NOLA in the April Rains

New Orleans is a place I love to visit. It's got great food, great music, great people! Mostly I've visited for the Jazz Festival off and on over the years and wandered the neighborhoods on rainy days so I've come to know a little of NOLA.

This year, instead of Jazz Fest, I went for the French Quarter Fest. It's what I went for, but not what I did in the end. The weather for the 10 days I was there was almost always some form of rain. I don't mind singing and dancing in the rain, but it would go from a light sprinkle to a deluge in less than 30 seconds (I was that was an exaggeration). One can only spend so many days in wet clothes before wishing to be someplace warm and dry.

Since I got to NOLA before the festival actually started I was already tired of getting caught in the rain and so spent my days indoors either listening to good music, dancing to good music, and/or eating good food.

Can't say that's an entirely bad trip :)  Although, I definitely missed hanging out at the festival in shorts and a tank top, drinking beer and dancing the day away trying not to forget to wear sunscreen!

Still, I got to visit the epic Rock n'Bowl for a few dances and drinks!

I got to dance in a Katrina destroyed church. It had good food and drinks too with all the zydeco dancing!!

And there's always the Ritz Carlton Davenport Lounge where you can listen to live jazz 4 nights a week with no cover and tasty drinks and snack to boot!

Those are fresh house made chips and salted nuts. YUM

I got to go for nice walk in the park right in the middle of the city. I love cities like New Orleans and Austin where there is so much green space in the city limits that you can get away and be in nature and forget where you are.

And then, let's not forget the food because NOLA has some crazy awesome delicious mouthwatering food!!!

The classic Cafe du Monde breakfast of coffee and beignets!

The Wandering Poet Sake (the title the flash is obscuring), is quite tasty!

And Chickie-Wah-Wah's has THE BEST brussel sprouts (I hate brussel sprouts) and THE BEST bread pudding!!!  The mac and cheese and pulled pork is also super outstanding :-)  I'm getting hungry just looking at the picture!

And who can go to NOLA and not eat the charbroiled oysters? These are at Katie's. They were good, but I have had better.

The start of a good meal at Cafe Degas. The goat cheese salad is out of this world!!

One of my favorite breakfast spots at Blue Line Sandwich Co with the owner, Brad, who is so nice and the great tasting food and hand squeezed blood orange mimosas!!!

Grilled veggie plate at Ralph's On The Park. So delicious yum yum :-p

All in all I'd say it was a swell trip. I always enjoy my time in NOLA. The short bits it wasn't raining and the sun came out I took a few shots that I think you'll like. Enjoy and the next post will have more fun tales and happy times from Austin and Dallas TX!!

Perched on the balcony.

Squirrel on the wall!!

Pretty road sign.

Shady sidewalk.

Hangul + lots of Korean food and fun equals Happiness :)

At least Hangul equals happiness if you live in Korea and want to eat, drink, and just live life. You'll see later in the post that I've been practicing! But first, there are many things I've wanted to share recently and just haven't had the time.

Despite the fact I haven't yet had a day off from performing and the issues that are still to be dealt with regarding the show, I'm having an amazing time and I'm so glad to be here.

To prove it...

Another traditional Korean meal. They are soooo tasty! I love the fish and the rice and the soup and I like almost all the side dishes. I've tried one I absolutely don't like and I'm still not a huge fan of kimchi, but I eat it. 

This is the girl that performs every day in the animal show. During the show she does a workout routine and finds a boyfriend in the crowd because she's so SEXY! It's actually hilarious :-D

There's been tasty meals of super duper hot and spicy chicken with salad and noodles and rice and egg souffles and other things I can't remember. Btw, when I say spicy, I mean I cry crocodile tears and my nose runs and I start panting like an overheated puppy dog. Yet it tastes so good I can't stop putting the chicken bites in my mouth. Torture it is, torture!

