Goodbye Seoul.. and Good Riddance Cold!

So our time in Seoul is almost over, and I can’t wait. The people have overall been very nice (except for the hotel staff - which really hate the whole SOM company for no reason and are rude to us), and the city is very intersting, but Korean food is gross and it is TOO COLD! Anyway, I decided that even though the crippling cold was keeping me in the hotel all the time, it was time to see more of the city. So I set out with my friends Dana and Deb, and we explored one of the coolest palaces in all of Seoul.

The one we chose to see was Gyeongbokgung, one of the biggest and most historically accurate. Now it sounds horrible to say this, but after touring all over China and Japan, I feel like a lot of the temples, castles, palaces, and shrines all look the same. The challenge for us now is to find out what makes them different from the other things we’ve seen. Gyeongbokgung would actually be one of the most important historical landmarks in all of Asia if it hadn’t been ruined by fires and such over the years (war, etc.). Luckily though, it remains on its original site, and was basically rebuilt in the 1700s.

The palace contained buildings for the king to receive visitors in, to do his daily work in, to sleep in, and to eat in. The queen had separate buildings for her and her children, and the king’s concubines had their own sleeping quarters for their children. The coolest thing about all the sleeping buildings was the way they were built. Like the Japanese, they slept on the ancient tatami mats (flat springy mats that cover the floor). However, since this part of Korea got so much colder, they actually raised the houses and built giant ovens underneath the floor! This way, the mats could be heated during the winter so that sleeping was very comfortable. The only problem with this method was that in 1592 when Japan invaded, they forced prisoners into these rooms and then kept the fires going for three days, eventually cooking the prisoners inside. Many men were tortured this way before the original buildings burned down.

Another interesting thing about the palace was the use of the Chinese written language. What I didn’t know about Korea is that parts of it were basically inhabited by Chinese people for a long time. Because of this, when the Korean language was born it was written out in Chinese characters. The palace was decorated with lots of artistic Chinese characters with good luck messages, except for one building. This is the building where the Korean written language was born! It’s one of the most important historical places for the Korean culture, because a culture isn’t considered complete until it has its own written language.

Overall, the rest of the palace was pretty predictable, but I’m glad I went. The other place I’m glad I went (so glad that I went five times) was the shopping district of Itaewon. Because there are so many military personnel in Seoul, there is a great demand for cheap shopping for things that you can’t get otherwise. This has given way to the expat area of town where all the vendors hang out. At night, Itaewon is the hopping bar area of town, while by day it is the home to fake designer handbags like you’ve never seen. I think I walked away with two coach bags and three kate spades, only to see people from my company buying Fendi, Gucci, Prada, and more. Itaewon also had cheap clothes, accessories, shoes, DVDs, knickknacks, wallets, keychains, and random Korean junk. It was a lot of fun to be had.

Aside from going there, I spent my last few days in Korea seeing even more movies, eating my new favorite food (it’s this restaurant called Red Mango, where they give you a giant thing of vanilla frozen yogurt, and then you pick your toppings to go on top – five for a dollar, and they’re all fresh fruit and cereals), and hanging out with the cast – indoors somewhere of course. We also got to enjoy the hit musical Notre Dame de Paris, because the cast was staying in our hotel. Let me just end by saying that the French people (in the cast) were really snobby, even though several of us would have liked to get to know them better. In conclusion (I learned that quick essay tactic from my mom), I would like to say that Seoul is a very nice place, but you should only visit it in the summer. The end.

The DMZ and Korea's History: A Lesson

After a few more relaxing days of hanging out in Seoul (translation - sleeping and eating room service) I decided to tackle the DMZ. Now don’t tell my mom, because I know she was nervous about my going. Also, this might be boring, so if you’re easily bored stop now.

We met our tour guide in the lobby of our hotel at 7:45 am, which was a feat for me. I was so nervous about being late and missing the tour that I was actually the first one to arrive. Our group consisted of 6 of our SOM people, two South American guys who were tourists in Asia, and two girls from the military base. We started out driving North from Seoul (the capital of South Korea) while learning more about the history of Korea, and the battle between North and South.

