Relaxa, meu filho.

Hey. I know I've been hating pretty hard on Peru lately. But listen.

I want to tell you all about my absolute, all-time favorite part of Korea ever. I know maybe you've already heard me talk about it. But I want to write about it because it will make more sense.

Actually, I am going to recommend you read what I posted below because it explains it really well. This is from the website: http://wiki.galbijim.com/Jjimjilbang

찜질방 (Jjimjilbang)

Jjimjilbangs are one of the truly great aspects of a unique Korean culture. These are large, gender-segregated public bathhouses complete with hot tubs, showers, Swedish-style saunas and massage tables, similar to what you might find in a Korean sauna or mogyoktang.

However, in other areas of the building or on other floors, after donning your robe, you will enter the unisex areas and will usually find a snack bar, ondol-heated floor for lounging and sleeping on, wide-screen TVs, a PC bang (internet cafe type of thing), a noraebang (karaoke room), and sleeping quarters with either bunk beds or sleeping mats.

[edit]Orientation

• When walking into your run-of-the-mill jjimjilbang, you will encounter the front desk, who, upon payment, will give you a receipt, key, towels, and outfit.

• At this point you will want to walk through the doors or elevator titled 남탕(men's sauna) or 여탕(women's sauna). Depending on the place, either before the entrance or just after it, you'll find shoe lockers. That's what your key is for. Store your shoes and go inside. Some modernized places have keys that only work once, so once you re-open it, you might not be able to lock it again without a trip back to front desk for a new key.

• Once inside, you'll usually have somebody there or at a desk who will take your receipt and give you a locker key. This is where you store all of your clothes and belongings. If you didn't bring a razor, shampoo, or toothbrush with you, this person will have a small, cheap selection for you to choose from. You can also buy a green scrub pad that Koreans like to use to scrape excess dirt and grime off of themselves. Toothpaste and soap are free and can be found in the bathhouse.

• If it wasn't already happening since entering Korea, from this point on, expect to be noticed and watched. Korean bathhouse populations usually raise a collective eyebrow over a foreigner being in their midst and use the opportunity to check out physical features not seen in public.

• Once you are all naked, put your key band around your ankle and venture towards the glass door heading to the bathhouse area. Towels are usually kept on the outside of this door.

• Inside, there will be jacuzzis and hot tubs of various temperatures. Some will have minerals such as jade added for health benefits.

• You will also see rows of stand-up or sit-down showers. Cardinal cultural rule: Shower before getting into the jacuzzis.

• Also interspersed in the bathhouse area, you'll find the hot Swedish-style saunas, heat lamps for lounging under, and sometimes tiny swimming pools and cascading mini-waterfalls that are designed to act as a massage for your back. Somewhere in the mix, you'll also see massage tables manned by a masseuse, with rates ranging from 20-50,000 Won. Sorry, but it'll be someone of your gender.

• Once you are finished with your soak, head out of the bathhouse and you'll find an area with hairdryers, cotton swabs, gel, hairspray, etc...

• From that point on, after putting on a robe or T-shirt and shorts, you are ready to walk out into the rest of the jjimjilbang and explore the unisex area and facilities mentioned earlier

The moral of the story is that these places are made for straight-up, hardcore, I-mean-business RELAXING. I l-o-v-e love those places. They are so healthy and cool and koreans are so respectful even when you are the only naked foreigner in the whole place. It's so crazy! Because everyone is completely naked in the baths. And it's like, whatever. Nobody thinks twice about it. It's as if you were hanging out at a park, conversing, shooting the shit, wasting time, but in this case everybody's sitting around naked in large bath tubs filled with flower-scented cleansing water.

After having been to several of these places, I really started to take relaxing a little more seriously. You may think I'm joking, but I'm not. I never valued relaxing enough before. I always wanted to be doing something productive. even when I was resting I wanted to be doing it productively. BUT, you know what they say, "she needs wide open spaces, yeah yeah, room to make her big mistakes...." Thank you very much, dixie chicks. You unpatriotic, anti-American scumbags. hahaha.

Anyways. Back to Peru.

The thing is, here, I've also been learning how to relax. But in a way that has to do with how to live your life. I think I've said this before, but I can just hang out here. And not be productive. and it's cool. And I like it.

Did I mention I got a tattoo in January? I did. I'm sure you'll all be very pleased with my decision. haha.

Even though some parts of existing here are kind of taking their toll on other parts of my mind, there are some parts of my soul that I am recovering here that I've lost and there are some parts of my soul that are being created that I didnt even know could exist.