Lovely, Lucious, Lively Laos

It's been a crazy and a wonderful month! At the beginning of December I faced the challenge of getting my show, The Snow Day, up and running while packing up my life in Korea and playing host to my Uncle Chava. It was a lot to do all at once, but I got it done (with the help of my fantastic co-workers and friends). While preparing to leave and packing my things, I kept feeling the most beautiful, delicate kind of pain. It was like nostalgia, only for something that was not yet in the past. It was hard, but as Evan said, that's probably a good thing. It's better to leave a wonderful experience wishing it wouldn't end than feeling burnt out or let down. It could almost be compared to a really good book or film in that way.

It's hard to put into words how much the experience meant to me and what it did for me. I've grown so much as a performer, educator and individual and I feel confident that I'll always look back on it happily and nostalgically (ah, nostalgia! That great homesickness for the past...)

However, even leaving Korea feels almost like a distant memory after everything I've done since. Uncle Chava came to check out what South Korea and English Village were all about and then to take a whirlwind tour of South East Asia with me before returning back to the states for Christmas. And boy did we have fun!

Here are a few highlights of our trip:

-We met some friendly monks and I sang a song for them

-We took a great boat ride from Phnom Pehn, Cambodia to Siem Reap

-We saw Angkor Wat as well as many other, beautiful ancient temple ruins.

-I taught English to poor Cambodian kids at a special free school.

-We became seriously inebriated with the help of our Cambodian guides and the owner of our hotel.

-We rode an elephant.

-We saw a beautiful waterfall.

-We watched Thai hookers sing Karaoke by mistake (the watching happened by mistake, not the singing)

-We saw wild hawks, lizards, gibbons, monkeys and ELEPHANTS!

I'll post pictures and details later, but for now, photos and stories from my first trip to Laos (called "Lao," by it's natives and visitors, and this is how I shall henceforth refer to it), the wonderful country which I visited November 9th-14th:

I arrived in Lao in the evening. An eager tuk-tuk (three-wheeled motorbike rickshaw) driver helped me find a unique guest house and then informed me that there was a festival and he could take me there and that is what we did.

I had decided that I'd try out the local fair fare (Can I say that? Is that allowed?), but the first thing I encountered I decided I'd pass up:


These are bugs. Bugs for you to eat. No, Really. However, it didn't take me long to find something much more satisfactory:


The morsels pictured above are made of dough, stretched even thinner than a crepe and grilled. An egg is then broken into the center of the dough and the dough is folded into an egg-containing envelope like what's pictured above. Sweetened, condensed milk is then poured on top of the envelope in question and then it is cut into small, sweet, eggy squares, placed in a bag and eaten with a stick. YUM!

The festival itself was really neat. It was kind a combination religious festival, carnival and market.


I even got to see some Lao school children performing traditional dances. It was so much fun to watch. I could instantly who was the teacher's pet and who didn't take the dancing seriously at all and who had a crush on whom. It was far more interesting than watching professionals, I'd imagine.


Above is That Luang, the most important stupa in Lao, which is what the festival centers on. There were processionals to the stupa every evening.


Here are some kids enjoying a carnival ride. One thing I really liked about the festival was that it seemed to be attended far more by locals than by tourists. It had a very authentic feel. I went back to my guest house and got to bed pretty early, seeing as I was used to the time being two hours later. Also, I wanted to get an early start the next day...


Which I did. I went first to the large monument pictured above. It was pretty nice and featured a good view of the city from the top.


I had a little chuckle at this very honest informational sign. And then continued my walk through the city, stopping to haggle a little at the morning market, Talat Sao...


And enjoying some of the colorful tuk-tuks along the way, though I declined the many rides that were offered me in favor of using my feet.


I checked out the oldest stupa in Lao, pictured above. And took a look at the not-especially-inspiring Presidential Palace.


In my wandering I saw many small alters like the one above. People have these in front of their businesses, I guess to bring them luck and keep the gods on their side.


I was visited Vientiane's most famous temple, where I saw this Buddha all dressed up as if it was his special day...


And headed to a museum of artifacts where I narrowly avoided being devoured by the dragons guarding its impressive stair cases.

I then took a walk down by the river and found a nice spot for lunch.


I opted not for the Deep Fried Frog, garlic and paper but instead had papaya salad and stir-fried vegetables with delicious sticky rice. After a nice break I was ready to continue my exploration of the city.


I saw several more beautiful temples like the one pictured above...


Including a special one with big guys like this one guarding its gates.


I happened to walk by a school where a teacher had just instructed her students to pick up trash around the school yard. It was fun to watch them scurrying around picking up everything they could find, including leaves and twigs.

After my walking around the city I decided to rent a bicycle and ride to outside of the central area to a wooded temple where I could have a traditional sauna and massage.


Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera so I missed out on taking pictures of the peaceful, jungley path to the temple, but I do have a picture of my most excellent bicycle. When I arrived in the temple complex, I was greeted by a young monk who offered to walk me to what turned out to be the shack where sauna and massage were offered. This turned out to be a very good thing, since I not only enjoyed helping him practice his English, but also would never have found it on my own. The sauna and message were rejuvenating and only cost $5 total.