The remains of some of the pajeon and the last giant prawn awaits my taste buds. He was so big and good looking I had to take a picture before I pulled him apart to devour!!

This is backstage where I walk every day many times back and forth for the shows. And yes, the dolphins are always there to greet me and click and squeal and swim beside me as I run to and from the stage doors. 

Here we all went out for a big Korean meal. There was fish and pork and pajeon (Korean pancake) and of course all the side dishes and appetizers they serve at traditional restaurants. You definitely never leave without being quite full!

And here they give you plastic gloves to eat chicken wings instead of wet wipes like in America. It's a bit weird trying to eat chicken wings with a glove on one hand and using chopsticks in the other. I made the mistake of putting the glove on my right hand so I had to try and use the chopsticks with my left. I ended up using my soup spoon frequently during that meal....

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In addition to the many many many food parties and such, I've managed to squeeze in some Korean studies.

I've found a friend at the aquarium who is willing to teach me in addition to my book studies. Mainly because every time I would try saying a new phrase, he would say, "No, no, we don't say that. We say this", so now I'm taking lessons 5 days a week and studying hard!

I've learned 95% of the Korean hangul alphabet and can sound out nearly every sign I see, although I have no idea what I'm saying! Right now I'm focusing on grammar and trying to understand how Koreans put sentences together and what the structure of the language is. Then I will start adding more vocabulary. I can't wait till I can start saying more than 감사합니다 (thank you) or 안녕하세요 (hello) and start saying sentences. I can say a few, but very few. Once I learn the grammar I can start adding vocabulary by forming sentences or asking one of the few sentences I do know, "그것은 무엇인가?"(What is it?) I can actually write in Korean on my laptop, but I can't remember which key is what character so it's useless till I can get stickers or a silver sharpie to write on the keys.

Life is good. I have new friends, am making more friends, getting lots of exercise, getting lots of mosquito bites..., eating delicious food, learning a new language, playing violin everyday, playing with dolphins between shows, opening my eyes to a whole new world. Hmm, I feel like Jasmine from Aladdin all of a sudden.

I'm working on a video post of the dolphins and also some of the fish in the aquarium, but I don't have lots of time that I spend in front of my computer these days so it wil be a little while yet. 

Right now it's work work work work, then party party party, then work work work work. Somehow I managed to find some semblance of ship life here on land. Amazing :)

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disclaimer: It appears that typing in Korean really messes up the html on Blogger. I tried fixing it many times, but it all appears normal in the edit box so I apologize for my ineptness at figuring out the problem.

Settling in in Seong san

My luggage came! yea! And now I'm unpacked and almost done decorating :) I have some lights to string on the wall that I won't plug in, but I haven't had time for that yet. And I need to make a little box bedside table to hold things I don't use all the time, but don't want to hide away where it's difficult to get. But I'd say, all in all, I'm settled in with clothes hung, electronics charged, music stand erected, snacks to my right :)



I even have the windowsill personalized!!





It's not much time I get to sleep here though. I send hours and hours and more hours each day practicing and rehearsing and trying to communicate through simple English and my handy Korean dictionary and sometimes (if I'm near wifi), a translator app, though it's usually not that easy.

My days usually consist of waking between 6 and 8 a.m. (yes, I know that is heinous for my usual schedule, but my body seems to work on "normal" in Korea), doing internet stuff, and getting errands done and practicing during the morning hours and then I head to the aquarium sometime in the early afternoon to begin rehearsals. And it's usually 8 or 9 p.m. when I finally slug my violin over my shoulder and head for home. Then I check emails again, do any phone call business in the US and crash hard between 11 and midnight and do the whole thing over the next day.

Sounds tough maybe, I'm certainly tired by days end, but I'm having so much fun and learning so much. I'm lucky to get three meals a day so I'm really looking forward to getting a juicer (hopefully soon) so I can at least get one super healthy meal each day.

It does make things a bit easier when this is the view coming home and going to work each day.



