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.

Too busy to know

It is a busy and emotional time of year!
It's BEEN a busy and emotional school year so far.

Taking on some additional roles and making big decisions have made this first semester of school a memorable one. I've been at the extremes of my emotional range, for sure.

School's great - still love my kiddos and my work. Because I feel I still have more room to grow and like a lot about my life currently, I decided to stay another year at my school. So! Not going anywhere (permanently) until June 2016.

BUT! Between now and June 2016, who knows where I'll go.
We had two students accepted to the AMIS festival, so I'll be traveling to Singapore with them right before spring break. A visit to Toronto is on the calendar for this summer... and then who knows what'll happen next year.

I'm headed home for christmas, but not until we've had our two christmas concerts. ALL of my students will be performing - grades 6-12 on Wednesday evening, and then grades K-5 on Thursday morning. Can you tell I don't have any say in the scheduling of concerts? hahaha. I'm going to be seriously tired when I get onto that plane on Saturday morning. Scheduling complaints aside, I am really excited for my groups to perform - they just keep sounding better and better!

As a musician, I just finished up my first season with a chamber choir - we finished our year with a performance at the British Embassy on Tuesday. The rest of the week has been filled with rehearsals, preparing for Handel's Messiah. I sang in the chorus last year and really enjoyed it. This year I am playing in the orchestra and am really excited for our performance on Saturday! I felt like myself again after a 3 hour rehearsal - it is so therapeutic and soothing to make music with other humans. I felt challenged and determined... and I wasn't leading rehearsal (a nice break for a music teacher :P)!

Between ordering presents to be shipped to minnesota, rehearsing the Messiah, coordinating KIMEA honor festival details, getting the details for the AMIS festival travel in line, and leading classes I've had NO TIME to enter grades! Uff da. Does anybody know if Delta has wifi on the plane? Maybe I'll read my HS semester projects and listen to my MS playing test on plane ride home :P

SO many good things.
Happy Christmas, Harry!
just yes.

You're my favorite book

Life keeps moving fast. I looked at my blog and realized my last post was in SEPTEMBER! It's now November which means a lot has happened.

I've had some crazy weeks - things that come to mind in the last 4 weeks include the SRC carnival, performances for the Camarata Chamber Singers, AMIS audition submissions, KAIAK large group competition, MS orchestra concert, and quarter grades being due.

I looked at my calendar and realized that between now and Christmas, I have one weekend that is open. I can't believe I have a life here! I remember having so many open weekends last year but that has definitely changed.

Everything's been going well, but I think everyone at my school is feeling stressed to the max. It just seems like we are more disorganized than in the past - more reactive. We're packing in too much. I think I've seen my Thursday after school group 3 times this year because THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING GOING ON, like a school-wide hike for spiritual emphasis week, a volleyball pep-rally, or staff development days. ALWAYS.

Anyway - same old same old. Life's good. Goes too fast. Still love my job and my kiddos.
Looking forward to being home for Christmas :)
I'll be in the USA December 20th-January9th.

Adventure Continues

The weather is changing, we continue to get to know our new coworkers, people are talking about grad school applications and different jobs for next year, and we've picked out our christmas concert repertoire.

Things keep changing, day by day..... and yet some things never change.

I still have random "adventures" - a euphemism for when I come to a screeching halt and remember that I am an American in South Korea.

Last Sunday I was baking up some scones and invited some of my friends up to eat one. I went to unlock my door so they could come in as they please and miserably failed. We use key codes on an electric lock - I irritated my lock so it started to beep at me. I, flustered by the beeping, found the batteries on my lock and took one out. The beeping stopped. I put the battery back in, and found myself essentially locked into my apartment. In taking the battery out, I had erased my lock's memory and therefore couldn't code into my apartment. Uff da. Once a friend arrived, I went down to the first floor to talk to our "security" dudes. I have never seen these men actually do anything.... they're usually sleeping with Korean tv going in their little booth. Not sure what we pay them for. Anyway! It took a lot of work, including an older man typing in Korean into HIS cell phone (because my iphone was beyond him), me typing what was on his screen into google translate, and then me translating a response. FINALLY one of them agreed to come look at my door. I was so frustrated. The man that came up with me couldn't read the directions on my lock, so he went back down to the first floor to get his partner. His partner came up 15 minutes later with a magnifying glass, as his vision also was poor. I had contacted one of my coworkers who is Korean and she talked to him on the phone. He handed the phone back to me and she said "I'll be there in 45 minutes". One she got to my apartment, she called the number on the lock - unscrewed something and found THE MAGIC BUTTON. I put in my code, and all was well. So. 4 hours and 3 helpers later, we got it.

