Daily Double! I just posted the Tuesday entry (which I had started on Tuesday) and am now posting the Thursday one, so don't forget to check out the entry below. Sorry there was no entry yesterday. Lot of work at work, and when I get home I don't want to do much of anything. It's been raining since yesterday afternoon, so I feel kinda glum. (Isn't that a great word?)

Tonight a coworker asked if I was going to come have dinner with the jazz dance class takers, but I declined, and then I found a message from someone from my class asking if I wanted to have dinner because he works near me on Thursday nights, but he finishes work at 7:30 and I was headed home already at 6:30 and didn't feel like waiting, so I declined, and I have no idea why I'm telling you this. To make it seem like I have friends? Hah hah! How easily spin is spun!
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Funeral
Part 4: The Bathhouse

In college, my roommate once started whipping off her shirt in front of me, only to realize that she wasn't wearing anything underneath and that she had just flashed me. She burst out laughing because of my face -- apparently I wore an expression of mingled amazement, horror, and disgust.

So it was an adventure, going to the bathhouse. What? you ask. Bathhouse? I thought we were talking about a funeral. Is Korea even weirder than I thought?

Well, yes, but the bathhouse was a separate deal from the funeral. Around midnight, my cousin's wife (CW), the deceased's brother's wife (DBW), and I were sitting in the reception room by ourselves. My aunt had gone home to sleep. My cousins were off seeing to visitors. My father, as I later discovered, had fallen asleep in a chair in the first floor computer room of the hospital. My Thumb War partner, Gyu-hyun, was fast asleep on the reception room floor. There were still a good 30 visitors around, drinking, talking and playing cards.

DBW said suddenly, "This won't do. Let's go to a bathhouse. C'mon, let's go."

I stammered out, "I've never been."

"Well then, this'll be a good time to start."

CW also hadn't been to one, but we all gamely got into one of the cabs waiting in front of the hospital and told the driver to get us to the nearest bathhouse. He had to ask another cabbie.

We climbed up four floors and entered the bathhouse, where DBW paid for all three of us (I think about 30,000 won, or $25 USD), we received towels and robes, and went to the lockers, passing by a couple of naked women. DBW started disrobing, and after a second of hesitation, I followed DBW's example and pulled off my clothes as well. I mean, there wasn't much else to do, really. CW pulled on her robe and gave me mine, as it was clear both of us were feeling a little awkward, never having been at a bathhouse before. DBW promptly laughed at us, saying, "You know, you put those on after you bathe."

It took surprisingly little time to get used to the nekkid thing. We took showers in a communal shower room that featured a small pool of cold water at the end of the room, and after noting the woman being massaged on the table next to the shower, I thought only of the fact that it felt really, really nice to shower standing up. Aaaaah.

Outside the room, we all put on the pink robes, and DBW suggested, "Well, I guess we should try out the steam room, shouldn't we?" So we trooped into one of the three steam rooms. This one was decorated like a cave (another one looked like a forest). There were a couple women sitting on the towels on the floor already, and we sat behind them. We started sweating.

CW got out first, murmuring, "Too hot!" A few minutes later, DBW left, and I was left sitting on a scorching hot floor, where I discovered that you really can sweat from every pore! I must have sweated out a cup of water. A few times I felt like I couldn't breathe, the air seemed so hot and heavy. But most of the time, it felt more like being baked than steamed.

I stepped out feeling refreshed and cleansed (which I don't really understand, since whenever I sweat outside, I feel sticky and smelly. Why is that?). DBW exclaimed, "Agashi!" upon seeing me (that just means "young girl"), apparently impressed at the sheen of sweat covering me.

Although it was probably 1 am or so, there were plenty of women still up and about, some even playing cards (Korean style) in a different room. There were also a number of women asleep on the floor in the outer room, including one flat on her back, robe half flung over her, snoring up a storm. The fact that they were sleeping on the floor isn't as gross as it seems -- remember that no one wears shoes inside the house in Korea, and the floors are heated by a system of pipes underneath.

After a few minutes of sitting by our lockers, DBW said, "We probably should go into the sleeping room, rather than try to sleep outside. It'll be quieter and we can sleep without the light in our eyes and without people talking." Not knowing exactly what that meant, CW and I agreed, and we entered a dark room with blankets thrown about on the floor and women who had tossed themselves on the blankets. We found three places and lay down.

I slept on and off for the next four hours. There was a young girl there with her mother, and she occasionally called out in her sleep as if she was having a nightmare. Women came in and out of the room. Around 3 am, a pair of women came in and talked to each other in regular voices. And on my part, I kept thinking stuff like, "I am so gonna get some kind of fungus from here. How often do they wash these blankets, anyway? My hair is going to be freaky in the morning. Wait, reality check. I am where, while wearing what, right now?"

At 4 am or so, DBW woke CW (and me, since I heard her) and told her we needed to go soon. CW got up and left the room. Unable to sleep, I followed her out about 20 or 30 minutes later. I took a shower to tame the hair (and enjoy the standing up), and then sat with CW for the next hour, watching an employee set up the clothes counter (yes, they sold clothes, too!) and a woman trying them on. CW wondered why women would want to sleep in a bathhouse. We're both light sleepers and hadn't slept well, so it looked rather unappealing at the moment. But thinking back now, it probably would be fun to hang out with your friends all night in a responsibility-free environment where you could get facials, massages and manicures. There was even a room where you could eat. You know, now that I think of it, it was a full-service joint! (Not to mention a rather neat contrast to the very male environment back at the hospital, which is possibly why DBW suggested going...man, am I swift or what?)

After wondering if DBW was going to wake up on her own, we finally thought we should get going. So at 5:30, CW went to wake DBW up, and we left to go back to the hospital. The third day had begun.