Taxis in Busan are ridiculously cheap. I've heard the same goes throughout Korea. A 20-minute cab ride cost us about $10 total; a 20-minute cab ride in Fukuoka will cost you easily double that. We passed some students who unflinchingly greeted me--"Hello!"--asked how I was doing--"How are you?"--and asked where I was from--"Where are you from?"--all in English. This differs strongly from any encounters I've had with Japanese students. First, "Hello!" comes out much closer to "Hedo!" owing to their difficulty forming the l sound. (Granted, these students didn't do it perfectly, but the L was pronounced differently than the R in "are," reflecting a conscious effort to distinguish them.) Second, "How are you?" came out as three beautifully parsed and enunciated words, as opposed to what I get from my students, which is closer to "Hawayu?" As for the third question--where I'm from--I've been asked that in English by students maybe twice, and both times it came out closer to "Where from?"
We got to the market, called Kokusai Ichiban in Japanese, and milled around the streets, ducking into stores that appealed to us. I certainly didn't want anything for myself, and I didn't find anything suitable for gifts (nothing small, individually wrapped, and in packs of 60--for my Japanese coworkers--or cool and representative of Korea without being ugly or ridiculously poor quality--for friends and family back home), so I just window shopped. Noguchi found a suit shop, and ended up buying a dress shirt. We gawked at the prices of what to all outward appearances was good-quality clothing: full suits for $150, shirts for $20, trousers for $50. Those prices probably seem fair to most people in America, but in Japan, you can expect to spend no less than double that for each.
After that, still an hour or so early for our evening rendezvous, we headed over to Jagalchi, the nearby fish market. Factoring in the taxi ride back, plus afternoon traffic, we only had a few minutes to look around. The streets were lined with stalls offering fresh and, in many cases, live fish, crabs, lobsters, octopus, squid, sea cucumbers, sea slugs, and snails. Many of the stalls had adjoining restaurants, presumably allowing you to pick out what you wanted for dinner and rest assured it was cooked fresh.
We got back to the Culture Center right on time. Along the way, Noguchi asked me not to tell anyone else about our having gone to Kokusai Ichiban. It wasn't a big deal, and he asked me smilingly, but I wonder why he seemed ashamed of having gone. Regardless, I kept my word (until now, I guess), and we didn't let on that we'd done anything but watched the performances.
After eating at the buffet, which offered only a slightly different fare from the night before, we headed to the second and final Gala Concert. As we were getting situated, a couple of people sitting behind us tried talking to some people in our group. I was at the far end of the row, so I couldn't hear what they said, but since it was in English, our folks didn't know how to respond. Eventually they saw me, and I struck up conversation with a really nice guy named Mark, who I believe was part of Capitol University Glee Club. The first group to perform was the Wuxi Shane Chorus, an all-male ensemble from China. My time with the UGA Men's Glee Club kind of left me with a bias toward male ensembles, so I had been eagerly awaiting a group like this. Unfortunately, they didn't make a big enough impression on me for me to remember them.
The next group was the Dithyrambic Singers, whom Noguchi and I had heard earlier. Their Gala set was superb. One of their songs was Shenandoah--the exact same arrangement Chorus D had performed the month before. The rendition was breathtaking, and especially impressive to us, since we'd spent the better part of three months chipping away at the song.
After the Dithyrambic Singers was the Gracioso Sonora Choir, from Malang, Indonesia. I can't recall exactly what they sang; all I wrote in my notebook was "awesome" underlined three times. I can't find an official webpage for the group, but they have a page on Friendster, and there's a video of them singing here.
The last group to perform was the Northern Kentucky University Chamber Choir. Their set was great, consisting mostly of a cappella gospel arrangements. They were a very well-rehearsed, tight-sounding group, but something made them less impressive than the previous groups. I'm not sure what it was. Maybe it was repetition--whereas the other groups had mixed their traditional songs with a few English pieces, the NKU choir did just gospel. At any rate, they were applauded back onstage, and their encore was an awesome rendition of Jericho.
After the concert, we headed back to our bus. With almost everyone finally together (one lady would be arriving the next day), we decided to rehearse in the bus, sitting in the parking lot, with crowds passing by. It was kind of weird, but we were all pumped after the concert.
We finally headed back to the hotel, getting back at about 10. I was pretty much exhausted, and I knew there'd be another party in somebody's hotel room. I had a bad feeling about whose room it'd be, and sure enough, someone mentioned it'd be our room. Not wanting anything to do with it, I got ready for bed and went to sleep before the party started. Just like in Myers, I managed to sleep through almost all of the revelry.
No comments:
Post a Comment