So as I've said, next week is midterms, so the students are mostly in study mode this week. Which means that today, while I would usually teach six classes, I only taught one class. And then actually when I went to that class my coteacher asked the students "who wants to talk with Madeline teacher?" -- only about 10 of them raised their hand. So he said, "okay, you guys can go to the English Zone and talk with her while the rest of us stay here and study from the book." They were so excited!!!! We went down to the English Zone, put our chairs in a circle and just talked. This is probably one of the highest level classes at Sangji, it is third grade class, and they girls were very excited to talk with me and ask questions. I love hanging out with the students, that's how I learn the most about Korea! They told me they wanted to be a nurse, a hairdresser, a social worker, an accountant, one jokingly said a professional taekwondo artist! They asked me to bring in my makeup to show them (I've never thought how I do my makeup was anything special, but since they are not allowed to wear makeup, and really wish they could, they were so interested!) Two of the girls also asked me "teacher, hair, touch?" so I said "you want to touch my hair? I think it feels the same as yours." And they said "YES!!" and bouth came up to tentatively touch a few strands. They screamed with delight "OOOHHHHHH" and ran back to their seats! What a celebrity I am! The other students also asked for advise on how to get better at English, one student asked specifically how she could become better at grammar because she is good at speaking, usually things are reversed. I felt so lame answering them, I didn't know what to say! I told them to keep talking with me and said if they want to practice grammar they should write to me and gave them my email. I need to come up with some better advise. I'm not sure they quite understood what I was saying the whole time either... but I really do think those are good ways to improve, better than if you just sit and try to memorize! I tried to convey that I think they should study for a half hour and then take a break instead of just sitting and sitting and sitting like I know they do! One student who writes me notes a lot told me she spent three hours writing me a note last night!! She wanted it to be perfect so I'm pretty sure she looked up everything in the dictionary! Her note was great, I wish I could convey to her that for a 14 year old her writing is better than some American children. Maybe I should ask if I can start an English club at school, that might be a fun alternative to classtime, it would mean less students, and only those really interested...
Last night Jason and I also experienced our first Korean bathhouse, or jimjilbang. Our sweet tooths got the best of us again and we hit up Ti Amo for another yogurt smoothie (soooo good). That brought us to Scott's neighborhood. While we were eating he called and asked if we'd like to join him at the jimjilbang since there is one very close to Ti Amo. It is called "bo sock sa u na" and is actually the landmark we give the taxi drives to take us from Sangji to Ti Amo (to get home we always just have the taxi drivers take us to the front of Sangji, its easier than if we tried to give them our addresses!) Scott is an experienced patron of the jimjilbang, having studied abroad in Korea last summer, and was a great guide for us novices.
For only 6000 won you have access to the baths and the sauna. Apparently some jimjilbang's are very elaberate, but this one was a little smaller. Still the 6000 won gets you in the door, a locker, a sweatsuit to wear, access to three sauna rooms, all at different temperatures, access to the communal baths (seperated by gender) and best of all if you want to make a night of it, they are 24 hours so you can stay in them all night! There are dim rooms for you to sleep in on pull out mats, water coolers and even a big flat screen TV! Inside a small shop also sells a variety of simple snacks and drinks, plus some clothes and underwear.
The three of us got changed and met again in the sauna rooms, which are not divided by sex. First we started in the 42 degrees celcius room. The room was very pretty, with different colored stones covering the walls and ceiling in a mosaic style, hidden on the walls were the shapes of animals and plants. This room was a perfect temperature, definitely warm but comfortable. We laid on a bead of little beads that perfectly comformed to our backs. I pretended I was in an ancient cavern.
The next room was a 82 degrees C, which is about 160 degrees F. This room had mats covering boards to lay on. It was so hot. Scott told us the Korean way was to last 15 minutes. I only made it to 8 but he and Jason stayed in for the entire 15. I was sweaty when I got out but the two of them were worse, they were red and looked like they'd been working out! We then went in the cool room which was around 30 degrees C. In that room there was a large tarp that covered small, unpolished rocks. After we stopped sweating it started to feel pretty average in the room so we switched back to the first one. Our bodies had left sweat marks on the tarp, eww. We made sure to keep drinking water every time we switched rooms since our bodies were letting it all out.
Finally we decided to head out. We told Scott we would pass on the baths this time and he seemed a little dissapointed. But it being my first time and all, and it being very cold outside, I didn't want to strip down or have wet hair for the taxi ride home. Jason told me later that the last he saw of Scott he had decided to check out the baths on his own. I quickly changed in the locker rooms, which were empty. Suddenly the doors to the baths opened a six year old Korean girl appeared, totally naked. She was followed by her younger brother, also nude, but covering himself. Maybe he knew he was really in the girls side and was a little bashful? Then came their Mom, in the flesh. She just walked around the locker room like it was nothing. I tried not to stare. As I made my way outside I realized she was browsing through the racks of cloths for sale, still totally nude!!!!
All in all my first jimjilbang experience was really fun! I will definitely be going back, especially when it gets colder out because it really warms you up.
The rest of the week has consited of school days with little work. Answering emails. Cooking. Eating sweets (Jason and I decided we have to cut back because we're gaining back the weight we lost.) We also realized the fall TV season had started so we had to download How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang, NCIS, Vampire Diaries and Smallville. Yep, those are my shows of choice. It doesn't feel like we are so far away when we can download shows, put them on a USB drive, plug the drive into the DVD player and watch everything on the TV. We are totally caught up with the US! (And my goodness, VD is as thrilling as ever! Smallville is finally in its last season too!)
This weekend we might head out to Seoul, we have a lot to explore there. Plus my Dad informed me that they just opened a Taco Bell and we are SO excited to check it out! Read about it in this great article I found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/24/AR2010092402715.html
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