This is not the real entry. It's just to let people know that I am currently mixing down the recording, which turned out pretty well. I'll be totally ripping off Dave Martin's awesome idea of posting it to an e-mail account so that everyone can download it all if they want to. It's almost ready... maybe another three or four days, depending on how busy I get over the weekend.
Anyways, I'll also be preparing a blow-by-blow of it as I listen back to it, and then posting it with huge amounts of unnecessary detail.
For example, I may transcribe my short rant about elephant penises!
Good times!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Students respect me?!
There's this phenomena that happens every few weeks here in Korea... EXAMS! These kids have more exams than a proctologist, and then we wonder why they are always depressed. What the hell? I was talking to my friend Gumi at work the other day, and in conversation, I realized that if I had gone to school here, I probably would have been just as lazy and unmotivated as most of my students. I mean, I usually get a little steamed with them, because I try to make my classes a little fun, and I try to make the classes as free and student-directed as possible. I've even told some of my classes that we won't follow the books anymore if they talk for the whole class, because that is better for their conversational skills anyway.
Growing up, I was a pretty self-motivated student. I didn't always do my homework, but I usually did enough to know what was going on, and I always studied for tests. I don't remember getting rewards for good grades, and I don't remember getting in any particular trouble for bad grades. But until calculus, I had consistently good grades (oh, and except for grade nine gym... oh God! I will never be a gymnast, stop testing me on cartwheels!) and no real troubles. I was a chronic procrastinator, but I came by it honestly, and I still am, a lot of the time. But I learned a lot. I did a lot of stuff outside of school, and I feel now like I am a pretty well-rounded person because I wasn't overly scared of failure and I wasn't pushed too hard.
But these kids... I keep hearing stories of being hit until they get welts by teachers because they got a question wrong, and then getting the same treatment from their parents when they get a bad score. Now, I'm not a parent, so I may be out of place to comment here, but maybe this isn't the best approach to discipline here.
I mean, have none of these people ever seen the circus elephants on "When Animals Attack"? Your kids are just like those elephants, except that their noses aren't so "tall".
And instead of attacking their handler (tugs awkwardly at collar) they just shut down, and stop caring. You'd be surprised how little you can learn and still do well on tests designed for rote-memorization. That's all these kids seem to do... just regurgitate. And when a teacher tries to make them talk about something that excites or scares them, it makes them only have two responses.
"I get excited about good test scores" and "I am scared of my report card". I'm not joking. Anyone who has worked here will know that pretty much any writing assignment will always end up with kids talking about being nervous for tests.
I remember being nervous for tests, and I remember my friends being nervous for tests, but when they were done, good or bad, everyone seemed to just move on... there's just way too much pressure here...
Wow, I totally rode a tangent off into the sunset there... I was meaning to talk about my students respecting me!
So yeah, apparently my students like and respect me. I mean, they don't show it in obvious ways (although... I think I did really clean up on teacher's day... thank you for the shopping bag full of candy bars!) like talking in class or doing their homework, but in the weeks before exams, I seem to be the only teacher who still has classes full of students, whereas everyone else seems to wind up with only one or two students, and the rest stay home to study for their school exams.
I guess the flip-side to that is that maybe I have classes of students who are so unmotivated they don't even think to skip... oh Gawd, here comes that sick feeling again...
Growing up, I was a pretty self-motivated student. I didn't always do my homework, but I usually did enough to know what was going on, and I always studied for tests. I don't remember getting rewards for good grades, and I don't remember getting in any particular trouble for bad grades. But until calculus, I had consistently good grades (oh, and except for grade nine gym... oh God! I will never be a gymnast, stop testing me on cartwheels!) and no real troubles. I was a chronic procrastinator, but I came by it honestly, and I still am, a lot of the time. But I learned a lot. I did a lot of stuff outside of school, and I feel now like I am a pretty well-rounded person because I wasn't overly scared of failure and I wasn't pushed too hard.
But these kids... I keep hearing stories of being hit until they get welts by teachers because they got a question wrong, and then getting the same treatment from their parents when they get a bad score. Now, I'm not a parent, so I may be out of place to comment here, but maybe this isn't the best approach to discipline here.
I mean, have none of these people ever seen the circus elephants on "When Animals Attack"? Your kids are just like those elephants, except that their noses aren't so "tall".
And instead of attacking their handler (tugs awkwardly at collar) they just shut down, and stop caring. You'd be surprised how little you can learn and still do well on tests designed for rote-memorization. That's all these kids seem to do... just regurgitate. And when a teacher tries to make them talk about something that excites or scares them, it makes them only have two responses.
"I get excited about good test scores" and "I am scared of my report card". I'm not joking. Anyone who has worked here will know that pretty much any writing assignment will always end up with kids talking about being nervous for tests.
I remember being nervous for tests, and I remember my friends being nervous for tests, but when they were done, good or bad, everyone seemed to just move on... there's just way too much pressure here...
Wow, I totally rode a tangent off into the sunset there... I was meaning to talk about my students respecting me!
So yeah, apparently my students like and respect me. I mean, they don't show it in obvious ways (although... I think I did really clean up on teacher's day... thank you for the shopping bag full of candy bars!) like talking in class or doing their homework, but in the weeks before exams, I seem to be the only teacher who still has classes full of students, whereas everyone else seems to wind up with only one or two students, and the rest stay home to study for their school exams.
I guess the flip-side to that is that maybe I have classes of students who are so unmotivated they don't even think to skip... oh Gawd, here comes that sick feeling again...
Photo Contest
I recently read about a photo contest in the Gwangju news. I'll be honest, I usually only breeze through the Gwangju News... but since I had an article published about the Music Party in the last one, I spent considerably more time with the most recent issue. Which is why I noticed that there was a photo contest being held.
Well, I have this new, super-expensive camera that I have been trying to justify having bought, so I thought this would be a good way. The contest was for photo of "Summertime in Korea", so I entered this one, along with two others.
Guess what? I won!
So, the next Korean classes I skip will be FREE Korean classes.
Woohoo!
Well, I have this new, super-expensive camera that I have been trying to justify having bought, so I thought this would be a good way. The contest was for photo of "Summertime in Korea", so I entered this one, along with two others.
Guess what? I won!
So, the next Korean classes I skip will be FREE Korean classes.
Woohoo!
Oh, the drama!
In other news, I have to vent a bit about drama.
You know what I'm talking about... the talking, the awkwardness...
I've always taken a very strong anti-drama stance. But now... I'm forced to admit that I love drama. I hate being involved in it personally, but I love witnessing it around me, because it's honestly the most entertaining thing going on around me sometimes. Which is - in a word - pathetic. But hey, I do what I can with what I have.
And this country... oh man, it is a breeding ground for drama.
There are a lot of crazies and drama queens/kings here, both local and foreign, and it makes life so interesting!
But I often get embroiled in a bit of it myself. No details, of course, it was a misunderstanding that could have been easily cleared up, but instead it turned into this big "thing" and I eventually dropped it and moved on because it wasn't worth it to me. It was so stupid too! There was even the inevitable attempted guilt trip... which I'll admit, is/was useless. Anyway, this really doesn't make any sense until names are introduced, so I'm just going to drop the whole thing.
But please! Foreign community! Local community! Continue involving me tangentially in your stupid little mountains out of molehills arguments. Continue ignoring each other in front of me! It is hilarious to watch two grown adults dance around pretending not to see each other! Oh, and don't get awkward when I laugh out loud in front of you. It's just that it's so good, I honestly feel a little decadent just watching! I swear, if I see another person walk into something because they are avoiding eye-contact and thus can't see their own path, I will piss my pants.
As for me... I'm going to try to be a little less passive aggressive when I get involved directly.
After all, it's only fun from the outside.
P.S. Hey, no, this isn't about you. Relax. It's about that other person we talked about that time.
You know what I'm talking about... the talking, the awkwardness...
I've always taken a very strong anti-drama stance. But now... I'm forced to admit that I love drama. I hate being involved in it personally, but I love witnessing it around me, because it's honestly the most entertaining thing going on around me sometimes. Which is - in a word - pathetic. But hey, I do what I can with what I have.
And this country... oh man, it is a breeding ground for drama.
There are a lot of crazies and drama queens/kings here, both local and foreign, and it makes life so interesting!
But I often get embroiled in a bit of it myself. No details, of course, it was a misunderstanding that could have been easily cleared up, but instead it turned into this big "thing" and I eventually dropped it and moved on because it wasn't worth it to me. It was so stupid too! There was even the inevitable attempted guilt trip... which I'll admit, is/was useless. Anyway, this really doesn't make any sense until names are introduced, so I'm just going to drop the whole thing.
But please! Foreign community! Local community! Continue involving me tangentially in your stupid little mountains out of molehills arguments. Continue ignoring each other in front of me! It is hilarious to watch two grown adults dance around pretending not to see each other! Oh, and don't get awkward when I laugh out loud in front of you. It's just that it's so good, I honestly feel a little decadent just watching! I swear, if I see another person walk into something because they are avoiding eye-contact and thus can't see their own path, I will piss my pants.
As for me... I'm going to try to be a little less passive aggressive when I get involved directly.
After all, it's only fun from the outside.
P.S. Hey, no, this isn't about you. Relax. It's about that other person we talked about that time.
Highlight Reel - Post-mom to Pre-Music Party
I wish I could say that it had been an eventful month. It really wasn't. At all. First, I became a master of Skype. Oh yeah, I can now hold web-cam chats with the best of them, assuming that Vanessa is one of them, my one and only contact currently.
I had an article written in the Gwangju News about the music party, which was pretty exciting. It was by my new friend Rebecca Fairless, and she talked about the first music party on April 28th, why I was doing it, and encouraged people to come out. I've never had an article written about something that I organized before, so it made me feel a little bit famous, and perhaps more cool than I should have. haha. She invited me to a pancake party at her house, and it was a lot of fun. It was a bit intimidating... lots of new people, very few of whom I had met before. I still get pretty shy in new social situations like that... but luckily the fact that I brought a jar of maple syrup was a good ice-breaker. I also brought my guitar, but I didn't wind up playing, so I just awkwardly carried it to the bar after the party.
After a while at the Speakeasy, I realized that a) it was way too loud for me (Tinitis!) and b) Rebecca was gone, and I wanted to leave, but I wanted to say goodbye first. I figured that she and the rest of the gang had probably gone to the German Bar, so I headed down there. When I got there, the new Gwangju band "The Tent Pitchers" had just finished their set, and all their stuff was still set up. I asked if I could play a few tunes, and next thing I knew I was doing an impromptu (and obviously unrehearsed) set of about seven or ten songs. It went well, I made a good impression on the band, so maybe I have someone I can open for now. Then I headed back to the Speakeasy to say goodbye (for reals this time) got talking to Rebecca, then I got pulled into the hall by Smashlee, the new teacher and former co-worker of Darren's who will be taking my place at Munhwa at the expected end of my contract. We chatted for a bit about Munhwa, and all the last minute panic questions that she had about the place before she signed. We wound up talking for about an hour or so in the stairwell, which is admittedly strange.
Then, goodbye.
What else happened? umm... I bought a reverb-producing pre-amp, which was expensive. And exciting. It was necessary because I had gone cheap-o on my mixer, so I had no internal effects. My own fault, I guess. But it still sucked. It was a big misunderstanding between me and the salesman, but in the end it came down to me not having researched the product at all.
I also rode the subway... twice! Turns out that small city subways are SLOW. It might actually be just as fast to walk from say downtown to halfway home, the nearest stop to my apartment. But in this heat, I will gladly wait underground in air-conditioned comfort rather than out in the soupy humidity.
