Bad Solution

It's been an intense few days. The anti-US beef protests have increased (last night, there were 40,000 people at City Hall), my sister has come to stay for the week, and I've been shopping like a fiend. Although I have to work tomorrow, I requested the rest of the week off. I'm sure my vice principal isn't thrilled, but...at this point, I don't really care.

Yesterday morning, my sister and I went to see my 1st year's singing competition. Each class sang a short song that was both accompanied and conducted by the students themselves. My sister marveled over the idea of middle school kids getting up at the crack of dawn for a singing competition and actually looking...cheerful! Some classes had obviously put a LOT of effort into their songs, having three part harmony and such. One class did a one minute Korean version of "La Cucaracha." It ended so abruptly that there was an awkward silence after they finished. It seemed like almost all the classes won some sort of award.

After, Cara and I went off to Myeongdong. She LOVED it. We bought a zillion cute summer dresses and shirts, accessories, etc. I love the atmosphere in Myeongdong--it's so youthful. Plus, I'm a huge fan of the street food. Since summer is around the corner, fruit stands have bloomed all across the city. Sticks with sweet pineapple or melon wedges sit on slabs of ice and go for $1, while cups of cherries will cost $2-$3. We zigzagged through the shops, collapsing into Cafe Pascucci for an iced coffee at one point. Feeling too lazy to compete for seats on the subway, we hailed a taxi and went back to the apartment.

Later that evening, we met up with a bunch of fellow teachers and friends for some drinks in Hongdae. Our night ended in Burger King (what's new?). My sister slipped and fell on the ground on the way out of the taxi and then proceeded to drop her clutch purse five or six times between the time it took for us to get from the taxi up to my floor. We crashed immediately and woke up pretty early today. Since the weather has still been kind, we decided to go down to the Cheonggye. It's so startling to see the riot police everywhere this week. The news reported that about 10,000 police have been stationed around the city's center to keep traffic flowing and people uninjured during the anti-US beef protests. We witnessed another large march. They're always peaceful enough when we see them in the day, but when we watch the news at night...the footage is so violent. Some of the protestors had climbed on top of the police vans and had to be dragged off. There was a lot of angry resistance. It's getting really heated around here and rumors are running wild. While I do think that a lot of the protestors sound silly in what they have to say ("We'll all die from American meat"), it is disappointing that Lee Myung Bak (refered to as "2MB" here--"Lee" is really pronounced "Ee", and "Ee" in Korean is also the number 2) isn't doing more to try to calm the people. They feel like he's neglecting them and that he only cares about sucking up the US. It's just a bad, bad situation all around.

So I have work tomorrow, but for the rest of the week...it's gonna be a blast. We're visiting the DMZ, hopefully going to the Dream Concert in Jamsil, getting dressed up at Princess Diaries Cafe (AGAIN! My sister's request), going shopping AGAIN, maybe going back to the adoption agency, etc.

Here's another hastily thrown together video of 1) one of my classes singing and 2) my sister, Dean, and me at the Cheonggye where the protests were. Watch the crappy youtube version HERE.

For the pictures, I just used my small Canon. Lugging the DSLR around has been killing my shoulder recently, so I decided to give my body a break. Thus, these photos are not so great.

At the Cheonggye with my sister.

gab

Hanging at our favorite low-key bar in Hongdae, GAB.

Looking girly for our night out.

rooomates

Me and the chingu.

sing

My cute students!

peace

Families were splashing along the Cheonggye, but right above, the police were everywhere.

blue

Blue works very hard to get a v-line. He's so Korean.

This title is Bad Solution by Hanson

You've got to move it
Or you're gonna lose it
Time won't always be there on your side.
Well, you've got to choose it
If you're gonna prove it
But change is gonna come, you can't deny.

What I want to know
Is what you're choice you're gonna make--
Every good debate has a bad solution.

Too long to say. But I posted a blog about it so you can read that, it says basically everything that happened! Craziness. I wish people could just protest...peacfully.

People shouldn't have to get hurt.

