So tonight I went with Lexi and her friend from back home Emily to our first time at a Jimjilbang. Which, in short, is a Korean bathhouse/ spa of sorts. We went to one that was huge! I've heard many a story about these places (many of which much funnier than my experience!) but here's what I got.
First, it took forever to find the place. We are walking through the snow, getting pointed in all kinds of directions and finally go in a big circle before we find the building. Then we go in the elevator, no 7th floor, where its supposed to be. We go to the 6th floor and walk up the stairs... hmmm this isn't right. Storage closets and its all dark. Finally a kind Korean girl shows us to an elevator on the other side of the building.
So we get in, pay out 8,000 won (about 8 bucks) and go to lockers where we change into our flattering pink pajamas (photos soon to come thanks to Lex) and so we wander. Not sure where to go, what to do. All the signs are in Korean save the ones that say "Women's this" and "Men's that" sort of thing... plus at this point I've put my glasses in the locker. After a blind confused trip around the labyrinth we finally decide to go lock our pjs up and venture out in the nude to where all the spas and saunas are.
So in we go. I will describe this scene to you. We hop in a large shallow hot tub that is right next to 2 others in the center of this big room. I'll do a 360 view for you. First on the left I see rows of shower stations. Low sinks with shower heads attached and "stools" which were little more than upside down buckets with a butt shape on top to sit on. Women of all ages are shampooing and scrubbing. On the right, similar scene only over there, there is a woman that looks like she is covered in blood Carry style. I eventually realize its some sort of body scrub as she begins scrubbing it on another woman. Next comes the saunas... nothing too crazy there. And next to that are the cold water tanks. This is where most of the little girls are swimming around and playing. Not shy at all about hugging and running and hanging around nude. Last on my eyes venture around the room I see massage tables with a price list hanging starting at about 15 bucks. A woman is naked, getting a massage from a naked ajuma (older woman). Uh huh... why exactly does the massager have to be naked as well? I've heard many stories about this... apparently that's just how it goes in the Jimjilbang.
So that of course is all the woman's area. We hang around there dipping in the tanks, spas, and saunas. There were about 10 or so total all with different temperatures displayed on digital clock type things. One group of little girls began following us around. Trying to hide it at first and eventually saying hi, giggling, and talking about us in Korean staring right at us. "Amma (mom)," one calls in Korean to her mother, "We said hi to the foreigners!"
After we get too hot and pruney and dehydrated to go one, we wander around the coed pajamaed areas. There is a huge floor to sleep on and watch movies on matts. Though there are also several sleeping areas that are more secluded, and also people pretty much sleeping where ever they pleased, including upstairs near the gym (which was closed for the night). There were snack bars, restaurants, DVD rental to use on one of the many TVs.
We each bought an ice cream and took advantage of the 2,000 won massage chairs. They went for a while and actually did a pretty decent job!
There were 5 little rooms to go in, a few of which had a theme. One was shaped and decorated like an igloo and was really cold inside with 2 fake snowmen. One room was slightly less cold with a TV inside. The next was shaped like a pyramid and had these rocks you could lay in which we later figured out were or included a lot of salt (thanks to the gash in my finger suddenly throbbing in pain). The last 2 were unbearably hot. I felt like Goldilocks trying out all the rooms. Too hot. Too cold. The Eygptian one with the salt rocks was definitely just right. And I felt like a little kid when I used to play in my dad's rock paths in the back yard.
And so it goes. My first time naked in front of people. It wasn't so bad. I want to go back again, especially since its so cold outside! Maybe go early enough to take advantage of the gym next time!
Japan blog soon to come. And one day my Chusok blog from back in October. I swear I'm not letting that one go. It'll get done eventually!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
So tonight was the performance of Handel's Messiah! It went swimmingly well. The church was pretty full, the soloists and orchestra sounded beautiful, and save a few trip ups, the choir totally rocked it. For those of you back home who don't quite get it (as my friends here didn't either) this was a legitimate concert. Orchestra, organist, conductor, professional soloists, and us... the choir. Haha... a couple pros, a couple music majors, and then the rest of us amateurs. :) A few ambassadors came including the ambassadors from America, South Africa, and Ghana. The whole place was buzzing after the concert about how we made the American ambassador cry at the end. Glorious. Ryan, the choir director who put this all together is trying to start a music company and this was the first show to see if he could really make it happen. I think it most certainly can. In fact already has.
