Teaching ESL, A Shorthand Guide

I wrote a "teaching guide" for the next native English teacher that will be at my elementary schools containing some general and some specific information about teaching in my corner of South Korea. I was so grateful for the letter I received from the previous teacher at Doam and I thought it could also be a helpful blog post.

Contents:
1. Classroom Set-up
2. Class Curriculum Notes
3. Games & Activities
4. Know Your Contract
5. Teacher Dinners
6. Happy Teaching

Your Own Beauty

As my dental bills loom over what might have been in my bank account, I think about how my definition of beauty and style has evolved. I have become more willing to recognize that I do care about how I look because I am proud of the attributes I have. I like dressing to impress myself. 

With that, I am more willing to invest into that look nowadays. My dental work, while much was medical (root canals and cavities), a large portion of that work was bridging over gaps left by four baby teeth with no permanent teeth to back them up. I was getting by - eating steak, popcorn, and everything else. But at the end of my treatment, the dentist said to me, "Now your eating is much more comfortable and easy." I must also say, my bottom row of teeth has never looked prettier. 

End of the Semester Happiness

I'm ecstatic about the semester being over, though possibly not as much as my students. Bounding in and out of the English room, crowding around me, asking for the millionth time about the photos by my desk, wanting to play UNO, and sneaking up on/scaring the bejeezus out of me.

 

Feeling Safe in South Korea

I admitted to some friends a thought I have about going home to the U.S. - I'm really excited to get back and see the people I miss and to do the things I miss. It'll be happy to get back in a place where my daily struggles are more professional and creative rather than cultural and languagual (for lack of an actual word I can't think of right now). With all these imaginings and an animation about going home, I also have this idea that I could very well be shot and killed upon returning to America.

One of the girls laughed and said that the radical Koreans were getting into my head. Well, where are people getting shot dead at schools, convenience stores, movie theaters, and places of worship? Where are people walking around in public with loaded guns? It's not paranoia driving this idea, it's matter-of-fact reason. It is a reality, one that won't change how I go about each individual day (America isn't a war zone after all), but it will be a small adjustment in mind set from the one I have gotten to know, living in South Korea.

The tremendous sense of security I feel living in Korea has translated into this world of trust and reliability I've never experienced before. It hasn't taken away the token of worry but it has reinforced a world view and every day living that I didn't think could exist. Some small examples: as a young woman of the smaller size, walking home late at night, I have stopped feeling that tightness and rigid fear of being attacked. The thought is still there, but the instinct - the sixth sense I've learned to trust - is nearly gone. A couple more years of living like this and that expectation of violence might vanish for good.

Open Class Success

"Hello, beautiful children!" I exclaimed to our 4-2 class yesterday as they came piling into the English room. My co-teacher SK fell to her knees laughing with good humor because we had just finished 4-1 open class with the principal.

I didn't think that I was nervous for this open class, but I had a pretty terrifying dream the night before about the computers not working, then not being able to find the right Powerpoint, and then the principal walking around the classroom pointing at the plants I forgot to water. I guess I am nervous I thought on the walk to school. 

SK and I did less "planning" together than I have in the past with other co-teachers, which I felt fit our personalities. I do sometimes wish there was more communication, but we have a good system that was reinforced by the high praise from the principal. It felt so good to hear that we did a good job. I was very happy and relieved for SK, too. She's been scrambling for the past few weeks, more than usual -- this class meant a lot for her professionally. 

As soon as the principal left the room, the air was light and we let out high-pitched gasps of glee. YES. WE DID IT. The 3-2 teacher then came in to ask how it went. Good, good, very good! The kids were great and SK is a top-notch teacher, truly one of the best. All was well and our second 4th grade class was just as successful as the first. I felt energized the rest of the day from the feedback and recognition. 

It was days like yesterday that made me think I could stay here for another year. Yesterday was a happy day. And I'm reminded of my role, especially on the bad days, by my students. Earlier this week I was outside by the pond when one of the third grade students ran up to me. A huge bee suddenly appeared and we both quickly and cautiously backtracked. "Oh, I don't like bees. Bees angry," she said. She's not the most outspoken student in class and I hadn't really ever heard her speak English. "Ugg, I don't like bees either," and we swapped bug bite histories.  

