A few of my favorite things

I keep meaning to share about the everyday details that make up our experience but to be honest they aren't that interesting. We wake up we eat breakfast (usually cereal) we walk to school. We teach kindergarten in the morning. We usually eat lunch with the kids sometimes we go out. We teach elementary school in the afternoon. By 7pm we're exhausted, we get some food, usually at a restaurant then head home to watch a movie or just chill. Most weekends are spent hanging out with friends who like us are teaching here in Korea.

One pastime worth mentioning is the Jimjalbongs (sauna and bath houses). I love these. These bath houses are everywhere in Korea. We have discovered at least 4 in a 15 min walking radius from our apartment. Although they all vary is size and appearance they are all very much the same.
When you go to these establishments first you take of your shoes and place them in a free locker. Then you change into these "uniforms" an oversize t-shirt and shorts provided for you. When you enter the main communal area you will usually see people sprawled out on mats watch TV. You will also notice several smaller doors all along the perimeter walls. These doors lead into different types of saunas including, a salt room where the ground is covered in large chunks of salt similar to sand; a charcoal room where the walls are covered with charcoal; "the human oven" which I call it which is usually a smaller room that is so unbearably hot you can only crawl in stay for a few moments and crawl out. To balance your experience there is also a cold room complete with a snowman. I don't really like the cold room, by the time I'm out of the sauna and walked to the cold room I'm already cold enough to head back into the warm one. These facilities usually have a workout gym, Internet cafe, arcade room and more. Families will come to these places and spend the whole day.
When you are finished in the communal area or just tired of wearing your sweaty pajamas you can go to the gender segregated baths. (I can only report about the women's side, things may be different on the men's) As you enter you will notice several rows of women seated in front of a shower scrubbing themselves with rough clothes. They attempt to remove all dead skin cells from their body before entering the baths. You can even pay someone to scrub you, similar to getting a massage. When you are completely clean you wrap your hair up in a towel and may enter the baths. Similar to the saunas there are many different baths of varying temperature and type. Some of them have herbs or minerals added. There is usually at least one jet bath and one absolutely freezing bath. Unlike the cold room, I love the cold bath - going from the super hot bath to the freezing bath is such a great feeling. That just about sums up the jimjalbongs.

Another enjoyable event is going to the Galbi restaurants. This happens to be a particular favorite of one of our co-workers and as a result is the location for many group dinners. Many of these restaurants are completely open to the street so as you walk by you see dozens of people huddling around tables with a huge elephant trunk looking device hanging in the middle of them. They are huddling around a BBQ/grill type thing in the middle of the table and the elephant trunk is the ventilation system. You typical just order meat (either beef or pork) they in turn bring dozens of little dishes to fill your table. Along with the obvious - kimchi - there is a communal soup, an egg omelet type dish, at least two types of sauce, lettuce, garlic and radishes. When the meat comes you place it on the grill and cook it yourself. When it's done you take a piece of lettuce, spread some sauce on it, add a clove of garlic and a piece of meat to the lettuce, roll it up and pop the whole thing in your mouth. It's actually quite delicious. I would like to believe that the one-to-one ratio of lettuce to beef evens out the large quantity of meat consumed.