From what I learned, beginning around 1900 there was Japanese occupation in Korea. The Koreans still hold a grudge today, because a lot of Korean women were forced into prostitution by Japanese soldiers at this time. When WWII ended in 1945, Japanese rule in Korea was over, and the country was divided by the US, USSR, and Great Britain. The USSR got the land above the 38th parallel (North Korea), while the USA and Britain governed the land south (South Korea). In the North, the Soviets set up a communist officer as dictator, whereas in the South, government officials were elected. Between 1950 and 1951 there was battling between the North and South, which finally calmed into a stalemate between armies that lasted until 1953. At that time, an armistice was signed that still exists today. No peace treaty was ever signed.
What exists today is the De-Militarized Zone, called the DMZ. Technically, it is two meters each direction from the 38th parallel where no one is allowed to set foot. The interesting part of it is that it has made a four meter wide strip of land that is one of the best nature preserves in the world, since it hasn’t been touched for over 50 years. It is one of the last vestiges of the Cold War, and one of the most secure boundaries in the world.

As we drove North, we could see the water to our left behind a giant barbed wire fence. The fence is there for protection today, but years ago it was actually put up because spies from the North were constantly trying to get into the South. Apparently today it’s not as much of an issue because Northern spies can get into the South far more easily by flying through China. The fences have special triggers that look like rocks that tell the government if anyone has been near them or touched them or tried to climb over them. From one spot while driving we could actually see North Korea with the naked eye. Since the line drawn at the 38th parallel curves a bit, one small village is obvious when you are driving closer to North Korea. The girls in our group from the army explained that a lot of Americans think this town is a fake town, set up by the North Koreans to distract South Korea.

Apparently a lot of these fake cities, distractions, and other strange war tactics are pretty common between North and South Korea. When we got to the army’s observation deck that looks out over the DMZ we could see other villages, not all of which were real. The North and South also played a silly game with flag poles, with the South putting up a hundred meter flagpole only to wake up the next day to see that the North had put up one that was a hundred and ten meters. This led to North Korea having the tallest flag pole in the world on its side, before South Korea gave up.

One of the coolest things we got to see on our tour was the third infiltration tunnel. Even though the North and South appear to be at peace, both sides are constantly preparing for war. Our guide showed us tons of bridges with dynamite in them, so that when North Korea invades they can blow bridges and buy themselves some time. One thing that North Korea has done is to dig secret tunnels that go underneath the DMZ. So far over the years, four tunnels have been found by South Korea, and they expect that there are as many as twenty that they haven’t found. All the tunnels lead toward Seoul, and all are capable of transporting up to 10,000 soldiers in a hour. We actually got to climb underground and walk in the 3rd tunnel, which was fascinating and pretty scary. When the tunnels were discovered the North Koreans claimed that the South Koreans had dug them, even though they originate in the North and have digging and dynamite marks that prove they were blown from the North. It’s pretty ridiculous.

Aside from preparations for war and scars from the ones that happened, we also saw all the preparations that the South was making for reunification. The plan for reunification is slow and well though out, but if it happens will be very difficult. South Korea is a booming metropolis, a capitalist country with a lot of wealth compared with the rest of the world. North Korea is a communist country that has been slowly getting poorer and poorer over the past 50 years. South Korea has adapted Western words into their vocabulary, like computer, while the North Koreans reject anything Western. Some common Korean words have grown to have two completely different meanings between the two halves. Recently it was found out that the North Koreans exaggerated their census by over 5 million people, because of so many deaths from starvation. When and if the two halves come together it will be a difficult, long road.

Overall, it was amazing to be able to see the DMZ. I was so clueless about this part of history, and it’s a shocking part of the world. My heart aches for the people in the South who haven’t been able to communicate with their relatives in the North for fifty years, and have no idea who’s alive or dead. Plus, now I understand the need for so many US soldiers to be positioned in South Korea. It’s pretty scary, but the DMZ is a major defining part of Seoul.

P.S. If this is totally boring and doesn’t make sense and my history is all wrong, I apologize profusely. I’ve never been good at history or geography, but this was very interesting!

