Sweeping Up in Seoul!

I haven't posted on this blog since October 16, 2011. That's about two years and almost a week from today.

Hot damn!

I created my blog about "Seoul" shortly after my arrival to Korea and that was a complete bust up. I was like, "Blog, who?" Third week in, I was so caught up with life here.

I was probably feeling like, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

But you know what?

I DO!!!!

I really do now.

I only work four days a week at a college for two hours a day teaching Korean students courses in Conversational English and Graphic Design. I have a personal relationship with Shaun T's Insanity workouts for one hour Sunday through Friday. *He screams at a girl named Tanya in his workout videos....it feels like he's screaming at me. This scares me....so I dig deeper!!!! I hang out with friends on the weekend, but right now....on a Monday evening, I'm bored. And there's nothing to watch on TV until Tuesday afternoon....when all of the Monday evening shows air. So, I decided to get on here and start writing again.

I need to expand my English vocabulary!

I'm losing my words.

I speak in broken English and Korean 60% of the time. The other 40% of the time. I'm correcting my students English. Speaking in very short sentences. Mainly for the sake of avoiding too many long-winded sentences.....and their eyes glazing over.

I be like.....to my students, "Chaek une odie?! Chaek ani? Chaek ani?" This means, "Where's your book? No, book? No, book?" My voice escalates as I say this repeatedly....and they get scared, as they should. Then I bust out in a loud cry, and say "No, 'A' for you. Bring your book to class."

My words are real basic.

And, real short these days.

So, I'm going back to the basics of writing in this blog.

But first,  I might have to clean up this blog a bit.

And by clean, I mean.

Sweep!

Erase.

Delete.

Eradicate.

Posts that are too edgy to be shared with the "church folk," my mother, and anyone else whose mouth might drop open.

I've turned over a new leaf!

And by this, I mean. I'm exactly the same! Only I want to be more careful about what I post. Talk about the same stuff -- on the down-low.

So.

Time to get this party started!!!!!!!

Mama's got a lot to say.

*Does the wooble!

Oh, I'll add pictures of Korea too.

Starting with this one.......

Haha!

Nothing funnier than seeing a child in Korea wear something so true about the people in your own country.

*A picture taken by another Expat English Teacher in her elementary school classroom

I Made it to Seoul!

Sorry for being MIA on here my good people!

I moved to Seoul ten days ago and have been pretty busy getting acclimated to the area.

I am extremely homesick but I am really starting to love it here!

Here are a few pictures that I took so far!

Check out my new blog on everything related to my life here, travels, Seoul, and Asia at Retta's Heart and Seoul!

Jimjilbang: A Real Bathing Experience

I have never experienced anything like a jimjilbang before, but my Indian girlfriend has spoken about these Korean bath spas a few times. She's in love with them because of similar spas in India that go through the same steps to cleanse, scrub, and purify your skin.

She even demonstrated a few modified steps within her women's locker room which included:

Pool. Sauna. Shower. Cleanse. Scrub. And, I mean scrub hard. Condition hair. Apply face masks. Sit in eucalyptus steam room. Then shower again.

A few products I used in the shower included:

The Body Shop's Cocoa Butter Body Scrub, $18

Moroccan Intense Hydrating Hair Mask, $33

Oil of Olay's Silk Whimsy Cleansing Body Wash for $6 to keep my skin and hair soft and moisturized.

They offer the body wash in a massaging soap bar for $6 that I use occasionally too. The bumps in the soap really do feel like a wooden massage tool.

I also swear by Vaseline Cocoa Butter Vitalizing Gel Body Oil for $6 when I get out of the shower too. Me and one of my girls even use it as tan oil at the pool. Heh heh!

It was by far one the most refreshing treats, I have ever given myself in a locker room! Thanks partly to my girlfriend for scrubbing the dear life out of my entire backside with her scrub glove.

A 찜진방 jimjilbang is even better because it offers bathing areas, saunas, and common areas for snacking, watching tv, and napping. Most of them are open 24 hours and allow you to spend the night on a cot in a open area.

How exactly does this type of bath spa work?

First: you pay an entrance fee at the front desk. Then you receive a key fob on a bracelet and clothes to wear in the common area. You walk over to your designated gender bathing area. Put your own shoes and clothing in your locker. Pull out your shower caddy filled with goodies from your bag. This may include: shampoo and conditioner, a razor, toothbrush, a loofah, scrub cloth, body scrub, face mask,  and anything else you would like to use in the shower.

Second: you get naked! And grab a wash cloth too.

At first I was taken aback by the idea of a bath spa filled with naked women. If the thought makes you feel a bit uncomfortable.

I, for one, tried to imagine myself in this spa environment and could not picture it...like at all. Which is odd considering that I go to nude beaches in Martha's Vineyard...a place where old white men follow you to the ocean water and wait for you to come out, so they can have a friendly conversation with you.

