taking a break

Aaah! Packing sucks! I came to Korea with two suitcases and somehow it seems that everything I brought here has multiplied, even though I am getting rid of two big bags full of things I don't want anymore. Since I'm not going home right away my suitcases are being used by a friend so everything I want to go home is going in a box. I am in the middle of packing up all my stuff, cleaning the apartment, finishing up the last week of school, saying hellos to the new teachers and goodbyes to my friends. Now I have the task of figuring out exactly what I'm going to fit into a backpack for the next few months of traveling! Hard to think that a week from today I will be relaxing on a beach in Thailand...

reflections

Today is my one year anniversary of arriving in Korea! It is strange to think that one year ago this country that has now become so familiar to me, was once so unfamiliar! This past year has been good to me, for the most part. In honor of my being here for a year, I'm going to take a moment to reflect on the happenings of the past year.

Highlights:
Soraksan
Mud Festival
Ulsan
California Fitness
DMZ
Hawaii
Philippines
Flow Festival
Surprise care packages
Becoming a fan of Northern Exposure, The Office, and Weeds
Lantern Festival
Nine Inch Nails
The weird car guy
Seeing my kids read on their own!
Making amazing friends
Planning for my next big adventure
Mastering chopsticks!
Not blowing my nose every time I eat spicy food

Lows: (I don't have too many of these, which is good)
hurting my back/countless visits to the doctor
the many colds I have gotten here

In the past year I can honestly look back and say that my lifestyle has changed. Partly because it had to change from living in a new country, but also because I've made changes on my own.

In the past year I have lived without:
a tv (i've been watching certain shows on my computer only)
a car
a dryer
a dishwasher
an oven
a microwave
a living room
fast food (by choice)

I have discovered:
the importance of stretching
yoga
tea
fresh food
I can read Korean
I can get by with my low Korean speaking skills

I have also started checking things off of my "life's to-do list"
I have always wanted to live in a different country.
I dreaded my hair! I've wanted dreads for about 8 years and about 2 weeks ago I decided to just do it!

So yeah, I guess you can say it's been an eventful year. I am happy with the person I am becoming and the things I've been learning.

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." -Alan Cohen

casting stones

We found Matt!

Matt is in the black coat. On a side note, the building behind us is one of the oldest landmarks in Korea, Sungnyemun. It is one of Korea's most famous landmarks, constructed in 1398. It is the only remaining gate from the Joseon dynasty, when Seoul still had walls. A few days ago, on February 10, a 70 year old man set it on fire! I haven't seen the damage, but I heard it will take a couple years to fully restore it.

Anyway, back to Matt. It turns out he was at the wrong place! He rescheduled and we headed out again to be apart of his video. It was extremely cold that night and his turnout wasn't as good as the first one, but we had fun anyway. After we shot the video we stuck around and a group of us took him out for some street food in the market. We asked him all the routine questions about his job and his travels, ate some great food, and met some new people. All in all, a good time!

Since I couldn't film the original dance, Matt volunteered to dance with the group I came with. Check out my sprinkler action, I got a bit carried away- luckily nobody was hurt! Matt is the guy in the middle doing his famous dorky dance.

naked on a wednesday afternoon...

lying on a vinyl table, limbs splayed in every direction imaginable. An "ajuma"(term for older Korean woman) in her bra and panties is laughing at me while she scrubs a few layers of skin off my body. When I actually opened my eyes-no I was not dreaming- I was surprised to see there was still skin on my body and I wasn't bleeding!

I spent my Wednesday afternoon of vacation finally going to a "Jim Jil Bong", or a Korean bathhouse. It was a very interesting experience and I am sorry I didn't go sooner. The Jim Jil Bong is a popular place in Korea. As I found out, it's not just a bathhouse. I'm not sure if this is the case with all Jim Jil Bongs, but this one had 5 floors and a ton of stuff to do! You could spend all day there, heck, you can even sleep there! Anyone who wants to can pay a bit extra and spend the night sleeping on a mat in a big room with everyone else choosing to stay there. However, there is a separate room for snorers, which is nice! You can buy food there. There is a PC bong for gamers or anyone who wants to check their email, an arcade, a video room that shows different movies all day. There was also a fitness center, a massage place, a manicure place and a salon!

There were many types of saunas and baths to choose from. There was an oxygen room, a salt sauna, a jade sauna, a charcoal sauna, an ice room and a few others as well. Apparently each sauna has different health benefits. I enjoyed the salt sauna the most. The room was filled with marble sized grains of salt that everyone lays in. The saunas were co-ed, so it is nice if you want to go with friends or family. Everyone has to wear the clothes that the Jim Jil Bong provides. Lucky for me, I look great in oversized hunter orange shirts and maroon shorts!

The baths are obviously not co-ed. I have never seen anything like this! There were women everywhere! They were showering and scrubbing themselves and going in and out of all the different baths. The baths were similar to the saunas, jade, mugwort, charcoal, massage, and a cold pool. I really enjoyed hopping from the really hot mugwort bath into the cold pool. Being one of the only foreigners in the bath house I was expecting to get stared at much more than I actually did. I am proud of myself for not getting too self conscious... That is until I got my scrub down.

Everyone I've talked to rants and raves about the scrub downs so I decided to get one. It hurt quite a bit, but was worth it in the end because your skin feels incredible! So, if you don't mind a little bit of pain, having a lady becoming intimate with EVERY crack and crevice in your body, and feeling a bit vulnerable lying naked on a table where everyone in the baths can watch you getting scrubbed, I would definitely recommend getting the scrub down!

I think I now have the smoothest skin in Seoul...at least for today.