"i've ceased to be amused"

july 1st - "jamie goes back to america"

I was fortunate enough to be able to bring Jamie to the airport when she left. I had no idea how difficult it would be. I got more and more homesick on the bus ride there. I just kept thinking about how much I wanted to be on that plane with her. I was so happy for her to go back home and see her family but painfully jealous. "Three more months and it'll be me," I kept thinking.

At this point, my friends start leaving one by one. That's one of the most difficult parts about living in Korea. You make friends and then they finish their contracts before you and leave you here. I commented to my friend Belinda about missing Jamie. True to her Auzzie style, she bluntly said, "Well, that's Korea for ya, man. Get used to it." Belinda's lived here three years and has had to say goodbye to many good friends. On the other hand, there's always a fresh batch of new people to meet too.


july 4th - "bungee jump. check."

It's weird over here. It didn't feel like the 4th of July at all. It was the same with Christmas, Easter, and pretty much every other Western holiday. Without the commercialism and inquiries from friends reminding you that you're supposed to have some big plan that day, the holidays kind of come and go without you noticing you missed anything.

This Independence Day a friend of mine asked me to go bungee jumping. Strangely enough, there's one in the park five minutes from my house. I consider myself someone who would generally try anything twice, but I have never, ever had any inclination to go bungee jumping. If I died and never bungee jumped, I always thought, "That'd be just fine." I told my friend I'd go watch.

After a good amount of peer pressure, I ended up saddling up in the harness and riding the elevator to the top of the jump. Five people went before me. I won't lie, if I could have gotten out of it at that point, I would have. I was incredibly nervous. I never wanted to bungee jump because I always imagined an immense amount of whiplash and pictured parts of my body snapping in two. One girl went right before me. She hesitated. It was all over after that. You can't hesitate. I watched her struggle to jump once she looked down, and I thought to myself, "Self, don't do that, look out and run straight off the platform." I did. Well first I triple-checked with bungee-jump operator man after he attached a rope covered in duck tape to a velcro harness around my waist. "Are you sure it's ready? Am I hooked up? Do you have my weight right? Are you sure this velcro holds? Are you SURE?"
Bungee jump man: "Yes. Are you ready?"
Me: "No."
Bungee jump man: "You're beautiful."
Me: "Ok, I'm ready."
I looked out at the hills and took a running leap off. It was the scariest, most exhilarating feeling I've ever felt. I flew, starfish-formation so as not to flip. I didn't scream, just wide-eyed, open-mouthed, spread-eagle, felt myself fall almost to the water and bounce back up. The part where you hang in the balance before falling again... my chest filled up with breath and I gasped as I felt myself plummet again. Rinse, lather, repeat up to five times. I can't really describe how intense it was. I was lowered down into a raft in the lake. I was shaking from head to toe but very happy I did it and quite proud of myself. The crowd below cheered for me. For some reason I am the only one they cheered for. It was exciting moment that I'll never forget. And now I can die and say, "Yeah, I bungee-jumped, check."


july 25th - "han river cruise"

I went on a boat cruise down the Han River. It's just about the worst cruise ever, but only 6 bucks. One big long view of concrete and bridges overhead. It was unsightly, yet still fun because, ya know, boats are pretty much always fun. We also took some of our new coworkers who had been in Korea less than a week. Not the best tour of Seoul, but anyhow.


august 2nd-4th - "this vacation sucks"

For part of my vacation I went to Sokcho beach on the northeast coast of South Korea. That's right, forty kilometers from North Korea. We went there because supposedly it's a really nice place with great beaches and such. Not really. Every time a Korean has ever said, "Oh, that's a nice place to visit" we've been sorely disappointed. As far as I can tell, everywhere else in Korea that's not Seoul or a suburb of Seoul is still in post-war, pre-economic boom condition. The food is creepy. The motels are sketchy. Everything is old and dingy. People stare, more.

