Day 95: Buddha's Birthday!

Monday, May 25

Buddha's birthday so it was a school holiday!  My friend and I had plans to meet up to go to a temple for it, but we both slept in :P  Instead, we just went to the temple close by the dorm.  We walked up and were immediately ushered over to some long stem roses, each given one, and then pushed towards a Buddha statue.  We had to put the flower in front and then pour water onto Buddha's head.  I have no idea what it signified because no one there spoke to us, but it was nice to be included :)

It was nifty

Afterwards, we walked to the jimjilbang, which is a public bathhouse.  We both paid, and go sent to separate floors (gender segregated).  Inside, you had to take off all of your clothes (ALL), and put them in a locker.  Then, you went into the actual bathhouse area, where you washed in a shower for a bit before being able to go into pools of different temperatures.  I think there was a sauna in the back too, but I didn't know if I was allowed :P  There were also people you buy a massage from, but there were too many people before me so I didn't ask.

It was really nice - after the first 30 seconds or so you get over the fact everyone is naked and just relax.  I kept going from the hottest jacuzzi to the coolest pool, which felt really nice.  After about half an hour I changed into the clothes they give you at the front office (just some shorts and a shirt, very thick and pink for girls), and then went to the non gender segregated floor to meet my friend.  There, you can get a mat and sleep/nap/relax on the floor (some people spend the night instead of getting hotels), and go into saunas.  They had four different temperature rooms (apparently some places are bigger and can have like 12), so we went in each of those for a while and just chatted.

After a bit of that we went back to our gendered floors and washed up again (so much sweating in the sauna...) and met up outside.  Had lunch where we both overestimated and said we'd have the medium spicy curry which was a horrible horrible idea.  Went to the PC cafe after and played games for a few hours and just relaxed.  He met up with another friend and went out to eat with her (it had been a few hours by now) and I went back to my dorm to skype and do a bit of studying.