Jjimjilbang and Public Bath

Last night, I went to Spaland inside Shinsegae. It was the first time that I had ever been to a spa. I knew that there were public baths, but I did not know what else to expect. I had not planned to go there until I got to work. One of the Korean teachers asked me if I wanted to go to the spa with her and one of the Korean staff members. Since I did not have any other plans, I decided to go.

The first thing one does is check-in and get a locker number. Then, one goes upstairs to where the shoe lockers are and puts the shoes inside and takes the key. Then, one goes through the entrance and gets a uniform and towels. The women's uniforms are faded olive green shorts and a maroon t-shirt and the men's uniforms are very burnt orange shorts and a tan t-shirt. Then, one goes into the locker rooms and gets changed. After that, one goes out to where the rooms and outdoor foot baths are. The water was around 40 degrees Celsius. Some of the rooms are very hot, around 60 degrees Celsius. These hot rooms are called jjimjilbang (찜질방). There is a relaxation room and on the third floor, there is a room full of recliners and televisions. The speakers were in the head rests and it was impossible to hear the televisions of anybody else. The spa also has a restaurant, business center, nail salon, hair salon, and massage room. When one if ready to leave, it is time to take a bath. The public baths are entered from the locker rooms. One has to wash before getting into the public baths. The baths are not too different from a hot tub, except that everybody is naked. There is also an outdoor hotsprings. After one gets dressed, one checks out and gets one's shoes.

I was a bit nervous about going into the public baths for the first time because I'm not an exhibitionist, but then everything was okay. I was the only Westerner in the locker rooms. Unlike in many locker rooms in the Western world, nobody went out of her way to cover up in front of everybody, and there weren't really any private showers. The public baths is an experience that is not so bad after experiencing it; however, I would not want to go to a public bath in America.

IT'S OFFICIAL!!

Tonight I signed another contract for one year so the next time that I will be back in America will be July of next year at the earliest. I'll be at the same campus and after August I will be the teacher who has been at the branch the longest and at that time, there will be only one employee who will have been at the campus longer. This time, the visa process is a lot less complicated since the only documentation for my visa renewal is the signed contract. The E-2 visa is complicated to get because one has to send an original college diploma, two sealed transcripts, and a criminal background check with Apostille, among other documents. Luckily, I did not have to go through that again.

Let Me Out!

Last night, I decided to go to the ATM to get 30,000 won. It was late, but I did not think anything of it. I went into the ATM vestibule to use the machines like I always do. The thing that I didn't know was that the vestibule closes at 11:00. I was in the middle of the transaction when it happened. Everything went dark and I thought I lost 30,000 won. There was a man in the vestibule as well and he tried calling SECOM security from the phone located inside, but it was to no avail. Luckily, he figured out how to get the door to open manually, or else we might have been stuck. If I had been in there by myselft then I would have been stuck until the ATMs were available again at 7:00. This morning, I wanted to see if the machine ate my money or if it cancelled the transaction so I went back before it opened and waited outside until it was time. I withdrew 30,000 won then and it appeared that the previous night's transaction did not occur. I updated my passbook and it did not show that I was at the machine the night before. I deposited the money back and it was the first time that I had ever deposited money into the machine. Here, since nobody writes checks, one can deposit only cash and then the machine counts it right there.

What a Day!

Today when I woke up, I had to take my temperature and send it off so that the company knows that I do not have a fever. When I flushed the toilet, I realized that there was no water in the apartment because it sounded different. Therefore, I was unable to take a shower in the morning. This had happened before and I had to use bottled water from the fridge to get clean. Needless to say, that was a very cold shower. I did not have enough water this time and I did not have to go to work so I decided to wait until the water came back on. Throughout the day I kept checking to see if the water had come back on but it hadn't. Finally, I decided to go to Family Mart, which is a convenience store that is on practically every block her in Korea. I had to go out dirty and with a mask on which probably made people think I'm sick but I don't know them so what do I care. I told the man downstairs that there was no water and he told me that it would be back on at 6:00. It came back on before then but the water was a bit brown when I first turned it on. The shower water and the kitchen sink water quickly went clear, but the bathroom sink water took quite a while to go clear. I even gave up and turned it off but then later when I turned it on it was clear. Throughout the day I have been typing letters to my students. The company decided that since we were getting paid for this week but not teaching, that we had to type letters to all the students and their parents. It has been taking quite a while. The letters to the students are meant to be personal letters. I end up saying about the same thing in every one. The letters to the parents are basically progress reports. I've been typing quite a bit today. I've been shut-in because I don't like to go outside right now. I don't like to wear the mask when I go outside. This is going to be a boring week.

