Wednesday was a day off for Korean election day. Park Geun-Hye is the new president of Korea. From my very limited knowledge of Korean politics, this is similar to a Conservative or Republican victory in North America. My co-teachers said that most of them voted for Moon Jae-In (the more liberal candidate) but their parents tended to vote for Park. Anyway, there's a lot of information about the election on-line if you want to know more. I meant to mention--we just went to the movies and watched The Hobbit
Yesterday, Corey and I went to Seoul to see a dance musical called SaChoom. Corey read about it and thought it'd be fun to go, so I got us tickets as his Hanukkah/Christmas present. The theatre was on the fourth floor of a building that looked from the outside like a typical office building. As we climbed the first three levels we saw that the building was filled with innumerable instrument shops. Each shop sold its own specialty instrument so we'd pass a few stores filled with guitars and then one that was just for drums, clarinets, saxophones, violins, cellos, piccolos and more! The fourth floor led out onto a rooftop courtyard and across the courtyard was the box office where we got out tickets for the show. SaChoom has its own theatre, but next door there is another theatre with its own main show, and one more theatre after that with a third show.
We took our seats in the spacious theatre and I was surprised to see the place was packed despite the fact that this show has been playing in Seoul for 6 years and it plays once or twice each day! As the show started, we realized it would be quite different from any musical we'd seen before. The tagline for SaChoom is, "dance is an interaction" and they really mean it. The dancer/actors encourage patrons to interact with the show, which means talking, standing, taking pictures, and even using cellphones is not only allowed but encouraged. Throughout the show, people are brought up on stage to dance and the actors joke around with audience members. They greeted Corey and I, asking where we were from and quizzing us on our Korean language abilities. They also squirted water at the audience and passed out candies during a birthday party scene.
After the show, the actors pose for pictures with audience members. As a whole, the show was pretty cool, but definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
Later, Corey and I wandered around Insadong which is a popular area for tourists. There are a lot of traditional craft and antique shops as well as tea shops and restaurants. Corey and I decided to go for Chinese food at a place called Hong Kong. It was a nice cozy restaurant on the third floor overlooking Insadong Ro and the food was delicious.
After dinner, Corey and I went to Jongno tower. We'd heard that it had a restaurant on the 33rd floor where jazz musicians sometimes played. We took the elevator up to the restaurant called Top Cloud and the hostess greeted us kindly, asking if we had a reservation. Of course we didn't and when we asked to see a desert menu, the hostess said apologetically that they didn't have one. I glanced at the entree menu and saw dishes starting at $100. Definitely out of our price range! Corey took a couple pictures of the view anyway.
Then we went to the next best dessert place, which was conveniently located just across the street from the tower--Dunkin' Donuts. For under 5, 000 won (about $5) we had hot chocolate and a donut for dessert. Again, we took a picture of the view out the window--The Starbucks on the next corner over. Yes, there is a bit of absolutely everything in Seoul.
We also had some street food in Incheon and I promised to keep you posted on this stuff, so here it is. A double-battered pogo and a pot of boiled bugs (I think they're silk worms). I haven't actually bought the silkworms as street food, but we do get them at school occasionally and I never have my camera with me in the cafeteria so I thought I'd take a picture here. They aren't my favourite food, but they're not my least favourite either.
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