Hanbok March

So yah, we had our fun outing wearing hanbok, around the fun Insadong, Jeongmyo shrine... we had had plans to visit namsangol hanok village on that day, but time flew by and as we took it easy and went at a really slow pace (hanbok helping) we figured we'd have other times to visit the traditional village. I was really curious about that place because it's a very popular filming set for traditional Korean dramas.

...and the next week, my friend shows us that there is this guy who opened a facebook group

mentioning that he was redoing the Hanbok March event. It's a pretty much self-explanatory term. You put on a hanbok, and you walk around. In this case, you walk around Namsangol. What a perfect opportunity. I had wanted to wear my hanbok again, but hadn's expected to do so so soon. But that was a perfect opportunity. I however was sort of reluctant to go at first because I'm kind of racist when I'm in Asia. I'll explain.

I know there are tons of amazing foreigners in Korea. If you want to travel to Korea, there must be something amazing about you. But I came here because I wanted to speak Korean in my day-to-day, hang out with and make new Korean friends. I wanted to experience the culture and visit places only visited by natives. See the world. 

That's why I'm never the first to say yes when I'm invited to an expats meeting or party. I just feel out of place. Nothing personal. I like to say I'm racist because of that. I include myself when I say meh, those foreigners.

 Apparently, the preious time he had done the Hanbok March, he had spent a lot of time advertising the event and there ad been tons of people who showed up. This time, it had been a rather spontaneous event popping up, and we were onle 15 ish. It was great to hang out in the sunny weather, walking along the trees and sitting on nice benches and rest areas. There was a French couple (man French, woman Korean) with their cute kids that joined up. This time, I went with Alyssa (my friend from when I worked at A-Class) but Caitlin didn't make it. 

I had been waiting for the hair accessories I have ordered from that lady ( whose Korean name is the same as mine "Yoonha") because they were supposed to come that day, but they came the next day so there was nothing to be done. I've been looking forward to wear them since that day. The plan is to have another Hanbok day very soon, most probably the second weekend of November, on Sunday.

 Anyways.

Back to the event. The March is a walking chilling day without stressful schedule, and they were filming part of it to make a video. 

What I didn't know, was that the guy who organized this march  - Michael Aronson -  was actually a quite famous youtube video guy, who got famous mainly with his Seoul Metro Song video - that, while being old, is still the next best thing. 

Watch it!

 Among the people who showed up, a young Korean couple showed up and the guy was wearing a mint dooroomagi (long Korean traditional man jacket) which, no one ever wears normally because the amount of fabric required makes it super duper expensive. That, and men are not bin on wearing costumes that make life uncomfortable, so they usuall go for the comfier pants shirt combination. That's really too bad. There is nothing nearly as hot as a good looking man wearing a traditional costume.

There was also a man who had a really good camera who took many pictures of people there. I took mine from his website but he doesn't like to put them on facebook, given that facebook takes the ownership of it. Stupid.

연우

동탄에서 일년 살아왔던것이 제 인생에 좋은 추억을 많이 만들게 해서 그곳을 떠나도 나 아직 그곳을 많이 좋아한다. 거기서 나란 인간에대해 많을것을 배웠고 이쁜 가게를 많이 찾았다. 동탄에 가게되서 너무 고맙게 생각한다고 한걸 하나는 모모의 다락방이란 가게를 다니게된거예요. 거기서 선생님 밑에서 인형을 만드는 방법을 배우고 제 손으로 이쁜것들을 많이 만들게 되서 너무 좋다.

동탄을 떠나 목동으로 와서 그곳을 다니기 못하게되서 너무 아깝지만, 그것도 저 독립하게 만들어서 좋아요. 그맘으로, 지난달에 야구 3주일동안 쉴때 제 능력으로 제가 혼자서 직접 만드는 인형을 만들기 시작 했고 지난주에 완성 시켰다.

시장 가서 원단을 직접 사서 만들고. 옷 위쪽을 만들게 한복집에서 페턴 부탁해 갖고 그 페턴을 바꾸고 옷을 만드는게 시간 되게 많이 걸렸다. 치마만 만드느라 시간 엄청 걸려서 완성 못 시킬 수 있다고 생각도 했지만. 역시 나 고집이 세.

인형 만드는거랑 실제로 입는 한복을 만드는것이 많이 다르다. 핀 막 찌르고 또 찌르고, 모양 바꾸고, 뭐를 직접 만드는것의 행복을 느꼈다.

머리 또한 복잡 하게 만들고 한 6시간이나 걸렸다 ㅋㅋㅋ

꽃신을 어떡해 하면 된지 모르고 대충 하다가 결국은 네일용 얇은 스티커를 쓰고 예쁘게 완성.

