The following video is from one of my favorite shows (Flight of the Conchords) is pretty spot-on. Not only is he actually reading/singing Korean but the video in the background are exactly what are shown at the noraebang. They have absolutely no bearing on the song being shown but make for some pretty hilarious song/video combinations.
I love the water skiing clip the most.
Showing posts with label noraebang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label noraebang. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Vacation: Part I
Ahh, summer vacation. I had a week off from work last week and tried to put it to good use. Had a good friend fly in to visit so I tried especially hard to make the most of it. There are still so many areas in Seoul I haven't been to, and each time I find a new place it just leads to more cool locations. Bottom line: this city is BIG.
I finally got around to going through my photos. There's a lot to post and write about so I'll break this into two parts. Part I:
My friend and co-worker offered to drive to the airport and pick my buddy up with me. After picking up my friend from Incheon we headed straight out to dinner. Tonight's main course was dak galbi. Everyone at work wanted to meet my friend so we had close to 10 people at dinner. This is the restaurant we ate at. Very good.
Soju turns Clark Kent into Superman. After dinner and drinks we went walking to the second place and saw this. You basically pay $5 to crush plastic plates with your fist. I've tried it a few weeks ago and got through about 7 plates. If you get over 10 you win a stuffed animal, or some other random thing.
The street right by my house in Sincheon. It basically looks like this every night. This is also where my co-workers and I eat lunch each day. If you don't feel like taking the subway anywhere and are in this area, this is where you come to enjoy the evenings.
Inside the ubiquitous noraebang. I've written about this many times before so, yeah. This is the inside. Some of the more ambitious non-Koreans attempt to read/sing in Korean but is often hard to keep up.
The spread at my favorite galbi restaurant near my house. My friend really enjoyed it, too. The two ladies that always work there are sooooo nice. I try and converse in my kindergarten Korean and they love it. They tell me to call them 'e-mo', which means aunt.
Same restaurant. I probably eat here once or twice a week.
On Sunday we headed to Jamsil Stadium to watch some KBO. There are few Seoul teams but some of them share the stadiums and trade off games. Which team you cheer for decides which side of the stadium you sit in.
Doosan Bears section. Fans here are rabid and cheer after every pitch as if they had just won the World Series.
After a 30 minute rain delay (still monsoon season) it was back to ball.
My co-worker's daughter, Hae-bin. This is her first baseball game and she had a good time. So cute.
Seoul Tower sits on the top of a large hill/mountain thing right downtown. You take a cable car to the top and then enjoy the view. It's similar to the Space Needle in Seattle. They have a restaurant, gift shop, teddy bear museum, bench presses (not kidding) up near the tower.
About a billion locks with notes attached to them. It's a tradition with the youngsters to write a love note and then lock it to the fence by the tower.
A shot of the city from one of the decks. I guess you can see most of Seoul from up here.
There is a light show at the tower that runs nightly. I thought this was a cool effect.
After the tower it was back down to the city for some drinks. This area is called Myeon-dong and is one of the better-known shopping districts. It gets very busy during the day but thins out at night because most of the places here are clothes shops.
The next day we headed down to Haeundae for a few nights. I will post those pictures in the next few days.
I heard it was 107 F in Portland right now. I will gladly trade that for this sticky, hot, humidity that makes you sweat buckets within 2 seconds outside. Deal?
I finally got around to going through my photos. There's a lot to post and write about so I'll break this into two parts. Part I:
My friend and co-worker offered to drive to the airport and pick my buddy up with me. After picking up my friend from Incheon we headed straight out to dinner. Tonight's main course was dak galbi. Everyone at work wanted to meet my friend so we had close to 10 people at dinner. This is the restaurant we ate at. Very good.
Soju turns Clark Kent into Superman. After dinner and drinks we went walking to the second place and saw this. You basically pay $5 to crush plastic plates with your fist. I've tried it a few weeks ago and got through about 7 plates. If you get over 10 you win a stuffed animal, or some other random thing.
The street right by my house in Sincheon. It basically looks like this every night. This is also where my co-workers and I eat lunch each day. If you don't feel like taking the subway anywhere and are in this area, this is where you come to enjoy the evenings.
Inside the ubiquitous noraebang. I've written about this many times before so, yeah. This is the inside. Some of the more ambitious non-Koreans attempt to read/sing in Korean but is often hard to keep up.
The spread at my favorite galbi restaurant near my house. My friend really enjoyed it, too. The two ladies that always work there are sooooo nice. I try and converse in my kindergarten Korean and they love it. They tell me to call them 'e-mo', which means aunt.
Same restaurant. I probably eat here once or twice a week.
On Sunday we headed to Jamsil Stadium to watch some KBO. There are few Seoul teams but some of them share the stadiums and trade off games. Which team you cheer for decides which side of the stadium you sit in.
