짐질방 = Jim-Jill-Bahng

Last week I went to a 짐질방 (jim jil bang) for the first time. A jimjil bang is basically a public bathhouse in Korea. I tried to find some pictures but there aer very few... I even searched Korean websites and in Korean, not English, still I got only a little... But here's how it works
First you put your shoes in a locker by the entrance, then you pay and get another locker key and some clothes. It costs 10,000 won which is less than $10... but if you go during the daytime its only 7,000 won, but my pals and I went at night.

Then, if you came with a mixed gender group its time to split up. The girls go to the 여탕 ("yuh tang" women's bath) and guys go to the 남탕("nam tang" men's bath)... so now you know how to say: woman, man, and bath in Korean... and the funny thing is 탕 also means a type of soup... so When I first saw the 여탕 sign I thought it was pretty funny cause it looks like they want to cook us... I went with three foreign girls, one Korean girl and one foreign guy... us girls thought the sign was pretty funny.

Anyway, after splitting up we went to the women's locker room and that's where this becomes rather undoable in America... In Korea public showers are common, so most Korean people have no issue with being naked with friends and family... but in America... well I guess it would be strange. But you undress and go to the shower/bath room.

I really tried to find a pic of this room, cause its almost indescribable... I might have to draw something... well... there are all of these small little shower areas... its low to the floor cause you sit on a stool as you wash. Of course, wash the stool before you sit on it... you have no idea who was sitting there before! Then I sat there with three of my friends just scrubbing away and chatting. The room is really warm and humid, so its not uncomfortable at all that your not constantly showered with water.

Also, if you are feeling lazy or stressed you can pay an 아주마 ("a-ju-ma" a word that means a woman over 35ish, and generally married) to scrub you. HAHA, it was really funny. There is this area in the huge shower room with some beds and naked ladies laying on it and old women in black bras and underpants scrubbing away. I think if I had seen this when I first came to Korea I would have really experienced culture shock... but at this point I am ready to expect the unexpected. According to the guy who came with us, in the men's shower they have the same thing but the 아저시("ah-juh-she" a man over 35ish, generally married) who scrubs the customers is naked as well... I wonder why the difference?

After scrubbing there are several huge baths you can sit in. They all have a big electric sign showing the temperature in Celsius... the hot ones were always between 42 and 44 degrees Celsius... which is 107 to 111 degrees Fahrenheit!!! YIKES There was one pool that had a sign saying 일본탕 I was so happy that I could understand the sign! 일본 "ill-bone" means Japan, and as you already know 탕 means bath... so this was supposed to be a Japanese style bath... I think that just means it has plain hot water. There was also a gold bath and the water was the color of yellow Gatorade and a mud bath that was slightly brown and smelled like green tea... Those were all hot baths, and there was another hot bath, but I never went to check it out... I think it was just a regular one cause it was the biggest. And then there was a HUGE cold water pool 22 C... 71F... I know that doesn't sound very cold, but trust me it was cold!

I have a picture of the pools at home, but I'm at work now so I will have to upload it later. Then after you scrub and soak you go back to the locker room and get dressed in the clothes they gave you. Girls get pink and boys get blue or gray... depending on the 짐질방. We got pink shorts and a pink shirt... I wish we took a picture of this... I didn't even think about it. Then we went exploring...

There are little sleeping nooks all over the place. Private rooms, and public rooms, and little hidey holes where you have to crawl to get into them. You can grab a blanket and pillow and sleep there over night if you want. A lot of people do... you sleep on the floor, on top of some blankets (Korean style) but a Korean floor is much more comfortable than an American one... in Korea the floors are all heated, and in a 짐질방 they are REALLY warm... I think your muscles would melt into nothing after spending a night in a place like this. There was also a TV room where you can hang out and watch TV... they have one for just girls, and just boys and also a co-ed room. In the single sex rooms you always find people in varying degrees of undress. Strange, but oddly comforting that people can relax like this.

Then, after exploring... oh and there are also saunas (duh!) but we didn't use one... personally I don't like saunas.... and I was getting really dizzy from the heat. Extremes of hot and cold are not good for me.

After exploring we went to the co-ed area to eat. There is a restaurant and a juice bar. We ordered some yummy Korean food ... some pork thing which I know nothing about and we also got 떡볶기 ("duck-bo-gi" rice cake in spicy sauce) and lots of WONDERFUL side dishes... I think side dishes are my favorite thing about Korea... they are bottomless!!! And filled with veggie goodness :) We also had 식혜 ("she-keh" sweet rice drink) which is really strange, but I really like it... a little too sweet to have on a regular basis.

After eating we went back and changed. Two of us stayed over and I took a taxi back with the other two. The first taxi we tried to catch wouldn't take us... we were about a 20 min walk from home, and it was 12:30AM so most taxis wont pick you up at that time unless you are going far away... sigh... but the next guy picked us up and so I let him keep some of the change... not common in Korea, but he was a nice guy.


Ok well here are some pictures to try and explain the stuff I was talking about....



This is a picture of one of the rooms where you can hang out with guys and gals. You can see some people are ordering drinks, chatting, sleeping, probably watching TV too... its very warm in here and quite cozy... when I went there weren't any where near this many people... but I guess these places are pretty popular
Here is a sleeping room... this one actually has some mattresses... but you can just sleep on the floor if you like. Not all the rooms are lit up either, so you can sleep in a dark room or a bright room

This is "she-gay" the sweet rice drink... in this picture they put some pine nuts in it, but the one I had was sans pine nuts... good thing too cause I'm not a huge fan of the nuts!

Finally we end with yummy 떡볶기... its spicy, but chewy and has veggies too. good stuff and filling... though I don't think it is particularly nutritious.

I'm not dead!

Last week my dad said that once a blog has had no new posts for one month it's officially dead! EEEEK! It's been exactly one month since my last post, but I can assure you, neither I, nor my blog, have shuffled off the mortal coil. I'm still here... just exceedingly lazy! Sorry about that.

