Sorry, teacher, a fish ate my feet

Attention! I have actually found something that rivals the naked massage as the weirdest experience of my life!!! Brace yourself, you might not believe this one!

Have you ever heard of "Doctor Fish"? Me either, until about 2 weeks ago, when I was talking to my student about pedicures and she told me I should go to Dr. Fish instead. No, it's not a medical professional with an unfortunate name, these are real fish. So some friends and I were having "day of beauty" last weekend (Korea can make you feel hideous; everyone is 5'5'', size 2 and has perfect hair and skin and make-up and clothes all the time. Not that I even CARE about that stuff most of the time, but it gets to you!) so we decided to give these little swimmers a try.

First of all, Dr Fish are always located in a cafe, and you have to buy a drink in order to "use" the fish. Now this might be ok in a cafe in Amsterdam, where most of the "cafe fare" will mellow you out, but that's a no-no here, so they get you all jacked up on caffeine. Then you go up to a little basin and wash your feet, and then make your way over to the nicely decorated stone ponds. Full of fish. Hundreds of them. And you stick your feet in the pond. And then you IMMEDIATELY jerk your feet out of the water (often splashing your fellow fishers) because the minute your skin touches the water, hundreds of hungry little fish swim up and start nibbling on your tootsies!! And that's the point!!

Yup, Dr Fish are just little fish that eat dead skin. So for $2 you can dip your feet in their pond for as long as you want, and all those little fish will gnaw away at the tasty morsels that cover your feet and ankles. And it's a good thing you can stay for as long as you want, because it probably took at least 20 minutes for us to get comfortable enough to actually submerge the entire foot and leave it in there for any length of time. It's an excellent work-out for the reflexes!

If you have a really good imagination, you can close your eyes and almost pretend that you've got your feet in a pool full of tapioca beads, that keep bumping into you. But the tapioca beads have tails, and occasionally sharp teeth (we called them "the zingers"). And they tickle like hell! Unfortunately, as soon as someone says, "here, stick your feet in this pool of fish so they can eat your skin," any element of imagination rushes from your mind, and all you can focus on is "fish. Feet. My feet. Fish eating MY feet. WTF?!" The heels weren't bad, because they're not quite as sensitive, but when my arches finally got in there, oh man did that tickle! And the TOES! Fish nibbling the tips of my toes, fish tails brushing my toes, fish swimming between my toes. And when you look down into the water, the only thing you can see below your ankles is a mass of little gray fins and tails and scales, and their unnaturally huge mouths groping for an empty spot! Images of biology videos of an egg being swarmed by thousands of sperm were flashing through my mind.



I think we were there for about an hour and a half in the end. Towards the end, after I had come to terms with the whole situation and started talking more and focusing less, it almost felt like pins and needles, only without the excrutiating pain associated with a sleeping foot waking up. Although you'd still get the occasional zinger, just to remind you where you were. And my feet did feel smoother afterwards. It made us feel very Korean (this is actually a popular thing to do!) and thus stunningly beautiful (ha!) but it was a good laugh and a relaxing way to spend a chilly Saturday afternoon.

And hey, guess where the concept started? Yup, in spas, where they have pools of Dr Fish to submerge your entire body. Naked, of course. Maybe I'll look for that next...

No way in hell.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... After Christmas

I am still alive!! Many apologies for my complete absence this last month! And a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!

Well, I'll give you a little run-down of the holidays (ha!) in Korea. So I got back from Hong Kong in the middle of November, where it was all decorated with lights and some trees, and Christmas music was starting to come out, so I was in a bit of a festive mood. Back in Korea, no lights or music yet. But I started to get my Christmas play list ready, and thought about Christmas movies I'd like to watch, so by the first of December I was in full Christmas swing. As I'm so good at containing my excitement, some of my friends heard me raving about Christmas things, and as it turns out, a lot of people here are just as big of Christmas fans as me!! It was only fitting, then, to through a Christmas Kick-off party at the beginning of December. I had a tree that Hannah gave to me, and there were a few people leaving before Christmas, so it was awesome to get everyone together and in the spirit nice and early, like it should be!

