8-31
Sorry for slacking in the blog department, but my computer is still broken (yes, I have been lazy). Work has also been super nuts the past few weeks.
At work we have had a bunch of things going on. We have had class level changes and a change in our own classes that we teach. Seven out of nine of my classes that I teach have been changed. Quite a few of those are classes that I have never taught and I have idea how to conduct class. Luckily, I am pretty quick on my toes and pick things up fairly quickly. My new classes seem fine and should be fun. I will miss some of my students in other classes, though.
Another thing adding to the chaos at work is we are getting three new teachers and two more are leaving, while one has already left. The one who left only gave two weeks’ notice and broke her contract. This has caused problems because she has left a lot of things for the rest of us to do. We also have gotten two new teachers and should be getting a third tomorrow. The new girls are very sweet and one even went out with us this weekend.
While I enjoy the new people it puts stress on the office because training falls on the old teachers. We have to explain classes and have them shadow our classes. This means we have less time to do our work. Mind you this is falling during the time of class changes and everyone is super stressed.
Now for more fun things, like a body painting festival! That’s right, two other teachers and I went to the international body painting festival this past weekend. It was absolutely one of the most unique things I have ever done or seen. They had about 30 tents sent up where the models (boy and girls) were being painted. We got to watch the entire process.
They also had display booths sent up. You could get your face painted or a henna tattoo. They had some of the most interesting combos of food booths as well. There was Russian ice cream, gyros and fried fish on a stick. I of course had the corn dog covered in French fries…
We eventually left the park to find a place to stay. We had seen a few love motels while trying to find the park, so we went to one of those. It was about 25 American dollars for the night. That is pretty cheap, even for a love motel here. The lady that ran the place was nice enough and she kept giving us random drinks.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the festival. We had a bunch of Koreans take our picture when we were just standing around. I guess it might have been because I had my nose ring in…
Then, the show case began. We had pretty awesome seats and could see really well. All the models walked on to the stage one at a time while music was playing. Some of the models went all out and danced, did the splits and even break danced. It was a lot of fun to watch. The best way to describe it is a cross between a fashion show and the circus.
The next day was a lazy trip back. All three of us were beat from the festival. When we got back a large group of us went out for some yummy sit-on-the-floor Korean food. I have found some places that I do like the food a lot. Most of them are places where you cook your own meat and other dishes. I don’t like a lot of other things though, like anything that has tons of seaweed.
My apartment is an ever-changing work in progress. I keep adding pictures (hint: pictures would be a good thing to send me) and other random things from my adventures. I finally have a chair so I don’t have to sit on pillows on the floor. Yippy! I also have managed to get my place more and more organized every week. It’s nice that it keeps feeling more comfortable all the time.
Ok, work is almost over and I need to do a few things before going home. I miss everyone and hope all is well!!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Bath!
8-16
Sorry for the delay in getting a blog up. These past few weeks have been nuts! After vacation I really had to hit the ground running. In the past week or so I’ve had to give and correct tests, do report cards with individual comments, and start monthly plans. I have really been a busy beaver. So that’s work, now for more fun stuff.
I really haven’t done too much that’s exciting these past few weeks. I have been hanging around my city and trying to become a bit more familiar with where things are. I have tried out a few new bars and restaurants. I even made a couple of friends outside of work. I think I’m becoming rather comfortable in my new environment.
One of the more adventurous things I’ve done recently is go to a public bath. I went for a walk last weekend and saw the spa. I really just wanted to check it out since I hadn’t been planning on getting wet in front of strangers. Alas, my Korean is not good enough to tell the lady that I really didn’t want to go in, so I ended up paying about 5 bucks and taking a bath. You are given a key with a number on it and then put your shoes in a small cubby. Then you walk into a big open area where there are women of all ages in every state of undress. Some are completely clothed sitting on a platform in the middle of the room watching TV, while others are butt ass naked and drying their hair. You then walk into another room that has all the different baths. You walk in and are expected to sit down to shower and get completely clean before going into the baths.
The actual baths were quite nice. They had all different temperatures and jets. I really enjoyed the super hot pool and then cooling down in one of the bigger pools with very nice jets. I hung around for about an hour and a half. I didn’t get nearly as many stares as I expected. Everyone pretty much left me alone and went about their own business. Some of the smaller children did stare, but I can understand since I have tattoos in funny places. (If you have more specific questions about this experience please email me, instead of leaving comments)
One of the other interesting things I’ve done recently is take a shot that was on fire. Some of the bars here put on cocktail shows and you can pay extra for flaming shots. They spin bottles, light them on fire and breathe fire. I have been rather impressed by the talents of bar tenders here.
That’s it for now. I need to go teach my devil’s spawn class. Hope all is well!
Sorry for the delay in getting a blog up. These past few weeks have been nuts! After vacation I really had to hit the ground running. In the past week or so I’ve had to give and correct tests, do report cards with individual comments, and start monthly plans. I have really been a busy beaver. So that’s work, now for more fun stuff.
