Magic Straight

Today I went to the hair salon that all the people who I work with go to, and I got a trim, and I got this thing done to it called Magic Straight. It was invented in Asia, I think either Korea or Japan, and it is like a perm, but it makes it straight, not curly! No more spending hours straightening my hair!!!!!
It took 5 hours to do!!! My appointment was at 2pm, and I didn't leave until after 7pm!!! They first put a solution in my hair, and I had to sit for maybe an hour with it in. They wrapped my hair in Seran Wrap and I felt like leftovers!!!! They also set up this heater behind me, that has to kind of blades, but they were heaters, and they slowly rotated around my head. It was crazy looking. They rinsed out the solution, and straightened my hair for SO long. They used special straighteners that are only used with Magic Straight. There were two of them working on my head, and it still took them almost an hour to do. They were VERY careful to make sure it was extra straight! Then they had it looking very beautiful, and they went and put ANOTHER solution in it!!! I almost died when they ruined the work they just did! They put these little shower cap things that are meant for ears so the solution didn't get on my ears. I felt really silly wearing them! Then they rinsed the second solution out from my hair, blew dry it, and straightened it all over again!!! Then they cut my hair and they were finished!
The hair washer man is nicknamed Magic Fingers, because he gives wonderful head massages when he washes your hair. I almost fell asleep sitting in that chair!!!
It was pretty expensive, it cost me $200. I think it will be WELL worth it if I don't have to straighten my hair again!!! My friend Jamie also got it done, and hers wasn't as expensive because she doesn't have as much hair as me so it didn't take as long.
The place we went to is called Zen, and it is also a school for training how to work on foreign hair. They train people who are already hairdressers how to do trendy haircuts as she put it. The woman cutting my hair had the left side cut to a bob, and the right side long, and the right side had some bleached streaks and some other colors and the left side was black. They all have pretty funky haircuts. She said 90% of the clients are foreign because all the hairdressers speak English, and they are on the 5th floor of a building, so they don't have a lot of Koreans who see it and walk in. And the foreigners all tell their friends about it. It was really busy all day, and I only saw one Korean woman and she was speaking English!
Now that I have this done, I can't wash my hair until Tuesday night!!! I also can't get it wet, put it in a pony tail, or tuck it behind my ears. I can wash it on Tuesday, but for a week I still can't put it in a ponytail. I'm trying my hardest to keep it flat and straight. It's hard for me not to tuck it behind my ears because that's such a natural habit of mine.
My hair feels beautiful. Tara got it done about a week ago, and I thought since it's like a perm, it would leave her hair dry and damaged like perms and dying does often, but my hair is so nice and soft and feels very healthy. Plus I won't have to straighten it anymore, and that does so much damage to my hair!

Last night we went to the Loft in Itaewon, where ladies drink for free. It was a great night, I took full advantage of the free drinks, and I'm not feeling so hot today so I'm not going out tonight. Plus since I can't wash my hair until Tuesday night, I don't really want to go out tonight because my hair will smell like cigarettes since you can smoke in the bars in Seoul, and I will have to smell like an ashtray until Tuesday!

Things are great in Korea! Work is going well. I like my preschool classes a lot. I have a few real cute kids, a few punks, and I have some really smart kids, and some kids who are realllly dumb! I think we will have a good year. On Friday I lost one of my preschoolers, Julie K. She is one of the smallest girls, so she is probably one of the younger kids, so she is probably just barely 5 years old in American years. At 11:00am the kids eat snack, and that is when we switch classes with our Korean teaching partner, and teach the other class for the rest of the morning until lunch time. While the kids eat snack, the teachers have a 10 minute break, and we go up to the office. When I went back downstairs after snack, Julie K was missing. I asked the kids and they didn't know where she was, so I went to the bathroom and called her name and no one answered. I went to my Korean teaching partner's class and asked her where Julie K was, and Jenny(my Korean partner for preschool) kind of flipped out, and we had all of the helper teachers frantically looking for Julie K. We looked in every classroom, and downstairs and upstairs and we were really worried about her. A few minutes later she came calmly walking out of the bathroom. She was there the whole time and just didn't answer when I called her name. Thank god I don't speak Korean and I wouldn't have to be the one to call her mother and explain to her that I lost her daughter!!!
It's actually good and bad that we can't talk to the parents. We don't have to deal with parents who are a pain in the ass and call every day asking if their son or daughter is a good student. But also if there is a problem with the kid, I'd love to be able to talk to a parent, but instead I have to tell my Korean teacher and she translates it to Korean and tells the parents. Who knows how it comes out after being translated....
I will take pictures of my new students soon!

I will keep you all updated on my hair in a few days when I can wash it and see if it really stays straight!!!