So, being naked around women should not be a big deal. Yet it is! Maybe, because it's a confined space? And not open, like a beach. I always felt like laying on your towel nude was a private time on a  nude beach, and only when you got up to venture out to the ocean. You became fair game to be stared at by old men and fellow beachgoers.

I can only imagine at these spas. There is no 'down time' in which you can take a break from being stared at by others. Even if it is not intentional.

I am infamous for staring off in space at people.

Third: you take a shower because it is custom to take a shower before you get into any of the baths. As Americans, we already know this. However, not every country does this or believes it's necessary.

I have met some smelly foreigners too. I ain't saying where they are from either. Hmm!

Fourth: after you finish your shower, you choose a bath tub to soak in. There are several baths of various temperatures. They're either all in one huge room or various rooms.

*The idea is to go from a hot tub to a cold tub to increase the circulation in your body.

In the bathing area, you can use your scrubbing products or the ones the spa provides for you. For an extra fee, a spa worker can scrub you down until there isn't dead skin left on you. They do not scrub your private parts either. *In case you were wondering. They also offer massages as well for another fee.


Fifth: when you are done scrubbing and soaking and your gender designated area. You can put on the clothing given at the front desk. Then explore one of the dry saunas that may offer various aromas as well.

Some jimjilbang even have restaurants, cafes, massage chairs, and nail salons available for extra fees that are accrued on your key fob.

Whether you spend the night is up to you. Since you would be sleeping in a open room full of strangers of the same sex. But if you go with a few friends, it could be a pretty fun experience if you keep to yourselves.

I will definitely visit a 찜진방 jimjilbang when I get there!

The Korean Alphabet

After sharing my plans to teach in Korea, quite a few people asked me, if I knew any Korean - or if I started learning it. When I responded 'no' nonchalantly, they either gave me a look of disbelief or a "Oh, you think you're such a smart bitch, huh?" smug kind of look.

I don't believe to be any smarter than the next person either. 

My language school told me not to worry about learning Korean in a rush, because they would teach me Korean free of charge. 

So. 

I haven't worried about it too much.

I tried to explain to everyone that many Koreans in Seoul already speak English. This includes the ones that I'll teach at the language school. The ones who don't know much English? I have been trained with online modules on how to communicate through hand gestures, expressions, and word(s) like, 'very good' and 'excellent.'

I mean....it's not like these people don't know a lick of English, and that's why they hire us to go over there and teach them. They hire us to become entirely fluent.

Sad to say it! But unlike our country, Koreans value education. It's very important to them to succeed in their professional careers. And well. In order to be successful, they understand the importance of learning what is considered a global language.

In a effort to get myself prepared for learning Korean. I started memorizing Hangul which is the Korean alphabet.

What I am hearing from others is that the Korean alphabet is very easy to learn. And get this! It could take only 35 minutes to learn. 

Ha! 

But not me. 

I spend way too much time analyzing each character and then comparing them to the others. Time never works in my favor....always against me.

 

The next tip I learned about learning Korean? 

I should learn how to read it first. There is suppose to be a scientific way of writing that helps you learn it quickly. 

Oh, and a perfectly good reason why I am memorizing and writing these characters down everyday?

If you don't learn the writing, then you’ll have a hard time pronouncing things correctly.

That's all I needed to hear to get the ball rolling!

*cracks knuckles

I thought it might be interesting to share some of what I learned so far.

Like the fact that Hangul is an alphabetic syllabary. Have no idea what that means? In plain English, it means there is a character for each sound. Only they are put together in syllabic units. Each syllabic unit forms a character in itself. 

Example: the name [Dan] in English, in Korean format would be written like this: .

There are four possible spots for letters in Korean. 

In the diagram below: 

C means consonant, and V means vowel.  There must always be something in the first C position and the V position, but the C positions on the bottom are always optional:

See how it's like a math/scientific equation that can be plugged in easily?

Hangul has 14 consonants, 5 double consonants, and 10 vowels.

The letters are grouped into syllable blocks containing an initial consonant (which may be silent or double), one or two vowels (below or to the right), and sometimes a final consonant (below). 

Just like I mentioned in the diagram:

  

Here is an example of some Korean words grouped together:

 

If you look closely at them. You can break down each symbol and identify it in the alphabet. 

Going back and forth between the words and the alphabet, makes me feel like I'm deciphering codes!

This is all I learned thus far. Once I master writing them down and remembering the English equivalent. I will work on pronouncing each syllable.

Good day.

Googling Seoul!

So.

 If you cannot already tell...I am the queen of google fucking and googling the fuck out of life!

Oh, yes!

Google isn't just a verb now, it's an adverb too.

I google everythang!

The reason for the twitch in my eye. The dinner menu before I arrive at a restaurant. Images of what a butt implant looks like. The price of a CHI flat iron. Will I die because my heart skips a beat every now and then? The best recipe for buttercream frosting. Why the hell are so many losers planking and owling? Asbestos exposure. Who invented those dreadful pajama jeans? The number of women that Lil' Wayne impregnated in the past three years. Where I can buy designer handbags that fell off the truck? Why all of a sudden am I lactose intolerant? The address to a website because I'm too lazy to play guessing games in the address bar...and facts about Seoul!

