A word of advice.

I've got a lot to write about, From hiking mountains to swimming with Sharks. But not tonight.

But I've got one piece of advice, for anyone looking to come over here, or even where ever you are in the world.

When you first get here, You go through phases of invincibility and vulnerability. And honestly, you feel like you can do things without thinking them through. I did a lot of it myself, and I've watched and am watching some of my friends, and not so friends do it now. Honestly we feel like it because for the most part, we get away with it. Either it's not a big enough deal, or everyone ignores the elephant in the room. So here's the advice. You aren't invincible, the choices you make matter, a lot. So please watch your back and don't be an idiot. Because if you do, you'll regret it. I promise. But by then you might be too late.

Night guys.

The things you find.

It's been a little over a week since my last entry. As always I am sorry for the tardiness. Honestly not too much has happened of importance in my life over here in the East. My big news is that last week I played my first open mic at Speakeasy's. I have to admit I was nervous, really really nervous. And I'm not sure why. I mean I've been on stages more times than I can count and I've spent 3 summers now performing on guitar for tourists and travellers from all parts of the world, both as they wandered past and when they came to see whatever our theatre show of the season was. So one would think that I wouldn't be too worried about my first musical venture on a modern stage wouldn't be too stressful, but it's a different animal and before getting on stage I had as many butterflies as the first time I ever performed a monologue on stage. But it was fun, Actually it was a lot of fun. Most of my normal weekend cohorts were there, and the night was even more special as I had a bunch of friends who don't normally mix with the Speakeasy crowd show up to support me. Whit and Linds, Tony and Caroline and Annie all came and were great fun to have in the audience. Of course Lindsay had her camera present and somehow made me look like I knew what I was doing! But like I said, being up there was fun. I made mistakes and flubbed some lyrics, probably missed a chord here or there but it felt fun. I have to admit, I really love being on a stage.

Not much else is new from this past week. I saw Watchmen, and while it does take some small liberties in the end I found it faithful to the source Material and an absolutely excellent and creative movie with hardly a mistep. A word of warning though, Watchmen is Graphic. It has to be really and I never found anything in it, whether it was sex, violence, gore or language to be there simply for the sake of itself, but it deserves its R rating to be sure.

Last thign to write about today is that one thing I enjoy about this country are the things you find by mistake. Yesterday my friend organized a Hash run, and I really wanted take part. Unfortunately I made a mistake on where it was starting and got myself lost. Realizing that I wasn't going to be able to get there in time, I txted an apology to one of the folks running and decided to explore down near the Reservoir, as I hadn't really walked down around here yet. Here's what I found. Have a good day guys and gals! Talk to you later.

J

Just because you've seen it before, doesn't mean you shouldn't look again.

When I was a kid, we didn't take a lot of long distances travels. It's not that we were a poor family, in fact in retrospect I don't think I realized just how "upper class" we actually were. But there were bills to pay, things to buy, especially for that spoiled brat of a kid my family had (read: me) and Dad's job kept him busy. So there weren't that many "Big" trips. That said I have a lot of family in the surrounding provinces, so there were a lot of trips to those places. With the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador (which for you Non-Canadians is only one province), I'm pretty sure I went to all the maritimes provinces once a year until I got to High school. And even then I know I visited Nova Scotia and many parts of New Brunswick every year, probably right up until I got here to the other side of the world. So I saw a lot of the Maritimes, and car rides started getting less interesting until I developed the two great talents of falling asleep in a moving vehicle (this got sketchy when I got my license) and more important to me, reading in a car.

One of those "larger" trips that my family took was to Cape Breton. My father's old stomping grounds. I was only somewhere between 8 and 10 and had already started on my lifelong obsession with swords, sorcery and spacemen. I remember Mom and Dad, Dad especially, being really excited about being able to show me some of my roots and the land my family came from. Unfortunately it didn't work out quite right, as demonstrated by one of my most famous quotes of childhood. We were driving along a winding highway with rolling green mountains on either side, and Mom turns to the back seat, where I'm thoroughly involved in the adventures of Luke Skywalker or some other equally fictitious world, and tells me that I should look out the window for the beautiful view. The conversation went something like this.

Jamie: (Still not looking up from his book) Is it a Mountain Mom?

Mom: ...Yes...

Jamie: Does it have trees, Mom?

Mom: ...Yes..

Jamie: I've seen it before.

And That conversation pretty much sums up how I felt about the Maritimes. Don't get me wrong here, I LOVE where I'm from. I'm proud to be from New Brunswick, I love the culture I grew up in, I mean I spent my last four summers working in a park that preserved and cherished just that. But at the same time, you get so used to it that you don't bother to look.

