I Once Knew a Girl Whose Name Was Mud

Well, Mudd actually, Lauren Mudd to be exact. I wonder what she's up to these days. Anyhow, I spent yesterday with Dylan Thomas at the annual Boryeong Mud Festival. Here we are enjoying the sun and the mud.


The festival takes place in a town called Daechon which is located on Korea's west coast. The mud there is like totally super packed with minerals and meant to be better for you than the mud from the Dead Sea (personally, I found it disappointingly thinner than said Dead Sea mud, and it made my skin dry, but whatevs). At the festival, you can have all sorts of muddy adventures, such as covering yourself in mud (see above), sliding down mud slides, going through a mud-covered obstacle course (shaped like a dragon, no less), wrestling in a pool of muddy water (DT enjoyed this one quite a bit), and going into a jail-like enclosure, where people fling mud at you. There is a mud spa thingy and all sorts of mud beauty products for sale. You can also make mud soaps and mud pottery.

We rolled into town at about 10pm Monday night and found lodging thanks to a fellow at the bus terminal who just happened to be from Ilsan (Where DT lives). In Korea, you can be friends with someone once you find something in common, so we were immediately off on the right foot. After the motel folks were kind enough to build a bed for us (no, really), we headed out to check out the festivities. It quickly became evident that all of the muddiness took place in the day time, but we still managed to run into some friends from English Village, who were in the midst of seeking justice after having been refused entrance to a dance club because they were foreigners. We chatted with them, got the lay of the land and headed back for the night.

On Tuesday we were able to explore some of the aforementioned activities while enjoying beer and sunshine. We had a forced, impromptu photo shoot with a festival PR photographer ("Okay, pose, now running, running. Good!") The people-watching was fantastic. We also took a look around town, playing some games at an arcade and buying snacks, all while covered in mud. We took a swim in the lovely Yellow Sea (which, by the way, is not yellow--who knew?) and, after discovering that I had lost my fabulously awesome watch :( :( :( , we decided it was time to head back to our necks of the woods. We really had no idea where to go, but ended up at an acceptable bus terminal with relatively little difficulty and were relieved to find that we had not missed the last bus back to Ilsan. Tired, and still slightly crud-covered, we slept most of the bus ride back. I'm definitely glad to have checked out such a fun event. It had been quite a number of years since I'd said, "screw getting dirty," and just played in the mud.

And the Good Days Go By...

Tonight I went to see some traditional Korean music and dancing. It was at a theatre near Seoul City Hall. The whole show was pretty much geared toward tourists, but since I'd not seen any traditional Korean performance of any kind, it was interesting for me. The show featured seven different kinds of performance. My favorite had to be Gayageum Sanjo. This involved a row of about 8 women. Each woman was surrounded by 5 drums, two on each side (the other sides of which she shared with the women on either side of her) and one behind her. The women wore beautiful costumes and drummed in unison. The drumming patterns caused the women's movements to be incredibly dance-like, making the performance both visually stimulating and percussively awesome. My second favorite was Pangut and Sogochum, men dancing and playing instruments with long streamers on their hats. They moved their heads as they danced and played, in order to make nifty shapes and patterns with the streamers (think rhythmic gymnastics, only exponentially more whimsical and enjoyable). Good stuff.

Things have been fab. Having made it through my first full week of crazy dance shows, I treated myself to some falafel (inferior to the stuff in Israel, but a reasonable facsimile when it's all you can get) and a Thai massage in Itaewon. The massage straightened out my aching muscles pretty well. I was definitely in some pain after an intense week, but the shows went well, and I really, really enjoyed myself, in spite of the excessive sweat and relative exhaustion. I'm looking forward to diving back in tomorrow morning. Yay!


Some other highlights of the week included a show of crazy bar tricks at the going away gathering of a couple of friends...


AND, a trip to the Rosenbraeu. The Rosenbraeu is a place in La Festa (the "hip" bar/shopping district in Ilsan). It is trying pretty hard to be a Biergarten, and actually the beer, which can be purchased by the yard, is really pretty good for Korea. The real draw, however, is the Filipino cover band pictured above. They are beyond awesome. They do songs like "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen, followed up by "Let's Get Retarded" by the Black Eyed Peas. They have a FOG MACHINE. It goes without saying that Dylan Thomas and I love this place. When we went last Friday, we got to hang out with the band. That's right, we're vip all the way.

