So here I am, separated by months from my last blog post, but back on the same continent.
Summer back in the USA was excellent. I loved spending time with my friends, eating chipotle, hugging my family members, and driving around the expanse that is the American Midwest. I discovered new music, consumed way too many calories, packed some heavy suitcases full of American goods, and worked out at the YMCA pretty regularly. It was a great time. And by the end of it, I was ready to come back. It's scary to come back because it's never the same. I'm without some of the single ladies now (Jenn and Becky, we miss you!), and I'm without my SoKo bestie Kim.
However!
I'm so so so excited for the upcoming school year. I've run into a couple kiddos at school and it's just. so. exciting. I think it's odd how attached I and my coworkers get to our students, until I think about how much of my time I spend with them. I'm not telling them any secrets, but my especially my HS students and I start to really know each other - reading moods, patterns, triggers, and much more from each other. There's obviously separation, as teacher and student, but the lines start to get blurred when you feel so invested in their well being and future. Most of my students will go to college in the states, so I sometimes start to feel like it's my job to make sure they're going to succeed socially in my home country. They're all such great people and I'm sad to see them go when they graduate. Every time (well, I guess both times.... cause I've only graduated two classes!) it sucks to see them go.
I can't wait for this year to start - we have some big plans in the basement (music department) and I'm really looking forward to what the kiddos will get out of it all. I try to remember how old the kiddos were when I arrived and they've changed so much!
Anyway. Changes. They happen.
I've got such good vibes about the new people who've joined our school.
I picked out some kick-ass music for my students.
I have so much to do.
and I'm so glad to be doing it! :)
Saturday, August 8, 2015
Monday, April 20, 2015
Disruption
Life keeps speeding on - I had an INCREDIBLE experience at the AMIS Band and Orchestra Festival in Singapore. AMIS is like All-State for international schools, which makes it all-planet, which is pretty freaking cool. Check out this video to see a little bit more about the festival I was at (you can see one of my students who plays the cello around 2:30ish) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYCsOEvoUr0&app=desktop
Kim and I went to Malaysia - visited Penang (Batu Ferringhi & Georgetown) and Kuala Lumpur. What a beautiful vacation. We struck the perfect balance of fun, learning, and relaxation. Penang is worth a visit, seriously.
We are preparing to host an interscholastic music event at my school which is awesome, and the choir that I'm a part of has a TON going on. We have our concert this Sunday, performance of Beethoven's Mass in C Major on May 9th (I'm playing for that one), and a performance with the Brigham Young University band on my birthday. WOOOO! All while gearing up for end of the year concerts, the first ever (insert my school's name here) Arts Night, trying to keep the seniors in their seats and relatively decent, and saying goodbye to friends who are leaving for different positions in the fall. Also - what am I going to do after my third year in Seoul? It's on my mind almost constantly and it's been a rollercoaster.
I was, and am, incredibly lucky. I came to Seoul with my mom, unsure if I would make any friends or survive my first year teaching (not even worried about the second one!). I met 5 wonderful women who were in the same boat, except that they'd been teaching for a while. We quickly bonded and realized we had so much to learn from each other - The Single Ladies were born. We traveled to Vietnam and Japan together, Kakao'd about all of our Korean mis-steps, successes, and questions, and lived life together as a family. I'm moved to tears over what we have gone through together and how fortunate I am to know these women. As the baby of the crew, they really took me in and accepted me for who I am. We are each other's family in a place where family is so far away. When things go wrong, my mom can't talk to the insurance company for me or bring me soup - it's my friends. We've been here for each other through it all - and I mean all. Last Friday, it was a somber and confusing evening. We packed up Becky as she prepared to move back home. This isn't my story to tell, but she had to go home because of things going on with her family. We packed up boxes, cleaned out cupboards, sorted clothing, and cleaned it all up. I laughed through it all - how could I not? We are 6 HILARIOUS and intelligent women, enjoying some pizza and alcohol in a small apartment. My laughter, however, felt so nervous and wrong. I am so so sad to see her go. Every year it'll be the same, I know... people leaving, me leaving, who knows. It just felt so earth shattering to have one of my own crew - one of my people - a single ladie, leave us. Our time is coming to an end. We'll continue to evolve and keep in touch, remembering the troubling and exhilarating times near and far away.
