I've got Seoul!

Hi everybody!

Hope you are all well. The weather should be warming up by now, right? This side, it's finally time to start getting those light jackets out. Autumn in Korea is lovely, the burning hot summer sun has finally relinquished its hold on us. I am exceedingly grateful. One more word for me to add to my vocabulary now, is the word "FALL". They don't really use the word 'Autumn' here - yet another Americanisation (note, I spelled that with an 's' instead of a 'z', thank you very much!

Anyway, I had a LOVELY weekend. I went up to Seoul - yes! again! - I am now officially in love with Seoul. I have been known to say that Korean cities are ugly. I am under correction....Daegu is ugly. Seoul ... well, it's hosted the Olympics and World Cup Soccer, so of course, it meets international standards. (Kinda like Joburg : Cape Town).

Well, Hazel (another SA, whom I hadn't seen in almost 6 months) had invited me along to go see RENT, the musical. So off I went to meet her and Tinyiko. The Canadian, Tim, and his Korean girlfriend, Yoon, also joined us. Tim and Yoon ended up booking into the same hotel as me - pure coincidence - so had nice company.

So, I went up on Sat afternoon, checked in at this lovely hotel on a small island in the Hangang River which runs through Seoul - the theatre venue was on the same island. Before the show, we went for a buffet dinner at a restaurant called VIPS. That was such a treat, as they serve INTERNATIONAL food as well as Korean! Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese and Thai in addition to the typical Western grilled steaks and fried chicken, etc. Naturally, we rolled out of there....

Onto the theatre venue, which is a humungous building at the Korean Broadcasting Service studios. Now from here on, this email is about to get very 'theatrical'. I apologise to those of you who have little or no interest in the theatre. To my theatre friends who know the musical, RENT, enjoy this with me....

I went along to see this production with a laissez-faire attitude, mainly because a few months ago, in Daegu, a group of performers (in retrospect, they MUST have been students) were performing some songs from RENT in an open-air shopping mall. They sounded TERRIBLE! So, I was hoping that it was not the same production being done up in Seoul! Nonetheless, I was going to see my friends from Orientation, so...in for a penny, in for a pound.

OH - MY - GOSH!!!!

I was blown away! It was an all-American cast, with the leads who play Roger and Mark, being original cast members from the 1996 Broadway rendition! The live band was phenomenal! The singing! Out of this world. The guy who played the role of Tom Collins (the big black guy), had a voice like none I've ever heard. Should he record his own albums one day, I'd snap up every last cd! I shed more than a tear every time he opened his mouth to sing! The performances were powerful. I had been mentioning how much I enjoyed the last version of RENT I'd seen at Artscape and how good it was. This totally lifted the bar on that, let me tell you!

What a lovely evening! We did the whole theatre thing that we usually do back home, coffee after the show, sitting at a table on the sidewalk/pavement outside a cafe, munching away on droewors and biltong, which I had brought along for my homies to enjoy!

Breakfast with Tim and Yoon the following morning which turned into a very indepth discussion about life and the after-life! Good conversation.

And then I went to visit a delightful little gourmet deli in Central Seoul, which I had discovered on my previous trip up there. They import jams and preserves from France, so naturally, I stocked up on marmelade, apricot preserve and some other mixed fruits jam. Yummy! They also import olive oil, olives, capers etc etc etc. They even have hand-make chocolates!

Then....back home to rural Gunwi and laziness. A 28-hr round trip that took me halfway up and down the entire country! I love travelling here. You can drive the length of the country in less than a day, and still have time to play! Hey! That rhymes!

Lots more travelling and activity planned for the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled and watch this space!

Lots of love to each and every one of you reading this ....

Andrea!