[Korea Performance] FantaStick is really Fantastic?

Fantastick is a non-verbal performance. It has story and they mostly play instrument such as drum, flute, etc. I went there with a friend from Indonesia.

The opening and the ending were actually pretty cool because it was really a party. I liked it. The story is actually really general, about love, man and woman, problem arises, they get separated, then they try to solve the problem, more conflict, climax, then they meet again and live happily ever after.

You really should know the introduction of the story, otherwise you will have no idea what is going on. I will give you a head start. The story is about a man and a woman, they love each other. God gave the man a drum and a woman a flute. Too exciting with his drum, the man forgets about the woman. The woman then gets really jealous and broke his drum. God angry and curse the woman and her family (why brings family? lol) to be haunted ghosts and takes her flute. The only way to be human again is to play a perfect song. And the performance starts from here.

Once in a while they give really funny scenes. The story itself is kind of depressing in the middle of the play. Therefore, if you are one of the audiences you will notice that once in a while audiences laugh, then it is silent, then more laughter again. And like any other performances in Korea, they do interact with audience.

Wanna see this one? The theather is located at Kyunghyang Newspaper Building second floor. Take line number 5 and get off at Seodaemun Station and take exit 5. Go straight until you find intersection. It is just across the street. Ticket is KRW 40,000 - 50,000.

angga | 앙가

[Korea Performance] World Beat Vinari: Worth Watching?

Before you are judging me, I would like to say that this is only from the perspective of me as an audience. As everyone knows that everyone has their own thought about this performance. 

From what I saw Vinari is a performance that emphasizes in traditional music instrument and singing. The songs are actually telling about some different stories. The performance itself does not really have story. To be short, the performance is just a collection of traditional music instrument and - you can say - concert. 

The one that I quite like is actually the concert part, where one of the girls sang with a really powerful voice. I think that's only it. The instrument play was also good, but nothing really special. You can really see it at some places in Korea. I have seen it in Namsan Tower. They played right in front of Namsan Tower. Also you might see it on festivals in Korea. They played traditional music instrument while doing some acrobat action.

It is true that they try to be interactive with the audience by asking us to yell or clap our hand. Nothing really special about it. No cool acrobat actions, no funny moments, it was very dull and really standard.

The theater is pretty cold (it was winter) and I had to keep wearing my jacket. The screens that explain about the story of the songs are placed at the side of the stage, it was pretty uncomfortable to see it, some people might not notice it. 

I would not recommend this one, but if you want to see it, the theater is located at Cine Core 4th Floor. Take line number 1 and stop at Jonggak Station and take exit 12, walk until you find intersection, cross the road and turn right. You should see the poster.

angga | 앙가

[Korea Performance] Hilariously Drawn In by Action Drawing [Hero]

I knew from the beginning that this one was goint to be so awesome, and it was! I went there 2 days ago with a friend who actually majoring in some major related to art.

Action Drawing [Hero] is a non-verbal Korea performance about 4 drawing artists that I think live together in a paint studio. They use a lot of material to draw, but the one that they use very often in charcoal and white paper.

Really talented - they are awesomely drew a lot of cool things like Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, Superman (from blocks), a really cool painting of Tiger, an audience, and etc. The cool thing is that we had no idea about what they were trying to draw until something happened and then we found out what the drawing was. For instance, 4 of them would draw each part of Michael Jackson, of course we, as the audience, had no idea since it did not make sense, but then they flipped the drawing and they put it together, that was how we found out that it was actually Michael Jackson.

Really entertaining - evidently they are not just good in drawing, but also in acting and entertaining. They have a lot of trick that make us laugh. In every scene there must be laughter, you know sometimes drawing could take time and people get bored waiting for the result, but hey ... they really manage to entertain audience.

Interactive -  I know most of Korea Performances have this thing, so does Action Draw [Hero]. They made it so funny and I think it is really unforgettable.

Surprises - you will see a LOT of surprises from this performance. Not just a normal surprises, but a really funny surprises that will make your cheekbones and belly hurt! That is how I loved this performance.

Overall, it was so satisfying, funny, awesome, i can't think another word for this. I liked it a lot and I would love to see it again! I would really recommend this to watch if you ever come here to Korea.

The theater is so easy to find. It is located in underground of MyeongBo Art Hall. You just need to take metro line 2 or 3 and get off at Euljiro3ga Station, take exit 8 and just walk straight for 1 minute until you find a helix-shaped stairs, then turn left then thats it. The tickets is KRW 40,000 - 50,000. Have fun and be ready to be "drawn" away.

