Don't waste a single chance.
Some people don't have the opportunities that I have. I hope that you have the chance to go abroad and experience the exciting and unknown. Maybe you aren't as fortunate as me to have two terms abroad. Maybe your trip isn't even a semester long.
The first term I chose the wrong friends. This is not to say they are bad people, but they aren't my people. My people don't waste a moment. We stay up too late and laugh over food or alcohol or coffee. We make last minute plans and run with it. We are low maintenance, but sometimes hard to keep up with. A feeling of obligation kept me bound to my room waiting for my old group of friends to decide it was okay to go out and about. Or not.
Despite my fears it took only a "Do you have dinner plans" and I had found a like-minded friend. A leap of faith on meeting a total stranger and I had found another. It isn't too late to start again. And don't find yourself obligated to those who don't feel the same towards you.
From the moment I realized my time here could be whatever I wanted it to be I have utilized every waking moment, so much so that I haven't written a word about it. Well it is time that that is remedied.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Locker Rooms in Korea
Trying out the swim club on campus is one of the ways I am making the most of my second term at Yonsei University. They are great and welcoming people to all of the new Korean students and international students alike. They kicked my butt a few Saturdays making me swim more than I think I ever had before and then we all hung out and got some pizza specifically so I could have access to a salad bar. Simply great people, and a great experience even if I decided to club jump...
If you have ever been to a public swimming pool in the States, and likely most other places as well, then you know the basic setup. You walk into the lobby area, sign up and get a key for a locker. The boys and girls need to split up to change before meeting back up in the pool.
In Korea the key gets you into two lockers. The first is a shoe locker. This one is only for your shoes. "Well can I lock my wallet and phone up?" I asked to my much more knowledgeable and Korean friends.
They kind of smiled at me, "You don't have to. This is for shoes."
"But can I?" I asked again, unwilling to leave my wallet and phone unprotected.
This time they snickered a bit, "This one is just for shoes."
I was perplexed. "What about everything else?!"
"You put that in your other locker."
Two lockers. If you don't want to look like a goober like I did then just put your shoes in the first locker and stop asking so many questions!
The next piece of advice?
"Don't be shocked," my friend said to me, turning back over her shoulder before opening the door to the locker room.
It was a locker room. Of course people were going to be changing. For me, a locker room is a place for the briefest of nudity before throwing on your workout clothes, in this case the required one piece swimsuit and swimming cap. But in Korea this is not the case. The locker room is a place for prolonged and drawn out nudity. Adjummas gossiped and lotioned up and blew their hair dry all while naked and sending glances to those of us who were clearly foreigners.
The friends with my were varying levels or Korean. One of them had a Korean passport and Korean parents, but spent only a few weeks in Korea at a time, and the other was Korean through and through, but had spent the last several years in the states. The former worried about stares from adjummas that might be judging her athletic build, a trait not held by many Korean women, while the latter was simply not accustomed to nudity.
Fully clothed, and as white as can be, I already drew attention. I desperately didn't want to be naked.
Sadly, the within the locker room you are not allowed to wear your swimsuit. This means that the general plan of action is to strip down naked and carry your items to the shower room where you will rinse off, still naked, and then slip on your swimsuit, cap, and goggles.
A Korean-Korean girl -born in Korea, raised in Korea, always been in Korea- informed us that we shouldn't worry about being naked, but we should worry about being yelled at by the adjummas if we wore our swimsuit in the locker room.
Most foreigners in Korea are Asian. I have gotten fairly good as seeing the differences between ethnicities, just like at home someone with Greek heritage will look different from someone with Swedish heritage, but if you want a fool proof way to spot the foreigners, simply go to a swimming pool. We will be the ones with the towels wrapped around us as we slip out of our clothes and slink, swimsuits in hard, to the shower room to wiggle our way into our swimsuits without allowing our towels to drop. This may not ring true for Europeans, as the Swedish girl in the club strode proudly about as naked as the Korean women, but those of European heritage are fairly easy to identify in Korea.
After the showers you are free to swim to your hearts content! Though be warned that Korean clubs are no joke. When they say "warm-up" they mean 400+ meters of rigorous freestyle stroke. And at the end of the session when they say "game" they mean relay race...
If you have ever been to a public swimming pool in the States, and likely most other places as well, then you know the basic setup. You walk into the lobby area, sign up and get a key for a locker. The boys and girls need to split up to change before meeting back up in the pool.
In Korea the key gets you into two lockers. The first is a shoe locker. This one is only for your shoes. "Well can I lock my wallet and phone up?" I asked to my much more knowledgeable and Korean friends.
They kind of smiled at me, "You don't have to. This is for shoes."
"But can I?" I asked again, unwilling to leave my wallet and phone unprotected.
This time they snickered a bit, "This one is just for shoes."
I was perplexed. "What about everything else?!"
"You put that in your other locker."
Two lockers. If you don't want to look like a goober like I did then just put your shoes in the first locker and stop asking so many questions!
The next piece of advice?
"Don't be shocked," my friend said to me, turning back over her shoulder before opening the door to the locker room.
It was a locker room. Of course people were going to be changing. For me, a locker room is a place for the briefest of nudity before throwing on your workout clothes, in this case the required one piece swimsuit and swimming cap. But in Korea this is not the case. The locker room is a place for prolonged and drawn out nudity. Adjummas gossiped and lotioned up and blew their hair dry all while naked and sending glances to those of us who were clearly foreigners.
The friends with my were varying levels or Korean. One of them had a Korean passport and Korean parents, but spent only a few weeks in Korea at a time, and the other was Korean through and through, but had spent the last several years in the states. The former worried about stares from adjummas that might be judging her athletic build, a trait not held by many Korean women, while the latter was simply not accustomed to nudity.
Fully clothed, and as white as can be, I already drew attention. I desperately didn't want to be naked.
Sadly, the within the locker room you are not allowed to wear your swimsuit. This means that the general plan of action is to strip down naked and carry your items to the shower room where you will rinse off, still naked, and then slip on your swimsuit, cap, and goggles.
A Korean-Korean girl -born in Korea, raised in Korea, always been in Korea- informed us that we shouldn't worry about being naked, but we should worry about being yelled at by the adjummas if we wore our swimsuit in the locker room.
Most foreigners in Korea are Asian. I have gotten fairly good as seeing the differences between ethnicities, just like at home someone with Greek heritage will look different from someone with Swedish heritage, but if you want a fool proof way to spot the foreigners, simply go to a swimming pool. We will be the ones with the towels wrapped around us as we slip out of our clothes and slink, swimsuits in hard, to the shower room to wiggle our way into our swimsuits without allowing our towels to drop. This may not ring true for Europeans, as the Swedish girl in the club strode proudly about as naked as the Korean women, but those of European heritage are fairly easy to identify in Korea.
After the showers you are free to swim to your hearts content! Though be warned that Korean clubs are no joke. When they say "warm-up" they mean 400+ meters of rigorous freestyle stroke. And at the end of the session when they say "game" they mean relay race...
All in all, a wonderful experience. Culture shock does a body good.
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