The Puzzle of My Life

Here it is the end of July already. I am perilously close to finishing my contract here. As of the moment of this writing, I am approximately 111 days away from stepping back onto American soil. Well...not soil per se, because they don't have open fields of dirt at LAX. But you know what I mean.

I'm doing my best to make these last days count. What can I accomplish for myself? What can I accomplish for other people? The guests of English Village? My co-workers? My boss? Etc. I really want to squeeze as much goodness into the remaining days as I can. I tell you this not only so you know what I'm thinking about, but so that you can encourage me to continue in this mindset.

In other news, I do know what I'll be doing once I return to California.

Starting on January 5, 2009, I'll be back in schools presenting interactive history programs for 4-6th graders. My experience in Korea, specifically with the kids, has reinforced my desire to work with kids in some capacity.

It started with camp (nope, not Disneyland--I didn't really work with kids there, and mostly the kids would just scream and whine, so I tended to avoid them).

Me at Disneyland, with mom and dad when they rode my Jungle Cruise--In 2004 I was invited to work at Idyllwild Arts Camp for the summer. I would be working with 13-15 year old boys. I thought it would be awful. But it turned out to be a highlight of my life. I returned every summer for the next 3 years.

Some awesome choir kids (Brett and Eric)--My awesome family for ALL my summers (except the first one because I arrived late)-- Hard at work (no...this was totally staged...I can't save anyone)--
Here you see I'm really not all that different from the campers--
From there, I worked with kids at the Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona. After moving back to AZ after camp that first summer (and after finishing my horrible experience at a tele-marketing company), I got a job as a teacher's assistant and substitute teacher at the beautiful, new, Mesa Arts Center. It was a very part-time thing, and I only worked a few days a week anyway. It was basically a summer day-care type program for kids interested in artsy stuff. They could take ceramics classes, improv classes, music classes, dance classes, acting classes, etc. It was a blast. Even though I was just an assistant (though I did teach a few acting/improv classes when the teacher was gone), I really bonded with the kids. One of the kids even invited me over to his house to play. It was hilarious. His mother was very nice and invited me for lunch--and then I literally played baseball in the backyard with some of the kids from the program. It was a very short, but very impactful experience.

Some of the kids I worked with; guess which one I got along with??? (duh, the kid making the face, that's Dylan)--Then there was Baton Rouge. Forgive me if you've already heard this story. During the summer of 2006, while working at camp, I met a group of teenagers from New Orleans. They'd lost their homes (and much of their life) in Hurricane Katrina the year before. After hanging out and talking with them for the two weeks of their stay in Idyllwild, I was invited by their sponsors (art therapists who had been hired by Rosie O'Donnell to work with the kids, and this trip to camp was part of their healing process) to join a group of workers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (my birth state) to be present for the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Working not only with the teenagers at camp, but later the younger kids in Baton Rouge forever changed my internal understanding of life and education.

Looking official; notice the raindrops--I'd just helped save the side of this tent which had blown open due to the wind and rain-- The kids were working on art projects in the community tent--
Cute--
I promise I spent a LOT of time working--but here I'm clearly not...drinking my drink from Subway, scratching my head; the kids are showing their projects--
Then there was CWE. This company allowed me the opportunity to move back to California in 2006 (after I'd returned to AZ in 2004 after my first summer in Idyllwild). With my job, I traveled to hundreds of schools and did hundreds of programs for 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. In a year and a half, I got to work with some 12,000 kids. That's a lot. You could be a teacher for 300 years and not teach that many kids! Granted, I didn't get to spend an entire year with them, I only had 2 1/2 hours each time; but you get my point. I had the opportunity to influence, however small, lots of kids.

Some awesome 4th graders after the "Walk Through California"--And now Korea. Like Disneyland, this place is ultimately designed for kids. Adults sometimes like to learn English, too, but they don't usually like to pose for pictures with fuzzy characters like Hippokey, Doony, and the other weird characters at English Village. I've seen lots of kids here. I do have the opportunity to talk to many kids. Lots of kids see our shows.

