My New Celebrity Status

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You might not know this, but in Korea, I'm kind of a big deal.

Actually, in Pittsburgh, I'm also kind of a big deal judging by the fact that some of my most awesome friends made a life-sized rasterbation of me. They take it to their birthday parties, and then take pictures with "me." That's kind of ridiculously awesome. I love being in two places at once 😉.

Regardless, Koreans love me. I guess one of the main reasons would be because I'm Western. Most Koreans love staring unabashedly at Westerners. I can be doing something as mundane as standing on the subway or buying toilet paper at the local E-Mart, and all eyes will be on me. I even do my best to blend in: dark denim, dark coats, dark shoes, dark tops. Doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I guess the fact that I've got light hair, blue eyes, and am built like a German farm girl doesn't lend much to looking Korean. Just imagine if my nose was still pierced!

I never felt more out-of-place than on Sunday when I went to Cheongdo for the Bull-Fighting Festival. In Korea, bulls fight each other; it's not men fighting bulls. It's apparently a very old tradition, and it happens in Cheongdo once a year. There are (I think) 11 total locations around Korea where they have bullfighting throughout the year. It's pretty much awesome, though, and everyone has bet on their own brackets (though gambling is actually illegal) on which bulls will win which rounds. In that respect, it reminded me of the Big East brackets we'd follow at Pitt. Except instead of betting on basketball teams, they bet on enormous bulls.

I guess I should give a little background on how I ended up on Cheongdo (in a town about the size of Ford City, PA) watching a bullfight with a bunch of Koreans who actually had a bull entered in the competition. I frequent a little coffee shop called "Bonita Coffee," which I've mentioned a few times in past entries. Anyway, in true-Katie fashion, I was there often enough to make friend with one of the baristas (Anyone sensing a trend here? Mtown Starbucks, anyone? Pitt Caribou?). Su Jin exchanged numbers and e-mail addresses with me, and we met up a few times for language exchange, beer, food, and/or shisha. She's a university student in Daegu (studying Ethics?) who ended up living literally two blocks from my apartment. Go figure.

About two weeks ago, Su Jin sent me an e-mail. She asked me if I could correct some English translations for her. Now, at this time, I had already heard of the bullfighting festival in Cheongdo via facebook. When I saw that I was translating a few things related to the event, I figured it was something fan-based or for a website. As I edited her English, she told me she had an extra ticket to the event, and she invited me along.

Considering I haven't gotten to get out of Daegu very much (besides my trips into Seoul), I figured I'd tag along. After terrible bout of Yellow Dust on Saturday, I kept my fingers crossed for Sunday. Thankfully, it was beaaaautiful out. I woke up (after a night out at the bars) at 7:30 in the morning, got myself ready, grabbed my camera , and caught a cab over to Daegu Station. All by myself, I caught the 10:07 Mugungwha train toward Busan to Cheongdo. The ticket (standing only), only cost me 2,100 W. That's less than $2 for a 30 minute train ride! If I had gotten to the station earlier, a seat would have cost 2,500 W. Just over $2. Wild.

From the train, I could practically watch the mountains rise greener into the sky. Honestly, Korea is such a beautiful country. The mountains are less jagged than the Rockies and more pointy than the Appalachians. The sky was so blue, complete with fluffy cotton-candy clouds, and looked like something out of a travel magazine. And the stretch from Daegu to Cheongdo was pretty much littered with vineyards, cranberry bogs, and orchards. It was wild.

Once I arrived at the station, for 1,000 W (about $0.87 US), I was shuttled from the bus station near the train station to the Cheongdo "stadium." Riding Pittsburgh-style standing on the bus while we careened around backroads that would put Armstrong County to shame was pretty much exhilerating. I was one of two foreigners on the entire bus. The ride was about 20 minutes, and we stopped about a 5 minute walk from the stadium. The path from the drop off to the stadium was littered with mouth-watering street food vendors selling everything from red bean goodies to smoked mealworms (or some similar insect). Oh, Korean cuisine.

I walked up to the front entrance and called Su Jin (which was about when my phone died). We met up and she told me to put a lanyard with these adorable cartoon bulls on it which said "Top Bull" in Korean. Little did I know that it was a backstage pass, or that Su Jin actually had a bull entered in the competition (her bull did not make it past the preliminary rounds). It wasn't until we were walking around to the backside of the building that she bothered to explain this to me. We weaved our way through the thick crowds and pushed closer to the ring.

