What's in a weekend?

I am getting used to my life being incredibly random. This weekend was no exception.

Prepared for the worst:
As the soccer team drove to one of our away games Friday, I noticed that we had been sitting at the same light for 5 minutes as it continued to switch from red to green. It seemed strange to me but I thought nothing of it. After a few minutes, the bus driver spoke to one of the girls to explain and she quickly translated the situation for us mighukins: Korea holds regular nation-wide security drills (in case North Korea ever attacks and SK needs to shut down traffic for military vehicles). To practice for this, all over the country sirens sounded and radio/TV announcements indicated a 15-minute stand-still. Every car and pedestrian in South Korea paused at the intersections to wait for the drill to expire. At the intersection I was at, a few military people came out into the streets to ensure that traffic was stopped, but there was no need. People were very compliant and waited patiently until a second round of sirens indicated that it was ok to drive again. The whole thing felt very surreal. I was struck that people were prepared and willing to do whatever it takes to be ready for situations. However the drill also reminded me that I am still quite close to North Korea and its instability. I learned on Friday that all the major highways in the southern part of the Rebublic of South Korea can be transformed in minutes into airplane runways if need be. It is both comforting and unnerving to know how prepared the place I live in is for military conflict.

On-Base
Both the soccer games my girls played this weekend were on American bases. We spent all day Friday and Sat on base. I even slept on base-- in the high school gym! Yes! Nothing like sleeping on the floor with 24 high school girls :) Anyhow, the base felt just like America: there were people who were not Korean (in fact almost every face was white or black). I heard English everywhere I went (the only Korean I heard was from my girls). There were stopsigns and western vending machines. After our game on Friday we ate at a Chili's on base and I got to have fajitas and a refillable fountain diet coke (refillable! and not a coke zero!). We could find Cheetos, poptarts, and western Chinese food. I got change in US dollars (which felt like play money). It was a very very odd feeling after being in Korea for over 8 months to be surrounded primarily by Americans and western things. Home is going to be quite an adjustment.

Korean St. Paddy's day
Right after our last game I met Sarah and her coworkers at a St. Patrick's day celebration in downtown Seoul. That was an experience too--- it was the most white people I had seen in one place in Korea (besides the bases and Itaewon). They had live music and all these booths set up. Everyone was in green and drinking in the streets. There was a short parade with several bands, a green dragon, two floats (a shamrock and a Guinness bottle), the Irish embassador and his wife, a bunch of Korean teens dressed like Anime figures, about 50 motorcycles and men trying to look tough, some guys dancing in traditional Korean clothes, a bunch of foreigner organizations with banners, the local football club, a man on stilts and a girl in a Guinness dress, and some US military men. It was incredibly random and I laughed a lot. All over there were also Koreans wearing shirts indicating that they were Irish, white guys dressed like leprichans, and serious Korean riot policemen making sure that the Irish and fake-Irish did not cause too much of a rucous. Oh, Korea. You and your randomness. Nice try being Irish.







Nanta
In Seoul there is a performance called Nanta that is basically a funny version of "Stomp" set in a kitchen. The "cooks" perform a mostly non-verbal comedy show where they create rhythms as they chop lettuce, throw food, bang brooms, and fling plates. I went on Sat night with 12 of my coworkers and friends. Nanta was much funnier than I expected it to be and was a unique experience. I'm very glad I went. In the end, we joined the throngs of people waiting for autographs and got our programs signed. It was aparently a "rare opportunity to meet the cast"... but a sign indicating where the cast would be signing autographs after the show looked strangely permanent and suggested to me that our oppotunity was not exactly "rare." Oh, well. Still fun.