Mei-Li and Angelica's Big Adventure

It is good to know that you are not alone and in this case it's good to know that I am not the only black person in Gumi. Just recently I was introduced to Angelica with whom I spent my Saturday.

In a place where everything is unfamiliar it is great to have someone who understands not only your culture but the sub-culture from whence you have come.

When I first came to Gumi I thought that I got a lot of attention but that is nothing compared to the attention Angelica received on Saturday. The following pictures with she and I were all requested by other people not by us. The would see us and ask if they could take a picture and we figured why not. The Korean woman in the picture with the balloons was a hair stylist and she took a strong curiosity in my hair, she even smelled it! It totally freaked me out.

We took it all in stride but if this is only part of what it's like to be a celebrity I will never joke about being one again!

Since we are both new to Gumi we decided to explore downtown. We found some very interesting shops and two stores in particular we plan to frequent. The first store is a handmade shoe store. Most of the shoes are very expensive so we won't be able to buy them as often as we like, but if there is a shoe that we like that is not in our size they will make it for us and send it within a week! Its so great. The shoes are so amazing! The price is less than Prada, more than Steve Madden, so you take a guess.

The second store is pictured here. The do amazing artwork on various items of clothing, bags, and shoes. If you enlarge the picture you may be able to see of the things on display. Fortunately for my bank account this store was closed. We will check back during the week but this is an amazing store. Sometimes getting lost has its benefits.



On the way back we found a group of traditional Korean dancers, like the ones at the Folk Village, and masked dancers performing in front of Gumi Station, the train station.

I am sure that this all told a story but since we don't speak the language we just enjoyed the dancing. Here are some pictures of the different masked persons. Below I have two videos: The group mask dance, A Baby dancing with the masked people. Both are 2 minutes long.

This was a peasant. The only reason why I say that is because of his dress and they fact that he had no shoes one. In many cultures those without shoes were considered poor. But hey I could be wrong.

The guy in the mask here is the same who took a picture with us at the top.

The Green Masked person was the jester of the group. It would go around scaring people and messing with the other masked persons. It was pretty funny.

After the excitement of downtown we walked back to Angelica's place and indulged ourselves in a little American culture with Domino's and movies from home. All in all it was a great Saturday.