Can you feel the love tonight

So what has Matt Weaver been up to lately? Wouldn’t you like to know!! Well, that is why you have been bugging me to blog! Sorry, I am really cold and I don’t like to do anything when I’m cold…..what a lame freaking excuse. I know, but that’s what you get for loving me. Christmas and New Years I spent with my friends and I actually had a great time! New Years a group of us went into Seoul and I thought I was going to die…seriously, I have never seen so many freaking little people in the world. Not midgets, just Koreans….Here is a picture in the subway….






I was reminded of the scene from The Lion King, where Mufasa comes to rescue Simba and manages to do so, only to be thrown to his death back into the stampede by Scar. It was so scary I wanted my dad to come bite me by my neck and take me to safety. Actually, that would be weird….so never mind.

My memory fades me. Let me tell you what is going on recently. I joined an acting group called Seoul Players! It’s really awesome. I gave my acting role to my friend and so this time around I am just a director! I know, me directing!! How awesome! I’m directing Titus Andronicus Act 3 scene 1, gotta love Shakespeare.

Funny stuff this week….Last Friday my school gave me the day off! I was so excited and didn’t want to ask too many questions because then they might change their minds. On Monday, I arrived at school to realize that the whole school was being remodeled. I opened the office door and all of my stuff was gone…what the hell? I had 5 minutes before class started and all of my materials were gone. I had laid everything on my desk ready to go last Thursday. I thought it was a joke and then I realized they had built a freaking wall through half of the office…..I thought “Where did that wall come from? And where the heck is my stuff?” So I franticly searched for my stuff….In the supply room I found a big blue box with Matthew written on it. I ripped it open and grabbed my stuff and ran to class…..holy cow Korea gives me a heart attack sometimes. I only had two classes to teach that day and the first class was awesome it was the second class that almost put me over the edge.

These classes are not normal classes, they are winter camps. I have about 10 students in each class and we meet for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Then I go home!!! I am starting class and explaining the schedule for the day as I walk towards the door to shut it when a bird flies right at my head….I duck and start screaming, then everyone starts screaming. Then a boy pulls out, what looks to be, a hand gun and I start screaming even louder like a little girl…..What the hell…now everyone is screaming and someone is going to get shot! I finally stopped screaming because I became concerned that the boy was going to shoot someone…and by someone I mean me…My first thought was to get rid of the gun so I demanded him to put the gun away.

Yeah, my education courses never trained me what to do when a kid pulls out a gun. The kid puts his gun away and I tell the students to shoo the nasty bird out of the class. I’ve been pooped on way to many times….I’m not dumb, kids can handle poop better than I could. There is only one other teacher teaching and she comes out of her class to see what was happening…I just wave and say “HI” and she quietly shuts her door. Thank God no one can speak English! I am just relieved no one got shot. I go back in the classroom and here is the dialogue between me and the gang member(gun boy):

Why do you have a gun?
You told me it was okay.
What?
Yeah, I asked you and you said yes. It’s my bb gun.
Oh, it’s just a bb gun. Thank God, but wait are you allowed to have a bb gun at school?
Oh it’s okay, no bullets.
Okay, no bullets. It’s okay then…..end of conversation

(I had the students create a movie/play for the camp) I remembered reading over the scripts they made and approving it. They chose to reenact Aladdin with a twist. I had read the script and I remembered Aladdin’s uncle dies but I didn’t remember anything about a gun. Oh gosh….

At the moment I thought the BB gun was okay because they are allowed to bring box cutters (razors) to school but if I had to do it over again….I definitely would not have allowed the gun to be used in the play. The language barrier is a challenge all the time. After this I began recording the movies they made….the same kid starts running around the room with the gun yelling you mother fu**er, you will die…..and another kid yells oh shit, oh shit, oh shit….I stop and ask….where did that come from? That is not in the script I approved….they say “We added them, you like?” I bow my head in shame. I really wanted to laugh my ass off but this was neither the place nor time. I kind of felt it was my fault because I gave them free rein to create anything they wanted. I didn’t want to supervise that much because I didn’t want to do it for them….I made them re-shoot the video with no curse words. I will post the video soon.

In other news, Kara and her friend Michelle are coming soon! I am so excited; it will be so awesome to have a friend from back home here! Also, I am going to Laos/Thailand from Feb. 13 to Feb. 26!!!