Days 21-23

It's been a while since I've been able to post. I've been really busy these past few days.

Friday, we had our fairwell lunch and then everyone moved to their provinces for a week more of orientation. It was really sad to leave a ton of new friends, but I am still with a lot of friends from class. I miss Mark and Steven, as well as my Jeju friends. However, even though I miss my friends, I'm really happy to be in Gongju, my new home!

After arriving in Gongju, we went to our new place to stay, Chungnam Institute of Foreign Language Education (CIFEL). The opening ceremony was really disorganized. They went all out for decorations though. The cafeteria was filled with white and pink balloons stuck together like flowers.

Saturday, we had a cultural field trip. We went to some old tombs and a museum in the area about the Baekje kingdom, of which Gongju was once the capital city. After a long day, we had dinner in Gongju, and then we were free to leave for the weekend. The place we had dinner was really close to KNU campus, so I walked over and met up with HunYong. On my way to campus, I walked right passed my soon-to-be-apartment! I was really excited that I had found it so easily and without even trying. I had wanted to look for it, but Google earth wouldn't show me where it was, so I was just going to have to wait, but I stumbled upon it on my own. It really is right next to campus, so Jina did a wonderful job of finding a place.
When I met HunYong, it started sprinkling, so we went to a coffee shop, had a drink and talked. After we were done there, the rain had stopped, so HunYong walked me around campus and told me what all the buildings were for. After we had seen everything, it was time for him to eat dinner, so he called a Call Taxi for me, and then I headed back to CIFEL. I was planning on just staying here for the weekend, and doing some laundry, but when I got back, Ji and two guys from group 6 who I had met before, Daniel and Ali, were sitting outside. They asked if I wanted to go to Seoul and stay the night in a jimjilbang, Dragon Hill Spa & Sports. I didn't really think about it, and just said yes. So I packed up but then on the way to the bus station, I realized I didn't have any money! O_O However, the guys, were nice and paid for everything. I really need to get to a bank and exchange my US dollars for Korean won so I can pay them back.

By the time we got to Seoul, I was so tired. I just wanted to get to the Jimjilbang, even though I was pretty nervous about the public showering. It was a little awkward at first in the girls changing room, as I didn't know where to look. I didn't want to be rude and stare, but I didn't want to be extremely awkward and stare at the ceiling. In the beginning, I just looked at my feet.

I'm not one to shower before bed, so I just changed into the clothes they provided, and then Ji and I went down to the first floor, where they had hot and cold rooms. My favorite room was the cold room. It just felt so shockingly refreshing, especially after being in the hot rooms.
Around midnight, I went to sleep on the floor of the room by the kiln-like hot rooms. I liked the smell a lot. However, after about an hour of sleep, someone turned the air conditioner on, which I was lying right in front of! I was freezing cold, so I moved to one of the hot rooms, which was supposed to look like it was inside of an egyptian pyrimid. Again, I really liked the smell there. They had herb sacks hanging on the walls. The temperature there was 38 degrees C (that's about 100 degrees F!). I fell asleep in there and was probably sleeping there for two hours. Probably not the best idea. I woke up drenched in sweat. The clothes they gave me to wear were soaking wet. It was pretty gross. I decided to go somewhere else after that and try to sleep more. I also wanted to find somewhere more comfortable than on the floor.

I went to the lounge they had for foreigners only. Both Ali and Daniel were sleeping there. Daniel was sleeping on the floor, and Ali was sleeping in a massage chair. The chair next to Ali was open, so I slept there for probably three broken hours.

The guys woke me up at about 7:30 and said they were going for breakfast and that they would be back to get Ji and I in 30 minutes. So Ji and I then had to take the plunge and go to the actual public bathing. Honestly, I think Ji was more uncomfortable with the whole thing than I was. It wasn't so bad once I got past the fact that no one cared that everyone was naked. After washing, Ji and I got into some of the pools. Ji really liked the cold water. It was too cold for me at only 18 degrees C (68 degrees F). Strange when you consider the fact that I really liked the cold room, and it was only 13 degrees C (55 degrees F). While Ji sat in the cold water, I hung out in some 44 degree C water (104 degrees F). It felt so nice!

We didn't stay very long after that, since we knew the guys would be waiting for us. Went back to the locker room, changed, and then we went to breakfast. The guys and Ji all had hamburgers for breakfast. I had a donut and hot cocoa from Dunkin' Donuts. I just can't eat a hamburger for breakfast. Too weird.

After breakfast, Ji went to meet her dad, and the guys and I went to the National Museum of Korea. It was kind of cool. We were all too tired though to actually pay much attention. We zoomed through everything, had some ice cream, and then went to Seoul Station to see about getting a pre-paid phone for Ali. Apparently there was some e-mail they got about being able to get a free phone at a Hilton hotel in Seoul. However...the guys couldn't remember where the specific Hilton was! After wandering around and being hot and tired, I mentioned there were a lot of phone places at Kangnam station. We took a taxi there, and then wandered around asking every phone seller if they had a pre-paid phone. Nearly no one did. The first person had one, but it was for $100. We kept asking, and finally we found one place that had a phone for only $40. Daniel told Ali he had to buy it. Ali was pretty hesitant, but we peer-pressured him into buying it. After that, we took a taxi to the bus terminal, and then got on a bus back to Gongju. The bus ride was about an hour and a half. I slept for most of it. We got back to CIFEL at 6:15, had dinner, and now I'm here finishing typing up this.

Oh yeah! No pictures for a while. We don't have wireless here, but we do have a computer lab. That means I can't upload my pictures from my laptop to my post and I don't want to put my pictures on the computer lab computers.