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by: koncettina

Jun 11, 2008 3:03am

koncettina: Yeah, it's easy to forget that the chaos exists until you watch the news or go downtown (riot police everywhere). In our neighborhood (south of the Han), it's still pretty calm. How did your singing competition go?

saera: The crowds don't get violent until the evening, and I'm only in the area during the day. I will be going to the big protest tomorrow, however, to take photos. Thanks for the tip, by the way!

barbiegrace: The Cheonggye isn't a natural stream, which is why it looks so clean! Whenever I say it's pretty, one of my co-teachers goes, "But...it's not real." And yeah, the beef protests are going stronger than ever. A bunch of people were having a sit in in the middle of the street yesterday.

Cooler als Penn...: I'm sure I'd find it troublesome if I lived up in that area, but I live in a big residental area, not downtown. And yes, the shopping is so cheap if you don't care about name brands. My sister packed a ridiculous amount of stuff for the plane ride back.

aaandy: The updates were slow for a bit due to family visiting, but my sister left today and I want to start updating more.

KTZ811: She just left this morning. :( I'm feeling homesick. She saved up so much money for shopping though--she was like a machine. So intense.

flyhigh1030: They give them away for free at Etude House if you buy something. There has been so much violence from both the police and the protestors. Everyone is pointing fingers but honestly...both are to blame. The police shouldn't be using such crazy force against school teens and the rioters shouldn't be trying to light things on fire or crawling all over the police vans. It's just a bad situation.

by: the real ginger

Jun 08, 2008 5:25pm

LOL i love your catt; so cute and isn't the thing that your poking him with the one that lee seungi uses at 1bak 2il? where did you get it?? my cousin wants it after watching the show.. lol

anyways glad you and your sister are having fun. my sister's in korea right too, and i'm still in US.. will be going there at the 23rdd

and i've seen the pictures of the protest on newspapers and on TV,, ssoo crazy it's nothing but orange light everywhere! i've personally would be there right now.. but i hear people are also getting into fights with the police and everything ):

well anyways keep up the blogs :D

by: flyhigh1030

Jun 07, 2008 6:18pm

OH maaan! That protest must be crazy and big for it to be broadcasted on my television.

Well anyway, glad to see that your sister had fun considering it was her first time coming back :]. Did she leave yet? i don't remember reading that she did. But glad that you girls had fun! You must be soooo rich! I wish I could shop til I drop ^_~ hehehe*

Happy blogging :

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Because in this world, love is more hungered for than bread."

by: KTZ811

Jun 03, 2008 11:16pm

Jun 03, 2008 10:21pm

haven't been by your blog in a while! keep updating, always fun to read!

by: aaandy

Jun 03, 2008 7:39pm

Those protests sound crazy. I haven't been following it at all but I hope they resolve it somehow soon. Is it troublesome to travel around with all of the protests?

Ooo it looks like you're having a really great time with your family :) I don't usually care for shopping but I know I'm going to really splurge when August comes. Everything in Europe is so expensive :( But that just gives me an excuse to spend a lot before I go ^^

by: Cooler als Penn...

Jun 02, 2008 3:46pm

Hi there! Glad you and your sister are having a good time and a lot of fun! She looks pretty too! Lucky you guys could hang out in rivers/streams... Looks cleaner compared to the ones here in our country.

So the Beef protest thing is still going on... 10,000 police? Wow! Everyone should be careful there. Hope the issue gets resolved as soon as possible.

Did your students really woke up that early for the singing contest? I would have fallen asleep while singing is I was in their part! hahaha!

Cute cat! :)

by: barbiegrace

Jun 02, 2008 9:24am

you should check out some of the other stream/rivers that aren't so busy/crowded.if you ever go over near Do Gok station, go past tower palace and there's yanggyecheon. if you want to be by yourselves, perefct place.

anyways. have you ever been caught up in a beef protest before? like sucked into the crowd?

by: saera

Jun 01, 2008 8:50pm

This one came quicker. Coolio. I'm glad your sister is enjoying seoul. I'm still irritated by the anti-U.S. beef riots. I don't know why they're so scared of our beef. I'm not a big beef eater but when I do I'm not rolling around on the floor dying. I still feel bad for Lee Myung-bak, but he could be doing more to calm the citizens. I'm gonna feel so weird when I go there, maybe people hate us or just the beef.

Still, I'm glad that you're having fun among all the chaos. And our school just got done with a singing competition, we went to another state and I was up for over than 24 hours and was so fricking tired!!

Love ya!

Jun 01, 2008 7:58am

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