Third time’s the charm… maybe.

My third trip to Immigration on Friday they approved my application and printed a blurb on the back of my Alien Registration Card giving me permission to do the TV shows.

It was a long day at work on Friday, and I tried to go to bed early. I had to be at the studio in Seoul by 8 AM. Yet whenever I know I have to wake up early, I can’t fall asleep. When I finally fell asleep, my phone rang. Someone called me while out drinking.

“Hey Joe, whatcha doin’?”

“Sleeping.”

“Okay. Sorry to bother you.”

I was dead when I awoke at six.

I got to the studio and was happy that the costume fit my fat butt this time. Shooting lasted until around eight in the evening. I was sore, sore, sore from my uncomfortable shoes and just plain standing or sitting in uncomfortable seats while keeping my energy and performances up for take after take.

No complaints, though. This is a lot of fun. Again, it’s great to be around the smell of stage make up again–especially when applied by very cute make up girls.

The next day started the same as the first. Had to be at the studio at eight in the morning. The yellow dust levels were off the scale, as I’m sure you know from reading the other Korea blogs. I wore my mask.

This was my other show with my other co-host Karen. She’s my co-host for the Dr. Einstein show. Yet the Dr. Einstein one is combined with this social studies show. In it, we have two kids who play aliens. Karen and I are alien trainers teaching them how to interact and survive on Earth. The first episode was table manners and the second one was about libraries. My costume for this one required a lot less transformation. I was just myself. Nonetheless, the clothes made me look like a feminized Mr. Rogers–the lavender tie with pink cardigan.

That taping went a lot more quickly. We finished soon after six. We have to go to the English Village in Incheon next weekend to finish shooting on location.

So, I guess I can reveal this little project I’m doing since it has already been announced in the Korean media. EBS, the Korean educational broadcasting network, is launching a new all-English channel, EBS +3. My shows are for level 4 students, which are “Spy Zone” (I came up with the title) and “SEL 4 Science” and “SEL 4 Social Studies.”

Yeah, yeah, not exciting sounding titles. I’m very curious about how the final products will look. The Flash animations inserted in the shows are entertaining.

The network premieres next week. My first show premieres next Monday at 10 AM. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I will get the new channel for a while. I’m going to ask for copies of the shows to take home.

It’s been exciting, though. Chris P. just got a call from EBS yesterday, and it looks like they want him involved after all. So that’s cool that both of us are doing the EBS thing. I think it’s funny that I now have the same employer as the beautiful Lisa Kelley (English Cafe) and Bboong-Bbong-i (the farting Barney).

On Monday, though, I got an urgent call from EBS. Immigration still has problems with me. I had to go to the main EBS offices in Seoul after work last night and give them my passport and Alien Registration Card (very risky as I now have no ID) so they can go back to Immigration and figure out what the problem is this time.