LG Twins vs. Lotte Giants

April 26, I went to a baseball game here in Pusan. It was my first time going to one here and only the second time that I had ever been to a baseball game. I went more for the experience than out of interest in baseball. The game was supposed to start at 5:00, but then it got changed to 2:00 so that it could be broadcast on TV. We did not know until late that morning and so I got there about a half an hour late. At the baseball game, there were no hotdogs that I can remember, but they sold dried squid. In addition, there was a man in a chicken head selling chicken. Towards the end of the game, some people were passing out orange plastic bags, like grocery bags, that said Lotte Giants on them. The bags were for garbage, but before using them for that purpose, people put them on their heads. It does not sound as bad as it seems. To do what they did, one fills the bag with air and then ties it once so that the air cannot escape and then pulls the handles down until they fit over the ears. It looks a bit silly, but not as much when everybody does it.

There were a few events that were attention-getting. One of the batters got hit hard in the arm. Another player broke the bat and the part that he was not holding flew to first base. The biggest excitement was that #10 Lee Dae Ho (이대호) hit a home run and one of the students from the academy where I teach caught that ball. I did not see it, but apparently he brought it into the school. It was not one of my students; I taught this student for only a month last summer.

We Interrupt This Class. . .

Yesterday started out as a normal Monday; however, it quickly changed. In the middle of the first class, the branch manager came in and told me that we were going to have a week vacation because of swine flu in Seoul and the possibility of spreading it to the children. She then, in Korean, told the kids that we had the week off and their faces lit up. Later, another teacher asked me if I had heard the news. Within the last five minutes of class, my co-teacher came to my class to tell me and to tell the kids because she did not know that we already knew. The first group of kids were supposed to be there until 4:00 p.m. but they left at 3:15. After that, the phones were ringing off the hook and the Korean staff and Korean teachers had to inform parents about the cancellation of classes. There were some students who did not know and came to the hagwon but then were told there were no classes.

Because of the fear of swine flu, I have to take some precautions. I am prohibited from going into work. I have to take my temperature at 10:00 a.m. and 5 p.m. and then send the readings to the manager so she can send them to the headquarters in Pusan and then onto Seoul. I'm supposed to stay at home and if I do go out in public, then I have to wear a mask. There is a fear that foreigners will pass it around and in addition, it is believed that foreigners do not have as good an immune system as the Koreans because a lot of new teachers get sick when they first come to Korea. I cannot leave Pusan.

As a result of this, I have to write letters to all the students and parents. It will take a while because I have so many students. Luckily, this is a paid mandatory vacation. At first it looked like nobody was getting anything for this week off, but I will. I don't want to stay at home all this time, but the advantage to that is that I don't have to wear a mask.

What Did You Say?

After being here for a while, I've come to the realization that when people learn a language with a different alphabet that they transcribe the words into their own language, regardless of their abilities in the other language. When the phonics of the two languages don't match, then confusion happens. The Korean language uses the same character for r and l as well as p and f. Sometimes, the kids forget their books and so I tell them to go ask for a copy. Then, they ask me if they are to go ask for coffee. Sometimes the kids say grandfa or farents instead of grandpa or parents. One time one of my students said lobot and I could not figure out what a lobot was until I realized that he was saying robot. One time, the teachers went to dinner and one of the Korean teachers said that a certain kind of meat was duck, but the way he said it it sounded like dog. The reason is that a short u and a short o are both 어. He was saying an unaspirated k, which sounds like a g, instead of an aspirated k. Both words could be written as 덕.

Where are the Asian dolls?

