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Wednesday Jan 4th 2006, Anna's last day! I'm horribly upset, still fresh from the loss of Charlotte last week. Anna is taking a midnight bus to Seoul tonight to catch her plane back home to Wales. And she's pretty adamant that she's not coming back, as it stands right now. I'm still hoping that once she gets home and realizes that nothing has changed, she'll turn right around and come back. So tonight, we had a big goodbye dinner at Shanghai Grill in honour of one of the dearest friends I have made in Korea. I was fully exhausted from band practise and a long day at work, and certainly not in any mood to party, considering the circumstances, but I stuck it out, and had a nice goodbye with Anna. I know that we'll be staying in touch anyway, but god knows when I'll see her again. |
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Thursday Jan 5th, Right now work sucks. We're preparing for the big
presentation in February, and that means that we're writing scripts, choosing songs, blah blah blah, trying to parade the kids around as much as possible. We had a meeting before vacation to come up with ideas for the presentation, but yet somehow by the time we got back, we had to start from scratch, and thus were slammed with a bunch of new work right away. Apparently Sue "forgot" to tell me that I was to write an entire musical for the Bumblebee class, and surprised me with it right when I was ready to leave yesterday. Then she informed me that I couldn't leave until it was done. Then today, again right before I was about to leave, she decided that the whole thing had to be re-written, because so-and-so didn't have enough lines. So I stayed late yet again tonight to write some ridiculous script that they'll decide not to use at all by next week. And the poor kids will
never be able to learn their lines, because they'll keep on changing them every 2 seconds.
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Saturday Jan 7th, This is my first free weekend in a really long time.
No gigs, no social obligations. I've been dying for some non-Daegu solo travelling time, so I decided that now was a good time to take off to Seoul for the weekend. I hopped on the KTX around noon, and arrived in Seoul by mid-afternoon. After I checked into my motel in Itaewon (the foreigner district), I took the subway up to Insadong. Insadong is a beautiful pedestrian-only neighbourhood that is filled with art galleries, traditional tea houses, and tons of Korean crafts. I'm completely in love with Insadong. It's gorgeous, and peaceful, and there are so many beautiful things to look at. I bought a lot of
artwork, had some name stamps engraved in marble for some friends, and bought some special stuff for my family (I can't say what I bought, because I want them to be surprised!). Then I found this little courtyard that had three levels, and was covered with lights and artwork, and had tons of craft and art shops all around it. There was a really pretty bibimbap restaurant at the top, so I had a gorgeous little solitary meal. The best part about the afternoon was that for the first time since I've been in Korea, I was completely and utterly anonymous. None of the foreigners I saw tried to talk to me, and none of the Koreans were staring at me. It felt great. My main reason for coming to Seoul this weekend was to check out the jazz scene in Seoul, so I headed back to Itaewon to go to "All That Jazz" (all the jazz clubs have really stupid names). When I went in, it was absolutely packed, and there was nowhere to sit, so I asked if it was okay if I stood. It was. The band featured a singer from Germany, and I think the rest of her band was American maybe? I don't know if they were just there touring, or if they live in Seoul. The singer was pretty terrible, but her band was okay. They only played standards, but I could tell that the band wanted to play other stuff. Hmm . . . I need to go back and check out some other clubs. After I had been standing for awhile, a girl came over and introduced herself as Emily, and said that they had lots of room at her table if I wanted to sit with
them. I was kind of hoping to be fully anti-social this weekend, but not wanting to be rude, I went and sat with them. It turned out to be a good move, I think. I met some more people, including Andre from Calgary, Amy from Sudbury, and some other people I don't remember. The funny thing about Emily is that she really reminds me of my friend Carla from back home-- she talks like her, walks like her, dances like her, thinks like her. But instead of making me happy, it just kind of made me miss Carla more. When the band was done, we went down the street to a place called the Loft. I hated it. It was filled with kind of sleazy foreigners who I just really did not want to get to know. I hope that those aren't the only types of people who teach in Seoul! I think that I won't be going back to Itaewon anytime soon. One bonus: Saturdays at the Loft are ladies' night, so all the girls drink for free for the whole night. At least I didn't lose any money on such a tacky place . . .
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