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.

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.

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!)

Hi from America!

I have been back in America for a week now, and I have spent the last week thinking about this post. I have come up with so many different titles its ridiculous! The thing is, I have some things I want to talk about, but I think some of them might be a little offensive... If I want to say offensive things about Korea, its ok... that's not my home country... I'm an outsider there, its to be expected that I feel strange in Korea... But to be honest... I experienced more culture shock upon my arrival in America than I did when I entered Korea.

The first, and most obvious difference between these two countries was visible the moment I stepped off the plane in Washington DC... I am thin here. Now initially I was thinking "YAY! I am thin again" But the more time I spend in shopping malls, theme parks and other such public venues, the more depressed I become. The state of American health... or rather unhealthy... is really quite sad. I remember when I lived in Buffalo and I would be watching TV and they would have the show about obesity, and they would show all the shoulders-down shots of extremely fat people and I would thing "Man, where did they find that many morbidly obese people?" And now, after spending a year in a country where most of the people are smaller than me (I now fit into a size 8 pants!) I can see that the news men could have shot that footage virtually anywhere.

I really don't know what to think about this, except that my country is very very sick, and needs help soon. No wonder we spend so much on health care. People are told by their doctors "You have to lose weight, eat right and exercise or you will DIE"... and what do they do here? They die. Unfortunately I had a friend that this happened too when I was much younger... I thought it was really sad, but since there were so many obese people around me, I just accepted it as the way of life.

Now, this isn't to say that there are zero fat Korean people, that would be a complete lie. But the thing is they are really uncommon... but if you look at the kids, things are changing. Our American lifestyle is spreading across the globe. People are getting lazy, eating poorly and getting really fat. Now I know some people will read this and think I am some evil skinny bitch, but to be honest, I really have felt overweight for the last year that I lived in Korea... A size 8 is one size fits all in Korea.... So I am pretty big for Korea... I don't know if that helps to soften the blow of what I have been saying.

The question is this... Is this ok? Is it OK that Americans are so indulgent that our bodies cannot even keep up with our lifestyle? We eat so much more than we need to that it all just gets stored as excess fat on our body... I think its great that the cost of gas is going up in America... its still half what it is in Korea. We need to walk more, and eat less. Eat more veggies and less M&Ms. People are buying a Prius when they need a new car, but are they eating less meat to reduce their carbon emmissons? I don't think so. Even though eating less meat and more veggies would help them to be healthier inside and outside. But anyway, Im getting to extreme now Im sure...

On the lighter size, I am keeping track of how many Prius and Hummer vehicles I see on my vacation, since I dont really see any of those in Korea... Here is the current count
Prius 13
Hummer 3

Perhaps later I will write about more of the positive things about my vacation, I just really had to get this observation of my chest, sorry.

Murphy's Law

So, here I have decided to write more frequently, and I even had several days of posts planned on my comp at home (don't want to do too much in one day) and I set it up so you could get emails about my new posts and.... since Sunday when I was skyping my parents my internet connection at home has been broken :( I haven't had a lot of absences at work so I haven't asked a manager to call the internet company yet... but today after 9AM they said they would. Well, I have new pictures and stories that go with them... sigh...

Anyway... I was wondering... for the people who subscribe to the email, right now it only shows a short blurb of what I posted... I noticed I can send out the whole post. If you have any opinion on whats better: log or short post, then let me know.

Also, I thought I would point out something interesting I just learned about. Well... in Korea you can rent exercise equipment. I'm not sure if you can do this in America too, but it seems popular here. http://www.healthway.co.kr/ is a site I was looking at. In my constant quest to become Xena Warrior Princess I really like exercising :)

The new gym John and I joined is totally ghetto! The treadmills are missing pieces, it smells worse than my farts, its super hot in there and extremely crowded (even at 10PM!) However, on the up side, its only $30 a month (which is really cheap in this area of Seoul, they provide you with clean shorts and t-shirt each time you come and its open 24 hrs except on weekends. Its ok... but I really miss CaliforniaWOW... that was the gym I belonged to that went bankrupt and the owner ran away and left the country :( Yeah, I lost money, but more important that that, I lost a gym I loved, filled with really awesome people... sigh. Well they are building a new gym in that same location, who knows, maybe it will rock too. Its called Muscle Factory, so I'm a little leary of it.

AND.... happily enough there is a new hot yoga place just across the street from where I work, and John even said he would go there and try it out! :) Hot yoga is so much fun, and such an awesome way to become Xenaeqsue (I love making up words, and I love Lucy Lawless!)