That night I had dinner at a wonderful restaurant where former Lao street youth learn cooking, serving, and other aspects of the restaurant business. They serve modern Lao food and it was ridiculously delicious. Afterward I went to a music bar where I saw the gentleman pictured here play some tunes. I wasn't thrilled with the light rock that he and his band played, was I was impressed by how well a person who didn't seem to speak any English could sing American songs with hardly any accent.

The following day I spent at a center where disadvantaged women are taught traditional Lao crafts so that they can make things to sell. They had a program for tourists to learn traditional Lao dyeing and weaving and I was all about it.



Here is a man dyeing some thread.


And here is the vat where I dyed my silk scarf.


This is the loom where I learned to weave...


And this is my work. I had a lot of fun at the center. It was a very laid-back and peaceful place. I was instructed by young Lao women who were patient but firm about how things were to be done.


The next morning was the culmination of the That Luang Festival. At around 6am, thousands of monks from all over Lao gathered near the stupa to receive alms from the citizens of Vientiane.


Here is an example of the offerings that were brought for the monks. Money, flowers, foods and packaged snacks were all game.


Here are the many faithful gathered and waiting to give out their alms.


And this is what the offering of alms looked like.


Here I am, dressed in a traditional Lao skirt or singh in front of the gathered masses. It was a unique event to witness and I felt so lucky that I had just happened to come to Lao on this particular week.

Later that morning, however, I was off to Vang Vieng, a smaller town about 3.5 hours (on small roads) from Vientiane. The van ride was bumpy, but I was excited to arrive in such a lovely, relaxed little town.


This is the bungalow where I stayed. It was cute and comfortable and cost only $4 a night. After booking it, I headed back to town to book a kayaking tour for the next day and then went tubing down the river, which is a bit of a rite of passage in Vang Vieng, where there are bars you can stop at along the river.


This is the footbridge that I had to cross to get to my bungalow from the central area of town. Believe it or not, people actually rode motorbikes on this bridge. Oy.

I had a nice dinner and went out to explore the various nightlife options (Vang Vieng is a bit of a party spot).

In the morning I rose early for my hiking and kayaking adventure. We hiked through a small village to a small cave temple with a rock formation shaped like an elephant. After another short hike we arrived at our next stop:


The cave in which we would be tubing.


Here I am with my waterproof headlamp, getting ready to head in. It was a lot of fun floating around in the cave, and if it hadn't been for a friendly, Spanish, fellow-adventurer, I might still be floating there now (I had a tough time paddling around thanks to the shortness of my limbs).

After the cave we had a tasty lunch and then hiked back to our truck, which then drove us to our point of kayak embarkation.

I had never kayaked before but I had lots of fun. The scenery was terribly picturesque, that is until my sunscreen melted into my eyes, causing me much more pain than I would have thought. Luckily, we took a stop at one of the riverside bars which had awesome rope swings and a water slide.


Above is one of my kayaking cohorts having a swing into the water. I personally opted for the T-bar and screamed all the way until I hit the water. After our stop we kayaked the rest of the way back to town where I grabbed more tasty food...


And had the chance to catch what I thought would be my last Lao sunset before heading out for a mellow night at some of the area bars.

The next day was supposed to be my last day in Laos, except that my bus to Vientiane arrived 1.5 hours late and I just missed the cut off for check-in for my flight. Luckily I was able to reschedule for the next day without any problems. I spent my extra day in Vientiane getting massaged, visiting the COPES center which helps fit poor, disabled people with prosthetic limbs and has a very interesting museum, and eating Japanese food.

My trip was wonderful.

I also need mention that the day I returned from Lao, I had my first try at stand up comedy. My friend and co-worker, Jason, wanted to celebrate his last night at EV with comedy and figured it would be the perfect time to face my paralyzing fear of stand up in a friendly environment.


So here I am. I look pretty scared, but I think that I was actually trying not to laugh at my own joke when the photo was taken. My material centered on the harrowing travel misadventure that I had on my way to Lao, a story that I'd be happy to tell another time...

Playing Catch-Up

Hey, Sports Fans! (as Mom would say). It has certainly been a while. This post opens with a picture from my boss's 1960's themed Birthday party which took place in mid-October. This is because I couldn't figure out how to make blogger allow me to type above it. Grrrr. Anyhow, here I am with the Birthday boy, dressed as a beatnik.


As you can see, people took the theme of said party pretty seriously.


It was actually one of the biggest, most successful EV parties in a while, as evidenced by the epic photo above.

And of course no October would be complete without a Halloween celebration. On actual Halloween, which was a Friday, I went with a bunch of Village folk to Hongdae, the club district in Seoul. I thought of my costume about an hour before we had to catch the bus...


I went as Cherry from the Robert Rodriguez movie Planet Terror (part of the Grindhouse double feature). For those of you unfamiliar, she gets attacked by zombies and then gets a machine gun peg leg.

Since two parties are better than one, we also got festive at the good old EV pub the following Sunday.

