LEAD UP TO OPENING DAY

Yet another full week…and more…has flown by…

Sunday 3/26 another day of witchiness, an acupuncture treatment and a fun party with a “fetish” theme at Anne’s. Oh, the scandal! Another opportunity to break out the (p)leather pants.

Monday 3/27 required some recovery… went for a tour of Heyri Art Village, guided by Anne. An amazing community of well-established artists of all varieties right across the street! Cafés, some restaurants, shops, galleries, events. Yay! Spent way too much of the day afterwards going to EMart (the cab that never came, spending 20 minutes trying to find my co-shoppers who were outside, a missing barcode on a soccer ball that was a MAJOR issue…), but got a quick bike ride (maiden Korean voyage) in—found a 45-minute loop around a mountain. Anne hosted the first meeting of our book group, and after much introducing of literary preferences and experiences and desires, we’ve decided to read “Comfort Woman,” by Nora Okja Keller.

Tuesday 3/28 more training, the first meeting of our soccer teams for some drills (and since I haven’t played since 2nd grade—Vegard’s dad was my coach…), I’m thinking maybe some drills might be good. Alas, there was some Koreaconfusion re: our use of the field, so we couldn’t use it that night. I convinced a couple of the guys to go on a quick run with me, and we had a fun nighttime view of EV from atop a cemetery hill. I also got a little promotion, to Program Coordinator, which basically means that I will be more involved with curriculum development. I’d had many conversations leading up to this, in terms of my wanting to still be in the classroom (the Head Teacher positions involve, ironically, less classroom time and more office-y stuff) and performing. No more money, most likely more hours (though not per contract), but more interesting and challenging work, and hey, admit it: you’re impressed by the title. This basically cuts back my classroom hours but allows me to have a hand in bringing new ideas to the table and to life. I’m really excited about the possibilities, but am surely going to be frustrated by the pace of implementing anything, short- or long-term, given that so much is in the evolutionary stage here. ‘Salright, I’m just gonna have to keep reminding myself...

Wednesday 3/29 egad, so I think we had a parade rehearsal, as we have to adjust things in order to have two versions to accommodate the different staff shifts… Of course, they’re ripping up everything around the main fountain (probably b/c it was done wrong the first time, which is MOST typical here), so we rehearsed around a smaller one and had to divert the construction/dignitary traffic around us and our flags. After lunch, a rehearsal for the 4-minute opening ceremony piece that we’re contributing. It’s crazy dance-y, and I’m on the backup crew. It’s pretty much an effort to make higher-ups who control the pursestrings but have ZERO performance/production experience realize how much professional talent they have here so that they’ll hopefully start giving us funding and serious rehearsal time in our schedules, because right now they don’t get it. I had to cut out early for a “leadership” meeting with the other ‘leaders’ in order to determine the general hierarchy and communication ladder. All good. Chorus at night; we worked on a very simple version of “Seasons of Love.”

Thursday 3/30 All staff met in the cafeteria for some sum-ups, Q&As, briefings, etc. Many of the edutainers spoke about dealing with the media, as there are cameras and reporters EVerywhere here, and it freaks a lot of people out, After all of that hooha, I met with our Director of Education, another teacher who is starting the soccer league, and two guys from the fitness center and it’s head company. The two guys were total jerks, but at least our Dir of Ed knows it and is on their case on our behalf. I got to email our listserve with the results of the meeting and tried to be positive about it. Oy.

After that I booked over to opening ceremony rehearsal, then grabbed some dinner before a Team Rescue (our official EV social planning group for all-inclusive events) trivia night, which was good fun, involved a lot of yelling and was generally very well done. I went home instead of joining the gang for a crazy night of further drinking…

Friday 3/31 Retreat! We had our all-staff retreat, and went to a nearby observatory (as in observing North Korea). It was really odd...a random art exhibit, videos (totally neutral and vague on the whole situation, then North Korean acrobats and trapeze artists doing ridiculous stunts—the Koreans all react with bigger gasps than we do; I’ve noticed this before but it was really apparent here), a presentation on what you’re looking at and what they presumably want you to see, then big gift shops with all kinds of stuff. After that we all were bused to a movie complex with a spa next door. We had an option of movies (I saw “V for Vendetta,” which was sometimes a little annoying but mostly really cool and creative), then went to the spa.

