Fear Not!

All is well, here in lovely Paju, except for the fact that my computer has zero, I mean zero storage space. I will rectify this situation next week and then I'll post all sorts of delicious pictures and descriptions of the adventures I've been having. Check you in few :)

Oh Blogosphere! We Meet Again at Long Last

In celebration of random Korean things...


I bring you giant dancing bottles of soju, Korea's favorite liquor. I realize I haven't written in a while. Truth be told, what with revising my script on a more-than-daily basis, I've been feeling a bit written out. The good news is, my show is definitely going to be produced. Two of the accompaniment tracks for the songs are also finished. It sure is exciting to hear something I created changing shape and sounding full.


In other good news, I was privileged to meet the family of our dear Dylan Thomas a couple of weeks ago. Here I am, singing karaoke with said Welsh poet's lovely sister.

The end of September saw Chuseok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving. This meant that I got to see all sorts of cute kids running around in traditional Korean garb. It also meant that DT and I had two days off together (a rarity for us since we work different schedules).


We were able to relax and spend some time exploring a few fun Seoul neighborhoods, as well as the beautiful Lake Park in Ilsan where he lives.


Last week, the two of us also spent some time in my favorite bar in the Hongdae club district. The Hongdae area is full of students and is thus full of all sorts of rowdy, yet predictable clubs and bars.


Thus, this bar, which is in a green, non-descript building, is a rare find. As you can see, crazy things hang from the ceiling, and the walls are covered with shelves of CDs and records.


Patrons sit Korean-style, on comfy cushions on the floor. Also, there are three cats.


Here I am, giving the cat who shall be known as "White Kitty" some loving. I have named the other two cats "Gray Kitty" and "Medium Kitty" (Creative, I know). Also, note the infamous "Ho Bar" in the background.


Here is White Kitty, after she climbed onto our table and stole the straw from my (thankfully empty) long island iced tea.


Last Tuesday, I was lucky enough to see Ennio Morricone conducting his own ground-breaking compositions which were played by the Roma Sinfonietta. Here I am all dressed to the nines for the occasion.


The concert was held in Seoul in one of the Olympic gyms. While the sound could have been better, I was moved and inspired and had a great night.

And well, I suppose those are all of the highlights for now. Tonight, I am heading out on a short camping trip with a sizable group of villagers. I look forward to some bonfire goodness, some scrabble, and some hiking fun. Hurray for fall!

Ob La Dee, Ob La Da

Well, it's been a week since I retired my trusty elephant suit. Here are a couple of pictures of the suit in action:


Good times with my fellow animals.


This one is part of the opening dance sequence.


And here I am, with my head in the crocodile's mouth.

All in all, I did the show 124 times, which is longer than any run I've ever had, especially in the space of nine weeks. I definitely feel more like a human being now, but I already kind of miss the show. During the run I'd get so tired that many nights I just felt like holing up in my room and relaxing rather than even talking to my friends, let alone going out. It's great having the energy for a healthy debate or a nice long walk, but I already miss having performing be the focus of my day. Still, soon enough I'll be in rehearsals again and the madness will return.

Right now I'm on the development team, which means that I'm working on new scripts and hosting our wild west game show: The Gold Rush Challenge. I wrote a script draft complete with lyrics and music, which I pitched to the rest of my team last week. While my colleagues had a lot of helpful ideas for, comments on, and criticisms of my work, it was really well received all in all. You know that your work has potential when people are interrupting each other to throw out ideas to help improve it faster than you can write them down. Also, I'm really excited about the music I wrote. It's something I've always wanted to do but felt kind of intimidated by. The process was fun and rather natural. Granted, this is for children's ESL theatre--about as simple as it gets--but one must start somewhere, eh? I need to make lots of changes (some of which have already been made) and tweak away, and the script will need approval from the whole team in order to be chosen for production, but I am psyched and ready to work until it's awesome.

Strangely, it feels almost like spring here in South Korea. The oppressive summer humidity is gone, but the skies have been blue and the sun has been bright and the leaves are still green and intact as ever. Maybe the fact of starting new projects adds to this. In any event, its nice but also a little disconcerting.

Although tonight is my weekend, I'm looking forward to a relaxing night, maybe with a bit of socializing tacked on as, even though I thought I needed "me time," I feel a little lonely.

I miss cottage cheese and friends who have known me for years.

I can't believe I've been here for six months already.

In Which the Fun Don't Stop

Hello, friends and neighbors. Life in Korea has been pretty action-packed since last I wrote. First of all, Ocean World, the water park I visited the other week was thoroughly enjoyable. Some of the slides were great and I had lots of fun floating down the "Extreme River," where my comrades from the village and I formed a long chain of inner tubes.


The "river," however, was not the only extreme thing at the park. I have to say, though, that one of the major highlights of my little journey was the fact that our bus was equipped with Karaoke!


