The Gym

Well, I've been feeling guilty about not having any Korean friends and decided joining the gym would be a good way to meet some. Let me start off by saying, so far it looks like this was a great idea. I joined the gym, took a class, and seemed to be pretty popular there. But this post will not concentrate on my cool potential friends but on two other awesome things at the gym.

1. The Class

I was on the treadmill and saw an aerobics/dance teacher giving a class to one student in sparkly shorts (i guess the clothes they give us to wear are optional but i'm totally gonna stick with them because less laundry for me!). It looked like a pretty cool class, mostly because of the sparkly shorts and the teacher wearing a backless halter and bandeau, so I decided to join the next one after walking on the treadmill. the class i went to was much more popular - maybe 10 girls, and most were wearing the gym-issued uniform like me, so that was reassuring. Anyway, let's get to it. The first thing i noticed was the heated floor. ok cool. the next thing i noticed was the lack of instruction. normally in a dance aerobics class the teacher will give an 8 count instruction, then we'll all do it, then we'll do it faster, then she'll add on another bit, and so on. In this class we had a few minutes of one song and just followed along with the teacher, who was going at warp speed, shaking her ass, pumping her chest, and swinging her hips. Yes, just like it sounds, it was the best class ever. half-way through, someone turned on the heater and steamer, which was directly behind me so it was hot dance aerobics - like dancing in a sauna. not just like dancing in a sauna but actually dancing in a sauna. class ended an hour ago, i took a cool shower, and my face is still cherry red. anyway, we kept up the insanely fast routine for 40 minutes, stopping between songs to do some sort of exercise (like jumping jacks) while the instructor switched songs. The last few minutes were slowed down to ballet-like moves and then probably a 2 minute cool down of yoga stretching. then all the girls came over to me to ask how i liked it. i was excited that they were excited to see me but i was about to pass out so i said yeah and ran to the water bubbler. the class is monday-friday so i will go as often as possible.

2. The Shower

Now, I've already written about the bath house but the gym bath house is a little different because it's more "regulars." i didn't have energy to go through the whole routine so i went right to the showers, which are just open showers all in a row, no dividers or curtains - a bit like camp. so i sidled up to a shower and started to clean myself and when i got out my washcloth and started scrubbing, the woman next to me tapped me on the shoulder, then pointed to my washcloth. i knew immediately that she was offering to do my back and did i hesitate? No! i was v excited to get my back scrubbed by some strange lady - and it was awesome! woman went to town and i've never felt so clean. now this is awesome for two reasons, the first is obviously because i got my back washed by a stranger (keep in mind, a completely naked stranger, who put her hand on my naked body to brace herself while she rubbed me with my own washcloth), the second is because there is a spot in the bath house where people pay to get rubbed down like that and this lady was doing it to me for free. woohoo! i can't imagine anything in korea being as awesome as that moment for me. maybe next time i will offer to do some other woman's back. also, the woman on the other side of me accidently hit me with her soap while dropping it. that was fun too.

I'll let you know when i have cool new friends and what shenanigans we get up to. these girls must be fun at the club if they're taking this sexy dance class.

A Few Funny Things about the Students

This week I've had students say some gems.

One of my lessons was about sea creatures and their assignment was to create a creature that someone might discover in the future and make up it's characteristics. One student asked this: "teacher, what is it called when male fish and female fish...come come come come come?" then she made a very strange hand gesture that i interpreted as fish cumming all over each other.

My answer was, "reproduce?" still not sure if that's what she wanted.

One lesson involved them using "annoy" in a sentence and a girl wrote "my cousin brother annoys my cousin sister." i asked if her parents were also sister and brother or something. turns out she meant only male cousin and female cousin.

One lesson was about different kinds of love and then they had to define love for themselves in small groups. The best group said, "love is madness because of the chemical reaction in your brain, love is booger kissing because you don't think the other person is gross and you like the taste, love is having someone to drive you to the mental institute because you are crazy, and love is attraction but i'm too young to know what that is." They had me at booger kissing. They were just joking about the booger kissing but i thought it was great anyway. (also, i told them i have an iphone, when talking about what we love, and now they think i'm the coolest person in the world.)

A co-teacher of mine said during break that one of her students said she was unique because of her "thick mouth." we asked if she made use of the opportunity to teach them "DSL" but she didn't.

My students love to ask my age, and my relationship status. Those might be the only two things they all ask. One pointed to his nose and said "these are called freckles?" i said "yes do you like them?" and he said "no." Another asked (and this is my favorite of all time maybe), "teacher, why is your face so small?" what on earth kind of answer do they expect to questions like that? i simply said "because i was born early." a co-teacher told me they think small faces are a good thing though.