Oh, the spa. There’s an area that’s single-sex with a sauna, steam room, 2 quite warm tubs (one tile, one wooden), one REALLY COLD tub with a massage shower and jets that shoot up from the floor—great for the feet, and then…oh! OOOOOOOH! They shoot up pretty strongly, pretty high. One can get scrubbed, massaged, etc, for additional fees (I didn’t this time, but will on another visit!). You pretty much go in naked, shower, and go back and forth between the funspots. Some people avoided the naked area, but those of us who are used to dressing rooms and being on stage had no problem. After we’d had our fun there, we put on our little spa outfits and headed for the communal area, with huge open warm floors with mats, massage machines of many varieties, limited weights/cardio equipment, a “sleeping room” and a smallish but big enough lap pool. I got into exercise mode and knocked myself out, figuring that since the place cost somewhere between $6 and $15 for all the areas I wanted to be in, I’d BE BACK. Oh, YES. I WILL. It’s not far away. HOORAY! Apparently these are all over Korea. Oh, Korea. YeeHaw!

We bused back to EV, and Don arrived around nine with all kinds of western goodies. We went to a party on campus, I introduced him around, and the crowd went wild for his robotic dancing. Good fun. Our resident fire-eater put on his show, and there was general revelry.

Sat 4/1 OY. We dragged ourselves out of bed, I burned some banana pancakes, and we headed to Seoul for the day. Anne was guiding an “erotic” tour, and we probably got to about half of the stuff she had planned, but a good time was had by all. We took a breather in a DVD bang, which is a business that rents small rooms and a DVD for 2 hours…ie high school kids go there to make out. Post-DVD, we hit a cave-themed bar/restaurant downstairs, where 3,000cl beers awaited us. After that, we hit a great wine bar (and at this point we were down to a group of 5) and then a dance club. Don, Elana and I headed out for a more hoppin’ club, expecting to meet up with other teachers, but our contact wasn’t answering his phone. Fortunately, Don knows the scene and we had a great time shaking our groove things at a big and loud techno club and then spectating at a tucked-away salsa club. We left around 3 or 4, and since the subways close b/t 12 and 5, we crashed in Don’s car (easier for the brief time than locating a Jinjabong—a cheap place to sleep) before catching the subway/train home.

Sun 4/2 Oof. Took a nap before rehearsal, which wasn’t as painful as it could have been. We rehearsed inside and then on the “stage” we’d be using on Monday, and got a lot sorted out. I booked to the gym for my first workout there (YAY!) and discovered that little of the info they’d given us at our formal meeting was accurate. Ugh. Went home and bed felt GOOD!

Mon 4/3 Opening Day! For Real! We had rehearsal at 8am…finally got to perform around 11:30 (it went really well), I hit the street as Wanda the Witch for a few hours (very little performing, mostly posing behind the governor and other bigwigs while they were interviewed), had lunch, then went back to my apartment to get a little stuff done before a bike ride and a trip to the gym, which was great, but included a moment of cultural faux pas… As I wrote to our listserve:

"A bit of fitness wisdom for the new facility: You need to use either your own "inside" shoes or their "rental" (free) shoes in the fitness room. If you should opt for the latter strategy, ya take off yours and put on theirs and re-swap them to their original location when you're done. What you should NOT do (and I'm a fool, but I blame Baz, as he advised me and I was only following his example): put your shoes in the convection oven-y looking thing over the shoes. This, I was informed by a mortified staff member, after I'd placed my shoes (Baz's were there but he's already escaped) in said contraption, is to sterilize the HEADPHONES. Yes. NOT THE SHOES.
"Fortunately, he accepted my profuse apologies and laughed with (okay, probably more AT) me. He left as I was sheepishly putting my street shoes on, but of course he went into the staff room (and if I'd been he, I would have run right in to tell them about the foreign MORON, which I'm sure is exactly what he did), which I had to pass to get out...so I stuck my head in there to indicate that I was aware of my moronity... Hopefully redemtion won't be beyond EVentual reach...

"What can I say. Don't let it happen to you. Every time I see this particular staff member, I think I'll pretend that I'm gonna stick something new into that thing... "

Yep. Fortunately I’d already established myself as the blonde chick who knows her way around the freeweights…

Later in the evening I headed to Anne’s for the first meeting of the Shamanism group. She’s working on what was a non-fiction piece but is now a novel on the subject, and it’s just a really interesting subject. I was going to “audit,” but of course I’ve been sucked in. It’s a religion that very much underlies other religious and pervades many societies, but is uniquely very actively practiced in Korea, so we’re in an ideal place to study it. It should provide an interesting and new perspective on the culture as we’re experiencing it.

