Saturday, March 10, 2007

Weather in South Korea

We havn't seen winter for more than a month. It has been off/on between days of 0 degrees and balmy 50's weather. We've had snow flurries and even rain this past week. School is ever changing, with new classes and scheduling, best to keep up, be more prepared than necessary. Korean society is known to be very "BALI BALI" and it has the opposite meaning of the Indonesian island paradise. In English, it means "HURRY, HURRY" and even middle school students would describe "KOREANS ARE..." as, "VERY BUSY!" The massive development in Korea spurred following the end of Japanese colonialism after WWII and end of the Korean War. Since then, Korea has experienced a period of 50+ years of peace on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. Home to numerous US military bases with 30,000 personnel. Korea is now as dynamic/modernizing as it is ancient. Working conditions are generally acceptable for a foreigner, but you are never settled here. Most enjoy weekends, as weekdays are demanding with blocks of classes that seem, at best of times, unending. The rituals continue until the Friday 9:00 class signals that in 40 minutes, we will soon be free. Saturdays are for rest, cycling, or shopping. We walk everywhere on Saturday. Friday nights are usually reserved for dinner w/ colleagues at Puffin's, and this past weekend we spent five hours at a local Jim-Jil-Bong, or public sauna/spa. It's an enormous department store sized, two-storied complex with numerous sauna rooms, some in the shape of caves with extreme heat and flat screen TVs. Other rooms have spas, the Green Tea spa is nice. There are also wet sauna (steam rooms) and dry saunas. They sell beer and soda and water at the refreshment counters. There is also a co-ed area where men and women and children can use sauna rooms in their pajamas (provided with $8 admission fee). You sweat and it is invigorating, a must is drinking plenty of water before/during/ and the day afterwards. These saunas are everywhere in Korea, and you can spend the entire night there for $8 bucks! Canadians should think about this idea, we have nothing that really compares. Sunday is service at Dongsan Church, a good Ansan hangout, Pastor Nick delivers great services in English. The band is great, I'm the bongo player. Spring is around the corner, can't wait!!!

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