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Well, my scanner arrived yesterday evening. Unfortunately, despite it looking like it had a brick for converting power, the AC adapter gave out a puff of smoke after being plugged in for half an hour and I was left spending all of Saturday trying to find a replacement AC adapter. Two which might work are on their way to me but it is yet another delay to my research. Joy.
I finally got a phone. Someone gave me their Samsung Galaxy S3 which has a well-cracked screen. But when the phone is on, it's not really that noticeable and I put a screen protector on it to hold it together so oh well. For a free phone, it's fantastic. It's really nice to finally have access to all the wifi hot spots around Seoul. It's amazing how connected you are, even on the subway. Or maybe that's especially on the subway? And I'm also paying a lot less per month than people who have contracts so yay.
Unfortunately, my timing was once again bad since I got the phone late Weds. Called the professor I'm supposed to be working with on Thursday and left a message. But Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving (only you go home and eat special rice cakes for a few days) starts on Sunday but everyone started it early, you know, on Friday, which meant I had very little hope of being contacted by the professor. I will call again on Thursday when the holiday is over if I don't hear from her.
On Thursday after the phone call, I headed out to a jjimjilbang since it's my goal to visit every 3 story or above jjimjilbang in Seoul while here. I hit up Itaewon Spa Land because it's easy to get to from where I live and I knew exactly where it was (the hardest thing about visiting jjimjilbangs, I've found, is finding out where they are). There are tons of English language reviews about this place online and they all claimed that despite being right near the red light district this place wasn't sketchy. And for the most part, this is true, but I have no idea how all those reviews missed the fact that the fountains gushing water into the corner of the hot tubs are shaped like penises. Which is sort of the definition of sketchy, yes? (Scroll down to the view of the bath here to see them. And yet the reviewer doesn't say a word about them.)
I go to jjimjilbangs for the hot tubs and wet saunas so I was disappointed that one pool wasn't even filled, three were lukewarm, one was freezing cold (even colder than the usual cold pool) and one was really hot. The wet sauna just wasn't hot enough or sealed enough unfortunately (this seems to be a trend in Korean wet saunas though). I did enjoy soaking in the really hot pool and it did relieve my muscle aches. I then threw on the uniform and headed up stairs to explore the five floors. I really liked laying in their rock walk sauna, so much so that I almost fell asleep. Otherwise, I wasn't really impressed and there was construction going on which was annoying. It did look like the fifth floor with it's individual cubby holes would be a nice place to sleep if you were stuck in Itaewon after the trains stop. But overall, I wouldn't recommend the place if you go for the baths like I do.
I finally got a phone. Someone gave me their Samsung Galaxy S3 which has a well-cracked screen. But when the phone is on, it's not really that noticeable and I put a screen protector on it to hold it together so oh well. For a free phone, it's fantastic. It's really nice to finally have access to all the wifi hot spots around Seoul. It's amazing how connected you are, even on the subway. Or maybe that's especially on the subway? And I'm also paying a lot less per month than people who have contracts so yay.
Unfortunately, my timing was once again bad since I got the phone late Weds. Called the professor I'm supposed to be working with on Thursday and left a message. But Chuseok, Korean thanksgiving (only you go home and eat special rice cakes for a few days) starts on Sunday but everyone started it early, you know, on Friday, which meant I had very little hope of being contacted by the professor. I will call again on Thursday when the holiday is over if I don't hear from her.
On Thursday after the phone call, I headed out to a jjimjilbang since it's my goal to visit every 3 story or above jjimjilbang in Seoul while here. I hit up Itaewon Spa Land because it's easy to get to from where I live and I knew exactly where it was (the hardest thing about visiting jjimjilbangs, I've found, is finding out where they are). There are tons of English language reviews about this place online and they all claimed that despite being right near the red light district this place wasn't sketchy. And for the most part, this is true, but I have no idea how all those reviews missed the fact that the fountains gushing water into the corner of the hot tubs are shaped like penises. Which is sort of the definition of sketchy, yes? (Scroll down to the view of the bath here to see them. And yet the reviewer doesn't say a word about them.)
I go to jjimjilbangs for the hot tubs and wet saunas so I was disappointed that one pool wasn't even filled, three were lukewarm, one was freezing cold (even colder than the usual cold pool) and one was really hot. The wet sauna just wasn't hot enough or sealed enough unfortunately (this seems to be a trend in Korean wet saunas though). I did enjoy soaking in the really hot pool and it did relieve my muscle aches. I then threw on the uniform and headed up stairs to explore the five floors. I really liked laying in their rock walk sauna, so much so that I almost fell asleep. Otherwise, I wasn't really impressed and there was construction going on which was annoying. It did look like the fifth floor with it's individual cubby holes would be a nice place to sleep if you were stuck in Itaewon after the trains stop. But overall, I wouldn't recommend the place if you go for the baths like I do.
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Ha! That would be the first thing I'd mention in a review, but then I am a 12-year-old in a 42-year-old body. :)
From:
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