I Spent My Well Money Actually Getting Well This Time.

Finally, the moment I have been waiting weeks for: a Korean Lunar New Year Celebration in Korea with real Koreans. Oh man, it was better than I could've imagined. It was a holiday well spent, for sure.

We started out at Shinsegae in U-Square to buy a few things before meeting up with Christina to celebrate the holiday. At 12:45 we find her hungry and she drives us over to her swanky apartment to meet her mom. Her mom was adorable and spoke almost no english. Didn't matter though, her cooking was wonderful. Beef. I haven't had beef since I first found out how much more it was going to cost me to survive on it as opposed to eggs and tofu. I have missed beef so. And it wasn't just beef, either. No, there was all kinds of fun stuff at the table. All of it Pork-Free. The woman's an angel.

We had that New Years soup with the rice blobs. It was way better when Christina's mom made it and tasted like an actual soup. There were at least 10 different kinds of kimchi and I tried them all. I guess I dislike kimchi in all its forms, but each one comes with health benefits. An offer I couldn't refuse after spending my first Well Money on something so lacking in health benefits. There was also an apple, egg and mayonnaise adventure we mistook for cheesy potatoes. I don't know why we even try guessing what's put in front of us anymore. I don't think we've been given potatoes yet and still we assume every white food is made with potatoes. Six weeks in and we're still making rookie mistakes. Not that it wasn't delicious, cause it was. It was really good for clearing out the kimchi taste.


After lunch we were given a lesson in bowing. Who knew lessons would be necessary. They were. There is form and grace involved which I never believed I could master, but I pulled it off.





That's just us being awesome. We rocked those bows.





And got more Well Money?! Christina's mom handed us our Well Money and delivered her parental guidance and advice. Christina was translating for us and wrote it down on our Well Money envelopes. As best as I can recall (she wrote it down in Korean) it went something along the lines of "have many adventures this year, meet many people and don't be afraid to try new things." I'll have to have her translate it next time we meet.

After the bowing, Christina tried to take us to a real Korean spa. This is where everyone goes for the traditional washing to bring in the new year. The place was packed, but after trying to find a less crowded one we just ended up back at the super packed one.

Super packed with Naked People. I know I mentioned something about how we had to buy robes for this thing, but the spa is actually just a public bath house. You can't take your robe in the water, of course, so we wore our towels in the water. It wasn't the towels that made us stand out. In America, we probably could've convinced ourselves that everyone wasn't looking at us and just pretend that we fit in. Well, this is one of those rare moments where I was forced to accept that I don't look like everyone else. They were staring. Hardcore.



I was much more comfortable after we left the water area and headed on over to the co-ed saunas. Co-ed means clothes. Not cute ones, of course. I'm not sure where these people find shorts in these weird colors, but at least we had shorts, right?

Next time we probably won't be going on the biggest spa day of the year. What am I talking about. Next time I'm playing sick. I know it's a Korean tradition and I have resolved to be Korean while I'm here, but I just wanted to get a facial. We were definitely misled. Spa day was not what I expected.

I did learn how to tie my head towel in that crazy Princess Leia style. I'm going to teach everyone. Definitely the highlight of spa day.

We headed upstairs at the end of it all and grabbed some dinner. Christina did the ordering and felt so bad that she forgot to say "hold the pork" that she ended up fishing out all the ground pork in the center of my bibimbap. I tried to grab the bowl back, but she was going to hold onto it until she got every little piece out. I was so hungry. More hungry than fresh veggies in hot sauce can fix. I wanted more beef. I miss it already.

I had an ice tea to go with it and this was where I realized how much I have changed since being here. It was peach tea loaded with sugar. In America, I don't eat fish or peaches. Who am I? I don't even recognize myself.

This was by far the craziest awkward korean adventure yet. More crazy than the mandarin surprise. More crazy than falling asleep on the bus. More crazy than the Crazy Cake.

Oh Christina...

C: "You have to accept that you're in a different culture now. This is just the way. It's not weird."
E: "Yes. A different culture. A naked culture."
C: "You're an adventurer. You love this."