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Week 12 - Y2 (May 21st to May 27th) |
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Sunday May 21st,
Today I went to Myeong-dong, which is the downtown
shopping district in Seoul. My goal--to spend my $150
gift certificate at Lotte! There's no traffic in this
area, which helps, cause good god, there were people
everywhere! If there were cars in there too . . .
one of my big pet peeves about Koreans is that they
can't handle traffic at all. The walking is as bad as
the driving here-- everyone pushes and shoves, and
then when they get to the front of the line, they walk
at a snail's pace, and link arms with their friends
just to make sure no one else can get by! Or they
stand still right in the middle of a stairway, and
make everyone push by while they dig for their phone,
fix their hair, makeup, etc. Now picture this, but
with vehicles . . . that's how Koreans drive too. I
realize that I'm generalizing, but I've almost been
run over too many times, or almost gotten into too
many accidents while sitting in the back of a taxi . .
. I'll be happy to be home where people actually pay
attention to things like traffic lights!
But, mission accomplised, I spent my gift certificate;
got some Lancome stuff, and a few shirts!
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Monday May 22nd,
Yesterday afternoon, Trish Colter and Denny
Christiansen arrived from Toronto. Denny is the head
of the jazz program at Humber College in Toronto, and
Trish is the head of the vocal jazz program at Humber
College. I may or may not have mentioned before that
my school, PaekChe Institute of the Arts, has a sister
relationship with Humber (before Jae went to U of T,
he graduated from Humber). So a few times a year,
teachers from Humber come to our school to do
concerts, masterclasses, auditions, etc.
Today, while I was teaching, Trish and Denny were
touring one of the palaces in Seoul with Kenji and
Ben. Then, after work, we all went out to dinner at a
fancy Japanese restaurant. Trish has known me since I
started at U of T (mostly through Paul, her husband,
who is the head of jazz studies at U of T), but we
hadn't seen each other since I graduated from; so it
was great to catch up with her. There are very few
real jazz singers in Korea, and most of them aren't
really singing jazz, more like lounge-ish kind of
stuff, and most of them have never studied. So
sometimes I feel like I have no one here to bounce
ideas off of about singer-specific stuff (ie vocal
technique). It was great to have Trish here so I
could pick her brain (what do you teach in the first
year vocal improv class? how do you get students to
find the resonant spot in their cheekbones? and so
on) Plus, if my job includes going out for fancy
dinners and drinking lots of free Korean rice wine,
then I'm certainly not complaining!
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Wednesday May 24th,
Tonight, Trish and Denny, along with Jae, Kenji, Ben,
Chang Hyun (the bass professor) and In Gun (the piano
professor) played a concert in PaekChe's big theatre
at the Seoul campus. The concert was packed to the
gills with PaekChe's students, teachers, plus students
and teachers from other music schools. It was kind of
funny to see how enthusiastic they all were-- cheering
loudly after every solo, every high note, every
speech; then waiting by the stage door for the
musicians to come out, more cheering . . . kind of
like it was some big rock concert or something, going
equally as nuts for Kenji and Ben as they were for
Trish and Denny. Canadians are always trying so hard
to look "cool" and calm, but Koreans have no
embarrassment about going crazy over something they
like!
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Thursday May 25th,
Today, once again, I didn't have to teach any of my
classes (it's amazing how much time I actually DON'T
work!) because instead Trish was doing a master class
with all of the vocal students. The best part about
this, was that she said so many of the things that
I've been trying to tell my students in Konglish for
months, and everything she said was translated into
Korean by Chang Hyun, so now they understand what I've
been trying to get at for several months! (Poor Chang
Hyun speaks English really well, but he was really
nervous about translating, because of all the vocal
technique jargon that as a bass player he's never had
to deal with before!) A few of the students also sang
for Trish, one of my own, and one girl who I wish was
my student . . . Trish was happy to hear them,
especially Min Kyung. Min Kyung is an incredibly
talented young singer, well versed in her jazz
knowledge, beautiful sound, great ears, etc., who I've
gotten to know only through the improv classes. She
has incredible potential, and Trish would take her in
at Humber in a heartbeat, but the sole problem is that
she doesn't speak English well enough . . .
After the workshop, instead of taking the bus back, as
I usually would have done, Jae, Chang Hyun, Denny,
Trish and I stopped for dinner at a galbi restaurant
about 20 minutes away from the school. Seriously, I
haven't been this well-fed since I lived at my
parents' house! Any of the Humber teachers can come
and visit anytime . . .
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Friday May 26th,
Today Yoo Oak (Jae's sister-in-law, and my "English
student/Korean teacher) and I took Trish to Insa-dong
in Seoul. Trish had just finished another masterclass
at the Seoul campus, and it took us a ridiculously
long time to get there due to all the traffic (the
traffic in Seoul is never-ending. I will never ever
look at Toronto traffic again and think that it's a
lot), but once we did get there, Trish loved it! She
bought several little packable presents to bring
home-- wooden and lacquer boxes, silk purses, so on.
I may have bought a few things too . . .
After the shopping part, Yoo Oak brought us to this
beautiful tea house on a side street that she had
known since she was a child. It was done up like a
traditional Korean house, and looked onto kind of a
courtyard.
By this time, we were running a little bit late to
meet Ben, Kenji, Chang Hyun, Denny and Jae. Because
there was a soccer game on, the traffic was especially
bad. But we somehow managed to make it over to
Hongdae in decent time, to have one final fancy Korean
dinner. Jae couldn't get out of the traffic, and
unfortunately missed dinner. After dinner, we went to
Watercock, a jazz club that is owned by one of the
bass teachers onstaff at PaekChe (if you can ignore
the terrible name, it's a great club) We had to wait
until the soccer game was finished, but here was Trish
and Denny's final performance in Korea (for this year
anyway). I was definately sad to say goodbye. I had
a good week of "shoptalk", sharing, catching up, and
so on (not to mention eating and drinking for free for
the whole week). Like I said, any Humber teachers can
come anytime, and I'll be happy!
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