Seoul Surviving

Big news! After our closing show Sunday night, we left the theatre to grab snacks before getting on the bus to take us back to our hotel. Imagine our surprise when we walked down the street to find hundreds of Korean soldiers in riot gear marching around! Now, we are right across from the American embassy, but we had no idea what was going on. The were chanting, and some were in formation, but some were just running around crazily. There were about 50 buses covered with mesh and some were filled with soldiers, and some soldiers were getting on the buses. It was a freaky madhouse!! We still don't know what was going on! This was the perfect conclusion to our hellish week of shows and our closing in Seoul. The company has dubbed ourselves Seoul Survivors (exhaustion breeds dorkiness).

So after that craziness in the heart of Seoul, we all headed back to the hotel to let loose and relax since our week of hell was finally over. We are all dying to be in Malaysia (and warm weather) but we figured on this night we might as well party and forget about it. Now not only was this our closing night, but it also happened to be the night that we said goodbye to our drummer, Ed Fast. Ed is an amazing drummer, considering he’s leaving us to go play on Broadway in ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, plus he’s a very cool guy – super popular with the Asian ladies. In any case, his passing was deserving of a massive party. All I can say is that is started with a bunch of alcohol, and ended with drunk orchestra members trying to suck people’s toes. Not that this hasn't happened before… ugh.

Anyway, after that, we needed a day to recuperate. We all slept in till all hours and then decided to have an original Korean night, and we called some of our local crew people to hang out. We decided to go ice skating on an outdoor rink that’s set up seasonally outside City Hall. It was amazing to be ice skating in the middle of downtown Seoul as the sun set. Surrounded by sparkly buildings and mountains, and tiny Korean kids falling on their butts. The only problem was that my gigantic feet (by Asian standards) couldn't fit into the ladies skates, so I had to wear hockey skates, which are very different than figure skates and consequently caused me to fall on my butt.

Afterwards, my friend Joel and I embarked on a typical Korean adventure. We were supposed to meet another group for dinner at a restaurant. We had previously asked the hotel to write the name and address on a piece of paper so we could show it to a cab driver. Now, I’m not sure if I've mentioned this, but there is some craziness to Seoul. There are almost no street names, and buildings are numbered in the order they’re built. This means that when we say we want to go to Joe's Restaurant we never get there. We started out in a cab who read our paper and then made us get out and cross the street to get a cab going the other way. After we hopped into that baby, the cabdriver drove for a while, and then stopped the car. He proceeded to ask three cabs that drove by to roll down their windows and give directions, before driving to the middle of nowhere. He found a restaurant that had a similar name, and after we convinced him that wasn't it, drove to an open-air market. He then proceeded to drive through the market (where cars aren’t supposed to go) and ask people that he hit with his car where the restaurant was. Finally some girl just told him to drive us back to the hotel (which was also on the paper). When we got there, we were only ten minutes late to the restaurant, so we decided to keep trying. We got into an expensive cab with a uniformed driver who looked at the paper and sat staring at it for literally three full minutes. Finally Joel just grabbed it out of his hand and we got out. Cab number four was finally lucky, and we made it to the restaurant - which turned out to be within walking distance of the hotel. What I want to know is – what was written on that fricking paper? Does our hotel hate us that much??!!

Post-dinner we all headed to our first Korean movie theatre – did I mention that they have assigned seats in movie theatres in Asia? – To see the Aviator. Overall, our first full day off was a fabulous success, and we can’t wait to fill eight more!

A Trip To Kyoto

Since today is our closing day of shows in Seoul (thank goodness) I might not have internet for a week until we get to Malaysia. Because of this, I've decided to write about my weekend in Kyoto (back when I was in Osaka) so you all have something fun to read.