Official Website: http://www.drawingtheater.com/

angga | 앙가

Blog berbahasa Indonesia saya: www.jjkproject.blogspot.com

Special SBS Inkigayo For Celebration of Over 10 Million Foreign Tourists

2012/11/25 - It was just like dream came true. I have always wanted to go to this famous TV Music Program in Korea. Inkigayo is a South Korean music program that is broadcasted by SBS. It shows the performance of latest and popular artist. The one that I attended was a special program to celebrate over 10 million foreigner tourists. The show was aired live from 2 places, the one that I attended which is SBS Prism Tower and Gwanghwamun. 
There were actually many artists that came and sang at the program, some of them are Sistar, Secret, Teen Top, CN Blue, Infinite, KARA, Son Dam Bi, Kim Jong Guk,G.Na, B1A4, etc. But since it was held on two different place, so the performers also divided into two. Some of them performed at Gwanghwamun, including Sistar T.T. Some of them even did the pre-recording which means it was not really "live", but some of them was still there even they did the pre-recording I think to satisfy the fans. I guess they had to do it because they had to organize and decorate the stage. And we can't take picture during the show, so sorry there is no proof lol.
Overall it was pretty entertaining and I was so happy that I finally get to watch inkigayo from its studio and I was also captured by camera and a friend of mine took a screenshot from her TV and sent it to me! Thanks again KTO, I am so glad that I became a member of K-performance supporter and get to see events like this. Congratulations for Korea for the great achievement!

Me: second row gray shirt lol

angga | 앙가

A Walk With Hallyu Stars

Not really ... they actually promised an event where we can walk around with invited hallyu stars, but no, it was just only the beginning and the next event was actually walk by your self, or your friends if you came with you friends. It was a total disappointment, but hey, look at the bright side! A free concert ... yayyyyy!!
I can't thank KTO enough for this. I loved the concert since I could see it really near (I was at the front row!). Alright, first thing first. I got this invitation and I went with several Indonesian friends from my university and then later I met some cool friends from Indonesia who study in Suwon. We did the walk with friends thing together and kept complaining about how we can't walk with hallyu stars but everything changed once the concert started. I actually sat on the right side but I decided to sit at the front row! and I could watch the concert really close and of couse I got many great pictures.
The concert was open by performances from some kind of martial arts. Then the crowd started to scream when Infinite came out and sang several of their songs. For guys, there were the sexiest Sistar came and it really heated up the atmosphere. There was not as exciting as the others when Nine Muses came out, I guess they are not really well known by foreigners. The crowd started to scream again when ZE:A entered the stage. And the concert was closed by the cute little kid who were on the Gangnam Style MV.
Overall, despite the cold weather, a very far place, and a disappointed feeling because we did not really walk with them, it was so much fun to see their concert from a very very close distance. Thanks KTO!

angga | 앙가

Jump in Korea

Several days ago, I went to Seoul to watch a very famous comic martial arts performance called Jump!. I went with a Mongolian friend and we were really expecting a good show from this performance since we heard a lot about this. As the genre says that this is about martial arts, therefore they were showing some fighting scenes and martial arts demonstrations. They are focusing on Taekwondo and Taekkyon.
There is one big family consisted of a grandfather, father, mother, uncle, and a daughter. Grandfather is the most powerful in the family, mother can do Taekwondo, the daughter is pretty, and uncle is a drunken master. Also, there is one guy character who wears a pair of glasses in which if the glasses is taken off from him, he became a really strong person. There are also two robber that come to the house and this is where they fight.
There is this one unrelated character which is a really old man that even barely walk. If you have ever seen the movie Ice Age, there is this one cute character that always chases apricot, I think this old guy character is kind of copying the Ice Age character. The show lasts about 1 hour 20 minutes and I think the most interesting scene is when they have to fight in the dark.
The place is big and it has a lot of chairs. It is located near Jongno 3 Ga Station. I really recommend this performance, especially for girls who want to see some muscles ^^.

angga | 앙가

F1 Korean Grand Prix 2012 and Arounds

F1 Grand Prix this year is held at the international circuit located at Yeongam city. It is actually really far from the capital city which is 4-5 hours trip by bus. I went there with the other K-Performance Supporters that were really excited about this. I also put a lot of expectation on this, but maybe I put too much. 
We got two days tickets. The first day was to see the preliminary race and I just saw on the brochure that they had drivers fans sign time. We totally missed that! And then we went to some breakwater place which was apparently unavailable due to some construction. We ended up hanging out in some kind of square in Mokpo city. It was kind of fun because there was some performance from European countries. The great thing of the day was to eat seafood!
The second day was the final race. It was 55 laps and the winner is Sebastian Vettel from Red Bull team. But before watching the race we had a brief visit to Dr. Wang-in Historical Site. I do not really know about this place, but I will find out and get back to that.

To be frankly, I think my friends were right when they said watching F1 from television is way better than watching it live. We can only see it in a glance a.k.a we can only see it when they pass the track in front of us, and it only lasted for only what? 2 seconds each car? There was actually a screen, but not big enough to see it clearly. There were opening ceremony and performances, but we had no idea what was going on since our seat is so far away from the seat near the start line. Nevertheless, being able to see it in reality was an amazing chance. Being said it was not really excited, but it was a rare chance and I felt somehow lucky.