The party was a huge success... everyone brought an ornament to put on the tree, and someone decided it would be a good idea to make gingerbread men in a toaster oven! Do you know how hard it is to A) find ingredients to bake with in Korea (the closest molasses is in Germany), B) find cookie cutters in Korea (but I actually found tiny little Christmas ones! yay!), and C) bake about 200 1.5" 12 at a time in a minuscule oven?! (If you're curious... it takes about 3 and a half hours to bake them all) But it was SO worth it... they turned out great and we had a good time decorating and eating them. I also tried my hand at home-made egg nog... tried the cooked kind, because eggs aren't refrigerated here, and I didn't want to kill anyone (puts a damper on the holiday spirit!)... I think it worked pretty well, after you skim off the scrambled eggs that tend to form. Found out that Koreans only drink coconut rum, which definitely can't be put in egg nog, so we tried some other combos... Jack Daniels (very bad!), Crown Royal (not horrible), but in the end, either plain or (believe it or not) with Bailey's turned out to be the best! And what's a Christmas party without a gag gift exchange?! The best one was the 6 cans of SPAM, and guess who got that one?! The only one there that likes SPAM ("Guys, I'm Asian, I love this stuff" I think was his response). His girlfriend, on the other hand, was not nearly as impressed, as she got SPAM feasts for a few weeks after that. She went back to Canada, I think that might be why! haha

So when you tell a Korean that you've just had your first Christmas party, and it's December 3, the look they give you is quite similar to what you'd get if you told them you want to skydive without a parachute. They thought I was completely nuts. "It's only the beginning of December" they kept repeating. "Exactly. Eat some gingerbread" was my response. The "Christmas season" here starts around December 20th, and ends on December 26. The big department store had a few decorations and lights up, and if you were lucky you'd hear "All I Want for Christmas is You" on the radio (if you were unlucky it was "Last Christmas" by George Michael) but other than that, Christmas just isn't a big deal here at all. So after the kick-off, the lead-up to the big day was pretty much non-existent, unless you count the students who were complaining that Christmas wouldn't be any good this year because they were single. For holidays, we got (ready...) December 25th. That's it. That's right, we had class on Monday the 24th. And who came?! EVERYONE!! I read The Night Before Christmas to everyone, because I refused to have real classes on Christmas eve. But everyone seemed to like it, and I think they were entertained by my enthusiasm.

But Christmas came, and on Christmas eve (at like 10:00, after everyone was done work!) there was 5 of us who had a movie marathon (Love Actually and A Christmas Story) and pizza, while I baked more gingerbreads, and then Santa came! It was really nice just to have people there when we woke up on Christmas morning, and we all opened our gifts from home and had a yummy breakfast together (at like noon). And that night, the feast! As almost half of us in our group of friends are veggie, Sarah made a Tofurkey with amazing mushroom and pecan stuffing dried cherry sauce (you can find cranberries about as easily as molasses). Broccoli and cheese sauce, sweet potato, risotto and zucchini rounded out the meal, and more desserts than is really necessary. But the evening was full of fantastic friends and lots of love, which was a real comfort. For most of us, it was our first Christmas away from home, which is tough. We all missed our families and our friends back home, and all the traditions that usually happen at Christmas. But being surrounded by good people made it a lot easier. This won't be a trend though; wherever I am next December, I will come back to Calgary for the holidays!

Winter here is a joke. I think on Christmas day it was about 10 degrees. I had a house full of people, the heat was off and all the windows were open!! But, the Saturday after Christmas, I was about to go for a run when I looked out the window, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? Miniature flakes falling from the sky!! It was snow, real, honest snow! So awesome!! So I ran in the little flurry, and by Saturday night there was actually a little layer of snow covering the ground! And on Sunday it kept snowing, and Monday too!! By the end, there was about an inch or two, not much but it's probably all we'll get this year! I was so happy, I was calling all my Canadian friends here and we all shared in the joy! David, the South African that I work with, was in awe; he got here in July and has never seen snow before!! He thought it was ash in the air from a fire at first! He's having a tough time with the "cold" but enjoys the white stuff too. I keep telling him that's what makes winter bearable! It kind of made everything seem festive again... as I said, by the end of Boxing day, any hint that Christmas had happened had vanished.

