Seoul Tea

I knew the first night of class that I was going to get to know Jin a bit better than most of the other students in the class. Jin is from Korea and at that point had only been in the U.S. about two weeks. When she introduced herself to the class, it was apparent that her English was not that strong and that she seemed pretty down. After talking to her a bit more after class, I learned that she was feeling pretty lonely and overwhelmed by school. Her husband is also Korean and is at Texas A&M working on his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering.

For the next couple weeks, after each class Jin would come up to me and basically ask me to summarize slowly what had been discussed during that class meeting; a meeting that lasts three hours. I decided it was time for a get together. I emailed Jin and asked her over to my apartment. I thought that perhaps some scheduled time to sit down and just talk would be good.

On Sunday Jin came over for tea. We talked about Korea and where she is from and what life is like there. We talked about the seasons and how we both miss them. The excitement on her face when I told her it snows in Flagstaff in the winter was amazing - I'm sure she will be driving up to see the white stuff. We had Green tea and Japanese cake. Jin explained to me the tea tradition in Korea. For Green tea, you drink it plain, just as is. For black tea (or what they call milk tea, translated of course) you add milk, and sometimes sugar. And accordingly she laughed at me when I offered her milk for her Green tea.

We had a lovely time together despite the language barrier. Jin has offered to cook me some authentic Korean food and asked if she could come visit again. I can't wait.

So what are you taking?

Once the scary truth that I am a full time graduate student comes out, the same line of questions are fired at me - regardless of who I am talking to. It is the usual.

"Oh, that's nice. What are you studying?" Well that's easy...I'm getting a Master's Degree in Music Education with a concentration in Choral Music. Phew.

Then the next one is the killer.

"What classes are you taking?" I'm never really sure how to interpret this one. Most people don't really want to know. They don't really want me to launch into this 20 minute conversation about the four classes I'm taking...they just want titles, superficial information. What's the point?

Well I've decided to dedicate this post to answering those questions.

For those of you only looking for the superficial answer...here it goes...

MUE 549 Psychology of Music
MUE 548 Introduction to research (in Music Education)
MUP 553 University Choir
MHL 598 Music & Healing

For those of you who are genuinely interested, read on...

Psychology of Music meets on Monday nights from 4:40pm until 7pm. The class is really three mini classes in one. The semester is divided into three 5 week sessions, each taught by a different professor. Each session focuses on another area of the psychology of music and is taught by the expert in that area. We are at week #3 of the first session - taught by Dr. Sandra Stauffer. Dr. Stauffer is wonderful, she is also my advisor. She focuses on the cultural and social aspects of music psychology. So far we have had two classes - I'm not sure what to think. I am currently working on an Ethnography Project (which is the large project for her section of the class). I had to pick a music ensemble that was far away from my comfort zone - so I wasn't about to pick a choir - and I had to go and hang out with this ensemble and "figure out what's going on". Yep, that's my task. I had to go and check it out and try to answer some questions about what makes these people do what they are doing and why is it important, etc. So yesterday I went for the first time to immerse myself in ASU's African Drum Ensemble (a class I almost took last semester - FYI). I loved it! Unfortunately I didn't feel out of my comfort zone...but it wasn't something I was accustomed to doing so hopefully it will still work for my project. More on this later.

Well I thought that I had paid my dues last semseter with Foundations of Music Education. But Dr. Humphreys is back again! My Introduction to Research class is also a divided class taught by three different professors. The class is divided into the three main types of research - historical, quantatative and qualatative. The first section, of which I have had three weeks now, is historical and is taught by Dr. Jere Humphreys (yep that's right, not Jerry, but Jere). It's introduction to research, B-O-R-I-N-G, need I say more?

University Choir is my one credit class and as is always true with music degrees the class with the least amount of credits will somehow dominate your life. Yes, it's true. University Choir meets four times a week for 50 minutes each time (Monday through Thursday). The group is an auditioned group of 60 or so singers. The group is good. I'm not ashamed to admit, it's the best group I've sung with in my career. So not only do I sing in this group, but I am a graduate assistant to Dr. Gentry. I sing in the Alto I section, of which I am the section leader - woo hoo. I also take attendance each day, set the room up for rehearsal, make sure everyone has everything they need, run women's sectionals, measure all the women for their new dresses, do warm-ups occasionally and at some point will be conducting a piece in a concert. It's a great experience but it's a huge committment! Below is the program for our next concert, which is October 16th.
In the beginning of creation - Daniel Pinkham
Let all the people praise thee, O God - William Mathias
O sacrum convivicum! - Olivier Messiaen
"Alleluia" from Brazilian Psalm - Jean Berger
Sleep - Eric Whitacre
Reggel / Morning / Morgan - Ligeti
Past Life Melodies - Sarah Hopkins
There Will Be Rest - Frank Tichelli

So there are these history and theory requirements for my degree. Now there are pitfalls to each. History = lots of reading, lots of writing, exams. Theory = lots of time spent banging my head against the piano. So what did I do? Well I'm starting off easy. I am taking a new course being offered which is called Music & Healing. It is technically a history class, but in terms of music history classes, this one is pretty out of the box. It is taught my Dr. Norton who from what I can tell is a bit of a tough cookie. She is brilliant and expects a lot from us. However, the content of the class is great! We are taking a look at a number of different sources to examine how music has had a healing affect on people. Yesteryday's class we discussed the female heroine from Verdi's La Traviata, Violetta. The story is based on a Dumas book and is basically about a high class whore named Violetta who has consumption (tuberculosis) and becomes a heroine by giving up her life to heal others. Good stuff. No one makes drama like Verdi! Anyway...that class is something new and exciting each day...I really like it...we'll see how much I like it come term paper time!

So that it is. Whew....

I'm not sure if I am going to be able to keep up my 4.0 GPA with this load of courses, but I'll let you know!

TGIF

There's nothing like waking up a little later on Friday mornings. Most of my friends give me grief for my "schedule" this fall. I'm a full time student in graduate school and although I'm not in class all that many hours, that doesn't mean I'm not working hard. Although I'm sure they think I'm hardly working!

This morning was nice. I was able to sleep in until 7:40am when Lilly decided she had had enough and needed to go out. Today is low key. I'll admit, my day will be better than sitting at a cubicle at SunLife Financial or even being a wine connoseur at the Hopkins Vineyard - the places of employment of my two best friends.

Today will be a relaxing start to the weekend. I am meeting my friend Melissa for coffee at 11am at the hot spot for music people at ASU - Breugger's Bagel shop. Hot spot? Okay, that might be a bit generous, but it is where most music people head when they need a little pick-me-up; that is if they can safely get across Mill...without getting hit by the Flash.

After coffee I will head to my office, W141, in the music building where I will either attempt to get some work done or play the piano. I'll have about an hour and a half until a meeting with the choral department from 1-2pm. Today's agenda: High School Leadership Workshop...scheduled for Saturday September 17th. Then as the finale to my day, I will be having a voice lesson at 2pm. Burr Phillips is from Texas. I just met him a couple of weeks ago but so far so good. It's nice to be singing again.

That is pretty much it. I can then spend the rest of my afternoon running errands, playing with Lilly and enjoying my Friday night as my "no work" night. So while it might seem that I've got it pretty good, and yes overall I do, today is quite calm compared to my other days here at ASU. Just wait until I tell you about yesterday and my participation in ASU's African Drum Ensemble. We'll save that for another time.