Winter blues

Ouch! My head! It’s been raining for 4 days now and, while I enjoy the smell of wet earth, I’m feeling quite tired. There’s something great about rain: no pressure to be happy. When it’s all sunny and clear sky, you can’t be depressed. But when it’s raining, who cares?

Hallim is where I work. It’s a small village about an hour from where I live. I ride the bus every day. Though Jeju is an island, it’s too big to see the ocean from everywhere. But in Hallim, the ocean is right there. This morning the weather was cold, the sky was gray, and it smelled like fish. Salt water and fish. I liked it.

My Korean friend booked my flight to Indonesia this week and I’m really excited! Two full weeks of resting, beaching, sleeping, not working, eating, swimming, discovering, relaxing and celebrating… I love those “ings” ;) 32 more days to go!

Last weekend was quite fun – Isaac’s band played at “Led Zepplin” and a huge crowd turned in. That’s when I realized one of the benefits of living abroad in an Alien country: we know a lot of people! In a sense, it’s like being a celebrity – a whole lotta lovin’ everywhere you go! And let’s not forget the Koreans as well, who wave at you, touch you, shout “hello! Hello!” (even while you’re driving) and take pictures of you even though they have no idea who you are.

It gets annoying after a while, and that’s why I was very happy to hang out with “my people” last weekend! The night ended in the morning again and the hangover was brutal. But to be fair, I hadn't been out in two weeks, slowly recovering from the holidays oh-too-many celebrations...

A couple of friends also invited me to the movies, which was a big mistake! “Todd Sweeney” (with Johnny Depp) grossed me out with all the blood and violence. It just wasn’t my kind of movie – though the underlying idea is pretty good and Johnny is hot! Laurie and I had popcorn and chocolate… delightful mix I hadn’t enjoyed in a long time! Somehow we're the only ones who enjoy the sweet and salty mix ;)

This week is going by very slowly and I am still plotting the murder of my neighbors upstairs. They still wake me up around 4am and keep going until morning comes. Mr. Lee finally got in touch with them after I caught them red-handed – their door was open at 3:30am and they were moving boxes.

Turns out the lady owns a clothing store and she unpacks her stuff at night to be ready in the morning. Apparently that’s the only time she can do that. So uuuuuugh! What can I do? She said she’ll try to be more quiet – blessing which lasted for a week but now she’s back to being a big fat Korean bitch. I never thought I could hate so bad someone I don’t even know.

On the other hand I’m trying to be zen. The city will never shut up, nor will my neighbors so I just have to learn to live with the noise. I wish I had an actual bubble I could dive in every time I need quiet, but I don’t.

Lisa just got back from Thailand, and so did Gabriel and Danila. They’re all tanned and happy! It’s great to have them back, but I’m just so jealous! I also met new people at the gym and the University so it’s nice to have new people to hang out with. There’s over a hundred foreigners on the island, and we all know each other. But after a while (and that’s just my personality), I need a change of scenery! Meeting new people, going to new places, doing new stuff and getting out of this rot!

It’s funny because there’s a whole bunch of newbies coming in March and everyone on the island can’t wait to meet them! It’s like anyone who’s not in a relationship hopes someone better (than those already living on the island) will come along. I have this mental image of sharks haha

I want to go home so bad! I love Korea, but I need to speak French, see my friends and family, roll over in snow and eat poutine. I want to hold the dog, have dinner with my parents. I want to have a beer with my sister and my brother, and talk until the morning comes. I wanna play guitar with Dave and laugh my head out with Pete! I want to cook with Aurelie and go to a concert! I miss home! Can I handle 7 more months?

Mom and dad are thinking about visiting in June - after my brother's girlfriend gives birth. Josiane also wants to come and see me in the summer. I’ve got friends from Seoul who are definitely coming down in the summer too. I guess everything will be alrite once winter (how can this be winter? It’s raining but not snowing, cold but not freezing) is over.