New Years in Korea is an experience I'll never forget! Once again, not as big of a holiday as it is back home, so I still had to work on the 31st. But after class, I raced to the train and went to Busan, a city down on the south east coast. My friends were there on the beach, and I was actually in the subway at midnight, but evidently it didn't really matter... nothing happened anywhere. The beach was fun though, there were lots of people and lights, people were shooting off fireworks and there were big drum circles and music and dancing, so we had a great time there for a while. Then we went to a foreigner bar, because you need to do something to A) warm up after being on the beach on December 31 (no snow, but frigid winds) and B) stay awake for the finale. The finale, the thing that gets Koreans going on New Years, isn't the countdown to midnight, it's sunrise the next morning. So at 6:30, pumped full of lattes and triangle kimbab, we trudged back to the beach with thousands of other people to watch the first sunrise of 2008! What an amazing time!! There was a GIANT Buddha head carved into the sand, and people were lighting wish candles and placing them all around it. You could also write a New Years wish on a balloon, and just before the sun poked through they let them all go, so there were hundreds of balloons in the air. There were also lots of fishing boats going back and forth along the shore, and helicopters flew over the crowd and dropped confetti. There were polar bear swimmers, and you have to give these guys credit. Canadian polar bear-ers may run into water that the ice has been chipped off of, but these guys ran in to the ocean, swam out 200m and the treaded water until the sun came out!!! They were probably in there for about 45 minutes by the time they made it back to shore! But we sat on the beach all huddled together and waited as the sky went from dark red to orange and pink and yellow, and finally the first rays came through, and then the sun itself, and everyone was cheering and happy and calling Happy New Year all around ("Happy New Year" in Korean is really long... I tried really hard to remember it but failed miserably). Probably one of the coolest New Years memories I've had. Then there was the bit where we tried to catch a train with 500 000 other people (failed miserably at that too) but we managed to get in a cab, arrived back at the hostel at 9 and had to check out at 11... thank goodness for sleeping rooms at the jimjilbang (bath house. And you're not naked for that bit, you've got "spa clothes").

So that pretty much sums up my December! I spent half the month getting pumped up for Christmas and the other half wishing I was at home for Christmas. But I survived the holidays away from home, and not a day went by that I didn't miss everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful time as well, and that the new year is full of joy and hope and happiness! All the best!

Hong Kong Baby!

Greetings!

(*gasp* she lives! we were wondering if she had been kidnapped by crazed Koreans who can't stand her "sharp nose" or "loud laugh" anymore!)

I can hear you, and you can stop worrying... they all like my nose, evidently "sharp" means good. It gets pointed out to me a lot, tho, especially by the kids - Oooh, Teacher Laura's nose is very sharp.

Anyway... what have I been doing, you ask? Well, that's a good question! Most recently (as in this past weekend) I flew off for a whirl-wind tour of Hong Kong! Another beautiful thing about my job is that we can only have 20 days of teaching in a month... November just happens to have 22 days, alas we got a 4 day weekend! I went with a friend from work and her sister - who speaks absolutely no English, and I think I'm up to about 24 Korean words, so Jackie did a lot of translating. Because I'm a nice person, I will spare you the details of the travel buddy, but if you wish to hear about that side of the trip, I will email or call you about that. But I shall stick to telling you all about the wonderful city/country of Hong Kong, because it is just that... absolutely fabulous!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon, and took the bus to Tsim Sha Tsui where we were staying. The building is called Mirador Mansion, next to Chungking Mansion, where evidently a lot of Kong Kong movies are filmed. It is a great place for movies because... how to put this nicely... it's full of character! Mirador was having some renos or cleaning or something done on it, and all the scaffolding was made of bamboo!! So cool! But the building itself is like a box; there's nothing in the middle. And it's all open too... the hallways only have half-walls, which maybe is normal but for me, a little strange. I think it's also a bit of an older building, as it looked a little weathered. But don't judge a book by it's cover, right? Our room was great, a decent size, and clean and with our own bathroom (and hot water, always a bonus!) And no roaches! Yay!! (ps. I set traps in my apt, and have been roach-free for almost 2 weeks now! knock on wood...)

As a side note, I have always wondered at the fact that I'd never seen a roach outside, they always seem to be inside places. Well, now that I've been to the Temple Street night market, I have now seen an outdoor cockroach. And let me say that it's a bloody good thing it was outside because I'm not kidding you if it had been in my hotel room I would have moved. I might not have even taken my stuff with me, it wouldn't be worth it in case there were more in there!! It was by far the biggest living insect I've ever seen... possibly bigger than Paris Hilton's dog! At least 4, maybe 5 inches long. I don't know exactly, it was moving way to fast and so was I, once it caught my eye!! Even now, my skin is crawling just writing about it!!

