I have never gone this long without blogging. Sorry! I'm disappointed in myself too :) Now I have a lot of catch up updating to do. Basically things have been absolutely crazy being home in January and coming back to Korea and going back to work. Also, I don't have internet in my new place, so I'm updating from my work computer, so it won't have pictures. I'll update with pics as soon as possible.
I don't even know where to begin. Basically everything I want to talk about requires picture updates, so I'll just talk about my first gym experience in Korea from yesterday.
So my coworker, Erin, mentioned to me last week that she was interested in joining a gym, and wanted a gym buddy, and I gladly volunteered... I've been called fat way too many times living in this image-obsessed country. We got a recommendation from some other English teachers here at CCA, so we checked it out. I was soooo surprised at how amazing this gym was. It's only about a year old, and is VERY clean and nice. There's two floors, and a big selection of classes offered. So, Erin and I decided we wanted to join, and went back yesterday to sign up. We ended up spending about $350 for a 6 month membership with access to classes and the sauna (which I will NEVER use... way too many naked ladies...more on that later).
Erin and I were both frightend at the idea of going to a gym in a foriegn country... especially in the land of kimchi, aka, the land of skinny people. We arrived at the gym already feeling anxious and self conscious. The first thing that we were aware of was the fact that our work out clothes didn't match anyone else's. We were thinking, "how are all the guys wearing the same blue shirt?" Then we discovered you can rent work out clothes for the low price of about $8 a month. I of course obliged, seeing as how that would save me doing an extra load of laundry every week in this dryerless country. Upon checking in, we recieved an electronic bracelet of sorts that would give us acess to a locker. This is where the fun began. We walked into the women's area on the second floor of the gym. Naturally, we stopped at the first set of lockers we came to. However, we noticed that the lockers had actual locks on them, unlike the swipe pad we expected to match our electronic bracelet. I wish I had this on video... Erin and I frantically trying to figure out how these bracelts matched the lockers. We seriously walked around for like five minutes, checking lockers and trying to solve the puzzle. The best part was when Erin and I screwed off one of the locks thinking that maybe there was some sort of secret behind it that would unlock (literally) the mystery of the lockers. There wasn't. Luckily, an unknowing Korean lady came into the locker area, and Erin asked her what to do. She basically looked at us like, "oh, you silly young girls, don't you know you're in the wrong place?" and the lady pointed us to the direction of a mysterious purple curtain that we had been too scared to look behind before.
Once behind the purple curtain, we were in another world complete with ALOT of naked ladies blow drying their hair, putting on make up, and hanging out watching tv. We were like, why is no one wearing clothes!?!?! Oh, and bonus, this room contained the long lost electronic lockers that matched our bracelets. Lucky for us, it means we can't ever avoid the naked room. Quite unfortunate.
After that ordeal, we were too late to go to the 6:00 class we had planned on attending, which is unfortunate because it was 글럽댄스 (club dance... bow chicka wow wow). So, we opted for the treadmill until the next class at 7:00. I thought the treadmil would be pretty self explanitory, but much to my dismay, I was proven wrong. Erin got on one that was already on, and I of course got on one that wasn't. So, I pushed all the buttons, including the START button, and remained stationary. I felt like a tard and was sure that everyone in the gym was watching me. They weren't...I eventually got on another treadmill and the work out commenced. 40 minutes passed quickly, without any more mishaps, and it was time to go to our class. We waited anxiously outside of the classroom for the 버디컷 (body cut) class instructor. We spotted a man that was very cut in basically a spandex shirt, that looked absolutely frightening. We were praying he wasn't going to be the instructor... but, you guessed it, he was. It was us, and like 4 other really whimpy looking Korean girls and this totally jacked, scary looking man.
We were told to get two dumb bells and a bench press bar (I don't even know if that's what it's called). Erin and I both got the minimum amount of weights available, doubting our upper body. The scary man in spandex proceeded to tell us that we would be working our back, arms, and shoulders (all this I know via translation from Erin). It was after the introduction that the spandex man came up straight to me and began attempting to speak to me in English. As much as I hate to say it, I could seriously not understand anything he was saying to me. So, then he tried telling Erin in English/Korean, and she tried translating to me... she was like Ashley, "do you know of like a 'Golden World Gym' or something like that?" Apparently he was trying to ask us if we knew the 'world gym', but we couldn't understand his accent. The scary man in spandex turned out to be a really goofy guy, so we were grateful for that. The best part lost in translation, was when he was showing me how to do an exercise he said, "fat, and relassssss. Fat, and relassssss." Erin and I giggled of course, and later figured out he was saying "fast, and relax. Fast, and relax." HAAAAAAA. So good. We ended the class in severe pain brough upon us by the goofy, scary, spandex man. The jury's still out on whether we will return to that class or not.....
The End.
Week 2
10 hours ago