Vanessa is coming back early now, which is really good news. She was going to come back in August, but then that got bumped to late June, which was really exciting. Well, it's now late June, and she's still not here, and it's looking like it will be another three weeks now. But that's okay. Luckily, we are making good use of the internet-based communication possibilities available to us, and we talk for a few hours every day. Plus, who wants to be outside these days? I'd rather be chatting with a pretty lady, even if she is pixelly.
Speaking of not wanting to be outside, I moved my bedroom into my living room, and made my bedroom into a practice area/studio. The reason? My air conditioner was in the living room. Why would I not want that available to me at sleepy time? Answer: There is no reason, because I am not a clearly insane person. And it's actually made the apartment a little more hospitable, because now there is more sitting room if we employ the bed. everybody wins! Plus, it feels like a dorm room, which it turns out I really missed.
And, I almost forgot, but of course I have to document the most horrific thing I have ever witnessed... or, heard about. I guess I didn't really witness it, but I did almost shake a student to death after hearing it. Well, once again, not really.
Anyway, it was in one of my classes. This is the class that I have been told is not worth much worry, because most teachers have already given up on them. So, that's great. Actually, they are full of energy and they are wonderful and brave speakers for the most part, they're just unwilling to study, so they can't retain any new vocabulary. So I've taken the approach of just letting them direct conversation so that they can practice the words they do know, and I correct and make them repeat when I think it's a situation where they will understand why I am correcting them.
So the other day, I asked them if they wanted to talk about anything, and almost all the hands shot up. Oh man, I would take ALL low-level unteachable classes if they went like this all the time.
I eventually came to this cute little chubby guy who always chuckles at his own stories and is just a wonderful little guy to have in my class. His uncle has a husky, and this husky recently had puppies, so every week we are told a few puppy stories, which are always nice. So last Tuesday, he of course had some puppy stories left from the weekend.
He finished, and then this little girl, who I probably shouldn't name, shoots up her hand, because she is ready to talk. I know that I should choose her next, because she is a little spoiled princess, and if I don't choose her, she's liable to start crying and pout for the rest of the week.
Her face lights up, and she launches into a description of her new puppy, which sounds super cute. She's really happy, and manages to guide me into the breed "cocker spaniel". "Wow, a cute little cocker spaniel!" I say, "I have friends who have cocker spaniels, they are very cute and fun!" (using small word for the benefit of the class). Then she says "Yes, I was happy for new puppy! Old puppy died Friday..."
She looks a little distraught...
"Oh no! How did your puppy die?" I asked.
"He bad. Bark bark bark bark. I was tired, so (gestures punching) him."
and a cloud falls over the room...
I thought for sure that I had misunderstood. I mean, how could that possibly have been what happened?
"You killed your dog?" I asked.
"Yes teacher, but dog was bad."
Holy Shit.
I was honestly in such shock, I didn't know if I should hit her, start crying, or throw her out of the room. My head was instantly filled with visions of this poor puppy being beaten to death by this cute (looking) little fifth-grader. I mean, I've seen her get angry, and let me tell you, she did not just hit this dog once. If she killed this dog, it was not a punch, it was a beating. I can't look at her anymore... I'm trying to put it out of my head in class, but I keep having visions of this little girl beating up a puppy until it dies.
And I'm also shocked at her parents. She beat her puppy to death, so obviously the best course of action is to give her a second puppy to replace it. What is wrong with these people? Oh well, I mean the girl is a spoilt brat... so I guess it's no big shock that they would do something like this. Holy jeez, I can't believe it.
Provence's 5th Anniversary Party
There's a party tomorrow at Provence that is pretty exciting. I should say... it's now June 29th. I'm back at Starbucks sipping an iced Tazo chai tea latte, which is the longest-named beverage I have ever had. So anyways, this party is on June 30th and it's being held to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the cafe. As a member of the "Provence Family" (guilt over Starbucks visits increasing) I have been invited to perform and hang out with the rest of the regulars. It's pretty nice.
Unfortunately, this is on the same night as the Canada Day celebration at the Speakeasy. Dave asked if I wanted to come out and perform, and I said yes, then I had to cancel because the Provence party got moved to the same day, and I really want to play and hang out with the Provence Family. So anyway, a week or so later, I got news that Jeong Hyeon's grandmother had died, so he would not be able to come on the 30th, so it would be moved to another day.
sidebar - this guy just walked by Starbucks in leather pants with zippers all over them, long dyed-red hair, a black mesh shirt with a black wife beater under it, studded riding gloves and big black boots on. Did I mention that it's about +30 degrees and humid as a locker room out there? Oh, and he was carrying a gift bag that was pink. I love this country, if only for it's bizarro entertainment value.
anyways... the party was cancelled. Awesome, now I could play at the speakeasy. So I called Dave and put my name back in the hat there. Then I told Ee MeCha, and she told me that the party was back on. I can't cancel at the Speakeasy again, so I have to do both, which will involve a lot of very hot running.
It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I told Ee MeCha that I would record the night at Provence to make her a CD. So I now have to leave a lot of my equipment unattended, which I'm not too pumped about. But... it'll be great to have a CD of that for her. It'll be a great souvenir form her party.
I had an article written in the Gwangju News about the music party, which was pretty exciting. It was by my new friend Rebecca Fairless, and she talked about the first music party on April 28th, why I was doing it, and encouraged people to come out. I've never had an article written about something that I organized before, so it made me feel a little bit famous, and perhaps more cool than I should have. haha. She invited me to a pancake party at her house, and it was a lot of fun. It was a bit intimidating... lots of new people, very few of whom I had met before. I still get pretty shy in new social situations like that... but luckily the fact that I brought a jar of maple syrup was a good ice-breaker. I also brought my guitar, but I didn't wind up playing, so I just awkwardly carried it to the bar after the party.
After a while at the Speakeasy, I realized that a) it was way too loud for me (Tinitis!) and b) Rebecca was gone, and I wanted to leave, but I wanted to say goodbye first. I figured that she and the rest of the gang had probably gone to the German Bar, so I headed down there. When I got there, the new Gwangju band "The Tent Pitchers" had just finished their set, and all their stuff was still set up. I asked if I could play a few tunes, and next thing I knew I was doing an impromptu (and obviously unrehearsed) set of about seven or ten songs. It went well, I made a good impression on the band, so maybe I have someone I can open for now. Then I headed back to the Speakeasy to say goodbye (for reals this time) got talking to Rebecca, then I got pulled into the hall by Smashlee, the new teacher and former co-worker of Darren's who will be taking my place at Munhwa at the expected end of my contract. We chatted for a bit about Munhwa, and all the last minute panic questions that she had about the place before she signed. We wound up talking for about an hour or so in the stairwell, which is admittedly strange.
Then, goodbye.
What else happened? umm... I bought a reverb-producing pre-amp, which was expensive. And exciting. It was necessary because I had gone cheap-o on my mixer, so I had no internal effects. My own fault, I guess. But it still sucked. It was a big misunderstanding between me and the salesman, but in the end it came down to me not having researched the product at all.
I also rode the subway... twice! Turns out that small city subways are SLOW. It might actually be just as fast to walk from say downtown to halfway home, the nearest stop to my apartment. But in this heat, I will gladly wait underground in air-conditioned comfort rather than out in the soupy humidity.
Vanessa is coming back early now, which is really good news. She was going to come back in August, but then that got bumped to late June, which was really exciting. Well, it's now late June, and she's still not here, and it's looking like it will be another three weeks now. But that's okay. Luckily, we are making good use of the internet-based communication possibilities available to us, and we talk for a few hours every day. Plus, who wants to be outside these days? I'd rather be chatting with a pretty lady, even if she is pixelly.
Speaking of not wanting to be outside, I moved my bedroom into my living room, and made my bedroom into a practice area/studio. The reason? My air conditioner was in the living room. Why would I not want that available to me at sleepy time? Answer: There is no reason, because I am not a clearly insane person. And it's actually made the apartment a little more hospitable, because now there is more sitting room if we employ the bed. everybody wins! Plus, it feels like a dorm room, which it turns out I really missed.
And, I almost forgot, but of course I have to document the most horrific thing I have ever witnessed... or, heard about. I guess I didn't really witness it, but I did almost shake a student to death after hearing it. Well, once again, not really.
Anyway, it was in one of my classes. This is the class that I have been told is not worth much worry, because most teachers have already given up on them. So, that's great. Actually, they are full of energy and they are wonderful and brave speakers for the most part, they're just unwilling to study, so they can't retain any new vocabulary. So I've taken the approach of just letting them direct conversation so that they can practice the words they do know, and I correct and make them repeat when I think it's a situation where they will understand why I am correcting them.
So the other day, I asked them if they wanted to talk about anything, and almost all the hands shot up. Oh man, I would take ALL low-level unteachable classes if they went like this all the time.
I eventually came to this cute little chubby guy who always chuckles at his own stories and is just a wonderful little guy to have in my class. His uncle has a husky, and this husky recently had puppies, so every week we are told a few puppy stories, which are always nice. So last Tuesday, he of course had some puppy stories left from the weekend.
He finished, and then this little girl, who I probably shouldn't name, shoots up her hand, because she is ready to talk. I know that I should choose her next, because she is a little spoiled princess, and if I don't choose her, she's liable to start crying and pout for the rest of the week.
Her face lights up, and she launches into a description of her new puppy, which sounds super cute. She's really happy, and manages to guide me into the breed "cocker spaniel". "Wow, a cute little cocker spaniel!" I say, "I have friends who have cocker spaniels, they are very cute and fun!" (using small word for the benefit of the class). Then she says "Yes, I was happy for new puppy! Old puppy died Friday..."
She looks a little distraught...
"Oh no! How did your puppy die?" I asked.
"He bad. Bark bark bark bark. I was tired, so (gestures punching) him."
and a cloud falls over the room...
I thought for sure that I had misunderstood. I mean, how could that possibly have been what happened?
"You killed your dog?" I asked.
"Yes teacher, but dog was bad."
Holy Shit.
I was honestly in such shock, I didn't know if I should hit her, start crying, or throw her out of the room. My head was instantly filled with visions of this poor puppy being beaten to death by this cute (looking) little fifth-grader. I mean, I've seen her get angry, and let me tell you, she did not just hit this dog once. If she killed this dog, it was not a punch, it was a beating. I can't look at her anymore... I'm trying to put it out of my head in class, but I keep having visions of this little girl beating up a puppy until it dies.
And I'm also shocked at her parents. She beat her puppy to death, so obviously the best course of action is to give her a second puppy to replace it. What is wrong with these people? Oh well, I mean the girl is a spoilt brat... so I guess it's no big shock that they would do something like this. Holy jeez, I can't believe it.
Provence's 5th Anniversary Party
There's a party tomorrow at Provence that is pretty exciting. I should say... it's now June 29th. I'm back at Starbucks sipping an iced Tazo chai tea latte, which is the longest-named beverage I have ever had. So anyways, this party is on June 30th and it's being held to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the cafe. As a member of the "Provence Family" (guilt over Starbucks visits increasing) I have been invited to perform and hang out with the rest of the regulars. It's pretty nice.
Unfortunately, this is on the same night as the Canada Day celebration at the Speakeasy. Dave asked if I wanted to come out and perform, and I said yes, then I had to cancel because the Provence party got moved to the same day, and I really want to play and hang out with the Provence Family. So anyway, a week or so later, I got news that Jeong Hyeon's grandmother had died, so he would not be able to come on the 30th, so it would be moved to another day.
sidebar - this guy just walked by Starbucks in leather pants with zippers all over them, long dyed-red hair, a black mesh shirt with a black wife beater under it, studded riding gloves and big black boots on. Did I mention that it's about +30 degrees and humid as a locker room out there? Oh, and he was carrying a gift bag that was pink. I love this country, if only for it's bizarro entertainment value.
anyways... the party was cancelled. Awesome, now I could play at the speakeasy. So I called Dave and put my name back in the hat there. Then I told Ee MeCha, and she told me that the party was back on. I can't cancel at the Speakeasy again, so I have to do both, which will involve a lot of very hot running.