Daniel and me (he speaks very good English, and is a regular visitor of EV)--I also get to visit kids at the group home/orphanage called Peacetown. Talk about an invaluable, life-changing experience. I just made my 5th visit this past Monday. We played games outside for the entire visit. I brought a frisbee and a beach ball--the ones I got free from buying boxes of various cereals. The kids had a great time outside, and they were rewarded with ice cream (we bought it). It was a great visit, like all the others. Natasha, my coworker who has spearheaded these visits, will be leaving at the end of August. Her contract is finished. From September through the end of my contract, I will be taking over. I will be emailing/calling Peacetown to schedule and plan our monthly visits. Natasha and I are the only ones who have gone EVERY time we've scheduled a visit. I'm looking forward to my small role in this entire thing; and as I've written before, if for no other reason, I am glad I came to Korea just to meet and visit with these kids.

What's remarkable about this entire Korea experience is that most of the kids do not speak English. It's funny, because I have all this various experience working with kids; and a lot of it doesn't even matter here.

Let's assume that I'm good at relating to kids. Who cares? It's a whole new game in Korea. If I say "I like your shirt" or ask "Do you like Mickey Mouse?" here...I get blank stares. The little tricks I learned in all my other experiences have not really helped me here. It's undoubtedly given me a foundation of how to relate to kids (getting down to their level to talk to them, especially if they're nervous or shy, etc.), but I've had to create new ways to get them to understand me.

Learning to communicate non-verbally is incredibly strange. Not necessarily difficult--but it's hard to measure whether you're successful at it or not. "Did the audience understand what I was asking because I spoke clearly or because my wild, animated movements helped them understand?" "Are they all talking over me because they just don't understand English and are bored, or am I not doing enough to captivate them?" It can be quite a headache.

All these experiences, as I've said, have simply reinforced my desire to work more with kids/youth. To some who know me best, this entire "working with kids" thing is hilariously bizarre. Had you asked me 5 years ago whether I'd want to work with kids, nearly exclusively, I would have laughed maliciously at you and then thrown paint at you.

But such is the journey of life...one which I hope I'm not close to finishing. There are many more blogs to write.

Counting Down

Hello.

I haven't been up to much, except trying to survive the horrendous weather to be had here in South Korea.

Temperatures of 85 plus 100% humidity equal out to being a pretty ugly day...especially when all my tasks involve wearing a costume piece and being outside in the elements.

In addition to that, it is apparently "rainy" season now. I say that, not because it's the official name for this time of year, but because IT RAINS A LOT. It's raining right now, in fact. Though calling it a "Rain Shower", as my weather.com info board tells me, doesn't quite adequately describe it. It's torrential. Fortunately, I do have an umbrella--but in weather like this--I need an umbrella for the lower half of my body as well--because the rain is just attacking my entire body.

I've lived in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and California. Obviously, there are certain weather elements in each of those places--Louisiana has hot and humid summers, Pennsylvania has cold and snowy winters, Arizona has hot everything, and California is just lovely.

I remember when I was a kid in Louisiana. I remember it would rain and rain and rain for what seemed like days on end. I remember the darkness at night would change to daylight for an instant with a bright flash of lightning. I still don't think I've ever seen lightning like what I saw in Louisiana.

But the rain here in South Korea is outrageous. I check my weather thing everyday...because it's just a habit. People in places like San Diego are lucky...their weather is generally always the same. The weatherman/meteorologists really have the simplest of all jobs. "Umm...well, today...it's going to be absolutely beautiful again. Now let's take a look at the 10 day forecast...here you can see we've simply copied and pasted today's forecast into the slots for the rest of the week."

But anyway, I look at the weather thing every day. Yesterday and today it said 100% chance of rain--and they were absolutely right. And as I said, the humidity is typically well above 80% every day. You might suggest that I turn on my air conditioner, but if you recall my story about using the heating unit--you should know that the air conditioner is equally ridiculously expensive. So I don't use it. I bought a fan, and it works very well.

