Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Weekend 20 of 52.


Soul Session at Cafe Soul Underground, Korean wedding noodles

This is Dan. We'll see how this goes.

School's out for Summer. Actually, it's out for the next few weeks. Summer camp is this week and then actual vacation time is the following two weeks. It's standard in Korea, and I genuinely feel for the kids. It seems like they should have more time off since they usually have 10-12 hour school days.

Regardless of how long break is, they were excited for it and this past weekend started a bit earlier than usual with a field trip to the War Memorial of Korea. That probably sounds familiar because Serenity, Korrine and I took a trip there during Weekend 9.

The 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War was on June 25th, so the War Memorial had new exhibits even just a couple months since I had been there. Nearly everything we did with the kids I hadn't seen before. We watched a movie talking about how the war started and progressed. Oh, it talked about it in Korean. I still got the gist of it, but one of my students came up to me after it finished and asked if I understood the meaning. I said, "not exactly," and he paused for a minute to find the words in English.

He finally responded with "The movie's meaning is: War is Hell."

It really stuck with me the rest of the day. This was a 9th grade boy who felt weary about the effects and images of war. I don't know if his American equivalent would have responded the same way. There are people alive in Seoul who still remember their city being taken over and having to run from their homes in hope of a time when they could return to the life they had worked hard to make. It's hard to imagine as an American.

We then stepped into a DMZ exhibit and were led by a Korean tour guide. The kids behaved well and the exhibit was extremely well done. I have video footage that I will compile soon (read as: who knows when). It ended with a photo exhibit of life in the DMZ, of which there isn't much. Obviously there are just soldiers living along the line that divides North and South Korea. It was a bit depressing because it soon became clear that the land in the DMZ area is probably some of the most beautiful land in Korea without a doubt. But it's divided by a half-century-old scar. God constantly reminds me that this is a country that needs our prayers. And yours too.

Friday, we played another show. I think this was our 5th show? 4th show? I don't know. Anyway, we've been playing the same cafe/venue every time and we've been incredibly blessed by the owner, Shin Hyun Yo. Shin has been so gracious to us and treated us better than we've ever been treated as musicians and the whole process has really been a confirmation that we should continue doing music for the time being in whatever capacity possible. We're so happy that that seems to be playing in a small cafe on the west side of Seoul for a few Koreans and a few expats every month or so.

We've also been writing lately. It feels awesome and I hope we can continue to be inspired by our new (temporary) home. We've been playing one of our new songs the past couple shows and I finally got a video of it up. It's called "A Place" and I feel like it's a good commentary, musically and lyrically, on where we're at right now as a couple.



Anyway, shows are fun. Music is fun. This weekend was fun but we didn't do much else. Serenity took some photos of our food from this weekend. I promise I'll write more often than every 2 months from now on.

~Dan



We at least made several food adventures for the weekend. We tried out a toast restaurant for grilled sandwiches and fresh-made kiwi juice. Less than $2 buys you a choice from an exhaustive list of ingredient combinations. We got bacon and egg with special sauce. The eggs are fried up in a square frame to ensure neatness in stacking.


One of our best friends in Cincinnati, Lacy Pez, got married on Sunday. We wanted to celebrate with her (and with Justin), so we went out for janchi guksu 잔치 국수, wedding noodles. The length of the noodles is symbolic of the length of marriage.


Dan got two new pairs of glasses last week on account of them being so cheap and quick to come by here in Seoul. For real, he got two pairs for less than $100 and in less than half an hour.


Outside Yaletown Burgers, this happened.


We had a fine view of the alley from inside Yaletown Burgers. I like when we get to look out of elevated windows during meals.


Welcome.


Dan modeling his new glasses and a fried potato mustache. Also new.


I don't know what fried tack is, but I am not surprised to find that it's hard, and I think it maybe could be good.

-Serenity

1 comment:

  1. Isn't hardtack what people ate on the Oregon Trail? Katie and I used to always reference "bison and hardtack" as if they were items we still normally ate out on the road.

    Also...yes, looking out of elevated windows during meals is a simple pleasure that I wish happened more in our native land. It is so wonderful.

    Hope you kiddies are having a grand time in Nippon!

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