Julie's Journey's: November 2006

Sunday, November 12, 2006

A night in Jeonju...

This weekend we went Jeonju with some friends. We took an intercity bus and headed out around 5:30pm on Saturday. We had tickets to see a theatre play called 'Jump'. It was a comedy martial arts show, very entertaining!!! But sorry no cameras were allowed inside so I don't have any pictures. The whole show was really good!!! It was similar to an interpretive dance play, where the actors act out the play through dance, except this was more like interpretive martial arts... These people were amazing!!!

After the play we all headed over to T.G.I.Fridays for some real Western style food. We all wanted hamburgers, but oddly enough the restaurant only had two left!! So two people got hamburgers and the rest of us had to change our orders... Kinda sucked because I was really wanting that hamburger!!!! Regardless, we all needed a big meal in our stomachs because we had a big night ahead of us!!!

From T.G.I.Fridays we went to a Soju tent. And yes, it's exactly how it sounds... Similar to a beer tent, but they also served Soju (similar to Japanese Sakki). We started out with a group of about 6-10, but shortly we grew to about 4-5 tables full of people. We ordered the beer and Soju by the pitcher, and soon started a giant game of FlipCup (about 11 people on each side)!! Our team won 4-1... We did have two Brock people on our team so I guess we had a small advantage ;) The soju we had was yogurt flavour, sounds gross, but it was really good!!!

After we had our fill of Soju we headed over to a bar called JukeBox. Similar to any dancebar at home, except at certain points in the night, they would have designated break times. The D.J spoke in Korean so I don't know what he said but everyone seemed to know when it was time to rest and stop dancing, and then when to get back up and dance again. It made sense I guess, it was pretty hot on the dance floor, so the break was nice.

Unlike many other bars in Iksan, this bar closed at 3am, so at that point we all headed over to a NoriBang (pronounced Nory-bong). A noribang is like a Kareoke bar but instead of having just one big room where everyone hangs out, you get your own room, a music room. You and your friends pay for a room with a big screen and a kareoke machine and you just choose your songs while you're in there, and sing away. There are couches and tables in the room so its pretty nice. I still havent sang at a music room yet... I'm working on it!!

Once we had our fill of singing, we decided to head home. By this time it was about 5am Sunday morning, and we were a little tired so we just grabbed a cab home. Overall, it was a super super fun night!!! Nothing like a night out that includes flip cup, let alone a night that inlcudes amazing martial arts, soju, beer, singing, AND flipcup... (Oh how i miss those Brock nights of flip cup tournaments)

I have a few more pictures from this night but I can't put them up for some reason.... I'll work on it and get them up soon hopefully.

Happy Pepero Day!!

So, in North America we celebrate November 11th as Remembrance Day, where we honor and remember all those brave people who fought to protect out country. Many people lost their lives so that we could have a better tomorrow.

In Korea, Novemeber 11th is Pepero Day!!!
As explained in Wikipedia:
Pepero Day is a unofficial holiday in South Korea similar to Valentine's Day or Sweetest Day. It is named after the Korean snack Pepero and held on November 11, since the date "11/11" resemble four sticks of Pepero. The holiday is observed mostly by young people and couples, who exchange Pepero sticks, other candies, and romantic gifts.
According to the story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero" (Pepero means "thin like a stick"). However, it is more likely it was initiated by Lotte, the company which produces Pepero.

I thought this was a really weird contrast to N.A's Novemeber 11th. I also thought this was a good example that shows how much the world is becoming influenced by big corporations. We celebrate many holidays, all of which are slowly becoming more and more about gaining tangible goods and less about the meaning behind the holiday. Now, it has even gotten as far as having holidays that are actually named after the product itself.

(November 11th was never remembrance day for Korea, so its not as if they have gotten rid of remembrance day, Pepero day just happen to fall on the same day as N.A's rememberance day. Korea has their own day of remembrance. I was just using the Pepero holiday as an example of how much societies all over the world have become influenced by 'products' and corporations)