du gae lists

That's two lists, for you non Korean speakers.
List #1: Things I've Gotten Used To
I. Carrying Things. I didn't realize how convenient cars were until I had to carry groceries (or anything I purchased) home. I don't own a car here so everything I do is through public transportation. Luckily, taxis are really affordable here. Anyway, whatever I do - I use public transportation. Getting my school stuff, lunch, violin, and sometimes work out gear to school has turned me into an even larger spectacle on the morning bus. I just didn't realize how much I relied on my car back home - that was a seriously convenient and useful mini van.

2. Not Knowing. There are so many times a day I say "I don't know" and it's in a way that I never said it back home. Went to a bakery today… wondered "What do you think is in that bun?"… and I didn't have to ask because I KNEW the answer was "I don't know". Someone calls my cell phone, and I answer thinking "I don't know who this is", knowing that "I don't know what they are saying to me". Literacy is a serious tool and strength. Without it, I sort of feel powerless, but…. still capable? I live in a WORLD of "I don't know".
(2.5 Figuring it out. Context clues. Miming. Asking for help. Google Translate. These methods are sometimes the only method to get through things.)

3. Lack of open container laws - you can consume alcohol pretty much anywhere, anytime here. I'm a fan.
(3.5 Not getting carded. Nobody checks IDs here. .)

4. Korean manerisms - half bowing all the time, handing things to people with two hands/touching my wrist (as explained by EatYourKimchi), repeating myself, responding with "Oh really?", etc.

5. Chopsticks. Hell yeah for acquiring skills.

6. Soup all the time. My friends back home made fun of me for how much I love soup, so it makes sense that I've moved to a place on this planet that ALWAYS has soup :)
I've recently tried Pho for the first time, and there's a delicious tofu soup restaurant near my apartment as well as a Shabu Shabu establishment. Winter in Seoul is rumored to be bone chillingly cold, so I'm looking forward to consuming lots of warm soup this winter yummmmmm


List # 2: Things I Haven't Gotten Used To
1. Everything is sweet. Okay, so everything isn't sugary sweet - but there are very few things I consume here that are actually salty.

2. Getting paid to do things that I like.
I seriously am not used to it.
Once a month I get an email saying "This is how much you made this month!"... and I sort of stare at it. Like, what? You pay me to be here every day? This is too good.
I get to do things that I love. I get to learn so much... and I get to do it with hilarious smart kids.

3. Prices. I still compare things to back home. The exchange rate changes, but has been pretty regularly around 1,000 won = 90 cents. In my head that turns into 1,000 won = 1 USD. I still think "how much was lettuce at home?". I'm just really not used to paying for groceries. Things are often either dirt cheap or pretty expensive here.

4. Walking everywhere. I need to invest in some more intelligent footwear options. I mean.. I have some cute shoes... but those don't really get you far. Or, they will, but they'll give you blisters.



In case you were wondering, life's pretty good in SoKo.
I had my first concert last tuesday (October 29th) - Middle School orchestra, band, and chorus (they don't say choir here). It went really well, even though I was SUPER nervous about it. My high school ensemble is heading to another international school on Tuesday for large group contest, and then we've got parent teacher conferences on friday and saturday. I submitted recordings of 7 students for the international honor orchestra festival and we should be hearing back within the next week or two...
AND BEST OF ALL:
we're starting christmas music :)

Go Time

Friends.

Seriously, how did it get to be the middle of october already?
seriously.
I don't understand this concept of time passing.


We are now 2 weeks away from the middle school music concert (October 29), three weeks away from large group festival (November 5), which means 3 weeks and a day from starting music for the christmas concert (December 18 & 19). Recordings for AMIS and KIMEA festivals are due October 25th, so the students and I have been working on their audition materials and recordings.

The school year is happening.
I sometimes have to pinch myself.
I get caught up in the little stuff - I have to turn this form in, I haven't figured out weather or not I've paid my internet bill, did I send that email to Brian, I wish I knew how to get finale to do meter changes, do we start talking about half steps/whole steps now or wait until after large group contest, what concept is next for grade 5, do I have the right shoulder rests for the different sizes of violins for grade 2, how soon should I make copies of scores for competition, ooooo permission slips for the competition - I should find those on the staff portal, did I double check the roster?

 the list goes on and on.

This is what I came here for. It's crazy. It's new. It's incredibly challenging - but I wouldn't have come here if I thought it was going to be easy. I was looking for this. I wanted to learn about my profession and about myself.  That, dear friends, is happening.

With that, I give you two things that I find incredibly interesting right now:
1) HOW DID THIS PERSON ACHIEVE THIS
2) NERD ALERT As the days grow darker, and I face challenges, my mind travels back to this piece. The text translates to "Bide with us, for evening shadows darken, and the day will soon be over." - what a comfort to ponder and hear.
3) I'm pretty jacked about baking on Friday with Melinda (and maybe Sophie?). The dudes on staff are going to a 4D movie - which I totally would've gone to see, but they made it "No Girls Allowed" so whatever. You can't have my cookies - no boys allowed   :P
4) Tomorrow is day four of Insanity. Yep - we meet at 5:35 and taxi to school to do insanity before the sun is up. So far, I'm lovin' (and simultaneously hatin') it. DIG DEEP.