Putting aside all F1 related things, I would like to share my homestay experience. Just like when I visited Yeosu Expo 2012, we did not sleep in a fancy hotel. I had this opportunity again to sleep in Korean's house. This time was different, though. His name was Choi Jaeshin and he lives with his wife. He owns this house in a village and he has a garden full of persimmons trees, apple trees, ducks, chickens, and a little dog.

The room is really traditional Korean style. We slept on the floor with only blankets and it has floor heating system. The air is really fresh and the view is green. It was a really stress-less life. We also had a very delicious breakfast and many gifts such as candies, spam, tuna, and a bag full of persimmons. But more than all of them, we got their hospitality. They even invited us to go there again if we do not have anything to do on holiday. It was a great experience and I can't thank them enough.
Thanks once again to KTO for giving us another experience. It is priceless.

angga | 앙가 

A Trip with Rural20: Chansaem Village and Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village

President Council for Nation Branding as the implementaion of Rural20 project gave us an opportunity to visit 2 of the villages in Korea which are Chansaem Village in Daejeon and Duekhaengbokdeurim Village in Wanju. Before going the trip story, let's get to know what Rural20 is. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries of Korea  made this project and they chose 20 rural villages to let people experience their scenes and tradition. They categorized them into 4 different themes which are experience, nature, tradition, and wellbeing. If you go to their website, you will get many information regarding this project.
Our first stop was at Chansaem Village and it is categorized under wellbeing theme. It was a 2 hour trip by bus from Seoul and it is located in Daejeon. It was not like a village that I was expected. I think the village is built only for the experience purpose. I do not know but regardless it was a really nice place. They have fresh air, really nice paddy rice field view, hills, and really good food. As soon as we arrived, we directly went to an experience house to make by ourselves our dinner: Bibimpab!

It was not as simple as I had always thought. You have to put certain amount of spices to the ingredients. I used to think that Bibimbap is only rice with variation of vegetables. Anyway, we did it! And the taste was awesome!
The next activity was to harvest sweet potato. We had to go to a hill but instead of walking, we took a ride by a truck. Pretty awesome. I saw people sitting on the truck many times when I was in Indonesia, I had never thought I would the one who was doing it. It was pretty thrilling and fun, though.
We actually also learnt about how the farmers plant the sweet potato and how it is different from potato. There is also certain way to harvest it, so that we will not slice the sweet potato with the tool. It was a little bit frustrating because while everybody was happy getting really big sweet tomatoes I could not even find many small ones. But, we could take our potato home!

Happy with our sweet potatoes, we went down to get some rice. At a small field of rice, we got two handful of  rice stalk(?) and then by using a very traditional instrument, we separate the rice from its stalk. Not that difficult. But I wonder if you do it for the whole field, must be a really hard job.

We then took our bus again to have some experience in making Korean paper which is called HanJi (한지). I actually have witnessed the making of HanJi when I was visiting Jeonju and it was similar thing. Therefore I was not really surprised of what was going on. The fun thing was that I could make my own paper.

They actually explain the whole thing in detail, but I did not really understand. I think the process goes like this: they take the wood which is called deoknamu, then they reap it, clean it and take the white part of it, boil it, mix with with the glue, shape it by using some big instrument, and dry it. Korean paper is really famous for its quality and how it is made. There are many crafts made by Korean paper. I have once decorated a paper fan made of Korean paper when I was in Jeonju. It really has a very good quality.

With an empty stomach, we continued our trip to our accommodation in Wanju which was actually also the place we would have our next day activities. It is called Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village. Once we entered the gate, there were some people wearing traditional clothes greeted us. I recognized the clothes because I have seen a lot of Korean traditional music instrument performances. I knew we will be served a performance.

After having a really good and satisfying dinner, plus a bowl of hand-made makkoli (막걸리), a traditional alcoholic beverage of Korea made of rice, we were spoiled by traditional dances and music instrument performances. We spent a night at a traditional Korean house called Hanok (한옥) and the sleeping style is sleeping on the floor with heating system. It was a really great night under stars and fresh air, with great performances, food and drink, and most importantly, a very nice people.

Dueokhaengbokdeurim Village falls under the category of tradition. Last night we experienced traditional food, beverage, performance, and house. The next day, we experienced some other traditions. First activity of the day was to make a necklace. We had to draw our wish or whatever we wanted to draw on the necklace and we will take it to cemetery and pray for it to come true. 

The next few activities were really fun. We made rice cake! It was fun because we had to hit the compound with wood hammer. Then we had this competition of which team can make the most creative rice cake. Did not matter because in the end everybody won and got the prize. We also had game competition. We had to throw stick to the basket. I actually am really good in playing basketball at the game center, but really bad in this game. My team got the second place among 3 teams. Then before having lunch, we again showed our craftsmanship by making our own jegichagi.

