Dust off the cobwebs
I had a good night. First, I went to a dance class at 7:30 on campus. A great advantage to working with a lot of performers, there are some great dancers who are teaching free dance classes so they can keep up their skills. I went to a jazz class, and it kicked my butt, but it was great. I danced for many years growing up, but as I got older, I had to narrow my focus, so I chose choir. I’m glad I did, but I have really missed dancing in the last couple of years. I’m glad to have the opportunity to dance again. Adam said he’s even going to come with me next time.
After jazz dance class, I came back to the apartment to find that my ill husband had returned from his day in Seoul. We have both been sick for a while. I’ve been sick for over 5 weeks, but I’m almost totally better now. Adam has been sick about 2 weeks, but he’s got the worst of it. He normally doesn’t get sick at all, so he’s really worn out. Someone here highly recommended an acupuncture clinic that Adam is going to visit tomorrow. I hope it helps him. He’s very hopeful. I don’t know much about acupuncture, but for how long it has lasted as a viable treatment for ailments of many kinds, there’s got to be something to it. We’ll let you know how it goes.
After we shared a snack of raw vegetables cut up in a bowl with oil and seasoning (I’m so excited that that’s appetizing to me now), Adam went to bed and crashed. I took out my guitar and practiced, trying to immitate the guitarist on my CD. My friend Jonathan who played on my CD did such a great job, and I’m such a hack on the guitar. I am going to be singing in the chapel services at an international school on Tuesday, and they want me to use guitar and not my album tracks, so it’s practice, practice, practice for the next few days. I’m really looking forward to singing at the school. It’s not a huge deal, just a few songs in a few services, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s my first big chance to share my music in a brand new country, and it’s for kids and teachers from all over the world. Our new friend Joe Cho lined this up for me, and he’s finding me some other opportunities too. He’s great. I’m best at practicing guitar (and singing, for that matter) when I have something to prepare for. I’m a procrastinator through and through. It felt really good to pick up my guitar again. I go such long stints without playing at all. If I practiced, I know I could be good, and then I wouldn’t hate playing. So, I should practice.
We’re also trying to make our plans for the Chuseok holiday, which is the biggest holiday in Korea coming up in October. We have a week off, but since we arrived recently, we didn’t have much time to plan ahead and get plane tickets and stuff. We hoped to go to China to visit my friend Joy, but tickets were just more than we could justify spending. We keep reminding ourselves that we’re here to pay off debt. So, we’re going to stay in Korea for Chuseok, and we don’t know what we’ll do yet. Some things that we want to do are visit an orphanage and love on some kids (I REALLY want to do that), visit some of the beautiful temples that are around here in the mountains, spend some time with a few friends that are sticking around including our friends Kyle and Cynthia, maybe go camping, and it would be great to celebrate a little of traditional Chuseok with a Korean family. That’s our brainstorm. I’m sure we’ll find a way to enjoy the week even though we’re not going far from Paju.
I’m going to go to bed with my coughing Adam now. Take care. And we miss you, dear friends and family.
-Jessica