I kid you not, dear reader.


We had a great time singing our way home, when we would otherwise have been sleeping. Oh Korea, sometimes you are truly awesome.

My birthday was also loverly. Thanks to everyone for all of the phone calls, emails and myspace/facebook messages, they really helped me feel special on my special, special day. Special. I got a wonderful package from Mom and Dad and a veritable plethora of gifts from Mr. DT. I slept in and got a two-hour Thai massage which was incredible for an insanely reasonable price. I relaxed at home and then met up with a bunch of friends and Andrea, my Birthday twin, for dinner at Uno's. After eating a fantastic Gorgonzola pizza and drinking an alcoholic Oreo cookie shake, it was time to do some shaking of my own at the Rosenbrau (please don't shoot me for that one, couldn't resist).


The new band there, while also Filipino, is even better than the previous one. This proves once again that everything from the Philippines is awesome.


A nice healthy crowd turned up, and we got our collective groove on.

Much merry was made, and even some Korean wallflowers joined in the dancing. A table of Koreans behind us bought me a beer, and another guy there whose birthday it was gave a piece of his cake to Andrea and me (note to all: that right there, "Andrea and me," that was correct grammar. Just sayin'.). Score!

Friday night, the president gave yet another English Village garden party. And party we did.


In addition to eating yummy food, and playing dodge ball, we learned Korean circle dances like the one above.


And did some dancing with El Presidente himself.


And also learned Korean tug-o-war, in which the goal is to trick your partner into loosing his/her balance rather than just plain pulling him over. Sneaky.


Saturday, I was treated to a Soccer game with the lovable DT and a bunch of his friends in Ilsan. Japan played France and France won (allez la France!). It was a nice, relaxing time (much less rowdy than I expected, but hey).

On Sunday, there was a going away party for Cheryl, my boss/coworker/friend. The theme was "anything but clothes," meaning that that's what you could wear.


Here is Cheryl in here map/cardboard box combo, and me in a dress made of plastic shopping bags. Tres chic, non?


As you can see, we weren't the only ones who got creative. It was a really good send out, and for me, an extraordinarily good village party in terms of the many interesting conversations that I had and the generally festive mood.

And that about catches us up. I just completed the first day of the last week of my show. I really love it, but my body is starting to say that enough is enough, and I do look forward to working on new scripts and rehearsing new material. Also, next season will feature a new game show and a little "bank robbery" show-type-thing, both of which I'll be performing at various times. This week is all craziness as everyone works on getting the shows polished and ready for their September 4th openings and I scramble to learn the part for which I am understudying and finish the first draft of my script. Just one of those busy times (like nausea, they kind of come in waves). Alright, 10-4 for now.

Cheers, Mates!

I got an early birthday present a few days ago. Pretty, no? I'm already sooooo happy to have a guitar here. I've been learning some new songs, and am working on learning new chords so that I'll be able to write with ease. Yay!

There isn't really anything else too noteworthy going on. I've had some fun nights out recently and continue to be exhausted (mostly in a good way) by work. Rehearsals for our September/October/November season (Wild West, yeehaw!) are in full swing, so I have lines, songs and blocking to learn for the role I'll be understudying and rehearsals to observe. I'm also working on some script drafts for the season that will follow. This, in addition to the regular regime of three shows a day means my time is being put to good use. This past week, a few minor injuries meant that some understudies had to come in and some role-shifting was necessary and this meant that we had to do put-in rehearsals on top of the regularly scheduled shows. Hence, I am exhausted and glad that it's my weekend.

There is, however, indeed no rest for the weary. Tomorrow I'll be heading with a gaggle of Village folk to a water park called Ocean World, where I will spend my last day as a 25-year-old gallivanting about in a swim cap and enjoying the water and sunshine. Tuesday I'll sleep in and get a massage, and then join a coworker of mine who has the same birthday (though we're a year apart) and various friends in celebrating our big day out on the town. Sweetness.

I'll be sure to post a recap and pictures of the events mentioned above.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

Announcing, the long-awaited tail of more stuff I've been up to in ye olde Republic of Korea. First off, on the last Friday in July, one of the head honchos at English Village was kind enough to take all of us edutainers out for shabu shabu.


Here is a good chunk of the group that was there. In the foreground you can see the man of the hour, Mr. Kwak (right) next to our stage manager, Mr. Kwak (there are seriously like 10 surnames in all of South Korea). We had a jolly, tasty time...


and the homies represented. After the meal Mr. Kwak (the head honcho one) took those of us who wanted to a local bar, where more merrymaking ensued,


and where they played exclusively Michael Jackson music videos on their TV screen. I had a great night.

The following Monday, Dylan Thomas and I embarked on our 5-day exploration of Korea. We headed to the bus terminal at Hwajeong in Ilsan, and after checking the schedules and consulting some maps and guide books, decided that Cheonju would be a good first destination, as it looked interesting and was on the way south.


