School, Zorro, 돌, and REDFACE

Hi there!
Okay, I'm a liar. I really thought I would write more last last week… and I didn't.
Things came up…

I will now uphold an apologetic gif theme throughout this post. Just about every one there is. All the gifs. I'm sorry if this takes forever to load...

Anyways, I'm here now to tell you more about Korea! This post is of formidable length. Let's get started.

Today is Day 78!
Time is sure flying by~

First, I would like to tell you a bit about my daily life at school. I co-teach 3rd and 4th grade English, so my students are very energetic and I need to keep things exciting and varied enough otherwise their attention is out the window (if it isn't already before I step into the classroom). There are 8 classes (4 3rd grade 4 4th grade) of about 20 students each.

I teach from English textbooks that are actually pretty good. There are interesting pictures and animation stories that the students like a lot. I just finished a unit called "I like chicken" for my 3rd graders and "Where are you?" for my 4th graders.
…
Sometimes there is bad material though. So my co-teacher and I make our own, more exciting games pretty often.
And sometimes there is just downright wrong material:

Koreans have a hard time distinguishing L and R… but really? These are supposed to be my teaching materials! Spell check! 

Korean English education trolls be like:

I will give you a tour of the school and fun stories about my students another time. There are too many other things to catch you up on ^.~

So ~
Last weekend I went into Seoul, Gangnam district (remember Gangnam style? I even had a "Gangnam style" themed post back in the day before it went viral. Yeah. I'm a blogging hipster) for a very big family gathering. It was for my host mother's sister's baby's first birthday.
You're all probably like:

Sorry? Whose birthday?

The thing is, in Korea, your first birthday is a super big deal. There's even a word for it. It's your 돌 or 돌잔치.
The baby and parents usually dress up in Korean traditional dress (called a hanbok) and have various activities, like the normal gift-giving and feasting on yummy food. One special thing about 돌 is that the baby gets presented with several different items all with hidden meanings. The baby chooses one, and whatever she/he chooses will be her/his future. For instance, if the baby grabs the pencil she/he will be a great scholar. If the baby grabs money, she/he will be very wealthy and prosperous.

Here's some awesome Wikipedia info about the history:

In the past, the death rates for children were high and many children died before their first birthday, so it was an important milestone for the baby and parents. The whole village used to celebrate a baby's first birthday, sharing food and wishing for long life and fortune for the baby.

Check out these cute photos of random Korean babies' 돌:

We went to a nice banquet hall in a hotel and ate a buffet and doted on the babies (there were multiple babies there). Of course there was the special birthday boy who had a very nice, traditional hanbok on, then got changed about halfway through. I only got a few photos of the birthday boy. Here he is with me in his more comfortable clothing:

There were even fancy gifts for everyone (even me, the awkward not-family, not-even-Korean, wait-why-are-you-here person) :D

It's a rice cake with the baby's name, 준혁, and a towel embroidered with the date, name, and first birthday special stuff on it. I will now never forget this day. haha

Everyone was generally very nice to me, especially the people I sat at the table with. But I definitely got some weird looks when I walked past the other tables whenever I went to get food from the buffet. One little boy even stood up, looking shocked like:

Foreigner spotted! The area is contaminated. Proceed with caution.

Making me very much like, "Okay, Gabby. No sudden movements. Be as inconspicuous as possible. Be sure to bow and greet the seniors. Make apologetic eyes as people who seem particularly disturbed by your presence. Bust out the 'Sorry, Sorry' dance for bonus points"

^ most well-known dance move in Korea

So maybe I didn't dance. And maybe I wasn't glared at that much. But I still felt super awkward. I just wanted everyone to relax and enjoy this family reunion… even if a random white girl is sitting in the middle of it all.

AND OKAY THE FOOD WAS REALLY GOOD AND THE BABIES WERE REALLY CUTE AND I ENJOYED MYSELF OKAY? I'll stop complaining okay?

Next!
The weekend before that weekend. You know, when I posted my last blog post and promised to write more and all that jazz. Well I went to Seoul that weekend as well to see a musical! I saw 'Zorro'!
And my not-so-secret ulterior motive to see the musical was because SHINee's Key was performing as the lead!

Smirk.

Zorro the musical has been around several years (first opened in London in 2008). I honestly hadn't heard of it until this spring. It's a fun and exciting show with sword fighting to spice up the normal musical pizazz. As musicals go, it was pretty novel in Korea when it had it's first stage back in 2011. Korea doesn't have much exposure to Latin/Spanish music and culture, and this musical is full of good Flamenco and gipsy music! 

Basically Zorro has a good track record in Korea, and so they decided to revive it this year. This time around all the leads are double-cast, or in the case of the title role, quad-cast. Yeah, there are four different dudes who play Zorro. I missed Key's first shows, so last last weekend was my only chance to actually see Key himself perform the role. And see him I did.

There was a live-band specifically trained in Spanish music (after intermission a mariachi trio started the second act and it was AWESOME). And the chorus was spot-on for singing, dancing, stunts, acting, the whole shebang (there were also some distractingly good-looking chorus members…). 

