankfully we had the ear phones and it was all good.  (Besides the THUMP THUMP THUMP of the base in your chest--but you got used to that after a while).

Then we headed down stairs to see Super K2--which I learned was a singing contest show that swept the nation the past year.  I actually recognized almost all of their songs--which made me feel very Korean.

This is Huh Gak--and I really like his song.  Too bad I don't know it's name!

 And then the K2 Stars sang songs together--which I think is kinda cool.  I mean, in America, groups don't sing song with other groups.  Unless like a rap middle section to a pop song--and, I don't know how often they actually perform together.  But there seemed to be a real sense of flow between the performers.

I was on the ball enough to even get a video of Huh Gak (I think it's Huh Gak, at least).

Sarah and I in the crowd of Koreans.  We had ALOT of fun dancing and just being goofy.  

New Years Eve Day

Date: 12/31/2010

After running into Mr Pillow Man on the Subway, we (Myself, Sarah-best friend-and Freddie--Sarah's friend from college) meet up with Scott (the man I went to EPIK orientation with, Sarah's co-worker, and fellow Jeju-trip traveler), Katrina (Scott's sister and 8.5 year Seoul SuperWoman), and Ryoko (Scott's sweetheart for 10 years).

We walk around Itaewon and head to What the Book? (The fabulous English Book Store in Seoul), and Katrina shows Sarah a "Big Size" Clothing store.  Or actually, it's just a Western Size clothing store.  Korean sizes are basically American 0-6, and everything else is "Large-e size."  While Freddie gets a hair cut, we all chill in Dunkin' Donuts reading our What The Book Purchases.

We got very educational reading material.

Sarah's book was great....It read like a bad soap opera.  I kid you not!  For example, there was a chapter called "Getting Serious."  Here is an excerpt, at least the English half:

Harder, Harder!
Faster, Faster!
More, More!


Was that good for you?
That was great for me.


I love you.
I love you too.
I don't love you.


Let's get married.
Will you marry me?


I don't want to get married.
I can't marry you.
I can't marry you, I'm already married.
This was a one night stand.

Yep Yep....classic stuff.  I love how all the *cough cough* loving words were in sets of two.  You can tell why we got the books.

Freddie--post hair cut. 

Next, we head to the Yeongdeongpo Market to pick up our tickets, have dinner, and meet up with some other people.

So, back on the subway!  It's a little busier this time.

Ryoko's feeling squished!

I see you Sarah!

Thank you to nice Korean who we got to take a photo of all of us.  I tried several times without success to get all 6 of us in the frame.  

It was FREEZING in Yeongdeungpo, but w brave it to the Times Square Building.  It's a fairly new building--a mall, I think.  At least, that's where the CountDown Seoul was held.  There were some cool sculptures out front:

It was only a week after Christmas, but someone is still getting their Christmas cards all worked out!

I loved this statue.  

A close up.

Apparently we were too early, so we went back to the subway station to have dinner--yeah, KFC!  An hour later, after stopping and buying some ear plugs (The best 2000 won I've spent in Seoul to date!), we went back to the mall and picked up our passes, wristbands, and drink tickets.  While waiting, I took a couple photos of the scrolly-words at the top of the building:

OK: Start off with the Poster for the event!

 Now...the scrollies.

COUNT DOWN

SEOUL

2011 (!!)

TIMES SQU (ARE!)

From this time on, we are now in the actual event. Get ready--it's gonna be a long one!

New Years Eve Laughs

Date: 12/31/2010

The week that was Christmas was very hectic for this catfish.  Not only did I travel to Jeju for Christmas, but it also brought the new year.  And I decided, along with my Jeju friends, to celebrate the New Year in Seoul Style!

We found tickets on a site called Interpark, which actually is in English and fairly easy to use!  This was exciting because it also has a huge list of events (concerts, musicals, guest artists, etc) happening in Seoul.  (Website: www.ticket.intercity.com)

We went to CountDown Seoul Times Square 2010.  It was in Yeongdeongpo Market--which I had never been to before.  (Later I learn that there's just a bunch of business buildings in Yeongdeongpo area so there had never really been a reason for me to go there.)

It was a time for fun and friends.  Sarah had a good college friend over Japan (He's also South African, but a JET-er--Japanese English Teacher).  Scott's long time friend/sweetheart Ryoko also was here from Japan.  We also met Kat (Scott's sister) and Patricia in Seoul...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We travel up without any problems, until we get to the subway.  It took a really long time for everyone to get off, so Sarah was the only one who actually got on the car before the doors closed!  Thanks to the prior weekend's mayhem, we had worked out a plan that if this situation happened, the person would get off at the next stop and we would meet them.

So, Sarah got off at the next stop--and I called her to tell her to get on the next train (Because we were on it) and we would just meet up at Yaksu (the place we had to transfer lines at).  So, Sarah gets on the next car.  And she hears, "I don't believe it."  She looks up and is confronted with a man we have endearingly named Mr. Pillow Man.  Do you remember him?

Last week, when we had ridden up on Christmas Eve/Friday Night, my bag had gotten caught under all the people's arms and stuff, and I had been forced to lay my head on this stranger's shoulder.  He was very nice about it, not really minding if I took a picture, or was laughing my head off.  But for a good 30 minutes we were stuck like this...

Anyway, Sarah looks up a week later, on a different line, and at a different time, and there is my pillow! Mr. Pillow Man!  There are, what?, 13 Million people in Seoul?  We happen to run into this man 2 in one week?  What are the odds of that? REALLY!??!!

She smiles and Mr Pillow Man asks: "Where's your friend?"

Which is just fabulous!  Not only does he recognize Sarah, but he definitely remembers me!  I guess we made an impression!

We get off at Yaksu and Sarah is gushing, telling this story.  She had sent a text message, but I just thought that she meant the train was busy and full.  But no!  Urg!  I'm so jealous!  I would have loved to run into him again!

That being said, I am going up to Seoul this Saturday--cross your fingers!

Jeju: Day 3: Loveland

Date: 12/27/2010

Warning:  If you are not comfortable with 80 ft penises, do not read this post.   

The final thing we did on Jeju was go to Loveland.  A little history about Love Land (Thanks Wikipedia!):

So, Jeju Island is the honeymooner's island, correct?  Well, many people in Korea had arranged marriages so when they came to Jeju they got quiet an education about sex. According to a journal in the 80s, some hotels even took it upon themselves to arrange "erotic arts" exhibits or educational shows.

In 2002, graduate students of Hongik University started sculpting statues around the theme of sex.  The park has everything from "sexual educational films," a love shop, and 140 sculptures--representing various sexual position.  They also have large phalluses, labia, and the largest penis statue in the world.

The website of Love Land described their park as "a place where love oriented art and eroticism meet."

It is really perplexing to walk around this park and try to figure out how such a reserved society has a park like this.  But....really, it was ...well, for me it was really awkward.  But se la vie, right?

I'm putting pictures up because they are part of my Love Land experience.  If you do not want to to see these, do not scroll down any farther.  Just saying.... (Although, I am picking the least controversial of the pictures....which just peaks your curiosity about how explicit the parks gets, right?)

To see the photos of Love Land, Click on "Read More."