Carpe Diem and “Nae Soneul Jaba (내 손을 잡아)”

I want to take a moment to jump back to Korea.  I've been sitting on a secret for a few months now, and I can finally tell you:  My music students partnered with new, Philadelphia-based record label, FeedbackLoop to write and release an original song.  It's out this month, obtainable only by subscription.

The sign that adorns my music students' practice space also declares the name of their band.

It’s confusing, I know - What was I, an English teacher, doing with music students? Sometimes, it hits
me all over again, and I chuckle all the harder. When I originally came to Korea from Nashville two years ago, I thought I had left the music industry behind me. But, as the old saying goes, you can take the girl out of the industry, but you can’t take the industry out of the girl.

Every day, I’d sit at my desk waiting for it. I’d dread it. I tried to love it, but it wasn’t happening. I mean, there’s only so many times a girl can take hearing Gangnam Style wafting up through the floorboards. The school cover band met every day in the room immediately below mine, and I was starting to lose my mind. Winter break came and went all too quickly, and I soon found myself back at my desk, tensing for the opening notes of Psy’s hit that I knew would inevitably come… but was greeting instead by the opening strains of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” For a couple of weeks, I listened through the floor, and then I contacted Justin.

The moment that started it all

The kids couldn’t believe what I was telling them when I explained to them that I, their English teacher, had worked in artist management before coming to Korea, and that I, their ENGLISH teacher, wanted to help them write and record a song to be put on a label in America. I’m still not convinced they believe me.

Kim (right) collaborated with another girl in the band, Ji-Hye Lee (left),
who quickly proved her musical worth as well.

Over the course of the semester, we practiced various songwriting techniques, and then we got down to business. One girl in particular, 김주향 (Ju-Hyang Kim), showed a particular interest in the project and came to me with half a song in nearly flawless English. I brought in a fellow Nashvillian-turned-English-teacher Ashley Harden to help guide her in the process (sadly, I have never been much of a lyricist) and sound engineer (also turned English teacher) Adam Thomas for engineer consultation and to direct and shoot the music video, and the rest is history.

Kim taught each player his or her part, down to the last
detail.  No chord bend or slide was there without her
having intended it to be.

Kim quickly proved her musical prowess, writing not just the lyrics but going on to also collaborate with 이지혜 (Ji-Hye Lee) in writing parts for each instrument. They made my job much easier than I thought it was going to be, leaving me with only a couple vocal coaching sessions and the recording process to do. Of course, I also had quite the job to do in refocusing the band, from time-to-time. After all, it is made entirely of 14-to-16-year-olds. The kids have exceeded every expectation I had of them, and I couldn’t be more proud.

Carpe Diem is a band comprised of and led by middle schoolers in South Korea.

Read more about what provoked my long-time friend Justin to take us on and bring you “Nae Soneul Jaba (내 손을 잡아)” - and how you can get your very own copy of it - here.

Korea: Two Years in Four Minutes

And just in case you wanted to watch this on your phone, too:

Cantina: Mexican Food in Cheonan - WHAT?

This week, the unimaginable happened.  A Mexican restaurant opened up in my town.  And not just any Mexican restaurant... no:  An American-owned-and-run Mexican restaurant.  And it's heaven.  From the moment the food crossed my lips, I knew my wallet would never be the same.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Before, we took the 45 minute trip to Songtan for Mexican food.  Now, it's just a 20-minute walk.

The owners, Dylan and Jenny, are currently in the process of growing their own veggies on the premises, and Dylan, although he never trained professionally to be a chef, spent much of his life in the food industry, picking the brains of any chef with whom he shared a restaurant.  He studied their work and practiced at home until he was able to create the amazing food he set before me at Cantina.

