Last night, Mimi and I went to see a performance in Hongdae and it was AMAZING! Nanta is something I had heard about before coming to Korea and knew that I definitely wanted to check it out while I was here so I was SUPER excited when Mimi suggested that we go see it this weekend.
I'm having a hard time coming up with the words to describe Nanta. It's a stage performance with 5 actors that are basically on stage for the entirety of the performance. It's set in a kitchen and the storyline is about 3 chefs trying to make sure they can make enough food for a wedding party within 2 hours. The problem is that the manager just gave one of the chef jobs to his nephew that showed up at the restaurant that day so the 3 chefs have to keep the nephew on track so as to not fall behind on their deadline. The performance is non-verbal and even though I think I heard a few Korean words here and there, for the most part, the dialog is just mumbling and the audience figures out what's being said by the actors very animated emotions and gestures. The main focus of Nanta is its musical performances because throughout the entire show the actors are banging on cutting boards with knives, banging on trashcans with chopsticks, hitting the sides of metal bowls with wisks, etc. It was amazing!
Here's a video I found to try and give you a better idea of what Nanta is all about. This performance wasn't in a theater on a stage like the one I saw, but its the best video I've seen. Excuse the super awkward guy in the beginning of the video.
We started the evening with dinner in Sinchon because Mimi had mentioned finding a really great Indian restaurant earlier in the week. It's called Jyoti. Everyone reading this in Korea, go check it out! The food was so good!
I loved the way Jyoti was decorated. We were mesmerized by the Bollywood videos playing on this TV in the corner by our table. I remember thinking about how weird I used to think Bollywood videos were and then last night they were suddenly not as awkward as I remember them to be. I can only attribute this to the fact that I've probably seen some strange K-Pop videos that have put these into perspective lol.
Birthday selfie yessssss.
I ordered lamb curry and Naan. If I could choose one meal to live off of for the rest of my life, it would probably be this one. I could even do without the lamb curry and just eat the bread for the rest of my life. I love Indian food so much, specifically curry and Naan. Yummmm.
My lamb curry, Mimi's vegetable curry, Mimi's chick pea masala (I think that's what that was called), Naan, Basmanti rice. YUM!
It was super cute the way that they displayed the food by bringing it out in bowls and then sticking it on top of a candle to keep it warm.
After dinner we headed to Hongdae to make sure we found the theater on time. Our cab driver had a hard time trying to figure out how to get us to the area we needed to be in but was super cute for trying his hardest. When we got out of the cab, we asked 2 girls if they could point us in the right direction and they ended up walking us to the theater! It was so nice of them because we had to dodge an audience of some street performance and head down some side streets. We gave them about W15,000 for being so nice and walking us to the area. Hopefully it will make them feel inclined to help other Waygooks (foreigners) in the future :)
We made it!
We had purchased our tickets in advance so we headed to Will Call and picked them up. Then we went downstairs to where the actual stage was and wandered around the waiting area until we were allowed to go in and find our seats. The theater had lots of pictures in the hallways from previous shows.
This pamphlet mentioned that Nanta has been seen in over 280 cities since its debut in 1997.
This was a huge, awesome mural on the wall leading down to the theater. Don't I look like such a happy birthday girl? :)
Pictures lining the walls.
Can I just say that the girls who play the girl role in Nanta are such bad asses. They wear a ridiculous skimpy little chef outfit and are supposed to be sexy while keeping up with the dances and musical rhythm for the entirety of the show. There is no way I could do this lol I'd have to choose between sexy and rhythm.
They mentioned before the show that Nanta uses "only the finest ingredients" during its performances. It seems a little wasteful since it all ends up wasted on the floor. I was feeling a little guilty at one point watching the actors do the scene that is shown in this picture because it seems like such a waste of perfectly good food. I don't understand the point of mentioning the fact that the food is "the finest" if you're going to throw it all over the place. It should be food passed its sell-by date, or left over from restaurants, in my opinion. If I was in charge, they would donate a portion of the proceeds to World Hunger or something just because of this scene. Oh Korea....
Nanta!
We entered the theater and saw how amazing our seats were. Third row! We were so close to the stage. It was amazing.
