Diavolo in Bundang, Nov. 13th

http://www.diavolo.org/fs_main.html


It sometimes happens that people buy tickets to certain events and then for various reasons end up with an extra ticket - someone cancels, gets sick, is not in a mood...Lucky for me, this is what happened to Melanie, yet another Kodae teacher that's just entered my world, and I got it. Earlier on that same day, Sunday, I was at a truly great Cambridge UP EFL seminar with speakers such as Michael McCarthy (a very funny and smart grammar grandpa). I didn't want to leave before his last presentation that, according to Debbie, was great. I learned a few things about teaching I can use in my classroom, I got a free lunch and a few good gratis books (including the new Advanced Learners' Dictionary) - nice.
Met Melanie and Andrea (Michelle, a fourth person who was to go to see Diavolo, canceled). We drove in Melanie's car to Bundang. I liked Melanie, her easy manner and the greatest of contageous laughs anyone could imagine. We were one hour early which gave us time to eat something light and sip coffee which did me good as I was feeling very tired.
To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to watch. I sad 'yes' to the extra ticket mostly not to say 'no' to Andrea, who let me know about it. I get to see this girls seldom; it would appear that spending time with each other is not high on our respective priority lists. It's a pity: the beginning of our acquaintance promised to blossom into a beautiful friendship but somewhere along the line the bud started withering....as Germans and French would say: c'est la vie/so ist das Leben.
Well, my reasons for going aside, I really loved the 'dance' that wasn't a dance, after all. The minute I got the program, I suspected that it could be something similar to the Canadian Cirque de Soleil. Lo and behold: the 'boss' of Diavolo who had a brief commentary before and at the end of show, sopke with the cutest of French Canadian accents and is an artistic director with CDS, on a break from them to tour Asia with Diavolo [that originally inspired CDS].

I've wanted to see CDS for years, but with tickets well above $200 I'd never been able to. They're legendary, not only in Canada; it's a show that combines acrobatics, visual and sound effects; it's like an amazing circus performance on steroids and drugs. I watched their stuff on TV and even on a small screen they blew my mind away.

Diavolo is a group on a smaller scale but still pretty darn good: 'the dancers' doing all kinds of impossible things on the stage. Everyone has muscular yet supple bodies that could do humanly impossible feats. They are so synchronized, they must practice 36 hours a day! At moments I held my breath fearing for performers' safety. There were quite a few close calls when I thought that people jumping off huge wheels would miss the ones waiting for them.
My favourite segment was a 'dance' called " Captured" that featured a couple -a woman in a beautiful flowing red silk dress and a muscular man dancing in and around a rocking silver half-sphere that looked like a giant shell. The music they performed to sounded very exotic, like something you'd expect Sherezade to listen or dance to. It was very erotic, but at the same time melancholy and problematic, just like a romantic relationship. I wish I could get my hands on the music.
Diavolo was really devilishly good and I'm glad I went to see it.

Chiaksan Hike,November 12th

I did meet a quite a dashing dragon...


'Forest Gump' all over again... Years ago, before I finally saw this movie, I had been hearing and reading about it. Influenced by so much admiration for this movie, I expected to see a masterpiece. What disappointment it was when I finally got to see it. Sure, it's an o.k. movie, it's very watchable and it leaves you with a great feeling that life's not all that bad. But, really, it's not a great movie, c'mon... Well, before the hike on Chiaksan, I've been hearing about it from my good friends, royal hikers, people who surely know what's a good mt. and what a bad one. Well, this one, friends, is not all that good. Sure thing: the hike was great; it was good to be out in the open air with nice people. BUT: the whole trail leads up along a path that doesn't allow you to see anything being squeezed between two slopes. There were lots of trees but they were bare and sad; yep, there was a lovely creek and lovley waterfalls but even they looked sad surrounded by so much gray - then again, I'm not objective, it's November, the month I can't learn to appreciate.
The view from the top is beautiful, reminds of the view from Woraksan, but not nearly as dramatic. Georges from Lebanon commented: "this is not a beautiful mountain; I took only 50 pictures, and I'll delete 30, for sure." Usually he takes about 300. So, apologies, Chiaksan afficionados, I can't share the enthusiasm. Perhaps, if we go back in the summer or spring.

Changd-dae, the Big Boss of the club and I on Birobong, approx. 1300 m above the sea level  

The Dragon Bridge. Pretty cool, eh?  

The Medium Mermaid by a waterfall on Chiaksan. Chris and I fell behind chatting and checking out the few things worth a closer look.  

MEDUSA'S PROBLEMSL. A 235,000 won haircut/dye job at Tony & Guy in Apjujong and NO ONE notices. O.k., some students did... This is real hair blues to you. Next time I'll just have the unruly mane shaved off - perhaps then, someone would notice. Yep, you can say, my friends pay close attention to me. It's either that or no matter what I do I look the same. Bitter? yep, a bit.  

This little fellow had more paparazzis photographing him than Tomcat and their baby in the belly. A bunch of us kept clicking away while this chippy was checking out dry leaves for nuts or god knows what.