Anyway, I have some pictures I would like to share :)


Above and below you can see two perspectives of what I thought was a really neat way to display those stupid advertisements restaurants always feel compelled to clutter up your table with. I found this bread stand much less irksome than the garden variety metal stand that typically graces the table. It was rock solid though, and part of the back had already chipped away, so not all the papers were held securely... Nonetheless, I liked it.



A giant pink bus.... and its not just a bus, it's also a clothing shop! Amazing! There are hangers all over the inside with dresses and whatnot hanging from them. Its really cute and I have no idea why it is in a bus since it always seems to be in the same place. I assume it has something to do with evading the local gang when the protection money goes unpaid.


Unfortunately I still do not own a real camera... when will I get off my lazy cheapskate butt and buy something with more than half a megapixle? (Actually I have no idea what the resolution of my cellphone camera is, but I know it sucks!) This is a store in the only mall in Seoul. If you click on the image perhaps in the larger version you can read the caption under the name of the store. It reads "BONGZI & Bongzi-in Apgujeong Made by Jesus" .... kekekeke (thats how Korean girls type the kind of laughter they are trying to stifle, something akin to a snicker.)


This is the aftermath of a very delicious lunchdate with four of my chicas (girl power!) hehe. We went to a 보리밥집 and ordered 보리밥. The first word reads "bolibap jeep" and the second is just "bolibap" again. Bolibap means barley, but when you order it at a restaraunt you get everything you see before you... Korean restaraunts rock... and all this for a mere 7,000 won, which, thanks to the sad state of both the dollar and the won translates to $4.70. Amazing, isn't it? I really should have taken a picture before digestion commenced, but just imagine all those dishes spilling over with scrumptious food and you'll get the picture. It was quite yummy. oh and that word "jeep" means house... its just another way to say restaraunt... they have like, 60 different ways to say restaraunt... that may be just a tad of a hyperbole, but I can think of at least three ways to say restaraunt and I don't even speak the language... Korean people love food :)

Finally, its over

I took this picture when I was going to America in November... You have to click on it to make it big... but look at the little yellow triangle sign by the street light... its a picture of a car driving off a ledge into the water... I just thought it was funny... its just a sign saying "sometimes people drive their cars off into the water here, so... uh.. watch out..." hehehe... I mean you would think it was have a red slash through it at least... like this is what you shouldn't do...! Or maybe a sign explaining the reason why people do that... hehe, but this sign was all long this road... its kinda like a really long low bridge road... the airport is on an island.

This is Leeloo hiding under the turtle... I didn't put the turtle on her... she like to be under things that can keep her warm... sorry, there wasn't much light in the room and my phone takes terrible pictures, I should have grabbed John's camera!

Chance and Leeloo cuddling and Chance trying to surf the web... he likes kitty porn a little too much for his own good! Damn they are cute cats!

Here they are, one more time, cuddling (they do that a lot!) Leeloo is wearing my headband, and resting her little kitty head on her brother. She loves to be warm so she will lay on you or under a blanket when ever she can... and Chance just has no idea she is there... !

Just a funny pic from my mom's workplace. She's an x-ray tech and this room (which is broken) is a room containing an x-ray machine... I like this photo for several reasons... first of all, you can see my mom in the reflection... nice looking lady. Second of all the post-it note give an impression of impermanence to the inoperable state of this room, but, if you know anything about medical equipment and the state of the American economy these days, you can assume there is no way in hell this thing is getting fixed any time soon. Also, the post-it implies that the room itself is broken... and you have my word (I took a look inside) the room is perfectly functional.. it has a door and space inside surrounded by walls a floor and ceiling.... which I believe are the only requirements to calling something a "room"... so really it should say something like "machine broken" but then it wouldn't have been amusing to me and I wouldn't have wasted our time writing/reading about it :)

OMG! MORE PICTURES!!!!

This is just a picture of one of the most common sights in Korea... check my facebook site for more pics like this... but from REALLY high up (the hello Kitty album) Those are the apartment buildings that are everywhere... clusters of identical buildings... so not communist right? NOT! Anyway, there is a huge crane there ... which is also a really common sight here... they are constantly tearing down old buildings and putting up new ones... its not as bad as it was in Beijing... but its pretty crazy

Hmmm... Whats this strange picture of? Looks like a building with a blank billboard on top... thats stupid, why would Amanda waste my bandwidth on that?

AhHa!! the second picture provides some light into the afore mentioned conundrum. Notice how the image on the "billboard" changes.... thats no billboard! That is a GIANT TV... they are EVERWHERE in Seoul... I took this picture when I was on my way to the Airport to visit the US of A back in November... I just thought you guys should see how crazy people here are about TVs... they aren't just in your bathroom any more (if you dont understand that read the next few posts)

"365 days of Walken" John is a pretty funny guy... He has this mask of Christopher Walken on the window to his office and every few days he draws a different picture around the Walken mask... Today Mr. Walken is a caveman... He has been a centaur, Cesar, Frankenstein, and many more... I should have taken more pictures... I think I will as John does more.

And another picture to show how the economic downturn has effected my workplace... we don't have many students... so many of us (this is my friend Joanna... don't tell her about this picture!) napping in here room without a student... sigh... I should be blogging a lot more this month than I have been... I guess I will start up soon...

PICTURES Part Deux!

Yup, more pictures....

oooohhhh, Valet parking... how exclusive... not really... right now 1,000 won is about 75 cents... but this kinda deal is every where, not just upscale places like California Pizza kitchen (if my students read this I doubt they could glean the sarcasm!) At a nice place you might have to pay a whopping 2,000 won... or a buck fifty... Of course some people tip the guy, but I don't think I would, there isn't much of a tipping culture here in Korea... but its almost impossible to park your car so valet parking as an absolute necessity.