The fourth of July ended up being lots of fun as well. It was determined that bottle rockets were small enough not to get us invaded, so shoot them off, we did. Also, there was much drinking, merry making, guitar playing and singing/belligerent shouting of songs. Rumor has it the night ended with bottle rockets being shot off from behind the English Village "Hollywood sign." Sadly by that point I had already headed home for some Zs. Ah well.

Thus far, it seems as though the rainy season here hasn't been gathering much steam. At the moment, however, I've got a nice downpour to which I'll finish my book and drift happily off to sleep. Yum, yummy yum.

Some People Wear Suits to Work

But I wear this. Seriously.



Never fear, I have not, in fact gained 40 pounds. This thing is padded hard core and it's hot in there, especially when you have 4 dance numbers to make it through. Also, doing choreography with ears like that is pretty interesting...

Today was the opening for A Long Time Ago in Africa. The play (as I may have mentioned) is based on the "Just So" stories by Rudyard Kipling. We are off to a great start. I had lots of fun, and ended up less exhausted than I'd expected. I also, incidentally, split my pants. Luckily no one noticed, thanks to the lovely tutu you see above. The costume designer came right after our last show to pick them up and fix them, so all should be well. It was bad, though, like Elephant chaps.

Last week was pretty crazy, what with doing You're a Star all week and then having rehearsals for A Long Time Ago in Africa before and after the shows. It was definitely good-busy, though and once I get into the rhythm of doing three shows a day, life will normalize again.

I've been spending the majority of my free time these days with Dylan Thomas. I ask you,


are we not a handsome couple? We've been doing fun things like visiting the dogs and cats in his local pet store, enjoying EV parties, watching lots of films whilst devouring mass quantities of chocolate and other junk food, and occasionally imbibing full pitchers of soju cocktail, sometimes through straws. Also, he gave me a lego set for a Michael Moore action figure. Awesome, no? If only I had an Ann Coulter one, too. Then I could make them battle each other.

While we're on the subject of handsome couples, I have to give a shout-out to Mom and Dad, who celebrated their 40th anniversary three days ago. They are now off celebrating on a cruise. Way to go, Albie and Lench!

Also, a happy Independence Day to all of the folks back home (and to my fellow Americans abroad). Shoot off some fireworks in my honor, as we can't do that here in Paju because we are too close to North Korea. I plan to celebrate by playing flag football (what could be more American?) and then drinking some beer. Yee friggin' haw.

Israel Is Tov

Here it is, friends, the long-awaited account of my sojourn to the land of many things that are sacred to many people. Israel, incidentally, is also home to many things which are sacred to me, such as hummous, falafel, and delicious cucumber salad. I arrived at about 3:00 am in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, June 5th. Natalie graciously collected me from the Airport and brought me back to her apartment for a beer and a shower and some good old fashioned talk, followed by a nice sleep. I got up around 12:30 pm and we set off to meet up with Rebecca, who joined us on our bus to Yaffo.

In Yaffo, we headed first to a restaurant called Dr. Shokshouka. Shokshouka, you see, is a delicious dish made of egg and tomato and spicy goodness (as well as some other vegetables) and I would like to let the record show that Natalie was correct in her assertion that the Dr. worked hard to earn his PhD. The food was de-lish, as you can see from our clean, clean skillets.


After lunch, we took a walk around Yaffo, in all its medieval-style glory, and Natalie showed us the rocks where Andromeda was tied before she headed off to class. Rebecca and I continued exploring the city's narrow corridorish streets and visited a few little shops.


We then headed back to Tel Aviv on foot along the Mediterranean. Here is a nice little view of Tel Aviv. We spent our walk catching up, and then headed for Tel Aviv's major market (the name of which escapes me), where I was bombarded by trinkets and delicious looking fruits and veggies and breads, and where I tried my first piece of Halva, a tasty candy made from ground sesame seeds and love. We then did some shopping, checked out a flea market, and basically continued our walk up into northern Tel Aviv. Later that night, we met Natalie for drinks at a bar that could easily have been in Brooklyn, if it weren't for all of the Hebrew being spoken.

The next day we got up and went for breakfast with Natalie's friend Ori at a nice cafe by the sea. The food was once again awesome (I ate a loaf of bread, literally). We then hopped on a bus and headed for Jerusalem, where Rebecca's cousins picked us up and took us to her Aunt Miriam's house. The house is on a hill with a fantastic view, and everyone there was really nice to me. Miriam showed up while we were on our way out, but still (as warned) managed to push some food at me. We eventually made our way to the old city.


