stories from the music room.

today at school, as i was teaching my kids the actions to "this little light of mine," i had an itch on my nose. so in the middle of the word "shine" as we were shaking our jazz hands and giving spirit fingers, i quickly took my left hand, made a v-line for my face, and satisfied the little itch on my nose, before we were even done with the "iiiiiiiine" part of shine. what did my little korean kids do? at the very moment my left hand left shaky-shaky jazz position, 7 little korean right hands (i was facing them) left shaky-shaky jazz position and made a v-line to 7 little korean faces and 7 little korean noses were scratched all before we were done with "iiiiiiiine" part of shine. their ability to imitate is quite comical. or maybe frightening. i realized as the class went on that they do everything i do. when we did the "i chant a line, you repeat me" part of learning the song, i stopped and told naughty little min gyu next to me to "please stop slapping my knee" and got 7 little koreans saying "peas sup sapo mah nu." so much power rests in my hands.

i also realized today that teaching kids is a real boaster on the self-esteem. to begin each class we sing the hello song. "hellooooo, everybody. so glad to see you. helloooooo, everybody, so glad to see you. hellooooooo to hyo shin. so glad to see you. helloooooo to hyeon min. so glad to see you..." and i continue to sing hello to each student. every class, i do the last 3 or 4 in really strange voices like opera or growly or kermit-the-frog-ish. and they know it's coming every time. and they wait and wonder which name will get it this time and they look at me with eyes full of anticipation and the very moment i become an opera singer or kermit the frog or a growly man with a deep voice, they throw their hands back and laugh and laugh and roll on the ground and pound their fists on the floor like they just saw an old lady run naked in the snow. being hillarious has never been so effortless.

to top of our end of the week, mary whipped out a tube of bright red lipstick she had in her purse and we taught our last hour and a half with a thick layer of the most redest of red lipsticks you've ever seen coating our lips. (actually, i was the only one who kept it on the whole time... the others are all weak...) i cannot explain the uproar of my students! like there was nothing more ridiculous than a white teacher with red lips. like the world was ending! like they had never seen something so outrageous! so proposterous! so to settle them down i grabbed one of the girls and gave her a big kiss on her cheek. ya, that really settled them down.

working with kids is such a trip.

progress.

it's been a good teaching week. there's days when i feel really discouraged b/c i don't know how to teach kids who are so young and who don't have a clue what i'm saying to them. it makes discipline nearly impossible. i put them in the corner but i can't tell them why, so they don't learn. i stop the song and say "sorry, no more dancing b/c you're screwing around" and they just look at me with tilted heads and think, "hmmm, i guess we're stopping the song early. oh well." and sometimes, it's hard to see progression b/c i'm not sure what i'm teaching them--english or music. should i be focusing on english words? pounding concepts into their minds? or should we just have fun and sing and dance and learn how to play a triangle with "baa baa black sheep" and beat the drum with "one little drummer" and fly like birds with "two little black birds" and just let the music and the melodies and the beats become part of their childhood? i tend to lean towards the latter. and when i do, like this week, i--we all-- have a really good time. i like the novelty of what i'm doing--i get to pave my own path and have a thing that is totally mine. i feel really lucky to be here sometimes.

last night yoga kicked my butt. on my run with hannah today over lunch, i honestly felt like i had been hit by a truck. but i have some major progression to report after my class last night:

1. when we were sitting stretching our legs, i could get my entire face to touch my knee and could wrap both my hands around my foot.

2. i put both my legs over my head and wrapped my knees aroung my ears without shaking like a human earthquake for a very VERY long 4 seconds...hana, tul, set, net....(one, two, three four--i've really gotten to know the first 4 numbers in korean b/c we always count to 4 when we hold our pretzel-shaped stretches. she takes FOREVER in b/t each number. "hana"...alright! no problem! i can do this! "tul"...ok, feeling good. almost half way there..."set"...wow, she's really taking a long between these numbers... "net"...PLEASE!!! LET ME UNRAVEL MYSELF!!!! I AM IN SO MUCH PAIN!!!)