Day 6 & 7: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is Sunday, March 30th. The weather today is sunny with a high of 68, low of 45 degrees fahrenheit. Saturday's weather was rainy, drizzling on and off all day in Seoul (high of 63, low of 48).

Saturday Daily Recap
Get in my belly, weekend. Dentist appointment in Seoul and first meal at Lotteria, Korea's version of McDonald's in case you don't want to go McDonald's. Shopping, soju, beer, and Vietnamese food with Anne and Rebecca on the "Avenue of Youth" in the Jonggak area; it was SO good to hang out with them.

7:13AM: I give up trying to sleep in until 8:00, when my alarm is set for. What can I say, my body is finely-tuned machine with the internal clock of a punctual polar bear. I listen to NPR's hourly newscast in bed and then I don't even know what -- pretty soon it's already 8:30 and I quickly shower, make coffee, take my calcium supplement, and race out the door to catch the Dongbu Express bus to Seoul for my dentist appointment.

Day 5: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is FRIDAY, March 29th. The weather today is partly cloudy and warm (high 75, low 50 degrees Fahrenheit). 

Daily Recap

It's Friday and the kids know it. Extra energy, extra laughs, extra enthusiasm for the games!

6:00AM: Alarm clock goes off. NPR's hourly newscast, check email, frozen blueberries, banana, peanut butter with a spoon, toast and jam, coffee, calcium supplement, brush my teeth twice with two different kinds of toothpaste.

7:30AM: Walk to bus stop. Notice a weird interaction between a high school "couple." The boy is standing next to me, drinking a milk box. The girl is about five feet away from where we're standing; she has her school uniform on and I recognize her from yesterday. The boy tosses his milk box on the ground, strides over to her, points down the street, and they walk off together, away from the bus stop. Weird...

Day 4: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is Thursday, March 27th. The weather today is sunny and warm (high 70, low 45 degrees Fahrenheit). The sunshine gives the dirt playground at Doji a dusty yellow glow. 

Daily Recap

This morning's sixth grade classes were painful. There's about 80% more Korean in my classes at Doji than at Doam (my Doji co-teacher basically translates everything I say). The 2nd and 3rd grade classes went really well, which is good, because it wasn't the easiest day.  

6:30AM: Alarm clock goes off. I was up late last night catching up on the BBB posts from the other Badgers; the fresh perspectives and different daily routines are like food to me -- really good stuff. The late night energy surge made it hard to fall asleep. NPR's hourly newscast, calcium supplement, banana, coffee, and packed toast again.

7:20AM: It takes me about ten minutes to walk to the bus stop that'll take me to my second school Doji Elementary. I'm not sure what the bus schedule is, just that it comes every ten minutes or so. It's a reliable bus, too, one that goes to the Icheon E-mart (which is essentially a Target super store), so my morning bus ride is actually quite stress free.

Day 3: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is Wednesday, March 26th. The weather today is cloudy with a chance of rain (high 72, low 41 degrees Fahrenheit). Woke up ten minutes before my alarm clock. Drat. 

Daily Recap

Teaching the younger grades is always a huge reminder about how kids are kids. They are so "pure of heart" as my co-teachers say. High energy classes and a productive afternoon today. 

6:00AM: Alarm clock goes off. I hop into the shower, get dressed, and listen to NPR's hourly newscast as I reheat the eggs from yesterday (now double microwave eggs). I take my calcium supplement and end up packing some toast and dried fruit I got from the Gwanghwamun market last Saturday into my bag to eat once I get to school. Boil some for water for coffee and into my travel mug it goes.
7:05AM: Walk to school. "How Did This Get Made #78 Crossroads (w/ Jeff Rubin)" plays on my iPhone. One of my go-to podcasts, How Did This Get Made? always makes me laugh. My favorite comedic actors discuss insanely bad and occasionally insanely good movies.

Day 2: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is Tuesday, March 25th. The weather today is overcast and warm (high 66, low 46 degrees Fahrenheit). I woke up feeling rested; I slept like a rock, the perks of a previously long day. 

Daily Recap

No lights and a cloudy morning, the hallways were so dark! Today was great class-wise, plus there were oranges in the teacher's room for snack. I was disappointed to find out that I was assigned more after school classes for April, even though I thought I had only agreed to teach extra classes for March. Lost in translation. 

