Mamma Mia! A Day in Seoul

People in Korea love me.  The first person I talked to (at the money exchange in the airport) giggled and said, “You are very handsome.”  It was a sixty-year-old man, but still.
I got in late Monday and went straight to orientationville, which is at Korea University.  The campus is pretty large and industrial looking, and it’s set on a hill, so walking’s not exactly a breeze.  There are about 300 other people in the program, and they all seem really friendly and cool.  Monday night, I basically just crashed because bright and early the next morning we were headed for Seoul.
The program headquarters are in Seoul, so this was sort of our opening ceremonies.  We took a 2 hour bus ride, and by the time we got there, it was already about ninety five degrees and humid.  Everyone keeps saying it’s the hottest Korean summer ever.  I don’t mind the heat much, at least when it’s only outside.  Problem is, even when we went into the headquarters building, it didn’t get any cooler.  My shirt was damp.  I felt the sweat soaking through both my boxers and my shorts, which is kinda disgusting.  Some chick said, “The Korean idea of air conditioning isn’t really working for me.”  I'd have to agree.
So we’re all sitting in this steaming hot auditorium, and then these flashing multicolored strobe lights start going off.  I’m going to call these “epilepsy lights.”  After that, they get the shitty techno music pumping.  A Korean lady grabs the microphone and tells us that the show’s about to start.  I’m just hoping that it will put an end to the lights/music torture combo.  And it did put an end to the combo- the music turned off.  As for the lights?  Those would keep going strong for the rest of the presentation, which was about an hour.
First, they bring out this wannabe United Nations kids show choir.  These twelve kids are from like ten countries and they’re all dressed up in their Halloween costumes…I mean, “traditional garb.”  A few of them looked so uncomfortable that I couldn’t help feeling bad for them.  And then they broke out into a twenty minute ABBA medley.  That’s Korea for you.

Dancing queens

Next up was a harvest dance.  As an added bonus to the epilepsy lights, they bring out these guys drumming on pots and pans.  There was not a rhythm to it.  I’m pretty sure this was just another part of the master plan to induce seizures.  Some middle eastern sounding trumpet thing got going in the background, and then the dancing started.  One dude had a long ribbon attached to his head, and he twirled that all around.  Second dude comes out with a freaking feather-duster on his head and joins in the fun.

"This floor will be dirty NO MORE!"

After that scene ended, they brought out a taekwondo team.  They started off with the standard group karate type stuff, but then they shifted into something like a break dance fighting routine.  There were two gangs and one dude from each group would come up and do a triple back flip and be like WHAT??!!  and then the other group would fight back through the power of dance.  It was part Jackie Chan, part West Side Story finger snapping showdown.
Finally, we got out of there and went into Seoul for a couple hours.  It’s a massive city, and we were only in a small part of it.  Seoul is a weird place- there are these beautiful ancient palaces, and then in the background you’ll see a skyscraper with website advertising on it.  There’s a giant stream with all kinds of forestry right in between crazy, bustling intersections.  Basically, it seems like this place has a split identity- one half is this peaceful natural setting, while the other half is a wildly busy metropolis.

We saw as much as could in the couple hours we had, and then we stopped at a Ramen/Udon shop for dinner.  I got a giant bowl of Udon soup with fish and calamari for less than four bucks.  It was pretty great.

Sadly, we had to leave Seoul to get back to campus before curfew (Yeah, there’s an eleven o’clock curfew.  It sucks).  Anyway, I just went back to my dorm passed out from exhaustion.  But I know I’ll be back to Seoul soon.  There’s so much more to see.