Jjimjilbangs, failed attempts to water park, and finding my flow.
Friday afternoon, I wandered around Chilgok (suburb of Daegu) for about 4 hours, by myself. It was my first solo adventure since I got here, which is something I have mixed feelings about. Stateside (or if I had a car), I would know every road for 15 miles by now, but the language barrier really scares me.
I'm not afraid of the act of getting lost, but I am afraid of not getting home. Let me explain - normally, I like to give myself a destination that takes maybe 15 minutes to get to and give myself 2 hours to get there...time to get lost. Here, two hours off the main road could equal all day or more til I could get home.
But anyhow, I DID wander off the 2 big main roads in Chilgok -- found an entire side street of arcades/PC places/billiards, found a neat road full of TINY (3 table) food joints that I'd like to return to and do a group picnic (10 people each go to one restaurant, order and we reconvene at a park to try it all).
After my 3.5 hour walk, I went to the jjimjilbang (bath house). It's a simple, neat, relaxing place (albeit the scrub was cleansing and NOT relaxing).
The process:
1. You scrub yourself clean as you can.
2. You veg in various hot tubs (scented, unscented, salt water, hot, boiling hot, hot with jets, cold, ice cold with pressure showers).
3. You get EVERY inch of your body scrubbed, whilst your mouth/face is glued shut with a cucumber mask (so you can't protest "I don't bend that way!").
4. You return to various tubs.
5. You acquire juice and head upstairs to sauna floor (again, varying temps and decorations).
6. Shower again.
7. Go out into the the world and pet yourself, garnering odd looks in public, but not caring because your skin is SO soft after removing the top 12 layers with the scrub/tub soaks.
There's a bit more to it but it's been a long day and I don't have the brains to give the humorous account.
I will tell water park story later, too. Ask me about it, eh?
This week I finally feel like I'm getting into my groove in the classroom. Of course, me being me, I'm going to change up my standard writing lesson plan this weekend, along with RE-writing my intensives based on info from the emails, to avoid boredom. But I'm no longer fighting the start-of-year stage fright every Monday. I AM the writing teacher.
The goal is to drag my ass up to the fitness center in 30 minutes. Wish me luck.
I'm not afraid of the act of getting lost, but I am afraid of not getting home. Let me explain - normally, I like to give myself a destination that takes maybe 15 minutes to get to and give myself 2 hours to get there...time to get lost. Here, two hours off the main road could equal all day or more til I could get home.
But anyhow, I DID wander off the 2 big main roads in Chilgok -- found an entire side street of arcades/PC places/billiards, found a neat road full of TINY (3 table) food joints that I'd like to return to and do a group picnic (10 people each go to one restaurant, order and we reconvene at a park to try it all).
After my 3.5 hour walk, I went to the jjimjilbang (bath house). It's a simple, neat, relaxing place (albeit the scrub was cleansing and NOT relaxing).
The process:
1. You scrub yourself clean as you can.
2. You veg in various hot tubs (scented, unscented, salt water, hot, boiling hot, hot with jets, cold, ice cold with pressure showers).
3. You get EVERY inch of your body scrubbed, whilst your mouth/face is glued shut with a cucumber mask (so you can't protest "I don't bend that way!").
4. You return to various tubs.
5. You acquire juice and head upstairs to sauna floor (again, varying temps and decorations).
6. Shower again.
7. Go out into the the world and pet yourself, garnering odd looks in public, but not caring because your skin is SO soft after removing the top 12 layers with the scrub/tub soaks.
There's a bit more to it but it's been a long day and I don't have the brains to give the humorous account.
I will tell water park story later, too. Ask me about it, eh?
This week I finally feel like I'm getting into my groove in the classroom. Of course, me being me, I'm going to change up my standard writing lesson plan this weekend, along with RE-writing my intensives based on info from the emails, to avoid boredom. But I'm no longer fighting the start-of-year stage fright every Monday. I AM the writing teacher.
The goal is to drag my ass up to the fitness center in 30 minutes. Wish me luck.