WEEK 9: The Immersion

Been so influenced by Korean culture lately. HAHA!

Why is that so? Well, I went to three event that describe the Korean culture as a whole (well, not whole, but unique one).

First, is the Korean traditional culture which has been impressively carried on throughout generations until today. Art schools, including SNU, which has a College of Music, in Korea even have a branch of studies on Korean traditional music and art. This shows (IMO) how deep the Koreans appreciate their own culture and I think that is really amazing. One of my friend would graduate soon and thus, would hold a senior recital together with other graduating students. She was playing the 'Geomungo', a traditional instrument using strings and flickers to generate the oriental pitch.

The performance was a masterpiece. I found Korean music was just as interesting as Chinese or Japanese traditional music with its Guzheng and Koto. HAHA! I love those sounds. It makes a music sounds so oriental and Asians. XD

I also stumbled upon the Pansori performance in the senior recital. Pansori was basically a musical storytelling where there would be a narrator telling story in poetic way accompanied by light music/beats. Sometimes, the audience would interact with the narrator signifying that the audience are indeed listening and agreeing to what the narrator said.

Second, we would still be in a traditional domain of Korean culture. It is a Temple Stay program. I would just talk about this on my another post. HAHA! This Temple Stay is all about experiencing Korean Buddhism known as Seon (or ZEN, if that rings a bell).

Third, we shifted 180 degrees towards the modern culture, the Starcraft fever. In Korea, Starcraft is a sport, everything else is opinion. HAHA!

I went to GOMTV studio where the match was webcasted LIVE. It was the match between two teenage-looking guys. One is using Terran, while the other uses Zerg. The match was very serious and exciting. This is the first time I got excited because of watching the game. For me, i.e. CounterStrike, watching is never fun. HAHA! You CANT believe what you see. I got a culture shock here. They treated Starcraft just like a soccer match. Can you believe that? and there were actually Starcraft professional players! earning loads loads of money as if he is an athlete. And from the audience seat, you could see range of ages and gender witnessing the battle. It's just amazing. HAHA!

Oops. Forgot to tell you guys, 11 November is Pepero Day. This is very similar to Valentine's Day, but the couples would exchange "Pepero" or "Pocky stick" instead of chocolates. =)

peace
vixklen