Yeosu Expo 2012: Sky Tower

We quickly realised we weren't going to be very good at sticking to the schedule. A combination of hunger and poor weather left us heading straight for lunch on our arrival! So, after a hearty bowl of bibimbap, it was time to start exploring what the expo had to offer! 

First stop on the list of things-to-do was the SKY tower and we were on our way there when we came across a rather exciting looking procession but we didn't hang around too long! 

On the introduction on the Yeosu Expo website, there is a German legend that tells of a mermaid named 'Lorelei' who used to sit on a rock and bewitch passing sailors with her enchanting songs. Once a cement silo, the SKY tower observatory is now a heart shaped pipe organ which actually holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's loudest pipe organ! 

It was from here onwards that we began to realise how vital our press passes would be if we were going to see more than one or two exhibitions during our trips. Faced with queues varying in length from 1-3 hours depending on the exhibit, flashing our press pass gained us instant access. 

Thank goodness! 

  Aside from functioning as a pavilion, the observatory, which stands at 67m ( ~220 ft) high above the ground, offers superb views across the expo. At least I'm positive it would have done, if it hadn't been incredibly overcast as you can see from the photos.

  

Now, I've never been someone who is scared of heights but then again, who really loves heights? Faced with the prospect of a transparent floor panel, I think everyone's knees went a little week. The panel offers a view all the way to the ground...and a quick look shows you the panel isn't very thick either. I have no doubt it is made of some super-strong material but still, it's strange how we react to something like this, even when we know it's perfectly safe. 

Brave Anna disappeared and cowardly Anna made a somewhat shy appearance... 

Then, the rain really took a turn for the worse. It poured, the temperature dropped and I thanked myself for donning jeans over shorts! 

Interestingly, the tower also serves as a water filtration and desalination system. 

First, the water is passed through is passed through a sand filter to remove large particle impurities and algae, then it passes through an active carbon filter that absorbs any organic matter. The third step passes it under a UV lamp, sterilising it. The fourth stage is a UF block, the elimination of impurities at a micro-organism level before carrying out reverse osmosis and finally, the fifth stage which involves the removal of any ionic substances in the seawater. When this is all done, the water is remineralised to produce drinking water by adjusting the pH and adding certain minerals.

You can even try the water! 

After rehydrating ourselves with the desalinated seawater, it was time to move on to the participant' pavilions (Samsung, Lotte, Hyundai and Daewoo). 

Yeosu Expo 2012: The Arrival

So, as part of my work as a  global blogger for Korea.net (part of KOCIS*), I was invited to attend the 2012 Expo in Yeosu. Having only arrived in Seoul a week ago and still finding my feet, I was a little nervous but really excited to not only go to the Expo but also to meet some of the other global bloggers. 

I will admit to not knowing about Yeosu before being offered the chance to go so I hit the books and did my research before I went! Here's a little information about Yeosu itself. 

Yeosu is located on the Southern coast of South Korea, as shown below, and is made up of 365 islands of which 49 are inhabited, the remaining 316 are uninhabited, preserved in their natural state. It remains a fairly small city with a population of nearly 300,000. The expo has had a dramatic effect on the area, including the creation of nearly 80,000 jobs and adding up to 5,7 trillion won in estimated value. 

The expo opened on the 12th of May this year and will remain open until the 12th of August. Home to 104 participating nations and 10 international organisations, the expo expects to receive more than 10,000,000 visitors in it's 93-day run. 

The expo develops the subject of "The Living Ocean and Coast", focusing on the pursuit of the preservation of the sea and marine resources through the coexistence of the ocean and humankind. 

So, with all this information in mind, I felt ready to pack my bags for the expo! 

The other bloggers and I met at Seoul Station on Friday morning at 8.20am. It was great to finally put some names to faces although since I was previously unacquainted with the craziness that is the Korean underground in rush hour, despite leaving plenty of time, I still found myself jogging to get to the meeting point on time! 