It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but I told Ee MeCha that I would record the night at Provence to make her a CD. So I now have to leave a lot of my equipment unattended, which I'm not too pumped about. But... it'll be great to have a CD of that for her. It'll be a great souvenir form her party.
Mom's visit, birthday weekend and the journey home
Saturday we woke up, and we headed to the Jongmyo Shrine, which is one of my favourite places in Seoul. We met up around 10:30 (mom and I were late for our 10:00 meeting) at Tapgol Park, and we met a kind old man who informed us that he knew we were Canadian, because our clothes were neat and we were not wearing ball caps set at a jaunty angle. haha. We looked around the park, which was still nice because they had not taken down the lanterns from the festival yet.
We headed to the Jongmyo shrine, and we had a little walk around in there. I really like that place. It's not a flashy as some other temples or palaces. It's much more subdued, with less flashy painting and decoration. There were some tours of kids going through too, but they were Seoul kids, so mom's exposure to "HI HI HI HI HI I'M HUNGRY! HOW ARE YOU HOW ARE YOU?!" was enough for her to get the point of it, but not enough to annoy her. We spent a few hours in that park (the four of us now, Carol had joined the party the night before, if you remember) and then we headed off in the direction of the gallery I had seen and the NANTA theatre.
Well, that was the one time my sense of direction truly truly failed me. We walked about 45 minutes in the wrong direction. But, on the bright side, we came across an awesome restaurant. That was where mom had her first meal of SamGyeopSal, which no-one should ever go without if they make a trip to Korea.
(OKAY, so it's now June 28th. I'm sitting in a Starbucks, and I'm going to rack my brains to try to remember the details of the last few days of my time with mom in Seoul. I've been so busy/distracted that I haven't made time to sit down and get it all down, which is too bad, because it means that a few juicy anecdotes and tidbits have undoubtedly been lost).
We wound up taking a taxi back downtown where we went out for ice-cream (which made everyone feel bloated, if I cna extrapolate from personal experience. I mean, we had just had a HUGE meal). Then we headed to the NANTA theater to buy tickets. There were difficulties, because we arrived twenty minutes or some ridiculously small amount of time before the "appointed selling time" for the 7:00 show. There was some debating, and she finally decided that it would be alright to give us tickets, even though it would undoubtedly cost her her job. God! She wanted us to come back in two hours... I mean, yeah, sure, we'll just sit outside... what a jerk. anyway...
After that we headed back on our original route from Thursday night (I just remembered that I forgot to mention that I fell in a hole on that walk! I was just walking along, and FOOMP! Left leg goes into the ground. Fortunately, the hole was full of blankets. Unfortunately, they were all wet and gross) towards the Sejong culture complex, only to find out that it was in fact a theater, not a gallery. But then I spotted a sign for a gallery, and we headed towards it. We spent probably half an hour snaking around inside looking for the gallery, only to discover that we had gone in the wrong door, and that it was in the basement, not upstairs. The art was good... but not really my favourite mix of pieces. Some of them were good... including some photo reconstructions of childrens' drawings, but most of it didn't really move me at all. After that, to Starbucks for a coffee and then we decided to part ways for a while to rest after all that walking I made everyone do.
We met at the NANTA theatre at 7:00 or so, and once again, NANTA did not fail to impress. For the first three songs, I was so happy that I almost started crying. I love when random things suddenly turn into music. And it's such a funny show, I don't know how anyone could ever not be amused by it. And of course... the female actress doesn't really take away from the equation at all.
I was surprised to find that it was mostly the same cast as it had been when Jessie and I went with her parents last year. I definitely recognized the "head chef" as being the same guy. Pretty lucky, I think, considering that there are several different casts that perform on different nights of the week.
After the show, we headed to Itaewon and "Ali Baba's" for some Egyptian food and birthday hookah with Roberta and Rick. It was a great night. Mom did her best to embarrass me with childhood stories, but I honestly find that I am more embarrassed by everyone looking at me and expecting me to be embarrassed than by anything that anyone could actually say. The food was great too, and who doesn't love hookah? Of course, it made for a rough morning the next day, when I sounded like an 80 year-old grandma after 2 packs of cigarettes, a bottle of jack and and a chocolate shake.
Mom stayed out until about 12:00 or so, but the combo of jet-lag and all that walking caught up to her, so she went back to the motel early. I got a really nice birthday phone call from Vanessa, which I moved out onto the street to take, and then another hookah, and we closed the place and got kicked out around two or so. I said "Hey, we should walk home, I'm in the mood for a walk" and Mel and Carol were up for it, so I said I would walk them home to their area, and then head to mine. Well... I don't know Seoul too well, and next thing I knew we were passing the Korean War Memorial, and I was thinking "Hey, my hotel is just about a kilometer that way..." so I apologized, because I had walked them in exactly the wrong direction.
Then I went back to the hotel for another late-night phone call with Vanessa. haha.
Carl and Mel came over around ten the next morning (Sunday), and we all shared some birthday cake that mom and I had brought from the previous week. It was good, then we said our goodbyes, and Mel and Carol headed back to Suncheon.
Mom and I had a pretty relaxed day. We headed back to InSaDong,
(I need to interrupt the narrative to give a bizarro Starbucks update... they're playing amazing music in here, for one thing. Stuff you would rarely hear even on the radio in Canada, which is amazing, because it's amazing Canadian indie stuff... anyways, the real bizarre thing is that there is this woman sitting on a lounge chair about ten feet away from me who is reading picture books with her very young son (who looks like he took his first steps last week) and she is reading to him in English with this terribly thick accent with apparently no understanding of what the words she is reading mean. She's just sounding them out for him. And he probably doesn't understand Korean yet, and she's reading English to him... oh man, the lengths people go to to teach their children English here. It's part admirable, part fucked-up. The poor kid just want to see what bug is inside the "Big Black Box", he doesn't want to be read to... poor kid. He'll probably wind up in three hagwons studying until eleven every night by the time he is ten years old.)
anyway... InSaDong... so we headed down, because mom wanted to more art shopping. I also found a decently sized and reasonably priced copy of the painting that I have been looking for for almost two years now. It's the summer/original version of the winter painting that I bought last year. It's pretty famous here, and it's in most temples and palaces, copied and usually placed behind the seat of whoever was important. It's funny, because I see it everywhere, so it's obviously a fairly important piece of art, but hardly anyone here seems to know what I am talking about when I ask about it. I also bought an acoustic guitar modeller, which I have yet to actually learn how to use properly, and I met a man who used to play bass for Bill Haley and the Comets. Now he's in Korea spreading the gospel, as he quickly informed me. He looked good though, for someone who was old enough to play with Bill Haley. We went out for tea, then we headed back to the hotel and each took a nap. It had been a pretty exhausting week.
We had dinner at, where else, Outback. We ate too much , again, and then retired for the night. We had clearly already had enough excitement, and with Mel and Carol gone, we had no-one left to prove ourselves to. haha.
The next day, Monday, would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of my year here so far.
We left really early to catch the airport shuttle, because I was worried about getting back to Gwangju by five to teach my classes. We must have left around 9:45 or so... and we headed out to the bus stop. The main reason that I still stay at the Rainbow Hotel is that last year Jessie and I used it so many times as a launch point to the airport, because the shuttle stops so close by. It's just really convenient! Anyway, we walked out, and the shuttle stop sign was gone! Nowhere to be seen! I walked around for about ten minutes or so, up and down the street, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried, so I left mom and went back to the motel to ask about it.
The clerk at the counter told me (after apologizing a LOT) that the stop had been moved to the new bus stop in the middle of the road. I had seen it, but I had assumed that that had always been there, and I just hadn't noticed, so why would I catch my bus there?
So mom and I headed back to the bus stop and waited.
... and waited...
... and waited...
Finally one came, but the driver (with a look of frustration) waved for us to stop boarding the bus, and pointed about 200 meters down the road to another bus stop going the other direction (the direction the bus used to go in, and I guess still did). I just figured that if they changed the bus stop, they must have changed the route... I admit, it was pretty stupid on my part. We walked over there, and I was pretty embarrassed and frustrated by this point.
We finally got on a bus at around 11:10. We got to the airport at around 11:50, and I said a very quick and non-teary goodbye to mom (stress=no other emotions) and ran down to the ticket booth for the shuttle to Gwangju. It must have been around 11:55, which meant that I had missed the 11:50 bus by five minutes, and would have to wait an hour for the next bus at 12:50. So, I was now officially late for work. Since I had time, I went back up and waited with mom in line, and then walked her to the security section. Then we said goodbye again, but I was still really too stressed to be affected by it...
I got out to the bus about 30 minutes early, and I tried to call the school to tell them that I would be late, and that someone would have to cover my first class. I had already called Harley and Nella, and left a message with Nella, but I thought I should tell the school too. I wound up getting SoHee, the secretary, and when I asked for Mr Lee, she said "Not here" and then quickly and shyly hung up. So, my message didn't arrive until later with Harley, and they were not happy to get it that way... argh.
I got on the bus, and became aware of one of the worst situations that a person can be in. You know you will be late, and you are stressed about it, but all you can do is sit there and wait. sucks,
Oh, and to make the bus ride even worse, they had the TV on, and guess what was playing? No, not Dirty Dancing.
That's right! The Passion of the Christ! If there was ever a movie designed specifically for an unwilling and captive audience, that's gotta be it! Come on! I am restraining from typing so many four letter words, because I am getting angry just thinking about how inappropriate that a) it was playing on TV in the afternoon and b) that a whole busload of people were forced to watch it. I put on my headphones and went to sleep, only to be awoken again and again by the screams of Jesus, and finally by the blood-curdling roar of what I can only guess was supposed to be Satan at the close of the film. Oh yeah, that makes for a pleasant ride. I mean, I thought being forced to watch Anaconda was bad. Turns out, I didn't know bad.
I wound up typing most of this little story on the bus, but I didn't shut my laptop off, I just put it into sleep mode. Then, that night, while the kids were working, I continued to type more. And then bloop! Battery goes dead, and I lose the whole thing. Gah!
And that is the story of mom's visit to Korea. Finally.
We headed to the Jongmyo shrine, and we had a little walk around in there. I really like that place. It's not a flashy as some other temples or palaces. It's much more subdued, with less flashy painting and decoration. There were some tours of kids going through too, but they were Seoul kids, so mom's exposure to "HI HI HI HI HI I'M HUNGRY! HOW ARE YOU HOW ARE YOU?!" was enough for her to get the point of it, but not enough to annoy her. We spent a few hours in that park (the four of us now, Carol had joined the party the night before, if you remember) and then we headed off in the direction of the gallery I had seen and the NANTA theatre.
Well, that was the one time my sense of direction truly truly failed me. We walked about 45 minutes in the wrong direction. But, on the bright side, we came across an awesome restaurant. That was where mom had her first meal of SamGyeopSal, which no-one should ever go without if they make a trip to Korea.
(OKAY, so it's now June 28th. I'm sitting in a Starbucks, and I'm going to rack my brains to try to remember the details of the last few days of my time with mom in Seoul. I've been so busy/distracted that I haven't made time to sit down and get it all down, which is too bad, because it means that a few juicy anecdotes and tidbits have undoubtedly been lost).
We wound up taking a taxi back downtown where we went out for ice-cream (which made everyone feel bloated, if I cna extrapolate from personal experience. I mean, we had just had a HUGE meal). Then we headed to the NANTA theater to buy tickets. There were difficulties, because we arrived twenty minutes or some ridiculously small amount of time before the "appointed selling time" for the 7:00 show. There was some debating, and she finally decided that it would be alright to give us tickets, even though it would undoubtedly cost her her job. God! She wanted us to come back in two hours... I mean, yeah, sure, we'll just sit outside... what a jerk. anyway...