완성 시키자마자 떠오르는 이름이 해를 품은 달의 <연우>라서, 연우나는 이름은 치웠다. 방갑다 연우야.

Oops!

Zut zut et re-zut.

Je n'ai pas prêté assez attention, et mon blog a passé les 30 000 visionnement. Je remercie le gros hasard, qui a probablement fait qu'une grande partie de ces visionnements arrivent. Mais je remercie mes lecteurs assidus, silencieux, mais dont j'entend les murmures parfois.

Quand je dors, évidemment. 

Bon trêve de niaiseries.

Ça fait longtemps. J'ai trop à dire, et probablement trop peu dans ma mémoire vive alors je ne sais pas si je vais écrire grand chose mais en tout cas, je vais en écrire un peu, avec l'aide de quelques photos. Voyez-vous, le mois dernier, je suis allée faire mes promenades en costume d'époque dans les rues de Séoul. 

Juste parce que.

La vie est si belle quand on fait de belles choses "parce que".

Les photos qui ont été prises venaient de la caméra d'une amie qui m'a transféré les données par dropbox, et comme son espace était limité, cela a pris un peu de temps mais j'ai finalement eu la balance des choses. C'est dur la technologie n'est-ce pas?

 En tous les cas, cette journée a été bien remplie, sans toutefois se presser pour autant. Le genre de journée de fin de semaine d'automne bien chaude que j'aime.

Étonnamment, je pense que ma partie préférée a été la partie la plus improvisée de la journée. Nous avons commencé la journée dans le coin de Jongno 3 ga (si je me rappelle correctement) où l'on a vu la recréation d'une des dernières processions royales. Nous y avons fait la rencontre imprévue d'une armée de gens costumés, en dehors des artistes de la performance, qui faisaient partie d'un groupe qui trouve toutes sortes d'occasions de mettre le hanbok, en dehors des journées fériées coréennes. Un drôle d'adon. 

Ensuite on a été prendre le thé à Insadong, une place où j'ai toujours eu un petit faible, étant donné sa location toute proche du quartier de maisons traditionnelles Samchong dong, et entre deux palais, Gyeongbok et Changdeok. C'est un quartier qui vend beaucoup de petits trucs traditionnels et qui est généralement très occupé durant les fins de semaines alors c'était assez comique de voir les réactions des gens quand on passait. 

Le clou du spectacle c'était quand on a finalement décidé de retourner à la maison. On était tout près d'une statue du roi Saejeong, celui qui a ordonné la création du hangeul, l'alphabet coréen. Mon amie a fait remarqué que la statue avait une base très large parce que c'était l'entrée d'un musée souterrain dédié à la langue écrite coréenne.

Quoi de mieux que de visiter un musée habillé en costumes d'époque? Comme il était tard (passé 9pm), je croyais qu'il allait être fermé mais le musée était encore ouvert. Pas beaucoup de gens, alors idéal pour faire des niaiseries et prendre des photos. On a eu beaucoup de plaisir à faire le détour.

Hanbok Hangout 1

So a week after Chuseok, I asked two friends if they wanted to hang out downtown wearing Hanbok and just chill around. You know, because Hanbok are amazing. 

And because we don't need more reason to actually wear a Hanbok do we? In any case, I don't think we should be restricted to the idea that it's awkward to walk around wearing one. When wearing a Hanbok, we technically wear more clothes that people wear in their everyday life, so it should not cause any sort of indecency problem. Also, old people love it. And who doesn't like to make old peopl happy just by walking around town?

I like to make old people happy.

I also actually happen to love wearing Hanbok.

And yah. That's it.

I also enjoy people wondering what kind of weird person I am. That's me. Was always me.

So we arranged to meet up downtown Seoul and later found out that during that day there were actually already events going on, traditional stuff all around the upper area of Seoul (Jongmyo, GyeongbokGoong etc) so we joined one. 

And saved $1US, because costumes save us the expensive entry fees. 

I felt so rich that day.

After the ceremony, we had planned on hanging out in Insadong to look at trinkets, and drink tea eating sweets in a nice tea shop. I wanted to buy an amber ring to match my norigae (Korean trinket worn at the waist) that had amber on it. Usually Korean dresses have jade accessories, and sometimes coral (crazy expensive) so I had bought a green jade ring last year to wear with my old hanbok, but the lady who made my new one gave me amber stuff with my new one, and I wanted some sort of accessory to bring up the color.

