My New Normal

Cheers to testing negative for covid-19!

Though that doesn’t mean that I am okay, just means that I need to stay on my new norm. It hasn’t been fun at all, not being able to go outside and sit on a bench to take in this nice weather and stare at the cherry blossoms. Or to order fried chicken via yogiyo. What I miss most is my cafe study time with my co-teacher. Really, I miss seeing my co-teacher Honey (Not their real name, clearly. An inside joke between the two of us).

But that is now part of the new norm for me. Right now in Korea there are no public schools open. No after school classes are taking place, which means that there is no need for my co-teacher and I to meet up after school like we use to each week. I have yet another English teacher. They are nice enough but I still miss my first English teacher. And if I’m being completely honest, since I’m not teaching at the moment, it is taking all that I have to not just ‘check out’ professionally.

My school has ‘requested’ that I come in to the school at least for my 15 hours each week, and desk-warm during that time. Though with me not having any classes to prepare for at the moment and loads of new ppts and activities/games already prepared to begin with – I usually just end up doing anything besides the classic desk-warming that I would usually do during my time at school.

This past week I’ve updated my resume, search and bookmarked future jobs to apply for in July, fine tuned my freelancing plans list, and found 2 great YouTube channels to help me study for College Algebra and Physics before my online classes begin next month.

It’s almost funny, before this pandemic I was ready to take a breather from in class teaching. Just teach online for a few months and travel. Now with over a month off I feel like I’ve had the breather in advance and could see myself teaching in class sooner than when I had planned. Though as far as travel, obviously I haven’t been able to do any of that. And now I’m wondering if I will be able to navigate those plans in the future. I know for sure that almost the last place I want to be in is the States, so right now I’m making a list of places that I would like to visit and keeping up with how those places are handling this pandemic.

Even as I type all this, I realize what a privilege I have to be able to plan such a thing.

Some folks wish to desperately leave their countries, hell, even their homes, for a chance at a better life. And it may come across to some that I am just being flighty for no reason, but I’m not. I have always wanted to travel the world, almost went into a state of deep depression from the need to and not being able to, so now that I have begun the journey I cannot stop now.

All I can do is save as much coin as I can, plan as best and as responsibly as possible, and try to adapt to this new norm as much as possible.

-Soprano Musings

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The Rona Checkin

March 2nd was the date that I begin to self quarantine, and I wish that I can say that it’s been smooth sailing since, but that would be a whole ass lie.

My menes showed up on the 3rd and symptoms with it that I normally have made me dismiss the possibility that I was ‘properly’ sick. Now that I think back to that week, I honestly don’t know if I had the flu (it is a possibility since I didn’t get my annual shot this Winter) or the Rona.

I have never been so thankful to have a main job that encouraged me to stay home with paid leave. Now school has been delayed until April 6 and I do not want to be the foreigner that exposes everyone in my school to this virus, so today I am going to the clinic to get tested.

Yeah, I’m nervous, but again, I am in a place where the response to covid 19 has been swift and overall positive. There is also the fact that I have been self quarantined for almost 21 days now, so I feel pretty good about whatever results I get from the clinic.

I just want to be sure that I am okay. And the first step for me to do that is to go to the clinic and see what the results are. Maybe they’ll low key just say that I’m fat and should use this time to make better eating choices so that I can lose some weight. Maybe it is something more serious. Either way, I will have answers in about 3 hours, so expect another update to this post soon.

-Soprano Musings

The American Cool.

Thank you Janelle Monae for the incredible song ‘Crazy Classic Life‘!

And for helping me be able to express what I feel the need to say, as a black person from America. Traveling these past few years to variest places in the world has been an adventure. I love it because it gives me prosective, challenges me, and excites me in ways that I didn’t dare think were possible.

The little shy, misunderstood, fat black girl in me is still in awe of all the things that I have done in my time overseas.

Though the almost 40 year old me is a touch more stotic and plenty more tired of having the same situations, hearing and seeing the same conversations around her when it comes to being black.

I no longer say African American. For so many reasons, but mainly due to the fact that I feel by adding ‘African’ is entirely inaccurate, since I have never in my life touched down on African soil. Also, I feel that folks expect me to put the word ‘African’ in front of American when I tell them where I am from because only those that fit their ideal stereotype of what an ‘American’ should look like don’t when asked the same question.

But –

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That last part will have to be further discussed over on my channel someday!

Back to my ‘Crazy Classic Life’.

Using all the social medias and mixed media outlets that I can, including my budding Soprano Musings Photography, I have decided to make this year (and each one after, if I am being completely honest – lol) the year of #TheAmericanCool.

Nearly everything we as black people do in American is cool. We built the America that so many are still trying to deny us. Our fashion is ‘ghetto’ until a designer ‘premiers’ it during Fashion Week. Our features are too over the top, unnatural, until they are carved onto some ‘European’ in your lastest magazines. Our self love is too laughable, until those they know stop simply lusting over us and fall in love with us too.

Yet there are still folks out here spreading around misleading and downright dangerous information about being black on Al Gore’s internet and I am done seeing it. If you are creating content on whatever social medias that you have and are doing this, I will not bother with naming you. You know you are trash, and that’s on you. Though I will advise you to at the very least, the miminum level of being a resemblance of a human being, to place a disclaimer on your content to remind your viewers that you are in fact, NOT a black person and are not someone whose thoughts and opinions they should seriously consider when viewing your content about being black.

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In fact, I will double down on all that as your brain processes it and give you these lovely disclaimers that you can easily translate and add to your videos, blogs, podcast, etc.

As I approach my final few months in South Korea, I want to spread this message in the most diplomatic way as possible. Though even as I type this, I know it’s going to be met with some bullshit. And this is the only Public Service Announcement that I will issue in response to that: If you come to me with the nonsense, you will be met with indifference that will not sit well with you in the end.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

  • Why does what Soprano Musings has said bothers me?
  • What about Soprano Musings appearance upsets me?
  • Where does my opinion on ‘the black experience’ come from?
  • Why do I feel the need to have a say on black history as someone who is not black?

I will get back to talking about my final months here in the TaLK program, but I wanted to address this topic before going forward.

See you soon Musings!

–Soprano Musings

 

 

 

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