So, perhaps soon I will be able to upload more pictures. Oh, and I am considering buying a new camera. I haven't decided if I should get a compact one or DSLR, but right now all I have is a cell phone camera, so I think I need something better. Any ideas?

North Korea meets South Korea on the Battlefield!

So, I went to a pre-World cup match between North and South Korea... apparently they already had this match in Singapore but it was a tie so they had to do it again. Well, big shock, it was a tie again... Both teams had already qualified for the World Cup, so they didn't exactly try to win until the last 10 min. For the record, number 8 ROCKED and number 17 SUCKED! Of course 8 won MVP for the game, he was about the only one who didn't have two broken feet out on the field! I was ready to go down and smack number 17!!! I swear I could have done a better job... I think he is totally a NK spy... j/k... maybe I shouldn't joke about those things, you know with a war and all on... Anyway here's some pics from the game.

This is World Cup Staduim, pretty huh? All the way on the other side you can see a TON of people dressed in white... I don't know who they are, but NK was playing in white so I guess they might be North Koreans or just supporters... not sure. But at one point they rolled out a HUGE white flag with a blue united Korea on it... pretty impressive... sorry I missed the shot.

Here you can see all the people in red... SK was playing in red... and those are pretty big flags they are waving around. One of my students was down there, and they wanted him to wave the flags cause they were tired, but he was too lazy :)

Just another pic of the flags waving, they really moved fast... I think I would be too lazy to do it too!

Wow! I really liked those flags! That big red stick in the middle of the pic is kinda like a balloon made from rather stiff plastic... for $1 (1,000won) you can get two of them and then bang them together to make a lot of noise. They are popular at political rallies as well.

Ah yes, the field... for most of the game the crowd was actually more interesting to watch than the field... thats a little sad, but true.


One more picture of the NK supporters. During half time we did 5 or 6 full stadium waves, it was pretty cool. There wasn't a half time show or anything, just a big advertisement that was rolled out on the center of the field... I think it was for a cell phone, not that that's important.

In conclusion, I love soccer! So, even though this wasn't a great game, I really enjoyed the experience. I love watching and playing soccer, so I had a really great day. AND, I have to mention that my wonderful boyfriend didn't quit looking until he found the really awesome t-shirt he bought for me. Its red, and looks like a soccer jersey, and has a great big tiger on the side! (Korean people think Korea is shaped like a tiger, and Japanese people think its shaped like a rabbit.. what do you think?)

American Beef AKA Migook Sogogi

I seems that news of the beef protests in Korea have finally made it to America. For the last... gosh, I think its almost a month now... Korean people have been gathering by city hall, almost every night, to hold candle light protests... this gives me the chance to teach my students the word 'vigil.'
This picture is of a pretty big banner that was across the street from my hogwon (language school.) It shows a petrified Korean woman (carrying a designer bag I'm sure) watching as a giant ship carrying evil looking cow from America with poison symbols stamped on their muzzles. I thought it was pretty funny, and cute in a cartoonish sort of way. I also want to point out that my hogwon is no where near city hall, and they people who put up this banner have several others and are protesting at least 2 or 3 things.... its pretty interesting... oh and they are also living on the street in tents that they have outfitted to be like Korean houses... I will try and snap some pictures, but I'm afraid they might not like it.

I know there is a lot of miss information in the news, so I thought I would jot down what I know about this situation.
- Korean people love beef.
- Korean people use the bones of animals to cook lots of soup (they eat soup at least once or twice a day)
- Korea used to be one of the biggest importers of American beef
- Korea suspended American beef imports when a cow we bought from Canada turned out to have mad cow.
- Korea restarted the beef imports last fall (and Korean shoppers were elated!) only to suspend imports once again soon after spinal fragments were found in the shipment.
- The mad cow virus is found in the nervous tissue, that means the brain and spinal cord.
- Some people think that cows killed after 30 months of age have a greater chance of having contracted the mad cow virus.
- There is no limit on the age of slaughter for current beef imports from America.
- The current deal for beef imports was agreed on by the previous Korean President, Mr. Roh. Korean people were unhappy with his efforts to bring NK and SK together through free aid and Roh's inability to reinvigorate the Korean economy.
- Everyone thought the new president, Mr. Lee, would do wonders for the Korean economy since he is a previous mayor of the capital city Seoul, and he was a CEO at Hyundai.
- No one likes Mr. Lee now and they wish they didn't vote for him because he is corrupt and only cares about rich people (no surprise)
- The agreement between Japan and the US for beef import/export has a 30 month limit for the age of slaughter.
- Japan and Korea have a really dicey past that goes back longer than most people could imagine.
- If the trade agreement between the US and Korea is reopened for negotiations to put a limit on the slaughter age of beef then other aspects of the deal will also change. This could have negative impacts on the small electronics, semiconductor and auto industry which is really the bread and butter of this country.
- All those "riot cops" that beat up civilians are actually just young guys (between the age of 22 and 26 mostly) who are serving out their mandatory military service. They would rather be: at home, out drinking, or protesting with the other Koreans.
- Korea actually has a long history of people being ignored by the government, mostly because the government was either a king or a dictator or another country for most of history until about 20 some years ago. So, they don't like it when their "democratic" government ignores them.

