Mom & Dad Visit Korea! (Part 1)

From September 21 to September 29, 2007, my mom and dad visited me in Seoul. This week was the week of the 3 day Korean holiday Chuseok (추석) which is the annual harvest festival like Thanksgiving in America.

My parents arrived to the bus station near my home at 8:30pm after a day-long journey from Texas. We said hello and took a taxi to my home. We quickly went to bed since I had to be up early for work on Saturday.

I only taught one class on Saturday, so I was home by 11am. After I arrived home, we went to Itaewon. Itaewon is a "special tourism zone", which basically means everybody speaks English, there are lots of Western restaurants, and lots of shopping available.




Itaewon is an easy place to get to, so we didn't have to worry about buying anything on this day. Mom is just looking...


As we were walking around, we came across a giant pig. Since mom has a pig collection at home, we took this lovely photo.


Later that evening, we headed to a theater show called NANTA. On the way, we had a little trouble finding the theater. I'm proud to say that I was able to ask for directions and receive them while speaking only Korean! It really felt good to be able to speak Korean when I needed it.

Here is how the show is advertised:

Since first presented on stage in 1997, Nanta has been the must-see performance in Korea. 'NANTA' figuratively refers to reckless punching as in a slugfest at a boxing match. 'NANTA' is a non-verbal performance of reckless rhythms that dramatize customary Korean percussion in a strikingly comedic stage show.

Integrating uniquely Korean traditional drumbeats with a western performance style, NANTA storms on stage into a huge kitchen where four capricious cooks are preparing a wedding banquet. While cooking, they turn all kinds of kitchen items - pots, pans, dishes, knives, chopping board, water bottles, even brooms and each other- into percussion instruments.

It was a fun show. Dad was invited up on stage and added to the laughs while he and another stranger were unwittingly married in front of the audience.