So, yeah, talking about Korea...

KOREA. A different experience from China and Japan, of course, as expected--culturally and in mode of travel. China was experiencing a country as part of an entourage, seeing what the government wanted not us but Virginia to see, and talking to a lot of students as they were the ones that could speak English. Japan was a family vacation in every sense of the word.

Korea as of right now I'm experiencing in two facets: first, couchsurfing--in this case, with a half-Korean English teacher who is friends with a lot of the ex-pat and foreign exchange student community, and in this it is actually a lot like visiting Shawn in Egypt and Jordan. Having Cheolseung here makes a huge difference, however, and I've been spending the most time with him. Yesterday I joined his Korean actors for a workshop--absolute trip. He gave all direction in Korean except for direction that was explicitly for me, and all the lines except for mine were in Korean, so that I was acting and reacting with only somewhat known stimulus. Because of the extreme physicality and tension created by silence rather than words it absolutely worked, and all of the actors have at least a very basic level of English proficiency so I'm sure they understood most of what I said. I've proposed two things to Cheolseung to try as challanges: first, making me act in Korean, so that I have lines that I repeat phonetically but have no idea what they mean, trying to make relationships and scenes despite being a foreigner even to the language that I am speaking. And second, having me act in Spanish so that all of them have just as little idea of what I am saying as I have of their words. Both seem like really interesting theatrical experiments in terms of isolation and communication.

Today was a Korean "luck day" (what does that mean? beyond "we eat chicken soup" I have NO idea) so I went out for dinner/meeting/drinks with Cheolseung's actors. My relationship with them reminds me somewhat of my relationship with the Three Chairs Theatre Company--most of them are in their late 20s and early 30s, professional working actors with side jobs who give me a lot to think about in terms of acting and the whole "life--what happens next?" conundrum. Dinner was mostly in Korean with me just trying to figure out basic emotions and relationships from hand gestures and expressions. After dinner we had coffee and went to a room in the theatre school to hang out and have a meeting, and we got more comfortable. I am consistently amazed by the level of English here. I think people hate to use it in the same way that I fought Spanish (mandatory school subject etc etc) but when forced to have very good comprehension and often good speaking ability. After the meeting we went out for some drinks at a local pub, which of course was good social lubricant. Language trembles in the presence of alcohol.

And now? I'm back at the house of my couchsurfing host. I'm looking to move on from this place (it's been lovely, but will be a week soon and that becomes a burden on the host) and looking at options--there is a cheap hostel nearby, as well as other couchsurfers. There are also saunas in Korea that offer the works (steam/massage/etc) as well as places to sleep overnight, so I'll definitely try that out. There is also something called "Temple Stay"--essentially staying in a Buddhist temple for a few days and living exactly as a monk, which sounds utterly terrifying and kind of cool. I have a very Jack Kerouac feeling of homelessness that is both scary and oddly comforting in its "I don't know where I'll be or what I'll do tomorrow"-ness.