Vagina Monologues Performance Weekend

taking our bow

This weekend, I took part in the annual performance of the Vagina Monologues here in Jinju. Though we were all nervous, it went off without a hitch- it was an amazing show and all of my friends really, truly impressed me with their acting skills. All of my girlfriends took part and though we were all pretty nervous, everyone did a superb job.

Here I am, talking about a specific "bad" word.... I had only finished learning my monologue the afternoon of the show.

After it was over, we all pretty much breathed a giant sigh of relief en route to the bar to celebrate. The hot and smoky bar, however, was too small to contain our energy, so we left to "troll the bridge." (That basically means climbing up under the bridge and scaring people who walk by.... Jackie is best at this, but we're all learning.) As it was about 2:30 by this time, no one walked by, so we just enjoyed the insanely beautiful weather and laughed into the night. We wrapped things up by wreaking havoc on the town and ringing the nearby church bell at 3AM. All in all it was a lovely evening!

Trolling with Chris

Yesterday I met the gang in the park for an afternoon lounge. We ate pizza and cake and just chilled out, as per the Sunday ritual. Spring is so enjoyable in Jinju- perhaps my favorite season thus far- and now that the monologues are over with, we can get back to having expendable time.

Beautiful Jinju

Yesterday night was the first official Cancertron practice. We lost both our bassist and drummer from the Gay Sexxyz; Cancertron's new drummer is a well-traveled, old school punk rock 45-ish Welsh guy named Tim who is pretty laid back and keen on anything. He's only recently arrived in Jinju, but immediately jumped at the chance to join us and picked up the songs in seconds. I'm ending up playing equal amounts bass and keyboard; I'm proud to announce I have my very first fingertip blisters from the heavy copper strings. I'm slow on the uptake, but I'm getting it. Last night we laid down five new tracks that, with practice, I will be really proud to perform live.

The future is so bright!
More soon,
<3M

OMGZ!

SOOO!!! I've just gotten back from a five day training (orientation! can you believe it?! I've been here 8 months and I'm JUST getting trained now!!!) in Seoul. For the most part, it was incredibly boring - the information delivered to me would have been 1000% more useful to me even six months ago. However, I met a lot of really cool people- and though the classes completely sucked, we made our own fun somehow. The best part of the whole thing (aside from the parts spent after hours at a bar) was the field trip- the whole group of about 200 of us loaded onto four buses and had an afternoon experiencing Korean culture (food, clothing, dance, music).

wearing hanbok- my headpiece means i'm a concubine. cool!

hard at work at orientation with jackie and new friends

Surprisingly, I had mixed feelings about leaving- sad to be saying goodbye so quickly to my new friends, but mostly, really siked about heading back to Jinju. (I'll see the new ones again soon anyway... this country is small!)


Life is moving at an incredible speed lately- I really can't believe next week is MAY. I've been busy laying in the sun, playing music, and generally enjoying myself. This weekend, I perform in the Vagina Monologues, though I'm pretty ill prepared for it, I have faith it will turn out ok.

Anyway, today, four REALLY exciting things happened:
1. I bought tickets to see RADIOHEAD in July!!! In KOREA! They're playing a 3 day festival- with special guests The Stone Roses, Elvis Costello and JACK WHITE! Seriously jumping off the walls.
2. I arrived to a CARE PACKAGE FROM HEATHER! Full of amazing stuff!! Heather you rock.
3. Sean booked a trip for us to go DIVING WITH SHARKS June 2nd!!!!! You read that right! HOLY CRAP!
 *4. We ALSO made plans to go shoot revolvers in Seoul... the only place you're allowed to touch a gun in Korea. !!!!!!

It just keeps getting better! The weather is a perfect reflection of my spirits.

It's a Wonderful Life

I've been completely overtaken by spring fever here in the ROK. My mind wanders during school and I find myself staring off into the distance, smiling for no reason. My weekends, the events of which have no real significance, are a giant blur of celebration and late nights and laughter and fun and running around in the sun with my friends. I've been insanely busy writing music for the new band and making plans and deepening bonds and trying to memorize lines. I have absolutely no complaints, the flowers are blooming, and life is wonderful. May this time stretch far and wide.

