Well this weekend started on Saturday morning when I took the 45 minuteish journey bus and then subway to Seomyeon to visit my friend Tina. I accompanied her and some of her co-workers to the bathhouse (called jim-jil-bang). I was originally going to stay home and rest and then had been invited to my directors house for dinner with his family, however, I did not want to get them sick and everyone at school that going to the baths were a great way to get better. So I did, and happily so :) I was so excited however I had no idea what was in store.
There were 3 of us girls and 2 guys. We went to the 2nd biggest bath house in Asia (the biggest, also in Busan is beautiful however not as many baths). It was called Hurshimchung Brau (bottom blue area in the picture says Hot Spring Park). I have been told by several people to prepare to be naked, as a lot of Westerners are not comfortable this way. But I say, women are all the same so I have to try it at least once. The initial fee to just go in and do the basic baths is 7,500 Won (AKA $7.50). We are given a bracelet to wear and whenever you want a service that costs extra or food, you just charge it to your bracelet(so smart!). We sepereated men/women, were assigned a shoes locker and then clothes locker. I think all 3 of us girls were a bit nervous about being nervous at first but u just start seeing 100's of young girls, mid-aged women, and then VERY old women walking around buck naked. No one cares, no one stares (or if they do, it's actually on at your face cause again... I'm a foreigner). If you actually walked around WITH clothes, you'd be alittle bit MORE uncomfortable I think. After, we walked into the main bath area. I wish so much that I could've taken pictures. There is no way to describe this place. 2 Floors... first floor was the main bath area. In the middle with statues and everything with rock ledges was the main bath... 3 sections, warm regular bath tempature water, a little hotter water, and a little cooler (also referred to as the Longevity bath). Amanda, Tina's friend who was a pro, filled us in on everything. The water that runs through each bath is natural spring water which has many minerals, etc very good for your skin. If you walk outdoors, there was a REALLY REALLY hot pool with a REALLY REALLY cold pool (think pool with millions of ice cubes) next to it (there is a theory about the high sensation you get from switching from one to the other being good for your blood 
circulation)... and yes we tried it :) Let me tell u, I did NOT enjoy that cold pool. If the high they feel is numbness then I got it. We spent the next couple hour bath hopping from salt baths to high pressure baths (with high pressure water fall like things coming down... AMAZING on my back... like a massage), Chinese herb baths (good for sickness and joint pain), saunas, steam rooms, a mud sauna (for a price... which i will partake in on another trip), washing baths (yes people bring their own soap, etc), exfoliating baths, just EVERYTHING. After 1 1/2 hours we took a break to check on the boys. We were given 'sexy' (aka look like a hospital nurse) uniforms to go into the next room. We met in the 'rest room' aka nap room. There were family, individuals, couples, everyone just in the middle of this room laying on tile (that was warmed from underneath) taking a nap. BEST IDEA EVER!! There was also a Crystal room, infra-red room, and an oxygen room (all heated at different tempatures that are supposed to aim at certain things, like anti-aging, joint/muscle pain, weight loss, blood circulation, etc). While Amanda enjoyed a chair massage for $1, Tina and I went into the Oxygen room, grabbed a wooden moon shaped brick and joined the other 15 people in there in taking a mini rest So quiet, and tranquil. So great. About 20 minutes later we all took a journey to the pedicure area... Dr. Fish, they call it. You stick ur feet into a tub with fish... the kind of fish that eat the dead skin off. Ewwww lol. But everyone said it is fine and their feet felt good after. I want to take pictures when I do it so I passed this time around. Then we seperated again boys/girls and got our exfoliation scrub. You lie on a table, while a woman rubs you down head to toe with an exfoliation sponge (very rough... kinda hurts a little) and when I mean head to toe, I mean EVERYTHING lol. Again, kinda wierd.. but no one else cares but me so whatever. They also put a cucumber mask on you ... and I mean like real cucumber (not slices but shredded like) then they wash your hair and give u mini massage. I was not complaining one bit. However it was kinda gross to see all the dead skin that came off me. 