Before going back to Seoul, we stopped by a place where a really famous Korean TV show called (translated) 1 Night 2 Days (1박2일) had been took place. I do not really watch the show but I know it is a really famous entertainment show. 

I think I have my own really amazing 1 Night 2 Days experience. I live and play in these big cities with asphalt road, concrete buildings, bunch of people. Sometimes it could be really stressful with study. Traveling and experiencing rural area was really an effective cure both physically and mentally. I really believe that rural20 project has reached its goal and it should keep going. 

Thanks to President Council for Nation Branding and Rural20 Project. I have really great experiences and to have met very great and interesting people was really a pleasure in my life.

Thanks for everything guys ^^

Visit Rural20 Project Official Website: http://www.rural20.kr/en/

angga | 앙가

F1 Korean Grand Prix at Yeongam International Circuit And Tourism Spots

This is is going to be the third year of F1 Korean Grand Prix which is held annually. It is going to be held at the International Circuit located at Yeongam City. Yeongam is actually really far from the capital city. The closest big city from Yeongam is Gwangju Metropolitan City, city of light.
The race will be held on October 14 2012 after the qualification race on the day before. Now, we all know that the race will not take a lot of time. Therefore, while visiting the city for watching the race, you can use some of your time to visit some travel spots.
I did a some research and one tourism spot that I really noticed was Boseong Green Tea Field. It is actually pretty far from the circuit like maybe 1 hour and a half by bus but I heard a lot of good things about this place. If you want to go to somewhere near, it is better to go to Mokpo. It is a city that has port. There is a national maritime museum and also Yudalsan Mountain.
There is this one place that attracts me while doing research about tourism spots in Yeongam. There is a national park called Wolchulsan National Park. I read the description and it looks very nice place to visit. It is said that there are temples and a statue of Buddha that is recognized as national treasure.
So, if you are in Korea or planning to Korea on the date of the race and have interest in this race, come visit. On the website they say it is only going to be until 2016, so don't miss your chance.

Official website: http://www.koreangp.kr/html2012/en/koreangp/overview.jsp

angga | 앙가

B-Boy Kung

As a K-Performance supporter and also as it was Korea In Motion Festival Period, I got a very rare chance to watch a performance called B-Boy Kung plus to learn a little bit of K-Pop dance. I actually had already guessed what the dance would be, and yes it was Gangnam Style by Psy.

Gangnam Style has taken the world. It has spread like virus. Everyone knows Gangnam Style and its very famous horse dance. I actually have already learnt the dance, so no surprises, yet it was still pretty interesting. At the very end, we split onto two teams and had a little horse dance battle. Of course my team won and we got a pair of socks.

Now the main dish: B-Boy Kung. If I had to make this short, I would summarize everything in one word: Amazing. It was really beyond my expectation. B-Boy Kung is a street dance performance. Also, there is a story that in my point of view as an audience is pretty well constructed. It was really easy understandable even without words.
The story is about a group of dancers called Gorilla that lost their place to practice and hang out. Also, there is this very rich guy who I think bought that place. With the power of money, he also succeed to take one of the members of the group. He, the dancer, then becomes the rich guys member. The story goes on until finally they meet at one dance competition which prize is USD 500,000.

The scene that I liked the most wast when the main character was in dilemma between his dance group or his job. He did really good acting and his popping skill is undoubted. There was also a scene where several dancers wearing black clothes and white masks on. It was really scary because the room was dark and glowed everything white. The story  and the dance was really good.
The place, oh I love the place. It is very small room with the quota of not too many audience. It really gives us a private feel and closer view of the performance. I would say that the place is the best one among the performance room I have ever been. It is located at Samjin Jaeyak (삼진제약) Building B1 floor. If you know Hongik University, go to its main gate and turn left until you find B-Boy Kung posters.
Overall, it was a very exciting, interesting, enjoyable one hour and a half. I was really lucky to be able to watch the performance. Also, the KOINMO team took some videos and made it really neat. Check it out!



Thanks KTO! And for you who desperately want to watch this performance, hurry up! you could get cheaper ticket as it is still KOINMO festival!

KOINMO: http://www.koreainmotion.com/eng/
B-Boy Kung : http://www.sjbboys.com/

Me and the main character
of the performance

angga | 앙가

2012 KOINMO: Korea In Motion

First of all, let me define KOINMO. Korea In Motion (KOINMO) is a festival held during September which purpose is to let local and international tourists to enjoy performances in Korea at the fullest. How is this possible? Price cut! During KOINMO festival, you can get 50% or more discounted ticket which they call RUSH TICKET. You can purchase this rush ticket at KTO ticket booth right in front of Korea Tourism Organization Headquarters from 11AM - 7PM.
Before the festival start, K-Performance Supporters did flash mob to introduce and attract people. We did it in three different places on different time. The first one was in Insadong but I could not attend it. I went to the second flash mob which was in Hongdae. The last one was in  the opening ceremony of the festival in Chonggye Plaza. The dance was actually pretty easy and simple. KTO made the song by themselves.