After that we headed back on our original route from Thursday night (I just remembered that I forgot to mention that I fell in a hole on that walk! I was just walking along, and FOOMP! Left leg goes into the ground. Fortunately, the hole was full of blankets. Unfortunately, they were all wet and gross) towards the Sejong culture complex, only to find out that it was in fact a theater, not a gallery. But then I spotted a sign for a gallery, and we headed towards it. We spent probably half an hour snaking around inside looking for the gallery, only to discover that we had gone in the wrong door, and that it was in the basement, not upstairs. The art was good... but not really my favourite mix of pieces. Some of them were good... including some photo reconstructions of childrens' drawings, but most of it didn't really move me at all. After that, to Starbucks for a coffee and then we decided to part ways for a while to rest after all that walking I made everyone do.
We met at the NANTA theatre at 7:00 or so, and once again, NANTA did not fail to impress. For the first three songs, I was so happy that I almost started crying. I love when random things suddenly turn into music. And it's such a funny show, I don't know how anyone could ever not be amused by it. And of course... the female actress doesn't really take away from the equation at all.
I was surprised to find that it was mostly the same cast as it had been when Jessie and I went with her parents last year. I definitely recognized the "head chef" as being the same guy. Pretty lucky, I think, considering that there are several different casts that perform on different nights of the week.
After the show, we headed to Itaewon and "Ali Baba's" for some Egyptian food and birthday hookah with Roberta and Rick. It was a great night. Mom did her best to embarrass me with childhood stories, but I honestly find that I am more embarrassed by everyone looking at me and expecting me to be embarrassed than by anything that anyone could actually say. The food was great too, and who doesn't love hookah? Of course, it made for a rough morning the next day, when I sounded like an 80 year-old grandma after 2 packs of cigarettes, a bottle of jack and and a chocolate shake.
Mom stayed out until about 12:00 or so, but the combo of jet-lag and all that walking caught up to her, so she went back to the motel early. I got a really nice birthday phone call from Vanessa, which I moved out onto the street to take, and then another hookah, and we closed the place and got kicked out around two or so. I said "Hey, we should walk home, I'm in the mood for a walk" and Mel and Carol were up for it, so I said I would walk them home to their area, and then head to mine. Well... I don't know Seoul too well, and next thing I knew we were passing the Korean War Memorial, and I was thinking "Hey, my hotel is just about a kilometer that way..." so I apologized, because I had walked them in exactly the wrong direction.
Then I went back to the hotel for another late-night phone call with Vanessa. haha.
Carl and Mel came over around ten the next morning (Sunday), and we all shared some birthday cake that mom and I had brought from the previous week. It was good, then we said our goodbyes, and Mel and Carol headed back to Suncheon.
Mom and I had a pretty relaxed day. We headed back to InSaDong,
(I need to interrupt the narrative to give a bizarro Starbucks update... they're playing amazing music in here, for one thing. Stuff you would rarely hear even on the radio in Canada, which is amazing, because it's amazing Canadian indie stuff... anyways, the real bizarre thing is that there is this woman sitting on a lounge chair about ten feet away from me who is reading picture books with her very young son (who looks like he took his first steps last week) and she is reading to him in English with this terribly thick accent with apparently no understanding of what the words she is reading mean. She's just sounding them out for him. And he probably doesn't understand Korean yet, and she's reading English to him... oh man, the lengths people go to to teach their children English here. It's part admirable, part fucked-up. The poor kid just want to see what bug is inside the "Big Black Box", he doesn't want to be read to... poor kid. He'll probably wind up in three hagwons studying until eleven every night by the time he is ten years old.)
anyway... InSaDong... so we headed down, because mom wanted to more art shopping. I also found a decently sized and reasonably priced copy of the painting that I have been looking for for almost two years now. It's the summer/original version of the winter painting that I bought last year. It's pretty famous here, and it's in most temples and palaces, copied and usually placed behind the seat of whoever was important. It's funny, because I see it everywhere, so it's obviously a fairly important piece of art, but hardly anyone here seems to know what I am talking about when I ask about it. I also bought an acoustic guitar modeller, which I have yet to actually learn how to use properly, and I met a man who used to play bass for Bill Haley and the Comets. Now he's in Korea spreading the gospel, as he quickly informed me. He looked good though, for someone who was old enough to play with Bill Haley. We went out for tea, then we headed back to the hotel and each took a nap. It had been a pretty exhausting week.
We had dinner at, where else, Outback. We ate too much , again, and then retired for the night. We had clearly already had enough excitement, and with Mel and Carol gone, we had no-one left to prove ourselves to. haha.
The next day, Monday, would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of my year here so far.
We left really early to catch the airport shuttle, because I was worried about getting back to Gwangju by five to teach my classes. We must have left around 9:45 or so... and we headed out to the bus stop. The main reason that I still stay at the Rainbow Hotel is that last year Jessie and I used it so many times as a launch point to the airport, because the shuttle stops so close by. It's just really convenient! Anyway, we walked out, and the shuttle stop sign was gone! Nowhere to be seen! I walked around for about ten minutes or so, up and down the street, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried, so I left mom and went back to the motel to ask about it.
The clerk at the counter told me (after apologizing a LOT) that the stop had been moved to the new bus stop in the middle of the road. I had seen it, but I had assumed that that had always been there, and I just hadn't noticed, so why would I catch my bus there?
So mom and I headed back to the bus stop and waited.
... and waited...
... and waited...
Finally one came, but the driver (with a look of frustration) waved for us to stop boarding the bus, and pointed about 200 meters down the road to another bus stop going the other direction (the direction the bus used to go in, and I guess still did). I just figured that if they changed the bus stop, they must have changed the route... I admit, it was pretty stupid on my part. We walked over there, and I was pretty embarrassed and frustrated by this point.
We finally got on a bus at around 11:10. We got to the airport at around 11:50, and I said a very quick and non-teary goodbye to mom (stress=no other emotions) and ran down to the ticket booth for the shuttle to Gwangju. It must have been around 11:55, which meant that I had missed the 11:50 bus by five minutes, and would have to wait an hour for the next bus at 12:50. So, I was now officially late for work. Since I had time, I went back up and waited with mom in line, and then walked her to the security section. Then we said goodbye again, but I was still really too stressed to be affected by it...
I got out to the bus about 30 minutes early, and I tried to call the school to tell them that I would be late, and that someone would have to cover my first class. I had already called Harley and Nella, and left a message with Nella, but I thought I should tell the school too. I wound up getting SoHee, the secretary, and when I asked for Mr Lee, she said "Not here" and then quickly and shyly hung up. So, my message didn't arrive until later with Harley, and they were not happy to get it that way... argh.
I got on the bus, and became aware of one of the worst situations that a person can be in. You know you will be late, and you are stressed about it, but all you can do is sit there and wait. sucks,
Oh, and to make the bus ride even worse, they had the TV on, and guess what was playing? No, not Dirty Dancing.
That's right! The Passion of the Christ! If there was ever a movie designed specifically for an unwilling and captive audience, that's gotta be it! Come on! I am restraining from typing so many four letter words, because I am getting angry just thinking about how inappropriate that a) it was playing on TV in the afternoon and b) that a whole busload of people were forced to watch it. I put on my headphones and went to sleep, only to be awoken again and again by the screams of Jesus, and finally by the blood-curdling roar of what I can only guess was supposed to be Satan at the close of the film. Oh yeah, that makes for a pleasant ride. I mean, I thought being forced to watch Anaconda was bad. Turns out, I didn't know bad.
I wound up typing most of this little story on the bus, but I didn't shut my laptop off, I just put it into sleep mode. Then, that night, while the kids were working, I continued to type more. And then bloop! Battery goes dead, and I lose the whole thing. Gah!
And that is the story of mom's visit to Korea. Finally.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Music Party
I'm sitting in my newly bedroom-ized living room (the air conditioner is out here) and I am listening to the recordings I made at last night's music party.
They turned out really well.
I am really really proud of last night. It was probably the most impressive thing I have ever been responsible for, or been a part of. There was such an amazing variety of music, and of performers. There were beginners, seasoned veterans... and through the night 62000 won was raised for the Sung Bin Girl's orphanage in Gwangju!
About 60 people came out, with about 30 people staying for almost the whole night. I don't know... maybe there were more people... but I'm pretty sure no less than 60 at least came and stayed for one act.
We had Elton John covers on piano, eccentric originals, some campfire-style sing-along songs, a honky-tonk band, some instrumentals, folky tunes and some pop tunes. It was a great night.
One highlight was a Korean trio who heard about the party and came out to "Congratulate and Welcome" us. They were so amazing!
Anyways... more later.
They turned out really well.
I am really really proud of last night. It was probably the most impressive thing I have ever been responsible for, or been a part of. There was such an amazing variety of music, and of performers. There were beginners, seasoned veterans... and through the night 62000 won was raised for the Sung Bin Girl's orphanage in Gwangju!
About 60 people came out, with about 30 people staying for almost the whole night. I don't know... maybe there were more people... but I'm pretty sure no less than 60 at least came and stayed for one act.
We had Elton John covers on piano, eccentric originals, some campfire-style sing-along songs, a honky-tonk band, some instrumentals, folky tunes and some pop tunes. It was a great night.
One highlight was a Korean trio who heard about the party and came out to "Congratulate and Welcome" us. They were so amazing!
Anyways... more later.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Map to Sajik Park
Hello everyone!Some more detais to add to this map:
It starts at 8pm. Please arrive right at eight, as the music will start instantly! poof!
We'll go until two. Everyone will get the same short set time, and then at the end we will open things up for a big ole jambouree. If there's time after, we'll let people return to the stage. That's the royal we.
Musicians: Bring your networking skills!
Attendees: Sign up to the "Acoustic Music in Jeollanamdo" group on facebook for updates about upcoming shows of a similar nature.
Friday, June 08, 2007
listening back
I'm not going to finish the epic adventure of mom in Seoul for some time... but I'm currently mixing down recordings from the last few months, and it's giving me a really great opportunity to reflect on a very cool relationship that I developed this year, which unfortunately has come to an end.
Well, not an end, just ended in it's current phase...
I'm speaking of course about the musical partnership I had with Mr Darren Grimsley, and our little duo, Bikido. It was a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from playing with Darren. He really taught me, unintentionally, I think, a lot about improvisation, and about following things through to their end... I mean, I'm currently listening to a three chord ad-lib that last almost 35 minutes. This one is all him too, I'm just giving a little rhythm and embellishment, he's totally making it though.
Anyways, I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm going to miss playing with Darren a lot now that he is gone back home. Where else am I going to find someone willing to explore three chords for 35 minutes? And to let me abuse the reverse function on my loopstation with such patience?
I'm getting sappy... it's time to stop writing about it.
But... continue listening back, I guess. Continue following through with simple ideas, with experimenting with every sound I can get out of me and my guitar.
Thanks Darren.
Well, not an end, just ended in it's current phase...
I'm speaking of course about the musical partnership I had with Mr Darren Grimsley, and our little duo, Bikido. It was a lot of fun.
I learned a lot from playing with Darren. He really taught me, unintentionally, I think, a lot about improvisation, and about following things through to their end... I mean, I'm currently listening to a three chord ad-lib that last almost 35 minutes. This one is all him too, I'm just giving a little rhythm and embellishment, he's totally making it though.
Anyways, I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm going to miss playing with Darren a lot now that he is gone back home. Where else am I going to find someone willing to explore three chords for 35 minutes? And to let me abuse the reverse function on my loopstation with such patience?
I'm getting sappy... it's time to stop writing about it.
