Travel Advice?

In working at a private school/hogwon, I have VERY little time off. In saying this, I need to utilize all my time here as effectively as possible. The main reason I came here is to TRAVEL and MAKE BANK. 

Wow this will be hard to travel to travel with very few "long weekends" to use.

I would love to hear from the big, wide world as to where you might suggest I go.

My thoughts so far are: Bali, Malaysia, Thailand, Philipines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Jeju Island

Japan is already crossed off the list.

I won't have time to do all, but would like your input please :)

Lack of Visible Disability

It is on rare occasion that you will see an Korean here with a visible handicap. When you see someone who is in a wheelchair, has a disfigurement or is somewheres on the autism spectrum, you are quite taken aback. The area either does not have as many people in this category as we do back home OR they are not allowed to be in the public eye. I gather that the later is true. If you are not good enough here, you are not allowed out it seems.

Lack of Age

No one hear ages! They all look like they are 12 years young. It is insane! 

My "supervisor" is 34, not married, not dating, no kids. She looks like she is 12, honestly! It is very bad for her to visit family as she is getting to be too old to not be married. Similar to home I guess, but waaaaaaaaaay worse.

When you look old in Korea, you must be really old! If you look a little old, you're probably close to 90 years young! 

I swear it's all the kimchi they eat. It is said to have a lot of the collagen replenishing goodness in it. 

Rumour also has it that their faces naturally hold more fat in their faces. This must be where ALL their fat is stored! Seriously!

Yoga

Last night I was able to try a regular (meaning not hot) yoga class for FREE! Awesome right. I know :) The studio is the cheapest in Uijeongbu, so my school "secretary" was apprehensive to send me there. She felt the atmosphere may not be up to snuff with it being 70,000 won/month (70$). 

I arrived a bit late. Oops! But joined in immediately. Thankfully I have taken yoga classes prior as it was all in Korean. I needed to sneak a peek out of the corner of my eyes and watch the instructor for visual prompts.

A supervisor brought me to the class as I did not know it's location. Regardless of how many times I told her she could leave, she stayed and watched THE WHOLE CLASS (one hour) on her Friday night after work. I felt/feel really bad. But I did tell her it was ok to go ... 

During dancers pose the class and instructor began to laugh a bit. I knew they were laughing at me. OH GOD! Dancer pose is my favourite and I am actually pretty good at it. Turns out, they were commenting that I was too long. Haha

Lucky for me, Friday night classes have 15-20 minutes of partner yoga. LOL! I was paired with an older, little korean lady. We did good I think :)

I will try this studio for a month as it is the cheapest and I did enjoy the atmosphere very much so.

I may try the hot yoga here, but you are required to buy into three months at 351,000 won (351$). A bit steep for me, but we shall see.

I am hoping to hit up yoga m-f from 730-830. It will give me something to look forward to every night!

Shower Head

When I first arrived my shower head was on. I could see nor find anyway to switch it off so that I could use the faucet. I also did not want to play around too much with the sink as I had a HUGE  fear I would be unable to switch back to the shower head mode, meaning I would be a smelly, sweaty mess who was not showering. Which reminds me, I forgot to put deodorant on today. Dang! Back off Koreans! Haha.

Two days ago I built up enough courage to play around with the faucets. And to my surprise and stupidity, I am now able to seamlessly switch between shower head and faucet!

Ta-da!

Itaewon

Krystal and I, two newbies to Korea and one of us directionally challenged (it's like being with my mom all over again :) ) Made it via subway all the way to Itaewon yesterday! So proud of myself! We had minimal transfers but still. Accomplishment! It wasn't a super difficult but it's a good win and feeling. Now I know I can survive.

I would compare it to a busier whyte ave area. Was neat to see. And tons of all types of people. 

African Museum

Had a fun field trip today. It was so rushed! I don't even know if the kids really saw anything it was that fast. Was cool though. May have to go back. The performances were so cool though! 

I could have a field trip every week. It really helps to break up the week!