Category Archives: Blog

Fade To Black

This was early February. Some friends of mine were in a small acting club called the Industral Theatre Troupe. This particular venue is called Fade To Black where they perform 30 plays in 60 minutes. Well, that’s kind of a misnomer actually.  It’s really more like 30 extremely short skits in 60 minutes. The fun part about this is Continue reading Fade To Black

Graduation

The end of the school year has come and gone.  Unlike the American school system, the Korean school year spans from March to February.  Last month marked the end of the 2013 school year here, which means big changes.  But first, we have to bid farewell to the 6th graders as they move on to middle school and clean up the school for the next term. Enjoy the pics!  Continue reading Graduation

More updates on the way ..

Ahhhh! Things here have been NON-STOP! (but on the ground and without the hijacking). It’s been good, but wow, I can’t seem to keep up with everything.

Anyway, the point of this short post is to say that I’m doing my best to continue to update this blog. I’ll be adding more photos and posts very soon!

Also, for all of you who want to know about the story of why I came to Korea, check out my new page here – Why Korea? – Or go there any time by clicking on the ‘Why Korea?’ text in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Stay tuned!

-Justin

Frozen

If you have not seen this movie yet, do it! It is well worth it. I just saw it last week and it definitely took me by surprise. Apparently people have been ranting about how good it is for a while now. For me, I didn’t even hear about it until a couple weeks ago. Some of my students asked me if I knew the song “Let it Go.” I hadn’t, but told them I knew the song “Let it Be” and proceeded to sing that one instead. Later I learned that the song was from this new Disney movie, Frozen. At the time, I didn’t really think a Disney movie was really worth my time or money. Boy was I wrong. The movie is absolutely fantastic and, without giving anything away, I’d like to tell you my top  4 reasons it is a must see. I’ll start with number 4 and work backwards to my number 1 top reason.

4) Mind-blowing animation.

Seriously, from gorgeous landscapes to action-packed close-ups, the world and characters Disney created are phenomenal.  It is some of the best animation I’ve ever seen.  Plus it helped that I saw it in 3D.

3) Incredible Music.

The music fits the story so well and completely emersed me into the world of Frozen. Every song was incredible and from song to song, I felt the wide range of emotions characters were feeling. I know this is really cheesy, but the music made me laugh, get teary-eyed, and had me on the edge of my seat. Most of the songs from Frozen are now top hits on the radio.

2) Several excellent moral lessons.

I’ll try not to give too much away, but one thing I was impressed with was Disney’s teaching about relationships. Normally their movies depict a fantasy land in which the love interests are also completely out of touch with reality. I felt that this movie, while still a fantasy, took a much more realistic stance on people and relationships and even added some great practical wisdom to help dealing with them.

Another thing I was impressed with was that the plot revolved around a moral choice Elsa has to make to protect other people. Very unique and very well done.

Lastly, the 2 main characters Elsa and Ana are wonderful role-models for children – especially little girls! How they deal with their problems as the plot thickens and the final resolutions they come to are powerful examples of mistakes and wisdom learned from them.

1) True love.

My absolute, number one favorite thing about this movie was how they depicted true love. So many of Disney’s past movies have been a regurgitation of the same old cliches about what true love is. Frozen completely breaks this pattern and shows what I believe true love really is. And what’s that?

I guess if you want to know, you’ll just have to go see the movie yourself. I highly recommend it!
….. AND it’s FUNNY!

Here’s a Sing-Along to the movie’s most famous song “Let it Go.”