On Saturday, I got tickets to go see VIXX in concert! My friend went with me and I met some new people! It was such a good concert and I had such a fun time!
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My friend and I had really planned to go to Busan particularly because of Spaland. Spaland is a Korean style bathhouse. There are the typical baths and there are saunas and other spa services. I had done a lot of research on Korean bath houses and decided that this would be an excellent place to start. SpaLand is a bit more expensive than normal bath houses and there is also a 4 hour limit for being there (many bath houses and saunas are open 24 hours and allow you to be there for as long as you want). When we got to the department store that the bath house is housed in, we had to search for just a moment before finding our way to the entrance of the bath house (it had a separate entrance from the department store). Once we found the entrance, we went to the reception desk and paid our entrance fee. After this, we were directed up an escalator and had to take off our shoes and put them in our assigned shoe locker. This first locker was only for our shoes. The key to that locker matches a bigger locker in the actual women's locker room. The key is also the method of payment when you are in the facilities. All purchases are kept track of on the key so you don't have to carry cash with you as there are services and goods that cost extra in the bath house. After putting all of our belongings into a locker, it was time to get ready for the baths. As bath houses are quite normal and embraced within Korea nudity in a bath house is completely normal. I was surprised at how easy this was for me! I felt right at home especially because it's not like I was the only person. After a quick shower, I tried out almost all of the different baths in the literal bath room. There were really warm baths as well as quite cool baths. My favorite baths were the outdoor baths that were surrounded by a privacy fence and roof. There were rocks all around and one of the baths also had a small waterfall! The water in these baths was also special. One bath had sodium bicarbonate and one had sodium chloride to make the experience even better. Additionally after soaking for a while I got myself a traditional Korean body scrub and face mask. This entailed one of the bath house employees using a coarse loofah-esque towel called an Italy towel to remove dead skin and dirt from my entire body. Online, people said that it was quite painful but I found it really pleasant and I would definitely do it again! My skin has never been so soft! After that amazing experience, I returned to the locker room and headed into the vanity area where there were sanitized brushes and combs available as well as hair dryers, skin care products, tissues, q-tips, and anything else I might have needed to finish my bathing routine. I then changed into my sauna clothes that were given to me when I entered the bath house and went to explore the different saunas. This particular bath house and sauna has a large number of saunas. I at least looked into every one but I only spent time in one that was mildly hot and one that was a bit cold. The others were way too hot! They even burned my feet when I went in as we were all barefoot at this point in time! I also spent quite a bit of time in the outdoor foot bath. There were areas to sit in the foot bath, different temperature foot baths and a textured area to walk on. It was quite pleasant and I could have stayed out there for quite some time! The bath house also has a relaxation room with reclining chairs and individual TVs as well as other spa services and massage chairs. There is also food! I did not get any food from the restaurant but from the one of the little cafe kiosks I got a pomegranate vinegar drink that was delicious and refreshing and I got the traditional korean bath house baked egg. These eggs are supposedly baked in the heat from the saunas and hot springs. They are very brown and have a unique color for the whites of the eggs. However, it tastes just like any other hard boiled egg. In addition to my sauna gear, I learned how to fold my towel into the traditional "sheep's head" hat. It was surprisingly easy and I felt super cute! At the end of my time at SpaLand, I felt super relaxed, soft, clean, and completely satisfied! I would definitely go again and I would encourage anyone who goes to Korea to go to a traditional bath house and sauna! It was so great and I could have spent such a long time there!
This last week was a bit of a vacation week for Korea. There were many holidays. There was Children's Day, Buddha's Birthday, and an Autumn Holiday all right before a weekend. This meant we got about 5 days off. It was a nice long break! I decided that I would go to Busan on the southern tip of Korea for part of my trip. I was there just for fun but also to visit the family of a friend from the United States. I was lucky enough that they generously offered to let me stay at their apartment for my stay. I took the KTX train from Seoul to Busan. It took about 2.5 hours to get from Seoul to Busan on the bullet train that travels near 300km/h. Until last December, this train was the fastest train in Korea! It was a nice and easy trip. I got to the train station, redeemed my ticket that I had bought online and waited for my train to arrive so that I could board. The train ride itself was very comfortable. There are outlets to charge your devices, free Wi-Fi, and the seats are decently sized. Once I got to Busan, I took the subway to my friend's family's subway station. It took about 30 minutes. I was met by my friend's family and at their apartment, I was greeted by a fabulous and delicious home cooked Korean meal. There was bulgogi, japchae, and soybean paste stew. It was so good! The next day, we went to a skywalk lookout where you can see about five islands off of the coast of Busan. It was beautiful and the skywalk was really cool! I also went out to the 40 steps monument that is a bit of a memorial for the many wars that Korea has had. There really were 40 steps! After this, I wandered for a while and I ended up finding this extremely busy street market. There were so many vendors and many people buying things. This market also covered several blocks of the street. It was really cool to see! At the end of the day, I got to have chicken and beer or chi-mek in Korean. It was super delicious! The next day, I met up with my friend that I usually adventure with in Seoul and we went to the Shinsegae Department Store in Busan which holds the Guinness World Record for the largest department store in the world. We were not there for the department store though. We were there for SpaLand. I'm going to be doing a separate post for SpaLand because it deserves it but SpaLand is essentially one of the fanciest Korean bath houses and saunas in Korea. It was an experience that was both interesting and amazing. I would definitely go again!