I really haven’t done too much that’s exciting these past few weeks. I have been hanging around my city and trying to become a bit more familiar with where things are. I have tried out a few new bars and restaurants. I even made a couple of friends outside of work. I think I’m becoming rather comfortable in my new environment.
One of the more adventurous things I’ve done recently is go to a public bath. I went for a walk last weekend and saw the spa. I really just wanted to check it out since I hadn’t been planning on getting wet in front of strangers. Alas, my Korean is not good enough to tell the lady that I really didn’t want to go in, so I ended up paying about 5 bucks and taking a bath. You are given a key with a number on it and then put your shoes in a small cubby. Then you walk into a big open area where there are women of all ages in every state of undress. Some are completely clothed sitting on a platform in the middle of the room watching TV, while others are butt ass naked and drying their hair. You then walk into another room that has all the different baths. You walk in and are expected to sit down to shower and get completely clean before going into the baths.
The actual baths were quite nice. They had all different temperatures and jets. I really enjoyed the super hot pool and then cooling down in one of the bigger pools with very nice jets. I hung around for about an hour and a half. I didn’t get nearly as many stares as I expected. Everyone pretty much left me alone and went about their own business. Some of the smaller children did stare, but I can understand since I have tattoos in funny places. (If you have more specific questions about this experience please email me, instead of leaving comments)
One of the other interesting things I’ve done recently is take a shot that was on fire. Some of the bars here put on cocktail shows and you can pay extra for flaming shots. They spin bottles, light them on fire and breathe fire. I have been rather impressed by the talents of bar tenders here.
That’s it for now. I need to go teach my devil’s spawn class. Hope all is well!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Vacation!
8-4
Sorry for the delay in getting this written, but my computer at home has decided it no longer wants to turn on. I’m hoping to find somewhere to take it this weekend. Skype works on my iPod, but I don’t have wireless at my apartment. Sigh…
We had vacation last week and it ended up being very nice. The new girl, Kristin, and I went to Busan on Wednesday and returned on Thursday. There was supposed to be 500,000 people at this beach, unfortunately the weather was foul so not too many people were out. We went to the Busan aquarium and had a blast. For a country that eats almost all sea life, they did a wonderful job show casing the animals. They had one of the best shark tanks I have ever seen.
After the aquarium, we headed towards downtown to find a hotel. This was not as easy as I had hoped. The taxi driver had no idea what I was trying to say and had to call over a police officer to get help. Once we managed to get to downtown, it turned out that there were not too many hotels in the area. Love motels here are cheap and tend to be quite nice. Since we were having trouble finding a place to stay, I started asking random foreigners if they knew of a good love motel. Man, I have never gotten more offended looks in my life! No one was able to help, but we did find an acceptable hotel for the night. We went out for dinner and a few drinks then crashed for the night.
The next day we packed our things and headed to a temple. We managed to use the subway system and then grab a taxi up the mountain. The temple was beautiful, as was the scenery around it. I took a lovely little hike by a creek. I had to walk on large rocks, which reminded me of Valencia dock at home. I stopped to wash my face in the water. It was so clean and refreshing. I can totally understand why someone could live there. I am so proud of Kristin and me for managing to get to Busan and back all on our lonesome!
Since I’m at work I have to end this blog here. Hopefully I’ll have time to post about our trip to Seoul. I hope all is well with everyone and I miss ya’ll!
Sorry for the delay in getting this written, but my computer at home has decided it no longer wants to turn on. I’m hoping to find somewhere to take it this weekend. Skype works on my iPod, but I don’t have wireless at my apartment. Sigh…
We had vacation last week and it ended up being very nice. The new girl, Kristin, and I went to Busan on Wednesday and returned on Thursday. There was supposed to be 500,000 people at this beach, unfortunately the weather was foul so not too many people were out. We went to the Busan aquarium and had a blast. For a country that eats almost all sea life, they did a wonderful job show casing the animals. They had one of the best shark tanks I have ever seen.
After the aquarium, we headed towards downtown to find a hotel. This was not as easy as I had hoped. The taxi driver had no idea what I was trying to say and had to call over a police officer to get help. Once we managed to get to downtown, it turned out that there were not too many hotels in the area. Love motels here are cheap and tend to be quite nice. Since we were having trouble finding a place to stay, I started asking random foreigners if they knew of a good love motel. Man, I have never gotten more offended looks in my life! No one was able to help, but we did find an acceptable hotel for the night. We went out for dinner and a few drinks then crashed for the night.
The next day we packed our things and headed to a temple. We managed to use the subway system and then grab a taxi up the mountain. The temple was beautiful, as was the scenery around it. I took a lovely little hike by a creek. I had to walk on large rocks, which reminded me of Valencia dock at home. I stopped to wash my face in the water. It was so clean and refreshing. I can totally understand why someone could live there. I am so proud of Kristin and me for managing to get to Busan and back all on our lonesome!
Since I’m at work I have to end this blog here. Hopefully I’ll have time to post about our trip to Seoul. I hope all is well with everyone and I miss ya’ll!
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