Korean sweat lodge

I got up around 7, but not on purpose. Since I was awake, I started my day the usual way by drinking lemon water and deleting e-mail. I made a batch of seed crackers to take with me. I read some e-mail, then realized I did not have time for that. I got dressed and packed my sauna bag. I made some adrenal reset tea and divided it up among three water bottles. I added filtered water to fill them up. I put on my coat and was ready to go. But I still had 5 minutes, so I thought for a moment, then grabbed some eucalyptus oil, sea salt and vitamin C powder. It was exactly nine. I walked out the front door and saw Dynee's car parked outside her house. I thought she was waiting on me, but it was empty. In a moment she came out of her house. We got in her car and drove to Chong's apartment. She and Sue were waiting in her car, but we decided we could all travel in Dynee's car. As soon as Suzanne arrived, we put our bags in the back of the SUV and were on our way to the chimjilbong. Basically it is a Korean sweat lodge with a charcoal theme. Susanne was directing our trip with her phone GPS. God bless Dynee because I would find such driving uneasy. Anyway, we arrived at a rustic looking building. Inside, we paid our 9,000 won per person entry fee. We put our shoes in a locker. Then we traded the shoe locker key for a locker room key and a one-size red outfit. We went upstairs and around the corner, down the hall to the ladies locker room. We put our stuff in the lockers and put on the outfits. We took our drinks and went down to the 'kilns'. They were small rooms clay in clay and heated to different temperatures. Most had a wooden floor or wood on the floor, but the hottest one was stone. We left our water bottles and snacks on a rest area where you could lay down on a heated mat if you wanted to. Then we went into the room heated by a charcoal fire. This was supposed to be the best for healing and detox. The seating was close to the fire pit and was so hot I had to cover my face with a towel to avoid burning. Some people had their backs to the fire. Eventually we left this room to find a slightly cooler one. I am not sure how the other small enclaves were heated. We found one that was just right for sitting on the wooden pallets and sweating as we chatted. No one sushed us. Over time, we circulated through the rooms, except for the one labeled 193. We tried the salt room, which involved laying down on the salt-rock covered floor. Eventually my back complained so I got up and the others followed me. We found ourselves back in the fire room. There was a lady there who had terrible scarring on one leg. It was black, bubbly and crusty. I thought maybe she had been burned in a fire. Or leprosy. But she and Suzanne talked and Suzanne relayed that no one knew what caused it. Maybe something about her large intestine. She had tried surgery but it didn't work. The only thing that helped was sweating in the fire room.
When we left that room, we went to lunch at the restaurant across the hall. Suzanne recommended the seaweed soup for health so we all got that. It came with a side of rice and lots of little dishes of kimchi, seaweed, condiments, anchovies, sprouts, etc. Our phones were still locked upstairs so I have no pictures. We prayed before we ate and mentioned the poor lady with the scarred leg. After lunch, we went back to the heated rooms. Then we tried the seating area with the charcoal water foot soak. It was cold! We did not have much time left, and I did not want to leave without trying the hottest room. Now the temp had gone down to 171. Like the others, it had an 'airlock' of sorts to keep the heat in. But it was so hot that wooden clogs were provided. I put them on and entered the small passageway. But the walls were scorching hot. And the clogs were way too large. Just inside the room I found the air burned the inside of my nose. I decided the safest thing to do was to slowly back out, hoping the clogs did not fall off my feet because the stones were WAY too hot to walk on. Even the tarp covering the entrance was burning hot. I made my way back to the fire pit room that was reportedly so healthy. I did some deep breathing to take best advantage. Now the group was spraying themselves with charcoal water. They smiled at me and sprayed me too. I felt like one of the tribe, standing around the fire. Then a jar of charcoal was passed around with a little spoon. They were putting it in their mouths and nodded at me. I asked “mashysoyo?” wishing I knew more Korean. One lady put a spoonful in my mouth. I was expecting a fine powder but it was more like small pebbles. I could not tell if they were swallowing it. But the lady in front of me started talking so she must have. I nodded and went back to my group, still soaking their feet in charcoal water. I crushed the pebbles into slurry. They asked what happened because my lips were black and I pantomimed. Suzanne thought it was safe to swallow so I did. They laughed at my black teeth. It was the source of amusement for some time. We went upstairs to the locker room. Suzanne took a pic of our group and made sure my black teeth were showing. I drank some tea, but the charcoal did not diminish. With my toiletries, I went into the public shower area. At first being naked did not bother me, but over the next few minutes, I became more self conscious. I scrubbed my teeth with my cloth to get most of the charcoal off. I washed my body and hair. I dried off and got dressed. When we were all ready, we went downstairs and out to Dynee's car. She drove home trying to follow Suzanne's directions, but the GPS wasn't fast enough and we missed some turns. But we got back to Jinhae by 3. Suzanne had to pick up her kids. Dynee and I went back to post.
When I got in, I noticed a headache starting. I thought about doing my coffee morning, but did not feel like it. I ate some more seed crackers and drank the rest of my tea in case I was dehydrated. I called Myra to see if she wanted to go walking since I had to make the daily trek to Michele's bank. She did, so I walked down there. But then we went to her place to see the quilt she was working on. There was one fabric she did not quite like, but had nothing better and I said I had some pawprint fabric that would do the job. Then we walked out through the front gate. There were some street stands selling oil paintings, jewelry boxes, knickknacks, shirts, etc. Myra really liked the oil paintings but they were BIG and unframed. Cost about $70. We continued on to the bank where I made a withdrawal from Michele's account. Then we walked back. We ran into some men from the base looking at the oil paintings. We stopped to talk, then headed home. We ran into Myra's new neighbors, coming back from the commissary. They talked about how small the quarters were and how Housing could not show them quarters in Upper Housing because there were no vacancies. One place was only being used temporarily, however. So I offered to show them my place so they could see if it was worth waiting for. My place was a mess because I had not done my Monday cleaning yet. But I swallowed my embarrassment and let them see how large it was. Then they thanked me and went home to sleep off jet lag. Myra came over for the pawprint fabric and took some others to find a coordinate. I planted some of the pea seeds that had been soaking for several days. But the ground was really hard so I did not plant them all. My headache was much worse. I assumed it was from swallowing so much charcoal. I had heard that ememas are good for headaches and I was ready to try anything. But afterward, I did not feel any better. I laid down in the guest room as it got dark. When Chris came home, he asked what was wrong and I told him. His guess was that the charcoal pit room was not properly ventilated and I was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. (I guess the deep breathing was not such a good idea) He suggested soaking my feet in hot water. He filled a basin and I sat and soaked my feet, but the headache persisted. I tapped but that didn't help either. When the water cooled off, I went to bed. Later, Chris came to bed. I stayed in bed all night, sleeping when I could. Chris got up really early, but not early enough to work out, so he just had breakfast and got on his laptop. I got up to have some water and went back to bed. Later he took a shower and went to work. Daylight was streaming through the blinds so I got up. It was only 7am. My headache had mostly receded. I decided to have the coffee morning so I would be in the mood to clean. For some reason, it went by quite quickly. I was done by 10 and then cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms. Housing called to say they would pick up our visas when they were delivered to the front gate unless I wanted to do it. I did not feel that energetic, so I thanked them for being willing to do it. I called Chris to let him know that it was being taken care of and he wanted me to call them back and tell them to notify him at his office number when the visas were delivered to the front gate. So I did that. Then I sat down to write to my blog while I still remembered event from yesterday.
* This is the place we went to sweat. *