Upon arrival, I was introduced to the other bloggers (addresses below!) Suzy, Dorothea and Dita and also to our guide, Min-Kyoung. After the introductions, we proceeded to the platform to take the KTX  to Yeosu. Now, I've never actually taken the KTX before so it was a novelty for me! 

After departing at 8:55am, we arrived at Yeosu 3 hours later at 12am. We went straight to the Media Centre where we were issued with our high-vis "PRESS" jackets (which we refused to wear!) and press passes (which we did wear~). 

There was time for one quick shot with the official Yeosu logo before we were off to discover what the expo had to offer....  

(L-R) Suzy, Thea, Dita and I (Anna)

For the curious, a little information about the emblem of the expo. The emblem symbolizes the harmony of the earth, the ocean and the ecology. The red represents the organisms living in the sea and on land, the blue represents the clear and clean ocean, the green represents the environment all living things inhabit and the white wave in the middle symbolizes the water flowing, joining everything together. A key point of the expo was interdependence, we all depend on each other and caring for our environment must be a group effort. 

KOCIS: The Korean Culture and Information Service 

Asif Quadri : www.travelpod.com/travel-blog/londone7/1/tpod.html

Dita Utomo: www.ditautomo.blogspot.com

Dorothea Suh : http://novemberbeetle.tumblr.com/tagged/Korea
Suzy Chung: http://seoulfullife.blogspot.kr/

Call me.....Noona?

Firstly, I want to apologise for not writing in ages! I've had my end of year university exams, my 19th birthday and I've also just moved to Switzerland and I'll be leaving to go to Korea this Friday so I've been busy! 

Popping "K-pop" into google brings up various search items, among them is a definition in the Urban Dictionary (who doesn't love the Urban Dictionary!?) which defines "k-pop" as the following;

"An enjoyable music genre from South Korea in which crazy fangirls tend to claim guys as theirs and become suicidal when they learn their "Oppa" has a girlfriend he loves and does not care about said fangirl. " 

Crazy K-Pop fans! 

Now, while the above definition is a rather amusing generalization, it was the "fan-girl" comment that got me thinking. I won't lie to you. Continuing on the "defining" path, I would quite happily hold my hands up and define myself as a "K-pop fan". 

Before I get stuck into this blog post, I would like to clarify myself as a fan of the music rather than the idols themselves. I admire them for the effort and practice they put in to produce the music I spend hours of my life listening to but after this, I draw the line. I am not a "fan-girl". I have no interest in stalking the idols nor knowing their lives inside-out. If I meet them, it's cool. If not, I'm equally not bothered. 

However, I know for a fact that I am probably part of the minority. There are huge numbers of "fan-girls" who devotedly follow the lives of their idols and the number of times I've seen Korean song MVs on Youtube and scrolled down to the comments to see pages and pages of "OMG I LOVE -------! HE'S TOTALLY MINE~~OPPA!! I LOVE YOU!!!!", which is....fine, a little scary, but fine. 

I was chatting to some older female friends of mine a while back and we were talking about K-pop, boy bands, favourite members etc...and some of my friends, to my surprise, became quite vocal and possessive of the members they liked. 

I walked away wondering "When does it no longer become acceptable to 'fan' over K-pop group members?". 

It's common knowledge that older male fans make up a large segment of the audience of female groups, take SISTAR, for example, who are famed for their army of Ajusshi fans! A trip to Inkigayo while SNSD had their comeback with "Genie!" was terrifying and intriguing    at the same time as I stood in the face of an army of males SONES of different ages, united by their one love: SNSD.

But what about the girls? Do the same rules apply? Or is K-pop a different ball game altogether? 

Out of curiosity, I decided to make a list of some of the boy bands on my Itunes and find out exactly how old they were! The somewhat shocking results are shown below. I was born on 25/05/1993 and I celebrated my 19th birthday last week, leaving me older than a rather large portion of the currently promoting idols! 