5:45AM: Alarm clock goes off.  NPR's hourly newscast and I check my email and social media. Peanut butter and jelly toast with black pepper chai tea (water boiled in sixty seconds with my electric tea pot) for breakfast. The scratchy toast and steaming hot tea feels good on my throat. I make some microwave eggs but end up saving them in a tubberware for dinner perhaps.

6:40AM: Walk to school. It is a listen to "High School Musical" kind of gray morning. Zac Efron gets it.

Day 1: Badger Blogging Blitz

[Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014: Ashley ...meanwhile in Korea..., Vicky Outside the Pyxis, Maggie The Traveling Flamingo, Drew The Hungry Partier, Rebecca Rebe with a Clause]

Today is Monday, March 24th. The weather today is cloudy and cool (high 63, low 39 degrees Fahrenheit). I woke up feeling reluctant. Monday, you bastard. Koreans have a name for Mondays - 월요일 병 - which translates literally to "Monday sickness." 

Daily Recap

Today was a good day, despite it being Monday. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the 6th grade classes responded to the spelling activity, and I got to try several new games with my after school students. Lunch was fantastic per usual and my co-teacher SK and I had some good laughs today.

5:45AM: Alarm clock goes off. It's crazy, I know. I always lie to people when they ask me what time I get up. I listen to NPR's hourly newscast via iPhone before pulling myself out of bed. Fried eggs, toast, and a banana for breakfast. I wash down my calcium supplement with a glass of water (which I boiled via electric tea kettle the night before). After the dishes are clean, I drink my last yogurt drink and play an old episode of NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour "The Shambolic VMAs And Hollywood in The White House" as I get dressed, etc. I head out, grabbing the garbage bag that's been sitting by the door for the past week. 

6:35AM: Walk to school. Sunrise is around 6:30AM, and this morning was beautifully crisp. By the bridge, they're making good progress on the building they've been working on the past few months. Brickwork is finished and I suspect they'll be done in a couple of weeks.

Day 0: Badger Blogging Blitz

It's a Badger Blogging Blitz! Starting tomorrow, five fellow Badgers and I will blog every day for week, responding to the same questions about our lives in South Korea. I'm very excited to be part of this group of bloggers, as well as our larger group of University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni teaching English in Korea, because their experiences, thoughts, opinions, and theories - conversations with them - have been a huge source of support while living in Korea.

My goals for BBB are to provide more details on perhaps the more mundane aspects of my life in Icheon, South Korea (home of rice, ceramics, and peaches in the summer). If you have any additional questions, please do send me an email or leave a comment on this blog! If you have any questions you'd like the whole BBB gang to address, we are looking for reader questions for Day 6 and 7, so please don't hesitate! 

To be included in every BBB post:

1. Answers (to the two pre-determined daily questions)

2. A recap of the current day

Badger Blogging Blitz (BBB) 2014:

Ashley Wendorf: ...meanwhile in Korea...

Vicky Lee: Outside the Pyxis

Maggie Flamingo: The Traveling Flamingo

Drew Binsky: The Hungry Partier

Rebecca Thering: Rebe with a Clause

*2012 Badger Blogging Blitz

Pop sad, then happy

[On February 18th, I was told by my employer, Doam Elementary, that I would start working at a second school, Doji Elementary, two days a week. Three days a week, I continue to teach at Doam.]

I'm revisiting some of the hard feelings the night before I start at my new elementary school. It's not necessarily the extra work, though that is a sore point (eight different textbooks and all these 4-1, 4-2, 3-1, 6-2, 3-2, 5-1, 2-1, 6-1, 5-2 classes to keep bloody straight), but it absolutely is the fact that all the time spent coordinating and tweaking lessons is the result of someone who thought this was a good idea. It's not fair to the students and it's not fair to my co-teachers. I truly don't mind being busy. I've been super efficient with my time and I'm getting it done. I just need to shake the annoyance and I'll be set to go. 

So, to finish off finely wording my complaints about teaching in Korea, let me just say how thankful I am to have two hard-working co-teachers and how much fun I have talking and interacting with my students. Kids are amazing. Also, I'd send a warning letter to the next Doam native English teacher in a heart beat. 

