Sex dolls and day spas

It is now mid January (I believe it's the 19th) and I am starting to fall deep into routine here in Gwangju. My hours of work will soon change again though and go back to our late afternoon, working days, which I am extremely excited for! This entails sleeping in, going for a nice lunch and then finishing work around 9pm... just in time to meet friends at a bar downtown! Pretty ideal if you ask me!
Anyways, this past weekend I went to go visit Suzy in Seoul again. I left Gwangju Friday night around 7pm and arrived in Gangnam-Yok, Seoul around 11pm. Once I got off the bus I hopped in a cab and met Suzy along with some of her friends at a hookah bar. The hookah bar was really neat and much different from the ones at home (if you have been to one before). It is all indoors where you sit on the floor, listen to music, order drinks, etc. There were a bunch of foreigners there which didn't surprise me in the least since it is not acceptable here for woman to smoke in public... however, since Koreans think that foreigners are already corrupt, we can get away with it! The rest of the weekend was a lot of walking around Seoul during the days, and partying at night. There was an Andy Warhol exhibit at the art museum downtown, where about 30 of Warhol's original paintings were brought into Seoul. However, by the time we found out about it, it was closed. Too bad... that would have been really neat to see! Instead, we walked into some random interactive outdoor art display. I still have NO CLUE what we were looking at, but it was pretty cool to see. So after a long weekend of being tourists in the big city, we thought we would have a relaxing Sunday and experience for the first time, a gymga-bong. A gymga-bong is a VERY POPULAR "communal spa" here in Korea. Some people go to these "spas" once a week to refresh and relax. Now, I have "spa" in quotations because it is not like any spa I have EVER SEEN. Suzy and I were both very overwhelmed when we walked in and didn't really know what to do exactly. Basically, you pay 6,000 won ($6) and you are given a locker key (for your belongings), a towel and shorts and a tee-shirt. You then walk into the change room, get dressed (actually, the getting dressed part is completely optional as most people there were fully naked) and then you walk up a set of stairs to a huge open space. Within this space, you see Koreans of all ages (and shapes and sizes) sitting on the floor either reading, eating or sleeping. By the way, this 6 dollar entrance fee allows you access to the spa for a full 12 hours. So when you are travelling around Korea, rather than paying for an expensive hotel room, some people sleep at a gymga bong! You would literally be sleeping in a communal space on a mat using your scrunched up towel as a pillow, but hey, what doesn't hurt you makes you stronger! Then again, you may have a sore back in the morning...
Nevertheless, we walked up to this communal space and noticed about 10 different doors around the room with a certain temperature written above it. The first room we walked into was a steam room and was sweltering HOT! The heat varied from room to room and there was also a freezing cold room which was actually quite refreshing after sweating your brains out! Another room we saw was filled with little rocks and we noticed people in that room covering their bodies with the rocks as if they were on a beach, burying themselves in the sand. All in all, it was kind of a crazy experience! Of course, Suzy and I were the only 2 white folks in the whole spa so the looks on our faces of utter shock and confusion, was mirrored by the Koreans looking at US! haha!
So on the way home from Seoul, I decided to use my "foreigner status" to my full advantage. When you purchase a bus ticket you are also given a specific seat number which you must attain. I pretty much got the WORST seat on the bus... if you walk straight down the isle to the back of the bus and sit down... that was my seat... so I had one person on either side of me and if the bus were to make a sudden stop, I would be doing summer-salt's down the isle!! Well, since I was the first person on the bus I made a quick decision and sat by the window to the right of my pre-assigned seat, shoved my earphones in and pretended to sleep. In the corner of my eye, I saw a Korean man look at me, look at his ticket, look at the seat beside me, look at me once more, sigh, and then sit down. He wasn't going to dare try and speak English to me.. so he settled with my rejected bus seat. The bus took off and all was well... until I tried to turn on my DEAD ipod... it was a LONG 4 hours home! Karma's a b*tch!
So for those of you who didn't get the memo, I FINALLY got paid!! That's right, I now have 2.1 million....won... in my bank account! Woohoo! It feels great to have money in the bank and naturally, the first thing I did was book my flight to Vietnam! An old co-worker of mine from the CN Tower is originally from Hanoi and she is going back to visit her family for 2 months and invited me to come stay with her! The timing worked out great and I'll have my own personal tour guide which is even better! I'm going for a week and leave February 27th. Definitely looking forward to that!
Anyways, recently I have been looking into getting my hair cut but trying to find a hairdresser that will actually do it, is a mission in and of itself! My co workers friend Kirk is from Australia and he met a Korean girl here who he is now living with and who happens to be a hair dresser in Gwangju. Ryan, Kirk his girlfriend and I met for drinks last week and I was excited to talk to her about finally getting my hair trimmed. When i introduced myself to her the first thing she asked me was if my hair was permed. When I told her it was natural, she seemed pretty surprised which wasn't the best sign. Then I asked her if she would be willing to cut my hair for me one day... her response was literally a laugh, viciously shaking her head NO!! She was my only hope!! But at least she was honest..
Moreover, work has been going smoothly. Nothing really to complain about! The only annoying thing we have to do this month is evaluations (aka report cards). We have to give our students grades on listening, reading and writing and then post a comment about the students progress and improvements. Now it's bad enough I have 14 classes with approximately 5-12 students in each class, but what the hell am I going to say... "Harry Potter is a very bright student, participates in class but needs to use his broom more effectively". haha. These should be interesting...
I also got 2 new students in grade 3. One is a really sweet kid, always bringing me candy and tells me I'm "beautiful teacher". I decided to name him Prince Charming, or Charming for short. The second little guy has big hair and always runs into class late.. I named him Kramer. Oh and I almost forgot! Yesterday I was trying to have a conversation with my grade 2's (it's hard to get them speaking English, so once they try and tell me something, I really listen and attempt to have a back and forth exchange).. so one of my students raises his hand and what I heard was "Teacha, I have sex doll!" Okay, usually I am pretty good at figuring out what they are really trying to say... but I was stumped! "Excuse me?" I said. Again he yells, "I have sex doll!" I started to laugh and told him to use his hands to explain what he is saying. Then, for the last time, he shouts, "I have sex doll!!" (holding up six fingers). Ooohhhh, you have "six dolls"!! Phewf!

Miss you all!

Write more soon,

Gillian