3. in the beginning we sit indian style for about 15 minutes and work on breathing techniques. you'd be surprised how hard it is to sit indian style with a straight back and not supporting yourself with anything else for that long. but last night as the girl next to me struggled and looked incredibly uncomfortable (obviously a newby...i'm so beyond that...), i closed my eyes, worked on my breathing, and actually felt relaxed. amelia (the korean instructor the size of my left leg) only had to come over and straighten my back once.

sniffle sniffle, cough cough

today marks my 2 month anniversary as an inhibitor of korea. i can't decide if that seems like a very long time, or very short. but either way, it feels good to have accomplished 2 months here and to feel as content as i do. with my 2 month anniversary came my third terrible cold since i've been here. i woke up with it friday morning and it seems to have gotten progressively worse and worse throughout the weekend. it's the same thing every time i've gotten it--sore throat that feels dry and scratchy, stuffy nose that won't let me sleep at night b/c everytime i start to relax enough to let my mouth close i can't breathe, the wait-is-my-head-connected-to- my-body-anymore??? feeling, earache, the whole bit. at least i'm fortunate to always seem to get it on the weekend so i have time to rest (and rest i did--last night i went to bed at 7 pm!!!), but i wish i could just kick this thing for good. from what i can tell, however, foreign teachers that live here seem to be sick a lot and it's sort of a once-sick-always-sick sort of thing. i wonder why. could it have something to do with the fact that we have hundreds of germy, sneezy, never-wash-their-hands, snoty-nosed, couldn't-remember-to-cover-their-mouth- when-they-cough-if-there-was-a-huge- sign-written-in-candy-dangling-in-front-of-their-eyes little korean kids hanging all over us all day long? perhaps.

so i've stayed in most of the weekend. i did, however, have a search of energy yesterday afternoon in which i ventured to the drug store and got cheap medicine that would most definitely need a prescription in the states, and then went for a nice long walk to lake park. it was the coldest day since i've been here by far--not much over 50 degrees--and it was beautiful. sunny, a little windy, crisp. absolutely and totally fall-esque. i bundled up in hat and mittens and a hoodie and really enjoyed walking and not running for once. it almost made me grateful i didn't have the energy to run and could instead just take the time to stare at trees and changing leaves and little korean kids playing and connect with God in God's Creation. i even did some of my newly-learned yoga moves in the grass for awhile.

as i was about to leave lake park, i walked past another foreigner who was running with his korean friend. he wasn't hard to notice as he came toward me b/c he is probably the first white person i've seen in lake park besides myself, and he was speaking in english, another thing i don't hear very often. we said hello and smiled as we went past each other and i turned back, and he turned back, and we kept turning back and even a minute later when i could barely see him, i looked back, and sure enough, he looked back and it made me laugh b/c it kind of felt like..."wow! you're white! i'm white! you speak english! i speak english! you like to run! i like to run! we have SO MUCH in common. we will most definitely be friends.." it's just the way it goes when you're one of a few white people around for miles. maybe i'll see my new look-back friend again on one of my runs.

costco: the korean battle field.

refering to my last post, i really like the way matt put it in his comment: that, regardless of the language we speak or the country we are in or our belief or non-belief, humans are created in the image of God, and we should treat them as so. the way we treat other human beings should reflect that. and so often it doesn't!

My weekend was very Korea-esque. On Saturday afternoon, Hannah, Raquel and I headed into the city to meet their friend Shane for some Indian food. it was the most fabulous indian place i've every been to i think! even better than our favorite place right off devon ave in the indian neighborhood. (ah, chicago...) it was in this random alley, tucked away on the second floor of this random building, and i will definetely be going back. yum. and then we headed to Myeongdong and went strolling through all of the busy shopping markets, which i love! outdoor and indoo, clothes and jewelry and scarfs and shoes and bags and coffee and it made me feel much more oriented in this massive city. (i found out this weekend--22 million people here in the greater seoul area!) we then headed to our friends' place who live in an apartment on the 28th floor in a building right in the middle of the city and watched, through their wall-sized window, the yearly korean tradition of the fireworks competition. what, a fireworks competition? yes, a fireworks competition. i've never heard of that either. korea vs. america vs. japan. each country got a portion of time to show their tricks and amaze the audience. it lasted nearly 2 hours! i'm not sure if there was a winner (in my opinion, it's not a competition if there's no winner at the end...), and i don't mean to be un-patriotic, but if i would have to choose, my "most-spectacular-fireworks-show award" would have to be presented to korea. i've never seen fireworks done so artistically and beautifully. usually fireworks seems to be about big bangs and as big and colorful and impressive as possible. but korea's were very subtle and technical and almost mesmorizing. it was an experience.