Highlight of the night for me, singing Hallelujah. (typical) The lights were up in the whole place, (not even dimmed at all) the whole show so I could see everyone's face in the crowd; something I'm not accustomed to when performing. People were falling asleep, looking like they were dying, bored, etc. (some of the worst ones didn't come back after intermission.) It was rather discouraging so I started this game of searching for the people that were actually enjoying it and that was really nice to find the ones that were. Some just had this pleasant smile the whole show. But after Hallelujah, smiles all around. Big smiles. I almost started crying (I'm such a crier). It all made sense at that moment. I'll admit I thought about quitting a few times. I have very precious time away from work and schelpping myself about an hour by subway to reherse for 4 hours and home again an hour every Saturday (and over 8 hours for our 2 intensive rehersals... though I missed a few rehearsals so I can't complain too much) using my break time at work to study music (and admittedly still not totally learning all of the last song, woops) I was like ahh. Why am I doing this to myself!? But then after Hallelujah... That moment happened where it clicks and you actually make the desensitized masses excited for a moment over music. That is the song they sit through the rest of the show to see.
9 people came on my behalf and I'm so grateful. Wish all of my friends and family back home could have seen it but I was glad to have my Korea family there. :) Much thanks!
There was an audio recording of the show, and probably some photos to come too but I just wanted to write about it now before I forgot. Now I'm going to rest my poor tonsilitis throat (perfect timing huh? started a week and a half ago) and sleep the night and day away. That was fun but I'm so glad it's over! Back to my music stuff (well I didn't stop but more practice now!) and maybe studying some Korean again!
앗싸!!
Highlight of the night for me, singing Hallelujah. (typical) The lights were up in the whole place, (not even dimmed at all) the whole show so I could see everyone's face in the crowd; something I'm not accustomed to when performing. People were falling asleep, looking like they were dying, bored, etc. (some of the worst ones didn't come back after intermission.) It was rather discouraging so I started this game of searching for the people that were actually enjoying it and that was really nice to find the ones that were. Some just had this pleasant smile the whole show. But after Hallelujah, smiles all around. Big smiles. I almost started crying (I'm such a crier). It all made sense at that moment. I'll admit I thought about quitting a few times. I have very precious time away from work and schelpping myself about an hour by subway to reherse for 4 hours and home again an hour every Saturday (and over 8 hours for our 2 intensive rehersals... though I missed a few rehearsals so I can't complain too much) using my break time at work to study music (and admittedly still not totally learning all of the last song, woops) I was like ahh. Why am I doing this to myself!? But then after Hallelujah... That moment happened where it clicks and you actually make the desensitized masses excited for a moment over music. That is the song they sit through the rest of the show to see.
9 people came on my behalf and I'm so grateful. Wish all of my friends and family back home could have seen it but I was glad to have my Korea family there. :) Much thanks!
There was an audio recording of the show, and probably some photos to come too but I just wanted to write about it now before I forgot. Now I'm going to rest my poor tonsilitis throat (perfect timing huh? started a week and a half ago) and sleep the night and day away. That was fun but I'm so glad it's over! Back to my music stuff (well I didn't stop but more practice now!) and maybe studying some Korean again!
앗싸!!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Teaching Moments
Just felt compelled to write real quick blog about a couple little moments I've had teaching in the last few weeks. This week and last I've really been trying to slow down, forget about how much I work, and all the stress, and try to enjoy where I am right now. It's easy to get worked up, stressed out, and miss things in life.