Anyway, we had a delicious Chinese food meal at a dim sum place, then made our way across the harbour to Victoria peak, to take a look at the cityscape at night. The Peak Tram is an adventure in itself... it's so steep that it makes the buildings look like they're on a 45 degree angle, when really it's you! We didn't do Madame Tussauds (is it a rule that every tourist city must have a wax museum? I"m going to make it my goal in life to miss all of them!). This city is massive!! All the buildings are huge and bright and packed in... it's kind of like Manhatten, but denser. And with water in the middle, instead of just around the outside. But the lights were all very pretty, and they seemed to go on forever!

The next morning, we decided to split up ( :) )... the Koreans went to Macau and I went on an adventure to find a big Buddha. Not just any big Buddha, but THE big Buddha. I was walking along Nathan road in the morning on my way to the train, and noticed a park entrance so I decided to pop in and take a peek. Boy was that a good detour!! It's a park called Kowloon City Park, kind of like Central Park, a huge area in the middle of the city. There were gardens and beautiful birds and flowers and ponds and pathways. I love city parks, they are a little piece of calm in the midst of the chaos of a busy city. This park had a lot of people doing Tai Chi... some by themselves and some in groups, and my favourite was the yoga class. All these people sitting in lotus position, with their music playing softly, all deep in meditation; while right behind them there is a port going to China, and construction and traffic roaring all around and 80 story offices and apartments. There are also a lot of really pretty trees and flowers all around.... did I mention that Hong Kong is hot? Like, REALLY hot. So there are a lot more tropical plants than here in Korea. My favourite were the Hong Kong orchid trees... if you walk by a row of orchid trees, there is no other smell like that in the world. mmmm.

So after spending a lot longer there than I could have expected (and loving every minute of it!) I got on the subway to Lantau Island to catch the gondola over the mountains to see the giant Buddha. Unfortunately, the gondola was broken, so it was the bus for me. Ah well. A little terrifying, but I survived! But the Giant Buddha is just that... a giant statue of a seated Buddha. The giant-est, in fact... at 37 m it's the tallest seated Buddha statue out there! There is also a big monastery there, Po Lin monastery, where for about $7 you can get a delicious vegetarian lunch. And if you show up alone, they seat you with other loners, so I had a great conversation with a Brit from Australia. At temples here, people light inscense (I'm really sorry, for the life of me I can't figure out how to spell this word!) to welcome the gods, as an offering and just because it smells nice. Consequently, there is inscense smoke and smell everywhere, as well as giant pots to light the sticks, and more giant pots to stick them in. So temples are always very fragrant. But they are absolutely beautiful! Lots of red and gold, and carvings and statues of lions and dragons (and bears, oh my) as well as flowers and fruit, very peaceful.

Back to Hong Kong island and then Kowloon via ferry - much more scenic than the MTR! - and then up to Fa Yuen street market to check out the finds. Street markets are a big thing there, and they sell everything!! Clothes, shoes, jewelry, food, gifts, electronics, toys, bags, wing-dings and ho-hummers and wang doodlers, anything you can imagine! And it's all cheap, and none of the prices are set so it's always an adventure! So I got a few good things there, and checked out the goldfish market too. This is a street that is just lined up and down with aquarium stores, and they all have fish in little bags just tacked onto boards outside their stores! A little creepy, but fascinating! Then I met up with Jackie for supper (Spanish Paella tonight!) before checking out the Temple Street night market, which is the biggest one, I guess, and also where I saw Bruno the wonder-roach. Got some more good stuff there too, I'm a fan of the outdoor market!

Our last full day started out with a "quick" (ha!) trip up to Wong Tai Sin, a big Buddhist/Taoist/Confucianist temple with more beautiful gardens and buildings and ponds, all with the backdrop of a metropolitan city! Then down to the Kowloon City Walled City Park. Some cool history there; Kowloon city was built as a stronghold against pirates and other invaders, and in 1843 the Qing government built the walls around it. When HK was under British rule, it remained as part of China, and during the Japanese occupation, most of the walls and buildings were torn down to provide building materials for an airfield. In 1994, they excavated the area and found parts of the original wall, as well as a few original buildings and some other stuff. So now it's a park, with a wall around it again, and more beautiful gardens and classic-styled buildings. Finally, over to Stanley for yet another market (got me some new Birks at a disgustingly cheap price!) and another yummy dinner... seafood curry served in a pumpkin! A final walk along the waterfront and I was pretty satisfied with the trip!

