My first live music gig in Korea

So tomorrow night I'm taking the stage at Benchwarmers for a solo guitar set. This will be the first time I've played in public since The Hinge in 2002--a long time! Today I finally decided on the set list, after practicing through things all week. Here it is:

Wonderwall - Oasis
I've Just Seen a Face - The Beatles
Blackbird - The Beatles
Oh Susanna - James Taylor
Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants
1979 - Smashing Pumpkins
Beautiful - James Blunt
Overs - Simon and Garfunkel
Light Up My Room - Barenaked Ladies
Country Roads - John Denver

It's a 35 minute set--I played straight through today and boy it's tough to play that long when you're as out of practice as I am :)

So if you happen to be in Korea tomorrow night, come out to Bench and cheer me on! :) I'm sure I'll be plenty nervous. I could always do the ol Stevie Ray Vaughn thing and get hammered before taking the stage. Or maybe not. I don't think that worked out too well for him in the end.

Warning....non-Korea post ahead :)

I'm always on the hunt for good Catholic blogs, so it's always a joy to report I've found one. I mentioned Catholic Sensibility before, and let me add to the The Deacon's Bench.

A deacon is a clergyman in the Catholic Church who is not called to the priesthood. Most of them are married. Here's a little bit about deacons in the Catholic Church from Wikipedia:

Deacons can administer the sacrament of Baptism and serve as the church's witness at the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, which the bride and groom administer to each other. Deacons may preside at funerals, the Liturgy of the Hours, various services such as Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and they may give blessings. They cannot give absolution, anoint the sick, or say Mass. In the liturgy, it is proper for the deacon to proclaim the Gospel (in fact, a priest, bishop, or even the Pope may not proclaim the Gospel if a deacon is present) and distribute Holy Communion. Transitional and permanent deacons both have the faculty to preach the homily by right of their ordination unless the priest presider retains that ministry to himself in any particular liturgy.

So basically, a deacon can do everything a priest can do except for the exceptions above.

Anyway (where am I going with this, I know), the blog I found is called The Deacon's Bench. The writer is Greg Kandra, a Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, and a 25-year veteran of CBS News. Kandra's day job is writing for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. He lives with his wife in Queens.

How awesome is the Brooklyn deacon logo?


Anyway, if you're interested, here are some stories linked from The Deacon's Bench:

An Orthodox Jewish Cowboy? Yup.

Why Non-Catholics Like Catholic Schools

"The Media: At the Crossroads Between Self-Promotion and Service."- By Pope Benedict

Slice of Life: Friday Night

I took a short movie of what my normal Friday nights are like "out on the town." Enjoy!

Also, tons of new pictures added!

Coffee and Dr. Fish

Every time I think I know all the weird things there are to know about Korea, out comes something new. There are various places around the country called Dr. Fish. They are usually accompanied by a beverage, like "Coffee and Dr. Fish" or "Tea and Dr. Fish." The premise is, you go in, have a cup of whatever, and stick your feet in a large aquarium, where fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet. Pleasant, eh? Actually, I kinda want to try it. I'll let you know if I find a Dr. Fish place in Ulsan.

It's freakin cold!

Tonight was the coldest I've ever been in Korea. Walking to the bus stop after Gumdo class and walking home from the bus stop it was so cold I took a wrong turn and was momentarily lost. Speaking of Gumdo class, the heat was turned off inside for some reason. I always get there early and sweep the floor (gotta do what I can to improve America's image as gun-toting rednecks), and my feet felt like they were going to fall off as soon as I took off my socks. Gumdo's going well, though. You'll notice I misspelled it in my original post. Kumdo is like Kendo, Gumdo is like...kinda like kenjitsu, I guess. Lots of forms, no contact or sparring. I'm definitely seeing an increase in my flexibility and I know I'm losing weight. Training four days a week instead of one or two is wonderful, especially since I don't have anything else to do, being on vacation and all.


In other news, I've been catching up on some TV shows I bought DVDs of back in the States. I'm on Disc 3 of My So-Called Life now. It still holds up really well, and though the fashion screams early-90's, the writing is just as poignant as ever. Claire Danes was never so pretty as she was playing Angela Chase. I remember really identifying with Brian Krakow (sp), but now he really comes off as a jerk who can't come to terms with a lot of things. Sounds like me--maybe I identify with him more than I want to admit.

I'm also watching the complete series of The Adventures of Pete and Pete. I can't say enough good things about that show. If you haven't seen it, you need to. Never before or since has a kid's show been so delightfully surreal.

That's it for now. Tomorrow, same schedule--get up, lay around, take a shower, take a walk, watch those tv shows, watch a movie if I'm in the mood, then go to gumdo. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The amazing Korean post office.

Recently I began sending all my packages to my school. It's a lot easier for the letter carriers to drop stuff off in the main office than go through all the rigmarole (10 points for using "rigmarole" in a sentence) of knocking on my door, discovering I'm not home, calling me, discovering I don't speak Korean, and finally leaving the package with my landlord. The last package I got at my house though was something special. There was nothing special about the contents of the package--just some jewelry I got as a Christmas present for my co-teacher at Gangdong Middle School, but the location of the package is what really got me.

