Hot Tub!!

On Saturday, we took a trip to a nearby city called Icheon. This is the city we were originally supposed to end up when our contracts were set up. The same director oversees both schools in Icheon and Yeoju, and for reasons unknown to us we were switched to the Yeoju school. The population of Icheon is double that of Yeoju, but from walking around it felt ten times larger than our little town of 100,000 people. (When we told a Korean that we were from Yeoju, he responded by saying, "Oh yes, the countryside." So it appears that where we live is not considered to be much of a city from outsiders.) Our reason for going to Icheon was to check out a hot springs resort. There are hot springs all throughout Korea and Icheon is reported to be one of the best. What we ended up going to is called a "spa" over here, but not what North Americans would consider a spa (not like the spa we went to in Joshua Tree on our honeymoon). This spa has many parts: a huge water park for kids with slides and games, a sauna area with many types of saunas (everything from what looked like a huge pizza oven to a "cold" arctic sauna with white pebbles on the floor to look like snow), a workout area, and a food court. But the main feature of the spa is 2 large public bath houses, one for men and one for women. These bath houses are somewhat of a pasttime over here, so we decided to partake in a Korean tradition. Jenn and I separated into our corresponding bath houses and agreed to meet up in 1 hour.

In this bath house, you get prepared in a normal change room that you would see in any gym. Then you go into this enormous room full of people showering, lathering up, loofahing each other, and soaking in any of the ten huge hot tubs - there were herb hot tubs, rice wine hot tubs, there was even a cold tub that was a frigid 17 degrees Celcius. But there was no bathing suits to be seen. (After conferring with Jenn, it seems our experiences were similar, just different nude body parts). People spend a few hours in this big room moving from one tub to another, soaking in mineral waters of varying temperatures, and getting very clean. It is a very weird scene for a Canadian, it's like a community bath house, but the hot tubs are fantastic and very therapeutic. After that you can put on a suit (a bathing suit, not a birthday suit) and go outside into a common area with men and women together where there are similar hot tubs, minus the soaps and loofahs, but with more clothes.

A note from Jenn: Let me just say that I think the whole experience here is different for men. Darin apparently had no problems with the experience in the bath house and rather enjoyed the tubs as they should be. On the other hand, I spent the last 3 weeks being pointed at, stared at, laughed at, and who knows what else. I was not about to go through that experience alone and naked. I was hopeful that the "no suit rule" was optional so I left mine on, only to be yelled at by some lady in Korean and then banished to the outdoors where I found a spot in a little tub in a far off corner and read peacefully alone until it was time to meet up with Darin. We do plan on going here again as the tubs really are beautiful and relaxing. I think it would be lovely outside in the dead of winter sitting in the hot spring pools, with my suit on.

We don't have any pictures from inside of the spa. We hope you understand.