Lee Charm (CEO of KTO) with ZE:A
at KOINMO Opening Ceremony

The opening ceremony was kind of cool. The weather was really supportive. We were spoiled by the performance of BiBap (비밥), musical Hwarang (화랑), Fanta Stick (판타스틱), and ZE:A. ZE:A was mentioned as the ambassador of KOINMO Festival.
I would say BiBap is more to a beat boxing performance along with some b-boy dance rather than a performance with a story. The food (bibimbap) itself is just a way to create the reason of the beatboxing. Musical Hwarang was a bit boring at the first time, but they really hit it off as the show went by. They basically just sing and did some dance, and maybe some martial arts. Girls must love them. Fanta Stick was pretty interesting. They played these traditional instruments and sang Arirang. I do not know the reason why, but I really enjoyed listening to Arirang. They also did some drum performance which pretty entertaining. ZE:A ... sure they were the highlight of the night!
Go get your ticket and enjoy performances in Korea, NOW!

angga | 앙가

The first FlashMob at Insadong:

Official Website: www.koreainmotion.com

My 2012 Summer Vacation Highlight: My Special Travel Mate Camp

My Special Travel Mate 2nd Batch 2012

Being a student in Korea, I always get offered a very delightful pleasure after a tense and stressful semester: 2 months and a half vacation! However, even a long vacation will not be fun if there is nothing to do, right? I actually have this resolution this year that every year I will go to another country at least one. Unfortunately not this summer vacation. I have been staying in Korea this vacation, but it does not mean I can not have fun. I have done a lot of things during this vacation: dance, meeting friends, part time job, trying other countries' food, and this one is the highlight: CAMP!
I have not been to many camps, the one at the top of my head is when I was in the US. I did not really have so much fun to be frankly, but I love kayaking at the lake part and burning marshmallows. 아주 특별한 여행 친구 (My Special Travel Mate) Camp held and organized by MC Korea (MC stands for MultiCultural) was the camp that I attended for 3 days and 2 nights. This camp was different. There are a number of foreigners from different countries and each foreigner has their own partner which is a Korean kid! How cool is that?!? Well, I have some experience dealing with kids since I have 2 younger sisters and 1 younger brother, but dealing with Korean kid was something else.

Day 1

First I met the foreigner friends. They are from Guatemala whose boyfriend is Indonesian, Philippine, Thailand, Vietnam, China, US, Malaysia, and a Korean whose English accent is really British. We were divided into 5 teams and each team was assigned a color and part of the world that the team was going to create their own travel plan at. Mine was red and we were going to plan a trip to North America. With me in the team was an American lady, a Korean team leader and of course, the kids.
I was kind of nervous to meet my partner. I was expecting a really talkative and full-of-curiosity type of kid but no, my partner was a total quieter. I was trying to make him speak but it was really pain in the ass. Until they, the MC Korea team, asked us to give nickname to each other started with the letter that was picked before which mine was A. He gave me "Ace" as nickname. I do not really actually believe about destiny or fate or something happens for reasons and stuff, but this word has come up a lot of times to me. And I started to believe that this camp was going to be a super fun camp. Anyway, I decided to give him "Amazing" as his nickname, so we are the Amazing Ace.
Apparently, my partner has been to Indonesia. That was where we started to talk. MC Korea team gave him a piece of paper that had to be filled out by the time we arrive at the camp place. It consisted of questions about me and my country. He was stuck at the capital city of Indonesia's question. From that, he was started to be a little bit excited. So was I.
About 1 hour and a half journey, we finally arrived at a Gapyeong, far away from the stressful atmosphere of city. I noticed a swimming pool and I knew that we were going to play there. After a settling up our luggage and having lunch we began our first activity: A mini Olympic!
There were several games at this mini Olympic. The first one was a game where one of you has to avoid the ball and one of you has to catch the ball, protect it from hitting your partner, and to throw the ball trying to hit your opponent. My team won this game. The second one was 2 person 3 legs. and the last one was a kind of running game but we have to finish a mission assigned to us before start running. The game was fun to make the bonding between foreigner friends with their partners.
After dinner, we proceed to the main activity which was I am a world Traveler. Here, as we assigned before, we had to make a travel plan to our assigned part of the world. My team was to plan a travel to North America which includes north part of the USA, Canada, Greenland, and land of ice. It was pretty hard because I did not have many knowledge about northern part of America continent. After a long discussion and thousands of pictures we finally ended up with a route: Rushmore Mountain --> SixFlag California --> Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone National Park --> Rocky Mountain --> Toronto.

Day 2
I was very excited because on this second day we were going to play water and the weather was also very supportive. After breakfast, while the kids having the Ethiopia class, the foreigner friends were composing the presentation about Heroes, Festivals and Residential Culture. There was one interesting thing when I was helping the host of Heroes subject. She was asking me if I were a hero, what super power would I want to have. I asked back to her, and she had this really deep answer: Understanding. She said that the main cause of people hate each other is just because we are lack of understanding. I was pretty amazed by this simple answer, yet does make sense. Peace is understanding.

