South Korea, I love how...

your prices don't reflect the fact that you are a first-world nation

you chase me down after I've dropped W1,000 (~USD1.00) just because it's the right thing to do

your transportation is ridiculously efficient, clean and inexpensive, not to mention easy to navigate

your restaurants serve what seems to be 100s of mini side dishes but I never pay more than W15,000

your airports resemble malls

your department store food courts offer delicious food-- in style

your T-money card allows me to catch a bus, buy snacks at GS25 and make a phone call

your accessories are cute and can be found anywhere

your capital has various coffee shops to choose from in every single corner: Caffe Bene, Paris Baguette, Holly's Coffee, Coffee Bean, oh yeah and Starbucks:)

your street food is addicting

I can say yeogiyo to catch a server's attention

I will never go thirsty because there are little water dispensers everywhere

I can choose my own seat at the movie theatre

I can find socks, earrings, 80s costume attire, eggs, cupcakes and tights at your subway stations

you have various kinds of kimchi

your capital's subway system plays little songs so that I wake up on time for my transfer

you send out missionaries to various parts of the world to serve those in need

there are noreabangs in every corner that allow me to sing my heart out

I can actually find shoes that fit me

your big stores like Homeplus and Emart have catchy songs

your couples  are very matchy-matchy and proud of it

you have cutesy cartoons to display directions, safety precautions and menu options

great my adventure is here!

Sarangheyo Hanguk!

Hanging out with my coworkers--in all my glory.

 Bang (방) in Korean means room. I've been to a noreabang (song-room) and a DVD bang (movie room) multiple times, but for the past year I've been nervous about going to a Jjimjilbang (찜질방 ). Why you ask? Well, one word: NAKED.  

A jimjilbang is were Koreans let everything ( really....everything) loose and relax. How exactly do they do this? Well, they get naked and relax in steaming hot baths of course! Jimjilbangs
are gender-separated public bathhouses with hot-tubs, showers, saunas. Here you can enjoy the spas, showers, and saunas but also sleep overnight at an affordable price. They are a popular relaxation getaways for Koreans and many of them are open 24/7.  You can enter various heated rooms each designed with a particular theme. You can relax in cold and hot sea water. You can get a nice massage. You can enjoy a cup of tea.  Sounds nice, huh? Well this is all available for you to enjoy, while you are BUTT NAKED.

Yes, you read that right. This is why I had hesitated on going to a 찜질방 for the past 12 months. The idea of prancing around in my birthday suit made me nervous but I did add it to my Korea to-do list. It's all about cultural immersion! I had no intentions of going anytime soon....but I did. I also told myself that I would NEVER go with anyone that I know because well, I didn't want them to see me naked and I didn't want to see them naked. :) But that changed, too.

Our faculty retreat was held in September at  Daecheon Beach. Close to Daecheon beach is Boryeong. The Boryeong Mud Festival is  held every summer at the city of Boryeong in South Korea.  This event has pulled over 50 million visitors and people drench in mud during this festival as the name indicates. The mud here is said to be full of minerals and a great product for skin rejuvenation. It's also a big tourist event.

Being that the festival is held during the summer, I was unable to go because I was home in the States. During our retreat, a few of my colleagues had gone to get a massage at a local sauna. They spoke highly of this place and said it was a great massage and very affordable. They also said that the mud from Boryeong was used for their massages. So what did I want to do? Go get a mud massage, too! The catch: it was a jimjilbang which meant I needed to get over my fear of nakedness. EEEK!