Doosan Bears section. Fans here are rabid and cheer after every pitch as if they had just won the World Series.
After a 30 minute rain delay (still monsoon season) it was back to ball.
My co-worker's daughter, Hae-bin. This is her first baseball game and she had a good time. So cute.
Seoul Tower sits on the top of a large hill/mountain thing right downtown. You take a cable car to the top and then enjoy the view. It's similar to the Space Needle in Seattle. They have a restaurant, gift shop, teddy bear museum, bench presses (not kidding) up near the tower.
About a billion locks with notes attached to them. It's a tradition with the youngsters to write a love note and then lock it to the fence by the tower.
A shot of the city from one of the decks. I guess you can see most of Seoul from up here.
There is a light show at the tower that runs nightly. I thought this was a cool effect.
After the tower it was back down to the city for some drinks. This area is called Myeon-dong and is one of the better-known shopping districts. It gets very busy during the day but thins out at night because most of the places here are clothes shops.
The next day we headed down to Haeundae for a few nights. I will post those pictures in the next few days.
I heard it was 107 F in Portland right now. I will gladly trade that for this sticky, hot, humidity that makes you sweat buckets within 2 seconds outside. Deal?
Sunday, July 5, 2009
5 things I like about Korea: Part 1
It's funny, when you live somewhere for long enough it begins to feel like home. Small things that used to shock or amaze you on a daily basis begin to feel fairly routine. Oh, there's a guy driving his motorcycle down the sidewalk (sometimes cars, too)? No big deal. What's that, we're having octopus, squid, and seaweed for lunch? Just a typical Wednesday meal.
Here's a quick list of 5 random observations, or things that I've gotten used to that I rather like.
1- Ridiculously cheap yet high quality food. For any given meal, you can expect to pay around or under $4-5 at a restaurant. This may not seem like a big deal, but, when you consider the 4-8 side dishes that accompany every meal (banchan) it's a great bargain. These side dishes are refillable, too. The servers wait on your beck and call and are more than happy to fill these back up ASAP.
2- This kind of ties into #1 and the low cost of dining. No tipping. Anywhere. Ever. They won't accept it so don't even try. This includes taxis, delivery men, and every other service-related thing you'll pay for.
3- The subway. Seoul has one of the best public transportation systems in the world. Buses run everywhere and the subway is usually only a 10-15 minute walk away from wherever you are. Oh, and it's dirt cheap. I can take a 45 minute subway ride from one side of the city to the other for around $1. They can get very crowded, though. You usually only get a seat if you're an older person and it's common courtesy to give yours up if one gets on. See the map below.
4- Cheap movies, sports, museums, etc. Being away from the land of Stars and Stripes on our nation's birthday left me with one option; engage in our national pastime. I went and saw the Doosan Bears take on the LG Twins at the Jamsil stadium (KBO). Admission was 6,000 KRW which is about $4.50. You can bring food and drink in, too. They had vendors outside selling Hite tallboys' for $2. Also, had a Burger King vendor so yeah... baseball, beer, burgers is about as close as one can get to the 4th without being on US soil.
5- Anything that ends in -bang. In Korean, 'bang' means 'room'. So, on any given street you'll find a number of -bangs.
First, the PC Bang. It's essentially an internet cafe where hordes of young kids come play internet games. You can also check your email or do whatever for around $1.50 an hour.
Next, the jjimjilbang. I wrote about this before but I'm a huge fan of the bath house.
And last but defintely not least, the noraebang. Usually a night out goes as follows: dinner first, usually lasts 1-2 hours. Once everybody eats we go to another place for drinks. But, it's not custom to drink without eating (most places, hofs, won't even serve you without ordering a snack of some kind) so we'll then take a 2nd dinner of light snacking and soju. After a time there it's usually off to go the noraebang to go belt out some hot tunes. They use some kind of software there that processes your voice to make it sound better (studio magic?). Also, at the end of each song they rate your performance. Here's a good video of said noraebang. The English song selection is quite comprehensive, I might add.
So that's it. The first 5 things that came to mind about about things I do and see everyday that might be different for those not living here. I've got tons more I'll probably write about but this will be a nice little bite of kimchi.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Rick Astley meets South Korea
Wednesday is activity day for all the teachers at my school. The staff gets together for a physical activity like basketball, volleyball, frisbee, etc. We played badmitton and boy can they play. I haven't played since middle school but badmitton is a very popular sport here in Korea. After classes on Wednesday we all got together in the gym and crushed some birds for about an hour. It was myself and the physics teacher against a math and PE teacher. The game was super intense but we lost.
