The gray of the winter is fading away and with spring comes a new sense of purpose and direction.
I have been hold up in my apartment for most of the past months. There have been a few shining exceptions to the darkness that passed in the past months. Mostly, I have been working on an album, which I feel reflects the sullen nature of nature in the city of Seoul during the winter.
I think that part of the reason I haven't blogged any of this is because the events of the past months have been somewhat ambiguously effectual.
All of the friends I made at my school left at the end of February, The school's staff dropped in half, I changed from teaching 7 year olds to 6 year olds and the school changed its curriculum, owner, and orders for the teachers. There are three new foreign teachers at the school (replacing 6) and new Korean teachers who, thankfully all speak English, so it makes for a friendlier work environment.
I hate the school and its changes and hoped it would get better, but after a month, I can see that it will most likely continue to suck until I leave in 5 months. Life outside of school is still a challenge. On top of keeping in touch with everyone at home (and I apologize for pretty much failing at that) and trying to make friends again here, and hang out with Renae, and accomplish tasks I have set out for myself, it has contributed to the feeling of being overwhelmed and tired that the winter had already bestowed upon me.
I read a book recently called The Conjurer's Bird - great book - that recalls some life around the time of the late 1700's. I was jealous that an explorer could leave on a journey for three years, write maybe one or two letters during his time abroad and just focus the rest of it to peace of mind and discovery.
I do find my piece of mind though. And, with the album I have been working on, have surely made some discoveries of my own. New instruments are the next bit to tackle. I have a few big tricks to pull out my sleeve over the next 5 months.
A few highlights since January that I can offer:
Renae made me a couple of awesome knitted hats - based off of an under helmet hat from world war 2 or something like that.
Valentines day was the most crazy day! There is a community center right across the street from us and there was a valentines concert going on and i thought it would be nice to go. it only cost 5 bucks -- well i made dinner and we got off just in time. Other teachers from oue school were there and a korean teacher and her family were there.
somewhere in the middle of this great performance, there was a pause and people were looking all around. I had made a joke about standing up earlier in the night when they were acknowledging honored guests but now the korean teacher and her kids were motioning at me to stand up from a couple aisles over... I end up on stage somehow and then they get me to ask renae up there... then they give us a gift...'of music' and play us "Kiss the Girl" We werent sure if they wanted us to sing or what but i ended up convinving renae to dance with me on stage in front of hundreds of koreans and it was crazy --- It turns out later that they wanted someone to propose to their girlfriend... well, that didnt happen but i think it was funny that it was the pretext why everyone thought we were up there.... oh also - they ooed and ahhed when renae came on stage ... i dont have a picture of her dress but it was stunning/
Deanna and Lauren and other teachers left my school. We had a going away dinner at 'On the Border" We told them it was Deanna's birthday and they gave us free cheesecake and put hats on us. Deanna is wearing the poncho - that is amber next to her:
March came around and I got a new class and i new school system and owners - and a slew of new teachers. The new teachers are great - they get me through the day - because the transition to the new school has been like kindergarten hell. I downgraded from 7 year olds (6 year olds american age) to 6 year olds (5) - and i am happy with that change. The young ones dont understand as much, but the new 7 year olds are all brats. my korean partner teacher is awesome and my two classes are good too - they make me smile more than i should in the situation i am in. here is one of my two homerooms: Mozart class
Three of them are siblings of my previous students... being good students definitely runs in the fams.
When I was out with Kimmy and John, the new teachers from usa, and Renae, we found a bar with Fooseball!!! aaaaand came across Batman Hof:
speaking of masks,
renae and i made some awesome ones:
Renae's
Mine
St. Patrick's Day was awesome!!!!!! Free Guiness - An amazing Korean Irish band: Dancing and drinking in the street by a beautiful stream - and a parade to top it off.
Lucky Post its - Clover shaped - renae is putting hers up in the orange section
The parade was led by a snake being chased by hippy st. patrick
then were followed by a clover, every irish related association in Korea and a guiness bottle with a stilty dude and small guiness bottles that looked like they wanted to give up every now and then.
Shortly after was Lynn's birthday. Three of the awesomest korean teachers:
Lynn Alison and Chloe
The day after Lynn's bday was Renae's! We saw this - it is an 'o' but from our particular vantage point.... the question mark adds the the greatness of the scene.
On that friday we celebrated Renaes bday with a diverse group of friends - we had mexican food (sushi restaurants were too small) and went to a hookah bar - i am bad at taking pictures - the only thing i really took a picture of was a spider in the wall of the hookah bars - which, by the way, make you feel like you live down in fraggle rock!:
The begining of April is Cherry Blossom time - the dates however were wrong about the festival on a website though so we got to the area of a small festival a week early: did a few fun things and explored:
leest
Kimmy and John on the han (rhymes with john) river
the place was pretty packed - like central park if it were 10 times smaller and 2 times more populated.
The cherry blossoms werent out yet but the magnolias were :
well later that week I bought renae a cool handmade outfit
and we both got haircuts
we finally made it to the right place at the right time and you could tell that there was something going on:
luckily, no zombie outbreaks occured
google was running around with the more popular korean search engines - i had to chase after google to catch up - this goes along with my prediction that in the future - even if you are naked and lost in the woods - you will be able to pull google out of thin air to help you --
and the cherry blossoms:
people crowd around the only flowers they will see in the city to take pictures
and they turn on the cool vision at night when they light the trees up
That is pretty much it - also I finished the new album during all of this: you can see hear and download it here: http://whereheremeetsthere.blogspot.com/2008/04/fortune-favors-brave.html
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