Being filmed for TV

November 10, 2008
Yesterday Cody and I were filmed for a Korean TV show called Mat Jang. Well, first of all, Cody and I technically lost. We only officially won one challenge, and that was reciting a Korean poem correctly. We were originally supposed to memorize it, which we pretty much had down, but Abby and I convinced them that if pronunciation was the most important, then they should let us read from our notes.

Here's pretty much the breakdown:We left MBC at 7:30 ish and drove about an hour or so into the country to a small town where a famous Korean Poet lived and his house still is as a historical tour estate. It was very pretty with thatched roofs and a giant bamboo forest behind it. Here, we find out we are supposed to memorize a famous poem and recite it later. We have a teacher recite it 4x for us (at normal speed, not slow at all).

After that we has to walk to the bus terminal and find people along the way and in the terminal who weren't afraid of the weird waygooks to help us with our pronunciation. This was really hard as sometimes two people wouldn't agree on the word to use or pronunciation.

By 10:20 we hopped on a bus which took us out to a traditional Korean Tomb site where Anny and I had to sit out and watch Cody and Jason take part in the Men-only ceremony with wine and "dried" (Read: rotten/moldy) persimmons and rancid pig meat (they luckily avoided the meat). While they were doing this Abby and I practiced our parts of the poems, gaining the assistance of the Adjimas there in their traditional dresses. At this point is when we prevailed upon the director to let us read our notes, so that at least half of the poem might be said right.

After about 45 minutes of sitting there (and being asked if it was unfair that we couldn't participate and if we had any ceremonies for the dead back home), we joined the men and recited the poems. After some confused voting it was decided that Cody and I won that challenge (not that we could tell why). We then joined the men for food and soju (although the Soju wasn't really offered to Abby or I). We started to get the feeling that this show's theme was supposed to be waygook women feeling left out In Korean culture.

Post lunch we headed down to our next challenge, which was clam-digging. Let me tell you, it was the worst thing ever. First, they gave us special Adjima pants to dig in, which did not work AT ALL because they were too small for all of us except for Abby. I could barely kneel down or bend over, and when I did, the pants exposed A LOT of my back area (very lady-like I'm sure). Also, both couples were supposed to dig together, but because they didn't have big enough shoes for all of our feet, it ended up being only Abby and I digging because I had to take Jason's boots, and Cody couldn't wear them at all. Cody was filmed ranting at them for it, which I am proud of him for defending us.

Anyway, so because of wardrobe problems, it ended up being Abby and I going out into the rock and shell-thick mud to dig for clams with the Adjimas. It should have been fun, but at least for me it wasn't because I could not bend over for really any length of time because my ankles and knees protested due to the usual problems and the ankles of the too-short pants and the too-small top of the boots cutting off the circulation around my mid-calf area, plus the pants trying to show off b\my butt and threatening to tear in one place or another. They had to finally give me a blanket to wrap around myself because my pants kept trying to make me moon the camera.

Well, basically they were supposed to give us an hour to dig, but they didn't apparently. Cody said they only gave us 40 minutes or so total, and the last 15 they had Abby and I dig in this small area together. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing/looking for because my Adjimas didn't really show me and clamming here is WAY different from clamming I have dome back home. Well, Abby and I soon ditched the tools in favor of trying to scrape away all the empty shells, rocks, and mud with our hands, which worked for awhile, but I soon realized that the clam shells had sliced through the cloves I had and has sliced up my fingers, which were now bleeding and covered in mud.

Well, I worked through all my issues and I don't think I did too badly, but whether is was luck, problems, Adjimas that don't follow rules, or Abby being better than me, we publicly lost that challenge. We decided to make it a tie because non-publicly though because the Adjimas couldn't control their helping us too much. Oh well. My legs and fingers hurt really bad today because of THAT whole fiasco.

The next challenge was for the men only, which was shucking the clams. Before yesterday I would have never thought about being able to shuck a clam, but it can be done. After a short practice Cody and Jason got approximately 30 minutes to shuck as many clams as they could, and they pretty much stayed neck and neck the whole time. Jason beat Cody this time by only 4.5 grams of clam, and they were both freezing and smelling of clam by the end.

Finally, we had the cooking competition. They showed us how to make a clam-sushi type salad and a clam-pancake thing and we all took detailed notes. Again, we pretty much stayed neck and neck for the whole thing, but Cody and I did finish the sushi salad a bit quicker so we had more time to decorate our plates. We both had a harder time with the pancakes because the director said they would measure out the exact flour the chef used for the pancakes, that way we only had to worry about water amount.
Well, they did not do what they said. They gave us both way too much four, so we had to guess at how much water and figure out the batter consistency by eye. it was also hard to fry the pancakes to the right color.

Pretty much it came down to the wire on this one. There were 5 judges, one which was like the mayor of the town we were in. All the judges had two votes, but the mayor was given three. they were instructed to vote on whoever had made the best dishes. Unfortunately this made it a little
uneven because they all put in two votes, at that point we were exactly tied.

The mayor had the tie breaking vote, and of course he would be predisposed to putting all the votes on one team, so whoever he preferred would most likely get three votes instead of the possible two.

So, Abby and Jason kicked our butts for Korean television.I have to say this was a fun experience, it just at times seemed unfair and uneven because the planners of the show did not plan the show well enough at all.

I don't mind that Koreans are going to see me and say "Oh she lost" because we were able to have fun together and were often trying to help each other more than we were supposed too. In fact, they kept asking us, "why do you help each other, this is a competition."All four of us left a little frustrated, tired, and I know I was glad for it to be over and done with.

We all won something and it was something we could laugh at and be annoyed about together. I am so happy I was able to do this with Cody, Abby and Jason, and would not have traded to go against anyone else even if I had the choice. I would suggest for anyone else competing to go in with an open mind, patience, and be ready to either defend yourself or the "competition" because they really don't understand foreigners or their needs at all.

In terms of making a korean Tv show, i have learned: Try not to be too competitive, try to help make entertaining TV for them without allowing them to degrade yourself, and do not back down if you have a problem with what they are making you do or say because it goes against what you believe.

I know I whined an complained a bit in this blog, and I know it was a bit long, so I'm sorry, but I hope it entertained you or gave you a good idea of what to expect on the show.