So here I am on the other side of the world, and I'm thinking about that mountain. I'm thinking about walking downtown Fredericton on a sunny Saturday afternoon after a trip to the Famer's market, listening to the snare drums of the city guard in Officer's square while I breeze comes off the river. I think of the days wandering through Citadel Hill or Halifax harbor. I remember running through the woods with Matt, or diving off the roof into the snow as a kid. The smell of the ocean or the site of the boats docked, The stars from my backyard. Kitchen parties and diving into the river at the Landing with Luke after hours. God, the Landing. Walking that sleepy little farm village in the nighttime was awe inspiring, the stars reflecting off of Lake Fundy. I walked by all of these things everyday and I thought they were great and beautiful but I never took the time to stop and appreciate them. And now I'm on the other side of the world and I love it, but I miss hearing the snares in the square. I miss seeing the sails on the water and hearing the fiddles and guitars.

My brother Kevan is a musician, and In my early teens he started to make a switch from rock and jazz influenced works, to more celtic, folk rock and definately maritime inspired works. I didn't get it back then, even after I fell in love with Kev's work in my college years, It seemed like just a choice of preference. I get it now.

So this is my advice. Wherever you're from, wherever you're going, take some time with it. Realize how unique and special that it actually is because you might find yourself in a place where it will be a long time before you can see it again.

Just because You've seen it before, doesn't mean you shouldn't take the time to look at it again.

Life in Korea, its still life.

Anyong Hasseo!

Life in Gwangju has become something that I never actually expected, normal. I wake up in the mornings, If I feel ambitious I'll make myself some breakfast (Or maybe go find something in the neighborhood) I might watch some TV or go for a walk. The weather has been warmer lately so I've taken to practicing my guitar and working on some songs in a park nearby, then I'll go to work. After work I'll find or cook supper and either stay in for a quiet night, or get in touch with a friend, normally Chris.

My life here has been full of ups and downs. I've made some new friends, some who have turned out to be not as special as I thought they were, others I'm certain will be a part of my life for the rest of my days. dated new people, unfortunately broken a heart or two, and experienced a lot of new things (though truthfully not as much as I would like to have at this point.) Life is just life right now. But every once in a while it seems to slap you in the face.

The closest thing that I can compare this to, is life shortly after the breakup of a long term relationship. Possibly because I'm still going through this experience right now, but it feels very apt. When you go through that kind of break up, it hurts like hell for a long time, you cry yourself to sleep. You don't want to do anything and you feel like the pain will never go away. But as time goes on you do get better. You figure out how to work your way through your life without that person in your life, You work at being friends, and you start to smile again, things begin to feel normal. But then one night you wake up from a dream, and in that moment between dreaming and waking, you're certain they're there beside you. You feel their weight, smell their hair. You know that person is there because that's where they always will be. And then you roll over and realize that everything has changed.

I bring this up because at this stage of my life overseas, I kind of feel like Canada and I had a really bad break up, and are just getting through it. We had our teary goodbyes, She sent me to sleep with stuffed nose, puffed eyes and wet cheeks and had me waking up ready to be sick. But now I'm okay, I get through my days fairly well and smile a lot. Canada and I talk now and then, we're a little awkward but I'm certain that things will work out well between us, and I've even started dating this new country, Korea, she's a little odd at times, definately does things differently, but I like her, she's fun for a short term country. But every now and then, something will happen. I'll realize I'm the only caucasian on the street, I'll hit a language barrier, or notice a sign. Its normally something insignificant, never the big stuff. Writing all of this out isn't even causing it, but now and then something will click and I promise you, the thought is the exact same, every time.

Oh shit... I'm in Korea.

Wanted to share that with you. My only major news is that I'll be writing an article on DVD Bangs for the "Get in Gwangju" newsletter. Now if I go watch multiple movies in a day, it isn't wasting time, it's research!

Till next time guys!

J

Welcome to the other side of the world, You'll find it can be rather familiar.

Anyong Hasseo,

I'm sitting on my bed, in the one corner of my apartment that I manage to swipe some internet from some hapless wireless network, and I figured that now would be as good of time as any to come back and give you fine folk some more reading materials.

To start in the present, I'm back to working at Odea, but I can't really say that I work a full job. Right now I work from 3:50 to 7:20 on Monday wedsnedays and Fridays, and Tuesdays and Thursdays will be from 3:50 to 5:50. And I'm still at full pay. Myself and Paul are splitting one teacher's work until the new semester, so for about a month I get an easy load. I won't complain.

