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.