On and On

Friday the cast list for the May/June season was posted, and it seems I'll be playing the protagonist in the show that I helped write. The role is "Jesse," a little girl (or boy) who is really stupid (well, not exactly, but she's the one who never knows the meanings of the words that we are teaching the audience, and always has to have them explained to her) and wants to sing in a talent show, but is too scared to do it alone. I think it's going to be fun and look forward to performing on the main stage.

Friday evening I taught English to soldiers in the Korean military. There's a program set up between the military and EV, wherein EV teachers go and teach two one-hour classes once a week and get free dinner and 50,000 won. I had expressed possible interest in the program earlier, and on Friday someone needed an emergency last-minute substitute. At 5:15, I hopped up into an army jeep with Gabrielle, my co-teacher (who is Korean), and we were driven to the base. The soldiers were pretty friendly, though a little shy, and it was simultaneously unsettling and an ego trip to have them commanding each other to do things like bring me water and clean my blackboard. This was my first time on a foreign military base, and thus quite the novel experience. If South Korea ever conquers another country using its soldiers' extensive command of the English language, you now know at whom to point the finger.

Friday night was the Edutainers' Artistic Director's Birthday Party. It was, in a word, ridiculous. The people here are wack, but in a good way.

Yesterday we opened the Fairy Show. I've been struggling with a bit of a cold, and I knew that a lot of administrators would be coming to see the show because they needed to decide whether or not we would run it (basically, they need to decide between having the show run or having more people available to work on material for our huge "Children's Day" extravaganza on May 5th). These factors, along with the fact that even though we worked really hard, one week of rehearsal is not very much, had me feeling rather nervous. The show was fine, though and it was really helpful to be able to perform it with actual audience participation. The other cast performed today, and admin. hasn't decided yet on the fate of the show, so we'll see...

All in all, the week has been pretty exhausting. Yesterday I skipped out on a show that a couple of guys from the Village were playing in Sinchon, in favor of getting things done and catching up on some sleep. The latter was really all I accomplished. Tomorrow is a day off, but I'll be going to Seoul to study with Hee Young. Alright, I'd better get back to my current project: rewriting the lyrics of "Love Shack" to make them about English Village. Oh yes, this is my JOB.