First Jimjilbang Experience

So the past two weeks have been hectic, stressful, and exciting. I sometimes forget that I’m across the world until I step out of my apartment and see all sorts of neon signs in Korean. My second week of teaching went much more smoothly, I think I’m finally getting the hang of it, but I’m still learning. My kindergarten class is the most difficult because they’re so young and they don’t understand much and can’t speak English. So it’s hard to get them to sit and do any work for any long periods of time, and it’s also hard to discipline them. There is one little terror in my class called James. I can tell when I walk in in the morning if it’s going to be a good day or a bad day by the evil glint in his eye. He is fond of punching me and throwing my glasses around. Yes, I am getting bullied by a 4 year old. The classes with the older students are more enjoyable for me because I can actually converse with some of them and most of them are eager to participate.

We had last Thursday off for Independence Day so I took the opportunity to give my apartment a really good cleaning and bought a whole bunch of plants. These small changes made it feel so much more comfortable and more like my own space. One thing that I continue to struggle with here is the food. There isn’t a whole lot of variety, I am trying to be open-minded and try everything. Most of it I don’t mind, I can eat the kimchi and the rice and other pickled vegetables¸ and I’ve had some yummy ramen, but to be quite honest, I am really missing carbs (rice not included), and cheese and fresh produce. The other thing that’s different is that they seem to put lots of sugar in stuff that isn’t supposed to be sweet, such as chips. It’s still early days though, and I’m sure as time goes on, I’ll get better at grocery shopping efficiently and hopefully be able to read some of the packages.

What I really wanted to talk about in this post was my first experience at a JIMJILBANG yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, jimjilbangs are traditional Korean bathhouses/spas. Some of them are open 24 hours and offer sleeping quarters, so they are a popular alternative to hotels after a night out in the city. You can sleep there and then have access to the saunas and showers in the morning. I am hesitant to use the word bathhouse because it obviously has a very negative connotation in North America. Essentially, families, groups of friends and couples flock to these on weekends in Korea. The one that I went to was in Seoul and it was written up in the New York Times etc. A lot of tourists go there, it’s one of the better known jimjilbangs. There are gender segregated baths as well as saunas and other spa treatments that you can get. Some areas such as the saunas and the eating areas are open to members of both sexes, but the bathing areas are totally separate.

So a co-worker and I decided to head to Seoul yesterday for some pampering. She had been to this particular jimjilbang before and had had a great experience. Here is what happened:

We walk in and pay our entry fee, we are handed these inmate looking shorts and t-shirts that everybody wears. They’re like an ugly hospital green color and really baggy and you wear them into the saunas and everywhere that’s clothing mandatory.  You’re also given a key that stays on your wrist that all spa treatments and meals are charged on because you pay when you leave. You take your shoes off right away and put them in a locker near the front and then proceed to the gendered change rooms. You change into your inmate uniform and then you’re free to go to any of the floors/areas except for the male only baths (unless you are male of course).

The first thing we did was check out the different saunas. They range in temperature from freezing cold to hotter than the equator. Seriously. There was one that I couldn’t even step into because I felt my eyebrows starting to singe as soon as I opened the door. Next order of business was getting a facial. I’ve never had a facial in my life so I have nothing to compare it to but this one was pretty great. They did a bonus head, neck and shoulder massage and rubbed all sorts of nice smelling creams on my face before slathering me in goo and leaving me to lie there for 20 minutes .Prior to leaving for this adventure, I told myself that I was going to just get a facial and maybe a massage and just relax in the saunas where everybody is FULLY CLOTHED, and avoid the baths at all cost. But when in Korea……

So after our facials, we decided we wanted to go to the baths for a bit. I thought you just walk over to the baths, quickly undress and slip into the water relatively unnoticed. How absolutely wrong I was. You must remove your clothes in the dressing room and walk to the baths in your birthday suit (obviously this is in the women only zone). This would explain why there were so many people walking around stark naked in the dressing rooms when we first walked in. Anyways we went back to our lockers, disrobed and left our inmate uniforms with the rest of our stuff. I was feeling really shy at first so I tried to cover myself with the tiny towel that I was handed when we first came in. But I quickly realized that this was drawing even more attention to myself; a blonde Canadian girl in a sea of naked Korean ladies, old and young. So off we went to the baths. There were 7 or 8 different baths, some hot, some cold, some that are infused with different herbs that are supposed to have certain healing properties or whatever.

Within the bath area there are also other saunas as well as this area off to one side with a row of about six tables where you can get a body scrub treatment. I figured if I was going to try new experiences, it’s really all or nothing. So I went all in and decided to get a body scrub.  I lay down on the table and this ajumma (old Korean lady) in see through black lingerie began scrubbing me with these mits that feel like Brillo pads. It doesn’t feel pleasant at all but it’s supposed to be really healthy for your skin and removes all the dead skin cells. So she did my front side first and was trying to tell me to flip onto my side but I couldn’t understand her broken English so next thing I know, she picks me up and flips me onto my side and proceeds to scrub my back. At this point, any ounce of dignity is out the window. So after she finishes, without warning she dumps this ice cold bucket of water all over me and I screamed and she started laughing.

We finished the day with some ramen and then I hopped on a train back to Pyeongtaek. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least. My skin feels a lot softer today and I really enjoyed the saunas and the facial. It is a pretty inexpensive, relaxing thing to do compared to the outrageous prices that are charged at some spas in Canada. Once you get over the initial fear of the nakedness, you realize that nobody is paying attention and nobody cares because everyone is naked. I won’t be a frequent visitor but I’d definitely go back. It’s probably easier when you know what to expect.

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