Here I am, cramming my note to god into the wailing wall. The old city of Jerusalem is amazing and unlike anything I have ever seen. The markets all run down narrow cobblestone streets which are on a relatively steep incline. We arrived too late to visit the mosque, but we went to the Jewish quarter and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This is definitely one of the coolest churches I have ever seen (as well it should be). Mass was going on while we were there, so I didn't get to go into Jesus' tomb, but I did see the place where he died, some of his blood stains on rocks, the ninth station of the cross, a Coptic monk with a kickin' beard in the coolest monk outfit I've ever seen, and I got to sing in a cistern. Good stuff. We then went through the Muslim markets and Natalie used her fabulous ghetto-sense (she is convinced that her super power is to lead people into the ghetto (or "the wrong side of the tracks," for those of you not up on the current lingo that the kids are using) when exploring relatively unknown territory) to lead us straight into the ghetto. Luckily, we were able to find a cab, and we headed for Ben Yehuda street.


A friend and coworker (boss, really) of mine here in Korea has a friend called Lior who lives in Jerusalem and owns an interesting little shop on Ben Yehuda street (I'll leave it to you to imagine what his wares might be) and we had arranged to meet up with him and say hello. He showed us around his store and then we all headed to a cafe for some drinks. Lior, as it turns out, is one of the most ridiculous people I have ever met. Among other things, he claims not to have washed a dish or done laundry in years, because he does favors for friends (such as putting down flooring in their apartments or doing electrical wiring) and gets them to do these things in return... hmmm... Anyhow, he was friendly and definitely interesting. We met Rebecca's cousin for a hummousful dinner and then went out to an Irish pub for some more drinks before heading back to Miriam's.


The following morning, Rebecca and I went to pick up our rental car, and after a few navigation snafus, we gave a ride down a hill to a random girl and headed south and east to the Dead Sea. We stopped at a place called Ein Gedi, where we took a 30 minute hike in the hot, hot sun and then enjoyed a nice swim in one of the lovely waterfall pools, as well as the really funky vegetation. We gave a ride down the road to an Australian couple who had left their tour bus, yet refused to take public transport (way to go, geniuses). We then continued south to Masada, only to find that no one was allowed to hike it after 10:00am due to the heat. Slightly dejected, we headed back north to the Kibbutz where we had reserved a room for the night.


We checked in and headed for the Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. You can see the very cave in which they were found above. It was a pretty cool little site, with quite a few ritual bath ruins. I guess I can understand why you'd need to take lots of baths in heat like that...

We went back to our charming little room at the Kibbutz, where Natalie met us. We then went for a quick dip in the pool and then had dinner. Having gathered that there was to be a Bar Mitzvah at the pool that night, we decided to crash. Sadly, our shenanigans lasted a mere 15 minutes before one of the women from the reception recognized us and kindly requested that we take a hike. We had nothing left to do but search out the Kibbutz bar. This bar ended up being incredibly hard to find. Above you can see Natalie Rebecca in a barn full of hay, which we found while looking for the bar. Eventually we did find it, and we had a nice night of beer, talking and playing pool, in spite of the fact that we were the only three people in bar that night.


In the morning, Rebecca and I left Natalie to sleep in and drove back to Masada to get our hike on. Masada is where Herod's palaces were, and was also a stronghold for some Jewish rebels who ended up committing mass suicide when they realized that there was no other escape from the Romans. It's pretty freakin' cool, as evidenced above. We did our fair share of exploring and were lucky enough to overhear a classic American tourist quote: "This is the crappiest palace I've ever seen!"

We returned to Kibbutz Qalya only to realize that we had made a mistake regarding our checkout time and found Natalie sitting in the lobby with all of our stuff. Way to suck, us and way to be awesome and pack up everything in a flurry, Natalie!


We spent the rest of the day at the Dead Sea, which is a wonderous, wonderous thing. You float practically on top of the water and you can float vertically without treading water. The water doesn't feel like water at all but like a big sea of oil. The mud at the bottom is the definition of squishy and is full of minerals that are good for the skin. We covered ourselves in mud and baked in the sun and then washed it off (except for our faces, which can be seen above). After some good old beach reading, we headed north.