Ok, so thats pretty much everything I "know"... just because I know it doesn't mean its true... look it up if you doubt me (and you should) and email me if you find any errors :) Take what I gave you and draw your own conclusions... oh, and just so you know, you might actually have more information about this topic than the typical Korean person... don't you feel smart?

YAY Samsung!!!

So, since one of my boyfriend's students works for Samsung, he helped us to buy a really nice TV and we got a great price :) The menus are all in Korean so we cant understand much, but we are slowly learning. Here's an awesome picture :)And I got all the pictures off of my phone so I can put some of them up now :) YAY... Here they are, I will put some more up later.
This is the cutest pencil case in the world. One of my students, a young man in his twenties, who is now in America (CA I think) was the owner of it. I really wanted to ask him if I could have it! I know you cant read the inscription so I will type it here : "Smiles and laughter are very contagious share them with a friend" :) Its from a company called Artbox, which has so many strange but cute things... oh, and EVERYONE in Korea has a pencil case... even hardened business men... and sometimes they are nearly as cute as this one!
So, there was this chance I had to be on Korean TV speaking English, and they took me out to lunch at a Bulgarian restaurant... I decided not to be on TV cause I heard that if it was discovered that they were paying me I would get thrown out of the country due to the type of visa I have. But anyway. I got this really yummy food that looks like lasagna. It is potatoes and cheese with an adorable little bunny made out of a cherry tomato! And this was in Itaewon, the foreigner district of Seoul, so the cooks were actually from Bulgaria. But it was quite yummy and cute. And it is a Korean custom to take pictures of your food... and pictures of yourself with your food... but since it was essentially a business meeting I tried to tone down the desire to take tones of pictures.
Look closely at the lower right warning... it looks like it says not catching bunnies... This is from a park, and I just thought ... What the hell could that be about? Too bad I cant really read Korean.
You know your in a country that over-values studying when the vending machines don't sell candy bars, but rather they sells books. I think some of them were even English language learning books!
And here one of many reasons that English education is essential in foreign countries... they love to wear things with English on it.... but ... as you may be able to see, there are often errors... this hat says N.Y. POLECE :)

I will post more when Im done web chatting with my mom.

I Have Dirty Jelly Beans

Hmmmm... so, yeah, another absence. Well I have these jelly beans and people eat all the fruity ones and leave the white and black ones. And so I have a dish on my desk with black and white jelly beans and they are covered in dust. Living in an office with a window that doesnt open is a little icky... but I think the air out side is probably just as dirty as the air inside...

Anyway, one of my students asked what the jelly beans were and I told her they were candy and said she could have some, then she told me they were dirty. I felt kinda bad about it... like here I am offering dirty candy to a person from a culture that is so clean that they dont eat with their hands yet they still wash them before eating, they remove their shoes before entering their houses and sometimes their restaurants. So, I dont know what to do with the dirty jelly beans... any ideas?

I went shopping for food last night to avoid going to McDonald's again today, as tasty and cheap as it is, it is still not healthy. So I had two pieces of toast with butter and... get this... apple yogurt. Apple yougut is AWESOME! It actually has little pieces of green and red apples

Yeah, so basically you should be jealous that I get to eat Maeil Yogurt :) They have Yoplait too, but Maeil tastes SO much better. Maeil means everyday... so I eat it a lot!

Oh, and I have a delicious page that I am making with the websites I love... del.icio.us.citronella49 at least I think thats how it works. So if you wanna see what I read go for it... I will add the link on the right too.

Love ya all!

