Hey, Look I'm Alive After All

I have an excuse for my lack of blogging. I haven't really done anything, but work, for the past month. It seems that anything worth doing has been planned on the exact day I have a Saturday class and therefore rules me out. It wasn't until this past weekend that I realized how out of touch I have been. There haven't been any festivals or celebrations lately, which also keeps one inside. It has definitely gotten colder too, so I think the Koreans are starting to hibernate. It is not as cold as New Jersey, but it's enough that people are starting to pull out their winter wear and show concern for my health and sanity because I don't wear long-sleeved sweaters everyday. The cold isn't quite as bothersome for a New Jerseyan. I haven't felt the need to use the ondol (floor heating) just yet. Some of my Californian friends have been using theirs for over a month now. I did test it out this weekend though, to make sure it worked before I found it absolutely necessary. It's a semi-slow process. The floor becomes a patchy hot and cold checkerboard, and I didn't leave it on long enough for it to really start making a difference in the room.

At my weekly music lesson with my landlady I finally was introduced to the piano after months of learning the ukulele. That is not to say the ukulele isn't awesome, it is, but I always wanted to learn piano because I have one at home and I'd have to invest in a ukulele to show off those newly acquired skills. 

In other news, I have been trying to work out planning my winter vacation time. I'm looking at doing a hotel in or a cruise of Southeast Asia. So hopefully some of my friends let me know what they'd like to do, because I don't want to go alone, and I don't really care where I end up at this point. So that will be in January, so that will give me reason to blog at that point. I'm sure more happen in the meantime, but currently it's been a bit of the same sort of stuff for the past few weeks. I definitely intend to go to Seoul and Busan sometime this winter. I really haven't seen as much of Korea as I would prefer. It will happen though! 

Oh you know what I did actually do was go to a Fly to the Sky concert. That would be old school k-pop if you're  not familiar. I went with a couple hardcore fans/friends and they were having a blast. I just wanted to get in some kind of concert before the end of the year and I actually knew about this band so it worked out well. It was entertaining. There were the choreographed dances and exaggerated emotional ballads, but it was cool. The audience had glowing wand things that they were waving about like one would do with a lighter in the 80s. They had chants to go along with the songs and they did the unnecessary screaming I expected. What was unexpected was the ban on photography. There were people running around the entire time telling people to put away the cameras. Of course we still managed a few photos and videos, but it required great stealth.

These are two of the better picture I managed to get from the nosebleed seats. Even though Brian Joo (the blonde one) is Korean American, and from Jersey!, he didn't say anything in English, so I was lost during most of their conversations with the audience, but the humor still came across. It was all fun though. Definitely go to a k-pop concert if you have the opportunity. Well that is all I have for now. 

Well then...until next time.