The beaches at Sokcho were nice-ish, but you couldn't find a serene corner just to lay back and listen to the waves. At night the beaches were crowded with people lighting dinky fireworks one after the other. I struggled to block out not only the crackle and boom of the fireworks going off beside me but also the loud-speaker announcements telling everyone to stay out of the water. No, you can't put your feet in the water after dark. Too many people drown. Actually, my friend Jen literally stumbled over a dead body on the beach last summer. It's quite common.

You may think this sounds unfair if you haven't been to Korea, but I honestly don't think it's a very beautiful country. I've been to the places that people said are the most famous for their beauty, and although some have been, overall, the country is a bit gray and unsightly. I've taken a bus south across the whole damn thing, if you recall. I've been to the mountains and the coast. I've also talked to other people who have been other places and their assessment is much the same. People don't come to Korea on vacation. There's a reason. Although Koreans refer to their country as "Han-guk," meaning "the great country" or "leader country," their name for America is "Mi-guk," translated beautiful country. I agree.


a few new things I can say in korean:

-I can count to 100, very slowly.
-I can say all the prices in Korean too, this is a little trickier than just counting.
-"What is that?"
-"I'm drunk."
-"Good job." (only slightly different from "I'm drunk.")
-another way to say "Cheers!"
-"It's not okay."
-A bunch of swear words
-"I'm American."
-"I'm sick."
-"5 minutes," "10 minutes," etc.
-"It's good."
-chopsticks
-spoon
-fork (in Korean: "pork-ah")


It feels like I've been dreaming this whole time, (maybe because I left the U.S. in the wee hours of the morning after being up all night.) I remember deliriously getting on the plane and thinking, "Am I really doing this? Am I really flying to Korea and leaving everything behind?" And here I am, still here after almost a year. It's hard to describe the feeling that all your memories for the past ten months seem vaguely imagined.

This dreamlike feeling may also be due to the fact that life here is generally unrealistic. I can see why so many people stay here for years on end. It's easy living in more ways than one, your employer pays your rent and you never really have to grow up. (For instance, you could drink every single night and still not out-drink most of the Korean men of the country.) It's kind of like living in la-la land for a whole year.

La-la land probably sounds pretty great to some of you back in the U.S., living and working in a far-from-dreamy economic recession. Despite knowing what job prospects are sure to greet me at home, I can't wait to go back. Everything here has ceased to be amusing and I'm finding life here more and more irritating these days. Ya know when you've been on vacation for a while, but then you get tired of traveling, feel like you've spent too much money on stupid shit, and just can't wait to be back in your own bed? That's the closest thing I can think of to describe how it feels to be here now, except multiply that feeling by a year.

So, I've made it through monsoon season. Yes. It rained the entire month of July. I just have the intensely humid heat of August to endure, an immense amount of schoolwork to prepare in September, and then I can come home.

(A few more pictures added to the beginning of the slide show. These are from my "rafting" trip and surprisingly quite pretty. The other new ones are clearly from the zoo field trip.)

"foot-long lenses"

june 6th -"caribbean bay"

You can't just lay out in your bikini here. I asked. (I was actually told the police would ask you to go put clothes on. I kind of want to try it. Ha!) Unless you have a rooftop or a friend with a rooftop, or are willing to pay money to go to a public pool, there isn't anywhere a girl can go to get some sun. June was quite hot by my standards and I was craving a tan. Some girlfriends and I decided to go to a water park this Saturday. It's the biggest water park I've ever seen or heard about. There was a lazy river you could ride around tirelessly; no one would ever ask you to get out. There was a giant wave pool, tons of water rides, saunas, restaurants, napping huts, beer, snacks, and much, much more. It's funny, some things Koreans do so well, like packaging for instance. And some things they just get so wrong, like their use of peanut butter. They were selling peanut-buttered dried squid as a snack at the water park. *Shudders*