Life in Korea has been interesting, I've made a lot of friends since I arrived here, a very select few of whom, I'm coming to trust quite a bit, and its good to know that I've got a big Australian man backing my corner. (More on that later.)

The adventures and mis-adventures have continued. Chris, Paul and I took a last minute run to Seoul, putting us there at Midnight, where we met up with my friends Kyle and Mark and proceeded to paint the town red. The highlights of my night were running through the train station doors, and making the jump to the train with 30 seconds to spare before it left, a 4 year old on the train who loved us, eating Kebabs, and my personal favorite, After an hour or so of flirting with some Korean girls, and letting them take us to a really sketchy bar, when one turns to Paul and says "You buy me drink? How much for blowjob" And the sad realization that these girls were only interested in how big our wallets were, and then we went for McDonalds at 5 am (Yes, without the hookers.)

The next major event was Australia day, where a rather drunk Korean man threatened to kill me in an alley, this would be the point that Chris lept to my defence before I could say a word. It was pretty sexy actually. There is more to this story, but it's not worth the time to write. If you're interested, ask me sometime. The big thing for me was seeing that Chris had my back. And realizing that I don't ever want to be on his bad side.

My next major event was the second trip to Seoul, While here I saw JUMP, which I commented on earlier. I'm still so happy that I saw this, and Can not wait to go back to see it, either again in Seoul, or in Busan.

I admit, that I feel like I'm kind of skimming over the trips,, but I'm starting to realize that for the most part life in a Korean city, is just that, and it doesn't change all that much from spot to spot. I got to do some tourist stuff in Seoul, We saw the National War Museum, and it was interesting to see to be sure, I got lots of photos, which will be up on Facebook, but it didn't seem as important as the May 18th cemetary. My next trip to Seoul will hold a trip to one of the Palaces for sure.

So I'm coming up on my 2nd month here in Korea, and I have to admit that I'm starting to think of here as home. That's actually the one thing I really noticed about being in Seoul. It wasn't my Korea. My Korea is Gwangju, its where I feel like I belong right now, even on the days that I feel so out of place that I'm certain I'm an alien.

Oh! I got my Alien card, finally.

But its late and I feel like I'm writing for the sake of writing, and not because I have anything to say. So I'm going to say goodnight.

Until next time

J

Sorry its been so long,

Anyong Hasseo!

I apologize for taking so long to update this blog, life has just been busy.

My plan was to post updates about the days that have gone by because I've got a lot to write about! From my last whirlwind trip to Seoul to meeting Beeker and our escapades in Gwangju to exploring the May 18th Cemetary, I've been a busy kid. But fate doesn't want to play that way.

I'm back in Seoul for my vacation, it was the last resort after everything else that Paul and I tried fell through, But I found out from a site that my Mom pointed out to me off of Whit and Lindsay's blog about a play being put on here in Seoul. Called JUMP, it's a non-verbal Musical about a family of Tae Kwon Do Masters, a young nerd who is secretly fantastic at Tae Kwon Do who loves their daughter. and two inept burglars. Doesn't sound like the most intricate plot sure, but you make an epic with almost no dialogue.

The choreography was stunning, the martial arts amazingly intense and absolutely mind blowing and the comedic timing was brilliant. I have nothing bad to say about this play. On top of that, it started with a "very old man" hobbling through the audience and hitting people out of the way with his cane. This man, the stage manager, tries to climb the stage, but can't and points to a member of the audience to lift his legs up one at a time onto the stage. Guess what being the only white kid in the third row (Actually the whole theatre, I think) Meant I got to do. It was fun!

Well I think that's it for now. I'm going to go enjoy more of Seoul, I'll catch you guys up to speed later. See you around!

J

I need a spot...

In every place that I've lived, there has been a Spot, a place that I could and would go to anytime something got under my skin. If I need to cool off, re-evaluate, soul search, scream at the world or just take a step back and try to look at it in a new light. Growing up it was the playground on Maplehurst road, Its where I came to the final decision to drop ritalin, the court with the Socrates ball was my place for my first three years of University, where I decided three times that I was not following the degree for me, and then it was the trail down by river when I moved downtown. Even in my last summer at home I adopted the spot of my friends Luke and Chris, the bridge we called Bob. I'm not saying that I've had a hard life, but at the times where it feels like I've lost my footing, gone off the edge and all the other metaphors, these spots have been my godsend, whether its the fresh air, the change of location, the perceived isolation, they always help.

I have no Spot in Korea. I need one.