Here I Am

So, I am now nearing the end of my second full day in Korea. I just finished meeting the President (an interesting experience, and very much in line with what the book I read said such things would be like.) Before that, I had rehearsal with Mike, the friendly director of The Genie Show, and Nathan, the actor who plays the child in said show, in which I'll be making my English Village Debut. I messed up a little but made my way through and know that I will be ready to start on Thursday (not Wednesday as originally planned - things change constantly here). Before rehearsing I got to see the one show that Nathan and Stu (the Australian gent for whom I'm taking over) performed today (usually there are 8 shows, but today was VERY slow at the village because of the cold). The Genie costume is way too big for me, and I look funny, which I think the kids will like.

I was actually originally told that I was going to play the other character in the show, a kid who is no good at sports but wishes he/she could play basketball. This meant that I spent a good chunk of yesterday learning a part that I won't actually be playing, but this kind of thing happens in the theatre all the time. I may end up playing the kid at some point anyway, so it's good to know both parts. I feel pretty comfortable with the Genie stuff now, and am glad to have an extra day to prepare.

The beginning of my day consisted of a quick blocking rehearsal, and a viewing of the current main stage show (for which I was the only audience member). I also had coffee with Daphne, who stars in the main stage show and is half Greek. She was really kind and we ended up talking about all sorts of things - travels, languages, Korean culture etc. Tomorrow will be a day off. I plan to work on my material for the show and take care of some administrative stuff AND call people at home since my phone will be here soon.

Yesterday was rather nice. I slept for about 9 hours after arriving and after some email checking and IMing with my Mom, I went out in search of breakfast. I was waylaid by the Head Edutainer (these job titles are tres chic, non?), Aaron, who explained to me that everything was closed, but offered me a clementine and promised to take me to E-Mart for food and other stuffs later. He gave me a tour of the awesome facilities and a very honest account of the way things tend to work here. He then dropped me off at my building with the promise of an IM telling me when we'd leave on our shopping adventure.

We headed to E-Mart (think Meijer, or Target with groceries) a couple of hours later with Aaron's girlfriend Erin (rich, yes?) via taxi. Both them were very helpful in explaining what certain food items were, and helping me to tell apart different cleaning products which were in similarly shaped bottles. The most interesting part about shopping was when salespeople tried to help me and I had no clue whatsoever what they were saying to me. They could have been cursing my family and telling me how ugly my shoes were for all I know, but all I could do was nod. It's an interesting feeling, being so helpless and useless. I don't think I've ever been anywhere where I knew so little of the language. It doesn't feel bad, just very odd, and it's good motivation to study and learn as much as possible. Also, there was a very zealous saleswoman who helped me to find salt (I couldn't tell what was salt and what was MSG). Once she figured out what I needed she pointed to everything that was salt and said, "salto, salto, salto salto," and then pointed to everything that was not salt and said, "no, no, no, no." She then gave me a sample of a tasty, sweet, green Korean pancake thingy. I was thankful for her help and her gift of yummy mystery food.

After our sojourn, Aaron helped get my stuff to my apartment. As I was unpacking my groceries, there came a knock on my door and I opened it to find Mike, who I would later learn was the aforementioned director of my show (and sort of the artistic director of Edutainers), with a dinner invitation. I accepted straight away.

Dinner at Mike's was nice. Aaron and Erin were there, as was Mike's girlfriend Chloe. I talked to them about Korea and their experiences in here at EV, as well as their recent trip to the Philippines. The fried rice that Mike made was delish and the conversation was interesting (everything from the state of Detroit and New Orleans, to crazy part Edutainer parties was discussed). I went home tipsy on wine, worked a little on my music, met a couple of my neighbors, and hit the hay.

This post would, of course, be incomplete without mention of my arrival. I got into Seoul Incheon airport pretty late (I'd had several delays, one of which allowed me more time to spend with Chris and Jill during my lay-over in Seattle, wahoo!) and sadly, my bags did not arrive with me. Luckily I will finally be getting them in about 30 minutes. As I was promised, there was a dude waiting for me at the airport with a sign with my name on it. He spoke some English, and laughed with pity when he determined that I was suitcaseless. He put me into a van with a driver and said goodbye. The driver seemed to speak a bit of English ( he said, "hello" and "bye bye" at any rate). He drove me to Paju, where he took me to what appeared to be a security office (full of surveillance screens). The guards there took me to another office where a woman said hello and told me that another man there would escort me to my apartment. This fellow, who later told me that he was an electrical engineer and that his English was little, drove me to my building, but not before getting lost once or twice. He was very helpful and brought me some sheets and showed me how to work the heating system. My apartment was disappointingly dirty, but they are going to clean it today.

After I arrived, a nice fellow knocked on my door. I found out that his name was Dave, and that he was from Pittsburgh. He welcomed me and gave me some extra soap and shampoo that he had, which helped me out tremendously. I showered and promptly went to bed for 9 hours.

So that's the story thus far. I'm hoping to update as regularly as I have time and things to report. Also, this blog will be moving to alenaacker.com in the next week or so.