View of Gapyeong

We then had a presentation about the travel plan that we made last night. Every team seemed to have made really interesting plan. Even though ours were pretty good, I was really "seduced" to want to go to Purple team: South America. They really lured us with this beaches and food. They did win the popularity vote.
The next activity was to have a culture traditional market. Foreigner friends had to draw whatever that Korean kids could not find in Korea and then sell them. Korean kids then had to buy them and remember what the stuff was, from where and how much did it cost.
After bunch of hard work planning this and that, we finally went to the pool! I can not really swim but somehow I really enjoyed playing water maybe because I grew up in a city that near beaches. There was this water see saw thing and it was really fun. Also, we played throw and catch water ball and treasure finding. The water play was the highlight of the day.
The activity continued with talent show. Everyone did not know that every single person had to do the talent show. I already prepared my self for a dance as my talent show. I danced like this by WonderGirls. I was very embarrassed but I think they pretty enjoyed it. My partner did his magic trick by cards. There was also Brazil capoeira show and it was pretty interesting, too. I won the favorite vote!

Day 3
Have you ever heard about bucket list? Bucket list is a list of things you want to do in your life before you die. I had not really thought about this but I came up with 10 things I want to do. One of them is that I want to go to outer space and meet alien. Also, I really want to meet my partner later when he has already grown up at least once before I die. My partner wants to be a baseball player and he also wants to have KRW 1,000,000,000 before he dies.
After that, we were making scroll papers. Each of us had to write whatever you want to say to the paper owner. It was really a bunch of papers to fill out. When I finally could see my paper, I saw some really touching and interesting comments. One of them is from a Korean kid that says "내 이상형" which means my ideal older brother. I was really happy to see that.
It is always sad to say goodbye. I really did not want this to end. The camp was such a blast I strongly thought that 3 days was too short. Nevertheless, I had so much fun and I got many friends. Memories are precious and priceless.

Amazing Ace!

angga | 앙가

See the story here at MC-Korea official website:
Day 1: http://mc-korea.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=03_2&wr_id=12&page
Day 2: http://mc-korea.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=03_2&wr_id=13&page=
Day 3: http://mc-korea.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=03_2&wr_id=14&page=

Want to have your own experience? Visit www.mc-korea.net.

Introduction to Indonesia

Since the first time I lived in foreign countries, I have been getting so many questions about Indonesia. Not only that, some people have been knowing false knowledge about Indonesia. For instance, and it is really bothering me, the fact that some Korean thought that Indonesia is ... India. Funny, because by physical it is pretty clear that we, Indonesian, are different from them, Indian. Therefore, I want to introduce my very own country, Indonesia.

Where is Indonesia?
Easy, google it hahah. Well, if you know where Australia is, Indonesia is right north of it. We share border with Malaysia, Singapore, and Papua New Guinea. It is pretty big, so you won't miss it.

How big is Indonesia?
It's big. Probably 8 times Korea. Indonesia has around 17,000 islands with 5 main (big) islands. As far as I know, Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world, we have around 220 million people live in Indonesia. Also, Indonesia is the country with the most muslim population in the world with around 85% of tits population is identified as muslim. The fact, though, Indonesia is not a muslim nation. It is a secular democracy nation.

Unity in Diversity
I don't really like to talk about this since the reality is not the same as the slogan. From what I know, we have around 500 different ethnic groups and each has distinct traditional languages, clothes, food, wedding traditions, and even different funerals. However, most people speak the national language which is Bahasa Indonesia. There are 5 religions acknowledged in Indonesia and every single person has to have religion. Well, at least on your identity card. The ironic thing is, even though we have the slogan of unity in diversity, but there are so many fights between ethnic groups and lately, between religions. But what is a life without conflict, right?


The Good-s
People are nice, they smile to you. Things are cheaper than some other countries. We have a lot of natural beauties: beaches, forests, mountains, volcanoes, you name it. We have natural exotic skin color (HELL YEAH). The culinary is the best. 


The Bad-s
A lot, hahah. One among them that really bothers me is the tradition of corruptness. I hate it. It is such a big problem in Indonesia and it has to be ended soon. Another thing is in some big cities, especially the capital city which is Jakarta, there are many inconvenience things such as super bad traffic jam, high criminality, is pollution, trash everywhere, etc. And this one is one of the best: Indonesia is HOT.


