Of Souls and Sin

Qingdao has a rock scene. Who knew?

As I found out last night, American Korean Michael is a Catholic, so this morning my flatmates and I, along with him and Korean Michael, trooped off to the Catholic cathedral in the old town. Originally built by the Germans, it is now used by the Chinese and Korean congregations. For Communist reasons, the Chinese and Koreans are not allowed to worship together. My Korean flatmates had never really been to church so they were all excited. Becka went to a Catholic school and I was going along as China is a rather soulless place to live sometimes. And because I was drunk when they invited me along.

The service was all in Korean, except for the reading, which was in English. Which was odd. I'm sure there is a Korean version of the Bible as Korea is actually quite Christian. The rest was in Korean so, apart from "thanks be to God", I had no idea what I was being lectured about. (Koreans have taught me how to say thank you.) Not that I understand it when it's in English either.

The cathedral was very nice inside. Cold, but nice. Outside had the usual herd of brides having their wedding photos taken. Their dresses are always pinned at the back because they don't fit-always too small. Wishful thinking I suppose.

To counter my redemption I went to a rock gig last night at Redstar. Redstar is a bilingual magazine here and also hold gigs. I've started writing for the magazine (well one thing-a restaurant review- but other articles are in the pipeline...) so I'm now a fake restaurant critic as well as a fake teacher... Although I now have a board marker so I think that makes me a real teacher.

The bands were really good and gave great performances. The audience was mostly Chinese, which surprised me, who had a fantastic time jumping up and down. The lead singer of the main band, The Dama Lamas, ended up with not that many clothes on in the end... I also met a guy who has been skiing in Iran, Kashmir and Iraq. Unusual. Before the music we watched a documentary on Qingdao's rock and indie scene which was a tad long and emo. The interviewer asked questions like "will you get married" and the scruffy musicians would answer "I'm too cool for marriage" or something like that.

Faux pas of the Week: Me, dipping a bread like substance (lit. "flaky cake") into my mutton soup. It's not for dipping apparently, just eating. But not with soup on it. Me and my silly foreign ways...