My First Korean Spa

Time for a long overdue update. Today I went to a Korean spa for the first time. It was cool, this place was like a spa/waterpark. So, the only problem was that there were like a billion children. For some reason after teaching all week the last thing I want to do on the weekend is be surrounded by screaming children lol.

But I actually met this really cool little girl who had the most amazing English of anyone I've met since I've been here. She picked me out like the minute I arrived and then kind of followed me around until eventually she started talking to me, it's funny how kids do that here. You can totally sense it when a kid keeps looking at you and you know they're just working up the nerve to talk to you.

Back to the spa though, so after the water park part we went to the mixed jimjilbang (Korean spa) part, where everyone had to wear these funny brown shorts and t-shirt outfits. It looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. Everyone walking around in the same nondescript outfits.

So the coolest/creepiest part of the jimjilbang was that the "Dr. Fish." The dr. fish are these weird fish that are all in a pool and you put your feet in and they eat all the dead skin off your feet. At first it felt really weird but then it was kind neat. And now my feet are way smoother.

Finally I went to the girls' part of the jimjilbang, which is the naked part. Which I really wasn't sure I wanted to do, but I figured when in Rome... So I went and it was great, there was one huge room that had all sorts of different baths and showers and stuff, and then there was this other outdoor section that was really relaxing and had all sorts of different stone baths. So yeah, I survived my first excursion to a jimjilbang, and I loved it. There's one right by my school but I think it might be kind of weird because what if I run into my students there? So we'll see, I might just stick to going to out of town jimjilbangs instead.

Foot Stones in the Park

I just discovered something very cool in the little park near my house. Ok, well maybe I didn't discover them, but I was just shown something very cool. There is this whole path of all different types of rocks and wood arranged in different patterns to massage your feet. It's awesome, my feet always hurt after teaching all day so I'll definitely be heading back there regularly. I took pictures of the rocks with my phone but then I realized that I have no way of getting the photos from my phone onto my computer so I'll have to go back with my camera.

Anyways, the rock foot massage totally made up for the fact that I got completely soaked walking home from emart today. I should have known that the second I took my umbrella out of my bag it would rain. I totally looked like the crazy foreign girl today just walking through a huge rainstorm with no coat or umbrella or anything. And then every time I kind of resigned myself to the fact that it was raining it would rain harder until at one point I actually laughed out loud at how soaked I was, which was the point when I realized that I looked like a crazy foreigner.

Folk Village

Yesterday we had the day off work for memorial day, so a bunch of us went to the folk village in Yongin. It was pretty cool and a lot bigger than I expected. We walked around for several hours and I don't think we saw most of it. The best part was that they had these shows, there was a farmer's music and dance show, a see-saw show, a tight rope walker and a horse show. My favourite was of course the horse show. It was crazy, it was just one small ring and they'd have one or two horses in at a time, and the riders were basically acrobats, doing all sorts of tricks while they were riding. The tightrope walking was pretty cool too. One other interesting thing was that there were two women taking the silk off of silk worms, that was interesting. I knew they did it but I never really knew how.

This week I finally went to this cute little restaurant near my house called Il Blu. It's just this gorgeous little cafe that makes me really happy and it's like a minute away from my house. I just went there again this morning - they have french toast!!! I was so excited when I was french toast on the menu, I knew I had to go back this weekend. Finally a proper breakfast, now if only they had bacon.