2007: A Year in Review

Fear not, gentle reader. Being abroad has not deprived me of the introspection, nostalgia and hope that arrive with the end of one year and the beginning of another.


Just for kicks, here's a little photo from New Year's Eve 2006, one year ago today.

It's been a great year, full of incredibly high ups and some downs as well. There have been a lot of firsts, too. This year I wrote my first musical, and it is currently up and running. 2007 also marks the very first time that I have done something that has been a goal of mine for a very, very long time; I have supported myself and earned my living entirely through doing what I love: performing. Incidentally, this is also the first year that I've ever lived in a theme park--who knew that would happen?

I've learned a lot this year. I can now read Hangul, the Korean language and speak a passable amount. I've sharpened my musical skills quite a bit and become a much better and more confident dancer. I've learned how to collaborate and enjoy it. I traveled to Israel and learned that it is an amazing country, a country to be visited and celebrated, not feared! I learned that honesty really is always the best policy. I've learned quite a bit about Korean culture as well as British culture, Australian culture and South African culture and my own culture as well.

This was a year of finding a much better balance between working hard and playing hard than I ever have before. A year free of major financial stress (once I made it to South Korea). I fell in and out of love this year and I started a healthy eating and workout program which enabled me to loose about 12 lbs. in the last eight weeks.

This year was not, however unmarred by pain and loss. The mother of a very dear friend passed away and other loved ones of mine have experienced health problems and other difficulties. I've had my own share of emotional turmoil, but I've learned from it and wouldn't have done anything differently.

All in all, it's been one of the best years of my life.

So, goals and hopes for 2008:

-Keep up the healthy habits and weight-loss
-Save as much money as humanly possible
-Use the free-time accrued by not going out and spending money to write a novel or an album
-Get reasonably good at playing guitar
-Be better about keeping in touch with family and friends
-Return to New York and single-handedly crush its theatre scene with my awesome

Happy New Year, Everyone! I wish you all a healthy and happy 2008.

Anyoung, my chingus. I hope you've all had a good time celebrating your respective holidays with friends , family and other loved ones. My Christmas was sadly not filled with family, but it was chock full of other stuff.


Here's a little photo from the UNICEF Benefit Concert dress rehearsal. I can be seen on the left, lifting up and dropping back, getting ready for ended up being my solo(!). The show went well and lots of money was raised for the kiddies, so that's good news.


The following day I headed to lovely Ilsan with my friend Rachel to do some shopping (as well as eating and talking, I think we spent the majority of the time talking). I was thankful to this Christmas tree for explaining itself to me, as I was slightly confused by the manikin inside it.

Rachel and I also decided to do some crazy bungee bouncing while we were out. I had walked past this place countless times and wanted to do this for ages. On that day for the first time, the gods smiled upon me and I was wearing pants. Basically, you are connected to a bundle of bungee chords, and you jump on a trampoline, thereby soaring into the sky. I recommend this activity. It made me giggle an unreasonable amount. The harness starts to hurt after a while though, so be warned. Another recommendation goes out to the black sesame gellato that we ate. Sounds weird--is amazing. Eat it now.


I spent much of Christmas Eve cleaning and preparing my apartment for the following morning's breakfast. Here's my little Christmas Tree all trimmed up.


I did take a break from my preparations to attend the English Village Secret Santa unveiling and final gift exchange. Here are some people enjoying themselves at said event. It was really nice. My Secret Santa got me awesome stuff, such as fuzzy socks and a fleece blanket. The best part was giving my gift to the person to whom I'd been assigned. For two weeks, my friend Mary told me all about how awesome the gifts from her Secret Santa were and I smiled and laughed and pretended to read the cards and handle the gifts for the very first time. Naturally I threw in lines like "Wow, you're Secret Santa is pretty much the coolest person ever to exist." For two weeks, I was terrified that she had guessed that it was me. As it turned out, it was a total surprise, and she was thrilled, and I was, too.


Here I am, making merry with another friend of mine in her festive, yet tasteful Christmas sweater. I left the soiree early, so as to finish getting ready for breakfast. I succeeded, mostly, though my night ended up involving a little more partying and a little bit of oops-I-slept-in-until-the-friends-who-wanted-to-help-arrived Eeeeeee! We managed to mostly get everything under control, and though I would have wished for less chaos...


Folks had a good time and enjoyed their eggs, hash browns, toast and fruit salad. People sort of came in shifts, which was nice. All told, about 20 people came at various points. We also had a Yankee gift exchange, which was fun--if slightly drama-inducing.


