embarrassing oneself is always easier....
Many of you who have traveled anywhere in this amazing world can relate to this story.
So last week, we received some nice snow-sprinkles everywhere on the ground. In Korea, snow is always nice, because it makes the otherwise dirty city appear more clean-ish, so to speak. Anyways, I digress.
Some of you have probably read or heard about Korean saunas. If you haven't, here is a short introduction. In Korea, many apartments, or older styled houses have very small bathrooms, where your "shower" consists of a shower-head sticking out of the wall. The whole room is tiled, and there's no heating in the bathroom; never. So many people just come to the Sauna everyday to take their shower/cleaning. The sauna's here vary in size and quality, but your basic sauna will consist of showers, hot and cool whirlpools, lockers, benches, and usually what we back in North America would refer to the actual "sauna", the steam room. These sauna's will be full of fully naked men and children walking around with nothing on. As strange as it might sound to some of you, its very simplistic, and once you get past the paranoia that "everyone" is starting at you (they generally aren't) then you can get down to relaxing and enjoying the joys of a full-service shower/sauna/locker room, free of the opposite sex.
Now, I've been here in Korea for over two and a half years, and I've seen my share of sauna accidents, from old men slipping on the floor, to children running on the stone floors, and slipping all over the place (with the old men telling them "I told you something would happen!!" Well, this past Thursday, instead of being the witness, I was the guilty party. Because of their being showers, people coming in from the pool, and frequent traffic, water's everywhere (you would think this would be obvious, but sometimes you forget about it...trust me.) So before I was scheduled to play squash, I thought I'd take a quick dip in the hot pool to ease some aching muscles...only I never got past the second step. Not only did I fall down both stone steps, but I also proceeded to throw a water bucket across the sauna floor in the process of flailing my arms to regain my balance...
Now, one good thing about falling in the sauna, nobody rushes to help you....you're naked - nobody is going to touch you. Secondly, if you're hurt, you just hop in the hot water, and everything feels better. However, the best part? Being a foreigner, I could care less about the whole incident, because as much as they talked, gasped, winced, pointed, and looked the other way when I glanced at them - truthfully I could care less about what they think, because I have NO CLUE what they're saying about me......
Something about not feeling embarrassed in a foreign country when you don't know what they're talking about.
The only thing that hurt, besides the bruise on my tail bone the size of New York? My own personal pride :)
Have a great weekend all, and don't forget to check your steps when you're walking^^
God bless
So last week, we received some nice snow-sprinkles everywhere on the ground. In Korea, snow is always nice, because it makes the otherwise dirty city appear more clean-ish, so to speak. Anyways, I digress.
Some of you have probably read or heard about Korean saunas. If you haven't, here is a short introduction. In Korea, many apartments, or older styled houses have very small bathrooms, where your "shower" consists of a shower-head sticking out of the wall. The whole room is tiled, and there's no heating in the bathroom; never. So many people just come to the Sauna everyday to take their shower/cleaning. The sauna's here vary in size and quality, but your basic sauna will consist of showers, hot and cool whirlpools, lockers, benches, and usually what we back in North America would refer to the actual "sauna", the steam room. These sauna's will be full of fully naked men and children walking around with nothing on. As strange as it might sound to some of you, its very simplistic, and once you get past the paranoia that "everyone" is starting at you (they generally aren't) then you can get down to relaxing and enjoying the joys of a full-service shower/sauna/locker room, free of the opposite sex.
Now, I've been here in Korea for over two and a half years, and I've seen my share of sauna accidents, from old men slipping on the floor, to children running on the stone floors, and slipping all over the place (with the old men telling them "I told you something would happen!!" Well, this past Thursday, instead of being the witness, I was the guilty party. Because of their being showers, people coming in from the pool, and frequent traffic, water's everywhere (you would think this would be obvious, but sometimes you forget about it...trust me.) So before I was scheduled to play squash, I thought I'd take a quick dip in the hot pool to ease some aching muscles...only I never got past the second step. Not only did I fall down both stone steps, but I also proceeded to throw a water bucket across the sauna floor in the process of flailing my arms to regain my balance...
Now, one good thing about falling in the sauna, nobody rushes to help you....you're naked - nobody is going to touch you. Secondly, if you're hurt, you just hop in the hot water, and everything feels better. However, the best part? Being a foreigner, I could care less about the whole incident, because as much as they talked, gasped, winced, pointed, and looked the other way when I glanced at them - truthfully I could care less about what they think, because I have NO CLUE what they're saying about me......
Something about not feeling embarrassed in a foreign country when you don't know what they're talking about.
The only thing that hurt, besides the bruise on my tail bone the size of New York? My own personal pride :)
Have a great weekend all, and don't forget to check your steps when you're walking^^
God bless