My Start in Korea

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I've decided to start a blog. I know I am not very good at keeping in touch. I just hate addressing emails. I've been keeping a journal, and this seems to be the easiest way to keep people informed of my going ons in my travels.

So far I am loving my time here in South Korea. I am in Daejon. I don't know if that is how it is spelled, but it is close enough. I am working for EPIK, English program in Korea. I will be moving to the island of Jeju in a couple of days. But right now I am with 170 other teachers who joined the program. There is a week of orientation before we leave to our various locations around South Korea. We have 4 classes a day, each lasting 1 1/2 hours. The classes are on Korean culture, and various teaching methodologies. I'm getting tired of classes. Most of the stuff that they are teaching I've learned in my time in Peace Corps.

But now on to the stories.

Today I skipped one of my classes. My back was killing me and I needed a break. The hotel that they are putting us up in is a Spa. It's called Yousung Hotel. I decided to get a massage. Anything to help alleviate the pain. I don't know what I did. I just woke up with a kink in my back. So I go down to the Spa area and try to ask for a massage. It was difficult. I can't wait until I speak the language. It took some doing, but I was able to get my point across. I think mostly because the words are the same. Well when I said massage, she said massagie. So she shows me how much it is going to be. She is the girl at the desk, by the way. I go into the locker room and try to figure out where to go. A lot of wondering around and being confused. A worker in the spa decides to help me out and shows me where to get a massage and gets a masseuse.

The Spa area is NAKED. I guess the area we are in is known for their hot springs. The tables are in an area where you soak. There are 3 pools, a cold water pool, a hot pool 45 degrees C and a 41 degree pool. Everyone is naked and Korea, that is except me. Well I am naked, just not Korean. If you are wondering, it is true what they say about Asians. They are not the largest of people. They are short and thin. I felt like John Holmes walking around in there. Being white in an Asian culture, people stare at you. When you are walking around naked, they stare at you.

I walk over to the table and talked to the guy, He says "Sports Massage?" I give him the thumbs up and tell him yes and lay down on the table. And he starts the massage. Every other time I got a massage, they throw a towel over you. Not here. I was on my stomach and didn't think much of it. The guy throws a bowl of hot water over me and goes to town. He was good. Got deep into my muscles and it did help the pain. About 45 minutes into the massage he throws more water over me and then grabs a towel and rubs it on this huge thing of soap and soaps me up and continues the massage for another 10 minutes and then has me flip over. Soaps up me front and massages my front for another 15 minutes. That part got uncomfortable. It is kinda strange having a dude massage you with a bunch of naked guys walking around or soaking right next to you and everything is out there in the open. Yeah no towel over the bits and tackle. Great massage, just a bit weird.

So after the massage, I decided to take a soak. Hell I was in the spa and the water is known all over Korea. This is supposed to be the best. Magical waters that are great for the body and skin. I didn't notice any thing, but the soak was great. There were a couple of Koreans doing some strange things in the pool. Stretches and the like. Oh well it is their country and their culture. I just chilled in the pool. Not bad. It helped. After a while I went to the hot pool. The hot pool was hot hot. Really hot. I could only handle it for a couple of minutes and then jumped into the cold pool for a minute before showering and getting out. But that is my story of my day in the Spa.