Here I am, scrambling those eggs like mad (and looking slightly mad... in the British, Cheshire cat sense, that is). While I cooked, two of my fellow Village-dwellers recounted the tale of how they had burgled every last present of another couple (at 4 o'clock that morning); leaving only a DVD taped to the door, whose contents showed footage of the various phases of the prank's planning and implementation. Such grinchery!


Even Charlie, the adorable neighbor dog was hoping for his piece of the Christmas pie. I had a lovely morning, and then proceeded to get crept up on by the cold that had been hovering around me for the previous two days. Doing the three shows I had that day was rough, and the next day I ended up having to take my very first sick day this year due to the craftiness of this particular virus. Still, it was great for a Christmas that I had to spend away from home. Between my parents and my brother and sister-in-law, I was spoiled rotten present-wise and felt like a little princess. I really missed the family and all of our traditions, as well as that intangible feeling in the air that you just don't quite get here. Still, I felt happy to be part of the close-knit, if at times temperamental community here in this little theme park.

Happy Christmas to all and to all, a good night.

By George!

It's been an exciting week, so I won't mince words!

On Friday, I found out that I'd been offered a new apartment! I am now officially moved out of my old one. Now the cleaning and re-organizing of the new apartment begins. It's an awesome place, a one-bedroom meant to house a couple, but it's aaaall mine. I'm on the end of my building so I have extra windows and lots of natural light, which I love. There will be space to do yoga in my living room and to have people over for dinner and fun times. Super yay!

Last Saturday, I went to Seoul to see Basement Jaxx play a pretty sweet DJ set at a venue called Club Mass in the Gangnam district. A fun group of friends came with. It was great to get all dolled up and dance a lot--something I had not done in ages.

Last Sunday I went on a date with a Korean guy for the very first time. He's a fellow I met when he was visiting EV. It was really sweet and cute. He was so nervous about his English, that he brought a little notebook with words to remember and questions to ask me. We had coffee and then a really great, really healthy dinner. He gave me a red reindeer ornament, and at the end of the date he said, "I am very happy times with you." I was very happy times, too.

Also, this week I'm preparing for a UNICEF benefit that is being held here at English Village. It's basically a night of performance to raise some money for the kiddies. I will be singing a duet with my friend Rachel, and also dancing with the lovely ladies from the dance class here. I am excited to dance. This is by far the most challenging dance combo that I will have ever performed, and I am thrilled to be able to do it! Yay for the acquisition of skills! The show is this Saturday.

As if all of this weren't enough, today, around 3pm, my dear friend Aleks gave birth to a healthy baby girl, Drina! Drina arrived a little early, as she was due December 31st. Like her mom, she's a little go-getter. I am thrilled for Aleks and Stu (her husband, my coworker), and incredibly excited to meet this baby and help take care of her.

Exciting times, no? I promise photos of many of the aforementioned events, but right now I am beat and need to hit the hay. Goodnight.

The Show Goes On

I've been busy! My show, The Snow Queen, opened this past Tuesday on the English Village main stage. Here is a little picture of me recording some vocals for one of our background tracks. The week leading up to opening was full of last minute music-tweaking and lots of scrambling to get everything ready. The opening ended up being even more exciting than anticipated, due to the fact that my friend, co-songwriter, and fellow actor, Stu, fell very ill the evening before and was in danger of loosing consciousness on stage during our tech rehearsal. Since Stu's understudy just happens to be on vacation in the Philippines this week, the situation was looking pretty dire. One of our bosses ended up learning the role in about an hour and going on with us so that the show could open. Needless to say, this fact kept us on our toes. Things turned out okay, in the end. It's getting to the point where nothing that happens in my life is capable of surprising me anymore :)

Generally, it's been a pretty stressful two weeks, what with getting our new shows, game show and Christmas caroling activities up and running. Still, audiences seem to really be enjoying The Snow Queen, and we are working out the kinks and finding small ways to improve the show even further. I am incredibly proud to have written a whole show, a show that is different from a lot of what has been done here at English Village in the past, and to see it come to life. I am also seriously grateful to everyone involved with the project . The whole process was a great learning experience and was sometimes frustrating, but also really, really fun. I put more heart into it than into any project in recent memory and it feels great to care about something that much. I always wanted to write music for shows, but felt too scared to enter into a field where I don't have a lot of expertise. Thus, it's thrilling to be up there on stage, singing the songs that I wrote.

Pictures of the show will be forthcoming, but now to the task at hand, which is to tell you about my Thanksgiving celebration.


As you can see, we had a pretty varied and impressive spread. Since there are a lot of people living here at EV, it was decided that each course of the meal would be served in a different apartment: Appetizers in one place, salads in another, turkey and trimmings in yet another gracious host's home, and finally coffee and desserts at my co-worker, Chad's beautifully-decorated apartment.


People ate, drank, and were merry...


and VERY full!