june 20th-21st - "white-water" rafting trip

I went on a rafting trip somewhere in the mountains southeast of Seoul. There were about 35 foreigners on our trip, among them Australians, New Zealanders, British people, a few Irish guys, a French couple, South Africans, Canadians, and Americans. We signed up for this trip quite last minute and didn't really know what we were getting ourselves into. Overall, we all had fun I think, but it rained the whole time. There was no "white-water" to speak of, maybe one or two small sections with rapids which was by far the most exciting part or the journey. We were instructed to paddle every other five minutes for 30 seconds. The rest of the time we just floated down river, which would have been acceptable if it had been sunny and were were drinking and snacking or something, but instead we were just miserable and shivering and hoping it would be over soon.

We spent the night in a pension. (In Korea, they use the definition of pension more popular in Europe, a boarding house rather than a retirement fund.) It's all the rage here. We rented several apartments in this building by the river built just for this purpose and ended up having a pretty wild multi-floored party that night.


observations:

At home, I recall that people dress for the weather, not the season. In the middle of October, if it's still 80 degrees, New Englanders wear shorts. Likewise, we keep some sweaters out for the occasional cold summer day. Koreans dress according to the date. Technically it's not Summer until July 1st. I swear I didn't see one darn Korean person wear a tank-top in June, and it was certainly hot enough. Additionally, I have heard that if you go to Dae-Cheon beach in August, you'll be hard-pressed to find a spot to lay out your towel. But September 1st? Not a soul, at least not a Korean soul. September marks the end of swimming season. However, foreigners like the beach this time of year and have been known to have their pictures taken by aghast natives, shooting with foot-long lenses. This brings me to my next observation.

The cameras people walk around with here... oh man. I can't get over it. It's absolutely preposterous. Moms and dads literally shoot their children playing at the park with a camera lens the length of my arm. I've seen it. Also a common sight: boyfriends doing on-the-spot photo shoots of their girlfriends at the waterpark, subway, curbside, you name it, and also, with gargantuan camera lenses. You think I'm exaggerating. Oh, no.

I added some more pictures to the slide show.

"119"

may 30th - "119"
I met up with my friends Jessica and Belinda this weekend to catch-up. I hadn't seen Jessica since she fell in a hole at the D.J festival. I learned through the grapevine that she had been very, very ill after that and hospitalized for a full week. I felt like a terrible friend for not knowing and not visiting her in the hospital or anything. I found out she had had peritonitis, something like all your organs are inflamed and hate you. Terrible stuff. She almost died, and might have had her mother not called the U.S. embassy and fought to get doctors to do the necessary tests.

In my opinion, Korea is a seemingly modern nation, priding itself on its technological sharpness and leap to advancement since the Korean War, while in fact, it's quite stuck in the 1950s in many areas. I assert that this is the case with some aspects of Korean medical care. Allow me to site a few examples. Doctors do not question each other here, as everyone must save face. There is no option for getting a second opinion if they learn that someone has already examined you. And nurses? Jessica's Korean friend had to literally bribe nurses to take care of her. Administering drugs is the nurse's sole purpose here, excluding basic care like helping you get to the bathroom, bringing you a blanket or glass of water, etc. They expect that your family will take care of such needs. But if you have no family... yeah, you're pretty much f*cked.

Payment is their biggest concern, apparently, certainly with foreigners. The night I met up with Jessica, we ate Thai food and she started to feel a little sick. She was on antibiotics still from her hospital stay and had only been discharged a week ago. She started to feel ill and asked if she could go take a rest at Belinda's house. We brought her home but by then she had started shaking. She began to suffer the same symptoms she had been hospitalized with a week ago. We were all scared. I ran down the hill to get a taxi as we figured that would be faster and cheaper than calling an ambulance. We asked the taxi to bring us to the closest hospital. I said "Il, Il , gu" which means "119", the Korean equivalent of "911." He understood and got us to an ER within ten minutes. At the ER, they continually asked us for money. Belinda and I had money but our ATM cards don't work after 11pm. Jessica had no money after being docked pay from missing work last week and paying a million won for her hospital stay. They refused to do anything until we could give them money. We pleaded with them to "DO SOMETHING!" as Jessica lay there doubled up in pain. They asked us what we would like done. As if we knew!? After about an hour of trying to explain that she had been sick last week and asking them to contact the other hospital where they had her medical records, we requested an ambulance to transfer us there. We had to pay cash for the ambulance.