In my kindie class the other day one of my students spilled her water on the table while doing her work. I rushed to get tissues to clean it up and scold her for not closing the lid and she begins to play in it with this huge smile on her face and exclaims "Pretty!" It reminded me of all the times and ways I looked at water and how it moved. Especially long car rides in the rain. I could stare forever at the little pellets of water and how they raced off the edges of my view as the car moved. And I thought... wow why is water such a big deal in such the opposite way now? Why is it always such a "mess" or an annoyance when it used to be so fun and beautiful?
I later in a book store I wandered to by following my instincts (a whole nother story) read a good portion of the follow of book to "Who Moved My Cheese?" called "The Present" and in it an old man was trying to explain to this boy as he's growing over the years what the present is. And he asked the child, as an adult, about a task he had performed. The boy described mowing the lawn and how he really enjoyed it being outside and trimming tight corners, and just the overall feeling of success after a job well done. The old man tried to explain that that is why he was happy. He was completely focused on the now and what he was currently doing at that time.
Seems so simple but I'm trying to adapt that to my life now.
The other moment I wanted to talk about came today. Mondays and Fridays are my worst as far as packed schedules, and rowdy classes. Well in my afternoon class of my oldest kids (pre-middle school) I had only 2 out of the 3 girls today (the one missing being the most talkative of the 3). The last 5 minutes or so of class we were done and they got out their books for the next class to study and one of the vocab words was "rude". So I went to grab my notepad of Korean words and phrases to jot it down because its one I always want at hand to explain to a student when they are not being respectful. In any case one girl took an interest (as they do every time I have it in class) in my notepad and flipped through it, correcting mistakes and explaining things here and there about Korean. Then she said "Teacher you are..." and quickly grabbed her phone to use the dictionary. She showed it to me and it said something like "dedicated to study" and a few other definitions. I said yes... and she confided pointing at herself "Me too. With Japanese." I was baffled... "You go to another hagwon (private academy)?" No, she studies by herself, and made a gesture that kind of made me realize that was part of the meaning of the word she had attempted to translate for me.
It didn't really sink in until later what that meant for her to study on her own. She doesn't leave my school until 8:20 MWF, much later than me, and probably starts studying earlier than I go to school and comes home to mountains of homework. Not to mention regular exams to study for. Where does she find the time? Where does she have the passion left to teach herself something on top of the piles of information squashed into her head every day? I think it was a really nice moment. Its good to show the kids that we are kind of the same in some ways. I think the kids that are old enough to get it appreciate the fact that I'm studying and trying to learn a difficult and foreign language too and I'm not just sitting up on a high horse beacuse I know English. I know teachers are not supposed to try and be friends with students, but we are supposed to be humans.
Today was great. It was a coteacher's birthday and we all went to her house for cake and champagne (though I didn't partake in the latter) and talked about life and politics and cultures. We were so invloved it took the clock going to 12:59 for us all to realize... wow. Time to work tomorrow.
anyway. Just wanted to share!
In my kindie class the other day one of my students spilled her water on the table while doing her work. I rushed to get tissues to clean it up and scold her for not closing the lid and she begins to play in it with this huge smile on her face and exclaims "Pretty!" It reminded me of all the times and ways I looked at water and how it moved. Especially long car rides in the rain. I could stare forever at the little pellets of water and how they raced off the edges of my view as the car moved. And I thought... wow why is water such a big deal in such the opposite way now? Why is it always such a "mess" or an annoyance when it used to be so fun and beautiful?
I later in a book store I wandered to by following my instincts (a whole nother story) read a good portion of the follow of book to "Who Moved My Cheese?" called "The Present" and in it an old man was trying to explain to this boy as he's growing over the years what the present is. And he asked the child, as an adult, about a task he had performed. The boy described mowing the lawn and how he really enjoyed it being outside and trimming tight corners, and just the overall feeling of success after a job well done. The old man tried to explain that that is why he was happy. He was completely focused on the now and what he was currently doing at that time.
Seems so simple but I'm trying to adapt that to my life now.