But... continue listening back, I guess. Continue following through with simple ideas, with experimenting with every sound I can get out of me and my guitar.
Thanks Darren.
Mom's visit, up to the point that my blog got accidentally deleted.
On May 19th, my mom came to visit for nine days.
These have possibly been the busiest nine days of my life. No joke.
Friday, May 18th: Vanessa came to Gwangju. Actually, she came on Thursday, I think... oh man, blurry month. We went to a student art gallery downtown, and then out for some tea. Yeah, it was definitely this date for these activities... it was fun. After work we met for Shabu Shabu with some Munhwa figures, including Jim, the new teacher!
Saturday, May 19th: Said goodbye to Vanessa, hopped on a bus to Incheon, which I almost missed, to go pick up mom. Arrive at Incheon about one hour early. Spend most of the trip back discussing Vanessa, cartoon characters painted on the sides of buildings, and my Uncle Brian's gas problems.
Sunday, May 20th: Head to the Bong Sun Si Jang, the local daily market to pick up some food supplies. Return to the apartment for a meet-and-greet with my friends for my mom. I said it started at 12:00, so I am expecting guests to arrive at around 1:00 or 1:30. Ee MeCha breaks with convention and arrives on time, which means that my ice-run leaves her alone with my mom. Awkward! She was surprisingly shy to speak English to my mom... so my mom played Foose with her son while we prepared snacks. Around 1:30, people started showing up, and it was a great time. I'll try to remember who came:
Ee MeCha and her son, Jim, the new teacher at Munhwa, Vanessa Reid and HangBin, Carol, Mel, Mo and Darren, my young neighbour and his girlfriend, and Vanessa (Sweeney) of course. It was a great little gang! My mom was pretty impressed with everyone, and everyone enjoyed hearing all the blush-worthy stories. We hung out at the apartment untl about 4:00 or so, and then we headed to the North End of Gwangju to a youth festival where Darren and I were scheduled to play. Now, in Canada, youth typically means high-school, teens, maybe young university students... here it means kids. tiny kids.
So... our set was not ideal for the audience, but it was what we had practiced, and it was maybe best for the parents and other volunteers. haha. We wound up playing "Blue" by the JayHawks, and a medley of "Dry the Rain" by the Beta Band and "Take Your Mama Out" by the Scissor Sisters, and Darren even worked in a little "Free Radicals" by the Flaming Lips into the outro. And yes, it sounded just as awesome as you are probably imagining. I did some vocal looping, so we had simultaneous "I need love"-ing, with the super-high falsetto of the Scissor Sisters going under Darren's claims that although you think you are so radical, you are in fact "fanatical", and not really so radical at all, and his reassurances that if there's something inside that you've got to say, you should say it out loud and it will be okay, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light.
After the music, we headed back to the apartment, and then finally downtown for "Shabu Shabu", again, this time with mom, Vanessa, Carol and Mel (and me, of course). It was delicious, and mom fared well with her first introduction to spicy-ish Asian food.
Monday, May 21st: At around 10:00, HangBin came and picked us up and brought us to BoSeong to see the tea plantations, and idea that he had just brought up the day before. The tea plantation was breathtaking, huge, and green beyond all belief. He was an excellent tour guide for us. And a good photographer as well!
After the tea plantation, we headed into BoSeong the town, and picked up Vanessa from work. Then we all went out for a local specialty "boribap", which seemed a lot like Bibimbap, but with Barley instead of rice, and more ditch food (shoots and ferns). It was delicious, but a little spicy... I was worried about mom, but then I looked over and she was scarfing it down no problem. haha. After that the four of us went to HangBin's family's home and his mother served us Green Tea. It was delicious, and a great experience for mom, I am sure. Then we dropped off Vanessa back at the school, and we headed to DaeWonSa (I think!). It was a beautiful little temple, that seemed to be Tibetan Buddhist. It was full of beautiful gardens, and the lotuses were in season, so it just just a treat for the eyes.
Then he brought us back to Gwangju (our visit to Damyang was cancelled due to time constraints) and I rushed to get things ready for school, because I arrived home twenty minutes before my first class... School was an easy night, the assignment for that day was to make questions and/or presentation for my mom. I tried to order us a feast of Korean food, but they were no longer delivering, so we had... PIZZA.
Tuesday, May 22nd: We woke up, and we headed downtown where we met up with Ryan, Brooke and Darren for lunch, at the usual "Spicy Pork" restaurant. It was delicious, as per usual. Then mom and I headed to Art Street, and we checked out all the little shops, and ate at this little "down the rabbit hole" basement tea shop that Rodrigo, Sarah and I discovered last year. Then we headed to E-Mart, because mom wanted to see if she could find some Konglish clothes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, I dropped her off at home, and headed off to Mokpo.
I had a great last night in Korea with Vanessa. We went out for Kalbi, then we watched a movie, although now I can't remember what it was... maybe it was just TV... anyways, it's just nice, everything seems very natural with her, and even though it was our last time together for two months, it didn't feel pressured at all, which was really nice. It was just another great night, just with tighter hugs.
Wednesday, May 23rd: We headed to the bus terminal in the morning with all Vanessa's worldly belongings, and had a good bus ride. A very old woman across the aisle from us tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that Vanessa was "Sexy". I said "Thank you, yes, she's very beautiful.", and nodded, but the woman felt the need to reassure me several times that Vanessa was, in fact, very sexy. Then, a few minutes later, she busts out with "SOUTH CAROLINA!" and some rather aggressive pointing. Okay, I said, but she's from Canada. "Canada Saram Imnida!" But... she insisted that she was a sexy South Carolina lady. She asked if she was my wife, and since we both agreed it would be easier to say yes than to deal with the questions following a "no" answer (Vanessa was draped over me snoozing a bit at the time) we went with yes. Later we got shushed because we were really laughing a lot. Oh, and we got congratulatory (although belated) corn bread for our happy marriage.
We said a tearful and at times a little cheesy goodbye (I managed to refrain from putting my hand against the bus window, which was harder to avoid than you might imagine) after a small Dunkin' Donuts picnic on the floor of the bus terminal. Man, I really miss her. We have a lot of fun together.
At one, Gumi picked us up, and she brought us out for lunch in Damyang, and then out to an old Korean garden that was once a meeting place for scholars. It was another really great afternoon, and I was glad that my mom got to meet Gumi, because she is super cool. We got back to Gwangju at around 4:20 or so, so mom and I stopped at Provence for some lemonade. Then, it was into the mix with mom.
The grade sixes did a pretty good job, but I was disappoint with their effort. They had the names of things to tell mom about, but they hadn't really tried to make any sentences ABOUT things. Mom did a good job of introducing herself, but every once in a while, I had to stop her and repeat what she had said using some simpler language.
The grade fives were, awesome, as expected. They're really low-level, but they want to talk, so they are always fun. One highlight was the kids asking where dad sat at the table, because they didn't think that a normal chair would hold him.
The next class of grade fives were dominated by the three new girls who really dug a bit in an effort to get some good stories about canada and me. I was really proud of them.
The first class of grade sevens, or my "dentistry class", was brutal, as would be expected. It's pretty bad when they don't even pay attention to a guest, especially their teacher's mom. They even turned up their noses at the pictures of our house, just barely acknowledging them. If nothing else, it made me feel better, because I realized that it wasn't me.
The second class of grade sevens was better, but unfortunately mom had started to feel pretty worn out by that point, a problem that was compounded by the soul-sucking previous class. It always happens, even to me, that I am shorter with the second class because I am still mad with the first. Gotta work on that.
The grade nines really turned the night around. They had such good little presentations, and they had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Mom was laughing, and she had the laughing a few times (and me turning beat red). Her response to the questions "Did Matt wet the bed?" was classic mom. "Not after he turned fifteen!"
They also asked about me as a student, and they asked about mom's dreams before she had a family. It was really a great class, and a great way to end the night. After that we headed out to the gimbap house for some kimchibokkumbap, sogogibokkumbap and mandu, a meal I like to call "The sampler". Unfortunately, the kimchibokkumbap was ridiculously hot. But I ate it anyways, because last time it was too hot, and we had to send it back, and I felt bad about ordering it again, because last time they had replaced it with another dish for free. Then, we crashed for the night. I actually woke up on top of the covers the next morning in a "getting into bed" position, suggesting I had fallen asleep rather quickly.
On Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then met Mel at the train station and we all headed to Seoul together at noon.
These have possibly been the busiest nine days of my life. No joke.
Friday, May 18th: Vanessa came to Gwangju. Actually, she came on Thursday, I think... oh man, blurry month. We went to a student art gallery downtown, and then out for some tea. Yeah, it was definitely this date for these activities... it was fun. After work we met for Shabu Shabu with some Munhwa figures, including Jim, the new teacher!
Saturday, May 19th: Said goodbye to Vanessa, hopped on a bus to Incheon, which I almost missed, to go pick up mom. Arrive at Incheon about one hour early. Spend most of the trip back discussing Vanessa, cartoon characters painted on the sides of buildings, and my Uncle Brian's gas problems.
Sunday, May 20th: Head to the Bong Sun Si Jang, the local daily market to pick up some food supplies. Return to the apartment for a meet-and-greet with my friends for my mom. I said it started at 12:00, so I am expecting guests to arrive at around 1:00 or 1:30. Ee MeCha breaks with convention and arrives on time, which means that my ice-run leaves her alone with my mom. Awkward! She was surprisingly shy to speak English to my mom... so my mom played Foose with her son while we prepared snacks. Around 1:30, people started showing up, and it was a great time. I'll try to remember who came:
Ee MeCha and her son, Jim, the new teacher at Munhwa, Vanessa Reid and HangBin, Carol, Mel, Mo and Darren, my young neighbour and his girlfriend, and Vanessa (Sweeney) of course. It was a great little gang! My mom was pretty impressed with everyone, and everyone enjoyed hearing all the blush-worthy stories. We hung out at the apartment untl about 4:00 or so, and then we headed to the North End of Gwangju to a youth festival where Darren and I were scheduled to play. Now, in Canada, youth typically means high-school, teens, maybe young university students... here it means kids. tiny kids.
So... our set was not ideal for the audience, but it was what we had practiced, and it was maybe best for the parents and other volunteers. haha. We wound up playing "Blue" by the JayHawks, and a medley of "Dry the Rain" by the Beta Band and "Take Your Mama Out" by the Scissor Sisters, and Darren even worked in a little "Free Radicals" by the Flaming Lips into the outro. And yes, it sounded just as awesome as you are probably imagining. I did some vocal looping, so we had simultaneous "I need love"-ing, with the super-high falsetto of the Scissor Sisters going under Darren's claims that although you think you are so radical, you are in fact "fanatical", and not really so radical at all, and his reassurances that if there's something inside that you've got to say, you should say it out loud and it will be okay, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light, he will be your light.
After the music, we headed back to the apartment, and then finally downtown for "Shabu Shabu", again, this time with mom, Vanessa, Carol and Mel (and me, of course). It was delicious, and mom fared well with her first introduction to spicy-ish Asian food.
Monday, May 21st: At around 10:00, HangBin came and picked us up and brought us to BoSeong to see the tea plantations, and idea that he had just brought up the day before. The tea plantation was breathtaking, huge, and green beyond all belief. He was an excellent tour guide for us. And a good photographer as well!
After the tea plantation, we headed into BoSeong the town, and picked up Vanessa from work. Then we all went out for a local specialty "boribap", which seemed a lot like Bibimbap, but with Barley instead of rice, and more ditch food (shoots and ferns). It was delicious, but a little spicy... I was worried about mom, but then I looked over and she was scarfing it down no problem. haha. After that the four of us went to HangBin's family's home and his mother served us Green Tea. It was delicious, and a great experience for mom, I am sure. Then we dropped off Vanessa back at the school, and we headed to DaeWonSa (I think!). It was a beautiful little temple, that seemed to be Tibetan Buddhist. It was full of beautiful gardens, and the lotuses were in season, so it just just a treat for the eyes.
