You Scrub My Back, I'll Scrub Yours

I finally got invited to go to the oncheon (hot springs) by my co-teacher, Little Kim (that's what I call her sometimes to distinguish her from Big Kim). She picked me up and on the way to the hot spring, surprise, I am meeting her sister and nephew. They are now collected and we are on our way. 30 minutes later we are in Dan Seong driving past terraced rice fields and pulling into the parking lot of Yedam Charcoal Kiln Land (http://www.iyedam.co.kr/).

Unlike many experiences I've had thus far, I did know what to expect. We opened the entrance door, took off our shoes and put them into a locked cubby. We took our keys to the register and had them exchanged for a new set of keys that would unlock a different cubby to put your clothes into in the locker room. Since Little Kim's nephew was 7, he was allowed to come into the women's locker room. After quickly undressing, the Kim clan and myself headed into the steamy bath room.

First, we washed off before going into the baths. Happily, I scrubbed myself clean and washed my hair. Lowering myself slowly into the hot bath, I felt really Korean. It was nice to see Little Kim and her sister conversing, while her nephew was running around turning various shower heads on and jumping into the cold bath. I decided to follow his suit and head toward the cold bath. Man, was it cold! I kept wondering why some people looked like lobsters in the bath rooms. After climbing out of the frigid water, I realized I looked like a cooked lobster too.

More scrubbing. Scrub, scrub, scrub. The rule for myself is to scrub every part of my body until I look the color of a slapped baby's ass; nice and pink. I told Little Kim, when I first bought the yellow scrubbing mitts, I thought they were used to clean the dishes, not my body. She had a really good laugh at my mistake. Then she asked if she could rub my back... HUH?
"Samantha, can I rub your back?"
"Umm, yea sure."
"Samantha, let me use your mitt."
"Oh yea! Of course. That would be really weird if you used your mitt."

She didn't get my sarcasm and started rubbing. Rub, rub, rub, OW, rub, rub. It felt good at the beginning, but my goal of looking the color 0f a slapped baby's ass was achieved.

"Samantha, you have young skin. I have old skin."

All I could do was nod. I wanted to return the favor for Little Kim, but her sister took on the scrubbing with a force that I couldn't fight her. We left the bath room and changed into clothes to go to the sauna. What a cool freaking sauna! After going outside and up some stairs, we arrived at a room full of clay domes. These were the saunas. Even cooler was the fact that there was charcoal burning inside one huge chamber. People surrounded the opening.

"Samantha, come with me. We must sit in front of the charcoal and look at it. It is good for your eyes."
"What? Good for my eyes?"
"Yes, let's go."
She grabs my arm and leads me to the fires of MORDOR (and you must say this in a menacing voice and roll the last R). MORDORRRR.

Looking into the huge fire pit was great. I was seeing the same visible, moving heat that you see floating above the black pavement on a really hot summer's day except it was 10 times more intense. Heat wave folding into heat wave, creating such a spectacular visual that I couldn't help but stare. I was like a moth to the flame.

More grabbing and rushing. This time I was being taken to a small clay dome. After removing our slippers and pushing back a black, heavy curtain we entered into the clay dome lair. The air was still and there were people sleeping and sitting, playing with their DS, and answering their phone. I got the chance to press my back against the wall. What a warm sensation. The sweating began no less than 3 minutes in, but it was a good sweat.

Inside was pitch black. Faces melted into the darkness. Only a whisper could separate darkness from person. "O ma, o di so?" It was Little Kim's nephew entering the darkness bringing with him a tiny slice of light and a cool breeze. "Yogiyo." They connected with a mysterious helping hand emerging from a direction that was lost when the curtain came to a close. I couldn't stand the heat, so I left. Little Kim followed.

We bought some fish shaped ice cream and ate it taking in the view of the mountains in the distant. Her sister comes running over, says something, and we follow. She had cooked 4 sweet potatoes in a fire pit in the middle of the room. We squatted around the pit. It was us three dressed in pinkish-red robes, squatting just so our butts didn't graze the floor, eating cooked sweet potatoes out of a small fire pit in the middle of the room. What?! It was madness. Madness until the tender half of the sweet potato grazed my tongue. Then it turned into deliciousness and infatuation. Oh, sweet potato! How you would never be consumed in such a way in the States. Your skin wouldn't crisp from burning charcoal only to be eaten in such a primitive fashion; broken in half with bare hands that loved every second of the pain because the end was so sweet.

Come on, you guys don't muse about food that way? Something so delicious beyond words has never put you in a trance like it does to me?

We arrived at 2pm and we were just getting into the car to go to dinner at 5:38pm. What a wonderful day.