Yay! A real American Breakfast... kinda. John found about about this place... it was called "I'm Fresh!" isn't that just so cute? Well they make everything from scratch, right when you order it, so it takes like 25 min to get your food, but they make a nice breakfast. I got an omelet with cheese and veggies and a side of TERRIBLE pancakes (I should have gotten the toast) and the syrup was not syrup... and they put it in a container with a tiny tiny hole, so it took FOREVER to get enough syrup on the pancakes to cover the taste of too much baking soda!

John got french toast... yes thats what thats a picture of... french toast... it was like they took the bread, dipped it in egg, folded it in half and then fried/baked it... Im not sure, but it was strange, but tasty! He also got some yummy homemade fries... definitely someplace I would like to visit again (I wonder if John reads my blog...)

Please ignore my beautiful friend Grace in the foreground there... she's married! The interesting part of this picture is the two gentle men in the background... can you see them?

Maybe this picture shows it better, again, ignore my buddy Daniel drinking his beer (however he is on the market ladies!) Can you see the men better here? What does it look like they are doing? Arm wrestling maybe? So... whats the big deal about that? I mean dudes are always trying to show how tough they are at a bar!... yeah, except this is Korea... guys really aren't that tough here... and those two older gentlemen are certainly NOT arm wrestling... they are in fact, holding hands... Nope, I'm not in a gay bar! Korean people are a lot more touchy-feely than westerners... women walk around holding hands ALL the time. Men even hold hands (especially when drunk) at the bar you can see one man put his hand on another man's thigh, and thats totally normal... its a friendly gesture here... These two guys kept shouting "FIGHTING" which is the Korean way to say "stay strong, chin up, don't give up, you can do it!" So I guess something bad happened with one of the guys and the other is trying to make him feel better (Im not so sure the alcohol is so helpful though... just a cute note on Korean culture.

PICTURES!

I'm just trying to get up to date with the photos I take... I keep wanting to blog about the new ones, but haven't done the old pics yet... so here they are!

In case you can't read and want to know where the cleaning lady keeps her stuff... I thought this was great cause what if the place wanted to hire a cleaning man? Is that not allowed? Or do the cleaning men have their own room?

This small TV was inside a bathroom stall at a movie theater. They were showing little silent commercials for what food to buy and some other stuff I couldn't figure out... very strange... There are TVs of all sizes all over this country... talk about addicted to media!

"Wellbeing Code, Have a drink of Vinegar!" Wellbeing is the Korean way to say "healthy" they are often shocked to learn that its not an English word. Drinking vinegar was a fad last year... something about it helping you to lose weight... I don't know if it actually worked... I did try one or two of the drinks, it wasn't so bad... but not as tasty as juice!

I just liked this sink cause it had the hand dryer right next to it. It kinda blew the air up into your face, which wasnt so cool, but it was all automatic... so modern!

And here is a pic of one of those infamous "squatters" thats what we foreigners call the traditional Asian toilet. It kinda looks like a urinal turned on its side huh? You would straddle it facing to the right and squat down as far as you can go and pee or poop into it... the toilet paper roll (if there is one, and sometimes there isnt) is really low to the ground so you can reach it easily. This is supposed to be the more natural way to poop and allow for more proper elimination... I tried it a couple of times (only for number one though!) and its not so bad, however, my first experience with this kind of toilet left me with a wet belt that needed to be washed thoroughly.!!! (EWWWWW)

More airline food and random Korea pics

I've been collecting a lot of pics I want to blog about, so Im going to try to upload 5 of them a day... this is the second batch!


Don't fly JAL (Japan airlines)... I was so unimpressed with the food they had to offer... this was what they gave everyone... there was no vegetarian option. Im pretty sure that stuff on the left was rice... I can't really remember... and the stuff on top of it... I have no idea what that was, but it was some kind of fish... maybe like a shell fish or shrimp... I don't know, but it had a REALLY strong smell to it! On the right were some Japanese style veggies, some were really watery like the stuff I talked about in the previous post. And there was some fruit cocktail. It wasn't really good... but maybe this is one of those low cost airlines... but for the price I didn't expect a cold meal.
This is my building the day after a fire brunt out the whole 7th floor! I was actually on my way to grab some breakfast (I wasn't working on this day) when I saw it... no one called me or anything to let me know... I was kinda shocked! But needless to say we had a few days off of work! And for the next few months the whole building reeked of toxic fumes! It was not cool... I had to throw out most of the stuff on my walls because it was covered in soot! I work on the 10th floor so nothing was burned, but the smoke got up there. And some cleaning people came through and threw away a lot of stuff that belonged to people... including me, and a lot of it was stuff that could have been cleaned and used again! I couldn't understand this. Anyway, Its all back to "normal" now and they rebuilt the 7th floor (which looks much nicer now) but there is still evidence of soot everywhere... I moved some furniture today and had to wash my hands cause they were black.


I just thought this was a funny sign... I took this picture a while ago so I cant remember where I saw it, but thats Korean above the English there so I know it had to be Korea... Kinda looks like you are washing your hands with sound waves :)
This was my alien resident card last time around... I had to return it :( so sad... If I fill out a police report and claim mine as lost then I can get a new one... but I guess thats a tad unethical... so I took a picture... its a lot easier to keep anyway.

sigh... Korea... The most interesting thing about Korea is Koreans. Here we have a group of Korean travelers (and yes I know they were Korean cause they were speaking Korean... not Japanese or Chinese or some other language) And if you look you can see they are all wearing bright yellow vests. I can only assume that is because they are part of a group and want to stick together and make it easy to find each other. This is a perfect example of Confucian traditions in action. Do not burden the group by trying to be a stylist individual when you can simplify things and sacrifice your appearance for the good of the group... hehe, this place rocks.