More soon, definitely.
<3M

trouble loving brat pack jinju- jackie, neil, emma sarah and eve

no cares in the world with eve, sarah and chelsea

 

 

 

late night sardines in the graveyard with youngil, sean, erik and jackie

 

 

The Best Easter Ever!

Weekends are the best!!

Another one for the books.... Friday was the Gay Sexxyz' last band practice ever! Kind of sad, but we dragged it out and played late into the night. While walking home, Jonathan took me on a "whore tour" of Jinju, winding through the red light district I never even knew existed. There were dozens of prostitutes, young and old, standing all over the place in varying states of undress, calling to us and laughing hysterically. It was an experience!

Here's a video of us performing at Jam Bar last weekend.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and took an hour long bus ride to Masan with my girlfriends, and another hour long bus ride to Jinhae for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. It was estimated that three million people were heading there on Saturday; the bus from Masan to Jinhae was absolutely, insanely, god-awfully packed. My face was smooshed directly into the stinking armpit of a big Pakistani man, but by golly we made it there, and breathed fresh country air. The weather was a dream, a perfect 70 degrees with a light breeze. The festival wasn't really what we expected; we kind of envisioned groves of pink flowers and a really rural kind of place. It was a town with Cherry Blossom lined streets, which were beautiful but really spread out. The Japanese planted these trees very methodically when they last invaded in the 1930s.

Caz on the sardine bus

Why wouldn't a cherry blossom festival feature a booth with a panda head?

deep fried baby chicks... delicious

the blossoms

There were tons of interesting things to look at and do, my favorite being a Korean "Lady Boy," performing racy songs in hideous make up out of a dilapidated van. We exhausted ourselves after walking around, headed back the hour to Masan, and went to an awesome restaurant called Mexico. We feasted on delicious authentic Mexican food and gulped Sangria, then headed back to Jinju.

Later on that night, the Gay Sexxyz had our last show ever. Despite the varying degrees of drunk that we were, we played really well and it went down as a fond farewell. We packed people into our practice space, drank and danced the night away. Still after everyone left, Jonathan, Sseann and I played late into the night. I ended up buying the keyboard from Jonathan, and there are plans to keep the band going (though, without a bassist or a drummer, it's probably going in a different direction....)

Easter Sunday, I peeled myself out of bed (a Sunday regularity) and headed to Jinju castle for a picnic and Easter egg hunt with my pals. We snacked on nuts and chicken and fruits, and then it was time to play. Jackie hollowed out 60 eggs and filled them with confetti (a Mexican tradition) and once we divided into teams, we spent all afternoon hunting. Once we found them, it was time for hide and seek/smashing the eggs over other people's heads (for good luck!). It was a complete riot, running around in the sunshine and laughing and being crazy; I left with egg shells and glitter peppered throughout my hair (not an abnormal afternoon).

a little sad to say goodbye to this

After I combed the debris out, I headed to Jonathan's goodbye dinner at a delicious pork barbeque place. The eight of us stuffed ourselves with food and drink and tried not to think about the obvious....

Today the sun is shining and so am I. My school even bought me an oven today, which I am far beyond excited about- I can't wait to bake my brains out. I feel so optimistic about the future, and I had so much fun this weekend, I know I can get through the week on top.
More soon!!
<3M

Volley BALLIN

Yesterday, my school's volleyball team (which I play on) had a match against Yong-oh Elementary school, where my friend Jackie works. This is the first time this kind of thing has been done, and I'm told they did it because they knew Jackie and I were friends- and they were curious to see us together (serious!). Usually, Wednesday volleyball is kind of what we call a "club activity," ie, it's no big deal. No one takes it very seriously, there's a lot of laughter, the air is generally light hearted, and I usually pull some wild antics to generate laughter, ie, cartwheels, high kicks, team chants, and throwing myself on the floor/pretending to dive for the ball. It's good fun.

