You know you live in Korea when you seek out the toilets that warm themselves...

As some of you may know (or not know), Korea gets cold during the winter season.  Like really cold (think Wisconsin cold with the winds).  It is made even worse by the fact that the heat is rarely on, especially at school.  I completely understand saving energy but when people have to put their coats on to go to the bathroom inside, it is a bit much.  I will say the teachers room is usually warm, so I cannot really complain too much.  But I hate going to the bathroom.  Both the bathroom and hallways are not heated, anywhere in Korea!  (Well sometimes the bathroom is but still)  Going to the bathroom feels like you are entering the frozen tundra, and the toilet seat is an icicle.  It is made even worse by the fact that the window in the bathroom is almost always open (I mean I understand, we don't want stinky bathroom smell).

The bathrooms in the high school do not have any of the self warming toilets but the college does.  On the second and first floors.  I had to go to the bathroom after class.  Normally I would wait until I got back to the high school (which is where my office is located) to go to the bathroom but I knew I wanted the warm toilet seat.  Pathetic much!  So I went down to the second floor and used the bathroom.  Moral of the story, you know you live in Korea when you seek out the self warming toilets. 

I also have to note that my school is pretty good about keeping windows shut.  I have heard horror stories of co-teachers or Korean teachers having the heating on full blast and then opening a window to let in cold air.  Which defeats the purpose of having the heat on.  Although the windows are almost always shut (except the bathroom), the doors are another story.  For some reason, closing a door seems to not be possible.  My students do it when I have the heat on and they are coming into the language lab, and at least one of the doors to enter the high school is almost always open.  The hallways are already cold, why make it worse. 

I truly love Korea but man do I wish they could get the heating thing figured out.

Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving was a huge success.  A lot of people came, including some teachers from my school.  It was wonderful.  Here are pictures from the day, including my dog, who everyone wanted to take home with them.  HA!  It was a really good day and a wonderful Thanksgiving.

These are just random pictures from the day.  The people, the food, and the laughter.  It was great!

Finally, these last few shots are of me cooking or the food.  I made the turkey and helped make the egg rolls.  Both came out wonderful!!!

The finished project...TURKEY!!!

Thanksgiving and a Korean Wedding

This weekend is going to be super busy.  First, Saturday is the waygook Thanksgiving party and I am making the Turkey.  Sunday, I am going to my first ever Korean Wedding.  Needless to say.  This weekend is going to be crazy busy but a lot of fun.

Jjimjilbang

So I have finally done it, I have gone to a jjimjilbang!  Jjimjilbangs are public bathhouses, where you can do a variety of different bathing things and sleep and just chill.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang)  They are super popular here and I had some time to kill while I was waiting on my bus back to Yeoju from Seoul.  A friend and I ventured out to find a jjimjilbang because I wanted to get a scrub down.  It was interesting.

First you get completely naked before going into the gender segregated bathing facilities.  So we got naked and went into the sauna.  Once inside you see that nobody has any shame and they are all walking around naked and just chilling in these baths. (think Roman bath houses)  The baths range from room temperature to super hot (at least this bath house, some have even colder baths).  And there were two different saunas, one wood sauna and one stone sauna.  Before you can enjoy the baths and saunas however, you have to clean yourself at the shower area.  Just like you should at a public pool.  It was awesome.  We hung out for a bit and just chilled.

The interesting part however was not the fact that I was in a completely naked area with other women but the scrub down I received from an ajumma.  First everyone is naked except for the ladies who are working in the sauna.  They are in their underwear, sometimes only underwear and no bra.  Well the lady who gave me a scrub down was in a see through black number, that kind of defeated the purpose of having it on but whatever.  Anyways, the scrub down was awesome.  This ajumma basically wears these gloves and rubs your body down to take the dead skin off of you.  And when I say rubs you down, I mean it.  Everywhere, expect for your girly parts is rubbed down.  Normally they just give you the scrubbing and then put some oil on you but I paid for a massage too.  It was awesome.  I got all sorts of skin soothers and a nice massage.  After I was done, my skin felt so nice, like a babies bottom.  Totally worth the awkwardness at the beginning.

In total, the place we went to cost about $6 to get into and $35 for the scrub/massage.  It was great and something I will totally be doing again.  I mean who cares about being naked in front of complete strangers.

Haircut

So here is a picture of my haircut and it straightened.  A lot of people commented on it.  I was even called innocent by one of the female teachers.  She said "you always look cute but today you look innocent."  I laughed because she obviously doesn't know me very well.  ;)  But it was nice.  

 

Haircut

I finally did it.  For the past week I have been saying I need to get my hair cut and I finally ventured into a hair salon to get it done.  This is a huge achievement for me.  1. because I did it alone and it was one of the first things I have done by myself and 2. I have been going to the same hair stylist forever.  Partially because I am scared of getting my haircut and partially because she is great.  (I have only cried and hated her haircut once: Pixie cuts are not for me!!!)