So, I suck at keeping any type of journal or records in general... unless I am getting paid for it that is. I think the reason I don't edit this that much is I think no one is reading it, but I have heard for quite a few people that they wish I would update more often. So, I am going to try and update this every day, with what ever mundane things happen! And, I am going to send out an email to everyone I can think of and let them know I will do this. Also, I would like to ask that if you read a post can you please just post a quick comment, I am trying to see how many people read this. Thanks :)

Ok, so I had to go to a Foreign Teacher's Seminar yesterday at 9AM, which was a bit early considering the place was almost an hour from my place. Of course it didn't help that I made a mistake and made John and I get off at the wrong subway stop, but we just had to get back on, so it was ok. Anyway the lectures at the seminar were pretty dull, but at the end there was a really fun music deal. They had a Korean rock band play about 5 songs. They played, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, AC/DC, something British and something Korean. They weren't amazing or anything, but it was cool. Unfortunately a lot of the teachers in the audience took this as a sign to ditch, the lights were low and they were pretty apathetic. These people were also quite rude, they were laughing at the poor English of the Korean presenters, and talking all throughout their lectures, and of course leaving early. Well, I am not party pooper, and John isn't either.

During the My Chemical Romance song John and I went up front and started dancing! It was really cool, one other guy we work with came up and danced too, and so did a woman I didn't know! And then there was a Korean drum and dance group with four members. They did a really cool drum peice and then they did a dance, only one guy danced but he also said a lot of stuff in Korea, like a chant. I don't know what he was saying but it sounded really cool. He taught the audience a sentence, and I don't remember it, but it was pretty strange! Then he said he would teach people to dance the way he did if they wanted to come up on stage, one of the guys who works in my building ran up, so I followed him! It was pretty fun, it really hurt my legs though! And the MC of the show gave us both 10,000 won gift certificates (around $9) when we walked off the stage, and the guy gave me a hug later on.

Anyway after the show we went to eat with two of our friends and walked around the department store. We went home and watched some TV and snacked on junk food. This morning we had French Toast and eggs (YUMMY) and watched some more TV. I skyped my mom for about 2 hrs. Then John and I went out for a walk, it is Pepero day, so there are lots of couples out. Pepero day is the day you are supposed to give pepero to your boyfriend or girlfriends. But friends also swap Pepero, one of my students even game me some. What is Pepero? It is a cookie in the shape of a stick covered in chocolate. They have many different flavors, but I like this chocolate covered chocolate ones and the chocolate filled ones the best. Here is a pic of Pepero.


And this is what the front of all the convenient stores looks like this weekend. They make lots of strange gift selections for suckers to spend TONS of money on... I just bought two boxes, I think thats good enough :)

So, I wonder if any American products will ever have a holiday named after themselves? Pepero day is only about 5 years old, so I figure American companies will figure out how cool this is and before you know it we will have M&M day... But Pepero Day is always on 11/11 because Pepero is in the shape of a 1, so the day with all ones is for Pepero.

Ok, Stargate is on (NERD) so I am going to go watch, I love you all, and comment please :)

Happy Weekend

So, after promising to blog even when nothing eventful happens I find myself, actually keeping my promise! So, I am finally free for a day... it was nice this week, only having to work three days, but it really put a dent in my paycheck. We have this deal where as long as we work 8 hours a day we get a guaranteed minimum pay... normally we can make much more than that since we get paid for each student we have, and its pretty easy to get OT... well with three days off I lose about $150 a day! So I am really close to the minimum pay now... sigh, Well there still is one more day, and I didn't add in the little extras (OT pay, interview pay etc.)

When a student is absent I only get paid half what I would make if they were there... so I have been sending my students text messages on their phones... it worked really well on Thursday and Friday... but today I had three absences and one of my hour students was a half an hour late! It was a pretty nice day out... but when the student doesn't show up to a class (or cancels with less than 48 hrs notice) they still have to pay the full amount.. I would love to know the reason I only get paid half... oh well... its better than nothing.

So, heres a sad story... one of the office managers brought her new puppy to work today cause her mom wants her to get rid of the puppy! Its a really cute little white dog, I cant remember what its called, but his name is Peppy, and he certainly is peppy! Well I guess her mom doesnt like the dog, but he is really cute, and he isnt as dumb as I thought a little dog would be... I was teaching him not to hump my foot... of course I was using Korean ("anee-o" instead of "no") and after about 3 min he started to figure it out... of course 20 min later he forgot it, but it only took about 1 min to retrain him... so I think he is pretty bright. He is so tiny! I really hope her mom has a change of heart, she has only had him for 4 days, and as anyone who has had a puppy knows they can be a pain in the neck for about 18-24 months. I hope to post some happy news about the situation on Monday. I didn't have a camera so I couldn't take a picture, but I think I will try and convince her to bring him back some day.

