Big Update Thursday

So here at last, I have some free time, and the will to update.

My cold peaked about 1am this morning, and now seems to be going away. Which I am very happy about - trying to teach while coughing your lungs out isn't fun. Though the boys I've had this week were very nice about it. Ok, I'll start at the beginning.

Friday:

My last day with the class from hell. We actually started to make some progress. Maybe. Anyway, I managed to make them WANT to talk by turning it into a competition, and I could barely get them to stop telling me about their favourite animals! It was great! We did the test and watched the movie.. Then I went home to get an early night to rest up for the weekend.

Saturday:

I had to wake up about 4.30am to get ready and be at the Osan station to meet Jen and Nyashsa and catch the train to Suwon, where we would catch another train back in the other direction to Busan. We caught the Osan train fine, but got a bit lost looking for the right tracks and ticket office in Suwon. Turns out the intercity trains leave from kind of a different station. We got there, though, and got on the right train. Then we slept, ate, and played trivial pursuits for five hours until we got into Busan at around 11am. We then got a taxi to the beach! We were bundled up for Osan cold, but it was warm (comparatively) in Busan! There was no trace of snow at all! We walked on the beach for a bit, saw a guy doing an amazing sand sculpture of a dragon (this year is the year of the dragon), and went and had some lunch at an American chain restaurant, TGI Fridays. I had a yummy hamburger, great fires, and because it was new years, a non-alcoholic cocktail. Yeah, I was livin' it up!

Then we went to the Busan aquarium. I'd already been when I was in Busan last time, but didn't mind going again. It was actually a lot of fun. Fish are weird things. I really liked the jellyfish, though. They are so other-worldly and beautiful. Creepy though.

Ok, after the aquarium came the highlight of the weekend for me - my first ever jimjilbang! It's a Korean bath-house/ sauna/ recreation centre type thing. I've been trying to pluck up the courage to go to one for a while, but going totally alone was a tad daunting as you have to be totally naked to use the spa/ bath bits (though it's same-sex). So, Jen, Nyasha, and I went to a nice one I'd read about not too far from the beach. We got given ugly yellow t-shirt and short sets to wear while in the centre, and got told that the 2nd floor was the female only area. So we went and got changed, and then went up to the 3rd floor everyone area. They had a selection of different massage chairs ($1 for 10min), food, drinks, and some saunas of different temperatures. And the whole place was ondol (underfloor) heated, and so warm! We tried a couple of massage chairs, and then some saunas, hanging out mainly in the 37 degree one. We tried a hotter one (maybe 60?), which Jen really like, but it was too hot for Nyasha and I. None of us were game to try the 80 degree one!

So, after warming for a while, I decided to go give the baths a go. Nyasha was keen too, but Jen stayed in the sauna instead. Well, Nyasha and I went and got naked, nervously figured out where to shower, and then hopped in one of the hot pools, hoping we weren't doing anything wrong! No one yelled at us, so I guess it was ok. Oh, and there was one pool that had really powerful jets of water shooting out of the wall - like a water massage! Pretty good :)

Then we really manned up and went to a special area off to the side where older Korean ladies wearing only their bra and undies scrub you down. You're naked. And they use what feels like a pot mitt. A pot mitt. EVERYWHERE. It was actually not embarrassing for me at all. I figured they do it everyday, and they didn't seem phased by two naked foreigners. But, so much dead skin came off! Like literally piles of it. It was awesome, but disgusting! And I felt so clean afterwards! And now my skin is all smooth and lovely. I'd definitely do it again :)

By the time we left it was about 8pm, and Nyasha wanted to go into down-town Busan to see her cousin who was there for New Years too. Before we met up with her cousin though, we had dinner at this incredible random bistro we randomly found. The food was Italian style and actually pretty good. And we had to go to this bar to find Nyasha's cousin, but didn't know where it was, so we asked at the bistro, and one of the guys actually walked us there.. It was like a 5-10 minute walk! I was so impressed with their kindness.

From that point though, the night went downhill a bit. The bar was not great, we lost Nyasha for almost an hour, and when she finally got back with her rather drunk cousin and her friends, we only just made it back inside for a kind of lame New Year's countdown. Shortly after we decided to find somewhere to sleep. Which was a bit of a mission, what with Busan being all but booked out for the New year weekend, but Jen found a motel in the end, and we got to bed. 

Sunday:

Sunday morning we made our way back to Busan station, and caught the KTX (fast train) back to Suwon. Jen had accidentally booked us 1st class KTX tickets, instead of the regular slow train tickets, so we rode in speedy luxury! The train was so smooth. A got in a good hour or two of sleep, and then we were back in Suwon. Another quick trip down the line and we were home in Osan. Where it was snowing heavily, but the ground was too warm for it to hang around. I just did some grocery shopping and relaxed for the rest of the day.

Monday - Thursday

This week I've been teaching a class of six 2nd grade boys, and they've been a really nice change from last week. The class is really an ideal size, big enough for teams games, but small enough that I can keep a close eye on them all. They are also just much better behaved than the last group, and respond REALLY well to any type of competition. However, I've been quite sick with a cold this week, so my enthusiasm hasn't been at it's best. They've been very sweet about it though, and responded well when I've asked them to be quite because I can't speak louder. 

But, here's the boys really getting into a game. They are not doing this for the camera... it's how they played the whole game. They didn't know I was filming :)

Yesterday was the worst day of my cold. I managed to teach them all four lessons, but decided to ask if I could go home for the rest of the day. When I got to the staff room there was no one I could ask there. The VP and my Co-teacher were both away. So, and I still can't believe I did this, I just got my stuff and walked out. Went down the road, caught the bus and went home to bed. I'm not sure if anyone noticed I was gone or not. No one's asked me about it yet.

So, I rested up, go a good night's sleep, and am feeling like I'm on the mend today. Right now I'm sitting in the empty staffroom. Everyone else, apart from Mr Beak, who is around the school somewhere, has gone out for lunch. I was told 'sorry, you have to stay here'. Not sure why - why they've gone for lunch or why I'm not invited - but ok. I'll assume there's a perfectly rational and logical explanation for it, rather than just excluding me. 

Only other things of note this week: I made a 'classroom language' wall display for the classroom. Productively used up a whole afternoon of deskwarming. 

And on Tuesday evening I walked home through the Osan traditional market and picked up a selection of yummy banchan for my packed lunches. I got fern tendrils, mung-beans, lotus root, omelette, and garlic shoots with dried prawns and sweet chilli sauce to add to my broccoli and soy marinated quails eggs. 

Clockwise from left: Sweet chilli dried shrimp and garlic shoot; marinated lotus root; fern fronds; mungbeans; and omelette.  

Flashest packed lunch ever. All in my snazzy pink lunch box :)