Moving on, I thought it would be fitting to address what makes me pop sad and pop happy. Inspired by NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour segment titled "Pop Culture That Makes Us Cry & Somali Pirates" and a tweet from one of my favorite twitter accounts posing the question and judgement of the question, "how often are you supposed to cry?" here are my lists: 

Being Difficult: Teaching in Korea

First off, the Korean school system is a hierarchy. Very roughly, the principal sits at the top, then the vice principal, next the head teacher, after that regular grade or home room teachers, and finally special subject teachers (English, music, science, art, and physical education). Decisions are made at the top and information is trickled down from there. My co-teachers are often the last to know about things because it is the responsibility of each higher party to relay the information downward. Why they don't just send out staff emails bewilders me. 

This makes for a lot of scrambling on a daily basis for Korean teachers, because not only are they learning information about schedules and classes - by American standards - inconveniently late, they are dealing with that information constantly, constantly, changing. In a normal school week, we have at least two or three changes where English classes are cancelled or two classes are switched or a class we don't normally have that day, surprise! One of the more common conversations I have with my co-teachers:

Me [five minutes after class should have started]: "Sooo, no fourth graders today..."

My co: "Oh, I forgot to tell you. We will teach them tomorrow." 

Pain for Gain double take:

I have one of the highest pain thresholds of anyone I know. My earliest memory of pain: hand slashes broken glass. Shock ridden, I didn't start crying until several seconds after the fact. By then, the blood had begun trickling down the length of my arm. I had felt the pull of my skin when the glass tore through it, but I cried out because it was the first time I had seen my blood, so red, pour out of me. I was going to die. I ran like hell for my parents. 

Looking back, the pain was there, but I was forward-thinking, past the cut, at the blood pulsing out of my wound and splotching onto the concrete in perfect little circles. I was focused on watching what it meant, if the blood didn't stop. I never acknowledge pain face-to-face. That's how I got through two major reconstructive foot surgeries, twice re-learning how to walk, and the worst timing in the planet for appendicitis -- I flash forward to when it won't hurt anymore with ever so cool a head and, hey, might as well squeeze in a nap while I lie here and get a root canal. 

I've never broken a bone, gotten punched in the face, or been physically abused in any way. I've never had to know pain to be anything but an inevitable part of life. I am thankful for that. Whether it's been running into table corners, sore muscles from exercise, or my body doing its healing thing, my pain threshold has let me categorize pain into something greater than the pain itself. 

"Do you feel the cold?"

NPR's "Pop Culture Happy Hour" podcast first perked my ears up to seeing Disney's animated film Frozen. By the time my sister posted the YouTube video of  "Let It Go" on my facebook timeline, I knew it was my destiny to see it. Desk-warming* in the middle of winter vacation in a foreign country, I quite literally related to the lyrics of the song. Kingdom of isolation, freezing cold, but I like the cold -- come on.

*Desk-warming: No classes and no students but required to come to school to "work" for eight hours a day, forty hours a week. It gets lonely and cold in the winter (the school turns off the heat).

So I was right there with my students when their excitement turned obsession turned adoration for the film - for the song "Let It Go" in particular - became part of every day conversation. I lost count of how many screen shots of Anna, Elsa, and Olaf I saw, how many renditions of "Let It Go" I heard in the hallways, and how many times the fifth grade boys imitated Elsa slamming her foot down, because I was lost in the fandom, too. I was just as ecstatic as my students when Moonee put the movie in for the last day of class. I still haven't seen the last half of the movie, but I have seen what it has done to Korea.

It's amazing to me what an impact it has had here. One of my favorite stories from the native English teacher group of "Frozen stories" is one that involves "Do you want to build a snowman?" being written in huge letters spanning across the board of the teacher's room. And "It doesn't have to be a snowman," written beneath it. It's a strange phenomenon, one I've talked plenty about with other teachers. The language is easy to say and the meaning straight forward. The conversation never quite hits the right note for me, however, and I've felt too much that my thoughts about it would be lost.

My thoughts: this song, "Let It Go," has done exactly what ideally my school wants me to do with the English language. It has made English fun. Sure, "let it go" might not be the most useful English phrase, but the students all know it and know what it means. They're expressing a feeling and a hope when they sing those words. They're imagining something when they hear, listen to, and sing along with the music. They are experiencing and relating to another language, a huge accomplishment they've done completely on their own.

That's why Korea hires native-speaking English teachers. Language is about communication but it is also about expression. There are intricacies in every language that captures the human spirit in ever so slightly a different way. Personally, I have my doubts about whether my presence or teaching can come close to touching that, but I do believe that, in its shiny Disney package, Frozen has brought a small part of that joy to Korea. 