If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend going to Hong Kong! It's a beautiful city, it reminded me a little of an Asian version of London. There are so many things to do and see, and so many people from all over the world! It was a nice reminder that there are other people out there; Korea is pretty much made up of Koreans and English teachers! I am so glad I got the chance to go, and am looking forward to my next trip. Destination... anywhere!

Frustrating Fifth Week

Hello all!

Well, firstly, a thousand apologies for not speaking or otherwise having contact with anyone the past 10 days! The internet in mine and Charlotte's apartments has been down since last weekend, and even though I've mentioned, pressed, nagged, everyday since then, it's been to no avail. So no internet = no communication with anyone at all. I've also been nagging since I got here about the fact that I have no stove and thus the inability to cook anything besides toast at my apartment. I also discovered this moring that my washing machine is broken, there is a large lake surrounding it, so Charlotte's clothes are stranded inside and no more clothes can be washed until that gets fixed, so judging by the speed that things get done around here, I'm going to need to go shopping soon! Add to that the fact that I still haven't been paid for anything - training, plane ticket, or working; and the fact that I have a cold and I had to miss my race today, plus all the little things that can make life very frustrating here - the smells, the noise, the traffic, the pushy people, and everyone telling me to go to the hospital for a simple cold, and it's been a bit of a rough week.

On the bright side, I'll soon get a vacation, which even though I've only been here for a month, I feel like I need! I'm going to Hong Kong in 10 days! My friend Jackie from work, her sister and I are flying out on Thursday, November 15 for 4 days of a whirlwind tour of Hong Kong, to take advantage of a school holiday that we're having. I'm really looking forward to seeing the sights and lights and trying all the food, and seeing the markets and maybe even making a side trip to Macau! And, I started a Korean class this weekend too, which is so good! I'm very excited to work on my ability to communicate with the general population!

Well, not the most uplifting post, but I think fairly normal for people here about 4-6 weeks in. So I am positive that things will get much better very soon! Fingers crossed! But I miss you all, and I hope you're having a good week, that you all had a very fun Hallowe'en, and that I'll be able to hear from you again very soon!!

Lots of love and hugs
Laura

"Hiking" with the 500 000 of my closest friends

Yes, I did put "the" in on purpose. Sentances are different here, they don't use a lot of the little words that we do like "the" "a" "he/she/it" so they often put them in in weird places, and leave them out where they are supposed to be. I saw 2 signs today, "The 200 persons being the maximum number allowed on the girder bridge." The second one also warned, "no passing the children, the elderly, the weak or the drunken." Because it's possible, they sell beer everywhere, I'm not kidding, everywhere.

We went on an excursion today to Daedun mountain to see some fall colours. They aren't in full force yet, but any excuse for a hike is a good one, right?! The minute we stepped off the bus, I smelled something that will forever be embedded in my mind: the unmistakeable aroma of roasting silkworm larvae. I have never smelled it before, but somehow I knew, with that first whiff, that nothing else could possibly smell like that. Bondeggi. They should have a commercial like Lay's, only instead of "bet you can't eat just one", take out the 'just'. They have HUGE pans of it, and it's enough to make your stomach turn 4 times over! And they LOVE it!! We probably passed 7 bondeggi places, even up on the mountain. My favourite was the one who had bondeggi AND fried grasshoppers, and we got to wait in line beside them to climb up one of the girder bridges (the 60 person was the maximum on that one). All served up in little paper cups, you just eat them with a toothpick, just smack away. Ugg. I'm glad I didn't have a hangover!

Hiking here is almost exactly the same as at home. Except the paved path wide enough for 2 cars to drive up. And the roasting insects everywhere. And the MILLIONS of people around. And the kiosks set up all up the mountain selling beer and soju (hence why it's entire viable to have "the drunken" on the bridges) and various snack foods. And the giant steel alien-space-ship-looking monument at the top. And the hand railings all the way up. And the stairs. And the steel girder bridges. And did I mention the MILLIONS of people? But other than that, exactly the same. At least I didn't see anyone in heels today. I was going to wear mine, but I'm glad I didn't... they would have gotten caught in the stairs.