Although the menu lists a grand total of zero vegetarian main dishes (one if you allow for fish), all it took was for Dylan to hear me talking about not eating meat to offer me several options to suit my taste.  He went on to tell me that he was blown away by the number of vegetarians in the city who'd come out of the woodwork  so he was in the process of making a veggie-friendly revised menu.  In the meantime, he instructed me to warn him on Facebook before I wanted to come by, and he'd be sure to have veggie offerings for me.  What service!

Jenny, who is superwoman at the bar, is in charge of events and other such details.  My friend Nick and I knew immediately that we wanted to move the location of another friend's baby shower to the restaurant, so we spent a bit of time dealing with Jenny on those details.  Not only did she seem to know every trick in the book for how to throw a good party, she was also incredibly friendly about it all.  The conversation flowed easily, and Nick and I left the meeting with big grins on our faces.

Nick, me, and our grins.

The overall decor of the place is great, too.  It's a little loud, because, in keeping with the latest style in Cheonan, there's minimal fabric to absorb sound, but it's not so loud as to deter me from returning.  There are several tables at the front of the house.  In the back is an open-air kitchen and a pool table, positioned in front of this mural:

Painted by JnJ Crew from Hongdae (Seoul), this mural sets the tone for the whole restaurant.

I ordered their chimichanga, which melted in my mouth.  It was amazing.  Somehow, they'd gotten their hands on fresh cilantro, which adorned my plate.  After not having had it in two years, it was a phenomenal taste.  They didn't skimp on the sour cream (actual sour cream!!!) either.  The complimentary chips and salsa were delicious, and the Cantina Peppers were surprisingly good.  I could taste the spice on everything through my dish (which means it's probably pretty spicy, as my tolerance is rather high), but Dylan and Jenny assured me that they could make the food in non-spicy versions as well.

So, what have we learned?

Excellent food.
Excellent service.
Excellent location.

I'll definitely be returning.

Bob goes Korean

For the past month or so, I've added private Korean lessons to my schedule, so I'm technically taking two Korean classes right now.  My teacher is awesome and has realized that I'm a kinesthetic learner.  She's very amenable to Western-style learning, and has chosen to embrace that part of my personality.  She's had me drawing comics in Korean for homework and is compiling them into a book.  Every week, before I give them to her, I take a picture so I can share them with you.  Now, it's not Captain Bob, so don't get your hopes up, but it is about my adventures in Korea, so I think it's still good.

Anne: Bob is my imaginary friend.  I first drew him when I was in third grade.
Bob: Hello.  I'm Bob!

Anne: When I was in middle school, I drew Bob to be a spaceship captain.
Bob: This is my spaceship.  I am a spaceship captain.

These days, I use Bob in class.
Anne: What's this?
Kid: Why are his eyes big?

Sometimes, the students make fun of him.
Kid: Hehehe!  He's a big-eyed foreigner!  He's a big-eyed foreigner.

Anne: When people make fun of Bob he gets sad, but Bob is an imaginary person, so he can't say it.
Bob: *knock knock* Hello?

Sometimes, if the students make of of me, I get mad.
Kid:  Hahaha! The big foreigner is fat!  Hahaha!
Anne: Grrr... *anger!*

So, Bob should help me.
Kid: Hahaha.
Me: I want to punish that kid!
Bob: Ah! No!

Anne: Thanks.
Bob: Yup.

MOTh: Days 14 and 15

3 Gifts Silent

I know, I know... I'm really bad at keeping up with blogging.  It's been a BUSY week, what with Kris and Cora getting MARRIED!  I did shoot a video for you, but I couldn't post it from my phone!  Soooo... it didn't get posted.  Maybe I'll put it up tonight.

1. I'm thankful for Sunday afternoons that are so quiet that I'm tempted to think I'm the only person in my building.  I'm secretly an introvert.  I like quiet.
2. I'm thankful for snow.  But only when it's falling in the middle of the night and I'm the only person around, so it seems silent... and then you can hear the snow.  After that, I'd be happy if the snow went away... or cancelled things.
3. I'm thankful for music with rests in it.  Because sometimes, dear Mozart, holding my violin up for an entire symphony gets tiring.  I just thought I'd throw that out there.

