Gay Sexxyz... Part I

A wild, craaaazy hilarious fun weekend!
Friday night, the Gay Sexxyz, played our first show ever at a small bar with a tiny but well equipped stage near the university (I played a triple decker keyboard, it was super professional!). We wanted this show to kind of be a practice run for the next night- so we didn't tell anyone about it. Jon (the bassist) and I picked the instruments up at our practice space and took them to the bar to set up around 9; we started around 11, and though there were only about 10 people there, we had a really fun time and felt prepared for the next day.

Saturday was the big show at Jam Bar, but also a bake sale/fundraiser for the Vagina Monologues (being involved in both things, I had a busy day). I made a trip over to a friend's apartment to bring some baking items and enjoy the gorgeous weather. At 7, it was time for the sound check, blowing up balloons and putting makeup on the men. To keep with the Gay/Sexxyz theme, I brought plenty of clothes to dress the men in- and they were good sports, for the most part- though it kind of sucked to see them looking better in my stuff than I do. After fried chicken and beer, it was time to get back to the bar and go. The place was pretty packed! We were shocked when we walked in and there was nowhere to sit! The VM girls brought 200 jello shots and the place was lined with baked goods. After getting There were three openers, girls on guitars singing covers. It was clear the crowd needed some gay sexxyz and quickly.

We came out in epic form, played our 13 song set flawlessly, and the audience loved it. All of our friends were there and danced enthusiastically the whole set, I was thankful for their support. I played guitar-and sang! And afterwards we rode the rockstar wave to free beers and pats on the back from our friends. In true rock and roll fashion, someone threw a pie in Jon's face while he was smoking a cigarette, we all died. It was magical, I didn't want it to end! Not ready to go home just yet, we crammed 15 people into a norebang (karaoke closet) and screamed and laughed and sang and drank until the wee hours.

jamie and ssean, wearing my clothes and makeup

me, jon, jamie, ssean, jake (on the drums)

playing the guitar on "Beat Back"

burning down jinju!

It was a magical evening, I can't wait until Saturday, sadly our third and final show. More pictures to come!

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful weather. I peeled myself out of bed, shook off a layer of glitter and met my girlfriends in the park for an afternoon of a lot of laughing and chugging water. It turns out, the fundraiser for the VMs (from the bake sale, jello shots, and other donations) raised almost $500! That means, the two fundraisers I organized (with the dance party last weekend) combined raised almost $1000! My part in the money making is done, haha- now it's time to memorize some lines.

caroline, emma, me, jiwon, and eve loving the warm weather (jackie's taking the pic)

Then last night, it was dinner with Jon and Ssean and back to the bar to pick up our gear and stuff it into a taxi to take back to the practice space.

I wish every weekend were just like this one.

More soon,
M

How I Spent My Saturday Night: Hanging Out Naked With Dozens of Strangers

Well, I think the title says it all, really. I had a particularly wild Friday night: it was my girl friend's going away party, and I was out until all hours laughing, singing and dancing with my friends. Saturday morning (afternoon, really), we all managed to drag ourselves out of bed and met downtown for Western style breakfast (pancakes and eggs!) and gripe about our collective headaches. After that (and a little shopping at the dungeon/thrift store), we felt perfectly fine heading back to our beds.

Though understandably apprehensive about it, I have been planning to try a jjimjilbang (sauna/spa) for a while now. I want to try as many new things as I can while I'm over here, and while some people (most of my friends) are totally weirded out by these places, I decided to be brave and try it out, alone. I felt that Saturday night was the perfect time: the jjimjilbang would presumably be empty, and especially since everyone else I knew was busy nursing hangovers, and I had wasted about five hours in bed enjoying a 30 Rock marathon (no regrets there). So, around 7:30, I hopped on a bus and began the twenty minute ride to Pyeonggeodong.

I have had no experience doing this before and was more than a little nervous about it; I just knew to go to this particular building, go up to the third floor, get naked, and sit in a sauna (?). I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but, as is almost always the case here in Korea, I was very wrong. I arrived at the building and went into the elevator to go up to the third floor. When I got up there, there was a woman at the door motioning for me to go back to the first floor. I was confused, but I did it anyway. It turns out I had completely missed a step: paying at the front desk/getting towels/pajamas/a locker key.

After that, I went back up to the third floor and entered the changing room (women's only). All around me were dozens of Korean women, of all ages, in various states of undress. I found my TINY locker and shoved all of my belongings in there. Then, I got naked, and, holding my two (hand) towels, was kind of confused as to what to do next. Where do I go?! What do I do?! I spotted a weird, sweaty looking door and headed toward it.

