Gettin' naked with the locals

I think I spent the last half of last week as clean as one could ever ask to be. As usual, I took my regular daily showers. However, on top of those, Han Tae brought me along to the public baths on Thursday and then, two days later during a trip to Gyeongju with a family (of whom I teach the woman), I again was brought to the baths. Public baths are hugely popular here. I'm told that people generally go every weekend. They are separated by gender and nothing whatsoever is hidden. By that, I mean that not only are you fully naked with a group of Koreans, but you scrub yourself down, washing every crevice on your body rather thoroughly without even a divider between shower stalls. After that, you go to the various tubs of water (hot, warm, cold, green tea (which is also hot)), soak for a while in each, perhaps visit the sauna, then scrub yourself down once again before drying off and getting dressed. While it is not an activity for someone who is leery of being naked around total strangers, once one gets past that fact, it's actually a rather invigorating experience. The thing I didn't like was the rough cloth you are supposed to use to basically scrape a layer of skin off. I really don't see how healthy that could be for you. Also, despite my assertion that it is invigorating, that really only lasts a short while and then a nap becomes a very nice idea. I suggest going on a day when a nap is a feasible option.

I should probably mention, though, that this wasn't my first experience with the public baths. Han Tae took me to one back in September or October, but for some reason I neglected to write about them at the time. Better late than never, I guess.

Anyway, enough about public nudity. The weekend was good time, for the most part. As I mentioned, Laura and I were invited to go to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Silla dynasty, for a quick tour with a family I know. We saw the sites/sights, took some pictures, ate the food and had a good, if tiring, time. It was marred somewhat by one incident, as relayed here by Laura, but other than that was a pleasant trip. Gyeongju is a beautiful and very old place, dating back almost, or maybe even more than, 2000 years. We weren't there long enough to see it all, but we did go to the Gyeongju National Museum, Bulguksa temple, and even got to make our own piece of pottery, which we will hopefully retrieve in a few weeks when it's ready.

Other than that, my news revolves around the attempt to get home soon. So far, Laura and I have our flights booked (hers is paid for, mine... not yet). We'll be back in Canada on July 26, passing quickly through Vancouver and possibly Calgary to start our Western Canadian Tour in Saskatoon/Langham. As yet, we haven't confirmed the dates for stay there but it will be around a week and a half, followed by another week and a half in Calgary and then on to Vancouver. As for Vancouver, it seems we are making some good progress on the apartment hunt. In fact, we may be pretty close to confirming the acquisition of a rather sweet place. I'll let you know more once it's all settled.

And, yeah, that's about it. We're mostly just cruising through time here, trying to enjoy the weekends and get through the work days. I have recently developed a new skill, that of ordering food for delivery. We have managed to train the staff at a local chicken place to know basically what we want and where to send it just by calling and saying, "Hello." It has worked out rather well.

Guy