730 days and counting ...: December 2010

hi all!

so apparently i haven't posted in nearly a month. well, i only really blog when i have interesting things to blog about. i guess i haven't had anything interesting happen to me in the last month. but don't you worry! i finally had a new experience in korea! what could it be you ask?

wait for it ...

it's ...

the ...

jjim jil bang (essentially a glorified spa)!

my friend from america was in town to visit and we decided that we needed to do something absolutely korean. what luck! none of us had ever been to a jjim jil bang before! believe me, jjim jil bangs are as korean as they get. so, with nothing else to do on a saturday night, we made our way to one of the largest jjim jil bangs in seoul ... the dragon hill spa in yongsan. even the name is super asian! it was absolute madness!!!

jjim jil bangs are open 24 hrs. and typically cost around $10 USD to visit. this particular jjim jil bang cost us 12,000 won (roughly $10 USD). these places are typically frequented by korean ahjummas who have nothing better to do during the day, families, and people who missed the last train/bus home and need somewhere cheap to crash. they are awesome. and like it's name, the dragon hill spa was no joke.

it was huge. and when i say huge, i mean HUGE!!!!! i could never have imagined such a place to exist. seriously. this place has everything. i am 99.5% positive that i could spend my entire life in this place without ever having to leave for provisions. they have a fitness center, outdoor pool/hot tub, different temperature saunas, a spa for massages and facials and whatnot, an arcade and play area for the kiddies, a restaurant, multiple snack bars (they even sell beer), large tvs, separate sleeping rooms for men and women, locker rooms, shower facilities, a small movie theater, an internet cafe, a nail station, and even pillows and blankets you can rent for when you just can't bring yourself to go home at night. i kid you not. this place seriously exists. i'm convinced this is what heaven would be like. only thing missing is george clooney.

anyway ...

david, eunice, her cousins, and i made our way into the spa. we were given comfortable clothes to change into. they were essentially pajamas, a baggy pair of shorts and a t-shirt. after we changed into our snazzy dragon hill spa gear we were free to roam around and do whatever we pleased. our little crew explored each of the different temperature saunas (including something that looked an awful lot like a large kiln), ate bing-su (shaved ice with fruit and rice cakes), boiled eggs (a jjim jil bang staple), and drank shik-hae (korean rice drink). we basically just laid around, shooting the shit, stuffing our faces, and occasionally got up to sweat our balls off. lazy lazy saturday. the saturday night of champions! eventually eunice and her cousins left and david and i (having missed the trains back home) decided to just crash there in the communal sleeping hall (aka the concentration camp). we woke up around 7 am and made our way home.

a great experience overall. if any of you come to visit me, i'll be sure to take you guys! =)

now, for the good stuff, the pictures ...