And So, Second Semester Begins

Today was the official day back, as we had our first class in Naju English Town. Since we're going to be seeing some old students again, all of the teachers (including myself) have switched our dialogue. I was the immigration inspector, but now I'm a doctor. This dialogue is even worse than the last, but funny in a way (Sumin has visited the doctor because she/he has eaten too much ice cream). It's good to be working again!!!

The girls who used to clean the english town have graduated on to middle school, so there's a new group that comes in every day. One of them (I don't know her name yet) is a bit of a gawker. The first day they came in she stood at my desk just to stare at me for a while. If I smile at her she will avert her eyes or shy away, but the second I look back at whatever I've been doing, I can feel her eyes on me. And this isn't staring from a distance, this is right up against the side of my desk, just looking at me. The first day it was kind of okay, and I could laugh it off, since I'm a bit of a novelty. But it's been over a week and she still does it. She doesn't try to talk to me, and gets scared when I talk to her... she just STARES.

Ladies and gentlemen, that awkwardness cannot even compare to my first trip to a jimshilbang. There is a really big one right beside my apartment complex, so when Kristen came over on Friday night, we decided to check it out. A jimshilbang is a "sauna room", and the one by my apartment is really nice; there's a big hot tub, cold pool, green tea bath and ladies to give massages and scrubs. It's sex segregated so absolutley everyone's naked. I'd visited a similar place in Japan, so I thought I was mentally prepared for a few people to see me naked. When we entered (at about 10pm) the place was PACKED, and even worse still there was a bunch of elementary aged students. That just seems so wrong on SO MANY different levels. I'm also pretty sure that we were the first non-Koreans to step foot in that Jimshilbang for a long time (or perhaps the only, ever). To say theat there was an ridiculous amount of staring would be an understatement. From now on, I'm only going to saunas where the kids don't say in hushed tones "Kesi (other stuff in Korean). Young-un town sunsaengnim (more stuff in Korean)!!".