Holidays and thoughts

Well, looks like I do have enough time to put up one last update before my journey to Japan. I guess it has been 3.5 months since my journies brought me to the Great Wall of China! It really doesn't seem that long ago! I guess when you're busy during the weeks and exploring a country that still offers new things to do on the weekends, time goes by quickly.

It's May 1st, which means that April is now over. April was a good month I think, considering during May I will be working overtime (it is a requirement in my contract). April had three birthdays: My Sister Jill, my Dad and my late dog, Bits! This is the first April 30th that went by that we didn't have Bits. I still talk about him a lot here, and I spend lots of time with Mark & Jennifer's dogs a lot too! I think I can't be pet-less! haha.

May is bringing some birthdays as well! My sister Donna's birthday and her daughter Arielle's birthday will happen, and they have gifts coming their way from Korea!

Speaking of birthdays, Steph sent me a bunch of videos from her Aunt Erin's birthday back in January, but they didn't have any sound. For some reason, now when I click on them, I can open them up in a different program (windows movie maker), and watch them with sound! It's wonderful! It's like I'm hanging out back in Hamilton again! (Not to mention it looked like a great party!)

Well, as I mentioned about a thousand times in my blog, I'm going to Japan tomorrow. It should be fun, although I still don't know what we're going to do when we get there. I think I will go to the bank today and try to get money switched to Yen, because if I'm running behind or if anything happens at the airport tomorrow, I won't have time to switch it there.

Oh! I saw the Beethoven concert yesterday! It was so nice to get back to a orchestra concert. I have seen a ballet and a musical since I've been here in Korea, but nothing beats an orchestra concert. It made my heart ache a little to see them playing that stuff. I wondered how long it would be until I could play in an orchestra (or with any group) again. I guesstimated 10 months or so for french horn, and 7 for piano. I could play piano for something when I get home, but I need to whip myself back into shape if I want to play french horn for anything (which I hope will be happening in May in Woodstock as it usually does).

Anyway, the concert was great, but getting there and back wasn't. We were running late on the way there, so instead of transferring the second transfer on the subway, we decided to just go up to the street and catch a cab to the Seoul Arts Centre where the concert was playing. However, there were no cabs to be found. We finally got one after walking around for a long time. We got in and told him where we wanted to go (Saw-ool Ah-tuh-suh Sayn-tah-yo?).

We finally got there, (at 8:01) and went into the wrong building. When we finally got our tickets (in the right building), and walked up to the 3rd floor (we got $10 dollar cheap seat tickets), the applause was signalling the end of the first piece on the program (Overture to Leonare). We just made it in time for the piano concerto (which was really well done!)

After he played the concerto, he gave two encores - the first was the second movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (very pretty indeed), and the second was La Campenella by Liszt. It was pretty impressive!

Then they played Symphony #3 in Eb and for the love of me I couldn't help but visualise Dr. Stokes at UWO swaying back and forth when he was explaining to us the opening of the first movement; happily so at first, until the cellos mess everything up by playing a C# in the 7th measure (causing Dr. Stokes to shudder and retract like a misbehaving small child that's just heard his parents' promise of only coal for Christmas).

On the way home, it was even more of a big adventure than getting there, and maybe even more of an adventure than the time I had to take a cab home from Hondae (I seem to remember posting that on here). We got back to the subway alright, and got on the subway, counted the stops (16), and sat down to relax after a nice long day full of arts and culture. Some time later, I thought to myself that we should be there by now. Unfortunately, we had gone the wrong way on the subway, and we were in the N.E. of Seoul, when we are supposed to be in the S.W. So, a total of 46 subway stops later, we finally made it as far as we could go (it had reached the time when all the subways stop running). So, we exited the subway station to take a cab home. We figured it should be about 20,000 won to get home from there. So, we found many cab drivers (they know when the last subway runs). They were shouting things like "Incheon, 30,000! Bucheon 20,000! Taxi issoyo! (taxis here).

Well, we were just so happy that there was a cab to take, that we accepted the first offer of 20,000 to Bucheon. I followed Lindsay into the cab, took a moment to take a deep breath and then looked around me. There was a man in the passengers seat, and a girl next to Lindsay in the back seat. They were also passengers! Smart taxi drivers... they are asking all of us for the same amount of money, making 60,000 off of a 20,000 drive. If we got out of the cab though, we would have ended up in another cab doing the same thing.

So we just settled with what we got. The cab driver was INSANE. He was going 120 on a street like Upper Wentworth in Hamilton (for those of you who don't know, think of a street with many stop lights, maybe 3 lanes each way). He was running red lights, weaving through traffic and talking to the girl behind him (the one next to Lindsay).

Anyway, I think the girl next to Lindsay was drunk, but we didn't know how much English she knew so we were talking about the whole situation in big long words, so that we knew they wouldn't understand: "I am pondering - I am considering that our fellow passenger may be inebriated"... "I think the operator of this vehicle may be inebriated." ... "Lindsay, I hope you don't become a projectile!" (she was sitting in the middle of the back seat) Her reply to that last one was "At least I wouldn't have to worry about the Swine Flu!" haha.

Well, we made it home in one piece, THREE HOURS after the concert ended. It was 1:30.

12 hours later writing this post, I think I should be kissing the ground of Bucheon or something, but I'll just calm down and be thankful I didn't DIE last night. Alright, that's all of my words for today. This is a long post.

Have a great weekend, and I'll be thinking of all of you whilst in Japan!

buh bye