I just returned from playing indoor volleyball at the gym we have here. It was my first time doing that since coming here 243 days ago. Oh yeah, I'm keeping track of my days now. I have 122 days left in Korea (that's not just working days, that's total). Counting down gives me something big to look forward to. There are some small things I have to look forward to:

1) We are making another trip to Peacetown--the kids home--next Monday. I very much look forward to spending time with the kids, and I even have started collecting little things to bring them. As I've mentioned before, "service" is a very popular thing in Korea. It's the receiving of an additional "something" for free when purchasing a certain product. Certain items of service make sense. For instance, there are certain boxes of cereal you can buy that have a cereal bowl taped to the box. That bowl is free when you buy the cereal. Cool.

However, sometimes the service item makes absolutely no sense, as it has nothing to do with the item you're buying. This isn't to say the service item isn't useful--it's just a funny combination. For instance, I bought a box of cereal last week, and taped to the box was a frisbee. Sweet. Also, I bought a box of cereal today (if you're keeping track, I've now eaten 44 boxes of cereal since arriving in Korea 243 days ago), and taped to the box, was an inflatable beach ball. Awesome. I could have chosen a sun visor, but I chose the beach ball instead--because I know the kids at Peacetown would love it. During winter time, I purchased a box of cereal that had some small, pink-striped, white gloves taped to the box. I needed gloves at the time, so this purchase was a no-brainer. But you see my point, few people wear small, pink-striped, white gloves while eating cereal. Perhaps I could start a new trend...

2) Auditions for the fall season were held a few weeks ago. The theme for the season (Sept-Nov) is "Family". The two shows that were picked for this season are "Johnny's Football" and "The Squirrels". The first show is about a brother and sister who are locked out of their house by their mother on a summer day. While they're playing with a football, the ball goes into their neighbors yard. The neighbor is a very mean character who the children are frightened of. This show teaches ESL words like "over", "under", "around", etc.--words that I think are important and simple. The story revolves around the kids trying to get the ball back. When our department read through ALL the scripts that had been written for this season, I loved this script immediately. And I voted for this one. I knew it would be a show I'd want to be in.

The second show is about a human boy who is adopted and raised by 2 squirrels, who teach him all about "squirrel" things. The boy runs away from home because his squirrel dad can't accept that he's not a squirrel, and the boy consequently gets sort of kidnapped by 2 raccoons who want to use his "squirrel" skills of gathering, climbing, and digging for their selfish purposes. When our department read through all the scripts, I disliked this script immediately. It was confusing; and I did not understand why "gathering", "climbing", and "digging" were important enough words to be the crux of the story. I did NOT vote for this one--but it made it into the top 2 anyway.

I think you can see where this is going.

I went into the auditions knowing that this would be the last show I'd be doing here. My contract ends on Wednesday, November 19; and the season runs through the end of November. I won't even finish the entire run of the show. Because I knew this would be my last show--I definitely wanted to make it a good one.

To make a long story short--I was NOT cast in "Johnny's Football", despite my listing it on my audition form. I was cast as Huey, the human boy in "The Squirrels".

I'm not terribly thrilled about it, but of course I'll do my best. I get to sing much more in this show than in the last show I did (where I sang about 2 lines)--so that's a good thing. Unfortunately, I have to spend nearly 3 months eliciting "Gather!", "Climb!", and "Dig!" answers from Korean children; which is quite an impossible task. It's nearly impossible to get them to say "Pencil" out loud--you think they're going to know gather? I'm a native English speaker--and I don't use that word! So that's a frustrating prospect.

But I have to do it. I have no other choice. "It's for the betterment of the group." So, I guess I've "taken one for the team" here.

I'm sure you're thinking--"Do you have to wear a squirrel costume?" The answer is NO. Thank God in Heaven.