At the next hospital, they did remember her which was a relief, but they just sent over doctors and nurses to push on her stomach, asking repeatedly,"Does this hurt?" It was obvious it was causing her terrible pain. They drew blood without gloves and let the blood shoot out onto the floor. The blood pooled on the floor next to me and was mopped up hours later by a cleaning lady. I had seen some pretty terrible medical treatment as an HIV case manager back home, but this was a new level of horrific. Jess had chronic diarrhea and almost constant urination and was unable to walk at this point. I got to pull out my social work skills and advocate through the night for her care. I also had some on-the-spot CNA training, as I was basically her nurse, helping her to use the bedpan and emptying it myself many times. They gave her a saline drip, and an expensive ultrasound on her belly and sent her home at 9am with new antibiotics. I thought of canceling my health insurance as it appeared that I'd been wasting my money the last 8 months. Her insurance covered only a 1/4 of the cost of her ER stay that night. The whole experience was nightmarish.

Jessica went in the hospital again that Monday when she fainted at work, but is thankfully feeling back to normal now.


may 27th - "wet n' wild and employer-sponsored"

My employer took everyone out for galbi this Wednesday after work. There were about 25 of us, foreign and Korean teachers and our management. Unlike our other work dinners thus far, this one included many, many bottles of soju and beer. It was Esther's last week and she insisted on doing a shot of soju with everyone that would concede. I must admit I was a big encouragement.. Since it was on our boss, we kept ordering more and more soju until the restaurant owners eventually cut us off. (We had a private room, but we were gettin' pretty rowdy by this point.) Our boss, "Slick Rick," as we fondly refer to him, said, "Let's take the party back to GDA!" The story ends with everyone jumping in the school swimming pool with our work clothes on, our boss included. In the morning we found out we had dyed the pool water with color bleeding from our clothes and had left the pool littered with beer and soju bottles. I'm sure we won't be taken out to dinner again for a while, but it was one of the best times any of us have had with our coworkers and was truly great for morale.

"pee, pee, everywhere!"

may 4th and 5th:

This was my first long weekend since the end of January and a long-overdue break. I now realize that I didn't appreciate the earned time off I had at my last job, or the ability to call in sick or take a "mental health day" when needed, (which was quite often.) At GDA, you can't be sick or take time off. It's just not an option. If you are sick enough to be in the hospital, they will dock your pay 1.2x the usual rate, 1.5x without a doctor's note. I haven't called in sick yet. Although, I was sick my entire long weekend. Go figure.


may 9th: "d.j. festival"

I went to the 3rd Annual Seoul World D.J festival on the Han River. It was mainly techno music, which all starts to sound the same to me after a while, but all in all, it was a great time. The crowd was groovy, I danced a lot and saw some people getting loose. It was nice to see Koreans in a different light and meet more people that are part of the music scene in Seoul.

Most memorable event at DJ fest:

I lost my camera and left a description at the lost-and-found desk with a guy named Frederick. Later that night I had gotten separated from my friend Jessica. I called her around 2am to say I wanted to go home. I found her in a dark parking lot. She had fallen into a concrete pit, suffered a large gash across her foot, and had been sitting there gushing blood for over a half-hour. I ran from the parking lot back to the festival and went to the english-speaking booth where I had earlier reported my lost camera. After a few failed attempts, I did find the paramedics. It appeared to me that the people the paramedics were busy helping were just drunk. After politely asking for help and trying to look desperate, I demanded their attention. I squawked that my friend needed help but I couldn't carry her. (I use "squawk" because I think I was literally flapping my wings up and down at this point.). Blank stares. I shouted, "These people are just drunk! Give them some water, they'll be fine. Please help me! Pee, pee, everywhere!" (because "pee" is Korean for blood). Frederick, the guy who had earlier taken my information about my camera turned around and recognized me. He asked me where my friend was and we took off running. This sweet, super-skinny Korean boy gave Jessica a piggy-back ride back to the paramedics. Awe.