Then he brought us back to Gwangju (our visit to Damyang was cancelled due to time constraints) and I rushed to get things ready for school, because I arrived home twenty minutes before my first class... School was an easy night, the assignment for that day was to make questions and/or presentation for my mom. I tried to order us a feast of Korean food, but they were no longer delivering, so we had... PIZZA.
Tuesday, May 22nd: We woke up, and we headed downtown where we met up with Ryan, Brooke and Darren for lunch, at the usual "Spicy Pork" restaurant. It was delicious, as per usual. Then mom and I headed to Art Street, and we checked out all the little shops, and ate at this little "down the rabbit hole" basement tea shop that Rodrigo, Sarah and I discovered last year. Then we headed to E-Mart, because mom wanted to see if she could find some Konglish clothes, but it was unsuccessful. Then, I dropped her off at home, and headed off to Mokpo.
I had a great last night in Korea with Vanessa. We went out for Kalbi, then we watched a movie, although now I can't remember what it was... maybe it was just TV... anyways, it's just nice, everything seems very natural with her, and even though it was our last time together for two months, it didn't feel pressured at all, which was really nice. It was just another great night, just with tighter hugs.
Wednesday, May 23rd: We headed to the bus terminal in the morning with all Vanessa's worldly belongings, and had a good bus ride. A very old woman across the aisle from us tapped me on the shoulder to let me know that Vanessa was "Sexy". I said "Thank you, yes, she's very beautiful.", and nodded, but the woman felt the need to reassure me several times that Vanessa was, in fact, very sexy. Then, a few minutes later, she busts out with "SOUTH CAROLINA!" and some rather aggressive pointing. Okay, I said, but she's from Canada. "Canada Saram Imnida!" But... she insisted that she was a sexy South Carolina lady. She asked if she was my wife, and since we both agreed it would be easier to say yes than to deal with the questions following a "no" answer (Vanessa was draped over me snoozing a bit at the time) we went with yes. Later we got shushed because we were really laughing a lot. Oh, and we got congratulatory (although belated) corn bread for our happy marriage.
We said a tearful and at times a little cheesy goodbye (I managed to refrain from putting my hand against the bus window, which was harder to avoid than you might imagine) after a small Dunkin' Donuts picnic on the floor of the bus terminal. Man, I really miss her. We have a lot of fun together.
At one, Gumi picked us up, and she brought us out for lunch in Damyang, and then out to an old Korean garden that was once a meeting place for scholars. It was another really great afternoon, and I was glad that my mom got to meet Gumi, because she is super cool. We got back to Gwangju at around 4:20 or so, so mom and I stopped at Provence for some lemonade. Then, it was into the mix with mom.
The grade sixes did a pretty good job, but I was disappoint with their effort. They had the names of things to tell mom about, but they hadn't really tried to make any sentences ABOUT things. Mom did a good job of introducing herself, but every once in a while, I had to stop her and repeat what she had said using some simpler language.
The grade fives were, awesome, as expected. They're really low-level, but they want to talk, so they are always fun. One highlight was the kids asking where dad sat at the table, because they didn't think that a normal chair would hold him.
The next class of grade fives were dominated by the three new girls who really dug a bit in an effort to get some good stories about canada and me. I was really proud of them.
The first class of grade sevens, or my "dentistry class", was brutal, as would be expected. It's pretty bad when they don't even pay attention to a guest, especially their teacher's mom. They even turned up their noses at the pictures of our house, just barely acknowledging them. If nothing else, it made me feel better, because I realized that it wasn't me.
The second class of grade sevens was better, but unfortunately mom had started to feel pretty worn out by that point, a problem that was compounded by the soul-sucking previous class. It always happens, even to me, that I am shorter with the second class because I am still mad with the first. Gotta work on that.
The grade nines really turned the night around. They had such good little presentations, and they had obviously put a lot of time and effort into it. Mom was laughing, and she had the laughing a few times (and me turning beat red). Her response to the questions "Did Matt wet the bed?" was classic mom. "Not after he turned fifteen!"
They also asked about me as a student, and they asked about mom's dreams before she had a family. It was really a great class, and a great way to end the night. After that we headed out to the gimbap house for some kimchibokkumbap, sogogibokkumbap and mandu, a meal I like to call "The sampler". Unfortunately, the kimchibokkumbap was ridiculously hot. But I ate it anyways, because last time it was too hot, and we had to send it back, and I felt bad about ordering it again, because last time they had replaced it with another dish for free. Then, we crashed for the night. I actually woke up on top of the covers the next morning in a "getting into bed" position, suggesting I had fallen asleep rather quickly.
On Thursday we had a leisurely morning and then met Mel at the train station and we all headed to Seoul together at noon.
And... the saga continues. Kiss Time, Music Party, Stamina Wine, Butterflies...
But she came back to Gwangju the next weekend as well, a day early to attend my Live Music Party. We went out on Friday night, and we wound up at Provence (of course). The highlight of the night? Apparently Ee MeCha thought that there wasn't enough happening, just a lot of laughing, so she and SeungJong turned out the lights and then yelled "Kiss Time!".
I don't know if I have ever been so red.
As you will discover, the last few weeks have been very busy. This entry was started a few weeks ago... and will be finished now, on May 28th, as I am riding in an express bus on the way home from Incheon International Airport near Seoul. Busy busy!
Then we headed back to the Windmill, and we wound up watching bad movies and late night TV until about 5 or so in the morning (I can't believe I watched The Saint again. I mean, you know you're really into something good when two people are willing to sit through that just to be together)... it came to be decision time, ie, stay or go, and I wound up staying. No nearly enough sleep though, considering I had the live music party the next night. We walked around a bit that afternoon, and I did a sneaky sneak down the stairs to avoid meeting other people in the elevator. hahaha, but now I can write about it, and it's okay... somehow. But it seemed too risque at the time. Man, blogs are weird.
The live music party was a great success, I think.
Bikido played for about an hour and a half. There was, of course, documentation in the form of recordings (Darren and I are both huge nerds, so it's hard for us to set up without using about 7000 chords and half a dozen laptops. Nerds love to document!). Listening back, I'm really happy with how we did. I was supposed to break up the recordings into mp3s in the following week, but I became much too busy (as you will learn). It was such a good night, I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Throughout the night, we probably had about 40 or 50 people come in and pass through, and a lot stayed the whole night. Of course, the Bikido fanclub/groupies were out in full force, as were the photo nerds who flashed up the place.
The music went to about two thirty, and we had a number of guest performers as well. Mr C (Harley) was a highlight for me, he came out and jammed out a few tunes, some originals, some covers, including Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan, and it was great. He has a great voice, it sounds perfect for the songs he was singing, very "experienced". haha. Noel from Boseong came out, which was really nice, because I have been hearing about his playing for months, so it was great to finally see him in action. He did some great covers, and I'm looking forward to the next time that I can hear him play. Darren got back up to do some solo stuff, as well as some accompaniment for some ladies from his hagwon who got up to sing. It was so good, and Darren's solo set was an awesome reminder of how lucky I was to meet someone with such similar musical tastes... he played all these classic pop songs that are so awesome... those tunes that everybody knows but hardly anyone plays.
I'll post some photos form the music party eventually.
That night Vanessa and I stayed up all night just talking again. I love meeting someone I can talk to so easily, and how conversation just seems to flow, and how most of it is just random funny stuff we say that we don't even remember an hour later. Or... minutes later.
The next day we checked out of the Windmill, and we were walking around town delaying saying goodbye... or at least, that's how I remember it now, the decision may have come earlier... I don't know, it was a long, blurry while ago now... and I thought "This is bullshit!" But I SAID "How about I come to Mokpo tonight? I don't work until five anyways!"
So, awesome night, and we wound up hanging out almost all day together the next day, because she called in sick. w00t!
The next few weeks are honestly a blur, so I'll just give you the highlight reel:
Weekends in Gwangju (well, some in Mokpo), Night-trips to Mokpo after work (lots of related sleep-deprivation, arriving around eleven thirty most nights, just arriving in time to catch up on work/prep ahead for mom's visit), conversations continuing in an awesome manner...
The painting: After our first big lunch together, I knew that it was something really special. But I had no idea that a relationship would come out of it, I just thought it was an awesome lunch with this cute girl (with amazing hair). But I knew that I wanted to remember it... and I'm tactile, right, so I wanted something that I could see and touch. The first night that I had been at Vanessa's, I had received a warning... there was a painting of her in her apartment. It was a painting that she thought might make me blush, so she warned me, which was sweet... but what stuck in my mind was not the blush-inducing parts of it, but the decorations around her (although she looked good in it too). I thought that a painting would be a great way to remember the weekend, and even before things started developing after the music party, I was pretty confident that she would be willing to paint a picture for me. I asked her after the music party, and she said okay. Anyways, it turned out amazingly well, and it's hanging now in my living room. It's chock-full of our inside jokes and references to things that have happened to us (kiss time!) and it's just a perfect way to remember how things started for us.
What else did we do? We had a great little picnic in the park one day, with so much food... she's a great cook. Which is nice, it's been a long time since anyone cooked for me, on a one-on-one basis. And... it's GOOD!
We also tried to spend a night at my place once, I forget when... oh, the weekend of the Hampyeong Butterfly festival, I remember now... more on that later! Anyways, we thought it would be convenient, and much cheaper than her staying at the Windmill... but Vanessa is very allergic to cats, so that idea was out, when she lay down and proceeded to almost have an asthma attack. She was stubborn about it being okay, but I insisted, and it turned into another night at the Windmill. That damn place is inescapable!
In other Sam News, I will be looking for a new home for her. The last month has obviously been very busy with Vanessa (and later, with mom) but even before that I was having trouble with Sam. I bought her because I was very lonely and I wanted a pet in the apartment... and for a long time, it was wonderful, because I was spending a lot of time at home with her. But in the last few months, I have become very very involved in some other things, and I just feel like it is unfair to Sam. She's just a kitten, and she needs more playtime than I can offer right now. But I'm traveling a LOT now, visiting people, playing music, performing, starting to organize the music parties as a regular thing, and taking Korean lessons, and practicing... I'm a busy guy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.
SO yeah... before I talk about mom's visit, I should talk about the Butterfly Festival and a few other things.
So, anyways, the butterfly festival. I was invited to play in the talent show for foreigners at the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival, which was pretty exciting. Vanessa and I panned the whole weekend around it, starting with a FRiday night in Gwangju, then the Festival on Saturday, then over to Mokpo for the rest of the weekend. Anyways, Friday was the night that we wound up going to my place after having some drinks with Mel in Gwangju, but then we wound up at the Windmill anyway, because of the cat's damned allergens. haha. We got up bright and early to catch the bus to Hampyeong leaving from the Gwangju International Center. We got there at nine, and there was no-one there! I started freaking out a little bit, but not too much, because great hair has an incredible calming effect on me.
Anyways, I called at around ten to find out what the heck was going on! I was very surprised to learn that the festival performances would actually be taking place the following day. Yeah. Shitty.
But it turned out alright, we were already packed, so we headed to the bus terminal and got on a bus for Mokpo and caught up on our sleep there (late night illness+early morning=tired). The next morning we caught a bus to Hampyeong, and got there just in time to grab some lunch and then perform. I played three songs, opening with "Such a Simple Way" (of course) then a Ryan Adams cover "The Hardest Part" and closing with a new song "Make you smile". It was well received. We were asked to wear "traditional costume", so I wore Columbia Hiking shorts, a gray T-shirt and some Birkenstocks. Basically, that's my uniform in Canada, so it seemed appropriate, especially since I have no Voyageur pants.
