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| south korea |
| halloween 2004 |
| This year, unfortunately, Halloween fell on a Sunday, so the party happened the night before. The Warehouse was the place to be. Soutthida, Ras and the rest of the gang spent the afternoon putting up all the decorations. They did a helluva job, too. I was very impressed. There were "chalk" (masking tape) outlines of bodies on the floor, even one of a poor broken bottle. They constructed a huge spider web on the ceiling, by tying together pieces of string. There were ghosts and jack-o'lanterns and even a red-mask mummy near the entrance. This year, I decided to go as an ajummah (term of respect for an elder woman). There's a whole genre of fashion that could go under the heading "ajummah." If you've never lived in Korea, it's kind of hard to describe. Mostly, I'm talking about the ajummahs who sell produce in the markets, clean the bathrooms, streets and parks, or work in the fields. I had purple and gold MC Hammer pants, a turquoise blue running shirt covered by a red cardigan, a hand towel on my head, a sun visor that completely covered my face and white gardening gloves. On my feet, I wore men's grey argyle dress socks (a party favor from Glyn) and my rubber bathroom slippers in blue. Most ajummahs walk bent over and I practiced my 90 degree angle walk all week. I also had a washing tub that I filled with cabbage, leeks and oranges and balanced on my head whenever possible. Apparently, it went over pretty well with the Warehouse crowd, except for one girl who seemed kind of offended. You can't please everyone. I even spent time walking the streets of Gangneung in search of real ajummahs before hitting the Warehouse to see if I could blend in unnoticed. |
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| The ajummah is born in my apartment. |
| Above, Ajummah and Jade prowling the streets of Gangneung and to the right, frightening Koreans with my elite ajummah style. |
| YA! Cabbage, leeks, oranges ISSOYO! |
| Pre-drinks at Liverpool, where our table won some sort of promotional lottery. I had to go up on stage for a game of "Rock, Scissors, Paper!" I think I lost? |
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| Arriving at the Warehouse with my fresh produce. |
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| Above, Naegyong and Melvin, as hula girls. Only one of them is really a girl, hard to tell, eh? On the right, Christa, Jade and Megan, as "Kawi, Bawi, Bo!" (Scissors, Rock, Paper!) |
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| Left, Sheena, as Jesse Spano from Saved By The Bell. Above, Tom R. and Tom. B. Below, a Korean spiderman, one of the few Korean's actuaally dressed up that night. |
| Above, Ras, as his usual self, a bonehead, and to the right, Ryan, as his usual self, a gangster pimp. Wait, shouldn't that be the other way around? On the far right is Rory, also sporting the gangster look, a little less pimp and a little more Dick Tracy. |
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| Halfway through the night, ajummah and hula girl took a liking for each other. This is when things started to get ugly. |
| Soutthida, as Gogo Yubari, Oren Ishi's bodyguard from Kill Bill, ajummah and Jesse Spano. |
| Jesse, gettin' all cracked out on those caffeine pills again. |
| "Kawi, Bawi, Bo!" Notice the shirts! |
| Sheena and Melvin sharing a moment. |
| So, there you have it, Halloween 2004, still in Gangneung. My second, and most likely last, Korean Halloween. Good times! Thanks again Christa for letting me use all your photos from that night. And thanks to Soutthida, too, for a couple that I stole off of her website... |