Korean Festival..
Thursday, October 16th, 2008Two weeks ago I was on my way to my favorite Korean restaurant in all of NYC just like any other Saturday, but as I was approaching K-town, I could tell something was going on. When I got there, I was happy to discover that I had accidentally walked into the middle of a Korean festival!
The entire block was shut down with booths and food vendors lining each side, and multitudes of people crowding up and down. I took a stroll down each side, checked out the contents of each booth, got run over by a few 아줌마들.. You know, the usual things that happen at these events.. There were so many food options that I had a hard time deciding, but eventually settled on 오뎅 떡볶이. I was a little disappointed in my selection, but it must have just been the place I ordered it from - usually 떡볶이 is pretty tasty!
At the far end of the block, there was a huge stage set up. They had different events throughout the day, including, you guessed it.. a karaoke contest. It was actually quite amusing to watch - the singers were selected beforehand and were all quite talented, but I still have to laugh a bit at the idea of someone singing a Wondergirls’ song on a stage in the middle of the street.. in the middle of the day.. in central Manhattan. There were a few curious and slightly bemused random office people wandering by. ^^
At the entrance to the festival was another highlight: traditional Korean drums. I would estimate that there were at least 50 people in traditional clothing sitting on the sidewalk playing the drums, and it happened fairly continuously while I was there. I do not know much about Korean drums, but it was really awesome to watch! There were also musicians walking up and down the festival. I took a short video:
It was a very fun yet unexpected experience!
Posted by holdfast in Learning Korean |
October 16th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I love how bright and colourful everything always is!
October 16th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Funny that I live in NYC and I had never been to any Korean festival in my 18 years of residency here.
I don’t like to go to the city, even hate to go there, mainly because of the heavy traffic, pedestrian or vehicular.
Whenever I go there, I feel like being in the dead center Babylon.
I wish I could show you around Flushing where I live about 2 miles away.
PM me if you are still around in NYC.
October 17th, 2008 at 5:01 am
What a coincidence. i joined a (big) airline company some months ago and this week I had my first “standby” duty. On Tuesday they called me: they had a flight to NYC for me. Of course that made me very happy, but I was even more surprised to find out that the crew hotel is located right in the heart of K-town! Since I subscribed to the Newbie lessons only one week ago, I had a great time reading all the texts in Hangeul in the street, visiting the beautiful Korean bookstore (where I bought some stuff for kids) and enjoying a very good Korean lunch. A magnificent preparation for my first trip to Seoul, four weeks from now.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:44 am
ㅎㅎㅎ Henry 씨 you gotta get out more. You crack me up ^_^
Isn’t there a fairly large Korean community in the NYC area? Anyone got any numbers on this?
Bart - what good timing! You’ll be nice and prepped just in time for your trip.
October 17th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Yes, Matthew, there is a huge Korean population in NYC. I don’t have any numbers, but I can tell you that probably one in five groups of people I pass by on the street are Korean (in Manhattan). The population in Queens is huge too - one day I walked for probably two or three miles down one street and everything was Korean the whole way.. and that was just in one direction! Seriously, getting off the train at Flushing Main Street in Queens is like being teleported to Asia - everything is either written in Korean or Chinese. It’s pretty incredible!
bart - I’m glad you got to see K-town! Or, rather, K-block (yes, I’ve lived here for only a few months and I’m renaming things..). Did you happen to eat at Woori Jip (우리 집)? It’s my favorite.
Henry - You don’t like coming into the city? Queens is busy too.. I’ve been to Flushing quite a few times. It’s not bad (: Didn’t you go to the huge Korean festival in Queens last month? With all the JYP artists? I was going to go, but I had to go to Minnesota for a few weeks.. I’m not a huge Wondergirls fan, but I’m still sad I missed it!
Taliana - agreed!
October 19th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
@ holdfast – I am sorry, but I cannot remember the name of the place where I had lunch. Anyway: it was the one where they prepare the mandu and noodles right behind the window.
That the Korean community must be really huge in NYC becomes also clear when you visit a museum like the MOMA: big screens welcome the vistors in some European languages as well as in Japanese and Korean. And you can buy your subway tickets from the machines in Korean as well