The other moment I wanted to talk about came today. Mondays and Fridays are my worst as far as packed schedules, and rowdy classes. Well in my afternoon class of my oldest kids (pre-middle school) I had only 2 out of the 3 girls today (the one missing being the most talkative of the 3). The last 5 minutes or so of class we were done and they got out their books for the next class to study and one of the vocab words was "rude". So I went to grab my notepad of Korean words and phrases to jot it down because its one I always want at hand to explain to a student when they are not being respectful. In any case one girl took an interest (as they do every time I have it in class) in my notepad and flipped through it, correcting mistakes and explaining things here and there about Korean. Then she said "Teacher you are..." and quickly grabbed her phone to use the dictionary. She showed it to me and it said something like "dedicated to study" and a few other definitions. I said yes... and she confided pointing at herself "Me too. With Japanese." I was baffled... "You go to another hagwon (private academy)?" No, she studies by herself, and made a gesture that kind of made me realize that was part of the meaning of the word she had attempted to translate for me.
It didn't really sink in until later what that meant for her to study on her own. She doesn't leave my school until 8:20 MWF, much later than me, and probably starts studying earlier than I go to school and comes home to mountains of homework. Not to mention regular exams to study for. Where does she find the time? Where does she have the passion left to teach herself something on top of the piles of information squashed into her head every day? I think it was a really nice moment. Its good to show the kids that we are kind of the same in some ways. I think the kids that are old enough to get it appreciate the fact that I'm studying and trying to learn a difficult and foreign language too and I'm not just sitting up on a high horse beacuse I know English. I know teachers are not supposed to try and be friends with students, but we are supposed to be humans.
Today was great. It was a coteacher's birthday and we all went to her house for cake and champagne (though I didn't partake in the latter) and talked about life and politics and cultures. We were so invloved it took the clock going to 12:59 for us all to realize... wow. Time to work tomorrow.
anyway. Just wanted to share!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Song and some back woes
For those that say I haven't written in a while. A big blog is coming up sometime... I'm not sure when... but its coming. Have to write about my island trip and Halloween! Lots of photos.
Fools in Love by Inara George.
I smile cus I mess up... but since you can't even hear the guitar it doesn't much matter hmmm? I bought this external mike so you wouldn't hear all the computer buzzing and I thought it was working but now the buzzing is still there. Oh well, on with the song!
Ok I'll write a bit since the video is taking forever to load...
So I've been having some back issues. I went to an acupuncturist for the first time. Which is a big deal for those of you that know me. I'm scared of needles. It wasn't so bad. I bit my lip for the first 2 and then the rest just kind of pinched a little as I imagined myself floating on that infamous air mattress down on the river... ahhh. But before all that I just layed on this hot bed for a while with suction cups going at my back. The one on my arm tickled and I was just laughing by myself in my little curtain room. I went 3 times and after no improvement decided to try something else.
So off to the orthopedic doctor. Some x-rays and telling him my symptoms and well... he thinks its my neck. I happen to disagree, especially since he didn't even bother to x-ray where my back is hurting because he ALREADY decided it was my neck. He told me to stretch and exercise and prescribed me some pain killers and muscle relaxers (chill out parents its only for 3 days and to be honest I don't feel any different after taking them, perhaps they are sugar...) and phsyical therapy. I did one session and decided it was all bullox. More hot beds only this one had these poundy thingies that shook me up and they put these air boots on my feet to squeeze them up real good. Then more suction cups. I'm beginning to see a pattern. Not my idea of phsycial therapy, seeing as no one ever actually touched me or showed me how to stretch or sit right. McTherapy. A few hot beds are cheaper than a staff that actualy *gasp* works with a patient.
So after all that I just ended up feeling like a baked potato or perhaps tenderized meat, and still no improvement. I'm just gunna stretch and exercise myself. The internet says the leading cause of upper back problems is muscle atrophy in people that sit at computers all day. Check on that one. Also might try a chiropractor or massage, probably both.
