before sunrise

charming young ladies

The brass and woodwind orchestra of the University of Ulsan Music Department had a performance Tuesday evening. You can see the poster for it in my previous post. I found out about it from a young lady I met walking back from the supermarket Sunday morning. I actually saw her inside the supermarket and waited at the door to meet her as I had been trying to discover the quickest route back to campus through the maze of side streets and I figured that if she was a student she would probably know all the shortcuts. She did and as we chatted I discovered that she played the trumpet and asked her about her next performance.

I had no idea how to get to the Hyundai Arts Centre but Anne in the Language Education Centre office found out about a bus going there from campus at 6:00 pm. My class finished ten minutes earlier and I just caught the bus in time. It was full of students who I thought to be the musicians but as it turned out they were mostly vocal music students with a few pianists here and there. We chatted on the half-hour bus ride and several of the ladies invited me to have dinner with them at McDonald's before the concert. We sat together for the performance which included orchestral suites from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Pirates of the Caribbean. My favourite piece was something called Alladale by Phillip Sparke, part of his Highlands suite.

On the bus back to campus Eunjong and Jinyong, the two ladies on the right in the picture, invited me to join them for fried chicken and beer at a late-night restaurant near the dormitories and my apartment. They paid so I promised to treat them to a delicious meal the next time we meet. Charming ladies and fine sopranos as well, I imagine. Their concert will be in November.

Why do I post photos?

1. I have a lot of them.


2. I think some of them are quite good.


3. I wonder what other people think of them.


4. I'm too lazy to type much these days.


5. There's nothing I could write that could describe them accurately.


6. They're colourful.


7. I have to do something with them.


8. They format well.


9. They're eye-catching, sometimes.


10. It's my blog and I can do as I please!

poise

I was at my daughter's ballet teacher's wedding last Sunday. I didn't plan to be in any of the group photos as I was only wearing a short-sleeved Indian print shirt and jeans but her niece came over to my pew and asked me to stand with the friends of the bride and groom. I was at the back behind some guys in suits and managed to sneak this photo. Wonmi, the bride, was calm and smiling the whole time. It must have seemed simple after all the ballets she had performed. All she had to do was walk, talk and stand still a lot.

i like bikes