Saturday! (6-20)

We took a bus to the Korean Folk village on the way to Kyeongju. A collection of traditional houses and workshops, it illustrated how the ancient Korean farmers lived. The various photo albums of this trip document it extensively, so I'll I need to mention is how cool the performing art was. The traditional dancers had streamers attached to a ball joint on their hats, so that careful neck movements would whirl it around.
A pair of acrobatic girls used a large seesaw to propel each other 10+ ft. into the air, giving them just enough time to do mid air splits, twists, even back flips.









The tightrope walker was even more impressive, since all he used for balance was the thrust from a fan. He could drop from the rope, bounce off off what I hope was not his balls, and step gingerly back on without losing a beat.

Following lunch, we watched "200 lb beauty", about a 200 lb singer who pursues extensive plastic surgery to gain public acceptance. It deals with how fat/ugly people are treated unfairly in society, although it fell into the trap that these movies always do by having the ugly-but-talented/kind character fall in love with the attractive+decent-but-not-extraordinary-personality character. Physical attraction is still at work here, but it's just one sided (pre-surgery, that is). The song "Ave Maria" sung halfway through the movie is probably the most memorable part. Certain members of our group still spontaneously break out with a loud MARIA!! AVE MARIA!!

Our dinner at the hotel buffet was perfectly timed; a concert for a convention of English tutors was going on, featuring a group of 4 girls that sang and played electronic instruments. It was quite a show. Of course, after a little boozing up at the Friendly Fresh outside our hotel, we put on our own little show at the local Noraebong.















It was 80's night, for the soon-to-be senior citizens of our group. We were 2 denim skirts and several scrunchies away from a "Saved by the Bell" episode, but everyone had an awesome time. The girls again showed real vocal talent, while the guys made up for it with volume and stamina. I discovered my preference for the baritone-bass range after shredding my vocal cords on "Billie Jean" (use your imagination, I've learned my lesson). With a few exceptions, everyone had at least one song they liked.

Still hungry for party, a select few of us ventured out after a brief reboozing to find the elusive Black Club, which turned out to be closed. Salvation was ours in the form of the aptly named "Night" Club, which kindly offered to fire up the DJ booth again just for us. The dance floor was sticky (and later wet with beer...Brian), but we all danced ourselves to tiredness.