Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Beam Me Up, Daegu!

Apologies for the hiatus, October tends to be the busiest month for me - birthday and Halloween. So as I sit here at my desk in the Daesung English Village, rocking out to early 2000s pop songs (yes, the Backstreet Boys are still cool) I thought a good use of my time would be to toss up another post on my blog.

As many have likely seen on Facebook, I underwent a bit of a change for my Halloween costume this year. Except for a few months in 2007, I've been a blonde my entire life. And considering the wealth of wig shops here I decided it was time for an experiment. So my coteacher and I headed down to an alley near Daegu Station to pick out my new locks. After pursuing each shop's selection, I picked a hairstyle that I could base an easy Halloween costume around. They called it, a "Cleopatra" (although I am sure the former Queen of the Nile would beg to differ). I sat down on a pink, plastic stool and placed myself into the able hands of the shopkeeper. She placed a black net around my hair, put a few clips in, and tada! my blonde hair was nowhere to be seen. Then the black hair descended and I stared into the mirror in shock. I believe the initial horror came from the blinding light emanating from my skin - extreme paleness combined with the dark black strands framing my face produced an extremely pallid coloration. But then I started to dig it. It was new and different.

Considering a professional placed the wig on my head, I left it on for the rest of the day (I was uncertain if I could replicate such skill application of a hair net and clips). And of course, 2 minutes after leaving the shop I ran into a few of my students. They started chatting with my coteacher, completely ignoring me - they had no idea! I finally spoke up and they nearly died of fright/surprise/horror. I received many of those reactions as Halloween night ticked on - I would wave excitedly or say hi to friends who just stared at me with the, "I don't think I know you but I don't want to be rude" face. Then came the realization that they did know the person under the plastic hair.

Then we continued on to find the remained of my costume. I settled on Nyota Uhura from Star Trek TOS for my Halloween costume - I had the wig, the boots, and all I needed was a red shirt and a homemade communicator. In the United States, most people would recognize my costume as being something from Star Trek but here in Korea, NO ONE knows of Star Trek! It's horrifying! I may need to adopt its introduction as a personal mission.

Long story short, Halloween was a success and never have I seen so many people out in Daegu. The only downfall to my Halloween costume choice is the aftermath of the wig: on occasion, I find black hairs in my apartment and begin to freak out (because those definitely aren't mine). Then I remember that oh yes, there is a wig in my apartment that is the culprit. I'm considering taking the old black do out for a spin again - maybe in a month or so, just to see reactions. At times, I felt as if I got more stares in the wig than as a blonde. Or perhaps that was me in disbelief that I was wearing a wig in public. Either way, Daegu hasn't seen the last of Erin the brunette.

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