On a sad note... I have always said "I would love to be a published writer"... not that that means much cause I have also always said things like: "I wish I were a mermaid" "I wish I had a Pegasus" "I wish I could read minds" etc. But for some reason I feel like the idea of being a writer is slightly more attainable that those other aspirations. The other night, when I was falling asleep, I had an absolutely wonderful idea for a book.. probably more like a teen age type book... and I thought to myself "this is awesome, I will totally remember this in the morn and I can start to develop the idea on my breaks at work" Sometimes I wonder if I know myself at all... of course I have completely forgotten the idea... Its kinda like the song Tribute by Tenacious D (GOD I love them!) But, its a sad loss... perhaps someday I will come up with another great idea.. and that time I will start taking notes right away... I promise!

On Leaving Home to Go Home

So, here I am, on my big trek back to America for my high school reunion. I know most people think this is strange, but I graduated with less than 90 fellow students, so I knew most of them rather well. I have spend the last few weeks thinking about all the people I used to eat lunch with, hang out on the stage with, sleep through global studies with, and I really miss them. I was really fortunate to go to school with some really awesome people.

I know most kids have lots of tribulations in their high school career, but I was lucky. I mean, of course I experienced my fair share of drama but I really enjoyed the time I spent there, and am really looking forward to seeing people.

I have to admit, having two homes is strange... especially when they are so far apart. You don't know if you should be excited about leaving either place to go to the other or if you should be sad... Either emotion brings a certain amount of guilt with it. I guess this is just part of growing up.

--- I started this blog entry when I was sitting in the Tokyo Airport a week ago, and here I am, back again... this time on my way... home... even though both times I was on my way home... well I had a wonderful trip. Even though there were about 4-5 people I had hoped would be at the reunion that weren't I still enjoyed seeing most people again. There were a few people there that I wished were not there (I expected they would be incarcerated!) But fortunately we never talked.

I think the trip was worth it... I know its a far way to go, but once you get where you are going you completely forget about the travel (at least I do) and just enjoy your time. I was really lucky on the way back, I had a row of three seats all to myself... actually, since so few people are traveling these days there were a lot of lucky people on my flight! :) Now is the perfect time for a long dist flight :) I laid down and slept for the first 8-10 hours and then I was up for the last 2-3 watching a movie... Actually I didn't go to sleep for about the first hour or two cause there was dinner and snacks and the benadryl hadn't kicked in yet.

I do wish I didn't have to work tomorrow, but that's just the way it goes. At least I will have a lot to talk about with my students.
What did I do on my vacation?

Friday
- Fly on Korean Airlines to Tokyo(they wouldn't give me veg food cause they said I never told them LIES) but all they had was rice and beef stew... ewww
- Fly on Continental to Newark, I sat next to an Indian-American archaeologist who had an arranged marriage last year, he specialised in hand axes, it was really interesting... we were both vegetarians, so that's how we started talking
- Fly on Continental Connection to Rochester... so many open seats and I was stuck in the window seat next to this HUGE guy... I didn't want to be rude, but what should I do?
- get into America
- meet my parents at the airport
- wait for a long time at the wrong baggage carousal
- go pick up Carbones pizza
- hang out at home with Gracy, she was very excited to see me, she pee peed on the floor two times (for those of you who don't know she is a dog)
- Gracy slept in my bed all night

Saturday
- Joan came and picked me up for breakfast
- As usually I got a #10, yummy, I think Joan and I sat there for 2 hours talking
- Went to Joan's house to play with kitties then back to my parents house.
- decided to visit Joan at work tonight
- hung out at home with my mom and dad (or did we go shopping?)
- Went to reunion, saw lots of people I love and miss, and a few I didn't miss
- After the reunion I waited at home to see Joan
- Went to the hospital at 2AM to visit Joan, tried to get donuts on the way but Tim Horton's would not oblige us 12 donuts (jerks), she showed us the ICU and the patients, I watched her change the food that's pumped in through the feeding tube, she also showed us where they take the burn victims to hydrate their skin. Also, there is a toilet in a cupboard that swings out in each of the ICU rooms, really cool.
- Went home and chatted online with John and went to sleep at like 4 AM

Sunday
- Woke up early to go to Kelly's Apple farm with my parents.
- Went to my aunts farm and saw her new chickens
- Made apple crisp with my mom
- Carved two pumpkins and roasted seeds
- Had lasagna with my mom and dad
- Met my Aunt Gwen's new man and won my first game of Monopoly EVER! We had a lot of fun.

Monday
- Woke up early again to go to Panera bread with mom, had a soggy breakfast sandwich
- Did some shopping
- Started to feel sick so I went to the doctor at 12, he was really nice and thorough, that's what I expect for $110+ dollars. Turns out I don't have strep throat, just sick... again
- Went to Cheesecake factory with my fam, they gave my pasta that wasn't fully cooked so I sent it back and it never came back out. But I had a REALLY good lemon cake thing there... wow
- Went to see Changling with fam and had popcorn with real butter... I was feeling kinda sick at the onset of this night, but much better after the movie
- Sleep over at Joan's where we watched TV shows and played with kitties all night. Had some graham crackers and rice milk :):)

Tuesday
- Woke Joan up, had more graham crackers and rice milk!!! Yummy
- Went shopping with Joan, Old Navy, Dicks, Mall... I wanted jeans but didn't get any, I wanted Mirror's Edge but it wasn't out :( But I got a Sigg water bottle and NorthFace jacket (two things I really wanted)
- Go eat at Chili's, black bean burger :) Yummy
- Get home at about 3Pm, take a nap till 7ish
- Go visit Noel and Jay, hang out and talk till about 11PM... then go home.
- Stay up all night talking to mom :)

Wednesday
- Start packing at about 3:30AM of course I'm not good at this, but the suitcase was too heavy so I had to pack some of it in a box again.
-Left for the airport at 5:45AM, mom drove
- After being dropped of I moved through security very fast
- Got some McDonald's breakfast and hopped on the plane
- Fly to Newark on Continental Connection, no one next to me, the flight wasn't even half full again, almost all business guys.
- Hang out in Newark Airport, bought Twilit at the Boarders Bookstore in the airport, and I read the first 4 chapters before I even bought it... for a kids book its pretty good.
- Fly on Continental to Tokyo - I had my own row of three seats all to myself! I took some benadryl and had my dinner and passed out for about 8 hours! I got to lay down! Awesome!