Here are a few friends sampling the tasty, nutritious curry that I made.


Sadly, I burned my skirt on one of the lovely, atmosphere-enhancing candles at Chad's place. I'm just glad that I didn't burn myself down.


After the eating part of the party ended, the merry-making went into full-swing.

And I mean full swing.

It was a great night, and while I missed my family and thought about them a lot, I felt really grateful to have such a fun surrogate family here across the sea. In the spirit of giving thanks (if a few weeks late), I am grateful for this opportunity and the many awesome experiences it has afforded and continues to afford me and for a wonderful family who is so supportive of me and my need to follow my dreams wherever they take me.

Multiple Musings

Hello, once again. It's been an interesting week full of ups and downs, but mostly things are fine. I've been keeping quite busy and feeling really grateful for the people in my life and particularly for the awesome friendships I have.

Yesterday, when I went to Hee Young's house, her family was making Kimchi. Kimchi, for those of you unaware, is pickled cabbage, and is the national food of South Korea. The Kimchi needs several months to ferment, so families generally make tons of it in late fall so they'll have a nice stash for the following year. Kimchi is so important (and pungent) that in most homes it resides in it's very own refrigerator. When I walked into Hee Young's apartment, there were tubs of fresh cabbage everywhere and the smell was overpowering. I wanted to take a picture, but she wouldn't let me, claiming that their house was too dirty (in reality, I suspect that she didn't want any of her family Kimchi-making secrets divulged.

At one point while we were studying, she mentioned that I smell like America. I found this really interesting, since I (and other foreigners I know) definitely think that Korea has its own distinct odor. It's funny to think of America having a specific odor, though I am totally unable to detect it. If there's one thing that this experience has done for me culturally thus far, it has been to show me just how American I am. When I lived in Germany, I learned how flawlessly I could fit into a culture other than my own. Also, I've never really been the biggest fan of the old U.S.A., though on my various travels I've been quick to identify for myself things that I love about my homeland in contrast to other countries. Still, as much as I may, or may not like to admit it, I am very American indeed. Americans value individuality and competition an immense amount. We are quick to voice our opinions and desires. We are all more than willing to tell you how calcium supplements affect our skin, or why we can't stand the TV show "Heroes." We are constantly agonizing over making the right decisions for ourselves and our lives as individuals. Many other cultures (not just South Korean, mind you) tend to think more as a group. This means they think less selfishly, but also less ambitiously. There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways in my opinion, and of course there are many exceptions to the rule, but mostly it's just an observation that I wanted to share.

Anyway...

Yesterday evening, I was lucky enough to have a very nutritious and delicious meal cooked for me...



by none other than my coworker, Tanner. As you can see, he cooked with great relish! The meal was actually a prize for a contest that Tanner had held for fun, and though I hadn't participated, I was invited by my friend, Candy, to join in the smorgasbord



My friend and coworker, Chad, was also there. Here we are sharing some cozy pre-dinner coffee.


This is what my food looked like. It tasted like awesome. Seriously, that man knows how to marinate a thing or two. I've had the opportunity to share some great home-cooked meals with various friends lately, and it's been something I've been really enjoying. The cooking and sharing of food is an important ritual to me and one that should not be neglected.

After dinner, we looked out of the window to discover...



That is was snowing! Everyone went outside to frolic a bit.


As it turned out, the snow was not kidding around in the least. It fell quickly and before we knew it, the village was covered in a light layer, about two inches thick. This mean that things like a snowball fights of magnanimous proportions and...


sledding quickly ensued. Who know I could have this much fun with a cardboard box?



We also put together a pretty hefty snowman.


Here he is, complete with broccoli eyes, carrot nose, stick arms, and entourage of sexy ladies.

It was great to take a break from normal life (or whatever facsimile thereof you have when you live in a theme park) and just act like a kid.

No Words

Yesterday morning, my dear friend Natalie's mother passed away after a painful and difficult battle with cancer. Even though this was not unexpected, it leaves me shocked and wondering once again why such horrible things happen to good people.

Carla'nne was an incredibly intelligent, incredibly loving individual and a great mother. She spent her life saving the lives of others. I didn't know her very well, but I will remember her as a stimulating and witty conversationalist and lover of literature. I cannot begin to imagine how I'd feel if I were in Natalie's position.

Natalie,
As you know, you are in my thoughts and I wish against wish that there were anything I could do. I wish you and Gabrielle and your dad comfort and hope that you will be able to find solace in the many friends and loved ones who are there with you. You are an incredibly strong and talented woman, and I know that you will get through this, although your life will never be the same. I send you all my love.

As Promised...

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's good to be back. And it's time for an October re-cap.