So not everyone enjoys hiking as much as I do, which I can appreciate. I think the exact line was "Why walk uphill for an hour of boring when you can take a cable car for 6 minutes and get right to the good stuff?" So we took a cable car up the majority of the mountain. It's a fairly easy mountain to get to, so I'll probably go back again, then I can check out the whole path up. The cable car ride was good, good views, and no one there had bondeggi. But you get to the top, and immediately climb up some incredibly steep stairs, up to a little flat bit with a monk continuously beating on a wooden bell. To the right we go, where there is the first bridge, about 70 m long, linking 2 small peaks across a huge valley! Aaron did not participate in this, as he and heights don't get along. Great views, though. It was a fairly clear day, by Korean standards. We then scrambled up some rock stairs, then more metal stairs (even steeper!), past 2 little cafes, both selling bondeggi and beer. Then there was the other bridge, which was more like suspended stairs, as it also linked 2 rocks. Then a final scramble up some more boulder stairs, past another beer vendor (no larvae this time, shucks) and we reached the space ship at the peak. It was a beautiful view. This whole country is covered in mountains, so it was just peak after peak as far as you could see. It's still looks all green when you see the big picture, but along the trail there was some colour starting to come out, which was also lovely. It was also refreshing to breath some fresh air.

One thing, however, is that you don't go to the mountains here for peace and solitude. It's kind of like walking through downtown at lunch time on a Wednesday, only with hills. The path is literally crawling with people. Picture, if you will, Johnson's Canyon on a summer day, and add the entire population of Calgary. And the top, the fenced in area was packed, all along the railing was packed, on the other side of the railing was packed, and people just line the sides of the trail to have their picnics. And boy do they pack a picnic!! They have whole spreads, all the sides, soups, fish, kimbab, rice, the works! No crackers and cheese for these folkd! They all looked very yummy!

Koreans, though, aren't very shy about letting you know if you're going too slow. "Excuse me" is a phrase that is reserved for more serious situations, which I have not encountered yet, because they just shove you out of the way. No, not a little nudge, or a poke, but a full-on push. Or repeated hard pokes, in the back of your legs. That one was nice, a little 4'9'' ajima (old lady) in a pink blazer, mumbling something (probably "stupid slow oegugin") and giving me a little jab in my hamstring every 20 seconds or so. I wanted to turn around and say "I CAN"T GO ANY FASTER BECAUSE THERE ARE 150 PEOPLE ON THE TRAIL DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME WHO ARE ALL GOING THE SAME SPEED!" but my Korean isn't that good yet, so I just kept repeating "stop pushing me. Stop pushing me. Stop pushing me" to whoever came near. At least no one grabbed my butt, as one old man did to Charlotte. I think he was trying to steady himself, and that was the closest thing around!

I still can't get over how many people are in this country. It's the size of New Brunswick, with the population of Canada plus New York City. I've probably said something like this before, but it never ceases to amaze me! It changes your perspective on everything!

But all in all, it was a good day. You can't complain too much about the mountains, and every outing is a cultural learning experience. And I have renewed my commitement that no insect shall knowingly cross my lips, however I may go back to try some deep fried ginseng.

A nudist's day at the Jimjilebang

So Hannah decided to introduce me to the Korean spa today. Sounds good to me! But there are some MAJOR differences between a North American spa and the Korean Jimjilebang...

So you go in, pay 6000 won (about 6$) and they give you a key and some "spa clothes". You take your key upstairs, lock up your stuff, and change into your spa clothes. This particular spa has 7 levels! 2 are filled with rooms of varying temperatures... the dry saunas varied from 63*C to a whopping 115*!!!!! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's a setting on an oven, not a room that you sit in voluntarily!! So you basically just go in and sweat. There were also saunas that had pipes running along the sides with cold water running through them, so you lie down and put your head on the pipes and it feels really nice, you can actually stay there for a while! Or until the pipe really starts digging into your head, whatever... The walls and ceilings in these saunas are also very beatifully decorated, with stones and mosaics and scenes and stuff... it's the first place that I've seen that isn't tacky to the n'th degree!

So now we come to big difference #1: people lying everywhere. On the 2nd sauna floor, there was also a "resting room", which is really just a big open room, a few benches, and people lying on the floor. Some were resting, some were sleeping, some people were lying on the floor sleeping elsewhere in the building... basically, wherever you hit the floor, that's a good place to nap! Sounds good to me! They also had a cold sauna, which was the perfect temperature to initiate my desire to go snowboarding. Damn, have to wait a few more months for that here!