Once upon a time, I traveled to Osaka with The Sound of Music. We had a few days before we opened (so that the crew could load in the scenery and stuff) and we decided to use those days to go to the amazing city of Kyoto, Japan. All we had with us was a guidebook, and backpacks full of pjs and some snacks, when we hopped on a train. We rode the bullet train into Osaka, but decided that since a regular train was cheaper, we'd try that this time. The train line we took is basically part of the subway, but it's a privately owned line (like if Coca-Cola bought the 1/9 red line in NY) so it's very swank. We left at nine... am, do you believe it... and were in Osaka by ten fifteen. We went straight to our ryokan to drop off our stuff. Two days before we had gone to the hotel's concierge to get him to help us make hotel reservations. We knew we wanted to stay in an authentic Japanese hotel (called a ryokan) and we had some in our guidebook that we wanted to try. After about an hour of us talking, he not really understanding English, the people at the ryokan not at all speaking English, and us speaking our shitty Japanese... we had reservations. We went straight there to unload, and make sure that we had these reservations.

Our group consisted of six girls: my, my good friend Maria (who plays Sister Sophia and understudies Maria), adorable Jessica (Sister Margaretta), crazy Nicole (Frau Schmidt), and Lisa (Louisa) and her mom Connie. We arrived at the ryokan and were met by a tiny old Japanese lady who didn't speak any English, but understood who we were and that we wanted to drop our backpacks before sightseeing. We got to take them back into our rooms, and we got a quick tour of the ryokan.

The way our ryokan was set up, there was a front reception area where you would leave your shoes, and pick up slippers to wear while in the house. To the right of reception was the kitchen, where breakfast was served every morning. If you followed the hallway straight you would come to the communal sinks and mirrors, where all your teeth brushing and hair drying would take place. To the left of the sinks were the group bath, showers, and toilets. If you would keep going straight through the sink area, you would hit the stairs to take you to the bedrooms. The bedrooms were the classic Japanese setup with tatami mats on the floor (no slippers allowed), a bunch of blankets to make a bed out of, and a small garden outside the window where you could meditate. It was awesome! So we dropped our stuff and headed out to sightsee.

We followed a frommer's walking tour that took us to some amazing places. We saw the longest standing wooden building in the world, which was filled with thousands of gold buddha statues. We found the Kyoto national museum, famous for it's lacquered boxes and Japanese art. We toured the house of one of Japan's most famous potters... getting to walk through his studio and kiln. We also climbed a huge mountain to visit a temple that was built entirely without nails. We shopped and stopped for lunch along the way, and ended the day by taking a cab to the "entertainment district" of Kyoto, where we heard the geishas hung out.

Now anyone who's read "Memoirs of a Geisha" has found it fascinating, and we were all in that boat. We arrived in the Gion district as dark was falling, and the geishas were heading out to their parties for the night. After only seeing one or two for thirty minutes, we found a bunch of paparazzi standing on the street outside a large building. After making friends with a photographer we learned that this was a geisha house, where the girls and their madam lived! We watched for a while and got to see girls coming home between parties, being picked up by fancy cars to go out again, and the madam instructing them on what to do. It was fascinating! Luckily the photographer we met, Robert (they all give us fake English names because they think we can't say their real name), was a geisha addict, and taught us a lot.

In Kyoto today, there are approximately 100 geiko and 100 meiko alive. Geisha is actually a derogatory term that is not used today. Since gei means art, and sha means person, the word means literally 'art person' as opposed to geiko (art lady) and meiko (dance lady) which implies a lady rather than a person (slut). Does that make sense? Anyway, meiko are the dancers who are aged 15-20, and then geiko are the 21-infinity year olds. The older ladies are skilled in the arts, meaning dance, visual arts, singing, or playing the shamisen. Once you are a geiko you are one for life, and the oldest living geiko today is 94. Meiko can become geiko if they are promoted when they reach the right age. You can tell the difference between meiko and geiko by the length of the sleeves of their kimonos and the length of the bows on their backs (meiko's are longer).

