When the jjimjilbang turns into a jjimjilBAD.
Y'all...the experience was so bad that when I "woke up" today, I needed to get outta there ASAP. Muy rapido. No looking back. Gone. Bye.
I cannot make any of this up.
So, let me tell you what happened. (T, here's the story in my own words!)
Oh! And before I forget, this is all from my perspective. There were seven other people who have perspectives of what happened. And we all unanimously agreed without saying anything the next day, 'WTF was our night?'
I was at the lantern festival this year, which was lit. (This pun must be overused by now...?) Gigantic lanterns that depicted different symbols, stories, or points in history (Jinju's electricity bill must be very high during this time of the year...). There was lots of food, lots of people, lots of fun!
We all had a great time!
Then it came down to figuring out where we were staying. As you know, I had a great time at a Korean Bathhouse while in Daegu, so I was keen to do the same in Jinju. Cheap, fun, and relaxing.
Which would've been a great ending to our day in Jinju.
But uh...that's not how it worked out.
I'm still not sure if I'll be able to explain it exactly, because it was one of those: "you had to be there" moments. So bear with me as I list things out.
1) We couldn't find where we were going.
2) There was a creepy alleyway we had to walk down. For the record, the fact that there was five of us may deter some people from attacking us, but not all.
3) The price was $10 for the night, which yay! Saving money! And okay, maybe at this point you're like, only $10 Toya? Don't you think that should've told you what was going to happen? You know, besides the alleyway? My answer: hush, I'm not done.
4) The pjs they gave me didn't fit. As you know, Asians tend to fall on the more...smaller side. But I got curves and those shorts did not fit. (Meanwhile, they're all concerned about the shirt not fitting, ha!)
5) The baths were closed, ugh. But the showers were available, yay! At this point, I'm like, 'alright, cool. We can shower, lay down, sleep, eat some snacks, whatever, and get in the baths in the morning'. Oh how wrong was I.
6) No snacks. At all.
7) No mats for the floor. I was sleeping on solid tile. No wait. We got blankets, so that was nice. But I had to either sleep straight on the tile with the blanket covering me, or sleep on the tile and be exposed to the air. I could've gotten a second blanket, but I was too tired to get up, and my injuries were flaring badly.
8) I missed four chapters in my audiobook.
9) The lights were on in the sleeping area???
Wow, we're already at nine and I haven't even gotten to the 'best' part. And again...I seriously cannot make this up.
10) I'm finally asleep, or at least dozing. If I had been left alone, I would've woken up at least somewhat functioning. Instead, I was startled awake by some snoring. Loudly.
11) Snoring? Okay, I can handle snoring. Not my first snorer. But then there was a second one who snored when the other one was breathing. There was just enough break in between the snores to keep you from sleeping.
12) Farting. Next came farting.
13) There was the overachiever who farted and snored simultaneously too.
14) An older couple having a late night chat near our area because why not. They have nothing better to do around 2AM. Besides sleeping, but ha! Who needs that? Clearly no one in the jjimjilbang last night.
Okay, so at this point, its maybe 3AM? And I somehow found a way to doze off again. I thought that would be it.
It wasn't.
15) Some old man came into our area, which was kind of sectioned off from the other areas, and started yelling at us. In Korean. I had no idea what was going on, but at this point I figured this man was drunk and thought, 'hey, maybe if we ignore him, he'll go away'. But apparently, no. I found out later someone in my group made eye contact with him and that's why he stayed for a good moment...yelling...in Korean. Once he finally left, someone that I knew but didn't know joined us until then (like 3 more Fulbright ETAs joined our area) asked, "What did he say?". Apparently it was, "shut the hell up! I'm trying to sleep!"
What fucking irony. So was I.
16) He didn't stop. He went around for a good while this morning, yelling at people who were snoring. He stopped after he had a rather lengthy and LOUD conversation with one of the snoring victims. That was around 4AM. So nice of them.
17) At 6AM, I gave up on sleeping and just sat up and waited for more people to give up on the lost cause that was sleep.
Then in the next three hours, the first few people in our group got up to leave. Then another. Then myself and one other person. Two people stayed still, but I'm sure they left not too long after us. We were all just done.
Personally, my thoughts were along the lines of 'get me the fuck out of this city'.
Now, don't get me wrong. Jinju was a great place! Cute cafe that I went to twice, delicious food, and a fantastic lantern festival that's worth going to!
Just the...jjimjilbang was much to be desired.
The experience was such a turnoff that instead of taking the direct bus to my town, I went directly to Daegu instead. I just...really needed to leave.
One day, I'll be back in Jinju. And if I'm spending the night, it won't be at a jjimjilbang. Either a hotel or airbnb.
18) You thought the list was done. That's cute. Okay, so I'm in Daegu now. Which I've gotten pretty familiar with. We had brunch at the cutest place and ended up seeing Christopher Robin in theaters. Sounding good right? But then, I get grabbed by some old guy as I walk by him.
Not sexually.
He just grabbed my arm.
As if he had the right to put his hands on me.
(Which he fucking does not.)
19) And then on the subway to the bus terminal in Daegu...some random old man started shouting. Unprovoked, I found out a few seconds later. And he just kept shouting for six stops. This time, I had no one to translate for me, so I can't tell you what he said, BUT! Some of the people around him either got uncomfortable or laughed it off.
Wait.
Let me correct that.
The women got uncomfortable. The men laughed it off.
SO!
After what I thought would be a relaxing few hours in Daegu, ended up being not so relaxing.
At all.
The second I got home, I fell into bed and didn't move until dinner time.
Lesson planning could wait.
#SaveOurToya
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PS. Festival, cafe, and brunch pictures will be uploaded on a separate post.
With emotions rubbed tender, the air quality reaching unhealthy levels, and soon to be thrown under the bus (not really, I just wasn't expecting it) by my classmates, I found myself apathetically taking my Korean Exam last night.
The exam could've been much harder, and I am thankful that it wasn't. By the end of it, I finished my final semester off with a 98% on my exam, a certificate of completion, and (to my utter surprise) an award of excellence (모범상). Unlike the Korean class during my Orientation period, I did much better.