The ushers were dressed as waiters :)
They played music as people were entering. When it got closer to show time they lowered a projector and gave the usual instructions: no cameras, no exiting during the performance, etc. They gave these directions in print in 5 different languages which was pretty cool. I'd never seen anything like that before but I guess that's the best way to give those instructions if you're in a major international city like that where not everyone speaks Korean. The languages on the screen were Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, and what looked like Hindi.
Then right before the show started, an announcement came across the screen that there was an audience member with a birthday and someone had a message for them. I immediately turned to Mimi with horror in my eyes but she assured me it was not from her lol. The message came across the screen in Korean and lovey-dovey music started to play in the theater. I pulled my camera out thinking I was about to witness an adorable proposal but nothing happened. What a wasted opportunity for an adorable proposal....
In my mind, this says "Dear girlfriend, I know this looks like I'm about to propose to you but don't get your hopes up. Happy Birthday!"
I wish I took a picture when all of the languages were up there. They actually ended up singing Happy Birthday in English which was interesting to me. I figured I would get to hear a part 2 of the song my kids sang to me on my birthday. I think growing up with English as your first language gives you a weird perspective on the role English plays in other cultures. I assumed that since I was in Korea, and most of the audience was Korean, they would sing in Korean. It was interesting... but I'm still confused lol.
Ready!
Really ready!
Obviously, I was not allowed to take pictures during the show and although I contemplated being super sneaky, I did not have confidence in my ninja photo taking skills so I will just tell you that whether you are living in Korea, visiting Korea, or see that there is a Nanta performance in your city, GO! It's so worth it. There's really nothing like it.
The stage after the show. The final scene was the 5 actors beating on these large food bins like drums that were filled with these little plastic balls. At one point they reached into the bins with a big scooper and threw them all into the audience. There was a lot of audience interaction during the show which made it even more awesome. GO SEE NANTA!
We walked back to the main road in Hongdae and after doing a little shopping, we got into a taxi and headed home.
One of the sights we saw along the way. I would love to tell you that this is unusual but I would be lying to you. (I know where I'm going tonight).
We also saw this adorable flower man before getting into our cab <3
The takeaway from this post is that I really want people to see Nanta! It was amazing and you won't regret it! Plus I will have more people to talk about how great it is with. Parents + Karen, prepare to see this when you visit because I totally plan on going again.
My story begins in Morocco.
I was just a dream in the minds of my mother and father.
They were struggling to make me for 10 years
As I was stubborn and did not want to be made.
My mom began Invetro Fertilization treatments and was taking shots while on vacation with my dad and grandma in Spain, Portugal and Morocco. She believes that the reason she was finally able to get pregnant with me is because she took shots longer than she was told to because she didn't want to be confused with timezones when trying to remember when she started the treatments. For this reason, I claim Morocco as my motherland because I like to think of myself as a little potential miracle sparked into my mother on a warm day in Northern Africa that summer.
My first name was embryo #A00012. There were 4 embryos inserted into my mom and I was the lone survivor. As I have mentioned before on previous birthdays, I think it is only right that I do not have to share my birthday with the others as I was the strongest and the fittest. So I absorbed them.
As I grew up and began to understand the world around me, I couldn't help but notice that every year around my birthday, the ugliness of winter and bare trees disappeared and the flowers were in full bloom. Obviously, as I told my parents many times, God was decorating for my birthday. They still remind me of these narcissistic little comments I was known to make but there's still a small part of miracle baby Kristen that believes them to be true, regardless of whether I am turning 4 or 23.
Written by my mom inside of the Birthday card she sent me this year.
Obviously <3
The cherry blossoms are out in Korea too :)
I am that girl that wants to make as big a deal about my birthday as I can get everyone around me to tolerate and I make no apologies. I love my birthday. It's a magical time. It is a time when we can all celebrate what a miracle baby I was.
Knowing that I would be away from home this birthday was bittersweet for me. I was sad to be away from my family and friends, but I was excited to have an international birthday, setting the tone for all of my birthdays to come, and it really was the best day ever.
The birthday countdown in Kristen Teacher's classes began when April started. Every sentence quiz ended with "Kristen Teacher's birthday is in ___ days". They are very lucky to have me as a teacher because at least ONE of them will always know how to properly count down to something. (Sidenote: They were not happy yesterday when they thought those days were over and I gave them the sentence "Kristen Teacher's birthday was yesterday". But now they're learning to count backwards. You're welcome students). I was also doing this to see if I could get some presents hahaha.
