Updates, School Festival, Cute Kitties, and the weekend...

Well... this is going to be a long one.

1. First off, a few updates. I have a real live telephone interview for a post in the UAE on Tuesday. I'm pretty nervous and excited about it, and just ask that you keep your fingers crossed for me. Both of our computers are functioning at the moment. My laptop has been limping along for the past few months, but our awesome external drive means that I didn't actually lose any data (like 3+ years' worth of photos), and I can actually use it again. Awesome.

2. Last Thursday was my school festival. For the past 2 months, I've been lucky enough (sarcasm) to get to listen to small children banging on drums in the hallway, or play the same 4 recorder notes over and over again. I've also got specific Korean pop songs that are indelibly etched into my brain matter from hearing them over and over again.

Alex joined me at my school for the morning performance which featured everything from traditional Korean dance to hoochie chair dances, to a homoerotic inter-species kiss, to some very racy outfits on very young children, to a dramatic performance that made no sense, and so on.

For all of you who have watched talent shows or recitals in North America, you need to understand that the way it's done in Korea is quite different. There is no intermission, or even a pause between performances. For two solid hours, you have show after show coming on, with each class doing up to 3 dances, songs, performances... whatever. I'm going to let my photos do the talking...

It started with the three Korean national anthems, a few speeches and a cake-cutting ceremony. Yes, it looks like a wedding cake with candles on top. We applaud when it is cut, but nobody gets to eat it.

Traditional hanbok. This is almost the cutest thing you've ever seen....

There is nothing in the world cuter than a 3-year old Korean boy who is overjoyed to find himself on stage in a sparkly costume. Don't even try.

The first and second grade girls did a few dance numbers. Alex and I were both a bit disturbed by what the girls were wearing and how they were dancing. It was over-the-top suggestive. After the performance, we were walking around downtown and saw women dancing like this downtown:

These are not the actual women that we saw, but this is a common sight here: scantily clad women dancing around in front of a store next to an inflatable plastic tube thing, generally used to advertise a big sale or grand opening at a store. Needless to say, Alex and I thought that my 2nd graders have bright futures ahead of them as street dancers. Disturbing, eh?

The world's least hygienic instrument. Try not to imagine a tube full of saliva connected to a keyboard. You're welcome.

If you go to a school recital, and your son/daughter is playing the triangle, this means that he/she is bad. Note that he has not been given a saliva-keyboard, xylophone, recorder or anything else. He's been given an instrument that requires him to stand motionless for 5 minutes, until he gets to hit it. Once.

The 6th grade orchestra features no less than 6 triangle players.

Seosan Elementary School proudly presents its future triangle section of the 6th grade orchestra, and future lead triangle player.

Super-wicked-awesome fan dancing. Photos do not do justice to the grace and beauty of this form of dancing.

It was a great way to spend the day, though, and the kids all performed well. For a small school that doesn't have a lot of money, they did go full-out on making it a good day. The audience (no photos, unfortunately) was mostly made up of old grandmothers with mouths full of gold teeth. It was probably the social event of their year, and just made me feel good about working at a small school like this one.

3. In other news, the cats have been excessively cute lately and I finally have had a chance to upload some photos (now that the laptop is working again). Keeping in mind that it will cost us quite a bit to export/import our kitties to another country, I wonder if they are just doing this on purpose so that we don't leave them behind...

4. Annnnnd, we've just survived an awesome socially-fulltothebrim weekend. Friday night, we shared real cheese fondue with our friends Wim and Fallon, then welcomed Jessika from Suncheon on her whirlwind visit to Mokpo. Saturday was a recuperation day, as Jessika, Zach and Fallon joined us for brunch and a lazy afternoon at our place before heading out for bowling and Vietnamese food with Stu.