^^63 Building
^^Snapshot of the Subway when you get on at the wrong time...chaos.
(^^ Random Band that played covers of Elvis and other random bands.)
One thing that is evident here is the impact of commercialism and pop culture, and I surprisingly have grown to love it. Even while taking a walk to the subway station from the main gate of Ewha you’ll be bombarded with sales pitches and catchy tunes. Well this is a popular women's university, so of course the shopping outside the main gate is called “Fashion Street” in all of the tour guide books. It is truly a street shopping paradise, or at least a convenient place to buy a new pair of shoes to celebrate the end of midterms. But it’s the same everywhere here, sales people with microphones trying to get people to come into their stores, people trying to pass out advertisements, and at every street cart selling accessories you’ll see pictures of your favorite celebrities wearing scarves. Earlier in the semester the picture of Paris Hilton and her purse-sized puppy inspired quite a few purchases. My first week here I felt like I had to get a pair of high heals and a fashionable boyfriend on my arm. However, I like that everyone usually dresses professionally, a change from the typical sweat shirts and t-shirts wardrobe of most American university campuses.
Korean popular (K-pop, rock, traditional) music also has its interesting place. There are some great bands, and some crazy fans here. Like I said, I went to a concert last week, luckily a free benefit concert with about 15 bands. I haven’t seen one band that doesn’t have a dance routine to every one of their hit songs. And since being a fan is not taken lightly, most people learn the dances. One band, The Wonder Girls, is probably one of the most popular now, their current hit being “Nobody.” Look it up on YouTube if you’re interested, it’s all in Korean except the addictive chorus. Speaking of which, why did I start writing this? It’s replaying in my head again. Ahhh. One night I was sitting with some friends and the song came on in the restaurant. Looking around I spotted a few grown men saying how they loved Wonder Girls and one mimicking the dance moves under the table. People are hilarious. Before I came to Korea, I memorized one Korean song, so I could impress my friends in Karaoke, but I regret not learning a dance as well. Well sad to say the Wonder Girls weren’t that great in concert, and they only sang “Nobody," but I still like their music. There’s no way I could escape it anyway.
Speaking of commercialism, some genius invented a wonderful unofficial holiday for a pretty sweet candy: Pepero Day. Pepero (빼빼로) is like Japan’s Pocky, a long cookie covered in chocolate. On November 11th, you may be honoring Veterans Day, but thanks to the Lotte candy company we’ll be trading Pepero with friends, teachers and anyone we may “like” here in Korea. It’s on November 11th because 4 Pepero looks like 11/11. Every convenience store I’ve passed yesterday going to and from church (I travel an hour away from campus, that’s a lot of convenience stores) had Pepero in the windows of all sizes and flavors. I think it’s more for couples once you get out of high school, a Valentine’s or Sweetest day kind of thing, but I still hope I get some Pepero!
This weekend was the Peace Buddy party for international students, with a costume theme and Mr. Ewha contest. Colin definitely represented here, putting on a great talent performance, unfortunately, yet entertainingly enough, someone in cross dress, dancing to “Nobody” won the title.
I was fortunate to make a friend outside campus that invited me to a birthday party, so I went after the I-Party. The typical birthday (well this one at least) turns out to be hanging out at a restaurant with friends. This one was particularly interesting because I was the only foreigner, and only girl. Everyone was really cool, tried to speak in English a little, and asked me questions about home and such. It was a blast, it kind of reminded me of hanging out with friends back home, and even though I didn’t expect to be the only girl, it was definitely an experience I’m happy I was able to have. Now I’m excited for my birthday next month! The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing: movies, window shopping, girl talk…just ended my Sunday with a load of laundry and a game of Uno with some girls. I'm really comfortable here, but I'm still doing new things, so I'm really sad there's only a month left.