It was a strange experience for me.  They washed my hair, which is the worst part of getting your haircut.  I have never liked having other people wash my hair.  It is strange and just feels weird.  Then I was told to wait for the guy who was going to cut my hair.  They did not condition my hair, which seemed strange considering I have super curly hair and it is obviously super dry.  Anyways.  Once I sat down my hair was all but dry and the guy just starts cutting.  Well after he showed me how much he wanted to cut off and I looked at him in horror.  We are talking about 5 or 6 inches and I only wanted 1 or 2 inches.  It worked out in the end.  But the semi-dry hair cut and the way he cut it were interesting and something I was not use to.  However, the finished product was good.

My ends are healthy again and my hair does not look bad.  I do miss Kelly though.  It was funny, when I was talking to Mom via Skype the other day (yes they finally called me!), she commented on how she wishes Kelly was in Korea with me because my eyebrows could use some work too.  So funny.  My eyebrows are fine and most Koreans keep saying that they are good eyebrows.  I needed to tweeze though, so I guess I get where she was coming from.

Overall the experience wasn't bad and I will probably go back to this guy!

Homesick???

Today has kind of sucked majorly.  I have not talked to anyone from home in such a long time.  Partially because I am busy but also because they have missed the set Skype date sessions.  My parents did not talk to me for an entire 2 weeks.  (I am supposed to talk to them tonight but we will see if that happens)  Because of not having contact with anyone from back home in such a long time, I felt isolated for the first time in Korea.  I miss my family.  I do not really miss America, I mean I love Korea.  However, not talking to people sucks.  Yes, there is a huge time difference.  When I am waking up, everyone is going to bed, and when I am going to bed, everyone is waking up.  It sucks!

I guess I am just homesick, well kind of and I needed to get it off of my chest.  Hopefully I will talk to my parents tonight and that will help but we will have to see about that.

Tuesday Weirdness

Tuesdays are my longest days during the week, with a total of 5 classes in the day (which isn't bad in comparison to some other NETs: Native English Teacher).  Today was a bit weird though.  The morning started off completely normal.  My 3 classes went by in a flash and it was lunch time.  Something must have been in the lunch because that is when the weirdness started.

First I was sitting with a group of teachers (like I always do) and one of them asked me what I felt when I met another teacher at the walking street.  I was so confused, until the teacher explained that the teacher I saw was embarrassed and that is why he didn't say much.  I asked said teacher why he was embarrassed and he said "my English is poor, so I am embarrassed to talk."  Which makes total sense, because most people are scared to talk to native English speakers.  However, the group got on his case and said "oh, don't lie"..."why are you lying."  (all in Korean btw)  When one of my co-teachers (Mr. Park) says, "he wasn't embarrassed by his English, he was embarrassed because you are a beautiful girl and that is scary to talk to."  I couldn't stop from smiling, this poor man was being made fun of for being scared of me because he thought I was cute.  It was just weird for me because they never make fun of the other teachers for saying I am beautiful or anything like that.  I think they just wanted to make fun of him (obviously in a playful manner)?

The next weird thing happened twice.  During my 5th period class (which is right after lunch), I had a student try to hug me.  Not once but twice.  The first time I thought nothing of it because it looked like he was just messing around, but the second time he was like "teacher, hug!" and I told him "No."  It was fine, but a bit strange.  I really would have thought nothing of this because the kid has a tendency to be a bit of a wild one but another student asked for a hug on my way to the college teach during 6th period (he is in the special education classes and I do not have him in class at all).  It was really strange because he said "teacher, hug!" and again I told him "No" but this time he asked me why.  It was bizarre.  I have had girls come up and hug me or pet my hair but the boys have been pretty hands off.  For some reason today they wanted to hug me.

Overall it was a strange day.  Maybe the stress of the upcoming exam is getting to everyone at the school?  Even those who aren't taking the exam.

A beautiful day in Yeoju!!!

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Korea and I happened to take a little walk around the park and over the bridge.  It was beautiful and the colors were amazing.  Here are some pretty shots of the season changing and the walk!  Enjoy!

Laundry Flooding...

So on Saturday my apartment floor flooded.  I was doing laundry (my towels) and while I was in the shower, the piping clogged or something and caused water to over flow into my apartment and onto my floor.  My bed is on the floor and got soaked.  It was a mess.  Because this is a small town I could only clean up the mess and wait until today to have someone come out and look at it.  It was horrible.  I was without a bed for the past 2 days and I had water on a bunch of stuff.  Needless to say I spent most of the weekend cleaning up after the problem.  However, today some people came out and fixed the issue (hopefully).  I just need to be careful when doing laundry next time, to make sure it doesn't happen again.