(Artist Name - (No.Younger than me/No. of Members))

Teen Top - (5/6) 

Shinee - (1/5) 

U-Kiss - (1/7) 

B.A.P (4/6)  

B1A4 (1/5)

Boyfriend (5/6) 

Exo-K  (2/6)

Infinite (1/7)

Led Apple (2/6)

Nu'Est (4/5)

With these bands all ranking in my 'Top 25 Most Played', I was pretty surprised. Suddenly, I'm finding it a little difficult to take some of their songs seriously. When Boyfriend promises to protect me in 'I'll Be There", I sigh a little and think, with 5 of you being substantially younger than me, shouldn't it be the other way around?

 I look at Zelo of B.A.P who, at 15 years old is younger than my younger sister, and think "Sweetie, you're no warrior" ...

B.A.P's Zelo - It's nothing personal.....

 the 'tough guy/oppa' image that all the entertainment companies have been carefully cultivating slowly crumbles. 

There is obviously the other slightly  controversial aspect that at 15,16,17 years old...most of these guys are sitting quite nicely under legal age...so when I hear my friends in their late-20s claiming ownership (even in jest) of these younger guys...I do feel a tad awkward! 

I guess it's just different as in the Western music industry, there is generally more focus on the music than idolising the artist - not to say there aren't people who pry into their lives but just not in the same way. 

Is it just me? Is this just a Korean thing that I should look past and see as perfectly acceptable? 

Should I just willingly accept my .... 'Noona-fan status'???

Well, until I have completed internally debating this issue, I will be returning to the likes of F.Cuz, Super Junior, Block B, B2ST,  Dalmation,Exo-M and U-Kiss (minus Dongho); all of whom are older than me, all of whom retain 'Oppa' status!   

My personal bias: U-Kiss. All of whom remain my 'Oppas'....except Dongho. Sorry Dongho. 

Wonderful stuff! 

The moment I realised.. I didn't know my alphabet.

This blog post will be as much a learning experience for me as I hope it will be for you.

I was sitting in a coffee shop (ok.. it was Starbucks ><) with my Korean language partner, Wan-Soo, earlier in the week going over some past papers for my Korean exam (which I had today!). He was dictating an answer to me when he said a word I didn't recognise. I asked him to repeat it, trying to work out how to spell it. Seeing my struggle, he said "yes, next put a ji-eut" ... I looked at him blankly, thinking "a what?!" ..

*This isn't me by the way....

When I started learning Korean, I learnt the script off a website before I went to Seoul for the first time. I practiced a bit and later, cemented the alphabet and syllable structures into my head by hours spent following hangeul subbed Korean music videos (and numerous trips to Karaoke while in Korea!).

It was only then, as I sat utterly confused in Starbucks, that I realised....I'd never actually learnt my Korean letters. I mean, I knew my letters. I could recognise them and I knew what sound they made...but I didn't actually know they're names.

I guess a similar parallel would be like saying being able to recognise the letter 'z' in a word and knowing it made a 'zzzz' sound ... but not knowing that it was referred to as 'z'. With me?

With this in mind, I vowed to take a step back and actually go and learn my letters!

At omniglot.com, I found these two fantastic little pictures which present all the consonants and vowels in the Korean script with...wait for it.... yes!...their Korean names!

Firstly, we have the consonants! 

And then, the vowels! 

The Korean alphabet is fantastic and really easy to learn. It was implemented in order to enable the country to attain literacy. Prior to its' invention, the Korean's had used Chinese characters to write and learning them took years of dedication and education...something most people couldn't afford - time-wise or financially. 

While learning to read and write may take a bit of time, the letters themselves can be learned in a morning/afternoon (if you're ambitious) or a day (if you want a more relaxed pace!). 

I now know that a "jieut" is in fact "ㅈ" or the "j" sound.... 

(at least that's one down...) 

한여름밤의 꿈 ~ A Midsummer Night's Dream

A while back, I decided that I was somewhat disgusted and outraged with myself for the fact that, despite having been living in London since September, the cultural outings I'd made could effectively be counted on one hand. Tut Tut. 

