Square Eggs, Skiing, and Sauvignon

Last night I went to a wine tasting with my three best friends. It was held at this really nice wine bar in Bucheon. It was very cozy with lots of paintings, warm ambience lighting, and jazz playing softly in the background. A Korean wine connoisseur taught us all about wine and how its made and we got to taste 6 varieties from different countries including Chile, California, France, Italy and Australia. We also got to eat delicious gourmet cheese. The wine tasting lasted about 2 hours after which we stayed and chatted for a while. It was such a nice, relaxing time.

My school just started a new school year so I now have an entire new schedule with new students, new classes, and some new curriculum. It is a little frustrating since I had finally become settled into my schedule here and figured out what I was doing but it's also fun to get new students and shake things up a bit. My new schedule is actually heavier than my last one in that I have more classes and fewer breaks. But I am teaching more younger kids now which I like better. I think older kids intimidate me despite the fact that they understand what I'm saying better. I think it's because I'm still pretty young myself. I have one class with ten 12 year old boys. Should be interesting trying to keep them in line...

I have a group of 3 friends that I do a lot with. The four of us work together, go to the gym together, eat together, hang out together... Glenn is from Canada, Dan is from England, and Fran is also from Canada. Having three gym buddies keeps us all working out consistently. We recently discovered a smoothie/sandwich place in town which makes delicious fruity drinks (great post-workout snack!) and yummy egg sandwiches. We call it the square egg place because they use this square metal thing to cook the eggs in so they come out shaped like a square. So I've started receiving text messages around 10am that say "Square eggs?".

We are planning a ski trip in March. I haven't been skiing in a couple years. In Korea your lift ticket package includes rentals, lift ticket, and even your ski attire for $70 - $100. I hear the mountains here are really crowded. I'm excited to leave the city though. Haven't done anything outside of Seoul since I've been here. Next week is Solnal, the Korean New Year. We get Wed, Thurs, and Fri off of work. Since I came home for Christmas, I couldn't really afford a big trip. Dan and his buddy are going to Beijing. Fran and I are planning on seeing some sights around Seoul. We have a whole list of things we want to see. Should make for some good pictures up here in a little over a week!

Day to Day Stuff

Christmas vacation and hospital scares behind me, I am back into my routine here and doing better than ever. I feel like I am over the first 3-month hurdle and I definitely feel a strong sense of belonging here in Korea. A lot of that has to do with the friends I have made and how much I love my job. But other things contribute as well such as the fact that I've gotten used to the food, I've learned "the ropes" of taking taxis, buses, and the subway, I'm getting better at reading and speaking Korean, and I have overcome a significant number of other cultural obstacles. I am half way through my fourth full month here. 109 days since I arrived in Korea to be exact.

I've added some things to my daily routine. This month I joined a local gym, where I have been consistently (3x a week) working out with a friend. Very "January" of me, I know :). I am also now a regular at several local restaurants where I have branched out in not only what I order but how much Korean I use when ordering. I have mastered chopsticks and the Korean drink-pouring techniques (when out with a group there are detailed procedures for how to pour and receive drinks including where to put your hands, arms, etc). I have found 3 great coffee shops within walking distance of my house which I enjoy on a regular basis. I have a close group of friends with whom I hang out almost every day after work and on Saturdays (making dinner, going out to eat, shopping trips, coffee house chats, game nights, going dancing). I know how to read my bills, pay my bills, send money home, use payphones, buy subway tickets, get a haircut, barter at the market, work my washing machine, turn on the heat in my apartment, and ask for directions.

I'm assimilating and adjusting and I love it!

