clubbing and buddha…

deery-lou—
mid-afternoon on saturday i found myself on a train heading into itaewon. earlier in the week my friend dongbum had called asking if i'd model some clothes for a segment on kbs [korean broadcast station] about clubbing in hongdae. for some apparent reason i agreed. i met dongbum at 4:30 in front to the bk [burger king]. it felt like i was back in high school. bk parking lot was the hangout then. we headed to our place a restaurant/bar thats owned by hong seock-cheon, an openly out korean actor. when we got upstairs i met mo and john the two guys that operate 2metros.com an online clothing store for men and women. lately they've been sponsoring djs to wear their clothes and promote 2metros.com in the club. somehow kbs caught wind of this and wanted to film a segment on clubbing in hongdae. so here i am in "our place" looking through a bunch of clothes i'd never wear. the first thing i had on was a cameo shirt that was skin tight and barely covered my stomach. you could totally see my calvins sticking out. i think not. next i had on a three quarter sleeve cardigan with no shirt and a necklace. unfortunately this was the best of the best for me. well that is for the time being anyway. eventually the other models mitchell, christy, the dj and his girlfriend all showed up and they got fitted for there clothes. the whole time we were trying on clothes the producer/filmer [mr. kim] was shooting us. at one point i saw mo with a black shirt. it turned out to be a jacket. i asked if i could change into the jacket instead of the cardigan. they agree. so off went the cardigan and now i was wearing the jacket as a shirt. mr. kim filmed an interview segment asking me about the website [which i lied] and why i changed clothes so much. obviously he knows nothing about clubbing. one can't go out until they find that perfect outfit. during our various wardrobe changes hong seock-cheon came in and i got to meet him. my first korean celebrity. hee hee. they put him in some clothes and he got an mini interview too. after we were all dressed we had to have a group shot taken and then individual posing. i felt like a complete fool. after that was done we had food at "our place". i had the chicken kebab which came with torilla. it was eating a falafel minus the falafel and with chicken instead. it tasted so good. now it was time to get in a taxi and off to the club. we went to mwg
in hongdae. with our 10,000 won entrance fee we got a free t-shirt, cd, cassette, condom, and drink coupon. we waited outside for about 20 minutes until it was time to go in. the first thing on the agenda was drinks. we sat at a table drinking geting ready to get our groove on. mr. kim came by and wanted us to go out to the dance floor so we did. it was now time to bust a move. it's amazing how self-concious one gets when there is a camera in your face on the dance floor. it was definitely an experience. the filming lasted until about 11pm and then everyone in our group started to head out. i found out that the segment is going to air on may 13 at 9:50 on kbs. i'm not sure if i have that station or not. sadness. perhaps this will be my big break. what if i become an international film star. one can dream. we hung out at mwg for a bit then ended up at soho in itaewon. i haven't been out at night in itaewon too much and it was definitely interested to be around so many foreigners. for a minute i thought i was in the lexington bar with all the bridge and tunnel crew. it was definitely a mish mosh of lesbians there. i almost got to witness a girl fight between a korean and foreigner. unfortunately it didn't turn into a big brawl. i was trying to place this bar somewhere in sf but couldn't. there was no definite scene to it. a very eclectric crowd. before i realized it was 2 am and i had 10,000 won to my name. oops. seeing that a taxi was out of the question i decided to stay in sauna for the night. needless to say i couldn't sleep very well on the cement floor with all the people snoring around me. i might have gotten a total of an hour sleep. it definitely wasn't one of the cleanest saunas i've been too. especially when they hand me the two crispy towels. it was definitely an experience. in the early morning i did mangage to catch a few more winks. there were too many people walking and lurking about. it was kind of creepy. i left the sauna around 11ish after shower and cleaning up. it was now time to head to insadong where i was going to meet up with some friend to attend the lotus lantern festival.

