no cameras!

I don't know how it works in Korea, but I heard that in Australia if you have a spoken part in a TV show (other than the news) you get paid for it. I wonder if they have the same rule there when you have to act. Our last days in Jeonju (the province we were staying in) felt like we were filming a standard show starring us as stereotypical, ignorant foreigners. As soon as we finished eating at Gran Piatta for our farewell dinner (weird, since the last day eating in Jeonju was at the same restaurant that I went to on the first day... read into it as much as you want) we were rushed away to go to one of the other student teacher's houses. We had to be prepared to be filmed with all the 'guys' hanging out watching TV - but not our choice of course, it just happened to be a certain channel that coincidentally was the same channel as the TV station that was filming us. So we had to watch this news program about getting a fire massage and vocally express our surprise and disdain, laughing and pointing at the TV, you know, like what you do normally in your own home....

As we were watching TV, the doorbell happened to ring - what? who could that be at this time of night? Wow, it was some of the students from one of the student teacher's schools! and they brought... ingredients for making Bibimbap! And they want to make it with us? wow! What a great, unexpected way to finish our time in Jeonju! Oh and by the way, if you don't know what Bibimbap is, well, don't worry I "don't know either"- it was part of our "ignorant foreinger" speel we had to act up to, even though we ate it every second day in Korea, and were shown how to make it on one of the organised culture excursions.

So the next day, after our unexpected but really fun bibimbap day, we headed off to our bus taking us to Seoul - it would have been a really bittersweet, teary moment for everyone if the cameras weren't there either. As I was putting my luggage on the bus, I was told by the TV show producer to take it off, because we had to use it to film - You see, we were all supposed to get on the bus, and get off, pretending it was our arrival in Jeonju! It who cares if there were some continuity problems, such as one of the Monash people in full South Korea soccer fan costume, including tattoos on his face and a bandanna! Then we had to film a scene where me and someone else were meeting our supervising teachers for the first time, finding out about what schools we were going to, but we had to act all suspicious and cautious of the English teachers - we even had to do that shifty eye glancing thing, where they zoomed up on our eyes and had to keep looking left and right...

Anyway, glad that filming thing's over - hopefully that gives them enough footage so they don't have to use the film from our culture tour of me and Emily running towards each other in slow motion for a loving embrace...