Jjimjilbangs

Jjimjilbangs (Korean saunas) are places where one can go to relax and perspire in heat generated by different kinds of stones (jade, charcoal, etc). Jjimjilbangs use thermo-therapy which causes you to perspire, excreting internal wastes and toxins, increasing metabolism and relaxing your body. They are much more than just saunas though. They are huge, 24 hour, partially gender-segregated public bathhouses. The segregated portions have hot tubs, showers, and various spa treatments such as massages. The unisex portions include snack bars, large common areas with heated floors and massage chairs, flat-screen TVs, PC rooms, sleeping quarters and the actual sauna. Jjimjilbangs are a popular activity for entire families, groups of teenagers, groups of women or men, and couples.

So Wednesday was my first time going to one of these Korean saunas. I went with my friend Dan from work. As soon as we got there and paid ($8 to get in), we headed toward our respective gender areas of the building. Men and women each have their own floor and then there are several floors where men and women can both go. After I was issued my sauna clothes - a cotton, loose fitting t-shirt and shorts (pink for girls, blue for boys) I went to the women's floor. This consisted of a huge open room with a snack bar, a place to buy hair and body products, lots of mirrors and vanity stations, and lots of lockers. I put my things in a locker and changed into my sauna clothes. Then I headed to the common area to meet Dan. The common area was this huge room with heated floors. There was a snack shop where you could get fruity drinks and healthy snacks. There were some TVs. People were just lying on the floor with cushions under their heads, relaxing, sleeping, or watching TV. There was a group of 5 middle aged women sitting in a circle just chatting and eating oranges. There were also a row of those big, leather massaging recliners. Dan and I headed downstairs to the actual sauna portion. There were 5 sauna rooms of varying heat levels. They looked like this:

The walls and ceilings were made of beautiful stone mosaics and the floors were covered with bamboo mats. There are certain rooms where you can lie on special flat, heated stones or on some kind of gravel. We chose a moderately hot room (49 C/120F). We had each brought a book and they give you these hard pillow things for under your head so we just laid down and read and sweated for as long as we could stand it. After about 15 minutes we went and got mango juice and sat in the massage chairs for a while. We repeated that cycle 2 more times. After an hour of that, we headed off to our respective floors again for the really unique part. After all the sweating, you go shower and bathe. With dozens of other Korean women. No clothing allowed.

American culture doesnt really have any activities where you hang out naked for extended periods of time with members of the same sex. In Korea, it's no big deal and they don't think twice about it. There were women of all ages, just walking around, bathing, showering, talking, watching TV. Not a shred of clothing.

From the women's locker area there is a glass door leading to the women's bath house. This area is large and open and consists of jacuzzis and tubs of varying temperatures, rows of sit down and stand up showers (just open, no stalls or anything), more saunas, heat lamps for lounging under, small swimming pools and massage tables. Two cardinal cultural rules: no bathing suits or clothing of any kind allowed in this room, and ALWAYS shower before getting into a tub or jacuzzi.

After showering and soaking for a while you head back to the locker room area where there are vanity tables stocked with hair dryers, cotton swabs, hair spray, lotions, etc. You clean up, get changed and head back out the way you came in. All in all its an incredibly relaxing experience and if you can get past the culture shock of hanging around with no clothes in front of total strangers, it ends up being a really nice time.

Pyung-Won

That is the Korean word for hospital. How do I know this? Because I went to a "pyung-won" twice on Friday. Thursday I felt sick with flu-like symptoms but, reluctant to use one of my 3 sick days for the year, I went to work anyway. I took lots of medicine throughout the day but I only felt worse and worse. Toward the afternoon I started feeling nauseous and feverish so I left work early and came home and slept. At 1am I woke up and my symptoms were much worse and my fever was making me dizzy and weak. I had already taken a lot of medicine which had obviously not helped and I started having severe abdominal pain so long story short I ended up in the Emergency Room after my friend Dan called an ambulance for me.

The ER was pretty standard (I've only been to the ER once in the States though). Of course everyone stared at me since I was the only white girl. The nurses knew very little English so explaining my symptoms turned into a game of charades. They ended up giving me an IV and x-raying my chest and doing blood work. In the end the ER doctor (who was very helpful and spoke decent English) told me I had an infection in my throat. He told me I should come back around 9am to see the regular doctor.

