Photo Shoot - Blogabond

I was a model today. Sort of.

I figured today would be normal. Korean class, Korean teachers, Korean dinner, Korean soju...but Korean photo shoot? My co-teacher asked me if I'd be willing to help over at the high school right next door. Of course, happy to help and eager to make a good impression and perhaps make a crack in the relatively closed off Korean society, I said of course! Then, leading me up the stairs of the high school and into the teacher's lounge, I realized something else might be coming. A man with an overly large camera for mere amusement was standing there with a guilty, goofy grin on his face that gave my new assignment away. I was told that Adam and myself were going to be the subjects of the photo shoot upstairs, to be used in their school publication and brochure to lure in new students. I could just see it, a wickedly up-close picture of the two of us with a headline that read, "Look! We have Americans too!" Whatever the case, I smiled inside and thought to myself, "Bring it".

We were led upstairs to their private school bar. Oh yes, the school has a bar. Not only do they have a bar, but they have stocked it with real bottles of Western liquor with which selected students practice their pouring skills. Seating us at a table out of the way of the scene before us, Adam and I were able to sit back and watch the madness unfold. Four students had dressed themselves up in their official bartender uniforms, and were primping themselves in the bedroom in the corner. One teacher kept running back and forth between the corner kitchen and the bar counter, shouting what we could only assume were orders back and forth between the students, the onlooking teachers, and the photographer. A checkered tablecloth had been set for two, complete with enough silverware to last me a week, and an ashtray, "to make us feel truly comfortable," according to one of the teachers.

Adam and I were eventually motioned to sit at the bar, on plastic barstools that looked like an awkward '60's mod-style comeback gone wrong. Choosing a liquor, the bartender poured Adam a healthy amount of Bacardi 151 with two ice cubes to boot.

Straight liquor? At the bar? At school?!

My own glass was poured over the course of the next ten minutes, drop by drop, as the photographer tried to get us from every angle and face expression possible. I think he managed to pull it off! One at a time, Adam and I myself were placed with the student bartenders and ordered to converse with them. They didn't speak English and we sure can't form a Korean sentence yet, so we decided to sing to them.

(Even better, not only can the schools advertise that they have real Americans that speak English, but they can SING too! Heck, we might as well start our own one-man-show and REALLY show them all of our skills... "Ahem. Please gape at my overly large American feet. Stand next to me and see if you come up to my hip. Marvel at me eating a cheeseburger..." The Koreans make me realize how talented I really am!)

Fake everything

Anyways, after the bar scene we were shuffled to the checkerboard tablecloth, where more photographing ensued. The photographer, vice principal, and some random man off the street communicated to us in gestures: *Pick up the glass!* *No, not that one, the other glass!* *Now sniff it!* *Why are you sniffing your glass, drink it you fools!* *Obviously there's nothing in there, you American brutes!* *Just pretend!* *What's so funny?!* *Do I hear humming?!* *Oh forget it, just smile and say, I mean sing, "kimchi"!*

And that was my one, and probably only, Korean modeling experience.

written by

Rachel in Korea! on September 3, 2008 from Seoul, South Korea

from the travel blog: South Korea, 2008-2009

tagged NamMun

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So, I think I'm going to bring this up to the administration at the Adams 12 technical high school. "We need to train bartenders AND we need to have a fully operational bar in the high school!" EVERY staff member would be putting in for the transfer! How unique and interesting to HAVE alcohol on the school grounds. Hmmmm... remember those signs around our schools - "Drug, tobacco, and alcohol free school zone!" Wow!

written by Julie on September 4, 2008

Haha...this is too funny, Rach! I cannot believe they actually have alcohol on school grounds!

written by Erin on October 29, 2008

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