How I Spent My Saturday Night: Hanging Out Naked With Dozens of Strangers

Well, I think the title says it all, really. I had a particularly wild Friday night: it was my girl friend's going away party, and I was out until all hours laughing, singing and dancing with my friends. Saturday morning (afternoon, really), we all managed to drag ourselves out of bed and met downtown for Western style breakfast (pancakes and eggs!) and gripe about our collective headaches. After that (and a little shopping at the dungeon/thrift store), we felt perfectly fine heading back to our beds.

Though understandably apprehensive about it, I have been planning to try a jjimjilbang (sauna/spa) for a while now. I want to try as many new things as I can while I'm over here, and while some people (most of my friends) are totally weirded out by these places, I decided to be brave and try it out, alone. I felt that Saturday night was the perfect time: the jjimjilbang would presumably be empty, and especially since everyone else I knew was busy nursing hangovers, and I had wasted about five hours in bed enjoying a 30 Rock marathon (no regrets there). So, around 7:30, I hopped on a bus and began the twenty minute ride to Pyeonggeodong.

I have had no experience doing this before and was more than a little nervous about it; I just knew to go to this particular building, go up to the third floor, get naked, and sit in a sauna (?). I thought I had an idea of what to expect, but, as is almost always the case here in Korea, I was very wrong. I arrived at the building and went into the elevator to go up to the third floor. When I got up there, there was a woman at the door motioning for me to go back to the first floor. I was confused, but I did it anyway. It turns out I had completely missed a step: paying at the front desk/getting towels/pajamas/a locker key.

After that, I went back up to the third floor and entered the changing room (women's only). All around me were dozens of Korean women, of all ages, in various states of undress. I found my TINY locker and shoved all of my belongings in there. Then, I got naked, and, holding my two (hand) towels, was kind of confused as to what to do next. Where do I go?! What do I do?! I spotted a weird, sweaty looking door and headed toward it.

I walked into a large, steamy room full of naked women. It's not to say that I am necessarily a prude, or uncomfortable with nudity, but it's a pretty different experience for me, and it took some getting used to. It's strange being in a place where there is no shame in getting completely naked. To my relief and surprise, no one seemed to take much notice of me, except for one kind woman who saw that I was clearly confused, and ushered me over to a shower. It was soon clear that my first objective was to take a shower, and seeing provided soaps and shampoos, I did. After that, I explored my options: on my left were four large, shallow pools: one at room temperature, two hot tubs, and one cold tub. In front of me were two saunas of varying degrees, to my right a "scrubbing station," which is essentially a corner of the room where you can pay to be scrubbed down, head to toe, with basically sandpaper. (I opted out of this after a friend told me of how a particularly rough old woman left her raw, trying to scrub off her tattoos.)

I started with the hottest hot tub available, which was a nice, simmering 104. It was cold outside, and the tub was great, even while surrounded by old ladies staring at me. I really enjoyed the saunas and even the cold tub, which was probably about 40. After an hour and a half, I decided to head upstairs to the "lounge." When I got back to my locker, though, the key wouldn't work! In a scene straight out of most people's nightmares, I could not get my things out. Standing naked and helpless in front of my jammed locker, I began to panic, imagining myself hailing a cab completely naked. After about ten minutes, the attendant came to my rescue, gave me a wonderfully large locker, and, after I put on the pajamas they gave me, even directed me upstairs to the lounge, where I immediately chugged ice water.


Upstairs (now co-ed) were a small restaurant, beds, and more specialized rooms: a freezer room, a refrigerator room, varying wood saunas, and my favorite, a hot stone room with a floor made out of quartz pebbles (hot) that you lay on (surprisingly comfortable!). I stayed up there for maybe an hour more and, feeling amazingly refreshed, went home around 10:30, just in time to make the last bus back to Chilamdong.


All in all, I would sum up the experience as a positive one. Even though most of the time I had no idea what I was doing, and almost had a heart attack when I thought my stuff was really stuck in my locker, I left feeling completely relaxed, warm, and happy. Seeing as though the whole experience cost me less than five dollars, I will definitely go back and probably enjoy it a lot more.


More soon!
<3M

Brokedown Palace

It is surely winter here- sunny, but so cold that after being outside only a short time, my face has become chapped. Last night I went to dinner with friends and enjoyed helping after helping of delicious grilled beef. After we finished eating, two of my girlfriends, Kyle and Rosie, showed me where to find a jjimjilbang. Jjimjilbang is essentially a sauna: it's a place where people go to sit in a variety of hot rooms, heated pools, etc: you can even opt to get a full body scrub (basically rubbed down with sandpaper) and come out soft and new (and raw). After the scrub or sauna or whatever you decide to do, the place gives you a set of pajamas and you sit in comfortable chairs and drink tons of water and eat fruit. I have heard endless good things about these places, and especially because it's so cold and dry, I plan to head to one this weekend. (All of this costs about five dollars.)

After they showed me the place, I hopped on the bus as usual to head back home. It was about 10:15 PM, and the buses in Jinju run until eleven. Though I was pretty far from home (apx. 20 minute ride) and had to transfer to a different bus, I had plenty of time to get back to the stop before the end. Or so I thought.

The bus began chugging along at an alarmingly slow pace: usually, buses are the fastest, most dangerous vehicles on the roads. There were strange sputtering noises coming from the back of the bus, but looking around at the sparse few others on the bus, no one seemed to take notice. Glancing at the first stop, I decided to ignore my instincts and stay on. At the first stoplight, I knew something had gone wrong. The noises had suddenly amplified to the point that they were beginning to hurt my ears, and looking around, there was only one other person still on the bus. We sat through two lights, the wheels spinning and spinning, the bus never moving. Finally, we jolted to a start and kept going. I wanted to get off then, but there were no stops, and before I knew it, we were at another stoplight. By this time, the noise was so loud, I was sure something was going to explode. I somehow knew that the bus wouldn't be moving again, but my options were increasingly limited: 10:35, bitterly cold, and still too far from the transfer bus to chance walking it.

After sitting through three traffic lights, the driver cut the engine and yelled something in Korean to the two straggling passengers: myself, and a young woman heavy with grocery bags. He turned off the bus lights and opened the doors. It was time to get off. 10:40, I had just twenty minutes to get to the other bus. I ran as fast as I could, and I was actually impressed with my speed: though I was certainly out of breath and cold, I was going to make it! After about five minutes at a steady pace, I heard a vehicle approaching me, beeping loudly. I looked to my left and saw the same bus driver, motioning toward me to get back on! Not only that, but he asked me in Korean, "where do you live?" I told him, and he TOOK ME ALL THE WAY THERE, even though it was completely off his route, even though I was the only one on the bus. Incredible! Only in Korea.

More soon,
<3M