Thursday
- still flying, crossed the international date line.
- Had a snack, slept again, woke up with about 3 hours left, watched CSI and a movie with Queen Latifa with breakfast.
-Now I'm at Narita Airport about to board another flight.
- Soon I will take JAL to Korea and John will meet me at the bus stop and help me bring my bags home. I cant wait!

I know I went to Kohl's with my mom, just cant remember when, I bought two pairs of pants, regular black ones and awesome green corduroy ones :)

That's what I did on my vacation... of course there were more things I wanted to do, but as you can see I did a lot :) its a good 4 days!

My trip to a Korean Shanty Town

So, I have spent 14 months in Korea so far. And almost all of that time has been spent in one of the most prosperous areas of the city. There are tons of big buildings, expensive shops and restaurants, not to mention countless Louis Vuitton bags gracing the arms of the perpetual stream of passersby. Because of this I am often astonished when my students insist on calling Korea a 3rd world country. I always correct them and tell them I think Korea is on the cusp of being a 1st world country... but that there is less responsibility involved in being 3rd world, so they are hanging on a little longer to their lower status. However, my experience yesterday is really changing my opinion.

A few months ago I told me recruiter that I want to volunteer to teach English to poor kids once a week somewhere in Seoul. He found an organisation called Hope and I contacted them and got a gig set up recently that began yesterday. Hope is a non-profit organisation set up by a Canadian guy here in Seoul to help poor kids.

A little info about the Korean education system for those of you who don't live here. Education is free for elementary school kids, but there is a small tuition for middle and high schools. From what my students tell me, the tuition isn't much, but I think they are looking at it from the rich folk perspective, so I'm not really sure about the cost. But, on top of paying school tuition, most parents also pay hagwon tuition. A Hagwon is an after-school school, where kids go to REALLY learn things like: English, math, music, English, science, history, English, art, swimming... did I mention English? Almost every parent I Have talked to sends their kids to an English hagwon, where the kids get more one-on-one time with an English speaker, often a foreigner, something that isn't too common in the schools. But, these hagwons are not cheap... from what I have heard, the average parent spends about $10,000 a year on hagwons for their kids. Now, this is what my upper-middle class and outrageously rich students tell me, so I'm not totally sure of its accuracy, again there could be some class based bias here, but I doubt they are far off. I work at a rather expensive hagwon (full one-on-one instruction) and students can easily spend $400 or more a month at my place. And that's if you only come for 2 hours a week... Most kids will spend at least 10 hours a week at hagwons.

SO... needless to say, there are poor people in Seoul who cannot afford to send their kids to hagwon... big deal right? They can still learn in school right? Well, yeah, if they want a job collecting garbage then they will be fine... but... here in Korea after high school kids have to take a VERY difficult exam to get into college. And without a college degree in Korea its almost impossible to get a job. Even with a college degree the unemployment rate is through the roof... depending on the source it is anywhere from 7%-17%. In comparison to America's which when I last looked was at around 4% that's pretty bad. So, I think its important to try and help kids get some hagwon time even if their parents cant afford it.

So, I set up a meeting with the volunteer coordinator, she told me there would be 7-10 kids waiting for me at some study room set up by a nun. So I was actually expecting to be going to a church... boy was I surprised. I REALLY wish I had a small spy camera to take pictures of everything I saw... this place was amazing.

First we got off the bus and walked into what looked like a scrap heap and an outdoor recycling center. There was no smell of trash, so its not really a dump, but there were huge piles of cars, and bed frames, and paper, all sorted out. And in between all of these places were tiny structures that turned out to be a mixture of houses, shops and restaurants along with a couple churches with red neon crosses as signs.

It was about a 10 min walk through the shanty town, up-hill before I got to the study room. The place was filled with cabbage gardens (for making kimchi I suppose) and where there was no room for a garden there were pots with cabbage growing in them. There were several dogs wondering around, no cats like my neighborhood. Not a lot of people outside, but it was a little cold. There were also a lot of cars... this surprised me... but I guess a car is a lot cheaper than a good apartment, especially here in Seoul.

We finally found the nun, she was so tiny and sweet looking. After a short talk with the coordinator (in Korean of course... I picked up a little, but not much) we walked down a short hill through a narrow alley to a tiny shanty. Of course, its Korean style, so we take off our shoes at the door and walk inside. I guess I was expecting small frightened children... I had no idea what poor kids in Korea would look like, since they keep them far away from the hustle and bustle of Korean life. But, of course, just like in America poor Korean kids are no different from rich Korean kids. Same smiles, same cell phones, same interests, and the same teenage drama kids endure and adults reminisce about.

I had no idea what their English level was, and they range in age from 12-17 so there are gunna be times where some are confused and others are bored, but that's ok. Yesterday there were 5 girls and 2 boys. 2 of the girls were really good at writing English and one of them was really good at speaking. I think I could get her up to speed quickly if I could get her one-on-one time. The other girl is just shy now, so we shall see if she can open up more later. I didn't do a very good job of learning their names this time, so I will try better next time.

We had fun in class, the students were impressed with my knowledge of Korean language. I could understand what they were asking even if it wasn't in English (I was a little impressed too!) The nun sat there the whole time and came over to the kids when they were working to watch them. And she took a copy of the work for herself, I thought that was so cute! I was thinking she should join the class, I would totally teach her English, she seems like such a nice lady. And she lives here in this shanty town with these kids and I think we were in her church/home. It was a small room... maybe big enough to fit 20 people if they all sit with their legs crossed, Korean style, so that means no personal space. There was really no furniture. One chair and three small Korean style tables that we all sat around. Korean tables have no space for chairs, so you sit on the floor. And there was a small room in the back where the nun and the coordinator went in the beginning to chat, I think that might be the nuns bedroom or something. But anyway, the place wasn't much bigger than my one-room apartment.