My skin felt sooooooo soft after :) We did more steam room, etc and finally headed out around 6 (we arrived around 1:30 so it was quite a long day!!). We were all STARVING after. We attempted to look for a specific indian restaurant but were so hungry we just settled for the closest thing... Papa Johns Pizza lol. Yea something new and different right. But it definitely hit the spot. I took a picture of the milk... just in case u didn't know where it came from lol Thought it was funny.That night I met up wtih my friends Taylor and Kaley briefly at Metal City. Coincidently there was another girl there, Becca, whom was the organizer of the Meetup website that I am apart of. We've been emailing for awhile so it was great to meet her finally. I left around noon. The combo of the bath house and my eye (I have learned that i am allergic to the Busan subway in my right eye only lol. Everytime i get on, it gets really irritated) I was ready to sleep. I was very proud to have found Tina's house on my own lol. So I spent the night with her and the next day... SHOPPING.
We took the subway to Nampo-dong. The city most famous for the cheap market where you can bargain, etc. We spent ALL day there. We found a great place to eat, buffet style. They had pasta, steak, sushi, salads, appetizers, Everything! It was sooooo good!! Tina and I definitely stuffed our
tummies... but still had room for coffee and dessert :) The dessert table was amazing!! We didn't know what to do! We limited ourselves to one plate so we would have to split everything lol. We tried a few new things, things that looked familiar and just whatever looked good! We decided the strawberry mousse was the best (the blob of strawberry... kinda looks like ice cream scoop a little). It made my tummy VERY VERY happy! 
Soooo good. I could probably live on that forever! The green tea cake was good, of course :), and then there was like a lime merenige type cake which was great too. Some was so-so. But the strawberry mousse YES!!! And it went perfect with coffee too. We spent our day looking for bags, shoes, house supplies, and knick knacks. We pretty much found just about everything we wanted then some extra things in between. I found these amazing boots that i fell for. I'd seen of the teachers 
at my school wearing them and I really liked them. I got the seller down to 15,000 won ($15) which i thought was GREAT! They were so comfy but a tad too big. Every place I asked if they had a smaller size, they didnt'!!! One Korean woman even told me that I had 'baby feet.' :( And here I thought I was gonna be normal. I was pretty disappointed :( When we finally left around sunset, we took the subway back towards Tinas (well she would get off there and I"d take it a bit further). There is a small section on the sunway reserved only for the elderly, disabled, or pregnant women. I"ve sat there before when it was empty and just got up if there was an elderly who needed to sit and no one got mad at me but I have heard stories about people getting yelled at. The older Korean women "hagimas" have quite a rep of being aggressive and expressing their emotion. Amanda, one of the girls whom I went to the bath house with told us a story about how a hagima, literally lifted her skirt on the subway and spanked her upper thigh... apparently talking about her skirt being too short. Hagimas will elbow their way through a crowd, push you out of line for everything (this has definitely happened a time or two) . However, during this subway trip back, one of the Hagimas sitting in the old people section, motioned for us to sit. She and this other older man then were sooooo very nice and talked to us about if we were students (no we are english teachers). They were very excited for us, asked us where we were from, and talked about how we can make lots of money (lol duh!) and they were just curious about us. I thought they were VERY VERY nice :) When a homeless guy came by selling gum (p.s. barely ANY homeless people in Busan. I have seen 2 on the subway, that's it), Tina was going to give him money (she has a bit to learn about the big city) and the older woman waved her down, 'no no. no good.' lol. Later another homeless guy came around begging for money but he was like squirming on the floor like a snake all throughout each subway car. Wierd... hmmm. Just wonder what kind of approach he was attempting to take on. After my successful day shopping, I got home and rested soundly :) Now it's Monday and time to start school :)
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