A few of us headed over and I was freaking out on the way there. Here I was on the way to hang out at a sauna and get a massage with colleagues and they were going to see me naked. Awesome. We entered the establishment, paid for our entrance and then received our keys to our lockers. Next, it was time to strip down. My heart was pounding...my palms were sweaty.... then, clothes came off.  Out of the group I went with (about 5 of us) I was the last one to get undressed and head out to the bath area. OK, now what...well I had to walk into the pool area area with nothing but a towel. This was not a regular sized towel but an itty, bitty one to cover important parts:) I slowly stepped into the room with all the different pools (hot water, cold water, sea water, mud water, etc) and tried to embrace the nakedness. It took a while to get comfortable but I eventually I did....kind of.:)

After relaxing in the different pools for about a couple of hours, it was time for our massages. One word: wow. The Boryeang mud was fantastic. Yes, it was awkward having an older woman massage me while naked but it was a great massage. All in all--it was worth it! I do plan to go at least one more time during my time here....I think. :)

Let's do this!

Funny statue outside of the jimjilbang

Of course I couldn't take my camera in with me so this is a picture of an advertisement at the entrance of the sauna.  Here you can see people enjoying Mudfest as well as some of the different pools 

Hangeul Day: October 9th

Invented by King Sejong in the mid-15th century, hangeul (or hangul) is an alphabet unique to Korea. Hangeul allowed mass literacy in Korea to flourish without the burden of having to master the thousands of Chinese characters previously required in order to be literate.
 During a KORCOS professional development session last spring, I learned that King Sejong wanted the average person to be able to read and write. He started to write Hangeul late at night and early in the morning so that his helpers and the elite would not find out. He worked so hard that he even lost his sight as he finalized the Korean alphabet. Hangeul became available to the general population and gradually grew in popularity.
Over the summer back in the US, I tried to show off my Hangeul skills but in reality, it is very easy to learn. In fact, most people learn the alphabet in an hour. You just have to continue practicing. There are 14 consonants an 10 vowels.


From Hanguladay:

• ㅏ (a) as in apply
• ㅓ (oe) shorter o as in lot
• ㅗ (o) o that is rounded as in own
• ㅜ (oo or long u) as in look
• ㅡ (short u officially eu when romanized) as in put
• ㅣ (ee or i) as in keep or lip
• ㅐ (ae) as in way
• ㅔ (e) as in elephant
• ㅑ (ya) as in yak
• ㅕ (yeo) as in york
• ㅛ (yo) as in yawn
• ㅠ (yoo or yu) as in yuletide
• ㅒ (yae) as in yeah
• ㅖ (ye) as in yesterday
• ㅘ (wa) as in wax
• ㅙ (wae) as in waiter
• ㅚ (oe) as in when
• ㅝ (wo) as in wash 
• ㅞ  (we) as in way
•  ㅟ (wi) as in wheat
• ㅢ  (ui) officially pronounced as uh-ee but is commonly heard/used as in Yale

Consonants

• ㄱ (k/g) between ‘ka’ and ‘ga’ but when used as initial character the standard romanization is g; never to be pronounced as g of George 
• ㄴ (n) as in the sound n of noun
• ㄷ (d/t) between d and t but when used as initial character the standard romanization is d
• ㄹ (l/r) between l and r, one of the characters with most nuances in pronunciation 
• ㅁ(m) as in monster
• ㅂ(b/p) between the sound of ‘ba’ and ’pa’ but when as initial character standard romanization is b
• ㅅ (s) as in sample, its a straight forward sound as in hissing of snake ssss this is trivial because when used as final consonant the sound becomes similar to ‘t’ 
• ㅇ (ng/silent) when this character occurs as initial it is not pronounced or silent otherwise it is similar to tang
• ㅈ (j) almost like ‘ch’ as in just 
• ㅊ (ch) always romanized as ch as in chop
• ㅋ (k) always romanized and pronounced as k as in kite 
• ㅌ (t) always romanized and pronounced as t as in ten
• ㅍ (p) always romanized and pronounced as p as in pet 
• ㅎ (h) as in hat

Double Consonants (asprirated, more air released)

• ㄲ (kk)
• ㄸ (tt)
• ㅃ (pp)
• ㅆ (ss)
• ㅉ (jj)

King Sejong