2 Dudes Nude

With such a tantalizing title the author assumes assuredly that you will not be but drawn to read on to get to the unclad lads that is all but promised in such a provocative title. The writer of this rather humble internet entry device writes this as the sun sets silently almost unnoticed in such a teeming metropolis like Seoul; while on the other side of our small planet many of those kind enough to decipher the rants of a foreigner in need of attention, rise to a lazy Sunday morning which will apparently be spent, in part, reading this "web-log." So the man behind the keyboard will try and not start you off with something boring and hopes that you are not only here due to lewd references already alluded in the title.

Friday night finally came! Happiness is a word reserved for emotions far less powerful than what I might have been feeling when the weekend arrived one week too late. I have 10 classes on Fridays which only serves to motivate my feelings of flight. This week was however very interesting since I had two Korean language classes which I wasn't expecting to even have since nobody got back to us after we had expressed interest in taking them. The classes were very good and I am looking forward to learning some of this mysterious tongue which shares none of the qualities of the few languages I have tried my hand at. I hope soon to be able to order food and maybe even be able to count above the number two. Let's be honest, this is a tough language although the alphabet is pretty sweet and very easy to learn. The classes were also turnabout since I spend all days pounding English into children's heads and now I have willingly signed up for the same treatment with slightly more embarrassment since I am taking the classes with two of my better friends from the school, Gabi and Rosie.

Friday night I saw the movie Gamer at a very nice theater near the school and had an easy evening which was just fine for me since I was looking forward to a less exciting weekend with no crazy fish ladies or jaundice-men vying for my attention or money. Gamer was okay for the first half but the second just gets weird and lost me.

Saturday I hung out with a Korean guy, Minha, who works at the school as an aid of some sort and we went to an area called Insadong that is pretty touristy but we had some great food, lots of squid, pork, and kimchi, and some delicious traditional Korean style tea.

Though tea and squid is not why you have forged this river that is my babbling blog. The nudity! Yes, Danny, get to the part where there are naked  people! Talk about the naked people! Fear not young padawan for I will do so. This weekend I invited David and Abby to go to a jimilbang, which is essentially a Korean bath house. My friend Rosie is a big fan of the jimjilbangs so she came along as well. So after a hearty dinner and several bottles of liquid courage we headed to Yongsan to have yet another new experience.

We walk in and first lock up our shoes and are given some pajama shorts and shirt and several towels along with a wrist band that will charge us for anything we buy inside of the bath house. We part ways, David and I going to the mens' floor and the girls heading to the ladies'. Upon exiting the elevator we see at least half a dozen Korean men naked, just hanging out, watching TV or talking, stretching-- basically whatever they feel like doing. This is the part for which we have imbibed a few beers but also very curious about since the "bath" portion of the bath house is done completely nude. We go to lock up our things and both try and muster enough energy to not giggle too much or make things weird for when we both know that we are getting nakeder than we ever expected to be in the same room. We put on the pajamas and look around the area, discover the baths, and aren't really sure what we're supposed to do or when we have to disrobe.

We follow a friendly Russian guy down to a different floor that is coed and everyone is wearing the pajamas, we follow the Siberian into a sauna which made me feel like a pizza since it was essentially just a large oven. After the oven we head back upstairs and figure out that we were supposed to lock up the pj's as well and decided just do it. So we got to the business at hand and wandered over to the baths naked, naked, naked. I mean, David is a good friend, I just didn't think we'd ever be this unclothed together along with 2 dozen Korean men who seemed to be really comfortable with the whole situation and only startled by our presence because we were foreign.

I didn't feel as awkward as I thought I would but that's not to say I didn't feel completely strange at first. In that baths there were several pools of different temperatures: hot, cold, very hot. There was a wet sauna which made me sweat like nothing ever has and several other rooms for body scrubbing and massage which seemed pricy so we just stuck with being naked in hot tubs with lots of other dudes. Also I don't know if I'm comfortable getting scrubbed down by some nice jimjilbang employee just yet-- no, not just yet.

After seeing more Korean men in their birthday suits and not their business suits than I had ever wanted to see we changed and headed downstairs to find the womenfolk. We tried out the saunas again and even an ice room which felt very pleasant and sat in some massage chairs which were pretty fantastic for $1.80 for 10 minutes. We found the women poked around a little more and then went out for some drinks to debrief our brief experience of brieflessness.

In short-- when in Rome do as the Romans and when in Korea do as the Koreans. You'll like it.

Today I went shopping bought some things and also got a cool haircut. That's right, Danny changed his hairstyle which has largely been the same since late high school. It looks similar but the "designer" took some artistic license with it and I'm actually really pleased with the result-- especially for a haircut/shampoo/scalp massage that cost $13 and no tip!

I end this admittedly over-hyped entry with some idioms I read recently. The first which is for my friends, "Even if you have to crawl on your knees, get yourself to Seoul!" The second being for my parents is, "Send your ox to market but send your son to Seoul."

Anyang and good night. Comments are encouraged... :P