I told the kids to email me a homework assignment since next Saturday I will be in America, and I will email them some extra work. They all had cell phones, so I assume they all have myspace too. There are computers at school and I assume some of the shantys even have computers. I mean they have cars and ipods, why not a laptop or two.

But this gets at what poverty looks like in 1st world countries. Its not always about the price of goods. It becomes more about the price of a good education and a safe home. Many people who live in the ghettos of America have electronics, nice clothes and a decent car, but they live in a ramshackle house with boarded up windows and no couch. Even though we have so much property in America (which is not the case in Korea) we still have people who cant afford to live in a safe place. Here in Korea its a bit worse. Everywhere is pretty much safe (at least compared to most American cities) but if you live in a poor area, then your kids go to a poor school. And if you cant afford to send your kids to hagwon, then there is little chance they can perform well on the college entrance exam. It costs about $10,000 a year here to go to college. There is one public university that costs about $3000 a year.... its almost impossible to get into that school without a very high score on the afore mentioned test. So you can see how a good education and a good job may seem a little out of reach for poor people here.

Fortunately these kids don't seem to mind... they are trying hard even though the cards are stacked against them, I think that's great. Kids are great... I cant believe I went more than a year without teaching them... I really missed it.

Here is a link to some pictures of another Korean shanty town. The one I went to was not as nice as this one... the roofs were mostly all sheet metal. The shanty town in the pictures is also abandoned because the government tore it down this spring. The Korean government and developers are trying to do that to the shanty town I was in today as well... some places were already destroyed and there are signs all over in protest. I hope to learn more about this situation this week when I talk to my students.

I wish I could spend more time with these kids, but I can only meet them once a week. but I hope by next summer I can have a chat with all of them, that would be awesome :)

B*tch you Know you like that!

Funny story... so I'm back in Korea and John and I went to Outback for lunch... we are sitting there, enjoying our lunch, when this song starts playing... its a rap song, and for about 3-4 min we hear the rapper saying "Bitch you know you like that" over and over and over... I couldn't stop laughing. It made me think of this commercial. When I first saw that commercial I thought, there is no way anyone could be that stupid... I mean every one knows swear words right? Well I guess not... and the song playing as we left was almost as bad... Its just crazy.

Well Im back and my bathroom is beautifully redone, Im really happy about that... I'll post some pics later, I still have to unpack, we have a new TV stand from our landlord, and for some reason she also gave us another comforter on the bed... I love our landlords, they are a really sweet couple, I feel really guilty that I didn't get them anything... when I come back in November I will give them something. Anyway, on the down side (dang, why is there always a downside?) We have no hot water. John toughed it out with a cold shower, I tried and I almost died! So I'm all nasty! YUCK! I still haven't picked up my kitties from my friend who is watching them, aparently I talked to her on the phone last night and told her I was too tired to pick them up... I totally don't remember that... but I wish I was more awake when I talked to her, there is no way I would say that! Anyway, we will get them tonight. I cant wait!!!

So, California was awesome! The whole time I was there (In sanfrancisco) I kept asking myself "Why don't I live here?" I mean it is just down right beautiful! I think there are more homeless people than NYC, but I guess the weather is better out there. I will post some pics when I steal them from John. We drove up the west coast to Seattle... I think The drive from SF to Portland was about 15-17 hours... And AAA said it would be 11 hours (lying bastards!)

Graduate Project and a Clean Bathroom

So, what did you do this weekend Amanda? Well, I spend about an hour deep cleaning my bathroom, I did laundry, made hash browns and actually did some work on a graduate project I was supposed to finish a year ago!!

So I bet your first question is... Why was your bathroom so dirty? I would rather not answer that question... Anyway, it is now bleachy clean. I do feel a little bad using so much bleach to clean it... but, since I hadn't cleaned it in ages, I guess this isn't really that bad. I mean, imagine if I was one of those super crazy clean freaks who washed their bathroom every week, and with bleach! That would be way worse for the environment than my actions today... hmm... you mean its normal to clean your bathroom once a week? Man, I am a total dirt bag. Or, rather, I WAS a total dirt bag, now my bathroom is clean, and since I wont be here next weekend (and my floor might also not be here) I guess I cant clean it every week... until September! :)

On to the graduate stuff... I have to write a paper and make a project... I have no idea how to do either of those things so I just listen to my professor and do as he says. He wants me to make an online search-able database of 4 years of physics teaching links he has collected and published. I have been trying several different types of bookmarking sites, since, I feel there is no reason to reinvent the wheel when there are several different types of wheels already up and running on the internet. Well, none of those wheels fit my needs. I was getting frustrated, and I was about to make my own site. In fact, it was in the design phase for my site that I realized I was basically designing a blog. So I checked out several blog sites and settled on wordpress. I know I use blogger here... I never checked out wordpress back in the day, and to be honest I would probably have chosen wordpress over blogger had I done more research, but it really wasn't that important to me back then... but wordpress seems to have a lot more functionality... especially with the layout. Perhaps blogger has that too and I just haven't figured out how to do it yet... I'll work on that when I get a master's degree!

Anyway, if you wanna check out the other blog I set up, here is the URL:
http://tptwebsights.wordpress.com/

I will also link to it in the right site panel. You might have noticed I have also linked to my mom's and my dad's blogs. If any of my other wonderful friends and fam have a blog then let me know, I would love to link to you as well. The more people who link to you the cooler google thinks you are :)

I also added a lot of posts this week that pertain to my 101 things to do in 1001 days list. I think this is a great idea and everyone should try it out. Its not very easy, but it actually takes a load off when I see all of my plans laid out. And it make everything seem so doable. Check out my post and if you decide to make your own list let me know, I would love to check it out. 5 more days till I fly out!! :)

DE Students Comments

This is a post that I want to use to generate anonymous comments about my teaching from my students. Hopefully they will post here.