Got the picture now? If not you can always ask me or maybe something smarter than me, Google!


angga | 앙가

Comic Music Show: Wedding

Wedding is really lack of story. Even more, there are several things that do not go with the concept of this performance, which is wedding. For instance, the magic show in the middle of the show. It really has no relation with wedding itself. I would say that this performance is more like a talent show. Everyone seems to have talent in playing musical instruments, singing, dancing, and of course, acting. Those are the plus points of this performance. I really enjoyed them playing variety of musical instruments. One person might be capable of playing several musical instruments, beside singing, dancing, and acting. I was even more interested in them showing their talents rather than following the story.
Basically, the story is just about a couple having their wedding party. The father of the bride did not agree with the wedding but the couple kept on trying to convince him. The show went on along with some unrelated scenes even though they were pretty entertaining. There was one scene when a male stripper came and took off his pants and showed his glittery red underwear. Everybody was shocked and screaming. The stripper turned out to be a gay and fell in love with the event organizer guy. I will save the rest of the story for you to watch it by yourselves. I know that you can guess the end of the story.

The stage

Regarding the place of the performance, it is pretty difficult to find. There are many buildings around it and it is such a hard-to-be-seen type of place. Also, there is another performance with really similar name and I was mistakenly going to go for that one. The room is very small, which I like it very much. I always thing that small room for performance really gives some sort of private and exclusive kind of feeling. The stage, though, is not really eye-catchy, or maybe it is just me.
Overall, I did not quite enjoy the story but on the other hand, their talents, the comedy, and all the surprises were really entertaining. Plus, they put gay couple in the performance which I think ... come on, it is Korea. I think it is a good thing because it gives the audience the feeling that they are also open-minded. Worth watching? Me: Yeah, you?

Me and the couple

angga | 앙가


More information:
About Wedding (Korean page)
Ticket (Korean page)

PS: Special thanks to Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) for the 2 tickets!

R16 World B-Boy Masters Championship

The stage

The atmosphere was figuratively hot, loud music, and the crowd for 2 nights in a row at Olympic Hall, Seoul. R16 World B-Boy Masters Championship was being held on July 7th-8th, 2012. This tournament is to compete dancers from categories of Poppin, Locking, and B-Boy from 16 crews from all over the world to be selected as the best in the world.
The first day was for Poppin, Locking, and Solo B-boy. I was actually late for 30 minutes but fortunately when I arrived the battle had just begun. If you read my previous post about R16 Korea Elimination you will find that the rule is actually the same. It will be 1 to 1 battle. The winner for Poppin is from Korea which is Boogaloo Kin. However, the crowd went a bit hotter when poppin from Kazakhstan, Dauren, came up because he has such an attractive face. The same thing happened for Lockin Zhan Funky from Kyrgyztan because he has such a small body and very cute. But the winner for Lockin is Benson from Taiwan after defeating female locking Cio from Japan. The battle of Solo B-boy was the most exciting and fun. There was this b-boy from Japan whose name is Issei that caught my eye since the first time he showed up. He is really cool and energetic and yes, he won the battle after a battle with Roxrite from USA. There were also some performances by professionals and also from Jay Park but I did not see those either because I was late or because i went back home earlier.

The winners, runner-ups, and men with money
on the first day

The second day was for Crew Performances and Crew Battle. There were 8 crews battling from 8 different countries. For the Crew Performances, each crew will do a 10 minutes performance one by one. They were all awesome but the most interesting one on my opinion was Team Shmetta from Belgium. The did a weapon kind of simulation and it was really cool. But the winner went to Korea team, JinJo Crew, who are also spectacular. The Koreans really made the atmosphere hotter when they were doing the performance. The Crew Battle, of course, is an 1 to 1 battle. Simple System from Kazakhstan had a really tight battle with Team Shmetta from Belgium at the quarto final. Simple System defeated Team Shmetta and they went smoothly to final after defeating Flow Mo from Finland. JinJo Crew was defeated at semi final after a very fierce battle with Massive Monkees from USA. Massive Monkees was really good. They ended up becoming a winner for Crew Battle. My favorite battle throughout the whole tournament was Crew Battle between Massive Monkees from USA against JinJo Crew from Korea. Cube Sound (hip-hop, underground, and street dance team) and Ulala Session came for the showcase.

Ulala Session performing on the second day

Personally, Olympic Hall is a good stage for this competition. The problem is that this place is too far from the center of the city. It takes me 2 hours to go to Olympic Hall from Incheon. I know it is also because I live far away from Seoul, but I think it would be the best if the stage was near the center of the city.
The tournament it self was a blast. The contestant, performing artists, DJs, MCs, the interior, everything was awesome and I enjoyed it at the most. It was also my birthday on July 7th, and I think this was the best gift for my birthday. See you next year R16!

The cuties (lol): (from the left)
Locking Zhan Funky representing Kyrgyzstan,
Poppin Dauren from Kazakhstan, and me ^^

angga | 앙가

PS: Special thanks for Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) for the tickets!