That's why I haven't gotten "sick of" or "annoyed at" hearing the songs from Frozen. The premise is simply too delightful to me. Film is a powerful thing and people too often forget the role it can play. It's sometimes as simple as making pancakes for breakfast after watching America's favorite serial killer make them for his kids. Other times it causes people on opposite ends of the world to sing the same song, it seems, in perfect unison. 

"Do you feel the cold?" Moonee asked me one day. My boasting about Wisconsin winters seems to have given the Doam teachers an impression about me. I realize in talking with my parents that maybe that's not such a far-fetched question after all, because "cold" is relative. The fascination with Frozen in Korea is relative to what the filmmakers and animators perhaps wanted for this movie. It is relative to American and global reception. And isn't that the beauty. "Yes, I feel the cold," I told her.
  

--

I was cleaning up my classroom after a day of winter camp, jamming out to some Miley Cyrus Internet radio, when I heard the English door open. In comes a woman and her little daughter. The little girl was maybe two years old and she walks right up to me and asks,"How are you?" I was shocked. The mother clearly didn't know any English, but I knelt down and said, "I'm good, how are you?" She laughed, grabbed my hand and said, "Let's go together!" She starts walking towards the door, tugging me along. I say, "Oh I have to clean up." She looks at me and starts bounding around the classroom repeating, "Let's go together! Let's go together!" 

Soon they said goodbye and left. I felt flabbergasted; what exactly happened here? I was touched by the random visit in a way that made me laugh. She spoke English to me. She knew not only what she was saying but how to say it. She understood the etiquette. I sort of let my thoughts about how she learned it float up into the air, because it's obvious she wasn't hitting English language books, studying for hours on end. She was only maybe two years old. 

Catnaps in Korea

"Asian ability to sleep anywhere."

When I read this on one of my favorite travel blogs, I laughed out loud. Yeah, it's a pretty accurate description. Since living in an Asian country, I wonder just how this stereotype has been overlooked. There's some comedy gold where this goes.

It's not simply people sleeping on the soft grass in the park. It's not people napping on the lounge furniture at the spa. And it's not people snoring on buses or subway. It's the people zonked out on the tile floor of a busy cafeteria at the jjimjibang. The people asleep on a concrete wall in the middle of downtown Seoul. Those are the people that make sleeping anywhere an ability, a skill.

"Abby always falls asleep the
second we step onto the RER or metro"

I don't mean to brag, buuuut I've always been pretty amazing at sleeping. My bus ride home takes roughly 20 minutes, the perfect amount of time to be intellectually productive (read or listen to an educational podcast). Alas, how the story usually goes, I sleep. The bus makes an apparent left turn immediately before my stop. I've never missed it. Skill.

When I was about eight or nine, I was at a concert with my dad. I forget the particular piece that he was sure would "wake me up," but he did assure me it would. In the middle of the upbeat "crashing cymbals" and "banging drums" I closed my eyes and never looked back.

Fighting Bob Fest 2009. Freezing cold, rock hard bleachers. Squeezed in between my mom and dad, I had one of the best corn dogs and one of the best sleeps of my life.

These catnaps make life worth living. What is life without good, deep naps I ask you? Lesson learned and appreciated, Korea. Your move again.

Spa Day: Visiting Icheon's German-Style Spa + Jjimjibang

The cold winter Saturday was a great day to spend at the spa. I'm definitely adding spas and jjimjibangs to my list of favorite winter activities, right next to drinking hot cocoa.

The Termeden Spa and Resort in Icheon is pretty impressive. A newer facility, it was like walking into a really rich person's house. The price reflected that - it cost 36,000 won (about 36.00 USD) to get in, mind you on a Saturday. But being 15 minutes away via free shuttle bus from downtown Icheon and the quality of the services, I would easily spend another Saturday there to rejuvenate.

 The free shuttle bus from downtown Icheon, near the Icheon Bus Terminal, took some digging to find. My friend was the one who knew about it, but it took searching through several travel blogs/unofficial spa sites to find out exactly where it picked up and what time. See below for timetables and details!