At the beginning of October, I went camping in Paju with a whole slew of Village-dwellers:


One of the highlights was being driven to the campsite in the large bed of this truck. What is it with South Korea and cramming too many people into vehicles?


This is what the campsite looked like. It was actually adjacent to a grape farm, believe it or not.


We had lots of campfire fun...


And what campfire would be complete without roasting marshmallows?


This is the potato and onion that I cooked in the fire the next day. They came out deliciously. Seriously people, cook onions in the fire, you will be well pleased.


We also went for a nice afternoon hike on one of the surrounding hills. We found some pretty cool army bunkers...


And some lovely views.

The following "weekend" (I have Mondays and Tuesdays free) I trekked out to Soraksan, a national park on South Korea's east coast. It's a very popular spot for hiking and enjoying the autumn leaves.


I had a truly beautiful hike. Soraksan may be my favorite destination in SoKo thus far. The trail was super tough, though. I'd say it was more difficult than either trail that I hiked on Hallasan on Jeju Island.


Due to slightly poor timing and negligent planning on my part, I wasn't able to complete the hike to the highest peak, but I managed to get 8 very vertical kilometers (in each direction) under my belt.

And, as if that weren't enough Octobery goodness, my brother, Chris came to visit. He was in Seoul on business, so we only got to see each other for a few days, but those few days were indeed fun-filled.


Chris got a chance to meet young Mr. Dylan Thomas.


And of course we all conducted ourselves like the mature adults that we are.


We had the chance to visit the DMZ, the highlight of which involved exploring one of the tunnels made by North Koreans. Unfortunately, one is not allowed to photograph anything worth photographing in the DMZ.

And of course, no October would be complete...


Without a Halloween celebration. We had a raging Halloween party in the village, and...


I tied with one of my lovely compadres for "Best Costume!"


I went as "Blue" and Nadia went as "The Bird Flu." We were awesome. I love Halloween and I always will. You can quote me on that.

And, in much less festive news, our dear Dylan Thomas and I have parted ways. Our hopes and goals and certain aspects of ourselves as individuals are just too different for us to have any kind of sustainable future and it didn't seem right, knowing that, to continue being together. It was really the most amicable ending to an incredibly fun and worthwhile relationship that one could wish for. I will miss him terribly :( but it really is for the best. And as the poet himself said, “Though lovers be lost, love shall not.”

Fear Not!

All is well, here in lovely Paju, except for the fact that my computer has zero, I mean zero storage space. I will rectify this situation next week and then I'll post all sorts of delicious pictures and descriptions of the adventures I've been having. Check you in few :)

Oh Blogosphere! We Meet Again at Long Last

In celebration of random Korean things...


I bring you giant dancing bottles of soju, Korea's favorite liquor. I realize I haven't written in a while. Truth be told, what with revising my script on a more-than-daily basis, I've been feeling a bit written out. The good news is, my show is definitely going to be produced. Two of the accompaniment tracks for the songs are also finished. It sure is exciting to hear something I created changing shape and sounding full.


In other good news, I was privileged to meet the family of our dear Dylan Thomas a couple of weeks ago. Here I am, singing karaoke with said Welsh poet's lovely sister.

The end of September saw Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving. This meant that I got to see all sorts of cute kids running around in traditional Korean garb. It also meant that DT and I had two days off together (a rarity for us since we work different schedules).


We were able to relax and spend some time exploring a few fun Seoul neighborhoods, as well as the beautiful Lake Park in Ilsan where he lives.


Last week, the two of us also spent some time in my favorite bar in the Hongdae club district. The Hongdae area is full of students and is thus full of all sorts of rowdy, yet predictable clubs and bars.


Thus, this bar, which is in a green, non-descript building, is a rare find. As you can see, crazy things hang from the ceiling, and the walls are covered with shelves of CDs and records.


Patrons sit Korean-style, on comfy cushions on the floor. Also, there are three cats.


Here I am, giving the cat who shall be known as "White Kitty" some loving. I have named the other two cats "Gray Kitty" and "Medium Kitty" (Creative, I know). Also, note the infamous "Ho Bar" in the background.


Here is White Kitty, after she climbed onto our table and stole the straw from my (thankfully empty) long island iced tea.


Last Tuesday, I was lucky enough to see Ennio Morricone conducting his own ground-breaking compositions which were played by the Roma Sinfonietta. Here I am all dressed to the nines for the occasion.


The concert was held in Seoul in one of the Olympic gyms. While the sound could have been better, I was moved and inspired and had a great night.

And well, I suppose those are all of the highlights for now. Tonight, I am heading out on a short camping trip with a sizable group of villagers. I look forward to some bonfire goodness, some scrabble, and some hiking fun. Hurray for fall!