Chapter Thirteen: Noraebong and Road Trip Games

I never thought I'd see the day, but I've run out of Seoul/Soul song name puns. Ack! That leaves me at a bit of a loss but fear not ... I'll probably think of something else punny to include sooner rather than later.

Today we take a look at the Top 10 Noraebong songs. I know you've all been desperately curious so it's good that you clicked on the blog today. This list is obviously skewed towards music that I like, but I've found that these go over with a variety of people, including Koreans and other foreigners.

There is a bias towards fast songs, because slow ones simply don't get people involved enough and because it's harder to hide your own crappy singing in slow songs. But perhaps they'll make their own list later.

THE TOP 10 NORAEBONG SONGS

10. Feel Good,Inc: This is a great song in and of itself, but getting some singing, some rapping, and some harmonizing all in one song makes it a great contribution to the Noraebong night.

9. Buddy Holly: This is a song that everyone knows and it's fun to go "ooh-ooh" along with Rivers.

8. Total Eclipse of the Heart: This song's inclusion is probably self evident.

7. Hey Ya: This is a fun song to sing and includes shout out to the ladies and the fellas. And everyone enjoys shaking it like a Polaroid picture.

6. Tainted Love: The 80's don't have a huge representation in Noraebong, at least not songs in English, but this one is great (though hard to find; not every place has it).

5. Mr. Brightside: (You can substitute "Somebody Told Me," "When We Were Young," or any other Killers song for that matter. They all make great Noraebong fodder.

4. Song #2: Fast, loud, and requires lots of jumping.

3. Bohemian Rhapsody: Wayne's World proved that this was an awesome song to rock out too, and the noraebong just confirms it.

2. Take me Out: With a nice slow intro, a crazy change-up from nowhere, and a chorus that was written to be shouted, this is the song I pick most nights as the grand finale.

1. Smells Like Teen Spirit: This is the song with everything. It had to overcome some difficult competition, but with slow bits, loud parts, jumping parts, passionate parts, and lots of talk about mosquito and libidos this is the number one song in Noraebong.

Honorable mention: Ghostbusters, Living on a Prayer, Betterman, I Want to Know What Love Is.

Wishlist: The Noraebong book is massive and the Korean songs are updated quite frequently. The English part is maybe 1/10 of the book and the newest songs are still 2-3 years old. But if I could request new songs, these would be amongst the leading contenders.

Rooster, It's Tricky, No Rain, Computer Camp Love, Sex on Fire / On Call, Evil, Level, Alive, White Winter Hymnal

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A plethora of long trips has caused some new games to be developed. Continuing with the theme, one of the more interesting is called "Name that National Anthem." Somebody names a song, any song, and the others have to pick the country that it should be the national anthem for. You can give any rationale you like, but you are required to justify it. Obviously, once a country has been listed it is off limits for the rest of that game.

Here are some examples. They seem obvious now but naming a random song and hearing an answer you didn't expect is quite hilarious. If you find yourself on a bus or waiting for a train with an hour or three to kill, I recommend trying this out.

[Most of these should be pretty self evident, but feel free to ask a question in the comments if you want to know. ]

Stand by Your Man (Saudi Arabia)

Hey Jealousy (England)

Hello Goodbye (North and South Korea)

Groove is in the Heart (Holland)

Stayin' Alive (Congo)

Sex and Candy (Thailand)

Monster Mash (Scotland)

Baby One More Time (India)

Shut Up (France)

Don't Look Back in Anger (Germany)

Mad World (Madagascar)

Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? (Palestine)

Scar (Cambodia)

Chapter Nine: (Right About Now) The Funk Seoul Brother

This entry was brought to you by Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim.

I'm coming up on my 4 month anniversary already--1/3 of my time in Korea is over. That's not so long--sort of like pretending turning 25 is a big deal because it's "a quarter of a century." But it's not a small amount of time, either. It's further proof, I suppose, that time really flies regardless of what you have going on in your life. What's strange is I feel like this is my reality, that I've been here forever, but when I look back on my time here I might not even remember the first couple months.

The biggest thing going around recently has been the paranioa about the Pig flu. I've been doing my best to ignore current events and for the most part have done just that. But with alarmed parents phoning in, this one is harder to avoid than, say, the hyserics about North Korea. All foreign teachers at my school have had to get our temperature checked twice now. If we cough or sneeze on the subway or elsewhere in public, we will get glared at (worse than usual) and people may actually move away. Many Koreans think that only foreigners can catch this flu, and they are very suspicious of all of us showing any symptoms of any cold. The irony here is that any sick foreigner here has probably gotten it from working with Korean children, whose idea of hygiene is sucking the snot off their fingers before they rub them on your face and try to put them into your mouth.