I ordered the earrings in the beginning of December. They were shipped on December 18th. Therefore, I should have received them by the end of December. Turns out, I did. I called the guy who I got the earrings from (a foreigner living in Korea), he asked his Korean wife to call the post office to check on the shipment, and they told her that the letter carrier delivered the package on December 20th. Ok. They also told her that the letter carrier put the package in the TV amplifier box outside my apartment. Not in my mailbox (it would have fit). Not outside my door. Not with my landlord. In the metal box crammed with wires and a TV amplifier. And there it stayed. Somehow it never occurred to me to look there, even though I never got a note or anything to tell me that's where it was. Anyway, I get that email from the guy yesterday, and sure enough, that's where the box was. All's well that ends well, I suppose.

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

If the title didn't give it away, this is a non-Korea post :) Feel free to skip if you're so inclined.

In the Catholic Church, next week begins the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Of course, Christians should always pray for unity, but in this week a special prominence is given to what each branch of Christianity brings to the faith. Here's one of my favorite quotes from a French Bishop.

"Some aspects of the Mystery of the faith have been developed better by each Christian tradition.

The Christians of the East have always emphasized the resurrection of Christ that already transfigures the world. Is it not because of this that in past centuries many of them were able to endure decades of suffering? The East has preserved the teaching of the Church Fathers with great fidelity. Monasticism, which it gave to the West, has breathed a life of contemplation into the entire Church. Can Western Christians become more open to these treasures?

The Christians of the Reformation have strongly stressed these Gospel realities: God offers his love freely and unconditionally; by his Word he comes to whoever listens to it and puts it into practice; the simple trusting of faith leads to the freedom of the children of God; singing together allows the Word of God to penetrate us. Are not these values essential for all Christians?

The Catholic Church has kept visible, throughout history, the universality of communion in Christ. It has constantly looked for a balance between the local Church and the universal Church. One cannot exist without the other. A ministry of communion at all levels has helped to maintain unanimity in the faith. Cannot all baptized persons go further in a progressive understanding of this ministry?"

Read more at the Vatican web site here.

Kumdo!

I started taking Kumdo lessons last night. Kumdo is the Korean version of Kendo, which means "the way of the sword." Unlike Kendo, though Kumdo encompasses work with a wooden sword, which (I believe) falls under the category of Kenjitsu in Japan. Also, the work with the wooden sword is only done alone, not with a partner. Kumdo forms are much flashier and acrobatic than the forms (kata) used in iaido, which is mainly focused on only drawing the sword, cutting the enemy down, and re-sheathing the sword. All these differences were just things that I observed watching yesterday. I'll keep updating as I learn more.

My dojang is great. There are only about five students in the adult class, and we can practice up to five nights a week (I'll practice every night but Friday, due to church choir practice). There is one other foreigner in my class, who I met through working at the English Village in Hogye, and her Korean is pretty good, so I'm sure she'll be of great help to me. The foreigner fee is only $20 a month too! You can't beat that, especially for four nights of training a week.

I'm back!

Well, kind of. I don't have much to do when I come to school. I only "teach" between 9-10 and 3-4. I put "teach" in quotes because most of the time the students don't show up. That's fine with me--I got an iPod Touch for Christmas and its movie player function has been of immense value to me. I've been watching Boston Legal and all the great (and not so great) video podcasts that are out there.

Let's see, what else...today the principal invited me out for lunch along with one of the English teachers at the school that I don't teach with, as well as some other guy. I figure we'll drive, or at least walk on the road, but no. He takes us straight through a muddy field. In Korea, there are little plots of land used for farming everywhere outside of the biggest cities. So here I was in my dress shoes, walking through a recently plowed field. Not so happy. But at least the food was good--pork bulgogi, some kind of mint-shaped lettuce with a strange (but not bad strange) taste, and some other unidentifiable vegetable. Oh yeah, and Korean style noodles, but they had a fish-based broth so I didn't partake.

I've been putting a lot of thought into what I want to do next year. It looks like selling my car is out of the question, because of the way I decided to pay for it, so I'm considering going back to Newport News and interviewing for a TCIS position, which is basically a technology coordinator job. I know I have the skills for it and there are some TCIS's in the system that will vouch for me. On the other hand, I really do like it here, but it kills me having to pay for a car that I can't drive. Also, although my job here is stress-free, I still miss English conversation outside of the weekends when I trek down to the foreigner's pub. Another upside to the TCIS job is the significant bump in salary--not only would I be able to pay for my car faster, but I'd also be able to pay off my credit card loans that are preventing me from going to grad school.

Oh yeah, grad school. Right now, I've decided that maybe I don't want to be a lawyer after all. It's back on the old Library Science wagon (at least for now.) I'm really interested in document conservation, as I have been, well, forever, and the best place in the country to go for that is The University of Texas at Austin. I checked out their program; it really looks top-notch. Not to mention the awesome music scene in Austin. Who knows what I'll be thinking when the time comes to actually make this decision, though. I'll keep you posted!