The drive was really beautiful. We got to watch the desert turn into something much more lush and treeful. We drove up into the mountains and found the tiny town where we'd planned to stay at a bed a breakfast. We attempted to find said bed and breakfast for about an hour by asking people and driving around and asking more people and driving around more. The fact that it was Shabbat complicated things a bit. We ended up opting for a different bed and breakfast in the same town, that we found in the process of looking for the one we'd reserved. The woman there was really kind and our room was lovely (it had a Jacuzzi bathtub!). We went to a tasty chocolate restaurant in a nearby town called Rosh Pinna. The town was settled by Hungarian Jews in the 1800 (I think...) and thus has a pretty European feel. I had some artichokes breaded and covered with cheese and some cheese with a side of cheese. We then shared a dessert of great chocolatiness and magnitude. Natalie and I ordered cocktails from the cocktail menu. Our waitress looked like a deer caught in the headlights, and then required that we change our drink orders several times because they were out of some things. In the end, they brought Natalie a weird "cosmopolitan" which was not pink, and me a glass of some kind of something that was filled to the brim with lemon slices and mint (it was supposed to be a capirina). Way to go, guys.


We woke up the following morning and enjoyed a scrumptious Israeli breakfast before driving down to the Kinneret, the lake where Jesus is said to have walked on water. The water was great, the waves were fun, and Natalie found a watermelon rind on the bottom (score!) We read, swam, worked on our suntans and headed back toward Tel Aviv.

We stopped in Nazareth to look around and have some falafel and some truly intense Arabic pastries and made it back to Tel Aviv in the evening.


Here I am, driving Dorcas, our rental car. I wanted the car to have a biblical name, and let's face it, Dorcas is hilarious (shut up, I am not a 10-year-old boy.). As it turns out, Dorcas was an early Christian woman who made clothing for poor people and stuff. Go Dorcas!


That night, my last full night in Tel Aviv, was spent at a bar that Libby, Rebecca's roommate was reviewing for a publication. Someone there must have caught wind of her assignment, because suddenly the bar owner was coming up to us, asking what kind of music we wanted to listen to and offering us free drinks. Oh, the star treatment. Natalie and I ended up staying until closing and then having a ridiculously long night, which needed to happen. The next day, we were in bad shape, but thanks to Rebecca and jaknun, the miraculous hangover food of greasy goodness, we survived. The heat was oppressive (as Natalie said, it felt like it was being vented from somewhere, but no, it was just the air), so Rebecca and I went to have an Iced Coffee (yet another foodish item that is GREAT in Israel) and then I did some shopping for gifts and clothes (as they actually have clothing in Israel that fits me) and went to dinner with Natalie at her favorite restaurant. The food was great (a theme emerges), as was the conversation. I went back to Natalie's to shower and pack, and before I knew it was time to catch my flight to K-land via a lengthy layover in Frankfurt. I had the chance to eat some spaetzle, take a cruise on the Main, buy some chocolate, and speak some German before heading back in earnest.

I had an amazing trip on many levels. For being roughly the size of New Jersey, Israel is an amazing country topographically. It is beautiful, and the people were very friendly and direct. It's soooooooooo historically and culturally significant as well. I know it helped me tons to have friends there (and not just any friends, at that), but I really think that anyone who likes to travel would enjoy themselves in Israel. Seriously guys, stop freaking out about it and go!

P.S.
And now for something completely different:
It seems I find myself quite attached to a British gentleman of Welsh heritage these days. As he's asked that his true identity remain under wraps, we'll just call him Dylan Thomas for now. I met him shortly before leaving for Israel. He lives on the outskirts of Seoul, not too far from me. If you are very good, I may post a picture of him here soon. [insert obnoxious noise of girlish glee]

And... We're Back.

Israel was fantastic. Seriously, what a country. I had a wonderful trip and being with Natalie and Rebecca was just like old times. I will write more about this later, but for now you can satiate your curiosity by looking at pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/missaleneous/

I was thrown straight into intense work directly on my return. I will be playing the Elephant in the July/August main stage show. The show is based on the "Just So" stories by Rudyard Kipling. I'm looking forward to it and feel really honored to be part of a show that is so focused on dance and movement. However, for the last two days I've had upwards of 5 hours of dance rehearsal each day. It is so very much fun, and a real challenge to keep up and learn quickly, as well as good exercise. Everything hurts, and I am totally exhausted. Today I went to dance class after work, because I am a masochist. I'll also be doing the understudy thing in You're a Star again with the rest of the understudy cast during the last week in June (incidentally the week before the animal show opens). Thus, we are currently rehearsing that as well. More when I'm not falling asleep at my keyboard. Holy crap, I love my job.

In Which Art Kicks My Butt and I Meet a Pair of American Vagrants

So, last night I found out that I'll be directing one of our July/August shows. I am stoked about this. Auditions will be tomorrow, and I am going to have lots of fun making my co-workers do all sorts of wacky stuff (not solely for my own amusement, I assure you).