It mixes me up, for sure.
Too many feelings.
Too many changes.
as Hayne said today at recess, "There's been a disruption to the Single Ladies. And I don't like it".
Here's to you, Becky.
"Trouble Finds Me - the Becky-san Story"
When trouble finds you, we'll be here. (Or wherever you need us to be, via skype or one plane ride away)
Kim and I went to Malaysia - visited Penang (Batu Ferringhi & Georgetown) and Kuala Lumpur. What a beautiful vacation. We struck the perfect balance of fun, learning, and relaxation. Penang is worth a visit, seriously.
We are preparing to host an interscholastic music event at my school which is awesome, and the choir that I'm a part of has a TON going on. We have our concert this Sunday, performance of Beethoven's Mass in C Major on May 9th (I'm playing for that one), and a performance with the Brigham Young University band on my birthday. WOOOO! All while gearing up for end of the year concerts, the first ever (insert my school's name here) Arts Night, trying to keep the seniors in their seats and relatively decent, and saying goodbye to friends who are leaving for different positions in the fall. Also - what am I going to do after my third year in Seoul? It's on my mind almost constantly and it's been a rollercoaster.
I was, and am, incredibly lucky. I came to Seoul with my mom, unsure if I would make any friends or survive my first year teaching (not even worried about the second one!). I met 5 wonderful women who were in the same boat, except that they'd been teaching for a while. We quickly bonded and realized we had so much to learn from each other - The Single Ladies were born. We traveled to Vietnam and Japan together, Kakao'd about all of our Korean mis-steps, successes, and questions, and lived life together as a family. I'm moved to tears over what we have gone through together and how fortunate I am to know these women. As the baby of the crew, they really took me in and accepted me for who I am. We are each other's family in a place where family is so far away. When things go wrong, my mom can't talk to the insurance company for me or bring me soup - it's my friends. We've been here for each other through it all - and I mean all. Last Friday, it was a somber and confusing evening. We packed up Becky as she prepared to move back home. This isn't my story to tell, but she had to go home because of things going on with her family. We packed up boxes, cleaned out cupboards, sorted clothing, and cleaned it all up. I laughed through it all - how could I not? We are 6 HILARIOUS and intelligent women, enjoying some pizza and alcohol in a small apartment. My laughter, however, felt so nervous and wrong. I am so so sad to see her go. Every year it'll be the same, I know... people leaving, me leaving, who knows. It just felt so earth shattering to have one of my own crew - one of my people - a single ladie, leave us. Our time is coming to an end. We'll continue to evolve and keep in touch, remembering the troubling and exhilarating times near and far away.
It mixes me up, for sure.
Too many feelings.
Too many changes.
as Hayne said today at recess, "There's been a disruption to the Single Ladies. And I don't like it".
Here's to you, Becky.
"Trouble Finds Me - the Becky-san Story"
When trouble finds you, we'll be here. (Or wherever you need us to be, via skype or one plane ride away)
Korea, Fall 2014
Hanoi, September 2014
Ho Chi Minh City, September 2014
Tsushima, September 2013
Friday, April 10, 2015
KPop
So, I learn more about Korea every day.
Tuesday, I went to my first Korean baseball game - it was a blast.
What I learned at this baseball game was that Korean people staring at me isn't a big deal because they seem to have no control over or shame associated with staring. The "cheerleaders" or dancers were above/behind where I was sitting and it was just a hoot to watch all these heads turn around as soon as the teams were changing.
What I also learned was a ton of KPop. I kept my Shazam open at all times and snatched as many songs as possible. So fun. So here's some KPop songs, in case you're wondering what's cool in Korea right now:
*warning* it's a lot of korean ladies dancing a little sexually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfQRC4xZuBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRY0Dk9avck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYOyZVWlzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7AbIQHYidQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FhDScM_2w (this one is so catchy...i sing along but don't know the words)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfXZ6ydgZyo
boom. kpop.