However, yesterday was different. As soon as I walked into the gym and saw the other school already stretching/lined up in the bleachers, my stomach sank. This wasn't going to be fun. Soon enough, we sot into our "positions" (in Korean volleyball, the rules are a bit different: kicking the ball soccer style counts as a volley; there is no such thing as rotation- you stay in your position the entire game. The specifics of "where is out" change every game. It's a bit hard for me to follow sometimes but I just go with it) and started playing. The gym teacher began yelling, the male teachers were spiking the ball harder than ever, and within five minutes (seriously!) the groundskeeper, Mr. Ha Dae Su, was out of the game with a pretty serious knee injury. Every time the ball came even remotely close to me, the gym teacher darted in front of me and whammed it out of the way, dripping with sweat, all the while yelling at each other. No one laughed, except me and Jackie. I tried pulling the dive maneuver once... it bombed.

frenemies

serious stuff! my principal was the adorable ref.

After the first game (which we lost!), I decided I didn't want to end up with a broken nose today, and decided to keep score. The other teachers seemed relieved, and I watched Jackie own the court (she's seriously good! and fast!). We lost the second game and somewhere down the line, the music teacher must have assumed I sucked at keeping score, because she sat right next to me and took over.

The third game, Jackie and I sat together and talked trash. After the third game (we won!), we all went out to dinner together as a giant group. Jackie and I sat with her co-teachers and scarfed down beef barbeque and lettuce wraps (yum!) and talked more trash. She's the best. It was so nice to have someone completely understand me on my own turf- I wish she were here every day! (Though... I really could care less if we ever do another volleyball tournament, haha. I can't wait to get back to the light hearted atmosphere of regular volleyball club.)

beef bbq... looks kind of gross when it isn't cooked.

me and jackie! she's a ray of light

This weekend promises to be exciting, with the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Gay Sexxyz's farewell show, and Easter Sunday at Jinju Castle. 
More soon!

M

Gay Sexxyz... Part I

A wild, craaaazy hilarious fun weekend!
Friday night, the Gay Sexxyz, played our first show ever at a small bar with a tiny but well equipped stage near the university (I played a triple decker keyboard, it was super professional!). We wanted this show to kind of be a practice run for the next night- so we didn't tell anyone about it. Jon (the bassist) and I picked the instruments up at our practice space and took them to the bar to set up around 9; we started around 11, and though there were only about 10 people there, we had a really fun time and felt prepared for the next day.

Saturday was the big show at Jam Bar, but also a bake sale/fundraiser for the Vagina Monologues (being involved in both things, I had a busy day). I made a trip over to a friend's apartment to bring some baking items and enjoy the gorgeous weather. At 7, it was time for the sound check, blowing up balloons and putting makeup on the men. To keep with the Gay/Sexxyz theme, I brought plenty of clothes to dress the men in- and they were good sports, for the most part- though it kind of sucked to see them looking better in my stuff than I do. After fried chicken and beer, it was time to get back to the bar and go. The place was pretty packed! We were shocked when we walked in and there was nowhere to sit! The VM girls brought 200 jello shots and the place was lined with baked goods. After getting There were three openers, girls on guitars singing covers. It was clear the crowd needed some gay sexxyz and quickly.

We came out in epic form, played our 13 song set flawlessly, and the audience loved it. All of our friends were there and danced enthusiastically the whole set, I was thankful for their support. I played guitar-and sang! And afterwards we rode the rockstar wave to free beers and pats on the back from our friends. In true rock and roll fashion, someone threw a pie in Jon's face while he was smoking a cigarette, we all died. It was magical, I didn't want it to end! Not ready to go home just yet, we crammed 15 people into a norebang (karaoke closet) and screamed and laughed and sang and drank until the wee hours.

jamie and ssean, wearing my clothes and makeup

me, jon, jamie, ssean, jake (on the drums)

playing the guitar on "Beat Back"

burning down jinju!

It was a magical evening, I can't wait until Saturday, sadly our third and final show. More pictures to come!

Yesterday was absolutely beautiful weather. I peeled myself out of bed, shook off a layer of glitter and met my girlfriends in the park for an afternoon of a lot of laughing and chugging water. It turns out, the fundraiser for the VMs (from the bake sale, jello shots, and other donations) raised almost $500! That means, the two fundraisers I organized (with the dance party last weekend) combined raised almost $1000! My part in the money making is done, haha- now it's time to memorize some lines.

caroline, emma, me, jiwon, and eve loving the warm weather (jackie's taking the pic)

Then last night, it was dinner with Jon and Ssean and back to the bar to pick up our gear and stuff it into a taxi to take back to the practice space.

I wish every weekend were just like this one.

More soon,
M