So, when I saw the Globe theatre was running a series of productions of Shakespeare's plays in various languages - I couldn't resist booking tickets for the Chinese production of Richard III and the Korean production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was even more exciting for me I guess as, somewhat embarrassingly, my previous interactions with Shakespeare had surmounted to performing Much Ado About Nothing in secondary school and later, trudging through Merchant of Venice as one of my GCSE compulsory set texts. I'd never even been to the Globe. 

Having seen Richard III earlier in the week and been overwhelmed by the atmosphere of the theatre (as well as becoming well acquainted with what happens at an open air theatre when it starts to rain....a lot!), I couldn't wait to head back to the theatre for my second Shakespeare instalment of the week. 

Armed with a general understanding of the play (thanks Sparknotes!) and joined by my Korean language partner, I figured I had a reasonably good chance of 'getting' most of it! 

Well. The performance was stunning. Absolutely breathtakingly, fantastically awesome. If there was ever a Shakespeare play that was just asking to be thrown linguistically and culturally into a new language, it is A Midsummer Night's Dream, or 한 여름밤의 꿈 to give it it's Korean title. 

Performed by the wonderful cast of the Yohangza Theatre Company (극장 여행자), A Midsummer Night's Dream is electrifying and bewitching, drawing on Shakespeare's original plot line and weaving in various themes of Korean tradition and folklore. 

Oberon and Titania become King Gabi and Dot, Queen of the Dokkebi (Korea's own mischievous fairies). Puck undergoes his own transformation into a pair of twins called Duduri (played by double-act Sang-Bo Kim and Jung-Yong Jeon, shown below) and a twist in the translation sees the incurable womaniser King Gabi placed under a spell by his wife, making him fall in love with the first woman he sees. Upon his awakening, she ensures he sees - not a bottom turned into an ass but instead an ajumi (old woman / herb collector) transformed into a pig! - a fitting punishment for a man with a roving eye~!

Queen Dot with Duduri 

The protagonists are dressed in plain, traditional clothes to reflect their personalities. Byeok (Hermia) enters the stage donned in an eye-catching red top, the beauty, beloved by all (at least before entering the dream state). Next on is her opposite, Hang (Lysander) dressed in royal blue. I really enjoyed the symbolism here  - red and royal blue are the colours of Korean Yin-Yang (or Eum-Yang in Korean), illustrating her unwavering loyalty and his attempted betrayal - until everything is back to normal after leaving the dream state. 

Ick (Helena) performs in a bright yellow top that connotes royalty, propriety and luck. At the outset, she is left alone, neither lucky or in love, but Queen Dot soon sees this put right. Her opposite Roo (Demetrius) is dressed in dark green, representing a nasty, untrustworthy person. He is true to his colour, abandoning Ick in   the woods after being particularly mean to her. 

After entering the dream state cast by Queen Dot, our main characters are stripped of their coloured tops and don white ones instead - symbolic of immersion in nature according to Buddhist culture...and enter the forest, where purity and innocence may be found! 

One of the Dokkebi. 

Yohangza's style is as much dance as drama and is comic to almost Pantomime-extremes in some parts. The  fantastic choreography of movement and speech combined with strong visuals  blends magnificently to produce a production which is easy to follow, even for those who speak no Korean whatsoever - of which there were many in the audience. 

Actors interact on a large scale with the audience, mingling among the standing, teasing them, tormenting them, as well as flowing fluorescent rings out into the audience - apparently this is to create a sense of unity between the cast and the audience, the rings given out as a small token of their appreciation. 

Some moments translate particularly well. Ick's "I am your spaniel" is rendered hilariously unmistakeable by her on-stage puppy-like portrayal - with barking, pawing and panting included. 

At the end, Dot removes the dream state and all of our couples end up back in their rightful pairs. King Gabi   learns to  appreciate his wife once more and at long last, the old ajumi is transformed back from a pig to her old self. As a reward, the next day when she awakes, she finds a "valuable" herb, screams something along the lines of "shin-bad-da" and runs off stage, marking the end of the show.