We learned all of this from Robert as we took pictures, and even more when we invited him to dinner. We all sat on tatami mats and ate Japanese tempura while looking out at the river that divides Kyoto... it was so cool. We left him after dinner to go back to our ryokan, but promised to stay in touch. For the record, he actually came to see our show in Osaka twice, and brought us barrelfulls of presents. When we got home, we turned on our tiny tvs and caught Bill Hemmer on American Morning (my fave). Jessica, Maria, and I were sneaking to the front hall to get some beer out of the vending machine when we were stopped by our tiny host, Mrs. Hayashi (Hayashi-san as she's called in Japan). She took our beer and led us into the kitchen, where she proceeded to sit us down and make us tea. She didn't speak any English, but she would tell stories in Japanese and we could kind of understand them! She talked about all the people who had stayed in her ryokan, and by the souvenirs on the wall we learned about the Disney animator, the journalists, the Australian tourists, and the geiko on vacation. We stayed up with her for an hour just talking and laughing. Eventually we headed to bed.

The next morning we woke up early to discover it had snowed during the night (a real treat for Lisa, from Texas). We took turns showering in the shower room and looking out for the men who might try to come in. We set out, leaving our stuff for later. We went first to one of the most famous sights in Kyoto, the golden temple. It is seriously a temple in the middle of a lake, covered with gold leaf. With the snow and the early sunshine, it was one of the most beautiful sights ever. We also went to the Nijo Castle, an example of the ancient Japanese system with original architecture from the 1500s. The coolest part of that was the Nightingale floors that squeaked to warn about intruders. At lunch time we headed back to our ryokan to grab our stuff and get back to Osaka to rest up for rehearsal the next day.

Overall, we found Kyoto to be the most amazing thing we did in Japan. It was such an authentic city, with its own energy that was very unique. All the historical sights we saw were fascinating, and the geiko and meiko up close were stunning. If this were reading rainbow and Kyoto were a book I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND it.

A Typical Day

OK, so let me give you an example of what happened to me yesterday, because it will give you an idea of how bizarre a "typical" day is for me.

Our matinee was full of orphans. It was a charity event sponsored by our hosts, so half the audience was kids, and rowdy kids at that. They explained to us that most of them have never seen live theatre, and considering it was subtitled and some were to young to read, it was going to be a bit tough. For most of the show we actually enjoyed a lively audience, since so far all the audiences throughout this leg of the tour have been VERY well-behaved. In China they would sing along and yell randomly, but in Japan it is rude to laugh, and we missed the fun. However, when the kids started clapping along it started to get a little strange.

In the middle of the second act the Captain and Maria get married, and the nuns are all onstage to sing a giant medley. The clapping was started by one lone clapper, and suddenly EVERYONE was clapping along to our 'Confitemini'. Mind you, this is some hardcore Latin church music, and suddenly it was a jamboree! It got even funnier as we switched into 'How do you Solve a Problem Like Maria' which dances to a different beat. This did not discourage the orphans, who just kept clapping at whatever beat they liked. By the time we sang into the third song in the medley, everyone on stage's shoulders were shaking with laughter. Anyone who was singing had only to look at anyone else on stage or in the orchestra pit to completely lose it.

It would have been funny enough if that was the end of it, but no. The lone clapper tried to start a clapping movement during Every Other Song in the show. Even the finale... 'Climb Ev'ry Mountain'. Needless to say it was a riot.

Now if that had been the only excitement of the day, it would have been one thing. But no, there were other fun tidbits. During Maria's opening song, 'The Sound of Music', her petticoat decided to break and fall off her body. This happened to be the day that she had forgotten her black tights, so when we sang and danced around later in 'My Favorite Things', everyone saw her undies. In fact, this was a double undie feature, since when I stood from a bench to begin singing, I lifted my skirt far higher than I needed, causing our sound man to later ask me if I really had been wearing green undies.

During our break between shows I went with my friend Maria to one of our favorite dinner spots that's close to the theatre. Usually in whatever town we're in, all of us white people find some hot spots that we rotate eating at. This restaurant is called The Witches Table, and we like it for its fresh salads and warm peanut butter banana sandwiches. After we ate, the waitress/cook came over to talk to us, and she brought me a CD. A lot must have gotten lost in the translation, because she kept saying, "remember last week? I go hmmmm. You like? hmmmm. Singing!" and humming. I had no idea what she was talking about, but after five minutes I just gave up and started smiling and nodding. At which point she gave me a CD! Now I'm sure it was supposed to be for someone else maybe in the cast or crew, but since we all look alike (to the Asians) I took it anyway not to be rude. This happens all the time! We have about five plus size ladies in the cast who are always being asked to sign my picture, and any skinny girl with dark hair is presumed to have played Maria. Pretty funny.

