Time Flys When You are Having Fun

It is amazing that three months have already flown by. I will be leaving Seoul and SFS on Saturday and heading to California for a few days before returning home for the holidays. I have had some really great times here and I have learned so much from my host teacher, Edie and all of the other wonderful teachers here!
I am excited to return in January and start my job here, I guess you could say that I have the asia bug. I really enjoy how clean and safe it is here not to mention how much is going on in Seoul all the time! The Korean people really value their art forms and that is truly refreshing to me.
I don't think that I will continue writing in this blog when I return, well at least if I don't stop all together my entries will be less frequent. I am glad that I was able to share a bit of my life here with you and I will leave this off with a few photos.

Love,
Kristyn

A Job on Halloween

So I am taking the job!
I can always remember that I took my first job on Halloween. What a memory!

I just wanted to let you all know that! I will be returning to live here for up to two years in January!

Ok, that's all for now. I will write more soon.

love,
Kristyn

Job Offer

So today I met with this woman who is starting this Arts school here in Korea. She basically offered me the theater position at her school. I would be starting a school from the ground up with this woman and two other Visual art teachers. I am seriously considering it!

She is willing to match/ go over the base pay I would get as a starting teacher in Minnesota which is were I would be moving to anyway if I were to not take this job. And the company that conceived these schools would pay the holding fee on my apartment, a round-trip ticket home once a year and one month vacation.

The school sounds amazing! I would be able to teach all age groups theatre and dance! This is on paper my dream job. I would have to sign a two year contract of course but I think my soul is ok with that. I really do enjoy Korea. So just wanted to let you all know the news. I will be thinking about this for awhile but I need to get an answer to her in two weeks so I hope I can make it soon.

This means I will potentially be returning to Korea after christmas and starting this program with her in middle january. Wow what a day!

Love you all and I will write more soon.
Kristyn

PS: School is going really well were I am by the way! The kids are amazing as always!

Also I went to Crique Du Soleil and Karma ( a Korean Martial Arts Dance show) and those were great! Especially Crique! Yeah I don't think I have words for that one, it was spectacular!!!!!

A Video or two

This is a video of the pictures that I took of the girls that created a modern piece with me for the Elephant Man transitions. I tried to make the pictures go fast so it looks like a video.


This video was created by one of the stage managers as a promo video for The Elephant Man. It was shown in all of the English classrooms and also on a TV in the lobby of the High school.

Enjoy
I will write more later
love
Kristyn

The Elephant Man

Well last week was quite the week. I have now successfully assistant directed/choreographed my first show as a real teacher!

The high school play, The Elephant Man was this last Friday and Saturday! It went so well. I am so proud of all the students involved. We also managed to get wonderful responses from the audience. Many people that I talked to were genuinely effected by the intense themes raised in this play. They all thought that the cast did a wonderful job and even thought that the modern dance transitions that we decided to add were a very cohesive addition. My role in this process was assisting Edie, the director and my host teacher, with directing and created dance pieces with a group of 9 girls with little previous dance experience. We were able to take some of the 21 titles that are provided in the script and transform these simple sentences into beautiful movement phrases. I am putting some of my favorite pictures with this blog so you can see. I will also be getting a DVD of the production if anyone is interested in watching it once I get back!

Even though the show is done my production work is far from done here. I now delve into Music Man full force with the middle school. Today I did a crash course in marching band to teach them a dance for 76 Trombones. I think the dances will look pretty awesome by the time we make it to performance time.

Other than that I have managed to make it to the electronics market to take a look at external hard drives for cheap, to Insadong to buy "korean" things for people back home, tried on a hanbok, korean traditional dress and plenty of fun nights with the friends I have made here. Tomorrow I am planning on going shopping in the trendy district that all my high school say is "so awesome, Ms. Art you need to go there!" We will see if they really know my style.

I really love it here in Korea. I am actually even looking into eventually getting a job at this school. Nothing is set in stone of course but the option is in my mind now. Well until next time... I love and miss you all!

Kristyn

Many Good Days!

