I've just been going over songs for Saturday night and, holy crap, some of them are pretty tough. I might just be aiming a bit higher than I can attain in terms of the vocals, at least. It didn't seem so bad in rehearsal so I'm hoping it's just a bit of an off-day... Otherwise, I should get in touch with RMT and make sure they reinforce the windows upstairs! I just sent out invites for the gig on facebook here. The best gigs are always the ones with the biggest crowds, so please get yourself out and support us if you're in the area. I don't usually get nervous before a show, but I definitely will be on Saturday. I can't even think about it for too long... 20 new songs all on the same night... eugh...We were chatting about 'good and bad things about your country' in class last night, and again this morning. I'm probably not as brave as I should be in covering potentially controversial issues. The students have a tendency to go a bit strong on the positives and turn a bit quiet when we get to the negatives. They usually just need a bit of prodding, but I have to be careful not to be openly criticising the place. For example, one student reckoned she had nothing bad to say about Korea. A few prompts later and she was going on about the binge-drinking, the pushing on the subway, the hierarchical power structures, the concrete jungle, etc. Basically, Koreans dislike the same things that foreigners do, they are just much less vocal about them. It's ok! Talking about the aspects of life in your country that you're not crazy about is not a sign of weakness! Ireland can be a narrow-minded, racist, corrupt, rain-drenched hole, at times. It can also be a great place to grow up, breathtakingly beautiful and full of warm and hospitable people.
One definite positive about Korea at the moment is the weather. Ok, it's a bit chilly but autumn colours are beautiful and it's hasn't yet gotten to the point where you can't go outside without wrapping yourself in the equivalent of a duvet. Predictably, 'Korea's four-seasons' came up as a positive with my pupils last night. Inevitably, it was followed by, "Do you have four seasons in Ireland?" I suspect that if those two sentences don't exist close-by then there's some sort of prison sentence or you lose your Korean passport or something. Yes, there are four seasons in Ireland. They are:
- Spring
- Summer
- Autumn
- Winter
- "Ah the temperature is PERFECT and I better enjoy it because I'm going to be sweating my ass off in about a fortnight"
- "Wake up, shower, go out, feel exhausted, shower, eat, shower, sleep (if you can get the right balance between air conditioning and sweltering humidity)"
- "Wow Korea is beautiful, look at all this colour, get out and do as much as you possibly can because we have about a month before de facto hibernation"
- "Wake up, remind yourself to buy more bedding, freeze, slip on your backside about a dozen times, repeat until April"
the only thing that bothers me about the whole "4 seasons" thing is that Koreans seem to think they are the ONLY country that exists in the entire Northern Hemisphere. 70% of the entire landmass of the WORLD and more than half of the population lives there too!!! What the kimchi? Korea is how much of that? About 5% if they're lucky?
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