Korea and the United states have several things in common but there are a lot of things that are different. There are things I can get and do in the United States that I cannot get or do here as well, there are things I can get and do here that I cannot get or do easily in the United States.
Things I miss from the United States: The space. In America, we have a lot of open space and because of this we have a strong sense of personal space. In Korea, there is not as much open space. I've seen open spaces particularly in parks, the front "yard" of some schools, and on highways. Those are some of the only places where I see a decent amount of open space. Everywhere else, the space is filled by tall buildings that are quite close together. I particularly miss grass. I know it's a bit of a weird thing to say but I miss grass. I have seen hardly any grass here in Seoul outside of one park! Back home, I see grass every day and can touch it, smell it, and enjoy it's grassyness. Here in Seoul, because the city is so dense, there is not much room for grass so there isn't much. I have seen grass though in some parks. Many parks though have no grass at all. They are concrete with some benches or other places to sit. Here in Seoul it doesn't feel common to see a lot of grass so I miss the grassyness of home! Seoul has a lot of ice cream to eat but I have found myself often craving Dairy Queen. There's something to be said about just wanting to eat a blizzard at the end of the day. This trip will be the longest time I have gone without driving in the last four years. It's kind of liberating to not have to drive everywhere (nor do I wish that I had a car here because I think I would get into an accident quite quickly due to the style of driving I have witnessed here) but I miss my boat of a car. I liked being able to go do what I wanted exactly when I wanted. Here, I have to wait for public transit which is perfectly fine because I know how to manage my time but I will be happy to have my car back and be driving again. My apartment here in Seoul doesn't have an oven. This makes it difficult to bake anything. I also do not have a microwave or a microwave oven. My main cooking equipment is a kettle and a hot plate. I'm also lazy and I don't like to do a lot of dishes if I don't have to so I have not actually cooked in the last three months. I have eaten out a lot which is pretty cheap and good/healthy food and I have also eaten a lot of convenience store food! I have quite a few favorite places to eat now. I have missed being able to come home and throw something in the microwave to eat but I also have been forced to go out and explore my neighborhood and try new and interesting foods! Things I'll miss from Korea I love Korean food. It is extremely delicious but my town in the US only has one Korean restaurant and their specialty is bibimbap. Bibimbap is not my favorite Korean food. It is good but There are other dishes that I quite like a lot better. In particular, I LOVE naengmyeon or cold noodles. They are my life! I have eaten them so many times here and I still love them like no other! I cannot easily get this dish in the US. Last time I was in Korea, I came back home and craved naengmyeon for weeks. It was really bad. I'm pretty sure the same will happen to me this time and it makes me sad that I won't have one of my favorite Korean dishes when I want it. I'm also really going to miss the bubble tea chain Gong Cha. I love Gong Cha. Their black milk tea with boba is AMAZING and I am sincerely going to miss it. Gong Cha does have a few branches in California but I'm hoping that eventually, they will expand to the entire US and make my bubble tea dreams come true!! Korean public transportation here in Seoul is quite amazing. The subway is easy to navigate and use. It is also super convenient and goes everywhere! I'm going to miss being able to just hop on and not worry about too many directions and just get to where I'm going! I will definitely miss all of the people that I have met. The students have been so wonderful and the staff at my school has been amazing. They are so wonderful, helpful, and kind! From my experience, the Korean people I have met are generous and kind. They are genuinely excited to share their culture with me and are happy that I am interested in their own culture. Everything is also so convenient here. I have a convenience store less than a minute from my apartment. The subway is about a minute walk from my apartment. My school is about a ten minute walk. Everything is so convenient and I can get anywhere I want to go in about a half hour! It's so great! In the U.S. it can take up to an hour to get to different places. Additionally, Korea and particularly Seoul is open very late. Many businesses don't close until well after midnight and other businesses are open 24 hours! Many places in the U.S. close between 6 and 8 depending on the type of business while Seoul stays open quite late. Korea also has amazing scenery. I am surrounded by mini-mountains/large hills. There is always something to see. The flowers this last spring were also amazing. On my walk to and from school each day, I would see something new every day in the scenery. It was so beautiful! Overall, I really have enjoyed Korea and I like my life in the United States but there are definitely things that I both like and dislike in either place. I think that in coming home, I might experience a bit of reverse culture shock. I feel that I have grown a lot as a person and as a teacher. One thing that will be interesting to readjust to will be eating all of my meals with a fork instead chopsticks and a spoon. I'm not overly concerned about reverse culture shock as I have maintained connections with my family and friends back home but I will have to wait and see how or if reverse culture shock will really affect me and to what degree. I'm hoping that this blog as well as the reflections that I kept during my teaching will support me in both sharing my experiences and transitioning back into my home culture. I also took many pictures to document my daily life so that I can share this experience with both my family and my friends.
