한국국제교류재단 문화센터


so many good things going on.

Of greatest appeal to me is that the Mexican Embassy organized an exhibit of Juan Soriano which is sure to be great.

한국국제교류재단 문화센터 Korea Foundation Cultural Center

and there is the world's oldest playable musical instrument playing for the first and last time next week, a Chinese manuyuan, which is a 25 string lute type instrument that doesn't look too far off from a kayagum. This instrument dates to the 12th century and was unearthed in playable condition in 1998 in Yinnan Province. It is about to be declared a Chinese national treasure, which means it won't be used in public performance or ever leave China.

Having misread the announcement of this concert I spent a long time trying to find it with mounting frustration and fear I would never hear the world's oldest playable musical instrument played. As there are no street addresses here (a fact I have noted here before but at which I never tire of marveling) I wandered around with my map of Seoul and some sense of where the building was since there was a little icon of it on the map. But icon placement is a relative thing, as it turns out. It is kind of like having GPS, but only the 10 meter-off public version and not the military version. It matters not for nukes, but for precision actions like attending a concert, it turns out that it is nice to know just where the place is. I finally located it after much wandering about, late. Or early, since the show is not until next week as it turns out. At least I know how to get there and can avoid a good two hour fiasco the next time.

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