So, John and I went to this place called Kim's Club on Wednesday... it took us a while to find it, but fortunately Korean people are SUPER nice and even if they don't speak your language they will try to help you... I totally recommend coming here and you will have no problem as long as your not afraid of a little language barrier! Of course if you come here when I am here you will have an advantage (I have several Korean friends!) Anyway, Kim's club is like Walmart but looks more like Wegman's... its nice and clean, good prices, and there are food samples on every isle! It is also open 24 hrs a day! It was really crowed when we went there... which is typical in the country! So my students have recommended I go there at 10 PM... its really close, so I can take a taxi home... the subway stops running at midnight here. and a taxi ride is only a few bucks... less than 4... its really cheap here.

Well I got a cute binder and some food... we got cds, and cat food. Its really cheap cat food, we get paid on the 10th and I am going to order some food online and get it delivered to our house... They only deliver stuff when you are home, so they call you before they come over... if you arn't home they come back another day. And many places charge little or nothing for delivery, and the service is really good. I am told it is because there is a lot of competition between the delivery companies. In America we only have 4 companies... FedEx, UPS, USPS and DHL, but here there are more than 20... and thats just in Seoul!

Ok, well I love you all, and I am hoping to go see a movie tonight, but John is feeling a little sick from hanging out in a cafe where people were smoking like crazy... I guess that is one thing I can thank my parents for... I am immune to cigarette smoke... at least I feel immune, I'm sure it is still doing its fair share of damage. So, I wish there was a way to send out an automatic email to people who want to know when I update my blog... if anyone has any ideas let me know... right now I only have manual ideas... looking for something easy and automatic.

Good morning to you and Good evening to me! :)

Of the Infinite Kindness of Korean People
or
The Art of Being Drunk Dialed by a Student

So, there we were, relaxing at home at about 10:30 Saturday night when John's phone rings. Its one of his students offering to take us out Monday for sightseeing. This was really cool, even if it was a little strange to get a call so late. It left us wondering what the cut off time here is, and if it even existed for people who are not married. So we went to sleep pretty happy that night. Sunday morning John got another call where the student wanted to know what they had talked about cause he was pretty drunk... "I believe we have an appointment?" Well I was afraid at that point that he didn't intend on offering such a nice opportunity to us, but it is now Tuesday morning and I'm certain this student wanted to hang!

So, John's friend, Wonook, brought along two of his friends as well, a girl, HaeJin, and a guy Sae...(cant remember the rest of his name~.~) and we piled into Wonook's car and got driving. First he took us to the Korean Traditional Village right in the middle of Seoul. For those of you familiar with Genesee country museum, or any other mock folk village, this place is essentially the same thing. People are walking around in costumes, they have games you can play, you can get your fortune told for $2 or you can get a Chinese calligraphy sign for $1 (it was beautiful, but the line was really long, I want to go back). Of course there are also traditional style houses for you to walk around and look in. They are really cool. There were a lot of tourists there, mostly Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese. Very few westerners and almost no Koreans. This nice Chinese guy was trying to explain to us a Chinese sign that was on an old building. He spoke pretty good English, but it was still difficult for him to translate this old meaning... but basically it meant peace. This is the place that many Korean Dramas (their word for a serious TV show) are filmed when it must take place in the past.

Wanook's friend Sae had used many of the old style tools we found when he was a boy since he lived out in the country. Wanook and HaeJin had lived their entire life in Seoul, so they didn't have any experience with these things. All of our Korean guides had also never been to these touristy places, so it was a great experience for all of us.

Then we went to one of the Korean Palaces. The really big palace is currently going through a huge renovation... apparently is was turned into a zoo under the Japanese occupation of the country during WWII, and the Korean government just decided to return it to its natural state. They say it will take about 2 years, so I wont get a chance to see it :( The palace we did see was still pretty big. It was made of several large buildings and an enormous throne building. It was all painted in really vibrant colors except for a few buildings. There was also a huge statue of King SaeJong, who was responsible for devising the current Korean writing system ,Hangile, back in the 1500's. He was also cool cause he wanted equal opportunities for people of all income levels especially where education is concerned. They have a holiday later in the year just for him too, Korean's are pretty proud of him, and is was a pretty decent guy.

After that we went to lunch at a nice little place. I had Dolsit BiBimBap (my fav) and John had Bulgogi soup with rice, he said it was good. Our guides had a really spicey tofu (or dubu as they say it) mix with rice and veggies... it was the first time I had ever heard a Korean person complain that something was too hot! Anyway, it was really good! After that we went to Insadong.

