Mungyeong Cross-Cultureal Celebration

Every month, a group of NETs (Native English Teachers) in Jeomchon put on an open mic night.  This is usually held in a cafe downtown, but this month it was going to be held outside.  The co-teacher of one of the people who was planning it somehow got the idea that this should become a larger event, and thus, the "Mungyeong Cross-Cultural Celebration" was born.  What was supposed to be a simple night turned into quite the event, and all of our schools were notified about the event.

Excitement=Mc^3!!  Oh, Korea.

On Tuesday, one of the other English teachers at my school came up to me and told me that one of my first grade boys wanted to perform and wanted me to sing with him.  "So if you can meet him there, you can sing and he will play. Ok? Just talk to him."  That is essentially all the information I got.  Now, to say I confused is probably an absurd understatement.  Did I ever give the impression that I can sing?  Because I assure you all, I cannot.

I didn't get to see him until Thursday, and at that point he basically told me that the teacher had volunteered him to perform, but he didn't really want to.  I obviously felt badly, and tried to tell him that he didn't have to, but I think he felt like he had to because his teacher wanted him to.  So, I told him to meet me there and we could decide what to do from there.

Sure enough, I met up with him on the day of the festival and he was pretty nervous.  There were lots of people there, and he was nervous about performing in front of some of his friends.  I again told him he didn't have to perform, but he felt like he had a "responsibility" to do it. Eventually, it was his turn, and he did a good job, especially given the fact that he didn't want to do it in the first place. Poor kid.

The rest of the day had all sorts of acts from musical performances, to skits by younger english students, to a magic show (during which I was called up to be part of the act), dancing, traditional Korean drums, noarebang style group singalongs, and of course a group dance to Gangnam Style to end the evening.  It was perhaps the most random mix of events I've ever seen, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

Above you can see the traditional drumming and a clip of the dancing to Gangnam Style (note that at the end of the Gangman Style video we are all being told to get up and dance...which obviously we did)

Afterwards, I went out with a bunch of the other English teachers.  It was a pretty laid back night, but I was glad to be able to sleep in this morning.  Since I've been in Korea, just about every weekend has been really busy with trips to different places.  It's been a lot of fun, but I feel like everything is just catching up with me, and I'm exhausted.  I'm heading to Seoul this weekend, and the weekend after that is Halloween, but after that I'm looking forward to laying low for a little bit in Novemeber.  I love seeing and doing things, but I'm realizing that I need to balance things out and take some time to relax as well.