This has really been a long time, but it shows you how busy we are working, preparing the house and the wedding. Yep 2nd of May is the day, in the Interburgo hotel at 18.30. This weekend is kind of a holiday in Korea so we have some time to celebrate and go out. Hyojung has find the dress, my new suit is being made. we sent al the invitations, Pelgrims Mission Choir with Mr. Lee will sing(He will also be our driver during the day) we expect around 200 guests, 4 of them probably will be dutch and the rest family of Hyojung, friends of us from school, church, just friends and friends of Hyojung and her family. The pastor from the church we attend, Myong Deok, will perform the wedding and Nico Smit from Holland, who will be here with his wife, is taking part in the ceremony too, exchanging rings etc. after that we will go for two days to Gyongyu(Ye ye Dekoor, the 20 minutes museum place) where we can relax and do some sightseeing. Then we have another free day on monday and Tuesday schools starts again. I am having great fun teaching at the Keimyung university. It is kind of exiting at the fairly new department of 'Musicproduction'. The brand new building houses the academy for the Performing Art and Media. The school has a name for the classical Department, biggest, best in Daegu, etc. mainly because of the nationwide known Chopin Academy. This is the Piano Department with teachers from Poland too. They work together with the State conservatory in Warschaw. Anyway the students of the Musicproduction Department have to study a performing instrument as a Major too, besides their Sounddesign, Studio-recording, Engineering and Composing. But there is not much experience in teaching instrumental in Jazz/Pop etc. style, so I have to set it up myself, which means a lot of writing. Curriculum, Syllabus, handouts, readers, etc. But I like it and I believe the students too. It is fun because I can read a lot of books about Jazz Pedagogy and Teaching and other new books making the lessons my own style. I also have many idea's about setting up other things for the school, like ensembles, classes, etc. to make it a real jazz school. But let's see later. We have also plans(Mr. Lee and I) to start up a Jazz choir in the city, probably connected to his Yenoeul Music Centre. But this won't be before the second semester or even the next academic year. Last week we had a wine and diner party with all foreign faculty of the University. I met many Canadians, Americans. Polish, Russians, Australians and Chinese. Very nice to see how they all are finding their way into Korean society and struggle with the Language, which i think is not too difficult. Last Saturday Hyojung moved het stuff to my house and another room is filled with book shelfs, furniture etc. afterwards we had a diner with the family in my house. some weeks ago my stuff came from Holland. It went very quickly, they came with 6 man and within 2.5 hours all the 186 items/boxes, including the grant were up on the 5th floor. Wow these guys can really work fast. We still have some boxes to unpack, but the music room, the kitchen. the living room and the other spaces are pretty filled up now. We also bought a new couch and a new table with chairs. A small group of church members goes every week for a trip in the mountains so I already joined 5 times, I really like it. It's not too high(700m. most) but in spring it is beautiful. This week Hyojung was sick unfortunately, her mother too, even went to Hospital for it, some kind of flu, but not the 'bird 'one. Hyojung refused to stop working, so she was very tired everyday. She is OK now. I am exited too here that all the choirs I left behind in the Netherlands are doing well(I never expected them to not do so). Usko has a new conductor and had a series of St. John's Passion concerts in the netherlands and Italy. Dekoor is in the final stage to appoint a new musical director and the concerts with Tijs Krammer went pretty well. Dudok performed yet another set of succesful Matthew Passion Concerts with Erik van Nevel from Belgium. Good to see I can be missed, haha!!!??? Do you miss me already? In the summer I will be in Europe. I have to be in Austria 14th of July to adjudicate at the World Choir Games and after that I will go to Denmark for the World Choral Symposium to meet al my international music friends. After that Hyojung and I will visit the Netherlands but we will also go on a delayed honeymoon to Italy, Venezia, Roma and Firenze. Then in August I will teach at the Vocal Pop and Jazz days in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, and the last week of the vacation I will travel to Italy again for Europa Cantat, Lignano, for another singing week with Vocal Jazz for Choirs. 

That's about it for now, give me a reaction on the blog.