Insadong street is this road that no cars are supposed to drive on, just people walking. But of course this is Korea so there was one car that drove down it. It is filled with really cool little shops. There are a lot of traditional Korean shops, and general art shops, pottery shops, food shops, restaurants, tea houses, and street vendors. Its a really nice place, similar to Greenwhich village in NYC, just a bit more traditional. Starbucks wanted to put a store on that street, and a lot of people protested, so Starbucks made a deal and put their sign in Hangil (The Korean letters) so it wouldn't look so western... I don't think people are happy with it, but at least there was a compromise... Red Mango did the same thing.

After that we went to a traditional tea house and didn't have tea. well I mean, they were calling it tea, but it was more like a traditional drink than a tea. John and I got a sweet rice drink which actually had bits of rice in it, and it had a very mild sweetness to it, pretty good. Two of our guides had a cinnamon drink which was awesome. The fifth drink was a cereal drink... it was kinda grainy and tasted like brown rice, it was actually quite good. These were all cold drinks. They cost $5 but came with 1 free refill, so re refilled them and switched them around the table so we could have different drinks. It was a really cool place, totally worth a return visit.

After that we went to a toy museum... it was only $1 to get it (so was the palace and the village was free!) It was a small place FILLED with toys from America, Korea, Japan from the 1950s to now. He also had several birds in cages... one of them was a small red headed parrot. The sign above his tiny cage said he could say "Anyonghasayo" which means hello in Korean. We stood there for a while trying to get him to say it and he just stared at us. He was really cute though, and I started to feel really bad for him, his cage looked like it hadn't been cleaned in weeks and he didn't have any food, the water was dirty and he didn't have any toys. Parrots are really smart animals, they need mental stimulation. So I hung out with him for a while. He kept grabbing my finger and hanging on to it... his nails looked abnormally long, I don't know much about keeping birds as pets, but this didn't look good. Well after a few min of holding my hand he said anyonghaseyo to me and he also started to mimic my voice. He would make little squawking sounds and I would say "What?" in a cute high pitched voice, and he really did a great job matching my intonation (better than some of my students) I was really sad to leave him since I know they live long lives and he wont have a nice one. I noticed he was missing a lot of feathers which I know is a sign of stress in birds... In Korea people love to get pets, but they don'
t like to care for them for a long time... Sadly we left, but John did snap a picture of the bird for me, I just wish more people would care for animals, I think it would make this a happier place.

Anyway there were all kinds of toys there, tons of Godzillas, and Simpsons stuff, and Starwars stuff too. It was pretty interesting. As we were leaving an old man walked in and didn't want to pay for his grand son, he said to the man, why should I have to pay for a child? I thought it was pretty funny since it only cost $1 and the museum is really more for kids than old men. Well he didn't pay for the kid, just walked in with the kid. Anther interesting site when leaving was a stroller tucked away in a small space next to the entrance with a sleeping baby in it... no parents around. You have to go up a flight of stairs to go in the museum and all I can assume is the parents didnt want to wake the baby up to bring their older child upstairs, so they left the kid downstairs... I have no clue if this is correct, but there was no one with the stoller...

After that we were going to try and find a bowling alley, but they were closed due to the ChewSuck holiday. So we decided to go to NamSan Tower instead. Nam is a mountain in the middle of Seoul and on that is a Tower that is over 200 m tall. San means mountain. We parked in a lot at the base of the mountain and hopped on a bus that cost $1 per person. The bus went up the mountain most of the way. It was a scary curvy road that was shared by walkers, runners and bicyclers. I am always shocked that more people are not hit be vehicles in this country. I was also shocked that this bus was able to make it up the hills. Well the bus did not drop us off at the top, that would not be possible. We had to walk the rest of the way and it was extremely steep! It was only a few minutes of walking, but I was dying at the end. Thank god I had John to drag me up. He said he would give me a piggy back ride, but I was actually wearing a skirt and at 145 lbs, I think I would cause him to fall backwards down a rather steep hill... people bowling.

Well, at the top of the mountain there was a lot to do and see. We could go up in the tower for $7 but decided against it. I think I want to return some day and go all the way up, any takers? There is a cafe and ice cream place. There is a big fenced in observation deck were I could see the building I work in... it is about 30-40 min away depending on traffic. The fence was covered in master locks with peoples names written on them. Apparently couples attach locks there with the date to signify they will always be together... awwww. There were also some rude American girls up there. In Korea they walk on the left when going up or down stairs, and these girls were shouting at people "walk on the right" obviously they were completely clueless. We went in the basement of the tower and played some traditional Korean games. OH, I forgot to mention the SeeSaw at the village. There is this really cool seesaw thing where you try and make the other person jump really high with the use of a seesaw, I did it and it was really fun, totally want to do it again! (Next time I will wear pants!)