I did (re)discover some great Jazz musicians - especially

Red Garland

(great pianist!),

Ben Webster

(great saxophonist!),

Diana Krall

(duh! but i'm really digging her style) and of course

Duke Ellington

(piano),

Stan Getz

(saxophone) as well as

Art Tatum

(prodigious pianist, sometimes too fast but simply mind-blowing!)

As for movies, i've watched quite a few in the past weeks:

September

is another great Woody Allen movie (and the jazzy soundtrack is beautiful! I especially love "On a slow boat to China" and "Out of nowhere"), while

Mighty aphrodite

is a really funny Woody Allen movie starring Mira Sorvino.

I also highly recommend

The brave one

, a great movie about a woman who gets robbed and beaten on the street. Her husband dies in the hospital and she becomes a kind of vigilente. With Jodie Foster, who is excellent for the part!

Fracture

is alright: with Anthony Hopkins, good thriller, good setup, good plotline. Ryan Gosling is great and perfect for the role of an arrogant lawyer.

And finally,

The bucket list

with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman is a nice and light movie about two men who meet in the hospital and decide to spend their last days on earth enjoying life. It's cute.

A good documentary about Cuban leader is "Fidel: The untold story". And if you haven't seen "Buena Vista Social Club", you oughta run to the movie store because it's a must. Ruben Gonzales and Ibrahim Ferrer are simply adorable, and the music as well as their story are all groovy/interesting.

French President dates supermodel

While the very conservative United States of America would by no means tolerate their head of state divorcing during his presidential term, France has taken a new turn with President Nicolas Sarkozy, 6 months only after the election.

In October 2007, the presidential office announced that Sarkozy had filed for divorce from his wife Cecilia Ciganer-Albeliz - a former supermodel whom he had met when he was mayor of Neuilly in the 1980's... when he had actually officiated her wedding.

In January 2008, Sarkozy publicly announced his "serious relationship" with Carla Bruni - a supermodel and musician. They were photographed at EuroDisney, and taking a vacation in Egypt.

It has been all over the news for quite a while now, and lots of people see this as regular jetset material. But it is quite a unique event since Sarkozy's predecessors have had countless lovers, and yet they never publicly discussed it (Mitterand, Chirac...)

Moreover, such a public outlet of a President's private life is not new. But the fact that it is discussed and acknowledged by the President himself is quite unusual. Is Sarko trying to gain the population's trust by stating the obvious? Well it is true that he does always say what he means (e.g. referring to urban vandals as "rabble" (racaille) during the Paris riots)

Anyway, quoting French comedian Anne Roumanoff:
"It would be alright if she (Carla Bruni) became the First Lady. But what if Hilary (Clinton) got elected? You know, Sarko would visit her, and during the official presidential meetings the spouses would keep each other company.... and knowing Bill (Clinton) and Carla.... it might provoke serious tension between France and the US." (see youtube clip here)

Roumanoff is of course referring to the fact that Bruni is infamous for dating Donald Trump and breaking up Mick Jagger's marriage. While Bill... well, you remember Monica Lewinsky ;)

You will of course understand that i'm French-Canadian and everything our big sister France does is of interest ;) On a related note, Patrick called me tonight to let me know that he has booked his flight to Bali - meaning I will meet a very good French friend in Indonesia in about a month! That's something to look forward to !!

Goodbye Oscar Peterson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ebo12xg4ws

Observe his flying fingers, it's beautiful! Jazz pianist born in Montreal, Peterson died a day before Christmas (last Monday), at age 82. He is one of my favorite jazz musicians and he's played alongside the giants of jazz including Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, Roy Eldridge, Nat King Cole, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.

This clip is entitled "goodbye" - both a very appropriate and intense piece.

death, oranges, insomnia and the carpenters

What a day! First of all, it's December 11th - which means it's my grandmother's death anniversary. She died last year while I was in Seoul, and it's been quite a tough row to hoe.