One worry of mine was getting lost there without directions in English. I smile now, because there are signs in English at subway and bus stops... and plenty of maps in English.

Sigh!

The funniest thing I learned today? There is a Tony Romas, TGI Fridays, Bennigans, McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Little Caesar's in Seoul.

Ha!

I just love me some potstickers from Fridays....wow, yum yum!

As far as handling my money is concerned. I can legally send 2/3 of my monthly check home. I can make out a certified check to myself and send it express mail to my bank for deposit, or wire money to a family member and have them make the deposit for me.

Now the housing price in Seoul is outrageous. The average cost to rent an apartment is $700 a month and to rent a house is $9,000 a month. But the prices I saw for apartments were between $1500 and $16,000 a month so I want to know where the cheap places are at! Because I cannot...I just might look for a studio apartment in a suburb outside of Seoul. My ass can walk and take the subway just fine...I am no stranger to commuting far. A monthly subway pass is $20, thank you very much!

One plus of living in Seoul are the military bases to help me feel at home with other Americans. The military base created it's own radio and tv stations for cable television. The radio sounds good to me. But if there's only one or two English channels? I am not buying cable. I'll probably just buy a shit load of DVDs. I have a lot of catching up to do on True Blood and Dexter anyway!

Something odd? I should bring my own sheets and towels because Koreans don't use them. So, they are expensive to buy there. I mean, huh? How the hell do they get dry then? Wiggle and shake? I'm not an animal! And sleeping without sheets is like sleeping without underwear to me. I need them! To feel protected from germs and too much close contact to things, just like my vajayjay. Hmm!

The good news: their sushi is thebomb.com and that makes me happy.net! That's right.

Okay, this is all I could find today. My bed is calling me now.

Sweet Dreams My Lovelies!

Seoul, Korea

Seoul will be my new home away from home next month (or early September depending upon when I obtain my working visa.)

Here I will begin a new teaching position and chapter of life. I must say too.  I have never felt so many mixed emotions at one time: happy...nervous...excited...scared..and anxious.

If you don't know a damn thing about Seoul. Don't feel bad because I don't either.

I just learned most of this a few months ago when researching teaching positions here.

To provide a little knowledge for the mind: Seoul is the capital with a population of 20,550,00.  It is the second largest city in the world. If you were wondering: the first largest city is Tokyo, Japan. The third largest city is Mexico City, Mexico, and the fourth largest city is New York City, New York.

Seoul is also known for being one of the safest cities in the world because of low crime rates. So, you don't have to worry about anyone popping a cap in your ass on the street or being abducted and cut into small pieces, like how the psychos in our country do you.

Drugs are a serious offense in Seoul too. Your behind can end up behind bars for a long time for being under the influence or selling a narcotic there.

The climate in Seoul mirrors our various seasons, but their Summers and Winters are way more mild than ours on the East Coast....and like traveling from South to North here, it gets colder the closer you get to the mountains there.

The beaches in South Korea are suppose to be beautiful! One of the most popular beaches, Sokcho Beach, is famous for its white sands and clear waters. You can get there by bus or train in under four hours.The only thing: Koreans do not sunbathe on them because they don't like for their skin to get dark. I was shocked because a beach is like candy to me. I just can't get enough...like ever. So, I don't mind if nobody is laying out there. That means there's more beach for me to lay on, and less creepy eyes staring.

Seoul is considered one the world's top ten financial and commerical centers because of company headquarters for Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Kia, and SK. Seoul was also named the World Design Capital for 2010 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

The section of Seoul that I'm teaching in is called Samseong; in which their global brand Samsung was named after long ago.

As of June 2011, Seoul began providing free wifi outdoors. The goal is for residents and visitors to obtain Internet access in 10,430 parks, streets and other public places by 2015.

The major religions in Seoul are Buddhism and Christianity. Their most popular national holiday is New Year's Day.

Seoul is home to over 100 museums including three national and nine official municipal museums. So, this means I'll have plenty to explore by myself and when you folks come to visit me.

Seoul's school system has a structure similar to our own. Only students spend six years in elementary school, three years in middle school, and three years in high school. They begin in the Fall and end school later in the Summer than we do here in the states.

Now, the shopping? I had to save the best information for last! Because shopping is bananas there! I know because one of my girlfriends lived there and talked about shopping like it was heaven. She told me there are a ton of shopping places literally everywhere that sell trendy cute clothing for dirt cheap. She talked about going on shopping trips that ended in spending $200....which is not a lot if you return home with 13 bags and an abundance of clothes for three different seasons. She told me not to bother packing too many things, because I'll end up wearing most of my new clothing anyway. So. I will definitely pack light!

This is all I can think of writing about now. But I will add more to this later.

Goodnight!