Well after the mountain we took the bus back down and decided to go for dinner. Wanook's parents own a nice modern Korean restaurant about 20 min from where we work. It was really nice. I had vegetable rice porridge (Yachae Jook) and John had their signature dish yonghyebaeksuk which he said was awesome. We had a really nice time, and Wanook gave us the same two dishes to go so we could eat them for ChewSuck! Amazing! Afterwards he took us back to our street and John and I got out. I really hope we get to hang out with them again, they were really nice people. They are all moving to NJ in a few months to work for the store Against All odds, some kind of internship. I wish we could be there to show them around NYC!

Well, the night had a perfect closer as the new ColdStone Creamery had just opened a few days ago. We walked it and they all shouted, in English, "Welcome to Cold Stone!" The girl who helped us was super nice and made our treat fast. She even spoke good English! Well it was a difficult walk home since we were both so stuff, but it was all great food and great fun. We took a bunch pictures and I will add them in here later today, and we will put the rest in an album online for you to check out.

Anyway, Happy ChewSuck!

Lazy Girl

So, here I am, on the other side of the world, and my parents are still yelling at me! ;) So I have been really bad about updating this, sorry about that. I know you all hang on the edge of your seat waiting for another update from me! Hah, truth be told, I don't really think this place is that strange. Maybe its just me, but it is a lot like NYC, just with a few more Asian people and its impossible to get a veggie burger here... at any rate, I do have some interesting things to report on.

Korean Age
Article #2 on Korean Culture

Its pretty often that I get to ask someone how old they are here. I interview new students to gauge their English ability and help set them up with the right kind of class. I typically ask them how old they are... however, every time the answer the question I have to follow up with "Is that Korean Age or Western Age?" In the western world, when a baby is born we say it is zero years old. And one year from the day the child was born we say they are one year old, and so on... this sounds like a pretty good way to do age, and it never occurred to me that in other countries they may do it differently. Needless to say, here in Korea age is recorded differently. I just want you to pause for a minute and think about other ways to do age... think about it, and then you can see if you came up with something close to the way they do it here. Still thinking?

In Korea, when a baby is born, they say it is one year old. Then at new years they say the baby is two years old. And every new years from that point on the babies age goes up a year. This means if you are born on December 31st on January 1st you will be two years old, even though by western standards you are only zero years and one day old. This doesn't seem to make much difference once the person is in their 30s, but I have students who tell me they are 17 years old, and the kid is only 15... and when I tell people I am 27, I look really young to them, since 27 in Korean Age (or KA as we write in the files) could mean I have only been out of the womb for 25 years. So when I am complimented on looking young, I don't know if it is because I actually look young, or just because people who are 27 actually are pretty young...

ChuSeok
Article #3 on Korean Culture

Oh well, its interesting. So, I have a lot of free time right now. We have vacation for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The holiday is called ChewSuck. But most Korean people will write 추석 or ChuSeok, but I don't think most westerners will pronounce it correctly if it is written that way, so I changed the spelling for you guys! Anyway, they typically call it "Korean Thanksgiving" but it isn't a lot like the American Thanksgiving. In America its just a one day event, but in Korea ChewSuck lasts for 4-7 days depending on the person, how much time they have off and what their responsibilities are.

First they have to clean the graves of their ancestors. This is generally done by the first son of the first son of the first son in a family... depending on how many generations are currently alive. They cut away about 4 or 5 feet of grass on all the graves they are responsible, for most people this takes about 2-3 hours depending on how much help you can bring with you. Only the men should cut the grass, but the women can help carry it away. They need to cut the grass because part of the ceremony is going to the grave and doing a full bow, like in the picture below.
Most women do not like this holiday because it is a lot of work. They have to help with the grave clearing, but the men do not help with the food prep. They eat many different dishes so there is a lot to cook. They are pretty much busy for 2 days just cooking. Only the men can perform the bowing ceremony, so most families will keep having children until they have a male child, or else there will be no one around to pray to the ancestors. Korean people believe that the ghosts of their ancestors return to Earth on this day so they can be honored by their living family members. For this reason most Christian families do not participate in ChewSuck since Christians do not believe anyone would come back from heaven. ChewSuck is not a religious holiday, it is a traditional culture holiday, so there isn't a true religious conflict here, so some Christian people may still pray to the ancestors today. The Christians who don't participate in ChewSuck tend to take a nice long vacation or trip somewhere with their family, since they still don't have to go to work.

So, basically everything is closed today, except for the few places that advertise about being open 24/7/365. Since I live in Kangnam, there are actually a lot of places that fit that bill. I do kinda feel sorry for the people who have to work today, since this holiday has a lot of important meaning for ones family. It is a much more personal holiday than our Thanksgiving.