I was incredibly frustrated when the translation apps were saying that the security guys wanted me to call an engineer. This was the equivalent of setting the time on your microwave, and I couldn't complete it because the directions were in Korean. You want me to call a locksmith/engineer!? AND PAY HIM MONEY!? no. absolutely not. Just come read the directions. They're ON THE DOOR.
nope. no. absolutely not. "Not our specialty" But by all means, keep speaking loudly at me in Korean, that will certainly help. It's so weird to feel like a self-sufficient person, and not be able to complete a simple task because of the language. I think that was where my frustration was coming from - I can do this, but I can't do it in korean. Uff da. I am SO thankful Llandy showed up and helped me get it fixed.


alternatively - last night Pendleton and I sat down to catch up on all our favorite american tv shows that returned this week (Scandal and Parenthood!) and ordered a pizza. I had been told that if you call Dominoe's and say "english", they'll hang up and call you back in a couple minutes, speaking english. We gave this method a try a couple weeks ago and had great success. I called last night and this is how the conversation goes:

Me: English?
Dominoe's: ....no. See & Me? 926?
Me: neeeee. deliver?
Dominoe's: Ne.  pijja?
Me: Cheezuh.
Dominoe's: Medium? Largie?
Me: Largie.
Dominoe's: crust?
Me: Original
Dominoe's: carduh?
Me: Cashie
Dominoe's: (price in Korean) ok bye bye

yep. The pizza guy KNEW me and my residence.
The pizza showed up in 30 minutes and was delicious.

Two very different reminders that I am an American living in Korea, just one week apart.
I shake my head and laugh.
What a weird life.

Identity

Identity. Purpose. Plan. Priorities. 

These worlds have been rolling around in my head for many reasons as of late.
They're seeping into my teaching as a result of personal happenings and questions.
And I like it.


I've started sharing music with my students to begin every class, just to open their eyes. My students have a pretty developed skills in and preference for classical music. I admire that, but don't understand it. As a high school student, I was in tears over classical music on the radio while riding up 35W north from a summer violin lesson. I remember telling my mom, "I realize that I would be completely happy playing the violin in an orchestra for the rest of my life. I however would NOT be happy for the many years it would take me to get there". My kids and I, we aren't that different, but 7 years later, I'm just trying to get them to shake out of their box. To enjoy ALL music. Not just 2 Chainz and Mozart. WHAT ABOUT THE IN BETWEEN!?

I'm trying to help my students to identify as musicians and artists. An assignment I gave them last Thursday was to email me a quote, image, or their own explanation of what music means to them, personally. Since then, I've been sharing examples along side the music videos at the beginning of class. I shared the stereotypical but very meaningful StoryPeople, along with this quote by Plato. 

Most importantly, I remembered the following quote. I shared it with my students today and it might be the first time they've been silent since the beginning of the year. I hold a couple longer quotes close to my heart, and this is one of them because of how and when it came to me. I was struggling between my freshman and sophomore year of college, thinking I should drop out and do something crazy (like go organic farm in hawaii or go to mechanic school. yep.). I was in contact with my voice instructor about how I didn't feel any longer like I was a singer and was considering not going back to my college. I went to visit a friend in my college town over break and he agreed to meet with me. I had already started seeing a counselor (Thanks, Mom and Dad! It was hard for me to accept but it helped me so much!) but my voice teacher had something my counselor didn't - perspective. He knew me as an artist and he knew the community I wanted to identify with. He sat me down, printed off this quote and made me read it to myself. I've been much more at peace with myself since I read these words and I think I saw it hit some of my students straight in the heart during 8th period. So, here it is:

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it.
It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
-Martha Graham

Miss Korea

We made it through the first week of school!
I was so so so happy to see my students from last year, and to make music with them again. There are definite challenges this year as we made some changes to the structure of our program overall, but I'm excited about the new opportunities and challenges those changes will bring.

I didn't spent much time thinking about this school year while I was home for the summer - I tend to avoid things I'm nervous about. Bad habit. I was nervous about this school year because even though I'm a returning teacher, there is still a lot of new stuff going on! I'm advising the Middle School Student Representative Council (SRC), co-leading our staff social committee, and am the KIMEA Orchestra Division Chair - on top of my increased teaching load. (That doesn't mean that much... I was pretty much half time last year.) After getting my hands metaphorically dirty with all of these tasks, I can say that I'm really excited about all of these things. Having a lighter teaching load was a great way to deal with being a first year teacher, but I am excited to have more challenges, more tasks, and more demands put on my skills and abilities.

The first social event we held (as the social committee) was a chill out time at a giant park near our school. I just sent out an email with a time, location, and invitation to bring whatever you want to eat or share and BOOM! it happened. We had a great time at the Dream Forest and it was really nice to get to have conversations with new and returning faculty now that they're out of beginning-of-the-year-freak-out mode. We posted up near the splash zone, playground, and stage with music (surprise!) and had a lovely time with badminton, chats, and yummy food.