Jessica had stitches the next day, but was okay. Later that night, Frederick called saying he had found my camera. I asked him to hold on to it for me until I could pick it up. I got my camera back a few weeks later. Strangers aren't always this nice to people here, but I've found the return of lost items is standard in Korea. I wanted to share this story because it's just plain sweet, and it gave me a bit of relief that there are still people that return things to the lost-and-found and carry strangers through parking lots on their backs.

may 16th - "dance, dance competition"

My recruiter organized a mixer for his recruits and their friends in Korea, just designed for new people to get connected to other foreigners in Seoul. We went for the food and drinks. They had some cool prizes though, like a trip to Je-ju Do Island for two. There was a dance competiion for the tickets, and my friends urged me to compete. I made top five and had a "dance-off" with the other top competitors. I say I got third place. :P

"thank you for not eating me"

march 28th
Months 5 and 6 were difficult ones. I thought about visiting home often and how much I would love even just a quick getaway to see my family and friends. I've heard from other people that nearing the midway point was a difficult time for them as well. I really did start to feel a bit better with the warm weather and hitting my six-month mark on March 28th. It was an awesome feeling to know I can countdown now but also difficult to fathom that I have to do what I just did for six more months. I am hoping it will go by super fast. I'm fairly certain it will.


april 12th
I had brunch at the Ritz Carlton this morning. There was a family sitting on the patio enjoying their brunch as well. The father was walking around with his little girl in his arms, four years old at the most. Being the friendly gal that I am, I say "An Yang" to the little girl and wave because she was quite cute. Like most parents would do, he tells the little girl to say hello back but she's too shy. The dad then says in perfect English, "She's scared of white people." My friend and I just laugh because what else are you gonna do? He chuckled as well and walked away grinning. It was a strange thing to say I thought, but I was mostly amused. About a half hour later he comes back with the little girl. I'm thinking he is going to apologize or something. He comes out with, "She says 'Don't eat me." I am quite surprised and laugh and rub my belly and say, "Oh, I'm full. I've already eaten a big breakfast; I can't fit in any more little kids." He responds, "Thank you. Thank you for not eating me." Okay, buddy. That's enough. The little girl never said a word but he acted as though he were translating for her the whole time. Obviously these were all his own thoughts. He's the one that's scared of white people. The whole interaction was quite hilarious to me, but on the other side, it's kind of messed up too. It's an interesting glimpse into how people can subtly, inadvertently, or even purposely pass on their xenophobia to their children.


april 18th
I went to a professional baseball game at the Sports Complex in Seoul. Here they don't have home teams and away teams, just favorites, and they all play in Seoul. The teams are owned by companies. I watched the LG Twins vs. Kia Tigers game this Saturday. I wasn't sure how Koreans would act at a baseball game. I half-expected them to be as reserved as they are in other areas of life. Nope. Everyone had clappers, and they were constantly starting chants, even the wave. It was a real riot. Tickets to the baseball game: 6,000 won (4 bucks). Beer: 3,000 won. Rooting for the team whose section you sat in at a baseball game in Seoul, South Korea: pricesless. Honestly, this was one of the cheapest and most fun things I've done in Korea yet. I plan to go a few more times this season.


april 28th
I'm officially over the hump. Five more months left. Spring, monsoon season, September ...and I'm home!


