The Gym

So Emily and I joined the gym at Kosin this week, and, as in most things here, we weren't particularly successful in our first attempt. In our defense, things are done a little differently in Korea.

We entered the Shalom dorm where the workout center is, and tried to go through the glass doors to get in, but they were locked. Most of the dorm doors unlock with a student ID card, so we assumed that we could ask a student to swipe their card through to let us in. We learned, however, that we had to walk out of the dorm to get to the side entrance to the doors.

Once we finally got inside, we noticed a huge pile of shoes outside the door. Now, while this surprised me, it really shouldn't have. In Korea, everyone takes off their shoes before entering a room. In fact, my first night here, I lugged two heavy suitcases up five flights of stairs, entered my apartment relieved to finally set the buggers down, and, upon walking into my own apartment, elicited some sort of shriek from the Korean man who was bringing me home. I hadn't removed my shoes before entering the room. In my own apartment. He looked at me like I just pooped on the floor (as Andy chose to describe it).

All of this to say, we should have removed our shoes. But, alas, we did not. We walked right in to pay at the front desk, sauntering past the people running on the treadmills barefoot. I paid my dues, after convincing the worker that I was a professor, not a student, and thus didn't need to write down my major, and headed to the shower room.

Yes, we had to head to the shower room before working out because Kosin provides uniforms for working out at the gym. Each time you come, you pick up a new uniform and change into that. It's not a terrible idea, as it means less laundry for me, but they're definitely not the most flattering numbers in the world. Yet togetherness is the reigning concept in Korea.

Unfortunately, though there were two shower rooms, neither was labeled in English, and both appeared to have men stick figures on the door. We looked to the desk worker for more instructions, but either his communication skills were slim, or he simply enjoyed watching us struggle. In any case, Emily and I stared at the two doors until some kind student finally pointed us in the right direction.

After that, things went just fine. It's probably not a good sign if the exercising is the easiest part of working out.