I wasn't positive I had the right bus stop, but I was feeling adventurous and decided to wait and see. I was 45 minutes early, but I had my iPod and a willingness to wait. Plus, there was and odang and fish pastry stand right next to the bus stop. Odang is a Japanese snack; I've heard it best described as a fish hot dog. Yum. Odang soup is one of my favorite soups we have at school. In the end, my patience paid off as a well-marked Termeden shuttle bus pulled up right on time and drove us to the Termeden.

Truly a resort, the Termeden includes a Korean-style spa (jjimjibang), a German-style spa (swimsuits please), an indoor swimming pool that extends into an outside one (complete with fountains, small waterfalls, caves, and water slides), a Korean-style sauna, Dr. Fish foot treatments, and places to eat, buy snacks, and go shopping. It was a lovely day. One of my favorite parts was lying in a pomegranate hot bath, outside, with snowflakes falling on my face. 

The Dr. Fish foot treatment was really cool. It cost 5,000 won for 20 minutes of having two different varieties of fish eat the dead skin off my feet and lower legs. It felt... slightly electrifying. It was like having gentle shocks or something all up and down my skin -- little vibrations. It was completely awesome. I was sitting next to a guy reading a newspaper whose son was squealing with delight at the fish tickling his skin. 

The whole spa-jjimjibang culture in Korea is something I know I'm going to miss a lot when I go back home. It is a family affair that the Koreans are just so chill about. Grandmas, grandpas, moms, dads, kids, old friends, new friends - the spa and jjimjibang are a place to relax, talk, and "cleanse your body and mind." The atmosphere is so comfortable with itself. Fun times and Vietnamese food afterwards!

Directions to the Termeden

A: Icheon to the Termeden:

1. Free shuttle bus (15 minutes; free): picks up at the city bus stop (the one in front of SC First Bank, or SC Foreign Exchange Bank) located across the street from the Icheon Bus Terminal

---> Timetable (to the Termeden): 8:20 / 9:20 / 11:20 / 13:00 / 15:00

---> Timetable (back downtown): 13:30 / 15:30 / 17:30 / 18:30 / 19:30 

2. Taxi (15 minutes from downtown; about 12,000 won one way): taxis situated everywhere around the Icheon Bus Terminal

B: Seoul to the Termeden:

1. Basic express bus to Icheon (1 hour; 4,100 won per ticket), then use the free shuttle bus or taxi service (see above): 

--> Timetable (from the Dong Seoul Bus Terminal; Subway Line 2, Gangbyeon Station): first bus 6:10AM, last bus 10:00PM (bus departs every 30-40 minutes)

--> Timetable (from the Express Bus Terminal; Subway Line 3 & 7, Express Bus Terminal Station): first bus 6:10AM, last bus 10:00PM (bus departs every 30-40 minutes)

2. Non-stop bus from Seoul to the Termeden, from the Dong Seoul Bus Terminal in Seoul (75 minutes; 5,100 won per ticket): I believe the bus leaves from Gate 26 

--> Timetable (to the Termeden): 9:20AM / 10:40AM

--> Timetable (back to Dong Seoul Bus Terminal): 4:00PM / 5:10PM

Korean Performances

I was incredibly excited to see my second Korean musical, December: The Unfinished Song, which happened to star one of K-pop's biggest stars, Kim Jun Su! I was sudo-fan girling, because I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about k-pop, but that boy can move his hips haha. My friend has been following his career very closely and was completely freaking out with the rest of the Korean peninsula when he appeared on stage. It was such a fun day.

The musical was good... I was pretty confused the entire time, though my friend and I pieced together the basic narrative afterwards. It wasn't just that it was all in Korean but that it was a crazy, Korean narrative, compete with flashbacks, flashforwards, and imagined memories - every angle was explored. It was a love story; there were these great outdoor balcony scenes (essential in any good love story) and scenes of school life, working in the office, street riots, drinking soju into the wee hours of the morning, and this fantastic army scene.

One of my favorite parts of the musical, three soldiers are goofing off as they patrol a fenced area. One of them moves forward as the other two lag behind, still laughing and joking. The first soldier calls back to the two jokesters, his tone different. I've seen The Hurt Locker enough times to prepare myself, but his shouts as his clueless friend carelessly treads forward coupled with the immediate explosion created a riveting, emotional moment. The special effects were amazing, the timing of the sounds and lighting spot on. And from the pitch black stage, a spot light appears as one of the soldiers, standing center stage, belts out this song that ends with this incredible high note. His voice fades as he falls backwards, the spot light stripping the stage of light seconds before he hits the ground. It was well done.

