Oh people, let me tell you - Seoul was made for fun times Friday night. We didn't have culture class again today due to our fieldtrip in the evening, so Michelle and I found a place to get some samgyetang, or chicken ginseng soup. I think it's one Korean dish everyone would enjoy. It feels like comfort food, but it's waaaaay better than just chicken noodle. They cook a whole chicken stuffed with sticky rice and ginseng in a yummy chicken broth that's unlike anything I've ever had before. And because it has ginseng in it, it's supposedly gives you energy, especially in the summertime. Since we each got individual servings, rather than one huge pot for several people to share, we got our own little tiny chicken in our bubbling clay pots. I was going to take a picture, but we were the only foreigners in the place, and I didn't want any more attention drawn to me. Next time, though...
Oh, funny unrelated side-note: I don't know how it began, but one of my Korean teachers and I started talking about our celebrity crushes during one of our breaks yesterday morning, and I inadvertently dissed her crush, an actor named Hyun Bin. He's good-looking, but I said he was too skinny, even by Korean standards. Oops. There was no recovering from that. I made her feel better by confessing my love for Sung Shi Kyung, so I think she was appeased that her crush is more conventionally handsome. Phew.
The reason we didn't have afternoon class is that the program was taking us all to a Korean pro baseball game in the evening, between the Doosan Bears (who we were rooting for), and the LG Twins. It was unlike any American baseball experience I've ever had, and it was soooo much better!
Arriving at our seats in the stadium
First pitch!
The stadium was so packed!
So one of the main reasons this was so different than American games was that the crowd was so passionate. They had all these songs and chants (some even for a few individual players!), complete with beats and choreography with the thundersticks, and EVERYBODY knew all the words and movements. It was like being in a giant musical, or the biggest karaoke room in the world. I'll have to post some video clips when I get back to the States, because it's kind of unbelievable without seeing it.
I got to explain the game of baseball to my friend Michelle from Hong Kong, which was actually pretty fun. We were all yelling and cheering, and it felt like "Foreigner Day" at the baseball field around our section, since we were all from the Korean Immersion Program.
The stadium was packed!
There was so much good food at the game, and you could bring whatever food and drink you wanted to from outside into the stadium - can you do that in the States? Some Korean families even brought coolers. Here I am eating ddukbokki, or spicy rice cakes, I got from a stand outside the stadium:
You can't see in this picture, but this was a much older lady carrying a crazy ton of snacks for sale on her head - ouch!
We had to leave the game before it ended due to our charter bus' schedule, so I don't know won, but that can be googled later.
We got back after 10pm, and I don't know if it was the adrenaline from the game or the ginseng from the soup earlier, but I was too hyped up to call it a night. So Alejandra, Michelle and I decided to go for an essential part of Korean nightlife: noraebang, or karaoke! So in America, we do karaoke by singing in front of a room of semi-sketchy strangers because we lost a bet, but here, you go to a noraebang and pay some money to rent a room for an hour or two to have your own karaoke party with your friends. See why it's so much better? No public embarrassment to mar our butchering of Korean pop songs.
Once we got the machine figured out, we just picked all our favorite Kpop bands and songs and tried to keep up. Turns out none of us are super-good at reading hangeul (Korean words) fast enough to keep up with most songs, so a lot of the song verses ended up more like "Nananananana ja! Dadadadada bwa!" - we could usually get the first and/or last syllable, unless we really knew the song well...which was almost never.
We didn't get back until 1am - it was close to the school, don't worry Mom - and between the baseball game cheering and noraebang-ing, my throat is a little worse for the wear. So worth it.
2 comments:
The chicken soup sounds delicious--I want to try some! Take it that the spicy rice cakes were good. Can't wait to see the baseball videos when you get back. Sounds like the only way to do karoke. Hope your throat is feeling better now.
How fun! The baseball game sounded really fun! And all your friends seem really nice! That chicken soup really sounds good-you'll have to make it when you get back! I'm glad you are having so much fun! And I bet you had a blast singing all your K-Pop songs at karoake night!
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