Yesterday and Today, I went to Shinsegae Centum City. I walked around the store and I went to the toy section in the basement. I saw something that I could not believe--all the dolls had blond or medium brown hair. In America, it is not politically correct to have only blond-haired dolls. Mattel even came out with dolls of different colors of Barbie. There was one Barbie doll and a few Barbie look-alikes and most of them had varying shades of blond hair. The boxes said that they were made in Korea or China. The baby dolls also had blond hair. The boxes had pictures of Asian girls holding these dolls. It was a bit of a shock to me. In America, there would a public outcry over the lack of dolls of different colors. I was surprised that in Korea, a place where most kids have very dark hair and have two parents with black hair, the darkest color on the dolls' hair is medium brown.

신세계 (Shinsegae): The Mecca of Department Store Shopping

Last week, Shinsegae Centum City (left) opened its doors and it is massive. It is now East Asia's largest multifunctional shopping center. I went on its second day open and I could not believe how big it is. According to Shinsegae's brochure, the store is on a 75,719 sq. meter plot of land (18.2 acres), and has a floor area of 509,810 sq. meters (5,487,594.84 sq. ft.). It cost 1.025 trillion won (USD 1.09 billion) to build. There are 14 floors above ground and four basement floors. The store has a golf course, movie theater with seating for 2,700 people, an IMAX theater, a spa, an ice skating rink, a food street, grocery store, bookstore, and everything a typical high-end department store would have. The floors are all marble and there are crystal chandeliers in the middle of the store as one goes up or down the escalators. The first time I went there, I walked around on the floor that sold the kitchen accessories and bedding and I could not believe the number of people working on just that floor. It was as if they had a worker for each rack or shelf. It was a bit intimidating. The bottom floor has the grocery items. Since Shinsegae owns E-Mart, the store-brand food was E-Mart brand, the same items that I could buy at the E-Mart two blocks away from home.

Shinsegae Centum City is not the only fancy thing in Centum City. It is next to a small Lotte Department store and BEXCO (Busan Exhibition and Convention Center). Centum City is an urban development project in Pusan. (Pusan is the old Romanization of 부산 and Busan is the new Romanization.) There are many fancy apartment buildings there. There is a Trump Towers and Centum Park is a very fancy apartment complex. Centum City is located in the Haeundae district of Pusan. Haeundae New Town is a beachfront community.

Shinsegae Centum City is very close to where I live and work. Above is a map of the Busan Subway. My subway stop is Jung-dong on the green line. Three subways stops away, Busan Museum of Modern Art, is where I work and one stop from that, Centum City, is where the store is located. All three stops are located in Haeundae. Before Shinsegae opened, I would have to ride the subway for a half an hour or longer if I wanted to go to a nice department store. The closest one that I know of is the main Lotte store in Pusan, which is located at Seomyeon station, which is on the green and orange lines. That store has only 10 floors above ground and two or three basement floors. Before Shinsegae, I thought Lotte was big as it had a grocery store, movie theater, travel agency, wedding coordinator, ophthalmologist's office and the typical department store items. Shinsegae puts Lotte to shame.

The department stores are popular places in South Korea because people have more money than what they did in years past and they want to spend it on nice things. Women typically wear nice dresses, skirts, or pants with high-heels. Many of them carry designer purses such as Louis Vuitton or Prada. Men who work in an office typically wear at the very least dress pants, shoes, and a dress shirt; however, most wear a suit. They also carry a bag, unlike American men, who will not because it is too similar to carrying a purse.

Korean Music

After being here for a while, I've acquired a liking for Korean music. My favorite song is Haru Haru (Day by Day) by Big Bang. It is also a favorite song of the kids. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays a couple of the kids in my first class want to hear it before class. They say, "Teacher, Big Bang, Haru Haru." Today, there were about 14 kids huddled around the computer listening and singing along to the song. One time, in another one of my classes, one of the questions in the book was about a favorite band. Most of the kids in the class picked Big Bang. Most of the ones who didn't picked The Wonder Girls, a Korean girl group.

Big Bang is a popular boy band in Korea. Their song Haru Haru is about a boy and a girl. The girl has cancer but does not want to tell the boy and so she pretends to be in a relationship with his friend so that he'll hate her so that it won't be so hard on him when she dies. The boy's friends are all in on this lie. When the girl goes in for surgery, one of his friends calls from the hospital to tell him and then the boy finds out that she really did love him, but she is already dead when she is wheeled out of the operating room. The girl is Min Young. The pretend boyfriend is T.O.P. and the real boyfriend is G-Dragon. The music video for Haru Haru is below.