Ooh, I just had a random flashback to playing against the Valois team from Mattawa, with the guy who was playing house league after years of double and triple A who made me wet my pants (not really) every time he took a slapshot at me... yikes, still remember how bad he hurt my elbow through the shitty house-league monkey suit that the Powassan hockey league provided for me.
I won second place, which came with the awesome prize of 200 000 won in Farmer's Coop gift certificates! That's just over $200! So, I'll eat cheaply this month, that's for sure. The woman who won did a traditional dance from India, I believe, and it was quite good! The other highlight for me was two girls who did a very country-ified cover of "Last Night" by the strokes, with some great harmonies and tambourine/cowboy boot accompaniment!
After the performance we had some tent meat, which is always fabulous (seriously) and then we headed home (to Mokpo).
I forgot to mention that the other part of the prize was "Stamina Wine". hahaha, awesome. I love how every second thing here is lauded for providing increased stamina... especially alcohol. I think that general consensus is that alcohol has the opposite effect... and why the obsession here? There is a LOT of concern over stamina here. Do Canadians have so many stamina products, and I've just been ignorant of the market? Is there an pickled eel store somewhere that no-one ever told me about? If there is...
What else happened that was awesome? there was another thing I wanted to mention... before I turned it over to mom...
Oh, the Wando Beach party? Well, that was cancelled, which sucked. But, it led to a pretty awesome weekend with Vanessa anyways... we had a double-date with Kristin and Jeff, who are a LOT of fun, and we gifted out some stamina wine. Jeff drank it at dinner, which was highly amusing. Then we went out for some drinks... I had some over-priced/under-tasty sake... and terrible sausages. ugh.
I forgot to mention this party we went to at Jeff's uncle's house... it was really nice, we had some barbecued burgers and we drank wine coolers, and I wound up playing some guitar for a while, and meeting up with some new musicians, as well as some just general noobies... which was fun. I got to play the part of "Sage". haha. It was nice, but it rained later in the night, and kind of put a damper on things.
I don't know if I have ever been so red.
As you will discover, the last few weeks have been very busy. This entry was started a few weeks ago... and will be finished now, on May 28th, as I am riding in an express bus on the way home from Incheon International Airport near Seoul. Busy busy!
Then we headed back to the Windmill, and we wound up watching bad movies and late night TV until about 5 or so in the morning (I can't believe I watched The Saint again. I mean, you know you're really into something good when two people are willing to sit through that just to be together)... it came to be decision time, ie, stay or go, and I wound up staying. No nearly enough sleep though, considering I had the live music party the next night. We walked around a bit that afternoon, and I did a sneaky sneak down the stairs to avoid meeting other people in the elevator. hahaha, but now I can write about it, and it's okay... somehow. But it seemed too risque at the time. Man, blogs are weird.
The live music party was a great success, I think.
Bikido played for about an hour and a half. There was, of course, documentation in the form of recordings (Darren and I are both huge nerds, so it's hard for us to set up without using about 7000 chords and half a dozen laptops. Nerds love to document!). Listening back, I'm really happy with how we did. I was supposed to break up the recordings into mp3s in the following week, but I became much too busy (as you will learn). It was such a good night, I couldn't believe how well it turned out. Throughout the night, we probably had about 40 or 50 people come in and pass through, and a lot stayed the whole night. Of course, the Bikido fanclub/groupies were out in full force, as were the photo nerds who flashed up the place.
The music went to about two thirty, and we had a number of guest performers as well. Mr C (Harley) was a highlight for me, he came out and jammed out a few tunes, some originals, some covers, including Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan, and it was great. He has a great voice, it sounds perfect for the songs he was singing, very "experienced". haha. Noel from Boseong came out, which was really nice, because I have been hearing about his playing for months, so it was great to finally see him in action. He did some great covers, and I'm looking forward to the next time that I can hear him play. Darren got back up to do some solo stuff, as well as some accompaniment for some ladies from his hagwon who got up to sing. It was so good, and Darren's solo set was an awesome reminder of how lucky I was to meet someone with such similar musical tastes... he played all these classic pop songs that are so awesome... those tunes that everybody knows but hardly anyone plays.
I'll post some photos form the music party eventually.
That night Vanessa and I stayed up all night just talking again. I love meeting someone I can talk to so easily, and how conversation just seems to flow, and how most of it is just random funny stuff we say that we don't even remember an hour later. Or... minutes later.
The next day we checked out of the Windmill, and we were walking around town delaying saying goodbye... or at least, that's how I remember it now, the decision may have come earlier... I don't know, it was a long, blurry while ago now... and I thought "This is bullshit!" But I SAID "How about I come to Mokpo tonight? I don't work until five anyways!"
So, awesome night, and we wound up hanging out almost all day together the next day, because she called in sick. w00t!
The next few weeks are honestly a blur, so I'll just give you the highlight reel:
Weekends in Gwangju (well, some in Mokpo), Night-trips to Mokpo after work (lots of related sleep-deprivation, arriving around eleven thirty most nights, just arriving in time to catch up on work/prep ahead for mom's visit), conversations continuing in an awesome manner...
The painting: After our first big lunch together, I knew that it was something really special. But I had no idea that a relationship would come out of it, I just thought it was an awesome lunch with this cute girl (with amazing hair). But I knew that I wanted to remember it... and I'm tactile, right, so I wanted something that I could see and touch. The first night that I had been at Vanessa's, I had received a warning... there was a painting of her in her apartment. It was a painting that she thought might make me blush, so she warned me, which was sweet... but what stuck in my mind was not the blush-inducing parts of it, but the decorations around her (although she looked good in it too). I thought that a painting would be a great way to remember the weekend, and even before things started developing after the music party, I was pretty confident that she would be willing to paint a picture for me. I asked her after the music party, and she said okay. Anyways, it turned out amazingly well, and it's hanging now in my living room. It's chock-full of our inside jokes and references to things that have happened to us (kiss time!) and it's just a perfect way to remember how things started for us.
What else did we do? We had a great little picnic in the park one day, with so much food... she's a great cook. Which is nice, it's been a long time since anyone cooked for me, on a one-on-one basis. And... it's GOOD!
We also tried to spend a night at my place once, I forget when... oh, the weekend of the Hampyeong Butterfly festival, I remember now... more on that later! Anyways, we thought it would be convenient, and much cheaper than her staying at the Windmill... but Vanessa is very allergic to cats, so that idea was out, when she lay down and proceeded to almost have an asthma attack. She was stubborn about it being okay, but I insisted, and it turned into another night at the Windmill. That damn place is inescapable!
In other Sam News, I will be looking for a new home for her. The last month has obviously been very busy with Vanessa (and later, with mom) but even before that I was having trouble with Sam. I bought her because I was very lonely and I wanted a pet in the apartment... and for a long time, it was wonderful, because I was spending a lot of time at home with her. But in the last few months, I have become very very involved in some other things, and I just feel like it is unfair to Sam. She's just a kitten, and she needs more playtime than I can offer right now. But I'm traveling a LOT now, visiting people, playing music, performing, starting to organize the music parties as a regular thing, and taking Korean lessons, and practicing... I'm a busy guy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.
SO yeah... before I talk about mom's visit, I should talk about the Butterfly Festival and a few other things.
So, anyways, the butterfly festival. I was invited to play in the talent show for foreigners at the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival, which was pretty exciting. Vanessa and I panned the whole weekend around it, starting with a FRiday night in Gwangju, then the Festival on Saturday, then over to Mokpo for the rest of the weekend. Anyways, Friday was the night that we wound up going to my place after having some drinks with Mel in Gwangju, but then we wound up at the Windmill anyway, because of the cat's damned allergens. haha. We got up bright and early to catch the bus to Hampyeong leaving from the Gwangju International Center. We got there at nine, and there was no-one there! I started freaking out a little bit, but not too much, because great hair has an incredible calming effect on me.
Anyways, I called at around ten to find out what the heck was going on! I was very surprised to learn that the festival performances would actually be taking place the following day. Yeah. Shitty.
But it turned out alright, we were already packed, so we headed to the bus terminal and got on a bus for Mokpo and caught up on our sleep there (late night illness+early morning=tired). The next morning we caught a bus to Hampyeong, and got there just in time to grab some lunch and then perform. I played three songs, opening with "Such a Simple Way" (of course) then a Ryan Adams cover "The Hardest Part" and closing with a new song "Make you smile". It was well received. We were asked to wear "traditional costume", so I wore Columbia Hiking shorts, a gray T-shirt and some Birkenstocks. Basically, that's my uniform in Canada, so it seemed appropriate, especially since I have no Voyageur pants.
Ooh, I just had a random flashback to playing against the Valois team from Mattawa, with the guy who was playing house league after years of double and triple A who made me wet my pants (not really) every time he took a slapshot at me... yikes, still remember how bad he hurt my elbow through the shitty house-league monkey suit that the Powassan hockey league provided for me.
I won second place, which came with the awesome prize of 200 000 won in Farmer's Coop gift certificates! That's just over $200! So, I'll eat cheaply this month, that's for sure. The woman who won did a traditional dance from India, I believe, and it was quite good! The other highlight for me was two girls who did a very country-ified cover of "Last Night" by the strokes, with some great harmonies and tambourine/cowboy boot accompaniment!
After the performance we had some tent meat, which is always fabulous (seriously) and then we headed home (to Mokpo).
I forgot to mention that the other part of the prize was "Stamina Wine". hahaha, awesome. I love how every second thing here is lauded for providing increased stamina... especially alcohol. I think that general consensus is that alcohol has the opposite effect... and why the obsession here? There is a LOT of concern over stamina here. Do Canadians have so many stamina products, and I've just been ignorant of the market? Is there an pickled eel store somewhere that no-one ever told me about? If there is...
What else happened that was awesome? there was another thing I wanted to mention... before I turned it over to mom...
Oh, the Wando Beach party? Well, that was cancelled, which sucked. But, it led to a pretty awesome weekend with Vanessa anyways... we had a double-date with Kristin and Jeff, who are a LOT of fun, and we gifted out some stamina wine. Jeff drank it at dinner, which was highly amusing. Then we went out for some drinks... I had some over-priced/under-tasty sake... and terrible sausages. ugh.
I forgot to mention this party we went to at Jeff's uncle's house... it was really nice, we had some barbecued burgers and we drank wine coolers, and I wound up playing some guitar for a while, and meeting up with some new musicians, as well as some just general noobies... which was fun. I got to play the part of "Sage". haha. It was nice, but it rained later in the night, and kind of put a damper on things.
Sam News and more Vanessa progress...
In other Sam News, I will be looking for a new home for her. The last month has obviously been very busy with Vanessa (and later, with mom) but even before that I was having trouble with Sam. I bought her because I was very lonely and I wanted a pet in the apartment... and for a long time, it was wonderful, because I was spending a lot of time at home with her. But in the last few months, I have become very very involved in some other things, and I just feel like it is unfair to Sam. She's just a kitten, and she needs more playtime than I can offer right now. But I'm traveling a LOT now, visiting people, playing music, performing, starting to organize the music parties as a regular thing, and taking Korean lessons, and practicing... I'm a busy guy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.
