December

Its almost Christmas and I've only been posting a bunch of psuedo-thoughtful rambles about culture for the last few months and haven't posted much at all about what's been going on day to day. So here are a few tidbits that have made me excited in the last few weeks:

1. I've made it my mission to set up my former co-teacher and the new administrator of Geumgang's Korean program on a blind date. Both are approaching that age where if they don't get married, they are hassled beyond what even the most mild mannered person can take. I hear it often enough now and I'm 8 years younger than them. At first, this was a selfless act of playing matchmaker, but I've now been made aware that according to custom if they stay together for two years they have to buy me a suit. So, everyone keep your fingers crossed. And don't get married or have any other events that require me to buy a new suit for the next two years.

2. I saw a Shamaness chanting hardcore while I was hiking to an all foreigner temple on the other side of the mountain to hear an American zen-master talk about mountain energy. The shamaness was kneeling in front of a shrine and singing beautifully while hitting a cymbal-like drum. I've never been much of a fan of listening to just singing. Recently though, a number of things here have drawn me towards singing with very spare percussion accompanying it. The first is pansori (판소리), traditional Korean opera. I saw it performed in Seoul for the first time a month or so ago. You can watch a clip here:



Pansori, like the shamaness and the buddhist chanting I'm going to describe below, uses the percussion to emphasize parts in the piece rather than to keep rhythym. Also amazing is that the drummer shouts short grunts and words of encouragement call choo-eem-sae (추임새) to emphasize parts that are especially emotional. The audience is encouraged to join in with the choo-eem-sae too.

The final form is buddhist yeh-bool (예불) or worship in front of the image of buddha. I've been going to these in the evening every now and then. The sutras are chanted while bowing before buddha and the chanting is emphasized by hitting a wooden block. I'm not sure what these actually do, because they don't signal us to bow and they always seem to be different. But they add to the intensity of the chanting.

3. Finals are over and I am enjoying doing nothing/ making lesson plans for the winter camp I'll be teaching in January/ trying to read the Republic despite falling asleep every five minutes because it is boring as shit. I thank the Korean administrator who long ago invented that glorious thing known as the 2.5 month winter break here.