sunday we headed back to their apartment and had home church, which is esentially a group of friends who listen to a sermon, watch a movie, sing a little, pray, fellowship, etc. after going for lunch, i headed to costco, about a 45 minute bus and cab ride from my place in ilsan. so i followed the directions from hannah and raquel and geared up for my first costco experience in korea. i got as close as public transportation will get and tried to find a cab driver who knew where costco was. after many MANY rounds of opening the door, saying "Costco? cost-co." c-o-s-t-c-o" and them saying "ne ne ne ne" (yes yes yes yes) and me getting in, happy to find a driver who knew where he was going and then having them take off, turn right when i knew we had to turn left and scratching their head and saying, "mmmm, costco? costco? mmmmm..." and me screaming "so you DON'T know??? do you know where we're going or not? where are you taking me???" and them yelling something in korean and both of us turning red from frustration and me turning more red b/c the cab drivers here pretend to know where they're going and then have no idea and me yelling "aneyo aneyo aneyo" (no no no) and finally getting them to stop and storming out refusing to pay, I finally found a driver who didn't know where he was going but somehow stumbled upon it anyway. so i got out, locked up my GIANT hiking backpack in a locker that was too small (you can't take bags into the store with you), grabbed a shopping cart, and faced my next obstacle: korean shopping on sunday afternoons. it honestly took every oune of the patience i had left to get through my first costco experience. there was a line-up 10 minutes long to go down the escalator thing with your cart to get to the food section downstairs, and once down there, it took me nearly 10 minutes just to get up or down each aisle. and in korea, people are not polite about crowds. there is no "excuse me, may i get through?" or "i'm sorry, did i bump you?" no no no, it is each man for himself. shoving, bumping, banging into my cart over and over again as a way of telling me "move, i'm trying to get through." there was much glaring, many clearly noticeable sighs of annoyance, and even a few disgruntle words of immense hatred that i'm hoping they didn't understand(or am i?) coming from yours truly.

after fighting through world war 3, i finally made it to the register with excitment oozing through me from finding frozen blueberries, boneless skinless chicken breast, american granola bars, 100% cranberry-grape juice, frozen gaucamole!!!, and the list could go on. and the list did go--so long in fact, that i didn't take enough cash in with me to buy half of what i had put in my cart. you can imagine the anger of all the people in the line behind me when i had to take half of my order off and start over. but, sigh, i was finished. so i thought. i finally got up the escalator after waiting another 10 minutes in line with my cart full of food, headed to my locker, pulled out my giant backpack, and started loading up. i barely BARELY squeezed it all in there, and quite litearlly had to lay on the floor in order to get the bag on my back. hobble hobble hobble, get a cab, more frustrating communication, drops me off a 10 minute walk from where he was supposed to, hobble hobble hobble, wait for a bus, climb on the bus with 4 people helping me lift my bag up the stairs, standing room only, 30 minute bus ride home, barely roll my bag off the bus before the doors close on it and it takes off with all my goods, lay down on top of my backpack to get the straps in, heave myself up, hobble hobble hobble, break, breathe, rub my back, hobble hobble hobble, into my apartment building, up the stairs, into my apartment...

i felt and still feel like i had just single handedly moved a house on my back from china to norway. can you imagine if i HAD had enough money to buy all i wanted to? a scary thought.

lost in translation.

today was disheartening. the more i travel, the more i realize that so much is lost in translation when dealing with two different groups of people, two different cultures, and more than anything, two different languages. in all of the places i've lived, i've never encountered such blatant misunderstanding resulting from a language barrier. watching the native english speakers communicate with the struggling english-speaking koreans makes me feel so discouraged sometimes. it's as though because they don't speak our language perfectly (even though we are in their country) we assume they are stupid, they are insulting us, they are bad communicators, they are wasting our time with their slowness. patience and grace is replaced with dislike and cruel assumptions. there is no struggle to understand what a person means or who a person is behind their stumbling words or long and bumpy conversations. sometimes i wish people could look just a bit further, beyond the language, beyond the sound that is coming out of person's mouth, and just look at the person. and rather than listening to words, listen to the yearning in a person's voice to be understood and to be treated fairly, despite their faulty attempts at speaking a language that is not their own.

perhaps this problem goes beyond conflicting languages and is really a matter of a person's ability to accept and show kindness and patience and love to all people. maybe that is what is bothering me more than anything else.

on a positive note, my pilates class went really well tonight. we did a lot of ab work-outs and regardless of my inflexibility, sit-ups i can do. my instructor even told me i have strong abs. ya me! maybe i can't turn my limbs into a pretzel, but i CAN hold a crunch position without shaking for a solid 30 seconds.

hello autumn.

this morning i woke up, a half an hour before my alarm rang, as per usual, and found myself bundled in my covers and squeezing my pillow a little tighter than usual. and after laying there in a half sleep waiting for my alarm to ring, i wrapped my feet in the bottom of my blankets and brought my covers up to my chin a little closer. i finally dragged myself from my cocoon of warmth and walked down my little flight of stairs and felt a different sort of breeze coming from my open windows. i turned my shower head as hot as it would go, and stayed underneath the warm water a little longer than usual.

