Ansan Summer Music Festival

Friday Mi Hee took me to the Ansan Art and Cultural Center for the Ansan Summer Music Festival. We got there about 2 hours early, so we had some time to check out the seasonal art exhibit. The theme was Korean paper folding called hanji - pretty much like origami, but origami is Japanese. Before we went in, I didn't really know what to expect. All I could think of was the little swans and jumping frogs that we made in art class back in grade school. I figured that it would be more elaborate than that, but I had no idea what I was in store for. First thing I saw when I walked in was a life sized dragon on the wall, all made out of paper. We walked around the first room and saw more than you could imagine. There were entire flower gardens, made entirely out of paper, hand folded and incredibly intricate. There were little paper boxes and animals and people, anything you could imagine. The next room was even more interesting. There were luggage-like boxes and furniture- armours, desks, tables- all made from paper. I don't know how to explain it. The colors and designs were so detailed. In one room, there was what looked like a beautiful impressionist painting. When I walked up closer, I could tell that it, too, was made out of paper. It was very thin layers of paper, carefully and precisely torn and layered on top of one another to create this beautiful image. Another group of items I found incredibly interesting were some pots, vases, etc. They looked so much like real pottery and stoneware, I had to touch them -against the signs telling me not to- in order to make sure. There were also little figurines in panoramas depicting history life in Korea. They looked like decoupaged paper-mache, not life like, but detailed and fun to look at. Check out the pictures, they're really cool! http://picasaweb.google.com/travelingchris/200708KoreanPaperArt

After the art museum, we headed outside for the concert. First up, was a break dancing group. They were pretty entertaining. Overall, they were good dancers and they had some pretty good moves. It was kind of funny though, because they were all wearing baseball caps, which came off every time they flipped. Next, there was a beatbox performer. I'd never really seen this done before and I found it to be pretty interesting. At one point, the guy was playing a harmonica without missing a note and doing the beat simultaneously. It was pretty impressive. Then the first group of guys came back and were dancing to the guys rhythm. It was fun to watch. Man, those guys had a lot of energy - they must have been at it for nearly an hour. The next performer was a bit more mellow, a blues musician -the "Eric Clapton" of Korea, according to Ozzy. He was really good, but I don't know if I'd go that far! Here are a few videos from the show. http://picasaweb.google.com/travelingchris/200708AnsanSummerMusicFestival

There was another band afterward, Crying Nut. They were sort of rock, slightly punkish. But we had been sitting on hard concrete steps for several hours by that time and we were both having back pain, so we got up and walked around while they were playing. We could hear them well, but we couldn't see them at all. After about 30 minutes, we decided to leave early to beat the crowd and we headed over to Ozzy's bar.

At Ozzy's bar I met a few new friends. There was a seemingly nice guy from Austin who turned out to be a little weird -like he was high or something. He kept on asking me the same questions and telling me the same stories. When I walk over to talk to someone else, he followed me over and started rubbing my shoulder and getting a little touchy-feely. I walked away again and he left me alone after that. I did get a chance to talk for a while with a guy named Paul from Nova Scotia. He lives just a few minutes from my apartment and was able to tell me a lot about the area and places near-by to check out. He also offered to take me around this week and show me where I could get some good vegetarian ethnic (non-Korean) food.

I also met a guy named Adam who is going back home to Chicago in a few weeks. He is actually Paul's roommate, and Paul told me that Adam has a bike that he is looking to get rid of. He mentioned that I could probably get it for free if I asked nicely, but Adam was pretty well on his way to oblivion by that point. I will try to talk to him about it when I meet up with Paul on Tuesday.

There were a few other people I met that night, including on of the bartenders - Something-Soo. I don't remember. But she's very sweet. She make jewelry and sells it at a boutique, but she had a few pairs of earrings with her and she gave me two pairs. She also read my palm and told me I was very smart. What a nice girl! Another great Korean girl I met was named Julie. She was there last time- one of the New Zealand guy's girlfriend- but I didn't get to talk to her then. But this weekend, we had a lot of time to get to know each other and I think she's just a sweetheart. She's also strikingly beautiful, with very distinguishing features. Yet, more photos of that night! http://picasaweb.google.com/travelingchris/200708OzzySBar

All-in-all, I am still quite enjoying my time in Korea, learning to get around and making some really great friends.