You can always reach me at:

Johan Rooze

Appartment 402, 2542-30 Daemyung 3-dong

Namgu, Daegu

705-823 South Korea

Telephone:

+ 82 (0)53 620 6721 Home

+ 82 (0)53 580 6624 Office

+ 82 (0)10 5580 7472 Cellphone

Email:

jrooze@mac.com

jrooze@hotmail.com

jrooze@kmu.ac.kr

How did it go on

Yep here we are again.

This time in english so al international friends and friends in Korea can read this too. (Sorry for all Dutch).

So we went into the appartment on monday. It is on the 3rd(Korean 4th) floor of an building belonging to the Daemyung campus of the Keimyung University. Very nice and big(The whole house is about 15 x 10 meters, excluding the balcony. It is more or less in the middle of the city of Daegu and has a nice view on the Duryo park and the mountains surrounding Daegu. For the time being I live mostly in one room waiting for my stuff to arrive in Korea. The ship will be in Busan 10th of march so in the weekend of my birthday we can expect to do a lot of work bringing up the 186 boxes and the grand piano. Hyojung and i will have a birthday party on the 14th, her birthday is on the 13th and mine on the 18th. So slowly everything is building up, we got the cable TV, the internet is installed, we had a nice shopping at a big second hand furniture shop and bought some nice things. Wednesday 20th februari we went to Seoul by car, 4/5 hours one way, to pick up my new 2 new suits from Itaewon(Yep, Jeroen I had the idea from you) and to pick up 3 boxes from the airport that I send from Holland with things  need for teaching, like many books on music and my digital piano. We found a nice church in the neighborhood, the priest was also in the Korean church in Amstelveen, we went to several times when Hyojung was in Holland. We are now deciding if we want to attend it regularly. Yes the fridge is full of Gimchi now and we eat a lot together in my home. The Janitor on the first floor is their because I am in the building and during the night there is no one else, I am the only inhabitant for the moment. Last week I got my citizenships ID from the immigration office and now i am officially living in Korea. So we opened a bank account, another action involving 12 papers to be filled with again your name and personal data. We did that last friday at the university bank. It was very busy because all the new students came in for this weeks start of the semester. I had my first lesson yesterday, the Jazz piano class, a choice class, for 16 students, but their were over 25, so I have to make two classes. Maybe I can split them up into an advanced and a beginners class. The students are very nice and I have to be very slowly in my english to make them understand. I have 16 brand new Yamaha digital piano's specially bought for my class in the room, I cannot imagine this happening in the Netherlands. My office is at the 4th(Korean 5th floor) and is also big with my own piano, table, desk computer and shelves. It is very nice to work in except for the "new" smell" (paint like) that still hangs in the room, so i have the window open for the time being. I didn't tell you, that when I had my first meeting with Esther Lee the head of the Music production department, she told me we had a problem: I couldn't reach her for some time, she was to  busy because the planned moving of the school  next autumn from the Daemyung campus to the new campus in the west city already happened, so now i have to travel 25 minutes with the subway to get to school. But.................... now Hyojung and I work in the same place and the new build school of music, Wow........ is very, very, very nice!!!!     A new concert hall(in fact their are two in the hall) with over 1500 seats and a fully equipped building. Our department has many rooms and studio's and all mean teachers have their own office, with nice few over the campus. It feels like another heaven in a heaven. Every day Hyojung and I realize we are blessed the way things go now. When we applied for the job(From May last year we started) she treated the new building like Jericho and walked around the new building(It takes 15 minutes to do it once) 7 times, with the idea to tumble the walls down, and like Joshua, she succeeded. I do a little running now and then and walked all over the city hours and hours and feel very good physical. No more Jetleg. etc.....

Last weekend first official house visit for the whole family at Hyojung's parents place, with full regards and formal bowing to the parents. We had a nice meal coocked by Hyojungs mom and I met all the sisters, husbands and grand children. In the afternoon the man wanted to check me out and they took Hyojung and me out for the boat ride on lake Susungo(Yeye, Dekoor, the duck boats), a ride in the roller coaster and the traditional get a little drunken, diner and meeting to see who I really am, so we had some Soju and Heineken, but you know me, it was them ending up a little tipsy, not me, and they all liked me very much, I was much nicer in real than from the stage, Tv, or photo's, Haha. So now you know...........I think everything is going well.... I am waiting for my furniture to come and let you now more soon. Please mail me now and then I really would like to know how things are going on in the Netherlands and please give my new address to everyone you think I forgot. You can find it at the end of the second message of www.johanrooze.nl. If you want to reach me at school(Keimyung University) + 82 53 580 6624.