After badmitton me and a few of the other PE teachers shot hoops for a while. Most Korean men know a thing or two about the big NBA players but when I try to explain the Blazers to them it falls on deaf ears. Anyways, they like to bust out the trick shots so there were a lot of behind the back drives and 360s. They scream out their favorite players they're emulating like, 360 fadeaway "LEBRON JAMES" - BRICK - REBOUND. It was hilarious.
After that we had a welcoming party for myself and another new teacher. The event was in the cafeteria and was catered. Since the kids had gone home the adults busted out the soju. As I wrote about before, soju is a huge part of their culture and usually consumed in mass quantities during meals. My new friends taught me the names of a few of the dishes and proper table etiquette. Social standing is a pretty big deal and most of your actions (whether it be talking, eating, drinking) are determined by your standing in relation to whom you are doing said activity with. So for example, I was pouring drinks for people who were older than me and somebody younger was pouring my drinks. If you are the same age you pour each others, but never your own. You always use two hands when giving or receiving something as well. It is considered rude and disrespectful to say pour a drink with one hand or receive one. You have to stay on top of your game to ensure people of higher standing are taken care of at the table.
After the welcoming party we went to another restaurant dowtown and had one of the best meals in my life. Bulgogi, or Korean BBQ, is very popular here. Everyone removes their shoes on entering the restaurant and sits on the floor on pretty comfortable pads. The coolest thing is that the BBQs are on the table themselves. You are served a huge platter of uncooked seasoned meat, vegetables, and seafood and then you grill it at your own table. It is delicious. Another new thing to me is the 'create-your-own-bite' system of eating. For example, you grab a large lettuce leaf, add some kimchi, add the meat on top of that, then maybe some chili sauce, anything else you want, dip it in some sauce, ball it up and chow down. Very, very good.
After our 2nd dinner we decided to hit up the noraebang. This literally translates to 'song room' in Korean. As you may have seen in the movies, most kareoke or noraebang in Asia is done in private, catered rooms. Our noraebang was on the 12th floor of a huge building downtown. They are super cheap to rent and tons of fun. I was really surprised at the song selection- I would say about 1/2 were American or Western type songs. I plan on dropping some Rick Astley all over Korea.
It was super late after singing but we ended up going to a bakery and getting some fresh baked foods. I came home yesterday and the co-teacher who escorted me home had bought me a bag full of milk, breads, and pastries for the next morning. Good times.
After badmitton me and a few of the other PE teachers shot hoops for a while. Most Korean men know a thing or two about the big NBA players but when I try to explain the Blazers to them it falls on deaf ears. Anyways, they like to bust out the trick shots so there were a lot of behind the back drives and 360s. They scream out their favorite players they're emulating like, 360 fadeaway "LEBRON JAMES" - BRICK - REBOUND. It was hilarious.
After that we had a welcoming party for myself and another new teacher. The event was in the cafeteria and was catered. Since the kids had gone home the adults busted out the soju. As I wrote about before, soju is a huge part of their culture and usually consumed in mass quantities during meals. My new friends taught me the names of a few of the dishes and proper table etiquette. Social standing is a pretty big deal and most of your actions (whether it be talking, eating, drinking) are determined by your standing in relation to whom you are doing said activity with. So for example, I was pouring drinks for people who were older than me and somebody younger was pouring my drinks. If you are the same age you pour each others, but never your own. You always use two hands when giving or receiving something as well. It is considered rude and disrespectful to say pour a drink with one hand or receive one. You have to stay on top of your game to ensure people of higher standing are taken care of at the table.
After the welcoming party we went to another restaurant dowtown and had one of the best meals in my life. Bulgogi, or Korean BBQ, is very popular here. Everyone removes their shoes on entering the restaurant and sits on the floor on pretty comfortable pads. The coolest thing is that the BBQs are on the table themselves. You are served a huge platter of uncooked seasoned meat, vegetables, and seafood and then you grill it at your own table. It is delicious. Another new thing to me is the 'create-your-own-bite' system of eating. For example, you grab a large lettuce leaf, add some kimchi, add the meat on top of that, then maybe some chili sauce, anything else you want, dip it in some sauce, ball it up and chow down. Very, very good.
After our 2nd dinner we decided to hit up the noraebang. This literally translates to 'song room' in Korean. As you may have seen in the movies, most kareoke or noraebang in Asia is done in private, catered rooms. Our noraebang was on the 12th floor of a huge building downtown. They are super cheap to rent and tons of fun. I was really surprised at the song selection- I would say about 1/2 were American or Western type songs. I plan on dropping some Rick Astley all over Korea.
It was super late after singing but we ended up going to a bakery and getting some fresh baked foods. I came home yesterday and the co-teacher who escorted me home had bought me a bag full of milk, breads, and pastries for the next morning. Good times.
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