So I haven't written in awhile and I am sorry. I have been very busy here with both shows! I am pretty much teaching full time now which was been stressful but also very rewarding. I am also quite busy with rehearsals everyday after school and even a few Saturdays. Last week my host teacher was gone for a few days singing in a wedding in L.A. so I was teaching on my own. I turned out to be very nice because the students were able to ease into my teaching style and really start to become comfortable with my leadership style. I am making great progress in both the high school and middle school classes!
I have also doing my fair share of moving around. Do to a few changes I am now living with another teacher in a different building. This has worked out pretty well so far so no complaints here. I have also been around Seoul a bit more and explored Insadong, where I went to a tea house with live birds flying around. I was also able to peak in on a Korean wedding with a western groom which was a bit comical at first.
This last week my professor has been here from St. Olaf observing my teaching. At first I was very worried about this visit because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. I soon figured out that we felt I was doing a wonderful job with the students and really understood where I was coming from with my teaching style. We have a had a great couple of days. We went to a modern dance performance last night with a korean company and a irish company dancing together. It was an amazing performance, I was literally in tears. It really made me miss being in modern class though, I think I am going to have to remedy that when I get home. Tonight we went to an indian resturant downtown in a very swank building. It has been nice to get out and John has been nice enough to treat most of the time so I have saved a bit of money. :)
Besides that, life is going well here in Seoul. I can already tell that I will be very sad to have to say goodbye to this wonderful place but I don't want to think about that now becuase I still have a month and a half! The first show that I have been working on it coming up on the 10th and 11th so I am pretty excited about getting the kids ready. It will be a very busy couple of weeks but I know it will all be worth it in the end.
I hope the situation in America gets better and I am thinking of all of you who have money wrapped up in the stock market. I have faith that it will all work itself out somehow. Well until next time....

much love,
Kristyn

Contact Info

I suppose I should give you all my address in case you might want to send a little something overseas!

Kristyn Art
55 Yonhi Dong Sodaemun-Gu
Seoul, South Korea 120-113

Phone number: (82)-332-9739

Skype name: kristynart

Hope to hear from you all soon!

love,
Kristyn

Chusok

Well this week and weekend have gone by so quickly!
This weekend was Chusok, the Korean version of Thanksgiving, so I have today (Monday) off! I was also able to visit a Korean palace, see a bunch of adorable kids in their hanbok's (traditional korean dress) and go to the Korean folk museum. This week I was very busy with both shows and teaching classes. I am pretty much full time teaching both the high school and 6th grade class now. The IB class has started a pretty lengthy project in groups where they have to do a presentation on a practitioner and then perform a scene. I am excited to see what research they come up with. The 6th grade class is working on improvisation at the moment and we are doing children's theater/ story telling soon after.
I have already taught the Music Man cast the dance for Wells Fargo Wagon and it looks pretty sweet! The kids are so great! We are going to work on Ya Got Trouble on Thursday when they get back from holiday. In Elephant Man rehearsal I have been doing a lot of modern dance exercises with the chorus girls. Its like have choreography class all over again which is wonderful!
I changed my plane ticket a few days ago so I am going to see The Music Man! I will now be leaving Korea on the 15th instead of the 12th. I am having a lot of fun here with the kids and all of the teachers that I have met so far! I am going to see Mama Mia this afternoon! Well until next time.

Love
Kristyn

A Lovely weekend getaway

This weekend I went to Teachon Beach, the largest beach in Korea for a Faculty retreat. I had a really great weekend! The drive there reminded me of many bus rides with the high school band but once we got there I forgot all about my motion sickness because it was so nice to smell he sea air and hangout with new friends. The first night we stayed at a hotel where we slept on Korean style beds which consisted of thin "mattresses" that you put on the floor. It was kinda interesting but not extremely comfortable. We had a speaker for the weekend who's name was Tara Lee. She has written a few books and sings praise songs and writes her own stuff. She was interesting to listen to and she made me think about my own faith a lot. That has been something on my mind ever since I got here. I'm sure it has something to do with how very christian this school is. After all of the sessions were done we decided to go out and do Karaoke which was quite the experience. In Korea you buy a room for a certain amount of time and then you choose songs and sing with your friends. It was a blast. We sang a bunch of good songs and my voice definitely hurt at the end of the night.

The next day we had a few more sessions and I found myself thinking about Katherine Olson a lot. Some of you reading this blog may not know who she is but she is a friend that I lost almost a year ago in a few months. I guess I thought about her so much this weekend because I know that she would love hearing about this experience and would really love the people that I have met on this trip so far. I miss you KO.

After the sessions, we went to the lodge which is right next to the water and I got a chance to go swimming in the Yellow sea and lay out for awhile. That evening I went out with some people to get fresh seafood. We orders 30 prawns, a basket of mussels, clams and scallops and a whole fish raw. Most everything was really delicious. I really liked the prawns and the small clams. After dinner we went to a back bay and made a fire and sat around it for awhile singing and talking.

Sunday was very relaxing and I spent some more time relaxing on the beach and walking along the water. I would love to go back to this beach before I leave Korea but I will see how it goes.
Until next time.

love
Kristyn

Wacky wine night

I taught my first class this week! I lead a very interesting discussion on Peter Brook's The Deadly Theatre with the high school IB students. I think overall it went quite well. I am also continuing to have a blast with the 6th graders. They are just ridiculous all of the time. Besides that Edie and I have now cast both the high school play and the middle school musical. The list goes up for the middle schoolers on Monday after school so we are hoping for only a few tears. All of the kids were really great and I very excited about doing the choreography for The Music Man.