Tuesday I was off, and having no plans, I decided to do a little exploring in my very own 'hood. Across the street from English Village, nestled in what turns out to be a relatively sizable area between many rolling hills, is the Heyri Art Valley. It is basically a community of artists, into which a person must be invited in order to join.


Once invited (should you accept the invitation), you must build a funky house like the one above. Many of the houses include studio space and galleries, and there are also many restaurants and cafes on the premises. It's an intriguing place, and is literally a stone's throw from EV. I went into the first gallery I saw, where, luckily for me, the proprietress spoke excellent English and told me all about the current show, by an Italian artist called Paolo Di Capua. The show was called "Stabbed Soul" and featured a number of very minimal steel-woven-into-steel, relief-style pieces (all praise the hyphen).


The largest, and most moving piece is pictured above. I wasn't really supposed to photograph it, but as you are aware, I am a hot-blooded rebel. The photo doesn't really do it justice anyhow. Maybe I'm an easy sell, but it caused me physical pain to look at this work. It seemed to me too accurate a representation of how it feels when something awful is tearing you apart inside. Just when you think you can deal with what you've been dealt, you get hit at another angle or in another way. In any event, way to go Mr. Di Capua, you successfully shook my psyche.


After visiting the gallery (called "Moa gallery"), I stopped in at this nifty little cafe, had a latte and read. I am currently reading Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It is good, but I may have to restrict my reading of it to the privacy of my home, as it keeps nearly causing me to cry in public.


Here is a little self portrait I took in the wall of one of the gallery-buildings while wandering around.


There were also some interesting works outside, such as the school of floating fish, to which this fellow belongs.

My favorite show was by a Korean artist called Kim Joon. His installation, "Party" comprises a bunch of incredible digital prints. These prints are strange bodies made up of random body parts that seem to be formed with leather or cloth-like textures. Everything is covered in easily-recognizable patterns by famous fashion designers. I decided not to live on the edge and photograph these works, but I wish I could explain them with more clarity and accuracy. I was blown away, and am really tempted to contact the artist and find out how much some of the pieces cost. I'm sure they are out of my price range, but it couldn't hurt to ask... I'd like to learn more about his process as well.

I definitely want to go back to Heyri on a more regular basis. It's a great place to explore. And there is a book store with a small selection of English books.

After Heyri, I came home and talked to Rebecca. We (well, mostly she) pounded out a tentative itinerary for my upcoming visit to Israel. I am intensely looking forward to my trip, and feeling really lucky to have great friends to plan and set up things for me. It will be so good to see my girls and to float around in the dead sea. Rest assured I'll write all about it after the fact.

On Monday I went to Seoul for my language exchange. I ran into my friend Pauline (from South Africa) on the way in. She was headed for a voice lesson. When I return from my trip I am planning to take lesson's from her teacher as well. That way, we'll be able to travel in together, and my Mondays will be packed with productive action. Anyhow, Pauline and I decided to meet up and go see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie after our respective engagements. When I met up with Pauline, she had found a couple of interesting American lads. One was a male stripper, and the other fights in a cage and operates hot air balloons for a living. I don't remember their names, but I do remember the names of the friends they mentioned who didn't end up coming along: Dirty and Bird. Seriously, where do these people come from? Oh wait, Arizona. They were the kind of people who make you a little embarrassed to be American. They were, however, refreshingly unpretentious, and it was interesting to spend a few hours with the sort of people I wouldn't really seek out on my own. The pirate movie, incidentally, was mostly dumb. Ah well.

Best. Work. Assignment. EVER.

So, yesterday one of my work projects was to be in a parade. Our bosses selected three people from my department and other people from other departments to do this. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I was just told to show up in front of EV city hall at 10:10 am, wearing a white shirt. I expected this assignment to maybe be a bit tedious. It turned out to be anything but.


The parade was part of the opening ceremonies of the Paju Flower Festival, which is still going on now. We all carried the flags of various English-speaking countries (or in some cases, including mine, just a solid colored pink or blue flag) and marched and waved at people. It was pretty amusing, and only lasted for about a half an hour.


When we completed our little march, we were fed a delicious free lunch (vegetarians were well taken care of) which included beer and makoli (this really weird wine stuff) and then given a little time to look around. While looking around, I scored the most kickin' visor ever:

This is seriously one of the best things that Korea has had to offer me thus far. The visor is disposable (cardboard) and is the shape and style worn by grandmothers everywhere. I love it, and I wore it for the whole rest of my workday. What, gentle reader, could possibly be a better way in which to express my Paju pride.

On the way back to our van, we passed a truck where flowers were being given away for free. I got a marigold and a white flower that is shaped like a trumpet.