Busy, Busy

As you may have guessed from this post's title, I've been up to a lot in the last few days.

Work projects have been gathering steam and I now have quite a bit going on. I am still working on learning some aspects of the Fairy Show, which opens this weekend (only a few "preview-style" performances, but we will still have audiences and still need to be ready). Also, today we had auditions for all of the shows that will be performed in May and June (including the one I just helped write). The auditions were lots of fun and I feel good about the work I did. It was great seeing how talented all my fellow performers are. It's also nice to audition knowing that you will be getting a part (or parts) no matter what.

Yesterday I headed into Seoul and met my language exchange partner, Hee Young for the first time. She is a very kind, vivacious girl. She took me to a book store, where we picked out some books for me to work with (books for teaching Korean babies the alphabet and simple words and such) and then we went to lunch and to her apartment to study. It turns out she spent 6 months studying ESL at the University of Michigan (probably while I was there). She has a degree in Education, and is a very good, challenging teacher. Our levels couldn't be more different, though. I correct her pronunciation of words like "incandescent" and explain what it means to "pull the plug" on something, while she chastises me for mixing up the characters that represent the "g" and "n" sounds. Still, I am already better at reading Hangul (the Korean alphabet) and I am really excited to go to Seoul once a week to sharpen my skills. Hee Young's mother even made dinner for me (tasty Korean curry). Apparently I am the first foreigner to ever visit their apartment. Sadly, I had a transportation fiasco on the way home, but I guess it was about time I messed up something in that vein, as I had been doing quite well...

Tuesday Alex and I had our second German lesson. But first, under strictest promise that I not divulge it's location to a soul, she took me to her favorite pizza place for dinner. The pizza was delicious. I expected it to be weird in some way (especially since Korea still seems to be figuring out what exactly to do with most dairy products), but it was covered in fresh tomato, onion, green pepper and broccoli and tasted truly amazing. We went to her apartment (also outside of the village, oh la la!) where we talked and then did the German thing and then talked some more. Alex is one of those people I just click with. They are rare, but everyone knows when they've found one. We already feel like we've known each other for ages and talk about EVERYTHING. We understand one another in weird, almost intuitive ways. Also, being Serbian, she naturally lends a very interesting perspective to a lot of things. It's great having a close friend so soon.

Today, I went to a two-hour jazz dance class. I did fine for most of the class, but when it came time to learn the fun, latin-style combination it was all sucksville for me. Friends, oddly enough it seems that I am better at ultimate frisbee than jazz dance. However, I did have a great time, and I think the weekly class will be a great opportunity for me to try and improve my ability to pick up steps and learn combinations. It's pretty wild that people here are so willing to share their time and skills with others. This class happened to be held by one of the Head Edutainers, who is a professional dancer. There is also a yoga class (bikram) on Wednesdays, and there's going to be a tap class soon as well and it's all free! I cannot express how cool it is to get to perform during a normal eight-hour workday, and then have the time and opportunity to work on so many other things. ROCK.