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Week 26- Y3(Sep 2nd to Sep 8th) |
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Wednesday:So tonight, Annabelle and I were promoted to theintermediate class! It's a lot more work! I thinkevery single person in the class was a littleoverwhelmed last night, but most of us got the movesby the end. It feels good to have a challenge.So Annabelle has been on that TV program a few timesnow, and people are starting to recognize her. Actually a little more than recognize-- they'retracking down her website, taking her pictures fromher website, and one guy even went so far as to try tovisit her at her school! All this from being on tv acouple of times. I've noticed that Koreans have atendency towards very aggressive, borderlinestalker-ish behaviour when it comes to a) foreigners(a careful statement, since there's definitely alove-hate relationship there; also when I sayforeigners, here I mean specifically Western Englishspeakers, as "other" foreigners simply don't rate inthis country) and b) celebrities (recall the incidentat my gig last year where the Korean pop singer guywas chased down the mountain by gaggles of screamingpre-teens!) Annabelle now falls into both categories. . . I've experienced even just on a plain oldsocial level. Jin Woo, the guy I went out on one datewith called me EVERY SINGLE DAY for 2 weeks straight. A girl I met in GS has emailed constantly, harrassingme to get together with her to teach her English. Thefunny Korean guy, Jimmy, I met a couple weeks ago hadalready called me twice by the time I got home thatnight, and called me twice the next day and the dayafter that. It's like we're here strictly forentertainment value! I know Annabelle woulddefinitely agree, a little privacy would be nicesometimes! |
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Thursday:Tonight after work, I met up Nate, that guitar playerI met in All That Jazz a couple of weeks ago. Heinvited me to jam with his band tonight, so we wentover to their rehearsal space to play some tunes. Itwas fun to be jamming on keys again, and the music wasfun, similar to the stuff I did with the funk band inDaegu, but I'm not really interested in doing any keysgigs-- I'd rather be singing. Could turn out to besomething semi-lasting, although I'm not willing toinvest much time in it . . . Garan, the bass player issomewhat interesting to me, however. He was trainedas a classical upright bassist, and is playing withsome of the better foreigner-based bands in Seoul(most of them are kind of crappy jam bands, but thereare a few that are worth checking out), and soon he'llbe auditioning for a spot in the Seoul Philharmonic,which is pretty cool, although I'm wondering whattheir policy on hiring foreigners would be. In anycase, it was nice to meet some more decent foreignmusicians. |
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Friday:So next week, there's a big jazz festival about anhour north of Seoul, and KURT ELLING is coming!!!!!! Kurt Elling is one of my absolute favourite jazzsingers. When I first moved to Korea, I missed seeinghim in Toronto by about a week, and I was so upset, Ialmost considered turning down my job offer! And nowfinally I get the chance to see him live . . . but asper usual, getting concrete information about tickets,and directions is frickin' impossible, so I'veenlisted in Kwon Hyun's help once again . . . |
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Saturday:Tonight we had a scrabble party at Annabelle's wherewe didn't actually end up playing scrabble at all(which, honestly, is fine by me). We did, however eatlots of Annabelle's homemade dips and drink lots ofwine, and then go to the dance studio for the weeklySaturday night practise party. There are some greatguys at the studio now, but some of the people whotake classes there, honestly! There's the old jerkguy, who has been classified as a "dangerous dancer"for the erratic way he leads. There's "sweaty handsman", this short fat guy who has the least sense ofrhythm of anyone I've ever met. There's Michelle, thisreally bitchy and fat woman who a) can't danceparticularly well and b) thinks that she's the bestdancer in the world and finds in necessary to giveevery single person around her "dancing tips". Then,worst of all, there's one who I like to call "carnieboy" (as in he resembles a demented carnivalattraction). This nutso managed to fall and chip offtwo of his front teeth his very first time dancing thesalsa and 6 months later, still hasn't fixed him. Hedances like a scuttlebug, and I suspect that he's ondrugs, some kind of uppers, although where the hell hewould find something like that in Korea, I have noidea. But on the other hand, there's Kevin, Andy,Bruce and Young, who are all lovely and quite gooddancers. It's kind of like a tricky game to avoid thebad dancers and stay close to the good ones! |
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