Today I joined a health club in the neighborhood. Signing up was pretty hilarious because all of my communication with Koreans, beyond "Hello" and "Thank you", is totally non-verbal. I felt I had already had quite a work out by the time I had successfully communicated that I didn't want swimming (the staff didn't recognize the butterfly stroke so I had to demonstrate lap swimming and diving too), but rather wanted to ride a bike, and run on the treadmill, and lift weights.
After all that I was so desperate for verbal communication that I accosted a group of elementary school girls on their way out of the shower/sauna (who I figured would both know some English and want to practice it) to share a few words. We became instant friends, chatting about the pool on the fifth floor and the showers and suana, and school and vacation and we promised to meet up again tomorrow.
Finally I made it into the exercise room and hopped on a stationary bike and proceeded to madly and indiscriminatley press buttons to get some reaction from the bike, to no avail. After working up another big sweat, it dawned on me that the big white sign on the screen of the bike probably meant the bike wasn't functioning. After I hopped on the one next to me, the man on my left looked over and helpfully confirmed in English, "That bike there is out of order." Taking him as a congenial type, I then pestered him to show me how to operate the controls on my new bike, and I within minutes I was off and cycling.
A few minutes after I had selected the podcast I wanted to listen to on my iPod, Sung, Jin Young, came up to me with a wide smile, wondering about the device I had in my hand and ears. She and I then proceeded to go through all the features of my iPod, lingering for awhile over a Frontline video podcast of a new music sensation in Iceland...sharing my headset and bee-bopping together to the music for a good five minutes. She clamored onto the bike next to me after awhile and we proceeded to shout to each other over the sound system in the gym, sharing information and thoughts about age, work, religion and such. After about ten minutes she got off her bike and said she didn't really like the bikes, but had just wanted to come over for a chat. We promised to meet up again tomorrow too.
Of course, I adore the Korean public bath scene in the sauna/shower area, so I'm quite pleased with my accomplishment today and look forward to going back tomorrow to work out and meet up with all my new Korean pals.
2 comments:
Hey Denise,
Glad to hear you made it there safe and sound and it is not too hot. And you got an apartment! Lucky!!
The air-con tug-of-war is a familiar scene. What I love is the female teachers who wear these little spaghetti strap dresses and then complain they are cold. I was at the point where I was going to tell them to either keep the air-con on and bring a sweater, or they'd have to look at me in shorts and tank top.
Hope you enjoy your weekend. Do some sightseeing while it's still cool.
I have the aircon firmly under my control now..and God, what a blessing to have an apartment!
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