I was told, on Friday, that from Saturday at 8am to Sunday at 8am, I may not have running water at my apartment because the city was working on reconstructing the water mains around Busan. You can image my excitement when I woke up Saturday morning to a full flowing faucet!
Not sooo fast though... I should learn by now that Busan is, in fact, as Dynamic as it's city slogan says it is! Because, at 3:00am, Sunday morning, I realized that I couldn't flush my toilet! Lovely! ... and let's just say that I STILL, at 9:05pm (Monday night), have no running water at my apartment!
With that said, I ventured over to the neighborhood jim jil bang! (public bath house)
You might remember this place from a blog I wrote back in April 2009. It's the jim jil bang that almost killed me! Although, they've done a tiny bit of renovation since that dreadful night in April, so I had faith that this would be a better experience! As you can see, they've added an outdoor coffee shop now - with comfy chairs to relax on! ***
Seriously, I had no other option!
So, I walked into the lobby and was immediately given "the X" from the man behind the glass. "The X" is when a Korean crosses their arms in front of their chests. It basically means "No." hmmm, that's strange. I wondered, if he was denying me access because I was a foreigner... So I began speaking Korean to him, and sure enough, he said "Asoseyo, saw chun, o beg won." (Welcome, It's 4,500 won), handed me some soap, and pointed towards the woman's bath house door. Whew!
When I got inside, I was met by about 10 old Korean women who were sitting around naked, just chatting up a storm. When they saw me, they immediately said, "Ahh, Meegook, asoseyo!" (ahh, American, welcome!) We chatted for a minute or two, and one of the ladies said, "I meet you 2 year ago here, in bathtub." Sure enough, she was right! I did meet her last time I was there!
I stripped down and headed to the bathing area. As I was showering, I looked over and smiled at a korean women in her 50's. Then, I kid you not, 3 minutes later, she came over, grabbed a brillo pad type scrubber, and started scrubbing the crap out of my back! I'm pretty sure there is NO dead skin left! This is actually something that korean friends do for each other, so I'd like to think she was trying to be my friend! I showed my appreciation with a smile and she continued to scrub away! I'm pretty sure she scrubbed off all of the tan I had left from the Phillippines!
While it was a much better experience at the neighborhood jim jil bang this time, I do hope my water turns back on soon so I can not only shower, brush my teeth in the sink, and wash my dishes, but have my pottie time in a regular fashion again! The whole pottying into a bag thing was getting a little old. (Aaron made me admit it!) ***
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