I know it's a fact that she's not "here" anymore, but her memory remains and sometimes I want to share a funny thought with her, or just listen to her never-ending stories but... I can't. And it sucks.

There’s also this tremendous amount of guilt… you know, the “I should have…” and “I could have…”. Especially as a kid, I was so greedy and selfish, and she was all about loving and giving. She used to say she loves me as much as the universe. So did I. And let's face it, she was really funny! I miss her really badly.


Thanks to my upstairs neighbors, I am even more emotional today. Indeed, they walked in in high heels at 2am and of course that woke me up. As if this wasn’t enough, I heard them walking heavy at 4am (banging their heels as they were strolling across the room), opening and closing closets.

It lasted for almost an hour when I finally decided to go upstairs and knock on their door. No answer. I knocked louder. Nothing. I rang the doorbell. Still no one. I was so pissed by then, I just gave the door a big slap and went back to my room. It was silent for a second, and it started again.

Around 6:30am it finally stopped and I was able to get half an hour sleep before getting ready for work and hopping on the bus. I was fulminating!

As I got to school, grumpy as hell, I remembered that my ajumma class (adult women) wanted to do the Carpenters’ song “Top of the world”. Thank God that was funny cauz the music video is soooooo old and cheesy, and the women were all trying to sing along with their Korean accent!

As they were leaving, one of them gave me this huuuuge bag of gimchi and a big basket filled with oranges. The gimchi is a year-old, which means it’s simply delicious and I’m incredibly excited about it! As for the oranges, it’s the peak season now on the island so they are cheap and they are everywhere! You can get 10kg for 5 bucks!!



Oh and yesterday I sent a massive box full of Christmas gifts back home, and a small one to France, for only 40$… not even surface mail; express! Oh sweet Korea! Did I mention I froze my ass for 2 hours in a Korean cemetery last Saturday for a Kim Oksun photo shooting? The photographer is Korean and she takes pictures of foreigners in Korean settings. Her exhibit will be in Seoul this coming June. She's quite talented.

Gota go, lunch time! Yet another day on earth, hoping grandma’s in a better place indeed. Did you know that Koreans bury the dead and then add some lump of earth on top of it? If you look closely, it has some sort of human shape…

Dear Mr. President

Powerlessness. It is something that truly scares me– being tortured, witnessing genocide, being a passive observer as people hurt the ones you love, being trapped in a plane that is doomed to crash, having your house bombed while you’re peacefully asleep, dying in a tsunami, being homeless and a drug addict, being sentenced to death penalty for a crime you didn’t commit, and the list goes on.

I often feel deeply sad and upset while watching the news (or studying history for that matter). This world is so cruel yet so beautiful.

We all feel like we have the answer (especially when re-making the world with friends over a few beers) – yet atrocities still happen on a daily basis. And we are helpless as individuals. But we are strong as an entity.

I recently heard the song “Dear Mr. President” and thought I’d share the music clip. I personally don’t like Pink, but this one is a really good one and it features the “Indigo Girls”. Carefully listen to the lyrics.

Dear Mr. President,
Come take a walk with me.
Let's pretend we're just two people and
You're not better than me.
I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly.

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street?
Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep?
What do you feel when you look in the mirror?
Are you proud?

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye
And tell me why?

Dear Mr. President,
Were you a lonely boy?
Are you a lonely boy?
How can you say
No child is left behind?
We're not dumb and we're not blind.
They're all sitting in your cells
While you pave the road to hell.

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?
And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay?
I can only imagine what the first lady has to say
You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine.

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?
How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Can you even look me in the eye?

Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Minimum wage with a baby on the way
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
Building a bed out of a cardboard box
Let me tell you 'bout hard work
You don't know nothing 'bout hard work

How do you sleep at night?
How do you walk with your head held high?
Dear Mr. President,
You'd never take a walk with me.
Would you?

**Had to repost this due to some prob with utube**