Before heading up our event, I ventured to Dongdaemun with Melinda, Susan, Pat, and April. Melinda, April, and I are returning staff members, and we wanted to show Susan and Pat where to find lots of things in the markets. We journeyed around, finding sparkles, yarn, tons of fabric, and eventually made our way to the baking market. Baking is not typically done here, so finding materials can be hard. Things are becoming easier to find, but can be expensive. After marketing it up for 3 hours, we decided it was time for some yummy food! We were near to Everest, which is an expat favorite, here in Seoul - incredibly delicious indian and nepali food. yummmmmmmmmm. Throughout this morning I got to have some really great conversations with Susan and Pat about why we travel, what home means to us, and our transitions. I was asked "When did Seoul really start to feel like home?" after they'd heard alllll the horror stories about crying in a grocery store and other hilarious happenings. I couldn't tell them, but I guessed it was around February. Not that I'd call Seoul or Nowon-gu my "home", but for the time being, it's where I keep my books and underwear... so..... almost home ;). I was walking down busy market streets, very comfortable with the delivery mopeds and big trucks and people walking on all sides of me in whatever direction they pleased and realised "This isn't foreign to me anymore". Make no mistake, I never wake up and forget that I'm in Asia.... I know this isn't Minnesota... but it's not so shocking or weird.

What a difference a year makes, is what one of my colleagues said. They were remembering that they had a huddle when my mom left Seoul. I didn't know this happened, but all the people who moved to Seoul at the same time had some conversations about watching out for me after my mom left - like, "Is this girl going to be able to find anything to eat? Is she going to be okay now that she's alone in her apartment?" - I work with some INCREDIBLE people. Anyway, what they told me is that I went from shocked and scared to "Miss Seoul" in 6 months. I guess it wasn't a year. I think I FELT it after a year, but others saw my transition end around February. I think all of us become skilled and capable in these cities in our own way - some more visibly than others. Joining a choir and saying yes to most outings my friends proposed have been the two things that have helped me the most. I realized that we are all transitioning in our own way and on our own timeline, and I think it was a great thing to remember because even returning faculty are having trouble transitioning right now. I had a freak out on the beach on faculty retreat, one of my friends had some painful memories come back this week, many of us are finding new roles in our homes, classrooms, and our community, and we all miss people who left us for other opportunities. Just because it's not new to us returning teachers doesn't mean it's easy. I find it pretty inspiring, this process of acclimating, ourselves, while welcoming new people into our community and their own journey. It's so much to keep track of and manage, but it's all good :)

I guess I am continuously amazed at how many ways I get to know the people I work with - the ways we consistently support and learn about each other. We as a school are constantly in transition, and when people are going through things outside of our big community transition, we try our hardest to be aware and care for one another. It's been so fun to show people around, talk about our own transitions, and bring people to see our favorite spots and alleys. Life's always an adventure, here, and I love that there are so many people on these adventures with me.


Speaking of adventure.....we are headed to Vietnam in 13 days! WOOOOOO!
5 women I work with and two of their friends from home will be journeying to Hanoi, Da Neng, and Ho Chi Minh City over Chuseok break. I'm so excited for this 8 lady journey - we are going to have a great time and get to see a new part of the world!

Also, in less deep/thoughful news, I cooked up a storm last week. I made some black bean tomato soup, roasted buffalo chickpeas (yummy snack!), and made some broccoli cheddar quinoa bites. So much yumminess, and it all really kept me alive through this first week of school. I'm about to head out to lunch with Sophie and baby Cora, and plan to see The Giver tonight with Pendleton. What a great weekend!

Made it!

Hey, everybody!

Writing to you now from the great Korean peninsula.
I made it to Korea and am pleased to be in my own comfy zone. I made it without any issues or events to write home about.

My flight from Dallas to Seoul was 13.5 hours, and I think I slept for 8 of those hours. Not too bad. I have this strange ability to sleep in nearly any condition at any point of the day, but sometimes the extra noise and people make it a little more challenging to actually fall asleep. Once I'm asleep, I'm asleep - there's no issue there. So, I took some Benadryl with my two meals. Out cold 40 minutes after lunch/dinner/4ambrunch/whatever meal that was. I'd definitely recommend that.

Not a significant story, but one I find amusing:
Arrived at Incheon. Went through immigration, claimed by bags, went through customs, and out the arrival gate. I was squinting to find an ATM of my bank against the back wall and a Korean man approached me, asking "Where are you going? Taxi?" and I responded "Aniyo, kansahamnida" (no, thank you) and he started laughing and walked away. BOOOOOOOM! Waygukin success! (waygukin is Korean for foreigner, we often shorten it to "waygooks")

I've been back for just over 24 hours and it's been nice. Walked around to get to the bank and my favorite produce stand - it's strange how comfortable it is compared to exactly a year ago. When I got off the plane and went through immigration the man stamped my passport and I mumbled my 감사합니다 (kansahamnida / thank you) very uncomfortably. It was a serious process of adjusting when I moved here, but it seems I've slipped back into Korea easily and calmly (not at all like my initial transition, hahaha).


Now, I'm off to BBQ with Charlie in order to stay awake. What I've experienced is that evening time is the roughest part of jet lag.... the trick is to power through and stay awake the first two or three nights until a reasonable bed time. If you go to bed before 8pm, you're sunk for the next week.