Jjimjilbangs!!!

First, let's have a bit of a vocab/context lesson. A jjimjilbang is pretty much a bath house/sauna. Public bathing is a big thing in the Asian culture, and, thanks to globalization, it's become pretty modernized with mixes of different things from different countries. Yes, Mom, everyone is naked. But, yes, they do separate the genders in every part that involves nakedness.

Siobhain took me to the Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan (when you come out of the station, go down the stairs and take a right). I was a bit apprehensive. I'm not 100% excited about being naked in front of other people (even if they're just other women in a completely non-sexual way) and I was so afraid that I'd commit a giant faux pas. I had nothing to worry about. My skin feels amazing and it's the most fun I've ever had bathing (not creepy at all). I want to do it again!! =p

Not sure if the rest are like Dragon Hill, but here's a basic run down of how things worked (which I'm putting here because I googled a *ton* of questions I had and didn't find specific enough answers)..

Before You Leave
Being a capitalist society, of course everything you could possibly need at the bath house is on sale there. And as it's a Korean place, it's not completely overpriced. However, if you don't want to spend the extra money for sample-size stuff, pack what you would normally need in the shower: shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothbrush, deoderant.. But, also because this is kind of a special experience, I'd also say bring those special bath things - that great exfoliant, deep conditioner, face stuff, etc. Don't worry about stuff like a hair dryer and a change of clothes for the coed area. Dragon Hill provided these really comfortable shorts and shirts for when we wanted to take a break from the bath-part to get lunch or hang out in the coed area. One of the things I was concerned about was fit - but, they pretty much size you up visually and give you what will fit you. They're good length shorts, too, and pretty sturdy clothes, so you don't have to worry about things showing.

Entrance
When you walk in, you pay a basic fee that covers entrance, two towels, clothes for the coed area, and locker rental. At DH, the number on our key corresponded to two lockers: one where we put our shoes, and one in the actual locker room where we put our clothes/bag/etc. Make sure you follow the signs and don't walk into the *wrong* room (although, the are very clearly marked in varying humorous forms of English :)).

Before You Take the Plunge
When you walk into your gender-designated area, there will be a person selling bath-related things (and you'll also see a whole lot of naked people =p). At Dragon Hill, instead of giving money for anything once in the bath house, we scanned our key (all of this tallied up for a final bill that we paid when we left). Go to your assigned locker, strip, and grab your bath stuff. Unless you have long hair and want to turban it up, leave both towels there. You won't really want/need to dry off until you're ready to leave. Then, and this is really important, go straight to the shower/bathing area. Although it isn't posted, it's pretty much understood that the first thing you do there is give yourself a good scrub down. Either pick a standing stall shower, or a seat by a faucet (which I really liked), put your stuff down, and go grab a bucket. There's no worry about conservation of water here, so take your sweet time and get really clean. You'll see all kinds of Koreans scrubbing each other's backs...the best were the moms who would go to town on their daughters' backs and necks (oh the faces of agony!) You can leave your stuff there while you enjoy the various other facilities. However, if it's crowded, other people may use your faucet/stall, but they're pretty good about not going through and using your stuff.

If you have long hair, tie it up before you go into the pools and saunas. Despite all of the unsanitary things that happen in Korea (you'll understand when you see your first bathroom), they are really big on keeping hair out of pools.

Things to Remember
They're gonna stare. But not in the bad way. Be honest, if you're not Asian, you're probably going to look back too - out of curiosity. They weren't mean get-out-of-our-place-waygook stares, but more in the range of curiosity. My advice? Get over it. Koreans stare at foreigners even when we have clothes on, so this isn't really all that much different.

Tattoos are okay. My back is covered, and I wasn't told that I needed to cover up or anything. They will do that in parts of Japan, but not here. I did get extra stares, but not really anything that I noticed.

Try out everything. Asians are really into that mix of hot and cold. It was painful at first, but it felt good later. Actually, this really funny ajjuma saw that I was a bit apprehensive about going from the hot pool to the cold pool, and she playfully flicked water in my direction (not a full on splash - definitely not anything that would be rude).

