Monday, August 8, 2016

Day 41

Today I woke up very early - at 5:50AM. I planned my time out so that I would wake up still feeling awake, so I didn’t feel dead. So, I woke up feeling ready. I washed up and put on my new clothing that I had bought the other day. I put on my orange shorts and grey striped shirt and headed out into the living room to see my family. I got my computer from the living room and brought it to my room and recharged it, along with my dying ipod, while I was waiting for everyone else to get ready. I also packed up shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, and swimming clothing just in case we went swimming later on.

By the time that I had done all of this, my family was already ready to leave, so we quickly headed out. Walking down the sidewalk to my aunt’s house, I discovered that I had forgotten my wallet and my headphones, so I started to worry that I had left something very important behind, but my mother reassured me that it wasn’t important. We took a taxi to span the short distance to my aunt’s house and the taxi driver was a bit peeved, but he pretended to be very humble, so I think it’s ok? Idk.

We got to my aunt's house and my mother told me and my brother to wait outside while she went up. My brother was staring at the advertisements playing from the convenience store across from my aunt's house building. I just remember an advertisement involving a woman constantly singing 'so shall we dance' followed by 'oh oh' and it just repeated too many times. We eventually went up to the room and ate a small breakfast before shortly leaving for our adventures in Seoul!


We parked in this parking space next to a statue that memorialized something. It was literally so so so so so hot and humid today so I felt like I was dying since the moment that I stepped out of the car.

After doing some sight seeing around a mountain, we headed back to the parking lot.

My brother was fooling around and dropped his sandal in the grate on the side of a mountain, so I picked it up. He then went down the mountain to get water for all of us. Other people on the mountain had the same idea as us and were also waiting. They soon got picked up by a small black car and we waited under the shade of the forest for our Aunt to arrive. With time, the silver van appeared over the hill and we got into the car and drove off into the city.

We stopped by a fancy restaurant and had an amazing buffet of food: delicious cold kimchi, tons of a tender beef with a unique, barbecue-esque flavor whose aroma made my mouth water as my aunt cooked it on the stove in front of us, soup, and other delicious side dishes. We also got bingsu and ice cream as desert. To prevent us from being warmed up and hot from the stove, a very active air conditioner blew air from underneath the table onto our lower halves. It was actually really refreshing, especially after walking in the heat. In fact, I took a tylenol to prevent myself from getting heat sickness because I was starting to obtain a headache. I don't sweat much, but I was dripping by the time that we got into the car and felt the nice air conditioning. We returned to the car and I felt so filled and relaxed that I fell asleep as we headed home.

To my surprise, we did not go home.

Actually, we went to a 짐찔방 resort and it. was. so. relaxing. Before, I was disappointed that we didn't get to go to the ocean and swim and I thought that it was such a waste that I brought all my clothing and stuff for preparation of swimming, but then I discovered that we were going to a jimjjilbang! Here, it didn't matter whether I had clothing for swimming or not. As me and my brother separated from my cousin, mother, and aunt, we put our shoes into our respective shoewear looker and then went to the men's locker room. Here, there were many naked men and we were soon to join them in their freedom.

I got to my underwear when I felt a bit scared. I tried to explain to my brother, but he kept running away ㅠㅠ. So, I just said 'screw it' and took my underwear and that was that. We first went into the warmest of the hot pools and then we went into the cold tub. Then, I suggested we go into the middle hot tub and we did so. It was really hot. We didn't go into the hottest one, however. Then, we went into a jacuzzi and got a water massage. Then, we went in to a warm/cold-ish tub and played games. After this, we washed off in the showers and put our spa clothing on and headed over to the 8th floor - the relaxation room.

We waited relaxed here and waited for our aunt, mother, and cousin to show up. They actually took quite a while - they were probably enjoying the spa. After a while, they did show up and we ate some eggs and drank a big tub of iced plum juice. Then, we relaxed for some more and headed out to get some food at 9:34PM.

We went into a traditionalish restaurant and ate some 회, 사낙지, and a bunch of side dishes. It was super interesting to eat the still-moving octopus dish, but I made sure to chew it up thoroughly before swallowing so as to prevent it from sticking onto my throat and choking me to death. The 회 was in thick slices and didn't have really any taste. I know about a saying about sushi - if it is truly good, you don't need any sauce. However, this 회 was not good unless you ate it with sauce. When we left the restaurant, I remember my mom saying that it was 비싸고 맛없어. However, I still feel very fortunate and blessed that they took me out to do what I wanted to experience, even if it apparently didn't taste good. Making memories with them is such a blessing!

When we walked through the streets and got to a path, but it was very dark already and the path would take 2 hours to walk through. With it already being way past midnight, I was very tired and, while I appreciated exploring, I wanted to close my eyes and get some rest before school started. We decided not to take the path and eventually walked back to the car. I slept the whole way back and we somehow ended up getting home at around 5:00AM.

I put down all of my stuff, waited for everyone to finish using the restroom, washed up, and went into the living room. I had to run off of the time that I slept off of in the car ride because there was just no time to sleep in my bed! I wrote this blog for an hour until I had to go to school while my mother slept on the sofa next to me. She woke up at around 7:00AM and made some toast for me to eat for breakfast and then went into her room to sleep more. I ate the bread while watching youtube videos and then eventually went to school.



-end (to be continued)

1 comment:

  1. So seems like Korea has Onsen(Japanese hot spa). I wasn't brave enough to strip all my clothing in the public so I never go. Wow, you dare to do it there ....! Well, part of your experienced over there I guess :=)
    For some reason video won't play ...
    God bless and take care,
    Mom, Dad & Rachel xoxo

    ReplyDelete