This weekend has been really fun! Friday night we went out to this cool middle eastern bar/restaurant where we sat on pillows and drank fruity drinks. Last night there was a wine night at one of the apartments on campus. I got to try a bunch of different types of wine as well as mingle with a few more people that I didn't already know. I feel like I meet a new person everyday which is great. I rode on a scooter with one of my friends to go grocery shopping. That was an experience all on its own. I suppose scooting is the way to get around here. This afternoon I am having tea with the British ladies which should be fun. This week is going to be a bit crazy I can already tell. Edie and I have to get two shows going! I'm excited though!
Well until next time.

love
Kristyn

Auditions Galore

This week has been the week for auditions!

We have auditioned the High schoolers for the Fall Play, The Elephant Man and the middle schoolers for the fall musical, The Music Man. There is quite a bit of talent here at Seoul Foreign. I have a feeling it is going to be hard to make our final decisions. I am started to become friends with many of the young teachers here on campus. Last night as well as working on my lesson for this morning I had Korean fried rice with a few of the new British school teachers. It was a lot of fun. I have already showcased my technological skills by creating a video for the new teachers banquet which is tonight. It a pretty funny rendition of the Seoul Foreign school Olympics. This weekend will be a lot of unit writing and probably a bit of exploration of Seoul. I think I may head down to the arts district and get a taste of what Seoul has to offer. Well, until next time.

love
Kristyn

1st Weekend

Well this weekend has been a lot of fun. I went to California Pizza Kitchen, around downtown, on a tour of Seoul, up in a tour that overlooked the entire city, shopped in Itewon, went grocery shopping and went out with the crazy british school teachers. I am starting to make friends which is nice. They are all very helpful, which is great cause there are many things that I don't know about. I am excited about having the kids again tomorrow now that the shipment of books arrived yesterday! Well I'm sure I will have many more adventure this coming week maybe I will even try squid......maybe not.

love
Kristyn

A few Pictures

My Kitchen

My Bedroom

View down on Seoul from the School.

The Middle School

The Elementary School

The Play Ground

My Apartment

View from the top of the hill at night.

The Drama Lab/Classroom we work in.

Our office, with my very own desk.

The High school

The Performing Arts Center

First Day

So I made it through my first day of school. Edie and I had the IB theater kids in the morning and the 6th graders in the afternoon. Overall the day went well besides my lack of ID card and key card to get into places. I actually found out at lunch today that I do not exist on the server quite yet which has caused a few issues. I managed to just pay for lunch with my Korean cash which worked out pretty well. I already have a pretty hectic schedule and I am trying to use my time wisely after school by doing Yoga with some of the other teachers and trying to get to know everyone. There is a really nice community here and I can tell that I am going to make some good mentor friends. I do sometimes wish there were a few more people my age around and that Edie would be a bit more organized. But you all know me, thats something that bugs me often. :) She was very nice to invite me over to have dinner with her family last night because I couldn't get my stove to work. Little did I know that I just needed to turn the gas on, silly me. Well now it works and I was even able to make myself some scrambled eggs this morning. This weekend I am going to go on a little tour of Seoul with some of the new teachers and I am hoping after that I will know my way around a little better. I am adding a few picture of the school and my apartment. Well until next time.



Love
Kristyn

Seoul Foreign

Well lets just say this school is amazing!
They have some wonderful facilities for theatre, music and art! It is very refreshing to see a school so committed. I feel as though I am going to be spoiled by the facilities here when I return to the states. They have a very large main stage theater, a black box and a smaller theater in the elementary school. Each of these venues is equip with plenty of storage, makeup and changing rooms as well as plenty of technical equiptment. Edie, my host teacher, has me pretty busy. She is planning on having me teach a few units for the IB class, choreograph The Music Man Jr., design the set for The Elephant Man as well as work with the 6th grade class. I can already tell I am going to be quite busy. Well until next time.

love
Kristyn

I made it!

Well I made it to Korea!

After about 30 hours in airports and on planes I didn't know if I would even make it to Seoul. My plane was delayed in Tokyo because of a lighting storm so instead of arriving at 9:30 pm Saturday I got in somewhere around 11. I have to say that I would be fine with not being on a plane for quite a while. My host teacher picked me up from the airport and we chatted about classes the whole way back to Seoul Foreign School. I am very excited about working on The Elephant Man and Music Man with her.
She showed me up to my cute little apartment where I proceeded to fall asleep almost instantly. The next few days will be a little bit weird since my body thinks it is 11:30 pm on Saturday right now but I think I will get used to it. Well I am going to go tour around the school for a bit so I will write more in a few days!

It's blog time!

So I decided that instead of sending out mass emails I would create this blog to keep you all informed on my adventures in Korea. I am planning on writing once a week at least but we will see how I do as my days getting busier. I hope that I can share my travels with you all and also keep in touch with you while I am gone. My next blog will be from Korea!