9/10: Cell phone, margaritas, and music

Whew, a lot has happened since Thursday. Friday was a busy day at school, but good. After school, I grabbed some chicken on my way home and had that for dinner. I got caught up in a TED talk chain -- one video kept leading to another -- until my Skype date with Erica. Texting on Kakao is nice, video chat is eons better, but I miss the real thing. (Kakao is a free text messaging service. Super convenient.)

Saturday morning, I woke up early to meet my friend Ethan in Seoul. Earlier in the week, I had recruited Ethan to be my designated Korean in my hunt for a cell phone. I had a minor issue with a complicated subway transfer, but made it there only a few minutes late. We went to a sort of third-party store that sold anything from flip phones to iPhones and Android smart phones. Since Samsung and LG are Korean brands, Ethan explained that those phones are usually the best deal. Apparently, Apple keeps raising the price of the iPhone here, and it was about $20 more per month than the Android I ended up with -- the Samsung Galaxy R Style. 

In Korea, cell phone stores don't charge you upfront for the actual cell phone; you pay for the service plan per month, plus a monthly installment to pay off the phone. Overall, my monthly bill is about $55 for two years of unlimited text and calls, plus 5GB of data. Then, after two years I'll own the phone or I can break my contract after a year and just pay what's left of the phone. It's actually pretty convenient because I didn't have to front any money at the store. Well, actually I did have to pay a "foreigner fee" of $15, in case I flee the country in the middle of my contract. 

Anyway, Ethan was EXTREMELY helpful. I don't know how I could have done it without him. Luckily, we're going with some friends to the Kia Tigers baseball game this weekend, so I can pay him back in beverages.

After accomplishing mission: phone, Ethan and I took the subway to the train station. He was headed into work (yes, on a Saturday!), but showed my how to buy a train ticket and find my train before he took off. Soon enough, I was on a train headed south for Gwangju for the World Music Festival.

Gwangju is the biggest city in the southernmost province, which is where I have taught in the past. It's a strange blend of city and country cultures, much like I expect big cities in the American south must be. It took about 3 hours by train, and then another hour to navigate the city and find my friend from Mizzou. As it turns out, she was with another friend she met here who also happened to go to Mizzou! (They're here through a scholarship program called TALK -- Teach and Learn in Korea -- so it wasn't that big of a coincidence.) We got a hotel room downtown and planned out the evening. 

We started at the Gwangju World Music Festival, which turned out to be pretty interesting. There were a ton of people there, and we ran into another TALK teacher -- who ALSO happened to go to Mizzou -- and his Korean girlfriend. Needless to say, there was much Mizzou reminiscing. 

The first band was from Sweden and Gambia; they were very talented and mixed upbeat and slower songs. Although the songs were in an African language, the signers spoke English to the audience; I cannot imagine the difficulties that come from playing shows where people have no idea what you're saying. Luckily, there was a host of foreigners there so the Koreans who didn't understand some of the instructions (eg: repeat after me, clap your hands, stand up) just followed along. 

The second band we saw was from France, but sang in English, French, German, Spanish, and spoke a bit of Korean (from what we could discern). They were incredible, although some of their lyrics were pretty offensive considering the kids and older people listening and dancing along, none the wiser...

After the concert, we went to a Mexican restaurant and got margaritas and I got a quesadilla after realizing I hadn't eaten all day! Man, did it hit the spot. Some other TALK teachers joined us there and for awhile, I forgot I was in Korea. It was a strange feeling.

To end the night, around 1 we went to a noraebong (literally, "music room"), which is Korean karaoke. Here, you don't sing karaoke in front of a bunch of strangers in a bar, you and some friends rent out a room and sing with each other! It's pure genius! There was a bit of K-pop, some rap, a lot of Beatles, and even a Taylor Swift song. It was a great time and my voice was a little worse for wear when we headed back to the hotel around 2:30.

Sunday and Monday will have to wait for tomorrow -- my dinner is ready! :)