My experiences thus far in Korean theater is that it fittingly uses a lot of technology - video and artificial sound are prominent. Koreans love their screens, and the fact that the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts' theater seats are outfitted with small TV screens just reiterates that. Used throughout the December performance as year markers (that's how we figured all the time changes), the screens would flash on and off throughout the three-hour performance. I'm not sure I liked it, but it was an interesting aspect of the show.

On stage, too, video was projected, showing the silhouettes of the lovers dissolving into flying birds and so on. The first musical I saw in Korea, The Hunchback of Notre Dame: The Musical, was supported by a computerized orchestra and the Cookin' Nanta show I went to, though excellent, disappointed me a smidge with the overwhelming use of electronic medleys when they were drumming.

It's all so Korean -- I love it, truly. The flashiness, over-stimulation, and utilization of technology speaks to the earnestness and perfection that define Korean work ethic. And it makes for performances are that uniquely different from any I've ever seen before. There is a style and knack, or art, for putting on a show that I absolutely respect and continuously crave to see more of.

Birthday Suits Me

I could not (and would not) have a planned a more poetic way to spend my 25th birthday but in my birthday suit at a jjimjibang, or Korean-style spa. There was something quite liberating about it -- somewhere between bath time with my sister when we were kids and skinny-dipping at the lake with friends. 

Jjimjibangs are public bath houses where yes, you strip down to the nude and enjoy the hot-water baths, cold-water baths, saunas, massages, body scrubs, and more. Open 24 hours, it's a great cheap alternative to a hotel or hostel, costing around 12,000won (less than $12) for an overnight stay. Leaving your shoes behind in the shoe lockers, you get a wrist-band key for a locker that also acts as a credit card of sorts inside the facility, a pair of pajamas, and two hand towels. The changing rooms and public bath area is gender specific and at Dragon Hill Spa, one of the famed jjimjibangs in Seoul, the entrances are in separate areas of the building (to avoid a terrible, terrible mix up).

stack o' pajamas

I had brought my swim suit I suppose with the intention of wearing it. Even the threat of an ahhgumma yelling at me for not being naked didn't phase me. But once I got into the environment, I was just like, whatever. When in a jjimjibang, it's not weird. Dragon Hill had around six different hot tub pools, all held at different temperatures and some with massaging jets, two saunas, and the body scrubs I had heard about in America. Scrubbed pink with my dead skin all around me, my skin has never been softer (except perhaps on my actual birth-day).

After the baths, we got dressed in our pajamas and headed to the main area, where we could hang out with our guy friends. Jjimjibangs are a culture of their own -- complete with snack stands, small shops, yoga classes, an arcade, a fitness center, an outdoor heated pool, and a floor labelled on the elevator as "horse riding." I'm not sure if that was a "bad" translation, if there were actual horses on that floor, or if "horse riding" is something else (I have a feeling I'm missing a joke here haha).

The designated sleeping areas at Dragon Hill were all three: "women only," "men only," and co-ed. Bringing a small pillow (NECK PILLOW YAY!) is encouraged, and if you're lucky, you can snag a sleeping mat and/or blanket. One of my friends and I chose a co-ed sleeping room because it was a bit more airy than the others we had scoped out. We grabbed a spot on the heated floor and said our good nights. Probably one of the strangest experiences I've had yet in Korea was waking up next to a Korean man. Good times, good times lol.

That was the end of my birthday night. We started out with tacos & makgeolitas!

Me & Ashley
with our makgeolitas & beanies!

I had been craving so called "urban tacos" since my first visit to Itaewon in October, so for my birthday, we hit up the cool Vatos Tacos, Sinsa location. Great atmosphere, great staff, and great food fusions, including kimchi fries, galbi & baja fish tacos, nutella nachos, and the ever important makgeolita -- a mix between the popular, fermented, and alcoholic Korean rice drink called makgeolli 막걸리 and a margarita -- mango (delicious) was the flavor I got; I was very happy about it. And for ordering the makgeolitas, free beanies!!! 

Birthday shopping, birthday tacos, birthday alcohol, birthday GIANT barrel of beer, birthday fruit platter, birthday body scrub, and birthday waking up next to a Korean man. Perfect 25th birthday!!