3 Gifts Golden

Annnd... I had the time, so I thought I'd hit another in here.

1. I'm thankful for 50th wedding anniversaries.  They're rather uncommon in this day and age, and I think they're an amazing thing.
2. I'm thankful for the gold cross my aunt and uncle bought me a long time ago. Every time I look at it, I remember how much they love me and how important our religion is to them.
3. I'm thankful for glitter, because glitter makes all things more fun.  Makeup is more fun.  Projects are more fun. Everything is more fun!

An art museum that would make Mary Lennox proud - Hoam Museum

On Saturday, we went to Hoam Art Museum as part of a cultural trip that KNU arranged for us.  There was an inside, too, I just didn't like it as much; I wasn't in a museum-y mood, especially after the outside was so invigorating.  So, I hope you enjoy what I did choose to capture. :)

추석 Traveling: Sofia, Bulgaria

So, I'm back from my travels for now, and I come bearing pictures.  Posting them has been slow going, as I've been sick and unbelievably busy.  I've got piles of things I don't want to do, and I'm forgetting to do the things I want to do, but that all gets shoved aside, as I come home from work and all but collapse into bed that very moment.  Still, I'm trying to knock out at least one heavy-weighing thing a day.  As you can tell, today, I'm trying to get caught up on the blog.  I have in mind to write about my trip in four separate posts.

Sofia and her poor wardrobe choices.  Call me uncultured, but I still feel that the way women are portrayed in art has little to nothing to do with celebrating the beauty of the female form and everything to do with the way it makes the artist feel to make it as such.

An absolutely beautiful old church. 

A mosque in the foreground with a vast synagogue in the background.  Apparently, Bulgaria originally sided with Nazi Germany in World War II, because Hitler promised them a good deal of land, but, when he came calling for the Jews, the Bulgarian leader said that they were still needed to do labor in the country.  He continued in this habit until Bulgaria switched and sided with the Allies, thus saving all the Jews within Bulgarian borders.

A Russian Orthodox church, with an unpictured Catholic church near it.  These two buildings and the aforementioned two were all quite close to each other.  Bulgaria apparently prides itself on the fact that these four are "within a stone's throw of each other, but never has a stone been thrown between them."

Alex and Vera drinking from the hot springs water that was fixed into fountains.  It was supposed to cure you of diseases, however, I know that Alex and I at least got a cold after drinking it, I'm not sure about Vera.  I think I'd say that it seems rather counter-productive, unless it's a "You've got to get worse to get better" mentality.

Two beautiful shots of Alexander Nevsky, yet another Cathedral in Sofia.  It rekindled my deep-rooted desire to find a way to spend the night or nights inside one of these grand old Cathedrals, although, I'm not sure I could hold my own against the other squatters, and I'm sure the darkest dark that would come with night would frighten me to death.  Nonetheless, I think, as would Miss Anne of Green Gables, that it would be terribly romantic and an adventure worth having.

In spite of the ghastly way I chose to treat my feet while walking around that day, I think it was a wonderful adventure. Jet lag screamed at me from about noon on, which was interesting, since noon in Bulgaria is only 6pm in Korea, but I suppose my midnight departure contributed.  In spite of all that, my biggest regret may have been leaving behind a beautiful violin with a carved scroll that I found in a market.  It was in atrocious condition, having been used instead of paper for someone to track numbers, with cracks around the end peg, so I knew there would be a heart-stopping cost to refurbish it, but I fell in love with it.  Sadly, the woman was asking a bit too much for it, compared to the repair costs, and I couldn't justify it at this juncture in life.  I would have haggled, but she seems entirely non-haggle friendly.  Perhaps it was my clear non-Bulgarian-ness, or because she didn't know that I would have happily gone and withdrawn the money from my bank account if a number came up that seemed more reasonable.  My biggest hangup was that I didn't feel confident in my appraisal abilities.  Perhaps I should study up on that, so that this won't happen again.