If you are my student, here are the four questions I would like you to answer:

1. What do I do well in class?

2. What can I do better in class?

3. Why did you register for my class?

4. Will you register for my class again?

DIRECTIONS:
Just copy and paste the questions into the comment section and add your answers. You do not need to put your name unless you want me to respond to you in person. I will try to respond to everyone on this site here. Check back for updates

Thank you for helping me to become a better teacher :)

10 More Days!

Yup, in 10 days (9 not counting today, and since today will be over in 95 min I can say 9!) I will be on a plane celebrating my vacation! WOOHOO! I shall not shirk my blogging duties though. I actually think I am starting to get good at this... it only took me one year! Well I have another year abroad to post even better stuff, so next year will be a much better read.

Today I fell on some stairs and banged my ankle bone on the edge of the cement stairs really hard, so I am walking funny. But I took some aspirin and I have ice on it now so I think I can do yoga tomorrow. If I get any cool black and blue marks I will post them, but if not it will just be another lame injury that I can not show off... only talk about... which is not as much fun as showing off wounds!

Here is a takeout box from Saboten. If they have one of these in your neighborhood you should go. They make amazing (according to John) fried pork cutlet filled with mozzarella. I get a kimchi udon soup... which has kimchi (fermented, spicy cabbage) and really thick Japanese noodles in some kind of broth ... I think its fish broth. But in this box is some smaller boxes... and I lost the pic of the inside :( but its all separated out and really cute. Since John loves this place so much I'm sure we will get it again so I will take another picture.

One of my sweet sweet students brought this for me. Actually, her mom made it. Its a little snack, Korean style. On the top you see hobak sandwiches. Hobak is a type of pumpkin, they call it sweet pumpkin and its pretty popular here. Its really good... its a small green, bumpy pumpkin and its bright orange inside, so its a little different than our pumpkin. My student's mom spread the mashed hobak on the bread, rolled it up and cut it into bit size pieces. And on the bottom is dduck-go-chi ... I think I spelled it wrong. It stands for "rice cake on a stick." Rice cake is made from gelatinous rice and its REALLY chewy. These rice cakes are on a stick and covered in a sticky sweet-spicy sauce and fried. They were a little too chewy, but the sauce was awesome.


So, I had this for breakfast one day at my desk, and in true Korean style I took a picture of it (on my desk at work.) Korean people love taking pictures of their meals... it happens all the time at the restaurant. Well, my breakfast consisted of a hard boiled egg, a banana, three Hobnobs and a fiber drink (almost 3 grams in that little bottle) No reason except that I am trying to avoid Burger King and McDonald's... I don't drink milk, so cereal isn't an option... so I have to be creative... I don't have a Korean house wife, so there is no one too cook me rice and soup in the morning... so I can't eat Korean style either... I'm getting really sick of bananas.


This is a really cute notebook I bought. It says "ticket journal" on the front. It has 80 pages on the inside to load with tickets from every function you go to. I love saving tickets, and now I have a nice place to put them.


Here is the inside. You tape in your ticket, fill out some info and write your memories. I like this a lot. It only cost $2, so if anyone wants one let me know and I will bring it back to you. Well, I am laying in bed right now cause of my leg, and typing isn't very comfortable so I am gunna chill now. Night night. See ya all soon!!

It Rains in Korea... A LOT!

Well I guess there is no reason for me to tell you that... perhaps you already knew that Korea is one of the monsoon countries. Sigh, I have been stuck indoors for the last three days, and I just checked the weather... It will rain, every single day, until I fly out on September 1st. I was really hoping to do something nice outside, like hike in a mountain, or along the Han river, or something! sigh, oh well. At least I am able to update my blog a lot now! YAY for documentation!


So, I love Kiva. I think everyone should know about Kiva. With Kiva you can lend money to people in developing countries. I think this is a lot better than donating money for several reasons. The obvious reason being... the selfish one... you can get your money back. Now of course there is no guarantee you will get your money back... and you don't make any interest, BUT, when you donate money it disappears forever. And you don't even know if it got to a real person, or did any actual good. Well, with Kiva you pick the person you want to lend to, so you know exactly what your money is being used for. Another reason I think Kiva is better than donating money is this is not a hand-out. They say "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach the man to fish and he eats for ever" And probably teaches his kids how to fish too. Well, when you lend money to people with Kiva, they use it to build their future, and pay back what you gave them... so they make profit... they don't just get by. I heard about this from an interview with Bill Clinton, I checked it out, and I have lent money to people via Kiva. Four of my loans are currently being repaid, and another 4 are still in the fund-raising state. I only lend $25 to each person, this way if they default I only loose $25. But hey, if they default then I guess I have still donated money to a good cause, a person in a developing country trying to improve his or her situation... so what if they couldn't pay me back... I'm sure they wanted to, and next time they will try harder. But anyway, I added my Kiva Lender page to the links list on the right. You can check out the people I'm lending money to. Maybe you would want to lend some money to them too. I think they look like nice people. Let me know what you think about it.

This is the street I live on. You cant see my little apartment building, but its off to the right. I might not live here next year cause my landlord wants to raise the rent. I will talk to her this week I hope and try to figure something out. I really like this place. The room is really nice and clean and big, the street is relatively quiet and clean (considering the area I live in) and I actually think my landlord is a nice person.


This is a sign from the subway. It has an interesting cartoon. In the picture you can see some of the common subway peddlers. Selling stuff like this is illegal, and most people tell me it is also controlled by the gangsters. Well, one of the characters is a well dressed man pulling a small cart and shouting about something he is holding in his hand. These guys go from subway car to subway car with a little cart full of: umbrellas, socks, shoe shiners, underwear, pens, or other interesting items that they sell for less than $5. The other character is a rather sad looking old woman. She is generally sitting on the floor somewhere in the station selling things like gum, kimbap (a roll or rice and veggies contained in seaweed), rice cakes, or vegetables for $1-2. Your not supposed to buy things from them, but everyone does. Its hard not to, I feel sorry for them... especially the old men and women... I mean where is their family? I hope they aren't alone in the world. They shouldn't be working, they should be playing with their grand kids or doing needlepoint or something relaxing... oh well.


