Dancing Queens

Our school has an English concert every year for the kindergarteners. My class is performing Dancing Queen by Abba. They sing and dance and will wear fantastic costumes. The concert is in February but we have been rehearsing. Here is a video of one of our rehearsals. Most people on facebook have already seen this but I wanted to share it with those who are not. Enjoy!

Vacation Week 3

To the left is Jimjilbang. The red symbol that looks like a hot bowl of soup means jimjilbang.

As promised, I am here to talk about Jimjilbang. Jimjilbang is amazing. Jimjilbang is why it is great to be a Korean. I think that Jimjilbang translates to sauna room or something like that. Bang is room. Jimjil must mean awesome.

A few weeks ago, some of my friends went to Jimjilbang together but I declined to go because I just wasn't ready for public nudity. I decided that the first time I should go by myself. It might have helped to have a Korean with me but I am glad that I got to experience it on my own. Being naked with strangers is a lot easier than being naked with people you know and work with, right?

The jimjilbang I selected was right down the street from me. When you arrive, you pay 6,ooo won and they give you shorts, a shirt, and 2 hand towels. It's open 24 hours and there is a sleeping area so I suppose you could just stay there forever if someone brought you food (actually they might have had some food and drinks there but if you are living at the jimjilbang, you probably can't afford to be buying all of your food like that.) They give you a locker for your shoes and a second locker for your clothes. Once you disrobe you, you go into the bath area. Every jimjilbang is different but this one was great. There was a steam room which I sat in for a long time, a "kiln" that I couldn't stand for very long and a 3rd door which I didn't see until I had decided to leave and taken my final shower so "I'll have to get back to ya" on that. Then there were the baths. The had them labeled by temperature (Celsius). The biggest one was hot and wonderful. There were jets and waterfalls of water that you could put your back to. There was also a cold one and a warm one. A lot of the children were in the warm one and they were splashing. Now I normally don't like public pools and this would seem like its even worse- a public bath!- but I just loved it. It was so relaxing and there was a shower area where you could see everyone cleaning themselves before getting in the bath, which was reassuring.

Then there was an area where they would scrub you or give you facials. I got a full body scrub which kind of hurt intensely but I feel like I would do it again. The best thing was afterwards when they rinsed you with hot water. It really felt good to have all of that new skin. New year, new skin. So I spent a few amazing hours at jimjilbang on New Years Day and I am looking forward to going back. It was really amazing. The rest of my vacation was good and fun as well.

A Poem by Rooney

First of all, let me point out my new classy blog layout. This is, in part, thanks to Dore because she told me that I could actually change my layout without being a computer genius web designer and she also told me about the website where I found such a cute layout: http://www.thecutestblogontheblock.com/


OK So I know I said I was going to do a 3rd installment of my Vacation Week blog and I will still do that soon but I just wanted to post this real quick.





Because I teach at a hagwon, which is like supplementary school that the parents sign the kids up for and pay for, we tend to lose and gain students all of the time. When I got back to school today, I realized that one of my favorites was gone. This kid was not a great student and sometimes he was a pain but he was funny. He was in this class of 5 boys that are probably in their early teens. This class is sometimes hilarious, often frustrating, and never goes as planned. A recent unit in our book was on poetry (Why are we teaching poetry to a bunch of teenage boys who are still trying to learn English?). They were being difficult around that time so I extended the unit by making them write more poems, stand up and read their poems out loud in front of the class (my own form of torture) and, finally, rewriting their poems with my corrections and illustrating them. I threatened to hang them all up in the hallway, but in the end, I only hung one up above my desk. The following poem "The Bear is Terrible" is by Rooney. The illustrations are wonderful and I really hope you can see them clearly in the photo.

The bear is terrible

The bear is scary

The bear sees people and thinks they are cute

The people die

Vacation Week 2

This week I also went to the DMZ and the war memorial in one day. When I type it, I know it sounds like a pretty heavy day but I had fun (and on the way home I bought shoes in the subway for 10,000 won!). To go to the DMZ, I had to get up REALLY early. For anyone, it would have been early but for me it was not much later than when I normally drift asleep. Side note- That morning I went to the ATM for some extra cash, thought I was getting 30,000 won but ended up with 300,000 won! oops. Anyway, I went to the DMZ with a small group of friends, and friends of friends. On the tour bus, the tour guide told us some interesting stories about Koreans. Sometimes I couldn't hear her but one was about how Korean women never let their boyfriends see them without makeup until they are married and that's why there are honeymoon divorces in Korea. Funny right? She also told us about her friend that had the surgery on her eyes that Koreans sometimes get during school vacation in high school but that it was messed up and she looked weird for years while she saved money to get it fixed. Then eventually she got married to a man who had big eyes but then they had a baby and the baby had her eyes! So right after the baby was born, the lady started saving money for his surgery. She also talked a little bit about Kim Jong Il but I couldn't really hear her at all. So anyway, we made a few stops at the DMZ. The first was to the Freedom Bridge and the Peace Bell. It was strange because in the parking lot, there was an amusement park. From the bridge, you could see a train coming from North Korea. There was also what looked like an empty swimming pool. Most of what you could see of North Korea was wilderness.

These were guarding the Freedom Bridge:

The end of the Freedom Bridge was covered in notes from people who were in South Korea to their family members in North Korea. I guess when the border was drawn there were families divided.