Hang on, note about ajjumas: this group of women rule Korea, and rightfully so. They've been through a lot, and they had to respect the mess out of the elderly when they were kids, so now it's their turn. I've found that when you're open to letting them have the right-of-way in any walks of life, they're really appreciative. I usually give up my seat to anyone above the middle-aged mark on the bus or subway, and, a few times, they've held the seat next to them for me when it becomes vacant. I've also let some ahead of me in line, and they've pulled me right up to the front with them. I think when they see foreigners, they're afraid because they don't know if we realize that they come first, so the hackles go up and they get extra assertive. But, once we show that we realize that they are to be respected, their defenses soften and they see us as a person, not as a rude outsider (this is a bad rep that Westerners have: that we have this whole me-first attitude regardless of age and gender).

Back to the awesomeness of jjimjilbangs..

Go with a friend. Even though I'm of the Get-Over-It school of thought (thanks, Mom), the whole public nakedness thing does help when you're with someone.

Wash off again when you are done!!

Summer ---> Fall

The last time I wrote, it was so hot that I wanted to die. I should be used to this, being from Florida and all....but it still totally kills me. Now, it's actually cool enough that at night, I kinda wish I had a jacket. My Septembers aren't like this - Septembers for me are usually just as godawul as Augusts, so I'm kinda liking this change.

I say this now, but snow will still happen.

Last time we talked, I was in the middle of intensives. The only thing that got me through was the knowledge of that extra money I'd be bringing home thanks to the extra hours. Unfortunately, we went from those extra hours back into our old schedule for just a bit, and then into a completely new schedule (for those who aren't in this special The Know group, the first two weeks of any term always involve more work). However, our hagwon caved and *actually* gave us a vacation - we got the 3 days for Chuseok (read the freaking Wikipedia page **). Yes, we do have to work the Saturday before and after, but that three days straight was pretty nice :)

Spent my Chuseok mostly with Siobhain, who pretty much is my Korean family :) We spent a lot of time knitting (because it's us), and going to cafes. Sio also introduced me to jjimjilbangs and.......I'm in love. Going to write a separate entry on this that is going to be so awesome and epic and helpful that I think Aclipse should totally feature it in their teacher blog section (hint hint =p)

My knitting has come leaps and bounds here. I don't think I've done anything that hasn't required some sort of pattern or challenge. Right now, I'm doing this cowl for one of my coworkers and a few other smaller projects, but I've worked up the nerve to start lace work and I'm making a shawl for mom that I'm *hoping* will turn out really nice (or, at least nice enough for her to think that I'm a total yarn genius). Gloves have proved to be a giant pain in the rear - I now understand why there are so many fingerless glove and mitten patterns on Ravelry and much fewer fingered glove patterns. For the 1% who are reading this and haven't gone "What is all this knitting nonsense", yes, yarn is available in South Korea - you just have to know where to look.

Finally caved and went to Itaewon (the foreigner-gathering place). I think there are two types of foreigners in Korea: the type that thrive for places like Itaewon because they can't handle all the unfamiliarity, and the type who avoid Itaewon because they think they're "better" than that. I'm definitely in the second group. Yes, there is a lot of ethnic food there, but there's a lot of ethnic food everywhere in Seoul...and for much cheaper, too. It's the only place in Korea that's really loud from people and not just city noises. Plus, as one of my friends has pointed out, it's also one of the few places in which strangers will actually know what we're talking about.

I've also made peace with the M-4101. I discovered the Jonggak/Jongro/YMCA bus stop. It's the second stop on the route (once into Seoul) and pretty close to a few subway stations. I found the line one station, and I have a sneaking suspicion that if I turn the other way, I'll hit the City Hall station which is connected to line 2. It's saved me about an hour of my trip into Seoul (arg..traffic between Jonggak all the way to the Myeongdong/Euljiro-il-ga (or ip-gu if you're talking to Calvin) makes me want to stab puppies). On this, I realized that I can get *back on* the bus here, and not have to deal with the whole ajjuma shove-fest to get the last seat.

** For the condensed version, Chuseok is pretty much the "Korean Thanksgiving", except instead of eating turkey and watching football, they give thanks/praise/etc to their ancestors and eat songpyeon (tiny rice cakes full of surprise goodness)...and, apparently, according to that Wiki page, play tug-of-war...