Big difference #2: this spa is 24 hours. And being a 24 hour spa, with lockers, "resting rooms" and only 6 bucks to get in, travellers often stay there instead of a hostel!!! So there was a floor that was totally un-spa-y, that had a cafe and a restaurant, kareoke rooms, a stage, internet lounge, movie room, and even sleeping rooms!!! So tip for all of you who want to travel in Korea... stay in spas! It's cheap, safe and self-indulgent, all in one convenient location! They also have a gym and a pool, and on the 7th floor (roof) it was all a big rooftop garden patio, with tables and chairs and a little pond with waterfall, just to hang out and relax, maybe take a nap!

I went for a run earlier, so no gym today, so after we sweated it out in the saunas for a while, back into the changeroom we go, where the hot tubs and showers are, as well as the spa services. But get ready for BIG DIFFERENCE #3: you are completely naked! Yup, you just strip down, grab your shower stuff and head'er on in! If you want to turn some heads, walk a naked glowing white ass through a room full of naked Korean women in hot tubs... it's evidently a rare sight!

Once you get past the naked thing, though, it's a pretty awesome place. There's a huge room, full of hot tubs of varying temperatures, again from heavenly to stew. And some cold tubs, with various massaging jets and waterfalls. And about 70 showers, full of naked Koreans, from about our age to about 102. And they're all brushing their teeth... I've noticed this, everyone here brushes their teeth about 10 times a day... must be all the kimchi! The thing I found the most fascinating was the normalcy of it all, like there is no other way to go to a spa! Then again, a lot of these women come at least once a week, so I guess it would be pretty mundane.

Special treatments aren't necessary, but at 25 bucks for an exfoliating body scrub and massage, I had to indulge! Let me just say that in the end it was worth it, but I was seriously questioning my judgement for a while! It may be a little graphic, but the whole thing is just to amusing not to share!! The body care ladies were on lunch, so they were pointed out to us as they were walking to the back where the spa treatment area is... just in the back corner, because why go for privacy at this stage of the game? And of course, they were naked (why not enjoy a little soak on your lunch?!) I thought they were starting to get dressed, but just ended with the first layer... they work in their skivvies. Welcome to big difference #4. So they lie you down on this bed, toss a bucket of water over you, and I mean toss, and then start rubbing you down with a sandpaper mitt. Terribly painful, I kept wincing and I think she was asking me things but nothing was getting through, so I kept saying "mulaiyo! Mulaiyo! (I don't know, I don't know!) so she was laughing at me. So here's the scene... butt naked Laura, being sanded head to toe by a Korean in her bra and undies, making fun of me! And I'm paying for this!! And occasionally she would rinse me off by throwing another bucket of water over me (after a while, my body looked like it was covered in eraser shavings). So the scrub lasted about 35 minutes (it did get better, or else she just scrubbed away all the nerve endings in my skin, I'm not sure which), I'm lying on my stomach and she wraps and nice hot towel over my shoulders. How comforting. Then a little bit of a shoulder rub, very nice. Then she starts to beat me! A few good whacks on the upper back, and the oil comes out. The massage alternated between digging with thumbs, pounding with fists, and whacking with cupped hands! Again, right up there on the scale of weirdest experiences of my life, but it actually felt quite good. Finally, she coated me with soya milk and let me steep for a few minutes. And I admit, I'm pretty durn silky now!

So in short I spent my afternoon naked in a room full of strangers, and paid money for someone to abuse me. But it was phenomenal, and given half a chance I'd do it all again! Now I'm relaxed, happy and smooth, and I will never again have that bad dream where you get up to give a speech and you're in the nude, because I've already lived it!

Hope you're all well, go get some pampering done in my honour! It's worth it!

Yours in the buff,
Laura

Korean Food

In honour of this holiday revolving around gorging ourselves, I'll describe a traditional Korean meal, and the best one I've had yet.

In Korea, it is very disrespectful to wear shoes inside, so in Korean restaurants you always take your shoes off at the door. They eat off the same low style table made famous by Japanese restaurants. Yes, your feet go to sleep, and no, this doesn't get any easier or less painful the more you do it!

Most restaurants have a specialty, and usually only 4 or 5 things on the menu. You can usually tell what kind of restaurant it is by the cartoon on the front. Chicken places have chickens, beef places have cows, and so on and so on. These animals are usually smiling and giving a thumbs up, and generally looking happy about the fact that you're going to be eating their kin. The place I went to on Wed was a tofu place, and there was no smiling tofu, but I think that's because it was in such a small place; I have seen happy little white blocks on signs, as well as grinning mushrooms!

