Korean Finale

On the last Saturday of the stay in Korea we met our colleagues at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. First of all, on Friday night they took us out for a nice dinner of tubes. Then after dinner we went to a karoke bar and sang a few songs, for 2 hours. There were about 10 people including my boss and I. The karaoke bar has private rooms that hold 10-15 people and have a large TV screen for the karaoke and two microphones. There is a large book with thousands of songs. Most of the songs are Korean but there are also Japanese and Chinese songs. There is even a section of English songs from both the US and the UK.

When each song was finished there was a rating of how well the singer did. In my only other experience with karaoke, which was Sing Star on a PlayStation 2, I did not do so well. The rating I received was “Tone Deaf.” At the time that was the worst rating anyone in our group had seen.

During this second foray into the depths of Karaoke, the rating system was a score which I think went from 1 to 100. The highest rating I saw was 100 and the lowest rating I remember was 92. I sang two songs and scored a 95 and a 96 so I think the rating system is more like a random number generator weighted to greater than 90. I have not been practicing any singing other than in the shower and then only when the Chief is not home or downstairs watching TV very loudly.

Besides singing, there is drinking, and some of the people that were with us took that as the main point of the evening. During the course of the night (6ish hours) I drank 4 beers and a shot of whiskey. I was not even a little buzzed by the end of the evening. I did not want to drink too much because I had a 12 mile run the following morning that a hangover would not have helped. Two of our number were having difficulty walking. One of them picked us up on Saturday afternoon. He did not appear to be bad off. He seemed his normally cheerful self.

He and another colleague took us first to the Korean war memorial. I thought it would discuss the Korean war but it was much more than that. It goes back to the conflicts from 5000 years ago up to the present day. It seems for some reason many different people have wanted control of the Korean peninsula with Japan being the latest occupier.

Outside the facility is a large monument that lists all the people who were killed or lost in the conflict of the most recent Korean war. The United States provided the most personnel and equipment and also lost the most lives. Every person that died is listed by home state in alphabetical order. Here is one wing of the monument.

It continues around the corner. There is also a mirror image on the other side of the complex (behind me when I took the picture). One of the most touching things is a statue in front of the monument that is based on an actual event. Here is a picture of the monument. It is called the Statue of Brothers.

It shows two soldiers embracing. We asked about the statue and were told that during one of the wars between North Korea and South Korea, two brothers met on the battlefield. One was fighting for the North and the other was fighting for the South. They met on the battlefield and put their countries differences aside and embraced. It kind of puts things into perspective doesn’t it? Family is the most important.

Another interesting feature of the memorial is a monument inside called The Drop. Here is the plaque and below is the monument.

After visiting the War Memorial, it was only fitting that we went to a gun show. It was called Drum Cats. It is a show where 6 Korean women play the drums and do a little dancing. There is one woman that plays the violin and there were two men that provided comic relief between acts. It was very interesting. Kind of like a cross between Blue Man Group and Stomp. The music was good and all the girls, especially one or two had very large arms. I would not want to arm wrestle them, even a little. I guess that is what happens when someone (man or woman) hits things with sticks for a few hours a day.

The rhythms of the sets were very precise. The choreography was very good as well, even down to the synchronized hair flipping. It wasn’t that all the girls flipped their hair at the same time, it was quite the opposite. They all flipped their hair at different times and almost in specific order. It was all very carefully coordinated.

I took one picture before I was told not to take any pictures. I looked around, there were “no smoking” signs and “no eating” signs but there was not a “no pictures” sign anywhere. Here is the picture. I didn’t want to use the flash because it was very dim in the theater and I didn’t want to blind anyone, especially when they were beating on things with sticks.

The show was good and I recommend going to see it if you have the time. It is not terribly expensive and worth a couple hours. Here is a link to the show. If they moved to the USA or came to put on a performance they would need to first register with the NRA...

After the show we went to a Thai restaurant and then back to the hotel. Nothing exciting happened… we were tired from drinking the night before and walking around all day. Sorry...

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