When we met up we first headed out to Jongmyo (shrine) for a re-enacting of a royal procession. The only procession that bad all the royal family members all at once. Originally, important processions never had all the member, and most of the time, they were reserved to male.

This one was of the last prince (think he was 12) after his wedding to his 13 years-old wife, when they went to pray to their ancestors if I remember correctly. The procession both had the royal ministers and the queen's ladies of the inner court. The procession started with the male ministers and the king and prince following the indication of one of the minister sometimes speaking out to them, sometimes speaking in a singing voice to call on each of the steps of the event. After the emperor and prince left to their assigned seats on one side of the stage, the ministers all left and waited on the right side while the queen and princess got on with their ladies in waiting. 

This was the unusual part of the ceremony, as originally only men went there, and as soon as the women got on the platform, it became "lady territory" and all the following parts of the event and the queen, emperor, prince and princess were escorted to their spots by the ladies in waiting, instead of the ministers, who stayed on the side until the end, standing in neat rows. 

It was an impressive ceremony, and I felt sorry for the actors standing in the bright sun. The actors playing prince and princess were 12 and 13 years old, as the real historical figures had been at the time the real ceremony took place.

The ceremony was explained in Korean, Japanese, and English and it was interesting for me to get the information in all those languages, noting that they did not say the exact same things for both. Still, I suppose a person speaking only one of those languages got a decent amount of information on the overall procedures. 

What was interesting was that when we got there, we didn't expect anyone to be dressed up as we were, our dressing up being more of a spontaneous whim, rather than the following of as specific event. However, when we got to the seats where we could watch the procession, there were some 30 people, all dressed up in hanbok of all kinds, come handmade, some bought, but all with either an impeccable hairstyle and dress or an interesting modernized version of the traditional outfit. I found myself at loss of words: what in the hell was going on?

We found out later that they had more or less all come as a group. They were all people who loved Hanbok and wore it on any kind of occasion they felt like. For lack of better comparison I would compare them to the Korean equivalent of Lolitas, who wear modernized 1700s dresses at all times. The costumes that impressed me most were the men's. While women usually wear long hair, and a hanbok is basically just a bigger silkier type of dress, it happens often that you'd see a lady wearing a hanbok to sell traditional sweets and the like. Men, however, have to really want to, to wear a hanbok. They are complicated to wear, imply wearing lots of layers and they gentlemen's outfit has an (apparently) uncomfortable hat. I think that outfit looks absolutely dashing.  

To be honest, it took me little time to get used to the look of the male Korean traditional costume, but now, it has the same effect on me as a suit worn by a good looking man. They have the power to bring out the hotness out of men. I have yet to see one look good on a foreigner but that's another story... (the outfit I liked best was the lilac one. However, the guy wearing it was not that hot :P I love the silky look of it)

After the ceremony we had a 10 minutes where all the actors stood in the bright sun to take pictures. We were asked to take many pictures along with them, being the weird foreigners wearing Hanbok :)

Then, something happened that totally blew my mind. So far I had been very touched with the attention I had gotten from people around there, some asked me for pictures, some asked me where I got my hanbok done (wish I had brought the card of the lady who made it because it would have been great opportunity for business), I also got the name card for that group of people wearing hanbok all the time...

....then this lady comes to me, takes an amber ring off her finger, puts it on mine and says, "suhnmool". 

Gift.

And there it was, an amber stone, the exact shade I had wanted to buy in Insadong, put on a nicely engraved silver ring. Had I sent a message to the universe, and had the universe answered me back? I will never know. 

What I know is that made my day. 

What this lady did was nothing big, but it made a big difference in my day.

I was mind blown.

She gave me her business card and told me I could look up her work if I wanted. She was a hair accessory maker, for traditional clothing. Usually for weddings, as Koreans rarely wear Hanbok in other occasion. I told myself this was perfect marketing. But was not sure she really expected me to buy some, being a foreigner and all. I still told myself that I had also found the place I wanted to get my new hair accessory from to match my new hanbok.

[EDITED] Later on I did order from her and after a few back and forth I finally received my Baesshi and Yeop GGeot (top ornament and side pins) from her and they were lovely. I browsed her website to show someone her work one day and what did I not see? She mentioned the story of our meeting at Jeongmyo, her side of the story. If you can read Korean please take a look. Otherwise, well there are pictures)

Later on that day we went to a really nice tea shop in Insadong and had tea and sweets. I looked around for hair accessories and almost bought a 700$ hairpin, having understood it was 70$. Oh money.

We also got small snack gifts from people doing a survey in the streets with foreigners in Korea, were asked to take some more pictures by a Japanese tourist who had just gotten to Korea. Was fun to speak Japanese a little.