I walked into a large, steamy room full of naked women. It's not to say that I am necessarily a prude, or uncomfortable with nudity, but it's a pretty different experience for me, and it took some getting used to. It's strange being in a place where there is no shame in getting completely naked. To my relief and surprise, no one seemed to take much notice of me, except for one kind woman who saw that I was clearly confused, and ushered me over to a shower. It was soon clear that my first objective was to take a shower, and seeing provided soaps and shampoos, I did. After that, I explored my options: on my left were four large, shallow pools: one at room temperature, two hot tubs, and one cold tub. In front of me were two saunas of varying degrees, to my right a "scrubbing station," which is essentially a corner of the room where you can pay to be scrubbed down, head to toe, with basically sandpaper. (I opted out of this after a friend told me of how a particularly rough old woman left her raw, trying to scrub off her tattoos.)

I started with the hottest hot tub available, which was a nice, simmering 104. It was cold outside, and the tub was great, even while surrounded by old ladies staring at me. I really enjoyed the saunas and even the cold tub, which was probably about 40. After an hour and a half, I decided to head upstairs to the "lounge." When I got back to my locker, though, the key wouldn't work! In a scene straight out of most people's nightmares, I could not get my things out. Standing naked and helpless in front of my jammed locker, I began to panic, imagining myself hailing a cab completely naked. After about ten minutes, the attendant came to my rescue, gave me a wonderfully large locker, and, after I put on the pajamas they gave me, even directed me upstairs to the lounge, where I immediately chugged ice water.


Upstairs (now co-ed) were a small restaurant, beds, and more specialized rooms: a freezer room, a refrigerator room, varying wood saunas, and my favorite, a hot stone room with a floor made out of quartz pebbles (hot) that you lay on (surprisingly comfortable!). I stayed up there for maybe an hour more and, feeling amazingly refreshed, went home around 10:30, just in time to make the last bus back to Chilamdong.


All in all, I would sum up the experience as a positive one. Even though most of the time I had no idea what I was doing, and almost had a heart attack when I thought my stuff was really stuck in my locker, I left feeling completely relaxed, warm, and happy. Seeing as though the whole experience cost me less than five dollars, I will definitely go back and probably enjoy it a lot more.


More soon!
<3M

Seollal Seo-lolz

Today is Seollal, Lunar New Year in Korea. It's one of the biggest holidays of the year here- much bigger than December 31. It is also one of the biggest travel holidays in Korea- about 35-40 million people hit the highways, busses and trains in just two days. I decided to head to Daegu, a city about two hours away, with CR, Tony and Jenna for a second chance at New Year's Eve. Eve and her boyfriend (visiting from New Zealand) were supposed to come, but because of traffic delays, he didn't arrive to Jinju in time to catch the train with us. 

walking the streets, a cold, sunny january day!

Tony and Jenna were there already and had found us a 'love motel,' which is basically a super cheap, scummy (but awesome!) place that Korean 'couples' stay at. To better describe it to you, there is a window that allows you to see into the shower, a very large, comfortable, sometimes vibrating bed, at least one 24/7 porn channel, and always a 'love kit' with all the essentials for lovers included. Perfect! The theme to our room was "Marilyn Monroe: A Tribute." Tony and Jenna got "Lichtenstein: A History."

We went to a super delicious buffet at a brewery right next door with WESTERN FOOD and microbrews! It was unbelievable- all you can eat AND all you can drink for less than $20!! To top it all off, there was a house band, husband and wife, playing 80s hair band covers, no joke. They were dressed in Axl Rose attire, and they were actually incredible. I can't wait to go back.

CR, Tony, Jenna and I loving the buffet!

After the buffet, we ventured out into the city where we met this guy, Jason Irish, who is from Lewiston, NY! He went to school with the Clark sisters, two of my dear friends from Buffalo!! It's so crazy, I really do meet people from Western New York so frequently here. We started a "LET'S GO BUFFALO/Bills make me wanna SHOUT/716!" chant, ate pizza in a cup and drank gin out of a bag (they do things differently here). I made friends with the bartender and fun times were had!

representing buffalo in the far east, two well behaved americans 

Bar Art/Bart

99+ luftballoons

In the morning, CR and I gathered up all of our strength and got ourselves home. It was a little more difficult than we had anticipated- we forgot we were competing for train seats with thousands of other people- but we managed to snag two seats on the bus and snored all the way back. I spent the rest of my vacation in various forms of disrepair, in and out of bed, and loving not doing anything. Most everything in Jinju is closed today- and it's far too cold out for me to be motivated to do much else :)

Tomorrow I hope to do more of the same! Haha. Happy New Year again!!
More soon,
<3M

Visions of Seoul

As predicted, my weekend in Seoul was wild and crazy! All in all, there were probably about 700-800 santas, cramming into a subway, caroling, and generally spreading the Christmas spirit. It was beautiful!! It was super fun. But rather than further cheapen the experience with words, I present to you a slew a photos:

the bus ride down. everyone is lively, happy, and excited!

santas in action, hongdae

here we are, watching a complete lunar eclipse in hongdae, seoul. it was amazing!

we quickly made lots of new friends, haha

attempting to navigate the streets....

this lovely old man pulled my hand to sit down next to him on the subway. we cuddled for a little while.

surely more to come soon!
<3 M