First it was my throat. Then my stomach. Back to the throat. Now my back. It seems I have a traveling health issue going on months. Apparently the stress has gotta go somewhere. I can't see there being much improvement until this year is up. I'm trying my best to destress but Korean work ethic isn't really designed for that. In fact quite the opposite...
Dreaming of getting back to the USA having some long tour in my little car stopping at farms and riding my bike, chilling on the beach, seeing friends and family. Ahhh...
Fools in Love by Inara George.
I smile cus I mess up... but since you can't even hear the guitar it doesn't much matter hmmm? I bought this external mike so you wouldn't hear all the computer buzzing and I thought it was working but now the buzzing is still there. Oh well, on with the song!
Ok I'll write a bit since the video is taking forever to load...
So I've been having some back issues. I went to an acupuncturist for the first time. Which is a big deal for those of you that know me. I'm scared of needles. It wasn't so bad. I bit my lip for the first 2 and then the rest just kind of pinched a little as I imagined myself floating on that infamous air mattress down on the river... ahhh. But before all that I just layed on this hot bed for a while with suction cups going at my back. The one on my arm tickled and I was just laughing by myself in my little curtain room. I went 3 times and after no improvement decided to try something else.
So off to the orthopedic doctor. Some x-rays and telling him my symptoms and well... he thinks its my neck. I happen to disagree, especially since he didn't even bother to x-ray where my back is hurting because he ALREADY decided it was my neck. He told me to stretch and exercise and prescribed me some pain killers and muscle relaxers (chill out parents its only for 3 days and to be honest I don't feel any different after taking them, perhaps they are sugar...) and phsyical therapy. I did one session and decided it was all bullox. More hot beds only this one had these poundy thingies that shook me up and they put these air boots on my feet to squeeze them up real good. Then more suction cups. I'm beginning to see a pattern. Not my idea of phsycial therapy, seeing as no one ever actually touched me or showed me how to stretch or sit right. McTherapy. A few hot beds are cheaper than a staff that actualy *gasp* works with a patient.
So after all that I just ended up feeling like a baked potato or perhaps tenderized meat, and still no improvement. I'm just gunna stretch and exercise myself. The internet says the leading cause of upper back problems is muscle atrophy in people that sit at computers all day. Check on that one. Also might try a chiropractor or massage, probably both.
First it was my throat. Then my stomach. Back to the throat. Now my back. It seems I have a traveling health issue going on months. Apparently the stress has gotta go somewhere. I can't see there being much improvement until this year is up. I'm trying my best to destress but Korean work ethic isn't really designed for that. In fact quite the opposite...
Dreaming of getting back to the USA having some long tour in my little car stopping at farms and riding my bike, chilling on the beach, seeing friends and family. Ahhh...
Monday, October 12, 2009
Just some self portraits
Did these today and figured I'd post them.
I have 2 blogs I for sure need to write. One of which is my Chusok Trip blog that will def rival, if not top the Temple Stay blog for massive amounts of photos.
Anywhere here they are:
Oh and here are a couple polaroids from the day I met with photographer Saeho Kim who also cut my hair:
I have 2 blogs I for sure need to write. One of which is my Chusok Trip blog that will def rival, if not top the Temple Stay blog for massive amounts of photos.
Anywhere here they are:
Oh and here are a couple polaroids from the day I met with photographer Saeho Kim who also cut my hair:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Quick Pre-Chusok Blog
In other news. I saw an odd occurrence on the subway that was very subtle. See, here there are a lot of young couples here that like to wear matching clothes. It's pretty ridiculous, especially because they are usually awful or really girly. I saw a couple wearing pink shirts with some sort of giant animal face on the front once. Also saw a couple once wearing matching pants... and they were really tight even for the girl. In any case this morning I saw what I thought was an older couple matching on the subway. Like... grandma age and I thought... how odd. The old matching couples are more rare. Then the man caught sight of the woman I think because he walked to the other end of the subway car. They weren't together after all! They just happened to be standing in the same spot of the subway car with the same exact shirt on. I can't imagine the odds of that...
I might be the only one that finds this amusing but that's ok. It's my blog.
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