And one of my students actually brought me this little cake!!! I'm super flattered because that means he actually went home and was talking about me to his parents. <3 I love my job.
I got presents from Holli, Ambar, my mom & my cousins. This was from Jess, Rob, Kenzie & Zac and it arrived ON my actual birthday which was awesome <3 The box in the background is from my coteacher :)
I opened this present on skype so that Jess, Mackenzie and Zac could watch me.
You did good Jess, you did good.
This is from Mackenzie, who wants to make sure I stay up to date on the latest B&BW scents.
And this is from Zac, who wants to make sure I stay up to date on who his favorite hockey player is. I opened this and he watched as I promptly put it on my wall where I will look at it everyday and think of him.
I should have taken pictures of the amazing gifts from Holli, Ambar, and my mom. They were just as pretty on the outside and awesome on the inside. Please still love me guys!!
I took lots of pictures with my Kindy kids in the morning and all of my little girls were in love with the pink birthday ribbon I was wearing that I got from Andrea before she left.
My baby <3
My big boy :) He used to run out of class and escape the first week of school because he was so afraid of me and my non-Korean face. Now he loves me <3
He's my newest & just started 2 weeks ago. He lived in Australia for 3 years before moving back to Korea recently. He speaks English with his sisters at home so he has better comprehension than a lot of the other kids in the class. He's so different from the other boy in the class because the first boy definitely favors my Korean coteacher but this little baby is all over me. I must remind him of Australia LOL. (In this picture he is hiding behind me because the girls were ganging up on him and chasing him with foam letters.)
I love him.
And I will be bringing him back to America with me.
Arum is always on chill mode. She is the most smiley little girl I have ever met until you turn the camera on her and then she makes the most non-emotional face ever. I crack up every time.
Thursdays are my easy days at school because I have a long break so I went home when I was finished with my Kindy babies and relaxed for a little bit before coming back to school for my afternoon classes. This is what happened when I walked into the office...
It was literally the best surprise ever. I love my coworkers so much. I know I'm super obnoxious for getting just as excited about my birthday as the kids do for theirs but the fact that they played into it with me was so sweet and meant a lot <3
My coworkers signed a card for me and Mimi got my little Kindy kids to write in a card for me too. It was amazing. They also gave me lots of little treats that were on my desk when I finally got to it.
Including this awesome Green Tea Kit-Kat from Japan.
Card signed by my coworkers <3
Outside of the card Mimi made and got all of the kids I teach in Kindy to sign.
Inside <3
My last class of the day was my most advanced class. They sang Happy Birthday to me in Korean and it's my favorite video from my birthday.
Psy face.
Bros.
This is when the Zombie poses began.
The girls were not nearly as excited to take photos. Which was fine.
Because I have enough enthusiasm for all of us.
We had to leave class shortly after taking these pictures because one of my girls ripped her tooth out and I freaked out because I don't know how to handle the blood and it was killing the ambiance of my birthday. But I'm happy to say it there were no other blood incidents that day.
That night my coworkers and I went to a bar we go to in Sinchon for dinner and drinks. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.
Giant pig in a blanket & white wine (to balance out the class). My birthday feast.
Justin, Chris & I got there first and waited for the others to meet us after they got off. When they arrived they informed me that they were ordering me a shot. I hate shots. I asked them what it was and they told me "Don't worry about it" which made me worry about it lol. But they were very nice to order me a chaser shot to take after it. I couldn't even tell you how the mystery shot tasted because I was too terrified to breathe out of my nose when I took it. I know it had Jim Bean, Bacardi, Jack, Jose Cuervo and Jameson in it and I hope to never take one again lol.
Thank you everyone, here and home, who made my birthday this year so amazing!!!!!! I'm going to see Nanta with Mimi tonight after we go to a new Indian restaurant she found. I'm super excited! Nanta was one of the things at the top of my Korean bucket list so my amazing birthday is definitely turning into an amazing birthday weekend. I'll post pictures soon!
*****On a serious note, this birthday was especially meaningful to me because my grandma passed away the morning of my birthday last year and I was definitely missing her yesterday and thinking about my family. I wanted to have lots of fun with my kids because I wanted to only focus on the positive and spread as much birthday joy as possible. So to everyone that contributed to me having an amazing birthday, it means more this year than you'll ever know <3