However, some moments are a little tricky for a non-Korean audience to follow. I will confess to being one of the many people who had no idea what the significance of this end scene was. Unsurprisingly, it seems the meaning was not lost on the Korean audience. My Korean friend told me that basically, as a present / thank-you for participating (although unknowingly) in the Queen's scheme to teach her husband a lesson, the goblins rewarded the old lady with a very precious type of ginseng (traditional Korean herb) called Sansam, a herb she'd apparently been searching for all her life. The Korean phrase "신밧다" (shin-bad-da)  is used upon discovery of such a herb (and only in this case - so I have since forgiven my dictionary for not containing it ... I don't think I'll be finding Sansam any time soon!). 

In conclusion, the play was terrific. I walked away incredibly happy with myself, not only for having understood about 70% of the Korean, not even just for having finally gone and done something cultural but for the simple fact that I loved the show. It reignited my love of the theatre and deep down inside, a little part of me yearned to get back on the stage (I acted a lot as a child) - however, this feeling quickly disappeared when I got home and saw all my revision waiting for me :( 

Anyway, with a Korean exam tomorrow, I must return to my little world of study. 

Tonight will be the last performance and if anyone is going, I hope you have a wonderful evening- I guarantee you will enjoy it. If you're not yet going, then there is no reason as to why you should not! 

Book now! 

Shakespeare's Globe to Globe runs until the 9th of June. 

The Globe Theatre Box Office : 020 7401 9919

Picture Credits - The Globe webpage, The KCC 

Twinkle by 태티서 (TaeTiSeo) : Song Review and Cover

With the video still unreleased and the debut stage only a few days away, fans are already falling head over heels in love with SM Entertainment's recent new sub - group début : Girls Generation sub-unit : 태티서  (TaeTiSeo). 

TaeTiSeo itself as a name stands for the names of the members in the group; Girls Generation's leader TaeYeon as well as two of it's main vocalists Tiffany and SeoHyun. 

The group's debut mini-album was released worldwide on the Itunes store at midnight (Korea time) on the 28th of April and physical copies of the EP will be released later this week! 

There are no surprises in the fact that the single has all ready achieved "all-kill" status across most Korean music charts including: Melon, Bugs, Naver, Mnet, Daum and Naver. It is also holding the record for the highest peaking K-pop album, entering the US Itunes Album chart at #4!

Ok....so I won't lie and say I didn't have serious reservations when SM announced they'd be releasing a sub-group of Girls Gen. and these reservations further deepened when the title of the song, "Twinkle", was released....I thought..."Oh..this is a recipe for a candy-coated disaster!" I also wasn't whether jumping on the "sub-group" band wagon would do Girls Generation any favours - it seems I will be taking it all back following their recent successes - of which I'm sure, the majority have yet to come. 

 I actually really like the song - it has a catchy 80s-esque vibe and the cuteness is subtly balanced by the group's powerful vocal abilities. In fact, that's another reason I really like it. The song has "oomph!" for want of a better word! I feel it has really given the girls an opportunity to showcase the more powerful side of their voices, something which frequently gets left out when working in such a large group. 

One thing I was a little surprised by was Jessica's absence. She's not (as far as I'm aware) filming dramas or doing anything else that would mean her schedule was full so why, as lead vocalist with Taeyeon, hasn't she been included in what was so obviously set out as a demonstration of the power vocals within Girls Generation..... I am curious. Very curious. 

But anyway, we digress. Having already mentioned I liked the song, I confess that I liked it so much in fact that in my lunch break this afternoon, I even did my own cover of it! 

Check it out below~ Don't forget to head on over to youtube and let me know what you think!

On another note...I apologise for all the hair flicking... I have come to a cross roads yet again where I do not know whether to recut my hair to the blunt fringe, grow it into one of the side things or just leave it be....at the moment, due to exams, it is being left to do as it pleases...which seemingly, is getting in my eyes! Thoughts / suggestions are welcomed!! :D 

I'm getting quite excited as when exams are over (in 3 weeks), I will have one week in London before heading home to Switzerland and then.... I'll be off to Korea!!! Yay~~~ I'll probably blog a lot while I'm there so closer to the time, I'll start spamming you all with blog links and requesting blog title suggestions!! :D 

All Eyes On Korea : Launch

In light of the upcoming Olympics, the Korean Cultural Centre (KCC) in London has put together a fantastic program to promote Korean culture over the summer. All Eyes On Korea is a '100 day summer festival' that will last from June through to September this year. 