Thank Goodness we got it together for our evening show, since the special guest last night was the Mayor of Seoul. He's actually running for S. Korean president, and is favored to win. After a photo shoot onstage after the show he presented us all with gifts... of watches. It's true, I now have a watch (of which the band is so small and designed for a Korean lady that it might fit around my thumb) that says Hi Seoul on the face.

The day ended with some episodes of Alias bought bootlegged from China and some room service. The end of just another regular day.

Boredom... and how we cure it with TV

It's amazing how interesting stupid things can become when you're desperate. We're in our longest, most hellish week of shows right now. I think it's 16 straight shows in a period of 9 days, which is pretty crazy without any time off. Since we're in Seoul, and it's freezing and everyone's getting strange allergies, we're all nervous about getting sick. So, we make our routine really easy and lame to stay healthy the whole time.

Every day we wake up, usually work out, eat lunch, and head to the theatre. We do a matinee, and then eat dinner. Then we do another show, and head back to the hotel. Once there, the excitement begins. We get to watch TV before we go to bed! We have our choice of about ten English-speaking channels, and I can't explain adequately how wonderful this is. Throughout most of Asia we have had one, maybe two English speaking channels per city. Usually they consisted of the BBC, which plays the same shows over and over and over again, or CNN, which is only good when my boyfriends Bill Hemmer and Anderson Cooper are on. The fact that we have choices here is mind boggling - we don't know what to do!

Now that's not to say that all the channels are great ones... there's still CNN, the BBC, and Animal Planet. But luckily we do get the amazing Soldier Channel, and Star World. Star World is useful because it beams us... drum roll please... AMERICAN IDOL! This is the greatest gift Korea could give me. The Soldier Channel is fun because every commercial is full of public service announcements that are totally ridiculous and half common sense. For example, titles like "Don't Drive When You're Tired", "Follow the Food Pyramid" and "If You See Women Being Exploited in the Sex Trade, Please Report It". The best ones are the ones where they pan around a restaurant where people are eating and the voiceover says something like, "As part of a military family, you are responsible for the safety of your family... and the entire country. Please don't forget that Someone is Always Listening". For Real. This is our entertainment.

My First Blog!

OK, I'm a little intimidated starting my first blog, but my sister has slowly peer pressured me into it. It will start out slowly, and I'll probably retroactively put up some info about what's been happening (in Asia) since we were without internet for so long. Please be forgiving, as most of the time when I'm writing I'll be in the middle of a show, and probably listening for my cues. No matter what, if you're bored stop reading, and don't tell me my blog is lame. I already know it will be. Here I go!

For those of you that don't know, I am currently on tour throughout Asia. In May of 2004 I left New York to travel as the Mother Abbess in Troika Entertainment's production of 'The Sound of Music'. We rehearsed and spend quite a while in Shanghai, China, before taking a brief break in August. After that we headed to Beijing, Shenyang, and Ningbo (all cities in China). We ended our leg of the tour with a month in Taipei, Taiwan. We had a fabulously long break for the holidays, and then headed out on the 2nd of this year. Our first stop was Tokyo, where we spent almost a month. Since then we've also played Nagoya and Osaka, Japan. As I write this I am in Seoul, Korea... so far the best place for internet, but the coldest. We are scheduled to play next in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and then Singapore, before heading back to the USA in May. One year in Asia - can you believe it?

Who would have thought that little Betsy Kirkpatrick from Cincinnati, Ohio would ever be touring the Orient? Not me, that's for sure. So of course, life is full of the same surprises as in America... fun times, spilled food, and lots of music. Luckily for your entertainment, we also have Asia to keep us buzzing. I hope you enjoy hearing about my adventures!