So, we went to Outback Steakhouse. I have to say, of all the western restaurants in Korea Outback is by far the best. It is really pricey (I have pasta for those of you who wonder what a vegetarian eats at Outback) But SO worth it. John gets their ribs, which he says are really good. They have a nice potato soup, good veggies, tasty bread, etc. They also have this wonderful thing called ade. Most of the restaurants have at least a couple flavors of ade. Orange and grapefruit ade are pretty prevalent. This time I got Kiwi-ade... which ROCKED. I have also tried Strawberry-ade, that was awesome too... you have got to get this over in America! They make it with real fruit and I think seltzer water... not sure though.


Not just bbang (the Korean word for bread... and yes the two 'b's is intentional... its a really hard b sound, they also have a soft b sound... 'bang' means 'room' in Korean... so the different 'b's matter quite a deal) This wonderful waiter gave us chocolate sauce to dip our bread in. The servers at Outback in Korea are AWESOME. Some of them even speak pretty passable English! Totally American style service, but I still don't have to leave a time! I bet your wondering why you haven't come for a visit yet!!! hehe :)

On a final note, I added something new at the very bottom of the page. Its a work in progress and much more for me than you. I am posting it to add a small degree of accountability on my part. On one of the links from my dads blog I read about this "101 goals in 1001 days" idea. Make a list of 101 concrete things you want to accomplish in 1001 days. Then tick them off as you complete them. I still have a lot of things to add... and Im sure some of the things will be a little unrealistic, but I guess its good to have a plan, even if it fails :)

16 More days!

Thats right! 16 more days until I can sleep in and stay up late every day, unless I want to do something fun early in the morn!! Woo Hoo!!! I am pretty excited about my vacation... talk about a long time coming... in the last year I have only taken 5 vacation days... of course there were several state holidays that everyone got off... but its WAY to difficult to do anything on those days... in such a small country people its really crowed when everyone has the day off. Anyway I have some new interesting pictures (and some old) so I thought I would entertain you with them. I'm actually sitting here waiting for my landlord... she called the housing manager at my job to say she has to come to my apt to check if something is broken. I guess there is some water leaking from our apartment to the room below, but she still isnt here... at least I had time to clean :)

Happy price!! Hehe, everything in Korea is Happy... they always right things like "Happy Sale" "Happy burger" "Happy Test" and so on. So I just had to get a pic of this. It doesn't really make much sense, but I guess it means "be happy the prices are so low" I haven't actually gone into this place yet, its a new store and I don't fit well into Korean clothes!

This is from the first floor of the CGV building. CGV is a really big movie theater chain in Korea. This building as 10 floors and has 6 theaters, two on every other floor... one theater is as high as two floors. You can take an elevator or an escalator all the way up or down... its pretty cool. But anyway as you can see, onthe 4th floor is the ticket box, and... hehe... the sweet bar :) I just thought that was a cute way to call it... It sounds so much better than concessions stand! And I should also point out that there is no Korean translation on this sign... so I often wonder how many people have no idea what it says and just go there cause it says "CGV"


So, a few months ago I started having issues with my hamstring. It was always tense. Everyone told me to get acupuncture, I thought they were insane, but I figured, hey, its covered by health insurance... why not. Well I went there with my Korean friend and she took some pics for me. In this first picture you can see a large red spot on my leg (I'm laying on my stomach). That is from the cupping. Cupping is a procedure where they stab you(Not deeply) several... like maybe 15 times, with a really sharp, thin needle. Then they take a cup and put it over the wounds and such the air out of it. Then a lot of blood is drawn out of your body for only a few min... I guess this changes the circulation or something. Then he takes 3 long thin needles and sticks them in my leg, and leaves them there for like 25 min. In this picture you might be able to see the three needles if you look really close. But they are so small I couldn't even feel them.


In this picture you can see the groovy shorts they give me to wear! Hehe, the Korean word for "one-size-fits-all" is "free-size" ... I know it sounds like and English phrase, but it isn't, we call it Konglish... which is like a hybrid language between Korean and English... Well, these shorts were free-size... hehe... they barely fit around my butt! Anyway... I before I laid down to have this done the nurse asked me where my cell phone was, I assumed she wanted me to turn it off or something so I took it out of my purse and she set it on the bed where my head would be... so I could talk on the phone while I lay there... hehehe, the cell phone culture here is silly, they totally cant live with out them... Is America like that too? I got my first cell phone in Korea, so I don't really know. Anyway, after the three needles were removed he put on needle in my right foot near my achilles tendon, and another in my hand in the meaty part opposite my thumb. The on in my hand really hurt! And when he moved it it made my left thigh hurt too... strange nervous system! Anyway, I sat there for 20 more min with these heating things aimed at me... you can see the two foot ones in the picture above, it was quite toasty.

Well, I don't think acupuncture is bad, but I didn't go back because it was too time consuming. I think exercise works better for my thigh, and yes I still have problems with it... I think I need a good massage and a job where I'm not sitting down the whole day! :)

Happy Birthday Buddha! Since this is traditionally a Buddhist country about 1/3 of the people here are Buddhist... another third is Christian and the rest have no religion... just traditional superstitions and such... Well Buddha's birthday is a national holiday and they celebrate in style! There are parties all weekend. This we a big traditional dance show right outside one of the biggest temples in the city. The whole place was beautifully decorated with paper lanterns and the costumes were awesome. My friend had a really awesome camera so I think I should ask her for some of her pics, cause mine is pretty lame. The thing I really wanted to show this this picture is that those are mostly guys, wearing pink... In Korea men are not afraid to wear pink... or carry a purse for that matter... they have their own purses, and they carry their wives purses ... And no one chides them for acting gay. Well these kids were up their dancing away and having a great time... I wonder how many American men can do that in a pink costume that doesn't obscure their face? I dunno... :)