Look for more posts about my trip soon!

Saturday Class: Dream House

In studying the rooms in a house, I had my students design their budget-less dream houses.  Here are some of my favorites:

Five houses in one!

Which ones do you like?

(I Remember)

Evette and I had early morning orchestra that day.  We were both so tired.  We found later that we had the same reason for being so exhausted -we'd both spent the night dreaming strange dreams, and we both spent morning orchestra debating whether or not to tell the other about them.

The rest of the morning passed in a half-eyed blur, until it was time for lunch.  Seventh grade ate so early that year.  I generally made a habit of peeking in the classrooms as I walked past, and that say was no exception, but only one classroom was worth noting.  There were several women in it, holding each other and crying.  I remember clearly my reacting thought: "Someone's son must have died."  I don't know why that was my thought.  I don't know why it was "son" and not "daughter."  I don't know why it was death and not illness or some other entirely unrelated tragedy.  But there it was.

We went to lunch, where I finally revealed my dream to Andy.  My whole dream had been a kind of white-lined sketch on blue paper.   It was a perfect replica of New York City; I recognized it from the trip I had taken there the previous April.  Suddenly, an airplane entered the dream and flew into a Twin Tower, which proceeded to topple over onto the silent city.  I remember entering the dream at that point, rather than observing it.  I was on the ground, feeling the shadow swallowing me, looking up in terror at my impending death.  Then, I woke.

No one put much stock in my dream.  I had weird dreams all them time.

We had to hurry to our next class: American History: Reconstruction to Present Day.   The room was eerily silent, especially for a middle school.  We took our seats to notice that the TV was on.

"The administration doesn't want me to show you this," the teacher said. "But you deserve to see this.  Your children will study this in their history classes.  I can't be a good history teacher and not show you."

And then we watched the burning towers crumble to the ground.

In his shock, the teacher said, "I guess the Empire State Building is the biggest again."  I was horrified.

Cathy went to the pay phones at the front of the school and called her mom, who picked her up.  I was furious that my mother hadn't shown up to sweep me away, but I, to this day, still don't know why I wanted to leave.  It's not like she could provide any more sanity to the world.

She did pick me up, though, at our normal Tuesday afternoon meeting time.  I was hoping she'd tell me that my piano lesson was cancelled for that day; I didn't feel up to it (not that I ever did), but she took me straight to the church.  She wanted me to have normalcy.  I started learning the song Sanctuary, which I, in turn, played a month later in church, on my family's last Sunday in that city.  It seemed so ironic it was sickening.

I was angry.  I was angry for having normalcy forced on me.  I was angry for having fear forced on me.  I was angry for my life spinning out of control.

Not even bothering to drop off my school things, I went to the basement, took out some paper and water-color paints, and began flinging color across the page, imagining it was someone conveying my anger to the people who I felt were causing it, impaling it into their souls and out of my own.   I think my mom still has those paintings.

I remember.

Sunday Funnies: The Lack of Time-Continuity

This week's Captain Bob is inspired by my beautiful cousin Becky and her early start on her Christmas music. :)

<<The last adventure || The next adventure>>

I am jet lagged.

But I promise I'm not dead.

Also, I'm starting to get goodbye letters from my students. Had I moved les in my life, I feel I'd cry from them (I'm not as insensitive as that sounds). These kids are sweethearts.

They also make me look really attractive when they draw me. Thank G-d for kids who care. :)

Vacation: The Party

I was in the States such a short time, that we deemed it best to get as many of my friends as we could together in one place at one time.  While this turned out to be more stressful for me than anticipated, it did solve the problem of how to be in 5 places at one time (bring the places to you).  I'm going to put up my favorite pictures from the party (except for my most favorite, which is already up); pay attention to people's faces - that's what makes them so great.

'