actual writing

I've been convincing myself that since I've been posting on here that I'm not really that behind in catching everyone up. However, posting videos and snipits of kids' work doesn't really qualify as a real "blog entry." If my kids submitted this effort to me I'd give 'em a pretty crappy mark. So, here we go.

Truth be told though, there's not all that much to update on. I get paid this Friday for the first time (and about bloody time if you ask me) so money's been pretty tight since I got here. No money = not doing so much. I have, however, managed to make it into Seoul to party a few times. I've been down to Gumi twice, Gumi folk have been up here twice, I've gone camping, there have been numerous nighttime trips after work to the numerous parks in the neighbourhood and quite a few random wanders around Anyang. All in all I am enjoying living up here.
Anyang's a pretty cool city. It's actually a beautiful place. I walked home from the subway stop the other day (about 20 minutes), but only walked on the street side-walk for about 5 of that. Anyang is littered with tree-lined walking trails that cut between the blocks. They have numerous little walkways over the streets, pass through playgrounds and if you're lucky you'll stumble across a random vendor or two. They're very well maintained, the trees are manicured and often roses cover the fences between the trail and the apartments. Beyond the walkways Anyang itself is a pretty well maintained place. They've been re-doing the planters outside of my school for a few weeks now, cutting the bushes and adding benches around each planter. Gumi was dirty. It wasn't overly pretty. It was a factory city, that be that. Anyang's much better presented.

So, that's the city. Now, actually life is also pretty sweet. I go to school from 2-10. I teach from 4-10. I love the little ones, they love me. Middle School kids suck, however they sometimes hate me too, so it evens out. We had today off of school...some national holiday. I did nothing. I probably should have run into Seoul or something, just to be productive. but i didn't. The funds aren't really there, and honestly, just sittin around here, hanging out with good people is a good enough day for me. Last night a group of us rounded up some soju bottles and climbed the little hill behind our place. It was good times, I came back and slept when there was light coming in the window. It was a fun night. Woke up around noonish, laid in bed and read, chilled, made food, ate it, and relished in the fact that at any particular moment on any normal Tuesday I would have been teaching, but at that moment, I was not.
I've lost my jim-jil-bang virginity. A jim-jil-bang is a public bath. I've been twice so far and am seriously questioning why I didn't do it last year. You strip down to your nothingness with your female friends (or alone if you'd like) and a ton of Korean women. You then proceed to sit your butt in different temperatured and different kinds of baths. There are saunas, massaging tubs and sinks with little stools where you can scrub yourself raw with scouring pads. There are face masks available and pretty much any sort of cleaning/pampering tool you could imagine. In short, going to a jim-jil-bang is like going to a do-it-yourself spa. The first time I went though I shelled over W15,000 to get myself scrubbed down by someone else. I have NEVER felt so clean in my LIFE. It took about 15 minutes and this woman was ripping all the old skin off me I swear. You really get to know her that's for sure. She was wearing underwear and that's it...I'm not wearing even that. You are clean...everywhere. That's the most interesting thing about it all though. We're all naked, no one cares though. For such a conservative society it's interesting to see how that doesn't matter at all. There's a guy's side too where (I've been told) men and boys play together in baths while naked. Splashing occurs and back slapping. It's all ok. Places like this, however much westerners who come to Korea think they're cool, would just not work back home.
Why is it that we're (and by we I generally mean teeny-bopper nothing wearers) pretty much ok with wearing anything on the street, yet when it comes to being naked in front of a bunch of strangers who are also naked we get squeamish? Cultures are interesting things. I've been learning a lot about different cultures this year. Places are definitely different from what you envision...that's a later blog entry.

My apartment's starting to take some shape. A girl, Erin, from across the hall, finished her contract and gave me her couch, shelf, toaster and fan. Cal gave me a lamp and last night we found a shelving wall unit on the street (it happens a lot in Korea that GOOD furniture is discarded) and took it home. The only thing I need now is pictures blown up to go in the picture frames that are hanging on my wall...yet another thing that has been waiting for this fabled pay-day to occur.
Really, I'm sorry that I sound so boring. Truth is, I've been having a lot of fun. I'm rarely home, after work there's a group of us that take the same school bus home and we tend to hang out. Before work I'm reading or getting ready. Weekends are the same. There's always something going on when you work with 28 people. It's just nothing overly earth-shattering in my mind. Trust me, I start doing some actual stuff beyond hanging out with people whom you don't know and would bore you to read about and it'll be here!
Take care all!