Mercury - rehearsing
Masters of Ceremony
Mercury - The Ants and the Grasshopper
Pluto - Alice in Wonderland
Venus - 24 Robbers
Lunar New Year, that is! Three cheers for a five-day weekend! I feel it is quite well-deserved now that festival is over.
Friday evening I skipped out on Happidus (GASP!). Tony and I wanted to go over our festival script. We had some good laughs doing that. We also went shirt and tie shopping for him, so that he could match the scarf I was going to use as a shawl with my (black) dress. The store people couldn't get over the colour of my eyes and thought I was wearing contacts. Awww. Then it was early to bed for the big day...!
The festival show did, in fact, go splendidly on Saturday. I was SO SO proud of my Mercury kiddies. I wanted to run from the MC podium and give them all big hugs after each performance. I was definitely fighting back tears. Julian, who at every rehearsal rushed through all his lines and would try to stage direct rather than participate in the dances, was spot-on. Alvin had a costume mishap in which is ant antennae fell off, but he handled it well and the audience thought it was adorable. Scarlet is a natural performer and was beaming the whole time. All the kids - the other classes too - were fantastic. It went smoothly, and it was fun! Tony and I had a grand old time as MCs. I'm not sure all of the jokes translated, but there were some laughs...especially when we did some more animated humour: my Taekwondo attempt, Tony eating a cookie (after a performance of "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?", the more slapstick stuff.
The day was certainly a long one though. At school for 9am to assemble all the props and some children, load the buses, unload on location, full dress-rehearsal (lunch WHILE we ran through it), the show, clean-up and return everything to the school, and staff dinner. It was a 13-hour affair. Some of us staff went out to a bar and then onto Norae Bang (kareoke) afterwards. It was a ton of fun. We definitely rocked out and sang a lot of songs. We were all exhausted though and didn't stay out too late.
Hana and Elly
Friday evening I skipped out on Happidus (GASP!). Tony and I wanted to go over our festival script. We had some good laughs doing that. We also went shirt and tie shopping for him, so that he could match the scarf I was going to use as a shawl with my (black) dress. The store people couldn't get over the colour of my eyes and thought I was wearing contacts. Awww. Then it was early to bed for the big day...!
The festival show did, in fact, go splendidly on Saturday. I was SO SO proud of my Mercury kiddies. I wanted to run from the MC podium and give them all big hugs after each performance. I was definitely fighting back tears. Julian, who at every rehearsal rushed through all his lines and would try to stage direct rather than participate in the dances, was spot-on. Alvin had a costume mishap in which is ant antennae fell off, but he handled it well and the audience thought it was adorable. Scarlet is a natural performer and was beaming the whole time. All the kids - the other classes too - were fantastic. It went smoothly, and it was fun! Tony and I had a grand old time as MCs. I'm not sure all of the jokes translated, but there were some laughs...especially when we did some more animated humour: my Taekwondo attempt, Tony eating a cookie (after a performance of "Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?", the more slapstick stuff.
The day was certainly a long one though. At school for 9am to assemble all the props and some children, load the buses, unload on location, full dress-rehearsal (lunch WHILE we ran through it), the show, clean-up and return everything to the school, and staff dinner. It was a 13-hour affair. Some of us staff went out to a bar and then onto Norae Bang (kareoke) afterwards. It was a ton of fun. We definitely rocked out and sang a lot of songs. We were all exhausted though and didn't stay out too late.
Hana and Elly
Norae Bang - Karen and me
Sunday was both relaxing and productive. Along with my usual weekend errands, I made it to the gym and had time to read. I met with a friend later on for a drink, too. A great day, really!
Monday regular classes resumed, but today at school we had Lunar New Year activities with the kids - a slideshow presentation about the holiday, and some games: tug-of-war and darts. The kids also did a bowing ceremony, Sebae, that's performed for their elders (us!). They all wore their Hanbok, or traditional costumes, today. Beautiful colours.
Tug of War - Juldarigi
Bowing - Sebae
Oh! Exciting: it's SO mild out now! It's only -2 right now...usually by the evening it's at least -10. Highs this week of 5 and 6 degrees! Perfect for my days off of sight-seeing and walking about!
Pictures to come soon! Now time to relax....ahhhh.
The antennae could not be cuter! So glad it went smoothly. xo miss you.
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