Tuesday, I went to my first Korean baseball game - it was a blast.
What I learned at this baseball game was that Korean people staring at me isn't a big deal because they seem to have no control over or shame associated with staring. The "cheerleaders" or dancers were above/behind where I was sitting and it was just a hoot to watch all these heads turn around as soon as the teams were changing.
What I also learned was a ton of KPop. I kept my Shazam open at all times and snatched as many songs as possible. So fun. So here's some KPop songs, in case you're wondering what's cool in Korea right now:
*warning* it's a lot of korean ladies dancing a little sexually.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfQRC4xZuBA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRY0Dk9avck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYOyZVWlzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7AbIQHYidQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-FhDScM_2w (this one is so catchy...i sing along but don't know the words)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfXZ6ydgZyo
boom. kpop.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Jet Lag Strikes. Random Musings
Coming to you at 6 am, after a solid 3 hours of surfing the net....
I went to bed exhausted at 10pm, to awake 5 hours later. Awesome. School's going to be super fun today! (In all seriousness, I'm really excited to be back at school. I would have preferred it be after a full night's sleep but you can't win 'em all)
While I was home, this commercial came on and my mom said to me "Were those supposed to be words?". I was watching The New Girl and The Mindy Project on Hulu this (very early) morning and that commercial came on. I was curious what the song was so I shazammed it. Turns out it's KPop! The song in commercial is a KPop group called 2NE1 (like twenty one, but pronounced like two-any-one). I know you want to hear more of it, so here it is.
I'll be using http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ to learn some more korean this year. The korean teacher at my school offers classes for us foreign teachers, but I usually teach lessons during that time. It's a little embarrassing how little korean I know... but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to scrape by with taxi and restaurant korean. Everything else I do here is in English! Not a ton of opportunity to learn.
Nut Rage is a thing in Korean news. Macadamia nut sales soared after this incident. Apparently Korea has a great sense of humor.
I watched some quality films on the airplane rides to and from SoKo. This Is Where I Leave You, The Good Lie, The Giver, 21 Jump Street, and Billy Elliot. All worth watching. I sought out The Giver here in Korea and am so glad I did. I've been telling everyone I know that they need to watch it. I read the book back in middle school and loved it, which miiiiight contribute to my enjoyment of the film. However, the depictions of humanity (good and bad) are breathtaking. What an incredible movie. Go see it.
I went to bed exhausted at 10pm, to awake 5 hours later. Awesome. School's going to be super fun today! (In all seriousness, I'm really excited to be back at school. I would have preferred it be after a full night's sleep but you can't win 'em all)
While I was home, this commercial came on and my mom said to me "Were those supposed to be words?". I was watching The New Girl and The Mindy Project on Hulu this (very early) morning and that commercial came on. I was curious what the song was so I shazammed it. Turns out it's KPop! The song in commercial is a KPop group called 2NE1 (like twenty one, but pronounced like two-any-one). I know you want to hear more of it, so here it is.
I'll be using http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ to learn some more korean this year. The korean teacher at my school offers classes for us foreign teachers, but I usually teach lessons during that time. It's a little embarrassing how little korean I know... but you'd be surprised at how easy it is to scrape by with taxi and restaurant korean. Everything else I do here is in English! Not a ton of opportunity to learn.
Nut Rage is a thing in Korean news. Macadamia nut sales soared after this incident. Apparently Korea has a great sense of humor.
I watched some quality films on the airplane rides to and from SoKo. This Is Where I Leave You, The Good Lie, The Giver, 21 Jump Street, and Billy Elliot. All worth watching. I sought out The Giver here in Korea and am so glad I did. I've been telling everyone I know that they need to watch it. I read the book back in middle school and loved it, which miiiiight contribute to my enjoyment of the film. However, the depictions of humanity (good and bad) are breathtaking. What an incredible movie. Go see it.
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