After a peaceful Saturday spent doing nothing particularly remarkable, I moved forward to a considerably busy Sunday.
I had planned in advance to attend the only Russian Orthodox Church in my area. There are three accessible Orthodox churches and only one is Russian Orthodox. (more about churches in a future blog post) After arriving at the remote station and lacking clear directions, I followed a distinctly Russian-looking woman (I was desperate) and ended up where I wanted to be.

After the service, which was wonderful, I headed to Seoul station (transferring four times) to meet up with Kelsi, Gadi, and Eloise. My recent confidence in my ability to navigate the subways independently and efficiently was shattered upon my arrival. As usual, I slapped my wallet on the card reading device to exit the station and was stopped by an unpleasant sound and a flashing 'X.' A thorough search of my bag yielded no results and the subway help booth was devoid of helpers. I can honestly say that I had no idea what to do at this point. Thankfully (?) I saw Gadi walking in my general direction and motioned wildly for him to come help. In a heroic attempt to aid me, Gadi made the mistake of coming back into the subway station. With Korean subways, if you accidentally check into a subway station and you want to leave, you can't. We traveled to the next stop on the line and tried to get out, but were inexplicably unable to do so. After making several more stops and somehow obtaining tickets, we were able to exit Seoul Station.

The four of us made our way to Siloam, a jimjilbang (bathhouse/sauna). For less than ten dollars, we had access to all of the jimjilbang facilities. We split into the gender segregated bath houses, stripped down (the most difficult part...), and began trying the many different baths and saunas.
An incomplete list:
- Jade bath
- charcoal bath
- massage bath
- ice bath


Jade sauna (it had these crystals you could rub on your skin, I'm guessing it was salt)
High temperature sauna


After getting our fill of the baths, which were amazing and incredibly relaxing, we put the Siloam t shirt and shorts on and headed up to the fourth floor where the "fomentation rooms" were. There were around ten different rooms, each with different specifications and (supposed) health benefits. I went in every room (except the men's dugout room and the oxygen rooms, I'm not sure sure what those were) Each room was completely silent and equipped with these little wooden pillows you could sleep on. I fell asleep in every room.
Some of the rooms:
-Jade room: 116 deg F, the ground was covered with small rocks
- Salt rooms: ground covered with salt crystals, there was a high temperature (116F) and a low temperature room (102F).
- Ice room: 18F I really enjoyed this room. After sitting in ridiculously hot temperatures, it honestly felt like a brisk fall day to me. The Floridian in our group lasted five minutes in there. (After what felt like thirty seconds, he started shivering)
- High Temperature room (152F) stayed in here for only seven minutes. the two girls from colder climates didn't even come in. this room is tied with the high temperature salt room for my favorite. I felt so good after stepping out of here; I was energised but I could have also taken a long nap.


The jimjilbang was a fantastic experience which I am eager to repeat.


The whole day, Gadi and Kelsi were acting awfully suspicious. When they took away my glasses and led me and Eloise to the subway, we knew something was up but had no idea what we were in for...