Last Dance and a Bit of Nudity

Well, last Tuesday was our last belly dancing class.  There was no certificate, no whoop and holler, no cookies.  After we ran through the dance for the final time the instructor simply walked back over to the sign-in desk and that was that. While Deborah and I both thoroughly enjoyed our five weeks of belly dancing, we agreed that the last class was a little lacking in ceremony.  I mean, I don’t know about you, but folk in my world don’t learn a belly dance every day.  It’s not often that I strap on a jingly bell sash and shake my bon bons.  I mean I have been known to shake my bon bons, but not under such tutelage.  We expected at least a little break from the normal pump and grind on our last day.  Oh well.  We learned the final flourishing moves to bring our dance to a close and headed out into the rainy night.  Deborah and I ended our five weeks much like we began them - stuffing our faces and drinking adult beverages.  We met up at Felini’s Pizza afterwards and split a pizza and a bottle of wine.  The chick at the register actually carded us!!!!  Four months away from 40 and we get carded.  Maybe there is something to this belly dancing after all.  Prior to leaving class that night we asked the instructor about the belly dancing workout class (shimmying sans the choreography).  We might check out a class or two to see if we like it.  Nonetheless, I need to figure out my next fitness adventure – and quick!!!!  This blog can’t survive on pooch encounters and panic attacks alone!  Well, maybe it could, but that won’t help me get any skinnier!!  Lawrence is going to start training for another marathon in November and I might join him on the days he runs for 30 minutes.  Oh, did you think I was going to say I would train for and run the marathon too?  Silly person. 

This past weekend (not the one we just had, but the one before that) Lisa, Greg and the kids (my niece and nephew) were in town.  We hung out, ate out and went to the Korean spa, you know, the usual.  What?  Family day at the Korean spa is not the norm for you?  Well, then you are the poorer for it.   I discovered the JeJu Sauna a few years ago and Lisa and I have been going occasionally ever since.  The JeJu Sauna is modeled after a traditional Korean bath house and is quite famous around the country (or so I’m told).  It is open 24 hours and costs $25 a person per 24 hours.  You are issued a uniform (cotton elastic waist pants and a t-shirt (pink for girls / yellowish for boys) and a toothbrush when you arrive.  Once you have your gear, the boys head to their locker rooms and the girls head to theirs.  Through the locker room you can access the girls only (or boys only depending on your parts) wet room where the sauna, steam room, hot tubs, massage and scrub services and bathing areas are.  Out in the common areas where boys and girls can intermix (wearing your uniforms) is where you will find individual saunas for meditation and relaxation.  A few examples are The Rock Salt Room, the Red Clay Room and The Charcoal Room.  Each sauna provides a different benefit (i.e. relieves stress, strengthens the cardiovascular system, removes toxins, etc.).  No shoes are allowed anywhere in the JeJu – so once you enter your locker room you deposit your shoes in the shoe cubbies right inside the door.  The floors in the common areas are heated so your tootsies won’t get cold.  Korean folk are sprawled out all over the place in the common areas taking naps.  There is also a food court serving Korean food – and smoothies.  Lisa and I made the mistake of ordering the Kimchi one time and quickly learned that no matter how long we stayed in the healing saunas, nothing was going to soothe the bubblin’ crude that was about to erupt from our intestines (and that’s all I’m gonna say about that).  Anyway, back in the women only wet areas (as I don’t really know what goes on in the men only areas) everyone is naked.  Many of you already know the story of when Lisa and I went to the JeJu for the first time, but I will do a quick recap here for those of you who haven’t.  Lisa and I read the website prior to going and knew that there was a room where folk were mostly naked, but the website indicated that if you weren’t comfortable with being naked you could wear your bathing suits or use the towels provided by the spa.  Well, when we first got into the locker rooms we decided to just wear the uniforms provided for us.  We made it to the door of the wet room and glanced in – everyone was naked.  We went back to our lockers and decided to put our bathing suits – and walked back to the door of the wet room – saw a sign that said no clothing in the hot tubs.  We went back to our lockers and stripped down to our birthday suits.  On our way into the wet room we grabbed a towel – it was the size of a kitchen dish towel.  The only way you could use the towel to cover up your important bits would be to actually hold it in place against your body (which would just look silly).  Naked and all, we went straight for the hot tub.  After being in the wet room for about ten minutes it went from being totally weird and awkward to being totally liberating.  The women around us were all shapes and sizes, all ages, all races – and we were all naked.   There is a room in the wet room where the services take place - mostly scrubs.  The room consists of ten or so plastic covered tables.  Five on one side and five on the other side - all out in the open.  If you so choose, you can get a "scrub" - If you ask Lisa, this means a nice exfoliating scrub, leaving your skin smooth and supple.  If you ask me, this means a torturous technique where the skin is literally removed from the bones.  To each her own I guess.  The funny thing about this room is that the staff (all Korean women of course) are not naked or in uniform (matching bathing suits or otherwise).  No, they are in their un-matching bras and panties.  While you are being exfoliated (if you are Lisa) or wounded (if you are me) the women yell back and forth to each other in Korean - all the while scrubbing each nook and cranny (yes, all of them) and telling you to occasionally "turn side".

We were worried about how my niece would handle the nudity, as we had not warned her in advance and she is getting to be that age where nudity matters.  Lisa was worried that if we warned her ahead of time, it would make a big deal out of it and she wouldn’t want to go.  She, like us, was hesitant at first and chose to wear her bathing suit.  After she entered the wet room and noticed that everyone else was naked (even the kids – some her age) you could literally see the thoughts going through her head.  She felt out of place in her bathing suit.  I said to her “why don’t you just take it off and if you want to, you can put it back on.”  She said “yeah, Ok” and took it off.  It took about ten minutes for the transformation to take place and then she totally loved it.  You could tell that she enjoyed the freedom of it all and the fellowship of the women.  I don’t think she felt like a kid while she was back in the women only area.  She probably just felt like a female – enjoying the company of other females – each having shed all of her inhibitions, which is a rare encounter indeed.  I am as self-conscious as they come about my body.  I hate putting on a swim suit – hell I don’t even wear shorts anymore.  But for some reason, back in the women only wet room of the JeJu Sauna, with everything stripped away and nothing to hide behind – we all just become women, naked and beautiful. 

Greg informs us that there are big screen TVs all over the walls in the men’s only side.  I am guessing the men aren’t having the same “bonding” experience as the women.  Maybe the TVs are there so they don’t have to look at each other’s junk.  Who knows