In order to keep my study abroad experience as a key factor in my life, I hope to continue to foster the relationships that I have developed here both in professional relationships I have made in the school and the more personal relationships that I have maintained with family of my friends in the United States. I also hope that in the next 5-10 years I can return to Korea and teach again. There are many programs to facilitate this within Korea. I think that it would be a great way to continue to grow as both an educator and as a person. I also hope to continue to develop my Korean language skill. I am able to read Hangul (written Korean) and I can understand a small amount of what I read. I can also understand more that is said to me particularly in regards to food but I am not particularly skilled at speaking or writing Korean. My productive skills are lacking but I would hope that by the time that I might return to Korea my skills would improve a bit! I also plan to find ways to incorporate what I have learned particularly about English language learners in my school into my own future classroom and to use that knowledge to better my skill as a teacher. This weekend was the Lotus Lantern Festival that one of the Seoul Buddhist temples puts on to celebrate Buddha's birthday. There were many events and lots of activities! My friend and I went out to see what this festival was all about. It was so much fun!! Starting a few days prior, there were lanterns set up for display around Seoul. We went and looked at the lanterns in the Cheonggyecheon stream. This is a small man made stream in the middle of Seoul. It is gorgeous! Because it was still daytime, the lanterns weren't lit but we did get to see many lanterns that were lit in the parade that night! This parade was about 2.5 hours long but it was definitely worth it! There were so many lantern floats and so many people in the parade! It was AMAZING! After the parade, there was a post parade celebration that the festival put on. It was so much fun! Initially, we all migrated towards the stage that they had set up in the middle of the street that was closed for the parade where there were performers getting ready to perform. Those of us who were closer to the stage were instructed to just sit down on the pavement and we did. It was really cramped for a bit but I'm so glad we were so close! After a bit of music, we all stood up and got to dance together. We did some traditional Korean dances where we are all in circles and dance around. My friend and I didn't really know what was happening but there were some really kind ajjumas or old ladies who quickly grabbed our hands and helped us into the circles! We danced for probably about an hour and a half doing different dances to more traditional music. Near the end, there were dancers up on the stage leading us in simple dances. It was AMAZING! Also, throughout the dancing, there were cameras showing people up on the big screen. My friend and I ended up on screen quite a few times, it was great! There was also pink confetti being released for almost the entire time. This experience was quite magical! Saturday night was magical but Sunday was still very fun! There were many cultural and traditional events and activities. My friend and I went to the street in front of the Buddhist temple that was blocked off and we walked the street and did a few activities. I wrote my name in Korean and made a gorgeous lacquered keychain! My friend and I also ended up entering a lantern making contest for foreigners at the temple. Neither of us won but we did make friends with the girl who did eventually win when we were making our lanterns. She flew from Japan specifically for this festival! Her lantern was GORGEOUS! Pictured is my lantern not hers! The temple itself was also decorated in lanterns. There were too many lanterns to count in this temple! It was amazing! There were also lanterns from the parade on display! This was an amazing festival and I would love to come back every year as it was a fantastic experience where I felt the generosity and love of the Korean people!
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AllisonThese are the chronicles of my time before, during, and after student teaching in South Korea! Archives
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