Monday, June 3, 2002. 1143am. Seoul, Korea.
this weekend was pretty hectic. i'm staying with another cousin for now, although i have to go back before thursday. but anyway, on saturday night my cousin and his younger brother went fishing. they were planning on being there all night. ok, i thought this was going to be like fishing with a reel and i thought cool, i'll go with them because i've gone fishing before in florida. however, it's not reel fishing. it's not even fly fishing. because people in the city are too far from the sea and you can't really fish at the han river, there are little fish farms (kinda like trout farms, but you fish there-like the one near dempster(?)) anyway, they just sit there with lighted bobbers (because it's really dark out there) and they just wait. pretty boring. so, i spend my time watching after my cousin's 3 yr. old daughter. but after awhile, my cousin's wife comes with his brother's wife (with their daughter, dong-i) and their friend and they take sooji (the 3yr. old) and i go with them. guess where we went. we went to a public bathhouse! GUYS CAN STOP READING HERE!!!!!
it was a very interesting experience, to say the least. in the US, i think people tend to be more self-conscious about their appearance, including myself. but here, the women have no shame. they strip in front of each other and bathe in front of each other. i felt very weird. well, we get a t-shirt and shorts to wear and we sat in a common room. this is where the men and women and children all chill together. the room is pretty warm, but not as warm as a sauna. well, i went to shower, and i felt really, well, naked. haha.....hmmm.....anyway, koreans are crazy about getting rid of their ddeh. if you're korean, you know what i mean. anyway, i sat in the sauna and came out parched and then sat in the hot tub and showered one more time and went back to the common room. after sitting there awhile, me and my older cousin's wife went into a sauna that's in the common room. yo, that room was HOT! i was dying and within seconds, i was sweating-but then, i sweat really easily. keep in mind, this is like 2 in the morning and there are a lot of people here. i come back out and it was like a breath of fresh air. we all hang out and we try to get some sleep. yeah, SLEEP. i look around, and a lot of people are knocked out. so i try to sleep, but it's not working. the two little girls are pretty restless because it's warm until one of them is placed where the little restaurant is (because it's closed). since it's cooler in there, she goes to sleep. the other one is just being restless and doesn't want to sleep and i can't sleep because it's too hot. so i go to the locker room and there are a few women sleeping. it's a few degrees cooler so i stretch out on a bench and get some sleep. the bench is hard, i have no pillow, needless to say, i didn't get that much sleep. but when i wake up again, it's 7am and we're leaving. so basically, we slept over at a bathhouse, which is what a lot of people do to unwind. a few high school students were there as well. oh well. i guess i wouldn't mind going again, but after i shed a few pounds. : /

GUYS CAN START READING HERE
yesterday was pretty busy as well. after we got back, we all took a nap and when we woke up, my older cousin and his family and i went sightseeing. we went to a palace and walked around, my face and arms are about 5 times darker than my legs, and afterward, we went to yeouido by han river. we basically just chilled there for a couple of hours until it was time for fireworks. so we watched the fireworks display and then went back home, but it was crowded! think of taste of chicago, michigan ave. right before christmas, and grant park after the bulls won the championships (back in the day). yeah, it was that crowded. it took us two hours to get back home. phew.....pretty tiring weekend, no?


  posted by me @ 10:21:00 PM