random observations:
Koreans may be the scariest drivers I've seen yet. Yes, even scarier than massholes and newyorkers. I don't think you would necessarily guess this, but it's true. They do not obey traffic laws at all. Apparently there's no such thing as a one-way street, a red light, or a crosswalk. It's actually officially acceptable for buses to run red lights as long as they blow their horns. Although no one obeys traffic laws, everyone obeys pedestrian laws. I think these are related phenomena. No one would dare cross the street until they get the green light, and even then hesitantly looking both ways, aware they could get killed by a bus at any moment. In addition, people are also a fan of the motorbike here. All the food delivery places use them and others for their businesses or whatnot as well. The problem with the motorbikes is they weave in and out of traffic constantly. People are forever slamming on their brakes to avoid a motorbike that just cut them off on the highway. They also drive on the sidewalks and in any direction they please. It's kind of crazy walking on the sidewalk and seeing a biker barely avoiding the pedestrians and coming straight at you. Believe it or not, I've only seen one accident since I've been here. But it was a terrible sight that I'll never forget: a man on a motorbike lying on the ground in front of a bus in the middle of an intersection.

Even more random: zoning laws. There's a law here that a building erected next to a pre-existing building must respect the privacy of the occupants in the first building. This means you are required by law to either keep your blinds shut at all times or build blinders on your windows so you can only look up and out, not directly across. This is totally weird to me and also a nuisance as I have the blinders on my windows.


The new slideshow is of scenery and sights in bundang and seoul so far. The prettier ones are mostly of my suburban neighborhood, and the others in the city.

"breaking up with boredom"

After awhile, as with anywhere I guess, things start to feel the same here. You really have to put energy into venturing out and doing different things to avoid repeating the same stories with the same restaurants, same bars, and even the same friends. Here's two things:

"roof-topping"
I discovered a new favorite pastime. After brunch one day, some friends and I were enjoying the beautiful day. Walking around Jeongia (another part of Bundang), we meandered between high-rise apartment buildings, not unlike all the others sprawling around suburban Seoul. We were looking up, embracing the Spring weather and sunshine and noticed trees on the tops of some of the buildings. Being the type of girls that we are, we decide it would be a fun game to play to try to get up to some of the rooftop foliage. We proceeded to walk in and out of apartment buildings for the rest of the afternoon, pressing the highest number in the elevator and sneaking up to the roofs. It was incredibly beautiful on top with trees and benches, mini parks really, about twenty stories high. We coined the term "roof-topping" for our new favorite game.


"treasure hunt"
One thing that takes a bit of getting used to here is training your eyes to look up for things. Buildings here will have restaurants, nail salons, pool halls, karaoke bars (karaoke in Korea = Nor-ay Bongs) in all corners and on all floors. So walking down the street, you'd miss a whole lot just looking at the places on Level 1, as most buildings have at least 3 to as many as 7 floors packed with fun. Part of my "hood" includes Samsung Plaza where I hang out quite a bit. But for a while I was going to basically one spot over and over in the Plaza. Naturally, I started to get sick of it because you always see the same faces, drink the same beer, eat the same food, etc. I decided to start wandering these buildings a bit more. Pressing different buttons on the elevators, walking around inside to find the places that don't have signs on the outside of the building. I discovered two new bars that I love and a few more restaurants to check out too. The best part is that if you find a tucked-away place, you can be one of the first foreigners to show others. I believe I have actually singlehandedly increased the business for two of these places with the amount of friends I've brought there. And yes, I am lucky to have so many friends already but have met a lot more Koreans this way too. Finding new places in Bundang, means less trips to Seoul, cheaper cab rides home, and more of a feeling of appreciation for living outside of the city.