Next to the announcer, in the second row, Su Jin's mother was saving us two seats. The bull fights were well underway. As we sat there, Su Jin explained which bull belonged to which trainer. She nodded to the announcer; he was a close friend of hers, and I nodded to him, mouthing "Annyeong hasaeyo." He grinned and nodded back.

Su Jin pointed up at two HUGE banners over the crowd in the nosebleeds. On them were the English translations I helped edit (with a few additions in incorrect English). I was astounded. My signs! My signs were hanging in this huge stadium in Korea! I was in awe.

Meanwhile, an MBC cameraman moved to shoot Su Jin's friend and the other two announcers. After several minutes, he turned, and came face-to-face with me. After a brief conversation with Su Jin, he grinned at me and pointed towards his camera. I blinked. Su Jin translated. "He wants to interview you."

Oh really? "In English?" I asked, dumbfounded. She nodded. Translating, Su Jin asked me what I thought of the festival, etc. I answered in English. She translated back to the cameraman. He nodded and then gestured toward the camera again. "Okay, 조아. Now, speak that into the camera; he is going to record." So I sat there, looking into the camera, smiling, and told the world about how exciting and interesting I found the bull fights.

Apparently, I was on the news that night.

The cameraman retreated, and we watched more of the bull fight. After a few rounds, Su Jin turned to me. "Do you want to go outside and see the bulls?" I blinked and agreed. We went to the back of the building and walked up a wide dirt part to the stables. Four long rows of stables stretched behind the stadium. The bulls had been engaged in competition all week. Sunday was the last day of competition. The bulls who had made it to this final day of the bullfight had towels and talc powder dressing their cuts. Their owners lovingly gazed at the bulls, even the ones who had lost, as the bulls slopped up huge meals in hug plastic tubs.

The trainers all looked at me curiously as Su Jin took me around and introduced me to all of the bulls and people. They all waved cheerfully and smiled as I clumsily introduced myself. "Annyeong hasaeyo. Chonen Katie imnida. Miguk saram iaeyo." She introduced me to her friend, who had asked her to ask me to edit the English on those enormous banners. I guess in the future, he'll be running other things past me to edit. 😊

While we were chatting with some of her school friends (who had SEVEN BULLS), I laughed and told her "Su Jin, you know everyone here!" She laughed, "Oh, yeah, my dad works here for 20 years or something. I grew up here."

Whelp, that would explain it.

We then walked around the arena; there was an art gallery dedicated to bull fighting, a museum with old farm equipment and bull training equipment, a tightrope walker, madeongnori (traditional Korean play with traditional Korean music and traditional Korean dress ), and several tranny comedians in full-out drag. I was kicking myself because my camera was dead at this point. Additionally, a famous singer (whose name escapes me) and her two backup dancers did a routine between two fights.

Then, Su Jin and I met up with her parents and got gukbap, which is delicious. Gukbap is oyster soup with green onions and other miscellaneous Korean goodness in a very hot pot. It is served with a side of white rice. You put the rice in the soup, and eat together with a spoon (because in Korea, you eat rice with a spoon and not chopsticks!). There was kimchi and sprout kimchi on the side. As we at gukbap, Su Jin and her mother ordered SUSHI. I mean, OFFICIAL HARDCORE sushi. A plate of raw white fish came out, accompanied with various hot sauces, garlic, sesame leaves, green peppers, and red lettuce. It works like a raw Korean BBQ. Take a piece of fish, dip in your combination of sauces, put in sesame leaf with pepper and garlic, wrap up, and eat.

Yes, friends and family. I ate raw fish and veggies together willingly and did not die. I also ate oyster. I guess I'm a big girl, now.

After the meal, where Su Jin laughed about the evils of gambling (everyone lost money when 야수 lost his round) and teased her dad for making more bets. We went back in to see the last round rounds, the fancy bows tied around the horns of winning bulls, and the Champion of the festival.

We ate a few sweets Su Jin's mother gave us, went back out to hang with the bulls and trainers as everyone left the festival. The traffic jam was outrageous. It took us about 40 minutes to leave just the stadium parking lot. Finally, we got on the road. It took us about half hour to get from Cheongdo back to Daegu.

We were thoroughly exhausted by the end of the night. 😊

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Comments

[anonymous]

Yay for the Ford City Korean town! I still have a postcard from NYC that I need to mail to you. :( I fail at mailing postcards in the actual city where I buy them.

[anonymous]

Awesome pictures KT!!