R16 Korea National Championship

Uijeongbu Art Center

Thanks to KTO (Korea Tourism Organization), on June 23rd, 2012, I had a really great opportunity to go to R16 Korea National Championship. Held at Uijeongbu Art Center, I had to take bus and it was 2 hours trip. Worth it? Hell yeah!
What is R16? If F1 is Formula 1, R16 is RESPECT 16. At least that is what I know after reading the introduction page on the R16 website, here. R16 is a world championship for b-boy. Do not know what b-boy is? Click here. The one that I watched was the Korea National Championship to select the best one in Korea and then become the representative of Korea at the World Championship.
Honestly, I do not have a lot of knowledge about this, but I do have interest. The competition was open by a performance from a b-boy: Animation Crew. They were awesome, I got goosebumps all over my body. It really heat up the atmosphere inside the room.

Crew Battle: Korean Assassins VS Fusion MC Crew

At the first time, I really did not know anything about what's going on and what is what. When the tournament began with performance by Animation Crew, I thought this was the competition and I was really excited because if every team was this good, this was gonna be super interesting. But then it turned out that they were only a guest for the competition.
There were three categories competed in this tournament: Poppin, Locking, and Crew Battle. In Poppin and Locking the dancers will have 1:1 battle with certain time duration. The judges then point with their hand who win the battle. It was really entertaining to watch Poppin and Locking dance battles, but when it went to Crew Battle, it was different kind of excitement.
In Crew Battle, two teams will do battle. There are 5 points that will be judged: foundation, originality, dynamics, execution, and battle. I think Crew Battle was more interesting than Poppin and Locking, because it was not one person but it was the whole team battling. Sometimes if both team got the same result then there will be an extra round.
After some tough battles, finally there left the winners who will be representative from Korea at the World Championship. The winner of Poppin dance is Boogaloo Kin, Locking dance is Du Lock (he tried to do some acrobat but ended up hurting his nose, but he won anyway), and Jinjo Crew as the winner of Crew Battle. I hope I can get the opportunity to watch them on World Championship! Fingers crossed!
Awesome b-boy, awesome performance. Worth it!

Want to know more about R16? Do visit their official website: http://www.r16korea.com/xe/

angga | 앙가

First Experience of Tour Guiding

Love locks on fence at Namsan Tower

June 18 - June 20, 2012. A three days tour guiding a family from Indonesia around Seoul area. There were a mother and two daughters, one is a 10-year old. This was my first time to be a paid tour guide. I was really nervous and afraid if I could not satisfy them. But it turned out well and I pretty much enjoyed it. I hope they did, too. Equipped with my experience wandering around Seoul, verbally-ok Korean language skill, and a smart phone with smart map, here is the story.
My client were pretty much shoppers. I actually made a list of what to do from the first day until the last day, but it turned out that we did not go according to the list. They decided to go to Namdaemun market (남대문시장) on the first day, to shop. Therefore, I took them to Namdaemun market after I picked them up at Gimpo International Airport. We spent the whole day just to shop. I translated what the seller said and what they wanted to say to the seller. Also, upon request I tried to convince the seller to give discount for them, which happened many times. I do not know if I do good in bargaining, but we did get discount like at least KRW 1000 for cheap things. Sometimes up to KRW 20,000 (They bought 8 pieces of DVD which originally costed KRW 100,000 but after bargaining they ended up paying KRW 80,000 only). I did many "moves" to convince the seller to drop the price for them. For instance, I said that they came from far away and it is pretty sad if they have to pay a lot, or sometimes I said something funny to them, you know, to make the atmosphere good, and we did get discount. They bought a lot of things especially clothes. Later that day, since the hotel that they were sleeping at was really close to Myeong-dong (one of famous shopping centers in Seoul), one of the daughter wanted to go to Etude House, a cosmetic shop, at Myeong-dong, so I took her there.
The next day was another shopping day at another famous shopping center in Seoul, Dongdaemun (동대문시장). Dongdaemun is a pretty organized and modern shopping center than Namdaemun. They are inside buildings so it was much convenience to shop around. I did nothing new this day since it was only taking them around and translating what they wanted to say or what the seller wanted to say. They said Dongdaemun was better because it was cheaper and the quality was better than the ones in Namdaemun.
The last day was finally a bit of non-shopping visit. Even though before I met them they did a little shopping (yeah, they shop hard!) we went to Namsan Tower. There were some traditional instrumental and martial arts performances and we watched it before going up to the tower. I think they were pretty impressed by the love lock on the fence. I was impressed to when I went there for the first time. The other thing that I think was pretty impressive for them was the view from the bus window on the way to Namsan Tower. They pretty much enjoyed the trip on the way to Namsan Tower. We took cable car from Namsan tower down to Myeong-dong. Then, we went to a cathedral. This was my first time to go to a cathedral and I went inside. It was really beautiful with ornament on the wall. There were people singing and praying. I think it was beautiful. Before going back to the hotel and making payment to me (^_^) they did again go shopping at Myeong-dong.
I felt so good after tour guiding. I want to do it again! Interested with my service? contact me!

angga | 앙가


PS: They paid me KRW 60,000/day and paid for food but it is negotiable, lol.