Now that it's officially Spring, I've really been enjoying living in the suburbs more. There's something to be said for it, especially when the weather's nice. I have the most gorgeous flowering trees in my neighborhood right now. I'll have pictures up to prove it soon.

march 21st - "gang-neung, not to be confused with gwang-yang"
This was the weekend of Jamie's Birthday. Jamie is from Canada, Manitoba to be exact, and is reeeeaally into curling. Yes, curling, like shuffle shuffle the big rock across the ice... As it turns out, the world curling championship was held in Korea this year, of all places. Jamie knew this because she actually follows curling. She asked some of us if we felt like venturing a bus ride away from Seoul to find it. I decided I wanted to go to help her celebrate her birthday and because it sounded nice to get out of Seoul. After a few hours, we should have been there, but no. We noticed the trees were budding and thought that was strange as well as we didn't think we were going anywhere much further south than Seoul.

The short story is we got on the wrong bus, the most wrong bus we could have possibly taken short of going to North Korea. Instead of traveling dead east, we went south. This was about the equivalent of trying to get from Seattle to Boston and ending up in Austin, Tx, although of course on a much smaller scale. I know now how long it takes to take a bus across South Korea from north to south. It was an absolutely horrendous bus ride that ended up taking about 36 hours by the time we got back home. There was more laughing than crying on our trip, but definitely some of each. One would think we would have at least seen a lot of neat things in Korea on this bustrip, but honestly, it was all the same and quite boring and terrible. Oh well, just another story for the blog... ;)

"the jimjil-bong"

february 19th-23rd - my birthday weekend - "the jimjil-bong"

My friend Marissa came to visit me, incidentally also the weekend of my birthday. Yes, she literally "flew to Korea for the weekend." We tried to fit in as much as possible and ended up having an absolutely awesome time, of course. I went to my first jimil-bong. Think Korean spa/bathhouse. We went to one of the most well-known in Seoul, near Yongsan yok (yok=station). I had heard a bit about these jimjil-bongs before trying it out this particular weekend. They are famous for a few things, especially among foreigners, that I can't really mention in my blog. Hmmmm... Needless to say, it had perked my interest far before this February venture five-months into my time here. But as it turned out, I really had no idea what I was in for.

the jimjil-bong process:
Step 1: Pay $10,000 won (7 bucks).
Step 2: Receive your new swipeable locker-key-bracelet and Dragon Hill spa oversized cotton t-shirts and shorts.
Step 3: Take off your shoes, obviously. Put them in the shoes closet.
Step 4: Find your locker number. This might be the trickiest step of all.
Step 5: Change... into your bracelet.
Step 6: Buy shampoo and other shower products at the desk to get ready to lather. (Swipeable bracelets for purchasing are very handy, but dangerous.)
Step 7: Walk downstairs to high-pressure amazing shower, then sauna hop from pool to pool of different temperatures. Some are pumped from deep underground, I hear. Remember, you are only wearing your bracelet at this point, and feeling a bit self-conscious as a foreigner amongst skinny, naked Korean women. (Children, moms, grandmothers... It's a family affair.)
Step 8: Keep jumping from pool to pool! Walk under random lone shower heads with pull cords, pull, and be shocked. Try exceptionally hot sauna rooms and jump back in the pools. Rinse, lather, repeat. Too fun.
Step 9: When you've seen all there is to see on the women-only floor, don your comfy spa clothes back at the lockers. Now it's time to explore the coed areas. All rooms include heated floors, and everyone walks around in their spa clothes, towels on their heads, with a very relaxed air about them. You can watch a magic show, or TV. You can watch people ride mechanical horses in the gym. You can bake like bread in the oven room, or freeze your nips off in the cold room. There's also an outside spa, and various other rooms that I missed. You can eat snacks, get a body scrub, or go up to the sky garden for lunch and beers outside on the roof. You can grab a pillow and take a nap on the heated floor in a room pumped full of pure oxygen. Wow.