i got a call from damion who was already in insadong with some of his university friends. we made a plan to meet up once i met horace. while waiting for horace i took a stroll along the main street of insadong. it amazing how different it is in the morning. i'm usually not here until mid-afternoon when its crowded as all hell. it was so calm and peaceful. a group of korean girls stopped me and asked if they could interview me. what a perfect day for me to be interviewed. i'm a walking zombie right now. here's a sample of the questions she asked:

interviewer: who's your favorite female musician?
me: kristin hersh [they just stared at me] from throwing muses and 50 foot wave. [still nothing].
interviewer: why?
me: cause she's a pioneer and an amazing artist. she's not a pop sell out.
interviewer: i only listen to pop stars like [fill in the blank]. her last album was really good.

interviewer: how do you keep in shape?
me: eat healthy, do taekwondo [they giggled and said taekwondo]
interviewer: i like to eat healthy, exercise, and not drink coke.
me: yes coke is bad!

interviewer: should a woman quit her job after having a baby?
me: its not my choice to make. its up to the woman
interviewer: i think a woman should keep her job and have people who she knows care for her baby.

interviewer: how do you keep cool on a sunny day?
me: by wearing cool and comfortable clothing. looking for shade to relax in.
interviewer: i recommend going to a bank because they always have air conditioning.

these questions went on for a little bit. all of her replies were totally scripted too. i could tell that they didn't understand half of the things i said. it was quite amusing to say the least.

now that my interview was over i got a pineapple poppy muffin thing, it wasn't really a muffin but something like a muffin and a coke. see what she did. she mentioned coke and now i had to have one. i still had an hour or so until horace arrived to i decided to stroll through the festival street. when i got there there was a little parade of dancers going down the street. there were all kinds of booths and crafts. who knew buddhism had so many arts and crafts to do. it was cool to see all the various kinds of buddhism present. in case your wondering the lotus lantern festival is part of buddha's birthday celebration. there's going to be another parade on may 15 which is buddha's actual bday. they have the lotus lanern festival the weekend before because most people will be in temple on the 15th. when horace arrived in insadong i went to meet him by the station. we had some time to kill until 1:30. that was when we needed to sign in for the lotus lantern making contest. yes we were going to make lanterns. as we were walking around we ran into damion and his friends. at 2pm the lantern making began. this was going to be a lot more time consuming then i thought. you had to make all the little petals ourselves. as i'm sitting in my chair twisting, gluing, and trying to make petals an ajumma appeared behind me. she started talking to me and then reached into my basket and started to help make petals. they really do love me. the two ladies working the lantern making booth tried to scare her off but she didn't leave. i told them its not my fault if she wants to help me. they didn't like that. i told them i really didn't care about the contest and if they were so upset about her helping me i wouldn't enter mine. the ajumma stayed for almost an hour and finally the ladies told her she could help me anymore. buzz kill. the ajumma leaned over, by this time she had a friend with her, and told me how pretty my lotus lantern was. love her. and then she was off. now i had to finish it myself. i barely made the cut off time and needless to say my lantern didn't win but i had good time making it. we had a couple of hours to kill before the actual parade was to begin. by this time i was completely exhausted. our group broke up with damion and his friends heading to get coffe and vickies group in search of food. we went with vickie until then decided to go to mcdonalds. horace and i took off and found this little coffee shop to sit in and rest. horace decided to leave but i wanted to tough it out and see at least part of the parade. i met back up with vickie and her group to watch the parade. the parade started at 7:30pm. it was actaully quite cool to watch all the people participating in it. by 8pm i had it. my eyes were barely staying open and i had so much crap to carry i just wanted to be home. so i left. on the train ride home there was an ajumma and her young daughter near me. the ajumma kept peeking into the lanterns i had. by this time beside the one i made i had acquired two more. you could tell her daughter was embarrassed. teh ajumma ended up sitting next to me and started talking to me. i couldn't really understand her. she pointed to my watch and i showed it to her. i guess its the biggest watch she's ever seen. when there stop came the ajumma waved goodbye. her daughter was basically pulling her off the train. the rest of my trip was pretty uneventful. i made it home at 10 something. grabbed some food, called my mom to wish her happy mother's day, and then passed out.

highlights from lotus lantern festival
1. ajumma helping me
2. recieving two lanterns on a stick at the temple
3. making a purple lotus with a dixie cup
4. doing some sand painting
5. vegetarian pad thai

be well…

snaps from lantern festival [these aren't the best pix i've taken]…
Links

• lantern festival