Early Morning Concert

Since I moved into my homestay two weeks ago, I have been trying to fit into my family's routine and get to know them well. We all live in an apartment close to the river, in a housing/office area called Daebang. My apartment is actually very close to the famous Noryangjin Fish Market, I'll have pictures of that some time in the future.

My homestay family is just a mother, Hyung Ran, and her son, Hyung Ju, who is my age. My first week with the family they invited me to go to a traditional Korean concert at one of the city's royal palaces. The only catch was that the performance was at 7:30 in the morning, painfully early on a Staurday. Despite being an infamously bad morning person, I put on a smile and accompanied them.

The concert itself was fantastic, it was a type of performance that is actually meant to be enjoyed in the morning, so it was situated on a raised open air platform that highlighted the musicians with the rising sun. I wish I had been a little more conscious, but I managed to get some video.

As you can hear, the music itself is unlike anything western, it was actually a single 55 minute song. The rhythm started out slow, with just intermittent plucking and some very quiet keening on those thin flutes. The video is from close to the end, when the music began to pick up speed.

I also explored the palace complex with my host family, it was great to be in a tourist area in Seoul in the morning, before all of the buses and school groups arrive.


That's me on the left, my host brother in the middle, and my host mom on the right, in front of what I think is a structure built to hold ancestor shrines, I wasn't quite sure of the translation. My host family knows a little English, just about as much Korean as I know, but we speak Korean most of the time. My host brother wants to study at an American business school in the future, so I am going to help him preparing for the Test of English as a Foreign Language exams, which are huge here.

More shots from the palace grounds: