It's drama, drama, drama in Korea!

Earlier this month I co-directed an English play here at my school. I was asked to help with something in English for the school festival. The boys who volunteered wanted something funny, with fighting, it could only be ten minutes long and include a cast of fifteen. One of the students who speaks nearly perfect English suggested doing a take on Kurasawa’s “Rashamon” where different witnesses retell the same event in entirely different ways. Some of the younger boys decided against participating and I was left with about 8 Grade three students (Grade 9 age back home) who are all part of the student government.We began rehearsals about a month before the festival and they were hilarious. You have to understand what these boys are like to truly appreciate it. They are extremely physical and are constantly either hitting each other or stroking each other. So a typical rehearsal involved them hitting each other over the head using these metal poles that they seem to always find, poking each others asses with the poles or sitting two to a chair, on laps like petting each others arms and heads. Highlights from rehearsal? The time that someone stole the main character’s mechanical pencil and he was so upset that he went behind a desk and laid on the floor for the entire rehearsal. No one seemed to find this odd but me. I had to read his part while he was like a foot away! Also, once the costumes came out the boy playing “Girlfriend” decided to wear a miniskirt. And let me tell you, it was mini. His boxers kept sticking out the bottom and whenever he had to fall to the ground or walk over someone else on the ground his fellow cast members gave a collective “Oh my God!” and random Korean expletives (p.s. all Koreans seems to love to say “shit”). I actually overheard him say “Oh my balls!” at one point which is amazing when you consider the English he doesn’t understand. The play ended up going very well and I was happy I did it. I will have a DVD copy of the whole school festival that I will have to screen to everyone when I get home.

Jinju Lantern Festival

On Saturday the 11th we went to Jinju, about an hour outside of Suncheon to see the Lantern Festival that happens on the river there. It was so cool! First we went through the market section, got some food and did a little shopping. I got a stamp with my name in Korean engraved on it. Lots of Koreans use these as a signature in their daily life so I thought it would be a cool souvenir. As a bonus we got to hang out with Kyenne, a super cool 2 year old boy. He’s the son of two foreigners who teach here in Suncheon and in Korea he is a rock star! He is crazy cute, even by North American standards but to the Koreans he is fascinating! One woman grabbed him by the face so she could get a look at him! I was told that it happens all the time but actually seeing it was pretty crazy! Some Korean girls even grabbed him for a picture.

After we left the market we headed to the lantern making station. You pay about $3 to write your wish inside a paper lantern, tape it together and set it to float on the river. It was really time consuming to tape it up but well worth it! Aside from the obvious environmental concerns (hundreds of styrofoam plates thrown into a river), it was really cool. After making our wishes we headed down to check out the huge amazing lanterns that are everywhere! In the river were really cool, huge floating lanterns and along the banks of the river were these amazing lanterns that move and one, a dragon, that even blew smoke and fire! Once we saw most of the lanterns we headed up the bank of the river and down a path through a really neat bamboo “forest” to catch the fireworks. They were really elaborate and at one point crazy sparks started shooting down from a bridge over the river. All in all it was a great day and it made me happy to be here in Korea.