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Tuesday Oct 24th,
Today was the first day of the big student concert!
All the participating Iksan students were bussed up to
Seoul in the morning, and the entirety of the
afternoon was spent soundchecking and fixing last
minute mistakes. The concert was something that
students had to audition to participate in, and
featured lots of different kinds of music--there were
a few rock bands, some jazz stuff, some fusion stuff .
. . there was even a fusion band that featured a
kayageum, which is a traditional Korean zither-type
thing. Anyway, some of the concert was really good,
some of it was not, but the whole damn thing was so
incredibly long I thought I was going to die! It
started at 6:30 and went until 10. My Seoul jazz
choir did very well, my Iksan choir not as well, and
the girls' ensemble went over big.
After the concert, Jae suggested that all the teachers
go out for drinks, so we went to a bar close to the
school and all proceeded to get quite drunk. At one
point, we started discussing how I have to get a
special temporary visa to sing in the Mike Downes
concert, and how now that Kenji is married, he can
legally perform anytime he wants. That was when Jae
offered me up to the other teachers for marriage . . .
my boss just tried to set me up for marriage! I never
thought I'd be writing those words . . . Anyway we
had a long late night, which in hindsight probably
wasn't the best idea, considering how busy the next
day was going to be . . .
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Wednesday Oct 25th,
We've had to cancel a lot of classes lately. Today
and yesterday were cancelled for the concerts, last
week was the festival, so Thursday and Friday were
cancelled, next week more classes will be cancelled
for Mike Downes. Unfortunately, it just so happened
that the Board of Education's annual visit was
scheduled for TODAY in Iksan and most of the students
were going to be in Seoul for the concert! So Jae
divised a plan to get students in Iksan-- he decided
that he, WonSool, Ben, Kenji and I would do a two hour
masterclass in the morning, which the Board would be
present for, and then we would bus all the students to
Seoul for the concert. Complicated-- Korean law is
weird. It seems like there are a lot of bizarre rules
about running a school that I really can't understand.
Anyway, what that meant for me was that I had to bus
it down to Iksan on what is usually my Seoul day.
Grr.
Not only that, but I spent the morning running around,
trying to find someone to drive me to the immigration
office close to Iksan so that I could get my temporary
visa for next week. So we finally got there, and the
immigration guy turned us away! Of course, I couldn't
understand what on earth was going on, but I found out
later that he said that I didn't need to bother with
the extra visa. This seems a little strange to me,
since the school has been busted before for the SAME
THING! All Oh Kyoung's paperwork, all that running
around for nothing.
So I had to rush right back to school for the
masterclass, and after that we had to go straight back
to Seoul for the concert (the students had to rush
too, poor things, first they have to sit through a 2
hour masterclass, then they have to sit on a bus for 2
and a half hours, then they have to sit through a 3
hour concert!) Of course there was traffic, so of
course we were late, which didn't bother me too much,
because I was not exactly looking forward to sitting
through the same long concert again.
After the concert, more going out, but this time, less
drinking and more eating. We had gamjatang, which is
pork, potato and vegetable soup. It would be nice if
there was another female professor in the applied
music faculty. Then, when we have these functions, I
won't be the only one who gets stared with googly
puppy eyes.
In any case, thank god the concerts are over! I'm
exhausted already, and it's only Wednesday night! |
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