June 4 - Thursday

My 4th grade classes are learning how to tell time (on the hour) and since I prescribe to kinesthetic pedagogy I had all the students stand up and use their body as a clock. With 25 students and me we put our hands together above our heads and indicated 12:00 and then moved our right hand to 1:00, 2:00, etc....you get the picture. When we arrived at 9:00 one of the students in the back of the classroom broke into Y-M-C-A, music and all. It took everything in me to not start laughing but to finish the exercise. How could I possibly ignore the Village People?! So, after we reached 12:00 again, I went to the young budding Village People impersonator and asked him to stand on his chair so that everybody in the classroom got a good view of his Y-M-C-A rendition. He enthusiastically motioned Y-M-C-A with song and we all followed suit; singing and laughing!

Two things are synonymous with Korea; kimchi and spas (bathhouse). Spas are notorious in Korean culture as a gathering place for friends and family. Many spas charge a mere 8,000 won (equivalent to $8.00) and it buys you a few hours of relaxation in saunas, heated floors to lie on, ice rooms, communal bathing and even having a Korean woman scrub you down with a brillo pad.
An English teacher and I ventured to find this hide-a-way spa, so after taking a bus, subway, another bus, a taxi and another bus, we finally found the bathhouse on the hill. (I kept thinking..."all this to get naked in front of people?") We reached the front desk and were given a key with a number to place our street shoes in. Then, we approached another desk where we were given a different key with a number and a bright orange prison uniform (I mean spa attire) with matching orange hand towels. After placing our backpacks and street clothes in the locker we donned orange shorts with a thick orange t-shirt. We shuffled upstairs to the pebble sauna room; a very hot room filled with heated pebbles that you lie on with your feet resting on a log and your head resting on a block of wood. Once I got my log and block of wood settled I scurried onto the hot pebbles and laid down as fast as I could without exposing more skin on the hot rocks. Because I'm a delicate flower I could only withstand the heat for about 20 mins before wilting into a sweaty puddle of orange mush. We just as fast got up and hurried to the ice room; a wall to wall layer of ice with cold wooden benches. After about 20 mins. of cooling down we departed the igloo and hydrated ourselves before venturing downstairs to the communal bathing area....and that's where the story ends. Ok, so I completely whimped out of the communal bath but while I waited for my friend I got caught up on the latest Korean soap opera.
So, at the end of the day I tried the Korean bathhouse experience (fully clothed) but would mostly likely just stick to trying different kinds of kimchi.