I'm also sad that my friend Candy is not going to be in this show with me. You may remember seeing her name and picture in various blogs. She's really the only person I hang out with outside of work, and she's really the only person I have really clicked with over here. I'm not saying I don't get along with anyone else--but there's just not the friendship with anyone else. Undoubtedly, I will get closer with the other people who are in this show with me--but that's not the point I'm making.

Basically, I'm looking forward to performing again. That's all I can really say about that.

3) Since I only have 122 days left here in Korea, I have been thinking about what I'm doing once I return to California. As crazy as it sounds, I had actually entertained the notion of staying in Korea an additional 6 months. This would have only been for financial reasons, and no other. However, that thought entered my brain, and within 48 hours, drifted out again. The cons far outweigh the pros in this case. It will be time for me to come home.

But what will I do for work? A handful of people have asked me this question, and I certainly don't have a solid answer as of yet.

And while I don't want to jinx it, or lose my opportunity by mentioning it here; I am excited about the possibility of returning to CWE (California Weekly Explorer), the great company that allowed me to move back to California in 2006. I could write a whole series of blogs just on the wonderful memories I have from working there for a year and a half. Working with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders was some of the most incredible work I've ever done. Incredible in terms of the actual value of the work itself, the intelligence and humor of the students--and the amazing insight into America's education system I gained during my time with the company.

I have not talked to anyone on any sort of official basis, but there may be a position open, starting in January there. I would be able to return to California in November (eat at In-N-Out Burger promptly upon my arrival), in time to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and have several weeks to visit with friends and family in Arizona as well before heading to Texas for Christmas. I could return to California to enjoy the New Year in my home country.

I'd work until June, when school gets out. Then, I'd be able to return to Idyllwild for the 5th time to work at the arts camp there. I'm missing Idyllwild very much right now. It's another of my life experiences that I could write voraciously about.

As many of you know, I want to work on a cruise ship. Even as I type this, I'm creating a one-man show for myself. My friend Shaun is helping me with some ideas. One possible title is: "Not So Famous". Ideally, it will combine comedy and song, talking about my various experiences (Disneyland, camp, Baton Rouge, Korea, etc.) and brushes with fame--not the least of which could be the time I chatted nonchalantly with Hugh Jackman, or the time Jim Carrey called me his cousin, or the time Michael Crawford gave me advice on how to make it as a performer.

As always--my mind is full of ideas and thoughts. There is much to consider. Obviously, all of these hopes and dreams rest on the idea that I will make it through the next 122 days. =)

Two weeks ago, my friend Candy got married--and I sang at the wedding, videotaped the wedding, walked her down the aisle (her family didn't fly over from Michigan), and took the wedding photos after the ceremony. It was a very nice day, and a wonderful experience. I have also been taking many photographs in between the rainfall. I will leave you with some pictures:

Both the rings--
My favorite shot of all that I took--
A grasshopper that wouldn't SHUTUP outside my house--
A dragonfly resting--
Two butterflies hooked at the rear end (they landed for a brief second)--
Spiders are officially EVERYWHERE in Korea, and I despise them; I was simply trying to get a good picture of one of these leaves, when I spotted this spider hanging out upside down RIGHT where my hand was (of course I screamed); do you see the spider?--

OH--I never posted a picture from this experience--but it's funny enough to share. This is from May; just before "School Days" ended. You may recall that there were 2 male characters in the show. Antonio, the Spaniard who was new to our school, endeavoring to learn English; and my character, Curtis, the idiot.

Well, Brian was the actor who was cast as Antonio, and Nic was cast as his understudy. However, Nic's contract ended in April, before the end of the show. So when Brian went on vacation in May--there was no one to do his part. Being the fanatical overachiever that I am, I volunteered to learn his part (though I knew much of it already after watching Brian play it about 100 times) and go in for him when he was on vacation--which was really only 2 shows. EASY. So here is a picture of me in HIS costume. Here you see Derek--who was MY understudy. Obviously, when I went in for Brian, Derek went in for me. It was a wild day--

UNTIL NEXT TIME!