when i walked out the door 45 minutes later and into the october sun, my suspicions were confirmed: fall is here. it's like the whole energy of the air changed overnight. and i LOVE it!!! scarfs, wearing long sleeves when i run, watching people sip their coffee to warm up (i can't drink coffee, so i live vicariously through others...), wearing tights under my skirts. and so tonight i celebrated the coming of fall by cooking sweet potatoes and baking a pumpkin for dinner. mmmm. fall tastes good too.

yesturday, justin and adam (my two friends from busan) were up in seoul, and so we spent the day together climbing mt. namsan, a mountain (or some would call it a really large hill) smack dab in the middle of seoul. it was a good trek up, and very very beautiful. a few trees have started turning colors here, and i just love being in nature. at the top is the seoul tower and a FABULOUS view of the city. i didn't realize there were so many mountains in and around seoul! we also witnessed some sort of korean festival taking place at the top of the mountain, complete with dancing geisha girls, pig sacrifices, and...well, i really couldn't stop watching the pig sacrificing to be quite honest. they had about 6 dead pigs on a table and they would them one by one and place them on this pole this and then people would come up and stuff money in its mouth and bow to it, and then suddenly, they would push the pole and the pig would slide off and lay strewn on the ground. there was a lot of head tilting and burrowed eyebrows happening from the three of us.

it was my mom's birthday on saturday!!! happy birthday mom!!!

an alien from the land of inflexibility.

2 weeks ago, i joined yoga and pilates classes at a little place called zen yoga, which is where i just came from a few minutes ago. i do yoga on tuesdays, pilates on thursdays, and hobble around in pain all of the days in between. i've done a little yoga before, and please don't get me wrong, i am outrageously excited to finally be part of a class, (and in the continent where yoga was created no less!) but i do not think i can put into words the difference between the flexibility of the american body and the korean body. i've never been a flexible girl. i remember the day in the 4th grade when mrs. kobas showed us how to "stretch out" in p.e. class and as i looked around the gym and saw my fellow classmates with their legs out, stretching their hands out past their toes, laughing with their friends like touching your toes was as fun as eating a gaint bowl of very berry captain crunch with only the berries left in it, i realized that reaching just slightly past my knee and wincing in unexplainable pain was not normal. my body had a glitch. i am a living case of extreme and painful-to-even-watch-her-try inflexibility.

so just try your very best to picture me amidst a room full of tiny little korean women (and one very sure-of-himself korean man) bending over and putting their elbows on the floor without bending their knees and placing this leg inside of that arm and twisting the other leg while placing your other arm straight in the arm like an arrow, all the while keeping your back straight and your head forward, and balancing perfectly and effortlessly while steadily breathing through your nose in some yoga-ish way that from the sounds of the room is supposed to make more noise than normal breathing. and the only words i can understand the entire time are "inhale" blah blah blah blah blah blah blah "exhale" blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. so i'm constantly straining my neck looking around to see what everyone else is doing, which doesn't exactly help with my balance. my poor yoga instructor. she's constantly coming over and trying to push my arms further down to the ground of bend my back more as if i am not nearly break my body in half trying to go as far as possible. the other night she tried to push my legs completely over my head as i lay on my back. it was the most awkward position my body has ever been in. my face has never been that close to my stomach before in my life. i felt like i could have eaten my belly button! and it doesn't help that she is the size of my left leg. i feel like at any moment my legs could snap back and crush her to pieces.

if she weren't my friend, i may have considered doing that on purpose.

but i love it, believe it or not! my goal is to be able to bend over and touch the ground with flat hands without bending my knees by christmas. i will keep you posted on my progress.

i feel like i should give an update on new position as president of the music department at tango pango. (doesn't that sound prestigious? the truth is that i AM the music department and i've officially voted and it turns out that i was elected president.) despite a few rocky days of "how do i teach kids english songs when they don't speak english!", i'm really starting to enjoy it. it feels so good to be teaching music again and it feels good to feel good about what i'm doing. it really excites me to watch the way kids are affected by different music sounds and moods. and i've even put a big colorful sign on the door that says "WELCOME TO THE MUSIC ROOM!" complete with the music notes, the treble clef and the floating conductor waving a wand. things at my school always seem to be a bit dramatic and because it's new, things change every day, but i'm hoping they stick with the music program because i like what i'm doing. it funny to me that every time i think i am going to leave music, it holds on to me and re-enters my life in a different way.