I'm not sure if you can really picture it, but I hope you're getting that it's more like an amusement park with naked sections. I loved it, and feel like I could go back a bunch and keep discovering more rooms and pools of varying hotitude and colditude. I'm also interested in the body scrub, but I hear it's very, very rough, designed to peel off your skin basically. Anyways, it's also open 24 hours a day, so I can go back anytime.


my "did-you-know?" for this blog:

One can send a postcard from South Korea to the other side of the world for almost half the cost it would be to send a postcard down the street in the U.S. Astounding.


february 27th - graduation day and new classes:

This is the day my kindergartners graduated from their hagwon. March is the beginning of the new school year here. My main morning class had been in kindergarten for three years already at this point, so it was now time for them to begin elementary school at a Korean public school. Most of these children will return in the afternoons now after they are done school to keep up with their English lessons as well. (Some are as young as five years old and attend school for a minimum of 7 hours a day. Many of my students also went to an art school, math school, swimming class, tae kwon do lesson, music lesson, and/or also had an English tutor in their homes in the evenings.) I watched them graduate with mixed feelings, as I'm sure is natural for any teacher at the end of the school year. I was ready for a fresh start with new kids but also felt like we had just started getting comfortable with each other.

Graduation Day also means that I have new kids now. There is a drastic difference in their English abilities. My previous core class had been in English classes five hours a day, all week long, for three years since they were Western age 4. These new kids are six years old and have never had a day of English classes in their lives. It's mentally exhausting in a whole new way. I can't have a conversation with these kids like I could before. We are using a lot of charades and pointing so far. It's cute in some ways, as most of my kids can only say "May I go to the bathroom, please?", and some can barely say that. Fortunately, I've had some practice with this type of communication style with some new Korean friends and acquaintances and am becoming accustomed to communicating with a drastic language barrier.

I also switched subjects. I used to be a language arts teacher, and now I am a math/science/social studies teacher. I much prefer it to the other. It's so much more fun to teach farm animals and types of clothing than to teach phonics and grammar, and easier too, I think.

So that's my core class that I have most of the morning, from 9am til 2pm, but I also switch for one period with my partner teacher who teaches my kids language arts. I teach her class of babies for an 80-minute session as well. I say babies because they really are babies! Korean age five equals about 3 and a half to four years Western age. I spend half the class chasing them down the hallways because they're little runners. I mean, they're small, barely potty-trained. Think of how large your vocabulary is at age four as well, and now they're learning another language. It's like babysitting four toddlers but also trying to teach them a second language. They're sooooooooo damn cute, but definitely a handful. (Check out my pictures of GDA kids thus far in my new slideshow.)


march 1st

There are woods behind my house. I can walk two blocks, hike up some stairs on a hill and be on a hiking trail within minutes. This Sunday, I hiked to E-Mart. E-Mart is a sort of Target but with multiple floors and ramp-like escalators for your shopping carts. It's a great place to go get some foreign food items, but no matter what you go in for, you always end up inside for hours. I was broke at the time, (big surprise), but left E-mart with a full belly from eating so many samples. They have samples of EVERYTHING. I literally tried about forty food and beverage items, including heineken and bananas, as if I had forgotten what either of these tasted like... Then I took a cab home. Best hiking trip ever.


how to make friends with taxi drivers:

Always have a treat in your back pocket, so-to-speak. For me, I have chosen the tactic of saying "Adashi, mi-guk saram gum? Ma-shee -seh-yo!" This means, "Sir, American person gum? Delicious!" (Yes, my Korean is terrible.) This generally makes them smile though. To date, I've only had one taxi driver turn me down. Most pop it in their mouth instantly and start chomping away. It really is so much better than Korean gum, much more flavorful and long-lasting. I've been able to enjoy very pleasant cab rides because of these gum offerings and left many a cabbie with a salivating smile.. It's such a silly small thing but having a buttered-up taxi driver makes all the difference, sometimes the difference of being dropped off in the right place or not. (So if you want to send me a package... *wink, wink,* please send my favorite gum! Trident citrus twist. K, thanks. :)


P.S. The exchange rate is getting a little better... Shhhh, *knocks on wood.*