:)

1) I am always counting down to Christmas - I just love Christmas and countdowns... and that hasn't changed just because I moved to a different continent. 73 days until Christmas! What has changed are the titles of my countdowns (yes, plural). I used to count down to going home from Luther for break and other things.. but now I'm counting down to flying back to the midwest. I forgot to reset one of my countdowns titled "Fly to Korea!" and it has since started counting the days since I flew to Korea. I've been in Korea for 77 days, and will be flying home in 68. Time really flies!

2) Saturday I went to Severance Hospital's International Healthcare Clinic at Yonsei University. I made it without a hitch and got what I went for (prescription for my inhaler). I felt pretty proud of myself as I paid for a doctor's visit and vaccines (that I requested - look at me go!).

3) I found a beautiful Caribou Coffee in Seoul.

4) I started reading "Teaching Music through Performance in Orchestra" - good stuff. Loving it so far.

5) I attended an event and celebrated a birthday this weekend - each of those including their own wine buffets. I now know more about wine than I used to. I tried sparkling red wine for the first time - delicious! But let's be real... I was there for the food. :)

6) I met up with a classmate from Luther today - Katie. She's been here for over a year and might be leaving in 1 month or 3. It was so fun to meet up with her. We chatted about Decorah, our classmates, adjusting to Korea, and everything inbetween.

7) I don't think I could have done this 10 years ago. Email, Facebook, Kakao and Skype all play a huge role in my stability and happiness currently. I talked with Maren on the phone for 15 minutes the other day through Kakao - beautiful. I'll be skyping with my whole immediate family on my monday morning/america's sunday night. The words, smiles, recordings, messages, and love I get through the internet is a serious blessing.

Recent Learning

My students have had two days off now while we (the teachers) have been at school doing professional development. For those of you less familiar to the world of education, it's kind of like school for teachers. The formats and focuses differ from school to school and year to year, but generally PD consists of large group meetings/lectures/workshops on something the administration thinks will help you as a teacher. It's pretty cool - we as a school are dedicated not only to our students' learning, but our continued learning as well. We welcomed a man who directs a school in Nagoya, Japan to our school for two days to learn about assessment. I was not too jazzed about assessment, because seriously when's the last time you took a music test (I am not looking at you, all my music major friends). I was thinking very mainstream, very classical, very... in the box. We learned about learning outcomes, styles of assessments, planning, and rubrics (among other things).

One of the biggest transitions I've been making since moving to Korea is working and living independently. Living is going well most of the time - its more like college than I thought it'd be. People are always around if I need some social stimulation, but I get to have my alone time and I DONT HAVE TO SHARE A FRIDGE! Anyway, I always thought of myself as an independent learner and worker, but I didn't realize how heavily and frequently I required input or affirmation until it's not been readily accessible. I have a great supportive work environment, but we have different jobs. This is one of the first times that I've been solely responsible for a different task that really matters. It's hard to not be able to say "I'm going in this direction with that assignment, but I'm struggling with this aspect... what do you think?". We have different assignments, different applications, different students, different teaching styles, etc. This is me accepting ownership and trying to make a program what I want it to be. I'm responsible for what musical knowledge these kids leave with in May. That's big - it's huge! It's what I've been wanting since I was 17, but now I have it and I'm stuck puzzling over what to do next. It's such a large task I get stymied and take it day by day - I don't think that's really working for me or my students so I'm glad that we worked on planning and assessment for PD.

In other news,
I've had some big successes.
I think this is particularly fitting because today in our workshop, the leader asked us "What is your most recent learning? How did you know that you were really getting it". I talk often about being a life long learner, about always being open, about always viewing challenges as opportunities to learn - but when he asked me "what's the last thing you learned?" I struggled. I came up with a couple options, but did I really learn or did I just survive in these instances? Anway, I now realize my most recent learning:

I went back to Yongsan electrical market with a handwritten note, a receipt, and a faulty macbook pro charger. The note explained that after 20 minutes of use, the charger started smoking. The man at the store was so kind! He read the note, and asked if I wanted "change or money"... I said (mimed) that I didn't know. He plugged in a new charger with my adaptor, let it charge up for a while, monitoring the temperature of the charger, he tried it another ten minutes with his adaptor, we plugged it into different outlets, he smelled the faulty charger, he smelled the charger he wanted me to take.... and away I went. No more money spent, and I got the right charger! Wahoo! It took probably an hour and a half to get there and back, but time actually spent in that gigantic market was minimal. most excellent. By the way,  I have not learned to write in Korean - one of the Korean teachers at school wrote it for me (shout out to Nam Hee for helping me to get my poop in a group, and shout out to Sophie and Jeff for letting me borrow their extra charger for a week!) See, I told you I work with the best people! (What did I learn: it's okay to ask for help - particularly in written form)

Secondly - Today I paid bills (besides student loans) for the first time! 

I also had my gas shut off for the third time since moving here, but... we'll let that slide. In case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when they've shut off your gas.