We tried to go to the pub for a beer afterwards, but they closed at 10, instead of 11 as they’d told me that morning. Ah, Korea… as Don puts it, too much business is just a hassle.

Tues 4/4 Day ‘off’—hah! I went to classes in my content area, as I’ve missed lots of training while street edutaining and rehearsing and have to teach stuff I don’t know very well and have never taught…on Thursday. It’s not really complicated, but I needed to review it, so there I was. Got in a good run and a trip to the gym (they all know me already—most likely b/c of the shoe incident…I’m going to get an index card so I can write their names down…) before a meditation session (good but not my style of meditation, I think—whew, I can eliminate one activity!) and then the movie Taegukgi (amazing, hugely violent in war reenactments, the most difficult-to-watch movie I’ve ever experienced; our math determined that it’s 15x the gore of Saving Private Ryan…the best-selling Korean movie ever, http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/taegukgi.htm) with the film group. Went home emotionally drained and stunned. Had a long talk with two of the entertainers who needed to use a phone to get a ride to their apartments…and they are having a really rough time because the production company that was hired by EV and through whom they were hired doesn’t know a thing about producing or about taking care of people. Yeouch.

Wednesday 4/5 Another ‘Day off.’ Had a meeting with the Head Teacher of the ODP, with whom I’ll be working closely, and who was promoted to that position from the one I’m taking over. Good talk about immediate and long-term issues. Went to another class, then the ‘clinic’ to see what their ‘class’ is like, then to sign up (finally!) for a cellphone (YIKES—the cheapest phone available was $210, then a $200 deposit that will be refunded, then a $55 start-up fee, plus something else I’m forgetting—I shelled out $520. I’m hoping to resell the phone when I leave) that we should get tomorrow, then lunch before getting back to work. I did get a ride in, though, and had a night off to do some more work and catch up on this puppy.

We have, over the last several days, had an influx of staff: Russians and Eastern Europeans of all varieties, who are street performers and staff for the commercial facilities (restaurants and stores). I’m not sure how many…I’m guessing about 50. The entertainers seem to have somewhere in the vicinity of zero English ability, which is going to be problematic and is indicative of the planning issues here. But I met some Romanians today who are quite fluent, so there is hope!

For my training buddies: I’m running regularly, mostly a mix of pavement, cement and trails. Lots of it is through cemeteries, farms and military trenches(!). Very hilly. I’m feeling slow, but don’t have a regular timed route…gotta get on that. There are other runners here, and a few who are pretty good, but we’re all on different schedules, so we haven’t figured that all out yet.

As for cycling, I’ve only been out three times. The main roads are very big and designed to accommodate more traffic than I’ve actually seen on them, so while they aren’t all that pretty, the traffic can easily leave me a full lane, and so far the vehicles are better about leaving me room than in the US. I’ve been doing the “keep the mountain on your right” type of exploration at first. The smaller roads I’ve tried tend to turn potholey or unpaved and sometimes deadend, so I’m saving those for when I acquire a cheap mountain bike. Once I have the phone and some miles under the saddle I’ll explore farther away, and just today found stuff that seemed to lead in good directions. Not Greenwich, but what is? And when this place turns green, it’ll be gorgeous. The pool is open (it looks to be about 25m) and I will most likely swim tomorrow. I got about 20 minutes in at the spa. Hopefully I’ll get time to research the tri scene soon.
No daylight savings here…boohoo! My favorite day of the year—and POOF! Gone. Alas. But it is warming up and starting to feel springlike. Yay!

Wildlife: Birds. Plenty of birds. Some that scare the bejeezus outta me when I’m running because they make a lot of sudden noise. I’ve seen exactly two deer, and not a single squirrel, raccoon, chipmunk, skunk or other critter. No roadkill. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it’s weird. I haven’t even seen much in the way of insects.

I’ve yet to see a postcard here in Korea (thanks to those who have sent me one!). I do know that there is cool stationery available at the Art Village, so I’ll surely get some whenever I can get over there…on a “day off.” I think I’m gonna have to let the workaholic in me have free reign this month until some things settle down and I’m caught up, and then I’ll get very protective of my time off. Exploration and adventure await!

Still loving the kimchi,
s