Robots are cool

If you had asked me, before I left Brazil, why did I want to come to South Korea, I probably would have made some silly statement about robots, and then answered more seriously about the fascinating culture, excellent standard of living etc. But really, it was all about the robots. So when Bruna asked me if I wanted to go to a robot expo, I was only too happy to go.

The exhibition mainly consisted of big industrial robots that I left me clueless as to their function, toys that were relentlessly manhandled by toddlers, and service robots meant to clean your home. Their were also competitions where kids had to build their own robots and enter competitions to complete puzzles, win football matches, and navigate mazes. There was also a fascination with dancing robots, and you can see a couple of low res videos of that below.

Laura Barrett - Robot Ponies

Alexander Robotnick - Dance Boy Dance

My Robot Friend and Antony - One More Try

Two days in Samcheok

Being the diplomats husband is a not something that has made much of a difference to me so far (apart from the fact that I live Korea, something I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have done otherwise). When we lived in Brasília, Bruna came home from the office at 7.30, and that was that, she could have been working in any office, the fact that she was in international affairs was neither here nor there for me. However, when you come abroad, it all changes. We've only been here less than three weeks, and we've already had invitations to functions, dinners, expos, and festivals. Now I'm really feeling the effect of her job on my social life, which is lucky as I don't have one of my own, or a professional one either when you come to think of it. Last week we were invited away to Samcheok, a town in the north-west of the country, for an international festival of traditional costumes. It was a surreal, unique, and downright funny experience, which I'll try to explain with words and pictures.

Arriving in Samchoek, we were puzzled by the hundreds of squid that were hanging up to dry all around town. Dried seafood is a popular, and probably gross, snack here:


The festival was the opening act for the SAFEM expo, an opportunity for fire safety experts around the world to gather and discuss fire and emergency equipment. It was never explained where the costumes of the world fitted into this, but there you go. The idea was that the various diplomatic representatives would do a little catwalk wearing their national costume, then return wearing the Korean traditional hanbok, the Korean version. Fortunately, Brazil does not have a traditional costume, so Bruna could only participate in the second part. I offered to wear my football shirt and havaianas, but it didn't seem appropriate, and I left my beefeater costume in England, so I sat it out. What we weren't told was that this performance would happen on a stage in front of about 1500 people, which made me all the more pleased I passed up the opportunity:

Bruna did a sterling job of wearing the hanbok, which she got to keep (handy for fancy dress parties one day, no doubt):

Other entertainment included Thai dancers:

and a Brazilian samba troop, which was pretty funny, as sequinned bikini clad girls with feathers on their head are not an everyday sight on the streets of Korea:


Other entertainment included a quartet of modern classical performers, but they were so horrible I didn't think they deserved to be photographed. Two words: classical techno. I still shiver when I think about it. They were also some traditional Korean drumming, which was great. There's something about five people banging great big drums that appeals to my primordial inner tribesman, probably explains my love of the Boredoms:


The evenings festivities finished with some K-pop, and it was awesome. Suddenly there were hundreds of screaming fans (the only previous sign of their existence was when the samba boys started gyrating), and three K-pop acts. The first two I can't name, but they were a pretty generic boy band, followed by a pretty dull crooner:


But they were followed by Korea's new pop sensation, the Wonder Girls. Now, in general, I'm not a big fan of highly polished girl groups, but their new single "Nobody" is one of the catchiest songs I've heard in years. Listen, if you dare, because that chorus will be swimming around your head all day:



I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being nicked by Girls Aloud, it's a guaranteed hit.


The next day was no less odd. We were shepherded back to the expo to participate in the opening ceremony, which was attended by the usual gathering of officials, local dignitaries, business types, the military:

and men dressed as the Mask:

and Inspector Gadget, clowns, Russian carnival girls, and a rubbish Batman:


There was a large military presence at the event, which always unsettles a yellow bellied liberal like me:


Interestingly, due to national service in Korea, most of the soldiers were in their late teens or early twenties, and many of them were actually American or British with Korean passports who had to come back to motherland to keep them. There was none of the uptight, non-expressive Colonel buzzcut manner about them, it was just like chatting to an normal American teenager. They also seemed to enjoy manning the target practice area, in which anyone could tool up and take out a few targets. For some reason, this area was particularly popular with middle aged Korean woman:



and kids loved the tanks:

Then a helicopter put out an imaginary fire:


and we left.

One thing that surprised us was the total chaos of the event. If you had asked me name Korean characteristics before we left, I would have named characteristics like politeness, organisation, and efficiency. Well, the total lack of structure to these events left me feeling like I was still in South America, where disorder is the natural way. Our guide, the professor, was very nice and enthusiastic, but with his broken English, habit of saying "no" at random points in the middle of sentences, and refusal to tell us just what we were doing next, left us in a bewildered and amused haze until we returned to Seoul, with a hanbok and fruit basket as reward. It was great, and I can't wait for next year.

Postscript: a week later, Bruna received a box of dried fish as a thank you for coming gift.

I only live in countries with cool flags...

Note: this entry replaces the post 'Welcome To Seoul', which was deleted by the Google cowards, as a result of the efforts of the hopelessly out of touch and drowning RIAA.

Welcome to the all new Jamesinseoul. If you are a regular, I hope you like the new colour scheme, and if you are new around here, then welcome. Things won't be changing too much around here, I'll still be talking about music I like, but now the cultural focus will be on all things East Asian instead of Latin, obviously. I hope you like it, please get involved by leaving comments below and by joining my facebook group. Thanks.