So I came home and tried to sleep but I still felt just as bad since I hadn't had any relief from my symptoms and I still had a high fever. So I ended up back in the ER at 8:30am where they put me back in a bed and took my temperature which turned out to be 102.5 degrees. At that point I had total numbness in my hands and feet and my whole body was shaking. I don't think I have ever felt so cold.

They did a sonogram of my abdomen and appendix to make sure there were no problems there and that turned out fine. They also took some more blood. The doctor this time was not very helpful and spoke hardly any English. He didn't seem to understand anything I said to him which was frustrating but in the end he prescribed 5 pills for me to take 3 times a day. I came home and took the meds and slept for 8 hours. When I woke up my fever was gone. Saturday I still felt lousy but no fever and today, Sunday, I am feeling so much better.

So I got to experience a Korean hospital. I have now been to a Korean ER more times than I've been to an American ER :-). I was very impressed with the ambulance service which arrived within 5 minutes of being called. Having compared experiences with some friends here, the general opinion seems to be that Korean doctors like to over medicate and tend to make things more serious than they are. In fact, my students are frequently telling me that they went to the hospital that week or that morning for things like headaches, coughs, sore throats, etc. I always thought you only went to the hospital if it was something really serious. Either way, thankfully I am feeling better now and although the hospital here was very nice, I would be more than happy to never have to go back there ever again.

English Diaries

I asked my older students to write me a paragraph during Christmas vacation about what they did. Here are some excerpts:

"For Christmas I get up at 8 o'clock. It's very cold morning. Wow! Amazing! because on the bed two presents there! I ate breakfast and drink orange juice and I went to my room and opened my present box there are 4 Nintendo DS games and Nintendo case so I have very happy Christmas!!!"

"Today is New Year's Day. At last, I'm twelve years old. I'm 5 grade. Many people says, "The study in 5 grade is very hard." Oh no!! I want to speak English very well in this year and study very good and it's very important to everybody. Teacher is speak English very good. Happy New Year teacher!"

"Today is Christmas. It's holiday! My cousins and I went to my aunt's house yesterday. My aunts house is nearly to my house. I went to the movies with my younger brother. The movie's name is 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. This movie is very interesting, fun, thrilling, and absurd. I want to go to the movies many times."

"Today is school and English academy winter vacation. I am very excited and good because school and English academy vacation. I am go to the ski and go to the snow. So I make a snow man and I am snow fighting with my brother. I am very excited."

"Today is Happy Christmas! My family went to my cousin's house because my Uncle is come back from the China. So my family was happy. We ate a duck. It smells good and delicious. Teacher, you are go to teacher's country USA? Wow! You were very happy when you go to the USA? Merry Christmas teacher!"

Back to Korea

I had a wonderful trip back to Korea even though I was flying on New Years Eve and didn't actually get to celebrate New Years since I didn't know when the year actually changed. It was daylight out for the entire flight and we flew over Canada, Alaska, Russia, and China. The weather was so clear I could actually see the ground and I saw some amazing sights. Like glaciers and ice that went on for miles and miles, as far as I could see. And the endless miles of snow-covered mountains in Siberia. The capture doesn't really portray the vastness of the view but here are some pictures.

See the other plane in this one?

I think it took going back to the States to make me realize how much I like living in Korea. I had a truly wonderful visit at home but it made me realize that right now I belong in Korea and I've truly settled here. When I was in the States it was like I was a visitor. I enjoyed that and it was amazing to see my family and friends. Still, the moment I stepped off the plane in Incheon I felt like I was back where I belonged. So I guess somewhere in all of the ups and downs of the first 3 1/2 months here, Korea became home. There will surely be more hard times to come but overall I feel like I've gotten over the initial shock and difficulty of the first few months.