Our journey to Cheonju took a little over two hours and was pretty comfortable. Upon arrival, we sought out what turned out the be the best hotel of the whole trip. Our room was beautiful and clean and had a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi. The room cost only 60,000 won. We dropped off our stuff and headed off to explore. Interestingly enough, Cheonju has the same crazy rows of identical, gargantuan apartment buildings as the rest of Korea. This picture was taken from a hill in a park that we walked through.

The park had bunnies! Very friendly ones at that. After being devoured by mosquitoes, we took our anemic selves out to the trendy student district where we checked out some bars. Most of these bars were pretty much the same the rest of the bars in Korea. Koreans seem to find a way of doing things that they like and to stick with it. Still, we enjoyed ourselves and made up our minds to visit Cheonju again, seeing as it's so close and all.


The next day, in the early afternoon we hopped on another bus, this time headed for Daegu. We enjoyed some good books (as you can see) on what ended up being another relaxing two-hour ride. When we arrived in Daegu, we had a minor navigational snafu, and then found a place to stay. We were a little disappointed by the meagre offerings in comparison to Cheonju, but still found a clean, comfortable, super-cheap room. When then set out in search of interesting things and food.

We ended up finding both. Dinner was had at an Italian restaurant, which served honest-to-god Italian-style food--five courses of it, in fact--in a nice atmosphere for more than a reasonable price. This was, in my opinion, the best meal we had on the trip (though DT was clearly exhausted by the very sight of it).


After dinner, we thoroughly explored the district we were in. We found some amazing T-shirts, which we bought and a funky pair of shoes for me with skulls on them. We also found delicious waffles and good people-watching.

The next day, we decided to head for Gyeongju, the historical capital of Korea (during the Silla and Joseon dynasties). The bus ride took only an hour this time, so we ended up with plenty of time to search for the best accommodation options and to check stuff out.


We first checked out a tomb-park, filled with the burial mounds of ancient royalty. As you can see above, these burial mounds require sweeping.


Next we checked out the oldest observatory in all of East Asia. Pretty cool, eh?


We then took a walk to the downtown area and walked through a crazy market where they had lots of things, including whole squid hanging from ropes. By that time, my feet were hurting pretty badly so we took a break. It was at this point that Dylan Thomas removed my shoes and socks and gave me a foot-massage, right there on the steps of a bank(!!!!) With my feet so kindly revived, we continued our walking-tour and found some great food and wine.


We walked through what was truly stifling heat to the Gyeongju National Museum the next morning. It was somewhat cool. While we were there, we were accosted by a timid student who asked us to fill out surveys about tourism in Gyeongju. It was full of a lot of amusing, rather leading questions. Still, a nice chance to talk about what I liked and bring up the fact that Korea is not always very tourism-friendly to someone who might actually be in a position to improve things.


On the way back, we walked through Anapji pond. A pond that was built by an ancient King. It was nice.


On our final day, we decided to take a look at Bulguksa Temple, the biggest, baddest temple in all of South Korea. It was cool indeed. Above is one of the four heavenly kings who guard the temple's entrance gate.



There was much golden Buddha action...


and even some restoration going on.


Though a lot of the temple designs throughout Korea are similar, they are definitely intricate and colorful.

After the temple, we headed back to Seoul, just in time for a large dose of heavy rain. We read, talked and napped our way back to East Seoul (a journey of five hours) and then took a cab back to Ilsan for some pizza and a video and a good rest.

The trip was fantastic. The sights were overall pretty good, and I feel like I have a broader vision of the crazy country that is SoKo. The best part, though, was just getting be with Dylan Thomas. I an incredible time just chatting, eating, laughing and walking with him (feel free to vomit at any time).

Out of Hiding

My, my, it's been a while, eh? How time doth fly (it doth fly in the manner of what-what) I got back yesterday night from a wonderful vacation with our friend Dylan Thomas. We set out to explore South Korea with no set agenda and ended up seeing Cheonju, Daegu and Gyeongju. A detailed account, along with news of other happenings (and perhaps some things which are both redundant and repetitive) shall be forthcoming, but right now I'm still recovering. Highlights included:

*Nifty scenery as seen from a series of comfortable, relatively short bus rides

*An incredible hotel room, complete with jacuzzi for only 60,000 won per night

*A delicious, five-course Italian meal in a lovely atmosphere with great people-watching and only the faintest scent of sewage (sorry Korea, but you undeniably smell)

*Cheap champagne

* Some great T-shirts and a pair of slip-on shoes with skulls on them

* The biggest, baddest temple in all of South Korea

* A Haagen Dazs ice cream cake

* Funky artifacts

*People sweeping grassy hills with large brooms

* More golden Buddhas than you can shake a stick at