My average break at school.

Conditions at the school have been far from ideal, but the more draining the week days, the more I try to do on weekends. In the last few weeks, I've been to Suwon (again), Lotte World (a Korean version of Disney Land), a zoo (called Zoo Zoo) Seoul Grand Park (self-explanatory), up Bukhansan, and ascended the Seoul Tower. This is in addition to patronizing places like various Wa Bars (a western style bar), various Garten Biers (Korea's version of German bars), and several Noraebongs until the wee hours of the morning.

The Teddy Bear museum at the top of Seoul Tower.

Panda Bear ride at Lotte World.

The Legend of "Sindbad" ride.

And continuing the recent trend of videos, here is proof that I am not, in fact, faster than water:

Chapter Four: De La Seoul

I had my first staff dinner recently. Unbeknownst to me, it was a night of impending hedonism. All three foreign teachers, three of the four Korean teachers, both of the administrators, and the Director and her husband went to a meat restaurant. You can grill your own meat (or in my case mushrooms) and this being Korea there were numerous sidedishes. A lot of food was eaten. I repeat: A lot of food. Was eaten.

Three tables and still more food than room.

This being Korea, there was numerous beer and soju right off the bat as well. Soju isn't that strong, but it smells like really cheap vodka. I have had bad experiences with cheap vodka the world over, from Subway West End in Edinburgh to Doc's Pad in Eugene. So I find it a little rough, but it's not that bad.

We were at the restaurant for a few hours before most of us mosied over to a nearby hof. I think I've mentioned hofs before, but they are basically pubs. The major difference is that you need to order food when you're here. Even if you've just come from a three-hour dinner. We went through a couple massive pitchers of beer. I think we figured out that they were 4 liters each, and we went through 4 of them.

Katie's brain is boggled by the bigness of the beer.

Chloe shows the proper pouring skills...

... and how buffed she's gotten from pouring said large pitchers of beer.

After a few hours at the hof, a few of us made our way over to a noribang (Korean Karaoke place). I had been to one before just last weekend, but this one was much nicer. It had a large drum, maracas, a stage for dancing, and a great view of the city from the 5th floor. After drinking for something like 6 hours straight even I was ready for singing and we all had a good time. Highlights included Hotel California, Sex Bomb, and some sad Korean ballads.

Everything I know about drumming comes from watching the Muppets.

These song books have hundreds of pages.




Singing AND drumming takes real dedication.


So does maracka-ing and drumming.

That same weekend, I went out and explored the city. I spent most of my time at Gyeongbokgung, an amazing, sprawling palace. It had rivers, ponds, pagodas, statues and so much more. All for only 3000 won (under 2.00 USD). Also, in 2009 all museums are free in Korea so in the palace area there were two big museums I checked out as well.

The mountain looms in the distance.

The queen's pagoda.

The King's Pagoda.

The snobbiest statue I've ever seen. He's apparently from Apgujeong.

Some art in a museum.

I ended up meeting with fellow blogger Brandy of Life is A Highway fame for dinner at my favorite Indian/Nepalese/Tibetan Restaurant. I had a delicious rice dish with cashews and coconuts.

All this, and I haven't even gotten to the best part of my weekend yet. I was aimlessly wandering around, trying to find how to walk from Hongik University to Sinchon when I ran across the first book store I've ever seen here. They had one book in English in the bargain books outside the store. It was a book that I had to buy. At only 2000 won (maybe 1.50 USD) it wasn't even a choice. I've read it cover to cover twice now.

Recently I witnessed something strange. While walking to the bank, I realized something very unusual was going on. Not a single car was moving. This would be weird anywhere, but in Seoul, where red lights are generally considered an optional suggestion, it was like seeing a green sun in the sky. An alarm was blowing in the distance. And there was a small army of middle aged Korean people dressed in yellow on the sidewalks and in the streets.

What was going on?

Was Japan trying to reconquer Korea?

Where the North Koreans invading?

Had aliens made their first contact with the human race?

As you've probably guessed by the fact that I lived to type this, it was a drill. Of the "prepare for invasion from North Korea" variety. I'm not sure the exact defensive worth of stopping traffic and having people in yellow jackets run around and stand in the street...but it was very efficiently done. And for Korea, that's nearly a victory in itself.