As the 100-day countdown to the Olympics began, today I attended the official press launch at the KCC which featured an introduction to the festival and a taster of what is to come in June by Paul Wadey, PR Officer at the KCC.  We were told that the festival was inspired by the five colours of Korea, each representing North, East, South, West and Centre. It is hoped that the festival will provide the perfect opportunity to continue the spread of the Hallyu wave and showcase all things Korean - from K-pop to K-classic, Korean fashion to Korean food, Korean art to Korean literature and much, much more. 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned some of the risks faced by focusing Korean cultural promotion too much on K-pop and how this left Korea at risk of losing out on other groups of people who would potentially be interested in different aspects of Korean culture. Well, with a jam-packed program such as this - there is no risk of anyone being left out. 

In the presentation, we were given some rather interesting statistics. For example, non-Korean visitors make up 81.4% of the total and of all the visitors, 35% have visited more than 4 times. 70.5% of visitors were between 18-39 but in addition, around 10% were over 60 - demonstrating the centre's ability to appeal to all ages. 

Continuing to demonstrate this appeal are the events that will be forming the schedule for this summer's 100 day festival. 

On the Korean art front, Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa will be presenting an outdoor installation at the Southbank Centre which will be there throughout the summer. In addition, this summer the Hayward Gallery will become a temporary summer school; "Wide Open School" is an intriguing experiment into 'what would happen if a school's curriculum was driven by the imagination of artists'. The school will run from mid-June to mid-July and will feature Korean artist Lee Bul. From mid-July, the KCC will run it's own exhibition entitled "Korean Funerary Figures: Companions for the journey to the other world" which will feature 19th and 20th century Kokdu used to decorate funeral biers. 

The main Korean literary event of the summer will see 'Poetry Parnassus' taking place at the Southbank Centre. Poets from each competing Olympic nation have been invited to participate in  the UK's largest ever poetry festival and will present the works of Korean poet, Kim Hyesoon. 

From literature to performing arts, the KCC is covering it all. On the 23rd of July, Be-being's korean music mask project, "Yi-myun-gong-jak", will be performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. This concert of traditional  Korean music will include performances of original compositions as well as reinterpretations of traditional Korean mask plays and is definitely something not to be missed!

Another Korean musical extravaganza hitting the London stage on the 28th of July is "Walkabout", presented by GongMyoung, a Korean quartet who perform traditional Korean music with a contemporary music. In a single performance, the audience will hear the sounds of up to 30 different instruments. Having performed all over the world, their arrival is the UK is long overdue so again, definitely worth watching! 

For a full schedule of the other musical events taking place - stay tuned to the KCC website! 

'All Eyes on Korea' will conclude with Korea's stage at the Mayor's Thames Festival on the 8th and the 9th of September later this year. The stage will feature a full programme of events, performances and workshops  for all the family. 

It sounds truly fantastic (and I only wish I was in the country for it!!!)  

At the conclusion of the presentation, I went outside and happened to bump into some friends of mine.... 

As part of the launch, LOKO's Caroline and Deanna led a number of students from the K-pop Academy and other numerous volunteers on a flashmob tour of London all morning. After the press launch, I joined the crew on the very brightly decorated 'All Eyes On Korea' bus to continue the flash mob tour...

We were joined on the bus by some Korean news film crews ! 

However, due to a timely downpour, our tour was cut short and we had to head back to the KCC early! 

On our return, we all sat down to watch a concert DVD and then, before we knew it, it was time to prepare for 태국기 (TaeGukGi), the fourth Korean night hosted by the KCC....(T.B.C)

*For those interested in getting more involved with the KCC-hosted events over the course of the summer, you're in luck as they're currently looking for supporters to help with and attend the events so don't hesitate to get in touch - here's some more information below!