Us Ex-pats don't do anything special today, just hang out and relax! I am lucky enough that one of John's students gave us a bunch of really good food that we can cook up today so we don't have to live off of BK fries and Pringles today! Ok, thanks for reading. I promise to be better at this in the future, even when nothing happens I will report the mundane!

Love ya all. BTW, check me out on Facebook or Myspace... I know you can find me with my real name on Facebook, not sure how to find me on myspace... I try to hid there cause a lot of my students on my old job use it... but my pic is a bunny rabbit!

I love my Korean friends!

Well, I finally got a cell phone! I know none of you can believe it. Amanda, the girl who hates cell phones has a cell phone. The nice thing is here the cell phone only costs $13 a month plus how much I talk... most people say it doesn't go about $20 or $25. We will see how much I use it. I doubt I will use it much, but then again it is really cute. Actually in the first six days I have had this phone I have already let the batter run out once... and I think I have only made one phone call and sent two text messages. So I don't see myself going crazy over it.

Ok, so let me tell you why my Korean friends are so awesome. First of all many people (Hannah, Kristen, Vicky, Soojin, Alley, Kuntae, Jasmine, and Im sure more soon) are helping me learn Korean. Any time I have an absent student I grab my Korean book and find one of my fellow teachers (a Korean one though) and I ask they questions. They are really cool about it, and some of them even seem to like teaching me Korean. I was just sitting in the bank with my landlady (and I learned that her name is Cheong Soon) and she was saying Korean words to me and I was practicing writing them. Its just amazing how much people want to help. And I had my friend Hannah there with me, and the Landlady told Hannah she was impressed that I could write Korean (its called hangeul.) My landlady (and her husband) can speak a good amount of English, but its always good to have an interpreter :)

I have had Hannah write a note for me to show the pharmacist when I was sick, and then she also came to the bank with us to help John get an IC chip in is cell phone (which is a chip that makes your cell phone act like a debit card.) And Kristen worked her butt off getting phones for me and John. She sat in Gangnam station for almost 2 hours interpreting and haggling on our behalf. Its amazing how helpful people are here!

Anytime I have a question about language or culture or anything else I can always ask one of the Korean teachers. I am also finding out that Korean people in general are really nice. Especailly when they see you are trying to learn their language. Even just a quick "shil rae hamnida" which means excuse me, when I have to get off the subway train gets impressed glances. I think that if more of the foreigners who came to Korea took up an interest in Korean language and culture (not just food) then I think our relationship would be better for it.

Korean People = Star Bellied Sneetches

Article #1 on Korean Culture

If you have no idea what a Sneetch is then I suggest you read this quickly.

There is a strange trend here in Korea.... actually there are about 10,000 strange trends here in Korea. I'm not really sure why so many people try so hard to keep up with trends, but that is an insane amount of competition here, so that may be the reason.

Anyway, one trend that shocked me the most is the plastic surgery trend. Almost half (at least this is what I am told) of Korean women get their eyelids fixed. Of course I live in the most expensive part of Seoul, so perhaps this is only true here. If you don't know what I am talking about read this.
So, only 75% of Koreans are born with this eyelid crease, but I cant belive that since almost all of my female students have an eyelid crease. I have no idea whose is natural and whose is fixed. I was told by a student that I shouldn't ask a woman if she has had the surgery done. They tend to be self conscious about it. Apparently anytime you see a woman walking around with big dark sunglasses on, it typically means she recently had the surgery. Another common site is women with doctors masks on. I originally thought they wore these because they were sick and didn't want to spread their cold to others. It seems more often the reason is a recent nose, chin, or lip job. Of course if the person is riding a motorbike in the street they are doing it for health reasons. But if you look closely to someone with one of the masks on you can see the bandages underneath.

This is an incredibly high fashion area, women and men wear some of the strangest things. I think I'm going to pretend to be a crazy Japanese tourist for a day and just take pictures of everyone. I am bound to get some of the interesting looking people.

So, the reason I think Koreans are just like the Star Bellied Sneetches is because they want to look like some ideal that without surgery would be impossible, so they pay a ton of money for it and in the end I think only the surgeon wins. One day when all the women have the eyelid crease then women are going to start getting the crease removed. And I always thought American men though Asian womens eyes were exotic and sexy... I wonder why they would want to change it!

To each his own, but I think people are beautiful because they are different. However, if this surgery makes women happy then I would not wish to deny it to them. I just wonder if they really want it, of if they feel compelled to get it.