I'm walking home along the sidewalk from the aquarium and there is a beach on both sides of the road. I love the breeze and sound of the water everyday, but you all already knew that from all my cruise ship love posts!

And you can see from the picture above that I get to see the bowl volcano everyday when I walk to and from work and if I get to sit down and eat in the aquarium restaurant. Can't wait to hike up it at what is called the "Sunrise Peak". I better do it soon though before I start going to bed and getting up late!

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Yesterday was 'get a physical for a Korean ID card" day. So a group of about 6 of us trouped off to the hospital to get blood work, x-rays, vision, hearing, height, weight (I've lost some btw!), etc done. And of course what is the first thing you do when you get a physical? You have to pee in a cup! So we were all given a little paper cup and off we headed to the shared bathroom facilities. By this I mean that there were two urinals (on the floor) and two stalls. And, no, it wasn't a men's bathroom with two stalls in addition to two urinals, but two stalls for the ladies and two urinals for the men (with no dividers or anything btw. If you happened to be walking up or down the stairs and passed this particular landing, you'd be witness to a Korean dong if one was there peeing. The door was held open so anyone could look inside....  Thankfully, we had a stall! Oh, but it wasn't American! Nope! For the first time in my life, I got to use the "squater".




It was very disturbing that there was water(?) everywhere on the floor. After I flushed it, though, I saw that the plumbing leaked horrendously. Dousing me with water and making a nice puddle to wade through on the way out of the stall. gross. And you don't put toilet paper down it, that's what the trash can at the side is for. ick. Best not to wear long dresses or skirts (like what I had on), or even blue jeans. Heals would be bad too since you have to squat so low. You definitely don't want anything splashing back out of the bowl!! Shorts and sandals are the key! And good leg muscles and aim help too :)

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After the bathroom humor I figured why not move on to food, right?

There is little privacy here I am learning. People just walk in whenever and more people have keys and just come in than me and my roommate. Needless to say, it would behoove one to stay dressed at all times, close the bathroom door (it's the first door on the right after entering) no matter, and always keep things neat and tidy and clean.

Today was a nice surprise in this world of privatelessness. I had been awake for hours and had already eaten breakfast and was getting ready to practice (still in my nightgown since I would rather shower after practicing then before) when in walked (through my locked door) the secretary from the office next door. She wandered into the kitchenette and rummaged around and then asked if i eat black pasta. She doesn't speak English really, nor understand it, but I said, "I've never had it but I'd be happy to try anything". She then left and I went back to what I was doing assuming at some point in the future I would be invited to some restaurant where black pasta was a specialty or something.

Well, I was wrong. 10 minutes later, in she walked again with cooking supplies and proceeded to say something along the lines of, "I cook"? To which I said, "Sure". So while she started setting up her supplies I went to take a shower and get out of my night gown. It was a good thing I did too, because unawares to me, one of my bosses working in the office next door (a man) was also coming over for lunch.

My stomach isn't doing so well here yet because I've gone from eating fresh and organic and super healthy to who knows what. Really, sometimes I have no idea what I'm eating. I just smile, nod and eat it thankfully. This includes meat of various kinds (I have said I'm a vegetarian to some people but that hasn't translated across yet and I don't want to be rude), lots of sugar and white refined breads and lots of milk. It seems they only drink milk with meals here. Weird. Unfortunate for me too since I steer clear of lactose in the States. I'm supposed to be getting a juicer sometime though, so hopefully that will help keep my body on some sort of even track.

Cheers everyone to pan fried, sugared bread and italian sausage and onions in hot sauce!



I clearly should have not included myself in this shot since I look manic....

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I think that's enough for one entry for now.

Oh, I almost forgot...

This "little" guy and I did battle to the death today. If I didn't live 3 flights up and if I had windows I could open I would have just suggested his relocation instead, but alas, that didn't seem a possible alternative.



Farewell my many-legged co-habitant for a short time.