Bye bye for now.....

Johan and Hyojung

Hallo allemaal,



Wat een week!

Maandag 11 mijn huis leeg gehaald. 25 cub. meter in de container plus de vleugel.

snel gegaan 07.30 begonnen en rond 16.30 reed de vrachtwagen weg. Daarna twee dagen

klussen en schoonmaken en donderdag de sleutel ingeleverd. Mijn visum dreigde als

nog op donderdag niet op tijd te komen, maar gelukkig kon ik op vrijdag om 11.00 in

Den Haag mijn passpoort ophalen(7 uur voor vertrek).

In de namiddag ben ik uitgezwaaid door een groot deel Dekoor, Bert Schonewille en

Nico en Lily Smit , bij wie ik donderdag en vrijdag kort te gast was. na een

emotioneel gezongen "Liefde van later" met de nodige tranen en daarna een zeer

emotionele trioknuffel met Nico en Lily verliet ik het land. Reuze moe van de

laatste dagen heb ik gelukkig 7 uur van de 10.5 uur die de vlucht duurde geslapen.

In Seoul eerst naar de tailor, om twee werkpakken aan te meten. Woensdag kan ik ze

afhalen en dan ga ik meteen mijn digitale piano en twee dozen met boeken, via world

baggage service verstuurd, ophalen van Incheon airport de Internationale luchthaven

van Seoul. In Daegu aangekomen ontving Mr.Lee hyojung en mij in het hotel want ik

kon pas maandag(vandaag in mijn appartement).

Na alle turbulente dagen, waarin ik ontdekt heb dat ik meer vrienden heb dan gedacht

gisteren zondag een rustig dagje gehad, wel een nieuwe handphone(mobieltje) gekocht,

en 's avonds het eerste echte diner met de Ouders van Hyojung, lang verwacht, jullie

weten wat ik bedoel, maar het was hartverwarmend, ik had me geen warmer welkom in de

familie kunnen voorstellen. Ze waren net zo emotioneel als Hyojung en ik en vandaag

(maandag) gaan ze mee om naar mijn appartement te kijken. Vanaf 15.00 vanmiddag kan

ik erin. hyojun heeft het al gezien en schrik niet, we dachten dat het kleiner en

behelpen zou zijn, maar het is nog groter dan mijn flat in Hilversum, ruim en er

kunnen wel 4 vleugels in zei Hyojung. Volledig voorzien van ijskast, gas, big

flatscreen TV, internet, 2 bedden meubels etc. op 3 minuten lopen van de campus waar ik

les geef. Daar krijg ik mijn eigen office met computer en vleugel etc. Ik ben benieuwd straks!!!

Vandaag ook wat zaken geregeld, verzekeringen enzo, maar daar zal ik jullie niet mee

lastig vallen. Voorlopig gaat alles goed, beetje moeite met inslaap komen 's avond,

jetleg dus, en ook vanwege de spanning denk ik. Als ik de dingen een beetje verder

op de rails heb dan horen jullie meer en zal ik nog terugkomen op alle mooie dingen

die jullie allemaal mij de laatste weken hebben gebracht, in zaken en gevoelens, ook

hier had ik me niks mooiers kunnen voorstellen. Tjeemig de pemig, ik ging gewoon ff

op reis met een koortje in 2004(Dekoor, wist ik veel!!!!!!



Nog even mijn goede telefoonnummer adres en emailadres





Johan Rooze

Apt. 402, 2542-30 Daemyung 3-dong

Namgu, Daegu

705-832 South Korea



jrooze@hotmail.com

jrooze@mac.com



Johan: + 82 10 5580 7472

Hyojung: + 82 16 518 7472



Tot later..............

Aftellen...

Nog even en dan vertrekt hij naar Zuid-Korea. Op 2 februari "vieren" we het afscheid van Johan. Een feest vieren terwijl hij vertrekt... Het voelt zo dubbel...