Spring 2013 Update

Dear everyone in my life,
It is high time for an update. I have been so busy I can't even believe it!

1. The North Korea situation
As you probably have seen in the news, things between NK and SK aren't good at all right now. The outlook isn't great. I have received several messages from you wonderful people who love me asking if I'm alright. And, I am just fine! I am slightly unnerved by all of the stuff in the news, but the truth is, the only news I receive on this matter comes from the BBC or CNN. Koreans don't talk about this(at least to me), they don't worry about this, and it really, truly is business as usual over here. Every time I ask my co-teacher about the situation, she kind of rolls her eyes and says, "It will be ok. I promise you." I am about four hours south of Seoul and about five hours from the border with NK. I feel pretty safe, and I'm putting all of my trust in the power of the South Korean and US military powers. Really. Everything is ok. I don't feel threatened by the thought of invasion. No one I know has booked a flight out of here yet. I am not leaving Korea unless I ACTUALLY have to, or unless my contract is up. Though I will say that I have considered an emergency plan, which includes a couple spare bottles of water and flight to Thailand to wait it out (on a beach in the sun).

Korean police force on high alert!

2. Cancerton.
My band is BACK in full force! We have been recording like crazy, practicing a lot, and have managed to convince someone to let us play a spring festival for 3,000 people. WHAT!!!! That guy is definitely going to be fired! Haha. Our drummer, Tim, recently had to leave Jinju, so we replaced him with.... JACKIE!! She joined us for our first practice together yesterday, and it went well, but we all have a LOT of work to do before the festival.

A picture from the festival's page :) EXCITING! 

We anticipate our album to be finished by that time so we can give out copies after our show. The organizer of the festival has promised us a smoke machine and fireworks. I plan on crowd surfing to my own music. SO EXCITING! When will I ever get this kind of chance again? Only in Korea :)
Here's a link to our music page:
https://soundcloud.com/cancertron


3. The 24 Hour Play Project
Back in February, I organized a 24-Hour One Act Play writing festival. The way it went was each team would draw four random parameters (a line, a setting, a prop, and a character's name) and would have 24 hours to write an original one act play. (I both organized and participated in this event!) There was a panel of twelve judges from various theatrical backgrounds around the world who took a week to score the plays. The top four plays were chosen to be produced a month later. I wrote a play about a man with leprosy who lives in the basement of an old theatre and deals with a looming apocalypse by talking to characters from old plays. My play came in second place!!!! It was exciting.

Organizing friends into their roles for the production

The next part of the project was the production bit, which I also organized. I gathered a group of about 25 friends from my city and Changwon (an hour east of me). Everyone randomly drew the roles for each play and 24 hours later, the four plays were put on for an audience of about 65 people. The play I acted in was called "I'm Sticking With You," a comedy (with a musical number!) about two people at a speed-dating event who get stuck together with super-duct tape. It was AWESOME. I think everyone was really universally impressed by the production; everyone had completely memorized their lines by curtain time. The plays were funny, moving, and really well acted. I was proud and exhausted :)

A read-through with my group for "I'm Sticking With You"

"I'm Sticking With You" In action!

4. Writing Group
I started a writer's group for my city last month, and it has been really wonderful for me. There are nine of us in the group and every week we complete a prompt chosen by one of us in rotation. I find myself looking forward to doing the prompts more and more each week, and even more so to reading them. It made me think about my future, that is, well, after Korea. Thinking about "after Korea" has been a nightmarish thought to me for a long time now; it's pretty much the main reason I decided to stay another year here. Life here is simply too good and too easy to give up; the opportunities I've had here have been incredible, and I'm so thankful for them. But living here is kind of like living in Neverland. I feel like I'm putting off adulthood more and more by staying. I also don't think I can bear another year of goodbyes to people I've grown to love so much. I have no idea really what I want out of my life, and I've avoided the thought for far too long. During a skype session with my sister the other day, she suggested rather innocently, "Why don't you try Hollywood?" I guess that idea never crossed my mind because I thought it was out of my reach. But now, I kind of feel like, I could do it. I've accomplished so much in such a short time over here, I'm feeling like anything is really possible. I've started looking into film schools in Los Angeles, specifically for screenwriting. I don't know what will happen, but at least I have an idea of where my life is headed, which is more than I could say even last week. I know for certain that I will not be happy in any job unless I'm allowed to create something on my own. If I don't try, I'll never know. And if I fail, I'll have a better chance at being happy doing something else.

Anyway, just thoughts. For the time being, I am safe, happy, and extremely busy. More sometime soon. <3M

Summer Update

It's been a minute! I've been keeping pretty busy and there are too many crazy and wonderful things to mention over the duration of the last month, which has pretty much been a blur of non-stop fun and funny adventures. There is so much to celebrate- life is so good every day. I'll go with my birthday first.

I turned 25 last Tuesday! It snuck up on me and I didn't plan anything special, but when I got to school, the teachers had gotten a cake for me and surprised me by singing Happy Birthday in (sort of) English! It was really a special gesture. I celebrated my quarter century with a lengthy nap at school. When I got home, I found many wonderful surprises hidden in my apartment from Sean, followed by an awesome Japanese dinner, cupcakes, more surprises and drinks with Eve, Sarah, Jackie, Anna and Chelsea. To top off a freaking awesome day, Sean made McGriddles for me the next morning. On top of officially now (finally) being tapeworm free (!), all in all 25 couldn't have started any better.

Next, the fourth of July:

Being that it fell on a workday here, and most of us are in bed by 11 on weeknights (really cool I know) we had to really commit to the idea of celebrating here in Jinju. Jackie organized the meeting place down by the river (and brought her grill!) around 8:30 and steadily, Americans and the other foreigners who love us flowed in. All in all there were maybe twenty of us, it was really lovely! We roasted marshmallows, shot off fireworks, sang the national anthem together, danced, swam in the river, and drank far more than we should (I called in sick to work the next day.... for the first time. Though I didn't feel guilty because I made a pizza).

(me... ha!) Eve and Dallas by the riverside

This weekend the band is going to get to work on recording music! Our practices have been steadily getting better and we're even playing our first show as Cancertron this Saturday night. We've been hard at work writing all of the music and we're all really excited! 

Other important news:
I am officially staying in Korea until (at least) September 2013! Though it's not quite time to collect my thoughts over my year here, I am so happy here, and feel ready to begin another contract.

More soon!!
<3 M

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