And here is the Peace Bell:

There were numbers involved in the design that were all symbolic but I don't remember what they were now. I'm sure anyone who is interested can google it, OR they can visit me in Korea and we can take the DMZ tour together. See? It's a fun place!

I believe our second stop was the tunnel. Tunnel #3. Before we got off the bus, the tour guide told us to make sure we stayed with her so we didn't step on any landmines. These were the most terrifying instructions I had ever heard. We were forbidden from taking photos down there so I have to rely on my memory. Before we went in the tunnel, we were brought into the tunnel museum. We watched a movie that told us what a great, fertile place the DMZ was and how it was a place where animals thrived. It didn't specify what animals were living there among the landmines but I thought it was little humorous.

Then we were told to store our bags and coats in lockers and make sure we put on a hard hat. It had to be a yellow hard hat because the blue ones were for people who were taking some sort of monorail down instead of walking. The tour guide told us that the tunnel had been created by North Korea. It was 1 of maybe 4 that had been found. She said that the North Koreans had initially painted the inside of the tunnel with coal paint and said it was a coal mine. Then they said they didn't build it and that it must have been built by the South Koreans but I guess they could tell from the dynamite marks and water levels that it had been built in a southward direction. So I guess the South Koreans were like we don't believe you but whatever and started doing tours. And once they starting making money, the North Koreans asked for commission because, after all, they had built the tunnel. So we went in and immediately I got confused and separated from my group. I didn't understand that you were just supposed to take a locker and go, and I had a small panic attack where I envisioned myself trying to navigate home between landmines. Finally I located 2 members of my group, got the instructions, begged them to wait for me, stowed my stuff and grabbed my hard hat (and boy do I wish there was a picture of me in a bright yellow hard hat!). The tunnel was SO steep. There were seats installed at intervals along the sides so that people could take breaks on the way back up (but I was too tough for that!). There were also periodic drips of spring water coming from the roof. At the end was the first barrier. Apparently there are 3 but the first was as far as we could go. You could look through a window and see through to the second and third barriers though. That was cool. It was very eerie and I do wish that I had some pictures. After the steep climb back up, we got back on the bus and went to the third stop. This was an observatory on top of a mountain. It was windy and freezing! It had some of those viewfinder things you put money into and for 500 won, you could see North Korea and actually see cars driving there and people in towers. You could only take pictures from behind the yellow line and I couldn't do that because there were too many people blocking my view. There was also a building and a guy was showing us something and saying something but I really couldn't tell what because I couldn't see over the people in front of me. So I have no pictures of this stop. The last stop was what I believe is or, possibly, was a railway station. You could get North Korean passport stamps there but the tour guide urged us several times not to put them in our passport. I put mine in my Korean pocket dictionary.

After this last stop we went to lunch and then the War Memorial Museum. There was a lot of interesting stuff there. Lots of little videos and mannequins in fatigues with red paint smeared on them. And a great diorama about a guy who killed his family because his wife asked him to *just in case* they didn't win the war and he didn't survive battle. He didn't survive after maybe 5 battles but talk about jumping the gun! There is more to my week off but I am tired now so I will be back with Vacation Week 3. Next installment? Probably jimjilbang! One of my new favorite places.

Vacation Week 1

I had this week off from work. Most of the time I just roamed around here, slept in, did shopping and some exploring but there were a few things I did that were pretty interesting. First I went to Myeong Dong my friend Aska. That was the best place ever. Myeong Dong is My(eong) Favorite! There was lots of shopping, beautiful lights, and street vendors. I can't think of anything I enjoy more than street vendors. Buying something in a store is better than alright but there is just something so much more exciting about buying something from the side of the road. I would have been a sucker for those traveling salesmen from the olden days who came through with those wooden carts. Sometimes when I am buying something from a street vendor, I think about the Teddy Ruxpin movie my brother had where somebody bought some sort of hair growth stuff from a traveling salesman and it just made plants grow on his head. I bought some shoes and tights from street vendors and the street snacks were delicious! We also watched these guys make this treat where they start off with a hard block of honey, poke holes in it, and stretch it into thousands of fine hair-like strips with corn flour. Then they cut it up and wrap it around chopped nuts and things. It was a very good show and actually a very tasty treat. The guys were very charming and there were Japanese, Americans, and Koreans watching so they chanted everything in all 3 languages. And quite honestly, if I hadn't watched them being made and enjoyed myself so much, I probably wouldn't have put anything in my mouth that looked that hairy but I am glad I tried them. Delicious. Aska says they are even better out of the freezer. I wish I had captured their performance on camera (don't worry - my New's Years Resolution is to take more and better photos!) but I found someone else did on youtube. I think its different guys and they are only chanting in English but its the same place and the process is still impressive! http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=mSWrIXm_d-c

Aska and Heather with the card guard guy from Alice In Wonderland Dressed up for Christmas? Lotte Department Store, Meyong Dong

We bought some things. Aska is exploring purple. And I got the shoes I have been coveting for probably a year now. We were happy with our purchases.

Now it wasn't even the shopping that I loved about Myeong Dong. It was the atmosphere. And I wish I could describe it and I have tried in the huge paragraph that precedes this but I don't know that I have succeeded. Myeong Dong is AWESOME.

I have decided to stop here and make a second part to this blog because I am not sure of what will happen if the file is too big and I have quite a few pictures to post for the next part.