What was surprising to me is the amount that they were hung up on. My bill was 7,500 won - about $7. SERIOUSLY!? whatever. So, I found my bill (which I had already tried to pay, but got confused), and off to the bank I went after school today (shout out to my principal Scott and his wife April for taking me to the bank and walking me through it!). I figured out how to do bank transfers recently, a very popular and common form of payment here in Korea. It's just transferring money from one account to another - but you must know the account number. I was able to pay my 2 bills via wire transfer today. This is remarkable because previously these services were not available in English at the ATM. This is also remarkable because normally you have to use a certain ATM that is designed for bill payment, and only works in Korean. Today friends, I worked the system. I paid my bills, and I have gas in my apartment. But, by the way... if this ever happens to you, you can just pull the lever back up and use the gas. They only bolt it down (shutting it off) if you owe more than $100. I find it particularly amusing that this is THE THIRD time I've had my gas shut off since I moved here because during the first week, one of my principals said "oh they'll never shut your gas off, I've not paid mine for months before and they've never shut it off". These were the first bills that I was required to pay because someone else lived in my apartment last year and owed some from then, and then there was no tennant this summer, so the school paid those... it's just been a process... full of cold showers. ha. 

THIRD,

Tonight Melinda and I went to the Nakwon Music Arcade in Insa-dong tonight. We made it there, not getting lost, and found most everything we were looking for. What's even more is that Melinda haggled. Way to go, Melinda! I got some rockstops, shoulder rests, and rosin and Melinda found a sopranino recorder and ORFF BOOKS IN ENGLISH. It was a great nerdscursion that ended with dinner by Don. We mixed their makgeolli from a festival with Acai/Grape juice - tasted like a wildberry smoothie. Some photos of the market/arcade:

 SO MUCH STUFF

 as she's singing "I'm in heaveeeeeen"

a quality/hilarious find: a bow less, inadequately clothed violinist with poor posture. why not.

Road Blocks

Life as of late has been going well - the normal ups and downs of working life.

I attended the KIMEA Conference last week and met the orchestra teachers of other international schools in Korea. It was a great opportunity to get to know more of "my people". We selected the rep for the honor festivals coming up, had some conversations that have improved my outlook and instruction, and I got to see some friendly Luther faces again! It's pretty much a norse globe, not nation. There were so many Luther Norse at this conference - Luther on da map!

Since coming to Korea I've been going non stop. In my past life, I took a lot of me time.. a lot of lazy time. I love me some TV dramas and junk food. Since coming here, those things have been hard to get (spare time, junk food is different, I had to set up a VPN to watch Hulu and Netflix...), but on Saturday I got my me time and I got it right nice. I made some ramyeon soup for lunch, adding tiny mushrooms, bean sprouts, and egg whites. This is totally my new comfort food. So easy to make. So delicious and warm - I seriously love soup. And plus, when I add the veggies and egg whites, I feel like it's almost healthy! :) After lounging for way too long, I went for a run on the river. Got home in time to shower and head to Jen's for some home made pasta. Her pasta sauce was deeeeelish. We headed to Itaewon and found the country bar AND the canadian bar. I ran into people I knew from choir at the canadian bar, where there was a sassy sequin-clad cover band.

Sunday I went to choir - my first Messiah rehearsal! Wahoo! It was great to see choir people again, and I loved working on the melismas. mmmm I love me some melismas.

This week, I've been facing lot of road blocks (see title of blog).
In obtaining and inhaler (see previous blog post), I have learned that insurance just really isn't my jam. I think cosmically I was supposed to go through this shenanigan at the same time as the insurance/congress mess back home.
Trying to buy my tickets home for christmas - I have to bank accounts in Korea - one in USD and one in KRW. I wire USD to my home account which takes me leaving school as soon as the bell rings, playing charades with the teller, and a lot of signatures. I was all set to go to the bank today until I found out it's a national holiday. Of course it is. Ugh. So now I'll be waiting until Tuesday morning to transfer money. Uff da!
I've been in serious pursuit of pumpkin spiced ANYTHING and it just isn't happening here, at least not easily. I knew this would be challenging for me, so I brought a jar of pumpkin pie spice. I've been putting it on ice cream, trying it in my coffee (bad idea, for the record)...but I knew I needed more. I scoured the internet for a Pumpkin Spice Latte recipe that would be easy to do here. I got maple syrup from a coworker (because I just didn't have the hutspa to shell out $25 for the bottle at CostCo), steamed an acorn squash, and cooked up some pumpkin spice syrup to add to lattes. I put my syrup in a thermos, went to Dunkin Doughnuts on my way to work and asked them to make a latte in my thermos. He promptly washed out my thermos, noticing there was something in there. When he gave me my latte, I went back up to my 9th floor apartment, added syrup, and then went to work. Uff da.

There's a pep rally for volleyball today during 8th period - so no orchestra for grades 9-12 today.
Last night, Renee, Dawn and I found a delicious italian restaurant in Nowon - definitely going back again.
Excited for our department meeting this morning - we are deciding on our Christmas music!
It is an incredibly beautiful day in seoul - an actual blue sky!
Chiggity check this post if you feel as passionately about pumpkin spice as me.