Here I am with Evan, the gent who's kind of turned my little world upside down here in the past few months. We went as Jay and Silent Bob from the Kevin Smith movies.

The party doubled as a fund raising concert for UNICEF...


So we played a few ditties. We did a cover of a Beyonce song (trust me, when I play it it's a whole different song), an original by me, and a cover of a couple of our pals, the EV Boyz's songs but in very different musical styles. I must say I was less than thrilled with my performance. I just have a really hard time playing guitar in front of people. Still, it was a good experience and people seemed to enjoy it well enough.



And here I am with my friend Anand, drinking our last jar of "sludge" (bentonite clay with ginger root and apple pectin) as part of a five-day colon cleanse. I cannot believe that I actually made it five days without putting any nutrients into my body. It was wild. It was tough, but easier than I thought. I definitely got rid of lots of mucoid plaque (don't google image that unless you have a strong stomach) and I do feel like it improved my metabolism and changed me in some other positive ways. Yay for hopefully being healthier.

As usual, I've been keeping quite busy. I went on a fantastic trip to Lao(s), about which I will write soon, since I figure it deserves its very own entry. I'm working on getting the show I'm directing up and running (it starts next week) and trying to pack up my life and sell my belongings, as my time in South Korea is quickly drawing to a close.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving here and returning to the states, especially with all the horror stories I've been hearing with regard to the economic recession. Still, I am dying to see friends and family and looking forward to spending Christmas with them, not to mention feeling a bit burnt out on my job here. Also, I don't ever want to become stagnant or complacent, and I feel the need to move forward in my carrier. It's been an amazing experience in myriad ways, one for which I am incredibly thankful.

And speaking of thankful, I'd like to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving. I hope that your celebrations were full of warmth and family and delicious food. We had a small strolling dinner here last night, and we are having a bigger celebration Sunday night when more people will be able to attend. Hurray gluttony!

I'll be returning to Detroit on December 21st following an (hopefully) awesome South East Asian adventure with my Uncle Chava. The thing is, I'm supposed to fly from Bangkok, so let's hope things there settle down by then.

Remember, Remember the Fun of September

Well howdy, folks. Hope you had a good September. Mine was fun, though not terribly eventful.
One new exciting thing? I have a cat! His name is Jack and he looks...


Like this! It's great sharing my apartment with a very vocal,



yellow-eyed, soft, gray bundle of cuteness. He'll be with me until I leave in December when he'll find a new place to live for a month before going back to his former owner/cat dad.


In other news, I got to see a really cool Korean musical with subtitles that was performed in front of the palace above. The music was really fun and I felt really lucky to be able to see what the people were actually saying and singing about. I've seen some really good Korean shows without subtitles, but this was one felt like treat.


I also participated in the second-annual EV camping trip at the Paju Wild Grape Village. Here's our roaring campfire.


And here are some of my friends enjoying some good campfire talk. The group was smaller this year and there were only people from my department along, but we still had a nice time.


The next day we played "Jackpot." It's a game where one player throws the balls and assigns each throw a point value. As soon as someone reaches 500 then they switch with the thrower. I hadn't played since middle school and it was surprisingly fun.


I also went for a little hike and enjoyed some pretty nice views.

The next weekend I headed to the Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival. I forgot to take pictures there, but it's not such a big deal since I was just there in July and got some good ones. I went with two of my Edutainer pals. We saw one horrible movie (luckily it was bad enough to be totally amusing), some rather cool ones, some silly ones, and one really good one. The really good one was called Bottle Shock and it was fun and heart-warming. You should totally go and see it. All in all it was a great weekend. The company was what really made it a good time.

After the festival I made it back to Paju to join some villagers in visiting Peacetown, an orphanage that's not too far from EV. Groups from the village go there once a month to play with the kids.



Here is a sweet little girl who took to me. We talked to the kids about Halloween and gave them some candy. We also made them balloon animals. As part of my Edutainer skills I've learned how to make a balloon sword, bear, dog, hummingbird and hat. Most of the kids wanted swords...


which they promptly started using as guns like the one pictured above. I died about 700 times that night from being shot by balloon guns. It was kind of exhausting. The kids were great and it was so obvious how much they needed our love and attention. I think I'll definitely go back next month.

Other than that, not much has been going on. I've cast the play that I'll be directing starting at the end of this month. I'm excited about the people I'll be working with and the script is fun and the music is great.

I also did a raw fruits and vegetables cleanse with two of my friends here. Basically the plan was to eat only raw fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds for 7 days. I ended up keeping it up for 10 and a half because I felt energetic and my skin looked great. I am planning to do a colon cleanse at the beginning of November with one of my friends. It sounds kind of rough, but apparently it will really improve my health and I'm curious to see if I can do it. I'll let you all know how everything comes out (haw, haw!).

I'm planning a trip to Lao in mid November, and then my Uncle Sal/Chava is coming to visit me. Once I finish work on December 5th, we'll be heading to Cambodia and Thailand (maybe with a few more days in Lao) for a couple of weeks and then it will be back to Michigan for Christmas and back to NYC for the new year and the next opportunity. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!