Oh, the Korean lessons, I can make a confession now, publicly. I was looking for something a little different... and I thought that maybe a Korean girl could be it... and I know this extremely cute Korean girl... but her English was not so good. Maybe you have talked to me, and you thought "Holy Crap, this guy really wants to learn Korean! What a trooper!" Well, yeah, I have a lot of reasons to want to learn Korean but chief among them for a long time was this girl... there was always good vibes from her, and lots of giggly smiles, so I thought "Hey, If I could talk to her, this could probably be fun", and since I'm not one of those guys who will date a girl they can't talk to because they want to touch a boob, I tried to learn. I really tried. Like, combined lesson/language exchange of up to 12 or 15 hours a week. Needless to say, it got a lot better real quickly. My speaking Korean, I mean. A few weeks in though, the vibe changed... I still liked her, but I started to think "Boyfriend?" Yes, that means I had dedicated that much time to learning for a girl I wasn't even sure was available. Boys, stop laughing, girls, stop saying "aww". Anyways, she did have a boyfriend. A fiancee, it turned out, but I was not crushed. Luckily, the vibe warned me, and I had started backing off a little... and good timing worked for me again, just as I was backing off, I met Vanessa.
But, timing is a two-faced bitch sometimes.
As good as it was, for both of us, really, timing-wise, it was also terrible, because Vanessa left Korea on May 23rd. So we had a couple of amazing weeks together to try to make up our minds about where this was going. We decided that it was worth waiting for a while, and it looked like we were going to get back together and see how things went when I got back to Canada. But then more time passed, and she decided that she would come back in August. So... wow. That's good, two months are a lot shorter than six. But two months... oog. I'm... like, four or five days in, and it already sucks. Luckily, mom has been here to distract me and keep me busy.
It's been a long time since we blogged at all.
Okay, here's the beginning of it. I've been procrastinating about it, because I had it typed until it was almost current, and then I misplaced it all somehow... so I have to retype almost everything about mom's trip.
Here's the beginnings of the last month and a half. Starting with:
The eighties party
Last weekend (THIS WAS WRITTEN BACK WHEN THIS WAS LAST WEEK, SO... Late April) was a big eighties party in Mokpo, in celebration of my friend Carol's birthday, and to say farewell to longtime Mokpo-ite Mary, who was heading too to live on a beach in Bali, I believe. Seems excessive to party before heading to live on a beach, but hey, I am hardly one to judge. haha.
So, I got home on Friday with a cardboard box in my hands, because the only thing I really know about the eighties was that they had rubics cubes. So, yeah, I was going to make a rubics cube hat and call it a costume. Brooke had also given me some advice about making loose jeans seem tighter. I wish I could say that that advice had been "Just cynch 'em!", but it wasn't.
I warmed up half a pizza that was leftover from that afternoon's little binge, and I looked at the box. And in that box, I saw a DIVO hat. Yes, divo.
Combining it with the other box I had brought from I created a perfect power dome, or whatever it was called, and with some handy red paint (a pun to be exposed later), I was ready to whip it, and whip it good, having also created a whip out of my Murder Mystery cigar and a patch cord.
I did some looking online, and found a few pictures, and sacrificed a black turtle neck to make the sleeveless, high collared shirt that was their trademark.
And with that, I was off to bed.
I woke up on Saturday, and spent the day scrambling to get my stuff ready, although I honestly don't remember just what I was doing... this all seems a lifetime away right now.
Anyways, the bottom line is that I arrived in Mokpo late for the afternoon barbecue that I had been invited to. Most of the food was already eaten, and the bananas and grapes I had brought just were not cutting it for "completeness". The bottom line is that I didn't really eat anything, But i was having fun, and a little too busy to notice.
Then there was a pre-party at Crystal's. It was mostly a rehashing of the barbecue, with eighties music, everyone in costume, and the leftover food, which I nibbled at.
So... that means that all the food I ate on Saturday was basically a crepe in the morning, a banana, some grapes, some crackers, and a sick amount of Doritos (more than three).
There was a guy there named Tony, who totally outdid everyone on the costume front, it was a hilarious DLR-style rock outfit with a stuffed animal in his leopard print tights with that tail sticking out so that he could comb it. Yeah, he was eye-catching.
We were, of course, the first to arrive at the party at the bar, so that meant that we were the most bizarre looking people, all done up like new-wave rockers or burned out rolling stones or Cindy Laupers...
Vanessa Reid and I started buying eachother round after round, just taking turns.
Now you see the significance of the count of what I ate all day. yeah, it was trouble.
I did okay for a few hours, and then I remember it just hitting me like a wall.
I was having a great time, and chatting it up, telling a guy named Phil what was apparently the funniest story he had ever heard (the one about dad in the Ewok costume and me shooting him in the hands at paintball. Yeah dad, it was on purpose. What can I say... teenage angst and all...). Apparently on finishing the story, I just said "I'm going!" and walked out. My friend Mel escorted me to a cab (thankfully) and I made my way to "Motel B***s" for the night. For those of you with even the slightest knowledge of Korean, I'll let you know it's "Hotel kisses" haha.
Oh, I just remembered something! I had been invited by the Provence Family to go to some river to play guitar and hang out for the day. I told them that I would catch the 7:00 am bus out of Mokpo so that I could be into Gwangju in time to go with them.
When I finally emerged from bed at ten am, I realized that I was not going to make it to Gwangju in time to meet the gang. I had a splitting headache, and the motel room looked like a murder scene. I'm not trying to be clever, it actually did.
You see, the copious amounts of red paint that I had applied to my Divo hat had never really dried. The room was covered with red streaks and hand prints. Including the white sheets. Thank God that the hotel did not require my passport number as did some others I have stayed in in the past. It was everywhere... the mirror, the toilet (interior), the bathtub, the TV, the keyboard and mouse, the bathroom faucets and mirrors. I figured I had probably fallen asleep with my contacts in, so after a few rather painful minutes of "looking for them", I saw the red paint all over the case, and found them in there, quite safe, but dry, because I had not put solution on them.
I drew myself a bath, which may not have been the best idea, because I was still a little drunk, and very exhausted.
I'm not saying this to brag, just being truthful. I'm actually pretty embarrassed, but what the hell, eh? Why keep it to myself? It's funny!
Another thing that I did in my lowered inhibition-state was ask this cute girl from the party out for lunch. She was online when I happened to sit at the computer, and I thought "This will be fun!". We had met a few times before at different parties, and she had always seemed really cool, and also has really great hair. haha.
Anyways, I packed up my gear, cleaned up as best I could, and headed out. I got one last chuckle at myself when I spotted huge red hand streaks on the elevator button panels.
So this girl and I, Vanessa Sweeney is her name, met for lunch at 12:30, and I immediately warned her that I was not going to be much for conversation.
At 6:00 (7:00?) we were still sitting in the same GimBap restaurant. We only left out of a want for coffee.
Then Holly's for a few hours more, and to her apartment after that for some music downloading/swapping.
I left at 11:00 for fear of missing the last bus to Gwangju. I didn't want to go, I'll be honest, it was the best day I had had in a really long time. We kept talking online all week, but I really thought that was the extent of it. Or would be...
Here's the beginnings of the last month and a half. Starting with:
The eighties party
Last weekend (THIS WAS WRITTEN BACK WHEN THIS WAS LAST WEEK, SO... Late April) was a big eighties party in Mokpo, in celebration of my friend Carol's birthday, and to say farewell to longtime Mokpo-ite Mary, who was heading too to live on a beach in Bali, I believe. Seems excessive to party before heading to live on a beach, but hey, I am hardly one to judge. haha.
So, I got home on Friday with a cardboard box in my hands, because the only thing I really know about the eighties was that they had rubics cubes. So, yeah, I was going to make a rubics cube hat and call it a costume. Brooke had also given me some advice about making loose jeans seem tighter. I wish I could say that that advice had been "Just cynch 'em!", but it wasn't.
I warmed up half a pizza that was leftover from that afternoon's little binge, and I looked at the box. And in that box, I saw a DIVO hat. Yes, divo.
Combining it with the other box I had brought from I created a perfect power dome, or whatever it was called, and with some handy red paint (a pun to be exposed later), I was ready to whip it, and whip it good, having also created a whip out of my Murder Mystery cigar and a patch cord.
I did some looking online, and found a few pictures, and sacrificed a black turtle neck to make the sleeveless, high collared shirt that was their trademark.
And with that, I was off to bed.
I woke up on Saturday, and spent the day scrambling to get my stuff ready, although I honestly don't remember just what I was doing... this all seems a lifetime away right now.
Anyways, the bottom line is that I arrived in Mokpo late for the afternoon barbecue that I had been invited to. Most of the food was already eaten, and the bananas and grapes I had brought just were not cutting it for "completeness". The bottom line is that I didn't really eat anything, But i was having fun, and a little too busy to notice.
Then there was a pre-party at Crystal's. It was mostly a rehashing of the barbecue, with eighties music, everyone in costume, and the leftover food, which I nibbled at.
So... that means that all the food I ate on Saturday was basically a crepe in the morning, a banana, some grapes, some crackers, and a sick amount of Doritos (more than three).
There was a guy there named Tony, who totally outdid everyone on the costume front, it was a hilarious DLR-style rock outfit with a stuffed animal in his leopard print tights with that tail sticking out so that he could comb it. Yeah, he was eye-catching.
We were, of course, the first to arrive at the party at the bar, so that meant that we were the most bizarre looking people, all done up like new-wave rockers or burned out rolling stones or Cindy Laupers...
Vanessa Reid and I started buying eachother round after round, just taking turns.
Now you see the significance of the count of what I ate all day. yeah, it was trouble.
I did okay for a few hours, and then I remember it just hitting me like a wall.
I was having a great time, and chatting it up, telling a guy named Phil what was apparently the funniest story he had ever heard (the one about dad in the Ewok costume and me shooting him in the hands at paintball. Yeah dad, it was on purpose. What can I say... teenage angst and all...). Apparently on finishing the story, I just said "I'm going!" and walked out. My friend Mel escorted me to a cab (thankfully) and I made my way to "Motel B***s" for the night. For those of you with even the slightest knowledge of Korean, I'll let you know it's "Hotel kisses" haha.
Oh, I just remembered something! I had been invited by the Provence Family to go to some river to play guitar and hang out for the day. I told them that I would catch the 7:00 am bus out of Mokpo so that I could be into Gwangju in time to go with them.
When I finally emerged from bed at ten am, I realized that I was not going to make it to Gwangju in time to meet the gang. I had a splitting headache, and the motel room looked like a murder scene. I'm not trying to be clever, it actually did.
You see, the copious amounts of red paint that I had applied to my Divo hat had never really dried. The room was covered with red streaks and hand prints. Including the white sheets. Thank God that the hotel did not require my passport number as did some others I have stayed in in the past. It was everywhere... the mirror, the toilet (interior), the bathtub, the TV, the keyboard and mouse, the bathroom faucets and mirrors. I figured I had probably fallen asleep with my contacts in, so after a few rather painful minutes of "looking for them", I saw the red paint all over the case, and found them in there, quite safe, but dry, because I had not put solution on them.
I drew myself a bath, which may not have been the best idea, because I was still a little drunk, and very exhausted.
I'm not saying this to brag, just being truthful. I'm actually pretty embarrassed, but what the hell, eh? Why keep it to myself? It's funny!
Another thing that I did in my lowered inhibition-state was ask this cute girl from the party out for lunch. She was online when I happened to sit at the computer, and I thought "This will be fun!". We had met a few times before at different parties, and she had always seemed really cool, and also has really great hair. haha.
Anyways, I packed up my gear, cleaned up as best I could, and headed out. I got one last chuckle at myself when I spotted huge red hand streaks on the elevator button panels.
So this girl and I, Vanessa Sweeney is her name, met for lunch at 12:30, and I immediately warned her that I was not going to be much for conversation.
At 6:00 (7:00?) we were still sitting in the same GimBap restaurant. We only left out of a want for coffee.
Then Holly's for a few hours more, and to her apartment after that for some music downloading/swapping.
I left at 11:00 for fear of missing the last bus to Gwangju. I didn't want to go, I'll be honest, it was the best day I had had in a really long time. We kept talking online all week, but I really thought that was the extent of it. Or would be...
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