When you have plopped yourself down on your thin little cushion, you usually order almost straight away (5 options expidite the decision process! Koreans don't have time to waste pouring over menus). Then they bring you water and side dishes. Side dishes are the jewel of any Korean meal... they are shared by all and chosen so they complement each other and the main dish you have chosen. There is always kimchi, and usually some other vegetables (cooked, steamed, preserved... never raw!) and sometimes little bits of seafood, tofu, and whatever else the chef wants to prepare that day. If your meal isn't soup, than soup will always be a side dish, but that doesn't mean that it's thick or necessarily even hot... a sort of miso soup is commong, as is a cold bean sprout broth; this is not my favourite). Rice is never a side dish, because everyone gets their own.

As I've mentioned before, chopsticks here are usually metal, as are bowls and spoons, because in the days of the Jeoson dynasty, a lot of people had grudges against the Koreans, and poison in food will tarnish the silver or other metal, while in a wooden dish it would remain hidden. They say they continue the tradition now because metal is easier to clean and lasts longer, but I feel pretty safe eating my meal knowing that someone can't slip something into my bibimbap unbeknownst to me! I've seen how they look at me! A lot of food is eaten literally boiling hot... sundubu and samgyetang are two soups that I've had that are brought out to the table boiling on little portable gas stoves. Dolsap bibimbap is a rice dish that comes in a stone bowl with a raw egg on the top that you stir in and it cooks almost instantly!

And now to the meat of the story... or should I say the bean curd? My student took me to a tiny little restaurant in a tiny little town down an amazingly terrifying road! (for a full description, see my last post) They specialize in tofu, and they are exemplary of Korean pride! They only use Korean-grown soy beans (because from anywhere else they just don't have as much flavour), and they make their own soya sauce using the traditional Korean method (because the stuff you get in Japan is too sweet), and by the way it's Dubu in Korea (because Tofu is Japanese and therefore inherently bad, speaking of holding grudges...!) So we ordered sundubu (literally tofu soup), and she hurried away and brought out 5 sides. Homemade kimchi (using only Korean cabbages), pickled radishes, spicy steamed radish greens, spicy steamed spinach, and a GIANT block of raw tofu, with the homemade soya sauce. Now, most of you know that I am a big tofu fan, but I've never really eaten it raw, always cook it up and season it and such. But when in Korea, do as the Koreans, so in I dig, and oh my goodness, it was the most delicous thing I've ever tasted!! It really did have a rich flavour, very smooth, and the soya sauce was salty and a little bit spicy, and together it made for bite after bite of pure gastronomical joy! I could have had a whole meal of just the sides, and would have been quite happy! Even the kimchi, which I've rather grown to enjoy anyway, was the best I've tasted.

For those who have never heard of it, Kimchi is the national dish of Korea. It is pickled vegetables that came to be because of the need to preserve food for the winter (sounds familiar), and being Korean, of course it's spicy! A general rule of thumb here is red = hot. Kimchi is usually cabbage, often radish, and can also be made of almost any other veg. There is a whole process to making kimchi that I have not yet learned, but I know it involves a separate fridge because the smell is quite pungent. They used to bury it in the ground to ferment, but at the rate this country grows, if you leave your kimchi buried too long, there'll be a highrise or an apartment complex on it when you get back!

Our sundubu came, boiling hot as it should be, and it was just as good as the other tofu. Other sundubu that I've had is in kind of a thin tomato-y broth, with some greens and tofu and clams, and it's pretty tasty too, but this was traditional sundubu, which is basically just boiled tofu. About a pound and a half of boiled tofu actually, into which you stir as much rice and soya sauce as you like, and it's a phenomenal meal! I can hear you all rolling your eyes, 'right, Kalazy*, a meal of boiled tofu and spicy veggies was delicious... loony' but it's true! I wish they had taste-o-vision, because it truly was like nothing I've tried before! Unfortunately, I don't think there are any buses that go up there, so I'll probably never have it again, unless I get really bold and rent a car, or cajoule another student to take me! But I'm so glad that I got to go, and experience a truly local traditional Korean meal. Gambe!**

*In the Korean language, you cannot have 2 consonant sounds together, so they will always put a vowel in between if they are saying an English word. Also, "R" and "L" are the same letter, it just depends where they are in the word for what sound they make. Thus, Crazy becomes Kalazy! This is also kind a harsh word, and gets lots of giggles when you use it.
**Gambe! = Cheers!