I think the dancing and the set were my favorite actually. The sets and dancing were all amazing~ like broadway-could-learn-something-from-you good. You can see the turn stile stage in action and some of the dancing in this clip:

There was also a fly system for some cool basic stunts like jumping off a tower (Definitely no crazy, death-seeking stunts like Spiderman Turn Off the Dark All Bats are Grey in the Dark Wait Dracula?) and two trap doors that were used really well (I jumped when Zorro fell one of the times. Did not see that coming at all!). The turn stile was used very naturally as well, with actors moving right along like they are used to walking down stairs and through doors that are moving all day, every day.
Costumes were really good! Here are some concept designs from the special program book I bought:

 Also there was a flaming Z on stage at one point. That was impressive.

Lighting was solid. There was a screen backdrop used for some really good projection tech at the emotional, plot-thickening background story "The Man Behind the Mask" (a gorgeous song, NAILED by Sonya, the actress who played Inez that day). I really liked the night/evening lighting color combos for lighting too. But of course, Key and one of the other male leads had their head just out of the light a few times… and the light designer in me kept shouting "Get in your light! C'mon!"
Ahem.
For the actors~ as I said, Sonya, who played Inez, the gipsy queen, was phenomenal. Really. Beautiful voice. Sassy, fun character. The other female lead was a little weak, but her role is weak anyways so I didn't mind too much. She had this part where she tried to sword fight and I tried really hard not to cringe it was so pathetic. Like, girl do you even lift? The man who played the villain was an average actor, he didn't blow me away until his song at the end when I realized, "oh, so he can sing. That's why he got this role." The older lead called Garcia, a Yoda-like character who trains Zorro to sword-fight was also phenomenal. He had perfect comic timing and made me burst out laughing repeatedly (started out the show as more of a drunkard, then whips off his monk robes to show that he is ripped, does some awesome sword play, then dresses up in disguise and is hilarious again) and he was also a great, emotive singer.
Key himself was also really amazing. He really astounded me with his sword-fights, and like usual he was a spot on, perfect dancer. But I think Spanish dancing suits him particularly well. He was very passionate and sharp, but also a bit sassy - really perfect for his style. His singing was also very very good! I think KPOP groups use a backup track so often that I forget that they can be really amazing live singers as well.

And I will say this, I am a SHINee fan. I am already very biased towards these handsome, talented, dancing young men. Look at their beautiful faces.

 Look at them.

LOOK

AT

THEM

Um, actually. Well, they are beautiful almost all the time.

Back on track, I think Key is amazing. But… okay, might as well put another apology here.

More honestly: The acting was pretty cheesy at parts, and as absolutely perfect as Key is… well, he might benefit from some more acting lessons.





...






And now the fans come.

And this will be me:

No more fandom for you Gabby. GTFO.

Please don't kill me fans. And if for some extremely odd reason you are reading this Key, don't be offended… everyone can practice more and get better. ^^;

I say it was cheesy, not just because it was a musical (and, let's be honest, most musicals are insanely cheese-filled) and everyone was acting very big most the time, but because I could see pretty obviously when Key would break character and how aware of the audience he was. I KNOW he is used to performing as a KPOP idol, where audience interaction is essential. And as I fan myself, I know I was straining towards the stage with 'look at me, look at me' thoughts. But there is a limit I think one should make in theatre, especially when all the other actors on stage are staying in character. Key was pretty awesome when dancing and sword-fighting and singing his ballad, because all of those required most of his attention. But there's a few parts where the character Zorro himself is awkwardly standing on the side, trying not to be noticed by the villain or naked woman in a bath (yeah, that scene was awkward). Whenever those type of scenes happened, Key would look around awkwardly, then, as his character isn't particularly busy, he would look at the audience and I could feel the disconnect. Instead of maintaing the stakes required in that scene, Key's expression would chance as he interacts with the audience members, then when his attention was required back in the scene I felt like he had to shift back into character and "prepare" Zorro's next line or action. That was just what I felt.

Theatre critic Gabby, out.


Finally, there is a lovely store in Korea called THE REDFACE. Yes. THE REDFACE. The moment I walked by this store I was like, "Did they spell 'North' wrong?"
This is a legitimate outdoor wear brand called THE REDFACE. See for yourself:

Please compare the logos:

I am honestly used to seeing terrible knockoff stores in Asia (yes, China and Japan are both just as guilty, with maybe China taking 1st place in Most Knockoffy) but usually it's just a few stores that are pretending to be Starbucks, KFC, or some other mashup:

But THE REDFACE is not considered a knockoff and actually very successful and acknowledged by Koreans as a company just as proper as Samsung and Hyundai (though not as internationally renowned). They have signed models like Covergirl does and real commercials/CFs that you can see on websites and TV. 

Like I said before, many Koreans love hiking, and when they go hiking they deck out in ultimate hiking gear. I have discovered that THE REDFACE is one of the top providers of the well-worn gear. And so the business is thriving. And laughing in THE NORTH FACE's face.

So many faces.

수고했어요! You've made it to the end of this post.
How are you feeling?
Get some sleep, okay? And THANKS FOR READING! :D

- Elleirbag