HolyShitKorea!

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Also, for the curious, Mike has posted pictures of our apartment.

Last night I went to a Korean bath house. I am still recovering. Five other ladies from the group and I headed across town via subway to Dragon Hill, a gigantic spa/resort that features a gigantic bath house, plus lots of other salon amenities. Apparently it was on the expensive side, at $10-$12 entry fee (depending on the time of day). The smaller neighborhood bath houses run around $3-$6. Your entry fee gets you access to all of the bathing rooms, showers, and pools, and, since your entry fee is good for 12 hours, you have access to sleeping rooms too.

So there is a men’s elevator and women’s elevator. At the 3rd floor, the door opened on dozens of naked women of all ages, just milling around. We each had keys with numbers on them that corresponded to lockers…we found those and undressed. From there we took our teeny tiny towels (nowhere near big enought to cover us) down to the bathing rooms. You have to shower before entering any of the bathing pools, so we lined up along a low row of mirrors, sat on the stools, and lathered up. Immediately we bacame more comfortable, since there were women all over the place doing the same thing, and paying us no attention. After a while we rinsed and sampled the pools. There were ginseng baths, sea water baths, hot tubs, “event” baths (whatever that means), all at different temperatures, and a cold water bath that you’re supposed to get in every ten minutes or so. We spent most of our time on the outside deck, well above street level and hidden by a high wall, dipping our feet in the footbath and talking.

The best part by far was the massage. At Dragon Hill the cost was about $30, but it’s less at smaller places. I got up on a long, vinyl-covered table, and a strong old lady in lacy black underwear began to rub me down. She had exfoliating mits on her hands and, in a very business-like way, she removed every inch of dead skin from my body. Then she soaped me off and made me get up to rinse. Then it was back on the table for an oil massage (lavender-scented) from head to toe, which included weird cupped-hand slaps all over. Then she spun me around like a huge slippery top (couldn’t quit laughing at that point), and washed my hair for me. This was by no means a private experience. We were at the far end of the bathing room, and I was at one of four tables like this. The rest of them were full, and the ajummas who were massaging us were yelling and joking with each other. Somehow, it was still restfull and my skin has never been this soft.

I’m definitely going to make a habit of this.

Do yourselves a favor and don’t ever see this movie. It was mandatory for Korea Kamp and I want my two hours back.

On a more positive note, Donghae looks incredible. It’s beaches and mountains, exactly what I was hoping for. I cannot wait to get there, and I’m rapidly losing patience with here. Today’s lectures actually featured activities that I felt I could use, thankfully. At this point, I feel really confident and much more antsy than apprehensive. I’m anxious to get into the classroom. Of course, I’ll probably be smacked back down a few times, but I feel like I’ve got some decent ideas. After brain-storming with some other lovely Gangwon-do teachers I think I’ve come up with several solid lesson plans. I’ve got some props that I need to put together, and I’m hoping I can find all the stuff once I get to school. Supposedly, some schools have a substantial budget for English teaching (this being a government program, and all). I may actually put the plans up here, if anybody is interested, and maybe some photos. More on that later.

I witnessed something really lovely on campus today. I should preface this story with a quick description of the university. It reminds me a lot of MSU in that it covers a lot of acreage and is very green. There are well-landscaped alcoves around various modern-art pieces and inexcplicable statues. In spite of having fewer cars - or maybe because if that - it feels vibrant and busy.  In the past few days alone I’ve seen an open-air salsa lesson, a Japanese-Korean music exchange, and some giant hot-air baloons proclaiming a job fair (in English) just walking between class and the dorms. Tonight, after dinner, I was headed to this great clump of trees trained to form a canopy over some benches that overlook the lake, and found a band of Korean students playing Radiohead and Oasis on the lakeshore. There was a rockstar of a girl playing guitar and a skinny frontman who kept joking about being able to sing but not speak in English. After a few songs, they judged the crowd big enough and made room for a guy who begged us not to leave because he was going to serenade his girlfriend. The girl in question was pushed to the front of the crowd and stood there giggling while her boyfriend sang a song to her in Korean. Then she was seated on a stool with her back to us and the boyfriend sang “Close to You.” While this was going on, members of the band walked around and handed out roses, asking each of us to bring a rose to the girlfriend during the song. By the end, she had a huge bouquet and was tearing up. According to the friends, the couple has been together for eight years. I wanted to stick around and see if he was going to propose, but another mandatory meeting beckoned. Ah well. Have a photo.

Hmm…you know what I said about there being no ice-breaker activities? Well we came extremely close today. My patience was tried but we did have several incredibly informative speakers. We had a talk regarding various Korean customs (never fill your own glass, give and accept things with two hands), one on the experiences of an American teacher (lots of complaints, seemed very negative for strange reasons), one by a middle school English teacher (gave complaints about past co-teachers she has had and filmed testimonials of her students), and one energetic but mis-timed extravaganza by a passionate British teacher. I’m already sick of lectures, but I was reminded today that my program acts as a buffer between foreign teachers and their Provincial Offices of Education. Teachers that have been recruited directly by their POEs get no orientation at all. I can’t help but feel grateful. At the very least, this orientation will make me anxious to get to my new placement…

Which I just received tonight!!! We weren’t expecting to hear anything definite until Friday (and some people still won’t), but tonight Mike and I were given a post in Donghae, Gangwon-do. I will be teaching in a co-ed middle school, funded (but not run, exactly) by the Seventh Day Adventists. I have been assured that I will not be expected to convert or evangelize in any way. Mike will be teaching at a nearby all-boys middle school. Our town is on the coast, and in a very mountainous area near one of the national parks. The population is around 90,00. I could not be more pleased.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, I thought I would include some photos of my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as a photo of some of the kitchen staff who made it happen. They giggled and fixed each others’ aprons and hats before posing for me, and when I finally showed them the picture they proclaimed it “beautiful!” This has been a good day.

Here safe in Seoul, Korea! It was a long trip and a hectic night of arrival, but I was honestly impressed with our program’s ability to manage the amount of teachers flying in that day. We did a bit of waiting around but were quickly installed safely in our dormrooms with our color-coded t-shirts. It all feels a bit like summer camp and I tend to have little patience for this kind of thing (no forced ice-breakers, THANK GOD), but the leader-to-newbie ratio is small enough that you can get some questions answered. Otherwise, a lot of our time has been filled up with speeches and videos. I was surprised by how political this program seems to be…lots of emphasis on globalization and “nurturing global leaders.”

One huge benefit of Korea Kamp is that I’ve been able to spend time getting to know some fellow teachers. Everyone I’ve met that’s heading to Gangwon-do has been amazing so far…we seem to have a lot in common (which, granted, may be only that we’re all wearing matching bright pink shirts). I will definitely be good to know a few people in the area. Some of us ventured out into the rain today in search of coffee and wrist watches…you can see photos at http://mike.sapak.info and not here, because I forgot my camera. Hopefully more photos to come.

Tomorrow I’m told that tomorrow we’ll have interviews with some representatives from Gangwon-do to help decide our placements. I’ve heard a lot about Chuncheon, which sounds gorgeous, but it’s very popular and a lot of teachers are hoping for that one. It looks like maybe I’ll have to be the bigger person here and settle for the beach.